By the year 741, the land north of the Forth-Clyde line, including that of the Dal Riadan Scots, was under the authority of Onuist, King of the Picts. To the south lay the territories of the two other powers of the time: the Northumbrian English and the Strathclyde Britons. This post will take a brief look at what had been happening with these people during the Pictish civil war and the encroaching power of the Picts, once that war had concluded. We will then look at what Onuist’s ambitions meant for these southern peoples. Spoiler alert: there will be more battles (and at least one more king entering a monastery).

The Northumbrian expansionism of Ecgfrith and his predecessors, stopped in its tracks at the battle of Dun Nechtain in 685, had led to the shrinking influence of the British kingdoms that had grown up sometime after Roman authority had been depleted in the 5^th Century. Names such as Rheged, Elmet and Gododdin no longer held any territorial significance although they survived in poetry and memory. The last remaining bastion of the original Britishness (before it took on its modern meaning) could be found in the territory of Alt Clud, also known as Strathclyde (another name that has a different modern meaning).

Ecgfrith’s successors had been forced to accept that their sphere of influence now lay south of the Forth-Clyde and this brought them into further dispute with Strathclyde. Of Ecgfrith’s successors, it was Osric (718-29) and then Eadberht (737-758) who had continued to push north and west. An English bishopric was established at Whithorn on the west coast of Galloway in 731 and campaigns in Ayrshire (740s) and Kyle (750s) pushed the British authority back towards their capital at Dumbarton Rock on the Clyde. The evidence of Anglo-Saxon power can be seen in some fantastic stone crosses of the time in that area, including at Bewcastle and Ruthwell.

The British kingdom did however cling on, fighting not just the English, but also the Scots. Two battles are reported in the early 8^th century: in 711 at Lorg Ecclet[1] and in 717 at “the rock called Minuircc”[2]. Although both locations are not known, Canmore (the National Record of the Historic Environment, and part of Historic Environment Scotland) gives Minvircc as an alternative name to a stone also known as Clach nam Breatann, the ‘stone of the Britons.‘ This is still in situ above the falls of Falloch, between the tip of Loch Lomond and Crianlarich, and it is thought to have been a  marker of the border between Picts, Scots, and Britons. On both occasions the Britons were defeated.

Now however, with Onuist supreme in the north and turning his eyes to the south, the Britons faced other challenges.

According to a 12^th Century source from Yorkshire, a battle took place between the Picts and the Britons in 744:

“Anno DCCXLIV. factum est praelium inter Pictos et Brittones” (Symeon, History of the Kings[3])

This is not mentioned in the other sources and it is possible that it is referring to the event which is described in the Irish and Welsh Annals[4] which took place between the same combatants in the year 750. This was the battle of Mocetauc (according to the Annales Cambriae) or Catohic (Annals of Ulster). All sources do however agree that the outcome was a defeat for the Picts and that Talorcan, the brother of King Onuist was killed. One of the Annals also states that the Picts were slaughtered[5].

We should not underestimate the immediate significance of that. The Annalists certainly did not, and in fact one of them states that this signified the “ebbing of Onuist’s sovereignty[6]” – perhaps an overstatement, but it would certainly have been a shock to see the supreme leader suffering defeat and personal loss.

The location of Mocetauc has been identified as Mugdock, just north of present-day Milngavie and in the border area between the Britons and the Picts.

We hear very little of Onuist in the Irish sources after that until his death is reported in the Annals of Tigernach in 759 or 761. However other sources tell us of a further battle between Onuist and the Strathclyde Britons in 756. This time, to ensure there was no repeat of his defeat he joined forces with Eadberht of Northumberland:

“Eadberht rex xviii anno regni sui, et Unust rex Pictorum, duxerunt exercitum ad urbem Alcwith. Ibique Britones inde conditionem receperunt, prima die mensis Augusti.”

(In the eighteenth year of his reign, King Eadberht, and Onuist, king of the Picts, led an army to Alt Clud and there on the 1^st of August, they received the surrender of the Britons)[7]

This alliance is interesting, and presumably one of convenience for both parties. However, with the Britons now subdued, we are left with an astonishing twist to conclude the episode.  The source goes on to tell us that

“Decima autem die ejusdem mensis interiit exercitus poene omnis quem duxit de Ouanis ad Niwanbirig, id est ad, novam civitatem[8]”

(On the 10^th of that same month, that army which he led from Ouania to the new city of Niwanbrig, was almost completely destroyed).

The “he” here is Eadberht and therefore it is the Northumbrian army which is wiped out somewhere between Govan (Ouania) and an unidentified place – but presumably on the way home.

It does seem odd that neither the surrender of the Britons nor the near annihilation of the Northumbrians is mentioned in the Annals which present Onuist’s final years after Mocetauc as a one where his power has waned. It is tempting to take the later source at face value and build a narrative around Onuist seeking revenge for Mocetauc and enlisting the English to help him defeat the third power in the area, before treacherously knocking out the army of the fourth, his English allies. Eadberht would himself survive the attack and the following year he would “receive the tonsure” – which is an Anglo-Saxon way of saying he entered a monastery[9].

What all sources agree however is that Onuist died within five years, with no further action reported. This could have meant that he had re-established himself as the major power not just north of the Forth-Clyde, but even further south. In 761 – after thirty years of a rule which started in civil war, brought unity to the Picts (whether voluntary or otherwise) and extended that people’s dominion over the Scots to the extent that the Dal Riadan king lists go blank; which then neutralised the Britons and dealt the English a blow powerful enough to leave us little of note – his death came about peacefully.

Two epitaphs of this imposing figure survive from history. The first is a poem attributed to a poet known as Gruibne and quoted in Thomas Clancy’s anthology of early Scottish poetry “The Triumph Tree” as below

Good the day when Óengus took Alba,

hilly Alba with its strong chiefs;

He brought battle to towns with boards,

with feet and hands, and with broad shield[10]

This clearly refers to his place as the most powerful man in the north in his time. The second epitaph is less kind. When Bede was concluding his Ecclesiastical History, the Pictish Civil Wars were ending and he wrote of the peace between Angle and Pict:

“At this time, the nation of the Picts are at peace with the English and rejoice in the unity of peace and truth with the entire Catholic church.[11]”

However, in the additions to Bede’s work, written after his death, the entry for the year 761 says:

“Óengus, king of the Picts, died. From the beginning of his reign right to the end he led through bloody crimes, like a tyrannical butcher[12].”

Could this be confirmation of the treachery of 756? Perhaps. What is certain however is that Onuist’s death – at an advanced age (his adult son Bridei had been fighting 30 years earlier) – would have shaken the northern world. His legacy would be such that, unusually, another son would in time succeed him[13] , and then the son of that son would succeed too. All of this is still to come and at a time when the northern lands would begin to hear rumblings of a fifth group of people that would come from overseas to add some more colour to this Tapestry.

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[1] Annals of Ulster 711.5

[2] Chronicon Scotorum 717.2; Annals of Tigernach 717.4; Annals of Ulster 717.5

[3] Symeonis monachi opera omnia. Historia regum.

[4] Annals of Ulster 750.4; Annals of Tigernach 750.4; Annales Cambriae 750

[5] Annals of Tigernach 750.4

[6] “Aithbe flatho Oengussa”, Annals of Ulster 750.11

[7] Symeon, History of the Kings, 40

[8] Symeon, History of the Kings, 42

[9] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 757: “Her Eadberht Norðhymbra cining feng to scære”

[10] “Fó sen dia ngab Oengus Albanach

Alba thulchach trethantriathach

ruc do chathrachaib costud chlarach

cossach labach lethansciathach. 2 (Book of Leinster, section 22)

[11] “Pictorum quoque natio tempore hoc et foedus pacis cum gente habet Anglorum, et catholicae pacis ac ueritatis cum uniuersali ecclesia particeps existere gaudet.” (Historiam Ecclesiasticum Gentis Anglorum 5.23)

[12] “Oengus Pictorum rex obiit, qui regni sui principium usque ad finem facinore cruento tyrannus perduxit carnifex.” (Baedae Continuation)

[13] His brother would succeed first, then two unrelated kings before Talorcan son of Onuist ruled