Britons
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Kenneth MacAlpin Part II
In The Last Pictish Kings: Part 2 – Kenneth, Brude, Drust… and Kenneth, I posed the question: was Kenneth MacAlpin a Gael or a Pict? I was grateful to receive a number of comments and suggestion in various social media groups where I shared the link to the blog, and it confirmed my suspicion that Continue reading
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The Roaring ’20s (the 820s)
This post will look at the 3rd decade of the 9th century – the 820s – and will attempt to summarise what was happening in Northern Britain, Ireland and Scandinavia during those years while introducing some of the characters who will play a leading role in events to come. In my post Constantin, son of Continue reading
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The Islands of Sheep: Settlement of The Faroes
This blog now takes another short detour away from the British Isles to travel a little further north. However as is always the case – and as indeed per the underlying theme of this Northern Tapestry – we will continue to see the links between the various lands and peoples. The Faroe Islands lie in Continue reading
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Kings in the North
The Northern Monarchies in the late 8th Century. In the last article I looked at some of the descriptions of bad weather and bad omens from the second half of the 8th century in northern Britain. This post will look at the political landscape during that time, not an easy task with the Irish Annals Continue reading
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Bad Weather, Bad Omens
In the years following the death of Onuist, King of Picts, in 761, the sources contain much less about Pictish affairs than we saw in the first half of the century. However any gaps seem to be filled with descriptions of the weather – and particularly bad weather – along with astrological and natural or Continue reading
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Picts, Britons and Anglo-Saxons: The Supremacy of Onuist, Part II
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 Continue reading
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The British Isles at the end of the 7th Century
Bede writes of the five different languages being spoken in northern Britain in the 8th century. These are the languages of the Anglorum, Brettonum, Scottorum, Pictorum et Latinorum*. The first four of these link to distinct groups of people (the English, The Britons, The Scots and The Picts), while the last one is of course Continue reading
The Northern Tapestry 