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Constantine
mac Aed, King of Alba 900-943
(page 2)
The
power of the pagan Vikings began to wane in the early
10th century as Christian kings like Constantine and
the Kings of Wessex allied against them. In 928 AD,
Athelstan, the Anglo-Saxon King of Wessex, conquered
the Viking Kingdom of York. Not content to stop there,
he aimed for nothing less than subduing the whole
of Britain to his will.
Dunnottar
Castle
The rock fortress where Constantine II is thought to have been
besieged by Athelstan, King of Wessex. |
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In
934 AD Athelstan marched north, forcing the Earls
of Northumbria and the Kings of Strathclyde to acknowledge
him as overlord. Alba had never seen so vast an army:
Athelstan had brought with him 3 Welsh kings and 6
Viking chieftains. Constantine was forced into retreat
and was besieged, it is thought, at the rock fortress
of Dunnottar. The fortress was too strong for Athelstan
to take, however Constantine must have been forced
into some form of recognition of Athelstan's claims.
Constantine’s
response to Athelstan came in the form of cunning
diplomacy. He married his daughter to Olaf Guthfrithsson,
the pagan king of Viking Dublin and persuaded Owein
of Strathclyde, his relative, to support his cause.
In
937 AD they invaded Athelstan’s England. At the
Battle of Brunanburh, at an unknown location deep
in England, they fought one of the largest and bloodiest
battles of the Dark Ages. Athelstan was victorious,
Owein of Strathclyde was killed and the Anglo Saxon
Chronicle revelled in Constantine’s defeat.
‘The
hoary man of war had no cause to exult
in the clash of blades; he was shorn of his kinsmen,
deprived of friends, on the meeting place of peoples,
cut off in strife, and left his son
on the place of slaughter, mangled by wounds,
young in battle. The grey-haired warrior,
old crafty one, had no cause to boast’
Despite
defeat, Athelstan was weakened and Constantine’s
diplomacy and network of allies had freed Alba and
Strathclyde from the southern threat. Olaf Guthfrithsson
restored Viking rule to York and Athelstan’s
grand schemes lay in ruins.
In
943 AD, after reigning for 43 years, Constantine retired
from the kingship and for the final nine years of his
life became a monk at St Andrews. He was Scotland’s
most successful Dark Age king, a success won through a
combination of strength in battle and diplomacy. His combined
forces approximated something very close to a northern
powerblock, one which pitted itself against another powerblock
to the south - a story which was to repeat itself many
times throughout the next millennium.
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