Page:Chronicles of the Picts, chronicles of the Scots, and other early memorials of Scottish history.djvu/147

 PEEFACE. cxxxix termed An Bhaoili, the foolish, between liim and Grig, whose reign commences at Dundurn, and lasts three years ; but, according to one of the chronicles, Grig was succeeded by his brother Con- stantine, who reigned two years. The " Pictish " Chronicle" records a battle in his reign, "in " Uilibcollan inter Danarios et Scottos, Scotti " habuerunt victoriam," and adds, " oppidum Fother " occisum est a gentibus." The expression occisum can hardly be used to a fort or town, and is probably a mistake for occisus est, viz., that Donald was slain at " oppidum Fother." The Latin lists remove his death to Forres, in Moray, but "oppidum Fother" is Bun/other, and St. Berchan indicates its situa- tion, for he states that he fought with Galls and with Gael, and that he dispersed his foes at Fother- dun, now Fordun, in the Mearns, where he lies on the brink of the waves. After the accession of this Donald, there is a marked change in the designation of the kings and in the appellation of the country. In the "Irish " Annals " they are no longer called Reges Pictorum, but Ri Alhan, or kings of Alban. Pictavia disap- pears from the " Pictish Chronicle," and the country in which they ruled is now called A Ihania. This im- plies that the contests by which Eocha and Grig had first been placed on the throne, and afterwards expelled by the male descendants of Kenneth, had really effected a revolution, under which the last vestiges of the Pictish monarchy had disappeared ;