In the British Islands, as indeed in every quarter to which the Norsemen penetrated, a change may be dated from their earliest incursions; and whilst in Ireland they broke the power of the Hy Nial, and taught the dynasties of Munster and of Connaught to aspire to the supremacy which had hitherto been the undisputed prerogative of the princely families of Ulster and of Meath; in England the remnants of independent sovereignty were overwhelmed and swallowed up in the flood, the line of Cerdic in Wessex, which alone was strong enough to bear up against the torrent, becoming from that very cause the sole representative in the eyes of the Saxon people of the ancient royalty of their race. Scotland, where the monarchy, though of comparatively recent date, was destined eventually to survive the crisis, appeared towards the close of the ninth century to be fast verging towards the fate of Ireland; for though Thorstein perished before his power was consolidated, the cession of the northern provinces to that enterprising sea-king revived the recollection of former independence, and many years elapsed before the authority of the Scottish kings was once more successfully asserted over the ancient territories of the northern Picts. On the accession of Aodh, or Hugh, the surviving son of Kenneth, his pretensions were disputed by Cyric--or Grig--MacDungal, a chieftain whose residence at Dundurn, or Dunadeer, in the Garioch, marks his pre-eminence amongst the northern magnates whose allegiance had been transferred to Thorstein.[53] The contest for superiority between north and south was decided in the neighbourhood of Strathallan, the locality of the battle-field, [Sidenote: A. D. 878.] within the dominions of Aodh, appearing to point to Cyric as the aggressor: victory declared in favour of the northern leader, and his opponent, wounded and a prisoner, was conveyed for security to the fortress of Inverury, where he died of his wounds after a few weeks’ captivity. Either the victor was content with asserting his own independence, or policy may have prevented him from aspiring to the vacant throne; for he appears to have been satisfied with reviving the divided sovereignty of former times; and by associating in the government a scion of the royal race of Kenneth, Eocha of Strath Clyde, a son of the British prince Cu, he may have sought to propitiate the hostile chieftains of the south, whilst the real authority over both kingdoms must have remained with the conqueror of Strathallan.[54]