Eocha was succeeded in the kingdom by Muredach, the son of
Ainbhceallach, of the race of Lorn. His reign was short and
unfortunate. In revenge for an act of perfidy committed by Dungal,
the son of Selvach, who had carried off Forai or Torai, the daughter
of Brude, and the niece of Ungus, the great Pictish king, the latter,
in the year 736, led his army from Strathearn, through the passes
of the mountains into Lorn, which he wasted with fire and sword.
He seized Dunad, in Mid-Lorn, and burned Creic, another fortress
in the Ross of Mull, taking Dungal and Feradach, the two sons of
Selvach, prisoners. Muredach went in pursuit of his enemy, and having
overtaken him at Knock Cairpre, at Calatros, on the shores of the
Linne,[100] a battle ensued, in which the Scots were repulsed with
great slaughter. Talorgan, the brother of Ungus, commanded the Picts
on this occasion, and pursued the flying Scots. In this pursuit
Muredach is supposed to have perished, after a reign of three years.
Eogban or Ewan, the son of Muredach, took up the fallen succession in
736, and died in 739, in which year the Dalriadic sceptre was assumed
by Aodh-fin, the son of Eocha’ III., and grandson of Eocha’-rineval,
descended from the Fergusian race of Gauran. In 740 he measured his
strength with the celebrated Ungus; but victory declared for neither,
and during the remainder of Ungus’ reign, he did not attempt to renew
hostilities. After the death of Ungus, in 761, Aodh-fin declared war
against the Picts, whose territories he entered from Upper Lorn,
penetrating through the passes of Glenorchy and Breadalbane. In 767
he reached Forteviot, the Pictish capital in Strathearn, where he
fought a doubtful battle with Ciniod the Pictish king. Aodh-fin died
in 769, after a splendid reign of thirty years.[101]
Fergus II., son of Aodh-fin, succeeded to the sceptre on the demise
of his father, and died after an unimportant reign of three years.
Selvach II., the son of Eogan, assumed the government in 772.
His reign, which lasted twenty-four years, presents nothing very
remarkable in history.
A new sovereign of a different lineage, now mounted the throne of the
Scots in 796, in the person of Eocha or Auchy, the son of Aodh-fin
of the Gauran race. Eocha’ IV. is known also by the latinized
appellation of Achaius. The story of the alliance between Achaius and
Charlemagne has been shown to be a fable; although it is by no means
improbable that he entered into an important treaty with the Picts,
by marrying Urgusia, the daughter of Urguis, an alliance which, it is
said, enabled his grandson Kenneth afterwards to claim and acquire
the Pictish sceptre, in right of Urgusia his grandmother. Eocha died
in 826, after a happy and prosperous reign of thirty years. He was
succeeded by Dungal, the son of Selvach II., of the race of Lorn,
being the last of that powerful family who swayed the Dalriadic
sceptre. After a feeble but stormy reign of seven years, he died in
833.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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