A History Of Scotland - Episode 01 - Last Of The Free (History Documentary)
History documentary charting the birth and growth of the Scottish nation.
At the dawn of the first millennia, there was no Scotland or England. In the first episode of this landmark series, Neil Oliver reveals the mystery of how the Gaelic Scottish Kingdom - Alba - was born, and why its role in one of the greatest battles ever fought on British soil defined the shape of Britain in the modern era.
At the dawn of the first millennia, there was no Scotland or England. In the first episode of this landmark series, Neil Oliver reveals the mystery of how the Gaelic Scottish Kingdom - Alba - was born, and why its role in one of the greatest battles ever fought on British soil defined the shape of Britain in the modern era.
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TVTranscript
00:00Scotland, the country where I was born and still live.
00:29I've spent years as an archaeologist unearthing all sorts of treasures from
00:35her past. For me it's an ancient and magical place and I always find the
00:42beauty of this country overwhelming, even humbling.
00:48I've often thought that Scotland's popular history is a bit like that
01:01landscape, always changing, impossibly romantic, often hidden by mists and low
01:06cloud and above all packed with legends and heroic characters.
01:13But that's not history, it's mythology
01:21and it's cursed Scotland's past and present. How we think about the past
01:26shapes our view of today, so I want to look beyond the legends to find the real
01:31story of Scotland and it's every bit as thrilling.
01:37This first episode is about the birth of Scotland, a birth that was far from
01:43inevitable. For many centuries the mountains and logs behind me were home
01:47to a patchwork of disparate peoples and tongues. It was a land invaded again and
01:53again. So how was it that a loose collection of tribes living in the
01:58northern third of Britain came together and built a kingdom with its own
02:02distinct culture and identity? A kingdom that would change the shape and the
02:08destiny of Britain forever.
02:38So, where to begin?
02:49The first people of Scotland to be described in the written record are the
02:53tribes of the Caledonians. 2,000 years ago they joined forces to defend their
03:00homeland from a Roman invasion. In the shadow of a great glen they faced the
03:07Roman army. The Caledonians fell silent. From their ranks out strode the earliest
03:20named character of Scottish history, Calgacus, the swordsman.
03:28He is the first to speak to us from the past.
03:35Calgacus was the chosen one. He was the warrior whom the Caledonian tribes of
03:41northern Britain hoped would lead them to victory. Defiant, proud, unbowed, he
03:46struck the first blow against Roman tyranny. He made a speech. We, the
03:52choicest flower of Britain's manhood, were hidden away in her most secret
03:56places. Out of sight we were kept from the defilement of tyranny. We, the most
04:02distant dwellers upon earth, the last of the free.
04:18There's just one problem. They're not his words. They were put into his mouth by a
04:24Roman historian, Tacitus, writing 20 years later. Even if someone like Calgacus
04:29ever existed, he would have spoken a language similar to Welsh and certainly
04:34not in the measured Latin phrases of a Roman. This is where the mythologising of
04:39Scottish history starts. Be warned, almost everything recorded from those early
04:45times is seen through the eyes of others.
04:49Tacitus had an agenda. General Agricola and his three Roman legions had marched
05:02into North Britain in the late summer of AD 84.
05:10But to make Agricola appear as brave and heroic as possible, it was important to
05:15give him a formidable foe, which Tacitus duly did. At a battle site in the
05:23Grampian Mountains, he described the Roman encounter with the Caledonian
05:26hordes and their fierce leader, Calgacus.
05:45The fighting began with exchanges of missiles and the Britons showed both
05:49steadiness and skill in parrying our spears with their huge swords or catching
05:54them on their little shields while they themselves rained volleys on us.
05:59He called it the Battle of Mons Graupius, though beyond his account there's no
06:05other record of it ever taking place. But I think there was a battle in the
06:10Scottish Highlands because of one telling detail that Tacitus couldn't
06:14have invented. Agricola was given a triumph back in Rome, the bombastic
06:19welcome for a victorious general, and one other thing we know for certain, the
06:23Caledonians lost. The next day an awful silence reigned on every hand. The hills
06:34were deserted, houses smoking in the distance, and our scouts did not meet a
06:41soul. Most of the Caledonians, including Calgacus, survived and escaped into the
06:50trackless mountains.
07:09The Romans failed to tame the elusive warriors of North Britain. Frustrated by
07:14their hit-and-run tactics, the Roman legions withdrew to the south. By the
07:18next century Hadrian's Wall, built from coast to coast, had become the line in
07:23the sand.
07:34To the south lay Romanised Britain. Roads, towns, villas. To the north, a myriad of
07:40tribes like the Caledonians. The wall wasn't just a simple stone boundary, it
07:46was an ideological frontier. It was the end of the world. It drew the line where
07:50civilisation ended and barbarism began. Not that the Caledonians were very
07:55interested in the so-called benefits of Roman rule. To them, it represented
08:00tyranny. They had their own civilisation.
08:10For over three centuries, the Caledonians kept their independence secure and the
08:15Romans at bay. Then, in AD 409, as the Empire collapsed, they helped expel them
08:22from British shores altogether.
08:26The Romans left behind crumbling ruins and a new name for the Caledonians.
08:33The Picti.
08:35We know them better as the Picts. The word means the painted ones, for these
08:40were the last of the peoples of Britain to cover their bodies with tattoos. The
08:45term started as a nickname but came to mean much more. A powerful northern
08:50people, synonymous with pride.
09:04The Picts tattooed themselves with the same designs and symbols used on their
09:08jewellery and stones.
09:16Artistic skills that showed them to be no wild barbarians.
09:23More evidence of early Pictish culture has come from the peaty waters of Loch Tey.
09:37Here, four metres down, archaeologists came across the remains of an ancient
09:42stronghold. Fragments of a thatched roof and stumps.
09:49They were the stilts of a building that once stood above the water.
09:55A dwelling in which people loved, lived and fought.
10:00By reconstructing the crannog, as it's called, archaeologists realised just how
10:05skilled and well-organised Pictish society must have been.
10:11How do you build one of these?
10:13We had to learn from scratch because obviously we hadn't got a tradition of
10:17building like this handed down to us from generation to generation. So you've
10:21got to line up your systems, you've got to know what you're doing, you've got to
10:25know how to cut down the trees, you've got to know how to get them in the right
10:29place, you've got to have the right manpower and skilled labour workforce.
10:33The people who built crannogs like this were affluent, they enjoyed a great diet,
10:37probably communicating and trading further afield. Some of the little
10:41objects that we found do not come from here, such as jet, which is commonly
10:45found from Whitby, north-east England. So one of the theories is it's a big
10:49house, it's a big house, it's a big house.
10:52This house could sustain maybe a family of 20 or even up to 40 people. So maybe
10:56if there were times of trouble, any other people supporting the community who
11:00were living on the shore in less secure housing could all come in and be secure
11:04in what effectively is a water castle.
11:11Crannogs have been found all over Scotland, many from the Pictish period.
11:15Their civilisation had put down roots.
11:20But then, centuries later, the Picts become the subject of one of the most
11:25intriguing mysteries of Dark Age Europe. They seem to disappear from history
11:30forever. This vanishing act has given the Picts an aura of romance.
11:36They've become a legendary, almost alien people, inhabiting the land of the
11:40limbo world, part historical and part mythological.
11:48But like any good mystery story, there's a twist. The Picts seem to disappear
11:53at the exact moment when the Kingdom of Scotland is born.
11:58Understanding why the Picts vanished will give us the answer to how Scotland
12:03was created.
12:07Back in the 5th century, this is what Scotland looked like.
12:13The Picts were a small, isolated community.
12:18They were a small, isolated community.
12:22Back in the 5th century, this is what Scotland looked like.
12:27A patchwork of disparate ethnic groups.
12:32The Picts dominated the north and east.
12:36Welsh-speaking tribes called the Britons lived along the River Clyde and the south.
12:41And to the west, a new people had arrived, the Gaels.
12:46They were seafarers, originally from Ireland,
12:49who stayed and carved out their own territory.
12:54The Gaels are the other key player in the birth of Scotland.
12:59The turbulent relationship between them and the Picts,
13:02sometimes allied but more often at war, formed the backbone of our saga.
13:08Right at the heart of the Gallic Kingdom was the spectacular hill fort of Dunadd,
13:13rising up out of the great flatness of Monivore, which means the Big Bog.
13:17Brooding, menacing Dunadd provided the perfect site
13:20for defending against attacks from the sea.
13:23This is the entrance to the fort,
13:25and once upon a time this place was defended by walls ten metres thick.
13:38It wasn't just one wall.
13:40There was a ring of four, each protecting the rising tiers of the fort
13:44up to a stone citadel at the top.
13:47Though the Gaels were as warlike as the Picts, there were clear differences.
13:52They had a separate culture and spoke a different language.
13:56And something even more striking.
14:11Gallic art had a distinctive and delicate beauty all of its own.
14:16At Dunadd, crucibles for melting gold have been unearthed,
14:20along with the moulds to cast brooches.
14:27The abundance of such fine jewellery could mean just one thing.
14:31Dunadd was home to the kingdom's elite.
14:34The Gallic Kingdom was a place of great wealth.
14:37For the crowds gathered below,
14:39the king would appear in silhouette against the sky.
14:42And then at the appointed moment,
14:44he would place one foot into this rock-cut footprint,
14:47demonstrating to his subjects
14:49that this land was both his servant and his master.
14:54It's the end of the 6th century,
14:56and this royal inauguration is unlike any that have gone before.
15:00Although the Picts continue to worship pagan gods,
15:03the Gaels have turned to Christianity.
15:06It's the first time in the history of the kingdom
15:09that the Gaels have been invited to participate in a royal ceremony.
15:13It's the first time in the history of the kingdom
15:16that the Gaels have been invited to participate in a royal ceremony.
15:20Like pagan gods, the Gaels have turned to Christianity,
15:24a spiritual invasion driving a wedge between them.
15:29And the monk who ordains the king?
15:32Columba.
15:35Columba, son of an Irish chieftain,
15:38had travelled from Ireland 10 years earlier.
15:43For his support of the Gaelic leaders,
15:45Columba was gifted a small but very beautiful island
15:48to the west of Dunedin.
15:50The island was named Columba,
15:52and the island was named Columba,
15:54and the island was named Columba,
15:56and the island was named Columba,
15:58and the island was named Columba,
16:00and the island was named Columba,
16:02Scotland to the west of Dunedin.
16:04It's called Iona, and here, Columba was to found a monastery.
16:08Saint Columba is widely credited as the first missionary
16:11to bring Christianity to Scotland,
16:13and from here, on his new base on Iona,
16:16he's supposed to have converted all the peoples
16:19of this land and beyond to the new religion.
16:21SOVEREIGN MUSIC
16:29But was it really that simple?
16:31For example, what we know about Columba has come down to us from a later abbot of Iona,
16:36a Dhovanan, who wrote a hagiography entitled The Life of St Columba, about a hundred years
16:41after his subject died.
16:43His book is more fairytale than history, and it has to be taken with a very large pinch
16:49of salt.
17:01The Gaels were Christian long before Columba arrived.
17:27The hard graft had been done by numerous missionaries who travelled from Ireland and the Roman Empire.
17:32They remain unheralded and largely anonymous.
17:43But Columba's monastery on Iona, then just a collection of timber huts, soon became one
17:48of the most important Christian beacons in the whole of Dark Age Europe.
18:03The stability that he brought to the region, the fact that Christianity began to spread
18:09quite quickly through Scotland, I think was testament to the fact that he had friends
18:13in high places.
18:15And he could also convey to the king and to other clan chiefs, not just that his new religion
18:22was important, but the benefits of it were worth having.
18:26The benefits of writing, this new technology, the benefits of scholarship.
18:30And that if the king embraced this, then there was something in it for him.
18:35So you think the pure ability to write would have been a magic that would have been central
18:41to what they were able to do?
18:43Well, it might have attracted, you know, your clan chief, you know, yes, okay, here is this
18:48guy wanting to talk about the new religion.
18:50But if you've got writing, if you can actually articulate in a more permanent way what you've
18:54said or what you've agreed, you've got the basis of a legal system, you've got the basis
18:59of treaties with neighbouring clans or kingdoms, you've got a clarity about thought and about
19:06what you want.
19:07And again, it's about a power thing.
19:08If you say something, here it is.
19:10It's in writing.
19:12You know, so I don't think it's quite as simple as simply saying that he was, you know, going
19:17on a penitential journey.
19:19There was something in it for Columba, but there was something in it for the people of
19:21this part of the world as well.
19:23It sounds so opportunist in a way.
19:25I think it was.
19:26I think it was.
19:35Far from being an isolated island on the fringe of Europe, Iona lay at its spiritual heart.
19:41At its zenith, the monks of Iona created the Book of Kells.
19:46The workmanship was exquisite, over 10,000 tiny red dots around a single capital letter.
19:53And the dyes came from halfway around the world.
19:57The blue of lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, yellow orpiment from the Mediterranean.
20:03A 12th century scholar praised the artistry of the Book of Kells.
20:14He wrote, you might believe it was the work of an angel rather than a human being.
20:24Not everyone was so impressed by the word of God.
20:30While the Gaels had embraced Christianity even before Columba, their Pictish neighbours
20:34had remained resolutely pagan.
20:37They put their faith in druids rather than monks and relied on an oral tradition rather
20:42than the written word.
20:44Cue the most famous of Adhavnan's tales, the account of St Columba's epic journey
20:49into the heart of darkness to convert the Picts.
21:01The Picts were notorious for headhunting.
21:04Columba must have known he was risking his.
21:10Undeterred, he made the perilous journey up the Great Glen and Loch Ness to meet one of
21:15the Pictish kings.
21:21Adhavnan notes that Columba needed an interpreter even to speak with them.
21:26A battle of supernatural wills followed.
21:31On one side, Columba and his powerful voice, set to sound like thunder.
21:40In opposition, the druid of the Pictish king.
21:44It proved to be an uneven contest.
21:48Columba brought the druid close to death and then in true Christian fashion, relented.
21:55Adhavnan tells us that the druid lived.
21:58What he doesn't make explicit was that the Picts stubbornly clung to their pagan beliefs.
22:08It would take many decades and many more missionaries before the Picts would begin to accept Christianity.
22:15The progress of their conversion can be read in their stones.
22:24Some of the best Pictish carvings have been taken to a research building in Edinburgh.
22:31Here they're being preserved and studied using the latest technology.
22:37Individual marks on the stone can be isolated, telling us more about how they were carved,
22:42the technique and the tools used.
22:46The symbols on one stone are particularly fascinating for what they reveal about their
22:50changing beliefs.
22:56You can see how the stone carver has taken tremendous care, not just in the accurate
23:01modelling of the animals, but the way that they're coming out at us in sharp relief as
23:08well.
23:09So he's done this, this is by working away at the stones to reduce the background and
23:14to bring the figures out into the front.
23:18Just look at this hind here with the fawn interwoven through the legs and he didn't
23:24have to do that, you know, he made it very difficult for himself in doing that, but it
23:28gives it a little bit of perspective and this is something that they were very skilled at
23:32doing and they obviously took great pleasure in doing it.
23:35And what about the other side then?
23:37Well this is...
23:39This carver didn't confine his work to the secular, he also demonstrated his love of
23:45God.
23:47Well this is really, to my mind, this is the front, the cross representing the embodiment
23:51of Christ, the promise of salvation as the key central messages of Christianity being
23:57broadcast.
23:58So we have this wonderful interlace decoration filling the body of the cross.
24:03How unusual is it to get a stone that has everything in one package?
24:08You know, there's the classic Pictish symbols, there's the hunting scenes and all the rest
24:12and the cross.
24:13By this period, we're getting into the later Pictish period, we've had maybe three or even
24:18four generations of large scale conversion to Christianity by this time.
24:24Christianity was reasonably well embedded so we do see this quite happy combination
24:30of yes, the pure central message of Christianity in the cross coupled with the everyday scenes,
24:37with the animal scenes, with the images of people and symbols as well, of course.
24:58Christianity was the one invader that not only succeeded but that outstayed all the
25:03others.
25:05The Gallic religion now spanned Northern Britain and acted as glue, bringing together disparate
25:10peoples under the umbrella of the Christian religion.
25:14St. Columba's biographer, Adhovnan, spotted an opportunity.
25:18He succeeded in winning agreement from over 50 kings from Pictland to Ireland for an ambitious
25:24new law called the Law of the Innocents.
25:28It was a Geneva Convention for the Dark Ages, protecting women, children and monks in times
25:34of war.
25:40Women may not be killed by a man in any way, neither by slaughter nor by any other death,
25:47nor by poison, nor in water, nor in fire, nor by any beast, nor in a pit, nor by dogs,
25:54but shall die in their own lawful bed.
25:58Life remained nasty, brutish and short, but Adhovnan's rules on warfare were proof of
26:04the civilising influence of Christianity.
26:10For the first time, the Picts had embraced written laws within their society.
26:18The Pictish tribes had it all – a sophisticated culture, powerful trade links and the bread
26:24basket of North Britain.
26:26Their fertile, low-lying homeland provided better harvests and more fighting men, but
26:31it also attracted the attention of others.
26:39By this time, the Angles dominated Middle Britain.
26:43They were a Germanic people who'd carved out a powerful kingdom between the Humber
26:48and the Forth Rivers.
26:50But now the Angles decided to push north.
26:53Rather than confront them immediately, the Pictish army drew the Angles further and further
26:58into hostile territory.
27:01The two forces clashed at Dun Eichten along the River Spey.
27:13The battle is commemorated here on this Pictish stone.
27:16The battle is commemorated here on this Pictish stone.
27:19It's a sort of Bayeux tapestry.
27:21The fight was between bare-headed, long-haired Pictish warriors
27:26and Angles wearing distinctive metal helmets.
27:29It was a one-sided encounter.
27:31The ranks of Pictish spearmen drove the Angles into a loch and slaughtered them.
27:36The final relief shows a raven pecking at the dead face of a fallen prince of the Angles.
27:46To defeat this new enemy from the south,
27:49the Pictish tribes had been forced to unite under the leadership of one king.
27:58The Confederation also had a new name, Pictland.
28:03By pinpointing the location of all the Pictish stones,
28:06it's possible to map out the territory of this young kingdom.
28:10The Picts had successfully driven the Angles back south
28:14and one by one they defeated their other neighbours.
28:17In the west, both the Britons and the Gaels were overwhelmed.
28:22Although they retained their identity,
28:24they were forced to pay homage to the Pictish king.
28:27By the middle of the 8th century,
28:29Pictland was the dominant kingdom of northern Britain.
28:38It seemed invincible.
28:40But the next wave of aggressors was a league apart.
28:44Warriors with no time for Christian niceties.
28:49They worshipped the gods of war, Odin and Thor.
28:53There's a trend among some modern historians
28:56to portray the Vikings as a misunderstood bunch.
28:59Instead of bloodthirsty killers, think peaceful traders
29:03and farmers in search of gold.
29:06But the Vikings were not.
29:09The Vikings were not.
29:11The Vikings were not.
29:13The Vikings were not.
29:15The Vikings were not.
29:17The Vikings were not.
29:19The Vikings were not.
29:21There were peaceful traders and farmers
29:23in search of new lands to colonise.
29:25But I don't think so.
29:27Not all of them and certainly not all of the time.
29:29Accounts by British survivors of Viking attacks are unequivocal.
29:34These guys were after treasure and slaves.
29:39The pagans came with a naval force to Britain
29:42and spread on all sides like dire wolves,
29:45robbed, tore and slaughtered
29:47not only beasts of burden, sheep and oxen,
29:50But even priests and deacons and companies of monks and nuns
30:03That description was a contemporary account of a Viking attack on a monastery in England
30:08But the Vikings weren't choosy they went wherever the treasure was
30:12And although the monastery here on Iona was looted on three separate occasions. It was the Northern Isles that bore the brunt
30:21There's a treasure trove from AD 800 that tells its own story
30:33These beautiful Pictish bowls and brooches were found under the floor of a medieval church on St. Ninian's Isle in Shetland
30:42Archaeologists believe that monks probably buried the silver in haste to hide it from a Viking raid
30:47That no one returned to retrieve them is a sobering clue to what befell the monks
31:00Vikings shipped their captives back to Scandinavia and then on to Constantinople where the slaves were exchanged for silver
31:10As the Vikings grip tightened there were fewer smash-and-grab raids
31:15They came to stay
31:20The colonized parts of Ireland Northumbria and further north the Hebrides and the territory of the Gaels
31:28On Orkney and Shetland it's believed they exterminated the Pictish men
31:32This was ethnic cleansing
31:359th century style
31:37Many of Shetland's inhabitants are proud descendants of the Vikings
31:47At an annual boat-burning ritual called Up Helly Aa they still celebrate their bloody heritage
31:56This is what people living in Shetland today like to imagine their Viking ancestors look like
32:02Fire-wielding pagan barbarians and of course if you believe the words of the Viking sagas, it's clear to see where they got that impression
32:09But take away the air of celebration and the pageantry and consider the horror of waking up one morning and watching this howling horde
32:17Unload themselves from their dragon-headed longships on to the beach below your little stone cottage
32:22This is what the end of the world looks like
32:25This is the end of everything you've ever known or held dear unless of course
32:29Somebody somewhere can find a way to stop it
32:43In writes Kenneth McAlpin
32:45He's one of Scottish history's great heroes the champion who in AD 840 is supposed to have driven off the Vikings
32:53This brave war leader appears to come from nowhere
32:57Stepping into the power vacuum created after the existing royal line is massacred by the Vikings
33:03So it is that Kenneth McAlpin unifies Scotland and is famously crowned her first king
33:13If only history was that simple the idea that Kenneth McAlpin was the first king of Scotland is a myth
33:19The idea that Kenneth McAlpin was the first king of Scotland is a myth that's persisted for centuries
33:25And it's certainly one that I remember hearing at school when I was a wee boy
33:28But the historical records tell a different story
33:41At the time of Kenneth McAlpin
33:44Scotland did not exist
33:46It remained five separate peoples the Angles, the Vikings, the Gaels, the Britons and the Picts
33:54Each retained their own distinctive culture
34:00What is more records tell us that Kenneth McAlpin and his immediate successors were described as kings of Pictland not Scotland
34:09It's not until 40 years after Kenneth died that we find the first mention of the kings of Scotland
34:19So how did we get from Pictland to Scotland?
34:39There's one document that reveals the secret
34:42It's one of the most precious manuscripts of Scottish history
34:45And it's the only contemporary Scottish chronicle that covers the period
35:09Historians feel that much of the document can be trusted because it can be cross-referenced with chronicles from other kingdoms
35:18I'd expected to find it in an archive in Scotland
35:23But I was wrong
35:26Why is the manuscript here in Paris?
35:29The archivist, Madame Lafitte, told me that a French courtier brought a collection of important historical papers back from London in the 17th century
35:45Is it widely known that the manuscript is here?
35:48It's not very well known
35:50That only people who come and search for this topic matter specifically come
35:54And she says it's even been put on slides so people can look at it
35:58I see
35:59What are the chances of it going to Scotland?
36:02Oh, absolutely no
36:18The Chronicle is basically a list
36:21A list of 12 kings of the House of Alpen from the 9th to the 11th centuries
36:26It's a complex document because it's been compiled and copied and added to over the years by several unknown hands
36:34It's important because it covers the moment of transition
36:38The ten or so years from 8th century to the 9th century
36:42It's important because it covers the moment of transition
36:46The ten or so years from 878 to 889
36:50When all references to Pictland disappear and the Kingdom of Scotland appears
36:55This is Scotland's lost decade
36:59Look at these two names, Aeth and Curriculum, or Giric
37:04These characters are going to be key to the formation of Scotland
37:12Aeth was Kenneth MacAlpin's youngest son
37:23He'd inherited a kingdom in crisis
37:26At the point he became king, the Vikings conquered Pictland
37:37For two years they took cattle, slaves and tribute
37:40Aeth did little to stop them
37:42When there was no more booty to be had, the Vikings moved on
37:50Aeth's kingdom lay in ruins
37:53The writer of the Paris Chronicle described his short reign as bequeathing
37:57nothing memorable to history
37:59A damning indictment indeed
38:02So, no surprise then, when his own followers took action
38:11This is where Giric comes into the story
38:15Giric was one of a number of Gallic refugees who'd fled from the Vikings
38:20and headed east into Pictland
38:23Now he'd climbed his way up into Aeth's favour
38:27Giric was not of royal stock
38:30But what he lacked in blue blood, he made up for in ambition
38:36Events come to a head at a sacred site in Perthshire
38:40The year is 878
38:42Aeth is slain by his own henchmen
38:45All the evidence points to Giric as the killer
38:48Giric was on the make
38:50His goal, the takeover of the Pictish kingdom
38:53And if that meant taking out the useless Aeth, then so be it
38:58Giric instigated a regime change
39:02He rid the court of his Pictish rivals and replaced them with his own men
39:07Then he took control of the Kingdom of Aeth
39:10And in the years that followed
39:12Aeth became the ruler of the Kingdom of Perth
39:15Aeth became the ruler of the Kingdom of Perth
39:18Aeth became the ruler of the Kingdom of Perth
39:21Aeth became the ruler of the Kingdom of Perth
39:25Then he took control of the Pictish church
39:28By appointing a Gallic bishop to reform it
39:34This was a coup
39:36Giric, a Gael, was turning the kingdom of the Picts into a Gallic kingdom
39:41To reinforce his political takeover
39:43He rewarded his Gallic followers with Pictish land
39:50But Giric's position was far from secure
39:53Although he'd eliminated Aeth
39:55The two legitimate heirs
39:57Aeth's six-year-old son Constantine
39:59And his teenage cousin Donald still lived
40:04Giric knew his kingship was unsafe
40:06While the two young boys remained potential rivals
40:24But Constantine and Donald were far beyond the reach of Giric
40:28Their protectors had escorted them safely to Fort Uliac
40:32In the north of Ireland
40:37It might seem strange to send two Pictish princes
40:40To a Gallic country like Ireland
40:42Especially given Giric's Gallic connections
40:45But they met a warm, wealthy family
40:47And a strong family bond
40:49Especially given Giric's Gallic connections
40:52But they met a warm welcome at Uliac from their aunt
40:55She was married to a powerful Irish king
40:57And for her, this was a matter not of politics
41:00But of kin
41:10They grew up in the royal household
41:12It was a Gallic court
41:14And they became steeped in its culture and language
41:17They were educated at a nearby monastery
41:19And attended the Gallic church
41:32Too young to challenge Giric
41:34Too young to be king of the Picts
41:36The changes taking place in their homeland
41:38Must have felt like a world away to the cousins
41:41But as each year passed and adulthood approached
41:44The moment to avenge the murder of Constantine's father
41:47Edged ever closer
41:57In the year 889, after a decade in exile
42:00The two cousins were finally old enough to challenge Giric
42:06Donald and Constantine sailed homeward
42:09Revenge was in their hearts
42:11To win back their kingdom
42:13But they knew they'd have to depose the usurper
42:24Giric had seen it coming
42:26So had his supporters
42:29He fled to his stronghold here at Dundurn in Perthshire
42:34In its day, this was a mighty hill fort with huge fortifications
42:39But not enough to deter the cousins
42:43The chronicle tells of an eclipse
42:45An ill omen of the times
42:51Typically, the historical records are vague on what happened next
42:55One chronicle reveals, in Dundurn, the upright man was taken by death
42:59The archaeological evidence suggests a more violent end for Giric
43:03Burnt timbers and arrowheads were found here in Dundurn
43:06And it's tempting to imagine that Giric died here in that moment
43:10Killed by Donald and Constantine
43:29The kingdom was at a crossroads
43:31It could have gone either way
43:33Pictish or Gallic
43:35Culture, language and church
43:37Everything was at stake
43:40The Picts must have expected Donald and Constantine to reverse the Gallic takeover
43:45After all, Giric's rule had lasted just ten years
43:50But the royal heirs had changed
43:53Donald and Constantine left as Pictish boys
43:59They returned as Gallic princes
44:02Now Donald and Constantine viewed their homeland through different eyes
44:11The chronicle of the kings shows us which way the wind is blowing
44:15This word here is Albanium
44:18A Gallic word meaning Scotland
44:20A brand new name for the kingdom and of immense significance
44:24With this one word, right here, Scotland is created
44:28This is Scotland's birth certificate
44:31This crucial moment of transition is backed up by the chronicle from Ireland
44:36In the year 900, it has an entry recording Donald's death
44:40He is King of Alba
44:42The first king ever to be described as such
44:45And he's followed by Constantine
44:47Also described as a Scottish king
44:51Scotland became a Gallic kingdom
44:54Over the next few generations, the Pictish way of life
44:58The way they practiced their religion, the stone carvings
45:01And even their language, fell out of favour
45:04Gallic was the new language of power
45:07It was a new language of power
45:09It was a new language of power
45:11It was a new language of power
45:13It was a new language of power
45:15It was a new language of power
45:17Gallic was the new language of power
45:22There was no sudden genocide
45:24But the cultural takeover was just as complete
45:47In 906, Constantine arrived in Schoon, near Perth
45:51For an important new ceremony
45:57Schoon's a Gallic word
45:59And what happened here would form the basis of all future coronations
46:07Blessed by a Gallic bishop, Constantine sat on a block of stone
46:12It no doubt harked back to the footprint ceremony of Dunadd from long before
46:21It's better known as the Stone of Destiny
46:24For centuries afterwards and right up to the present day
46:27It's been used in the inauguration of monarchs
46:29Now the original is on display in Edinburgh Castle
46:32It's just a simple block of red sandstone
46:35And yet it's been fought over, mythologised and romanticised
46:39And it will crop up again and again in Scotland's story
46:56Although Constantine now appeared to hold sway over most of North Britain
47:00The Young Kingdom's survival was touch and go from the outset
47:05For just as Scotland was forming
47:07Another power block to the south had come of age at almost exactly the same time
47:17This kingdom would prove to be Scotland's most persistent foe of all
47:24Angleland was ruled by an Anglo-Saxon king called Athelstan
47:29He'd driven the Vikings out of Northumbria
47:31And by incorporating this territory had secured a new northern boundary
47:38But Angleland, or England as it became known, was not enough for Athelstan
47:46Admirer of the Romans, he aspired to rule the whole of Britain
47:51He decided to carry on where the Romans left off
47:55He marched north
48:00Like Calgacis nearly 900 years before
48:03Constantine faced a stark choice
48:06Tackle Athelstan in battle and risk annihilation
48:09Or surrender the kingship of Scotland
48:12Neither outcome was acceptable
48:14But Constantine was determined to do just that
48:17He marched north
48:19Or surrender the kingship of Scotland
48:21Neither outcome was acceptable
48:23But Constantine came up with a third option
48:26And this is it
48:27The awesome rock fortress of Dunotta
48:43Here, Constantine and his war band were hemmed in
48:46But Athelstan couldn't capture the stronghold itself
48:49And so he and Constantine came to terms
48:55Constantine could keep his status as king of Scotland
48:58But Athelstan would be his overlord
49:02In agreeing to this, Constantine saved Scotland
49:05And his own neck
49:07But to the young aspiring leaders at his court, he'd sold out
49:16So the next time Athelstan commanded him to submit
49:19He refused to obey
49:26Subservience wasn't Constantine's style
49:29Particularly when both he and the young kingdom of Scots had come so far
49:33What he did next would have been unthinkable a few decades previously
49:37He made peace with the pagan Vikings
49:40Partly motivated by a sense of united we stand, divided we fall
49:44More importantly, the Viking king had lost territories to Athelstan
49:48And he wanted them back
49:50Together they forged a northern alliance
49:53And in 937, Constantine headed south for a decisive confrontation
49:58At stake was the very future of the island of Britain
50:07On one side advanced Athelstan, the Anglo-Saxon ruler of all England
50:13On the other, the northern alliance
50:17The king of the Britons, the king of the Vikings from across the Irish sea
50:21And the king of Scotland, Constantine
50:28The many armies, tens of thousands of warriors
50:31Clashed at a site known as Brunanburra
50:34Where the Mersey estuary enters the sea
50:37For decades afterwards, it was simply called the Great Battle
50:46This was the mother of all dark age bloodbaths
50:49And would define the shape of Britain into the modern era
50:55An Anglo-Saxon account of the battle reads
50:58They clove the shield wall, hewed the war lindens with hammered blades
51:02The foe fell back
51:04The folk of the Scots and the ship fleet fell, death doomed
51:07The field was slippery with the blood of warriors
51:10The West Saxons, in companies, hewed the fugitives from behind
51:14Cruelly, with swords mill sharpened
51:18The fighting went on from dawn until dusk
51:21When it was over, the field was littered with the dead and the dying
51:25Picked over by wolves and carrion crows
51:33The battle was won by the English
51:36And the English were victorious
51:39The battle was won by the English
51:42And the English were victorious
51:46Vikings, Saxons, Britons and Welshmen
51:50Gaels from Ireland, Northumbrians, even Icelanders
51:59Amid the corpses of the men of Scotland was Constantine's eldest son
52:04All slain to settle the matter of Britain
52:16Although Athelstan emerged victorious
52:19The resistance of the Northern Alliance had put an end
52:22To his dream of conquering the whole of Britain
52:27Constantine, meanwhile, escaped back to his homeland
52:30With the remains of his battered army
52:39This had been a battle for Britain
52:42One of the most important battles in British history
52:45Comparable to Hastings
52:47And yet today, few people have even heard of it
52:50937 doesn't quite have the ring of 1066
52:53And yet Brunanburgh was about much more than just blood and conquest
52:58This was a showdown between two very different ethnic identities
53:02A Norse-Celtic alliance versus Anglo-Saxon
53:05It aimed to settle, once and for all
53:08It aimed to settle, once and for all
53:10Whether Britain would be controlled by a single imperial power
53:14Or remain several separate independent kingdoms
53:17A split in perceptions which, like it or not, is still with us today
53:39And as for King Constantine?
53:42From exile to Ireland as a young boy
53:45The murder of Girich at Dundurn
53:48His crowning at Scone
53:50His short subservience to the English king
53:53The Battle of Brunanburgh
53:55And the saving of Scotland
53:57There was much for the battle-scarred warrior to reflect upon
54:01Kenneth MacAlpin founded the Scottish royal line
54:04As an opportunistic Pictish warlord
54:06But it was his grandson, Constantine, who secured the kingdom
54:10And, during his long reign of 43 years, ensured its survival
54:15Scotland stands as testament to Constantine's political astuteness
54:19And staying power
54:22And then, remarkably, he relinquished his kingship
54:26In an age characterised by brutal murders and takeovers
54:29He retired
54:51Religion had always played an important part in his life as king
55:10Now Constantine, sharing the name of the Roman emperor
55:14Who'd first embraced Christianity, moved its centre stage
55:22St Andrews had become the religious capital of his new kingdom
55:30And so he came here in AD 943
55:34Just six years after the greatest battle of his life
55:52He ended his days leading a humble, almost hermit-like existence
55:56In a cave near St Andrews, as a holy man
56:00And what of the Picts?
56:02An English historian, the Archdeacon of Huntingdon
56:05Writing just 200 years later in 1140
56:08Commented that, we see that the Picts have now been wiped out
56:12And their language also is totally destroyed
56:17The Archdeacon was wrong
56:19As we've seen all along, so much of these early years
56:22Was seen through the eyes of others
56:24The Picts weren't wiped out
56:26With the Gaels, they fused together in the fires of adversity
56:30And re-branded themselves as Scots
56:32And so, we see that, we see that
56:34The Picts have now been wiped out
56:37And their language also is totally destroyed
56:40So that they seem to be a fable we find mentioned in old writings
56:45They re-branded themselves as Scots
56:47The hybrid kingdom of Alba was now home to a restless people
56:51And as for the fully formed country we would recognise as Scotland
56:56The story had only just begun