Introduction to the Lowlands
of Scotland in Sub-Roman Times
by David Nash Ford
In the 5th century,
after Britain had been forced to leave the Roman
Empire, there was, as yet, no England (named after the
Anglo-Saxons), no Wales (a Saxon word for place
of the foreigners) and no Scotland (named after
the Scotti from Ireland). What is now modern
Scotland was then divided into three distinct areas:
- Pictland:
The northern region where the (probably
non-Celtic) picts lived
- Dalriada:
The area around Argyle where the (Q-Celtic) Scotii
originally settled before they came to dominate
the whole region.
- Lowland
British Kingdoms: The land between
the Roman Walls of Hadrian & Antoninus Pius
inhabited by the (P-)Celtic peoples who had been
under Roman jurisdiction for only twenty-four
years between AD 138 & 162.
The lowland British
Kingdoms essentially stemmed from two sources. The
Kingdom of Gododdin, centred on Trapain Law in
Lothian, emerged under a leading family from the local
tribe of the Votadini (after whom the kingdom was
named). It was later called Lothian, after its most
famous monarch, King Lot
of Arthurian
tradition.
Most of the region,
however, was ruled over by descendants of Ceretic
Guletic (the Land-Holder or Imperator),
an early 5th century character well-known for his
reprimand from St. Patrick. The elder dynasty held the
Overlordship of Strathclyde. Whilst younger branches
established sub-kingdoms in the tribal home of the
Selgovae (around Selkirk) and in Galloway & Ynys
Manaw (Strathclyde). There was some confusion in the
early genealogies of these kings. Later monarchs
appear to have rejected their descent from Ceretic in
favour of claiming the more prestigious Magnus
Maximus as their ancestor.
Strathclyde was the
most durable of British Kingdoms outside Wales &
Brittany. It survived well into the late 9th century,
when intermarriage with the ruling House of Scots led
to a merging of the two realms.
Biographies
of the British Lowland Scotland Kings
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