Constantine II - Viking Age Scotland’s Greatest King (900-943)

[Music] in the latter half of the ninth century chaos reigned supreme in the far north of Britain for two generations or more opportunistic Scandinavians have not only sailed across the North Sea from their original homelands in Scandinavia to lay waste to the formerly Pictish kingdoms of the mainland and the Gaelic dál Riata and realms of the Isles but also made permanent bases on the shores of the Irish Sea from where they pushed ever outwards to claim more and more territory from the last remnants of the aforementioned kingdoms and was into this maelstrom of war and chaos that a new ruler came to the fore in the 1840s solidifying control over the area around the River Tay near modern-day Perth that would eventually become the heartland of the medieval kingdom about to be born his name was Kenneth MacAlpin before we get into the rest of this video I'd like to just say a massive thank you to our sponsor Vikings war of clans have you ever wanted to experience the chaos and wonder of the Viking world well now is your chance this video is sponsored by Vikings war of clans a free-to-play online game inspired by the classic strategy and RPG games of the 90s and norton's what makes the Vikings world so interesting is the more than 20 million online players constantly changing and evolving the way that the game works by never-ending fighting over resources forging new alliances and competing in live events help support this channel and get a special bonus of 200 gold coins and a protective shield by downloading Vikings war of clans for free using the link in the description box below in later centuries often considered the founding father of Scotland Kenneth MacAlpin emerged in the aftermath of the deaths of practically all of the highest-ranking Pictish and gaelic rulers in 839 eventually establishing himself as the foremost native King in the area by 848 [Applause] though in actuality he ruled over little more than a rump state near modern-day Perth much like Alfred would rule over a much diminished Wessex a generation later so it was that the precariously placed Kenneth mcalpine still using the title king of the picks harassed from without by Vikings and plagued from within by rebellious contenders resentful of his new leadership he succeeded in establishing a new royal dynasty the first of medieval Scotland [Music] upon his death in 858 MacAlpine was briefly succeeded by his brother Dominic and then his son Constantine the first a ruler who continued the long struggle against the Vikings in 876 however Constantine became the latest royal casualty to fall to the Northman when he was killed in battle against invaders possibly operating northwards from their newly claimed realm of Northumbria just two years later in 878 he was followed to the grave by his brother and heir aid what follows is a two decades long period of uncertainty during which time next to nothing is reported by the Irish annals nor the anglo-saxon chronicles the usual mainstays of information on early medieval Scotland the king named in the Chronicles of the kings of Alba for this period is Garrick apparently no relation to McAlpine but another god air cat is also named perhaps a grandson of the founder of the new kingdom suggesting a certain level of Anarchy or even civil war between rival factions during this time meanwhile two grandsons of MacAlpine domina l' and constantine ii may have spent garrix reign in exile in ireland with their aunt male mur the wife of two successive high kings of Ireland ade Finlay and flan sinner at the time the vikings of ireland seemed to have begun a period of temporary decline known as the 40 years rest that ultimately ended in the temporary expulsion from their primary stronghold of Dublin in 902 though of course this also had the knock-on effect of causing more and more raiders to flood into Scotland and the western coast of Britain to seek their fortunes away from the vengeful Irish kings Garrick died in 889 and if the two young princes had indeed been in exile over the sea they returned to the kingdom their grandfather had found it al and now wracked by turmoil and on the verge of extinction the elder of the two princes Domhnall became the new king upon garrix death or deposition in 889 ruling over a kingdom in a state of near perpetual warfare to the next eleven years until he - like his father uncles and probably numerous other family members and friends died a violent death at a premature age killed by the Northman this time at the ancient and formidable fortress of dunnottar on the eastern coast where he had made a last stand against either nor scales from Island raid us from the Northern Isles or even an invasion force led by Harald fairhair the great unifier often said to have been the first king of Norway who according to the North's saga I'm swindler a journeyed West to ravage the coasts of Scotland in that year if you want to hear more of fair hairs exploits as recorded by the 12th century Icelandic scowled Snorri Sturluson as well as the exploits of other famous Vikings can head on over to our other channel voices of the past for much much more [Music] thus after his brother's death constantine ii became the new king of the fledgling Pictish Gaelic realm he had little time to enjoy his newfound position of power however almost as soon as he was crowned his kingdom was subjected to a renewed batch of Viking raids in the third year of his reign possibly as a result of the Norse expulsion from Ireland an attack on Constantine's hark glance at donk held is recorded in 904 however something pretty unusual happened rather than the standard affair the pics and gales being massacred and driven back from the battlefields often accompanied by the perfunctory regicide that so often went with it the killing of a band of Vikings is recorded along with their leader Eamon a grandson of Ivar the boneless and possibly ruler of the exiled Vikings of Dublin at the time scores of Kings had already been killed but now after a generation of warfare the tables had finally turned for a time a leading Viking King had lost his life at the hands of a Scottish ruler two years later Constantine's position was apparently secure enough that he was able to gather the leading churchmen and rulers of his realm at the royal capital of scarm to pledge themselves to his loss specifically gaelic once this association with Gaelic Christianity and the fact that he is the first ruler from ik Alpine's Kingdom to be regarded as king of Alba in the contemporary sources rather than king of the Picts has led a number of historians to attribute this moment as an integral step in the gala cessation of the pics and thus the birth of Scotland the next five years seemed to have been relatively uneventful though by 911 hostilities flared up again heralding the arrival of a terrifying new force in the area the Vikings were back the fragmentary annals of Ireland perhaps referring to event sometime after 9/11 claimed that Ethel fled daughter of Alfred the Great and ruler of Mercia allied herself with the Irish and northern rulers against the Northman and the Irish Sea coasts of Northumbria after renewed raids threatened both of their interests the annals of Ulster record the defeat of an Irish fleet from the kingdom of kool-aid by Vikings on the east coast of England at about this time it is also around this time that the chronicle of the kings of Alba reports the death of Donal the king of the Strathclyde Britons and subsequently suggests that Constantine may have had his own man placed upon the throne of the neighboring Kingdom this has often been taken as early evidence of the domination of Strathclyde by the kings of Alba who may have banded together in an alliance of convenience against the Vikings from around 914 onwards however the political situation in Britain and Ireland was about to drastically change once more as piratical raids stepped up again under a new wave of sea kings two more warlords claiming descent from Ivar the boneless perhaps even sons of the Eman killed in battle by Constantine in 904 by 916 two autonomous war fleets under the sea kings citric and racnoss both probable grandsons of Ivar the boneless returned to Ireland with a vengeance ravaging the lands of the Irish kings and killing anyone that stood against them by 9:17 citric had successfully reestablished the kingdom of Dublin with himself upon the throne of shirring gained the New Age of piracy in the Irish Sea a golden age for the hawea man the citrix brother rockin all appearing to have turned his gaze eastwards across the Irish Sea to establish himself as king in your Vic before that could happen however rockin all had unfinished business with the king of Alba who may have killed his father just over a decade earlier at roughly the same time in 918 ethel fled a lady of the mercy ins who had been negotiating with the northumbrian to peacefully obtain their submission to English rule passed away her younger brother the king of Wessex Edward was then occupied with securing control of Mercia and could do little against Raggles invasion [Music] faced with the onslaught of raccoons warriors Eldred the Lord of Benicia the northernmost part of Northumbria that had survived for generations amidst a sea of Scandinavian invaders came north seeking assistance from Constantine the two ancient foes then set aside their differences and advanced south together to face Ragnar engaging him in battle somewhere on the banks of the river tyne probably at the village of Corbridge though the battle was indecisive and raggin all was able to head south to seize York in its aftermath he also lost a number of his followers in the fighting and our search was unable to further campaign against Alba he died soon afterwards only to be replaced by his kinsmen citric an equally terrifying prospect nonetheless the Scottish contemporary sources recorded Corbridge as a victory for Constantine meanwhile in the South Alford son Edward had rapidly secured control of Mercia and prepared his armies to strike further north which they did over the coming years eventually succeeding enforcing citrix submission and also for the first time according to the anglo-saxon chronicle forcing Constantine to submit to though the authenticity of this claim has often been called into question it is an omen of the shape of things to come [Music] Edward died in 924 and after a brief period of instability he was succeeded by his son Athelstan already a formidable military leader blooded from his aunt Ethel Fletcher's reconquest of eastern Murcia from the Vikings from this point onwards the tendency would now be for Vikings and Scots to make common cause against the new dominant power on scene the English by 926 King citric acknowledged Athelstan as over king agreeing to be baptised into the Christian faith and marrying a sister of Athelstan at the ancient mercy and capital of Tamworth within the year however he probably abandoned his new faith and sent his wife away but before Athelstan could march north to fight him he died suddenly in 9:27 his kinsmen go through who had remained as his deputy in Dublin then made the crossing from Ireland to take power in your Vic but failed Athelstan moved quickly seizing much of Northumbria and forcing the submission of the burnished hints in less than a decade the kingdom of the English had become by far the greatest power in Britain and Ireland perhaps stretching as far north as the Firth of Forth and far to the south into Cornwall exerting over lordship over all of the disparate lands between John of Wooster's chronicle suggests that Athelstan now faced his main opposition Konstantin Owen of Strathclyde possibly a sub king of Constantine at the time and from the Welsh Kings soon enough Athelstan and Constantine went to war [Music] William of Malmesbury suggests that the catalyst for the conflicts between Constantine's decision to give refuge to citrix young son whoa laughs it Rickson though it could have just as easily been caused by simple English expansionism by no means the first example of this in history a meeting in July 9 27 probably accompanied by an overwhelming show of English force were sealed by an agreement that Constantine Owen fueled our of day abbath and eel dread of Benicia would renounce all idolatry that is they would not allied with the Viking kings Athelstan followed up his advances in the north by securing the recognition of the Welsh Kings for the next seven years the record of events in the north is blank though notably Athelstan sport was attended by the Welsh Kings but not by Constantine or Owen in 9:30 for the English were back this time with a vast invasion force accompanied also with several Welsh under kings though little is known of the reasons for the invasion it proved simply too much the Constantine's much smaller and less populous Kingdom to deal with athol stands campaign is reported briefly by the anglo-saxon chronicle and later chroniclers such as john of worcester william of malmesbury henry of Huntingdon and simeon of Durham [Music] athol stands army began gathering at Winchester by May 934 and reached Nottingham but you he was accompanied by many leaders including the Welsh Kings Huell da it will foul Morgan up owain and notable leaders of the recently conquered Danelaw many of them still pagan Scandinavians perhaps bound to Athelstan by personal oaths of loyalty and of course a desire to be on the winning side the battle for Britain was about to begin an epic struggle involving nearly every far-flung kingdom of the island and several from neighbouring Ireland to [Music] for Murcia the army went north stopping at Chester Street before resuming the March accompanied by a fleet of ships Owen was defeated and Simeon states that the army went as far north as dunnottar and fought for you ravaging and burning and an overwhelming show of force knowing when he was beaten according to John of Worcester a son of Constantine was given as a hostage to Athelstan and Constantine himself accompanied the English King on his return south he witnessed a charter with Athelstan at Woking him on the 13th of September 934 in which he is described as sub Regulus that is a king acknowledging Athol stands overlordship the following year Constantine was again in England at Athol stands court this time at Cirencester where he appears as a witness to a charter appearing as the first of several subject kings followed by owain and he will die at Christmas of 935 owain was once more at Athol stands caught along with the Welsh kings but notably Constantine was not his return to England less than two years later would be very different circumstances following his disappearance from Athelstan skort after 935 there is no further report of Constantine until 937 in that year however together with owain and Olaf Gottfredson the latest grandson of IVA to hold sway in Dublin and a king now bonded by blood to the kings of Alba after his marriage to Constantine's daughter Constantine invaded England [Music] Athelstan marched north to meet the invasion at a place named brunnen birth the most famous battle of the era took place brunnen birth though lost today may well have been one of the bloodiest battles of Britain's early Middle Ages in the next generation during the time of the historian Ethel weird it was still known as the great war by the common people the bones of the dead still very visibly littering the landscape of where it took place the deeds done on that day being celebrated in anglo-saxon poetic tradition for generations to come most notably in the epic poem of the same name you can listen to it here over on our second channel voices of the past [Music] for all that it had been a famous and bloody battle Brune and burr settled very little with both of the main adversaries to English power managing to slip away Constantine fleeing back north whilst Olaf limped back across the Irish Sea to Dublin on the 27th of October 939 Apple Stan died at Malmesbury he was succeeded by his younger brother Edmund then aged just 18 though now a proven warrior having stood in the shield wall with his elder brother and mentor Edmund lacked the personal oath of loyalty pledged to Athelstan by the various stains of the Danelaw as well as the webs of allegiance he had spent much of his reign carefully cultivating all over his vast Kingdom [Music] Athelstan empire seemingly made safe by the victory of brunnen birth collapsed in little more than a year from his death when olaf go through son returned from ireland and seized Northumbria and the mercy and Danelaw after more than a decade of uncertainty and defeat at the hands of the English Constantine's alliance with the Norseman had finally borne fruit placing a large wedge between Alba and the anglo-saxons the English wouldn't try to seriously invade again until the time of the Plantagenet well over 200 years later Constantine had held out long enough thus saving his fledgling nation from the seemingly invincible English Kingdom [Music] over an astonishingly long four decades of rule Constantine had at first fought tooth and nail to ensure his kingdom survival from the Dublin noughts but later finally allied himself with them against the new paramount power of Britain the English by the early 90s Constantine was an old man a veteran king probably more than seventy years old during a time where the average man lived to around 30 remarkably he would go on to live for another decade retiring to a monastery to live out the rest of his days possibly after being forcibly removed but his impatient nephew Malcolm he would likely be waiting around in the wings for decades this makes Constantine one of the longest-lived rulers of the entire early Middle Ages the sheer length of his reign and the fact that he managed to survive for so long strikes him out as an anomaly typical of the geopolitics and shifting power dynamics of the age Constantine was a probe mastermind over a shifting set of allegiances to rival even that of Athelstan the style of governance developed during Constantine's reign continued in much the same way until the Davidian revolution in the 12th century and the introduction of a more lucrative though brutal Norman styled feudal system as with his ecclesiastical reforms and the merger of the Pictish and Gaelic spheres of influence his political legacy was the creation of a new form of Scottish kingship that lasted for two centuries after his death and ultimately the assurance of independence from the many hostile powers for setting it on all sides Kenneth MacAlpin has cleared the way for the birth of Scotland but Constantine had truly made it [Music] you

Channel: History Time

Views: 123,418

Keywords: iMovie, constantine II, constantine, vikings, viking, viking age, scottish vikings, scotland vikings

Id: hAcGneEp9DU

Length: 26min 44sec (1604 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 15 2019