Vem är Kenneth?

Historia

Namnet Kenneth kan härledas till den förste skotske Kungen, Kenneth I, som bar det ärofulla namnet Kenneth Mac Alpin.

Det var på 800-talet och Kenneth Mac Alpin hade blivit kung 843 för både the Picts och the Scots för att bilda ett nytt Kaledoniskt kungarike kallat Albainn. Bildandet av kungariket är resultatet av ett sju år långt och blodigt krig i vilket Kenneth hade övertalat vikingarna från hebriderna att slåss tillsammans med honom för att besegra the Picts.

Historien kan ha sin fortsättning i Sverige, närmare bestämt på Björkö i Mälaren, där utgrävningen av vikingastaden Birka genomförs. Huvudansvaret för denna utgrävning har naturligtvis legat på en Kenneth, "Årets Kenneth 1997″ Kenneth Svensson.

Läs mer om Kenneth MacAlpin i den engelska orginaltexten här nedanför och följ sedan länkarna som ger dig ytterligare upplysningar. 

Kenneth 1

Also called KENNETH MACALPIN (d.c. 858, Forteviot, Scot.).

MacAlpin was considered the first king of the united Scots of Dalriada and the Picts and so of Scotland north of a line between the Forth and Clyde rivers.
Ancient Gaelic-speaking people of northern Ireland who settled in Scotland sometime in the 5th century AD. Originally (until the 10th century) "Scotia" denoted Ireland, and the inhabitants of Scotia were Scotti.
The area of Argyll and Bute, where the migrant Scots settled, became known as the kingdom of Dalriada, the counterpart to Dalriada in Ireland. St Columbia inaugurated Christianity among them and helped raise Aidan to the kingship of Scottish Dalriada in 574. The Scots then expanded eastward into what came to be known as the Forest of Atholl and Strath Earn (valley of the River Earn) and northward into the area of Elgin.
The union of the lands of modern Scotland began in 843, when Kenneth I MacAlpin, king of the Scots (Dalriada), became also king of the Picts and, within a few years, joined "Pict-land" to "Scot-land" to form the kingdom of Alba.
By 1034, by inheritance and warfare, the Scots had secured hegemony over not only Alba but also Lothian, Cumbria, and Strathclyde-roughly the territory of modern mainland Scotland.
In 1305 the kingdom was divided into Scotland, Lothian, and Galloway; in the 14th century Scotland came to be the name for the whole land, and all its inhabitants were called Scots, whatever their origin.
Little is known about his father Alpin, though tradition credits him with a victory over the Picts who killed him three months later, displaying his severed head at their camp. (c.834). Kenneth succeeded him in Dalriada and ruled in Pictavia also, ruling for 16 years. This period is obscure but the gradual union of the two kingdoms from 843 is no doubt due to much intermarriage. By the Pictish marriage custom, inheritance passed through the female. Nevertheless, Kenneth probably made some conquests among the eastern Picts and possibly invaded Lothian and burned Dunbar and Melrose

After attacks on Iona by Vikings he removed relics of St. Columba, probably in 849 or 850, to Dunkeld, which became the headquarters of the Scottish Columban church. He died at Forteviot, not far from Scone in Pictish territory, and was buried on the island of Iona.