ÁED OF SCOTLAND

'Áed mac Cináeda' (died 878) was a son of Cináed mac Ailpín. He became king of the Picts in 877 when he succeeded his brother Causantín mac Cináeda.
The Chronicle of the Kings of Alba says of Áed: "Edus held the same [i.e. the kingdom] for one year. The shortness of his reign has bequeathed nothing memorable to history. He was slain in the civitas of Nrurim." Nrurim is unidentified. Some variants give Áed the epithet wing-footed () or white-foot ().
The Annals of Ulster say that in 878: "Áed mac Cináeda, king of the Picts, was killed by his associates." Tradition, reported by George Chalmers in his ''Caledonia'' (1807), and by the New Statistical Account (1834–1845), has it that the early-historic mound of the Cunninghillock by Inverurie is the burial place of Áed. This is based on reading Nrurim as ''Inruriu''.
A longer account is interpolated in Andrew of Wyntoun's ''Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland''. This says that Áed reigned one year and was killed by his successor Giric mac Dúngail in Strathallan and other king lists have the same report.
It is uncertain which, if any, of the Prophecy of Berchán's kings should be taken to be Áed. William Forbes Skene presumed that the following verses referred to Áed:

129. Another king will take [sovereignty]; small is the profit that he does not divide. Alas for Scotland thenceforward. His name will be the Furious.
130. He will be but a short time over Scotland. The will be no [word uncertain] unplundered. Alas for Scotland, through the youth; alas for their books, alas for their bequests.
131. He will be nine years in the kingdom. I shall tell you—it will be a tale of truth—he dies without bell, with communion, at evening, in a fatal pass.

Áed's son, Causantín mac Áeda, became king in 900. The idea that Domnall II of Strathclyde was a son of Áed, based on a confusing entry in the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba, is contested.

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References

★ Anderson, Alan Orr, ''Early Sources of Scottish History A.D 500–1286'', volume 1. Reprinted with corrections. Paul Watkins, Stamford, 1990. ISBN 1-871615-03-8

★ Anderson, Marjorie Ogilvie, ''Kings and Kingship in Early Scotland.'' Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh, revised edition 1980. ISBN 0-7011-1604-8

★ Duncan, A.A.M., ''The Kingship of the Scots 842–1292: Succession and Independence.'' Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2002. ISBN 0-7486-1626-8

★ Smyth, Alfred P., ''Warlords and Holy Men: Scotland AD 80–1000.'' E.J. Arnold, London, 1984 (reprinted Edinburgh UP). ISBN 0-7486-0100-7

External links

★ The Chronicle of the Kings of Alba (CKA)

★ Friends of Grampian Stones - history of Inverurie

★ Second Statistical Account [vol. XII (County of Aberdeen), p. 681]

See also

★ Kingdom of Alba