View source for House of Alpin

{{Short description|Early Medieval royal family}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
{{Infobox royal house
|surname=House of Alpin
|country=[[Kingdom of the Picts]]?
[[Dál Riata|Kingdom of Dál Riata]]?
|titles=[[King of Alba|High King of Alba]]<ref>{{cite web|first=Claire|last= Downham|title=Scottish Affairs and the Political Context of Cogadh Gaedhel Gallaibh|page=6|url=https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/3006531/1/SSNS%20Downham.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh, Chapter XXV(25) (left side of the page)|page=232|url=https://archive.org/details/cogadhgaedhelreg00todd/page/232}}</ref> <br> [[King of the Picts]] <br> [[King of Scots|King of Picts and Scots]] <br> [[King of Alba]] <br> [[King of Dál Riata]] (possibly)
|founder=[[Alpín mac Echdach]]
|final ruler=[[Malcolm II of Scotland]]
|founding year=Before 763
|dissolution=1034
}}

{{graphical timeline
| title = House of Alpin
| height = 64
| from = 840| to = 1040
| bar1-from = 843 | bar1-to = 858 | bar1-text ={{bg|white|[[Kenneth MacAlpin|Cináed I]]}}
| bar2-from = 858 | bar2-to = 862 | bar2-text ={{bg|white|[[Domnall mac Ailpín|Domnall I]]}}
| bar3-from = 862 | bar3-to = 877 | bar3-text ={{bg|white|[[Causantín mac Cináeda|Constantine I]]}}
| bar4-from = 877 | bar4-to = 878 | bar4-text ={{bg|white|[[Áed mac Cináeda|Aedh]]}}
| bar5-from = 878 | bar5-to = 889 | bar5-text ={{bg|white|[[Eochaid of Scotland|Eochaid]] &amp; [[Giric of Scotland|Giric]]}}
| bar6-from = 889 | bar6-to = 900 | bar6-text ={{bg|white|[[Domnall II of Scotland|Domnall II]]}}
| bar7-from = 900 | bar7-to = 943 | bar7-text ={{bg|white|[[Constantine II of Scotland|Constantine II]]}}
| bar8-from = 943 | bar8-to = 954 | bar8-text ={{bg|white|[[Máel Coluim I of Scotland|Máel Coluim I]]}}
| bar9-from = 954 | bar9-to = 962 | bar9-text ={{bg|white|[[Indulf of Scotland|Indulf]]}}
| bar10-from = 962 | bar10-to = 966 | bar10-text ={{bg|white|[[Dub of Scotland|Dub]]}}
| bar11-from = 966 | bar11-to = 971 | bar11-text ={{bg|white|[[Culen of Scotland|Culen]]}}
| bar12-from = 971 | bar12-to = 995 | bar12-text ={{bg|white|[[Cináed II of Scotland|Cináed II]]}}
| bar13-from = 995 | bar13-to = 997 | bar13-text ={{bg|white|[[Constantine III of Scotland|Constantine III]]}}
| bar14-from = 997 | bar14-to = 1005 | bar14-text ={{bg|white|[[Cináed III of Scotland|Cináed III]]}}
| bar15-from = 1005 | bar15-to = 1034 | bar15-text ={{bg|white|[[Malcolm II of Scotland|Máel Coluim II]]}}
}}

The '''House of Alpin''', also known as the '''Alpinid dynasty''', '''Clann Chináeda''', and '''Clann Chinaeda meic Ailpín''', was the kin-group which ruled in [[Picts|Pictland]], possibly [[Dál Riata]], and then the [[kingdom of Alba]] from [[Constantine II of Scotland|Constantine II]] (Causantín mac Áeda) in the 940s until the death of [[Malcolm II of Scotland|Malcolm II]] (Máel Coluim mac Cináeda) in 1034.

Kings traced their descent from [[Kenneth MacAlpin]] (and not from his father, [[Alpín mac Echdach]]), and Irish genealogies in the [[Book of Ballymote]] and the [[Book of Lecan]] refer to the kindred as ''Clann Cináeda meic Ailpín'' by prioritising descent from Kenneth.<ref>Woolf, ''Pictland to Alba'', pp. 222&ndash;224; Broun, ''Irish Identity'', pp. 173&ndash;174.</ref>

The origins of the family are uncertain. Later genealogies make Kenneth a descendant of [[Áed Find]]. While plausible, such claims are unprovable and appear only in the late tenth century.<ref>Woolf, ''Pictland to Alba'', p. 173.</ref> The associated idea that Kenneth had been a king in [[Dál Riata]] before he contended successfully for power in Pictland in the 840s, following the death of [[Eóganán mac Óengusa]], is supported by nearly contemporary evidence.<ref>Woolf, ''Pictland to Alba'', pp. 93&ndash;98 & 116&ndash;117.</ref>

Early kings of ''Clann Cináeda meic Ailpín'' are described as [[List of kings of the Picts|kings of the Picts]], and the third king, Kenneth's son [[Causantín mac Cináeda|Constantine I]] (Causantín mac Cináeda), appears to have been regarded as the last of the 70 Pictish kings soon after his death. The descendants of Kenneth were ousted in 878, when Constantine I's brother, [[Áed mac Cináeda]], was killed by [[Giric|Giric mac Dúngail]], but they returned in 889, when Constantine I's son [[Donald II of Scotland|Donald II]] (Domnall mac Causantín) ascended the throne upon the death or deposition of Giric. Donald II and his successors are described as kings of Alba.<ref>Woolf, ''Pictland to Alba'', pp. 122&ndash;126.</ref>

During the tenth century, succession alternated between the descendants of Constantine I and those of Áed. Internecine strife in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries left the descendants of Constantine I unchallenged by male-line descendants of Kenneth MacAlpin, but Malcolm II left no male heirs. On Malcolm's death, the line of kings descended from Kenneth came to an end. [[House of Dunkeld|Future kings]], while still tracing their descent from Kenneth, were descended from Malcolm's daughter [[Bethóc]] and her husband [[Crinan of Dunkeld]].<ref>Woolf, ''Pictland to Alba'', pp. 225&ndash;230.</ref>

==See also==
*[[Scottish monarchs' family tree#House of Alpin]]
*[[Siol Alpin]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
{{refbegin}}
* {{citation |last=Anderson |first=Alan Orr |author-link=Alan Orr Anderson |title=Early Sources of Scottish History A.D. 500 to 1286 |volume=I |date=1922 |edition=1990 revised & corrected |publisher=Paul Watkins |location=Stamford|isbn=1-871615-03-8}}
* {{citation |last=Bannerman |first=John |contribution =The Scottish Takeover of Pictland and the relics of Columba |editor-last=Broun |editor-first=Dauvit |editor-link=Dauvit Broun |editor2-last=Clancy |editor2-first=Thomas Owen |editor2-link=Thomas Owen Clancy |title=Spes Scotorum: Hope of Scots. Saint Columba, Iona and Scotland |location=Edinburgh |publisher=T. & T. Clark |date=1999 |isbn=0-567-08682-8 |pages=71&ndash;94 }}
* {{citation |last=Broun |first=Dauvit |contribution =Dunkeld and the origins of Scottish Identity |editor-last=Broun |editor-first=Dauvit |editor-link=Dauvit Broun |editor2-last=Clancy |editor2-first=Thomas Owen |editor2-link=Thomas Owen Clancy |title=Spes Scotorum: Hope of Scots. Saint Columba, Iona and Scotland |location=Edinburgh |publisher=T. & T. Clark |date=1999 |isbn=0-567-08682-8 |pages=96&ndash;111}}
* {{citation |last=Broun |first=Dauvit |author-link=Dauvit Broun |title=The Irish Identity of the Kingdom of the Scots in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries |date=1999 |publisher=Boydell Press |location=Woodbridge |isbn=0-85115-375-5}}
* {{citation |last=Broun |first=Dauvit |author-link=Dauvit Broun |last2=Clancy |first2=Thomas Owen |author2-link=Thomas Owen Clancy |title=Spes Scotorum: Hope of Scots. Saint Columba, Iona and Scotland|date=1999 |publisher=T. & T. Clark |location=Edinburgh |isbn=0-567-08682-8}}
* {{citation |last=Duncan |first=A. A. M. |author-link=Archie Duncan (historian) |title=The Kingship of the Scots 842&ndash;1292: Succession and Independence |date=2002 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |location=Edinburgh |isbn=0-7486-1626-8}}
* {{citation |last=Herbert |first=Máire |contribution =''Ri Éirenn, Ri Alban'': kingship and identity in the ninth and tenth centuries |editor-last=Taylor |editor-first=Simon |title=Kings, clerics and chronicles in Scotland 500–1297 |location=Dublin |publisher=Four Courts Press |date=2000 |isbn=1-85182-516-9 |pages=62&ndash;72 }}
* {{citation |last=Smyth |first=Alfred P. |title=Warlords and Holy Men: Scotland AD 80&ndash;1000 |date=1989 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |location=Edinburgh |isbn=0-7486-0100-7 |orig-year=1984}}
* {{citation |editor-last=Taylor |editor-first=Simon |title=Kings, clerics and chronicles in Scotland 500&ndash;1297 |date=2000 |publisher=Four Courts Press |location=Dublin |isbn=1-85182-516-9}}
* {{citation |last=Woolf |first=Alex |author-link=Alex Woolf |title=From Pictland to Alba, 789&ndash;1070 |date=2007 |series=The New Edinburgh History of Scotland |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |location=Edinburgh |isbn=978-0-7486-1234-5}}
{{refend}}

{{Royal houses of Britain and Ireland}}

[[Category:House of Alpin| ]]
[[Category:843 establishments]]
[[Category:Medieval royal families|Alpin]]
[[Category:1030s disestablishments in Europe]]
[[Category:Scottish families|Alpin]]
[[Category:9th-century establishments in Scotland]]