Kenneth MacAlpin (810-13 February 858) was King of Dal Riata from 834 to 858 (succeeding Alpin mac Echdach) and King of Pictland from 843 to 13 February 858 (succeeding Drest X and preceding Donald). He was the founder of the House of Alpin and the Kingdom of Scotland.
Biography[]
Kenneth MacAlpin was born in Iona, Scotland in 810, the son of King Alpin mac Echdach of Dal Riata. He succeeded his father as King of Pictland in 834, and the deaths of several Scottish kings in battle with the Vikings in 839 opened up an opportunity for Kenneth to oversee the unification of Scotland. By 848, he had consolidated his power in Scotland by defeating his rival rulers, and he invaded the lands of the Anglo-Saxons of Northumbria six times, captured Melrose, and burned Dunbar. At around the same time, Vikings under Gofraid of Lochlann ravaged Pictland, reaching far into the interior. Shetland, Orkney, Caithness, Sutherland, the Hebrides, Ross-shire, and the Isle of Man were settled by Norwegian settlers, and Kenneth and his successors would abandon their claims to Ireland and instead unite the Gaels and Picts against the Norse invaders. He died from a tumor near Scone in 858.