 | This article includes alist of references,related reading, orexternal links,but its sources remain unclear because it lacksinline citations. Please helpimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(September 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Conall mac Taidg | |
|---|---|
| King of the Picts | |
| Reign | 785–789 |
| Predecessor | Talorc III |
| Successor | Caustantin |
| Died | 807 |
| Father | Taidg |
Conall mac Taidg (died c. 807) was aking of the Picts from 785 until 789. Very little is recorded of the king. He is mentioned twice by theIrish annals, the most reliable source for the history ofNorthern Britain in the years around 800. He also appears in laterregnal lists.
TheChronicle of Ireland survives only in later manuscripts. Of these, theAnnals of Ulster contain two reports of mac Taidg. The first, dated to 789, records "a battle between thePicts, in which Conall son of Tadc was defeated and escaped; and Constantín was victor". Constantín here isCaustantín mac Fergusa (d. 820), king ofFortriu. The second report notes in 807 "the killing of Conall son of Tadc, by Conall son of Aedacán in Cenn Tíre". Cenn Tíre is theOld Irish-language form of theKintyre peninsula, and Conall son of Aedacán is usually calledConall mac Áedáin.
Later evidence of Connall mac Taidg's life is provided byregnal lists and by Irish historical writings. The earliest of these may have been compiled during the ninth century not long after his reign, but none survives a manuscript of that date. A list of synchronisms – a series of known, dateable events used to align Irish lists of kings to Scottish ones – was attributed to Irish writerFlann Mainistrech in the eleventh century and provides another list of kings. Two manuscripts of Flann's work state that there were "sixteen kings in Scotland" between the death ofÁed Allán (d. 743) and the death ofÁed Findliath (d. 789). The sixteen begin withDúngal mac Selbaig and end withKenneth MacAlpin. Two kings named Conall, "Conall Coem, and another Conall, his brother", are said to have reigned betweenDomnall mac Caustantín in the early ninth century, and his father,Caustantín mac Fergusa, the man who had defeated Conall in 789. TheDuan Albanach, dated on internal evidence to rather later in the eleventh century, follows this by having Domnall mac Caustantín followed by two Conalls and then Caustantín. It is generally assumed that theDuan and Flann aim to report the succession of kings inDál Riata.
Conall is not included in any surviving genealogical material, but this is typical for the period. ThePoppleton Manuscript's Pictish king list includes a king named Canaul son of Tarla'ason of Tang in some versions but simply omitted from others. This Canaul has generally been identified with Conall. The lists assign a reign of five years to this king who precedes Caustantín mac Fergusa.
Interpretations of Conall mac Taidg's life are determined largely by the shifting views of historians with regard to Caustantín mac Fergusa and the laterorigins of the Kingdom of Alba, a subject where the consensus may have changed recently, having previously been stable since the time ofWilliam Forbes Skene. Skene made Conall aking of the Picts, while later reinterpretations made him first a king of the Picts, then, following his expulsion by Caustantín, aking of Dál Riata. Recent reinterpretations make him a king inArgyll throughout, but not necessarily the chief king.
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Talorc III | King of the Picts 785–789 | Succeeded by |
  | This Scottish biographical article is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |
 | ThisScottish history-related article is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |
 | This biography of a member of Scottish royalty is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |