MACALPINE

Clann GREGOR

In search of Alpin:

Alpin or Alpine, in any of its forms,  was, and remains, strictly an ancient P-Celtic word; i.e. Alps.  Alpin was a common Pict name which meant 'mountainous'.  It has never been in the Irish or Scottish Gaelic (Q-Celtic) vocabularies in any form whatsoever.  There were at least four Alpins who sought the Kingship of the Picts in the 8th and 9th century AD.  They were all Picts, as in the age of the Alpins, there was a great deal of intermarriage between the Picts, Scots, Britons and Irish Cruithne, especially amongst the upper echelons of society.  More emphasis was put on the maternal side when considering succession; by Britons, Picts and Irish Cruithne, but not the Scots.

    1/   Alpin, son of King Nehhtonn, was never king, and was slain in battle in 693 AD.
    2/   Alpin, son of  Eachaidh, ruled over the Picts (726 - 728), and was expelled from Albann by Onnist in   729 AD.  In the great battle of Catoc followed wherein the Dalriadic Scots and the Britons of Strathclyde against Onnist  and Eadbert, King of Mercia.   Onnist and Eadbert won, and Alpin was slain about 750 AD.
    3/  Alpin, son of Uuroid, (pronounced Feroid) ruled Albann (775 - 780 AD).  He had only one daughter, who married a Scotic king named Eoacha-Anguibh; in Latin, Achaius-Venenosi; in English, Hugh the Poisonous, and named her first born child after her father.

The learned historian, Boece, wrote that Charlemagne, ruler of most of Europe, entered into a league with Hugh to supply the Empire with learned men to teach at European universities.  In actual fact, Hugh did not rule over Dalriada, he was barely holding on to Kintyre, his presence there only tolerated by Donald MacConstantine, the Pict Lieutenant Governor of Dalriada.  In fact, Charlemagne never heard of Hugh the Poisonous.  So much for certain exaggeration!
    4/  Alpin, son of Hugh the Poisonous, ruled in Dalriada from 834 to 837 under the sufferance of the Albann government.  He then made an attempt to rule over Albann, which by Pict law he was entitled to do, as his mother was a Pict Princess.
He chose a very opportune time for his own interest but a very poor time in the minds and hearts of his potential Pict subjects.  It was inexcusable; Easter Day of 837 AD.  The Pict forces had just suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of the heathen Vikings.  Onnisst's son, Drust, was trying to gather his forces when they were attacked.  In that Autumn, the Picts obliterated the Scottish army.  Alpin MacEoacha was never a King of Albann, as he was executed in 836 by King Drust.  The ceremony of retribution was one reserved for traitors, a public beheading.