Nechtan IV of the Picts
Encyclopedia
Nechtan mac Der-Ilei or Nechtan mac Dargarto (OIr
Nechtan mac Der-Ilei or Nechtan mac Dargarto) (before 686–732) was king of the Picts in the early 8th century. He succeeded his brother Bridei
in 706. He is associated with significant religious reforms in Pictland
. He abdicated in 724 in favour of his nephew and became a monk. In 728–729 he fought in a four-sided war for the Pictish throne.
in 710. Dargart is taken to be the Dargart mac Finguine
who died in 686, a member of the Cenél Comgaill kindred of Dál Riata
. On this basis, and because Bede
mentions that the Picts allowed for matrilineal succession in exceptional cases, it is thought that Der-Ilei
was Nechtan's mother.
Other brothers and half-brothers of Nechtan and Bridei would include Ciniod or Cináed, killed in 713, Talorgan son of Drest, a half-brother or foster-brother, held captive by Nechtan in the same year, and perhaps Congas son of Dar Gart who died in 712. A number of later figures, including the Talorgan son of Drest, king of Atholl
, executed by drowning in 739, and the Talorgan son of Congus, defeated in 731 and likewise drowned in 734, and his unnamed brother, may be associated with Nechtan's family.
Bede claimed that relations between the Picts and Northumbria
were peaceful in his time. However, the Annals of Ulster for 711 report a Pictish defeat at Northumbrian hands, "in Mag Manonn", presumably in the area around Stirling
where the kingdom of Manau had once been, where Finnguine son of Deile Roith was killed. Nothing more is known of Finnguine, but as he bore Nechtan's paternal grandfather's name, it may be that he was a kinsman of the Pictish king.
includes a letter from Abbot Ceolfrid
of the twin monasteries of Monkwearmouth
and Jarrow
to Nechtan on the subject of the dating of Easter
, sent around 710. Ceolfrid assumes his correspondent is an educated man, going some way to justifying Thomas Owen Clancy
's description of Nechtan as a philosopher king
. Nechtan was convinced by Ceolfrid, and the expulsion of clergy associated with Iona in 717 may be related to the controversy over Easter and the manner of tonsures; equally it may have been entirely unrelated. Often portrayed as a struggle between the so-called Celtic Church
and Rome, it is evident that the majority of Irish clerics had long accepted the Roman method of calculating the date of Easter.
As well as providing Nechtan with guidance on the Easter controversy
, Ceolfrid sent masons and craftsmen to aid in building stone churches. Bede's claim that Nechtan dedicated his kingdom to Saint Peter
has led to Nechtan being linked to the Peterkirks at Rosemarkie
, Duffus
, Restenneth
and elsewhere in north-east Scotland.
note, in 724, that Nechtan entered a monastery, leaving the throne to Drest
. Although the identification must be uncertain, it is assumed that this Drest is the son of Nechtan's half-brother.
King Drest may not have had a secure hold on power. One Simul son of Drest, perhaps yet another sibling of Nechtan, was imprisoned by Drest in 725. In the same year, Brec of Fortriu
died. He is assumed from the context to be the bishop of Fortriu, almost certainly appointed by Nechtan and the earliest known bishop in Pictland. In 726, Drest had Nechtan imprisoned. This may have involved no more than removing the former king from one monastery, where he had friends and influence, to another where Drest's partisans were in control.
In 728, Óengus son of Fergus
defeated the shadowy Alpín
. It seems likely that at this time, if not earlier, Nechtan had left the monastic life and was warring with Drest and Alpín. After Alpín was defeated a second time, the Annals of Tigernach say that Nechtan was restored to the kingship. A battle between Óengus's army and Nechtan's enemies at Monith Carno (perhaps Cairn O' Mounth, near Fettercairn
) ended with the defeat of Nechtan's enemies, among whom are named Biceot son of Moneit, Finguine son of Drostan and Feroth son of Finguine.
After being restored to power, Nechtan reigned until 732. He was succeeded by Óengus.
It has been suggested that the St Andrews Sarcophagus
was commissioned by Óengus to hold Nechtan's remains, although it is more generally supposed that the sarcophagus was for Óengus himself. Nechtan's attachment to Saint Peter may have led later chroniclers, writing in a period when Saint Andrew
was of far greater importance, to have emphasised ninth century kings who had supported the cult of Saint Andrew.
A number of later traditions associating earlier Pictish kings named Nechtan with the monastic foundation at Abernethy may have confused them with this Nechtan.
Nechtan's ecclesiastical reforms are seen as having led to closer links between Pictland and Northumbria, with notable results in artistic forms. His expulsion of Ionan clerics, rather than being a submission to Rome and Northumbria, probably marks the coming of age of an independent Pictish church, which nonetheless remained close to Iona and to Ireland. In addition, it speaks to a very considerable degree of royal control over the church in Pictland, which appears to have been contentious in the ninth century.
Old Irish language
Old Irish is the name given to the oldest form of the Goidelic languages for which extensive written texts are extant. It was used from the 6th to the 10th centuries, by which time it had developed into Middle Irish....
Nechtan mac Der-Ilei or Nechtan mac Dargarto) (before 686–732) was king of the Picts in the early 8th century. He succeeded his brother Bridei
Bridei IV of the Picts
Bruide mac Der-Ilei was king of the Picts. He became king when Taran was deposed in 697.He was the brother of his successor Nechtan. It has been suggested that Bruide's father was Dargart mac Finguine of the Cenél Comgaill, a kingroup in Dál Riata who controlled Cowal and the Isle of Bute...
in 706. He is associated with significant religious reforms in Pictland
Picts
The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
. He abdicated in 724 in favour of his nephew and became a monk. In 728–729 he fought in a four-sided war for the Pictish throne.
Background
It has been argued that Nechtan son of Derile should be identified with the Nechtan son of Dargart mentioned in the Annals of UlsterAnnals of Ulster
The Annals of Ulster are annals of medieval Ireland. The entries span the years between AD 431 to AD 1540. The entries up to AD 1489 were compiled in the late 15th century by the scribe Ruaidhrí Ó Luinín, under his patron Cathal Óg Mac Maghnusa on the island of Belle Isle on Lough Erne in the...
in 710. Dargart is taken to be the Dargart mac Finguine
Dargart mac Finguine
Dargart mac Finguine was a member of the Cenél Comgaill kindred, after which Cowal in Scotland is named. The only event directly connected with him in the Irish annals, based on a chronicle then being kept on Iona, is his death....
who died in 686, a member of the Cenél Comgaill kindred of Dál Riata
Dál Riata
Dál Riata was a Gaelic overkingdom on the western coast of Scotland with some territory on the northeast coast of Ireland...
. On this basis, and because Bede
Bede
Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
mentions that the Picts allowed for matrilineal succession in exceptional cases, it is thought that Der-Ilei
Der-Ilei
Der-Ilei is believed to have been a daughter, or less probably a sister, of Bridei map Beli, king of the Picts...
was Nechtan's mother.
Other brothers and half-brothers of Nechtan and Bridei would include Ciniod or Cináed, killed in 713, Talorgan son of Drest, a half-brother or foster-brother, held captive by Nechtan in the same year, and perhaps Congas son of Dar Gart who died in 712. A number of later figures, including the Talorgan son of Drest, king of Atholl
Atholl
Atholl or Athole is a large historical division in the Scottish Highlands. Today it forms the northern part of Perth and Kinross, Scotland bordering Marr, Badenoch, Breadalbane, Strathearn, Perth and Lochaber....
, executed by drowning in 739, and the Talorgan son of Congus, defeated in 731 and likewise drowned in 734, and his unnamed brother, may be associated with Nechtan's family.
Bede claimed that relations between the Picts and Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
were peaceful in his time. However, the Annals of Ulster for 711 report a Pictish defeat at Northumbrian hands, "in Mag Manonn", presumably in the area around Stirling
Stirling
Stirling is a city and former ancient burgh in Scotland, and is at the heart of the wider Stirling council area. The city is clustered around a large fortress and medieval old-town beside the River Forth...
where the kingdom of Manau had once been, where Finnguine son of Deile Roith was killed. Nothing more is known of Finnguine, but as he bore Nechtan's paternal grandfather's name, it may be that he was a kinsman of the Pictish king.
Religious reforms
Bede's Ecclesiastical HistoryHistoria ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
The Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum is a work in Latin by Bede on the history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict between Roman and Celtic Christianity.It is considered to be one of the most important original references on...
includes a letter from Abbot Ceolfrid
Ceolfrid
Saint Ceolfrid was an Anglo-Saxon Christian abbot and saint. He is best known as the warden of Bede from the age of seven until his death in 716. He was the Abbot of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey, and a major contributor to the project Codex Amiatinus...
of the twin monasteries of Monkwearmouth
Monkwearmouth
Monkwearmouth is an area of Sunderland located at the north side of the mouth of the River Wear. It was one of the three original settlements on the banks of the River Wear along with Bishopwearmouth and Sunderland, the area now known as the East End. It includes the area around St. Peter's Church...
and Jarrow
Jarrow
Jarrow is a town in Tyne and Wear, England, located on the River Tyne, with a population of 27,526. From the middle of the 19th century until 1935, Jarrow was a centre for shipbuilding, and was the starting point of the Jarrow March against unemployment in 1936.-Foundation:The Angles re-occupied...
to Nechtan on the subject of the dating of Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
, sent around 710. Ceolfrid assumes his correspondent is an educated man, going some way to justifying Thomas Owen Clancy
Thomas Owen Clancy
Professor Thomas Owen Clancy is an American academic and historian who specializes in the literature of the Celtic Dark Ages, especially that of Scotland. He did his undergraduate work at New York University, and his Ph.D at the University of Edinburgh. He is currently at the University of Glasgow,...
's description of Nechtan as a philosopher king
Philosopher king
Philosopher kings are the rulers, or Guardians, of Plato's Utopian Kallipolis. If his ideal city-state is to ever come into being, "philosophers [must] become kings…or those now called kings [must]…genuinely and adequately philosophize" .-In Book VI of The Republic:Plato defined a philosopher...
. Nechtan was convinced by Ceolfrid, and the expulsion of clergy associated with Iona in 717 may be related to the controversy over Easter and the manner of tonsures; equally it may have been entirely unrelated. Often portrayed as a struggle between the so-called Celtic Church
Celtic Christianity
Celtic Christianity or Insular Christianity refers broadly to certain features of Christianity that were common, or held to be common, across the Celtic-speaking world during the Early Middle Ages...
and Rome, it is evident that the majority of Irish clerics had long accepted the Roman method of calculating the date of Easter.
As well as providing Nechtan with guidance on the Easter controversy
Easter controversy
The Easter controversy is a series of controversies about the proper date to celebrate the Christian holiday of Easter. To date, there are four distinct historical phases of the dispute and the dispute has yet to be resolved...
, Ceolfrid sent masons and craftsmen to aid in building stone churches. Bede's claim that Nechtan dedicated his kingdom to Saint Peter
Saint Peter
Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...
has led to Nechtan being linked to the Peterkirks at Rosemarkie
Rosemarkie
Rosemarkie is a village on the south coast of the Black Isle peninsula in northern Scotland.-Geography:Rosemarkie lies a quarter of a mile east of the town of Fortrose...
, Duffus
Duffus
Duffus is a village in Moray, Scotland, centred on a Mercat Cross. The Duffus Village Inn, along with the local shop, Post Office and Duffus Village Hall provide a focal point for the community. Nearby are the impressive remains of Duffus Castle, St...
, Restenneth
Restenneth Priory
Restenneth Priory was a monastic house of Augustinian canons founded by Jedburgh Abbey, with the patronage of King Malcolm IV of Scotland, in 1153. Although there is little literary evidence, archaeological evidence strongly indicates that there was a monastery at Restenneth from very early times...
and elsewhere in north-east Scotland.
Abdication and return
Two sons of Nechtan are thought to have died in 710, and it is not known whether he had any surviving sons or daughters. The Annals of TigernachAnnals of Tigernach
The Annals of Tigernach is a chronicle probably originating in Clonmacnoise, Ireland. The language is a mixture of Latin and Old and Middle Irish....
note, in 724, that Nechtan entered a monastery, leaving the throne to Drest
Drest VII of the Picts
Drest was king of the Picts from 724 until 726 or 729. He succeeded Nechtan mac Der-Ilei when the latter abdicated and entered a monastery in 724....
. Although the identification must be uncertain, it is assumed that this Drest is the son of Nechtan's half-brother.
King Drest may not have had a secure hold on power. One Simul son of Drest, perhaps yet another sibling of Nechtan, was imprisoned by Drest in 725. In the same year, Brec of Fortriu
Fortriu
Fortriu or the Kingdom of Fortriu is the name given by historians for an ancient Pictish kingdom, and often used synonymously with Pictland in general...
died. He is assumed from the context to be the bishop of Fortriu, almost certainly appointed by Nechtan and the earliest known bishop in Pictland. In 726, Drest had Nechtan imprisoned. This may have involved no more than removing the former king from one monastery, where he had friends and influence, to another where Drest's partisans were in control.
In 728, Óengus son of Fergus
Óengus I of the Picts
Óengus son of Fergus , was king of the Picts from 732 until his death in 761. His reign can be reconstructed in some detail from a variety of sources.Óengus became the chief king in Pictland following a period of civil war in the late 720s...
defeated the shadowy Alpín
Alpín I of the Picts
Alpín was king of the Picts in the 720s, together with Drest. The Pictish Chronicle king lists give Alpín and Drest a five year joint rule. Alpín is a Pictish form of the Old English Ælfwine and may, perhaps, indicate a tie to Bernician exiles in Pictland, such as Eanfrith, father of Talorgan mac...
. It seems likely that at this time, if not earlier, Nechtan had left the monastic life and was warring with Drest and Alpín. After Alpín was defeated a second time, the Annals of Tigernach say that Nechtan was restored to the kingship. A battle between Óengus's army and Nechtan's enemies at Monith Carno (perhaps Cairn O' Mounth, near Fettercairn
Fettercairn
Fettercairn is a small village in northeast Scotland. It is located northwest of Laurencekirk in Aberdeenshire on the B966 from Edzell...
) ended with the defeat of Nechtan's enemies, among whom are named Biceot son of Moneit, Finguine son of Drostan and Feroth son of Finguine.
After being restored to power, Nechtan reigned until 732. He was succeeded by Óengus.
Legacy
St Andrews Sarcophagus
The Saint Andrews Sarcophagus is a Pictish monument dating from the second half of the 8th century. The sarcophagus was recovered beginning in 1833 during excavations by St Andrew's Cathedral, but it was not until 1922 that the surviving components were reunited...
was commissioned by Óengus to hold Nechtan's remains, although it is more generally supposed that the sarcophagus was for Óengus himself. Nechtan's attachment to Saint Peter may have led later chroniclers, writing in a period when Saint Andrew
Saint Andrew
Saint Andrew , called in the Orthodox tradition Prōtoklētos, or the First-called, is a Christian Apostle and the brother of Saint Peter. The name "Andrew" , like other Greek names, appears to have been common among the Jews from the 3rd or 2nd century BC. No Hebrew or Aramaic name is recorded for him...
was of far greater importance, to have emphasised ninth century kings who had supported the cult of Saint Andrew.
A number of later traditions associating earlier Pictish kings named Nechtan with the monastic foundation at Abernethy may have confused them with this Nechtan.
Nechtan's ecclesiastical reforms are seen as having led to closer links between Pictland and Northumbria, with notable results in artistic forms. His expulsion of Ionan clerics, rather than being a submission to Rome and Northumbria, probably marks the coming of age of an independent Pictish church, which nonetheless remained close to Iona and to Ireland. In addition, it speaks to a very considerable degree of royal control over the church in Pictland, which appears to have been contentious in the ninth century.
External links
- Annals of Ulster, part 1 at CELT, translation.
- Annals of Tigernach at CELT, translation in progress.
- Bede's Ecclesiastical History and the Continuation of Bede (pdf), at CCEL, translated by A.M. Sellar.