Áedán mac Gabráin was a king of Dál Riata from circa

Circa

Circa , usually abbreviated c. or ca. , means "approximately" in the English language, usually referring to a date...

 574 until his death, perhaps on 17 April 609. The kingdom 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...

 was situated in modern Argyll and Bute

Argyll and Bute

Argyll and Bute is both one of 32 unitary council areas; and a Lieutenancy area in Scotland. The administrative centre for the council area is located in Lochgilphead.Argyll and Bute covers the second largest administrative area of any Scottish council...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, and parts of County Antrim

County Antrim

County Antrim is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,844 km², with a population of approximately 616,000...

, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

. Genealogies record that Áedán was a son of Gabrán mac Domangairt

Gabrán mac Domangairt

Gabrán mac Domangairt was king of Dál Riata in the middle of the 6th century. He is the eponymous ancestor of the Cenél nGabraín.The historical evidence for Gabrán is limited to the notice of his death in the Irish annals...

.

He was a contemporary of Saint Columba

Columba

Saint Columba —also known as Colum Cille , Colm Cille , Calum Cille and Kolban or Kolbjørn —was a Gaelic Irish missionary monk who propagated Christianity among the Picts during the Early Medieval Period...

, and much that is recorded of his life and career comes from hagiography

Hagiography

Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...

 such as Adomnán of Iona

Adomnán of Iona

Saint Adomnán of Iona was abbot of Iona , hagiographer, statesman and clerical lawyer; he was the author of the most important Vita of Saint Columba and promulgator of the "Law of Innocents", lex innocentium, also called Cáin Adomnáin, "Law of Adomnán"...

's Life of Saint Columba. Áedán appears as a character in Old Irish

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....

 and Middle Irish language

Middle Irish language

Middle Irish is the name given by historical philologists to the Goidelic language spoken in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man from the 10th to 12th centuries; it is therefore a contemporary of late Old English and early Middle English...

 works of prose and verse, some now lost.

The Irish annals

Irish annals

A number of Irish annals were compiled up to and shortly after the end of Gaelic Ireland in the 17th century.Annals were originally a means by which monks determined the yearly chronology of feast days...

 record Áedán's campaigns against his neighbours, in Ireland, and in northern Britain, including expeditions to the Orkney Islands

Orkney Islands

Orkney also known as the Orkney Islands , is an archipelago in northern Scotland, situated north of the coast of Caithness...

, the Isle of Man

Isle of Man

The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...

, and the east coast of Scotland. As recorded by 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...

, Áedán was decisively defeated by Æthelfrith of Bernicia at the Battle of Degsastan

Battle of Degsastan

The Battle of Degsastan was fought c. 603 between king Æthelfrith of Bernicia and the Gaels under Áedán mac Gabráin, king of Dál Riada. Æthelfrith carried the day, winning a decisive victory, although his brother Theodbald was killed. We know almost nothing else about the battle, not even where...

. Áedán may have been deposed, or have abdicated, following this defeat.

Sources

The sources for Áedán's life include Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum

Historia 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...

; Irish annals

Irish annals

A number of Irish annals were compiled up to and shortly after the end of Gaelic Ireland in the 17th century.Annals were originally a means by which monks determined the yearly chronology of feast days...

, principally the Annals of Ulster

Annals 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...

and the Annals of Tigernach

Annals 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....

; and Adomnán's Life of Saint Columba. The Senchus fer n-Alban

Senchus fer n-Alban

The Senchus Fer n-Alban is an Old Irish medieval text, believed to have been compiled in the 10th century. It may have been derived from earlier documents of the 7th century which are presumed to have been written in Latin...

, a census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

 and genealogy

Genealogy

Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...

 of Dál Riata, purports to record his ancestry and that of his immediate descendants. None of these sources are contemporary. Adomnán's work was written in the very late 7th century, probably to mark the centenary of Columba's death. It incorporates elements from a now lost earlier life of Columba, De virtutibus sancti Columbae, by Cumméne Find. This was written perhaps as early as 640. However, neither the elements incorporated from Cumméne's work nor Adomnán's own writings can be treated as simple history. Bede's history was written some 30 years after Adomnán's. The surviving Irish annals contain elements of a chronicle kept at Iona from the middle of the 7th century onwards, so that these too are retrospective when dealing with Áedán's time.

The Rawlinson B 502 manuscript, dated to c. 1130, contains the tale Gein Branduib maic Echach ocus Aedáin maic Gabráin (The Birth of Brandub son of Eochu and of Aedán son of Gabrán). In this story, Áedán is the twin brother of Brandub mac Echach

Brandub mac Echach

Brandub mac Echach was an Irish king of the Uí Cheinnselaig of Leinster. His father, Echu mac Muiredaig had been a king of the Ui Cheinnselaig. They belonged to a branch known as the Uí Felmeda descended from Fedelmid, son of Énnae Cennsalach...

, a King of Leinster who belonged to the Uí Cheinnselaig

Uí Cheinnselaig

The Uí Ceinnselaig , from the Old Irish "grandsons of Cennsalach", are an Irish dynasty of Leinster who trace their descent from Énnae Cennsalach, a supposed contemporary of Niall of the Nine Hostages...

 kindred. Áedán is exchanged at birth for one of the twin daughters of Gabrán, born the same night, so that each family might have a son. The Prophecy of Berchán also associates Áedán with Leinster

Leinster

Leinster is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the east of Ireland. It comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Mide, Osraige and Leinster. Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the historic fifths of Leinster and Mide gradually merged, mainly due to the impact of the Pale, which straddled...

. John Bannerman

John Bannerman (historian)

John Walter MacDonald Bannerman was a Scottish historian, noted for his work on Gaelic Scotland.He was born in Balmaha, Stirlingshire, the son of John MacDonald Bannerman, later Lord Bannerman of Kildonan, and his wife Ray Mundell...

 concluded that "[t]here seems to be no basis of fact behind these traditions." Francis John Byrne

Francis John Byrne

Francis John Byrne is an Irish historian.Born in Shanghai where his father, a Dundalk man, captained a ship on the Yellow River, Byrne was evacuated with his mother to Australia on the outbreak of World War II...

 suggested that the Echtra was written by a poet at the court of Diarmait mac Maíl na mBó

Diarmait mac Mail na mBo

Diarmait mac Maíl na mBó was King of Leinster, and also High King of Ireland .He was one of the most important and significant Kings in Ireland in the pre-Norman era...

, an 11th-century descendant of Brandub, and was written to cement an alliance between Diarmait and the Scots king Máel Coluim mac Donnchada

Malcolm III of Scotland

Máel Coluim mac Donnchada , was King of Scots...

 ("Malcolm III"), who claimed to be a descendant of Áedán. A lost Irish tale, Echtra Áedáin mac Gabráin (The Adventures of Áedán son of Gabrán), appears in a list of works, but its contents are unknown. Áedán is a character in the epic Scéla Cano meic Gartnáin

Scéla Cano meic Gartnáin

The Scéla Cano meic Gartnáin is an Old Irish prose tale of the ninth century or later. It forms part of the Cycles of the Kings.It deals with the exile and return of Cano mac Gartnáin in sixth century Scotland...

, but the events which inspired the tale appear to have taken place in the middle of the 7th century. He also appears in the tale Compert Mongáin. Áedán additionally appears in a variety of Welsh

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 sources, making him one of the few non-Britons to figure into Welsh tradition.

Neighbours

Áedán was the chief king in Dál Riata, ruling over lesser tribal kings. The Senchus fer n-Alban records the sub-divisions of Dál Riata in the 7th and 8th centuries, but no record from Áedán's time survives. According to the Senchus, Dál Riata was divided into three sub-kingdoms in the 7th century, each ruled by a kin group named for their eponym

Eponym

An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...

ous founder. These were the Cenél nGabráin, named for Áedán's father, who ruled over Kintyre

Kintyre

Kintyre is a peninsula in western Scotland, in the southwest of Argyll and Bute. The region stretches approximately 30 miles , from the Mull of Kintyre in the south, to East Loch Tarbert in the north...

, Cowal

Cowal

thumb|Cowal shown within ArgyllCowal is a peninsula in Argyll and Bute in the Scottish Highlands.-Description:The northern part of Cowal is mostly the mountainous Argyll Forest Park. Cowal is separated from the Kintyre peninsula to the west by Loch Fyne, and from Inverclyde and North Ayrshire to...

 and Bute

Isle of Bute

Bute is an island in the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. Formerly part of the county of Buteshire, it now constitutes part of the council area of Argyll and Bute. Its resident population was 7,228 in April 2001.-Geography:...

; the Cenél Loairn of northern Argyll; and the Cenél nÓengusa

Cenél nÓengusa

The Cenél nÓengusa were a kin group who ruled the island of Islay, and perhaps nearby Colonsay, off the western coast of Scotland in the early Middle Ages....

 of Islay

Islay

-Prehistory:The earliest settlers on Islay were nomadic hunter-gatherers who arrived during the Mesolithic period after the retreat of the Pleistocene ice caps. In 1993 a flint arrowhead was found in a field near Bridgend dating from 10,800 BC, the earliest evidence of a human presence found so far...

. Within these there were smaller divisions or tribes which are named by the Senchus. Details of the Irish part of the kingdom are less clear.

Looking outward, Dál Riata's neighbours in north Britain were the Picts

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...

 and the Britons

Britons (historical)

The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...

 of the Hen Ogledd

Hen Ogledd

Yr Hen Ogledd is a Welsh term used by scholars to refer to those parts of what is now northern England and southern Scotland in the years between 500 and the Viking invasions of c. 800, with particular interest in the Brythonic-speaking peoples who lived there.The term is derived from heroic...

, the Brythonic

Brythonic languages

The Brythonic or Brittonic languages form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family, the other being Goidelic. The name Brythonic was derived by Welsh Celticist John Rhys from the Welsh word Brython, meaning an indigenous Briton as opposed to an Anglo-Saxon or Gael...

-speaking parts of what is now Northern England

Northern England

Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered...

 and southern Lowland

Scottish Lowlands

The Scottish Lowlands is a name given to the Southern half of Scotland.The area is called a' Ghalldachd in Scottish Gaelic, and the Lawlands ....

 Scotland. The most powerful British kingdom in the area was Alt Clut

Kingdom of Strathclyde

Strathclyde , originally Brythonic Ystrad Clud, was one of the early medieval kingdoms of the celtic people called the Britons in the Hen Ogledd, the Brythonic-speaking parts of what is now southern Scotland and northern England. The kingdom developed during the post-Roman period...

, later known as Strathclyde and Cumbria

Cumbria

Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...

. Late in Áedán's life, the kingdom of Bernicia

Bernicia

Bernicia was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom established by Anglian settlers of the 6th century in what is now southeastern Scotland and North East England....

 would become the greatest power in north Britain.

In Ireland, Dál Riata formed part of Ulster

Ulster

Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...

, ruled by Báetán mac Cairill

Báetán mac Cairill

Báetán mac Cairill, , was king of the Dál Fiatach, and high-king of Ulaid, from circa 572 until his death. He was the son of Cairell mac Muiredaig Muinderg and brother of Demmán mac Cairill , previous Kings of Ulaid...

 of the Dál Fiatach

Dál Fiatach

The Dál Fiatach were a group of related dynasties located in eastern Ulster in the Early Christian and Early Medieval periods of the history of Ireland.-Description:...

. The other major grouping in Ulster were the disunited tribes of the Cruithne (or Picts), later known as the Dál nAraidi

Dál nAraidi

Dál nAraidi was a kingdom of the Cruthin in the north-east of Ireland in the first millennium. The lands of the Dál nAraidi appear to correspond with the Robogdii of Ptolemy's Geographia, a region shared with Dál Riata...

. The most important Cruithne king in Áedán's time was Fiachnae mac Báetáin

Fiachnae mac Báetáin

Fiachnae mac Báetáin , also called Fiachnae Lurgan or Fiachnae Find, was king of the Dál nAraidi and high-king of the Ulaid in the early 7th century. He was a son of Báetán mac Echdach and brother of Fiachra Cáech Fiachnae mac Báetáin (died 626), also called Fiachnae Lurgan or Fiachnae Find, was...

. Beyond the kingdom of Ulster, and generally hostile to it, were the various kingdoms and tribes of the Uí Néill

Uí Néill

The Uí Néill are Irish and Scottish dynasties who claim descent from Niall Noigiallach , an historical King of Tara who died about 405....

 and their subjects and allies. Of the Uí Néill kings, Áed mac Ainmuirech

Áed mac Ainmuirech

Áed mac Ainmuirech was high-king of the Northern Uí Néill. He belonged to the Cenél Conaill and was a distant cousin of Columba of Iona. He was the son of Ainmuire mac Sétnai , a previous possible high king....

 of the Cenél Conaill

Cenél Conaill

The Cenél Conaill is the name of the "kindred" or descendants of Conall Gulban, son of Niall Noígiallach defined by oral and recorded history. They were also known in Scotland as the Kindred of Saint Columba....

, Columba's first cousin once removed, was the most important during Áedán's reign.

Reign

Adomnán, the Senchus fer n-Alban and the Irish annals record Áedán as a son of Gabrán mac Domangairt

Gabrán mac Domangairt

Gabrán mac Domangairt was king of Dál Riata in the middle of the 6th century. He is the eponymous ancestor of the Cenél nGabraín.The historical evidence for Gabrán is limited to the notice of his death in the Irish annals...

 (died c. 555–560). A Welsh poem states that Áedán's mother was a daughter of King Dumnagual Hen

Dumnagual I of Alt Clut

Dumnagual I, also known as Dumnagual Hen , was a ruler of the Brythonic kingdom of Alt Clut , later known as Strathclyde, probably sometime in the early 6th century. His biography is vague, but he was regarded as an important ancestor figure for several kingly lines in the Hen Ogledd or "Old North"...

 of Alt Clut. The Welsh text Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd

Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd

Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd is a brief Middle Welsh tract which claims to give the pedigrees of twenty 6th-century rulers of the Hen Ogledd , the Brythonic-speaking parts of southern Scotland and northern England. It is attested in a number of manuscripts, the earliest being NLW, Peniarth MS 45, which...

(The Descent of the Men of the North) also indicates a descent from Dumnagual, although the genealogy is much confused. Áedán's brother Eoganán is known from Adomnán and his death is recorded c. 597. The Senchus names three other sons of Gabrán, namely Cuildach, Domnall, and Domangart. Although nothing is known of Cuildach and Domangart or their descendants, Adomnán mentions a certain Ioan, son of Conall, son of Domnall, "who belonged to the royal lineage of the Cenél nGabráin", but this is generally read as meaning that Ioan was a kinsman of the Cenél nGabráin, and his grandfather named Domnall is not thought to be the same person as Áedán's brother Domnall.

Áedán was about forty years old when he became king, following the death of his uncle Conall mac Comgaill

Conall mac Comgaill

Conall mac Comgaill was king of Dál Riata from about 558 until 574.He was a son of Comgall mac Domangairt. It is said that he gave Iona to Saint Columba. The Duan Albanach says that he reigned "without dissension", but there is a report of an expedition by Conall and Colmán Bec mac Diarmato of the...

 in 574. His succession as king may have been contested; Adomnán states that Columba had favoured the candidacy of Áedán's brother Eoganán. Adomnán claims that Áedán was ordained as king by Columba, the first example of an ordination known in Britain and Ireland.

In 574, following the account of Conall's death, the Annals of Ulster and the Annals of Tigernach record a battle in Kintyre

Kintyre

Kintyre is a peninsula in western Scotland, in the southwest of Argyll and Bute. The region stretches approximately 30 miles , from the Mull of Kintyre in the south, to East Loch Tarbert in the north...

, called the Battle of Teloch, or Delgu. The precise location of the battle is unidentified. The annals agree that "Dúnchad, son of Conall, son of Comgall, and many others of the allies of the sons of Gabrán, fell." In 575, the Annals of Ulster report "the great convention of Druim Cett", at Mullagh or Daisy Hill near Limavady

Limavady

Limavady is a market town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, with Binevenagh as a backdrop. It lies east of Derry and south west of Coleraine. It had a population of 12,135 people in the 2001 Census, an increase of some 17% compared to 1991...

, with Áed mac Ainmuirech and Columba in attendance. Adomnán reports that Áedán was present at the meeting. The purpose of the meeting is not entirely certain, but one agreement made there concerned the status of Áedán's kingdom. Áedán and Áed agreed that while the fleet of Dál Riata would serve the Uí Néill, no tribute would be paid to them, and warriors would only be provided from the Dál Riata lands in Ireland.

The reason for this agreement is thought to have been the threat posed to Áedán, and also to Áed, by Báetán mac Cairill. Báetán is said to have forced the king of Dál Riata to pay homage to him at Rosnaree on Islandmagee

Islandmagee

Islandmagee is a peninsula on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, located between the towns of Larne and Carrickfergus. It is part of the Larne Borough Council area and is a sparsely populated rural community with a long history since the mesolithic period.As part of an...

. Áedán is thought to be the king in question, and Ulster sources say that Báetán collected tribute from Scotland. Following Báetán's death in 581, the Ulstermen abandoned the Isle of Man, which they had captured in Báetán's time, perhaps driven out by Áedán who is recorded as fighting there c. 583. Earlier, c. 580, Áedán is said to have raided Orkney, which had been subject to Bridei son of Maelchon

Bridei I of the Picts

Bridei son of Maelchon, was king of the Picts until his death around 584 to 586.Bridei is first mentioned in Irish annals for 558–560, when the Annals of Ulster report "the migration before Máelchú's son i.e. king Bruide". The Ulster annalist does not say who fled, but the later Annals of...

, King of the Picts, at an earlier date.

Áedán's campaigns on the Isle of Man have sometimes been confused with the battle against the Miathi mentioned by Adomnán. The Miathi appear to have been the Maeatae

Maeatae

The Maeatae were a confederation of tribes who lived probably beyond the Antonine Wall in Roman Britain. The historical sources are vague as to the exact region they inhabited....

, a tribe in the area of the upper river Forth

River Forth

The River Forth , long, is the major river draining the eastern part of the central belt of Scotland.The Forth rises in Loch Ard in the Trossachs, a mountainous area some west of Stirling...

. This campaign was successful, but Áedán's sons Artúr and Eochaid Find were killed in battle according to Adomnán. This battle may have taken place c. 590 and be recorded as the Battle of Leithreid or Leithrig.

The Prophecy of Berchán

Prophecy of Berchán

The Prophecy of Berchán, is a relatively large historical poem written in the Middle Irish language. The text is preserved in the Royal Irish Academy, as MS 679 , with a few early modern copies...

says of Áedán: "Thirteen years (one after another) [he will fight against] the Pictish host (fair the diadem)." The only recorded battle between Áedán and the Picts appears to have been fought in Circinn, in 599 or after, where Áedán was defeated. The annals mention the deaths of his sons here. It has been suggested that this battle was confused with the "Battle of Asreth" in Circinn, fought c. 584, in which Bridei son of Maelchon was killed. This battle is described as being "fought between the Picts themselves".

A number of Welsh

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 traditions point to warfare between Áedán and King Rhydderch Hael

Riderch I of Alt Clut

Riderch I , commonly known as Riderch or Rhydderch Hael , was a ruler of Alt Clut and the greater region later known as Strathclyde, a Brittonic kingdom that existed on the valley of the River Clyde in Scotland during the British Sub-Roman period...

 of Alt Clut, the north British kingdom later known as Strathclyde. Adomnán reports that Rhydderch sent a monk named Luigbe to Iona

Iona

Iona is a small island in the Inner Hebrides off the western coast of Scotland. It was a centre of Irish monasticism for four centuries and is today renowned for its tranquility and natural beauty. It is a popular tourist destination and a place for retreats...

 to speak with Columba "for he wanted to learn whether he would be slaughtered by his enemies or not". A Welsh triad

Welsh Triads

The Welsh Triads are a group of related texts in medieval manuscripts which preserve fragments of Welsh folklore, mythology and traditional history in groups of three. The triad is a rhetorical form whereby objects are grouped together in threes, with a heading indicating the point of likeness...

 names Áedán's plundering of Alt Clut as one of the "three unrestrained plunderings of Britain", and the poem Peiryan Vaban tells of a battle between Áedán and Rhydderch. The lost Irish epic Orgain Sratha Cluada is usually thought to refer to the attack on Alt Clut in 870 by Vikings, but MacQuarrie suggests that it may refer to an attack by Áedán on Rhydderch.

Degsastan and after

Degsastan appears not to have been the first battle between Áedán and the Bernicians. The death of his son Domangart in the land of the Saxons is mentioned by Adomnán, and it is presumed that Bran died in the same otherwise unrecorded battle.

Of the roots of this conflict, Bede mentions only that Áedán was alarmed by Æthelfrith's advance. Wherever the Battle of Degsastan was fought, Bede saw it as lying within 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...

. The battle was a decisive victory for Æthelfrith, and Bede says, carefully, that "[f]rom that day until the present, no king of the Irish in Britain has dared to do battle with the English." Although victorious, Æthelfrith suffered losses; Bede tells us his brother Theodbald was killed with all his following. Theodbald appears to be called Eanfrith in Irish sources, which name his killer as Máel Umai mac Báetáin

Máel Umai mac Báetáin

Máel Umai mac Báetáin was an Irish prince, the son of Báetán mac Muirchertaig of the northern Uí Néill, who appears to have been a significant figure in early Irish tales. His father and his brother Colmán Rímid are both uncertainly reckoned High Kings of Ireland.-Two reports:The Irish annals have...

 of the Cenél nEógain

Cenél nEógain

Cenél nEóġain is the name of the "kindred" or descendants of Eógan mac Néill , son of Niall Noígiallach who founded the kingdom of Tír Eoghain in the 5th century...

, son of High-King Báetán mac Ninnedo. The Irish poem Compert Mongáin says that the king of Ulster, Fiachnae mac Báetáin of the Dál nAraidi, aided Áedán against the Saxons, perhaps at Degsastan. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...

mentions that Hering

Hering son of Hussa

Hering, son of Hussa was a Bernician prince. He was the son of Hussa, king of Bernicia from 585 to 592 or 593. After Hussa's death the kingdom went to Æthelfrith, Hering's cousin...

, son of King Hussa of Bernicia

Hussa of Bernicia

Hussa ruled from 585 to 592 and was the seventh known ruler of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Bernicia.It is not entirely certain whether Hussa was the son of Ida, founder of the kingdom of Bernicia, or rather the leader of a rival Anglian faction. Little is known of Hussa's life and reign, however...

, was present, apparently fighting with Áedán.

After the defeat of Degsastan, the annals report nothing of Áedán until his death around six years later, perhaps on 17 April 609, the date supplied by the Martyrology of Tallaght

Martyrology of Tallaght

The Martyrology of Tallaght, which is closely related to the Félire Oengusso or Martyrology of Óengus the Culdee, is an eighth- or ninth-century martyrology, a list of saints and their feast days assembled by Máel Ruain and/or Óengus the Culdee at Tallaght Monastery, near Dublin...

, composed c. 800. The Annals of Tigernach give his age as 74. The Prophecy of Berchán places his death in Kintyre and says "[h]e will not be king at the time of his death", while the 12th century Acta Sancti Lasriani claims that he was expelled from the kingship. John of Fordun

John of Fordun

John of Fordun was a Scottish chronicler. It is generally stated that he was born at Fordoun, Mearns. It is certain that he was a secular priest, and that he composed his history in the latter part of the 14th century; and it is probable that he was a chaplain in the St Machar's Cathedral of...

, writing in the 14th century, believed that Áedán had been buried at Kilkerran in Kintyre.

Áedán's descendants

Áedán was succeeded by his son Eochaid Buide

Eochaid Buide

Eochaid Buide was king of Dál Riata from around 608 until 629. "Buide" refers to the colour yellow, as in the colour of his hair.He was a younger son of Áedán mac Gabráin and became his father's chosen heir upon the death of his elder brothers...

. Adomnán gives an account of Columba's prophecy that Eochaid's older brothers would predecease their father. Áedán's other sons are named by the Senchus fer n-Alban as Eochaid Find, Tuathal, Bran, Baithéne, Conaing, and Gartnait. Adomnán also names Artúr, called a son of Conaing in the Senchus, and Domangart, who is not included in the Senchus. Domangart too may have been a grandson rather than a son of Áedán, most likely another son of Conaing. The main line of Cenél nGabráin kings were the descendants of Eochaid Buide through his son Domnall Brecc

Domnall Brecc

Domnall Brecc was king of Dál Riata, in modern Scotland, from about 629 until 642...

, but the descendants of Conaing successfully contested for the throne throughout the 7th century and into the 8th.

It has been suggested that Gartnait son of Áedán could be the same person as Gartnait son of Domelch

Gartnait II of the Picts

Gartnait son of Domelch was a king of the Picts.The Pictish Chronicle king lists contained in the Poppleton Manuscript have Gartnait following Bridei son of Maelchon whose death c. 584 is recorded by the Irish annals...

, king of the Picts, whose death is reported around 601, but this rests on the idea of Pictish matriliny, which has been criticised. Even less certainly, it has been argued that Gartnait's successor in the Pictish king-lists, Nechtan

Nechtan II of the Picts

Nechtan grandson of Uerb, was king of the Picts from 597 to around 620. It has been suggested that this Nechtan is the same person as the Neithon who ruled the kingdom of Alt Clut.According to the Pictish Chronicle, Nechtan reigned for 20 or 21 years...

, was his grandson, and thus Áedán's great-grandson.

Of Áedán's daughters, less is known. Maithgemm, also recorded as Gemma, married a prince named Cairell of the Dál Fiatach. The names of Áedán's wives are not recorded, but one was said to be British, and another may have been a Pictish woman named Domelch, if indeed the Gartnait son of Domelch and Gartnait son of Áedán are one and the same.

External links

• CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts at University College Cork includes: the Gein Branduib maic Echach ocus Aedáin maic Gabráin, the Scéla Cano meic Gartnáin, and Irish annals, some with translations
• Compert Mongán translated by Mary Jones.
• Artúr mac Aedan of Dalriada by Michelle Ziegler, The Heroic Age Issue 1, Spring/Summer 1999
• Scéla - a catalogue of medieval Irish narratives