Editing Constantine II of Scotland (section)

== Early life ==
[[Áed mac Cináeda|Áed]], Constantine's father, succeeded Constantine's uncle and namesake [[Causantín mac Cináeda|Constantine I]] in 876 but was killed in 878. Áed's short reign is glossed as being of no importance by most king lists. Although the date of his birth is nowhere recorded, Constantine II cannot have been born any later than the year after his father's death, ''i.e.'', 879. His name may suggest that he was born a few years earlier, during the reign of his uncle Constantine I.<ref>Woolf, ''Pictland to Alba'', pp. 116–117, 124, and 166, note 84.</ref>

After Áed's death, there is a two-decade gap until the death of [[Donald II]] (Domnall mac Constantín) in 900 during which nothing is reported in the Irish annals.<ref>Anderson, ''Early Sources'', pp. 357–358, 395; Woolf, ''Pictland to Alba'', pp. 117–118.</ref> The entry for the reign between Áed and Donald II is corrupt in the ''Chronicle of the Kings of Alba'', and in this case, the ''Chronicle'' is at variance with every other king list.<ref>On this, note Dumville's comments regarding [[damnatio memoriae]], Dumville, "Chronicle of the Kings of Alba", p. 75; see also Woolf, ''Pictland to Alba'', pp. 117–121.</ref> According to the ''Chronicle'', Áed was followed by [[Eochaid of Scotland|Eochaid]], a grandson of Kenneth MacAlpin, who is somehow connected with [[Giric]], but all other lists say that Giric ruled after Áed and make great claims for him.<ref>Anderson, ''Kings and Kingship'', pp. 251–252, 254, 263, 267, 274, 283 and 288.</ref> Giric is not known to have been a kinsman of Kenneth's, although it has been suggested that he was related to him by marriage. The major changes in Pictland which began at about this time have been associated by [[Alex Woolf]] and [[Archie Duncan (historian)|Archie Duncan]] with Giric's reign.<ref>Duncan, pp. 11–16; Woolf, ''Pictland to Alba'', pp. 117–121, 137–138 and 320–322. For an alternative view of all this, see Smyth, ''Warlords and Holy Men'', pp. 215–218.</ref>

Woolf suggests that Constantine and his younger brother Donald may have passed Giric's reign in exile in Ireland where their aunt Máel Muire was wife of two successive [[High Kings of Ireland]], [[Áed Findliath]] and [[Flann Sinna]].<ref>Woolf, ''Pictland to Alba'', pp. 122–125.</ref> Giric died in 889. If he had been in exile, Constantine may have returned to Pictland where his cousin Donald II became king. Donald's reputation is suggested by the [[epithet]] ''dasachtach'', a word used of violent madmen and mad bulls, attached to him in the 11th-century writings of [[Flann Mainistrech]], echoed by his description in ''[[The Prophecy of Berchán]]'' as "the rough one who will think relics and psalms of little worth".<ref>Anderson, ''Early Sources'', pp. cxlix and 397–398.</ref> Wars with the Viking kings in Britain and Ireland continued during Donald's reign and he was probably killed fighting yet more Vikings at [[Dunnottar]] in the [[Mearns (ward)|Mearns]] in 900. Constantine succeeded him as king.<ref>Woolf, p. 125; Anderson, ''Early Sources'', pp. 395–398. The account of the conquest of the [[Kingdom of Strathclyde]] in Domnall's time given by, for example, Smyth, ''Warlords and Holy Men'', pp. 217–218, is rejected by Duncan, ''Kingship of the Scots'', p. 40, and Woolf, ''Pictland to Alba'', pp. 152–157.</ref>