Editing Kingdom of Strathclyde (section)

===The Kingdom of Alt Clut===
[[File:Britons in Southern Scotland (languages).png|right|thumb|200px|Possible language zones in southern Scotland, 7th–8th centuries (after Nicolaisen, ''Scottish Place-Names'' and Taylor, "Place Names").]]

After 600, information on the Britons of Alt Clut becomes slightly more common in the sources. However, historians have disagreed as to how these should be interpreted. Broadly speaking, they have tended to produce theories which place their subject at the centre of the history of north Britain in the Early Historic period. The result is a series of narratives which cannot be reconciled.<ref>Smyth, ''Warlords and Holy Men'' represents a work where the Britons are given prominence, but others have concentrated on [[Dál Riata]]. At present, the division appears to be between Scots, Irish and "north British" scholars and Anglo-Saxonists. Leslie Alcock, ''Kings and Warriors'', could be taken as representing a "north British (and Irish)" perspective.</ref> More recent historiography may have gone some way to addressing this problem.

At the beginning of the 7th century, [[Áedán mac Gabráin]] may have been the most powerful king in northern Britain, and [[Dál Riata]] was at its height. Áedán's byname in later Welsh poetry, Aeddan Fradawg (Áedán the Treacherous) does not speak to a favourable reputation among the Britons of Alt Clut, and it may be that he seized control of Alt Clut. Áedán's dominance came to an end around 604, when his army, including Irish kings and Bernician exiles, was defeated by Æthelfrith at the [[Battle of Degsastan]].

It is supposed, on rather weak evidence, that Æthelfrith, his successor [[Edwin of Northumbria|Edwin]] and Bernician and Northumbrian kings after them expanded into southern Scotland. Such evidence as there is, such as the conquest of [[Elmet]], the wars in north [[Wales]] and with [[Mercia]], would argue for a more southerly focus of Northumbrian activity in the first half of the 7th century. The report in the [[Annals of Ulster]] for 638, "the battle of Glenn Muiresan and the besieging of Eten" ([[Eidyn]], later [[Edinburgh]]), has been taken to represent the capture of Eidyn by the Northumbrian king [[Oswald of Northumbria|Oswald]], son of Æthelfrith, but the Annals mention neither capture, nor Northumbrians, so this is rather a tenuous identification.<ref>The [[Annals of the Four Masters]] associate Domnall Brecc of Dál Riata with these events.</ref>

In 642, the Annals of Ulster report that the Britons of Alt Clut led by [[Eugein I of Alt Clut|Eugein]] son of [[Beli I of Alt Clut|Beli]] defeated the men of Dál Riata and killed [[Domnall Brecc]], grandson of Áedán, at Strathcarron, and this victory is also recorded in an addition to ''Y Gododdin''. The site of this battle lies in the area known in later Welsh sources as Bannawg—the name [[Bannockburn]] is presumed to be related—which is thought to have meant the very extensive marshes and bogs between Loch Lomond and the [[river Forth]], and the hills and lochs to the north, which separated the lands of the Britons from those of Dál Riata and the Picts, and this land was not worth fighting over. However, the lands to the south and east of this waste were controlled by smaller, nameless British kingdoms. Powerful neighbouring kings, whether in Alt Clut, Dál Riata, Pictland or Bernicia, would have imposed tribute on these petty kings, and wars for the overlordship of this area seem to have been regular events in the 6th to 8th centuries.

There are few definite reports of Alt Clut in the remainder of the 7th century, although it is possible that the [[Irish annals]] contain entries which may be related to Alt Clut. In the last quarter of the 7th century, a number of battles in Ireland, largely in areas along the [[Irish Sea]] coast, are reported where Britons take part. It is usually assumed that these Britons are mercenaries, or exiles dispossessed by some Anglo-Saxon conquest in northern Britain. However, it may be that these represent campaigns by kings of Alt Clut, whose kingdom was certainly part of the region linked by the Irish Sea. All of Alt Clut's neighbours, Northumbria, Pictland and Dál Riata, are known to have sent armies to Ireland on occasions.<ref>The Northumbrians in 684, the Picts in the 730s and the Dál Riata on many occasions.</ref>

The Annals of Ulster in the early 8th century report two battles between Alt Clut and Dál Riata, at "Lorg Ecclet" (unknown) in 711, and at "the rock called Minuirc" in 717. Whether their appearance in the record has any significance or whether it is just happenstance is unclear. Later in the 8th century, it appears that the Pictish king [[Óengus I of the Picts|Óengus]] made at least three campaigns against Alt Clut, none successful. In 744 the Picts acted alone, and in 750 Óengus may have cooperated with [[Eadberht of Northumbria]] in a campaign in which Talorgan, brother of Óengus, was killed in a heavy Pictish defeat at the hands of [[Teudebur of Alt Clut]], perhaps at Mugdock, near [[Milngavie]]. Eadberht is said to have taken the plain of Kyle in 750, around modern [[Ayr]], presumably from Alt Clut.

Teudebur died around 752, and it was probably his son [[Dumnagual III of Alt Clut|Dumnagual]] who faced a joint effort by Óengus and Eadberht in 756. The Picts and Northumbrians laid siege to Dumbarton Rock, and extracted a submission from Dumnagual. It is doubtful whether the agreement, whatever it may have been, was kept, for Eadberht's army was all but wiped out—whether by their supposed allies or by recent enemies is unclear—on its way back to Northumbria.

After this, little is heard of Alt Clut or its kings until the 9th century. The "burning", the usual term for capture, of Alt Clut is reported in 780, although by whom and in what circumstances is not known. Thereafter [[Dunblane]] was burned by the men of Alt Clut in 849, perhaps in the reign of [[Artgal of Alt Clut|Artgal]].