1 00:00:19,801 --> 00:00:21,881 Scotland. 2 00:00:21,961 --> 00:00:26,841 The country where I was born and still live. 3 00:00:30,881 --> 00:00:33,561 I've spent years as an archaeologist 4 00:00:33,641 --> 00:00:36,521 unearthing all sorts of treasures from her past. 5 00:00:37,761 --> 00:00:41,481 For me, it's an ancient and magical place, 6 00:00:41,561 --> 00:00:44,361 and I always find the beauty of this country 7 00:00:44,441 --> 00:00:46,561 overwhelming, even humbling. 8 00:00:57,001 --> 00:00:59,881 I've often thought that Scotland's popular history 9 00:01:00,001 --> 00:01:05,201 is a bit like that landscape - always changing, impossibly romantic, 10 00:01:05,281 --> 00:01:07,441 often hidden by mists and low cloud. 11 00:01:07,521 --> 00:01:11,561 And above all, packed with legends and heroic characters. 12 00:01:14,721 --> 00:01:17,801 But that's not history, it's mythology. 13 00:01:21,761 --> 00:01:24,561 And it's cursed Scotland's past and present. 14 00:01:24,641 --> 00:01:28,601 How we think about the past shapes our view of today, 15 00:01:28,681 --> 00:01:31,521 so I want to look beyond the legends 16 00:01:31,601 --> 00:01:36,041 to find the real story of Scotland, and it's every bit as thrilling. 17 00:01:37,681 --> 00:01:41,201 This first episode is about the birth of Scotland - 18 00:01:41,281 --> 00:01:44,521 a birth that was far from inevitable. 19 00:01:44,601 --> 00:01:47,241 For many centuries, the mountains and lochs behind me 20 00:01:47,321 --> 00:01:51,161 were home to a patchwork of disparate peoples and tongues. 21 00:01:51,241 --> 00:01:54,601 It was a land invaded again and again. 22 00:01:54,681 --> 00:01:57,281 So how was it that a loose collection of tribes 23 00:01:57,361 --> 00:01:59,721 living in the northern third of Britain 24 00:01:59,801 --> 00:02:02,081 came together and built a kingdom 25 00:02:02,161 --> 00:02:04,761 with its own distinct culture and identity - 26 00:02:04,881 --> 00:02:11,321 a kingdom that would change the shape and the destiny of Britain forever? 27 00:02:44,921 --> 00:02:46,921 So, where to begin? 28 00:02:50,161 --> 00:02:53,761 The first people of Scotland to be described in the written record 29 00:02:53,841 --> 00:02:56,161 are the tribes of the Caledonians. 30 00:02:56,241 --> 00:02:58,881 2,000 years ago, they'd joined forces 31 00:02:58,961 --> 00:03:02,321 to defend their homeland from a Roman invasion. 32 00:03:03,921 --> 00:03:05,521 In the shadow of a great glen, 33 00:03:05,601 --> 00:03:07,841 they faced the Roman army. 34 00:03:15,241 --> 00:03:17,561 The Caledonians fell silent. 35 00:03:17,641 --> 00:03:19,121 From their ranks, 36 00:03:19,161 --> 00:03:23,321 out strode the earliest named character of Scottish history. 37 00:03:23,401 --> 00:03:26,081 Calgacus, the "swordsman". 38 00:03:28,681 --> 00:03:32,601 He is the first to speak to us from the past. 39 00:03:36,321 --> 00:03:38,881 Calgacus was the chosen one. 40 00:03:38,961 --> 00:03:42,041 He was the warrior whom the Caledonii tribes of Northern Britain 41 00:03:42,121 --> 00:03:43,841 hoped would lead them to victory. 42 00:03:43,921 --> 00:03:45,841 Defiant, proud, unbowed, 43 00:03:45,921 --> 00:03:49,601 he struck the first blow against Roman tyranny. 44 00:03:49,681 --> 00:03:51,281 He made a speech. 45 00:03:51,361 --> 00:03:54,401 "We, the choicest flower of Britain's manhood, 46 00:03:54,481 --> 00:03:57,281 "were hidden away in her most secret places. 47 00:03:57,361 --> 00:04:00,401 "Out of sight, we were kept from the defilement of tyranny. 48 00:04:00,481 --> 00:04:04,961 "We, the most distant dwellers upon Earth, the last of the free." 49 00:04:19,281 --> 00:04:20,761 There's just one problem. 50 00:04:20,841 --> 00:04:22,601 They're not his words. 51 00:04:22,681 --> 00:04:26,201 They were put into his mouth by a Roman historian, Tacitus, 52 00:04:26,281 --> 00:04:27,761 writing 20 years later. 53 00:04:27,841 --> 00:04:30,361 Even if someone like Calgacus ever existed, 54 00:04:30,441 --> 00:04:33,241 he would have spoken a language similar to Welsh, 55 00:04:33,321 --> 00:04:37,321 and certainly not in the measured Latin phrases of a Roman. 56 00:04:37,401 --> 00:04:40,961 This is where the mythologising of Scottish history starts. 57 00:04:41,041 --> 00:04:45,721 Be warned, almost everything recorded from those early times 58 00:04:45,801 --> 00:04:47,681 is seen through the eyes of others. 59 00:04:56,041 --> 00:04:57,961 Tacitus had an agenda. 60 00:04:58,041 --> 00:05:01,401 General Agricola and his three Roman legions 61 00:05:01,481 --> 00:05:06,401 had marched into north Britain in the late summer of AD 84. 62 00:05:10,561 --> 00:05:13,921 But to make Agricola appear as brave and heroic as possible, 63 00:05:14,001 --> 00:05:18,281 it was important to give him a formidable foe. 64 00:05:18,361 --> 00:05:20,041 Which Tacitus duly did. 65 00:05:21,841 --> 00:05:24,601 At a battle site in the Grampian Mountains, 66 00:05:24,681 --> 00:05:27,641 he described the Roman encounter with the Caledonian hordes 67 00:05:27,721 --> 00:05:30,921 and their fierce leader...Calgacus. 68 00:05:44,601 --> 00:05:48,121 "The fighting began with exchanges of missiles 69 00:05:48,201 --> 00:05:50,921 "and the Britons showed both steadiness and skill 70 00:05:51,001 --> 00:05:54,161 "in parrying our spears with their huge swords, or catching them 71 00:05:54,241 --> 00:05:57,881 "on their little shields while they themselves rained volleys on us." 72 00:06:00,201 --> 00:06:04,241 He called it the Battle of Mons Graupius, though beyond his account, 73 00:06:04,321 --> 00:06:08,281 there's no other record of it ever taking place. 74 00:06:08,361 --> 00:06:11,161 But I think there was a battle in the Scottish Highlands, 75 00:06:11,241 --> 00:06:14,961 because of one telling detail that Tacitus couldn't have invented. 76 00:06:15,041 --> 00:06:17,561 Agricola was given a triumph back in Rome, 77 00:06:17,641 --> 00:06:20,601 the bombastic welcome for a victorious general. 78 00:06:20,681 --> 00:06:24,881 And one other thing we know for certain - the Caledonians lost. 79 00:06:27,761 --> 00:06:33,561 "The next day, an awful silence reigned on every hand. 80 00:06:33,641 --> 00:06:39,241 "The hills were deserted, houses smoking in the distance, 81 00:06:39,321 --> 00:06:42,081 "and our scouts did not meet a soul." 82 00:06:44,961 --> 00:06:48,561 Most of the Caledonians, including Calgacus, survived 83 00:06:48,641 --> 00:06:51,481 and escaped into the trackless mountains. 84 00:07:09,761 --> 00:07:12,841 The Romans failed to tame the elusive warriors of north Britain. 85 00:07:12,961 --> 00:07:17,601 Frustrated by their hit-and-run tactics, the Roman legions withdrew to the south. 86 00:07:17,681 --> 00:07:19,561 By the next century, Hadrian '5 Wall, 87 00:07:19,641 --> 00:07:23,801 built from coast to coast, had become the line in the sand. 88 00:07:33,841 --> 00:07:39,121 To the south lay Romanised Britain - roads, towns, villas. 89 00:07:39,201 --> 00:07:42,641 To the north, a myriad of tribes like the Caledonians. 90 00:07:42,721 --> 00:07:45,561 The wall wasn't just a simple stone boundary, 91 00:07:45,641 --> 00:07:47,681 it was an ideological frontier. 92 00:07:47,761 --> 00:07:49,361 It was the end of the world. 93 00:07:49,481 --> 00:07:53,721 It drew the line where civilisation ended and barbarism began. 94 00:07:53,801 --> 00:07:58,401 Not that the Caledonians were interested in the so-called benefits of Roman rule. 95 00:07:58,481 --> 00:08:00,881 To them, it represented tyranny. 96 00:08:00,961 --> 00:08:03,081 They had their own civilisation. 97 00:08:11,121 --> 00:08:12,641 For over three centuries, 98 00:08:12,761 --> 00:08:17,201 the Caledonians kept their independence secure and the Romans at bay. 99 00:08:17,281 --> 00:08:20,761 Then in AD 409, as the empire collapsed, 100 00:08:20,841 --> 00:08:23,921 they helped expel them from British shores altogether. 101 00:08:26,321 --> 00:08:29,041 The Romans left behind crumbling ruins 102 00:08:29,121 --> 00:08:35,441 and a new name for the Caledonians - the "Pictii". 103 00:08:35,521 --> 00:08:37,561 We know them better as the Picts. 104 00:08:37,641 --> 00:08:39,561 The word means "the painted ones", 105 00:08:39,641 --> 00:08:42,401 for these were the last of the peoples of Britain 106 00:08:42,481 --> 00:08:44,521 to cover their bodies with tattoos. 107 00:08:44,601 --> 00:08:48,601 The term started as a nickname, but came to mean much more, 108 00:08:48,681 --> 00:08:53,121 a powerful northern people, synonymous with pride. 109 00:09:03,881 --> 00:09:07,641 The Picts tattooed themselves with the same designs and symbols 110 00:09:07,721 --> 00:09:10,801 used on their jewellery and stones. 111 00:09:15,841 --> 00:09:20,161 Artistic skills that showed them to be no wild barbarians. 112 00:09:23,321 --> 00:09:25,481 More evidence of early Pictish culture 113 00:09:25,561 --> 00:09:28,001 has come from the peaty waters of Loch Tay. 114 00:09:36,801 --> 00:09:39,121 Here, four metres down, 115 00:09:39,201 --> 00:09:43,041 archaeologists came across the remains of an ancient stronghold, 116 00:09:43,121 --> 00:09:46,641 fragments of a thatched roof and stumps. 117 00:09:48,201 --> 00:09:52,321 They were the stilts of a building that once stood above the water. 118 00:09:55,121 --> 00:09:59,601 A dwelling in which people loved, lived and fought. 119 00:10:08,041 --> 00:10:10,241 By reconstructing the crannog, as it's called, 120 00:10:10,321 --> 00:10:13,201 archaeologists realised just how skilled 121 00:10:13,281 --> 00:10:16,241 and well-organised Pictish society must have been. 122 00:10:18,121 --> 00:10:22,481 - NEIL: How do you build one of these? - WOMAN: We had to learn from scratch, 123 00:10:22,561 --> 00:10:25,001 because obviously we hadn't got a tradition of building like this 124 00:10:25,081 --> 00:10:27,801 handed down to us from generation to generation. 125 00:10:27,881 --> 00:10:29,721 So you've got to line up your supplies, 126 00:10:29,801 --> 00:10:32,401 you've got to know how to cut down the trees, you've got to know 127 00:10:32,481 --> 00:10:34,201 how to get them in the right place, 128 00:10:34,281 --> 00:10:37,961 you've got to have the right manpower and skilled labour workforce. 129 00:10:38,041 --> 00:10:41,721 The people who built crannogs like this were affluent. 130 00:10:41,801 --> 00:10:43,081 They enjoyed a great diet, 131 00:10:43,161 --> 00:10:45,841 probably communicating and trading further afield. 132 00:10:45,961 --> 00:10:48,361 Some of the little objects that we found do not come from here, 133 00:10:48,441 --> 00:10:52,761 such as jet, which is commonly found from Whitby, northeast England. 134 00:10:52,841 --> 00:10:56,361 One of the theories is that it's a big house, this house could sustain 135 00:10:56,441 --> 00:10:58,681 maybe a family of 20, or even up to 40 people. 136 00:10:58,761 --> 00:11:00,441 So maybe if there were times of trouble, 137 00:11:00,521 --> 00:11:02,521 any other people supporting the community 138 00:11:02,601 --> 00:11:04,921 who were living on the shore in less secure housing 139 00:11:05,001 --> 00:11:09,161 could all come in and be secure in what effectively is a water castle. 140 00:11:13,441 --> 00:11:16,161 NEIL: Crannogs have been found all over Scotland, 141 00:11:16,241 --> 00:11:18,121 Many from the Pictish period. 142 00:11:19,681 --> 00:11:22,561 Their civilisation had put down roots. 143 00:11:25,201 --> 00:11:29,081 But then, centuries later, the Picts become the subject 144 00:11:29,201 --> 00:11:32,641 of one of the most intriguing mysteries of Dark Age Europe. 145 00:11:32,721 --> 00:11:36,601 They seem to disappear from history forever. 146 00:11:36,681 --> 00:11:41,321 This vanishing act has given the Picts an aura of romance. 147 00:11:41,401 --> 00:11:44,801 They've become a legendary, almost alien people, 148 00:11:44,881 --> 00:11:49,361 inhabiting a limbo world, part historical and part mythological. 149 00:11:54,161 --> 00:11:57,201 But like any good mystery story, there's a twist. 150 00:11:57,281 --> 00:11:59,241 The Picts seem to disappear 151 00:11:59,361 --> 00:12:03,681 at the exact moment when the kingdom of Scotland is born. 152 00:12:14,321 --> 00:12:17,441 Understanding why the Picts vanished 153 00:12:17,521 --> 00:12:20,641 will give us the answer to how Scotland was created. 154 00:12:22,641 --> 00:12:26,881 Back in the fifth century, this is what Scotland looked like, 155 00:12:26,961 --> 00:12:30,121 a patchwork of disparate ethnic groups. 156 00:12:32,121 --> 00:12:36,041 The Picts dominated the north and east. 157 00:12:36,121 --> 00:12:38,881 Welsh-speaking tribes, called the Britons, 158 00:12:38,961 --> 00:12:41,481 lived along the River Clyde and the south. 159 00:12:41,561 --> 00:12:45,841 And to the west, a new people had arrived, the Gaels. 160 00:12:45,921 --> 00:12:49,041 They were seafarers, originally from Ireland, 161 00:12:49,121 --> 00:12:52,241 who stayed and carved out their own territory. 162 00:12:54,241 --> 00:12:58,641 The Gaels are the other key player in the birth of Scotland. 163 00:12:58,721 --> 00:13:01,921 The turbulent relationship between them and the Picts, 164 00:13:02,041 --> 00:13:08,161 sometimes allied but more often at war, form the backbone of our saga. 165 00:13:08,241 --> 00:13:10,441 Right at the heart of the Gaelic kingdom 166 00:13:10,521 --> 00:13:12,881 was the spectacular hillfort of Dunadd, 167 00:13:13,001 --> 00:13:17,441 rising up out off the great flatness of Moine Mhor, which means "the big bog". 168 00:13:17,521 --> 00:13:20,961 Brooding, menacing, Dunadd provided the perfect site 169 00:13:21,041 --> 00:13:23,841 for defending against attacks from the sea. 170 00:13:23,921 --> 00:13:25,961 This is the entrance to the fort 171 00:13:26,041 --> 00:13:30,721 and once upon a time this place was defended by walls ten metres thick. 172 00:13:38,201 --> 00:13:40,241 It wasn't just one wall. 173 00:13:40,321 --> 00:13:42,881 There was a ring of four, each protecting 174 00:13:42,961 --> 00:13:47,801 the rising tiers of the fort up to a stone citadel at the top. 175 00:13:47,881 --> 00:13:50,561 Though the Gaels were as warlike as the Picts, 176 00:13:50,641 --> 00:13:52,481 there were clear differences. 177 00:13:52,561 --> 00:13:56,361 They had a separate culture and spoke a different language. 178 00:13:56,441 --> 00:13:58,881 And something even more striking. 179 00:14:17,161 --> 00:14:21,361 Gaelic art had a distinctive and delicate beauty all of its own. 180 00:14:21,441 --> 00:14:24,721 At Dunadd, crucibles for melting gold have been unearthed 181 00:14:24,801 --> 00:14:27,801 along with the moulds to cast brooches. 182 00:14:32,161 --> 00:14:34,161 The abundance of such fine jewellery 183 00:14:34,281 --> 00:14:38,681 could mean just one thing - Dunadd was home to the kingdom's elite. 184 00:14:38,761 --> 00:14:40,921 The Gaelic kingdom was run from here 185 00:14:41,001 --> 00:14:43,801 and its kings were inaugurated in this place 186 00:14:43,921 --> 00:14:47,601 in a ceremony that literally married them to the land they ruled. 187 00:14:49,241 --> 00:14:51,521 For the crowds gathered below, 188 00:14:51,601 --> 00:14:53,761 the king would appear in silhouette against the sky, 189 00:14:53,841 --> 00:14:55,441 and then at the appointed moment, 190 00:14:55,521 --> 00:14:56,921 he would place one foot 191 00:14:57,001 --> 00:14:58,961 into this rock-cut footprint, 192 00:14:59,041 --> 00:15:00,601 demonstrating to his subjects 193 00:15:00,681 --> 00:15:02,201 that this land was both 194 00:15:02,281 --> 00:15:04,161 his servant and his master. 195 00:15:12,401 --> 00:15:15,241 It's the end of the sixth century, and this royal inauguration 196 00:15:15,321 --> 00:15:17,841 is unlike any that have gone before. 197 00:15:17,921 --> 00:15:21,681 Although the Picts continue to worship pagan gods, 198 00:15:21,761 --> 00:15:25,921 the Gaels have turned to Christianity, a spiritual invasion 199 00:15:26,001 --> 00:15:27,641 driving a wedge between them. 200 00:15:27,721 --> 00:15:31,521 And the monk who ordains the king? 201 00:15:31,601 --> 00:15:33,081 Columba. 202 00:15:49,561 --> 00:15:51,561 Columba, son of an Irish Chieftain, 203 00:15:51,641 --> 00:15:55,201 had travelled from Ireland ten years earlier. 204 00:15:57,281 --> 00:16:00,161 For his support of the Gaelic leaders, Columba was gifted 205 00:16:00,241 --> 00:16:03,681 a small but very beautiful island to the west of Dunadd. 206 00:16:03,761 --> 00:16:08,401 It's called Iona, and here Columba was to found a monastery. 207 00:16:08,481 --> 00:16:10,041 St Columba is widely credited 208 00:16:10,121 --> 00:16:13,481 as the first missionary to bring Christianity to Scotland. 209 00:16:13,561 --> 00:16:16,401 And from here, on his new base on Iona, 210 00:16:16,481 --> 00:16:19,521 he's supposed to have converted all the peoples of this land 211 00:16:19,601 --> 00:16:21,561 and beyond to the new religion. 212 00:16:28,841 --> 00:16:31,441 But was it really that simple? 213 00:16:31,521 --> 00:16:34,121 What we know about Columba has come down to us 214 00:16:34,201 --> 00:16:38,601 from a later abbot of Iona, Adomnan, who wrote a hagiography entitled 215 00:16:38,721 --> 00:16:43,801 The Life of St Columba about 100 years after his subject died. 216 00:16:43,881 --> 00:16:46,441 His book is more fairytale than history 217 00:16:46,521 --> 00:16:50,241 and it has to be taken with a very large pinch of salt. 218 00:17:02,361 --> 00:17:06,001 (WOMAN SINGS) 219 00:17:22,801 --> 00:17:26,201 The Gaels were Christian long before Columba arrived. 220 00:17:26,281 --> 00:17:29,401 The hard graft had been done by numerous missionaries, 221 00:17:29,481 --> 00:17:32,321 who'd travelled from Ireland and the Roman Empire. 222 00:17:32,401 --> 00:17:35,801 They remain unheralded and largely anonymous. 223 00:17:43,281 --> 00:17:44,881 But Columba's monastery on Iona, 224 00:17:44,961 --> 00:17:47,081 then just a collection of timber huts, 225 00:17:47,161 --> 00:17:51,561 soon became one of the most important Christian beacons 226 00:17:51,641 --> 00:17:54,121 in the whole of Dark Age Europe. 227 00:18:02,961 --> 00:18:06,201 MAN: The stability that he brought to the region, 228 00:18:06,281 --> 00:18:08,801 the fact that Christianity began to spread 229 00:18:08,881 --> 00:18:10,641 quite quickly through Scotland, 230 00:18:10,721 --> 00:18:14,441 I think was testimony to the fact that he had friends in high places. 231 00:18:14,521 --> 00:18:16,401 And he could also convey 232 00:18:16,481 --> 00:18:20,001 to the king and to other clan chiefs 233 00:18:20,081 --> 00:18:22,841 not just that his new religion was important, 234 00:18:22,921 --> 00:18:25,761 but the benefits of it were worth having. 235 00:18:25,841 --> 00:18:28,521 The benefits of writing, this new technology, 236 00:18:28,601 --> 00:18:32,321 the benefits of scholarship, and that if the king embraced this, 237 00:18:32,401 --> 00:18:34,921 then there was something in it for him. 238 00:18:35,001 --> 00:18:40,081 You think the pure ability to write would have been a magic 239 00:18:40,161 --> 00:18:43,201 that would have been central to what they were able to do? 240 00:18:43,281 --> 00:18:46,521 Well, it might have attracted your clan chief. 241 00:18:46,601 --> 00:18:50,161 Yes, OK, here is this guy wanting to talk about the new religion, 242 00:18:50,241 --> 00:18:52,001 but if you've got writing, 243 00:18:52,081 --> 00:18:54,081 if you can articulate in a more permanent way 244 00:18:54,161 --> 00:18:56,401 what you've said or what you've agreed, 245 00:18:56,481 --> 00:18:59,201 you've got the basis of a legal system, 246 00:18:59,281 --> 00:19:03,401 you've got a basis of treaties with neighbouring clans or kingdoms. 247 00:19:03,481 --> 00:19:06,721 You've got a clarity about thought and about what you want. 248 00:19:06,801 --> 00:19:08,361 And again it's about a power thing. 249 00:19:08,441 --> 00:19:11,281 If you say something, here it is, it's in writing. 250 00:19:11,361 --> 00:19:14,121 I don't think it was quite as simple 251 00:19:14,201 --> 00:19:18,881 as simply saying that he was going on a penitential journey. 252 00:19:18,961 --> 00:19:20,721 There was something in it for Columba 253 00:19:20,801 --> 00:19:23,081 but also for the people of this part of the world. 254 00:19:23,161 --> 00:19:26,961 - It sounds so opportunist in a way. - I think it was, I think it was. 255 00:19:34,921 --> 00:19:38,641 Far from being an isolated island on the fringe of Europe, 256 00:19:38,721 --> 00:19:40,841 Iona lay at its spiritual heart. 257 00:19:40,921 --> 00:19:45,281 At its zenith, the monks of Iona created The Book of Kells. 258 00:19:45,361 --> 00:19:47,521 The workmanship was exquisite - 259 00:19:47,601 --> 00:19:52,841 over 10,000 tiny red dots around a single capital letter. 260 00:19:52,921 --> 00:19:56,521 And the dyes came from halfway around the world, 261 00:19:56,601 --> 00:19:59,641 the blue of lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, 262 00:19:59,721 --> 00:20:02,721 yellow orpiment from the Mediterranean. 263 00:20:10,001 --> 00:20:13,721 A 12th-century scholar praised the artistry of the Book of Kells. 264 00:20:13,801 --> 00:20:17,681 He wrote, "You might believe it was the work of an angel 265 00:20:17,761 --> 00:20:19,801 "rather than a human being." 266 00:20:24,401 --> 00:20:27,801 Not everyone was so impressed by the word of God. 267 00:20:30,241 --> 00:20:33,161 While the Gaels had embraced Christianity even before Columba, 268 00:20:33,241 --> 00:20:36,481 their Pictish neighbours had remained resolutely pagan. 269 00:20:36,561 --> 00:20:40,081 They'd put their faith in druids rather than monks 270 00:20:40,161 --> 00:20:43,441 and relied on an oral tradition rather than the written word. 271 00:20:43,521 --> 00:20:46,561 Cue the most famous of Adomnan's tales - 272 00:20:46,641 --> 00:20:49,801 the account of St Columba's epic journey 273 00:20:49,881 --> 00:20:53,441 into the heart of darkness to convert the Picts. 274 00:21:01,001 --> 00:21:03,161 The Picts were notorious for headhunting. 275 00:21:03,241 --> 00:21:06,521 Columba must have known he was risking his. 276 00:21:10,441 --> 00:21:14,281 Undeterred, he made the perilous journey up the Great Glen and Loch Ness 277 00:21:14,361 --> 00:21:16,121 to meet one of the Pictish kings. 278 00:21:21,041 --> 00:21:24,881 Adomnan notes that Columba needed an interpreter even to speak with them. 279 00:21:26,681 --> 00:21:29,281 A battle of supernatural wills followed. 280 00:21:31,281 --> 00:21:34,201 On one side, Columba and his powerful voice, 281 00:21:34,281 --> 00:21:37,241 said to sound like thunder. 282 00:21:39,641 --> 00:21:42,561 In opposition, the druid of the Pictish king. 283 00:21:44,001 --> 00:21:46,201 It proved to be an uneven contest. 284 00:21:48,481 --> 00:21:50,921 Columba brought the druid close to death, 285 00:21:51,001 --> 00:21:55,081 and then, in true Christian fashion, relented. 286 00:21:55,161 --> 00:21:57,721 Adomnan tells us that the druid lived. 287 00:21:57,801 --> 00:21:59,561 What he doesn't make explicit 288 00:21:59,641 --> 00:22:04,001 was that the Picts stubbornly clung to their pagan beliefs. 289 00:22:09,321 --> 00:22:11,921 It would take many decades and many more missionaries 290 00:22:12,001 --> 00:22:14,601 before the Picts would begin to accept Christianity. 291 00:22:14,681 --> 00:22:18,481 The progress of their conversion can be read in their stones. 292 00:22:23,841 --> 00:22:25,761 Some of the best Pictish carvings 293 00:22:25,881 --> 00:22:28,921 have been taken to a research building in Edinburgh. 294 00:22:30,561 --> 00:22:35,041 Here, they're being preserved and studied using the latest technology. 295 00:22:37,561 --> 00:22:40,681 Individual marks in the stone can be isolated, telling us more 296 00:22:40,761 --> 00:22:43,921 about how they were carved, the technique and the tools used. 297 00:22:45,601 --> 00:22:48,641 The symbols on one stone are particularly fascinating 298 00:22:48,721 --> 00:22:52,161 for what they reveal about their changing beliefs. 299 00:22:56,201 --> 00:22:58,801 MAN: You can see how the stone carver 300 00:22:58,881 --> 00:23:01,921 has taken tremendous care, not just in accurate modelling 301 00:23:02,001 --> 00:23:03,921 of the animals, 302 00:23:04,001 --> 00:23:08,961 but the way they're coming out at us in sharp relief as well. 303 00:23:09,081 --> 00:23:13,881 He's done this by working away at the stones to reduce the background 304 00:23:13,961 --> 00:23:18,321 and to bring the figures out into the front. 305 00:23:18,401 --> 00:23:23,521 Just look at this hind here, with the fawn interwoven through the legs. 306 00:23:23,601 --> 00:23:27,361 He didn't have to do that, he made it very difficult for himself 307 00:23:27,441 --> 00:23:30,041 in doing that, but it gives it a little bit of perspective. 308 00:23:30,121 --> 00:23:32,561 This is something they were very skilled at doing 309 00:23:32,681 --> 00:23:35,041 and they obviously took great pleasure in doing it. 310 00:23:35,121 --> 00:23:38,601 - And what about the other side, then? - Well, this is... 311 00:23:38,681 --> 00:23:42,521 NEIL: This carver didn't confine his work to the secular. 312 00:23:42,601 --> 00:23:46,281 He also demonstrated his love of God. 313 00:23:46,361 --> 00:23:49,601 PETER: This is, really... to my mind, this is the front. 314 00:23:49,721 --> 00:23:53,921 The cross, representing the embodiment of Christ, the promise of salvation. 315 00:23:54,001 --> 00:23:57,561 It's the key, central messages of Christianity being broadcast. 316 00:23:57,641 --> 00:24:01,321 So we have this wonderful interlaced decoration 317 00:24:01,401 --> 00:24:03,641 filling the body of the cross. 318 00:24:03,721 --> 00:24:08,041 How unusual is it to get a stone that has everything in one package? 319 00:24:08,121 --> 00:24:10,681 You know, there's the classic Pictish symbols, 320 00:24:10,761 --> 00:24:13,441 the hunting scenes and all the rest, and the cross. 321 00:24:13,521 --> 00:24:16,121 PETER: By this period, we're getting to the later Pictish period, 322 00:24:16,201 --> 00:24:21,361 we've had maybe three or even four generations of large-scale conversion 323 00:24:21,441 --> 00:24:24,081 to Christianity by this time. 324 00:24:24,161 --> 00:24:26,201 Christianity was reasonably well embedded, 325 00:24:26,281 --> 00:24:31,321 so we do see this quite happy combination of, 326 00:24:31,401 --> 00:24:35,361 yes, the pure, central message of Christianity in the cross, 327 00:24:35,441 --> 00:24:38,521 coupled with the everyday scenes, with the animal scenes, 328 00:24:38,601 --> 00:24:42,921 with the images of people and symbols as well, of course. 329 00:24:58,361 --> 00:25:00,201 Christianity was the one invader 330 00:25:00,281 --> 00:25:04,361 that not only succeeded, but that outstayed all the others. 331 00:25:04,441 --> 00:25:08,841 The Gaelic religion now spanned northern Britain and acted as glue, 332 00:25:08,921 --> 00:25:10,921 bringing together disparate peoples 333 00:25:11,001 --> 00:25:14,041 Under the umbrella of the Christian religion. 334 00:25:14,121 --> 00:25:18,801 St Columba's biographer, Adomnan, spotted an opportunity. 335 00:25:18,921 --> 00:25:23,481 He succeeded in winning agreement from over 50 kings from Pictland to Ireland 336 00:25:23,561 --> 00:25:27,521 for an ambitious new law called the Law of the Innocents. 337 00:25:27,601 --> 00:25:31,081 It was a Geneva Convention for the Dark Ages, 338 00:25:31,161 --> 00:25:35,441 protecting women, children and monks in times of war. 339 00:25:40,241 --> 00:25:43,361 "Women may not be killed by a man in any way, 340 00:25:43,441 --> 00:25:46,641 "neither by slaughter nor by any other death. 341 00:25:46,721 --> 00:25:52,441 "Nor by poison, nor in water, nor in fire, nor by any beast, 342 00:25:52,521 --> 00:25:58,401 ”nor in a pit, nor by dogs, but shall die in their own [awful bed. ” 343 00:26:03,161 --> 00:26:07,641 Life remained nasty, brutish and short, but Adomnan's rules on warfare 344 00:26:07,721 --> 00:26:11,321 were proof of the civilising influence of Christianity. 345 00:26:14,681 --> 00:26:15,961 For the first time, 346 00:26:16,041 --> 00:26:19,561 the Picts had embraced written laws within their society. 347 00:26:21,321 --> 00:26:24,321 The Pictish tribes had it all. 348 00:26:24,401 --> 00:26:27,601 A sophisticated culture, powerful trade links 349 00:26:27,681 --> 00:26:30,601 and the breadbasket of north Britain. 350 00:26:30,681 --> 00:26:33,361 Their fertile, low-lying homeland provided better harvests 351 00:26:33,441 --> 00:26:38,681 and more fighting men, but it also attracted the attention of others. 352 00:26:44,241 --> 00:26:48,401 By this time, the Angles dominated middle Britain. 353 00:26:48,481 --> 00:26:51,961 They were a Germanic people who'd carved out a powerful kingdom 354 00:26:52,041 --> 00:26:54,201 between the Humber and Forth rivers. 355 00:26:54,281 --> 00:26:58,361 But now the Angles decided to push north. 356 00:26:58,441 --> 00:27:00,601 Rather than confront them immediately, 357 00:27:00,721 --> 00:27:05,041 the Pictish army drew the Angles further and further into hostile territory. 358 00:27:06,641 --> 00:27:10,921 The two forces clashed at Dun Nechtain, along the River Spey. 359 00:27:17,121 --> 00:27:21,121 The battle is commemorated here on this Pictish stone. 360 00:27:21,201 --> 00:27:23,001 It's a sort of Bayeux Tapestry. 361 00:27:23,081 --> 00:27:27,081 The fight was between bare-headed, long-haired Pictish warriors 362 00:27:27,161 --> 00:27:31,081 and Angles wearing distinctive metal helmets. 363 00:27:31,161 --> 00:27:33,201 It was a one-sided encounter. 364 00:27:33,281 --> 00:27:34,921 The ranks of Pictish spearmen 365 00:27:35,001 --> 00:27:37,881 drove the Angles into a loch and slaughtered them. 366 00:27:37,961 --> 00:27:40,081 The final relief shows a raven 367 00:27:40,161 --> 00:27:44,361 pecking at the dead face of a fallen prince of the Angles. 368 00:27:47,521 --> 00:27:49,881 To defeat this new enemy from the south, 369 00:27:49,961 --> 00:27:52,121 the Pictish tribes had been forced to unite 370 00:27:52,201 --> 00:27:54,721 under the leadership of one king. 371 00:27:58,721 --> 00:28:02,641 The confederation also had a new name - Pictland. 372 00:28:04,201 --> 00:28:07,401 By pinpointing the location of all the Pictish stones, 373 00:28:07,481 --> 00:28:11,681 it's possible to map out the territory of this young kingdom. 374 00:28:11,761 --> 00:28:14,601 The Picts had successfully driven the Angles back south, 375 00:28:14,681 --> 00:28:17,721 and one by one, they defeated their other neighbours. 376 00:28:17,801 --> 00:28:22,761 In the west, both the Britons and the Gaels were overwhelmed. 377 00:28:22,841 --> 00:28:25,081 Although they retained their identity, 378 00:28:25,161 --> 00:28:27,921 they were forced to pay homage to the Pictish king. 379 00:28:28,001 --> 00:28:30,721 By the middle of the 8th century, 380 00:28:30,801 --> 00:28:34,361 Pictland was the dominant kingdom of northern Britain. 381 00:28:38,641 --> 00:28:41,121 It seemed invincible. 382 00:28:41,201 --> 00:28:45,081 But the next wave of aggressors was a league apart, 383 00:28:45,161 --> 00:28:48,921 warriors with no time for Christian niceties. 384 00:28:50,601 --> 00:28:54,641 They worshipped the gods of war - Odin and Thor. 385 00:29:12,121 --> 00:29:16,161 There's a trend among some modern historians to portray the Vikings 386 00:29:16,241 --> 00:29:18,081 as a misunderstood bunch. 387 00:29:18,161 --> 00:29:19,721 Instead of bloodthirsty killers, 388 00:29:19,801 --> 00:29:25,001 think peaceful traders and farmers in search of new lands to colonise. 389 00:29:25,081 --> 00:29:29,681 But I don't think so. Not all of them, and certainly not all the time. 390 00:29:29,761 --> 00:29:33,561 Accounts by British survivors of Viking attacks are unequivocal. 391 00:29:33,641 --> 00:29:37,201 These guys were after treasure and slaves. 392 00:29:39,161 --> 00:29:42,721 "The pagans came with a naval force to Britain 393 00:29:42,841 --> 00:29:47,721 "and, spread on all sides like direwolves, robbed, tore and slaughtered 394 00:29:47,801 --> 00:29:50,921 "not only beasts of burden, sheep and oxen, 395 00:29:51,001 --> 00:29:53,081 "but even priests and deacons, 396 00:29:53,161 --> 00:29:55,281 ”and companies of monks and nuns. ” 397 00:30:03,681 --> 00:30:07,041 That description was a contemporary account of a Viking attack 398 00:30:07,121 --> 00:30:08,521 on a monastery in England. 399 00:30:08,601 --> 00:30:10,241 But the Vikings weren't choosy. 400 00:30:10,321 --> 00:30:12,481 They went wherever the treasure was. 401 00:30:12,601 --> 00:30:16,201 Although the monastery here on Iona was looted on three separate occasions, 402 00:30:16,281 --> 00:30:19,041 it was the northern isles that bore the brunt. 403 00:30:25,601 --> 00:30:30,361 There's a treasure trove from AD 800 that tells its own story. 404 00:30:33,681 --> 00:30:37,321 These beautiful Pictish bowls and brooches were found under the floor 405 00:30:37,401 --> 00:30:41,761 of a medieval church on St Ninian's Isle in Shetland. 406 00:30:41,841 --> 00:30:45,281 Archaeologists believe that monks probably buried the silver in haste 407 00:30:45,361 --> 00:30:47,961 to hide it from a Viking raid. 408 00:30:49,881 --> 00:30:52,281 That no-one returned to retrieve them 409 00:30:52,361 --> 00:30:55,081 is a sobering clue to what befell the monks. 410 00:31:00,201 --> 00:31:03,521 Vikings shipped their captives back to Scandinavia 411 00:31:03,601 --> 00:31:05,841 and then on to Constantinople, 412 00:31:05,921 --> 00:31:09,601 where the slaves were exchanged for silver. 413 00:31:10,801 --> 00:31:15,321 As the Vikings' grip tightened, there were fewer smash-and-grab raids. 414 00:31:15,401 --> 00:31:18,081 They came to stay. 415 00:31:20,201 --> 00:31:23,921 They colonised parts of Ireland, Northumbria, 416 00:31:24,001 --> 00:31:27,921 and further north, the Hebrides and the territory of the Gaels. 417 00:31:28,001 --> 00:31:29,361 On Orkney and Shetland, 418 00:31:29,441 --> 00:31:32,521 it's believed they exterminated the Pictish men. 419 00:31:32,601 --> 00:31:37,481 This was ethnic cleansing, 9th-century style. 420 00:31:44,041 --> 00:31:46,801 Many of Shetland's inhabitants are proud descendants of the Vikings. 421 00:31:46,881 --> 00:31:50,041 At an annual boat-burning ritual called Up Helly Aa, 422 00:31:50,121 --> 00:31:53,321 they still celebrate their bloody heritage. 423 00:31:57,641 --> 00:32:00,561 This is what people living in Shetland today like to imagine 424 00:32:00,641 --> 00:32:04,201 their Viking ancestors looked like - fire-wielding pagan barbarians. 425 00:32:04,281 --> 00:32:06,361 And if you believe the words of the Viking sagas, 426 00:32:06,441 --> 00:32:08,881 it's clear to see where they got that impression. 427 00:32:08,961 --> 00:32:12,441 But take away the air of celebration and the pageantry, 428 00:32:12,521 --> 00:32:15,601 and consider the horror of waking up one morning 429 00:32:15,681 --> 00:32:18,241 and watching this howling horde unload themselves 430 00:32:18,321 --> 00:32:20,041 from their dragon-headed longships 431 00:32:20,121 --> 00:32:22,521 onto the beach below your little stone cottage. 432 00:32:22,601 --> 00:32:25,321 This is what the end of the world looks like. 433 00:32:25,401 --> 00:32:28,241 This is the end of everything you've ever known or held clear, 434 00:32:28,361 --> 00:32:32,481 unless of course, somebody somewhere can find a way to stop it. 435 00:32:43,481 --> 00:32:45,481 In rides Kenneth MacAlpin. 436 00:32:45,561 --> 00:32:48,641 He's one of Scottish history's great heroes, 437 00:32:48,721 --> 00:32:51,401 the champion who in AD 840 438 00:32:51,481 --> 00:32:53,561 is supposed to have driven off the Vikings. 439 00:32:57,761 --> 00:33:01,201 This brave war leader appears to come from nowhere, 440 00:33:01,281 --> 00:33:03,161 stepping into the power vacuum 441 00:33:03,241 --> 00:33:07,761 created after the existing royal line is massacred by the Vikings. 442 00:33:07,841 --> 00:33:11,001 So it is that Kenneth MacAlpin unifies Scotland 443 00:33:11,081 --> 00:33:13,761 and is famously crowned her first king. 444 00:33:17,481 --> 00:33:19,921 If only history was that simple. 445 00:33:20,001 --> 00:33:23,561 The idea that Kenneth MacAlpin was the first king of Scotland is a myth 446 00:33:23,641 --> 00:33:25,441 that's persisted for centuries 447 00:33:25,521 --> 00:33:28,841 and it's certainly one I remember hearing at school as a wee boy. 448 00:33:28,921 --> 00:33:31,441 But the historical records tell a different story. 449 00:33:41,921 --> 00:33:46,041 At the time of Kenneth MacAlpin, Scotland did not exist. 450 00:33:46,121 --> 00:33:49,121 It remained five separate peoples - 451 00:33:49,201 --> 00:33:51,161 the Angles, the Vikings, 452 00:33:51,241 --> 00:33:53,241 the Gaels, the Britons 453 00:33:53,321 --> 00:33:54,881 and the Picts. 454 00:33:54,961 --> 00:33:57,521 Each retained their own distinctive culture. 455 00:34:00,721 --> 00:34:03,761 What is more, records tell us that Kenneth MacAlpin 456 00:34:03,841 --> 00:34:05,561 and his immediate successors 457 00:34:05,641 --> 00:34:08,761 were described as kings of Pictland, not Scotland. 458 00:34:10,961 --> 00:34:13,681 It's not until 40 years after Kenneth died 459 00:34:13,761 --> 00:34:17,321 that we find the first mention of the kings of Scotland. 460 00:34:21,441 --> 00:34:24,521 So how did we get from Pictland to Scotland? 461 00:34:44,641 --> 00:34:48,041 There's one document that reveals the secret. 462 00:34:48,121 --> 00:34:51,161 It's one of the most precious manuscripts of Scottish history 463 00:34:51,281 --> 00:34:55,721 and it's the only contemporary Scottish chronicle that covers the period. 464 00:35:08,401 --> 00:35:11,681 Historians feel that much of the document can be trusted 465 00:35:11,761 --> 00:35:16,121 because it can be cross-referenced with chronicles from other kingdoms. 466 00:35:18,601 --> 00:35:21,441 I'd expected to find it in an archive in Scotland... 467 00:35:23,921 --> 00:35:25,601 ...but I was wrong. 468 00:35:26,721 --> 00:35:29,601 Why is the manuscript here in Paris? 469 00:35:29,681 --> 00:35:33,401 (SPEAKS FRENCH) 470 00:35:35,441 --> 00:35:37,521 The archivist Madame Laffitte told me 471 00:35:37,601 --> 00:35:39,921 that a French courtier brought a collection 472 00:35:40,041 --> 00:35:45,401 of important historical papers back from London in the 17th century. 473 00:35:45,481 --> 00:35:49,481 Is it widely known that the manuscript is here? 474 00:35:49,561 --> 00:35:52,441 (SPEAKS IN FRENCH) 475 00:35:54,321 --> 00:35:58,121 TRANSLATOR: It's not very well known - only people who come 476 00:35:58,201 --> 00:36:00,841 and search for this topic matter specifically come. 477 00:36:00,921 --> 00:36:04,281 She says it's even been put on slides so that people can look at it. 478 00:36:04,361 --> 00:36:05,481 I see. 479 00:36:05,561 --> 00:36:07,601 What are the chances of it going to Scotland? 480 00:36:07,681 --> 00:36:10,001 MADAME LAFFITTE: Oh, absolutely no! 481 00:36:27,721 --> 00:36:32,681 The Chronicle is basically a list, a list of 12 kings of the House of Alpin 482 00:36:32,761 --> 00:36:34,521 from the 9th to the 11th centuries. 483 00:36:34,601 --> 00:36:37,681 It's a complex document because it's been compiled 484 00:36:37,801 --> 00:36:42,281 and copied and added to over the years by several unknown hands. 485 00:36:42,361 --> 00:36:46,281 It's important because it covers the moment of transition, 486 00:36:46,361 --> 00:36:50,401 the ten or so years from 878 to 889 487 00:36:50,481 --> 00:36:53,401 when all references to Pictland disappear 488 00:36:53,481 --> 00:36:55,921 and the kingdom of Scotland appears. 489 00:36:56,001 --> 00:36:59,321 This is Scotland's lost decade. 490 00:36:59,401 --> 00:37:05,001 Look at these two names - Aed, and Giricium or Giric. 491 00:37:05,081 --> 00:37:09,241 These characters are going to be key to the formation of Scotland. 492 00:37:20,161 --> 00:37:23,601 Aed was Kenneth MacAlpin's youngest son. 493 00:37:23,681 --> 00:37:26,281 He'd inherited a kingdom in crisis. 494 00:37:26,361 --> 00:37:30,401 At the point he became king, the Vikings conquered Pictland. 495 00:37:37,561 --> 00:37:40,841 For two years, they took cattle, slaves and tribute. 496 00:37:40,921 --> 00:37:43,681 Aed did little to stop them. 497 00:37:43,761 --> 00:37:46,881 When there was no more booty to be had, the Vikings moved on. 498 00:37:51,721 --> 00:37:53,961 Aed's kingdom lay in ruins. 499 00:37:54,041 --> 00:37:57,441 The writer of the Paris Chronicle described his short reign 500 00:37:57,521 --> 00:38:00,361 as bequeathing "nothing memorable to history". 501 00:38:00,441 --> 00:38:02,241 A damning indictment indeed. 502 00:38:03,801 --> 00:38:07,041 So, no surprise then, when his own followers took action. 503 00:38:15,321 --> 00:38:18,961 This is where Giric comes into the story. 504 00:38:19,041 --> 00:38:23,441 Giric was one of a number of Gaelic refugees who'd fled from the Vikings 505 00:38:23,521 --> 00:38:25,881 and headed east into Pictland. 506 00:38:25,961 --> 00:38:30,241 Now he'd climbed his way up into Aed '5 favour. 507 00:38:30,321 --> 00:38:32,641 Giric was not of royal stock, 508 00:38:32,721 --> 00:38:37,361 but what he lacked in blue blood, he made up for in ambition. 509 00:38:42,041 --> 00:38:44,681 Events come to a head at a sacred site in Perthshire. 510 00:38:44,761 --> 00:38:46,801 The year is 878. 511 00:38:46,881 --> 00:38:49,281 Aed is slain by his own henchmen. 512 00:38:49,361 --> 00:38:52,081 All the evidence points to Giric as the killer. 513 00:38:52,161 --> 00:38:55,081 Giric was on the make. His goal? 514 00:38:55,161 --> 00:38:57,281 The takeover of the Pictish kingdom. 515 00:38:57,361 --> 00:39:01,041 And if that meant taking out the useless Aed, then so be it. 516 00:39:17,601 --> 00:39:21,241 Giric instigated a regime change. 517 00:39:21,321 --> 00:39:25,721 He rid the court of his Pictish rivals and replaced them with his own men. 518 00:39:25,801 --> 00:39:28,681 Then he took control of the Pictish Church 519 00:39:28,761 --> 00:39:31,761 by appointing a Gaelic bishop to reform it. 520 00:39:35,521 --> 00:39:38,001 This was a coup. Giric, a Gael, 521 00:39:38,081 --> 00:39:42,401 was turning the Kingdom of the Picts into a Gaelic kingdom. 522 00:39:42,481 --> 00:39:44,401 To reinforce his political takeover, 523 00:39:44,481 --> 00:39:48,001 he rewarded his Gaelic followers with Pictish land. 524 00:39:50,281 --> 00:39:53,921 But Giric's position was far from secure. 525 00:39:54,001 --> 00:39:56,241 Although he'd eliminated Aed, 526 00:39:56,321 --> 00:40:00,161 the two legitimate heirs, Aed's six-year-old son Constantine 527 00:40:00,241 --> 00:40:04,441 and his teenage cousin Donald, still lived. 528 00:40:04,521 --> 00:40:06,881 Giric knew his kingship was unsafe 529 00:40:06,961 --> 00:40:10,801 while the two young boys remained potential rivals. 530 00:40:31,201 --> 00:40:35,041 But Constantine and Donald were far beyond the reach of Giric. 531 00:40:35,121 --> 00:40:39,001 Their protectors had escorted them safely to Fort Ailech 532 00:40:39,081 --> 00:40:40,761 in the north of Ireland. 533 00:40:43,921 --> 00:40:45,281 It might seem strange 534 00:40:45,361 --> 00:40:49,081 to send two Pictish princes to a Gaelic country like Ireland, 535 00:40:49,161 --> 00:40:52,041 especially given Giric's Gaelic connections, 536 00:40:52,121 --> 00:40:55,401 but they met a warm welcome at Ailech from their aunt. 537 00:40:55,481 --> 00:40:59,081 She was married to a powerful Irish king, and for her, 538 00:40:59,161 --> 00:41:02,481 this was a matter not of politics, but of kin. 539 00:41:09,761 --> 00:41:12,361 They grew up in the royal household. 540 00:41:12,441 --> 00:41:14,121 It was a Gaelic court 541 00:41:14,201 --> 00:41:16,881 and they became steeped in its culture and language. 542 00:41:16,961 --> 00:41:19,041 They were educated at a nearby monastery 543 00:41:19,121 --> 00:41:21,281 and attended the Gaelic church. 544 00:41:32,321 --> 00:41:36,001 Too young to challenge Giric, too young to be King of the Picts, 545 00:41:36,081 --> 00:41:38,521 the changes taking place in their homeland 546 00:41:38,601 --> 00:41:41,201 must have felt like a world away to the cousins. 547 00:41:41,281 --> 00:41:44,321 But as each year passed and adulthood approached, 548 00:41:44,441 --> 00:41:49,121 the moment to avenge the murder of Constantine's father edged ever closer. 549 00:41:57,721 --> 00:42:00,121 In the year 889, after a decade in exile, 550 00:42:00,201 --> 00:42:03,961 the two cousins were finally old enough to challenge Giric. 551 00:42:05,761 --> 00:42:09,001 Donald and Constantine sailed homeward. 552 00:42:09,081 --> 00:42:11,601 Revenge was in their hearts. 553 00:42:11,681 --> 00:42:16,001 To win back their kingdom, they knew they'd have to depose the usurper. 554 00:42:23,921 --> 00:42:27,441 Giric had seen it coming. So had his supporters. 555 00:42:29,321 --> 00:42:32,721 He fled to his stronghold here at Dundurn, in Perthshire. 556 00:42:34,401 --> 00:42:38,561 In its day, this was a mighty hillfort with huge fortifications. 557 00:42:38,641 --> 00:42:40,761 But not enough to deter the cousins. 558 00:42:43,481 --> 00:42:45,761 The Chronicle tells of an eclipse, 559 00:42:45,841 --> 00:42:48,321 an ill omen of the times. 560 00:42:51,761 --> 00:42:55,721 Typically, the historical records are vague about what happened next. 561 00:42:55,801 --> 00:42:59,641 One chronicle reveals, "In Dundurn the upright man was taken by death." 562 00:42:59,721 --> 00:43:04,441 Archaeological evidence suggests a more violent end for Giric. 563 00:43:04,521 --> 00:43:06,961 Burnt timbers and arrowheads were found here at Dundurn 564 00:43:07,041 --> 00:43:10,961 and it's tempting to imagine that Giric died here in that moment, 565 00:43:11,041 --> 00:43:13,041 killed by Donald and Constantine. 566 00:43:29,601 --> 00:43:33,601 The kingdom was at a crossroads. It could have gone either way - 567 00:43:33,681 --> 00:43:35,401 Pictish, or Gaelic. 568 00:43:35,481 --> 00:43:37,761 Culture, language and Church. 569 00:43:37,841 --> 00:43:40,601 Everything was at stake. 570 00:43:40,681 --> 00:43:43,481 The Picts must have expected Donald and Constantine 571 00:43:43,561 --> 00:43:45,521 to reverse the Gaelic takeover. 572 00:43:45,601 --> 00:43:49,841 After all, Giric's rule had lasted just ten years. 573 00:43:49,921 --> 00:43:52,921 But the royal heirs had changed. 574 00:43:53,001 --> 00:43:56,281 Donald and Constantine left as Pictish boys. 575 00:43:58,921 --> 00:44:02,401 They returned as Gaelic princes. 576 00:44:02,481 --> 00:44:04,201 Now Donald and Constantine 577 00:44:04,281 --> 00:44:07,521 viewed their homeland through different eyes. 578 00:44:11,001 --> 00:44:15,241 The Chronicle of the Kings shows us which way the wind is blowing. 579 00:44:15,321 --> 00:44:19,841 This word here is "Albaniam", a Gaelic word meaning Scotland, 580 00:44:19,921 --> 00:44:24,001 a brand-new name for the kingdom and of immense significance. 581 00:44:24,081 --> 00:44:28,321 With this one word, right here, Scotland is created. 582 00:44:28,401 --> 00:44:31,841 This is Scotland's birth certificate. 583 00:44:31,961 --> 00:44:36,161 This crucial transitional moment is backed up by the chronicle from Ireland. 584 00:44:36,241 --> 00:44:40,481 In the year 900, it has an entry recording Donald's death. 585 00:44:40,561 --> 00:44:45,001 He is King of Alba - the first king ever to be described as such. 586 00:44:45,081 --> 00:44:47,201 And he's followed by Constantine, 587 00:44:47,281 --> 00:44:51,081 also described as a Scottish king. 588 00:45:03,921 --> 00:45:07,361 Scotland became a Gaelic kingdom. 589 00:45:07,441 --> 00:45:09,281 Over the next few generations, 590 00:45:09,361 --> 00:45:12,401 the Pictish way of life, the way they practised their religion, 591 00:45:12,481 --> 00:45:17,161 the stone carvings, and even their language fell out of favour. 592 00:45:17,241 --> 00:45:19,881 Gaelic was the new language of power. 593 00:45:22,841 --> 00:45:24,801 There was no sudden genocide, 594 00:45:24,881 --> 00:45:28,161 but the cultural takeover was just as complete. 595 00:45:47,321 --> 00:45:50,881 In 906, Constantine arrived in Scone near Perth 596 00:45:50,961 --> 00:45:53,201 for an important new ceremony. 597 00:45:57,881 --> 00:45:59,321 "Scone" is a Gaelic word 598 00:45:59,401 --> 00:46:03,921 and what happened here would form the basis of all future coronations. 599 00:46:07,121 --> 00:46:11,241 Blessed by a Gaelic bishop, Constantine sat on a block of stone. 600 00:46:13,401 --> 00:46:18,241 It no doubt harked back to the footprint ceremony of Dunadd from long before. 601 00:46:22,561 --> 00:46:24,481 It's better known as the Stone of Destiny. 602 00:46:24,561 --> 00:46:27,321 For centuries afterwards, and right up to the present day, 603 00:46:27,401 --> 00:46:29,881 it's been used in the inauguration of monarchs. 604 00:46:29,961 --> 00:46:32,481 Now, the original is on display in Edinburgh Castle. 605 00:46:32,561 --> 00:46:35,281 It's just a simple block of red sandstone 606 00:46:35,361 --> 00:46:39,201 and yet it's been fought over, mythologised and romanticised, 607 00:46:39,281 --> 00:46:43,201 and it will crop up again and again in Scotland's story. 608 00:46:56,001 --> 00:47:00,041 Although Constantine now appeared to hold sway over most of north Britain, 609 00:47:00,121 --> 00:47:03,681 the young kingdom's survival was touch and go from the outset. 610 00:47:04,721 --> 00:47:09,281 For just as Scotland was forming, another power bloc to the south 611 00:47:09,361 --> 00:47:12,361 had come of age at almost exactly the same time. 612 00:47:18,121 --> 00:47:22,201 This kingdom would prove to be Scotland's most persistent foe of all. 613 00:47:24,761 --> 00:47:30,041 Angle-land was ruled by an Anglo-Saxon king called Athelstan. 614 00:47:30,121 --> 00:47:31,841 He'd driven the Vikings out of Northumbria 615 00:47:31,961 --> 00:47:36,761 and by incorporating this territory, had secured a new northern boundary. 616 00:47:39,601 --> 00:47:42,841 But Angle-land, or England as it became known, 617 00:47:42,921 --> 00:47:45,081 was not enough for Athelstan. 618 00:47:46,641 --> 00:47:51,321 Admirer of the Romans, he aspired to rule the whole of Britain. 619 00:47:51,401 --> 00:47:54,801 He decided to carry on where the Romans left off. 620 00:48:05,561 --> 00:48:07,961 He marched north. 621 00:48:10,401 --> 00:48:15,961 Like Calgacus nearly 900 years before, Constantine faced a stark choice. 622 00:48:16,041 --> 00:48:18,921 Tackle Athelstan in battle and risk annihilation, 623 00:48:19,001 --> 00:48:22,361 or surrender the kingship of Scotland. 624 00:48:22,481 --> 00:48:26,361 Neither outcome was acceptable, but Constantine came up with a third option. 625 00:48:26,441 --> 00:48:29,921 And this is it, the awesome rock fortress of Dunnottar. 626 00:48:43,281 --> 00:48:46,881 Here, Constantine and his war band were hemmed in. 627 00:48:46,961 --> 00:48:50,281 But Athelstan couldn't capture the stronghold itself, 628 00:48:50,361 --> 00:48:52,721 and so he and Constantine came to terms. 629 00:48:55,761 --> 00:48:59,761 Constantine could keep his status as King of Scotland, 630 00:48:59,841 --> 00:49:02,521 but Athelstan would be his overlord. 631 00:49:02,601 --> 00:49:07,761 In agreeing to this, Constantine saved Scotland and his own neck, 632 00:49:07,841 --> 00:49:11,841 but to the young, aspiring leaders at his court, he'd sold out. 633 00:49:16,121 --> 00:49:22,201 So, the next time Athelstan commanded him to submit, he refused to obey. 634 00:49:26,361 --> 00:49:29,041 Subservience wasn't Constantine's style, 635 00:49:29,161 --> 00:49:33,641 particularly when both he and the young kingdom of Scots had come so far. 636 00:49:33,721 --> 00:49:36,561 What he did next would have been unthinkable 637 00:49:36,681 --> 00:49:41,041 a few decades previously - he made peace with the pagan Vikings. 638 00:49:41,121 --> 00:49:44,721 Partly motivated by a sense of "united we stand, divided we fall", 639 00:49:44,801 --> 00:49:48,761 more importantly, the Viking king had lost territories to Athelstan 640 00:49:48,841 --> 00:49:50,201 and he wanted them back. 641 00:49:50,281 --> 00:49:53,361 Together they forged a northern alliance 642 00:49:53,441 --> 00:49:58,241 and in 937, Constantine headed south for a decisive confrontation. 643 00:49:58,321 --> 00:50:02,601 At stake was the very future of the island of Britain. 644 00:50:07,801 --> 00:50:12,601 On one side advanced Athelstan, the Anglo-Saxon ruler of all England. 645 00:50:12,681 --> 00:50:15,961 On the other, the northern alliance. 646 00:50:16,041 --> 00:50:21,361 The king of the Britons, the king of the Vikings from across the Irish Sea, 647 00:50:21,441 --> 00:50:24,361 and the king of Scotland, Constantine. 648 00:50:28,481 --> 00:50:31,401 The many armies, tens of thousands of warriors, 649 00:50:31,521 --> 00:50:36,521 clashed at a site known as Brunanburh, where the Mersey estuary enters the sea. 650 00:50:38,081 --> 00:50:41,761 For decades afterwards it was simply called The Great Battle. 651 00:50:46,601 --> 00:50:49,601 This was the mother of all Dark Age bloodbaths 652 00:50:49,681 --> 00:50:53,041 and would define the shape of Britain into the modern era. 653 00:50:55,921 --> 00:51:00,441 An Anglo-Saxon account of the battle reads, "They clove the shield-wall, 654 00:51:00,561 --> 00:51:04,601 "hewed the war-lindens with hammered blades - the foe fell back - 655 00:51:04,681 --> 00:51:08,081 "the folk of the Scots and the ship-fleet fell death-doomed. 656 00:51:08,161 --> 00:51:11,281 "The field was slippery with the blood of warriors. 657 00:51:11,361 --> 00:51:15,441 "The West Saxons, in companies, hewed the fugitives from behind, 658 00:51:15,521 --> 00:51:18,161 "cruelly with swords mill-sharpened." 659 00:51:33,561 --> 00:51:37,081 The fighting went on from dawn until dusk. 660 00:51:37,201 --> 00:51:40,961 When it was over, the field was littered with the dead and the dying, 661 00:51:41,041 --> 00:51:43,641 picked over by wolves and Carrion crows. 662 00:51:48,641 --> 00:51:53,401 Vikings, Saxons, Britons and Welshmen, Gaels from Ireland, 663 00:51:53,481 --> 00:51:55,841 Northumbrians, even Icelanders. 664 00:52:00,081 --> 00:52:04,761 Amid the corpses of the men of Scotland was Constantine's eldest son. 665 00:52:04,841 --> 00:52:08,041 All slain to settle the matter of Britain. 666 00:52:19,641 --> 00:52:21,681 Although Athelstan emerged victorious, 667 00:52:21,761 --> 00:52:23,801 the resistance of the northern alliance 668 00:52:23,881 --> 00:52:27,481 had put an end to his dream of conquering the whole of Britain. 669 00:52:29,881 --> 00:52:33,201 Constantine, meanwhile, escaped back to his homeland 670 00:52:33,281 --> 00:52:35,761 with the remains of his battered army. 671 00:52:42,401 --> 00:52:44,801 This had been a battle for Britain. 672 00:52:44,921 --> 00:52:49,161 One of the most important battles in British history, comparable to Hastings. 673 00:52:49,241 --> 00:52:52,321 Yet today, few people have even heard of it. 674 00:52:52,401 --> 00:52:55,801 937 doesn't quite have the ring of 1066, 675 00:52:55,921 --> 00:53:00,641 and yet Brunanburh was about much more than just blood and conquest. 676 00:53:00,721 --> 00:53:04,801 This was a showdown between two very different ethnic identities - 677 00:53:04,881 --> 00:53:08,441 a Norse-Celtic alliance versus Anglo-Saxon. 678 00:53:08,521 --> 00:53:11,441 It aimed to settle once and for all 679 00:53:11,521 --> 00:53:15,561 whether Britain would be controlled by a single imperial power 680 00:53:15,641 --> 00:53:18,681 or remain several separate independent kingdoms, 681 00:53:18,761 --> 00:53:24,241 a split in perceptions, which, like it or not, is still with us today. 682 00:53:44,641 --> 00:53:47,321 And as for King Constantine? 683 00:53:47,401 --> 00:53:50,481 From exile to Ireland as a young boy, 684 00:53:50,561 --> 00:53:53,641 the murder of Giric at Dundurn, 685 00:53:53,721 --> 00:53:55,561 his crowning at Scone, 686 00:53:55,641 --> 00:53:58,641 his short subservience to the English king, 687 00:53:58,721 --> 00:54:02,841 the battle of Brunanburh and the saving of Scotland, 688 00:54:02,921 --> 00:54:07,041 there was much for the battle-scarred warrior to reflect upon. 689 00:54:09,561 --> 00:54:12,121 Kenneth MacAlpin founded the Scottish royal line 690 00:54:12,201 --> 00:54:14,561 as an opportunistic Pictish warlord, 691 00:54:14,641 --> 00:54:17,881 but it was his grandson Constantine who secured the kingdom, 692 00:54:17,961 --> 00:54:22,201 and, during his long reign of 43 years, ensured its survival. 693 00:54:22,281 --> 00:54:26,601 Scotland stands as testament to Constantine's political astuteness 694 00:54:26,681 --> 00:54:29,361 and staying power. 695 00:54:32,561 --> 00:54:35,881 And then, remarkably, he relinquished his kingship. 696 00:54:35,961 --> 00:54:40,441 In an age characterised by brutal murders and takeovers, he retired. 697 00:54:43,521 --> 00:54:48,281 (CHOIR SINGS) 698 00:55:07,401 --> 00:55:11,921 Religion had always played an important part in his life as king. 699 00:55:12,001 --> 00:55:14,841 Now Constantine, sharing the name of the Roman emperor 700 00:55:14,921 --> 00:55:18,921 who'd first embraced Christianity, moved it centre stage. 701 00:55:27,001 --> 00:55:30,921 St Andrews had become the religious capital of his new kingdom, 702 00:55:31,001 --> 00:55:34,161 and so he came here in AD 943, 703 00:55:34,241 --> 00:55:38,441 just six years after the greatest battle of his life. 704 00:55:57,881 --> 00:56:02,681 He ended his days leading a humble, almost hermit-like existence, 705 00:56:02,761 --> 00:56:05,521 in a cave near St Andrews, as a holy man. 706 00:56:05,601 --> 00:56:07,361 And what of the Picts? 707 00:56:07,441 --> 00:56:10,321 An English historian, the Archdeacon of Huntingdon, 708 00:56:10,401 --> 00:56:13,241 writing just 200 years later in 1140, 709 00:56:13,321 --> 00:56:17,881 commented that, "we see that the Picts have now been wiped out, 710 00:56:17,961 --> 00:56:21,401 "and their language also is totally destroyed, 711 00:56:21,481 --> 00:56:25,801 "so that they seem to be a fable we find mentioned in old writings." 712 00:56:30,801 --> 00:56:33,001 The Archdeacon was wrong. 713 00:56:33,081 --> 00:56:34,441 As we've seen all along, 714 00:56:34,521 --> 00:56:38,281 so much of these early years was seen through the eyes of others. 715 00:56:38,361 --> 00:56:42,641 The Picts weren't wiped out. With the Gaels, they fused together 716 00:56:42,721 --> 00:56:46,961 in the fires of adversity and rebranded themselves as Scots. 717 00:56:47,041 --> 00:56:51,441 The hybrid kingdom of Alba was now home to a restless people, 718 00:56:51,521 --> 00:56:56,121 and as for the fully formed country we would recognise as "Scotland", 719 00:56:56,201 --> 00:56:56,121 the story had only just begun.