Aidan from Dalriada

This article is about the King of Dalriada. For Aidan, the bishop and saint, see Aidan of Lindisfarne .

Aidan mac Gabhran (also Aedan ; * around 530; † April 17, 608/609) was King of the Irish-Scottish Empire of Dalriada from around 574 to 608/609 .

He was the son of the former king Gabhran and succeeded Conall I to the throne, possibly after he had first had to assert himself against his brother Aegan by force; the coronation took place in Iona by the founder of the local monastery, Columba . Aidan built up a large fleet with which he undertook campaigns as far as Man (around 583 against the King of Ulster ) and the Orkney Islands (around 580). In 603 he was defeated at Daegsastan (near Liddesdale?) Against the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria under King Æthelfrith . In Ireland he allied himself with the Uí Néills against King Baetan mac Cairell of Ulster. The Picts he first defeated by 590 at Leithri, but was beaten by these, 598 at Circin.

Around 608/609 Eochaid I succeeded his father Aidan as heir to the throne. Aidan is said to have been 74 years old when he died.

See also

• Scéla Cano meic Gartnáin ("The story of Cano, Gartnan's son")

literature

• John T. Koch: Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia, Vol. 1-5 . 2006, pp. 16–17, ISBN 1-85109-440-7 , limited preview in Google Book Search
• Marjorie O. Anderson, Aedán mac Gabrán (c.535–609?) , Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 , viewed 25 February 2012
• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in Project Gutenberg (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The exact date is known, but there are various details about the year
2. ^ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 603

predecessor	Office	successor
Conall I.	King of Dalriada 574–608	Eochaid I.