De Situ Albanie
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''De Situ Albanie'' (or ''dSA'' for short) is the name given to the first of seven Scottish documents found in the so-called Poppleton Manuscript, now in the
Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...
,
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
. It was probably written sometime between 1202 and 1214, in the reign of the
William the Lion William the Lion (), sometimes styled William I (; ) and also known by the nickname ; e.g. Annals of Ulster, s.a. 1214.6; Annals of Loch Cé, s.a. 1213.10. ( 1142 – 4 December 1214), reigned as King of Alba from 1165 to 1214. His almost 49 ...
, by a French-speaking resident of
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
(north of the Forth), as an introduction to the compilation. The title is taken from the opening words of the piece, which reads: "''De Situ Albanie que in se figuram hominis habet quomodo fuit primitus is septem regionibus diuisa quibusque nominibus antiquitus sit uocata et a quibus inhabitata''"


''De Situ Albanie'' and the Seven Kingdoms

The piece proceeds to carry out the purpose highlighted in the introduction. It recounts that Albanectus, son of
Brutus Marcus Junius Brutus (; ; 85 BC – 23 October 42 BC) was a Roman politician, orator, and the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar. After being adopted by a relative, he used the name Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus, which was reta ...
, had seven sons; and that, on his death, the kingdom was split into 7 parts, each one corresponding to a son. The writer lists the seven ancient kingdoms/sons of Albania/Albanectus. LIST ONE (or DSa) *
Angus Angus may refer to: *Angus, Scotland, a council area of Scotland, and formerly a province, sheriffdom, county and district of Scotland * Angus, Canada, a community in Essa, Ontario Animals * Angus cattle, various breeds of beef cattle Media * ...
with the Mearns (''Enegus cum Moerne'') * Atholl and Gowrie (''Adtheodle et Gouerin'') *
Strathearn Strathearn or Strath Earn (), also the Earn Valley, is the strath of the River Earn, which flows from Loch Earn to meet the River Tay in the east of Scotland. The area covers the stretch of the river, containing a number of settlements in ...
with Menteith (''Sradeern cum Meneted'') *
Fife Fife ( , ; ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the s ...
with Fothriff (''Fif cum Fothreue'') * Mar with
Buchan Buchan is a coastal district in the north-east of Scotland, bounded by the Ythan and Deveron rivers. It was one of the original provinces of the Kingdom of Alba. It is now one of the six committee areas of Aberdeenshire. Etymology The ge ...
(''Marr cum Buchen'') *
Moray Moray ( ; or ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland. Its council is based in Elgin, the area' ...
and Ross (''Muref et Ross'') *
Caithness Caithness (; ; ) is a Shires of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area of Scotland. There are two towns, being Wick, Caithness, Wick, which was the county town, and Thurso. The count ...
this side of the mountains and over the mountains (''Cathanesia citra montem et ultra montem'') The author then tells us that
Andrew Andrew is the English form of the given name, common in many countries. The word is derived from the , ''Andreas'', itself related to ''aner/andros'', "man" (as opposed to "woman"), thus meaning "manly" and, as consequence, "brave", "strong", "c ...
,
Bishop of Caithness The Bishop of Caithness was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Caithness, one of Scotland's 13 medieval bishoprics. The first referenced bishop of Caithness was Aindréas, a Gael who appears in sources between 1146 and 1151 as bishop. Ai ...
, related another list. This list contradicts the first, as when, for instance, the seventh kingdom in Andrew's list is Argyll rather than
Caithness Caithness (; ; ) is a Shires of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area of Scotland. There are two towns, being Wick, Caithness, Wick, which was the county town, and Thurso. The count ...
. LIST TWO (or DSb) * Forth to Tay * Forth to ''Hilef'' * Hilef to Dee * Dee to Spey * Spey to ''Druimm nAlban'' (''Ridge of Scotland'') *
Moray Moray ( ; or ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland. Its council is based in Elgin, the area' ...
and Ross *
Argyll Argyll (; archaically Argyle; , ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a Shires of Scotland, historic county and registration county of western Scotland. The county ceased to be used for local government purposes in 1975 and most of the area ...
(''Arregaithel'') The author shows no awareness that the two lists contradict each other. Since the author was probably a Scotto-Norman, this should not surprise us.{{clarify, date=May 2013 There have been suggestions that the first list corresponds to a list of Bishoprics, leaving the second as more authentic. What is certain is that the mediaeval Scots did have legends of seven ancient kingdoms.


Reputation and status

The author's motive for writing the dSA and compiling the Scottish Poppleton remains unknown, although he probably can be seen in the tradition of
Geoffrey of Monmouth Geoffrey of Monmouth (; ; ) was a Catholic cleric from Monmouth, Wales, and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur. He is best known for his chronicle '' The History of ...
. In the past, the dSA was regarded as an
anachronism An anachronism (from the Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time periods. The most common type ...
, and hence as a window on the Gaelic or
Pictish Pictish is an extinct Brittonic Celtic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from late antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geog ...
past. It has frequently been used as a source for the so-called "seven ancient Kingdoms of Pictland". It was thought that, for instance, the first list represented the ninth century when Argyll was in Pictland, while the second list represented the period before that, before Argyll was taken, and before Caithness was lost. However, this conception of the document has been discredited in recent years, firstly by Isabel Henderson, and more recently by the
Glasgow University The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in post-nominals; ) is a public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ...
-based mediaevalist Professor Dauvit Broun. Most likely, the document has little if anything to do with the Picts. The document in fact makes perfect sense in the early thirteenth century, and much of his information can actually be traced to the other Scottish documents in the Poppleton MS. For instance, the names of seven sons of Cruithne (=Albanactus?) are given in the Pictish king-list that follows one document after the dSA. (There is another source for the seven kingdoms myth, in a Gaelic quatrain contained in versions of the Lebor Bretnach). Pictland probably had no such structure, and if it did, it was unknown to the author of dSA, except perhaps through Bishop Andreas. Other matters of interest are the man-simile, the linguistic discussions, and the light the document sheds on the relationship between the
Gaelic language The Goidelic ( ) or Gaelic languages (; ; ) form one of the two groups of Insular Celtic languages, the other being the Brittonic languages. Goidelic languages historically formed a dialect continuum stretching from Ireland through the Isle o ...
(''Scottica'') and Scottish national identity. On matters such as these, the dSA is in fact a wonderfully useful historical document. David Howlett has recently put a case forward that the structure of the text is based on a biblical paradigm.


Bibliography

* Anderson, Alan Orr, ''Early Sources of Scottish History: AD 500-1286'', Vol. 1, (Edinburgh, 1923), pp. cxv-cxix * Anderson, Marjorie O., ''Kings and Kingship in Early Scotland'', (Edinburgh, 1973), pp. 240–243 * Broun, Dauvit, "The Seven Kingdoms in ''De Situ Albanie'': A Record of Pictish political geography or imaginary Map of ancient Alba?" in E.J. Cowan & R. Andrew McDonald (eds.), ''Alba: Celtic Scotland in the Medieval Era'', (Edinburgh, 2000, rev. 2005) * Chadwick, H.M., ''Early Scotland: The Picts, The Scots & The Welsh of Southern Scotland'', (Cambridge, 1949) *Henderson, Isabel, ''The Picts'', (London, 1967) * Howlett, David, "The Structure of De Situ Albaie''", in Simon Taylor (ed.) Kings, Clerics and Chronicles in Scotland, 500-1297, (Dublin/Portland, 2000), pp. 124–45* Skene, William F., ''Chronicles of the Picts and Scots: And Other Memorials of Scottish History'', (Edinburgh, 1867), pp. 135–137 * Watson, W.J., ''The Celtic Place-Names of Scotland'', (Edinburgh, 1926) Scottish non-fiction literature 13th-century books in Latin Medieval documents of Scotland Pictish culture