The first king of Scotland

Up to the early ninth century, the Scots and the Picts had not yet unified to form the country of Scotland, but the king of the Picts, Kenneth MacAlpin (in modern spelling), began the process and is generally regarded as the first king of Scotland. It is said that he killed his seven rivals to the throne in one fell swoop. King Kenneth I reigned from 843 until his death from disease in 858. He lived in Forteviot and  is buried on the isle of Iona.

Unfortunately, a sideways system of inheritance that prevailed in Scotland at that time meant that successive monarchs did not reign for very long, as they were either killed in battle or by skullduggery. An heir was not the child of the outgoing monarch, but the nephew or the brother or the uncle, since the family line ran through the female blood relatives rather than the wives.

After many kings had been slain, including King Donald II who reigned for just one year, eventually King Malcolm II changed the succession rules so that offspring were first in line. He remained on the throne for twenty-nine years from 1005 to 1034, though he was still killed in battle.

(Image of Scone Palace where Scottish monarchs were crowned: G. Laird at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)