De Situ Albanie (or
dSA for short) is the name given to the first of seven
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
documents found in the so-called
Poppleton ManuscriptThe Poppleton Manuscript is the name given to the fourteenth century codex likely compiled by Robert of Poppleton, a Carmelite friar who was the Prior of Hulne, near Alnwick. The manuscript contains numerous works, such as a map of the world , and works by Orosius, Geoffrey of Monmouth and Gerald...
, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. It was probably written sometime between 1202 and 1214, in the reign of the William the Lion, by a
French-speakingThe adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....
resident of
ScotlandScotia was originally a Latin geographical expression of the territory inhabited by the people Latin writers called Scoti or Scotii, the early Gaels, one of the tribes living to the north of the Central Uplands. Use of the name shifted in the Middle Ages to designate the part of the island of Great...
(north of the
ForthThe River Forth , 47 km long, is the major river draining the eastern part of the central belt of Scotland....
), 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"
The piece proceeds to carry out the purpose highlighted in the introduction.
De Situ Albanie (or
dSA for short) is the name given to the first of seven
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
documents found in the so-called
Poppleton ManuscriptThe Poppleton Manuscript is the name given to the fourteenth century codex likely compiled by Robert of Poppleton, a Carmelite friar who was the Prior of Hulne, near Alnwick. The manuscript contains numerous works, such as a map of the world , and works by Orosius, Geoffrey of Monmouth and Gerald...
, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. It was probably written sometime between 1202 and 1214, in the reign of the William the Lion, by a
French-speakingThe adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....
resident of
ScotlandScotia was originally a Latin geographical expression of the territory inhabited by the people Latin writers called Scoti or Scotii, the early Gaels, one of the tribes living to the north of the Central Uplands. Use of the name shifted in the Middle Ages to designate the part of the island of Great...
(north of the
ForthThe River Forth , 47 km long, is the major river draining the eastern part of the central belt of Scotland....
), 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 & The Seven Kingdoms
The piece proceeds to carry out the purpose highlighted in the introduction. It recounts that
AlbanectusAccording to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Albanactus was the founding king of Albania or Albany. He was the youngest of three sons of Brutus, a descendant of Aeneas of Troy. According to legend, upon their father's death, the eldest son Locrinus was given Loegria, Camber was given Cambria and Albanactus...
, son of
BrutusBrutus is a Roman cognomen used by several politicians of the Junii family, especially in the Roman Republic. The plural of Brutus is Bruti, and the vocative form is Brute, as immortalized in the quotation "Et tu, Brute?"....
, 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 is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland, and a lieutenancy area. The council area borders onto Aberdeenshire, Perth and Kinross and Dundee City...
with the Mearns (Enegus cum Moerne)
- Atholl
Atholl or Athole is a large historical division in the Scottish Highlands. Today it forms the northern part of Perth and Kinross, Scotland bordering Marr, Badenoch, Breadalbane, Strathearn, Perth and Lochaber....
and GowrieGowrie may refer to several places:* Gowrie, a province in Scotland** Carse of Gowrie, the southern part of Gowrie noted for its farmlandGowrie may also refer to:* Gowrie, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra, Australia...
(Adtheodle et Gouerin)
- Strathearn
Strathearn or Strath Earn, is the strath of the River Earn. It extends from Loch Earn in Perth and Kinross to the Firth of Tay, in Scotland....
with MenteithMenteith or Monteith , a district of south Perthshire, Scotland, roughly comprises the territory between the Teith and the Forth. The region is named for the river Teith, but the exact sense is unclear, early forms including Meneted, Maneteth and Meneteth.First recorded as the Mormaerdom of...
(Sradeern cum Meneted)
- Fife
Fife is a council area of Scotland, situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire. It was originally one of the Pictish kingdoms, known as Fib, and is still commonly known as the Kingdom of Fife within Scotland.It is a...
with FothriffFothriff or Fothrif was a province of Scotland in the Middle Ages. It is often paired with Fife, not only in De Situ Albanie, but also in early charters....
(Fif cum Fothreue)
- Mar
Marr is one of six committee areas in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, bordering Atholl, Badenoch, Gowrie, The Mearns, Banff and Buchan. It has a population of 34,038...
with BuchanBuchan is one of the six committee areas and administrative areas of Aberdeenshire Council, Scotland. These areas were created by the council in 1996, when the Aberdeenshire unitary council area was created under the Local Government etc Act 1994...
(Marr cum Buchen)
- Moray
Moray is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland....
and RossRoss is a region of Scotland and a former mormaerdom, earldom, sheriffdom and county. The name Ross allegedly derives from a Gaelic word meaning a headland - perhaps a reference to the Black Isle. The Norse word for Orkney - Hrossay meaning horse island - is another possible origin. The area...
(Muref et Ross)
- Caithness
Caithness is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic local government area of Scotland. The name was used also for the earldom of Caithness and the Caithness constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area is...
this side of the mountains and over the mountains (Cathanesia citra montem et ultra montem)
The author then tells us that
AndrewAndreas or Aindréas of Caithness is the first known bishop of Caithness and a source for the author of de Situ Albanie. Aindréas was a native Scot, and very likely came from a prominent family in Gowrie, or somewhere in this part of Scotland...
,
Bishop of CaithnessThe 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. Aindréas spent much if not all of his career outside his...
, related another list. This list contradicts the first, as when, for instance, the seventh kingdom in Andreas' list is Argyll rather than
CaithnessCaithness is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic local government area of Scotland. The name was used also for the earldom of Caithness and the Caithness constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area is...
.
LIST TWO (or DSb)
- Forth to Tay
- Forth to Hilef
- Hilef to Dee
- Dee to Spey
- Spey to Druimm nAlban
- Moray and Ross
- Argyll
Argyll , archaically Argyle , is a region of western Scotland corresponding with most of the part of ancient Dál Riata that was located on the island of Great Britain, and in a historical context can be used to mean the entire western seaboard between the Mull of Kintyre and Cape Wrath.The early...
(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. 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 medieval
ScotsThe Gaels are an ethno-linguistic group which originated in Ireland and subsequently spread to Scotland and the Isle of Man. They are speakers of the Goidelic languages – Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx...
did have legends of seven ancient kingdoms.
Reputation & Status
The author' motive for writing the dSA and compiling the Scottish Poppleton remain unknown, although he probably can be seen in the tradition of
Geoffrey of MonmouthGeoffrey of Monmouth was a British clergyman and one of the major figures in the development of British history and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...
.In the past, the dSA was regarded as an
anachronismAn anachronism—from the Greek ανά and χρόνος —is an error in chronology, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other...
, and hence as a window on the
GaelicThe Gaels are an ethno-linguistic group which originated in Ireland and subsequently spread to Scotland and the Isle of Man. They are speakers of the Goidelic languages – Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx...
or
PictishThe Picts were a confederation of tribes living in what was later to become eastern and northern Scotland from before the Roman conquest of Britain until the 10th century. They lived to the north of the Forth and Clyde rivers, and spoke the extinct Pictish language, thought to have been related to...
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
GlasgowThe University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities...
-based medievalist
Dauvit BrounDauvit Broun is a Scottish historian based at the University of Glasgow, and one of the most prominent and influential scholars in the field of medieval Scottish or Celtic studies...
. Most likely, the document has little if nothing at all 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 kinglist 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 likely 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 lingustic discussions, and the light the document sheds on the relationship between the Gaelic language (
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.