page_title: Rhun ab Arthgal
section_title: Family
hierarchical_section_title: Rhun ab Arthgal / Family
caption_attribution_description: English: An excerpt from folio 29v of Lat. 4126 (the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba). The excerpt refers to Causantín mac Cináeda, King of the Picts (died 877).
context_page_description: Rhun ab Arthgal was a ninth-century King of Strathclyde. He is the only known son of Arthgal ap Dyfnwal, King of Alt Clut. In 870, during the latter's reign, the fortress of Alt Clut was captured by Vikings, after which Arthgal and his family may have been amongst the mass of prisoners taken back to Ireland. Two years later Arthgal is recorded to have been slain at the behest of Causantín mac Cináeda, King of the Picts. The circumstances surrounding this regicide are unknown. The fact that Rhun seems to have been Causantín's brother-in-law could account for Causantín's interference in the kingship of Alt Clut.
  The Viking destruction of the capital fortress of the Kingdom of Alt Clut appears to have brought about a reorientation of the kingdom towards the valley of the River Clyde. In consequence, the realm came to be known as the Kingdom of Strathclyde. Either Rhun or his father could have been the first kings of Strathclyde. In the years following the fall of Alt Clut, Rhun's realm may have endured periods of Pictish and Viking overlordship. Despite his kinship with the Pictish king, there is reason to suspect that the two clashed at some point.
context_section_description: Rhun's patrilineal ancestry is evidenced by a pedigree preserved within a collection of tenth-century Welsh genealogical material known as the Harleian genealogies. According to this source, Rhun was a son of Arthgal ap Dyfnwal, King of Alt Clut, and descended from a long line of kings of Alt Clut. Rhun is Arthgal's only known son.
  In about 849, the ninth- to twelfth-century Chronicle of the Kings of Alba reports that Britons burned Dunblane, an ecclesiastical centre seated on the southern Pictish border. This attack took place during the reign of Cináed mac Ailpín, King of the Picts, and may have been overseen by either Arthgal or his father, Dyfnwal ap Rhydderch. The razing of Dunblane could be evidence that the Kingdom of Alt Clut was in the process of extending its authority at the expense of the Pictish regime. If so, the British kings would appear to have seized upon the chaos wrought by contemporaneous Viking attacks upon the Picts.
  According to the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba, Rhun was married to a daughter of Cináed. This alliance may have been contracted between the Britons and Picts as a way of repairing international relations following the attack on Dunblane in 849. Rhun is the last listed king in the Harleian pedigree. This could indicate that the genealogy was originally compiled during his floruit—perhaps at the time of his marriage to his Alpínid wife, or upon the outset of his reign as king. According to the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba, a product of the marriage was a son named Eochaid. The twelfth-century Prophecy of Berchán describes Eochaid as "the son of the woman from Dún Guaire". The fact that ninth-century Historia Brittonum identifies Bamburgh as Din Guoaroy could indicate that Dún Guaire too refers to Bamburgh. Another possibility is that Dún Guaire refers to one of two similarly-named sites in the Hebrides (on Mull and Islay), In any event, the association of Rhun's wife with the fort could be evidence that she had been previously married.
caption: The name of Rhun's brother-in-law, Causantín mac Cináeda, as it appears on folio 29v of Paris Bibliothèque Nationale Latin 4126 (the Poppleton manuscript): "Constantinus filius Kinet".[18]
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