52) — 57) Carnach son of Ferach, Oengus son of Uurguist, Nechtan son of Derili, Oengus son of Brude, Alpin son of Engus, and Drust son of Talorgen.
What a mixter-maxter of kings there was during the period of civil war. One military coup followed hard upon the heels of another as each king tried to gain the upper hand during the conflict. One wonders what the average Pict, trying to scratch a living from his small patch of land, would have made of it all.

Carnach son of Ferach is reported as having ruled for 24 years, yet we seem to have no other information regarding his reign. It is likely that he was a sub-king tucked away somewhere in the far north of Scotland; content to be a wee fish in a big stormy pond and keeping his head well below the surface. Who could blame him?

58) Oengus son of Uurguist
King Oengus was ruthless and as hard as they come. One king after another had come and gone since Nechtan son of Derili, and no one seemed to be able to get a grip of the situation in this theatre of civil war. On to the blood-soaked stage strode Oengus, “the tyrannical murderer who, from the beginning to the end of his reign, persisted in the performance of bloody crime”, according to Bede.

Oengus took control amid the general chaos and disorder by employing the simple expediency, as he no doubt saw it, of drowning his enemies in a large tank filled with water. In one case, according to the Annals of Tighernac, the victim being a certain Talorgan son of Congus in 734 A.D. and in another case, this time in 739 A.D. a prince called Talorgan, son of Drostan, the king of Atholl. (Did Oengus have something against people named Talorgan? It’s not likely. He had however, as we shall see, a brother of that name with whom he may not have been best pleased). A nice illustration of what appears to have been one of these terminal exercises in fluid dynamics being carried out is shown on a Pictish carved stone in the garden of Glamis manse in Angus. Carved on the left-hand side of the stone two pairs of legs are clearly seen protruding from the top of a capacious cauldron. Immediately beneath this is a depiction of two men batthng it out with axes. Dare we ask — one lump or two?

Once Oengus had gained overall control, he turned his face towards Dalriada. He invaded in 734 and again in 736 A.D. when he “laid the country waste”, and captured the huge fortress of Dunadd, capital of the Scots. In a little under ten years he had conquered the whole of Scotland North of the Forth and Clyde. The carving of a Pictish boar on the summit of Dunadd may have been the responsibility of Oengus, and we may surmise the message implied by this carved graffiti: "Picts rule, and don’t you forget it!”

Oengus then took on the Britons in a battle in 750 A.D. at a place called Mocetauc, believed to be Mugdock near Milngavie. This time, however, he lost. To his apparent dismay, his brother Talorgan, believed by some authorities to have been fighting on the side of the Britons, was killed.

Somewhat chastened, Oengus retreated to his capital at Forteviot in Perthshire to lick his wounds, and remained there as king of the Picts until his death eleven years later in 761 A.D. He had ruled for thirty long years. As well as stabilising the country after years of civil war, he was able to take on the Scots in Dalriada and remind them who really was the boss. Quite an achievement.

(One suspects there were a few nervous glances in his palace, however, whenever his servants were told to get a bath ready!)

59) Brude son of Uurguist
A brother of Oengus, he ruled for only two years.

60) Engus son of Brude
This king is likely to be a scribe’s confused combination of the reigns of Oengus son of Uurguist (No.58) and Brude son of Uurguist (No.59) who were brothers. We have no information on this king apart from the length of his reign, 36 years, which is similar to the 32 years duration of the reigns of Oengus (No.58) and Brude (No.59).

(Remember that the king lists were taken down from oral tradition, and mistakes would certainly occur due to imperfect recollection.)

61) Brude son of Engus
Presumably confusion with King Brude (No.59) above. However it may be a reference to a son of Oengus, son of Uurguist (No.58) called Brude who was killed in the siege of Dunadd in 736 A.D. Oengus was reportedly devastated by this loss.

62) Alpin son of Engus
This is the same king (No.56) who was defeated by Necton son of Derili at Castle Credi during the civil war. His position here is an error in the original king list, and is quite misplaced.

63) Ciniod son of Wredech
During Ciniod’s reign, the Scots of Dairiada re-established their independence under their leader Aed Find by defeating the Picts in a fierce battle in 768 A.D. in the province of Fortriu (Southern Perthshire). Aed Find was the son of Echdach, King of Dairiada, who died in 778 A.D. and Aed is believed to have been the paternal grandfather of Kenneth Mac Alpin, the future King of the Picts and Scots who was crowned in 843 A.D. Upon regaining their freedom, the Scots threw out the Pictish laws of Oengus son of Uurguist, and substituted them with the ‘Laws of Aed’.
Ciniod died in 775 A.D.