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Fortriu (; ; ; ) was a Picts kingdom recorded between the 4th and 10th centuries. It was traditionally believed to be located in and around Strathearn in central Scotland, but is more likely to have been based in the north, in the Moray and Easter Ross area. Fortriu is a term used by historians as it is not known what name its people used to refer to their polity. Historians also sometimes use the name synonymously with Pictland in general.
A connected Old Irish form of the name appears from the 6th to the 10th centuries in the Annals of Ulster and later sources, which contain repeated references to rex Fortrenn, ("the King of Fortriu"), la firu Fortrenn ("the men of Fortriu") and Maigh Fortrenn ("the plain of Fortriu"), alongside references to battles occurring i Fortrinn ("in Fortriu"). These are examples of a common pattern of Goidelic languages rendering with an f what in Brittonic languages is U/ V, W or Gw. The word Fortriu is a modern reconstruction of a Nominative case for this word that has survived only in these Genitive case and Dative case cases. Anglo-Saxon sources, from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in the 6th century to Bede in the 8th century, refer to the group using the Old English form of the name Wærteras.
Modern scholars writing in English usually refer to the kingdom using the name Fortriu and the adjective Verturian, and use the name the Wærteras to refer to the people as an ethnic group.
The Verturiones may have emerged as part of a pattern seen in other Roman frontier zones such as Germany, where areas beyond the border saw population groups amalgamating into fewer but larger political units.
As well as the two Pictish groupings, the conspiracy of 367–368 included Scoti from Ireland; Attacotti whose origins are uncertain but likely to have been somewhere within the British Isles; and Franks and Saxons from across the North Sea; suggesting high levels of intercommunication between the Verturiones and the peoples of Ireland and continental Europe. The conspiracy may have been caused by a decline in the level of subsidies given to barbarian tribes by the emperor Valentinian I. The fact that Fullofaudes, the leader of the northern Roman troops, was captured rather than killed suggests that the Pictish invaders may have been motivated mainly by extracting treasure.
By the end of the 7th century Fortriu had established a dominant position over most or all of the Picts, one of the most significant developments in the history of early medieval Scotland, described by historians as the Verturian Hegemony. The status of Fortriu as a powerful over-kingdom can be seen from the reign of Bridei son of Beli, who was the first king to be explicitly described as "King of Fortriu" in contemporary chronicles, and whose victory over Ecgfrith of Northumbria at the Battle of Dun Nechtain in 685 extended Fortriu's power southward, replacing Northumbrian rule north of the River Forth. Bridei had possibly been a sub-king of the Northumbrians at the start of his reign in 671, but began to extend his power with a siege of Dunottar in 680 and an attack on Orkney in 681. As the influence of the kings of Fortriu grew they promoted the idea of the Picts as a single people with a single king, playing a key role in uniting the Picts and establishing a self-conscious Pictish identity.
The continuing power of the kings of Fortriu over the Picts can be seen in the activities of Bridei son of Beli's successors. Bridei son of Derilei and the cleric Curetán of Rosemarkie were the only Pictish signatories to Cáin Adomnáin or "Law of the Innocents" in 697, indicating that Bridei was able to enforce adherence of the Picts as a whole; while Nechtan son of Derilei's church reforms of the 710s were described by Bede as being enacted "throughout all the provinces of the Picts". The kings of Fortriu maintained their control over southern Pictish territories in the 7th and 8th centuries by planting them with loyal Gaelic lords and their military retinues; creating provinces named after leading Gaelic kindreds including Cenél Comgaill in Strathearn, Cenél nÓengusa in Angus and Cenél nGabráin in Gowrie.
A series of campaigns under Onuist son of Uurguist between 731 and 741 saw this power extended further with the invasion and conquest of the Gaels kingdom of Dál Riata, located in the area of modern-day Argyll. Onuist became the first Pictish king known to have invaded Northumbria and Strathclyde and may even have invaded Ireland, establishing a domination over northern Britain unmatched by any preceding king, that would not be rivalled again for another 150 years.
A period of instability in Fortriu following the death of Elphin son of Wrad in 780 saw four rulers in quick succession – three from the family of Onuist son of Uurguist – and allowed Dál Riata to reassert its independence. The succession of Constantín son of Uurguist to the kingship of Fortriu in 789 was challenged by the Dál Riatan king Conall mac Taidg, but Constantín proved to be strong leader and reigned through to his death in 820.
The Viking Kings of Dublin Amlaíb and Auisle are recorded in the Annals of Ulster going to Fortriu and plundering "the entire Pictish nation" in 866. Although the chronology of written sources is confused, they probably occupied Fortriu for three years and took hostages, before attacking Dumbarton Rock in 870 and returning to Dublin in 871, bringing with them "a great prey of English, and Britons and Picts."
The complete disappearance of the name Fortriu beyond this point suggests that it fragmented into its successor polities – the provinces of Moray and Ross – during the 10th century. Moray is first recorded in an entry in the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba for the reign of Malcolm I, which lasted from 943 to 954; while Ross first appears in the documentary record in a hagiography of the Scottish-born saint Cathróe of Metz, written in Metz between 971 and 976.
However, new research by Alex Woolf seems to have destroyed this consensus, if not the idea itself. A northern recension of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle makes it clear that Fortriu was north of the Mounth ( i.e., the eastern Grampians), in the area visited by Columba. The long poem known as The Prophecy of Berchán, written perhaps in the 12th century, but purporting to be a prophecy made in the Early Middle Ages, says that Dub, King of Scotland was killed in the Plain of Fortriu.A. O. Anderson, Early Sources, Vol. I, p. 474. Another source, the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba, indicates that King Dub was killed at Forres, a location in Moray.A. O. Anderson, Early Sources, Vol. I, p. 473. Additions to the Chronicle of Melrose confirm that Dub was killed by the men of Moray at Forres.A. O. Anderson, Early Sources, Vol. I, pp. 473–474.
The Prophecy of Berchán states that "Mac Bethad, the glorious king of Fortriu, will take Scotland."A. O. Anderson, Early Sources, Vol. I, p. 601. As Macbeth, King of Scotland may have been Mormaer of Moray before he became King of Scots, it is possible that Fortriu was understood to be interchangeable with Moray in the High Middle Ages. Fortriu is also mentioned as one of the seven ancient Pictish kingdoms in the 13th-century source known as De Situ Albanie.
There can be little or no doubt then that Fortriu centred on northern Scotland. Other Pictish scholars, such as James E. Fraser are now taking it for granted that Fortriu was in the north of Scotland, centred on Moray and Easter Ross, where most early Pictish monuments are located.
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