Kenneth, perhaps an illegitimate son of Malcolm I, has left no event on record. The place of his death is said to have been Rathinver Almond, but whether the Perthshire Almond (Chronicles of the Picts and Scots, pp. 175–289) or the Almond in West Lothian (Fordun, Chronicle, ii. 168) is uncertain. He was succeeded by Kenneth, son of Dubh, and grandson of Malcolm I.
[Robertson's and Skene's Histories.]
CONSTANTINE MAC FERGUS (d. 820), king of the Picts, acquired the monarchy by the defeat of Conall Mac Taidg (Teige), who was assassinated in 807 by another Conall, son of Aidan, a Dalriad king in Kintyre. After this date there is a blank in the Irish annals of the names of any separate kings of the Dalriad Scots, and Mr. Skene conjectures that Constantine ruled over them for some years (Celtic Scotland, i. 302). The reign of this monarch was the era of the first advent of the Norsemen, who in 793 attacked Lindisfarne, the holy island on the east coast of Northumbria, and almost simultaneously the Hebrides, in 794 according to the ‘Annals of Ulster.’ In 801, and again in 806, Iona was ravaged by them, their object at this period of their raids being to spoil the monasteries. The plunder of Iona and the slaughter of the monks led to the removal of some of the relics to Kells in Meath, and of others to Dunkeld, where Constantine founded a monastic church. He died in 820, and was succeeded by his brother Angus. Constantine has usually been deemed the last of the Pictish kings, but the recurrence of his name in three monarchs of the united kingdom of the Picts and Scots, the fact that Donald, son of the first of these Constantines, is the first king called ‘Ri (king of) Alban’ in the Irish annals, while his predecessors are called kings of the Picts (with the exception of Kenneth Macalpine, who is denominated the first of the Scots who ruled in Pictavia), appear to justify Mr. Skene's hypothesis that Pictish blood still continued to flow in the veins of the sovereigns of the united monarchy, probably through their mothers. If so, it appears to follow that the statement that the Picts were almost exterminated by Kenneth is an exaggeration, and the union may have been of a more pacific character than is often supposed. But all this belongs to the dark period of hypothesis and conjecture in Scottish history. The name of Constantine, of which Constantine Mac Fergus is the first bearer, is remarkable, and, being equivalent to no known Celtic word, it would seem to have been adopted, perhaps at baptism, in imitation of the great emperor, as that of Gregory may have been taken from the great pope.
[Robertson's Scotland under her Early Kings; Skene's Celtic Scotland.]
CONSTANTINE, GEORGE (1501?–1559), protestant reformer, born about 1501, was first brought up as a surgeon (Foxe, Acts and Monuments, ed. Townsend, vii. 753; Anderson, Annals of the English Bible, i. 188). He received his education in the university of Cambridge, and was bachelor of canon law in 1524 (Cooper, Athenæ Cantab. i. 205). Adopting the reformed doctrines he went to Antwerp, where he assisted Tyndal and Joye in the translation of the New Testament, and in the compilation of various books against the Roman church (Strype, Cranmer, p. 81, fol.) While in Brabant he practised for a year as a surgeon. About 1530 he was seized on a visit he made to England for the dispersion of prohibited books. He was placed in the custody of the lord chancellor, Sir Thomas More, and in order to escape punishment for heresy he made disclosures as to his associates abroad, and gave the names of ‘the shipmen who brought over many of these books, and the marks of the fardles, by which means the books were afterwards taken and burnt’ (Strype, Eccl. Memorials, i. 166, fol.) The chancellor is represented by one manuscript as having put his prisoner in the stocks, but a subsequent letter shows that this was another way of expressing that he was in irons (Anderson, i. 308). Constantine succeeded, however, in making his escape, and arrived at Antwerp on 6 Dec. 1531.
Venturing to return to London after More's death he entered into the service of Sir Henry Norris, who suffered on the scaffold with Queen Anne Boleyn. He next entered the ministry of the church of England, having obtained the vicarage of Lawhaden or Llanhuadairne, three miles north-west of Narberth, Pembrokeshire, under William Barlow, bishop of St. David's. About 1546 he became registrar of the diocese of St. David's, and in 1549 archdeacon of Carmarthen. Anticipating the public articles on the subject, he in 1549 pulled down the altar and set up a table in the middle of his church. This proceeding caused much murmuring among the people, and gave offence to the bishop, Robert Ferrar, who had not been consulted, and who commanded the vicar to place the communion-table on the spot formerly occupied by the altar. This was subsequently made one of the articles of accusation against Ferrar by Constantine and his son-in-law, Thomas Young (Strype, Eccl. Memorials, ii. 227, 228). They both sought for and obtained forgiveness
