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ACHAIUS, or ACHAYUS,
or EOCHY,
the son of King Ethwin, or Ewen, succeeded to the crown of Scotland in
788, upon the death of Solvatius, or Selvach. Before his accession to the
throne, he lived familiarly with the nobles, and was well acquainted with
the causes of their mutual feuds. It was, therefore, the first act of his
reign to reconcile the chiefs with one another, and check the turbulent
spirit which their animosities had engendered. No sooner had he succeeded
in thus reconciling his subjects, than he was called upon to take measures
to repel an aggression of the predatory Irish. A number of banditti from
Ireland, who infested the district of Kintyre, in the west of Scotland,
having been completely routed by the inhabitants, the Irish nation was
highly exasperated, and resolved to revenge the injury done to them.
Achalus despatched an ambassador to soften their rage, but before he had
time to return from his fruitless mission, an immense number of Irish
plundered and laid waste the island of Isla.
These
depredators were all drowned when returning home with their spoil, and
such was the terror which this calamity inspired into the Irish, that they
immediately sued for peace, which was generously granted them by the king
of Scotland. A short time after the conclusion of this treaty, the emperor
Charlemagne sent an ambassador to Achaius, requesting the Scots king to
enter into a strict alliance with him against the English, who, in the
language of the envoy, "shamefully filled both sea and land with their
piracies, and bloody invasions." After much hesitation and debate among
the king’s counsellors, the alliance was unanimously agreed to, and
Achaius sent his brother William, along with Clement, John Scotus, Raban,
and Alcuin, a native of the north of England, four of the most learned men
then in Scotland, together with an army of four thousand men, to accompany
the French ambassador to Paris, where the alliance was concluded, on terms
very favourable to the Scots. In order to perpetuate the remembrance of
this event, Achains added to the arms of Scotland a double field sowed
with lilies. After assisting Hungus, king of the Picts, to repel an
aggression of Athelstane, king of the West Saxons, Achaius spent the rest
of his reign in cornplete tranquillity, and died in 819, distinguished for
his piety and wisdom.—Brewster’s Edin. Encyc. |
