De Situ Albanie facts for kids

De Situ Albanie (say "dee SIT-oo AL-ban-ee-ay"), often called dSA for short, is a very old Scottish document. It's the first of seven important papers found in a collection known as the Poppleton Manuscript. This manuscript is now kept in a famous library in Paris, France.

Historians believe De Situ Albanie was written sometime between 1202 and 1214, during the time William the Lion was King of Scotland. It was likely written by someone who lived in the northern part of Scotland (north of the River Forth) and spoke French. This document was probably created as an introduction to the whole collection of papers.

The title De Situ Albanie comes from the very first words of the document. These words explain that it's about "The situation of Albania, which has the shape of a man, how it was first divided into seven regions, by what names it was anciently called, and by whom it was inhabited."

Understanding Scotland's Seven Kingdoms

This ancient document aims to explain how Scotland, which it calls Albania, was divided. It tells a story that Albanactus, a son of a legendary figure named Brutus, had seven sons. When Albanactus died, his kingdom was supposedly split into seven parts, with each part going to one of his sons.

The writer of De Situ Albanie then lists these seven ancient kingdoms or regions, linking them to Albanactus's sons.

First List (from De Situ Albanie itself)

• Angus with the Mearns (called Enegus cum Moerne)
• Atholl and Gowrie (called Adtheodle et Gouerin)
• Strathearn with Menteith (called Sradeern cum Meneted)
• Fife with Fothriff (called Fif cum Fothreue)
• Mar with Buchan (called Marr cum Buchen)
• Moray and Ross (called Muref et Ross)
• Caithness on both sides of the mountains (called Cathanesia citra montem et ultra montem)

Another View: Bishop Andrew's List

The author of De Situ Albanie also mentions that Andrew, who was the Bishop of Caithness, shared a different list of these seven kingdoms. This second list doesn't quite match the first one. For example, in Bishop Andrew's list, the seventh kingdom is Argyll, not Caithness.

Second List (from Bishop Andrew)

• From the River Forth to the River Tay
• From the River Forth to a place called Hilef
• From Hilef to the Dee
• From the Dee to the River Spey
• From the River Spey to Druimm nAlban (which means 'Ridge of Scotland')
• Moray and Ross
• Argyll (called Arregaithel)

Interestingly, the writer of De Situ Albanie doesn't seem to notice that these two lists are different. Since the author was probably a Scotto-Norman (someone from Normandy who settled in Scotland), this might not be surprising. Some historians have suggested that the first list might be about church areas (bishoprics), while the second list might be more accurate about the actual ancient kingdoms. What we do know for sure is that people in medieval Scotland, especially the Gaels, had stories and legends about seven ancient kingdoms.

Why is De Situ Albanie Important Today?

We don't know exactly why the author wrote De Situ Albanie or put together the Poppleton Manuscript. However, it's often seen as part of a tradition of writers like Geoffrey of Monmouth, who wrote about ancient British history.

For a long time, De Situ Albanie was thought to be a very old and accurate look into the past of the Gaels and Picts (ancient people of Scotland). People often used it to understand the "seven ancient Kingdoms of Pictland." For example, some believed the first list showed what things were like in the 800s, when Argyll was part of Pictland. They thought the second list showed an even earlier time.

However, in recent years, historians have changed their minds about this. Experts like Isabel Henderson and Professor Dauvit Broun from the University of Glasgow have shown that De Situ Albanie probably has little to do with the Picts.

Instead, the document makes a lot more sense when we look at it from the early 1200s, when it was written. Much of the information in De Situ Albanie can actually be found in other Scottish documents within the same Poppleton Manuscript. For example, the names of seven sons of Cruithne (who might be the same as Albanactus) are mentioned in a list of Pictish kings that appears later in the manuscript. It's likely that Pictland didn't really have a structure of seven kingdoms, or if it did, the author of De Situ Albanie didn't know about it, except maybe through Bishop Andrew's information.

De Situ Albanie is still a very useful historical document for other reasons. It talks about how Scotland was seen as having the "shape of a man," discusses different languages, and shows how the Gaelic language (called Scottica) was connected to Scottish identity back then. Historian David Howlett has even suggested that the way the text is put together might be based on ideas from the Bible.