Scotland
writing, was largely the same as the kingdom of the Scots in the reign of Alexander (11071124). However,
by the tenth century, the Pictish kingdom was dominated by what we can recognise as Gaelic culture, and had
developed an Irish conquest myth around the ancestor of the contemporary royal dynasty, Cined mac Ailpn
(Kenneth MacAlpin).
From a base of territory in eastern Scotland north of the River Forth and south of the River Oykel, the kingdom acquired
control of the lands lying to the north and south. By the 12th century, the kings of Alba had added to their territories the
Anglic-speaking land in the south-east and attained overlordship of Gaelic-speaking Galloway and Norse-speaking
Caithness; by the end of the 13th century, the kingdom had assumed approximately its modern borders. However,
processes of cultural and economic change beginning in the 12th century ensured Scotland looked very different in the
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