Born at the height of the reign of the house of Neithon in 632 was Princess Der-Ilei ferch Beli, the daughter of Lord Beli map Neithon the King of Alt Clut. Beli's eldest brother had been Prince Foith map Neithon, the father of the preceding three Pictish Kings, Gartnait, Brude and Talorgan. Foith map Neithon had been a warband leader of the King of the Pictish King of Ath Foithla, allied with the northern Britons in their war against the Angeln Deira in the early 7th century. This history was written down by Welsh Druids in the Lore Tract Y Gododdin. In it, Foith was described as a steadfast warrior. His father had been Guipno a King of Alt Clut, himself a son of the Pictish King, Erp.
Princess Der-Ilei gave birth to at least eleven children all of the royal line of Neithon map Guipno map Erp.
With King Brude map Beli's death in 692, the way was opened up for Princess Der-Ilei's many sons to compete for the throne. What followed was decades of war and dynastic strife that lasted from 693 with the accession of King Taran. In the year 709 King Nechtan map Der-Ilei wrote a letter to Bishop Ceolfrith of Northumbria, an act that would soon tear the Pictish kingdom apart. The four-sided civil war that followed pitched brother against brother, and did not end until King Nechtan resumed his reign in 729 with the backing of his cousin Prince Oengus map Fergus.
It was during the reign of King Oengus that Pictland and Dal Riata were first united under one ruler. Then for another 30 years, the twin realms lived in contentious peace until Oengus died in 761. Then the two kingdoms again went their separate ways, but the dream of a united kingdom of Picts and Gaels never went away.
The enduring legacy of these three individuals; Der-Ilei ferch Beli, Nechtan map Der-Ilei, and Oengus map Fergus created a dynastic family that has lasted for more than 1000 years. This then is the story of the destiny of the Picts, shaped by three extraordinary individuals who together in a period of just over 100 years did much to bring about the birth of the modern nation of Scotland.
