The English Christians overcame the Celtic divines of Iona, and in 710 even in Pictland they came into the customs of western Christianity.
Kenneth MacAlpine, though son of a Scottish father, was probably, though not certainly, a Pict on the mother's side, and in Pictland.
The consequence was that what had been Pictland came to be styled Scotland.
These seven earls appear to represent the old rulers of the seven provinces of Pictland, and asserted ancient claims to elect a king.
There are good reasons for supposing that the relics were origin ally in the collection of Acca, bishop of Hexham, who took them into Pictland when he was driven from Hexham (c. 732), and founded a see, not, according to tradition, in Galloway, but on the site of St Andrews.