Ceretic of Alt Clut

Ceretic Guletic of Alt Clut was a king of Alt Clut (modern Dumbarton) in the fifth century. He appears in the writings of Saint Patrick with the Latin name "Coroticus", and this appearance in a contemporary historical source makes him the first historical king. Of Patrick's two surviving letters, one is addressed to the warband of this Coroticus. Bemoaning the capture and enslavement of newly Christianised Irish and their sale to non-Christians, Patrick includes the imprecation: [Citation
last=Todd
first=James Henthorn
author-link=
date=1863
editor-last=
editor-first=
contribution=
title=St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland
volume=
edition=
publisher=Hodges, Smith, & Co.
publication-date=1864
publication-place=Dublin
page=384
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=um44AAAAMAAJ
access-date=2008-08-04]

Soldiers whom I no longer call my fellow citizens, or citizens of the Roman saints, but fellow citizens of the devils, in consequence of their evil deeds; who live in death, after the hostile rite of the barbarians; associates of the Scots and Apostate Picts; desirous of glutting themselves with the blood of innocent Christians, multitudes of whom I have begotten in God and confirmed in Christ.

Patrick implies that Coroticus and his men are non-Christian Britons, as they are "associates" of Scots (at that time, the term applied exclusively to the Irish) and Picts: Britons were the only other people in that area at that time. Further, the "Apostate Picts" are the Southern Picts converted by Saint Ninian and ministered to by Palladius, and who had subsequently left Christianity. The Northern Picts were later converted by Saint Columba in the sixth century, and as they were not yet Christian, they could not be called "apostate". [Citation
last=Lanigan
first=John
author-link=John Lanigan
date=1822
editor-last=
editor-first=
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title=An Ecclesiastical History of Ireland
volume=I
edition=
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publication-date=1822
publication-place=Dublin
page=299 (footnote 103)
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=0AoHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA437
access-date=2008-07-30]

Ceretic's dates therefore depend on the conclusions of the vast scholarship devoted to discovering the "floruit" of St Patrick, but the sometime in the fifth century is probably safe. Ceretic appears also in the "Harleian genealogies" of the rulers of Alt Clut, from which we know his father (Cynloyp), grandfather (Cinhil) and great-grandfather (Cluim). [ [http://www.kmatthews.org.uk/history/harleian_genealogies/5.html Harleian genealogy 5] ; see also, Williams, Smyth, and Kirby (eds.), "A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain", (London, 1991), s.v. "Ceretic", pp. 78-8 ] It is from the latter source that we get his nickname, "Guletic" ("Land-holder"). In the Book of Armagh, he is called "Coirthech rex Aloo", "Ceretic, King of the Height [of the Clyde] " [ Alan MacQuarrie, "The Kings of Strathclyde", in A. Grant & K.Stringer (eds.) "Medieval Scotland: Crown, Lordship and Community, Essays Presented to G.W.S. Barrow", (Edinburgh, 1993), p. 3.]

Notes

References

* Smyth, Alfred, "Warlords and Holy Men", (Edinburgh, 1984)
* MacQuarrie, Alan, "The Kings of Strathclyde", in A. Grant & K.Stringer (eds.) "Medieval Scotland: Crown, Lordship and Community, Essays Presented to G.W.S. Barrow", (Edinburgh, 1993), pp. 1-19.
* Williams, Anne, Smyth, Alfred P., and Kirby, D.P., (eds.), "A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain", (London, 1991), s.v. "Ceretic", pp. 78-8

External links

* [http://www.kmatthews.org.uk/history/harleian_genealogies/5.html Harleian genealogy 5]
* [http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/bios/ceretisc.html David Nash Ford's "Early British Kingdoms"]