When Donald I died in April 862 the throne passed to his nephew Constantine I, son of Kenneth MacAlpin (Kenneth I). The peace that of Donald I’s reign ended during Constantine’s, Viking activity increased dramatically in Britain and Ireland.

Constantine’s reign in Scotland was one of the most violent and unstable periods in early Scottish history and coincided with the arrival of the Great Heathen Army in England (865) and the rise of the Norse kingdom in Dublin.