Talorcan mac Enfret (died 657) was a King of the Picts

Picts

The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...

 (653–657). He was the son of Eanfrith of Bernicia

Eanfrith of Bernicia

Eanfrith was briefly King of Bernicia from 633 to 634. He was the son of Æthelfrith, a Bernician king who had also ruled Deira to the south before being killed in battle around 616 against Raedwald of East Anglia, who had given refuge to Edwin, an exiled prince of Deira.Edwin became king of...

, who had fled into exile among the Picts after his father, Æthelfrith of Northumbria

Æthelfrith of Northumbria

Æthelfrith was King of Bernicia from c. 593 until c. 616; he was also, beginning c. 604, the first Bernician king to also rule Deira, to the south of Bernicia. Since Deira and Bernicia were the two basic components of what would later be defined as Northumbria, Æthelfrith can be considered, in...

, was killed around the year 616. Eanfrith married a Pictish princess, and their son was Talorcan.

Talorcan became king in 653; in the next year, he defeated and killed Dúnchad mac Conaing

Dúnchad mac Conaing

Dúnchad mac Conaing was king of Dál Riata . He was joint ruler with Conall Crandomna until he was defeated and killed by Talorcan, king of the Picts, in the battle of Strath Ethairt...

, king of the Dál Riata

Dál Riata

Dál Riata was a Gaelic overkingdom on the western coast of Scotland with some territory on the northeast coast of Ireland...

 Scots

Scottish people

The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...

, in battle at Strath Ethairt. It has been suggested that this battle may have been part of a traditional "inaugural raid" against hostile neighbors to mark the beginning of a king's rule. Talorcan was the nephew of the powerful Oswiu of Northumbria

Oswiu of Northumbria

Oswiu , also known as Oswy or Oswig , was a King of Bernicia. His father, Æthelfrith of Bernicia, was killed in battle, fighting against Rædwald, King of the East Angles and Edwin of Deira at the River Idle in 616...

; Oswiu is reported by Bede to have "for the most part subdued and made tributary" the Picts (along with the Scots), and it is possible that Talorcan was subject to Oswiu.