Bridei III of the Picts
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Fortriu
Fortriu or the Kingdom of Fortriu is the name given by historians for an ancient Pictish kingdom, and often used synonymously with Pictland in general...
and overking 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...
between 671 and his death in 693.
Bridei may have been born as early as 616, but no later than the year 628. He was the son of Beli
Beli I of Alt Clut
Beli I was a ruler of Alt Clut , the Brythonic kingdom later known as Strathclyde, some time in the 7th century. Very little is known of him, but his family appears to have been very well connected in northern Britain....
, King of Alt Clut. His claim to the Fortrean Kingship came through his paternal grandfather, King Nechtan
Nechtan II of the Picts
Nechtan grandson of Uerb, was king of the Picts from 597 to around 620. It has been suggested that this Nechtan is the same person as the Neithon who ruled the kingdom of Alt Clut.According to the Pictish Chronicle, Nechtan reigned for 20 or 21 years...
of the Picts. Nennius
Nennius
Nennius was a Welsh monk of the 9th century.He has traditionally been attributed with the authorship of the Historia Brittonum, based on the prologue affixed to that work, This attribution is widely considered a secondary tradition....
' Historia Brittonum tells us that Bridei was King Ecgfrith
Ecgfrith of Northumbria
King Ecgfrith was the King of Northumbria from 670 until his death. He ruled over Northumbria when it was at the height of its power, but his reign ended with a disastrous defeat in which he lost his life.-Early life:...
's fratruelis, i.e. maternal first cousin. Bridei's mother was probably a daughter of King Edwin
Edwin of Northumbria
Edwin , also known as Eadwine or Æduini, was the King of Deira and Bernicia – which later became known as Northumbria – from about 616 until his death. He converted to Christianity and was baptised in 627; after he fell at the Battle of Hatfield Chase, he was venerated as a saint.Edwin was the son...
of Deira.
Bridei was one of the more expansionary and active of Fortrean monarchs. He attacked Dunnottar
Dunnottar Castle
Dunnottar Castle is a ruined medieval fortress located upon a rocky headland on the north-east coast of Scotland, about two miles south of Stonehaven. The surviving buildings are largely of the 15th–16th centuries, but the site is believed to have been an early fortress of the Dark Ages...
in 680/681, and campaigned against the Orcadian sub-kingdom in 682, a campaign so violent that the Annals of Ulster
Annals of Ulster
The Annals of Ulster are annals of medieval Ireland. The entries span the years between AD 431 to AD 1540. The entries up to AD 1489 were compiled in the late 15th century by the scribe Ruaidhrí Ó Luinín, under his patron Cathal Óg Mac Maghnusa on the island of Belle Isle on Lough Erne in the...
said that the Orkney Islands were "destroyed" by Bridei ("Orcades deletae sunt la Bruide"). It is also recorded that, in the following year, Bridei attacked Dundurn in Strathearn
Strathearn
Strathearn or Strath Earn is the strath of the River Earn, in Scotland. It extends from Loch Earn in Perth and Kinross to the River Tay....
. It is clear that, from his base in Fortriu (or Moray
Moray
Moray is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland.- History :...
), Bridei was establishing his overlordship of the lands to the north, and those to the south, perhaps putting himself in a position to attack the Anglian
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
possessions (or overlordship) which existed in the far south.
It is very possible then that Bridei was regarded by Ecgfrith as his sub-king. The traditional interpretation is that Bridei severed this relationship, causing the invervention of Ecgfrith. This led to the famous Battle of Dun Nechtain in 685, in which the Anglo-Saxon army of Ecgfrith was annihilated. One Irish source reports that Bridei was "fighting for his grandfather's inheritance", suggesting that either Ecgfrith was challenging Bridei's kingship, or more likely given Bridei's earlier campaigns, that Bridei was seeking to recover the territories ruled by his grandfather, but since taken by the English. The consequences of this battle were the expulsion of Northumbrians from southern Pictland (established through, for instance, the Anglian "Bishopric of the Picts" at Abercorn
Abercorn
Abercorn is a village and parish in West Lothian, Scotland. Close to the south coast of the Firth of Forth, the village is around west of South Queensferry.-History:...
) and permanent Fortrean domination of the southern Pictish zone.
Bridei's death is recorded by both the Annals of Ulster
Annals of Ulster
The Annals of Ulster are annals of medieval Ireland. The entries span the years between AD 431 to AD 1540. The entries up to AD 1489 were compiled in the late 15th century by the scribe Ruaidhrí Ó Luinín, under his patron Cathal Óg Mac Maghnusa on the island of Belle Isle on Lough Erne in the...
and the Annals of Tigernach
Annals of Tigernach
The Annals of Tigernach is a chronicle probably originating in Clonmacnoise, Ireland. The language is a mixture of Latin and Old and Middle Irish....
under the year 693.
Later traditions attributed a surviving lament for Bridei's death to Saint Adomnán, abbot of Iona
Abbot of Iona
The Abbot of Iona was the head of Iona Abbey during the Middle Ages and the leader of the monastic community of Iona, as well as the overlord of scores of monasteries in both Scotland and Ireland, including Durrow, Kells and, for a time, Lindisfarne...
.