Everything about Bridei Iii Of The Picts totally explained
King
Bridei III (or
Bridei m. Beli;
O.Ir.:
Bruide mac Bili) (
616/
628?-
693) was king of
Fortriu and overking of the
Picts 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,
King of Alt Clut. His claim to the Fortrean Kingship came through his paternal grandfather, King
Nechtan of the Picts.
Nennius'
Historia Brittonum tells us that Bridei was King
Ecgfrith's
fratruelis, for example maternal first cousin. Bridei's mother was probably a daughter of King
Edwin of
Deira.
Bridei was one of the more expansionary and active of Fortrean monarchs. He attacked
Dunnottar in
680/
681, and campaigned against the
Orcadian sub-kingdom in
682, a campaign so violent that the
Annals of Ulster said that the Orkneys were "deleted" by Bridei ("
Orcades deletae sunt la Bruide"). It is also recorded that, in the following year, Bridei attacked
Dundurn in
Strathearn. It is clear that, from his base in Fortriu (or
Moray), 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 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 Dunnichen 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) and permanent Fortrean domination of the southern Pictish zone.
Bridei's death is recorded by both the
Annals of Ulster and the
Annals of Tigernach under the year
693.
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