The battle scene from the Aberlemno Pictish stone, generally presumed to show the Battle of Dun Nechtain, Picts on the left, Northumbrians on the right, the mounted Pictish figure perhaps representing King Bridei

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, i.e. maternal first cousin. Bridei's mother was probably a daughter of King Edwin of Deira.^[1]

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 Orkney Islands were "destroyed" by Bridei ("Orcades deletae sunt la Bruide"). It is also recorded that, in the following year, in 683, War broke out between Bridei and the Scots of Dál Riata under Máel Dúin mac Conaill and Bridei's Picts. The Scots attacked Dundurn in Strathearn. Dundurn was Bridei's main powerbase in the south, a great 'nuclear' hilltop fortress.The Scots apparently did not take Dundurn, and Bridei backed up with an attack on Dunadd, the capital of Dal Riata. We do not know if Bridei took Dunadd, but the presence of Pictish-style carvings of that time period in Dunadd may mean that he took and occupied Dunadd. The lack of reputable contemporary sources of this conflict means that not much is known about the Scottish-Pict war of 683. But 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 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",^[2] 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 in Fife and Circinn, 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.

Later traditions attributed a surviving lament for Bridei's death to Saint Adomnán, abbot of Iona.^[3]

References [edit]

Bibliography [edit]

External links [edit]

• Annals of Tigernach
• Annals of Ulster (translated)
• Historia Brittonum (translated)

v t e Pictish and Scottish monarchs Monarchs of the Picts (traditional) Drest I Talorc I Nechtan I Drest II Galan Erilich Drest III Drest IV Gartnait I Cailtram Talorc II Drest V Galam Cennalath Bridei I Gartnait II Nechtan II Cinioch Gartnait III Bridei II Talorc III Talorgan I Gartnait IV Drest VI Bridei III Taran Bridei IV Nechtan III Drest VII Alpín I Óengus I Bridei V Ciniod I Alpín II Talorgan II Drest VIII Conall Constantine (I) Óengus II Drest IX Uuen Uurad Bridei VI Ciniod II Bridei VII Drest X Monarchs of the Scots (traditional) Kenneth I MacAlpin Donald I Constantine I (II) Áed Giric Eochaid (doubtful) Donald II Constantine II (III) Malcolm I Indulf Dub Cuilén Amlaíb Kenneth II Constantine III (IV) Kenneth III Malcolm II Duncan I Macbeth Lulach Malcolm III Canmore Donald III Duncan II Donald III Edgar Alexander I David I Malcolm IV William I the Lion Alexander II Alexander III Margaret (disputed) First Interregnum John Second Interregnum Robert the Bruce (I) David II Robert II Robert III James I James II James III James IV James V Mary I James VI1 Charles I1 Charles II1 James VII1 Mary II1 William II1 Anne1 1 also monarch of England and Ireland.