Brude III of Pictes

Brude or Bridei mac Bili King of Pictes of 672 with 693.

Brude mac Bili was selected as king following a national and religious reaction of the Pictes against the interventions of the Angles of Northumbrie under the preceding reigns.

The new king was the son of Bili a king of Strathclyde. He was also the grandson of the former king picte Nechtan nepos Uerb but also the uncle de Dunugual or Domnall mac Hoan (+ 694) which reigned then with Dumbarton.

Brude was also according to the Historia Brittonum a “cousin” of Ecgfrith whose father Oswy had married a Breton princess Rienmeleth girl of Royth (towards 620) and little girl of Urien king of Rheged (570 - 590) whose family was probably allied it also with that which reigned on the Strathclyde. More directly the mother of Brude was can be a sister of Talorgan mac Enfret. Brude was thus carried to the throne of king of the Pictes after the expulsion of Drust mac Donnel into 672. Do Irish Annals raise that in 676 of many Pictes perished drowned in Lann Abae (?) undoubtedly at the time of a nauvrage.

A bishop named Trumwine had settled in 681 on left bank of the Firth off Forth with the monastery of Abercorn in order to create the embryo of a diocese intended for the alive Pictes under the government of the Angles.

As of 681 king Brude took again the old fortress picte Dunnotar in Circenn. The following year it gathered an important fleet and destroyed the increasing maritime power of the pictes the Orkneys. Finally in 683, it made the seat of " Dun At" (Dunadd) it capital of Scots and " Dun Duirn" and their vassalage made sure and of their alliance.

During this time, after having organized in 684 a forwarding in Ireland condemned by Bède Worthy the him even, the king Ecgfrith in order to perennialize its conquests but against the opinion of its advisers decided to invade the country of Pictes. Its army crossed without meeting resistance the Forth and the river Tay and penetrated deeply in Fortriu which seemed to be its objective. It was encircled in the hills of Dunnichen in the south of Forfar in Angus and was destroyed saturdays May 20th 685 with the Bataille of Nechtansmere. (686 & 685). The king, the duke Beornheth as well as most of their army lost the life in this engagement, and the offensive character of the kingdom northumbrien was broken for a long time by this disaster.

After its victory over the angles, Brude reigned until its death in 693 on the Pictes it however is regarded by the chronicles primarily as a king of Fortriu. Its body was transported to Iona, where already that of its enemy Ecgfrith rested, and was buried by Adomnan ninth abbot of Iona since 679.

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