Читать книгу The Element Encyclopedia of the Celts - Rodney Castleden - Страница 63

King of the Picts, who reigned from 555 to 584. He is the only British king from the fifth or sixth centuries to be mentioned in a chronicle on the European mainland. Bede describes him as rex potentissimus, “most powerful king,” which suggests that the Picts had their own overking. Bridei, or Brudeus, was a son of Maelgwn, King of Gwynedd, and he was elected king. The Picts would not have chosen an obscure or low-ranking person as their king, and Maelgwn, we know, was an overking. Pictish succession passed through the female line, so it is likely that for him to be eligible for the Pictish throne; Bridei’s mother or grandmother was a Pict. In fact Welsh tradition has it that Maelgwn’s mother was a Pict.

Bridei’s high reputation among the Picts rests on a great military victory won in 560. Gabran, King of Dal Riada, had taken a large area of Pictland and, by defeating him in 560, Bridei won most or all of this land back and once more united the northern and southern Picts.

St. Columba visited him and asked Broichan, his chief magician, to set free his Irish slave girl.

Bridei was eventually killed in 584 during a rebellion of the southern Picts.