In the year 547AD, The Angle warrior king Ida wrested the British kingdom of Bryneich from the then King Morgant Bulc and renamed the kingdom Bernicia. In the following years he and his descendants fought bloody wars against the Britons and the Welsh, the Scots, the Picts and even their own kind, the Mercians.
At first they fought to retain the small coastal kingdom that they had captured, against the seemingly overwhelming forces arrayed against them. Then as more men came to join them in their struggle, the warrior army became stronger; they went on the offensive and kingdom after kingdom was conquered by flame and sword. It took many years, many battles and untold numbers of dead, but in the end by force of arms they forged the biggest and most powerful kingdom in Angle-land, the kingdom of Northumbria. At its peak Northumbria stretched coast to coast, from Sheffield in south Yorkshire, right up to the Firth of Forth in Scotland.
In the year 670AD, Ecgfrith became the king of Northumbria at the death of his father Oswiu. During his reign the kingdom was threatened by Mercia on the southern border and the Picts in the far north and Ecgfrith, a warrior king from a long line of such kings, fought in battles against both.
In 672AD the Pictish tribes gather in revolt and Ecgfrith together with sub king Beonhaeth, defeated a numerically superior army of tribesmen in a fiercely fought battle at the plain of Manau. The defeated Pictish tribes were put under tribute to Northumbria and the new sub kingdom of Lothian was created to protect the border.
672AD, and Ecgfrith was in battle again this time on the southern border, where he defeated Wulfhere of Mercia, seized Lindsey and forced Wulfhere to pay tribute.
679 AD Ecgfrith fought Aethelred of Mercia at the river Trent and his younger brother was killed, peace was restored and Lindsey given up when Theodore of Cantebury intervened.
685AD, Ecgfrith received word that the Pictish king Bridei mac Billi was gathering together the tribes. There is no record of why he was doing so, but it was possibly in preparation for an attack on Northumbria’s Lothian border. Whether it was or not, any gathering of the tribes would have been seen as a threat to the kingdom and Ecgfrith acted accordingly. He ordered the Fyrd raised and the men came in from the farms, the workshops and other places of employment and the army grew. (Northumbria like all Anglo-Saxon kingdoms had an army of experience warriors, but in time of battle the army was swelled by the Fyrd, a force of part time warriors, who would return to their jobs, when the battle was over).
Once the army was assembled Ecgfrith led them north, beyond the river Forth, across the river Tay and yet further northward to Dunnichen, where the Pictish army waited for them at Dunnichen Moss. King Bridei had formed up his army on the low-lying ground between two hills to await the army of Northumbria. That army arrived and as the Angles fell upon the tribesmen the battle of Nechtansmere began. The tribesmen fought well, but as Ecgfrith threw more men into the battle they were forced to give ground and scenting victory the Angles pushed them, until the inevitable happened. A few of the tribesmen fled and then a few more, until the whole of the Pictish army fled the battle and the victorious men of Northumbria chased after them.
But it was a trick, a trap. Prior to the arrival of Northumbrian army, king Bridei had split his forces and the other half of his army was hidden on the hills either side of the marsh. Drawn deep into the marsh between the hills the Northumbrians were struck by a hail of stones and spears, the lightly armoured Fyrd with only thin helmets and leather coats for protection fell in untold numbers and the more experience and heavily armoured warriors fared little better. Those that managed to run the gauntlet were either killed by the previously retreating tribesmen, or were drowned in the marsh.
Ecgfrith was killed in the battle and his army so badly decimated that from that day on, Northumbria never attempted to advance their borders beyond the line of the Forth.
