The Northumbrian Attack on Brega in a.d. 684

Abstract

One of the most puzzling episodes in the history of Northumbria is the attack on Brega in the midlands of Ireland instigated by Ecgfrith, king of the Northumbrians, in the year before he died. Anglo-Saxon sources do not mention any reason for the attack. This chapter suggests that Ecgfrith’s motive lay in the nature of his kingdom at the time and that this explanation is consonant with Irish annalistic evidence.1