BRENNUS
There were two Gaulish chiefs of this name, both leaders of invasions. It is possible that “Brennus” was a title, meaning dux bellorum or “commander-in-chief” rather than a personal name.
Diodorus Siculus tells us about the second Gaulish King Brennus, who lived in the third century BC:
Brennus the King of the Gauls, on entering a temple [at Delphi in Greece] found no dedications of gold or silver, and when he came only upon images of stone and wood, he laughed at them [the Greeks], to think that men, believing that gods have human form, should set up their images in wood and stone.
The implication is that the more sophisticated Gauls did not think of the gods in anthropomorphic terms and this tallies with their art, much of which at that time did not feature humanoid forms.
It was an earlier Gaulish King Brennus, who was the King of the Senones tribe, who led the Celtic warriors in the sack of Rome in 387 BC. He caused more havoc there than would be seen again until Alaric the Goth descended on the city in the fifth century AD. Brennus demanded his own weight in gold, with the cry, “Vae Victis!” (“Woe to the defeated!”) He was interested in loot rather than conquest, which was perhaps unfortunate in the longer term, though the Celts remained a force to reckon with in Italy until 295 BC.
BRIDEI
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.
BRIGANTES
An Iron Age tribe in the north of England. At the time of the Roman invasion, Queen Cartimandua was their ruler; she had a treaty arrangement with Rome.
BRIGHID
See Religion: Brighid.
BRIOC
St. Brioc was born in 468 in the West Wales kingdom of Ceretigan (or in Latin Coriticiana, modern Cardigan). He was the son of Cerpus and Eldruda. He performed various miracles, including rescuing a stag from a king in Ceretigan.
In about 510 he sailed away with 168 companions to a port in Cornwall and converted King Conan (or Kynan) and his people to Christianity. Later he crossed the Channel to Brittany, but went back to Ceretigan again to comfort his people when plague struck them in 547.
The Cornish port was probably on the Camel estuary: St. Brioc’s (now St. Breock’s) parish is very large, covering the area south of Padstow. Recently a Dark Age port has been uncovered on the Camel estuary near Padstow.
BROICHAN
The wizard of the Pictish King Bridei. Broichan covered Loch Ness with darkness and raised a storm so that for a time St. Columba was unable to set sail on the lake (See Magicians).
BRUDEUS
See Bridei.
BRYCHAN
See Nectan, Theodoric.
BRYNACH
Brynach or Bernacus was of noble birth, and probably Welsh rather than Irish. He visited Rome and killed a dragon. He returned by way of Brittany to Milford Haven in south-west Wales. There he resisted attempts at seduction and founded many churches. He resisted a demand from Maelgwn for food and managed to secure a grant from him exempting him from future royal exactions.
CADFAN
A king of Gwynedd who died in about 620 or 630. The Llangadwaladr Stone on the island of Anglesey is his memorial. Translated from some oddly laid-out Latin, the inscription reads “Cadfan, wisest king, most renowned of all kings.” The lettering suggests a date around 620, which fits with the information in the Welsh Annals, to the effect that Cadfan’s father died in 616 and his son Cadwallon was killed in 633 by Oswald of Northumbria. This is his genealogy: Cadfan, son of Iago, son of Beli, son of Rhun, son of Maelgwn of Gwynedd.
CADO
See Geraint.
CADOC OF LANCARFAN
Son of Gwynnliw of Glevissig, educated at Caerwent, Cadoc refused the royal scepter of Penychen because of his commitment to the Church and was granted Llancarfen by Paul Penychen; there he built Castil Kadoci, perhaps to be identified as Castle Ditches near Llancarfen. Much later he left Llancarfen to Elli of Llanelli and moved to Beneventum (possibly Abergavenny), where he was visited annually by Elli and became bishop under the name Sophias.
He visited Rome in the time of Pope John III (560–72). He also visited Jerusalem, Cornwall, and Brittany. He acquired Gildas’ bell, though Gildas refused to surrender it to Cadoc until he was ordered to do so by Pope Alexander; he also acquired the Gospel book that Gildas wrote while studying at Nantcarvan for a year while Cadoc was away in Scotland.
He was finally martyred “by the soldiers of a cruel king.”
Cadoc has more church dedications than any other Welsh saint except David