Brian was also greatly helped by the fact that two years before his first campaign in Ulster, in the year 1003, the brutal battle of Craeb Telcha had taken place between the Northern Uí Néill and the Ulaid, in which the king of the Cenél Eoghain and of the Uí Neill was killed and most of the Ulaid royal bloodline was wiped out, with the Uí Néill gaining victory. This then led to a bloody war of succession within and between the clans of the Ulaid, and together with further attacks from the Uí Néill, led to the kingdom being severely weakened. Brian accepted the submission of the Cenel Eoghain king in 1005 and later accepted the submission of many of the Ulaid clans at a sacred Ulaid site, Emain Macha.