Battle of Faughart
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (May 2010) |
Battle of Dundalk Battle of Dundalk[1] | |||||||
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Part of the Bruce campaign in Ireland | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Kingdom of Scotland and Gaelic allies | Lordship of Ireland and Gaelic allies | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Edward Bruce † |
John de Bermingham Edmund Butler | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
2,000 and thousands of dispersed reinforcements | c. 20,000 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
30 knights and more than 80 men-at-arms killed[2] | Light |
The Battle of Faughart (or Battle of Dundalk
A united Gaelic realm
Although King Robert's victory over King Edward II of England at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 had effectively secured the independence of the Kingdom of Scotland, it did not bring the Scots' war with England any closer to an end. Even repeated Scots raids into the northern counties of England had little effect on an English king seemingly blind to political and military realities. Something more decisive was needed to end the stalemate. It came in 1315 with an invitation from Ireland.
Since the time of
King Robert, who long maintained political and personal contacts with the aristocrats of
High King
Bruce was joined by several local chieftains and gained some early successes against the Anglo-Irish aristocracy. He won his first engagement near Jonesborough in the Moyry Pass and sacked nearby Dundalk on 29 June. Bruce was able to exploit disputes between his two leading opponents—Richard de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, and Edmund Butler, Earl of Carrick in the Peerage of Ireland and Justiciar of Ireland, and defeat them piecemeal. De Burgh, King Robert's own father-in-law, was routed at the Battle of Connor in County Antrim on 10 September, and Butler at the Battle of Skerries in Kildare on 1 February 1316. Edward was then secure enough to proceed to Dundalk, where he was crowned High King on the hill of Maledon on 2 May 1316.
By the spring of 1316, it looked as if the Irish venture was to be a strategic success. It came, however, at the worst possible time. In Ireland, as elsewhere across much of Europe, the weather was so bad that the whole period was later likened to a mini ice-age. Historians refer to the "
Faughart
Unfortunately, the sources provide little in the way of detail and background for the Battle of Faughart. According to John Barbour, the Scottish chronicler, Edward Bruce was the architect of his own defeat, deciding to engage a larger enemy force (20,000 strong in his account) without waiting for reinforcements from Scotland, a view which finds some support in the Annals of Clonmacnoise, where it is recorded that "anxious to obtain the victory for himself, he did not wait for his [Sir John Stewart's] brother." He took up position on the rising ground at Faughart, not far from Dundalk, on 14 October. When his Irish allies objected to facing a stronger enemy force in battle Bruce responded by placing them in the rear, close to the top of the hill, leaving some 2000 Scots troops to face the enemy onslaught.
In contrast to Barbour, the
The Scots were in three columns at such a distance from each other that the first was done with before the second came up, and then the second before the third, with which Edward was marching could render any aid. Thus the third column was routed just as the two preceding ones had been. Edward fell at the same time and was beheaded after death; his body being divided into four quarters, which were sent to the four chief quarters of Ireland
We have no precise figures for the number slain, though it is known that thirty Scottish knights and more than eighty
While in some ways a failure, the Scottish adventure in Ireland did serve the purpose of Scotland's King Robert the Bruce, as never again were the English able to use a base in Ireland to mount an attack on the western seaboard of Scotland.[5]
Notes
- Clann Domhnaill.
Sources
Primary
- Annals of Clonmacnoise, translated by Connell MacGeoghegan (1627), ed. Denis Murphy (1896). The Annals of Clonmacnoise. Dublin: Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland.
- W. M. Hennessy (1871). The Annals of Loch Cé. Rolls Series 54. 2 vols. Dublin: Longman. (Available from CELT: Edition and translation of vol. 1 (s.a. 1014-1348); Edition and translationof vol. 2 (s.a. 1349-1590))
- Barbour, John, The Bruce, ed. A.A.M. Duncan, 1964
- The Lanercost Chronicle. ed. H. Maxwell, 1913
Secondary
- McNamee, C., The Wars of the Bruces. Scotland, England Ireland, 1306–1328, 1997
- Sayles, G.O. The Battle of Faughart, in Robert Bruce's Irish Wars, ed. S. Duffy, 2002
- Scott, Raold McNair Robert the Bruce, King of the Scots, 1987
References
- ^ D'Alton, John (1845). The history of Ireland: from the earliest period to the year 1245, Vol II. Published by the author. p. 49.
- ^ a b Bruce G. & Harbottle T.B. (1971) Harbottle's Dictionary of Battles (revised edition), Hart-Davis McGibbon Ltd.; Granada Publishing, London, 1979: 303 pp.
- ^ D'Alton, John (1845). The history of Ireland: from the earliest period to the year 1245, Vol II page 49 "...popularly called the battle of Dundalk...". Published by the author. p. 49.
- ^
Smith, Brendan; ISBN 9781108564625. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
King Robert (Bruce) had sent insinuating propagandists into [Ulster] even before his brother Edward had landed a Scots army at Larne in May 1315 [...].
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