Edward Bruce

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Edward Bruce's grave in Faughart Cemetery

Edward Bruce, 1st Earl of Carrick ( Central Irish Edubard a Briuis ; * around 1280 ; † October 14, 1318 at Faughart near Dundalk ) was a Scottish nobleman and military. A skilled military man, he supported his brother Robert as he won the Scottish crown during the Scottish War of Independence . His later attempt to conquer Ireland with the help of his brother and to rise to the rank of High King of Ireland failed completely.

Origin, childhood and youth

Edward Bruce came from the Scottish Bruce family , who owned extensive estates in southern Scotland and northern England. He was probably the third or fourth oldest son of Robert de Brus, Earl of Carrick and his wife Marjorie, Countess of Carrick . Presumably his father named him after the English King Edward I. Almost nothing is known about Edward's childhood, except that he grew up with a befriended Irish family for a time. Like his older brothers Robert and Neil , he probably spent part of his childhood with friendly Gaelic families in south-west and west Scotland. After the Scottish King Alexander III. had died without surviving sons, his grandfather Robert de Brus claimed the Scottish throne. In 1292, however, John Balliol was determined. When the war between Scotland and England broke out in 1296, Edward's father was on the English side. During the war in Scotland in 1304, young Edward was an Esquire in the retinue of the Prince of Wales , the English heir to the throne.

Supporting his brother Robert's rebellion

Edward's brother Robert murdered John Comyn of Badenoch in February 1306 and rose to be King of Scots in March as heir to his grandfather. In doing so, he openly rebelled against the rule of the English King Edward I in Scotland. Edward quickly became involved in this fight and, like his siblings, supported his brother. According to the poet John Barbour , Robert is said to have sent him as a messenger to John Comyn before the murder, while according to other sources these were his brothers Thomas and Alexander . The contingent of Robert Bruce was defeated in June 1306 by English troops in the battle of Methven . Robert and his family fled to western Scotland and probably on to the Hebrides or Ireland. By February 1307, his brothers Neil, Thomas and Alexander fell into the hands of the English and were executed, making Edward Robert's only surviving brother. Edward was probably one of Robert's closest supporters when he was waging a guerrilla war against the English in southern Scotland in the summer of 1307. After the death of Edward I in July 1307, his son and successor Edward II returned to England in September. This eased the pressure on the Scottish rebels, whereupon Robert Bruce led a successful campaign against his opponents in northern Scotland. Possibly Edward took part in the campaign and led the contingent against the Earl of Buchan in late 1307 when Robert fell ill. Presumably, however, he had raised an army among the inhabitants of the Scottish west coast from autumn 1307. Supported by Donald of Islay , Edward attacked Robert's opponents in Galloway, southwest Scotland, with this army from June 21, 1308 . In a short and brilliant but cruel and vengeful campaign, Edward overran the region. The area has been looted, with many residents being killed or driven to flight. Allegedly he was able to defeat a superior army of the English and their Scottish allies on the Cree or Dee . Noble Dungal Macdowell escaped with his family, but numerous other nobles were killed. However, since a number of castles in Galloway were still in English hands, Edward retreated north, thereby conquering Rutherglen Castle . After December 1308, Edward was able to conquer Bothwell Castle .

Military service in the war against England

In March 1309 Edward took part in his brother's parliament at St Andrews , which confirmed him as king. Edward was referred to as the Lord of Galloway , although the region was still contested. There Edward fought on in the next few years against the English, but not he, but Thomas Randolph became the leading military and advisor to Robert I. Randolph was appointed deputy to the king and in 1312 made Earl of Moray . Edward Bruce was promoted to Earl of Carrick before October 1313 , but his possessions were far more modest and less privileged than those of Moray. According to Barbour, Edward Bruce is said to have conquered Dundee at the beginning of April 1312 , but he probably played only a minor role in this, because the city surrendered to terms that the inhabitants had agreed with Robert I after a siege. With the conquest of Dumfries Castle Edward Bruce was able to complete the conquest of Galloway in February 1313. After James Douglas had captured Roxburgh Castle in a surprise attack at the end of February 1314 , Robert I commissioned his brother Carrick to grind down the fortifications so that the castle could no longer serve as a base for the English. From April 16, 1314, Carrick raided the northern English Cumberland with a force after this region was in default with the agreed ransom payments. The Scots burned towns and villages, murdered the inhabitants and stole the cattle. According to Barbour, Carrick is said to have unsuccessfully besieged Stirling Castle in the spring of 1313 . He is said to have given up the siege after the crew had promised to surrender by June 24, 1314 if the castle were not appalled by an English army. This period is believed to have led to the English campaign in the early summer of 1314 and the Battle of Bannockburn , but this representation is considered outdated. In fact, it was not until March or April 1314 that a Scottish army besieged the castle, and Carrick took charge of the siege after his raid on Cumberland. Then, presumably in May 1314, he concluded an armistice with the crew on the condition that they would surrender by June 24 if they did not receive relief. At this time, however, the preparations for the British campaign had long been underway. Against the English attack, Robert I raised a Scottish army, which was divided into three battalions. Carrick was the commandant of the battalion against which the main English attack was directed at the Battle of Bannockburn on June 23. The Scottish armed forces set up as Schiltron successfully withstood the onslaught of the English knights, but nothing is known about Carrick's role in the battle except his command. It was not until August 1, 1314 that he was together with Douglas leader of a large Scottish armed force that plundered Northumberland , extorted ransom from County Durham and then continued plundering or extorting ransom over north-west England to Scotland.

Potential successor to his brother

After the Battle of Bannockburn, the captured English Earl of Hereford was exchanged for Elizabeth de Burgh , the wife of Robert I, and his daughter Marjorie from his first marriage, who had been in English captivity since 1306 . Since Robert I had not yet had a legitimate son, he settled his succession in the event of his death at a council meeting on April 27, 1315 in Ayr . Thereafter, if he died without a surviving son, Carrick would be his successor. Should he leave behind an underage son, it was not Carrick but Moray who should take over the reign for him. At this time Edward was already negotiating with the chiefs and petty kings of Ulster , who traditionally had ties to western Scotland and were fighting against English rule in Ireland . The Ayr Assembly presumably approved Carrick's decision to move to Ireland with a Scottish army, where he would rise to the rank of High King and drive the English out of the country.

Carrickfergus Castle in Ulster played an important role in Edward Bruce's attempt to conquer Ireland

Attempt to conquer Ireland

Landing in Ulster and initial successes

In agreement with his brother, Carrick planned to land in Ireland with a Scottish army in order to conquer their own kingdom there. He hoped the rival Irish Gaelic chiefs and petty kings would recognize his supremacy. With their help, he would be strong enough to conquer Dublin and other centers of English rule. An Ireland ruled by him would also serve Scotland, as Ireland served the English as a base for attacks on western Scotland. On May 26, 1315, Carrick landed at Carrickfergus along with Moray and a small but well-trained army . As early as June 1315, he was recognized by Irish chiefs, including Domhnaill O'Neill of Ulster, as the High King, although according to numerous sources this recognition did not take place until May 1316. Then Carrick hesitated for a month before pushing his army into Airgialla . After leaving Ulster, his army looted and burned the settlements. In the bloody battle of Dundalk at the end of June he defeated an army of the Anglo-Irish justiciary Edmund Butler . Then he led his army south to Louth before retiring to Coleraine and Connor . There he was able to beat another Anglo-Irish army under the Earl of Ulster . Then Carrick could consolidate his position in Ulster, although the mighty Carrickfergus Castle had not yet been conquered. At the end of 1315 he advanced again to the south, where he reunited with Moray and other Scottish reinforcements at Dundalk . He bypassed Dublin, pulled through the Wicklow Mountains, and pushed almost to Carlow . At Ardscull or at Skerries he struck a poorly managed English contingent before he retired to Ulster in February 1316. Only at the end of August 1316 did Carrickfergus Castle surrender, after Edward had probably received support from his brother and the castle had also been blocked from the sea side. Together with Robert I. Carrick returned from Ireland to Scotland, where he took part in a council meeting in Cupar on September 16, 1316 . He and other Scottish magnates sealed a royal charter that confirmed the possessions of Moray. This is seen as an indication that the relationship between Carrick and Moray had become strained.

Failure in Ireland and death

At the end of 1316 Carrick was back in Ireland. Since privateers like Thomas Dun allied with him controlled the Irish Sea , he sent a letter to the Welsh in which he encouraged them to rebel against English rule. According to his hope, the Gaelic peoples of the British Isles, namely the Scots, the Irish and the Welsh should fight together against the English rule. He promised the Welsh his support if they would recognize him as Prince of Wales . Carrick received support from Franciscans from Ulster, who wrote a protest letter to Pope John XXII for English misconduct . sent. These protests, known as remonstrances , only mention Carrick in passing, since he had promised as King that he would respect and protect the privileges of the Church in Ireland. In fact, the Irish bishops rejected Carrick as king because he was endangering their own position. Overall, Carrick received little support outside of Ulster in Ireland while receiving no support at all from Wales. Despite this tense situation, Robert I and Moray landed with other troops in Ireland in January 1317. Together with Carrick, they began a new campaign south. The arrival of the Irish-Scottish Army panicked the English in Dublin, but the Scots made no attempt to conquer the city. They may have had little supplies due to the famine , so they refrained from a siege. Instead, the army marched as far as Limerick and Tipperary . However, the campaign carried out during the winter was unsuccessful. Instead, disease and hunger decimated the Scottish army, which had to retreat north again. In May 1317 Moray and Robert I returned to Scotland. Little is known about Carrick's activities over the next several months. It was not until October 1318 that he began a new campaign, perhaps driven by a promise of reinforcements from Scotland. He received little support from the local Irish population, instead they were tired of war and looting. In the battle of Faughart near Dundalk, however, he was put by an English army under John Bermingham . He was urged by his supporters to wait for the arrival of the Scottish reinforcements led by Robert I himself, who had just landed at Carrickfergus, but without waiting for them, he attacked the superior enemy. In the battle, his Irish allies fled. Carrick's army was defeated and he himself was killed. The head that Bermingham sent to Edward II was cut off from his body. His brother then returned to Scotland, where he had to reorganize his succession after the death of Carrick. By December 1318, the English were able to recapture Carrickfergus Castle and thus the last position held by Scottish troops in Ireland.

Marriages and offspring

Edward Bruce was probably engaged to Isabel Strathbogie , a daughter of John of Strathbogie, 9th Earl of Atholl , an early follower of Robert I who was executed in 1306. Whether he was also married to her is unclear, possibly he had even seduced her and had a son with her, Alexander . If they were married, however, the marriage was annulled or Edward Bruce broke off the engagement. Instead, he married Isabel , a daughter of William, Earl of Ross . In 1306 Elizabeth de Burgh, the wife of Robert I, and probably the Earl of Atholl were captured and handed over to the English. For the marriage Edward received a papal dispensation in 1317 , which should also help to end the enmity between Ross and the Bruces. The marriage remained childless. David Strathbogie , the brother of Edward's first fiancé, resented his sister's offense. This likely contributed to the fact that Strathbogie betrayed the Scots and switched sides just before the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 . After the death of Edward Bruce, Robert I transferred the Earldom Carrick to his own son David . In 1326 or 1327 he gave Isabel of Strathbogie and her son Alexander land holdings in Dumfriesshire. In addition, Alexander later received further lands. He was made Earl of Carrick under David II, but fell childless during the Second Scottish War of Independence .

Aftermath and evaluation

There are detailed accounts of Edward Bruce's war in Ireland, with John Barbour's poem exchanging parts of the first campaigns. Barbour may have resorted to the account of a traveling singer, written around 1318. After Barbour, Carrick found Scotland too small for himself and for his brother, so he tried to win Ireland. According to the chronicler John Fordun , Carrick demanded half of Scotland from his brother, and when the latter refused, Carrick evaded to Ireland. Carrick was brave after Barbour, but he lacked temperance at all. Historian AAM Duncan found that neither Edward nor his brother had a strategy to achieve their ambitious goals in Ireland. There was no basis whatsoever for Bruce's subsequent request to the Welsh people to declare him Prince of Wales. According to historian GWS Barrow , Edward Bruce was quick-tempered, ambitious, and arrogant. There was a deep rivalry between him and Moray. After Barrow, Edward Bruce remained a scary evil character, if you can call someone who so obviously lacked intelligence, evil. He was praised by his contemporaries for his bravery and chivalry, but he was driven by his ambition, and he acted completely irresponsible. His pursuit of a crown modeled on his brother was absurd and doomed to failure.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , p. 15.
  2. ↑ Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , p. 18.
  3. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 203.
  4. ↑ Michael Brown: The wars of Scotland, 1214-1371 . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2004, ISBN 0-7486-1237-8 , p. 204.
  5. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, pp. 258-259.
  6. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 273.
  7. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 389.
  8. ↑ Michael Brown: The wars of Scotland, 1214-1371 . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2004, ISBN 0-7486-1237-8 , p. 207.
  9. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 282.
  10. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, pp. 276-277.
  11. ↑ Michael Brown: The wars of Scotland, 1214-1371 . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2004, ISBN 0-7486-1237-8 , p. 208.
  12. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 338.
  13. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 411.
  14. ↑ Michael Brown: The wars of Scotland, 1214-1371 . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2004, ISBN 0-7486-1237-8 , p. 264.
  15. ↑ Michael Maurer: Little History of Ireland . Reclam, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-15-009695-2 , p. 48.
  16. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 339.
  17. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 387.
  18. ^ AAM Duncan: Bruce, Edward, earl of Carrick (c. 1280-1318). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
  19. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 412.
  20. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 436.
predecessor Office successor
New title created Earl of Carrick
1313-1318 		Title expired
Title vacant
(until 1260: Brian Ó Néill ) 		Hochkönig before Ireland
1315-1318 		Title vacant
personal data
SURNAME Bruce, Edward
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bruce, Edward, 1st Earl of Carrick; Carrick, Edward Bruce, 1st Earl of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish nobleman and military man, High King of Ireland
DATE OF BIRTH around 1280
DATE OF DEATH October 14, 1318
Place of death at Faughart