Battle of Boroughbridge

Memorial plaque to the Battle of Boroughbridge

date	March 16, 1322
place	at Boroughbridge
output	Victory of the royal troops

Parties to the conflict
Rebels against the English king	Kingdom of England
Commander
Thomas of Lancaster Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford Roger de Clifford	Andrew Harclay
Troop strength
about 1000	unknown
losses
unknown	unknown

The Battle of Boroughbridge took place on March 16, 1322 in the northern English city of Boroughbridge . The decisive victory of the royal army in battle ended the rebellion of Thomas of Lancaster, 2nd Earl of Lancaster and the so-called Despenser War .

prehistory

In the summer of 1321 the English King Edward II had to give in to the demands of the rebellious Marcher Lords and the aristocratic opposition under the Earl of Lancaster and consent to the banishment of his favorite Hugh le Despenser and his father of the same name . In the autumn of 1321, however, he took the initiative and took military action against the aristocratic opposition. By attacking Leeds Castle , the castle of Bartholomew de Badlesmere , the king was initially able to split the aristocratic opposition. Then he had forced Roger Mortimer of Wigmore and Roger Mortimer of Chirk to surrender in a campaign against the Welsh Marches until the end of January 1322 , while Lancaster was still rallying his army at Doncaster in northern England. The king then marched north to face Lancaster.

Part of Lancaster's army besieged the royal Tickhill Castle in vain , while Lancaster and his main force moved south to face the king. The armies faced each other for the first time at Burton-upon-Trent . Lancaster blocked the passage over the bridge over the Trent for three days , but when part of the superior royal army crossed the river in a nearby ford , he withdrew north to avoid being trapped. Via Tutbury he reached Pontefract Castle , where he initially wanted to hide. The other rebels, including Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford and Roger de Clifford , however, convinced him to move further north. Lancaster tried to reach Dunstanburgh Castle , from where he presumably wanted to try to get support from the Scottish King Robert Bruce . Part of the royal army under the Earls of Surrey and Kent pursued the rebels, while on March 1st the garrison of Lancaster's mighty Kenilworth castle surrendered to the king without resistance. On March 2, the army commanded by the king united with a force deployed by the Despensers who had returned from exile at Lichfield . On March 9, the King captured Tutbury Castle , while Robert de Holand , the commander of Lancaster's domestic troops, surrendered with 500 men.

Map of the battle

The battle

At Boroughbridge, where the Great North Road crossed the River Ure over a wooden bridge , Lancaster's army was provided by Sir Andrew Harclay , Sheriff of Cumberland . Harclay had loyal to the King in Cumberland and Westmorland . Lancaster tried in vain to persuade his former henchman Harclay to join the rebels. He had set up his troops in Schiltrons based on the Scottish model to fend off the attacks of the rebels, and with part of his troops blocked the passage over the bridge over the River Ure, while the other part blocked the passage over a nearby ford. Lancaster's army had shrunk to less than 1,000 men. Since the rebels feared an attack by the army of Surrey and Kent in their rear, Hereford and Roger de Clifford led part of the troops dismounted across the bridge, while Lancaster wanted to lead a cavalry attack with the other part across the ford.

The attack across the bridge, led by Hereford and Clifford, was repulsed by Harclays pikemen . Hereford, who led the attack in the front row, fell and shortly afterwards Clifford was badly wounded. The rebels' order of battle collapsed and their infantry fled. Lancaster's cavalry suffered heavy losses from Harclay's archers even before the ford when they crossed open terrain. The riders broke off the attack before they reached the river and withdrew to Boroughbridge. Harclay himself avoided a counterattack across the bridge until the next day he was reinforced by Sir Simon de Ward , the High Sheriff of Yorkshire . They advanced slowly into the place where they encountered little resistance. Lancaster took refuge in a chapel and refused to surrender. Harclay then stormed the chapel and forcibly captured Lancaster.

The Battle Cross in Aldborough, reminiscent of the battle

consequences

In the meantime the king had conquered Pontefract Castle, where he had Lancaster brought. There he and about 30 of his followers were executed at the end of March after a mock trial. Clifford was taken to York and executed there, while Badlesmere was hanged in Canterbury. The king had smashed the previous opposition to the nobility. However, a new opposition quickly formed against the tyrannical favoritism of the king, which was finally able to overthrow the king and the Despensers in late 1326.

For his victory, Harclay was made Earl of Carlisle on March 25th . His successful tactic of taking a defensive position protected by pikemen, but at the same time attacking the enemy with long archers covered by the infantry, attacked King Edward III. at the Battle of Crecy again, where he scored an overwhelming victory over the French army.

Built in memory of the battle in Boroughbridge Market Square, the Battle Cross was relocated to the nearby village of Aldborough in 1852 .

literature

Ronald H. Fritze; William B. Robison: Historical Dictionary of Late Medieval England, 1272-1485. Greenwood press, Wesport (Conn.) 2002, ISBN 0-313-29124-1 , pp. 67-68.

Web links

Individual evidence

^ David Clark: Battlefield walks in Yorkshire . Sigma Leisure, Wilmslow 2002, ISBN 1-85058-775-2 , p. 31.

54.097778 -1.4075Coordinates: 54 ° 5 '52 " N , 1 ° 24' 27" W.

[1] David Clark: Battlefield walks in Yorkshire . Sigma Leisure, Wilmslow 2002, ISBN 1-85058-775-2 , p. 31.