Battle of Faughart

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View from Faughart Hill to Moyry Pass (2004)

The Battle of Faughart (also Fochart , Irish Fochaird ) was a battle during the Bruce War in Ireland . On October 14, 1318, the Scottish-Irish army of Edward Bruce was decisively defeated by an Anglo-Irish army, which lost the war for the Scots in Ireland. There are only sparse reports on the course of the battle and the strengths of the armies involved; the most reliable information was given in the contemporary Lancercost Chronicle .

prehistory

In May 1315 a Scottish army landed in Ireland under Edward Bruce, the younger brother of the Scottish King Robert Bruce . The Scots wanted nothing less than to end English rule in Ireland and raise Edward Bruce to High King of Ireland . Despite some successes, Edward Bruce was only able to assert himself in Ulster . After the failure of a large-scale campaign in the winter of 1317, he withdrew to Ulster.

Course of the battle

After apparently doing nothing for months, Edward Bruce began a new campaign out of Ulster in early October 1318 together with his remaining Irish allies. In doing so, he was presumably acting desperately over his failure and with no apparent plan, because he was apparently not waiting for new reinforcements from Scotland, who had just landed in Ulster. Bruce moved south with his army to advance over the Moyry Pass to Dundalk . On October 14, he encountered a superior Anglo-Irish army on Faughart Hill , a hill dominating the area north of Dundalk. This force included numerous Anglo-Irish nobles from Louth and Meath under the leadership of John de Bermingham . Edward Bruce organized his army into three divisions. However, the Scottish detachments marched into battle at such a great distance that the English managed to defeat them one by one. The Irish allies of the Scots fled, however. Edward Bruce led the third division and fell in combat. His body was beheaded and quartered, the parts were sent to the four parts of Ireland, the head to England to the English King Edward II . The king then appointed Bermingham Earl of Louth . Numerous other Scottish knights fell in the battle, including John Soulis , John Stewart of Jedburgh and Colin Campbell of Lochawe and Ardcotnish . A leader of the West Scottish Macruairis , perhaps Ruairi of Garmoran , and a leader of the Macdonalds , perhaps Angus Og of Islay , are also said to have fallen.

The alleged grave of Edward Bruce in Faughart Cemetery

consequences

The victory at Faughart and the death of Edward Bruce ended the Scottish attack on Ireland. The few remaining Scottish troops in Ireland were quickly defeated, and the castles held by Scottish troops were conquered by the English by the end of December 1318. According to tradition, the remains of Edward Bruce's body were buried in the cemetery of a church on Faughart Hill.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Faughart, Co Louth: the hill of heroes, saints, battles and boundaries . (Heritage Guide No. 37). Archeology Ireland, Dublin 2007.
  2. ↑ Seymour Phillips: Edward II . New Haven, Yale University Press 2010. ISBN 978-0-300-15657-7 , pp. 258.
  3. ↑ Michael Brown: The wars of Scotland, 1214-1371 . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2004, ISBN 0-7486-1237-8 , p. 265.
  4. ↑ Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , pp. 189.
  5. ^ Victor M. Buckley: To kill a King . In: Archeology Ireland , 28 (2014), p. 35.