Battle of Arkinholm
| date | May 1, 1455 |
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| place | at Langholm , Dumfries and Galloway |
| output | Victory of the royal troops |
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| Commander | |
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| Troop strength | |
| 200? | 200? |
The Battle of Arkinholm was fought on May 1, 1455 near Langholm in Scotland .
prehistory
The Douglas family had grown in power from the mid-14th century until it exceeded that of the king by the mid-15th century. To break this power was the goal of an intrigue at the court of the ten-year-old King James II. In 1440 William, 6th Earl of Douglas , himself a child, and his brother were executed in Edinburgh Castle against the hospitality law .
On February 22, 1452, James II, who was now of age, murdered William, the 8th Earl of Douglas, with his own hands at Stirling Castle . His brother James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas , took this murder as an occasion for an armed uprising against the king. In the next three years the situation resembled civil war, with unsuccessful attempts and setbacks on both sides.
Before the battle
At the end of 1454 and the beginning of 1455, King Jacob managed to win the support of a number of important nobles, including George Douglas, 4th Earl of Angus from the red line of Douglas , as his most powerful ally .
While James besieged Stirling unsuccessfully, he lost the castle and lands near Abercorn to troops loyal to the king; long allies like the Hamilton clan became renegade; subordinate families like Johnstone, Maxwell, and Scott rebelled. James therefore went to England to find support there.
The battle
Almost nothing is known about the actual battle. Two small units, each with only a few hundred soldiers, collided. The royal troops were under the command of George Douglas, 4th Earl of Angus; the soldiers of the " Black Douglas " were commanded by James 'three younger brothers: James' twin brother Archibald, Earl of Moray; his younger brother Hugh, Earl of Ormond and John, Lord of Balvenie.
The result was a clear victory for the royal troops.
consequences
Archibald fell in battle, his head was brought to the king. Hugh was captured and executed shortly afterwards; John fled to his brother in exile in England.
During the following months, the vast estates of the Douglas and the allied nobles were expropriated in the name of the Crown by the Scottish Parliament. The power of the "Black Douglas" was finally broken.
literature
- Christine McGladdery: James II (= The Stewart Dynasty in Scotland . Volume 3 ). John Donald, Edinburgh 1990, ISBN 0-85976-304-8 .
- Richard Oram, Geoffrey Stell (Ed.): Lordship and Architecture in Medieval and Renaissance Scotlan . John Donald, Edinburgh 2005, ISBN 0-85976-628-4 .
Web links
- Battle of Arkinholm. Canmore - National Record of the Historic Environment, accessed June 11, 2020 .
Individual evidence
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↑ JS Versch, JG Gruber: General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts in alphabetical order . Brockhaus, Leipzig 1836, p. 239 ( online at Google Books [accessed September 23, 2014]). The term “gang” does not indicate a larger and well-organized army, but rather a small and mixed-up troop.
Coordinates: 55 ° 9 ′ 3 " N , 2 ° 59 ′ 58" W.