Battle of Connor

Last updated

Battle of Connor
Part of the Bruce campaign in Ireland
Date10 September 1315
Location
Result Scottish victory
Belligerents
Royal Arms of the Kingdom of Scotland.svg Kingdom of Scotland and Gaelic alliesBanner of the Lordship of Ireland.svg  Lordship of Ireland and Gaelic allies
Commanders and leaders
Arms of Edward Bruce, High-King of Ireland.svg Edward Bruce Arms of the House of de Burgh.svg Richard Óg Burke
Strength
at least 6,000 unknown
Casualties and losses
unknown unknown

The Battle of Connor was fought on 10 September 1315, in the townland of Tannybrake just over a mile north of what is now the modern village of Connor, County Antrim. [1] It was part of the Bruce campaign in Ireland.

Contents

Background

Edward Bruce landed in Larne, in modern-day County Antrim, on 26 May 1315. In early June, Donall Ó Néill of Tyrone and some twelve fellow northern Kings and lords met Edward Bruce at Carrickfergus and swore fealty to him as King of Ireland. [2] Edward held the town of Carrickfergus, but was unable to take the Castle. His army continued to spread south, through the Moyry Pass to take Dundalk.

Prelude

Outside the town of Dundalk, Bruce encountered an army led by John FitzThomas FitzGerald, 4th Lord of Offaly, his son-in-law Edmund Butler, Earl of Carrick and Maurice FitzGerald, 4th Baron Desmond. The Scottish pushed them back towards Dundalk and on 29 June lay waste to the town and its inhabitants. [3]

By 22 July Edmund Butler, the Justicier in Dublin, assembled an army from Munster and Leinster to join Richard Óg de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster to fight Bruce. De Burgh refused to let the government troop into Ulster, fearing widespread damage to his land. [4] Bruce was able to exploit their dispute and defeat them separately.

Battle

Bruce slowly retreated north, drawing de Burgh in pursuit. Bruce and his O’Neill allies sacked Coleraine, destroying the bridge over the River Bann to delay pursuit. Edward sent word to Fedlimd Ó Conchobair that he would support his position as king in Connacht if he would withdraw. He sent the same message to rival claimant Ruaidri mac Cathal Ua Conchobair. Cathal immediately returned home, raised a rebellion and declared himself king. De Burgh's Connacht allies under Felim then followed as Felim left to defend his throne. [5] Edward's force then crossed the Bann in boats, and attacked. The Earl of Ulster withdrew to Connor.

The armies met in Connor on 10 September 1315. [4] The superior force of Bruce and his Irish allies defeated the depleted Ulster forces. The capture of Connor permitted Bruce to re-supply his army for the coming winter from the stores the Earl of Ulster had assembled at Connor. [6] Earl's cousin, William de Burgh, was captured, as well as other lords and their heirs. Most of his army retreated to the Castle of Carrickfergus, which the pursuing Scots put under siege. The Earl of Ulster managed to return to Connaught.

Aftermath

The government forces under Butler did not engage Bruce, allowing him to consolidate his hold in Ulster. His occupation of Ulster encouraged risings in Meath and Connacht, further weakening de Burgh. [4] Despite this, and another Scottish/Irish victory at the Battle of Skerries, the campaign was to be defeated at the Battle of Faughart.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Bruce</span> High King of Ireland

Edward Bruce, Earl of Carrick, was a younger brother of Robert the Bruce, King of Scots. He supported his brother in the 1306–1314 struggle for the Scottish crown, then pursued his own claims in Ireland. Proclaimed High King of Ireland in 1315 and crowned in 1316, he was eventually defeated and killed by Anglo-Irish forces of the Lordship of Ireland at the Battle of Faughart in County Louth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William de Burgh</span> Irish noble and founder of the House of Burgh (c.1160–1205/6)

William de Burgh was the founder of the House of Burgh in Ireland and elder brother of Hubert de Burgh, 1st Earl of Kent and Geoffrey de Burgh, Bishop of Ely.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Mór de Burgh, 1st Baron of Connaught</span> Irish chieftain and noble (c.1194–1242/3)

Richard Mór de Burgh, 1st Lord of Connacht, was a Hiberno-Norman aristocrat who was Seneschal of Munster and Justiciar of Ireland (1228–32).

Aedh mac Cathal Crobdearg Ua Conchobair was King of Connacht with opposition alongside his uncle Toirdhealbhach mac Ruaidhrí Ó Conchobhair. Aedh succeeded his father Cathal Crobhdearg upon his death in 1224 but struggled to assert control over the entire province. His reign closely mirrored the early years of his fathers with two rival claimants, backed by outside powers, fighting an indecisive civil war lasting several years.

Aedh mac Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair was King of Connacht from 1228 to 1233. He was one of the sons of the last fully recognized High King of Ireland Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, and claimed the kingship of Connacht after deposing his brother Toirdhealbhach Ó Conchobhair, after the death of their rival, cousin and former king Aedh Ua Conchobair. In 1233 he was killed in battle by the supporters of his cousin and successor Felim O'Connor. He was the last descendant of Ruaidrí to hold the kingship.

Felim McHugh O'Connor was king of Connacht in Ireland from January 1310 to 10 August 1316. The beginning of his kingship saw a revival in the ancient form of inauguration performed for the Kings of Connacht after a period of apparent lapse in the practice. His reign took place against the background of a Gaelic recovery following the Anglo-Norman invasion and the disputed High Kingship of Edwurd Bruce. He was the last King of Connacht to truly hold power over the entire province and his death halted the gains that had been made following the Anglo Norman invasion, by his kingdom. His foster father Maelruanid Mac Diarmata King of Magh Lurg would play an instrumental role in his reign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Felim O'Connor (d. 1265)</span> King of Connacht

Felim O'Connor was king of Connacht in Ireland, having been proclaimed king by Richard Mór de Burgh in 1230, he reigned proper from 1233 until 1265. Felim died in that year and was buried in the Dominican Priory in Roscommon which he founded in 1253. On his accession Felim inherited many problems from his predecessors, having his territory limited to essentially County Roscommon and having to deal with an increase of English and Welsh settlers in the kingdom. Felim attempted to maintain both a loyal and personal relationship with Henry III King of England, hoping he would limit the influence of de Burgh and other powerful Anglo-Norman magnates in Connacht, but this policy of appeasement produced few concrete results. During Felim's reign the lands of the Ua Conchobair became limited to the five 'royal cantreds', essentially County Roscommon. Felim notably adopted aspects of Anglo-Norman culture as seen in his English style effigy and seal.

Áed mac Felidlimid Ó Conchobair, known as Áed na nGall, was king of Connacht alongside his father Felim from 1258 reigning solely from 1265 until his own death in 1274. He is credited with turning the tide on Norman expansion in Connacht at the Battle of Áth an Chip. Aed took a different approach than his father to dealing with English crown authority in Ireland, placing his faith in alliances with the Gaelic speaking world and becoming the chief supporter of Brian Ua Neill's bid to revive the high kingship of Ireland. His byname na nGall comes from his marriage in 1259 to a daughter of Dubhghall mac Ruaidri King of the Hebrides which brought him 160 gallowglass commanded by Dubhghall's younger brother Ailéan as a dowry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Ireland (1169–1536)</span>

The history of Ireland from 1169–1536 covers the period from the arrival of the Cambro-Normans to the reign of Henry VIII of England, who made himself King of Ireland. After the Norman invasion of 1169–1171, Ireland was under an alternating level of control from Norman lords and the King of England. Previously, Ireland had seen intermittent warfare between provincial kingdoms over the position of High King. This situation was transformed by intervention in these conflicts by Norman mercenaries and later the English crown. After their successful conquest of England, the Normans turned their attention to Ireland. Ireland was made a lordship of the King of England and much of its land was seized by Norman barons. With time, Hiberno-Norman rule shrank to a territory known as the Pale, stretching from Dublin to Dundalk. The Hiberno-Norman lords elsewhere in the country became Gaelicised and integrated in Gaelic society.

The Battle of Faughart was fought on 14 October 1318 between an Anglo-Irish force led by John de Bermingham and Edmund Butler, Earl of Carrick, and a Scottish and Irish army commanded by Prince Edward Bruce, Earl of Carrick, brother of King Robert I of Scots. It was a battle of the First War of Scottish Independence and more precisely the Irish Bruce Wars. The defeat and death of Bruce at the battle ended the attempt to revive the High Kingship of Ireland. It also ended, for the time being, King Robert's attempt to open up a second front against the English in the Wars of Scottish Independence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce campaign in Ireland</span> Medieval campaign in Ireland

The Bruce campaign was a three-year military campaign in Ireland by Edward Bruce, brother of the Scottish king Robert the Bruce. It lasted from his landing at Larne in 1315 to his defeat and death in 1318 at the Battle of Faughart in County Louth. It was part of the First War of Scottish Independence against England, and the conflict between the Irish and Anglo-Normans.

John FitzThomas was an Anglo-Norman in the Peerage of Ireland, as 4th Lord of Offaly from 1287 and subsequently as 1st Earl of Kildare from 1316.

Joan Butler, Countess of Carrick was an Irish noblewoman, and the wife of Edmund Butler, Earl of Carrick, Justiciar of Ireland. She was the mother of James Butler, 1st Earl of Ormond.

The Battle of Kells was a battle between Edward Bruce and Roger Mortimer, 3rd Baron Mortimer.

The Clan Murtagh O'Conor were descendants of Irish High-King Toirdelbach Ua Conchobair, through his son, Murtogh Moynagh O'Conor (d.1210), tánaiste of Connacht. They have been defined by Katherine Simms as:

... the earliest, most aristocratic and best documented example of increasing nomadism in the northern half of Ireland in the late middle ages. ... In spite of the fact that they were a very numerous branch of the O'Conor family, who supplied five kings to the throne of Connacht, they seem to have vanished away in the early fifteenth century, never to be heard of again.

Sir William Liath de Burgh was an Irish noble and Justiciar of Ireland (1308–09). He was an ancestor of the Mac William Uachtar and Mac William Íochtar who were earls of Galway and Mayo respectively.

Sir Walter Liath de Burgh was an Anglo-Irish noble whose imprisonment by the Earl of Ulster and death from starvation led to the Earl's murder the following year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mac Eoin Bissett family</span> Family

The history of the Bissett family in Ireland can be studied independently from that of the originally identical family in Scotland, because of their unique experience following their arrival in Ulster in the early or mid-13th century. Here, while still remaining involved in Scottish affairs, the Bissetts would establish themselves as the Lords of the Glens of Antrim and quickly become equally, then eventually more involved in the politics of the Irish province, becoming among the most Gaelicised of all the so-called Anglo-Norman families in Ireland. The heads of the leading branch of the family soon adopted the Gaelic lineage style Mac Eoin Bissett, by which they are known in the Irish annals, and which translates as "Son/Descendant of John Byset", after a prominent ancestor born in Scotland. In a number of English and Anglo-Norman sources the same head of the family is referred to as the Baron Bissett, also with variants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Óg de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster</span> One of the most powerful Irish nobles of the late 13th and early 14th centuries

Richard Óg de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster and 3rd Baron of Connaught, called The Red Earl, was one of the most powerful Irish nobles of the late 13th and early 14th centuries and father of Elizabeth, wife of King Robert the Bruce of Scotland.

The Battle of Moiry Pass was a military engagement between a Scots-Irish army commanded by Edward Bruce, brother of Robert Bruce, king of Scotland and a Hiberno-Norman force. It was a battle of the First War of Scottish Independence and more precisely the Irish Bruce Wars. Edward Bruce attacked a garrison of soldiers from the Lordship of Ireland, as part of his attempt to revive the High Kingship of Ireland. Bruce considered the battle a great success but his campaign would ultimately fail.

References

  1. 'Kells Farm is Built on Famous Battlefields,' Ballymena Guardian, 1/3/79, p.11
  2. Joyce, P.W., "Edward Bruce (1315-1318)", A Concise History of Ireland, Dublin, 1909
  3. Hull, Elanor. "The Invasion of Edward Bruce AND THE GAELIC REVIVAL". libraryireland.com. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 Cosgrove, Art, ed. (2008). A new history of Ireland (1. publ. in paperb. ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 286–288. ISBN   9780199539703.
  5. Mortimer, Ian. The Greatest Traitor: The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, Ruler of England: 1327–1330, Macmillan, 2003 ISBN   9780312349417
  6. O'Laverty, Rev. James, An Historical Account of the Diocese of Down and Connor Ancient and Modern, JamesDuffy and Sons, Dublin, 1884 p.280