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XVII. The siege of Carrickfergus Castle, 1315-16

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

G.O. Sayles
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Extract

On 26 May 1315 an expeditionary force from Scotland landed on the north-east coast of Ireland, not very far from Larne, under the command of Edward Bruce, who was intent on gaining by the sword a kingdom for himself in Ireland after the fashion in which his brother, Robert, had recently won a crown in Scotland. By September 10 he had overthrown the too confident ‘Red Earl’, Richard de Burgh, and was lording it over the east of Ulster save at one point: the royal castle of Carrickfergus, placed impregnably on a rocky headland jutting out into Belfast Lough. The town itself could not, of course, resist, but the castle defied assault for a whole year before it found it wise to surrender on terms.

We have little information about what happened during the siege and are almost wholly dependent upon a few chroniclers and annalists, who are often merely repetitive and are usually writing long after the events they record. Their evidence can be briefly summarised.

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Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 10 , Issue 37 , March 1956 , pp. 94 - 100
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1956

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References

page no 94 note 1 For the history of the whole campaign and a survey of the source material, see Orpen, , Normans (Oxford, 1920), iv Google Scholar, and Armstrong, Olive, Edward Bruce’s invasion of Ireland (Murray, 1923), especially pp. 74—5 Google Scholar.

page no 94 note 2 Chartularies of St Mary’s, Dublin, ed. Gilbert, J.T. (Rolls Series, 1884), ii. 346 (Laud Annals)Google Scholar; Barbour, Bruce, ed. W.M. Mackenzie 1909), lib. xiv, 11. 90-2; see the document printed below, p. 99.

page no 94 note 3 Hist. & mun. doc. Ire., ed. J.T. Gilbert (1870), pp. 335, 341, 343 f.

page no 94 note 4 According to Barbour, Bruce, lib. xv, 11. 100-105, a truce between Sbesieged and besiegers had been arranged from Palm Sunday until Easter Tuesday (4-13 Apr. 1316), but he is our only informant and he was writing sixty years later.

page no 95 note 5 Chartularies (Laud Annals), p. 350; Grace, , Annals of Ireland, ed. Butler, R. (Irish Archaeological Society, 1842), p. 71 Google Scholar; Barbour, , Bruce, lib. xv, 11. 105 ffGoogle Scholar.

page no 95 note 6 Chartularies, ii. 296; Grace, op. cit., p. 73.

7 See below, p. 98.

8 Annals of Loch Cé, ed. Hennessy, W.M. (Rolls Series, 1871), P. 579 Google Scholar.

9 See Lucas, H.S., ‘The great European famine of 1315, 1316 and 1317’ in Speculum, v (1930). 343-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Chartularies of St Mary’s, Dublin, ii. 297; Grace, Annals, p. 77 (which prefers to say simply that the Scots died). For cannabalism on the part of the Scots in Ireland, see Chartularies, ii. 357 f.

11 Chartular’ies (Laud Annals), ii. 350.

12 Chartular’ies, ii. 297.

13 Chartular’ies (Laud Annals), ii. 349.

14 Coul, Irish Cúl or Cúil was the old name for the township or borough of Carnmoney. Acknowledgment is due to Seán Mac Airt, of Queen’s University, Belfast, for thisidentification and also for the reference in 1333 to the occurrence of the name as a villa; in his view this suggests that it was a meeting place. Cf.Orpen, G.H., ‘The earldom of Ulster’, in R.S.A.I. jn., xliii (1912)Google Scholar, 137, and n. 7.

15 Cf. the indictment of the Lacys at Dublin in the Hilary term of 1317 for treason; they were acquitted by a jury because their parleys with Edward Bruce at the close of 1315 ‘plus vertebantur ad commodum domini regis et populi sui salvacionem quam ad aliquod dampnum ipsiusdomini regis ’, but nevertheless they had to make fine with the king. They later became open adherents of Bruce, and on 18 July 1317 Roger Mortimer, the king’s lieutenant, in council at Dublin simply ‘recorded’ the fact and ordered the Lacys to surrender. In 1334 an interesting appeal was made against his judgment on the ground that the king alone could so ‘record’ in the absence of any conviction for felony (Chartularies, ii. 407 ff: from a plea roll of 10 Edward II).

16 Cal. pat. rolls, 1321-4, p. 335; Cal. close rolls, 1323-7, p. 14.

17 For example, we have not the slightest information about Bruce’s activities between May 1317 and October 1318.

18 Barbour, , Bruce, lib. xiv, 11. 369-85Google Scholar.

19 Cal. pat. rolls, 1313-17, p. 421.

20 Hist. & mun. doc. Ire., p. 377.

21 Cal. pat. rolls, 1313-17, p. 696.

22 Chartularies, ii. 355; Clyn, Annals, p. 13; Cal, doc, Scotland, ed. Joseph Bain (1887), iii. 108 (13 July 1317).

23 Barbour, , Bruce, lib. xiv, 1. 375 Google Scholar.

24 Chartularies, ii. 355.

25 Clyn, Annals, p. 13.

26 Cal. pat. rolls, 1317-21, pp. 311, 313 (cf. Cal. close rolls, 1318-23, PP. 55, 58).

page no 99 note 1 Plea roll no. 119 (11 Edward II), m. 13 d, was destroyed in 1922. I am most grateful to Miss M. C. Griffith, of the Public Record Office, Dublin, for her help in connection with this transcript.

page no 100 3 A draft calendar in English in the writing of James Mills gives the names as ‘Peter le Flemeng, Robert Osebern, John Jolyf, Thomas le Taillour, Richard le Tailleur, .... [sic] his son, John Burel, David le Swynesheued, William Russell, of Dun, Adam Albenagh and William his ... . [sic]’. A Christian name has presumably been omitted before ‘ of Dun ’.

page no 100 4 The MS reads ‘garvistura’.

page no 100 5 The MS notes one word as ‘obliterated’.

page no 100 6 The calendar in English adds: ‘Therefore the chancellor is commanded to have letters patent made out in due form’.