My name s Bruce Fummey and I m about to take a boat trip across the Irish sea,
to perform some comedy gigs, but 700 years ago another Bruce was
making the crossing from the Ayrshire coast, not to perform comedy, but to become
High King of Ireland. If you re interested in the people
places and events in Scottish history then click the subscribe
button at the bottom right of the screen. In the meantime, let me tell you the story
If you re watching this you probably already know that on 24th June 1314
the flower of Scotland s manhood, under Robert the Bruce, sent Edward II hameward tae think again.
You may even have seen old newsreel footage of some of the events leading
up to the battle filmed live. I think the footage is called
Braveheart. FREEDOM !
In one part it shows how Edward I had brought troops from Ireland to fight the Scots
There s actually some truth in that and that is part of my story today
You see Henry II of England had colonised Ireland a century and a half before
So when Edward was unsuccessfully trying to hammer the Scots
Ireland would be a source of supplies in both material and men,
whether conscripted Irish levies or Anglo Irish Norman knights...
Anglo Irish
Norman After Bannockburn
Edward the SECOND would have fully intended to use Ireland for the same purpose
but like Scotland, Ireland was not yet quite cowed.
There were still those Irish, not quite ready to be Anglo or Norman.
It was to this group that Robert the Bruce sent an appeal in 1315
Whereas we and you and our people and your people, free since ancient times,
share the same national ancestry and are urged to come together
more eagerly and joyfully in friendship by a common language and by common custom,
we have sent over to you our beloved kinsmen, the bearers of this letter,
to negotiate with you in our name about permanently
strengthening and maintaining inviolate the special friendship between us and you,
so that with God s will your nation may be able to recover her ancient liberty.
Whatever our envoys may conclude with you in this matter we shall ratify and uphold in future.
The deal that the envoys concluded was that Robert s brother Edward Bruce
would come to Ireland with some other Scottish knights and battle-hardened
troops and support The Gaelic O Neils of Tyrone in their fight against the Anglo Irish Normans
on his doorstep if HE supported Edward Bruce in his bid to become High King of Ireland.
Now some folk make a lot of the Bruce s being Norman themselves on their father s side
but remember that on their mother s side they were Celts
indeed Edward could claim an Irish royal ancestry that went back to Brian Boru
and Dermot MacMurrough
so he had some justification for ambitions to Irish high kingship
and his ambitions gave good justification for brother Robert
wanting to see him over the sea in Ireland. Edward was famously aggressive, competitive
and ambitious and possibly had ideas on his brother s throne.
The Parliament in April 1315, at which Edward officially replaced King Robert s daughter Marjory
as heir to the throne was the same parliament
that decided to send him to Ireland to try to become king THERE a month later
Edward landed with a fleet of around 6000 Scottish troops on 26th May 1315 ..
The plan, with the support of their Gaelic Irish brethren, was to conquer the ruling
Anglo Irish Hiberno Norman
plastic Paddys and put a Jovial Jock on the throne.
The Bruce brother s would be kings in Scotland AND Ireland.
No more resources for Edward II, in fact the Bruce s would control the Irish Sea.
The Isle of Mann would be Scottish again. In anticipation of this there were stirrings of
Celtic cousins in Wales, under Llewellyn Bren, ready to rise up to drive the Normans out
and the Celtic world would once again be free to fight each other
like God intended ! but let s not get ahead of ourselves
When they landed, barely had they settled before they were attacked
by the vassals of The Earl of Ulster. What you mean The Earl of Ulster who s
daughter was the Queen in Scotland and married to Robert the Bruce
Yer sister in law s da? Aye that s exactly who I mean.
The Scots defeated these Anglo Irish forces and took the town of Carrickfergus,
although the castle remained in the hands of the defenders.
This will be a location we ll come cack to in the future.
On the bright side Neil of Tyrone, who had struck the deal in the first place,
and a bunch of other northern sub kings came here to swear allegiance to Edward and named
him king of Ireland. although that didn t stop
two of them ambushing Bruce and his army on his way south.
It was only as I came south I realised that I ve only been to Ireland once before, and that was so
long ago we actually beat them at rugby That border doesn t exist in rugby,
but my point is that it s a place I ve always wanted to spend time, but never got round to.
I d be interested to know in the comments (A) if you re Scottish
and (B) if you re not, have you ever planned to visit.
In the 14th century there was no border in Ireland, that would be a consequence of
James VI s actions three hundred years later so after crushing these treacherous tykes,
Bruce pressed on and destroyed the force at this Norman stronghold of Casatleroache.
Then he headed another 5 miles south to destroy Dundalk.
I don t know if he was still angry with Gaelic petty kings
swearing allegiance then ambushing him, but it seems like there was indiscriminate
killing of Anglo Irish and Gaelic alike. In fact it sounds just like the type
of thing that nasty English Edward Longshanks might have done in Scotland.
Two Anglo Irish armies headed towards Bruce, but he managed to avoid them, outmanoeuvre them, and
sow seeds of doubt and division in their ranks before a Scotto Irish charge defeated Richard De
Burgh, Earl of Ulster, at Connor in September He won again in Battle at Kells in November then
another at Kildare the following February. Edward Bruce was on a roll.
He seemed unstoppable. So much so that he felt safe to head
to what was left of Dundalk and on 2 May 1316 was crowned High King on the hill of Maledon.
I don t know where that is, or how to pronounce it so we ll just stay here
By custom, the High King of Ireland made a royal progress through the Irish provinces,
ut to do that safely, Edward needed backup.
So in the autumn of 1316 Robert Bruce left two lieutenants as regents in Scotland
and he made the crossing to join his brother Edward.
So after a year of marching, fighting, and let s be honest some pretty gruesome killing
Edward Bruce, High King of Ireland set out on his progress.
Do you think that Edward Plantagenet in England says:
Ah well, that s me out of the subduing Ireland game.
Never mind, we had a good run, it was good while it lasted.
How many times have you been walking through a wood and
passed a constipated talking bear saying: I really need a jobby, but I just can t seem to
go with all those trees watching me Do you smell shite?
I said we d come back to Carrickfergus. It was from here that the Bruce brothers set
out on that royal procession in February 1317. Once again on the way south from here they faced
ambush , but in spite of being outnumbered eight to one saw off the Anglo Irish insurgents .
But as they traversed Ireland it wasn t the attacks of those loyal to the English
crown that was their biggest problem. It wasn t even the lack of unity amongst
the Irish Gaels, it was the famine that struck the whole of Europe at that time.
As the royal progress demanded sustenance from a land that couldn t even sustain the locals,
this seemed less like a royal progress and more like ravaging of the countryside,
and when Robert the Bruce returned to Scotland
there was a lot of bridge building for his brother still to do in his new kingdom.
What about the pope? Was he a catholic, was he not
I don t want to commit, we re still waiting for
the results of the bear situation Either way, he supports the English
Plantagenet Edward. Now get this in 1317
the Scottish, Bruce, Edward and his compatriots write a letter to the pope
explaining that they had chosen Edward Bruce as their king of Ireland not Edward II...
and that they had the right to make that choice. Now if you re thinking: Haud oan, that sounds awfy
like The Declaration of Arbroath. I know!
That s my point. Do you think somebody in the comments
section going to give a detailed explanation of this document known as Irish Remonstrance?
have you ever seen a brown bear carrying rosary beads, speaking Latin
and eating fish on a Friday? You can t move for them here
well actually you can here. This is a very different part of Ireland...
if you know what I mean. Anyway, I may have stretched the whole
catholic brown bear metaphor a bit far here The point is that in this context you start to see
the genesis of the 1320 Declaration of Arbroath which explained the genesis of Scotland.
I made a video about it and I may leave a link at the end.
Right now, let s head back south In spite of letters to the pope,
famine and the need to feed troops by pillaging meant that, Scottish Edward
seemed as bad, if not worse than English Edward. Naturally support waned, and it became difficult
to hold territory won. Edward needed more
support from back in Scotland. But Edward was ambitious and impetuous.
This had got him ambushed in the past and probably lost him friends along the way.
Then on 14th October 1318 Edward Bruce met a much larger
English force down there led by John de Bermingham and Edmund Butler.
Now reports are confused. One report says that Bruce
s Irish were reluctant to take on a bigger force, so they were left on the hill here
and Edward led the Scots against overwhelming force down the hill.
The English version was that Bruce was just badly organised
and his three columns attacked one after the other, leaving the Anglo Irish to
comfortably deal with each one in turn. One way or another Edward s impetuosity of
taking battle rather than biding his time waiting for reinforcements or a more propitious moment
meant that the Scottish Irish force was heavily defeated by the Anglo Irish force.
I m told that Edward s corpse was beheaded and cut in quarters to be sent around the country,
although other reports suggest that he lies here in Faughart cemetery.
I m not sure if what lies in the grave here is the actual remains of Edward Bruce,
or if it s just a way to attract Scottish history tourists lime myself to Dundalk.
Either way on 14th October 1318 the last High King of Ireland died,
along with the prospects of a pan Celtic British Isles at least
until they build that bridge between Scotland and Ireland
or we get 250 million a week for the NHS whichever comes first
If you want to know what else was going on in Scotland s history at the same time as this
then there s a video coming up on screen now. In the meantime
Tha mi an d chas gum bi lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda