Battle of Boroughbridge

Battle of Boroughbridge
Part of Despenser War
Map of the battlefield
Date 16 March 1322 Location Boroughbridge, Yorkshire 54°05′52″N 01°24′27″W / 54.09778°N 1.40750°W / 54.09778; -1.40750Coordinates: 54°05′52″N 01°24′27″W / 54.09778°N 1.40750°W / 54.09778; -1.40750 Result Royal victory
Belligerents
Royal forces	Baronial forces
Commanders and leaders
Andrew Harclay John Peche	Thomas of Lancaster Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford † Roger de Clifford
Strength
c. 4,000	c. 1,000
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Unknown

The Battle of Boroughbridge was a battle fought on 16 March 1322 between a group of rebellious barons and King Edward II of England, near Boroughbridge, north-west of York. The culmination of a long period of antagonism between the King and Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, his most powerful subject, it resulted in Lancaster's defeat and execution. This allowed Edward to re-establish royal authority, and hold on to power for another five years.

Not in itself a part of the Wars of Scottish Independence, the battle is significant for its employment of tactics learned in the Scottish wars in a domestic, English conflict. Both the extensive use of foot soldiers rather than cavalry, and the heavy impact caused by the longbow, represented significant steps in military developments.

Edward II was a weak and ineffectual king (made to look the more so by comparison with his father and son, Edward I and Edward III), and his reign was marked by military failure and internal strife. A great number of the barony turned against the King, and the leader of the opposition eventually became Thomas of Lancaster. Lancaster was Edward's cousin, and next to the King he was the richest man in the country. Through a set of regulations known as the Ordinances, Lancaster and his associates had been trying to put restrictions on royal authority, but by the late 1310s Edward was again in full control of central government. The situation was aggravated by the King's ostentatious patronage of his favourite, Hugh Despenser, and Hugh's father by the same name.

In 1319, the King and Lancaster fell out during a failed campaign against Scotland. The next year Lancaster refused to attend a parliament summoned by the King, and later the same year, Edward obtained papal absolution from his oath to follow the Ordinances. Meanwhile, an inheritance dispute had broken out in the Welsh Marches between the Despensers and certain marcher lords, including Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford. Lancaster now took the initiative with the discontented. In 1321 he summoned two meetings of magnates, one at Lancaster's residence of Pontefract in March, and the other at Sherburn in June. The meetings consisted of northern and marcher lords, as well as Lancaster's own retainers, but little assistance was forthcoming from the northerners. The marcher rebellion, and the threat of civil war, forced the King to exile the younger Despenser, but the favourite was recalled within weeks.

...
Wikipedia