Battle of Dupplin Moor

Battle of Dupplin Moor
Part of the Second War of Scottish Independence
Date 10–11 August 1332 Location Dupplin Moor, Scone, Perthshire Result Decisive tactical victory for Balliol
Belligerents
Bruce loyalists	Balliol supporters and English allies
Commanders and leaders
Domhnall II, Earl of Mar† Sir Robert Keith†	Edward Balliol Henry de Beaumont
Strength
10,000–15,000 men	1,500–3,000
Casualties and losses
2,000–13,000	33

The Battle of Dupplin Moor was fought between supporters of the infant David II, the son of Robert the Bruce, and rebels supporting the Balliol claim in 1332. It was a significant battle of the Second War of Scottish Independence. The battlefield is currently under research to be inventoried and protected by Historic Scotland under the Historic Environment (Amendment) Act 2011.

The death of Robert I in 1329 left Scotland with a four-year-old king, David II (1329–1371). His right to the throne was far from absolute, and in the early 1330s was challenged by Edward Balliol, son of John Balliol. The rebels were known as "The Disinherited", since they lost their land as a consequence of the Battle of Bannockburn.

In the winter of 1331, in response to the urgings of Henry Beaumont, chief among the disinherited, Balliol left his home in France and came to England, where he settled in Sandal Manor in Yorkshire. Beaumont then visited King Edward III of England, The purpose of the meeting was recorded in the Brut Chronicle: "So came Sir Henry of Beaumont to King Edward of England and praiede him, in way of charitie, that he wolde grant of his grace unto Sir Edward Balliol that he moste safliche gone bi land from Sandall for to conquere his ritz heritage in Scotland." Edward agreed to let him go, but by sea, not land.

By the summer of 1332 all of the preparations for the expedition were complete. The size of the force assembled by Balliol and Beaumont cannot be established with any real accuracy, but the sources all agree that it was fairly modest: the Bridlington Chronicle suggests a figure of 500 men-at-arms and 1,000 foot; Henry Knighton, prone on occasions to wild exaggeration, puts forward a figure of 300 men-at-arms and 3,000 foot; while the Lanercost Chronicle, probably the most reliable, suggests a total force in the region of 1,500 to 2,800. All agree that by far the largest proportion of the footmen were archers, armed with the longbow. By mid-July Balliol's little armada of some 88 ships waited for the right moment to sail. It came with the news that Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray, the guardian of the infant David, had died suddenly on 20 July.

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