Battle of Faughart

Battle of Faughart Battle of Dundalk
Part of the Bruce campaign in Ireland
Date 14 October 1318 Location Faughart, County Louth Result Lordship victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of Scotland and Irish allies	Lordship of Ireland
Commanders and leaders
Prince Edward Bruce, Earl of Carrick †	John de Bermingham Edmund, Earl of Carrick
Strength
2,000 and thousands of dispersed reinforcements	c. 20,000
Casualties and losses
30 knights and more than 80 men-at-arms killed	Light

The Battle of Faughart (or Battle of Dundalk) was fought on 14 October 1318 between a Hiberno-Norman force led by John de Bermingham (later created 1st Earl of Louth) and Edmund Butler, Earl of Carrick, and a Scots-Irish army commanded by Prince Edward Bruce, Earl of Carrick, brother of King Robert I of Scots ('Robert the Bruce'). 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 War of Scottish Independence.

Although King Robert's victory over Edward II at the Battle of Bannockburn had effectively secured the independence of the Kingdom of Scotland, it did not bring the war with England any closer to an end. Even repeated Scots raids into the northern counties of England had little effect on a king seemingly blind to political and military realities. Something more decisive was needed to end the stalemate. It came in 1315 with an invitation from Ireland, too tempting to resist.

Since the time of Henry II, the Kings of England had also claimed to be the Lords of Ireland. English settlers had taken root in Ireland, chiefly along the eastern seaboard, north and south of Dublin. But Gaelic-Irish kings and lords still enjoyed a large measure of autonomy, especially in the north and west, and English control was often of a fluctuating nature. With the opening of the war with Scotland, Edward II had made heavy demands on the Irish, both for men and materials, pushing the country close to the point of financial ruin.

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