User:An Siarach/Battle of Harlaw

The Battle of Harlaw was fought near Inverurie in Aberdeenshire on 24 July, 1411. Donald, Lord of the Isles (Macdonald) and his invading Highlanders engaged an army of Lowlanders commanded by the Earl of Mar.

The battle formed the culmination of a long running dispute and rivalry between the Lord of the Isles and the Regent Albany. The matter of dispute was the Earldom of Ross, which consisted of a vast territory within which was found Skye, Ross, Cromarty and also Argyll westwards to Loch Broom and the coastlands of Kintail, Lochalsh, Loch Carron, Applecross and Gairloch. To the south it reached Urquhart on Loch Ness and to the east the country of Inverness with superiority over the outlying lands of Nairn and Aberdeenshire. This territory had, in earlier times, formed one of the traditional Mormaerships of the Kingdom of Scots of which we MacBeth was the last Celtic incumbent.

The regions concerned were passed through many lines in the centuries preceeding Harlaw and the cause of the contested inheritance is found in the marriages and descendants of Euphemia, Countess of Ross, who inherited the Earldom following the death of her father William who had no male heirs. Her first husband was Sir Walter Leslie who died in 1382 and she was remarried to Alexander Stewart, the Earl of Buchan, who recieved the title in favour of Alexander Leslie who was her heir by the first marriage. However, Leslie recovered the earldom in 1398 and further entangled relations by marrying Isabella Stewart, the daughter of Regent Albany, which was to provide one side of the coming battle with a vested interest, opposed by Clan Donald, as the current Lord of the Isles was married to Margaret Leslie, the sister of Alexander, and thus had his own claim to Ross.

The death of Alexander in 1402 saw the earldom pass to his only heir, his daughter Euphemia - a "sickly, hunchbacked child" - who found herself taken into the custody of Albany and, whatever her wishes may have been, the rights to her Earldom of Ross were resigned to John, Albany's second son, and she herself was entered into a nunnery with all of her territories passing to the House of Stewart.

Donald wasted no time in objecting to this and put forward the argument that, if entering a nunnery, Euphemia could not legally dispose of her Earldom which should thus pass to his wife as the surviving heir of Alexander Leslie. Negotiations between Albany and Donald came to no fruition and degenerated into an exchange of threats which saw Albany taunt the Lord of the Isles to make good his threats. A hosting of the Clans under Donald ensued at Ardtornish which seemingly numbered some 10,000 men, of whom 6,600 were chosen to proceed against Inverness and bring the Regent to battle. This army sailed to Stroma and continued to draw clansmen until arriving at Dinwgall to find a force of some 3,000 under Angus Dubh MacKay. This MacKay army was routed and Angus Dubh captured along with the Castle of Dingwall. As the army marched on to Inverness the lands, particularly those of the Frasers of Lovat were ravaged, and that town fell with little resistance.

Raising his standard in the town Donald sent out summonings to the northern clans and possibly increased his army to the region of 10,000 although 6,000 is the more traditional figure attributed to the army present at Harlaw. He was now in possession of Ross but seemed intent on forcing a battle with Albany, who was slow to muster his forces in the south, and marched through Moray spreading word of his intent to plunder Aberdeen. The alarm caused by the coming army provoked the men of Aberdeen to arm and put themselves under the command Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar. Stewart advanced and each army sighted the other in the region of Harlaw. While there has been much distortion of the battle and the numbers involved by later chroniclers we can conclude fairly confidently that Donald had a force of approximately 10,000 consisting mostly of Highland footsoldiers armed and arrayed a traditional, perhaps antiquated, Gaelic style. The highland force was treated a battle-song by the bàrd Lachlan Mòr MacMhuirich which opened:

(Gaelic):
 * A' Chlanna Chuinn cuimhnichibh
 * Cruas an àm na h-iorghuill

(English):
 * Sons of Conn remember
 * Hardihood in times of strife...

Opposite the Gaels stood a force numbering some 2,000 under Mar which consisted almost entirely of well armed mounted chivalry - a local mustering raised by the barons and knights of the region which featured every notable lord of the area with the exception of Huntly. Ranald Williams states that "there are no trustworthy accounts of the fight" but the battle was fierce and continued until dusk. A charge by Mar had driven a wedge into Donald's line but its momentum failed and the cavalry were surrounded by the highland footsoldiers and many of the lowland knights were unhorsed and forced to fight on foot. Despite their lack of numbers and poor tactical situation Mar's army continued to fight through the day and inflicted great losses upon the highlanders and it earnt its traditional designation, Red Harlaw, as a result of the fierceness of the fighting.

As the battle drew to a close at the end of the day Donald had lost perhaps 1,000 men, a tenth of his force, but Mar had lost a proportionately greater part of his - again 1,000 men but this in his case formed a half of his total and included a tremendous number of the notable lords and knights who had mustered such as the Sheriff of Angus ; Constable of Dundee; Provost of Aberdeen and many other great names. Indeed it is stated that "Hardly a leading family in Aberdeenshire but lost a laird or son, and the Irivings of Drum were wiped out" and the Lord Marischal was captured and died a prisoner. Conversely the losses of notable men amongst the highlanders was comparatively light and featured mainly a number of gentlement of vassal clans.

Donald withdrew during the night following the battle - allegedly due to the advice of Huntly who spoke against the sack of Aberdeen on the basis that it made little sense to destroy what was his by right of arms:


 * "By his victory in all appearance he gained his own, yet it was ridiculous for him to destroy the town and that citizens would always join with him who had the upper hand."

This withdrawal led to claims of victory by Lowland historians - a fact which has led to a continuing general ambiguity over the outcome of the battle and one described as a result of the fact that "Donald had the victory but the regent had the printer". The Regent Albany eventually gathered a large force and recovered Ross with no opposition. Euphemia, in 1415, finally resigned the Earldom of Ross to Albany who in turn awarded it to his son the Earl of Buchan. It would pass to the Lord of the Isles within a generation

The Battle is significant in respects of the nascent development of opposing cultures within Scotland - the famous Highland/Lowland divide between Gaelic and English speaking Scots. Given that the two opposing forces represented the two cultures which existed in Scotland, Highland (Gaelic) and Lowland (Scots-speaking), the battle has often been viewed (cf. Walter Scott and others) as an expression of the mutual antipathy between the two cultures, and also as a struggle for supremacy. These may or may not be exaggerated views of the significance of the battle.

External websites

 * http://www.clandonald.org.uk/cdm08/cdm08a09.htm
 * http://www.clan-cameron.org/battles/1411.html
 * http://www.royal-stuarts.org/harlaw.html which reproduces an account of the battle which appeared in vol. 2 of John Hill Burton's History of Scotland from Agricola's invasion to the Revolution of 1688 (Edinburgh, 1870)
 * http://www.fortunecity.com/bally/leitrim/147/battles.html#harlaw
 * http://www.gunnclan.net/midi/harlaw.htm