The siege of Carrickfergus 1315 - 1316

After the Battle of Connor all of Ulster was in the hands of Edward Bruce and his Irish allies, with the sole exception of Carrickfergus. In October 1315 Edward II's victuallers were ordered to supply 30 crannocks of wheat to the defenders of the castle, but ships carrying the grain were scattered by a storm and the supplies were diverted to Whitehaven and Skinburness. Those within Carrickfergus would have to survive on what lay within the storehouses.

Lacking heavy siege engines, the Scots settled down to starve the garrison into submission, while the main body of their army prepared to conquer the rest of Ireland. At first Edward Bruce swept all before him, defeating the de Laceys and Roger de Mortimer at Kells and winning other battles over the winter further south. A terrible famine was sweeping Europe, however, and unable to live off the country despite their success, the Scots were forced by hunger back into Ulster.

For Henry of Thrapston, keeper of Carrickfergus castle, the position was becoming desperate and the garrison was reduced to chewing hides. During Easter 1316 Sir Thomas de Mandeville attempted to relieve the castle by an approach by sea, but was defeated and killed. During a parley on 24 June 1316, the garrison seized 30 Scots and held them in the dungeons; according to the Laud Annals, eight of these men were later killed and eaten by the defenders. Finally, after a year's siege, in September 1316 Carrickfergus surrendered.

The Bruce invasion 1315

On 26th May 1315 a formidable Scots expeditionary force disembarked near Larne with no less a mission than the complete conquest of Ireland. His triumph the previous year notwithstanding, Robert Bruce had yet to force recognition that he was the rightful King of Scotland from Edward II of England. He intended to weaken the English colony in Ireland and win a new kingdom for his devoted brother Edward, Earl of Carrick. The O'Neills of mid-Ulster promised support.

Leading the expedition, Edward Bruce swiftly overran the manors of the earldom. So unexpected was this assault that the Red Earl of Ulster was in Connacht attending to his extensive possessions there. Advised by Domnal O'Neill, Edward pulled back to the north coast while de Burgo brought up his army. Attempts to come to grips with the Scots were frustrated by the destruction of the bridge at Coleraine.

Finally, the Red Earl was cornered at Connor in mid-Antrim and utterly routed. Survivors made their way to Carrickfergus castle, which soon came under siege. There seemed nothing now to prevent the invasion of the heart of the Irish Lordship in the south.

The defeat of Edward Bruce 1315 - 1318

At Christmas 1316 Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, joined his brother, landing at Carrickfergus with an imposing force. Early in February 1317, the brothers broke out of Ulster and besieged Dublin. The capital of the Irish Lordship held out successfully and the Bruces turned away to raid as far south as Limerick. The winter was harsher than the one before, and the dearth was as severe as anyone could remember.

Edward Bruce had had himself crowned King of Ireland but the Scots were failing in their great enterprise. Robert Bruce returned to Scotland in May 1317, but Edward stayed on for another year. Then in the autumn of 1318 John de Bermingham brought an English army north from Dublin and defeated and killed Edward Bruce at the hill of Faughart near Dundalk.

The making of the Pale - up to 1397

There were many reasons for the decline of English royal power in Ireland in the fourteenth century. They included the impact of the Bruce invasion and the Black Death, which hit the Lordship hardest. English monarchs tended to drain the colony's resources in their campaigns against the Scots and north Welsh, and in the Hundred Years War in France. The Wars of the Roses gave kings few opportunities to recover lost ground in Ireland. To make matters worse, descendants of Norman conquerors had gone native, adopting Irish speech and customs, and severing their bonds with the Crown to become independent warlords. Only the ports and the territory around Dublin remained loyal to the Crown.

The government in Dublin castle put up fortifications, dug trenches, gave grounds towards the building of castles, appointed guards to hold the bridges and assigned watchmen to light warning beacons when danger threatened. The area around Dublin extended from Dundalk, inland to Naas, and south to Bray, and became known as the Pale. Apart from Carrickfergus castle, the province of Ulster was beyond the Pale.

The lordship of Clandeboye - up to 1485

In 1435 the Irish Council reported to Henry VI that 'his land of Ireland is well-nigh destroyed, and inhabited with his enemies and rebels', with the consequence that the royal writ only ran in an area around Dublin 'scarcely 30 miles in length and 20 miles in depth'. Beyond the Pale, Ulster had fallen out of English control, with the exception of Carrickfergus castle.

Tudor recovery 1485 - 1534

In 1485 Henry Tudor defeated and killed Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth. A new phase began in Irish history, as from this time English royal power began to recover. Henry VII showed no desire to conquer Ireland but he provided stable government and insisted on the loyalty of his subjects within the Pale. He employed the most powerful colonial family in the country, the FitzGeralds of Kildare, to act on his behalf.

Garret Mór FitzGerald, in his capacity as chief governor, extended royal authority beyond the Pale and, in 1498, invaded Ulster and took the O'Neill castle of Dungannon through the use of cannon. Henry VIII retained the services of Garret Mór, and after his death in 1513 those of his son, Garret Óg. Eventually, however, the FitzGeralds overreached themselves; Garret Óg's son, Silken Thomas, rose in rebellion in 1534 only to be crushed in a protracted campaign. From then on Henry ruled by lord deputy, a chief governor resident in Ireland throughout his term of office. Unlike his father, Henry VIII was determined to make himself the ruler of all of Ireland.

Tudor expansion 1534 - 1558

Almost until the end of the sixteenth century the Tudor monarchy vacillated between conciliation and conquest. Sir Anthony St Leger, the lord deputy, believed that the Gaelic lords and their people, if treated with respect, would become loyal to the Crown and abide by English law. He persuaded Henry VIII to change his title from Lord of Ireland to King of Ireland; the Irish parliament gave its approval in 1541, and the act was translated into Irish. Under a scheme known as Surrender and Regrant, the lords would drop their traditional Gaelic titles and give up their lands, receiving them back from the king with English titles.

This programme enjoyed initial success and in Ulster Conn Bacach O'Neill led the way by becoming the first Earl of Tyrone. Henry's break with Rome and the confiscation of monastic lands caused less dislocation than might have been expected. England became a Protestant kingdom in the reign of Edward VI, but the Reformation made little headway in Ireland, even in the Pale.

Mary, though she restored the connection with Rome, adopted an aggressive policy towards the Gaelic Irish and began, amidst much bloodshed, a 'plantation' of loyal subjects on the lands of the O'Mores and O'Connors in the midlands. When Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558, she had no policy formulated for the government of Ireland.

Shane O'Neill 1558 - 1567

Shane O'Neill gathered a strong force around him in mid-Ulster. In 1559 he drove his aged father, Conn Bacach O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, out of Ulster and into the Pale, where he died soon after. Shane had already murdered his half-brother Matthew, heir to the earldom. By English law Matthew's eldest son, Brian, was earl, but amongst his own people Shane was unchallenged as 'The O'Neill'.

Shane, failing to get English recognition as earl, rose in revolt, plundered the O'Reillys and raided the Pale in 1561. He also attacked and overwhelmed the O'Donnells in Tír Conaill and put their lord Calvagh in chains.

After a failed attempt by the Earl of Sussex to have him poisoned, Shane finally agreed to visit Elizabeth in London. Shane chained himself to two Irish earls to ensure his safety and got the Queen to give him £2,000 for expenses. At Greenwich he made submission, but at the same time Brian O'Neill was murdered (almost certainly on Shane's orders). Having agreed to keep the peace, Shane returned and began immediately to attack his neighbours. He was defeated, however, by the O'Donnells, and then murdered by the MacDonnells at a feast in Glenshesk in 1567. All attempts by Elizabeth's forces to defeat him had failed but in the end the superior resources and technology of England would prevail.