A. D. 1316. 11 April.

Edward Bruce in person, at the head of his own household establishment, and such others of the Scots as had been able to arm and assemble. In the foremost rank of the troops now led on by Edward Bruce, was one Gilbert Harper, renowned in the Scots army for strength and intrepidity.

"He wes the douchteast in deid
That then was levand f of his state f."

Knowing Mandeville by his arming, or the coat armorial which he wore over his armour, Harper felled him to the ground with one blow of his battle-axe: And, according to Barbour, Edward Bruce, who was immediately behind Harper, seeing Mandeville fall, turned him over as he lay on the ground, and stabbed him to death with a dagger §.

Daunted by the loss of their commander, while the Scots rapidly increasing in numbers pressed hard upon them, the English at length gave way, and endeavoured to make good their retreat to the castle. At this critical period, Fergus of Ardrossan is particularly mentioned as bringing up a reinforcement of

• Most valiant in action.

+ Living.

Barb. XV. 182. 183.

$ Id. ib. 190-192.

1316. 11 April.

sixty armed warriors to the assistance of A. D. Bruce*. The garrison of the castle, being afraid lest the Scots might force an entrance along with the fugitives, barricaded the gate, hoisted up the draw-bridge, and refused to admit their own discomfited freinds, whom they thus abandoned to the fury of their enraged enemies †. The Scots, increasing every moment in numbers and confidence, unremittingly urged on the assault upon the now discomfited assailants; and, during this almost unresisted slaughter before the gates of the castle, another knight or commander of the name of Mandeville, said to have been the most valiant warrior in all Ireland, is reported to have fallen by the hand of Edward Bruce †.

Barbour particularly mentions a leader in the army of Bruce, named Maknakill, who did good service upon the present occasion, at the head of two hundred spearmen, probably Irish. Maknakill slew great numbers of the English after their repulse from the streets of Carrickfergus; and by means of some engine or device, not described, got possession of four or

E3

Barb. XV. 193-195.

+ Id. ib. 210-212.

Ann. lib. ap. Cambd:

† Barb. XV. 205-209.

A. D. 1316. 11 April.

five of the vessels in which Mandeville and his unfortunate succours had been conveyed from Dublin; and it is added, that he put to death the whole of the crews of the captured vessels *. Of the whole party which issued from the castle under Mandeville, it is said that not one man escaped death or captivity †. Barbour is extremely severe in his observations on the conduct of Mandeville and his party, for their infraction of the truce, and more especially for having violated the sanctity of Easter; and considers the disastrous issue of their enterprise, as a just judgement upon them for their impiety and breach of faith †.

After the carnage of this sanguinary conflict had ceased, Edward Bruce surveyed the original place of action in the principal street of Carrickfergus, where he found the gallant Fleming still alive, but in the agonies of death, with all the brave soldiers of his noble band laying dead around him. Bruce bitterly lamented the fate of this valiant band, although, says the historian, he was unused to make any lamentation, and could not endure to hear

1316,

others lament on any occasion *. The same A. D. observation was made formerly, respecting 11 April the general character of Edward Bruce, on occasion of the death of Sir Walter Ross at the battle of Bannockburn. Perhaps, on the present occasion, he may have bitterly blamed. himself for his neglect of sufficient military precaution, to which the death of these brave men may be attributed.

The Irish annals appended to Cambden give a different account of the circumstances of this conflict, and of the death of Mandeville. As there related, after having introduced succours into the castle, Mandeville had successful skirmishes with the Scots on the eighth and tenth days of April, and was slain in a subsequent, rencounter or sally, about the kalends†. Whether by this last expression, we are to understand the 14th of April, when the kalends begin, or the 1st of May, seems uncertain, but is most probably intended to indicate the 14th of April: For, as Edward Bruce was crowned on the 2d of May, it is hardly presumeable that this cere__mony would be performed on the day imme

E 4

1316.

A. D. diately succeeding an important conflict, when 11 April. cares of a more melancholy nature would de

mand attention. The account in Barbour is exceedingly distinct; and in it he speaks so forcibly of the guilt of violating the truce and disregarding the sanctity of Easter, that he certainly did not invent the story. It seems evident, that the original garrison of the castle had entered into a truce with the besiegers; but that Mandeville, being no party to that transaction, did not consider its con ditions as binding upon him and the succours which he had introduced *. In conformity with this military casuistry, the garrison took no share in the sally.

The somewhat discordant dates of this story, as related in the Irish annals, and in Barbour, may in some measure be reconciled. The skirmishes of the 8th and 10th of April, mentioned in the Annals, may be thus ac counted for; the former as referring to some encounter between the troops of Mandeville and a detachment of the Scots, or of their Irish adherents, while he was on his march towards Carrickfergus, or while endeavouring to land, and the latter to some opposition

A. of S. IL. 75.