The Battle of Connor was fought on 10 September 1315, in the townland of Tannybrake just over a mile north of the modern village of Connor, County Antrim, as part of the Bruce campaign in Ireland. Edward Bruce had landed at Larne on 26 May 1315, and by early June had received the fealty of Donall O Neill of Tyrone and twelve fellow northern kings and lords at Carrickfergus. Though he held the town of Carrickfergus he could not take its castle, and his forces pressed south through the Moyry Pass to Dundalk, where they routed an English force and laid waste to the town on 29 June. The English administration in Dublin attempted to marshal a combined response, but Richard Og de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster refused to allow the government troops from Munster and Leinster into Ulster, fearing damage to his lands, and Bruce exploited this quarrel to face his enemies separately.
Bruce drew de Burgh northward by a deliberate retreat, during which his forces sacked Coleraine and destroyed the bridge over the River Bann to slow pursuit. He also dispatched word to rival Connacht claimants Felim O Connor and Ruaidri mac Cathal Ua Conchobair, playing each against the other; Ruaidri immediately returned home, raised a rebellion and declared himself king, and Felim's contingent then followed to defend his throne, stripping de Burgh of his Connacht allies. Bruce's force crossed the Bann by boat and attacked, forcing the Earl of Ulster to fall back to Connor. The two armies met there on 10 September 1315, and Bruce's superior force, fighting alongside his Irish allies, defeated the now-depleted Ulster forces.
The victory at Connor brought Bruce considerable strategic gains beyond the battlefield itself. The capture of Connor allowed him to re-supply his army for the coming winter from the stores the Earl of Ulster had assembled there. William de Burgh, cousin to the earl, was taken captive along with other lords and their heirs. The remnants of the Ulster army retreated to Carrickfergus Castle, which the pursuing Scots immediately placed under siege, while the Earl of Ulster himself managed to withdraw to Connacht. The government forces under Edmund Butler never engaged Bruce during this period, allowing him to consolidate his hold over Ulster; his occupation of the province encouraged further risings in Meath and Connacht, and though the campaign ultimately ended in defeat at the Battle of Faughart, Connor represented the high-water mark of Scottish arms in Ireland.
Perhaps the most telling detail of the Battle of Connor is how thoroughly Bruce dismantled de Burgh's alliance before a single blow was struck at Connor itself. By sending carefully timed messages to both rival claimants to the kingship of Connacht, Felim O Connor and Ruaidri mac Cathal Ua Conchobair, Bruce induced Ruaidri to rush home, declare himself king and raise a rebellion, whereupon Felim's own men abandoned de Burgh's army to go and defend their lord's throne. De Burgh thus arrived at Connor already stripped of his Connacht allies, his forces depleted by diplomatic manoeuvre rather than combat, and the military outcome was in large part decided before the armies had even met.
not recorded
Kingdom of Scotland and Gaelic allies: At least 6,000
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