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🚩 The Battle of Clontarf was a major military encounter that occurred in Ireland in April 1014. The battle is best known for being the culmination of a conflict between the local Irish kingdoms and the Viking forces, which had gained a foothold in Ireland.
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📢 Narrated by David McCallion
🎼 Music:
Epidemic Sounds
Filmstro
📚 Sources:
Clare County Library Resources & Archive – https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/people/brianbor.htm
Clare Downham – The Battle of Clontarf in Irish History and Legend. History Ireland – https://www.historyireland.com/the-battle-of-clontarf-in-irish-history-and-legend/
Sean Duffy – Brian Boru and the Battle of Clontarf
Sean Duffy – Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopaedia
Patrick Weston Joyce – A Concise History of Ireland (Library Ireland)
#history #medieval #documentary
April 23rd, 1014. Good Friday. The King of Dublin Sigtrygg Silkbeard ascends a set of wooden steps and stands on the walls of Dublin, looking west. His wife, Slaine, stands by his side. As they watch, wrapped in furs to protect
Against the frigid spring air that slices in from the sea behind them, a shape appears on the horizon, distant in the lowlands below the brown and drab Dublin Mountains. Indistinguishable in the distance, after a while the outline of the approaching shape become clear,
And all who stand around the royal couple can see that it is a body of armed men. The guards and advisors shuffle their feet back and forth, nervous, and the thump of their boots
Echo on the boards that make up the parapet. Sigtrygg looks at his wife and then back at the oncoming army, winding its way around his walls and toward the northwest. No pipe or battle drum can be heard. The silent army marches in the open, proceeding at
A determined pace over the River Liffey and toward the Tolka River beyond, out of range of the walls and making no attempt to close on them. Sigtrygg looks again at his wife, searching for a reaction, but she is placid, unmoving, her blue eyes following the line of men as they
Disappear out of sight into the green distance. Sigtrygg knows that these faces are familiar to her – they are her father’s army – the army of the High King of Ireland, Brian Boru. They have arrived to once more assert his authority on the foreigners of Dublin,
And to consolidate his rule on the land – for the first time in history – as a unified kingdom, encompassing the whole island of Ireland, in fact as well as name. Sigtrygg knows Brian well also, for Brian was married to his mother,
Gormlaith, a fiery power behind the throne of three different men by this year, 1014. While Sigtrygg gazes at Slaine, her eyes suddenly turn red, and when he looks back, the first fires have started on the northern horizon. Brian’s men are burning the countryside,
Finngall in the north and over to Swords, moving unopposed through Sigtrygg’s territory, all the way to the village of Howth on the long headland that shelters Dublin Bay. While Slaine continues to show no emotion as she watches her father’s forces do their work,
Burning her husband’s domain, Sigtrygg walks down the wall, moving to the far end of the parapet to look out over the sea. There, a Viking fleet, made up of scores of ships from the Isle of Mann, Orkney, and the Hebrides, even Iceland and Normandy,
Is using that same stinging wind to blow them into Dublin, and there yet more ships in the harbor are filling with Sigtrygg’s own Viking warriors and their Leinster allies. They have managed to outrun a storm that is still over the sea between Ireland and the Isle of
Anglesey, the uncertain breeze earlier making it unclear where they would find their landing. All Sigtrygg can know is that his allies are making their entrance on a backdrop of black cloud, as though the very open sea itself is aflame.
Later in the morning, while Brian – now aged in his 70s – retires to his tent ahead of his forces to pray for the success of the campaign, his men burn Howth and prepare to return to their king’s camp. As they march south and west,
Toward the coast at Clontarf, their way is blocked by the arrival on shore of battalions of Norsemen, storming up the beach after sailing across the Bay, locking shields in place to form a line obstructing the Irish army’s path. Both sides begin throwing missiles and curses
On one another, but the longships continue to deploy men onto the sand and very quickly the Irish army is isolated in hostile territory, with nothing but a wall of fire at their backs. Howling prayers to heaven for their lands, their tribes, and their king, the Irish raise
Their weapons and charge headlong into the midst of their enemy, the fury of the ancient gods and the new driving them forward. The Vikings rise and run to meet them. The storm that has threatened to break throughout the morning whips in over their heads, merging
With the smoke from the burning villages and farms to block out the sun, turning the day to night, leaving scarlet flames the only reflection on the blood stained battleaxes. In spring 1002, Brian arrives at the Hill of Tara in central Ireland with his entire host,
Expecting to fight yet another bloody battle for the right to rule as sovereign. But instead of a matching army in opposition, there was only Malachy, the High King of Ireland with whom Brian has been at war on and off for two decades.
Mounted on his horse, wearing no armor, and apparently unarmed, Malachy is accompanied by just a handful of his retainers. Malachy rides forward and announces that he will acknowledge Brian as High King and his sovereign, if in return he is allowed
To keep his own lands and other privileges. Brian agrees to the terms and so becomes High King. It is the culmination of a career that has seen Brian rise from the unlikely twelfth son of an assassinated provincial king to leading the foremost army
And political power base on the island. Though he was now in his sixties, Brian did not – like other High Kings who were content to rule with opposition – rest on his laurels. Over the next years, he campaigned determinedly to bring the last of the northern Ulster kingdoms
To heel and accept his overlordship. As the Tudor kings and queens of England were to discover five centuries later, Ulster is a difficult geographic area to invade and harder still to control. Brian made use of a two pronged strategy.
While making use of his now perfected combined land and naval attacks, utilizing the ships of Sigtryyg of Dublin alongside his own and those of his other allies, his armies attacked by land, drawing the northern O’Neill’s forward to meet him.
Whenever the enemy or the terrain hampered Brian’s advance, his navy was able to move around and attack O’Neill’s shores and river settlements, causing consternation among the rebel alliance as well as dissipating their forces’ ability to gather with strength of numbers.
At the same time as he pursued this military strategy, Brian was engaging in diplomacy with the Church, a very considerable force on the island, and he ruled that the northern religious center of Armagh, founded by St. Patrick himself, was the supreme spiritual power in
Ireland and all others were subject to it. As such, Armagh was now the beneficiary of all religious dues in Ireland, and so long as Brian remained king, this funding would continue. In such a way, Brian made his interests the interests of the northern church as well.
It was a hard and dogged war, startlingly so for an aged king who had spent his life in the open field, but by 1011, Ulster was secure, and Brian felt himself strong enough to surpass the traditional title of High King and declare himself Emperor of the Irish.
Given that at this time Ireland had roughly half the population of England, and half of what is now modern England was under the rule of Viking powers, Brian’s position looked very strong indeed. In 1012, while Brian faced no threat to his rule
And all of Ireland recognized his authority, King Aethelred the Unready paid almost 50,000 English pounds Danegeld in tribute and submission to the Danes after the capture and destruction of Canterbury, an event that culminated in the lynching of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Across the water, the future legacy for Brian, his son and heir Murchad, and his grandson Toirdelbach looked more than promising, especially given the hard pressed nature of European monarchies in the early years of the 11th century. It was, however, not to last.
At the same time that Brian completed the submission of the northern realms of Ulster, he also chose that moment to divorce his wife of the past decade, Gormlaith. Gormlaith was not only the sister of the King of Leinster and the mother of the King of Dublin,
She was also the ex-wife of Malachy, the former High King. The Irish annals that include her describe a woman with pride and ambition every bit as large as that of Brian. Though it is only legend, when her brother Mailmora, the King of Leinster,
Arrived at Brian’s fort in Cenn Corad to give tribute, Gormlaith is said to have mocked him for becoming nothing more than a vassal. Such a status was shameful to their ancestors. Later at the same meeting, Mailmora was allegedly insulted by Brian’s son and heir also,
Who reminded him of his previous defeats when in alliance with the Vikings. Mailmora left without paying Brian his full tribute, and then raised the Leinster clans to rebellion. They sent out invitations to the northern Ui Neills in Ulster and
Were also joined by Sigtryyg of Dublin. He was no doubt displeased at the treatment of his mother, but also likely sensed an opportunity in this new rising against the power of Brian’s dynasty. Rather than move directly against the High King,
However, they made an indirect feint and set a trap to which Brian had to make a response. Mailmora and Sigtryyg began an incursion into the lands of Malachy, the former High King, and still king of Meath, after his northern Ui Neill rivals made a raid from the north.
Assembling his army of Munster, Connaught, and Viking forces, Brian and Murchad marched north in two columns, ravaging the lands of Mailmora and his allies in the southern part of the province thoroughly before moving on to put Dublin under siege.
Brian’s navy completed the encirclement by sea. With few other takers of their offer to rise against Brian, Mailmora and his nephew Sigtryyg looked to have lost their final gamble. One hope that remained was to endure the siege until winter came, and they managed
This when Brian ran short of supplies in December, 1013, and disengaged his army to shelter and resupply in Munster. There was no doubt that he would return in the new year to complete the task, but Mailmora and Sigtryyg had no intention of
Sharing the fate of Brian’s past enemies. While Brian prowled impatiently in Munster, Sigtryyg set off by sea to raise allies. He reached Orkney, looking for mercenaries willing to join his and Mailmora’s cause as he went, and also came ashore at the Isle of Mann. There,
Two brothers promised their ships and forces to him, Brodir and Ospak. The brothers possessed a fleet of 30 ships, and they, along with Sigurd of Orkney, galvanized Mailmora and Sigtryyg’s diminished host. They promised that they would reach Dublin in force by Good Friday. Once winter was past and the
Cold of February had given way to April’s more clement conditions, Brian wasted no time in marching again toward Dublin. His forces reached the city as the middle of the month gave way to Easter time, and it appeared that he
Had a free run to take the city once more. Meanwhile, Sigtryyg and Mailmora put together their own forces and anxiously awaited the reinforcements from the islands. It’s unlikely that Brian knew nothing of Sigtryyg’s winter recruitment drive, but if he was aware of it, he made no alteration to his strategy.
His army crossed the Liffey and then the Tolka, burning Sigtryyg’s lands as they went, and the Viking leader must have been feeling pressure as he watched them march north from the walls of Dublin. At some point, two defections
Affected both sides of the conflict. Ospark decided that he did not trust the promises of Sigtryyg and went over to the cause of Brian, who he described as a fine and noble king. His brother, Brodir, remained on the rebel side. Around the same time, Brian and Malachy had a
Falling out, and the King of Meath withdrew his forces, which would have been of a considerable size. Nevertheless, Brian continued the campaign to take the city. As the army under the command of his son, Murchad and fifteen year old grandson Toirdelbach moved
Back from Howth, a party of Dublin and Leinster forces led by Sigtryyg’s brother Dubgall, Mailmora, and Sigrud of Orkney advanced over the Tolka at a more easterly point than Brian’s army and marched to cut off the High King’s withdrawal.
Sigtryyg remained in Dublin with a garrison force to hold the city in the event of defeat on the field. At the same time, Brodir and his Viking fleet landed on Clontarf and attacked the Irish from a second direction. The annals say that Brian’s host was divided into companies or battles,
Most likely following their tribal and provincial origin, Munster on one side, marked by its banner, and Connaught on the other with its own. A third force fighting for Brian were his Viking mercenaries of Limerick, Cork, and Waterford, most likely containing
Other nationalities also, for their leader was a Scotsman, Domnall man Eimhin. The Viking and north Leinster armies were said to have arranged themselves into three battles also, with Brodir and the newly arrived island forces in the lead, then the Vikings of Dublin, and finally,
The Leinstermen of Mailmora in the rear. The Irish made use of what were called short spears, which they used in the same manner as the ancient Roman pila, launching them as missiles to thin the enemy ranks before closing and fighting a melee.
Some accounts have it that these were what made the difference between the opposing forces on the day of the battle, but it is known that the Norse-Leinster armies were in the stronger position during the battle’s early stages. While the two sides made some use of arrow and
Bow, particularly the Vikings, there were no dedicated archery companies as in continental armies. Instead, bow and arrow were simply one of the weapons used for the initial exchange of missiles and then discarded at the advance. Brian, Murchad, and their household forces were mounted warriors,
But the majority of the Irish army were infantry armed with spears and knives. Those who could afford them used axes and swords. Though the Irish had gleefully embraced the Norse style of axe and it was the predominant weapon of Gaelic armies, it
Seems that the Vikings themselves used spears and swords in far greater proportion. The two sides also differed in their defensive choices. Almost none of the Irish used armor or even chain mail in this period, and only their commanders wore helmets.
Irish annals report that the Irish felt armor to be unmanly, and instead preferred to use shields, which could be utilized as an offensive weapon in the melee. The Vikings wore chain mail armor, a long vest that reached their knees called a hauberk.
It was in this state that the sides charged, and the battle immediately became one of extraordinary violence and ferocity. The Vikings and Leinstermen initially drove the Irish back, so much that Sigtryyg, still watching from the walls of Dublin,
Turned to his wife Slaine and compared the carnage to farmers scything wheat at harvest time. “Well do the foreigners reap the field,” he told her, but Brian’s daughter remained composed, telling him that nothing would be certain until the day was over.
The Viking men and women watched on from the walls as sparks struck from weapons on mail and shield appeared like flashes of fire in the air. So terrible did the fighting become that within minutes living brothers, as well as sons and fathers, could not recognize
One another due to the sheets of blood and gore that covered their faces. Spears became too heavy to raise not because of exhaustion, but due to their points becoming clogged with hair and viscera. It was Murchad, Brian’s son and heir,
Who broke the Viking momentum and turned the tide of the battle for the Irish. With a sword in each hand, he sprinted directly into the enemy’s front line, killing fifty on his left and fifty on his right. His men and relatives charged after
Him – unwilling to let the son of the king and the man who would soon take the throne himself go into battle with foreigners alone. The Viking lines began to falter, and then the Connaught battle charged the Leinstermen. The ensuing slaughter was every bit as savage as
That between Murchad and the Norse. Leinster put up a fierce resistance, but the Connaught tribes eventually prevailed, the numbers being reduced from thousands on both sides to just 100 Connaughtmen and twenty survivors from Leinster. It is not known who broke first, but the Leinstermen and the Dublin Vikings
Began retreating back toward the city, over the bridge. Around the same time, the Vikings who had arrived across the bay tried to return to their ships. By this stage in the late afternoon, the exhausted warriors saw that
Vessels were no longer beached in position, but had instead been lifted out by a high tide. They turned to see the screaming and blood drenched horde of Irish bearing down on them. They made what defense or retreat they could on the bitterly cold beach, many of them drowning
In the near freezing waters of the sea. Much fighting took place along the weirs and landing points, the fighting stretching from Clontarf beach all the way to Dubgall’s bridge, where the Leinstermen and Dublin Norse were being butchered as they scrambled over one another to cross it. Watching the disintegration of her
Husband’s army and the imminent victory of her father and brother, Slaine shed her impassive demeanor and addressed Sigtryyg. “The foreigners are coming into their inheritance,” she told him. “What do you mean by that?” he responded.
38 Comments
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🚩 The Battle of Clontarf was a major military encounter that occurred in Ireland in April 1014. The battle is best known for being the culmination of a conflict between the local Irish kingdoms and the Viking forces, which had gained a foothold in Ireland.
If possible, build the battle of Karnal Nader Shah (King of Iran).
He must have been popular with the ladies… the guy's name is Sigtrygg SILKBEARD
Good video, but the Annals are a little more confused about the battle.
Some are unclear that Malachy and his army returned to Meath and say that he did fight alongside Brian. It's the same with Sitric as some sources say he actively fought in the battle rather than observed from the city walls.
It's an overreach to say Brian's royal line was wiped out as a younger son became king of Munster, and a grandson, great-grandson, and great-great-grandson all became high kings of Ireland.
where do you guys get the portrait for people who you dont use art for? such as sygtrygg
Good video but as far as i know there Irish, Norse Irish And Norse on both sides.
Boru spent all that time trying to unite Ireland just for it all to go back to how it was, crazy how in just the span of an hour can determine the future of a country. great video as always, congrats on the 1 mill
Brian Boru's story is bittersweet. He became undisputed ruler of Ireland, but hopes of any dynasty were dashed at Clontarf, where he lost the son who would've followed in his footsteps.
So how it was the end of the viking age?
They just left or assimilated?
As someone born and raised in Clontarf thank you for this video, excellent work! By the way "Howth" is pronounced Hoeth 😊
Very interesting
Not how-th, pronounced hoe-th
Now Ireland is being invaded by muslims and African refugees.
You lost me at " . . . killing fifty on his left and fifty on his right."
24:20 "The foreigners are coming into their inheritance."
That was ice-cold.
Was it really the end? Considering many lords in England are of Norman decent?
Love learning about Viking history
OBrien's in the crowd? ✊
Damn…. the very definition of a pyrrhic victory… in fact… probably the most pyrrhic in history, imagine "winning" while you and your entire line of succession is wiped out…insane.
Thanks!
I've been watching your channel for years, it's one of my favourites on YouTube. Awesome video, as always!
Just the best history channel. Great narrator. Both content and execution. Got even better over time. I did not think it would be possible.
I think I've said it before, but I will say it again. I am 3 minutes in and your narration is incredible. If you wrote a fictional book based on real life events (like Sharpes War) for example, I would buy it and read it. I love how descriptive you are. You manage set a tone like no one else can, and make me feel like I am actually there.
confused approach
The battle was amazingly gruesome!
All that just because they had to mock the guy bringing tribute
What a Greek tragedy in medieval Ireland!!!!
Please do one on the Teutonic order invading Estonia 🙏
An ancestor of my family name O'Mahoney called Mathghamhain mac Cian, fought in this battle. He was related by marriage to Brian Boru.
11:00
Oh so that's what the Anglo's have done to the Native Celtic people of the British Isles for the last 1000 years, grew their population whilst made sure the Natives could not do the same, be it either outright genocide/famine or modern economic/banking manipulation.
As the French say " Cherchez la femme "
Slain 😭 bro cmon learn the pronunciation
"Thank you so much for your efforts, HistoryMarche! I thoroughly enjoyed the narration of this video. Your channel consistently explores fresh and interesting topics, making it a refreshing and informative experience. Keep up the great work, looking forward to more captivating content!"
continue the Hannibal series
Clontarf was a totally Pyrrhic victory then, neither side strong enough to finish the other afterwards !
Good in depth video though, I learned a lot from it, thanks
Great video but Christ ya BUTCHERED the pronunciation of Irish words, places and names…
At least here its shows Irish and Vikings on both sides👍