- Pronouns
- he/him
Is it possible and if so how?
It's tempting to say that Bruce's army approached Dublin twice, if either time they'd managed to take the city that would be game over but well the scots had a fine army at the time but their record for breaching walled fortifications was not good. If carrickfergus, carlisle, berwick and the like gave them so much trouble, Dublin would probably be the same. They almost always failed at capturing actual cities despite largely having control over the area outside them.
I've heard it suggested that it might have been possible for him to win over the alliegence of the anglo-irish rather than actually needing to defeating them but well there isn't much precedent for english lords flat out defecting rather than just refusing to fight the scots or paying them tribute to go away.
The native irish in connaght winning at Atheney in 1316 would almost certainly reduce the strength of the english armies in the field but you still have the problem that the scots are operating in poor territory during a famine and had difficulity commanding the loyalty of many of the gaels.
If you delay the main campaigning to 1318 then Edward would probably do better but the campaign happened in 1315 for good reasons (cutting off supplies to carlisle and Mann and preempting an english armada that was gathering to attack the western isles in 1316) and the fact the scots continued to campaign through 1316 and 1317 rather than waiting for the weather to improve seems to have been as part of a pre agreed arrangement with irish and welsh rebels which Edward couldn't easily break.
There's other possibilities. Edward Bruce attempted to buy a mercenary fleet from Genoa who arrived in the english chanel and then turned back when they weren't unpaid which might have helped to take Dublin had money been found. Some sources suggested there were Scottish reinforcements unused for Faughart who could have won the battle for Edward had he waited for them but that's debatable.
Atheney seems your best bet to me.
It's tempting to say that Bruce's army approached Dublin twice, if either time they'd managed to take the city that would be game over but well the scots had a fine army at the time but their record for breaching walled fortifications was not good. If carrickfergus, carlisle, berwick and the like gave them so much trouble, Dublin would probably be the same. They almost always failed at capturing actual cities despite largely having control over the area outside them.
I've heard it suggested that it might have been possible for him to win over the alliegence of the anglo-irish rather than actually needing to defeating them but well there isn't much precedent for english lords flat out defecting rather than just refusing to fight the scots or paying them tribute to go away.
The native irish in connaght winning at Atheney in 1316 would almost certainly reduce the strength of the english armies in the field but you still have the problem that the scots are operating in poor territory during a famine and had difficulity commanding the loyalty of many of the gaels.
If you delay the main campaigning to 1318 then Edward would probably do better but the campaign happened in 1315 for good reasons (cutting off supplies to carlisle and Mann and preempting an english armada that was gathering to attack the western isles in 1316) and the fact the scots continued to campaign through 1316 and 1317 rather than waiting for the weather to improve seems to have been as part of a pre agreed arrangement with irish and welsh rebels which Edward couldn't easily break.
There's other possibilities. Edward Bruce attempted to buy a mercenary fleet from Genoa who arrived in the english chanel and then turned back when they weren't unpaid which might have helped to take Dublin had money been found. Some sources suggested there were Scottish reinforcements unused for Faughart who could have won the battle for Edward had he waited for them but that's debatable.
Atheney seems your best bet to me.