Recordings & Info 163. The Battle of Harlaw
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Child Collection Index
4) Folk Index
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 2861: The Battle of Harlaw (28 Listings)
Alternative Titles
Harlaw
Traditional Ballad Index: Battle of Harlaw, The [Child 163]
NAME: Battle of Harlaw, The [Child 163]
DESCRIPTION: A Highland army marches to Harlaw (to claim an earldom for their leader). The local forces oppose them on principle, and a local chief kills the Highland commander. The battle is long and bloody, but the defenders hold their ground
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1823 (Laing)
KEYWORDS: battle nobility
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1411 - Donald, Lord of the Isles, gathers an army to press his (legitimate) claim to the Earldom of Ross. Both sides take heavy losses, but the Highlanders suffer more and are driven off
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(South))
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Child 163, "The Battle of Harlaw" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Bronson 163, "The Battle of Harlaw" (21 versions+1 in addenda)
Greig #11, pp. 1-2, "The Battle of Harlaw"; Greig "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 62, "Battle of Harlaw" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan1 112, "The Battle of Harlaw" (14 texts, 11 tunes) {A=Bronson's #6, B=#8, C=#11, E=#9, F=#3, G=#5, H=#12, I=#10, J=#4}
Ord, pp. 473-475, "Harlaw" (1 text)
DT 163, BATHARLW*
Roud #2861
RECORDINGS:
Jeannie Robertson, "The Battle of Harlaw" (on FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #14}
Lucy Stewart, "The Battle of Harlaw" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2) (on LStewart1) {Bronson's #13}
NOTES: Most ballad books discussing the Battle of Harlaw mention only the immediate cause: The conflict over the Earldom of Ross. This follows Child (whose notes, in this case, are rather inadequate).
The conflict was real but hardly the whole story: The only heir of William, Earl of Ross, was a daughter Euphemia Ross. (Not to be confused with the Euphemia Ross who was the wife of King Robert II.) There were some questions about the legality of her inheriting the title -- the Earldom of Ross had been a male entail (see, e.g., Boardman, p. 47), but that could be changed.
Interestingly, there was a question about whether she would marry at all -- Thomson, p. 23, says that she possessed "severe disabilities," adding on p. 24 that she was a hunchback; apparently she was at one time destined for a convent. But given the land she controlled, that could hardly stand. King David II married her to Walter Lesley, an elderly crusader, in 1366, and changed the entail so that the earldom could pass in female line (Boardman, pp. 46-47). All might have been well had not Euphemia outlived Lesley.
In 1382, Euphemia married Alexander the "Wolf of Badenoch," a younger son of King Robert II. (Boardman, pp. 77-79). This produced a new set of complications, because the marriage to Alexander ended in divorce (Boardman, pp. 179-180). Magnusson, p. 211, says that the Wolf was "flagrantly unfaithful," leading Euphemia to denounce the marriage and demand her land back. In the end, Euphemia left no heir.
The exact date of Euphemia Ross's death is unknown, but it was probably around 1395. Alexander of Badenoch, being the sort of man he was, held onto the earldom after her death, but he died in 1406 -- and while he had sons, they were not by Euphemia and not heirs to Ross. Donald of the Isles (died 1423), as husband of Mary/Margaret Lesley, the sister of the old Earl of Ross (Euphemia's father), was the obvious heir (Fry/Fry, p. 94) -- and he set out to make good that claim. Hence the events resulting in the Battle of Harlaw.
But the conflict was in fact much more important than a conflict over an earldom. Since the death of Robert Bruce, Scotland's central government had been weak even by Scottish standards: David II Bruce had spent much of his reign in English hands, his successor Robert II the Steward was a tired old man, Robert III was crippled and had limited ability to rule, and the King at the time of Harlaw was James I, who was still only a teenager and in English custody anyway (Cook, p. 151). The country, since the time of Robert III, had been ruled by Robert Duke of Albany, the younger brother of Robert III (they shared the name Robert because Robert III was born John but took a different throne name; he thought "John" unlucky).
Albany was energetic, but his government was not secure (Magnuson, p. 226, documents the vicious way in which he maintained power); Scotland was degenerating into a collection of quarreling baronies. (The mess was so bad that, when James I got loose, he would destroy as many of Albany's descendants as he could lay his hands on; Ashley-Stuart, p. 41) The Highlands were almost completely beyond central control. The Lords of the Isles were in effect independent kings, with a dynasty going back to the Irish-born prince Somerled (c. 1105-1164), who during the 1150s managed to lay claim to most of the Hebrides by conquest or negotiation (Ashley-Kings, p. 432). The title of "Lord of the Isles" became official with "Good John," Lord of the Isles 1330-1387 (Thomson, p. 16). Donald, the Lord of the Isles in this song, was John's heir.
The Lords of the Isles were often very conservative, holding fast to the old Gaelic ways, and they were willing to ally with anyone or anything, including the English, against the lowland government (Thomson, p. 17). As a result, they had great influence in the western Highlands. Give them control of Ross, in the central Highlands, and Scotland would likely have split into two nations -- or, possibly, the Lords of the Isles could have been able to take control of the whole thing. After all, Donald was the grandson of Robert II by his daughter Margaret (see the genealogy in Boardman, p. 41).
Ordinarily Donald would not have been much threat to the monarchy; he stood rather low in the succession -- he trailed the current king James I, James's successors if he had any, Albany and his son Murdoch and his heirs, John earl of Mar (the son of the Wolf of Badenoch, and hence Donald's step-nephew or something like that), and Mar's heirs. (Note that Mar was the leader of those who fought MacDonald at Harlaw.). Still, a sufficiently strong lord could easily get around that. Harlaw allowed the government to retain just enough control to prevent either possibility.
Magnusson, p. 231, says of the battle itself that it "has become a byword for savagery and valour... and became known in ballad and folk-tale as the Battle of Red Harlaw.... It was the fiercest and bloodiest battle ever fought by the Gaels; it was also a battle which nobody won."
Magnusson, p. 232, claims that MacDonald selected six thousand men at a Christmas feast in the Isles and shipped them to the mainland. There he picked up four thousand more followers. Thus he had perhaps ten thousand men to fight at Harlaw -- fully half the figure typically quoted in the ballad, which makes the song relatively accurate compared to some histories of the time.
Magnusson adds that Mar's forces, though outnumbered, were better-armed. The uncoordinated fight consisted mostly of mobs of Highlanders charging the massed lowlanders, who held off the attacks by staying in tight formation (Magnusson, p. 233). Magnusson estimates MacDonald's losses at one thousand, Mar's at six hundred -- ten percent or more of the forces engaged.
That was Donald's last serious attempt to claim the Earldom of Ross. Albany managed a strong counter-push after that, and the Lord of the Isles was mostly quiet for the remaining dozen years of his life. Though it was a tactical draw, Harlaw was a great strategic victory for Mar and the lowlanders -- and for Albany and the central government. As well as for the Earl of Mar, who in the aftermath picked up the Earldom of Ross as well (Thomson, p. 29).
It was not the end of the conflicts between the Lords of the Isles and the central government; Alexander, the successor of Donald MacDonald, rebelled against King James I almost as soon as his father died. He had a great deal of success, and almost managed to capture Inverness -- but James I was not Albany. He gathered an army and captured Alexander MacDonald (Thomson, p. 30). It seemed as if the power of the Lords of the Isles would be broken. It probably would have been, had James lived longer. But he was murdered, and his heir was a minor, and the pro-government Earl of Ross was killed at Verneuil (the last great victory of the English over the French in the Hundred Years' War; Thomson, p. 32, says Ross died in 1436, but Verneuil was fought in 1424 -- and Seward, p. 201, says explicitly that John Stewart, Earl of Mar, was one of many killed at Verneuil.)
Alexander of the Isles -- who seems to have escaped his captivity quickly (Ashley-Stuart, p. 42) was able to regain much of his power as a result. The regency, to earn his support, finally gave him the Earldom of Ross (Thomson, p. 32; Ashley-Stuart, p. 47, adds that he was appointed Judiciar as well, the idea being to get him to control the Highlands). He supported the regency (probably out of self-interest) until his death in 1449. But John MacDonald, who succeeded him as Lord of the Isles and Earl of Ross while still a teenager (Thomson, p. 35), was reckless and not particularly wise in his gambles. When his correspondence with the English was revealed, he lost the Earldom of Ross (Thomson, p. 37). And his (political) marriage was childless (Thomson, p. 36). John had illegitimate children, including a son Angus Og whom he managed to have legitimized, but Angus Og rebelled against his father.
In the aftermath of yet another civil conflict, Angus Og was murdered, meaning that John's heir was his grandson Donald Dhu -- a young man already a prisoner in a Cambell castle (Thomson, p. 40). John was by now so distrusted (and so ineffective) that he was stripped of the title "Lord of the Isles"; the title was never really revived (Thomson, p. 41). Donald Dhu's death in 1545 marked the effective end of the MacDonald dynasty in any event (Ashley-Kings, p. 541); there were collateral branches, of course, but no longer a true clanleader. The Battle of Harlaw thus marked, in a sense, the pinnacle of MacDonald power. And, hence, the turning point that would ultimately make the Campbells the great clan of Scotland.
This ballad is generally regarded as historically unreliable, on several counts -- a charge dating back to Child. David Buchan, however, takes a different view (in the article cited as "Buchan").
The first objection to the song lies in the prominence of the Forbeses in a battle directed by the Earl of Mar. Buchan, however, alludes to Dr. Douglas Simpson's book _The Earldom of Mar_, which attempts to reconstruct this battle.
According to this view, the citizens of Aberdeenshire were concerned about the invasion by Highlandmen, and sought to block it. But they could not know which route MacDonald would take to the city -- via Harlaw or Rhynie Gap, several hours' march apart. Simpson argues that Mar garrisoned Harlaw and assigned the Forbeses, strong vassals situated in the area, to guard Rhynie.
When the Highlandmen arrived at Harlaw, Mar sent for the Forbeses. They arrived on the scene, defeated the nearest Highland forces, and partly retrieved the battle. The ballad then makes sense if seen as a description from the Forbes standpoint.
The second objection, to the presence of Redcoats, Buchan meets by assuming the song has been confused with an account of the Jacobite rebellions. This strikes me as less convincing.
The third argument that the song is recent comes from the similarity of versions. Buchan argues that this could have been caused by broadsheets distributed by Alexander Laing, who printed the earliest (B) fragment known to Child. This is possible though by no means sure (no such early broadsheet, to my knowledge, has been found) -- but in any case the objection is weak, because Bronson's #15, at least, represents a text well removed from the common stream. Most texts of "Harlaw" are from Aberdeenshire; they could be close together simply because many local singers knew the song and could compare their texts.
Ord reports a claim that the chorus is derived from a druidic chant. Uh-huh. - RBW
>>BIBLIOGRAPHY<<
Ashley-Kings: Mike Ashley, _British Kings and Queens_, Barnes & Noble, 2002 (originally published as _The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens_, 1988)
Ashley-Stuart: Maurice Ashley, _The House of Stuart_, J. M. Dent, 1980
Boardman: Stephen Boardman, _The Early Stewart Kings: Robert II and Robert III_, Tuckwell, Press, 1996
Buchan: David Buchan, "History and Harlaw," article reprinted in E. B. Lyle, ed., _Ballad Studies_, Rowman & Littlefield, 1976
Cook: E. Thornton Cook, _Their Majesties of Scotland_, John Murray, 1928
Fry/Fry: Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, _The History of Scotland_, 1982 (I use the 1995 Barnes & Noble edition)
Magnusson: Magnus Magnusson, _Scotland: The Story of a Nation_, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000
Seward: Desmond Seward, _The Hundred Years War: The English in France, 1337-1453_, 1978 (I used the 1982 Atheneum paperback)
Thomson: Oliver Thomson, _The Great Feud: The Campbells & The Macdonalds_, Sutton Publishing, 2000
Child Collection- Child Ballad 163: The Battle of Harlaw
Child --Artist --Title --Album --Year --Length --Have
163 Alastair McDonald Harlaw Scottish Battle Ballads 1973 2:34 Yes
163 Alastair McDonald Harlaw Velvet and Steel 1995 4:28 Yes
163 Alastair McDonald Harlaw Patriot's Heart 2002 4:29 Yes
163 Alex McEwen The Battle of Harlaw The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
163 Alex Troup The Battle of Harlaw (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
163 Alex Troup The Battle of Harlaw (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955
No 163 Alexander Clark The Battle of Harlaw The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
163 Alison Kinnaird The Batell of Harloe + The March of Donald, Lord of the Isles to the Battle of Harlaw The Silver String 2004 4:14 Yes
163 Andrew Calhoun The Battle of Harlaw Telfer's Cows: Folk Ballads from Scotland 2003 4:54 Yes
163 Andy Hunter The Battle of Harlaw King Fareweel 1984 No
163 Asonance Bitva U Harlaw (The Battle of Harlaw) Vzdálené Ostrovy - Scottish and Irish Folk Songs and Ballads 2004 4:08 Yes
163 Asonance Bitva U Harlaw (The Battle of Harlaw) 30 Let Na Pódiu 2008 No
163 Battlefield Band The Battle of Harlaw Opening Moves 1993 4:04 Yes
163 Battlefield Band The Battle of Harlaw At the Front 1994 4:04 Yes
163 Bell Duncan The Battle of Harlaw The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
163 Ellen Rettie The Battle of Harlaw The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
163 Enoch Kent Harlaw One More Round [Enoch Kent] 2008 4:11 Yes
163 Ewan MacColl The Battle of Harlaw The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) - Vol. 5 [Reissue] 196? No
163 Ewan MacColl The Battle of Harlaw The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) - Vol. 3 1956 3:23 Yes
163 Ewan MacColl The Battle of Harlaw The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Child Ballads) - Vol. 1 1961 3:18 Yes
163 Ewan MacColl The Battle of Harlaw Ballads - Murder Intrigue Love Discord 2009 3:29 Yes
163 Ewan Maccoll & Peggy Seeger Battle of Harlaw Live at the Regent Theatre, Sydney 1979 5:20 Yes
163 Galtagaldr The Battle of Harlaw Grymmare 2003 5:17 Yes
163 Highland Reign Battle of Harlaw Caught in the Rain 2007 4:05 Yes
163 Hortus Musicus Battle of Harlaw Maypole 1997 1:02 Yes
163 Ian Campbell The Battle of Harlaw The Cock Doth Craw - Ballads from Scotland 1968 No
163 Isaac Troup The Battle of Harlaw The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
163 Isla St. Clair Battle of Harlaw Highland Songs 2004 2:30 Yes
163 Isla St. Clair The Battle of Harlaw Murder & Mayhem 2000 2:28 Yes
163 Isla St. Clair Battle of Harlaw Great Songs and Ballads of Scotland 2009 No
163 Jane Lobban The Battle of Harlaw The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
163 Jeannie Higgins (Robertson) The Battle of Harlaw BBC Recordings No
163 Jeannie Robertson Harlaw Scotland - the Music and the Song - a 20 Year Profile of Greentrax 2006 No
163 Jeannie Robertson Harlaw Scottish Tradition 20: The Carrying Stream 2005 No
163 Jeannie Robertson The Battle of Harlaw Up the Dee & Doon the Don - a Classic Collection of Ballads and Folk Songs 1958 5:46 Yes
163 Jeannie Robertson The Battle of Harlaw The Queen Among the Heather 1998 4:49 Yes
163 Jeannie Robertson + Lucy Stewart The Battle of Harlaw Classic Ballads of Britain & Ireland - Folk Songs of England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales, Vol 2 2000 4:20 Yes
163 Jeannie Robertson + Lucy Stewart The Battle of Harlaw The Baffled Knight - The Classic Ballads 2 1976 No
163 Jim Reid Harlaw Yont the Tay 2005 No
163 Jock Duncan Battle O Harlaw North East Tradition 1 1998 No
163 Jock Duncan The Battle of Harlaw Ye Shine Whar Ye Stan! 1996 No
163 Jock Duncan The Battle o Harlaw Old Songs & Bothy Ballads - There's Bound to Be a Row 2010 No
163 John Riddoch The Battle of Harlaw The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
163 Jonathan Francis The Battle of Harlaw Love These Songs 2010 No
163 Lucy Stewart The Battle O' Harlaw Lucy Stewart: Traditional Singer from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Vol. 1 - Child Ballads 1961 6:17 Yes
163 Lucy Stewart The Battle of Harlaw The Folk Songs of Britain, Vol 5: The Child Ballads 2 1961 1:59 Yes
163 Mary Smith Battle O' Harlaw Two Strings on Every Bow .. - Exploring the Celtic Ballad Tradition 2001 5:09 Yes
163 Max Dunbar The Battle of Harlaw Songs and Ballads of the Scottish Wars, 1290-1745 1956 2:39 Yes
163 Mrs Lyall The Battle of Harlaw The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
163 Mrs William Duncan The Battle of Harlaw The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
163 Old Blind Dogs The Battle of Harlaw Play Live 2005 5:29 Yes
163 Old Blind Dogs The Battle of Harlaw Five 1997 5:09 Yes
163 Robert Taylor The Battle of Harlaw The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
163 The Clutha Harlaw Scotia! 1971 3:02 Yes
163 The Corries Battle O' Harlaw Live from Scotland Vol.3 & 4 2000 2:34 Yes
163 The Corries & Ronnie Browne The Battle of Harlaw Scots Wha Hae - The Battle Songs of Scotland 1993 2:46 Yes
163 The Exiles The Battle of Harlaw The Hale and the Hanged 1967 No
163 The Garioch Fiddlers The Battle of Harlaw Heart of the Garioch 2011 No
163 The Gaugers The Battle of Harlaw The Fighting Scot - Portrayed in Scots Folk Music and Song 2001 No
163 The Lowland Folk Four The Battle of Harlaw Eh'll Tell the Boaby! 1967 5:00 Yes
163 Tony Cuffe Battle of Harlaw <website> 2001 1:39 Yes
163 Unknown Singer The Battle of Harlaw The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
163 William Duncan The Battle of Harlaw The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
Folk Index- The Battle of Harlaw [Ch 163]
Brander, Michael (ed.) / Scottish and Border Ballads and Battles, Barnes & Nobel, Bk (1993/1976), p 51 [1888]
Johnson, James & Robert Burns (eds) / Scots Musical Museum, Amadeus, Bk (1991/1853), #512 [1803]
Battlefield Band. At the Front, Topic 12TS 381, LP (1978), trk# A.04
MacColl, Ewan. English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) Vol. 5, Washington WLP 719, LP (1963/1956), trk# A.01 Robertson, Jeannie. Queen Among the Heather, Rounder 1720, CD (1998), trk# 6 [1953/11]
Stewart, Lucy. Traditional Singer from Aberdeen. Vol. 1 - Child Ballads, Greentrax CTrax 031, Cas (Gre5), trk# A.01
Stewart, Lucy. Folk Songs of Britain, Vol 5. The Child Ballads, Vol. II, Caedmon TC 1146, LP (1961), trk# A.06 [1950s]