27/07/2024
Irish Gate in the city of Carlisle near the Anglo-Scottish border in Cumberland/Cumbria, England—early 19th century and how the site looks today (both viewed from inside the old city).
Irish Gate, also known as Caldew Gate, was located on the west walls and was one of the three main gates into the old city of Carlisle. It was demolished in the 19th century and the Millennium Bridge (or Irish Gate Bridge) now occupies the site.
In AD 1315 the Scots, led by King Robert I (the Bruce), laid siege to Carlisle. They set up near the Holy Trinity Church (not the present-day one) just west of the city's west walls and the River Caldew, in sight of Irish Gate. Today, the area is called Caldewgate and is part of the city, but in the early 14th century this was beyond the safety of the city walls and would have been green fields, with a few buildings along the road. From here the Scots attacked Irish Gate with siege engines. The Lanercost Chronicle records:
"Now on the fifth day of the siege they set up a machine for casting stones next to the church of Holy Trinity, where their king stationed himself, and they cast great stones continually against the Caldew gate and against the wall, but they did little or no injury to those within, except that they killed one man."
The garrison of Carlisle, led by Andrew de Harclay, held out and the Scots went on their way. But as the war between England and Scotland dragged on, Harclay's faith in King Edward II's leadership dwindled and he became doubtful that the Scots could be defeated while he was on the throne. King Edward refused to give up his claim over Scotland but had failed to protect the north of England from the repeated devastation caused by the Scots. In 1322, King Edward's army was defeated by the Scots at the Battle of Old Byland and Edward was forced to flee. This defeat is what convinced Harclay of Edward's inability to win the war, and in January 1323, without royal authority, he made peace with King Robert. The Lanercost Chronicle records:
“When the said Earl of Carlisle perceived that the King of England neither knew how to rule
his realm nor was able to defend it against the Scots, who year on year laid it more and more
waste, he feared lest at last he [the King] should lose the entire kingdom; so he chose the lesser of two evils, and considered how much better it would be for the community of each realm if each king should possess his own kingdom freely and peacefully without any homage, instead of so many homicides and arsons, captivities, plunderings and raidings taking place every year."
Harclay's unauthorised treaty with the Scots was treason according to the laws of the kingdom and he was arrested. On 3 March he was convicted of treason in Carlisle and thus sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered on Harraby Hill. The Lanercost Chronicle records:
“When this sentence was pronounced the Earl made answer: ‘Ye have divided my carcase according to your pleasure and I commend my soul to God’. And so, with most steadfast countenance and bold spirit, as it seemed to the bystanders, he went to suffer all these pains, and, while being drawn through the town, he gazed upon the heavens with hands clasped and held aloft and likewise his eyes directed on high."
Prior to his ex*****on, Harclay stated that everything he had done was for the good of the kingdom—but it did not save him. On Harraby Hill just south of Carlisle, the city he had successfully defended eight years earlier, Andrew de Harclay was butchered. According to the Lanercost Chronicle, Harclay "merited death according to the laws of kingdoms [but his] good intention may yet have saved him in the sight of God."
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Illustration:
Print, uncoloured lithograph, The Irish Gate, Carlisle, Cumberland, drawn by Matthew Ellis Nutter, copied from Robert Carlyle, lithographed by C Haghe, published by Charles Thurnam, Carlisle, Cumberland, by Ackermann and Co, by Hodgson, Boys, and Graves, and by Charles Tilt, London, 1835.
