The World of the Gallowglass

"The intersection of Scottish and Irish politics and culture in the late Middle Ages is encapsulated in the figure of the galloglass. These West Highland and Hebridean warriors feature prominently in the military history of late medieval and early modern Ireland; yet, though often mentioned, their role has never been properly analyzed. In this collection of essays, Sean Duffy examines the 'prehistory' of the galloglass in Irish warfare, Kenneth Nicholls presents a full discussion of the various branches of galloglass kindred that rapidly proliferated throughout Ireland from the late thirteenth century onwards; and David Caldwell reconstructs from artefacts, images and documentary sources how a galloglass warrior may have appeared and operated - his dress, his weaponry, and his famous galleys." "But the volume also examines 'high politics': R.A. McDonald assesses the significance of Manx sea power in the north Irish Sea region; Alasdair Ross re-evaluates the evidence for an Irish link in the revolts against the Scots kings in northern Scotland in the late twelfth and the thirteenth centuries; Alex Woolf explores the mystery surrounding the identity of the king of Argyll who fell in the battle of Ballyshannon in 1247; Alison Cathcart looks at the Irish ambitions of King James V, and David Edwards unravels the part played by an obscure Fellow of Trinity College Dublin in James VI's succession to the throne vacated by the College's founder, Elizabeth I."—BOOK JACKET.