Chroniclers’ views of Harlaw
It is good to read how David Leslie’s researches are giving us fresh information about the battle of Harlaw, for the mediaeval chroniclers, writing within living memory of the battle, provided fairly sparse accounts.
Because unlike the very detailed description he has been able to give us of precise formations, their leaders and modes of attack, the chronicle complaint was of a totally unnecessary slaughter of the Earl of Mar’s men.
This was because Mar’s premature attack was a shambles, his forces completely disorganised and without overall control; even reinforcements were dribbled in piecemeal.
They also state that come nightfall, both sides withdrew from the field ‘to nearby hills’.
With regard to the presence of our North-East castellans at the battle, only Alexander Irvine of Drum is specifically mentioned by the early writers (and not even the highly procreative ‘robber baron’, Leslie of Balquhain).
Historians will thus look forward greatly to the sources of David Leslie’s accounts, especially if they come from Leslie family papers, for as one previous researcher has complained, “Much has been written [since] about that battle, and some of it is pure fiction”.
Ian Olson
Aberdeen