The battle ended the career of Richard Marshal, whose popular opposition to foreign influence at the English court made his defeat and death politically consequential.
Key Facts
- Date
- 1 April 1234
- Location
- Curragh plain, County Kildare, Ireland
- Marshal's alleged force
- 15 knights
- Opposing force (alleged)
- 140 knights
- Death of Richard Marshal
- 16 April 1234, from wounds at Kilkenny
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Richard Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, had long contested the influence of foreign advisers—chiefly the Poitevin Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester—over King Henry III. Although a truce was struck in March 1234 requiring des Roches's removal from court, fighting had already broken out in Ireland between Marshal's brothers and royal supporters including Maurice FitzGerald, Walter de Lacy, and Hugh de Lacy.
Richard Marshal crossed to Ireland to support his brothers and met the king's forces on the Curragh plain on 1 April 1234. Contemporary accounts claim he was lured into the encounter by treachery and then abandoned by his own men, leaving him to fight with only fifteen knights against approximately 140. He was defeated, captured, and taken to his castle at Kilkenny, where he died of his wounds on 16 April 1234.
Marshal's death was widely mourned in England, where his stand against foreign influence had made him popular. The Poitevins, rumoured to have provoked the Irish conflict, fell further into public disrepute. Henry III nonetheless rewarded Marshal's Irish opponents generously, though the episode contributed to growing pressure that eventually diminished Poitevin influence at court.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Maurice FitzGerald, Justiciar of Ireland, Walter de Lacy, Lord of Meath, Hugh de Lacy, Earl of Ulster.
Side B
1 belligerent
Richard Marshal, Earl of Pembroke.