The Battle of Embo was a battle that took place at

Embo Embo ( gd, Eurabol, IPA: �iaɾəpɔɫ̪ is a village in the Highland Council Area in Scotland and the former postal county of Sutherland, about north-northeast of Dornoch. On 16 July 1988, Embo declared itself independent from the rest of the ...

Sutherland Sutherland ( gd, Cataibh) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the Highlands of Scotland. Its county town is Dornoch. Sutherland borders Caithness and Moray Firth to the east, Ross-shire and Cromartyshire (later ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

in 1245. It was fought by Scottish forces against

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

invaders who were defeated.

The battle

The first account of the Battle of Embo was written by

Sir Robert Gordon, 1st Baronet Sir Robert Gordon of Gordonstoun (14 May 1580 – 1656) was a Scottish politician and courtier, known as the historian of the noble house of Sutherland. Early life Born at Dunrobin Castle, Golspie, Sutherland, on 14 May 1580, he was the fourth ...

(1580–1656) in his ''A Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland''. Gordon states that the "Danes and Norwegians" (Vikings) invaded the northern part of the kingdom of Scotland and that

William de Moravia, 1st Earl of Sutherland William de Moravia (William Sutherland) (c. 1210–1248) was a Scottish nobleman, Earl of Sutherland and chief of the Clan Sutherland, a Scottish clan of the Scottish Highlands. Ancestry Different sources give different accounts of the ancestor ...

sent his "servant"

Richard de Moravia Richard de Moravia or Richard de Moray of Culbin or of Cubyn, was a Scottish nobleman famed for his victory over the Vikings at the Battle of Embo which took place in Sutherland, Scotland in 1245. Origins Richard was a son of Murdac (Muir ...

(Richard Morray) to hold the rebels until the earl himself could arrive with a larger force to oppose them. According to Gordon, the Danes then fled being pursued by the earl and during the battle the general of the Danes was killed with many others, as well as Richard de Moravia. The earl apparently secured the victory when he killed the Danish general with the severed leg of a horse.

Aftermath

Dornoch Cathedral 20090615 effigy Richard de Moravia

The Earl of Sutherland arranged for Richard de Moravia to be buried in

Dornoch Cathedral Dornoch Cathedral is a former Roman Catholic cathedral and is currently a Church of Scotland parish church serving the small Sutherland town of Dornoch, in the Scottish Highlands. As a congregation of the Church of Scotland, which is Presbyteria ...

and for a statue to be erected of him. A cross was also erected in memory of the battle which along with burials of "divers" killed in the battle, could still be seen in the 17th century.

References

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