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The
part the Spanish might have played
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On the morning of January 3, 1602, outside the walled town of Kinsale, Co.
Cork, a small English force under Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy,
Elizabeth's Lord Deputy in Ireland and her most able general, decisively
routed the last great army of Gaelic Ireland, led by the powerful northern
chieftain, Hugh O'Neill.
What was left from disease and starvation of a Spanish force of 4432 men,
under Don Juan del Aguila, holed up in Kinsale since the previous October,
surrendered to Mountjoy on 12 January and were allowed to withdrew to
Spain.
Mountjoy, who had actually been in a more precarious position
himself through disease and starvation could have been defeated if the Irish had waited a little
longer before attempting to relieve the Spanish.
On the day of
the battle, for whatever reason, the Spanish did not fire a shot in support of the Irish.
When it was over the English did not molest the Spanish, Mountjoy just let
them set sail away for Spain, so he could turn his fury on the Irish.
The Flight of the
Earls
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England and Spain made peace in 1604 with the Treaty of London. O'Neill
finally surrendered in 1603, the very week Queen Elizabeth died. O'Neill
and the other chieftains abandoned Ireland for the continent in 1607. This
"Flight of the Earls" left all Ireland, for the first time in history,
effectively ruled by English Government. The Tudor Conquest of Ireland was
completed.
The consequences of this pivotal moment in Irish history, when Gaelic
Ireland gave way to the onslaught of a more modern but foreign culture, is
the Ireland we see today. The ancient woods were cleared making room for
thousands of new farms. Well-tilled fields replaced the open pastures of
previous centuries. The country was divided into counties. English-style
market towns developed. The connection between religion and nationalism,
which still plagues us today, was forged.
The
part played by European politics
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The broader events and conditions which culminated in this decisive battle
are more complicated. European and colonial politics were involved.
Spain, with a population of about 8 million, united in its strict
Catholicism had become the leading power in Europe. Internal religious
strife continued to weaken France which had a population of 16 million.
Elizabethan England with a population of only 4 million, was competing
with Spain for dominance in the New World. The United Provinces (now
Holland and Belgium), were Spanish but in revolt. England harried Spain by
attacking her ships laden with treasure from the New World and by helping
the rebels in the United Provinces.
Spain wanted to show England that the price for such behavior could be a
Spanish presence in Ireland. Sixteenth century improvements in sailing
techniques made England vulnerable on her western flank for the first time
ever.
Henry VIII had started the Tudor conquest
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It was clear to the Chieftains of old Ireland that Elizabeth was
determined to continue the conquest of Ireland, started by her father
Henry VIII.
For over three centuries Henry's predecessors held the title "lord of
Ireland", but had little real power in Ireland, merely figureheads. There
was a big difference between the Tudor Henry and his predecessors the Norman Plantagenets.
In 1536 he destroyed the dominant Fitzgeralds House of Kildare following
the impetuous revolt of "Silken Thomas", by executing Thomas and his five
uncles in the Tower of London, confiscating their land and granting it to
loyal Englishmen.
In 1541 he had the Irish and English parliaments declare him "King of
Ireland" and called upon the Gaelo-Norman lords and the Gaelic Chieftains
to reaffirm their allegiance to this new title as their ancestors had done
in 1171 to Henry II as "lord of Ireland". The Gaelic chieftains of the
sixteenth century did not appreciate that this was more than pageantry.
The demise of the Kildares left them in no doubt that this was going to be different.
Elizabeth determined to complete the conquest
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Under Elizabeth, large well-equipped English armies became permanent
fixtures of the Irish scene. Well-staffed Government departments were
established in Dublin administering affairs in all four provinces. The
Irish had never seen anything like this.
Old Gaelic and Gaelo-Norman rulers rebelled when interference by these new
bureaucrats in their local affairs seemed intolerable. As each rebelled
individually they were easily put down by the English instruments of
power, their army. Each met the Geraldine fate. Execution and confiscation
of their land.
O'Neill of
Ulster resists
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By 1590 only Ulster remained unconquered. The Gaelo-Norman families had
never established themselves in Ulster. Ulster remained a Gaelic society
until the 17th Century. The Gaelic Chieftains, the most powerful of whom
were the O'Neills of Dungannon, held to the old Gaelic ways.
Hugh O'Neill became head of the family in 1593. He had been educated at
the English court, between the ages of twelve and eighteen but still
preferred the Gaelic ways. He wrongly thought that if he stayed loyal to
the crown, as his ancestors had done since 1171, they would leave him
alone in his territory. He had even served in the royal army which
devastated Munster after the Desmond rebellion and had been awarded the
title of "Earl of Tyrone" for his services.
Hugh finally openly rebelled with the other Ulster chieftains, in 1595. He
realized though, that against England, Ulster and indeed Ireland was
ultimately doomed without foreign assistance.
O'Neill seeks
European aid
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His efforts to secure help brought his ambassadors all over Europe and
even Scotland. He sought a declaration by the Pope that his war with
England was a crusade for Catholicism and a Papal blessing on the dispatch
of a Spanish army to Ireland. But the Pope was afraid that a Spanish
invasion of Ireland might scare the Catholic French as much as the
Protestant English.
King
James of Scotland refuses to help
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O'Neill thought that James VI of Scotland might be motivated by revenge
for Elizabeth's murder of his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, but James
yearned for the English throne and was not going to alienate Elizabeth or
her counselors.
He did indeed succeed his spinster cousin as James I of England in 1603
having already been James VI of Scotland for thirty five years. It was he
who encouraged his own countrymen from the nearby Scottish lowlands to
escape poor economic conditions and settle the lands abandoned by O'Neill
and the other Gaelic chieftains after the "Flight of the Earls" in the
subsequent "Plantation of Ulster" between 1610 and 1630.
Spain is the only hope
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The enmity between England and Spain at this
time was such that both countries believed that the other was about to
invade them. Helping the persecuted Irish Catholics appealed to the piety
of Philip III of Spain as much as honoring his father's promise, made in
1596 to the Irish, appealed to his pride.
But power politics was the real reason. Spain was already moving towards
peace with England. An invasion might extract better peace terms, which it
subsequently did in the Treaty of London. France was threatening to attack
Savoy. Spain had a force ready to send to defend their Milanese
possessions. When France suddenly made peace with Savoy in 1601, this
force was diverted to Ireland.
The
Spanish land in the wrong place at the wrong time
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O'Neill wanted them to land in the north, preferably Killybegs or even
Galway. Their arrival in Kinsale posed a great dilemma for O'Neill. It was
against all his instincts to leave his northern fastnesses and march his
main force in the middle of winter through swollen rivers and soft ground
three hundred miles to the extreme south of Ireland.
But march he did with Red Hugh O'Donnell going first to draw off pursuit.
He went via Connaught. It was a desperate throw which only victory in the
south could justify.
O'Donnell burned his boats by coming south, for his
departure meant the fall at last of Ballyshannon the key to the western
passage to Ulster. The Erne was Red Hugh's rubicon. O'Neill chose the
eastern route, picking up support as he went.
O'Neill
and O'Donnell try to rescue the Spanish at Kinsale
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They besieged the besiegers at Kinsale and were able to send in provisions
to the Spanish. The English army was being consumed by death, sickness and
desertion. O'Neill wanted to subject the English to more exposure and
famine before attacking them. O'Donnell wanted to attack. O'Donnell
prevailed in council.
On the morning of the attack, Mountjoy was prepared. His spies had told
him O'Neills plans. O'Neill rode forward and saw the English prepared in
front of him, on ground of their choosing with flanking fire. O'Neill
decided to withdraw to more favorable ground.
Mountjoy decided to pursue. This was taking a great risk. He was leaving
his entrenchments. The Irish had numerical superiority and the Spanish
might sally forth from the town. But he figured the further he was out of
earshot of the Spanish when he met the Irish, the less likely the Spanish
were to come out of the town. He was right.
The Battle is joined
- Clanricarde's charge
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O'Neill traversed some boggy ground and found some firm land beyond where
he started to form up his divisions and wait for O'Donnell to join him. A
detachment of English cavalry led by Richard Burke, Earl of Clanricarde,
seeing an opportunity in the usual confusion of an army forming up,
charged. Finding the Irish cavalry stand firm, they wheeled off to the
flank. The Irish cavalry raised a great shout. But two other cornets of
English cavalry came up and following Clanricarde's example charged. This
time the O'Neill's cavalry broke and fell in upon the ranks of their own
infantry.
Now ferociously attacked both from the flank by Clanricarde and the main
English cavalry rapidly being supported by the main English infantry,
O'Neill's men broke and fled. O"Donnell's men were not close enough to
intervene. When they saw the route of O'Neill's army they also became
demoralized and fled. The English pursuers did great execution. Mountjoy
spared no Irish prisoners and hanged hundreds within sight of the town.
The
Spanish leave, Ireland is butchered
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Aquila declared to his men who wanted to join the battle that the sound of
firing was an English trick to draw them out. He did not believe that the
Irish had really attacked.
Young Clanricarde received his second knighthood on the battlefield from
Mountjoy for his decisive part in the victory.
O'Neill led only a fraction of his army back to the north. Gaelic Ireland,
writhing in her death-agony, was left to its fate. The English forces
ravaged the country at will. The results of sword and famine were enough
to sicken even an Elizabethan general. The embers of revolt were stamped
out all over the country with grim efficiency.
© Pat Flannery 1996
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