History of Kinsale
1170-1603
by Edward O'Mahony
For over four
hundred years, from the 12th century to the 17th century, the town of Kinsale
played a small, but often significant, role in the history of Ireland. Not much
is known of the early history of the area where Kinsale is now located. The
outer harbor of Kinsale may have been used in the 9th and 10th centuries by
Vikings as a shelter for their longships, as they made their way along the
Irish coast. There does not, however, appear to have been any settlement in
Kinsale until the coming of the Normans. In the early 1170s, one of the Norman
adventurers, Milo de Cogan, was granted a large tract of land south of Cork
city by Henry II. De Cogan, in turn gave the western portion of his territory
as a dowry to his daughter on her marriage to Myles de Courcy. This area, which
included Ballinspittle, Garretstown, and the Old Head of Kinsale, was often
subsequently referred to as De Courcy country. Myles de Courcy was created the
first Baron of Kinsale in 1223. Other Norman families who settled in West Cork
included the Barrys, who had territory to the north of Kinsale, the Barretts,
who possessed territory near modern-day Clonakilty, and the Carews, who owned
territory near Bantry.
During their invasion, the Anglo-Normans generally
took over the low-lying and fertile areas of the provinces of Leinster and
Munster-expelling or subjugating the Gaelic clans who lived there-and these areas
were to remain the heart of the English colony in Ireland. The colonists
consisted of two groups, the upper class, who were of Norman-French descent,
and the lower classes, who made up the bulk of the new immigrants and were
mostly of Anglo-Saxon or Flemish descent. These Flemings and Saxons received
lands from the Norman lords for farming, and they were encouraged to group
themselves in small towns. These towns were established at all points favorable
for foreign commerce, or for serving as a center for agricultural produce.
During periods of disturbance with the Gaelic Irish they served as places of
refuge for local farmers, and in times of peace as centers of commerce. The
initial conquest occurred at a fortuitous time, with the period between the late
12th century and early 14th century witnessing rapid and extensive growth
throughout Western Europe. The introduction of intensive arable agriculture and
the manorial system into Ireland, which marked the initial phase of the
Anglo-Norman settlement, therefore took place against a background of favorable
demographic and economic conditions, which made it relatively easy to attract
settlers from England
On 30 June, 1226, Andrew Blundus, possibly
a vassal of Myles de Courcy, was granted the right to hold a weekly market
"at his manor of Kinsale." (1)
This would indicate that some kind of settlement had arisen in Kinsale by
this stage. The initial Norman settlement may have been centered near where the
Main Street nowmeets Higher and Lower O'Connell Street. Ecclesiastical and
commercial activity appears to have been centered in the area of Church Square
surrounding St. Multose Church, which was reportedly built in 1190.
The conquest was a piecemeal, spasmodic and
incomplete affair, dependent upon physical geography, the enterprise and
resources of individual lords, and the capacity of Irish leaders to resist.
Leinster, Meath, Louth, and parts of Munster were on the whole more heavily
settled and more closely controlled than were the north and west; but there was
no continuous frontier line, only innumerable local balances of power. In spite of these problems, the initial
conquest of Ireland was very successful. It brought with it a revolution in
agricultural production, which led not only to the development of an extensive
trading network with England and other European countries, as well as within
Ireland, but it also provided a great source of revenue for the English
government through customs and other dues. Instead of using these funds to
complete the conquest of Ireland, however, the English government used the
revenues to help finance its other wars. Edward I, in particular, used Irish
revenues to help finance his conquest of Wales (started in 1277 and completed
in 1282-1283) and to support his claim to the overlordship of Scotland. With
large sums of money flowing out of the country, the government of Ireland was
seriously underfunded and as a result was unable to deal with the disorders
that started to affect the country in the late 13th century and early 14th
century. Lack of money made it impossible to properly defend the country, and
as a result, highways were allowed to deteriorate, bridges fell into disrepair,
and castles were not properly maintained. This situation was further aggravated
by the fact that many of the Anglo-Norman magnates were forced as part of their
feudal duties to serve overseas, and their absence was often exploited by local
Gaelic lords. The result was that Ireland witnessed a great revival among the
Gaelic clans during the second half of the 13th century, which, once it had
gained a momentum of its own, increased the problems facing the government in
Dublin as it further reduced the revenues the government was able to collect.
When Edward I
died in 1307, he left his heir, Edward II, with a heavy burden of debt, the war
in Scotland, an enormous confusion in his accounts, and a legacy of widespread
dissatisfaction with the manner of royal government. The reign of Edward II and
its epilogue in the rule of Mortimer and Isabella, was marked by 20 years of
misgovernment, repeated humiliations at the hands of foreign enemies, in
particular by the Scots, and chronic internal insecurity. Edward III, who
succeeded to the throne in 1330, inherited the conflict with Scotland and
entered into war with France in 1337-which marked the beginning of the Hundred
Years War between the two countries.
With
numerous problems plaguing the government of Ireland, and the attention of the
English crown often distracted by internal and external difficulties, English
power in Ireland started to decline during the first decades of the 14th
century. This process was hastened by a number of events that took place during
this time. In the period 1315 to 1322, almost all of northern Europe was struck
by severe weather conditions, with bitter winters and excessive amounts of rain
during the summer bringing with them severe famine and pestilence. In parts of
England, the population fell 10 to 15 percent, and Ireland was similarly
affected. In Ireland, however, the English settlers were affected far more than
the Gaelic Irish, because they were more reliant on arable farming.
What made the
situation in Ireland even worse for the English settlers, and what led many of
them to start abandoning their holdings and return to England, was the fact
that just as the famine hit the country, Edward Bruce, the brother of Robert
the Bruce, invaded Ireland and proceeded to ravage large parts of the country.
The Scottish invasion was intended to relieve English pressure on Scotland and
to destroy Ireland's financial and military value to the English crown. Edward
Bruce was not killed until 1318, by which stage English power in the country
had been seriously weakened.
The English
colony in Ireland received a further crushing blow two decades later when the
Black Death struck much of Europe in 1348. In England, up to a third of the
population are thought to have perished, while in Ireland, the English
colonists in the towns, ports, and corn-growing areas of the country were once
again hurt far worse than the Gaelic Irish, because they were more concentrated
in the urban areas. The plague became a feature of late medieval life in
England and Ireland, striking repeatedly in over the following decades. By the
early 1400s, these outbreaks had reduced the population of Anglo-Ireland by
half. In England, repeated outbreaks of plague of plague and the trade slump
caused by the Hundred Years War and other conflicts meant that the population
of that country continued to decline for many years and did not start to
recover until the 1460s. This had important consequences for Ireland, because a
precondition for the conquest of the country had been the ability of the
Anglo-Norman invaders to attract tenants from England and Wales to till the
lands they had conquered and organized into manors. With the population in
decline in England, they were unable to replace tenants who had died or
abandoned their holdings.
A further
problem that developed during this period was that of absenteeism. Many of the
original Anglo-Norman invaders of Ireland had also been extensive landowners in
England and Wales. With Ireland plagued by various problems during the late
13th and early 14th centuries, their heirs began to focus their attention on
their more profitable holdings in England and Wales and allowed their Irish
properties to be abandoned and overrun by the Gaelic Irish. This not only
endangered their own possessions but also placed the lands belonging to the
king and other lords in jeopardy.
The Gaelic revival of this period had a
further and more significant effect, in that many of the colonial population,
particularly the Anglo-Norman families resident outside the towns, became
attracted to the native’s language, habits, and dress. For example, the Barry’s
adopted the sobriquet’s Barry Mor, Barry Oge, and Barry Roe (Ruadh) to denote
their vgarious lineages. Neither the colonists nor the Gaelic Irish constituted
monolithic groups or represented monolithic interests, and as a result,
relations between the two groups could range from outright despoliation to
serious economic, social, and political contacts, which could on occasion be
quite amicable. In particular, intermarriage was a major feature of life from
the late 12th century onwards, and while the colonists never quite lost their
own perception of themselves as Anglo-Irish colonists, to outsiders they often
became indistinguishable from the Gaelic Irish. With the decline in English
government power in Ireland during this period, control over many of these
Anglo-Irish families also declined. As a result, many of these families started
to indulge in banditry, often in conjuction with the Gaelic Irish, in an effort
to aggrandize their wealth and power. The activities of these so-called English
rebels added considerably to the disorder and general lawlessness of the 14th
century.
On February 29, 1317, for example, a group
of Barrys and Roches were pardoned for the attacks they had carried out on the
Cogans in North Cork, in return for fighting the Scots during the Bruce
invasion of Ireland. On July 6, 1325, John Courcy was removed from the office
of Coroner of the cantreds of Kynaletherthragh and Obakun near Kinsale
"because he had not the courage to perform" the duties of his office.
(2) This would indicate that large parts of the country around Kinsale were now
too dangerous for officials to travel in. On 9 April 1331, a major battle
between the inhabitants of Kinsale and the local Gaelic Irish was fought. It is unclear who won the battle, but by 1358, many of the lands
around Kinsale were reported to have been destroyed.
Nevertheless, the growing importance of Kinsale was
acknowledged when the town was granted a charter by Edward III in 1334. This
charter was later reconfirmed by Edward IV in 1483, as well as by Elizabeth I,
James I and James II. The town was run by a corporation consisting of the
Freemen of the town and a number of Burgesses who were elected for life. The
town's executive consisted of the Burgesses and one representative of the
Freemen. Every year, on September 29, a Sovereign was elected by the Burgesses.
The sovereign, through his agents, was responsible for the collection of taxes
and customs dues. He also granted licenses, acted as a judge, and was Admiral
of the Port--giving him control over maritime affairs from Innishannon to the
mouth of Kinsale harbour. The Norman
invasion of Ireland occurred at a time when royal administration and the common
law were developing rapidly; as a result, between King Henry's reign and that
of his great-grandson Edward I the lordship of Ireland was equipped with
English institutions, including a parliament. On 25 March 1374, 22 January 1377, 11 September 1380, 29 April 1382,
writs were sent to Kinsale to send members to parliament.
In 1337, the Hundred Years War between
England and France broke out. The French, and particularly the Bretons, carried
out frequent attacks on merchant shipping, particularly in the southern coastal
area where a number of important sea routes converged: wine ships sailing from
Gascony and Spain; fishing boats sailing from the west of England; Irish and
English merchants trading in hides; and merchant venturers traveling on the
Iceland route. From the 1370s, the French enjoyed the support of the Castilian fleet in
the English Channel and its environs. This enabled them, at least
intermittently, to control the English Channel, mount several devastating raids
on the English coast, and prey constantly on English shipping. In 1369, raids
were carried out on the English Channel coast, while in 1377 Portsmouth and Rye
were sacked. In 1378, Cornwall suffered serious damage, while in 1380 a
Franco-Castilian fleet raided all along the coast of England from Yorkshire to
Cornwall. It sacked Scarborough, sailed up the Thames and burnt Gravesend,
captured Winchelsea, destroyed Portsmouth and Hastings, and seized the islands
of Guernsey and Jersey. In July, the fleet attacked Kinsale.
The
inhabitants set out to confront the fleet in a number of English and local
ships, and in the ensuing battle, 400 of the foreigners are said to have been
killed and five of their ships captured. In addition, 21 English vessels that
had been captured were recovered. Perhaps inspired by this victory, the
following year, admirals were appointed for the ports of County Cork for the
purpose of combating the O'Driscolls who were constantly preying on passing
ships. In England during this period,
the term admiral-which was originally derived from the Arabic-primarily denoted
an administrative rather than an operational position. English admirals were
normally responsible for assembling fleets and establishing military discipline
and good order. By the 1380s, when admirals were appointed for County Cork,
coastal defence had also been added to the admiral’s responsibilities. How well
the admirals in County Cork fared is unknown, though they do not seem to have
been very effective. After the attack, the townspeople of Kinsale appear to
have also started building a stone wall around their town. In January 1381, the
king recognized that the townspeople had “of late received a great insult or
attack from the Spanish and Irish enemies, and English rebels, who designed the
destruction thereof to the utmost of their power,” (3) and accordingly he
awarded them the custom of the port to pay for the construction of the wall.
During the
12th and 13th centuries, large quantities of grain were grown in Ireland,
primarily in those areas where the Anglo-Norman settlers had set up manorial
farming. In the mid-14th century, however, a major decline occurred in the
amount of land being tilled, primarily due to the increasingly disturbed state
of the country. Farming in those areas bordering on Gaelic-controlled territory
returned to a more pastoral type, because cattle were less affected by the
vagaries of weather and war. The move away from large-scale tillage was
particularly noticeable in Kilkenny and Tipperary. The problem increased during
the early part of the 15th century when many labourers emigrated back to England.
At the same time, grain continued to be grown in large quantities in the
Dublin-Louth-Meath area, and by the end of the 14th century and the early 15th
century, the region was sending grain to the southern ports of Cork, Youghal,
Ross, Waterford, and Wexford. Kinsale, Cork, and Youghal were generally grouped
together in a series of permits issued in 1386-7. For example, on December 3,
1387, a Gregory Hore was given permission to purchase and transport eight weys
of grain and oats to the city of Cork or the town of Kinsale, on the surety of
Hugo Rocheford of Co. Wexford.
The wey equalled five or six quarters, while the
quarter generally averaged 8-10 bushels
In 1389, a general license was given to the men of
Cork to buy grain in any port they wished. The problems of supplying these
three towns with grain must have been considerable, because in 1393, they were
forced to obtain grain supplies overland from Co. Limerick. At the same time,
however, merchants from the southern ports were bringing fish, iron, salt, and
wine to Drogheda and Dublin in exchange for grain, so the southern towns do not
appear to have been too disadvantaged in this respect.
Following a
truce with France in 1389, the English king, Richard II, turned his attention
to Ireland. On May 23, 1390, the king stated that Kinsale no longer had to send
representatives to parliament “as it is situated amongst rebels.” (4) On the
same day, Richard II ordered his bailiffs to provide protection for Richard
Fleming, the Abbot of Tracton, and his men. A few years later, on September 5,
1394, the king ordered Patrick Galvy of Kinsale, among others, to keep Andrew
Baret in jail. Baret, who may been the head of the Barretts in West Cork, was
described as a rebel and a felon. Barely a month later, on October 2, 1394,
Richard II landed in Waterford at the head of an enormous army numbering
between 6,000 and 7,000 troops, the largest army ever sent to Ireland and the
equal of many of the English armies used in France during the Hundred Years
War. From Waterford, the king proceeded around the country, and over the
following year received the submission of most of the leaders of the three
groups he famously described as living in Ireland: 'wild Irish, our enemy;
Irish rebels; and obedient English.' Nevertheless, with the departure of the
king to England on May 15, 1395, Ireland relapsed into a state of anarchy.
Perhaps realizing that the country was still in an unstable situation, on May
1, 1395, Richard II permitted Kinsale to retain customs payments and put them
towards erecting a wall around the town. A few years later, as the situation
became worse, the king also gave Kinsale permission to sign peace treaties with
its Irish enemies. Richard II returned to Ireland on June 1, 1399, but he was
unable to salvage the situation. Richard II himself was shortly after
overthrown by Henry of Lancaster, the future Henry IV.
During the 1390s, the government in Dublin had become increasingly
dependent on subventions from the English government to maintain its activities
at an artificially high level, and when changed circumstances after 1399
dictated the curtailment of these activities, there followed an almost complete
collapse of royal authority. The new Lancastrian dynasty rapidly found itself
in dire need of money and having to watch the English nobility very carefully
to ensure their loyalty. While dealing with a series of rebellions and
conspiracies at home, Henry IV could spare little time for Ireland, and after
his death in 1413 this neglect continued for other reasons. From 1415 onwards,
the government's revenue was mostly used to support the English position in
France, where the Hundred Years War had started up again with a series of
sweeping victories for the English under Henry V. Later, as the war turned against
the English from 1429 onwards, the French territories required huge sums for
defense, and these problems were compounded by feeble government of Henry VI,
who had succeeded his father, Henry V, in 1422.
With the government so weak, and the town
surrounded by enemies, it was only natural that merchants in Kinsale should
sell goods to the Gaelic Irish and English rebels, despite legislation to the
contrary. On November 22, 1414, John Galvy, a merchant of Kinsale, and his wife
Cecilia, were pardoned for committing treasons and a breach of the peace,
presumably for selling goods to the King’s enemies. Earlier, on January 16,
1409, the King “..on account of the poverty of the provost and commons of ville
of Kynsale, granted to them, that no foreign merchant, nor anyone here after,
shall either plow, keep shop, or sell by retail, merchandise or victuals within
said ville, without the license of the provost and commons.” (5)
During the
first half of the 15th century, the MacCarthys expanded their
territory, generally at the expense of the Anglo-Norman settlers. Kinsale came
under repearted attack, and in 1432, for example, Owen, the son of MacCarthy
Reagh, but was killed by the shot of an
arrow during an attack on the town. Subsequently, the king issued a proclamation,
stating that as: “the town of Kinsale is wholly surrounded with Irish enemies
and English Rebels, yet our beloved Burgesses &c. obeyed the commands of us
in repelling said Rebels, who from time to time made divers assaults upon the
town both by land and by sea....The Sovereign and Burgesses (with other rights
&c.) are vested with Admiralty jurisdiction from the Rock of Bull-man to
the Durzees, above 20 leagues.” (6)
Around this
period, climatic changes caused an apparent migration of herring shoals to the
south and west of Ireland, in turn attracting English and foreign fishing
fleets, particularly Spanish, to the area. Because herring had to be salted
within 24 hours if it was to retain its flavour, fishermen would pay dues to
the local lords for the priviledge of using the havens and bays of the Irish
coast to refit, revictual, and land their catch for salting. These dues could
be considerable, and they are one of the reasons for the great revival in the
construction and refurbishment of monastic houses, friaries, and castles that
took place during the 15th century, particularly in the Gaelic and gaelicised
regions of the western seaboard. The remains of castles belonging to the
O'Driscolls, O'Mahonys, McCarthys, and O'Sullivans, all of whom benefited from
the fishing industry, can still be seen today strategically placed along the
south-western seaboard.
Such
payments going to the Gaelic Irish naturally worried the government and in
1449-1450, for example, legislation was passed to prevent fishermen from
Wexford, Waterford, Cork, and Kinsale from operating off Baltimore, because of
the victuals and arms it brought the local chieftain, Fineen O'Driscoll. Nevertheless, around this time, a modus
vivendi began to develop between the towns and their neighbors, enabling all
sides to benefit from the increased trade and prosperity. It would appear that
it was during this period that a custom developed regulating the fishing trade
off the coast of Baltimore. Once a week, the lord of the O'Driscolls would hold
court with a specially appointed admiral from Kinsale, and together they would
settle provisions and orders for fishing. Violations of these orders resulted
in fines, which were divided evenly between the O'Driscolls and the town of
Kinsale. By agreement, the admiral and the lord's bailiff could also call on
all military forces in the O'Driscoll's territory to enforce their orders. The
O’Driscolls and the townspeople of Kinsale continued to enjoy a close
relationship throughout the 15th and 16th centuries. In
1557, for example, a burgess of Kinsale, Geoffrey Galwy left 6 shillings and 8
pence to one Dermot Drisgeoyll in his will, presumably to pay off a business
debt. In 1577, an alderman of Kinsale, Patrick Meed, left four barrels of salt
and a large quantity of yarn to the Abbey of Inisherkin in his will.
In 1485, the Wars of the Roses came to an end with the Battle of
Bosworth and the accession of King Henry VII. The new king began a process of
strengthening and centralizing authority. With the coming of peace also came a
revival in the economy of both England and Ireland. Nevertheless, Henry VII's
rivals, the Yorkists, were not quite finished. The Duchess Margaret of
Burgundy, the sister of the former Yorkist king, Edward IV, had a boy named
Lambert Simnel trained to impersonate Edward IV's nephew, who was at that time
imprisoned in the tower. Simnel landed at Dublin on 5 May 1486. The Earl of
Kildare, who had Yorkist sympathies, convened a meeting of the Pale nobility to
consider Simnel's claims. On 24 May, Simnel was crowned King Edward VI in
Christ Church Cathedral. Simnel subsequently invaded England but was defeated
by Henry's army at Stoke near Newark on 17 June. Kildare held out until 20
October, but he eventually submitted. In the meantime, Henry VII took a number
of steps to establish Irish links independently of the Earl of Kildare,
including the granting of charters of English liberty to two of the more
pro-English Gaelic chiefs, Florence MacCarthy of Carbery and Cormac MacCarthy
of Muskerry.
On 25 May, Henry VII issued a general
pardon to 33 leading lords and ministers in Ireland, which was carried to
Ireland by Sir Richard Edgecombe. Edgecombe had orders to obtain bonds and a
new oath of allegiance to Henry VII in order to prevent an occurence of
plotting. Edgecombe landed at Kinsale on 27 June and subsequently sailed round
to Dublin via Waterford, where he arrived on 5 July. When Edgecombe arrived off Kinsale with five ships, it was reported
that: “he did not intend to come on shore, and therefore the Lord Thomas Barry
(Barry-oge) came on board and did homage for his Barony, and took his oath of
allegiance; but the next day Sir R. Edgcomb, at the importunity of James, Lord
Courcy, and the inhabitants of Kinsale, did come into the town, and in their
parish church.” (8) At the same time, Edgecombe also received an oath of allegiance from one German Sulyon
[O’Sullivan?], who is described as a son-in-law of O’Driscoll. Nothing more is
known about this German Sulyon, but it does indicate the close relationship
that existed at that time between Kinsale and the local Irish.
In November 1491, another pretender, Perkin
Warbeck, landed at Cork. Warbeck, who had the support of James IV of Scotland,
Charles VIII of France, and Margaret of Burgundy, claimed to be Richard, Duke
of York, Edward IV's second son who had probably been killed in the Tower of
London. Warbeck attracted widespread support in Munster. Henry VII immediately
sent military forces to Ireland, and Warbeck was forced to head back to France.
Nevertheless, Warbeck continued to enjoy considerable support in Munster. On 3
July 1495, Warbeck tried unsuccessfully to land at Deal in Kent. He
subsequently attempted to blockade Waterford City on 23 July with 11 ships. At
that time, Waterford was the main city on the southern coast still loyal to
Henry VII. The blockade was broken on 3 August, and Warbeck subsequently fled
to Scotland. The Earl of Desmond, other Old English magnates in Cos. Waterford,
Cork, and Kerry, and the town of Youghal received pardons in August 1496,
although Lord Barry and the mayor of Cork, John Water, were specifically
excluded from this pardon. Water was later arrested and executed in London with
Warbeck in 1499. Kinsale and Cork remained for some time in a kind of legal
limbo, but in 1498, both towns were allowed to swear oaths of loyalty to Henry
VII. In an attempt to mollify the Earl of Desmond and keep him loyal, the crown
granted the earl the customs, cocket, and prise wines (one cask out of every ship)
in Baltimore, Youghal, and Kinsale. This grant was interpreted by subsequent
earls of Desmond to be a permanent grant and was to lead to considerable
friction with the earls of Ormond, who claimed a hereditary right to the prise
wines.
Not much is known about Kinsale over the
next few decades. The town does not appear to have been involved in the
"Silken Thomas" rebellion of 1534. In 1543, Philip Roche was
permitted to construct a fortress near Kinsale, in order to safely store grain.
That same year, the town was awarded a new standard by the King as a reward for
its loyalty. At the same time, the town continued to suffer from depredations
by local Irish and the English rebels, as well as from pirates. On 15 July,
1548, the townspeople wrote to the government that: “all our men died of the
pestilence, and we have wide empty town, and few men and naughty and unsteady
neighbours; we rest not night nor day, but watch our town, for fear of the
Irishmen about us, by land and by sea. Also the country around us is so vast,
and all the succour that we were wont to have is by our haven, but now all is
stopped from us by endless pyratures, which would not suffer victuals nor succour coming to us, but taketh it
within our haven; and now, of late, cometh one Richard Colle, with a pinnace
and 18 or 20 men, and married with Barry Oge's aunt, and dwelleth in his castle
within our haven and our liberty, and there he remaineth, and would suffer none
to come to the town, but taketh them and spoileth them, which is a great
hindrance to us.” (8) On 20 December 1549, the town was visited by Lord Deputy
Grey when he made a tour of Munster. Lord Barry and McCarthy Reagh, among
others, submitted themselves during the visit. A subsequent Lord Deputy, Sir
Anthony St. Leger, visited Youghal, Cork, and Kinsale in an attempt to keep the
McCarthys in order.
In the mid-1540s, the English government in
Ireland adopted a policy of subjugating the border clans in order to protect
the Dublin Pale. By the spring of 1549, the whole midlands area had been
conquered, and although most of the land was regranted to conformable Gaelic
lords, plans were also made to settle some of the lands with Englishmen. This
was enough to provoke fears of a general plantation among the native Irish, and
many of the Gaelic chieftains turned to France and Scotland for aid. These countries were natural allies of
the Irish, since Scotland had been at war with England from 1542 to 1550, and
France was its perennial enemy. In February 1550, French envoys in Ireland
signed treaties with O'Neill, O'Doherty, and O'Donnell in Ulster.
On 25 February 1550, a new Lord Deputy, Sir
James Crofts, was instructed to view the ports of Cork and Kinsale and see if
there were any buildings or places that could be fortified with the assistance
of the local townsmen. He was also instructed to visit Baltimore and Bantry,
and compile maps of those harbours, as well as all harbours between Baltimore
and Kinsale. Maps of Baltimore, Kinsale, and Cork were subsequently sent to the
Privy Council in London. Alarmed by rumours of a French invasion of Ulster with
Scottish aid, the privy council in London decided on the 7th of January 1551 to
set up an expedition to fortify the harbours in the southwest and north of
Ireland, specifically, Baltimore, Beare, Olderfleet, and the Bann. Subsequently, the expedition, which
consisted of 1000 men in six ships under the command of Lord Cobham, were instructed not to fortify
Baltimore and Beare, but simply to survey them, together with Cork and Kinsale,
while strengthening the defences of Kinsale and Cork. The change in instructions is probably due to a realization in
London that Baltimore and Beare were too far removed from English control to
fortify safely. On May 11, 1551, the privy council acknowledged receipt of two
maps showing, respectively, Baltimore, Kinsale and Cork.
During this period, Kinsale continued to
suffer from a lack of grain. On 28 April 1565, the townspeople asked the
government for permission to annually import 100 weys of grain from England.
Shortly afterwards an event occurred that was to have a major impact on Kinsale
and the rest of Ireland. In May 1565, the army of Gerald Fitzgerald, the Earl
of Desmond, met the forces of Thomas Butler, the Earl of Ormond, in what was to
be the last private battle in the British Isles at Affane, near Lismore Castle
on the Blackwater River. For the two Irish lords, Affane was just the latest in
a long line of battles in the feud between their respective lordships that had
been going on for generations. For Queen Elizabeth I, however, it was the last
straw. She had previously warned them on a number of occasions not to fight
each other, and she had been ignored. Now, the Queen ordered them both to come
to London to stand trial. The Earl of Desmond was to be held in various forms
of confinement for the next seven years. In addition, his two brothers, Sir
John of Desmond and James, were also arrested not long afterwards, which meant that power in Desmond
devolved entirely onto the earl's captain-general, James Fitzmaurice
Fitzgerald.
By late 1568, the perception was rife that
the English government intended to overturn the rights of existing Old English
and Gaelic proprietors and institute a small-scale but widespread plantation. At the same time, Sir Peter Carew,
encouraged by the government, was laying claim to lands once held by the
Anglo-Norman Carews in the Pale, Carlow, and Munster. These actions led directly
to the outbreak of the First Desmond Rebellion in June 1569, when James
Fitzmaurice and McCarthy More destroyed the English colony in Kerrycurrihy,
just to the south of Cork City. On 17 June, the government was informed that
the rebels had laid siege to the Abbey of Tracton near Kinsale, while three
days later, the townspeople of Cork informed the Lord Deputy that all the land
between Cork and Kinsale had been destroyed. Sir Henry Sidney, the Lord Deputy,
reacted immediately to these attacks by ravaging the castles and lands of the
rebels, forcing them to break off from Fitzmaurice to protect their own
holdings and thereby breaking up the
confederacy which had formed around Fitzmaurice. Sidney's progress across
Munster was marked by widespread slaughter, the killing of cattle, and burning
fields. The destruction was so bad that for years afterwards the fields were to
lie fallow-the cause of the terrible famine that was later to affect the area.
On November 13, 1569, McCarthy Mor was
reported to have sent in a letter of submission, following a disastrous attack
on Kilmallock. Nevertheless, the guerrilla war continued. Sidney was replaced
by Sir John Perrot shortly after his return to Dublin. With Sir John Perrot,
who replaced Sidney, soon afterwards, carried out a two-year campaign of
attrition was waged against Fitzmaurice. Fitzmaurice finally submitted to
Perrot at Kilmallock on February 23, 1573.
The rebellion did break out again briefly in November of that year, when
the Earl of Desmond escaped from captivity, but on September 2, 1574, the Earl
of Desmond too finally submitted.
[27 April 1576] A couple of years later, Sir
Henry Sidney carried out a tour of Munster. He found that Kinsale was: “much
decayed by the great and long unquietness of the country, yet through the
continuance of justice and English government near them, it holds its own well
enough, and is on the mending hand. A castle they had upon the pier, which was
all ruined, and the pier itself greatly decayed. I granted them some aid
towards re-edifying the same..” (9)
A few months after Desmond's
surrender, James Fitzmaurice fled to
the Continent in March 1575 to seek help for another rebellion from the Pope
and the Spanish government. On 17 July, 1579, Fitzmaurice landed near Dingle,
Co. Kerry, with Spanish and Italian troops, thereby setting off the Second
Desmond Rebellion. Fitzmaurice was killed not long after he landed, but the
rebellion continued, carried on initially by the Earl of Desmond's brothers,
James and Sir John, and then by the Earl himself after he was proclaimed a
traitor on November 2. Youghal was sacked by the rebels on November 24, and in
a letter dated December 2 & 3, Sir Warhame Sentleger, the provost marshal
of Munster, warned that Desmond was assembing his forces to raid Carbery and
sack Cork. Desmond did head west to Cork, where he threatened the city,
but he did not have the forces to attack. He subsequently withdrew into the
fastnesses of Munster, although McCarthy Mor does appear to have attacked
Kinsale beforehand. From those fastnesses, Desmond's forces carried out
guerrilla attacks on the castles of their enemies, destroying their crops so
the English could not use them.
The government forces, particularly those
under the command of the Earl of Ormond, responded with a scorched earth policy
of their own. Undoubtedly cowed by this show of force, many of the major
lords of Munster came into Cork to pledge their loyalty to the crown. They
included the lords Courcy, Barry, and Roche, as well as Sir Owen McCarthy
Reagh.
In March 1581, James Eustace Viscount Baltinglas fled Ireland, first
to Scotland and then to France. The Earl of Desmond, however, continued to hold
out, carrying out guerilla attacks throughout Munster. To all the other horrors of this war, was
now added perhaps the most terrible of all-famine. As early as March 1, 1580, the
government were warned that famine would strike Munster by the autumn, which
would cause "more death than by the sword." (10) By April 20, 1582, Sir Warham St. Leger was informing the Queen
that 30,000 people had died in Munster alone of famine in the previous six
months. This figure did not include the thousands more who had been hanged by
the military or killed in battle. In Sentleger's words: "Munster [is]
nearly unpeopled by the murders done by the rebels and the killings by the
soldiers." In addition, on top of everthing else, the plague had hit Cork
city, causing "72, 66, and 62 [to] die in a day in Cork, which is but one
street not a half a quarter of a mile in length.." (11) People continued to die of famine long
after the war had ended, and it is estimated that by 1589, the population had
been reduced by 30 percent. The war continued to drag on through 1582 and 1583,
becoming increasingly hopeless for the Geraldines. On November 11, 1583,
Desmond was finally tracked down and killed in the Slieve Mish mountains. With the death of the Earl of Desmond, the
confiscation of his lands and those of his supporters began in earnest.
Even though the rebels were unsuccessful in 1579-1583,
the involvement of the Spanish and Papal courts meant that Ireland was becoming
a new battleground in the conflict between Protestatism and Catholicism-a
deeply disturbing prospect for Elizabeth and her government. At the same time,
adherents at court of the new wave of Protestant patriotism in England were
demanding that the government intervene more decisively to help the French
Hugurnots and the Dutch rebels fighting Spain. This faction had also gone a
long way in promoting the oceanic enterprises, including piracy, which had been
a major element in the decline of Anglo-Spanish relations. In January 1584, the
Spanish ambassador to England was sent home after being implicated in a plot
involving Mary Queen of Scots. During that year as well, both England and Spain
found themselves being inexorably sucked into the affairs of the Netherlands
and France respectively, and by extension, into conflict with each other. In
May 1585, Phillip II of Spain had all English ships in Iberian ports seized,
hoping to weaken England's commercial power. The confiscation provoked a violent
response, and from that summer onwards, merchants and seafaring gentry carried
out a campaign of plunder and privateering off the Iberian coast. From that
summer, Phillip II began to seriously consider an invasion of England.
With Anglo-Spanish relations becoming
steadily worse, the attention of the English government was being increasingly
drawn to the defences of Ireland. In 1584, it was reported that Cork had
militia forces of 300 pikemen and 100 shot, while Kinsale had 100 pikemen and
20 shot. On 31 October 1586, Geoffrey Fenton, a senior English official,
apprised the government of a journey he undertook through Munster. He wrote:
"But to begin with Kinsale, the place supposed by your Lordships, in your
advertisement to the Lord Deputy, to be of most peril in that port I think to
be Rincorran, a castle of Sir Thomas Barry, alias Barry oge. It standeth upon
the seaside, almost in the midway between the haven mouth and the town, but
more apt to scour the harbour up to the town than to defend the mouth or
entrance of the haven, for that it is somewhat too far off, and hath need of a
bulwark to be made upon the westerly point to serve that turn. A little without
the town is a bulwark, aforetime begun by Sir Henry Sidney, and not as yet
finished, which being perfected will suffice, together with the other to be
placed upon the westerly point, to command the harbour and defend it. Many
harms have been done of late to the town of Kinsale by pirates and men of war,
by reason the haven is open without defence, and they fear, that if any descent
of strangers be, it will fall there, for the weakness of the haven, and that
there is a town to receive them which is not able to make resistance. I
conferred with the principal men of the town what they would contribute to the
building of a bulwark at the mouth of the haven, and finishing the other that
is almost done, but they objected the poverty of the town, which I see is such
as they can yield no other help than digging of stones, and to draw them to the
place. If there could be spared 60 li. or 80 li. of the fines and issues of
this province, I think it would suffice to perfect both the bulwark, and also
raise a rampart or platform at one coigne of the said castle of Rincorran,
which would flank both the haven mouth and all the harbour up to the town, and
truly, without this fortification there can be so surety made of the town and
haven of Kinsale...” (12)
A short time later, on November 7, 1586,
Geoffrey Fenton informed the government from Kinsale: "Since I wrote last
to your Lordship from Cork, I was driven to return eftsoons to this town, to
settle a band of soldiers in garrison, for answering of service, both here and
further westward along the sea coasts. This province is quiet in all parts, and
no likelihood of alterations, unless it come from the foreign." (13) On
January 13, 1587, Queen Elizabeth awarded Kinsale the cocket and other funds to
help the town repair its fortifications.
On February 18, 1587, Mary Queen of Scots
was executed, thereby providing Phillip II with a legal excuse to invade
England. However, in April 1587, Sir Francis Drake raided Cadiz where he
destroyed twenty-four ships, thereby setting back the Spanish invasion by a
year. On December 23, Geoffrey
Fenton alerted the government to the fact that more Spanish vessels visited
Baltimore and Kinsale than any other harbours, the implication being that they were scouting out the harbours for
invasion. In June 1588 another report was sent to the government by Sir William
Herbert regarding the threat of Spanish landings in Munster: "..The
exterior dangers of most moment are foreign invasions and the combinations or
confederacies of the Irish Lords....As touching the first...it may be
conjectured....they will attempt as soon as may be to possess the towns and
cities in the maritime parts of this province, and therefore will seek those
havens that be nearest and most convenient for that purpose. To meet with this
in readiest sort, with least charge to most purpose, the present state of this
province considered, in my poor opinion it were requisite that the president or
governor were appointed to lie at Cork with the horsemen and footmen allowed
him, with some other convenient forces, having therewithal the forces of those
two cities and counties in good "areadiness;" his particular charge
to attend those coasts: Waterford, Dungarvan, Youghal, Cork, Kinsale, Ross,
Baltimore, and Bearhaven." (14) In
the last week of July the Armada finally set sail, only to be frustrated by
inclement weather and English naval tactics. As a result, the immediate threat
to England and English interests in Ireland was averted.
In the 1590s, Munster began to experience a
renewal and a lively trade sprang up between Cork and European ports. This
trade also allowed disaffected Irish, secretly supported by Hugh O'Neill, the
Earl of Tyrone, to import gunpowder and ammunition from Spain and pay for their
purchases with Munster grain. In the
spring of 1594, the Maguires broke through the Gap of the Erne with O'Neill's
connivance and overran the plain of Roscommon. A few months later, Red Hugh
O'Donnell defeated and English column at the Ford of Biscuits on the Blackwater
River, and by early 1595 the O'Donnells and the Maguires had broken through the
English garrison line that stretched from Newry to Lough Erne. February saw the
O'Neills in the field for the first time, when Hugh O'Neill defeated Sir Henry
Bagenal at the Battle of Clontibret. Although O'Neill and his supporters were
driven back to Ulster in 1597, O'Neill's strength continued to grow.
In Munster, Hugh O'Neill had raised James
FitzThomas Fitzgerald, a nephew of Gerald Fitzgerald, out of poverty and
recognized him as the new Earl of Desmond. Although jokingly referred to as the
Hayrope Earl, James attracted the same devotion as the legitimate Desmonds had,
and more importantly, acted as a rallying point for all those dispossessed in
the Munster plantation. When fighting finally broke out in 1598, James was able
to lead more men into battle than Gerald ever commanded-8000 foot and 1000
horse.
As 1598
dawned, Munster was completely infiltrated by rebels. In July, Hugh O'Neill
laid siege to the English fort on the Ulster Blackwater and subsequently
defeated Henry Bagenal at the Battle of the Yellow Ford. O'Neill's victory at
the Yellow Ford not only brought about the surrender of the Blackwater Fort and
Armagh, but it also opened all Ireland to a war of liberation. On the morning
of October 6, the Geraldines rose all across Munster. In Cork, the Awbeg
Valley, the Blackwater Valley, and most of the coastline between Cork and
Youghal was pillaged, while in Kerry, the towns of Tralee, Castlemaine, and
Killarney were captured. Overnight, the English colonial presence in Munster
was destroyed. On October 21, the Earl of Ormond warned the
government that Kinsale’s walls were in such bad shape that only a strong
garrison would be able to protect the town. On December 9, it was reported that
the government had sent 1,000 troops to Cork and another 400 to Kinsale, in
order to protect those towns.
On March 12, 1599, Robert
Devereux, Earl of Essex, was appointed lieutenant deputy and sent to Ireland
with the largest army to leave England during Elizabeth's reign-17,300 men.
Instead of tackling O'Neill head on, however, Essex placed his men in garrisons
and proceeded on an eight-week march through Munster that did little but
exhaust his troops. In September, Essex
finally marched north, only to encounter O'Neill with a much larger force near
Louth. A parley between the two commanders took place there, the result of
which was that a truce ensued (which was to last until January 1600) and the
rebels were allowed to keep all the territory they had captured.
When the
truce expired, Tyrone marched south unopposed as far as Kinsale, where he
proceeded to get submissions and hostages from local landowners. Earlier that same month, as symbolic of his new expansive role as national leader,
O'Neill had confirmed James FitzThomas as Earl of Desmond and Florence McCarthy
as the McCarthy Mor. While, Tyrone was in Cork, Donell McCarthy Reagh met with
Florence McCarthy. The latter tried to convince him to join with the rebels,
but McCarthy Reagh decided to stay loyal to the crown. O'Neill also sent
letters to the other major lords of Cork, such as Roche and Barry, calling on
them to support the struggle for the Catholic religion and the relief of the
country. Roche came to an agreement with O'Neill, but Barry refused and
suffered the consequences. His lands were raided by rebel forces and completely
destroyed.
In February, Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy arrived in
Dublin as Lord Deputy and proceeded to take advantage of his resources to put
O'Neill under pressure with winter campaigns, while utilizing sea power and
planting garrisons to effectively break up rebel strongholds. To avoid
envelopment by the forces of Mountjoy and Ormond, O'Neill was forced to retreat
back to Ulster. The impact that
Tyrone nevertheless had had on the inhabitants of Munster can be deduced from a
report by Geoffrey Fenton, who wrote:" But, by his long tarrying in
Munster, he maketh strong his rebellion with those Irish Lords, and draweth
away the hearts of the subjects from Her Majesty, when they see her army to
give sufferance so long time, in the heart of their country, to an enemy
stranger and a rebel of Ulster, far from them, and not known to them
before." (15)
In April, a Spanish delegation put into Donegal Bay,
and met with Hugh O'Neill and Hugh O'Donnell in a nearby friary. During
the conference, O'Neill outlined his ideas for a Spanish invasion. He advised
the delegation that if the expedition were small it should put into Donegal
Bay, specifically Teelin or Killybegs. If the Spanish force numbered 6,000 or
more, it should go to Munster. Munster was easier to live off and operate in
than Connacht or Ulster, and it offered more prizes to an invading army, but
only a large army could maintain itself there until O'Neill arrived with his
forces. Of the ports in Munster, O'Neill overwhelmingly favoured Cork. On one
side of the city lay the territories of the McCarthys, where Florence McCarthy
could easily assemble his forces. On the other side lay the lands of O’Neill’s
Earl of Desmond, FitzThomas. Both leaders could join the Spanish with their
forces within two days, while O'Neill himself could arrive within ten days.
That same
month, April 1600, Sir George Carew was installed as the new president of
Munster following the death in action of Sir Thomas Norreys and proceeded to take the field against FitzThomas and his
supporters. With O'Neill gone, 3,000 reinforcements, easy communications, and
the support of major towns and local loyalists, this was a relatively easy
affair. At the beginning of April, Sir Henry Power, commander of English forces
in Munster, sent 1,000 men, under the command of Captain George Flower into
Carbery, with orders to either waste it or take assurances from the
freeholders. At the time, Carbery was regarded as Florence McCarthy's primary
recruitment area and staging point for attacks. Flower initially marched to Kinsale, from where he proceeded south
towards Rosscarbery. On the first day of the march, the English forces attacked
the O'Mahonys of Kinalmeaky, suppporters of Florence McCarthy, and killed large
numbers of them. This was followed two days later by an
attack on a castle called The Muntan. The castle belonged to a foster father of
Florence McCarthy, and a large store of weapons and other spoils were seized.
From there, the army marched to Rosscarbery, where they rested for two days,
before passing Leap on their way into the country of the O'Donovans According
to Flower, he and his troops:"..burned all those parts, and had the
killing of many of their churls and poor people, leaving not them any one grain
of corn within ten miles of our way, wherever we marched, and took a prey of
500 cows, which I caused to be drowned and killed, for that we would not
trouble ourselves to drive them in that journey." (16) From O'Donovan's
country, the English forces headed south towards Bantry, where they attacked
the McCarthys of Clandermod, who were then in rebellion. Having burned and
spoiled the McCarthy's territory, Captain Flower advanced towards the O'Mahonys
of the Iveagh peninsula. On their way there, Flower became aware that Florence
McCarthy had assembled a large force of 1,800 men to intercept his passage back
to Rosscarbery. McCarthy had united his forces with those of Dermod O'Connor,
an O'Neill supporter from Connaught who had brought a thousand men with him.
The same day
that Flower discovered McCarthy's actions, he and his forces returned to
Rosscarbery. That night, the rebels split their forces. McCarthy camped on one
side of Rosscarbery, about two miles from the English forces, while O'Connor
with his men camped on the other side, about three miles away. Their objective
was to prevent Flower from returning to Cork. Having identified the location of
the enemy forces, Flower attacked the Connaught men and forced the two halves
of the rebel army to link up again.
The two armies
stayed facing each other for the next ten days. In the meantime, the Earl of
Ormond, the government's most important supporter in Ireland, had been
captured. On hearing this news, Sir Henry Power immediately instructed Flower
to return to Cork with his forces. On receipt of the orders, Flower set out
initially for Kinsale. McCarthy's forces attacked and a running battle ensued
throughout the day. Flower kept his forces a mile ahead of the enemy, never
allowing them to form up for a battle. The harrying attacks carried out by the
rebels were held back by Flower's cavalry, and over forty rebels were killed.
It is unknown whether the English suffered any casualties, but the Irish losses
were particularly grievous. McCarthy's entire vanguard was destroyed and five of his captains were killed.
Flower and
his men reached Kinsale on April 20. The following day, having left 250 men
under Sir Richard Percy and Captain Bostock as a garrison, he set off for Cork
with 100 horsemen and 600 foot. Initially, there was no sign of the enemy.
During the night, McCarthy and his men had marched ahead of the English and
occupied an ambush site about half way to Cork. The Irish had positioned
themselves in front of a narrow bridge, which had been built over a deep and
dangerous ford, with woodland and bogs all around. McCarthy again divided his
force into two sections, with Dermod O'Connor commanding one and he the other.
As the English advanced, the Irish troops lay themselves flat on the ground.
English scouts crossed over the bridge and returned without noticing anything
amiss. Encouraged, the English forces set out to cross the bridge. A cavalry
unit was sent first, but as it was coming down the hill towards the bridge the
sun glinting off the helmets of the
rebels alerted them to the ambush. The English forces began to retire in order
to regroup. Realizing that their position had been given away, the Irish opened
fire, and their vanguard rushed at the retreating English before they could
regain the hill. Panicked by this unexpected attack, the cavalry broke and rode
over their own foot soldiers. A quarter of a mile from the bridge lay a castle,
where the English forces now headed for safety. At the castle, Flower was
finally able to rally his troops. 60 men with guns were placed at the bawn of
the castle, the banks of which were breast high. The Irish forces were
following very close behind, and as they came up to the castle they were met
with a fusillade that ripped through their ranks. The survivors began to
retreat. Sensing his moment, Flower charged them with part of his cavalry. For
over a mile, a fierce battle raged. As Flower later wrote:"..myself being
at that time and in the beginning hurt; upon the first charge, with a pike,
nine inches into the thigh, by their general. At that charge I had one horse
killed under me, with three pikes in his body and two bullets. When we brake
them, I fought hand to hand with their general, where I received my second hurt
in my head, by one that carried their colours, I having part of them in my hand
and he the other. There I had my second horse slain with pikes under
me..." (17) Both Florence McCarthy and Dermod O'Connor were shot and
injured, though neither seriously. With the English having broken through their
lines, the Irish were forced to retreat back up the hill where the battle had
taken place. Seven or eight horsemen followed them but were forced to turn
back. Any chance the English had of completely destroying the Irish force was
lost at that moment by the unwillingness of the infantry to attack. McCarthy
and the rest of his men were able to get away safely.
Casualty
figures vary considerably. According to Flower, nine men were killed on the
English side, including a lieutenant, and sixteen wounded. He went on to claim
that his forces had killed 137 Irish and seriously wounded 37 more. Florence
McCarthy subsequently declared that only seventeen Irish were killed, four of
them Captains and fifteen wounded. Whatever the true figure, the battle was a
close run thing. As one participant later wrote: "..if the castle had been
one quarter of a mile further, all Her Majesty's forces had been cut off, and
scarce any had come away to tell who had hurt them.” (18) Having beaten off the
Irish attack, Flower again assembled his forces and proceeded to march to Cork.
Along the way, McCarthy's forces began to regroup for another attack. At that
moment, Sir Henry Power arrived on the scene with forty fresh horsemen and the
Irish retired. The English forces marched to Cork without any further hindrances,
arriving in the city that evening, April 21.
Following
this battle, Florence McCarthy began to make desperate overtures to the
government, protesting his innocence. These
overtures, were encouraged by the English, since as Sir George Carew wrote:
"Florence himself is in nature a coward, and as much addicted to his ease
as any man living, and therefore unmeet to be a rebel; which makes me glad that
he is the chief commander of Carbery and Desmond forces. For, if he were gone,
his wife's bastard brother [Donell McCarthy] would be far worse than he.” (19)
The subsequent discussions between McCarthy and the government went on for a
number of months, effectively paralyzing the rebel forces in large parts of
Cork and Kerry.
Throughout the summer of 1600, government forces
continued to put pressure on the rebels, particularly in Munster. On September 17, Sir George Carew
announced his intention to go to Kinsale at the end of the month, in order to
settle Carbery. Following a severe
defeat inflicted on James FitzThomas by the garrison of Kilmallock, Florence
McCarthy came into Cork on October 29, where he submitted himself to Sir George
Carew, asking for the government's mercy. In November, as part of the campaign
to reduce West Cork, the commander of the English garrison in Kinsale, Sir
Richard Percy raided Kinalmeaky with his forces. A number of O'Mahonys were
killed and 200 cattle were seized. Following this attack, arrangements were
made to watch the movements of the Kinsale garrison. On December 21, Percy sent
60 of his men against the O'Mahonys of Kinalmeaky. They were met by three
hundred armed clansmen, including horsemen, under the command of Maelmoe
O'Mahony and his cousin, Dermod Moyle McCarthy (Florence's brother). McCarthy
was at the time hiding in Kinalmeaky from Sir George Carew, who regarded him as
one of the most dangerous men in Munster. For two hours the two sides battled
each other before the garrison troops were forced to retreat.
No other raid
was attempted on Kinalmeaky by the Kinsale garrison. Nevertheless, by May 1601,
when the sugan Earl was captured, the rebellion was practically over in
Munster. Florence McCarthy was taken prisoner less than three weeks later, and
the two of them were sent to England in early August. Although O'Neill was able
to hold out in Ulster, he was coming under severe pressure from the English.
The rebels' only hope now was that Spain would send troops to help them. In
fact, on July 27, a Spanish ship sailed for Ireland carrying a messenger,
Ensign Pedro de Sandoval. Sandoval was to bring O'Neill and O'Donnell the news
that an invasion was imminent and was to get their views on where the fleet
should land. Sandoval met O'Donnell at Sligo on August 10. O'Neill was unable
to attend the meeting because his territory was now completely surrounded by
Mountjoy's garrisons. Nevertheless, he sent a message advising the Spanish to
land either at Limerick, or in case of a mishap between Limerick and Lough
Foyle. O'Neill felt that since both James FitzThomas and Florence McCarthy were
in English hands, and that Waterford and Cork were both being fortified, the
best chance for a successful Spanish landing was in the West. Unfortunately,
contrary winds delayed Sandoval's return, and he did not get back to Spain
until October 1, well after the invasion force had left. On August 6, in a
prescient letter, Carew wrote to the privy council that: "As Florence
McCarthy and James Fitzthomas are now Her Majesty's prisoners the Spaniards will
either not come to Munster or, if they do, will hesitate which way to advance
after landing, not knowing which of the Irish leaders to trust." (20) To further discourage Spanish forces from
landing, Sir George Carew began to seize anyone in Munster who could be of
assistance to the enemy.
In Spain itself, there was considerable disagreement
about where to land. Don Juan del Aguila, the commander of the military forces,
wanted to sail to Donegal Bay, where he felt the northern leaders could join him
more easily. Another senior official, Fray Mateo de Oviedo, who had been on the
embassy to Ireland in 1600 and claimed to speak for O'Neill, insisted on a
Spanish landing at Cork, Waterford, or Limerick. On August 26, the war council
of the Spanish government ordered that the armada should go wherever Oviedo
ordered. Aguila continued to protest the decision to land in the south but was
only able to extract one concession from Oviedo-that the Spanish forces could
land at Kinsale (a port never mentioned by O'Neill) rather than Cork, which was
heavily fortified.
On September
3, 1601, the armada for Ireland set sail with 4,432 troops on board, well below
the stipulated 6,000 thought necessary for a Munster landing. In addition, the weather now turned
against the Spanish, with foul weather and contrary winds preventing the fleet
from reaching the Irish coast for almost four weeks. Shortly before they
reached Ireland, a conference was held among the Spanish leaders, and it was
decided that if the fleet should become separated everyone should rendezvous at
Kinsale, or if that were impossible at Castlehaven. On the evening of September
17, the Spanish fleet reached the Irish coast, and somewhere between the
Blaskets and Dursey Island took on pilots preparatory to landing the following
morning. That night, however, a storm hit the fleet, separating two galleons
and six smaller craft from the main fleet. Despite this loss, which left him
with only 1,700 men, Aguila was determined to land, and on September 21 the Spanish
army landed unopposed at Kinsale.
With the Spaniards was a follower of Florence
McCarthy, Cormack McFineen McCarthy, who inquired of the mayor of Kinsale where
Florence McCarthy and James Fitzthomas were. Disappointed to discover that the two leaders had been captured, Aguila decided to await reinforcements from
Ulster or Spain and fortified himself in Kinsale. Shortly afterwards, some of
the ships that had been lost arrived at Kinsale with reinforcements, bringing
the total number of Spanish forces in the town to between 3,300 and 3,400 men.
The rest of ships, the galleon San
Felipe, under the command of Don Pedro de Zubiaur, and three hookers tried
in vain for five days to link up with the rest of the fleet or make it to
Kinsale or Castlehaven. Zubiaur next tried to make for Teelin in Donegal, but
again the winds were against him and so he sailed for home. What made the loss
of these vessels worse, apart from the 674 soldiers they had on board, was the
fact that they also carried most of the munitions and match for the arquebuses,
leaving Aguila very short.
Afraid that
a general insurrection would take place if Aguila were not defeated, Mountjoy
immediately left for Cork and was besieging the Spaniards by October 26 with a
force of 7,000 men. On his arrival near Kinsale, the leading men of Carbery and
Beare, with the exception of Donell Cam O'Sullivan Beare, were brought by the
Lord President of Munster, Sir George Carew, before Mountjoy, where they swore
their allegiance to the Crown. On Aguila's arrival in Kinsale, Donell
O'Sullivan Beare had offered to
provide him with two thousand men, one thousand armed, and another thousand to
be armed by the Spanish, in order to block Mountjoy's progress and prevent a
siege until O'Neill's army arrived. Suspicious
of O'Sullivan's motives, however, Aguila decided to wait until he had
assurances from O'Neill and O'Donnell before trusting him.
On December
1, the lost portion of Aguila's fleet under Zubiaur finally arrived off the
coast of West Cork and subsequently landed in Castlehaven. An attack from
English naval forces was beaten off with the assistance of such local leaders
as Donal Cam O’Sullivan Beare.
Zubiaur's arrival brought a general rally of the lords of south-west
Cork to Castlehaven, where they took oaths of loyalty to the King of Spain,
Philip III, and were armed with 350 arquebuses and 650 pikes. O'Sullivan Beare
proceeded to assemble a force of 1,000 men, while Conor O'Driscoll raised a
company of horse. The Irish and Spaniards then marched north to join the Irish
forces outside Kinsale.
In November
1601, O'Neill and his ally, Hugh Roe O'Donnell took the considerable risk of
marching south to relieve the Spanish at Kinsale. To distract the attention of
the government forces, O'Neill tarried for a while in Leinster raiding the
property of loyalists. O'Donnell headed straight down to Cork, eluding a force
of two regiments led by Sir George Carew. Once in County Cork, which he reached
on December 12, he camped in the O'Mahony territory of Kinalmeaky. He was
subsequently met there by 500 Munstermen under O'Sullivan Beare and 200 out of
the 500 Spanish reinforcements who had landed at Castlehaven. O'Neill joined
O'Donnell by the evening of December 15. Among those accompanying O'Neill were
Captain Richard Tyrrell of Westmeath, who brought with him a force of between
four and six hundred men. On O'Neill's orders, Tyrrell and his men joined
O'Sullivan Beare's force. By December
21, the combined Irish forces, numbering about 6,500 men, had arrived near
Kinsale.
During these
critical weeks, the English were also receiving further reinforcements. They
had already received a regiment of foot led by Lord Clanricarde (Burke). As
mentioned above, another 1000 foot and 100 horse had arrived from Bristol
commanded by Donough O'Brien, the third earl of Thomond on November 10. On November 23, another 1,000 men
arrived from England, while the following day another 2,000 reinforcements were
landed at Kinsale. Nevertheless, by the end of December the state of the
English army was extremely bad. Exposure was killing forty men a day. Sir
George Carew wrote in a letter dated December 24: "We cannot progress much
for want of the men needed to ply our works and to form guards on our
approaches. The Irish enemy are now within two miles of us and have cut us off
from Cork, keeping us from our victuals and the "vivandiers" that
followed the army. Our provisions have to come by sea, but northerly and
easterly winds are rare here at this time of the year. We have to keep a
constant look out at night for we hear by intelligence that they mean to force
our camp, the Spaniards taking us in front and the Irish in the rear....The
state of our army is exceedingly weak. The last 6,000 out of England are
consumed. Ten or twelve able men in a company is the ordinary proportion, and
30 or 40 sick, unable to do any duty, is seen in every company; and of these
few recover....I do think that a more miserable siege hath not been seen, or so
great a mortality without a plague.." (21) Carew did not have much longer
to wait. That night the Irish attacked.
A few days
beforehand, O'Neill had finally given in to the pleas of the besieged Aguila
and ordered his forces to move up towards the English lines. During the night
of December 24, the marched into position for the attack. In the vanguard was
Tyrrell and his forces, the Munster Irish under O'Sullivan Beare, and the 200
Spaniards from Castlehaven. The main Irish force was commanded by O'Neill,
while the rear was led by O'Donnell. During the night, however, the three
sections lost touch with each other. In addition, Tyrrell failed to reach the
rendezvous point where Aguila was to link up with the Irish forces. Seeing that
his men were not in position and that the English were aware of the attack,
O'Neill decided to retreat.
Sensing his
opportunity, Mountjoy launched his cavalry against the rebels, forcing them to
embattle their forces. Tyrrell was placed in the center, O'Neill's section
formed the right and O'Donnell came up with the rear to form the left. During
the subsequent confusion as the various units aligned themselves, the English
cavalry launched a massive attack on the Irish horse assembled in front of
O'Neill's section. This intial attack was repulsed by the Irish horse, but the
English attacked again shortly afterwards with reinforcements and this time the
Irish horse broke. The English cavalry now attacked the Irish foot in the rear,
while English infantry attacked them in front. These simultaneous attacks-and
the flight of the Irish horse, composed as it was of their leading men-were too
much for the Irish and they fled in a disorganized manner. Seeing the rout of
O'Neill's section, Tyrrell began a flanking movement to try and place his
forces between O'Neill and the English foot but was himself attacked and forced
to retreat. The Spanish forces with Tyrrell were unable to move as fast as the
Irish and made a stand instead. Ninety of them died on the field and another
fifty were captured.
O'Donnell's
men had provided no support during the battle, probably because they were
stationed too far away. The sight of the other sections being routed was too
much for them, however, and they too became demoralized and retreated. The
English forces followed for about a mile and a half, attacking constantly and
killing many of the fleeing rebels. The whole battle lasted for barely an hour
but resulted in between 500 and 1,000 Irish dead. The English lost fewer than a
dozen men. At the end of the battle the English fired off a volley to symbolize
their victory. Believing this was finally the signal for the Spanish to surge
out and link up with their Irish allies, Aguila advanced with his forces. He
soon realized his mistake, however, when he saw captured Spanish colours being
carried by English soldiers, and he beat a hasty retreat back into Kinsale. To
emphasize the disaster that had befallen the Irish forces, Mountjoy
subsequently had between 200 and 300 prisoners hanged before the walls of
Kinsale.
The day
after the battle, O'Neill informed Aguila that he could no longer assist him
since his own lands were now being devastated by the English, and he headed
back to the north. O'Donnell gave command of his forces to his brother Rory,
who also headed back home, while he went to join Zubiaur at Castlehaven.
O'Donnell arrived at Castlehaven on December 27, where he informed the
astonished Spaniards of the rebels' defeat. The following day, Zubiaur left for
Spain, together with O'Donnell who wanted to speak to the Spanish king himself,
and other Irish leaders. O'Sullivan Beare had decided to continue the fight in
West Cork. He wrote to Aguila, urging
him not to surrender Kinsale and promised to cut off English supplies with his
forces.
Although the
English felt they could deal with this situation and were confident of being
able to root the Spanish out of Kinsale, they were seriously worried that
further reinforcements would be landed at Baltimore, Bearhaven, and
Castlehaven. Such reinforcements would not only encourage the rebels to hold
out. As for Aguila, despite the defeat his position was still quite strong. The
wind favoured ships from Spain, raising the hope that reinforcements would
arrive shortly. Moreover, the Spanish in Kinsale still had six week's worth of
food left, compared with the six day's worth of food available to Mountjoy and
his men. Lastly, Aguila's forces had more protection than the English, and
therefore were suffering less from exposure and disease. Nevertheless, the Spanish
were losing about a dozen men a day, and by late December, Aguila had only
1,800 effective troops left. More importantly, he was without the two major
advantages necessary for a besieged place to hold out indefinitely in those
days: strong fortifications, and control of the water approaches, which would
allow supplies and reinforcements to land. That fact, and the belief that the
Irish had let him down, led him to surrender to Mountjoy on January 2, 1602.
Under the terms of the surrender, Aguila agreed
to hand over the castles of Castlehaven, Donneshed (Baltimore), Donnelong
(Sherkin), and Dunboy, and promised not to take up arms again even if
reinforcements arrived. Mountjoy, who was very worried about the effect such
reinforcements would have, readily agreed to Aguila's terms, which involved
providing the Spanish with enough shipping and food to allow him to transport
his men, Spaniards and Irish back to Spain with all their arms, artillery,
money, ensigns, and so forth. In the event, reinforcements did arrive two days
after the surrender on board three vessels under the command of Captain Martin
de Ballecilla. On arriving at Kinsale, Ballecilla discovered that the town had
surrendered, and so promptly returned to Spain.
Although some of
the townspeople appear to have helped the Spaniards, including the son of the
town’s mayor, most appear to have remained loyal to the Crown. In fact, on
November 22, one of the townspeople, by the name of James Grace, escaped from
Kinsale and provided the English forces with valuable information about the
state of the Spanish forces. As a result, no sanctions were imposed on the town
after the siege came to a successful conclusion.
Footnotes:
1. Caulfield, Richard; p. ix
2. Caulfield, Richard; p. ix
3. Caulfield, Richard; p. xi
4. Caulfield, Richard; p. xii
5. Caulfield, Richard; p. xii
6. Caulfield, Richard; p. xiii
7. Caulfield, Richard; p. xiv
8. Caulfield, Richard; p. xv
9. Caulfield, Richard; p. xix
10. CSP 1574-1585; p. 211
11. CSP 1574-1585; pp. 361-362
12. Caulfield, Richard; p. xxii
13. Caulfield, Richard; p. xxiii
14. CSP 1586-1588; p. 529
15. CSP 1600 March-October; p. 37
16. CSP 1600 March-October; p. 116
17. CSP 1600 March-October; p. 117
18. CSP 1600 March-October; p. 113
19. CSP 1600 March-October; p. 144
20. CSP 1601-3; p. 4
21. CSP 1601-3; p. 234
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