The Battle of Kinsale - 1601

Sir Henry Danvers was in command of the cavalry at the battle of Kinsale.

The battle began in a thunderstorm just before daybreak and lasted for three hours.  Warned in advance, the English, though outnumbered, could concentrate their best troops in the most threatened places.  The Irish advanced in three main armies: Tyrone and his men from Tyrone and Londonderry, O'Donnell leading the regiments of Tyrconnell and Connaught; while the third army consisted of some of the best troops in Ireland under Tyrrell, a mixture of Munster volunteers and the small Spanish contingent under Alonso del Campo himself.  These last were on the Irish right and their task was to establish contact with the beleaguered Spanish in Kinsale. But no sooner did they probe forward than they met strongly posted English forces barring the way.  As day broke del Campo, seeing the thin lines of the English slowly advancing to meet the Irish main armies, pressed Tyrone to attack them at once ; but instead Tyrone, fresh from a quarrel with O'Donnell over precedence, ordered a retreat.  His aim was to immobilise the English cavalry by retreating behind a bog; but the partly untrained Irish did not know how to retreat in good order and Mountjoy, seizing the moment while it was there, ordered a general attack.  Sir Edward Wingfield with two hundred and fifty cavalry charged a force of eighteen hundred pikemen, who stood firm and repulsed him.  But then, reinforced by regiments under Sir Henry Danvers, he swung off to the right and attacked the Irish cavalry.  These were no match for the English and scattered widely; and the Irish pikemen, seeing their own people fleeing towards them, parted ranks to let them through and could not reassemble in time to keep out the English cavalry. So a rout began. The Spanish Armadas Winston Graham, 1972

The Battle of Kinsale. An overview of the battle (www.irishclans.com).

The Battle of Kinsale. An overview of the battle (en.wikipedia.org).

The Battle of Kinsale. An overview of the battle (www.kinsale-angling.com).

Kinsale today.

Updated 23 Apr 2006              (C) Gary Danvers                  Page opened:  25 Aug 2004

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