Siege of Kinsale
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| Siege of Kinsale | |||||||||||||||||
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| Conflict | Nine Years War (Ireland) | ||||||||||||||||
| Date | October 2 1601-January 3 1602 | ||||||||||||||||
| Place | Kinsale, on Ireland's southern coast | ||||||||||||||||
| Result | English victory | ||||||||||||||||
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The Siege of Kinsale was one of the more decisive battles in England's effort to conquer Ireland. It took place during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and during the Nine Years War (Ireland) - a rebellion of Hugh O'Neill and other Irish clan leaders against English rule. In so far as it fought over a landing of Spanish troops to aid the Irish rebels, the battle was also part of the Eighty Years' War, the far larger conflict of Protestant England against Catholic Spain.
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Background - The Tudor re-conquest of Ireland
Ireland had been a lordship of England's since the twelth century, but by the 1500s, the area under government control had shrunk to Pale area around Dublin. The rest of the country was controlled by the mini lordships of clan and feudal leaders. King Henry VIII tried to reintegrate the territory of the country by recognising the titles of the Irish nobility and giving them legal charter to their lands in return for submision ot the Crown. He also created the Kingdom of Ireland in 1541, with himself as monarch. However, whenever English officials tried to control the actions of Irish lords, they were invariably met with violence. The English spent the next 50 years trying to exert their control over the Irish population, often by exceptionally brutal means. The first major conflict this caused was the Desmond Rebellions between 1569 and 1583. In the 1590s they experienced the most significant resistance, from forces in Ulster under Hugh O'Neill and Hugh Roe O'Donnell. This war is known as the Nine Years War. After some initial successes, the rebels were pinned down defending their own territory in Ulster. Since 1591, the Irish rebels had been seeking help from Spain, and in 1601, a Spanish landing finally materialised.
Spanish landing
King Philip III of Spain, still sore from the destruction of the Spanish Armada in 1588, offered to help, hoping that fighting the English in Ireland might draw English attention and forces away from the Netherlands, which were ostensibly under Spanish control, but were allied with England due to their Protestantism. He sent Don Juan de Aguila and Don Diego Brochero to Ireland with 6,000 men, and a significant amount of arms and ammunition. One of the ships, carrying the majority of veteran soldiers and gunpowder, failed to make it to Ireland. The remaining 3,400 men disembarked at Kinsale, just south of Cork on October 2 1601. The Spanish landing site was in the extreme south of Ireland, at the opposite end of the island from the rebel stronghold of Ulster. This geographical factor was to prove critical to the outcome of the siege.
Meanwhile, Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, the assigned Lord Deputy of Ireland, weakened the garrisons around the Pale, taking as many men as he could to Kinsale. Upon hearing that the English had laid siege to the Spanish at Kinsale, Hugh O'Neill and his ally O'Donnell marched south with a total of 5,000 infantry and 700 cavalry.
The Siege
Lord Mountjoy's forces did not fully surround the town of Kinsale, but they did seize some higher ground, and subjected the Spanish forces to regular artillery fire. The English cavalry rode through the surrounding countryside destroying livestock and crops, while both sides called for allegiance from the population. O'Neill & O'Donnell were hesistant about leaving Ulster open to attack by leaving to defend Kinsale, especially given the lack of training and supplies of their troops. Nevertheless, they marched south, and successfully cut English supply lines across the island. By December, the shortage of supplies, and winter weather began to take a toll on the English soldiers.
Meanwhile, a small group of reinforcements arrived from Spain to aid the Irish. Overall, the degree of coordination between Spanish & Irish forces remains a matter of debate. That said, the Irish and Spanish soldiers together organized the main engagement, on December 24 1601 (British date: January 3 1602 for the Catholic army). They formed into three columns, led by Richard Tyrell, Hugh O'Neill, and O'Donnell. They marched toward a night attack, but due to a lack of coordination and possible arguments between the commanders, they failed to reach their destination by dawn. Mountjoy's scouts were made aware of the march and, after leaving a number of regiments behind to guard the camp and cover Kinsale, Mountjoy led his forces to meet the enemy at a ridge northwest of the city.
O'Neill controlled the ridge, and intended to fight for it, with support from Aguila, O'Donnell, and Tyrell on multiple sides. When neither of his allies showed signs of movement, he ordered a retreat into the marshes, hoping to mire the English cavalry in the soft land. In the end, the Irish were simply outnumbered and overpowered by the English cavalry, who charged through O'Neill's men, and prevented a flanking maneuver by O'Donnell. Aguila mistook the sounds of battle for an English ruse to draw him out, and only took action when he mistook the approaching English forces for returning Irish. He ordered his men out of the city, intending to return it to the victorious Irish; when he saw the English banners and realized his mistake, it was too late, and so he simply retreated to the ships.
Results
The English resumed their attacks upon the little town of Kinsale, eventually breaching the defenses, taking the town, and agreeing to a peace settlement with Aguila. This loss put an end to the Spanish alliance with Ireland, and to much of the Irish resistance. The Ulster forces returned to their home province and after two more years of attrition, the last of them surrendered in 1603.
References
- Davis, Paul K. (2001). "Besieged: 100 Great Sieges from Jericho to Sarajevo." Oxford: Oxford University Press.
