Wars of the Irish Kings (40 page)
Read Wars of the Irish Kings Online
Authors: David W. McCullough
The Earl did not well finish those words, when they heard three great cries that disturbed his oration.
A company of stalworthy gentlemen being in the forefront of the English battle, amongst all was Holywod of Tartaine, which seldom heard the like. “What meaneth this cry?” said he; “do they think that we are crows, that we will flee with crying?” and sware, “By the holy Saint Nicholas, that blisse in Tertayne, they shall find us men ere we depart.”
With that the Irish galoglas came on, to whom the English archers sent them such a shower of arrows that their weapon and their hands were put fast together. MackSwine, captain of the Irish galoglasse, came foremost, and asked where was Great Darsey? Darsey answered that he was at hand, which he should well understand. With that McSwine strack Darsey such a blow upon the helmet that he put Darsey upon his knees. With that Nangell, Baron of the Nowan, being a lusty gentleman that day, gave McSwine such payment that he was satisfied ever after.
They fought terrible and bold a while. The Irish fled; amongst whom there came a horseman running amongst the English, and asked who had the Earl of Kildare and the rest of the Lords of the English Pale prisoners? With that one Skquyvors, a soldier out of Dublin, strack him with a gun with both his hands, and so beat out his brains. The young Gerotte this time being left for relief, seeing the battle joining, could not stand still to wait his time as he was appointed by the Earl his father, but set on with the foremost in such sort that no man alive could do better with his own hands than he did that day, for manhood of a man; but by reason of his lustiness not tarrying in the place appointed, all the English carriages was taken away by the Irish horsemen, and a few of the English gentlemen take[n] prisoners. That was on that side of the battle.
When the battle was done, and a great number of the Irish slain, as it was reported nine thousand, the Lord of Gormanston said to the Earl,
“We have done one good work, and if we do the other we shall do well.” Being asked what he meant, said he “We hath for the most number killed our enemies, and if we do the like with all the Irishmen that we have with us, it were a good deed.”
This battle was fought the 19 day of August 1504, at Knocke-twoe, which is from Galwe five miles. The hill is not high, but a great plain. The greatest of the Irish was Richard Bourke …. The Baron of Delven, a little before the joining of the battle, took his horse with the spurs, and threw a small spear amongst the Irish, and slew by chance one of the Bourkes, and turned. The Earl said to him that he kept promise well, and well did and stalworthly, saving that after his throw he retired back. After they went to Galway, where as the Irish gathered again, and said they would give to the Earl another field, but they durst not fight a battle never after with the English Pale. The Earl bestowed thirty tun of wine amongst the army ….
The Earl of Kyldare was made Knight of the Garter after the field of Cnocktwo.
HUGH
O’NEILL
TRIUMPHANT
B
EGINNING IN
1593, Hugh O’Neill (1550-1616), the earl of Tyrone, a man of whom it was said could speak Irish like an Irishman and English like a gentleman, led a long and sustained uprising that, for a time at least, had the English terrified. Called both the Nine Years War and Tyrone’s rebellion, it began with O’Neill—who as a boy after his father’s assassination during an O’Neill family squabble received what he later called his “education amongst the English”—pretending to be an English ally while secretly directing the uprising. (In Brian Friel’s play about O’Neill,
Making History
, Hugh is depicted as having gone to England to be schooled, but the earl’s comment probably meant that he received his education within the English Pale in Dublin.) His chief deputy was Hugh O’Donnell (1572-1602) of Donegal, whose family had been the traditional enemy of the O’Neills for centuries. The earl dropped all pretenses in 1595 with his open attack on a fort on the Blackwater River just north of Armagh and was promptly outlawed as a traitor by Queen Elizabeth’s government.
O’Neill’s rebellion proved to be the most complex military campaign in Ireland since the Bruces’s invasion in the fourteenth century, and it remained successful for as long as it remained a guerrilla operation. On the Irish side were O’Neills, O’Donnells, and members of other northern families as well as a number of “redshank” mercenaries hired in Scotland. About a third of them had firearms, although they had almost no artillery, which made attacks on walled cities nearly impossible. Most of the English forces were seasoned troops who
had battle experience fighting on the continent.
Hugh O’Neill, earl of Tyrone.
For the first time, religion played an important role in an Irish war. When Queen Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII (who had named Hugh’s grandfather Earl of Tyrone), broke with Rome, he made the struggle in Ireland not only a conflict between the Irish and the English but between Catholics and Protestants. Besides perfecting the art of the military ambush, O’Neill also honed the art of diplomacy, constantly dangling peace proposals before the English as a delaying tactic. He hoped, if he waited long enough, to win the support of the so-called Old English (long established English settlers who were Catholics) and to establish a military alliance with England’s most powerful European enemy, Spain. As a Catholic prince, a descendant of the high kings of Ireland, O’Neill looked for help from His Most Catholic Majesty, King Philip III of Spain.
As with most Irish conflicts, the family connections were intertwined. Hugh O’Donnell was Hugh O’Neill’s son-in-law (a long-established way of binding together two former adversaries), but O’Neill was also married to the sister of Sir Henry Bagenal, marshal of Ireland, the general Hugh’s forces defeated—and killed—at the battle at Yellow Ford.
THE BATTLES OF CLONTIBRET AND YELLOW FORD
The running ambush of the English relief column at Clontibret in 1595 and the rout three years later at Yellow Ford (probably named for the color of the water of a marshy stream that ran into the Blackwater River) are almost textbook examples of the advantages of a native guerrilla army over a traditional occupying force. The former took place between Monaghan and Newry, the latter—not far away—near the present village of Blackwater, a few miles north of Armagh.
In this selection, the Four Masters provide a somewhat cryptic account of the surrender of Sligo to the rebels, which gives some suggestion of the precarious balance maintained by the government army. The officers may have been English, but many of the men were Irish more in sympathy with their enemy than with their commanders.
There seems to be some disagreement over the size of the New Fort (which the Irish called Fortmore or Fortuna) on the Blackwater. Fynes Moryson, an Englishman, called it an “Eye-sore” which was “only a deep trench or wall of earth to lodge some one hundred soldiers,” while Cuegory O’Cleary, an Irishman, described it as a strong earthen fort with “fighting towers” and loophole windows to fire through, garrisoned by three hundred men.
The Four Masters’ account of the battle at Yellow Ford includes a rare but brief glimpse of an ordinary soldier—unnamed, of course—who discovers the dangers of gunpowder.
For some time [in 1595] the English did not dare to bring any army into Ulster, except one hosting which was made by Sir John Norris and his brother, Sir Thomas Norris, the President of the two provinces of Munster, with the forces of Munster and Meath, to proceed into Ulster. They marched to Newry, and passed from thence towards Armagh. When they had proceeded near halfway, they were met by the Irish, who proceeded
to annoy, shoot, pierce, and spear them, so that they did not suffer them either to sleep or rest quietly for the space of twenty-four hours. They were not permitted to advance forward one foot further; and their chiefs were glad to escape with their lives to Newry, leaving behind them many men, horses, arms, and valuable things. The General, Sir John Norris, and his brother, Sir Thomas, were wounded on this occasion. It was no [ordinary] gap of danger for them to go into the province after this.
[Bingham, an English commander] returned to Sligo, after having plundered the monastery of the Blessed Virgin at Rath-Maelain, and the church of St. Columbkille on Torach; but God did not permit him to remain for a long time without revenging them upon him, for there was in his company a gentleman of the Burkes, who had twelve warriors along with him, namely, Ulick Burke [an Irish ally]. Upon one occasion he was offered insult and indignity by [Bingham] and the English in general, at which he felt hurt and angry; and he resolved in his mind to revenge the insult, if he could, and afterwards to get into the friendship of [Hugh] O’Donnell, for he felt certain of being secure with him. He afterwards got an advantage of the aforesaid [Bingham], one day as he was in an apartment with few attendants; he went up to him, and upbraided him with his lawlessness and injustice towards him, and as he did not receive a satisfactory answer, he drew his sword, and struck at him till he severed his head from his neck. He then took the castle, and sent messengers to Ballyshannon, where O’Donnell’s people then were; and these dispatched messengers to Tyrone, where O’Donnell himself was. They relate the news to him, and he then went to the Earl O’Neill; and both were much rejoiced at that killing. On the following day O’Donnell bade the Earl farewell, and, setting out with his army, did not halt, except by night, until he arrived at Sligo. He was welcomed; and Ulick Burke delivered up the town to him, which made him very happy in his mind. This happened in the month of June ….
The New Fort [on the Blackwater River near Armagh] was defended during the time of peace and war by the Queen’s people; but when the English and Irish did not make peace [as had been expected] in the beginning of summer, [Hugh] O’Neill laid siege to the fort, so that the warders were in want of provisions in the last month of summer [of 1598]. After this news arrived in Dublin, the Council resolved to assemble together the most loyal and best tried in war of the Queen’s soldiers in Ireland, [who were
those] in the neighbourhood of Dublin and Athlone; and when these [soldiers] were asembled together, four thousand foot and six hundred horse were selected from among them, and these were sent to convey provisions to the New Fort. A sufficient supply of meat and drink, beef, lead, powder, and all other necessaries, were sent with them. They marched to Drogheda, from thence to Dundalk, from thence to Newry, and from thence to Armagh, where they remained at night. Sir Henry Beging [Bagenal], Marshal of Newry, was their General.
When O’Neill had received intelligence that this great army was approaching him, he sent his messengers to [Hugh] O’Donnell, requesting of him to come to his assistance against this overwhelming force of foreigners who were coming to his country. O’Donnell proceeded immediately, with all his warriors, both infantry and cavalry, and a strong body of forces from Connaught, to assist his ally against those who were marching upon him. The Irish of all the province of Ulster also joined the same army, so that they were all prepared to meet the English before they arrived at Armagh. They then dug deep trenches against the English in the common road, by which they thought they [the English] would come to them.