O'Neil’s Rebellion The Nine Years' War 1593-1603
Up until 1594 Hugh O'Neill, "The O'Neill", or, Earl of Tyrone, as he was
known to the English, was pledged to the support of Elizabeth I Queen of
England. The degree to which he took that commitment seriously can be
measured by the fact that he took to the field with his brother in law,
the English Marshall Bagnel, against Hugh Maguire, who was in rebellion
against the English. This joint force defeated Maguire in 1593 at the
battle known as "The Passage of the Erne at Belleek". After this
engagement, O'Neill withdrew his support for the English, expressing
several grievances to commissioners sent by Elizabeth I. One of his
complaints was the absence of proper recognition for his support for the
English Crown. The replacement of the Viceroy and a limit upon actions
that could be taken against him, by his estranged English brother in law
Bagenal among others, indicate that Elizabeth had considered his
grievances favorably. The English were left with the impression that
O'Neill was still loyal to the English Crown.
In June of 1594, a soon to be ally of O'Neill, Hugh O'Donnell,
ambushed and defeated an English relief column on the road to Ennniskillen
at in a battle known as 'The Ford of the Biscuits". O'Neill was not
present, but his brother Cormac was, along with 300 musketeers and 100
horse. In February of 1595 his other brother, Art MacBaron, participated
in the successful attack on an English fort at the ford of the Black
River. It remains to be determined if O'Neill was supporting his brothers,
as he remained aloof from the actions taken against the English.
With the introduction of a new Viceroy, the English stepped up their
efforts to end the on again off again resistance they were experience in
their efforts to establish and supply English outposts on the edge of the
Pale. The English increased the number of forces in Ireland. True to form,
each of the three separate English armies were commanded by independent
commanders unable or unwilling to support each other.
O'Neill allied himself with Hugh O'Donnell, whose power base lay in
Connaught and who was already out in rebellion. Tyrone's active role
started with the investment of Monaghan Castle. O'Neill's brother in law,
Bagenal, was able to supply the garrison of the castle, but was forced to
contend with ambushes along his route of march. As Bagenal was leaving, en
route to Newry, he was met by O'Neill at Clontibret who fought the column
to a standstill with ambushes and harassing fire until sunset. The Irish
demonstrated no attachment to castle or town and were perfectly willing to
raze either in order to retain operational mobility and not tie down
forces to defend them from the English. An English raid that destroyed
Dungannon in August 1595, O'Neill's own castle had no effect on the Irish.
In September of 1595 O'Neill sued for peace and pardon. The English
at the time were at their most vulnerable but O'Neill may have had some
appreciation for the inability of the Irish to defeat the English
militarily and the fragile nature of his alliance. He used 1596 and 1597
to stall the English, increase his efforts to get Spanish military support
and to convince Irish leaders to join him or replace those who would not.
O'Neill was executing a foreign policy of sorts in that he was
appealing to Catholic Spain for aid against the Protestant English, using
the restoration of the Catholic Church in Ireland as a basis for the
request for troops and equipment. Despite his best efforts, Scots
mercenaries were not forthcoming, but weapons were, purchased in England
and Scotland.
O'Neill had also begun a considerable modernization effort that
continued throughout his rebellion, converting Kern to musket and caliver
formations and converting some Gallowglas to pike formations as well as
providing the requisite training and fielding the equipment necessary for
the transition. Throughout this modernization initiative, O'Neill retained
the flexibility to fight his army in the more traditional manner of
fighting the English in Ireland, using hit and run tactics and ambushes
against English formations moving across the Irish countryside. His
modernization effort made it possible for him to at least retain the
option of meeting the English on the field as equals, given enough time
and training.
The interlude of peace ended in July 1597. The new Viceroy, one Lord
Brough, was on the offensive again and was met by O'Neill at the ford over
the Blackwater River. He overcame the 40 Irish defenders in a small
sconce, or fort, there with 1,000 men and proceeded to occupy the fort to
cover the approaches to the ford. Brough lacked the forces or the will to
carry the fight into Ulster and so remained in place. Bagenal conducted a
raid into Ulster burning Dungannon but accomplishing little else.
At Christmas of 1597 O'Neill met with Elizabeth's commissioners and
in return for peace demanded a pardon, return of property of for his
followers Liberty of Conscience, withdrawal of all English garrisons and
Palatinate status for his holdings. Had the English agreed to that, it
would have established a separate and independent Irish Kingdom with
O'Neill as its ruler. The English did not agree to his terms and so both
sides waited for summer to renew hostilities.
By the summer of 1598, O'Neill was prepared to move again, invested
the Blackwater Fort and waited for the English to come to the garrison's
rescue. O'Neill met his former brother in law and old nemesis at the
Yellow Ford. Bagenal's route of march went from Armagh on a narrow road
through the Yellow Ford and from there to the fort on the Blackwater
River. The engagement began when Bagenal's lead element reached a trench
dug by the Irish across his route of march. Simultaneous attacks occurred
on the lead element and trail elements with the center element raked by
fire along its flanks. The English army disintegrated and fled the field
after approximately an hour and a half with ¾ of the army dead or missing
and Bagenal dead. The town of Parma was returned to O'Neill and the
English abandoned the fort at Black Water.
O'Neill's victory caused the Irish in all four provinces to rise up
against the English. Even Munster, which had been put to fire and sword
after the earlier Desmond uprising, was no longer safe for Englishmen.
English refugees began gathering in walled cities and fleeing Ireland for
England. Congratulations, as well as the possibility of support, came from
Spain and the Pope in Rome. O'Neill began a "scorched earth" effort in
preparation for an English attempt to retake previously held areas of
Ireland.
Elizabeth I accurately assessed the challenge England was facing and
sent the largest force to date under the command of the Earl of Essex to
put down O'Neill's uprising and to pacify Ireland. Essex moved south into
Munster depleting his force by garrisoning towns along his route of march
and failing to adequately feed his sick and starving army made up of
inexperienced English conscripts. Essex did fight a brief engagement at
the Pass of the Plumes in which he remained on the field of battle as the
Irish fled and took Cahir Castle. Elizabeth grew impatient at the cost and
lack of results of his campaign. When Essex finally turned north to fight
O'Neill, he met him face to face, established a truce and departed for
England never to return. O'Neill attempted to negotiate a peace from the
truce asking England to recognize, in effect, a Catholic Kingdom of
Ireland, with him as its ruler. Once again, the English refused to agree
to such terms.
In the spring of 1600 O'Neill faced Lord Montjoy who, by
establishing a base of operations in the north west corner of Ireland
under the control of Sir Henry Dowcra as well as sending Lord Carew south
into Munster, began to threaten the alliance upon which the rebellion was
based. Some of O'Neills more faint of heart followers began defecting to
the English which led to an encirclement and an ever shrinking perimeter
of land and towns he controlled in Tyrone. Montjoy, unlike his
predecessors kept his forces in the field year round putting O'Neill under
considerably more pressure than he was accustomed to. He also insured the
harvest of 1600 did not take place, nor the planting of 1601.
In the summer of 1600 a Spanish force landed on the southwest corner
of Ireland at Kinsale. It is only possible to speculate as to why they
landed so far away from Tyrone. Among the possible reasons were efforts by
rebel leaders in Munster to have their position bolstered by the Spanish
presence or that Kinsale was seen as a staging area for an invasion of
England. In either case, O'Neill had to choose whether or when to leave
his base of operations in Tyrone to move south to support the Spanish
force. This was a difficult decision due to the fragile nature of his
alliance making it likely that he might lose Tyrone upon his departure.
Montjoy moved on Kinsale and invested it with little difficulty due
to the Spanish failure to move out of Kinsale into the surrounding
countryside. As Montjoy was surrounding Kinsale, O'Neill conducted several
raids into the Pale probably in an effort to force Montjoy or Carew to
focus on him and lift the siege of Kinsale. Montjoy refused to be
distracted and let the Pale burn. By November, O'Neill and his long term
ally O'Donnell, began to move south in two columns to relieve the Spanish.
Both columns managed to outmaneuver an effort by Carew to impede their
progress south.
On Christmas Eve, 1601, after consolidating all his forces in front
of Kinsale, O'Neill marched his forces onto the field in a three tercio
formation of musket and pike. The English, under leaders far more
experienced and soldiers more trained at this mode of traditional European
warfare were able to outmaneuver the Irish formations and routed them from
the field. The Spanish did not support the Irish with any attempt to
breakout of Kinsale permitting the English to bring the majority of their
forces to bear on O'Neill's forces in the battle and the follow on pursuit
of the broken Irish formations. O'Neill fled and made his way north back
to Tyrone.
The battle of Kinsale in effect ended the rebellion even though
O'Neill spent a year in hiding before making his submission to the
English. During that year the English had taken control of all of Ireland.
O'Neill's submission was accepted on the 24th of March, 1603 the day after
Elizabeth I died. He remained in Ireland, stripped of his earldom and the
title of "The O'Neill" until 17 September, 1607 when he fled Ireland with
his fellow former Irish leaders, in an event called the "Flight of the
Earls." Those not of noble blood stayed behind to feel the full wrath of
the English, not to rise up again until 1636.
Throughout the rebellion, the English were limited by terrain to
only three avenues of approach out of the Pale to invade Ulster and
Connaught. Initially the English sought to control the terrain by
establishing a series of outposts along these routes. All but one of the
major battles fought during the rebellion were fought on these routes. At
Clonbriet, Blackwater Ford and Yellow Ford the Irish forces positioned
themselves between an English garrison and a relieving or resupplying
force. This gave the Irish the ability to chose the terrain upon which
battles would take place, taking maximum advantage of their knowledge of
the countryside. These battles can be described best as "running battles",
with the Irish engaging English columns from the flanks and from prepared
positions to the column's front. As the English would respond, the Irish
would, if necessary to preserve combat power, withdraw in an orderly
fashion to another position. In this manner the English seeking to
resupply garrisons were forced to pay a high cost in manpower, lead and
powder, all of which were is short supply and only replaceable across long
supply lines reaching back to England. It was not until Montjoy bypassed
these routes into Ulster and Connaught by landing on the northwest coast,
sending Carew into Munster and keeping forces in the Pale that the English
were able to break the stalemate the Irish were able to use to their
advantage so successfully. Kinsale, the last battle of the uprising, found
O'Neill attempting to meet the English on an open field. It is very likely
that the battle was lost as a result of this first and only attempt to
meet the English forces on an open field on English terms.
A Brief Summary of Irish Military Organization in the 16th century
The highest office held by an Irishman outside those parts of Ireland
occupied by the English in the 16th century was the usually hereditary
Ceannfine or Chief of a Tuath (a tribal area occupying as much as 400
square miles). Below him was his Tanist or the heir to the Ceannfine. Next
in the hierarchy came the Urraigha, or sub-chiefs.
The Urraigha were responsible for supporting the Ceannfine if called
upon, in a Gairmsluaigh ("calling out") with all free men who were not
Clergy, poets, harpers, physicians, scholars or lawyers. These were
Cernagh, a term anglicized to Kern. They were expected to report with all
weapons and three days worth of victuals. By mid 16th century those who
were not free were also pressed into service. These were part time
soldiers who augmented full time professional military men.
The full time military in 16th century Ireland were called
Buannadha, a term Anglicized to Buannacht or billeted men. They were paid
"coyne and livery" which were their wages, or "coyne" and care for their
horses if they owned any, or "livery."
In a Ceannfine or Urraigh household it was possible to find both
Cernagh and Galloglaich, a term anglicized to gallowglas, which means
foreign warrior. The Galloglaich were mercenaries from families originally
from the Western Isles and the western coast of Scotland that had been a
military presence in Ireland since the 12th century.
The Cernagh were typically armed with knife, sword, bow or darts
transitioning over time to musket and caliver. They served as scouts and
skirmishers. The Cernagh also served as cavalry, riding stirrup-less
saddles and using lances in an overhand manner making them well suited for
reconnaissance but unable to meet English cavalry in a stand up fight. The
Galloglaich were typically armed with two-handed swords and or lochaber or
sparth axes with some serving in pike formations as the 16th century
progressed. There can be little doubt that there were no hard and fast
rules concerning armament of these two groups. Each pair of Cernagh were
entitled to a servant to help carry equipment. Each Galloglaich or mounted
Cernagh was entitled to a pair of servants or "horse boys" to help carry
equipment. The servants were armed with javelins or bows and expected to
join their masters in battle.
As the 16th century progressed, there were numerous Cernagh who
became musketeers and calivermen while some of the Galloglaich migrated to
the small number of pike used by the Irish. Firearms were of more value
than pike in the hit and run tactics favored by the Irish against the
English. ONeill, during his rebellion against the English crown, fostered
this process of modernization.
Another group appeared in Ireland in the late 16th century. They
were the "New Scots" who, unlike their predecessors chose not to settle,
but served in Irish armies and returned to Scotland. They were employed as
horse or foot.
The buannadha were organized into corrughadh, called a company or
battle by the English and commanded by a consapal or captain. This was
further divided into spars in the case of the Galloglaich, which consisted
of one Galloglaich and two servants. A Galloglaich Corrughadh would
usually consist of 60 to 80 Galloglaich with the consapal permitted to
draw pay for an even 100; the difference being called "dead pays" and the
source of the consapal's pay. Pay for Galloglaich was set at one bullock
per quarter as pay and two for sustenance. The Cernagh received one heifer
per quarter and victuals.
The importance of the cattle herd roaming Ireland called creaghts
cannot be over emphasized, as they provided the requisite augmentation to
the field rations of oatmeal and whiskey needed to keep the army combat
ready. Irish formations on the move would coordinate in advance a link up
with one of these creaghts and boil the meat in its own hide, saving the
army the need to carry cook pots.
Sources:
- "The Irish Wars" by Ian Heath and David Sque
- "Elizabeth's Irish Wars" by Cyril Falls.
- "Ireland in the Age of the Tudors, 1447-1603" by Steven G. Ellis.