The siege of Kinsale (Irish: Léigear Chionn tSáile), also known as the battle of Kinsale, was the ultimate battle in England's conquest of Gaelic Ireland, commencing in October 1601, near the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and at the climax of the Nine Years' War—a campaign by Hugh O'Neill, Hugh Roe O'Donnell and other Irish lords against English rule.
Owing to Spanish involvement and the strategic advantages to be gained, the battle also formed part of the Anglo-Spanish War, the wider conflict of Protestant England against Catholic Spain.
Background
Ireland had been claimed as a lordship by the English Crown since 1175 but had never been fully subjected to English rule. By the 1350s, England's sphere of influence had shrunk to the Pale, the area around Dublin, with the rest of the country under the rule of Gaelic lords. The Tudor monarchs, beginning with Henry VIII, attempted to reassert their authority in Ireland with a policy of conquest and colonisation. In 1594, forces in Ulster under the previously loyal Earl of Tyrone, Hugh O'Neill, rebelled. Hugh Roe O'Donnell and Hugh Maguire joined Tyrone's rebellion. A string of battlefield victories from 1593 to 1599, and an expansion of the war from Ulster through the midlands and into Munster, had wrested control of most of the island from the English Crown. By the end of 1599, the English controlled little beyond the walled towns and regional garrisons.
Following the failure of the Spanish Armada in 1588, Philip II decided to take advantage of the Irish rebels in order to create a new front in the war against England. Spanish aid was offered to the Irish rebels in the expectation that tying the English down in Ireland might draw English resources away from their allies in the Netherlands, the Dutch Estates, which were engaged in a long rebellion against Spanish rule, and provide another base for privateers, such as the Dunkirkers, to disrupt English and Dutch shipping. The 2nd Spanish Armada aimed at supporting the rebels, but it was smashed by storms off Cape Finisterre in October 1596. The ill Philip sent forth another armada the following year, but this too failed due to storms, bad luck and bad planning.
Spanish landing
After Philip II's death, Philip III continued to provide direct support (material support had been sent for years) to the Irish rebels fighting England. In 1601, Philip sent Don Juan del Águila and Don Diego Brochero to Ireland with 6,000 men and a significant amount of arms and ammunition. Bad weather separated the ships and nine of them, carrying the majority of the veteran soldiers and gunpowder, had to turn back. The remaining 4,000 men disembarked at Kinsale, just south of Cork, on 2 October 1601. Another force commanded by Alonso de Ocampo managed to land at Baltimore. The Spaniards rushed to fortify these footholds to withstand the approaching English armies.
Though the Spanish army had secured the town of Kinsale, they failed to expand their base into the surrounding region and were vulnerable to becoming besieged by English forces. On hearing of the Spanish landing, Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, the assigned Lord Deputy of Ireland, weakened the garrisons around the Pale and rushed to Kinsale with as many men as he could take.
Siege
On 2 October, Mountjoy laid siege to Kinsale and reinforcements were brought in through Oysterhaven, bringing the army's numbers up to 12,000. This included a large force under Irish nobleman Donogh O'Brien, 4th Earl of Thomond. However many of these were Irish levies, and many were not suited to siege warfare, especially in winter. Many fell ill, leaving about 7,500 capable of fighting.
Tyrone and O'Donnell's march
At the same time, the Gaelic Earls O'Neill and his ally O'Donnell considered their positions. Their difficulty was that the Spanish had landed on the south coast of Ireland, far away from the areas under control of the Irish chieftains. In order to bring aid to the Spanish troops they would have to lead their troops into regions where support for their cause was doubtful. They hesitated for weeks as autumn turned into a particularly wet and stormy winter. The besieged Spanish garrison began to suffer from the lack of supplies and privation, and O'Neill was forced to go to their aid. He fully understood that should this first Spanish force suffer defeat, he would be unlikely to receive further military help. The decision of the Spanish to land at Kinsale forced O'Neill to agree with his more impetuous ally, Red Hugh O'Donnell, to abandon his hitherto successful guerilla tactics and risk open confrontation. A large force would be necessary; larger than they could afford to lose. They set out on a 300-mile (480 km) winter march, separately to ease supply, O'Neill with 2500 foot and 500 horse and O'Donnell with 1500 foot and 300 horse. After a few deceptions and some hard marching in hazardous conditions, the two forces rendezvoused and encamped at Kinalmeaky to rest and provision the army where they were joined by additional forces from Leinster and Munster.
At the time of the Spanish landing, there were only two English ships on the Irish station to give assistance to Mountjoy. They arrived after the Spanish shipping had left. They were Tremontana under Captain Charles Plessington and Moon under Captain Thomas Button.
Seizure of outer defences
At the end of October, a number of cannon was sent by Mountjoy to bombard Ringcurran fort. The guns from the English siege works pounded the small fort. Don Pedro de Heredia, the Spanish commander, turned down a request for its surrender. The bombardment resumed and this time, with the guns of Captain Button's Moon, a breach was opened. The small number of Irish soldiers fled, fearing for their lives—Heredia decided it was best to flee too, with some fifty Spaniards. However, an English patrol spotted them, and most surrendered. In the meantime a Spanish force from Kinsale itself attempted to relieve the garrison. Lieutenant-colonel Francis Roe, with a hundred men, became heavily engaged in skirmishes with a force twice his number. Roe's commanding officer Sir Oliver St John, seeing that Spanish pikemen were preparing to charge, personally led thirty musketmen to reinforce Roe, and the Spanish were driven into retreat. Ringcurran fell soon after—Captain Paez de Clavijo, with 86 Spanish prisoners, agreed to surrender, leaving the besieged without any access to the sea. The prisoners were sent to Cork.
Carew had reached the English camp by the 15 November with 1,000 men and 250 horse. Two days later, Castle Ny-Parke, which guarded the harbour entrance, was the next English target. An assault using a wooden siege engine failed when it collapsed before the fort, and the English retreated. Águila attempted to relieve the fort but a small force of Spaniards in boats was repelled by English naval gunfire. Two days later the fort was taken in an assault by English troops, led by Sir Richard Smyth, after a breach had been made in the defences. All 33 men were either killed, wounded or captured. With this higher ground seized, they subjected the Spanish forces to constant artillery fire.
English blockade and reinforcements
Leveson meanwhile had to wait a further week before he got under way. They did not arrive until 12 November; the English ships then formed a tight blockade of Kinsale harbour. Mountjoy, however, was not very impressed by what he saw, protesting that only one in ten of the troops could shoot a gun.
The English cavalry rode through the surrounding countryside, destroying livestock and crops, while both sides called for allegiance from the population. O'Neill and O'Donnell were hesitant about leaving Ulster vulnerable to attack by marching south, especially given the lack of supplies for their troops. When they set out, they successfully cut English supply lines across the island and, by December, the shortage of supplies and the severe weather had begun to take a toll on the besieging English army, with many dying of dysentery and fever.
Battle of Kinsale
Initial moves
Reinforcements arrived from Spain at Castlehaven, and on 24 December 1601 (English date, 3 January 1602 for the Catholic Irish and Spanish armies) moved into position at Coolcarron about three miles from the English camp. At about midnight the Irish, in two columns, led by Hugh O'Neill and O'Donnell, set out from their camp at Coolcarron and marched for the ridgeline at Ardmartin overlooking the English encampment. The English scouts of Sir Richard Greames' horse, on outpost that night, were supposedly made aware of these movements when they observed the lit match of the Irish arquebusiers in the gloomy pre-dawn moving into position on Ardmartin. Mountjoy, being immediately made aware of the intelligence that the Irish were within three quarters of a mile of his camp, beat to arms and sent the Marshal Sir Richard Wingfield to further appraise the situation; Wingfield quickly returned to confirm the message. Mountjoy meantime organized his troops to defend the main and lesser camps. However, the situation was dire for the English, as desertion, sickness and casualties had reduced the besieging army by nearly 50%. The great camp on the Northside was entrusted to the command of Colonel Sir Benjamin Berry with five regiments of foot, the Lord Deputy's (715 men) of whom he was Lieutenant Colonel, the Lord President's (536 men), the Earl of Clanrickard's (529 men), Lord Audley's (370 men) and Colonel Sir Richard Moryson's (541). The lesser camp was commanded by the Earl of Thomond with his own regiment (572 men) and three others, Colonel Sir Richard Percy (544 men), Colonel Sir Charles Wilmot (454 men) and Colonel Sir Christopher Laurence (747 men). Mountjoy, satisfied that his camps were protected as best they could be, led his remaining forces to the northwest to meet the Irish.
The Irish force that arrived at Ardmartin in the pre-dawn consisted of over 6,000 men in two columns: 400 Leinster men under Richard Tyrrell, 1,000 Munstermen, 159 Spaniards in five companies of foot, 2500 foot and 500 light horse under O'Neill and 1500 foot and 300 light horse under O'Donnell. Many accounts speak of three battles; the vanguard, the center, and the rearguard, but it would seem that a small flying squadron (559 men) was formed from a part of O'Neill's column consisting of Tyrrell's Leinstermen and the Spanish foot. As Mountjoy left camp in the company of Carew, the Lord President, all that was immediately available to the English were the remaining 400 horse of the severely depleted cavalry, approximately nine troops in total. These mounted men along with Sir Henry Power's flying squadron (449 men) had been sent under the command of Wingfield to observe the movements of the Irish and ascertain their intentions. Power's flying squadron was an ad-hoc regiment created by combining about 40 men from each of the eleven regiments making up the siege force. These troops had been used for the outposts and had been on duty the last three nights on constant alert to any alarms originating from the Irish camp.