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Tyrone and O'Donnell arrive on the scene
- A Night Attack on the English determined - Treachery in the Irish Camp
- The Irish taken unawares - Total Rout and Defeat of the Northerners -
O'Donnell sails for Spain - Tyrone returns to Ulster - Kinsale evacuated
by the Spaniards - Don Juan de Aguila returns to Spain.
"Hope deferred maketh the heart sick",
and sick indeed was the heart of Don Juan de Aguila, who day after day
looked in vain for the approach of his Irish allies. Early in November
Tyrone began his southward march, and, tarrying on his way to plunder
Meath, at length arrived, and on the 21st of December showed himself,
with all his forces, on a hill to the north of Kinsale, at a place
called Belgoley, about a mile from the English camp. "O'Donnell," said
Fenton, "and Tyrone following after, used all the means they could to
work the royalists to their side, but have reduced none of reckoning,
for anything yet discovered: only they both made havoc of some
countries, as a revenge to the loyalists that refused to rise with
them." The only allies gained by Tyrone in Munster were in West Cork and
Kerry, and they did not declare themselves until the Spanish
reinforcements arrived at Castlehaven. Tyrone had with him MacMahon,
Maguire, Randal MacSorley MacDonnell, and some of the O'Conors and
Burkes, but his chief reliance was placed upon Captain Richard Tyrrell
and his mercenaries. His own division must have been under 4000 men,
seeing that with O'Donnell's 2500, O'Sullivan Beare's retainers, and the
few others whom the shattered resources of Munster could supply, the
whole Irish army amounted to only 6000 foot and 500 horse, with 300
Spaniards from Castlehaven under Captain Alphonso Ocampo; while the
English force at this time, allowing for losses, must at least have been
10,000 strong.
The position of the English was now
very critical. They were losing great numbers by sickness and desertion,
and were so closely hemmed in between the Irish on one side and the
Spaniards on the other, that they could procure no fodder for the
horses, which it was decided by a council of war held on 23rd of
December should be sent away to Cork. In addition, the troops were
threatened with famine, so that Mountjoy thought seriously of raising
the siege and retiring to Cork for the winter.
On the other hand, the Spaniards in
Kinsale had lost all patience. They had been in error as to the state of
the country, and on their arrival had learned with chagrin that Florence
MacCarthy and the Earl of Desmond were prisoners in London; that the
Catholics of Munster could afford them no active co-operation; and that
a large portion of the army arrayed against them consisted of Catholic
Irish. Their own ships had been sent back to Spain, and the harbour was
blockaded by an English squadron, which cut off all hope of succour from
abroad.
Under these circumstances Don Juan del Aguila wrote pressing letters to
the Irish chiefs, importuning them to come to his assistance without
further delay. He was a brave soldier but a somewhat incompetent
general, and in his ignorance of their real circumstances had conceived
a disgust for, and personal enmity to, the Irish which unfitted him to
act effectively with them. He urged them to attack the English camp on a
certain night, and promised on his side to make a sortie in full force
simultaneously; but when this plan was discussed in the council of the
Irish chiefs it was opposed by Tyrone, who knew full well that with
delay the total destruction of the English army by disease and famine
was certain. O'Donnell, a much younger man, was "oppressed at heart and
ashamed to hear the complaint and distress of the Spaniards without
relieving them", and thought they were in honour bound to meet the
wishes of their allies. The majority being with him, it was decided that
an immediate attack should be made.
The attack might have been successful
had there not been treachery in the Irish camp. Brian MacHugh Oge
MacMahon, one of Tyrone's chief officers, had a son who had been a page
in Carew's service, and on the night of the 22nd of December MacMahon
sent a boy to the English camp to ask Captain William Taaffe to procure
for him, from the President, a bottle of whisky. The request, for old
acquaintance' sake, was readily granted, and next day MacMahon again
sent the boy with a letter, in which he thanked Carew for his courtesy,
and warned him of the attack which it was decided to make on the English
lines that night. This message, which was confirmed by an intercepted
letter from Don Juan to Tyrone, put Mountjoy on his guard, and, amongst
other precautions against attack, a flying column of about looo men was
kept under arms.
After some dispute about the command
for it appears that Tyrone and O'Donnell were not at all in accord on
this illconcerted enterprise the Irish army, on the night of the 23rd of
December, set out under cover of the darkness in three divisions. "The
chiefs", say the Irish Annalists, "were at variance, each of them
contending that he himself should go foremost in the night's attack, so
that they set out from their camp in three strong battalions, shoulder
to shoulder, and elbow to elbow." O'Neill with the Kinel-Owen and others
were in a strong battalion apart; O'Donnell, with the Kinel-Connell, his
sub-chieftains, and the Connaught men in general formed the second
battalion; those gentlemen of Munster, Leinster, and Meath, with their
forces, who had risen up in the confederacy of the Irish war, and who
had been in banishment in Ulster during the preceding part of this year,
were in the third.
The darkness of the winter night was
broken by frequent flashes of lightning; but this fitful light only
rendered the course to be taken more doubtful. The guides missed their
way, and, after wandering about all night, Tyrone, at day- break,
accompanied by O'Sullivan and Ocampo, ascended a little hill and saw the
English entrenchments close at hand, with the men under arms, the
cavalry mounted and in advance of their quarters, and all in readiness
for battle. His own men were at this time in the utmost disorder, and
O'Donnell's division was at a considerable distance. Under these
circumstances it was determined that the attack should be postponed.
Tyrone drew off his horse to re-form them, and the foot, supposing him
to be flying, began on all sides to waver. At this moment O'Donnell came
up and made the confusion greater still. The Earl of Clanrickard, who
was lashed up to a pitch of wild enthusiasm, implored Wingfield not to
lose the opportunity, and in a moment the English cavalry poured out
upon the broken masses of Irish, charging them in their disordered state
and creating a scene of frightful carnage and confusion, and the
retreat, which had actually commenced before the charge, was soon turned
into a total rout. Tyrrell and Ocampo's Spaniards made a gallant stand;
but the Spanish commander was taken prisoner, and most of his men were
cut to pieces. O'Donnell's division came at length into the field, and
repulsed a wing of the English cavalry; but the panic became general,
and in vain did Red Hugh strain his lungs to rally the flying multitude.
Tyrone acted with all his wonted bravery, but all his efforts were
fruitless, for the ground, being open and flat, left no scope for his
usual tactics. "All", says O'Sullivan, "were seized with panic terror,
or rather routed by divine vengeance." The Irish lost something like
2000 men, while the loss of the English was very trifling. "The Earl of
Clanrickard", says Mountjoy, "had many fair escapes, being shot through
his garments, and no man did bloody his sword more than his lordship
that day, and with his own hand he killed above twenty Irish kerne, and
cried out to spare no rebel." The pursuit continued for two miles, and
was only abandoned owing to the weary condition of the half-starved
horses.
The night after their defeat the Irish
halted at Inishannon, near Bandon, and no further attempt was made to
relieve Kinsale. "There prevailed", say the Annalists, "much reproach on
reproach, moaning and dejection, melancholy and anguish, in every
quarter throughout the camp. They slept not soundly, and scarcely did
they take any refreshment." Tyrone especially was plunged in the deepest
dejection. He was already advanced in years, and now seemed to have
abandoned all hope of retrieving his lost fortune.
Next day it was resolved that
O'Donnell should go to Spain to explain the position to Philip, and that
the Ulster chiefs should return home. O'Donnell, who knew well that the
reception of the broken columns on their homeward march would be very
different to that experienced in marching south, when "it was roses,
roses, all the way", urged that the whole army should remain in the
south until he brought reinforcements from Spain. But the Irish, true to
their tribal traditions, broke up into small companies, and, each sept
under its individual chief, struggled homewards. The reception they got
was what O'Donnell foretold, for, "they which did kiss them in their
going forward, did both strip them, and shoot bullets at them on their
return, and for their arms they did drown them and tread them down in
every bog and soft place". The straggling army killed their horses for
food, the wretched animals being themselves half-starved. It is computed
that at least 3000 men and 500 horses were lost on this homeward march.
In the meantime Don Juan, after some
fruitless sallies, sent proposals of capitulation, which were accepted
by Mountjoy. They were very honourable to the Spaniards, who evacuated
Kinsale with their colours flying, and it was agreed that they were to
be conveyed back to Spain on giving up their other garrisons of Dunboy,
Baltimore, and Castlehaven. Don Juan declared that he felt himself
absolved from all engagements to the Irish. "Noster Rex Philippus",
he said, "had sent him to co-operate with the Condees O'Neill and
O'Donnell, who had long delayed their coming; and when they did come
they were shamefully defeated by a handful of men" (Carew had said: "A
troop of women might have beaten Tyrone's army"), and "blown asunder
into divers parts of the world, so as now I find no such Condees in
rerum naturd (for those were the very words he used) as I came to
join withal, and therefore have moved this accord the rather to
disengage the King, my master, from assisting a people so unable in
themselves that the whole burden of the war must lie upon him, and so
perfidious as perhaps might be induced in requital of his favour at last
to betray him."
The siege of Kinsale, which, save that
of Londonderry, is the most important in Irish history, had lasted for
more than ten weeks, and in it the Spaniards lost about looomen; while
the loss of the English, by war and by disease, must have been at least
4000 men. Don Juan's chivalry was of the Quixotic kind. He challenged
Mountjoy to settle by single combat the questions at issue, but the
offer was, of course, rejected. After the surrender of Kinsale an
intimate friendship sprang up between him and Sir George Carew, to whom
he presented, as a keepsake, a treatise on fortifications.
The Irish, for whom Don Juan expressed
contempt, believed him to be guilty of perfidy or cowardice; and
O'Sullivan Beare, acting under this impression, contrived to recover
possession of his own Castle of Dunboy, by causing a breach to be made
in the wall, and entering it with eighty men, at dead of night, while
the Spanish garrison were asleep, and then declaring that he held it for
the King of Spain, to whom he had formally transferred his allegiance.
He wrote an eloquent letter to Philip, begging for help; and if help
could not be given, then he asked that means might at least be provided
to carry his family and himself to Spain. Don Juan was enraged when he
heard of this proceeding, which he considered a violation of the
capitulation, and offered to go himself to dispossess O'Sullivan ; but
Mountjoy was more desirous for his departure than for his assistance,
and the Spaniards re- embarked for their own country, some on the 2Oth
of February, and the remainder, with Don Juan, on the i6th of March. Don
Juan, on landing in Spain, was placed under arrest, and died of grief.
The news of the victory at Kinsale was
conveyed to London by Sir Henry Danvers, and most gracious thanks were
sent by the Queen to all concerned, more especially to the Lord Deputy,
the Lord President of Munster, and to the Earls of Thomond and
Clanrickard. The first news, however, which was unofficial, was brought
by that remarkable man, Richard Boyle, afterwards Earl of Cork, who gave
in after years the following account of his trip: "I left my Lord
President'*, he said, "at Shandon Castle, near Cork, on Monday morning
about two of the clock, and the next day delivered my packet, and supped
with Sir Robert Cecil, being then principal Secretary, at his house in
the Strand; who, after supper, held me in discourse till two of the
clock in the morning, and by seven that morning called upon me to attend
him to the Court, where he presented me to Her Majesty in her
bedchamber, who remembered me, calling me by name, and giving me her
hand to kiss, telling me that she was glad that I was the happy man to
bring the first news of the glorious victory. And after her Majesty had
interrogated with me upon sundry questions very punctually, and that
therein I gave her full satisfaction in every particular, she gave me
again her hand to kiss, and commanded my despatch for Ireland, and so
dismissed me with great grace and favour."
The Queen was much relieved that the
war was at an end. The loss of men and money had weighed heavily upon
her. Now, in order "to save the blood of her subjects, dearer to her
than revenge or glory", she even proposed to allow Tyrone to come to
terms, though she felt that it was "waste of time, and that there was no
" other way with the arch-traitor than the plain way of perdition ".
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