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War declared against Tyrone
- Siege of Ballyshanwon Siege of Blackwater Fort - Death of Lord Burgh -
Death of Sir John Norris - O'Donnell's Depredations in Connaught - Trouble
at Carrickfergus - Belfast taken by Shane MacBrian O'Neill - James
MacSorley, son of Sorley Boy, and his brother Randal - Sir John Chichester
killed - The Council appoint Sir Thomas Norris - The Queen appoints Lord
Ormonde Lieutenant-General - Tyrone submits.
War was now declared. Lord
Burgh ordered a great muster of forces at Drogheda on the 2oth of July,
and, marching at their head, crossed the Blackwater without opposition.
Tyrone, with 800 foot and 80 horse, had, a little earlier, been encamped
between Newry and Armagh, when Captain Turner attacked him suddenly, and
so surprised the Earl that he was obliged to make his escape on foot
through a bog, in doing which he lost his hat; whereupon Turner dryly
remarked: "I trust it presages his head against the next time". When Burgh
reached the famous ford over the Blackwater he also determined to surprise
the enemy, and, selecting 1200 foot and 300 horse, he started at sunrise
and at once undertook the passage. His men hesitated, but despite his
ill-health, he gallantly led them on, and they pushed forward. The
defenders, dismayed at the audacity displayed by the English, fled, and
Tyrone in wrath hanged some score of them.
There is no doubt that this
signal victory was the result of Burgh's personal courage, and was due
solely to his cheery lead. A wary watch was kept for a reprisal, and a
sudden attack made by Tyrone was, being thus anticipated, defeated. There
were, however, many volunteers in Burgh's army, and many who were merely u
playing at soldiers", with the result, when Tyrone came down "like a wolf
on the fold", several casualties occurred, Captain Turner being killed,
and also Sir Francis Vaughan, Burgh's brother-in-law. Two of his nephews
were wounded, and the losses heavy. Burgh, with indomitable courage,
rushed to the rescue, rallied his forces, and saved the situation,
defeating the Irish and changing defeat to victory. He had been accused of
rashness and foolhardiness in the Netherlands, and anticipated criticism
by saying: "I have not that wherein my Lord of Essex is and all generals
be in a journey happy, scarcely any of such understanding as to do what
they be bidden; as he hath many: When I direct, for want of others I must
execute".
The Lord Deputy had
directed Sir Conyers Clifford, who had succeeded Bingham as Governor of
Connaught, to make a simultaneous movement against O'Donnell, and
accordingly the loyalist forces of Connaught assembled on the 24th of July
at the monastery of Boyle. They marched to Sligo, and thence to the Erne,
which, after some hard fighting, they crossed at the ford of Ath-cul-uain,
about half a mile west of Belleek. Murrough O'Brien, Baron of Inchiquin,
was shot by the Irish while half across the ford, the bullet passing under
one arm and out at the other. He fell from his horse and perished in the
waters.
Clifford, having obtained
some cannon by sea from Galway, laid siege to the castle of Ballyshannon,
which was defended with great bravery for O'Donnell by Hugh Crawford, a
Scot, with eighty soldiers, of whom some were Spaniards and the rest
Irish. An incessant fire was kept up on the castle for three days, and,
under the shelter of a testudo, an attempt was made to sap the walls; but
the beams and rocks hurled from the battlements by the defenders
demolished the works of the assailants, and O'Donnell, arriving with a
considerable force, besieged the Queen's forces in their own camp.
At the dawn of day on the
i5th of August, Clifford noiselessly recrossed the Erne at a ford
immediately above the cataract of Assaroe, over which several of his men
were washed by the impetuosity of the torrent and drowned. O'Donnell,
regretting the carelessness which suffered the enemy to escape, pursued
Clifford across the river, his men and he not even stopping to put their
clothes on; but Clifford reached Drumcliff in Sligo without much further
loss. The English had no powder and were completely outnumbered, but
torrents of rain fell and wetted the ammunition of the Irish. The royal
army in retreating abandoned three pieces of ordnance and a large quantity
of stores. Maguire and O'Rourke were both with O'Donnell in this affair.
Clifford marched on foot in the rear. He was disgusted with this
semi-barbarous method of warfare, and begged to be transferred to take
part in some other war without delay.
The Irish naturally were
elated at so signal a success. Tyrone laid siege to the new Blackwater
fort, but in storming it by the aid of scaling ladders which proved to be
too short he lost thirty of his men, and then resolved to starve the
garrison into submission, and Captain Williams and his men had a hard
time. The storming party were picked soldiers, who first received the
Sacrament, and were sworn not to abandon their task till they had carried
the fort, but they lost all their ladders and about 400 men were either
wounded or killed. Burgh, on the news reaching him at Dublin, at once
marched to the relief of the beleaguered garrison, and reached Armagh
without opposition. He succeeded in raising the siege and throwing in
relief both in men and provisions.
Burgh, who was a martyr to
swollen legs, was taken suddenly ill, and after victualling and relieving
Blackwater he had to be carried in a litter to Armagh. From Armagh he was
carried to Newry, where, realizing the seriousness of his illness, he made
a will in the presence, amongst others, of John Dymmok, author of a
well-known treatise on Ireland. He named Bagenal and Cecil as executors,
and left all he possessed to his wife, Lady Frances, for whom and for his
children he prayed the Queen's protection, "myself having spent my
patrimony and ended my days in her service". This will was unsigned, for
Burgh's strength failed as the concluding sentence which he had dictated
was being put on paper. He died I3th of October, 1597. Bagenal, being on
the spot, had in his capacity as executor to arrange for a funeral. He was
somewhat perplexed as to what he should do, matters being somewhat
complicated by Burgh's servants decamping.
The Queen, by the death of
Lord Burgh, lost an able and faithful servant. She had already lost
another. Sir John Norris retired to his province of Munster, which he
reported to be in a very poor state of defence. Elizabeth could not spare
the money needed, and as there was no immediate risk of hostilities on the
part of Spain, Norris begged leave to recruit his health, at the same time
stating that he was willing to remain at his post if his presence was
required. He forwarded to Burgh, unopened, a letter he had received from
Tyrone, and urged that the rebel should be well pressed during the summer,
and added: "I am not envious though others shall reap the fruits of my
travail, an ordinary fortune of mine". He died on 9th of September, 1597
of gangrene, which supervened the unskilful treatment of old and neglected
wounds.
Meanwhile O'Donnell
plundered the lands of O'Conor Roe, who had joined the English party, and
this produced some jealousy between O'Donnell and O'Rourke, who was
friendly to O'Conor. Hugh Maguire and Cormac, brother of Tyrone, entered
Westmeath and sacked and burned Mullingar. Theobald, son of Walter Kittagh
Burke, retook the territory of MacWilliam and plundered the Owles or
O'Malley's country. Tyrrell, at the head of the Leinster insurgents,
devastated Ormonde and cut to pieces a large body of the royal troops at
Maryborough; in short the country was almost wholly in the hands of the
Catholics.
At Carrickfergus, which was
an exposed place, there had lately been many bickerings among the
authorities, insomuch that Captain Rice Maunsell, who commanded the
troops, imprisoned Charles Egerton, constable of the castle. One
consequence was that Belfast fell into the hands of Shane MacBrian
O'Neill, who hanged and disembowelled every Englishman found therein.
"Belfast", said Sir John
Chichester, a younger brother of the better-known Sir Arthur, and Governor
of Carrickfergus, "is a place which standeth eight miles from
Carrickfergus, and on the river, where the sea ebbs and flows, so that
boats may be landed within a butte (musket) shot of the said castle; for
the recovery whereof I made choice that it should be one of my first
works; and on the eleventh day of July following attempted the same with
some hundred men, which I transported thither in boats by sea; and indeed
our coming was so unlocked for by them as it asked us no long time before
we took the place, without any loss to us, and put those we found in it to
the sword."
Carrickfergus was soon the
scene of active hostilities. Donnell and Alaster MacDonnell, sons of
Sorley Boy, being dead, the chief of the Irish MacDonnells at this time
was James MacSorley. He had been patronized by King James VI, at whose
Court he was favourably received, and the King had as a special mark of
favour lately knighted him. MacDonnell and his younger brother Randal now
appeared at Carrickfergus, and having demolished their castles at Glenarm
and Red Bay, they concentrated their strength at Dunluce, which they armed
with three guns taken from the Spanish Armada. Chichester's attention
being drawn to their suspicious proceedings, he demanded the surrender of
these guns, especially as he noticed a somewhat super-friendly feeling to
exist between Randal and Tyrone, whose daughter the former eventually
married. The MacDonnells refused to surrender the guns, and Chichester
invited them to a parley to discuss the situation, the immediate cause of
which was a complaint that the brothers had been plundering in Island
Magee.
The MacDonnells, in
response to Chichester's invitation, advanced with about 600 men to within
four miles of Carrickfergus, and the Governor marched with all available
troops to meet them. His men had done some heavy field work of late and
were weary, and their stock of powder was damp. At a council of war held
before they started, Lieutenant Moses Hill offered to surprise the enemy
in their camp if Chichester consented to delay the attack till nightfall.
Captain Merriman, on the contrary, remembering with a glow of pleasure his
own feat in capturing some 50,000 head of MacDonnell cattle, was impatient
and eager to fight, and begged for immediate action. To this Chichester,
when Merriman's plea was backed up by others, willingly consented, and it
was resolved to lose no time.
The MacDonnells, on the
appearance of the royal troops, beat a hasty retreat, but not to any great
distance. They then turned upon Chichester, whom they shot in the shoulder
and the leg, and finally killed with a shot in the head; and in a moment
the pursued became the pursuers, the English horse and foot being driven
in a disorderly rabble back towards the town, their muskets being almost
useless, and despair breaking up their ranks. Maunsell and other officers
fell, and only two seem to have escaped scatheless. Out of a force of
about 300, more than half were killed, and the few survivors either saved
their lives by swimming over into Island Magee, or were, as in the case of
Captain Constable, taken prisoners. The survivors from the battle and the
officers who had remained in reserve selected Egerton as their governor
and prepared for an attack, but MacDonnell preferred to assume the airs of
one aggrieved, who had only fought in self-defence.
When the news of Burgh's
death reached Dublin the Council chose as his successor Sir Thomas Norris,
the President of Munster; but this selection^ which was made much against
his will, was provisional, for a month later the Queen committed the civil
duties of the Government to Archbishop Loftus, who was also Lord
Chancellor, and Sir Robert Gardiner, Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench,
appointing them jointly Lords Justices, and the supreme military
government of the country she gave to Ormonde, with the title of
Lieutenant-General. Norris the Queen ordered back to his own province.
With Ormonde's appointment
fresh negotiations were opened with the recalcitrant Earl of Tyrone, for
it was recognized that the appointment would find favour in Tyrone's eyes.
"You now represent our person," wrote the Queen to Ormonde, "and have to
do with inferior people and base rebels, to whose submission if we in
substance shall be content to condescend, we will look to have the same
implored in such reverend form as becometh our vassals and such heinous
offenders to use, with bended knees and hearts humbled; not as if one
prince did treat with another upon even terms of honour or advantage, in
using words of peace or war, but of rebellion in them, and mercy in us,
for rather than ever it shall appear to the world that in any such sort we
will give way to any of their pride, we will cast off either sense or
feeling of pity or compassion, and upon what price soever prosecute them
to the last hour."
Shortly before Christmas,
1597, the Earls of Ormonde and Thomond, at Tyrone's request, went to
Dundalk, and Tyrone submitted to the Queen's representative. "I do", he
said, "here acknowledge, upon the knees of my heart, that I am sorry for
this my late relapse and defection." There was a three -days' conference,
at which O'Donnell, as well as Tyrone, was present. The northern chiefs
agreed to a treaty, the terms of which were to be submitted to the Queen,
and a truce was to be observed until May, when the royal decision on the
points at issue was expected. |
