The Nine Years War 1593-1603- A Review

Dr James O'Neill gives us the first part of his series on the Nine Years War in Ireland. Published by Helion it runs to 151 pages excluding covers. It is well written and hugely informative. As it should be, Dr O'Neill is the foremost authority on the War.

Let’s walk through what we get.

It begins with War in Fermanagh and the West where we are introduced to Hugh O’Neill, Baron of Dungannon. He, a contender for the title of the O’Neill, was intended as an English Agent in efforts to extend London’s control of the Northern Gaels. He, subsequently Earl of Tyrone and the O’Neill, thought otherwise as history records.

In this phase the nominal Irish Leader was Hugh Maguire Lord of Fermanagh. He was Father in Law to Hugh O’Neill. In fact the Irish were already confederated.  Maguire was working to a wider plan.  The forces of the Irish and English are described and the nature of the fighting. The Irish were involved in a military transition. Gallowglass and Scots Mercenaries once the mainstay of Irish Armies sacrificed were sacrificed to preserve the emergent Irish modern army.

When the English met that army it proved a shock. They had not seen the like. Its recruitment, training and equipment are fully described. We are given detailed accounts of the actions at Tulsk, Erne Ford, Enniskillen, Carrickfergus and the Ford of Biscuits. 

If you want to know why the English musketeers did so well at Erne Ford and Enniskillen its here. How the Irish caliver men at Tulsk checked the feared English cavalry that’s here too.

We meet the commanders of both sides and are treated to an extensive quotes and illustrations from contemporary documents. Dr O’Neill is a master of his subject and though I have studied this period well there was, for me, new learning here.

The second part of the book deals with Tyrone’s War in Ulster. We get a detailed analysis of the forces involved. Importantly, we see clearly the new Irish Army. Pen portraits of English and Irish commanders increase or understanding of the dynamics of the conflict. Highlights include extensive treatments of the battles of Clontibret, Carrickfergus and of course The Yellow Ford.

The quality of maps of the battles, including their development are very good. Increasing the readers comprehension of how the actions were fought. Pleasingly, Seán O Brógain supplies the following illustrations: Irish Shot, English Horse, English Musketeer, Irish Horse, Irish Swordsman, Captain Thomas Williams, Hugh O’Neill and Sir Henry Bagenal.

Above, English Captain Tom Lee dressed as a Kern. He appears in Dr O'Neill's book. Note how the Irish soldiers costume simplified as the new Irish Army took the field. 

The above is the briefest of reviews of this excellent work. As you would hope there are 6 pages of sources facilitating further research. 

Helion tend to be a mixed bag but this is a splendid book. Recommended.

 

The Battle of the Yellow Ford Part 3

  
Sir Thomas Maria Wingfield was a veteran of the action at Clontibret.  He had commanded the English Rearward there.  Based upon his experience there he could anticipate that soon the Irish Army would move in for the kill with companies of mutually supporting shot, Horse, pike and the Redshanks. That is what happened at Clontibret. This time they would be complemented by targeteers who excelled in swordsmanship.   Sir Thomas had no intention of waiting for that to happen and he sought to regain the military initiative. 

He could now abandon Marshal Bagenal’s battle plan.  Tyrone had fought his own battle not Bagenal’s anticipated one. The English needed to respond with a new plan.

Wingfield instructed the column to reverse its direction of travel and head back to Armagh.  His fellow officers do not seem to have demurred.  Leaving colonel Cosby to restore order among Percy’s and Bagenal’s regiments he turned his attention to the Rearward of the army.  It would now become the English Van.

Colonels Billings and Cuney led there. They had been engaged almost continuously since the march began. They had burned a lot of powder but so far, the fighting had been at a distance.  Their men were in good order but must have been aware of series of disasters happening at the front of the column.  It is also reasonable to suppose that they were becoming tired.  The psychological pressure of being pinned by the enemy while the rest of the army marched on should be recognised.

Wingfield’s new orders came at the right time. Colonels Billings and Cuney had noticed the Irish Horse increasing in number and moving up to second the Irish shot.  This was normally a prelude to a close assault.  On their other flank the Redshanks could transform themselves from missile men to close combat troops in the twinkling of a two-handed blade. 

It appeared to the colonels that the Irish Army intended to bar the road back to Armagh by driving their men into the English Battle and taking possession of the Yellow Ford.

Liberated by their new orders the colonels took action. The light guns were unlimbered and brought to bear on the squadrons of Irish Horse.  The heavy English Horse formed into line of battle.  It is hard not to think that these decisive orders must have heartened their men.  Equally the news that they must now lead the fight back to Armagh and safety likely filled them with purpose.

A cannonade from the English light guns stayed the Irish advance.  The newly minted English Van began to retrace its steps.  The Irish and the Redshanks watched them go.  Soon the cannon would be re-limbered and the English cavalry would move on. New targets would present themselves and they would engage once more.

At the trench and in Sir Thomas’s absence colonel Cosby decided to act on his own cognisance.   Amazingly, he ordered his own regiment over the trench along with any of Bagenal’s and Percy’s survivors he could cajole to join them.  The result was entirely predictable.  His men were caught disordered, cut up and sent reeling back over the trench with the Irish at their heels.  The presence of Sir Callisthenes Brook’s cavalry probably prevented the Irish troops from crossing the trench themselves and finishing the job. 

Colonel Cosby’s behaviour calls for comment. He had been one of the senior officers who elected Sir Thomas as General of the Army.  He knew that Wingfield was an experienced and effective soldier. He had been given, and accepted, express orders to form and command the English Rearward.  That was a responsible and perilous duty. He also knew the consequences of the crossing the Irish field works.  Yet, we know that he did so.   

Perhaps he felt he could do better than those who tried before him.  Maybe he was moved by personal or political motivations that we cannot discern at this distance of time.  All we can say is that he acted with extreme folly.

In the aftermath Sir Thomas restored order once more. Likely he made a swift mental assessment of the condition of his army.  Of the six regiments that had marched out that morning three were now shattered.  His own regiment and those of Billings and Cuney were in reasonable order.  The cavalry was still eminently serviceable but the English shot had burned most of their powder.   

It was a perilous position. About 1,500 English soldiers lay dead or wounded on the battle field.  Among the dead were 18 officers. One English officer was later to say that if the Irish had closed, he doubted any of his command would have survived.  Yet survive they all did-more or less.

The reason was twofold.   

Tyrone’s army was out of powder and Irish tactics now revolved around firepower.   

The enthusiasm with which the Irish had embraced the military revolution meant that they lacked close fighting troops. Only the Redshanks and the targeteers now specialised in close assault.  The Galloglaich who would once have led a charge were now carrying pikes and standing ready to interdict the English cavalry.  The Kern swordsmen were now carrying calivers.  

Irish losses had so far been low, no higher than 300 men and possibly as low as 120.  Any attempt to exterminate the English Army would have considerably increased Irish casualties without producing any additional strategic benefit. The English could always replace soldiers.

As it stood Sir Henry Bagenal’s great expedition had been stopped and brutally punished. It was now marching off the field in the right direction, and carrying Sir Henry’s remains with it.  There was no military imperative for the Irish Army to do more.

Sir Thomas led his men back the 4 miles or so to Armagh without much interference.  Once there the cavalry rode hard for Dublin.  There was little they could do by staying with the army.   

The English Army negotiated a withdrawal agreement that in return for their arms, equipment and supplies and the surrender of the Blackwater Fort they could march unmolested back to Dublin. This, they duly did.

In Dublin the Irish Privy Council, nerves shattered, sent a pleading letter to Tyrone begging him to desist from further hostilities.  

In London Queen Elizabeth raged at her advisors and damned the Irish Privy Council.  She decided to send her personal favorite and the most most powerful man in England to put things right.  Neither money nor men would be spared. There would be another great expedition and Robert Dudley the Earl of Essex would command. It was to cost him his head. 

Quietly but significantly a planned sea borne English expedition to Ulster was cancelled and the troops re assigned to protect the Pale.

That was the Battle of the Yellow Ford and we might recall how it began that morning.

Two young captains … had the leading of the two forlorn hopes in the vanguard. They marched gaily with two pipes of tobacco in their mouths … the vanguard followed as fast as they could as if they would win the goal in a match at football play[ed] without the help of their followers’

 

The Battle of the Yellow Ford Part 2

 

The English column proceeded accompanied by the constant attentions of the Irish skirmishing shot.  To this was added the trial of the Saker it weighed 2,500 lbs and normally it required 5 horses or 24 men to move it.  An exasperated English officer noted it got stuck every 120 yards or so.  

Leading the Van Sir Richard Percy raced ahead of his paired regiment. He was a younger son of the Earl of Northumberland and was accompanied by his personal flag which was “Heavy with the silver crescents of the Percies”.  Sir Richard was the most aristocratic of the English commanders that day and seems to have had little regard for the Marshal. At the subsequent inquiry into the conduct of the battle he squarely put the blame on Bagenal for failing to keep up with him.

Marshal Bagenal’s regiment stopped to once again extricate the Saker from the mud.  Sir Richard wouldn’t wait and simply left him to it.  The carefully maintained distance between the regiments was thus disrupted.  Something similar was happening at the Rearward where more committed Irish attacks had forced colonels Billings and Cuney to stand while the Battle marched on. 

Soon Percy’s regiment were confronted by a trench four-foot-wide and five feet deep backed by a five feet high embankment topped with thorns.  There was no question of going around it as it stretched for a mile in length.  As field works went it was not a particularly formidable barrier and significantly no Irish shot lined the parapet.  It was undefended but unavoidable and for the rest of the battle it was to have a mesmeric effect on the English commanders.

On Percy’s flank the Irish shot had begun to close the range and casualties began to accrue.  Sir Richard ordered out his loose shot only to see them driven in again. At this stage he could have waited for the Marshal’s regiment to catch up and add to the English fire power. Perhaps Sir Callisthenes Brook’s cavalry could have driven in the Irish shot. Sir Richard chose not to wait. 

Spurred on by the casualties his regiment was taking Percy ordered his men over the trench and with difficulty they cleared it arriving in disorder at the other side.  We should understand that handling 15-foot pikes while wearing half armour is not conducive to climbing.  The calivers and muskets would have gone first in that order. No doubt they had their match burning and bullets in their mouths.

Once over and reordered they marched on uphill. The besieged garrison of the Blackwater fort could see the flags of the regiment and threw their caps in the air and set up a cheer.  They were commanded by that formidable old Welsh soldier Captain Williams.  We are told that “They hoped their supper might be better than their dinner”.  They had been on short rations for a long time.

Percy’s men were immediately assailed by more Irish shot who once more drove in the English shot.  English pike men began to get shot at close range and squadrons of Irish Horse now sought to break into the regiment’s formation.  This had the effect of forcing Percy’s soldiers closer together hampering their good order.  Irish targeteers now charged in. Using their big shields to push up the protective English pikes they got among the soldiery and started killing. 

 

Sir Henry had abandoned the still stuck Saker and now he reached the trench.  From his side of it he could hear that something had gone wrong.  His full face helmet meant he could not properly see the extent of the problem.   

There was no succour for Percy’s regiment. The supporting Horse that could have saved them were on the wrong side of the Irish field work and could neither get through it or ride around it. 

Now Bagenal’s regiment was coming under increasingly heavy fire from the Irish shot who advanced seconded by their supporting pike.  

Soon survivors of Percy’s regiment were pouring back over the embankment with many men landing in the trench and being trampled by those behind them.  Plainly something had gone very wrong. 

The Marshal quickly ordered his own regiment over the trench and to the rescue. They came back just as speedily having been roughly handled. We should understand that they would have arrived there in disorder and found themselves amid hostile troops and  panicking fleeing comrades.  

Bagenal's regiment faced English soldiers running pell-mell down hill into their front.  Behind the fugitives Irish targeteers were stabbing and slashing.  On their flanks the Irish Horse were spearing the running men.  Meanwhile the Irish shot had moved to close range.  Bagenal's soldiers had neither the time or the space to form up. There was nothing useful to be done on the far side of the trench and sensibly they retired.

In an effort to better assess the rapidly deteriorating situation Sir Henry raised the visor of his helmet and was fatally shot in the face.

Further down the column Sir Thomas Maria Wingfield had reached the abandoned Saker.  He ordered men from the Battle to extricate it.  The six oxen that had pulled it presumably had been shot. Their owner certainly subsequently claimed their value from the Queen.

The Rearward continued to fight off Randall McSorley and Brian McBarron’s troops who were now supported by cavalry.

Tyrone, O'Donnell and Maguire, the latter commanding the Irish cavalry, had their troops well in hand.  

By contrast the English Army was falling into disarray.  The carefully ordered line of march designed for rapid conversion into line of battle by the simple expedient of a three quarter turn-was gone.  Bagenal had thought the Irish attack would come from the flank.  If it had the English would have turned and faced it with six mutually supporting regiments laced with cannon and flanked by cavalry.  

Instead the Irish had defeated the Van in detail inflicting heavy casualties.  The Rearward of the English column was effectively pinned and Bagenal was now dead.  

Further disaster was imminent.  A soldier of the Battle seeking to replenish his powder flask dropped his lit match into the powder wagon.  The resulting explosion killed many soldiers and disrupted the surrounding regiment's formation. 

The Irish shot now came in close shooting down the pike men.  At this point some 300 English soldiers deserted to the enemy.  Most, but not all of them, were Irish in English employ.

Amid the chaos the surviving English officers agreed that Colonel Sir Thomas Maria Wingfield should take command of the army.