The Battle of Aldfreck Ireland 1597

The Battle of Aldfreck 1597 is an interesting encounter. It was fought predominately between the McDonnells of Antrim and the English Garrison of Carrickfergus.  It arose out of pre- arranged parley.  As we will see both sides mistrusted each other and at least one side definitely intended treachery.

The immediate background to the parley was the mutual raids on those who had accepted the others authority in the locality.  Relations between the Scots and English were not always antagonistic, they were sometimes allies. 

However, there was profound animosity on both sides. The Scots had previously spoiled and burned Carrickfergus town as a reprisal for the English massacre of 700 McDonnell elderly, women and children on Rathlin Island. The leading men on both sides James Mc Sorley McDonnell Lord of the Glinns and the Route and Sir John Chichester Governor of Carrickfergus were deeply aware of both events.

Days before the parley, and unbeknown to Governor Chichester, James McSorley had met with Tyrone. It was agreed that he should marry one of Tyrone’s daughters, accept him as over lord and deliver hostages to him.  In return Tyrone loaned him 500 Tyrone shot. These men would have required feeding and that might have been part of the motivation for Mc Sorley’s raiding.

On the 4^th of November Chichester led 5 companies of Foot, a troop of Horse and some Irish Kern to the meeting point some 4 miles outside of Carrickfergus. If normal English practice prevailed this should have produced 2 units of muskets, two of units of calivers and one of pike or, two units of pike and just one of muskets with two units of calivers. They were accompanied by somewhere near 50 Horse. 

Taking 80 men to a company I'd estimate the English at around 450 men. To this we must add the Irish Kern presumably a company. If so the entire English force stood somewhere around 530 men.


McSorley was waiting with possibly up to 700 men.  This may be too high an estimate. We might recall that in the war with Shane O'Neill the core fighting strength of Clan McDonnell in Antrim was 500 men. Additional troops could always be brought from the Isles but no one claims that McSorley had done so.

The Scots would have been armed with bows, great swords and axes.  The wealthier men would have worn mail and even more would have had helmets.

This show of strength on both sides demonstrates the caution of the parties involved.  McSorley especially was taking no chances for he had placed companies of Tyrone shot concealed in the undergrowth and scrub to his rear flank.

At this point Governor Chichester either lost his head or failed to appreciate the military reality of his situation.  We are told he turned to his Military Commander Captain Merriman and said "Now, Captain, yonder be your old friends. What say you? Shall we charge them?".  Merriman agreed that they should and Moyses Hill who commanded the Horse also concurred.  Moyses, we can say, was married to a cousin of James McSorley.

We can note that Governor Chichester was careful to consult his senior military officers before taking action.  He was ensuring that the responsibility for what he was about to do was shared with his subordinates.  The Lord Deputy and the Queen would expect a written account.

The English cavalry, ever confident, charged and the Scots either evaded or were driven back.  Either way the ground behind them was broken by drumlins and it was on these small hillocks that the McDonnells took a stand.  By this time the Scots would have been shooting their bows while their mailed gentry struck with great sword and axe. As a result, the impetus of the charge of the English Horse was held.  James McSorley explained that:

" & he (Chichester) followed me & did drive me from hill to hill to hawe effectit his bad intention and is the gentil men that is heir in handis vithe us knows, it besemeth the gentil men that vas vithe us to do for themselfes or die."

The English Foot had also engaged and it was at this point that the Tyrone shot rose from the bushes and fired intensely into the English flank. The Scots now counter charged the English Foot breaking their formation. 

Governor Chichester was hit in the leg and knocked from his horse.  He remounted, attempted to reform his line, and sought to lead the Horse in a charge against the Tyrone shot.  He was shot through the head and fell dead; some accompanying officers were also shot with one being captured.  The charge had failed and with that the English troops broke and fled the field.

Of the 5 companies Governor Chichester had led out that morning the equivalent of three of them were now dead or wounded.

James McSorley conscious of his new obligations had Chichester’s head cut off, placed in a barrel of salted water and sent to Tyrone.

The battle is interesting because of the effectiveness of the Scots combination of missilery and melee abilities. 

We can see that the Scots retreat resulted in the Tyrone shot flanking the advancing English presumably as McSorley had intended.

The ground helped enable the Scots to resist the charge of the English Horse but resist it they did. 

We might have expected the armoured, close order English pike to have cut through the Scots line yet no account suggests that they were able to do so. Nor was this explicable as being due to the disruptive Irish flanking fire which must have fallen first on the English calivers and then on the English muskets before reaching the pike men.   

The pike men it seems charged in good order and were held and then broken.  We might consider the ground hindered them but seemingly not enough to prevent a charge.

Looking at the battle we can see that the English Commanders made a series of mistakes. Firstly, they over-estimated the power of their cavalry which they expected to break the Scots line.  Secondly, they did not use the destructive fire power of their shot to maximum effect before committing their pike men. Thirdly, when the Scots did not break, they allowed the English shot to be caught at close quarters by experienced close combat soldiers.

To add to these basic mistakes, we can add that despite having the only Horse on the field Governor Chichester and his Commanders failed to scout the ground.  The sudden appearance of the Tyrone shot on their flank probably doomed the English Amy.

As to the ordinary English soldiers we should not be surprised that they broke having being hit in the flank and seeing their General killed and many officers wounded, captured or slain.

In the aftermath the surviving officers, Moyses Hill included, concocted explanations for their defeat including the failure of the English Horse to do their duty and huge numbers of Scots. Neither are credible.