An English Army in Ireland 1600

In Ireland the English were piling defeat upon defeat.  A slew of leading soldiers had been killed in the fighting.  Sir John Norrys died from a pike wound in the leg gone septic, Sir Conyers Clifford had his throat torn out by an Irish pike, Sir Henry Bagenal died of a caliver bullet in the face as did Sir John Chichester and Sir Alexander Radcliffe.  They all received these wounds at the head of their troops in lost battles.   The English Army in Ireland was cowed and disaffected. 

 

Worse, the cost of the Irish War was bringing the Tudor State to the brink of bankruptcy.  The throne itself had tottered when the Queen’s favourite the Earl of Essex had returned from Ireland without permission having been decisively checked by Tyrone. He had led a bid for supreme power on the streets of London.   It had not succeeded and Essex had gone to the scaffold closely followed by his co-conspirators including Captain Tom Lee.  These after all were all men who owed their worldly success directly to Elizabeth’s patronage. Edmund Spencer, Lee’s would be nemesis, had for want of his pension already died poverty stricken and unlamented in the slums of Southwark.  His popular fame would belong to another time.

One of Essex’s close associates managed to survive Queen Elizabeth’s terrified wrath.  His name was Charles Blount and from this distance we can say he was fortunate indeed not to be executed.  He was judged by contemporaries to be something of a hypochondriac. He was also a heavy smoker. Essex thought him "Too much drowned in book learning". History knows him better as Lord Mountjoy and he was destined to become Elizabeth’s winning General in Ireland.

First, Mountjoy addressed the raw material of the English Army who by this stage were running away in their hundreds.

He took drastic action. Deserters who had made it back to England were hunted down and hanged.  Any English deserter caught in Ireland was hanged. Any soldier deemed guilty of cowardice in the field could expect to die.  The measures were effective.  The Mayor of Chester told the English Privy Council that the new penalties “Struck such a terror in their (the soldiers) hearts it has prevented whole hundreds running away”.

Absentee Captains were forced to return to their companies or relinquish their commissions. Many who did return were not fit for command. "Idle drones"  Mountjoy said and dismissed them wholesale.  Shakespeare’s Falstaff was not entirely a creation of imagination. Mountjoy's idle drones could be found within walking distance of the Globe Theatre.

It was not all stick. In an attempt to improve standards of musketry the practice of deducting a soldier’s pay for every shot fired was discontinued. Mountjoy wanted to go further and provide free powder and shot for practice but the Queen baulked at the expense.  She did agree to fund measures to ensure the soldiery were properly fed when in the field. 

The English army itself needed further modernisation if it was to face the Irish Army.  Mountjoy’s key influences were the practices of the Spanish and Dutch armies and, of course, those of the Irish Army.

The Demi Lancers, the best of the English Army, were deemed to have been checked by the activities of the Irish light pike.  A new lighter horseman was introduced, the Petronel, who could caracole against the Irish pike shooting holes in their formation.  The armoured Petronel could then charge home. They could also move faster than the Demi lance but were still heavier armoured than the Irish cavalry. 

The English shot entirely abandoned the musket “it was not fit for Irish service” replacing it with the caliver favoured by the Irish shot.  They could now hope to meet the Irish shot if not in equality then with more chance of success.

A new type of soldier, the targeteer, was introduced to support the English shot.  He was armoured with back and breast a helmet and big shield.  He fought as a swordsman.  Slower moving than the Irish targeteers he could still keep pace with the English calivers. His task was to provide a temporary bulwark for the English shot.  In this way his role was analogous to that of the Irish pike.

The English pike had the burden of their armour reduced.  Tassets and pauldrons were dispensed with.  Some captains went further and replaced the back and breast plates with a jack.  The result was a lighter armoured, more mobile soldier.  That though was as far as the process went.  The English pike man never became a light pike man in the Spanish and Irish fashion.  He was still slower afoot than his Irish adversary.  He fought in a closer formation. He was still likelier to prevail in a push of pike.

These reforms meant that the English infantry could now operate on difficult ground that they had previously avoided.

Mountjoy had done all he could to render the army fit for purpose.  He had learned from the experiences of the better English captains and heeded their practical advice.  The Foot were now properly equipped for the Irish theatre and the capabilities of the Horse already formidable were further enhanced.  If morale had not soared it could at least be said the soldiers now feared to desert.  He was ready to take the field.