Rise of Hugh O'Neill

Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone

Hugh O'Neill came from the powerful Ó Néill sept of Tír Eoghain, which dominated the centre of the northern province of Ulster.³ His father, Matthew O'Neill, Baron Dungannon, was the reputed son of Conn O'Neill the Lame, the first O'Neill to be created Earl of Tyrone by the English Crown.^[4] Matthew O'Neill had been appointed by Conn as his heir, whereas Conn's eldest surviving son Shane O'Neill was the preferred heir according to the Irish custom of tanistry. After a period of warfare, Shane had Matthew murdered and became O'Neill after his father died. After the murder of Matthew's first heir, Brian, the English authorities spirited the next heir Hugh out of Tyrone to be brought up with the Hovenden family in the Pale. At the parliament of 1585, Hugh O'Neill requested and was granted his English law birthright to the title of Earl of Tyrone. Prior to this and for several years afterwards Hugh O'Neill warred with the aging reigning chief of Tyrone, Turlough Lynagh O'Neill for control of Tyrone. Turlough died in 1595 allowing Hugh to be inaugurated "the O'Neill". Hugh however had also ruthlessly murdered his chief competitor to the title, Shane's son Hugh Gavelagh O'Neill. He also had sub-chiefs who wouldn't toe the line murdered such as Phelim McTurlough O'Neill, lord of Killetra.

From Hugh Roe O'Donnell, his ally, Hugh O'Neill enlisted Scottish mercenaries (known as Redshanks). Within his own territories, O'Neill was entitled to limited military service from his sub-lords or uirithe. He also recruited his tenants and dependants into military service and tied the peasantry to the land to increase food production (see Kern).^[5] In addition, he hired large contingents of Irish mercenaries (known as buanadha) under leaders such as Richard Tyrrell. To arm his soldiers, O'Neill bought muskets, ammunition, and pikes from Scotland and England. From 1591, O'Donnell, on O'Neill's behalf, had been in contact with Philip II of Spain, appealing for military aid against their common enemy and citing also their shared Catholicism. With the aid of Spain, O'Neill could arm and feed over 8,000 men, unprecedented for a Gaelic lord, and leaving him well prepared to resist English incursions into Ulster.^[6]

Crown advances into Ulster

By the early 1590s, the north of Ireland was attracting the attention of Lord Deputy Fitzwilliam, who had been charged with bringing the area under crown control. A provincial presidency was proposed; the candidate for office was Henry Bagenal, an English colonist settled in Newry, who would seek to impose the authority of the crown through sheriffs to be appointed by the Dublin government. O'Neill had eloped with Bagenal's sister, Mabel, and married her against her brother's wishes; the bitterness of this episode was made more intense after Mabel's early death a few years after the marriage, when she was reportedly in despair about her husband's neglect and his mistresses.^[7]

In 1591, Fitzwilliam broke up the MacMahon lordship in Monaghan when The MacMahon, hereditary leader of the sept, resisted the imposition of an English sheriff; he was hanged and his lordship divided. There was an outcry, with several sources alleging corruption against Fitzwilliam, but the same policy was soon applied in Longford (territory of the O'Farrells) and East Breifne (Cavan – territory of the O'Reillys). Any attempt to further the same in the O'Neill and O'Donnell territories was bound to be resisted by force of arms.

The most significant difficulty for English forces in confronting O'Neill lay in the natural defences that Ulster enjoyed. By land there were only two viable points of entry to the province for troops marching from the south: at Newry in the east, and Sligo in the west – the terrain in between was largely mountains, woodland, bog, and marshes. Sligo Castle was held by the O'Connor sept, but suffered constant threat from the O'Donnells; the route from Newry into the heart of Ulster ran through several easily defended passes and could only be maintained in wartime with a punishing sacrifice by the Crown of men and money.

The English did have a foothold within Ulster, around Carrickfergus north of Belfast Lough, where a small colony had been planted in the 1570s; but here too the terrain was unfavorable for the English, since Lough Neagh and the river Bann, the lower stretch of which ran through the dense forest of Glenconkeyn, formed an effective barrier on the eastern edge of the O'Neill territory. A further difficulty lay in the want of a port on the northern sea coast where the English might launch an amphibious attack into O'Neill's rear. The English strategic situation was complicated by interference from Scots clans, which were supplying O'Neill with soldiers and materials and playing upon the English need for local assistance, while keeping an eye to their own territorial influence in the Route (modern County Antrim).

Irish victory at Yellow Ford

Statue of Red Hugh O'Donnell at Curlew Pass, County Roscommon commemorating the Irish victory over the English in 1599

The English authorities in Dublin Castle had been slow to comprehend the scale of the rebellion. After failed negotiations in 1595, English armies tried to break into Ulster but were repulsed by a trained army including musketeers in prepared positions; after a stinging defeat at the Battle of Clontibret, successive English offensives were driven back in the following years. At the Battle of the Yellow Ford in 1598 up to 2,000 English troops were killed after being attacked on the march to Armagh. The rest were surrounded in Armagh itself but negotiated safe passage for themselves in return for evacuating the town. O'Neill's personal enemy, Sir Henry Bagenal, had been in command of the army and was killed during the early engagements. It was the heaviest defeat ever suffered by the English army in Ireland up to that point.

The victory prompted uprisings all over the country, with the assistance of mercenaries in O'Neill's pay and contingents from Ulster, and it is at this point that the war developed in its full force. Hugh O'Neill appointed his supporters as chieftains and earls around the country, notably James Fitzthomas Fitzgerald as the Earl of Desmond and Florence MacCarthy as the MacCarthy Mór. In Munster as many as 9,000 men came out in rebellion. The Munster Plantation, the colonisation of the province with English settlers, was dealt a serious blow; the colonists, among them Edmund Spenser, fled for their lives.

Only a handful of native lords remained consistently loyal to either side, and loyalties were complicated by splits within clans. However all the fortified cities and towns of the country sided with the English colonial government. Hugh O'Neill, unable to take walled towns, made repeated overtures to inhabitants of the Pale to join his rebellion, appealing to their Catholicism and to their alienation from the Dublin government and the provincial administrations. For the most part, however, the Old English remained hostile to their hereditary Gaelic enemies.^[13] The English fortress at Castle Maine surrendered in November 1599 after a thirteen month siege.^[14]

Earl of Essex's command

In 1599, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex arrived in Ireland with over 17,000 English troops. He took the advice of the Irish privy council, to settle the south of the country with garrisons before making an attempt on Ulster, but this dissipated his forces and he ended up suffering numerous setbacks on a desultory progress through south Leinster and Munster. He spent almost all of his time in Ireland awaiting transport that he had been promised before setting out, it being the only effective way of reaching his stated objective of Lough Foyle; however, a lack of administrative efficiency in England caused his plans to go awry and the requisite pack animals and ships were never sent.^[15] Those expeditions he did organise were disastrous, especially an expedition crossing the Curlew mountains to Sligo, which was mauled by O'Donnell at the Battle of Curlew Pass. Thousands of his troops, shut up in unsanitary garrisons, died of diseases such as typhoid and dysentery.

When he did turn to Ulster, Essex entered a parley with O'Neill and agreed a truce that was heavily criticised by his enemies in London, despite Elizabeth's admission soon afterward that it was "so seasonably made...as great good...has grown by it."^[16] Anticipating a recall to England, he set out for London in 1599 without the Queen's permission, where he was executed after attempting a court putsch. He was succeeded in Ireland by Lord Mountjoy, who proved to be a far more able commander, though his greater success could just as well have been because he was provided with all of the administrative support Essex lacked.^[17] In addition, two veterans of Irish warfare, George Carew and Arthur Chichester, were given commands in Munster and Ulster respectively.

In November 1599 O'Neill sent a 22-paragraph document to Queen Elizabeth, listing his terms for a peace agreement. These called for a self-governing Ireland with restitution of confiscated lands and churches, freedom of movement, and a strong Roman Catholic identity. In respect of Irish sovereignty he now accepted English overlordship, but requested that the viceroy ".. be at least an earl, and of the privy council of England". Elizabeth's adviser Sir Robert Cecil commented in the margin of the document, with the word "Ewtopia".^[18]

End of the Rebellion in Munster

George Carew, the English Lord President of Munster, managed more or less to quash the rebellion in Munster by mid-1601, using a mixture of conciliation and force. By the summer of 1601 he had retaken most of the principal castles in Munster and scattered the Irish forces. He did this by negotiating a pact with Florence MacCarthy, the principal Gaelic Irish leader in the province, which allowed MacCarthy to be neutral, while Carew concentrated on attacking the force of James Fitzthomas Fitzgerald, who commanded the main rebel force. As a result, while MacCarthy resisted English raiding parties into his territory, he did not come to Fitzthomas's aid, despite urgings from O'Neill and O'Donnell to do this.^[19]

In the summer of 1600, Carew launched an offensive against Fitzthomas's forces. The English routed Fitzthomas' forces at Aherlow and in November, Carew reported to London that he had, over the summer, killed 1,200 'rebels' and taken the surrenders of over 10,000. Carew also weakened Florence MacCarthy's position by recruiting a rival MacCarthy chieftain, Donal, to English service.^[19]

In June 1601, James Fitzthomas was captured by the English forces. Shortly afterwards, Carew had Florence MacCarthy arrested after summoning him for negotiations. Both Fitzthomas and MacCarthy were held captive in the Tower of London, where Fitzthomas eventually died. Most of the rest of the local lords submitted, once the principal native leaders had been arrested. O'Neill's mercenaries had been expelled from the province.^[19]

Battle of Kinsale and the collapse of the rebellion

Map of the Siege of Kinsale

Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy, c. 1594

Mountjoy managed to penetrate the interior of Ulster by seaborne landings at Derry (then belonging to County Coleraine) under Henry Docwra and Carrickfergus under Arthur Chichester. Dowcra and Chichester, helped by Niall Garve O'Donnell, a rival of Hugh Roe, devastated the countryside in an effort to provoke a famine and killed the civilian population at random.

Their military assumption was that without crops and people or cattle, the rebels could neither feed themselves nor raise new fighters.^[20][21] This attrition quickly began to bite, and it also meant that the Ulster chiefs were tied down in Ulster to defend their own territories.

Although O'Neill managed to repulse another land offensive by Mountjoy at the Battle of Moyry Pass near Newry in 1600, his position was becoming desperate.

In 1601, the long promised Spanish finally arrived in the form of 3,500 soldiers at Kinsale, Cork, virtually the southern tip of Ireland. Mountjoy immediately besieged them with 7,000 men. O'Neill, O'Donnell, and their allies marched their armies south to sandwich Mountjoy, whose men were starving and wracked by disease, between them and the Spaniards. During the march south, O'Neill devastated the lands of those who would not support him.

The English force might have been destroyed by hunger and sickness but the issue was decided in their favour at the Battle of Kinsale. On the 5/6 January 1602, O'Donnell, against the wishes and advice of O'Neill,^[22] took the decision to attack the English. Forming up for a surprise attack, the Irish chiefs were themselves surprised by a cavalry charge, resulting in a rout of the Irish forces. The Spanish in Kinsale surrendered after their allies' defeat.

The Irish forces retreated north to Ulster to regroup and consolidate their position. The Ulstermen lost many more men in the retreat through freezing and flooded country than they had at the actual battle of Kinsale. The last rebel stronghold in the south was taken at the siege of Dunboy by George Carew.

Hugh Roe O'Donnell left for Spain pleading in vain for another Spanish landing. He died in 1602 probably poisoned by an English agent. His brother assumed leadership of the O'Donnell clan. Both he and Hugh O'Neill were reduced to guerrilla tactics, fighting in small bands, as Mountjoy, Dowcra, Chichester, and Niall Garbh O'Donnell swept the countryside. The English scorched earth tactics were especially harsh on the civilian population, who died in great numbers both from direct targeting and from famine.^[23]

End of the War

In 1602 O'Neill destroyed his capital at Dungannon due to the approach of Mountjoy's forces, and withdrew to hide in the woods. In a symbolic gesture Mountjoy smashed the O'Neills' inauguration stone at Tullaghogue. Famine soon hit Ulster as a result of the English scorched earth strategy. O'Neill's uirithe or sub-lords (O'Hagan, O'Quinn, MacCann) began to surrender and Rory O'Donnell, Hugh Roe's brother and successor, surrendered on terms at the end of 1602. However, with a secure base in the large and dense forests of Tir Eoghain, O'Neill held out until 30 March 1603, when he surrendered on good terms to Mountjoy, signing the Treaty of Mellifont. Elizabeth I had died on 24 March.

Although the war had effectively ended with the signing of the Treaty of Mellifont, its final battles were fought during the English invasion of West Breifne in April 1603, which remained the sole holdout Irish kingdom following O'Neill's capitulation. The kingdom was ruled by Brian Óg O'Rourke, one of the alliance's chief lieutenants and leader of the Irish forces during the Battle of Curlew Pass. He failed to secure any concessions from the treaty as his half-brother Tadhg O'Rourke had fought with the English during the war and was granted lordship of West Breifne in return. Following a twelve-day siege, a force of 3,000 men led by Tadhg, Henry Folliott, and Rory O'Donnell eventually brought the area, and thus all of Ireland, under English control on 25 April 1603.

Footnotes

• ^Note 1 & 2: Cyril Falls, Elizabeth's Irish Wars, pg 49.
• ^2 The O'Neill dynasty claimed descent from the Uí Néill line which derived its origins from the ancient hero, Niall of the Nine Hostages, and the sons of Banbha.

Sources

• Ruth Canning, The Old English in Early Modern Ireland: The Palesmen and the Nine Years' War 1594-1603 (Woodbridge, 2019)
• James O'Neill, The Nine Years War, 1593-1603: O'Neill, Mountjoy and the Military Revolution (Dublin, 2017).
• Lennon, Colm (1995), Sixteenth Century Ireland – The Incomplete Conquest, Dublin: St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0-312-12462-7.
• McCoy, Gerard Anthony Hayes (1989), Irish Battles, Belfast: Appletree Press, ISBN 0-86281-212-7.
• Canny, Nicholas P. (1976), The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland: A Pattern Established, 1565–76, Sussex: Harvester Press, ISBN 0-85527-034-9.
• Canny, Nicholas P. (2001), Making Ireland British, 1580–1650, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-820091-9.
• Richard Bagwell, Ireland under the Tudors 3 vols. :(London, 1885–1890)
• Calendar of State Papers: Carew MSS. 6 vols (London, 1867–1873).
• Calendar of State Papers: Ireland (London)
• Steven G. Ellis Tudor Ireland (London, 1985) ISBN 0-582-49341-2.
• T W Moody, F X Martin & F J Byrne (eds) A New History of Ireland: Early Modern Ireland 1534–1691 (Oxford 1987; reprint 1993)
• Hiram Morgan Tyrone's Rebellion (1993).
• David Beers Quinn, The Elizabethans and the Irish (Cornell 1966)
• Standish O'Grady (ed.) "Pacata Hibernia" 2 vols. (London, 1896).
• W L Renwick, Edmund Spenser: A View of the Present State of Ireland (Oxford 1979)
• Cyril Falls Elizabeth's Irish Wars (1950; reprint London, 1996) ISBN 0-09-477220-7.
• Hamilton, Ernest, Lord. 'Elizabethan Ulster' (1858-1939)

Sources for Gaelic Ireland:

• Patrick S Dineen & David Comyn (trans & eds) Geoffrey Keating: Foras Feasa ar Éirinn: The history of Ireland, 4 vols, Irish Texts Society (London 1902–14; reprint 1987)
• Patrick J Duffy, David Edwards & Elizabeth FitzPatrick (eds) Gaelic Ireland c.1250-c.1650: Land, Lordship & Settlement (Dublin 2001)
• Elizabeth Fitzpatrick, Royal Inauguration in Gaelic Inauguration c.1100–1600, (Woodbridge 2004)
• John O'Donovan (ed.) Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters (1851)
• Katharine Simms, From Kings to Warlords: The Changing Political Structures of Gaelic Ireland in the Later Middle Ages (Boydell 1987; reprint 2000)
• Paul Walsh (trans & ed) Beatha Aodha Ruaidh Uí Dhomhnaill: The Life of Aodh Ruadh O Dhomhnaill, 2 vols (Dublin 1948 & 1957; reprint 1988 & 1994)
• Micheline Kerney Walsh, An Exile of Ireland: Hugh O Neill Prince of Ulster (Cumann Seanchas Ard Mhacha 1986; reprint Dublin 1996)