Siege of Carrigafoyle Castle
The siege of Carrigafoyle Castle took place on Easter in 1580 . The castle is on the banks of the River Shannon (in what is now County Kerry ) in Ireland . The siege was part of the English crown's struggle against Gerald Fitzgerald (15th Earl of Desmond) during the Second Desmond Rebellion . The castle was occupied by Desmond's troops and some Catholic troops from continental Europe.
Castle complex
Carrigafoyle Castle ( Irish Caisleán Charraig an Phoill ) - originally built by Conor Liath O'Connor-Kerry in the 1490s - was considered one of the strongest Irish fortifications of the time and was typical of castles in Munster . It consisted of two main houses (towers). The plant stood a little higher on a rock in a small bay of the Shannon. The name is derived from the Irish Carraig to Phoill . The castle's strategic significance lay in its control over the shipping lanes that supplied goods to the trading town of Limerick, 32 km away ; therefore the castle was considered the guardian of the Shannon. An English conquest would cut off the supply route and English troops could go straight to Limerick.
The bay in front of the fortification was secured on the northern side by a wooded island. Double walls were built to the west of the complex; the inner wall enclosed the courtyard and was surrounded by a moat. The keep was a good 25 meters high. During the high tide, the Shannon could moor directly to a paved jetty inside the moat.
siege
During the Desmond Rebellion , the castle was manned by 50 Irish and 16 Spanish soldiers who arrived in Smerwick in 1580 and were part of the papal invasion force. There were women and children among them. A few months earlier, the Italian engineer Captain Julian began to rework the defenses according to the instructions of Eleanor, the Count of Desmond. At the time of the siege, the Countess had already traveled to her husband in Castleisland - Julian had not yet finished his work.
The English commander Sir William Pelham marched through Munster with George Carew and a 600-strong army of Sir William Winter . Winter also commanded a sea-based army that helped fight the rebellion. On arrival at Carrigafoyle Castle, the English troops rested southwest of the castle and set up their artillery along a low wall about 100 meters north of the outer rampart. At the northernmost point of this wall, a company of foot soldiers was deployed with lances.
The English troops bombed the castle for two days (6 hours a day) with three so-called demi-cannons (half-cannons of the 17th century fleets, which fired only a 32-pound projectile instead of a 42-pound projectile) and a calverine (a large cannon with small projectiles). Both types of cannon came from Winters' ships and were fired by sea gunners. In addition, three three-masters were anchored in the estuary outside the bay, which also used their cannons.
On the first day of the siege ( Palm Sunday ), Pelham ordered a force to cross the wall on the seaside - but the men were struck down by gunfire and struck by rocks thrown at them from the battlements . The partially erected attack leaders were simply knocked over by the Spanish halberdiers . During the bombing, Pelham was ricocheted and wounded and mocked by the besieged, but the attack continued abruptly.
On the second day, Pelham received supplies from Winters' ships. The final attack, led by Captain Humfrey Machworth and John Zouche, centered on the part of the castle farthest from the cannons where the defenders were. After two or three direct hits, the tower finally collapsed and buried various defenders. Some of the survivors fled through the shallow water, but were either shot or killed with a sword. The rest of the besieged were brought to the English camp and hung from trees. Captain Julian was the last to be executed after three days.
The consequences
The strategic significance of this siege is illustrated by the fact that after the news of the castle's fall had spread, the other Desmond fortifications were quickly captured. Instead, the rebels withdrew and went into guerrilla warfare.
Carrigafoyle Castle was so badly damaged by the siege that it was never repaired. The ruins - including the outer defenses - and the damage caused by the bombing are still visible today.
literature
- Owen Connellan, Michael O'Clery: The Annals of Ireland: Translated from the Original Irish of the Four Masters , Dublin 1846, (New edition: ISBN 978-0-94013-477-5 ), p. 694
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 34 ′ 11.6 " N , 9 ° 29 ′ 38.7" W.