Desmond rebellions
The two Desmond Rebellions took place in the province of Munster in southwest Ireland in the 1560s to 1580s . The rebellions were initiated by the Earls of Desmond dynasty (the Fitzgeralds or Geraldines ) in order to drive back the power of the Elizabethan- English government in Ireland. In detail, the rebellion was about the independence of the feudal lords from the king. It mixed up with the religious conflict over the ecclesiastical supremacy of the king and thus with Catholicism and Protestantism. The result of the rebellions was the destruction of the Desmond dynasty and the subsequent colonization of Munster ( Plantations ) with English settlers, but also the consolidation of the equation of Irish with Catholic and English with Protestant .
origin
The south of Ireland (the provinces of Munster and South Leinster ) was dominated by the Butlers of Ormonde and the Fitzgeralds of Desmond. Henry Sidney , as Lord Deputy of Ireland Deputy of the English King in Ireland, was tasked with establishing the authority of the English government over the (almost) independent lordships there. His aim was to replace the local lords with so-called lord presidencies - provincial military governors who were supposed to ensure peace. The resident lords saw in these governors an interference in their sphere of influence and in their - always violently fought - power balance. This led to the Battle of Affane at Waterford in 1565 between the two dynasties . Above all, the fact that both sides presented their private banners during the battle was an affront to the English crown - this and the private battle as such was regarded as a symbolic rejection of English rule. Thereupon Elizabeth I ordered the leaders of both lordships to London to bring them to justice. While Thomas Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormonde , who was the Queen's cousin, was being pardoned, Gerald Fitzgerald and his brothers John and James were arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London .
This left the Munster-Geraldines with no real leader and the Desmonds in the hands of soldier James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald . Fitzmaurice had no interest in a demilitarized order in Munster. He was also an avowed Catholic, influenced by the Counter-Reformation , and viewed the Elizabethan governors as his enemies. In order to discourage them and restore the supremacy of the Desmonds, he planned a rebellion. He was also popular because of the fact that further land expropriations by English colonists took place at this time - this brought him the support of important clans such as the MacCarthy Mor, O'Sullivan Beare and O'Keefe.
First Desmond Rebellion
Fitzmaurice began his rebellion with an attack on the English colony in Kerrycurihy (northern Cork ) in June 1569. In return, Henry Sidney mobilized a large army of English soldiers and opponents of the Geraldines and Ormonds and began to devastate the lands of the allies of Fitzmaurice . The force of Fitzmaurice then broke up as the individual lords withdrew with their troops to defend their own lands.
Sidney finally forced Fitzmaurice to retreat to the mountains of County Kerry , from where he repeatedly made short, quick attacks on the English troops. By 1570, most of the supporters of Fitzmaurice Sidney had joined - but the guerrilla-style attacks continued for three years. It was not until February 1573 that Fitzmaurice surrendered and fled to the mainland, where he asked the Catholic powers for support.
To calm the situation in Ireland, Gerald Fitzgerald and his brother John were released from prison - both were returning to Ireland. Although all the leaders involved had surrendered towards the end of the rebellion, the nature of the repression caused resentment - especially among the Irish mercenaries (called gall oglaigh or gallowglass ) who had joined Fitzmaurice. Drury, the new Lord President of Munster, had 700 of them executed in the aftermath of the rebellion. In addition, Gaelic customs such as the Brehon Laws , Irish clothing, singing, poetry, and the maintenance of private armies were banned.
Second Desmond Rebellion
The second rebellion began when James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald invaded Munster in 1579. During his exile in Europe he gave a new meaning to his life as a soldier of the Counter Reformation and took the view that since the papal excommunication of Elizabeth I in 1570, the Catholic Irish were no longer obliged to loyalty to a heretical monarch. The Pope granted Fitzmaurice an indulgence and supported him with troops and money. Fitzmaurice landed in Dingle in July 1579 , accompanied by various officers, 700 Spanish soldiers and an Italian combat force. John Fitzgerald immediately joined him. Other Gaelic clans and influential families also joined the rebellion.
Gerald, the Earl of Desmon, did not initially join the rebellion but changed his stance after he was labeled a traitor by the English representatives. After Fitzmaurice had been killed at the beginning of the fighting, John and Gerald now led the rebellion. They took the cities of Youghal and Kinsale and devastated the lands of the English and their allies. In 1580 the rebellion spread to Leinster - under the leadership of the Gaelic-Irish clan chief Fiach MacHugh O'Byrne and Lord Baltinglass. A 3,000-strong English army under Earl Gray de Wilton was sent out to defeat them - instead the army was ambushed and massacred at the Battle of Glenmalure ; 800 men died. The rebels then gave Creon MacMurrough Kavanagh the title of King of Leinster , which his ancestors held until the English conquest.
Despite this victory, the tide turned against the rebels in Munster. English troops and local units led by Ormonde were able to recapture the south coast of Ireland. The lands of the Desmonds were destroyed and their subordinates killed. The siege of Carrigafoyle Castle , the headquarters of the Desmonds at the mouth of the River Shannon , cut off the Geraldines' troops from the rest of the country and prevented foreign armies from landing in the main port of Munster. For during the Desmond Rebellions between 1569 and 1583, the Spanish role went beyond that of a trading partner, when Catholic Spanish troops joined forces with the Catholic Irish rebels against the Protestant English. Their intervention was unsuccessful and almost the entire Spanish and papal Italian army - 600 papal soldiers - was defeated by the English in Smerwick Bay west of Daingean Uí Chúis on the Dingle Peninsula in Fort del Oro (Smerwick Castle), in the ice-side ring fort Dún An Óir , killed in the so-called Smerwick Massacre of 1580. The Earl of Ormond (Black Earl) killed men, women and children, took the livestock and destroyed the crops and houses on the peninsula.
The ruthless scorched earth policy enabled English forces to break the momentum of the rebellion. By 1581, most of Fitzgerald's allies in Munster and Leinster had capitulated.
There was no mercy on Fitzgerald, however - he was hunted to the end by royal troops. The skirmishes continued from 1581 to 1583. The rebellion finally ended in November 1583 when the Earl was killed by the resident clan of O'Moriarty in the Slieve Mish Mountains, County Kerry. The leader of the clan, Maurice, received £ 1,000 in silver from the English government. Desmond's head was triumphantly displayed on the Cork city wall.
aftermath
After three years of war and ruined lands, Munster was hit by famine in 1582. In April 1582 Sir Warham St Leger estimated the number of deaths in the previous 6 months at 30,000 people. In cities like Cork, epidemics broke out and killed others. Even after the end of the rebellion, people still died from the famine and epidemics, and by 1589 almost a third of the population of Munster had died as a result. Arthur Gray de Wilton was ordered back to England by Elizabeth I because of his extreme brutality.
The Desmond Rebellions marked a turning point in Irish history. Although English control of Ireland was still far from complete, the Geraldines' power was broken and Munster was settled with English citizens. The reconquest of Ireland by the Tudors was completed with the Nine Years War in Ulster and the settlement of other parts of the country.
See also
literature
- Colm Lennon: Sixteenth Century Ireland. The Incomplete Conquest (= New Gill History of Ireland. Vol. 2). Gill & Macmillan, Dublin 1994, ISBN 0-7171-1623-9 .
- Edward O'Mahony: Baltimore, the O'Driscolls, and the end of Gaelic civilization, 1538-1615. In: Mizen Journal. Vol. 8, 2000, ISSN 1649-203X , pp. 110-127.
- Nicholas Canny: Making Ireland British. 1580-1650. Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 2001, ISBN 0-19-820091-9 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dún An Óir (Fort del Oro) on www.voicesfromthedawn.com ; accessed on June 16, 2017.
- ↑ Dún An Óir on www.megalithicireland.com ; accessed on June 16, 2017.