Irish Confederate Wars
(1639-1651)
The Irish Confederate Wars , sometimes referred to as the Eleven Years War ( Irish Cogadh na hAon Bhliana Déag ), were a series of armed conflicts in Ireland between 1641 and 1653 . Opponents were the Roman Catholic Irish and the Protestant British settlers and their supporters in England and Scotland. The battles are also considered part of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms - a series of civil wars in the kingdoms of Ireland, England and Scotland , all of which were ruled by the English King Charles I.
The Rebellion - 1641–1642
The Irish Rebellion of October 1641 was originally planned as a swift and bloodless coup d'état by a small group under Phelim O'Neill to take power in Ireland from the British occupiers. It was planned to strike simultaneously in Dublin , Wicklow and the province of Ulster (including Derry ) and to occupy strategic buildings such as Dublin Castle . With few English soldiers stationed in Ireland, this plan had a chance of success, but the plan failed when the authorities in Dublin learned of the plan from an informant ( Owen O'Connolly, who had converted to Protestantism ) and Hugh MacMahon and Conor Maguire (both belonged to the group that would occupy Dublin Castle) had arrested. But the O'Neill rebels had recently captured several forts in Ulster, and the rebellion got out of hand. The hatred of the Irish against the British settlers led to a series of bloody acts of violence, and the English settlers also committed various massacres during this period .
From 1641 to early 1642 fighting in Ireland was characterized by small groups formed by local lords who attacked the opposing ethnic civilian population. First, the Irish groups in Ulster took advantage of the loss of law and order to avenge the Plantations . The Irish Catholic nobility initially set up their own military group to contain the violence, but after it became clear that the British-controlled government in Dublin wanted to punish all Catholics, the group switched sides and fought in turn against English troops.
In areas where British settlers were outnumbered, e.g. B. around Cork , Dublin , Carrickfergus and Derry , they created their own militia to stop the rebel forces. At this stage of the war there were various atrocities on both sides. Approx. 4,000 Protestants were massacred and another 12,000 are believed to have died after being evicted from their homes. Probably the most serious incident of this kind occurred in the (now Northern Ireland ) town of Portadown . In return, there were mass executions of Catholics and the like. a. in the woods of Kilwarlin and on Rathlin Island . What fueled the violence even more was the requirement of the English Parliament not to take prisoners among the Irish rebels, but to kill them directly. At the Battle of Julianstown , the rebels were able to defeat the government forces, but failed at the siege of Drogheda and could therefore never seriously endanger the city of Dublin.
In early 1642 there were still four areas where the rebels were concentrated: in Ulster under Phelim O'Neill, near the Pale under Viscount Gormanstown, in the southeast under the Butlers family and in the southwest under Donagh MacCarthy.
The Confederation - 1642–1648
In 1642 the English King Charles I sent a large army to Ireland, as did the Scottish Covenanters , to contain the rebellion, which they quickly succeeded in around Dublin and Ulster. In return, the so-called Confederation of Ireland was founded on the Irish side to both control the uprisings and to organize an Irish-Catholic war against the remaining British armies in Ireland. It was hoped to be able to stop a reconquest of Ireland by British or Scottish troops. The initiative of the Confederation came from the Catholic Bishop Nicholas French and the lawyer Nicholas Plunkett . With its headquarters in Kilkenny , which is why the confederation is often referred to as the "Confederation of Kilkenny", it set up its own army and controlled important port cities such as Waterford and Wexford . Almost all Irish Catholic lords joined the Confederation - the only exception was the Earl of Clanricarde, who remained neutral. But the Confederation Army suffered various defeats in the battles of Liscarroll , Kilrush and New Ross .
But the Confederation's ultimate defeat was prevented by the outbreak of the English Civil War , which resulted in much of the English troops in Ireland being relocated back to England. The Confederation troops were then able to recapture the English garrisons on their territory - only Ulster, Dublin and Cork remained in English and Scottish hands respectively. Garret Barry , a returned Irish mercenary, successfully besieged Limerick in 1642 , and the people of Galway were able to force the resident English garrison to surrender in 1643. The other English troops were also internally divided by the events of the English Civil War. While the garrison in Cork and the army of the settlers around Derry sided with the English Parliament, the troops in southeast Ireland supported the English king.
This development gave the Confederation more room to act and to build a better prepared army. In the course of this, a far-reaching tax system was introduced to cover the costs of the army. Further financial support came from the Catholic countries France and Spain as well as from the Vatican . The troops of the Confederate Army were commanded mainly by experienced Irish soldiers, for example Thomas Preston or Owen Roe O'Neill . In total, this resulted in a troop strength of approx. 60,000 men, who were divided into different units. But the Confederation did not use its chance to completely retake Ireland, but signed an armistice with the Protestant royalists in 1643 and spent the following three years in unsuccessful negotiations about the aspired Irish independence.
During the period from 1642 to 1646, the war consisted more of individual skirmishes and raids, in which both sides tried to starve their opponents by destroying supplies and crops - a tactic that caused large numbers of casualties, especially among the civilian population. There were no major battles during this period. Only in 1644 did the Confederates attempt an attack against the Scottish troops in Ulster, but were unable to recapture any land. Only the siege of Duncannon in 1645 brought the Confederation a success.
This calm was not broken until 1646 when the first English Civil War ended. The confederation ended the talks with the royalists (defeated in England) and tried to conquer the Irish island completely before the English parliament could start another invasion of Ireland. The Confederation also received support from the arrival of the papal nuncio Giovanni Battista Rinuccini , who brought a large amount of arms and money.
The first successes were the capture of Bunratty Castle , which was occupied by parliamentary troops, the victory at the Battle of Benburb against Scottish troops and the conquest of the city of Sligo . Later in 1646 the confederation armies from Leinster and Ulster united under Owen Roe O'Neill and Thomas Preston and besieged Dublin with a total of 18,000 men. However, James Butler had the lands around Dublin destroyed, and so the Confederates failed to maintain their army, which led to the siege being lifted. Butler, who according to his own statements "preferred the Irish rebels" then left Dublin and handed it over to an English army under Michael Jones . The city of Cork also received support from other soldiers from the English parliament.
In 1647 the tide began to turn and parliamentary troops inflicted various defeats on the Confederation, which eventually led the Confederation to ally with the English royalists to prevent a parliamentary invasion. But the signs were bad.
At the Battle of Dungans Hill in August 1647, Thomas Preston's army was wiped out by the army of Michael Jones. The Preston Army was the Confederation's best trained and equipped army and its defeat was a major blow. Furthermore, the English troops in Cork succeeded in destroying the lands in Munster , which eventually led to famine among the Irish civilian population. The Confederate Army from Munster suffered one last bitter defeat at the Battle of Knocknanauss , where they too were defeated and a British settler army from Ulster was able to recapture the city of Sligo. The chain of defeats eventually led to the Confederation placing its troops under the command of the royalists.
This decision led to fragmentation within the confederation, which eventually led to its dissolution.
Oliver Cromwell 1649-1653
The coalition of (former) Confederateists and royalists wasted many precious months fighting against opponents in their own ranks, such as Owen Roe O'Neill, who disagreed with the coalition. O'Neill later returned to the coalition.
In August 1649 Butler tried to take Dublin, but was defeated by Michael Jones at the Battle of Rathmines - a short time later Oliver Cromwell landed with the New Model Army in Ireland. What could not be done in eight years of struggle, Cromwell did in three years: the complete conquest of Ireland. He succeeded in this not least because of his excellently equipped and trained army, whose maintenance was guaranteed at all times.
Cromwell's first concern was securing the east coast of Ireland in order to secure assistance by sea from England. He besieged Drogheda and Wexford and carried out full massacres in these cities. Cromwell sent part of his troops north to support the settler army there, which suffered defeat at the Battle of Lisnagarvey .
The troops under Butler had practically nothing to oppose the military superiority of Cromwell, especially as far as the artillery was concerned; one city after another was besieged and conquered - only in the siege of Clonmel Cromwell suffered about 25% losses. In 1650 Cromwell returned to England, leaving the command of Henry Ireton .
After the Battle of Scarrifholis , Butler fled to France and was replaced by Sir Ulick Burke . In 1651 the Irish royalist troops controlled only a small area west of the River Shannon including the cities of Limerick and Galway and an enclave in County Kerry . Ireton besieged Limerick while a northern army besieged Galway . Both cities were too fortified to be stormed, but the siege and the resulting hunger and epidemics ultimately led to the cities surrendering. After the surrender of Limerick (1651) and Galway (1652), the Irish resistance was broken.
The conditions for surrender were so high that many smaller groups went into a kind of guerrilla fight. But the English troops punished everyone who helped the other rebels, burned their fields and destroyed the places, which not only led to famine but also to an outbreak of the bubonic plague . The last organized rebel group capitulated in Cavan in 1653 .
losses
The death toll from the conflict was enormous. William Petty , an Englishman who carried out the first scientific land survey and census ( Down Survey ) , believed that between 400,000 and 620,000 people perished in Ireland from 1641 to 1653. Nowadays the number is assumed to be lower, but current estimates also speak of at least 200,000 deaths - in a country with just 1.5 million inhabitants. The defeat of Irish troops led to mass expropriations of Catholic land and British Protestant dominance in Ireland over the next two centuries.
The war, especially the Cromwell conquest, continued to be reflected in Irish culture for a long time. Irish-language poems of the post-war period often lament the lack of cohesion among Irish Catholics, which is blamed for the failure of the Confederation.
literature
- Gerard Anthony Hayes McCoy: Irish Battles. A military history of Ireland. Appletree Press, Belfast 1990, ISBN 0-86281-250-X .
- John Kenyon, Jane Ohlmeyer (Eds.): The Civil Wars. A Military History of England, Scotland, and Ireland 1638-1660. Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 1998, ISBN 0-19-866222-X .
- Pádraig Lenihan: Confederate Catholics at War, 1641–49. Cork University Press, Cork et al. 2001, ISBN 1-85918-244-5 .
- James Scott Wheeler: Cromwell in Ireland. St. Martin's Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-312-22550-4 .