Kingdom of England The siege of Kinsale (Irish: Léigear Chionn tSáile), also known as the battle of Kinsale, was the ultimate battle in England's conquest of Gaelic Ireland, commencing in October 1601, near the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and at the climax of the Nine Years' War—a campaign by Hugh O'Neill, Hugh Roe O'Donnell and other Irish lords against English rule.

[7] Owing to Spanish involvement and the strategic advantages to be gained, the battle also formed part of the Anglo-Spanish War, the wider conflict of Protestant England against Catholic Spain.

A string of battlefield victories from 1593 to 1599, and an expansion of the war from Ulster through the midlands and into Munster, had wrested control of most of the island from the English Crown.

[8] Following the failure of the Spanish Armada in 1588, Philip II decided to take advantage of the Irish rebels in order to create a new front in the war against England.

[7] Though the Spanish army had secured the town of Kinsale, they failed to expand their base into the surrounding region and were vulnerable to becoming besieged by English forces.

[11] The decision of the Spanish to land at Kinsale forced O'Neill to agree with his more impetuous ally, Red Hugh O'Donnell, to abandon his hitherto successful guerilla tactics and risk open confrontation.

Ringcurran fell soon after - Captain Paez de Clavijo with 86 Spanish prisoners agreed to surrender, leaving the besieged without any access to the sea.

At about midnight the Irish in two columns, led by Hugh O'Neill and O'Donnell, set out from their camp at Coolcarron and marched for the ridgeline at Ardmartin overlooking the English encampment.

The English scouts of Sir Richard Greames horse on outpost that night had been supposedly made aware of these movements when they observed the lit match of the Irish arquebusiers in the gloomy pre dawn moving into position on Ardmartin.

Mountjoy being immediately made aware of the intelligence that the Irish were within three quarters of a mile of his camp beat to arms and sent the Marshal Sir Richard Wingfield to further appraise the situation who quickly returned to confirm the message.

Many accounts speak of three battles; the vanguard, the center, and the rearguard, but it would seem that a small squadron volant (559 men) was formed from a part of O'Neill's column consisting of Tyrrell's Leinstermen and the Spanish foot.

As Mountjoy left camp in the company of Carew, the Lord President, all that was immediately available to the English were the remaining 400 horse of the severely depleted cavalry approximately nine troops in total.

[7] Advancing toward Ardmartin, Wingfield observed the Irish Squadron Volant under Richard Tyrell approaching the Earl of Thomond's camp who upon seeing the English, halted.

Whatever the purpose of O'Neills decision to retire he had firmly passed the initiative back to Mountjoy and was taking the fateful choice that was to cost him a battle, a campaign, a war and a kingdom.

Many of O'Neills Ulstermen may have already been familiar with this maneuver but the recent Cork volunteers and the wilder wood kern may have found it a claustrophobic and terrifying endeavor to stand motionless and packed together to await the attack.

From the east side of the stream, Mountjoy could see that the Irish and Spaniards had lined up in two units with a forlorn hope of shot in skirmish order guarding the passage of the ford to their front and the horse formed up behind the battle in reserve.

The troops of Clanrickard, Greames, Tasse, Fleming, Danvers, Godolphin, and Mitchell about 250 riders under the Marshal were able to splash across and outflank the Irish main battle line.

According to William Farmer the cavalry surgeon, the passage had been forced and held by Wingfield, Greames, and the loudly enthusiastic Richard de Burgh who routed the mounted Irish scouts guarding it.

[7] Contemporary eyewitnesses suggest that the English horse immediately charged the Irish in an attempt to break them but the Tercio was able to stand firm and with a bristling hedgehog of pikes repulsed the horsemen who about faced and had to retire.

O'Neill's cavalry totaling about 500 riders was made up of the elite of Gaelic society composed of the chiefs and gentlemen of the varied septs they were mounted on small Irish horses without stirrups and were armed with light spears and javelins or darts.

Seeing their opportunity the English horse led by Wingfield charged home into the disorganized Irish battle and caused a total rout of O'Neill's men who were ferociously pursued without quarter by the cavalry.

With the rout of O'Neills battle, Mountjoy sent word to Captain Francis Roe who was Lieutenant Colonel of St John's Regiment to advance with his men across the bog and charge the flank of Tyrrell's Squadron.

The Irish began to outpace their more heavily equipped Spanish allies who upon finding themselves abandoned, closed ranks, and retreated to a small hillock.

However, English sources state that the Spanish under Captain Don Alonzo Del Campo presented their pikes and resisted fiercely but were overwhelmed and hacked to pieces.

Of the main officers on the field only Lieutenant Bustamente amid the chaos managed to escape with about sixty other Spaniards who after three days without sleep were stunned by the defeat.

The Spanish were given honourable terms and surrendered Kinsale with their colours flying, and it was agreed that they were to be conveyed back to Spain on giving up their other garrisons of Dunboy, Baltimore, and Castlehaven.

It also showed the strength of the English cavalry techniques using the couched lance, as compared with the Irish method of no stirrup and overarm spear thrusting.

The result that the English were easily able to defeat and rout three times their number showed the weakness of the Irish forces in a conventional battle.

Most importantly O'Neill had shown a fatal caution when on top of Ardmartin by retreating to the Millwater when what was needed was decisive action to bring the Spaniards out of Kinsale.

Their intention was always to raise an army and oust English authority in their home province, but the territories they had left behind were soon divided up in the Plantation of Ulster, and they were never able to return.