Siege of Enniskillen (1594)

Last updated
Siege of Enniskillen
Part of the Nine Years' War
Enniskillen Castle.jpg
Enniskillen Castle
DateJanuary–February 1594,
May 1594–May 1595
Location
Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland
Result Irish victory
Belligerents

Flag of England.svg England

O'Neill Clan.png Irish Alliance
Commanders and leaders
John Dowdall (1st siege)
James Eccarsall (2nd siege)		 Hugh Maguire
Hugh Roe O'Donnell
Cormac MacBaron O'Neill
Strength
Roughly 2,000 34

The siege of Enniskillen took place at Enniskillen in Fermanagh, present day Northern Ireland, in 1594 and 1595, during the Nine Years' War. In February 1594, the English had captured Enniskillen Castle from the Irish after a waterborne assault and massacred the defenders after they surrendered. From May 1594, an Irish army under Hugh Maguire and Cormac MacBaron O'Neill besieged the English garrison in the castle, and in August they defeated an English relief force. A second relief force was allowed to resupply the garrison, but the castle remained cut off. Eventually, in May 1595, the English garrison surrendered to the Irish and were then massacred.

Contents

Background

In 1593, Hugh Maguire, Chief of the Name and Lord of Fermanagh, had objected to the behaviour of the newly-appointed English Crown sheriff Humphrey Willis. As he had done before being expelled by Hugh Roe O'Donnell from Tyrconnell in 1592, Willis was cattle raiding and plundering throughout Clan Maguire territory. Maguire was not strong enough to resist the sheriff, but after receiving reinforcements from Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, Maguire expelled Willis. In May and June 1593, Maguire and Brian Oge O'Rourke of West Breifne raided lands held by the English Lord President of Connaught, Richard Bingham. They destroyed the town around Ballymote Castle. This was part of a proxy war waged to distract the Crown while Tyrone strengthened his position in Ulster. As hoped for, the Crown responded by sending an army under Sir Henry Bagenal and Gaelic leader Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone (outwardly still loyal to the Crown), who defeated Maguire's force at the Battle of Belleek in October 1593. However, Maguire's main force remained unscathed.

First siege

Enniskillen Castle sat on the River Erne and commanded the strategic bottleneck between Upper and Lower Lough Erne. [1] On 25 January 1594, English Captain John Dowdall arrived at Enniskillen by boat with three infantry companies. They dug trenches in which they placed light cannons and musketeers, but the cannons were too small to make much of an impact on the castle walls. [1] On 30 January, Captain George Bingham arrived with 300 men. [1]

They launched a waterborne assault on the castle. While musketeers in boats and artillery on land fired at the castle, a large boat holding 67 men anchored at a vulnerable part of the walls. They made a breach in the wall with pickaxes, forcing the Irish to take shelter in the keep. [1] Dowdall threatened to destroy the castle with gunpowder if the garrison did not surrender. [2] An Irish witness claimed there were 36 fighting men and 40 women and children in the castle, while Dowdall claimed there were 200. After they surrendered, Dowdall had them put to the sword and claimed to have killed 150. [1] Captain Thomas Lee, who was present, described this as a great dishonor to the Queen as the defenders had surrendered "uppon composicion, And your majesties worde being past to the poore beggars that kept it, they were all notwithstandinge dishonourably putt to the sworde in a most miserable state". [3]

Dowdall wrote on 2 February to the Lord Deputy that he had captured the castle from the "rebel" Hugh Maguire. An English garrison was left in place. A detailed coloured illustration of the siege was made shortly after. [4]

Second siege

On 17 May 1594, now acting with the covert support of Tyrone, Hugh Maguire and Cormac MacBaron O'Neill laid siege to Enniskillen which was now isolated in hostile country. Their army consisted of 1,400 foot soldiers and 600 horsemen. [1] It quickly grew with support arriving from Hugh Roe O'Donnell. The English commander, James Eccarsall, had only 50 foot soldiers and 24 horsemen to defend the castle, along with some light artillery. [1] [5] Eccarsall launched a sortie by boat but had to retreat under heavy fire. [1] Irish fortifications cut off access by river and the castle was attacked nightly. Many of the garrison fell sick due to food shortages and exhaustion brought on by incessant skirmishing with the Irish. [1]

On 7 August, Maguire and his allies defeated an English relief force for Enniskillen at the Battle of the Ford of the Biscuits. A second relief force commanded by the Lord Deputy William Russell was sent by another route. Although it was not attacked by the Irish, none of Russell's scouts or messengers reached the castle nor returned. [1] Russell relieved the beleaguered garrison by 30 August with six months supplies, then withdrew. [6] Following this, there was a truce, but "subterfuge and deception were the hallmarks of this stage of the war". [1]

Third siege

Maguire raised the clan and the castle was again attacked in January 1595. This time, forty picked men dressed in chain mail and armed with Lochaber axes attacked at night. His men overran the outer defences but the garrison held out in the tower. The Irish withdrew but took with them the garrison's three boats, preventing the English from patrolling the Erne and cutting them off. [1]

The garrison's plight was not lost on the authorities in Dublin, but the Crown did not have enough troops for a relief force, and Lord Deputy Russell considered withdrawing the garrison. [1] A report to the Lord Deputy suggested that Clan Maguire planned to bring down the walls with gunpowder. [1] In May 1595 the garrison agreed to surrender Enniskillen to the Irish in exchange for their lives. However, the entire garrison was then massacred. [7] Russell claimed that the garrison had surrendered on terms to Cormac MacBaron O'Neill, who then reneged upon his word and had the surrendered garrison executed en masse. This was inconsistent with the treatment of other English garrisons, such as the Blackwater Fort, who were granted liberal terms to leave their position in February 1595. However, the Enniskillen garrison may also have been slain as retaliation for Dowdall's similar violation of the surrender terms and massacre of Clan Maguire's defenders of the castle and their families in the year before. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">County Fermanagh</span> County in Northern Ireland

County Fermanagh is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of six counties of Northern Ireland

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enniskillen</span> Town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland

Enniskillen is the largest town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is in the middle of the county, between the Upper and Lower sections of Lough Erne. It had a population of 14,086 at the 2011 Census. Enniskillen Castle was built in the 15th century as a stronghold of the Maguires, before coming under English control in the early 17th century. The castle and town were expanded during the Plantation of Ulster. It was the seat of local government for the former Fermanagh District Council, and is the county town of Fermanagh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nine Years' War (Ireland)</span> 1593–1603 Irish war against Tudor conquest

The Nine Years' War, sometimes called Tyrone's Rebellion, took place in Ireland from 1593 to 1603. It was fought between an Irish confederation—led mainly by Hugh O'Neill of Tyrone and Hugh Roe O'Donnell of Tyrconnell—against English rule in Ireland, and was a response to the ongoing Tudor conquest of Ireland. The war began in Ulster and northern Connacht, but eventually engulfed the entire island. The Irish alliance won numerous victories against the English forces in Ireland, such as the Battle of Clontibret (1595) and the Battle of the Yellow Ford (1598), but the English won a pivotal victory against the alliance and their Spanish allies in the siege of Kinsale (1601–02). The war ended with the Treaty of Mellifont (1603). Many of the defeated northern lords left Ireland to seek support for a new uprising in the Flight of the Earls (1607), never to return. This marked the end of Gaelic Ireland and led to the Plantation of Ulster.

A list of the Lord Lieutenants of Fermanagh, located County Fermanagh of Northern Ireland, U.K.

Aodh Mag Uidhir, anglicised as Hugh Maguire was Chief of the Name of the Irish clan Maguire and Lord of Fermanagh during the reign of Elizabeth I. He died in battle resisting the Tudor conquest of Ireland as part of the Nine Years War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Clontibret</span> Battle fought during the Nine Years War

The Battle of Clontibret was fought in County Monaghan in May 1595, during the Nine Years' War in Ireland. A column of 1,750 English troops led by Henry Bagenal was ambushed near Clontibret by a larger Gaelic Irish army led by Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. The English column had been sent to relieve the besieged English garrison at Monaghan Castle. The English suffered very heavy losses, but a suicidal cavalry charge apparently saved it from destruction. The Irish victory shocked the English and was their first severe setback during the war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blacklion</span> Village in County Cavan, Ireland

Blacklion is a border village in west County Cavan, Ireland. It is situated on the N16 national primary road, just across the border from the County Fermanagh village of Belcoo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Cahir Castle</span> Siege during the Nine Years War in Ireland

The siege of Cahir Castle took place in Munster, in southern Ireland in 1599, during the campaign of the Earl of Essex against the rebels in the Nine Years War (1595-1603). Although the castle was considered the strongest fortress in the country, Essex took it after only a few days of artillery bombardment. However, Queen Elizabeth dismissed her commander's achievement, claiming the defenders were merely a "rabble of rogues".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enniskillen Castle</span> Castle in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland

Enniskillen Castle is situated in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It was originally built in the 16th century and now contains the Fermanagh County Museum and a museum for the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards and Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.

Hugh McShane O'Neill was an early modern Irish nobleman and rebel associated with the McShanes of Glenconkeyne and Killetra. This group was also called the "Wild Clan Shanes of Killetragh" or the "McShane-O'Neills". His parentage is disputed however he is claimed by some as being either a grandson or great-grandson of Conn O'Neill, 1st Earl of Tyrone, and Gearoid Mór Fitzgerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, and of the primary line of the O'Neill of Tyrone clan.

Events from the year 1600 in Ireland.

Events from the year 1594 in Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trillick</span> Village in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland

Trillick is a small village in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 2,439 people in the 2011 Census. Trillick is in the Civil Parish of Kilskeery, Barony of Omagh East. It is located within the Diocese of Clogher.

Sir Cormac MacBaron O'Neill (d.1613) was an Irish soldier and landowner of the Elizabethan and early Stuart eras. He was part of the O'Neill dynasty, one of the most prominent Gaelic families in Ireland.

Captain Humphrey Willis was an English soldier in Ireland in the sixteenth century, his parents are unknown. Captain Willis was appointed Sheriff of County Donegal and County Fermanagh by the Lord Deputy of Ireland William FitzWilliam. Captain Willis was a fluent speaker of Irish, and enforced his authority with a detachment of the Irish Army.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of the Ford of the Biscuits</span> Battle in Fermanagh, Ireland during the Nine Years War

The Battle of the Ford of the Biscuits took place in Fermanagh, Ireland on 7 August 1594, during the Nine Years' War. A column of almost 650 English troops led by Sir Henry Duke was ambushed and defeated by a Gaelic Irish force under Hugh Maguire and Cormac MacBaron O'Neill at the Arney River. The English column had been sent to relieve and resupply Enniskillen Castle, which had been under siege by the Irish since May. The English suffered at least 56 killed and 69 wounded, and were forced to make a hasty retreat.

Tomás Óg Mág Samhradháin was chief of the McGovern Clan and Baron or Lord of Tullyhaw barony, County Cavan from 1584 until his death at the end of the 16th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assault on the Blackwater Fort</span> 1595 engagement in Ireland

On 16 February 1595, a Gaelic Irish force assaulted and captured the English-held Blackwater Fort at Blackwatertown in County Armagh. The Irish were led by Art MacBaron O'Neill, brother of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and marked Tyrone's break with the English Crown as he openly waged war against the English forces in Ireland.

The Battle of Belleek, also known as the Battle of the Erne Fords, was fought on the River Erne near Belleek in Fermanagh, Ireland, on 10 October 1593. It was part of the buildup to the Nine Years' War. The battle was fought between a Gaelic Irish army under Hugh Maguire, lord of Fermanagh—who had begun a revolt against the English—and an English Crown expeditionary force under Sir Henry Bagenal, supported by Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. Maguire's force was defeated, but the bulk of his army was unscathed. Hugh O'Neill would later join Maguire in war against the English.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 O'Neill, "Three sieges and two massacres: Enniskillen and the outbreak of the Nine Years War, 1593-5", The Irish Sword , vol. XXX, no. 121 (2016), pp. 241–249.
  2. ↑ O'Neill, "Maguire's revolt but Tyrone's war: proxy war in fermanagh 1593-4", Seanchas Ard Mhacha, vol. 26, no. 1 (2016), pp 48-9
  3. ↑ Hiram Morgan (transc.) Infformacion giuen to Queen Elizabeth against Sir William Fitzwilliams, his gouernmente in Irelande..by Captain Thomas Lee, viewed at http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/E590001-002/index.html
  4. ↑ Logue, Paul. Siege of Enniskillen Castle map, 1594. Fermanagh County Museum.
  5. ↑ Disposition of the forces in Leinster and Ulster, 10 June 1594 (TNA, SP 63/175, f.92).
  6. ↑ Falls, p.185
  7. ↑ Falls, p.187

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.