campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page i
CAMPAIGN JOURNALS OF THE ELIZABETHAN IRISH WARS Commission
Manuscripts
Irish
Material:
Copyrighted campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page ii
Commission
Manuscripts
Irish
Material:
Copyrighted campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:39 Page iii
CAMPAIGN JOURNALS OF THE ELIZABETHAN IRISH WARS Commission
Edited by DAVID EDWARDS Manuscripts
Irish
Material:
Copyrighted
IRISH MANUSCRIPTS COMMISSION 2014 campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:39 Page iv
Commission
Published byManuscripts Irish Manuscripts Commission 45 Merrion Square IrishDublin 2 Ireland www.irishmanuscripts.ie
ISBN 978–1–906865–51–1 Material: Copyright © Irish Manuscripts Commission 2014
David Edwards has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this text in accordance with the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000, Section 107.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, Copyrightedrecording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher.
Typeset by Carole Lynch in Adobe Garamond Printed by Brunswick Press, Dublin Index compiled by David Edwards campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page v
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS VII
ABBREVIATIONS VIII
INTRODUCTION IX
EDITORIAL NOTE XXI Commission
CAMPAIGN JOURNALS 1
1. ANTRIM AND THE SACKING OF RATHLIN ISLAND A heraldic journal, 10 August–21 September 1557 3
2. HUMPHREY GILBERT IN MUNSTER Five letter-journals, September–December 1569 12
3. CAMPAIGNING AND GOVERNING IN MUNSTERManuscripts Sir William Drury’s letter-journal, March 1578 22
4. AWAITING FITZ MAURICE Irish A financial journal of Munster operations: early-to-mid 1579 29
5. THE ‘BREVIATE’ OF LORD JUSTICE PELHAM A war diary, 11 October 1579–7 September 1580 34
6. A NOTE OF SERVICE DONE IN IRELAND IN SIR WILLIAM PELHAM’STIME Material:[December 1579–August 1580] 111
7. WITH PELHAM IN MUNSTER A captain’s letter-journal, 10 March–22 April 1580 114
8. NAVAL SUPPLIES AND TRANSPORTS A financial journal, July 1579–March 1580 120
9. COASTAL OPERATIONS IN CORK AND KERRY Copyrighted Bingham’s report of service, 9–30 June 1580 127
10. PROCEEDINGS IN CONNACHT Sir Nicholas Malby’s discourse, 6 February–7 April 1580 133 campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page vi
vi CAMPAIGN JOURNALS OF THE ELIZABETHAN IRISH WARS
11. ANOTHER VICEROY’S VINDICATION Lord Grey de Wilton’s declaration of service, August 1580– August 1582 140
12. SETTLING THE BURKES, BANISHING THE SCOTS Sir Nicholas Malby’s discourse, 20 February–6 March 1581 155
13. QUELLING THE MACDONNELLS Sir John Perrot’s letter-journals, September–October 1584 165
14. SIR JOHN PERROT’S TWO ULSTER JOURNEYS A financial journal of 1584–5 174 15. TWO SIEGES IN CONNACHT Commission Sir Richard Bingham’s book of charges, 1584–6 182
16. POST-ARMADA OPERATIONS IN CONNACHT A financial journal of 1588–9 187
17. THE RUSSELL CAMPAIGNS Sir William Russell’s ‘journal of all passages’, June 1594– May 1597 190 Manuscripts 18. AN EARLY RECORD OF SIR WILLIAM RUSSELL’S SERVICE A ‘note of such journeys’, August 1594–March 1595 282
19. CAMPAIGNING IN CORK Irish The journal of Sir Thomas Norris, 27 March–4 April 1599 284
INDEX 287 Material:
Copyrighted campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page ix
INTRODUCTION
t is surprising some of the things that were written down in the course of crown military operations in Tudor Ireland to form part of the official wartime record. Late Iin the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603), while preparing an expedition into Wicklow where native rebels were showing in strength, the English viceroy and commander-in- chief of the queen’s forces received a message that had nothing at all to do with his impending mission. Instead it dealt with the fate of an Irish baby girl. CommissionShe had been born ‘dead, with two heads upon one body’ and her little corpse had been sent to Waterford for medical examination. The message is entered, briefly summarised, in the viceroy’s journal of service.1 Markedly less poignant, but equally unrelated to the waging of war, years earlier an English commander stationed in Connacht had casually noted in a campaign report how each year about fifty English boats could be found fishing ‘for salmon, herring and all kinds of sea fish’ off the north Mayo coast. The observation was more suited to a travelogue, yet it too was written into a formal military record.2 Unusual details are also logged about the behaviour of the crown’s officers and soldiers during the campaigns in which they participated.Manuscripts For example, of the seniormost officers, it is recorded that the viceroy, Sir William Russell (chief governor 1594–7), enjoyed country walks, and would sometimes leave his command to ‘take the air’ or ‘walk abroad’, often alone – something thatIrish plainly alarmed his servants and attendants, and endangered his person.3 Of the provincial commanders, records suggest that the notorious military governor of Munster Humphrey Gilbert (colonel 1569–71) invested much nervous energy in a Spartan-like show of courage and sternness when serving in the province: no surprise there, except that the same records also indicate that in private he suffered from stress and anxiety brought on by his exertions. On reaching Kilmallock after a hazardousMaterial: journey from Cork in which he had brought reinforcements through miles of enemy territory it is noted down that ‘the care and trouble of this service threw the Colonel in a fever’.4 The physical and mental strain of service could also fall heavily on junior officers, particularly those given command of remote garrison outposts. In July 1580 the stress of holding out for months in the middle of Desmond country proved too much for Captain Roger Butler, the English constable of Adare. A contemporary journal states that as the main detachment of the royal army passed by his fort, marching away towards Limerick, he ‘wilfully slew himself’ with his handgun.5
Copyrighted ******* 1 LPL, MS 612, f. 89r. 2 Malby’s discourse, n.d., Apr. 1580 (TNA, SP 63/72/39). 3 LPL, MS 612, ff 7v, 16v, 43r, 91v. 4 Captain Ward to Cecil, 18 Oct. 1569 (TNA, SP 63/29/68). 5 LPL, MS 597, f. 67v. campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page x
x CAMPAIGN JOURNALS OF THE ELIZABETHAN IRISH WARS
Stillborn babies, English fishing fleets, raw nerves, suicides, country walks: varied and diverse fragments of information, yet all somehow reflective of English service in sixteenth-century Ireland — and, crucially, all preserved among a distinct group of official documents that record that service, the campaign journals that were kept for the commanding officers in the field. By any measure the journals are of major importance to the history of the period. Most obviously, they comprise a key source for the many armed conflicts between royal forces and native rulers that occurred almost continually across the country from the middle of the century until 1603, and which formed the central episodes in what is usually termed the Elizabethan conquest of Ireland. Journals survive for many of the most important of these regional wars. They record the royal expeditions into central and north-east Ulster against Shane O’Neill and the Antrim MacDonnells with which Elizabeth I’s reign commenced; the Munster operations against James FitzMaurice and the earl of Desmond that occupied successive administrations during the middleCommission years of the queen’s reign; the conflict in Connacht with the Clanricarde and Mayo Burkes that followed; and, lastly, the numerous ‘hostings’ and ‘journeys’ undertaken to combat the turmoil sparked by Tyrone’s rebellion and Spanish invasion plans in the final years of the reign. For anyone with a serious interest in military affairs the journals are essential reading. They provide precise chronologies for major crown expeditions, something not always attainable in other sources. They describe the routes the royal forces took and the terrain through which they passed as they proceededManuscripts through friendly or neutral areas into enemy country. They record the sites chosen for field camps and the efforts made to maintain supply lines over ever-longer distances, the impact of rough weather on combat conditions and communications systems, and the sheer difficulty of making a rendezvous, reaching a destination, orIrish simply locating the enemy in a landscape that often enabled concealment. The journals are especially valuable for the light they shed on the internal structures of the royal army in the field, specifying such things as the total numbers of troops deployed and their captains, the proportion of cavalry to infantry and of gunners to swordsmen, the division of responsibility among lesser officers, and (no small matter) the contribution of native auxiliary forces and their leaders as guides, specialistMaterial: fighters, or simply reinforcements, as operations progressed. And, of course, the journals portray the cut and thrust of combat itself. They provide vivid first-hand descriptions of battles and skirmishes on land and sea, beside rivers, forests, and mountain passes, and involving castles, crannogs, and other defensive enclosures. They also deal with atrocity, supplying unforgettable testimony to the wilful slaughter of non-combatants — women, children, and the elderly — and the deliberate inducement of famine which punctuated the wars. All told, for the sheer fascination of perceiving the Irish wars as they were experienced, from within the ranks of Elizabeth’s army, the journals are second to none. CopyrightedHowever, the campaign journals are a significant primary source for other reasons too. Not least, they record senior crown officers such as the viceroys and provincial governors performing a wide range of tasks besides waging war; that is to say, they are professional work journals as well as campaign journals. In Elizabethan Ireland, because of the campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page xi
INTRODUCTION xi
frequency of military conflict, crown government and administration was necessarily often itinerant, literally government on horseback or government by campsite. When the viceroy went on campaign routine administration followed him. Messengers galloped back and forth between his field headquarters and Dublin carrying letters to and from the members of the Irish Council remaining in the capital to oversee government in his absence, or to and from the queen and Privy Council at Whitehall, other crown commanders, local lords and landowners, merchants, purveyors, Exchequer officials, and all manner of litigants and petitioners seeking favours or other concessions. Often these letters and messages dealt with military matters, but nearly as often they did not. Appointments to secular and clerical positions, leases of crown land, authoristion of payments, redress of grievances, settlement of disputes, arrangements for public receptions, licences to trade or travel: all of these matters, and more, required the personal sanction of the viceroy, and sometimes of the provincial governor, and seeing to their implementation could demand much time on campaign.Commission The journals record this in considerable detail, directly and indirectly. As such they are a valuable additional source for Tudor administrative history. Indeed in some cases the administrative data they contain is unique. Sir William Pelham’s journal, covering the period from late October 1579 until early September 1580, contains a number of land grants and appointments to church benefices, school teaching positions, shrievalties, and martial law commissions that are not recorded elsewhere, and concludes with page after page of ‘custodiams’ of rebel estates and property that were dispensed by Pelham to hisManuscripts servants and clients in the final weeks of his rule. This latter feature is noteworthy. Because custodiams fell within his prerogative power as viceroy they are barely noticed in other records of the crown estate at this time; their listing in his journal throws a welcome light on the distribution of wartime spoils among various crownIrish servitors and viceregal hangers-on, an otherwise mysterious subject.6 Regarding the emergence of an English-style presidential administration in Munster it is only in the campaign journal of Lord President Drury, ostensibly reporting his expedition against dissident elements in Tipperary and the Limerick borders, that we know virtually anything about his gathering in of arrears due on crown lands, spiritual livings, escheats and wardships, or the revenues he raised through fines imposedMaterial: at court sessions across the province in 1578.7 Viceroy Russell’s journal, meanwhile, is almost as valuable for study of conciliar government as of military affairs early in the Nine Years War, including as it does details of more than 340 meetings of the Irish Council between August 1594 and May 1597. Many of these meetings are nowhere else recorded. The same source is also remarkable for the information it contains about Protestant religious practice, recording more than 70 Sunday services that Russell attended, mostly in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, but also while with the army in the field in places as far apart as Enniskillen, Dundalk, Galway, and Rathdrum. In many cases these entries not only name the officiating clergy, Copyrightedbut also record whether one or two sermons were preached, with the names of the preachers, information which, again, is rarely noted in other sources.8
6 For example, LPL, MS 597, ff 41v, 43v, 53v, 64v, 66v, 69v–74r. 7 Drury’s report, 24 Mar. 1578 (TNA, SP 63/60/25). 8 LPL, MS 612, passim. campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page xii
xii CAMPAIGN JOURNALS OF THE ELIZABETHAN IRISH WARS
More broadly, the campaign journals are also significant as evidence of a major European trend, namely the burgeoning bureaucracy and service culture of Renaissance states generally. Across Europe and the New World, beginning in the sixteenth century, leading government servants began to be required to make regular reports of service to the regimes they served, in line with the increased monitoring and policing of officials that accompanied the growing centralisation of state authority. Understandably officers involved in military operations were especially prone to such demands, the better to curb excessive expenditure, keep track of their movements, or rein in their ambitions. The fact that so much is known about incidents along the vast Habsburg/Ottoman frontier, for example, or about Spanish exeditions in North, Central and South America, is partly a result of increasing official reportage.9 Interestingly, as in Elizabethan Ireland, the usual medium for reporting military endeavours in these far- flung theatres was a journal. Though an old word which formerly had applied to ecclesiastical or accountancy matters, meaning a mere record of daily occurrences,Commission ever since the rise of humanist learning and classics-based education during the later 1400s it had come also to signify a record of military happenings, the format of which was directly derived from the writings of Julius Caesar, in particular his journals of the Gallic Wars, De Bello Gallico. Besides echoing the practices of Ancient Rome and its greatest soldier, to sixteenth-century commanders the journal was an attractive form of military record because, Caesar-like, it enabled them to place themselves at the centre of the action while recording their experience in chronological order. Provided, then, that they are examined carefully,Manuscripts it might be anticipated that the various journals of the Elizabethan Irish wars will contribute to a better understanding of the political and cultural impulses behind the production of military records during the Renaissance period, and enable consideration of the mentalité of the growing cadre of high-born well educated senior office-holdersIrish whose services facilitated greater government authority and territorial out-reach.10
******* For all their obvious importance, the campaign journals of the Elizabethan officers in Ireland have remained a markedly underutilised resource. They have never been written about, orMaterial: even recognised as a distinct group of documents among the government papers of the period. With just a single exception, describing the journals kept for the second earl of Essex during his short viceroyalty in 1599,11 not one of the
9 One of the best sources for the duke of Alba’s Portuguese campaign of 1580 (besides Alba’s own correspondence) is the journal kept by a German noble officer under his command, the ‘Tagebuch des Erich Lassota von Steblau’. This has been printed in J. García Mercadal, Viajes de extranjeros por Espa a y Portugal (2 vols, Madrid, 1952), i, 1253–92. Among the multitude of journals and diaries of New World expeditions see George Hammond amd Agapito Rey (ed. and trans.), Narratives of the Coronado expedition, 1540–1542 (Albuquerque, NM, 1940); Herbert Priestly (ed. and trans.), Luna papers: documents relating to the expedition Copyrighted… and conquest of La Florida, 1559–1561 (2 vols, Deland FL, 1928); Albert Schroeder and Dan Matson (ed. and trans.), A colony on the move: Gaspar Castano de Sosa’s journal, 1590–1591 (Salt Lake City, 1965). 10 For further discussion of this point see David Edwards, ‘Fashioning service in a Renaissance state: the official journals of the Elizabethan viceroys in Ireland’, in Brendan Dooley (ed.), Renaissance now!… (Oxford, Bern etc, 2014). 11 L.W. Henry, ‘Contemporary sources for Essex’s lieutenancy in Ireland, 1599’, Irish Historical Studies, xi (1958–9), pp 8–17. campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page xiii
INTRODUCTION xiii
numerous academic studies of the Elizabethan wars or of Elizabethan government policy to have appeared over the last century contains any detailed scrutiny of a campaign journal, its context, composition, or content. This applies even to studies of individual campaigns and sieges which, though often highly dependent on the information supplied in the journals, rarely afford them much discussion. Likewise, the fact that most of the surviving examples were written for the queen’s viceroys, and that the viceroys considered them necessary, is overlooked in practically every scholarly inquiry into viceregal rule. Instead of carefully analysing the journals, historians — the present writer included — have been content merely to raid them in search of points of detail or colourful quotations to augment their study of various themes or episodes across Elizabeth’s reign. While, of course, there is nothing wrong with that per se — historians must find their data wherever they can — the campaign journals are too rich a source to remain underused much longer. They mostly survive either among the mass of government records genericallyCommission called the Irish state papers, or else among the Carew manuscripts, a large private collection of official material that was assembled early in the Jacobean period by the former Lord President of Munster, Sir George Carew (later earl of Totnes). Thirdly, in the British Library the papers of another Jacobean collector, Sir Robert Cotton, include important journals of Malby’s operations in Connact in 1581.12 In addition, there is a small collection of journals among the Heralds’ Books in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, written by the Athlone pursuivant-at-arms Philip Butler, describing expeditions led by the earl of Sussex betweenManuscripts 1556 and 1563. 13 Carew later acquired copies of several of these14 — but not, significantly, of them all, so that a very detailed account of the earl of Sussex’s autumn 1557 hosting into Ulster against the MacDonnells and Shane O’Neill has remained overlooked until now (see no. 1 below). It is especially regrettable that moreIrish Heralds’ Books have not survived. The officers of arms continued to compose journals of viceregal hostings and progresses well into the 1590s, but few of these are extant for the period after 1563.15 It is unfortunate too that the official papers of Sir William Fitzwilliam (viceroy 1571–5, 1588–94) that are held in Northamptonshire Record Office and the Bodleian Library do not contain versions of the journal of his hosting against Desmond of August 1574; only an incomplete textMaterial: of that hosting now remains, among the Heralds’ Books, written by the Ulster king-at-arms Nicholas Narbon.16
12 BL, Cotton MS Titus B XIII, ff 327r–332v. This volume also contains a financial journal of acting viceroy William Drury’s Munster expedition of summer/autumn 1579 (ibid., ff 279r–280v). 13 TCD, MS 581, ff 75r–90r. 14 LPL, MS 621, ff 15r–26v. It seems likely, however, that Carew’s source was another collection of Philip Butler’s journals, which has since disappeared: for one thing, his set is missing the single longest journal in TCD, MS 581, recording Sussex’s aforementioned expedition; for another, there are a number of places where the text of Carew’s versions diverge from the TCD texts. Given the untidy state of TCD, MS 581, with numerous stains and crossings-out, it is possible that Carew had tracked down Butler’s Copyrightedfine copies of the journals. 15 For example, Sidney’s expedition of 1569 (TCD, MS 660, pp 78–91), and a ‘Note’ of Russell’s journeys, Aug. 1594–Mar. 1596 (TCD, MS 581, f. 53r). Moreover, two pursuivants accompanied Mountjoy into Ulster in 1600: Book of payments, 30 Sept. 1600 (TNA, SP 63/207(5)/56). 16 TCD MS 660, p. 92. For listings of Fitzwilliam’s papers, see Charles McNeill (ed.), ‘Fitzwilliam MSS at Milton, England’, Analecta Hibernica, no. 4 (1932), pp 287–326; David Edwards and Brian Donovan, campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page xiv
xiv CAMPAIGN JOURNALS OF THE ELIZABETHAN IRISH WARS
Most regrettable of all, however, is the low survival rate of campaign journals among the state papers. As Elizabeth’s reign progressed the queen and her ministers demanded more and more record-keeping by the military in Ireland, culminating in a decree issued by the Lord Treasurer, Buckhurst, in 1600 that required even junior officers to keep journals of ‘what service’ they and their bands ‘hath done her majesty in respect of [their] pay’. Indeed, they were to present their journals monthly and in triplicate, giving one copy to their provincial commander, another to the viceroy, Lord Mountjoy, and another still ‘to the Lords of the Council’ at Whitehall.17 Though this was not as novel a development as at first sight it might appear — some of the ordinary captains had begun writing-up journals of service well before this date18 — Buckhurst clearly intended a major escalation in Whitehall’s oversight. It would have produced a huge surge in military data. Such was the number of captains in service by 1600 that Buckhurst’s decree, if it was implemented, may have led to the production of hundreds (if not thousands) of journals; and these, necessarily, would have recorded manyCommission minor as well as major army operations, thus plugging a serious gap in our knowledge. Alas, however, hardly any journals survive. Either they were simply lost, or else Buckhurst’s decree was never put into effect. The latter seems the likelier explanation. Only a few of the extant campaign journals have been published in a satisfactory manner. Several accounts of Sir Henry Sidney’s campaigns have appeared in full, the best known of which are his elegantly written descriptions of his hostings of 1575, 1576 and 1578 that are printed verbatim in an eighteenth-century edition of his letters and papers,19 while the complete text of his 1569Manuscripts campaign against the Butlers and FitzMaurice has also been published in a selection of material culled from the Heralds’ Books held in TCD.20 Similarly the journals of the earl of Essex’s exploits in 1599: though these have not been printed in full, they have been expertly calendared by the Victorian editors of the later ElizabethanIrish state papers and Carew manuscripts so that virtually nothing of any importance was omitted from their calendar entries.21 So too, for that matter, the captains’ journals that describe the defeat of Sir Henry Harrington in Wicklow in 1599,22 or the journals of Mountjoy’s expeditions between 1600 and 1602: these also have received quite fulsome treatment in the published calendars.23
16 contd. British sources for Irish history, 1485–1641: a guide to manuscripts in local, regional and specialised repositories in England,Material: Scotland and Wales (IMC, Dublin, 1997), pp 195–200, 227; T. D. Hardy and J. S. Brewer, Report to the Right Honourable the Master of the Rolls upon the Carte and Carew papers in the Bodleian and Lambeth libraries (London, 1864). 17 CSPI, 1599–1600, pp 377–83. 18 John Ward’s two reports of service under Gilbert in Munster are among the earliest written by an ordinary captain: Ward to Cecil, 26 Sept. and 18 Oct. 1569 (TNA, SP 63/29/64, 68) (see no. 2). In the period immediately before Buckhurst’s decree, in June and July 1599, several officers had submitted journals describing the defeat of Sir Henry Harrington in Wicklow (CSPI, 1599, pp 59–60, 83–91); likewise the report by Lieutenant Henry Harte of Sir John Chichester’s disastrous last expedition, in Nov. 1597, printed in W. Pinkerton, ‘The overthrow of Sir John Chichester at Carrickfergus in 1597’, Ulster Journal of Archaeology, v (1857), pp 193–6. Copyrighted19 Arthur Collins (ed.), Letters and memorials of state, i, pp 18–31, 75–80, 81–85, 89–97, 102–10, 149– 56, 240–4. 20 Edmund Curtis, ‘Extracts out of Heralds’ Books in Trinity College, Dublin, relating to Ireland in the 16th Century’, JRSAI, lxii (1932), pp 28–49. 21 CSPI, 1599–1600, pp 37–40, 76–7, 144–7; Cal. Carew MSS, iii, pp 301–12, 321–5. 22 CSPI, 1599–1600, pp 59–60, 83–91. 23 Cal. Carew MSS, iv, pp 179–200, 496–8; CSPI, 1601–3, pp 153–5, 209–12, 219–20, 240–2, 267–9, 272–5, 275–9. campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page xv
INTRODUCTION xv
But herein lurks a problem. By the time the Victorian series of printed calendars had reached the second half of Elizabeth’s reign, in the early 1870s, the editorial policy of the publisher, the Stationery Office in London, had changed. The calendars published after this date tended for the most part to provide much fuller entries and descriptions to the documents they contained than those that had been published previously. Thus the stark contrast between the excellent coverage of Essex’s campaign journals of 1599, for instance, and the very limited treatment of those for Gilbert’s of 1569–70 or Pelham’s of 1579–80. As anyone who has used the first two printed volumes of the Tudor-period Calendars of state papers relating to Ireland can attest, the coverage afforded the documents that are noticed there is best described as slight.24 Moreover, though the editors of the Carew calendars (which were published simultaneously with the Calendars of state papers) were granted much greater scope in terms of the length and fullness of the descriptions they employed, their treatment of the campaign journals in the Carew collection leaves much to be desired.Commission25 Some of the very best journals of the Elizabethan Irish wars belong to this collection, yet the calendar entries they were given do not always reflect this fact. Even the journal described at most length in the Carew calendars, the extraordinary three-year diary of Sir William Russell for 1594–7, is only superficially good: to compare the calendared version with the original manuscript is to discover numerous missing entries besides the frequent elision of much key information and the misidentification of numerous persons and places.26 Worse again is the treatment of Pelham’s journal. In manuscript it encompasses 108 pages (54 folios) and recordsManuscripts Pelham’s actions almost every day for 330 days; in the printed calendar it receives just a page-and-a-half, and only six days’ service is noted.27 Little wonder that Pelham’s role in the Desmond war barely features in the history books. Because the Carew calendar seriesIrish was so much better than the first volumes of the calendars of state papers, historians from Richard Bagwell onwards were predisposed to accept it as an acceptable guide to the contents of the Carew collection. Indeed, as Bagwell himself suggested soon after the publication of the final volume of the Calendar of Carew Manuscripts, the series seemed to offer such thorough coverage that he reckoned it would never again be necessary to consult the original documents.28 Years later CyrilMaterial: Falls, the author of the standard narrative account of the Elizabethan Irish wars, echoed Bagwell’s view.29 This still remains a widely held opinion. Even the later volumes of the Calendars of state papers, though much better than the initial volumes, can be deficient in their coverage of the military journals of the period. Sometimes, as in the case of Richard Bingham’s account of the naval operations on the Kerry coast in June 1580 or Sir Thomas Norris’s journal of an expedition in Co. Cork
24 CSPI, 1509–73, and CSPI, 1574–85, both edited by Hans Claude Hamilton (London 1860, 1867). In fairness to Hamilton and his successors, the volumes covering the period 1586–1603 were excellent, and remain standard sources to this day. The Irish Manuscripts Commission is currently replacing the 1509– Copyrighted85 volumes with a new series of calendars better suited to the requirements of modern scholarship. 25 Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts preserved at Lambeth Palace Library (6 vols, London 1867–73), edited by J. S. Brewer and William Bullen. 26 Cal. Carew MSS, 1589–1600, pp 220–60. 27 Cal. Carew MSS, 1575–88, pp 312–14. 28 Richard Bagwell, Ireland under the Tudors (3 vols, London, 1885–90), i, preface. 29 Cyril Falls, Elizabeth’s Irish wars (London, 1950), pp 347–8. campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page xvi
xvi CAMPAIGN JOURNALS OF THE ELIZABETHAN IRISH WARS
in 1599, the editors deemed the items unworthy of detailed decription, and passed over them in a couple of lines. However, a more general weakness of the later calendars of state papers — and a weakness they shared with the Carew series — was the lack of coverage they gave to financial journals associated with various campaigns. As often as not these documents, which can reveal all sorts of significant information about the manning and organisation of army operations, are merely noted in the calendars, given a title, a date of composition, and precious little else. Hence this book: what ensues hereafter is an edition of the complete texts of a number of Elizabethan war journals from Ireland that either have never been published before or else have been published inadequately. Of previously unpublished documents there are only four – the herald’s journal for Sussex’s ‘journey’ against the MacDonnells in autumn 1557, which includes an account of his sacking of Rathlin Island (see no. 1); the financial journal of Drury’s campaign expenses in Munster in early 1579 (see no. 4); the ‘discourse’ or narrative of Malby’s efforts to drive the Scots outCommission of north Connacht in spring 1581 (see no. 12); and another financial journal, recording Bingham’s campaigning in Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim in 1588–9 (see no. 16). Of re- editions there are far more, ranging from the diaries of Pelham and Russell, which are by far the largest documents in the book, to a number of smaller journals that merit much fuller treatment than earlier publications had permitted them.
******* As already noted, the campaign journals of the ElizabethanManuscripts Irish wars were not uniform. Reflecting changes in the contemporary usage of the word several different types of ‘journal’ have survived. Some are simple financial records, accounting for the expenditure incurred during particular military and naval operations, but the majority are prose journals, providing a chronologically arrangedIrish narrative of occurrences, day by day. The prose journals differ widely in style and format. The following are the main types: Heraldic journals Composed by a member of the Office of Arms these were written only for the viceroy, as head of state. Besides recording his military outings to different parts of the countryMaterial: they pay especially close attention to the civil and religious pageantry during his travels, such as his dubbing of knights or celebration of feast days, and the public receptions that were staged for him in various Irish cities and towns. They may have influenced the composition and content of other viceregal journal types such as diaries and letter-journals, which also can contain lengthy digressions dealing with ceremonial matters. Letter-journals The most typical format of all, these were journals of military or naval service contained within the structure of a routine letter. They were usually written by a Copyrightedcommander to his superiors in Whitehall or Dublin describing a particular expedition in chronological sequence; sometimes they were also written by lesser officers serving under these commanders. Despite their unique access to heraldic journals, many viceroys availed of letter-journals to provide a record of their campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page xvii
INTRODUCTION xvii
campaigns. This was partly due to speed. Heraldic journals seem often to have been formally written-up many months after a campaign, once the officer-of- arms was free from other tasks; letter-journals, in contrast, could be written-up and despatched almost as soon as a campaign was over, giving an instant report of its progress. However, letter-journals were flexible too, and could as easily facilitate the postponement of reportage as its instant communication, depending on circumstances; and they also allowed the author a choice of who to report to, and so could further the political interests of a serving commander, by confirming his relationship with a powerful patron. Lastly, letter-journals also had much to recommend them stylistically. Unlike heraldic journals, which had to be written by an officer-of-arms in line with the (rather dull) literary conventions of his office, letter-journals could be written by anyone of the commander’s choosing, and in a style that was considered pleasing. Accordingly the generally higher calibre of the prose that characterises the letter-journals was mostly the handiworkCommission of the growing number of secretaries employed during Elizabeth’s reign, highly educated figures such as Ludovick Bryskett, Morgan Coleman, Edmund Spenser, and Francis Mitchell, who served Viceroys Drury, Pelham, Grey, and Russell respectively, and were able to present their masters’ services in language designed to entertain as well as inform a select readership. Discourses/Reports Only a small proportion of extant campaign journals were ever described as ‘discourses’. Of these, two dating to 1580 andManuscripts 1581 are published below, written by the governor of Connacht, Nicholas Malby (nos 10 and 12).30 In neither case was Malby actually responsible for the attribution; rather, ‘discourse’ was merely the description given byIrish the clerk who filed the documents away, and who superscribed the word onto them as a finding-aid. Its use testifies to the universal application of the word at the time, which was used to describe all manner of extended official writings on virtually any subject of relevance to government, from formal state-of-the-realm reports to memoranda of things to be done in the future.31 A more accurate term for Malby’s type of journal might be ‘report’,Material: as for the most part he sticks to recounting and describing events chronologically, as they occurred, with only limited discussion (or ‘discourse’) of broader policy considerations. In fact, both of his reports read like letter-journals, shorn of the conventional trappings of an opening and closing address to the reader. He presumably dispensed with these because he sent both reports as inclosures in his ordinary correspondence, with covering letters addressed to his intended recipients, one to Sir Francis Walsingham, the other either to Walsingham or the earl of Leicester.32 30 For another example, Captain Atherton’s ‘true discourse’ of a campaign in Wicklow in 1599, see CSPI, Copyrighted1599–1600, pp 83–7. 31 David Heffernan, ‘Tudor reform treatises and government policy in sixteenth-century Ireland’ (PhD thesis, University College Cork, 2012); ch. 1 provides a detailed examination of the variety of discourse literature at this time. 32 Though unaddressed, Malby’s 1581 journal is found in BL, Cotton MS Titus B XIII, ff 327r–332v, in a volume containing part of Leicester’s Irish correspondence; his 1580 journal was sent as an inclosure in one of his letters to Walsingham: Malby to Walsingham, 8 April 1580 (TNA, SP 63/72/40). campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page xviii
xviii CAMPAIGN JOURNALS OF THE ELIZABETHAN IRISH WARS
Discourses/Declarations Ironically, the closest any of the campaign journals came to meeting the usual definition of a ‘discourse’ — an extended exposition or discussion of a subject (OED) — is in a document that was given another name: the ‘Brief Declaration of … the services done during the time of that my government’, submitted to Elizabeth I by Arthur, Lord Grey de Wilton in 1583 (see no. 11 below).33 Written more than a year after he was sacked as viceroy it contains a lengthy statement laying out the challenges that had faced his government on his arrival in August 1580 and the steps he had taken to meet them, before settling into an account of the campaigns he oversaw against the enemies of the crown in different regions of the country during the two years of his service. Because Grey’s ‘Declaration’ was essentially a military narrative with elements of a ‘discourse’ stitched on it merits inclusion in this book. Moreover, it is also noteable for including a long list of the victims of Grey’s campaigns, the Irish and papal/Spanish forces killed by hisCommission troops — itself a sort of campaign journal, albeit a grisly one. Diaries Probably the most significant of all the journal types employed by the crown’s commanding officers in Ireland, these testify to the growing appetite for military and other information of the queen and her ministers at Whitehall and the lengths to which the viceroys in particular went to cater for it through increasingly scrupulous record-keeping. In 1579–80 Pelham’s secretary Morgan Coleman began keeping a diary, or ‘Breviate’,Manuscripts of everything his master did every day (no. 5). He maintained it for the duration of Pelham’s government, along with copies of many of the letters and warrants that Sir William had signed. On the conclusion of Pelham’s term ofIrish office Coleman had the diary and the copies of documents bound together in a single volume, and presented it to Pelham on his departure for England. Better than any previous journal type it recorded the viceroy’s campaigns (and other government business) in painstaking detail, and also broke new ground by recording what happened on all the days the viceroy wasn’t soldiering. A second diary, kept for Sir William Russell by Francis Mitchell for theMaterial: three-years 1594–7, provides an equally full record of viceregal service (see no. 17). Like Pelham’s diary it was intended as a private record, for the viceroy’s eyes only, and the extraordinary level of comprehensiveness and exactitude that it displayed was intended to help Russell answer questions about his performance that might arise during his period of rule or after his recall.
******* As with any type of historical source readers should be mindful of the context within which the campaign journals were created. Though often frustrated to the point of Copyrightedboredom by the apparent difficulties attending the imposition of stronger state power in Ireland, Elizabeth I and her ministers in London were keenly interested in the campaigns that were waged in her name by her viceroys and other military
33 Grey’s declaration, n.d., Nov. 1583 (TNA, SP 63/106/62). It is, however, referred to as a discourse towards the end of the text, in the ‘abstract’ of service (no. 11). campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page xix
INTRODUCTION xix
commanders there. Success in the field was critical, but so too was economy. Several of the queen’s viceroys and senior commanders fell short of these expectations, and suffered the consequences, being peremptorily removed from their posts, and subjected to sometimes prolonged and damaging inquiries into their conduct. To a large extent the journals were a form of self-defence. They were intended as much to burnish the reputation of the viceroys and other commanders as heroic royal servants as they were meant to inform the queen and her ministers at Whitehall of particular Irish developments. By dwelling on soldiering exploits they clearly served to underline the one aspect of crown service that separated senior officers in Ireland from their counterparts in England, at least until the outbreak of war with Spain in 1585. Individually the journals made a predictable case for the bravery and virtue of each viceroy or senior commander in Ireland, and the achievements of their service. Collectively, however, they gave expression to something more profound: the essentially martial value system that leading crown officers insisted shouldCommission be applied to them and the responsibilities with which they were saddled.34 Although also charged with wideranging civil and administrative functions, their journals implicitly embody the notion that more than anything else military qualities attached to the Irish service. It therefore followed that the seniormost officers should be judged by such considerations as the danger and violence of the opposition they faced, the arduousness of the expeditions they led, the extent of the territories they seized and occupied (or defended), the treaties they brokered and enforced, and the numbers of rebels and enemies they defeated and killed on the queen’sManuscripts behalf. By this means the journals sidestepped the fact that Elizabeth sometimes judged their service according to other information, from other informants, that suggested their military achievements were at best exaggerated, or, much worse, that the campaigns — and the attendant expense — could have been avoided had differentIrish policies been followed. The need to self-justify did not necessarily cause commanders in Ireland to falsify the record. In the vast majority of cases the information contained in the campaign journals that were written by and for them is an accurate statement of what occurred, from the commander’s viewpoint. The journals could, however, ‘spin’ the record, by under-recording or otherwise evading negative aspects of a campaign, such as soaring costs, or risingMaterial: crown casualties. In this latter respect readers should be especially cautious about accepting the generally low numbers of crown forces killed on campaign as being closely reflective of combat reality. This is particularly the case with native auxiliaries, who accompanied the army on virtually every hosting of consequence; their losses are rarely noticed in the journals, an omission which has led numerous scholars to underestimate their contribution to the history of the Elizabethan conquest. But the same might also be said of the journals’ reportage of the losses experienced by the English rank and file. These were often higher than the viceroys or other senior commanders admitted, and though usually recorded, could be Copyrightedminimised by deliberate choice of vague language referring to the deaths of ‘some’ or ‘certain’ royal troops, while talking up the damage inflicted on the enemy. Another
34 Edwards, ‘Fashioning service’, in Dooley (ed.), Renaissance now; see also Rory Rapple, Martial power and Elizabethan political culture: military men in England and Ireland, 1558–1594 (Cambridge, 2009). campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page xx
xx CAMPAIGN JOURNALS OF THE ELIZABETHAN IRISH WARS
shortcoming of the campaign journals is their limited acknowledgement of the contribution of junior officers; while sometimes the journals allow space to the importance of the services performed by lesser commanders favoured by the senior commander, just as often their efforts are barely recognised. In order to highlight some of these problems, each journal in this book is accompanied by a short introduction, setting out the political and military background to the campaigns and signifying some of the anomalies in the recording of the operations.
Commission
Manuscripts
Irish
Material:
Copyrighted campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page 1
CAMPAIGN JOURNALS Commission
Manuscripts
Irish
Material:
Copyrighted campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page 2
Commission
Manuscripts
Irish
Material:
Copyrighted campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page 3
1. ANTRIM AND THE SACKING OF RATHLIN ISLAND
A HERALDIC JOURNAL, 10 AUGUST–21 SEPTEMBER 1557
TCD, MS 581, ff 86r–89v Commission
INTRODUCTION
hen Elizabeth I1 became queen on 17 November 1558 the English crown had been pursuing a policy of military expansion and regional conquest in WIreland for a number of years. Besides campaigns in the Midlands, southern Leinster, and along the Shannon in the west, crown forces had made a particular effort to seize control of eastern Ulster, where fear of French and Scottish influence had been exacerbated by the growing power of the GaelicManuscripts Scottish dynasty, the MacDonnells, in Antrim. Elizabeth would inherit this war (and the others too) together with its chief prosecutor, Thomas Radcliffe, 3rd earl of Sussex2, who serving as English viceroy had taken personal charge of army operations,Irish with mixed results. The following document records one of the most ambitious of Sussex’s campaigns, undertaken fifteen months before Elizabeth’s accession, in August 1557. Initially directed against James MacDonnell3 and his brothers, the campaign was greatly complicated by the defection of Shane O’Neill4, which created a dangerous second front in the province and necessitated a division of the crown forces. The earls of Ormond and KildareMaterial: and other loyalist Irish lords took the western shores of Lough Neagh, while Sussex and the English levies proceeded along its eastern side from Belfast and Carrickfergus north to Antrim town, before rendezvousing somewhere beyond Bellaghy on the Bann. The Scots proved elusive, but supported by a small fleet that had arrived at Coleraine, Sussex despatched an invasion force to Rathlin on 3 September. In the course of two days the island was sacked and many of its inhabitants killed. The attack damaged but did not break MacDonnell power: as Sussex headed back towards Dundalk the tail of his army was waylaid by some of the MacDonnells near Killwarlin wood. Sussex returned briefly to Rathlin in autumn 1558, when forced to Copyrightedabandon his planned assault on the Western Isles by bad weather (This latter landing 1 ODNB. 2 DIB. 3 DIB. 4 DIB. campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page 4
4 CAMPAIGN JOURNALS OF THE ELIZABETHAN IRISH WARS
has caused the 1557 attack described here to be misdated to 1558 in some historical accounts). There is only one extant version of this journal: TCD, MS 581, ff 86r–89v. Like similar accounts of Sussex’s campaigns of 1556, 1557, 1558 and 1563 that survive elsewhere, among the Carew Manuscripts, it was composed by the Athlone pursuivant- at-arms, Philip Butler. The TCD journal may have been Butler’s original working draft, as it is quite roughly written. Regrettably, the poor identification of local placenames that is common to each of his other journals is also a feature of this one, and is compounded by the poor condition of the manuscript, which is badly frayed and torn in places.
Commission A JOURNEY MADE BY THE EARL OF SUSSEX, LORD DEPUTY
Tuesday the 10th of August my Lord Deputy departed Kilmainham and came to Mo[rnington],5 Mr Draycott’s house, and there lay that night. Wednesday the 11th of August my Lord Deputy removed from Mornington and came to Drogheda, and there banqueted in the Tholsel with the Mayor and his co-brethren, and from thence to Dundalk and there remained a little space, and from thence his lordship came to Latahdagh [Laghtaggard] by Raskeagh,Manuscripts and there camped this night. In the plain is a long stone with Irish letters written. Thursday the 12th of August, my LordIrish Deputy rode to Sir John Bellew’s house called Dala…6 from the camp to dinner, and after dinner came to the camp again, and the Earl of Kildare [and] with him the Viscount of Baltinglass, the Baron of Delvin also. And there stayed camp this night. And this day came the Earl of Ormond to the camp. Friday the 13th of August the Earl of Desmond came to the camp to my Lord Deputy, and departed to Dundalk to tarry for his men. And this day Edward Welsh, one of my Lord’s clerks, was Material:sent against Shane O’Neill and returned on Saturday and brought with him fifty beefs to my Lord Deputy. Saturday the 14th of August the Earl of Desmond departed from the camp home to his country for fault of his men, which came not. Sunday the 15th of August my Lord Deputy removed his camp from Laghtaggard by Raskeagh and came to Maghery Carran,7 and camped in the plain by the river called Urmaneclan beyond the great hill of stones called Maghery Carran a.. Cloughelan and Copyrightedthis night came in Magennis unto my Lord, and brought with him …8 5 Most of the word is missing with the right-hand margin worn away. 6 Margin worn away. 7 According to Ulster placename specialists there are a number of machaire names recorded in the territory of Iveagh/Uíbh Eachach, but Maghery Carran is not among them. It probably lay north of Newry. 8 Margin worn. campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page 5
1. ANTRIM AND THE SACKING OF RATHLIN ISLAND 5
Monday the 16th of August my Lord Deputy removed his camp from Maghery Carran 2 miles beyond and came to Ballagh Tryhan upon a hill ….9 woods, a mile-and-a-half from Dromore Yveagh. This day departed my Lord Deputy his army into two parts, his Lordship to Knockfergus, and the Earls of Kildare and Ormond to Armagh, and with them were all the Irish army of noblemen the Viscount of Baltinglass, Barons of Delvin, Dunboyne and Dunsany, and Mr Edmund Butler, son and heir to the Lord of Cahir; and also O’Carroll, O’Molloy, Mageoghegan, with divers others as the bands of Dublin and Drogheda. Also this day we came over a little river called Arna….10 whereon is a broken bridge of timber and a little beyond it is a little island called ____ which this day we came by also in the country of Magennis. And this day also departed the Lord Primate from my Lord Deputy. Rode the day with the Baron of Dun[gannon]11 unto the castle of Briekhill where is a lough and an island12 in the same, the which my said lord took the same and gave it to the keeping of the said Baron of Dungannon. And ere ever they would have yielded the islandCommission my Lord Deputy sent for the great piece of ordnance and harquebusiers. And that being come to the lough side, and they perceiving the great piece, they yielded up the place and came to my Lord and submitted themselves and was pardoned. And within that island was a boy of Sir Nicholas Bagenal’s. Tuesday the 17th of August my Lord Deputy removed his camp from Ballagh Cryhan and came to Donnewarne by the wood of Kilwarlin, and this day his lordship came through two little passes, the one called the pass of Dromore and the other the pass of Kilwarlin in the country of Rory Magennis. Manuscripts Wednesday the 18th of August my Lord Deputy removed his camp from Ballagh Cryhan and came to Ullagh IdyrneIrish upon a hill by the wood of Dirry, and this day we came over a river called Garry Dirry Clough. Also this day we came through a great pass called … Ballagh I Tyrrenawe, and by the camp runneth a river called Urma Lagan. At the other side of the camp standeth a chapel called Dromah. This day came to my Lord Ranall O Boy in the country of Orran Rowe in the country called Lagan.13 Thursday the 19th of August my Lord Deputy removed his camp from Idyrre and camped underneathMaterial: Banne Vaddegan [Cave Hill]14 in the plain by the seaside and a monastery called Moessary Reagh.15 And this day we came through a pass the which was by Belfast called Balle Valle Galle; also through another pass called Ballagh Belfast. This day came into my lord Brian McPhelim Backagh.16 And this day we saw part of the Scottish creaght17 going upon the hills before our eyes. And my Lord Deputy with
9 The margin is worn. Ballagh Tryhan is a defunct local minor name. It has been suggested that it is perhaps Bealach an tSrutháin, the route or way of the stream. 10 Margin worn. 11 Margin worn. Copyrighted12 Loughbrickland, Co. Down. 13 Most likely this refers to Alastair, leader of the MacRanald Boy sept of the MacDonnells of Lecale. 14 Binn Mhadagáin, or Cave Hill, the mountain to the immediate north of Belfast. 15 The words in italics are inserted into the MS. 16 O’Neill, of Clandeboy. 17 Anglicised form of the Gaelic caoruigheacht, meaning a great herd of cattle and the herdsmen who tended it. campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page 6
6 CAMPAIGN JOURNALS OF THE ELIZABETHAN IRISH WARS
Mr Treasurer18 and Mr Marshal,19 accompanied with our horsemen rode up to the hill of BanneVaddegan beholding the cows, and from thence to another hill from whence we might see the great lough called Na [Lough Neagh], and a castle of Hugh McPhelim Backagh20 called Eden Dongeard21 12 miles from BanneVaddegan. The lough is reputed to be 25 miles of length and 10 miles of breadth. Also this day my Lord rode to Knockfergus [Carrickfergus] and to the friary and there offered, and in the said friary is buried Hugh de Lacey and Hugh McNeill Oge,22 and at the other side is buried the MacQuillans; and from thence his lordship went to the castle and there dined with Captain Piers,23 constable, and from thence to the camp. And in the way his lordship met with Owen Rue and his men being 200 or 3 reputed, which came to the camp that night. And there remained Friday all day being the 20th of August. And this day chanced a fray betwixt certain of the galloglass24 and MacRannell Boy and his men, and certain of the galloglass and on the other part also was hurt: And at this camp remained all Saturday all the day being the 21st of August. Commission Sunday the 22nd of August my Lord Deputy removed his camp from under Banne Vaddegan and came to Mykellagh, a little beyond the churches of Kallaghe and the foundry of Kallagh. And this day we came over a great ford or river called Urma Mylinny, the water of Moylinny, in Clandeboy, which is reputed to be the best part for grazing of cattle within the county of Ulster. And this day we came over another river called Owen Voyeh. Also this day Mr Treasurer went to see an old town and friary by the great lough called Lough Na, the friary called Massereene and the town called Enthrowe. Also this day came to my LordManuscripts Deputy Hugh McPhelim Backagh and one of the Savages, Seneschal Savage; and came to the camp and there remained that night. And Monday the 23rd of August his lordship with Mr Treasurer and Mr Marshal rode from the camp and the Irishfootmen with him to the woods and to the great Lough Na and spoke with Morierta O’Neill’s men of Lough Beg, and that night his lordship returned to the camp again. And on Tuesday his lordship rode forth again to cause the passes to be cut, and so returned to the camp that night. And this day was hanged our soldiers’ boy ____ for stealth. Wednesday the 25th of August my Lord Deputy removed his camp from Kallogh and came to Mollogh ConnloMaterial: upon a hill by the Bann. This day we came to the Lough Beg wherein is an island and a chapel therein, and a ward of Hugh McMoriertagh O’Neill. Also this day we might see the Castle of Toome which the Red Earl caused to be built. My Lord Deputy at his coming to the Lough sent word to the ward thereof which after long pro….25 and divers shots the said ward came forth and submitted themselves
18 Sir Henry Sidney (1529–86) (see DIB). 19 Sir George Stanley. 20 Also an O’Neill of Clandeboy. Copyrighted21 Perhaps Edenduffcarrick. 22 An O’Neill leader of an earlier period, not to be confused with Hugh McNeill Oge O’Neill who was reported to be in revolt against the crown after breaking out of Carrickfergus jail in late 1556. 23 William Piers (d. 1603) (see DIB). 24 Gaelic professional soldiers, usually of western Scottish ancestry; they were renowned for their use of a long-handled axe that was ideal for combating cavalry. 25 Margin worn away. The next letter is either an ‘f’ or an ‘s’ campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page 7
1. ANTRIM AND THE SACKING OF RATHLIN ISLAND 7
unto my Lord Deputy, who after their submission pardoned them, and gave the island and the lough in custody to Brian McPhelim who put therein a ward. And after that my said Lord Deputy departed to the camp. And ere his departure his lordship sent one of the said ward in message with a letter to the Earls of Ormond and Kildare. And immediately my said Lord Deputy came to the camp where came to him 2 friars with a letter from the foresaid Earls whose cap we might perceive at the other side of the lough, and once being proved on both parts the Earls immediately sent a boy as messenger unto my Lord Deputy. Also this day Mr Treasurer and Mr Marshal marched on foot with the footmen, eschewing their horses to be left for their ease at mead[ow], and my Lord Deputy and Captain Girton with his band to attend on my Lord’s person, had the voward and Mr Francis Agarde the rearward. Also this day we came over a great river called Marna ____,26 and remained at this camp on Thursday and Friday. And on Thursday being the 26th of August my [Lord]27 Deputy, accompanied with Mr Treasurer, Mr Marshal and Mr Francis Agarde, and all the footmenCommission and their captains, marched all one sort through the great pass of Ballahe Toullohe and came to the Bannside, and there remained till word came from the Earls, and answer being sent to them again; and there also dined, and after returned to the camp. And that night was Captain Piers and Captain Girton sent to Knockfergus, and on Friday morning came one Connell McPhelim Riagh unto my said Lord Deputy. And this morning Mr Marshal and a band of horsemen rode forth with 2 bands of footmen towards the island called Inish Roe…; the ward thereof fled their rome once hearing the Englishmen with their drums in the wood,Manuscripts the which island was given in custody to Connell McPhelim Riagh, who put therein a ward. And on Friday at night came a friar and a priest from Coleraine with news that our ships were there arrived. And at this camp remained my Lord DeputyIrish this night. Saturday the 28th of August my Lord Deputy removed his camp from Molloh Tullo and came to Bella ne Clouehoe.28 And this day my Lord Deputy came through a little wood by the river of Moyiny,29 the which runneth to the great Lough Na, also his lordship came by another river called Rouyll which runneth into the foresaid river of Moyiny and also divides Clandeboy and the Route. Also this day my Lord Deputy rode this day [sic] to see an oldMaterial: broken castle the which the Red Earl built called Clough Donnay or Castle Donnay; and beyond it is a little lough and an island called Lough Donnay. And this day coming to the camp we came by the lough and island called Lough ne …rviernis, the which the Baron of Dungannon was prisoner the space of 18 weeks when that he and his father the Earl of Tyrone was taken by the Scots. Also this night came to the camp Captain Piers and Captain Girton from Knockfergus and brought with them 300 beeves. And this night came James McHenry of the Route unto my Lord Deputy; also this night died McGyllyn Magennis and was brought to Coleraine. CopyrightedSunday the 29th of August, my Lord Deputy removed his camp from Bella ne Clough and came to Caslan Lonegan by the Bann side. The said castle is broken and did 26 Blank in MS: presumably the River Maine. 27 MS torn. 28 Perhaps Aughnecleagh. 29 Maine. campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page 8
8 CAMPAIGN JOURNALS OF THE ELIZABETHAN IRISH WARS
sometimes appertain to one James McHenry who was this day our guide. And this day we came by the Church of Vonny where is a church and a castle the which is the Bishop’s seat was one Bryan McEloff’s [McAuliffe’s] which was a famous cleric who built the same, and by it runneth a little river called Aver glass calla... Also this day came to my Lord Deputy the Earls of Ormond and Kildare, the Viscount of Baltinglass, and the Barons of Dunboyne and Delvin from the camp on the other side of the Bann. And news came of the drowning of one Edmund O’Molloene, captain of 40 gunners of Muleck who was drowned at an island the which the foresaid earls was besieging called Inish le Crosse, which was after won by a pallon [plan] devised by my Lord Deputy and the Marshal sent for the taking of the said island. Monday the 30th of August, my Lord Deputy, Mr Treasurer, Mr Marshal [and] Mr Agarde rode forth to peruse the country and returned this night to the camp again. Also this day came to my Lord Deputy O’Cooner [O’Connor], McQuillan,Commission and the Lord of the Outer Isles’ men. And this day was proclaimed general pardon to all the inhabitants of Ulster. Tuesday the 31st of August, my Lord Deputy removed his camp from Caslan Longhane and came to Balla na Trahah [Portballintrae] by the seaside a little from Skerris Portrush, a little from the ____ of Boyes.30 This day we came over a river called Urma Boyears, and from thence my Lord, Mr Treasurer and Mr Marshal rode to the castle of Downesirck [Dunseverick] which standeth upon a erick or high rock, the sea coming unto it, and a … of the sea cometh betwixtManuscripts the Erick or high rock. The said castle appertaineth to Richard McQuillan who was expulsed out of the same by the Scots. Beneath on the right hand of the said castle is an island called Dunnorousk, and right over against it is the Rathlin, whichIrish is an island of Coll McConnell’s being 5 miles of length and almost a mile of breadth, and beneath it is Kyneglle and then Moyembare near Callens: and so to Carrye and the Route going into it. And in a vault under the rock adjoining unto the said Dornsirck is an image of wood. And at this camp remained Wednesday the first of September. And this day came Captain Piers per barque by the camp and did shoot off certain pieces of ordnance. Also this day diedMaterial: and was buried one of the captains of the galloglass called Phelim McNeil Boy, and at his going to burying the trumpets and the drums did sound. And at the end of the camp was divers shot of guns and the great piece shot off in like case for his sake, and certain of the captains went with him to see him buried. Thursday the 2nd of September my Lord Deputy, Mr Treasurer [and] Mr Marshal rode forth from the camp, and … 31 proclamation made for the apprehension of … 32 Friday the 3rd of September, my Lord Deputy, the earls of Kildare and Ormond, Mr CopyrightedTreasurer, Mr Marshal, etc., rode from the camp, whereat the Earl of Ormond, Mr Treasurer, Sir Nicholas Bagenal, with Captain Lypiate Captain Portas, Captain
30 The modern village of Bushmills, on the River Bush? 31 The bottom line of page is worn away. 32 Worn away. campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page 9
1. ANTRIM AND THE SACKING OF RATHLIN ISLAND 9
Sackford, Captain Bostock and their men entered into the ships to go to the island of Rathlin, and to sack the same, and there remained till Sunday at night spoiling and killing as many as they might come by or get out of the caves, both man, woman, child and beasts. And in the said island is a great cave of ____33 and two prealy34 waters or ponds of freshwater, as to me was reported. This day, being ye Friday the 3rd of September, my Lord Deputy rode likewise to the White Head, in the which is a castle, and to Castleton35 where is also a friary, as to me was reported. And this day Richard McQuillan killed 2 or 4 Scots in the Glynns as he himself reported and brought two of their heads to the camp on Saturday the 4th of September, which day my Lord Deputy with the Earl of Kildare rode forth to the castle of Dunshesk to see or hear news of our men, where they might perceive the ships lying hard on the shore on the island. And this day came news of the slaughter of 3 of our men which was sent to Knockfergus, being out in one company,Commission which as yet are not returned, being of the band of Mr Lieutenant. And Sunday in likewise my Lord Deputy with the Earl of Kildare, the Viscount of Baltinglass, [and] the Barons of Delvin and Dunboyne rode forth in like manner to hear news from our men out of the Rathlin. And this night after midnight came from the Rathlin the Earl of Ormond, Mr Treasurer, Sir Nicholas Bagenal, Captain Piers, and the footmen. And this night died Foullan, ancient bearer to Mr Treasurer, the which was buried on Monday at afternoon: and being carried out of the camp with Mr Treasurer’s ancient and Captain Warren’s, and with the trumpets and drums sounding with the great shot of harquebusiers, and the great piece shot off Manuscriptsalso at his departure from the camp, and accompanied with divers gentlemen and captains with divers the soldiers unto the place of his burial. Also this night went forth the most part of our footmen, and Mr Marshal, Mr Agarde and Clan PhelimIrish Barbas 36 in our journey toward Molleh Tolle and over the Bann. And this said night after midnight we had a false alarm. Tuesday the 7th of September, my Lord Deputy removed his camp from Balle ne Trahe and came to ‘Rouen le san balle’, a little from Dunsirsk where is a little river called ‘Owen san balle’; and here remained Wednesday all the day. And Thursday morning Mr Agarde and Brian MacPhelim came to the camp, and this night also came Mr Marshal and allMaterial: our men, as well footmen as horsemen, hence, and brought with them the creaghts or prey of Hugh McMorrorth [McMoriertagh] and Alexander Carragh and the Scots amongst them. And the Baron of Delvin lost one of his horsemen, the which was slain, and certain servants of my lord of Ormond’s, Dunboyne’s …37
33 Blank in MS: the great cave is mentioned in Ormond’s early seventeenth-century Latin panegyric, rendered as Dirgi caverna – ‘Dirgus’ cave’ (see David Edwards and Keith Sidwell (ed. and trans.), The Tipperary hero: Dermot O’Meara’s Ormonius (1615) (Turnhout, 2011), pp 262–4. This may be Dearganán or Derginan Point: ‘point of the red nook or chasm’ (Dónal Mac Giolla Easpaig, ‘Place-names of Rathlin’, Ainm 4 (1989–90)); alternatively it could be either ‘Bruce’s Cave’ or Uamha na bhFireann ‘cave of the Copyrightedmales’, the modern placenames of the two main caves on the island. 34 ‘Pearly’ waters may be the intended meaning. 35 Ballycastle, Co. Antrim. 36 Presumably Clan Phelim Backagh is meant. 37 The bottom of the page is very badly worn, with at least one line of text missing. Ormond’s panegyric (see note 33 above) does not mention any fighting after the earl’s return from Rathlin. campaign journals of the eliz ir wars_Layout 1 03/02/2015 10:16 Page 10
10 CAMPAIGN JOURNALS OF THE ELIZABETHAN IRISH WARS
And at this camp remained Friday all day, and on Friday at afternoon came Mr Belfeld out of England by sea, and brought with him news of the great overthrow that the French king had by our king at the siege of St Quentin,38 which news and letters received my Lord Deputy caused all the army immediately to be armed and kept in battle array and sort, and so cast our … the market place with the sound of trumpets and drums and shot of ordnance, and in the midst of the market place kneeled down and had Te Deum and certain lauds said to the praise of God and the rejoicing of the good news, and afterward gathered about again… the Englishmen and midst of them my said Lord Deputy declared himself on high the copy of the news that was sent to his lordship out of England. And in likewise after that his lordship caused all the Irishmen to graze about and gather together and there caused the same news to be likewise pronounced in Irish: and then the sound of trumpets and drums, and the great piece of ordnance to be shot off, and then after shot of all the arquebusiers, to the great rejoicing of all. Commission Saturday the 11th of September my Lord Deputy removed his camp from Dunshesk and came to Balle are39 by the river of Boyes [Bush], which river we came over this day, our camp being but a little from Drum Ark. Also this day we came over another river called Dervonge which runneth into the river of Boyes, and the river of Boyes runneth into the main sea hard by Balle Trahe. Also this day my Lord Deputy by misfortune his horse fell laid down in the great river of Boyes and his lordship on his back. And this day O’Kane came to my lord and his lordship took of him his pledge, which pledge fled from the camp that night, and in the morning he put in his other son, a little boy, as pledge, the which my lord accepted.Manuscripts And then O’Kane departed, and Cormo Ballogh’s son, and Sir Christopher, to Calle odoe. Sunday the 12th of September my LordIrish Deputy removed his camp from Balle Are and came to Ballecoulleny bac…40 in the country of Clonnahorfyn in Clandeboy, over the river of Morne [Maine], in a plain hard by the said river. And this day we came over the said river twice, and through two passes, the one called Ballekellemory, the other called Balleconoselas, the which divided the Route and Clandeboy on this side. Also this night came news how that James McHenry fled over the Bann to the Scots. Monday the 13th Material:of September my Lord Deputy removed his camp from Ballecoullny Backath and came to Croscannall, a little beyond Kells on a hill and one long stone a little beyond the camp. And this day we came over a great river called Karade, and over another river called Oven Clanconry. Also this day we came by a broken castle called Connell,41 the which was a bishop’s house. And this night went Hugh McPhelim from the camp to his creaght. Also this day we came through a great pass called BalleMclanny Brick. Tuesday the 14th of September my Lord Deputy removed his camp from Croscane[ll]42 Copyrightedand came over Banne Vadegan, and there remained Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 38 The battle of St Quentin occurred on 10 Aug. 1557. 39 Armoy? 40 Word worn away in margin. 41 Connor, Co. Antrim. 42 Edge of MS worn away; words given in the brackets following are likewise worn away.