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Chapters towards a History of Ireland in the reign of Elizabeth (Author: Philip O'Sullivan Beare)

Chapter 5

The Catholics and Royalists come to a Fierce General Engagement with all their Forces. Bagnal is slain. Armagh and Portmore are recovered by the Catholics.

WHILE these events were taking place in Leinster, Henry Bagnal, an English knight, Marshall of Ireland, and President of Ulster, arrived in the town of Newry, in the

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province of Ulster, and which was held by a strong garrison of heretics, and situated not more than nineteen miles from the fort of Portmore which he was going to relieve with a rather large army of Royalists. Thence after three days march he halted in the city of Armagh. Bagnal was skilled in the art of war, and what you rarely find in a general, he was equally pre-eminent in council and in courage, cautious in prosperity, courageous in adversity, and not so insolent towards the vanquished or those who surrendered as most of the English, who are never sparing of gibes. And so I would venture to compare few of his people's generals with him and to prefer still fewer. He was bitterly incensed against O'Neill not only on the general ground of religion and loyalty, but also on account of private quarrels. He commanded 4,500 foot, under forty colours and a like number of captains, lieutenants, ensigns, sergeants, and 500 horse under eight colours, of whom Montague, an Englishman, was master. Of the whole number, there was a slight majority of Irish in the pay of the English. All were veterans, the Englishmen being either the survivors of those who, under John Norris, had fought in France, or who had been picked from the Belgian garrisons, or who, from the beginning of this war, had learned military tactics in Ireland. The Irish, also, who, formed into corps under regular military discipline, fought as mercenaries in the Royalist army, had often given proof of their valour. Amongst them were some Irish young men of illustrious birth, especially the O'Reilly's son, Maelmurray, who from his singularly fine figure and wonderfully handsome countenance, was surnamed the Fair, and Christopher St. Laurence, son of the Baron of Howth. Here was no tyro. Here was none unskilled in military science. All were exceedingly well furnished with all kinds of arms. Foot and horse were sheathed in mail. The musketeers were equipped for the fight, some with heavy and some with light guns, girded with sword and dagger and having their head protected with helmets. The whole army gleamed with crested plumes and silken sashes, and other military ornaments. Brass cannon mounted on wheels were drawn by horses. There was a large supply of gunpowder and iron and leaden balls. Pack horses and oxen carried a quantity of biscuits, corned meat, cheese, butter, and beer sufficient both to victual the army and provision the fort of Portmore. Drivers accompanied the baggage, and a large number of suttlers and foragers followed. The fort of Portmore was three Irish miles6 from Bagnal and being

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besieged by O'Neill, was suffering from want of food. When O'Neill heard of Bagnal's arrival he moved his camp a mile from the fort and pitched it against Bagnal within two miles of Armagh, leaving a few men to prevent the besieged sallying from Portmore.

On this day the Catholics numbered 4,500 foot and about 600 horse, amongst them O'Donnell, who brought about 1,000 Connaught mercenaries under the MacWilliam Burke, and 2,000 of his own men of Tyrconnell and others. The rest were followers of O'Neill, his brother and kinsmen, and chiefs who were bound to him by ancient ties. In a word, there were assembled here nearly the entire youth of the nobility of Ulster and many young Connaughtmen of by no means ignoble birth. They were, however, very inferior in equipment, for both horse and foot were light armed, except a few musketeers, who had heavy guns. For this reason O'Neill being informed of the enemy's equipment, the strength of their army, and the resolution of their general, was in doubt whether a wise man would give ground until Fearfeasa O'Clery, an interpreter of Irish Prophecies, assured him, the holy prophet Ultan had foretold that in this spot the heretic would be routed, and showed him the prophecy written in Irish verse in a book of holy prophecies. Reassured by this prophecy O'Neill stimulated his men to the fight with this speech:—‘Most Christian and fearless men, the Great and Good God has this day in His Divine generosity more than granted our most earnest and frequent prayers and petitions. We have ever been praying to God and his Saints to grant us to fight the Protestants on equal terms. For this have we offered up our prayers; for this have we made our offerings, and now we are not only equal, but actually superior in numbers. Therefore, you, who have, when inferior in numbers, routed the heretical columns, are now in superior numbers pitted against them. I, for my part, hold that victory lies not in senseless armour, nor in the vain din of cannon, but in living and courageous souls. Remember how often when you were not so well equipped or disciplined you have overcome greater generals and forces, and even Bagnal himself. The English never could compare with the Irish in spirit, courage or steadfastness in battle, and the Irish who will be fighting against you will be dispirited by the consciousness of their crime and schism in fighting against the Catholic faith. This very Catholic faith will stimulate your valour. Here you are to defend Christianity, father-land, children and wives. Here must well-deserved

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chastisement be meted out to Bagnal, of all heretics, your bitterest enemy, who assails your properties, who thirsts for your blood, who impugns my honour. Here must be avenged the insult put upon me by Bagnal when I was deprived of part of my camp at Mullaghbane. Here must we get satisfaction for the deaths of your comrades whom we have lost in the attack on Portmore, and that fort itself which you have so long besieged, and have now cut off from supplies, must be captured. Here is to be obtained that victory which the Lord has promised in the prophecy of St. Ultan. On then, with good heart and with the help of God and his Saints.’

Bagnal on the other side then addressed his men:—‘Trusting in your valour, my most invincible comrades in arms, I have chosen you as my associates, and that the glorious victory I have promised myself might be accounted your work, I have stationed the unskilled and untrained in the garrisons and left to the Earl of Ormond the base and the infirm through whose degeneracy I thought this campaign might be imperilled. Indeed I have ever had such proof of your spirit and valour that I cannot but feel assured and most confident of victory this day. And I believe you have escaped safely with such providential good hap so many misfortunes, so many trials, that on this day you should crown your whole lives with a happy victory and avenge the misfortunes and deaths of your comrades, of Norris and Borough, cut off by rebels and traitors. What! Dare they, unless mad, encounter with naked bodies, armed men, men superior both in bodily strength and stoutness of spirit? I am a fool if they abide the bare look of you, and if you do not this day reduce all Ulster to your sway and subdue all Ireland to the Queen and your selves reap an immense spoil. Remember your valour who under my command succoured Armagh and stripped O'Neill of a considerable part of his camp at Mullaghbane. Whoever brings me, before evening, the head of O'Neill or O'Donnell, I promise a thousand pounds of gold, and to everyone I will give according to his deserts thanks and acknowledgments both on the Queen's and my own behalf. Come, then, let us make haste and not delay our victory.’

Having finished his harangue Bagnal raised his camp at Armagh, before sunrise about the fifteenth day after Lord Ormond's defeat by Brian O'More.

The pikemen were divided into three columns which were preceded and followed by the wings of horse and musketeers.

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It was a fine pleasant day when unfurling their banners they marched without opposition over the smiling plain, to the sound of the trumpet, the music of pipes, and the beat of military drums, stimulating man and beast to combat. Presently the road became more difficult, lying between shrubs, which, however, were low and thin. Bagnal having entered this road about 7 o'clock a.m. was assailed with a close fire kept up along the entire cover by 500 beardless youths armed as musketeers and sent by O'Neill. These skirmishers, standing beside the shrubs and shifting amongst the trees,7 brought down horse and foot at long range and this with all more impunity in that the royalist cavalry on account of the shrubs could neither assist their own men nor resist the Catholics, and because the ground was more favourable to the skirmishers already in possession than to the approaching royalists. From these straits Bagnal, with much difficulty, at last extricated his forces, severely harassed by the sharp skirmish and annoyed at seeing themselves attacked with impunity by the skirmishers who seemed such a boyish and silly sort of men. An open plain extending to the Catholic camp came next and as soon as Bagnal gained this the royalist cavalry charged the Catholic skirmishers at full speed. However, O'Neill had dug numerous pits and trenches in the first portion of the plain, especially on and around the road itself, and covered them in with brambles and hay. Into these the mailclad and incautious cavalry tumbled and in this pell-mell fall the legs of the horses and riders were broken and the Catholic skirmishers did not allow them to be relieved by their comrades without a struggle. By this stratagem the royalist army reached the less obstructed plain not only dispirited but having some of their cavalry and foot lost and wounded. Here O'Neill's wearied skirmishers were supplanted by fresh and sound troops and Bagnal also advanced to the fight his skirmishers and heavy armed musketeers. These the Catholic light cavalry charged. The mailclads, too secure in the protection of their armour, held the field.

The light-armed excelling in dexterity and speed and

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wheeling their horses again and again returned to the fight inflicted many wounds but giving ground, however, all the time.

The mail-clads fought at close quarters with lances about 6 cubits 9 feet long, resting on their right thighs. The light-armed, having longer lances which they grasped in the middle and held above the right shoulder, rarely struck except at advantage, at other times hurling wooden darts tipped with iron and about four cubits long. Thus Bagnal advanced often compelled to halt by O'Neill's lightarmed, and as often repulsing them, until about eleven o'clock he halted not far from the Catholic camp. Now the plain was here bounded on both sides by a marsh and between these bogs O'Neill constructed a low light ditch four feet high and a quarter of a mile long with a rather deep trench inside more to impede the enemy than assist himself. Midway between the ditch and royalist army oozed the discoloured waters flowing from the bogs, whence, perhaps, the place was called according to many the Yellow Ford (Beal atha bui) although according to others it is called the Ford of Saint Buianus. The fight was renewed at the ditch with great vigour by the cavalry and gunmen of both armies. In the heat of the fight an English gunman who had used up all his powder was taking some more from the barrel in which it was and accidently put in the hand which held the lighted tow match; the light being put into, the barrel ignited it and the two nearest barrels also full of powder and blew up some of the soldiers. Meanwhile Bagnal had got into position against the Catholic's ditch and columns his brass cannon, one of which when charged with powder and ball and fired off burst in pieces with the charge of powder and killed some who were standing round.

With the rest Bagnal broke down the ditch and the Catholic cavalry and musketeers exhausted from their defence of the ditch offering no further resistance, the enemy opened his cannon on the uncovered columns of Catholic pikemen. Some parts of the ditch he levelled to the ground and drove the troops from it. Through these breaches the two first divisions of the royalists rushed, one against O'Neill and another against O'Donnell, who held the left wing, and some files crossed the ditch, to whose support Bagnal brought up the rear division. At the same time the royalists, cavalry and musketeers pursued the cavalry and musketeers of the Catholics whom they drove from the ditch, and now both sides fought fiercely on the

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level ground and the men on both sides commingling dragged one another from horse back. Hereupon the Catholic pikemen, who had moved out of cannon range from the ditch, seeing the enemy's cannon now paralysed, charged the royalist division, though not yet formed into ranks. At this instant, Bagnal who was protected by a coat of mail and helmet which was proof against the shot of a heavy gun, thinking that he had already conquered and in order that he might more freely survey the whole battle field and breathe easier, and fatigued with the weight of his heavy armour, opened the visor of his helmet and raised it but did not set it down and close it before he lay lifeless on the ground struck by a bullet on the forehead. By his death the 3rd division with which he had been was panic-stricken. The two divisions to whom the news of their general's death was not yet announced stoutly stood the brunt. The Catholics in like manner were no way backward in the battle. O'Donnell protected himself by the valour of the musketeers. O'Neill's division seemed in greater peril. In this doubtful state of things, O'Neill, who kept on horseback beside his division with 40 horsemen and as many musketeers ordered the musketeers to fire on the royalists. On obeying this command the musketeers seriously harassed and broke the ranks of the opposing gunmen who had no assistance. O'Neill added terror to their confusion by charging with his 40 horsemen in to the midst of their corps. His division of pikemen following, O'Neill with a loud cry put the royalists to flight about an hour after mid-day. Those who were engaging O'Donnell seeing this, also broke their ranks and turned tail and Montague also retreated with the cavalry. The wings of musketeers betook themselves to flight. O'Neill, O'Donnell and Maguire, who commanded the cavalry, hung on the rear of the fugitives. The dyke and ditch was then a greater obstacle to the flying royalists than it had previously been to them in making their attack, and falling over one another they filled the dyke and were trodden down where they fell by the hoofs of the horses and under the feet of the infantry. The rear division, in which Bagnal had been was of no assistance to the others in their distress, being itself depressed and panic-stricken by the death of its leader. Maelmurray O'Reilly, surnamed the Fair, however, urged the panic-stricken to pluck up spirit and resist the enemy with him, crying out that it was more glorious to fall fighting and avenged than to be slain with impunity in flight, and that even now they might withstand the enemy's attack

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and drive him back. Some, reanimated by the Fair's appeal, especially young Irishmen allied to him in blood, renewed the fight. The Fair was to be seen everywhere amongst the combatants helping those most hardly pressed, and in greatest danger. However, those few who stood by him were deserted by the royalists and fell covered with wounds inflicted by the Catholics who surrounded them, and the Fair himself, being left alone, was slain fighting most valiantly. All the royalists scattered in flight took to their heels over the plain and underwood by which they had come, flying even to Armagh and slain as they straggled. The horse and about 1,500 foot betook themselves to the Church of Armagh. More than 2,500 royalists perished in the battle among them Bagnal, the commander of the army, 23 captains, many officers, ensigns and sergeants, 34 colours were taken, all the military drums, the cannon, a great quantity of arms, and the entire commissariat. Nor was this a bloodless victory for the conquerors, for although less than 200 were killed, yet more than 600 were wounded. Those who took refuge in the Churches of Armagh, which were held as royalist garrisons, were besieged by the victors. Montague escaped with the cavalry under cover of the darkness of night. Terence O'Hanlon, with some horse from O'Neill's camp, pursued him as he fled in disorder and confusion, and captured the baggage and two hundred horses, and slew three officers. Moreover, Romley, an English captain, was seized and slain the next day, as he was smoking a pipe of tobacco on the roadside. The foot capitulated and were dismissed without their arms, Armagh and Portmore being surrendered to O'Neill.