Irish confederated Wars

The Irish confederated Wars , sometimes called War eleven year old , were carried out in Ireland between 1641 and 1653. These wars were the Irish shutter of the Guerres of the Three Kingdoms, a series of civil wars which were held in the kingdoms of Ireland, England and Scotland - all three directed by Charles Ier of England -, which included the English Civil war and the Scottish Civil war. The civil war in Ireland opposed primarily the Irishmen of confession catholic to the British colonists Protestant and to their partisans of England and Scotland.

The war in Ireland started with the rebellion of the Irishmen of Ulster in October 1641, during which thousands of English and Scottish Protestant colonists were killed. The rebellion gained the worldwide, and to organize their effort of war, the catholic Irishmen founded the Irish Confédération with Kilkenny in 1642. This confederation, component in fact an independent state, was a coalition of all the components of the catholic Irish company, as well Gaelic as “old English”. Confederated Irish declared side of the Royalistes English during the civil wars which followed, but actually they fought to defend the interests of the Irish catholics initially.

Confédérés controlled in fact Ireland like a sovereign state until in 1649, resident seemingly honest towards Charles Ier of England. Ireland again did not know such an assembly that in 1919, when the Dáil Irish sat for the first time. From 1641 to 1649, Confédérés fought in Ireland against the English Covenanter S Scottish and Members of Parliament. They were combined in a rather free way with the Royalistes English, but they divided on the question of knowing if it were necessary to send to those a military aid during the English civil war. Finally they gave up it, but they on the other hand assembled a forwarding to support the royalists Scot, which started the civil war in this country. The wars were completed by the defeat of Confédérés. They were crushed, like their royalist allies, by the New Model Army directed by Cromwell, at the time of its reconquest of Ireland between 1649 and 1653. These wars only caused in Ireland of important losses in human lives, comparable, in the history of this country, with those of the Grande Famine of 1840. They also transfer the massive confiscation of the grounds had by the catholic Irishmen.

The plot of October 1641

The Irish rebellion of 1641 was to be a fast takeover and practically bloodshed, carried out by an small group of conspirators having at their head Felim O' Neill. Small groups joining together of the parents and affiliated plotters were mobilized with Dublin, Wicklow and in Ulster to seize the strategic buildings, like the Château of Dublin. As there was only one small number of English soldiers stationed in Ireland, this company had chances reasonable to succeed. If that had succeeded, the remaining English garrisons would have gone, leaving the catholic Irishmen in strong position to negotiate their requests of civil reforms, religious tolerance and a government by the Irishmen themselves. But the plot was denounced at the last minute, with the result that the rebellion degenerated into anarchistic violence. The release of the hostilities transformed the accumulated hatred of the catholic Irish population towards the Protestant colonists into physical violence.

The rebellion (1641 - 1642)

From 1641 at the beginning of 1642, the engagements in Ireland were the fact of local lords raising of small groups in the surrounding population, to attack civilians of opposite religion or ethnos group. At the beginning, and particularly in Ulster, the catholic Irish bands benefitted from the disappearance of the law and order to regulate accounts with the Protestant colonists, who had seized Irish grounds at the time of the Plantations in Ireland. The catholic Irish minor nobility first of all formed militia to try to contain violence, but when, a little later it became obvious that the government of Dublin intended to punish the whole of the Catholics for this revolt, it took part in the attacks against the Protestants and fought against the English troops sent to repress the rebellion. In the zones where were concentrated the British colonists, as around Cork, of Dublin, of Carrickfergus and Derry, those trained their own militia of self-defense, and they managed to maintain remote the rebellious forces. During this phase of the war, the two parties were proof of the same extreme cruelty. Captivity, then the massacre of the Protestant inhabitants of Portadown on the bridge of the city are a known example. Approximately 4.000 Protestants were massacred, and probably 12.000 others died of deprivations after being driven out of on their premises. The colonists, as well as the government of Dublin, returned the similar one at the time of attacks of the Irish civil population. Catholic massacres of civilians occurred in the wood of Kilwarlin, in the island of Rathlin and elsewhere. Moreover the English Parlement off passed a Ordinance No quarter against the Irish rebels, ordering that the prisoners would be killed at the time of their capture. The rebels of Ulster beat the governmental forces with the battle of Julianstown, but could not take the city close to Drogheda and were put in rout when they advanced on Dublin.

At the beginning of 1642, the rebellious forces were concentrated mainly in four points:

in Ulster, ordered by Felim O' Neill
in the Blade, around Dublin, carried out by the Viscount Gormanstown
in south-west, led by the family Butler, in particular Lord Mountgarret
in south-east, under the orders of Donagh MacCarthy, Viscount of Muskerry

The war of Confederated (1642-1648)

In 1642, the king Charles Ier of England sent in Ireland an important army to repress the rebellion, as did it the Covenanter S Scottish. The Scottish army quickly rejected the Irish rebels out of Ulster, and the English forces drove out them surroundings of Dublin. In manner of self-defense, the catholic Irishmen formed their own government, the Irish Confederation, sitting in their capital, Kilkenny, and raised their own armies. Confédérés also held of important port cities, like Waterford and Wexford, which enabled them to receive from the assistance of European catholic nations. Almost all the catholic Irishmen united with the Confederation, with share the strange exception of the count of Clanricarde, which remained neutral. Confédérés had only of the militia and the private troops of the lords, ordered by aristocrats amateurs, like Lord Mountgarret. Those were demolished in a series of confrontations with the troops Scottish and English, at the time of the battles of Liscarroll, of Kilrush, New Ross and Glenmaquinn.

They nevertheless were saved of a total defeat by the release of the English civil war. The majority of the English troops in Ireland were recalled in England to fight side of the Royalistes. Confédérés then swept the remaining garrisons inside their territory, leaving only Ulster, Dublin and Cork to the hands of the Scot and the English. Garret Barry, an Irish mercenary sunken to the country, took Limerick in 1642, while the population of Galway forced the English garrison of this city to go. The garrison of Cork, ordered by Murrough O' Brien, 1st count d' Inchiquin, took the party of the Parlementaires, as well as the army of the Protestant colonists around Derry, whereas the troops of the east coast of Ireland, ordered by James Butler, 1st duke of Ormonde lined up in the party of the king. The Scottish army of Covenanters, based around Carrickfergus, followed the political line of the Scottish government of Edinburgh, which remained the ally of the English Parliament until 1647.

Impasse

This gave to Confédérés the moment of respite which they needed to create regular armies, made up soldiers of trade. They reached that point while setting up a vast system of taxation, extending on all the country and centered on Kilkenny, their capital. They also accepted modest subsidies out of weapons and silver coming from France, Spain and the Papauté. The armies of Confédérés were ordered mainly by professional Irish soldiers, such as Thomas Preston, 1st Viscount of Tared or Owen Roe O' Neill, which had been useful in the Spanish army at the time of the Guerre Eighty Year old and of the Guerre Thirty Year old. On the whole, on the whole of their armies, Confédérés managed to set up approximately 60.000 men throughout war. It is possible there that Confédérés let pass the occasion, offered to them by the English civil war, to reconquer the whole of their country. They signed a truce with the Royalistes in 1643, and spent the three following years in unfruitful negotiations with them. 1646 had to be waited until to see them launching a true offensive on the Protestant enclaves of Ireland. Between 1642 and 1646, the war in Ireland was reduced to raids and skirmishes. On the two sides, one tried to starve the enemy by burning his harvests and by destroying his reserves. This type of combat caused important losses in human lives, particularly among the civilians, but no decisive battle took place between 1643 and 1646. Confédérés assembled well, in 1644, a forwarding against the Scot to Ulster, but they were not able to seize a significant portion of their territory. Their only success for this period was the successful seat of Duncannon in 1645.

Refugees

The first years of the war transfer vast displacements of civil population, the two parties practitioner what one would call today a ethnic Nettoyage. In the initial phase of the rebellion, in 1641, the vulnerable population of the Protestant colonists took refuge in the strengthened cities, like Dublin, Cork and Derry. Others fled in England. When the Scottish troops of Covenanters occupied Ulster in 1642, they avenged the attacks for the Protestant colonists by attacks of the catholic Irish civil population. It was estimated that because of that to 30.000 people left Ulster in 1642, to take refuge in territories held by Confédérés. Much of them followed the army of Ulster of Owen Roe O' Neill, alive in groups called " creaghts" , based on the clans, and making feed their herds around the army. Apart from Ulster, the treatment of the civilians was less hard, although the " No-mans-land" located between the territories held by Confederated and the British in Leinster and Munster were regularly plundered and burned, involving their depopulation.

Victoire and defeat of Confederated

This situation without exit was completed with the end of the first English civil war in 1646. Confédérés gave up the negotiations with the beaten Royalists, and tried to take again the totality of Ireland before the English Parliament could launch an invasion of the country. Their confidence was reinforced by the arrival in Ireland of the Apostolic nuncio, Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, which brought with him great quantities of weapons and money. They succeeded in seizing a fortified town parliamentary, the Château of Bunratty in the county of Clare, crushing the Scottish army of Covenanters to the battle of Benburb, and taking the town of Sligo. A little later this same year, the armies of Confederated of Ulster and Leinster, under the orders of Owen Roe O' Neill and Thomas Preston, is a total of 18.000 men, made the head office of Dublin, trying to take the city held by the royalist garrisons faithful to Ormonde. But Ormonde had taken care to devastate all the countryside around the capital, depriving of food the confederated troops, which had to be solved with raising the seat. Confédérés knew their apogee there. Ormonde, which declared that he preferred the English rebels with the Irish rebels, delivered Dublin to Michael Jones, ordering parliamentary forces arriving from England. Other parliamentary reinforcements were sent to Cork in the south of Ireland.

In 1647, these parliamentary forces inflicted a series of crushing defeats in Confédérés, forcing them at the end of the day to join a royalist coalition in order to try to push back the parliamentary invasion. First of all, in 1647, the army of Thomas Preston was destroyed by the army of Michael Jones, when it tried to go on Dublin. It was the army of Confédérés best trained and best equipped, and the loss of these men and this material carried a severe blow to Confédérés. Then the Members of Parliament of Cork devastated the territory of Confédérés in Munster, causing the famine of the civil population. When the Irish army of Munster faced them with the battle of Knocknanauss, it was also crushed. Sligo, captured by the army of the British colonists of Ulster changed hands too. It should be stressed that in this phase of the war, the combat were particularly bloody, the losers having until half of their killed men. This succession of defeats forced Confédérés to conclude an agreement with the Royalists, and to place their troops under their command. This caused in their rows of the engagements between factions, while the Confederation pronounced its dissolution in 1648, grateful James Butler, 1st duke of Ormonde like the commander-in-chief of the royalist coalition in Ireland. Inchiquinn, the parliamentary commander of Cork also passed in the royalist camp after the arrest of Charles I.

This treaty signed with the Royalists divided Confédérés deeply. Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, the Apostolic nuncio tried to excommunicate all those which accepted this agreement. What was particularly irritating for him was alliance with Inchiquinn, which had made massacre catholic civilians and members of the clergy in Munster. It a short civil period of war ago in 1648 with the army of Ulster de Owen Roe O' Neill, which refused alliance with the Royalists and the coalition Confederate-Royalists.

The war cromwellienne (1649-1653)

The coalition Confederate-Royalists lost invaluable month in engagements with Owen Roe O' Neill and other old Confédérés, whereas it should have prepared to resist the imminent invasion of Ireland by the Members of Parliament. O' Neill ends up joining the party of Confédérés. Tardily, in August 1649, Ormonde tried to take Dublin with the Members of Parliament, but it was put in rout by Michael Jones at the battle of Rathmines. Oliver Cromwell unloaded little time afterwards with the New Model Army. Where Confédérés had not succeeded in demolishing their enemies in eight years of war, Cromwell managed in three years to conquer the worldwide, because its troops were regularly supplied, equipped well (in particular in Artillerie) and well trained. Moreover, it had enormous means as men, silver and logistics to conduct its campaign.

The conquest cromwellienne

Its first action was to make safe the east coast of Ireland, in order to allow the arrival of the men and logistics coming from England. For that, it took Drogheda and Wexford, massacring the defenders of these two cities. It also sent a force towards north, in order to operate the junction with the army of the British colonists which was there. The colonists who supported the Scot and the Royalists were demolished by the Members of Parliament with the battle of Lisnagarvey.

Ormonde was obviously unable to organize the military defense of the south of the island. It based its defense system on a cord of cities strengthened, that Cromwell systematically took the ones after the others, thanks to its important artillery of seat. On their side, the royalist and Irish armies did not hold any strategic line of defense, and were rather demoralized by this avalanche of defeats and retirements. There was only with the Siège of Clonmel that Cromwell undergoes significant losses (still that the disease was responsible for a good portion of the victims). However these losses were compensated by the defection of the royalist garrison of Cork which had been Parlementaire until 1648, and which returned in its initial camp. Cromwell returned to England in 1650, passing the command with Henry Ireton.

In north, the army of the members of Parliament and colonists faced the Irish army of Ulster to the battle of Scarrifholis, and destroyed it. Ormonde was discredited and he flees in France. He was replaced by Ulick Burke, count of Clanricarde. In 1651, the remainder of the royalist-Irish forces were encircled in the area in the west of the river Shannon, holding only the strengthened cities of Limerick and Galway, and in an enclave of the Comté of Kerry, under the orders of Donagh MacCarthy, Viscount of Muskerry. Ireton made the head office of Limerick, while the parliamentary army of north, under the orders of Charles Coote, besieged Galway. Muskerry, going towards north since Kerry, tried well to release Limerick, but it was put in rout by Roger Boyle at the battle of Knocknaclashy. Limerick and Galway were too well defended so that they could be taken of force, but they were blocked until the hunger and the disease forced them to go, Limerick in 1651 and Galway in 1652. Waterford and Duncannon also went in 1651.

Operations of guerilla

It was the end of Irish organized resistance, but the clauses of the capitulation were so hard that several small units of Irish troops, which were baptized " tories" , continued to take actions of guerilla. The tories, which were generally former confederated soldiers, operated starting from broken areas, like the mountains Wicklow, tackling vulnerable groups parliamentary soldiers and plundering their provisions. In answer, the Parlementaires expelled of force the civil populations of the zones which helped the tories and burned harvests. These engagements thus generated a Famine on a country scale, still worsened by the appearance of the bubonic plague. The last organized Irish troops went to Cavan in April 1653, when the partisans of Cromwell agreed to let them leave to serve in the French Army , the court of Charles Ier being in exile in France. However any troop captured during this phase of the war either was carried out or off-set in penal colonies of the the Western Indies. But even after the official capitulation, Ireland remained the prey of a violence with small scales during the remainder of the years 1650.

Cost of these wars

The human losses due to this conflict were enormous. William Petty, Cromwellien, which undertook the first demographic scientific study and of Ireland in the years 1650 (" Down Survey"), concludes that at least 400.000 people, and perhaps up to 620.000, died in Ireland between 1641 and 1653. It may be that the real figures are lower, but they cannot be in on this side 200.000, which is considerable in a country which counted approximately 1,5 million inhabitants. It was estimated that approximately two thirds of the victims were civilians. The Irish defeat led to the massive confiscation of the grounds belonging to the catholic Irishmen, and the Protestant British domination lasted two centuries.

The Irish culture had a long time the memory of these wars, especially that of the conquest cromwellienne. Poetry Gaélique according to the conquest deplores the lack unit catholic Irish at the time of the Confederation and the perpetual internal conflicts, which are regarded as persons in charge of the failure to resist Cromwell. The other common topics are the mourning of the class of the former Irish landowners, which disappeared during the wars, and the cruelty of the parliamentary forces.

Sources

Padraig Lenihan, Confederate Catholics At War, Cork 2001
Jane Ohlmeyer, John Keegan (ED' S), The Civil Wars, Oxford 1998.
G.A. McCoy Beam, Irish Battles, Belfast 1990.
James Scott Wheeler, Cromwell in Ireland, New York 1999

See too

People associated with this period:

Military : Owen Roe O' Neill, Thomas Preston, Alasdair MacColla, Hugh Dubh O' Neill, Henry Ireton, George Monck, Oliver Cromwell, Garret Barry, Roger Boyle, 1st count de Orrery, Murrough O' Brien, 1st count d' Inchiquin, Richard Talbot, 1st count de Tyrconnel, Patrick O' Neill.

political Figures : Phelim O' Neill, James Butler, 1st duke of Ormonde, Patrick Darcy, Richard Martin fitz Oliver, Ulick de Burgh, 5 {{E}} count de Clanricarde, Richard Bellings, Nicholas French, Nicholas Plunkett, Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, Charles I, Charles II, Mountgarret, Viscount Gormanstown.

others : Piaras Feiritear and Daibhi O Bruadair - poet William Petty (geographer)

Places associated with this period:

Drogheda, Wexford, Limerick, Dublin, Cork, Galway, Clonmel, Derry, Castle of Dublin, Narrow Toilets, Castle of Bunratty, Derry, Portadown

External bond

http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/military/confederate-war.htm

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