Battle of Kinsale

Siege of Kinsalio

Siege and Battle of Kinsale, 1601 from the Pacata Hibernia, 1633

Date	2 October 1601 – 3 January 1602
Location	Kinsale, County Cork
Result	Decisive English victory

Belligerents

Kingdom of England

Kingdom of Ireland

Irish alliance

Spain

Commanders and leaders

Strength

11,800 infantry
857 cavalry

Irish alliance
6,000,
Spanish
3,500

Casualties and losses

unknown casualties
6,000 deserted, sick or dead to disease

Irish alliance
1,200 killed, wounded & captured (later executed),
Spanish
100 killed or wounded,
3,400 surrendered.

Kingdom of England

The Siege or Battle of Kinsale (Irish: Léigear/Cath Chionn tSáile) was the ultimate battle in England's conquest of Gaelic Ireland, commencing in October 1601, near the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and at the climax of the Nine Years War—a campaign by Aodh Mór Ó Néill, Aodh Rua Ó Dónaill and other Irish lords against English rule.

Owing to Spanish involvement, and the strategic advantages to be gained, the battle also formed part of the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604), the wider conflict of Protestant England against Catholic Spain.

Ireland had been claimed as a lordship by the English Crown since 1175, but the actuality of this Lordship was only officially on paper as the reality on the ground was quite the contrary. By the 1350s, the area under government control had shrunk to the Pale, the area around Dublin. The rest of the country was controlled by the Gaelic lordships.

King Henry VIII initiated a policy of conquest and colonisation during the 1530s, pursued by his successors. In 1594, forces in Ulster under the previously loyal Earl of Tyrone, Aodh Mór Ó Néill, supported by Aodh Ruadh Ó Dónaill and Aodh Mag Uidir rebelled (see the Nine Years War (Ireland)). A number of Irish victories seemed to place English control of Ireland in the balance.

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Wikipedia