Nine Years War (Ireland)

Nine Years' War

Date	August 1594 – 31 March 1603
Location	Ireland
Result	English victory Treaty of Mellifont (1603) Flight of the Earls (1607)

Belligerents

Confederation of Irish lords

Spain
Scottish Gaelic mercenaries

Kingdom of England

Kingdom of Ireland

Commanders and leaders

Robert Devereux (Earl of Essex)

Charles Blount (Lord Mountjoy)

Strength

8,000 in Ulster (1594) but thousands joined after,
9,000 in Munster,
3,500 Spanish (1601)

~5–6,000 (before 1598)
~17,000 (after 1598)

Casualties and losses

~100,000 soldiers and Irish civilians (the vast majority died due to famine)

~30,000 soldiers (though more died from disease than in battle) and hundreds of English colonists

Total dead: 130,000+

The Nine Years' War (Irish: Cogadh na Naoi mBliana or Cogadh Naoi mBlian) or Tyrone's Rebellion took place in Ireland from 1594 to 1603. It was fought between the forces of Gaelic Irish chieftains Hugh O'Neill of Tír Eoghain, Hugh Roe O'Donnell of Tír Chonaill and their allies, against English rule in Ireland. The war was fought in all parts of the country, but mainly in the northern province of Ulster. It ended in defeat for the Irish chieftains, which led to their exile in the Flight of the Earls, and to the Plantation of Ulster.

The war against O'Neill and his allies was the largest conflict fought by England in the Elizabethan era. At the height of the conflict (1600–1601) more than 18,000 soldiers were fighting in the English army in Ireland. By contrast, the English army assisting the Dutch during the Eighty Years' War was never more than 12,000 strong at any one time.

The Nine Years' War was caused by the clashes between the Gaelic Irish chieftain Hugh O'Neill and the advance of the English state in Ireland, from control over the Pale to ruling the whole island. In resisting this advance, O'Neill managed to rally other Irish septs who were dissatisfied with English government and some Catholics who opposed the spread of Protestantism in Ireland.

Hugh O'Neill came from the powerful Ó Néill clan of Tyrone, which dominated the centre of the northern province of Ulster. His father, Matthew O'Neill, Baron Dungannon, was the reputed son of Conn O'Neill the Lame, the first O'Neill to be created Earl of Tyrone by the English Crown. Matthew O'Neill was killed, and Seán 'An Díomais' Ó Néill banished the child Hugh O'Neill from Ulster. The Hovenden family brought Hugh up in the Pale, and the English authorities sponsored him as a reliable lord. In 1587 Hugh O'Neill persuaded Queen Elizabeth I to make him Earl of Tyrone (or Tir Eoghain), the English title his grandfather had held. However, the real power in Ulster lay not in the legal title of Earl of Tyrone, but in the position of The Ó Néill, or chief of the O'Neill clan, then held by Turlough Luineach Ó Neill. This position commanded the obedience of all the O'Neills and their dependents in central Ulster; in 1595, after much bloodshed, Hugh O'Neill managed to secure it for himself.

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