Details of the Irish plan are lacking; their most likely intention seems to have been to co-ordinate their attack with a sortie by Aguila, and assault the two English camps. But when the advance began. early on the wet and stormy morning of January 3rd, things began to go wrong from the start.

Osprey's "The Irish Wars 1485-1603" shows Irish galloglass warriors.

The Irish force, of perhaps 6,000 foot and 800 horse, was divided up into three bodies. The van, commanded by the English renegade Richard Tyrell, consisted of 1,000 Irish from Meath, Leinster and Munster, with about 200 Spaniards commanded by Captain Alonso de Ocampo. The main body, under O'Neill's own command, consisted of the Ulster troops, whilst O'Donnell and his troops formed the rear.

Quite what now went wrong is unclear, there were reports of dissension between the two Irish leaders, and the usual rumours of treachery, but, whatever the cause, the outcome was clear. Though the Irish had only to make an approach march of about 5 or 6 miles, they bungled it, so that as dawn broke, their forces were still not properly deployed and widely separated.

Mountjoy had had his forces on full alert for just such an attack since the Irish forces had first arrived in the area. He himself had played a regular part in inspecting the guards at night, writing on one occasion "having been up most of this night, it groweth now about four o-clock in the morning, at which time I nightly choose to visit our guards myself and am now going about that business, in a morning as cold as srone and as dark as pitch."

Mountjoy's scouts had warned him that an attack would take place at dawn, so he had put his forces in readiness, placing the "squadron volant" of Sir Henry Power just to the west of the main camp and near the main force of his cavalry.

As dawn broke, Mountjoy's scouts warned him of the approaching Irish. He ordered his troops to arms, and prepared to put his pre-arranged plans into operation. Five regiments of foot were left in Mountjoy's own camp and four in that of the Earl of Thomond. together with three troops of horse, under the general command of Richard Carew, to deal with any sortie by Aguila. Mountjoy himself, with the Regiments of Power, Folliot, and St John, about 1,500 to 2,000 men, along with 4 or 500 horse, went to face the Irish.

Mountjoy's force was thus considerably outnumbered, and O'Neill's men also hoped that some of the Irish serving with the Government forces would come over to them, though in the event there is no evidence that this happened.

As dawn broke, the Marshal, Sir Richard Wingfield, with the horse and the "squadron volant", faced the approaching Irish about 1 to 1 1/2 miles west of Kinsale. The attackers had halted, whilst O'Neill himself rode forward to the crest of the ridge in front of Millwater Ford, from where he saw the English forces drawn up in a position on the open ground, where they would also be covered by flanking fire from Thomond's camp.

There was no sign of any activity by the Spaniards in Kinsale, and O'Neill had no intention of attacking the English forces on ground of their own choosing. Despite the urgings of the Spanish officers that he should form battle order and attack the English forces, which would cause Aguila to make a sortie, O'Neill ordered his men to fall back over Millwater Ford.

The Irish commander's plan was to withdraw across the boggy ground around the Ford and then form up again on the firm ground beyond and link up with the rest of his forces, separated during the march. The Irish made no attempt to hold the Ford itself, and were followed cautiously by English horse under Sir Henry Danvers.

Take the Offensive

Mountjoy decided to take the offensive, and ordered his horse, supported by Wingfield, to cross the boggy ground to the firmer terrain heyond. Here O'Neill was attempring to deploy his men in "tercio" formation, and encountering considerable difficulty in doing so. He had left some shot to contest the boggy ground and slow any pursuit, but these were fairly quickly forced back by the English forces.

Wingfield, with some of Power's men and some horse found a passage across the boggy terrain on to the firm ground where the Irish were forming. O'Neill's own division was on the right, Tyrrell in the centre, whilst O'Donnell, whose men were still coming up, was to form the left.

Wingfield received permission from Mountjoy to attempt to charge the enemy before they could fully deploy. The first charge was aimed at O'Neill's division, but were thwarted by the Irish horse, and failed to charge home. This apparent repulse was greeted with a shout of triumph by O'Neill's men, but by now the rest of the English horse, apparently the commands of Mountjoy himself, and Carew, had come, together with two more regiments of foot.

Once again the English horse charged their Irish counterparts, and this time the issue was not long in dispute. The Irish cavalry were ill-equipped and trained to meet the shock of a full-scale cavalry charge. and fled, disordering O'Neill's division in the process.

The situation worsened when Wingfield's horse then artacked the Irish foot frontally whilst some of the English foot struck at their rear. All of this was too much for O'Neill's men, already disconcerted by the flight of their horse. They broke and fled, losing all formation, and the mob, too far from the other divisions of the Irish force to be supported, suffered heavily at the hands of pursuing English horsemen.

Mountjoy had ordered St. John's Regiment to harass Tyrell's division with their shot, and when Tyrrell attempted to move between the English troops pursuing O'Neill and the rest of Mountjoy's force, St John's men took him in the flank. Tyrrell's men withdrew to the top of a nearby hill, "here most of the Irish dispersed, though the Spaniards were cut off by English horsemen and suffered heavy losses before surrendering. O'Donnell's division, despite the frantic urgings of their commander, marched off the field without striking a blow.

Complete Victory

Mountjoy's victory was complete: though the poor condition of their horses prevented his cavalry from pursuing far, Irish losses were heavy, somewhere between 500 and 1,200, together with at least 2,000 arms and all their baggage. The Spaniards lost about 90 men, the English no more than a dozen or so.

The Spanish troops in Kinsale had heard sounds of battle, but had done nothing, Aguila according to one account suspecting it to be an English ruse to draw him out. Ironically it was a feu de jeu fired by Mountjoy's men at the end of the battle, believed by Aguila actually to be the approaching Irish army, which caused him to order a sally. But on sighting the English flags carried by the approaching troops he beat a hasty retreat back into the town. Though Mountjoy spared the Spaniards he had captured in the battle, some 2-300 Irish prisoners were hanged in sight of the town.

The debacle at Kinsale ended both Spanish hopes in Ireland and the Irish rebellion itself. Aguila surrendered on lenient terms on January 12th. O'Neill headed back to Ulster with a few hundred men, and prolonged the guerilla fight, though without hope of success, for another year, until he in turn accepted temns just after the death of Queen Elizabeth.

Sources