Forward to the 'Hill of Axes'

Gerald had already made up his mind. The army moved forward.

On August 18, elements of Ulick Burke's army were sighted in the vicinity of Galway, near the hill of Knockdoe, in English, "the hill of axes...six miles from Galway" (Holinshed 270). The Earl had found his enemy.

That evening, the Earl told his galloglas commander that he desired the galloglasses to attack the following day, as they were the strongest fighters and the most likely to break through the enemy lines, to which the galloglas commander replied, "You can do me no more honour, by God's blood!" (Hayes-McCoy 60). The reason for picking the galloglasses was simple, for as L. Nowell wrote, "These sort of men...do not lightly quit the field, but bide the brunt to the death" (Heath M.A. 37).

During the early morning hours, Gerald began to form up his army. The field of battle most probably was of fairly even land, but there was a two foot high stone wall extending from the center of the field, also the center of the Earl's army, to just past his right flank, where he anchored his line with his galloglasses and Irish foot. Obviously, this was a very long fence, almost a half mile long, and certainly posed a major obstacle to any attackers. To his left flank, the River Clare flowed, thus giving Gerald both flanks secured, a very prudent tactical as well as psychologically sound position.

The Earl's cavalry, under the Baron of Delvin, were placed on the extreme left flank, where they could maneuver past the stone wall with with no problem. Though Sir John Norris observed that the Irish cavalry "...were fit only to catch cows," the English actually had plenty of trouble with them through the centuries, as they were used, not as the attack, shock mounted arm, as in Europe, but as harassing skirmishers (Heath M.A., 38-9), due to their lack of stirrups and high saddles. The cavalry were there to prevent Ulick's own horse from sweeping the flank.

Between the galloglasses and Irish holding the right flank and the cavalry on the left, Gerald positioned his archers, forming to the center right and left, with his billmen and Dubliners along with the Earl's personal galloglasses in the exact middle of the army under command of Howth. The baggage he left a half mile behind by the river, with his son, Garret Og in command of it as well as a small number of reserves (Hayres-McCoy 62).

Drinking and Betting

Caught unexpectedly, apparently, although it is hard to believe that Ulick did not have plenty of time to select a proper, prepared field of battle, the Burke army not only passed the night before battle drinking and betting on who would capture which particular prisoner the next day, they also found themselves facing into the sunrise as dawn broke (Hayes-McCoy 62). A reasonable assumption to explain Burke's poor tactical situation is that Burke's army actually arrived on the field after the Earl's because of the necessity of keeping himself between Gerald and Galway (Hayes-McCoy 61). Ulick Burke made a further mistake by forming up for the battle with his own cavalry facing the stone wall! His foot all congregated in a large body facing the the Earl's army, with his galloglasses in a solid mass, and the other foot and kerns to their rear.

As Gerald watched his son-in-law's dispositions, he spoke to his men. "Here is against us great numbers of people without weapons and without wisdom or good order. They march to battle as drunken as swine to a trough.... Remember-all that we have (done rests) upon this day's issue, and also the honour of our prince. And remember how we are in a country unknown to the most number of us, and far from our towns and castles" (Hayes-McCoy 62). A speech which appealed to honor, pride, superiority. . .and fear. The Earl's men would have little chance of survival if they did not carry the day.

With a loud cry, Ulick's 600 galloglasses threw themselves at Gerald's right flank, giving "Three great shouts that might, with the sight of their terrible axes, have daunted less resolute opponents", while on the other flank, the Baron of Delvin reportedly led his cavalry to the attack as the Irish poured toward the Earl's army, but other than the killing of some members of the Burke clan, the horsemen did little to stem the onrush of Ulick's men (Hayes-McCoy 63).

Gerald's archers were firing arrows into the packed ranks of Ulick's galloglasses as fast as they could, causing the attack to lose much of its cohesion, yet still the galloglasses crashed into the Earl's billmen and galloglasses with enough power to push the line back. As reported in most battles in Ireland, Wales and Scotland, individual feuds rapidly were renewed and settled. The leader of the Clanrickard galloglasses, MacSwiney, called to his enemy, the Great Darcy of the Pale to join him in mortal combat. MacSwiney swung his axe and drove Darcy to his knees with a massive blow to the head, but another Palesman "...gave MacSwiney such payment that he was satisfied ever after" (Hayes-McCoy 63).

The battle raged back and forth as the Gaelic fighters swung their deadly axes, threw javelins, and rushed forward with knives against the spear and bill-armed Anglo-Irish. Melees flared across the field as dozens fell beneath bloody blades, no quarter being asked nor given. The galloglasses fought until killed, their oath sworn to not turn their backs on their enemies (Heath M.A. 37). Their bravery has been extolled by their contemporaries, "The courage and impetuosity of the youths and of the striplings and the enthusiasm of the brave men in their failing, and the prevailing of the nobles over the lowly" (Hayes-McCoy 63).

Yet, Gerald's initial dispositions favored his army. By destroying the ability of the Burke forces to deliver a solid, coordinated attack upon a portion of their line, thanks to the judicial placement of archers who could cover the entire front of the army, the Earl had forced the attackers to tire themselves out and eventually they lost their initial enthusiasm as fatigue and frustration overcame them.

Locked in Combat

Seemingly locked in combat, the battle raged for hours, but Gerald's numerical and tactical superiority took hold as Ulick's casualties grew. His men began to fall back, the survivors appalled by their losses, as where there had fought nine 'battles' of galloglas, only a "thin battalion alone" remained (Hayes-McCoy 64). By this figure alone, upwards of 2,000 of Ulick's men lay dead upon the field.

As his foot were falling back and retiring, Ulick's cavalry rode around the stone wall, where they had obviously remained all day, and attacked the Earl's baggage, now vacated by the Earl's son and his reserves, which left in pursuit of the breaking Clanrickard forces. The horsemen improved their stations in life as the blood of their kinsmen stained the hill of axes. The battle was over.

The Earl's losses must have been heavy as well, though Holinshed wrote that "...great slaughter was made of them (Ulick's men), and manie captains caught, without the losse of one Englishman" (271). This actually could be true, as so few Englishmen were actually present, they may have avoided combat until the very end of the battle when they joined in the pursuit.

Kill Them All?

A curious footnote appeared in Howth's chronicle when he writes that Lord Gormanstown tried to convince Gerald to kill not only all his Gaelic prisoners, but his own Irish allies as well (Edwards 36)! No doubt sentiments such as these were shared by many of the English and Anglo-Irish who had seen first-hand the ferocity and brutality of the Irish fighters.

Gerald's victory earned him the honor of being named Knight of the Garter in 1505. Ulick survived the battle and fled to the North, leaving his children to the care of their grandfather, Gerald of Kildare. Gerald's military success at Knockdoe had been a fight to the death, as Clontarf had been 500 years before, with Irish fighting against other Irish and their foreign overlords. The English would be embroiled for centuries attempting to subdue the Gaels, and Lord Gormanstown would not be the last to suggest their eradication.

The Battle of Knockdoe was the first major battle in Ireland in which firearms appeared. Though handgunners were reportedly present at the battle, only a single reference to a Dubliner killing a mounted retainer of Ulick's by "(striking) him with a gun...and so beat out his brains", is proof of firearms being 'used' at Knockdoe (Hayes-McCoy 64). Ironically enough, it was a gunshot wound which killed Gerald in 1513 (Edward 36). As his epitaph, it was said that at the end of Henry VII's reign, Ireland, entrusted to the care of the Great Earl of Kildare, was more peaceful as well as more desolate than it had been in the last two centuries (Edwards 37).

More Kockdoe

Knockdoe: Introduction
The Battle of Knockdoe
Irish Medieval Warriors
Knockdoe Scenario Photos (Historicon '97)