Battle of Liscarroll
Part of the Irish Confederate Wars

Liscarroll Castle, captured by Muskerry the day before the battle
Date3 September 1642
Location
Liscarroll, County Cork, Ireland
Result Royalist victory
Belligerents
Royalists Catholic Confederates
Commanders and leaders
Earl of Inchiquin Garret Barry
Strength
2,000 foot
400 horse[1]		 7,000 foot
1,500 horse[1]
Casualties and losses
Low 600
Battle of Liscarroll is located in Ireland
Liscarroll
Liscarroll
Belfast
Belfast
Dublin
Dublin
Liscarroll in Ireland

The Battle of Liscarroll was fought on 3 September 1642 in northern County Cork, Munster, between Irish Confederate and Royalist troops. The battle was part of the Irish Confederate Wars, which had started in the north in 1641 reaching Munster in 1642. The Confederates, about 8,500 strong, were led by Garret Barry, an Irish veteran from the Spanish Army of Flanders. The Royalist forces, about 2,400 strong, were commanded by Murrough O'Brien, 6th Baron of Inchiquin, an Irish Protestant. Despite his numerical disadvantage Inchiquin routed his enemies by the strength of his cavalry and the firepower of his musketeers.

Background

Sir Phelim O'Neill launched the Rebellion in northern Ireland in October 1641,[2] exploiting the King's weakness at the eve of the English Civil War. The rebellion spread south reaching Munster early in 1642. In January the Munster insurgents, led by the local Catholic noble Maurice Roche, 8th Viscount Fermoy, attacked the local English Protestant noble Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, at Youghal.[3] In March and April the Munster insurgents, led by Fermoy and Donough MacCarty, 2nd Viscount Muskerry, besieged Cork City,[4][5] but Murrough O'Brien, 6th Baron of Inchiquin, an Irish Protestant,[6] counterattacked and drove the insurgents away.[7][8] The Munster insurgents then gave the command of their army to Garret Barry, an Irish veteran from the Spanish Army of Flanders. In May and June Barry besieged and took Limerick.[9][10] The insurgents also attacked castles given to English settlers during the Plantation of Munster.[11] In summer 1642 the Munster insurgents attacked the castles of Sir Philip Perceval, an English knight. Muskerry took Annagh Castle, County Tipperary, and in August besieged Liscarroll Castle, northern County Cork. The castle surrendered on 2 September.[lower-alpha 1] The next day Inchiquin with his army appeared before the castle,[15] too late to save the castle but ready for battle.

The battle

The Insurgents' army consisted of militia raised by the local Catholic lords. The insurgents' cavalry was led by Oliver Stephenson, who descended from Elizabethan English settlers but sided with the insurgents as he was Catholic.

The government force consisted of three English regiments and various local Protestant troops. The three English regiments had been sent to Ireland in February or early March 1642 to reinforce the army of Sir William St Leger, president of Munster. The first such regiment was commanded by Charles Vavasour, 1st Baronet, of Killingthorpe who landed with his regiment in Youghal in February[16] Vavasour commanded the foot whereas Inchiquin was commander-in-chief and commanded the horse.[17][18] Together they pursued the Irish when they finally fled.[19]

The three eldest sons of the 1st Earl of Cork fought in the cavalry at the battle. They were: Richard Boyle, Viscount Dungarvan; Lewis, Viscount Boyle of Kinalmeaky; and Roger Boyle, Baron Broghill. Kinalmeaky was killed and succeeded by his elder brother as 2nd Viscount Kinalmeakey according to the special remainder of his title.

Stephenson's horsemen charged Inchiquin's force, putting them into disorder and even capturing Inchiquin himself. However, in the melee, Stephenson was shot dead by Inchiquin's brother (through the eye-piece of his helmet) and the Irish cavalry lost heart and fell back. The Irish infantry lacked the training and discipline to stand up to a cavalry charge and fled, leading to a rout of the Irish forces. The vast difference in the number of muskets was a major factor in the defeat of the Irish, some 1500 against 500. Most Irishmen wore pikes.

The next day Inchiquin with his army appeared before the castle.[15] Despite inferior numbers[20] the royalists defeated the insurgents under General Garret Barry in the ensuing Battle of Liscarroll.[21][22] Muskerry allegedly panicked, fled, and caused others to flee.[23] His Protestant acquaintance Barrymore died in September, supposedly of wounds received in the battle.[24]

Casualties and consequences

About 600 Irish Confederates were killed, among them a high proportion of officers like Stephenson. The local Catholic gentry were decimated by the battle, for instance the Fitzgerald family of the House of Desmond had 18 of their members killed. They were buried in a mass grave just outside Liscarroll. In addition, Inchiquin executed 50 more Confederate officers whom he had taken prisoner, hanging them the next morning. The battle meant that south central County Cork with the towns of Cork City, Bandon, Kinsale and Youghal would form an English and Protestant stronghold for the rest of the war.

Notes, citations, and sources

Notes

  1. ↑ The dates given for the sieges of Annagh and Liscarroll castles are confusing, but it is sure the sieges happened in the summer of 1642 and that Liscarrol fell on 2 September.[12][13][14]

Citations

  1. 1 2 Bagwell 1895, p. 321, left column, line 17. "... with only 2000 foot and four hundred horse overthrew General Barry at Licarrol with seven thousand foot and fifteen hundred horse ..."
  2. ↑ Perceval-Maxwell 1994, p. 214. "Sir Phelim O'Neill struck in Ulster on the evening of Friday, 22 October [1641], 'the last day of the moon'. He took Dungannon first, and two hours later he was in the possession of the strong castle of Charlemont ..."
  3. ↑ Townshend 1904, pp. 100–102.
  4. ↑ McGrath 1997, p. 266, line 6. "In April 1642 he [St Leger] was besieged in Cork by Theobald Purcell, Richard Butler, and Lords Roche, Ikerrin, Dunboyne and Muskerry."
  5. ↑ Bagwell 1909, p. 3. "... besieged in Cork 'by a vast body of enemy lying within four miles of the town, under my Lord of Muskerry, O'Sullivan Roe, MacCarthy Reagh, and all the western gentry ...' "
  6. ↑ Cregan 1995, p. 502. "... while others of the great Anglo-Irish and Old Irish peers, as Kildare, Ormond, Thomond, Barrymore, Inchiquin and Howth, were now to be found in the Protestant ranks."
  7. ↑ Ohlmeyer 2004, p. 107, right column, line 13. "... early in April 1642 captured Rochfordstown ..."
  8. ↑ Wiggins 2001, p. xvii. "April 1642 / 13th / The siege of Cork is lifted when Lord Inchiquin routes the besiegers."
  9. ↑ M'Enery 1904, p. 163, penultimate line. "The principal men among the besiegers were General Gerald Barry, Patrick Pursell of Croagh, County Limerick, lord Roche, lord Muskerry ..."
  10. ↑ Adams 1904, p. 255. "... capitulated on the 21st of June [1642]. Lord Muskerry took possession the next day."
  11. ↑ Westropp 1907, p. 155. "The English settlers were given possession of the castles, and Connello was divided into seignories, mainly held by Berkeley, Courtenay, Oughtred, Trenchard, Cullom, Billingsley and Agar."
  12. ↑ Buckley 1898, p. 88. "On Tuesday, the 30th August, they sat down before Liscarroll Castle ..."
  13. ↑ Moriarty 1895, p. 373, right column. "In the summer of 1642 a detachment of the confederate army under Lord Muskerry advanced into Percival's districts. All his castles were taken though Annagh and Liscarrol offered a stubborn resistance, the former [sic] holding out for eleven days against an attacking force of 7,500 men (20 Aug.–2 Sept. 1642)."
  14. ↑ Little 2004b, p. 662, left column. "Perceval's lands were overrun, with his castles at Liscarroll and Annagh holding out until September 1642."
  15. 1 2 Coffey 1914, p. 107, line 14. "Inchiquin hurried to the relief of Liscarroll, arriving in sight of the castle on September 3rd."
  16. ↑ Gibson 1861, p. 65: "Sir Charles Vavasor arrived in Youghal with a thousand men, in Februar, 1642"
  17. ↑ Smith 1893, p. 154: "... the horse led by my Lord Inchequeen, and the foot by Sir Charles Vavasour, who went in the head of them ..."
  18. ↑ Gibson 1861, p. 68: "Sir Charles Vavasour, Colonel Myn, Captain Jephson ... were in his [Inchiquin's] army ..."
  19. ↑ Meehan 1882, p. 35, line 34: "Sir Charles Vavasour and Inchiquin pursued them to a neighbouring bog ..."
  20. ↑ Bagwell 1895, p. 321, left column, line 14. "On 20 August Inchiquin, accompanied by Barrymore, Kinalmeaky, and Broghill ... with only two thousand foot and four hundred horse ..."
  21. ↑ Meehan 1882, p. 35, line 25. "... the confederates under Lords Roche, Muskerry, Ikerrin, Dunboyne, Castleconnell, Brittas, and General Barry ..."
  22. ↑ Ohlmeyer 2012, p. 266. "... at the battle of Liscarroll (3 September 1642) when troops led by Lords Brittas, Castle Connell, Dunboyne, Ikerrin, Muskerry, and Roche took on a Protestant force ..."
  23. ↑ Buckley 1898, p. 98. "My Lord Musgrave told them the day was lost, and bid as many as could save their lives, to make hast away;"
  24. ↑ Armstrong 2009, 2nd paragraph, penultimate sentence. "He died 29 September 1642 apparently from wounds received in battle at Liscarrol ..."

Sources

52°15′37″N 8°48′13″W / 52.2603°N 8.8037°W / 52.2603; -8.8037

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