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Faced with
this emergency, Spain proceeded to transfer many units of the
Army of Flanders to the Peninsula, including the bulk of her
Irish soldiers. Envoys and contractors (including the
Burgundian François Foisotte) were sent to Ireland to recruit
more troops, and as a result of their activities several ships
made their way to the ports of northern Spain directly from
the island. These events coincided with the Wars of the Three
Kingdoms (1639-1651) on the British Isles, which included the
English Civil War and the submission of Ireland by Oliver
Cromwell and his generals. Many Irishmen left their country
after the victory of the Commonwealth's forces and a large
number of them joined the armies of France, Spain and the
exiled Charles II Stuart. This meant that on the European
battlefields Irishmen often fought against fellow Irishmen.
The first
Irish units to see active service in Spain were the regiments
known as the Tyrone and Tyrconnell Tercios. They were
commanded by John O'Neill (Earl of Tyrone) and Hugh O'Donnell
(Earl of Tyrconnell) respectively and arrived in the ports of
the Basque country in 1638. Spanish intelligence had learned
that France intended to launch an attack across the border and
these troops were transferred from the Army of Flanders to
help strengthen the northern defences. They took part in the
relief of Fuenterrabía in September of that year, where they
made a significant contribution to the Spanish victory. With a
strength of 1,200 men, the Irish Tercios comprised about 10%
of the Peninsular force. Subsequently they took part in other
military operations in northern Spain and during the winter of
1639-1640 they distinguished themselves at the siege of Sales.
Catalonia
The Catalans
rebelled against the king in June 1640 and the Irish troops
already in Spain were part of the Spanish forces sent to
suppress them. France intervened and sent an army across the
border in support of the insurrection.
In 1641, the
Irishmen fought at the disastrous battle of Montjuïc, near
Barcelona, where they suffered heavy casualties including John
O'Neill (Earl of Tyrone) who 'was killed at the head of his
men, both he and they fighting with their accustomed valour' (Stradling
1993: 115). The Tyrone regiment was annihilated, with most of
their members either slain in battle or taken prisoner.
Hugh O'Donnell
was able to retreat southwards after the battle and the 450
survivors of his Tercio managed to reach the precarious safety
of Tarragona with the main Spanish army, where they were
besieged. Along the way, they undertook reprisals against the
local population and sacked Reus. Unfortunately, they punished
the wrong people. The town had not joined the rebellion and
had remained loyal to Philip IV.
The siege of
Tarragona lasted 104 days but the Irishmen only took part in
its initial stages. A few weeks after their arrival, they were
attached to a force that was taken behind enemy lines by the
Spanish navy, in an attempt at relieving Perpignan. This might
have been a punishment for their excesses at Reus. The
operation was a shambles and the town fell to the enemy in
1642. The Peninsular ships were intercepted by the French navy
on the return journey and O'Donnell and hundreds of his men
died in the fighting. The remainder were captured and the
Tyrconnell Tercio disappeared from the Spanish Order of
Battle.
Other units
were brought to Catalonia from the Army of Flanders, including
the survivors of the siege of Arras who were led by Colonel
Patrick Fitzgerald (or Geraldine). However, transfers from the
Spanish Netherlands would clearly not suffice and Spain
dispatched a number of envoys and contractors to Ireland, to
raise new regiments. As a result of their activities, in the
years 1641-1654, between 18,000 and 22',500 troops reached the
Peninsula directly from Irish ports. The conditions of the
voyage were often appalling and many died of disease and
hunger either during the journey or shortly after their
arrival. The men had to be billeted among the local population
and their numbers put a considerable strain on the local
economy. Deaths and desertions while quartered in northern
Spain greatly reduced the number of Irishmen who actually made
it to the battlefields of Catalonia and Portugal.
Madrid had
been extremely impressed with the Irishmen's performance in
the Netherlands. This was not the case after the operations in
Spain. Although many Irishmen performed well, the rate of
desertions was extremely high and there were instances where
whole units went over to the enemy (the French also employed
Irish troops). A possible reason for the difference might have
been ideological. In Flanders, the original enemy had been the
hated Protestants. French, Catalonians and Portuguese were
fellow Catholics. During the Dutch war, the Irish in Spanish
service were (or became) professional soldiers. In Spain and
Portugal, a whole generation of exiles joined the Habsburg
army and this meant many raw recruits, often in poor health
because of what they had endured at home, the sea voyage and
the winter months in northern Spain.
The first
troops from Ireland reached La Coruña in the autumn of 1641:
300 men led by George Porter, an English Catholic. They were
part of an ambitious contract signed between Alonso de
Cárdenas (the Spanish Ambassador in London) and a group of
officer-entrepreneurs. The agreement was to raise a force of
8,000 in ten regiments, but the rest of the troops never
departed. They stayed in Ireland and became the might of the
rebellion which broke out later in the year and which was only
crushed by Cromwell's generals the following decade. Many
believed that Spain had never really intended to recruit such
a large force and that the operation had been a smokescreen to
create an army capable of liberating Ireland from British
dominion and thus restoring her to the Catholic faith. It is
more likely that Cárdenas was duped by the rebel leaders who
might have used his scheme as a deception for preparing the
uprising. Men such as Owen Roe O'Neill, then serving in the
Army of Flanders, must have known what was really happening.
Catholic
Ireland needed her men at home to fight the Parliamentarians
but also required financial assistance from Madrid. The
Confederation of Kilkenny (as the rebels are remembered) had
to trade troops (her only commodity) for gold and, if
possible, arms. The Spanish envoy, the Burgundian François
Foisotte, was able to negotiate the dispatch of several
shipments: 6,500 men in the period 1644-1654. However, the
last contract (for 1,800-2,000 soldiers) was signed not with
the rebels (who had by then been defeated) but with the
victorious Parliamentarians, who agreed to sell their
prisoners of war to Foisotte, thus sparing their lives.
Foisotte
was not alone. In 1644, 1,200 men recruited in Ireland arrived
in northern Spain under the command of James Preston, whose
father and brother (Thomas) were serving with distinction in
the Army of Flanders. They fought in the war in Catalonia and
in autumn 1646 were part of the Spanish force that relieved
the town of Lérida, the decisive battle of this conflict. 'The
enemy, demoralised by successive failures of assault on the
citadel, decimated by disease and debilitated by insufficient
supply, disintegrated before the Spanish offensive. In the
ranks of the victorious army were the Tercios of Patrick
Fitzgerald and James Preston. They shared in the glory and
Madrid went wild with triumph and relief' (Stradling 1993:
55).
In the winter
of 1646-1647, Preston returned to Ireland with a contract to
raise 3,000 soldiers. 'By the middle of May, Preston had
collected 500 men, who were loaded into two transports in
Waterford. Just as they were sailing out of the bay, a French
squadron of five warships appeared as if on signal from behind
a promontory. They intercepted the Irish vessels and - with no
apparent resistance - carried them off as prizes, with their
precious cargo of prisoners (...) Once on French soil, Preston
and his men passed smoothly into French service' (Stradling
1993: 59). The Colonel does not seem to have acted
independently and the leaders of the Confederation of Kilkenny
were most probably in connivance with the French. Preston
served his new masters effectively and was later sent to
Portugal with a large purse, with orders to bribe the Irishmen
in Spanish service into desertion. He had considerable success
in this task.
Patrick
Fitzgerald seems to have returned to Ireland in 1647. His
Tercio had the longest service of all the Irish units in the
Peninsula (seven years). After his departure, command of the
Irish troops in the army of Don Juan José de Austria in
Catalonia was given to General George Goring, an English
'Cavalier'.
In addition to
Foisotte and Preston, other envoys and contractors were active
in the recruitment and transport of Irish soldiers to Spain,
such as Don Diego de la Torre (envoy extraordinary of the King
to the Kilkenny Confederation in 1646), Dermot O'Sullivan (son
of the Donal O'Sullivan mentioned above), the White brothers,
Colonels Christopher Mayo and Christopher O'Brien (who
commanded the troops they raised), among others.
Stradling
mentions that 4,000 men arrived in Spain directly from Ireland
in the 1640s and that 2,500 of them were still on duty in
1650, when they made up 5% of the Habsburg army in the
Peninsula. 2000 soldiers recruited by Mayo reached Guipúzcoa
in 1652 and 500 landed in Cádiz soon afterwards. In the last
week of the year, 4,000 additional troops arrived in San
Sebastián and Pasajes in a dozen ships. 3,000 of them formed
the core of the Bordeaux expedition in 1653.
In June 1653,
because of desertions and the fear of the plague (then raging
in some areas of Ireland) the King of Spain 'resolved that the
persons engaging in making levies should cease forthwith and
that the 'asientos' (contracts) most recently concluded should
not be proceeded with' (Stradling 1993: 79). At this time
there were still five outstanding contracts for 16,000 men.
The moratorium could not be implemented and in the years
1653-1654, following the final collapse of the Irish
rebellion, 12,000 more Irishmen reached northern Spain. Madrid
could do little to stop them and accepted them in her armed
forces. More followed and the flow only stopped in 1655. Few
Irish soldiers arrived in the Peninsula except as individuals
after that date but military emigration to the Army of
Flanders continued (albeit in much smaller numbers). |
