| Battle of Affane | |||||||
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| Part of the Private war between Fitzgeralds and Butlers | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Geraldines of Desmond and allies. County Waterford (Contae Phort Láirge is a County in the province of Munster on the south coast of Ireland. Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world | Butlers of Ormonde and allies | ||||||
| Commanders | |||||||
| Gerald Fitzgerald, 15th Earl of Desmond | Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormonde | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| c. Gerald FitzGerald 15th Earl of Desmond (c 1533 &ndash 11 November 1583) was an Irish nobleman and leader of the Desmond Rebellions of 1579 Thomas Butler 10th Earl of Ormonde and 3rd Earl of Ossory, was born circa 1531 and died on 22 November 1614. 180 horse, 3-400 heavy infantry, hundreds more lightly armed infantry. | ? | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| c. 300 killed | c. low | ||||||
The Battle of Affane was fought in county Waterford, in south-eastern Ireland, in 1565, between the forces of the Fitzgerald Earl of Desmond and the Butler Earl of Ormonde. County Waterford (Contae Phort Láirge is a County in the province of Munster on the south coast of Ireland. Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world The title of Earl of Desmond has been held historically by lords in Ireland, first as a title outside of the peerage system and later as part of the Peerage of Ireland The battle ended in the rout of the Desmond (or Geraldine) forces. It was one of the last private battles fought in Britain or Ireland.
Contents |
Causes – a private war
The province of Munster had been dominated by the Old English Fitzgeralds of Desmond and the Butlers of Ormonde since the 13th century. The Old English (Seanghaill were the descendants of the settlers who came to Ireland from Wales, Normandy and England after the Norman The Fitzgerald territory was located in the south and south-west of Ireland, across modern counties; Cork, Kerry and Tipperary. County Cork (Contae Chorcaí is the most southerly and the largest of the modern counties of Ireland. County Kerry ( Contae Chiarraí in Irish) is a southwestern county of Ireland. County Tipperary (Contae Thiobraid Árann is a County in Ireland situated in the Province of Munster. The Ormonde territory was centred on the city of Kilkenny and concentrated in counties Kilkenny, Waterford and Tipperary. Kilkenny, ( is a city and county town of County Kilkenny in Ireland. County Kilkenny ( is a landlocked county in Ireland. The county takes its name from the city of Kilkenny and has a population of 87558 County Waterford (Contae Phort Láirge is a County in the province of Munster on the south coast of Ireland. In the absence of any strong central government, the rival dynasties were locked in a cycle of violent competition – with constant raiding, as each side tried to consolidate and expand its territory at the expense of the other's. In the 1560s, this feud exploded into all out war.
The widowed Countess of Ormonde, mother of Sir Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormonde, married Gerald Fitzgerald, 15th Earl of Desmond, with a view to reconciliation between the two houses, and it was to her intervention that the peaceful outcome of a stand-off at Bohermore (known as, the battle that never was) in 1560 was attributed. Thomas Butler 10th Earl of Ormonde and 3rd Earl of Ossory, was born circa 1531 and died on 22 November 1614. Gerald FitzGerald 15th Earl of Desmond (c 1533 &ndash 11 November 1583) was an Irish nobleman and leader of the Desmond Rebellions of 1579 However, her death in 1564 unleashed ill feeling, and raiding was presently resumed on both sides.
As the dispute ebbed and flowed, Sir Maurice Fitzgerald – a Desmond dependent resident in the borderland between the territories – declared his intention to accept the protection of his first cousin, Ormonde. In order to coerce him back into dependency, Desmond mustered the Geraldine forces in January 1565 and marched east across Munster and into the territory of the Decies in Waterford. Ormonde mobilised his men to intercept the Geraldines at Affane, a ford over the Finisk tributary of the Blackwater River, in the foothills of the Knockmealdown Mountains near Lismore. Knockmealdown Mountains (Sléibhte Chnoc Mhaoldomhnaigh are a mountain range located on the border of Counties Tipperary and Waterford in Ireland. Lismore ( Lios Mór in Irish, meaning "Great Enclosure" is a town in County Waterford, Ireland.
The battle
Desmond’s forces were composed of his Fitzgerald kinsmen, allied Gaelic Irish clans such as the O’Connors and O’Briens, and one disaffected dependent of Ormonde's, Sir Piers Butler of Cahir. Ormonde’s troops were provided by the Butler lords and allied Gaelic and Old English levies.
Desmond left Lismore at first light with 80-100 horse, 3-400 foot, plus hundreds of followers, in the company of the MacCarthys, O'Sullivans, McSheehys and O'Connors. He marched to Bewley at the tidal high point of the Finisk, where he demanded service of Fitzgerald in the formal way, according to the customary military exactions of coyne and livery. Fitzgerald offered arbitration, but Desmond insisted on the sole decision of his brehon: no agreement was reached. Early Irish law refers to the statutes that governed everyday life and politics in Ireland during the Gaelic period.
Desmond pitched camp, ordered the slaughter of 60 cattle, and sent some horseboys out to fire a few houses before dispatching the rest to Dungarvan for wine. Three houses were set on fire, and Ormonde came down the mountain with the O'Kennedys, Gillapatricks and Burkes. Desmond was advised by a local man to attack immediately, on the false information that Ormonde himself was absent; Lord Power, however, urged him to retreat to his house at Curraghmore and consider his position. Desmond's assessment was that the opposing forces were weak and could be taken with ease, and so he chose to attack. The Geraldines set off for Dromana in the parish of Affane, the chief seat of the Fitzgeralds of the Decies, taking up reinforcements at Lismore on the way.
At this point Ormonde had progressed to the ford of Affane, a short distance below Lismore Castle, where his forces, bearing a red flag, were passed by Desmond's foot soldiers at the crossroads. Desmond's men hoisted their banner, and matters came to a head. Ormonde was spotted by Desmond, who immediately spurred his horse onward, causing a desultory exchange of gunfire. Ormonde fell into defensive formation, and his brother, Edmund Butler, hit Desmond in the right hip with a pistol-shot, cracking his thigh-bone and throwing him from his mount. With their leader fallen, the Geraldine troops were routed and the Butlers pursued them to the riverbank. About 300 Geraldines were killed, with many drowning as they were intercepted by armed boats in crossing the river.
As the captive Desmond was being carried shoulder-high from the field, an Ormonde commander rode up and jubilantly inquired, "Where is now the great Lord Desmond?" Whereupon Desmond is said to have retorted, "Where but in his proper place, on the necks of the Butlers". Desmond was taken in captivity to Clonmel and then to Waterford city, where Lord Justice Arnold took custody of him after a legal wrangle with Ormonde. Clonmel ( Cluain Meala in Irish) in County Tipperary is the county seat of South Tipperary County Council. Waterford ( or Windy fjord;) is a city in Ireland. It is the primary city of the South East region and the fifth largest in the country
Consequences
Elizabeth I of England was furious that two noble houses had fought a private battle, defying Royal authority in the Kingdom of Ireland. The Kingdom of Ireland (Ríocht na hÉireann was the name given to the Irish state from 1541 by the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 of the Parliament of Ireland. The fact that both sides had displayed their banners in the battle was a particular affront to her – as it was a symbolic rejection of the monopoly of the state on making war. Both Earls were summoned to London to explain their actions. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. However, the treatment of the dynasties was not even handed: the Earl of Ormonde, a cousin of the Queen's and a court favourite, managed to convince Elizabeth that it was the Geraldines who were at fault. As a result, both Desmond (who had been brought before the privy council on a litter) and his brothers, John and James, were arrested and detained in the Tower of London; it was seven years before the earl returned to Munster with his wife, Eleanor. This action contributed significantly to unrest in the province of Munster and, ultimately, to the first of the Desmond Rebellions in 1569. The Desmond Rebellions occurred in between 1569-1573 and 1579-1583 in Munster in southern Ireland ('Desmond' is the English language name given to the Gaelic 'Deasmumhain'
Sources
- Lennon, Colm, Sixteenth Century Ireland – The Incomplete Conquest, Gill & Macmillan, Dublin 1994.
- Cyril Falls Elizabeth's Irish Wars (1950; reprint London, 1996). ISBN 0-09-477220-7.