The Irish In The Spanish Armies In The Seventeenth Century

Provides a wealth of detail on how "the wild geese" - the Irish who refused to submit to the English - played a significant role in the armies of Spain. It is well-known that many Irishmen who refused to submit to the English in the reigns of Elizabeth and the early Stuart kings, including the famous earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell, went to fight for the king of Spain, but what they did when they joined the Spanish armies is much less well-known. This book provides a wealth of detail on the activities of the Irish in the Spanish armies in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It outlines who the Irish soldiers were, how they were recruited and the terms under which they served. It discusses their military roles both in the wars in Flanders between the Spanish and their former Dutch subjects, and, later, in the Hispanic peninsula, showing how the Irish were often employed as elite troops who made significant contributions to major military actions, such as the siege of Breda in 1624. It examines military tactics, explores the politics of the Spanish armies, showing how the Irish fitted in, and discusses how, when the rebellion of 1641 broke out in Ireland, many Irish soldiers returned to Ireland to resume the fight against the English. Eduardo de Mesa completed hisdoctorate at University College Dublin. He is the author of La pacificación de Flandes. Spínola y las campañas de Frisia (1604-1609) (2009), and Discurso Militar del Marqués de Aytona (2008), co-author of La Monarquía de Felipe III (2008), and author of numerous articles, chapters in edited collections, and encyclopedia entries.

It is well-known that many Irishmen who refused to submit to the English in the reigns of Elizabeth and the early Stuart kings, including the famous earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell, went to fight for the king of Spain, but what they did when they joined the Spanish armies is much less well-known. This book provides a wealth of detail on the activities of the Irish in the Spanish armies in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It outlines who the Irish soldiers were, how they were recruited and the terms under which they served. It discusses their military roles both in the wars in Flanders between the Spanish and their former Dutch subjects, and, later, in the Hispanic peninsula, showing how the Irish were often employed as elite troops who made significant contributions to major military actions, such as the siege of Breda in 1624. It examines military tactics, explores the politics of the Spanish armies, showing how the Irish fitted in, and discusses how, when the rebellion of 1641 broke out in Ireland, many Irish soldiers returned to Ireland to resume the fight against the English.

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These ten thematic essays examine the three Irish wars of the seventeenth-century in relation to each other, thereby yielding important comparative insights. The military potential of England and, later, an emergent Britain, was immeasurably greater than that of Irish Catholics. John McGurk, James Scott Wheeler and Paul Kerrigan evaluate the logistical and naval strategies exploiting this advantage. Such was the disparity that an effective Irish military response to conquest and colonisation was only feasible in the favourable archipelagic and continental European circumstances explored by John Young and Tadhg Ó hAnnracháin. Defeat or victory ultimately depended on relative military performance in manoeuvre, battle and siege, operations evaluated by Pádraig Lenihan, Donal O’Carroll and James Burke. Bernadette Whelan examines the role of women as victim, survivor and, occasionally, combatant. ’You cannot carry fire in a sack’, Raymond Gillespie notes the impact of war, especially on urban Ireland.

The first of a projected two-volume survey of Irish military history, this is a facsimile version of the original articles from the Middle Ages to the present day. The articles were first published in the Irish Sword, the journal of the Military History Society of Ireland. The Society was founded in 1949 with the aim of promoting the study of Irish military history, defined as the history of warfare in Ireland and of Irishmen in war. Among the essays on medieval warfare are an account of the part played by Irishmen in the Crusades and an analysis of the military history of the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are particularly well represented as warfare was frequent in that period, including the Tudor re-conquest, the rebellion of 1641 and subsequent overflow of the English Civil War into Ireland, and the Williamite war of 1689-91. Writers such as Cyril Falls on Hugh O'Neill, G A Hayes-McCoy on The Army of Ulster 1593-1603 and J G Simms on Cromwell at Drogheda feature in this section. In the part covering the eighteenth century the military exploits of Irish soldiers in foreign armies are examined by Micheline Kerney-Walsh, while Charles Petrie describes the position of Ireland in international strategic thinking in his Ireland in Spanish and French Strategy, 1558-1815. There are two papers on the rebellion of 1798: Richard Hayes The Battle of Castlebar 1798 and Paul Kerrigan's Weapons and Tactics of 1798.

Why were mercenaries such a commonplace of war in the medieval and early modern periods and why have they traditionally been so poorly regarded? Who were mercenaries, and how were they distinguished from other soldiers? The contributors to this volume attempt to cast light on these questions.

The Irish presence in England, France, and Spain is the subject of a dozen papers edited by O'Connor (history, National U. of Ireland, Maynooth). The contributors (lecturers and four graduate students in history and a librarian) examine Irish immigration to France based on archival sources there, th

Tim Newark's The Fighting Irish uses the dramatic words of the soldiers themselves to tell their stories, gathered from diaries, letters, journals, and interviews with veterans in Ireland and across the world. "Tells the story of the Irish fighting man with wit, clarity, and scholarship." —Andrew Roberts, author of The Storm of War For hundreds of years, Irish soldiers have sought their destiny abroad. Wherever they've traveled, whichever side of the battlefield they've stood, the tales of their exploits have never been forgotten. Leaving his birthplace, the Irish soldier has traveled with hope, often seeking to bring a liberating revolution to his fellow countrymen. In search of adventure the Fighting Irish have been found in all corners of the world. Some sailed to America and joined in frontier fighting, others demonstrated their loyalty to their adopted homeland in the bloody combats of the American Civil War, as well as campaigns against the British Empire in Canada and South Africa. The Irish soldier can also be found in the thick of war during the twentieth century—facing slaughter at the Somme, desperate last-stands in the Congo—and, more recently, in Iraq and Afghanistan.