by Des Ekin
This is equally true of Nora Hickey’s slim 1985 volume, The Battle of Kinsale – it contains twenty pages in total and, given her obvious expertise, I would have loved to have read 200 or even more.
The Battle of Kinsale (2004), edited by Hiram Morgan, is a scholarly volume containing 21 wide-ranging academic articles and is the definitive work. I found the sections by Morgan, Morales, O’Scea, O’Connor and Shiels particularly helpful.
A fourth book is mostly in Spanish and came a little too late for me. By the time Enrique García Hernán’s The Battle of Kinsale was published in 2013, my own book was essentially complete. However, I have referenced it in these notes because his 630 pages of ‘Documents from the Spanish Archives’ (transcribed in Spanish) have now made this material readily accessible to future scholars and researchers. His introductory ‘Study’ (40 pages in English) also contained many perceptive insights and helped to steer me clear of some errors. Enrique García Hernán’s book – compiled in collaboration with Ciaran Brady and Declan M Downey – is a momentous contribution to knowledge of the period and will prove an invaluable source.
I am aware of, but have not read, three other books in Spanish: Irlanda y la Monarquia Hispanica: Kinsale 1601-2001, edited by Enrique García Hernán et al (Universidad de Alcalá, 2002); El Socorro de Irlanda en 1601 y la Contribución del Ejército a la Integración Social de Los Irlandeses en Espana, by Óscar Recio Morales (Defence Ministry, 2002); and La Batalla de Kinsale: La Expedición de Juan del Águila a Irlanda 1601-1602, by Alberto Raúl Esteban Ribas and Tomás San Clemente de Mingo (Zarazoga: HRM Ediciones 2013).
Of course, many more works deal with Kinsale 1601 as part of a wider study – usually of the entire O’Neill insurgency (RTÉ’s documentary The Battle of Kinsale is a good example), or of Kinsale’s history, or of Irish history in general.
The academic journals contain many scholarly articles on various aspects of Kinsale 1601. Some are referenced below.
For my own book, The Last Armada, I concentrated on primary sources and near-contemporary accounts. However, my advice to any new researcher is to begin with Hiram Morgan’s wonderfully comprehensive 45-page article, ‘Disaster at Kinsale’, in Morgan (ed) The Battle of Kinsale. This is a thorough, forensic and yet highly readable study in which Morgan – the leading expert on the subject – expertly slices through all the layers of myth and misinformation to reveal the underlying truth. I do not always agree with his conclusions, but throughout my researches whenever I became lost, ‘Disaster’ was always my road map.
Next, my imaginary researcher should enjoy Bagwell’s chapter ‘The Spaniards in Munster’ in his history, Ireland under the Tudors. It may date from 1890, but Bagwell’s fresh and enthusiastic style makes it a cracking good read. Talking of prose stylists, Sean O’Faolain’s The Great O’Neill is enjoyable enough to qualify as holiday reading, although he dispenses with Kinsale – the climactic episode in O’Neill’s life – in just 20 pages.
Fourthly, she should read Gerard Hayes-McCoy’s expert military account of the confrontation in the relevant chapter of Irish Battles.
After that pleasant introduction, she will need to dig deep into those primary sources. Moryson’s History and Itinerary remain the most objective of the English records. I am aware that Pacata Hibernia and the Calendar of State Papers Ireland have their limitations – the former is shamelessly self-serving and the CSPI has flaws that would ideally require every page to be checked against the originals at Kew – but they remain invaluable sources. O’Grady’s version of Pacata gives good footnotes. The Calendar of Carew Manuscripts and the Cecil–Carew letters are also essential.
On the Irish side, it is vital to read the relevant bits of O’Sullivan Beare’s History; of O’Cleary’s Life of Red Hugh; and the Annals of the Four Masters.
The documents from the Simancas Archives reproduced in Martin Hume’s CSPS (now available online) provide the most accessible of the Spanish primary sources. Zubiaur’s despatches from the war front have been published in the Epistolario. The main Spanish source is the vast Archivo General de Simancas (AGS). Two categories are of particular interest: foreign affairs (Secretarias del Consejo de Estado) and war (Secretarias del Consejo de Guerra). The National Library of Ireland has a large collection of Simancas documents on microfilm, and now García Hernán has helpfully provided key transcripts in Spanish. More are appearing online with each passing year. Valuable letters from Oviedo, Archer and Mansoni have been published by F. M. Jones and by Patrick McBride. Águila’s career can be pieced together from references in the AGS, CSPS, CSPI, CSPV, Córdoba, G. Gonzales Davila, H.C. Davila, Duro, Famien Strada, Lainez, Rayon & Zabalbura, and Silke.
Ciaran O’Scea performed a great service to historians by publishing A Newly Discovered Account of the Battle of Kinsale (in Morgan BoK p366) which is Bustamante’s memoir. For my own book, I worked from a copy of Bustamante’s original Spanish document.
In 1950s Ireland, when Águila’s name was being vilified, historian Henry Mangan single-handedly worked to rescue his reputation. Mangan’s courageous cries in the wilderness are well worth searching out. His intellectual sparring partner F. M. Jones also provided expert analysis, especially with his Spaniards in Kinsale and Destination.
Other favoured sources will be obvious from my Bibliography and Source Notes.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The abbreviations used in source notes appear in square brackets.
[a4m] Annals of the Four Masters (1630s) Donegal: Franciscan Friary. English translation by Owen Connellan (1846)
Bagwell, Richard (1890) Ireland Under the Tudors Vol 3 London: Longmans, Green
Berleth, Richard (1977) The Twilight Lords London: Allen Lane
Brady, Ciaran and Gillespie, Raymond (1975) (eds) Natives and Newcomers… Dublin: Irish Academic Press
Bruce, John (ed) (1861) Correspondence of King James VI of Scotland with Sir Robert Cecil… Westminster: Camden Society
[Bust.] Bustamante, Alférez [first name unknown] (c1602) A True Account of Events in the Town of Kinsale Paris: Archive of Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Copy in National Library of Ireland, Dublin. First discovered by Ciaran O’Scea, whose translation appears in Morgan, BoK. (I worked directly from the original ms.)
Byrchensha, Ralph (1602) A Discourse Occasioned upon the Late Defeat [at Kinsale]…London: “M.L.”
+CalCarew] Calendar of Carew Manuscripts. Full ref: Brewer, J. S. and Bullen W. (eds) (1870) Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts London: Longman
Camden, William (1688) The History of…Princess Elizabeth London: Bentley
Camden, William (1625) Annales Leiden
Carleton, George (1630) A Thankful Remembrance of God’s Mercy London: Mylbourne & Robinson
Colles, Ramsay (1919) The History of Ulster Vol 1 London: Gresham
Connolly, SJ (2007) Contested Island Oxford: OUP
Coombes, J and Ware, Niall (eds) (1978) The Letter Book of General de Zubiaur: A Calendar of the ‘Irish’ Letters Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaelogical Society 83 (1978) pp 50-58
Córdoba, Luis Cabrera de (1857) Relaciones de la Cosas Sucedidas en la Corte de Espana 1599-1614 Madrid: Alegria
Corporation of Kinsale (1652-1800) and Caulfield, Richard (1879) (ed) Annals of Kinsale from The Council Book… of Kinsale Guildford: Surrey
Cox, Richard (1689) Hibernia Anglicana
Craik, George Lillie (1849) The Romance of the Peerage Vol 1 London: Chapman & Hall
[CSP Dom.] Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1601-1603. Full ref: Green, Mary A. E. (ed) (1870) Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, 1601-1603 London: Longman
[CSPI] Calendar of the State Papers Ireland 1601-1603. Full ref: Mahaffy, Robert P (1912) (ed) Calendar of the State Papers Relating to Ireland 1601-1603 London: HMSO [CSPS] Calendar of State Papers (Simancas) 1587-1603. Full ref: Hume, Martin (1899) (ed)
Calendar of Letters and State Papers… [in the] …Archives of Simancas Vol IV 1587-1603 London: HMSO
&n
bsp; [CSPV] Calendar of State Papers, Venice, 1592-1603. Full ref: Brown, Horatio (ed) (1897) Calendar of State Papers… Venice, Vol IX, 1592-1603 London: HMSO
Curry, John (1775) Review of the Civil Wars in Ireland Dublin: Burnet & Morris
Cusack, Mary Francis (1868) An Illustrated History of Ireland Kerry: Kenmare Convent
D’Alton, Edward (1906) History of Ireland… Vol 2 London: Kegan Paul
Davila, Gil Gonzales (1771) Monarquia de Espana… Felipe III Volume 3 Madrid: Ibarra
Davila, Henrico Caterino (1678) The History of the Civil Wars in France Vol 1 London: Herringman
Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica Vol 1 (1772) Dublin: Hay
Dictionary of National Biography (1885 onwards) London: Smith, Elder
Dictionary of Irish Biography (2009 and online) Dublin, UCD and RIA, Cambridge University Press
Duro, Cesáreo Fernandez (1830-1908) (1972 edition) Armada Espanola Vol 3 Madrid: Instituto de Historia y Cultura
[Epistolario] Epistolario del General Zubiaur. Full ref: Polentinos, Conde de (ed) (1946) Epistolario del General Zubiaur (1568-1605) Madrid: Instituto Histórico de Marina
Falls, Cyril (1950) Elizabeth’s Irish Wars Syracuse: Syracuse University Press
Falls, Cyril (1955) Mountjoy: Elizabethan General London: Odhams Press
Famien Strada, R. P., (1739) Histoire de la Guerre des Pays-Bas Vol 4, Brussels: Fricx
Farmer, William (c1615) Chronicles of Ireland 1594-1613
Gainsford, Thomas (1619) History of the Earl of Tyrone London: Rownthwaite
García González, Francisco and Oviedo, E. O. I. (1992) Mateo de Oviedo, Perhaps Ireland’s Greatest Spanish Friend of All Time in Fernández-Corugedo, S. G. (ed) (1992) Proceedings of SEDERI II, University of Oviedo.
García Hernán, Enrique (2013) The Battle of Kinsale: Study and Documents from the Spanish Archives Valencia: Albatros Ediciones and Ministerio de Defensa
Gibson, Charles (1861) History of Cork London: Newby
González de León, Fernando (2009) The Road to Rocroi Leiden: Brill
Grose, Francis (1801) Military Antiquities London: Egerton
Hamilton, Ernest (1919) Elizabethan Ulster London: Hurst & Blackett
Hayes-McCoy, Gerard (1980) Irish Battles Dublin: Gill & MacMillan
Hickey, Nora M. (1987) The Battle of Kinsale Kinsale: Heritage Society
Hogan, Rev Edmund (1894) Distinguished Irishmen of the Sixteenth Century London: Burns & Oates
Hull, Eleanor (1926) A History of Ireland and Her People London: Harrap
Hume, Martin (1899) Spain, its Greatness and Decay Cambridge: University Press
Hume, Martin (1906) Philip II of Spain London: MacMillan
Hume, Martin (1907) Spain under Philip III in Cambridge Modern History
Hume, Martin (1908) Treason and Plot London: Eveleigh Nash
‘I.E.’ (full name unknown) (1602) A Letter From A Soldier… [at The Battle of Kinsale] London: Waterson
Jones, Archer (2001) The Art of War in the Western World Illinois: University of Illinois
Jones, Frederick M (1944-45) The Spaniards and Kinsale 1601 in Journal of the Galway
Archaeological and Historical Society vol XXI, pp 1-43
Jones, Frederick M (1954), The Destination of Don Juan del Aguila in 1601 in The Irish Sword
v2 no 5 pp 29-32
Jones, Frederick M (1955) An Indictment of Don Juan del Aguila in The Irish Sword v2 no 7 pp 217-223, with comments by Mangan
Lainez, Fernando Martinez and Toca, José Maria Sánchez (2006) Tercios de Espana Madrid: EDAF
Lawless, Emily (1896) The Story of Ireland London: Fisher Unwin
Leland, Thomas (1773) The History of Ireland from the Invasion of Henry II London: Nourse etc
Leland, Thomas (1784) The History of Ireland from the Earliest Authentic Accounts Dublin: Luke White
Lennon, Colm (1995) Sixteenth Century Ireland, the Incomplete Conquest Dublin: St Martin’s
McBride, Patrick P (ed) (1955-1956) Some Unpublished Letters of Mateo de Oviedo, Archbishop of Dublin in Reportorium Novum Vol 1 No 1
McCavitt, John (2005) The Flight of the Earls Dublin: Gill & MacMillan
McGurk, John (1997) The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland Manchester: University Press
Maclean, John (ed) (1864) Letters from Sir Robert Cecil to Sir George Carew London: Camden Soc
Mangan, Henry (1951-52) Del Aguila’s Defence of Kinsale in The Irish Sword Vol 1 no 3 pp 218-224
Mangan, Henry (1953) The ‘Trial’ of Don Juan del Águila in The Irish Independent, Feb 13 and 14, 1953 [note: this is JdA’s ‘trial’ by modern historians, not the inquiry in Spain]
Mangan, Henry (1956) A Vindication of Don Juan del Águila in The Irish Sword, v2 no 9 pp343-351
Mitchel, John (1845) The Life and Times of Aodh O’Neill Dublin: Duffy.
[Monson] Sir William Monson’s Naval Tracts. Full ref: Oppenheim, M (1902) The Naval Tracts of Sir William Monson Vols 1 and 2 London: Navy Records Society
Morales, Óscar Recio (2004) Spanish Army Attitudes to the Irish at Kinsale in Morgan, Hiram (ed) The Battle of Kinsale Bray: Wordwell
Moran, Rev Dr (1864) History of the Catholic Archbishops of Dublin Vol 1 Dublin: James Duffy
Moreau, Jean (1836) Histoire des Guerres de la Ligue en Bretagne Brest: Come et Bonetbeau
Morgan, Hiram (1994) Faith and Fatherland or Queen and Country? Dúiche Néill journal
Morgan, Hiram (1999) Tyrone’s Rebellion London: Boydell Press
Morgan, Hiram (2001) Spanish Armadas and Ireland in Francois, L. and Isaacs, A.K. (eds) The Sea in European History Pisa: University of Pisa
Morgan, Hiram (2004) (ed) The Battle of Kinsale [my abbreviation in notes: BoK] Bray: Wordwell
[Mor. Hist.] Moryson, Fynes (1735) An History of Ireland Vol 1 Dublin: Ewing.
[Mor. Itin.] Moryson, Fynes (1908) An Itinerary Vol 3 Glasgow: MacLehose
Morrissey, Thomas J (1979) James Archer of Kilkenny Dublin: Studies Special Publications
Moryson, Fynes (c1602) The Commonwealth of Ireland
Muller, John (1757) The Attac and Defence of Fortified Places London: Millan
Ó Cianáin, Tadgh (1607-1608) The Flight of the Earls translated by Walsh,
Paul (1916) Maynooth: Gill
O’Cleary, Lughaidh (1620s) Beatha Aodha Ruaidh Uí Dhomhnaill (Life of Red Hugh O’Donnell) translated by Murphy, Denis (1895). Alternative translation by Paul Walsh, Archivium Hibernicum vol 7
O’Conor, Matthew (1845) Military History of the Irish Nation Dublin: Hodges & Smith
O’Faolain, Sean (1970) The Great O’Neill Cork: Mercier
O’Mahony, Edward (2001) The Battle of Castlehaven (transcript of lecture at Castlehaven Commemoration Committee)
[OSB] O’Sullivan Beare, Philip (1621) Historiae Catholicae Iberniae Compendium [A Catholic History of Ireland] Lisbon O’Scea,
Ciaran (2003) The Significance and Legacy of Spanish Intervention in West Munster… in O’Connor, T and Lyons, M A (eds) Irish Migrants in Europe after Kinsale. Dublin
O’Scea, Ciaran (2004) A Newly Discovered Account of the Battle of Kinsale in Morgan, Hiram (ed) The Battle of Kinsale Bray: Wordwell
O’Sullivan, Florence (1905) Kinsale in Cork Historical and Archaelogical Society Journal Vol XI No 65, Jan-Mar 1905
O’Sullivan, Florence (1916) History of Kinsale Dublin: Duffy
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004) Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[Pac 1810 ed] Pacata Hibernia 1810 edition (orig. London 1633). Full ref: Stafford, Thomas (ed) (1810) Pacata Hibernia Vols 1 and 2 Dublin: Hibernia Press
[Pac O’G v2] Pacata Hibernia, O’Grady edition, Vol 2. Full ref: O’Grady, Standish (1896) (ed) Pacata Hibernia… Vol 2 London: Downey
Parker, Geoffrey (2004) The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road 1567-1659 Cambridge: University Press
Philalethes, Andreas (1602) An Answer Made by One of Our Brethren
Prynne, William (1641) The Anti
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Silke, John J (2000) Kinsale, the Spanish Intervention in Ireland… Dublin: Four Courts
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Wilson, Violet A. (1924) Society Women of Shakespeare’s Time London: John Lane
Wraxall, Nathaniel (1796) The History of France Vol 3 Dublin: Wogan
TELEVISION
RTÉ 1: The Battle of Kinsale 1601 (Sept 22 2001)
BBC1: Flight of the Earls (Sept 16 2007)
BBC and RTÉ: The Story of Ireland (Feb 20 2011)
SOURCE NOTES
The main sources for this book are the original 17th Century documents, ranging from primary eyewitness accounts and contemporary despatches to histories written within a couple of decades of the event. However, in these notes I also use the abbreviation ‘rec’ which usually refers to more modern works and means ‘recommended reading’ on a particular topic. It does not necessarily mean that the writer agrees with my interpretation.
