These requests were supported strongly at Rome by Peter Lombard (1601), who was appointed later on Archbishop of Armagh, and as a result Clement VIII. determined to send a nuncio to Ireland in the person of Ludovico Mansoni (1601). Philip III. of Spain at last consented to dispatch a force into Ireland, but instead of landing in the North where O'Neill and O'Donnell were all-powerful, the Spanish exhibition under command of Don Juan del Aquila arrived off Kinsale, and took possession of the town (Sept. 1601). For the three years preceding the arrival of the Spaniards the Northern chiefs had been wonderfully successful. They had defeated Marshal Bagenal at the Yellow Ford (1598), had overthrown the forces of Sir Conyers Clifford at the Curlieu Mountains (1599), and had upset all the plans of the Earl of Essex, who was sent over specially by Elizabeth to reduce them to subjection. Hardly, however, had the Spaniards occupied Kinsale when they were besieged by the new Deputy, Lord Mountjoy, and by Carew, the President of Munster. An urgent message was dispatched by them requesting O'Neill and O'Donnell to march to their assistance, and against their own better judgment they determined to march South to the relief of their allies. Even still, had they been satisfied with hemming in the English forces, as O'Neill advised, they might have succeeded, but instead of adopting a waiting policy, they determined to make an attack in conjunction with the Spanish force. As a result they suffered a complete defeat (1602). O'Neill conducted the remnant of his army towards Ulster; O'Donnell was dispatched to seek for further help to Spain from which he never returned, and Aquila surrendered Kinsale and other fortresses garrisoned by Spaniards.
Carew laid waste the entire province of Connaught, while Mountjoy marched to Ulster to subdue the Northern rebels. The news of the death of O'Donnell in Spain, the desertion of many of his companions in arms, and the total destruction of the cattle and crops by Mountjoy forced O'Neill to make overtures for peace. An offer of terms was made to him, and good care was taken to conceal from him the death of Queen Elizabeth. He decided to meet Mountjoy and to make his submission (1603).
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[1] /Calendar of Patent Rolls/, i., 304.
[2] Id., i., 315.
[3] Moran, /History of the Archbishops of Dublin/, 52-54. Brady, /Episcopal Succession/, ii., 133 sqq.
[4] /Calendar of Patent Rolls/, i., 327-335.
[5] Lynch-Kelly, /Cambrensis Eversus/, ii., 780 sqq.
[6] /Calendar of Carew Papers/, i., 252-53.
[7] Id., 258.
[8] /Calendar of Patent Rolls/, i., 169-70.
[9] /Irish Statutes/, vol. i., 239-74.
[10] /Lib. Munerum/, i., 38.
[11] Cox, /Hib. Anglicana/, 308-9.
[12] Bridgett, /Blunders and Forgeries/, 217-21.
[13] /Calendar of Documents, Ireland/, i., 140.
[14] /Calendar of Documents, Ireland/, i., 151-52.
[15] /Calendar of Carew Papers/, i., 279-80.
[16] Shirley, op. cit., 90-1.
[17] Bagwell, /Ireland under the Tudors/, ii., 354.
[18] Bridgett, /Blunders and Forgeries/, 229-36.
[19] Shirley, op. cit., 91.
[20] Cox, /Hib. Angl./, 313.
[21] The return is printed in /Tracts Relating to Ireland/, ii., 134-38.
[22] /State Papers/, iii., 306-7.
[23] Id., 305.
[24] Litton Falkiner, /Essays Relating to Ireland/, 236.
[25] Kelly, /Dissertations on Irish Church History/, 363.
[26] /Lib. Mun./, ii., pt. 6, 10.
[27] Brady, /Irish Reformation/, 32, 33.
[28] /Irish Statutes/, i., 275-320.
[29] Cf. Lynch-Kelly, /Cambrensis Eversus/, ii., 19-23. Rothe, /Analecta/ (ed. Moran, 1884), 235-7.
[30] /Calendar of Patent Rolls/, i., 303-4.
[31] Shirley, op. cit., 140, 234, 265.
[32] Brady, /The Irish Reformation/, 169-73.
[33] /Fiants of Elizabeth/, no. 199.
[34] Mason, /History of St. Patrick's/, 162.
[35] Moran's, /Spicil. Ossor./, i., 83.
[36] Shirley, op. cit., 220.
[37] /Fiants of Elizabeth/, no. 666.
[38] Shirley, op. cit., 101.
[39] Id., 207.
[40] Cf. Letter of J. A. Froude in Brady's /Irish Reformation/, 173-80.
[41] /Fiants of Elizabeth/, nos. 198, 221, 223, 363.
[42] Shirley, op. cit., 94.
