Nine Years' War (Ireland)

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Nine Years' War
Part of the Tudor conquest of Ireland, the Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1604), and the European wars of religion
Ireland in 1600 showing approximate Irish alliance control at its height (red), and English control (blue)
Date May 1593 – 30 March 1603 Location Ireland Result English victory Treaty of Mellifont (1603) Flight of the Earls (1607) End of Gaelic rule in Ireland Territorial changes Entirety of Ireland is now under English control
Belligerents
Gaelic Ireland Spain	Kingdom of England and loyalists
Commanders and leaders
Irish lords: Hugh O'Neill Hugh Roe O'Donnell Hugh Maguire (DOW) Brian O'Rourke Fiach McHugh O'Byrne † Richard Tyrrell (POW) James Fitzthomas Cormac MacBaron O'Neill Donal Cam O'Sullivan Beare Grace O'Malley Spanish leaders: Martín de Padilla Juan del Águila Pedro de Zubiaur full list...	English leaders: William Fitzwilliam Henry Bagenal † John Norreys (DOW) William Russell Robert Devereux (Earl of Essex) Charles Blount (Lord Mountjoy) Thomas Norreys (DOW) George Carew Henry Docwra Arthur Chichester Irish loyalists: Niall Garve O'Donnell Donogh O'Brien Cahir O'Doherty Earl of Clanricard full list...
Strength
~21,000, including: 8,000 in Ulster (1594) but thousands joined after 9,000 in Munster 3,500 Spanish (1601)	~5–6,000 (before 1598) ~18,000 (after 1598)
Casualties and losses
~100,000 soldiers and Irish civilians (the vast majority died due to famine)	~30,000 soldiers (though more died from disease than in battle) and hundreds of English colonists
Total dead: 130,000+

The Nine Years' War (May 1593 – 30 March 1603), sometimes called Tyrone's Rebellion,^[1] was a conflict in Ireland between a confederacy of Irish clans and the English-led government. The war was primarily a response to the ongoing Tudor conquest of Ireland, and was also part of the Anglo-Spanish War and the European wars of religion.

Henry VIII of England established the Kingdom of Ireland in 1542 as an English dependency. Various clans accepted English sovereignty under the surrender and regrant policy. Widespread resentment developed amongst the Gaelic nobility against English rule by the early 1590s, due to the execution of Gaelic chieftains, the pillaging of chiefdoms, and Catholic persecution. The war is generally considered to have begun with Hugh Maguire revolting against the appointment of Humphrey Willis in Fermanagh. The war began in Ulster and northern Connacht as Ulster lords Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and Hugh Roe O'Donnell revolted against English incursions into their territory. The war eventually engulfed the entire island and took on a religious and nationalist dimension. The confederacy won numerous victories against the English forces in Ireland, such as the Battle of Clontibret (1595) and the Battle of the Yellow Ford (1598), but the English won a pivotal victory against the alliance and their Spanish allies in the siege of Kinsale (1601–02). The war ended with the Treaty of Mellifont (1603). Many of the defeated northern lords left Ireland to seek support for a new uprising in the Flight of the Earls (1607), never to return. This marked the end of Gaelic Ireland and created the groundwork for the foundation of the Plantation of Ulster.^[2]

The Nine Years' War was the largest conflict fought by England in the Elizabethan era and one of its costliest. At the height of the conflict (1600–1601) more than 18,000 soldiers were fighting in the English army in Ireland.^[3] By contrast, the English army assisting the Dutch during the Eighty Years' War was never more than 12,000 strong at any one time.^[3]