Catalogue description "A short RELATION of the SIEGE of KINSALE.

"The Lord Deputy and Lord President, with other of the Council, meeting at Kilkenny, and there receiving certain intelligence of the Spaniards' landing at Kinsale, thought it their best course, with such forces as they could gather, to draw with all expedition towards the town."

Here follows an account or review of the siege, adding nothing of importance to the previous narratives until the defeat of Tyrone. [The following passage, however, deserves notice:--"In shorter time than is almost credible our new men were wholly wasted, and either by death, sickness, [or] running away those companies and supplies grown altogether unserviceable; so that our number were very little increased of that they were at our first sitting down."]

After the notable overthrow given to Tyrone, "the next day, by the Lord Deputy's commandment, the fort and platforms were again undertaken, and near approaches were cast out towards the town. But after five or six days' labour Don John offered a parley, sending the drum-major out of the town with a sealed letter to the Lord Deputy by an Alferes, by which he required (as by the copy thereof, conveyed in the despatch by Sir Richard Morrison into England, may appear) that some gentleman of special trust and sufficiency might be sent into the town for his Lordship to confer with him, whom he would acquaint with such conditions as he then stood upon; which being granted by his Lordship, Sir William Godolphin was employed in that negotiation...

"His first conference with Sir William Godolphin tendeth to this--that having found the Lord Deputy (whom he termeth the Viceroy), although a sharp and powerful opposite, yet an honorable enemy, and the Irish not only weak and barbarous, but (as he feared) perfidious friends, he was so far in his affection reconciled to the one and distasted with the other as did invite him to make an overture of such a composition as might be safe and profitable for the State of England, with least prejudice to the crown of Spain, by delivering into the Viceroy's power the town of Kinsale, with all other places in Ireland held by the Spanish, so as they might depart on honorable terms, fitting such men of war as are not by necessity enforced to receive conditions, but willingly induced for just respects to disengage themselves, and to relinquish a people by whom their King and master had been so notoriously abused, if not betrayed.

"That if the Viceroy liked to entertain further parley touching this point, he would first be pleased to understand them rightly, and to make his propositions such as might be suitable to men thoroughly resolved rather to bury themselves alive and to endure a thousand deaths than to give way to one article of accord that should taste of baseness or dishonour, being so confident of their present strength and the royal second of Spain, that they should make no doubt of yielding good account of themselves and their interest in this kingdom, but that a just disdain and spleen conceived against the nation dissuaded them from being further engaged for it than of force they must.

"Sir William Godolphin, being commanded by the Lord Deputy only to receive Don John's propositions and demands, having made his Lordship and [the] Council this relation, was by them returned with the answer following.

"That, howbeit the Lord Deputy, having lately defeated their succours, did so well understand his own strength and their weakness as made him nothing doubt of forcing them within a very short time, whom he did know to be pressed with inresistable difficulties, how much soever they laboured to cover and conceal the same; yet, knowing that her sacred Majesty, out of her gracious and merciful disposition, would esteem the glory of her victory to be blemished by a voluntary effusion and an obstinate expense of Christian blood, was content to entertain this offer of agreement so as it might be concluded under such honorable articles of her Highness as the advantage she had against them gave reason to demand, being the same which are sent with this despatch, signed by Don John,--the leaving of his treasure, munition, artillery, and the Queen's natural subjects to her disposition only excepted; all which points he did peremptorily refuse with constant asseveration that both he and all his would rather endure the last of misery than be found guilty of so foul a treason against the honour of his prince and the reputation of his profession, though he should find himself unable to subsist; much more now, when he might not only hope to sustain the burthen of the war for a time, but with patience and constancy in the end to overcome it. That he took it so ill to be understood in having articles of that nature propounded unto him, as, were they but once again remembered in the capitulation, the Viceroy should from henceforth use the advantage of his sword, and not the benefit of his former offers; adding that the Viceroy might rather think to have made a good and profitable purchase for the crown of England if with expense of 200,000 ducats he had procured Don John to quit his interest and footing but in Baltymore, to say nothing of Kinsale, Castlehaven, and Beerhaven.

"'For' (said he) 'suppose that all we with the rest of our places here had perished, yet would that peninsula (being strong in it[s] own nature), bettered by our art and industry, provided as it is of victuals, munition, and good [store?] of artillery, preserve unto the King of Spain a safe and commodious port for the arrival of his fleet, and be able to maintain itself against a land army of 10,000 until Spain (being so deeply engaged) did in honour relieve them; which would draw on a more powerful invasion than the first, being undertaken upon false grounds at the instance of a base and barbarous people, who, in discovering their weakness and want of power, have armed the King, my master, to rely upon his own strength, being tied in honour to relieve his people that are engaged, and to cancel the memory of our former disaster.

"'But this was spoken' (said he) 'in case the Viceroy were able to force this town, as I assure myself he cannot, having, upon mine honour, within these walls at this instant above 2,000 fighting men that are strong and able, besides those which, having been sick and hurt, recover daily; the greatest part of these composed of old soldiers, which fall not but by the sword; and those that were new, being now both trained to their arms and grown acquainted with the climate, are more able to endure than at the first; our means as good as it hath been any time these two months, such as the Spaniards can well away withal, and thereof to suffice us for three months more. We lodge in good warm houses, have store of munition, and (which is best of all) stand well assured that our succours will be shortly here.

"'To be plain, we preserve our men and reserve our strength the best we may, hoping to front you in a breach; which, if our hearts fail us not, we have hands and breasts enough to stop against treble your forces. Though I will give the Viceroy this right, that his men are passing good, but spent and tired out with the misery of a winter siege, which he hath obstinately maintained beyond my expectation, but with such caution and upon so good guard, as, having nicely watched all advantages, I could never fasten a sally yet upon him but with loss to myself; wherein I must acknowledge my hopes deceived that, grounding on some error in his approaches, promised myself the defeat of at least 1,000 men at one blow. But when we meet on the breach, I am confident upon reason to lay 500 of your best men on the earth, and rest hopeful that the loss of those will make a great hole in an army that hath already suffered so much extremity.

"'But to conclude our business. The King, my master, sent me to assist the Condees O'Neale and O'Donnell, presuming on their promise that I should have joined with them within few days of the arrival of his forces. I expected long in vain, sustained the Viceroy's army, saw them drawn to the greatest head they could possibly make, lodged within two miles of Kinsale, reinforced with certain companies of Spaniards, every hour promising to relieve us, and being joined together to force your camps, saw them at last broken with a handful of men, blown asunder into divers parts of the world,--O'Donnell into Spain, O'Neale to the furthest of the North; so as now I find no such Condees in rerum natura' (for those were the very words he used) 'as I came to join withal, and therefore have moved this accord the rather to disengage the King, my master, from assisting a people so unable in themselves that the whole burthen of the war must lie upon him, and so perfidious as perhaps might be induced in requital of his favour at last to betray him.'

"Upon relation made by Sir William Godolphin to the Lord Deputy and Council of these offers of Don John, which at several conferences had been brought to such heads as by the articles between them is more particularly specified, it was thought good for divers important reasons to proceed roundly to the agreement. For whereas in the propositions by him made there was not anything that admitted exceptions on our part but only that he required to carry with him his ordnance, munition, and treasure, that being no way prejudicial to the main scope or drift of our treaty, which chiefly respected the common good and safety of the kingdom, deserved not almost to be thought upon. Besides that the treasure, being at first but 100,000 ducats, with four months' payment of so many men and other necessary deductions, could not be but very near wasted, and that little remainder more fit for a prey to the poor soldier after his tedious travail than for a clause in the composition.

"Furthermore, how needful it was to embrace this accord may clearly be seen by whosoever considereth the state of our army, almost utterly tired,--how full of danger and difficulty it was to attempt a breach defended by so many hands,--how long time it might have cost us if we had lodged in the breach before we could have carried the town, that being full of strong castles,--how her Majesty's ships and others lying in the harbour should have been forced speedily to forsake us for want of victuals,--how ourselves were not provided for above six days at the time of this parley,--that we had neither munition nor artillery, but for one battery in one place at once, five of our pieces being before crazed,--and finally, that if we had missed of our purpose, the whole country had been hazarded.

"Furthermore, that which seemed of greatest consequence to induce his Lordship to this agreement was, that the Spaniards in Baltemore, Castellhaven, and Beerehaven, by virtue of this contract, were likewise to surrender those places and depart the country; which, how hard a matter it would have proved, and how long and dangerous a war it would have drawn on to root them out, they being strongly fortified, and well stored with victuals, munition, and artillery, may easily be conjectured; for that of necessity the army for some space must have rested, and in the end have been constrained after a new supply of necessaries, to her Majesty's intolerable charge, to transport themselves thither by sea, the way by land being unpassable; in which time their succours out of Spain in all likelihood would have been come unto them, the King being so far engaged in his honour to second his enterprise, and we barred of that prosecution of the rebels, which now by this agreement we may wholly intend."

Signed: Mountjoye, George Carew, R. Wingfelde, Ro. Gardener, George Bourcher.

Copy.

Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts preserved in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth, ed. J. S. Brewer & W. Bullen (6 vols., 1867-73), vol. IV, document 202.