1599 жылғы Ирландиядағы Эссекс экспедициясы

the 1599 expedition

Essex in Ireland refers to the military campaign pursued in Ireland in 1599 by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, during the Nine Years War. In 1598, Queen Elizabeth I of England had been troubled over the choice of a military commander for Ireland, at a time when two factions dominated her court one led by Essex, the other by her principal secretary, Sir Robert Cecil. In the following year Essex found himself with no choice but to offer his services, which the Queen accepted. The ensuing campaign failed, and Essex returned in disgrace to England, where he made a treasonable challenge to Crown authority. He was convicted and put to death in 1601.

In the 1590s Essex was especially popular in London, where he was considered a pillar of Protestantism. At the height of the Anglo Spanish war (1585–1604) he pushed an offensive strategy, supporting the Dutch rebels and French Huguenots against their Catholic enemy. But even as he championed maritime attacks on Spain and outright war against the Irish rebel O'Neill, the broad alliance against Spain was broken by the decision of King Henry IV of France to sue for peace. The Queen's principal secretary, Lord Burghley (father of Cecil and once guardian of Essex), strongly opposed this strategy, preferring peace and a steady hand in Ireland. In April 1598 he confronted Essex in the Council chamber for the last time. According to the chronicler William Camden, Essex denounced peace as dishonourable, but Burghley interrupted, saying, "he breathed forth nothing but war, slaughter and blood", and pointed to the text of his prayerbook: "Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days." In the summer, during the Council debate over the appointment of the next military commander for Ireland, Essex turned his back on the Queen, and she lost her temper, striking him across the head. He laid his hand on the hilt of his sword, but was held back by the Lord Admiral. and the Queen announced that "it is doubted that if he continues this course he will shortly bring in tag and rag, cut and long tail, and so bring the order into contempt". But she failed to curtail her commander and, according to her godson Sir John Harington, raged impotently at the news from Ireland: "She walks much in her privy chamber and stamps with her feet at ill news, and thrusts her rusty sword at times into the arras in great rage." She could take no more and on 30 July 1599 ordered an immediate attack on O'Neill. Essex agreed and announced his intention, but he was suffering from a recurrent ailment, possibly a kidney stone, which may have restrained his enthusiasm. Others too had misgivings about the Queen's plan, since the rebels were secure on their western front, making an attack from the south deeply hazardous without a base in Lough Foyle. A council of war declared against the plan, but a month later the Queen delivered a furious censure to Essex, complaining bitterly that only 5,000 fighting men were available, and not twice that number. Concerns over a rumoured Spanish landing on the Isle of Wight in England made reinforcement of the Irish army impracticable, while hopes of peace talks with Archduke Albert, the Spanish governor of Flanders, may have caused Essex to suspect treason amongst the Queen's councillors. But seven days after the controversial council of war Essex set out for the north with the hopeless notion that, "if he [O'Neill] has as much courage as he pretendeth we will on one side or the other end the war." Essex departed Dublin on August 28, and the army was mustered three days later outside Kells, making up 3,700 foot and 300 horse. O'Neill's readiness to outflank him and attack the Pale restrained Essex from advancing further, and in a letter to the Queen ("weary with life") he explained that Kells should be the frontier garrison for the coming winter. On September 2 he marched to Ardee, where O'Neill was sighted with his army on the far side of the Lagan, "a mile and a half from our quarter, but a river and a wood between him and us". The English claimed variously that the rebel leader had 10,000 foot and 1,000 horse, or 5,000 and 700. Heeding counsel not to engage because of the inferiority of his forces, Essex embattled the army and encamped on the left bank of the Lagan. O'Neill marched on the flank, keeping to the woods, while his horse scouts stayed within sight. The opposing commanders communicated with each other, and on September 6 Essex advanced with 2,000 foot and 300 horse. On sighting O'Neill he readied his army in the formation of a St Andrew's cross, with cavalry on either flank and to the rear. The war council hoped for an Irish attack and determined not to take the initiative. The next day O'Neill's envoy told Essex his master sought the Queen's mercy, and proposed a meeting with Essex at the ford of Bellaclinthe on the river Glyde. On September 7 Essex rejected the meeting place, but the impatient O'Neill found a spot to ride into the river up to his horse's belly. It was a gesture of humility, and Essex rode with a troop of horse to an overlooking hill before going down alone to the ford, where he conversed with the rebel for half an hour. Both men withdrew to their companies on the hills. A formal meeting followed later, with six witnesses on either side: Essex rode down to the ford with his men and remained on the bank, while the Irish rode into the river again, up to their horses' bellies. O'Neill spoke bare headed for a good while, saluting the viceregal party with great respect. After half an hour a further conference was arranged at Lagan ford for the following morning. Essex continued his march to Drumcondra, while O'Neill returned to camp. At the planned conference on September 8 O'Neill was present, but not Essex. A cessation of arms was agreed for six weeks to six weeks, until May Day, either side being at liberty to break it on giving fourteen days warning; the English had liberty to attack O'Neill's confederates if they refused to be bound. The terms also provided for restitution of all spoils within 20 days after the warning, and the rebels were to hold all they then possessed, with no garrisons to be placed in new stations, free passages to be assured, all English garrisons to be apprised of the cessation, and commissioners for the borders between the English and Irish zones to be appointed. O'Neill was to ratify this on oath, Essex on his word. The terms were committed to writing and signed by O'Neill. The next day Essex dispersed his army and went to take physic at Drogheda, while O'Neill retired with all his forces into the heart of his country.

In mid September 1599 the queen wrote to Essex with further criticisms and forbade him from leaving Ireland without special warrant. A week later he committed responsibility for his government to two lords justice, placing Ormond in command of the army under his old commission, and gave instruction that the cessation was to be maintained, with garrisons fully victualled for six months. On the same day September 24 Essex boldly sailed for England, relying on his general warrant to return granted under the Great Seal. He reached London on the 28th, where he disturbed the Queen in her chamber before she was fully dressed. Elizabeth described the cessation as the, "quick end made of a slow proceeding", and it was generally concluded that Essex's presence in Ireland had been superfluous. Essex revealed only to the Queen what had passed between him and O'Neill, having promised to deliver the rebel request verbally. At first treason was not suspected, but Elizabeth was outspoken about O'Neill: "to trust this traitor upon oath is to trust a devil upon his religion". She ordered no ratification, nor pardon, without her authority; but in time she did admit the usefulness of the cessation. Meanwhile, Essex was committed to custody, and on 29 November the council condemned him in the Star Chamber. O'Neill was in two minds about the cessation and came under pressure from his confederate, O'Donnell, who argued that too much had been ceded to the English. O'Neill issued a list of demands on religious freedom, withdrawal of English influence, and confirmation of lands in rebel possession probably the bones of his private conference with Essex. In a report of November 18 the rebels were said to have, "made two Irish terms of scorn against the Earl of Essex; one that he never drew sword but to make knights; the other, that he came like a hasty messenger, that went away before he had done his errand." Later that month there was a further parley on the Lagan, and a one month extension was agreed. In December O'Neill complained of breaches of the cessation, and in the spring of 1600 he turned south on a campaign through Munster.

The detail of the earl's private parley with O'Neill became the subject of speculation in England. Sir Henry Wotton, the earl's personal secretary, complained bitterly of the duplicity of interpreters, saying that they were Essex's worst enemies. Rumours of the earl's disloyalty abounded, and with the waning of his favour at court Essex chose to challenge the queen's authority by breaking house arrest and riding in force through London to gain an audience with her. He was compelled to turn back by a well organised defence, and at Cecil's insistence was declared a traitor. After a swift trial on charges of treason Essex was convicted and suffered the death penalty in February 1601. Intelligence received in Spain some years later from James Blake (the supposed assassin of O'Donnell) had it "that the Earl of Essex, the same who raided Cadiz, had dealings with the Prince Onel of Ireland about causing a rising against the Queen of England, for which reason he was beheaded in England, and the said Earl employed the deponent [Blake] as intermediary between himself and the said Prince." It was also put about that O'Neill had almost persuaded Essex to leave the service of Queen Elizabeth and to join that of King Philip III to whom, "they would deliver the whole kingdom". O'Neill was said to have promised Essex great favour on behalf of the Spanish king, and when Essex expressed doubt because of, "certain disservices he had done to the Crown of Spain", the rebel leader went so far as to offer Essex his son as a hostage in proof of his good faith. As with so many late Elizabethan conspiracy theories Spanish calculations may have been of less importance than those of the queen's councillors. At the outset in 1599 Essex had realised he was taking a risk in departing the court and leaving the field open to Cecil, a risk that would pay off only if he defeated O'Neill. The Irish campaign proved far more difficult than anticipated Essex was the last English commander of the age to underestimate rebel capability and the situation at court deteriorated rapidly, with Cecil gaining an overwhelming influence over the queen. The private parley with O'Neill was especially significant at a time when Cecil was preparing the succession of the Scots king, James VI, to Elizabeth's throne. Essex's flight from Ireland was a desperate attempt to interfere with those preparations, and once this had failed his subsequent treason was down to his refusal to accept that it was Cecil, and not he, who would determine the succession.