Elizabeth I of England was also known as: Astraea, Belphoebe, Bloody Bess, Fortune's Empress, Gloriana, Good Queen Bess, the Glory of Her Sex, the Great, the Maiden Queen, the Fairie Queene, the Peerless Oriana, the Queen of the Northern Seas, the Queen of Shepherds, the Virgin Queen.
"Fort of Slaughter" - "Fort of Gold"
Ard na Caithne, (English: Smerwick) meaning height of the arbutus or strawberry tree, in the heart of the Kerry Gaeltacht, is one of the principal bays of Corca Dhuibhne. It is nestled at the foot of An Triúr Deirfiúr and Cnoc Bhréanainn, which at 952 metres (3,123 ft) is the highest mountain in the Brandon group.
The Siege and Massacre of Smerwick
The Second Desmond Rebellion (1579–1583) was the more widespread and bloody of the two Desmond Rebellions launched by the FitzGerald dynasty of Desmond in Munster, Ireland, against English rule in Ireland. The second rebellion began in July 1579 when James FitzMaurice FitzGerald landed in Ireland with a force of Papal troops, triggering an insurrection across the south of Ireland on the part of the Desmond dynasty, their allies and others who were dissatisfied for various reasons with English government of the country. The rebellion ended with the 1583 death of Gerald FitzGerald, 15th Earl of Desmond, and the defeat of the rebels.
The rebellion was in equal part a protest by feudal lords against the intrusion of central government into their domains; a conservative Irish reaction to English policies that were altering traditional Gaelic society; and a religious conflict, in which the rebels claimed that they were upholding Catholicism against a Protestant queen who had been pronounced a heretic in 1570 by the papal bull Regnans in Excelsis.
On 10 September 1580, a squadron of Spanish ships under the command of Don Juan Martinez de Recalde landed a Papal force of Spanish and Italians numbering 600 men commanded by Sebastiano di San Giuseppe (aka Sebastiano da Modena), at Smerwick, on the Dingle Peninsula near the same point where Fitzmaurice had landed the previous year. They had been sent by Philip II to aid the rebellion (in a clandestine manner), as a result it was paid for and sent by Pope Gregory XIII. At the time neither Spain nor the Papacy was formally at war with the Kingdom of Ireland, but the papal bull Regnans in Excelsis of 1570 had released observant Catholics from their allegiance to Queen Elizabeth I.
Leading a rebel force of 4,000 men somewhere to the east, Lord Desmond, Lord Baltinglass and John of Desmond tried to link up for supplies with the expeditionary force. However, the English forces under The 10th Earl of Ormond and The 14th Baron Grey de Wilton blocked them, and Richard Bingham's ships blockaded their ships in the bay at Smerwick. San Giuseppe had no choice but to retreat to the fort at Dún an Óir.
On 5 November, a naval force led by Admiral Sir William Winter arrived at Smerwick Harbour, replenishing the supplies of Lord Grey de Wilton, who was camped at Dingle, and landing eight artillery pieces. The invading forces were geographically isolated on the tip of the narrow Corca Dhuibhne (Dingle Peninsula), cut off by Cnoc Bréanainn (Mount Brandon), one of the highest mountains in Ireland, on one side, and the much larger English force on the other.
The 400–500 strong force of Papal freelance soldiers (of Spanish and Italian origin), having previously captured the village, had been forced by this situation to retreat to this nearby defensive position, now known as Dún an Óir ('the Fort of Gold', possibly a persistent mistranscription for Dún an Áir, 'the Fort of Slaughter'), where they were then besieged by the Irish Royal Army. The English forces began the artillery barrage on Dún an Óir on the morning of the 8 November, which rapidly broke down the improvised defences of the fort.
After a three-day siege, the commander Di San Giuseppe surrendered on 10 November 1580. Accounts vary on whether they had been granted quarter. Grey de Wilton ordered the summary executions, sparing only the commanders. Grey had also heard that the main Irish rebel army of 4,000 "who had promised to be on the mountains", were somewhere in the hills to his east, looking to be rearmed and supplied by Di San Giuseppe, and they might in turn surround his army; but this army never appeared.
According to Grey de Wilton's account, contained in a despatch to Queen Elizabeth I of England dated 11 November 1580, he rejected an approach made by the besieged Spanish and Italian forces to agree terms of a conditional surrender in which they would cede the fort and leave. Lord Grey de Wilton claimed that he insisted that they surrender without preconditions and put themselves at his mercy, and that he subsequently rejected a request for a ceasefire. An agreement was finally made for an unconditional surrender the next morning, with hostages being taken by English forces to ensure compliance. The following morning, an English force entered the fort to secure and guard armaments and supplies. Grey de Wilton's account in his despatch says "Then put I in certain bands, who straight fell to execution. There were six hundred slain." Grey de Wilton's forces spared those of higher rank: "Those that I gave life unto, I have bestowed upon the captains and gentlemen that hath well deserved..."
Local historian Margaret Anna Cusack (alias MF Cusack) noted that there is a degree of controversy about Lord Grey de Wilton's version of events to Elizabeth, and identifies three other contemporary accounts, by O'Daly, O'Sullivan Beare and Russell, which contradict it.
According to these versions, Grey de Wilton promised the garrison their lives in return for their surrender, a promise which he broke, remembered in the term "Grey's faith".
Like Grey himself, none of these commentators can be described as neutral, as they were all either serving the state or opposed to it. Cusack's interpretation of the events could not be described as unbiased, given her position as a Catholic nun and fervent Irish nationalist at the time.
Cusack also confirmed (Cusack MF, An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 Dublin, 1868) that Di San Giuseppe (whom she named by the Spanish version, San José) had sold the "Fort del Ore" for a bribe:Colonel Sebastian San José, who proved eventually so fearful a traitor to the cause he had volunteered to defend .. The Geraldine cause was reduced to the lowest ebb by the treachery of José. She explained that:
In a few days the courage of the Spanish commander failed, and he entered into treaty with the Lord Deputy. A bargain was made that he should receive a large share of the spoils. He had obtained a personal interview in the Viceroy's camp, and the only persons for whom he made conditions were the Spaniards who had accompanied him on the expedition. The English were admitted to the fortress on the following day, and a feast was prepared for them.Sir Geoffrey Fenton wrote to London on 14 November about the prisoners that a further "....20 or 30 Captains and Alphiaries [were] spared to report in Spain and Italy the poverty and infidelity of their Irish consociates [sic]."
According to Cusack (Cusack, MF, The History of the Kingdom of Kerry, 1871 p.187-9), the few that were spared suffered a worse fate. They were offered life if they would renounce their Catholic faith; on refusal, their arms and legs were broken in three places by an ironsmith. They were left in agony for a day and night and then hanged. In contrast, Grey's report mentioned: "Execution of the Englishman who served Dr Sanders, and two others, whose arms and legs were broken for torture." He did not specify why they were tortured, nor refer to their religion.
According to the English writer John Hooker in his Supply to the Irish Chronicle (an addition to Holinshed's Chronicles) written in 1587, the bands ordered to carry out the executions were led by Captain Raleigh (later Sir Walter Raleigh) and Captain Mackworth.
Richard Bingham, future commander of Connacht, was present and described events in a letter to The 1st Earl of Leicester, although he claimed the massacre was perpetrated by sailors. The poet Edmund Spenser, then secretary to the Lord Deputy, is also thought to have been present.
The monument dates from 1980; the seaward side bears a cross and a Gaelic inscription 'igcuimhne dhun an oir samhain 1580'. According to the folklore of the area, the execution of the captives took two days, with many of the captives being beheaded in a field known locally in Irish as Gort a Ghearradh (the Field of the Cutting); their bodies later being thrown into the sea.
Raleigh received 40,000 acres (16,000 ha) (approx. 0.2% of Ireland) upon the seizure and distribution of land following the attainders arising from the rebellion, including the coastal walled town of Youghal and, further up the Blackwater River, the village of Lismore.
This made him one of the principal landowners in Munster, but he had limited success inducing English tenants to settle on his estates. Raleigh made the town of Youghal his occasional home during his 17 years as an Irish landlord, frequently being domiciled at Killua Castle, Clonmellon, County Westmeath.
Amongst Raleigh's acquaintances in Munster was another Englishman who had been granted land there, poet Edmund Spenser. In the 1590s, he and Raleigh travelled together from Ireland to the court at London, where Spenser presented part of his allegorical poem The Faerie Queene to Elizabeth I.
