The Battle of Benburb took place in 1646 in the Irish Confederate Wars, the Irish theatre of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It was fought between the forces of Confederate Ireland under Owen Roe O'Neill and a Scottish Covenanter army under Robert Munro. The battle ended in a decisive victory for the Irish Confederates and ended the Scottish hopes of conquering Ireland and imposing their own religious settlement there. The Irish Confederate Wars were fought in Ireland between 1641 and 1653. ... The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were an intertwined series of conflicts that took place in Scotland, Ireland, and England between 1639 and 1651 at a time when these countries had come under the Personal Rule of the same monarch. ... 1646 (MDCXLVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... Kilkenny Castle, where the Confederate General Assembly met. ... The Covenanters, named after the Solemn League and Covenant, were a party that, originating in the Reformation movement, played an important part in the history of Scotland, and to a lesser extent in that of England, during the 17th century. ... Eoghan Rua Ó Néill, anglicised as Owen Roe ONeill (c. ... Robert Monro of the Munros of Obsdale family (died 1680), was a Scottish general, from the Clan Munro of Ross-shire. ... The Irish Confederate Wars were fought in Ireland between 1641 and 1653. ... The Battle of Julianstown was fought during the Irish Rebellion of 1641, at Julianstown near Drogheda in eastern Ireland, in November 1641. ... Drogheda, a town in eastern Ireland, was besieged twice in the 1640s, during the Irish Confederate Wars, the Irish theatre of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. ... The Battle of Kilrush was a minor engagement at the start of the Irish Confederate Wars. ... The battle of Liscarroll was fought in county Cork in July 1642, at the start of the Irish Confederate Wars. ... The battle of New Ross was a minor engagement fought in 1643, at the start of the Irish Confederate Wars. ... The city of Limerick was besieged a total of five times in the 17th century. ... The city of Galway - built as a naval base and military fort by Tairrdelbach mac Ruaidri Ua Conchobair in 1124, refounded as a town by Richard Mor de Burgh in 1230 - has been subjected to a number of battles, sacks and sieges. ... The Battle of Dungans Hill took place in Meath, in eastern Ireland in August 1647. ... The Battle of Knocknanauss was fought in 1647, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, between Confederate Ireland’s Munster army and an English Parliamentarian army under Inchiquinn. ... The battle of Rathmines was fought in around the modern Dublin suburb of Rathmines in August 1649, during the Irish Confederate Wars, the Irish theatre of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. ... Drogheda, a town in eastern Ireland, was besieged twice in the 1640s, during the Irish Confederate Wars, the Irish theatre of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. ... The Sack of Wexford took place in October 1649, during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, when the New Model Army under Oliver Cromwell took Wexford town in south-eastern Ireland. ... The city of Waterford in south eastern Ireland was besieged from 1649-50 during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. ... Combatants Irish Catholic Confederate troops from Ulster English Parliamentarian New Model Army Commanders Hugh Dubh ONeill Oliver Cromwell Strength c1500 8000 Casualties low c1500-2500 The Siege of Clonmel took place in April - May 1650 during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland when the town of Clonmel in County Tipperary... The battle of Macroom was fought in 1650, near Macroom, county Cork, in southern Ireland, during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. ... The battle of Scarrifholis was fought in Donegal in north-western Ireland, on the 21st of June 1650, during the Irish Confederate Wars – part of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. ... Combatants Irish Confederate Catholics Ulster Army and English Royalists English Parliamentarians New Model Army Commanders Hugh Dubh ONeill Henry Ireton Strength 2000 soldiers and civilian population 8000 men, 28 siege guns, 4 mortars Casualties c. ... Combatants Irish Catholic Confederate troops from Munster English Parliamentarian New Model Army troops Commanders Donagh MacCarthy, Viscount Muskerry Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery Strength c3000 c. ... Combatants Irish Confederate Catholics English Parliamentarians New Model Army and Protestant settlers from Ulster Commanders Thomas Preston Charles Coote Strength 2000 soldiers and civilian population, 3000 more soldiers nearby 6-7000 men, Galway a port city in western Ireland, was besieged from August 1651 to May 1652 during the Cromwellian... 1646 (MDCXLVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... The Irish Confederate Wars were fought in Ireland between 1641 and 1653. ... The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were an intertwined series of conflicts that took place in Scotland, Ireland, and England between 1639 and 1651 at a time when these countries had come under the Personal Rule of the same monarch. ... Kilkenny Castle, where the Confederate General Assembly met. ... Eoghan Rua Ó Néill, anglicised as Owen Roe ONeill (c. ... Motto (Latin) No one provokes me with impunity Wha daur meddle wi me?(Scots)1 Anthem (Multiple unofficial anthems) Scotlands location in Europe Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official languages English, Gaelic, Scots3 Government Constitutional monarchy  -  Queen Queen Elizabeth II  -  Prime Minister Tony Blair MP  -  First Minister Jack McConnell... James VI of Scotland (James I of England) was opposed by the Covenanters in his attempt to bring the Anglican Church into Scotland The Covenanters formed an important movement in the religion and politics of Scotland in the 17th century. ... Sir Robert Munro of Foulis (1684 - 1746) SIR Robert Munro of Foulis, who was killed at the Battle of Falkirk in 1746, was a soldier-politician whose life followed an 18th-century pattern which seems strange to us today. ...

Background

The Scots had landed an army in Ulster in 1642, in order to protect the Scottish settlers there from the massacres that followed the Irish Rebellion of 1641. They also hoped to conquer the country, to destroy Catholicism there and impose Presbyterianism as the state religion. They landed at Carrickfergus and linked up with an army of British settlers based around Derry who were led by Robert Stewart. They cleared Ulster of Irish rebels by 1643, but were unable to advance south of mid-Ulster, which was held by Owen Roe O'Neill, the general of the Irish Confederate Ulster army. Both sides robbed and killed civilians in territory controlled by their enemy, so that by 1646, a sort of no man's land of scorched earth separated the opposing sides. O’Neill remarked of the devastation that Ulster looked, "not only like a desert, but like hell". While the three armies continued to raid into each other’s territory, none of them could organise enough supplies to hold any captured territory. Statistics Area: 24,481 km² Population (2006 estimate) 1,993,918 Ulster (Irish: Cúige Uladh, IPA: ) forms one of the four traditional provinces of Ireland. ... Events January 4 - Charles I attempts to arrest five leading members of the Long Parliament, but they escape. ... Massacres are individual events of deliberate mass killing, especially of noncombatant civilians or other innocents. ... The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup détat by Irish Catholic gentry, but rapidly degenerated into bloody intercommunal violence between native Irish Catholics and English and Scottish Protestant settlers. ... As a Christian ecclesiastical term, Catholic - from the Greek adjective , meaning general or universal[1] - is described in the Oxford English Dictionary as follows: ~Church, (originally) whole body of Christians; ~, belonging to or in accord with (a) this, (b) the church before separation into Greek or Eastern and Latin or... Presbyterianism is a form of church government which is most prevalent within the Reformed branch of Protestant Western Christianity. ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 54. ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 54. ... // Events January 21 - Abel Tasman discovers Tonga February 6 - Abel Tasman discovers the Fiji islands. ... Eoghan Rua Ó Néill, anglicised as Owen Roe ONeill (c. ... Kilkenny Castle, where the Confederate General Assembly met. ... 1646 (MDCXLVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... 29th Infantry Battalion, 2nd Division, Canadian Corps. ... A scorched earth policy is a military tactic which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area. ...

In 1646, Munro and Stewart joined forces, making a major foray into Confederate held territory. According to some accounts, this was an attempt to take the Confederates' capital at Kilkenny, other sources say it was just a major raid. Either way, the combined British force was about 6000 strong. O’Neill, who was a very cautious general, had previously avoided fighting pitched battles. However, he had just been supplied by the Papal Nuncio to Ireland, (Giovanni Battista Rinuccini), with muskets, ammunition and money with which to pay his soldiers' wages. This allowed him to put over 5000 men into the field – an army slightly smaller than his enemy’s. The Covenanters had six cannon, whereas the Confederates had none. WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 52. ... A Papal Nuncio (also known as an Apostolic Nuncio) is a permanent diplomatic representative (head of mission) of the Holy See to a state, having ambassadorial rank. ... Giovanni Battista Rinuccini (1592-1653) was a Roman Catholic Archbishop in the mid seventeenth century. ... A small cannon on a carriage, Bucharest. ...

The battle

Munro had assumed that O’Neill would try to avoid his army and so had his soldiers march over 15 miles (about 24 km) to intercept the Irish force at Benburb, in modern south Tyrone. As a result, the Scottish soldiers were very tired, especially their infantry, whereas O’Neill’s men were fresh. Munro’s men drew up with their backs to the Blackwater river, facing O’Neill’s troops who were positioned on a rise in the ground. Benburb is a small village in County Tyrone in Northern Ireland seven miles from the city of Armagh and eight miles from the town of Dungannon. ... The name Tyrone can refer to: A county in Northern Ireland; see County Tyrone An Earl of Tyrone A small steam train which runs between Bushmills and the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland. ... Blackwater rivers are rivers with waters colored like black tea to coffee. ...

The battle commenced with Munro’s artillery firing on the Irish position, but without causing many casualties. The Scottish cavalry then charged the Irish infantry, but were unable to break the Confederates' pike and musket formation. When this attack had failed, O’Neill ordered his infantry to advance, pushing the Scots back into a loop of the river by the push of the pike. At this point, the fatigue of the Covenanter soldiers told against them and they were gradually pushed backwards until their formation collapsed in on itself. The Confederate infantry then broke the Scots' disordered formation with a musket volley at point-blank range and fell in amongst them with swords and scians (Irish long knives). Munro and his cavalry fled the scene, as, shortly after, did his infantry. A great many of them were cut down or drowned in the ensuing pursuit. The Scots lost between 2000 and 3000, killed mostly in the pursuit; the Irish roughly 300. Soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback in combat are commonly known as cavalry (from French cavalerie). ... Infantry of the Royal Irish Rifles during the Battle of the Somme in World War I. Infantry are soldiers who fight primarily on foot with small arms in organized military units, though they may be transported to the battlefield by horses, ships, automobiles, skis, or other means. ... A modern recreation of a mid-17th century company of pikemen. ... Muskets and bayonets aboard the frigate Grand Turk. ...

Benburb was the only time in which an Irish Confederate army won a field battle between 1641 and 1653. O’Neill’s Ulster army showed a discipline and training that was lacking in the Confederate disasters at Dungans Hill and Knocknanauss the following year. O’Neill’s victory meant that the Scots were no longer a threat to the Confederates, but they remained encamped around Carrickfergus for the rest of the war. However, O’Neill did not follow up his victory but took his army south to interfere in the politics of Confederate Ireland. In particular, he wanted to make sure that the treaty the Supreme Council of the Confederates had signed with the English Royalists would not be ratified. Events The Long Parliament passes a series of legislation designed to contain Charles Is absolutist tendencies. ... Events February 2 - New Amsterdam (later renamed New York City) is incorporated. ... The Battle of Dungans Hill took place in Meath, in eastern Ireland in August 1647. ... The Battle of Knocknanauss was fought in 1647, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, between Confederate Ireland’s Munster army and an English Parliamentarian army under Inchiquinn. ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 54. ... Kilkenny Castle, where the Confederate General Assembly met. ... Prince Rupert of the Rhine Cavaliers was the name used by Parliamentarians for the Royalist supporters of King Charles I during the English Civil War (1642–1651). ...

Sources

• G.A. Hayes-McCoy, Irish Battles, Belfast 1990
• Paidraig Lenihan, Confederate Catholics at War, Cork 2001

See also

• Confederate Ireland
• Irish battles