The Battle of the Ford of the Biscuits took place in

Fermanagh Historically, Fermanagh ( ga, Fir Manach), as opposed to the modern County Fermanagh, was a kingdom of Gaelic Ireland, associated geographically with present-day County Fermanagh. ''Fir Manach'' originally referred to a distinct kin group of a ...

, Ireland on 7 August 1594, during the Nine Years' War. A column of almost 650

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

troops led by Sir Henry Duke was ambushed and defeated by a

Gaelic Irish The Gaels ( ; ga, Na Gaeil ; gd, Na Gàidheil ; gv, Ny Gaeil ) are an ethnolinguistic group native to Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man in the British Isles. They are associated with the Gaelic languages: a branch of the Celtic languag ...

force under Hugh Maguire and Cormac MacBaron O'Neill at the

Arney River The Arney River is a small river in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, feeding from Lower Lough MacNean and into Upper Lough Erne. It meanders through a wide, flat Glacial Trough between the uplands of Fermanagh, Belmore Mountain and the Cuilc ...

. The English column had been sent to relieve and resupply

Enniskillen Castle Enniskillen Castle is situated in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It was originally built in the 16th century and now contains the Fermanagh County Museum and a museum for the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards and Royal Inn ...

, which had been under siege by the Irish since May. The English suffered at least 56 killed and 69 wounded, and were forced to make a hasty retreat. The battle gained its name because the supplies of the English, largely hard biscuits, were left scattered and floating in the river. The battle was an early engagement of the Nine Years' War, and exposed the vulnerability of the English to ambushes in the wilder parts of

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

with its thick woods and bogs.

Background

As part of the

Tudor conquest of Ireland The Tudor conquest (or reconquest) of Ireland took place under the Tudor dynasty, which held the Kingdom of England during the 16th century. Following a failed rebellion against the crown by Silken Thomas, the Earl of Kildare, in the 1530s, ...

, a policy of

surrender and regrant During the Tudor conquest of Ireland (c.1540–1603), "surrender and regrant" was the legal mechanism by which Irish clans were to be converted from a power structure rooted in clan and kin loyalties, to a late-feudal system under the English l ...

was introduced that involved the formal submission of the Gaelic lords to the Crown. The Gaelic territory of

was shired as a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

and elements of Irish

Brehon Law Early Irish law, historically referred to as (English: Freeman-ism) or (English: Law of Freemen), also called Brehon law, comprised the statutes which governed everyday life in Early Medieval Ireland. They were partially eclipsed by the Norma ...

were replaced by English law. Hugh Maguire, the Gaelic lord of Fermanagh, opposed the introduction of English law which reduced his overlordship over his weaker neighbours, and particularly the misdeeds of the local English sheriff, Captain

Humphrey Willis Captain Humphrey Willis was an English soldier in Ireland in the sixteenth century, his parents are unknown. Captain Willis was appointed Sheriff of County Donegal and County Fermanagh by the Lord Deputy of Ireland William FitzWilliam. Captain ...

. In the summer of 1593, Maguire launched a revolt by raiding lands held by the English Lord President of Connaught, Richard Bingham. The

English government There has not been a government of England since 1707 when the Kingdom of England ceased to exist as a sovereign state, as it merged with the Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.Marshal of Ireland, Sir

Henry Bagenal Sir Henry Bagenal PC (c. 1556 – 14 August 1598) was marshal of the Royal Irish Army during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Life He was the eldest son of Nicholas Bagenal and Eleanor Griffith, daughter of Sir Edward Griffith of Penrhyn. His b ...

, to Fermanagh. The leading Gaelic lord of Ulster,

Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone Hugh O'Neill ( Irish: ''Aodh Mór Ó Néill''; literally ''Hugh The Great O'Neill''; – 20 July 1616), was an Irish Gaelic lord, Earl of Tyrone (known as the Great Earl) and was later created ''The Ó Néill Mór'', Chief of the Name. O'Nei ...

also led forces into the field, and alongside his estranged brother in law Bagenal defeated some of Maguire's forces at the

Battle of Belleek The Battle of Belleek, also known as the Battle of the Erne Fords, was fought on the River Erne near Belleek in Fermanagh, Ireland, on 10 October 1593. It was part of the buildup to the Nine Years' War. The battle was fought between a Gaelic I ...

in October 1593. Maguire's capital at

Enniskillen Enniskillen ( , from ga, Inis Ceithleann , ' Ceithlenn's island') is the largest town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is in the middle of the county, between the Upper and Lower sections of Lough Erne. It had a population of 13,823 a ...

was captured in February 1594 by an English force led by Captain John Dowdall, who massacred the Irish occupants after they had surrendered. Maguire then agreed to submit, and an agreement was brokered by Tyrone. However the peace did not last long and Maguire, Cormac MacBaron O'Neill (Tyrone's brother), and

Red Hugh O'Donnell Hugh Roe O'Donnell (Irish: ''Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill''), also known as Red Hugh O'Donnell (30 October 1572 – 10 September 1602), was a sixteenth-century leader of the Gaelic nobility of Ireland. He became Chief of the Name of Clan O'Donn ...

laid siege to Enniskillen in May 1594. An English relief force was sent to help the besieged garrison.

Battle

The relief force was under the joint command of Sir Henry Duke and Sir Edward Herbert, and included experienced soldiers such as Captains

, Henry Street, George Bingham, and John Dowdall (commander of the force that had taken Enniskillen in February). They had 600 infantry and 46 horsemen. Duke and Herbert believed this to be insufficient, and wrote to the

Lord Deputy The Lord Deputy was the representative of the monarch and head of the Irish executive under English rule, during the Lordship of Ireland and then the Kingdom of Ireland. He deputised prior to 1523 for the Viceroy of Ireland. The plural form is '' ...

that "to go without a thousand men at the least or otherwise we shall dearly repent our going".O'Neill and Logue, p. 915 No reinforcements were forthcoming, so the column set out from Cavan on 4 August. Burdened with supplies, the army was expected to take four days to march 29 miles north to Enniskillen. The English infantry included

pikemen A pike is a very long thrusting spear formerly used in European warfare from the Late Middle Ages and most of the Early Modern Period, and were wielded by foot soldiers deployed in pike square formation, until it was largely replaced by bayon ...

as well as musketeers and caliver-men (together known as "shot").O'Neill and Logue, pp. 916–919 When the Irish surrounding Enniskillen learned of the relief force, they moved to intercept it with c.1,000 men, which included horsemen,

kern KERN (1180 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio, commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Wasco, California, Wasco-Greenacres, California, and serving the Bakersfield metropolitan area. The station is owned by American General ...

, and caliver-men. On the evening of 6 August, the English force made camp three miles south of a ford on the Arney River. That night the English camp was harried by Irish gunfire and incessant skirmishing meant the English troops were poorly rested when they set out on 7 August to relieve the beleaguered garrison. As the thin column snaked its way north, it was harried on both sides by Irish kern armed with

javelins A javelin is a light spear designed primarily to be thrown, historically as a ranged weapon, but today predominantly for sport. The javelin is almost always thrown by hand, unlike the sling, bow, and crossbow, which launch projectiles with the ...

. The ground was boggy near the Arney ford and so the English horsemen were forced to dismount. Thus, the infantry escorting the supply wagons for Enniskillen ran straight into the ambush. At around 11 o'clock, the head of the column reached the ford and without warning intense Irish gunfire tore into it from hidden positions on the opposite bank. With the advance stalled, Maguire and MacBaron attacked the rear of the column with the bulk of their forces. Wings of English shot deployed around the column to

skirmish Skirmishers are light infantry or light cavalry soldiers deployed as a vanguard, flank guard or rearguard to screen a tactical position or a larger body of friendly troops from enemy advances. They are usually deployed in a skirmish line, an i ...

with the Irish, but withering Irish fire pushed them back to their pike stands in the column. The rear body of English pikemen was raked by volleys of close-range gunfire, causing it to fall apart. The Irish pikemen and Scots mercenaries then charged the rear, forcing it to flee pell-mell onto the middle of the column. The English pikemen at the front of the column charged over the ford, pushing back the Irish shot, giving the English some room to reorder and regroup north of the river. The rest of the column hastily fled across the ford, abandoning their supplies. The English came under Irish fire from the surrounding hills, and a counter-attack was stillborn when its leader Captain Fuller was killed by an Irish javelin. With most of the supplies abandoned at the river, Duke and Herbert decided their only option was to retreat. However, their retreat to the ford was met with renewed gunfire. The disintegrating army had to run along the river and cross at another ford an "arrow shot" upstream, casting aside their weapons and armour. Luckily for the English, they were not pursued as most of the Irish had fallen to looting the baggage train which gave the battle its name, ''Béal Átha na mBriosgadh'' or The Ford of the Biscuits.O'Neill and Logue, pp. 920–921 The English commanders Duke and Herbert recorded 56 soldiers killed and 69 wounded.

Aftermath

The badly-mauled Crown forces retreated westwards to Sligo. A second relief expedition, led by the Lord Deputy of Ireland William Russell, managed to reach Enniskillen and re-supply it. However Enniskillen did fall to the Irish in May the following year and the garrison was massacred, despite having been promised their lives when they surrendered. A number of factors, including the presence of his brother Cormac MacBaron O'Neill, have led some historians to conclude that Hugh O'Neill of Tyrone had encouraged Maguire to revolt a second time as a stalking horse for himself, hoping to prod the English administration into making more favorable concessions without formally taking up arms himself. Others have gone further to suggest that Maguire's rebellion was a diversion to focus English attention and military strength in Fermanagh while the Earl of Tyrone strengthened his position elsewhere in Ulster before breaking into open warfare at the start of 1595. This is yet more compelling when one considers that it was reported that many of the Irish shot deployed wore the distinctive red livery of the earl of Tyrone. Moreover, a report by a woman captured by the Irish (but later released) stated that the earl later met with Maguire at nearby Liscallaghan (modern-day

Fivemiletown Fivemiletown is a village and townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is 16 miles (26 km) east of Enniskillen and 26 miles (43 km) west-south-west of Dungannon, on the A4 Enniskillen-to-Dungannon road. Fivemiletown's populat ...

) to receive spoils from the battle. Six months later, Tyrone went into open rebellion, triggering the full outbreak of the Nine Years' War which lasted until the

Treaty of Mellifont The Treaty of Mellifont ( ga, Conradh na Mainistreach Móire), also known as the Articles of Mellifont, was signed in 1603 and ended the Nine Years' War which took place in the Kingdom of Ireland from 1594 to 1603. End of war Following the Engl ...

in 1603.Morgan p.167-92

References

Bibliography

* Falls, Cyril. ''Elizabeth's Irish Wars''. Constable, 1996. * Heath, Ian. ''The Irish Wars, 1485-1603''. Osprey Publishing, 1993. * Morgan, Hiram. ''Tyrone's Rebellion''. Boydell Press, 1999. * O'Neill, James and Logue, Paul. 'The Battle of the Ford of the Biscuits, 7 August 1594' in Claire Foley and Ronan McHugh (eds), ''An archaeological survey of County Fermanagh'', vol. 1, pt. 2 (Belfast, 2014), pp 913–922. * O'Neill, James. 'Death in the Lakelands: Tyrone’s proxy war, 1593-4', ''History Ireland'', vol. 23, no. 2 (2015), pp 14–17. * O'Neill, James, ''The Nine Years War, 1593-1603: O'Neill, Mountjoy and the Military Revolution'' (Dublin, 2017).

External links

* * {{Authority control 1594 in Ireland Ford of the Biscuits Ford of the Biscuits Military history of County Fermanagh