The siege of Enniskillen took place 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 ...

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 al ...

, Ireland, in 1594 and 1595, during the

Nine Years' War The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by the Habsburg monarch ...

. In February 1594, the English had captured

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 ...

from the Irish after a waterborne assault and massacred the defenders after they surrendered. From May 1594, an Irish army under Hugh Maguire and Cormac MacBaron O'Neill besieged the English garrison in the castle, and in August they defeated an English relief force. A second relief force was allowed to resupply the garrison, but the castle remained cut off. Eventually, in May 1595, the English garrison surrendered to the Irish and were then massacred.

Background

In 1593, Hugh Maguire, the Gaelic lord of

, had objected to the behaviour of the newly-appointed English Crown sheriff Humphrey Willis. Willis had raided and plundered in Maguire's territory. Maguire was not strong enough to resist the sheriff, but after receiving troops from

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'Ne ...

, Maguire expelled Willis. In May and June 1593, Maguire and Brian Oge O'Rourke of

West Breifne The Kingdom of West Breifne (Irish ''Breifne Ua Ruairc'') or Breifne O'Rourke was a historic kingdom of Ireland that existed from 1256 to 1605, located in the area that is now County Leitrim. It took its present boundaries in 1583 when West Breifn ...

raided lands held by the English

Lord President of Connaught The Lord President of Connaught was a military leader with wide-ranging powers, reaching into the civil sphere, in the English government of Connaught in Ireland, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The office was created in 1569, and in ...

, Richard Bingham. They destroyed the town around

Ballymote Castle , location=County Sligo, Connacht , nearest_town=Ballymote , country=Ireland , image=Co. Sligo, Ballymote Castle 2, 1792.jpg , alt=The castle in the 1790s , caption=The castle in the 1790s , pushpin_map=Ireland , pushpin_map_alt=Location ...

. This was part of a proxy war waged to distract the Crown while Tyrone strengthened his position in Ulster. As hoped for, the Crown responded by sending an army under 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 ...

and Gaelic leader

(outwardly still loyal to the Crown), who defeated Maguire's force at the Battle of Belleek in October 1593. However, Maguire's main force remained unscathed.

First siege

Enniskillen Castle sat on the

River Erne The River Erne ( , ga, Abhainn na hÉirne or ''An Éirne'') in the northwest of the island of Ireland, is the second-longest river in Ulster, flowing through Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and forming part of their border. ...

and commanded the strategic bottleneck between Upper and Lower

Lough Erne Lough Erne ( , ) is the name of two connected lakes in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is the second-biggest lake system in Northern Ireland and Ulster, and the fourth biggest in Ireland. The lakes are widened sections of the River Erne, ...

.O'Neill, "Three sieges and two massacres: Enniskillen and the outbreak of the Nine Years War, 1593-5", ''

The Irish Sword ''The Irish Sword'' is the official journal of the Military History Society of Ireland containing articles on the military history of Ireland, book reviews, notes, notices, queries, illustrations and proceedings. It includes information on subje ...

'', vol. XXX, no. 121 (2016), pp. 241–249. On 25 January 1594, English Captain John Dowdall arrived at Enniskillen by boat with three infantry companies. They dug trenches in which they placed light cannons and

musketeer A musketeer (french: mousquetaire) was a type of soldier equipped with a musket. Musketeers were an important part of early modern warfare particularly in Europe as they normally comprised the majority of their infantry. The musketeer was a prec ...

s, but the cannons were too small to make much of an impact on the castle walls. On 30 January, Captain George Bingham arrived with 300 men. They launched a waterborne assault on the castle. While musketeers in boats and artillery on land fired at the castle, a large boat holding 67 men anchored at a vulnerable part of the walls. They made a breach in the wall with pickaxes, forcing the Irish to take shelter in the keep. Dowdall threatened to destroy the castle with gunpowder if the garrison did not surrender. An Irish witness claimed there were 36 fighting men and 40 women and children in the castle, while Dowdall claimed there were 200. After they surrendered, Dowdall had them

put to the sword {{Short pages monitor