ARMIESKildares’ real military strength lay in their large forces
of Mac Domnaill galloglass—forcing the Leinster Irish
to recruit galloglass of their own. Such was the power
of the Kildares that they were able to billet their gallo-
glass upon the Pale, levying “coyne and livery” upon
Englishmen for their maintenance.
From the late 1510s, the English government
became convinced of the necessity of reform in Ireland
and gradually royal armies returned. The collapse of
the Kildare rebellion in 1535 created a countrywide
political vacuum, so the Dublin government sought to
extend royal jurisdiction throughout the country,
demanding the dissolution of all private armies and the
abolition of coyne and livery. There was vehement
resistance—particularly from the Irish lords. Towards
the end of the sixteenth century, Irish leaders such as
Áed Ua Néill (d. 1616), second earl of Tyrone, and
Fiach Ua Broin (d. 1597) emerged to revolutionize
Irish armies and warfare by adopting foreign ideas,
tactics, training, and formations. Tyrone trained a red-
coated Ulster army to fight in the Spanish terciofor-
mation, using both pike and musket. He won great
victories at Clontribret in 1595 and at Yellow Ford
three years later, but his defeat at Kinsale in 1601
effectively ended resistance from coordinated Irish
forces. However, the allegiance owed to the great lords
was still hard to destroy completely. Indeed, it took
the armies of Oliver Cromwell (d. 1656), lord protector
of England, during the late 1640s and 1650s to finally
tear up the last roots of the private armies.
EMMETTO’BYRNE
References and Further Reading
Barry, Terry, et al., eds. Colony and Frontier in Medieval
Ireland. London: Hambleton Press, 1995.
Bartlett, Robert and Angus McKay, eds. Medieval Frontiers
Societies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Bartlett, Thomas and Keith Jeffrey, eds. A Military History of
Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Byrne, Francis. Irish Kings and High-Kings. London: Batsford,
1973.
Harbison, Peter. “Native Irish Arms and Armour in Medieval
Gaelic Literature, 1170–1600.” Irish Sword12 (1975–1976):
174–180.
Lydon, James. “The Hobelar: An Irish Contribution to Medieval
Warfare.”Irish Sword 2 (1954–1956): 13–15.
———, ed. Law and Disorder in the Thirteenth-Century Ireland.
Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1997.
———.The Lordship of Ireland in the Middle Ages. Dublin:
Four Courts Press, 2003.
Morgan, Hiram. Tyrone’s Rebellion. London: Boydell Press,
1999.
Nicholls, Kenneth. Gaelic and Gaelicized Ireland. Rev. ed. Dublin:
Lilliput Press, 2003.
O’Byrne, Emmett.War, Politics and the Irish of Leinster,
1156–1606. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2003.
Otway-Ruthven, Jocelyn. “Knight Service in Ireland.” Journal
of the Royal Society of Antiquities79 (1959): 1–7.
———. “Royal Service in Ireland.” Journal of the Royal Society
of Antiquities98 (1968): 37–39.
Simms, Katherine. “Warfare in Medieval Irish Lordships.” Irish
Sword12 (1975–1976): 98–105.
———.From Kings to Warlords. London: Boydell Press, 1987.
See alsoBrian Boru; Diarmait Mac Murchada;
Mac Lochlainn, Muirchertach; Military Service,
Anglo-Norman; Military Service, Gaelic; Military
Orders; Strongbow; Ua Conchobair, Ruaidrí