Page 203 - Demo

Chapter Six 203
with their battle order undermined by argument over precedence, O’Neill and O’Donnell were defeated and routed. The English victory at Kinsale was notable and decisive. Over one thousand rebels were slain, while Del Aguila negotiated an honourable surrendering of Kinsale, as well as the Spanish garrisoned castles of Baltimore, Castlehaven, and Dunboy. These castles belonged respectively to the O‘Driscolls, the MacCarthys, and the O’Sullivans. In the aftermath the Spaniards were allowed to return to their own country, whereupon ar- rival Del Aguila was imprisoned and later died, of grief, it is maintained.
This engagement, since known as the Battle of Kinsale was a sudden and disasterous halt to the nine year long crusade in which the Irish had known so many victories
After the Battle of Kinsale, the defeated Irish chiefs held a council of war, during which it was agreed that O’Donnell should be sent to solicit further aid from the King of Spain, and as both traitors and enemies were at work in their absence, it was further decided that the other chiefs should return to their respective territories to await the result of O’Donnell’s appeal. Leaving his men under the command of his brother Rory, Red Hugh O’Donnell departed Ireland for Spain on a Spanish vessel. But disaster was to be the outcome of his