James Archer (Jesuit) - Battle of Kinsale

Battle of Kinsale

On arriving in Munster in September 1601, del Aguila discovered that the province lay docile under Carew's command, following the imprisonment of Florence MacCarthy and the capture of the Sugan Earl of Desmond. Archer vouched for a local chieftain, O'Sullivan Beare, who offered to block the march from Dublin of the crown's principal army, but del Aguila declined. The Spanish occupied the walled town of Kinsale, which was soon surrounded by Mountjoy in a siege that was to last three months. The rebel armies of O'Neill and Red Hugh O'Donnell marched the length of the country in bitter winter conditions, but were broken by the English cavalry and driven from the field in December at the battle of Kinsale. Del Aguila then surrendered on terms and departed with his forces for Spain.

Archer immediately engaged in recrimination. He accused the Spanish commander of cowardice and vacillation, of refusing to heed local advice and failing to sally out and join with his Irish allies at the critical point. Anticipating further Spanish aid, Archer left Kinsale and fell in with O'Sullivan Beare, who was holding out further down the coast. Consideration was being given at the court of Philip III to a further expedition, and Archer sailed for Spain on the 6th of July 1602 (just before the Siege of Dunboy) to report on the state of Ireland.

At court Archer railed against del Aguila. For his part, the commander argued against further aid to the Irish and presented the king with a forged letter - supplied to him by Carew - purporting to be from Archer, in which the priest was supposed to have sought pardon of the queen. The arguments dragged on, but by March 1603 Archer appears to have been vindicated while del Aguila was restrained in his lodgings.

Archer's hopes of aid continued, but after the queen's death in March 1603 O'Neill accepted terms of surrender from Mountjoy. Upon the accession of James I to the English throne in May a new dispensation was in place, and in the following year a peace was concluded with the Spanish. Del Aguila was eventually exonerated, and in Ireland Carew ordered all Jesuits and seminary priests to depart the kingdom. Archer sought a return to Ireland, and for years afterward his imminent arrival was touted in English government propaganda. But the remainder of his life was spent in Spain.