Throughout
1587 and early 1588, rumours that Philip of Spain was assembling a massive
fleet to conquer England and Ireland were spreading like wildfire.
Reports
came to Ireland mainly from the crews of trading ships returning from the
ports of Spain and France. English intelligence sources confirmed these
rumours but Elizabeth evidently believed that a war situation could
be avoided,
even up to early 1588, when the massive fleet was nearing readiness to
sail from Lisbon. From the outset, the fleet seemed destined for bad
luck. After
a month at sea, little progress had been made due to unfavourable winds.
Food which was badly packed had already gone rotten and drinking water
had
gone stagnant. Scarcely had the major part of the fleet reached the shelter
of Corunna, in the North West of Spain, than a fierce gale arose in
the
Bay of Biscay, scattering the remaining ships. By the time these had made
their way back to Corunna and were ready to sail again with fresh provisions,
it was July 12th. Morale was much higher as the fleet of over 130 vessels,
galleons, galleys, merchantmen, galleasses, supply ships and pataches,
carrying
almost 30,000 men, hoisted sails for the English channel.
The purpose of the Armada was firstly to enable the
huge army of the Duke of Parma to cross in safety from France to England,
and having accomplished this, its second objective was to wipe out
the English fleet. From the mouth of the channel the Armada moved in
a tight crescent-shaped formation, defying and puzzling the English.
However, the English succeeded in breaking the formation by sending
in fireships by night, causing panic among the Spaniards. In the subsequent
sea battle of Gravelines, grave losses of ships and men were incurred
by the Spanish fleet while the English fleet came through unscathed.
The battle ended when ammunition stocks were almost exhausted. The
wind changed to south south-west and the commander of the Armada, the
Duke of Medina Sidonia ordered that the fleet should sail North, around
Scotland and wide around Ireland and back to Spain.
When Boetius Clancy, High Sheriff of Clare, looked out
from the Cliffs of Moher at the two large ships lurking off the Aran
Islands on September 16th he was a rather worried man. News of the
sighting of ships was coming from all along the western coast of Ireland,
and the English authorities, with a lack of supplies and manpower,
were greatly concerned. The fact that the English fleet had been victorious
and that the Spanish fleet had been badly battered, was not generally
known. Indeed, rumours to the contrary were prevalent and it is only
natural that the possibility of an invasion of Ireland by an army of
such power and reputed ferocity, would frighten the English authorities.
This must be borne in mind when one reads the following extract from
an order signed by William Fitzwilliam, the Lord Deputy, but in no
way excuses the ruthless barbarity with which the order was carried
out.
"… we authorise you to make inquiry by all good means, both by oath
and otherwise, to take all the hulls of ships, stores, treasures, etc. into your
hands and to apprehend and execute all Spaniards found there of what quality
so ever. Torture may be used in prosecuting this inquiry.
On the same day, another Spanish ship, the Zuniga,
appeared off Liscannor. This
was one of the four galleasses which sailed with the Armada, a long
narrow ship, powered both by oars and a large square sail. It had seen
a lot of action and distress, and supplies on board were severely rationed.
Clancy reported to Bingham, Governor of Connaught, that some Spaniards
had attempted a landing but had failed due to the terrible gales which
swept the west coast for most of that month. It would appear that the
Spaniards did succeed in landing and in getting some provisions and
on one of these expeditions, the ship's purser, Pietro Baptista of
Naples was captured by the English and he told them of the true state
of the fleet. The Zuniga left the bay and eventually reached Le Havre.
Meanwhile at the other end of the county seven ships were sighted by Nicolas
Cahane, an agent of the High Sheriff. These anchored off Kilrush and some heavily
armed soldiers came ashore to barter for food and water, but they were given
nothing.
Before they set sail, one of the ships which was irreparably damaged, the Annunciada
of the Levant Squadron from the Adriatic was stripped of everything of value
by its crew and set alight.
The winds which enabled the six ships to sail from Kilrush
were not so kind to two other vessels, and scarcely had calm been restored
at Kilrush, than news of disasters further north along the coast brought
Nicholas Cahane rushing to the scene. On reaching the White Strand,
north of Doonbeg he writes as follows:
"God hath cast to the shore a great ship from San
Sebastian wherein were 300 men all drowned but three score or thereabout.
Another ship is cast in at I Brickane and lost, they
had both men and munitions from Flanders."
Both of these ships were lost on September 20th. The
San Esteban from the Guipuzcoa Squadron went down off the White Strand.
It was a vessel of 736 tons and carried 246 men and 26 guns from the
port of Corunna. The other ship seems to have been the San Marcos,
a Portugese galleon of 790 tons. When it sailed from Corunna, it carried
33 guns and 409 men, 292 soldiers and 117 sailors. In addition there
were servants so it is probable that over 450 lives were lost when
this massive galleon broke up on the reef between Mutton
Island and Lurga point.
Only four survivors were taken from
the San Marcos, and these, together with the survivors from the San
Esteban were held
prisoners by Clancy at his castle near Spanish Point. Evidently some
had been killed on the shore by both the English and the natives but
all those who were taken, were hanged on Cnoc na Crocaire near Spanish
Point. This mass execution was presided over by Clancy, Turlough O'Brien
of Tromra Castle, George Cusack, Captain Mordaunt and a Mr. Morton.
The bodies were buried in a mass grave known to this day as Tuama na
Spaineach.
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