640 1,000+ Result Decisive rebel victory | Date 7 August 1594 Location Arney River | |
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The Battle of the Ford of the Biscuits took place in County Fermanagh, Ireland on 7 August 1594 when a force of English Army soldiers led by Sir Henry Duke was ambushed and defeated by an Irish force under Hugh Maguire in the region of the fords of the Arney River on the approaches to Enniskillen. Duke's men were a relief column for the town which had been under siege since May.
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The battle acquired its distinctive name due to the supplies of the Crown forces, largely hard biscuits, which were scattered and left floating in the river. The battle was an early exchange of Tyrone's Rebellion, and exposed the vulnerability of Crown forces to ambushes in the wilder parts of Ulster with its thick woods and bogs.
Background
As part of the Tudor reform programme in Ireland, a policy of surrender and regrant was introduced that involved the formal submission of the Gaelic lords to the Crown. Fermanagh was shired as a county and elements of English law were introduced to replace Brehon Law overseen by Hugh Maguire the Gaelic Lord of Enniskillen. The Maguire revolt grew out of his resentment at the introduction of English law which reduced his overlordship over his weaker neighbours, and particularly the activities of a local sheriff, Captain Humphrey Willis who was known for his heavy-handed behavior.
Maguire launched his rebellion by sacking the lands of his neighbours. The government responded by sending a force under the Marshal of Ireland, Sir Henry Bagenal to confront the rebels. The leading Gaelic lord of Ulster, Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone also led forces into the field, and alongside his estranged brother in law Bagenal defeated the rebels at the Battle of the Erne Fords in 1593. Maguire's capital at Enniskillen was captured in February 1594 by an English force led by Captain John Dowdall, who massacred the Irish occupants after they had surrendered. Maguire then agreed to submit, and an agreement was brokered by Tyrone. However the peace did not last long and Maguire, Red Hugh O'Donnell and Cormac MacBaron (Tyrone's brother) laid siege to Enniskillen in June 1594. A relief force was dispatched to aid the stranded garrison.
Battle
The relief force was under the joint command of Sir Henry Duke and Sir Edward Herbert, who had 600 infantry and 40 horse. Duke and Herbert believed this to be insufficient, and wrote to the Lord Deputy that 'to go without a thousand men at the least or otherwise we shall dearly repent our going'. No reinforcements were forthcoming therefore the column set north from Cavan on 4 August. Burdened with supplies, the army was expected to take four days to march 29 miles north to Enniskillen. The night before the battle the English camp was pestered by Irish gunfire and incessant skirmishing meant the English troops were poorly rested when the set out on 7 August to relieved the beleaguered garrison. As the thin column started to snake its way north, almost immediately it came under attack on both flanks, as Irish skirmishes hurled javelins, but this was not the main attack.
As the relief expedition approached Enniskillen from the south, Maguire and Cormac MacBaron lay in wait for them on the Arney River. The Army's cavalry scouts failed to detect the Irish laying in wait for them. The ground was boggy near the Arney ford, therefore they were forced to dismount. Consequently the infantry escorting the supply wagons for Enniskillen ran straight into the ambush. Around eleven o clock the head of the column approached the ford. Without warning intense Irish gunfire tore into the lead English elements from concealed positions on the opposite bank. With the advance stalled, Maguire and MacBaron assailed the rear of the column with the bulk of their forces. Wings of English shot deployed to skirmish with the Irish, but withering Irish fire pushed them back to their pike stands in the column.
The English rear fell into disorder causing the Irish pike and Scots mercenaries to charge, forcing them to flee pell mell onto the centre of the column. The English collapse continued as the column concertinaed towards the head of the army stalled at the ford. Fortunately the leading English pike had forced the crossing, pushing back the Irish shot, giving the English some room to reorder and regroup north of the river.
The English were engaged by Irish shot from the surrounding hills, but a counter-attack was stillborn when its leader Captain Fuller was killed. With most of the supplies abandoned at the river, Duke and Herbert decided their only option was to retreat. However, their retreat to the ford was met with renewed gunfire and the disintegrating army was compelled to cross on another ford an 'arrow shot' upstream.
Luckily for Duke and Herbert's men they were not pursued as most of the Irish had fallen to looting the baggage train which gave the battle its name, Béal-Átha-na-mBriosgadh or The Ford of the Biscuits.
Aftermath
The badly-mauled Crown forces retreated to Cavan. News of the defeats caused some alarm due to the small size of the peacetime Royal Irish Army, which was scattered in garrisons across the island. Although this could be supplemented by forces of loyal Gaelic chiefs, fresh troops needed to be raised in England sent across the Irish Sea to contain the developing northern rebellion. In addition a force of soldiers who had been serving in Britanny was brought to Ireland.
A second relief expedition, this time led by the Lord Deputy of Ireland William Russell, 1st Baron Russell of Thornhaugh, managed to reach Enniskillen and re-supply it. However Enniskillen did fall to the rebels in May the following year and the garrison was massacred, despite having been promised their lives when they surrendered.
A number of factors, including the presence of his brother Cormac MacBaron O'Neill, have led some historians to conclusions that Tyrone had encouraged Maguire to revolt a second time as a stalking horse for himself, hoping to prod the government into making more favorable concessions without formally taking up arms himself. Others have gone further to suggest that Maguire's rebellion was a feint to focus English attention and military strength in Fermanagh while the earl of Tyrone strengthened his position in Ulster prior to his breaking into open warfare at the start of 1595. This is yet more compelling when one considers that it was reported the many if the Irish shot deployed wore the distinctive red livery of the earl of Tyrone. Moreover, a report by a woman captured by the Irish (but later released) stated that the earl later met with Maguire at nearby Liscallaghan (mordern-day Fivemiletown) to receive spoils from the battle. Six months later Tyrone went into open rebellion, triggering the full outbreak of Tyrone's Rebellion which lasted until the Treaty of Mellifont in 1603.