| Siege of Smerwick | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Second Desmond Rebellion | |||||||
 Map of the English attack on Spanish and Italian forces at Smerwick | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Kingdom of England | Papal and Spanish troops | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| The 14th Baron Grey de Wilton | Sebastiano di San Giuseppe | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| ~4,000 | 400–700 | ||||||
  Location within County Kerry  Siege of Smerwick (Ireland) | |||||||
The siege of Smerwick took place at Ard na Caithne (the Hill of the Arbutus Tree, known in English as Smerwick) in November 1580, during the Second Desmond Rebellion in Ireland. A force of between 400 and 700 Papal freelance soldiers, mostly of Spanish and Italian origin, landed at Smerwick to support the Catholic rebels. They were forced to retreat to the nearby promontory fort of Dún an Óir,[1] where they were besieged by the English. The Papal commander parleyed and was bribed, and the defenders surrendered within a few days. The officers were spared, but the other ranks were then summarily executed on the orders of the English commander, Arthur Grey (Baron Grey de Wilton), the Lord Deputy of Ireland.[2][3]
- ^ Possibly a persistent mistranscription of Dún an Óir, 'The gold fort', 'Fort del oro)
- ^ The Scenery and Antiquities of Ireland. Chapter IV. (1841)
- ^ Tony Pollard, Iain Banks. Scorched Earth: Studies in the Archaeology of Conflict. BRILL, 2007. p. 222