Flight of the Wild Geese: Encyclopedia II - Flight of the Wild Geese - Spanish service

Flight of the Wild Geese - Spanish service

The first Irish troops to serve as a unit for a continental power formed an Irish regiment in the Spanish army of Flanders in the Eighty Years War in the 1580s. The regiment had been raised by an English Catholic, William Stanley in Ireland, from native Irish soldiers and mercenaries, whom the English authorities wanted out of the country (See also Tudor re-conquest of Ireland). Stanley was given a commission by Elizabeth I and was intended to lead his regiment on the English side, in support of the Dutch United Provinces. However, in 1585, motivated by religious factors and bribes offered by the Spaniards, Stanley defected to the Spanish side with the regiment. The unit fought in the Netherlands until 1600 when it was disbanded due to to heavy wastage through combat and sickness.

In 1607 the "Flight of the Earls" occurred, when the defeated rebels of the Nine Years War (Ireland), Earl of Tyrone Hugh O'Neill and Earl of Tyrconnell Rory O'Donnell, along with many chiefs and their followers from Ulster fled Ireland. They hoped to get Spanish help in order to restart their rebellion in Ireland, but King Philip III of Spain did not want a resumption of war with England and refused their request.

Nevertheless, their arrival led to the formation of a new Irish regiment in Flanders, officered by Gaelic Irish nobles and recruited from their followers and dependents in Ireland. This regiment was more overtly political than its predecessor in Spanish service and was militantly hostile to the English Protestant government in Ireland. The regiment was led by Hugh O'Neill's son John. Prominent officers included Owen Roe O'Neill and Hugh Dubh O'Neill. In 1609, Arthur Chichester, then Lord Deputy of Ireland, deported 1300 former rebel Irish soldiers from Ulster to serve in the Swedish Army. However, under the influence of Catholic clergy, many of them deserted to the Spanish service. A fresh source of recruits came in the early seventeenth century, when Roman Catholics were banned from military and political office in Ireland. As a result, the Irish units in the Spanish service began attracting catholic Old English officers like Thomas Preston and Garret Barry. These men had more pro English views than their Gaelic counterparts and considerable animosity was created over plans to use the Irish regiment to invade Ireland in 1627. The regiment was garrisoned in Brussels during the truce in the Eighty Years War from 1609-1621 and developed close link with Irish Catholic clergy based in the seminary there - notably Florence Conry.

Many of the Irish troops in Spanish service returned to Ireland after the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and fought in the armies of Confederate Ireland - a movement of Irish Catholics. When the Confederates were defeated and Ireland occupied after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, around 34,000 Irish Confederate troops fled the country to seek service in Spain. Some of them later deserted or defected to French service, where the conditions were deemed better. There continued to be Irish units in the Spanish army until the late 18th century, but in later years only the officers were Irish, the men were predominantly Spanish.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Spanish service", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki