Name Index

To

Ralegh Miscellanea. Part II

VI.— The Massacre At Smerwick

Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. XLII, (1910), illus. pp. 361-382.

by

T.N. Brushfield,  M.D., F.S.A

Prepared by Michael Steer

The paper was read at its July 1910 Cullompton meeting. "As captain of a troop of horse, Captain (afterwards Sir Walter) Ralegh landed in Ireland in July, 1580; and in the following November took an active part in the event known in historical works as the Massacre at Smerwick." The infamous massacre took place after the Siege of Smerwick in 1580, during the Second Desmond Rebellion in Ireland. A force of between 400 and 700 Papal freelance soldiers, mainly Italian and Spanish, captured the village of Smerwick, but were forced to retreat to nearby Dún an Óir ('Fort of Gold'), where they were besieged by the Irish Royal Army. The Papal commander negotiated and was bribed, so that the defenders surrendered within a few days. The officers were spared and the other ranks were then summarily executed on the orders of the English commander, Baron Grey de Wilton, Lord Deputy of Ireland. . The article, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.