alternatehistory.com

Conflict in Eire
Ireland’s civil war had come at a horrible time. The English navy was mobilizing, and Charles vowed to descend on Ireland with a fury. The Aristocratic bloc formally accepted the French proposal in 1635, but no side would take any military action until 1366 when the war is recognized to have begun by most historians.
Donough MacCarty voted Chancellor of the proclaimed Irish Confederacy, held coastal land from Dublin to Cork, but for protective purposes had it’s capital in Kilkenny to avoid the English bombardment. The Irish Confederacy had amassed an army of 40,000, a modest army given his circumstances, Donough would make the most of this army to prepare an offensive in Ulster. He recognized the English as the most prevalent threat and believed that if he could show the French the Irish was a worthwhile investment that could hold itself he bargained that France might commit enough to deter English aggression, and he could focus on the pro-Habsburg elements of his country, and drive them off the Isle. Donough made contact with Louis Xiii through Richelieu, in order to negotiate a military agreement with France.

The Habsburgs took charge of the Imperial-Loyalist forces in the East, who, with the support of conservatives and clergy, overran territory from Limerick to Sligo in the name of the new “Viceroy of Ireland.” An Irishman himself and having spent time as a Spanish mercenary, commander Thomas Preston was chosen by the Spanish due to his past affiliations with the Habsburg throne. Thomas amassed an army of 20,000 and has another 50,000 guaranteed by Madrid to support him, that would arrive soon. He knew with a minuscule army that for now, he’d have to play defensively, striking the Confederates when he could and letting the English and Confederates bleed themselves as he snuggles the Spanish army into Ireland. Then he will launch his grand offensive to take Ireland in the name of Phillip iii.

Meanwhile, the supporters of Charles in Ulster were awaiting his arrival. Mainly compromised by nobles and Protestant loyalists, the Royal supporters only recognized the Kingdom of Ireland with Charles as their sovereign. The Protestant forces amassed around 9,000 forces mostly irregulars, it was clear the Protestant forces desperately relied on Charles to arrive with haste to drive the Catholic heathens off the Emerald Isle. Charles himself was still in Liverpool, with a gargantuan 80,000 army ready to smash resistance across the Northern Channel. The Parliament still wanted to strangle Charles’s authority and bribed admirals to not move until Charles allowed Parliamentary officials to run the army, instead of Charles. Instead, the King decided to march north to his dominions in Scotland, deciding to offer Scottish nobles landed titles in Ireland if they promised to give him a fleet and also ignored the English parliament. They accepted although the delay would have ramifications as to the course of the war.

Donough has set off with an army of 20,000 from Dublin to drive into Ulster, gathering support from Catholic peasantry. Many of the peasantries, however, had sympathies to Thomas’s army and would leak information to the Habsburgs, giving Spain a decisive advantage.

Back in France, Louis had to deal with the fallout of peace. With Habsburg wife was furious about the seizure of Habsburg land and was angered at his support for the Irish aristocracy and secular merchants. Richelieu had caught on and understood that Louis was mainly commuting to Ireland to bring the Dutch under his sphere, which would do wonders for French naval projection. Richelieu decided to ride off to the Netherlands to negotiate further relations.

The French sent an ultimatum to Spain to back down, but once they refused, France declared war. This was as much a move against Spain as it was in favor of the Netherlands, as the French war with Spain could be a bargaining chip to organize relations with the Dutch. The English navy moved into the Channel, keeping a watchful eye for the French navy. The Iberian fleet decided to take the high seas route, flanking away from the Bay of Biscay, hoping to reach Ireland undetected.

Charles crossed the North Channel in the autumn, just in time for the Irish harvest to be used to feed his army, although Charles had originally wanted to reach Ulster by summer. As the English army began unloading, Donough made a beeline towards Charles, hoping to defeat Charles while his forces were still unloading. Donough had engaged in battles with a Protestant force in Dundalk and entered Newry a day later.
The Habsburg forces watched closely, as they held their forces close to the shore, awaiting the arrival of the Spanish army.

The French Mediterranean fleet was pinned, and in order for the full invasion to be complete, the southern navy had to be linked up with the Northern one. The French fleet moved south, engaging against small Spanish ships in the Bay of Biscay, looking to weaken the Spaniard fleet. The French patrolled and raided the Spanish coast until finally a Spanish Armada was sent to deal with the French. Galleons clashed off the coast of Galicia, and harsh winds nearly shoved ships ashore. The Spanish eventually had to withdraw after repeated well-timed shots on one of their capital ships, and a Spanish frigate had most of it’s back blown by the French fleet.
The French boarded the ship and looted it. The Spanish commander was interrogated and released news of a massive Spanish fleet in the high seas, along the North Atlantic, that was trying to send support to the Irish. The news was hastily sent back to Paris.

The Spanish were able to force the French fleet back, but the losses had allowed the Mediterranean fleet to slip across the Gibraltar Strait. The Spanish decided to reorganize and strike the French again in their own naval offensive, gathering newly laid out galleons and light ships to strike the French southern coast, launching a raid upon Bordeaux. The French responded with a successful repulsive attack, but the French fleet had been damaged and was in need of repairs.

Louis knew his fleet couldn’t respond to the encroaching Spanish fleet that would almost certainly doom Donough’s army, so he came up with a solution.
The Irish Confederacy would have to withdraw from Ulster. They would let Charles’s army enter and Donough would fall back and let the Spanish and English duke it out. Meanwhile, Louis would figure out a plan to send support to Donough, for the Royal Navy would most certainly put the Island under blockade. On the mainland, he had many advantages. The fall of the Spanish position in the Benelux had severely harmed the Habsburg position in the West and Louis felt secure in the belief that the Austrians were too busy rebuilding to attempt to fight him, so he eyed the Spanish possessions in Italy as a possible front. Louis gathered an army of 100,000 to descend on Spanish Italy, hoping to convince Madrid to back down. The French demanded that Savoy back down and let the French pass, but Savoy saw how Louis chose to take the land he occupied in the Benelux and refused. Louis knew that the opening of the Italian front would almost certainly provoke a war with Austria, but he reasoned that he could defeat the Austrians and push into Italy.
Richelieu learned of Louis's provocations, and he along with Gustav of Sweden sent letters to Louis demanding him back down. Gustavus had not wished for another war, for he was still trying to rebuild the Swedish population and was looking west towards setting colonies in the Americas, a venture that would almost certainly be jeopardized by naval ventures against Britain or Spain. Richelieu still wanted an isolated war, and so was able to temper Louis's ambitions of quickly knocking out the Spanish in Italy, but Richelieu used his connections with the Medici family to allow the Grand Duchy of Tuscany to join the war, to tie down the Spanish in Italy. This infuriated the Austrians, but they remained neutral.
Fernando of Tuscany knew he couldn't go on any offensives, so he decided to launch raids to divert Spanish attention to him and then simply defend using the fortification of Florence and Pisa to his advantage. Louis still wanted to push into Italy, but Richelieu feared Austrian intervention and his wife was livid at the prospect of her dynasty being dragged into an even deeper hole. Louis thought up ways to pull Austrian attention East, like asking the Turks for another attack on Vienna, but the Sultan refused. Louis would wait for a moment, and then would he would have his Italian front.

Donough had been told about the coming Habsburg army, and so retreated. An English marine landing at Dublin was repulsed, but Donough feared the city might need to be abandoned. He had a force protecting it but knew if either the English or Spanish attacked he would leave it. Kilkenny was still the most defensible place within the Confederacy, and so he assembled his main force there, to wait out the storm. This was an unpopular move, but Donough would have to make it if he wanted to see victory.

As winter approached, Charles marched all throughout Northern Ireland, learning from Donough, who purposely left the message at an abandoned encampment, of the coming Spanish army. He ordered his ships to search for the flotilla and destroy it before it landed, while he decided to focus on the weaker forces under Thomas first, knowing he'd have to eliminate the Irish forces before the Spanish arrived, if they did, that was. Charles also suffered a major setback: The parliament refused to move the English navy, and the Scottish navy simply not enough to stop a Spanish invasion force and blockade Ireland, although he knew he would need Ireland under blockade so England could keep the Spanish or French from pulling a stunt like this again. Charles decided to push towards Limerick, as Thomas engaged in a scorched earth policy, stealing the autumn harvests from the local peasantry as he breached wells and slated fields. Although this would have a devastating impact, especially later in the war, it hurt the public opinion of him, and made many peasants begin to look for alternatives to the Irish Viceroy.

Charles was soon fed up with Parliament’s charades and decided to send a direct demand to each individual admiral to support his aims lest they be executed for treason against the crown. Most of the admiralty gave in and sides with Charles, as Parliament looked for other ways to assert their authority, they looked towards other places to threaten Charles’s position in Ireland and by extension England.

Top