The battle of Kinsale was decisive. As so often in the history of the Celts a decision to abandon irregular tactics for formal battle had resulted in disaster. The surviving rebel soldiers were scattered and demoralised. Hugh O’Donnell fled to Spain. O’Neill, his support in freefall, was forced onto the run. Old and sick though she now was, Elizabeth knew her strength and she rebuffed his attempts to reopen negotiations - she had had enough of that game. Mountjoy had the coronation stone of the O’Neills at Tullahoge symbolically smashed. Finally, on 23 March 1603, O’Neill made a complete and unconditional submission to Mountjoy. Elizabeth never knew about her victory - she died the next day, before the news could reach her, and the throne of England passed to King James VI of Scotland. James dealt generously with O’Neill, restoring most of his lands and his title as earl of Tyrone. James was similarly generous to Rory O’Donnell (Hugh’s brother), who was given the title earl of Tyrconnell. But James did not restore to either their traditional autonomous authority. Ulster was divided into counties and the English judicial system was introduced: the days of Gaelic lordship were over.
O’Neill was never reconciled to his status as a private nobleman. On 4 September 1607 O’Neill, Rory O’Donnell and Cuchonnacht Maguire, lord of Fermanagh, took ship from Rathmullen on Lough Swilly for Spain with some 90 of their followers. They were blown off course to Normandy, and the embarrassed French government packed the fugitives off to Rome as quickly as it decently could, where they spent the remainder of their lives as papal pensioners. Deprived of the patronage of Gaelic lords, Gaelic cultural traditions entered a long decline. The Gaelic language survived, but as the language of an illiterate peasantry it was no longer a vehicle of high culture. The ‘Flight of the Earls’ has never been satisfactorily explained but it is likely that they feared, wrongly as it happened, that the government had discovered that they were once again conspiring with the Spanish.
World History
