Mike McCormick, author, Substacker, witness

On this day, 9 November 1580, 600 Spanish and Italian soldiers trapped in a fort on the Kerry coast asked the English for terms. Lord Grey de Wilton told them to yield for life or death, at his will. They did. The next morning he sent in his captains, and they killed 600 of them. One of the captains was Walter Ralegh. Pope Gregory XIII had landed them at Smerwick in September to help the Earl of Desmond's rebellion. The Irish never came down from the hills. The papal troops dug in on a headland called Dún an Óir, the Fort of Gold, with no water, and on 8 November the English guns opened on them from ship and shore. On the 9th their colonel, Sebastiano di San Giuseppe, asked to talk. Grey told the Queen he refused all conditions. The Irish and Spanish said he promised their lives — Grey's faith, the Irish still call a broken word. On the 10th the garrison laid down its arms. Then, in Grey's words, he put in certain bands, who straightway fell to execution. The field below the fort is still called the Field of the Cutting. The bodies went into the sea. There were 600 slain. Ralegh, 26, led one of the bands. Edmund Spenser, Grey's secretary, was there and defended it in print. Elizabeth wrote to Grey rejoicing that God had made him the instrument of His glory. When Munster was confiscated, Ralegh got 40,000 acres of it. This page is proud of English history. It is proud because it is the record, and the record has this in it. You do not get to keep Trafalgar and lose Smerwick. They are the same country. #history #tudors #irishhistory #walterraleigh