| Charlemont Fort | |
|---|---|
| Charlemont, County Armagh | |
 Charlemont Fort from The State of the Fortes of Ireland in 1624 | |
  Charlemont Fort Location within Northern Ireland | |
| Coordinates | 54°26′53″N06°40′44″W / 54.44806°N 6.67889°W |
| Type | Barracks |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1602 |
| In use | 1602-1858 |
Charlemont Fort was a garrison situated in Charlemont, County Armagh.
The fort was built in 1602 by Lord Mountjoy. [1] The name Charlemont came from Charles Blount's Christian name. It was situated on the Armagh bank of the River Blackwater, it was armed with 150 men under the command of Sir Toby Caulfield, whose descendants took the name Charlemont from the place. [1]
The Stronghold of Charlemont proved to be of great strategic importance in the Irish Confederate Wars in the 1640s, as it was one of only a handful of modern fortresses to be found in Ireland at that time. It was captured by the forces of Felim O'Neill in 1641 and the Ulster army of the Irish Confederates managed to hold on to the fort throughout the 1640s. O'Neill's forces were able to capture the fort by exploiting his landed status, calling on Lord Caulfield for dinner. [2] It was eventually captured by Charles Coote after he had been reinforced by New Model Army soldiers in late 1650, but hundreds of Coote's soldiers were killed in the effort.[ citation needed ]
During the 1689-1691 Williamite War in Ireland, it was occupied by a Jacobite force under Teague O'Reagan; while the defences were strong, the garrison was short of provisions and it surrendered to Williamite forces in April 1690. [3]
The fort ceased to be used as a garrison on 14 February 1858. It was destroyed in 1920 by fire and the only building remaining today is the gatehouse. [1]
Governors of Charlemont included:
On 30 July 1920 a group of around forty armed from the Irish Republican Army men seized the fort, which was being occupied by a caretaker, and burned it down. The ruins were sold in 1921 to a masonry contractor. In 1922 the family also lost their great house Roxborough Castle to the same fate. [8]
Owen Roe O'Neill was a Gaelic Irish soldier and one of the most famous of the O'Neill dynasty of Ulster. O'Neill left Ireland at a young age and spent most of his life as a mercenary in the Spanish Army serving against the Dutch in Flanders during the Eighty Years' War. After the Irish Rebellion of 1641, O'Neill returned and took command of the Irish Confederate Ulster Army. He is known for his victory at the Battle of Benburb in 1646.
Charles Blount, 1st Earl of Devonshire, KG was an English nobleman and soldier who served as Lord Deputy of Ireland under Queen Elizabeth I, and later as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland under King James I.
Viscount Charlemont is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1665 for William Caulfeild, 5th Baron Charlemont.
The Irish Confederate Wars, also called the Eleven Years' War, took place in Ireland between 1641 and 1653. It was the Irish theatre of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, a series of civil wars in the kingdoms of Ireland, England and Scotland – all ruled by Charles I. The conflict had political, religious and ethnic aspects and was fought over governance, land ownership, religious freedom and religious discrimination. The main issues were whether Irish Catholics or British Protestants held most political power and owned most of the land, and whether Ireland would be a self-governing kingdom under Charles I or subordinate to the parliament in England. It was the most destructive conflict in Irish history and caused 200,000–600,000 deaths from fighting as well as war-related famine and disease.
Sir Phelim Roe O'Neill of Kinard was an Irish politician and soldier who started the Irish rebellion in Ulster on 23 October 1641. He joined the Irish Catholic Confederation in 1642 and fought in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms under his cousin, Owen Roe O'Neill, in the Confederate Ulster Army. After the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland O’Neill went into hiding but was captured, tried and executed in 1653.
The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649–1653) was the re-conquest of Ireland by the Commonwealth of England, led by Oliver Cromwell. It forms part of the 1641 to 1652 Irish Confederate Wars, and wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Modern estimates suggest that during this period, Ireland experienced a demographic loss totalling around 15 to 20% of the pre-1641 population, due to fighting, famine and bubonic plague.
The Battle of Scarrifholis, also spelt Scariffhollis was fought on 21 June 1650, near Letterkenny in County Donegal during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. A force loyal to the Commonwealth of England under Charles Coote defeated the Catholic Ulster Army, commanded by Heber MacMahon, Roman Catholic Bishop of Clogher.
Charlemont is a small village in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It sits on the right bank of the River Blackwater, five miles northwest of Armagh, and is linked to the neighbouring village of Moy by Charlemont Bridge. It had a population of 109 people at the 2011 Census.
The siege of Galway took place from August 1651 to 12 May 1652 during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. Galway was the last city held by Irish Catholic forces in Ireland and its fall signalled the end to most organised resistance to the Parliamentarian conquest of the country.
James Hamilton, 3rd Lord Hamilton, Baron of Strabane (1633–1655) fought against the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland together with his stepfather Phelim O'Neill. In the Siege of Charlemont of 1650, they defended the fort against Coote, but had eventually to surrender. In 1655 Lord Strabane accidentally drowned in the River Mourne near Strabane, aged about 22 and was succeeded by his brother George.
George Hamilton, 4th Baron Hamilton of Strabane was the younger son of Claud Hamilton, 2nd Baron Hamilton of Strabane. He succeeded to the title in 1655 when his brother drowned while bathing in the River Mourne. After the Restoration, he obtained the return of the family lands around Strabane, which had been confiscated by the Parliamentarians in 1650.
Charles Coote, 1st Earl of Mountrath was an Anglo-Irish soldier and politician from County Roscommon. A strong advocate of the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland, he fought for Parliament and the Commonwealth in the 1641 to 1652 Irish Confederate Wars. Coote also sat as an MP, and held various senior administrative posts, including Lord President of Connaught.
The siege of Charlemont took place in July – 14 August 1650 during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland when the fortress of Charlemont in County Armagh Ireland was besieged by Charles Coote's Parliamentarian army, which was largely composed of soldiers of the New Model Army. The force led by Coote eventually took the fort from its Irish defenders, but not before they suffered heavy losses, with some 500 Parliamentarian Soldiers being killed during assaults on the formidable stronghold. In terms of the number of soldiers killed in battle, the siege of Charlemont was the second bloodiest engagement fought by the Parliamentarians in Ireland, only surpassed by the siege of Clonmel.
Presented below is a chronology of the major events of the Irish Confederate Wars from 1641 to 1653. This conflict is also known as the Eleven Years War. The conflict began with the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and ended with the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649–53).
Colonel Philip O'Reilly was a member of parliament for County Cavan, Ireland in the Irish Parliament from 1639 to 1641, and a leading member of the 1641 Rebellion.
Colonel Gordon O'Neill, was an officer in King James II's Irish army who fought at the Siege of Derry, the Battle of the Boyne, and the Battle of Aughrim for the Jacobites.
Toby Caulfeild, 1st Baron Caulfeild of Charlemont (1565–1627), was an English army officer active in Ireland.
Toby Caulfeild, 3rd Baron Caulfeild of Charlemont (1621–1642) was an Anglo-Irish politician.
The Irish Army or Irish establishment, in practice called the monarch's "army in Ireland" or "army of Ireland", was the standing army of the Kingdom of Ireland, a client state of England and subsequently of Great Britain. It existed from the early 1660s until merged into the British Army in 1801, and for much of the period was the largest force available to the British Crown, being substantially larger than the English and Scottish establishments. Initially solely under the monarch's control, from 1699 the army was jointly controlled by the monarch and by the Parliament of England. The Parliament of Ireland took over some responsibilities in 1769, extended after 1782 when it began passing its own Mutiny Acts. The army, funded by Irish crown revenues, had its own Commander-in-Chief.
Places of Interest in County Armagh | ||
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| Castles and military sites |  | |
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