It has been called Britain's last private battle.
Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl of Desmond, became embroiled in a territorial dispute with "Black Tom" Butler, Earl of Ormonde. The Fitzgeralds and the Butlers had been enemies since their Norman ancestors conquered Ireland four hundred years before, but the fires of the feud had been dampened by Gerald's marriage to Countess Joan, Tom's mother (Gerald and Thomas were contemporaries; Joan was more than 20 years Gerald's senior).
Joan died on New Year's Day, and soon after the feud smoldered once more.
Gerald was essentially Irish. It was his preferred tongue. He entertained and lived like the Dark Age warlord he was. He employed large numbers of galloglass infantry, hereditary mercenaries originally from Scotland who fought with iron helm and hauberk and the two-handed axe. He was also followed by swarms of fleet-footed kerns, light fighters, many of them petty nobility, who fought with sword and javelin. His light horse carried spears held overhead and road without saddle or stirrup. Caesar might have faced such an army had he cared to.
Black Tom also employed kerns and galloglasses, of necessity, but he trained bands of pikemen and arquebusiers as well. Educated in England, he considered himself to be English. His cousin, Queen Elizabeth I, had been a childhood playmate. His cavalry wore armor and used stirrups.
These armies were private, having no sanction from the Queen to exist, and they were just waiting for an excuse.
Gerald essentially blundered into an ambush. He was coming down the road from Clonmel near sunset when Tom quickly struck him from a position in a wooded hill. Gerald's cavalry, nobles who didn't agree with his cause, fled immediately. The infantry fought breifly but were quickly broken. More than 300 of Desmond's men were killed, many of them drowned while attempting to retreat across the Blackwater.
When Gerald realised he was doomed he made directly for Tom, hoping for vengence at least, but he didn't make it. He was shot off his horse, taking a pistol ball to the thigh. He would limp the rest of his life.
Tom's men captured Gerald and bore him to "The Earl's Stone." A Butler laughed at him as he passed by, born atop the shoulders of some of Tom's men.
"Where now is the great Earl of Desmond?" asked the man.
"Where he belongs: on the backs of the Butlers!" was Gerald's reply. It was a brave thing to say.
Both men were recalled to England. Gerald, far too Irish for the Queen's liking, was imprisoned. Tom was admonished.
"There shall be only one sword drawn in this realm," she said, "and it shall touch only the guilty."
Gerald's force must deploy along the road to Clonmel, one in front of the other in column, front to rear with the rearmost company touching the board edge. Tom must deploy with every company touching the wooded hill. Treat the river as impassable, and the ford as rough ground.
Any company which retreats into the river (except the ford) is immediately destroyed.
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