Preparations are settled, after certain misgivings by…
March 1599 CE
Preparations are settled, after certain misgivings by the queen over the details, by the first week of March 1599. Letters patent are passed releasing Essex from the debts incurred by his father in the Irish service, and he receives his appointment on March 12, 1599, with power to pardon the rebel leader of his life upon submission, and to confer knighthoods (but only where deserved by service and sufficient living).
The army is fixed at sixteen thousand troops, with thirteen hundred horse, while the rebels in arms are estimated at twenty thousand to thirty thousand, with up to half of these operating in Ulster, where the crown's authority is confined to a few inland forts supplied by defended towns in the east.
Among Essex's troops are two thousand veterans from the Lowlands, led by Henry Dowcra, which it is proposed to distribute in garrisons.
The plan is to send over twenty thousand troops from England every three months to replace expected losses, and a regular postal service is established between Dublin and London via Holyhead.
In addition, Essex has at his command a squadron of five warships, with an assortment of fly-boats, which is notionally intended for a landing at Lough Foyle in the north with an emergency rendezvous appointed at Berehaven (or Baltimore) in the south, in the event of Spanish aggression.
In effect, the navy is to be confined to southern waters.
Essex has charge of the largest army ever to set foot in Ireland, and is fully equipped with munitions, clothing, artillery, victuals and ships.
Overall, the expected cost of the campaign is put at two hundred and ninety thousand pounds per annum, twice that of Elizabeth's Netherlands army.
Although the preparation for a broad campaign in Ireland has been thorough, in the event it will prove inadequate to the task.
Essex dances with the queen at a party for the Danish ambassador on Twelfth Night and departs London the next day, March 27, 1599.
Prayers are offered in the churches for his success, and he is cheered on in the sunshine for four miles through a double line of citizens, until it begins to rain and hail.
With him are Sir Christopher Blount and Sir Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, both of whom had had their original commissions canceled by the queen and are now attending on Essex in a private capacity.
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