Siege of Galway

The Siege of Galway (English Siege of Galway, Irish Léigear Chat Hair na Gaillimhe ) was from August 1651 to May 1652 during the reconquest of Ireland ( 1649-1653 ) by the British initially under Oliver Cromwell instead. Galway, a port city in western Ireland, was the last city that was controlled by Irish troops. The fall of the city ended the controlled opposition to the parliamentary troops.

The Parliamentary army was commanded by Charles Coote, an English settler who had already performed during the Irish Konföderationskriege troops in Ulster. He had a strength of 6000-7000 men. The Irish in Galway garrison was under the command of Thomas Preston and was a "collection " of various military units from around the country, particularly troops who arrived after the loss of the city of Waterford to Galway.

Galway was saved in the 1640s by modern defenses and Galway Bay and Lough Corrib and the Atallia attackers made ​​it difficult to attack the city. Only a small area in the north provided the opportunity for a frontal attack that could be taken lightly, however, from the city on fire. Coote was aware of this, and so he decided in August 1651 to besiege the city. He blocked the land route and a parliamentary fleet stationed in Galway Bay, to prevent resupply or reinforcements by sea. In the West, the city remained open, where the Irish General Richard Farrell was stationed 3,000 troops in Connemara.

In November 1651, after the fall of Limerick, Galway conquering the task of Henry Ireton, the commander of the parliamentary forces in Ireland. He sent more troops to Galway and reinforced the blockade. But only after a further seven months the city surrendered.

Ulick Burke, at that time supreme commander of the Irish troops, still trying at Jamestown ( County Leitrim ) to organize an army to break the siege, but few troops followed his call. In March 1652, the surrender negotiations, which Thomas Preston had to agree on 12 May 1652 as food shortages and an outbreak of bubonic plague made ​​another defense impossible began. Also Coote agreed and so Preston could leave with a majority of his troops Ireland to enter the Spanish army. There were no atrocities against the civilian population as well as the private property was respected - with the exception of the Catholic merchants, who were known as the tribes of Galway and were expropriated.