Kinsale

That value was proved in 1601, when the last of the Spanish armadas sent against England landed at Kinsale to join the Irish rebels. An English army besieged the Spaniards in the town, and when Hugh O'Neill and Red Hugh O'Donnell marched the length of Ireland to relieve them, their army was broken outside the walls in the decisive battle of the Nine Years' War. James's Fort went up over the harbour soon after, and Charles Fort, built in 1677, guarded the entrance across from it. From then on the port served other people's wars. In 1649 Prince Rupert proclaimed Charles II king at St Multose's Church, in 1689 James II landed here with troops raised with French support, and from 1694 the Royal Navy victualled its ships at Kinsale, until it moved that work to Cork harbour in 1805 and the town's naval days were over.