with up to seventy men killed and three of the five companies' colours captured. O'Donnell's rearguard for some reason arrived late to the battle and was not engaged and seeing the rout of O'Neill retired back the way he had come. With his decision to retreat from Ardmartin, O'Neill turned the initiative over to the English. and although he retreated in good order his troops were not adequately trained or disciplined to stand in Tercio formation and absorb punishment as was that formations design. Most of the Irish fled back to Ulster, though a few remained to continue the war with O'Sullivan Beare and Dermot Maol MacCarthy Reagh. Surrender The English resumed their encirclement of Kinsale, Del Águila saw his position as hopeless without effective action from the Irish lords. The Spanish, who had lost many men in the siege, gave up the town to Mountjoy "on Terms" and were allowed to sail back to Spain, not knowing that another Spanish force had been sent and was within a few days of arriving. The Spanish were given honourable terms and surrendered Kinsale with their colours flying, and it was agreed that they were to be conveyed back to Spain on giving up their other garrisons of Dunboy, Baltimore, and Castlehaven. The further Spanish force which had been sent never landed; on receipt of news of Águila's surrender, they promptly turned back to Spain. Aftermath The Irish lighter horse were not suited to shock action and were no match for the English horse as decimated as they were still had the advantage in horseflesh, tactics, discipline and offensive arms. It also showed the strength of the English cavalry techniques using the lance, as compared with the Irish method of no stirrup and overhead spear throwing. The resulting tactics showed that the Irish infantry were poorly trained for pitched battle in formation against a well-drilled professional army and for years the English had been praying for a chance to get the Irish on a broad open field. The result that the English were easily able to defeat and rout three times their number showed the weakness of the Irish forces in a conventional battle. This loss put an end to Spanish help in Ireland and to much of the Irish resistance. The Ulster forces returned to their home province, and after two more years of attrition, the last of them surrendered in