Battle of Benburb Monro's force was weakened by the necessity of sending troops to Scotland to withstand Montrose. Meanwhile, Owen Roe O'Neill was strengthened by receiving supplies from the Papal Nuncio to Ireland, Giovanni Battista Rinuccini. On 5 June 1646 the Battle of Benburb was fought, on the Blackwater, where O'Neill routed Monro, inflicting over 2000 dead on the Scottish force but allowing him to withdraw in safety to Carrickfergus. Conflict at Carrickfergus In 1647 Ormonde was compelled to come to terms with the English parliament, which sent commissioners to Dublin in June of that year. Monro supported the royalist "Engager" movement and sent men under the command of his nephew George Munro, 1st of Newmore back to Scotland to support the Engagers against the English Parliamentarians. Meanwhile, the Scots under Monro held out stubbornly at Carrickfergus and refused to surrender Carrickfergus Castle and Belfast. They were besieged by the forces of George Monck. In September 1648 Carrickfergus was delivered over to Monck by treachery: a number of Monro's officers were divided and some aided the parliamentary commander Monck, and as a result, Monro was taken prisoner. He was committed to the Tower of London, where he remained a prisoner for five years. In 1654 he was permitted by Oliver Cromwell to reside in Ireland, where he had estates in right of his wife, who was the widow of Hugh Montgomery, 2nd Viscount Montgomery of Ardes. Monro continued to live quietly near Comber, County Down, for many years, and probably died there about 1680. Family Robert Monro married after 1642 Lady Jean Alexander, daughter of William Alexander, 1st Earl of Stirling and Janet Erskine, and widow of Viscount Montgomery. He is known to have at least two children: Andrew Monroe, a colonel who was killed at the Siege of Limerick (1690). Ann Monro, who married her cousin, George Munro, 1st of Newmore. See also A Legend of Montrose, 19th-century novel by Walter Scott in which one character, Dugald Dalgetty, is partly based upon Monro "The Battle of Benburb", an Irish ballad about Monro's 1646 defeat to Owen Roe O'Neill References Citations Bibliography ; Endnotes: Carte, Thomas. (1851). History of the Life of James, Duke of Ormonde, (6 vols., Oxford). Gilbert, Sir J. T. (1879–1880). Contemporary History of Affairs in Ireland 1641–1652, (3 vols., Dublin). Gilbert, Sir J. T. (1882–1891). History of the Irish Confederation and the War in Ireland, (7