Essex marched west to Limerick city, where he was well received on 4 June. At this point the army was joined by a large train of baggage porters, which outnumbered the fighting men two-to-one and remained a drain on resources throughout the campaign. At Askeaton (centre of resistance to the crown in the Desmond rebellion 15 years earlier) the army was revictualled after an encounter at Adare with the Sugán Earl, a pretender to the Earldom of Desmond who had shown himself with 2-3,000 men.