Ireland under the Tudors, with a Succinct Account of the Earlier History. Vol. 2 (of 3)

Sir John Perrott, of an ancient Pembrokeshire family, but supposed by some to be a son of Henry VIII., was the person selected for the task of reducing Munster. He had been made a Knight of the Bath along with Ormonde at Edward VI.’s coronation, had served at St. Quentin, and in 1560 had again been the Earl’s companion in the tilt at Greenwich, where, in presence of the French ambassador, he maintained Elizabeth’s quarrel against all comers. In running a course with Mr. Cornwallis both riders lost their tempers and fell to tilting in the Queen’s presence with sharp lances and without armour – a pastime which she soon put a stop to. The story is characteristic of the gallant but imprudent man who played so great a part in Irish history. His taste and magnificence, perhaps his extravagance, may be guessed from his additions to Carew Castle – a manor which had been granted to him by Mary in spite of his Protestantism and of his refusal to persecute other Protestants. Ormonde now declared that his old comrade should be Lord President even against his will, and to judge by the delay he was neither anxious for the honour nor in a hurry to begin the work.[186 - Naunton’s Fragmenta Regalia; Perrott’s Life; Ormonde to Cecil March 5, 1570.]

Perrott’s instructions

The salary of the Lord President was fixed at 133l. 6s. 8d., as in the case of Connaught, and he was allowed thirty horse and twenty foot in the Queen’s pay. The first Chief Justice, with a salary of 100l., was James Dowdall, afterwards Chief Justice of the Queen’s Bench. Nicholas Walshe, afterwards Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, was second justice, with a salary of 100 marks. Thomas Burgate was the first Clerk of the Council, which originally consisted of the Archbishops and Bishops of Munster and of the Earls of Ormonde, Thomond, and Clancare, power being reserved to the Lord Deputy to appoint additional councillors at his pleasure. The Council had all the judicial authority of a Court of Assize. The Lord President was not to be out of his province for more than six days without the Deputy’s license; but special leave was given to Sir John Perrott to visit his estate in Pembrokeshire and to return within one month. The liberties of Tipperary were not to be needlessly infringed, but those of Kerry were declared to be null and void. The Lord President and Council were to assist all officers, civil and ecclesiastical, to maintain their proper authority, and the following curious provision was made in furtherance of religion as by law established: —

‘The said Lord President shall have and retain one chaplain or minister that shall and can preach and read the Homilies; who shall be allowed his diets in the household of the said Lord President, and shall receive the entertainment of one of the house assigned to the President; to whom the Lord President shall cause due reverence to be given, in respect of the office that he shall have for the service of God.’

The Lord Deputy and Council were generally charged to look after all the rights of the Crown in Munster, but were not to infringe the liberty of the subject by quartering unnecessary men on the country, the Lord Deputy and Council being the judges of what were cases of necessity.[187 - Formular of Instructions, &c., in Sidney Papers, Dec. 14, 1570; Morrin’s Patent Rolls, i. 546.]

Sidney goes to England. Sir W. Fitzwilliam is Lord Justice

How much Sidney hated the Irish service may be learned from his letters, almost every one of which contains a prayer for recall. Yet Fitzwilliam, the second string to the English bow in Ireland, hinted that he was unwilling to retire. Fitzwilliam always declared himself loth to accept the high but thankless office, but both these able men may have been more attached to power than they would confess to themselves or to their friends. The establishment of presidencies had been Sidney’s great panacea, and he waited only till Munster as well as Connaught was provided for. In the meantime he made arrangements for Northern affairs, which under the presidency system were to be peculiarly the care of the Lord Deputy. Tirlogh Luineach entered into a treaty of peace with all the Queen’s subjects to be inviolably observed until the Queen’s further pleasure should be known. Tirlogh Luineach claimed Maguire and MacMahon as his ‘urraghs’; but this the Lord Deputy refused, agreeing, however, to give them the temporary benefit of the peace. Tirlogh Luineach’s wife was a party to this treaty, who informed Morton that she was the real author of it, and begged him to support her husband’s messenger at the English Court. The Scots were thus held in check for the time, and Sidney further secured the Pale by an agreement with the O’Farrells, whereby they covenanted to surrender all their lands and receive them back from the Queen, to pay a quit rent, to attend hostings, and to have their whole district treated as shire ground, paying the subsidy of 13s. 4d. for each plough land. O’Farrell Bane, the principal chief, is described as of that ‘place called Pallas in the county of Longford,’ where Oliver Goldsmith was born.

Arrangements for the surrender of their lands and for taking them back by grant were also made with MacBrien Arra in Tipperary, and with the Kavanaghs; and Sidney, having installed Perrott in his Presidency, and thus provided both a scourge for the rebels and a counterpoise for Ormonde, sailed for England, and left the government in the hands of Sir William Fitzwilliam.[188 - Treaty with Tirlogh Luineach O’Neill, March 3, 1571; with O’Farrell, Feb. 11; Agnes Campbell (O’Neill) to the Earl of Morton, March 17; O’Donovan’s notes to the Four Masters, 1570 and 1571; Fitzwilliam to Cecil, Feb. 5 and 11, 1571. Perrott landed at Waterford, Feb. 27.]

Fitton cannot govern Connaught

While Ormonde was reducing the rebellious O’Briens, Lord President Fitton was practically shut up in Galway, and Sidney sent a force under Basnet and Collyer to relieve him. With their help and with that of Clanricarde he was able to besiege Shrule Castle, the key of Lower Connaught; but Shane MacOliver Burke, claiming to be MacWilliam Iochtar, collected the youth of Mayo and Connemara, and attacked Fitton’s camp with great determination. He had also some Scots mercenaries. ‘They resolved that if the son or kinsman of one of them should be slain, they would not stop with him, but pass over him at once.’ The President’s Irish and Scotch auxiliaries were driven in, and the Burkes chased them for two miles, when the English cavalry, who had remained in reserve, turned the tide by charging them in the rear. Both sides claimed a victory, but the success was Fitton’s. The Burkes retired, and the castle which they had come to relieve was at once taken.

A chieftain’s dilemma

Though badly supported by his followers, Clanricarde did excellent service on this occasion, but Sidney was unable to feed or arm a large force, and the victory could not be practically followed up. Fitton could do nothing without English soldiers, and they could not be maintained without cessing the country. The people hardly knew how to choose between imposts in the Queen’s name and the exactions of their own chiefs. A poor woman complained to Shane MacOliver of the intolerable burden of his Scots mercenaries, whereupon ‘he fell into a study, and after some pause said openly, "I am in a miserable case. If we stand out altogether and maintain Scots for our defence, I see the destruction of the country; again, if I shall take upon me the name of MacWilliam, I shall be driven for maintenance thereof to spoil it myself, and if we shall submit ourselves to the English nation, they will be as burdensome as either MacWilliam or Scots. God give me grace to do the likest."’[189 - Sidney to the Privy Council, June 24, 1570; Fitton to Cecil, August 27. Four Masters, 1570.]

It is doubtful whether English law or Irish custom is best

Fitton says Shane MacOliver’s speech grieved him to the heart, for he could not deny its truth, and yet he thought the presence of the soldiers was of some use in keeping the peace. The country was as safe to travel, he said, as the English Pale, but ‘I and my men also live most part without any money, and they almost without clothes for lack of money.’ Peace was maintained on very precarious terms. O’Connor Don lay in Athlone Castle as security for all his clan, but some of his friends brought one of the light Shannon boats or ‘cots’ under the walls, into which he stepped and bid farewell to his host. Fitton sallied forth next day, took and garrisoned his chief castle of Ballintober, and declared that that stronghold, along with Shrule and Longford, would have to be always held. O’Connor Don and MacDermot and all the gentlemen of Mayo were indicted, with the view of entitling the Queen to the northern half of Connaught; and Clanricarde’s sons were indicted also. But the O’Connors, having got their chief out of prison, cared nothing for the lawyers, and ranged the country at will. Their men, who between Scots and natives were not less than 1,000, never showed themselves except when numerically superior. Mr. Moore, lieutenant to Captain Maltby, was wounded in a skirmish, and sixty-four of his troopers deserted; very naturally, considering the way in which they were treated. They seem to have made their way to Dublin, where Fitzwilliam punished a few, and persuaded the rest to return. In surrendering the sword, Sidney had not the satisfaction of seeing his favourite project of presidencies entirely successful.[190 - Fitton to Cecil, Feb. 8 and Feb. 19, 1571; to the Lord Deputy, March 9 and 11; Fitzwilliam to the Queen, April 7.]

Tremayne’s report on Ireland

Among countless reports on the state of Ireland, one by Edmund Tremayne, who had been acting as Sidney’s secretary, deserves particular notice. In general, he says, the people had no conscience, but committed crimes freely; and they had so little morality that they even changed wives among themselves. Bridges were falling down, churches were roofless, and no new charities had replaced the old monastic ones. Good schools there were none, for no teacher could be sure of being paid. In the law everything was jobbed by certain families, and even the judicial bench was filled with unlearned men. Bills were therefore badly drafted, justice was thwarted, and there was general hostility to reform. Bad in Dublin, matters were worse in the country, where courts of quarter sessions, courts leet, and courts baron existed only in theory. Every lord hated the restraints of law, and made himself an Irish chief. English officials were no better, and there was little apparent difference between a seneschal and a native captain, disorders being as great among English soldiers as among Irish kernes and gallowglasses. All Englishmen made parties among the Irish, and everything tended to go daily from bad to worse. ‘An excellent, unspotted character,’ said Archbishop Loftus, ‘is a rare thing in this realm.’[191 - Causes why Ireland is not Reformed, by E. Tremayne, June 1571; Loftus to Burghley, July 8.]

Ormonde in Kerry. Kilmallock an abode of wolves

While Perrott was preparing to enter upon his long and arduous career of Irish service Ormonde made a winter journey into Kerry, where there were rumours of a French descent. About the time of the Lord President’s landing Fitzmaurice, who had been lurking about Tipperary with less than 120 ‘naked villains afoot,’ suddenly appeared at the head of a considerable but almost unarmed force, surprised and burned Kilmallock. Again there was suspicion of collusion, for he only killed two of the townsmen, and against those two he had a personal grudge. But the native annalists say the plunder was great, and they speak in a way which shows how insecure was Irish life. Plate, they state, was taken, ‘and jewels which the father would not have acknowledged to his heir or the mother to her daughter on the day before.’ The same writer says that Kilmallock became an abode of wolves, and Perrott advised that the Queen should give 200l. to induce the miserable people to return.

The Butlers again do good service

Ormonde might have saved the town but for Sir Thomas Roe Fitzgerald, who sent him word to guard Dungarvan and Youghal. Considering what afterwards happened to Youghal, the advice of Sir Thomas may have been honest enough, and Fitzmaurice was not likely to make him his confidant; but Ormonde could think of nothing but treason in any member of the rival House. Later on, when Fitzmaurice had killed four of Sir Thomas’s men, the Earl was more inclined to blame his ally for folly than for infidelity; in any case, he pronounced him useless. He inspected the walls of Youghal and found them weak defences, the circuit being too great to be held by less than 300 men, and the townsmen too poor to support such a garrison. He left them the few men they asked for, and made arrangements for mounting what guns they had, but complained that they were too careless of their own security. Kilmallock deserved to be punished for its negligence or worse; but Edward Butler recovered great part of the cattle, and, eager to earn his pardon, pursued Fitzmaurice, and ‘killed one of his dear foster brethren.’ Ormonde himself travelled on foot all over the Aherlow forest, but none of the rebels would even skirmish, and it was evident that Munster could only be reduced by the steady pressure of a regular force. Believing that Sidney would lay the blame for the loss of Kilmallock on him, Ormonde drew the attention of the Home Government to the fact that he had relieved Youghal, and was holding castles in Thomond and elsewhere for the Queen at his own expense, that he had neither English soldiers nor provisions allowed him, and that his own country was defenceless while he was occupied in the public service.[192 - Ormonde to Burghley, with enclosures, June 18, 1571; to the Lord Deputy, March 3 and 18; Fitzwilliam to Burghley, March 15; Ormonde to Cecil, Dec. 7, 1570 and Feb. 27, 1571; to Fitzwilliam, May 1. Four Masters, 1571.]

Perrott’s first campaigns. Great hardships

Having taken the oath before Sidney in Dublin, Perrott went to Cork, where he found himself at the head of about 700 men, 200 of which were Irish. From Cork he went to Kilmallock, where he lodged in a half-burned house, and issued a proclamation to the townsmen to return and repair their walls and buildings, which in course of time they did. He then pursued the rebels, whom he came up with at Knocklong. The Irish fled into the bogs, whither Perrott’s soldiers followed them barefooted, carrying light cavalry lances instead of pikes. They returned with a trophy of fifty heads, with which the Lord President decorated the market-cross at Kilmallock for the edification of those citizens of Limerick who had complained of losing their goods. Lord Roche’s cattle were restored to him, and Perrott, having made Kilmallock defensible, marched towards Limerick. A castle belonging to the Burkes of Clanwilliam blocked his way, but part of the wall fell after three hours’ mining, and the chief’s wife then surrendered. Thomond, O’Shaughnessy, and Sir Thomas of Desmond came to him at Limerick, and he then went to Cashel. His march was again impeded by a castle, which he took ‘by shooting of fire up into the top, which was covered with thatch.’ The blaze and the noise of the falling roof frightened his picketed horses – he had about 200 mounted men – who broke loose and ran off into the woods, where they were caught by the rebels, and in some cases not recovered. At Cashel he hanged seven Gray merchants for supplying the enemy with provisions, the chief magistrate of the town hardly escaping the same fate. From Cashel he went by Fethard and Clonmel to Ormonde’s house at Carrick, and thence by Lismore to Cork, taking the strong castle of Mocollop on the way. At Cork the President was attended by Clancare and Thomond, who had now made up their minds as to which was the strongest side, by Lords Barry, Roche, and Courcy, and by MacCarthy Reagh and Sir Cormac MacTeige. The White Knight’s country was again invaded, his castles taken, and himself driven into the woods. The Glen of Aherlow was then entered without much result, and after a few days’ rest at Cork Perrott marched against the MacSwineys. The style of warfare may be gathered from his biographer’s words. ‘He slew many of the rebels, and hanged as many as he might take, whom the Marshal executed always as he went along; so that they took a great prey, spoiled all the enemy’s country, and with continual travel wore out all their provisions, having no corn in the country left to make their bread, which the President himself wanted for divers days, their chief sustenance being the milk of those kine that they had taken.’

Perrott’s personal behaviour

The hardships of such warfare must have been very great, Ormonde recommending Captain Warde and his men to special consideration for doing such winter service as was never done by soldiers; service from which they returned bare-footed and bare-bodied. Their sad plight grieved him to the heart, but he could do nothing for them. The Lord President did not spare himself. On one occasion his foot hurt him as he was struggling through a bog in pursuit of the rebels. ‘My Lord,’ said an officer, ‘you have lost your shoe.’ ‘It matters not,’ said Perrott, ‘as long as the legs last we shall find shoes’; and he called for another pair, and trudged on again. Another day some gallowglasses roasted a hog whole with the hair on, ‘and in great kindness did reach a piece of it to one of the Lord President’s servants, being a gentleman of good sort, and a justice of the peace in his county.’ Perrott made a jocular remark about the quality of the meat. ‘An’ it please you, sir,’ said the other, ‘it is good meat here among these men, but if it were at home I would scarce give it to my dogs.’[193 - Perrott’s Life. N. White to Burghley, April 9 and May 15. These operations were in April and May, 1571.]

Fitzmaurice still holds out

Want of provisions was the great difficulty: all peaceable men having been robbed of their cows and horses. The MacSheehy and MacSwiney kerne swarmed everywhere, and just as Fitzmaurice appeared to be at his last gasp, he managed suddenly to collect a strong force of these idlemen, obliging the Geraldines to provide for their maintenance. Many of the native lords sympathised with him, being afraid of losing their captainries, and they gave him information. Perrott was never strong enough to divide his own force, and his light-heeled adversary roamed at will from Aherlow to Castlemaine, and from Glenflesk to Baltimore. No one was safe for a moment. Thus Miler Magrath, the Queen’s Archbishop of Cashel, having ventured to arrest two friars for preaching against the Queen’s policy, Fitzmaurice ordered their release. The poor friars, he said, preached the Word of God to people blinded with ignorance for years for want of good pastors, and the light of salvation, by reason of long obscurity, was much needed in Ireland. If they were not released all houses and buildings belonging to the Archbishop should be burned to ashes. The letter which contained this wise and sober advice, as the Geraldine leader called it, finished with an invocation of the Blessed Virgin, and there could be no doubt about the danger of the Church as established by law. Edward Butler rescued the friars to show his power, and perhaps to establish communications with the Archbishop, and then offered to pursue Fitzmaurice with all his might upon condition of pardon. Magrath and the Dublin officials advised that, though Butler deserved ten deaths, it would nevertheless be better to accept his offer.[194 - Fitzwilliam and Weston to the Queen, with enclosures, July 31.]

Perrott fails to take Castlemaine. An English captain surprised

To the possession of Castlemaine Perrott attached great importance, and extensive preparations were made for besieging it. The cannon were delayed by storms on their passage from Limerick. The castle, which stood on arches in the water, proved stronger than was supposed, and all the powder was expended without making a breach; there were at the time only three cwt. in Dublin. In want of almost every requisite for successful war, Perrott withdrew his famished army after a siege of five weeks. On returning to Cork he found that Fitzmaurice had not been idle in his absence. Captain John Morgan, who was to have co-operated with the President by sea, seeing the rebels driving cattle along the shores of Cork harbour, landed and rescued them, and followed the foragers till they reached their supports. Seeing the English sailors, whose behaviour, as Ormonde said, was more like that of ignorant beasts than of trained soldiers, at a safe distance from their boats, Fitzmaurice attacked them vigorously, drove them into a ruined church, and overwhelmed them with showers of stones. Thirty-three were thus ignobly slain; only two prisoners were taken, and these were sent back. In consequence of this disaster, the ships which should have supplied the besiegers of Castlemaine lay idly at anchor.[195 - Ormonde to Burghley, June 27, 1571; Brief of Expenses, Sept. 7; Fitzwilliam to Burghley, July 31. The siege of Castlemaine lasted from June 21 to July 27. To judge from slight remains, this renowned stronghold must have been small: probably, as in many other cases, the garrison ordinarily lived in thatched houses on the mainland.]

CHAPTER XXVIII.

FOREIGN INTRIGUES

Fitzmaurice wishes to make it a religious war

No doubt Fitzmaurice was encouraged in his seemingly desperate task by the hope of succour from France or Spain. The fear of losing their lands bound the Irish chiefs and nobles together, but that would not weigh one grain with any foreign potentate. The chiefs were doubtless with few exceptions Catholics, but that alone would not have tempted them to incur the penalties of treason any more than it tempted Protestants like Cecil or Perrott to conspire against Queen Mary. Sir Edmund Butler fought against Sir Peter Carew, but not against the Queen. The Desmonds and their allies fought against the St. Legers and Grenvilles and against their hereditary foes of the House of Ormonde. The O’Neills feared schemes of colonisation: if the Queen would let them alone they asked for no other sovereign. Purely Irish interests were sure to be sacrificed by France, Spain, and Rome; but Catholicism was an inheritance in which they all shared.

Catholics at Louvain

Fitzmaurice therefore lost no opportunity of giving the struggle a religious character, and there were plenty of abuses in Ireland calculated to scandalise the devout as well as to give a handle to those who were actuated only by worldly motives. Irish priests at Louvain, often men of honesty and virtue, took care to tell English travellers that the Lord Deputy had one archbishopric and two bishoprics in farm, Cashel for 40l., the others for less; that the revenues of one see supported the grand falconer, and those of another the clerk of the kitchen – ‘sufficient parsons no doubt to have such cure of Irish souls as the English doctrine will permit them to have at this day.’ The deanery of St. Patrick’s was appropriated to the support of the Great Seal, much to the disgust of the Chancellor Weston, a pious and conscientious man, who saw the abuse clearly enough. The parsonage of Dungarvan was assigned for the maintenance of the Lord President. Laymen were appointed to ecclesiastical dignities. English Jesuits who found their way to Ireland could report these things on the Continent, adding that Sidney’s gentleness did their cause more harm than any severity could have done.[196 - Sir Francis Englefield to Dorothy Devereux, Domestic Calendar, April 19, 1570; same to the Duchess of Feria, ib., April 20. Roger Hooker, a layman, was Dean of Leighlin in 1580, and probably for some time before: this was a strange experience for the father of Richard Hooker.]

Foreign rumours

Fitzmaurice was a sincere enthusiast, and no doubt he thought that the Queen’s misdeeds and excommunication would bring about a crusade; but the days of Boniface were past, and little help was vouchsafed, though rumours filled the air. A messenger from Spain touched at Cork Beg at the mouth of Cork Harbour, where he left news for the seneschal, and then went on to join Fitzmaurice in the Aherlow woods. He reported that a great fleet was coming to Dingle. Some ships from Brest and Morlaix did visit that secluded haven, but only to carry off Fitzmaurice’s son, who set quietly to work to seek recruits in Brittany. About thirty years before Peter Strozzi had proposed to make a Calais on some Irish island; this plan was now revived, but probably Delacroix reported against it.

A suspicious Spaniard

There was much trade between Spain and the west of Munster, the foreigners carrying away fish, beef, hides, and tallow in exchange for wine and sometimes for arms. Don Juan de Mendoza came in a ship belonging to John Hawkins, and by his charming manner at first disarmed Sidney’s suspicion; but a penniless Italian adventurer – a Lucchese named Josefo – informed him that the Biscayan hidalgo had been sent by Alva to excite an insurrection in Ireland. Josefo managed to get hold of the Spaniard’s letters, but the packet was so sealed as to defy tampering. The Italian, who was known for his attachment to the Queen of Scots, and who was perhaps a double traitor, offered to go to Alva for the purpose of getting information. Sidney, at Mendoza’s request, licensed Josefo to go to France. His route necessarily lay through England, and the Lord Deputy sent Cecil word that he might waylay him there and detain him or not as he thought fit. Fitzwilliam, more cautious than Sidney, objected to any foreigner becoming acquainted with Ireland as Mendoza had done; and in this he was probably right. The Spaniard protested his innocence, and affected to be aggrieved by a detention of eighteen months, while speaking in high terms of Sidney’s and of Gilbert’s courtesy. Yet Fitzwilliam’s caution was evidently more to Burghley’s taste, for three German counts who had a mind to visit Ireland a year or two later received introductions accompanied by secret instructions to show them nothing which could decently be concealed.[197 - John Corbine to Cecil, March 2, 1569; Sidney to Cecil, April 18, 1570; Fitzwilliam to Burghley, April 7 and May 7, 1571.]

Archbishop Fitzgibbon on the Continent, 1571

Foreign powers, however, were not likely to want information, for Fitzmaurice sent Maurice Reagh Fitzgibbon, the papal Archbishop of Cashel, to Philip. Fitzgibbon went from Spain to Bordeaux, where the Bishop presented him with a good horse to ride during his stay. He told certain Youghal merchants that he was come to seek help from the French King, and was allowed openly to rig ships and to press men. The Guises sent emissaries to keep Ireland disturbed, and the appearance of a fleet under the Duke of Medina Celi was the appointed signal for a general rising. A combined invasion by French and Spaniards was looked for daily, and one of Burghley’s spies, a Catholic by birth and in constant communication with the Bishop of Ross, obtained accurate information as to the hopes of the papal party in Ireland.

Irish Catholics

The gentry of the Pale and of the greater part of Leinster were Catholics at heart, looking for an opportunity to throw off the mask. In Ulster all were ardent Catholics, banded together under the influence of the Jesuit David Wolfe, whose orders, issued from his prison in Dublin Castle, were generally obeyed. All Connaught was anti-English. In the Desmond half of Munster all were Catholics and confederates, who expected a large army from Spain and France, in which latter country Thomond had sowed good seed. Ormonde, indeed, was unnaturally loyal, but that was the only dark spot. The Ulster, Connaught, and Munster bishops were Catholics; those of Leinster only Protestant. The Northern clergy looked to Raymond O’Gallagher, Bishop of Derry, who had lately returned from Rome with a large budget of orders; the Southern waited on the word of Maurice Reagh Fitzgibbon, who was already in Spanish pay, and who was the head and front of the whole conspiracy.[198 - John Corbine to Cecil, March 21, 1569; Sidney to Cecil, April 18, 1570; Mendoza to Cecil, Nov. 9; Norris to the Queen, Foreign Calendar, Jan. 3, 1571; Viscount Decies to Fitzwilliam, March 28. Note by William Herlle, April. For an account of the spy Herlle, see Froude, chap. xxi.]

Fitzgibbon’s account of Catholic Ireland

The case of the Catholic confederates can best be told in Fitzgibbon’s own words. In recommending his suit to Philip and to the Pope, he recited the fidelity of Ireland to the Holy See during the 1,127 years which had elapsed since the time of St. Patrick and Pope Celestine, and then continued: —

‘Notwithstanding that for fifty years they have been very often sorely provoked, molested, and afflicted by divers schisms, errors, and heresies of the unstable and restless sect and nation of the kingdom of England, yet has God’s clemency preserved all your people firm and steadfast in their accustomed Catholic faith, obedience, and devotion, and has inspired them not to acquiesce in the errors propounded to them.

‘Your Holiness and your Catholic Majesty must know that all the nobility and the entire people of that kingdom wish to walk as usual in the footsteps of their forefathers, and to remain firm, steadfast, and constant in the same faith and unity of the Catholic Church, and to persevere to the death in perpetual obedience and devotion to the supreme Pontiffs and to the Apostolic See. They hate and abhor sects and heresies so much, that they prefer to leave their homes and go abroad rather than to live under heretics, or to acquiesce in the errors and restlessness of the English, who, in the last schism under Henry VIII. and Edward VI., plundered and devastated the churches and monasteries of Ireland, proscribed and afflicted Catholic bishops and religious persons, and threw the whole population into the greatest confusion. This Queen Elizabeth has revived the tragedy, and has imprisoned the chief bishops and other religious persons of the kingdom for their perseverance in the faith and their Catholic obedience, and throughout the whole island has executed the policy of her father and brother with the greatest determination and vigour, sending new preachers and heretical bishops with great store of heretical books to be circulated among the people. Wherefore the people of that kingdom with all humility pray God without ceasing that He will pity their calamities and end their afflictions, and that He will condescend so to inspire the minds of his Holiness and of the most clement Catholic King, that they may be pleased to make it their immediate care that that people, devoted as it is to God, to his Holiness, and to his Catholic Majesty, shall not be contaminated and destroyed by the accursed and contagious heresy which flourishes in England.

‘Your Holiness and your Catholic Majesty must know that it has long been, and now is, the highest desire of the nobility and all the people of that kingdom to come absolutely under the patronage and protection of his Holiness, and of the most clement and Catholic King of Spain, to whom all men of position and property in that island look directly for the means of avoiding the affliction and danger of the heresy and schism in the ever-changing kingdom of England. They have, therefore, deliberately resolved, with God’s help and the favour of the most clement Catholic King, to accept the person of any active Catholic Prince of his Catholic Majesty’s blood, whether of the Spanish or Burgundian branch, specially appointed by him for the purpose, and to receive him and crown him as their true, legitimate, and natural King, and thus to re-establish in perpetuity the royal throne of that island,[199 - ‘Istius insulæ rursum erigere et stabilire regale solium.’] and to venerate the presence of one King, one faith, and one kingdom, the donation of that island having been first obtained from and confirmed by the Apostolic See. Thus they hope to remain henceforth for ever in their accustomed obedience and devotion to the supreme Pontiff, and in union with the Holy Catholic Mother Church of Christ, and in their pristine friendship and alliance with the Royal House of Spain, from which nation the whole nobility of that kingdom derived its origin.

‘Not without cause do all the states of that island most strongly desire this, since that kingdom in extent, in its temperate climate, in its fertility, and in its wealth, might well vie with the kingdom of England, if only it were ruled justly and piously by a religious resident Catholic Prince or royal head. They all in general detest the tyrannous and inconstant yoke of the English State, and still more its heresies, with which they desire to have nothing in common, except neighbourliness and Christian love.

‘Underwritten are the names of those prelates, chiefs, barons, and nobles who are thus well-disposed towards the Holy Apostolic See, and that most potent prince the Lord Philip, King of all the Spains.’ Then follows a list of all the nobles, prelates, chiefs, and towns in Ireland who were prepared to promote Spanish interests in their country, ‘together with those of many English residents in the island.’ The Archbishop urged Philip to seize at once all Irish forts and harbours, a proceeding which the English were in no condition to prevent. ‘Success,’ he said, ‘altogether depends on celerity, for your Majesty will be able to do with 10,000 men and a little expense what you will not afterwards be able to accomplish with 100,000 men and all available power.’ We know from other sources how weak the English Government was at this time, and how difficult it would have been to dislodge even 5,000 Spaniards; but to ask Philip to do anything quickly was as vain as speaking to the winds or writing upon the running water.[200 - Statement presented to the King of Spain by the Archbishop of Cashel, on the part of the Irish Catholics, Spicilegium Ossoriense, i. 59.]

Fitzgibbon too sanguine. Philip II. hesitates