Ireland under the Tudors. Volume 3 (of 3)

Sir John Norris retires to Munster, and dies there

The death of Lord Burgh was a serious loss to the Queen’s service, and it did not come single. Sir John Norris retired to his province of Munster after conferring with the Lord Deputy, but there is nothing in his letters to show that the latter dismissed him in an unfriendly way. There was not much love lost between them, perhaps, but there is no evidence of anything more than this. Norris went to Waterford and Limerick, though every movement hurt him, and he reported that Munster was in a very poor state of defence. The Queen would not give the necessary funds, and the inhabitants of the town would do very little for themselves. But there was no immediate danger of a Spanish invasion, and he begged leave to recruit his health. Afterwards he could return to his post, and he was ready to remain at all risks if he could do any good. Tyrone wrote to him, but he sent the letter unopened to Burgh, apologising even for saving time by occasionally communicating directly with the English Government. He advised that the rebel should be well pressed during the summer, in which case many would leave him. ‘I am not envious,’ he said, ‘though others shall reap the fruits of my travail, an ordinary fortune of mine.’ To curry favour with Essex some insinuated that the President was shamming illness to get out of Ireland, but the event proved that his complaints were genuine. Old wounds neglected or unskilfully treated ended in gangrene, and he died at Mallow, in the arms of his brother Thomas. The most absurd fables were told about his last hours, and an historian gravely relates that the enemy of mankind, black and dressed in black, appeared to him while playing cards, reminded him of an old bargain, and claimed his soul then and there. ‘We may judge,’ adds this credulous writer, ‘how much God helped O’Neill, who had not only often beaten Norris, the best of English generals, in battle, but also vanquished the devil himself, who is believed to have helped him according to contract.’ The body was embalmed and taken to England, and Elizabeth wrote a beautiful letter of condolence to Lady Norris, in which she charged her to bear up for her husband’s sake, reminding her that her own loss as Queen was scarcely less grievous or less bitter than a mother’s.[276 - Sir John Norris to the Privy Council and to Cecil, June 10, 1597; to Burghley, June 2; to Cecil, July 20; O’Sullivan Bere, tom. iii. lib. iii. cap. 10. The Queen’s letter of Sept. 22 to Lady Norris, which begins ‘My own crow,’ has been printed by Fuller, Lloyd, and others. Norris died before Sept. 9, on which day the Presidency of Munster was placed in commission. In an undated letter at Hatfield, which evidently belongs to the early part of 1597, Norris begs leave for ‘this spring’ before it is too late. His lungs were affected, besides the trouble from his wounded leg.]

Consequences of Burgh’s death

Belfast in 1597

A vacancy in the chief governorship of Ireland was always a cause of weakness, and often of disaster. Discipline was relaxed, and enemies of the Government knew how to take their advantage. At Carrickfergus, which was an exposed place, there had lately been many bickerings among the authorities; insomuch that Captain Rice Maunsell, who commanded the troops, imprisoned Charles Egerton, who was constable of the castle. One consequence was that Belfast fell into the hands of Shane MacBrian O’Neill, who hanged and disembowelled every Englishman found therein. Sir John Chichester, a younger brother of the more famous Sir Arthur, was then appointed to the military command, and his first essay was most successful. ‘Belfast,’ he says, ‘is a place which standeth eight miles from Carrickfergus, and on the river, where the sea ebbs and flows, so that boats may be landed within a butte (musket) shot of the said castle; for the recovery whereof I made choice that it should be one of my first works; and on the eleventh day of July following attempted the same with some hundred men, which I transported thither in boats by sea; and indeed our coming was so unlooked for by them as it asked us no long time before we took the place, without any loss to us, and put those we found in it to the sword.’ Shane O’Neill’s castle of Edenduffcarrick was afterwards taken by Chichester, which afforded a means of victualling the Blackwater fort by way of Lough Neagh. Shane MacBrian and the other O’Neills of his sept then went to Dublin and submitted, giving sufficient hostages for their good behaviour.[277 - Services of Sir John Chichester and the garrison of Carrickfergus, Sept. 16, 1597.]

Disaster at Carrickfergus

By the death of his elder brothers, Donnell and Alaster, James MacSorley had become chief of the Irish MacDonnells. Though unable to speak the Lowland tongue, he had lately been knighted by James VI. and received with much distinction at court, where his liberality and fine manners made him a favourite, and at his departure he was thought worthy of a salute from Edinburgh Castle. He and his brother Randal soon aroused suspicion at Carrickfergus. They demolished their castles at Glenarm and Red Bay, and concentrated their strength at Dunluce, which they armed with three guns taken from the Spanish Armada. These pieces they refused to surrender at Chichester’s demand, and there were also suspicious dealings with Tyrone, whose daughter Randal afterwards married. The governor invited the MacDonnells to a parley, and they appeared with 600 men about four miles from the town. The immediate complaint was that they had been plundering in Island Magee. Chichester went to meet them, but his men had scarcely recovered from a long march two nights before, and much of their powder was still damp. A council of war was held, at which Moses Hill, lieutenant of horse and founder of the Downshire family, offered to surprise the MacDonnells in their camp if the governor could wait till night. This was agreed to, but rasher counsels ultimately prevailed. Captain Merriman, who was said to have captured 50,000 head of MacDonnell cattle in his time, thought it a shame to be braved by such beggars; others thought so too, and Chichester gave way willingly enough. As the English advanced the Scots retreated, but soon turned on their pursuers, whose ranks were not well kept and whose muskets were almost useless. Horse and foot were driven back pell-mell towards the town, and Chichester was killed by a shot in the head, after being wounded in the shoulder and in the leg. Maunsell and other officers also fell, and only two seem to have escaped unwounded. About 180 men were killed out of a force which probably did not exceed 300. Some saved their lives by swimming over into Island Magee, while Captain Constable and others were taken prisoners. The survivors from the battle and the officers who had remained in reserve named Egerton their governor and expected an attack, but MacDonnell chose rather to appear as an aggrieved man who had fought in self-defence. The check to the Government was a severe one, and Tyrone was greatly strengthened by it.[278 - Egerton, North, Charles Maunsell, and Merriman to Lord Justice Norris, Nov. 6, 1597, enclosing Lieutenant Harte’s account, who was present. Other accounts are collected in the Ulster Journal of Archæology, vol. v. pp. 188 sqq. See also Gregory’s Western Highlands, chap. vi., where James MacSorley is called ‘Dunluce,’ as if that had been a Scotch lairdship. Chichester’s overthrow was on Nov. 4.]

Lords Justices appointed

Ormonde Lord General

The Irish Council made Sir Thomas Norris sole Lord Justice, very much against his will. He had succeeded his brother as Lord President of Munster, and left Captain Thornton there to do the work, and to draw most of the salary. This temporary arrangement was altered by the Queen, who appointed Archbishop Loftus and Chief Justice Gardiner Lords Justices, gave the supreme military command to Ormonde, with the title of Lieutenant-General, and ordered Norris back to his own province. The appointment of Ormonde involved fresh negotiations, and Tyrone was more likely to agree with him than with any English Deputy. ‘You now,’ the Queen wrote to her general, ‘represent our own person, and have to do with inferior people and base rebels, to whose submission if we in substance shall be content to condescend, we will look to have the same implored in such reverend form as becometh our vassals and such heinous offenders to use, with bended knees and hearts humbled; not as if one prince did treat with another upon even terms of honour or advantage, in using words of peace or war, but of rebellion in them, and mercy in us; for rather than ever it shall appear to the world that in any such sort we will give way to any of their pride, we will cast off either sense or feeling of pity or compassion, and upon what price soever prosecute them to the last hour.’[279 - Sir T. Norris to Cecil, Oct. 31, 1597. For the terms on which Ormonde and the Lords Justices were appointed see Liber Munerum Publicorum, part ii. p. 5. The Queen to Ormonde, Dec. 29, in Carew.]

Ormonde’s futile negotiations with Tyrone,

Tyrone himself sought an interview with Ormonde, and submitted humbly enough to him at Dundalk. ‘I do,’ he said, ‘here acknowledge, upon the knees of my heart, that I am sorry for this my late relapse and defection.’ He begged a truce for two months, and undertook not to prevent the Blackwater fort from being victualled in the meantime. In the negotiations which followed, ‘free liberty of conscience for all the inhabitants of Ireland’ was demanded by Tyrone; but while placing this claim in the forefront, he never really insisted upon it, and no doubt its main object was to make an impression abroad. In 1591 he had taken care to be married to Mabel Bagenal by a Protestant bishop, ‘according her Majesty’s laws,’ and he now undertook not to correspond with Spain or any foreign nation. Another promise was to victual the garrison at Blackwater, and he did actually furnish forty beeves, ten of which were rejected by the inexorable Williams, though the leanest beef was probably better than the horseflesh upon which he and his brave men had lately lived. In the end Tyrone refused to give up his eldest son, or any hostage; but he agreed to accept a sheriff provided a gentleman of the country was appointed, to maintain and victual Blackwater fort, to renounce the name of O’Neill, to renew his submission to Ormonde in some public place, and to pay a fine of 500 cows. On receipt of his pardon, he further agreed to disperse all his forces, and send Scots or other hired strangers out of the realm.

who despises a pardon

These terms were accepted, and a pardon passed under the great seal of Ireland; but the result was only a truce, and open hostilities were resumed within two months. At the very moment that the pardon was given, Tyrone was encouraging his confederates to believe in an imminent Spanish invasion of Munster, and it is evident that he had never intended to yield upon any essential point.[280 - Submission to Ormonde, Dec. 22, 1597; the Queen to Ormonde, Dec. 29; Heads of agreement submitted at Dundalk, March 15, 1598, all in Carew; Fenton to Cecil, April 20. The course of the negotiations may be traced clearly in Moryson, under the year 1597-8. The abortive pardon was dated April 11.]

Munster brigandage, 1597. Florence MacCarthy

Munster had lately been pretty quiet, but there were not wanting signs of the tremendous storm which was soon to burst over it. The MacSheehys, the remnant of the Desmond gallowglasses, ‘preyed, spoiled, and murdered’ over eighty English families. Of three brothers, one was sentenced ‘to have his arms and thighs broken with a sledge, and hang in chains, so was he executed without the north gate of Cork;’ the second was killed by an Irish kerne, and the third fell by an English hand when Spenser’s house at Kilcolman was sacked. Donnell MacCarthy saved himself by coming under protection and behaving well for a time. His father, the wicked Earl of Clancare, died late in 1596, and Sir Thomas Norris advised that some small property should be assigned to ‘his base son of best reputation,’ while Florence might be given the bulk of the remote and barren heritage of McCarthy More. Florence and Donell both went to plead their own causes in London, while the widowed countess complained that she and her daughter were ‘prisoners there for their diet.’ The poor lady begged for her thirds, ‘notwithstanding any wrangling between my son-in-law, Nicholas Browne, Donell MacCarthy, and the rest.’ She gained her cause, and Donell was given some lands which his father had conveyed to him. Ormonde thought the presence of Florence important for the peace of Munster, and asked Cecil not to detain him, while Florence himself begged the Secretary to let him serve her Majesty in Ireland, instead of keeping him in London at her cost. When the news of the outbreak arrived, he received 100l. for his journey to Ireland, but he lingered in the hope of getting all the late Earl’s estate, and Essex had left Ireland before his return.[281 - Florence MacCarthy’s Life, chap. viii. Honora Lady Clancare and Florence MacCarthy to Cecil, July 29 and Aug. 8, 1598, MSS. Hatfield.]

CHAPTER XLVII.

GENERAL RISING UNDER TYRONE, 1598-1599

Bacon and Essex

Bacon’s advice

While Ormonde was trying to make peace with Tyrone, Francis Bacon was encouraging Essex to occupy himself with Irish affairs, in which he had an hereditary interest. Honour, he argued, was to be got by succeeding where so many had failed, and the lion’s share would fall to him who had made choice of successful agents. Neither Fitzwilliam nor Norris had been the Earl’s friends, and Russell had been a lukewarm one; whereas Ormonde and Sir Conyers Clifford were well disposed, and there was no danger in supporting them for the time. Popular opinion declared that Irish affairs had been neglected, and the mere appearance of care in that direction would win credit. Sir William Russell, Sir Richard Bingham, the Earl of Thomond, and Mr. Wilbraham, the Irish Solicitor-General, were all at hand, and the necessary information might be had from them. And then we have this truly Baconian passage: ‘If your lordship doubt to put your sickle into another’s harvest; first, time brings it to you in Mr. Secretary’s absence; next, being mixed with matter of war, it is fittest for you; and lastly, I know your lordship will carry it with that modesty and respect towards aged dignity, and that good correspondence towards my dear kinsman and your good friend now abroad, as no inconvenience may grow that way.’ In Cecil’s absence Essex played the part of secretary, while Raleigh and Russell, Sir Richard Bingham, Sir Robert Sidney, and Sir Christopher Blount were all mentioned as possible viceroys; but none of them were willing to go. Bacon’s further advice was asked, and his idea was to temporise with Tyrone, strengthening the garrisons and placing confidence in Ormonde, while taking steps to remedy the real abuses from which Ireland suffered. ‘And,’ he says, ‘but that your lordship is too easy to pass in such cases from dissimulation to verity, I think if your lordship lent your reputation in this case – that is, to pretend that if peace go not on, and the Queen mean not to make a defensive war as in times past, but a full reconquest of those parts of the country, you would accept the charge – I think it would help to settle Tyrone in his seeking accord, and win you a great deal of honour gratis.’[282 - Letter of advice to the Earl of Essex, to take upon him the care of Irish causes, when Mr. Secretary Cecil was in France (February to April, 1598), and a second letter from Bacon a little later, both printed by Spedding, vol. ii. pp. 94-1_0. There are many significant passages in Rowland Whyte’s letters in Sidney Papers, vol. ii. pp. 82-97. Essex was busy with Ireland before Cecil’s departure and before Bacon’s first letter, for Whyte wrote on Jan. 19: ‘Yesterday in the afternoon I went to the Court to attend my Lord of Essex, and he no sooner began to hearken unto me, but in comes my Lord of Thomond, in post from Ireland, and then was I commanded to take some other time.’ And see Chamberlain’s Letters, May 4, 1598. Spenser, who wrote in 1596 proposes that Essex should be Lord-Lieutenant, ‘upon whom the eye of all England is fixed, and our last hopes now rest.’]

The Blackwater fort beleaguered

The fort at the Blackwater was but a ditch intended to shelter 100 men. Lord Burgh had left 300 men there, and sickness was the natural consequence of this overcrowding. The time expired on June 7, and on the 9th the solitary stronghold was again surrounded, Tyrone swearing that he would never leave it untaken. But Williams was such a soldier as neither numbers, nor threats, nor want of support could daunt. An escalade was again attempted, with ladders made to hold five men abreast; but the two field-pieces were loaded with musket bullets and swept the trench. The captain vowed that he would blow all into the air sooner than surrender, and his courage communicated itself to his men. All who could stand at all fought bravely, and the corpses of the assailants were piled up so as to fill the ditch. No further assault was made; but victuals were scarce, and the soldiers, who did not disdain the very grass upon the ramparts, subsisted mainly upon the flesh of horses captured in several sallies. Seventeen or eighteen mares, the captain told one of Fenton’s spies, would last for a month at least, and he would hold out till the middle of August. ‘I protest to God,’ Ormonde wrote to Cecil, ‘the state of the scurvy fort of Blackwater, which cannot be long held, doth more touch my heart than all the spoils that ever were made by traitors on mine own lands. The fort was always falling, and never victualled but once (by myself) without an army, to her Majesty’s exceeding charges.’[283 - Fenton to Cecil, June 11; Ormonde to Cecil, June 18. O’Sullivan Bere (tom. iii. lib. iv. cap. iii.) owns to 120 killed in the attempted escalade. The eating of grass by the garrison recalls the defence of Casilinum against Hannibal (Livy, xxiii. 19).]

Preparations for relief of the fort

Tyrone’s tactics

Honour might require that an army should be sent, and yet there can be little doubt that Ormonde was right from a military point of view. One isolated fort could be of little use, and it was even now in contemplation to revive the settlement at Derry. About 1,000 seasoned soldiers from the Netherlands were placed under the command of Sir Samuel Bagenal, a like number of recruits were added, and the whole force was held in readiness for an expedition into Ulster. But the plan of surrounding Tyrone, which had been so often urged upon the English Government, was not destined to be carried out for some years to come. In the meantime it was decided that Captain Williams should be relieved. The forces actually available at this time did not much exceed 7,000 men, and of these somewhat more than a third were of Irish birth. About a third only were English, and rather less than a third were natives of the Pale, with English names, but with many Irish habits. The numbers which Tyrone could gather round him were at least equal to all the Queen’s army in Ireland, and only a very strong body of men could hope to succeed now that the rebel chief had had time to interpose all sorts of obstacles. Earthworks had been thrown up between Armagh and the Blackwater, trees had been felled and branches intertwined across the roads, and holes had been dug in all the fords. Of the three Lords Justices, the churchman and the lawyer were opposed to the attempt altogether, believing that it was better to defend the Pale and withdraw the Blackwater garrison while easy terms could still be had. Others of the Council agreed with them, but Ormonde was supreme in military matters, and Sir Henry Bagenal was at hand to urge him that the relief of the fort concerned her Majesty’s honour. Failing to dissuade him from the enterprise, the others pressed him to take the command in person, and, if he had done so, the result might have been very different. But Desmond’s conqueror was now sixty-six years old, and he preferred to serve against the Kavanaghs nearer home. He remembered that the safety of Leinster had been especially entrusted to him, and Bagenal, whose town of Newry lay near the scene of action, and who was as bitter as ever against his brother-in-law, was most anxious to be employed.[284 - Loftus, Gardiner, Wallop, St. Leger, and Fenton to the Privy Council, Aug. 16; Lords Justices Loftus and Gardiner to the Privy Council (‘in private’), Aug. 17; Ormonde to the Queen, Aug. 18; State of the Queen’s army, March 31, 1598, printed in the National MSS. of Ireland from a paper at Kilkenny.]

Battle of the Yellow Ford. Complete defeat of the troops

Death of Bagenal

Four thousand foot and 320 horse with four field-pieces marched out of Dundalk under Marshal Bagenal’s command. Many of them were veterans who had seen continental war, but from the first ill-fortune attended them. The officers seem to have had but little confidence in their general, and the simple soldier is quick to take the cue from his immediate chief. Strict orders were given that no one should stay behind, but the young gentlemen who served as volunteers lingered in the town, and some of them were killed by the Irish horse while crossing the difficult ground between Dundalk and Newry. The main body reached Armagh without fighting, and as they approached could plainly see the enemy encamped between the town and the river. After his arrival Bagenal called a meeting of officers and told them that he intended to avoid the direct road, which was strongly held, and to march a mile or two to the right. By so doing he hoped to keep on hard ground. One bog had indeed to be passed, and his plan was to skirmish there while a passage for the guns was made with sticks and boughs. Early next morning the army marched accordingly in six divisions, with intervals of at least 600 yards, and the Irish skirmishers then began to harass them before they had gone half a mile. The little river Callan was passed at a point where there is now a bridge and a beetling mill, but which was then a ford, with a yellow bottom and yellow banks. From this point the column was fully exposed, the O’Donnells drawing round their right flank while the O’Neills pressed them on the left. Tyrone was protected by a bog, over which his men moved with the agility begotten by long practice, and O’Donnell’s sharp-shooters took advantage of the juniper bushes which then studded the hills on the right. The Irish outnumbered the relieving force by at least two to one, and their loose formation gave them an advantage over the closely packed English battalions. The vanguard nevertheless struggled through the bog until they came to a ditch a mile long, five feet deep, four feet wide, and surmounted by a thorny hedge. This they carried with a rush, but not being properly supported they were beaten back, and the Marshal coming himself to the rescue was shot through the brain. The centre were delayed by the largest piece of artillery, which stuck fast while the O’Donnells easily picked off the draught-oxen. The usual confusion which follows the death of a general was increased by the explosion of two barrels of powder, from one of which a private soldier was rashly replenishing his horn. Colonel Cosby, who commanded the third battalion, hurried to the front, but it was then too late. He was taken prisoner, and his regiment shared the fate of the first two. The rear half of the army had enough to do to maintain itself against O’Donnell, Maguire, and James MacSorley, but preserved its formation, and, covered by Captain Montague’s horse, made a pretty orderly retreat to Armagh. ‘I protest,’ said a young Irish officer afterwards distinguished in these wars, ‘our loss was only for the great distance that was betwixt us in our march, for when the vanguard was charged they were within sight of our battle, and yet not rescued until they were overthrown. The explosion, and the delay about the gun, did the rest.’[285 - Lieut. William Taaffe to H. Shee, Aug. 16. He calls the powder-barrels ‘firkins.’ Captain Montague’s Report, Aug. 16; Declaration of the two Captains Kingsmill, Aug. 23, and that of Captain Billings who commanded the rearguard. All the above, with many other papers, are printed either in Irish Arch. Journal, N.S. vol. i. pp. 256-282, or in National MSS. of Ireland, part iv. 1. See also Camden and the Four Masters. There is a minute and nearly contemporary account in O’Sullivan Bere, tom. iii. lib. iv. cap. 5, but he was not present. It is O’Sullivan who mentions the junipers, which do not now grow wild about Armagh. I have carefully inspected the ground, having besides the advantage of consulting two pamphlets kindly sent to me by Mr. E. Rogers of the Armagh Library, whose great local knowledge has been brought to bear on the subject.]

Results of the defeat

Between killed, wounded, and missing the losses did not fall far short of 2,000. Not less than twenty-four officers fell, the gun which caused delay by sticking in the mud, was abandoned to the victors, many colours were taken, and nearly all the new levies threw away their arms. Several hundred Irish soldiers deserted, and with them two English recruits, who called next morning to their comrades that Tyrone would give them all twenty shillings bounty to join him. Among the captains killed was Maelmore O’Reilly, Sir John’s son, who was known as ‘the handsome,’ and who fought with distinguished bravery. The survivors gathered in the church at Armagh, but it seemed doubtful whether they could maintain themselves there. A great part of the provisions, the conveyance of which to the Blackwater was the object of the expedition, had fallen into the hands of the enemy, and the remaining supplies would scarcely suffice for ten days. The Irish soldiers continued to desert steadily, and the disheartened remnant of the foot dared not attempt to reach Newry without help, but it was known that Maguire and O’Donnell were also short of provisions, and at last it was decided that the horse should break through the victorious Irish who swarmed round the camp. Montague performed this service successfully, though not without loss, during the night which followed the battle. Terence O’Hanlon pursued him closely, and it has been particularly recorded that Captain Romney was surprised and killed while smoking a pipe of tobacco by the roadside.[286 - O’Sullivan; Montague to Ormonde, Aug. 16. The English accounts specify twelve colours as lost; O’Sullivan says thirty-four.]

Panic in Dublin

The fort evacuated

This disastrous battle was fought on August 14, and on the 16th Montague told the story in Dublin. Ormonde was away, and the other Lords Justices were panic-stricken. They wrote a humble letter to Tyrone, begging him not to attack the defeated troops ‘in cold blood.’ ‘You may,’ they added, ‘move her Majesty to know a favourable conceit of you by using favour to these men; and besides, your ancient adversary, the Marshal, being now taken away, we hope you will cease all further revenge towards the rest, against whom you can ground no cause of sting against yourself.’ This missive never reached Tyrone, and the Queen said it was stayed by accident, though the Lords Justices declared they had revoked it. ‘The like,’ Elizabeth declared, ‘was never read, either in form or substance, for baseness.’ And, as it turned out, Tyrone was not unwilling to make a bridge for his defeated enemy. He thought their supply of provisions greater than it was, and he feared that troops might land at Lough Foyle, while Armagh was still held. His own army, he said, was costing him 500l. a day. These reasons were not known till later, but the terms dictated by them were gladly accepted. Captain Williams and his heroic band were allowed to leave the Blackwater, the officers retaining their rapiers and horses, but without colours, drums, or firearms. The whole army then marched unmolested to Newry with their wounded and baggage. Ormonde was able to report that the loss in killed was not so great as at first reported, but might easily have been greater ‘if God had not letted it; for their disorder was such as the like hath not been among men of any understanding, dividing the army into six bodies, marching so far asunder as one of them could not second nor help th’other till those in the vanguard were overthrown. Sure the devil bewitched them! that none of them did prevent this gross error.’[287 - Ormonde to Cecil, Sept. 15. In writing to the same, on Aug. 24, Ormonde admits the reduced list of twenty-four officers killed and one taken prisoner, 855 men killed and 363 wounded. To these must be added the missing, and there were certainly several hundred deserters. Other English estimates of loss are considerably higher. Camden says 1,500 men were killed.]

The Irish army disperses

The Irish leaders are said to have harangued their men before the fight upon its special importance, and many writers have blamed Tyrone for not advancing straight upon Dublin. But Celtic armies, though they have often won battles, have never known how to press a victory home. Owen Roe O’Neill, Montrose, and Dundee were all subject to the same disability; and Tyrone probably did as much as he could. ‘The chiefs of Ulster,’ say the annalists, ‘returned to their respective homes in joy and exultation, though they had lost many men.’ Dublin was in no danger, nor any of the principal towns; but the country was everywhere in a flame. O’Donnell had most of Connaught at his mercy, though Sir Conyers Clifford could hold his own at Athlone and maintain garrisons at Tulsk, Boyle, and Roscommon. Tibbot ne Long, who headed such of the lower Burkes as remained loyal, was forced to take refuge in one of the boats from which he derived his name, and MacWilliam had Mayo at his mercy. With 2,000 foot and 200 horse and accompanied by O’Dogherty, who was sent by O’Donnell to help him, he swept all the cattle, even from the furthest shores of Clew Bay. The Earl of Thomond was in England, and his brother Teig, who dubbed himself the O’Brien, overran Clare, though a younger brother Donnell remained loyal and opposed him strenuously. To hold all Connaught and Clare, Clifford had but 120 English soldiers, and had but very little effective help except from Clanricarde, who offered to supply 500 cows for 500l. As times stood, this was thought a very honourable offer, but O’Donnell had no difficulty in driving off 4,000 head from those who hesitated to submit.[288 - Four Masters, 1598. Sir C. Clifford to the Lords Justices, Sept. 7; to Cecil, Oct. 30; Lady Clifford’s declaration, Oct. 31.]

General attack on English settlers

In the Pale and in the midland counties things were little better than in Connaught. The Lords Justices discovered a plot to surprise Dublin Castle, and hanged some of the conspirators, but Friar Nangle and other priests who were implicated escaped their vigilance. Croghane Castle, near Philipstown, was surprised by the O’Connors, who scaled the walls, killed Captain Gifford and his men, and wounded his wife in several places. The English proprietor, Sir Thomas Moore, seems to have been absent, but the Irish carried off Lady Moore and left her in a bog, where she died of cold. Alexander Cosby, the chief of the Queen’s County settlers, had been killed in 1597, and his widow was fortunately in Dublin, but Stradbally fell into the hands of the O’Mores. James FitzPiers, the sheriff of Kildare, was a Geraldine, and being threatened with the pains of hell by Tyrone, he surrendered Athy to Owen MacRory O’More. Captain Tyrrell, who was Tyrone’s best partisan leader, went where he pleased; and it was evident that nothing less than the extirpation of the English settlers was intended.[289 - Lords Justices and Council to the Privy Council, Nov. 23 and 27, 1598. Sir R. Bingham to the Lords Justices (from Naas) Nov. 27. There is a MS. dialogue among the Irish S.P. for 1598, which purports to be the ocular testimony of the writer, Thomas Wilson, and which is dedicated to Essex. The interlocutors are Peregryn and Silvyn – the names of Spenser’s two sons – and the dialogue, which unfolds the state of things in King’s County from harvest 1597 to All Saints’ Day 1598, is very much in the style of that between Irenæus and Eudoxus. Is Thomas Wilson a stalking-horse for Edmund Spenser?]

Rebellion in Munster

The Sugane Earl

Of many partial attempts at recolonisation the greatest was that on the forfeited Desmond estates, and the storm was not long in reaching Munster. Piers Lacy, of Bruff in Limerick, who had already once been pardoned, went to Owen MacRory, informed him that all the Geraldines were ready to rise and make James Fitzthomas Earl, and that the MacCarthies would also choose a chief. Tyrone’s leave was first asked and was readily given, for the idea of a new Desmond rebellion was already in his mind. Some months before he had spread a report that the attainted Earl’s son had escaped from the Tower with the Lieutenant’s daughter, that he had been warmly welcomed in Spain, and that he might soon be expected in Munster with large forces. At Michaelmas accordingly Owen MacRory, Tyrrell, and Redmond Burke, Sir John Shamrock’s eldest son, led 1,400 men to the Abbey of Owny in Limerick, but made no advance while Norris was at Kilmallock. As soon as he withdrew they divided into several companies, and destroyed all that was English, and only what was English. They burned Sir Henry Ughtred’s castle at Mayne near Rathkeale, which he had not attempted to defend. Cahir MacHugh O’Byrne joined O’More at Ballingarry with some of his men, and there they waited until James Fitzthomas had overcome his natural hesitation. Stimulated by the threat of preferring his younger brother, he came in with twenty gentlemen, and assumed the title of Earl as of O’Neill’s gift. The plunder collected by this time was so great that a cow was publicly sold in the camp for sixpence, a brood mare for threepence, and a prime hog for a penny.[290 - Four Masters, 1598; O’Sullivan, tom. iii. lib. v. cap. 2; Discourse by William Weever (prisoner with the Munster rebels) Sept. 29 to Oct. 10. Fenton to Cecil, April 20, for the Tower story.]

Ormonde’s warning disregarded

From Golden on the Suir Ormonde wrote to warn this new Desmond of his danger, and summoned him to his presence under safe-conduct. ‘We need not,’ he said, ‘put you in mind of the late overthrow of the Earl your uncle, who was plagued, with his partakers, by fire, sword, and famine; and be assured, if you proceed in any traitorous actions, you will have the like end. What Her Majesty’s forces have done against the King of Spain, and is able to do against any other enemy, the world hath seen, to Her Highness’s immortal fame, by which you may judge what she is able to do against you, or any other that shall become traitors.’ But the Geraldine had made up his mind and refused to go. Practically, he complained that the State had held out hopes of the Desmond succession to him, and that he had served against his uncle on that account. A pension of a mark a day from the Queen had been paid for one year only. Others had grievances as well as himself, and indeed it was not hard to find cases of injustice. ‘To be brief with your lordship,’ he concluded, ‘Englishmen were not contented to have our lands and livings, but unmercifully to seek our lives by false and sinister means under colour of law; and as for my part I will prevent it the best I can.’[291 - Ormonde to James Fitzthomas, Oct. 8, 1598; James ‘Desmonde’ to Ormonde, Oct. 12.]

The Munster settlement destroyed

Spenser

Rightly or wrongly, the last Earl of Desmond had been held legitimate, and the first marriage of his father with Joan Roche treated as null and void. The boy in the Tower was therefore the only claimant whom the Government could recognise, and the sons of Sir Thomas Roe Fitzgerald were excluded. But the Geraldines accepted the new creation at O’Neill’s hands, and the Queen’s adherents in Ireland could for the time do no more than nickname him the Sugane or straw-rope Earl. The English settlement of Munster melted away like the unsubstantial fabric of a vision. ‘The undertakers,’ to use Ormonde’s words, ‘three or four excepted, most shamefully forsook all their castles and dwelling-places before any rebel came in sight of them, and left their castles with their munitions, stuff, and cattle to the traitors, and no manner of resistance made… Which put the traitors in such pride, and so much discouraged the rest of the subjects as most of them went presently to the towns.’ But all the settlers were not fortunate enough to reach these cities of refuge, and numerous outrages were committed. English children were taken from their nurses’ breasts and dashed against walls. An Englishman’s heart was plucked out in his wife’s presence, and she was forced to lend her apron to wipe the murderer’s fingers. Of the English fugitives who flocked into Youghal, some had lost their tongues and noses, and some had their throats cut, though they still lived. Irish tenants and servants, but yesterday fed in the settlers’ houses, were now conspicuous by their cruelty. Among those who escaped to England were Edmund Spenser and his wife, but one of their children perished in the flames. The poet lost all his property, and of his life’s work in Ireland only his books remain.[292 - Ormonde to the Queen, Oct. 12, 1598; Chief Justice Saxey’s account, October.]

Raleigh

At Tallow, in Raleigh’s seignory, there were 60 good houses and 120 able men, of whom 30 were musketeers; but they all ran away, and the rebels burned the rising town to the ground. The destruction of his improvements at this time may account for the small price which Raleigh’s property fetched in the next reign. Among castles in the county of Cork which were abandoned without resistance by the undertakers or their agents, were Tracton, Carrigrohan, and two others belonging to Sir Warham St. Leger; Castlemagner in Sir William Becher’s seignory; and Derryvillane in Mr. Arthur Hyde’s. In Limerick, besides Mayne the rebels took Pallaskenry and another house from Sir Henry Ughtred, Newcastle, and two more from Sir William Courtenay; Tarbet and another from Justice Golde; Foynes, Shanet, and Corgrage from Sir William Trenchard, and Flemingstown from Mr. Mainwaring. The Abbey of Adare, which was leased to George Thornton, was also left undefended. Castle Island was taken from Sir William Herbert, and Tralee from Sir Edward Denny; and in Kerry generally all the English settlers fled.

Norris

Mr. Wayman, a great sheepmaster, left twenty well-armed men at Doneraile, but they ran away and were all killed on the way to Cork. Norris’s English sheep were stolen from Mallow; his park wall was broken down, and his deer let loose. Many settlers fled with their clothes only, and being stripped of these they died of cold on the mountains. The churches and other vacant places in Cork were filled with starving wretches. Youghal was full of them too, and so closely pressed that men scarcely dared to put their heads outside the gates. The most fortunate of the settlers were those who reached Waterford and got a passage to England. Here and there alliances among the Irish saved individual colonists from utter destruction.