Ireland under the Tudors, with a Succinct Account of the Earlier History. Vol. 1 (of 3)

The insurrection being at an end, the Queen lost no time in forcing Browne to surrender his patent of precedence, and restoring Dowdall to the primacy, and a commission was issued to him and to Drs. Walsh and Leverous for re-establishing the old religion, and punishing those who had violated the law of clerical celibacy. Browne, who had a wife, was accordingly deprived, and, pending the appointment of a successor, the temporalities of his see handed over to Lockwood, the pliant Dean of Christ Church. Staples of Meath, who was likewise married, and was besides personally obnoxious to Dowdall, was also deprived in favour of one of the Commissioners who sentenced him, the learned William Walsh, formerly a Cistercian monk of Bective Abbey. Curiously enough, Walsh, who was appointed by Pole in virtue of his legatine authority, did not receive a Papal provision till 1564, some time after Elizabeth had expelled him from his see. The same treatment for the same offence was inflicted on Lancaster, Bishop of Kildare, who was succeeded by Leverous, already Bishop of Leighlin by Papal provision. A fourth married bishop was Travers of Leighlin, who was succeeded by Thomas O’Fihel or Field, an Augustinian friar. A fifth, Casey of Limerick, had to make way for his aged predecessor Quin. On Bale, who had left the field clear, no legal sentence of deprivation was passed; but his successor, John Thonory, was already appointed. Thonory has an evil name for having corruptly wasted the property of his see, and is said to have died of grief at the loss of some of his ill-gotten gains. Of the deprived prelates, Lancaster lived to be Archbishop of Armagh, and Casey, who survived two successors, and saw another expelled, regained his see in 1571. Browne, Travers, and Lancaster are supposed to have died before the accession of Elizabeth, and Staples soon after it.[398 - Brady; Cotton. Dowling says of Thonory: ‘Pro dolore amissionis thesauri sui per fures mortuus. Fures confitebantur et executi.’]

Kildare returns to Ireland, 1554

This year was memorable for the return of Gerald of Kildare, whose titles and estates were restored to him. The attainder, however, was not renewed till 1569. Old Brian O’Connor was released from the Tower, and allowed to revisit Offaly, an indulgence which he owed to the exertions of his daughter Margaret, who was Kildare’s aunt, and who relied upon the number of her connections at Court, as well as her own knowledge of the English language. Barnaby Fitzpatrick, Lord of Upper Ossory, King Edward’s bosom friend, returned about the same time, and so did a far more important personage, the young Earl of Ormonde. ‘There was great rejoicing,’ say the ‘Four Masters,’ ‘throughout the greater part of Leath-Mhogha because of their arrival; for it was thought that not one of the descendants of the Earls of Kildare, or of the O’Connors Faly, would ever come to Ireland.’

Constant war among the Irish

While the obedient shires were busy with the restoration of the ancient religion, the native Irish made war among themselves, with but little interference from the Government. Donough O’Brien, the second Earl of Thomond, and a firm friend of the Crown, was killed in April 1553 by his brother Donnell, leaving the earldom to Connor, his eldest son, by Lady Helen Butler, who survived him. Donnell, however, assumed the title of O’Brien, and the clansmen were divided between the representatives of the old and new order. Donnell petitioned that, having been nominated according to the ancient custom, he might be acknowledged as chief. St. Leger was unable to grant this, but offered to write to the Queen in his favour. In the meantime other controversies were submitted to the arbitration of O’Carroll, O’Mulrian, and MacBrien Arra, on the part of Donnell; and of the barons of Mountgarret, Cahir, and Dunboyne, all Butlers, on the part of the Earl. The umpires in case of disagreement were the Lord Deputy, the Lord Chancellor, and the Earl of Desmond. It is very hard to make out the exact sequence of events, but either just before or just after this negotiation, Donnell attacked one of his nephew’s castles, and was driven off by the arrival of the Earl of Ormonde. He then turned his attention to the plunder of Clanricarde. The Baron of Delvin continued to ravage MacCoghlan’s country, and one of the Nugents, who was foster-brother of Kildare, being killed, the newly restored Earl, who lost no time in showing that he meant to keep up the family traditions, exacted 340 cows as an eric. The O’Carrolls in the south, the MacSweenys in the north, killed each other in the old fashion. Shane O’Neill persuaded the Earl of Kildare and the Baron of Delvin to take his part in a quarrel with one sept of his name, and old Tyrone was defeated by another sept, supported by the MacDonnells, who were also intriguing with Calvagh O’Donnell.[399 - Indentures with the O’Briens, Sept. 1554, in Carew; Four Masters, 1554.]

The Pope and the ‘Rex Hiberniæ,’ 1555

We have seen that the Queen had no intention of yielding any part of the dignity which had belonged to her predecessors. Notwithstanding the Papal pretension to suzerainty, she had as a matter of course assumed the royal title created by her father in Ireland. The Holy See found it necessary to respect accomplished facts, and had not Julius III. abandoned all claims to the monastic lands, Pole would never have been allowed into England. Paul IV.’s pretensions were boundless, but he could not afford to quarrel about a mere trifle both with England and Spain. He considered it a great glory for his pontificate that its opening should be signalised by the arrival of an English ambassador. Whether he wished it or not, Philip and Mary were, and would remain, King and Queen of Ireland. He therefore ignored all that Henry had done, and, as if of his own mere notion, erected Ireland into a kingdom. The world might perhaps suppose that Mary took it from his hand, and not in right of blood. ‘The Popes,’ says the sarcastic Venetian, ‘have often given that which they could not take from the possessors, and, to avoid contentions, some have received their own goods as gifts, and some have dissembled the knowledge of the gift, or of the pretence of the giver.’ But in Ireland, where distance cast a halo of enchantment over Papal politics, and where Franciscans and Jesuits swayed the popular mind, the bull which announced the gracious gift was taken by many for what it pretended to be, and not for what it really was.[400 - Sarpi’s Council of Trent, trans. by Courayer, lib. v. cap. 15, and the notes. Dr. Lingard, vol. v. end of chap. v., objects to Fra Paolo’s account, but I cannot see that his own much differs.]

The Queen maintains her prerogative

Mary gave evidence of her desire to restore the splendour of religion by re-establishing St. Patrick’s as a cathedral. Leverous was the first Dean of the new foundation, and was allowed to hold the preferment along with the see of Kildare. The man selected to undo Browne’s work was Hugh Curwin, Dean of Hereford, a native of Westmoreland, and one of the Queen’s chaplains. He had become known as a preacher in favour of Henry’s marriage with Anne Boleyn, in opposition to the Franciscan Peto. The deanery of Hereford had been his reward. Peto, on the other hand, had become the Queen’s confessor, and was the chosen instrument of Paul IV., when that Pope in a fit of anger appointed a legate to supersede Pole. Mary so valued the royal authority that she resented the irregular honour intended for her confessor, though he had been the champion of her own legitimacy, stopped the red hat at the gates of Calais, and never allowed Peto any benefit from the Pope’s irritability. On the whole, Anne’s advocate fared better than Catherine’s. Curwin, whose first article of belief enjoined submission to principalities and powers, no doubt knew how to turn the Queen’s love of power, as he had done her father’s, to his own advantage. He was treated with exceptional favour, and gained practical control of the temporalities even before his consecration, which was performed in London by Bonner, Thirlby, and Griffin. Immediately afterwards he received the Great Seal of Ireland. Curwin had the pall from Rome, and in the Papal record of his appointment Philip and Mary are said to have supplicated for it, Browne being ignored, and Curwin made successor to Alen. But the King and Queen only acknowledged that Curwin was preferred on their recommendation, and he had to renounce on oath all things prejudicial to the Crown, whether contained in the Papal bull or not. Curwin held a provincial synod soon after his arrival in Ireland, at which the principal business was the restoration of the ancient rites.[401 - Brady; Hook’s Life of Pole; Ware’s Life of Curwin; Rymer, Feb. 22, and April 25, 1555; Morrin’s Patent Rolls, p. 339.]

No progress made in Ulster. St. Leger has no money, 1555

Ulster was in a state of more than usual confusion. Manus O’Donnell, who had been constantly at war with his father, was opposed by his son Calvagh, who had the help of the Scots. They addressed him as illustrious lord, and he went over to Scotland to claim the proffered aid. Returning with a large force, and with a piece of ordnance which the annalists inexplicably call a crooked gun, he entered Lough Swilly, took his father prisoner, and battered Greencastle and another fortress on Lough Foyle. Calvagh thenceforth assumed practical control of his clan. The Scots slew Hugh MacNeill Oge, and St. Leger divided his territory between Phelim O’Neill and the sons of Phelim Bacagh. The hardy interlopers had even designs on Carrickfergus, which St. Leger says were frustrated ‘by the help of God and Mr. Parker;’ but in a campaign of six weeks the Lord Deputy could gain no real advantage. As in the case of most Irish governors, his detractors, among whom Sir William Fitzwilliam was conspicuous, were busy at Court. They accused him, among other things, of falsifying estimates in favour of Andrew Wyse, the late Vice-Treasurer, whose accounts had been found unsatisfactory. ‘I am now in case,’ he said, ‘as the poet’s fame. I have meat to the surlip and drink to the netherlip, and can reach neither of them.’ His position made it impossible for him to economise, and no money came to pay his hungry retinue. A friendly chronicler has remarked that St. Leger, like all other Irish governors, was hated chiefly for his good deeds; like a good apple tree, which, the more fruit it bears, the more stones are thrown at it.[402 - Hooker in Holinshed; St. Leger to Petre, Dec. 18, 1555; Four Masters, 1555. James MacDonnell’s agents to Calvagh O’Donnell, calendared under 1554 (No. 7).]

Lord Fitzwalter (Sussex) Lord Deputy, 1556

The Lord Deputy’s entreaties for release were heard at last, and the government was conferred on Sir Thomas Radcliffe, Lord Fitzwalter, afterwards created Earl of Sussex, who, but for his Irish service, would bear one of the fairest characters in our history. Mary rejoiced that the true Catholic faith had by God’s great goodness and special grace been recovered in England and Ireland, and she directed her representative ‘to set forth the honour and dignity of the Pope’s Holiness and See Apostolic of Rome, and from time to time to be ready with our aid and secular force, at the request of all spiritual ministers and ordinaries there, to punish and repress all heretics and Lollards and their damnable sects, opinions, and errors.’ Cardinal Pole, she added, was about to send over a legatine commission to visit the Irish Church, and official assistance was to be given ‘in all and everything belonging to the function and office legatine, for the advancement of God’s glory and the honour of the See Apostolic.’ The new governor was reminded that he lay under an obligation to execute justice, and was exhorted at much greater length to exert himself for the improvement of the revenue. A Parliament was to be held, chiefly as a means of restoring religion according to the Queen’s ideas, of settling her marriage and succession, and of voting a subsidy. Sir Henry Sidney, who now makes his first appearance in Irish history, accompanied the Lord Deputy as Vice-Treasurer. He brought with him a sum of 25,000l.[403 - Instructions to Lord Fitzwalter, April 28, 1556, in Carew. Sidney Papers, i. p. 85.]

A warlike mayor of Dublin

About the time of the new Lord Deputy’s arrival, the Kavanaghs made a raid into the neighbourhood of Dublin. Sir George Stanley took command of the citizens, and drove 140 of the assailants into Powerscourt, where they had to surrender at discretion. Seventy-four were hanged. John Challoner, who was Mayor of Dublin at the time, provided the civic force with arms, which he had brought at his own expense from Spain. This martial magistrate was offered knighthood, but he excused himself. ‘My Lord,’ he said, ‘it will be more to my credit and my posterity’s to have it said that John Challoner served the Queen upon occasion, than to say that Sir John Challoner did it.’[404 - Ware’s Annals.]

Sussex makes a journey into Ulster, 1556

Sussex landed at Dublin towards the end of May, and received the sword from St. Leger’s willing hands. The religious ceremonies were of a kind entirely satisfactory to the Queen. After a month’s stay in the capital he set out for the North, and appeared in church both at Drogheda and Dundalk. The force mustered on this occasion was very considerable, for besides the regular soldiers and Ormonde’s followers, the gentlemen of the Pale were called on to serve with from one to six horsemen each. The Plunkets contributed twenty-four horse, the Nugents eighteen horse and twenty-four foot. Dublin sent sixty horsemen and gunners, and Drogheda forty men well appointed. ‘The Byrnes and the Tooles’ wastes’ in Wicklow were expected to send twelve horse each, and other Irish contingents joined on the march. The first Sunday was spent at a mill beyond Newry, where Dowdall said Mass, and where O’Hanlon, whose chiefry seems to have been disputed, was solemnly proclaimed. Mention is made of a great hill of stones, which was, perhaps, the traditional spot for the election of an O’Hanlon. Passing along the right bank of the Newry river, which he crossed near Tanderagee, Sussex reached the Laggan valley near Moira, and passing Belfast, reached Carrickfergus on the ninth day after leaving Dublin. From this the army marched across the central districts of Antrim, and, at last, on the twenty-fourth day from Dublin, Sussex reached Glenarm, and found that James MacDonnell had fled before him into Scotland. The fugitive sent to France for help, but his envoy’s proceedings were counteracted by Paget’s vigilance. A quantity of cattle were captured, besides butter and other produce hid in a cave. This seems to have been the only result of an expedition which lasted thirty-seven days. Sussex dismissed his allies at their old rendezvous near Newry, and on the very next day, as if in ridicule of his efforts, a messenger arrived to say that the Scots had attacked the rear guard. Sidney afterwards said that he had slain James MacConnell, a mighty Scots captain, during this expedition. Some Scots of name were certainly killed, and one of them may have been called James; but the real James MacDonnell was back at Glenarm before the end of the year.[405 - Sussex’s Journal, Aug. 8, 1556, in Carew; Sidney’s Relation, in Carew; 1583; Lord Deputy Fitzwalter to the Queen, Jan. 2, 1557; Calendar of Foreign State Papers, Oct. 28, 1556.]

His failure

The moral which Sussex drew from this inglorious expedition was that the North could only be held by a chain of forts along the coast from Dundalk to Lough Foyle. Some part at least of the expense would be paid by the salmon fisheries of the Foyle, the Bann, and the Bush; and by the herring, cod, ling, and hake fisheries, of which Carlingford was the chief seat. A good English bishop would also, he thought, be a means to civilise the country. It had not yet been discovered that making the Church a badge of conquest only served to make religion itself odious. The dislike of the Irish to English ecclesiastics had been marked throughout the middle ages, and even if England had remained in communion with Rome, bishops who were Government officials first and chief pastors afterwards, could scarcely have ministered successfully to the wants of O’Neills and O’Donnells.[406 - Opinions of Lord Fitzwalter, Jan. 2, 1557. He mentions hake as ‘a kind of salt fish much eaten in Ireland.’]

The King’s and Queen’s Counties

The natives

The settlement of Leix was in outward form completed, and Sussex received the Queen’s thanks for it. The arrangements were not without a show of equity; but the old inhabitants could not reconcile themselves to the intrusion of a colony, and their pertinacious opposition forced the Government to treat them with far more rigour than had been at first intended. The western half of the new Queen’s County was originally reserved for the O’Mores, each head of a sept becoming a landlord holding an estate in tail by knight-service. The chiefs were prohibited from keeping any idlemen except of their own sept, or more than one for every 100 acres. They were to attend the constable of the fort when required, to repair bridges, and at all times to keep the passes open between their districts and those occupied by the English. They were to dress like Englishmen, except when riding, and to teach their children to speak English, to attend the Deputy annually, and to use only the Common Law. All above twelve were required to take the oath of allegiance. Forfeiture was prescribed for a persistent refusal to keep the passes open; for retaining superfluous idlemen; for keeping more than one set of harness; for interrupting communication with the English; for making a private way; for marrying and fostering with the Irish, and for absenteeism. The Deputy’s licence removed the penalty in all these cases. For keeping unlicensed firearms the first offence was to be punished by forfeiture, and the second by death.

The settlers

The eastern district was assigned to the English, to hold on similar terms, and twelve places, among which Stradbally and Abbeyleix are the best known, were to be kept in a defensible state as satellites to the royal fort of Maryborough. The duties of the settlers were in general the same as those assigned to the O’Mores; but whereas the latter were restrained in the matter of arms, the possession of them was made obligatory on the former. A good bow and sheaf of arrows, or one hand-gun at least, was to be kept in every house. Forfeiture was to be incurred in the same way as by the Irish, and in addition for falling away from the use of the English tongue, for holding more than 300 acres in demesne, or for entertaining Irishmen, except so far as they were necessary for husbandry. A few natives, whose services as captains of kerne had deserved special recognition, were to have grants in the English territory, and it was suggested that a large territory should be offered to the Earl of Kildare. A constable, resident at the fort, was to have the same powers locally as the Lord Deputy had generally. Stringent rules were made as to free quarters and purveyance. The constable or president on his annual circuit was to have his own expenses and those of four men and five horses borne for one night only by each town; and each sept of the O’Mores was to bear the like burden, and no more. Finally, a church was to be built in each of the twelve settlements within three years, and a parson, of English birth, was to have the tithe.[407 - Privy Council to Lord Deputy, Sept. 30, 1556; Orders for Leix, Dec.; Lord Deputy to the Queen, Jan. 2, 1557. An Act of Parliament was passed in 1557, entitling the Crown to Leix and Offaly, and authorising the Lord Deputy to make grants under the Great Seal.]

The natives cling to their land

Whatever the intentions of the Queen or her Deputy might be towards Leix and Offaly, there was sure to be plenty of opposition on the part of the natives, who were, however, as usual, divided among themselves. The old chief, Brian O’Connor, was still alive, and his son Donough carried on the old feud and killed his cousin, the son of Cahir Roe. Both Donough and Connell O’More, the chief of Leix, fell into the hands of Sussex in the course of the year, but to the surprise of the Irish in general were released in deference to Kildare and Ormonde, who had become in some measure responsible for them. The O’Mores remained quiet for a time on the lands reserved to them. Donough and others of the O’Connors afterward came to Sussex at Philipstown, as the fort of Offaly must henceforth be called, and made their submission, giving promises of good behaviour, which they immediately broke.[408 - Proceedings of the Deputy and Council, Feb. 25, 1557, in Carew. Four Masters for 1555 and 1556.]

They are again attacked, 1557

After the meeting at Philipstown, Sussex and his Council repaired to Leighlin, where the principal O’Connors neglected to appear as they had promised. A leader of the Kavanaghs, who had not taken warning by the recent fate of his clansmen, was executed, and Connel O’More, who had once more broken into rebellion, was hanged in chains at Leighlin about the same time. Offaly was next invaded and hostages taken, who were executed on a further outbreak taking place, with the exception of O’Connor himself, who was detained prisoner in Dublin.[409 - Four Masters, 1555 and 1556. Proceedings of Deputy and Council, Feb. 25, 1557, in Carew. Dowling says Connel O’More was ‘apud pontem Leighlin cruci affixus.’ Ware’s Annals.]

Parliament of 1557. The monastic lands are not restored

The Parliament, from which Mary expected much for the Church of which she was so faithful a daughter, met at last and enacted all the laws made in England against the Protestants. The old statutes against Lollardry, which prescribed death by fire as the punishment for obstinate or relapsed heretics, were declared to be in full force. A communication from Pole was read by Curwin as Chancellor, kneeling down in open session, in which the Cardinal urged the assembly to restore Ireland to full communion with the Church. All Acts derogatory to the Pope which had been passed since the twentieth year of Henry VIII. were accordingly repealed. The Queen was declared a legitimate, absolute sovereign, and all laws and sentences to the contrary were abrogated. On the other hand, grants of monastic land were confirmed. There could be no doubt of Mary’s wish to restore the religious houses, but this does not appear to have been done except in the single case of Kilmainham. Oswald Massingberd, who during the Puritan ascendency had led a wandering life in the woods, was appointed Prior by Pole, and the nomination was confirmed by the Queen. Massingberd was sworn of the Council, and assumed the position of his predecessors; but he seems to have had no belief in the stability of the new system. He gave long leases and sold all that was saleable, and he took no thought for the morrow. There appears to have been no intention of specially favouring the obsolete order of St. John, for no attempt was made to restore it in England; but in Ireland it happened that the Crown had not parted with the house and lands. In the same way, since it could be done without offending vested interests, Mary re-established the Benedictines at Westminster, the Carthusians at Sheen, and the Observants at Greenwich. There are indications that she wished to examine titles closely, and to restore the monks where defects appeared; but she granted and confirmed grants of abbey lands as freely as her father and brother. Ninety years later, when the confederate Catholics had military possession of the greater part of Ireland, and the Nuncio Rinuccini was apparently all-powerful, the claim of the regulars to their old possessions was met by the nobility and gentry with anger and scorn.[410 - Thomas Alen to Cecil, Dec. 18, 1558; Letters of Queen Mary, calendared under 1557 (Nos. 63 and 64), and petitions (Nos. 65 and 66). For grants of abbey-lands, see Morrin’s Patent Rolls, passim. Mary’s only Irish Parliament (3 and 4 Phil. et Mar.), met June 1, 1557, in Dublin. There were adjournments to Limerick and Drogheda. See Stuart’s Armagh, p. 244, and Rymer, Dec. 1, 1556.]

Sussex makes an abortive expedition westward;

When released from his Parliamentary duties, Sussex marched westward against the O’Connors, who, under Donough, had possessed themselves of Meelick Castle, on the Shannon. The line of march lay through Offaly, by Killeigh, Ballyboy, and Cloghan, no opposition being offered by the O’Molloys or O’Maddens. The Shannon was reached on the third day. Clanricarde must have been in a tolerably peaceful state, for Athlone pursuivant seems to have had no difficulty in going to Galway to seek ammunition and provisions. Cannon were brought by water from Athlone and planted in the grounds of the friary, on an island or peninsula on the Galway side of the stream. The castle was summoned, and a cautionary shot fired without effect. Next day the cannonade began, and at the sixteenth shot a large piece of the courtyard wall fell down. The O’Connors escaped by a postern gate, and were proclaimed traitors. Clanricarde, Thomond, O’Carroll, and other chiefs, came to pay their respects to Sussex, and may well have laughed at the small results achieved by the display of irresistible force. A garrison was placed in the castle, and, hostages having been taken from the neighbouring clans, the army returned through MacCoghlan’s country, led by the chief himself. The Lord Deputy had the pleasure of seeing the night lit up by fires which the rebels kindled within a mile of his camp. The outlying buildings at Philipstown were all burnt, and arrows shot into the fort itself. Such was the practical outcome of a nine days’ expedition, during which, as the annalists say, it is not easy to state or enumerate all that was destroyed.[411 - July 1557; Journal by Sussex of that date in Carew; Four Masters, 1557.]

and another into Ulster

An expedition into Ulster, undertaken three months later, had the same lame and impotent conclusion. The annalists say compendiously that Armagh was burned twice in one month by Thomas Sussex. His horsemen encamped in the cathedral, and no enemy opposed the destroyer, who returned after a week to Dundalk only to hear that Shane O’Neill was burning and plundering within four miles of the town. Being pursued, Shane retreated to his woods, whither those who knew the country declined to follow him. Sussex then returned to Dublin; the Queen being richer by a few cows, and Sir James Garland poorer by the village which O’Neill had burned.[412 - October; Four Masters, 1557.]

The central districts still disturbed

Not much impressed by the late invasion, the O’Connors who had escaped from Meelick stationed themselves at Leap Castle, about which there had been so much fighting in bygone days. Sussex took the castle without trouble, but Donough again escaped by the speed of his horse, and the stronghold was seized by O’Carroll as soon as the army had left. Sidney afterwards made two separate inroads into the same district. O’Molloy was proclaimed a traitor, and everything destroyed. It is not easy to see how there could be anything combustible left in the devoted country. The O’Carrolls were also engaged about this time in opposition to the Government, and in support of the O’Mores and O’Connors, and the annalists are again at a loss to enumerate the preys and slaughter which were made from the Shannon to the Nore.[413 - Four Masters. This was towards the end of 1557.]

War between the O’Neills and O’Donnells

A local war of considerable importance took place this year between the O’Neills and O’Donnells. Manus, the old chief of Tyrconnel, had been kept a prisoner for the last two years by his son Calvagh, who assumed the leadership. This claim was disputed by his brother Hugh, who, with his immediate adherents, had deserted to Shane O’Neill. Shane was delighted at the opportunity of interfering, and declared that not one cow should escape, though the O’Donnells should carry away their cattle into Leinster or Munster. He himself would in future be the sole King of Ulster. Shane pitched his camp at Carriglea, near Strabane, just above the junction of the Finn and the Mourne. It was more a fair than an encampment, and the time was gaily passed in buying, and no doubt in drinking wine and mead, as well as fine clothes and merchandise. Calvagh, who lay five miles off with a few followers, sent two trusty spies to the camp, who mingled boldly with the throng of camp followers and soldiers belonging to many different clans. In front of Shane’s tent they found a great central fire, and a huge torch as thick as a man’s body blazing brightly. Sixty gallowglasses with their axes, and as many Scots, with heavy broadswords drawn, stood ready to guard the chief. When the time came for serving out supper, the spies claimed their share with the rest, and received a helmet full of meal and a corresponding quantity of butter. Not staying to make cakes, they carried back the trophy to Calvagh, who immediately got his men under arms. He had but two companies of the MacSweeney gallowglasses and thirty horsemen. No look-out was apparently kept at the camp, which they entered at once. There they had little to do but to kill till their arms were tired, the deficiency of force being much more than counterbalanced by the totally unprepared state of the O’Neills. Shane, whose reputation for courage is not high, slipped out at the back of his tent with only two companions, leaving his men to their fate. The three fugitives threaded the passes of the neighbouring mountains, and passed the Finn, the Deel, and the Derg by swimming. At Termonamongan, near the latter river, Shane bought a horse, and never rested till he reached the neighbourhood of Clogher. Calvagh remained in possession of the camp, and his men spent the rest of the night in drinking the wine which the O’Neills had provided for themselves. The extent of the plunder may be estimated from the fact that Con, Calvagh’s young son, who had given up his horse to his father and fought on foot, now had eighty steeds for his share, including a celebrated charger of Shane’s called the Eagle’s Son.[414 - Four Masters, 1557.]

Sidney, Lord-Justice. No money

Sussex had not been very long in Ireland before he asked for a holiday, and he was allowed to spend Christmas at home; Curwin and Sidney, and afterwards Sidney only, being appointed Lords Justices. War had been declared with France at midsummer, and one of the first letters received by the new governor announced the loss of Calais, and the Queen’s vain hope of recovering it. In the storm of St. Quentin and the defence of Guisnes, English soldiers had shown that they were made of the same stuff as the victors of Agincourt, but the war was unpopular. Mary’s subjects felt that they were sacrificed to Philip, and this jealousy of Spain both caused the fall of Calais and prevented its recovery. But the national vanity was sorely hurt, and Sidney thought it a good opportunity to point out that James MacDonnell was expected in Ulster with many French and Scots allies, and that the natives would join him or fall upon the Pale, which was itself heartily sick of English rule, of soldiers at free quarters, and of purveyors, who paid, if they paid at all, something very much less than market prices. The army was reduced to a little over 1,000 men, and the people of the Pale, though well disposed, could afford no effective help. Credit was extinct, and the bad money caused great misery. Yet even bad coin was scarce. ‘Help us, my lord,’ he wrote openly to Sussex, ‘help us to money at this pinch, though it be as base as counters.’

Men, money, and provisions were alike wanting, and the outlook was as dark as could be. Desmond proposed that the Queen should send special commissioners, independent of the Government, to inquire into the state of Ireland, and point out means of reformation. He himself had perhaps sinned through ignorance, and he thought justice and fair dealing more likely to do the work of civilisation than a new conquest. ‘We neither think it meet, nor intend,’ answered Mary, with a touch of her father’s humour, ‘to make any new conquest of our own, nor to use any force when justice may be showed.’ She proposed to do all that was necessary by fair means.[415 - Lord Justice Sidney and Council to the Privy Council, Feb. 8, 1558; Desmond to the Queen, Feb. 5 and Feb. 23, and her answer, April 19; Sidney to Sussex, Feb. 26, and to the Queen, March 1.]

Hatred of the English Government

Sidney’s fears of foreign complications were not unfounded. He had no ship of war at his disposal, and he feared that Dublin might be blockaded. George Paris was in France, declaring that the wild Irish were quite ready to transfer their allegiance, and Sidney had reason to believe that Kildare was playing his hereditary game. There can be no doubt that this great nobleman, whose estates lay between the capital and the disturbed midland districts, was a thorn in the side of each successive governor. It was thought he wanted to be Deputy himself, and all the principal lawyers in Dublin had a retaining fee from him. William Piers, Constable of Carrickfergus, the vigilant guardian of the North, was told by one of his men who was present, that Sorley Boy MacDonnell, in the careless after-supper hour, said plainly ‘that Englishmen had no right to Ireland, and they would never trust Englishmen more, but would trust the Earl of Kildare, “who,” quoth Sorley, “hath more right to the country…” The nature of these people is they will speak what is in their hearts when the drink is in their heads.’ The love of claret, inherent both in Scottish and Irish chiefs, tended to keep up constant communication with France. The hereditary hatred of England might at any moment counterbalance the jealousy which Scotland felt for the French regent and king matrimonial, and an invasion of Ireland might seem less dangerous than that from which the caution of the Scots lords had just saved England. The recollection of Dundalk was not so fresh as that of Flodden.[416 - Piers to Curwin, Feb. 14, 1558; Sussex to Boxoll, June 8; Articles by an Irishman, 1558 (No. 15).]

Attempts at conciliation

Lady Tyrone had been closely imprisoned, apparently by Shane, for urging her husband to hold fast to his allegiance. ‘I will not,’ says Sidney’s informant, ‘you make this known to the Primate, or Kildare, or any Geraldine in Ireland.’ To the Queen the Lord Justice wrote that the coast was infested by hostile cruisers, that he dreaded a French attack on castles which could not resist artillery, and that he could scarcely be answerable for the defence of the country. The effect of Sussex’s advice while at Court may be gathered from the number of letters which Mary addressed to great men in Ireland. Tyrone and O’Reilly were thanked for past services, the former being charged to help the Deputy with a contingent, and the latter to dismiss the Scots in his pay. Calvagh O’Donnell was reminded of his duty, and encouraged to hope for a peerage and other rewards. Barnaby Fitzpatrick, whose courtly education was not forgotten by his friend’s sister, was exhorted to behave like one who regards the service and weal of his natural country. His neighbour O’Carroll might look forward to a peerage for life if he would give help in season. Desmond and Clanricarde were directed to put Thomond in possession of his earldom and estates, the care of the coast being particularly recommended to the former. Desmond and Ormonde were thanked, and advised to refer all their differences to the arbitration of the Lord Deputy and Council.[417 - The Queen’s letters are all dated March 12.]

A spirited policy

The Queen did not limit her care for Ireland to writing letters. She doubled the army; 800 men being sent over, and directions given for raising 200 more in Ireland. Every foot soldier was to receive twopence a day, and every horseman threepence a day, in addition to the old wages. The Deputy’s salary was raised from 1,000l. to 1,500l., with the usual allowances, and he was directed to move constantly to and fro, residences being maintained for him at Roscommon, Athlone, Monasterevan, Maryborough, Philipstown, Ferns, Enniscorthy, and Carlow. The O’Mores and O’Connors were to be still further chastised, and as much as possible effected against the Scots. In most other matters the former instructions were to remain in force. The restored Deputy was not expected to make bricks without straw, more than 200l. having been spent on the carriage of munitions to Chester for the Irish service.[418 - See instructions in Carew, March 20; Estimate for munitions, March 13.]

Sussex returns to Ireland, 1558

Sussex left London on March 21, and we are told that he travelled post; but he did not leave Holyhead till the 26th of the following month. The actual passage only occupied a few hours. Detraction, the usual lot of Irish governors, followed him on his journey, his accuser being no less a person than Primate Dowdall, who was summoned over to tell his own story, and who died in London some three months before the Queen. Sidney and his Council declared that the Archbishop was actuated by personal malice, and that there was no foundation for his statements. There was, however, some excuse for a prelate who saw his metropolis and three churches burned by the viceregal army. Sussex believed that Dowdall was in league with his predecessor. Were it not, he said, for his set purpose to serve the Queen, he might find occupation enough in avoiding the nets spread on all sides, the catch line whereof he could not prove but by looking into Mr. St. Leger’s bosom.[419 - Machyn’s Diary; Sussex to Privy Council, April 7, with inclosures; Dowdall to Heath, Nov. 17, 1557.]

The O’Connors still troublesome. Sussex goes to Munster