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

The Queen much in debt

Shane being out of the way, it was possible for Sidney to make some reduction in the military force, but not to do so without money. The Queen owed 41,000l. in Ireland; 10,000l. was grudgingly sent. After an interval 20,000l. more was got together, Cecil pledging his own credit to Sir Thomas Gresham for 7,000l. No sooner was this loan effected than the Queen repented, but fortunately Winchester had despatched the money, and it could not be recalled. Meanwhile fresh expenses were incurred, and at the end of August, three months after Shane’s death, 31,000l. were yet due to Sidney and those under him. The Vice-Treasurer’s account had not been balanced for years, 300,000l. still remaining on his books; and Sidney appears to have borrowed between 2,000l. and 3,000l. to defray the most pressing calls. Frugality in a sovereign is a virtue, but there can be no doubt that Elizabeth carried it to excess.[133 - Fitzwilliam to Cecil, Sept. 14; Cecil and Winchester to Sidney, July 15; Note of Moneys, Sept. 30.]

CHAPTER XXV.

1567 AND 1568

Sidney goes to England, 1567

Sidney went to England in the autumn of 1567, and left the government in the hands of Lord Chancellor Weston and Sir W. Fitzwilliam. The latter bemoaned his hard fate, and declared that his last Lord Justiceship had cost him 2,000l. Weston, a painstaking and conscientious man, thought that no one but a soldier was fit to govern Ireland. What the sword had won the sword must maintain, and it was nearly as hard to keep men quiet as to make them so. At the approach of winter the Irish were always ready to rebel. Munster had been pretty quiet since the Lord Deputy’s visit in the spring, and the terror of his name had for the time procured a hollow and precarious peace. Six hundred soldiers, with some cruisers, held down the North, but O’Donnell was not a steadfast subject, and it was felt that the garrison was absolutely necessary. Sir Brian MacPhelim was recommended to Elizabeth’s favour ‘as the man that heretofore hath longest and most constantly stayed on your Majesty’s party like a true subject.’ We shall see how his services were requited later on. In Leinster the abolition, or rather suspension, of coyne and livery had done wonders, though the Lords still oppressed their own tenants, and thought the veteran brigand Piers Grace was profiting by Shane’s absence to collect a new band. Connaught was quiescent, but Clanricarde declared that he was afraid to venture into England lest mischief should arise in his absence.[134 - Weston to the Queen, Oct. 8; Lords Justices to the Queen, Oct. 30; same to Cecil, Oct. 30 and 31; Weston to Cecil, Oct. 8; Earl of Clanricarde to the Queen, Oct. 22.]

Desmond and Ormonde. Award. Desmond and his brother sent to London

In spite of Desmond’s protestations, a royal commission made an award while he was in restraint; his rival also being absent. The commissioners, among whom were the Master of the Rolls, the Solicitor-General, and the Prime Serjeant, declared that Desmond had damaged Ormonde to the extent of 20,894l. 12s. 8d., and that he ought to make good the same. Before this crushing award could take effect an order came from the Queen to send over Desmond and his brother John; but the latter had refused to enter any walled town, and, until he could be caught, the Lords Justices kept the Earl in Dublin. Sir John then changed his tone, and said he would go to England of his own accord; but weeks passed by and the result seemed no nearer. The Lords Justices considered that his disposition was unapt to bite at their bait. They had almost given up hope, when the strong desire to confer with his brother brought Sir John, who did not know what was in store for him, on a voluntary visit to Dublin. Fitzwilliam and Weston considered that he was ‘led by God to accomplish her Majesty’s command.’ Finding himself in the power of the Government he made no resistance, though objecting, not without reason, that Munster would be in a bad way when he and his brother were both absent. There was a difficulty about travelling expenses; for neither had a groat, and Sir John offered to go back to his own country and raise some money. But the Lords Justices avoided the net thus spread in their sight, and sent over the brothers at the Queen’s cost. The weather was very bad, and during a night and a day at sea the Earl suffered so much from sickness that Thomas Scott, who was in charge of the prisoners, thought it advisable to land five miles from Beaumaris, at a point to which the wind had driven the ship. So slender was the provision made, that Scott had to borrow money here for the journey southwards. A week later they were at Lichfield, where Sir John fell sick, and made it necessary to halt. Within three days from this they reached London penniless, and the Queen, while directing that money should be raised in Munster, indignantly remarked that it was Desmond’s custom to have none, and to borrow from her.[135 - Lords Justices to the Queen, Dec. 12; Thos. Scott to Cecil, Dec. 14 and 21; Queen to Lords Justices, Dec. 24; Lords Justices to Cecil, Nov. 23; Fitzwilliam to Cecil, Nov. 27. The award of Draycott, M. R., Nugent, S. G., and Serjeant Finglas, is printed from a MS. at Kilkenny, in the Irish Archæological Journal, 1st series, iii. 341.]

Cecil’s projects for Ireland

Ulster

Munster

Connaught

Tyrconnel

When Sidney had been some months in England, Cecil drew up an elaborate scheme for the future government of Ireland, which may probably be taken as embodying the joint opinions of these two great men. It is interesting to test their value by the light of subsequent events, but it must not be forgotten that neither Sidney nor Cecil had often their own way for long. The Queen habitually deferred to her Ministers, but when unwilling to do this, she always had her own way, and circumstances, which even the strongest cannot always control, will modify the wisest policy. That Cecil understood the question well will hardly be disputed by those who study the document now under consideration. He proposed that a Parliament should be held without delay, which should declare the Crown entitled to Ulster, and provide for its division into shires, after a survey had been made. The great object was to prevent a new local tyranny from being established. Civilised men should be encouraged to settle in the North, especially those of Irish birth, ‘for it is supposed that they may better maintain their habitation with less charge than such Englishmen as are mere strangers to the land.’ No tenant was to be subject to rent except on condition of full protection. A residence for the Deputy should be provided at Armagh, and in his absence a soldier of rank, if possible the Vice-Treasurer, Marshal, or Master of the Ordnance, was to fill his place, and to govern with the help of a permanent council. It was hoped that the levies which O’Neill formerly commanded might be made available for her Majesty’s service. To hold the country there were to be forts at Fathom, near Newry, at Castleblayney, at a bridge to be thrown over the Blackwater between Armagh and Lough Neagh, at a point on the shore of the great lake, and at Toome, near the efflux of the Ban. At Coleraine there was to be a fortified bridge. The coast of Antrim was to be guarded against the Scots by forts at Portrush and at some point between Fair Head and Larne. In the work of protecting Belfast, Lough Carrickfergus was to have the help of a strong post at Bangor. Belfast itself, and a fort at Massareene Abbey, on the eastern shore of Lough Neagh, were to complete the chain. Besides the bridges at Coleraine and Blackwater, it was proposed to throw one over the Erne at Ballyshannon and another over the Foyle at Lifford. Munster was to have a President and Council resident at Dungarvan, the parsonage of which, by a singular provision, was to be attached to the Presidency. A similar government for Connaught was to be placed at Athlone; Galway, Roscommon, and Balla being named as assize towns. Tyrconnel is treated as in some degree separate both from Connaught and from Ulster; O’Connor Sligo being freed from all subjection to O’Donnell, in consideration of his voluntary submission to the Queen, and on condition of his accepting of an estate of inheritance. To bind O’Connor faster, he was allowed to preserve the friary at Sligo, in which his ancestors were buried, substituting secular canons for Dominicans, a condition which was probably never fulfilled. O’Donnell thought all this very hard measure, observing that no O’Connor had ever served the Crown but by compulsion of his own ancestors. The lands adjoining castles in charge of constables were not to be farmed out, but kept always in hand for their support. Such was Cecil’s scheme after the fullest conference with Sidney, and, if we except that matter of Dungarvan parsonage, we must acknowledge that it shows a pretty accurate appreciation of the Irish problem.[136 - Memorial by Cecil, Dec. 22, 1567; Indenture between the Queen and O’Connor Sligo, Jan. 20, 1568; the Queen to the Lords Justices, Jan. 25; Hugh O’Donnell to the Lords Justices, March 26.]

The O’Neills and O’Donnells, and the Scots

The memory of Sidney’s prowess and the dread of his return kept down for a time the turbulent elements of Ulster. But every day showed that though Shane was gone, the conditions that had made him formidable were little altered. There were ominous signs of an alliance between Tirlogh Luineach and O’Donnell, who divided the customs of Lough Foyle and the rent of Innishowen between them. Tirlogh still continued his relations with the Scots, and, after his predecessor’s example, proposed various marriages for himself, in which he showed a fine contempt for national and other prejudices. James MacDonnell’s widow or her daughter, one of the O’Neills, and Sir Nicholas Bagenal’s sister-in-law, were among the ladies thus honoured. Bagenal declared that he would rather see his kinswoman burned, though she was promised twenty English men and six English gentlewomen to wait upon her. Tirlogh may not have known this, and perhaps he may have thought Bagenal’s alliance as valuable as that of the Scots, or he may merely have been gratifying an innate love of telling lies. He refused a hat set in bugles which Argyle sent him, declaring in the presence of the Marshal’s messenger that he had already received a hat from Lady Bagenal which he valued more than all the hats in Scotland. But he was on the best terms with Sorley Boy, who had sworn not to leave Ireland if he could help it. Tirlogh told the Government that he wanted nothing with Argyle but to make him attack the MacDonnells, but he kept 13 °Campbells about him; whom he professed to entertain only because they were hostile to the clans who had claims to land in Ireland. He said he would have no mercenaries if only Sir Brian MacPhelim and Art MacBaron would obey him. This was to beg the whole question, but the marriage of his daughter seems to show that he really meant hostility to the MacDonnells.[137 - Tirlogh Luineach to the Lords Justices, Nov. 24, 1567; to Piers, Jan. 20, and to Bagenal, Jan. 17, 1568; Bagenal to the Lords Justices, Feb. 5 and Dec. 2, 1567. Tirlogh calls the Campbells Clan Veginbhne and Clan Meginbhne, names which puzzle me. Argyle he calls ‘Dominus Machali comes de Argyle.’ Terence Danyell to the Lords Justices, Dec. 10, 1567]

Strength of the Scots. Weakness of the Government

The politics of the Western Highlands at this time are very obscure. It is hard to distinguish between what Argyle did for his own aggrandisement and what he did with really national objects. At Tutbury, a year later, Mary was almost directly charged with causing disaffection in Ireland through Argyle’s agency, and she remained silent, which, however, does not prove much. It was obviously for the interest both of the Scottish Crown and of the House of Argyle that Queen Elizabeth should have her hands full in the North of Ireland. Perhaps, after all, Scotch intrigues did less mischief than official quarrels. Piers and Maltby at Carrickfergus pleaded that they had neither ships nor men to guard thirty miles of coast night and day. Tirlogh Luineach had sent to Sir Brian MacPhelim to say that the Queen had determined to root out the O’Neills, whose only chance was to join the Scots. Sir Brian told this to the English officers, protesting his loyalty, but showing no great eagerness to supply them with beef. The soldiers suffered from dysentery and ague, and sometimes from delirious fever, and Piers and Maltby could only temporise. Against the Scots they could do nothing – against the Irish they were not allowed to do anything for fear of quenching the smoking flax. The Lords Justices took no further notice of their complaints than to taunt them for lying within walls instead of in the open fields. Taking little heed of differences among servants Elizabeth, in her queenly way, marvelled that the Scots were suffered to land, and that having landed they were not straightway expelled. If Piers was too weak Fitzwilliam might do it himself. Before her orders arrived, the two captains at Carrickfergus had made a peace with Tirlogh for four months. Both the Lord Justice and his sovereign began to think this new O’Neill as bad as the old one, who, to do him justice, had never encouraged Scots. It was now proposed to send over the young Baron of Dungannon, whose English education might be supposed to have given him a love of order. Hugh O’Neill had indeed studied the strength and the weakness of England at head-quarters, and he was consequently destined to be more formidable than any of his predecessors had been. As to Fitzwilliam, he complained bitterly and with very good reason that the unpunished landing of the Scots was no fault of his. He had not been bred up to arms, and why should he be expected to do better than noblemen of great ability and military knowledge, who had failed still more conspicuously? During more than eight years’ banishment he had served the Queen in hated Ireland without bribery or robbery. The burden of the Treasurer’s office weighed him to the ground, and yet he was the poorer for it. He had done his best and could do no more.[138 - Gregory’s Western Highlands, new ed. pp. 203, sqq. Sir Nicholas White’s conversation with Mary in his letter to Cecil, Feb. 29, 1569 (in Wright’s Queen Elizabeth); Piers and Maltby to Sidney, Oct. 6, 1567, and to the Lords Justices, Nov. 18 and Dec. 6; the Queen to the Lords Justices, Dec. 10 and 24; Fitzwilliam to the Queen, Jan. 22, 1568; and to Cecil, Dec. 20, 1567. Peace was granted to Sorley Boy on Dec. 20.]

Massacre at Mullaghmast. Perhaps in 1567

Under the year 1567 may perhaps be placed the massacre at Mullaghmast, near Athy, where Cosby and Hartpole, assisted by many English and Irish, of whom the majority were Catholics, slaughtered certain of the O’Mores who had been summoned on pretence of being required for service. The defence offered by an annotator of the annalist Dowling is that ‘Hartpole excused it that Moris O’More had given villainous words to the breach of his protection.’ The received story is that the O’Mores were first enticed into the fort, and there, as the ‘Four Masters’ put it, ‘surrounded on every side by four lines of soldiers and cavalry, who proceeded to shoot and slaughter them without mercy, so that not a single individual escaped by flight or force.’ Dowling, who is followed by the ‘Four Masters’ in giving the date 1577, has been thought the earliest writer to mention this massacre; but the Irish chronicle, now called the ‘Annals of Lough Cé,’ is more strictly contemporary, and places it under 1567. Dowling, as appears from internal evidence, wrote in or after the year 1600, when Sir George Carew was Lord President of Munster. He was only twenty-three in 1567, while Brian MacDermot, under whose auspices the ‘Annals of Lough Cé’ were indisputably compiled, was certainly taking an interest in the book as early as 1580. Yet Dowling was Chancellor of Leighlin, little more than twenty miles from Mullaghmast, while MacDermot and the poor scholars whom he employed lived in distant Connaught. Dowling’s dates are often wrong, but perhaps his authority is the best for the circumstances, while the others may be right as to the year. The former says forty were killed, the latter seventy-four. Philip O’Sullivan, who published his ‘Catholic History’ in 1621, makes the number of victims 180, and Dr. Curry, apparently without contemporary authority, calmly raises it to some hundreds. Traditional accounts say the families of Cosby, Piggott, Bowers, Hartpole, Fitzgerald, and Dempsey, of whom the last five were Catholic, were engaged in the massacre; but that little blame attaches in popular estimation to any but the last, who alone were of Celtic race and whose insignificance in later times has been considered a judgment. For us it may suffice to say, with the Lough Cé annalists, ‘that no uglier deed than that was ever committed in Erin.’[139 - Many of the authorities are collected by O’Donovan in his note to the Four Masters, 1577. It is not clear that the quotation from Captain Lee’s Brief Declaration, which was printed by Curry from a MS. in Trinity College, Dublin, refers to this transaction at all. O’Donovan did not know of the entry in the Lough Cé Annals; he points out that Curry only seems to have relied on Moryson’s authority. In his curious memoir on Ireland it is evident that O’Connell copied Curry without even consulting Moryson: he held a great ‘repeal’ meeting at Mullaghmast. I have found no reference to the massacre in any State paper. The following is Dowling’s entry: – ‘Moris … cum 40 hominibus de sua familia, post confederationem suam cum Rory O’More et super quadam protectione, interfectus fuit apud Molaghmastyn in comitatu Kildarie, ad eundem locum ad id propositum per Magistrum Cosby et Robertum Hartpole, sub umbra servitii accersitus collusorie.’]

Munster disturbed in Desmond’s absence

As soon as Desmond and his brother were gone fresh troubles sprung up in Munster. Lady Desmond reported that the county was so impoverished by rapine and by the irregular exactions of the Earl’s people, that it was impossible to raise even the smallest sum for her husband’s necessities. No one was safe, and she herself was continually on the move, trying to ‘appease the foolish fury of their lewd attempts.’ The Earl’s cousin, James Fitzmaurice, and Thomas Roe, his illegitimate brother, were competitors for the leadership. Fitzmaurice claimed to have been appointed by Desmond, though no writing could be produced, and both the Countess and the Commissioners thought him the fittest person. But the Lords Justices ordered the lady to govern with the Bishop of Limerick’s help.

James Fitzmaurice

Fitzmaurice and Thomas Roe were apprehended in their name, but released on the arrival of a commission to the former under the seals of the Earl and Sir John. The country people would not allow him to go before the Commissioners, saying that Desmond and his brother were hostages enough. Thomas Roe was released on Lords Roche and Power giving their word for him. Fitzmaurice kept very quiet for some time, waiting until he saw how his cousin’s affairs sped in London.[140 - Lady Desmond to the Commissioners in Munster, Jan. 13, 1568; to the Lords Justices, March 19. Bishop of Meath and others to the Lords Justices, Feb. 1; Lords Justices to the Queen, March 23.]

Little can be done in Sidney’s absence

In the meantime there was little peace in the North, though the truce with the Scots gave some breathing time. The well affected, wrote Maltby, gaped for Sidney’s return; the ill affected were ready to break out if once assured that he would return no more. While the coast lay open to the invader, the Queen’s troops languished in poverty and sickness, their horses died for want of provender, and Maltby complained that he had to feed the men at the cost of his own carcass. Lord Louth and his fellow-commissioners kept pouring water into the sieve, but they had neither power nor authority to cure abuses. They gave no satisfaction to the natives, and Tirlogh Luineach steadily declined to come near them.

Starving soldiers

Captain Cheston, who held the post at Glenarm, said his men were faint from want of food. Four pairs of querns in the church were the only means of converting raw corn into meal. There were no women to work them, and the men said they had no skill in grinding. The necessary repairs to the church were done at the captain’s own expense. It was dangerous to venture alone even a short way afield; but the monotony of garrison life was occasionally varied by a little cattle driving, which had no tendency to impress the advantages of civilisation on the Celtic barbarians. It had been decided that Tirlogh Luineach should marry James MacDonnell’s widow, and that O’Donnell, who was a somewhat younger man, should have the daughter. Captain Thornton with his cruiser failed to intercept the ladies, but succeeded for a time in delaying the weddings. In Maltby’s opinion it needed only to fortify the coast, and the conquest of the wicked Irish nation would be but a summer’s work. The long period during which Tirlogh Luineach was obliged to pay his Scots impoverished him greatly, and his plundering expeditions among the neighbours were not very successful, but it was Sir Brian MacPhelim and not the English captains who really kept him in check.[141 - Maltby to Cecil, Feb. 12 and March 19; to Sidney, Feb. 13; to the Lords Justices, March 6 and 18. Cheston to Piers and Maltby, April 3. Randal Oge to Fitzwilliam, April 7; Hill’s MacDonnells, pp. 148-151.]

Miserable state of the North

Fitzwilliam had blamed Piers and Maltby for not lying in the fields during the winter, but in spite of the Queen’s order he delayed his own journey to Ulster till the end of March. Tirlogh Luineach, who could not repress his pride of race, took the highest possible ground, styling himself prince, and declaring that he had only chastised those who were his own subjects. He expected soon to be at the head of 3,000 or 4,000 men, and the English companies were very weak. Fitzwilliam found he could trust no nominal muster, and resolved to count heads himself. A general hosting would be necessary, but for this it would be wiser to wait till Sidney came. So miserable were the arrangements that Fitzwilliam had to leave Carrickfergus for want of victuals. To hasten his departure he was told that his life was in danger, and the monstrous suggestion was made that Maltby, than whom the Queen had no better officer, was in the plot. And thus the early summer passed away, the Lord Justice suffering from dysentery, the soldiers half starving, the captains afraid to trust each other, and the Irish killing and plundering as if there had been no Queen in England. The chiefs who had hitherto remained faithful still protested their loyalty, but fled before Fitzwilliam, in the belief that he had come to spoil them. The local Commissioners had denied that he was coming. Finding themselves deceived, they had been forced to make a precipitous retreat in order to place their cattle in safety. The approach of the Governor was a signal for loyal subjects to conceal their property.[142 - Tirlogh Luineach O’Neill to Lord Justice Fitzwilliam, April 16, and the answer of the same date. Fitzwilliam to Cecil, April 21, May 8, and May 26; to Weston, April 23. Bagenal to Sidney, May 3; Sir Brian MacPhelim O’Neill and others to the Queen, June 4; they call Elizabeth ‘auxilium et juvamen,’ and acknowledge themselves ‘rudes et silvestres et naturali superstitioni dediti.’ O’Neill styled himself ‘Princeps.’]

Schemes of reform. Weston and Sutton

The general course of government during Sidney’s absence was not much more successful than that of the outlying provinces. The chief weight of it, especially when Fitzwilliam was in the North, fell upon the Lord Chancellor, an excellent man, and universally respected. His fee of 100l. was, as Cecil confessed, notoriously insufficient, and he was expected to eke it out by the revenues of the Deanery of St. Patrick’s. His conscience rebelled against this, for no one knew better how little religion and education could afford to lose any part of their endowment. ‘Attend at least,’ he besought Cecil, ‘to the perfectly obedient districts, the less they feel their degradation the more it moveth me to bewail and to name some remedy.’ The Archbishop of Dublin had made some stir, but as yet any fruits of the reformation were confined to his cathedrals. Financial matters were in no better case. Vice-Treasurer Fitzwilliam’s accounts had not been audited for more than nine years, and the unchecked balance amounted to near 400,000l. The soldiers’ pay was in arrears, and means were wanting to pay even the most pressing creditors. The ignorance of the common and statute law was as great as that of the Gospel. The old complaints of family alliances among the lawyers were repeated. When we consider that there were no published Acts of Parliament, it is easy to understand how great may have been the power of this privileged class. It was said, and probably with truth, that the Irish nobility often had the judges practically in their pay; and there was little justice to be had by the Crown on the one hand, or by the poor subjects on the other.[143 - Memorandum by Oliver Sutton, March 26; Loftus to Cecil, Jan. 25; Fitzwilliam to same, March 25; Weston to same, April 3.]

Desmond in London. Examination of Irish witnesses

It does not appear whether Desmond was committed to the Tower on his arrival in London; but he found himself in close confinement there within six weeks, and complained that he was not treated as became his rank. The Queen may have felt doubts about his promise of repayment being fulfilled, but there were better reasons than that for treating him somewhat sternly. Two sons of old O’Connor Faly, who had given so much trouble in past reigns, had been some time prisoners in London. Both were proclaimed traitors, and both admitted that the Earl had harboured them and others in the same legal position. The sworn examination of Cahir throws so much light on the way of life in Ireland that it may well be given entire: —

‘He saith that understanding his brother Cormac to be with the Earl of Desmond, he came into the said Earl’s country to Adare. There he met a boy of his said brother’s who told him he was departed that morning and followed Lysaght MacMorogh O’Connor and his company, with a guide of the Earl’s appointment. Said Cahir forthwith followed, and about four or five miles from Adare met Lysaght and the Earl’s man, and the next morning met his brother Cormac. They all continued with the Earl’s man for a fortnight, resorting to every place within a certain precinct of the country for that time to eat and drink. The names of the places where they were so entertained he remembereth as ensueth. First, from the place where they met they went to a town wherein there is a castle called Ballyvolane, where dwelleth one of the said Desmond’s household, and there they continued two nights. Thence they went to MacAulliffe’s castle, where they remained two days, and from thence, by appointment of the said Earl’s man, they came to Drishane castle, and there continued one night. Thence they went to Pobble O’Keefe, and there continued one night, and thence to MacDonogh’s country, where they stayed two days. Thence they went to the old prior O’Callaghan’s, where they rested one night. And for that the time was expected which was assigned and appointed by the Earl to his man and the said Lysaght to resort to those places as aforesaid, and that the said man, called Teig MacDonnell, durst not resort with them to any place before he had further instructions as commanded from the said Earl, and for that the said Lysaght was the said Earl’s near kinsman, they thought good to send him, with another of their company called Shane O’Moony, to the said Earl’s being at Connigse, Shane MacCragh’s house, to obtain of the said Earl further instructions and licence to spend on the country by way of coyne or other succour. So after the said Lysaght departed, the said Cormac and Cahir, with the residue of their said company, went to a castle called Carrignavar, where they remained a night. Next morning they went to a place where they and the said Lysaght O’Connor did appoint to meet at his return from the said Earl, at which place they met the said Shane O’Moony. But the said Lysaght stayed with the said Earl, and the said Shane then told them that the Earl’s pleasure was that Cormac and Cahir should go with the foresaid Teige MacDonnell, the said Earl’s man, to Donogh MacCarthy, and there to remain until after his return from Waterford; and said further that the said Earl of Desmond willed him to tell the said Cormac and Cahir that, if at Waterford he did agree with the Governor he would be a mean for them; and then willed the residue of the said company to resort unto him to attend with the said Lysaght MacMorogh, or the said Desmond. And so they continued with the said Earl until he went into Sir Maurice Fitzgerald’s country, where then, at the conflict between the Earls of Ormonde and Desmond, the said Lysaght MacMorogh O’Connor was slain. Art O’Connor, brother to Gerot MacShane, was killed also. Connor MacCormac O’Connor was hurt and escaped, and divers others slain. During which time the said Cormac and Cahir continued at Donogh MacCarthy’s aforesaid, as they were willed to do until such time as they heard of the overthrow given to the said Earl of Desmond, and then they departed the said Donogh MacCarthy’s house and also gave over the said Earl’s man. Thence they went to MacCarthy More’s country, where Cahir departed from his brother Cormac and returned to O’Sullivan’s country, the said Cahir having occasion there to speak with some of his kindred. And from thence the said Cahir followed his brother Cormac to O’Connor Kerry’s country, where it was told Cahir by O’Connor Kerry that his said brother Cormac was departed towards John of Desmond. Two nights after Cahir, in company with Teige MacMorogh, the chiefest of the proclaimed traitors of the O’Briens, went from the said O’Connor’s house to John of Desmond to meet his said brother Cormac, which was then, as he learned, gone to Thomond. Afterwards he returned to the Earl of Desmond’s country, and at Askeaton the said Cahir sent one Teige Roe O’Meagher, then attendant about the said John, to the said John to show him the said Cahir’s brother was gone to Thomond, and that the said Cahir was willing and desirous to tarry in Sir John’s company until his brother returned from Thomond, which would not be for a sevennight. The said Sir John sent word by Teige O’Meagher that Cahir was welcome, and willed him to continue in his company and keep his name secret and private. The said Cahir willed the messenger to tell Sir John that he named himself by a contrary name, that is to say, MacQuillin’s son of the Route, who was banished by the Scots. And so in the said Sir John’s company he continued for a week or thereabouts, and for that the said Cormac came not, the foresaid Cahir followed him into Thomond.’[144 - Examination of Cahir O’Connor, Jan. 8, 1568. A note in Cecil’s hand says: ‘All the foresaid O’Connors that were slain aforementioned were of the company of this examinate and proclaimed rebels.’ See Desmond to Cecil, Feb. 8 and 12, 1568; and the Queen to the Lord Deputy, April 3, 1567. Cormac O’Connor was also examined; his evidence agreeing pretty well with Cahir’s.]

Desmond’s own case

Desmond did not deny that he had given meat and drink to some proclaimed traitors, but pleaded that Irish hospitality could scarcely do less, and that he had never helped them to do any harm. He maintained stiffly that he had authority to rule all Munster Geraldines, and to decide their causes without any regard to sheriffs. Sir Maurice Fitzgerald, evidence of whose tenure from the Crown was recorded in the Exchequer, protested energetically against this theory. A long list of outrages in Munster was charged against the Earl, and mention was made of a little friar who had been a messenger between him and the O’Neills, and who had been found begging in their camp after Shane’s death. Finding that the case was likely to go against them, and feeling that they were in the lion’s mouth, the Earl and his brother thought it wise to make a general surrender of all their lands into her Majesty’s hands; and Desmond even brought himself to beg that she would place a President and Council in Munster. So far as law went, Elizabeth now had Munster at her mercy, but she kept fast hold on her prisoners until time should declare how far the law coincided with the facts.[145 - Submissions of the two Desmonds, Feb. 16 and 17; Interrogatories for Desmond, Feb. 20; Information, &c., Feb. (No. 60); Sir M. Fitzgerald to Cecil, March 15.]

Kildare. Oliver Sutton

The leader of the Northern Geraldines, who had, perhaps, no fancy either for the Tower or for a renewed exile, had his accusers at this time, and later events tend to prove that they were not without justification. In 1534 it had been David Sutton, a Kildare gentleman of ancient race, who had led the attack on the ninth Earl of Kildare, and laid bare the many abuses of his rule. ‘The office of belling the cat,’ says a modern writer, ‘descended hereditarily to Oliver Sutton,’ who attacked his grandson and namesake. In 1565 he presented to the Queen articles containing matters of the gravest importance against Kildare. He had previously complained to Arnold, but that despotic proconsul was submissive to the Earl, and imprisoned the unfortunate reformer for sixteen weeks. In fear of his life, Sutton was obliged to quit his lands and to hide from the local tyrant’s rage in Dublin or England. Arnold was confessedly a reformer himself, and, except from partiality to Kildare, it is hard to see why he treated Sutton so harshly, while listening with excessive credulity to all Bermingham’s representations. Coyne and livery in their most oppressive forms and every kindred exaction were charged against the Earl. The bastard Geraldines and Keatings were supported by him, even when openly resisting the Queen’s troops. They boasted that the Earl, and not the English power, really defended the country, and that there would be no quiet until he became chief Governor. Pride of blood made them wish to enslave all others, and ‘the daily exclamations of the poor were right sorrowful to hear.’ The Queen, having heard Sutton herself and read his reports, sent him back to Ireland, of which Sidney had assumed the government, observing that they touched Kildare too directly, and that she was loth to believe evil of her cousin until it could be proved. Yet she was evidently strongly impressed, and gave orders for Sutton’s personal protection. The inquiry dragged on for more than two years, Sutton reiterating his charges and Kildare thwarting him in various ways. The Earl’s service, he said, had all been at the Queen’s expense, for he received the pay of 300 men, which he made the country support. Jobbing was universal, and no one was more concerned in maintaining the system than Kildare. Yet Sutton’s heart began to sink: he complained that he was too poor to strive with the powerful Earl, and that all his exertions had but served to excite his vengeance. He probably failed to prove his whole case, but Sidney was directed to make particular inquiry, and not to discourage Sutton. Yet he too was evidently prejudiced in the Earl’s favour, and recommended him for a garter. In this he relied on the authority of Henry VII., ‘who made his grandfather knight and wist full well what he did’ – an ominous precedent and an argument unworthy of Sidney. Cecil evidently believed in Sutton, and begged Sidney to befriend him, even if in some degree deserving of blame. That he was not altogether ruined is shown by his appearance in 1571 as plaintiff in a successful Chancery suit; but he failed in making any serious impression on Kildare’s position.[146 - Notes by Sutton, Feb. 23, 1568; Cecil to Sidney, Nov. 19, 1568; Graves’s Presentments, pp. 159 and 176; Morrin’s Patent Rolls, ii. p. 256.]

Sir Peter Carew

It was at this critical period that the English Government thought fit to allow an enterprise, the success of which was enough to make the great mass of Irish and Anglo-Irish landlords shake in their shoes. The adventurer was Sir Peter Carew, of Mohuns Ottery in Devon, who, at the age of fifty-four, set himself a task more arduous than any which had yet occupied his stormy and eventful life.

His early life

In his case it was more than commonly true that the boy was the father of the man. When only twelve the citizen of Exeter, with whom he lodged, pursued him during one of his many absences from school, and found him on the city walls. ‘Running to take him, the boy climbed upon the top of one of the highest garrets of a turret of the said wall, and would not for any request come down, saying, moreover, to his host that if he did press too fast upon him he would surely cast himself down headlong over the wall, "and then," saith he, "I shall break my neck, and thou shalt be hanged because thou makest me to leap down."’ His father was sent for, and ordered the boy to be led home in a leash. Afterwards he coupled him for some time to a hound. Further endeavours failed to make ‘young Peter to smell to a book, or to like of any schooling,’ and he was allowed to accompany a friend who had a post about the embassy at Paris, and who neglected him shamefully. He afterwards lived as a horse-boy in a French nobleman’s train, without any inquiry being made by his affectionate parents. While yet a boy he fought at the siege of Pavia, changed sides opportunely, and served Philibert of Orange till that prince’s death. The Princess, after a time, gave him a letter of recommendation to Henry VIII. ‘The young gentleman,’ says his biographer, ‘… rode to Mohuns Ottery, where his father dwelled, and understanding his father and mother to be within, went into the house without further delay, and finding them sitting together in a parlour, forthwith in most humble manner kneeled before them and asked their blessing, and therewith presented the Princess of Orange’s letters… They were much astounded, … but Sir William having read the Princess’s letters, and being persuaded that he was his son Peter, were not a little joyful, but received him with all gladness, and also welcomed the gentlemen, whom he and his wife entertained in the best manner they could.’

His adventures

After this Carew was employed on every kind of service, in Scotland, Turkey, Italy, Flanders, France; his admirable mastery of the French language and his skill on horseback with the sword and with the lance making him everywhere remarkable. Henry VIII. helped him to a rich wife, but died before the marriage, which was celebrated on Edward VI.’s coronation day, when the bridegroom, as one of the six challengers, ‘like Ulysses in honour of his Penelope, wore her sleeve upon his head-piece, and acquitted himself very honourably.’ Like Ulysses, too, when he had gained his Penelope, Carew ‘could not rest from travel.’ He helped to put down the anti-Protestant rising in the West, and on the King’s death hastened to proclaim his Catholic sister. But life, either at Mohuns Ottery or at his wife’s place in Lincolnshire, was too safe and too dull for the old campaigner. He became involved in Wyatt’s conspiracy, and had to fly to Antwerp, where he was seized by Philip’s myrmidons, and had the adventure in Sir John Cheke’s company which has already been mentioned.

Carew in favour with Elizabeth

At Elizabeth’s accession Carew was received into favour, but that peculiar Court did not suit his humour, and he offended Gloriana by joining the ranks of those who urged her to marry. Her resentment was not very long or deep, and she ‘gave him very good things, which were as liberally, if not wastefully, consumed.’ In 1560 he was sent on a confidential mission to Scotland, where the dissensions of Norfolk and Grey, and her Majesty’s own double dealing, threatened disaster to the English arms. Fearing to trust anyone, he was obliged to write his own letters with a hand more used to the sword than the pen. On his return Elizabeth acknowledged his good service, and ‘being somewhat pleasant with him, thanked him for his letters of his own penning, commending him to be a very good secretary, for indeed he wrote them with no more pain than she had labour to read them, for as he spent a night in writing, so she spent a whole night in reading.’[147 - Hooker’s Life of Sir Peter Carew is printed as an appendix to the preface of vol. i. of the Carew MSS. It is a delightful book.]

Carew’s claims to property in Ireland

A country life can seldom satisfy a man of action, even though he be reckoned ‘the wisest justice on the banks of Trent,’ and Carew found it very dull in Devonshire. To beguile the time, and having some vague inkling of castles in Ireland, he ransacked the archives at Mohuns Ottery, and found many parchments which he was unable to read. His curiosity increasing daily, he sought the aid of John Hooker, Chamberlain of Exeter, who loved records as much as Mr. Welbore Ellis loved Blue-books. This eminent antiquary had for his nephew the famous Richard Hooker, and to his learned uncle the great author of the ‘Ecclesiastical Polity’ owed his University education and the patronage of Bishop Jewell. To Hooker’s eye the value of Carew’s parchments was at once apparent, and he succeeded in making a fair transcript, though the oldest document had been trodden under foot and nearly obliterated. Sir Peter, being satisfied of his descent from men who had held great possessions in Ireland, went to the Queen and asked leave to recover his own. This was but too readily granted, and orders were sent from her Majesty in Council requiring the help of all royal officers in Ireland. Hooker was straightway despatched thither, and his arrival caused a commotion which might have disheartened anyone less determined than his employer. He obtained leave to search the Dublin archives, and proved to his own satisfaction that Sir Peter was entitled to the Barony of Idrone in Leinster, to certain great seignories in Munster, and to Duleek and other manors in Meath, ‘and that nothing could be found to prejudice or impeach his title, but only prescription, which in that land holdeth not.’[148 - Life of Sir Peter Carew; Walton’s Life of Hooker; Ware’s Writers of Ireland.]

A prescription of 170 years against Carew