l>k ^'bb CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY V / /v^" Cornell University Library DA 935.W75 1913 3 1924 028 072 589 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028072589 THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN IRELAND THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN IRELAND BY PHILIP WILSON ' Opus adgredior opimum casibus, atrox proeliis, discors seditionibus, ipsa etiam pace savom." BALTIMORE NORMAN, REMINGTON & COMPANY PREFACE The conquest of Ireland during the reigns of Henry VIII and his three successors forms a complete and self-contained chapter of Irish history. The story is one which, after the lapse of more than three centuries, still excites the fiercest racial and religious animosities, and which, even in our own time, has been fre- quently related in a very unhistorical spirit. Of the materials upon which the ensuing narrative is based, a considerable part exist only in manuscript ; while most of the remainder are contained in books which, being bulky, expensive, and, in many cases, out of print, are seldom found outside a large public library. For this reason I have thought it desirable to insert in my narrative numerous and lengthy extracts from official and other contemporary documents. The objections to this method of writing history are sufficiently obvious ; but it has at least one incontestable advantage. It places the facts before the reader in the words of the original authorities, and enables him to form his own judgment upon them. * • Vll PREFACE The principal source of information for the period covered by the first five chapters of the present volume is the great collection of State Papers published by the Record Commission (ii vols., 1832-51). Vols. II and III contain the correspondence between the English and Irish governments. This series extends only to the death of Henry VIII. The State Papers of the reigns of Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth are in the Record Office. Of these a useful but somewhat meagre abstract will be found in the first volume of the Calendar edited by the late Mr, Hamilton (1869). All documents cited by the date and the name of the writer without further reference are derived from these sources. The Record Office also contains several important papers of the reign of Henry VIII, which have not been printed. These are cited as " MSS. R.O." Scarcely less valuable is the collection of the papers of Sir George Carew, contained in the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth, and calen- dared by Drs. Brewer and BuUen (6 vols., 1867-73). These are quoted as Carew MSS. As the arrangement is strictly chronological I have judged it unnecessary to add a reference to the volume and page. The Carew Calendar viii PREFACE is so elaborate that it has not, except in a very- few instances, been necessary to consult the manuscripts. In two or three cases, however, the abstract omits important information ; the translation of Latin documents is not always accurate ; a few letters are incorrectly dated ; and at least one very important paper, the Description of the Provinces of Ireland in 1580, is altogether omitted. In all these cases I have examined the original documents. The Calendar of Patent Rolls, edited by James Morrin (2 vols., 1861-62), contains a quantity of valuable information, which the arrangement of the book renders as inaccessible as possible ; but the Calendar of Fiants, printed as an appendix to the seventh and subsequent reports of the Deputy Keeper of Public Records, is much more useful as a work of reference. Other collections, which have been less frequently used, are sufficiently described in the footnotes. Acts of the Irish parliament are cited by the year and chapter only : when an English act is quoted the word English is added. Of literary as distinct from documentary authorities, Spenser's View of the State of Ireland, Sir John Davies's Discovery of the True Causes ix PREFACE why Ireland was never entirely Subdued^ and other tracts of Davies, are quoted from Ireland under Elizabeth and James I, edited by Professor Henry Morley (Carisbrooke Library, 1890). The descriptive portions of Fynes Moryson's Itinerary are quoted from Shakespeare' s Europe, edited by Mr. C. Hughes (1903), the narrative portions from the Glasgow edition (4 vols., 1907-8). The Chronicle by Richard Stanihurst, and the continuation by John Hooker alias Vowell, are quoted from the sixth volume of Holinshed's Chronicles (1809), Stafford's Pacata Hibernia from the edition by Mr. StandishO' Grady (2 vols., 1896), the works of Strype, from the Oxford edition of 1821, and the Annals of the Four Masters from the edition by John O 'Donovan (7 vols, 1851), Sir James Ware's Bishops of Ireland, and Writers of Ireland, are quoted from the edition by Walter Harris (2 vols., 1764). References to Ware's Antiquities of Ireland zx^ also made to this edition, when no other is mentioned ; but, as Harris made considerable alterations in that work, I have always collated his edition with that of 1705. Ware's Annals of Ireland, which were not printed by Harris, are always quoted from the edition of 1705. X PREFACE I have throughout endeavoured to support my statements by references to contemporary authorities ; but I have no intention of con- cealing my obligations to later writers ; and I am particularly anxious to acknowledge the assistance which I have derived from Froude's History of England, from the late Dr. Richey's Short History of the Irish People, from Mr. Bagwell's Ireland under the Tudors, from Die Englische Kolonisation in Ireland, by Dr. Moritz Bonn, from the admirable chapter on " Ireland to the ^Plantation of Ulster," contributed by Mr. Dunlop to the third volume of the Cambridge Modern History, and from -numerous articles by the same writer in the Dictionary of National Biography and the English Historical Review. The present work extends only to the acces- sion of Elizabeth ; but another book is in preparation, in which the narrative will be continued to the close of the Tudor period. British Museum, September, 1912. XI CONTENTS Introduction i PAGE Chapter I — The Lordship of Ireland 29 State of Ireland in 1500 — ^The Native Clans — The Norman Colonists in Ulster — In Connaught — In Munster and Leinster — Limits of the Pale — Storjr of St. Brigid — Relation of the " mere Irish " to English law — The Brehon laws — Tanistry — Gavelkind — Fosterage and gossipred — The half-feudalized districts — Coyne and livery — Description of James, Earl of Desmond — Conduct of the Earl of Ormond — The Royal Commission of 1537 — Special misery of the four shires — Payment of " black rents " — Corruption and inefficiency of the government — State of the walled towns — Policy of England Chapter II — ^The Geraldine Revolt 81 Ascendancy of the Kildare family — Viceroyalty of Surrey — Of Delvin and Skeffington — Conspiracy against the Earl of Kildare — His recall — Rebellion of Thomas, Lord OfFaly — Foreign affairs — OiFaly invades the Pale — Flight and death of Archbishop Alen — Siege of Dublin — Sir William Skeffington, Lord Deputy — Dissensions among the Irish con- federates — The O'Briens — The Desmond succes- sion — Siege and capture of Maynooth — Lord Leonard Gray — Surrender of Kildare — Execution of the Earl and his uncles xiii CONTENTS PAGt Chapter III — The Irish Church 123 The Reformation — Scandalous condition of the Irish Church — Appointment of Bishops in the Pale — In the Irish districts — General character of the hierarchy — Of the parochial clergy — Indifference of the laity to religion — Ruinous condition of the churches — Early history of Irish monasticism — The monasteries in 1537 — Valu- able services rendered by the greater monasteries — Their anti-national character — Admirable conduct of the mendicant orders — George Browne, Archbishop of Dublin — His letter to Cromwell — Constitution of the Irish Parliament — The Act of Supremacy — First attack upon the monasteries — Failure of the Reformation Chapter IV — The Geraldine League 171 Death of Skeffington. Lord Leonard Gray, Deputy — Invasion of Munster — O'Brien's Bridge — Mutiny of the army — Gerald, eleventh Earl of Kildare — Cabal against Gray — Misery of the country — Invasion and conquest of Offaly — Appointment of a Royal Commission — Report of the commissioners — The Lord Deputy and the Protestants — Enormous power of the Butlers — ^The O'Donels — Gray adopts a conciliatory policy — Lady Eleanor MacCarthy — Gray in Munster and Connaught — Complaints of the Council — The O'Conors of Connaught — General confederacy of the Irish — Confession of Conor Mor O'Conor — Campaign of Bellahoe — James FitzMaurice — Escape of Kildare Chapter V — The Kingdom of Ireland 227 Recall of Gray — Misery of the Country — ^Irish policy of Henry VIII — Sir Anthony St. Leger, xiv CONTENTS Lord Deputy — Death of FitzMaurice — Sub- mission of Desmond — Of Mac William — Of MacGillapatrick — Of O'Conor — The Irish Parliament — Trial and execution of Gray — Sub- mission of O'Donel— Of O'Neil— Of O'Brien — Of the lesser chiefs — Con O'Neil created Earl of Tyrone — Other peerages conferred — Fatal mistake of the government — Ecclesiastical aflfeirs. The Royal Supremacy — Dissolution of the monasteries — State of Leinster — Of Munster — Of Ulster and Connaught — Cabal against St. Leger — His popularity with the Irish — Death of Ormond Chapter VI — The Reformation 295 Brian O'Conor — Insurrection in Leinster — Recall of St. Leger — Viceroyalty of Bellingham — His recall and death — Foreign intrigues. The Bishop of Valence — St. Leger again Deputy — Brereton at Lecale — First attempts at proselytism — ^The English liturgy — Sir James Crofts, Deputy — Conference at St. Mary's Abbey — The primacy — The vacant bishoprics — John Bale, Bishop of Ossory — His " Vocacyon " — Report of Sir Thomas Cusack — Depreciation of the currency Chapter VII — The Plantation of Leix and Offaly 359 Bishop Bale at Kilkenny — Restoration of Catholicism — Deprivation of the Protestant Bishops — Archbishop Curwen — Ecclesiastical policy of Mary — The title "Queen of Ireland " — Disturbances in Leix and OfFaly — In Clanricarde XV CONTENTS — In Thomond — In Ulster — Return of Kildare — Third Viceroyalty of St. Leger — FitzWalter Deputy. His instructions — State of Ireland in 1556 — Reduction of Leix and Ofialy — A Parliament summoned. Ecclesiastical legislation — Plantation of Leix and OfFaly — Administration of the Earl of Sussex — His quarrel with Arch- bishop Dowdall — Sir Henry Sydney, Lord Justice — Dr. Dowdall's " Opinion touching the govern- ment of Ireland" — The Scots in Ulster — The O'Neils INDEX 427 XVI INTRODUCTION ^ To the philosophical student of history the story of Ireland affords an interest not altogether dissimilar from that which the physician derives from the most painful and complex cases of bodily disease. To such a student historical inquiry will always appear valuable in propor- tion as it enables him to trace events to their causes, and to explain the present condition of a nation by reference to its past. Brilliant characters and dramatic episodes may fire the imagination and excite the sympathy of the reader; but a comprehensive study of the operation of general causes can alone enlighten his understanding. And since, in the political no less than in the physical body, the causes of disease are sometimes more easily traceable than those of health, the history of Ireland can scarcely fail to be peculiarly instructive. In making this assertion I am assuming the truth of two propositions, which appear to me to be at once indisputable and essential to a correct understanding of Irish history. The first is, that the present condition of Ireland is one of political disease. The second is, that the causes of this condition are to be found in INTRODUCTION the past history of the country/ The former proposition will not, I think, be disputed by any one who has even a superficial acquaintance with Irish society and Irish popular literature. The complete alienation of the immense majority of the nation from the government, and the complete failure of the government to attract to itself the loyalty of the nation, are phenomena which, whether we attribute them to a mis- taken policy on the part of the rulers or to ineradicable defects on the part of the people, no friend either of the people or of their rulers can contemplate without distressi If this were all the matter would be sufficiently serious. But when to the interminable conflict between the nation and the government we have to add the profound and wide-spread hostility between the owners of the soil and their tenants, the ostentatious repudiation of all national feelings by the wealthiest and most cultured portion of the community, the disgraceful sympathy of the lower classes with the most brutal forms of ^ "Irish history resembles that of Spain during the last three centuries, described by a modern writer as the elabora- tion of all those ideas of law and political economy according to which a nation should not be governed." — Richey's Short History of the Irish People^ p. 3. "In the history of Ireland we may trace with singular clearness the perverting and degrading influence of great legislative injustices and the manner in which they affect in turn every element of national well-being." — Lecky's History of Ireland, vol. i. p. i. 2 INTRODUCTION agrarian crime, the habitual subordination of secular interests to religious theories by all parties, and the utter want of a sober and rational patriotism in any, we are constrained to admit that the condition of Ireland affords a most humiliating contrast to that of almost every other country with a pretence to civilization. The truth of my second proposition will, I suspect, be less generally acknowledged. Opinions as to the origin of sociological phenomena are frequently adopted with refer- ence rather to the prejudices of those who hold them than to the evidence upon which they rest ; and to this circumstance must be ascribed the prevalence, even among educated men, of theories concerning what is called " the Irish question," which a careful studv of Irish history shows to be almost ludicrously incorrect. Of these theories that which traces the misfortunes of Ireland to the ineradicable defects of the Celtic character is at once the most wide-spread, the most pernicious and the most absurd. This doctrine, which not only derives no support from historical evidence but is completely refuted by it, has nevertheless com- mended itself to many English writers, who are at once unable to deny the deplorable condition of Irish society, and unwilling to confess that that condition is due to the mis- deeds of their own countrymen. In contending that the position taken up by these writers is 3 INTRODUCTION altogether untenable, I shall not discuss the question whether there is any essential difference of character between the various branches of what is usually called the Aryan race : though I may remark in passing that there is a growing tendency on the part of modern sociologists to ascribe divergences of national character not to difference of origin, but to difference of environ- ment.^ I shall take narrower ground. I maintain that it is the duty of those who attribute the diseased condition of Irish society to the infirmities of Celtic humanity to show, first, that the inhabitants of Ireland are mainly or exclusively of Celtic origin : or else that the disorders of Ireland have been confined to dis- tricts of which the population is mainly or ••"Of all vulgar modes of escaping from the consideration of the effects of social and moral influences on the human mind the most vulgar is that of attributing the diversities of conduct and character to inherent national differences." — Mill's Political Economy, p. 197. "It (the Brehon Lav^) conveys a stronger impression than ever of a wide separation between the Aryan race and races of other stocks, but it suggests that many, perhaps most, of the differences in kind alleged to exist between Aryan sub-races are really differences merely in degree of develop- ment. It is to be hoped that contemporary thought will before long make an effort to emancipate itself from the habits of levity in adopting theories of race which it seems to have contracted. Many of those theories appear to have little merit except the facility they give for building on them inferences tremendously out of proportion to the mental labour which they cost the builder." — Maine's Early History of Institutions, pp. 96-97. 4 INTRODUCTION exclusively Celtic: secondly, that similar dis- orders are to be found in every other community which is mainly or exclusively Celtic : and lastly, that no such disorders are to be found in any community not mainly or exclusively Celtic. And I further maintain that not one of these three propositions will bear a moment's in- vestigation. Even before the arrival of the first Norman invaders a great part of Ireland had been over-run by immigrants from Denmark and Scandinavia : and at the beginning of the eleventh century many towns in Leinster and Munster were occupied by a population of unquestionably Teutonic descent. Towards the end of the twelfth century the Anglo- Norman lords and their Saxon retainers not only expelled the aboriginal population from the territory afterwards known as "the Pale," but occupied the greater part of Munster and established colonies even in the remote pro- vinces of Ulster and Connaught. Between the twelfth and the sixteenth century these colonies were repeatedly reinforced by fresh bands of immigrants from the mother-country. During the wars of the sixteenth century two great "plantations" of Englishmen were established in different parts of the island. In the reign of Mary an English colony was planted in Leinster on the lands of the O'Conors and O'Moores, thereafter known as the King's and Queen's 5 INTRODUCTION counties. In the reign of Elizabeth another colony was planted on the territories forfeited by the last Earl of Desmond, which extended over the greater part of Munster. A few years after the accession of James the First Sir John Davies expressed an opinion that a majority of the inhabitants of Ireland were of English descent ; ^ and, although this estimate does not appear to have been based upon any very precise calculations, there is every reason to suppose that it was correct. At all events the great plantation of Ulster, which almost immediately followed, made the preponderance indisputable. Since that time the numerical superiority of the non-Celtic over the Celtic Irish has been still further increased : on the one hand by the extermination of a great part of the latter during the civil wars of the seventeenth century, by the expatriation of most of the old Irish families at the begin- ning of the eighteenth, and by that great emigration which marked the latter half of the nineteenth, and which, although it affected every part of the island, was naturally most felt in ^ " There have been so many English colonies planted in Ireland that, if the people were numbered at this day by the poll, such as were descended of English race would be found more in number than the ancient natives." — Discovery of the True Causes why Ireland was never entirely Subdued, p. 2. In 1 640 it was asserted that the inhabitants of Ireland were "now for the most part descended of British ancestors." — Rush worth's Trial of the Earl of Strafford. 6 INTRODUCTION the poorest districts of the west and south, where, if anywhere, the Celtic element might still be supposed to prevail ; and, on the other, by the great plantations effected under the Protectorate and after the Revolution, as well as by much subsequent immigration due to private enterprise. It seems plain, therefore, that the Irish people cannot, without a very gross abuse of language, be described as wholly or even mainly Celtic. It is, I think, equally clear that the non-Celtic portion of the population has contributed its full share both to the political and to the social maladies of the country. At a very early period the " degeneracy," as it was popularly called, of the Anglo-Norman colonists attracted the attention and excited the alarm of the government ; and the language of the Statute of Kilkenny, and of the numerous acts by which its leading provisions were confirmed, as well as the proverbial phrase, " ipsis Hibernis Hiberniores," is a sufficient proof how far the mode of life which has been generally described as Celtic was from being confined to the aboriginal inhabitants of the country,^ In ^ The Statute of Kilkenny was edited by James Hardiman and published by the Irish Archeeological Society in 1843, The notes contain a mass of interesting information concerning the state of Ireland in the middle ages. "The chiefest abuses which are now in that realm are grown from the English that were, but are now much more lawless and licentious than the very wild Irish ; so that, as much care as was then by them had to reform the Irish, so 7 INTRODUCTION the reign of Henry VIII the most formidable opposition to the English government pro- ceeded from the greatest of the Anglo-Norman houses, the Geraldines of Kildare. Fifty years later the Earl of Desmond, head of a younger branch of that house, was the leader of a for- midable insurrection against the government of Queen Elizabeth. Under the first two princes of the House of Stuart the recusant party in the Irish parliament was led, not by the descendants of the Celtic chieftains, but by the barons of the Pale. Twice during the seven- teenth century the Catholic population, includ- ing not only the " mere Irish " but the " degenerate English," rose in arms against the newer and Protestant colony, and established an independent government. Those risings have often been described as Celtic risings, and those governments as Celtic governments. But a glance at the names of the members of the Confederation of Kilkenny and of the Dublin parliament of 1689 will suffice to show that, in both instances, the leaders were, with very few exceptions, men of Norman or Saxon descent.^ much and more must now be used to reform them." — Spenser's Fiew of the Present State of Ireland, p. loi. Cf, Davies, Discovery, p. 281. ^ The names of the persons who composed the Confedera- tion of Kilkenny will be found in Gilbert's History of the War and Confederation in Ireland, Lists of the members of the Irish Parliament of 1689, both Lords and Commons, were published in London in that year. 8 INTRODUCTION The Williamite conquest was followed by a century of political tranquillity ; and when political life began to revive in Ireland it was for many years almost confined to the essentially Teutonic province of Ulster. The United Irish movement, which followed upon that of the Volunteers, had its origin in the same quarter ; and, although religious bigotry induced the province in which the movement had originated to take a sudden turn during the civil war that followed, it was in the counties which had once formed the English Pale that the insurrection of 1798 assumed its most formidable aspect. And, during the last century, there has never been a time when the names of some of the most influential of Irish popular leaders have not borne unmistakable testimony to their Saxon origin. For these reasons it must, I think, be con- ceded that what is popularly called the dis- loyalty of Ireland cannot be ascribed to any irreconcilable antipathy between the Celtic and Teutonic races. This opinion will receive additional confirmation if we compare the history of Ireland with that of other Celtic and non-Celtic peoples. In Wales and in the Highlands of Scotland, the aboriginal Celtic population has received far slighter infusions of foreign blood than in Ireland ; and there are probably, even in England, counties which con- tain a larger proportion of Celtic inhabitants 9 INTRODUCTION than any part of Ireland outside Connaught.' It might have been expected, therefore, that all these regions would have been marked in a high degree by the anarchic tendencies which are generally supposed to be inseparable from the Celtic character. Yet neither Wales nor Cornwall has, in modern times at least, shown any very decided tendency to rebellion ; while the people of the Scottish Highlands, although for a long time very turbulent, have during the last century and a half proved at least as amenable to law as their southern and Teutonic neighbours. The want of industrial capacity, which is so deplorable a characteristic of the Irish middle class, is not found among the Welsh ; nor does the propensity to agrarian crime, which is the most flagrant vice of the Irish peasantry, exist among the Highlanders. Again, when we are told that among a Celtic people the centrifugal tendencies in politics must always prove stronger than the centripetal, we have but to look at the continent of Europe to see that France, which is usually considered a Celtic country, attained to a degree of cen- tralization which made her the arbiter of Europe from the close of the Thirty Years' War until the fall of the Second Empire ; while her ^ " It is quite possible, and I think probable, that Ireland, as a whole, contains less Teutonic blood than the eastern half of England, and more than the western half." — Huxley, On the Forefathers of the English People {Anthropological Review^ 1870). 10 INTRODUCTION Teutonic neighbour continued during the same period to be a mere conglomeration of warring principalities. Nor has their alleged incapacity for organization prevented the vast majority of Irishmen from attaching themselves with an unwavering loyalty to the most highly organized religious system which the world has yet seen. On the other hand, disorders essentially similar to those of Ireland have invariably been found in every community which has been governed as, until the last century at least, Ireland was avowedly governed. During the two centuries which followed the Norman conquest outrages essentially similar to those of the Whiteboys and the Ribbonmen, were of daily occurrence among the Anglo-Saxon population of England.^ Similar outrages have in more ^ " The country was portioned out among the captains of the invaders. Strong military institutions, closely connected with the institution of property, enabled the foreign conquerors to oppress the children of the soil. A cruel penal code, cruelly enforced, guarded the privileges, and even the sports, of the alien tyrants. Yet the subject race, though beaten down and trodden under-foot, still made its sting felt. Some bold men, the favourite heroes of our oldest ballads, betook themselves to the woods, and there, in defiance of curfew laws and forest laws, waged ia predatory war against their oppressors. Assassination was an event of daily occurrence. Many Normans suddenly disappeared, leaving no trace. The corpses of many were found bearing the marks of violence. Death by torture was denounced against the rnurderers, and strict search was made for them, but generally in vain : for the whole nation was in a conspiracy to screen them." — Macaulzy's History of Englandy chap. 1. Cf, Pike's History of Crime in England, I. 97-98. I I INTRODUCTION recent times been common among the people of Hungary, of Poland, and of the Christian provinces of Turkey. But the most striking parallel is unquestionably furnished by the essentially Teutonic population of Southern Scotland. Throughout the greater part of the seventeenth century the rulers of England, supported by a large majority of the English people, persisted in governing Scotland on the same principles which, down to a much later period, they continued to apply to Ireland. No one who has studied with any candour the history of the two countries can, I think, have failed to be struck by the extreme similarity not only in the nature of the provocation but in the nature of the revenge. In race the two peoples differed widely. The policy of the two govern- ments was substantially the same. The conduct of the two peoples was substantially the same. It seems clear, therefore, that the conduct of the peoples must be attributed not to race but to the policy of the governments.^ These considerations appear to me to be com- pletely subversive of what has been called the Celtophobic theory of Irish disturbances. National, however, are distinct from racial characteristics ; and I should be the last to deny ^ See an admirable article by Professor Dicey in the Fortnightly Review ioT 1881; an article by James Godkin in the same review for 1867, and a speech by Macaulay on the Irish Church in 1844. 12 INTRODUCTION the existence in Ireland of a very distinct national character, and of very distinct national vices. But national character is, to a great extent, the creature of circumstances, and is capable of slow, but almost infinite modification ; and there are few errors against which the historian requires to guard himself more carefully than the tendency to ante-date ideas and habits of life which have, in fact, become common only in recent times. The modern Irish character has been formed under very curious and very unfavourable conditions, which it will be the main object of the present work to describe. At present I will only say that the faults of the Irish people, although undoubtedly very grave, do not appear to me to be precisely those which are generally attributed to them by English writers. The phrase, "the blind hysterics of the Celt," has become proverbial upon the authority of a poet who was himself one of the most hysterical of mankind : and it would be idle to deny that, in the opinion of ninety-nine Englishmen out of a hundred, an undue sub- ordination of reason to emotion, an extravagance of opinion and of language, a want of moderation and a distaste for compromise, have been the most conspicuous characteristics of the Irish people. I should be the last to pretend that my countrymen have been wholly free from these faults, or to deny that they have exercised a great and baneful influence upon Irish history. 13 INTRODUCTION It ought, however, to be remembered that this instability of character is peculiarly apt to re- veal itself during periods of intense political excitement ; and that in Ireland such periods have been both unusually numerous and un- usually prolonged. Yet, in spite of this very serious disadvantage, it is extremely doubtful whether, in this respect. Irishmen compare as unfavourably as is generally supposed with the majority of mankind. The political and in- dustrial circumstances of England have been, to a very unusual degree, favourable to a sober and rational standard of thought : but it would be easy to show that, whenever any great question of foreign or domestic politics has touched the dormant emotions of the English people, English orators, pamphleteers and journalists have given vent to utterances at least as hysterical as any that can be charged against their " Celtic " neighbours. Few people who remember the paroxysms of excitement into which great masses of Englishmen were thrown by the Home Rule agitation, by the Boer war, and even by events which concerned them so little as the massacres in Armenia and the imprison- ment of Captain Dreyfus, will, I think, venture seriously to dispute this statement: but, since many Englishmen will no doubt plead that these were matters which called for a display of emotion not to be justified by anything so trivial as the misgovernment of Ireland, I will INTRODUCTION cite another instance in which their prejudices are less likely to deflect their judgment. I believe that no one who has studied with in- telligence and candour the recent utterances of the German Anglophobe press, can doubt that a purely Teutonic people may be capable of a perversion of judgment and an incontinence of language which it would be impossible to surpass. If we turn from politics to that sphere of thought in which, the authority of reason being in abeyance, the play of the emotions is least restrained, we may say that an intensely hysteri- cal people will seldom fail to adopt an intensely hysterical creed. Such, however, is not the character of that Church to which, in spite of the strongest temptations to apostasy, the great majority of Irishmen have continued to adhere. An imposing ceremonial and an elaborately organized hierarchy, may perhaps provoke a smile from the philosopher ; but they are, at least, admirable correctives to those individual- istic and introspective tendencies which are the almost invariable concomitants of religious hysteria : and the Roman Catholic system, on the whole, may be more justly accused of pro- ducing an atrophy of the religious emotions than of stimulating those emotions into an un- healthy activity. On the other hand, extreme simplicity of worship and the absence of ecclesiastical discipline, by driving the religious 15 INTRODUCTION imagination inward, and concentrating the attention of the individual upon his personal prospects of salvation, lead almost invariably, at least v^^ith weak natures, to a state of morbid religious excitement. No one who is acquainted with the early history of Quakerism, or of Methodism, or, to come nearer to our own time, of the Salvation Army, can, I think, have failed to be struck by this tendency : but, although repeated attempts have been made to propagate those forms of faith in Ireland, they have been singularly unsuccessful. Many causes have been assigned for their failure ; but the chief cause has undoubtedly been the want in the Irish character of the susceptibility to violent emotion which, though often dormant, exists in the vast majority of Englishmen. The mention of religion suggests inevitably a second theory as to the origin of the misfortunes of Ireland : a theory which was at one time even more widely held than the former, and which — although, owing to the general decline of the theological spirit, it has lost much of its old vitality — is, even at this day, by no means extinct. If this opinion be correct, the Roman Catholic religion is the source of all evil ; and is, in an especial degree, responsible for the disorders of Ireland. By great numbers of Englishmen, and by not a few English-minded Irishmen, this doctrine is held, not as an opinion which requires to be justified by i6 INTRODUCTION evidence, but as an article of faith, into the grounds of which it would be impious to inquire. For many other Englishmen, who are themselves indifferent to theological disputes, the same doctrine has a strong attraction, since it not only absolves their country from all blame, so far as her relations with Ireland are concerned, but even entitles her to a consider- able amount of praise : and they are naturally averse to scrutinizing too closely the grounds of an opinion so flattering to their national self-esteem. It should be added that the theory is one which has, for the superficial observer at least, a certain plausibility. It is corroborated by the unquestionable facts that, while England and Scotland have been prosperous, Protestant and tranquil, Ireland has been poor. Catholic and disturbed : that, in more than one im- portant crisis of Irish history, religion has been, at least apparently, connected with revolutionary and anti-English movements : and that, while the influence of the Catholic clergy has been frequently exerted on the side of disorder, the majority of the Protestant population have habitually supported the cause of England against their own countrymen. Nevertheless, a closer examination of the course of Irish history will, I , think, convince the candid inquirer that this doctrine, like the former, is either wholly false or at least greatly exag- gerated. We have but to glance at the 17 c INTRODUCTION English State Papers of the reign of Henry VIII to perceive that the anarchy, which was afterwards attributed to religious dis- sensions, existed in and was peculiar to Ireland, when the unity of Christendom was still unbroken : ^ while neither then nor at any subsequent period were the evils which in Ireland are habitually ascribed to the influence of the Roman Catholic priesthood to be found in the most Catholic parts of the continent. It is no doubt true that the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church is in some respects unfavour- able to the formation of industrial habits : " but the example of Belgium is sufficient to show that this circumstance need not by itself have prevented Ireland from attaining to a very high ^ See especially the remarkable paper on the state of Ireland (i 5 1 5) which stands first among the printed State Papers of the reign of Henry VIII. This subject will be examined in detail in the first and third chapters of the present work. ^ The Roman Catholic Church has injuriously afFected the economic condition of many or most of the countries in which it has been dominant (i) by encouraging an indiscriminating " charity " : (2) by offering an uncompromising opposition to what is technically called " usury." Much valuable evidence on the latter subject will be found in Lecky's History of Rational- ism, II. 265.270. (See also Mill's Political Economy, p. 559.) The teaching of the Protestant churches on these and kindred subjects has not been much more enlightened : but it has been far less consistently carried out in practice. It must in fairness be acknowledged that the attitude adopted by the Roman Catholic Church upon both these points^ whether it be wise or unwise, is in strict accordance with the precepts of her Founder. 18 INTRODUCTION degree of commercial prosperity. Nor is it easy for those who find in the Roman Catholic doctrines the source of those agrarian crimes, which were so long the bane and the disgrace of Ireland, to explain the complete absence of similar disorders among the intensely Catholic peasantry of France. During the last years of Henry VIII, and throughout the entire reign of his successor, when zeal for the reformed faith began for the first time to influence the policy of English statesmen, the Irish chiefs, with scarcely an exception, showed a most philosophical indifference to doctrinal disputes : and it was under the rule of the Catholic Mary that the policy of confiscation and colonization, which was afterwards carried out in the name of Protestant ascendancy, was inaugurated. The Elizabethan conquest was contemporaneous with the great religious wars which devastated a large part of the continent, and has been described by many writers as a mere episode in the general struggle : but the supporters of the Government were, with few exceptions, Catholics, and religious fanaticism does not appear to have exercised any considerable in- fluence upon Irish politics until after the plantation of Ulster. ^ The foolish and wicked ^ " Of religious parties, properly so-called, there were none during this (the Tudor) period. No Protestant party existed, for there were no Protestants except the agents of the Government and the official episcopacy. There were Catholic 19 INTRODUCTION attempt of the Long Parliament to exterminate the Catholics eventually gave a religious character to the civil war which broke out in 1641 ; but the insurrection was, in its earlier stages, essentially agrarian ; and the attempt of the insurgents to procure the alliance of the Scotch Covenanters, who of all the colonists were the most intensely hostile to their religion, is a conclusive proof that at this time secular predominated over theological motives. The toleration act of 1689, passed by the Irish Parliament during the brief period of their ascendancy, affords still sti'onger evi- dence of the indifference of our ancestors to sectarian considerations. In more recent times the same tendency has been even more strongly marked. The agrarian disturbances which occupy so prominent a place in modern Irish history have proceeded quite as frequently from the Protestants of Ulster as from the Catholics of the southern provinces ; ^ and there has never parties, for all parties were Catholic, even that which through- out supported the acts of a government which was politically Protestant : but there was no Catholic party — no party whose special aim and distinguishing character were the maintenance of the Catholic Church. A religious party can only exist as the correlative of another religious party which advocates an opposing creed. The creation of the Protestant was necessary for the development of the Catholic party, and, until the date of the plantation, no Protestant party existed." Richey's Short History of the Irish People, p. 616. ^ See the valuable work of Sir G. C. Lewis, On Irish Disturbances, passim, 20 INTRODUCTION been a time since the Volunteer movement when some of the most conspicuous of Nationalist politicians have not been Protestants. If we turn from politics to social life, at would be hard to name any section of the community by whom what are commonly reputed the worst vices of the Irish character have been more offensively displayed than by the landlords and officials of the eighteenth century, at a time wh6n the penal laws had made those classes exclusively Protestant.^ Nor have the Orange- men of our own day, although their hostility to their Catholic countrymen has won for them a singular reputation for loyalty, shown them- selves one whit more submissive than the latter to any law which has not been framed and administered with an exclusive regard to their own interests. At the same time it is unquestionably true that the Catholic clergy have, in recent times especially, exercised a great and often pernicious influence upon Irish affairs. There are, indeed, few things more disastrous to a civilized com- munity than an attempt on the part of the ecclesiastical order to encroach upon the pro- vince of the civil magistrate, and to regulate ^ Arthur Young's Tour in Ireland, II. 126-128, 241. Many curious anecdotes relating to the conduct of the Irish country gentlemen during the latter part of the eighteenth century will be found in Sir Jonah Harrington's Memoirs of the Irish Nation ; but the statements of this writer must always be received with caution, 21 INTRODUCTION secular politics in accordance with their own theories. But such attempts, although to some extent encouraged by the importance which the Roman Catholic Church attached to the priestly office, are by no means either peculiar to Roman Catholic countries or a necessary result of the Roman Catholic system. A speculative belief in the authority of the church will not prevent an educated people from treating ecclesiastical pretensions with contempt. A speculative belief in the right of private judgment will not prevent an ignorant people from submitting to ecclesiastical dictation with servility. In our own time, among the more civilized of the nations which are called Roman Catholic, an intelligent and patriotic laity has reduced the priesthood to a position of harmless obscurity. In the seventeenth century priestly arrogance and priestly tyranny assumed their worst form among the Huguenots of France and among the Covenanters of Scotland.^ It is plain, therefore, that the enormous power of the Irish priesthood cannot be solely ascribed to the nature of the Roman Catholic creed. It is a cause of the degrada- tion of Ireland ; but it is not the only nor the ultimate cause. It is not in itself an explanation of the phenomena which it is our business to examine : but rather a part of those ■" Buckle's History of Civilization, vol. ii, pp. 51-73, vol. iii, pp. 191-279. 22 INTRODUCTION phenomena which itself requires to be ex- plained. Meanwhile, without anticipating what I shall hereafter have to say at greater length, I must point out that this, like many other features of Irish society, has frequently been antedated by writers who have examined the history of past ages in the light of the ideas which have become prevalent in their own time. In the middle ages, when the ecclesi- astical power was at its height in England and on the continent, as well as throughout the whole course of the sixteenth century, the Irish clergy appear to have exercised little or no in- fluence upon public affairs.^ Their power dates from the abolition of the tribal system and the ruin of the chiefs, who had up to that time taken the lead in the hereditary war against England : and it was immensely increased, during the next century, by the long struggle in the course of which the cause of the Roman Catholic Church became identified with that of civil liberty and national independence. The subsequent policy of England, although ostensibly aimed at the extirpation of the Roman Catholic religion, was in reality very favourable to the authority of the priesthood. The enormous confiscations, which reduced ^ The evidence upon which I have formed this opinion will be found in chaper iii. of this work. Brewer [Calendar of Carew MSS,, preface to vol. ii.) has some excellent remarks on this subject. 23 INTRODUCTION the greater part of the native aristocracy to penury, threw the leadership of the national party into the hands of the priests; and the evil was increased and perpetuated by the laws which incapacitated Catholics from purchasing and. inheriting landed property. Another part of the penal code, by depriving the Catholics of all possibility of education, condemned them to a state of ignorance very favourable to ecclesiastical encroachments : while a third, by persecuting the clergy and also oppressing the people, drove the two classes into an intimate alliance based upon a common hostility to the authority of the state. At the same time a series of laws, framed in the supposed interest of English manufacturers, effectually prevented the development of that industrial spirit which has in happier countries proved the most powerful corrective to the spirit of superstition. And, at a later period, the maintenance of re- ligious disabilities, sufficient to irritate but wholly inadequate to convert, and a succession of foolish and wicked attempts at educational proselytism, have kept religious questions in the front of Irish politics and given a most un- healthy stimulus to religious passions; while the anti-national feelings, so insultingly paraded by a large section of Irish Protestants, have placed a most formidable weapon in the hands of those whose aim it is to identify patriotism with bigotry, and the liberation of Ireland with 24 INTRODUCTION the aggrandisement of the Roman Catholic Church. These considerations will suffice to show how great an influence the rulers of Ireland have ex- ercised upon the development of the national religion. That their influence upon other sides of the national character has been equally great, I hope to make clear in a later part of this work. At present I will only point out the essential difference in this respect between the govern^ ment of a self-governed community and that of a dependency ; understanding by the former term not necessarily a community which pos- sesses representative institutions, but a commu- nity whose institutions, whatever may be their nature, have arisen within itself, and have not been imposed upon it from without. The government of such a community may have many faults, but it can scarcely be radically bad. Its mere existence is to some extent its justifica- tion ; since such existence, when prolonged for any considerable period, implies the approval, or at least the acquiescence of, at any rate, a large proportion of its subjects. Political insti- tutions will, in such a community, be the effect rather than the cause of public opinion, although they will eventually react upon it^ and cannot long continue to exist in violent conflict with it. Should the rulers of such a community seek either to maintain abuses which the public mind has outgrown, or to hurry on reforms for which 25 INTRODUCTION the public mind is not yet ripe, they will inevit- ably provoke a reaction which will prove fatal to the objects which they have at heart. The case of a nation whose government is imposed upon it by foreigners and maintained by foreign bayonets is widely different. In this case, and in this case alone, institutions may exist which bear no relation to public opinion ; which do not spring from it ; which are powerless to direct it ; which satisfy no aspiration ; which inspire no loyalty ; and which, if they are to obtain even a fleeting security, must derive that security from the dreadful indifference of despair. Such institutions may in outward form be iden- tical with those under which more fortunate peoples have attained to the highest pitch of liberty, of prosperity, and of civilization. But they will not take root in an uncongenial soil ; they become withered themselves and wither all around them : political capacity is stunted ; public spirit decays ; law is thwarted by the hatred of the people ; and liberty is crushed by the oppression of the government. It is then that we find nations suffering from the most frightful form of political disease — suppressed revolution. Statesmanship, it has been said, is the art of avoiding revolution,' and the definition is just ; but to suppress revolution is not to avoid ^ " Let us never glorify revolution. Statesmanship is the art of avoiding it." — Goldwin Smith, Three English States- 26 INTRODUCTION it. It is better that popular discontent should be appeased by timely concessions than that it should vent itself in a convulsion which dissolves the foundations of society. But it is better that it should vent itself in one convulsion, however terrible, than that it should continue to smoulder in the public mind, paralysing or perverting the national energies, vitiating the whole course of opinion, and breeding, during generation after generation, an endless succession of calamities and crimes.^ ^ " A starving population, an absentee aristocracy, and an alien Church, and, in addition, the weakest executive Govern- ment in the world — that was the Irish question. Well, then, what would honourable gentlemen say if they were reading of a country in that position ? They would say at once, * The remedy is revolution.^ But the Irish could not have a revolu- tion ; and why ? Because Ireland was connected with another and a more powerful country. What, then, was the conse- quence ? The connection with England became the cause of the present state of Ireland. If the connection with England prevented a revolution, and a revolution was the only remedy, England logically stood in the odious position of being the cause of all the misery in Ireland. What, then, was the duty of an English minister ? To effect by his policy all those changes which a revolution would effect by force." — Benjamin Disraeli. Speech in the House of Commons, February i6, 1844, 27 CHAPTER I THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND At the beginning of the sixteenth century the power of the English "Lords of Ireland" had reached its nadir. Of the colonists who, two hundred years earlier, had been thickly scat- tered over more than half the island, some had been expelled by the native clans, and others had adopted the native customs : while even those among the great Anglo-Norman lords who still retained some traces of their English manners had ceased to render more than a nominal obedience to the English Government. "The King's subjects" — those of the settlers, that is to say, who continued steadfast in their allegiance — were confined to the four shires of Louth, Meath, Dublin and Kildare : beyond those limits a multitude of independent chief- tains of native or Norman descent carried on a succession of internecine wars. "There be more than sixty countries, called regions, in Ireland, inhabited with the King's 151 5 Irish enemies," says an official document com- posed in 151 5, "some regions as big as a shire, some more, some less, unto a little ; some as big as half a shire, and some a. little less ; where 29 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND reigneth more than sixty chief captains, whereof some calleth themselves kings, some kings' peers, in their language, some princes, some dukes, some archdukes, that liveth only by the sword, and obeyeth to no other temporal person, but only to himself that is strong : and every of the said captains maketh war and peace for himself, and holdeth by sword, and hath imperial juris- diction within his room, and obeyeth to no other person, English or Irish, except only to such persons as may subdue him by the sword,"* The tribes described by this writer as "the King's enemies " — the phrase is eloquently ex- pressive of the constitutional theory which lay at the root of Irish anarchy — had during two centuries been steadily gaining ground upon the invaders. In the time of Henry VIII they held almost all Ulster, about three-fourths of Connaught, the north and west of Munster, the midlands of Meath and Leinster, and that part of the east coast which lies between Dublin and Wexford. O'Neil, the most powerful of the northern chieftains, reigned over the vast region of Tyrowen, including not only the county now known by that name but con- siderable parts of Londonderry and Armagh. O'Hanlon in the south of Armagh and O'Cahan in the north of Londonderry were his "uriaghts" or vassals : while a younger branch of his house had taken possession of Clandeboye on the ' "State of Ireland and Plan for its Reformation," 1515. 30 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND confines of Down and Antrim. O'Donel, who had long contended with O'Neil for the sup- remacy in Ulster, ruled over Tyrconnel, now the county of Donegal : O'Doherty in the extreme north maintaining a precarious independence by allying himself alternately with each of the more powerful chieftains. The Maguires held Fermanagh, the Magennises the south of Down, and the Macmahons, who were said to be of Anglo-Norman origin, Irish Uriel. The various septs of the O'Conors, the O'Conor Roe, the O'Conor Don, and the O'Conor Sligo, with the O'Haras, MacDermots, O'Kellys and other native tribes, were scattered over Sligo, Roscommon, and the east of Galway ; while another chief of the name had established him- self in OfFaly, then a part of the county of Kildare. To the north and east of these the territories of the O'Rourkes, O'Reillys and O'Farrells formed a debatable land between Connaught, Ulster and Meath, through which the tribes of the two former provinces poured to the invasion of the Pale. The O'Flahertys maintained their ground in Connemara, and the O'Malleys on the coast of Mayo. The O'Briens, sometime kings of Munster, although shorn of their dominions on the left bank of the Shannon, still reigned in Thomond, and occasionally crossed the river to annoy the English settlers in Limerick and Tipperary. In Cork and Kerry the lands of the MacCarthys and 31 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND O'Sullivans lay inextricably mingled with those of the Desmond Geraldines ; while the broken rem- nant of the tribes, which had once occupied Meath and Leinster, stretched in a broad belt along the southern and western borders of the Pale.^ The Celtic chiefs, however, were not the only, nor perhaps the most formidable, enemies with whom the Dublin government had to reckon. Mixed with them in each of the four provinces, though in very different proportions, were to be found "the King's English rebels" — the des- cendants of the great Anglo-Norman lords, who in the troubled times of the fourteenth century had virtually, and in some cases avowedly, re- nounced their allegiance to the English govern- ment. " Also," the report continues, " there is more than thirty great captains of the English ^ Ibid. A Geographical Account of Ireland, 15 14 (MS. R.O.). Map by Dunlop in Lane Poole's Historical Atlas. O'Rourke's, O'Reilly's and O'F^rrell's countries correspond approximately to the modern counties of Leitrim, Cavan and Longford. The distribution of these districts among the different provinces was long unsettled. In the report of 1 5 1 5 all these territories are assigned to Connaught. In Haynes' Description of Ireland in 1598, pp. 89-90, Cavan and Long- ford are reckoned as parts of Meath. In 1569, wrhen Con- naught was first divided into counties, it included Longford, and did not include Leitrim. Spenser says that the Macmahons ^' were anciently English : to wit, descended from the Fitz Ursulas, which was a noble family in England." — View of the Present State of Ireland, p. 103. Fynes Moryson and other writers of the sixteenth century make a similar statement ; but modern research has shown that its truth is, to say the least, very doubtful. See Shirley's Account of Farney, pp. 147-150. 32 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND noble folk, that followeth the same Irish order, and keepeth the same rule, and every of them maketh war and peace for himself, without any licence of the king, or of any other temporal person, save to him that is strongest, and of such that may subdue them by the sword."' In Ulster, west of the Bann, the Normans, even when their power was at its height, had never been able to obtain a footing. Down and Antrim, on the other hand, had been thickly colonized by De Courcy and De Lacy during the reigns of Henry II and his two successors ; and at the end of the thirteenth century the population of those two counties was scarcely less completely English than that of Meath or Dublin. But the invasion of Edward Bruce had 13 15 fatally weakened, and the murder of the last Earl of Ulster, a few years later, had utterly 1333 destroyed the northern colony. By law, the estates of the deceased nobleman should have descended to his daughter, a child who was afterwards married to Lionel, Duke of Clarence. But the Earl had held his lands by the sword, and neither Celts nor Normans were disposed to submit to the pretentions of one who was at once a female, an infant, and an absentee. The O'Neils crossed the Bann and seized Clandeboye, of which the entire population had lately been ^ State of Ireland, 1515. 33 » THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND exterminated by the Bruces.^ The Savages of the Ards, the Mandevilles of Dufferin, and the Bissets in the Glens of Antrim, maintained their ground for some generations longer. But in the reign of Henry VIII the Savages had " become mere Irish "; the Mandevilles had been expelled, and their lands " usurped " by the natives ; and the vast inheritance of the Bissets had passed by marriage to the MacDonnells of the Isles, " wild Scots," who, if they differed at all from their Irish neighbours, differed, in the opinion of all respectable Englishmen, for the worse.* The ^ A Breviate of the Getting of Ireland and of the Decay of the Same, By Patrick Finglas, one of the Barons of the Exchequer. Spenser, View of the Present State ef Ireland, pp. 53"S4' Davies, Discovery of the True Causes why Ireland was never subdued, pp. 299-303. Articles by A. Hume in the Ulster Journal of Archaology, vols. I, IV. There are several versions of Finglas's pamphlet. The earliest, dated 151 5, is preserved in the Lambeth Library, and is printed at the beginning of the Calendar of Carew MSS. Another version, also in the Lam- beth Library, is printed, where it differs from the former in the foot-notes to the Carew Calendar. A third version, diflFer- ing in several important particulars from both the preceding, w^as printed by Walter Harris in 1 747, from a MS. which had been in the possession of Sir James Ware. Harris does not state what became of the MS. which he transcribed, but it agrees verbatim with a document in the British Museum {Harleian MSS. 35/5). The date of this edition is 1529. There is also a copy in the Record Office, dated 1533; ^ Haynes' Description of Ireland in 1598. A full account of the Scottish settlements will be found in Hill's MacDonnells of Antrim. " WhereaS a company of Irish Scots, otherwise called Redshanks, daily cometh into the north parts of Ireland, and purchaseth castles and piles upon the sea-coast there, so 34 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND only portions of Down and Antrim in which the crown retained any vestige of authority were the barony of Lecale in the former, and the walled town of Carrickfergus in the latter county, Lecale, like Wexford at the opposite extremity of the island, formed an outlying portion of the Pale, from which it was separated by Magennis's country, communication with the capital being principally maintained by sea/ Carrickfergus, which is said to have been built by John de Courcy in the twelfth century, had been cap- tured and partly burned by the Scots in 1316, and again in 13H6 : and it was afterwards captured a third time by Brian O'Neil in 1573. With these exceptions it was never out of the as it is thought that there be at this present above the number of two or three thousand of them within this realm : it is meet that they be expulsed from the said castles, and order taken that none of them be permitted to haunt nor resort into this country : the rather because they greatly covet to popu- late the same : being most vile in their living of any nation next Irishmen." — Devices for the Reformation of Ireland, 1 542. " There be certain Scots that dwelleth in the north country by the sea-side, that have had certain territories of certain gentle- men by marriage, and have continued and kept their possession these 300 years, and are now natural Irishmen and subjects." Devices for the Government of Ireland, 1559. Opposite this paragraph Sir John Alen wrote in the margin, " A lie." ^ In 1552 Cusack described Lecale as "for English free- holders and good inhabitance as civil as few places in the English Pale." — Carew MSS. In 1586 the inhabitants were said to be "somewhat degenerate and in poor estate, yet they hold still their freeholds." — Bagnall's Description of Ulster. Ibid. 35 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND possession of the English. It was reputed the strongest fortress in the country, and was the only Ulster constituency which sent representa- tives to parliament before the seventeenth century.^ In Connaught, where the colonists were much more numerous than in Ulster, the crown had long ceased to exercise any effective authority. In the reign of Henry III Richard de Burgh had received a grant of the entire province and, after a good deal of desultory fighting, had made himself master of the greater part of Galway and Mayo. His son, Walter, married Maud, daughter and heiress of Hugh de Lacy, Earl of Ulster, and succeeded, in right of his wife, to the vast estates of her father in Down and Antrim. His son, Richard, commonly called the "Red Earl," advanced the Anglo- Norman power in Ireland to the highest point to which it was ever destined to attain, but the assassination of his grandson led, as we have seen, to the destruction of the Ulster settlement. The Connaught de Burghs, or Burkes, as they were generally called, were not more willing than the Celts of Ulster to acknowledge the feudal superiority of their infant kinswoman. 1333 Sir William and Sir Edmund de Burgh, cousins german of the murdered nobleman, resolved, ^ McSkimin's History of Carrickfergus, pp. 11, 18, 19, 23.. Parliament list of 1560 printed in the Irish Archaeological Society's Tracts, vol. ii, pp. 134-138. 36 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND with the assent of their tenants and the support of their Celtic neighbours, to partition his estates between them. The elder brother seized Galway and the younger took possession of Mayo. Their action amounted to a repu- diation of the law of primogeniture, and an adoption of the Irish custom of tanistry : and they could only hope to maintain their position by definitely severing their connection with the English government. In order to identify themselves the more thoroughly with the native chieftains they renounced their English surnames, and called themselves respectively Mac William Uachtar and Mac William lochtar, or the Upper and Nether MacWilliam. The example of this powerful family was universally followed by the Englishry of the western pro- vince. The Berminghams, Barons of Athenry, styled themselves MacFerris ; the Dexters, Macjordan ; the Nangles, MacCostello ; and the Prendergasts, MacMaurice.^ With their Irish names the settlers adopted the Irish dress, the Irish manners, and the Irish language. The crown threatened, but was powerless to ^ State of Ireland, 15 15. Finglsis, Breviate. Davies, p. 304- How completely the Burkes had become identified with the native Irish appears from an enactment of the town of Galway in the year 1518, prohibiting the citizens from receiving into their houses any persons bearing the names Burke, MacWilliam or Kelly. — Hardiman, History of Galway, p. 20. 37 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND carry out its threats/ The "rebels" were surrounded by O'Conors, O'Flahertys and O'Briens, and were separated from the obedient districts by the broad stream of the Shannon and the impenetrable bogs and forests of central Leinster. Two hundred years had yet to elapse before the representative of an English king again ventured to set foot in Connaught. South and east of the Shannon the amalga- mation of the races had been less complete. The Anglo-Norman lords in Munster and Leinster governed their territories by powers originally derived from the crown, and, although practically independent of the Viceroy, were re- garded both by their vassals and by the govern- ment rather as feudal noblemen than as Celtic chieftains. They retained their English titles ; their estates descended from father to son after the English fashion ; and, although the King's writ did not run in their dominions, the earls themselves appointed sheriffs or " seneschals," and administered justice according to the forms of the English common law.^ Munster, if we exclude Clare, which in the sixteenth century ' In 1340 Edward III issued an order for the "re- sumption " of all lands granted to Englishmen in Ireland. — Grace's Annals, p. 132. This arbitrary act, which was quite inoperative, seems to have been intended as an answer to the revolt of the Burkes and other Anglo-Irish nobles. * Fifth Report of the Deputy-Keeper of the Public Records of Ireland. Appendix III, pp. 33-38. Calendar of Irish State Papers, 1603-1606, edited by Russell and Prendergast, p. xiv. 38 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND was usually accounted part of Connaught, was virtually divided between two great houses — the Butlers and the Desmond Geraldines. In law the palatine jurisdiction of the former family appears to have been confined to a part of Tipperary, and that of the latter to Kerry and a small portion of west Cork. In fact, how- ever, the Desmonds had extended their sway over the whole of Cork, Kerry and Limerick, and even over the western half of Waterford, and the Butlers over all Tipperary and Kil- kenny. In 1330, when the colony was still suffering from the shock of the Scotch invasion, Maurice FitzGerald, who in the preceding year had been created Earl of Desmond, is said to have introduced " the abominable order of coyne and livery," to which English writers were accustomed to attribute the ruin of the Anglo- Norman settlement, and by that means to have reduced a great part of Munster to his obedience. The example, so profitable to themselves and so pernicious to the commonwealth, was speedily followed by the Earl of Ormond in Kilkenny and Tipperary, and by the Earl of Kildare in the Pale.* At the close of the fifteenth century almost all the colonists in Ireland, the burgesses of a few walled towns excepted, were the sub- jects of one or other of these three noblemen. The cadet branches of the Geraldines — the ^ Finglas, Breviate. Davies, pp. 300-303. Ware's Antiquities cf Ireland, ch. 12. 39 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND FitzGeralds of Decies, the Knight of the Glen, the Knight of Kerry, and the White Knight — as well as the Barrys of Barrymore and Butte- vant, the Roches of Fcrmoy, the Burkes of Castleconnell — a branch of the great Galway family who had crossed the Shannon, and estab- lished themselves on the left bank of the river about nine miles above Limerick — and, generally speaking, all the Englishry of south Munster, acknowledged the feudal superiority of the Earls of Desmond : the Poers of Curraghmore, in the eastern half of Waterford, alone maintaining their independence by means of a close alliance with the rival house of Butler. The Earls of Ormond enjoyed a similar supremacy over the Graces, Purcells, and other English families in the counties of Kilkenny and Fethard, with claims, which were stubbornly disputed, over the purely Celtic districts of Upper Ossory and Ely O'Carroll.' The Earls of Kildare were the ^ State of Ireland, 1515. Fethard is a town in Tipperary ; but the phrase, "the county of Fethard," is used in the State Papers to signify apparently the modern county of Tipperary, less the county of the Cross of Tipperary. See Annuary of the Kilkenny Archaologtcal Society, 1870, p. 222. " McGillapatrick, the ancient possessor of Upper Ossory, and now Baron of it, would never consent to be of that county [Kilkenny], for the native malice between them [the Earl of Ormond and himself], the one having been utter enemy tC'the other ; but pleadeth a prerogative by custom to be out of all shireground and to be sheriff himself for the execution of the civil causes, and for criminal causes he rather sorteth himself to be of the new [Queen's] county, and so in all criminal causes to be 40 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND feudal lords of more than half the Pale, and exercised besides an extensive jurisdiction over the Irish of the southern and western marches.^ The southern and south-western districts of Leinster, including Leix, Catherlagh, and the greater part of Wexford, had been recovered by the Moores, the Kavanaghs, and other native 1327- tribes,^ whose territories separated the dominions '342 tried by the late planted English than by their ancient enemies of the county of Kilkenny." — Description of Ireland in 1598, p. 65. " Near unto this [the King's] County is Ely, or O'Carroll's country, which the Earls of Ormond have of long time challenged to have belonged to their County Palatine of Tipperary ; but by reason of the great dissensions that have been betwixt the House of Ormond and the O'Carrolls, they would never yield to be of that county." — Ibid., p. 87. In 1602 Upper Ossory was definitely, transferred from Kilkenny to Queen's County, and Ely from Tipperary to King'sCounty. ^ Lands of the late Earl of Kildare, 1537. Carew MSS. Among the chiefs who were tributary to the house of Kil- dare were MacMurrough (Wexford and Carlow), O'Byrne and O'Toole (Wicklow), O'Moore, O'Dunn and O'Dempsey (Queen's County), O'Conor and O'Molloy (King's County), O'MelaghlinandMcGeoghegan (Westmeath), O'Farrel (Long- ford), O'Rourke (Leitrim), O'Reilly (Cavan), and MacMahon (Monaghan). — Rental Book of the Earl of Kildare, 1518. Kil- kenny Archaeological Society's Journal, 1858-9, p. 309, 1862-3, pp. 118-135. ^"1342. Parum ante Natale Domini obiit Leyserth O'Morthe, vir potens, dives et locuples, et in gente sua honoratus. Hie fere omnes Anglicos de terris suis et hereditate violenter ejecit : nam uno sero viii castra Angli- corum, combussit ; et castrum nobile de Dunmaske domini Rogeri de Mortuo Mari destruxit, et dominium sibi patriae usurpavit: de servo dominus, de subjecto princeps, efFectus." 41 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND of the house of Ormond from the scanty and steadily dwindling district which in the preced- ing century had acquired the name of " the English Pale." "There is no folk daily sub- ject to the King's laws but half the county of Uriel, half the county of Meath, half the county of Dublin, half the county of Kil- dare,'" says the report of 151 5 ; and the complaint is echoed by every writer on Irish affairs during the first quarter of the sixteenth century. The obedient districts were, it is true, somewhat larger than the language of the report would lead a modern reader to suppose. It must not be forgotten that the old county of Uriel included not only Louth but Monaghan :" that it was only in the thirty-fourth year of Henry VIII that Meath was divided into East and West Meath : ' that Wicklow was not severed from Dublin until after the accession of James I : * and that, before the formation of the King's and Queen's Counties, OfFaly, Leix, and the adjacent districts were regarded as forming part of the county of Kildare." Clyn's Annals, p. 29. " Lagenienses sibi regem fecerunt Donald MacMurrogh " (1327). Grace's Annals, p. 106, Finglas, Breviate. Davies, p. 302. * State of Ireland, 1515. ^ Spenser, Fieiv of the Present State of Ireland. Note to Ware's Edition. '34 Henry VIII, c. i, * Davies, Discovery, p. 333. ' Ware, Antiquities, ch. 5. Falkiner's Illustrations of Irish History, p. 114. 42 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND Each of these four shires was divided into two parts, an English portion or "maghery," of which the limits, at one time almost co- extensive with those of the modern counties of Louth, Meath, Dublin and Kildare, had lately been much reduced: and a "march" or Irish district, which, although nominally subject to the sheriff of the adjoining county, was the scene of a constant guerilla warfare not unlike that which raged along the Northumbrian border before the union of the English and Scottish crowns.^ In Great Britain, however, the debatable land between the two kingdoms was very small, and the havoc wrought by the borderers relatively slight : in Ireland, where the marches were as large, at least, as the civil districts, the insurgents frequently carried fire and sword to the very gates of the capital. Wexford, the county in which the Anglo- Norman adventurers had first landed, is some- times reckoned as a part of the Pale. The southern half of this county had been thickly ^ "In the reign of King Henry VII there passed an act which is called the Act of Marches and Maghery, that such as took coyne in the Maghery, or English Pale, should be esteemed felons." Articles exhibited by Oliver Sutton against the Earl of Kildare, December 2, 1565. This act is not in the Statute book. In 1515 Dundalk, Derver, Ardee, Sydan, Kells, Dangan, Kilcock, Claine, Naas, Kilcullen, Ballymore-Eustace, Rath- more, Rathcoole, Tallaght, and Dalkey, were the frontier towns ; but the boundaries were in a constant state of flux. State of Ireland, 151 5. 43 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND colonized by Strongbow and Robert FitzStephen, and the colonists had retained their English characteristics more completely than in any other part of the island except Fingal. The English language had long been exclusively spoken, and had only recently been superseded by a patois or "gallimaufreie" of both languages, "so as commonly the inhabitants of the meaner sort speak neither good English nor good Irish," But this English district was separated by the territories of the O'Byrnes, the O'Tooles, and the Kavanaghs from the main body of the Pale, with which, like Lecale in the north, it could only communicate by sea.^ ^ "The county of Wexford was the first country where the English set foot and conquered, as hath been seen before. This shire is the largest of any one in that country, and one part thereof still inhabited by the ancient Irish, which was the cause that Sir Henry Sidney and Sir William Drury would have made two other new shires within it. The north {sic) part should have been called Ferns, and that to the south (sic), near to Dublin, Wicklow ; but, finding that there were not sufficient and sure gentlemen to be sheriff, nor freeholders to make a jury for Her Majesty, it hath been let fall. Notwithstanding, it hath a kind of division in itself, for the south part, as the most civil part, is contained within a river called Pill, where the ancientest gentlemen, descended of the first conquerors, do inhabit : the other also, without the river, is inhabited by the original Irish, the Kavanaghs, Murroughs, and Kinsellaghs, who possess the woody part of the country, and yet are daily more and more scattered by our English gentlemen, who en- croach upon them, and plant castles and piles within them." — A Description of the Provinces of Ireland [1580?] Carew MSS., vol, 635, f, 54, Not in the printed Calendar. Cf. Stanihurst, p, 4. 44 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND The author of the report, which I have ah-eady so often quoted, tells a story of St. Brigid, that she "used to inquire of her good angel many questions of secrets divine: and 151 5 among others she inquired: 'Of what Christian land was most souls damned ? ' The angel showed her a land in the west part of the world. She inquired the cause why ? The angel said, for there the Christian folk died most out of charity. She inquired the cause why ? The angel said, for there is most continual war, root of hate and envy, and of vices contrary to charity : and without charity the souls cannot be saved. And the angel did show her the lapse of the souls of the Christian folk of that land, how they fell down into hell as thick as any hail shower." There could be no doubt, in the opinion of this writer, that Ireland was the land which the angel understood: "for there is no land in the world of so long continual war within himself, ne of so great shedding of Christian blood, ne of so great robbing, spoiling, preying, and burning, ne of so great wrongful extortion continually as Ireland. Wherefore, it cannot be denied by very estimation of man but that the angel did understand the land of Ireland." ' Whether our ancestors actually suffered for their crimes in another world, as this writer believed, it is not my purpose to inquire : ^ State of Ireland, 1515. 45 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND but his picture of their terrestrial condition is, unhappily, as well authenticated as it is painful. The laws of England are said to have been introduced into Ireland in the twelfth century, but those laws applied only to the English colo- nists, and extended only to those parts of the island which had been divided into counties after the English fashion. The native popula- tion, dwelling for the most part beyond these limits, neither acknowledged the authority of the law nor received its protection. " The mere Irish," says Sir John Davies, " were not only accounted aliens but enemies, and altogether out of the protection of the law, so that it was no capital offence to kill them."^ Had the Celts of Ireland, like their kindred in the Scottish Highlands, been confined to a particular part of the island, and separated from the invaders by a definite frontier, their exclu- sion from the protection of the law need not seriously have disturbed the general tranquillity of the country. Had they, like the Saxons in England, been completely subjugated, the gradual fusion, which never fails to take place between races occupying the same territory, and the sense of common interests must have led at length to the growth of a composite nationality. ■* Discovery, p. 264. 46 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND The actual course of events was very different. The native clans, who were neither subdued nor reconciled, were locally intermixed with the settlers, from whom, nevertheless, they con- tinued to be morally and legally divided. Under these circumstances the diversity of laws gave rise inevitably to a chronic warfare, which lasted without intermission from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, and during which Ireland sank steadily lower and lower in the scale of civilization. In order to escape from a condition which was universally felt to be intolerable, the Irish chiefs had repeatedly petitioned that the benefit of the law might be extended to themselves and their countrymen, and with these petitions the kings of England had generally been anxious to comply ; but every attempt at conciliation had hitherto been defeated by the passive resistance of the great Anglo-Irish lords, whose power and consequence depended on the con- tinuation of disturbances which it was their ostensible duty to suppress. The protection of English law was indeed granted as a special compliment to the five families which, before the invasion, had enjoyed the rank of provincial kings ; and " charters of denization " were occa- sionally conceded to individuals who had some peculiar claim upon the gratitude of the colonial government ; but these isolated acts of favour or justice served only to emphasize the more 47 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND strongly the general degradation and outlawry of the native population. ^ Very naturally, therefore, that population con- tinued to use the Brehon law, which had been in force among their ancestors since a period before the dawn of recorded history. The code, which was an object of unmixed aversion to English statesmen, had not originated in legisla- tion ; but consisted, like the English common law, of a body of immemorial usages, modified, extended and explained by the interpretations of a long succession of native lawyers. It is said to have been revised and reduced to writing shortly after the introduction of Christianity in the first half of the fifth century : nor, although the traditional story contains some obviously mythical episodes, is there any reason to doubt its substantial truth. ^ The Brehon, like all archaic codes, had been originally connected with religious beliefs and ceremonies ; and when those beliefs and ceremonies had become obsolete it must necessarily have stood in need of considerable alteration. From the fifth to the sixteenth century it underwent little formal change : but its provisions were tacitly adapted ^ 'Discovery, pp. 261-268. Davies attributes this narrow policy to "the pride, covetousness, and ill counsel of the English planted here, which in all former ages have been the chief impediments of the final conquest of Ireland," p. 281. ' Brehon Laws, I., 3. Cf. Maine, Lectures on the Early His- tory of Institutions, p. 2 1 . 48 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND by the Brehon lawyers to meet new contin- gencies. The most important features of the code, however, and those which most excited the indignation of English writers, were not distinctively Irish, but had been common at some period of its history to every portion of the Aryan race. Among the Irish, as among all nations in a similar stage of civilization, the idea of the state, and the correlative idea of crime as an offence against the community, were unknown : the Brehon law, regarding all injuries as torts, professed not to inflict punish- ment, but merely to award compensation.^ Hence the payment of the " eric " or blood- money, an arrangement which, originally introduced to limit the mischievous practice of private retaliation, marked a distinct advance upon the anarchic system which it superseded ; but which Englishmen, who uniformly test the institutions of foreign nations by the standard of their own country, believed to be nothing better than an elaborate contrivance for the composition of felonies.^ It is not surprising that the writers who indulged in this un- measured vituperation of a custom which they did not take the pains to understand, should have been unaware that a similar practice had once prevailed among their own ancestors : for on 1 Brehon Laws, III, Ixxxii, cxxi. 2 Spenser, p. 39. Davies, p. 290. Moryson, Itinerary, pt. iv, bk. ii, ch. 5. 49 E THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND the institutions of those ancestors they looked back with an ignorant contempt. But it is surely strange that, in the age which witnessed the great revival of classical learning, the thoughts of men should not have reverted to the day when the earliest of recorded litigants " contended for the eric of a murdered man." ^ While the quasi-criminal portion of the Brehon code thus incurred the moral repro- bation of English lawyers, the Irish law of real property was no less offensive to the same class upon a different ground. An Irish chief was not, it must be remembered, a mere land-owner, but an official with important military and ad- ministrative duties : and those duties could only be performed by a man of mature years, and great mental and bodily vigour. Under these circumstances a strict observance of the rule of hereditary succession was impossible, the sim- plicity of Celtic manners not allowing the clumsy and artificial expedient of a regency. On the death of a chief his eldest son, if of full age and otherwise eligible, was usually acknowledged as his successor; but, if the latter was a child, the chiefship passed to a more distant but duly qualified relative : and in any case the formal consent of the clan was required. In order to minimize — for it was impossible altogether to avert — the danger of a 8<5o S'avSpfs ivfiKeov t'vtKa n-on^s dvS/scts diroKTa/xivov, Iliad, xviii, 498. 50 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND disputed succession, a " tanist " or successor- designate was frequently elected during the lifetime of a chief, and, like the latter, was assigned a portion of the tribal lands for his maintenance. To English officials, trained in an exaggerated respect for primogeniture and hereditary right, this system appeared mis- chievous and anarchic in the extreme ; and, as the English power extended, it led in one instance after another to the most serious com- plications. The crown persisted in regarding the lands of an Irish tribe as the private property of the chief, which might be forfeited by his misconduct, and which, if not so forfeited, must descend to his legitimate heir. The tribesmen no less stubbornly asserted that they had a right to choose their own chiefs, and that those chiefs could not forfeit lands in which they had only a life interest. To the misunderstandings which thus arose must be attributed some of the most bloody rebellions in Irish history. ^ If the custom of tanistry excited the violent hostility of English statesmen, the semi-com- munistic tenure known as Irish gavelkind was even more repulsive to them. Although private property in land had existed in Ireland from a very early period, by far the larger part of the land belonging to an Irish sept was common ^ Brehon Laws, II, 279. Spenser, pp. 42-43. Ware, Jntiquities, ch. II. Moryson, Itinerary, pt. iv, bk. ii, ch. 5 ; bk. V, ch. 5. 51 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND property, and as such was liable to periodical re- distribution. Before the Norman invasion such redistributions seem to have taken place only at long intervals, and to have been occasioned principally by the growth of population. In the sixteenth century, however, they appear to have become very common, especially in the case of septs which bordered upon the English settlements, and of which the boundaries were in a constant state of flux ; and they had a great and pernicious effect in retarding the develop- ment of the country. ^ Two other usages, which, although of Celtic origin, had been very generally adopted by the colonists, incurred the same condemnation. That close attachment between the chief and his humbler clansmen, which was so essential to the stability of the tribal system, was secured and strengthened by the customs of" fosterage " and " gossipred." By the former custom the child of a chief was at a very tender age en- trusted to some member of the clan, who became responsible for his education, and ever after adhered to him with the most passionate fidelity : by the latter the chief would frequently accept the office of sponsor to some child of humble rank, who was thenceforth considered 1 Brehon Laws, III, 53 ; IV, 7, 9. Davies, Second Letter to the Earl of Salisbury, p. 386. Ware, Antiquities, ch. 11. Tanistry and gavelkind were finally abolished in the reign of James I. Davies, Report des Cases et Matters en Ley, ff. 28-42. 52 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND as having a special claim upon his protection. To statesmen, eager above all things for the com- plete and rapid anglicization of the island, the artificial relationships thus created were doubly hateful : first, as strengthening the tribal system, which it was their main object to destroy ; and secondly, as having contributed more effectively than even the inter-marriage of the races to what they arrogantly termed the " degeneracy " of the English colony. ' But it was only in the remote regions of Ulster and Connaught that the Brehon code survived in its integrity, the sub-division of those provinces into counties — a necessary preliminary to the introduction of English administrative machinery — dating only from the second half of the sixteenth century.^ In Munster and Leinster, on the other hand, the feudal system had been introduced more than three centuries earlier, and had neither superseded the tribal system nor amalgamated with it. The Nor- man lords and their retainers had taken posses- sion of the plains ; the native tribes had been driven into the woods, the bogs, and the mountains.^ There, engaged in a perpetual ^Brehon Laws, II, 147, 349. Ware, Antiquities, ch. 11. Spenser, p. 106. Davies, pp. 296-297. Moryson, Itinerary, pt. iv, bk. ii, ch. 5 ; bk. v, ch. 5. Camden, Britannia, Hardiman, Statute of Kilkenny. ^ Report of the Earl of Sussex, 1 562. — Carew MSS. Davies, p. 325. ' Fordun's Scoticronicon, II, 261. THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND warfare with a stronger race, cut off from all the influences of civilization, and finding their only security against oppression in a poverty which offered no temptation to the oppressor, they had rapidly acquired the habits of banditti ; and when, after the lapse of a century and a half, they recovered a great part of their old inheritance, they brought back those habits to the fertile regions from which they had been expelled. The Irish tribes in the south and east of the island were little better than bands of outlaws living under the nominal rule of a government which did not pretend to protect, but was occasionally able to punish them. The Norman lords, in the same districts, added the exactions of a feudal baron to those of a tribal chief, combining whatever was most iniquitous and tyrannical in both systems. The population of the two southern provinces was neither wholly English nor wholly Irish. The races were locally inter-mingled ; and, where races are locally inter-mingled, neither tra- ditional animosities nor legislative enactments have ever proved an effective barrier against inter-marriage. In Ireland such marriages had always been common, especially in the south- eastern counties : but they were forbidden by law, and the offspring of them were deemed illegitimate. Hence arose a half-caste population which, although outside the jurisdiction of the English government, had never been completely 54 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND organized on a tribal basis. Over this population, protected neither by English law nor by Irish custom, the Earls of Desmond, Kildare and Ormond exercised a despotic authority. The impositions known as "coyne and livery," which had been introduced by the first Earl of Desmond some two centuries earlier, afford a 1329 typical illustration of the manner in which the Brehon usages were perverted by the degene- rate English. By the custom known as "coinmed," an Irish chief was permitted to demand from his clansmen free quarters for a limited number of armed retainers on certain stated days in each year. The Anglo-Irish adopted the custom, but disregarded the limita- tions. They billeted their troops not only on their own tenants but upon all other persons within reach of their power, increased their numbers, and prolonged their extortions with- out any regard to the decisions of the native lawyers.^ Owing partly to these exactions, partly to the everlasting feud between the Earls of Ormond and Desmond, a great part of Mun- ster was turned into a wilderness. An English traveller, who visited the territories of the latter ^ For "coinmed" see Brehon Laws, II, 233, 257, 259, and for "coyne and livery " Finglas, Spenser, Davies, and the State Papers, passim. Davies, who confuses " coinmed " with " coyne and livery," says that the exaction *'was originally Irish," but that when the English adopted it they " used it with more insolency and made it more intolerable."-r-J!)M«wry, pp. 293- 294. Cf. Ware, Antiquities, ch. I2. 5S THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND nobleman in 1535, draws an appalling picture of the desolation of the country.^ The witness was not impartial, and his story may perhaps be ex- aggerated : but it is only too fully corroborated in its broad outlines. The Desmonds themselves, although lawless and violent, were by no means altogether un- civilized. Of the eleventh Earl, who, in 1528, engaged in a negotiation with Charles the Fifth, we have a highly curious picture in a de- spatch from the imperial ambassador, Gonsalo Fernandez, to that prince. After mentioning that he had landed at Cork, and been hospitably entertained by the Earl and his retainers at 1529 Dingle, the ambassador proceeds: "Your Majesty will be pleased to under- stand that there are in Ireland four principal cities. The city of Dublin is the largest and the richest in the island, and neither in the town nor in the neighbourhood has the Earl of Desmond land or subjects. The Earl of Kildare is sovereign of that district, but that Earl is a kinsman of the Earl of Desmond, and has married his cousin. The Earl of Kildare, ^ " Some day we rode sixteen miles of waste land, the which was Englishmen's ground, yet saw I never so goodly woods, so goodly meadows, so goodly pastures, and so goodly rivers, and so goodly ground to bear corn : and where the ridges were that hath borne corn, to my thinking there was no beast did eat it, not this twelve year, and it was the most part such waste all our journey." — Stephen Parry to Cromwell, October 6» ^535- ^f' Gray to Desmond, December 28, 1536. 56 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND however, is at present a prisoner in the Tower of London. " Of the other three cities one is called Water- ford, the second Cork, and the third Lirnerick ; and in all of these the Earl of Desmond has lordships and vassals. He has dominions also among the wild tribes ; he has lords and knights on his estates who pay him tribute. He has some allies, but not so many, by a great deal, as he has enemies. He has ten castles of his own, some of which are strong and well-built, especi- ally one named Dungarvan, which the King has often attempted to take without success. "The Earl himself is from thirty to forty years old, and is rather above the middle height. He keeps better justice throughout his dominions than any other chief in Ireland. Robbers and homicides find no mercy, and are executed out of hand. His people are in high order and discipline. They are armed with short bows and swords. The Earl's guard are in mail from neck to heel and carry halberds. He has also a number of horse, some of whom know how to break a lance. They all ride admirably without saddle or stirrup."^ ' Gonsalo Fernandez to Charles V, April 28, 1529. Froude's Pilgrim, Appendix, pp. 171-175. Hooker (Holins- head's Chronicles, VI, 324) represents the fourteenth Earl of Desmond as little better than a savage, and the picture has been reproduced by many writers. But Hooker is a very partial writer, and St. Leger, who knew Desmond well, calls him "a very wise and discreet gentleman." — To the King, February 21, 1541. 57 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND Threatened by Kildare on the north, by Desmond on the south and west, the Earls of Ormond were compelled to maintain a closer connection with the government. Concerning them, therefore, and their dominions we possess more detailed information. A catalogue of the misdeeds of the eighth earl, who had lately filled the office of Lord Deputy, was presented to Henry VIII in 1525, and aifords an interest- ing, and probably by no means an isolated, example of the predatory habits of the Anglo- Irish aristocracy. In this document it is stated that, the King's express prohibition notwith- standing, the Earl had "continually taken coyne and livery of all the King's subjects within the counties of Kilkenny and Tipperary, not only for his horsemen, kerne and galloglasses, but also for his masons, carpenters, tailors, being in 1525 his own works, and also for his sundry hunts" : that he had seized the King's manors within the same counties " without any patent or other authority, and, besides this, usurped the King's royal jurisdiction within the said two counties, taking all the King's escheats, fines, forfeitures and all other casualities there as his own" : that he had supplied Mulrony O'CarroU, one of the most dangerous of the border chieftains, with artillery for the purpose of making war upon the King's deputy : that, having a controversy with the O'Briens, "which are of the greatest power of any of the Irishry of this land, the 58 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND same Earl, at a communication with them for a concord to be had in the same, offered unto them their own desire touching their said con- troversy, so as they would have been boundcn to have taken his part against the King's said deputy": that, the Bishop of Leighlin having been brutally murdered by Maurice Kavanagh, an illegitimate son of the Abbot of Dusk and a near kinsman of the Earl of Ormond, assisted by three of the Earl's servants, " for that intent the said Abbot might have enjoyed that bishop- ric," Ormond had, nevertheless, retained the said servants in his employment, and assisted the Abbot and his son to evade the vengeance of the Deputy : that others of his servants " did burn, rob, and spoil a town called Lyvetiston, within the county of Kildare, where they cruelly mur- dered and burned seventeen men and women, divers of them being with child "; that he "kept a ward of evil-disposed persons in a pile adjoin- ing the sea, called Arklow, which do not only rob and spoil the King's subjects passing thereby, but also do ravish women, maidens and widows " : that the churches in Kilkenny and Tippcrary were " in such extreme decay, by provision, that, in a manner, there is no divine service kept there ; so as, and if the King's Grace do not see for the hasty remedy of the same, there is like to be no more Christentie there than in the midst of Turkey "; that the Earl had, of his own authority, imposed a heavy tax upon 59 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND the people of Kilkenny, " and made collectors to levy the same, as and it had been granted by authority of the King's parliament ; and would suffer no penny of the King's subsidy, which is granted by parliament^ to be levied there ": that he had induced O'Conor, O'CarroU, and others of the Irishry to make war upon the Earl of Kildare, " contrary to the tenor of the King's letters directed unto him for to have aided the said Earl of Kildare against the King's said rebels": and finally, that he had "taken forty marks of the seneschal of the county of Wexford for a penalty, because he took part with the said Earl of Kildare against the King's Irish rebels."' But the most minute and circumstantial account of the extortion practised by the great Anglo- Irish lords is to be found in the report of a royal commission which was appointed in 1537, after the defeat of the Kildare Geraldines, to inquire into the state of Ireland. In Louth, Meath, and Dublin, an inquiry appears to have been judged unnecessary, the government having other sources of information. On the other hand, the com- missioners did not venture to penetrate into the principalities of the house of Desmond, still less into the purely Irish provinces of Ulster and 1537 Connaught. Their investigations, therefore, were confined to the counties of Kildare — ^ Articles touching the misdemeanour of the Earl of Ormond, 1525. 60 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND which, during the Geraldine hegemony, had been virtually lost to the pale ^ — Carlow, Kil- kenny and Wexford in Leinster, and to those of Waterford and Tipperary in Munster. ^ Kilkenny and Tipperary, the dominions of the Earl of Ormond, were, as might have been expected, the scene of the worst misgovernment ; and the grand jury of the former county pre- sented an extremely courageous remonstrance against the oppression exercised by that power- ful nobleman.' Waterford, or that part of it ^ In 1534 Kildare was described as "one of the four shires that was late obedient to your laws, and now wholly under the governance of the Earl of Kildare." — Report on the State of Ireland, 1534. ' The reports of this commission, with some similar docu- ments relating to a later period, were printed in the Annuary of the Kilkenny Archaohgical Society, 1870. ' " The gentlemen, with all the commoners of the said county, the sovereign, with all the heads and commoners of the town of Kilkenny, be very desirous to be obedient to the King's laws, and to live in good civility ; and albeit the King's laws in the said county be not only clearly void and frustrate, but also all the exactions, suppressions, and other enormities before presented, with many more, be maintained and enforced only by the Earl of Ossory, my lady his wife, the Lord James Butler, Richard Butler, and other the said Earl's children and kin of his name, wherefore to provide that these persons may be reduced, and the county will be immediately prosperous, and of great strength to defend themselves against their enemies." — Presentments of the Juries of the Corporation and Commonalty of Kilkenny, of the Gentlemen and Com- moners of the County of Kilkenny, and of the Town of Irishtown : also of the Head and Commoners of the Town of Clonmel, and of the Gentlemen and Commoners of the County of Tipperary, October, 1537. 61 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND in which alone an inquisition could be held — for Sir Gerald MacShane, who ruled over the western half of the county, was able, like his kinsman the Earl of Desmond, to exclude the royal commissioners^ — was at this time under the government of a lady, Katherine, widow of Sir Richard Poer of Curraghmore, and daughter of the eighth Earl of Ormond, whose tyranny equalled or exceeded that of her father. * The Earl of Kildare had until recently been guilty of similar acts of oppression in Kildare and Carlow ;' while the "civil" portion of Wexford was subject to the triple tyranny of the " seneschal of the liberty of Wexford," who governed in the name of the absentee Earl of Shrewsbury, of the Ormond family, who were attempting to extend their dominions from Kilkenny eastward, and of ^ " Of all the whole shire of Waterford there answered the sessions the inhabitants scantljr of the one half, which is called the Powers' land or country : the other part one Gerald MacShane of Desmond, one of the Geraldines, a kinsman of James, pretended Earl of Desmond, possesseth and keepeth the same ; who will neither obey the King, his laws, ne officers, but adhereth wholly to the said pretended Earl, albeit that all the lands which he hath in the county of Waterford be of the King's old inheritance, as parcel of his honour and lordship of Dungarvan."— The Council of Ireland to Crom- well, January i8, 1539. ^ Presentments of the Juries of the County and City of Waterford, October, 1537. * Presentment by David Sutton to the King's High Com- missioners, September 20, 1537. See also, for the exactions of a later Earl of Kildare, the Articles by Oliver Sutton, December 2, 1 565. 62 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND the Bishop of Ferns, who had allied himself with ''the savage nation of the Kavanaghs," and was pillaging the English parts of the county.^ All the lords and gentlemen of these counties, and also, as appears from documents of a later date, those of Cork, Limerick, and Kerry, habitually took coyne and livery, the nature of which has already been explained. Most of them also exacted "kernety," a tax for the maintenance of kerne, and "bonnaught" or "boynes," a tax for the maintenance of gallo- glasses. Some of them further imposed " black beds"; that is to say, required payment for troops which existed only on paper. Almost all demanded "srah," an annual rent payable in money, and "mart," a similar rent payable in kind. All, without exception, kept Brehons, and administered either feudal or Brehon law, or a bastard system, known as the "Statutes of Kilcash," as best suited their own convenience.* The three Earls, with their wives, children, and servants, used to travel about "after the custom ^ Presentments of the Juries of the County and Town of Wexford, October, 1537. For the seneschal, William St. Loe, see also a letter o( the Council to Cromwell, January 18, 1539- ' Presentments of Juries, October, 1537. The meaning of the. terms is explained in a paper drawn up after the attainder of Desmond. Names of rents in moneys, victuals, and other revenues, which were due to the late Earl of Desmond, June, 1588. See also Ware, Antiquities, ch. I2. 63 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND and usage of wild Irishmen," to monasteries and gentlemen's houses, taking food and drink without payment, and quartering their horses and horseboys on the neighbouring farmers/ This practice, which, in spite of numerous acts of parliament, survived until the middle of the eighteenth century, was known as "coshery." Some lands were required to provide the lord, his friends and retainers, with food and lodging for four days four times a year, others for twenty-four hours once a fortnight. These exac- tions were called "cuddies" and "sorohen."^ If an Anglo-Irish lord enlarged his castle or his stables he extorted " musteroons " : that is to say, he compelled his tenants to provide him with carts, horses, and labour at their own expense. If he hunted he imposed a tax, "gillicree," for the support of his horses, and another tax, "gillicon," for the support of his ^ Report on the State of Ireland, 1534; ^ "Sorohen doth warrant the lord to come once in every fourteen days with all his company without limitation of any certain number, to the lands and tenements found by office to be charged therewith, and to take meat and drink for him and his said company of the inhabitants and freeholders of the said lands the space of twenty-four hours. " Cuddye, called a night supper, doth warrant the lord, with such company as pleaseth him, to come to the lands charged with that tenure j and to take meat and drink for him and his company of the inhabitants thereof the space of four days at four times of the year." — The nature of sorohen lands and other chargeable lands in Ireland, May, 1589. 64 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND hounds/ If he entertained the Deputy, or a neighbouring chieftain, or celebrated Easter or Christmas, he defrayed the expenses of his hospitality by a tax called "mertyeght." If he travelled to Dublin he defrayed the expenses of his journey by a tax called "south." In addition to these customary and almost legal exactions the Anglo-Irish lords were accused of waging private wars ; of allying themselves by marriage and fosterage with the king's enemies ; of inflicting arbitrary and illegal punishments on the King's subjects ; of erecting weirs, which impeded the navigation of rivers, and of violently interfering with the course of trade.* But whatever disorders were to be found in these districts, the condition of that part of the island which was subject to the direct control of the viceregal government was infinitely worse. The inhabitants of the four shires suffered the 1533- same oppressions as those of the border counties, ^537 and other oppressions also, from which the in- habitants of the border counties were free. Coyne and livery, with cuddies, coshery, and other kindred exactions, were as " immoderately ^ "Gillicree is as much to say in English, as a stud-keep allowed, to be maintained by his tenants." " Gillicon is as much to say as dog-keep oi" huntsman in like manner allowed." — Names of rents due to the late Earl of Desmond, June, 1588. ' Presentments of Juries, 1537. 65 F THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND universally used"^ in the heart of the English country as in the wildest parts of Munster : and writer after writer warned the King that the process by which the Earls of Desmond had been enabled to wrest that province from the crown was fast repeating itself within the narrow limits of the Pale.* "There is no march borderer, lord, knight, esquire, nor gentleman," Lord Leonard Gray wrote in 1537, "but hath more thieves belonging to him than true men":* and all other documents tell the same story. It appeared, " by relation of ancient men," that the ancestors of these gentlemen had kept " retinues of English yeomen in their houses after the English fashion." Their descendants kept "horsemen and knaves," who lived upon the King's subjects, and who, in addition to the cost of their keep, were guilty of every sort of ex- tortion and cruelty.* Although hating and despising the mere Irish, and openly advocating a policy of extermination,^ the lords of the Pale ^ Instructions to John Alen, 1533. ' Report to Cromwell, 1533. Luttrell to the Com- missioners, September, 1537. ' Gray to the Commissioners, September, 1537. * Instructions to John Alen, 1533. * "When the battle (of Knocktoe, 1504) was done, and a great number of the Irish slain, as it was reported nine thousand, the Lord of Gormanstown said to the Earl, 'We have done one good work, and if we do the other we shall do well.' Being asked what he meant, said he, 'We have for the most number killed our enemies, and if we do the like 66 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND had adopted the Irish manners, spoke the Irish language, and, except when attending parlia- ment, habitually wore the Irish dress. They administered Brehon or March law, meeting on hills after the Irish fashion; took "erics" and "caanes," and imposed penalties on all who dared to appeal against their tyranny to the pro- tection of the law courts. Nor was this all. They allowed their servants to rob and spoil the King's subjects ; brought up their children badly, and encouraged them in the perpetration of crime; and exercised "royal jurisdiction" over their tenants and poorer neighbours, com- pelling them to sell their produce at such prices as their lords thought fit to offer, and inflicting punishment on all who ventured to buy or sell without their permission.^ Had these noblemen been willing and able to preserve the Englishry from the attacks of the Irish borderers their oppression might, perhaps, have been tolerable. This, however, they neither did nor attempted to do. There was no longer any diversity in dress or language between the two nations, and the exclusion of the Irishry from the Pale, which had always been diiEcult, had thus become virtually im- possible. The statute book contains remarkable with all the Irishmen that we have with us, it were a good deed,'" — Book of Howth, p. 185, ^ Ordinances for the Government of Ireland, 1534. — Gray, Alen, and Luttrcll, to the Commissioners, September, 1537. 67 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND evidence of the decay of the colony during the fifteenth century. In the reign of Henry V the settlers, finding life in Ireland intolerable, had begun to emigrate in such numbers that an act was passed ordering them to return to 1413 their homes. ^ The emigration, nevertheless, continued ; and in the next reign the crown, rather than suffer the Pale to lie waste for want of inhabitants, began to grant "charters of denization" with a frequency unknown at an earlier period. It cannot be said that the re- sults of this experiment were satisfactory. The persons enfranchised belonged principally to those tribes which had been engaged in inces- sant hostilities with the settlers; they introduced into the Pale the habits contracted during three centuries of border warfare ; and the anarchy, which had hitherto been confined to the 1447 marches, was thus extended to the civil districts. ' Seized with panic, and realizing their own in- ability to maintain order, the Irish parliament next enacted that it should be lawful to the ^ I Henrjr V, c. 8. {English.) Luttrcll in 1537 recommended that this act should be enforced. * " Divers Irish enemies be many times received by lieuten- ants and justices of this land to become liege-men, and thereto are swrorn to be loyallieges during their lives: and after many times they do not perimplish the same, but do rob, burn and destroy the King's liege-people." — 25 Henry VI, c 5. Another act of the same year (c. 4) mentions that there was at this time "no diversity in array between the English marchers and Irish enemies," 68 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND King's lieges to kill "all manner notorious and known thieves":^ and that every Irishman 1450 who was not accompanied by a person in English apparel should be held to be a thief within the meaning of the act.* And, since 1465 the Irish population of the Pale had now be- come too numerous to be removed, it was further enacted that, for the preservation of English order, every Irishman within the four shires should assume an English sur- name, wear the English dress, and shave at least once a fortnight.' But this legislation also proved ineffective ; instead of the Irishry becoming " civil " the Englishry continued to become " degenerate ;" and in the reign of Henry VIII the de-anglicization of the island was complete. * " The inheritors of the lands of the Englishry," says an official document °f I533> "have admitted to be their ten- iS33 ants those of the Irishry which can live hardily, without bread, or other good victuals ; and some for lucre, to have of them more rent, ^ "Whereas, the thieves and evil doers increase in great store, and do destroy the commons, with their thefts, stealings and manslaughters, and also do cause the land to fall into decay and poverty, it is ordained that it shall he lawful to every liege-man of our Sovereign Lord the King to kill all manner notorious and known thieves." — 28 Henry VI, c. 3. ^ 5 Edward IV, c. 2, * Ibid., c. 3. Cf. 2$ Henry VI, c. 4. * " All the common people of the said half-counties, that obeyeth the King's laws, for the more part be of Irish birth, of Irish habit, and of Irish language." — State of Ireland, 151 5. 69 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND and some for other impositions than English husbands be able to give, together with the oppression of coyne and livery, have expelled them ; and so is all the country, in effect, made Irish, and without trust and security of defence, good order, or hospitality." ' Those who were loudest in their condemnation of these practices were themselves compelled, so rapid had the emigration of the English become, to follow their example.' The fortresses which had been built for the protection of the Pale were either in ruins or garrisoned by Irishmen or by those who were allied to them by marriage or foster- age ;' and the " lords marchers," whose duty it was to defend the English frontier, found it safer and more economical to insure their own pro- perties by allowing the enemy a free passage into the inland districts. And if any of them ^Instructions to John Alen, 1533. * " Whereas there is such scarceness of the English blood in these parts, that of force we [be] driven not only to take Irishmen, our natural enemies, to our tenants and earth-tillers, but also some to our household servants, some horsemen and kerne ; it is necessary to be enacted by parliament that none of an Irish nation, unless his grandfather, father, and himself were born in the English Pale, shall bide amongst us." — Alen to the Commissioners, September, 1537. ' " All the King's castles in this land be fallen to utter ruin and decay," — Instructions to John Alen, 1533. " For most part all the castles of the marches, being the inheritance to Englishmen of this country born, be inhabited either with men of Irish nation, or else with such as be combined by gossipred or fostering with Irishmen nigh to their borders." Gray to the Commissioners, September, 1537. 70 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND coveted a poor man's freehold he would bring in his Irish friends to " burn, destroy, and waste the said freehold ; and then the poor freeholder must of fine force be driven to sell the said free- hold to the lord, or else to have no profit thereof,"^ Betrayed by their natural protectors, and sur- rounded on all sides by powerful and inveterate enemies, the colonists, or such of them as still remained in the country, sought to purchase immunity from invasion by paying " black rents " to the most dangerous of the neighbour- ing chieftains. Lecale and Louth paid tribute to O'Neil ; Meath and Kildare to O'Conor ; Wexford to MacMurrough, who also received a grant from the King's exchequer ; Kilkenny 1515 and Tipperary to O' Carroll ; the city of Cork to MacCarthy, and the city of Limerick to OBrien. ^ Even these humiliating submissions did not always suffice to preserve the farms of the Englishry from pillage. It was the boast of the border chieftains that they " eat their beef from the English Pale "; and every family of importance possessed a professional cow- stealer, who was described by a polite euphemism as the " caterer."' To such an extent was this ^ Gray to the Commissioners, September, 1537. See also Norfolk to Wolsey, July 3, 1528. ''State of Ireland, 15 15. ^ Paper on " the Clan Kavanagh," by H. F. Hore, Kilkenny Archisological Journal, Ser, II, vol. ii, p. 74. The Kavanaghs, 1572 (C«r^w i/SS.). Davies, Letter to the Earl of Salisbury, 1607. 71 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND practice carried that an English resident in Dublin informed the government in 1533 that all the butchers in the capital had not sufficient beef to make one mess of browes ; that five or six preys had been taken within the last ten days ; and that a single butcher had lost as many as two hundred and twenty cattle.^ The King's deputies were as rapacious as any private gentlemen, and they enjoyed far greater opportunities of gratifying their rapacity. Kil- dare, Delvin, Ossory, each in turn, surpassed his predecessor in extortion ;* and even the most ardent reformers had ceased to think the coyne and livery could be abolished, and contented themselves with feeble attempts to regulate it.^ Native deputies used their office as a " cloak or habit to cover their cruel persecutions," prose- cuting their family feuds in the King's name, and appropriating the profits of a campaign, while ^ John Dethyk, September 3, 1533. ^Luttrell to the Commissioners, September, 1537. 'Ordinances for the Government of Ireland, 1534. "As for all the heart of the English Pale there needeth no coyne ne livery ; but as yet in the marches there must be a continuance thereof, but some moderation must be." — Cowley to Crom- weU, 1 537- "That no coyne ne livery be used, but by such as be appointed by the King's printed book, and the orders there mentioned observed." — Alen to the Commissioners, Sep- tember, 1537. " Although coyne and livery utterly cannot be put awray, till the country be at some better stay than it is, yet some moderation may be had therein." — Luttrell to the Commissioners, September, 1537. 72 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND the people bore the expense.^ English deputies came over fully resolved that the licence of the soldiery should cease. They found that they could not rule without an army ; that they had not the means to pay an army ; that an army which was not paid must be permitted to support itself by plunder. " The King's army in England is the commons, and the King's army in Ireland is all such that oppress the com- mons."^ But even this was not the worst. The deputies were constantly changed, and every new deputy made it a main object of his policy ^ Report to Cromwell, 1533. "Some sayeth, the King's Deputy useth to make so many great roads, journeys, and host- ings, now in the north parts of Ulster, now in the south parts of Munster, now into the west parts of Connaught, and taketh the King's subjects with him by compulsion, in times with a fortnight's victual, and oft-times victual for three or four weeks, and constraineth and chargeth the poor common people with all the carriage of the same, and giveth licence to all the noble folk, for the more part, to cess and rear all their costs on the common people, and on the King's poor subjects ; and the fine of that great journey and hosting commonly is no other in effect, but that the Deputy useth to receive a reward of one or two hundred kine to himself, and so depart, without any more hurt to the King's enemies, after that he hath turned the King's subjects, and the poor common folk to their charge and costs, by estimation, of two or three thousand pounds." — State of Ireland, 15 15. See also "The State of the English Pale and Civil Shires," 1559 {Carew MSS.). The campaign of Knocktoe, one of the most bloody in Irish history, had its origin in a family quarrel between Kildare, then Deputy, and his son-in-law, McWilliam Uachtar. — Book of Howth, p. 181. * State of Ireland, 15 15. Cf. Henry to Surrey, July, 1520. 73 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND to disgrace and persecute all who had enjoyed the confidence of his predecessor. Thus no man could feel confident that what at one moment was esteemed a proof of loyalty might not afterwards be imputed to him as a crime ; and many who had no thought of treason were driven to take arms against the Deputy in self- defence, " and so, little by little, to encroach in disobedience, omitting well nigh their duties to that authority."^ Neither the crown nor the courts of justice afforded any protection against the tyranny of the local administration. Far from being will- ing to spend money upon Ireland — and without a considerable expenditure reform of any sort was impossible — the King of England thought only of extorting subsidies from the impover- ished and almost starving population of the Pale. " The courts of law had neither the will 15 1 5- nor the power to restrain the excesses of the ^537 aristocracy. The lords of the Pale had for- bidden their tenants to appeal to them ;' few persons ventured to disregard this prohibition ; ^ Report to Cromwell, 1533. ^ Lord Deputy and Council to Henry, October 29, 1536; April 20, 1537. Instructions to St. Leger and others, 1537. ' " Divers march lords and captains have made laws among themselves that whosoever, under their rule, pursue any action at the Kings's laws shall forfeit five marks." — Alen to the Com- missioners, September, 1537. "Some marchers have set fines, otherwise called canys, upon such as would sue at the King's laws." — Luttrell to the Commissioners, September, 1537. 74 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND and those few profited little by their temerity. The very hall in which the law had formerly been administered was in ruins ; ^ and the administration of justice was frequently para- lysed by the impossibility of finding persons qualified to sit on juries/ Even if these obstacles were overcome a more serious difficulty remained. The judges themselves were almost always incompetent and generally corrupt ; ' "wherefore the said subjects be so grievously vexed daily with the said courts, that they be glad to sell their freeholds for ever, rather than to suffer always the vexation of the said courts : like as the freeholders of the marches, where the King's laws be not obeyed, be so vexed by extortion, that they be glad in like wise to sell their lands and freeholds to such persons that compelleth them by means of extortion to make alienation thereof, rather than always to bear and be under the said extortion. ^ "And in any wise some order to be taken immediately for the building of the castle hall, where the law is kept : for if the same be not builded, the majesty and estimation of the law shall perish, the justices being enforced to minister the laws upon hills, as it were Brehons or wild Irishmen." — Alen to the Commissioners, September, 1537. * Luttrell to the Commissioners, September, 1537. ' "The judges here take fees commonly of every man," — Cowley to Cromwell, October, 4, 1536. "Many rewards be taken for selling of justice." — Alen to the Commissioners, September, 1537. On November 30, 1537, a merchant named Bolter wrote to Cromwell accusing Judge Luttrell of corruption (MS. R.O.). IS THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND "And so, what with the extortion of coyne and livery daily, and with the wrongful exaction of hosting money, and of carriage and cartage daily, and what with the King's great subsidy yearly, and with the said tribute, and black rent to the King's Irish enemies, and other infinite extortions and daily exactions, all the English folk of the counties of Dublin, Kildare, Meath, and Uriel, be more oppressed than any other folk of this land, English or Irish, and of worse condition be they at this side, than in the marches." ^ One section of the community, and one alone, enjoyed a partial exemption from this oppression. While the rural population was ground to pow- der by the exactions of palatine and chief, or by the still more intolerable tyranny of the Dublin government, the inhabitants of the cities and walled towns of Ireland had attained to a con- siderable pitch of prosperity and civilization. The burgesses were protected by their walls from the attacks of the native chiefs, and pre- served by distance from the interference of the Deputy. Holding little intercourse with the Celtic population, with which their relations were far from friendly, they had generally es- caped the degeneracy so prevalent in the rural districts; but their connection with the English government was purely nominal. As the Earls ^ State of Ireland, 15 15. 76 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND of Desmond and Ormond had become in practice independent sovereigns, the towns of Waterford, Cork, Limerick, and Galway, had virtually developed into self-governing republics. They elected their own magistrates, excluded the King's judges, contributed nothing to the King's revenue, declared war, and concluded peace without the smallest regard for the Deputy or the Dublin parliament.^ For this scandalous state of things there were two possible remedies — the rise of a native monarchy, or a complete conquest, accompanied by large and statesmanlike measures of concilia- tion. The existence of the English government offered an insuperable obstacle to the first ; its parsimony and imbecility seemed to preclude all possibility of the second. Had the King of England abandoned, as at one time seemed prob- able, the attempt to reduce a dependency from which his predecessors had reaped nothing but disaster and disgrace, the prevailing anarchy might not have immediately ceased; but the chief cause of that anarchy would, at least, have been removed. On the other hand, had Henry, instead of contenting himself with a titular sovereignty, made a vigorous attempt to assert his authority throughout the island, and to ex- ercise it in the interest of the inhabitants, it can ^ In 1524 the cities of Limerick and Galway waged a war with one another which was concluded by a formal treaty of peace. — Hardiman's History of Galway, 'p^p. 77-78. 77 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND hardly be doubted that he would have met with a large measure of support. The provincial cities had an obvious interest in the establish- ment of order, and, until the Reformation gave a new direction to their sympathies, the bur- gesses never showed the smallest inclination to take part in the insurrections of the native chieftains/ The people of the Pale would have rallied enthusiastically to the support of any government which had the will and the power to protect them. "The King's rebels," in the opinion of many who had the best opportunities of judging, had only deserted the government because the govern- ment had deserted its duties, and would be glad enough to return to their allegiance." More than one of the Celtic chiefs was not only willing but eager to exchange his preca- rious independence for the dignity and security of an English earldom.' The " churls," or labouring classes desired nothing but to be pro- tected from coyne and livery, and to enjoy the ^ The position of the walled towns at the end of the cen- tury is very fully described in Fynes Moryson's Itinerary, pt. iv, bk. ii, chap. 5. During the lifetime of Elizabeth they remained, at least, outwardly loyal, but went into open insur- rection on the accession of James I. Their grievances, which were altogether distinct from those of the " mere Irish," will be described in a subsequent chapter of this work. ^ State of Ireland, 15 15. ' As was proved a few years later in the cases of O'Neil, O'Donel, O'Brien and McWilliam. See infra, ch. 5. 78 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND fruits of their industry in peace/ Even the " wood-kerne " were not irreclaimable. They lived by plunder, chiefly because, in the existing condition of society, it was impossible for them to live otherwise. But the task of welding together the dis- cordant elements of Irish life, although less hopeless than has sometimes been supposed, required an amount of tact and patience, a sin- cerity in dealing with the native chieftains, and a respect for the native usages of which few English statesmen were capable, as well as a continuous attention which no English states- man was able to give. It was easier, so long as no immediate danger threatened, to retain the name, while neglecting the duties of govern- ment, and to foster disturbances which might prepare the way for future conquest. The con- solidation of the clans would have been fatal to this benevolent purpose, and no effort was spared to prevent it. The aim of the King and his advisers was not the restoration of order but the ^ " So soon as we shall arrive in Ireland there is no doubt but there will great numbers of the husbandmen, which they call churls, come and offer to live under us, and to farm our grounds, both such as are of the country birth, and the English Pale. For the churl of Ireland is a very simple and toilsome man, desiring nothing but that he may not be eaten out with cess, coyne, nor livery." — A Tract on the Colonization of Ards, by Sir Thomas Smith. So too, Finglas, Breviate. "There be no better labourers than the poor commons of Ireland, nor sooner will be brought to good frame, if they be kept under the law." 79 THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND perpetuation of anarchy, and they interfered with just sufficient energy and frequency to prevent the native chiefs from governing the country. A chief who was not at war with his neighbours was suspected, not always unjustly, of conspiring with them ; and vast sums of money were annually expended in sowing dis- sensions among the native population.^ ^ " Finally, because the nature of Irishmen is such that for money one shall have the son to war against the father, and the father against the child, it shall be necessary the King's grace have always treasure here, as a present remedy against sudden rebellions." — Alen to St. Leger, 1537. See also Henry to the Lord Lieutenant and Council, July, 1520. 80 CHAPTER II THE GERALDINE REVOLT In the Pale, meanwhile, the authority of the crown was completely over-shadowed by that of the house of Kildare ; and it was only by entrusting the government to the head of that at house that the King of England was able to preserve a show of sovereignty, and occasionally to obtain a scanty revenue. Owing to their geographical position the Kildare Geraldines never attained to such complete independence as their Desmond kinsmen ; but, on the other hand, their proximity to the capital generally enabled them to dictate a policy to the government. The Earls held the entire countv of Kildare, with parts of Meath, Dublin and Carlow ; while their castles stretched from Strangford on the coast of Down to Adare a few miles from Limerick.^ The aristocracy of the Pale looked upon them as their natural leaders ; while during three generations they had made it a main object of their policy to connect themselves, by ^ Lands belonging to the Earl of Kildare, 1537. — Carew MSS. Rental book of the Earl of Kildare in the Journal of the Kilkenny Archaologual Society, vol. v, vii, Cf, Lord Deputy and Council to Henry, June 26, 1536. 81 G THE GERALDINE REVOLT dynastic alliances, with the most powerful of the Celtic chieftains. ^ During the fifty years which preceded the breach between the King of England and the papacy the office of Lord Deputy was filled, with a few short intervals, by two successive Earls of Kildare. Originally appointed by Edward IV, Gerald, the eighth Earl, was, in spite of his notorious Yorkist proclivities, retained in office by Henry VII — probably because the King was afraid to dis- place him. "All Ireland," the Bishop of Meath is said to have complained to that prince, "cannot rule this Earl." "Then in good faith," replied the King, "this Earl shall rule all Ireland."^ He died in office in 151 3, and bequeathed his power to his son, who ruled all Ireland with undiminished authority for the next twenty years. Twice removed from office he was twice restored, experience having shown that it was impossible to govern his country in his absence. Among the native lords the Earls of Ormond and Desmond ^ A daughter of the seventh Earl of Kildare married Henry O'Neil, Prince of Tyrowen. Of the daughters of the eighth Earl, Alice was married to her first cousin Con O'Neil, Eleanor to MacCarthy Reagh and afterwards to Manus O'Donnel, Margaret to the eighth Earl of Ormond, and Eustacia to MacWilliam Uachtar. Mary, daughter of the ninth Earl, was married to Brian O'Conor, chief of Ofialy, and her sister Ellen to Fergananim O'Carrol of Ely. — The Earls of Kildare, pp. 42, 70-76, 121. ^ Book of Howth, p. 180. 82 THE GERALDINE REVOLT were his only possible competitors ; while the appointment of an English deputy was the signal for a general revolt on the part both of Celts and colonists, Kildare's cousin, the Earl of Desmond, reigned over a still larger territory ; but the Desmonds had practically be- come independent sovereigns, and, since the judicial murder of the eighth earl sixty years earlier, his descendants claimed and enjoyed the singular privileges of never attending parliament or entering any walled city.^ The Butlers were frequently employed, and always with the most disastrous results. When the Earl of Ormond was Lord Deputy it was impossible for him to defend the four shires, "nor scant his own 'Thomas, eighth Earl of Desmond, wasexecutcd at Drogheda in 1467, on a charge of connecting himself by marriage and fosterage with the King's Irish enemies. It is said, however, that the reason publicly alleged for his execution was a mere pretence, and that in reality he fell a victim to the hostility of Elizabeth Woodville, the wife of Edward IV, which he had incurred by endeavouring to persuade that sovereign to marry a foreign princess. — Report on the State of Ireland, 1534. Submission of the fourteenth Earl of Desmond, January 16, 1 541. Memorial by the Earl of Desmond. Carew MSS. Davies erroneously states that Desmond was executed for taking Coyne and livery. — Discovery, p. 308. Cf. Ware, Antiquities, ch. 12, where the act of attainder is cited, and Lodge, Peerage of Ireland, I 69, 70. Richard III, writing to the ninth Earl, September, 1484, described his father as having been "extor- ciously slain and murdered by colour of the laws within Ireland by certain persons then having the governance and rule there, against all manhood, reason and good conscience." — Gairdner, Letters and Papers illustrative of the reigns of Richard III and Henry Vll, I, 68. 83 THE GERALDINE REVOLT country"; the Leinster septs, who were com- paratively quiet while Kildare was in office, attacked the Pale, and Desmond availed himself of his rival's absence to ravage Tipperary. ^ In spite, therefore, of the inveterate hostility of Wolsey, Kildare continued to act as Deputy, with only two short intervals, until the spring of 1534. In 1 5 19, it is true, the King seems to have become suddenly aware that the condi- tion of Ireland was not entirely satisfactory : the Earl was ordered to repair to London to answer charges of conspiracy and extortion ; ^ and Lord Surrey, better known by his later title of Duke of Norfolk, was sent to Ireland to carry out what is sometimes called a vigorous policy. The new Lord Deputy went to work with energy, and has been rewarded with the applause of historians who cannot understand that spas- modic acts of violence are a sign not of strength 1 520- but of weakness. Collecting such forces as he 1 521 could muster he marched from one end of ^ "And, if any labour be made unto your Grace to make the Earl of Ossory or his son Deputy, in no wise to condescend thereunto ; for, if they had the rule, being so far off as they be, and also at war with the Earl of Desmond and O'Brien, it shall be impossible for them to defend the four shires, nor scant their own country ; and, when they shall come into the four shires they must come strong, and shall spend so much in the country that they shall do more hurt far than good." — Norfolk to Wolsey, July 3, 1528. '^ "Seditious practices, conspiracies and subtle drifts." — Henry to Surrey, July, 1520. 84 THE GERALDINE REVOLT Ireland to the other, burning, plundering and slaying. Chieftain after chieftain was defeated, submitted, and revolted again, as soon as the Lord Deputy was occupied elsewhere. The havoc wrought was unspeakable ; but it is easier to lay waste a country than to subdue it, and, after eighteen months of useless butchery, Surrey was compelled to confess that his mission had been a failure and to request to be relieved of his functions. He still thought that the reduction of the island might be practicable ; but he acknowledged that it would be a more difficult matter than he had at first anticipated, and told the King with great frankness that he must be prepared to pay for it both in men and money. ^ Henry, who shrank from expense, if not from bloodshed, resolved to adjourn the conquest to a more convenient season. After two more years of anarchy — for Surrey had been succeeded by the titular Earl of Ormond, ^ ^ Surrey to Henry, July 31, 1521. ^ After the death of the seventh Earl of Ormond, in 1515, the succession was disputed between Sir Pierce Butler, claiming as- heir male, and Sir Thomas Boleyn, afterwards Earl of Wiltshire, claiming as heir general. The former was in actual possession of the Earldom, and was always known in Ireland as Earl of Ormond ; but, although the title was sometimes given to him, even in official documents, his claim was not, at this time, recognized by the Crown. Henry, writing to Surrey, October, 1521, calls him "Sir Pierce Butler, pretending him- self to be Earl of Ormond." In 1527 he resigned his claim to the earldom in favour of Lord Wiltshire, and received instead the title of Earl of Ossory. Ten years later the old title was 85 THE GERALDINE REVOLT whose appointment was attended with the usual consequences — Kildare was sent back to Ireland, being, by common consent, the only person capable of restoring order. An interval of delusive tranquillity followed; but in 1527 the Earl was again summoned to England, and this time on a more definite charge. The Earl of Desmond had engaged a few years earlier in a treasonable negotiation with France. It was not pretended that Kildare had been personally concerned in this transaction ; but he was be- lieved, perhaps justly, to have displayed no very ardent zeal for the apprehension of his kinsman. On his arrival in London, Kildare was denounced as a traitor by the Cardinal, " rather for the deadly hatred he bare his house than for any great matter he had wherewith to charge his person."^ He defended himself with an elo- quence and skill which won the admiration even of his enemies ; but his defence was pronounced unsatisfactory, and he was detained for some months in the Tower, until the critical con- dition of Ireland once more compelled Henry to appeal to him for assistance. During the two years which had elapsed since his departure, the Irish government had been restored to him, Lord Wiltshire "being content to be named Earl of Ormond in England, semblably as there be two Lord Dacres, the one of the north, and the other of the south." — Carew MSS. ^ Stanihurst, p. 283. 86 THE GERALDINE REVOLT growing daily more contemptible. Lord Delvin, Kildare's successor, was ignominiously kidnapped by O'Conor Faly, and only released on the pay- 1528 ment of a large ransom ;^ and, after the Earl of Ossory had been suffered to give fresh proofs of his incompetence, Sir William Skeffington was appointed Deputy, with instructions to govern, by Kildare's advice.^ It can scarcely be said that this arrangement was a happy one ; Kildare did not affect to conceal his contempt for a Deputy who had neither rank, ability, nor local knowledge ; and Skeffington, like all Englishmen, obstinately refused to be guided by anyone who was so unfortunate as to be personally acquainted with the condition of the country. After three years of friction Skeffing- ton was recalled, and Kildare became Deputy for the third time.* But, although restored to office, the earl never 1532 regained his old ascendancy. Skeffington, who possessed talents for intrigue, if none for govern- ment, bitterly resented his dismissal, and plotted persistently against his successor. He was assisted by a much abler man. John Alen, an ecclesiastic of obscure origin but great talents, had been one of Wolsey's most active agents in ^The Council of Ireland to Wolsey, May 15, 1528 ; Inge and Bermingham to Norfolk, May 1 5 ; Butler to Inge, May 20 ; Ossory to Inge, May 21 ; Ossory to Henry, June 10. ''Instructions to Sir William Skeffington, 1529. 'Stanihurst, p. 285. 87 THE GERALDINE REVOLT the suppression of the English monasteries, and had subsequently been appointed, through the Cardinal's influence. Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. On Kildare's resto- ration he was deprived of the great seal, which was transferred to George Cromer, Archbishop of Armagh, but retained the authority insepar- able from a great ecclesiastical position, and was the acknowledged leader of the English or anti- Geraldine party in the council. The Arch- bishop was supported by the Master of the Rolls — his namesake and probably his kinsman — by Thomas Cannon, secretary to the late deputy, and by Robert Cowley, a gentleman who had been in the employment of the eighth Earl of Kildare, but had afterwards conceived a grudge against his son. It is scarcely necessary to add that the enemies of the Lord Deputy could always rely on the assistance of the Earl of Ossory and of his son. Lord Butler. ^ Nevertheless, so long as the great Earl retained his mental and bodily faculties, the King continued to turn a deaf ear to his traducers. Kildare might not be an ideal ' viceroy, but Ossory was the only available alternative ; and Henry, profiting by experience, was. fully determined never again to surrender Ireland to the tender mercies .of the house of Butler. In December 1532, however, the Earl ^ Stanihurst, pp. 287-288. Roy's Satire on Wolsey, Harleian Miscellany, ix, 3. For Cowley, see also Book of Howth,^. 192. 88 THE GERALDINE REVOLT was severely wounded while besieging a castle of O'CarroU, and from that hour he was a mere wreck. He who had of late been active, eloquent, sagacious, became dull, lethargic, in- capable of sustained exertion, and of articulate speech.' The control of affairs now passed completely into the hands of the anti-Geraldine Party, and Sir John Alen, as the mouthpiece of that party, was despatched to England to lay the complaints of the council before the King. The letters presented by that functionary to Cromwell, and communicated by Cromwell to his master, contained a detailed account of the miserable condition of the country and a passionate indictment of the policy of the Lord Deputy.^ The general truth of the story was undeniable, but Kildare was scarcely more responsible than his accusers. Henry, however, was in an irritable mood, and was not disposed to inquire too closely into the justice of accusa- tions which afforded him a pretext for venting his ill-humour. Alen, moreover, had power- ful auxiliaries in London. The Butlers had recently acquired increased influence owing to ^ " He never after enjoyed his limbs, nor delivered his words in good plight : otherwise like enough to have been longer forborne in consideration of his many noble qualities, great good services, and the state of those times." — Stanihurst, p. 285. Cf, Walter Cowley to Cromwell, December 21, 1532. ^ Instructions to John Alen, 1533. Report to Cromwell, 1534. 89 THE GERALDINE REVOLT the King's marriage with their kinswoman/ and that influence was steadily employed to effect the downfall of their hereditary enemy. The enormous power of Cromwell was exerted on the same side. That able but unscrupulous minister felt towards the old nobility, of whose contempt for his plebeian origin he was keenly conscious, a hatred scarcely inferior in intensity to that with which he regarded the monastic orders ; and, as the friend and disciple of Wolsey, he had special reasons for hostility towards the house of Kildare. The anti-papal feeling was at its height in English political circles ; and the Geraldines, although they had not yet openly declared themselves, were probably suspected of looking upon the recent changes with no friendly eye. In February 1534, Kildare was sum- moned to London to give an account of his stewardship for the third time.^ With many misgivings the aged chieftain prepared to obey. In order to disarm suspicion, or possibly because the King had not even yet resolved to break with him, he had been in- formed that he might choose some person in whom he had confidence, to govern the country until his return.' He selected his eldest son, Thomas, Lord Offaly, a brave, handsome and . ■" Anne Boleyn, great grand-daughter of the seventh Earl of Ormond. ^ 28 Henry VIII, c. i. Henry to Ossory, May 31, 1534. 5 Ibid. 90 THE GERALDINE REVOLT accomplished youth, then in his twenty-first year. To him he committed the sword, en- treating him, in a speech of singular solemnity and pathos, to be guided by the counsels of those who, although his inferiors in rank, were his superiors in experience ; and set sail a few days later on that memorable journey from which he was never destined to return. On his arrival in London he was again examined before the council — the same council before which he had triumphantly defended himself only a few years earlier. But Kildare, in 1534, was no longer the man that he had been in 1528. Charged with using the King's artillery for the defence of his own castles, the Earl mumbled an unintelligible reply. His hesitation, due in reality to his recent wound, was ascribed by his accusers to a guilty conscience, and he was once more committed to the Tower. ^ In Ireland, meanwhile, all was chaos. The 1534 young Vice-Deputy inherited his father's popu- larity, and, perhaps, his father's talents ; but he was hot-headed and inexperienced, and he fell an easy victim to the veteran conspirators who had overthrown his father. The first meeting of the council, after Kildare's departure, was disturbed by angry bickerings. Before the end of May it was known in Dublin that the Earl was a prisoner, and that Skeffington had been 1 Stanihurst, p. 287. 91 THE GERALDINE REVOLT appointed to succeed him. From that hour the rival factions no longer pretended to conceal their hostility. OfFaly, alarmed for his father's safety, began to consider the possibility of resist- ance. The Alens and their party, afraid above all things lest Kildare should return — as he had twice returned already — to take a terrible ven- geance on his enemies, resolved to guard against such a contingency by goading the Vice-Deputy into a premature and hopeless rebellion. A letter, ostensibly written in London, but com- posed, as there is reason to believe, by the Archbishop, was addressed to one of Skcffington's friends in Dublin, informing him that Kildare "was already cut shorter, as his issue presently should be"; and, by circumstances ingeniously contrived to wear the appearance of accident, was placed in the hands of "a gentleman retaining to the Lord Thomas," who, on be- coming acquainted with the contents, made haste to communicate them to James Delahide, one of OfFaly's most trusted advisers. Delahide, not doubting the truth of the story, at once informed his master, at the same time inciting him to rebellion, "cloaking the odious name of treason with the zealous revengement of his father's execution, and the wary defence of his own person." ^ On June 1 1 th OfFaly, attended by a body ^ Stanihurst, p. 289. Cf. the examination of Robert Reilly, August 5, 1536, — Carew MSS. 92 THE GERALDINE REVOLT guard of seven score horsemen, galloped through the streets of Dublin to the Abbey of St. Mary, where the council were assembled to receive him. Entering the council chamber at the head of his armed retainers, he surrendered the sword of state, "already bathed in the Geraldines' blood and now newly whetted in hope of a further destruction," to the astonished councillors, declaring that he had received it with an oath to use it for their benefit, and would not stain his honour by turning it to their destruction. He was no longer Henry's Deputy but his foe, and desired rather to meet him in the field than to serve him in office. The Archbishop of Armagh, the steady friend of his house, besought him, with tears in his eyes, to desist from so wild and hopeless an enterprise. For a moment the young lord seemed disposed to listen, but his followers, who, although unable to understand the Archbishop's words, conjectured his meaning from his gestures, interrupted him with jeers ; an Irish harper raised a pxan in honour of the Geraldines ; and, roughly telling the old man that he had come not to consult with him as to what he should do, but to tell him what he meant to do, OfFaly left the room with his attendants and began to collect his followers on Oxmantown Green. The council dispersed in a panic, and the Arch- bishop of Dublin, accompanied by the Chief 93 THE GERALDINE REVOLT Baron and a few others who had special reasons to dread the vengeance of the insurgents, took refuge in the Castle. ^ Although ill-concerted and feebly followed up the rebellion which now broke out was — when considered in connection with the ex- communication pronounced three months pre- viously by Clement and the attitude of the continental powers — the most formidable with which the Irish government had yet had to con- tend. Until about the end of the fifteenth century the condition of Ireland had been rather disgrace- ful than dangerous to her titular sovereigns. Insurrections had been frequent ; but they had had their origin in local grievances, and had attracted scarcely any attention abroad. No English faction had, even when in arms against the crown, attempted to connect its cause with that of the insurgent Irish ; nor, with the single exception of Bruce, had any foreign sovereign made use of Irish assistance in a war with England. But the support which, after the battle of Bosworth, the Yorkist claimants had received in Ireland had attracted the notice of both the foreign and domestic enemies of the Tudor dynasty. In 1523, while the relations of the European powers were as yet unembittered 1523 by religious differences, James, eleventh Earl of Desmond, engaged in a secret correspondence ^ Stanihurst, pp. 289-292. Finglas to Cromwell, July 21, 1534. 94 THE GERALDINE REVOLT with Francis I.^ Foiled in this attempt by the diplomatic revolution which brought England into alliance with France, the same nobleman engaged a few years later in a similar corre- 152 J spondence with Charles V.^ This negotiation also came to nothing ; the Earl died suddenly before any definite agreement had been arrived at, and his successor, an old man and unambi- tious, had no mind for so perilous an enterprise. But so long as Charles continued hostile the renewal of the negotiation was always possible ; and in July 1534, a few weeks after OfFaly's resignation, it was reported from Waterford that the imperial agent who had visited Desmond five years earlier, was once more intriguing with the disaffected chiefs of Munster.' The moment ^ Articles between Francis I, King of France, and James, Earl of Desmond. — Cotton MSS., Titus, b. xi, 1 94. In the Record Office is the draft of a bill for the attainder of James, Earl of Desmond, for treason in entertaining " the Lord Kendall" [the Comte de Candalle] and other Frenchmen, and in corresponding with Francis I. This bill was trans- mitted to the Irish government, but was never passed, as no parliament was held in Ireland between the date of this nego- tiation and the death of Desmond in 1529. ^Froude's Pilgrim, pp. 169-175. ' " This instant day report is made by the vicar of Dun- garvan that the Emperor hath sent certain letters unto the Earl of Desmond by the same chaplain or ambassador that was sent unto James, the late Earl : and the common bruit is there, in those quarters, that his practice is to win the Geral- dines and the O'Briens ; and that the Emperor intendeth shortly to send an army to invade the cities and towns by the sea-coasts of this land." — William Wise to Cromwell, July 12, 1534. Cf. The Pi/grim, pp. 175-176- 95 THE GERALDINE REVOLT was well chosen. The King of England was isolated abroad and unpopular at home. During the first five and twenty years of his reign it had been the great object of his foreign policy to maintain the balance between the French and Spanish monarchies, and in this policy he had hitherto been supported by the Pope. The Bishop of Rome was one of those petty princes who had most reason to dread the rise of a uni- versal monarchy ; and Clement, who was far more a politician than a priest, exhibited during the earlier years of his pontificate at least as much anxiety to disturb the political as to pre- serve the religious tranquillity of Europe. The ■excommunication of March, 1534, deprived Henry of his most serviceable ally, and other- wise greatly increased his difficulties. Losing sight of every other consideration in his de- sire to punish the schismatical monarch, the Sovereign Pontiff became thenceforth as eager to promote as he had previously been anxious to prevent a cordial understanding between the two great continental monarchies. The Emperor, wounded alike in his religious bigotry and in his family pride, was prepared to make great sacri- fices for the same end. The King of France had lately been in alliance with England ; but the King of France was engaged in persecuting the Protestants in his own country, and he might reasonably plead that treaties concluded while the unity of Christendom was yet unbroken 96 THE GERALDINE REVOLT were no longer binding under such strangely altered circumstances. A coalition between those three powers, although never actually accom- plished, seemed at this time on the verge of accomplishment ; and, had a Catholic army landed in England in the summer of 1534, there can be little doubt that it would have received the support of a considerable number of English- men. Such was the condition of affairs when the heir of the Kildare Geraldines set up the standard of rebellion before the walls of Dublin. OfFaly himself had no other object than to 1534 avenge the supposed death of his father, and to obtain the government of Ireland for his own family ; but he may have hoped, by merging his private grievances in the religious quarrel, to secure the support of allies with whom the King of England would be unable to contend.^ In Ireland, for the moment at least, he was master of the situation. Half the gentlemen of the Pale were his friends, and those who loved him least had not the spirit to resist him. The royal troops were scanty and inefficient, and many weeks must elapse before reinforcements could be sent from England. Accompanied by his brother-in-law, Brian O'Conor, the rebel ^ " The said Earl's son, brethren, kinsmen and adherents do make their avaunt and boast that they be of the Pope's sect and band, and him will they serve against the King and all his partakers." — Robert Cowley to Cromwell, June, 1534. Cf. Alen to Cromwell, December 26, 1534. 97 « THE GERALDINE REVOLT chief ranged up and down the four shires, impos- ing an oath of fidelity on the inhabitants, and robbing and imprisoning the few who ventured to refuse compliance.^ From Ossory, and from Ossory alone, effective resistance was to be feared ; and Offaly now exerted himself to detach that powerful nobleman from the English interest. With the Earl's eldest son, James, Lord Butler, notwithstanding the hereditary feud between their families, he had long been on the most friendly terms ; and to him he now wrote, " covenanting to divide with him half the king- dom, would he associate him in this enterprise." Butler, who understood better than his kinsman the relative strength of the contending parties, replied coldly that Ireland was not his to divide ; and that, were it otherwise, " he would rather die his enemy than live his partner." ^ Nettled by this reply the Irish leader prepared to invade Kilkenny. The capital was already at his mercy. The O'Tooles of Wicklow, a sept who had long been thorns in the side of the Pale, had availed themselves of the general anarchy to lay waste Fingal, the richest part of the island, and almost the only district in which the Irish had not yet obtained a footing ; and the citizens of Dublin, sallying forth to the relief of their neighbours, had been defeated with heavy ^ Finglas to Cromwell, July 2i. Rawson to Henry, August 17. Campion, p. 176. ' Stanihurst, p. 293. 98 THE GERALDINE REVOLT slaughter near Kilmainham. Encouraged by this success, OfFaly appeared before the city gates and informed the citizens that, although by the laws of war he would be justified in giving up the city to pillage, he would under- take to preserve their lives and property if they would allow his troops a free passage to the Castle, which was still held for the King by the constable, John White. The magistrates, seized with terror, sent in hot haste to the constable to inform him that resistance was impracticable. White acknowledged the force of their arguments, but entreated them to pro- tract the negotiations for a few hours, during which time he hoped to lay in a stock of pro- visions which would enable him to stand a siege. ' The negotiation took place on the morning of July 27th. On the evening of the same day the Archbishop of Dublin — who, as has already been mentioned, had taken refuge in the Castle six weeks earlier — attempted, in an evil hour for himself, to escape to England. A vessel manned by some of his servants was brought to Dam's Gate; and the archbishop succeeded in getting on board unobserved, but, by the negligence or treachery of his pilot, was stranded a few hours later at Clontarf. From Clontarf he made his way on foot to Tartane, where he hoped to lie concealed until another 1 Stanihurst, p. 294. 99 THE GERALDINE REVOLT vessel could be got ready. But his movements had already been traced ; and, within a few hours of his arrival, the house in which he had taken refuge was surrounded by a party of the insurgents commanded by Offaly in person. No attempt at resistance was made. John Teling and Nicholas Wafer, two of OfFaly's servants, broke into the old man's bedroom, dragged him from his bed, and brought him bare-foot and bare-headed to their master. Alen, throwing himself upon his knees before his captor, "with a pitiful countenance and lamentable voice besought him, for the love of God, not to remember former injuries, but to weigh his present calamity ; and, what malice soever he bare his person, yet to respect his calling and vocation, in that his enemy was a Christian, and he among Christians an arch- bishop." OfFaly, touched with compassion, turned to his attendants, and bade them "take away the churl"; meaning, as he afterwards declared, that the archbishop should be de- tained a prisoner; but his followers, who had scant reverence for the episcopal office, "rather of malice than of ignorance misconstruing his words," murdered the old man in cold blood as soon as their leader's back was turned. ^ ^ Stanihurst, pp. 294-295. 28 Henry VIII, c. i. Deposi- tion of Robert Reilly, August 5, 1536. — Carew MSS. Rawson to Henry, August 7, 1534. "The Curse given Thomas. Fitzgerald and others for killing of the Archbishop of Dublin." 100 THE GERALDINE REVOLT White, meanwhile, having first laid in a large stock of provisions, had informed the citizens that they might make vrhat terms they pleased with the insurgents. The citizens at once threw open their gates ; and Offaly, leaving a sufficient force to besiege the Castle, set out at last upon his long-deferred expedition against the Butlers. He had already delayed too long. Ossory had taken steps for the defence of his own territory while the rebels were loitering near Dublin ; and in the first week of August he was able to carry the war into the enemy's country, and to lay waste the Geraldine estates in Kildare.^ A few days later the fortune of war turned. Before the end of the month Offaly had expelled the intruders from the Pale, captured his rival's castle of TuUow on the Slaney, and was ravaging the fertile plain of Kilkenny, when his victorious career was arrested by the news which reached him from Dublin. A messenger had arrived from Henry, bringing an imperious order to the citizens to break the truce, " which with no traitor should be kept": the citizens had closed their gates and turned their arms against the besiegers ; and the latter, surprised and outnumbered, had been cut to pieces almost to a man.^ If the city was to be recovered before the arrival of the Deputy there was no time to be lost ; but Offaly could ^ Ossory to Cowley, June, iS35' ^ Stanihurst, p. 296. lOI THE GERALDINE REVOLT not bring himself to evacuate Kilkenny without a final effort to secure the co-operation of the Butlers. He addressed himself to Ossory in person, and renewed the proposal which he had previously made to his son. For the second time the offer was contemptuously refused. To retreat with an unsubdued and implacable enemy in his rear would have been madness ; and Offaly, although fully conscious of the danger of delay, resolved to make a last attempt to reduce his kinsmen to subjection. Aided by O'Neil, who had at last arrived from Ulster, he gave battle to the Butlers near Thomastown. The Earl was defeated, and his son severely wounded ; but the delay saved Dublin.^ Victorious in the south, the rebel leader rapidly retraced his steps. His ammunition, with which he had been ill supplied from the first, was exhausted ; but he still hoped to reduce the capital by famine.^ The Leinster chiefs — MacMurrough, O'Moore, O'Conor, O'Byrne and others — formed a ring around the southern ^ Ossory to Cowley, June, 1535. The Earl makes no allusion in this letter to Ofialy's previous negotiation with his son. Stanihurst, on the other hand, is silent as to the second negotiation ; and it is possible that both writers may refer to the same transaction. ' "The rebel, which chiefly trusteth in his ordnance, which he hath of the King's, hath in effect consumed all his shoot ; and, except he winneth the Castle of Dublin, he is destitute of shoot, which is a great comfort and advantage to the King's army." — Alen to Cromwell, October 4, 1534. 102 THE GERALDINE REVOLT border of the Pale, and the Butlers were for the moment paralysed. In the first week of Sep- tember the communications of the city were cut off. During the next month a few sallies were made, and once, at least, the citizens are said to have gained a victory ; but it was not a great one, and by the beginning of October the condition of the defenders was desperate. " For the love of God," the Master of the Rolls wrote to Cromwell on the fourth of that month, " let some aid be sent to Dublin ; for the loss of that city and the Castle were the plain subversion of the land." A week later Ossory again cut his way through the Irish lines, and once more carried fire and sword into Kildare. For three days he laid waste the Geraldine estates, burning houses, destroying crops, and putting man, woman and child to the sword. ^ On the four- teenth OfFaly concluded a six weeks* truce with the citizens, and marched to the relief of his tenants. " The covenant of the truce was that the said city of Dublin should get to the said traitor his pardon of your Highness and a depu- tation of all Ireland for term of his life, or else to deliver him the said city at the said day. And upon the same he had three pledges of the best men of the said city ; and, as we be credibly informed, he hath sixteen or more of the ^ Ossory to Cowley, June, 1535. Alen to Cromwell, October 4, 1 534. 103 THE GERALDINE REVOLT sons and heirs of the best men of the said city."^ On the same day the Lord Deputy, accom- panied by Sir William Brereton, Captain Salisbury, and the largest army which had yet been seen in Ireland, sailed at length from Beaumaris, and, being driven out of his course by a storm, arrived on the fifteenth at Lambay Island, ten miles north of Dublin. There they remained for the night, and there, on the morning of the sixteenth, the news reached them that the city had been compelled to capitulate. A council of war was held and, after some deliberation, it was agreed that Brereton and Salisbury should attempt the relief of the capital, while Skeffington, with the main body of the army, proceeded by sea to Waterford. On the seventeenth Brereton entered Dublin harbour and found that the extent of the disaster had been ex- aggerated ; but another party, which landed about the same time near the Skerries, was less fortunate, being promptly cut to pieces by the insurgents.^ ^ Sir William Brereton and John Salisbury to Henry, Novem- ber 4, 1534. ^ Brereton and Salisbury to Henry, November 4, SkeflSng- ton to Henryj November 11. " He (OfFaly) not only fortified and manned divers ships at sea for keeping and letting, destroy- ing and taking the King's Deputy, army and subjects that they should not land within the said land ; but also, at the arrival of the said army, the said Thomas, accompanied with his uncles, servants and adherents, falsely and traitorously 104 THE GERALDINE REVOLT The Lord Deputy "kept the sea" for a week, "abiding wind that would have served to Waterford, which was contrary to us." On the twenty-fourth, being informed that the enemy were at a safe distance and that Ossory was on his way to Dublin, he at last ventured to rejoin Brereton in the capital. Three days later a report reached him that the Irish intended to lay siege to Drogheda. Skeffington, with the whole army, set out at once to relieve the threatened town. On arriving at his destination he found that the report was groundless ; and, after waiting a week, during which the enemy continued to lay waste the country further south, he resolved to retrace his steps. On this occasion the Lord Deputy, if he had accom- plished nothing, had at least escaped without serious injury ; but the result of his next ex- pedition was less fortunate. Towards the end of November he attempted to engage the Irish near Trim ; the latter fled at his approach ; and Skeffington, not daring to pursue them, again marched back to Dublin. On their return march they were overtaken by rain, which fell so heavily that " the footmen waded by the way to the middles in waters." The cavalry galloped off as soon as the storm broke, leaving the assembled themselves together upon the sea-coast, for keeping and resisting the King's Deputy and army ; and the same time they shamefully murdered divers of the said army coming to land."— 28 Henry VIII, c. i. THE GERALDINE REVOLT infantry to shift for themselves. The latter followed in disorder, hotly pursued by the Irish, who attacked them near Kilmainham/ SkefBngton, whose wetting had given him a severe cold, took to his bed on reaching Dublin, and remained there until the middle of February.* The rain continued, and the roads, which even in summer were none of the best, speedily be- came impassable. The troops, ill-armed, ill-paid, and utterly demoralized by the imbecility of their general, remained cooped up in Dublin, to the no small annoyance of the citizens, whom they robbed and spoiled at pleasure, " smally re- garding the Deputy, and much less any of the Council." ' The outrages of the rebels had been more tolerable. Not, indeed, that the rebels were by any means as inactive as the Deputy. The Irish kerne, who were lightly armed and unen- cumbered with artillery, cared little for the condition of the roads, and Offaly was less careful of his health than Skeffington. In 1 Skeffington to Walsingham, March 13, 1535. ^ "My Lord Deputy now by the space of twelve or thirteen weeks hath continued in sickness, never once going out of his house, nor as yet is not recovered ; which hath been and is a great hindrance to the setting forthward of the King's wars. And in the meantime the rebel hath burnt much of the country; trusting, if he may be suffered, to waste and desolate the Englishry, whereby he thinketh to enforce this army to depart." — Alen to Cromwell, February 16, 1535. ' Ibid.y December 26, 1534. 106 THE GERALDINE REVOLT November, a few days after the Deputy's return to the capital, he attacked the wealthy and populous town of Trim, "and not only robbed the same, but burnt a great part thereof, and took all the cattle of the country thereabouts." From Trim he proceeded to Dunboyne, only six miles from Dublin, and "in default of relief he utterly destroyed and burnt the whole town." His entire following at this time consisted of from sixty to eighty horsemen and some three hundred kerne and gallow- glasses, and Alen believed that he might have been crushed with little difficulty ; but Skeffington "desired his own glory," and would not sanction any enterprise of which he could not take the command in person. Had he done so it might have been no easy matter to induce an army, "so nusseled in robbery," to take the field against an enemy from whom there was little hope of plunder. And so the winter passed. For three months the rebels continued to rob and burn the Pale, "trusting, if they may be suffered, to waste and desolate the Englishry, to enforce this army to depart"; and what the rebels spared, the mutinous banditti at Dublin destroyed. The officers, Sir Rice ManscU excepted, made little or no attempt to enforce discipline, and Alen pressed in vain for the appointment of a marshal "to do straight correction." At once jealous and incompetent, Skeffington would neither 107 THE GERALDINE REVOLT exercise his authority himself nor consent to delegate it to another/ But Skeffington, like many earlier and many later deputies, was saved from the consequences of his own errors by the dissensions which, about this time, broke out among the Irish confederates. Internal disunion, that fatal source of nearly all the calamities of Ireland, had sapped the strength and paralysed the energies of the Geraldine league. OfFaly was proclaimed traitor in October ; ^ in November the ecclesi- astics who had governed the see of Dublin since the murder of the archbishop pronounced a solemn curse upon him and upon all who should presume to assist him.^ These two-fold fulminations of the temporal and spiritual au- thorities may have had some effect upon the more faint-hearted of his supporters, but there were other and more potent influences at work. The gentlemen of the Pale had been averse from the beginning to the rebellion, in which they had only taken part under compulsion, and Skeffington was no sooner landed than they hastened to make their peace with the govern- ment.* The defection of the Ulstermen followed. ^ Alen to Cromwell, December 26 and February 16. ^ Skeffington to Henry, November 11, 1534. ^ Copie of the Curse given Thomas Fitzgerald and others. * Skeffington to Henry, November 11. "The wise gentle- men of the Pale did not greatly incline to his purpose." — Campion, p. 179. 108 THE GERALDINE REVOLT O'Neil, it is true, was the steady friend, as well as the near kinsman, of the Geraldines ; and O'Neil was by far the strongest of the northern chieftains ; but O'Donel, Maguire, and nearly all the lesser chiefs of Ulster, who had more to fear from the ambition of their powerful neighbour than from the hostility of the feeble government at Dublin, declared for the crown.^ O'Neil invaded the Pale in November, when he burnt Lord Slane's lands and a great part of Uriel ; ^ but afterwards, being hard pressed by O'Donel, gave no further assistance to his kins- man. In the following July he also was driven to make peace with the Deputy, though he stipulated successfully for the payment of his usual black-rent.* Ossory, meanwhile, was exerting himself only too successfully to dissolve the coalition in the south. MacMurrough was induced or com- pelled to change sides in November, and to give hostages for his future loyalty : O 'Moore, attacked by a portion of his clan, under the leadership of two of his own brothers, " was fain to be continually resident in his own ^ " It may please you to be advertised that since my hither coming all the chief Irish lords of the north, only excepted O'Neil, have wrrittcn their letters unto me, firmly promising their service to the King's Grace." — SkefEngton to Walsingham, March 13, 1535. ^ Alen to Cromwrell, December 26, 1534. ' Indenture between Skeffington and O'Neil, July 26, 1535. 109 THE GERALDINE REVOLT country for the defence of the same.'" O'Conor steadily refused to desert his brother-in-law ; but he too was weakened by the opposition of his brother, Cahir.* From Leinster the Earl turned his attention to Munster, the province from which the most serious danger was apprehended. In June, 1534, a Spanish priest had visited the twelfth Earl of Desmond at Dingle, and had attempted to resume the negotiations which had been broken off five years before.^ The Earl, who was at this time on his death-bed, appears to have given him very little encouragement ; but O'Brien of Thomond, who had married a sister of the eleventh earl, and had been deeply implicated in the negotiations of his brother-in- law, entered eagerly into the schemes of the imperial agent ; and it was probably by O'Brien's advice that OfFaly not long afterwards dispatched one Dominic Power to seek assistance from the Emperor, and MacGravyll, Archdeacon of Kells, on a similar errand to the Pope." Desmond died only a few weeks later, and his brother Sir John, the youngest and only surviving son of the great Earl who had been executed at Drogheda in ^ Ossory to Cowley, June, 1535. ' Aylmer and Alen to Cromwell, August 21, 1535. ' Wise to Cromwell, July 12, 1534. Rawson to Henry, August 7, 1534. 28 Henry VIII, c. i. ^ 28 Henry VIII, c. i. Alen to Cromwell, December 26, 1534. Ossory to Cowley, June, 1535. Deposition of Robert Reilly, August 5, 1536. Carew MSS. The Pilgrim^ pp. 175-176. I 10 THE GERALDINE REVOLT 1467, "attained into his possession the whole earldom of Desmond and all the power of the Englishry of Munster, and was combined with O'Brien and others the King's ancient enemies, intending by their aid forcibly to retain the same against the King's will and pleasure." ^ It was to these chiefs and to the Burkes and the O'Kellys of Connaught that OfFaly, or Kildare as we must now call him, for the old Earl had died in December " for thought and pain," ^ looked to enable him to protract hostili- ties until the arrival of the Spaniards, which was confidently expected in the summer. Both O'Brien and Desmond, however, were at this time considerably weakened by dissensions in their own families. Connor O'Brien had been twice married, and there was little prospect of a peaceful succession. Donough, the only son of his first wife, a sister of Mac William of Clanri- carde, was the heir according to English notions. But Donough, who had married a daughter of the hated Ossory, was unpopular with the clan, and had no hope of making good his claims except by the assistance of his wife's family and the support of the English govern- ment.* O'Brien was himself anxious to secure ^ Lord Deputy and Council to Cromwell, June i, 1536. * Campion, p. 179. ' " There met with my lord James [Butler] his brother- in-law, which is O'Brien's son, and his saying is this to my lord James : * I have married your sister : and, for because II I THE GERALDINE REVOLT the succession for his younger son, Donnell, whose mother was a daughter of the tenth Earl of Desmond. Meanwhile Connor's brother, Murrough, who had some claim to succeed by the Irish law of tanistry, was secretly playing for his own hand. For the present, however, he took part ostentatiously with his brother, thinking probably that of his two nephews, Donnell, at this time a mere child, was likely to prove the less formidable competitor.^ While O'Brien was thus embarrassed by the hostility of his first-born, Desmond's title to the earldom was disputed by the illegitimate son of his nephew, James FitzMaurice. Maurice, the only son of the twelfth earl, had married Joan FitzGibbon, a daughter of the White Knight ; but the parties were within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity, and the validity of the marriage was very doubtful. Maurice died in 1530, and, during the brief remainder of his life, the policy of the old Earl was directed towards securing the succession for his grandson. The boy — he appears to have been little more — was sent to England in 1532, and spent the next that I have married your sister, I have forsaken mjr father, mine uncle, and all my friends, and my country, to come to you to help to do the King service. I have been sore wounded, and have no rewrard, nor nothing to live upon.' " — Stephen Parry to Cromwell, October 6, 1535. * Ossory to Skeffington, January 17, 1535. Ossory to Cowley, June, 1535. Council to Cromwell, August 9, 1536. 112 THE GERALDINE REVOLT two years at the court of Windsor, for which reason he was contemptuously styled by his countrymen " the court page." On the death of his grandfather he returned to Ireland, married a daughter of Cormack Oge MacCarthy, and put forth a claim to the earldom of Desmond in opposition to his grand-uncle, John FitzThomas.^ Ossory was not slow to avail himself of these dissensions. In January, 1535, when a revolt i535 in the south seemed imminent, he hastened to Munster, warmly espoused the cause of James FitzMaurice, entered into negotiations with the various chiefs of the MacCarthys and Geraldines, and, to use his own words, " sowed such strife among them as they do continue in the same full of war and debate, the one destroying the other." ^ At the same time Donough O'Brien, who had a small but zealous following in Thomond, was assisted in an attack upon his father ; while Mac William of Clanricarde, who was Donough's uncle, and perhaps resented O'Brien's partiality for his younger children, was induced not only to desert his allies, but to make war " upon the backside of O'Kelly," just as that chieftain was preparing to join forces with the Earl near Athlone.* 1 Thomas Earl of Desmond to Henry, May 5, 1532, Audley to Henry, April 9, I535- Fokes to Cromwell, March 22, 1536. Walter Cowley to Robert Cowley, April 29, 1536. Unpublished Geraldine Documents, II, 109. ^ Ossory to Cowley, June, 1535. 5 Ossory to Skeffington, January 17, 1535. 113 I THE GERALDINE REVOLT Thus before the end of February, when Skeffington was at length ready to take the field, the coalition was completely shattered, and Kildare found himself deserted by all save his own personal followers, and a few chiefs, whom the hostility of their kinsmen or neigh- bours disabled from rendering effective assistance. Skeffington, moreover, had recovered his health and was at last beginning to exert himself. During the winter the Englishry had clamoured furiously for his dismissal, and Henry had so far yielded to the popular wishes as to appoint Lord Leonard Gray to the command of the army, with powers which rendered him virtually independent of the Lord Deputy. But Gray was not expected in Ireland until the summer ; and Skeffington, having shaken off his lethargy, was anxious to distinguish himself by some notable exploit before the arrival of the latter. On March 14th the army, commanded by the 'Lord Deputy in person, laid siege to the great Geraldine fortress of Maynooth. The garrison consisted of a hundred able-bodied men, of whom sixty were gunners, and the castle itself was, if we may believe the besiegers, "so strongly fortified as the like hath not been seen in Ireland since any your most noble progenitors had first dominion in the land." Kildare, who was at this time endeavouring to compose the feuds among his confederates in Connaught, evidently believed it to be impregnable, and was 114 THE GERALDINE REVOLT in no hurry to relieve it. He had neglected to make allowance for the recent improvements in artillery. On the sixteenth a bombardment was opened on the north-west side of the castle. The attack in this quarter proving unsuccessful, the batteries were transferred two days later to the north-east side, and on the twenty-second a breach was made. On the twenty-third, "being Tuesday next before Easter Day, a galliard assault was given and the base court entered." After more than sixty of the ward had been killed the castle yielded. The survivors, thirty-seven in number, were taken prisoners, "and their lives preserved by appointment, until they should be presented to me, your deputy, and then to be ordered as I and your Council thought fit. We thought it expedient to put them to execution as an ex- ample to others." Among the persons executed were the Dean of Kildare, Christopher Paris, captain of the garrison, and Nicholas Wafer, one of the murderers of the Archbishop.' ^ Lord Deputy and Council to Henry, March 26, 1535. With regard to the capture of Maynooth, Stanihurst, whose love of the romantic too often got the better of his judgment, tells a sensational story, which is sufficiently refuted by the silence of the Lord Deputy. According to this veracious chronicler the castle was betrayed by the constable, Christopher Paris, who stipulated that he should receive a sum of money as the reward of his treachery. Skeffington paid the stipulated sum, and then caused Paris to be beheaded as a traitor (pp. 299-301). The story, it need hardly be said, is taken almost without alteration from Herodotus. "5 THE GERALDINE REVOLT Kildare, meanwhile, had collected a fresh army in Connaught, and was hastening to the relief of Maynooth when the news of the dis- aster reached him. It was the first time that an Irish castle had been taken by assault, and the moral effect was instantaneous. The chiefs, who had hitherto believed that their strongholds could only be reduced by the slow and costly process of starvation, unanimously decided that offensive operations were for the present im- practicable, and retired to make arrangements for the defence of their own territories. The Earl himself, accompanied by a bodyguard of sixteen trusty followers, took refuge with O'Brien in Thomond, intending to make his escape to Spain. O'Brien, however, still cherished the hope of foreign succour, and dissuaded his friend from a step which would have involved the complete disintegration of his party. Sir James Delahide and Father Walsh were dispatched to make a fresh application to the emperor. Kildare himself remained in Ireland and made a final effort to rally his disunited and dispirited allies.' SkefEngton made no attempt to follow up ^ Skeffington to Henry, June 17, 1535. Ossoryto Cowley, June, 1535. O'Brien to Henry, October 14, 1535. Deposition of Robert Rpilly, August 5, 1536. — Carew M&S. Some further particulars as to Delahide and Walsh will be found in the " Examination of John Dyrram," enclosed in Gray's letter to Cromwell, May 21, 1536. 116 THE GERALDINE REVOLT his victory. He had displayed unwonted energy at Maynooth, but he speedily sank again into his former lethargy; the troops returned to their old habits, pillaging and oppressing the Englishry ; and in July the Irish, encouraged by the misconduct of the soldiery, again ven- tured to attack the Pale. Sir John Alen and Chief Justice Aylmer had gone to England in May, believing the rebellion to be at an end ; they returned on August ist to find that three-fourths of Kildare and a great part of Meath had been laid waste since their departure, and that the O'Tooles had razed Powerscourt, " one of the fairest garrisons in this country, the building whereof cost the old Earl of Kildare and the inhabitants of the county of Dublin four or five thousand marks" ; while O'Conor, a few days later, recovered the important castle of Rathangan, which had been captured earlier in the summer, from Sir William Brereton.^ But the Spanish fleet still lingered, and without Spanish aid the Irish cause was hopeless. Even if the command had remained in the incapable hands of Skefiington, it is clear that the rebel- lion could not have been indefinitely prolonged. But Skefiington, although he was still suffered to retain the name of deputy, was virtually superseded in the last week of July, when Lord Leonard Gray landed with the rank of marshal ^ Aylmer and Alen to Cromwell, August 2i, 1535. H7 THE GERALDINE REVOLT of the army. Lord Leonard, one of the ablest of the many eminent men who were employed in Ireland during the troubles of the sixteenth century, promptly restored the discipline of the troops by measures which exposed him to much unmerited obloquy,^ and, within three weeks of his arrival, inflicted a severe defeat on the in- surgents, the Earl himself narrowly escaping capture by the connivance of O'Moore, who had recently been compelled to change sides, but whose enthusiasm for his new allies was distinctly lukewarm.^ After this reverse Kildare made no further effort to renew the struggle. Success was no longer possible ; but he might still hope, by a timely submission, to preserve his life and his estates. O'Conor, hitherto the most steadfast of his allies, admitted that he could hold out no longer, and advised his brother-in-law to negotiate ; and it was from O 'Conor's castle of Dengen that Kildare wrote to Gray on ^ Antony Colly to Cromwell, February 13, 1536. — Careu) MSS. Thomas Dacre to Cromwell, January 5, 1536. (MS. R.O.) ^ " O'Moore would never kill one of Thomas' men, but of O'Conor's ; yet many were killed, and most of them by Mr. Treasurer, and such of his own company as stood with him ; and by Thomas Eustace divers prisoners were taken, and let go again by the Geraldines and by the Dempsies, being in O'Moore's company, among whom the traitor him- self was taken, as the common report is, and let go again." — Aylmer and Alen to Cromwell, August 21, 1535. 118 THE GERALDINE REVOLT August 1 8th, offering to give himself up if by so doing he might have pardon for his life and lands. If his terms vv^ere accepted he would do his best to deserve forgiveness; if they were refused he must, he said, shift for himself as best he could. ^ Gray, who was anxious to put an end to the war without delay, as well as aware that, if the Irish leader were to make his escape to the continent, he might prove ex- tremely dangerous, returned an encouraging if somewhat guarded answer. A few days later the Earl gave himself up to Gray and Butler, receiv- ing in return the assurances of his captors that they would be answerable for his personal safety. Skeffington, who was perhaps annoyed at not having been consulted, and may have desired to embarrass his subordinate, at once wrote to tell Henry that " the traitor " had surrendered "without condition either of pardon, life, lands, or goods, but only submitting himself to your Grace ";^ but the truth could not long be con- cealed. On the twenty-fourth the Council addressed an elaborate memorandum to the King, relating the circumstances of the capture, and entreating him " according to the comfort of our words spoken to the said Thomas to allure him to yield, to be merciful to the said Thomas, especially concerning his life."^ His Majesty, 1 Kildare to Gray, August i8, 1535. ^ SkeflSngton to Henry, August 24. ' Council to Henry, August 27. 119 THE GERALDINE REVOLT who was not in a merciful mood, sent a sort of growling acknowledgment, in which vexation was at least as plainly expressed as gratitude. " If he had been apprehended after such sort as was convenable to his deservings, the same had been much more thankful and better to our con- tentation : nevertheless for your industry, pains and diligence used therein we give you our hearty thanks."^ It was evident that he was unwilling to spare his prisoner and ashamed to execute him. The Duke of Norfolk, who, as a former Deputy, was generally consulted on Irish questions, was appealed to and recommended Henry to temporize. There were three possible ways of dealing with the traitor, " either execu- tion shortly or pardon of life, or committing to sure prison for a time." The first, " considering the fashion of his submission," the Duke pro- nounced to be unadvisable : Gray and Butler would lose all credit in Ireland, " which were pity, for they might do good service ": the native chiefs would conclude that no reliance was to be placed on English promises, and the war would become one of extermination. The second was no less inadmissible. " It were the worst example that ever was, and especially for that ungracious people of Ireland." As a prisoner the Earl would be a valuable hostage for the ^ Henry to Skeffington, October, 1535. 120 THE GERALDINE REVOLT loyalty of his late allies, and might be executed at last when there was no further " commodity" to be gained by sparing him.^ This advice was followed. After an imprison- ment of sixteen months, during which he was treated with a harshness unusual even in that age,- " having neither hosen, doublet, nor shoes, nor shirt but one, nor any other garment but a single frieze gown," " wolward and barefoot and barelegged divers times, when it was not very warm," half-starved, half-naked, dependent even for the miserable rags that covered him upon the " gentleness" of his fellow-prisoners,^ Thomas, tenth Earl of Kildare, was executed at Tyburn on February 3rd, 1537. With him perished his five uncles, the half-brothers of his father, and the near kinsmen of the King. Three of these gentlemen, who had taken no part whatever in their nephew's rebellion, while two of them at least had been active on the side of the crown, were treacherously arrested at a banquet to which they had been invited by the Lord Deputy : the other two brothers, who were accused, although on rather doubtful evi- dence, of having been concerned in the rising, being captured not long afterwards.' 1 Norfolk to Cromwell, September 9, 1535. See also Audley to Henry, September 13, 1535.— Stei'^ Papers, I, 446. 2 Kildare to John Rothe, enclosing letter to O'Brien, 1536. ^ Stanihurst, p. 303. Council to Cromwell, February 14, 1536. "Richard FitzGerald is come into the King's service, 121 THE GERALDINE REVOLT But even this wholesale butchery was insuffi- cient to satisfy the vengeance of the King. The children of the late Earl of Kildare by his second wife were still living, and Henry, yielding to the advice of the vice-treasurer, Brabazon,^ which harmonized only too well with his own savage temper, had resolved to extirpate the entire race. Gerald, the eldest of these children, who had just completed his twelfth year, was residing at the time of his brother's death with his half-sister. Lady Mary O'Conor ; and his name became in a little while the rallying cry of all in Ireland who, for whatever reason, were dissatisfied with the policy of the court. To the apprehension and destruction of this poor child the efforts of the Irish government were steadily directed during the next three years. But the history of those efforts, and of the means by which they were frustrated, must be reserved for a later chapter. and I have no doubt but that he will continue truly, as hitherto it hath proved. Sir James FitzGerald is in like case, come into the King's service and sheweth himself like a true man." — SkefEngton to Henry, March 13, 1535. It is significant that, although all five brothers were executed, two only were attainted by the Irish Parliament. — 28 Henry VIII, c. i, ' " My poor advice shall be to discharge this land of all the sect of them : then shall this country be in quietness, or else not." — Brabazon to Cromwell, September 10, 1535. 122 CHAPTER III THE IRISH CHURCH The downfall of the great Geraldine house, and the increased prestige which the crown derived from victory over an adversary so for- midable, afforded Henry an opportunity of extorting from the packed and terrified parlia- ment of the Pale an assent to alterations in the ecclesiaistical constitution of Ireland, substantially identical with those which had been carried out in England a few years earlier. The ecclesiastical revolution effected at this juncture by the English rulers of Ireland was the result of a great religious movement, which had its origin in Germany and extended over the whole of northern Europe : nor can the course which that movement ran in Ireland be understood without some reference to what took place elsewhere. On the continent of Europe, and in the northern part of Great Britain, the reformed doctrines were first preached among the middle and lower orders of the people, and were propa- gated almost always without the assistance of the secular power, and, in many cases, in spite of its strenuous opposition. Princes and noblemen, it 123 THE IRISH CHURCH is true, gave their support to the new creed, sometimes from conscientious and sometimes from ambitious motives ; but it was not to them that it owed its origin. The movement was almost everywhere spontaneous. In England the case was somewhat different. There the immediate cause of the separation of the national church from the communion of Catholic Christendom is undoubtedly to be found in the personal character of Henry VIII ; but the King's policy would scarcely have been successful had he not been supported by a strong current of popular feeling. In the English re- formation two streams of thought, the one religious and intellectual, the other in the main political, combined. More than a century be- fore the accession of Henry VIII doctrines, not unlike those of the German reformers, had been preached by WycklifF ; and LoUardism, though apparently suppressed, had still many sympa- thizers among the people. Political opposition to the Holy See was much older. The claim of the Roman Pontiff to interfere with the internal economy of the national church had long appeared even to devout Catholics to be a serious evil, and had been expressly repudiated by numerous acts of parliament.^ Thus when Henry VIII resolved to renounce " the usurped ^ English Statutes. 25 Edward III, c. 5 & 6 ; 38 Edward III, c, II ; 13 Richard II, c. 11 ; 16 Richard II, c. 5 ; 7 Henry IV, c 8 ; 3 Henry V, c. 8. 124 THE IRISH CHURCH authority of the Bishop of Rome," and when his son attempted more drastic measures of ecclesiastical reform, they found a large pro- portion of their subjects prepared to sympathize with their innovations. It should be added that the Tudor sovereigns were in a more favourable situation for forcing their own religious con- victions on their subjects than any of their predecessors had been. The Wars of the Roses had greatly increased the power of the King : first, by substituting for the old feudal nobility, who had so often withstood the encroachments of the crown, a new aristocracy, who were the creatures of the crown, and disposed to concur in all its measures ; and secondly, by diffusing among the middle classes a dread of anarchy which made them readily submit to despotism. Yet, notwithstanding these advantages, the pro- gress of the reformed doctrines was at first very slow and by no means sure. The nation submitted impatiently to the innovations of Edward, and acquiesced at least passively in the severities of Mary. At the accession of Elizabeth a majority of the people inclined, though languidly, to the old faith.^ Their gradual conversion to Protestantism must be ascribed to the long war with Spain, during ^ " Scantly a third part was found fully assured to be trusted in the matter of religion." — Note on the state of the realm by Sir W. Cecil. Froude, History of England^ VII, II. THE IRISH CHURCH which the cause of Protestantism became identi- fied with that of national independence. In Ireland the new religion was introduced at the same time, and by the same authority as in England ; but the circumstances of the two countries were widely different. None of the intellectual movements which had predisposed the English people to accept the reformed doctrines had extended beyond St. George's Channel, where the state of society resembled that of the twelfth rather than that of the six- teenth century. In the quarrel between the King of England and the Roman Pontiff, the sympathies of the Irish were with the latter ; for, if the Popes had hitherto done them little good, the kings had done them much harm. The royal authority, which in England was popular and strong, was in Ireland unpopular and weak ; and the sense of nationality, which induced Englishmen to revolt against a church supported by Spain, disposed Irishmen to reject a church imported from England. It is customary to attribute the extreme dis- organization of the Irish church, during the second half of the sixteenth century, to the series of measures collectively known by the rather misleading title of "the Reformation," and it is unquestionably true that the Refor- mation immensely aggravated the evil. But the evil itself was much older, and was political rather than religious in its origin. For centuries 126 THE IRISH CHURCH the English population of the Pale and the seaport towns had been engaged in incessant hostilities with the Irish of the adjoining districts. The clergy of both races shared the feelings of their lay countrymen, whom they assisted with their prayers, and sometimes with less spiritual arms. In the memorable remon- strance addressed by the Irish chieftains to John XXII in 1 3 17, complaint was made that the "bishops and religious " of the English preached and practised a doctrine, which the writers justly stigmatized as heretical, "that it was no more sin to kill an Irishman than to kill a dog," and that when, as often happened, they chanced to do so, they would not on that account abstain from celebrating mass even for a day.^ Roland Jorse, Archbishop of Armagh, and the Abbots of Granard and Inch, were described as the principal exponents of this most unorthodox theology. Fifty years later the Archbishops of Dublin, Cashel and Tuam, with five other bishops, took a leading part in framing the iniquitous Statutes of Kilkenny, of which it was a main object to make the separation of the races perpetual. Among other oppressive enactments relative to secular affairs one of these laws provided that no Irishman should be admitted to any monastery or benefice "situated in the land of peace among the English,"^ 1 Joannes de Fordun, Scotichronictm, p. 264. ^ Statute of Kilkenny, p. 47. 127 THE IRISH CHURCH Happily it was easier to pass such an act than to enforce it. English law, both in civil and religious matters, was confined to a narrow area, and not only were there many dioceses in Ire- land in which the King's writ did not run, but even the English dioceses contained vast districts wholly inhabited by the "wild Irish." In these districts it was impossible for priests of English race to reside with safety, even if they had been willing — which few, if any, of them were — to minister to a population whom they despised. For this reason dispensations were frequently granted, sometimes by act of parliament, more often by royal licence, authorizing the Arch- bishop of Dublin, the Bishop of Meath, and other prelates to present Irishmen to livings in the wilder parts of their dioceses.^ But the law, although very imperfectly enforced, indicates clearly the general policy of the English government, and that policy received on more than one occasion the express sanction of the Vatican.^ The distinction between English and Irish was not, it should be noted, confined to any one class, but affected equally the episcopate, the parochial clergy and the religious orders. Each of these must be separately considered. ■' Statute of Kilkenny, pp. 46, 48. ^ See a Bull of Innocent VIII (1484) printed in Hardiman's History of Galway, Appendix II, and a similiar Bull of Leo X ( 1 5 1 5) in Monck Mason's History of St. Patrick's, Appendix XV. 128 THE IRISH CHURCH In England at this period bishoprics were practically conferred by the crown, the subse- quent confirmation by the Holy See being purely formal. In Ireland, on the other hand, where the Popes claimed a general overlordship of the whole island, the greater sees were, in spite of numerous statutes, habitually filled by provision. Fourteen successive archbishops of Armagh appear to have been appointed in this manner between 1306 and 15 13, and the Popes also provided to Dublin in 1484, 151 1, 1521 and 1528, and to Meath in 1460, 1483, 1507, 1 512, 1526 and 1530.^ The persons so appointed, however, were, with scarcely an exception, Englishmen ; and, as most of them filled important political offices, they can scarcely be supposed to have been unacceptable to the King. The occupants of these three sees, and to them the Bishop of Kildare may be perhaps added, formed the nucleus of the English party in the church. They had seats in the House of Lords and at the Privy Council, and were constantly employed in administrative, diplo- matic and military business ; but they neither ■exercised nor aspired to exercise any influence over the native population, and were essentially rather politicians than churchmen. All the chancellors and many of the deputies of the 1400- fifteenth century were chosen from this class. '5oo ^ Ware, I, 71-89, 151-155, 343-346. Cotton's Fasti,ll, 17-18; III, 14-17, 114-115. 129 K THE IRISH CHURCH Richard Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin, was four times Deputy between 141 9 and 1447.^ John Mcy, Archbishop of Armagh, was Viceroy in 1453/ William Sherwood, Bishop of Meath, was Viceroy in 1475, when he appears to have commanded the royal forces in person.' Walter Fitz-Symonds, Archbishop of Dublin, was employed in a similar capacity in 1492/ William Rokeby, who was successively Bishop of Meath and Archbishop of Dublin, and Hugh Inge, who succeeded him in both sees, took an active part in the government of the country ; and the latter is eulogized by his biographer for having " put the kingdom in as good a condition as the untowardness of the wild Irish would suffer him." * In 1494 the Archbishops of Armagh and Dublin, and the Bishops of Meath and Kildare, with the sheriffs of the four shires, were ordered to repair the fortresses along the borders of the Pale.* In 1503, when the Earl of Kildare invaded Connaught, he was accom- panied by the bishops of the Pale, whose presence in the camp appears to have greatly scandalized the Earl's Irish allies, O'Neil in particular protesting that a bishop's duty was ^ Ware, I, 339. Gilbert's History of the Viceroys oflrelandy pp. 311, 351. 2 Ibid., 86. Gilbert, p. 366. ' Ibid.^ 150. Gilbert, p. 400. * tt'td., 343- Gilbert, p. 445. ' Ibid., 153, 346. * Statute of Kilkenny, p. 4. 130 THE IRISH CHURCH " to pray, to preach, and to make fair weather, and not to be privy to manslaughter." ^ A State paper of 1534 contains a list of ecclesi- astics from whom military service was required/ The appointment of English bishops was not, however, confined to the dioceses of the Pale. The sees of Cork, Limerick and Waterford, walled towns occupied by an English population, were almost invariably filled by Englishmen ; and when, in 1480, Sixtus IV, departing from the traditional policy of the Vatican, ventured to nominate one Nicholas O'Henisa to the last- named diocese, the citizens held a meeting to protest against the appointment.' Englishmen were also occasionally nominated by the King, or by the Pope at the King's supplication, to bishoprics in purely Irish districts ; but the less important and more distant sees, of which the revenues were very small,* were habitually filled by native clergymen ^ Book of Howth, p. 181. ^ " All lords and other persons of the spirituality shall send companies to hostings and journeys in manner and form fol- lowing. The Archbishop of Armagh, sixteen archers or gunners ; the Archbishop of Dublin, twenty ; the Bishop of Meath, six- teen ; the Lord of St. John's, twenty ; the Bishop of Kildare, eight ; the Abbot of St. Thomas Court, ten ; the Abbot of St. Mary by Dublin, ten ; the Abbot of Mellifont, ten ; the Dean of Dublin, four." — Ordinances for Ireland, 1534. ' Theiner, Vetera Monumenta Hibernorum et Scotorum histo- riam iiiustrantio, pp. 487-488. * According to the Papal reports the annual revenue of Clonmacnois was thirty-three I ducats ; that of Ardagh, ten THE IRISH CHURCH men who refused to acknowledge the authority of the crown, and were in consequence never summoned to Parliament. Of these bishops we know very little. Many were appointed by provision ; many others were elected by the deans and chapters. In England, long before the period of which I am now speaking, capitular elections had become purely formal : in Ireland, owing to the weakness of the crown, it is probable that they were still to some extent a reality ; at least any pressure to which the electoral bodies may have been subjected is more likely to have proceeded from some local dynast than from the central government. Sees were frequently vacant for long periods : many bishops never visited Ireland, many others were violently expelled from their dioceses. Archbishop Mey was only able to obtain admission to Armagh by agreeing to pay a tribute of good cloth to ducats; that of Ross, sixty marks. — Theiner, pp. 518, 521, 528. According to Ormond, the revenue of Enaghdune was only j^20. — Letter to Cromwell, 1532. Carew MSS. Clogher was not worth eighty ducats. — Cotton, III, 77. Dromore was not worth ,^40 Irish. — Letter of Octavian de Palatio (Ware, I, 263). Kildare was one of the most "civil" dioceses in Ireland, yet the Earl of Kildare writing to Wolsey, February 8, 1523, says, "The bishopric doth not exceed the yearly value of a hundred marks sterling (;^66), the substance whereof lieth in the Irishry, and will not be lightly had but by temporal power." Even the Archbishop of Dublin was com- pelled to petition for "a prebend of ;^I00 a year in com- mendam, without which I cannot live nor pay my debts." — Alen to Cromwell, March 19, 1531. 132 THE IRISH CHURCH O'Neil.^ Later primates, if they came to Ireland at all, resided principally at Termonfeckan in the Pale,^ and the practice was continued by their Protestant successors until the time of James I. Thomas Halsay, Bishop of Leighlin, and Richard Wilson, Bishop of Meath, were absentees.* Kildare was vacant from 151 3 to 1526 ; Raphoe, from 1517 to 1534.* Dromore appears to have been without a resident bishop throughout the greater part of the fifteenth century. In 1467 the Pope was informed that the see was so poor, owing to the absenteeism of the last five bishops, that no one could be found to accept it, and it remained vacant for twenty years. George Brann, who. became bishop in 1487, spent some years in his diocese ; but three subsequent bishops of Dromore are believed to have been absentees.* The Irish annalists make frequent mention of " bishops with opposition," or " half-bishops," ^ Gilbert, p. 336. ^ Article by Dr. Reeves on Octavian de Palatio in the Proceedings of the Royal Historical and Archeeological Society of Ireland, 4th series, III, 341. Private suits of Archbishop Dovrdall, August, 1558. ^ Ware, I, 460. Halsay died in 1521, not, as Ware thought, in 1519. Although he had never visited Ireland, Surrey recommended that he should have the see of Cork in commendam. — To Wolsey, August 27, 1520. For Wilson see Inge and Bermingham to Wolsey, February 23, 1528. * Brady's Episcopal Succession, pp. 307, 350. ' Ware, I, 263-264. Cotton, III, 278-280. THE IRISH CHURCH bishops, that is to say, whose titles to their sees were disputed by rival claimants. In 1489 Odo, Bishop of Ross, was expelled from his see by Thady MacCarrig, who appears to have been the nominee of some neighbouring chieftain.^ A more curious case occurred about the same time in Kilmore, where Thomas Brady agreed, after a contest of several years, to divide the profits of the see with one Cormac ; and, what is still more strange, both bishops were present at a provincial synod held in 1494, and were described in the official report of its proceedings as " Thomas and Cormac, by the grace of God, bishops of Kilmore."^ Dermot O'Reilly, the successor of these two prelates, was compelled to fly from his diocese " on account of wars and disorders."' Clogher was vacant from 151 1 to 1519 ; and Patrick CuUen, who became bishop in the latter year, was dispensed from residence on account of the poverty of the see, which was much wasted by the Irish.* Nor was the conduct even of resident pre- lates generally calculated to advance the interests of the church. Cormac MacCoghlan, Bishop of Clonmacnois, was killed in battle, his arch- deacon, who was his illegitimate son, and two illegitimate sons of the latter being killed with ^ Theiner, p. 503. ^ Ware, I, 229. Cotton's Fasti, III, 156. ' Ibid. * Cotton's Fasti, III, 77. THE IRISH CHURCH him.' William O'Farrel, " chief captain of his nation," who became Bishop of Ardagh in i486, continued to act as chieftain "even after he had put on the mitre." ^ His habits were probably very like those of his lay neighbours, for, it is stated, in a report to Pope Leo X, composed in the year after his death, that the population of the diocese was much reduced owing to the conduct of the late bishop, "who endeavoured to exercise temporal power, which the people would not suffer."' In 1537 the grand jury of Wexford complained that John Purcell, Bishop of Ferns, had allied himself with a freebooter, Cahir MacArt Kavanagh, whom he had assisted to burn the town of Fethard,* and charges scarcely less grave were made in the same year againt Milo Baron, Bishop of Ossory, against Matthew Saunders, Bishop of Leighlin, and against Nicholas i537 Comyn, Bishop of Waterford. Edmund Butler, Archbishop of Cashel, an illegitimate son of the eighth Earl of Ormond, carried on a war with his father in the course of which nearly all the churches in Kilkenny and Tipperary were ^ MacFirbis, Annals of Ireland, 1443-1468, Edited for the Irish Archasological Society by John O'Donovan, p. 204. ^ Ware, I, 254. ' Theiner, p. 521. * Presentment of the Jury of Wexford, October, 1537. Cf. the Presentments of the Juries of Kilkenny, Clonmel and Waterford, THE IRISH CHURCH destroyed/ and the citizens of Waterford com- plained bitterly of the interruption to which their trade was exposed by the depredations of " the Archbishop his pirate."^ Maurice Doran, Saunders' predecessor at Leighlin, was honour- ably distinguished from the majority of his brethren by probity and mildness, but his virtues did not save him from an untimely end. In 1523 he was brutally murdered by his arch- deacon, Maurice Kavanagh, the Earl of Ormond, then Deputy, being apparently an accessory to the murder.' Nor were the parochial clergy qualified by their character and attainments to supply the deficiencies of the hierarchy. Many benefices, and those generally the richest, were annexed to religious houses, which absorbed the greater part of their revenues, while a vicar or curate performed the services at a beggar's salary. Of the residue even the nominal incomes were very small, and of the nominal incomes the incum- bents, owing to the disturbed condition of ^ Articles touching the misdemeanour of the Earl of Ormond, 1525. ^ Presentment of the Jury of Waterford, 1537. In the Record Office is a curious narrative of the proceedings of Finnin O'DriscolI, the archbishop's "pirate," and his two sons, April, 1538. ' Articles touching the misdemeanour of the Earl of Ormond, 1525. — Dowling's Annals, p. 34, -The same historian mentions (p. 32), as a striking proof of the popularity of an earlier Bishop of Leighlin, that he "grazed cows without loss" ; a statement which throws a curious light on the condition of the country. 136 THE IRISH CHURCH society, were seldom able to collect more than a small part. Laymen and minors, even horsemen, it is said, and gallowglasses, were frequently intruded into livings by lay patrons. In many parishes there was neither a church in which it was possible to officiate, nor a parsonage in which it was possible to reside.^ At the same ^ "Considering that it is manifest and notorious that the provisions and usurped jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome hath been and continually is the most and principal cause of the desolation, division, ruin and decay of the said land of Ireland; by the abominable abuse whereof the cathedral churches, monasteries, parish churches, and all other regular and secular, for the more part in effect throughout the land be in utter ruin and destroyed : for the said Bishop of Rome commonly hath preferred, by his provisions, to the administration and governance of them vile and vicious persons, unlearned, being murderers, thieves, and of other detestable disposition, as light men of wrar, who, for their unjust maintenance therein, some- times do expel the rightful incumbents, and other seasons, by force of secular power, do put the true patrons from their patronage." — Indenture between Henry VIII and the Earl of Ossory, May 31, 1534. This passage must be supposed to refer principally to the Pale ; but the state of things in the Irish districts was very similar. On July 12, 1 541, among other "Ordinances for the Reformation of Munster," it was ordered that archbishops and bishops should be permitted to exercise jurisdiction in their several dioceses and provinces : that laymen and minors should not be admitted to benefices ; that clergymen, whose annual incomes did not exceed ;^io sterling, should be exempted from coyne and livery ; and that beneficed persons should take orders and reside. On May 1 9, 1542, O'Neil "promised to rebuild all parish churches, now ruined, in my dominion." On July 4, O'Byrne agreed to allow beneficed persons to enjoy their benefices without molestation. On September i, O'Rourke undertook to allow "^11 THE IRISH CHURCH time, in consequence probably of the feud be- tween the Celtic and Anglo-Irish sections of the clergy, no convocation had been held in Ireland since the twelfth century, and the church was thus deprived of all means of redressing her own grievances, and even of giving constitutional utterance to her complaints. Wretchedly poor, wretchedly ignorant — the attempts which had hitherto been made to found a university in Ireland had been successfully strangled by the government^ — neglected by the bishops, despised the Deputy to present to the livings in his country then occupied by laymen. On July 14, i543j Tyrone and O'Donel agreed to suffer the Primate and other bishops to exercise jurisdiction within their territories. In October, 1544, the Archbishop of Tuam, the Bishop of Clonfert, and other clergy of Connaught, complained to the Lord Deputy that they were not permitted "to collect the revenues of their benefices, seeing that the profits of the same are usurped, and altogether detained as well by horsemen as by other lay persons." All these documents are among the Carew MSS. The report of the Jesuit missionaries who visited Ireland in 1 54 1, agrees closely with the account given in the State Papers. "Hie vasta offendunt omnia, plena trepidationis et periculi, longe opinione pejora, non rei Catholicae modo, verum etiam in ipsius civilis vitae prudentia atque ratione. Genus illuc hominum incultum ac rude, et, quod deterius est, pastorum vigiliis plane destitutum. Nulla erat apud eos parochorum, nulla episcoporum libera procuratio." — Hibernia Ignatiana, p. 6. ^ At least three such attempts were made before the Refor- mation. In 131 1 John Leech, Archbishop of Dublin, procured a bull from Clement V, directing the establishment of a university in Dublin ; but, owing probably to the death of Leech in 1313, this project was never carried out. In 1320 Leech's successor, Alexander de Bicknor, obtained a confirmation of this bull from John XXII. A university, or 138 THE IRISH CHURCH and oppressed by the gentry, the secular priests had ceased to battle with the prevailing heathenism. Scarcely distinguishable in dress and manners from the lowest class of their parishioners, they farmed their miserable glebes, or eked out their scanty incomes by charging exorbitant fees for christenings, marriages, and funerals.^ If the clergy as a class deserved little reverence they received, perhaps, still less than they deserved. Forbidden fruit has always had an irresistible fascination for Irishmen, and the legislation which abolished the supremacy of the Pope, disestablished the monasteries, and prohibited the celebration of the mass, converted the vast at least a school of divinity and canon law, was accordingly- founded, and traces of it may be found as late as the reign of Henry VII ; but it eventually perished from want of funds. In 1465 the Irish Parliament, meeting at Drogheda under the vice-royalty of the Earl of Desmond, enacted that a uni- versity should be established in that town, and should enjoy the same privileges as the University of Oxford. But this institution, like the other, came to a speedy end for want of an endowment. — Ware, Antiquities, ch. 37. ^ Presentments of Juries, October, 1537. "The Church of this land use not to learn any other science but the law of canon, for covetyce of lucre transitory ; all other science, whereof groweth none such lucre, the parsons of the church despise. They cowde [?hold] more by the plough rustical than by the lucre of the plough celestial, to which they have stretched their hands and look always backwards. They tend much more to lucre of that plough whereof groweth slander and rebuke than to lucre of the souls, that is the plough of Christ." — State of Ireland, 1 5 1 5 . Cf. Spenser, View of the State of Ireland, p. 1 2 5 . THE IRISH CHURCH majority of the nation into docile children of the Roman Catholic church. Before the Refor- mation the church in Ireland stood upon her own merits, and religion, not having the charm of illegality, had fallen into very general con- tempt. "The noble folk of Ireland," says a writer whom I have already frequently quoted, " oppresseth and spoileth the prelates of the , church of their possessions and liberties,"^ and the statement is corroborated by a vast mass of detailed evidence. The eighth Earl of Kildare burned the cathedral of Cashel, and excused the proceeding on the ground that he believed that the Archbishop was inside.^ In 1488 James, ninth Earl of Desmond, " and other sons and daughters of iniquity " — the list includes the most illustrious names in Munster — robbed and spoiled the lands of the Bishop of Ardfert.' In 1502 Maurice, tenth Earl of Desmond, brother of the aforesaid James, " not having the fear of God before his eyes," committed similar out- rages upon the estates of the Bishop of Cork and Cloyne.* The Butlers carried on a heredi- tary war with the Archbishops of Cashel ; the O'Neils periodically burnt Armagh ; and the O'Donels, on one occasion at least, seized the revenues of Raphoe.^ 1 State of Ireland, 15 15. ^ Stanihurst, De Rebus in Hibernia gestis, p. 5 1 . ' Theiner, p. 484. * Ibid., p. 506. ^ Stuart's v^rffjflj-A, pp. I22, 132. 140 THE IRISH CHURCH As a natural consequence the cathedrals were everywhere in ruins. As early as 1440 Arch- bishop Prene had complained of the miserable estate of the Ulster churches, and had endea- voured, but, as far as can be learned, without success, to apply a remedy.^ In 1515 Leo X appointed a commission to inquire into the state of the diocese of Clonmacnois, and two years later the same pontiff instituted similar inquiries 1517 with regard to Ardagh and Ross. The reports upon the two former bishoprics throw a lurid light upon the condition of the Irish church, and incidentally upon that of the Irish people. His Holiness was informed that the part of Ireland nearest to England was comparatively civilized, but that the rest was completely savage. Such houses as there were were built of thatched wood, but the majority of the people lived with their cattle in the fields. Clon- macnois and Ardagh were cathedral cities ; yet the former consisted of only twelve miserable cabins, and the latter of four. The cathedrals of both were in ruins ; in each there was but one altar, that at Ardagh being exposed to the open air : and mass was seldom celebrated. Clonmacnois contained the body of an Irish saint, but the writer had been unable to discover his name.^ The state of Ross contrasted on the ^ Archbishop Prene's Register, quoted in Malone's Church Histary of Ireland, II, 175. ^'Theiner, pp. 518, 521. 141 THE IRISH CHURCH whole favourably with that of the other two bishoprics, the town containing nearly two hundred houses, and the cathedral being in tolerable repair. The Pope, nevertheless, thought it necessary to unite the diocese with Dromore at the opposite extremity of the island, " on account of the poverty of both sees."^ In 1532 the Earl of Ossory wrote to Cromwell, apolo- gizing for having recommended an Irishman for the bishopric of Enaghdune. The see, he explained, was too poor for a " foreigner of reputation," and, as it was "situated among the inordinate wild Irish," it could only be governed by " a herd who had the favour of the country."^ A detailed report upon the condition of this diocese a few years later reveals a state of affairs 1555 very similar to that which prevailed at Clon- macnois and Ardagh. The town, which was about five miles distant from Tuam, was described as small and unwalled. The cathe- dral was in ruins. There were a dean, an archdeacon, and several canons ; but none of these were resident. The inhabitants were "evil-disposed men and wood-kerne."' The ^ Ibid., p. 528. Brady's Episcopal Succession, II, 109. ^ Ossory to Cromwell, 1532. Carew MSS. ^ " (Donaldus Doign) examinatus super statu et qualitatibus ecclesiae Anagduanensis respondit quod civitas Anagduanensis parva et sine muris distat a civitate Tuamensi per quatuor vel quinque milliaria, et quod in ea est parva ecclesia cathedralis quae habet decanum et archidiaconum et quosdam canonicos, qui tamen ibi non resident, et ecclesia ipsa est penitus 142 THE IRISH CHURCH Papal nuncio, writing in 1561, mentions inciden- tally that the metropolitan cathedral of Tuam had been recently recovered by Archbishop Bodkin after being used as a barracks for more than three hundred years/ Turning from the Irish to the Anglicized or half Anglicized districts, we find evidence of a similar state of things. In 1525 the Earl of Kildare informed the King that the churches 1525- in Kilkenny and Tipperary were "in such ^534 extreme decay that there is no divine service kept there. If the King's Grace do not provide a remedy, there is like to be no more Christen- tie there than in the midst of Turkey."^ Archbishop Inge, writing three years later, described " the lamentable decay of this land" — meaning the Pale — " as well in good Christi- anity as in other laudable manners, which hath grown for lack of good prelates and curates in the Church. The diocese of Meath," he added, " which is largest of cure and most of value for an honourable man to continue in, is far in ruin, desolata. . . . Dioecesis est admodum parva et intra silvestres et malos homines sita." — Moran's Archbishops of Dublin, p. 415. ^ " Ed essendo quella chiesa per 300 anni per fortezza nelle mani gentil uomini, senza messa ne altro officio divino, lui I'ha tolto per forza dalle mani loro con grande pericolo della sua persona, e dove prima erano cavalli ed altri animali, ora si canta e si dice messa in essa." — David Wolf to the Cardinal Protector, October 12, 1561. Ibid., p. 418. ^ Articles touching the misdemeanour of the Earl of Ormond. THE IRISH CHURCH both spiritually and temporally, by the absence of the bishop there." ^ In 1534 the Earl of Ossory complained that " the cathedral churches, monasteries, and all other, both secular and regular, throughout the land were in ruins and decayed."^ The duties which were neglected by the parochial clergy were performed, not altogether inadequately, by the religious orders. The history of these orders is extremely curious. Before the Norman, or at least before the Danish, invasion the Irish church had been almost exclusively monastic. Secular priests were few ; and bishops, though numerous, had no definite jurisdiction, and were greatly inferior in wealth and dignity to the heads of the religious houses. Those houses were in early times extraordinarily numerous — in the seventh century the monks are said to have outnumbered all the other in- habitants of the island,' — but they were not ■connected with any of the orders recognized by the universal church ; and when Columbanus and other Irish missionaries established monas- teries on the Celtic model in Gaul and Germany, they speedily came into conflict with the eccle- siastical authorities. Of these monasteries a few survived until the .sixteenth century — the abbey of Armagh is ^ Inge and Bermingham to Wolsey, February 23, 1528. ^ Ossory to Henry VIII, May 31, 1534. ^ Archdall's Monasticon Hibernicum, p. xi. 144 THE IRISH CHURCH popularly supposed to have been founded by St. Patrick ; that of Derry by St. Columba ; and the nunnery of Kildare by St. Brigid — but a much larger number were destroyed during the Danish wars : and of the abbeys and priories which were in existence in 1535, the vast majority date from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The earliest religious houses of the continental type were established by the Danes in Dublin, Wexford, and Waterford, after their conversion to Christianity about the middle of the eleventh century. In the twelfth century the Roman system of diocesan episcopacy was introduced into Ireland under the auspices of 1140 Malachy O'Morgair, Archbishop of Armagh ; and its introduction was accompanied or followed by a radical reform in the organization of the Celtic monasteries. Many new monasteries were founded about this period ; many of the older foundations were enlarged and remodelled. The Norman invasion gave a fresh impulse to the monastic movement. The most brutal and profli- gate of the invaders sought, according to the ideas of piety which were then fashionable, to purchase forgiveness for their crimes by lavish bequests to the Church ; and no names are more conspicuous among the patrons of Irish monas- teries than those of Richard de Clare and William Marshall, of John de Courcy, of Hugh and Walter de Lacy, of Philip of Worcester, and of William FitzAdelm. The native princes were ^4-5 L THE IRISH CHURCH not slow to copy this example. Dermot MacMurrough strove in vain to quiet the reproaches of a guilty conscience by magnificent foundations at Ferns, Baltinglass and Dublin. The religious houses founded by Donal O'Brien, King of Thomond, were scattered over Clare, Tipperary and Limerick ; and Cathal of the Red Hand was the founder or benefactor of numerous monasteries in Connaught.^ It is impossible to compute with any approach to accuracy the number of these establishments which existed in Ireland at the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII, Sir James Ware enumerates three hundred and sixty-two, designedly omitting those which, founded in the earlier ages of the church, had been subsequently converted into parish churches. Of these one hundred and forty-two were situated in Leinster, ninety in Munster, eighty-two in Connaught, and forty-eight in Ulster. But Ware, although a very learned and industrious writer, appears to have been ill-informed with regard to the mere Irish districts, and later writers have shown that his list is by no means complete. There is every ^ Mjr account of the Irish monasteries is based on a com- parison of Ware's Antiquities ef Ireland (ed. 1705) ch. 26 ; Harris's edition of the same (1764), ch, 38, where Ware's account is re-written and greatly enlarged ; Mervyn Archdall's Monasticon Hibernicum ; Alemznd's Histoire monastique tT Irlande; and A Second Thebaid, by Father J. P. Rushe. 146 THE IRISH CHURCH reason to believe that the Irish monasteries 1541 amounted, at the time of their dissolution, to between five and six hundred.^ The monks were of both races, of various orders, and of every conceivable social grade. The Augustinians or canons regular were by- far the most numerous, the old Celtic monas- teries having, with very few exceptions, adopted the Augustinian discipline in the twelfth cen- tury. Their establishments, according to the most moderate computation, exceeded two hundred, of which about seventy belonged to the Aroasian canons — a branch of the Augusti- nian order reformed about the end of the eleventh century at the abbey of Aroasia in the diocese of Arras. Of the kindred order of St. Victor there were seven houses ; of the order of St. Norbert as many. In power and splendour none of these foun- dations could be compared with the great Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries. The Benedictines were few — they had not, it appears, more than nine abbeys in the whole island — but •"^ Archdall enumerates more than lOOO monasteries, but many of these had been either destroyed or converted into parish churches long before the Reformation. Alemand places the total number at rather more than 400 ; Harris at 565 ; Sylvester Malone [Church History, II, 347-358) at 537. Mr. Bagwell thinks that the religious houses in Ireland at the time of their suppression numbered about 350, exclusive of those belonging to the mendicant orders, of which there were rather more than 200. — Ireland under the Tudors, I, 318. H7 THE IRISH CHURCH some of these were of primary importance. The Cistercians, or, as they were sometimes called after one of their most illustrious mem- bers, the Bernardines, an order of Benedictines reformed in the eleventh century at Citeaux, were much more numerous. Their houses, at the time of their suppression, numbered about forty, among which were many of the richest and most splendid in the country. Of the Hospitallers or Knights of St. John — a military order which had completely lost its religious character — there were twenty-four commanderies. Many of these, including the Grand Priory of Kilmainham, had originally belonged to the Knights Templars, and had been transferred to the Hospitallers when the property of the former order was confiscated by Edward II. The Grand Prior sat among the spiritual peers, and more than one holder of the office was conspicuous for licentiousness and turbulence even among the barons of the Pale.' I have reserved to the last the mention of a class which, far inferior in wealth and social position to the preceding orders, had, since the beginning of the thirteenth century, exercised a much greater influence over the religious life of the people. The Dominicans, instituted in 1224- 1 216, were introduced into Ireland only eight 1300 years later. The earliest Dominican friary was ^ See the extraordinary account of James Keating, who became Grand Prior in 1461, in Gilbert's Viceroys, p. 397. 148 THE IRISH CHURCH erected in Dublin on the spot where the King's Inns now stand; others at Kilkenny, Drogheda, and elsewhere soon followed. The first Franciscan missionaries arrived in 1230: before the end of the century they had established friaries at Youghal, Carrickfergus, Kilkenny, Dublin, Athlone, Wexford, Limerick, Dundalk, and Armagh.^ In the reign of Henry VIII, the houses of the former order numbered forty-two, those of the latter one hundred and fourteen. The Carmelites had twenty friaries, and the Eremites or Austinfriars thirty-six. The island contained over seventy 1539 nunneries, of which all except seven belonged to regular canonesses. The influence of these institutions on the general prosperity of the country has been very variously estimated. This portion of our history has unhappily passed, to a great extent, into the hands of theologians, and has been obscured by a large amount of bigotry and misrepresentation. Roman Catholic writers have described the monasteries as educational and charitable insti- tutions of which the value could scarcely be exaggerated : Protestants have not scrupled to denounce them as haunts of immorality and ^ De Burgo, Hibernia Dominicana, pp. 38, 42. Wadding, Annales Minorum, II, 249-250. The Ancient Dominican Foundations in Ireland. An appendix to CHeyne's Epilogus Chronologicus, by Ambrose Coleman. Brenan, pp. 305- 313. 149 THE IRISH CHURCH idleness. The truth, as is usually the case, lies somewhere between these extremes. It is impossible to doubt that the greater monasteries rendered considerable services to, at least, the English-speaking portion of the com- munity. The island at this time contained neither schools nor universities ; the religious houses, to some extent, supplied their place and provided an education which, although tinged with obscurantism, was infinitely preferable to no education at all. There were many monas- teries in which "young men and children, both gentlemen's children and other," were "brought up in virtue, learning, and the English tongue and behaviour, to the great charges of the said houses." The nunnery of Graccdieu was famous as a seminary for young ladies. The gentlemen of the Pale received their education from the Augustinian canons of Christ Church, Kells, and Connal, or from the Cistercians of Jerpoint and St. Mary's, Dublin. Other mon- asteries served as houses of entertainment "in default of common inns, which are not in this lamd," the poorer travellers being lodged gratui- tously, while the richer were expected to make a donation, which was applied to charitable uses.^ Hospitals for the care of the sick poor were attached to many monasteries,^ and the ^ Lord Deputy and Council to Cromwell, May 21, 1539- ^ See much evidence of this in Brenan, pp. 433-440. THE IRISH CHURCH brethren appear to have expended considerable sums in almsgiving. In a more advanced state of society the economic effects of this indis- criminate charity might have been extremely mischievous ; in a country as poor and back- ward as Ireland then was the good greatly outw^eighed the evil. The monastic lands, which are said to have been the best cultivated in the island, afforded employment to a con- siderable body of labourers, and the services of the monks to commerce were admitted even by so violent a Protestant as Archbishop Loftus.* On the other hand the defects of the Irish monastic system were sufficiently glaring. In the matter of sexual morality, indeed, the monks seem to have contrasted favourably with their brethren in other countries. Robert Cowley, it is true, declared that the religious houses in Ireland were less continent and virtuous than those in England ;' but Cowley was an extreme and unscrupulous partizan, and the charge is wholly unsupported by detailed evidence. The statements of Browne and Bale are equally open to suspicion ; but there are a few well-established instances of actual misconduct. In 1530 the corporation of Galway found it necessary to enact that no monk should keep a concubine ;' ^ Stubbs's History of the University of Dublin^ Appendix II. ? Cowley to Cromwell, October 4, 1536. ' Hardiman's History of Galway^ p. 238. THE IRISH CHURCH and seven years later the grand juries of Clonmel and Waterford described the great Cistercian 1537 abbey of Inislonaught as a hotbed of immo- rality.' But such cases were rare ;. and it is an extremely significant fact that, whereas in the act for the dissolution of the English monas- teries, the " vicious living " of their inmates is expressly mentioned, the Irish monks are charged with nothing worse than being " addicted to their own superstitious ceremonies, and to the doctrines of the Roman Pontiff."* But the great monasteries were, with very few excep- tions, essentially English institutions ; and of the benefits which they undoubtedly conferred upon the Anglo-Irish, the native population received no share. Their superiors were rather warriors and politicians than churchmen, and were much more largely occupied with temporal than with spiritual interests. Fourteen mitred abbots of the order of St. Bernard, ten mitred priors of the order of St, Augustine, and the Grand Prior of the Hospitallers sat in the ^ " James Butler, Abbot of Inislonaught, is a man of odious life, taking yearly and daily other men's wives and daughters, and useth no divine service." — Presentment of the Jury of Waterford, October, 1537. "The abbey of Inislonaught beside Clonmel useth no divine service ; and the Abbot of the same using his leman or harlot openly by day and night to his pleasure, and every monk of his having his harlot." — Present- ment of the Jury of Clonmel, October, 1537. ' Patent Rolls, I, 55. Compare English statutes, 27 Henry VIII, c. 28. , THE IRISH CHURCH parliament of the Pale, and were not inferior in wealth and dignity to the greatest of the lay peers/ From the foundations over which these dignitaries presided, and from some others of less note. Irishmen were jealously excluded. The monks, indeed, had retained their exclu- sive character more completely than any other section of the community, a celibate clergy being to a great extent untouched by the influences which, among other classes, tended to an amalgamation of races. We have seen how in the fourteenth century the abbots of Granard and Inch had taught that to kill an Irishman was no sin ; and their practice corres- ponded only too closely with their theory. Regular as well as secular ecclesiastics attended the Lord Deputy to battle ; and monasteries in the border districts were habitually used as fortresses. The great Augustinian priory of Connal guarded the south-western frontier of the Pale. The priory of Louth answered a similar purpose in the north.* On the other hand, there were many monasteries into which no monk of English race could obtain admission. In the west, in particular, where the ecclesiastical orga- nization of the sixth century still to some extent survived, we find monasteries connected with particular clans. In such cases the office of abbot was usually annexed to that of chief, and was ^ Ware's Annals^ 1539. * Statute if Kilkenny^ pp. 49-50. THE IRISH CHURCH filled by a layman, whose ecclesiastical functions were discharged by a deputy.^ A letter written by an abbot of Mellifont about the end of the fifteenth century throws a curious light on the relations between the Anglo-Norman monks and their Celtic brethren. Mellifont, the oldest and very much the richest of the Cistercian monasteries, was founded about twenty years before the Norman invasion by Donough O 'Carroll, prince of Uriel. After the invasion the abbey, which was situated a few miles from Drogheda, in the county of Louth, became practically an Anglo-Norman house. Its abbot took precedence of all other abbots, and claimed a jurisdiction over the entire order, to which the Celtic monasteries were by no means disposed to submit. In the letter to which I have alluded, the condition of those monasteries is described from the standpoint of an Anglo-Irish ecclesiastic. The buildings were in ruins ; the revenues were embezzled by lay- men ; the monks wandered about in search of the necessaries of life. No hospitality was kept. Many monks were addicted to vices which the writer hesitated to name lest he should tarnish the character of the entire order. The picture is probably over-coloured, for the abbot wrote under the influence of the strongest national * See the submission of Hugh O'Kelly, chief captain of his nation and hereditary Abbot of Knockmoy, May 24, 1542. Carew MSS. THE IRISH CHURCH prejudice, and his narrative was based, as he himself admitted, on hearsay evidence. Nor indeed was it possible for him to obtain more precise information ; for the native monks stub- bornly refused to acknowledge his authority, and could not be induced either by fear or friendship to appear in answer to his summons. When, as a last resource, the abbot appointed visitors to inquire into the state of the Ulster mona- steries, the visitors were repelled with arrows.' The feud which pervaded every other portion of the ecclesiastical body did not extend to the " poor friars beggars." Even those writers who spoke with most severity of the clergy as a whole were accustomed to exempt the mendicant orders from the general condemnation.* To those orders and to them alone, it was owing that a faint spark of religious feeling survived in Ireland even in the wildest districts and in the most troubled times. In the most distant parts of Ulster and Connaught, in the barbaric dominions of the house of Desmond, and in the wasted marches that lay along the borders of the Pale, Domini- cans and Franciscans preached and ministered the sacraments unceasingly, while the secular ^ Malone's Church History, II, 175-177. * " There is no archbishop ne bishop, abbot ne prior, parson ne vicar, ne any other person of the Church, high or low, great or small, English or Irish, that useth to preach the word of God, saving the poor friars beggars." — State of Ire- land, 1 5 15. THE IRISH CHURCH priests were sunk in vice and apathy, and bishops and mitred abbots vied with the greatest of the lay nobility in extortion and turbulence. Their creed might be grossly superstitious, their edu- cation scanty, their manners coarse. But of their zeal and piety there could be no question ; and it is to their efforts, powerfully seconded by the ill-judged proselytism of Browne and Bale, that the complete and lasting failure of the re- formed church in Ireland must be ascribed. In March, 1535, George Browne, an English Augustinian, who had acquired considerable notoriety by the zeal with which he had advo- 1535 cated the Lutheran doctrine of justification by faith, was appointed to the see of Dublin, and was placed at the head of a commission for pro- curing the assent of the Irish people to the dogma of the King's spiritual supremacy.^ Browne was a man of some ability, but narrow- minded, rapacious, arrogant, and domineering — in a word, as ill-fitted as a man could conceivably be for the task. of inducing a reluctant people to accept a religion, of which they had never heard, at the dictation of a government which they instinctively disliked. His mission was as un- successful as might have been anticipated, the Anglo-Irish of the Pale, and the Celtic or ^ Historical Collections of the Church in Ireland during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary, set forth in the Life of George Browne [by Robert Ware]. Harleian Miscellany, V, 595-606. 156 THE IRISH CHURCH Cclticized inhabitants of the other provinces, being, although for widely different reasons, equally hostile to the new doctrines/ The former, to whom alone the refoi-med creed was at first preached, were zealous Catholics, and their Catholicism, like the Protestantism of the party which succeeded to their ascendancy, was as much political as religious. Adrian IV had bestowed the lord- ship of Ireland upon Henry of Anjou,* and during more than three hundred and fifty years Adrian's successors had been the unwavering allies of the English colonists in their warfare with the hated Irish. To the Anglo-Irish, therefore, any attack upon the papal supremacy must have been particularly odious. To re- nounce that supremacy was to strike at the root of their own position as a dominant caste. It might, perhaps, have been expected that the same considerations which made the Protestant ^ "It is observed that, ever since his Highness's ancestors had this nation in possession, the old natives have been craving foreign powers to assist and rule them ; and now both English race and Irish begin to oppose your Lordship's orders, and do lay aside their old national quarrels." — Browne to Cromwell, May, 1538. Harleian Miscellany, V, 599. ^ The Bull Laudabiliter is printed in Giraldus Cambrensis' Expugnatio Hibernice. Gratianus Lucius, the learned author of Cambrensis Eversus, made an ingenious attempt to prove that it was a forgery (c. lO, xxii), and has been followed by many later writers ; but such attempts are altogether sophistical. See some candid and temperate remarks in hsLnigan's Ecclesiastical History, IV, 164-166. ^57 THE IRISH CHURCH doctrines unpopular among the Englishry would have sufficed to commend them to the native Irish. To them, however, the Reformation was presented, in so far as it can be said to have been presented to them at all, in a political rather than in a doctrinal form. The royal supremacy, the article of faith on which Archbishop Browne and his colleagues were most disposed to insist, they regarded less as a theological dogma than as an expedient devised to strengthen the English government by in- vesting it with a religious sanction. The hatred of the Irish chieftains to England was as hot as their attachment to Rome was lukewarm; while the disorganization of the parochial system had thrown the religious education of the common people into the hands of the friars, who were passionately devoted to the Papacy. Whether, by a judicious policy, such Protestant doctrines as did not involve a recognition of the royal supremacy might have been propagated among the Celtic population, it is idle to inquire ; for no such policy was adopted. On the contrary, the reformed church allowed itself to be made from the outset an instrument for the anglici- zation of the island, thereby inevitably incurring the scorn and hatred of every high-minded and patriotic Irishman.^ ^ The anti-national character of the reformed church is strikingly exhibited by the act 28 Henry VIII, c. 15, which provided that none but persons who could speak English should 158 THE IRISH CHURCH After six months of unsuccessful evangelism the Archbishop realized that his mission was a failure, and that his only hope of making con- verts lay in securing the assistance of the secular power. "My most honoured Lord," he wrote to Cromwell, "your most humble servant, re- ceiving your mandate, as one of his Highness's commissioners, hath endeavoured, almost to the danger and hazard of this temporal life, to pro- cure the nobility and gentry of this nation to due obedience, in owning of his Highness their Supreme Head, as well spiritual as temporal, and do find much oppugning therein, especially by my brother Armagh, who hath been the main oppugner, and so hath withdrawn most of his suffragans and clergy within his see and jurisdiction. He made a speech to them, laying a curse on the people, whosoever should own his Highness's supremacy, saying that this isle, as it is in their Irish chronicles insula sacra, belongs to none but the Bishop of Rome, and that it was the Bishop of Rome's predecessors gave it to the King's ancestors. There be two messengers by the priests of Armagh, and by that Archbishop, now lately sent to the Bishop of Rome. Your Lordship may inform his be admitted to ecclesiastical preferment, unless, after procla- mation made at the nearest market town, no such person could be found. The Act of Uniformity (2 Eliz., c. 2) directed that the Protestant service should only be performed in English, or, where that language was not understood, in Latin, THE IRISH CHURCH Highness that it is convenient to call a parlia- ment in this nation to pass the supremacy by act, for they do not much matter his Highness's commission, which your Lordship sent us over. This island hath been for a long time held in ignorance by the Romish orders, and as for their secular orders, they be in a manner as ignorant as the people, being not able to say mass, or pronounce the words, they not knowing what they themselves say in the Roman tongue. The common people of this isle are more zealous in their blindness than the Saints and Martyrs were in the truth at the beginning of the Gos- pel. I send to you, my very good Lord, these things, that your Lordship and his Highness may consult what is to be done. It is feared O'Neil will be ordered by the Bishop of Rome to oppose your Lordship's order from the King's Highness ; for the natives are much in numbers within his power." ^ In accordance with this advice the Irish par- liament was convened in the following summer. 1536 Of the persons who attended no list has been preserved; but it is probable that nine counties, and between twenty and thirty boroughs, sent representatives to the lower house. The upper house must have been composed, as upon previous occasions, of the temporal peers, all of them at this period men of English ^ Browne to Cromwell, November 28, 1535. Harleian Miscellany, V, 595. 160 THE IRISH CHURCH descent ; of those among the bishops whose dioceses were situated in the English portion of the island, and of the heads of the principal religious houses.^ In England a convocation of the clergy was always held simultaneously with parliament ; in Ireland, where this was not the practice, the clergy were represented by two proctors from each diocese, who sat in the House of Commons among the lay members ; but whether with a right to vote, or merely as "counsellors or assistants," had not up to this time been determined. The parliament met for the first time in May, 1536, and was dissolved on December 20th in the following year, having been repeatedly prorogued in the interval in consequence of the disturbed condition of the country. The Earl of Kildare and his kinsmen were attainted, and their lands vested in the crown.^ An act recognizing ^ For the history and constitution of the Irish parliament during the middle ages see the speech of Sir John Davies, 161 3 {Ireland under Elizabeth and James /, pp. 393-409). Davies does not mention the abbots and priors, for whom see Ware's Annals, 1539. A list of the parliament of 1560 is printed in the Irish Archaeological Society's Tracts, vol. ii, pp. 134-138. If this document is genuine ten counties (Louth, Meath, Westmeath, Dublin, Kildare, Carlowr, Wexford, Kilkenny, Tipperary, and Waterford), and twrenty-eight cities and boroughs, seventeen of which were in Leinster, sent re- presentatives in that year. The constituencies represented in 1536 were probably the same, with the exception of West- meath, which did not become a separate county until 1543, and a few of the more distant boroughs. » 28 Henry VIII, c. i. 161 M THE IRISH CHURCH the validity of the King's marriage with Anne Boleyn, and securing the succession to her children, was passed and immediately re- pealed, the news of the queen's execution reaching Dublin a few days after the bill had become law.^ Estates belonging to absentees were confiscated, the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Earl of Wiltshire being particularly named.^ The tribute which, under the name of black rents, the colonists had previously paid to the native chieftains, was declared illegal and abolished.* The foolish and oppressive provisions of the Kilkenny statutes were revived ; marriage and fostering with the mere Irish were forbidden ;* and all persons ^28 Henry VIII, c. 2. The act of repeal is not in the statute book, which was not compiled until the reign of Elizabeth. Schedule of Acts passed in the Parliament of Ireland, 28 and 29 Henry VIII, enclosed by Brabazon to Cromwell, December 30, 1537. » 28 Henry VIII, c. 3. 3 28 Henry VIII, c. ii. * 28 Henry VIII, c. 28. " That no person ne persons of the King's subjects within this his land, of what estate, degree, dignity or condition soever he or they be, shall marry or foster themselves, their children or kinsfolk within the fourth degree to or with any Irish person or persons of Irish blood . . . and if any His Highness's subjects of this land do olFend in the premises or any parcel thereof, that then every such offence shall be deemed high treason. And that every person and persons so offending, being thereof lawfully convicted according to the due order and process of the King's laws, shall be adjudged a traitor attainted of high treason, and shall have and suffer such pains of death, losses and forfeiture of lands, tenements, goods and chattels as in cases of high treason." 162 THE IRISH CHURCH were ordered to wear only the English dress, and to use only the English language/ These measures passed with little opposition, parliament representing only the English colony and legislating solely with a view to its interests ; but Browne experienced more difficulty in in- ducing the houses to agree to his ecclesiastical policy. Bills were introduced declaring the King to be the " Supreme Head" of the Church, prohibiting appeals to Rome, suppressing nume- rous monasteries, and transferring to the crown the " first fruits " and " twentieth parts," which had been previously paid to the Pope ; but these only became law after a long and bitter struggle. The proctors of the spirituality " stuck somewhat " at these measures, and were particularly reluctant to acknowledge the royal supremacy. The bill nevertheless passed the Commons in the first session ; but the spiritual lords, who formed the majority of the Upper House, refused to consider that or any other proposal until the constitutional posi- tion of the proctors had been defined.^ The opposition of this latter body was overcome at last by the energy of the Archbishop of Dublin, who introduced the bill establishing the royal supremacy with these curiously characteristic words : " My Lords and Gentry of this His ^28 Henry VIII, c. 15. * Brabazon to Cromwell, May 17, 1536, Gray and Brabazon to Cromwell, May 18, 1537. 163 THE IRISH CHURCH Majesty's realm of Ireland, behold your obe- dience to your King is the observing of your God and Saviour Christ ; for He, that High Priest of our souls, paid tribute to Cassar, though no Christian : greater honour surely is due to your Prince His Highness the King, and a Christian one. Rome and her bishops in the Fathers' days acknowledged emperors, kings and princes to be supreme over their dominions, nay, Christ's own vicars ; and it is much to the Bishop of Rome's shame to deny what their precedent bishops owned." " He who will not pass this act as I do," he significantly concluded, " is no true subject to His Highness."' The preamble to this act throws an interesting light on the opinions and motives of the govern- ment. " Like as the King's Majesty justly and rightfully is and ought to be the Supreme Head of the Church of England, and so is re- cognized by the clergy and authorized by an Act of Parliament made and established in the said realm : so in like manner of wise, foras- much as the land of Ireland is depending and belonging justly and rightfully to the imperial crown of England, be it enacted by the authority of this present parliament that the King, our sovereign lord, his heirs and successors, kings of the said realm of England, and lords of this ^ Harleian Miscellany, V, 596. 164 THE IRISH CHURCH said land of Ireland, shall be accepted, taken and reputed the only Supreme Head on earth of the whole Church in Ireland."^ It was with no view to the spiritual improvement of the Irish people ihat Browne and his supporters acted. The Act of Supremacy — like other acts of this parliament, directed against the dress, the language, and the amusements of the people — was merely a part of the policy of introducing English laws and institutions into Ireland with- out the smallest regard to the needs or wishes of the population. The Supremacy Bill became law ; but the struggle was renewed on the question of the religious houses. A bill for the disendowment of these institutions was opposed by the eccle- siastical body in both houses, the proctors being supported on this occasion by a considerable portion of the lay members. The priory of St. Wolstan, a house of canons of the order of St. •Victor in the county of Kildare, was sacrificed in September, 1536, as a peace-offering to Henry ;^ with this exception the monasteries were pre- served until the following year. Robert Cowley, a bitter Protestant and a most unscrupulous 1 28 Henry VIII, c. 5. ^ " Schedule of Acts passed in the parliament of Ireland, 28 and 29 Henry VIII." This act is not in the statute book. On June 26, 1536, the Prior and Brethren of St. Wolstan's wrote to Cromwell, praying that their house might not be dissolved. They mention a report that it was intended for the Master of the Rolls (MS. R.O.). 165 THE IRISH CHURCH jobber, insisted angrily that the religious houses in Ireland were even worse than those in England, and that the reasons which had sufficed for their suppression in the latter country ought to suffice " loving subjects " in the former ; but the majority, " presuming to have higher and more excellent wits than those in England," thought otherwise, and the bill for their dis- endowment was repeatedly thrown out. Patrick Barnewall, the King's Sergeant, was especially vehement in opposition, asserting loudly that the King had a right to reform monasteries, but not to suppress and despoil them/ In the autumn he obtained leave to repair to London to lay his views before Henry. The judges, meanwhile, having investigated the claim of the proctors, had pronounced it groundless ; and they were deprived of their suffrages by a special act.^ Their disfranchisement gave the government a majority in the House of Commons ; but the Lords continued obdurate, and for some months matters remained at a dead-lock. At length, in October, 1537, a com- promise was agreed upon. Thirteen religious houses were dissolved by name, the Cistercians of BectifF, Baltinglass, Dousk, Dunbrody, and Tintern, the regular canons of St. Peter's near Trim, Duleek, Bally bogan, Holmpatrick, Tagh- Moling and Ferns, and the regular canonesses ^ Cowley to Cromwell, October 4, 1536. ' 28 Henry VIII, c. 12. 166 THE IRISH CHURCH of Hogges and Grane being the victims.^ No monastery in Ulster, Munster or Connaught was dissolved by this act, and the vast majority even of the Leinster houses escaped destruction until some years later. In Ireland, however, it has always been easier to pass acts of parliament than to enforce them, and the statutory religion made little progress even in the Pale. A form of prayer renouncing the Bishop of Rome's "usurped authority" was drawn up by Browne ; ^ but it was seldom used in his own diocese and not at all outside it. "Neither by evangelical instruction nor gentle exhortation, neither by oaths to them straightly administered nor by threats of sharp correction," could the archbishop induce any of his clergy, ^28 Henry VIII, c. 16. It has been asserted by nunnerous writers that forty Irish monasteries were suppressed in 1528, while the king was still in communion with Rome. This statement is erroneous ; and it is not difficult to see how the error originated. Forty English monasteries were suppressed by a royal commission in that year ; and one of the com- missioners, John Alen, was immediately afterwards appointed to the see of Dublin. The commission is noticed by Ware (I, 347) ; and later writers, finding the transaction mentioned in the life of an Irish archbishop, have assumed that it must have taken place in Ireland, The statement of the Loftui MSS., that the parliament of 1536 passed an act for the dissolution of three hundred and seventy monasteries, is also false. Before the passing of the act 28 Henry VIII, c. 16, eight abbeys had been dissolved by a royal commission. — Gray and Brabazon to Cromwell, May 18, 1537. This commission is not now extant, nor is it known what were the houses named in it. * The Form of the Beads. 167 THE IRISH CHURCH "either religious or secular, once to preach the Word of God or the just title of our most illus- trious Prince." ^ Of twenty-eight prebendaries of St. Patrick's there were not three learned, nor one that favoured the new doctrines." In the adjoining diocese the case was still worse. Dr. Staples, Bishop of Meath, was as zealous for the royal supremacy as Browne himself, and in the next reign he took a leading part in the intro- duction of the reformed liturgy ; but his views were at this time more moderate than those of his brother prelate, against whom he "raged and railed" from the pulpit, "calling him heretic and beggar, with other rabulou 1538 revilings." Pilgrimages had never been more frequent, and in the church of Kilmainham, which, although within the diocese of Dublin, was exempted from the archbishop's authority, a papal indulgence was openly displayed.' The archbishop in his distress appealed to the secular power for assistance, but he got little comfort. The king rated him roundly, accused him of pride, lightness of mind, and, with less justice, of negligence in the discharge of his duties, •* Browne to Cromwell, January 8, 1538. ^ Browne to Cromwell, May 8, 1538. ^ Browne to Alen, April 1 5, 1538. See also Articles on which the Archbishop of Dublin wishes the witnesses to be produced by the Bishop of Meath to be examined. — Cotton MSS., Titus, b. X, 231. Staples, writing to St. Leger, says of Browne: "Pride and arrogance have ravished him from the right remembrance of himself." — ^June 17, 1538. 168 THE IRISH CHURCH and concluded by sharply reminding him that he was not a successor of the apostles, but a civil servant dependent for his official existence on the royal favour.^ The Lord Deputy was even more open in his hostility, and, either because he sympathized at heart with the old faith, or because he had no wish to add a war of religion to his other troubles, took a malicious pleasure in releasing the friars and non-juring priests whom the archbishop had imprisoned.^ In the native districts the Act of Supremacy was a dead letter. The monasteries remained standing ; the old services were performed by the old ministers. Five bishoprics became vacant in 1536 and the two following years; they were filled, as they had always been filled, by provision ; the provisors were supported by the native population, and the rival bishops nomin- ated by Henry were compelled to fly from their dioceses.^ Richard Nangle, provincial of the Irish Augustinians and a zealous reformer, was appointed by the king to Clonfert ; the Pope ^ Henry VIII to Browne, July 31, 1537. ^ T. Alen to Cromwell,' October 20, 1538. Browne to Cromwell, November 6, 1538. * " There be now lately five bishops in Ireland by the Bishop of Rome's authority, besides abbots and priors." — Cowley to Cromwell, July 19, 1538. " The Archbishop of Tuam and such other promotions as the King's Majesty hath given anywhere under their rules by their commendations, the Bishop of Rome hath given them to others, whom they maintain." — Alen to Cromwell, July 10, »539- 169 THE IRISH CHURCH conferred the bishopric upon Roland De Burgh ; and De Burgh was supported by his kinsman Mac William, "a naughty traitorous person, governor of those parts." It was in vain that the aggrieved prelate "showed the King's broad seal for justifying of his authority." Mac William "little esteemed, but threw it away and vilipended the same"; and the would-be evangelist thought it prudent to return to Dublin, where he acted as suffragan to the archbishop.^ We shall hear of him again in the next reign, when he re-appears as "the drunken Bishop of Galway," who spent his days in confirming young children at twopence a head, and his nights in drinking aquavitae and "rob-davy."' ^ Browne to Cromwell, February i6, 1539. ^ Bale's Focacyon, Harleian Miscellany, VI, 452. 170 CHAPTER IV THE GERALDINE LEAGUE With the surrender of the young Earl of Kil- dare the government beUeved that, although rebellion might still smoulder in remote districts, serious danger was at an end. At the end of August Lord Leonard Gray sailed for England, 1535 taking his prisoner with him ; in September SkefBngton, ably assisted by Ossory and James Butler, overran the south-eastern counties, and before the end of the year Carlow and the four shires above the Barrow had been practically annexed to the Pale.^ But Butler was less successful in the west, where O'Brien and "the pretended Earl of Desmond" were still in arms. O'Brien, it is true, wrote to Henry on October 13th, apologizing for the assistance which he had given to Kildare, and making something like an offer of submission ; ^ but either the letter was a mere ruse, devised to gain time, or the writer speedily saw cause to change his mind. Neither he nor Desmond had any real intention of submitting, and the approach of winter made it difficult to coerce them. ^ Aylmer and Alen to Cromwell, December 31, 1535. * O'Brien to Henry VIII, October 13, 1535. 171 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE Skeffington, whose health had long been delicate, died on the last day of the year, and Gray, who had just returned from England, was immediately appointed to succeed him/ During his absence fresh disturbances had broken out in Leinster, and these disturbances it was his first duty to suppress. Nor was the task a hard one, for the strength of the Leinster septs had been effectively broken in the preceding summer. 1536 O'Conor and O'Byrne submitted in January, and MacMurrough a few months later.^ The subjugation of the great Munster chieftains was a task of very different magnitude, and Gray found himself hampered at the outset by the chronic difficulty of all Irish governors — lack of money. The pay of the troops had for some months been in arrear, and the soldiers, compelled to choose between dying of starvation and living by plunder, had preferred the latter alternative ; excusably, no doubt, but with results alike ruinous to their own discipline and to the general tranquillity of the country. Towards the end of June, just as the Lord Deputy was about to set out for Munster, the discontent broke out into open mutiny.' By paying a part of the arrears, and by promising speedy payment ^ State Papers, II, 297, n. ' Carew MSS. ' Council of Ireland to Cromwell, June 30, 1 536. Brabazon to Cromwell, June 30. 172 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE of the remainder, Gray temporarily succeeded in restoring discipline, and by the middle of July the army was at last prepared to take the field. Leaving Sir William Brabazon to defend the Pale, the Lord Deputy marched on the twenty-fifth of that month to Kilkenny, and thence to Cashel, where he expected to meet James FitzGerald, styling himself Earl of Desmond/ Old Sir John of Desmond, "who in his life- time usurped both the name and possessions of the earldom of Desmond and all the King's lands in Munster," had died a few weeks pre- viously; and his son. Sir James, "had not only proclaimed himself Earl, usurping the same pos- sessions and lands, but also had both achieved in effect the power and strength of all the Englishry of Munster, and combined with O'Brien to be maintained against the King's Majesty in the receiving of the same." After waiting three days at Cashel in the hope of detaching Desmond from O'Brien, Gray entered the Earl's territory near Limerick and marched against the great castle of Lough Gyr, "which is a strong hold, situated in an island of fresh water, and in no less estimation in these parts, than Maynooth is in the north parts." The castle, which was "desolate and unwarded" was captured on the thirty-first "without any ^ Council to Cromwell, August 9. Gray to Cromwell,. August 10. THE GERALDINE LEAGUE handstroke," Desmond, before leaving it, having burnt the roof and carried off the doors and windows. On the same day Donough O'Brien joined them and renewed an offer, which he had made in the preceding year to his brother-in-law, "to «erve the King against all men," stipulating only that he should receive the castle of Carrickogynell as a reward for his treachery. Gray, "supposing it better to satisfy his request about the said castle than to lose his help and assistance both against his father and James of Desmond," agreed to this proposition. On August ist the army marched to Carrickogynell, A formidable structure standing on a high rock •on the left bank of the Shannon, about half a mile from the river and four miles below Limerick. The garrison, which was com- manded by Matthew O'Brien, one of Donough's partisans, capitulated without resistance. Gray -delivered the castle to Ossory ; and Ossory, in accordance with the agreement already mentioned, handed it over to his son-in-law.^ A more serious enterprise remained. O'Brien and his brother Murrough, who as tanist of 'Thomond held a strip of land on the Clare side of the river, had, a few years earlier, erected a bridge over the Shannon between Dunace and ^ Council to Cromwell, August 9. Council to Henry, August 9. — Careuu MSS. William Body to Cromwell, August 9, — Carew MSS. Butler to Cromwell, August 1 1 . THE GERALDINE LEAGUE Killaloe, " whereby they had in a manner subdued all the Englishry thereto adjoining, and especially the county of Limerick."^ This bridge Gray was fully determined to destroy. Ossory, indeed, had been anxious to attempt its destruction in the preceding autumn ; but Skeffington had refused, perhaps wisely, to sanction so perilous an undertaking at so late a season of the year/ The possession of Lough Gyr and Carrickogynell made the Lord Deputy's task less difficult than it would otherwise have been. On August 5th Gray and Butler, with the army and such ordnance as they had, were conducted to the bridge by Donough " in a secret and unknown way on this side of the water, where never English host or carts came before." The bridge was of old timber, three hundred paces in length. " On this side was a strong castle, builded all of hewn marble ; and at the other end another castle, but not of such force ; both builded within the water, somewhat distant from the land." In order to make the approach more difficult, the defenders had themselves broken down four arches between the castle and the left bank. "The gunners bent all the ordnance upon the great castle on this side, shooting at it all that day ; but the castle was of such force that the ordnance did in a manner no hurt to it, for the wall was at the least twelve ^ Report to Cromwell, 1533. * Ossory to Henry VIII, January 28, 1536. ^75 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE or thirteen feet thick, and both the castles were well warded with gunners, gallowglass and horse- men, having made such fortifications of timber and hogsheads of earth as the like hath not been seen in this land." On the morning of the seventh Gray, " perceiving that the King's ordnance did little hurt to the castles, and also that the shot was spent," ordered the soldiers to fill the water with faggots between the bank and the castle, and to scale the walls. After a few hours fighting William Saintlowe succeeded in gaining posses- sion of the nearer and more formidable of the two fortresses ; and the garrison, finding resist- ance hopeless, " scope out at the other end by footmanship," and made off into Thomond. The success was complete ; and Gray was eager to follow up his victory by an invasion of Thomond ; but his triumph was turned to mortification by the disaster which followed. Among the troops which had accompanied SkefEngton to Ireland two years earlier was a body of Northumbrian cavalry trained in the predatory warfare of the Scottish border — pro- bably the best fighting men in England, but by no means the most amenable to discipline. These troops, no longer satisfied with the instal- ment which they had received in July, chose the moment of Gray's victory to raise " a sore mutiny and insurrection about their wages," scornfully rejecting all offers of compromise and demanding payment to the uttermost farthing. 176 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE From them the disorder spread to Saintlowe's company, and thence throughout the whole army ; and Gray believed his life to be in more danger from his own soldiers than ever it had been from the enemy. It was in vain that the Lord Deputy alternately promised, threatened and entreated ; to every command the soldiers returned one unvarying answer : " Let us have our money and we will do it."^ As a last resource Gray offered them the plunder of the cities of Cork and Limerick, and of the town of Kil- mallock ; but not even this magnificent bribe would induce them to proceed. One service they did indeed consent to render, but rather from a sense of professional pride than out of any regard for the commands of the Lord Deputy. Ossory, as we have seen, had handed over Carrickogynell to his son-in- law ; and Donough had entrusted it to its former warden, on whose fidelity he believed that he could rely. But Donough's treachery had dis- gusted his most ardent partisans ; and, after the capture of the bridge, the warden declared for O'Brien. Indignant at this act of open defiance, Gray sent a messenger to the garrison, commanding them to surrender the castle without delay, "and they so doing to escape without hurt." To this message no answer ^ Council to Cromwell, August 9. Body to Cromwell, August 9. Gray to Cromwell, August 10. Butler to Cromwell, August 11. 177 N THE GERALDINE LEAGUE was returned. Gray thereupon sent a second messenger, repeating his demand and adding that, if they persisted in defending it, " they should die, man, woman, and child." The gar- rison, nevertheless, " would in no wise re-deliver the said castle, but defend it to their best." Gray accordingly opened a bombardment, and eventu- ally recovered the castle, " in the achieving whereof certain of his retinue of the English- men were slain, and others sore hurted." The loss of the besiegers in killed and wounded amounted to about thirty persons ; of the defenders seventeen had been killed during the siege ; the survivors, including the women and children, forty-six in all, were put to death, as Gray had threatened, " except certain of the chief of them, being gentlemen of the O'Briens, for the redemption of whose lives both great intercession was made and good sums of money offered : which, being conveyed with us to the city of Limerick, the Lord Deputy caused to be arraigned, according to the order of the King's laws, and after to have execution as traitors attainted of high treason."^ This, however, was the only exploit which the troops could be induced to perform ; and Gray, being unable to proceed by force, was once more compelled to negotiate. His efforts, as might have been expected, met with very ^ Council to Cromwell, August 9 and 22. Gray to Henry, August 19. 178 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE little success. O'Brien, " notwithstanding his letters and promises of subjection to the King's Highness, would not condescend to any con- formity according to the same "; he steadily refused to surrender the Kildare plate and jewels, which had been entrusted to him by Earl Thomas, and which, by the act of attainder, had recently become the property of the crown ; ^ and he had since committed a new and still more unpardonable offence. After the death of the old Earl of Kildare the widowed Countess, accompanied by her younger children, had taken refuge at the house of her brother. Lord Leonard, in Leicestershire ; ^ her eldest son, Gerald, after- wards the eleventh earl, remained at Donore in the Pale, under the care of his tutor, Thomas Leverous, subsequently Bishop of Kildare. During some months the government, occupied with persons more likely to prove immediately dangerous, paid little attention to him ; and it was only about the beginning of 1536 that Henry seems to have become suddenly aware that he had scotched, not killed, the Geraldine snake. After the arrest of his uncles, however, in February of that year, it was rumoured in Ireland that the Lord Deputy was anxious to obtain possession of his person. At the imminent risk of his life — for he had then not fully re- covered from a severe attack of small-pox — the ^ Council to Cromwell, August 22. ^ Countess of Kildare to Cromwell, July 16, 1536. 179 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE child was carried by the devoted Leverous to the castle of his sister, Lady Mary O 'Conor, wife of the chief of OfFaly. But Offaly was too near the Pale to be a very safe asylum for a fugitive with a price upon his head ; and, as soon as he was sufficiently convalescent to endure a longer journey, the young Gerald, still accom- panied by Leverous, was conveyed to O'Dunn's country, and thence to Thomond, where he remained for several months under the powerful protection of O'Brien. Gray was above all things anxious to secure the person of his nephew ; but O'Brien, who understood the duties of hospitality better than the Deputy, refused to betray his guest.' Desmond, left to himself, might perhaps have proved more tractable ; he " shewed himself in gesture and communication very reasonable," offering to give his two sons as hostages, and to submit his title to the arbitration of the Deputy ; but drew back at the last moment, " pondering his oath which he had made to O'Brien, as he is a person esteemed greatly to regard his promise, that the one of them should not make an agreement with us, without the assent of the other, and peradventure suspecting his title to the earldom, and also perceiving that we could not demour in the country there as we thought to have done "; and, after a final and ^ Stanihurst, p. 304. Cowley to Cromwell, August, 1536. Cromwell to St. Leger, August 9, 1537. 180 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE fruitless effort to induce the soldiers to attack him, Gray marched back to Dublin.^ Money was at last found ; but when the demands of the army had been satisfied, the autumn was too far advanced for a fresh campaign. A third winter was passed in in- action : O'Brien rebuilt his bridge, and Desmond re-occupied Lough Gyr. Donough, it is true, still held Carrickogynell ; but his motley crew of Anglo-Irish mercenaries caused more annoy- ance to the Englishry than the clansmen of his father had done/ The only lasting result of Gray's victory was a heavy drain upon the already impoverished exchequer. But even this was not the worst. The council had been quarrelling among them- selves during the deputy's absence ; and the deputy had no sooner reached Dublin than he quarrelled violently with the council. Of Alen, indeed, and Aylmer, afterwards the most vin- dictive of his accusers, he wrote at this time in a strain of unstinted eulogy ; but he was already in sharp conflict with the vice- treasurer, Brabazon, to whose mismanagement he attributed his late misfortunes. Brabazon, in estimating the revenue for the coming year, had relied largely on the income to be derived ^ Council to Cromwell, August 22. ^ Mayor and citizens of Limerick to Ossory, February 28, 1539 (MS. R.O.). Memoranda for the Lord Cromwell, 1539 (MS. R.O.). 181 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE from the forfeited estates. But the forfeited estates had been so burnt and plundered by both parties as to be, for the time at least, worthless ; and there had been other grave miscalculations. The deputy severely censured the treasurer ; the treasurer replied with counter-charges against the deputy ; and William Body, an Englishman, who had accompanied the army to Munster, and had not found in the camp the luxuries to which he considered himself to be entitled, added fuel to the fire by criticizing Gray's military operations with equal asperity and ignorance.^ Brabazon and Body found no lack of sympa- thizers on either side of the channel ; for it has always been a tradition with the English government to expect its Irish representatives to make bricks without straw ; and there is nothing so odious to a Dublin bureaucrat as an intelligent viceroy. In a moment of supreme peril the council had complained of SkeiEngton's imbecility, and had begged for a more active governor 'J but the peril was, or seemed to be, ^ Gray to Cromwell, October 31 ; November 24, 1536. To the King, April 20, 1537. Body to Cromwell, August 9, 1536. — Carew MSS. View of the accounts of William Brabazon, treasurer of the King's army (MS. R.O.). ^ "Wherefore, considering that he is not able to stir, ne execute his room for debility, and that the winter is drawing nigh, and also for that the King is determined that my Lord Leonard shall be Deputy, who, we trust, shall do high service : for, in judgment by his doings now, he will execute that room 182 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE past, and King Log, they thought, was now preferable to King Stork. The ultra-Protes- tants, a small but influential party, hated Gray for his moderation ; and Ossory and his son had their own reasons for a hostility which was cordially returned. The king added to his irritation by accusing him of extravagance and advising the most impossible retrenchments. Exasperated beyond endurance, the unfortunate deputy vented his ill-humour in a succession of angry letters. Other Deputies had been rewarded for services less valuable than the seizure of the Earl of Kildare and his five uncles, and the capture of O'Brien's bridge ;^ he had looked for thanks and received nothing but reprimands. He would continue to serve his master to the best of his ability ; but, if his service was to be of any value, he must have his master's confidence. His predecessors had had the entire direction of Irish affairs ; his Majesty had lately thought fit to communicate with subordinate officials without the knowledge of the chief governor ; and his subordinates, very well ; for he beginneth to order well the army, and is a stirrer abroad and no sleeper in the morning ; that the King's Highness at the return of Mr. Agard send as well for the other home as a patent for the Lord Leonard of the said office." — Aylmer and Alen to Cromwell, August 2i, 1535. ^ "I have seen men for less enterprises than the appre- hension of Thomas Fitzgerald, and, after, the taking of all his five uncles, or the breaking of O'Brien's bridge, highly advanced." — Gray to Cromwell, November 23, 1536. 183 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE believing that he had not the confidence of the crown, had presumed to conspire against him. The King wished that the army should be reduced, and that Ireland should be made to pay its own expenses. To the first suggestion Gray answered that, with O'Brien, Desmond and O'Conor in rebellion " it was not meet to abate the army, but rather to increase the same"; to the second, that the inhabitants of the four shires had been " so spoiled, oppressed and robbed," that they could not give his Grace " any notable thing," and that Ossory would not suffer taxes to be collected above the Barrow. Henry, perplexed and disappointed, addressed an impartial reprimand to the Deputy and his accusers ; hinted, not obscurely, that they knew more about the revenue than they chose to disclose, and announced his intention of appointing a commission to inquire into the state of the country.^ His Majesty had indeed ample grounds for dissatisfaction. For two years the Geraldine estates, extending over a great part of Dublin, Kildare, Carlow and Westmeath, had lain waste, "not occupied ne manured."^ The Earl's tenants, most of whom had been concerned ^ Gray to Cromwell, October 31 ; November 23, 1536. Lord Deputy and Council to the King, October 29, 1536 ; April 20, 1537. Henry VIII to the Lord Deputy and Council, February 25, 1537. * Lord Deputy and Council to the King, June 26, 1536. 184 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE in the recent insurrection, wandered disconso- lately about the country, and thought rather of preserving their lives than of improving pro- perty M^hich it was unlikely that they would ever be permitted to enjoy/ The seizure of Sir James FitzGerald and his brethren con- tributed still further to the general unrest. Irritated by the religious policy of the govern- ment, and probably sympathizing with the house of Kildare, with which many of them were connected by blood or marriage, the lords of the Pale scarcely attempted to defend their lands, and gave the Deputy little advice and less assistance. To complete the general misery. Gray had been compelled by lack, of funds to ^ " The gentlemen of the county of Kildare are the most sorriest afraid men in the world, for they think they shall be taken one after another of them, as Sir James Fitzgerald was, and his brethren." — Francis Herbert to Cromwell, March 2i, 1536. "May it please your good mastership further to under- stand that in effect all the inhabitants of these four shires within this land, in the last commotion and rebellion of that traditor and rebel Thomas FitzGerald, for the most part by com- pulsion, adhered to him : by reason whereof the most of them, being indicted of high treason, remain in such fear, as by occasion thereof we be in doubt to trust to their aids or succours, especially of the bastard Geraldines and other marchers : but, standing in this extreme doubt, fear lest they would do the contrary, if, by the sight and dread of the presence of this army, they were not repressed." — Lord Deputy and Council to Cromwell, June i, 1536. See also their letter to the King, April 20, 1537. On July 31, 1537, a commission was issued for pardoning persons who had taken part in the rebellion on payment of a fine (MS. R.O.). 185 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE billet troops upon the people ; and the farmers, who had lately been pillaged by the rebels, were now subjected to the exactions of an ill- paid and licentious soldiery : while the fall of Maynooth, Powerscourt, Rathangan and other Geraldine castles left the Pale more exposed than ever to the incursions of the Irish borderers/ Spring came at last, and Gray, who was much 1537 better fitted by nature to command an army than to compose the feuds of greedy and self- seeking politicians, resolved to take the field without delay. A successful campaign would, he felt, be an effective reply to his calumniators, and he could scarcely be thwarted in the camp as he had been in the council. O 'Conor, the most dreaded and hated of the border chieftains, had once more taken arms on being informed of the fate of his brother-in-law, and about the middle of May a hosting was proclaimed against him.^ On the twenty-ninth of that month Gray and Brabazon, attended by Lords Slane, Delvin, and all the gentlemen of the Pale, marched through Westmeath to M'Geoghegan's country, intending to invade OfFaly from the north-west side ; while Ossory, with O'Moore and McGillapatrick, was instructed to attack the ^ Lord Deputy and Council to Henry, April 20. Gray, Brabazon, Alen, and Aylmer to Cromwell, April 29, 1537- " Gray and Brabazon to Cromwell, May 18, 1537. 186 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE rebellious district from the south. The Earl, who was suffering, or professed to be suffering, from an injury to his knee, neglected to keep his appointment ; but Gray, guided by Delvin, easily reduced the M'Geoghegans, O'Melaghlins and O'MoUoys, "which were O'Conor's adherents and most strength ; whereby he constrained them not only to forsake him, but also to aid our part against him." Accom- panied by these allies, and still guided by Delvin, Gray then entered Offaly on the side most remote from the Pale, where no English host had ever yet passed, and laid siege to O'Conor's castle of Brakland, "wherein was a good ward, well victualled, well ordnanced and well manned, environed strongly with wood and moor." The castle was captured after a stout resistance. Among the defenders was a foster-brother of Cahir O'Conor, who was pardoned at the latter's intercession, "and all the residue had the pardon of Maynooth." Guided by the solitary survivor the Deputy next marched to another castle of O'Conor named Dengen, which is, being inter- preted, "the place of most assurance." The castle, which had just been completed, was said to be one of the strongest in Ireland, standing in a marsh, surrounded by a great ditch, and defended by a ward of forty men — all gunners. It was, nevertheless, taken after some hard fighting, "and the ward which was in it had the same grace and pardon which such men 187 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE deserved, so as a good company of gunners be well despatched." ^ Leaving Cahir O'Conor in possession of OfFaly, Gray next darted westward with extra- ordinary rapidity and wrested the royal castle of Athlone, " which is a great garrison, standing in the midst of this land, upon a passage betwixt Connaught and these parts," from another sept of the O'Conors who had had possession of it since the fourteenth century. Nor did the Lord Deputy's success end here. The Kavanaghs, the Nolans, O'CarroU, O'Kennedy, O'Meagher, were defeated in rapid succession. Before the end of August the midland district, habitually the most turbulent in Ireland, had been subdued from the Shannon to the Pale, and from the bounds of Ulster to the frontier of the Ormond palatinate. In September, Gray wrote to Henry that Brian O'Conor was a fugitive, "going from one to another of his old friends to have meat and drink, more like a beggar than he that was ever the captain or ruler of a country." His brother Cahir held Offaly for the crown, and was so hated by his countrymen that the Council thought themselves assured of his fidelity.* ^ Gray and Brabazon to Cromwell, June 1 1 . Thomas Alen to Cromwell, June I2. {Carew MSS.) Council to Cromwell, June 26. ^ Council to Cromwell, June 26. Deputy and Council to Cromwell, August 12. Gray to Cromwell, September 19, 1537' See also a letter of August 16, printed in State Papers, III, 144, where it is wrongly dated 1539. 188 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE Again Gray believed that he had conquered Ireland. Again he was doomed to disappoint- ment. At the beginning of October the banished chieftain re-entered OfFaly with a strong body of horsemen, kerne and gallow- glasses; the clan declared in his favour, and Cahir, finding that the Lord Deputy lacked the will or the power to protect him, patched up a peace with his brother and passed over to the insurgents. On the nineteenth, a fresh hosting was proclaimed against the O 'Conors. But the rain fell heavily ; the Barrow overflowed its banks ; and the expedition ended in disaster. Before the end of December the conquests of the preceding summer had been completely lost. Soured and disappointed the Lord Deputy returned to Dublin, where he was at once exposed to new dangers, calumnies and humiliations.^ The war had now lasted more than three years, and each campaign had been more costly than that which preceded it. In the summer of 1537 Henry, dissatisfied with an expenditure which had produced no adequate return, and bewildered by the conflicting reports which reached him from Ireland, appointed a com- mission to inquire into the state of the country. The commissioners were four in number : Sir ^ The High Commissioners to Cromwell, November 15, 1537, Brabazon to Cromwell, December 30. Gray to Cromwell, December 31. 189 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE Antony St. Leger, who three years later succeeded Gray as Lord Deputy; George Paulet, a brother of the Marquis of Winchester; Thomas Moyle and William Berners. Among other matters of less moment these gentlemen were directed to "examine the offices and behaviour as well of the Deputy as of all other of the King's Council" ; to inquire in what places the King's laws were obeyed ; to survey the lands, as yet desolate, which had fallen to the crown by the Act of Attainder, the Act of Suppression, and the Act of Absentees ; to grant leases for twenty-one years to Englishmen and others of the King's faithful subjects who would en- courage their tenants to "inhabit and manure the same" ; to devise measures for the abolition of black rents ; to ascertain the amount of the revenue, and the best means of collecting it ; and to discharge as many of the soldiers as could be dismissed with safety/ The commissioners landed in Dublin on September 8th, and for the next four months they were busily employed in surveying the crown lands, hearing witnesses, and listening to proposals for reform. The survey was com- pleted by the beginning of January ; but the commissioners remained in Ireland until April, ^ Commission to Sir Antony St. Leger, George PaiJet, Thomas Moyle^ and William Berners, "for the regulation of the government of Ireland," July 3 1 (MS. R.O.). Instructions to the Commissioners, July 31, 1537. 190 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE when they sailed for England, taking with them Alen, Aylmer, and Cowley/ With the substance of their report the reader is already acquainted. The commissioners re- ported that they had travelled through Leinster and a considerable part of Munster, and had seen "many goodly manors and castles," be- longing to the crown, but all "in ruins and decayed, and the land about them waste." Devastation had produced famine ; prices had risen, and the soldiers, no longer able to live upon their wages, were supporting themselves, by plunder. Many had been discharged already, and more would be discharged as soon as there was money to pay them. Revenue there was none as yet, and little prospect of obtaining any. Except in the immediate neighbourhood of Dublin the protection of the law scarcely extended beyond the walls of the towns. The Anglo-Irish lords outside the Pale, excluded the King's judges from their territories under the pretext of palatine privileges, and used Brehon law or the "Statutes of Kilcash." The Earl oF Desmond had condescended to negotiate ; but St. Leger had little faith in his promises. Kil- kenny, Tipperary and Waterford, the countries of the Butlers and Powers, were in extreme disorder "for the lack of ministration of justice."^ 1 Agard to Cromwell, April 4, 1538. ^ State Papers, II, pp. 5 10-51 2, note. Presentments of Juries, October, 1537. Commissioners to Cromwell, September 191 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE In Wexford, which, although united to the crown, was still governed as a "liberty," matters were even worse, owing to the misconduct of the officers appointed by the Earl of Shrews- bury.^ The condition of the Pale itself was little, if at all, better. The frontier fortresses were either in ruins or occupied by the enemy ; the " march " or debatable land was growing with alarming rapidity, and the civil districts were over-run with Irish spies, Irish thieves, and Irish harpers. The lords marchers, although acknowledging a bare allegiance to the crown, disregarded the injunctions of the deputy, oppressed their tenants with coyne and livery and other illegal exactions, and made war or peace as suited their personal interests. English farmers, reduced to beggary by the ravages of civil war and the oppression of their landlords, 26; November 15, 1537; January 2, 1538. Articles of submission of James Fitzjohn, claimant to the earldom of Desmond, October 18, 1537. ^ " As for William Saintlowe, he keepeth him and his men in a corner, as a king, exempted from all the King's laws and obeysaunce, planting coyne and livery, extortion and oppression, such as was never seen, and all the country maketli exclamation of his outrages, and he will not refrain or see any redress. As far as I can perceive, the continuance of that liberty is more like to induce them to plain rebellion than to any civil order, as it is used." — Cowley to Cromwell, September 8, 1539. See also Presentment of the Grand Jury of Wexford, 1537. Council to Cromwell, January 18, 1539. On June 30, 1537, the Sovereign and Commons of Wex ford wrote to Cromwell thanking him for the continuance of their liberties (MS. R.O.). 192 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE were emigrating in large numbers, and English gentlemen found it impossible to procure tenants, labourers, and even household servants.^ For all this Gray was not responsible. Some of the abuses of which the commissioners com- plained were the inevitable consequence of civil war ; others had been in existence long before he had set foot in Ireland, and his military duties had left him little leisure for adminis- trative reforms. The report, nevertheless, tended still further to discredit the unfortunate Deputy, and gave a fresh handle to his accusers. Those accusers were numerous, persevering and unscrupulous. In the early days of his administration the Lord Deputy and his official advisers had acted with apparent harmony ; but there had never been much real cordiality, and before Gray had been many months in office there had been something like an open rupture. The breach, it is true, had been followed by a hollow and short-lived reconciliation ; but the torrent of invective, which had been dammed by Gray's victories, burst forth anew on the first indication of defeat. At first the enemies of the Lord Deputy had contented themselves with attacking him upon personal grounds. He was haughty; he was passionate ; he would not control his temper or listen to advice; he had treated individuals with ^ See the letters- of Gray, Alen and Luttrell to the Gom- missioners, September, 1537. 193 o THE GERALDINE LEAGUE injustice and harshness. They did not deny his military talents ; and they breathed, as yet, no suspicions of his loyalty.^ About the beginning of the year 1538, the general dissatisfaction began to shape itself into a more serious and definite charge. In repudiating the authority of the Roman Pontiff the English nation had acted with some approach to unanimity ; but the schism was no sooner complete than the reformers became divided into two hostile factions. The Con- servative or, as we should now call them, the High Church party, were anxious, while assert- ing the independence of the national church, to preserve its doctrines unchanged; their opponents had adopted, though they did not yet openly avow, the tenets of the German reformers. The quarrel had extended to Ireland, where the ultra- Protestants formed the majority of the council, while the Lord Deputy was completely identified with the moderate party. Lord Leonard Gray had acknowledged the royal supremacy, and had acquiesced, with no very good grace, in the dissolution of the monasteries. Beyond this he was not prepared to go. He had no leaning to Lutheranism ; and he regarded the iconoclastic 1 " To be plain, except my Lord Deputy use another moderation and temperance than he hath done of late, he shall be more meet to be ruled than to rule ; for, no doubt, he hath lost the hearts of English and Irish, friend and foe." — Alen to the Commissioners. 194 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE fanaticism of Archbishop Browne and his friends with a disgust which he took no pains to conceal. The latter, on their part, regarded Gray as the chief obstacle to their triumph, and plotted persistently to procure his dismissal. On March 28th, James White, a Wexford magistrate and a violent Protestant, wrote to Cromwell, complaining of the Deputy and the 1538 Papists. But, continues this zealous reformer, "thanks be to God, the King's Majesty hath one Catholic city, and one champion, the Lord Butler, in this land, that dare repugn against the detestable abusions of so sundry sects as this miserable land is in a manner overflown withal, whose Pharisaical ceremonies and hypocrisy, of so long time continued here, have not only trained and brought the people wholly from the knowledge of God, but also in an evil and erroneous opinion of the King's most noble Grace, and of all those that under his Majesty be the setters forth of the true Word of God and repugnators against those abuses." A week later Thomas Agard, a more conspicuous mem- ber of the same party, followed in the same strain. "Here is no news, neither business, but all after one sort ; the blood of Christ is clean blotted out of all men's hearts, what with that monster the Bishop of Rome and his adherents. It is hard, my good lord, for any poor man to speak against their abusions here ; for except it be the Archbishop of Dublin, which doth here 195 THE GERALDINE ELEAUE in preaching set forth God's Word, with due obedience to their prince, and my good Lord Butler, the Master of the Rolls, Mr. Treasurer, and one or two more, which are of small repu- tations, here is else none, from the highest, may abide the hearing of it, spiritual, as they call them, nor temporal ; and in especial they that here rule all, that be the temporal lawyers, which have the King's fee." On June 20th, James Butler wrote to Cowley, who had accom- panied the commissioners to London : " Our governor threatens every man after such a tyrannous sort, as no man dare speak, or repugn reasonably against his appetite ; more than I or any other true Christian man durst speak against the Bishop of Rome's usurped authority ; of whose sect he is chief and principal in this land — albeit there is nothing so apparent but he will deny." In July Cowley presented an elaborate memorial to Cromwell, complaining that "the Papistical sect spring up and spread abroad, infecting the land pestiferously by default of attolerance " : that, since the passing of the Supremacy Act, five bishops had been appointed to Irish sees by the Pope, besides abbots and priors ; that Roland Burke had expelled the King's nominee from the diocese of Clonfert; and, that all this was due to Gray's connivance. "My Lord Deputy," wrote Arch- bishop Browne in August, "beareth still his favours towards the Observants." "Surely," 196 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE wrote Butler a few days later, "he hath a special zeal for the Papists." ^ But Gray's adversaries did not confine their attacks to his religious policy. The lawyers, with Lord Chancellor Alen at their head, intrigued on principle against every successive Deputy ; the Earl of Ormond and his son had resolved to make all government except their own impossible, and half the offices in Ireland were filled with Ormond 's nominees. From the first Gray had regarded this powerful nobleman with a dislike which had rapidly deepened into hatred. The Butlers were now, in his opinioUj more formidable than ever the Gcraldines had been, and, although the Lord Deputy's judgment was, perhaps, swayed in this instance by his passions, it must be acknowledged that he had some ground for his suspicions.^ The hereditary principalities of the house of Ormond exceeded in extent the Irish dominions of the crown. After the attainder of the Geraldines the Earl and his eldest son had received enormous grants 1 White to Cromwell, March 28, 1538. Agard to Cromwell, April 5. Butler to Cowley, June 20. Cowley to Cromwell, July 19. Browne to Cromwell, August 10. Butler to Cromwell, August 26. ^ As early as February 6, 1537, Martin Pelles wrote to Cromwell, "The Butlers be of a high courage and liveth here like princes. Many fear that they will be loth to live in subjection ; for all the country prayeth daily to God that the Butlers, especially, may never be their head rulers." —Carew MSS. 197 6 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE in the Pale/ and they had also profited largely by the dissolution of the monasteries.* The Earl's second son, Richard, afterwards the first Lord Mountgarret, had recently acquired a con- siderable estate in Wexford.' His daughter. Lady Katherine Power, was absolute mistress of the eastern half of Waterford.* The possession of Dungarvan gave the Butlers the command of the western half of the same county Another daughter of the Earl was married to Donough O'Brien ; while a third was the wife of Brian McGillapatrick, prince of Upper Ossory.** McGillapatrick had lately enlarged his dominions at the expense of his neighbours, the O'Moores, and Donough had a considerable following in Thomond. The pretensions of ^ Letters patent granting to Piers, Earl of Ormond and Ossory, and his son James, Lord Butler, Treasurer of Ireland, various lands. October 23, 1537 (MS. R.O.) ' Ware, Antiquities, ch. 38. ' Saintlowe to Cromwell, March 17, 1537. — Carew MSS. * Presentments of the Juries of the County and City of Waterford, October, 1537. O" February 26, 1545, St. Leger wrote to Wriothesley enclosing three letters from Sir William Wysc, a prominent citizen of Waterford, dated November i, December 2, 1544, January 5, 1545, complaining of the extortions of Lady Katherine Power. ' Devices for the ordering of the Kavanaghs, O'Byrnes, and O'Tooles, 1537.— C«rm MSS. * Report to Cromwell, 1533. "Item, they say that the Earl of Ossory hath married one of his daughters to McGillapatrick, being Irish, and one other his daughter to Donough O'Brien, being also Irish." Presentment of the Jury of the Corporation of Kilkenny, October 5, 1537. 198 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE James Butler, the heir to the earldom, were still more formidable. This nobleman had married a daughter of James, eleventh Earl of Desmond. Earl James died without heir male in 1529, and was succeeded by his uncle, Thomas Moyle. In 1537 Butler, availing himself of the dissen- sions among the Munster Geraldines and the rebellion of the de facto Earl, advanced a claim in right of his wife to the Desmond inheritance.^ The union of two such earldoms would have made the Butlers absolute masters of at least the southern half of Ireland, and Gray rightly determined to prevent such a consum- mation at all hazards. With this object he resolved to abandon the course which he had hitherto pursued, and to conciliate the enemy whom he had lately attempted to destroy. Apart from his distrust of the Butlers, and his dislike of the extreme Protestants, the Lord Deputy had good reasons for adopting a more liberal policy. • If the campaign of the preced- ing summer had not materially increased his power, it had at least opened his eyes to the real nature of the Irish problem. O'Conor, it was clear, was no more daunted by the capture of his castles than O'Brien had been by the destruction of his bridge ; and until O'Conor was either subdued or reconciled, there was no ^ St. Leger to Henry, February 21, 1541. Cf. Walter Cowley to Cromwell, December 21, 1532. 199 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE hope of permanent tranquillity even in Leinster. In Munster O'Brien and Desmond were still unconquered ; and the capture of Athlone had not been followed by any considerable extension of the royal authority in Connaught. From the north a new and terrible danger threatened. Old Hugh O'Donel, who, at the beginning of the war, had been " a great stay upon O'Neil,"^ died in July, 1537 ; and his death was followed by a revolution in Ulster politics. Manus, the son and successor of the deceased chieftain, had, during his father's lifetime, been expelled from his hereditary dominions by a lady whom the old lord " keeped contrary to God's law, to the great peril of his soul," and had taken refuge with Con O'Neil, whose sister had been his first wife. Deeply impressed by the dangers to which the Irish clans were exposed by their internal feuds, and actuated by a profound distrust of the English government, Manus had no sooner succeeded to the chiefship, than he reversed the policy of his predecessor, and concluded a close alliance with his brother-in-law. For the first time in history the two great Ulster families were cordially united in opposition to the English government.' ^ Cowley to Cromwell, September 8, 1539. ^ Four Masters, 1537. Ware, Annals, 1537. Gray to Cromwell, September i, 1537. Manus O'Donel to Gray, August 20, enclosed in the preceding. 200 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE In all this the council could see nothing but a fresh incentive to severity. To Gray, on the other hand, it was evident that Ireland could no longer be held by the sword, and that a lasting settlement could only be based on the conciliation of the native population. From his official advisers he could expect nothing but the most determined opposition. He began therefore to dispense with their services, and to look elsewhere for assistance. An unofficial cabinet, composed partly of Gray's personal friends, who had accompanied him from England, and partly of the former adherents of the Geraldines, was formed ; and to them all business of importance was thenceforth sub- mitted.^ On March 6th a treaty, the first of a memorable series, was concluded with Brian O 'Conor, who undertook to be a true and loyal subject to the King ; to renounce the jurisdic- tion of the Roman Pontifi^ ; to make no further claim for " black rents or other exactions," but to be content with the liberality of the Lord Deputy ; to pay an annual land-tax of three shillings and fourpence for every ploughland ; to allow the Lord Deputy to make a road through his territory ; and to give his son Donough as a hostage. In return for these concessions he asked only to be treated a baron, and to be allowed to hold his lands of the King, ^ Ormond to Cowley, June, 1538. Alen and Aylmer's Articles against Lord Leonard Gray, June, 1538. 201 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE according to the laws of England/ A month later the Lord Deputy celebrated Easter at Maynooth, where O'Conor was his principal guest, and was received with every nfark of attention.^ It is easy to understand how distasteful these proceedings must have been to Ormond and to the other enemies of the Geraldine house. I have explained the arguments by which Gray afterwards defended his conduct — arguments which, if not convincing, were at least perfectly intelligible. The motives attributed to him by his traducers were very different. By his modera- tion in religious matters the Lord Deputy had incurred the charge of Popery ; his opposition to the Butlers exposed him to the suspicion — to which his relationship to the widowed Countess of Kildare gave a peculiar plausibility — of aiming at the restoration of the Geraldines and the destruction of all who had served the crown during the recent troubles. In June James Butler, who was even more violent in his hos- tility than his father, summed up Gray's character in a phrase skilfully devised to arouse the jealousy of Henry. " My Lord Deputy is the Earl of Kildare newly born again, not only in destroying 1 Gray to Cromwell, March ii, 1538, enclosing (i) Manner and form of the parliament between the Lord Deputy and O'Conor, March 2 ; (2) Submission of Brian O'Conor, March 6, 1538. * Matthew King to Cromwell, April 26, 1538. 202 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE of those that always have served the King's Majesty, but also in maintaining the whole sect, band and alliance of the said Earl, after so vehement and cruel a sort as the like hath not been seen."^ It must be admitted that Gray's conduct gave some colour to this accusation. But before narrating his subsequent exploits we must trace the movements of his nephew, who about this time became the rallying-point of a formidable confederacy. We left young Gerald in Thomond, where he was joined by James Delahide, Father Walsh and other partisans of his house. O'Brien, as we have seen, refused to surrender the boy at the dictation of the deputy ; but a little later, either doubting his ability to protect him, or not wishing to be embarrassed in any subsequent negotiation with the government, sent him across the Shannon to Desmond, by whom he was placed under the care of his aunt. Lady Eleanor MacCarthy, widow of the late and mother of the reigning chief of Carbery.^ Lady Eleanor, a woman of remarkable courage, energy and deter- mination, had learnt with grief and horror of the execution of her kinsmen, and had resolved to leave no stone unturned to avenge it. To unite all the great families of Ireland in a con- spiracy against the government was thenceforth ^ Butler to Cowley, June 20, 1538. " Stanihurst, p. 305. Cromwell to St, Leger, August 12, 1537- 203 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE her one object. The accession of Manus O'Donel and his reconciliation with O'Neil afforded her the opportunity for which she had been waiting. O'Donel was a widower, and was anxious to strengthen himself by an alliance with the Geraldines. In the winter of 1537 he intimated to Desmond that he was a suitor for the hand of Lady Eleanor. Lady Eleanor con- sented, in the hope of securing an asylum for her nephew. The negotiations were completed in March ; in April Lady Eleanor and Gerald, accompanied by Delahide, Walsh and Leverous, set out on their long and perilous journey from Cork to Donegal. With such secrecy was the whole business transacted that the fugitives had reached Ulster, and the marriage had actually taken place before any hint of their intention reached Dublin. It was only on June 5th that Sir William Brabazon informed Alen and Aylmer, who were then in London, that Lady Eleanor had gone to be married to O'Donel, and had been accompanied by young Gerald, Delahide and others, " which I like not. I was never in despair of Ireland until now." On the same day Luttrell repeated the news, adding that their trust was " by the aid of the north and of Scotland to make war." Three weeks later the Earl of Ormond was able to send some addi- tional particulars. Lady Eleanor and Gerald had been escorted by MacCarthy Reagh to the Earl of Desmond, at whose castle the messengers 204 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE from Ulster had joined them. Accompanied by the messengers they had then crossed over to Thomond, where the whole party had been entertained by O'Brien. By O'Brien they had been conducted to Mac William of Clanricarde, by Mac William of Clanricarde to MacWilliam of Mayo, and thence through the Irish countries of Lower Connaught to O'Donel's residence in Donegal. There they had been joined by O'Neil, who was Gerald's kinsman ; and there " by the procurement of the said Eleanor," O'Donel and O'Neil had taken a solemn oath " to take one part with the said Gerald against the Englishry ; and had found sureties, other- wise called slanteghe, the one of them upon the other, according their old use and custom, for the due performance of the same." The earl had derived his information in the first instance from Teig MacCormac, Lady Eleanor's son-in-law ; and the story had been in part confirmed by one Ee McCragh, a " rymor " and a native of Tipperary, who had met the travellers near Sligo. Ormond believed that the marriage had been " practised and devised by James of Desmond, O'Brien, and other Irish- men of Munster of the Geraldine sect"; and that a rebellion was brewing in which Fergananym. O'CarroU would be one of the chief actors.^ ^ Brabazon to Alen and Aylmer, June 5, 1538. Luttrell to Aylmer, June 5, 1538. Ormond to the Council, June 25» 1538- 205 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE While these events were taking place in the north the English Pale was in a state of more than normal confusion. Even when the deputy and the great chiefs were at peace hostilities were constantly taking place between the English and Irish marchers. In the spring of 1538 the results of this border warfare were particularly unfavourable to the Englishry. The MacMahons burned and spoiled Uriel ; the O'Reillys threatened Meath, and Captain Kelway, a brave and active, but by no means discreet officer, who was stationed in the Dublin marches, was killed in a foolish and unprovoked attack on the O'Tooles.^ These reverses were particularly irritating to Gray ; for, whatever course he might adopt, he was certain to afford a fruitful theme for invective. If he remained inactive it was said that he allowed the Irish enemy to oppress the King's subjects ; if he took the field he was accused of "raising need- less wars" and making " skurrs about light matters." On the whole the Lord Deputy thought it best to leave the borderers to their own devices, and to carry out his policy ot conciliation notwithstanding.* ^ Council to Cromwell, June 10, 1538. Kelway "found two of Turlough O'TooIe's servants in the English borders, eating of meat, and for the same did immediately hang them." He appears to have assumed, without any sort of evidence, that the meat was stolen. The O'Tooles, in revenge, " cruelly murdered Kelway and seven of his servants." '^ Aylmer and Alen to St. Leger, June 27, 1538. 206 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE On June 17th he left Dublin, accompanied by O'Conor, telling the Council that he intended to negotiate with Desmond, who had agreed to meet him in O'CarroU's country. On that night he lodged with O'Conor at Monasteroris, " where he had sumptuous cheer and was lovingly entertained." On the nineteenth, he entered Ely O 'Carroll, recognized Fergananym, Kildare's son-in-law, as chief of the clan, and restored to him the castles of Birr and Modreny " out of the hands of others of the O'CarroUs, which would not be ordered." From Ely he marched through Ormond, Arra and Owney, the territories of the O'Kennedies, O'Briens, and O'Mulryans. All these chiefs submitted, agreed to pay tribute, and gave hostages for their future loyalty. James of Desmond, Ulick, afterwards first Earl of Clanricarde, and Theobald, chief of the Burkes of Castleconnell, " came in" a few days later. With Desmond, Gray is said to have had a private interview; but what passed between them never transpired. On the twenty-eighth, the Lord Deputy entered Limerick, where he remained for a week, during which time the bishop, the mayor, and all the principal citizens took the oath of supremacy. Crossing the Shannon at Limerick Gray next marched into Thomond, and here fortune played into his hands. The O'Briens, like so many Irish families, had quarrelled violently among themselves, and Conor, the chief of the clan, 207 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE now offered his services in destroying the bridge which he had defended only two years before. The bridge was the property of his brother Morough, and Morough was suspected of designs on the succession. Gray gladly availed himself of this offer, and on July 4th the bridge was " broken " for the second time. Having, with the aid of O'Brien and Desmond, reduced Morough to obedi- ence, Gray then passed into Clanricarde, where he captured the castle of Bally Clare, belonging to Richard Oge Burke, "who did much hurt to the town of Galway," and delivered it to his nephew Ulick, " lately made chief captain of that country, and a great friend to the town of Galway." From Clan- ricarde he proceeded to Galway, where he was " well received by the mayor and his brethren," with whom, and with the bishop, he " took like order as at Limerick." At Galway he remained for seven days, during which OTlaherty, O'Madden, and McYoris, three dangerous chieftains, "came in" and gave hostages. On the nineteenth he returned to Clanricarde, where he captured two more castles from Richard Oge, and thence to Roscommon, where he received the submission of O'Conor Roe. Re-crossing the Shannon at Athlone the Lord Deputy returned to the Pale through Westmeath, taking hostages from O'Melaghlin, McGeoghegan and McCoghlan 208 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE as he passed. On July 25th he was once more at Maynooth.^ The Lord Deputy himself was well pleased with the results of his journey. The Irish chiefs had shown themselves eminently reasonable, and Gray believed that he had not only broken up a formidable confederacy but erected an insur- mountable barrier against the ambition of the house of Ormond. There is no reason to suppose that he was at this time aware of his nephew's movements, or of the intrigues of Lady Eleanor. Had he been so it is probable that he would have seen in them only an additional reason for conciliating " the Geraldine band " ; for his object was to get possession of Gerald, and he could no longer hope to capture him by force. His adversaries, meanwhile, took care to represent his conduct in a very different light. Before he left Dublin Gray had been accused of Geraldine sympathies ; the charge was now repeated with redoubled vehemence. The whole of his late proceedings had been designed, it '^ Stephen Parry to Cromwell, June 29 and July 14, 1538 (MS. R.O.) Gray to Henry VIII, July 26. Brabazon, Men and Aylmer to Cromwell, August 24. Confession of the Viscount Gormanstown, John Darcy and William Bermingham, concerning the Lord Deputy's proceedings in Munster and Connaught, enclosed in the preceding (MS. R.O.) A com- parison of this document with subsequent depositions of the same three gentlemen, taken before Sir Antony St, Leger in October, 1540 {flarew MSS.), shows that the story has grown considerably in the interim. 209 P THE GERALDINE LEAGUE was said, " to subdue the King's true subjects, to erect and extol the Geraldine sect, and to attolerate the Papists."^ The journey to Munster had been an act either of insane rashness or of deliberate treachery. Without consulting the Council, without even informing them of his intention, the Lord Deputy had placed himself in the hands of " the King's enemies"; and if the latter had not used the opportunity to destroy him it could only be because they believed that he was at heart their friend.^ And indeed he had given them good reason to believe it. Gerald MacGerald, " who was no small doer in all the rebellion of Thomas Fitzgerald," had been appointed marshal of the army.* Thomas Albanagh, another "arrant traitor," had been employed to negotiate with O'Conor.* O'Conor himself, " the only scourge of the English Pale," had been received into favour, and was now Gray's "right hand."* In Tipperary the Lord Deputy had restored to Fergananym O' Carroll the frontier fortresses which Ormond had wrested from his father.' ^ Cowley to Cromwell, July 19, 1538. ^ Brabazon, Alen, and Aylmer to Cromwell, August 22, 1538- ^ Walter Cowley to Cromwell, May, 1 538. * Ormond to Robert Cowley, June, 1538. * Butler to Robert Cowley, June 20, 1538. * "Item, the said Lord Deputy, in his said journey, hath expulsed and put out the said Earl's tenants out of the castle of Moderheryn (Modreny), and hath delivered the same to the 210 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE At Limerick he had recognized the " pretended " Earl of Desmond, and had set aside the claims of James FitzMaurice, whom the Council affected to regard as the legitimate heir.^ In Thomond he had supported Connor O'Brien against his son Donough, who had served the crown during the rebellion.^ In Clanrickard he had deposed Richard Burke from the chief- ship in favour of his nephew Ulick, " which said Fergananym, now being O'Carroll." — Complaints of the Earl of Ormond, August 22. See also a letter of the Council to Cromwell, June 10, 1538. ^ " My Lord Deputy hath so strengthened this James of Desmond that all the captains of Munster, in effect, are of his band, and is of greater strength by means of my said Lord Deputy than any Earl of Desmond that has been these many years; so that this young man, that is with the King's Majesty in England, is never like to come by his inheritance." — Ormond to R. Cowley, July 20, 1538. In November the Council complained that the "pretended" Earl of Desmond had acquired such strength since Gray's last journey into Munster " as no Earl of Desmond had there in no man's remembrance," and recommended that James FitzMaurice, "which, as far as we hitherto can perceive, is the very right heir," should be sent over to oppose him, "whereby the combination and power of the other may be abated and diminished." — Council to Cromwell, November 28, 1538. ^ " My Lord Deputy and James of Desmond faithfully promised Donough O'Brien, my son-in-law, before they went with O'Brien, to burn Murrough's country, that they would do the said Donough no manner hurt nc invasion ; and yet, this notwithstanding, the said James of Desmond did none other hurt, as long as they were in Murrough his country, but burned and destroyed the said Donough 's lands, and (he) could have no remedy for the same of my Lord Deputy." — Ormond to R. Cowley, July 20, 1538. 211 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE Ulick is of the Geraldine band.'" In Ros- common he had shown particular favour to O' Conor Roe, who had been Lady Eleanor's guide on her journey through Connaught to Donegal.^ In other parts of the island he had acted in a similar spirit. The outrages of the borderers had been left unpunished. The chiefs whom Skeffington had induced to make war upon O'Neil had been alienated by arbitrary and impolitic handling.' Cahir MacArt Kavanagh, captain of the MacMurroughs, and Tybalt FitzPiers, a bastard Geraldine, two notable malefactors, had been released or suffered to escape from the prison at Dublin, and had since done much harm to the Pale.* The Lord ^ " My Lord Deputy, now being in Connaught, hath put down MacWilliam, which was captain of the country at his coming, and hath made one Ulick de Burgh captain. Which Ulick is of the Geraldine band." — Brabazon, Aylmer, and Alen to Cromwell, July 24, 1538. " Confession of Lord Gormanstown and others, August, 1538 (MS. R.O.). ' " Item, whereas Sir William Skeffington, late Deputy, with politic handling, allured from O'Neil all his strength, as O'Reilly, McMahon, Nele More, Nele Conelagh, Maguire and many others, who professed them to refuse O'Neil and to serve the King's Highness ; after which Sir William's death the now Deputy maligned against all those that the said Sir William brought to the King's service, despising them. By means whereof all the said captains, so won to serve the King, be lost ; and O'Neil being a Geraldine, hath re-adopted them and many more to his band, by the said negligence, so that he is now more stronger than ever he was." — Ormond to R. Cowley, June, 1538. * " Item, whereas Cahir MacArt Kavanagh, being captain of 212 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE Deputy had sustained " the late O'Moore's sons,"^ and had " procured " the Kavanaghs to lay siege to Richard Butler's castles in Wexford." " By comfort of him " O'Neil levied again black rent in Meath and Uriel, MacMurrough in Kil- kenny and Wexford, and Fergananym O'Carroll in Tipperary.' Above all, young Gerald, Lady Eleanor, and the " rabble of traitors " who accompanied them, had been permitted to pass uninjured from one end of the island to the the Kavanaghs, and a mortal enemy to the King, daily executing murders and robberies against the King's subjects, was taken prisoner by William St. Loe, and by him delivered to the Lord Deputy, the same Lord Deputy let him escape ; so as, besides his former hurts, the same Cahir hath done, since his departure, above two thousand marks of hurts to the King's subjects. Semblably, Tybalt FitzPiers, one of the bastard Geraldines, a great malefactor, being taken by the Lord of Kilcullen and put into the castle of Dublin, my Lord Deputy did take him out of the said castle ; who after, by his negli- gence, escaped and, since he went at large, hath done worth j^i,ooo of hurts to the King's poor subjects." — Aylmer and Alen's Articles against Lord Leonard Gray, 1538. ^ Connell O'Moore died in 1537, and his death was fol- lowed by the usual dispute between the heir and the tanist. — Complaintsof O'Moore, June, 1537 (MS. R.O.). "There is great dissension and war between O'Moore and the late O'Moore's sons, with which O'Moore the Earl of Ormond taketh part, and the Lord Deputy with O'Moore his sons. Whereupon hath grown great displeasure between the Lord Deputy and the said Earl." — Council to Cromwell, June 10, 1538. * " My Lord Deputy hath procured part of the Kavanaghs to lay siege to the castle of Ferns." — Ormond to R. and W. Cowley, July 16, 1538. ^ Butler to R. Cowley, June 20, 1538. 213 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE other, and to become the leaders of the most dangerous conspiracy which had threatened the government since the time of Strongbow.^ The home government, disgusted by the prolongation of the war and the escape of FitzGerald, lent a ready ear to these calumnies. The King had lost confidence in Gray ; and Cromwell had his own reasons for regarding the Lord Deputy with aversion. Among the com- missioners who had accompanied St. Leger to Ireland in the preceding summer was George Paulet, a brother of Lord Winchester, and a prominent member of the faction which opposed the Lord Privy Seal. Paulet, a hot-headed indiscreet man, had spoken to Gray with injudicious candour of Cromwell's rapacity, and had hinted that his power was tottering. Gray had wisely kept this communication to himself; and if the matter had stopped there all might have been well. But Paulet, unhappily, had repeated his remarks to Alen ; and Alen, who seldom lost an opportunity of making mischief, had informed Cromwell that Gray and Paulet were conspiring against him. He had thus inflamed Cromwell's jealousy to the uttermost, and had still further shaken the credit of the Deputy.* ^ State Papers, III, pp. 28, 39, 44, 52, 57, 78, et alibi. ^ Alen to Cromwell, March 9, 1538. Interrogatories re- lative to scandalous words spoken by Mr. George Paulet respecting the Lord Privy Seal, March 9. — Answers of John 214 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE Gray, nevertheless, was not at once removed from office. His military abilities were acknow- ledged even by his enemies ; and until some more decisive success had been gained, military ability was the one indispensable qualification for an Irish governor. The King, moreover, still cherished a hope that young Gerald might be induced to "come in "; and it was obvious that he would be more likely to come in to his uncle than to a stranger. Instead, therefore, of siding definitely with either party, his Majesty addressed an impartial rebuke to Gray and Ormond, and ordered the Council to effect a reconciliation between them,^ In August a formal reconciliation took place ; but it was probably insincere, and Brabazon was undoubtedly right when he assured Henry that it could not be lasting.^ The Earl and the Deputy continued to regard each other with a hatred all the more intense because they were obliged to disguise it ; and the Council, although forced to abate something of their violence, did Alen, Master of the Rolls, Chief Justice Aylmer and Mr. William Berners to the same. ^ Brabazon, Aylmer and Alen to Cromwell, August 22, 1538, enclosing (i) Order of the Council for reconciling Gray and Ormond : (2) Articles of accusation by Gray against Ormond : (3) Articles of accusation by Ormond against Gray. ^ " But we must be plain to your lordship that, as far as we can perceive, this agreement will not long endure between my Lord Deputy and them (the Butlers). — Brabazon, Aylmer and Alen to Cromwell, August 22. THE GERALDINE LEAGUE not cease to pursue the latter with malicious innuendoes. Lady Eleanor meanwhile had not been idle. A few weeks after O'Donel's marriage another turbulent chieftain sacrificed a private feud on the altar of the national unity. Before the Norman invasion the O'Conors had been kings of Connaught, and had given more than one " High King " to all Ireland. For more than a century after that invasion the clan had main- tained their supremacy in Connaught, where they had offered a stubborn and often successful resistance to the invaders. After the battle of Athenry, in which they were defeated by the De Burghs, their power began to decline. The clan became divided into a number of inde- pendent branches. O'Conor Don was constantly at war with O'Conor Roe, and both with O'Conor Sligo. The Burkes obtained possession of a considerable part of Connaught. The O'Donels encroached upon their northern border ; and the MacDermotts, O'Kellys and other septs formerly dependent on the O'Conors threw off the yoke and attained to something like independence. In 1537, however, Teig MacKahill, chief of the O'Conors of SUgo, was recognized by the rival chieftains as head of the entire clan. Between this sept and the O'Donels a feud, scarcely less inveterate than that between the O'Donels and the O'Neils, had long raged for the possession of the debatable 216 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE land between Donegal and Sligo. By the intervention of Lady Eleanor a reconciliation was now effected ; the disputed territory was partitioned between the rival claimants ; and the castle of Sligo, which O'Donel had lately captured, was restored to O'Conor in considera- tion of an annual rent.^ The autumn passed quietly. In October the Council assured Henrv that the condition of the country was improving. The law was regularly and peacefully administered ; the Lord Deputy, alarmed by a report that he was to be recalled, was exerting himself to " redub things past "; and the attitude of the " Irish enemies " was unusually pacific.^ But to shrewd observers there appeared to be something ominous in this unwonted tranquillity. During the winter messengers were constantly passing between Desmond and the northern Irish, and between the latter and the court of 1539 Scotland; and in the spring of 1539 the posi- tion of the government was extremely critical. O'Neil, O'Donel and O'Conor were absolute masters of the north of Ireland. The lesser chiefs — O'Neil of Clandeboye, O'Cahan and Maguire in Ulster, O'Rourke and MacDermot in Lower Connaught, and MacCoghlan of ^ Ormond to Cowley, July 20, 1538. Cowley to Cromwell, Augusts, 1538. ^ Lord Deputy and Council to Henry VIII, October 8. Thomas Alen to Cromwell, October 20, 1538. 217 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE Westmeath — now followed the lead of their more powerful neighbours ; while Desmond had organized a scarcely less formidable confederacy in the south and west. Ulster, Connaught and Munster were thus united against the crown ; and there could be little doubt that, if an opportunity presented itself, the Leinster Irish would follow the example of the other provinces. Worst of all, the Pale was wavering in its allegiance. The lords and gentlemen of the four shires were, with few exceptions, connected by blood or marriage with the house of Kildare ; and though they had at first discountenanced their kinsmen's rebellion, they were not insensible to their misfortunes. They were, besides. Catholics almost to a man : Romanism, which with the Irishry was a mere name, was with the Englishry a genuine passion ; and the fanaticism of the ultra Protestants was rapidly obliterating the distinction between the two races.' ■^ " I suspect much our own country, what for the affection part of them bear to the Geraldines, and the favour that many hath to the Bishop of Rome, and his laws and errors, that they will either turn against us, or otherwise stand us in small stead; much the rather, I doubt nothing, by the enticement of our friars, obstinates, and other our religious persons." — Alen to Cromwell, July 10, 1539. "The cause of this traitorous, conspired treason, as the traitors do plainly declare, is that the King's Highness is an heretic against the faith, because he obeyeth not and believeth not the Bishop of Rome's usurped primacy. . . I assure your Lordship that this English Pale, except the towns and very few of the possessioners, be so affectionate to the Geraldines, that for kindred, marriage, fostering, and adhering 218 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE Until the middle of April the government, although they believed that a formidable con- spiracy was on foot, seem to have obtained no definite information. On the seventeenth of that month Conor Mor O'Conor, a servant of the young Earl of Kildare, was arrested near Dublin and made some startling disclosures. The prisoner deposed that he had formerly been in the service of Lord Leonard Gray, by whom he had been sent to Kildare two years pre- viously. At the time of his arrest he was charged with letters from the latter to the O'Tooles, begging them to assist him in the approaching campaign. The O'Tooles had answered that they would "aid him with all the power they might," and that the O'Byrnes and the Kavanaghs would " do the like." In return for their assistance Gerald had promised to give them Powerscourt and Fassaghroe. O'Neil, O'Donel and Desmond were in con- stant communication, and many other chiefs had joined the confederacy. MacCarthy Mor and O'SuUivan had agreed to join O'Donel by sea. Roderick O'Donel, Bishop of Derry, and Connaught O'Shiel, Abbot of Ballysadare, had as followers, they covet more to see a Geraldine to reign and triumph than to see God come among them ; and if they might see this young Gerald's banner displayed, if they should lose half their substance, they would rejoice more at the same than otherwise to gain great goods." — Cowley to Cromwell. September 8, 1539. 219 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE been sent about the middle of Lent to seek assistance from the court of Scotland, and the Dean of Derry on a similar errand to the Lord of the Isles. In addition to their hereditary followers the Ulster chiefs had retained the services of a vast number of Scotch mercen- aries, and it was expected that the rising would take place about midsummer. At first the con- federates appear to have aimed only at the restoration of the young Earl ; but, as the con- spiracy had extended, the hopes of the leaders had risen, and O'Neil had lately intimated his intention of assuming the crown of Ireland. It was generally believed that the Emperor, the King of France and the Pope would invade England, and that the King of Scots would invade Ireland and come through Ulster. After being detained for some months in captivity, O'Conor was again examined and made some further admissions. The Irish had many friends in the Pale, and Kildare's sister, Lady Slane, and her cousins the Eustaces were deeply involved in the conspiracy. O'Conor's story was, in part, confirmed by Thomas Lynch, a Galway mer- chant, whose business had lately taken him to O'Donel's country. Lynch was not himself in the confidence of the confederates, and he was able to furnish few details ; but he told the government that Kildare was receiving frequent messengers both from Desmond and from the lords of the Pale, and that the plans for the 220 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE approaching campaign were openly discussed. O'Neil, with the bulk of the Ulster forces, was to invade the Pale from the north ; O'Donel was to proceed by way of Connaught and West- meath, gathering his allies as he passed, and attack the Englishry from the west ; the O'Tooles were to create a diversion near Dublin, and Desmond was to ravage Tipperary. The friars and priests, not only in O'Donel's country, but all over Ireland, were " preaching daily that every man ought, for the salvation of his soul, to fight and make war against the King's Majesty and his true subjects," and those who maintained the contrary were everywhere excluded from the sacraments.^ These depositions were made in the presence of Alen, by whom they were eventually for- warded to Cromwell, Gray being apparently kept in ignorance of O'Conor's confession, by which he was himself implicated. He was at this time plotting desperately to secure the person of his nephew, and, with that object, had arranged to meet the Ulster chiefs at Carrick Bradagh, four miles from Dundalk. The latter had promised to bring young Gerald with them ; had they done so. Gray himself told Henry "they should have left him behind * Confession of Conor Mor O'Conor, April 17. O'Conor's further confession, July i. Confession of Thomas Lynch, of Galway, merchant. These depositions were enclosed in Alen's letter of July i o. 221 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE them quick or dead." O'Neil, however, who appears to have been aware of his intention, omitted to keep his appointment; and, after a futile attempt to negotiate, the Lord Deputy marched back to Dublin.^ In July the storm burst. The hope of foreign succour indeed was disappointed, as similar hopes have been often disappointed since, the continental powers quarrelling as usual among themselves, and James of Scotland being afraid to move without them. But, so far as the Irish chiefs were concerned, the plan of operations described by Lynch was carried out to the letter. The Earl of Desmond " began the dance " by invading Tipperary.^ In August O'Neil and O'Donel attacked the Pale, marching by different routes, as had been arranged, and joining forces in Westmeath. For some days the situation was extremely critical; but the colony was once more saved from annihilation by the valour and ability of Lord Leonard Gray. Hastily collecting the English troops at his disposal, with the burgesses of Dublin and Drogheda, and the few gentlemen of the Pale who still adhered to the government, the Lord Deputy marched to meet the invaders. The ^ Gray to Henry, May 9, 1539. Brabazon to Cromwell, May 26. ' "James of Desmond, who lately had a messenger in Scotland, hath begun this dance ; for his heart is so full of poison it cannot but brast out." Alen to Cromwell, July 10 222 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE latter had already burnt the towns of Ardee and Navan, and laid waste a great part of the surrounding territory ; but their followers, after the manner of tribal armies, began to disperse with the booty, and Gray overtook and routed the main body of the Ulster forces at Lake Bellahoe on the border of Meath and Monaghan.^ By many writers the battle of Bellahoe has been described as the turning-point in Anglo- Irish history, the event which broke the power of the Ulster chieftains, and prepared the way for the general submission two years later ; but the scanty notices in contemporary documents seem to warrant a suspicion that the results of the victory have been greatly exaggerated. In October, Gray, still hoping to secure his nephew, made a fresh appointment with O'Neil; but O'Neil, for the second time, refused to put his neck into the noose, and, after venting his ill-temper by a predatory raid on Lecale, the Lord Deputy marched southward to the relief of the new Earl of Ormond.^ Ormond, hard pressed by Desmond and Murrough O'Brien, had rendered no assistance to the government ^ Cowley to Cromwell, September 8. Stanihurst, pp. 311- 312. Annals of the Four Masters, 1539, ^""^ O'Donovan's note. * Gray to Cromwell, October 3 1 . Piers, eighth Earl of Ormond, died in September, 1539, and was succeeded by his son James. 223 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE and was with difficulty defending his own frontier. The arrival of Gray with a strong body of reinforcements, recently sent from England, put an end to the threatened danger ; while the landing, about the same time, of young James FitzMaurice had the effect of temporarily detaching Sir Gerald MacShane, the White Knight, and other Geraldines from the Desmond alliance. Encouraged by this unexpected weakening of their adversary the earl and the deputy, whom a common peril had induced to bury their mutual animosities, resolved to carry the war into the enemy's country. In December they over-ran a great part of Munster, and before the end of the year they had established FitzMaurice in pos- session of the eastern half of his grandfather's territories.^ The next year opened with fresh disasters. 1 54° The defeat of Bellahoe had rather irritated than cowed the Irish leaders, and on January i8th the Lord Deputy and council informed Henry that the detestable traitors — young Gerald, O'Neil, O'Donel, the pretended Earl of Des- mond, O'Brien, O'Conor, and their allies — continued to destroy the King's subjects, to subdue the whole land, to erect and glorify the Bishop of Rome's usurped primacy, and to elevate and fortify the Geraldine sect, and that ^ Ormond to Cromwell, December 20. 224 THE GERALDINE LEAGUE they still hoped to induce the Emperor, the King of France, and other foreign princes, to take part with them.^ On the twenty-second. Gray made a third and last attempt to meet O'Neil at Carrick Bradagh, and for the third time O'Neil contrived to evade an interview. No longer hoping to disarm his suspicions, the Lord Deputy next attempted to surprise the Irish leader by night ; but his guides missed their way, and daybreak found him five miles distant from his enemy's castle of Dungannon. For six days his troops robbed and burned the country ; but their ferocity served only to exas- perate the Irish/ But Gray's persistent attempts to secure the person of his nephew had excited the alarm of Lady Eleanor, and, on a dark night in February, the young Earl, bareheaded and clad only in the saffron shirt of an Irish peasant, was conveyed on board a French ship bound for St. Malo. He was accompanied by the ever- faithful Lever o us, by Robert Walsh, who had been one of his brother's agents in Spain, and by a third person whose name the spy, to whom we are indebted for our knowledge of these particulars, was unable to discover. The business was conducted with the utmost secrecy, ^ Lord Deputy and Council to Henry, January i8, 1540. The hopes of the confederates appear to have been raised by the visit which Charles V paid to Paris at the beginning of this year. * Lord Deputy and Council to Henry, February 13. 225 Q THE GERALDINE LEAGUE and it was not until three months later that Henry was informed that his prey had escaped him.^ ^ Bartholomew Warner to Sir John Wallop, May 22, 1540. Cf, Thomas Barnabjr to Henry, February 6, 1541, and Stanihurst, p. 305. Stanihurst pretends that O'Donel had resolved to betray Gerald, and that Lady Eleanor, being aware of his intentions, sent the boy abroad without his knowledge. The correspondence in the State Papers is quite irreconcilable with this fiction. 226 CHAPTER V THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND The flight of young Gerald practically dissolved the coalition ; but Gray's victory served only to precipitate his own downfall. For some months the Lord Deputy had been urgently entreating Henry for leave to visit England. He was weary of an office which few Englishmen had ever discharged with credit to themselves or satisfaction to their employers, and perhaps alarmed by the reports which reached him from London.^ At the beginning of April the desired permission was at length granted. The Irish were quiet for the moment ; but it was expected that they would resume hostilities before the end of May, and Gray was ordered " so to accelerate his journey that he might eftsoons be dispatched thither again.'"" The tranquillity, such as it was, was due chiefly to his own energy ; and he had no sooner ^ " It hath been reported to me that some persons here have gone about to hinder me to your Grace. If any such thing be, I most humbly beseech your Highness, for the love of God, to suspend to give credit to any such thing, till your Majesty shall hear my answ^er thereunto." — Gray to Henry, March lo, 1540. ^ Henry to Gray and Brereton, April i, 1540. 227 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND crossed the channel than the whole kingdom was in a blaze. The letters of the Council, and of Brereton, who had been appointed Lord Justice, furnish a vivid picture of the anarchy which followed Gray's departure. The finances were in disorder, the army mutinous for want of wages, the citizens impoverished and exaspe- rated by the exactions of the army. O 'Conor was once more robbing and burning in Kildare, and MacMurrough in Wexford, and O'Toole in the Dublin marches. Half of Leinster had been lost : in the other provinces every vestige of authority had completely disappeared. O'Byrne and O'Reilly were almost the only Irishmen who were not at war, and even their fidelity was doubtful.^ Brereton, Alen, Brabazon and Ormond agreed in attributing these calamities to the neglect of the late Deputy. The first had an obvious interest in exaggerating the mistakes of his predecessor, and the other three were Gray's bitter personal enemies. Their representations ^ Council to Cromwell, April 30. Ormond to Cromwell, May I. Brereton to Cromwell, May 7. Alen and Brabazon to Cromwell, May 8. Some additional particulars will be found in a curious letter from Robert Cowley to the Duke of Norfolk, which is not among the State Papers. This letter, which is only dated July 6, is printed from a MS. in the Cotton Collection {Titus b. xi, 218), in Ellis's Original Letters relating to English History, Series II, pp. 93-104, where it is incorrectly placed under the year 1538. It was evidently written after Gray's recall. 228 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND sufficed to complete Gray's ruin ; and he was committed to the Tower/ which he only left a year later for the scaffold. Sir Antony St. Leger was appointed Lord Deputy in his place, and was ordered, as soon as he could spare time from more urgent matters, to institute an inquiry into the conduct of his predecessor.^ But Gray, although his own career had closed in disaster, had broken the back of the rebellion ; and when St. Leger landed in August little remained for him but to accept the submission of the chieftains. The insurrection of May, apparently so formidable, was in fact only the last flicker of a flame whose vital heat was extinct. English and Irish were alike weary of a war which had been attended with infinite loss to both parties, with no material advantage to either. The Celtic chiefs had attained none of the objects for which, ostensibly at least, they had taken arms, while they and their clansmen had suffered cruelly during the struggle. The troops, wherever they passed, had burnt the farms and driven off the cattle in the vain hope of starving the rebels into submission. In other districts the people had themselves destroyed their ^ The Privy Council of England to the Lord Justice and Council of Ireland, June I2. In the Record Office is an " Inventory of the plate, wearing apparel and household furni- ture of Lord Leonard Gray," taken after his arrest. A part of this inventory has been printed in the Chartulary of St. Mary's Abbey. ' Henry to St. Leger, September 26. 229 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND crops lest they should furnish food to an invader ; and many of the most fertile parts of Ireland had been turned into a wilderness. The Pales- men had still stronger grounds for dissatisfaction. At an earlier period the English residents in Ireland had been accustomed to regard the native population as fit objects for oppression and plunder ; but time had greatly softened these animosities, while the civil and military officials sent over from England did not trouble to discriminate between the different classes of inhabitants, but treated the mere Irish and the old English of the Pale with impartial injustice.^ Religion was now accentuating the differences between the new and old colonists, and oblitera- ting those between the latter and the Celts. For six years the gentlemen of the four shires had been plundered alternately by the Irish borderers and by the ill-paid garrisons of Dublin and Drogheda. They had borne, and must con- tinue to bear, the whole brunt of the war, while the fruits of conquest would be reaped solely by a monarch who had given them small reason to love him. The King, who cared extremely little for either English or Irish, was equally ^ " We be credibly informed that sundry of our retinue there do both in words and deeds much misbehave themselves towards our good and loving subjects of that country, as in calling them traitors, and in violent taking of their goods and commodities from them." — Henry to Gray and Brercton, April I. 230 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND anxious to put an end to the struggle. At the beginning of the rebellion he appears to have expected that Ireland would be conquered in a few months, and that the expenses of conquest would be defrayed by confiscation. But the war had now lasted nearly seven years ; the cost had been enormous ; and the prospect of remunerative forfeitures was as remote as ever. It was still possible that Ireland might be con- quered ; there was no longer any reasonable hope that she would bear the expense of her own conquest. Even the Dublin junto, hitherto the staunch advocates of coercion, had learnt at last that tyranny was an expensive luxury, and were hinting that it was advisable to adopt a more economical method of government.^ His ^ "Irishmen will never be conquered by rigorous war. They can suffer so much hardness to lie in the field, to eat roots and water continually, and be so deliver and light, ever at their advantage to flee or fight ; so that a great army were but a charge in vain and would make victuals dear. . . . The Irishmen have pregnant subtle wits, eloquent and marvellous natural in comynaunce. They must be instructed that the King intendeth not to exile, banish or destroy them, but would be content that every of them should enjoy his possessions, taking the same of the King, as O'Donel hath done and O'Neil is crying to do, and become his true subjects, obedient to his laws, forsaking their Irish laws, habits and customs, setting their children to learn English." — Cowley's Plan for the Reformation of Ireland, 1541. Several similar passages might be cited ; but this letter is especially remarkable, as the writer had previously drawn up an elaborate scheme tor the extermination of the Irish. — Plan for reducing Ireland to obedience, June, 1536. 231 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND Majesty began to consider whether it might not be possible to attain his objects by some less costly process. Those objects were three. He desired, in the first place, to procure from all the inhabitants of Ireland, Irish as well as English, a recognition of his title both as Head of the Church and as King of Ireland. The assumption of the latter title followed logically from the former, the older style, " Lord of Ireland," implying a recognition of the Papal overlordship, which Henry had renounced. Secondly, he wished to obtain from Ireland a revenue which, if it did not defray the expenses of the late war, would at least meet the cost of government for the future. Lastly, he aimed at the complete assimi- lation of Ireland to England by the obliteration of all distinctively national characteristics. To attain these objects it was necessary to adopt one of two alternative courses. The King might, in the first place, have confiscated the entire soil of Ireland, expelled the native occupants, and distributed their lands among Englishmen attached to his civil and ecclesiastical supremacy. The new owners would, of course, have readily acknowledged his title. They would have willingly paid a considerable sum, in the form either of purchase money or of subsidy, for the lands allotted to them. They would have brought over farmers and labourers from England, and the customs which were the 232 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND bugbear of English lawyers would have dis- appeared with the population which used them. That this policy, substantially identical with that which was afterwards adopted by Cromwell, was also that at first contemplated by Henry, is evident from many letters. But the practical difficulties were insuperable. The lands of the Irish were so wasted that few Englishmen would have cared to accept them as a gift,' and to expel the occupants would have been useless if no one could be found to take their places. The alternative policy was that which had been inaugurated two years earlier by the late Deputy, and to this Henry now proposed to revert. Lord Leonard Gray had been guilty of many errors, but he was the first Englishman who realized that the best hope of settling the Irish question lay in the conciliation of the native population. With this end in view he had concluded a number of treaties with various Irish chieftains, who agreed to acknowledge the King as their sovereign, to renounce the Bishop of Rome, to hold their lands by knight's service, to assist the Deputy with money and soldiers, to wear the English dress, and generally to con- form to the English manners.^ In return for these concessions they had received a pardon for ^ Alento Henry, October 6, 1536. * Note of the peaces made in the time of Lord Leonard Gray, the King's Deputy, January 2, 15 40. Abstracts of most of these treaties are in the Carew MSS. THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND past offences, and had been confirmed in the possession of their lands. The policy had broken down at the time, owing partly to the intrigues of Lady Eleanor, partly to the opposi- tion of Ormond and the Dublin junto, partly, it must be acknowledged, to the distrust which Gray's antecedents had inspired, and which his persistent and perfidious attempts to capture his nephew kept alive. But it was in itself a sound one, and it was now resumed under happier auspices. The new Deputy left London on July 19th, but being detained by a contrary wind at Chester, did not reach Dublin until August 1 2th. Before his arrival Brereton had once more ravaged Offaly, and Ormond Carlow. After a sharp campaign of three weeks, during which his country was pretty thoroughly devastated, O 'Conor submitted, and his example was speedily followed by his adherents, the McGeoghegans, the O'Melaghlins and the O'Mulloys. The Kavanaghs still held out, and St. Leger promptly took the field against them. Entering their territory on the Monday after his arrival, he remained in it for ten days, "burning and destroying the same." The Earl of Ormond having been similarly employed for some weeks previously, there was soon nothing left to burn or to destroy, and before the end of the month MacMurrough submitted from sheer exhaustion. He "renounced the name of MacMurrough," 234 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND and promised, on behalf of his clan, "never more to elect nor choose among them none to bear the same name, ne yet to be their governor," but to accept such rulers as the King should appoint; to hold their lands by knight's service, to obey the King's laws, and to "persecute all other of their nation that should disobey the same." Relieved from anxiety in this quarter the Lord Deputy turned his attention to the west, where the O'Moores and their allies were carrying on the usual border warfare with something more than the usual ferocity. The O'Moores were easily reduced ; O'Dunn, O'Dempsey, and "divers other petty lords," who had lately been confederated with O'Conor, were detached from their former leader, who, in spite of his recent submission, was still regarded with suspicion by the government.^ Having reduced the midlands the Lord Deputy once more turned to Wicklow, where fresh dis- turbances were anticipated. The O'Byrnes having already submitted to Gray and the Kavanaghs to St. Leger, only the O'Tooles remained to be dealt with. The O'Tooles had concluded a truce for three years with the late deputy, but this truce was now about to expire.^ ^ St. Leger to Henry, September 12, 1540. Council to Henry, September 22. ^ Indenture between Lord Leonard Gray and Turlough O'Toole, December 18, 1537. St. Leger says that the THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND This turbulent sept, which occupied the most barren and mountainous part of what is now called the county of Wicklow, had been a source of incessant annoyance to successive governors. Their power was small — their number did not exceed, if it reached, three hundred — but their situation enabled them to plunder the English residents in Dublin, and their poverty made effective retaliation impossible. It was pro- bably this last consideration that induced St. Leger to adopt a conciliatory policy ; for when, after being hunted about the mountains for four weeks, Turlough, the head of the clan, proposed to submit and to hold his lands by knight's ser- vice, the Lord Deputy showed every disposition to come to terms. He did not, indeed, venture to grant the O 'Toole's petition on his own responsibility ; but he sent Turlough to England with a letter of introduction to the Duke of Norfolk, and privately advised Henry to accede to his request. To the O'Byrnes, who occupied another part of Wicklow and were much richer and more civilized than their neighbours, similar terms were granted, and the reduction of Leinster was complete.^ O'Tooles had loyally observed their engagements ; but I do not see how this can be reconciled with the statements of Brereton and others earlier in the year. ^ Lord Deputy and Council to Henry, November 14, 15 40. Petition of Turlough and Art O'Toole, enclosed in the pre- ceding. St. Leger to Norfolk, November 1 6. Proceedings of the Privy Council, VII, 92. 236 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND In the other provinces there was as yet little or no sign of improvement. O'Neil was quiet for the nonce, but little dependence could be placed upon him. On May nth he once more marched towards Carrick Bradagh, " under colour to parle with the Lord Justice," but his fol- lowing was so numerous as to create a doubt of his intentions. Brereton at once set out to meet him : but O'Neil again declined an inter- view, alleging that he dared not come to any Englishman after the deceit of the late deputy. Some days were spent in negotiations, during which O'Conor and his allies once more burned the Pale, and, although the Lord Justice returned in time to save the colonists from annihilation, the shock to English prestige was a serious one.^ In the summer O'Neil and O'Donel both wrote to Henry making offers of submission, but they were known to be corresponding with the court of Scotland, and the Council rightly insisted that they could not be trusted.^ In September St. Leger made a fresh attempt to negotiate, but once more without result.' 1 Brereton to Cromwell, May 17, 1540. ^ O'Donel to Henry, June 20. O'Neil to Henry, July 20. " O'Neil writeth fair letters ; howbeit we have no confidence in him, more than in a mere fraudulent Irishman, a pure Geraldine. And what he and other his confederates intend to do we be uncertain, but by all appearance we greatly suspect them." — Lord Justice and Council to Henry, July 25. Cf. James V to O'Neil, June 5, 1540. EphtoUe JacabilV, Jacobi V et Maria, Scotorum Regum, II, 73. ' Council to Henry, September 22. THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND The state of the southern province was still more serious. In the preceding autumn Gray and Ormond had overrun a great part of Mun- ster, and had established James FitzMaurice in possession of the eastern half of the Desmond inheritance. On the Friday before Palm Sunday the young Earl, as he called himself, was captured and killed by Maurice, the brother of his rival, James Fitzjohn. The latter, who was now the sole claimant to the earldom, entered Youghal a few days later, and easily made him- self master of Munster from Waterford to the mouth of the Shannon.^ The rulers of Ireland have seldom hesitated to sacrifice an unserviceable ally ; and the Council, instead of resenting the murder of their protege, exerted themselves with an igno- minious promptitude to conciliate the murderer. Desmond was assured that his title was now indisputable, and that, if he would desert his confederates, no uncomfortable questions would be asked. The negotiation was entrusted to the Earl of Ormond, who, in spite of the hereditary feud between their families, spared no pains to soothe the apprehensions of his powerful neighbour. But Desmond, although he professed a wish for reconciliation, refused to separate himself from his allies, protesting that the Irish confederacy ■was so strong that it would be unsafe for him ^ Council to Henry, April 4. 238 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND to resist it. He was evidently under the in- fluence of O'Brien ; and O'Brien, although he condescended to meet Ormond near Limerick, was " hault and proud, naming O'Neil, O'Conor and the O'Tooles his Irishmen, whom he intended to defend," and had plainly no intention of submitting/ In December the prospect brightened. The Lord Deputy spent Christmas at Carlow ; whence, having arranged some disputes among the O'Moores and the Kavanaghs, he proceeded to Cashel ; and there, after some further nego- tiations, Desmond at length came to terms. On January i6th the Earl made a formal submission " in the presence of Mac William, O'Conor and 1541 diverse other Irish gentlemen, to the number of two hundred at least." He acknowledged the King to be his sovereign, and " utterly denied and forsook the Bishop of Rome and his usurped authority." This recognition and denial cost him nothing ; it was more to the purpose that he consented to waive the privileges which had been enjoyed by his family for nearly a century, and to resume the seat vacated by his ancestors in the House of Lords and in the Privy Council. He further agreed to surrender the castles which had belonged to the late Earl of Kildare, in the county of Limerick, or to pay rent for them, if the King would allow him to retain them ; to pay the same taxes as Ormond, Delvin and other ^ Ormond to Brereton, May 14. THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND Anglo-Irish lords ; to " defend and maintain " the cities of Cork and Limerick, and the towns of Youghal, Kinsale and Kilmallock ; and to renounce all claim to jurisdiction over the English gentlemen of Munster, the three Geraldine knights excepted. The submission of Desmond made a deep impression, and his example was widely fol- lowed. In February Murrough O'Brien, the most dangerous of the western chieftains, con- sented to " parle " with the Lord Deputy at Limerick. His attitude was on the whole friendly ; but he refused to enter into articles until he had consulted his clansmen, " foras- much as he was but one man, although he was captain of his nation." For his own part, he was willing enough to acknowledge Henry as his sovereign ; but " it liked him nothing " that the government would neither allow him to rebuild his bridge nor recognize his jurisdiction over the O'Briens of Onaugh, a branch of his clan who had settled on the left bank of the Shannon. On both these points St. Leger was inflexible ; and O'Brien departed not wholly satisfied ; while the Lord Deputy consoled him- self with the reflection that, with Desmond, Donough O'Brien and Mac William loyal, he could do little mischief.^ ^ St. Leger to Henry, February 21, 1541. Submission of the Earl of Desmond, January 16, 1541, enclosed in the preceding. 240 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND Of all the Anglo-Norman families the two great houses of the Galway and Mayo Burkes were the most completely Hibernicized. In Munster and the greater part of Leinster, although the crown had long ceased to exercise any effective authority, traces of feudalism were to be found, and the chief families preserved some faint tradition of their Norman origin. In Connaught, on the other hand, the settlers had long been indistinguishable from the native Irish/ During the late war the Clanricarde Burkes had been divided among themselves ; but Ulick, surnamed " Negan " or " the Beheader," who had been raised to the chief- ship on the deposition of his uncle Richard, was a staunch partisan of the Geraldines, and had been deeply implicated in the conspiracy. He had, however, been actuated principally by personal motives, and in the autumn of 1540 he visited the Lord Deputy at Dublin. He was present when Desmond submitted in January, and on March 12th he wrote to Henry, " lamenting the decay and misorder of his ancestors," whose good manners had been cor- rupted by " marriage and nursing with the Irish, sometime rebels, near adjoining them." He offered to return to his allegiance, and hinted that an earldom would be a fit reward for his ^ For a curious description of the Anglo-Irish gentlemen in Connaught, at a somewhat later period, see Sydney to the Privy Council, April 27, 1576. 241 R THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND conversion. His request was warmly seconded by St. Leger, who explained that he was "a goodly man, and a man much desirous to come to civil order," and that, as his lands lay between those of O'Brien and O'Donel, "without his favour they could not come together." Henry, who perhaps recognized a kindred spirit — for Mac William resembled his sovereign in other qualities besides ferocity and treachery — replied graciously, but explained that earldoms could only be conferred by the King in person, and that, if Mac William would be satisfied with no lower dignity, he must "put himself in order" to repair to England without delay. A vis- county, on the other hand, might be conferred by letters patent, and should be his as soon as he chose to ask for it.^ In the same month McGillapatrick of Upper Ossory, one of the very few native chiefs who had consistently taken part with the crown since the beginning of the rebellion, entered into the following indentures with the Lord Deputy. He agreed, for himself and his heirs, to renounce the name of McGillapatrick, and to accept in place of it whatever title the King might be pleased to confer upon him ; to use, and to cause his tenants to use, "the English habits and manners, and to their knowledge the English language, and to bring up their children ^ Mac William to Henry, March 12. Henry to MacWillraiM, May I. 24.2 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND after the English manner, and the use of the English tongue"; to introduce English methods of agriculture, and to build houses after the English fashion ; not to " take, put or cess, or cause to be taken, put or cessed any manner of imposition or charge upon the King's subjects, but such as the Deputy should be content withal"; to obey the King's laws, and to "answer to his Highness's writs, precepts and commandments in his Majesty's Castle of Dublin, or in any other place where his courts should be kept"; to attend the Deputy to hostings, on receipt of due notice, "with such number of company as the marchers of the county of Dublin do" ; not to "maintain or succour, receive or take to sojourn, any of the King's enemies, rebels, or traitors"; and to hold his lands by knight's service. McGillapatrick had married Ormond's daughter, and was generally accounted one of the most "civil" of the Irishry : his submission, nevertheless, was signed with a mark.' To deal with O'Conor was more difficult. In 1538 that chieftain had submitted to Gray on terms very similar to those afterwards granted to McGillapatrick. So long as Gray remained in Ireland O'Conor had loyally observed his engagements, but on the recall of the latter he had again taken arms ; and Henry, exasperated by his repeated rebellions, had insisted that St. ^ Submission of McGillapatrick, March, 1541. THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND Leger should " in no wise take any peace with him, but rather expel him utterly his country ; which we shall be content to give to his brother Cahir, so as the same Cahir will leave the Irish fashion, and be obedient to our laws, and frame himself and those which shall be under him to the manners and kind of living of the English Pale." But before this letter was written O'Conor, happily for himself, had once more submitted, and Brereton, hard pressed by O'Neil and feebly supported by the home government, had been glad to accept him on his own terms. The King was much irritated ; but St. Leger, who had little faith in coercion, protested that to ignore the treaty would be neither honour- able nor politic, and suggested that a peerage, accompanied by a grant of land to be held by knight's service, would be the best means of confirming his tardy loyalty.* The submission of these chiefs and of some others of less note rendered possible a step which Henry had long contemplated, but which the disturbed condition of the country had hitherto made it necessary to postpone. Since the begin- ning of the schism the Irish government had repeatedly urged his Majesty to assume the title of King of Ireland, and in December, 1540, St. Leger recommended that a parliament should be convened with that object. "We think," wrote ^ Henry to Lord Deputy and Council, September 7, 1540. Lord Deputy and Council to Henry, November 13. 244 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND the Lord Deputy, " that they that be of the Irishry would more gladly obey your Highness by the name of King of this your land than by the name of Lord thereof, having had heretofore a foolish opinion among them that the Bishop of Rome should be king of the same."^ In the following June the parliament met at Dublin. Of the Commons' House we know only that it contained " divers knights and many gentlemen of fair possessions ;" it was probably composed, as it had always been composed, of representatives of the counties, cities and boroughs in the English part of the island.* ^ Lord Deputy and Council to Henry, December 30. "Irishmen of long continuance have supposed the regal estate of this land to consist in the Bishop of Rome for the time being, and the Lordship of the Kings of England here to be but a governance under the obedience of the same, which causeth them to have more respect of due subjection unto the said bishop than to our sovereign lord ; therefore, me seemeth it convenient that his Highness be recognized here, by act of parliament, Supreme Governor of this dominion, by the name of King of Ireland, and then to induce the Irish captains, as well by their oaths as writings, to recognize the same ; which things shall be, in continuance, a great motive to bring them to due obedience." — Alen to St. Leger, 1537. "It may please you remember the instructions that I wrote concerning this country by your commandment, and specially to have our master recognized King of Ireland ; and doubt not in short time to have all Ireland then sworn to due obedience." — Staples to St. Leger, June 17, 1538. ^ "Before the 33rd year of King Henry VIII we do not find any to have had place in parliament but the English of blood or English of birth only; for the mere Irish in those days were never admitted, as well because their countries^ 245 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND The House of Lords, on the other hand, was a very different body from that which had been dismissed four years earlier. In 1537 only those noblemen and prelates whose lands lay within the four shires, and who were known distinctively as the King's subjects, had been present. In 1541 four archbishops, nineteen bishops, and twenty temporal peers took, their seats, and among the latter were some whose ancestors had not attended parliament since the reign of Edward III. The Earl of Desmond was there ; so also were Lords Barry, Roche, FitzMaurice, and many other of the " degenerate English." Even the "mere Irish" were not wholly unrepresented. McGillapatrick, re- cently ennobled as Baron of Upper Ossory, took his seat among the peers. "The great O'Brien" was represented by two "proctors." Mac William, Donough O'Brien, MacMurrough, O'Moore, O'Reilly, and O'Neil of Clandeboye were present in person. None of these chief- tains, except McGillapatrick, had as yet received peerages, but all gave their " hberal consents " to the act which constituted Henry King of Ireland. On Friday, June 17th, the Speaker, Sir lying out of the limits of counties, could send no knights, and, having neither cities nor boroughs in them, could send no burgesses to the parliament ; besides that the state did not hold them fit to be trusted with the counsel of the realm." — Speech of Sir John Davies in 1613. 246 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND Thomas Cusack, pronounced a panegyric on Henry, which was answered, on behalf of the peers, by the Chancellor, both speeches being translated into Irish by Ormond to the " great contentation " of the native chieftains. The bill for the alteration of the royal title was then introduced in the House of Lords and carried unanimously. On the same day it was sent down to the Lower House, " where it likewise passed with no less joy and gladness." On the Saturday the Lord Deputy pronounced the royal assent. There is no other instance in history in which a measure of such transcendent import- ance has been passed with such amazing rapidity. A few less important bills were then passed, and the parliament was prorogued till November.' While these events were taking place in Ireland the statesman who had saved the English colony five years earlier was experi- encing the ingratitude of princes. After languishing in prison for more than a year Lord Leonard Gray was brought to trial on a charge of high treason. With the accusa- tions against him the reader is already familiar. It was said that he had connived at the escape ^ St. Leger to Henry, June 26. Lord Deputy and Council to Henry, June 28. List of Irish Bishops and Peers present at the passing of the Act for the King's style, enclosed in the preceding. The statements in the list and in the accompanying letter do not tally. The Act touching the King's style is 33 Henry VIII, c. i. 247 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND of his nephew ; that he had corresponded with Cardinal Pole and other "traitors"; that he had shown favour to the King's enemies ; that he had allowed Irishmen to rob and spoil the King's subjects. The indictment consisted of ninety counts, and of these five of the most serious were considered by the Council to have been established.^ The trial, like every State trial of that age, was an infamous mockery of justice. The prisoner was allowed no counsel, ^ Articles against Lord Leonard Gray, October 28, 1540. "It was agreed after long and mature consultation that the Lord Leonard Gray, late the King's Deputy in Ireland, being led by the afiFection which he bare to the Geraldines, by reason of the marriage between his sister and the late Earl of Kildare, had done and committed such heinous oiFences against the King's Majesty, and especially in the five points following : — (i) The entertaining of Margaret O'Conor, O'Moore's sons. Prior Walsh and his brother, knowing the same to be the King's rebels, traitors and enemies, and that before they had any pardon. (2) The setting up of Fergananym [O'Carroll] the King's enemy, and the destruction of Maguire, the King's friend. (3) The setting at large of Tybalt FitzPiers FitzGerald and the Dean of Derry, being the King's subjects and committed by the Council to ward upon heinous point of treason. (4) The procuring and maintenance of O'Moore's sons to rob and spoil the King's subjects. {5) The entertaining of Edmund Ashbold, after that he knew that the said Edmund was indicted of treason." Wriothesley then informed the prisoner "that he was in great danger, except the King's Highness would extend his mercy unto him." — Proceedings of the Privy Council, VII, 91-92, and preface, p. lix. This is the only official report of the proceedings against Lord Leonard Gray. The account in Cobbett's State Trials, I, 439-444, derived from Stanihurst and Cox is quite inaccurate and untrustworthy. 248 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND and to bring witnesses from so great a distance was impossible. The unfortunate nobleman realized the hopelessness of his position and pleaded guilty, on the promise, it is said, of a mercy which was not extended to him. On June 28th he suffered on Tower Hill. Cromwell, the chief author of his ruin, had preceded him to the scaffold.^ Most of the southern chiefs had now sub- mitted ; but O'Neil, O'Donel and a few other of the northern potentates still 'held aloof. The first continued to reject all overtures ; but O'Donel expressed a wish to negotiate ; and on August 6th the Lord Deputy, accompanied by Staples, Brabazon and Travers, set out to meet him at Cavan. Ulster, the richest, strongest, and most intensely Irish of the four provinces, had suffered less than any other part of the island from English invasions ; and the Ulster lords were in manners and accomplish- ments immeasurably superior to those of the three southern provinces. At his first interview with O'Donel the Lord Deputy could scarcely conceal his amazement. He had expected to find a half-naked barbarian of the same type as Turlough O'Toole ; he was confronted instead by an elegant, somewhat foppish gentleman, magnificently attired in crimson velvet, and attended by his chaplain, " a right sober young ^ Cromwell was arrested on June 10 and executed on July 28, 15^0.— State Trials, I, 433-439- 249 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND man, well learned," who had been brought up in France. O'Donel was sensible that he had made a good impression, and spared no pains to improve it. He " rejoiced much " that Henry had assumed the title of King of Ireland ; ex- pressed a wish to " conform to the obedience of his Highness, and to the civil order of the realm " ; and was loud in condemnation of the " lewd and ill behaviour " of his brother-in-law, " saying, like a very earnest man, that the same was not to be suffered any longer." Neverthe- less, " forasmuch as the same O'Neil and he had been heretofore friends," he entreated St. Leger to write once more to the latter before proceed- ing to extremities against him. A treaty was then concluded, of which the most important provisions were as follows : (i) O'Donel recognised Henry as his legiti- mate lord and king. (2) He promised not to adhere to or con- federate with any of the King's enemies or rebels. (3) He renounced the usurped primacy and authority of the Roman pontiff. (4) He undertook to attend the Deputy to hostings with a force of sixty horsemen, one hundred and twenty kerne, and as many gallow- glasses. (5) He promised to be present in his own person at the next parliament which should be held in Ireland, or to send some discreet and honourable gentleman to represent him. 250 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND (6) He undertook faithfully to perform the articles contained in the King's letters. (7) He agreed to hold his lands of the crown, with whatever name of honour and' dignity the King might be pleased to confer upon him. (8) He promised, as a pledge of his fidelity, to send one of his sons into England, to be educated in the English manners. (9) The Lord Deputy and Council, on their side, agreed to aid, cherish and protect O'Donel and his heirs against all who should seek to injure them, or to invade their country.^ Lady Eleanor, who had left her husband and taken refuge at her son's castle of Carbery, con- tinued to hurl defiance at the government, and it was not until three years later that she con- descended to accept a pardon.^ O'Neil was now the only Irishman of note who had not submitted ; and on September 1 5th a hosting was proclaimed against him. St. Leger, with the forces of the Pale, entered Tyrone on the south side, while O'Donel, O'Reilly, and the rest of the Lord Deputy's Irish allies invaded their late confederate from the west. The campaign was protracted until the middle of December, when O'Neil submitted. " The winter war was the destruction of Irishmen "; but the victors on the whole suffered more ^ St. Leger to Henry, August 29, 1541. Submission of Manus O'Donel, August 6, enclosed in the preceding. * Lady Eleanor O'Donel to Henry, May 4, 1545. 251 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND than the vanquished. From Armagh to the English frontier — a distance of four and twenty miles — the entire country was a wilderness. Not a house nor a ploughed field was to be seen ; the troops could obtain no food, save what they brought with them out of the Pale ; they slept on the bare ground, " without tents or other succour of housing, the weather being cold and very foul"; and the mortality both among men and horses was terrible. To the north lay an impenetrable maze of lakes, bogs and forests, behind which the O' Neils shut themselves up with their cattle, and through which the invaders were unable to pursue them. A few cows were taken ; but the success was a poor compensation for the hardships of the campaign. The Englishry " were brought to such a case that they could no longer bear the charges," for corn was scarce even in the Pale ; and the Lord Deputy snatched eagerly at the first suggestion of submission.^ On December 26th the preliminaries of peace were signed. O'Neil acknowledged Henry to be his most serene Lord and King, and promised to be a faithful subject to him and to his heirs for ever. He renounced the usurped authority of the Roman pontiff ; recognized the King as supreme head of the Church, and promised to compel all persons dwelling beneath his rule to ^ Lord Deputy and Council to Henry, September 23. St. Leger to Henry, December 17. 252 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND do the same, and, in particular, to force all pro- visors to surrender their bulls, and to submit themselves to the ordinance of his Majesty. He confessed that he had offended his Majesty, and prayed for pardon and pity. He most humbly entreated that the King would be pleased to accept and consider him as one of his most faithful subjects. He offered to obey the King's laws, in like manner as the Earl of Ormond and Desmond and other noblemen of the land ; and requested to be created Earl of Ulster, and to hold his lands of the crown. He humbly entreated that the King would grant him the lands aforesaid, with the same authority over all whom his Majesty should assign to him as the Earls of Ormond and Desmond enjoyed in their respective countries. He agreed to attend the great councils called par- liaments ; nevertheless he desired, on account of the expense and danger of the journey, to be excused from attending any parliament which should meet south of the river Barrow. He promised to suffer Phelim Roe O'Neil, Neil Connelagh and Hugh O'Neil to retain possession of all lands rightly and lawfully belonging to them. He renounced the black rent which he had been accustomed to receive from the English of Uriel ; but asked for some stipend or salary whereby he might be the better enabled to serve his Majesty. He promised to attend the King's Deputy to hostings with such number of 253 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND horsemen, kerne and gallowglasses as the said Deputy should approve. He was willing that all such Irishmen as were then upon the King's peace should remain so until the King's pleasure should be further known ; stipulating on his side, that those who were then upon his peace should remain on the same. He promised to cut passes through the woods between his own country and the Pale, so that the Lord Deputy might have free access to him and he to the Deputy. Lastly he undertook to rebuild the parish churches in his country, which were all in ruins, "in order that divine service might be once more celebrated, and the ignorant people instructed in their duty towards God and the King."^ The Council forwarded these articles to Henry, and earnestly advised him to agree to them. They would have liked to exact harder terms, but the cost of the war, the sufferings of the troops, and the difficulty of permanently keeping possession of a waste country had all to be considered. Although many of the lesser chiefs had submitted their allegiance was doubt- ful, and a single reverse might set the whole kingdom in a blaze. On the other hand even if O'Neil should be destroyed — and this would not be at all easy — some other Irishmen, " as evil as the said O'Neil and his," would occupy ^ Artfculi quibus teneor ego Connatius O'Neil ; December 26, 1 54 1. THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND Tyrowen, and the country would be " in as evil case as before, and rather worse." There was nothing for it but to make the best of a bad business, and to be content with a formal recog- nition of the royal supremacy and a promise to attend the Deputy to hostings.^ The King was bitterly offended by this letter, but, after a good deal of grumbling, he agreed to the greater part of O'Neil's demands. On one point only was his Majesty inflexible. The earldom of Ulster had originally been granted to the De Burghs, from whom it had passed to the Mortimers, and thence, in the person of Edward IV, to the crown, and Henry stubbornly refused to part with it. He expressed his amazement that O'Neil, who had so often and so grievously offended, should demand " the name and honour of Ulster, being one of the greatest earldoms of Christendom and our own proper inheri- tance," and that the Council, on whose truth and wisdom he had been accustomed to rely, should " so slenderly weigh the said O'Neil's desire as to be induced to seem to take it as a thing reasonable, and to signify your opinion to us concerning the advancement of the same."^ This reproof was not without its effect on the Council, and they were careful not to repeat their error, for when, a few months later, MacWilliam petitioned to be created Earl of ^ The Council to Henry, December, 1541. ^ Henry to the Lord Deputy and Council, April 14, 1542. THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND Connaught, they reminded Henry that Con- naught was the fifth part of Ireland, and MacWilliam was forced to content himself with the less ambitious title of Clanricarde/ After some further negotiations O'Neil was persuaded to withdraw, and even to apologize for his request ; he offered to accept whatever name the King might be disposed to confer upon him, and he was eventually raised to the peerage by the titles of Earl of Tyrone and Baron of Dungannon.^ The parliament, which had been adjourned in July, met again in Dublin on December 22nd, and, after sitting for a few days, was once more prorogued until February 13th, when it reas- 1542 sembled at Limerick. O'Brien, who during the earlier sessions had been represented by his proctors, now appeared in person and made a complete submission. He renounced the black rent of ^80 sterling which he had been accus- tomed to exact from the people of Limerick, " whereof the poor inhabitants, both gentlemen and others, much rejoice," and he agreed to cede Onaugh, a strip of land on the left bank of the Shannon which had enabled him to pil- lage Munster from Limerick to Cashel. In return he asked for a grant of all abbeys and priories in Thomond, and |to this St. Leger ^ Lord Deputy and Council to Henry, May 15, 1543. ^ Henry to the Lord Deputy and Council, October 8, 1542. 256 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND consented, telling Henry that " the same were of very small value," and that the O'Briens, on their side, had released to the crown many benefices which they had usurped and suffered horsemen and kerne to enjoy .^ O'Brien further demanded a pardon for himself and his clans- men, and a confirmation to him and to his heirs male of all " lands, rents, reversions, and services " formerly enjoyed by himself or his ancestors in Thomond. He desired that the laws of England should be executed in Thomond, " and the naughty laws and customs of that country clearly put away for ever ;" that bas- tards should thenceforth inherit no lands, and that " some well learned Irishmen, brought up in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, not being infected with the poison of the Bishop of Rome, should be sent to preach the Word of God in Ireland." He was willing to attend parliament, but asked for " some place of small value near Dublin " for the accommodation of his retinue when he should be summoned to the capital.^ But a curious difficulty now arose. The King insisted that, if O'Brien was to attend parliament, he must accept a peerage, "for it can neither " stand with our honour, nor with the state of our parliament, to have any man placed there as a peer, but he have indeed the ^ Lord Deputy and Council to Henry, March 31, 1542. ^ The Irishmen's requests. O'Brien, May, 1543. 257 s THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND estate of a peer, by the right course and order of our laws" : and Murrough himself was eager to be created Earl of Thomond : but the Council were of opinion "that that grant could not proceed without the great detriment and dis- paragement of Donough O'Brien, who very honestly served your Majesty in the rebellion time." Murrough, it will be remembered, had succeeded his brother Connor, according to the custom of the country, to the exclusion of the latter's son Donough ; and Donough, of course, protested vehemently against an arrangement which threatened to exclude him permanently from the succession. Eventually a compromise was agreed upon. It was decided that Murrough should be created Earl of Thomond and Baron of Inchiquin : the latter title to descend to his posterity in the usual fashion, the former to revert on his death to the elder branch of the family. Donough meanwhile was raised to the peerage as Baron of Ibrackin, and the same patent secured to him the succession to the earldom upon the death of his uncle.^ On May 19th O'Neil ratified his submission, and with his surrender the national resistance terminated. One after another the lesser chiefs submitted. The O'Moores of Leix came in,, and the O 'Byrnes of Wicklow, and Hugh ^ Henry to the Lord Deputy and Council, March 31. Lord Deputy and Council to Henry, June 2, 1542. Henry to the Lord Deputy and Council, July 9, 1543. 258 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND O'Kelly, chief captain of his nation and heredi- tary Abbot of Knockmoy, and McMahon of Uriel, and O'Rourke of BrefFny, and McDonel, the captain of O' Neil's gallowglasses, and McQuillin, the chief of a Norman- Welsh clan which had settled in the Route and become "as Irish as the worst." It would be tedious to rehearse the terms of these several submissions. All the chiefs acknowledged Henry to be their sovereign, and renounced the Pope with a fervour which might have satisfied a modern Orangeman. All agreed to hold their lands by knight's service. All promised to attend the Deputy to hostings with a number of horsemen, gallowglasses and kerne proportioned to the size of their territories, and gave hostages for the fulfilment of their engagements. The O'Byrnes apologized for having lived as "wood-kerne and wild Irishmen," and begged that their country might be made shireland by the name of the county of Wicklow. O'Rourke offered to attend parliament, and petitioned to be created Viscount Dromaher. The Abbot of Knockmoy surrendered his monastery, and, to complete the scandal, gave his son as a hostage. St. Leger had gifts for some and fair words for all, being anxious above all things to save money, and convinced that it was cheaper to conciliate the Irish than to exterminate them.^ ^ Carew MSS. 259 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND O'Neil, one of the last to submit, was the first to reap the fruits of submission. At the beginning of September he sailed for England ; on the twenty-fourth of the same month he made a third and final submission at Greenwich/ and on October ist the promised earldom was conferred. Con was the first of his race who had ever visited England, and no ceremony was omitted which could lend dignity to his investi- ture. After a solemn mass O'Neil was conducted to the Queen's closet, which was " richly hanged with cloth of arras and well strewed with rushes" — such was the utmost magnifi- cence which was then to be found even in the courts of princes — and there attired in the robes which Henry had purchased for him. The King, meanwhile, took his seat under the cloth of state, " with all his noble council, and other noble persons of his realm as well spiritual as temporal." It was customary for a new peer to be introduced into the royal presence by two others of the same rank, and Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, and Aubrey de Vere, Earl of Oxford — the one the brother-in-law of the King, and, since the death of Cromwell, the most powerful subject in the kingdom ; the other the head of the noblest family in England — were appointed to act as O' Neil's sponsors. Accompanied by these illustrious persons the ^ Submission of O'Neil, September 24, 1542. Printed in black letter by Richard Lant. 260 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND new Earl entered, his sword being borne before him by John Dudley, Viscount Lisle, afterwards the famous or infamous Duke of Northum- berland. The letters patent were then delivered by Garter to the Lord Chamberlain, and by the Lord Chamberlain to the King, who gave them to Secretary Wriothesley to read aloud. " And when he came to cincturam gladii the Viscount Lisle presented to the King the sword, and the King girded the said sword about the said Earl baldrick-wise, the foresaid Earl kneeling, and the other lords standing that lead him. And so the patent read out the King's Majesty put about his neck a chain of gold, with a cross hanging at it, and took him his letters patent, and he gave thanks unto him in his language, and a priest made answer of his saying in English. And there the King made two of the men that came with him knights. And so the Earls in order aforesaid took their leave of the King's Highness, and departed unto the place appointed for their dinners, the Earl of Tyrone bearing his letters patent in his hands, the trumpets blowing before him unto the chamber, which was the Lord Great Master's under the King's lodging. And so they sat at dinner. At the second course Garter proclaimed the King's style, and after the said new Earl's in manner following : ' Du tres hault et puissant Seigneur Con O'Neil, Comte de Tyrone, Seigneur de Dungannon, du royaulme d'Irlande.' The 261 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND King's Majesty gave him his robes of estate and all things belonging thereunto, and paid all manner of duties belonging to the same." ^ In the following year Murrough O'Brien, Earl of Thomond, Ulick Burke, Earl of Clan- 1543 ricarde, and Donough O'Brien, Lord Ibrackin visited Henry; were received with equal gra- ciousness, and were invested with their peerages with the same ceremonies. To each of the three new peers, and to the Baron of Upper Ossory, who had accompanied them to England, the King, in accordance with O'Brien's sugges- tion, granted a " house and piece of land near Dublin," for the accommodation of their horses and servants if they should attend parliament, and St. Leger was directed to make similar grants to the Earls of Tyrone and Desmond.^ Several other chieftains were recommended 1 Creation of Con O'Neil, Earl of Tyrone. Cotton MSS., Titus, b. xi, 209. An abridged version of this document will be found in the Carew AdSS. Tyrone's patent is in Rymer, XV, 7, where it is wrongly dated September i, 1543. Henry seems to have been much impressed by his own generosity. " We gave unto him a chain of three score pounds and odd ; we paid for his robes and the charges of his creation three score and five pounds ten shillings and twopence, and we gave him in ready money one hundred pounds sterling." — Henry to the Lord Deputy and Council, October 8. " Creation of Murrough O'Brien, Earl of Thomond ; Ulick Burke, Earl of Clanricarde ; and Donough O'Brien, Baron of Ibrackin. Cotton MSS., Titus, b. xi, 210. Henry to the Lord Deputy and Council, July 9, 1543. ^^^ patents are in Rymer, XIV, 797-801. 262 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND by the Lord Deputy for honours of the peerage. Thus, Manus O'Donel petitioned for an earl- dom; but, although the request was warmly seconded by St. Leger and fully approved by the king, it was not until sixty years later that the coveted honour was bestowed upon his grandson. The delay was perhaps due in this instance to a disagreement as to the style of the future earl ; O'Donel himself made suit to be created Earl of Sligo ; the king, who was willing enough that he should be made Earl of Tyrconnel, may have hesitated to grant a title which seemed to recognize his claim to supremacy in Lower Connaught.^ It is less easy to understand for what reasons O'Rourke, O'Reilly, and O'Conor Faly, upon whom St. Leger, with the full con- currence of Henry, proposed to confer the titles of Viscount Dromaher, Viscount Cavan, and Baron Offaly respectively, did not receive their patents.^ Possibly the chiefs themselves may have been unwilling, on further reflection, to accept a dignity which would have involved attendance in parliament ; or difficulties may have arisen owing to the claims of the tanists. Whatever may have been the cause it does not appear — except perhaps in the case of ^ Lord Deputy and Council to Henry, August 28, 1541. Henry to Lord Deputy and Council, September 23. ^ Lord Deputy and Council to Henry, June 28 ; August 28, 1 54 1. Henry to Lord Deputy and Council, September 8; September 23. For O'Rourke, see the Indenture of September I, 1542 {Carew MSS.). 263 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND O 'Conor — to have affected the cordiality of their relations with the government, and the last four years of Henry's reign were a time of unprecedented tranquillity. To contemporary statesmen, who seldom cared to look beneath the surface, it seemed that the problem of Irish government had been solved for ever. By Irish writers of a later age, looking back across the calamities of the next three reigns, the years of St. Leger's administration have been described as a golden age, a time of happiness too early terminated by the reckless innovations of the Protectorate. And yet it was during those years that the seeds of the subsequent disasters were most abundantly sown. The success of Henry's policy was apparent only ; the delusion was based upon a radical misunderstanding of the political situa- tion. The chiefs, it is true, had every reason to feel satisfied with the new arrangements. By surrendering their lands to the crown, and receiving them again by English tenure, they had at once increased their power over their clansmen, and secured the succession to their children, to the exclusion of their collateral heirs.^ If some of the more ambitious among ^ " Then should their natural children succeed in their possessions by inheritance, otherwise than hath been used ever hitherto, where their children never inherited their lands, but, after the decease of their fathers, their children remained in misery and a tanist should succeed ; which commutation of natural affection should inchne them to good order, for their 264 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND them were disposed to chafe at the loss of their independence, they could console themselves with the thought that the crown was pledged to defend them against their rivals or neighbours, and that, so long as they made an outward pro- fession of allegiance, the Dublin government was not likely to interfere with them. If they got tired of their bargain it was always open to them to renew the struggle. The case of the common people was very different. The devo- tion of the Irish kerne to the head of his clan was very real, but it had its limits. By the law of gavelkind the peasant was a joint owner with his chief; by the law of tanistry, he had a voice in the election of that chief's successor.' He had nothing to gain, or rather everything to lose, by an arrangement which deprived him at once of his share of the tribal lands, and of his right to choose his own rulers ; and, if he did not at once protest against it, it was because, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, he was com- pletely ignorant of it. The results of Henry's policy may be summed up in one sentence : he had created Irish landlordism. Before his time landlordism, in the modern sense, can scarcely be said to have existed outside the Pale. In the ease and profit, and specially for the promotion of their children." — Cowley's Plan for the Reformation of Ireland, November, 1541. Cf. "Questions to be considered touching Shane O'Neil," 1560 {Carew MSS.). ^ See supra, ch. i. 265 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND Irish districts the land was the common property of the tribe ; even in those parts of Leinster and Munster in which the custom of gavelkind did not exist, the force of public opinion made arbitrary eviction all but impossible. It cannot be said that the institution has proved an un- mixed blessing to Ireland. The attempt to substitute English for Irish tenures was undoubtedly the chief cause of the disasters that followed. But other causes co-operated. The abolition of tanistry and gavelkind was only a part, although a very important part, of the general policy of re- forming Ireland by the obliteration of all national characteristics. In the fourteenth century, if not earlier, the tendency of the colonists to amalgamate with the native popu- lation had attracted the notice of the legisla- ture, and numerous acts of parliament had been passed to prevent it. Intermarriage and fostering between the races were prohibited. " The King's subjects " were forbidden to ride, dress or wear their hair in the Irish fashion. Severe penalties were denounced against Irish bards ; and native clergymen were jealously excluded from ecclesiastical preferment.^ By writers imperfectly acquainted with the con- stitutional phraseology of the period, this legislation has sometimes been described as ^ Hardiman's Statute of Kilkenny^ passim. 266 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND an attempt to compel the adoption of English usages by the mere Irish. The actual purpose of the legislators was very different. Far from seeking to anglicize the native population, they aimed rather at the erection of an impassable barrier between the two races, intending, it is said, that the English should eventually "root out " the Irish. It cannot be said t'hat this policy had been very successful ; but, so long as the English government was confined to the four shires and did not pretend to exercise authority in the native districts, it was at least intelligible. But, with the submission of the chieftains and the assumption by Henry of the title of King of Ireland, the constitutional rela- tions between the two races entered on a new phase. Hitherto the government had, in theory at least, ignored the Celtic population, who neither acknowledged the authority of the law nor enjoyed its protection. But from the day when Henry recognized the Celtic chiefs as his subjects, he was compelled to decide what policy he would adopt towards them. There were two courses open to him : to recognize that the population was by no means homo- geneous, and that it would be wise for a time, at least, to tolerate a considerable diversity of usages ; or to extend the existing law to the Irish districts, and to govern Ireland as his pre- decessors had governed the Pale. It is easy, in the light of later history, to see that the former 267 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND policy was the right one ; but no statesman of the sixteenth century would have hesitated to recommend the latter. Perceiving that the institutions of England and Ireland differed widely ; perceiving also that the former country was immeasurably richer and more civilized than the latter, English statesmen rashly concluded that nothing more was needed for the regenera- tion of Ireland than to remodel Irish society from top to bottom on the English pattern. The chief was to be transformed into an English nobleman ; the clansman into an English tenant. Sheriffs wei-e to be appointed in every county. Judges were to go on circuit through the whole island. The Deputy was to be the faint shadow of the English king, subject, it is true, to the control of the home government, but acknow- ledging no responsibility to the people over whom he ruled. A parliament, attended by Irish chiefs and Anglo-Irish lords, was to meet at Dublin, and to give a formal assent to the royal edicts. As the King was to be the head of the church in England, so he was to be the head of the church in Ireland. As the monasteries had been dissolved in the larger island, so they were to be dissolved in the smaller. No allowance was to be made for difference of race, of customs, of traditions. There was to be one law, one language, one costume. The old acts remained upon the statute book, but they received a new meaning. 268 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND They were no longer to be considered as appli- cable only to Englishmen, or to Irishmen " dwelling in the land of peace among the English," but were to be enforced indiscri- minately against the whole population of both races. Proclamations were issued against " glibs " and " crummels," against saffron shirts and frieze mantles. The bard, the brehon, the begging friar, the strolling player, all the classes who most fully represented the national traditions and enjoyed the largest share of the national esteem, were marked out for repression and punishment. The chiefs who had sub- mitted undertook not only to abolish the Brehon law, but to use the English dress and, to their knowledge, the English language. Their children were being educated in England or in the Pale, and would, it was hoped, carry the anglicizing process a step further in the next generation.^ It is unnecessary to say that this legislation neither was nor could be enforced. Of the chiefs very few made any attempt to fulfil their engagements ; and those few accomplished little save the destruction of their own influence. The people everywhere set the law at defiance ; and it is impossible to hang or to imprison a whole nation. But, although in one sense a complete failure, the attempt to denationalize Ireland was ^ See some excellent remarks on this subject by Brewer. — Calendar of Carew MSS., preface to vol. ii. 269 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND not altogether barren of results. On the one hand, it alienated the people from the govern- ment ; on the other, it encouraged the official class and the new English generally to treat the natives with contempt and insolence ; thus fostering those feelings of arrogance on one side and disaffection on the other, which have been for more than three centuries the insuperable obstacles to the rational government of Ireland. And when to all these causes of dissatisfaction it is added that the favours of the crown had been unevenly distributed, and that many chiefs complained that they had received terms less advantageous than had been granted to their neighbours ; that the condition of the Pale, wasted by war, crushed by oppressive taxation, and oppressed by a licentious soldiery and a corrupt government, tended rather to repel than to attract the population beyond its borders ; and that society was kept in constant agitation by rumours that the young Earl of Kildare was about to return at the head of a French or Spanish army,^ we shall be at no loss to account for the rebellions that followed. The results of Henry's ecclesiastical policy were equally unfortunate. In religious as in civil matters a period of delusive success was followed by one of complete and overwhelming disaster. The first measures of reform were ^ Lord Justice and Council to the King, May 20, 1544. St. Leger to the Council, April 14, 1545. 270 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND received with the acquiescence of indifference. In the Pale the clergy, whatever may have been their real opinions, did not venture to deny the royal supremacy. The Archbishop of Dublin, it is true, complained bitterly of their opposi- tion ; but this opposition appears to have been of a passive character, and to have amounted to little more than a reluctance to preach new doctrines.^ As the English power advanced the statutory religion advanced with it. The soldiers went first ; the bishops, the lawyers, and the hangman followed ; and the civil and ecclesi- astical supremacy of the crown was proclaimed i539 amidst an orgy of massacres, executions, and sermons. In January, 1539, Browne preached against Popery at Carlow, Kilkenny, Ross, Wexford, Waterford, and Clonmel. The Arch- bishops of Cashel and Tuam and eight other bishops, six of whom appear to have been regularly appointed, took the oath of supremacy at the last named town.^ The Primate, who had never concealed his hostility to the Refor- mation, held out for some time longer, and so ^ " Before that our most dread sovereign was declared to be, as he ever was indeed, Supreme Head over the Church com- mitted unto his princely care, they that then could and would, very often till the right Christians were weary of them, preach after the old sort and fashion, will not now once open their lips in any pulpit for the manifestation of the same." — Browne to Cromwell, January 8, 1538. See also other letters of Browne to Cromwell, May 8 ; May 20 ; June 20, 1538. " Council to Cromwell, January 18, and February 8, 1539. 271 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND did the majority of his suffragans.' In the next year, however, he appears to have yielded, or at least to have desisted from active opposition ; and he certainly incurred the suspicion of the Pope, w^ho suspended him from his functions until he should purge himself from the charge of heresy. Dr. Cromer died not long after- 1542 wards, and George Dowdall, the last prior of Ardee, who had already surrendered his priory and taken the oath of supremacy, was appointed to succeed him.^ The Pope, who of course refused to recognize this appointment, conferred the see upon Robert Wauchop, a Scotchman and a member of the Society of Jesus. Wauchop must have been a man of remarkable strength of character ; for, although afflicted from child- hood with an infirmity of vision so great as to have given rise to the belief that he was wholly blind, he not only attained to eminence as a theologian, but acquired the curiously unepis- copal reputation of being the best horseman in Europe. He assisted at the deliberations of the Council of Trent, where he bore the title of Archbishop of Armagh, in 1545 and the two following years ; but it was not until five years later that he paid his first and only visit to his ^ " My brother of Armagh, who hath been the main oppugner, and so hath withdrawn most of his suffragans and clergy within his see and jurisdiction." — Browne to Cromwell, November 28, 1535. Harleian Miscellany, V, 596. ^ Henry to the Lord Deputy and Council, October 8, 1542. 272 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND diocese.^ Of the suffragan sees a considerable number became vacant between 1536 and 1542, and were filled by Henry's nominees, who, of course, took the prescribed oaths. Dominic Tirrey, the reforming Bishop of Cork and 1536- Cloyne, was at one time excluded from his see '542 by a Franciscan named MacNamara, but eventu- ally recovered possession. Richard Nangle, of Clonfert, was less fortunate, being expelled from his diocese by Roland De Burgh, who was supported by his kinsman Ulick, afterwards first Earl of Clanricarde.^ In 1541, however, De Burgh surrendered his bulls ; in the following year he petitioned for the see of Elphin, which he afterwards obtained from Edward VI ; and, although this petition was for a time rejected, he succeeded in securing the wealthy abbey of Portu Puro. Nangle may have died in the interim, but it is at least equally possible that Henry, whose object was to effect the mini- mum of doctrinal reform compatible with the ^ Brady's Episcopal Succession, I, 2 1 6-2 1 7. Spicilegium Ossoriense, I, 13. Hibernia Ignatiana, p. 4. yicia Concilii Tridentini, p. 29. Wauchop is frequently mentioned in the State Papers as "the blind bishop " {e.g., John Alento Thomas Alen, February, 1550 ; Dowdall to Sir John Alen, March 22, 1 5 50; Vannes to the Council, April 5, ISSO; ''"t those who supposed him to be totally blind must have been ignorant of the fact that total blindness is by the canon law an "impedi- ment " to holy orders. The consistorial act describes him as "debilitatem visus patientem." ^Cowley to Cromwell, July 19, 1538. Browne to Cromwell, February 16, 1539. 273 T THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND recognition of his own supremacy, may have agreed to abandon his nominee.^ In the next year another papal bishop, O'Cervallan of Clogher, who had been O'Neil's chaplain, and had been appointed at his supplication, surrendered his bulls and was confirmed in the possession of his see. iEneas O'HifFernan was appointed toEmly at the petition of Desmond, and Connaught O'Sheil to Elphin at that of O'Donel/ When Henry died three of the four archbishops had been appointed by him, and the fourth, Butler of Cashel, had submitted to him. Of the bishops a large majority can be shown to have taken the oath, and none can be shown to have refused it. The reader may attribute their con- duct to fear, to indifference, or to a failure to understand the real nature of the points at issue ; it is at least certain that there was no real conversion. The question of supremacy was regarded by both parties as one of politics rather than religion ;^ and of the conforming ^ The Irishmen's requests, May, 1543. Henry to the Lord Deputy and Council, July 9, 1543. Edward VI to Sir James Crofts, November, 1551. Fiants, Henry VJII, Nos. 260, 263, 378. ^ Henry to the Lord Deputy and Council, October 8, 1542. ^ On the different interpretations put upon the title " Head of the Church," cf. Macaulay's History of England, ch. i ; the correspondence between Macaulay and Bishop Phillpotts of Exeter, and Brewer, Calendar of Carew MSS., preface to vol. iii. 274 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND bishops only Browne, Staples, Nangle, and possibly Tirrey, were Protestants in the modern sense. In England Gardiner, afterwards the leader of the Romanist reaction, was the most zealous advocate of the royal supremacy ; and Bonner, the most fanatical, and Tunstall, the most learned and large-minded of the English bishops, wrote strongly in the same cause. In Ireland Dowdall of Armagh, and Bodkin of Tuam, both appointed by the king and neither of them acknowledged at Rome, were among the most earnest opponents of the new doctrines. It is not surprising that the laity, whose religious feelings were always lukewarm, should have offered little opposition to a measure which even dignified ecclesiastics accepted with such astonishing complacency. A renunciation of the papal authority and a recognition of Henry as supreme head of the Church, were required from all who submitted and were accepted without protest by all.^ The abbeys, meanwhile, were being suppressed in all districts where the power of England was in the ascendant. In 1537 fourteen houses were dissolved by act of parliament ; eight others were suppressed in the same year without legal warrant.^ In May, 1539, a commission was issued to Browne, Alen, Brabazon, Cowley, ^ Carew MSS., vol. i, passim. ^28 Henry VIII, c. 16. Gray and Brabazon to Cromwell, May 18, 1537. THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND and Cusack, for the dissolution of all monasteries throughout the island, and the confiscation of their property.' The scheme was opposed by Gray, who submitted to Henry a list of houses in the counties of Dublin, Kildare and Kilkenny 1539 which he desired should be exempted from the general spoliation. These monasteries, he explained, served either as places of entertain- ment, "in default of common inns, which are not in this land," or as schools in which the young gentlemen of the Pale were brought up in "virtue, learning and the English tongue and behaviour"; and, what was still more important, they furnished a considerable number of troops at every hosting. Moreover, the Abbey of St. Mary, Dublin, was "the common resort of all such of reputation as hath repaired hither out of England," and the parliament and courts of justice usually sat in Christ Church. Similar petitions were presented on behalf of their own houses by the Abbot of St. Mary's, and the Prior of Connall ; but to these petitions no attention was paid.* Ostensibly the commissioners were empowered only to accept "voluntary" surrenders; but ^ Patent Rolls, I, 55. * Lord Deputy and Council to Cromwell, May 21, 1539. William Laundy, Abbot of St. Mary's, to Cromwell, July 31, 1539. Walter Wellesley, Bishop of Kildare and Prior of Connell, to Cromwell, May 24, 1539 {Careiv MSS.). See also the petition of the Sovereign and Council of Wexford on behalf of the monastery of Selsskyr, January 29, 1537 ('^"'^•)' 276 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND coercion was unscrupulously employed wherever 9. "voluntary" surrender was refused. Thus Manus O'Fihely, the last Abbot of Thurles, having refused to surrender his monastery, was subjected to a long and rigorous imprisonment/ In most cases the monks made a virtue of necessity, and purchased small pensions by a speedy compliance with the wishes of the government.^ Before the end of the year 1541, all, or nearly all, the religious houses in Leinster, in the Ormond palatinate, and in the walled towns of Munster had been dissolved. The lands of the suppressed monasteries were granted partly to persons whose assistance it was necessary to secure, and partly to persons whose opposition it was desirable to disarm. Englishmen and Irish- men, Catholics and Protestants, priests and laymen, all showed an equal appetite for plunder. Lord Leonard Gray proclaimed his hostility to disestablishment, yet he obtained a grant of the first house dissolved, the nunnery of Grane in Kildare.* After Gray's attainder this nunnery was re-granted to Sir Anthony St. ^ Grose, Antiquities of Ireland, II, 85. ^ Fiants, Hertry VIII, passim, ^ Ibid., No. 71. This nunnery was suppressed as early as 1535, but the nuns were at first quartered on other houses. Ware, I, 1 54. In the patent for its suppression it is erroneously described as being in the county of Carlow, Gray was created Viscount Grane in the peerage of Ireland, a. title which he appears not to have qsed. 277 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND Leger.^ The priory of St. Wolstan in the same county was assigned to Lord Chancellor Alen." Alen also attempted to secure the abbey of St. Thomas the Martyr near Dublin, but that magnificent establishment fell to the share of Sir William Brabazon.' The Archbishop of Dublin petitioned for "a very poor house of friars named the New Abbey," which lay "very commodious" for him at Ballymore ; but not only was this modest request refused, but, that nothing might be wanting to complete his Grace's mortification, the coveted friary was granted to a "mere Irishman."* The Prime Serjeant Barnewall, the most violent of all the opponents of the suppression, was pacified with the nunnery of Gracedieu, previously noted as a seminary for young ladies.^ The priory of Louth provided lands and a title to Sir Oliver Plunket." The Butlers of course profited largely, the abbeys in Kilkenny and Tipperary — and among these were some of the richest in the island — being assigned almost of necessity to the only family which was capable of defending them.' The religious houses in walled towns 1 Fiants, Henry VIII, No. 304. « Uid., No. 57. ' Alen to Cromwell, May 12, 1539. Fiants, Henry VIII, No. 547. * Browne to Cromwell, May 21, 1538. " Fiants, Henry VIII, No. 235. « Ibid., No. 196. '' Ibid., Nos. 161, 308. In 1537 the Irish government, recommending a grant of the abbey of Dusk to Ormond, 278 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND were either granted to influential citizens or converted to municipal uses. The corporations of Drogheda, Kilkenny, Wexford, Waterford, Clonmel, Cork and Limerick, all received extensive grants of monastic property. The priory of All Saints, Dublin, was assigned to the citizens as a reward for their conduct during the rebellion, and the monastery of the Friars Preachers in the same city was converted into a place of residence for the lawyers that the scripture might be fulfilled, " My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves."^ The dissolution in the native districts went on very slowly, the lands of the dissolved abbeys being generally granted to Irish or Anglo-Irish chieftains, " as a means to make them glad rather to suppress them."^ To the Earl of Thomond were granted all such abbeys in Thomond as were already in his possession, and the gift of all benefices spiritual within the same territory, bishoprics only excepted ; to the Earl of Clan- ricarde the " gift and disposing of all parsonages and vicarages within his lands, bishoprics ex- cepted," and the abbey De Via Nova in the diocese of Clonfert ; to the Baron of Ibrackin wrote : " We cannot perceive, as the same is situated, that any man can keep it for the King but only the said Earl and his son." — Gray and others to Cromwell, April 29. 1 Fiants, Henry VIII, Nos. 70, 238. ^ The Council with the King to Lord Chancellor Audley, October 10, 1541. 279 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND the abbey of EUengrane and the moiety of the abbey of Clare ; to the, Baron of Upper Ossory the friary of Haghevoo and the monastery of Hagmacarte ; to O'Neil, O'Donel, Desmond and many others, numerous abbeys in their respective countries.^ But it is very doubtful how far these grants took effect. From a state paper of the year 1548 it appears that no mona- stery in Ulster, Connaught or Thomond, and very few in Munster, had been dissolved before that time.' In the last decade of the century it was reported from Connaught that many houses were still standing, especially in Mayo, Sligo and "O'Rourke's country."' And when Sir John Davies visited Ulster in 1607 he found the abbeys in Tyrone, Donegal and Fermanagh still " occupied by the religious persons." * Financially the crown profited very little by the dissolution. The personal property of the monks had been valued at ^^i 00,000, but the amount actually realized fell short of j^3,ooo. Whether this extraordinary discrepancy between the sum which the government expected to gain and the sum which they in fact gained is to be ^ The Irishmen's Requests, May, 1543. Henry to St. Leger, July 9, 1543. ^ " How many frere houses remain, using yet the old papist sort ? All Munster in effect, all Thomond, Connaught, Ulster." — Interrogatories against George Browne, Archbishop of Dublin, November, 1548. ' List of monasteries in Ulster and Connaught, 1594. * Davies, Discovery, p. 329. 280 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND attributed to a miscalculation on the part of the Treasury, to the dexterity with which the monks concealed their possessions, or to em- bezzlement by the commissioners, it is not perhaps possible to determine.^ The Reformation, on the whole, was carried out with less violence than in England. A priest named Travers, who had written a contro- versial work in defence of the papal supremacy, was executed, but whether for the authorship of this work, as the Catholics alleged, or, as the Protestants pretended, for complicity in the Geraldine rebellion, is uncertain.^ The Fran- ciscans of Monaghan were massacred in 1 540 ; but Monaghan was a border county, and the massacre ought perhaps to be considered as an episode of the ordinary border warfare rather than as an act of religious persecution.' Arch- bishop Browne, whose horror of idolatry amounted to a monomania, burnt the Baculum Jesu, the Holy Rood of Ballyboggan, the statue ^ "The yearly value [of the suppressed monasteries] amounted to ;^3 2,000, and their moveables were rated at ;£ 1 00,000." — Loftus MSS. For the actual receipts see "Accounts of William Brabazon, Under-Treasurer and Receiver-General," September 29, 1540 (MS. R.O.). On May 25, 1538, Thomas Finglas wrote to Cromwell that the monks were concealing their property in the expectation that their houses would be suppressed (MS. R.O.). ^ Ware, II, 93. Ware simply states that Travers wrote in defence of the Papal supremacy and was executed. The editor adds that he suffered for his share in the Geraldine rebellion. ' Annals of the Four Masters^ iS40. 281 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND of Our Lady of Trim, and other images ; and the destruction was accompanied by riots in consequence of which several persons lost their lives. ^ Even Gray, whom Browne denounced as a papist, appears to have burnt the cathedral of Down, and to have committed other acts of sacrilege,^ and a garrison which Bellingham established at Athlone a few years later pillaged the abbey of Clonmacnois.^ But both the government and the native chiefs were actuated by secular rather than theological motives, and it was not until half a century later that religion began to exercise a perceptible influence on Irish politics. On the whole it could scarcely be denied that the condition of the country was improving. It was agreed on all sides that the reduction of Leinster must precede that of the more distant provinces ; and Leinster was never quieter than under the government of St. Leger. In the 1540 first year of his administration the Lord Deputy had proposed a curious scheme for the govern- ment of the eastern province. Some sixty years earlier, when the English power had almost ■^ The Four Masters place the destruction of these relics in 1537, Ware in 1538. The latter must be the correct date, since Browne, in a letter to Cromwell dated June 20, 1538, speaks of the intention as one which he had not yet executed. The native annalists, although tolerably well informed as to matters of fact, are often extremely inexact in their chronology. ^ Stanihurst, p. 312. Ware's Annals, ^ Annals of the Four Masters, 1552. 282 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND disappeared out of Ireland, the lords and gentle- men of the four shires had formed themselves into a society, known as the Brotherhood of St. George, for the defence of the English frontier. The society had died a natural death ; and St. Leger proposed to revive it in a slightly different form. The new order of knighthood — for such it was to be in effect — was to consist of a Grand Master, who was to be a peer of the realm, and twelve " pensioners," with their retinues. These personages, who were to receive salaries varying from ;^4o to ^C^oo P^r annum, were to be re- sponsible for the defence of the Pale, for the maintenance of order in Leinster, and for the repair of the frontier fortresses. It is charac- teristic of St. Leger's liberality that among the persons from whom he proposed to select the first " pensioners " were several " mere Irish- men." They were, however, to be required to wear the English dress, and to learn the English language.^ The scheme found no favour with Henry, who saw in the proposed brotherhood a resemblance to the monastic order of St. John of Jerusalem, which he had just dissolved.^ But, ^ Device for the Reformation of Leinster, November 14, 1540. ^ Henry to St. Leger, March 26, 1541. "A device sent hither subscribed by the hand of the Lord Deputy and Council of Ireland for the establishing of good order in the county of Leinster in Ireland was misliked for that it appeared to be an institution of a new St. John's Order." — Proceedings of the Privy Council, VII, 92. 283 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND although the Lord Deputy's suggestion was dis- regarded, the area of English law was slowly but steadily extended. In 1 542 the " march," or western part of the county of Meath — one of those districts in which the English and Irish were intermixed, and which had hitherto been the scene of constant warfare between the two races — was formed into a separate county by the name of Westmeath.^ In the same year a petition was received from the O' Byrnes that their country might be made shireland by the name of the county of Wicklow ; but, for some cause not altogether easy to understand, this very reasonable request was rejected.^ It appears, however, from a letter written a few years later by St. Leger, that sheriffs were appointed both among this sept and among the O'Tooles, and that in 1 546 a member of the latter family was chosen sheriff of Dublin, and " executed that room very honestly." ' " The winning of Desmond was the winning of the rest of Munster at small charges."* A ^ 34 Henry VIII, c. i. ^ "That their country may be erected by authority of Parliament into a county, with the name of the county of Wicklow, so that the King may henceforth constitute a sheriff" there, and other officers." — Petition of the O'Byrnes, July 4, 1542 {Carew MSS.). ' Answer to notes exhibited by the Lord Chancellor against the King's Deputy, 1546. * Sir Thomas Gusack to the Duke of Northumberland, May 8, 1552. 284 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND few months after the submission of the Earl an ordinance, which appears to have had the force of law, was issued for the government of the 1541 southern province. The disorders of the Church, always serious, had been aggravated by the recent changes ; and an honest if not very effective attempt was made to remedy them. The bishops were to be allowed to visit their dioceses ; laymen and minors were to be excluded from ecclesiastical preferments ; beneficed persons were to take orders and reside. Turning to secular matters, highway robbery and rape were constituted capital offences : a scale of fines in accordance with the provisions of the Brehon law, which was thus officially recognized, being appointed for less serious misdemeanours. Coyne and livery, it was admitted, could not be entirely abolished^ the chiefs, who had little ready money, having no other means of supporting their retainers ; but an effort was made to limit them, the lords being forbidden to billet troops on any but their own tenants. The peace of the province was constantly disturbed by the " kerne " or light infantry, who were wholly without discipline, and differed very little from ordinary brigands. In order to remedy this inconvenience the chiefs were made responsible for the conduct of their followers ; unattached or " masterless " kerne were to be treated as vagabonds and committed to the nearest prison, until some gentleman 285 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND should take them into his service. Scarcely- less troublesome than the kerne were the horse- boys or serving men, who attended on the horsemen ; and an attempt was made to limit their numbers by forbidding any horseman to keep more than one. The entertainment of bards, storytellers and strolling players was prohibited under severe penalties ; and there was the usual futile attempt to regulate the dress of the people. The execution of these ordinances was entrusted to Ormond and the Archbishop of Cashel in Kilkenny, Tipperary and Waterford : to Desmond and the Archbishop in Cork, Limerick, and Kerry ; and to the several bishops and chiefs in their respective territories.* In September, 1 542, St. Leger himself visited Munster, when the Barries, MacCarthies, Roches and other leading gentlemen of the 1542 province entered into indentures similar to those which had already been concluded with the northern chieftains. The signatories acknow- ledged Henry as their sovereign, and renounced the " usurped primacy and authority of the Bishop of Rome." They pledged themselves jointly and severally not to make war upon each other, but to submit their disputes to the arbitration of commissioners appointed by the crown ; to assist and protect the royal tax- gatherers and other officers ; to enforce the ^ Ordinances for the Reformation of Munster, Juljr 12, 1 541 {Carew MSS.). 286 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND " articles and ordinances " above enumerated in their respective territories ; to combine to prosecute any of their number who should be guilty of any offence against the King's peace ; to forego the black rents which they had hitherto received from the city of Cork, the towns of Youghal and Kinsale, or any other of the King's subjects ; and to give hostages for the fulfilment of their engagements/ It is impossible to say how far these ordinances and indentures were actually carried out. Practice, as is generally the case, probably lagged somewhat behind theory ; but there appears to be no doubt that sheriffs and magistrates were appointed, and that the judges went on circuit through the most westerly parts of Munster.^ In Munster there were relics of a feudal organization, and the restoration of English law was comparatively easy. In Connaught and Ulster, which had never been divided into counties, the work of reformation went on much more slowly. Yet here also there were signs of improvement. The Brehon law indeed was stiU used, and the crown exercised little direct authority. But the general peace was unbroken ; quarrels, which at an earlier period would have 1 Indentures with Lord Barrymore, MacCarthy Mor, Lord Roche, MacCarthy Reagh, Thady MacCormac (MacCarthy) of Muskerry, Barry Oge, O'Sullivan Beare, O'Callaghan, Barry Roe, MacDonough of Duhallow, and Sir Gerald MacShane, September 26, 1542. ^ Cusack to Northumberland, May 8, 1552. 287 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND been decided by the sword, were referred to the arbitration of the Deputy ; and the creation of three new earldoms in Clare, Galway and Tyrone, the universal acknowledgment of the royal title, and the education of some of the younger chiefs in the English manners, seemed to warrant a hope that within another genera- tion English law would be gradually and peace- fully extended over the whole island. When J 544 war with France broke out a few months later not a single Irish chieftain offered to assist the enemy ; and a considerable body of Irish soldiers served with distinguished bravery at the siege of Boulogne in 1 544.^ The government, nevertheless, did not wholly escape censure. Sir Anthony St. Leger had not been many months in office before he was assailed with the same calumnies which had proved fatal to his predecessor. Like Lord Leonard Gray, he was accused of " erecting a Geraldine band ; " and, like Gray, he answered that it was to the Geraldines that the crown must look for support against the overweening ambition of the House of Ormond.^ The Butlers, ^ Stanihurst, p. 315. ^ " It may also please your Majesty that, where it hath been to me reported that the said Mr. Cowley, late Master of the Rolls here, should article against me that I went about to erect a new Geraldine band, meaning the same by the Earl of Desmond : the truth is I laboured most eflFectually to bring him to your perfect obedience, to my great peril and charge ; and this, gracious lord, was the only cause. I saw that, now 288 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND who, like the loyalists of a later period, sought only to oppress and plunder their fellow-subjects under the specious pretence of advancing the English interest, again led the attack upon the Deputy. Lord Chancellor Alen, in whom the passion for intrigue amounted to a disease, plotted against St. Leger, as he had pldtted against Kildare, SkefEngton, and Gray, and as he afterwards plotted against Sir Edward Bellingham. Before the end of 1543 the out- cry had become so loud that the Lord Deputy, at his own request, was summoned to England to lay the state of Ireland before the king. He sailed from Dublin in February, 1544, and appears to have returned in August of the same year.^ His defence must have satisfied Henry ; the Earl of Kildare was gone, there was no subject of your Majesty here meet nor able to weigh with the Earl of Ormbnd, who hath of your Majesty's gift and of his own inheritance and rule given him by your Majesty, not only fifty or sixty miles in length, but also many of the chief holds of the frontiers of Irishmen ; so that if he or any of his heirs should waver from their duty of allegiance, it would be more hard to daunt him or them than it was the said Earl of Kildare, who had always the Earl of Ormond in his top, when he would or was like to attempt any such thing. Therefore I thought it good to have a Rowland for an Oliver ; for, having the said Earl of Desmond your Highness' assured subject, it will keep them both in stay." — St. Leger to Henry, May 8, 1542. Even Archbishop Browne acknowledged that the power of Ormond had become so great as to render regular government impossible, — To Henry, February 28, 1545. ^ State Papers, III, 493, 502. 289 U THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND but he had hardly re-crossed the channel when the old complaints were renewed with increased vehemence. According to Alen, the most 1539 rancorous of the Lord Deputy's accusers, the condition of the country was worse than when St. Leger had first taken office. The English Pale was " nothing amplified, but in strength decayed," and the Irish borderers had never been stronger. The King's writ was little, if at all, better obeyed than of old, and his revenues "little or nothing augmented." Leinster was not reformed. The chiefs who had submitted had not fulfilled their engagements ; they used their old laws ; and the King had not so much as the abbeys in their territories. Many of them had received grants of lands and houses in the Pale, " whereby they are become good guides, and know the secrets of the country ; so as, if they should digress, they may do much more hurt now than ever they could do before." " It is a strange thing to me," the Chancellor concluded, " to consider how the king is be- guiled ; what money he hath spent these six years past, and his ancient enemies stronger than they were, his subjects feebler, and his Grace's profit nothing augmented." ^ To all these charges the Lord Deputy's reply was conclusive. The bounds of the Pale had been enlarged, and, if fewer troops were kept for its defence than ^ Certain notes on the state of Ireland, by Lord Chancellor Alen, 1546. 290 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND in times past, this was inevitable, since the old customs of coyne and livery had been prohibited, and farmers, paying rent for their lands, could not keep as many men and horses as the owners had done. As for the Irish borderers, their strength was completely broken : " the Byrnes not half the horsemen they have been ; the Tooles of no strength ; the Kavanaghs, that were wont to make eight or nine score horse- men, not now able to make forty. Old O'Moore would ride every day in the week with more horsemen than all O'Moore's country is now able to make. Mulrony O' Carroll had more horsemen than now all the O'Moores and O'CarroUs together. O'Conor had, at my coming into the land, four horsemen to one he hath now." As to obeying the King's writ, it was unreasonable to expect a complete and instantaneous reform ; but the chiefs kept better order than they had done for a hundred years past, and merchants might now ride from Limerick to Cashel without fear of violence, through a country which had lately swarmed with brigands. As for the revenue, the country was miserably poor ; and Alen, while calling in general terms for increased subsidies, had opposed every specific proposal of the Deputy. The argu- ments for the " reformation," that is to say, the plantation of Leinster, as well as the objections to them, had been submitted to Henry, who had decided against the scheme. The Irish 291 THE KINGDOA4 OF IRELAND chiefs kept their promises at least as well as some Englishmen— ^an obvious hit at the Chan- cellor ; and, if they still used the Brehon law, so did the Earl of Ormond and all the lords marchers.^ But a far more unequivocal testimony to the popularity of St. Leger's administration was fur- nished by a memorial addressed to Henry by the Earls of Desmond, Tyrone and Thomond, the Barort of Upper Ossory, O'Conor, O'Carroll, and a number of other chieftains, who had been previously reputed the most irreconcilable enemies of the English governm'ent. The writers hia'mbly besought Ms Majesty to lend a favourable ear to their petition. A rumoui- hkd long been current that the Lord Deputy, to whose high character they bore witness, had been described as negligent in the discharge of his duties and as unequal to the task imposed upon him. It had even been said that the con- dition of the country had gr'own worse since his appointment. Indignant at these calumnies, whicli they Conceived to be not less mischievdtiS than unjust, they had unaniniously resolved to lay the truth before the King. There was not, they gratefully acknowledged, a man in Ireland, " though he liad seen the years of Nestor," who could remember a period of equal tranquillity ; and, although they, who virere distinctively callfed ^ Answer to notes exhibited by the Lord Chancellor against the King's Deputy, 1546. 292 THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND Irish, had not yet learned to conform to the laws as, fully as others, who from their cradles had been trained in the due observance of the same, yet ' they diligently strove to attain to a like excellence, and called God to vvitness that they acknowledged no king or lord on earth save his Majesty. If, however, the King was resolved that the Deputy, to whose gracious language and tactful bearing they attributed the recent progress and increasing loyalty of the country, should no longer be suffered to remain among them, they would conclude Avith this single request, that his successor might be a man of like character, who would act towards them in the same spirit of equity, sincerity and good nature.^ When this letter was written St. Leger was once more preparing to set sail for England, whither Ormond had preceded him. He reached London in April, and for the second time achieved a complete triumph over his enemies. Alen, the chief author of the mis- chief, was committed to the Tower, and, although he was soon released, it was not until after the accession of Edward that the great seal was restored to him. Ormond, with sixteen of his retainers, died by poison in October, and Irish tradition has branded Henry as his murderer. The King was capable of that or 1 The Irish chieftains to Henry, March 23, 1546. THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND any other atrocity ; but the courts of law were the obedient tools of the crown, and the Earl's loyalty had not been so unquestionable that Henry need have shrunk from a more legal and-lucrative vengeance.^ ^ Stanihurst, pp. 317-318, There are in the Record OflSce several curious letters written from the Tower by Walter Cowley to the Privy Council, in October, 1546, which are not among the printed State Papers. In one of these, written apparently only a few days before the death of Ormond, he accuses St. Leger of conspiring with O'Conor to destroy the Earl. This may have been the origin of the report mentioned by the Four Masters, 1545 [1546], that both St. Leger and Ormond had sworn that one or other of them should never return to Ireland. 294 CHAPTER VI THE REFORMATION Sir Anthony St. Leger, to whose wise and liberal policy the comparative tranquillity of Ireland during the last six years of Henry's reign must in a great measure be ascribed, was continued as Deputy by the Protector, and for 1547 some months no serious disturbance took place. The dissolution of the monasteries was, no doubt, unpopular with the common people, and French, Scotch, and papal agents were busily employed in fanning the general discontent ; but the native chieftains had been conciliated with grants of monastic property, and were in no humour for engaging in a crusade. There was, however, one exception to the general tranquillity. Of the chiefs whose ter- ritories lay along the borders of the Pale there was none more dreaded and hated by the Englishry than Brian O'Conor, prince of OfFaly. His dominions, when compared with those of O'Neil and O'Brien, were inconsider- able ; but his great abilities, his close connection with the House of Kildare, and his formidable geographical position, combined to make him one of the most dangerous enemies of the Irish 295 THE REFORMATION government. Of the confederates who, in the preceding reign, had formed what is generally termed the Geraldine League, he had been the first to take up arms and one of the last to lay them down. In July, 1534, he invaded the Pale ; and, although he was for a short time in alliance with Lord Leonard Gray four years later, it was not until the autumn of 1540 that he made his final submission to Gray's successor. His conduct excited the greatest indignation in England, and Henry, even when recommending a conciliatory policy towards the Irish in general, sent peremptory orders to St. Leger that Q'Conor should be "rooted out.'" Owing to the good offices of the Lord Deputy his submission was at last accepted, but the terms granted to him were less favourable than he had been led to expect. The peculiar severity with which he was treated was probably due less to his personal demerits than to the fact that some of the Dublin officials were anxious to extend the bounds of the Pale, and for that reason were determined to deal less liberally with the border chieftains than with the more distant and dangerous potentates of Ulster and Connaught. Be this as it may, O'Conor was certainly dissatisfied ; and St. Leger, who, like his predecessor, appears to have conceived a great regard for him, or at least to have formed a high opinion of his talents and of ^ Henry VIII to St. Leger, September 7, 1 540. 296 THE REFORMATION the importance of attaching him to the English interest, repeatedly wrote to Henry in his favour.* In 1544, however, St. Leger was summoned to London at his own request, the administration being entrusted during his absence to the Vice- Treasurer, Sir William Brabazon. Brabazon, who had consistently opposed the liberal policy of the Lord Deputy, promptly availed himself of the latter's recall to pick a quarrel with O'Conor, but St. Leger fortunately returned to Ireland in time to prevent serious mischief. In the next year he recommended O'Conor for a viscounty,* and Henry expressed his assent, but for some unexplained reason the peerage was never con- ferred. That O'Conor, whatever may have been his grievances, was at this time fully satisfied of the good intentions of the govern- ment, is certain, for his name appears among the signatories of the remarkable testimonial to the Lord Deputy subscribed by the Irish chieftains in March, 1546.^ But when this letter was written St. Leger was once more on his way to England, and he had no sooner ^ Council to Henry, September 22, 1540. St. Leger to Henry, November 13, 1540, and August 28, 1541. — Cusack, who shared St. Leger's views, speaks of him as "O'Conor, who is reckoned amongst them all to be most wise." — To the Council, September, 1541. Brabazon maliciously calls him " your Lordship's old friend O'Conor." — To St. Leger, March 24, 1544- ^ St. Leger to the ?rivy Council, May 6, 1545. ' The Irish chieftains to Henry VIII, March 23, 1546. THE REFORMATION crossed the channel than O 'Conor, who was now joined by his relative and neighbour, Gilpatrick O 'Moore, came for the second time into violent collision with Lord Justice Brabazon. It is probable that this last outbreak was not unconnected with a rising which took place about the same time in the Pale, and in which some of the Geraldines, Eustaces, and other Anglo-Irish families were involved. The government was kept in constant alarm by rumours that the Earl of Kildare was about to return to Ireland, and George Paris, a relative, perhaps a son, of the unfortunate constable of Maynooth, was intriguing with France and Scotland in the Geraldine interest.^ In the summer of 1546 some kinsmen and followers of the Kildare family took arms under the leadership of " Maurice of the Woods," a natural son of the Sir James FitzGerald who had been executed in 1537, and over-ran a great part of the counties of Kildare and Carlow. After holding out for more than a year the insurgents were defeated and their leader taken prisoner and hanged at Dublin. In the same year the Lord Justice again invaded Leix and OfFaly, which he laid waste as far as the hill of Croghan, " without receiving ^ Privy Council to Bellingham, December i, 1547. Alen to Paget and Somerset, November 21, 1548. For Paris see also Lord Justice and Council to the Privy, Council, March 26, 1550. 298 THE REFORMATION either battle or submission." The O'Moores retaliated by burning Athy ; and although a second punitive expedition resulted in the capture of Dengen — the nlodern Philipstown — which became the seat of an English garrison, the war still smouldered ; nor did even the return of St. Leger lead to a restoration of the former tranquillity. Another sharp campaign followed : O'Dunn, O'Dempsey and the rest of the lesser chiefs submitted ; and O'Moore and O'Connor, deserted by their clansmen and vassals, took refuge in Connaught.^ In April, 1548, St. Leger was recalled, and Sir Edward Bellingham was appointed to succeed him. It is significant that this appointment, which envolved an entire change of policy, and 1548 of which the results were in the highest degree disastrous, was due, not to any dissatisfaction with St. Leger's administration — for, if we except the immediate connections of the House of Ormond, the Archbishop of Dublin, who hated him for his moderation, and Alen, who plotted persistently against five successive deputies, the Lord Deputy was universally beloved — but, like many similar appointments in more recent times, to the exigencies of English party politics. During the interval which elapsed between the fall of Cromwell and the death of Henry, the efforts of the English ^ Annals of the Four Masters, 1546-47. 299 THE REFORM ATION reforip,ers had met with a serious check. Altho,ugh resolute in asserting bis own suprcT macy and keeping a firm grasp upon the property of the religious houses, the |Cing, during the last six years of his reign, h,ad done nothing to promote, or rather had sp3.re4 no effort to prevent the propaga,tion of t^e new doctrines. On the accession of Edward VI the control of English policy passed into the hands of his uncles, the Seymours, who. were completely identified with the Protesta,i:\t party, and fresh religious changes imniedi^^ely followed. The ^eympurs and their friends neither kn?w nor cared anyth,ing about ^rish affairs ; but it w^s assumed, Jis a matter of course, that the ecclfrr siastical institutions of the dependency must be assin^ilated to thpse of the ruling country ; and this, since Ireland sho\\fed no signs of spon- taneous conformity, involved of necessity a reve^S^al of St. Lpger's policy ^p^ ^ return %o the old metbods of coercion. Of B^llingham's early life we know very little. He is said tp have oyre^ bis first advance- ment to the Duke of Norfojk ; but, if this was so, he certainly did not share the religious opinions of his patrpn. He afterwards held yarious military and diplo^^atic ^pp.ointnients in France, Hungary and elsewhere ; but it was as governor of thp Isle of ^Yight, dviring the French invasion of 1545, that he earned his chief title to distinction. He ^as employed 3PO THE REli'ORMAtrOiSr in Ireland dilring the sumrtier of 1 547 as com- mander of the fofc^es, when he distinguished himself by vigorously opposing the liberal policy of the Deputy. His appointment marks the reversal of St. Leger's policy of conciliation, and was hailed as a triurtlph by the violent party.^ Bellinghai^ had no sooner siet foot in Ireland than the whole country was up in arms. "The rough handling of the Deputy " — so Desmond afterwards told Sir John Aleft— ^' put the Irish in such fear that they all conspired against him." This was probably the truth, although Alen himself attributed the rising to "the niatter of Religion " and the machinations of Wauchop, " the blind bishop that came from Scotland out of Rome."* Every province was more or less disturbed ; but the most serious outbreak took place in Leix and Offaly, where the population, in addition to the general grievances, had local and personal causes of discontent. About the beginning of 1548 the banished chiefs re-crdSsed the Shannon, and throughout the spring and summer of that year a fierce guerilla warfare raged along the western frontier of the Pale. But the insnrrefction Was speedily suppressed, and the insurgents were ruthlessly butchered. The oldest man in Ireland, ^ Carevu MSS., Vol. ii, preface, p. IxxScv. * Sir John Aleh to Thomas Alen, February, 1550. 301 THE REFORMATION Bellingham informed the Privy Council, had never seen so many Irishmen killed in one day, " such w^as the great goodness of God, to deliver them into our hands." ^ The disturbances can have had little connection with religion, for they broke out again in the next reign ; but the language and conduct of Bellingham afford ominous indications of the influence which the cult of the Hebrew Moloch was beginning to exercise upon English thought. O'Conor submitted in November, and O 'Moore in the following year. The two chiefs were sent to London, where they were thrown into prison, and where O'Moore not long afterwards died. The lands of the defeated tribes were annexed to the Pale, and were subsequently "planted" with English colonists.^ In other parts of the island the Lord Deputy was less fortunate. His military expeditions were characterized by vigour and ability, and were attended with a considerable measure of success ; but they added much more to the unpopularity than to the prestige of the govern- ment. The fortifications of Athlone were ^ Bellingham to the Privy Council, August, 1548. See also several letters of John Brereton, Richard Aylmer, Francis Cosbie, and others to Bellingham in July of this year. ^ Alen to Paget, November 21, 1548. Lord Protector and Council to Lord Deputy and Council of Ireland, January 6, 1549. Ware {^Annals, 1548) erroneously represents O'Conor and O'Moore as having accompanied St. Leger to England in the summer of that year. Cf. Four Masters, 1547. 302 THE REFORMATION repaired, and garrisons were established in the most remote parts of Ulster, Munster, and Connaught. But these garrisons were involved in constant quarrels with the native tribes, and, being too small to maintain themselves without aid from the Pale, were a source of more weak- ness than strength. The chiefs who, under the mild rule of Sir Anthony St. Leger, had been growing rapidly loyal, either went into open rebellion or maintained a dubious and menacing neutrality. With the Englishry, and with his own colleagues in the Council, Bellingham was equally unpopular. During his short vice- royalty — he held office for little more than a year — he was engaged in constant quarrels with the bishops, who had acknowledged the royal supremacy, but refused to giv^ up the Mass ; with the Dublin junto, who 'shared his Pro- testant opinions, but resented his arbitrary temper, and with Sir Francis Bryan, who had married the widowed Countess of Ormond, and was pursuing the traditional policy of the Ormond family. Alen, who, since the recall of St. Leger, was once more Chancellor, again led the attack upon the Deputy. Bellingham, he admitted, was the best man of war that he had ever known in Ireland ; and he could only lament that Jupiter and Venus had been less bountiful to him than Mars and Saturn. " Nevertheless," he continued, " it is as well to have no Council. He doth all himself, and 303 THE REFORMATION no man dare say the contrary, except sometimes little I, and that seldom. Nay, he saith at times that the King hath not so great an enemy in Ireland as the Council is ; and that if they were all hanged it were a good deed. Sometimes, when he committeth a man in anger to ward, he will say: 'Content thyself, for I do no worse to thee than I will do to the best of the Council if he displeases me.' " Lord Leonard Gray, in his most arbitrary mood, had been less insolent. Alen after a time ceased to attend the meetings of the Council, alleging ill-health as his excuse. In reality he was unable to agree with the Lord Deputy and afraid to oppose him. The excuse was harshly brushed aside. " By God's body," exclaimed Bellingham, " whensoever my Ldrd Chancellor goeth to work mischief he feigneth himself sick." ' The clergy fared no better than the lay officials. In defiance, not only of public opinion and the unbroken usage of centuries, but even of the law of the land, Bellingham attempted to suppress the Mass and to introduce some sort of reformed liturgy. Fitz William, the Treasurer of St. Patrick's, and a man of some importance, opposed the innovation, and received a stern warning.^ To the Archbishop of Armagh, who, ^ Alen to Paget, April 21, 1549. ^ "Mr. FitzWilliam, whereas I am informed that godly and true order is set forth in the Church, grounded upon holy writ, the King's Majesty's injunctions being consonant THE REFORMATION although appointed by the crown, had put himself at the head of the Catholic party, the Deputy's language, if more courteous, was equally peremptory. " My Lord Primate," he wrote, " I pray you lovingly and charitably to be circumspect in your doings, and consider how God hath liberally given you divers gifts, and namely of reputation among the people, which requireth a great consideration at all times, as well in your acts as words. Where- fore, I require you, let all these be with the gratuity of setting forth the plain, simple, and naked truth recompensed ; and the way to do this is to know it ; which, with a mild and humble spirit wished, sought, and prayed for, will most certainly be given. "^ Nor did Bellingham always succeed in retain- ing the confidence of the home government. He interfered incessantly with every branch of the administration, set aside the decisions of the thereunto ; the Archbishop of Dublin English minister thereof; yet notwithstanding you have gone about to infringe the same : first, being moved of charity, I require you to omit so to do ; and by authority I command you, as a thing that may not be suffered, you incite nor stir no such sin amongst the King's faithful and Christian subjects : for if you do, as by likelihood you are incited to do it, thinking for friendship it shall be suffered and overpassed in you, being a spectacle to the people more than the rest, the which may be an occasion of much ill ; so, if you amend not, your punishment shall be an occasion for other men to beware. Trust me, as they say commonly, it shall not go with you." — Bellingham to FitzWilliam (1548 ?). ^ Bellingham to Dowdall, December, 1548. 305 X THE REFORMATION law courts, and committed persons whom he disHked to prison without legal warrant. The Earl of Warwick, who, although an unprincipled scoundrel, often gave sound advice when his personal interests were not at stake, ventured to hint that this activity was unnecessary, and that, while the law must be enforced, the law was not necessarily identical with the personal preju- dices of the Lord Deputy. " My lord," replied Bellingham, " I am at your honourable lordship's commandment, as Bellingham, as much as any servant you have ; but, in respect I am the King's Deputy, your good lordship may deter- mine surely that I will have none in Ireland exempt from my authority, but sore against my will." As to over-riding the decisions of the judges, he did so "that all here may know that I am the King's Deputy ; so that they shall think, when they have my favours things go well with them, and the contrary when they have them not." ^ A suggestion from Somerset that the chiefs, if they were reasonably treated, might render valuable assistance in maintaining order, and that the interest of England was not likely to be advanced by outraging the most influential class in the country, was still more ungraciously received. " I pray God," wrote the indignant Deputy, "rather these eyes of mine should be shut up, than it should be ^ Bellingham to Warwick, November 22, 1548. 306 THE REFORMATION proved true ; or that during the time of my deputation I should not make a horseboy sent from me to do as much as any should do that brought not good authority with them, how great soever they were in the land." ^ The writer of these letters may have had many virtues, but he was not likely either to conciliate the Irish, to teach them to respect the law, or to soften their prejudices against the Reformation. Bellingham is more honourably remembered as " a very true payer of all men," who " never took anything from any man but that he truly paid for " — conduct apparently so unusual as to deserve repeated mention ; but he was above and before all things a soldier — " he ware ever his harness, and so did all those he liked of" — and he laboured, perhaps unconsciously, to provoke hostilities which would afford him an opportunity of displaying his talents.' The ^ Bellingham to Issam, November, 1 548. The Lord Deputy subsequently apologized for these letters. See his letter to Seymour, enclosing one to Somerset, December, 1548. ^ " After him Sir Edward Bellingham, a good man, a very true payer of all men, and never took anything but that he paid for ; and in his time OfFaly and Leix were won, and a strong fort was builded in every of them ; and after, being sent for into England, he there died. This man had cesses worse than St. Leger ; but, for his own horses, wholly was kept in his own stables, and paid for all he took, and was a true-dealing man. He could not abide the cry of the poor. He never in his time took anything of any man but that he truly paid for ; he ware ever his harness, and so did all those he liked of." — Book of Howth, p. 195. THE REFORMATION English ministers were far too zealous for the propagation of the gospel to feel remorse at the slaughter of any number of popish wood-kerne ; but incessant warfare was expensive, especially with a Deputy who insisted on the punctual payment of his soldiers ; and in the autumn of 1549 Bellingham was recalled to England, where he died a few months later. After an interval, during which the sword of state was successively entrusted to Bryan and Brabazon, St. Leger was reinstated in office, and peace, retrenchment, and reform were once more the order of the day.^ The state of the country when he landed was more than usually critical. To form a league with Scotland and Ireland against the predomi- nant partner had long been a favourite object of French policy, and in November, 1 548, a report reached Dublin that the Earl of Kildare — who was generally regarded on the continent as the rightful King of Ireland — was at Dumbarton, that he was about to be married to the young Queen of Scots, and that he would receive the support of France in an attempt to assert his claim to the crowns of both kingdoms.^ The ^ Bellingham left Ireland December 16, 1549, and died early in the following year. — Patent Rolls, pp. 189, 223. I have been unable to discover w^hether he remained in office until his death. The State Papers are missing from June 29, 1549, to February 2, 1550. ^ Depositions of John Ladweke and Thomas Werdon, January 6, 1548-9. — State Papers, Domestic Series, III, 5. 308 THE REFORMATION report appears to have been without foundation, at least so far as Kildare's presence in Scotland was concerned, but George Paris, the Earl's faithful follower, was plotting with the Geral- dines and O'Conors in his patron's interest. From the Pale Paris made his way to Ulster, whence, in the autumn of 1 549, he crossed over to Scotland to solicit assistance from the Scotch government. The " rough handling " of Bellingham had produced its natural results, and the chiefs who only two years earlier had been enthusiastically loyal were now eager to throw off the English yoke and to become subjects of France. Scotland, under the rule of Mary of Guise, was wholly governed by French influence, and the letters which O'Neil had entrusted to Paris were intended as much for the French ambassador as for the Queen Regent. Two thousand "hacbuters," two hundred light cavalry, and four cannon were described as the smallest force which would make a successful insurrection possible. Paris returned in February accompanied by two Frenchmen of rank, Raymond de Beccarie, Owing to a confusion between the new and old style these depositions have been incorrectly calendared under January, 1548. That they belong in reality to the next year is evident from a comparison with Alen's letters to Paget and Somerset, November 21, 1548. For the opinion that Kildare was the legitimate King of Ireland see Bartholomew Warner to Sif John Wallop, May 22, 1540. THE REFORMATION Sieur de Fourqueval, and Jean de Monluc, afterwards Bishop of Valence. The latter was attended by a page, the young James Melville, to whose Memoirs, written many years after- wards, we are indebted for a curious and by no means an edifying account of his patron's adven- tures. Wauchop, the blind Scotchman whom Paul III had provided to Armagh, arrived in Ulster a few days later. The travellers landed near Lough Foyle, and spent the first night at the house of a gentleman who had married O'Dogherty's daughter. On the next day they proceeded to O'Dogherty's castle of Innishowen, " whilk is a great dark tower where we had cauld cheer, as hering and biskit, for it was Lentroun." Melville, and probably Monluc also, would have preferred a less ortho- dox host. At Innishowen O'Neil, O'Donel and their allies were assembled to receive them, and the plans for the approaching insurrection were eagerly discussed. The negotiation appeared to be making favourable progress when Monluc, a true son of the renaissance, whose morals fell short even of the not very severe standard of his new allies, imperilled the success of his mission by an attempt to seduce his host's younger daughter. Tamer blood than that of an Irish chieftain might well have boiled at this insult, and the consequences would probably have been serious if some English friars, who had taken refuge in Ulster after the dissolution of the 310 THE REFORMATION monasteries, had not intervened to prevent a scandal. The holy men acted with no less generosity than discretion. They soothed the irritation of O'Dogherty ; remonstrated mildly with the bishop ; and, lest his lordship's health should suffer by enforced abstinence from his usual pleasures, provided him with a concubine whom they had procured in the first instance for their own use. The negotiation was resumed ; butMonlucwas not at the end of his troubles. Some lingering sense of professional decorum led him to conceal his mistress in his bed-chamber, where, finding time hang heavy on her hands, she occupied her leisure in ransacking the episcopal wardrobe. Finding a small glass case, and concluding, " because it had an odoriphant smell," that it contained some sort of sweetmeat, she swallowed the contents. The case, in reality, was " a phial of the most precious balm that grew in Egypt, which Solyman, the great Turk, had given as a present to the bishop after he had been two years ambassador in Turkey, and was esteemed worth two thousand crowns." It is scarcely surprising that, when Monluc dis- covered his loss, he swore like a trooper, betraying " his harlotry and his choler." The friars fled ; the woman followed ; and the suc- cessor of the apostles lost at once his ointment and his mistress. Such occurrences were too common in Ireland THE REFORMATION to excite more than a passing wonder ; the chiefs enjoyed a hearty laugh at their guest's misadventure, but continued to cultivate his friendship, and Monluc made atonement for his sins by accompanying Wauchop on a pil- grimage to St. Patrick's Purgatory. Before the end of February the arrangements for the insurrection had been completed, and O'Neil, O'Donel and O'Dogherty had taken the oath of allegiance to the most Christian King in the castle of Donegal.^ But the peace which was concluded a month later restored Boulogne to- the French, and, with the restoration of Boulogne, French interest in Irish affairs waned. The King, indeed, continued to amuse the Irish agents with promises ; but these promises, of which the English embassy was kept constantly in- formed, were intended merely as a hint to Northumberland that it would be dangerous to adopt an aggressive policy. The conspirators realized that the favourable moment had passed, ■^ Memoirs of Sir James Afelvi/le, pp. 33-35. — Discours jour par jour du voyage et exploit que Jirent Messiers de Montluc et de Fourquevaux au royaume d" Hirlande par commandement du feu Roy Henri en Panne 1549, selon que le diet Fourquevaux ^enpeut souvenir. "A certain Scottish friar, blind of both his eyes, named Archbishop of Armachane, accompanied with another archbishop and bishop of Ireland, being both Irishmen, was prepared to go to Ireland after Easter, the Bishop of Rome having granted him divers kinds of faculties as pardons, dis- pensations, and the like." — Vannes to the Council, April 5, 1551. — State Papers^ Foreign Series, I, 82. 312 THE REFORMATION and hastened to make their peace with the government/ On March 4th O'Donel wrote to Brabazon, apologizing for having received the blind bishop. The latter, he explained, had been " in other places and countries in Ireland before he came into my country "; and he did not acknowledge his claim to the primacy. He admitted that he had seen the two Frenchmen, but protested that they had given him no letters, being aware that on a previous occasion he had transmitted a similar communication to the government. Three days later Tyrone wrote to Dowdall in the same spirit. He acknowledged that he had received letters from the French ambassador, and that he had had an interview with " the blind doctor who calls himself Primate." At the same time he stoutly asserted his own loyalty ; disclaimed all knowledge of George Paris ; and vehemently denied that he had returned any answer to the French king's communication. This letter Dowdall, at his correspondent's request, at once forwarded to Alen. The Lord Chancellor in reply gravely thanked the Earl for his loyalty, while sternly warning him against the possible consequences of French in- tervention. The envoys might pretend that it was their intention to injure none but Englishmen ; ^ Sir John Mason to the Privy Council, June 14, 1550, and April 18, 1551. Fraser "Tytler's England under Edward FI and Mary, I, 291, 351. THE REFORMATION but, if the French once set foot in Ulster, they would never rest until they had reduced the whole island to slavery. In Italy and Sicily, which they had formerly conquered, they had been guilty of atrocities which had ended in their own expulsion. The Turks, barbarous as they were considered, might almost be called humane and merciful in comparison. With all his zeal for the Mass Dowdall had no intention of renouncing his claim to the primacy. He watched his rival's movements with anxiety, and reported to Alen that he was "a very shrewd spy and a great brewer of war and sedi- tion." It is evident that he was greatly disturbed by Tyrone's letter ; but, after a visit to the Earl at Armagh, he wrote again in a more hopeful strain. He announced that a Franco-Scotch armament was being prepared to invade Ulster in the summer; that the French had already "manned and stuffed with ordnance two castles in O'Dogherty's country," and that Wauchop, who was with O'Donel at Derry, was working in their interest. But he was convinced that Tyrone was loyal, and that, so long as Tyrone was loyal, the hostility of the lesser chiefs might be safely disregarded.' The new Deputy had no sooner arrived in ^ Brabazon to the Privy Council, March 26, 1550, enclosing (i) O'Donel to Brabazon, March 4 ; (2) Tyrone to Dowdall, March 7 ; (3) Alen to Tyrone, March 15. Dowdall to Alen, March 22. 3H THE REFORMATION Dublin than he attended high Mass at Christ Church, "and there after the old sort offered to the altar of stone, to the great comfort of his too many like Papists, and discouragement of the professors of God's Word." To the Arch- bishop of Dublin, who remonstrated with him upon the sin of idolatry, St. Leger answered scornfully : " Go to, go to, your matters of religion will mar all," and handed his Grace a tract, "so poisoned," wrote the scandalised prelate, "to maintain the Mass, with transub- stantiation and other naughtiness, as at no time have I seen such a summary of scriptures col- lected to establish that idolatry."^ In spite of Browne's insinuations there is no reason to sus- pect the Lord Deputy of Catholic sympathies ; but his attitude on religious questions was very like Gibbon's, and he had no intention of allowing his policy to be shipwrecked on the rocks of fanaticism. His task, even without this addition, was sufficiently difficult. The administration was thoroughly corrupt in all its branches. The Council were quarrelling with each other and abusing each other, and agreed only in traducing and conspiring against the Deputy. The revenue was wholly unequal to the cost of government, and the attempts which had been made to improve it had only increased the financial ^ Browne to Warwick, August 6, 1 5 5 1 . THE REFORMATION confusion. Having contracted liabilities which it was unable to meet, the English govern- ment was attempting to escape from its diffi- culties by robbing the public creditor. The coinage was reduced by successive depreciations to about one-fourth of its nominal value, and the results which followed were such as any prudent statesman must have foreseen. Com- plaints poured in from all quarters of the rise of prices, of the dearth of provisions, of the ruin of trade. Less culpable, but hardly more suc- cessful, was the scheme for obtaining bullion from the silver mines of Wexford. Ireland had no native workmen capable of turning these mines to account; the miners who were imported from Germany were idle and inefficient, and after several years of unremunerative expenditure the attempt was abandoned.^ For these things the English ministers were responsible ; but there were other abuses which originated in Ireland itself. Sir Edward Bellingham had issued a commission for the "extinguishing of idolatry," and, under colour of furthering this pious object, the Protestant officials at Dublin w^re carrying on a shameful traffic in jewels, communion plate, and other ^Instructions to Sir Anthony St. Leger, July 1550. St. Leger and others to the Privy Council, May 20, 1551. Robert Record, Surveyor of Mines, to the Privy Council, February, 1552. Book of check of the Almain miners, August I, 1552. 316 THE REFORMATION ornaments which they had stripped from the churches.^ The state of the army was still more scandalous. The government robbed the officers; the officers robbed the soldiers; the soldiers robbed the country. The fortresses which Bellingham had built in Leix, OfFaly and else- where, contained more harlots than soldiers. The troops, ill-paid, ill-disciplined, scattered in small bodies among a population which hated them, and commanded by officers as licentious, as themselves, were wholly useless for military purposes, while their presence was a constant provocation to rebellion.^ ^ "Our said Deputy, with the advice aforesaid, shall give order that no sale nor alteration be made of any church goods,, bells, chauntry or free chapel lands, without our royal assent ; and, if any alteration have been made, to reform the same,, and that they shall cause inventories to be made in every parish as vi^ell of such goods, ornaments, jewels, and bells, as of the chauntry or free chapel lands, and of all other lands given ta any church for any intent, for the better knowledge, safe and sure keeping together of the premises, and of every part thereof, lest some lewd persons might, or would embezzle the same, to the detriment of the parochians." — Instructions to Sir Anthony St, Leger, July, 1550, This article re-appears in the instruc- tions to Sir James Crofts in April, 1551. The commission issued by Bellingham has not been discovered, but it is mentioned in a letter of Walter Cowley to Bellingham, June 25, 1549. ^ "In the forts are as many harlots as soldiers." — St. Leger to the Lord Treasurer, September 27, 1550. Froude attri- butes the relaxation of discipline to the recall of Bellingham. "The garrisons fell into loose habits when the master's eye was off them." — History of England, V, 422. But similar complaints had been made at least as early as Christmas, 1 548^ See Wise and Morton to Bellingham, January 6, 1548-9. THE REFORMATION St. Leger set himself boldly to remedy these abuses. With the currency indeed he could do nothing without the consent ot Northumberland, and Northumberland had insuperable objections to financial honesty. But the aggressive schemes of Bellingham were silently abandoned ; some of the garrisons were withdrawn ; the discipline of the rest was reformed ; conciliatory letters were addressed to various native chieftains, and con- fidence was gradually restored. In January the ^551 Lord Deputy was able to assure Cecil that the King had five thousand more hearts in Ireland than at his arrival.^ Of the officers appointed by Bellingham the most active, or, in other words, the most mis- chievous, was Captain Andrew Brereton, who commanded the garrison of Lecale. This dis- trict, a portion of the county of Down which had long formed an outlying part of the Pale, adjoined the territory of an Irish sept called MacArtan, who were tributary to the O'Neils. In the summer of 1550, a little before St. Leger's arrival in Ireland, the Earl of Tyrone sent a body of kerne, among whom were two of his wife's brothers, to distrain for rent due to him from the MacArtans. The proceeding was not, perhaps, strictly legal, but it was in accord- ance with the usual custom, and was, in fact, the only possible means of recovering a debt in ^ St. Leger to Cecil, January 19, 1551. 318 THE REFORMATION Ulster, where the King's writ did not run. But Brereton, who thought the opportunity a good one for forcing a quarrel upon the O' Neils, attacked the distraining party and murdered several of them, including the countess's two brothers. Immediately afterwards, as if to prove that he was not actuated by sympathy with the MacArtans, he seized a gentleman of the sept and caused him to be beheaded " without any order of law." Tyrone acted with unusual self- restraint. Instead of taking arms he journeyed to Dublin and laid a formal statement of his grievances before the Council. When called upon to explain his conduct, Brereton replied insolently " that he would make answer to no traitor, which the said Earl took very unkindly." " Such handling of wild men," in the opinion of the Deputy, was likely to do much harm in Ireland ; and the Council, while admitting that Tyrone was " a frail man and not the perfectest of subjects," insisted nevertheless that Brereton's conduct had been neither legal nor politic. Eventually Brereton was deprived of his command, which was conferred upon Robert St. Leger, a son of the Lord Deputy.^ Up to this time the reformed doctrines had made practically no progress in Ireland. Bellingham, it is true, is said to have gone the ^ St. Leger to Cecil, January 19. The Council in Ireland to the Privy Council, May 20, 1551. THE REFORMATION right way for setting forth God's word ;^ but his efforts appear to have been confined to stripping the churches of their ornaments and to prohibiting some parts of the Catholic services without providing any substitute. In Sep- tember, 1550, St. Leger assured the Lord Treasurer that no Protestant service had been celebrated in Ireland since the King's accession, " neither communion nor other service," and that only one sermon had been preached during the same period, " which the Bishop of Meath made, who had so little reverence at that time as he had no great haste eftsoon to preach there. "^ The discourse in question was delivered in Dublin in November, 1 548. The bishop, in a letter to one of Bellingham's chaplains, gives a most lugubrious account of the effects of his eloquence. " You have not heard such rumour as is here all the country over against me, as my friends do show me. One gentlewoman unto whom I did christen a man-child, which beareth my name, came in great counsel to a friend of mine, desiring how she might find means to change her child's name. And he asked her why ? And she ^ " There was never Deputy in this realm that went the right way as he doth, both for the setting forth of God's word to his honour and to the wealth of the King's Highness's subjects," — Brasier to Somerset, November 14, 1548, ^ St. Leger to the Lord Treasurer, September 27, 1550. 320 THE REFORMATION said : ' Because I would not have him bear the name of an heretic' A gentleman dwelling nigh unto me forbade his wife, which would have sent her child to be confirmed by me, so to do, saying his child should not be confirmed by him that denied the sacrament of the altar. A friend of mine rehearsing at the market that I would preach the next Sunday, divers answered they would not come thereat lest they should learn to be heretics. A beneficed man of mine own promotion came unto me weeping, and desired that he might declare his mind unto me without my displeasure. I said I was well content. ' My Lord,* said he, ' before you went last to Dublin you were the best beloved man in your diocese that ever came into it, and now you are the worst beloved that ever came here.' I asked wherefore ? ' Why,' said he, ' for you have taken open part with the heretics, and preached against the sacrament of the altar, and deny saints, and will make us worse than Jews. If the country wist how they would eat you.' He besought me to take heed of myself; for he feared more than he dared tell me. He said, 'You have more curses than you have hairs on your head ; and I advise you, for Christ's sake, not to preach, as I fear you will do.' Hereby you may perceive what case I am in, but put all to God ; and now, as my especial friend and a man to whom my heart beareth earnest affection, I beseech you give 321 Y THE REFORMATION me your advice, not writing your name for chance."^ But Cranmer and others of his party, who knew nothing of Ireland, were bent on intro- ducing into that country the religious practices which had recently been adopted in England ; and on February 6th, 1551, the Lord Deputy received instructions to give special notice to the clergy to use the new liturgy/ The Irish ^ Staples to , December, 1548. ^ "Whereas our gracious father, King Henrjr VIII of happy memory, taking into consideration the bondage and heavy yoke that his true and faithful subjects sustained under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, as also the ignorance the commonalty were in; how several fabulous stories and lying wonders misled our subjects in both our realms of England and Ireland, grasping thereby the means thereof into their hands ; also dispensing with the sins of our nations by their indulgences and pardons, for gain, purposely to cherish all evil vices, as robberies, rebellions, thefts, whoredoms, blasphemy, idolatry, etc. He, our gracious father. King Henry of happy memory, hereupon dissolved all priories, monasteries, abbeys and other pretended religious houses, as being but nurseries for vice and luxury more than for sacred learning. He therefore, that it might more plainly appear to the world that those orders had kept the light of the Gospel from his people, thought it most fit and convenient, for the preservation of their souls and bodies, that the Holy Scriptures should be translated, printed and placed in all parish churches within his dominions for his faithful subjects to increase their knowledge of God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ. We, therefore, for the general benefit of our well-beloved subjects' understandings, whenever assembled or met together in the said several parish churches, either to pray or hear prayers read, that they may the better join therein in unity, heart and voice, have caused the liturgy and prayers of the Church to be translated into our 322 THE REFORMATION bishops were accordingly summoned to Dublin on March ist, to be instructed in the doctrines which they were thenceforth expected to teach ; and an extremely curious discussion took place. The Primate defended the orthodox Catholic doctrine ; St. Leger, in spite of his recent attempt to convert his Grace of Dublin to a belief in transubstantiation, argued with every appearance of sincerity in favour of the reformed ritual : Archbishop Browne closed the discussion with a characteristic appeal to the authority of the secular power. " This order, good brethren, is from our most gracious King, unto whom I submit, as Jesus did to Caesar, making no question why or wherefore, as we own him our just and lawful King." The conference ended with the secession of the Primate and of most of the other bishops. The Archbishop of mother-tongue of this realm of England, according to the assembly of divines lately met within the same for that purpose. We therefore will and command, as also authorize you. Sir Anthony St. Leger, our viceroy of that our kingdom of Ireland, to give special notice to all our clergy, as well arch- bishops, bishops, deans, archdeacons, as others our secular parish priests, within that our said kingdom of Ireland, to perfect, execute and obey this our royal will and pleasure accordingly." — Harleian Miscellany, V, 6oo. Three weeks before this date, however, the reformed communion service had been translated into Latin, and used at Limerick. Why Limerick should have been selected as the first scene of the innovation I have been unable to discover. It was certainly not due to any reforming zeal on the part of the Bishop, John Quin, who resigned his see rather than consent to the altera- tion. — St. Leger to Cecil, January 19, 1551 THE REFORMATION Dublin, the Bishop of Meath — the only prelate appointed before the schism who had adopted the reformed doctrines — and the Bishops of Kildare, Leighlin and Limerick, all appointed by Edward, and all decided Protestants, ranged themselves on the side of the Deputy.^ But, although Sir Anthony St. Leger conde- scended to appear in public as the advocate of the reformed doctrines, he neither felt nor pro- fessed to feel any enthusiasm for the new policy. A proclamation prohibiting the celebration of the Mass was issued in obedience to the com- mands of the English government, but the proclamation was disregarded, and the dis- obedience remained unpunished. When taxed with negligence the Lord Deputy answered testily that he had done what he could, but that he wished the King would have found him any other employment. On another occasion he was even more outspoken. " If the Lords of ^ Sir James Ware says that the bishops who accepted the new liturgy were Browne, Staples, Lancaster of Kildare, Travers of Leighlin, and John Quin of Limerick. — Works, I, 350. But there is an error as to the last name. Quin had resigned on this very ground in January. See last note. If a Bishop of Limerick was present it must have been the bishop-elect, William Casey, who, however, was not conse- crated until April. In Robert Ware's Historical Collections of the Church of Ireland set forth in the Life of George Browne, which is little more than an enlarged edition of the life of Browne by his father, the names of Travers and Quin are omitted and that of John Bale substituted. But Bale did not become Bishop of Ossory until nearly a year later. THE REFORMATION the Council," he is said to have exclaimed in a moment of irritation, " had letten all things in the order the King's father left them and meddled not to alter religion, neither had the rebellion in England nor all these hurley-burleys happened."^ The Protestants, as was natural, complained bitterly of his moderation. In May he was recalled, and Sir James Crofts was appointed to succeed him. The new Deputy was ordered to force on religious changes, but in other respects to con- tinue the conciliatory policy of his predecessor. Like St. Leger, Crofts was no fanatic — it is sig- nificant that he recommended Leverous, one of the most honest, but also one of the most violent, of the Catholic party for a bishopric — but he was willing enough to promote in an official way the religious views of whatever government might be in power. He had no sooner taken office than he exerted himself to heal the breach which Cranmer's well-meant zeal had occasioned. The Archbishop of Armagh, who had adopted an attitude of uncompromising hostility to the 1 " God help me," said he, " for mine own part, knowing the manner and ignorance of this people, when my lords of the Council willed me to set forth the matters of religion here, which to my power I have done, I had rather they had sent me into Spain, or any other place where the King should have had cause to make war, than burdened me to set forth the matters of religion here, and I told my lords no less before my coming away."— Deposition of Sir John Alen, April 17. 1552- THE REFORMATION Reformation, was residing in dignified seclusion at St. Mary's Abbey. His conduct had already given rise to a heated discussion in the Council, where he was denounced as a traitor by Browne and Bagenall, and no less warmly defended by Cusack, who had recently succeeded Sir John Alen as Lord Chancellor.^ To him Crofts wrote, proposing an interview with a view to effecting a reconciliation. The Lord Deputy's letter, which was courteous and even deferential in its tone, affords proof, if proof were needed, of the respect in which Dowdall was held by all save the most extreme members of the Protestant party. The Archbishop's reply was equally cordial, but he understood better than his cor- respondent the difficulties of a peaceful solution. ' " This massing, with the like, being spoken in open council against by Sir Ralph Bagenall and me, that it was too much against duty to suffer the Primate so to contemn the King's proceedings, and required he might be called before him and the rest, who came and disputed plainly the massing and other things, contrary the King's proceedings, and that he would not embrace them, whereat the Deputy said nothing ; the same Sir Ralph Bagenall called him ' arrant traitor ' ; Sir Thomas Cusack, the Chancellor, the said Primate's cousin, answered : ' Mr. Bagenall, no traitor.' So the Primate departed, and continued as he did, till the same Mr. St. Leger was discharged of the deputation, who, coming hither, sent a message to the Earl of Tyrone by his servant : * Have me most heartily commanded to my lord your master, and pray him in every wise to follow the counsel and advice of that good father, sage, senator and godly bishop, my lord Primate, and so he shall do well.' " — Browne to Warwick, August 6, 1551. 326 THE REFORMATION He thanked the Lord Deputy for his " kind and hearty overtures," and apologized for not having waited on him on his arrival. He begged him to believe that the omission was due to no lack of personal respect, and explained that, since the promulgation of the order for the use of the new liturgy, he had ceased to hold any direct communication with the government. He would willingly do all in his power to restore peace to the Church, but he feared that little good could result from his meeting with "an obstinate number of churchmen." He would, however, be glad to receive the Deputy, and to listen to any proposals which he might wish to lay before him.^ The conference was held in the great hall of St. Mary's Abbey — the same hall in which, eighteen years earlier, Thomas, Lord OfFaly, had renounced his allegiance to the English government. The Primate, who was attended by a goodly number of churchmen, appeared as the spokesman of the Catholic party ; Sir James Crofts, with the Bishops of Meath and of Kildare, represented the reformers ; Archbishop Browne, whose controversial methods were more likely to irritate than to convince an opponent, being persuaded, or more probably ordered, to ^Crofts to Dowdall, June 16,1551. Dowdall to Crofts, June, 1 55 1. These letters are not in the Record Office. They are printed in Mant's History of the Church of Ireland, 206-207, fr°™ ^ ^^S- '" ^^^ Sloane collection (No. 4784). THE REFORMATION absent himself. The discussion, which turned principally on the alterations in the communion ofRce, ended as all such discussions must end. Neither disputant could make any impression on his adversary, for the arguments of each were based on premises which the other tacitly re- jected. Dowdall spoke of the antiquity of the Mass; Staples argued that the liturgy was merely the Mass purified from gross and comparatively modern corruptions. The former appealed to the authority of the Church ; the latter cited the opinions of Erasmus and the German reformers. " What," cried Dowdall, " is Erasmus of more authority than the Church ? " " Not more than the Church Catholic," answered his suffragan, " but more than the Church of Rome ; for that Church hath erred." " Erred ! " exclaimed the indignant Primate ; " the Church erred ? Take heed lest you be excommunicated." " I," re- plied Staples, "have excommunicated myself from thence already." " My Lord," said Dow- dall, turning to the Lord Deputy, " I signified to your honour that it was vain when two parties so contrary met ; I am sorry that your lordship's pains have been lost." " The sorrow is mine," replied Crofts, "that your Grace can- not be convinced." " My Lord," answered Dowdall, " did you but know the oaths which we bishops take at our consecration, you would not blame my steadfastness." Then, turning once more to Staples : " This oath. Master 328 THE REFORMATION Staples, you took with others before you were permitted to be consecrated. Consider hereon yourself, and blame not me for persisting as I do." The Bishop answered that he had indeed taken the oath, but that he " held it safer for his conscience to break than to observe the same." With this the discussion terminated.^ Not long afterwards Dowdall, realizing that his cause was hopeless, retired to the continent, saying " that he would never be bishop where the holy Mass was abolished."* The Primate's contumacy, for as such of course they regarded it, was in the highest degree displeasing to the English government, and Browne promptly availed himself of their irritation to gratify at once his rapacity and his spleen. A contest for precedence had long raged between the Archbishops of Armagh and Dublin. Of the two sees the former was by far the more ancient, its foundation being ascribed by Irish tradition to St. Patrick, and was generally considered the first in dignity ; while Dublin, which was of comparatively modern origin, had, as the seat of government, recently attained to greater practical importance. In the fourteenth century the controversy had been temporarily decided by a bull of Innocent VI, who conferred upon Walter Jorse, Archbishop of Armagh, and his successors the 1 Sloane MSS., 4784. Mant, I, 208-211, ^ Browne to Warwick, August 6, 1 5 5 1 . THE REFORMATION title of Primate of All Ireland, and ordered the Archbishops of Dublin to content themselves with the more modest style of Primate of Ireland.^ But a papal bull was not an instru- ment which Northumberland and his colleagues were disposed to regard with excessive venera- tion ; and, at Browne's request, an order in council was now issued by which the "primacy of the whole realm " was definitely transferred to Dublin. This order, of which the legality was very doubtful, was accompanied or pre- ceded by another declaring the see of Armagh void by " resignation." A bishop could not be legally deprived except after a trial before a spiritual court ; but Dowdall, like James II, was held to have forfeited his office by desert- ing his post without making provision for the discharge of his duties.^ It was easier to deprive a recalcitrant prelate than to find a suitable successor. The Irish bishops were "negligent, and few learned, and none of any good zeal"; and Englishmen, as Strype quaintly puts it, "were never very fond ^ See the life of Walter Jorse in Ware's Works (I, 72-76) where the history of the controversy is related at great length. ^ Ware (I, 91) states that the primacy was transferred to Dublin on October 20, 1551 ; that the "high stomach" of Archbishop Dowdall " could not digest this affront " ; that he left the country, and that his see was thereupon treated as vacant by the government. This is certainly incorrect, as it appears from some instructions to a Mr. Wood, dated July 28, 1 55 1, that Dowdall had left Ireland before that date. THE REFORMATION of living in Ireland." On November nth Crofts wrote to Northumberland begging him to name a successor to Dowdall, and also to fill the sees of Ossory and Cashel, both recently- vacant by the deaths of their respective bishops. At Armagh he was anxious to place " a discreet man of war, to take charge as a commissioner in those parts." Pending a definite appoint- ment he proposed that the revenues should be assigned to Edward Basnet, who had obtained the deanery of St. Patrick's by a simoniacal bargain with Cromwell, and had surrendered it by a simoniacal bargain with Somerset, but whose moral delinquencies were held to be sufficiently counterbalanced by the fact that he was "experimented in the wars of the country." For Ossory or Cashel the Lord Deputy recommended "one Leverous, that was schoolmaster to the Lord Garrett, who for learning, discretion, and, in outer appearance, good living, is the metest man in this realm, and best able to preach both in the English and the Irish tongue."^ For some months no ^ Instructions for Mr. Wood, July 28, 1551. Crofts to Northumberland, November 11, 1551. To Cecil, March 15, 1552. In an undated "Note of the vacant sees in Ireland," Armagh, Cashel and Ossory, are said to be "void," and the Bishop of Kildare [Lancaster], Mr. Dethyk, D. Bale, Mr. Leverous, and Mr. Bicton, are described as "men eligible for the same." Bicton had been chaplain to St. Leger, who recommended him for a bishopric in September, 1550. This "note," which must have been written about this time, is THE REFORMATION attention was paid to this letter. But Crofts continued to press his suit, and in the autumn 1552 of 1552 the government at length determined to fill the vacant sees. The Archbishop of Canterbury was consulted, and submitted four names, adding that he knew many others who were well qualified for the ofHce, but very few who would gladly go thither. Cranmer's nominees were David Whitehead, a man of "good knowledge, special honesty, fervent zeal and politic wisdom," to whom Elizabeth after- wards offered the see of Canterbury ; Richard Turner, "a man merry and witty withal"; Thomas Roe, and Robert Wisdom. Of these the King selected Turner, on whom Cranmer pronounced a glowing eulogy — " nihil ardet, nihil appetit, nihil somniat nisi Christum" — although he would himself have preferred Whitehead. But Turner declined the thankless office, alleging that, if he went to Armagh, "he must preach to the walls and stalls, for the people understood no English." The arch- bishop, whose own ideas about Ireland were of the vaguest possible description, answered hesi- tatingly that there were places in Ireland where the population understood English, "but whether they did so in the diocese of Armagh incorrectly calendared under the year 1561. For Basnet's simony see Brabazon to Cromwell, April 24, 1538; Basnet to Cromwell, April 14, 1538 (MS.R.O.); Lord Protector and Privy Council to Lord Deputy and Council, March 25, 1547. THE REFORMATION he did indeed doubt." However, "to remedy that inconvenience," and also to make "both his person and doctrine" more acceptable to the people, he advised him to learn Irish, "which, with diligence, he might do in a year or two " — an opinion from which most of those who have made the experiment will probably dissent. But Turner continued inflexible, and it was not until the archbishopric had been refused by each of Cranmer's nominees in succession that a certain Hugh Goodacre, who had been chaplain first to the Princess Elizabeth and afterwards to Ponet, Bishop of Winchester, was prevailed upon to accept it.^ At the same time John Bale, another chaplain of Ponet, was nominated to the see of Ossory. To Cashel, which lay in a disturbed district, and would not have been an altogether safe residence for a reforming prelate, no appointment was made. Of Goodacre, who only survived his conse- cration a few weeks, we know very little ; the story, which has often been repeated, that he was poisoned by a Roman Catholic priest, rests upon the authority of one very untrustworthy witness.* Bale was by far the most distinguished ^ Strype's Cranmer, pp. 393, 399-400, 907. ^ Bale's Vocacyon, p., 449. I cannot regard Burnet, wha repeats the story {History of the Reformation, III, 377) as an independent witness. He wrote a century and a half later and derived his information from that most unreliable of all sources,, oral tradition. 333 THE REFORMATION of the Anglo-Irish reformers, and his proceedings •deserve more detailed notice. Born in 1495 at Cove near Dunwich in the county of Suffolk, educated at the Carmelite School at Norwich and at Jesus College, Cam- bridge, Bale early attached himself to the -extreme wing of the Protestant party. He was not a man to conceal his opinions, and his coarse ribaldry brought upon him the hostility not only of the Catholics but of all the most respect- ;able Reformers. He was twice imprisoned, first ■by Lee, Archbishop of York, and afterwards by Stokesley, Bishop of London ; on each occasion he owed his release to the intervention of Thomas Cromwell. After the fall of his patron and the temporary triumph of the Catholic party in England, he thought it wise to retire to the •continent, where he remained until the death of Henry. Returning to England in the reign of Edward VI, he plunged fiercely into the poli- tical and doctrinal controversies of the day, and speedily became known as one of the most voluminous, and also one of the most scurrilous, pamphleteers of the age. His literary abilities -were considerable ; his learning would, even in our own time, be considered respectable ; to the mass of his contemporaries it may well have rappeared prodigious. Of his theological writings, in which vigour and coarseness, wit and pedan- try, piety and profanity are strangely blended, >this is not the place to speak ; but Bale was also 334 THE REFORMATION the author of an autobiographical fragment, which throws a vivid light both upon the opinions of the reforming party in general and upon the writer's unfitness for the task of con- verting an irritated people.^ This extraordinary work, of which the title reads The Vocacyon of John Bale to the bishopric of Ossory in Ireland, his persecutions in the same and his final deliverance, was printed, if we may believe the colophon, in Rome, before the Castle of St. Angelo, at the sign of St. Peter.'' The Vocacyon opens with a panegyric upon the apostle Paul, whom the writer conceived himself to resemble. To the unconverted reader the similarity will probably appear slight enough, but the bishop was fond of these scriptural analogies, and in fact owed his promotion to a tract in which the Duke of Northumberland, perhaps the most dishonest adventurer who ever misgoverned a great nation, is made the subject of a much more audacious comparison.* The body of the treatise is in complete harmony with this exordium. It is a fierce diatribe against the Irish people and their religion, interspersed with ^ Cooper's Athena Cantabrigienses, I, 225-230. Ware, I, 416. Bale's Dramatic Works were reprinted by Mr. Farmer in 1907. ^ Reprinted in the Harleian Miscellany, vol. vi, pp. 437-464. ^ The apology of John Bale against a rank Papist, answering both him and his doctors, that neither their vows nor yet their priesthood are of the Gospel, but of Antichrist. London, 1550. 80. 335 THE REFORMATION grotesque eulogies upon the author, and unspar- ing abuse of all, Protestants as well as Catholics, who had the temerity to oppose him. He declaims loudly against " abominable idolatries," " apish toys of Antichrist," " sorrowful sor- ceries," " hypocrites yokes," " white gods of their making," " masking masses," and much more in the choicest style of theological vitu- peration. The magistrates, if we may believe this veracious witness, were, without exception, corrupt and unprincipled ; the clergy, regular and secular alike, monsters of immorality ; the people sunk in ignorance, brutality and crime. "A very wicked justice," we are told, "resorted to the cathedral, requiring to have a communion in the honour of St. Anne " ; whereupon Bale breaks out : " Mark the blasphemous blindness and wilful obstinacy of this beastly Papist." When Lockwood, the Dean of Christchurch, advised him to be consecrated in the traditional fashion the bishop called him an " ass-headed dean," and observed with ponderous jocularity that he ought rather to have been named Block- head. The Bishop of Galway * — it is difficult to ^ No historian has yet succeeded in establishing the identity of this singular successor of the apostles. Bale is the only writer who mentions him, and from Bale's narrative we learn three things, (i) He was called "Bishop of Galway," (2) He lived in Leinster. (3) He was, at least nominally, a Protestant. Of Richard Nangle we also know three things. (i) He was appointed by Henry VIII to the see of Clonfert. (2) Being expelled from his diocese by the Burkes, he returned THE REFORMATION identify this individual, whose see is unknown to Irish ecclesiastical historians, but Richard Nangle, the fugitive Bishop of Clonfert, is probably the person meant — is described as a drunkard, who spent his days in confirming young children at twopence a head and his nights in swilling aquavits and "robdavy." Even the Archbishop of Dublin, whose zeal was too lukewarm for this ardent reformer, is styled "a brockish swine," " a dissembling proselyte," " a very pernicious papist." Bale sailed from Bristol on January 21st and landed two days later at Waterford, where he found nothing to his liking either in religious or civil matters. " The communion or supper of the Lord was there used altogether like a popish Mass ; the Lord's death, according to St. Paul his doctrine, neither preached nor yet spoken of." An Irish funeral, which he witnessed in the same city, shocked him if possible still more, and he endeavoured to get it stopped, but of course without success.^ to Leinster and acted as suffragan to the Archbishop of Dublin. {3) He was a Protestant. As Clonfert is in the county of Galway, Nangle may have been called " Bishop of Galway " to distinguish him from the de facto Bishop of Clonfert, Roland De Burgh. Many writers have stated that Nangle died in or before 1541 ; but this is merely an inference, and I think an unwarrantable inference, from the fact that De Burgh, who became Bishop of Clonfert by papal provision in 1536, was confirmed by Henry in that year. ^ "There wailed they over the dead with prodigious bowlings and patterings, as though their souls had not been 337 z THE REFORMATION From Waterford the Bishop-elect proceeded to Dublin, passing through his own diocese on his journey, and contriving even at this early stage to get into a violent quarrel with his clergy. In Dublin he was joined by his old friend Goodacre. The new bishops were con- secrated " on the day of the purification of Our Lady," in Christ Church, by the Archbishop of Dublin, assisted by the Bishops of Kildare and Down ; and here Bale gave fresh proofs of his intractable temper and his contempt tor public opinion. The Dean, a Protestant, but a man of tact, sense, and moderation, proposed that the ceremony should be performed according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church, arguing that the new liturgy had not yet received the sanction of the Irish parliament, and that its introduction would probably provoke a riot. In this opinion Lord Chancellor Cusack con- curred ; so did the Archbishop of Dublin ; so also did the two assisting bishops. Even Good- acre, while avowing his own preference for the reformed ritual, was unwilling to oppose the wishes of the majority. But Bale was inflexible. He cared nothing for the authority of the Irish quieted in Christ and redeemed by his passion, but that they must come after and help at a pinch with requiem aeternam to deliver them out of hell by their sorrowful sorceries," — Vocacyon, p. 446. Irish funerals were a source of considerable perplexity to English observers. Compare Spenser, Stanihurst and Moryson, passim. The subject will be more fully con- sidered in a subsequent chapter. THE REFORMATION parliament, and nothing for the feelings of the Irish populace. He argued that, since England and Ireland had one King, whatever was legal in the former country must be legal in the latter, and openly announced that, "came he once to the church of Ossory," he meant to enforce the use of the new liturgy, with law or without it. His obstinacy carried the day. Cusack professed himself convinced by these arguments ; the Dean withdrew in disgust, and Brown eventually consented to perform the " observation " according to the Protestant ritual, "very unsavourly, as one not much exercised in that mode." On his return to Kilkenny the Bishop acted in a similar spirit. On one occasion he inter- rupted the celebration of the communion, and would not allow the service to proceed until the wafers had been removed and a loaf of plain white bread substituted. On another occasion he refused to wear the episcopal vestments, telling the clergy that he was "not Moses' minister but Christ's," and entreating them " not to compel me to his denial, which con- sisteth, as St. Paul saith, in the repeating of Moses' sacraments and ceremonial shadows." An assiduous preacher, he held forth incessantly about the errors of Popery and the duty of rendering to Csesar the things that were not Cesar's. As might have been expected, he got little sympathy : " helpers found I none among 339 THE REFORMATION my prebendaries and clergy, but adversaries a great number." His eloquence, however, was not altogether barren of results. Once at least, when his language had been more than usually provocative, " there followed angers, slanders, conspiracies, and in the end the slaughter of men." In ihis attempts to compel the clergy to use the reformed prayer-book the Bishop was equally unfortunate ; the latter simply dis- regarded his injunctions, "alleging for their vain and idle excuse the lewd example of the Archbishop of Dublin, who was always slack in all things appertaining to God's glory ; alleging also the want of books, and also that their own lawyers had not consented thereunto." Nor was he more successful in persuading them to marry, although in this matter he was able to cite not only his own examples but that of his metro- politan. With the laity, and especially with Lords Upper Ossory and Mountgarrett — the only native gentlemen with whom he appears to have come much in contact — and their followers, his relations were equally unfriendly, and his life, if we may believe his own narrative, was in constant danger from popular violence. He was not, however, without his consolations, for, in the hostility which he excited among his hearers, he was able to find fresh proofs of the resemblance between himself and his favourite apostle. It may, perhaps, be thought strange that these 340 THE REFORMATION proceedings should not have produced an imme- diate rebellion. It must, however, be remembered that Protestant bishops were appointed only in places where the government could protect them, and addressed themselves only to the English- speaking portion of the population.^ No attempt was made to propagate the reformed doctrines in the native districts, and the mere Irish either remained ignorant of the alterations in the state religion, or regarded them with indifference as matters with which they had no concern. The Anglo-Irish, on the other hand, while bitterly resenting the arbitrary action of the executive, were not prepared to adopt the only course which could render their resentment effective. Without the support of the Celts resistance to the government was impossible ; and the support of the Celts could be obtained only upon terms to which not even the most disaffected of the Anglo-Irish were yet willing to agree. ^ " The Reformation made but a small progress in that kingdom. It was received among the English, but I do not find any endeavours were used to bring it in among the Irish." — Burnet's History of the Reformation, II, 344. The only sees to which Protestant bishops were appointed during this reign were Armagh, Dublin, Meath, and Kildare, in the Pale ; Leighlin, which had been recently added to the Pale, Ossory in the territory of the anglicizing House of Butler, and Limerick, where there was an English garrison. Even in these dioceses only a very small portion of the clergy seem to have conformed. In 1551 the Venetian ambassador expressly stated that the new liturgy was not used in Ireland. — -Fenetian Calendar, V, 347. THE REFORMATION It is a curious but incontestible fact that, at the very time when the government was out- raging the feelings of the nation by establishing a religion which had not a single sincere adherent in the island, the condition of Ireland was described by an intelligent and well-informed witness as one of unusual tranquillity. Sir Thomas Cusackj who had obtained the great seal after the disgrace of Alen, and who was subsequently appointed Lord Justice upon the recall of Sir James Crofts, was the first person connected with the Irish government to attempt a complete survey of the island ; and his impres- sions are described in an elaborate memorial which he addressed to the Duke of Northumber- land in May, 1552.^ Beginning with Munster, he found the province in good quiet under the rule of Desmond and other native gentlemen. The judges had gone on circuit through the counties of Limerick, Cork and Kerry, " being the ^ The book sent from Sir Thomas Cusack, Lord Chan- cellor of Ireland, to the Duke of Northumberland's Grace for the present state of Ireland, May 8, 1552. The original of this important treatise is unhappily lost, but there are no less than three extant copies. One of these is in the Lambeth Library (printed in the Calendar of Carew MSS., I, 235-247), and is dated 1553. Another copy in the British Museum {Harleian MSS, 35/3), which is supposed to have been made by or for Sir James Ware, is dated 1552. There is also a copy in the Record Office, the date on which is illegible. The internal evidence is conclusive in favour of the earlier date. THE REFORMATION farthest shires west of Munster," and the sheriffs were obeyed. " The lords and captains of those countries, as the Earl of Desmond, the Viscount Barry, the Lord Roche, the Lord FitzMaurice and divers others, which within few years would not hear speak to obey the law, beeth now in commission with the justices of the peace to hear and determine causes." MacCarthy Mor, the most powerful Irishman in Munster, whose ancestors had been at war with the Earls of Desmond from time imme- morial, was " now very conformable to good order." Leinster was "in meetly good stay at this instant"; the Kavanaghs, who in the eyes of the natives represented the ancient majesty of the province, had submitted and agreed to hold their lands of the crown. A garrison had been posted at Leighlin, another at Ferns, another at Enniscorthy, and another at Tymolinge, " a place wherein the Kavanaghs and other malefactors before time disturbed such as brought stuff by water from Ross or Waterford to Leighlin or Carlo w." The O'Byrnes and other Irish tribes between Dublin and Carlow were "of honest conformity"; they did not, it is true, pay rent to the crown, but they maintained one hundred and twenty gallowglasses at a wage of four- pence a day, and were able to " make " eighty horsemen and as many foot, " being men always ready to stand to good order at 343 THE REFORMATION the appointment of my Lord Deputy and Council." Turning to the west, Thomond, "wherein the Breanes do inhabit," had been "in good order and quiet since the time that O'Brien was created Earl" until his death in 1551. After that event the succession had been dis- puted between Donough, the second Earl, and his half-brother Sir Donel ; but the Lord Deputy had lately intervened on behalf of the former, " and now there be few countries in Ireland in better quiet than they." Similar disturbances had broken out in Clanricarde after the death of the first Earl, " during whose time the country was in good stay and quiet"; the heir was a minor, and of doubtful legitimacy, and another member of the sept had been elected to the chiefship according to the custom of the country. But here also the intervention of the crown had been successful ; and, when Cusack wrote, the country was " so brought to quiet that now the people leaveth their ploughs, irons, and cattle in the fields without fear of stealing." Mac William of Mayo, the second potentate of the province, was " of honest conformity, ready to join with the Earl of Clanricarde in executing the King's Majesty's commands in every place in Connaught ; so as they two, with a captain, will make all Connaught obedient, which is the fifth part of Ireland." Adjoining Clanricarde was " O'Kelly 344 THE REFORMATION his country, a captain of good power of horse- man, gallowglasses and kerne, and no men in Ireland of wilder nature than they be ; and many times in time of war they have done much harm to the Pale." O'Kelly had lately submitted to the Lord Deputy at Athlone, and agreed to maintain a hundred of the King's gallowglasses, " which is a great charge, paying to every gallowglass fourpence sterling by the day." Other Connaught chiefs were O'Conor Sligo, O'Conor Roe, O'Conor Don and MacDermot, " men of no great power." All these were more or less disaffected ; and Cusack was forced to content himself with the reflection that, by their internal dissensions, they had ceased to be formidable. Sligo, said to be the best haven in Ireland, was held by the first- named "by usurpation"; but Clanricarde had lately captured Roscommon, for which O'Conor Roe and O'Conor Don were contending, and delivered it to the Loi'd Deputy. About the same time O'Conor Roe, by invoking the Deputy's aid against MacDermot, who had robbed him of four thousand cattle and five hundred stud mares, helped to rivet the English yoke more firmly on his own neck. On the other side of the Shannon the western parts of Limerick, Tipperary, and what is now called the King's County, were occupied by a group of Irish tribes, "which, within a few years, were all wild and not conformable to any 345 THE REFORMATION good order, and yet they be now ordered by the sheriffs of the shires, so as men may pass quietly throughout their countries at pleasure, without danger of robbing or other displeasure, and each of them lieth in his own country quietly with- out hindrance of other." Beyond these lay the lands of the Westmeath Irish, "very strong countries for woods, moors and bogs, by means whereof much cattle were stolen out of the Pale." The chiefs had consented to make roads through their territories, and the sheriff of Westmeath, with a retinue of only ten horse- men, had distrained for debt, "which, within seven years, eight hundred men, nor yet one thousand, were not able to bring to pass in any of those places." Ulster was the least satisfactory of the four provinces, and even in Ulster there were some signs of improvement. Lecale, which was beginning to recover from the effects of Brereton's activity, was "for English freeholders and good inhabitance so civil as few places in the English Pale." A sheriff had been appointed in Ards and another in Clandeboye,^ districts which had been pretty thoroughly feudalized at an earlier period, and several of the lesser chiefs were loyal. O'Hanlon was "an honest man, ready to obey all commands"; McGennis "a civil gentleman, and keepeth as good order in ^ Cusack to Northumberland, September 27, 1551. THE REFORMATION his house as any man of his condition in Ireland, and doth the same English-like." But the O'Neils in the centre and the O'Donels in the extreme west of the province were at war among themselves, while the Scottish settle- ments on the east coast were spreading with alarming rapidity. Tyrone, which, only three years earlier, had been the most prosperous part of Ireland, was reduced to a wilderness by the hostilities between the Earl and his reputed son, the Baron of Dungannon, who was supported by the whole power of the government. Tyrconnel, where Manus O'Donel was opposed by his son Calvagh, was in little better case. Cusack, it is to be feared, did not contemplate these dissensions with unmixed regret. It has always been a maxim of English policy to weaken the Irish by dividing them, and the Lord Chancellor congratulated himself that Brereton and Dungannon, aided by Calvagh O'Donel, Turlough Lynagh, and others of the O'Neils, would speedily reduce the northern province to obedience. On the whole Cusack pronounced Ireland to be loyal, prosperous and improving, and this improvement he did not hesitate to ascribe to the liberal policy of the last two deputies. "The policy that was devised for the sending of the Earls of Desmond, Thomond, Clanricarde, and Tyrone, and the Baron of Upper Ossory, O'CarroU, McGennis, and others into England, 347 THE REFORMATION was a great help towards bringing those countries to good order ; for none of those who went into England committed harm upon the King's Majesty's subjects. The winning of the Earl of Desmond was the winning of the rest of Munster at small charges. The making O'Brien an earl made all that country obedient. The making of MacWilliam Earl of Clanricarde made all that country during his time quiet and obedient, as it is now. The making of MacGillapatrick Baron of Upper Ossory hath made his country obedient; and the having of their lands by Dublin is such a gage upon them, as they will not forfeit the same through wilful folly. And the gentleness that my Lord Deputy doth devise among the people doth profit and make sure the former civility, so as presidents in Munster, Connaught and Ulster will, by God's grace, make all Ireland without great force to be obedient." Cusack was an incurable optimist, and there was, undoubtedly, another side to the picture. If assizes had been held and sheriffs appointed in Cork, Limerick and Kerry — ^and on this point we can hardly question the Chancellor's statement — the fact is compatible with the prevalence of considerable disorder in the more distant parts of the same counties.^ Desmond's loyalty, such as it was, was due chiefly to the ' For a much less favourable account of Munster about this time see Wood to Cecil, April 24, 1 551. THE REFORMATION absence of his hereditary enemy; when Ormond returned to Ireland the feud between the houses broke out anew with unabated violence. In Clanricarde and Thomond, which Cusack believed that he had pacified, the strife between the anglicizing Earls and their tanists continued with little intermission for another decade. The lesser Connaught septs were admittedly discontented, and were only coerced into an unwilling submission by the Burkes, whose own fidelity was more than doubtful. In Ulster the wavering and interested loyalty of a few petty chiefs was a poor set off against the continued rebellions of the O'Neils, the O'Donels, and the " Redshanks." Still, making every allowance for the Chancellor's optimism, the fact is incontestable that Ireland, or that part of it which was under native rule, was, for the time at least, unusually tranquil ; and this tranquillity is the more remarkable when contrasted with the misery and disorder which prevailed in the " civil " districts. " The king's subjects," as distinguished both from " the old natives " and from the hibernicized or " degenerate " English, were composed of two classes — the country gentlemen and farmers of the four shires, and the burgesses of the walled towns. Apart from " the matter of religion," which affected all parties, but which, perhaps, was not as yet very acutely felt, each of these had their several grievances. 349 THE REFORMATION The country districts were laid waste by the exactions of the troops. The towns were brought to the verge of ruin by the depreciation of the currency. " Brass money " was inseparably associated in the minds of the eighteenth century Protestants with Popery and wooden shoes, but financial dishonesty on a large scale dates, in Ireland at least, from the blessed era of the Reformation. As early as 1460, indeed, the Irish currency had been reduced to three-fourths of its nominal value ; but the difference was universally under- stood and allowed for ; and the depreciation, after the first few years, ceased to work serious mischief. Henry VIII, in the last year of his reign, effected a further reduction. " New money," say the Irish annalists, " was intro- duced into Ireland, that is copper ; and the men of Ireland were obliged to accept it for silver." ^ In theory the coins contained two parts of silver to one of copper or brass ; in practice the pro- portions were generally reversed. The inevitable consequences followed. Prices rose ; trade was utterly disorganized. The King, with all his faults, was a statesman ; had he lived he would probably have retraced his steps. The adven- turers who controlled the government after his death deliberately aggravated the evil. A mint was erected in Dublin and placed under the ^ Four Masters, 1546. Ware's Annals, 1546. THE REFORMATION control of Thomas Agard, a pious jobber, half rogue, half fanatic, the prototype of the class which has been the bane of Ireland from that day to this. Bellingham protested fiercely against this appointment, which had been made without consulting him ; but it was the slight to himself that he resented, not the injury to the country ; and he devoted his great abilities to forcing the coin upon an unwilling people.^ The merchants, already impoverished by the attacks of those pirates to whom, as patriotic historians tell us, England owes the foundation of her naval greatness, cried out piteously against the fraud which was filching from them the remains of their commerce. But the government resolutely turned a deaf ear to their complaints. The mint continued to send forth supply after supply of coin, each baser than that which preceded it ; and the confusion became every day more intolerable. In July, 1 55 1, when Crofts became Lord Deputy, prices had multiplied fourfold. Trades- men had dismissed their apprentices, farmers their labourers, gentlemen their household servants ; and the unemployed had gone to swell the ranks of the thieves with whom the country was already swarming.* The distress was even greater in the ^ Bellingham to Warwick, November 22, 1548. Memo- randum by Bellingham, November 14. " Crofts to the Privy Council, August 30, 155 1. THE REFORMATION agricultural districts than in the towns. The practice known as " cess " — the Anglo-Irish custom of coyne and livery under a new name — had been introduced by Sir Anthony St. Leger during his first tenure of ofBce. It had been greatly extended by Bellingham, had been con- tinued by successive deputies, and threatened to become a permanent impost.^ Cess, which Sidney afterwards defined as " a prerogative of the prince and an agreement and consent of the nobility to impose upon the country a certain proportion of victual and provision of all kinds, to be delivered and issued at a reasonable rate, or, as it is commonly termed, at the Queen's price,"* was not at first unpopular. It secured to the farmers a steady demand for their produce ; and, so long as the price paid by the troops was identical with that which obtained in the open market, they had little cause for complaint. But the price paid by the troops was fixed by proclamation and remained unaffected by the depreciation of the currency. As the value of money decreased the cess became more and more burdensome. The measure of corn, which had formerly sold for two shillings, had risen in March, 1551, to six and eightpence ; a year later it stood at ^ " He [St. Leger] began the cesses in his time, which gat him some displeasure. . . This man [Bellingham] had cesses worse than St. Leger." — Book of Howth, p. 195. " Sidney to the Privy Council, January 27, 1577. THE REFORMATION thirty shillings. Cattle rose from twelve shillings a head to four pounds, and all other provisions rateably. The soldiers continued to seize the food of the people, and to pay for it, when they paid at all, which was not often, at the old rate. They were unable to live upon their " entertainments," and " forced the country, the continuance whereof will grow to a weariness." The garrisons of Leix and OfFaly alone contained between six and seven hundred men, who, having turned the districts in which they were stationed into a desert, were living on the plunder of the four shires. Other garrisons were equally oppressive. The calamity affected all classes. The Irish alone enjoyed a comparative immunity. " They cared only for their bellies, and that not delicately." " They had little need of money," commerce in the native districts being chiefly carried on by barter. " We that are stipendaries must live upon our stipends, and buy with our money which no man esteemeth." Everybody was, or believed himself to be, robbed ; and every- body indemnified himself to the best of his ability by robbing someone else. The govern- ment, the officers, the soldiers and the people eked out a precarious existence by picking each other's pockets.^ ^ The rise of prices is frequently mentioned in the State Papers, but it is almost impossible to discover its precise extent — probably because the value of money fluctuated from day to 353 2A THE REFORMATION On November nth the Lord Deputy wrote to Northumberland, begging him to restore the currency to its former value. He could see no reason why Ireland should have worse money than England. The distress was acute, and, if something was not done to remedy it, the city of Dublin and the whole English army would be destroyed by famine.^ The Council answered piously that "the beginning of all things wherein we are to prosper must have their foundation from God " ; when the people had been brought to a conformity in religion it would be time enough to attend to their complaints. The Deputy, meanwhile, was to see the laws strictly executed, and to devise some scheme for the improvement of the revenue. If other means failed he might fall back upon the plunder of the churches. There were jewels to be sold ; there was communion plate to be converted into day, and in different parts of the country. On August 30, 1 55 1, Crofts wrote to the Privy Council : "Everything that was worth a penny is now worth four." Writing to Winchester on March 22, 1552, he stated that wheat had risen since his arrival from six and eightpence to thirty shillings — it had formerly sold for two shillings — and that six herrings sold for a groat. Cusack says that a peck of wheat sold in the market for twenty shillings, and a beef for four pounds, but that the soldiers paid only five shillings for the peck and twelve shillings for the beef, the old prices. — Crofts to the Privy Council, August 30, 1551, and April 16, 1552. To Cecil, March 14, 1552. To Winchester, March 22, 1552. Cusack to Northumberland, May 8, 1552. ^ Crofts to Northumberland, November 11, 1551. 354 THE REFORMATION money. The reverence shown to the plate was idolatrous, and the money was badly needed. It was an ingenious expedient for reconciling God and Mammon. As for restoring the currency, it was quite out of the question. If the people continued to remonstrate they might be treated to a lecture on the principles of the Reforma- tion. If it was not possible to pay the troops it was always possible to dismiss them. What might be the consequence of disbanding a number of unpaid licentious soldiers in the midst of a population already seething with discontent their lordships did not stop to consider.^ Crofts was not wholly convinced by these arguments. He consented, indeed, to inyite the leading merchants to confer with him upon the financial situation ; but he did not pretend to expect any very valuable results from their deliberations. The conference was held in December, and was attended by delegates from Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Limerick, and Drogheda. The Lord Deputy explained the views of the Council. Money, he said, was " for none other use, but for exchange" ; it was a mere token which derived its efficacy from the King's image, and ought therefore to bear whatever value the King chose to assign to it. The merchants understood the abstract econo- mical question as little as the Lord Deputy; ^ Privy Council to Crofts, November 22 and 26, 1551. 355 THE REFORMATION but they could feel the practical effects of the depreciation, and they were not to be cajoled with words. They answered that they could not be expected to " esteem anything but as reason would we should esteem it." Gold and silver were no less obviously intended by nature for money than steel for swords or lead for bullets. " If we should use lead to make armour or edge tools our labour were in vain. If we should use iron to make money it would rust, canker, break, and be filthy." If the government was resolved not to call in the base coin, it would be best to cry it down to some- thing approaching its real value. Such a step would involve a heavy loss to all who had coins in their possession ; but anything was preferable to the prevailing confusion. Crofts promptly communicated the opinion of the meeting to Northumberland, at the same time acknowledging his own sympathy with the views of the petitioners. Receiving no reply to this letter, the Lord Deputy wrote again a month later to the Privy Council, enclosing a "supplication of the nobility, gentlemen, and merchants." The supplication, which was signed by several peers, by three judges, and by the chief magistrates of all the most im- portant towns, described the depreciation of the currency as the " first and principal cause " of the public ruin, " without remedy whereof it is thought almost impossible to set a stay." 356 THE REFORMATION Crofts, in the accompanying dispatch, was even more outspoken. Baseness of coin, he wrote, " causeth universal dearth, increaseth idleness, decayeth nobility — one of the principal keys of the commonwealth — and bringeth magistrates into hatred and contempt of the people." ^ To this letter also no answer was returned. But Crofts continued to pour forth his complaints into the unwilling ears of the Council, and at last, in April, 1 552, Northumberland consented to cry down the money to half its previous value. Not, however, immediately. The salary of everyone in Ireland, from the Lord Deputy down, was in arrear ; and the Duke, with an increase in the value of money imminent, began for the first time in his life to exhibit a laudable anxiety to pay his debts. Crofts was informed that all arrears would be paid off by midsummer at the old rate, and that after that date the coin would be cried down. Strict secrecy was en- joined, but the intention of the government leaked out and produced a panic. Trade, which was already languishing, now ceased altogether, no one being willing to accept money the value of which was to be immediately halved. In ^ Crofts to Northumberland, December 22, 1551, enclosing Petition of the Inhabitants of Dublin, Waterford, Limerick, Cork, and Drogheda. Crofts to the Privy Council, January 27, 1552, enclosing Supplication of the Nobility, Gentlemen, and Merchants. 357 THE REFORMATION June the crying down was effected, and a partial revivf 1 of trade followed. But the relapse into virtu as less serious than sonme writers have imagi J, the new coins, if we may believe an entry in Edward's journal, containing only "three denarfine," or one part of silver to three of alloy. ^ ^ King to Lord Deputy and Council, June 7. Commission to Martin Perry and others, June 10. Simon's Essay on Irish Coins, p. 35. Ruding's Annals of the Coinage, I, 324. "Whereas it was agreed tliat there should be a pay made to Ireland of ;f 5,000 and then the money cried down, it was appointed that 3,000 weight which I had in the Tower should be carried thither and coined at 3 denar fine, and that incontinent the coin should be cried down." — Journal of Edward VI, June 10, 1552. There is an ambiguity in the phrase " three denar fine." Ruding, who takes it to mean 3d. in the pound, says very justly that this was a currency infinitely baser than any that Ireland had yet known. It seems to me more reasonable as well as more charitable to interpret it as 3d. in the shilling. 358 CHAPTER VII THE PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY Rather more than two years elapsed between the introduction of the Protestant liturgy and the death of Edward. During those years the 1553 reformed church gained scarcely any adherents in Ireland. Official personages changed and re-changed their creed without reluctance and without enthusiasm. The people, in the few places where government was a reality, were dragooned into a sullen and superficial con- formity ; but the old ceremonies lingered in remote districts, and there was little controversial preaching.^ Bale was the only Protestant bishop who attempted to make converts, and Bale's eloquence produced more riots than conversions. But the days of Bale's ministry were few and evil. His consecration only took place in February, 1553, and on July 6th of the same year Edward died. It was not until nearly three weeks later that the news reached Kilkenny. On ^ " The old ceremonies remain as yet in many places." — Crofts to Cecil, March 15, 1552. "As for preaching we have none, which is our most lack, without which the ignorant can have no knowledge, which were very needful to be redressed." — Cusack to Northumberland, May 8, 1552. 359 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY the evening of the twenty-fifth the priests were observed to be " pleasantly disposed," but the cause of their good humour was a secret known as yet only to themselves. The next day was a holy day. In the morning Mr. Justice Howth, accompanied by Bale's old enemy. Lord Mount- garrett, proceeded to the cathedral and desired the clergy to celebrate the office for the day. The clergy answered that the bishop had for- bidden celebrations on week-days ; " as indeed I had," says Bale, " for the abominable idolatries I had observed therein." " I discharge you," replied Howth, "from obedience to your bishop." On the twenty-seventh the report of the King's death was officially confirmed, and the Lady Jane was proclaimed Queen amidst processions, banquets and bonfires. The proclamation was greeted with tumultuous enthusiasm, the bishop, if we may believe his own narrative, being the only person who ventured to oppose it. The people, it is evident, knew nothing of English politics, but they were weary of the late government, and might be pardoned for thinking that any change must be for the better. That they were not actuated by Protestant sympathies their subsequent conduct abundantly proves. The first weeks of a new reign were always a period of confusion in Ireland, and the danger was increased on the present occasion by the uncertainty of the English succession and the 360 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY absence of the Deputy. At the beginning of August riots broke out in various parts of the country, and notably at Kilkenny, where the discontent produced by Bale's sermons was heightened by a rumour that Ormond and Barnaby FitzPatrick had been murdered in London. The Butlers and MacGillapatricks took arms to avenge their chiefs and committed numerous outrages. Among other victims Mrs. Mathew King, the wife of an English gentle- man residing near Kilkenny, was stopped on the high road and stripped " to her very petticoat ! " Such at least is Bale's statement, but we have no means either of confirming or refuting it. This was on August 15th. But long before that date the rash and wicked conspiracy of Northumberland had ended as all prudent men had foreseen ; the nine days' queen was already a prisoner when she was proclaimed in Dublin. Communication was slow and uncertain ; but a rumour of Northumberland's failure reached Ireland about August loth. The officials sat cautiously on the fence for some days, and then decided on a fresh apostacy. On the eighteenth. Queen Mary was proclaimed in Dublin by the same persons who, less than a month earlier, had declared for her rival. On the twentieth, the proclamation was renewed in the provinces. At Kilkenny the accession of the new sovereign was celebrated by a procession in which the bishop, much to his disgust, was compelled to 361 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY take part. Bale, according to his custom, refused to wear cope or mitre ; but his clergy, who thoroughly enjoyed teasing him, insisted on carrying the obnoxious vestments in front of him. As a last resource the bishop attempted to provide a counter-attraction to the Popish pageant. Hostility to the drama was as yet no part of the Puritan creed, and Bale, who had written for the stage, and was inordinately vain of his productions, caused two of his own plays to be enacted in a rude theatre erected for the purpose. The plays, a tragedy and a comedy — the first dealing with the creation, the second with the crucifixion — are by no means destitute of merit; but they made as few converts as their author's sermons. There was worse to come. On the twenty- sixth, the bishop left Kilkenny for Holmescourt» a country house about five miles distant. Returning to the city on the thirty-first he found that the priests had availed themselves of his absence to restore the old ceremonies. The images were replaced in the churches ; the bells were rung ; processions marched through the streets, with priests at their head, carrying crucifixes and chanting the Latin litany. A few days later it was "noised abroad" by the Bishop of Galway and others that the nation was about to be reconciled to the Pope. Bale affected to disbelieve the rumour, but his heart sank within him. During the late reign the 362 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY government had experienced no small difficulty in protecting him from the fury of the populace. The populace and the government were now on the same side, and his position was perilous in the extreme. He had never been remarkable for personal courage, and he hastily decided to leave Kilkenny. By the assistance of the "sovereign" or mayor, Mr. Robert Shee, "a man prudent, wise and godly, which is a rare thing in that land," he succeeded in making his way to Dublin ; but his reception was not encouraging. The archbishop, who was anxious to make his peace with the new govern- ment, flatly refused to see him, saying openly "on his ale-bench, with his cup in his hand," that Bale should never preach in his diocese. The leading laymen were equally hostile. After lingering for a few days in Dublin he contrived to escape to England, and thence to Switzerland, where he remained unhonoured and unmolested until the accession of Elizabeth.^ At Kilkenny and elsewhere the populace had outrun the wishes of the government ; but the official re-establishment of Catholicism was not long delayed. No parliament, it must be remembered, had been held in Ireland during the reign of Edward ; the English liturgy had been introduced by an order in council, which, if it was not wholly illegal, could be justified ^ Bale's Vocacyon, pp. 449-455, PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY only by a most extravagant interpretation of the Act of Supremacy ; the Mass was now restored by the same means and by the same statesman, Sir Anthony St. Leger, who displayed, through- out his career, a most philosophical indifference to doctrinal squabbles. On October 23rd George Dowdall was recalled from exile, and re-instated in the see of Armagh. On March 1 2th the title of Primate of All Ireland, which Edward had transferred to Dublin, was restored to him, " with all powers, dignities and emolu- ments thereunto belonging, in as ample a manner as his predecessors had enjoyed the same."' In April a commission, over which 1554 Dowdall presided, was appointed for the depri- vation of the reforming bishops. With the archbishop wei-e associated as commissioners William Walsh, a monk of the great Cister- cian house of Bective, and Thomas Leyerous, the preserver and sometime tutor of Kildare. The Bishop of Meath, who was particularly obnoxious to Dowdall on account of the part which he had taken at St. Mary's Abbey, was the first victim. He was succeeded by Walsh, one of the commissioners who had deprived him. Browne, Lancaster and Travers were successively removed from their sees ; Bale and Casey anticipated a similar sentence by flight." Browne, who had incurred the contempt of all ^ Patent Rolls, pp. 302, 315, " Ware's Annals, 1554. Ware, I, 92. 364 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY parties, sought to make his peace with the Church. Nor can he be justly accused of inconsistency, since he had uniformly main- tained that it was the duty of subjects to profess the religion of the reigning prince. But he had gone too far to be forgiven, and, a still more fatal objection, was encumbered with a wife whom he vainly endeavoured to divorce. By an act of parliament, passed two years later, his children were stigmatized as bastards, and the sales, leases and alienations which he had made in their favour were revoked.^ In the room of Lancaster, Thomas Leverous became Bishop of Kildare ; Thomas O'Fihely, an Augustinian friar, was appointed to Leighlin, vacant by the deposition of Travers : John Quin, the octogenarian Bishop of Limerick, was restored to the see from which in the preceding year he had been ejected to make room for the reformer Casey : John Thonery succeeded Bale at Ossory ; and Roland Baron was elevated to the throne of Cashel, which had remained unfilled for four years, since the death of Edmund Butler.'' ^ Historical Collections of the Church of Ireland. Bale's^ Vocacyon. Harleian Miscellany y V, 602; VI, 455. An Act for the revocation of sales, alienations and leases, made by George Browne, late Archbishop of Dublin. — Carew MSS.. This Act is not in the Statute Book. 2 Ware, I, 390, 416, 461, 511. Cotton, I, 90, 325 ; II, 231, 277, 387. Brady's Episcopal Succession, I, 351, 363,. 386 ; II, 5, 42- Patent Rolls, 306-307, 318-319. PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY Of the deprived bishops, Brown and Travers disappear from history ; it is probable that the former at least did not long survive his degrada- tion. Edward Staples lived to witness the triumph of his party in 1558/ nor is it easy to conjecture for what reason he was not re-instated in his bishopric. Thomas Lancaster, after fourteen years passed in obscurity, emerged from his retirement as Primate of all Ireland ; ' and William Casey, after a somewhat longer interval, became for the second time Bishop of Limerick.' Bale, who during the reign of Mary found an asylum at Geneva, returned to England on the accession of Elizabeth. He did not, however, venture to resume his episcopal duties, preferring the humbler but less perilous station of a prebendary of Canterbury.* The metropolitan see of Dublin, after lying vacant for more than a year after the depriva- ^555 tion of Browne, was filled at length by the appointment of Hugh Curwen. Curwen, * Staples to Cecil, December 16, 1558. 'Ware and others supposed that the Thomas Lancaster who became Archbishop of Armagh in 1568 was a different person from the Bishop of Kildare, but the contrary was distinctly stated by the Queen, who can hardly have been mistaken. "One of our ordinary chaplains, Mr. Thomas Lancaster, who heretofore was Bishop of Kildare in our said realm, and therein proved for that time very laudably." — Elizabeth to the Lords Justices, March 28, 1568. ' Ware, I, 511. Cotton, I, 326. * Cooper's Athena Cantabrigiensis, I, 226. Strype's Life of Parker, I, i2i, 126. Ware, I, 416. 366 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY who, like every Archbishop of Dublin since the twelfth century, was an Englishman, was a peculiarly unscrupulous representative of the school of churchmen whose first principle it was to adapt their religious convictions to the caprices of successive sovereigns. Like Thomas Cranmer, whom he strongly resembled in character and opinions, the new archbishop had risen to favour by assisting Henry in the affair of his first divorce. He had been counsel for Anne Boleyn, and had behaved to Queen Katherine with a brutality which it seems strange that her daughter should have forgiven. In the same spirit he asserted in its most exaggerated form the dogma of the King's spiritual supremacy. So courtly a divine could not long remain unrewarded ; and Dr. Curwen became Archdeacon of Oxford and Dean of Hereford, besides securing many lucrative sinecures. But, however zealous he might be for the supremacy and the divorce, he professed, while Henry lived, an equal attachment to the doctrine of the "Corporal Presence "; and the death of the reformer Frith was popularly laid at his door. But this doctrine ceased to be fashionable after the death of Henry ; and Curwen, in accordance with the course which he had uniformly pursued, at once modified his opinions to suit the wishes of the new govern- ment. Having successively enjoyed the favour of Somerset and Northumberland, Curwen, like 367 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY Cranmer, once more recanted at the accession of Mary ; but, more fortunate than the English Primate, contrived to secure not only impunity but preferment. He became chaplain to the Queen, and was promoted in September, 1555, to be Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor of Ireland.* With the exception of Curwen, the bishops appointed by Mary were all natives of Ireland ; the prelates whom they superseded were, without exception. Englishmen. The counter reformation ended with the de- privation of the bishops and the restoration of the Catholic services in the few places where they had been discontinued. Persecution there was none, for there was no one to persecute. Protestantism in Ireland was a sickly exotic, dependent for its very existence on the favour of the crown, and, when the crown turned against it, it died a natural death. For the rest the ecclesiastical policy of the Queen differed little from that of her father. The name of Supreme Head was not at once renounced ; * the spoils of the monasteries were not at any time restored. A Catholic Mary Tudor doubtless was ; a Papist she most assuredly was not. By regal, not papal authority, was George Dowdall replaced in the ^ Strype's Life of Parker^ I, 508. Patent Rollsy p. 339. Ware, I, 352. ' Thus in the letter of the Council announcing^ her acces- sion Mary is called " Queen of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and on earth Supreme Head of the Churches of England and Ireland." — Patent Rolls, p. 304. 368 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY archbishopric to which Rome had never yet acknowledged his claim; by regal, not papal authority, was the»primacy of all Ireland once again transferred from Dublin to Armagh. It was not by a papal bull but by a commission under the great seal that Browne and Staples, Lancaster and Travers, were expelled from their sees ; their successors were appointed by letters patent. The very proclamation which restored the mass was issued by the Queen in virtue of her ecclesiastical supremacy. On other occa- sions Mary acted in a similar spirit. One of her first acts was to extort from Eugene Magennis, chief of Iveagh, a promise not to admit any provisor from the Roman court.^ A priest named MacCarthy begged for licence to proceed to Rome "to obtain certain poor benefices, whether they be spiritual or regular," explaining that he did not dare to do so without express permission, " considering the statute ot prae- munire ; " but the Queen did not even condescend to acknowledge his petition. ° ^ Submission of Eugene Magennis, December 6, 1553. — Carew MSS. ^ Pleaseth your Highness, your daily subject Connor MacCarthy, born within your Grace's realm of Ireland, being presently bound towards the Pope's Holiness, intending to obtain certain poor benefices, whether they be spiritual ^i regular, within your Highness' foresaid realm of Ireland, fearing lest any of the foresaid benefices be of your Highness' presen- tation or nomination, and also considering the statute of prae- munire, that doth prohibit any of your said subjects to obtain 369 2 B PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY The title of Supreme Head of the Church, employed by Mary during the first year of her reign, was indeed eventually abandoned, and in a parliament held three years later the anti-papal legislation of Henry VIII was formally repealed. But the concession was rather nominal than real. After the act of repeal, no less than before it, the Queen continued to exercise her ecclesiastical patronage without regard to the claims of the Vatican. In the last year of her reign, when the Earl of Tyrone suggested that his chaplain. Sir Edmund O'Coyne, might be inducted into the priory of Down for which he had procured the Pope's bulls, the Queen answered haughtily that she intended " to maintain the prero- gative left to her by her progenitors in that behalf." ' There was another title which implied an equal defiance to the papacy, but with which any such dignities from the See of Rome without your Highness' consent and assent therein had ; it may, therefore, consist with your Highness' pleasure in consideration of the premises and also to the furtherance of your said subject to the study of honest literature, to grant your Highness' letters of licence for your said subject his discharge in case he can obtain any such benefices from the foresaid See of Rome, fearing lest in time coming any man should vex or dis- turb your said subject, objecting the foresaid statute of prae- munire in his way, in case he had not your said letters of licence for his discharge in that behalf ready to show." — Petition of Connor MacCarthy (1553 ')■ ^ Tyrone to the Queen, June, 1558, The Queen to the Lord Deputy, July 6, 1558. PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY Mary was less ready to part. According to the constitutional theory which had prevailed among the Anglo-Irish since the twelfth century, the "regal estate" of Ireland was supposed to be vested in the Holy See, "and the lordship of the Kings of England to be but a governance under the obedience of the same." It was as their ultimate sovereign, rather than as their spiritual head, that Paul III had appealed to the Irish to aid him in the struggle with Henry VIII, and the statute which converted the " lordship " of Ireland into a kingdom had been expressly framed as an answer to this claim. Either deliberately or inadvertently, Mary had at her accession assumed the style of " Queen of Ireland," a step against which the Pope at once protested, " affirming constantly that it belonged only to him to give the name of a King," It was, however, impossible to induce the Queen to surrender a dignity which two of her prede- cessors had enjoyed, and Paul IV, not choosing to quarrel with England about a mere form, was reduced " to dissemble the knowledge of what Henry had done and himself to erect the island into a kingdom, that so the world might believe that the Queen had used the title as given by the Pope, not as decreed by her father." " The Popes," adds the Venetian historian, " have often given that which they could not take from the possessors ; and to avoid contentions some have received their own goods as gifts. PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY and some have dissembled the knowledge of the gifts or of the pretence of the giver.'" The laity, while submitting without reluc- tance to the alteration of religion, kept a firm grasp on the estates of the Church. To interfere with vested interests might, perhaps, have been dangerous ; but the possessions of many monas- teries remained with the crown, and these Mary, had she so wished, might without difficulty have restored. She granted them as lavishly as her predecessors had done. Both Kildare, who has been represented as a martyr for the Catholic cause, and Ormond, who had reverted to Catholicism on the accession of Mary, were rewarded for their services during Wyatt's insurrection "with the spoils of the Church.* Religious peace was restored to Ireland; but religious peace did not bring political tran- quillity. So far indeed as their temporal interests were concerned, the Irish suffered more from the orthodox Queen than from her heretical prede- cessor.' The religious reforms of the last reign ^ Sarpi, History cfthe Caundl ef Trent. — ^Extract in Carew MSS. For the bull of Paul IV, see Patent Rolls, p. 339, ' For the grant to Kildare see The Earls of Kiliare, p. 202 ; for that to Ormond, Patent Rolls, pp. 3*84-386 ; and for other grants Patent Rails, p. 319. ' "Albeit this Queen was a very zealous Papist;, yet the Irish were not quieter during her reign than they were under her brother; but, on the contrary, their antipathy against English- men and government induced them to be as troublesome then as at other times, and prevailed with Mr. Sullivan to give this PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY had irritated the Anglo-Irish ; and the irritation of the Anglo-Irish had largely paralyzed the action of the executive. But the Catholic restoration revived the wavering loyalty of the Pale ; and, the w^ar of creeds being in abeyance, the war of races broke out again with redoubled violence. The Crown and the Church, bitterly opposed during eighteen bloody and eventful years, joined hands once more for the extirpa- tion of the native Irish. ^ Five years had now elapsed since Sir Edward Bellingham had expelled the native clans from Leix and OfFaly, and planted garrisons which^ it had been hoped, would have had the' effect of permanently uniting tho^ districts to the Pale. But, even before the recall of Bellingham, it had become evident "that this hope was not likely to be realized. Of the soldiers, some died, and none could be found to take their places. The pay of the rest fell into arrear ; they became mutinous severe character of her reign, that although the Queen was zealous to propagate the Catholic religion, yet her ministers did not forbear to injure and abuse the Irish. 'Quae tametsi Catholicam religionem tueri et amplificare conata est, ejus tamen praefecti et consiliarii injuriam Hibernis inferre non destituerunt,' " — Coxe, Hibernia Jnglicana, I, 309. Cf. O'SuUivan, Hisieria Catholicee Hibernia Compendium, p. 88. ^In August, 1556, a commission was issued to George, Archbishop of Armagh; Hugh, Archbishop of Dublin, and other persons, as well temporal as spiritual, "to resist and punish with fire and sword those enemies and rebels who should attempt any evil against the crown." — Patent Roils, p. 369. 373 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY and disorderly, plundering the Englishry and irritating without over-awing the natives. The O'Moores and O'Conors, recovering from their first alarm, began to return to their old haunts, burning the farms and driving off the cattle of the settlers who had supplanted them. The latter, pillaged alternately by the native Irish and by the profligate banditti in the fortresses, abandoned their homes ; and nothing was left of Bellingham's handiwork save a legacy of hatred which no subsequent moderation could remove.^ During the reign of Edward VI numerous schemes were proposed for the settlement of the conquered districts. At one time the idea appears to have been entertained of restoring the natives on terms similar to those already granted to the O'Tooles.' But this arrange- ment had no sooner been suggested than it was set aside in favour of another of a much more revolutionary character. About the end of the year 1550 Chief Justice Aylmer, Sir John Travers, and other persons, all closely connected with the official clique which has always been the curse of Ireland, came forward with a pro- posal which would, it was hoped, relieve the government from all further anxiety. These ^ Wise and Morton to Bellingham, January 6, 1 549. St. Leger to the Lord Treasurer, September 27, 1550. * Privy Council to the Lord Deputy and Council, June 24, 1 549. For the grant to the O'Tooles see Fiants, Henry VIII, No. 548. 374 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY gentlemen offered to take possession of Leix and the adjoining districts, which they described as " now wholly waste," that is to say, occupied by mere Irish. If their request was granted they were willing to pay an annual rent of >^6oo, and one nest of goshawks, to introduce colonies of English farmers, to repair the for- tresses, and generally to provide for the defence of the country.^ The Council heartily approved of this suggestion, in so far at least as it related to the expulsion of the native Irish ; but they were anxious to preserve the ownership of the forfeited estates for the crown, and they accord- ingly directed that the colonists should receive leases for twenty-one years, and be exempted from rent for the first two years. A few such leases were granted; but the plantation went on very slowly, and in January, 1552, Crofts, who had lately succeeded St. Leger as Lord Deputy, advised that the planters should receive estates of inheritance, explaining that, owing to the hostility; of the former owners, who were living " some in exile and some in extreme poverty," the country could not be inhabited without extreme cost and danger, which no one could be expected to incur on any less favourable terms.^ The English government ^ Petition of Sir Gerald Aylmer, Sir John Travers and others, December, 1550. " Lord Deputy and Council to the Privy Council, January 26, 1552. 375 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY agreed to this proposal ; butj owing probably to financial embarrassments and the discontent of the Pale, little was done towards carrying It into effect during the brief remainder of Edward's reign. On the accession of Mary, 1553 when Northumberland was in rebellion and the crown of England hung trembling in the balance, the O'Moores and their allies again invaded Leix and OfJaly, captured the forts which had been erected by Bellingham and Sir James Crofts, and massacred the garrisons.^ The disorder was not confined to Leinster. No part of the Irish policy of Henry VIII had beeri Crowned with more immediate success, or was productive of greater ultimate disaster, than the attempt to transform the leading Celtic chiefs into feudal noblemen. When Con O'Neil became Earl of Tyrone, Murrough O'Brien Earl of Thomond, and Ulick Burke Earl of Clanricarde, even so shrewd an observer as Sir Anthony St. Leger could believe that the remedy for Irish anarchy had at last been found. In a very few years it became apparent that the Lord Deputy had miscalculated, and that, while the loyalty of the Irish clansmen to their chiefs was very great, their loyalty to their national traditions was greater still. Ulick, first Earl of Clanricarde, whose ^ Lord Deputy and Council to the King and Queen, April 4, I557- PLANTATION OF LElX AND OFFALY matrimonial experiences had been scarcely less unfortunate than those of his royal master, died within a year of his elevation to the peerage, and his country, which during the last months of his life had enjoyed unwonted tran- quillity, was once more plunged into confusion. "Whether the late Earl of Clanricarde," wrote Brabazon, "hath any heir male, it is not yet known, there were so many marriages and divorces ; but no doubt he married his last Woman solemnly." At a judicial inquiry held before Sir Anthony St. Leger six months later the following facts were ascertained. The Earl had first married Grania, daughter of Mulrony O'Carroll, by whom he had issue Richard Burke. This marriage had been duly "solemnized in the face of the Church," and was proved by respectable witnesses. After- Wards, while this marriage remained in force, the Earl had gone through the form of marriage with his cousin-german, Honora De Burgh, "alleging that, a long time before the said marriage was solemnized, the said Grania had been lawfully married to O'Melaghlin." At a later period the Earl divorced his second wife for some reason not specified, but probably because they were within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity, and subsequently married Mary Linch, by whom he had issue John Burke, both his former wives being still living. The validity of all three marriages was very 377 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY doubtful; but Richard, surnamed Sassenagh, the Earl's son by his first wife, eventually succeeded in convincing St. Leger of his legitimacy. His clansmen were less easily satisfied, "doubting," not unnaturally "whether he was mulierborn or bastard." Legitimate or not, the young Earl — he was only sixteen years of age — was obviously incapable of ruling a large and turbulent district; and the Burkes, who were attached to the custom of tanistry, elected Ulick, his father's cousin, to be their chieftain by the name of MacWilliam. This step was, of course, a direct challenge to the government ; but St. Leger, who felt an instinctive aversion to violence, contrived to arrange a compromise between the rival claimants. The right of election was not formally recognized; but Ulick was appointed to govern the country during the minority of his kinsman, and the latter was ordered to con- tent himself with the name of Earl, and a small pension, until he should have completed his twenty-third year. Earl Richard attained his majority in 1551, and in the same year Ulick Burke died. The Earl who, of course, was supported by the English government, succeeded, not without difficulty, in gaining possession of his inheritance ; but for at least ten years from this date he was "warred upon by divers of his kinsmen and Irishmen bordering upon him, to the intent to destroy his estate 378 PLANTATION OT LEIX AND OFFALY and to bring the country to Irish government again." ^ A similar but rather more serious outbreak occurred a few months later in Thomond, where Donough O'Brien, " being by the King's grant appointed to be next earl," was opposed by his half-brother Donnell, who had been elected " after the Irish custom." The Earl, who was unpopular with his clansmen on account of the part which he had taken in the wars of the last reign, and who fully realized his unpopu- larity, endeavoured to secure his position by recognizing Donnell as tanist — an illogical arrangement, which brought upon him the sharp censure of the Deputy. But Donough had himself been appointed to the earldom in succession to his uncle Murrough, to the prejudice of the latter's direct heirs ; so impossible was it to reconcile the rival systems of tanistry and feudalism. During the last year of Edward's reign, and throughout the whole reign of his successor, fighting between the two factions continued, Donnell being sup- ported by the majority of his own clan, by the Geraldines, and by nearly all the Leinster ^ Brabazon to St. Leger, March 24, 1544. Order of the Lord Deputy and Council for the captainship, superiority and rule of the country of Clanricarde, October 9, 1 544. — Carew MSS. Cusack to Northumberland, May 8, 1552. Memorial by the Earl of Sussex, showing the state that Ire- land was in at his coming thither, and the state it is now in, April, 1562. 379 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY and Munster Irish : Donough, who died in 1553, and after his death, his son Connor by Ormond, by the English government, and by Richard of Clanricarde, whose position was almost identical with their own. It was not until Elizabeth had been many years on the throne that Connor was eventually established in peaceful possession of the earldom.' But the troubles in Clanricarde and Thomond were insignificant compared with those which had their origin in the treaty that conferred upon Con O'Neil the title of Earl of Tyrone. By this treaty the great Ulster chieftain had consented in his own name and that of his successors, to renounce for ever the name of O'Neil, and to accept in place of it an English earldom, with reversion to his natural son Matthew, Baron of Dungannon. Con, it is true, had a legitimate son, Shane, who might reasonably have taken exception to the arrange- ment ; but Shane was at this time a mere boy, and his protest, if he made any, was disregarded. Eight years later the situation was completely changed. From a dull, awkward lad Shane had developed into a young man of remarkable ^ Cusack to Northumberland, May 8, 1552. Indenture, May 9, 1552, between Donough, Earl of Thomond, and Sir Donnell O'Brien. Ordinances made in Michaelmas, 1554, between Connor, Earl of Thomond, and Donnell O'Brien, named O'Brien according to the ancient custom of the country {fiarew MSS.). Memorial by the Earl of Sussex, April, 1562. Feur Maitersy ISS3-54- 380 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY ability and energy, and it was no longer possible to ignore his pretensions. The Baron, moreover, was unpopular as the nominee of a foreign government, and his title was open to other grave objections. Not only was he avowedly illegitimate, a fact of altogether subordinate importance, but it was more than doubtful whether he had even a left-handed claim to the name of O'Neil. Not until he had completed his sixteenth year had he been presented to his pretended father by his mother, Alison Kelly, the wife of a blacksmith at Dundalk. The woman told Con that the boy was his son ; and Con, whose amours had been numerous, appears to have accepted the statement without suspicion. He was, as Shane afterwards explained, a gentleman ; " he never denied no child that any woman named to be his." But Shane was less easily satisfied. He asserted roundly that the whole story was a fabrication ; and Tyrone, who had soon quarrelled with his first-born, ended by accepting Shane's version. In 1551 the Baron accom- panied Marshal Bagenal on a predatory expedition into Tyrone, where Shane is said to have had a narrow escape for his life ; but the raid ended in disaster, and the imprisonment of the old earl in the next year tended rather to increase than to diminish the anarchy in Ulster,^ ^ Letters patent creating Con O'Neil, Earl of Tyrone, October i, 154Z. (^eslaons to be considered touching 381 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY Some months elapsed before the Queen, occupied with more pressing matters, found leisure to attend to Ireland. Crofts, who had been summoned to England a few months before the death of Edward, took part, unhappily for himself, in the abortive insur- rection of Sir Thomas Wyatt ; was convicted and sentenced to death ; and, although his life was spared, it was impossible that he should be again employed in the service of the govern- ment.^ The Lords Justices, Cusack and Aylmer, were continued in office until November, when Sir Anthony St. Leger became Deputy for the third time. St. Leger had always believed in governing Ireland by the help of the native chiefs, and the first year of his administration was rendered 1554 memorable by the return of four Irishmen of rank, who had been absent from their country for many years. Gerald of Kildare, the romantic adventures of whose boyhood have been related in a previous chapter, had escaped in March, 1540, to St. Malo. Thence, after leading a wandering life for some months, he made his way to Rome, where he received a liberal education at the expense of his kinsman, the illustrious Reginald Pole. At the age of Shane O'Neil, 1560 {Carew MSS.). Shane O'Neil to the Queen, February 8, 1561. Bagenal to Crofts, November 11, 1551. Campion, p. 188. ^ Froude, History of England, VI, 144, 169. 382 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY eighteen he attached himself to the Knights of Malta, served with distinction against the Turks in Tripoli, and was subsequently appointed Master of the Horse to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. In the reign of Edward VI he returned to England ; ventured, although his attainder was still unreversed, to appear at court under a transparent incognito, and was graciously received. He received the honour of knighthood ; a part of his estate was at once restored to him, and he was encouraged to hope that the restoration of the remainder would not long be delayed. The accession of a Catholic sovereign, and the appointment of his relative and benefactor to be Archbishop of Canterbury and Cardinal Legate, removed the last obstacles to his fortune. In May, 1554, his lands and titles were restored by letters patent ; and in November of the same year he returned to Ireland. Kildare was accompanied by his brother-in- law, the deposed chief of OfFaly. O 'Conor owed his release from the Tower, where he had been confined since his capture in 1 548, to the intercession of his daughter Margaret. His return, which was hailed with enthusiasm by his countrymen, was not equally acceptable to the Dublin oligarchy, and he had not been long in Ireland when he was again imprisoned on sus- picion of being connected with the insurrection which had once more broken out in OfFaly. 383 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY Thomas, tenth Earl of Orijjond, who had resided in England since the death of his father in 1546, returned to Ireland almost at the same moment as his hereditary rival. With him came his cousin, Barnaby FitzPatrick, afterwards second Baron of Upper Ossory. FitzPatrick, like Ormond, had been educated at the court of Edward VI, where he had filled the honourable, if sometimes painful office, of whipping-boy to the royal prodigy,^ In spite, however, of these concessions to popular sentiment, St. Leger's third vice-royalty was less tranquil than either of those which had preceded it. The liberal policy which he had initiated, and in which alone he believed, had become for the moment impracticable, and the measures which he was now induced to sanction, although harsher, perhaps, than his own judg- ment approved, failed to satisfy his colleagues 1555 in the council. In the summer of 1555 the English power had practically disappeared out of Ireland. O'Reilly invaded Meath, and was with difficulty reconciled "by the great travail and diligence of the Deputy " ; but St. Leger was less fortunate in the midlands, where the war between the old inhabitants and the planters ^ Four Masters, 1 553. The annalists ante-datp the return of the exiles, and many other events of this reign, by a year. Creation of Gerald FitzGerald as Earl of Kildare, May 1 3, 1554 {Carew MSS.). For Kildare see also Stanihurst, p. 305- 307, and for MacGillapatrick Fuller, Church History^ VII, 47. PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY continued with unabated ferocity. The com- mand in Leix was entrusted to Ormond, and that in OfFaly to Kildare ; but neither nobleman made any great progress in reducing the rebel- lious districts. Sir Donnell O'Brien, no longer satisfied with the sovereignty of Thomond, crossed the Shannon and pushed forward into Leinster, where St. Leger was with difficulty defending himself against the O'Moores. On his march through Tipperary he was joined by O'Carroll, by O'Kennedy, by O'Meagher, by the remnant of the O'Moores and O'Conors, and by many other of the Leinster and Munster Irish. The Lord Deputy pitched his camp near Fort Protector, the modern Maryborough ; and the Irish leader in Ely, not far from Parsonstown. Messages were exchanged, and Sir Donnell consented to an interview ; not, however, until he had obtained three of the principal barons of the Pale as hostages for his personal safety. The negotiation, of course, came to nothing; the pretensions of the two parties were irreconcilable, and O'Brien, scorn- fully rejecting all overtures, marched back undefeated to Thomond.^ The next year opened with fresh disasters. The Kavanaghs over-ran a great part of Leinster, 1556 ^ Memorial by the Earl of Sussex, April, 1562. The Four Masters correctly place this episode in 1555, but are mistaken in supposing FitzWalter to have been Lord Deputy at the time. 385 2C PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY and carried fire and sword to the very gates of the capital. A hosting was proclaimed against them, but the insurgents proved so formidable that St. Leger was compelled to conclude a truce with them on their own terms. The O'Byrnes and O'Tooles, encouraged by the success of their neighbours, returned to their old trade of cattle-driving, " in such sort as no man's life or goods were safe within three miles of Dublin." Almost at the same moment the O'Conors and O'Moores attacked the Pale from the west. Aided by Richard Oge FitzGerald, Maurice MacWilliam of the Naas and other disaffected gentlemen, relatives or dependents of the House of Kildare, they over-ran a great part of the four shires, and burnt the English frontier from Trim on the north to Naas in the extreme south. ^ ^ Memorial by the Earl of Sussex. Richard Oge was a natural son of Richard FitzGerald of Ballyshannon, and a grandson of Sir Gerald MacShane. — Pedigree of the FitzGeralds of Ballyshannon in the Kildare Archaological Journal, III, 426. " While the Deputy staggered uncertain of continuance, the Tooles and the Cavanaghs waxed cockish in the county of Divelin (Dublin), ranging in flocks of seven or eight score, on whom set forth the Marshal and sheriff of Divelin, Buckley and Gygen, with the city's help, and over- laid them in sudden skirmishes, of which three score were executed for example." — Campion, p. 184. Ware says that the Cavanaghs captured Powerscourt, where they were besieged; that they surrendered on a promise of mercy; and that seventy of them were, nevertheless, hanged. — Annals, 1556. It is impossible to reconcile this story with the statements of the Lord Deputy. 386 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY But St. Leger had other and more formidable enemies than the disaffected Irish. The tolerant, half-sceptical spirit which had excited the indig- nation of Archbishop Browne was as displeasing to the Catholic advisers of Mary as to the Pro- testant fanatics who had surrounded the throne of her brother ; and the discovery of some verses satirizing the doctrine of the Real Presence, which he had written during the preceding reign, is said to have been the immediate cause of his downfall."^ In April, 1556, his recall was officially announced, and Thomas RadclifFe, Lord FitzWalter, better known by his later title of Earl of Sussex, was appointed to succeed him. FitzWalter's instructions differed little from those which had been issued to his prede- cessor. He was ordered, "both by his own good example and by all other good means to him possible, to advance the honour of Almighty God, the true Catholic faith and religion, now by God's great goodness and special grace ^ " He, to be counted forward and pliable to the taste of King Edward VI his reign, rhymed against the Real Presence, and let the papers fall where courtiers might light thereon, who greatly magnified the pith and conveyance of that noble sonnet. But the original of his own handwriting had the same firmly, though contrary to his own judgment, wandering in so many hands that his adversary caught it and tripped it in his way, the spot whereof he could never wipe out. Thus was he removed, a discreet gentleman, very studious of the state of Ireland, enriched, stout enough, without gall." — Campion, p. 184. Cf.Ware,Jnnals, ISS5' PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY recovered in England and Ireland ; and namely to set forth the honour and dignity of the Pope's Holiness and See Apostolic of Rome ; and to be ready from time to time, at the request of all spiritual ministers and ordinaries, to punish and repress all heretics and Lollards and their damnable sects, opinions and errors." Cardinal Pole, it was added, intended in brief time to dispatch certain commissioners and officials to visit the clergy and other members of the realm of Ireland ; and Fitz Walter w^as expressly commanded " to assist, aid and further the same commissioners, officials, their ministers and com- mandments, for the advancement of God's glory and the honour of the See Apostolic." Turning to more mundane matters, the Deputy was ordered to see the laws, " both those already made and those at the next parliament to be made," strictly executed ; to grant no pardons or safe- conducts " but with good advice and upon just consideration" ; to reform the administration of justice, which was scandalously and notoriously corrupt ; and to take various steps for the improvement of the revenue.^ A second paper of instructions deals more particularly with the projected settlement of Leix and Offaly. It was proposed to divide the conquered districts into three equal parts. Of these the western part, consisting chiefly of bog, . ^ Instructions to Lord FitzWaltcr, April 28, 1556, — Carew MSS. 388 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY moor and forest, was to be restored to the Irish, who were " to choose by their own agreement among themselves a number of their own septs to receive and enjoy the same inheritance." The more fertile eastern districts were to be dis- tributed amongst English subjects, " as well such as be born in England as Ireland, having respect to men of honesty and good service, and such as have most need and be likeliest to do good thereon." No grant was to exceed three plough- lands in the case of an Englishman, or two ploughlands in the case of a native. Every grantee, whether English or Irish, was to hold his land in soccage ; the land so held to descend to his heir male, paying "heriot and relief" at every decease ; to " answer the common law " at all law days, sessions and assizes ; to serve the Queen, when called upon by the Lord Deputy, at his own charges against all rebels, enemies and traitors ; to pay his rent duly twice every year; to present himself once in every twelve months before the constable of Maryborough or Philipstown to " answer for the good rule and order of himself and his household," and to take the oath of allegiance ; to cut down the woods, keep open the fords and passes, and repair the bridges ; to build a house of stone or timber, and to reside continually on his estate. The English were further required " to keep for every ploughland one man at the least of English birth or nation, and he to be an archer, and not 389 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY above one of Irish blood" ; not to sell or lease their lands or any part thereof to any Irishman or Englishman born in Ireland ; and to keep sufficient weapons for themselves and one man for each ploughland. No Irishman was to keep more than one man on each ploughland " except the same be English, or of their own sept, and he to be no idleman but a labourer"; or to have in his house more than one suit of harness, " and the same to be for his own body," or any fire-arms without the written permission of the Lord Deputy. The possession of unlicensed fire-arms was to be punished with death ; any in- fringement of the other conditions by forfeiture. In order to induce the O' Conors and the rest to accept these hard terms FitzWalter was authorized, " if he should find the said O'Conors conformable, to set and restore O' Conor to liberty, to end the rest of his days in peace among his children and kin, with our good favour."' The Lord Deputy-elect, attended by Sir Henry Sidney, Sir William FitzWilliam, and other gentlemen of rank, landed in Dublin on Whit Sunday, May 24th. On the next day he ^ Additional instructions to Lord FitzWalter, April2 8, 1556. Cotton MSS., Titus, Bk. xi, 241. — I am indebted for my knowledge of this important paper, as well as for much other valuable information, to a most interesting article by Mr. Dunlop on "The Plantation of Leix and Ofialy," in the English Historical Review for January, 189 1. PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY dined with St. Leger at Kilmainham, and, after a brief consultation, returned to the capital the same evening. On Tuesday St. Leger attended High Mass at Christ Church, " not permitting any of his gentlemen to precede him, or the sword to be borne before him." During the service, which was performed by the supple Curwen, the Lord Deputy remained in the chapel on the left side of the altar, " the Lord FitzWalter kneeling somewhat distant from him." The old Deputy, who had introduced the Protestant ritual under Edward, and the new Deputy, who was to restore the Protestant ritual under Elizabeth, listened with equal and exemplary piety to the exhortations of a prelate whose convictions were not less elastic than their own. When Mass was ended St. Leger advanced to the altar. Sir George Stanley bear- ing the sword before him, and, after making a reverent obeisance, sat down. FitzWalter's patent was then delivered to John Parker, Master of the Rolls, who read it aloud, the whole company devoutly kneeling. St. Leger then rose from his knees, set FitzWalter in his own seat, and, taking the sword from Stanley, solemnly surrendered it to his successor. The Archbishop of Dublin then read the oath, which FitzWalter took upon a Mass book pro- vided for the purpose by Athlone Pursuivant-at- Arms. On the Wednesday the new Deputy again PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY attended Mass at Christ Church, where he was received under a canopy by the archbishop and clergy. After kissing the crucifix, and being duly censed and blessed by the archbishop, he advanced to the altar, where he offered a piece of gold, and remained for some minutes in prayer. The ceremony was repeated on the following day in St. Patrick's, to the edification of pious Catholics and the exquisite amusement of all who were acquainted with the real sentiments of the Viceroy.^ The state of Ireland, when FitzWalter assumed the government, was more critical than it had been since the campaign of Bellahoe. In Leinster the O'Moores, the O'Conors, and the Kavanaghs were in arms, and the borders of the Pale were over-run with brigands. The return of Ormond had revived the normal anarchy in Munster. The Earl of Desmond had repented of his short-lived loyalty, had " knit himself in amity " with his old enemy, MacCarthy Mor, and was understood to be meditating a fresh rebellion. The O'Briens had expelled the Earl of Thomond from Clare ; the Burkes were making war on the Earl of Clanricarde in ^ A Journey made by the Earl of Sussex in the year 1556 {fiarew MSS.). This document is signed "Philip Butler, alias Athloon Pursuivant d'Armes d'Irlande," and dated August 8, 1556. But it is a copy, and the original must have borne a different title, since FitzWalter did not become Earl of Sussex until February, 1557. PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY Galway. The O'Kellys and O'Farrels had revolted, and had reduced the country on both sides of Athlone to a wilderness. In the north Shane O'Neil and the Scots were at war, and O'Donel " stood upon doubtful terms." ^ From this period until the death of Mary, history records little save a monotonous suc- cession of feeble raids, costly to the crown and inexpressibly burdensome to the subject. The Queen and her ministers were too busy stamping out heresy at home to bestow more than a passing thought upon Ireland ; and the Deputy, who had neither the military abilities of Lord Leonard Gray nor the statesmanlike insight of St. Leger, oscillated helplessly between a policy of conciliation varied by treachery, and a policy of aggression tempered by weakness. Ulster was then and long afterwards the principal theatre of disorder. During the past five years the growth of the Scottish settlement had been amazingly rapid. Confined originally to the Glens of Antrim, to which they could show some sort of title, the MacDonnells had gradually extended their sway over the whole of the eastern counties. They had expelled the McQuillins from the Route ; they had occupied Clandeboye, besieged Knockfergus, and levied black rent from the English colonists in Lecale. Bellingham, St. Leger and Crofts had ' Memorial by the Earl of Sussex, April, 1562. 393 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY all attempted to reduce them, but without success. The immigrants, when FitzWalter landed, numbered seven thousand, and the immi- gration still continued/ But their presence, while it excited the fears of the English govern- ment, was no less unwelcome to the O'Neils, whose traditional supremacy in Ulster they threatened to dispute. It has always been a maxim of English statecraft to keep Ireland weak by keeping her divided ; and FitzWalter had no sooner set foot in Ireland than he formed an alliance with Tyrone, and marched north- ward to subdue the MacDonnells. The O'Neils, however, gave him very little assistance. The old Earl was a cipher ; and Shane, the real ruler of the clan, may have thought that the Scots were, upon the whole, less dangerous neighbours than the English. A slight skirmish took place near Glenarm, where from sixty to eighty Scots were killed ; this and the capture of a few cows making the sum total of the Deputy's successes. At the end of six weeks the Deputy, his pro- visions being exhausted, marched back to Dublin " without receiving submission or hostages." The whole proceeding irresistibly recalls the nursery rhyme which commemorates ^ Cusack to Warwick, September 27, 1551. Cusack to Northumberland, May 8, 1552. Sussex to the King and Queen, April 4, 1557. Dowdall to Heath, November 17, 1557. Instructions to the Earl of Sussex, March 20, 1558. Four Masters, 1552, 1555. 394 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY the exploits of a too celebrated Duke of York.^ On his return from the north FitzWalter again invaded Leix and OfFaly, which he burned and pillaged in the orthodox fashion. On September 30th he received the Queen's thanks for his services in reducing the O'Moores, O'Conors and O'Tooles." On October 4th Rory and Donough O 'Conor, "with the rest of the gentlemen and usurped inhabitants of OfFaly," appeared before the Lord Deputy at Dengen, offering to "deliver the country of Offaly, which they wrongfully kept, and to receive at their Majesties' hands such portions of the said country, and upon such sort and condition as the Lord Deputy should in their Majesties' name appoint.'" Rory and the rest were then dismissed, Donough being detained as a hostage. The latter, if FitzWalter is to be believed, willingly consented to this arrange- ment ; but another and much more probable ^ Four Masters^ 1555 [1556]. Journey by the Earl of Sussex, July i to August 8, 1556. {Carew MSS.). A little later we find Sussex in alliance with the Scots against Shane O'Neil. The apparent anomaly is explained by a letter of Sir Nicholas Arnold to Cecil, January 29, 1565. " With the Irish and Scots I am at the same point as with bears and ban-dogs ; so that they fight earnestly and tug each other well I care not who has the worst." ^ The Privy Council to FitzWalter, September 30, 1556. ' Order to proclaim Rory and Donough O'Conor traitors, February 25, 1557 {Holiday MSS.). 395 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY story represents the Deputy as having per- fidiously detained Donough in violation of his safe-conduct.' On November 29th Connell Oge O'Moore and the other chiefs of the O'Moores signed a similar submission at Leighlin.* A state paper, undated but probably written in December of this year, contains a scheme for the "disposition" of Leix obviously based on the assumption that no further resistance was to be apprehended. The chief of each sept was to name those of his followers for whom he would be answerable ; the persons so named to be considered as Englishmen from the time of their submission, to hold their lands of the fort, and to " answer the laws of the realm as other Englishmen do." The conditions upon which they were to hold their lands were sub- stantially identical with those outlined in the Queen's instructions, but they were somewhat more stringent. They were to forsake the use of the Brehon law, coyne and livery, and all Irish exactions ; to wear the English dress ; to teach their children to speak English, and to marry none but Englishwomen. Besides the O'Moores the government proposed to plant in Leix one hundred and sixty able-bodied men, English, with their wives, children and servants. ^ Four Masters, 1556. Shane O'Neill to Lord Deputy Sydney, February 18, 1566. ' Submission of Connell Oge O'Moore and the rest of his sept {Holiday MSS.). PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY In their case, as in that of the natives, forfeiture was prescribed for using the Brehon law, abandoning the English dress, language or manner of living, and marrying or fostering with the Irish. The colonists were further required to build a church in every " town " within three years, "and a parson of English birth to have the tithe." At a later period " English " was interpreted as meaning Protes- tant ; but this, it need hardly be said, formed no part of the original scheme.^ On December 15th Rory and some others of the O'Conors had a second interview with FitzWalter, when the plans for the approaching plantation were discussed, and Donough was released, other hostages being taken in his place. The negotiators parted amicably, the brothers promising to present themselves before the Council a third time on the Thursday in Christmas week, " there to receive for them and the rest, whose names they should bring with them written in a bill, such portions of the said country as for every of them should by us the Lord Deputy in their Majesties* name be appointed." But Donough, having once got his neck out of the noose, was in no haste to trust himself again in the Deputy's hands. He flatly refused to " come in," and ^ Orders for Leix. Orders for the holding of the English that shall be placed in Leix, The consignation of Leix, December, 1556. 397 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY Fitz Walter, after two or three vain attempts to induce him to surrender, hanged his hostages, offered a reward of £ioo for his head, and 1557 prepared to invade his territory.^ Before the end of February the whole of OfFaly was on fire. The O'Moores rose in Leix a few weeks later." From Leix the flames spread rapidly to the adjoining districts. The O' Dunns and the O'Dempseys, the O'CarroUs and the O'MoUoys, all the tribes whose lands bordered on the plan- tation and to whose liberties the garrisons were a standing menace, flew to arms. In a little while a war — distinguished even among English wars in Ireland by the merciless ferocity of the contending factions — was raging along the western frontier of the Pale.' On June i st, after an interval of fifteen years, a parliament again met in Dublin. The whole country was bitterly discontented, but the par- liament represented only the English interest ; the close boroughs gave the crown a permanent majority in the commons ; and the bills which had been transmitted from England became law with little opposition. A bull of Paul IV, absolving the kingdom from all offences com- mitted during the schism, was read aloud by the 1 Order to proclaim Rory and Donough O 'Conor traitors. {Holiday MSS.). ^ Not, however, before April. On the fourth of that month FitzWalter wrote that the O'Moores were quiet. ' Four Masters, 1557. PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY Lord Chancellor on his knees, the members of both Houses kneeling. After this pious preamble the real business of the session began. The Queen was declared to have been born in just and lawful matrimony, and all acts and sentences to the contrary were revoked.^ A subsidy of thirteen shillings and fourpence per annum upon every ploughland — an enormous sum when the poverty of the country is consideced — was im- posed for a period of ten years.^ All statutes and provisions directed against the See Apos- tolical since the twentieth year of Henry VIII were repealed,' and three acts for the punish- ment of heretics passed during the reigns of Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V were revived.* The first fruits and twentieth parts which Henry had seized for the crown were restored to the Church ; " but the act which restored the Roman jurisdiction confirmed the grantees of abbey lands in the possession of their ill-gotten gains. It could scarcely have obtained the assent of the legislature on any other terms. The restoration of the papal supremacy failed to heal the wounds of the Irish Church ; a common hostility to the Reformation did not suffice to bridge the gulf which had long divided the Celtic from the Anglo-Irish clergy. The sentiments of the latter body are vigorously expressed in the petition of Archbishop Dowdall ^ 3 & 4 Philip and Mary, c. 13. ^ Ibid., c. 12. ' Ibid.y c. 8. * Ibid.y c. 9. « Ihid., c. 10. 399 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OAFFLY for licence " to exercise all kinds of ecclesiastical censures against the wild Irish." Certain " learned men," it seems, were of opinion that it was " matter of prasmunire " to curse even an Irishman " in a temporal cause, no less than to curse a subject "; and his Grace was anxious to be informed whether Hibernicism was to be considered as a temporal or as an ecclesiastical offence. The Queen was as little disposed to relax the statute of praemunire as her father had been ; but she considered that the excommuni- cation of Irishmen was an object so laudable as to justify the suspension of all ordinary rules ; and she sent orders to the Lord Deputy that the Primate was to have permission to curse the natives to his heart's content.' As for the bishops and priests in the " mere Irish " districts, they remained under Mary what they had been under Henry and Edward, " the common spies and ministers of mischief"; and Fitz Walter could suggest no better remedy than a rigorous enforcement of the law which confined ecclesi- astical preferments to Englishmen.^ English ^ Private suits of George Dowdall, Archbishop of Armagh, 1558. The Queen to Sussex, August 4, 1558. ^ "I should also wish a discreet man to be sent out of England, who should be bishop of those parts, as well to see the premises observed in his diocese, as also to give example to other bishops to do the like in reforming their dioceses ; and the ministers under them, who, it is as pitiful as true, be now the common spies and messengers of mischief, and make their churches not only in the north but also throughout the most 400 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY bishops, more zealous for the political ascendancy of their own race than for the spiritual welfare of the congregations committed to their charge, have, both before and after the Reformation, displayed an unrivalled capacity for making themselves and their Church unpopular in Ireland ; and it is probable that if Queen Mary had lived, and the policy which the Lord Deputy recommended had been steadily carried out for twenty years, the Irish would have become the most violent Calvinists in Europe. But speculations as to what might have been lie outside the province of the historian. The ecclesiastical settlement which Mary regarded with so much satisfaction lasted less than three years. Three other acts passed by the same parliament produced more enduring and more pernicious results. The first of these, entitled "an act for the disposition of Leix and OfFaly," relates that the countries of Leix, Slewmarge, Irry, OfFaly, and Glenmalier, "which belong of right to the King's and Queen's most excellent Majesties," had been of late wholly possessed by the O'Moores, O'Conors, and other of Ireland, liker to stables for horses and herdhouses for cattle than holy places to minister with due reverence the most blessed sacraments in ; and use them, as appeareth by the filth in them, more to that purpose than to the other; which ungodliness among Christian men it may please your Majesty, with the advice and authority of my Lord Cardinal's grace, to see abolished and the disorder reformed." — Opinions of Lord FitzWalter, January, 1557. 401 2 D PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY rebels, " and now by the laborious travail of the Earl of Sussex brought again to be in the pos- session of their Majesties " ; and that " the well-disposing of the aforesaid countries and planting of good men there," would " not only be a great strength to those quarters, but also a wonderful assurance of quiet to all the English countries, and a great terror to all the Irish countries bordering upon the same." The Lord Deputy is accordingly authorized " to give and grant to all and every their Majesties' subjects, born within this realm or within the realm of England, such several estates as for the more sure planting and strength of the said countries with good subjects shall be thought unto his wisdom and discretion meet and convenient."^ This act was accompanied by another " for making Leix and OfFaly shireland." The pre- amble recites that the O'Moores, O'Conors, O'Dempsies, and other Irish enemies formerly inhabiting Leix, OfFaly, and the adjacent countries, had, by their repeated rebellions, " provoked the most worthy prince. King Edward VI, to use his power against them ; who at length, to his great charge, did subdue and repress the said ^ 3 & 4 Philip and Mary, c. i. The acts of this parlia- ment are not printed in the order in which they were passed. The act for the disposition of I/cix and Offaly is c. 7 on the roll but c, i of the printed statutes, while the act declaring the Queen to have been born in lawful matrimony, which stands first on the roll, is c. 13 of the printed statutes. 402 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY Irish enemies " ; that since that time the O'Moores and the rest had " traitorously, con- trary to their bounden duties, entered the said countries and held the same against the King's and Queen's Majesties, until such time as their Majesties, by the diligent and painful travail of the Earl of Sussex, by the sword evicted and reduced the said countries out of the wrongful and usurped possession of the said Irish enemy" ; and that, since neither of the aforesaid countries was known to be within the limits of any shire or county, no title could be found for the crown. It was therefore enacted that these countries should be converted into counties, with sheriffs, coroners, and the other usual officers.^ In com- pliment to the Queen and her consort the new shires received the names of Queen's County and King's County, and the forts, which were afterwards converted into market towns, those of Maryborough and Philipstown respectively. By writers of the sixteenth century the name Leix is frequently used as synonymous with Queen's Coimty, and Offaly as synonymous with King's County; but this nomenclature is far from accurate. Offaly originally comprised, in addition to the eastern half of the present King's County, the baronies of East and West Offaly in Kildare and those of Portnahinch and Tinnehinch in Queen's County ; while the 1 3 & 4 Philip and Mary, c. 2. 403 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY territories of Delvin M'Coghlan, Fercal or O'MoUoy's country, and Ely O^Carroll, corres- ponding to the modern baronies of Garrycastle, Ballycowan, Eglish, Clonlish, and Ballybritt, formed no part of the ancient OfFaly. Leix is conterminous with the modern Queen's County, exclusive of the baronies of Portnahinch and Tinnehinch, and of the territory of Upper Ossory, now represented by the baronies of Clandonagh, Clarmallagh, and Upperwoods.^ A third act passed during the same session proves that the government contemplated the extension of the policy of " shiring," with its inevitable accompaniments of confiscation and colonization, to other parts of the island. The preamble relates that divers and sundry robberies, murders, and felonies were daily and hourly done and committed within sundry towns, villages, and other waste grounds, being no shire-grounds, to the great loss of divers and sundry true sub- jects. It was therefore enacted that the Lord Chancellor for the time being should, at any time when parliament was not sitting, have full power and authority to direct their Majesties' commission to such number of persons as he should think most meet and convenient to view, survey, and make inquiry of all towns, villages, and waste grounds, being no shire-grounds ; and to limit, make, nominate, and divide all such '^Book of Rights, pp. 215-216, and Dr. O'Dono van's notes. 404 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY towns, villages, and waste grounds into such and so many shires, counties, and hundreds as should be thought by their wisdoms most meet and convenient.^ But this legislation was little more than the expression of a pious wish. Confiscation, which in other countries has so often followed conquest, has in Ireland uniformly preceded it; the so-called " grants " amounted merely to a permission to the grantees to take possession of whatever lands they could wrest from the natives. Nevertheless, with the passing of these acts, the war entered on a new and more merci- less phase. A powerful vested interest had been created which made all further compromise or conciliation impossible. The planters conceived that they had a right to demand security from the government, and argued, not altogether unreasonably, that no security was possible until the old inhabitants had been exterminated. The Irish on their side fought with the ferocity of- men whose all was at stake. Quarter was neither given nor taken. Connell Ogc O'Moorc and his ally MacMurrough Kavanagh were captured, by treachery it is said, and hanged, or, according to another account, crucified at Leighlin Bridge ;* but the dastardly deed served only to infuriate their clansmen. In July the ^ 3 & 4 Philip and Mary, c. 3. ^ Four Masters, 1557. Ware's if««a/s, 1557. Bowling's Annals. Shane O'Neil to Sydney, February 18, 1566. PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY Lord Deputy, having prorogued the parliament, invaded the King's County, and some hard fighting took place. In his report to the Queen Sussex described this expedition as a brilliant success ; but he was unable to conceal the fact that the O'Conors had burnt the suburbs of Philipstown as well as several " towns " in the Pale.^ In the autumn the Irish again invaded Leix and OfFaly, which they "destroyed and burned, saving certain forts."* In the next year they laid siege to Maryborough, which was held for the crown by the Lord Deputy's brother. Sir Henry Radcliffe. The attack was repulsed and several of the assailants, including the redoubtable Richard Oge, were killed ; but this did Jiot end the rebellion.' At the acces- sion of Elizabeth the new counties remained " unstablished and unhabited, being planted only with men of war," and the charge was "like to grow daily more intolerable," * More than a year later Sussex himself described the plantation as a work which he had long contemplated, but the execution of which he had been repeatedly compelled to postpone.^ For two generations the savage struggle continued, growing every ^ Journey by the Earl of Sussex, July, 1557. * Dowdall to Heath, November 17, 1557. ^ Sussex to BoxoU, June 8, 1558. * Instructions to the Earl of Sussex, May, 1560. ' Lord Lieutenant and Council to the Queen, October 23, 1561. 406 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY year more savage. In pitched battles the victory usually remained with the English. But it was not by pitched battles that the result of such a contest could be determined. The country was admirably adapted for guerilla warfare. The bog of Allen, the Slievebloom and Slievecomar mountains, and the vast forests which, in the time of Mary, and even a hundred years later, covered the entire central plain of Ireland, pro- vided a secure retreat for the outlaws.^ Thither they retired when the English host was in their country, and thence they issued forth during the long winter nights, which a learned judge of the last century once described as suitable for the "removal" of obnoxious politicians, to burn ^ " Lease est regiuncula silvestris et uliginosa ; primarium oppidum est Maryburg, ubi cum suo seneschallo praesidiarii agunt, qui sese segre defendunt contra O'Moores (qui se ut antiques hujus dominos gerunt), MacGilpatrick, O'Dempsios et alios, makiica et tumultuosa hominum genera, qui ad Anglos deturbandos nihil non quotidie moliuntur." — Letterpress pre- fixed to Janssen's Map of Leinster. The natural and artificial features of the country are very clearly shown in the first map of Leix and OfFaly, supposed to have been executed in 1563. This map, of which the original is in the British Museum, was reproduced in facsimile in the Kilkenny Archaologicai Society's Journal for i868. As late as 1650, Gerard Boate described the country as " full of woods, some whereof be many miles long and broad," — Natural History of Ireland^ ch. 15. For the extent of the woods a hundred years earlier see Robert Dillon to Bellingham, October 15, 1548. "A portion of OfFaly called Fercal is so strong as nature could devise to make it by reason of woods and bogs." — Description of the provinces of Ireland, 1580 (?) [Carew MSS.). 407 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY farms, to drive off cattle, and to cut the throat of any Englishman who wandered outside the walls of the towns.^ The majority of the planters, harassed by the natives and feebly supported by the government, abandoned their homes in despair. At the end of the sixteenth century three-fourths of the "planted" district was still occupied by the Irish/ At length, when James I had been many years on the throne, Sir Arthur Chichester succeeded in deporting the remnant of the O'Moores to Kerry, The last O'Conor had been killed a few years earlier.' War was declared against France in June, and to the war with Frailce a war with Scotland was soon added. With the revival of the European struggle the disorders of Ireland assumed a more serious aspect, O'Conor's son, Cormac, was in Scotland, and George Paris, who had given so much trouble to the govern- ment in the last reign, had reopened negotiations with the Court of France.* Kildare too was ^ State Papers, Elizabeth, passim. See especially a letter of Walter Peppard to Cecil, October 8, 1562; and, for an example of the cruelties on the other side, Lord Justice and Council to the Queen, October 31, 1 564. See also O'Sullivan's Compendium, p. 88, and Dr. Kelly's note. ' Four Masters, 1600. Fynes Moryson's Itinerary, pt. ii, bk. I, ch. 2. * Report upon the state of the kingdom of Ireland upon the view of certain commissioners sent thither in the year 1622 {Sleane MSS., 4756.), * The King and Queen to Sussex, June 23, 1557. The Queen to Sussex, June 2, 1558. Sussex to Boxoll, June 8, 1558. 408 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY discontented. The Queen, when she restored his title and estates, had thought it wise to abridge some part of the enormous powers which his ancestors had enjoyed. The Earl scarcely pretended to conceal his resentment ; and his hostility was a source of considerable embarrass- ment to the government, which was unable to trust and afraid to quarrel with him.^ The Geraldine estates separated Leix and OfFaly from the Pale, and, unless Kildare could be either crushed or conciliated the effective pro- secution of the war in the midlands was impossible. The state of the north was still more alarming. In peace the Ulster Scots were little more than a gang of robbers ; the declaration of war con- verted them into the advance guard of an invading army, and rendered their expulsion at once most necessary and most difficult. In October Sussex, having failed to reduce the midlands, once more turned his attention to Ulster. His object on this occasion was to assist the Baron of Dungannon against his brother 1 Depositions of Donnell MacOny (May 14, 1557), Shane Burge (May 22), Alexander MacTurlough (May 22), Phelim MacNeil Boy (June 24), relative to the claim of the Earl of Kildare to levy " bonnaught." The three former papers are in the Record Office, the last in Lambeth. The "bonnaught" was originally a tax imposed by the eighth Earl of Kildare when deputy for the King's service ; but that Earl and his son had held office so long that the tax had come to be regarded as their personal property. 409 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY Shane. He succeeded in reaching Armagh, where he pitched his camp in the cathedral and burnt a great part of the town. Having done this, and taken a few more cows, he returned to Dublin ; Shane, who had contrived to evade a meeting, promptly retaliating by burning several villages in the Pale.^ Similar expeditions were afterwards under- taken into Munster and Connaught, but, although the Lord Deputy penetrated as far south as Waterford, and as far west as Galway, he made no permanent impression.^ This noble- man held office under both Mary and Elizabeth; the results of his government are best described in a state paper of the latter reign. " And when in time of war with any Irishry of power, as of late with O'Neil, occasion moveth the governor to proclaim a main journey for thirty or forty days to invade the enemy's country, the governor goeth with the army and force of the English Pale, to their great charge, where they continue out their days while their victuals last, and then fain to return home again, as many times they do, without booty or other harms done or yet can be done to a waste country, the inhabitants whereof, whilst the ^ A Journey made by the Earl of Sussex, October 22-30, 1557 [Carew MSS.). Letter of the Council from Armagh, October 2$ {Haliday MSS.). Four Masters, 1557. ^ A minute account of these expeditions by Athlone, Pur- suivant-at-Arms, will be found in the Carew MSS. 410 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY English host is in their country, shutteth all their cattle into woods and pastures, where they continue until the English army be gone ; and then do they come into the plains of their country with their cattle again, where they are ready anew to invade and spoil the English Pale as before ; as commonly they do bring with them great booties out of the borders of the same, whereof if recovery be not made by hot pursuit of some part of that they take away, very seldom or never can be found anything of theirs worth the having to be taken from them for the same again. So as, by these appearances, wheresoever the service is done, the same is a charge to the Queen's Majesty, a burden to the liege people to the .decay both of them and the English soldiers, fretting one another of them- selves, with small defence to the Pale, nor yet can be any great scourge to the enemy, who always gaineth by our losses, and we never gain by them, although we win all we play for, the stakes being so unequal, not a penny against a pound, for that the English Pale is planted with towns and villages, inhabited with people resident, having goods and chattels, corn and household stuff, good booties for the Irish enemies to take from us, and their countries being kept of purpose waste, uninhabited, as where nothing is, nothing can be had."^ ^ The disorders of the Irishry and the state of the English Pale and civil shires {Carew MSS.y vol. iii). This verjr 411 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY The government, meanwhile, continued to excite hatred by its crimes and contempt by its weakness. Creeds might come and creeds might go, but the essential features of the administra- tion never altered. Mary, on coming to the throne, had endeavoured to conciliate her English subjects by restoring the currency ; but Ireland suffered rather than profited by a reform from the benefits of which she was expressly excluded. A proclamation of September, 1556, made the circulation of base money penal except in Ireland, and the bad coins, which were no longer current in England, found their way in vast quantities across St. George's Channel. Trade came to an end ; the treasury was empty ; and the army could only be maintained by marauding. Out- lying garrisons, after devastating the districts in which they were stationed, retreated into the Pale and lived upon the plunder of the Englishry. In many places these exactions proved so intolerable that the farmers abandoned their homes and took refuge in the " mere Irish " districts, in which at least there was some sort of security for life and property.^ interesting paper is undated, but the internal evidence shows that it must have been wrritten in 1571. "This thirty-seven years past since the rebellion of Thomas FitzGerald." It is, however, to a great extent, a transcript of two earlier docu- ments, the " Book of the decay and waste of the English Pale," 1558, and the "Book of the causes of the disobedience and disorders of the Irishry," August, 1559. ^ A Proclamation for good order between the soldiers and 412 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY The Council, too, were quarrelling in the usual fashion. Sussex and Dowdall agreed in hating and reviling the mere Irish. But they agreed in nothing else. The Primate was thoroughly loyal, but not even the most loyal prelate could applaud a Deputy who sacked churches with as little compunction as the wildest of wild Irishmen. On November 1 7th Dowdall wrote to Dr. Heath, Archbishop of York, bitterly denouncing the conduct of the Viceroy. The vice-regal army had occupied Armagh, had pillaged the cathedral and burnt several churches, but the writer's own wrongs moved him less than the miseries of the country. Ireland, he averred, was in a worse state than it had ever been within his remembrance, "except the time only that O'Neil and O'Donel invaded the English Pale and burned a great piece of it." The north was " as far out of frame as ever it was." The Scots, having successfully defied all efforts to reduce them, bore rule " not only in such lands as they did lately usurp, but also in Clandeboye " ; and the O'Moores and O'Conors had once more " destroyed " Leix and OfFaly. The letter concludes with a petition for the country, March 27, 1557 {Holiday MSS.). The Arch- bishop of Armachane his opinion touching the government of Ireland {Harleian MSS., vol, xxxv, No. 4). Simon's Essay on Irish Coins, p. 36. Ruding's Jnnals of the Coinage, I, 331. Articles " On the Irish Coins of Queen Mary," by the Rev. Aquila Smith in the Kilkenny Archesological Journal, vol. iii, PP- 357-368. PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY redress of such hurts and damages as the see of Armagh had sustained during the late invasion.^ It was probably in consequence of these com-- plaints that the Lord Deputy was summoned to 1558 London at the beginning of the next year to confer with the English government on the state of Ireland. Sydney and Curwen were appointed to act as Lords Justices during his absence ; but the archbishop soon retired and the whole burden of administration devolved upon his colleague. The dispatches of Sussex were written with the uniform purpose of mag- nifying his own services and concealing his own failures ; Sydney, whatever may have been his faults, had at least the merit of never deceiving his employers, and his letters throw a flood of light on the condition of the country. Calais fell in January, and the "dolorous news" reached Ireland a month later. An invasion was hourly expected, and nineteen out of every twenty Irishmen were prepared to welcome the invaders. Even the inhabitants of the Pale were "weary and irke" of a govern- ment which performed none of the duties for the performance of which governments, in theory at least, are supposed to exist. Men, money and weapons were alike wanting, and the Lord Justice believed that, if reinforcements ^ Dowdall to Heath, November 17, 1557. 414 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY were not sent without delay, Ireland would go the way of Calais. A fortnight later he wrote to Sussex in a strain of still greater despondency. If the Queen was not prepared to send speedy succours she ought, he insisted, to make up her mind to abandon Ireland. " It shall be more for the Queen's honour that we be called home by order than driven home with shame." In a previous dispatch the writer had complained of the depreciation of the currency ; but now even the bad coin was scarce, and the letter concludes with an abject appeal for " money at this pinch though it be as base as counters." On the same day the Archbishop of Dublin also wrote to Sussex, enclosing an extremely alarming letter which he had received from William Piers, the constable of Carrickfergus. " One of the chief men in Ireland, G." — the Earl of Kildare is evidently meant— was said to be " a true Frenchman and the chief doer with Scots and Frenchmen." Truth, as we all know, lies at the bottom of a wine-cup, and Sorley Boy, the new chief of the MacDonels, " being merry with drink," had been discussing the political situation with injudicious candour. " He said plainly that Englishmen had no right to Ireland, and said further they would never trust Englishmen more, but said he would trust the Earl of Kildare, who, quoth Sorley, hath more right to this country ; in effect those very words he spake." The writer concludes with 415 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY an earnest exhortation that " the man whose name beginneth with G." should be sent into England and detained there. Until this was done there was no hope of reforming Ireland, " and I fear me there will a further mischief ensue, if your honours seek not presently to do as aforesaid away with him in time." Nor was Piers the only person who urged the government to procure Kildare's removal. In an anonymous report presented to Sydney in the same month the Earl was described as " the chief and only hinderer of Her Majesty's affairs and your lordship's good proceedings." It was said that he was the prime mover in a con- spiracy in which Lord KilcuUen, Sir Thomas FitzThomas, the Bishop of Kildare, and many other gentlemen of the Pale were engaged; that nearly all the lawyers in Ireland were in his employment ; that his desire was " to have the room and office of the deputationship," to which indeed he had a sort of hereditary claim, and that his steward had been overheard to say at Portlester " that this realm would never be well so long as an Englishman had the government thereof, and never until such time as my lord his master had the government." ^ ^ Lord Justice and Council to the Privy Council, February S, 1558. Sydney to Sussex, February 26. Curwen to Sussex, February 26. Piers to Curwen, February 14, enclosed in the preceding. Articles against the Earl of Kildare, by an Irish- man of Portlester. Lord Justice and Council to the Queen, March i. 416 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY But France once more suffered the psycho- logical moment to slip past ; the Earl of Sussex returned to Ireland in April, bringing large reinforcements with him, and, after a few weeks of uncertainty, the country settled down into what was now its normal condition. There was no general rising, but every province had its particular disturbances. The war in the King's and Queen's counties dragged on with infinite loss of life, but with no other perceptible result; the Scots made fresh raids on Ulster, and the O'Briens continued to cut each other's throats in Thomond. An idea had long been entertained in official circles that the continual residence of the Chief Governor at Dublin was unfavourable to the tranquillity of the country, and Sussex was ordered to keep constantly travelling from one part of the island to another.^ The Lord Deputy carried out these instructions to the letter. But Ireland profited very little by his activity, for his dignity required that he should be attended by a large retinue, and his poverty compelled him to support his retinue by plunder. The supplies which he had brought from England were soon exhausted. At mid- summer, 1558, the condition of Ireland was worse, if possible, than it had been twelve months earlier. The bad money had produced ^Instructions to the Earl of Sussex, March 20, 1558. 417 2E PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY bankruptcy, and bankruptcy famine, and the people everywhere were dying in hundreds/ Sussex, when in London, had persuaded the Queen that the accusations brought against him by the Archbishop of Armagh were false or exaggerated, and Dr. Dowdall was commanded to repair to England " to be ordered as apper- taineth for slandering unjustly of a minister in so great a charge.'"' The Primate reached London in June, and was examined before the Privy Council a month later. He defended his conduct in a long and most interesting speech, which has fortunately been preserved ; and perhaps no other extant document throws so clear a light upon the character of the Irish government at this unhappy epoch. The speech opens with an able but partial survey of Anglo-Irish history from the date of the so-called conquest. The archbishop describes the state of Ireland on the eve of the Norman invasion, the success of the invaders, and the subsequent decay of the colony. This decay he attributed to three causes. First, the " nations of the Irish blood," who had retained ^ " A man may ride south, west, and north thirty or forty miles and see neither house, corn, ne cattle. Many hundreds of men, women, and children are dead of famine." — Articles by the Primate of Armagh, May 30, 1558. Sussex, in a letter to Boxoll (June 3), expressly attributes the " dearth " to the " baseness " of the money. ^ The Queen to Dowdall, February 7. Sussex to the Privy Council, April 7. 418 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY their lands at the conquest — the O'Neils, O'Donels, O'Briens, Kavanaghs and others — had continued to use their old customs " with- out law or any good order ; and this is the only cause of all the disorder and daily trouble of that realm." Secondly, as the immigration from England had declined and the Irish had begun to recover from their first alarm, the latter had reconquered a great part of the lands which had been taken from them at the conquest, " and murdered some and banished the other part of the English subjects that dwelled in the lands which they recovered," until many districts, particularly in Ulster, which in the fourteenth century had been " as English as any part of the Pale," were inhabited by none but Irishmen and Scots. Thirdly, many of the old English families which had settled in Ireland in the twelfth century — the Burkes and Berminghams in Connaught, the Barrys, the Roches, and some of the Geraldines in Munster, are particularly mentioned — " having their lands among the wild Irish, far distant from the succour of the Pale and the Lord Deputy for the time being," had intermarried with the natives and adopted their manners, and were ready to rebel whenever an opportunity presented itself, "after the custom of all other Irishmen." By these means " the English tongue, the English rule, the English habit, and, more to be rued, the English power," 419 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY had decayed, until in the year of grace 1558, not a tenth part of Ireland remained obedient. Coming next to his own time the archbishop discussed in detail the steps which must be taken to " reform " the country. A thorough reformation could only be effected in one of two ways. The best course would be " to bring all the Irish rebels by their own consent to become subjects, live civil, obedient to the King's laws, whereunto their consents will not be had." Nothing, in Dr. Dowdall's opinion, could be more advantageous to the natives themselves ; but " the pride and ravenous behaviour of their forefathers " were " so printed in their hearts " as to afford little hope of their conformity. The alternative policy was to expel or massacre the natives, and to " plant " the whole island with Englishmen. " And truly this is the most godly way of reformation, and most profitable and commodious for their Majesties and that poor realm also, if it might be brought easily to pass, as it cannot." But, however " godly " such a proceeding might be, the archbishop sadly acknowledged that it was not expedient ; and " godliness," he thought, might for the moment be legitimately sacrificed to expediency. A thorough reformation, whether by consent or force, being alike impracticable, it only remained to consider such minor measures of reform as might be attempted with some 420 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY prospect of success. Two matters in particular called for the immediate attention of the gbvernment — the plantation of Leix and Offaly, and the expulsion of the Ulster Scots. Alike from a military, a financial and a social standpoint, the former enterprise has hitherto proved a complete failure. The Queen, at her accession, had evidently contemplated a pacific policy, for Sir Anthony St. Leger had been ordered to reduce the ■ army to five hundred men.^ In June, 1558, the garrisons of Philips- town and Maryborough alone contained one thousand five hundred troups in the pay of the crown, besides horsemen and kerne " found by the country." The expense had been enormous, and the prospect of a satisfactory settlement was as remote as ever. If the Deputy, with the forces then in Ireland, could not reduce the O'Moores and O 'Conors before the beginning of the approaching winter " in such sort as they shall never be able to raise head again," it would be " very hard to vanquish them, or to keep them out of Leix and OfFaly, or from enjoying the English Pale," and considerations both of prudence and humanity would make it advisable to treat with them. Some men, no doubt, would say that it was " not for the Queen's honour to make peace with that people"; but no man was fit to govern Ireland until he had ^Instructions to Sir Anthony St. Leger, October, 1553. 421 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY laid to heart the evangelical maxim, " remittere usque ad septuagessies sepsies." Turning next to the Scotch colonists in Ulster, the Primate described the steps which he proposed to take for the expulsion of these unwelcome intruders. The sea between Antrim and the Mull of Kintyre was so narrow, and the Irish coast so well furnished with landing- places that it was practically impossible to prevent the Scots from making descents upon Ulster ; ^ but to prevent them from making permanent settlements ought to be not only possible but easy. The only difficulty lay in the distance of the invaders from the Pale and the disaffection of the Irish tribes by whom they were surrounded. Happily the Irish had very good reason to dread and dislike the invaders, and would willingly assist the govern- ment against them if once they were convinced that the government harboured no evil inten- tions towards themselves. Only, in order to secure their support, it was absolutely essential that all aggressive designs against the native Irish should be frankly and finally abandoned. ^ " When the Scots do come the most part of Clandebojre, M'Quillin and O'Cahan must be at their commandment in Ending them in their countries; and hard it is to stay the coming of them, for there be so many landing-places between the island of Rathlin and Knockfergus; and above Rathlin standeth so far from defence as it is very hard to have men to be there continually, being so far from help." — Cusack to Northumberland, May 8, 1552. 422 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY If this were done, it would be an easy matter to induce all the Irishmen of Ulster, "whom you call the wild Irish," to make war upon the McDonnels; Tyrone, O'Donel, O'Neil of Clandeboye, and O'Cahan might all be trusted to do their parts, and the expulsion of the Scots would be effected without expense to the crown. If the O'Moores and O'Conors were reconciled and the Scots expelled it would be possible to make a considerable reduction in the army. Three hundred English soldiers — one hundred horse, one hundred bowmen, and one hundred gunners, with six hundred native gallowglasses, would then suffice for the defence of the country, and, if the policy of conciliation were steadily and cautiously pursued, it ought in a short time to be possible to make still further reductions. In order to do this it was only necessary for the Deputy to bear in mind that "clemency and good discretion" were "more meet in a governor than rigour or coolness," and to "behave him- self accordingly, to win the love and favour of all the country, and specially of the mere Irish, and to keep truth and faith in his promise, and seek no matters or occasions to take their goods or lands from them." By this means the annual expenditure, which Dowdall estimated at ;^20,ooo, might be reduced to little more than £Sy°°° y while the revenue might be increased by re-letting the crown lands on more profitable terms, by 423 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY equalizing the English and Irish currencies, and by abandoning a large number of costly and useless strongholds. "Concerning the daily hindrance that that poor realm sustaineth by the money" the Primate spoke with the utmost bitterness, repeating almost verbatim the com- plaints of Sir James Crofts in the preceding reign. The speech ends with an earnest exhor- tation to the Queen to establish a university in Ireland, "with some free schools in such places as shall be thought meet, whereby learning shall increase, and by learning (the Irish) be brought to know their duty to God first, and next to their prince, and so then brought to obey the prince's laws."^ The archbishop died a few weeks later. It does not appear that his arguments made much impression on the Queen, for the policy of the Irish government underwent no change. The Scots continued to give trouble, and Sussex, at his own earnest request, obtained per- mission to attack them in their own country. A fleet was equipped in August ; on September 14th the Deputy sailed from Dublin, "trusting to accomplish your Highness's commandment if wind and weather serve." Arriving on the nineteenth at Lough Gylkeran in Kintyre, he landed and burned the country for eight miles, "and therewith James McDonnell's chief house, ^ The Archbishop of Armachane, his opinion touching the government of Ireland, 1558 {Harleian MSS., Vol. xxxv, No. 4). 424 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY called Saudell, a fair pile and a strong." On the next day he crossed over by land and burned twelve miles on the other side of the lough, " wherein were burned a fair house of his called Mawher Imore, and a strong castle called Donalvere." From Kintyre he proceeded to Arran, "and did the like there," and thence to the Great and Little Cumbrays, which he also burned. "And riding at anchor between Cumbrays and Bute, where I also thought to have landed, there rose suddenly a terrible tem- pest, in which I sustained some loss." ^ The loss was probably more serious than the Lord Deputy admitted, for, although he suc- ceeded in reaching Ireland in safety, he did not again venture to cross the water, but contented himself with making war upon the Scots in Ulster. In October he invaded the Route and carried off a few more cows, but the victory was bought at a terrible price. A horrible disease broke out among the fleet and spread from the fleet to the army. In a few days out of one thousand one hundred soldiers less than four hundred were fit to take the field. Sickness and the approach of winter combined to render further military operations impossible, and the remnant of the troops retired in disorder to Dublin.' ^Sussex to the Queen, September 13, October 3 and October 6. ^ Sussex to the Queen, October 31. 425 PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY The prosecution of the Scots absorbed the attention of the Irish government during the last months of Mary's reign ; but another event which took place about the same time, although it is not even mentioned in the state papers of the year, w^as productive of far more serious consequences. In the autumn of 1558, while Queen Mary lay sick unto death, Matthew, Baron of Dungannon, was killed in attempting to invade his brother's territory, and at the 1559 beginning of the next year the old Earl of Tyrone died. With the death of his father Shane became in name what he had long been in fact, the chief of the O' Neils, while the earl- dom descended to his nephew, Matthew's infant son, Brian. Mary had died in November, and it was left for the new sovereign to decide whether she should support the claims of the young Baron, or recognize the right of an Irish tribe to choose its own rulers.^ ^Elizabeth to Sussex, August 15, 1560. Proclamation against Shane O'Neil, June 8, 1561. Campion, p. i88. Four Masters, 1558. 426 INDEX Adare, 8 1 Adrian IV, Pope, 157 Agard, Thomas, 195, 351 Albanagh, Thomas, 210 Alen, John, Archbishop of Dublin, 87, 88, 92, 94, 100, ibjn Alen, Sir John, Master of the Rolls, subsequently Lord Chancellor, 88 ; denounces Kildare, 89 ; complains of Skeffington, io6«, 107, 117, 181, 191 ; his passion for intrigue, 195, 289, 299,- conspires against Gray, 221, 228 ; a commissioner for the dissolution of the monasteries, 275 ; intrigues against St. Leger, 289, 290, 299 ; sent to the Tower, 293 ; complains of Bellingham, 303, 304 All Saints, Dublin, 279 Anglo-Irish Lords, their exac- tions, 54, 55, 63-65 Ardagh, diocese of, 141 Ardee, 223 Ards, 34, 346 Arklow, 59 Aroasian monasteries, 147 Arra, 207 Ashbold, Edmund, 248/2 Athlone, 113, 282 Augustinian monasteries, 147 Aylmer, Gerald, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, 117, 181, 191, 204, 374, 382 Bagenall, Sir Ralph, 326, 381 Bale, John, Bishop of Ossory, 333-340, 359-364, 366 Ballybogan abbey, 166 j Holy Rood of, 281 Baltinglass, abbey of, 146, 166 Barnewall, Patrick, 1 66, 278 Baron, Milo, Bishop of Ossory, 135 ' Roland, Archbishop of Cashel, 365 Barrys, 40, 286, 419 ; Lord, 246, 343 Basnet, Edward, Dean of St. Patrick's, 331 Beccai-ie, Raymond de, Sieur de Fourqueval, 309, 310 BectiflF abbey, 166 Bellahoe, battle of, 223, 224 Bellingham, Sir Edward, 282, 289, 299-308, 316-320, 373, 374, 376 Benedictine monasteries, 147 427 INDEX Berminghams, 37, 419 Berners, William, 190 Birr, 207 Bissets, 34 Black rents, 71, 213 Bodkin, Christopher, Arch- bishop of Tuam, 143, 271, 275 Body, William, 182 Boleyn, Anne, marriage of, 90«, 162 Thomas. 5^^ Wiltshire, Earl of Bonnaught, 63, 409^ Bonner, Edmund, Bishop of London, 275 Boulogne, siege of, 288 ; restored to France, 312 Brabazon, Sir William, 122, 173, 181, 182, 186, 204, 215, 228, 275, 278, 297, 298,308 Brady, Thomas, Bishop of Kilmore, 134 Brakland, 187 Brann, George, Bishop of Dromore, 133 Brehon law, 48-50 Brereton, Sir William, 104, 117, 228,234, 237, 244 Andrew, 318, 319, 346, 347 Brigid, Saint, 45, 145 Browne, George, Archbishop of Dublin, his character, 156 ; letter to Cromwell, 159, 160 ; speech on the royal supremacy, 163, 164 ; quarrels with his clergy, 167, 271 ; and with the Bishop of Meath, i68 ; rebuked by Henry, i68 ; denounces Gray, 196 ; preaches against Popery, 271 ; a commissioner for the dis- solution of the monasteries, 275 ; his rapacity, 278, 329; destroys images, 2&1, 282 ; denounces St. Leger, 315 ; speech in favour of the new liturgy, 323 ; denounces Dowdall, 326 ; obtains the primacy, 330 ; denounced by Bale, 337, 340 ; con- secrates Bale and Goodacre, 338, 339 ; deprived, 364 ; his bastards, 365 Bruce, Edward, 33 Bryan, Sir Francis, 303, 308 Burke, Theobald, 207 Burkes, 36, 40, 207, 392, 419 ; see also De Burgh and MacWilliam Burke Butler, James, Lord. See Ormond, James, ninth Earl Edmund, Archbishop of Cashel, 135, 136, 271, 274 Richard, Lord Mount- garrett, 213, 340, 360 Calais, loss of, 414, 415 Candalle, Comte de, 95n Cannon, Thomas, 88 Carmelites, 149 Carrick Bradagh, 221, 225, 237 Carnckfergus, 35, 393 428 INDEX Carrickogynell, 174, 177, 181 Casey, William, Bishop of Limerick, 32471, 364-366 Catherlagh, 41 Cess, 352 Christ Church, Dublin, priory of, 150 Churches, state of the Irish, 137-144, 400« Cistercian monasteries, 148 Clandeboye, 30, 33, 346, 413 Clare, abbey of, 280 Clement VII, Pope, 96 Clonmacnois, diocese of, 141 ; abbey of, 282 Clontarf, 99 Coinmed, 55 Columba, Saint, 145 Columbanus, 144 Comyn, Nicholas, Bishop of Waterford, 135 Connal, abbey of, 150, 153 Connaught, Irish in, 31 ; Normans in, 36-38, 241 ; not divided into counties, 53; state of, in 1552, 344, 345 Coshery, 64 Cowley, Robert, 88, 151, 165, 191,275 Coyne and livery, 55 Cranmer, Thomas, Arch- bishop of Canterbury, 322, 332 Crofts, Sir James, 325-327, 331, 332, 351, 354-357, 375, 376, 382 Cromer, George, Archbishop of Armagh, 88, 93, 272 Cromwell, Thomas, 90, 214, 249, 334 CuUen, Patrick, Bishop of Clogher, 134 Currency, depreciation of, 350-358, 412 Curwen, Hugh, Archbishop of Dublin, 366-368, 391, 414 Cusack, Sir Thomas, 247, 276, 326, 338 ; his report to Northumberland, 342- 348, 382 De Burgh, Honora, 377 (or Burke), Roland, Bishop of Clonfert, 170, 196, 273 De Burghs, Earls of Ulster, 36, 37 De Clare, Richard, called Strongbow, 44, 145 De Courcy, John, 33, 35, 145 De Lacy, Hugh, 33, 145 Walter, 145 Delahide, James, 92, 116, 203, 204 Delvin, Lord, Lord Deputy, 72, 87, 186 Dengen, 118, 187, 188, 395 Desmond, Earls of, extent of their jurisdiction, 39, 40, 83 Maurice, first Earl of, 39,55 Thomas, eighth Earl of, 83 429 INDEX Desmond, James, ninth Earl of, 140 Maurice, tenth Earl of, of, 140 James, eleventh Earl of, 56, 57, 86, 95, 199 Thomas, twelfth Earl of, 95, no, 112 John, thirteenth Earl of, no, 171, 173 James FitzMaurice, calling himself thirteenth Earl of, 112, 211,224, 238 James Fitzjohn, four- teenth Earl of, 173, 180, 203-205, 207, 211, 217, 220, 222, 223, 238 ; sub- mission of, 239, 246, 347, 348, 392 Dingle, 56, no Dominicans, 148, 149, 155 Doran, Maurice, Bishop of Leighlin, 59, ^S^ Dowdall, George, Archbishop of Armagh, 272, 275, 304, 305, 313, 314, 325-330, 364, 399, 400, 413; his " opinion touching the government of Ireland," 418-424 Down, cathedral of, 282 Duleek priory, 166 Dunbojrne, 107 Dunbrody abbey, 166 Dungannon, 225 Dungarvan, 57 Dusk (or Dousk), abbey of, 59, 166, 278^ Dyrram, John, ii6n Ellengrane, abbey of, 280 Ely O'CarroU, 40, 207, 404 Enaghdune, diocese of, 142 English rebels, 32-41 Eremites, 149 Fassaghroe, 219 Ferns, abbey of, 146, 166 Fethard, 40, 135 Fingal, 44, 98 Finglas, Thomas, Chief Baron, 94 FitzAdelm, William, 145 FitzGerald, Richard Oge, 386, 406 FitzMaurice, Lord, 246, 343 James, thirteenth Earl of Desmond. See Desmond FitzPatrick. See MacGilla- patrick FitzPiers (FitzGerald), Ty- balt, 212, 248^ FitzStephen, Robert, 44 FitzSymonds, Walter, Arch- bishop of Dublin, 1 30 FitzWalter, Lord. See Sussex, Earl of Fitz William, Sir William, .390. . FitzWilliam, Treasurer of St. Patrick's, 304 Fosterage, 52 Fourqueval, Raymond de Beccarie, Sieur de. See Beccarie Franciscans, 149, 155 Gardiner, Stephen, Bishop of Winchester, 275 43« INDEX Gavelkind, Si, 52 Geraldines, 32, 60, 90, 298, 309,419 the five, brothers of the ninth Earl of Kildare, 12 1, 122, 183, 185 See also Desmond, Earls of; Kildare, Earls of Goodacre, Hugh, Archbishop of Armagh, 333, 338 Gormanstown, Lord, 66« Gossipred, 52, 53 Gracedieu, nunnery of, 150, 278 Granard, abbot of, 127, 153 Grane, nunnery of, 167, 277 Gray, Lord Leonard, 114, 117,118; captures Kildare, 119 ; Lord Deputy, 172 ; his campaign in Munster, 173-178; quarrel writh Brabazon, 181, 182 ; com- plains of ill-usage, 1 83-1 84; reduces Leinster, 186-189 ; accused of Popery, 195- 197 ; his distrust of the Butlers, 197-199; adopts a conciliatory policy, 201, 202, 233 ; his progress through Munster and Con- naught, 207-209 ; com- plaints against, 2 10-2 14; reconciliation w^ith Ormond, 215 ; attempts to capture "young Gerald," 221, 223, 225 ; defeats O'Neil at Bellahoe, 223 ; reduces Munster, 224, 238; recalled, 227 ; sent to the Towrer, 229 ; trial and execution of, 247-249 ; opposes the dissolution of the monasteries, 276-277 ; created Viscount Grane, 277« ; burns the cathedral of Down, 282 Haghevoo, friary of, 280 Hagmacarte, monastery of, 280 Halsay, Thomas, Bishop of Leighlin, 133 Henry VIII, his marriage with Anne Boleyn, go, 162 ; resolves to extirpate the Geraldines, 122; his ecclesiastical policy, 124, 273, 300 ; declared head of the church, 163-165 ; rebukes Archbishop Browne, 168 ; dissatisfied with the state of Ireland, 1 84 ; his Irish policy, 230- 233 ; declared King of Ireland, 247 ; accused of poisoning Ormond, 293, 294 Hogges, nunnery of, 167 Holmpatrick, priory of, 166 Hospitallers, 148 Howth, Judge, 360 Inch, abbot of, 127, 153 Inge, Hugh, Archbishop of Dublin, 130, 143 Inislonaught, abbey of, 152 Innishowen, 310 Innocent VI, Pope, 329 431 INDEX Irish bishoprics, revenues of, 131, 132B. Irish enemies, 29-32 Jerpoint, abbey of, 150 Jesuits in Ireland, 138W John XXII, Pope, 127 Jorse, Roland, Archbishop of Armagh, 127 Walter, Archbishop of Armagh, 329 Judges, corruption of, 75 Kavanagh, Cahir MacArt, 135, 212 Maurice, 59 Kavanaghs, 41, 44, 63, 188, 213, 219, 234, 235, 239, 29h 343> 385, 386«, 392, 419 Kells, abbey of, 150 Kelway, Captain, 206 Kilcash, statutes of, 63, 191 KilcuUen, Lord, 2i3», 416 Kildare, Countess of, 179, 202 Earls of, extent of their jurisdiction, 41, 81 Gerald, eighth Earl of, 82, 130, 140, 409« Gerald, ninth Earl of, 72, 82-92, I32«, 143, 409^ Thomas, tenth Earl of, Vice-Deputy, 90, 91 ; rebels, 93 ; invades the Pale, 97, 98 : lays siege to Dublin, 99 ; defeats Ormond, 1 02 ; captures Dublin, 103 ; burns Trim and Dunboyne, 107 ; sends agents to the Emperor, no, 116; surrenders, 119; executed, 121 ; attainted, 161 Gerald, eleventh Earl of, 122, 179, 203-205, 213-215, 220, 225, 227, 270, 308, 372, 382, 383, 385,409,415,416 Kilkenny, statute of, 127, 162 Kilmainham, 99, 106, 168, 391 Grand Prior of, 148, 152 King, Mrs. Matthewr, 361 Knockfergus. See Carrick- fergus Knocktoe, battle of, 66», 73«- Lancaster, Thomas, Bishop of Kildare, 324«, 364- 366 Lecale, 35, 223, 346 Lee, Edvirard, Archbishop of York, 334 Leinster, device for the re- formation of, 282, 283 Leix, 41, 42, 301, 317; limits of, 404, 409, 413 and OSaly, plantation of, 373-376, 388-390, 395-398, 401-404, 421 Leverous, Thomas, Bishop of Kildare, 179, 225, 325, 331, 364,: 365 432 INDEX Linch, Mary, 377 Lockwood, Thomas, Dean of Christ Church, 336, 338 Loftus, Adam, Archbishop of Dublin, 151 LoUardism, 124 Lough Gyr, 173, 181 Louth, priory of, 153, 278 Luttrell, Thomas, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, 75w, 204 Lyvetiston, 59 Lynch, Thomas, 220 MacArtans, 318, 319 MacCarrig, Thady, 134 MacCarthy, Connor, 369 Cormac Oge, 113 Lady Eleanor, 203- 205, 209, 213, 216, 217, 225, 234, 251 Mor, 71, 219, 343, 392 Reagh, 204 Teig MacCormac, 205 MacCarthys, 31, 113, 286 MacCoghlan, 208, 217 Cormac, Bishop of Clonmacnois, 134 McCragh, Ee, 205 MacDermot, 31, 217, 345 MacDonnell, James, 424 Sorley Boy, 415 MacDonnells, 34, 393, 394, 422-426 MacGeoghegans, 187, 208, 234 MacGerald, Gerald, 210 43 MacGillapatrick, Barnaby) second Baron of Upper Ossory, 361, 384 Brian, first Baron of Upper Ossory, 186, 198, 242, 243, 246, 340, 347, 348 MacGravyll, Archdeacon of Kells, no MacMahon, 31, 206, 259 MacMurrough, Dermot, King of Leinster, 146 Kavanagh, 71, 102, 109, 172, 213, 228, 234, 246, 404 MacQuillin, 259, 393 MacShane, Sir Gerald, 62, 224, 287« MacWilliam Burke, Richard, Captain of Clanricarde, 113, 208; deposed, 211, 241 Burke, Richard, second Earl of Clanricarde, 378, 392 Burke, Ulick, Captain of Clanricarde, 378 Burke, Ulick, first Earl of Clanricarde, 170, 205, 207, 208, 211 ; submission of, 241, 242 ; attends parliament, 246 ; created Earl of Clanricarde, 256, 262 ; grant of abbey lands to, 279 ; death of, 344 ; his marriages and divorces, 377 Burke of Mayo, 205, 344 MacYoris, 208 2 F INDEX Magennis, 31, 35, 346, 347, 369 Maghery, 43 Maguire, 31, 109, 217, 248« Malachy (O'Morgair), Saint, Archbishop of Armagh, 145 Mandevilles, 34 Mansell, Sir Rice, 107 Marshall, William, Earl of Pembroke, 145 Mary, Queen of England, her ecclesiastical policy, 368- 370 Queen of Scots, 308 of Guise, Queen Regent of Scotland, 309 Maynooth, siege of,ii 14, 115, 186, 209 Meath, divided into two shires, 42, 284 Mellifont, abbey of, 154 Melville, Sir James, 310 Mey, John, Archbishop of Armagh, 130, 132 Modreny, 207, 2io« Monaghan, a part of Uriel, 42 Franciscans of, 281 Monasteries in Ireland in the seventh century, 144 ; in 1537, 146 ; dissolution of, 166, 275-280 Monluc, Jean de. Bishop of Valence, 310-312 Moyle, Thomas, 190 Munster, Normans in, 38-40 ; ordinances for the reforma- tion of, 285-287 Nangle, Richard, the " drunken Bishop of Gal- way," 169,170,273,337, 362 Navan, 223 New Abbey, 278 Norfolk, Duke of, 84, 85, 120, 162, 236, 300 Northumberland, Duke of, 261, 306, 312, 318, 335, 354-358, 361 O'Brien, Connor, Chief of Thomond, levies " black rent," 7 1 ; negotiates with Spain, 1 1 ; dissensions with his family, ill, 1 12 j offers to submit, 171 ; his bridge, 174-176, 18 1 j entertains "young Gerald," 180, 203, 205 Donal, King !of Thomond, 146 Sir Donnell, 112, 344, 379> 380, 385 Donough, second Earl of Thomond, iii, 113, 174, 175, I77» 211, 246, 258, 279, 344, 379, 380, 392 Matthew, 174 Murrough, first Earl of Thomond, 112, 174; attacks Ormond, 223 ; negotiates with St. Leger, 240 ; sends " proctors " to parliament, 246 ; submis- sion of, 256, 257 ; created Earl of Thomond, 258,. 434 INDEX 262 ; grant of abbey lands to, 279 ; his death, 344 O'Briens, 31, 38, 58, 207, 392, 4I7> 419 O'Brien's bridge, 175, 176, 208 O'Byrne, 44, 102, 172, 219, 228, 235, 236, 258, 259, 284, 291, 343, 386 O'Cahan, 30, 217 O'Carroll, Fergananym, 82«, 205, 207, 210, 248«, 292, 347 Grania, 377 Mulrony, 58, 71, 291, 377 O'Carrolls, 188, 207, 291, 398 O'Cervallari, Hugh, Bishop of Clogher, 274 O'Conor, Brian, Chief of Offaly, levies " black rent," 71 ; his marriage, 82« ; captures Lord Delvin, 87 ; invades the Pale, 97, 98, 102, 1 10; captures Rathangan, 117; advises Kildare to negotiate, 118; submission of, 172 ; revolt and defeat of, 186, 187 ; reconquers OfFaly, 189 ; treaty with Gray, 201,210; invades Kildare, 228, 237 ; submission of, 243, 244 ; recommended for a peerage, 244, 263, 297 ; revolt of, 295-299 ; sent to England, 302 ; return to Ireland, 383; proposed liberation of, 390 O'Conor, Cahir, no, 188, 189 Cathal, King of Con- naught, 146 Conor Mor, 219, 221 Cormac, 408 Donough, 395-398 Lady Mary, 82n, 122, 180 345 Margaret, 383 Rory, 395, 397 Don, 31, 216, 345 Roe, 31, 212, 216, Sligo, 31, 216, 217, 345 O'Conors, 31, 38, 216, 345, 374, 385, 386, 390» 392, 395, 401, 402, 406, 408, 413, 421 O'Coyne, Edmund, 370 O'Dempsey, 235, 398 Odo, Bishop of Ross, 134 O'Dogherty, 31, 310-312 O'Donel, Calvagh, 347 Hugh, 31, 109,200 Manus, 200 ; marriage of, 204, 205; reconciliation with O'Conor Sligo, 216, 217; invades the Pale, 221, 222, 413; alleged treachery of, 226« ; sub- mission of, 249-251 ; recommended for an earl- dom, 263; conspires with France, 310-313 ; his quarrel with his son, 347 Roderick, Bishop of Derry, 219 435 INDEX O'Donels, 140, 347.349.4i9 O'Driscoll, Finnin, 136M O'Dunn, 23s, 398 O'Farrell, 31, 393 William, Bishop of Ardagh, 135 Offaly, 31,42, 186-189,234, 301, 317; limits of, 403, 404, 409, 413 plantation of. See Leix and OfFaly Thomas, Lord. See Kildare, Thomas, tenth Earl of O'Fihely, Manus, Abbot of Thurles, 277 Thomas, Bishop of Leighlin, 365 O'Flahertys, 31, 38, 208 O'Hanlon, 30, 346 O'Hara, 31 O'Henisa, Nicholas, Bishop of Waterford, 131 O'HifFernan, ^neas, Bishop of Elphin, 274 O'Kelly, 31, 113,344. 345, 393 Hugh, Abbot of Knock- moy, IS4«, 259 O'Kennedy, 207 O'Madden, 208 O'Malleys, 31 O'Melaghlins, 187, 208, 234, 377 O'Molloys, 187, 234, 398 O'Moore, Connell, chief of Leix, 102, 109, n8 ; death of, 2I3» ; his sons, 2x3, 248« ; 291 O'Moore, Connell Oge, 396, 405 Gilpatrick, 298, 302 Piers, brother of Connell, 213^, 246 O'Moores, 41, 198, 235, 239, 258, 291, 299, 374, 376. 385. 386, 392, 395. 396, 401, 402, 408, 413, 421 O'Mulryans, 207 Onaugh (or Owney), 207, 240, 256 O'Neil, Con, Earl of Tyrone, 30 ; levies " black rent," 71, 213 ; indenture with SkeiEngton, 109 ; alliance with O'Donel and the Geraldines, 200, 205 ; wishes to be king of Ire- land, 220 ; invades the Pale, 221, 222, 413 ; de- feated at Bellahoe, 223 ; attacked by Gray, 225 ; marches to Carrick Brad- agh, 237 ; submission of, 251-254; created Earl of Tyrone, 256, 260-262 ; conspires with France, 309- 314 ; disputes with his son, 347, 380,381 ; death of, 426. Mathew, Baron of Dungannon, 347, 380, 381,409; death of, 426 of Clandeboye, 35, 217, 246 Shane, 380, 381, 393, 394, 410, 426 436 INDEX O'Neil, Turlough Lynagh, 347 O'Neils, 140, 347, 349, 419 O'Reilly, 31, 206, 228, 246, 251, 263, 384 Dermot, Bishop of Kil- more, 134 Ormond, Earls of, extent of their territories, 39, 40 James, ninth Earl of, 88, 98 ; captures Kil- dare, 119, 120 ; subdues the south-eastern counties, 171 ; denounces Gray, 196, 202, 228 ; grant of lands to, igSw; claims the earldom of Desmond, 199; assists James FitzMaurice, 223, 224, 238 ; ravages Carlow, 234 ; translates speeches into Irish, 247 ; his enormous power, 289« ; death of, 293, 294. Piers, eighth Earl of, conduct in 1525, 58-60 ; complaints against in 1537, 61 ; Lord Deputy, 72, 85, 87 ; created Earl of Ossory, S$n ; opposes the Geraldines, loi, 109 ; supports James Fitz- Maurice, 1 1 3 ; on the state of the Church, 134 ; gives Carrickogynell to Donough O'Brien, 174, 177 ,■ quarrel with Gray, 183, 197; grant of lands to, I98«; sends information about Lady Eleanor to the Council, 204, 205 ; re- conciliation with Gray,. 215 ; death of, 223« Ormond, Thomas, tenth Earl of, 361, 372, 384, 385 O'Rourke, 31, 217, 259, 263 O'Sheil, Connaught, Bishop of Elphin, 219, 274 Ossory, Piers, Earl of. 5^^ Ormond O'Sullivans, 32, 219 O 'Toole, Turlough, 236 O'TooIes, 44, 98, 117, 206, 219, 221, 228, 235, 284, 291, 374, 386, 395 Pale, the English, limits of in 15 1 5, 29, 42, 43; state of in 1537, 65-76, 192 ; in 1538, 206; conspiracy in, 218, 220; grievances of, 230 ; discontent of (1557), 414 Paris, Christopher, 115 George, 298, 309, 313, 408 Parker, John, Master of the Rolls, 391 Parliament, the Irish, of 1536, 160, 161 ; of 1541, 245- 247, 256; of 1557, 398 Patrick, Saint, 145 Paul III, Pope, 371 IV, Pope, 371, 398 Paulet, George, 190, 214 Piers, William, 415, 416 437 INDEX Poer, Lady Katherine, 62, 198 Poers, 40 Pole, Cardinal, 248, 382, 383 Portu Puro, abbey of, 273 Power, Dominic, no Powerscourt, 117, 186, 219 Proctors of the clergy, 161, 166 Purcell, John, Bishop of Ferns, QuiN, John, Bishop of Limerick, 324«, 365 Radcliffe, Sir Henry, 406 Thomas, Earl of Sussex. See Sussex Rathangan, 117, 186 Roches, 40, 286, 419 ; Lord, 246, 343 Roe, Thomas, 332 Rokeby, William, Archbishop of Dublin, 130 St. George, Brotherhood of, 283 St. Leger, Sir Antony, 190 ; Lord Deputy, 229 ; subdues the Kavanaghs, 234 ; recommends Tur- lough O'Toole, 236 ; advises Henry to call a parliament, 244, 245 ; negotiates with O'Donel, 249,250; invades Tyrone, 251 ; his scheme for the reformation of Leinster, 282, 283 ; accusations agamst, 288-290 his defence, 290-292 ; his popularity, 292, 293 ; his conciliatory policy, 295 ; recalled, 299; Lord Deputy second time, 308 ; his con- tempt for religion, 315 ; his reforms, 318 ; intro- duces the English liturgy, 322-324 ; recalled, 325 ; restores the mass, 364 ; Lord Deputy third time, 382 ; his failure, 384-386 ; recalled, 387 St. Leger, Robert, 319 St. Loe, William, 63^, 176, 177 St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, 93, 150,276 St. Norbert, order of, 147 St. Peter, priory of, near Trim, 166 St. Thomas the Martyr, abbey of, near Dublin, 278 St. Victor, order of, 147 St. Wolstan, priory of, 165, 278 Salisbury, John, 104 Sarpi, Father Paul, his " His- tory of the Council of Trent" quoted, 371, 372 Saunders, Matthew, Bishop of Leighlin, 135 Savages, 34 Scots in Ulster. See MacDonnells Seymour, Edward, Earl of Hertford, afterwards Duke of Somerset, 260, 300, 306 438 INDEX Shee, Robert, sovereign of Kilkenny, 363 Sherwood, William, Bishop of Meath, 130 Shrewsbury, Earl of, 162, 192 Sixtus IV, Pope, 131 Skeffington, Sir William, Lord Deputy, 87, 104; his incapacity, 105-108 ; besieges Maynooth, 114, 115 ; death of, 172 Slane, Lord, 109, 186 Lady, 220 Somerset, Duke of. See Seymour Stanley, Sir George, 391 Staples, Edward, Bishop of Meath, quarrel with Arch- bishop Browne, 168 ; effects of his preaching, 320-322; controversy with Dowdall, 327-329 ; de- prived, 364, 366 Stokesley, John, Bishop of London, 334 Strangford, 81 Strongbow. See De Clare, Richard, called Strongbow Supremacy, Act of, 163-165 Surrey, Earl of. See Norfolk, Duke of Sussex, Earl of, 387-398 ; invades Ulster, 409 ; character of his govern- ment, 410, 411; quarrel with Dowdall, 413, 418 ; return to Ireland, 417 ; attacks the Scots, 424, 425 Sydney, Sir Henry, 352, 390, 414 TAGH-MotiNG, priory of, 1 66 Talbot, Richard, Archbishop of Dublin, 130 Tanistry, 50, 51 Tartane, 99 Teling, John, 100 Termonfeckan, 133 Thomond, 31 ; invasion of, 207 ; state of, in 1552, 344 Thonery, John, Bishop of Ossory, 365 Tintern abbey, in Wexford, 166 Tirrey, Dominic, Bishop of Cork, 273 Travers, Robert, Bishop of Leighlin, 324K, 364-366 a priest, 281 Sir John, 249, 374 Trim, 105, 107 ; image of the Blessed Virgin at, 282 Tullow, 1 01 Tunstall, Cuthbert, Bishop of Durham, 275 Turner, Richard, 332, 333 Tyrconnel, 31 Tyrone, Earl of. See O'Neil Tyrowen, 30 Ulster, Irish in, 30, 31 ; Norman settlements in, 33 ; not divided into counties, 53; state of, in 1541,249;. in 1552, 346, 247 Upper Ossory, 40, 404 439 INDEX Upper Ossory, Baron of. See McGillapatrick Uriel, 31, 42 Via Nova, abbey of, 279 Wafer, Nicholas, 100, 115 Walsh, Robert, 116, 203, 204, 225, 248« William, Bishop of Meath, 364 Ware, Sir James, his account of the Irish monasteries, 146 Warwick, Earl of. See Northumberland, Duke of Wauchop, Robert, Archbishop of Armagh, 272, 273//, 301, 312-314 Westmeath, 42, 208, 284 Wexford, 43, 44 White, James, 195 John, 99, loi Whitehead, David, 332 Wicklow, 42, 44«, 98, 236, 259, 284 Wilson, Richard, Bishop of Meath, 133 Wiltshire, Thomas Boleyn, Earl of, 85«, 162 Wisdom, Robert, 332 Wolsey, Cardinal, 84, 86, 87 Wyatt, Sir Thomas, 372, 382 WycklifF, 124 Printed by Maunsel and Company Ltd., Dublin