OF .AJNTUNT ARBOR.
LIBRARY HOURS—Saturdays from 10 to 12 M. and 2 to 4 P. M.
Each member may draw one Book and
retain the same two weeks.
Any member retaining a Book longer
than two week, shall pay a fine of one
dime per week.
Any one defacing or injuring a Book,
shall pay snob damages as shall be assessed
by the Board of Directors.
Any person losing a Book, shall pay the
cost of the same.
No member shall be permitted to draw7
Books till such fines are paid.
No one shall lend the Books of this
Library.
4- r *
r-
: Vi
- fj
I

?' 1* -* *i; - 5rV¥^A1 * r
PHI

DA
q ) 6
A SHORT HISTORY
OF
THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND
A SHORT HISTORY
OF
THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND
From the Earliest Times to the Union with
Great Britain
WITH FIVE MAPS AND APPENDICES
CHARLES GEORGE WALPOLE, M.A.
BARRISTER-AT-LAWJ AUTHOR OP UA RUBRIC OF TUB COUMON LAW"
NEW YORK
HARPER & brothers, franklin square
1882
PREFACE.
The present volume is an attempt to lay before the
reader an outline of the leading features of the history
of Ireland down to the time when that country ceased
to be a separate kingdom. Since the union of the
two Parliaments, Irish history has become inextricably
blended with the history of Great Britain; and any at-
tempt to relate it would entail a task of far greater
magnitude, and one beyond the scope of a popular
work.
The author can take no credit for original research.
The principal materials of wrhich use has been made
are the very numerous historical works bearing on the
subject, written from very diverse points of view; the
published state papers; the published correspondence
of eminent statesmen; and the statutes of the realm.
Wherever passages appear between inverted commas
the quotations come from the three latter sources.
It is hoped that a full chronological table and a list
of the chief governors of Ireland will to some extent
supply the deficiencies in the text, which are almost
unavoidable in such a sketch as is here presented.
C. G. W.
3 Dr. Johnson's Buildings, Temple.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Chronological Table xi
List of Authorities , xxix
BOOK I.
INDEPENDENT IRELAND.
CHAPTER
I. Condition of the Early Irish 3
II. Christianity among the Early Irish 10
III. The Scandinavian Tyranny 15
BOOK II.
THE ANGLO-NORMAN SETTLEMENT.
I. The Filibusters 23
II. The Colonists 28
III. The Great Territorial Barons 32
IV. The Assimilation of the Settlers 39
V. The Kuin of the English Colony. 44
BOOK III.
THE FIRST CONQUEST.
I. The Turn of the Tide , 53
II. The Rehabilitation of the English Government 59
III. The Confiscation of the Church Lands 64
IV. The Winning of the Chieftains 68
V. The Imposition of the New Faith 73
VI. The Plantation of Leix and Offaly 81
VII. The War with Shane O'Neil 84
VIII. The Plantation Spirit Abroad 89
IX. The Desmond Rebellion 95
294869
viii CONTENTS.
CIIAPTKtt PAGE
X. The Plantation of Munster , 103
XI. Sowing the Wind 107
XII. The War with Tyrone 114
XIII. The Introduction of English Ideas 122
XIV. The Plantation of Ulster 130
XV. The Muzzling of the Parliament 136
XVI. The Plantation of Leinster 140
BOOK IV.
THE SECOND CONQUEST.
I. Sowing the Wind Again 153
II. The Went worth Scourge 156
III. Provincial Insurrections in 1641 165
IV. This Consolidation of the Revolt 175
V. Plots and Counterplots 180
VI. The Subjugation 180
VII. "The Curse o' Crummell" .195
BOOK V.
THE THIRD CONQUEST.
I. Restoration Compromises 205
II. Tolerance and Intolerance 212
III. The Secession 219
IV. The Reconquest 226
V. The Broken Treaty 232
VI. The Outlawry of the Roman Catholics 238
BOOK VI.
THE FOURTH CONQUEST.
I. The Shackling of the English Colony 251
II. The Statutory Destruction of Irish Trade 255
lH. Protestant Ascendency and its Works 259
IV. The Results of Bondage 267
V. The Beginning of Corruption. 275
VI. The Revolt of the Colony 281
VII. The Concession of Home Rule 288
VIII. The Demand for Parliamentary Reform 292
IX. Conflicts with the English Parliament 298
X. Local Riots and Agrarlvn Disturbances 304
CONTENTS. ix
CHAPTER PAGE
XL The Agitation for Reform and Emancipation of the
Roman Catholics 307
XII. Partial Emancipation of the Roman Catholics 313
XIII. Prosecutions 319
XIV. Blighted Hopes 323
XV. New Departures 329
XVI. France at "England's Back Door" 334
XVII. Martial Law 338
XVIII. The Triumph of Coercion 342
XIX. The Abortive Local Risings 348
XX. The Irish Jacquerie 354
XXI. Trampling Out the Fire 362
XXII. The Last Flicker of the Flame 368
XXIII. The Sale of the Constitution 371
XXIV. Annexation 377
Appendices 383
Index 409
A*
Text is in:
ni UliEV. 0? iYiiC!
MAP COLLECTION
MAPS.
Ireland before the Anglo-Norman Invasion Frontispiece
"the Anglo-Norman Settlement in the Thirteenth
Century To face page 20
"in the Reign of Henry VII "50
"the Plantations of Mary, Elizabeth, and"
James I "150
"the Puritan Settlement "202
The Map Accompanying This
Text Is in
the urn. o~ moi
MAP COLLECTION
CHKONOLOGICAL TABLE*
A.D.
c. 432.
c. 444.
c. 450.
c. 465.
c. 480.
c. 484.
c. 500.
c. 510.
c. 530.
c. 540.
c. 544.
Arrival in Ireland of St. Pat-
rick.
Foundation of the see and pri-
ory of Armagh by St. Pat-
rick.
Foundation of the abbeys of
Inniscathery, Downpatrick,
Saul, Trim, Ardagh, Duleek,
Drurashallon, and Louth by
St. Patrick.
Death of St. Patrick.
Foundation of an abbey at An-
trim by Dartract, a disciple
of St. Patrick.
Foundation of an abbey at
Clogher by St. Aid.
Foundation of the nunnery and
abbey of Kildare by St.
Brigid.
Foundation of a monastery at
Swords by St. Columb.
Foundation of a priory at Castle-
Dermot by St. Dermot.
Foundation of the abbey of
Lough Deary, Co. Donegal
(St. Patrick's Purgatory), by
St. Dabeoc.
Foundation of the abbey of
Emly by St. Ailbe.
Foundation of the abbey of
Glendalough by St. Kevin.
Foundation of an abbey at
Clones by St. Tigernach.
Foundation of the abbey of
Roscommon by St. Colman.
Foundation of the abbey of the
island of All-Saints, in Lough-
rea, by St. Kieran.
A.T).
c. 546.
c. 548.
c. 549.
c. 550.
c. 555.
c. 563.
c. 570.
c. 572.
590.
600.
c. 620.
627.
Foundation of abbeys at Derry
and Durrow by St. Columb.
Foundation of the abbey of
Clonraacnoise.
Foundation of the abbey of
Clonard by St. Kieran.
Foundation of the abbey of
Muckamore, Co. Antrim, by
St. Colman.
Foun da tion of th e abbey of Agh-
raacarte by O'Dempsey.
Foundation of the abbey of
Drumlane, Co. Cavan.
Foundation of the abbey of
Kells by St. Columb.
Foundation of the abbey of
Bangor by St. Comgall.
St. Columbkill preaches Chris-
tianity in the Western Isles.
Foundation of a monastery at
Ardfert by St. Brendan.
Foundation of the abbey of
Innisfallen by St. Finian the
Leper.
Foundation of the abbey of
Aghadoe by St. Canice.
St. Columbanus.
Gregory the Great Pope of
Rome.
Foundation of a monastery at
Drumcliffe by St. Columb.
SUA ugustine converts Ethelbert,
King of Kent.
Foundation of a monastery at
Kilmacduagh, Co. Gahvay*
by St. Colman.
Conversion of Edwin, King of
Northumbria, by St.Paulinus.
* The events printed in italics are other than those occurring in Ireland.
xii
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
630. Foundation of the abbey of Lis-
more by St. Mochuda.
Foundation of the priory at
Fore, Westraeath, by St.
Fechin.
634. St. Aidan, from Iona, reintro-
duces Christianity at Lindis-
farne.
c. 650. Irish missionaries on the Conti-
nent.
6G0. Foundation of a monastery at
Cong, Co. Mayo, by St. Fe-
chan.
665. Foundation of a monastery at
Mayo by St. Colman.
c. 745. Feargal (Virgilius) flourished.
787. The Northmen invade Eng-
land.
795. The Northmen invade Ireland.
800. Charles the Great Emperor of
the West.
Foundation of the abbey of In-
istioge, Co. Kilkenny.
815. Arrival of Turges.
844. His death. Massacre of the
Northmen by the Irish.
849. Fresh incursions of Northmen,
c. 850. Joannes Scotus Erigena flour-
ished.
853. Arrival of Amlaf. Nose-money
is collected.
872. The Northmen invade Scot-
land from Ireland.
879. Peace of Wedmore between King
A Ifred and the Northmen.
c. 900. Reign of Cormac McCulinan,
King of Leinster.
937. Amlaf with a contingent of
Northmen from Ireland de-
feated at Brunanburgh by
A thelstan.
948. Conversion of the Northmen in
Ireland.
St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin,
founded by the Northmen.
968. Battle of Sulchoid.
Brian Born succeeds to the
throne of Munster.
980. The Northmen defeated at Tara
by Malachy, King of all Ire-
land.
Foundation of the priory of
Holmpatrick, Co. Dublin, by
Sitric.
983. Brian extends his rule over
Leinster.
997. Struggle between Brian and
Malachy.
1001. Seizure of the throne of Tara
by Brian.
1002. Massacre of Northmen in Eng-
land by the Saxons.
1003. Invasion of England by Siveyne.
1013. Kebellion of Leinster in con-
junction with the North-
men.
1014. Battle of Clontarf. Death of
Brian.
Restoration of Malachy.
1016. Malachy defeats the Northmen.
1017. Canute King of England.
1022. Death of Malachy.
1023. Teige and Donchad, sons of
Brian, joint rulers of Mun-
ster.
Murder of Teige by Donchad.
1038. The priory of Christchurch,
Dublin, founded by Sitric,
Danish Prince of Dublin.
Donchad marries a daughter
of Earl Godwin.
1051. Harold takes refuge with Don-
chad after his rebellion
against Edward the Con-
fessor.
1058. Donchad becomes titular king
of all Ireland.
1063. Donchad defeated by Turlough,
son of Teige.
1064. Turlough titular king of all Ire-
land.
1066. Battle of Hastings.
1086. Death of Turlough. He is suc-
ceeded by his son Murker-
tach.
1087. William II of England suc-
ceeds.
1088. Tigernach, abbot of Clonmac-
noise, writer of the "Annals
of Tigernach," dies.
1100. Henry I. of England succeeds.
1106. Foundation of a monastery at
Lispool by McNoel McKen-
less.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
xiii
A.D.
1111.
1119.
1121.
1132.
1135.
1142.
1148.
1151.
1152.
1153.
1154.
1156.
1159.
1161.
1166.
Synod of Rath Bresail.
Death of Murkertach.
Death of Donald O'Loghlin.
Struggle between Connor O'-
Brien of Minister and Tur-
lough O'Connor of Con-
naught.
Stephen of England succeeds.
Abbey of Mellifont founded by
0' Carroll of Argiel.
Abbey of Bective founded by
O'Malachlin of Meath.
Abbey of Baltinglass founded
by Dermot McMurrough.
Abbey of Monasternenagh,
Limerick, founded by O'-
Brien.
Foundation of a nunnery at Kil-
cleeheen, Co. Kilkenny, by
Dermot McMurrough.
Battle of Moinmor.
Turlough O'Connor titular king
of all Ireland.
Synod of Kells.
A Cistercian monastery found-
ed at Athlone.
A Cistercian monastery found-
ed at Newry by O'Lochlin.
Abduction of O'Rourke's wife
by McMurrough.
Henry IT. of England succeeds.
Pope Adrian IV.grants Ire-
land to Henry II. of England.
Conflict of Turlough O'Connor
with O'Lochlin of Ulster.
Foundation of a monastery at
Odorney in Kerry.
Death of Turlough O'Connor.
Foundation of the monastery of
Inis Connagh, Tipperary, by
Donnell O'Brien.
O'Lochlin titular king of all
Ireland.
Foundation of the abbey of
Boyle, Roscommon, by Mau-
rice O'Dubhay.
Death of O'Lochlin.
Rory O'Connor titular king of
all Ireland.
Foundation of the priory of All-
Saints, Dublin, by Dermot
McMurrough.
1168. Flight of Dermot McMurrough.
1169. IIis bargain with Strongbow.
Arrival of Fitzstephen. Capt-
ure of Wexford.
Invasion of Ossory. Arrival of
Raymond le Gros.
Capture of Waterford.
Arrival of Strongbow. His
marriage with Eva McMur-
rough.
Capture of Dublin.
1170. Synod of Armagh and manu-
mission of English slaves.
Death of Dermot McMur-
rough.
Siege of Dublin.
Strongbow returns to England
and makes his peace with
Henry.
Becket murdered.
Monastery founded at Fermoy.
1171. Henry II. arrives.
He receives the submission of
the chieftains.
1172. Synod of Cashel.
Government organized by Hen-
ry at Dublin.
He returns to England.
Foundation of the abbey of St.
Thomas, Dublin, by William
Fitzaldelm.
1174. Capture of Limerick.
Foundation of the priory of Kil-
mainham by Stiongbow.
1175. Treaty between Henry and Rory
O'Connor.
1177. Prince John Lord of Ireland.
1178. Foundation of an abbey at Ast-
rath, Co. Donegal, by Roder-
ick O'Cananan.
Foundation of an abbey at Dun-
brody, Co. Wexford, by Her-
vey Mountmorres.
1180. Foundation of an abbey at Jer-
point, Kilkenny, by McGila-
patrick of Upper Ossory.
Foundation of an abbey at Mid-
dleton, Cork, by the Bar-
rys.
Foundation of an abbey at In-
nisconrcy, Down, by Sir John
De Courcy.
xiv
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
A.D.
1181. Foundation of Holy Gross Ab-
bey by Donnell O'Brien.
1183. Foundation of an abbey at Ab-
beyleix by Cuchry O'Moore.
1184. Prince John lands at Water-
ford.
Mutiny of the chieftains.
1185. Foundation of the priory of St.
John at Waterford by Prince
John.
1189. Foundation of a monastery at
Monasterevan, Kildare, by
O'Dempsy.
Death of Henry IT.
Richard L, 1189-1199.
1190. Foundation of a monastery at
Knockmoy, Galway, by Ca-
thal O'Connor.
Foundation of the nunnery of
Grace-Dieu, Co. Dublin, by
John Comin, Archbishop of
Dublin.
1193. Foundation of the priory of
Kells, Co. Meath, by Walter
De Lacy.
Foundation of the priory at
Kells, Co. Kilkenny, by Geof-
frey Fitz-Robert.
Foundation of the Gray Abbey,
Down, by Africa De Courcy.
Foundation of the monastery
of Corcumroe, Co. Clare, by
Donogh O'Brien.
Death of Rory O'Connor.
1195. Foundation of the abbey of
Clare by Donald O'Brien.
John, 1199-1216.
1200. Foundation of Tintern Abbey,
Wexford, by William, Earl
Marshal.
Foundation of a nunnery at
Grany by Walter de Rid-
dlesford.
Foundation of a monastery at
Kilcooly,Tipperary, by Don-
ogh O'Brien.
Foundation of a monastery at
Kilbeggan by the Daltons.
Foundation of the Command-
ery of St. John for Hospital-
A.D.
lers, at Wexford by Will-
iam, Earl Marshal.
1202. Foundation of a priory of Great
Connall, Kildare, by Meyler
Fitz-Henry.
Foundation of the priory of St.
Wolstans, Naas, by Adam de
Hereford.
1205. Foundation of the abbey of Ab-
ingdon, Limerick, by Theo-
bald Walter.
Surrender of two thirds of Con-
naught by Cathal O'Connor
to King John.
Disgrace of De Courcy.
1206. Foundation of the priory at New-
town by Simon Rochford.
Foundation of the priory for
Crouched Friars at Castle-
Dermot by Walter de Rid-
dlesford.
1207. Foundation of theCommandery
of St. John for Hospitallers
at Any, Co. Limerick, by
Geoffrey De Marisco.
Foundation of the Crouched
Friary at Ardee by Roger
De Pipard.
1208. Foundation of the friary of St.
Saviour's, Dublin, by Will-
iam, Earl Marshal.
1210. King John in Ireland. He di-
vides it into counties.
1211. Foundation of St. John's Ab-
bey, Kilkenny, by William,
Earl Marshal.
1213. Foundation of the monaster}'at
Tralee by Lord John Fitz-
Thomas Fitzgerald.
1214. Foundation of the Gray friary,
Cork, by Dermot McCarthy
Reagh.
1215. The Great Charter signed in
England by John.
Henry III., 1216-1272.
1216. The privileges of the Great
Charter extended to Irish
subjects.
1220. Foundation of the abbey of the
Holy Trinity at Tuam by
the De Burghs.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
XV
AD.
1221.
1224.
1225.
1226.
1227.
1229.
1232.
1234.
1235.
1236.
1237.
Grant of Connaught to De
Burgh by Henry III.
Foundation of the abbey of
Tracton by Maurice Mc-
Carthy.
Foundation of the Dominican
friary at Drogheda by Luke
Netterville, archbishop of
Armagh.
Foundation of the priory of
Aughrim by Theobald But-
ler.
Foundation of the priory of Bal-
ly beg, Cork, by Philip De
Barry.
Foundation of the priory of
Athassal, Tipperary, by Will-
iam Fitzaldelm.
Foundation of the priory of
Nenagh, Tipperary, by the
Butlers.
Foundation of a Franciscan fri-
ary at Youghal by Maurice
Fitzgerald.
Foundation of the Black Abbey,
Kilkenny, by William, Earl
Marshal.
Foundation of the convent of
St. Saviour's, Waterford, by
the citizens.
Foundation of the priory of
Mullingar by Ralph le Petit,
Bishop of Meath.
Foundation of St. Mary's Con-
vent, Cork, by Philip Barry.
Fall of Hubert De Burgh.
Foundation of a convent at
Carrickfergus by Hugh De
Lacy.
Foundation of the Franciscan
friary at Kilkenny by Rich-
ard, Earl Marshal.
Richard, Earl Marshal, declared
a traitor and treacherously
killed.
Foundation of the monastery
of St. Francis, Dublin, by
Ralph le Porter.
Foundation of the monastery of
Multifarnam, Westmeath, by
William Delamare.
Foundation of the monasterv
1240.
1241.
1244.
1252.
1253.
1257.
1258.
1259.
1260.
at Mullingar by the Nu-
gents.
Foundation of the Gray priory
at Drogheda by the Plunk-
ets.
Foundation of the Franciscan
friary at Waterford by Sir
Hugh Purcell.
Foundation of the Cistercian
monastery at Ennis by Don-
ough Carbreach O'Brien.
Foundation of a convent at Lis-
mullen, Co. Meath, by Alicia
De la Corner.
Foundation of a convent at Ath-
lone by Cathal O'Connor.
Foundation of the Dominican
friary at Athenry by Meyler
De Bermingham.
Foundation of the Dominican
friary at Coleraine by the
McEvelins.
Foundation of the Dominican
friary at Sligo by Maurice
Fitzgerald.
Foundation of the Dominican
friary of St. Mary, Roscom-
mon, by Felim O'Connor.
Foundation of the Dominican
friary at Athy by the Ho-
gans.
Foundation of a monastery at
Limerick by O'Brien.'
Foundation of Hacket's Ab-
bey, Cash el, by William
Hacket.
Foundation of the Gray friary,
Dundalk, by De Verdon.
Foundation of the Franciscan
friary at Ardfert by Thomas,
Lord of Kerry.
Foundation of a monastery at
Athy by the Hogans.
The Provisions of Oxford.
Rising of the McCarthys of
Desmond.
Massacre of the Geraldines.
Foundation of monastery of
Holv Trinity, Dublin, by the
Talbots.
Foundation of the Gray Abbey
at Kildare by De Vesci.
XVI CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
1263. Foundation of the abbey of St.
Mary Trim by Geoffrey De
Genneville.
Foundation of a monastery
at Armagh by Archbishop
Scanlen.
1264. Foundation of a monastery at
Arklow by Theobald Fitz-
walter.
Battle of Lewes.
Contest between the Geraldines
and the De Burghs.
1265. Battle of Evesham.
1268. Foundation of a monastery at
Eossibercan, Kilkenny, by
the Graces and Walshes.
Foundation of a monastery at
Youghal bv the Baron of
Offaly.
1269. Foundation of a monastery at
Leighlin Bridge by the Ca-
rews.
Foundation of a monastery at
Lorrah,Tipperanr, by Walter
De Burgh.
Edward 1,1272-1307.
1272. The Irish petition for the ex-
tension to them of the Eng-
lish laws.
Foundation of II ore Abbey,
Cashel, by Archbishop Mc-
Carvill.
1274. Foundation of the abbey of Rath-
bran, Mayo, by the Dexeters.
1277. De Clare invades Thomond.
1280. Feuds between the Geraldines
and De Burghs.
1290. Quarrel between De Vesci and
the Baron of Offaly.
Foundation of a monastery at
Clare-Gal way by John De
Cogan.
Foundation of a monastery at
Buttevant by David Oge
BarrjT.
Foundation of a monastery
at Galbally, Limerick, by
O'Brien.
Foundation of a monastery at
Ross, Wexford, by Sir John
Devereux.
Foundation of a monastery at
Clonmines by the McMur-
roughs.
Foundation of a monastery at
Dungarvan by John Fitz-
Thomas Fitzgerald.
Foundation of the Carmelite
convent at Dublin by Sir
Richard Bagot.
Foundation of the Carmelite
convent at Ardee by Ralph
Peppard.
1291. Foundation of a Dominican
friary at Kilmallock by Gil-
bert Fitzgerald.
1296. Foundation of the Franciscan
friary at Gal way by Sir Will-
iam De Burgh.
Battle of Dunbai\
1298. Battle of Falkirk.
1300. Foundation of a monastery at
Cavan by O'Reilly.
1302. Foundation of a Franciscan fri-
arv at Castle-Dermot bv Lord
Offaly.
Edward II., 1307-1327.
1307. Foundation of the Gray friary
at Castle Lyons, Cork, by
John De Barry.
1308. Piers Gaveston lord-lieuten-
ant.
1312. Foundation of monastery at
Tullow, Carlow, by Simon
Lombard and Hugh Tal-
lon.
1314. Robert Bruce takes refuge in
Ireland.
Battle of Bannockburn.
1315. Foundation of an Augustinian
friary at Adare, Limerick, by
Earl of Kildare.
Edward Bruce lands at Carrick-
fergus.
Rising of the Ulster Irish and
the discontented English of
Meath.
Bruce's successes. Rising in
Connaught.
Bruce is crowned at Dundalk.
1316. Battle of Athenry.
Arrival of Robert Bruce.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
xvii
A.D.
He advances to Dublin. Fam-
ine.
He retires into Scotland.
1317. Foundation of a Carmelite con-
vent at Athboy by William
de Londres.
1318. Battle of Dundalk. Death of
Edward Bruce.
1320. Foundation of a monastery at
Bantry by O'Sullivan.
A university at Dublin pro-
jected by Archbishop Bick-
nor.
Edward, 1327-1377.
1327. Civil war between the De
Burghs and the Butlers and
the Fitzgeralds of Desmond.
Rising of the McMurroughs.
1329. Unsuccessful petition by the
Irish for recognition by Eng-
lish law.
Risings in Thomond, West-
meath, and the south.
1330. Maurice Fitz-Thomas Fitzger-
ald created Earl of Desmond
and granted the palatinate
of Kerry.
He renders assistance to the
lords justices against the
Irish.
Risings in Leinster.
1331. Arrest of Desmond, De Bir-
mingham, and Mandeville.
1333. Murder of the Earl of Ulster.
Partition of his estates.
1336. Release of the Earl of Des-
mond.
1338. Beginning of the tear with
France.
1339. Risings in Munster subdued by
Desmond.
1341. The king proposes to resume
the estates of the great land-
owners.
1342. Parliament summoned to meet
. at Dublin.
Convention held at Kilkenny.
Petition to the king, who gives
way.
1344. Sir Ralph Ufford seizes some
of Desmond's estates.
A.D.
Desmond surrenders, and is
bailed.
Kildare is arrested.
1346. Battle ofCrecy.
Surrender of Calais.
1348. Kildare and Desmond par-
doned.
1349. The black death.
1356. Foundation of a friary at
Knocktopher by James, sec-
ond Earl of Ormonde.
1361. Lionel, Duke of Clarence, lord-
lieutenant.
Rising in Munster.
1367. Statute of Kilkenny.
1369. Risings in Wicklow and Lim-
erick.
Richard II., 1377-1399.
1379. Ordinance against absentees.
1385. Robert De Vere, the king's fa-
vorite, made Marquis of Dub-
lin and Duke of Ireland.
1387. The king comes of age.
1392. Rising of Art McMurrough in
Leinster.
1394. Richard II. lands at Waterford.
Submission of the chieftains.
1395. Richard at Dublin. Reforms
the judicial bench. Returns
to England, leaving the Earl
of March lord-lieutenant.
Rising of McMurrough and the
O'Byrnes of Wicklow.
Defeat and death of the Earl
of March,
1399. Richard's second expedition to
Ireland.
Landing of Bolingbroke at
Ravenspur.
The king embarks for Milford
Haven.
Henry IV., 1399-1413.
1400. Immigration of Scots into An-
trim.
Foundation of an abbey at
Longford by O'Farrell.
1401. Risings in Wicklow.
Henry V., 1413-1422.
1413. Fresh struggles between the
xviii
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
English and the na-
tives.
1415. War with France.
An Irish contingent with the
king in Normandy.
Battle of Agincourt.
1418. Art McMurrough captured.
1421. Risings in Leix.
Henry VI., 1422-1461.
1433. Wars between the O'Neils and
O'Donnels.
1438. Statutes against absentees.
The sixth Earl of Desmond
marries Catharine McCor-
mac, and is expelled from his
estates by his uncle.
1439. Fitzstephen's moiety of the
kingdom of Cork granted to
the seventh Earl of Des-
mond.
1449. Richard, Duke of York, lord-
lieutenant, j
1450. Risings in Westmeath.
1454. Duke of York appointed pro-
tector.
1455. First battk of St. Albans.
1459. The fight at Blore Heath.
The panic at Ludlow and fight
of the Yorkists.
Duke of York takes refuge in
Ireland.
1460. Battle of Wakefield.
Battle of Towton.
Foundation of New Abbey,
Naas, by Sir Rowland Eu-
stace.
Foundation of the Franciscan
friary, Enniscorthy, by Don-
ald Kavenagh.
Edward IV., 1461-1483.
1461. The eighth Earl of Desmond
founds the College of
Youghal.
1465. Foundation of a monastery at
Glen arm, Co. Antrim, by
Robert Bissett.
Foundation of a Franciscan
monastery at Kilcrea, Co.
Cork, by McCarthy Mor.
1467. The Earl of Desmond is
charged with treason, and
executed.
1472. Institution of the Brotherhood
of St. George.
1478. Gerald, eighth Earl of Kildare,
lord deputy for fourteen
years.
Edward V., 1483.
Richard III., 1483-1485.
1484. Foundation of the Augustinian
friary at Naas.
Henry VII., 1485-1509.
1487. Lambert Simnel crowned in
Dublin.
Kildare suspected of treason.
Battle of Stoke.
1488. Kildare is pardoned.
1489. Fighting in Desmond.
Fighting in Ulster.
1490. Perkin Warbeck arrives in
Cork.
1492. Fall of Kildare.
1494. Sir Edward Poynings lord dep-
uty.
Crushes the adherents of War-
beck.
Parliament at Drogheda, Poy-
nings's Act.
1496. Arrest of Kildare.
He is pardoned and made lord
deputy, and governs Ireland
till 1513.
1497. Warbeck again in Ireland.
Fighting between, the natives
and the Bourkes of Con-
naught.
Battle of Knocktow.
« Henry VIII., 1509-1547.
1513. Death of Kildare. His son is
elected lord justice in his
room.
1515. Wolsey created a cardinal and
made lord chancellor.
1516. Feuds in Desmond.
Feuds in the Ormonde family.
Feuds between Ormonde and
Kildare, and Ormonde and
Dcsmund.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
xix
A.D.
1519. Kilclare summoned ' to Lon-
don.
He marries a daughter of the
Marquis of Dorset.
1520. He is present at the Field of the
Cloth of Gold,
1521. Risings in Leix and Offaly.
1523. Kildare returns.
Wolsey begins a visitation of
the English monasteries.
1524. Desmond holds a treasonable
correspondence with Francis
I. of France.
Kildare lord deputy. He is
ordered to arrest Desmond,
and fails to do so.
1526. Kildare again summoned to
England, and lodged in the
Tower.
He is released on bail.
1527. Henry raises the question of the
divorce.
1528. Rising of O'Connor of Offiily.
He captures Lord Delvin, the
lord deputy.
1529. Desmond's treasonable corre-
spondence with Charles V.
His death.
Fall of Wolsey.
1530. Kildare sent back to suppress
O'Connor's rising.
1531. The "submission" of the clergy
in England.
1532. Henry marries Anne Boleyn.
Kildare made lord deputy.
He makes a treaty with O'Con-
nor and O'Carrol.
1534. He is summoned to England,
and lodged in the Tower.
His son, Lord Thomas, rebels.
Besieges Dublin Castle.
Kildare dies in the Tower.
1535. Skeffington captures Maynooth.
Flight of Lord Thomas. Sub-
mission of O'Connor.
Lord Thomas surrenders.
Act of Supremacy {English).
Thomas Cromwell appointed
vicar-general.
1536. Lord Leonard Gray lord deputy.
Suppression of the lesser monas-
teries {English).
A.D.
1537. Lord Thomas Fitzgerald and
his five uncles executed.
Lord Leonard Gray's campaign
in Limerick.
He destroys O'Brien's Bridge.
The supremacy supported in
Ireland by Archbishop
Brown, and opposed by
Archbishop Cromer.
The proctors are expelled from
Parliament.
Act of Supremacy (Irish).
Act for Suppression of Religious
Houses (Irish).
1538. Destruction of relics, etc.
1539. Dissolution of the greater mon-
asteries {English).
Law of the Six Articles.
Lord Leonard Gray's expedi-
tion into Ulster.
Battle of Belahoe.
His campaign in Munster.
Commission for the suppression
of religious houses.
1540. Sir Anthony St. Leger nego-
tiates with the chieftains.
Submission of the Irish chief-
tains and Anglo-Irish lords.
Distribution of Church lands.
1541. Title of King of Ireland con-
ferred on Henry.
1542. Submission of O'JSTeil and
O'Donnel.
1544. Irish contingent present at the
siege of Boulogne.
General peace in Ireland.
Edward VI., 1547-1553.
1547. Duke of Somerset Protector.
Disturbances in Leix and
Offal}-.
1548. O'Moore and O'Connor sent to
England as prisoners.
Civil war between the chief-
tains and the Tanists in Ty-
rone, Tyrconnel, and Clanri-
carde.
1549. First Prayer-booh of Edward
VI
1551. Introduction of the new liturgy.
Conference with the clergy iii
St. Mary's Abbey.
XX
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
A.D.
Pillage of Clonmacnoise.
1552. Arrest of the Earl of Tyrone
(Con Mor).
War between the Baron of Dun-
gannon and Shane O'Neil.
Second Prayer-booh of Ed. VI.
Mary, 1553-1558.
1553. Archbishop Dowdal recalled.
Dismissal of the Conforming
bishops.
Operations against Leix and
Ofifaly.
Restoration of the young Earl
of Kildare.
1555. Fighting in Thomond for the
succession.
Continued immigrations of
Scots into Antrim.
1556. Act in explanation of Poy-
nings's Act.
1558. Death of the Baron of Dungan-
non.
Reduction and Plantation of
Lcix and Offaly.
Elizabeth, 1558-1603.
1559. Death of Con Mor, Earl of Ty-
rone.
Shane O'Neil assumes the sov-
ereignty of Ulster.
Sir Henry Sidney marches
against him.
Negotiations ensue.
1500. Act of Uniformity (Irish).
Continued strife in Thomond.
Shane captures O'Donnel and
his wife.
1561. Sussex is defeated by Shane.
Plots to secure his murder.
Shane goes to England.
Death of second Baron of Dun-
gannon.
Elizabeth and Shane come to
terms.
1562. Shane returns to Ireland.
1563. Peace signed between Elizabeth
and Shane.
Shane massacres the Scots of
Antrim.
Struggle between Desmond and
Ormonde.
A. D.
1566.
1567.
1568.
1569.
1570.
1571.
1572.
Desmond is taken prisoner.
Renewal of the war with Shane.
Hugh O'Donnel joins the Eng-
lish.
Shane defeated at Letterkenny.
Is murdered by the McDonnels.
Turlough Luinagh becomes
"the O'Neil."
Sidney makes a progress
through Munster and Con-
naught.
He arrests Desmond, and his
brother, Sir John, and the
sons of the Earl of Clanri-
carde.
Harder of Damley; Mary
Queen of Scots marines Both-
well.
She is compelled to abdicate.
She takes refuge in England.
Scheme for planting Desmond.
Sir Peter Carew claims estates
in Cork and Carlow.
Insurrection in the Netherlands
begins.
Rising of Sir James Fitzmau-
rice Fitzgerald; Lord Clan-
carty; and Sir Edmund, Sir
Piers, and Sir Edward But-
ler in Munster.
Attainder of O'Neil and con-
fiscation of his Ulster terri-
tory.
Ormonde detaches his brothers
from the Munster insurgents.
Sir Edward Fitton President
of Connaught.
Rising of the Bourkes.
Sir James Fitzmaurice captures
Kilraallock.
Ormonde reduces Munster.
Pope Pius V. releases Eliza-
beth's subjects from their alle-
giance.
Sir Thomas Smith endeavors
to make a plantation in
Down.
Sir John Perrot hunts Fitz-
maurice into the vale of Ab-
erlow.
Clanricarde is liberated and
Connaught pacilied.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
XXI
Surrender of Sir James Fitz-
maurice.
Massacre of St. Bartholomew.
1573. Walter Devereux, Earl of Es-
sex, obtains a grant of terri-
tory in Ulster, and endeavors
to make a plantation.
1574. Massacre of Rathlin Island.
Escape of the Earl of Desmond
from Dublin.
1575. The Netherlander offer the sov-
ereignty to Elizabeth.
1576. Death of Essex.
Sir William Drury President
of Munster.
Sir Nicholas Malley President
of Connaught.
1577. Sidney levies illegal taxes on
the Pale.
Remonstrance of the loval Eng-
lish.
Rory O'Moore, the outlaw, in
Leix and Kildare.
Massacre of Mullaghmast.
1579. Sir James Fitzmaurice lands at
Smenvick.
Rising of the southern Geral-
dines.
Death of Sir James Fitz-
maurice.
Successes of the rebels.
Death of Sir William Drury.
Desmond joins the rebels.
Youghal is burned.
1580. Campion and Parsons, the Jes-
uits, in England.
Campaign of Ormonde and Sir
William Pelharn in Munster.
Risings in Wicklow.
Lord Gray de Wilton defeated
at Glenmalure.
The Spaniards land at Smer-
vrick.
Lord Gray's campaign in Mun-
ster.
Massacre of the Spaniards.
Risings in the Pale.
Executions in Dublin.
1581. Death of Dr. Saunders, the
Pope's legate.
1582. Death of Sir John and Sir
James of Desmond.
A.D.
Suppression of the Munster re-
bellion.
1583. Death of Desmond.
1585. Treaty between Elizabeth and
the Netherlanders.
1586. Attainder of the Munster rebels
and confiscation of their es-
tates.
Plantation of Munster.
Seizure of Red Hugh.
1587. Execution of Mary Queen of
Scots.
1588. Destruction of the Spanish A r-
mada.
Arrest of Sir John O'Dogherty
and Sir Owen McToole.
1589. Confiscation of Monaghan.
1591. Tyrone marries Bagnal's sister.
1592. Escape of Red Hugh.
1595. Confederation of the Ulster
chieftains.
Death of Turlongh Luinagh.
Tyrone assumes the title of
the O'Neil.
1597. Fighting on the Blackwater.
Anarchy in Connaught.
Death of Lord Burgh.
1598. Blockade of the Blackwater
fort.
Battle of the. Yellow Ford.
General rising. The Sugan
Earl in Munster.
1599. Lord Essex arrives with a large
army.
His campaign in Munster.
Concludes a truce with Tyrone.
Is recalled.
1600. Mountjoy lord deputy. Here-
forms the army.
Sir George Carew President of
Munster.
Sir Henry Docra occupies
Derry.
1601. Capture of the Sugan Earl.
Arrival of the Spaniards at
Kinsale.
Battle of Kinsale.
1602. Flight of O'Donnel.
Carew reduces Munster.
Famine brought on by the
wholesale destruction of the
crops.
xxii
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
A.D.
1603. Tyrone surrenders.
Death of Elizabeth.
James I., 1G00-1625.
1603. The Popish clergy ordered to
leave Ireland.
Peace concluded with Spain.
1605. Abolition of the laws of Tanis-
try and gavelkind.
The Gunpowder Plot.
1607. Flight of Tyrone andTyrconnel.
1608. Rising of"Sir Cahir O'Dogh-
erty.
Confiscation of six counties in
Ulster.
1610. Abolition of the Brehon law.
1611. Persecution of Roman Catho-
lics.
The plantation of Ulster.
Creation of the order of bar-
onets.
1612. The plantation of Wexford.
1613. Parliament summoned. Crea-
tion of boroughs.
1614. Attainder of Tyrone and the
Ulster chieftains.
Repeal of the old statutes
against the Irish.
1619. Plantation of Longford and Ely
O'Carroll.
Plantation of Westraeath.
1622. Plantation of Leitrim and parts
of King's and Queen's coun-
ties.
1624. War declared with Spain.
Transplantation of native septs
to Kerry.
Confiscations in Wicklow.
Projected planting of Con-
naught.
Charles L, 1625-1649.
1626. Composition made by the Con-
naught land-owners.
"The Graces" promised.
1628. The Petition of Right supported
by Wentworth and Pym.
Wentworth is made president of
the north.
Charles's third Parliament is
dissolved. Sir John Eliot sent
to the Tower.
A.D.
1632-1636. Compilation of the "An-
nals of Ireland " by the Four
Masters.
1633. Wentworth is appointed lord
deputy.
Laud is made Archbishop of
Canterbury.
1634. Wentworth dragoons the Irish
Parliament.
1635. Commission of "defective ti-
tles" in Connaught.
Sentence on Lord Mountnorris.
1636. Introduction of the linen manu-
facture.
1637. The Scots resist the new liturgy.
Decision of the English Court
of Exchequer on ship-money*
1638. The Covenanters prepare for
war.
1639. The pacification of Berwick.
The Scottish Parliament abolish
episcopacy and prepare for
war.
1640. Wentworth created Earl of
Strafford and Lord-lieutenant
of Ireland.
Augmentation of the Irish
army.
The Scots invade England.
Battle of Neiuburn.
Negotiations at Ripon.
The Long Parliament com-
mences sitting.
Strafford and Laud impeached.
1641. Bill of attainder against Straf-
ford. He is executed.
Ormonde and Antrim plot to
seize the Irish government
in support of Charles.
Rory O'Moore's plot to seize
the Castle.
Rising and massacres in Ulster.
The Roman Catholic Anglo-
Irish join the rebels.
Siege of Drogheda.
1642. Risings in Connaught and Mini-
ster.
Charles raises his standard at
Nottingham.
Arrival of Colonel Owen O'Neil
and Colonel Preston.
Synod at Kells.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
xxiii
Battle of Kilrush.
Confederation of Kilkenny.
Bailie of Edgehill.
The king in tu inter-quarters at
Oxford.
1613. Battle of Ross.
Ormonde made a marquis.
Battle of Ttoundaway Down.
Essex relieves Gloucester.
Cessation agreed upon between
Ormonde and the rebels.
First battle of Newbury.
Parliament take the Covenant.
The war continued on behalf
of the Parliament by the
Scots in Ulster, by Broghill
and Inchiquin in the south,
and by Sir Charles Coote in
Sligo.
1644. Ormonde lord-lieutenant.
The Irish, contingent cut off at
Nantwich.
Deputations from the two par-
ties in Ireland to the. king at
Oxford.
0 Battle of Marston Moor.
Second battle of Newbury.
Negotiations with the rebels.
1645. Negotiations between the king
and the Parliament at Ux-
bridge.
Glamorgan despatched by
Charles to make terms with
the rebels.
Battle of Naseby.
Arrival of Kinucini, the Pope's
legate.
Glamorgan concludes a secret
treaty.
Its discovery. Glamorgan is
arrested.
1646. He is liberated.
Divisions among the Confeder-
ates.
A treaty signed between Or-
monde and the Confederates.
Charles surre?iders to the Scots.
Battle of Benburb.
Kinucini and Owen Roe seize
the government at Kilkenny.
1G47. Presbyterianism established in
England.
Conflict between the Parliament
and the army.
The king seized at Ilolmby.
Ormonde surrenders Dublin to
the Parliament.
Battle of Dnngan Hill.
Inchiquin takes Cashel.
Battle of Knocknanoss.
1648. Inchiquin deserts to the Con-
federates.
Kinucini takes refuge with
Owen Roe's army.
Strife among the Confederates.
Royalist risings in Kent, Essex,
and South Wales.
Return of Ormonde.
Rupert and his fleet arrive at
Kinsale.
The Scottish army invades
England, and is defeated at
Preston and Wigan.
Colonel Pride exp)els the Pres-
byterian majority from the
House of Commons.
1649. Peace published between the
king and the Confederates.
Death of the king.
The Republic, 1649-1653.
1649. Prince Charles proclaimed at
Cork.
Plight of Kinucini.
Ormonde besieges Dublin.
Battle of Rathmines.
Arrival of Cromwell.
Capture of Drogheda.
Capture of Wexford.
Death of Owen Roe.
Campaign in the south.
Revolt of the southern garri-
sons to Parliament.
1650. Capture of Kilkenny and Clon-
mel.
Cromwell returns to England.
Battle of Dunbar.
Surrender of Waterford.
Flight of Ormonde and Inchi-
quin.
1651. Capture of Athlone.
Capture of Limerick.
Battle of Worcester.
Death of Ireton.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
1652. Surrender of Gahvay.
A ct for the Settlement of Ire-
land.
Survey of Ireland.
Banishment of the Irish sol-
diery.
Conflict between the army and
the Rump.
1653. Transplantation of the Irish be-
yond the Shannon.
Cromwell expels the Rump.
Tub Protectorate, 1653-16G0.
1653. The Barebones Parliament."
1054. The plantation of Ireland con-
tinues.
The first Protectorate Parlia-
ment. Thirty members sit
representing Ireland.
1655. Cromwell divides England into
eleven military districts.
1656. The second Protectorate Par-
liament.
Henry Cromwell lord-lieuten-
ant.
1658. The third Protectorate Parlia-
ment.
Death of Cromwell. He is suc-
ceeded by Richard Cromwell.
1659. The Rump restored by the army.
Lambert ejects the Rump.
Monk marches from Scotland.
1660. lie declares for a '■'•free Parlia-
ment.^
Coote and Broghill seize the
commissioners in Dublin
Castle.
Charles issues the Declaration
of Breda.
Charles IL, 1660-1685.
1660. Re-establishment of the Church.
The king's declaration for the
settlement of Ireland.
1661. Corporation Act.
1662. Act of Uniformity.
Act of Settlement.
1663. Court of Claims opens in Dublin.
Blood's plot.
Ireland excluded from the Navi-
gation A ct.
1664. The Conventicle A ct.
A. D.
1655. Act of Explanation.
The Five Mile Act.
1666. The Fire of London.
Prohibition of export to Eng-
land of Dish cattle and pro-
visions.
1667. The Cabal Ministry.
1670. Toleration of Roman Catholics.
Secret treaty of Do ver.
1671. Petition to review the Act of
Settlement.
1672. Declaration of Indulgence.
1673. The English Parliament con-
temn the Irish petition.
1678. The Popish plot.
Arrest of Archbishop Talbot.
1679. Arrest of Archbishop Plunket.
1681. Execution of Plunket.
1685. Richard Talbot made lieuten-
ant-general.
James II., 1685-1691.
1685. Reconstruction of the army.
Insurrection of Monmouth.
1687. Reconstruction of the corpora-
tions.
Tyrconnel lord-lieutenant.
Persecution of Trinity College,
Dublin.
1688. A cquittal of the seven bishops.
Plight of Protestants to Eng-
land.
William lands at Torbay.
Flight of James.
Closing of the gates of Dcrry
and Enniskillen.
1689. Tyrconnel raises regiments for
James.
War is declared against France.
William proclaimed at Deny.
Siege of Deny and Enniskillen.
James lands at Cork.
Holds a Parliament at Dublin.
Siege of Deny raised.
Battle of Newtown Butler.
Arrival of Schomberg.
He is besieged at Dundalk.
1690. Charlemont captured.
William lands at Carrickfergus.
Battle of Beachy Head.
Battle of the Boyne.
Flight of James.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
XXV
A.D.
Abortive siege of Limerick.
William returns to England.
Capture of Cork and Kinsale
by Marlborough.
1G91. Capture of Athlone.
Battle of Auglirim.
Surrender of Gahvay.
Second siege of Limerick.
Articles of Limerick.
William III., 1691-1702.
1692. Emigration of Irish Roman
Catholics.
Exclusion of Roman Catholics
from Parliament.
The House of Commons resist
the initiation of Money Bills
by the Privy Council.
Battle of Ste.inkirk.
1693. Battle ofLanden.
1696. Act for disarming the Roman
Catholics.
Penal act against foreign edu-
cation.
English act amending the Navi-
gation Act unfavorably to
Ireland.
1698. Molyneux's book on the inde-
pendence of the Irish Parlia-
ment.
Penal act against mixed mar-
riages.
1699. William's grants of Irish for-
feitures attacked in the Eng-
lish House of Commons.
English act •prohibiting the ex-
port of Irish wool.
Irish act laying prohibitive
tariff on the export of wool.
1700. The Resumption A ct.
1701. Act disqualifying Roman Cath-
olic solicitors.
Axne, 1702-1714.
1704. Penal act against the Roman
Catholics.
1706. Increase of Jacobitism. Domi-
nation of the High Church
party.
1708. Battle of A hnanza.
Further act against Roman
Catholic solicitors.
B
A. D.
1710. Penal act against the Roman
Catholics.
Fall of the Whig ministry.
Tory administrations of
llarley and St. John.
1711. Agrarian disturbances. Ever
Joyce. The Houghers.
Persecution of the Presbyte-
rians.
Sir Constantine Phipps leader
of the Jacobites.
Duke of Ormonde made com-
mander-in-chief
1713. Treaty of Utrecht.
1714. Fall of the Tory ministry.
George I., 1714-1727.
1715. Flight of the Duke of Ormonde
and Bolingbroke. They are
attainted.
Rebellion in Scotland.
1716. The Septennial Act.
1719. Conflict between the English
and Irish Houses of Lords.
Act subjecting the Irish to the
English legislature.
Toleration Act.
1723. Wood's patent granted.
1724. The Drapier's letters.
Prosecution of Swift's printer.
1725. The patent cancelled.
Potato famine.
1726. Archbishop Boulter lord justice.
George II., 1727-1760.
1727. Act disfranchising the Roman
Catholics.
Tillage Act.
1734. Further stringent act against
Roman Catholic solicitors.
1740. The Kellymount gang out-
rages.
1742. Death of Archbishop Boulter.
1744. Lord Chesterfield lord-lieuten-
ant.
1745. Battle of Fontenoy. x
The young Pretender in Scot-
latid.
1746. The battle of Culloden,
1747. Death of Archbishop Hoadly.
1748. Peace of A ix-la-Chapelle.
1749. Lucas stands for Dublin.
xxvi
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
A.D.
Threatened with prosecution,
he flies to England.
Rivalry between Primate Stone
and Speaker Boyle.
Contest in Parliament about
the appropriation of sur-
pluses.
1753. Prosecution of Nevill.
Petition of the Earl of Kil-
dare.
Death of Morty Oge O'Sullivan,
the smuggler.
1755. Fall of Primate Stone.
1756. Commencement of the Seven
Years' War.
Henry Boyle created Earl Shan-
non.
1757. Formation of the Roman Cath-
olic Committee.
1759. Eiots in Dublin on the rumor
of a contemplated union.
1760. Thurot's descent on Carrick-
fergus. His defeat and
death.
George III., 1760-1820.
1761. Insurrection of the White-
boys.
1762. Insurrection of the Oakboys.
1763. Attacks on the pension list.
Peace of Paris.
1764. Roman Catholic Relief Bill
thrown out.
1765. Act to Regulate the Law of
Highways.
The Stamp A ct for the Ameri-
can colonies.
1766. Execution of Father Sheehy
for Whiteboyism.
Repeal of the Stamp A ct.
1767. Lord Townshend lord-lieuten-
ant.
Charles Townshend taxes Amer-
ican imports.
Octennial Act.
1768. Rising of the Steelboys.
1769. Contest about the Money Bills.
Augmentation Bill passed.
1771. Extensive emigration to Amer-
ica from Ulster.
Contest about the Money Bills.
1772. Resignation of Townshend.
A.D.
1773. The people of Boston throw over-
board the imported tea.
The Irish national debt
amounts to £1,000.000.
1774. The Constitution of Massa-
chusetts is annulled.
1775. Continuation of the Whiteboy
outrages.
Irish troops are sent to Amer-
ica.
Battle of Lexington.
Increase of the debt and of the
pension list.
Flood is made a vice-treasurer.
1776. The embargo.
Declaration of A merican inde-
pendence.
1777. The English occupy Philadel-
phia.
The surrender at Saratoga.
1778. France recognizes the indepen-
dence of the A merican col-
onies.
First Roman Catholic Relief
Bill passed.
1779. Agitation in favor of freedom
of trade.
Efforts in the English Parlia-
ment to open Irish trade.
Formation of the volunteers.
Spain declares war against
England.
1780. Freedom of trade granted to Ire- /
land.
War declared against Holland.
1781. Agitation for legislative inde-
pendence.
The Perpetual Mutiny Bill
passed.
Surrender of Lord Cormvallis
at Yorktown.
1782. Further Roman Catholic Relief
Act.
Meeting of the volunteers at
Dungannon.
Resignation of Lord North.
Repeal of 6 Geo. I.
Amendment of Poynings's Act.
Habeas Corpus Act.
Death of Lord Rockingham.
1783. Declaratory A ct.
Peace of Versailles.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
xxvii
Coalition Ministry formed be-
tween Fox and Lord North.
Agitation for parliamentary re-
form.
The Volunteer National Con-
vention.
Rejection of Flood's Reform
Bill.
Fall of the Coalition Ministi'y.
Pitt becomes prime-minister.
1784. Rise of the Peep-o'-day Boys
and Defenders.
1785. Orde's commercial resolutions.
Jealous opposition of the Eng-
lish manufacturers.
Orde's Bill abandoned.
Agitation for reform,
1786. Rightboy disturbances.
Dublin Police Act passed.
1787. Growth of the Rightboy dis-
turbances.
Debates on the tithe question.
1788. Increase of Defenderism.
The king's illness becomes serious.
The Regency question in the Eng-
lish Parliament.
1789. The Regency question in the
Irish Parliament.
The Icing recovers.
Meeting of the Estates-General
at Versailles.
Storming of the Bastile.
1790. Fox sympathizes icith the French
Revolution, which produces a
breach between him and
Burke.
1791. Agitation for Roman Catholic
emancipation.
Louis XVI. escapes and is capt-
ured at Varennes.
Formation of the Society of the
United Irishmen.
1792. Roman Catholic Relief Act.
Accidental burning of the
House of Commons.
Austria and Prussia invade
France.
They are forced to retire from
Valmy.
Battle of Jemappes.
Meeting of the Roman Catho-
lic Convention.
A.D.
1793. Petition of the Roman Catho-
lics presented to the king.
Increase of Defenderism.
Execution of T^ouis XVT.
War declared by France against
England.
Further Roman Catholic Re-
lief Act.
Convention Act.
Gunpowder Act.
Ponsonby's motion on reform
rejected.
Activity of the United Irish-
men.
Secret committee of the House
of Lords to inquire into the
disturbed state of the coun-
try.
Flight of Napper Tandy.
1794. Prosecution of Hamilton Row-
an and imprisonment of Si-
mon Butler and Oliver Bond.
The Duke of Portland and some
of the old Whigs join the min-
istry.
Arrest of Jackson.
Suppression of the United Irish-
men.
The society is reconstructed as
a secret association.
1795. Arrival of Lord Fitzwilliam as
Viceroy.
Grattan's bill for complete
emancipation of the Roman
Catholics.
Recall of Lord Fitzwilliam. Y
Trial and death of Jackson.
Rejection of Grattan's Bill.
Tone goes to America.
Battle of the Diamond.
Formation of Orange lodges.
Spain declares war against
England.
Establishment of the French Di-
rectory.
179G. The Insurrection Act.
Tone at IJaris.
Fitzgerald and O'Connor at
Basle.
Extension of the United Irish-
men to Leinster.
French expedition to Bantry.
xxviii
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
1797. Arthur O'Connor is arrested,
and released on bail.
Lord Moira attacks the govern-
ment in the English House of
Lords.
Martial law in Ulster.
Grattan's Reform Bill rejected.
Secession of the opposition.
Increase of the United Irish-
men.
Mutiny at the Nore and Spit-
head.
Battle of Camperdown.
Execution of Orr.
Lord Moira again attacks the
government in the English
House of Lords.
Grattan retires from public life.
1798. Sir Ralph Abercrombie suc-
ceeds Lord Carhampton as
commauder-in-chief in Ire-
land.
He resigns his command.
Martial law in Leinster.
O'Connor is arrested at Mar-
gate.
A.D.
Mar. 11. Arrest of the executive com-
mittee of the United Irish-
men at Oliver Bond's.
May 19. Arrest of Lord Edward Fitz-
gerald.
"23. Risings round Dublin and in
Kildare and Carlow.
li 25. Risings in Wicklow.
"27. Risings in Wexford.
June 4. Battle of New Ross.
"7. Risings in Down and An-
trim.
"9. Battle of Arldow.
"21. Capture of Vinegar Hill.
Aug. 22. The French at Killala.
"26. Battle of Castlebar.
Sept. 8. Battle of Ballinamuck.
Oct. 10. French expedition to Lough
Swilly. Capture of Tone.
Proposal of the Union.
1799. Opposition to the Union.
Defeat of the government.
The English Parliament agree
to Pitt's resolutions on the
Union.
1800. The Act of Union.
LIST OF AUTHOEITIES.
Alison Life of Lord Castlereagh.
Archdall Monasticon Hibern.
Baratariana.
Barrington Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation.
Betham, Sir William Dignities Feudal, etc.
Brewer Introduction to the Carew State Papers.
Burke's Works.
Camden Britannia.
Carew State Papers.
Carlyle Letters of Cromwell.
Carte Life of the Duke of Ormonde.
Castlehaven, Lord Memoirs.
Castlereagh Correspondence.
Connellan andMcDermot Annals of the Four Masters.
Cornwallis , Correspondence.
Cox, Sir Richard Hibern. Anglicana.
Curry Review of Civil Wars in Ireland.
Cusack, Miss M. F History of the Irish Nation.
Davis, Sir John Discoverie of the True Causes, etc.
"" Historical Tracts.
"" Reports.
Desiderata Curiosa.
Fitzgibbon, Lord Clare.. Speech on the Union.
Fitzmaurice, Lord E Life of Lord Shelbume.
Foster Life of Strafford.
Froude English in Ireland.
"History of England.
Gilbert History of Dublin.
Godkin Irish Land War.
Gordon History of the Irish Rebellion.
XXX LIST OF AUTHORITIES.
Grattan Memoir of Right Hon. Henry Grattan.
Grattan's Speeches.
Green '. Short History of the English People.
Hallam Constitutional History.
Hancock, W. Neilson Ancient Laws of Ireland.
Hardy Life of Lord Charlemont.
Haverty History of Ireland.
Hay History of the Insurrection in Wexford.
History of Roger.
Hutchinson Commercial Restraints of Ireland.
Irish Commons Journals.
Joyce Origin and History of Irish Names.
King Estate of the Protestants of Ireland under James II.
Langrishe, Sir Hercules.. .Barataria.
Lanigan Ecclesiastical History of Ireland.
Lascelles Liber Munerum pub. Hibern.
Lawless (Lord Cloncurry).. Personal Recollections.
hecky History of England during Eighteenth Century.
"Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland.
Leland History of Ireland.
Leslie Answer to King's Estate of the Protestants.
Lingard History of England.
Lodge Irish Peerage.
Ludlow Memoirs.
Lynch View of Legal Institutions, etc., in Ireland.
Macaulay History of England.
McGee Popular History of Ireland.
McNevin Confiscation of Ulster.
Madden ,. History of the United Irishmen.
Maine Village Communities.
"Early History of Institutions.
Mason Essay on the Irish Parliament.
Mahon, Lord History of England.
Massey History of England.
May Constitutional Histor}'.
Meehan Confederation of Kilkenny.
Moore History of Ireland.
"Life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald.
Moryson History of Ireland.
LIST OF AUTHORITIES.
xxxi
Mountmorres History of the Irish Parliament.
Musgrave History of the Irish Rebellion.
O'Callaghan History of the Irish Brigades.
O'Connell Memoir of Ireland.
O'Connor History of the Irish Catholics.
O'Conor Military History of the Irish Nation.
O'Donovan Annals of the Four Masters.
O'Halloran History of Ireland.
O'Mahony, J Keating's History of Ireland.
O'Mahony, Rev. F Ancient Laws of Ireland.
O'Sullivan Historia Cath. Ib. Comp.
Parliamentary History.
Petty, Sir William History of the Down Survey. j
"" Political Anatomy of Ireland.
Playfair British Family Antiquities.
Plowden Historical Review.
"History of Ireland.
Prendergast Cromwellian Settlement.
Reid History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.
Richey Lectures on the History of Ireland.
"Ancient Laws of Ireland, Brehon Tracts.
Russell, Lord Life of Fox.
Scobell Acts and Ordinances of the Long Parliament.
Shirley Some Account of the Territory of Farney,
"History of Monaghan.
Smith, Charles History of Cork.
"" History of Kerry.
"" History of Waterford.
Spenser, Edmund View of the State of Ireland.
Stanhope, Lord Life of Pitt.
State Papers (Henry VIIL).
""(James I.).
State Trials.
Statutes at Large (English).
""(Irish).
Strafford Papers.
Todd Life of St. Patrick.
Tone Autobiography.
Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vols, xiv., xvi.
XXXli LIST OF AUTHORITIES.
Wakeman Archseologia Hibern.
Warner History of the Irish Rebellion.
Wills .Irish Nation.
Wood, Anthony Diary of, in Athenae Oxonienses.
Wright History of Ireland.
Young Tour in Ireland.
Book I.
INDEPENDENT IRELAND
A SHOKT HISTORY
OF
THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER I.
CONDITION OF THE EARLY IRISH.
The earliest colonization of Ireland, like that of most other
countries, is wrapped in a cloud of myth. Ancient legends
tell us. of immigrations of "Nemedians," "Firbolgs," and
"Tuath da Danaan;" of a niece of Noah, and a near de-
scendant of Japhet. But all that can be gathered from such
mention as is made of the island by ancient writers, from the
etymology of local names, and from antiquarian research, en-
ables us to affirm that Ireland was originally inhabited by a
people of Turanian origin, which gave way before parties of
immigrant Celts from Western Europe. The latter passed
over partly from Britain and partly from the shores of Spain,
in the population of which locality there was a considerable
Phoenician element.
This Celtic stock was from time to time supplemented by
the arrival of more Celts, and subsequently by the incursion
of a Teutonic people, the "Scoti," who appear to have ac-
quired the dominion of the island, but, while retaining the
mastery, to have been eventually absorbed and assimilated by
the more numerous native population.
Society was based on the tribal system. Each tribe, or clan,
or, as the Irish called it, " sept," consisted of a number of fam-
ilies, bearing the same name as the original founder of the
tribe. The head of each family was autocratic, but owed alle-
4
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
giance to the chief of the tribe. And the chief of the tribe
acknowledged the overlordship of a superior chieftain, to whom
he paid a tribute. In some cases a group of tribes accepted
as their chieftain the head of what was believed to be the
primary tribe; in others they formed a confederacy, and
chose one of the tribe chiefs to be their head.
The tribes had each their respective territory, part of which
was enjoyed in common, as common tillage, meadow, wood, or
pasture-land; part was occupied by the dwellings of the mem-
bers of the tribe, with their curtilages; part was devoted to
the use of the chief for the time being; and part was occu-
pied by separate families of the noble class, who had contrived
to appropriate a portion of the public lands. The sovereign
chieftain held his own royal demesne lands, carved out of the
territories of the various tribes which formed the group or
confederacy. The chiefship of the tribe, or the chieftainship
of the group of tribes, was elective; and during the lifetime of
each such chief or chieftain, his successor, called the " Tanist,"
was chosen by the tribesmen. The Tanist was always taken
from the same family as the chief; and was the most service-
able member of the family for the time being that could be
found—perhaps the son, perhaps the brother, or perhaps some
one less near in blood, according to his age and capacity. The
other officers of the tribe were the Druid, the Bard, and the
Brehon, all hereditary officers.
The Brehon, as the depositary of knowledge to which few
could attain, was a person of great consideration. He was the
general professional arbitrator in all disputes. Submission to
his jurisdiction and decision could not indeed be compelled by
the suitor; but in practice, through the force of public opin-
ion, neither the one nor the other was questioned. He was re-
munerated in each case which he was called upon to decide, by
payment of his dues, consisting of fifteen cows and ten days'
entertainment. If convicted of giving a partial decision, he was
branded on the cheek.
The law administered by the Brehon was the common-law of
the Celtic people, which had grown up in course of time by the
crystallization of various local customs. At first it was handed
CONDITION OF THE EARLY IRISH.
5
down by oral tradition; but subsequently these customs were
collected, and written down, at a comparatively early date; and,
after the introduction of Christianity, to some extent supple-
mented by the canon-law. The manuscript fragments of an-
cient law-tracts which remain to us, and the great Irish code
the "Senchus Mor," which claims the middle of the fifth cen-
tury for the date of its compilation under the auspices of St.
Patrick, exhibit an elaborate system of jurisprudence, which
regulated the dealings between man and man so lately, in some
parts of Ireland, as the reign of James I. The character and
origin of the " Senchus Mor " are best described in a passage in
the introduction of the work itself. "How the judgment of true
nature," we read, "which the Holy Ghost had spoken through
the mouths of the Brehons and just poets of the men of Erin,
from the first occupation of the island down to the reception
of the faith, were all exhibited by Dubhtach * to Patrick, what
did not clash with the word of God in the written law and in
the New Testament, and with the consciences of the believers,
was confirmed in the law of the Brehons by Patrick, and by the
ecclesiastics and the chieftains of Erin. For the law of nature
had been quite right, except the faith and its obligations, and
the harmony of the Church and the people."
We can form some idea of the criminal branch of the Brehon
law from its digested form in the " Book of Aicill," which is be-
lieved to have been put together about the middle of the third
century. The distinction between a crime and a civil wrong
was not very clearly defined, the former being to a great extent
treated as "a tort," and compensated by damages. This was
mainly due to the tribal character of society, in which every
illegal act was a personal injury, but could not be an offence
against the state, when there was no state to take cognizance
of it The law was enforced by the levying of " erics," or fines,
of so many cows upon the offender by the process of distress •
and, if he was unable to pay, upon the whole family of which he
was a member. If the right to take the distress was disputed,
the Brehon settled the point in an arbitration. One of the
* The chief Brehon of that day.
6
HISTORY OP THE KINGDOM OF. IRELAND.
principal provisions, and one common to the early Teutonic
peoples of Britain and Germany, was the law of compensation
for murder. The family of the slain bread-winner was entitled
to receive a fine from the slayer; and if his family were com-
pelled to liquidate the fine on his behalf, he was deprived of the
enjoyment of his civil rights, and his share of the tribal allot-
ments was appropriated to the satisfaction of the damages paid
on his account. Injuries to women were atoned for in the
same way. And various penalties were inflicted for the offences
of incest, rape, adultery, perjury, theft, receiving of stolen goods,
and all acts of dishonesty. Fines were also levied for various
"wrongs" in the truer sense of the word, and also for breaches
of contract, such as trespass, slander, fraud, negligence in regard
to bailments, the non-payment of their liabilities by debtors or
their sureties. The law relating to husband and wife was of a
singularly enlightened character. Where the husband and the
wife had each property of their own, the wife was called "the
wife of equal dignity." She was in all respects recognized as
equal to her husband, and neither party could contract without
the consent of the other. A number of provisions regulated
the boundaries of land, the preservation of roads, woods, and
watercourses, the property in swarms of bees, and the bartering
of goods. Hospitality to strangers was strictly enjoined; and
there were many sumptuary laws with respect to the wearing
of apparel.
With regard to the tenure of land, the common land of the
tribe was enjoyed by all the members. Part was used for
grazing purposes, and part was allotted in tracts, for the pur-
pose of cultivation, to the various heads of households. The
ownership of the common land was vested in the tribe, and the
right of user was based upon tribe-membership only. The lead-
ing idea with respect to the specifically appropriated land was
that of a partnership among the male members of the stirps.
The law of primogeniture was unknown. On the death of any
member of a family, his sons who were householders, both le-
gitimate and illegitimate, took an equal share of his holding by
the Irish custom of gavelkind. They were partners with him
during his lifetime, and on his death the property survived to
CONDITION OF THE EARLY IRISH.
1
them as co-owners in undivided shares. In later times a quit-
rent was demanded on each holding by the chief; but the land
was never held on the condition of the rendering of anything
in the nature of feudal service. A very curious custom some-
times prevailed in the distribution of the appropriated lands,
under which, where circumstances would permit of it, an organ-
ization sprang up known as the " Geilfine system." The orig-
inal acquirer of the land, as each of his sons grew up and was
ready to leave the home, gave him his share in the paternal
acres, and planted him out to maintain a household of his own.
This was done successively to the number of four sons, if he
had as many; the fifth and youngest remained with his father,
and inherited the original home. The father and the four sons
formed a family group of five households, which went by the
name of the Geilfine* or "right-hand group," from the five fin-
gers on the hand {gilla). The youngest son, in his turn, when he
had succeeded to the residue of the property and his sons grew
up, planted them out one by one on portions of the remainder
of the family land. He and his four sons then became the
Geilfine^ and his brothers' four households were in this way
pushed further off from the household of the stirps, and were
known as the Deirbhfine, f or " particular group." The young-
est and fifth son of the new Geilfine chief, in his turn, repeated
the process, forming for himself and his sons a fresh Geilfine
on his own account. The last Geilfine then became the Deirbh-
fine in its turn, and the old Deirbhfine became the larfine, J
or "after-group." Again the process was repeated, and yet an-
other and newer Geilfine was formed; each group, as before,
took the place of the group more remotely related, and the
Iarfine became the Indfine, § or " end group." Here the proc-
ess ceased, and no further subdivision was made. Each group
acquired a separate instead of an undivided share in the pater-
nal acres, and became a fresh stirps, retaining the tract allotted
* Qusere geil or geal, " white " or "fair" ?fine, a "family."
f Deirbli, also "true," "handsome."
% Tar, adverb, " after;" adjective, "black;" substantive, " the end."
§ In (quaere inne, "the middle " ?), "small;" in compounds," proper," "fit."
(Quaere ind, the head or end of an arrow ?)
8
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
to it, and repeating the plotting-out of its own share in its own
way. Each family worked out on this plan consisted of seven-
teen households—four in each of the four groups plus the orig-
inal home. Where a group became extinct, the lands wrere
taken per stirpes by the other groups of the family. On failure
of a male representative, the land reverted to the tribe; though
in later days, when the tribe system was becoming weakened,
the daughters were in such cases permitted to inherit.
Agriculture was very much in its infancy. A little grain
was grown by each family for its own support. The principal
source of wealth, and the measure of value, as among primitive
nations it always has been, and still is, was cattle. The fines
were calculated in cows. The cow was the unit of value in all
trade dealings. The square measurement of land was based
upon the number of cows which could be supported on a given
piece of ground of a given quality. Besides cows, another val-
uable property were the droves of pigs, which were turned out
to get their living on the common forest-land; the flocks of
sheep, which were depastured on the uplands of the tribe; and
last, though not least, a breed of small horses remarkable for
their fleetness. The ordinary dwellings of the tribesmen were
small buildings, made of wood and wattles, about seventeen feet
in length, with sometimes a detached kitchen in the rear. Their
chiefs' houses were considerably larger, the average length be-
ing thirty-seven feet. But though these rude habitations were
sufficient for ordinary purposes, we can judge from their stu-
pendous sepulchral chambers, built of uncemented stones, such
as the cairn of Newgrange and the hill of Dowth,* that when
occasion required they could produce something demanding no
mean architectural skill. The tribal dwellings were generally
built in groups: sometimes perched upon an island in a land-
locked mere; sometimes standing out of the water upon rough-
hewn, well-driven piles; sometimes comprising a strong natural
position upon the high ground, and protected with artificially
constructed earthworks. The strength and size of their hill
forts, the raths and duns, must have been very considerable. A
Works of this character are believed to bs pre-Celtic.
CONDITION OF THE EARLY IRISH.
9
strong earthwork, including a large area, contained tlie huts of
the tribal garrison, and the towering central mound occupied
by the chief, with excavated storehouses for the reception of
grain; or a formidable wall of irregular unmortared masonry,
ten, twelve, or fourteen feet in thickness, formed a circular
fortress, which in those days must have been well-nigh impreg-
nable.
Trade had been carried on between Ireland and the countries
lying round the Mediterranean basin from the earliest times.
The staple of the export trade was ores. There was also some
traffic in slaves, which were brought over from Britain and the
continent. The great walled road from Dublin to Galway was
the trade highway which opened up the west. The unalloyed
gold ornaments, torques, rings, fibulae, bracelets, and the bronze
swords, skeens, and spearheads, with articles of domestic use,
found in the bogs and tumuli, or ploughed up in newly broken
land, give us evidence of a considerable acquaintance with the
working of the precious metals.
The religion of the people was akin to the ancient Mithraic
cult. The Celtic names of places bear strong indications of the
existence of fire-worship, introduced by the Phoenician colonists,
when the phallic dances sped round the venerated pillar-stones,
and the Druids, priests of the sun, offered human sacrifices on
the huge altar-stones, and laid to rest in the cromlech tombs
the ashes of the dead warrior. A trace of serpent-worship still
survives in the legend of the expulsion of the snakes from Ire-
land by St. Patrick.
10
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER II.
CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE EARLY IRISH. A.D. 450-1150.
We can depend on nothing in the nature of authentic history
prior to the early part of the fifth century. "Were we to take
upon trust all that is told us by the bardic historians who
flourished between a.d. 800 and a.d. 1000, or even in the more
trustworthy compilation of ancient chronicles made in the sev-
enteenth century by Michael O'Clery, a Franciscan monk, from
original documents no longer existing, and known as the "An-
nals of the Four Masters," we should have, apart from innu-
merable stories of giants and necromancers, to go back to the
Deluge, and to record the doings of a hundred and eighteen
kings of Ireland of pure Milesian or Scotic race. We should
learn how Heber and Heremon, the two sons of Milesius, took
each a share of the island—the former the southern, and the
latter the northern, half; how Ollam Fohdia instituted a trien-
nial assembly of chiefs, Druids, and Bards at Tara; how Kim-
baoth, King of Ulster, built a palace at Emania, near Armagh;
how Cormac Ulphada founded three academies for the study
of war, literature, and jurisprudence at Tara; how a rebellion
of the subject races was for a time successful against their
Scotic masters, and how they were crushed by the Milesian
prince Tuathal; how this same Tuathal, the king of the north,
imposed a grievous tribute upon the south, which was paid for
five hundred years; how Finn McCumhal, the mighty warrior—
the Irish King Arthur, better known, in Scotland as Fingal, or
Fin the Stranger—was the leader of the Fenian heroes and the
national militia; and how "Nial of the Nine Hostages," so
called from the pledges which he wrung from nine different
nations, invaded Britain and Gaul in the declining years of the
Koman occupation.
Patricius was a Christian Gaul, born at Boulogne, about a.d.
CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE EARLY IRISH.
11
400, of which town his father was a burgess of substance.
When Nial of the Nine Hostages invaded Gaul, Patricius was
taken captive, and at the age of sixteen carried into Ireland,
where he became a slave, and tended the cattle of his master
in the County of Antrim. After six years' captivity he ran
away from his master, got on board a ship, and escaped to his
own country. Some years later, having been greatly moved by
certain dreams, in which lie believed that he had received a
direct commission from the Almighty to preach the gospel in
the land of his captivity, he devoted himself to a missionary
life, received holy orders from the Gallican Church, and reached
the coast of Wicklow about the year a.d. 445.
Christianity had not been absolutely unheard of in Ireland
when St. Patrick arrived. A few converts had probably been
made either by imported slaves, or the efforts of Palladius, who
some years before had attempted to conduct a mission there
and had failed; but substantially the whole people were pa-
gans, and there was no foundation at all for St. Patrick to
work upon. The missionary, finding no encouragement on the
Dublin coast, proceeded northward, and landed at the entrance
to Strangford Lough. He remained some time in this part of
the country, and was well received, and made some important
converts. He then moved into Meath, and found King Leogh-
aire, the son of Nial, presiding over the great council at Tara.
The monkish legends tell us of how the saint disturbed the as-
sembly by lighting a great fire on the Hill of Slane, and how
the king and all his company came forth to punish him for his
audacity; how a contest took place between the saint and the
Druids, and how the latter were worsted by St. Patrick's mirac-
ulous powers; the consequence of which wTas that the king was
baptized, and all his chiefs. Discounting this liberally, how-
ever, we may conclude that St. Patrick's missionary efforts
were successful with the chiefs of the people, and that the
latter, following the lead of the heads of their tribes, willingly
received the new doctrine which was brought to them.
St. Patrick then proceeded through Connaught and Ulster,
winning a conspicuous success at the "field of slaughter" in
Leitrim, where he overthrew the sacred monolith, and de-
12 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
nounced the bloody idolatry practised in honor of the sun.
Subsequently his missionary journeys took him through Mini-
ster and Leinster, and he eventually returned to his starting-
place in County Down, to found the neighboring bishopric of
Armagh, and consolidate the Church of which he had laid the
foundations in all quarters of the island.
Wherever St. Patrick went, he seems to have been received
with very little opposition; what there was, coming chiefly
from the Druid establishment, which it was his object to de-
stroy. He passed from place to place, seizing every opportu-
nity afforded by any local gathering, and, after baptizing his
converts, erected rude places of worship, constructed of wood
and wattles—the fashion of building then prevailing in the
country. Occasionally he went with his life in his hand, where
the influence of the old cult was active in its own defence; but
the bulk of the people accepted his teaching with readiness,
and left their old superstitions without regret.
His first step seems always to have been to secure the chief
of the clan, and the tribal instincts of the rest of the commu-
nity made thousands of converts to the religion adopted by their
lords. The conversion of the multitude was at first, of course,
to a great extent nominal; but St. Patrick had the wisdom to
ordain priests from among the people themselves, and to plant
them, wherever he had the opportunity, in groups, which sub-
sequently developed into monasteries, within the territory of
each clan, thereby creating, besides a network of missionary
outposts, a system which was at once both civilizing and edu-
cational. He also adapted the pagan superstitions to Christian
uses, and absorbed the heathen holy days into the festivals of
the Church.
The Church in Ireland, as constituted by St. Patrick and his
successors, partook considerably of the tribal character of the
country. Land was granted by the tribes for the support of
religious houses, whose abbots dropped into the position of
chiefs, to whom the occupiers of the lands owed a sort of tribal
allegiance. The lands themselves descended to the successor-
designate of the abbot, who was called a " co-arb," and elected
by the members of the brotherhood and the tribesmen, in anal-
CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE EARLY IRISH.
13
ogy with the law of Tanistiy. The smaller ecclesiastical estab-
lishments owed allegiance to the parent monastery, and paid a
tax or tribute to its support. On the other hand, the bishops,
except in the cases of the sees of Armagh and Trim, were not
necessarily attached to any diocese, but were subordinate to the
abbots, and were in the nature of suffragans of the parent
house.
After Christianity had become well established in Ireland,
the monastic schools of learning, which in their halcyon days
produced Yirgilius, Bishop of Salzburg, and Joannes Scotus,
grew to be in advance of those on the Continent; and were
much frequented by foreign ecclesiastics amid the troubles of
the sixth and seventh centuries, not only for the sake of their
teaching and their libraries, but also for the peace and security
which they were there able to enjoy. A great missionary spirit
also arose in the Church. The unattached bishops wandered
into Scotland, Britain, and Gaul, and even farther afield in Eu-
rope; but though the spread of Christianity in the sister isle
among the pagan Scandinavian settlers was largely due to the
efforts of Columbanus and Columba and others, the Irish mis-
sionaries on the Continent in the seventh century, and later,
caused considerable scandal and indignation by reason of the
roving commission under which they intruded into the dioceses
of other bishops.
As the outcome of the tribal system, the areas of ecclesiasti-
cal jurisdiction grew to be coincident with the territories of the
tribes or groups of tribes; and as intercourse with the Continent
grew, and the influence of Rome became felt in the island, the
bishops, who were at first the officials of the abbots, came grad-
ually to the front; the tribal district of the monastery grew into
the diocese, and at a synod held at Rath Bresail, in a.d. 1111,
the boundaries of twenty-four dioceses were defined, exclusive
of the Danish bishopric of Dublin.
Though not refusing to acknowledge the supremacy of the
Pope, the Irish Church had all along been connected with
Rome by the loosest ties. The clergy at length seem to have
become impressed by the reiterated charges of irregularity in
their organization, and to have consented to be reconstituted
14 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
according to Roman ideas. A synod was accordingly held at
Kelts, in a.d. 1152, under the auspices of Bishop Malachy, and
a rearrangement of the sees effected. Cardinal Paparo, the
Pope's legate, presided. He distributed four pallia among
the four archiepiscopal sees of Armagh, Cashel, Dublin, and
Tuam, and affiliated ten, twelve, five, and seven suffragan sees
to each of the four metropolitans respectively. He constituted
the Archbishop of Armagh primate of all Ireland; and where
bishoprics and parishes were not maintained by any allocated
lands, he ordained the payment of tithes to the clergy by the
individual members of the tribe. The submission of the
Church of Ireland to the Bishop of Rome, who claimed a right
of disposition over "the isles of the sea," became subsequently
a link in the fanciful title to the lordship of Ireland put for-
ward by the English kings.
THE SCANDINAVIAN TYRANNY.
15
CHAPTER III.
THE SCANDINAVIAN TYRANNY. A.D. 795-1014.
The strictly historical period can hardly be said to begin
much before the introduction of Christianity into the island by
St. Patrick, in the middle of the fifth century. We find that
by that time there had grown up four confederations of tribes,
corresponding pretty nearly to the four provinces into which
the island is now divided. These confederacies each acknowl-
edged a royal family of its own: Ulster that of the O'Neils,
Connaught that of the O'Connors, Munster that of the O'Briens,
and Leinster that of the McMurroughs. It is convenient to
make use of the names by which the four provinces are now
known; but it must be remembered that the Norse termina-
tion of "ster," or stad, a place, shows that, with the exception
of that of Connaught, they could not have been in use before
the ninth century. These four kingdoms again, in theory, rec-
ognized a branch of the Ulster family of O'Neil as lords para-
mount, of sacred and royal race. But this overlordship was
really only maintained by force; it was the source of constant
wars and disturbances; and the right to it was frequently
disputed by the formidable kingdom of Munster. The royal
demesne of Meath, the appanage of the Ulster family, which
included Westmeath, Longford, and part of King's County, was
sometimes reckoned as a fifth kingdom. The kingdom of
Munster was divided into the two districts of Desmond and
Thornond, whose leading families, the McCarthys and the
O'Briens, claimed to occupy alternately the throne of Cashel.
While the Church was developing in strength and influence,
and learning and civilization were being fostered within the
walls of the religious houses, the civil history of Ireland is bar-
ren of everything but quarrels and "hostings;" and we find
but little if any improvement in the condition of the people,
16
HISTORY OP THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
though it is noteworthy that women had been prohibited from
fighting in the ranks in battle. The condition of society was
changing. The tribe system was decaying; the tribe lands
were becoming monopolized by the noble class; the free tribes-
men were deteriorating, while the chiefs and great men were
absorbing all political and social power. As the*chieftains be-
came more absolute, they assumed the privilege of quartering
themselves and their retinue upon their subjects at their own
pleasure, and extracting from them both food and forage.
This oppressive custom was known as "coshering," and in
later times was commuted for a tribute which was called
"bonaght." As the tribal land became occupied, and the pop-
ulation grew, the tribes, always jealous of each other, became
aggressive. Lands were seized and cattle were lifted; laws
were set at defiance; and ambition prompted the chieftains to
encourage the tribal strife. The great southern kingdom grew
in importance; the supremacy of the royal house was called in
question; and internal dissensions were gradually paving the
way for foreign invasion.
Until the end of the eighth century, Ireland had been free
from the Scandinavian scourge, which for four hundred years
had swept over Britain and the coasts of Gaul. But she suf-
fered, in common with those countries, from the later incursion
of pagan vikings, popularly known as the Danes. The North-
men made lodgements on various parts of the coast, more par-
ticularly on the east side of the island. Their attack was fierce
and sudden. They burned, they plundered, they ravished, they
massacred, and struck terror into the hearts of the native Irish.
The disunited tribes, though at first checking the earlier settlers,
were unable, upon the arrival of reinforcements under Turges,
to offer any effectual resistance; the foreigners overran the
whole island, and brought it into complete subjection. The
pagan invaders particularly expended their fury upon the
Church; breaking down the stone oratories, and destroying
the religious houses and schools of learning; burning the an-
cient books and manuscripts, melting down the bells, breaking
up the crosiers and pastoral staves, and driving the monks and
scholars into the mountains. They exacted heavy tributes on
THE SCANDINAVIAN TYRANNY.
17
the tribesmen in kind and money, and those who were unable
to pay were reduced to slavery.
Driven to revolt, the Irish rose on their oppressors, a general
massacre took place, and Turges was put to death. But the
reaction was only transient. More Northmen arrived upon the
coast; Amlaff, Sitric, and Imar, with countless crews of fierce
warriors, swarmed over from the North Sea and enslaved the
island. The Irish, still divided among themselves, were easily
broken; and colonies of the enemy were planted at the mouths
of all the principal rivers. At Carlingford, at Dublin, at Wex-
ford, at Waterford, at Limerick, the Norse immigrants firmly
established themselves. They built fortified towns, and formed
active trading communities; numerous settlements were made
on every part of the coast, and were even occasionally pushed
into the interior of the country.
At length, a master spirit arose to rescue the Irish from their
oppressors. The Danes of Limerick held the district of Tho-
mond in cruel bondage, and had brought to his knees the King
of Mnnster, who then happened, by the rule of alternate succes-
sion, to be of the Dalcassian race of O'Brien.
The king's brother, Brian Borumha, or Boru, had scorned to
make his peace with the foreigner, and had taken to the moun-
tains. He became the head of a desperate band, and at length
roused his brother to renew the contest. A great battle was
fought at Sulchoid, near Limerick (a.d. 968). The Danes were
driven pell-mell into the city, the victorious Irish entering with
them; Limerick was sacked and burned, and its inhabitants put
to the sword or enslaved.
Having crushed the Northmen in this part of the country,
Brian, upon the death of his brother, who was murdered by
some discontented chieftains, although it was the turn of the
Euganian line of Desmond to reign, seized on the throne of
Cashel. He soon established himself as ruler of all Munster,
overran Ossory and subdued Leinster, and began to turn his
mind to the more ambitious scheme of laying hands on the
sovereignty of the whole island. The Danes of Dublin and
the east coast had about this time received a severe check, at
the battle of Tara, from Melachlin, the hereditary King of Ire-
18
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
land; but they obtained a short respite, by reason of the rivalry
of Melachlin and Brian. The latter, for thirty years after the
fall of Limerick, was exerting his supremacy over an extending
area. He laid waste Connaught and Meath, and burned the
royal stronghold at Tara, but he had not yet ventured to seize
upon the throne. In a.d. 1001 he consummated his ambitions
scheme, deposed Melachlin, received the submission of, and
took hostages from, the chieftains of the north, and, gathering
all the power into his own hands, was acknowledged sovereign
0L4II Ireland.
- [The vigorous action of Brian restored tranquillity to the dis-
tracted island, and for twelve years he reigned in uninterrupted
peace. The Danes, however, who had been reduced under his
determined rule into quiet traders in the seaport towns, began
to be astir. They concerted a rebellion with the people of
Leinster, and begged for aid from their kinsmen in the Ork-
neys and in Norway, who sent a large fleet to their assistance,
under Sigurd.^J
j King Brian was now stricken in years, but his spirit and
judgment were as keen as ever. He opposed to the confeder-
ate forces an army of Munster men, of Connaught men, and of
the men of Meath, under his five sons and the deposed King
Melachlin, and joined battle at Clontarf, on Good Friday, a.d.
From dawn till eve the death - struggle was maintained.
There was great slaughter on both sides. The Northmen were
finally driven back upon the sea, and the remnant of the army
took refuge in Dublin. But the victory was dearly bought.
The old king, too weak to go into the battle, was lying in his
tent, when some Danish fugitives, taking advantage of his being
poorly guarded, broke in and put him to deathT?
'With his death his whole system of a united government
melted away. The subjugated provinces reasserted their inde-
pendence, and the deposed Melachlin again became titular king
of all Ireland. The Northmen, who for two centuries had been
a formidable and at times a dominant power in the island, were
so broken by the overthrow at Clontarf that they never again
became dangerous. They never, indeed, seem at any time to



Book II.
THE ANGLO-NORMAN SETTLEMENT
CHAPTER I.
THE FILIBUSTERS. A.D. 1169-1172.
Rory O'Connor was fierce and brutal; he was brave, but
unstable. There was nothing in him in the nature of a leader
of\men. The allegiance of Ulster and Munster was little more
than nominal; and he had an open quarrel with Dermot
McMurrough, the King of Leinster. Dermot was equally
brutal and unscrupulous. He had incurred the displeasure of
Rory's father, Turlough, by the abduction of the wife of Tier-
nan O'Rourke, Lord of Brefny and a chieftain of the kingdom
of Connaught; and though protected during the reign of
O'Lochlin, on the accession of Rory he found that he had
to confront not only the anger of the new monarch and his
client O'Rourke, but also the disaffection of his own king-
dom of Leinster and the Danes of Dublin, whom he had by
his cruel tyranny driven into revolt. Dermot, unable to meet
the storm, fled from his kingdom in 1168, and sought protec-
tion of the Angevin King of England, who was then in Aqui-
taine.
The Norman kings had already marked Ireland for conquest,
as a house divided against itself. And Henry Plantagenet had
obtained from Pope Adrian IV., the only Englishman who ever
occupied the chair of St. Peter, an extraordinary document,
which purported, " for the purposes of enlarging the borders of
the Church, setting bounds to the progress of wickedness, re-
forming evil manners, planting virtue, and increasing the Chris-
tian religion," and, in consideration of the payment from Ire-
land to Rome of "the annual pension of one penny from each
house," to make a grant of the whole island to the king.
Henry, however, was too busy with other matters to take ad-
vantage of the papal bull, and allowed his designs to slumber
until the arrival of the King of Leinster. He was not inclined
24 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
even then to offer Dermot any substantial help, but gave him
letters-patent recommending his own subjects to undertake the
adventure, in return for which Dermot did homage and swore
fealty.
Dermot went to England to beat up recruits. He came to a
bargain with Eobert De Clare, Earl of Pembroke and Chepstow,
a broken-down Norman noble of good family; and with a
group of Norman-Welsh gentlemen, the descendants—some
legitimate, some illegitimate—of Nesta, the daughter of the
prince of South Wales, by Henry I., Gerald De Windsor, the
Lord of Carew, and Stephen De Marisco, the Constable of Aber-
tivy. Of these the most conspicuous were Maurice Fitzgerald,
Robert Fitzstephen, Raymond le Gros, and Hervey Mount-
morres, Fitzgerald's son-in-law.
Fitzstephen and Mountmorres first crossed with a few fol-
lowers, seized the Danish town of Wexford, and made a bloody
raid into Ossory. Raymond soon followed. Landing at Water-
ford, he defeated the men of Decies with great slaughter, and,
having captured seventy of the principal citizens, broke their
limbs and cast them over the cliffs into the sea. Strongbow
himself arrived shortly afterwards with reinforcements. Water-
ford was taken and sacked, and the earPs marriage was cele-
brated with Dermot's daughter, Eva, amid the smoking ruins
of the town.
The adventurers then turned to the northward, captured and
plundered Dublin, the leading Danes of the city escaping in
their ships to the Orkneys; and carried fire and sword" into
Meath and Brefny.
The success of these pioneers had a disturbing effect on King
Henry. The latter was glad enough to get a foothold in Ire-
land, but there was the danger lest these lawless Normans^hav-
ing won a kingdom by their swords, should keep it for them-
selves. He accordingly commanded Strongbow to return with
all his men, and forbade all intercourse between Ireland and
his own subjects. To return, however, was not so easy. Der-
mot died suddenly, and thereupon every Irishman turned upon
the foreigners, and the handful of English found themselves
blockaded in Wexford and Waterford by the natives, and in
THE FILIBUSTERS.
25
Dublin by the Danes, who bad returned from the north with
reinforcements.
No sooner had the Northmen been driven into the sea than
Rory O'Connor, who had stirred himself but little to protect
his kingdom, roused himself to action, and having been joined
by the King of Thomond, O'Rourke of Brefny, and Lawrence,
the warlike archbishop, invested Dublin with a large Irish
force. But the effort was unsuccessful. After a siege of two
months, a desperate sally was made by the besieged, and the
undisciplined Irish, unable to withstand the marshalled attack
of the Norman knights, were dispersed in terror and confusion.
Wexford in the meantime had fallen, and Strongbow, too late
to relieve it, proceeded to Waterford, and, having re-established
his authority over the neighboring district, crossed from thence
to England to make his submission to the king. Henry, hav-
ing accorded him his tardy forgiveness, proceeded in 1171, in
a fleet of 240 ships, with 400 knights and 4000 men-at-arms,
to Waterford. This conspicuous display of force seems to
have impressed the Irish chieftains with the idea that Henry
was irresistible. Without a master spirit to subdue their tribal
jealousies and to cement the discordant elements together,
united resistance was impossible. The King of Leinster had
been a puppet in the hands of the English, and Strongbow was
now posing as his successor. Eory was more intent upon
coercing the King of Ulster than upon performing his duties
as overlord by affording protection to the princes of the south.
Accordingly, the Munster chieftains " came in." First, McCar-
thy of Desmond, who surrendered Cork, and received therein
an English garrison; then O'Brien of Thomond, who simi-
larly surrendered Limerick; next Donchad of Ossory, and
OThelan of Decies, and all the petty chiefs of Munster. Henry
made a royal progress to Cashel and Tipperary, and then pro-
ceeded to Dublin. The Danes swore allegiance, as did O'Car-
rol of Argial and O'Rourke of Brefny; and Rory at length
turned to bay behind the Shannon. Negotiations with him
were opened, but nothing came of them, and he and Henry
tacitly agreed to leave one another alone. The kingdom of
Ulster also held aloof.
26
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
Henry kept Christmas at Dublin, entertaining all the Irish
chiefs right royally. He occupied the winter in organizing a
government upon the English model. His first object was to
plant the feudal system on Irish soil. Dermot had pretended
to appoint his son-in-law Strongbow as his successor to the
kingdom of Leinster, and had granted large tracts of land to
him and to his fellow-adventurers. Henry compelled them all
to surrender their grants, and to receive them again from him-
self on the condition of their rendering him homage and mili-
tary service. He decreed that his English subjects should be
governed by English law; but he did not interfere with the
natives, who continued, as before, to regulate their affairs by
the Brehon law. He instituted the hereditary offices of mar-
shal, justiciary, constable, seneschal, chamberlain, butler, stand-
ard-bearer, etc., which had been attached to the king's court,
since the Conquest, in England. He roughly divided the ceded
districts into counties, and pricked sheriffs. He set up the
three royal law courts of Bench, Pleas, and Exchequer in Dub-
lin, and provided for the going of circuit by the judges. He
appointed a chief governor of the kingdom to act as his vice-
roy in his absence, the king's justiciary, or lord justice. He
held a council of nobles, in which it was enacted* that, if the
chief governor should die in office, his functions should be ex-
ercised by one (afterwards two and three f) of the principal
officers of state, to be chosen by the chancellor, the treasurer,
and the rest of the king's council of state, until the king should
make a fresh appointment.
His next step was to place the most reliable of his followers
in responsible posts, for the due security of his new dominions,
to reward them for their services, and to strengthen his hold
on the seaports.
Meath had always been an appanage of the sovereign; he ac-
cordingly granted the whole of it to his new constable, Hugh
De Lacy, and his heirs. He granted to John De Courcy the
province of Ulster, provided he could succeed in subduing it.
* Statute of Henry Fitzempress. 18 Hen. II.
f 33 Hen. VIII. c. 2.
THE FILIBUSTERS.
27
He confirmed the grants in Wexford to Maurice Fitzgerald, to
Hervey Mountmorres, and to Eobert Fitzstephen. He stationed
William Fitzaldelm, Philip De Braosa, and Philip of Hastings
in Wexford. He granted the city of Dublin by royal charter
to the citizens of Bristol, giving them the right of free trade
with the rest of his dominions; and confirmed the city of
Waterford to the Danes.
He next proceeded to win over the Church to his side. The
clergy, on the first invasion of the English, had held a council
at Armagh, whereat they had decided that the imminent en-
slavement of their country was a just judgment from heaven
upon the traffic with Bristol in English slaves, and had prompt-
ly ordered the manumission of every English bondman in
the island. They seem to have been greatly impressed with
Adrian's bull; and made their peace with Henry, and accepted
him as their temporal head without reserve. Henry held a
synod at Cashel, at which the Bishop of Lismore presided as
Pope's legate, and promulgated some decrees, wThich purported
to reform certain alleged irregularities of Church discipline.
He declared that the Church lands should thenceforth be freed
from all exactions of the laity; relieved the ecclesiastics from
the payment of erics in respect of crimes committed by their
relations; and confirmed the claim of the clergy to the pay-
ment by the laity of tithes.
The work of organization was suddenly arrested. Henry
was summoned by the papal legates in Normandy to appear
before them and render an account in respect of Becket's
murder; and in April, 1172, he sailed from Wexford for St.
David's.
28
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER II.
THE COLONISTS. A.D. 1172-1189.
In the introduction of the feudal system into Ireland we
recognize the germ of the " Land Question/' which has proved
the stumbling-block to its tranquillity for seven hundred years.
The theory of the feudal system was that all the soil belonged
to the king, who had accordingly the right to make grants of
tracts of land in his discretion to his followers, to be held by
them upon the condition of their rendering him the services of
themselves and their retainers in the field whenever he should
require them. The grant, though not so at first, soon became
hereditary, and the land passed to the heirs of the grantee by
descent, without reference to the consent of the tenants whom
he had permitted to occupy and cultivate subdivisions of his
domain. The land, too, was inalienable, and reverted to the
king if the heirs of the grantee failed, or he became attainted
for treason; but, though inalienable, the tenant in chief from
the crown could make sub-grants of portions of his land to
smaller men, who were bound to him in the same way as he
was bound to the king; and these again could repeat the
process with still smaller men — the process being known as
subinfeudation. This system could not be applied to Ireland,
where the tribal system prevailed, without revolutionizing the
whole structure of society; and its application was, in the eyes
of the Irish, nothing but a high-handed invasion of the rights
of property, and an act of shameful injustice.
We find the thin end of the wedge introduced by Dermot sur-
rendering to Henry and his heirs a kingdom of which he was only
the elected monarch; to which no ruler, according to the law
of the land, could have any rightful claim but through the free
suffrages of the tribal chiefs. We find him again making grants
of territory to Strongbow, Fitzstephen, and others, over which
THE COLONISTS.
29
he had not the shadow of a right: lands which belonged to vari-
ous native septs, whose chosen overlord he was, but over whose
lands he had no right of control. The lands thus illegally
granted were occupied by the Norman adventurers, who held
thern by force, the tribes who dwelt thereon either being ex-
propriated or reduced to the position of tenants. Again, Henry
based his title to be lord paramount over the island on the
papal bull, which was obviously no title at all; and he affected
to treat those who opposed him as rebels, and claimed to escheat
their lands by branding them with treason, and to re-enjoy that
which he never possessed, and to which he could have no claim.
The Normans had as yet made but slight lodgements on the
coasts; but the time was coming when this fiction of feudal
tenure was to be forced gradually upon the whole island, and
to be converted into an engine for the transfer of the soil from
the native Celt to the colonizing Norman. Every effort of the
people to assert its independence was to be punished as treason-
able offence, entailing the resulting penalty of a forfeiture of
the land. When the owners were dispossessed, they might be
permitted to occupy as tenants at will, to support themselves
by tilling the ground, and to pay for the privilege in rent to
the new land-owner. What was begun in 1170 was continued
in after-generations, until the whole island came into the pos-
session either of English immigrants, or those natives who ac-
cepted the new order of things, and received again their lands
as grants from the English crown.
It should also be remembered that the invasion of Ireland in
the twelfth century was not an invasion by England, but by
the Normans of the Continent. Henry was Duke of Normandy
and Count of Anjou, and he also happened to be King of Eng-
land. His ancestors had reduced England to a dependency of
the Norman duchy, and in like manner the Normans of his day
proceeded to spread through England over to Ireland. Eng-
land had been occupied by the penniless riffraff of Normandy;
after a hundred years' occupation of England, the Norman ad-
venturers of that day swarmed upon the coasts of Ireland, in
order to win a kingdom after the manner of their forefathers.
It was a fresh invasion of Northmen by a circuitous route
through Normandy and Britain.
30
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
Henry had accomplished his primary object, that of securing
his authority over the colonists. He left it to them to main-
tain themselves, and to extend their borders as best they could,
relying on the incentives of self-preservation and rapacity. The
grants of territory he had made were to a great extent of a
nominal character. Most of what he gave was in the hands of
the native Irish, and, if to be enjoyed, would have to be won
and held by the sword. The colonists lost no time in carrying
out this programme. The island was densely wooded; it was
traversed by mountainous ridges, running in Leinster and Mun-
ster for the most part from N.E. to S.W., through which burst
numerous rivers, which broadened at their outfall into estuaries.
The interior was broken with chains of lakes and huge tracts
of morass. There was hardly a road in the country, and the
only accessible portions were the river-valleys and the coast.
These were the points of attack in the time of the incursions,
of the Northmen, in whose footsteps the Normans followed.
Settlements of their followers were made, and forts were built
for their protection in the open lands of Meath and Leinster,
the tribes retiring into the hill country and the bogs. They
peopled the lower valleys of the Shannon, the Slaney, the Suir,
the Barrow, and the Blackwater; they settled down upon the
lowlands of Louth and the coastline of Down. Marauding ex-
peditions were made to satisfy the rapacious soldiery. Ulster
was attacked by De Courcy, who seized Downpatrick and over-
ran Dalradia; Milo De Cogan made a raid across the Shannon,
but the men of Connaught had laid waste their land, and he
was forced to beat a retreat. Raymond le Gros captured the
town of Limerick; and, in return for reinstating McCarthy King
of Desmond, who had been imprisoned by his rebellious son,
received large grants of land in Kerry. From time to time
fresh parties of adventurers arrived, and received allotments.
Subinfeudation was carried on briskly, and both the new and
the old comers were planted in freeholds by those who had re-
ceived grants from the king.
Henry never returned to Ireland to complete his conquest,
but he proceeded to make further grants of Irish territory to
his friends: giving all Connaught to Fitzaldelm; the kingdom
THE COLONISTS.
31
of Cork to De Cogan and Fitzstephen, who partitioned it east
and west of the city; the kingdom of Limerick to Philip De
Braosa, and the Decies to Le Poer; but reserving the cities of
Cork and Limerick to himself. He then created his son Prince
John lord of Ireland; and that youth, when the chieftains of
Leinster came to do him honor, insulted them by his insolent
conduct and levity, plucking them by the beard and ridiculing
their fashion of dress. John's conduct put the match to a train
which was ready to be tired. The Irish who had been driven
from their own lands were ready to rise, and those who had
become English subjects were alienated by the brutality and
profligacy of the Normans. A confederacy was formed, and
the English were attacked at all points and driven out of Mun-
ster. No sooner, however, was success apparently in the hands
of the Irish than they fell to quarrelling: the rebellion died out,
the English regained all that they had lost, and the chieftains
again acknowledged the suzerainty of the king.
Bat the submission of the Irish chieftains was mainly a sham:
they had been ready enough to swear allegiance to Henry as
lord paramount; they had professed to recognize the suzerainty
of Rory, and they were not unwilling to do the same to a king
against whom Rory was unable to protect them. Rory himself,
in 1175, after having overrun Meath in a raid out of Connaught,
was frightened by a victory of Raymond over the Prince of
Thomond into making a treaty with Henry; the substance of
which was that he should recognize Henry as sovereign prince,
and himself continue King of Ireland beyond the English
border, yielding a tribute of hides, which he never paid. But
this was all! Henry pretended that the Irish chieftains had
become his vassals, subject to all the attending feudal liabilities.
Of this they had no conception; and as soon as his back was
turned they set him at defiance, and asserted their independence
at the first moment at which it suited their convenience. As
for the English settlers, they were looked upon by the Irish as
interlopers. They were not safe in their own forts; the natives
were constantly on the watch to attack and expel them; and
in consequence there was perpetual though desultory warfare
going on within the English precincts even to the walls of the
sea-coast cities.
32
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER III.
THE GREAT TERRITORIAL BARONS. A.D. 1200-1300.
Henry was dead; and John had succeeded his brother Rich-
ard. He returned in a,d. 1210 to Ireland with a considerable
force, a wiser if not a better man than when he had first landed
at Waterford. Upon his arrival the chiefs promptly made their
submission: O'Donnel and O'Neil from the north; Cathal of
the Bloody Hand, of the house of O'Connor, from the wTest.
Hostages were taken as well from the turbulent Norman barons
as from the natives. The civil administration was attended to;
and Leinster and Munster were divided into twelve counties,
corresponding very much to those existing at the present day.*
This second visit of John to Ireland, who soon had his hands
full both in England and on the Continent, was of short dura-
tion. During his reign, and also the long reigns of Henry III.
and Edward L, the history of Ireland maintains one monotonous
character: a quick succession of lieutenant-governors; a con-
stant border warfare between the natives and the settlers, char-
acterized by bloody insurrections on the one hand, and bloody
reprisals on the other; bitter feuds between the Irish them-
selves; jealous warfare between the rival Anglo-Irish houses;
frequent submissions of the chieftains to the crown in return
for promises of protection against the barons, which the king
was unable or unwilling to afford; and a constant balancing by
the crown of the former against the increasing power of the
latter.
The more prominent events which catch the eye in this
monotonous record of lawless brigandage are, a rising of the
McCarthys of Desmond against the Geraldines; an intermittent
* Dublin (including Wicklow), Meath (including Westmeath), Kildare,
Argial (Louth), Katherlagh (Carlow), Kilkenny, Wexford, Waterford, Cork,
Kerry, Limerick, and Tipperary.
THE GREAT TERRITORIAL BARONS.
33
but bitter struggle between the latter and the De Burgos; a
rising of the natives in Connaught and Offaly; a discreditable
invasion and occupation of part of Thomond by Thomas De
Clare, Earl of Gloucester; and a quarrel between De Vesci and
Fitzgerald, Baron of Offaly, which ended in the ruin of the
former, and the translation of the latter into Earl of Kildare.
The whole island had been nominally parcelled out in enor-
mous grants among a few individuals. The larger portions were
at different times erected into " counties palatine." The great
barons on whom the crown had conferred these tremendous
privileges accordingly occupied the position of independent
princes. They planned and built fortified towns; they en-
dowed them with land; they granted them charters of incor-
poration, and established markets. The franchise of a county
palatine gave exclusive civil and criminal jurisdiction. There
was a palatinate court, with its own judges, seneschal, sheriff,
coroner, and escheator. The jurisdiction of the crown was
ousted, and the king's writs did not run within the palatinate
borders. The lord had all the powers and rights of the crown
to make barons and knights, to grant lands to subtenants to be
held by knights' service, and to retake such lands in case of
forfeiture. Richard, JEarJ^of Ulster, before starting with his
contingent for the Scottish wars in 1303, made no less than
thirty-three knights in Dublin Castle.
The original number of counties palatine created was three:
the lordship of Meath, granted to De Lacy; the lordship of
Ulster, to De Burgo; and the lordship of Leinster, to Strongbow.
Strongbow's daughter and heiress married William Marshal,
Earl of Pembroke, who left five daughters co-heiresses. Maud,
who married Le Bigod, Earl Warrenne, inherited Carlow; Joan,
who married Mountchesny, Wexford; Isabel, who married De
Clare, Earl of Gloucester, Kilkenny; Sibyl, who married De
Vesci, Kildare; and Eva, who married De Braosa, Leix. The
king partitioned the lordship of Leinster among the five sisters,
and Strongbow's single palatinate was resolved into five. In
the reign of Edward III., the Earl of Desmond's territory in
Kerry was erected into a county palatine; as also was Or-
monde's country, the County of Tipperary. So that in all
2*
34
HISTORY OF TKE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
there were no less than nine independent princes in Ireland
exercising regalian rights.
The estates of Strongbow's granddaughters passed by mar-
riage into the hands of English noblemen, who drew their rents,
and lived away in England. They eventually became forfeited
to the crown under the statute against absentees.
The most powerful and most numerous of the Norman fam-
ilies was that of the Geraldines. They were all descended from
Gerald Fitzwalter and JSesta, the Princess of South Wales.
Maurice Fitzgerald, the elder of the brother-adventurers, was
the ancestor of the earls of Kildare and Desmond and the
Fitzgeralds of Leinster and Munster. William, Maurice's
younger brother, and the father of Kaymond le Gros, the
grantee of the broad lands in Kerry, which he obtained from
McCarthy of Desmoid, was the ancestor of the Fitzmaurices,
earls of Kerry, and is now represented by the Marquis of Lans-
downe.
The head of the Leinster Fitzgeralds, the Baron of Offaly,
received his estates by subinfeudation from the lords of Lein-
ster. In the eighteenth year of King Edward I., De Vesci (one
of the five representatives of Strongbow) and the seventh Earl
of Offaly accused each other of treason. They were directed
by the king to sustain their mutual charges in single combat;
and when De Vesci, in preference, fled to the Continent, the king
granted to the Baron of Offaly De Vesci's estates. His eldest
son John was created Earl of Kildare, and was the ancestor of
the marquises of Kildare and dukes of Leinster. The estates
of this family lay in the counties adjacent to the capital. They
became extremely influential by reason of this proximity; their
castles threatened and overawed the government; and the house
of Kildare became the most powerful in the island.
The Munster Geraldines received immense grants of land in
the counties of Limerick, Cork, and Kerry from Henry II.,
which they held immediately from the crown. In Limerick
alone the barony of Connell, which was ceded to them by the
tribe of O'Connell, contained upwards of one hundred thousand
acres. The founder of the house was Thomas, the second son
of Maurice Fitzgerald, Lord of Offaly; the heads of the younger
THE GREAT TERRITORIAL BARONS.
35
branches were afterwards known as the White Knight, the
Knight of Kerry or the Black Knight, and the Knight of Glin.
The huge territory of which Thomas was lord was added to in
the time of his son, John of Callan, by the grant of the lord-
ships of the Decies and Desmond and the castle of Dungarvan
by Edward I. And Robert Fitzstephen's moiety of the king-
dom of Cork passed by enfeoffment to Lord Thomas's great-
grandson, the first earl. The Desmond family intermarried
with the native nobility, and encouraged social alliances be-
tween the settlers and the Irish. Their territory was so ex-
tensive that both settlers and natives grew to look upon the
heads of the house as the chieftains of a powerful clan, who
claimed and were accorded a suzerainty over the greater part
of the southern province.
The great inland territory of Ormonde, or East Munster, and
the fertile basin of the three rivers which fall into the sea at
Waterford, became the possession of the great house of Butler,
whose branches spread all over the counties of Tipperary and
Kilkenny. They divided the northern from the southern Ger-
aldines, and acted as a counterpoise to the overwhelming influ-
ence of both. The family of the Botilers, or Butlers, is de-
scended from Theobald Walter, a nephew of St. Thomas of
Canterbury, who was made hereditary chief butler or cupbearer
to King Henry II. The chief butler, among other privileges,
received a grant of the prisage of wines; that is, the right of
taking from every ship importing twenty or more tuns of wine
one tun from before, and one from behind, the mast. Theo-
bald Walter obtained large grants of land in Kilkenny and Tip-
perary, besides the barony of Arklow. In 1391, the heirs of
Strongbow's granddaughter Isabel sold Kilkenny Castle to the
Earl of Ormonde. Seven of Theobald's descendants in after-
years obtained peerages: the barony of Dunboyne, the viscoun-
ties of Cahir, Mountgarret, Galmoy, and Tulleophelim, and the
earldoms of Arran and Gouran, besides those of the elder stirps
of the house of Butler who subsequently became viscounts
Thurles, earls of Carrick, earls of Ossory, and earls, marquises,
and dukes of Ormonde.
De Lacy's grant, the province of Meath, containing some
36
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
800,000 acres, vested in his two great-granddaughters, one of
whom, Matilda, married Geoffrey de Genneville, and the other,
Margaret, married John de Verdon, who held the barony of Dun-
dalk. The lordship of Meath accordingly passed in moieties
to these two families. De Genneville's portion, the lordship
of Trim, was eventually carried into the family of Mortimer,
Earl of March, and vested in the crown. The De Verdons
continued a powerful family for many generations, and their
moiety finally passed to the Talbots, earls of Shrewsbury.
Cathal, the King of Connaught, had in 1206 surrendered
two thirds of his kingdom to the crown, on condition of his
being secured in the remaining third as the king's vassal; and
the Irish of that province had, upon his death, elected his brother
king in his place. But, notwithstanding this, the compromise
was wholly disregarded by the king, and on Cathal's death
John granted the whole of the lordship of Connaught to Will-
iam Fitzaldelm, a first-cousin of the great Hubert De Burgh,
and his son Richard. Connaught was soon overrun. The new
king's succession was disputed. The rival princes of the house
of O'Connor were blindly rushing at each other's throats in
bloody civil strife. - The De Burghs, posted at Athlone, the
fortress built by John upon the Shannon, now helping one of
the combatants, and now another, watched their opportunity
till the country was desolate and exhausted, then occupied the
best of the land, drove out the native chiefs, and built them-
selves forts and castles from Galway in the south to Sligo in
the north. Fitzaldelm was the head of the family of the De
Burghs, or Bourkes, and ancestor of the earls and marquises of
Clanricarde and the earls of Mayo. The lords of Connaught
also became lords, and afterwards earls, of Ulster. Ulster had
originally been granted to De Courcy; but he got into trouble
with King John, who resumed his grant and gave it to Hugh
De Lacy, the youngest son of the Lord of Meath. The whole
of this vast territory afterwards passed to the De Burgh family,
through Hugh's daughter Maud, who married Fitzaldelm's son
Richard, the Lord of Connaught. But the lordship of Ulster
was never much more than a nominal possession. The greater
portion of that province was never subdued, and remained in
THE GREAT TERRITORIAL BARONS.
3*7
the Lands of the untamable peoples of the north; the great
O'Neil and O'Donnel tribes, into which the sovereign clan had
become divided, and the lesser septs, the McGuires of Ferma-
nagh, the O'Rourkcs of Brefny, the O'Reillys of Cavan, the
McGennisses of Southern Dalradia, and the O'Kanes of Cole-
raine. The only portions which owned obedience to the De
Burghs were the fringes of Down and Antrim, the southern
border of Monaghan, and a few lodgements of Norman settlers
on the coast of Donegal. After the murder of William, the
third Earl of Ulster, his only daughter and heiress married
Lionel, Duke of Clarence; and the earldom of Ulster and the
lordship of Connaught passed in this way through females to
Edmond and Roger Mortimer, and finally to Richard, Earl of
Cambridge, the grandfather of Edward IV.; and so became
vested in the crown.
Among the smaller grants were the seigniory of Bray, given
to De Riddlesford; of Dangen and Tadhoyle to Robert De St.
Michael; of Howth to Almarie St. Lawrence, the ancestor of
the barons and earls of Howth; and "the honor of Limerick"
to Braosa.
The subinfeudations created by these great tenants in capite
gave rise to a number of barons holding large estates hardly
less powerful than their immediate overlords. Large tracts of
the province of Meath in this way estated the Nugents, barons
of Delvin, the Flemings of Slane, the Petits of Dunboyne, the
Tuites of Killallon, the Prestons of Gormanston, and others;
while in Cork the Roches became barons of Fermoy, and the
Barry s lords of Barry more.
The great territorial barons had consolidated their power.
The castles which they built with towering keep and inner and
outer wards, guarded with frequent bastion towers and curtain
walls, frowned over the surrounding country, and bade defiance
to the ill-armed, ill-accoutred kerns whom the native chieftains
led to battle. The Norman baron lived a life of rough self-
reliance. He was a law unto himself, and dealt out rough jus-
tice to his tenants in the court-baron, according to a curious
mixture of the Brehon law and the common-law of England.
He was a border chieftain, ever watchful to protect the herds
38
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
of himself and his retainers, to sally forth and chastise the cat-
tle-lifters, or revenge an affront from a neighbor. When years
began to tell upon him, and he thought with some remorse over
the wild, lawless acts of which he had been guilty, his super-
stitious piety prompted him to bring over Norman builders
and craftsmen, and to erect an abbey or a priory, which he en-
dowed with a slice of his broad acres, to satisfy the clamor-
ings of his conscience, and perhaps to afford a spiritual retreat
for himself in his declining years.
THE ASSIMILATION OF THE SETTLERS.
39
CHAPTER IV.
.THE ASSIMILATION OF THE SETTLERS. A.D. 1272-1335.
The English system of government was confined to the Eng-
lish settlements. The Irish districts were outside the law. The
law did not, in fact, recognize them: no Irishman could plead
in the English courts, unless he was a member of the families
of O'Neil, O'Brien, O'Connor, O'Melaghlin, or McMurrough—
"the five bloods," as they were called, who enjoyed by royal
grant the privilege of being the king's freemen. To kill an
Irishman was not murder; they existed, in fact, as a separate
nation, and were governed by their ancient Brehon law. On
the accession of Edward L, the Irish who lived on English
ground petitioned the crown for an equal recognition with the
English by the English law, and offered to pay eight thousand
marks for the privilege. But though the king was favorable
to the concession, the English settlers would not consent, and
so the claim slumbered.
The Irish chieftains, whose territories had been granted to
the English, effected a sort of tacit compromise with the new
grantees, retiring within the reduced limits of the more worth-
less land, and permitting the settlers to occupy the richer
portions. Their lands lay interspersed among and dovetailed
between the lands of the settlers in accordance with the configu-
ration of the ground, their narrowed borders lying more in the
heart of the country and in the less accessible districts. What
was won from them by the sword was in effect surrendered;
and though the natives were ever ready to lift the cattle of
their Norman neighbors, and to reoccupy territories where the
owners might have been left minors, and so less able to protect
themselves, or where estates had devolved on females who had
married husbands living away in England; though a deep race-
hatred lay beneath the surface, which on occasions could burst
40 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
forth, still time and convenience gradually drew the English
and the Irish lords into mutual toleration, and at times com-
bined them in a common resistance to the English crown.
The social condition of the settlers in course of time under-
went a curious change. They lived isolated in their strong-
holds; they intermarried with the daughters of the native
chiefs, and the native chiefs intermarried with their daughters;
they fell into the singular Irish practice of fosterage, under
which the children of the lord were drafted out to nurse with
the family of his retainer. They employed the natives both
for domestic and military service; they made alliances with the
native tribes in their quarrels with their Norman neighbors.
The consequence was that they became gradually weaned away
from English ideas, habits, customs, and manners. They let
their hair grow long and cultivated the mustache; they adopt-
ed the Irish dress, the Irish mode of riding bareback—even the
Irish language and the Irish law; they aspired to be indepen-
dent princes, like the Irish chieftains, whose will was law and
whose law was license. "They became more Irish than the
Irish themselves."
To check the growing degeneracy of the settlers, a Parlia-
ment was held in a.d. 1295, and a statute* passed embodying
an ordinance given by the king at Westminster to compel the
lords marchers, who had abandoned their tenants on their bor-
der estates to the tender mercies of the Irish, to return and
protect them on pain of forfeiture; to compel absentees in
England [for this curse of the country is as old as the thir-
teenth century] to assign a portion of their Irish revenues to
the support of a military force for the common security; to
restrain the number of mercenaries, or kerns, kept by the
great lords; to enforce the making and repairing of roads and
bridges; and to prohibit the use, by the English, of the native
garb, mustache, and "culan."
The Norman supremacy in Ireland was at its zenith at the
end of the thirteenth century; but a subtle decay was extend-
ing through the whole system. The king's Welsh and Scot-
* 23 Edw. I., Irish Statutes.
THE ASSIMILATION OF THE SETTLERS.
41
tish wars prevented him from bestowing much care on his Irish
dominions; the revenue he derived from them barely paid the
expenses of the government. They were a good recruiting-
ground for the armies of the Welsh marches and the Scottish
border; but apart from this they were a source of more anx-
iety than profit. Paralysis, therefore, having seized the heart
of the English government in Dublin, all control began to fail
over the trunk and the extremities; the whole was ripe for dis-
solution at the touch of an external solvent.
The overthrow of the English at Bannockburn, in a.d. 1314,
was the signal for revolt among the native Irish. They had
afforded a sanctuary to Bruce in his hour of adversity, and had
watched with much anxiety the struggle between their masters
and their Scottish kinsmen; and now the tide had turned against
the former. The movement began in the north—the O'Ncils
being the first to stir; and overtures were made to Robert
Bruce for the despatch to them of his brother Edward, to whom
they were willing to offer the crown of Ireland. A petition
from the Irish chieftains was sent to the Pope, setting forth
their complaints against the English, and praying him to inter-
fere and restrain the King of England from molesting them.
But the Irish clergy were true to the English cause, and the
only answer vouchsafed was the excommunication of the Bruces
and all who took up arms against the English.
Edward Bruce landed near Carrickfergus with 6000 Scots, in
a.d. 1315. He was at once joined by the Irish of the north,
and presently by Fedlim O'Connor, King of Connaught. The
Earl of Ulster was driven in upon Dublin. O'Brien of Tho-
mond rose, and the chiefs of Munster and Meath; even the De
Lacys, and many of the Anglo-Irish settlers, threw in their
lot with the Irish; and Edward Bruce was crowned at Dun-
dalk.
A struggle for existence now began on the part of the Des-
monds, the Butlers, and the Kildares. Troops were collected
and sent to co-operate with the helpless English government at
Dublin, and to make a diversion in O'Connor's country. The
latter and all his tribe were exterminated in the battle of
Athenry; but the English were not strong enough to oppose
42
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
Bruce in the field. The Scots marched into Meath and Mun-
ster, laying waste the country with fire and sword, routing* the
English, and capturing their strongholds. Robert Bruce ar-
rived with reinforcements; and the burning and plundering of
towns, castles, and churches was carried into Tipperary and
Kildare, and even to the walls of Dublin. But Brace's ex-
cesses were the cause of his destruction: the desolated country
had nothing left wherewith to support his array; famine and
pestilence, the consequences of his ravages, thinned his num-
bers, so that, it is said, the survivors were reduced to eating
the carcasses of the dead; the indiscriminate plunder of friends
and foes caused his Irish allies to fall away; and the King of
the Scots was summoned back to Scotland. Meanwhile, the
Geraldines had collected an irregular force of 30,000 men.
Koger Mortimer of Wigmore, the new lieutenant-governor,
was reorganizing the government at Dublin. Leinster was
reduced; and the opportunity for striking was riot missed by
the English. Sir John de Bermingham, having been appointed
to the command of 1500 chosen troops, pushed his way north-
ward, and met the enemy at Dundalk. A short sharp conflict
ensued: the Scottish army was overthrown; the remnant es-
caped, to Scotland; but Edward Bruce was among the slain.
The Scottish invasion was at an end; but the shock to the
English system was severe, and the consequences far-reaching.
The inability of the English government to afford protection
to its Anglo-Irish subjects had been painfully demonstrated;
and the result was a falling-away of the Anglo-Irish from their
allegiance. The causes of estrangement had long been silently
at work, and, now that the opportunity had come, the Norman
baron became an Irish chief. The consequences to the English
yeomen, who held the land as tenants to the territorial owners,
were equally serious. Many were utterly ruined by the Scottish
raid; many had suffered, from the military requisitions of their
own lords, who had adopted the Irish practice, for the support
of their troops, of "coyne and livery," or free quartering of
the soldiery for food and fodder. The total want of security
for life and property compelled large bodies of them to quit
the eountry. Those who remained sank into the condition of
THE ASSIMILATION OF THE SETTLERS.
43
the tribal Irish; and the deserted lands were reoccnpied by the
native clans.
All Desmond was in this way cleared of its English yeoman
population. Large portions of Leinster suffered a like fate.
The O'Moores and O'Connors swarmed out of the Slievebloom
mountains, and reoccupied Leix and Offaly; the McMurroughs
recovered Carlow and half the County of Wexford; while the
O'Tooles and O'Byrnes were raiding from the Wicklow hills
upon the fertile plains of Kildare. v In a.d. 1333, William De
Burgh, third Earl of Ulster, was murdered by Eichard De
Manneville, his own uncle by marriage; and his estates of
right passed to his only daughter and heiress, who afterwards
married Lionel, Duke of Clarence. The broad lands, therefore,
of the lordships of Connaught and Ulster being in the feeble
hands of a defenceless girl, O'Neil seized upon the Ulster terri-
tory; and two collaterals of the house of Bourke, Ulick and
Edmund, sons of Sir William, divided Connaught, one taking
Galway, and the other taking Mayo. The two Bourkes then
threw off all allegiance to the English crown, adopted the
Irish dress and manners, and took the names of McWilliam
Uachtar and McWilliam loch tar, the "Nether" and "Further"
McWilliam. Two of their cousins became McIIubbard and
McDavid. Other "degenerate" English followed their exam-
ple and affected the Irish nomenclature. Bermingham of
Athenry called himself McYorris; D'Exester became McJor-
dan; and Nangle, McCostelo. The White Knight took the
name of McGibbon; the Baron of Dunboyne, McPheris; Fitz-
raaurice of Lixnaw, McMorice; while the Condons of Water-
ford became McMajoge, and the Fitzurses of Louth became
McMahon.
44
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER V.
THE RUIN OF THE ENGLISH COLONY. A.D. 1320-1485.
Ulster had been lost, and Connanglit had revolted. Des-
mond, though acknowledging a bare allegiance to the king, was
virtually independent. Thomond had never been regularly col-
onized. Only Leinster and Meath remained. Even Leinster
was so honeycombed with Irish tribes that little more remained
English than the walled towns, and the territories of the great
earls of Kildarc, and of the earls of Ormonde, who were almost
as independent as the earls of Desmond. Of Meath not more
than half had survived the encroachments of the McGeoghans
and O'Melaghlins. So that we find the actual country where
the king's writ ran was an undefined and decreasing district,
which became known as "the English land," and which at this
time consisted of the counties of Louth, Dublin, and Kildare,
and parts of Meath, Tipperary, and Wexford.
The crown had by this time given up the idea of subduing
the native Irish as hopeless; and, as it found the Anglo-Irish
slipping away from its grasp, its policy became one of self-
defence, and developed in two directions. One course pursued
was to weaken the great lords, who had grown be-Irished; and
to play off one against the other. The second was to prevent
the English of the towns and the marches from being absorbed
like the English of the outlying country. With the first ob-
ject in view, the barons were alternately coerced and petted.
Sir Anthony Lucy, the lord justice, arrested the young Earl of
Desmond and flung him into Dublin Castle, from which he
was not liberated till he had undergone eighteen months' im-
prisonment. Some portions of the Desmond estates were con-
fiscated; and shortly afterwards Edward III., with still larger
designs, coolly proposed to resume all royal grants in lieu of
certain alleged arrears of debts due to the crown. The out-
THE RUIN OF THE ENGLISH COLONY.
45
raged Desmond roused the threatened nobility, and held a con-
vention at Kilkenny of the "prelates, earls, barons, and com-
munity of Ireland," in opposition to the Parliament which had
been summoned to meet at Dublin. In the convention a vig-
orous protest was made against the king's injustice, and charges
of incompetence and dishonesty were launched against the royal
officers. Whereupon the king, full of his Continental wars,
thought better of his purpose, and let the matter drop. Strong-
er measures were undertaken under Sir Kalph Ufford, the lord
justice, in a.d. 1344, who seized Desmond's estates, treacherously
got possession of the castles of Castle-island and Iniskisty in
Kerry, and hanged Sir Eustace De la Poer, Sir William Grant,
and Sir John Cottrel. But later, when the king was glad to
have an Irish contingent in France, we find him conferring
knighthood on the Earl of Kildare for his services at the siege
of Calais, and Desmond made lord justice.
In pursuance of the other course, it became, a ruling principle
to fill the offices of state with imported English to the exclu-
sion of the native Anglo-Irish; a proclamation was issued (a.d.
1356) announcing that no one born in Ireland should thence-
forth hold a command in any of the king's towns or castles.
A distinction is drawn between "the English by birth" and
"the English by descent," in favor of the former. The native
Irish are "the Irish enemies," the Anglo-Irish are "the Irish
rebels." The Anglo-Irish had no part or lot in the govern-
ment of their own country, and the nominees of the English
court absorbed every place of honor or emolument. Edward,
in 1361, sent over his third son, Lionel, Duke of Clarence, the
titular Earl of Ulster, to fill the office of lord-lieutenant. He
treated the nobles with studied disrespect. In his hostings
against the tribes, no colonist was permitted to approach his
camp. On his third visit to Ireland, in 1367, he held a Parlia-
ment at Kilkenny, and passed the act known as "the Statute
of Kilkenny," * with the object of more effectually securing
the loyal English from the contagion of Irish manners. The
provisions of this statute, which applied only to the "English
* 40 Edw. III., Irish Statutes.
46
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
land," are a re-enactment and extension of Edward L's act of
a.d. 1295. Intermarriage, fosterage, gossipred (the practice of
standing sponsor), and sale and barter in time of war between
the two races, were to be dealt with as felony; as also were sub-
mission to the Brehon law, and the practice of coyne and livery.
The adoption by an Englishman of the Irish dress, language,
and mode of riding entailed a forfeiture of his lands. Credit-
ors were to look to the debtor alone for the payment of his
due, and not to all the members of his family, as was the cus-
tom of the Irish. The cattle of the Irish pastured on English
land without leave of the lord were to be liable to be distrained
damage feasant. No Irishman was to be inducted into a living,
or received into an English monastery. The Irish bards, who
were regarded as spies, were forbidden, under pain of imprison-
ment, to be entertained by the English. The English were pro-
hibited from keeping Irish mercenary troops, or to make war
on the natives without leave of the government. Two years
later, another act * commanded the return of all absentees on
pain of forfeiture of their lands to the crown. These statutes
were strong ones, but to have been effectual they required a
powerful executive to enforce them; and, as this was wanting,
like others of the same character they became a dead letter.
The natives were now assuming the offensive in all parts of
the country. Newcastle was assailed by the tribes of "Wick-
low; the O'Briens threatened Limerick; the McMurroughs,
who had been devastating Leinster, were bought off by the
payment of a ransom of a hundred marks. The northern bar-
rier, which had already receded from Carrickfergus to Down-
patrick, was now found only in the frontier fortress of Dundalk,
and New Eoss had been captured by Art Kavenagh. Things
were going hard with the English land, when Kichard II. ar-
rived in Waterford harbor with 30,000 archers and 4000 men-
at-arms.
Kichard was a person gifted with magnificent conceptions,
wThich it was not given him to realize. He had made up his
mind to go in for military glory, and he determined to begin
* 42 Echv. III., Irish Statutes.
THE RUIN OF THE ENGLISH COLONY.
47
with Ireland. His policy was, however, one of conciliation
tempered with force—force to compel the "Irish enemies" to
acknowledge his authority; and conciliation to the "Irish
rebels," whom he believed, and not unjustly, to have been
alienated by bad government. After some difficulty, he reached
Dublin by way of the sea-coast, and summoned all the Irish
chieftains to meet him there. Alarmed at the strength of the
English army, as their forefathers had been at Henry II.'s dis-
play of force, the great chiefs came in — O'Neil, O'Brien,
O'Connor, McMurrough, and many others, seventy-five in^all.
Richard entertained them with great magnificence, and received
their submission. They bound themselves by their bonds to
be loyal subjects, and to answer for the good behavior of their
dependents. The Wicklow chiefs, in consideration of a pen-
sion to be paid to them, agreed to remove to other territories
which the king undertook to provide; Richard intending to
settle a colony in that stronghold of turbulence—and in this
way the first idea of a "plantation" was formulated. The
king published a free pardon to all the disaffected Anglo-Irish;
and took vigorous steps to reform both the corrupt, bench and
the complicated civil procedure. Suspicions, however, being
entertained with respect to McMurrough, the most daring and
dangerous of the chieftains, he was thrown into prison; and,
though soon set at liberty on giving hostages for his good be-
havior, he conceived a determined hatred of the English, which
was not lessened by a subsequent attempt to entrap him. The
king, conceiving that he had come, seen, and conquered, shortly
returned to England to deal with the Lollard movement; leav-
ing Roger Mortimer, the young Earl of March, his cousin and
heir-apparent, at the head of the government. No sooner was
Richard's back turned, and the government proceeded to carry
out the plantation of Wicklow, than McMurrough rose in re-
bellion, captured Carlow, and defeated the royal troops at
Kells; the young Earl of March being among the slain.
Richard's anger was now thoroughly roused. He perceived
that the submission of the chiefs was nothing but a blind; and
lie at once determined to begin his work all over again. He
sailed from Milford with a magnificent army and a fleet of two
48
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
hundred sail, in a.d. 1399, and again landed at Waterford. He
marched to Kilkenny; and thence plunged into McMurrougirs
country, in hopes of inducing him to give battle. But the
wary chief knew better than to risk an engagement, and, re-
treating into the forests of Carlow, confined himself to harass-
ing the royal army and cutting off stragglers. Richard now
found himself in difficulties. In the midst of a hostile country,
with no transport and no commissariat, he endeavored to cut
his way to the coast. After a weary march, in which his troops
suffered terribly from hunger, he at length reached the sea-
shore, where his famished soldiers were relieved by the ap-
proach of his provision ships. Having narrowly escaped dis-
aster, he a second time made his way to Dublin by way of the
coast, and at once set to work to reduce Leinster to submission
by the despatch of flying columns to scour the country. But
before he had time to carry out his designs, the fatal news
reached him of Bolingbroke's landing at Ravenspur, and he
hurried back to England, and left Ireland to take care of itself.
The latest attempt to subdue Ireland by means of an Eng-
lish army had signally failed. England, which had for the last
hundred years been occupied with foreign and border wars,
was now about to be plunged into the bloody civil broils raised
by the rival houses of York and Lancaster. No attention could
be paid to Ireland; much less could expense be incurred on its
account. And so the remnant of the English settlement was
allowed to struggle on alone against the insurgent tribes. The
"English land," or the "English Pale," as it grew to be called,
was now reduced to the county of Dublin, and parts of Meath,
Louth, and Kildare; and dikes and forts were built round its
borders for the protection of the inhabitants. The sea-coast
towns were isolated; and the great earls of Desmond and
Ormonde received licenses to absent themselves from the Par-
liament at Dublin by reason of the danger and difficulty of
passing through the Irish enemy's country. The native Irish
had recovered the greater portion of the island; exacting trib-
ute from the few English settlers who remained, and demand-
ing and receiving "black rent" from the surviving English
counties.
THE RUIN OF THE ENGLISH COLONY.
49
The Louses of the Red and White Roses found keen parti-
sans among both the Anglo-Irish and the natives. Richard,
Duke of York, was lord-lieutenant for ten years, and during
that time had become popular with both the one and the other.
The house of Ormonde adhered to the Red Rose; the two
great branches of the Geraldines, the earls of Desmond and Kil-
dare, sided with the White. Many of both races fought in
England during the civil war, as their forefathers had fought
under the English flag in Wales and Scotland; and several Irish
chiefs fell with Richard at Wakefield. This drain on the Eng-
lish of the Pale still further diminished their power to resist
the raids of the natives. Left to themselves, they struggled for
a bare existence. The government was in such low water in
a.d. 1480 that the whole military establishment consisted of
but eighty mounted archers and forty mounted " spears;" while
the exchequer could barely show an annual revenue of £600.
In self-defence, the colonists, finding the government unable to
protect them, formed themselves into a fraternity of arms
called "The Brotherhood of Saint George." Thirteen gentle-
men were chosen from the four counties of the Pale, who met
annually to choose a captain, and maintained a hundred and
twenty mounted archers, forty horsemen, and forty pages for
the protection of the English border. Panic legislation was
also resorted to in the hopes of carrying out the intention of
the Statute of Kilkenny, an act perpetually renewed, habitually
set at nought, and constantly evaded by licenses of exemption.
The colonists were empowered * to take the law into their own
hands; and to take, kill, and behead all persons found thieving
or robbing by night or by day, or suspected of that intent; to
treat as Irish enemies, and to take the goods of, imprison, and
demand a ransom for, all persons who did not shave the upper
lip at least once a fortnight. To trade with the native Irish
was made felony, f and natives who had dealings with the
"English lieges" within the Pale were to be treated as the
king's enemies.J All Irish who dwelt within the Pale were
* 5 Edw. IV. c. 2, Irish Statutes. f 25 Hen. VI. c. 24, Irish Statutes,
j 10 Hen. VI. c. 5, Irish Statutes.
3
50 HISTORY 'OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
to assume English names, dress, and growth of hair, on pain of
forfeiture of their goods. *
The spirit of these acts sufficiently indicates the helpless
feebleness of the English government; and the powerlessness
of the executive is apparent when we find a precarious respite
allowed to the four shires by the Irish chieftaius upon the pay-
ment of an annual tribute. O'Neil received £20 from the
barony of Lecale and £40 from the County of Louth; O'Con-
nor of Offal y received £60 from the County of Heath and £20
from the County of Kildare; HcHurrough of Leinster received
eighty marks from the crown. Even the walled towns, which
had hitherto maintained their independence, now purchased
protection by the payment of an annual cess: Dundalk attorn-
ing to O'Neil; Wexford to HcHurrough; Limerick to O'Brien
of Thomond; Galway to O'Connor; Cork to Cormac HcTeig;
and Kilkenny and Tipperary to O'Carrol of Ely. The lord
deputy was within a measurable distance of being driven into
the sea.
* 5 Edw. IV c. 3, Irish Statutes.
Book III.
THE FIEST CONQUEST
CHAPTER I.
THE TURN OF THE TIDE. A.D. 1485-1509.
The English government had now almost reached its lowest
pitch of disaster; and with the rise of the Tudor dynasty we
find indications that the tide was beginning to turn. England,
distracted with foreign wars and civil strife, had for two hun-
dred years allowed the Irish question to drift. She was now
about to take matters seriously in hand, and to carry out a
stern policy of repression and extermination, not only against
the Celtic race, but against the Anglo-Irish also. Henceforth
we shall find but little distinction made between the natives
and the old colonists—if any, it was in favor of the former—
and a disposition to make a fresh conquest and a fresh settle-
ment, and to subordinate the old blood to the new. "The
English by birth" were to be the children of promise; "the
English by descent" were to be the sons of Ishmael.
Henry VII. did not at first pay much attention to his Irish
dominions. He left the government in the hands of the Earl
of Kildare, notwithstanding the strong Yorkist proclivities of
the family of the Geraldines. It was true that he was as much
an Irish chief as an English peer, but from his influence with
the native tribes he was too useful as well as too powerful to
strike at at present. It was when Ireland had become a source
of danger in being the rallying-point of every impostor started
by the Duchess of Burgundy, that the king began to tighten
his grasp.
Lambert Simnel had been crowned in the capital, by the
Bishop of Meath, with a diadem taken from the head of an
image of the Virgin in the nunnery, of St. Mary les Dames.
Two thousand Germans, under Marshal Schwartz, had landed
at Dublin with the earls of Lincoln and Lovell. Kildare had
openly espoused the pretender's cause. Kildare's brother had
54
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
resigned the office of chancellor to accompany the soi-disant
Earl of Warwick to England, and had fallen in the overthrow
of Stoke. But Kildare was forgiven for the present, and con-
firmed for a time in his office of lord deputy. Four years later
Perkin Warbeck had landed at Cork, and had been patronized
by the Earl of Desmond. The earl and the Flemish Jew had
beleaguered Waterford. They had been compelled to raise the
siege; and this time Kildare did not commit himself; but the
suspicious king had dismissed him from office, and raised up
his rival Ormonde in his room.
The Parliament of Dublin, a packed body representing noth-
ing, had been the pliant instrument of Kildare's treason. As
long ago as Henry VI.'s reign this same Parliament, in a.d.
1459—when Eichard, Duke of York, had fled from England,
after the fight at Blore Heath, and resumed his position of
lord-lieutenant—had presumed to act independently of England:
to choose its own viceroy in the person of Richard; to assert
its right to be bound only by its own laws ;* to declare that
writs could issue only under the great seal of Ireland; and to
extend shelter to English political refugees. Such possibilities
were to be put an end to, and all danger of independent action
set at rest forever. Parliament was to become the convenient
tool of the crown, instead of that of the earls of Kildare.
The Parliament of Ireland, which, before the ruin of the set-
tlement, -was summoned with great formality and sat with tol-
erable regularity, had degenerated into a somewhat anomalous
body. The Upper House consisted of the lay peers, many of
whom, like the earls of Desmond and Ormonde, claimed and
received exemptions from attendance; the abbots and priors,
who preferred generally to abide in their ecclesiastical quarters;
and the bishops, most of whom were absentees from their dio-
ceses. The Lower House consisted of the knights of the
shires, which, with the exception of those within the Pale,
were in the hands of the Irish enemy, and returned no mem-
bers; and burgesses from a few of the towns, who were sum-
moned, much against their will, for the purpose of packing the
* 37 Hen. VI., Irish Statutes.
THE TURN OF THE TIDE.
05
assembly, or of being squeezed into giving a money grant.
Many were not elected by the freemen of the city at all, but
received the royal writ directed to them personally by name.
When the bishops and abbots were unable to attend, they sent
their proctors to represent them; and a practice grew up of
summoning two proctors regularly from each diocese, who sat
with the knights and burgesses, and claimed to be members of
the legislature, and to have a free right of suffrage on every
question as representatives of the clergy in the Lower House.
Parliament was originally a great council of the barons, the
prelates, and "the faithful," * who met to deal with matters
of state, to advise upon the raising of money, and to register
the king's decrees, which, upon enrolment, had the force of
statutes. The obligation to be summoned and the privilege of
sitting, in the case of the temporal peers, w7as originally founded
on the feudal tenure of their baronies; and in the case of the
spiritual peers on that of their lay fees. Knights of the shire
were first summoned about the middle,f and burgesses towards
the end,J of the thirteenth century. The lords spiritual and
temporal all sat together until the reign of Henry IV. They
met at irregular intervals when summoned by the king's lieu-
tenant or his deputy, or the lord justice for the time being, in
times of emergency, and for the purpose of granting subsidies.
Sometimes they met at Dublin, sometimes at Kilkenny or
Drogheda; and in the thirty-third year of Edward III. §
(1359) we find the peers, abbots, bishops, and commons of
Leinster summoned to Dublin on December 7th, and those of
Munster summoned to Waterford on December 14th.
A scratch assembly, as the Irish Parliament in effect was,
might in time have grown into a constitutional body. It was,
in fact, the nucleus of a representative system. Its vitality,
usefulness, and power of development were effectually stunted
by the policy of Henry VII.
That monarch sent over to Ireland, in 1494, Sir Edward
* King's writ, 6 John.
f King's writ, 37 Hen. III.; Irish Statutes, 48 Hen. III., and 53 Hen. III.
t King's writ, 10 Edw. I.; Irish Statutes, 23 Edw. I., 28 Edw. I.
§ King's writ, 33 Edw. III.
56
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
Poynings as lord deputy, and several eminent lawyers, with a
thousand men-at-arms. His avowed intention was to thrust
back the native Irish; his real object was to crush the adhe-
rents of Warbeck. With this purpose in view, he marched,
with both Ormonde and Kildare in his train, against O'Hanlon
and McGennis in Ulster. Meantime a brother of Kildare
seized the castle of Carlow and raised the Yorkist flag. Poy-
nings patched up matters with the native chiefs, and turned
on the mutinous Geraldine. Short shrift was made with the
rebels, and the victorious deputy proceeded to summon a Par-
liament at Drogheda.
The first branch of the legislation here initiated was for the
benefit of the natives, and the protection of the inhabitants of
the Pale from the exactions of the great lords. It was de-
clared to be high-treason to excite the natives to war. Private
hostilities were forbidden unless with the license of the lord
deputy, as was also the practice of coyne and livery. The
owners of march lands were to reside on their estates; and it
was made felony to permit the Irish enemy or Irish rebels to
pass the borders. The citizens and freemen of the towns were
forbidden to become the retainers of the lords; and appren-
tices only were to be admitted to be freemen of the corpora-
tions. The judges and chief officers of state were henceforth
to hold office only during the king's pleasure, instead of for
life. And the Statute of Kilkenny was re-enacted, with the
exception of the provisions relating to the use of the Irish lan-
guage, and the non-use of saddles, both of which practices had
become so universal that it was thought to be hopeless to for-
bid them.*
The next branch of legislation was directed against the inde-
pendence of the Irish legislature, and effectually subordinated
it to that of England. The intention was that a benevolent
monarch should be able to curb the enterprise of a lawless no-
bility. The real effect of it was to enslave the Parliament.
It wTas provided f that all statutes which had up to that date
* 10 Hen. VII. cc. 13,17, Irish Statutes,
f cc. 4, 22, Irish Statutes.
THE TURN OF THE TIDE.
57
been passed by the English legislature should thenceforward
be binding and effectual in Ireland; that no Parliament should
in future be summoned in Ireland till the lord deputy had first
obtained the king's license for its being held, and had submit-
ted to the king and the privy council the heads of all bills
•which it was proposed should be brought in; and that the
consent of the king and the council to such bills should be
obtained before they could be proceeded with. Thus, in ef-
fect, making all legislation to come cut and dried from the
crown, and to be merely pro forma registered by the Irish
Houses of Parliament.
The opportunity was now taken of aiming a blow at the
lords of the Pale, and to make an example of the Earl of Kil-
dare. The last act of the Parliament of Drogheda was to at-
taint him for high-treason, on the ground of his intimacy with
the native Irish, and his being privy to his brother James's ex-
ploits at Carlow. He was then sent in custody to England.
His blunt boldness, however, seems to have disarmed Henry's
suspicions, and to have persuaded him that an act of clemency
would convert him into a useful adherent. The earl was
therefore set at liberty in August, 1496, and sent back to Ire-
land as lord deputy. This policy of turning the poacher into
a keeper was eminently successful. Thenceforth Kildare con-
tinued Henry's faithful retainer, and his energy and influence
over the native Irish maintained the power of the crown within
the marches of the Pale as it had not been for two generations.
He rebuilt the ruined towns of Leinster, and built castles on
the borders of the Pale; he made raids into Desmond, and
forced garrisons upon the cities of Cork and Kinsale, which had
shown a disposition to support Warbeck. He penetrated into
Connaught to curb the growing power of the Bourkes, and
into Ulster to support his nephew, Turlough O'Neil, in a quar-
rel with another of the O'Neil family,* capturing the castles
of Athleague, Roscommon, Castlereagh, and Kinard, and hand-
ing them over to his Irish allies. Ulick Bourke, Lord of Clan-
* Turlough's father, Henry O'Neil, had married Kildare's sister, the Lady
Eleanora Fitzgerald.
3*
58
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
ricarde, who bad a private quarrel with the lord deputy, then
formed a league against him, with O'Brien of Thomond and
other Munster chieftains. Kildare marched against them with
the men of the Pale and the trained bands of Dublin, and a
strong native contingent sent by Turlough O'Neil. The two
armies met at Knocktow, near Gal way, and the lord deputy de-
feated the leaguers with great slaughter.
Though originating in a family feud, which developed into
a struggle between the confederate tribes of the northeast and
those of the southwest, the battle of Knocktow marks the turn-
ing of the tide in favor of the crown. It indicated the dispo-
sition and ability of the English to take the offensive, and
taught the Irish, both "enemies" and "rebels," that in their
intestine conflicts victory was found on the side where the
English sword was thrown into the scale. It displayed the as-
sumption of new vigor on the part of the executive, and sent
forth a warning note that the days of English impotence were
drawing to a close.
REHABILITATION OF THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT. 59
CHAPTEIi II.
THE REHABILITATION OF THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT.
A.D. 1509-1540.
Henry VIII. was now King of England, and he and his
astute minister Wolsey were busy evolving a Tudor6 policy for
Ireland. In England the old nobility had been decimated by
the civil war, and a new nobility was springing up more de-
pendent upon the royal favor. Parliament, under Wolsey's ad-
vice summoned but seldom, was becoming discredited and
harmless. The atmosphere of domestic affairs was at present
clear, and Henry's foreign policy was to balance the French
king against the Hispano-German emperor. England had now
leisure to turn her attention to Ireland. The time was come
for the struggle to begin between the crown and the great
Anglo-Irish lords.
Henry was determined that the Irish scandal should continue
no longer. The same reports were made to him of the pre-
vailing anarchy, by council, judges, and agents. The times
were urgent, and the drifting system had been too long per-
mitted. Two distinct courses were the constant subject of dis-
cussion between the king and the Irish government. The lat-
ter warmly advocated a policy of extermination and plantation.
The Irish were to be driven from their lands; the chiefs de-
posed; the cattle, their principal source of wealth and subsist-
ence, driven off or slaughtered; and the whole native popula-
tion decimated by starvation. The land was then to be granted
out to English freeholders, who should pay a head rent to the
crown. Henry shrank from the expense, if not from the
brutality, of such a course. His plan was coercion and con-
ciliation. The power of the crown was to be exerted, and.
order maintained. Overtures were then to be made to the
native chiefs, to induce them to give allegiance to the king;
60
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
and the prospect of royal favors was to be held out to them.
"Sober ways, politic drifts, and amiable persuasions, founded
on law and reason," were to be used to draw them gradually
into the appreciation of English laws, manners, and habits;
and to convince them of the material benefits they would de-
rive from holding their land in fee as grantees from the crown
instead of by the shadowy, elective life tenure which was given
them by the Brehon law. Henry, as was his way, chose his
own line, and the extermination and plantation policy was
shelved for the present.
Wolsey*hated the Geraldines. He saw them setting the
crown at defiance through their powerful Irish connection,
having intermarried with the families of half the native princes
in the island. He saw them, through their power to raise or
quell at their pleasure the turbulence of the Irish, force them-
selves upon the crown as the only persons able to carry on the
government. Henry VII., it was said, when told that all Ire-
land could not govern the Earl of Kildare, had exclaimed,
"Then shall he govern all Ireland," and promptly made him
lord deputy. This great Geraldine had died in 1513, in the
midst of a campaign against the O'Carrols of Ely. His son
and successor Gerald, the ninth earl, had stepped into his
father's shoes. The council had elected him lord justice on
his father's death, and he had shortly afterwards been appointed
by letters-patent from the crown. He inherited all his father's
popularity with the natives; and for several years was, like
him, at once a necessity and a source of anxiety to the Eng-
lish government.
Henry began to feel his way by -aiming several tentative
strokes at Kildare. The house of Butler had always been firmly
attached to the Bed Kose and the Tudor cause; and was tra-
ditionally a rival of the Geraldine house. The earls of Or-
monde had never fallen away from English habits*and culti-
vated the natives to the same extent as the Kildares,* r the still
more degenerate Fitzgeralds of Desmond. The king accord-
ingly summoned the lord deputy to England to answer certain
charges of allying himself with the " Irish enemies;" and first
the Earl of Surrey, who was connected with the house of Or-
REHABILITATION OF THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT. 61
inonde by marriage, and shortly afterwards Sir Piers Butler,
the head of the house, was put in his place. Kildare, after a
three years' sojourn at the English court, during which he se-
cured influential friends by marrying the Lady Elizabeth Gray,
a daughter of the Marquis of Dorset, succeeded in exculpating
himself, and returned to his government. Again was he charged
with treasonable practices—this time for neglecting to arrest
the Desmond, who was coquetting with Francis I.—was sum-
moned to England, and thrown into the Tower. Enlarged
through the intrigues of his high connections, he again returned
to Ireland, as adviser to the new lord deputy Sir William Skef-
fington, whom he shortly superseded.
A third time the attack was made, and charges of treason
preferred; and this time the blow fell heavily. He reluctantly
passed over to England, leaving his son Lord Thomas to act as
vice-deputy, and was a second time lodged in the Tower. But
this stroke wTas not aimed at the earl alone: the whole Fitz-
gerald family were to feel the weight of the king's arm. With
the view of forcing the hand of the Geraldines, letters were
written and conveyed to Dublin stating that Kildare had been
executed. His son Lord Thomas—Silken Thomas, as he was
popularly called, on account of the richness of his apparel—on
hearing the news, rushed before the council sitting in St. Mary's
Abbey, threw down the sword of state, with which, as vice-
deputy, he had been invested, and renounced his allegiance to
the king. A futile revolt was sprung. An attempt was made,
and failed, to represent it as raised in defence of the Catholic
faith. The Pale was overrun with the retainers of the house
of Fitzgerald, and a desultory siege of Dublin was begun, and
raised, twice over. The royalist archbishop Allen, who had
been Wolsey's chaplain, was caught in an attempt to escape to
England, and ruthlessly murdered. Ormonde marched from
the south. The tardy reinforcements under Skeffington ar-
rived from England; and, throwing a garrison into his castle of
Maynooth, Lord Thomas retired into the country of the Irish
enemy to stir up the O'Moores of Leix and the O'Connors
of Offaly to his assistance, and to intrigue with Spain and
Rome.
62
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
And now there came into play a circumstance which marks
the change from the old to the new order of things. Skeffing-
ton had brought with him a train of artillery, with which he
laid siege to the castle of Maynooth. This fortress was be-
lieved to be impregnable, and no doubt, if sufficiently provision-
ed, under the old system of warfare it was so. Skeffington's
guns breached the walls in twelve days, an assault was made,
and the castle was taken. Hitherto the English and the Irish
had been pretty evenly matched in point of fighting power.
The more disciplined troops of the former had perhaps the best
of it in the field; but the tactics of the Irish, mounted on their
fleeter and more wiry horses, were to retire into the more diffi-
cult country, and to close up in the rear of the enemy and har-
ass them with intermittent attacks. When there was fighting,
it was hand to hand. The sword and the spear were the ordi-
nary weapons on both sides. The skill in archery, which had
made the English infantry so formidable, had been to a great
extent lost, even in the four shires, notwithstanding repeated
statutes * which enjoined the constant use of the bow. The
great lords, secure in their stone castles, could defy both the
Irish enemy and the royal troops, and laugh at a besieging
force, till it was compelled from want of supplies to raise the
siege and give up the raid. The invention of gunpowder put
an end to the old fashion of warfare, and changed the relative
position of the parties. The siege train of the lord deputy bat-
tered down the Norman castles about the ears of their owners.
The introduction of hand-guns and field-cannon gave a small
force of the king's troops a tremendous advantage over the
half-naked and ill-armed kerns and gallowglasses. These terri-
ble engines of destruction were necessarily a monopoly in the
hands of the English government; the Irish having no such
thing as an arsenal, or factory for arms and ammunition.
The fall of Maynooth crushed the rebellion. Silken Thomas,
unable to raise the native tribes, surrendered on condition that
his life was spared, and was sent to the Tower, where his
father, on hearing of his son's revolt, had already died of a
* Irish Statutes, 5 Edw. IV. cc. 4, 5; 12 Edw, IV, c. 2; 10 Hen. VII. c. 9.
REHABILITATION OF THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT. 63
broken heart. The late earl had five brothers, three of whom
it was known had strongly discountenanced the rebellion. Bat
the ruin of the Geraldines was to be achieved by no half-meas-
ures. The five brothers were invited to a feast given by the
lord-deputy, where they were treacherously made prisoners, and
forwarded to the same prison-house as their unfortunate nephew.
After lingering in prison for a twelvemonth, both they and
Silken Thomas, notwithstanding the terms of his surrender,
were all of them hanged at Tyburn; and the heir to the house
of Fitzgerald, a boy of twelve, and son of the late earl by his
second wife, found a refuge with Cardinal Pole at the Roman
court.
The long-meditated blow at the house of Kildare had fallen
at last. The effect was prodigious; the consternation of both
Irish enemies and Irish rebels was complete. If not Kildare,
who could withstand the crown? Nor was Ireland left in doubt
upon the point. Lord Leonard Gray, who, on Skeffington's
death, was made lord deputy, at once proceeded to enforce his
authority upon the country. He reduced O'Connor of Offaly,
and burned his stronghold; he marched upon the Shannon,
aud destroyed O'Brien's bridge, which was protected at each
end by a tower of hewn marble, and had laid the Pale at the
mercy of every raid from Thomond; he dashed into County
Cork, and reduced the Munster Geraldines and the rebellious
Barrys; he captured the important castle of Athlone, the key
of the west, and overawed theBourkes; he broke the power of
the north by giving O'Neil a crushing defeat at Belahoe, in the
barony of Farney, in Monaghan.
Such was the reputation of Lord Leonard Gray; and so rigor-
ously did he enforce respect for the authority of the crown that
in the two years during which he governed Ireland, prior to his
departure for England in 1540, tranquillity hitherto unexam-
pled reigned over the whole island, and a cessation prevailed
both from rebellion and from internecine bloodshed.
G4
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER III.
THE CONFISCATION OF THE CHURCH LANDS. A.D. 1527-1537.
In the meantime, Henry had quarrelled with the Pope, and
was compelling with a high hand a reform in the discipline of
the Church of England. His quarrel with the Pope, it will be
remembered, arose from the refusal of the latter to allow Henry
to divorce his wife, with whom for twenty years he had lived
in conjugal felicity, but who was now middle-aged, and the
mother of but one surviving child, and that a daughter. Wol-
sey had fallen a victim to the interests of the Boleyn faction,
who believed him to be adverse to the divorce, and to Henry's
impatience .at his inability to influence Clement VII.
The inflexible will of Henry's new minister, Thomas Crom-
well, was now guiding the royal counsels. At his suggestion,
the king had declared himself "the only supreme lord and
head of the Church and clergy in England." Convocation had
been coerced into tendering its "submission," and the Pope's
jurisdiction was ousted from the country.
A reform in the manners, morals, and discipline of the cler-
gy had been called for by public opinion; a commission of in-
quiry into the condition of the religious houses had before been
issued by Wolsey, who had himself suppressed some of the
lesser monasteries. Cromwell, the king's "vicar-general," had
relentlessly carried out the course initiated by Wolsey. One
thousand religious houses, both great and small, were dis-
solved within the space of four years, and their lands and rev-
enues appropriated by the crown. There w7ere two parties in
England who advocated Church reform, whose notions of what
constituted reform were widely different. There were those
who wished to wipe out abuses, and to remain in communion
with Rome; there was the more advanced party, which protest-
ed against Romish heresies, and was determined to break away
THE CONFISCATION OF THE CHURCH LANDS.
65
from Rome altogether. Henry, however, though lie held
strong opinions on purgatory, indulgences, and the worship of
relics and images, hated the "Lutheran heresy," and lived and
died a "good Catholic." And though both Cromwell and
many of the bishops in heart sympathized with, and promoted,
the interests of the Protestants, the king put to death Protes-
tants and Romanists alike for denying the old doctrine of tran-
substantiation and the new doctrine of the royal supremacy.
Henry, having carried his point in England, proceeded to do
the same in the sister isle. The only opposition likely to be
met with was from the clergy, who smelt heresy afar off. But
the mass of the Irish people, both natives and colonists, had
hardly so much as heard of Lutheranism. The "English lords
and Irish chiefs looked on the king's usurpation of the head-
ship of the Church as a matter of complete indifference, only
concerning himself and the Pope; and, never having had the
smallest scruple themselves in burning and plundering churches,
cathedrals, and monasteries, were ready enough to see the Church
lands appropriated when there was a prospect of having a share
in the spoil.
There was considerably less ground for dissolving the relig-
ious houses in Ireland than those in England. The charge of
immoral and sumptuous living was not even attempted. It was
true that, as in England, they were corporations holding large
tracts of land in mortmain; but, in the hideous condition of
turbulence and poverty in which society in Ireland then groan-
ed, the religious houses, like those on the Continent in the Mid-
dle Ages, were as lamps in the darkness and as rivers in a thirsty
land. Though frequently plundered by all contending parties,
they held together the fragments of learning and enlightenment,
which would otherwise have died out. They, to some extent,
occupied the position of universities and schools, being the
only places where any education could be obtained. They
served as inns and hostelries, where any who travelled from
place to place could obtain accommodation, and frequently pro-
vided the lord deputy himself with food, forage, and lodging.
Like the houses in England, they dispensed charity to the
needy, and, unlike the houses in England, themselves served
66 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
the ruined parish churches instead of absorbing the revenue
and appointing a vicar on a pittance to do the work. These
pleas, however, were not considered by Henry. He had abol-
ished the abbeys, the priories, the monasteries, and the nun-
neries in England, and he would do the same in Ireland. Be-
sides, he wanted their property for purposes of his own.
In the year 1537, Lord Leonard Gray summoned a Parliament
for the purpose of carrying the Act of Supremacy. The lay
element was pliant enough; but a sturdy resistance was met
with from the clergy. The abbots and priors firmly opposed
the bill in the Upper House; the proctors used every artifice
of obstruction to prevent its passing in the Lower. So perse-
vering were they in their efforts to defeat the measure that the
lord deputy was compelled to prorogue the Parliament in order
to deal with the obstructionists. During the recess the privy
council determined that the proctors had usurped the right of
speaking and voting; that they were only summoned as coun-
sellors and assistants, and were " neither members nor parcel of
the body of Parliament." On the reassembling of the Houses,
a short bill * was run through, excluding them from all " voice
and suffrage " in the legislature; and the mouth of the proctors
being stopped—though the argument of usurpation of privi-
leges by long custom would have applied equally to the Eng-
lish House of Commons to do more than vote a subsidy—mat-
ters went on swimmingly enough. The Act of Supremacy f
was passed; and others which prohibited appeals to Rome, J
which gave the first-fruits of the clergy to the king instead of
to the Po-pe, § which suppressed thirteen abbeys, || and re-
sumed to the crown the estates of absentees.^"
By the act** of 1537, and by a subsequent statute in 1542,ff
all the property of the religious houses which had been or
"ought to" be "surrendered" to his majesty was vested in
the crown. The houses confiscated numbered upwards of four
hundred. The personalty was valued at £100,000, and the
land yielded an annual revenue of £32,000. Pensions of va-
* 28 Hen. VIII. c. 12. f c. 5. J c 6. § cc. 8, 26.
|| c. 16. t c. 3. ** c. 16. ff 33 Hen. VIII. c. 5.
THE CONFISCATION OF THE CHURCH LANDS. 67
rious amounts were given to the heads of houses and to most
of the brethren, in consideration of orderly self-effacement.
The "surrendering" was, of course, compulsory. Opposition
was met by imprisonment, as in the case of the abbot of St.
Mary's, Thurles. Many of the smaller houses became parish
churches; the revenues of a few of the larger were transferred
to the bishoprics in connection with them. The bulk of the
land surveyed in Henry's reign was granted, either for a real or
a nominal price, to the Englishmen composing the king's coun-
cil in Dublin, the corporate towns, and some of the Irish and
Anglo-Irish chiefs; the principal recipients being the judges,
the lords of the Pale, and a few officers of the army.
68
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER IV.
THE WINNING OF THE CHIEFTAINS. A.D. 1540-1550.
Henry had imposed his will upon the Church, and upon the
Parliament of the Pale. He had overawed the great lords; he
had exhibited his strength to the native Irish tribes; and to
some extent had re-established order. It remained for him to
carry out his policy of conciliation. Overtures were now made
to the native chiefs; to the Earl of Desmond, who had been
in open revolt, and had endeavored to strike up an alliance
with Charles V.; and to other recalcitrant nobles of Munster.
Both Irish enemies and Irish rebels were half ruined with their
everlasting petty warfare. They had learned to dread the
strong arm of the king; and they had before their eyes the
example of the Earl of Ormonde, who had been promised, and
had obtained, a portion of the plunder of the Church lands, on
his engaging to uphold the king's supremacy againsfriihe pope.
Sir Anthony St. Leger was now lord deputy; and he conducted
the negotiations with great address. McMurrough of Carlow
sent in his submission; the O'Dempsys, the O'Duns, and
O'Moores, of Leix, followed; so did O'Connor of~Offaly; so
did the O'Molloys, the O'Melaghlins, and the McGeoghans, of
Meath. Then came the O'Carrols of Tipperary, the O'Tooles
and the O'Bymes of Wicklow. The Earl of Desmond came
in, and McYoris of Athenry, and McWilliam, Lord of Clanri-
carde. O'Brien of Thomond at first held back, and so did the
chiefs of the north.
St. Leger summoned a parliament at Dublin; and then was
seen a sight which had never been witnessed in Ireland before—
the English lords and the Irish chiefs sitting beside each other
in a national assembly. The Earl of Ormonde with McGilapat-
rick of Upper Ossory; the Earl of Desmond, and the lords
Barry, Roche, and Fitzmaurice, with the Tanist of Thornond;
THE WINNING OF THE CHIEFTAINS.
69
the barons of the Pale with O'Moore, O'Eeilly, and McMur-
rough; Lord Bermingham of Athenry, and McWilliam Bourke.
The speaker's address concerning the business of the session
was translated into Irish by Ormonde. The Act of Supremacy
was accepted and confirmed; and a bill * was passed conferring
on Henry and his heirs the title of King, instead of Lord, of
Ireland. The chiefs flung down their girdles, skenes, and caps
in acknowledgment of Henry as their liege lord. Dublin was
en fete: bonfires were lit, guns fired, wine flowed in the street;
all prisoners, except those detained on capital charges, were set
at liberty; and a general pardon was published by the king
throughout all his dominions.
Soon O'Brien of Thomond and O'Neil and O'Donnel agreed,
by indenture, to be faithful to Henry. The royal favors were
then distributed; many of the leading chiefs being persuaded
to pay a visit to the English court, that they might be impressed
with the king's might and the resources of England, and be con-
vinced of the futility of a struggle with their neighbor should
she choose to put forth her strength.
Under the commission for the suppression of the religious
houses, issued in 1538, twenty-four abbeys and priories were
compulsorily surrendered to the crown. The first attacked
were those of the Pale, which were the only ones which could
be reached. But it was in Leinster and Munster that by far
the largest proportion were situated. Those which were be-
yond the practical extent of the English jurisdiction were left
to a more convenient season, and many of these were not sur-
veyed till the reigns of Elizabeth and James, a few escaping the
notice of the commissioners altogether. The Church lands
which had not, up to this time, fallen within the king's grasp,
by reason of their being situated in the Irish and Anglo-Irish
country, were, on the submission of the chieftains of these ter-
ritories, handed over to them as a reward for their newly found
loyalty. All the abbeys and benefices in Thomond, excepting
bishoprics, were granted to O'Brien, who was created Earl of
Thomond for life and Baron Inchiquin. The great Abbey of
* 3a lien. VIII. c. 1.
70
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
Clare was given to the Tanist of Thomond, who was made
Baron Ibrackan, and granted the earldom of Thomond in re-
version, on the death of his uncle, the chieftain of the tribe.
The monasteries of Aghadoe and Aghmacarte were given to
McGilapatrick, who took the name of Fitzpatrick, and was cre-
ated Baron of Upper Ossory. McWilliam Bourke was made
Earl of Clanricarde, and received extensive Church lands in
Galway. McMurrough took the name of Kavenagh, and be-
came Baron of Ballyan. It was arranged that O'Connor should
become Baron of Orfaly, and O'Donnel was promised the earl-
dom of Tyrconnel; but their patents were never made out. Con
O'Neil was created Earl of Tyrone, and his bastard son Baron
of Dungannon. Large sums of money were also distributed
among the Irish chiefs, and to each was assigned a house in
Dublin for his occupation daring the sitting of Parliament,
"that they might suck in civility with the court air."
Formal indentures were entered into between the king and
the tribal chieftains. The greater chiefs agreed to hold their
lands of the king according to English law, to encourage agri-
culture, and to conform to English habits. They were to come
to the king's courts for justice, to attend in their places in Par-
liament, and to provide a contingent to the lord deputy's forces
when required; to send their sons to be educated at the English
court, and to renounce the authority of the Pope. The lesser
chiefs promised allegiance, agreed to pay a head rent for their
cattle, and to turn out with all their men to assist the lord
deputy in his wars. The king in return engaged to protect
their lands from invasion, and to permit them to manage their
own affairs within their own territory.
The principal inducement, however, to the greater chieftains
to accept the king's suzerainty was the alteration in the tenure
of the land. Henry insisted on the old fraud practised by the
Plantagenets of recognizing the feudal laws as the laws of the
country, and shutting his eyes to the Irish system of tenure.
The chief surrendered his territory to the king, and the king
regranted it to him to hold of the crown by knight's service.
The king was benefited by obtaining a recognition of his sov-
ereign rights, and the invaluable leverage of the law of forfeit-
THE WINNING OF THE CHIEFTAINS.
71
lire for treason incident to the English tenure. The chief was
benefited by getting a grant in fee to himself and his heirs of
the land, which never was his, which belonged to his tribe, and
of which he was only the demesne lord for life by virtue of
the will of the tribesmen. The arrangement was colorable and
collusive, and in effect confiscated every acre in the island.
Though the practical effect was not at first apparent, the founda-
tion was laid for a huge future injustice.
The tribesmen themselves were wholly ignorant of the effect
of what had taken place; but the submission of their lords
was unpopular, and grudgingly acquiesced in. In many cases
the newly created peers found the tribal dissatisfaction forcibly
brought home to them. The new Earls of Thomond and
Clanricarde, and the new Baron Ibrackan, on their return from
the ceremony of inauguration at Greenwich, found portions of
their countries in revolt. And the sons of O'Neil and O'Donnel,
who had got some inkling of the juggle which was being played
about the property of the tribe, headed the clansmen in a re-
fusal to accept the new order of things. Fighting followed,
and the peace was only restored in Thomond and Galway by
the intervention of the deputy, who led his troops to support
his fledgling nobility, and in the north by the overthrow of
young O'Donnel by his father; while the schism in the O'Neil
family was fought out between the new Baron of Dungannon,
Mathew the bastard, and John or Shane O'Neil the legitimate
son, who was clear-sighted enough to contend that by the law
of Tanistry his father had nothing but a life-interest in the
chieftaincy, and that the king had no power to settle the in-
heritance by the feudal laws.
The success of Henry's policy was greater and more immedi-
ate than could have been expected. Both Irish chiefs and
Anglo-Irish lords kept to their bargain; and there seemed a
fair prospect of Ireland becoming a united and loyal portion of
the dominions of the crown. In ten years' time we find the
lord chancellor, Sir Thomas Cusacke, reporting to the Duke
of Northumberland that the king's circuits were held in the
counties of Cork, Limerick, and Kerry; that the sheriffs were
obeyed; and that Desmond, Roche, Barry, and Fitzmauricc
72 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
were sitting as magistrates in petty sessions. The new peers
were quiet, and studying to conform to the law; and were
each prepared with their contingent for the support of order.
Where depredations had been made by the natives, fines had
been paid by the chiefs. In Fercal, roads were being cut through
the forests; in Clanricarde, lands were coming under the plough;
in Ttpperary, the lives and property of travellers were respected,
and cattle and agricultural implements could safely be left un-
guarded in the fields. It seemed as if the old days of lawless-
ness and tumult were passing away, and that those of progress
and civilization were about to take their place.
THE IMPOSITION OF THE NEW FAITH.
73
CHAPTER V.
THE IMPOSITION OF THE NEW FAITH. A.D. 1547-1560.
Henry's great object throughout was to rule in Ireland as
he ruled in England; and, with this object in view, he strove
in his ecclesiastical policy to destroy the pretensions of the
Bishop of Rome, and to improve the religious houses off the
face of the earth. Beyond this he had no intention to go;
and it is to be observed that the accepting of both these courses
in no way necessitated a breach of religious communion with
the Holy See. But it was otherwise with those into whose
hands, upon Henry's death, the reins of government came. In
England, Henry's new nobility, the Seymours, the Russells, the
Cavendishes, had profited by the plunder of the Church lands,
and were greatly concerned to keep what they had got, and
prevent anything like a reaction. The interests of the ad-
vanced party of the reformers Liy in the same direction, and
many of those whom Henry had used as his instruments were
inclined to the forward course. Accordingly, we find the new
doctrines directly encouraged; the Law of the Six Articles re-
pealed; the clergy permitted to marry; the mass displaced by
the Lord's supper; first one new liturgy introduced, and then a
second of a more advanced character; and the pulpits "tuned"
by authorized preachers. The reforming tide was flowing
strongly, and the new ideas prevailed. The secret of the suc-
cess of the Reformation in England lay in its not being a move-
ment in advance of its time. Large numbers of the people,
especially those who dwelt in the cities and towTns, were ready
to entertain it. The impulse came from within, and not from
without. All the acts of Parliament passed to promote it would
have been of no avail had not large sections of the community
been ready to receive it. The movement had been at work up-
wards of two centuries. The ground had been broken by
4
74 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
Wycliffe and the Lollards. The former had translated the Bible
into English, so that people were in a position to form their
own opinions, and to criticise freely what they had hitherto
taken on trust; the latter were bitterly persecuted by the
Church, and, being scattered through the country, continued
secretly to spread their opinions far and wide. The recent dis-
covery of the printing-press had led to the rapid increase of
general knowledge by the ready multiplication of the vehicle
for its transmission. A keen spirit of inquiry had grown up,
which fearlessly probed into all subjects. The Church itself
had become discredited by the undisguised worldliness of its
servants and officers; and from the days of Chancer onward
had suffered from the satirical attacks to which it had laid
itself open.
In Ireland the case was wholly different: no breath of the
"Lutheran" or any other " heresy" had reached its shores; no
scattered remnant had preached of doubt and invited inquiry;
no translation of the Scriptures had reached the English of the
Pale, much less had an Irish version been given to the natives.
The " Englishry " and the " Irishry " were both devout followers
of the orthodox faith; but they had all along existed as two
peoples, each with its distinct religious system. The Anglo-
Normans, on their arrival, found the island divided into bishop-
rics and parishes, and sprinkled with monastic institutions.
Where they settled they made use of the existing local divis-
ions; and, Norman fashion, lavishly endowed fresh religious
houses of their own. Henry II. had been acknowledged by
the Irish clergy. Where the crown had power to enforce its
will it appointed bishops to the vacant sees; where the natives
were independent the Pope appointed, sometimes on the king's
nomination, and sometimes of his own motion. As the Irish
were outlaws, there could be no lawful intercourse between the
two races. As it was felony to introduce an Irishman into an
English monastery, so was it as much as an Englishman's life
was worth for him to enter an Irish one. No bishop or parish
priest could remain in Irish territory without the approval of
the chieftain, who frequently rejected even the Pope's nominee
if he happened to want the appointment for any friend of his
THE IMPOSITION OF THE NEW FAITH.
75
own. If the king appointed a bishop to a see in the Irish
country, the appointment was a farce: the bishop was simply
an absentee, living in Dublin, and dealing actively in politics.
There were, in fact, though unrecognized as such, two distinct
orthodox churches in the island, one in the English and one
in the Irish land. As anarchy increased, religion suffered. The
English plundered and burned the Irish abbeys, and the Irish
retaliated on those of the Pale. Many of the border monas-
teries were little better than fortresses, with monks for garri-
sons, who fought and plundered like the rest of society. The
dioceses were frequently left vacant for years. The parish
churches and cathedrals beyond the ramparts of the walled
towns were despoiled of their furniture and vestments, and fell
into utter ruin. The country was desolate, and the population
decimated. No tithe could be collected; and the wretched in-
cumbents, without parishioners and without stipends, ceased to
fulfil their functions, and withdrew into the religious houses.
Everywhere was misery and ignorance; and the spark of re-
ligion was only kept alive by the begging friars, Spanish,
French, and English, who, at the risk of their lives, continued
their mission work, and shared in their wanderings the dangers
and poverty of the people.
The clergy themselves were nearly as ignorant as their flocks.
There was not a university in all the island. Few natives,
either English or Irish, were fit for the office of bishop. The
sees among the Irishry were filled with monks from the monas-
teries, who took no interest in the parishes within their dioceses;
those within reach of the royal arm were filled with imported
Englishmen—not always of the best characters, for it was no
easy matter to induce the more worthy sort and the scholars
to consent to expatriation. To hope, by means of statutes and
arbitrary acts, to force out of the grooves in which they had
run for centuries a priesthood and a nation blindly wedded to
an ancient faith was little short of madness; yet this wras what
the forward party proposed to do when set free from the iron
grasp of Henry. What wonder that the whole population of
the island, both English and Irish, became united in one com-
mon bond and one common cause to resist an innovation which
76 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
they looked upon at once as blasphemous and tyrannical, and
was stamped with the detested policy of Anglicizing the Irish
nation. A common platform had been found whereon the
people of both bloods could meet. They could sink their
mutual jealousies in their enthusiasm for their common belief.
Henceforth Anglo-Norman and Celt were to be as one nation.
The war of races was passing, the wars of religion were to
begin.
These consequences were not, however, at first apparent.
The seed was sown, and the crop was to follow; but some time
was yet required for its full development. The passing of the
Act of Supremacy had not roused the susceptibilities of the
nation. In order to carry out his plans Cromwell had, in 1535,
appointed George Brown, an Augustinian friar, and a strenuous
supporter of the divorce, to be Archbishop of Dublin on the
murder of Allen by Silken Thomas. The new prelate was con-
secrated by Cranmer. He strove, like a faithful servant, to
carry out the Supremacy policy, and readily threw himself-into
his patron's designs for the suppression of image-worship. He
amended the liturgy by substituting the king's name for that
of the Pope; and, where he was able, pulled down the roods
from the rood-lofts, and destroyed the shrines and images of
the Virgin and other saints. He was strongly opposed by
Cromer, Archbishop of Armagh, and the great bulk of the
clergy of the Pale. But Cromwell's answer to obstruction was
imprisonment; and, though many resigned their benefices, a
sullen compliance was secured. On the death of Cromer, Henry
appointed Dowdal to the primacy; but he was as stern an op-
ponent to the new order of things as his predecessor. Only
one other bishop supported Brown—Staples, Bishop of Meath,
a moderate man, and one of Henry's recent appointments.
Cranmer and Northumberland had determined to introduce
the new liturgy into Ireland; and Sir Anthony St. Leger, who,
in consequence of the intrigues of Lord Chancellor Allen and
the Irish Council, had been replaced by Sir Edward Belling-
ham, was sent again to Ireland with instructions to introduce
the new service-book. An English version was ordered to be
.used where English was spoken, and an Irish one where other-
THE IMPOSITION OF THE NEW FAITH.
77
wise; but it does not appear that any steps were taken for the
making of an Irish translation. St. Leger addressed himself at
once to the object of his mission, and summoned a meeting of
the Irish clergy in Dublin Castle. On the production of the
new liturgy, which was described by the royal proclamation as
a translation of the prayers of the Church into the mother
tongue, Archbishop Dowdal scornfully refused to receive it,
and rose up with the main body of the clergy and retired from
the conference. Archbishop Brown only remained, with Sta-
ples, Bishop of Meath; Quin, Bishop of Limerick; Lancaster,
Bishop of Kildare; and Travers, Bishop of Leighlin. These
five humbly accepted the king's orders; and the new form of
prayer in English and the Bible in English were shortly after
read in Christchurch Cathedral. The primacy of all Ireland
was next transferred to Dublin from Armagh, which, being situ-
ated in O'Neil's country, was beyond the reach of the crown,
and Dowdal retired to the Continent. An Englishman named
Goodacre was elevated to the vacant archbishopric; and at the
same time John Bale, a fiery and bigoted reformer, was ad-
vanced to the see of Ossory.
Some conception of the projects of the Beformers was now
beginning to dawn upon the people. Their attention had been
aroused by the interruption of their beneficial relation to the
religious houses, and the casting-forth from their homes of the
begging friars. Their wonder and indignation had been ex-
cited by the destruction of the wonder-working image of "Our
Lady of Trim," and of the holy rood of Ballybogan; by the
burning in High Street, Dublin, of the sacred "Baculus Jesu,"
which was believed to have been used by Christ himself, and
to have been converted into a crosier by St. Patrick. They
were struck with horror at the sacrilegious pillage, by the sol-
diers in Down, of the shrines and tombs of St. Patrick, St.
Bridget, and St. Columbkill; and the atrocious act of vandal-
ism committed by the garrison of Athlone in sacking and raz-
ing the ancient and magnificent abbey of Clonmacnoise. They
had turned on Bishop Bale and stoned his servants, and be-
sieged him in his palace, on his attempting to overturn the
market-cross at Kilkenny.
is
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
But a brief respite was yet given before the Reformation
became identified in their eyes with Anglicizing aggression,
and Protestantism with a war to the knife. On the accession
of Mary, the old order of things was restored for a brief season;
and St. Leger, a kind of Gallio as far as articles of faith were
concerned, was again the instrument of the royal will. Armagh
was restored to its former privileges; and Dowdal, who had
acknowledged the royal supremacy but rejected the new liturgy,
was recalled from banishment. Archbishop Brown and his
conforming bishops, with all the clergy who had taken to
themselves wives, were formally deprived, and their children
bastardized; while Bale and the Bishop of Limerick fled over-
sea to Geneva.
There was no persecution on account of the new faith, for
the simple reason that there had been no converts. Those
who filled the state offices had easy consciences, and took their
religion from the crown. The great Earl of Ormonde con-
formed with the rest; and Gerald, the young heir of the house
of Kildare, who was bound up with the Roman Catholic fac-
tion, and had been brought up by Cardinal Pole, was restored
to his estates and to his earldom. The queen did not renounce
the supreme headship of the Church. She continued to ap-
point bishops by the transmission of writs of conge (Telire,
though she restored the jurisdiction of the Pope in things
spiritual.* The Church lands which had been granted to the
laity were not relinquished any more than they were in Eng-
land; for both Mary and the Pope knew well enough that
their new possessors, though they might be indifferent to their
faith, were tenacious of their acquisitions; and, far from restor-
ing those which were still vested in the crown, the queen con-
tinued to make fresh grants to whom she pleased, " with their
appurtenances both spiritual and temporal." But King Ed-
ward's prayer-books wTere set aside, the sacrifice of the mass re-
stored: in effect, matters in Ireland reverted very much to the
position in which they were at the end of the reign of Henry
VIII.; and the Pope, on the principle of half a loaf being bet-
ter than no bread, consented to receive back his erring children
upon these terms.
* 3,4, P. and M. c. 8.
THE IMPOSITION OF THE NEW FAITH. 79
Elizabeth's first act in Ireland was to reverse all that her
sister had done in Church matters. Edward's government had
not ventured to summon a Parliament all through his reign for
the purpose of registering the English Act of Uniformity; and
the new liturgy had been introduced by an order in council.
Elizabeth proceeded differently. She directed a Parliament to
be summoned on January 11th, 1560, and care was taken that
its composition should be of a satisfactory character. Kepresen-
tatives were summoned from ten only of the nineteen counties,
and the burgesses were carefully selected from those boroughs
where the royal influence was paramount; while none of the
newly created peers were invited to attend. This deliberately
packed body repealed the acts of Philip and Mary relating
to the Pope's jurisdiction, and passed the Act of Uniform-
ity * as it stood on the English statute-book, ordering all per-
sons, on pain of fine and imprisonment, to attend church and
hear the new liturgy. The only addition was a clause em-
powering those clergy who could not read English to read the
service in Latin, and not in their native language, "as well in
the difficulty to get it printed, as that few in the whole realm
can read the Irish letters." A new oath of supremacy was also
imposed, to be taken by all persons, on pain of forfeiture of
office and promotion during life. The gift of first-fruits from
the clergy was restored to the crown; f and the writ of conge
cTelire was abolished, the queen being empowered to collate to
benefices by letters-patent. J
There seems to have been no difficulty in inducing the bish-
ops to accept the change, at any rate those who came within
reach of the arm of the law. The see of Armagh, which was
situated beyond the Pale, was vacant by the death of Dowdal.
It already had'two pretenders—one in possession, a relative of
O'Neil's, and one appointed by the Pope. Elizabeth appointed
Adam Loftus, who resided in Dublin as an absentee. Curwin,
whom Mary had installed in Dublin, and Bodkin, Archbishop
of Tuarn, who had complied under Edward VI., both continued
in possession of their sees. Only three were deprived for dis-
* 2 Eliz. c. 2.
f Ib.cl.
J Ib.c.4.
80
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
obedience—Walsh, Bishop of Meath; Devereux, Bishop of Kil-
dare; and Thonery, Bishop of Ossory.
It is difficult to tell how far the parish clergy complied,
for even in the most populous parts of the country they had
almost ceased to exist. True, the skeleton of the system
remained; that is to say, the parochial divisions were undis-
turbed, and the ruins of the battered churches were to be found
in situ; but no one remained to do the duty. The great tithes,
and in many cases even the lesser tithes, had long* ago been
absorbed by the monasteries, and were transferred, with the
rest of the Church property, to the landholders. The result was
that in most cases there was nothing wherewith to pay the par-
son; and where, as frequently happened, the parish church had
been served by an inmate of its tutelary religious house, on the
abolition of the religious house the parish priest went too. So
poor were the benefices that Elizabeth, in 1579, expressly au-
thorized Archbishop Loftus to combine three or four livings
into one, in order to bring the united annual income up to
£40. And Sir Henry Sidney, writing to the queen in 1566,
says that in Meath, which he calls "the best inhabited part of
the diocese and the best governed country," out of 224 parish
churches "105 are now impropriated to sundry possessions
now of your highness, and now leased out for years; no par-
son or vicar resident upon any of them, and a very simple or
sorry curate for the most part appointed to serve them, among
which number of curates only eighteen were found able to
speak English, the rest Irish priests—or rather Irish rogues,
having very little Latin, and less learning and civility. In
many places, the very walls of the churches down, very few
chancels covered, windows and doors ruined or spoiled."
Within the English Pale, English ministers, professing the
Reformed faith and wholly ignorant of the Irish language, were
largely intruded, with the consequence that their congregations
refused to attend church. It is not surprising that the mass
of the people were driven into the arms of the begging friars,
who preached the ancient faith in the native tongue upon the
bare hill-sides, and enjoined an undying hatred of the Angli-
cizing Church of the Establishment.
THE PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY.
81
CHAPTER VI.
THE PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY. A.D. 1547-1559.
Henry VIII. had, in spite of the Irish council, carried out
his plan of conciliating the Irish by " sober ways, politic drifts,
and amiable persuasions of law and reason," and the fruits of
his system promised well for the future. Upon his death the
contrary counsels prevailed: it was believed to be better to
drive the Irish than to lead them. The timorous counsels of
the Dublin oligarchy could look for safety only in harsh and
cruel measures, and little by little a course was entered upon
of extermination and plantation, which was pursued for two
centuries, and which, when combined with the policy of forcing
a novel form of faith upon a reluctant people, has imbued the
Irish nation with a hatred of English government which bids
fair to be ineffaceable for generations to come.
The territories of Leix, Offaly, Fercal, and Ely lay in the
centre of Ireland. They marched upon Ormonde's territory
on the south, and upon Meath and Kildare on the north and
east. They consisted chiefly of trackless forest and impene-
trable morass, interspersed with tracts of profitable land, and
were occupied by the warlike tribes of O'Moore, O'Connor,
O'Dempsey, O'Dunn, O'Molloy, and O'Carrol. Thus situated
and thus tenanted, they were the source of constant danger to
the English settlement. They had in their time done more
than their share in the constant harryings of the Pale, and
they were a standing menace to the line of communication
between Dublin and Kilkenny, which lay through Kildare and
over Leighlin Bridge.
The chiefs of these tribes had been indentured by Henry;
and though since then they had, on the whole, been pretty
quiet, they showed some signs of turbulence on Henry's death.
The government acted with prompt severity. They at once
4*
82
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
sent Sir Edward Bellingham, with six hundred horse and four
hundred foot, to the spot, in conjunction with St. Leger's forces.
Eesistance there was none; O'Connor and O'Moore were capt-
ured, and sent over as prisoners to England; the strongholds
of Dangen and Campa were taken; the tribes were thrust from
their homes and dispersed, their cattle driven off, and their land
laid waste. The rightful owners of the soil having been eject-
ed, the next step was to repeople it with English colonists.
This was accomplished, and a revenue of £500 per annum se-
cured to the crown by the granting of leases of twenty-one
years in the confiscated lands to various English colonists:
notably to Sir Francis Bryan, who had married the Dowager
Countess of Ormonde, and to other families which came over
from England — the Barringtons, the Cosbies, the Berretons,
and the Hovendens, the Harpools, the Deavils, the Grahams,
the Pigotts, and the Bowens.
For nine years a guerilla warfare was kept up between the
dispossessed tribesmen and the settlers of a most fierce and
bloody character, which ended in the almost total expulsion of
the latter. Again the government stepped in, and this time
proceeded to do its work more thoroughly. The natives were
either shot down in the field, or executed by martial law, and
the remnant driven into the neighboring bogs and mountains,
where for a few years longer they preyed upon and spoiled the
settlers, and in their turn were hunted as brigands, and put to
death as outlaws. The confiscated territories were converted
into "shireland the greater part of OfEaly, Fercal, and Ely,
being denominated King's County, and its stronghold Dangen
converted into a fort, and constituted a market-town under the
name of Philips-town, in honor of the queen's husband; while
Leix, a portion of Offaly, and the barony of Upper Ossory,
became Queen's County; and Campa was rcchristened Mary-
borough, in honor of her majesty. The reinstated settlers were
called upon to adhere to the English language and habits, to
subscribe to the English laws, and to abjure Irish marriages
and fosterage; to clear the country and maintain the fords
* 3, 4, P. and M. cc. 1, 2, 3.
THE PLANTATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY.
83
and highways, and to build a church in every town within
three years. These were the first counties which had been
set out since the days of King John, unless the division of the
County of Meath into Meath and Westmeath by Henry VIII.
be taken into account.*
There is evidence in the correspondence between Elizabeth
and the Earl of Sussex that, quite in the early part of her reign,
the former had adopted in her own mind the plantation scheme,
and looked forward to the possible destruction of the Ulster
chieftains as affording the means of carrying it out. Sussex
had also a plan for the more efficient governing of the island,
by putting the provinces under responsible presidents, with a
chief-justice and council, and a force of eight hundred men,
and converting the queen's alleged rights to take "bonaght"
into an annual tribute, all of which schemes were eventually
carried out by succeeding deputies. Elizabeth was not, how-
ever, on her accession in 1558, prepared to enter upon an heroic
treatment of the Irish question. On the death of her sister,
she found England in a state bordering on revolution; plunged
in a war with France, which had resulted in the loss of Calais;
and threatened by Scotland, whose queen was married to the
French king, and had assumed the arms of England. She could
spare neither men nor money at present for schemes of aggres-
sion. It was only when driven by the intrigues of her foreign
enemies, who endeavored to strike at her through Ireland, that
she set herself the task of pursuing that policy to the bitter
end.
* 34 Hen. VIII. c. 1.
84
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER VII.
THE WAR WITH SHANE o'nEIL. A.D. 1559-1569.
Elizabeth's troubles soon began; and they arose out of her
father's endeavors to substitute the feudal laws of inheritance
for the law of Tanistry in bis grants of peerages to the native
chiefs. Quarrels had arisen from this cause in Thornond, Clan-
ricarde, and the north, and bad been suppressed. The feuds
in Tyrone broke out afresb on the death of Con O'Neil, the
new Earl of Tyrone. Henry seems to have been deceived by
Con's representations as to his legitimate heir, and regranted
his surrendered lands, and conferred his peerage, in remainder
to Mathew and his heirs male; who, though the elder son, was
base-born. Rumor, indeed, averred—and this was the material
point according to Irish law—that he was not Con O'Neil's
offspring at all, but was the son of a smith. Mathew, in the
course of the struggle which was. carried on in Con's lifetime,
had been killed by some of Shane's men; and upon Con's
death, in 1559, the tribe elected Shane, a younger son, but one"
of whose paternity there was no question, to be "The O'Neil,"
and contemptuously put aside the pretensions of Mathew's
son, the new Baron of Dungannon.
Shane was a man of strong will and fierce passions, but able
withal, and fully capable of meeting Elizabeth's tortuous ways
with corresponding cunning. His ambition prompted him to
gather to himself the whole power of the north, and to try to
render himself independent of the English government. He
stood forth as the champion of the old order of things; as the
despiser of the new decorations, which had been so eagerly
sought by his fellow-chieftains; and sneered bitterly at McCar-
thy More when the queen made him Earl of Clancarty.
The assumption by Shane of the title of The O'Neil was
a direct challenge to the English government; and Sir Henry
THE WAR WITH SHANE o'nEIL.
85
Sidney, who was interim deputy in Sussex's absence, marched
to Dundalk, to protect the borders of the Pale. At a meeting
which then took place, Shane put his case so forcibly that Sid-
ney agreed to lay the matter before the queen, and in the mean-
time to abstain from active measures.
Shane's claims seem to have made some impression on Eliz-
abeth; but he was too dangerous a person to be left in full
control of Ulster, and the English government determined to
be rid of him either by fair means or foul. On Sussex's re-
turn an attempt was made to detach O'Reilly, the chieftain of
Brefny, from his allegiance to Shane by creating him Baron of
Cavan, and to enlist O'Donnel by promising him the projected
earldom of Tyrconnel. For some years the Scots of Argyle-
shire had been migrating to the northeast coast of Antrim, and
had materially strengthened Shane's hands by entering his ser-
vice as mercenaries. It was determined to approach McDon-
nell, their captain, and so complete the combination against
O'Neil. Shane, however, was too quick for Sussex. He burst
into Brefny and overawed O'Reilly, compelling him to give
hostages for his good behavior; he dashed into Tyrconnel and
seized the persons of Calvagh O'Donnel and his wife, a daughter
of the Lord of the Isles; and, turning on Sussex, who had seized
and fortified Armagh, drove him and his army headlong before
him, and marched within twenty miles of Dublin. Such was
the terror inspired by Shane's name after this victory that Sus-
sex was unable to bring his beaten army to face him in the
field; he accordingly, with the queen's entire approval, had the
baseness to endeavor to compass Shane's death by assassina-
tion, and suborned one Nele Gray, with a promise of a grant of
land of the value of a hundred marks, to murder him. But the
plot failed, and Nele Gray lost his reward.
Shane now retreated before Sussex's reinforcements, and con-
sented to treat with his cousin of Kildare. The result of the
negotiation was that Shane agreed to present himself in person
to the queen and state his case to her. Having obtained a
safe-conduct, he at once proceeded to the English court, where
he and his body-guard of gallowglasses created considerable ex-
citement. The thews and sinews of the stalwart Irishman seem
86
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
to have attracted the eye of the susceptible Elizabeth; and,
though advantage was taken of the cunningly worded safe-con-
duct, which guaranteed his return but omitted to fix a date for
it, to keep him at the English court till he agreed to make his
submission, her partiality, for him induced her to respect his
safety, and to permit him, after a three months' sojourn, to re-
turn to his country, with all the expenses of his visit paid.
According to the terms of the submission, the queen allowed
him to continue "Captain of Tyrone," and promised to with-
draw her troops from Armagh, but refused to commit herself
further on the question of his claim to the earldom; Shane, on
the other hand, promised to reduce the Scots of Antrim, and
to set O'Donnel at liberty. O'Donnel was accordiugly released;
but O'Donnel's wife, who was Shane's own stepmother by mar-
riage—for Shane had been married to O'Donnel's daughter—
continued to live with him as his mistress.
For over two years Shane and the government did not in-
terfere with each other, further than that the sanctimonious
Sussex made another attempt on his life by procuring an Eng-
lishman of the name of Smythe to send him a present of poi-
soned wine, which nearly caused his death; and in September,
1563, Elizabeth, with her hands full on the Continent and the
Scottish border, her treasury empty, and her ill-paid and mu-
tinous troops only fit to be disbanded, was glad to come to a
settlement with him at any price, and entered into a formal
treaty of peace, in which she conceded all the jurisdiction
which his father, Con O'Neil, had enjoyed. Shane, though he
knew that the English government was not to be trusted, seems
fairly to have kept his side of the bargain. He effectually
crushed the Scottish settlers, whom he surprised and cruelly
massacred; he kept within his own borders, and did not inter-
fere with the English; and he governed Ulster with a sort of
rough justice, encouraging "all kinds of husbandry and the
growing of wheat," and enforcing order in his own way. He
did not attempt to disguise his feelings of hostility towards the
English; there was a sort of armed neutrality between them;
they would have taken every opportunity to ruin him, and he
would have joined any league, either in or out of Ireland, to
THE WAR WITH SHANE o'lTEIL.
87
drive them out of the country. His position was that of an
independent native prince. His case was that "his ancestors
were kings of Ulster, and Ulster was his; with the sword he
had won it, and with the sword he would keep it." He and
the English government had gauged each other's capacity
for mischief, and were content to watch each other for the
present.
Early in 1566, Sir Henry Sidney returned to Ireland as lord
deputy, with the express purpose of crushing the Irish chief-
tain. Shane held his vassal chiefs in a state of bondage; he
had even ventured to domineer over his neighbors in Con-
naught, and, on a pretended claim for tribute, took from them
a prey of four thousand cattle. He boasted that he could
bring into the field a force of five thousand men of all arms.
He entered into correspondence with Charles IX. and the Car-
dinal Lorraine, begging for a contingent of five or six thousand
French soldiers; and allied himself with Argyle and the west-
ern islanders. Sidney set himself to work at the old game of
gradually detaching his allies, and succeeded in inducing Hugh
O'Donnel, the brother of Calvagh, to fall in with his plans.
He managed to send round some men by sea and to throw them
into Deny, and so to make a diversion from the north; while
he took the field himself and marched across the border. Shane,
who had been harrying the English Pale, but had been checked
by the fortress of Dundalk and had made an unsuccessful at-
tempt on Deny, found his flank threatened by O'Donnel; he
turned upon him with the bulk of his force, and, crossing the
Swilly at low water near Letterkenny, endeavored to cany by
storm O'Donnel's intrenched position. O'Donnel made a stout
resistance, and the attack failed; Shane's troops, beaten and
broken, were driven back upon the river, where the rising tide
cut off his retreat. Here near three thousand of his troops
were either butchered by the men of Donegal, or drowned in
the waves; and Shane himself barely escaped by a ford higher
up the river into Tyrone.
He was now desperate: his army was gone; the chiefs wrere
revolting; the hope of foreign aid had come to nothing; and,
in despair, he determined to throw himself upon the generosity
88
HISTQRY OF THE KINGDOM OF, IRELAND.
of the Scottish settlers of Antrim. This determination was
fatal. The Scots were burning with revenge for his treacher-
ous slaughter of their people a twelvemonth since; and, as soon
as he arrived among them with the widow of O'Donnel and a
few followers, they hewed him in pieces, and, having cut off his
head, despatched it to the lord deputy at Drogheda, who sent
it to rot upon a spearhead on the walls of Dublin Castle.
The English government was now relieved from the pressing
danger which was always threatening from the north — not,
indeed, by the valor of its own army, but by the remorseless
vengeance of two injured Celtic chieftains. An act of attain-
der was passed on O'Neil,* and the country of Tyrone was de-
clared forfeit. The vassal chiefs of Shane became vassals of
the crown. Turlough Luinagh f O'Neil, who by the law of Tan-
istry had been elected by the tribesmen upon Shane's death,
was permitted to occupy the position of chief of his own tribe,
and became "The O'Neil." Elizabeth apparently thought it
wiser not to force upon them the unpopular claims of the repre-
sentative of the Baron of Dungannon.
* 11 Eliz. session 3, c. 1.
f So called because he was fostered by O'Luinagh of Tyrone.
THE PLANTATION SPIRIT ABROAD.
89
CHAPTER VIII.
THE PLANTATION SPIRIT ABROAD. A.D. 1569-1576.
After the death of Shane there was a short interval of quiet
and recovery, which was occupied by Sidney in the holding of
a Parliament for the purpose of filling the empty treasury by
imposing a new duty on wines.* This measure was sturdily
opposed by the gentry of the Pale, a class who were daily
growing in wealth and influence; and there was also a furious
controversy concerning the legality of the constitution of the
Parliament itself, it being alleged that, with the view of pack-
ing the Commons, members had been returned by towns which
were not incorporated, and that many sheriffs and mayors had
returned themselves. Indeed, so unsatisfactory did the exec-
utive find both this Parliament and that summoned in the
second year of the queen, that no other was assembled for
fourteen years.
Though systematically plundered by the crown for the
support of the army, and impoverished by the depreciated-con-
dition of the currency, the English Pale, which was now an ex-
tending instead of a contracting area, was gradually growing in
prosperity. There was a steady rise in the value of its produce;
the land was well tilled, and full of cattle; the cities and towns
were populous; the houses well built, and furnished "with
plate, furniture, and apparel;" the youth were sent abroad for
education to Louvain, Dole, and Rome, and to study law at
the Inns of Court in London. The condition of the walled
towns, both those on the coast and those in the interior, which
were almost exclusively inhabited by people of unmixed Eng-
lish blood, was a great contrast to that of the open country: a
brisk traffic was carried on between the citizens and the coun-
* 11 Eliz. session 4, c. 1.
90
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
try-folk, and the seaboard cities were the emporia of an increas-
ing trade with other countries, more especially Spain. There
had been a considerable addition made to the "shireland." *
Anally, by the submission of O'Farrel, had been converted into
the County of Longford; the County of Connaught had been
subdivided into the counties of Mayo and Galway; and Eos-
common had had Sligo and Leitrhn carved out of it. Tho-
mond had been denominated County Clare, and transferred
from the province of Munster to that of Connaught. The ter-
ritory of Desmond, however, was in a wretched condition. The
hereditary quarrels between the Earls of Desmond and Or-
monde had turned the country into a wilderness; and Sir
Henry Sidney, in the description he gives of it, says that " he
never saw a more waste and desolate land—no, not in the con-
fines of other countries where actual war hath continually been
kept by the greatest princes of Christendom."
Elizabeth's great difficulty was shortness of money. She
grudged every shilling which was expended in the government
of Ireland, and was constantly requiring schemes from her dep-
uties for the making of the Irish government self-supporting.
As the result of these searchings of heart, it was determined
that trial should be made of Sussex's plan of governing the
provinces by presidents, who should keep order each in his
own government by maintaining a small standing army princi-
pally composed of native contingents, and should relieve the
Dublin exchequer of all military charges by quartering the
troops upon the people. This was, in effect, reviving for the
benefit of the crown the old practice of coyne and livery, which
had been condemned and prohibited over and over again when
practised by the Irish nobles, and was universally acknowledged
to have been the curse of the country. The first experiment
was made in Connaught by the appointment of Sir Edward
Fitton, a judge of the Queen's Bench in Dublin, to the office
of president, with a commission to execute martial law. The
immediate consequence of this supersession of the ordinary law
of the land was a rising of various members of the O'Brien and
* 11 Eliz. session 3, c. 9.
THE PLANTATION SPIRIT ABROAD.
91
Bourke families, which he vainly endeavored to put down by a
succession of acts of violence; and when he had been all but
driven out of the country, the government was compelled to
recall him.
But the scheme which found most favor in the eyes of the
queen and in the eyes of her iron deputy, Sir Henry Sidney,
was the old one of planting the country with English settlers.
England was full of men who aspired to be soldiers of fortune;
the discovery of the New World had made them drunk with
the spirit of adventure; they looked upon Ireland, as indeed at
that time did even the majority of sober Englishmen, as a coun-
try ripe for colonization, inhabited by a race who deserved no
better treatment than the wild beasts, and whose fat lands were
the proper birthright of enterprising but impecunious younger
sons. Cecil had a plan for drafting one able-bodied emigrant
from every two parishes in England; and for meeting the ex-
pense of sending them over to Ireland, and supporting them for
one year in their new domicile, by a rate to be levied on the
counties from which they had been taken. In 1570, Shane
O'Neil's territory being held to have escheated, a grant was
made to one Thomas Chaterton and his heirs of a portion of
the County of Armagh, and in the same year a grant of the
district of Ardes and Clanaboy, in County Down, was made to
the illegitimate son of Sir Thomas Smith, the queen's secretary
of state, for the founding of an English Protestant colony; but
the attempt of both the one and the other was a miserable fail-
ure, and the too adventurous colonists were all massacred by a
tribe of the O'Neils.
A more determined effort was made in a.d. 1573 by Walter
Devereux, Earl of Essex, to whom Elizabeth made a grant of
half the County of Antrim, and the barony of Farney in Mon-
aghan. She advanced a sum of £10,000 for the fitting-out of
the expedition upon a mortgage of the earl's English estates,
and gave him the title of President of Ulster. The district so
allotted was principally occupied by the immigrant Argyleshire
Scots, who had for many years been a thorn in the side of the
government. These were to be exterminated, and part of the
land leased to the English settlers and part to Irish natives.
92
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
Essex seems to have started with the idea that he was going to
fulfil the functions of a patriarch of old, and, after expelling
the heathen, to govern his people with paternal solicitude.
The sequel was hardly according to his expectations. He was,
of course, perpetually harassed by both the O'Neils and the
Scots, and both, he and his followers retaliated by committing
a series of frightful atrocities. He induced Con O'Donnel to
attend a conference, and then arrested him and sent him pris-
oner to Dublin Castle; he lured Sir Brian O'Neil of Clanaboy
into the castle of Belfast—then, after a merry-making, treacher-
ously seized upon him, his wife, his brother, and his retainers,
and put them all to the sword, "men, women, youths, and
maidens," two hundred in number; he attacked Rathlin Island,
the stronghold, where the Scots had left their wives and their
children, their sick and aged, and, after receiving the surrender
of its scanty garrison, massacred them to a man, and hunted
out and slew every living soul, man, woman, and child, who
had taken refuge in the caves and fastnesses of the island—in
all some 650 persons. Then, ruined in fortune and broken in
health, after two years of fruitless endeavor, he abandoned his
settlement and returned to Dublin to die, leaving his slumber-
ing rights in Monaghan to be asserted by his heirs, when the
English interest should be strong enough to push on to the line
of the Black water.
But the most serious effort made towards a plantation, and
the one attended by the most serious consequences, was the
proposal made to colonize Munster by a number of gentlemen
from the west of England. This was a most systematic scheme,
and of a truly gigantic character. There were some twenty-
seven volunteers—Sir Humfrey Gilbert, Sir Wareham St. Leger,
Sir Peter Carew, Sir Richard Grenville, Courtenay, Chichester,
and others—who offered to relieve the queen of all expense and
trouble in Southern Ireland, in return for permission to confiscate
the counties of Cork, Limerick, and Kerry. The leading spirit
in this enterprise was an adventurer of ancient blood but broken
fortune, Sir Peter Carew, who laid claim to vast estates in Car-
low and Cork, the lands granted to Fitzstephen in the days of
Henry II., which had passed by marriage to Carew's ancestors,
THE PLANTATION SPIRIT ABROAD.
93
but which had been deserted by them two hundred years since,
had been reoccupied by the Cavenaghs and the Earl of Des-
mond, and had passed into the hands of third parties.
The claim of the Carews to Fitzstephen's lands had been in-
quired into and disposed of in the reign of Edward III., when
it had been found that Fitzstephen, having been himself a bas-
tard, and bis daughter, through whom the Carews claimed,
having been illegitimate, had died without heirs. Carew, nev-
ertheless, at once set to work to bring actions of ejectment
against the present owners. His claim was scouted by the
courts of law, but was arbitrarily upheld by the deputy and
the privy council; and so, taking the bull by the horns, he
forcibly expelled many of the occupiers in Carlow, and retook
possession.
There were many other estates which had, in a similar way,
been lost to their Anglo-Norman owners in consequence of
their deserting the country, the claims to which were doubly
statute-barred by the several acts which had been passed de-
priving absentees of their properties; and these stale claims
were bought up as speculations by the enterprising undertakers
above referred to. St. Leger and Grenville took possession of
a number of farms belonging to Desmond and McCarthy More,
but were promptly expelled by the owners. Sir Peter Carew
surrounded himself with a gang of ruffians, established himself
at Leighlin, and seized some lands belonging to Ormonde's
brother, Sir Edward Butler. The Butlers fell upon him, and
tried to drive him out by force, cruelly wreaking their ven-
geance on some miserable Irish who had joined themselves to
him; and Carew retaliated by attacking Sir Edward's house,
and massacring every human being he found there, down to a
child three years old.
The story of Carew's atrocities spread like wildfire. A suspi-
cion of the secret plans for confiscation ran through the south.
A league for self-defence was formed between the Geraldines,
the McCarthys, and Ormonde's brothers, which was counte-
nanced by Thomond, Clanricarde, and Turlough Luinagh.
The Archbishop of Cashel was sent to beg for help from
Philip II. and the Pope, and the standard of revolt was act-
94
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
ually raised by Sir James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, a cousin of
the Earl of Desmond. The earl and his brother, Sir John,
had shortly before been seized by Sir Henry Sidney and for-
warded to London, where they were lodged in the Tower, in
order to compel them to accept an adverse decision on their
quarrel with Ormonde, whose steady loyalty to the Tudor fam-
ily was to be rewarded by a correspondingly steady support.
The government, afraid that even Ormonde might grow disaf-
fected if the confiscation conspiracy were authenticated, hast-
ened to disavow all such intentions, loaded him with favors,
and persuaded him to detach his brothers from the rebel cause.
Sidney then collected a force and marched into Waterford,
Tipperary, and Limerick, burning villages, blowing up castles,
and hanging their garrisons. He overawed Connaught by oc-
cupying Gal way and Roscommon; and he established Hum-
frey Gilbert at Kilmallock to strike terror into the people,
which he effectually did by the indiscriminate slaughter of all
who came in his way, irrespective of age or sex. Ormonde
succeeded in pacifying his brothers, who made their submission
and were forgiven, and James Fitzmaurice retired with his fol-
lowers to lead an outlaw's life in the Kerry mountains.
By fhese brutal measures the incipient insurrection was
crushed out, and Sir John Perrot was appointed President of
Munster, to hunt down the rebels and to catch Fitzmaurice.
For two years did Sir James set him at defiance, taking up his
quarters in the inaccessible vale of Aherlow, under the Galtee
mountains. Perrot blew up his castles, captured his towns, and
hanged his followers, and finally took Castlemaine after a two
months' siege. Then, stinted by Elizabeth both of men and
money, and almost as exhausted as Fitzmaurice, he opened ne-
gotiations with the rebels, and the Geraldine came in, made his
submission, and was pardoned.
THE DESMOND REBELLION.
95
CHAPTER IX.
THE DESMOND REBELLION. A.D. 1573-1583.
The first Desmond rebellion had been strangled in its birth;
but the English government had so exhausted itself in the ef-
fort that the plantation scheme was allowed to slumber for a
more convenient season. The Geraldines, however, felt that
they were marked for destruction, and that their ruin was only
a question of time; and the more determined of them began
to turn their eyes towards the foreign enemies of England, in
the hopes of succor.
Ireland was now growing to be a factor in England's foreign
policy which had to be taken into consideration. It had long
become apparent that it was England's exposed quarter, and
that the perennial disaffection existing in the island might at
any moment be turned to account for her serious injury. Scot-
land, her hereditary enemy, and the close ally of France, was a
standing menace from the north; and the intimate relation
existing between Scotland and Ulster, together with the close
geographical proximity of the Western Isles to the coasts of
Antrim, disclosed a road by which invasion on the northern
border could be made terribly effectual, were Ireland in the
hands of a foreign enemy.
In the reign of Henry VIII., James, the fifteenth Earl of
Desmond, had held a treasonable correspondence both with
Francis I. and Charles V.; Lord Thomas Fitzgerald and Shane
O'Neil had both tried hard to obtain help from over the sea;
and now an active course of intrigue was beiug pursued by Sir
James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald with Philip of Spain and the
Pope.
The rebellious gentlemen who had embarked in these crooked
ways had always endeavored to give a religious coloring to
their actions; they had professed to be champions of the old
96 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
faith against an heretical tyrant. But though this may have
persuaded the Pope and others that the Irish nation was writh-
ing under persecution on account of its belief, it had no great
bearing on any of these risings as far as the people were con-
cerned, who had not as yet had any practical experience of
Protestant intolerance, the Act of Uniformity having hitherto
of necessity remained to a great extent a dead letter.
The English government, however, was gradually growing
to associate popery with rebellion. It saw Spanish gold
and Spanish soldiers asked for in the name of popery; it
saw the men who rejected its authority allying themselves
with Roman Catholic princes who were at enmity with Eng-
land; it found that those ecclesiastics who refused to con-
form took refuge at Rome, while Roman nuncios slid into the
country, and Roman bishops were appointed by the Pope.
More than all, the papal bull of excommunication launched
against the queen, which professed to absolve her subjects from
their allegiance, drove the government into taking active re-
pressive measures against the Roman Catholics, and forced the
Roman Catholics themselves into the false position of being-
traitors either to their sovereign or to their spiritual head. In
this way the Oath of Supremacy became a test of loyalty; and
the nationalist and anti-English feeling was identified with an
adherence to the Roman communion.
This growing tendency was seized on by the Geraldines, who
eagerly sought to connect Protestantism with the policy of
confiscation; to teach the doctrine that national safety was
only to be secured by the upholding of the ancient faith; and
that the English invaders could be best confounded by an alli-
ance with such good friends as the Spaniards.
The government had released Sir John of Desmond; and
his brother the earl, who was detained in Dublin Castle, had
effected his escape and reached his own territory, where he was
received with the utmost enthusiasm by all the Southern Irish.
Fitzwilliam, the lord deputy, had thought it most prudent to
leave him in peace; but had sent Sir William Drury, Perrot's
successor, to hold his courts in Desmond and supersede the
eaiTs palatinate jurisdiction.
THE DESMOND REBELLION.
97
In the meantime, Sir James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, after a
fruitless application to the court of France, repaired to Spain
to form designs for the invasion of Ireland. Philip, though
smarting at the countenance given by Elizabeth to the revolted
Dutch provinces, was not at that moment prepared absolutely
to break with England, and politely referred him to the Pope.
Gregory XIII. entered warmly into the scheme, and scraped
together a few ships and some eight hundred ragamuffins.
These he placed under the command of a rascally English ad-
venturer named Stukely, who had for several years lived upon
his wits and the credulity of the King of Spain. Stukely was
to land on the Munster coast; and Fitzmaurice was to join him
with Dr. Nicholas Sanders, an exiled English priest whom the
Pope had constituted his legate; and an Irish priest named
Allen, who was to bring a consecrated banner, and a sheaf of indul-
gences granting the same privileges to all who fought against
the English as to those who fought against the Turks. Stukely,
however, carried the whole expedition off on a buccaneering
expedition against the King of Morocco, and was never heard
of again; while Fitzmaurice and his two clerical conspirators,
with a few friars and a handful of Spaniards, landed at St. Mary
Wick, or Smerwick, and threw up a small fortification.
The moment was well chosen. The whole country was ripe
for rebellion. The north was ready to rise at the first success
gained by the men of Munster; Connaught, which had been
dragooned by Fitton's successor, Sir Nicholas Malby, and where
a rising of the Bourkes had only just been crushed with the
most sickening brutality, was barely held down by the garrison
at Athlone. The native Irish had learned neither to trust the
English word, nor to look for mercy, by the example set by
Francis Cosbie and the planters in King's and Queen's counties,
who had recently exterminated the remnants of the O'Moores
and O'Kellys by a ruthless massacre in the rath at Mullagh-
mast. Rory O'Moore, the famous outlaw, was the terror of the
County of Kildare. The towns of Munster were smarting
under the infliction of Sir William Drury's bloody assize.
Even the English Pale was disaffected, by reason of Sidney's
recent endeavor to levy an illegal cess, and the queen's arbi-
5
98
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
trary imprisonment of those who had ventured to petition
against it.
On the arrival of Fitzmaurice, Sir John of Desmond and his
brother Sir James promptly joined the insurgents at Smerwick,
the former committing himself beyond recall to the rebel side
by the murder of two English officers and their servants at
Tralee. The earl himself vacillated. He was not the man to
lead a successful rising, and, though his sympathies were all
with the insurgents, he could not make up his mind to throw
in his lot with them openly. But the Desmond tribesmen flew
to arms all over Limerick and Kerry; and three thousand ten-
ants of the Geraldines rose in open rebellion.
At that time the whole of the southern portion of the County
of Limerick was one vast forest, called the Great Wood of Kil-
raore, which afforded splendid cover for the insurgents. Here
the raw native levies were quickly knocked into shape by the
drilling of the Spanish soldiers from Smerwick, the cattle were
driven for shelter, and supplies of all kinds collected. Fitz-
maurice, with a small troop of horse, started off to cross the
Shannon and to raise Connaught; but he was overtaken at the
river Muckern, near Harrington's Bridge, by his cousin Sir Will-
iam Burke of Clanwilliam and Mclbrien of Ara, who had re-
mained loyal to the English, and there lost his life in a scuffle.
The death of Fitzmaurice was a great blow to the rebellion.
The command devolved on Sir John of Desmond; and Sir
William Drury took the field against him with a small force.
For several weeks Drury carried on an unsuccessful campaign,
and was finally forced to retire into Kilmallock. Broken in
health, he gave up the command, and was succeeded by Malby,
who, having been recruited with six hundred men from Eng-
land, came upon the Geraldine brothers at Monaster, and, after
a stubborn fight, put them to the rout; Sir John barely escap-
ing with his life, and Dr. Allen, the Jesuit, being left dead on
the field.
The vacillating Desmond was now declared a traitor by the
government unless he came in within twenty days: and at
length, convinced that there was no mercy for him, he openly
joined the insurgents. Malby, crippled for want of men,
THE DESMOND REBELLION.
99
thought it prudent to retire to his command at Athlone; and
Munster was left at Desmond's mercy. He overran the whole
country, captured and sacked Youghall, and threatened the city
of Cork. Fresh supplies were coming from abroad, and some
Spanish adventurers were mastering at Corunna.
Elizabeth sent over Ormonde to take the field against his
hereditary enemy, and to co-operate with the new lord deputy,
Sir "William Pelham; and a systematic effort was made to
crush the rebellion. Pelham and Ormonde advanced in two
columns, the one from Dublin, the other from Kilkenny; while
the fleet, under Sir William Winter, sailed round to support
them on the coast of Kerry. The path of the two forces was
marked by pitiless destruction of life and property: crops and
cabins were burned, and every living being, the sick, the aged,
the women, the infants, were all ruthlessly slaughtered. A
junction was effected at Tralee, and they turned northward to
destroy Desmond's castles in Limerick. Carrigafoyle, which
was held by the Spanish and Italian band, was breached with
cannon from the fleet, and the whole garrison put to the sword;
castle after castle was captured, and Desmond and his countess,
with Dr. Sanders, were hunted out of Castle-island. The two
Euglish commanders then continued their raid to the extremi-
ties of Kerry, plundering, burning, and murdering as far as
Dingle and Valentia; they then brought their forces back to
Askeaton and Cork. Kesistance there had been none. Their
small but disciplined forces, well armed with firelocks, had
marched from one end of Munster to the other. The rebels,
half-naked and armed with spears and knives, had been unable
to meet them in the field; and when resistance had been at-
tempted, it was behind stone walls. The ferocity of the Eng-
lish commanders had cowed the people into sullen quiet; and
Desmond, his brothers, and the legate were reduced to the state
of hunted fugitives, and had taken refuge in the mountains.
Ormonde, in a state paper enumerating his services, is said to
have put to death " 88 captains and leaders, with 1547 notori-
ous traitors and malefactors, and above 4000 others." Pelham
would only accord a pardon at the price of the betrayal of
other rebels.
100
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
The reduction of Minister was only just accomplished in time.
A month later and the long-looked-for Spanish contingent ar-
rived: four Spanish vessels eluded the vigilance of the English
fleet, and landed eight hundred Italians and Spaniards in the
fatal bay of Smerwick, who occupied the dismantled fort; at
the same time, the smouldering disloyalty of the Pale broke out
into open rebellion. The Desmond faction plucked up a little
heart, and England again had her hands full. The lords of the
Pale, who had resisted Sidney's illegal cess, had sullenly watch-
ed the progress of the rising of the southern Fitzgeralds; they
waited for a sign from the head of the other great Fitzgerald
family, but, like his cousin of Desmond, Kildare vacillated, and
let the golden moment pass. Now that it was too late, an
isolated attempt was made; but, hesitating as it was, it was a
serious trouble to the English government. James Eustace,
Lord Baltinglass, had been one of the petitioners in the matter
of the cess, and had suffered imprisonment for his presumption.
He was an ardent Eoman Catholic, and had been much moved
by Dr. Sanders's circular letters; he was intimately connected by
marriage with the O'Byrnes of the AVicklow highlands, and he
and they, with many refugees from Queen's County, hoping to
form the nucleus of a more general rising, broke out into open
revolt, and were joined by Sir John of Desmond and a band of
Munster men from the fastness of Aherlow.
Lord Gray de Wilton had just arrived in Dublin as deputy,
and hastily marched out to suppress the rising. The rebels
were swarming in the valley of Glcnmalure, and Gray recklessly
sent his men into the narrow gorge, believing he was strong
enough to hunt them out. When the troops were well in the
difficult ground, a well-directed fire was poured in upon them
from the safe cover of rocks and brushwood; flight was impos-
sible, and they were all shot down, the ferocious Sir Peter Carew
and Colonel Cosbie of Mullaghmast infamy being among the
slain. Lord Gray made no attempt to revenge his defeat; he
left the Pale at the mercy of the insurgents, who harried the
country to the walls of Dublin, and, accompanied by Ormonde
and a band of English adventurers, among whom were Sir Wal-
ter Raleigh and Edmund Spenser, proceeded by forced marches
THE DESMOND REBELLION.
101
to Sinerwick; the fleet came round to support him by sea, and
a siege was commenced. After three days the garrison offered
to capitulate on terms, but an unconditional surrender was de-
manded. Next morning the eight hundred Spaniards and
Italians came out with trailing colors and laid down their
arms; one and all were either shot or hanged by Captain Ea-
leigh and his men, except the officers, who were reserved for a
ransom.
Munster had been so effectually dragooned by Pelham and
Ormonde in the early summer that not a man had stirred, and
Gray swiftly returned to Dublin. There he arrested Kildare
and Lord Delvin on suspicion, and flung them into prison; he
turned savagely on the Wicklow insurgents, and, taught by his
experience at Glenmalure, organized a number of small bands
to hunt them from the mountains. Two of the Eustaces and
Gerald O'Toole he caught and beheaded; but Baltinglass escaped
to the Continent. A reign of terror then began at Dublin.
A conspiracy to seize the castle and liberate the imprisoned
peers was discovered, and martial law was proclaimed: the
smaller men were hanged in batches, and nineteen of the best
blood of the Pale were brought to trial for treason. Short
work was made by pliant juries, and the whole of them were
convicted and hanged; while Kildare was removed to England,
and subsequently died in the Tower.
Nothing was now left to be done but to hunt down The
Desmond, and those of his adherents who still clung to him.
Ormonde was placed in supreme command in Munster; Captain
Kaleigh was in command at Cork; Captain Loach at Kilmal-
lock; and Captain Achin at Adare. The sword and the gallows
were the instruments for pacifying the country. Achin seized
the castle of David Purcell, at Kildimo, and slew 150 women
and children; Ormonde caught and hanged Lady Fitzgerald of
Imokelly, and reports in his despatches the execution of 134 per-
sons, and that the pardoned chiefs were bringing in the heads
of other rebels by the sackful. So merrily went the reign of
blood. Desmond, on the other hand, inflicted much damage
on Ormonde's own country by occasional predatory raids; but
his men were growing fewer and fewer in number. The peo-
102 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
pie would not betray him; but they dared not assist him.
His two brothers, John and James, had both been captured and
put to death; and Dr. Sanders had died of exposure in the
winter. Hunted from valley to valley, with a price upon his
head, he was at length driven into the Slievemish mountains,
beyond Tralee, where a party of English soldiers surprised him
in the early morning in a cabin in which he was harboring,
and slew him and cut oif his head.
THE PLANTATION OF MUNSTER.
103
CHAPTER X.
THE PLANTATION OF MUNSTER. A.D. 1586.
The last remnant of the Desmond rebellion had now flickered
out. It had been crushed down by a system of ferocity as ap-
palling as that with which Alva had been scourging* Philip of
Spain's subjects in the Netherlands. The results were apparent
in the conversion of a fertile province into a desolate waste.
"Whoever did travel," says Holinshed, "from one end of Mun-
ster to the other would not meet any man, woman, or child,
saving in towns or cities; and would not see any beast." The
harvests had been burned year after year, and famine cleared the
land of those who escaped the sword. Here is the testimony
of Edmund Spenser the poet, who shared in the campaign and
participated in the spoil: "For notwithstanding that Minister
was a most rich and plentiful country, full of corn and cattle,
yet after one year and one half, they were brought to such
wretchedness as that any stony heart would rue the same; out
of every corner of the woods and glens they came, creeping
forth upon their hands, for their legs could not bear them.
They looked like anatomies of death; they spoke like ghosts
crying out of the graves. They did eat the dead carrions,
where they did find them, yea, and one another soon after, in as
much as the very carcases they spared not to scrape out of their
graves; and if they found a plot of watercresses or shamrocks,
there they thronged as to a feast for the time, yet not able to
continue there with-all; that in short space there were none
almost left; and a most populous and plentiful country left
void of man and beast." And the evidence of Sir William
Pel ham himself as to the mode of conducting the war: "Touch-
ing my manner of proceeding, it is thus: I give the rebels no
breath to relieve themselves; but by one of your * garrisons or
the other they be continually hunted. I keep them from their
* He was writing to the queen.
104 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
harvest, and have taken great preys of cattle from them, by
which it seemeth the poor people that lived only upon labor,
and fed by .their milch cows, are so distressed as they follow
their goods and offer themselves with their wives and children,
rather to be slain by the army than to suffer the famine that
now beginneth to pinch them."
This clearance was the necessary preliminary to the new plan-
tation. By Desmond's treason his vast estates, which included
those of some hundred and forty of his adherents who had
taken up arms in his cause, were forfeited to the crown, to the
extent of 574,628 Irish acres of good and profitable land, be-
sides seigniorial rights over the four counties of Cork, Kerry,
Limerick, and Waterford. The escheated lands of the Eustaces
in Kildare and Dublin numbered 7800 acres. Sir John Perrot,
who had had some experience in Munster, succeeded Lord Gray
as deputy; and to him the government intrusted the conduct
of the colonization scheme.
His first step was to summon a Parliament for the passing
of acts of attainder against Desmond and Baltinglass and other
rebels. This was the first Parliament which had met since
Sidney's mutilated but unmanageable assembly in 1569. It
was attended by a strong muster of peers of both races, twenty
bishops and four archbishops, and representatives from all the
then existing shires and some thirty boroughs. Many of the
counties sent up Irish chiefs as knights of the shire, who were
persuaded to adopt the English dress for the occasion. Two acts
of attainder were passed,* specifically mentioning 140 knights
and gentlemen of both English and Irish blood, under which
the whole of their real and personal estate vested in the crown.
The plan for the colonization of the confiscated land was to
divide it up into large tracts or seigniories of from 4000 to
12,000 acres, to be held in fee of the crown at a quit-rent of
threepence per acre in Limerick and Kerry, and twopence per
acre in Cork and Waterford. No rent was to be payable till
a.d. 1590, and for three years after that only half-rent; for ten
years the "undertakers" were to export their produce duty-
free. Younger sons and brothers were invited to come over
* 28 Eliz. cc. 7. 0.
THE PLANTATION OF MUNSTER.
105
from England to take up the land; and large tracts were given
to those who had been engaged in the war. The conditions of
the grants were: that no native Irish should be taken as ten-
ants; that the owner of every three hundred acres should pro-
vide one horseman and one infantry soldier; that farmers, hop-
planters, gardeners, wheelwrights, smiths, masons, carpenters,
thatchers, tilers, tailors, shoemakers, and butchers should be
procured from England by the undertakers, and settled on the
land; that each grantee of 12,000 acres should plant on por-
tions of his estate eighty-six difEerent families, of which twenty
were to be freeholders, forty copyholders, and the rest small
tenants of the laboring class, and should retain 1600 acres for
his own demesne lands. Every precaution was taken to keep
the colonists from amalgamating with the remnant of the na-
tive population, who were to be cleared out of the plains into
the upland country. The colony was to be planted on the
profitable land only.
The scheme being fairly launched, the distribution followed.
About half the escheated land was restored to some of the old
owners who had sufficient interest to secure pardons, as in the
case of the White Knight, Patrick Condon, and some of the
Geraldines. Of the other half, grants were made to about
forty Englishmen, some receiving more than one seigniory, like
Sir Walter Raleigh, who obtained 42,000 acres in Cork and
Waterford. The rent of the whole reserved to the crown
amounted to about £23,000 a year. Those who received some
of the largest grants were Arthur Robins, who obtained 18,000
acres in County Cork; Sir William Herbert and Sir George
Bouchier, who received 13,000 acres in Kerry and Limerick;
Fane Beecher, Hugh Worth, Arthur Hyde, and Henry Billings-
ley, who each received 12,000 acres in Cork and Limerick;
Sir William Courtenay, Sir Edward Fitton, and Sir Christopher
Hatton, who obtained 10,500 acres in Limerick and Waterford.
Among others, Ormonde got 3000 acres in Tipperary, and Sir
Wareham St. Leger and Edmund Spenser 6000 acres and 3000
acres respectively in County Cork.*
* For a list of the undertakers of Munster, see Appendix II.
5*
106
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
The land accordingly passed into the hands of new landlords;
but the scheme of colonization was a failure. The farmers, the
artisans, and the laborers did not come over in sufficient num-
bers; many of those who came returned to England on finding
themselves harassed and spoiled by the dispossessed native
Irish, who formed secret societies for the destruction of the
settlers, and were known by the name of "Robin Hoods." The
new demesne lords, in violation of their covenants, were fain to
take on the natives as tenants at will, in order that the lands
might be cultivated; the result was a change of ownership of
the freehold, but not a change of the population. The Irish
gentry had been rooted out, but what was left of the Irish
peasantry remained on the soil. The intruded English were a
mere handful of strangers among a hostile people, and the na-
tive Irish were exasperated without being exterminated. The
only result of the ten years' desolation was the enriching of a
few adventurers and a knot of Elizabeth's courtiers.
SOWING THE WIND.
107
CHAPTER XL
SOWING THE WIND. A.D. 1584-1595.
After the suppression of the rebellion in Munster there was
an interval of comparative peace in Ireland, which might have
been prolonged until the tendency towards improvement which
was growing in the country had borne satisfactory fruit, had
not the blind folly of the English government precipitated a
fresh quarrel.
The south had been "pacified" by fire and sword; so had
Connaught, by the merciless sternness of the president, Sir
Bichard Bingham. There had been no concerted rising in
Connaught; the great Earls of Thomond and Clanricarde had
been steadily loyal to the crown; but there had been much
smouldering disaffection among the cadets of the house of
Bourke, which from time to time burst out into open insurrec-
tion, and which had equally from time to time been suppressed
by massacre.
The lord deputy, Sir John Perrot, had succeeded in inducing
the land-owners of Connaught to agree to pay the crown a fixed
land-tax, in lieu of the irregular cess which was exacted for the
support of the army; sheriffs were appointed to each county;
and the west, like the south, was beginning to settle down.
In Ulster the chiefs were loyal, and both trusted and re-
spected Perrot, who, though sternly severe with those whom
he considered traitors, was animated by a strong spirit of
justice. He even persuaded them, as he had persuaded the
lords of Connaught, to agree to the payment of an annual tax
for the support of 1100 men in Ulster; and he projected the
division of the northern province into the counties of Armagh,
Monaghan, Tyrone, Coleraine (Derry), Donegal, Cavan, and
Fermanagh, in addition to the old ones of Antrim and Down.
But this division existed on paper only for the present; the
108
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
chiefs having the greatest dread and jealousy of the intrusion
of the English sheriff, which was the first consequence of a
country being made into " shire-land."
Sir John Perrot had many enemies. He was a man of hasty
temper, who quarrelled with his subordinates. He had sent a
challenge to Bingham, who detested him for endeavoring to
curb his severities in Connaught; he had knocked down Sir
Henry Bagnal at the council board, who differed in opinion
with him upon matters of state; he made an enemy of Adam
Loftus, the archbishop, by proposing to endow a university in
Dublin out of the revenues of the Cathedral of St. Patrick,
which had fallen to Loftus and his kinsmen as their share in
the spoil of the monasteries. These and others wrere ever ready
to whisper slanders of the lord deputy to the queen. It was
always the fate of Irish deputies to have the ground cut from
under them by the intrigues of the Irish council; but Elizabeth
knew this, and paid no attention to the libels on Perrot, until
it was told to her that he had refused to punish O'Rourke of
Brefny, who, it was said, had dragged an effigy of her majesty
at the tail of a horse. This absurd suggestion of indifference
to her personal dignity roused her suspicious nature; and
Perrot was recalled to eat his heart out and die in the Tower.
Perrot was succeeded by Sir William Fitzwilliam, who had
filled the same position sixteen years previously, during an in-
terval in Sidney's viceroyalty. Perrot7 s policy of conciliation
was thrown to the winds, and every opportunity was recklessly
taken by the incompetent new viceroy to exasperate the na-
tives. Fitzwilliam was hasty and injudicious; he was also a
victim to the vice of avarice, and the first thing he did was to
start on a wild-goose chase in search of gold, which report said
had been secreted by the survivors of the Spanish Armada,
many ships from which had been cast away on the north and
west and southern coasts of the island. As the gold was not
forthcoming, he seized the persons of Sir Owen McToole and
Sir John O'Dogherty, two of the most loyal subjects in Ulster,
upon the pretence that they had concealed the much-coveted
treasure, and, having incarcerated them in Dublin Castle, de-
manded a large sum for their enlargement.
SOWING THE WIND.
109
This arbitrary proceeding created great irritation and appre-
hension among the native chiefs; but a still more gross piece
of iniquity was to follow. Rossa McMahon, chieftain of
Monaghan, had surrendered his territory to the crown and re-
ceived a re-grant of it to himself and the heirs male of his
body, and in default of such heirs to his brother Hugh. Rossa
died without issue, and Hugh claimed the inheritance. Fitz-
william demanded a large bribe of six hundred cows before
seizin should be given him. Hugh came to Dublin, and com-
plied with the deputy's requirements, and the latter set out
with him to Monaghan to formally put him in possession.
Fitzwilliam then trumped up against him a tale that he had
two years previously recovered by force of arms some rent
which was due to him in the barony of Farney, which consti-
tuted the offence of treason in "shire-land" according to Eng-
lish law, but was not an offence in Monaghan, which was not
in the English jurisdiction. Hugh was promptly tried by
court-martial and executed. The Church lands in his territory
were given to Sir Henry Bagnal, Captain Willis, Captain Hens-
lowe, and certain Dublin lawyers, the crown reserving thereout
a quit-rent of £70. The residue, except the large tract already
granted to the Essexes, was given to seven of the McMahon
family, who were made to pay a round sum to the deputy, and
an annual quit-rent of £259 to the queen.
There was yet another outrage, which had happened at a
rather earlier date, for which Sir John Perrot was responsible,
and which had a still greater influence on the temper of the na-
tive population. Sir Hugh O'Donnel, the Lord of Tyrcon-
nel, had refused to receive a sheriff into his country, and, in
order to get hostages for his good behavior, the lord deputy
conceived and executed the following treacherous trick. He
sent a vessel with a cargo of Spanish wine and a crew of
fifty armed men round by sea to Lough Swilly. On its arrival
Hugh Roe, or Red Hugh, O'Donnel's son, was induced to come
on board to partake of the captain's hospitality; and when he
was half drunk his arms were removed, and he was clapped un-
der hatches. The cable was cut, the vessel put to sea, and
young Red Hugh was lodged in Dublin Castle.
110
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
There were many more complaints from Ulster of the tyran-
ny and injustice of the agents of the government. Fermanagh
was raided on the one side by the Binghams, and on the other
by Henslowe, the new seneschal of Monaghan, who drove Mc-
Guire's cattle, killed the women and children, and exacted ille-
gal ransoms. Edmund McGuire's head was cut off and inso-
lently kicked about as a football by the soldiers. Sheriffs were
forced on the chieftains, contrary to agreement, and in spite of
bribes paid for exemption. No notice of the chieftains' remon-
strances was taken by the government, and the complaints
were carefully not reported to the queen.
For six years was Fitzwilliam in office, and on his superses-
sion by Sir William Russell, in a.d. 1594, the new lord deputy
found Ireland again in a state of ferment. All the northern
tribes were discontented. O'Rourke and McGuire were in open
rebellion. Red Hugh had broken out of Dublin Castle—not
without the connivance, as some say, of the venal lord deputy
—and, after many hair-breadth escapes, had reached Donegal in
safety, where his old father resigned the chieftainship in his
favor, and he was enthusiastically elected Lord of Tyrconnel.
Connaught was growing exasperated by the intolerable oppres-
sions of Sir Richard Bingham. Even the Earl of Tyrone, who
had hitherto been regarded as most loyal to the crown, was
suspected of wavering in his allegiance.
Hugh O'Neil, the son of Mathew, the first Baron of Dun-
gannon, was one of the most prominent of the Ulster nobility.
He was a man of great ability and tenacity of purpose. He
had been educated at the English court, and was cultivated in
all the accomplishments of the best society of the day. He
had had a commission in the English army, and had fought at
Smerwick under Gray against the Spaniards. From his knowl-
edge and experience in England he had been able to gauge the
resources of the government, and had accordingly adhered to
the policy of his father and grandfather, that of loyal obedience
to the crown. He was in high favor with both the queen and
the deputy; and had been confirmed not only in his hereditary
title of Earl of Tyrone, but in the possession of the Tyrone
territory, which had been surrendered by and regranted to his
SOWING THE WIND.
Ill
grandfather. A compromise had been effected with Turlough
Luinagh, "The O'Neil," who was now growing an old man,
and who was to be allowed to retain the more northern portion of
the disputed territory, and his overlordship over the two chiefs
who still owned allegiance to him as titular Prince of Ulster.
Tyrone had married a daughter of Sir Hugh O'Donnel, and
the treacherous capture of his brother-in-law, Eed Hugh, was
felt by him to be a serious grievance. His sympathies were
also roused by the wrongs which his brother chieftains in
Ulster were compelled to endure; but he knew the strength of
England if she chose to put it forth. He knew that without
help from Spain a rising would be madness; and he also knew
that Spain was a broken reed to lean upon. Whether, then,
from prudence only, or whether from a sincere desire to be at
peace with the government, he threw his influence upon the
side of order. He assisted the deputy to put down the rising
in Fermanagh; and strove to hold down Red Hugh, who was
burning with an implacable but natural hatred against the
authors of his capture and his two years' imprisonment. An-
other circumstance which at this time influenced Tyrone was
that his wife had died, and he had formed a romantic attach-
ment to the beautiful sister of Sir Henry Bagnal, the lord mar-
shal. Bagnal forbade the match, and Tyrone eloped with the
lady and married her iu Dublin. His interests were in this
way still further bound up with the maintenance of order; and
he consented to Tyrone and Armagh being made shire-land, to
receive a sheriff, and to build a county jail.
But, on the other hand, Tyrone's marriage had converted Sir
Henry Bagnal into an implacable enemy. The lord marshal
was determined to ruin the earl, if possible; he never ceased
trumping up accusations of treason to the council and the
queen, and basely intercepted the answers which Tyrone made
to the charges brought against him. Sir William Russell had,
at Bagnal's instigation, proposed to arrest him while he was on
a visit to Dublin under a safe-conduct, but the rest of the coun-
cil overruled him. Elizabeth's suspicions in time became
aroused, and, though she was heartily sick of Irish wars, she
thought it prudent to reinforce the army in Ireland, which had
112
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
been weakened by drafts for the Low Countries, with a force
of three thousand men, under Sir John Norris, the brother
of Sir Thomas, the President of Minister.
Tyrone was now beginning to see that there were two diver-
gent courses open to him: he must either abide by the govern-
ment which distrusted him, and was swayed by Bagnal, who
had vowed his destruction; or he must throw in his lot with
the northern chieftains, who would welcome him as a mighty
acquisition to their cause. He was rapidly drifting in the lat-
ter direction. He knew that if he was to hope for success
there must be union among the Irish, and that a determined
effort must be made to obtain the bona fide assistance of Spain.
O'Donnel, since his escape, had been at open war with the gov-
ernment, and had repeatedly endeavored to induce his brother-
in-law to join him. His counsels at length prevailed; and these
two now set themselves to work to form an extensive confeder-
ation against England.
Once chosen, Tyrone pursued his course with set purpose.
An agreement of the two great northern clans of O'Donnel
and O'JSeil was in itself a formidable coalition. It became far
more serious when, with calculating deliberation, the other
leading chiefs of the north, whose independence it had been
the policy of the government to foster, gave in their adherence
to the scheme. McGuire of Fermanagh, McMahon of Mona-
ghan, O'Rourke of Brefny, McGuiness of Down, and the Scots
of Clanaboy, all joined the league. They enlisted Theobald
and Ulick Bourke, O'Dowd and O'Connor of Sligo, with the
O'Kellys and McDermots in Connaught, and some degenerate
English in Meath, led by one Captain Tyrrel and some of the
Nngents. They were joined by O'Byrne of Glenmalure, and
two bastard Geraldines of the Kildare house in Leinster, with
some of the O'Tooles and Kavenaghs, and fragments of the
decimated tribjes of Leix and Offaly. A solemn engagement
was entered into between all the confederates to stand by each
other, and to make no submission and accept no terms which
did not include them all. An appeal was distinctly made to
Roman Catholics as Roman Catholics to treat the question as a
religious one, and to join the movement in the defence of their
SOWING THE WIND.
113
faith. Tyrone and O'Donnel wrote joint letters to Philip, to
Don Carlos, and to Don Juan del Aguila, pressing them to send
them troops "to restore the faith of the Church, and to secure
to the king a Catholic kingdom." The old chief Turlough
Luinagh most opportunely died, and Tyrone promptly adopted
the title of "The O'NeiL"
114
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER XII.
THE WAR WITH TYRONE. A.D. 1595-1603.
The league of the north was not a cut-and-dried plot, but a
thing of gradual growth. First the Ulster chiefs had com-
bined; then Connaught was raised; then the discontented in
the Pale and Lcinster were infected; and, finally, the restless
spirits of Munster who survived the Desmond insurrection
were induced by Tyrone, after his first success, to try one more
throw for the independence of their country.
The boundary of Tyrone was the river Blackwater; and the
rebel earl commenced hostilities by seizing the English fort
which commanded the passage of the river; while O'Donnel
proceeded to overrun Connaught. The government sent Norris
to Newry to face Tyrone; Bingham was compelled to act on
the defensive in the west; and a successful raid by the lord
deputy into Leinster resulted in the capture and death of
O'Byrne.
After a good deal of desultory fighting on the frontier in
Monaghan and Armagh, in which the English had by no means
the best of it, efforts were made at negotiation; and Elizabeth,
despairing of an end of Irish troubles, was willing to patch up
a peace on almost any decent terms. Tyrone, who was anxious-
ly looking for help from Spain, did his best to spin out the
correspondence. The demands of the confederates were the
withdrawal of all garrisons from territory under Irish jurisdic-
tion, and liberty of conscience. These terms the government
could not agree to; and on the arrival of three Spanish frigates,
with arms and ammunition, in Donegal Bay, hostilities w7ere
recommenced. Sir William Eussell had been succeeded by
Lord Burgh; and the latter, after successfully recovering the
fort on the Blackwater, was so severely pressed by the Irish
that he was compelled to retire to Newr}r, where he died of his
THE WAR WITH TYRONE.
115
wounds. Archbishop Loftus, and Gardner, the lord chancellor,
were then appointed lords justices by the council; Ormonde
was despatched to overawe Leinster; and Sir Henry Bagnai
was appointed to command the army of the north.
In August, 1598, Bagnai started from Newry with four thou-
sand men, with the intention of relieving the garrison which
Lord Burgh had thrown into the Blackwater fort, and which
Tyrone was besieging. After leaving Armagh, Bagnai found
the Irish army strongly posted on the river Callan. He at-
tacked, and an obstinate battle was fought, which ended in the
complete overthrow of the English, Sir Henry Bagnai himself
being among the slain. Nearly half the English force was an-
nihilated; their guns, colors, and baggage fell into the hands
of the enemy; and a disorderly crowd of fugitives took refuge
in Dundalk.
This signal defeat came like a thunderbolt upon the Eng-
lish government. The Blackwater fort at once surrendered;
so did the garrisons of Monaghan and Armagh. All Ulster,
save Carrickfergus, was in the hands of the insurgents, and
nothing lay between them and the walls of Dublin except the
forts of Dundalk and Drogheda. In Connaught the revolt
was general; the whole of Leinster was in rebellion; and Or-
monde himself was cooped up in Kilkenny. Tyrrel, who in
"Tyrrel's Pass" had just cut off a thousand men despatched
under Lord Trimleston to reinforce the army of the north, was
master of Meath. He and Sir Piers Lacy and O'Moore of Leix
had ravaged Ormonde's palatinate of Tipperary, and, having oc-
cupied Kilmallock, had forced Sir Thomas Norris, the President
of Munster, to take refuge in the city of Cork. The planters
of Munster were driven out of their farms. The castles of
Desmond were reoccnpied by Fitzmaurice of Lixnaw. The
White Knight and the Knight of Glyn, with other survivors of
the Geraldines, the Bodies, the O'Donoghues, the McCarthys,
joined the insurgents. A nephew of the late Earl Gerald, the
Sugan Earl, or Earl of Straw, as he was called, assumed the
title of "The Desmond," and agreed to hold his recovered
country of "The O'Neil." All Ireland was in the hands of the
rebels (with the exception of Dublin and a few garrison towns),
110 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
who rioted in all the enormities of revenge, lust, and rapine, in
every quarter of the kingdom.
This third native war was the most terrible crisis in Ireland
that Elizabeth had had to meet. Not only was there, almost
for the first time in Irish history, a united effort being made
on the part of the native population to expel the English, and
to re-establish the ancient laws and the ancient faith, but the
relative strength of the two parties was comparatively altered.
The English forces were depleted by desertion; their officers
drew pay for the nominal strength, and pocketed the overplus.
The troops themselves, ill paid and ill fed, were utterly demor-
alized and undisciplined. They were raw levies; many of
them were boys of inferior physique to the Irish kerns. They
were a greater source of fear to the peaceable inhabitants than
to the enemy; and had long been the scourge of the country-
people, on whom they billeted themselves indiscriminately. The
Irish, on the contrary, could now put a formidable army in the
field. They had taken a lesson from their masters; instead of
being, as formerly, a horde of half-armed savages, they were
drilled and disciplined. They were commanded by men who
had served with the queen's colors; and Elizabeth herself com-
plains that one third of her forces had been recruited from
natives who had served in the ranks and then deserted to the
enemy with their arms. Nor were they less completely sup-
plied with arms and ammunition. A large quantity was im-
ported from Spain, and the English trader was then, as in more
modern times, not so scrupulous as to how he turned a dis-
honest penny. The ill-paid English soldiers sold their weapons
and their powder cheap to the Dublin dealers, who retailed
both the one and the other at exorbitant prices to the Irish
enemy.
The old queen, on finding herself face to face with this new
danger, betook herself sternly to the crushing of it. In the
spring of 1599, she sent over 20,000 infantry and 1300 horse,
the largest army she had ever despatched to Ireland, and put it
under the command of her favorite, Lord Essex, who had re-
cently won golden opinions by his daring surprise of Cadiz,
where he burned the town and sixty Spanish galleons in the
THE WAR WITH TYRONE.
117
harbor. The necessity for prompt measures was urgent, for it
was estimated that in Meath and the four provinces the Irish
had over 18,000 men under arms.
The plan of the campaign, which had been settled at the
council-board in England, was to send round the fleet to Bally-
shannon and Lough Foyle, and so occupy strong positions in
the rear of the enemy; while Essex, with the bulk of his army,
was to invade Tyrone from the bases of Newry and Dundalk.
On arriving at Dublin, Essex seems to have been persuaded by
the Irish council, many of whom had a considerable stake in
the new plantations in Munster, to defer the campaign in the
north and to strike at the rebellion in the south. Accordingly,
after reinforcing the four Ulster garrisons, and Naas and Wick-
low, he proceeded with 7000 men, accompanied by Ormonde,
along the old highway through Kilkenny and Tipperary, and
captured the castle of Cahir. From here he advanced to Lim-
erick, where he was joined by Sir Conyers Clifford, the Presi-
dent of Connaught, and the Earls of Thomond and Clanri-
carde, who of all the Irish alone remained faithful to the
crown. He succeeded in relieving Askeaton, and turned home-
ward by way of Fermoy, Lismore, and Kildare. The Irish were
far too cautious to be drawn into an encounter in the field; but
during the whole of his expedition harassed him by repeated
attacks more or less serious, in which he lost not only rank and
file, but many veteran officers. In the meantime, Sir Conyers
Clifford had left him and returned to Connaught; and, in an
attempt to relieve Colooney Castle, was cut off with half his
men by O'Donnel in the Curlew mountains.
Elizabeth, who had made great sacrifices to pour what she
had believed to be an overwhelming force into Ireland, was
furious at the smallness of the results. She taunted Essex with
incapacity, and upbraided him for not attacking the heart of
the rebellion in Ulster. But, angry as she was, when he ad-
mitted that, what with garrisoning the fortresses and his losses
from disease and in the field, his effective forces were re-
duced to some 8000 men, she sent him a reinforcement of
2000 more.
In August, Essex marched from Newry in the direction of
11S HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
Carrickfergus. Tyrone, anxious to gain time, asked for a par-
ley. A conference was held at a ford in the Lagan between
the two earls. What passed at the interview will never be
known; but Essex agreed to an armistice, in order to lay the
grievances of the Irish before the queen. It was whispered
that, in view of the speedy death of the old queen and the pos-
sible accession of the King of the Scots, a traitorous corre-
spondence was held between Essex and Tyrone, in which it was
suggested that, if Tyrone would assist Essex to secure the Eng-
lish crown, Ireland should be left to the O'Neils. However
this may have been, another indignant letter from Elizabeth,
warning Essex that "to trust this traitor upon oath is to trust
a devil upon his religion," determined him to return to Eng-
land to explain and defend his conduct. At first he deter-
mined to take with him a picked body of troops, and to march
on London; but he abandoned this idea to throw himself at
his sovereign's feet, and left Ireland in September never to re-
turn.
The queen appointed Charles Blount Lord Mountjoy to be
lord deputy in the room of Essex. Mountjoy at once set to
work to reform the abuses of the army upon a rigid and almost
a Puritan scheme. Not only was the punishment of death to
be inflicted on any person guilty of such offences as stealing
of stores, duelling, sleeping on duty, falling out of the ranks,
or exceeding furlough, " except he can prove he was stayed by
the hand of God," but also on those who "spoke against the
Holy and Blessed Trinity," or contravened the articles of the
Christian faith. Impiety, blasphemy, and unlawful oaths were
punished by fine and imprisonment, and so was a wilful absence
from morning and evening prayers.
As soon as he had succeeded in recasting the army, Mount-
joy proceeded to increase the garrisons in all parts of the
country, and to maintain the chain of forts upon the northern
frontier. Sir Henry Dockra was sent round to Lough Foyle
with 4000 men, where he occupied and fortified Deny; and
Sir Arthur Chichester and Sir Samuel Bagnal were instructed
to lay waste systematically all the country within reach of their
respective commands at Carrickfergus and Newry.
THE WAR WITH TYRONE.
119
An attempt had been made to intercept Tyrone at Mullin-
gar, on his way back to the north from Cork and Tipperary,
where he had been receiving the homage of the Southern
Irish; but he succeeded in giving the deputy the slip, and hast-
ened back to defend the line of the Blackwater. The watch-
ful Mountjoy now gave him enough to do in his own territory
to keep him from assisting the other rebels; and in the mean-
time the tide began to turn against the insurgents in other
parts of Ireland. Leix was overrun, and O'Moore was shot.
All the standing corn in the country, to the value, it was said,
of over £1000, which had been grown by the returned Irish
after the expulsion of the planters, was cut down and destroyed.
Sir George Carew, the new President of Munster and brother
to Sir Peter, had broken up the league in that province, and
was hunting the Sugan Earl from place to place, and capturing
and garrisoning his strongholds. As Mountjoy showed him-
self to be strong and capable, so many of the native chiefs be-
gan to change sides. Mountjoy and Carew accepted their sub-
mission, and put a price of £1000 on the heads of Tyrone and
the Sugan Earl. Shortly afterwards the latter was handed over
to the President of Munster by the White Knight, who made
his peace with the government, and pocketed the promised re-
ward. But no bribe could prevail on the Irish to betray " The
O'lNTeil," in such reverence were his name and office held. As
events were marching, there was every sign of the great con-
federacy going to pieces, when suddenly a Spanish fleet of fifty
sail, with 3000 men on board, commanded by Don Juan del
Aguila, appeared in the harbor of Kinsale.
The Spaniards landed and occupied the town, and their fleet
sailed away. To isolate and, if possible, to reduce them before
they could effect a junction with the Irish chieftains was
Mountjoy's prompt decision. He and Carew brought up every
available man, even withdrawing the garrison from Armagh, to
shut them into the town on the land side, while some English
ships of war blockaded the harbor. A close siege was com-
menced. O'Donnel and Tyrone, with all the forces at their
command, each hurried from the north to relieve their Spanish
allies. An attempt made by Carew to cut off Tyrrel and
120
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
O'Donnel in Tipperary before Tyrone came up was defeated
by O'Donnel's vigilance; and tbe Irisb, eluding bim by forced
inarches, pushed on by a circuitous route to tbe south coast of
County Cork. Here six more Spanish vessels were sighted off
Cape Clear. The Irish of the rocky promontories of Southern
Cork and Kerry, who had hitherto looked on in sullen silence,
rose to a man, and O'Sullivan of Beare and O'Driscol of Castle-
haven received Spanish garrisons into the castles of Dunboy
and Baltimore.
Tyrone effected a junction with O'Donnel, and took up a
threatening position to the north of the English army, which
was closing its lines round Kinsale. For fourteen days the
armies sat watching one another. Straitened for want of food
and forage, and suffering bitterly from exposure, the English
intrenched themselves, and from time to time repulsed the sal-
lies from the town. Their position was growing extremely
critical: they had in their turn become besieged; and though
their communications by sea were open, the return of the Span-
ish fleet might at any moment make their surrender a mere
question of time. So confident of success were Tyrone and
the Spaniards that they "were in contention whose prisoner
the deputy should be and whose the president." On Decem-
ber 24th, Tyrone, persuaded against his better judgment, en-
deavored to surprise the English lines. Information of his de-
signs had been carried by a deserter to Carew, and the English
were under arms ready to receive him. After a sharp conflict
the Irish gave way. The panic spread to the main body; the
flying natives streamed through the camp; the rout became
general, and the whole Irish army fled in hopeless confusion
towards Bandon.
This unexpected deliverance of Mountjoy's force was the
turning-point of the war. All hope of relieving Kinsale was
abandoned, and Tyrone led back his broken regiments to de-
fend the borders of his own country. O'Donnel, in despair,
fled to Spain to beg for further help, where he shortly after-
wards was poisoned by an emissary from England. Del Aguiia
and the Spaniards surrendered Kinsale on honorable terms, and
returned to Spain, whither they were accompanied by crowds
THE WAR WITH TYRONE.
121
of Irish refugees; and Carew was left to reduce the rock for-
tress of Dunboy, which was desperately held by O'Sullivan
Beare.
The rebellion in Munster was now stamped out with awful
ferocity. No quarter was given on either side. The returning
planters and Carew's flying columns laid waste the whole coun-
try, "not leaving behind man or beast, corn or cattle." In the
north, the lord deputy was gradually hemming m Tyrone. A
secure hold was taken of his country by the fortifying of the
two positions of Mountjoy and Charlemont on the southeast,
and Derry, Donegal, and Lifford on the northwest. His friends
deserted him right and left, and made their submission to the
government, which the lord deputy would only accept upon
their " doing some signal service on their own people," that is,
the betrayal of their friends.
Elizabeth was now slowly sinking into the grave, and to ter-
minate the war before the chance arose of a disputed succession
was all-important. There was great apprehension of a fresh
descent on the Irish coast by a Spanish fleet, which would be
removed were hostilities to cease. Tyrone, though not yet a
hunted fugitive, saw that all hope of final success was gone.
His territory was so wasted that the people were dying of star-
vation by hundreds; the country was strewed with unburied
carcasses; while an active and determined enemy was gradually
drawing the net more tightly round him. Under these circum-
stances, he came in person under a safe-conduct to Mellifont,
and terms were come to: honorable, indeed, to Tyrone, and
sufficiently satisfactory to the crown. The earl made his sub-
mission. He surrendered his estates, and renounced forever all
claims to the title of "O'Neil," or suzerainty over his neigh-
bors. He abjured alliances with all foreign powers, especially
Spain; and promised to introduce English laws and customs
into Tyrone. On the other hand, he was to receive a full par-
don and a regrant of his title and lands by letters-patent, and
a general amnesty was given to his followers, and the full pos-
session of their estates. At the moment when Tyrone was on
his knees before the deputy at Mellifont, Elizabeth had already
breathed her last.
6
122
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE INTRODUCTION OF ENGLISH IDEAS. A.D. 1603-1606.
Mountjoy and Carew had now stamped out every spark of
rebellion in every part of Ireland. The power of the Irish
was completely broken by the process of starvation. The sys-
tem pursued both in the south and in the north of destroying
the crops removed the whole source of sustenance on which
the mass of the people depended. To add to the loss of the
food at hand, Elizabeth's practice of debasing the coin had
doubled and trebled the price of every purchasable article, and
a fatal pestilence had followed upon the famine. The people
in Ulster died of hunger by thousands. Moryson, who was
Mountjoy's secretary, and afterwards President of Ulster, tells
awful stories of how the carcasses of people lay in ditches, their
dead mouths green with the docks and nettles on which they
had endeavored to support life. How young children were
trapped and eaten by the starving women who were hiding in
the woods on the Nevvry; and how he and Sir Arthur Chich-
ester witnessed the horrible spectacle of three young children
devouring the entrails of their dead mother.
The subjugation was ruthlessly accomplished; but we must
remember that the nature of the country was such that it
could not well be subdued by the recognized methods of war-
fare pursued against more civilized countries. There was no
central government in Ireland with whom the lord deputy
could treat. There was no capital city or fortress, no arsenal
or camp, the capture of which would paralyze all after-efforts
at resistance. The whole island was, to a great extent, im-
passable to an army. There were a few main roads radiating
from Dublin; the great highway to Gal way; the high-road to
Carrickfergus along the coast; the high-road, also along the
coast, to Wexford; and the great road by the way of Naas
THE INTRODUCTION OF ENGLISH IDEAS.
123
over Leighlin Bridge to Kilkenny, and thence, breaking through
the hills at Cahir, to the city of Cork, a branch from which
led round by Limerick to the fortress of Athlone. Along
these main lines of communication the deputies had hitherto
always proceeded in all their raids or "hostings," marching
from block-house to block-house, and from one walled town to
another, along the line, and laying waste the enemy's land as
they went. The country lying between and beyond these
main arteries was either mountainous or boggy or densely
wooded, with patches of cultivated and pasture land inter-
spersed among it. Into these impenetrable fastnesses the
natives, on the approach of the royal forces, invariably retired,
and it was hopeless and highly dangerous to follow them. To
send an invading army against such an enemy in such a coun-
try was like striking a feather-bed—no resistance was made,
and no result was produced. Mountjoy and Carew came at
the end of a long line of soldiers who had broken their hearts
in the endeavor to subdue the Irish with insufficient forces.
They now had the men at their command, and were deter-
mined to do their business thoroughly. They did so in the
only way in which they could hope to succeed—namely, plant-
ing garrisons at intervals in the disaffected country, keeping
up the lines of communication effectually between them and
the old fortified positions, scouring the intervening country
with small parties of horse and foot, burning the huts, driving
the cattle, and utterly laying waste every patch of cultivation.
The great mass of the Irish were still in, or rather had sunk
back into, a semi-barbarous condition. The incessant fighting
among themselves and the Norman settlers, and afterwards
the desolating wars of Elizabeth's reign, had effectually check-
ed their progress towards civilization. Their only wealth was
cattle. There was very little actual money in use, and fines
and cesses were paid and taken in kind. The Anglo-Irish
lords and the Irish chieftains were many of them fairly edu-
cated, though we find a large proportion of the latter executed
their indentures of submission by subscribing their mark.
They lived in moated stone castles, some of which had lead
roofs; and their dress was a shirt dyed with saffron, a short
15 4 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
jacket with wide sleeves, and over all a cloak of fur. The
class below, or the gentry, lived a good deal rougher life, es-
pecially those of Ulster, where some, indeed, occupied clay
houses with raftered roofs, but more lived in rude cabins, built
for safety on small islands in the midst of large pools of water.
Chimneys were unknown, the smoke from the fire in the cen-
tre coming out at a hole in the roof. Furniture and bedding
they had none, a heap of straw or rushes doing duty for the
latter. Their usual food was oat-cake, strong cheese and but-
ter, and milk; the better sort indulging in joints, fowls, rab-
bits, and bacon. Their ordinary clothing was made of home-
spun wrool and flax, but their fighting attire was a quilted
leathern jacket, with long hose and leathern boots. The poor
churls were in a miserable condition; they lived where they
could and how they could; they commonly went stark-naked,
even the women. They slept in the same hovel and on the
same litter as their beasts; they lived, when they could get it,
on the flesh of swine and horses which had died of disease;
more often on milk and curds." Nothing would induce them
to kill a cow for food, unless it'was old and gave no milk.
The chief, nearly the only, industry was cattle - growing;
large herds were still pastured on the common lands of the
tribe, flocks of sheep still throve on the uplands, and droves of
hogs were still turned out to grub in the woods. A consider-
able amount of grain, chiefly oats and barley, was grown, part-
ly for food, partly for the production of u usquebaugh," or
whiskey, and partly for exportation; the ploughing being ac-
complished with the help of five or six horses abreast, which
were fastened to the plough by their tails. The towns, espe-
cially the towns on the sea-coast, approximated far more to the
towns in England. They were well walled and fortified, and
the houses were substantial, and built with regularity. The
citizens lived and dressed like English people, and carried on
a considerable export trade in corn, flax, wool, hides, lead, and
timber. The fisheries, both sea and fresh-water, which were
extremely abundant, appear to have been generally neglected.
Into this battered, ruined, famine-wasted, plague-stricken in-
heritance came James VI. of Scotland in 1603. He had co-
THE INTRODUCTION OF ENGLISH IDEAS. 125
quetted considerably with the Roman Catholic party both at
home and abroad prior to the queen's decease, and this had
raised hopes in the Romanists of Ireland that the old forms of
religion would be restored. In this they were grievously dis-
appointed. The citizens of the corporate towns of the south,
who were rejoicing "that Jezebel was dead," and had rather
prematurely taken steps to reintroduce the mass, were roughly
brought to their senses; and a royal proclamation was issued
to the effect that no tolerance to the Roman Catholic religion
would be given; that all Jesuits and Romish priests should
quit the country; and that the penal clauses of the Act of
Uniformity, which Elizabeth had allowed to remain a dead
letter, would be strictly enforced.
This course was adopted, partly under pressure from the
growing Puritan party in England, and partly in deference to
the opinion of the Irish council, who were gradually develop-
ing the theory that the Popish priests were at the bottom of
all Irish disaffection. There is no doubt that at this time
great numbers of English, Irish, and Spanish Jesuits had open-
ly swarmed over into Ireland from the Continent, as they had,
at the risk of their lives, secretly invaded England from Douay
and St. Omer. They had taken a most active part in the re-
cent wars, many of them even fighting desperately in the field.
The Pope, too, had organized a complete Roman Catholic hier-
archy; regularly appointing, as vacancies fell, archbishops and
suffragans to all the Irish sees. Still, though many Jesuits and
friars had been hanged, there had been as yet no general per-
secution of the laity. .Numbers of Irish Roman Catholics had
fought in Mountjoy's army; and all the English Pale, though
Roman Catholics to a man, were strictly loyal.
Mount]oy, rewarded with the earldom of Devonshire, had
returned to England. He had been succeeded by Sir Arthur
Chichester. Sir Arthur was a man of strong Puritan tenden-
cies, and determined to act rigorously on the proclamation.
Accordingly, sixteen of the aldermen and chief citizens of
Dublin were ordered to attend divine service in Christchurch;
and on their not appearing were heavily fined, and flung into
prison, by order of the Castle Chamber. Great indignation
126
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
was felt throughout the Pale. The Roman Catholic peers and
gentry petitioned the king; but the instigators of this move-
ment were imprisoned, and Sir Patrick Barnewell sent to Eng-
land and confined in the Tower. The taking of the Oath of
Supremacy was enforced on all persons called to fill any office,
civil or military; which practically excluded all Roman Catho-
lics from the magistracy, the privy council, the bench, the bar,
and the army. The penalty of twelve pence for not attend-
ing church on every Sunday and holyday was sternly exacted
by the lord deputy in Meath and Westmeath, in King's and
Queen's counties, and by the presidential courts in the towns
of Munster and Connaught. And Sir John Davis, the attor-
ney-general, the leading spirit in the council, flattered himself
that a great reformation was being effected " through the civil
magistrate."
In England legislation had formed habits which had re-
sulted in a general change of faith. The Irish government
fondly imagined that they could effect the same thing in Ire-
land. Elizabeth, for the purpose of educating young men for
the ministry, had founded Trinity College, Dublin, and en-
dowed it with the lands of the Monastery of All-hallows.
King James greatly increased its endowments. He very wisely
had the Bible and the Liturgy translated into Irish, and copies
of the same were supplied to the parish churches. But, un-
fortunately, the parish clergy were Englishmen, "like the
priests of Jeroboam, taken from the basest of the people,"
who knew no Irish, and consequently could not make use of
the books, and their flocks profited nothing. Sir John Davis
complains of the character of the clergy, and thus sums up the
case: "The churches are ruined and fallen down. There is no
divine service, no christening of children, no receiving of the
sacrament, no Christian meeting or assembly—no, not once a
year; in a word, no more demonstration of religion than
amongst Tartars and cannibals." And yet the government
wondered that the people clung to the friars upon the hill-side.
King James, as soon as he had leisure to turn to Ireland,
determined to enforce order over the whole island. The old
Brehon law was to be utterly abolished, and the means of ap-
THE INTRODUCTION OP ENGLISH IDEAS.
127
pealing to English law brought within the reach of every one.
Ulster was first of all to be settled, and provision made for the
security of the inferior members of the sept. After obtaining
a regrant of their territory from Henry VIII., the chieftains
had continued to oppress the other members of the tribe with
their customary exactions; and James's professed object was
to protect this class. Accordingly, when Tyrone and the other
chiefs of Ulster renewed their submission to James and re-
ceived their letters-patent, he compelled them to accept as
defined freehold estates their own demesne lands only, and to
give up all claim to the rest of the tribal land, otherwise oc-
cupied, only reserving to them a fixed rent-charge out of these
lands, for which their irregular "cosherings" were commuted.
The sub-chiefs were confirmed in the land occupied by them,
which was defined in the same manner, and accepted as an
estate in fee subject to the payment of the rent-charge; and in
this way it was hoped that a regular system of landholding,
according to the English tenure, would be developed out of the
old tribal system.
This scheme, however, only provided for the more powerful
members of the tribes, and took no account of the inferior
members, each of whom, in his degree, had an undeniable, if
somewhat indefinite, interest in the tribal land. Sir John Davis,
who carried out the plan, seems to have thought he had gone
quite far enough in erecting the sub-chiefs into freeholders;
his real object being not so much to protect their interests as
to weaken the power of the chieftains. It never occurred to
him that the humblest member of the tribe should, if strict
justice were done, have received his allotment out of the com-
mon territory; and the result of his settlement, accordingly,
was that the tribal land was cut up into a number of large
freehold estates, which were given to the most important
personages among the native Irish, and the bulk of the peo-
ple were reduced to the condition of tenants at will.
In order to carry out this great revolution in land-tenure,
royal commissions were issued to survey the country and to
inquire into titles. Provision was made that two judges
should go circuit twice a year to try offences against the law,
128 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
and claims to property, by the help of juries, in supersession
of the Brehon's arbitrations. All the shires were formally rec-
ognized, and sheriffs and coroners appointed to each; A de-
cision of the Queen's Bench m Dublin in an ejectment suit
decided that the law of Tanistry and gavelkind was nothing
but "a lewd and damnable custom;" and that land was de-
scendible only according to the limitations of English law.*
The immediate result of this was that the northern chiefs
found themselves plunged in litigation. Tyrone had a lawsuit
with O'Kane in respect of his seigniorial rights over O'Kane's
territory; and, on the case being tried by the council, it was
conveniently discovered that neither party had any right to
the subject-matter in dispute, but that it had been vested in
the crown since 1570! The Bishop of Derry had a claim
against O'Kane with regard to certain Church land, upon which
the bishop charged him with having made encroachments.
And so the actions multiplied and the lawyers throve.
Tyrone had been over to the English court; had been
graciously received by the king; and had returned to Ireland
with the intention of settling down as a loyal subject. Rory
O'Donnel, Red Hugh's younger brother, had also made his
peace writh the crown. He had been created Earl of Tyrcon-
nel, and received a grant of the County of Donegal, his brother
the O'Donnel's country.
Though shorn of a great deal of their influence, these great
chieftains might still be dangerous; and the government ac-
cordingly watched them narrowly for any opportunity to de-
stroy them. Sir John Davis had instituted a galling system
of espionage over Ulster, so that Tyrone complained that "he
could not even drink a full carouse of sack, but the State was
within a few hours advertised thereof." Insulted by the king's
officers, harassed by litigation, and worried by spies, he appears
to have dropped some incautious words to Lord Delvin, and
the latter seems to have held some secret conversation with
Tyrconnel at Maynooth Castle, when on a visit to the Earl of
Kildare. There is no reason to suppose that this vague talk
* McBrien v. O'Callaghan, Davy's Reps., pp. 28, 49.
THE INTRODUCTION OF ENGLISH IDEAS.
129
was in any way serious; but, whatever it was, Lord Howtb,
who was admitted by the government to be unworthy of
credit, managed to obtain an inkling of it, developed it into
a cut-and-dried plot to seize the Castle and murder the deputy,
and embodied it in a letter, which he purposely dropped at the
door of the council-chamber.
Tyrone, who was shortly to appear in London on the hear-
ing of the appeal in the suit with O'Kane, received informa-
tion that it was the intention of the government to arrest him
on his arrival in England; and he and Tyrconnel determined,
in a panic, to fly to the Continent. They hastened with their
families on board a vessel lying in Lough Swilly, and event-
ually reached Rome, where Tyrconnel died the following year,
and Tyrone, broken and blind, lingered eight years longer.
Lord Delvin was formally arrested, and made a comprehensive
confession. He was shortly afterwards created Earl of West-
meath; and Lord Howth was rewarded by the command of a
troop of horse.
A few months after the flight of the earls, O'Dogherty of
Innishowen and some of the O'Donnels broke out into a futile
revolt in the extreme north of the island. They were promptly
crushed, and a hunted remnant of their following ruthlessly
exterminated in their last refuge, Torry Island. In the mean-
time, O'Kane had been put on his trial for treason, a charge
for which there does not seem to have been a shadow of
foundation. But as a Donegal jury had recently acquitted Sir
Neal O'Donnel, it was considered unsafe to try to obtain a
legal conviction in Ulster, and he was forwarded to the Tower,
where he afterwards died. So, one by one, the heads of the
Ulster poppies were falling.
6*
130
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE PLANTATION OF ULSTER. A.D. 1611.
Nothing could have been more opportune for James's
schemes for "pacifying" Ulster than the flight of the earls.
The door was at once thrown open for a wide and wholesale
plantation of all the north. By the "treason" of the chiefs,
six counties were held, by a stretch even of English law, to be
escheated to the crown. The whole map of Ulster was a clean
chart, for the king to draw upon as he pleased. The oppor-
tunity, most gratifying to the pedantic vanity of James, was
given to constitute a new social and political system. The old
order of things was to be clean wiped out, and a new creation
was to come into existence, "as if his majesty were to begin
a new plantation in some part of America."
According to English law, all that would have fallen to the
crown were the freehold lands of the persons attainted. But
though it suited the government in 1604 to cut down the
rights of the chieftains to their demesnes, to exalt the lesser
chiefs into freeholders, and to hold out fixity of tenure as the
great benefit to be obtained by the introduction of English law
and the creation of shire-ground, in 1610 the theory was that
the fee of the chieftains extended to the whole soil of Ulster,
and that the newly created freeholders were no better than
tenants at will.
The greatest care was taken to make the new plantation a
success. Three royal commissions were at work in 1608,1609,
and 1610. Long and anxiously were the scheme and its de-
tails discussed by the king and Sir Arthur Chichester with Sir
John Davis and the other commissioners. The plantation in
Munster had been an acknowledged failure, by reason of the
enormous size of the grants made to the undertakers. The
grantees, who were too big to settle and farm personally, drew
THE PLANTATION OF ULSTER.
131
the rents, and took no trouble to plant English farmers on the
land, but suffered the Irish to continue in occupation. The
plantations of Leix and Offaly had been equally a failure, be-
cause the English planters and the old Irish had been allowed
to live as neighbors in unrestricted intercourse.
These errors were to be avoided in Ulster. The tracts grant-
ed were to be of a manageable extent; the natives were to have
locations of their own, to which they were to be removed; the
new settlers drawn from England and Scotland were to be
massed and grouped together, so as to be a strength and pro-
tection to each other; and the "swordsmen," the turbulent
gentry whose occupation was gone with the war, and who were
an idle and dangerous class, were to be shipped to Sweden and
induced to enlist under Gustavus Adolphus, or to be transplant-
ed into convenient places in Kerry, Tipperary, and Koscommon.
The escheated lands, both temporal and Church lands, which
were all brought into "hotch-pot," were to be divided into lots
of 2000,1500, and 1000 acres each, and to be granted, at a re-
served quit-rent of l^d.y 2d., and 2\d. per acre, in fee partly to
English and Scotch undertakers, partly to English " servitors"
—that is, those who had held civil or military appointments
during the war—and partly to the native Irish. Reservations
were made for the crown, for the bishoprics, for the building of
free schools, and the erection of forts and corporate towns.
The country was mapped out into parishes; and portions of
glebe were allotted in each for the support of the parochial
clergy. Every undertaker of the larger lots was bound in a
bond of £400 within four years to build a castle or mansion-
house and a bawn, and within five years to plant on his estate
four fee-farmers each on 120 acres, six leaseholders each on
100 acres, and eight families of skilled workmen and laborers.
Every undertaker of the smaller lots was under similar and
proportionate obligations. No land was to be sublet for less
than twenty-one years, nor was it to be alienated for five years
to come to any one but the tenants themselves. All tenants
were to build houses and keep good store of arms. The houses
were to be built in groups so as to form towns and villages,
and not to be isolated and scattered. All the grantees and
132 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
their tenants were to take the Oath of Supremacy. None of
the undertakers were to be permitted to take the natives as
tenants. Only the servitors and the Church were permitted, in
their own discretion, to let a farm to an Irishman. The cor-
poration of London and the twelve city guilds agreed to take
up the whole county of Coleraine, upon the terms that they
would maintain the forts of Culmore, Coleraine, and Deny.
In aid of their undertaking, the king created the order of baro-
nets who bear on their coat the bloody hand of Ulster with
which the shield of the O'Neils was charged, and each recipient
of the patent was bound to pay into the exchequer three years'
pay of a soldier for service in Ulster.
As a most necessary preliminary, an accurate survey of the
whole of the confiscated country was made, the surveyors taking
their measurements under the protection of mounted troopers;
and the commissioners, supported by the military, collecting
evidence, by the help of grand-juries in each county, of what
land was temporal and what was ecclesiastical property. A
proclamation was then issued, stating what land was assigned
to the undertakers, to the servitors, and to the natives respec-
tively. The natives fetched down Dublin lawyers to argue that
they had estates of inheritance which would not be forfeited
on the attainder of their demesne lords, and to plead the king's
public proclamation, given five years before on the flight of the
earls, that all the inhabitants should be secured in their posses-
sions, and that he had specially taken them under his protec-
tion. It need hardly be said that that legal sycophant Sir
John Davis was equal to the occasion, and that his sophistries
and ingenious quibbles soon put the presuming Dublin lawyers
to silence.
Slowly and sullenly the Irish gentry removed themselves and
their belongings into the contracted locations to which they had
been appointed, away from the " fat lands " to the "lean lands,"
from the rich pasture to the barren moor. Slowly and sullenly
the mass of the people followed them, thrust out of their homes,
to find new refuges wherein to lay their heads: some among
the servitors; some in the " lean lands;" some transplanted in
gangs, at the command of the government, into waste land,
THE PLANTATION OF ULSTER.
133
which no one wanted, in Minister and in Con naught. Exiled
to make room for the planters, evicted, though promised secu-
rity, they wandered forth, bearing in their hearts a store of bit-
ter hatred for the invaders who had broken faith with them;
and yearning for the vengeance which they were to snatch, in
1641.
The whole of the six counties which were confiscated con-
tained about 2,836,837 Irish, or, according to modern surveys
in English measure, 3,785,057 acres. Of this four fifths were
barren or "lean" land, and 511,465 Irish acres were valuable
or "fat" land. The bulk of the Irish were cleared from the
fat land into the lean land; and the 511,465 acres were partly
reserved for public purposes, and partly divided among 50
English and 59 Scotch undertakers, 60 servitors, 286 natives
"of good merit," and the London companies. The 286 na-
tives obtained only about one tenth of the whole. The fol-
lowing table will show the way in which the land was appor-
tioned:
Acres.
* English undertakers, 50 in number. 81,500
* Scotch undertakers, 59 in number 81,000
* Servitors, 60 in number. 49,914
Meritorious natives, 286 in number 52,279
London guilds 61,437
Trinity College, Dublin 9,600
Bishops, and deans and chapters 77,666
Glebes for parochial clergy 19,268
Free schools 2,700
Corporate towns and forts 47,101
Several persons as abbey lands 21,552
Kestored to certain individual Irishmen . 7,448
Total 511,465
The object of James was to introduce a thoroughly Protes-
tant and anti-Irish element, which should dominate the Roman
Catholics and natives. The success of the plantation became
apparent in a few years, when commissioners were sent down
to inspect the progress which was being made. The English
* For a list of the undertakers and servitors, see Appendix III.
134 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OP IRELAND.
and Scotch gentry who had taken up the land were bona f,de
occupying it with their wives and families. The Londoners
had fortified Deny—London Deny, as thenceforward it was
called—with ramparts twelve feet thick, drawbridges, and bat-
tlemented gates. Fair castles, handsome mansions, and sub-
stantial farm-buildings were springing up in every part of the
country; "fulling-mills" and "corn-mills" were utilizing the
ample water-power; windmills were spinning on the rising
ground; limekilns were smoking, in preparation for more
extensive building operations. There were smiling gardens
and orchards and fields in " good tillage after the English man-
ner." Market towns and villages were rising, with paved streets
and well-built houses and churches; schools and bridges were
in course of construction.
Nevertheless, the complete scheme was never carried out in
its entirety; nor was it possible that it should be so. If all
the natives had been removed to a man, the planters would
have had no laborers. Though numbers of Scotch and Eng-
lish hands were introduced, the full complement was far from
made up, and the temptation was considerable to keep on the
Irish, who were ready at hand, and willing, to become hewers
of wood and drawers of water. The necessity of this was ad-
mitted by the government; and the king's warrants for the re-
moval of the natives were from time to time suspended to
meet the difficulty. The consequence was that, contrary to
the terms of the planters' grants, many Irish were taken as ten-
ants; the planters even offering to pay double quit-rent to the
crown if permitted to employ native labor; and the natives
outbidding the strangers by promises to pay higher rent to
the land-owners. The planters in many cases violated their
agreements with the crown in another way. They refused or
neglected to give definite leases of twenty-one years to their
English and Scotch tenants; and many of these, who had
been induced on promise of a lease to take farms and ex-
pend money thereon, retired in disgust into England, and sold
their interest in the holdings, and the value of the capital
they had sunk in the land, to the natives, who were only
too ready to get back on to the soil at any price and at any
THE PLANTATION OF ULSTER.
135
risk These practices were winked at by the planters, who
were glad to get less independent tenants, until the custom
of selling and buying the tenant right became established in
Ulster as a recognized portion of the unwritten law of the
province.
136
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER XV.
THE MUZZLING OF THE PARLIAMENT. A.D. 1613.
The momentous revolution in Ulster had been accomplished
through the instrumentality of royal proclamations and royal
warrants, following upon verdicts of "guilty" wrung from the
juries before which the earls had, in their absence, been indicted.
It was now thought desirable to put the seal of legality upon
what had occurred by summoning a Parliament and passing an
act of attainder against them.
Great wrestlings of spirit did the king and the deputy and
Sir George Carew endure in respect of the composition of this
Parliament. The spirit of religious intolerance was now fully
awake. Every Irish interest was identified with Popery; every
English interest with Protestantism. The government had de-
termined to convert Ireland to the Reformed faith by the terrors
of the law. And in order to have a Parliament which would
work, it was necessary, in their eyes, that there should be a
competent Protestant majority. Seeing that the freeholders of
the greater part of Ireland and almost all the burgesses were of
the Roman Catholic persuasion, it was a moral certainty that at
a free election only a very small number of Protestants would
be returned. How to avoid this difficulty was the task which
fell to Carew and Sir John Davis; and after weighing the re-
ports of the provincial presidents, and balancing the pros and
cons, they calculated that by incorporating the infant towns
which were projected and partly built in Ulster, and certain
judiciously selected garrison towns elsewhere, to tha number of
forty, these, with the representatives of the newly planted
counties, would be sufficient to swamp the "recusants" of the
other three quarters of the kingdom. They felt safe with re-
spect to the peers, for they reckoned that "of the forty-four
spiritual and temporal we may assure ourselves of the nineteen
THE MUZZLING OF THE PARLIAMENT.
bishops; of the temporal lords, three are under age and five
are Protestants, and so we shall sway the Upper House by seven
voices." It was the Commons who were the stumbling-block.
There were thirty-three counties in all, WicMow having been
recently carved out of the county of Dublin, and that portion of
the present county of Tipperary in which Holy Cross is situated
being reckoned as a separate shire by the name of " the Crosse."
Moryson, the President of Munster, reported that there might
be as many as tea Protestant knights of the shire returned for
his presidency, the only freeholders in the greater part of the
province being of the recent plantation in Desmond; but that
Tipperary and Crosse would return recusants. Of burgesses
for Limerick, Waterford, and Cork, he says there is "no hope
of any Protestant." For Kinsale, Kilmallock, Clonmel, Cashel,
Fethard, "no hope of any conformable;" and for the rest of
the ancient corporations but three Protestants would be chosen.
By the creation, however, of eight new boroughs, sixteen sup-
porters of the government would be secured; so that, on the
whole, he concludes, " if it be so, the Protestants will exceed
them six voices."
Sir Oliver St. John, the President of Connaught, reported that
"he could not assure himself of the five counties of more than
two Protestants;" and of the ancient boroughs of Galway and
Athenry, "no hope of any Protestant." The new borough of
Athlone, however, a garrison town, he says will send two Prot-
estants; and of the " boroughs to be newly erected " he believed
all would send Protestants except Loughreagh, which "perad-
venture would send Papists;" but that it might be as well,
nevertheless, to incorporate it, " as it would gratify the opinion
of partiality (sic) in erecting the new boroughs." So that, on
the whole, he hopes "the government of Connaught will send
to the Parliament twenty-two Protestants for fourteen Papists."
It was hoped that, in view of the recent plantation in Lein-
ster,* several of the county members in that province would be
Protestant. But, out of the five shires of the Pale, only one
Protestant was expected from Westmeath and one from the
county of Dublin. Of the burgesses from the thirty ancient bor-
* See next chapter.
138
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
oughs in Leinster and the Pale but seven Protestants could be
reckoned on. In Ulster, on the other hand, all the counties,
being recently planted with English Puritans and Scotch Pres-
byterians, would return Protestants en bloc; and as twenty-five
corporate towns were to be erected there, each returning two
members, the general conclusion on the whole calculation was
that the government would have a working majority of about
eight-and-twenty.
Upon the news getting abroad that a Parliament was about to
be called, and that the king was going to incorporate the Ulster
block-house forts, there was a very general belief that the object
of the government was to pass a stringent penal statute against
the Roman Catholics. And so strong was the fear that the Parlia-
ment would be made the instrument of James's arbitrary designs
that the gentry actually forwarded a petition to the king not to
summon it, a petition which James treated with silent contempt.
On the issuing of the writs, a vigorous contest took place
over the whole kingdom. It was the desperate struggle of a
nation against the riveting upon them of the shackles of the
law by the introduction of the thin end of the "Protestant as-
cendency." The Roman Catholics strained every nerve to carry
the elections; and their energy was rewarded in the counties
by the rejection of the government candidates and the return
of recusant Dublin lawyers. The measures of the government
had, however, been sufficient to secure their majority; and the
new house consisted of 226 members, of whom 125 were Prot-
estants and 101 were Roman Catholics, the government having
a majority of 24.
On the assembling of this Parliament, the first business was
to choose a speaker. The recusants, however, objected to this
being done, until the validity of the return of certain members
for boroughs which had been created since the issue of the
writs had been determined. The government candidate for the
speakership was the subtle courtier Sir John Davis, and the rec-
usants put forward Sir John Everard. On a motion that the
election of the speaker should precede all other business, the
house divided, and the supporters of the government went into
the division lobby to be counted. Thereupon the recusant party
THE MUZZLING OF THE PARLIAMENT.
139
refused to go into the other lobby, but shouted, "An Everard!
an Everard!" and seated their candidate in the chair. The
others, on being counted, numbered 127, a clear majority of the
whole house, and rushed back into the chamber. Upon find-
ing Everard installed in the chair, they indignantly demanded
his withdrawal, and on his refusing proceeded, amid a scene
of indescribable confusion, to seat Sir John Davis in his lap.
Everard was then forcibly dragged from the chair, and the rec-
usant party thereupon left the house in a body.
After this indecent scene, there was nothing to be done but
to suspend the sittings of the house, and to refer the whole
case to the king and accept his decision. According!}', dele-
gates from each party went over to England, and laid their
respective views before his majesty. James found the case of
the recusants upon the question of the invalid elections too
strong to be ignored; and after rating them well in a long,
rambling oration, as incoherent as it was flippant, he cancelled
thirteen of the returns, and confirmed the election of Sir John
Davis to the speakership.
Parliament was assembled for business, and proceeded to
pass an act of attainder* upon O'Neil, O'Donnel, O'Dogherty,
and thirty gentlemen of Ulster, by which the forfeiture of their
estates was confirmed. All Ireland was now subject to the
king. The king's writ ran in every part of the island; the
king's courts went their complete circuits. Each shire had its
sheriff; and the old Irish law had been everywhere superseded.
It remained only to recognize all the inhabitants as the king's
subjects, and formally admit the native Irish to the protection
of the English law, in the eye of which until now they had
been no more than outlaws. Accordingly, an act was passed
repealing the old statutes which prohibited commerce, inter-
marriage, and fosterage between the two races, and extending
the privileges and perils of the English system of jurisprudence
to all the king's subjects alike.f Notwithstanding all his ma-
noeuvring, James considered he had got a stubborn Parliament.
But, stubborn though it may have been, it was loyal enough to
grant him a substantial subsidy.
* 11,12 Jac. I. c. 4.
t lb. c. 5.
140
HISTORY QF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE PLANTATION OF LEINSTER. A.D. 1612-1625.
James was so pleased with the success of his plantation in
Ulster that he determined to apply the process of planting to
the rest of Ireland. There had been no rising, no attempt at
disturbance, so that the old excuse for confiscation was not
available; it was necessary to invent a system of plundering by
process of law to provide the wherewithal for the vain monarch
to reconstruct the map of Ireland. "A commission to inquire
into defective titles" was sent down into those parts of the
country with which it was determined to deal, to collect evi-
dence as to the number and condition of the inhabitants and
their lords, what rents were paid, and what and how estates
were held; and to inquire into the title which the crown had
to any part thereof.
The countries which were still principally inhabited by the
native Irish were, first, the mountainous strip which runs from
Dublin towards Wexford Haven, sloping to the sea upon the
east, and comprising the counties of Wieldow and Wexford;
secondly, the broad belt of low country, then largely consist-
ing of bog and forest, which skirts the great chain of lakes and
rivers lying between Sligo on the north and Lough Derg on the
south, and comprises the counties of Lei trim and Longford,
and the western portions of Westmeath, King's County, and
Queen's County., These tracts were still occupied, the one by
the tribes of McMurrough, OToole, and O'Byrne, and the other
by those of O'Rourke, O'Farrel, O'Melaghlin, 6'Molloy, O'Doyne,
and McGilapatrick.
It was gravely said that whereas these countries had been
originally granted to English colonists in the days of the
Plantagenets by the crown, which had no right to make the
grant, and these colonists had, in the evil days of the Anglo-
THE PLANTATION OF LEINSTER.
141
Norman settlement, been driven from their land by the lawful
native owners, and had retired into England; and, further, that
by various statutes concerning absentees the deserted lands had
reverted to the king—the native tribes now in occupation had
no prescriptive right by virtue of three hundred years' posses-
sion of what was, after all, their own property, and that the
whole of the land was vested in James. Leitrirn and Longford
had been surrendered by the O'Rourke and O'Farrel of that
day to Elizabeth, and subsequent acts of rebellion were suffi-
cient to show the king's title in these cases, while Art McMur-
rough's indenture with Richard II., in a.d. 1394, was raked up
to do duty for a title to Wexford.
To give an appearance of legality to these iniquitous proceed-
ings, juries were empanelled, and forced to give verdicts in
favor of the crown; witnesses were compelled to give satisfac-
tory evidence; and both jurors and witnesses, if they had the
boldness to withstand the pressure of the crown lawyers, were
hauled before the Castle Chamber, imprisoned, pilloried, and
branded.
Even the Anglo-Irish did not escape the inquisitorial scrutiny.
Wherever land could be proved forfeit, so it went, by every
low trick and legal artifice that could be practised. It became
a regular trade to pick holes in people's titles; every trifling
flaw that could be hit upon was carefully noted. The old pipe
rolls in Dublin were scanned, and the patent rolls in the Tower
of London were searched, to discover ancient rents reserved and
unpaid; discrepancies between the patents passed in Ireland
and the king's warrant transmitted from England; prior grants
or invalid grants; even clerical errors, trivial informalities, and
inaccurate terms. One of the principal motives for these pro-
ceedings was the replenishing of the royal exchequer. If a
flaw could be found in a man's title, he could be frightened
into accepting a fresh patent upon the terms of his paying a
round sum by way of a composition. If he refused, the land
could be granted to some one else at an annual quit-rent, the
enterprising "projector" or u discoverer" sharing the plunder
with the king. And so the game sped merrily.
Sixty-six thousand eight hundred acres were in this way
142
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
declared to be vested in the king in Wexford alone, and in the
midland counties no less than 385,000. The ancient proprie-
tors were required to sign submissions and surrenders of their
land; and then, after setting apart a sufficient and convenient
portion for glebes, schools, forts, and corporate towns, and a
fourth part of the whole for English undertakers, the residue
was regranted to "the more deserving" of them to hold of the
king at certain fixed rents. Small proprietors were especially
discouraged, no one being allowed to hold less than a hundred
acres " as not good for themselves.1' The plausible argument
was advanced that the natives would be pleased with the change
because they obtained a definite estate of inheritance in place
of an uncertain estate for life, and that this advantage was a
fair equivalent for the loss of more than one fourth of their
gross amount of territory. Whether this were so it is unprofit-
able to inquire, because the natives, in fact, owing to the dis-
honesty and greediness of the commissioners and surveyors,
never obtained anything like the proportion of land which they
were promised.
In Longford, which contained 50,000 acres, they obtained
less than one third, twenty-five of the O'Farrel family being ab-
solutely deprived of every rood. A large tract was reserved to
satisfy a claim of £200 a year made by the heirs of Sir Nicho-
las Malby, and another of " 120 beeves" made by Sir Francis
Shane of Granard Castle. Twelve hundred acres were given to
undertakers, of whom half were servitors with allotments of
300, 400, and 600 acres each.
In Leitrim, where 201 proprietors executed surrenders, they
obtained by regrant half, in Queen's County about two thirds,
the remnant of the tribe of the O'Moores being transplanted
bodily into Kerry.
In Wexford there were in all 31* undertakers, to whom
33,000 acres were set out. Only 57 natives received any land
at all, and to these 5*7 were allotted 24,615 acres. Three hun-
dred and ninety others who claimed a right to freeholds had
no land assigned to them; and they and "the residue of the
* For a list of the undertakers of Wexford, see Appendix IV.
THE PLANTATION OF LEINSTEB.
143
inhabitants, estimated to be 14,500 men, women, and children,"
had the choice of either being evicted "at the will of tbe pat-
entees," or being permitted "to dwell in that country as their
tenants." It was then discovered that half the county had
been fraudulently given to the undertakers under the name of a
quarter, and it was only after much petitioning and agitation
that the land was resurveyed, and a provision made for 80
more native freeholders.
In most cases the discrimination of the surveyor was suffi-
cient to set out the good land to the undertakers and the un-
profitable land to the old possessors.
There was, not unnaturally, the strongest opposition to the
new plantation. The discontent was deep and widespread; but
a rising was seen to be hopeless, and no attempt at resistance
was made. Many of the old proprietors who were removed
from their lands betook themselves to the woods and an out-
law's life. Agrarian outrages began to occur, " when the nights
grew darker and the winter came on." The Lord Deputy St.
John, the successor of Chichester, endeavored to hunt down
the expelled land-owners, and boasts of having exterminated
three hundred of them in three years; though he adds, "When
one sort is cut oJBE, others arise in their places, for the countries
are so full of the younger sons of gentlemen who have no
means of living, and will not work, that when they are sought
to be punished for disorders they commit in their idleness, they
go to the woods to maintain themselves by the spoil of their
quiet neighbors."
In the meantime Sir Richard Boyle, the lord chancellor,
who had got possession of Sir Walter Raleigh's extensive
grants of land in Munster, had been making a most methodical
plantation on his own account at Tallow. It was an armed
colony of 522 men—"horsemen," "pikemen," and "shot-fur-
nished;" every one was a sound Protestant; villages were plan-
ned, and schools and churches built for their accommodation.
The company of East India merchants also planted three colo-
nies near Dundaniel, on the coast of County Cork, where they
started iron-works, and constructed a dock, and built "offices,
houses, smiths' forges, and other storehouses." So plentiful
144 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
and so fine was the timber, growing even to the water's edge,
that the ship-building trade grew apace. "Two ships of 400
and 500 tons apiece" were launched in the spring of 1613.
Wicklow had yet to be dealt with, the ancient territory of
the O'Byrnes. The commissioners reported that at the death
of Pheagh McHugh O'Byrne in the rebellion in 1577, his
country escheated to the crown, but that Elizabeth had direct-
ed a regrant by letters-patent to his son Phelim; that James
had given a like direction, which had never been carried out;
and they recommended that surrenders should be taken and
fresh grants made in the usual way to the O'Byrnes, "at the
highest rents procurable." This plan was projected, and a rent
of £150 reserved. Provision was made for a plantation, and
Phelim O'Byrne was to receive letters-patent confirming him
in his estates.
A conspiracy was, however, set on foot by Sir Richard
Graham (an officer in the army), Sir James FitzPiers Fitzgerald,
Sir William Parsons (the surveyor-general), Sir Henry Belling,
and Lord Esmond (one of the new undertakers in Wexford *), to
obtain a conveyance of O'Byrne's land to themselves. They
accordingly trumped up a charge against him and his five sons
of corresponding with an outlawed gentleman of the family of
Kavenagh. They lodged an information against them, on the
testimony of one Thomas Archer, which they wrung from him
by torture on a hot gridiron, and that of three vagrant Irish-
men who owed O'Byrne a grudge for his having issued his
warrant against them as a justice of the peace. Two of the
young O'Byrnes were thereupon confined in Dublin Castle, and
Phelim and all the five were prosecuted at the Carlow assizes
for treason. The grand-jury threw out the bill, for which they
were heavily fined by the Castle Chamber, and a fresh indict-
ment was preferred at the Wicklow assizes. The grand-jury
was this time carefully packed with neighboring undertakers to
secure the finding of a true bill, and notorious convicted thieves
whom Phelim had convicted at petty sessions were called as
* The Commissioners of Plantations in Wexford were Sir Laurence Es-
mond, Sir Edward Fisher, Sir William Parsons, and Nicholas Kenny.
THE PLANTATION OF LEINSTER.
145
witnesses, and pardoned on giving evidence of the prisoners'
guilt. The scandal was so abominable and glaring that Sir
Francis Annesley and some other gentlemen took up the case
and obtained a royal commission to inquire into the matter,
which resulted in the O'Byrnes being set at liberty. Their
estates, however, covering half the County of Wicklow, of which
during the prosecution Parsons and Esmond had been put in
possession by the sheriff of Wicklow, were not restored to
them, and the plot in that respect was eminently successful.
Success had attended James's plans in Ulster and Leinster,
with the additional advantage of filling the empty coffers of
the state. Not only had the revenue been swelled by the chief
rents reserved from grants to the new freeholders, and from
the fines levied on the occasion of the surrenders and regrants,
but the immediate result of the improved condition of agricult-
ure, consequent upon the introduction of thrifty English and
Scotch farmers, and the progress exhibited by the natives who
were not dispossessed, was to increase the annual receipts from
the customs duties from £50 to between £9000 and £10,000.
Notwithstanding these advantageous circumstances, however,
the want of economy was such in the military and civil ex-
penditure, and the waste and jobbery so great in the way of
conferring pensions and sinecures on the Castle clique, that
there was an annual deficit in the accounts of over £16,000.
A project was set on foot by the commissioners whom the
king sent over to examine into the state of the revenue, for the
replenishing of the royal exchequer by attacking the property
of the Irish corporate towns. Many of them had received
grants of land conditionally upon their efficiently maintaining
their bridges, walls, and fortifications; and wherever breaches
of these conditions could be discovered, it was proposed that
the king should resume the corporation lands, and raise the
sum of £50,000 by fines on regrant. This scheme, however,
was considered too hazardous to be carried out, and was laid
aside.
Connaught showed the best prospect of supplying the de-
ficiencies. It was the only province which had not been planted.
The lords and gentlemen of Connaught and County Clare had
7
146
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
been persuaded by Sir John Perrot in Elizabeth's reign to com-
pound for the queen's exactions in kind by an annual cess for
the support of the army. They had simultaneously surrendered
their estates to the crown and received regrants of the same.
They had, however, in most cases, owing to the disturbed con-
dition of the times, neglected to have their surrenders enrolled
and to take out their letters-patent. Accordingly, in 1616,
fresh surrenders were made to James; new patents were made
out by him, and received the impress of the great seal. Owing,
however, to the neglect of the clerks in Chancery, neither were
the surrenders nor the grants enrolled on this occasion, although
the grantees had actually paid fees in respect of the enrolment
to the amount of £3000.
Here was an opportunity not to be lost. The titles were one
and all declared defective, and the lands held to be vested in
the crown. A plan was announced for a new plantation after
the fashion of those recently conducted in Leinster, and a
promising harvest anticipated. Great was the alarm which
spread through the western province. The injustice of the
proceeding was bitterly felt. But, as it was well known that
money was what the king stood most in need of, it was deter-
mined to bribe him into relinquishing his design. An offer
was made to double the amount of the annual tax, and to pay
the king in cash an equivalent for the share which would have
fallen to him if the plantation had been carried out on the
lines of the previous ones; and this equivalent was estimated
at £10,000, a sum equal to £100,000 at the present day.
The proposal was received by his majesty with considerable
satisfaction. The plan for the plantation was suspended; but
before the compromise could be effected the king died; and
the squeezing of Connaught was reserved for his still more un-
scrupulous successor.
The general result of the plantation policy was to flood Ire-
land with a host of needy Englishmen and Scotchmen, who
looked upon the country as a grand field for enterprising per-
sons with slender means. The colonists in Ulster were in a
great measure the scum of both nations, debtors, bankrupts,
and fugitives from justice. Shoals of land-jobbers and land-
THE PLANTATION OF LEINSTER.
147
speculators came over to obtain a share in the general division.
The hangers-on of the Castle, the conforming lawyers, the
poor relations of the Council of State, became large land-
owners and country gentlemen, and were put into the com-
mission of the peace. Every act of spoliation was carried
out under the protection of the law; every legal form and
every legal step was strictly adhered to with a surprising in-
genuity which makes the account of the most unfair and
arbitrary acts read like a narrative of strict but inevitable
justice.
To hold a large landed estate was in those days, as it is now,
to secure power, influence, and rank; the penniless adventurer,
having become possessed of acres, frequently by means which
would not bear the light of day, was promptly made a county
magistrate, and often elevated to the peerage. Half the peer-
age of Ireland at the time of the Union was composed of per-
sons whose ancestors had come to Ireland as fortune-hunters
after the Elizabethan wars. Being a freeholder, the novus homo
was one of the few who were qualified to act as justice of the
peace, to vote for a member of Parliament, to fill the office of
sheriff. He became a small despot in his own part of the
country, having very considerable control over the liberties of
his neighbors. The institution of a local magistracy, which
answered well enough in England, where there was a certain
amount of public opinion, was a local tyranny in Ireland,
where the large land-owner had it all his own way, where there
was no public opinion except that of the other local land-
owners, and where no notice would be taken by the Castle of
any complaints, if such complaints ever succeeded in arriving
there.
Of the new nobility which sprang up at this time and
swamped the old nobility of the Pale, the most remarkable was
Richard Boyle, " the great Earl of Cork." He was the son of
a Herefordshire squire, a man of very considerable ability, but
utterly unscrupulous. Having found it advisable to absent
himself from England by reason, as his enemies say, of his
"forgeries, rasings, and perjuries,'7 or because, as he himself
puts it, " it pleased Divine Providence to lead him into Ireland,"
148 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
he arrived in Dublin in 1588, with little else in the world but
two suits of clothes, a diamond ring, a gold bracelet, and £27
3s. in money. He managed to wriggle himself into the office
of deputy escheator of the lands of Munster, under cover of
which, by a series of frauds, he became possessed of a consider-
able extent of the forfeited Irish estates. He was twice in-
dicted for felony, and committed to prison in Dublin six times
in five years; but, by his adroitness and the skilful use of
bribes, succeeded in cheating justice, and becoming secretary to
Sir George Carew. "God having blest him with a reasonable
estate," as he piously says in his memoir, his new patron, the
President of Munster, made his fortune for him. He advised
and assisted him to advance money to the amount of some
£1500 to Sir Walter Ealeigh on the security of his vast grant
of land in Cork and Waterford. The mortgage was foreclosed,
and Kaleigh's widow and children afterwards complained, in
a fruitless petition to the crown, that the estates had been
"juggled away." Carew introduced him to Sir Geoffrey Fen-
ton, the queen's surveyor-general, whose daughter he married;
and he knighted him on the day of his wedding. Protected
by Carew, Essex, and Cecil, with all of whom he was careful to
ingratiate himself, he escaped the reward of his misdeeds, and
was successively created Baron Youghal, Viscount Dungarvan,
Earl of Cork, and a privy-councillor.
William Parsons was another upstart whose career resembled
that of Boyle. An Englishman of low birth, and with no edu-
cation beyond that of reading and writing, he had gone over
to Ireland with £40 in his pocket to seek his fortune. Having
got into the service of one Kenny, the escheator-general, and
saved some money by a combination of hard work and sharp
practice, he married a niece of Sir Geoffrey Fenton, the sur-
veyor-general, and in a.d. 1602 succeeded to that office, and
became a commissioner of the escheated lands in Ulster. Tak-
ing advantage of his position, he took care not to be left out
in the allotment of lands, obtaining 1890 acres in Tyrone and
2000 acres in Fermanagh alone. By these means and others
still more scandalous, as in the case of the estates of the
O'Byrnes of Wicklow, he secured, over 8000 acres and amassed
THE PLANTATION OF LEINSTER.
149
an immense fortune. Having secured the patronage of Buck-
ingham, he set at defiance all accusations made against his pro-
ceedings, and, in company with the Earl of Cork, was one of
the most influential members of the privy council. He was
the ancestor of the earls of Kosse of the first creation.
Many of the novi homines of this date were army men, who
obtained large tracts of land as undertakers or as rewards for
services. Of these the most conspicuous were Sir Richard
Wingfield, who was rewarded with the Powerscourt estates of
the O'Byrnes, and other grants under the Ulster and Wexford
plantations; Sir Charles Coote, who secured large estates in
Leitrim, Sligo, Roscommon, and Queen's County; Sir Toby
Caulfield, who had served under Mountjoy, and who obtained
lands in Tyrone and Armagh, and was created Viscount Caul-
field; and Sir Arthur Chichester, the lord deputy, and the
superintendent of the Ulster plantation, who took advantage
of his position to secure the whole territory of Innishowen
in Donegal, besides lands in Tyrone, and became Baron of
Belfast.
Another class of persons who made their fortunes at this
time were clergymen. A newly ordained youth, like Adam
Loftus or Dr. Jones, would come over as chaplain to the lord
deputy, and quickly be pushed into a deanery, a few big liv-
ings, or a bishopric, and, living comfortably at Dublin, draw his
large income, which he invested in land. Others leased out the
Church lands, and took large fines for renewals, or secured long
leases of Church lands to themselves at low rents. More than
one ample estate was put together in this fashion, and more
than one family founded which will be found in the Peerage
of Ireland.
It was at this time and in this way that the new English
interest became developed. The new adventurers hung to-
gether and intermarried with each other. They did not exhibit
the tendency to amalgamate with the people whom they found
in Ireland to nearly the same extent as those who had gone
before them. They were essentially strangers in the land, who
felt that they had gone in for a good speculation, and who
would have to do their uttermost to maintain their position.
150
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
At the same time, they knew that they must have England at
their backhand so they studiously cultivated the English gov-
ernment, and supplanted the old Anglo-Irish families in the
favor and good-will of the deputies. They were the embryo
of the "Protestant ascendency" of the eighteenth century.


Book IV.
THE SECOND CONQUEST
CHAPTER I.
SOWING THE WIND AGAIN. A.D. 1620-1629.
The new men, such as Boyle, Parsons, and Loftus, into
whose hands the reins of power had now fallen, were all of
strong Protestant tendencies. The policy which excluded the
Roman Catholics from every office of state, of necessity placed
the government in the hands of the extreme men of the con-
trary way of thinking. Accordingly, we find a regular harass-
ing of the Roman Catholics by the Castle authorities, the Oath
of Supremacy being constantly required, and the Act of Uni-
formity steadily enforced, to the exclusion from public offices
and professions, and the systematic impoverishment, of those
who refused the one or disobeyed the other. The bishops,
with Usher at their head, were one and all of the extreme
ultra-Protestant school. Usher introduced the Nine Articles
of Lambeth concerning predestination, grace, and justifying
faith, with one or two of his own composition identifying the
Pope with Antichrist, all of which were accepted by Convoca-
tion. Many of the Presbyterian clergy, who had come over
with the Scotch colony, were inducted into Ulster livings;
while "to grant the Papists toleration" was denounced from
all the pulpits as "a grievous sin."
James, on the other hand, who had his eye on the subsidies,
was anxious, in the later years of his reign, to hold out to the
recusants the prospect of toleration in return for a liberal vote
of money. He discouraged the persecution of the recusants,
and, in deference to their complaints, replaced the Puritan
deputy, Sir Oliver St. John, by Lord Falkland, a man of much
less pronounced views. On the accession of Charles, who was
believed to have strong leanings towards the Roman Catholics,
the hopes of the latter rose, and some attempt was made to
restore the Romish worship in a few of the churches. Even a
7*
154 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
Roman Catholic seminary was opened, and a body of Carmelite
friars ventured to establish themselves in Dublin. The result
was a furious outcry on the part of the clergy and the Protes-
tant faction. The Popish College was seized, and handed over
to the University of Dublin, and the friars were driven from
their monastery by a file of musketeers. So was the see-saw
kept up between toleration and persecution, the crown ever
ready to take advantage of the latter in a profitable bargain
wherein the former was to be bought and sold.
Charles, on coming to the throne, found himself mightily
hampered with his father's debts. James's extravagance and
bad management had left the treasury empty, and the country
was embroiled in a disastrous war for the restoration of his
son-in-law to the Palatinate. Money was to be raised at all
events; and the king was prepared to promise anything for a
good round sum in hard cash. He was perfectly willing to be
bribed by the recusants into granting them liberty of con-
science, or to close with the offer of the Connaught land-owners
and confirm their titles for a consideration. But the Protes-
tant party, though small, was powerful. Concession, therefore,
to the recusants was dangerous, and to enroll the Connaught
grants was to kill the goose with the golden eggs. The easiest
way out of the difficulty was to promise everything, secure the
money, and then shuffle out of the performance; and such a
scheme especially commended itself to a mind like that of
Charles.
A deputation from the principal nobility and gentry of Ire-
land waited on the king, and offered a voluntary contribution
of £120,000, to be paid in three years, in return for the con-
cession of civil and religious liberty. The concessions to be
made were reduced into writing, and were comprised in fifty-
one articles; they were denominated "Graces," and were in
the nature of a "petition of right." The substance of them
was that the king's title to land should not be set up where
the owner had had sixty years' possession. The surrenders in
Connaught were to be enrolled without payment of further
fees. The Connaught landlords were to be confirmed in their
estates by statute, and a Parliament for effecting that object
SOWING THE WIND AGAIN.
155
was shortly to be summoned. All undertakers were to be al-
lowed an extension of time for the fulfilment of their covenant.
The extortion practised by the Court of Wards was to be re-
strained, as also was the oppressive levying of the king's taxes
by means of the soldiery. The jurisdiction of the Court of
the Castle Chamber—the Irish Star-chamber—in private causes
was to be restricted; and the testimony of convicted and con-
demned felons was to be refused where the liberty of the sub-
ject was concerned. Recusants were to be allowed to practise
in the courts of law, and sue the livery of their lands out of the
Court of Wards, an oath'of civil allegiance being substituted
for the Oath of Supremacy, while the clergy were to be pro-
hibited from committing the "contumacious" to their own
private prisons. Such was the very reasonable charter of liberty
asked for by the leading men of Ireland, which, it is hardly too
much to say, if Charles had honestly conceded it, would have
reduced the rebellion of 1641 to a local rising without a pros-
pect of success.
The king gave his word, and consented to the granting of
the "Graces" with alacrity. Formal instructions as to their
substance were transmitted to the lord deputy; great satisfac-
tion prevailed; and the first subsidy of £40,000 was cheerfully
paid. Falkland at once issued writs for the summoning of a
Parliament, which was to give the royal promise the force of
law, and convert what was mere waste paper into a binding in-
strument. And here the duplicity of the king declared itself.
Care was taken not to obtain the king's license under the great
seal for the holding of the Parliament, and that no heads of
the bills to be introduced were previously sent over to the Eng-
lish privy council, in conformity with the provisions of Poy-
nings's Act. It was suddenly discovered, when it was conven-
iently too late, that, in consequence of the omission of these
formalities, the issuing of the writs was illegal and void. No
fresh writs were forthcoming, and the promised Parliament for
confirming the "Graces" was relegated to the limbo of violated
pledges.
156
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER II.
THE WENTWORTH SCOURGE. A.D. 1632-1641.
Falkland was driven to resign by the Irish council, who
persecuted him on account of his leniency towards the Roman
Catholics, and the government was left temporarily in the
hands of lords justices, Lord Cork and Lord Loftus.* Charles
had a pet scheme for governing the three kingdoms by means
of a favorite minister in each, reserving a general control over
the whole to himself. Laud was to answer for England, the
Marquis of Hamilton for Scotland; and the man of all others
for Ireland was Lord Wentworth, who, as president of the
north, had screwed up the revenue of his province from £2000
to £10,000 a year. Accordingly, in the spring of 1632, Went-
worth was appointed lord deputy, and took up his residence in
Dublin in the July of the following year.
Sir Thomas Wentworth was a Yorkshire baronet of ancient
lineage. Shortly after attaining his majority he became his
own master, and the possessor of what was then the princely
income of £5000 a year, by the death of his father. His am-
bition prompted him to take part in the stirring public life of
the day; all his associations and predilections attached him to
the royalist party; and he came into Parliament as representa-
tive of his native county, with Calvert, the king's secretary of
state, as his colleague. At first he took no part in debate, and
gave a silent support to the government; but having incurred
the enmity of the Duke of Buckingham, and hoping to increase
his importance by showing an independent spirit, he began to
form an alliance with the opposition. This drew down upon
him the vengeance of the court, and he was successively pricked
* Adam Loftus, nephew of the Earl of Sussex's chaplain, was Lord Chancellor
of Ireland in 1619, and created Viscount Loftus of Ely in 1622.
THE WENTWOKTH SCOURGE.
157
for sheriff, deprived of the office of custos rotulorum of his
county, and sent to the Marshalsea for refusing to pay a forced
"benevolence" to the crown. His advances spurned by the
government, and his indignation boiling over at his six weeks'
imprisonment, lie flung himself into the arms of the patriots,
and made common cause with the leaders of the popular party.
All through the stormy session of 1628 he denounced the ar-
bitrary government of the king, and stood shoulder to shoulder
■with Eliot and Pym in support of the Petition of Right. His
violence and desertion of the royal cause had their reward. On
the prorogation of Parliament, Charles opened communications
with him. His liberal friends, being of no further use to him,
were cast aside, and he returned to his allegiance to the king.
Then came the reward—a peerage, and the presidency of the
north. Charles had won a devoted servant, Lord Went worth
a career for his ambition.
Such had, shortly, been the previous history of the new lord
deputy. In his presidential court at York he had given the
reins to his imperious will. A fine field for despotic rule lay
open in Ireland. With Laud to support him at the council-
board in England, he prepared to carry out his policy of "Thor-
ough," both in Church and State, and to make the sister isle
an example for the rest of the kingdom to follow.
Wentworth had a supreme contempt for the sordid oligarchy
in whose hands he found vested the government of Ireland.
He believed in paternal government, and honestly wished to
rule the Irish people with justice and moderation, so long as
the king's interests were not interfered with. His hand was
heavy on the jobbers of the Castle, the mushroom nobility of
the plantations, and the great land-owners of the west, because
both the one and the other resisted his plans for draining their
pockets into the king's treasury. But to the mass of the peo-
ple he endeavored to secure a just administration of the law;
to the recusants he desired to be tolerant, holding that "our
own Church should be first reformed." He secured the ship-
ping trade by sweeping the swarms of Algerine pirates from
the sea; and though he ruthlessly crushed the woollen trade,
for fear it should compete with that of England, he had the
158 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
wit to see that the soil was suitable for the growth of flax; and,
having imported Flemish weavers and erected mills, laid the
foundation of the Irish linen-manufacture. His main objects
were to make Charles "the most absolute prince in Christen-
dom," and that, too, in the person of the king's deputy; to
raise a large revenue to relieve the king's necessities in Eng-
land, and so render him independent of English parliaments;
to discipline and reform the Irish army, which might perhaps
become an important factor in any dispute between the king
and his English or Scotch subjects; and to drive the Low
Church Irish clergy into the High Church ceremonial and doc-
trine of Archbishop Laud.
His first step on arriving in Dublin was to summon a Parlia-
ment. Charles was horrified at the suggestion. He had had
experience of "that hydra," and had found it "as well cunning
as malicious." But Wentworth knew what he was about, and
saw that an Irish Parliament clenched in the vice of Poynings's
Act could be used as a tool without risk of its becoming dan-
gerous.
He had got the Irish council well in hand, having snubbed
them into sullen obedience at his first interview. On their
showing signs of independence at the drawmg-up of the heads
of bills for transmission to London, he had rated them soundly
and awed them into silence. The time-honored claim of the
lords of the Pale to be consulted on the projected measures
was contemptuously set aside, and the only thing remaining to
be done was to manipulate the elections. So dexterously was
the packing of the Parliament managed that the Protestants
and Roman Catholics nearly balanced each other; and a picked
handful of military men were returned who could be depended
on to turn the scale as the lord deputy desired.
Wentworth was careful to open Parliament with a ceremony
and magnificence the like of which had never before been seen
in Dublin. Upon the assembling of the houses, he harangued
them in a loud, bold voice, demanding subsidies of £100,000
to clear off the debts of the crown, and £20,000 to meet the
annual deficit in the revenue. He announced that there would
be two sessions, "one for the crown," in which the subsidies
THE WENTWORTH SCOURGE.
159
were to be voted, "and one for them," in which the "Graces"
should be considered; and he wound up his initiatory lecture
by advising them "to take heed of private meetings and con-
sults in their chambers of design, and privily beforehand to
contrive how to discourse and carry the public affairs when
they came into the houses," for the king "expected not to find
them muttering and mutinying in corners."
Browbeaten and dismayed, the Commons did their part at
once, and voted six subsidies of £45,000 each, amounting in
all to £270,000.* The Lords, less submissive, complained
loudly of the public grievances; and drew up several bills to
be transmitted to England. But Wentworth cut them short
by telling them that this was in contravention of Poynings's
Act, and their powers were limited to petitioning the crown.
The second session, "their session," was held in the following
October. "Wentworth, having got his subsidies, had no inten-
tion of confirming the "Graces." He had purged the privy
council of his most obstinate opponents; and to that sub-
servient body he now dictated a petition to the crown that a
number of the "Graces" might be annulled, as being incon-
sistent with the king's interest. Upon the strength of this, he
coolly announced to the Parliament that the "Graces" would
not be confirmed; and, having discreetly set the Protestants
and recusants by the ears, with the help of the former got a
division in his favor; and so the session ended.
Having filled the treasury, and relieved his mind with a se-
ries of gleeful despatches to Land, he turned upon the Church.
The latter was in pitiful need of reconstruction. Its condition
had gone from bad to worse. The buildings were in ruins;
the parish clergy either non-resident or in a state of beggary.
The glebe-lands and tithes had been recklessly alienated by
greedy and fraudulent incumbents; and none but the most ig-
norant and profligate persons could be induced to take the liv-
ings, which had been plundered of their endowments. In the
diocese of Ferns and Leighlin, the livings were farmed out to
the patron at £2, £3, and £4 per annum for long periods. In
* 10 Car. I., session 1, cc. 1,2.
160 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
Connaught a vicar's stipend was seldom greater than 405. a
year. Even the revenues of the bishoprics had been shame-
fully reduced, either by absolute grants, or long leases of the
Church lands made by unscrupulous Churchmen to their re-
lations and friends; some having fallen as low as £50 per
annum.
The lord deputy went to work with a will.* All the impro-
priations which were vested in the crown were conveyed to the
clergy. A commission was issued for the repair of churches;
and suits were promptly instituted in the Castle Chamber to
recover Church property which had been appropriated by the
laity. The Earl of Cork was compelled to disgorge tithes and
lands belonging to the College of Youghal and the see of Wa-
terford to the value of £2000 a year. The Bishop of Kil-
lala, who had made a fraudulent compromise in relation to cer-
tain Church lands, was summoned to the presence-chamber,
where Wentworth roughly told him "that he deserved to have
his rochet pulled over his ears;" and, as he chuckles to Laud,
"so warmed his old sides as he made him break the agreement
and crave pardon."
But Wentworth and the Archbishop of Canterbury were not
content with restoring the Church temporalities, they aspired
to a "uniformity of religion." In their eyes the Presbyterian
of Ulster was as hateful as the Popish recusant, and the Cal-
vinistic character of the bishops and clergy of the Irish estab-
lishment more shameful than either. The Court of High Com-
mission was established in Dublin, and set to work to expel
the Presbyterian ministers from the plantations. Bramhall, a
vehement High Churchman, whom Wentworth had brought
over with him, was made Bishop of Deny. Convocation
was summoned and soundly rated, and required to repudiate
the articles of Lambeth and adopt those of the English Church.
When the unwilling Usher submitted to the lord deputy a
draft of the canon to be propounded, Wentworth boldly drew
up one of his own, which he forced the Convocation to accept.
Laud's plan of shifting the communion-table from the body
* See 10 Car. I., session 3, c. 1; 10,11 Car. I. cc; 2,3.
THE WENTWORTH SCOURGE.
161
to the east end of the church was carried out where possible,
and a more elaborate ceremonial introduced; while Went-
worth's old enemy, the Earl of Cork, was, to his intense indig-
nation, compelled to remove a mighty family monument which
he had erected on the site of the old high altar in St. Patrick's
Cathedral.
Wentworth, having dragooned both the Parliament and the
Church, now proceeded to replenish the treasury still further
by attacking the Connaught landlords. The threat of a plan-
tation in Connaught had hitherto been a most useful lever for
the extortion of money. The crown had obtained subsidy
after subsidy by alternately brandishing the rod of confiscation,
or dangling the bait of a confirmation of titles, over their
devoted heads. Wentworth felt that the game was nearly
played out, and that the time had come to see what could
be made of killing the goose which had laid so many golden
eggs. He began by unearthing the original grants of Henry
III. to Richard De Burgh, and traced the devolution of the
province, through the earls of Ulster and March, to its vesting
in the crown in the person of Edward IV. He exhumed the
surrender of O'Connor to King John, the regrant, and the
subsequently alleged forfeiture. The ingenuity of the court
lawyers sufficed to pick holes in the letters-patent of Elizabeth
and James, and the inevitable conclusion was of course arrived
at, that the whole of Connaught was the property of Charles.
Forthwith he went with the Commissioners of Plantation into
Roscommon, Mayo, and Sligo. The juries, carefully composed
of u persons of such means as might answer the king a round
fine in the Castle Chamber in case they should prevaricate,"
were terrified and bribed into finding verdicts for the king;
and, having carried his point in the north and east of the prov-
ince, he turned to deal with Galway, where some show of re-
sistance was expected. Here the population was almost wholly
recusant, and devoted to the Earl of Clanricarde; the greater
portion of the freeholders were either Bourkes or allied to
Bourkes by marriage. Wentworth cared not. He held his
court in the eaiTs own castle at Portumna. He silenced the
recusant lawyers by imposing the Oath of Supremacy as a con-
162 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
dition precedent to their being allowed to plead, and fined the
sheriff £1000, and imprisoned him also, for empanelling an
obstinate jury. But coercion was met with stubborn resistance,
and the juries found verdicts for the land-owners. Wentworth,
furious at the resistance to his will, dragged the jurors before
the Castle Chamber, where they were cross-questioned and fined
£4000 apiece, and sentenced to imprisonment until the fines
were paid and they should retract their decision. The wretch-
ed sheriff died in prison; the old Earl of Clanricarde sank into
the grave from mortification; and, sooner or later, overmatched
in the struggle, the land-owners gave way and submitted.
But Wentworth, though he had a plantation in view, was
principally concerned to extort money, and the land itself to
no great extent passed into other hands. The landlords were
allowed to compound by the payment of fines and fixed quit-
rents, and in some cases by the surrender of a portion of their
estates, especially where provision was required for the Church.
The principal business of the commission for defective titles,
after the king's "just and honorable title" had been found,
was to receive these compositions; and the Chief-justice of the
Common Pleas and the Lord Chief Baron, who presided over
the inquisitions, were stimulated to "intend it with a care and
diligence such as if it were their own private," by the receipt
of a commission of 4s. in the pound on the first year's rent ex-
tracted from the confiscated estates.
If Wentworth's hand was heavy on the great landholders of
the west, it was none the less so on the more modern English
nobility. Lord Wilmot, an officer of Mountjoy's army, who
had become a landed proprietor, a peer, and Governor of Con-
naught, was forced to account for lands he was said to have
usurped from the crown; Sir Piers Crosby was dismissed from
the council for opposing in Parliament one of the government
bills; Loftus was deprived of his office, and imprisoned, for
refusing to obey an order of the privy council for the payment
of his daughter's marriage portion; and Lord Mountnorris, for
some incautious words let fall at the lord chancellor's table,
was court-martialled and actually sentenced to be shot.
But a storm was brewing in England and Scotland, which
THE WENTWORTH SCOURGE.
163
was destined to ruin both the ]ord deputy and his master. For
ten years Charles had been trying the experiment of governing
without a Parliament, and had endeavored to keep his treasury
full by means of monopolies, forced loans, and the illegal levy-
ing of customs dues. The country was on fire at the gathering
of ship-money, which had been declared a legal impost by a
corrupt bench of judges. Laud had made himself hateful in
England by his rigorous Church policy. The fined, pilloried,
and mutilated Puritans cried aloud for justice; and the Scotch,
on whom he had recklessly ventured to force a new liturgy,
had signed the Covenant, and were in open rebellion.
Charles, in despair, sent over for Wentwortb, who came
and formed a secret junto with Laud and Hamilton. An im-
mediate blow at the Scotch was at once decided on. The for-
tresses of the south were to be held with Irish garrisons; the
treasury was to be filled by the long-delayed Parliament; a
voluntary loan was to be started, with Wentworth's name at
the head for £20,000. Wentworth himself was to return to
Ireland as lord-lieutenant and Earl of Strafford—a title twice
before solicited by him in vain. Irish subsidies were to be ob-
tained, and the Irish array, under the command of the young
Earl of Ormonde, held in readiness for active service, Straf-
ford's energy had raised the Irish revenue to an excess over
expenditure of £60,000 a year. His measures of army reform
had produced a well-paid, well-armed, well-provided force of
8000 foot and 1000 horse, which were assembled at Carrickf er-
gus and awaiting transport. An obedient Parliament prompt-
ly voted four subsidies;* and Strafford, tortured with gout,
hurried over again to England to take command of a broken,
disaffected army, and to find the treaty of Ripon signed with
the Scots behind his back.
The end was now at hand. It was too late to bring over the
Irish army. Charles had upset all the calculated plans of the
busy-brained earl, and had cut the ground from under his feet.
The Long Parliament had assembled—a very different body
from that expected by the king and his ministers. The sup-
* Irish Stats.. 15 Car. I. c. 13.
164 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
pressed mutterings of three kingdoms against the well-hated
viceroy were rising into an overwhelming storm. The Irish
Commons, released from his dreaded presence, impeached four
of the privy council who were his creatures. The victims of
his tyranny, Connaught landlords, Castle officials, Presbyterian
pastors, swarmed over to England to accuse him. All England
and Ireland watched with breathless interest the trial of the
man who, in the words of the impeachment, " had endeavored
to subvert the fundamental laws of the realm, and to introduce
arbitrary and tyrannical government;" and rejoiced when his
selfish, thankless master, whom he had devotedly served, as he
had himself so often boasted, " at the peril of his head," signed
the bill of his attainder* and sent him to the scaffold.
* English Stats., 16 Car. I. c. 1.
PROVINCIAL INSURRECTIONS IN 1641.
165
CHAPTER III.
PROVINCIAL INSURRECTIONS IN 1641.
Upon the death of Strafford, the king, in deference to the
views of the English Parliament, appointed Sir William Par-
sons and Sir John Borlase, an old soldier, to hold the office
of lords justices. The island, to all appearances, was in a state
of complete tranquillity; and though there were rumors of dis-
affection in the air, and some significant warnings were given,
the lords justices paid them no attention.
But, notwithstanding this apparent quiet, the minds of the
native Irish were greatly stirred by many things. There was
a bitter feeling of suppressed hatred throughout the country.
The wholesale confiscations were neither forgotten nor for-
given, and the smouldering fire of discontent had only been
prevented from bursting forth by the terror of Strafford's
government. The religion of the people was proscribed by
law; and, though its free exercise was to a great extent winked
at, and practically, with the exception of an occasional outburst
of intolerance, there was little or no persecution, the law might
be put actively in force at any moment; and, rightly or
wrongly, a very general belief had got abroad that the English
Puritans had determined to stamp out Popery in Ireland.
The ruthless proscriptions of Elizabeth had done their work;
and a host of Irish had been driven over the sea with a fierce
hatred of England in their hearts, to become hardy and ex-
perienced soldiers in the service of Spain, and to foster in
exile the hope of revenge upon their great enemy; while at
home Strafford's disbanded army, which was almost wholly
composed of Irish Roman Catholics, was ready and waiting to
be re-enlisted by the first popular leader who should concert a
rising. The recent successful appeal to arms by the Scotch in
the cause of religious liberty had been duly noted; as also had
166 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
the increasing state of tension in the relations of the king and
the English Parliament What the Scotch had done, the Irish
might fairly expect to do; and, as usual, the embarrassment
of the English government was the opportunity of the Irish.
They overlooked the fact that the rebellion of the Scotch was
successful because the English Commons sympathized with
them both in their purpose and their faith; that the struggle
was between the king and two nations; whereas an Irish re-
bellion meant a national and religious war in which the Irish
would be confronted with the old antagonism of race, and the
united bigotry of Scotch Presbyterian and English Puritan.
At this time an Irish gentleman of great address and
ability, named Roger (or Rory) O'Moore, was earnestly canvass-
ing the possibility of making a stand against the English gov-
ernment. Rory O'Moore was the representative of the ancient
house of the O'Moores of Leix, which had been well-nigh ex-
terminated by the plantation of Queen's County. He had
passed some years on the Continent, where he had been very
intimate with the titular young Earl of Tyrone, Hugh's only
surviving son. He had secretly enlisted Lord McGuire, Baron
of Enniskillen, who had been restored to a portion of the Mc-
Guire estates in Fermanagh; Sir Phelim O'Neil of Kinnard, the
representative of a collateral branch of the O'Neil family; and
Richard Plunket, a gentleman of the Pale. They were soon
joined by several gentlemen of the ancient septs of the north—»
McMahon, McGennis, O'Reilly; and also by Hugh O'Byrne of
Wicklow, and Sir James Dillon. Hopes were entertained of
seducing the Roman Catholic lords of the Pale, and Lord
Mayo, the head of the Northern Bourkes. The conspiracy
was quickly matured and the closest secrecy maintained.
The plan of action decided on was, by a coup de main, to
seize Dublin Castle, which was weakly guarded with barely
fifty men, but which contained a great store of powder, a large
stand of arms, and thirty-five guns. Simultaneously the forts
and garrison towns in the north were to be surprised, and the
gentry made prisoners in their country-houses, as hostages for
the persons of the insurgent leaders in case of defeat. The
whole enterprise was to be carried out with as little bloodshed
PROVINCIAL INSURRECTIONS IN 1641.
16?
as possible, and the Scottish settlers were to be treated as kins-
men and allies and not to be interfered with. The expressed
object of the movement was to compel the king to re-establish
the Roman Catholic religion, to repeal Poynings's Act, and to
restore the confiscated estates. And though some of the lead-
ers were for breaking away from England altogether, the more
moderate appear, at any rate at this time, to have had no in-
tention of renouncing their allegiance to the king.
The whole of the available troops in the country numbered
but 2000 men; and these were scattered in companies of fifty
in the different forts and towns. Sir William Parsons had
ample warning both from the local magistrates and from Eng-
land that mischief was brewing; but, having already largely
profited by the confiscation of estates, he appears to have been
criminally careless, if not actually desirous of a rising as afford-
ing a pretext for fresh forfeitures. No precautions were taken
to concentrate the troops, or to put the provinces in a posture
of defence; and it was not till they were told, on the very eve
of the outbreak, of the plot to seize the Castle that the lords
justices took any active measures. They then closed the gates
of the city and arrested McMahon and Lord McGuire. These
arrests were made at daybreak on the 23d of October, 1641,
the morning fixed for the attack; and, upon finding the plot
was discovered, O'Moore, O'Byrne, and Plunket escaped with
their adherents.
But, though the attempt on the Castle had failed, a simul-
taneous rising in Ulster was carried out with astonishing pre-
cision. . The ancient Irish tribes which had been evicted,
transplanted, and dispersed seemed to start out of the ground
in all their old individuality. There were the O'Reillys, the
O'Hanlons, the McGennises, the O'Quins. There were the Mc-
Guires, the O'Farrels, the McMahons, the O'Kanes; each with
their representative chief, and intent on their old domains;
and of course an O'Neii at the head of the insurrection. The
fort of Charlemont, the most important position in the new
plantation, was treacherously seized by Sir Phelim O'Neil, who
had asked himself to dinner with old Lord Caulfield, the gov-
ernor. Dungannon and Mountjoy, which completed the chain
168 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
of forts dominating Tyrone, were surprised the same night;
and the gates of Newry, with its small store of arms and ammu-
nition, were opened to Sir Con McGennis. Every town in
Ulster and in the County of Longford fell into the hands of
the insurgents, with hardly an exception. Only Deny, Cole-
raine, and Enniskillen on the one side, and Lisbura, Lurgan,
Belfast, and Carrickfergus on the other, closed their gates in
time, and were defended by the English settlers and a handful
of troops. The country-houses and farms of the planters were
seized and plundered by the Irish; their occupants being driven
forth to find refuge in the forest and in the few towns which
held out. Men, women, and children were stripped naked and
sent to find their way across country to Dublin. Hundreds
died of exposure to the bitter weather, and fell exhausted by
the way; hundreds only escaped to Dublin and Carrickfergus
to die.
As yet, however, the gentlemen who had organized the rising
managed to keep their followers fairly under control; personal
outrages were the exception; and the terms on which the de-
fenders of castles and country-houses surrendered were honor-
ably respected. Where moderate men were in command,
murder was promptly checked. Indeed, in Cavan, where the
two O'Reillys, one the sheriff and the other the member for the
county, were the leaders, the revolution was almost bloodless.
But it was far otherwise in Armagh, and the neighboring
portions of Tyrone and Down, where Sir Phelim O'Neil had
his headquarters.
This dissolute ruffian, who had been bred up in England in
the Protestant faith, and had reverted to the ancient creed,
had prior to the rebellion wasted the paternal acres by ex-
travagance and debauchery, and had eagerly joined in Rory
O'Moore's conspiracy in the hopes of recovering the vast do-
mains of the O'Neils. The rising in the north had been in-
trusted to his organization, and he found himself in a few
days' time at the head of a rabble of some 30,000 men, armed
principally with knives and pitchforks. With these disorderly
forces, which he designated "the Catholic Army," he attempt-
ed to storm the castle of Augher and the towns of Enniskillen
PROVINCIAL INSURRECTIONS IN 1641.
169
and Lisburn. Furious at being repulsed, and maddened with
drink, he determined to wreak his vengeance on the defence-
less Protestants within his reach. He caused Mr. Blaney, the
member for Monaghan, to be hanged; and old Lord Caulfield,
his prisoner, to be shot. He ordered all the Scotch and Eng-
lish to be killed in three adjacent parishes after the defeat at
Augher; and, on hearing that Newry had been recovered by
Lord Conway, he burned the town and cathedral of Armagh,
and murdered some hundreds of the inhabitants, although they
had surrendered on the promise of their lives. He hounded
on the Irish to massacre the planters and their families. These
wretched people were swept out of their villages, and driven
by hundreds into the Bann and the Blackwater, and flung over
the bridge at Portadown. The houses in which women and
children had taken refuge were set on fire and the inmates
burned. Men were hanged and butchered with knives. Wom-
en were systematically ripped up, especially the pregnant ones,
though they appear generally to have been spared the last
wrongs of dishonor, llory McGuire in Fermanagh seems to
have caught the infection from O'JSTeil and rivalled him in his
crimes, stripping, killing, and ripping in the same indiscrimi-
nate fashion. In recounting the ferocity of the Irish insur-
gents, it should not, however, be forgotten that there were fre-
quent cases of English and Scotch Protestants being protected
by their Irish neighbors, and owing life and safety to their un-
selfish generosity. Some of the Irish priests and Jesuits were
especially conspicuous for these acts of Christian mercy, hid-
ing the terrified suppliants under the altar-cloths, and striving
to stop the bloodshed at the risk of their own lives.
There has been great difference of opinion as to the num-
ber of persons who suffered death at this period of the out-
break. It is next to impossible to make even an approximate
estimate; no doubt the numbers were greatly exaggerated
both at the time and since, both unintentionally and for po-
litical purposes. When we consider the number of the origi-
nal undertakers, and the number of tenants they covenanted to
plant on their estates; m& that as a rule they never fulfilled
their covenants to the extent of one half, but that the greater
8
170 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
portion of the English lived in the walled towns—allowance
also being made for the numbers which escaped into the for-
tified cities and to Dublin during the week's respite which oc-
curred between the original outbreak and the commencement
of the slaughter, and the comparatively limited area over which
the massacre extended—we shall most likely be nearest the
mark if we accept the figures of Dr. Warner, a Protestant
writer who made an especially careful investigation of the
evidence, which give between four and five thousand as mur-
dered in cold blood, and eight thousand as victims to expo-
sure and ill-usage.
All this while a parallel but wholly independent movement
had been going on among the old Anglo-Irish families. They
hated the new English interest as cordially as the king detest-
ed the sturdy patriots who were resisting his arbitrary conduct
in England. They were to a man Iioman Catholic. The
men of the new English interest were Protestant to the back-
bone. Community of interest drew the old Anglo-Irish and
Charles together, just as community of interest was arraying
the Puritan Dublin oligarchy on the side of the English Par-
liament. The clamor of the latter had compelled Charles
unwillingly to disband the Irish army which Strafford had la-
bored to construct; but he still hoped that Ormonde and An-
trim wTould be able to reassemble it, and that he would find it
possible to rely on the old Anglo-Irish nobility for the subjuga-
tion of his troublesome subjects at home. The foolhardy An-
trim was ready to raise the whole Pale in defence of the king,
and to drive the lords justices into the sea. Ormonde was
more cautious, and, while Charles was nominally in accord with
his government at Dublin, took his orders from them. The
rising of the native Irish upset Charles's plans and forced his
hand. "The fools," says Antrim, "well liking the business,
would not expect our manner for ordering the work, but fell
upon it without us, and so spoiled it." The native Irish cared
nothing for Charles, and only desired national independence.
The old Anglo-Irish wished only for liberty of worship, and
freedom from the greedy usurpation of the new English in-
terest. Charles vainly hoped to make use of both these diver-
PROVINCIAL INSURRECTIONS IN 1641.
171
gent bodies for his own purposes. He spread the discord in-
stead of allaying it. He converted a provincial rising into a
national rebellion against England. All through the compli-
cated events of the ensuing ten years we find four distinct par-
ties, generally pulling in different directions; four antagonistic
forces which nothing could reconcile. There was the old Irish
party, whose aim soon resolved itself into separation from Eng-
land; the old Anglo-Irish party, whose object was civil and re-
ligious liberty, and no separation; the Puritan party, which
became complicated with the Presbyterian interest of the
Scotch in Ulster, and was strongly anti-Irish in every sense;
and there was the Royalist party, personified by Ormonde,
which trimmed between the three others, and had as its ulte-
rior aim the crushing of the third by means of the other
two.
After the first shock of the revolt, the English began to
steady themselves and to hold their own. The king managed
to send over 1500 Scots to Carrickfergus, whose first perform-
ance was to sally forth and slaughter some thirty Irish families
in the peninsula of Island Magee. The refugees in the towns
were drilled and armed, and the offensive cautiously assumed.
O'Neil, finding Carrickfergus too strong for him, drew his men
south, and besieged Drogheda, which was gallantly defended
by Sir Henry Tichborne. The lords justices in the meantime
had summoned Ormonde to the capital and appointed him
lieutenant-general of the army. Ormonde, if he had been al-
lowed to have his own way, especially when some reinforce-
ments arrived from England, would soon have crushed the
rising while it was confined to the north. But for this the
lords justices had no mind, and he was confined to making
raids within thirty miles of Dublin.
The lords justices, owing to the strife of parties in England,
were in a very peculiar and delicate position. Rory O'Moore
had issued a subtle and ingenious manifesto, saying that he
and his friends had been compelled to take up arms to secure
the rights which they believed the king would willingly grant
them, were he not restrained from doing so by the Puritans in
England; and that they held the forts and towns which they
172 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
had captured till the king should be in a position to guarantee
them civil and religious liberty.
In England the king and the Parliament were bracing them-
selves for the death-struggle which was to end on the scaffold
at Whitehall. They both well knew what use might be made
of an Irish army. The king was consequently ready to make
any terras with the Ulster insurgents in order to release the
Irish troops, and possibly obtain material assistance from the
insurgents themselves. The Parliament dreaded nothing so
much as a termination of the revolt, fearing that the king
would obtain the sinews of war to an unlimited extent from
Ireland, and knowing that when they had settled matters
with Charles they could at any moment turn and repress the
rebellion.
The lords justices were in strong sympathy with the Eng-
lish Parliament, and determined to play into their hands; and,
at the same time, knowing that they were secure in Dublin, or,
at the worst, could retire in safety into England, were willing
to see the area of the revolt extended as much as possible, as
upon its final, inevitable suppression the spoil would be all the
greater. In England the accounts of the massacre were mag-
nified, and published, in order to justify severe measures with
the Koman Catholics. The ignorant people were persuaded
by the ranting preachers that the wild Irish were upon them,
and were in hourly fear that the Ulster fury would begin at
Bradford and Halifax! Parliament voted large sums of money
and bodies of troops for Irish service; and passed a significant
act which, after reciting that "divers worthy and well-affected
persons perceived that many millions of the rebels' lands which
go under the name of profitable lands would be confiscated,"
gave powers to open subscription lists for the raising of a war
fund upon the security of two and a half millions of Irish
acres, which it was reckoned would become forfeit and open
to a vast new plantation.** But neither the troops nor the
money reached their destination, and the Irish rebellion was a
convenient excuse both to Parliament and the king for the levy-
* English Stats., 16 Car. I.e.33.
PROVINCIAL INSURRECTIONS IN 1641.
173
ing of soldiers, who were to be employed on more urgent
occasions nearer home. The lords justices accordingly con-
tented themselves with holding Dublin, and sending foraging
parties "to kill, burn, and destroy,7' within easy reach of the
walls, regardless of whether the sufferers were in rebellion or
not.
The first indication of the spread of the revolt was a rising
of the O'Byrnes and O'Tooles in the half-planted districts of
Wicklow. This isolated movement was easily suppressed, Sir
Charles Coote being despatched against them with a small force
from Dublin. He recovered Wicklow Castle and drove the
rebels out of the town, and then proceeded to vie with the per-
petrators of the Ulster massacres by cruelties as wholesale and
indiscriminate, and the wanton slaughter of men, women, and
children. "Nits will be lice," was his brutal answer when
remonstrated with for impaling the babies at the breast.
Connaught had hitherto been kept tranquil by the efforts of
Lord Clanricarde, Lord Dillon, and Lord Mayo, who loyally
supported Lord Kanelagh, the president. Munster, though
agitated, and exasperated by the injudicious severities of Sir
Wareham St. Leger, the president of that province, was still;
quiescent. The lords of the Pale, the old Anglo-Norman fami-
lies, on the first outbreak in Ulster had unanimously expressed
their loyalty to the government, and had at the commencement
of the revolt implored Parsons to summon the Parliament to
announce the confirmation of the "Graces," to which the king
had now agreed, and distribute arms and ammunition for the pro-
tection of the Pale. The lords justices, who suspected them of
disaffection to themselves, and were only too anxious to drive
them into revolt, imprisoned their spokesman, Lord Dunsany,
prorogued the Parliament after two days' sitting, suppressed
the Graces, and even recalled the arms which they had at first
sparingly given out. They even went so far as to refuse to
permit any of the Pale families to enter Dublin for refuge.
The Pale lords thought they had a golden opportunity; they
believed that, if they threatened revolt, Charles would be com-
pelled to grant all their demands. They also believed that the
king would not be sorry to be forced into countenancing their
174 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
action against the government, and that he might be driven to
buy their support at the price of large concessions. Finding
themselves, therefore, flouted by the lords justices, whose help-
less inactivity they despised, and with some reason believing
their line of conduct not otherwise than agreeable to the king,
at the same time unarmed and defenceless in case of an on-
slaught by the rebels, they listened to the specious overtures of
Eory O'Moore. Seven peers and one thousand of the leading
gentry met the rebel leaders on the hill of Crofty; and by the
middle of December all the Pale was in revolt.
The defection of the Pale turned the local rising in Ulster
into a national rebellion. Leinster rose, and Lord Mountgarret
occupied Kilkenny and the city of Waterford. Minister fol-
lowed under the leadership of Lord Muskerry, the Barrys, and
every branch of the house of Butler; Ormonde, who had been
brought up in England as a Protestant, being the only one who
remained loyal. Clare was overrun by the O'Briens, in spite of
the Earl of Thomond, who held by the government; and Con-
naught, deserting the traditional leadership of Clanricarde,
joined the insurgent banner at the call of Lord Mayo. In
those parts of the three provinces thus tardily joining the con-
federates, where the remnants of the old evicted Irish tribes
were waiting for their revenge upon the planters, isolated acts
of cruelty were perpetrated upon the helpless English families
with the same horrid incidents as those committed in the
north. These were, however, the work of a few ungovernable
ruffians, and were promptly checked by the leaders of the re-
bellion, who did their utmost to provide for the safe convoying
of the expelled people to places of safety, and honorably kept
the terms of surrender entered into with the scattered parties
of besieged residents.
By the end of the year all Ireland was in the hands of the
rebels, with the exception of Dublin and Drogheda and some
of the fortified seaports, as Cork, Limerick, and Galway in the
south and west, and Enniskillen, Derry, and Carrickfergus in
Ulster. One or two garrisoned towns, such as Athlone and
Kildare, were held for the king; and a few country gentlemen's
castles were defended gallantly against overwhelming odds.
THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE REVOLT.
175
CHAPTER IV.
THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE REVOLT. A.D. 1642, 1643.
Notwithstanding the universal character which the rebell-
ion had now assumed, the lords justices still procrastinated. The
minds of the new English interest were less bent upon the
speedy crushing-out of disaffection than on paving the way to
a grand division of the spoil which they foresaw would be at
the disposal of the government. They were busy enough in
Dublin in the preparation of charges against the owners of
estates who were playing with the fire of treason. No less
than four thousand indictments were laid in three days, in the
most business-like fashion, and the rack was freely used to ex-
tract satisfactory evidence from the witnesses; Mr.'Barnewall
of Kilbrue, an old gentleman of sixty-six years, being among
those who were put to the torture.
In the south, the ever-rapacious Earl of Cork, now sinking
into his grave, who had fortified his castle of Lismore, and
organized his tenantry under his three sons—Lord Dungarvan,
Lord Kinalmeaky, and Lord Broghill—for the defence of his
territory, forwarded to the speaker of the Long Parliament
eleven hundred indictments against the land-owners of South
Munster, with an urgent request that they might be returned
to him at once with authority to proceed against the accused
as outlaws. He did not live to reap the profits of this whole-
sale work, though the infamous Broghill, worthy son of such a
sire, made his fortune and secured an earldom by judicious
fishing in the troubled waters of the day.
Even when Sir Phelim O'Neil had raised the siege of Drogh-
eda, in despair of ever taking it, and Ormonde, who had now
a strong force at his command, implored leave to follow and
annihilate his retreating forces, the lords justices peremptorily
refused permission.
176
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
The rising in Ulster had now to a great extent burned itself
out. The Irish had no arms or ammunition; while the Scots,
reinforced by the troops under Munroe and Chichester, were
taking the offensive everywhere. Sir Phelim wTas utterly in-
competent to command an army; and, one by one, Newry,
Down, Armagh, and Dungannon were abandoned by him, while
Sir William Cole at Enniskillen was threatening to take him
in flank. His troops deserted him in great numbers; and so
hopeless seemed the cause in Ulster that a wholesale emigration
into Argyleshire wras contemplated by the disheartened native
Irish. At this juncture arrived in Donegal Bay Colonel Owen
O'Neil with a single ship and a store of ammunition, and one
hundred Irish officers who had received a military education, in
camp and in the field, in foreign service. Owen O'Neil, or
Owen Eoe (Red Owen) as he was more commonly called, was
a nephew of the late Earl of Tyrone. He had, like many other
Irish exiles, entered the Spanish service, and had served with
distinction in Flanders. He had the reputation of being an
excellent soldier, and had engaged to come to the assistance of
O'Moore and his confederates when the original rising was
planned. He set to work at once, on his arrival, to organize
the undisciplined Irish levies into regular regiments. He was
unanimously chosen by the Irish chiefs to take the supreme
command in Ulster, and to supersede Sir Phelim. He severely
condemned the cruelties which had been committed, and even
burned the houses of those who had had the largest share in
them, as a warning to others for the future. The effect of his
presence was magical. The desponding Irish recovered heart;
the Scots and the English volunteers again resumed the defen-
sive; and Munroe, whether through apathy or under instructions
from the lords justices, retired into his quarters at Carrickfergus.
Simultaneously with the coming of Owen Roe, the southern
rebellion was strengthened by the arrival at Wexford of Colonel
Preston, brother of Lord Gormanston, one of the lords of the
Pale, with five hundred exiled officers, and a store of ammuni-
tion and some field and siege artillery. There was no concert
between these two auxiliaries. Each of the two parties, the old
Irish and the Anglo-Irish, had looked for help to their out-
THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE REVOLT.
117
lawed friends on the Continent; and the answer came to each
independently. Though recognizing the action of each other,
the two parties had hitherto proceeded, to a great extent, on
parallel lines. The next step was to effect a union between
thera.
This object was effected by the Roman Catholic clergy, who
met at Kilkenny and made arrangements for the summoning of
a national convention. The insurgents in the different prov-
inces were all acting without any system or order: the conven-
tion was to unite them and to constitute a kind of provisional
government.
Accordingly, in October, 1642, there assembled at Kilkenny
fourteen of the Roman Catholic peers, the Roman Catholic
bishops and clergy, and 226 Roman Catholic deputies from the
counties and principal towns. They sat in one chamber, but as
two houses; the inferior clergy sitting in convocation in a sep-
arate assembly. The government was to consist of a supreme
council, of which Lord Mountgarret was president.* It was
composed of twenty-four members elected by the general as-
sembly; six from each province. In it were vested the fullest
executive powers; and it had also a judicial side, constituting
a final court of appeal in all civil and criminal matters. A
council of twelve was to sit in each county to serve as magis-
trates and judges in civil suits, with an appeal to a provincial
council which was to consist of two deputies for each county.
Colonel Owen O'Neil was then appointed to command the
forces in Ulster, Gerald Barry in Munster, Colonel Preston in
Leinster, and Sir John Bourke in Connaught. A seal was or-
dered to be cut, a printing-press was set up for issuing procla-
mations, and a mint established for the coining of money.
It is remarkable that the old Irish element was by no means
* The original members were: from Leinster, the R. C. Archbishop of Dublin,
Lord Gormanston, Lord Mountgarret, Nicholas Plunket, Richard Belling, and
James Cusack; from Ulster, the R. C. Archbishop of Armagh, the Bishop of
Down, Philip O'Reilly. Colonel McMahon, Heber McGennis, and Turlough
O'Neil; from Munster, Lord Roche, Sir Daniel O'Brien, Edmond Fi.tzmaurice,
Dr. Fennell, Robert Lambert, and George Comyn; from Connaught, the R. C.
Archbishop of Tuam, Lord Mayo, the Bishop of Clonfert, Sir Lucas Dillon,
Geoffrey Brown, and Patrick Darcv.
8*
1*78 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
predominant in the new government. The Anglo-Irish party
took command of the ship, and some of the earlier instigators
of the rebellion, such as Rory O'Moore and Sir Phelim O'Neil,
retired from the movement altogether. But the political plat-
form which was adopted was substantially the same as
O'Moore's. The commission from Charles, which Sir Phe-
lim had forged, and adorned with an impress of the great
seal picked off a patent he had found at Charlemont fort, was
wisely ignored. The old Irish and the new Irish were to be
treated as one people. The war was professedly directed
against the Protestants, who were comprehensively denounced
as "Puritans." The Roman Catholic religion was to be re-
established in all its pristine glory; and unswerving loyalty to
the king was ostentatiously proclaimed.
Meanwhile the civil war had broken out in England, and
Charles was eagerly calculating on the assistance of Ormonde
and the Irish army. The lords justices were nominally still
acknowledging the king's authority, while in fact they were in-
triguing with the Parliament, and had appointed Reynolds and
Godwin, two agents whom the Parliament had sent over to
Dublin, to act as members of the privy council. Terms with
the rebels meant the release of the king's Irish troops for ser-
vice in England, and this was to be prevented at all hazards.
Ormonde, an ardent Royalist and a devoted adherent of Charles,
but at the same time a stanch Protestant, was watching for an
opportunity to come to what he considered honorable terms
with the rebels. The executive and the commander-in-chief
were apparently ignoring the fact of the rupture in England,
and at the same time were doing their best to hamper each
other in their dealings with the insurrection, in order to in-
fluence its event to the advantage of their respective parties.
Hostilities had hitherto been carried on intermittently.
There had been a good deal of desultory fighting, with consid-
erable loss of life. Little quarter had been given on either side,
and both parties had been guilty of cruel reprisals. The bal-
ance of success, which had hitherto been pretty evenly distrib-
uted, was now decidedly inclining towards the Irish. In the
north, Munroe and Owen O'Neil were cautiously watching one
THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE REVOLT.
179
another. In Leinster, Ormonde would have cut off Preston
after an engagement at Koss had not the lords justices purpose-
ly detained his transport. In Connaught the important towns
of Limerick and Galway were surrendered to the insurgents;
while in Munster, St. Leger, cooped up in Cork, had died, and
been succeeded by Inchiquin, who was with difficulty keeping
the enemy at arm's-length. The royal army was in a miserable
condition. Half-starved, clothed in rags, and with its pay
hopelessly in arrear, its complaints against the misconduct of
the government were loud and deep, and the ill-victualled gar-
risons of the beleaguered towns were approaching a state of
starvation.
- At length the king determined to strike a blow at the Dub-
lin oligarchy. He created Ormonde a marquis; removed Par-
sons from office, and replaced him by Sir Henry Tichborne, a
determined Eoyalist and the gallant defender of Drogheda. At
the same time, he directed the late lord justice and the rest of his
gang—Temple, Meredith, and Loftus, members of the privy
council—to be prosecuted for high-treason, a step which drove
Reynolds and Godwin in hurried flight to England. The field
was now clear for negotiation with the rebels; and a meeting-
having been held between Ormonde and their commissioners at
Castle Martyn, a cessation from hostilities for one year was
agreed upon, on September 1.5, 1643, each party consenting to
occupy the respective positions they then held, and the confed-
erates undertaking to give Charles a free contribution of
£30,000, and provide a contingent of troops for the king's
service in Scotland.
180
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER V.
PLOTS AND COUNTERPLOTS. A.D. 1643-1649.
The news of an accommodation with the Irish insurgents
was received in England with the greatest indignation. The
people, who had been terribly excited by the reports of the
massacres, and who looked upon the whole body of the Irish
Roman Catholics as the instigators or accomplices of the mur-
derers, loudly demanded revenge, and denounced the notion of
peace until the insurrection had been stamped out in blood.
Still stronger grew their anger when two thousand men from
Ormonde's Leinster forces were landed in North Wales, and
occupied Chester, and when a small force from the Irish rebel
army passed over into Scotland to join Montrose. But the
good fortune which had attended the king in the first twelve
months of the war had now begun to desert him. Gloucester,
reduced to its last barrel of powder, had been relieved by
Essex; and the Irish contingent was cut.to pieces at Nantwich
by Fairfax. A still more powerful combination began to
threaten, in the taking of the Solemn League and Covenant by
the English peers and commons in St. Margaret's Church at
Westminster; while the very fact of the king's overtures to
the Irish so disgusted his English friends, that many of them
threw up their commissions, left his service, and went over to
the Parliament.
In Ireland, Munroe and his Scots refused to recognize the
armistice, and solemnly took the Covenant in the church at
Carrickfergus. Inchiquln, disappointed at finding that the king-
had bestowed the presidency of Munster upon the Earl of Port-
land, openly declared for the Parliament, and expelled all the
Roman Catholic population from Cork, Youghal, and Kinsale.
Lord Esmond, in the fort of Duncannon, which commanded
Waterford harbor, followed his example.
PLOTS AND COUNTERPLOTS.
181
More and more the king began to look to his rebellious
Irish subjects to crush his rebellious English subjects, and be-
came more and more anxious to patch up a peace with the
former on any terms. Ormonde was accordingly advanced to
the dignity of lord-lieutenant, and given full power to offer the
confederates the most advantageous terms. The principal de-
mands of the rebel executive were—a free Irish Parliament,
untrammelled with Poynings's Act; the free exercise of their
religion, unfettered by any penal statutes; and a general act
of oblivion, and the reversal of all indictments and attainders.
Some months were fruitlessly occupied with delegations from
the rebels, and counter-delegations-from the Protestant faction
in Dublin, to the king at Oxford; and by that time Cromwell's
Ironsides had destroyed Rupert's army at Marston Moor, and
Cromwell, had he had his way, would have made Newbury a no
less crushing defeat. The king, who never meant to keep in-
convenient promises, was perfectly ready to concede everything
in return for the despatch of reinforcements, and simply in-
structed Ormonde to make the best bargain he could. Ormonde,
however, saw that such concessions would be simply fatal to
the royal cause, as it would not only drive every Protestant in
Ireland, including the soldiers of his own army, into the arms
of the Puritans, but would make it next to impossible for the
king to come to any terms with the Parliament, with whom he
was at that very time negotiating at Uxbridge. The marquis
accordingly concealed the extent of his instructions, and would
only promise that the penal laws should not be put in force,
and that, without repealing* Poynings's Act, the king would
grant a variety of fresh Graces. For months the negotiations
dragged along; the Irish, who were fully aware of the king's
necessities, and were expecting great things from their agents
at the courts of France, Spain, and Rome, being in no hurry to
conclude a treaty.
Charles, in the spring of 1645, impatient of Ormonde's wari-
ness, despatched Edward Somerset, Earl of Glamorgan, to agree
to the terms of the confederate council behind his back. The
overthrow at Naseby, in June, crushed out the king's hopes in
England, and the ransacking of his captured cabinet disclosed
182
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
the fulness of Ormonde's instructions. The demands of the
rebels now rose to include the public exercise of their religion,
with the use of all the churches not then actually enjoyed by
the Protestants, and a readjustment by an Irish Parliament of
all the plantation lands. Glamorgan agreed to everything un-
reservedly, only making it a condition that these concessions
should be embodied in a secret treaty, which was not at present
to be disclosed, and that a formal treaty, upon the basis of
Ormonde's propositions, should be executed for immediate
publication. The consideration for the king's concession was
an army of ten thousand men, to serve the king in England,
.Wales, or Scotland, and a grant of two thirds of the revenues
of the clergy for three years. With this secret treaty in their
pocket, the confederate commissioners came to terms with
Ormonde, agreeing with him to waive the religious question
for the present and refer it to the king's future arbitrament,
without prejudice to any Graces which the king might subse-
quently accord to them. The Irish appear to have had as little
intention of despatching the soldiers as Charles had of ratify-
ing the secret treaty when he was no longer necessitous.
During these months of protracted negotiation, the Scots in
the north, and Inchiquin in the south, ignored the cessation,
and from time to time indulged in hostilities with the Irish.
As the English Parliament became aware of Charles's practices
with the rebels, they began to pay more attention to the wants
of their party in Ireland. Money and stores were sent over,
and Sir Charles Coote, worthy son to him of Wicklow notoriety
who had been shot in a skirmish in 1642, made a dash upon
Sligo and captured the town. The Roman Catholic archbishop
of Tuam, a warlike prelate, raised the Connaught Irish in an
attempt to recover it. The storming party was beaten off, and
the archbishop left dead on the field. On his person was
found a copy of Glamorgan's secret treaty, which was at once
sent to London and published, and thence transmitted to Dub-
lin. The revelation of the king's duplicity was perceived by
Ormonde to be fatal; and, as a desperate effort to save Charles's
credit, he recalled Glamorgan from Kilkenny, and flung him
into prison on a charge of treason in exceeding his instructions.
PLOTS AND COUNTERPLOTS.
183
Charles, prompted by Lord Digby, his confidential minister in
Dublin, boldly denied his authority to Glamorgan, and declared
his "amazement that any man's folly and presumption should
carry him to such a degree of abusing our trust." Glamorgan
himself joined in the farce by stating that what he had done
was not binding on his majesty, but that he had acted out of
excess of zeal in the king's service. Upon the angry demands
of the confederates that he should be set at liberty, he was
released on bail, and returned to Kilkenny and resumed the
negotiations as if nothing had happened.
There had now appeared upon the scene a man who was to
sow discord among the confederates. Rinucini, Archbishop of
Fermo, had been despatched to Ireland by Pope Innocent X.
as his nuncio, and had landed in October, 1645. He cared
nothing for Charles, and had but one thing at heart—the re-
establishment of the Roman Catholic religion in Ireland in all
its original grandeur. On his arrival at Kilkenny, the seat of
the rebel government, he at once threw all his energies into the
opposing of anything like a peace with the king, except on the
basis of the complete reinstatement of his Church. There
were, and always had been, two parties among the confederates,
corresponding to the two separate races of which they were
composed—the extreme party, mainly composed of the old
Irish and the clergy, who aimed at nothing less than national
independence, and a total extinction of the Protestant interest;
and a moderate party, consisting of the Anglo-Irish peers and
gentry, who were anxious to be reconciled to the king, provided
they could secure sufficient guarantees for certain civil reforms
and the complete toleration of the Roman faith. The lay ele-
ment had already shown considerable jealousy of the clerical
influence in the council; and when the nuncio, appealing to
every feeling of bigotry and national vanity, had raised up a
violent opposition to the peace party, the council became split
by a fierce schism into the party of the nuncio and the party of
Ormonde. The moderates, however, for the time prevailed;
a new general assembly had been convened on the 6th of
March, and the long-delayed treaty was eventually signed on
the 28th; the only provision as to the religious question
184
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
being an exemption for Roman Catholics from the Oath of
Supremacy.
The peace came too late, so far as the king was concerned.
Chester, the last place of importance which was held for him,
had been surrendered; and he was himself a prisoner in the
hands of the Scots, writing under compulsion to Ormonde to
break off all negotiations with the Papists, and secretly begging
him through Digby to conclude the treaty at once. The Irish
had overplayed their game. Their safety depended on the
triumph of the king; and by standing out for higher terms
they had lost the chance, if there ever was one, of saving him.
In Ireland the conclusion of the peace was the signal for
disturbance. The party of the Parliament were all astir, de-
nouncing the adhesion of Charles to the Roman Catholics.
The Irish were furious at what they considered the betrayal of
their faith by the confederate council. The men of Ulster
were dismayed at the want of a provision to restore them to
the plantation lands. At this moment Owen O'Neil met Munroe
and his Scots at Benburb, and inflicted upon him a crushing
defeat, which placed the northern province at his mercy. The
nuncio flew from town to town denouncing the treaty, and
preaching a renewed resistance. At Waterford and Clonmel
the heralds sent to proclaim the peace were driven out by the
people. At Limerick the mayor was beaten for attempting to
publish it. Rinucini, to whose schemes Glamorgan had irrev-
ocably committed himself, collected a party of ecclesiastics at
"Waterford, where he thundered his excommunications against
the Irish commissioners, and launched an interdict against all
places in which the treaty had been recognized. Preston, who
commanded the rebel army in Leinster, held aloof at Birr, un-
decided which side to take; while Owen O'Neil with ten thou-
sand victorious troops hurried south to support the nuncio.
The council at Kilkenny were in helpless amazement at the
turn which events were taking. Mountgarret and Muskerry
sent to Ormonde to suppress the commotion. Ormonde arrived
with two thousand men, but was forced to retreat to Dublin
on the approach of O'Neil from the north. The nuncio, sup-
ported by O'Neil, made a public entry into Kilkenny. He drove
PLOTS AND COUNTERPLOTS.
185
the supreme council from the council-chamber and flung them
into prison. A new council was established with Kinucini as
president; a plot was hatched for Charles to escape to Ireland,
and throw himself into the arms of the III tramontanes; and
the joint armies of O'Neil and Preston, who now thought it
prudent to throw in his lot with the extreme party, marched
to within six miles of Dublin and threatened to lay siege to
the city.
Ormonde was now in desperate case. The city walls were
crumbling with age; he had no provisions and but little am-
munition; the king had been surrendered by the Scots; the
royal cause was hopeless; the channel was swarming with Par-
liamentary cruisers; and, preferring to submit rather to the
English than the Irish, he besought the Parliament for help,
and offered to surrender Dublin into their hands. Even at this,
the eleventh, hour a wearisome intrigue was set on foot. Pres-
ton and O'Neil, always jealous of each other, quarrelled out-
right; and, on a false alarm that a Parliamentary force had
landed at Dublin, the siege was raised. O'Neil and the nuncio
retired to Kilkenny, and Preston remained to tamper with
Ormonde. This condition of things, however, soon came to an
end. Rinucini threatened Preston's army with excommunica-
tion, and he hurried back to headquarters. Ormonde, on July
28, 1647, put an end to his anomalous position by handing
over the capital to the agents of the Parliament, and, relin-
quishing his government, joined Queen Henrietta and other
Royalist refugees who were safe in exile at Versailles.
Rinucini's coup d'etat made him for the time triumphant.
But the moderates were only crushed for the moment. On the
unavoidable meeting of the general assembly, the imprisoned
members of the council were released; and the strife between
the two parties grew more bitter than ever, so that even swords
were drawn in the council-chamber. The force of events soon
turned the scale in favor of the moderates. The Parliamentary
troops, now that the king's cause was effaced, began to show
signs of life. Colonel Michael Jones marched from Dublin,
now the headquarters of the Parliamentary party, to the relief
of Trim, which was invested by Preston. The two armies met
186
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
on Dungan hill, and Preston was defeated, with a loss of five
thousand men and all his guns and baggage. In the south,
Lord Inchiquin had taken Cahir and pushed his way to Cashel,
which he took and burned, shooting down numbers of the
wretched inhabitants and some twenty priests who had crowded
for safety into the cathedral; and when Lord Taaffe with the
Munster army fell upon him at Knocknanoss, near Mallow, the
confederate forces were completely broken, and their camp and
artillery captured.
And now the shifting scene displays the tables more com-
pletely turned than ever. Inchiquin, who considered himself
slighted by the Parliament, made overtures to Preston. Or-
monde was sounded in Paris, and a coalition was formed against
the Parliament, between the moderate section of the confeder-
ates and the loyal Protestants of Munster. The nuncio, breath-
ing forth excommunication and interdict, fled to O'Neil's camp
at Maryborough. Preston and Inchiquin joined forces, and
marched against O'Neil, and so the flame of a second civil war
burst forth in the ranks of the insurgents themselves. Jones,
who suspected his own soldiers of a sneaking loyalty to Charles,
was delighted to see the confederates divided; and so bitter
was the hatred between the Ultramontanes and the moderates
that O'Neil and the nuncio actually made terms with Jones
against their common enemies at Kilkenny. Ormonde now
came over from France, and was warmly received by the moder-
ate confederates. Rupert, who had escaped with sixteen frig-
ates from the English fleet, appeared in Kinsale harbor; and
the shattered remnants of the Royalists in England flocked
across the Channel for a last rally round the royal standard. In
England, Cromwell and Fairfax had crushed the Royalist rising
in Essex and South Wales, and had chased the Scottish army
from Preston and Wigan across the border. The king, who
had still hoped to win by setting the Presbyterians against the
Independents, and, breaking his word with both, had fallen be-
tween the two stools. Rumors of his approaching trial stimu-
lated the supreme council to come to terms, and a new treaty
was made between them and Ormonde in the king's name>
upon the basis of a free Parliament and a complete repeal of
the penal laws.
PLOTS AND COUNTERPLOTS.
187
Hardly had the peace been signed, when news was brought
of the king's execution; and Ormonde promptly proclaimed
the Prince of Wales at Cork and Youghal.
A still further complication of parties now occurred. The
nuncio, seeing that the king's death was uniting all parties un-
der the leadership of Ormonde, fled from the country in despair.
Inchiquin and Ormonde, Castlehaven and Clanricarde, with all
the moderate rebels, became the great rallying-point of the
Royalists. Prince Charles was lingering at the Hague, unde-
cided whether to swallow the Covenant, in spite of what he was
pleased to call his conscience, and to head the Presbyterians in
Edinburgh, or to pass over to Ireland and throw in his lot with
the Roman Catholics. Upon the final rupture between the
Presbyterians and the Independents, the Scots in Ulster, who
since the battle of Benburb had kept within their quarters,
declared for Charles, and joined themselves to Ormonde. They
were on the one hand pressing the siege of Derry, which Coote
held for the Parliament, and on the other were confronting
O'Neil and his Ulster Irish, who was covering Dundalk, where
Monk, his new ally, had been sent by Colonel Jones from Dublin.
The first blow was struck by Inchiquin, who captured
Drogheda, and cut off some supplies which had been sent by
Jones to O'Neil. Monk's garrison mutinied, and Dundalk was
surrendered, and Newry, Carlingford, and all the garrisons in
Ulster, with the sole exception of Derry, fell into Inchiquin's
hands. At the same time Ormonde, with Lord Dillon of Cos-
tell o, commenced the siege of Dublin.
The Parliament was now thoroughly aroused to the neces-
sity of taking Ireland seriously in hand, and in March, 1649,
Cromwell was appointed lord-lieutenant, and commander-in-
chief of the English forces there. The Royalists believed that
he would land in Munster, and detached Inchiquin to oppose
him. Reinforcements were pouring over from England into
Dublin; and Ormonde, hoping to capture the city and cut off
the Parliament from their only footing in the island, sent Pur-
cell and 1500 men to effect a night surprise. But Ormonde's
calculations miscarried, and Jones, sallying forth to meet him
with a strong force, drove in Purcell upon the camp at Rath-
188 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
mines. The battle became general. The Irish were not ex-
pecting an attack. Four thousand men were slain in action or
cut down in flight; two thousand laid down their arms; and
Ormonde withdrew the remains of his shattered army to Kil-
kenny. The blow so crippled the Eoyalists that they were at
once thrown on the defensive; and though strengthened by
the tardy adhesion of O'Neil, whom the strait-laced Parliament
had cast off in indignant horror at the bare idea of an alliance
with the Koman Catholics, Ormonde had barely time to throw
Sir Arthur Ashton with a garrison of 3000 picked men into
Drogheda, when Cromwell landed at Dublin with 8000 foot,
4000 horse, a formidable train of artillery, and a military chest
containing £20,000.
THE SUBJUGATION.
189
CHAPTER VI.
THE SUBJUGATION. A.D. 1649-1652.
Cromwell was at the head of the flower of the English Re-
publican army, which, under his wondrous leadership, had
marched from victory to victory—an army composed of sober
fanatics, who fought for a principle, who were at once a war-
like machine and an intelligent political organization. With
the horrors of the Ulster murders, now eight years did, still
fresh in their memories in all the fulness of highly colored ex-
aggeration, and hot against the Royalists with indignation
fiercely fanned up by the late king's persistent duplicity, the
soldiers came as on a crusade of vengeance upon "the bloody
Papists" and the "malignant". Ormondists. Liberty of con-
science was the bone of contention between the Independents
and the Presbyterians; that is, liberty of conscience to all the
sects as opposed to the domineering intolerance of the Estab-
lished Presbyterate. Toleration even to the Roman Catholics
was their watchword in England. What said Cromwell in Ire-
land? "I meddle with no man's conscience. But if by liberty
of conscience you mean a liberty to exercise the mass, I judge
it best to use plain dealing with you, and to let you know,
where the Parliament of England has power, that will not be
allowed."
And now the eight years' war of rebellion was about to be
crushed out. The Irish were to be ground to powder; a terri-
ble vengeance was to be exacted "to prevent the effusion of
blood for the future." The first blow was struck at Drogheda,
which Ormonde believed to be impregnable. One day's fierce
bombardment and a practicable breach was made: the storm
was ordered and the English were driven off. On the second
attempt " God was pleased so to animate them that they drove
the enemy from their intrenchments," and the town was won.
190
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
Sir Arthur Ashton and all his officers were hacked to pieces
on the Millmount by Cromwell's orders. By his express com-
mand no quarter was given to any that were found in arms.
The whole garrison, with the exception of thirty men, were put
to the sword, and "all the friars were knocked on the head but
two." How far there was a general massacre of the citizens
we can never know. It has been affirmed and denied by the
enemies and the admirers of Cromwell. If the plain tale told
by Captain Thomas Wood, who was present at the storm, as
related in the diary of his brother, Anthony Wood, the Oxford
historiographer, be no invention, the wholesale butchery of the
children and "the flower and choicest of the women and
ladies," who had taken refuge in St. Peter's Churcli and the
vaults beneath, goes far to support the charges of the former.
Be it how it may, "it is good," as Cromwell piously observes,
"that God above have all the glory."
Having avenged the Ulster massacre by the indiscriminate
slaughter of Ormonde's soldiers who had had nothing to do
with it, Cromwell marched on Wexford by way of the sea-
coast. Here another " marvellous great mercy " was prepared
for him—while in treaty for the surrender of the city, the
castle was betrayed by Captain Stafford. The troops rushed
in and turned the guns upon the town. A desperate stand
was made by the Irish round the market-cross. As at Drogheda,
no quarter was given; the troopers " put all to the sword that
came in their way." Two boat-loads of the citizens, who were
trying to escape across the river, were sunk, " whereby were
drowned near 300." Of the garrison there fell "not many less
than 2000," and the town was given over to the pillage of the
soldiers, so that " of the former inhabitants scarce one in twenty
could challenge any property in their houses."
These two fearful examples of ferocity struck terror into the
hearts of the Irish. Town upon town surrendered upon Crom-
well's summons. His stern discipline in his army, and his
scrupulous honesty in paying for all he took, gave confidence
to the country-people, who readily brought in supplies. The
Irish, army fell back from the Slaney to the Barrow, and from
the Barrow to the Nore, and were straining every nerve to
THE SUBJUGATION.
191
cover the city of Kilkenny. Cromwell, " after seeking God for
direction," surprised Carrick-on-Suir, and so laid open the road
to Dungarvan and the south on the one hand, and the city of
Waterford on the other. The fleet which had been fitted out
by the energy of the council of state had chased Kupert and
his revolted ships from Kinsale, and blockaded all the Irish
ports. While Lord Broghill, who but a few weeks back had
been meditating going over to the Royalist party, was now
making use of all the Boyle interest in South Munster in favor
of the Parliament, and had persuaded Cork and Youghal to re-
ceive a Republican garrison. Cromwell's grasp was tightening
all round the south of the island. In the meantime Venables
had been despatched into Ulster to co-operate with Coote, who
was advancing from Deny. Carlingford, Newry, Lisburn, and
Belfast surrendered without a blow. Coleraine was betrayed
to Coote, who put all the garrison to death; and the two forces,
having formed a junction, proceeded to besiege Carrickfergus,
which capitulated in December.
Cromwell's available forces were now considerably reduced
in number by the garrisons he was obliged to leave in the
towns which had been recovered, and the remainder were sick-
ening under the effects of the humid climate to which they
were unaccustomed. He accordingly went into winter-quar-
ters for a few weeks, at Youghal and Dungarvan. Having
rested his men and received reinforcements, he proceeded to
advance by two roads on Kilkenny, the headquarters of the
Royalist government. Ireton and Reynolds moved from Car-
rick to Callan; while the lord general, pushing forward from
Youghal to Mallow, turned to the east under the Galtee moun-
tains, crossed the Suir, and occupied Fethard, Cahir, and Cashel.
In the meantime Hewson, advancing from Dublin, had recovered
the County of Kildare, and secured the passage of the Barrow
by the capture of Leighlin Bridge; and in March the united
Parliamentary army was concentrated round Kilkenny.
All this time the Royalists were quarrelling bitterly among
themselves. The greatest distrust of Ormonde and Inchiquin
prevailed among the citizens of the towns, insomuch that many
of them absolutely refused to admit either them or their sol-
192 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
diers within their walls. The smouldering hatred of the eccle-
siastical faction had broken out afresh, and Ormonde was
thwarted by the clergy at every turn. Owen O'Neil had died
shortly after becoming reconciled to the Eoyalist party, and
the command of the six thousand Northern Irish who composed
his army had devolved on his cousin, Hugh O'Neil. Two thou-
sand of these, under Hugh's command, had been thrown, into
Clonmel, and the rest were at Waterford and Kilkenny.
On Cromwell's approach, Ormonde hurried into County Clare
to organize a relieving force, and left Sir Edward Butler in
command of the town. It was bravely held by the plague-
stricken garrison for eight days, and then surrendered, and
Cromwell then turned to reduce Clonmel, which, with the ex-
ception of Waterford, was the only town of importance now
held by the Irish in the south.
Here he met with a stubborn resistance. When his guns
had made a sufficient breach, an assault was ordered, and, after
four hours' desperate fighting, the besiegers were driven back
with terrible slaughter. In the night the garrison quietly
evacuated the town and fell back on Wraterford, and Cromwell
next morning, in ignorance of their departure, received the
capitulation of the citizens.
The backbone of the Irish war was now broken. All Ulster,
except the fort of Charlemont, had been reduced by Coote.
Broghill had overrun the counties of Cork, Limerick, and Kerry.
Every place of any strength in Leinster and Munster, but iso-
lated Waterford and the city of Limerick, was in the hands of
Cromwell; and the distracted Irish were driven to make their
last stand behind the Shannon.
Cromwell had done his work. His lieutenants could well
accomplish the remainder of the task. His own presence was
urgently needed across the water; and on May 29, 1650, leav-
ing Ireton in command as lord deputy, he hurried back to lead
his Ironsides to victory at Dunbar.
After Cromwell's departure, the war dragged on for another
two years before the Irish were finally beaten to the earth.
But after the fall of Kilkenny and Clonmel it was merely a
question of time; and the work of subjugation, if it proceeded
THE SUBJUGATION.
193
more slowly, was done thoroughly. In June the remnant of
Owen O'NeiPs army chose as its general Heber McMahon, the
Roman Catholic bishop of Clogher. This militant priest, hav-
ing rashly posted off to recover Ulster, was met by Coote near
Letterkenny, who annihilated his army and took him prisoner,
and hanged him next day. Charlemont soon after fell. Water-
ford, after a gallant resistance by Preston, was surrendered to
Ireton, the garrison marching out with all the honors of war.
The rest of the year was occupied in securing the positions re-
covered, and in hunting down the "tories," or bodies of franc-
tireurs, who attempted to maintain a guerilla warfare from the
vantage-ground of the impenetrable forests and morasses.
In the camp of the Royalists confusion was worse confounded.
So unpopular was Ormonde that both. Limerick and Galway
refused to receive him. The fanatical Irisli clergy hated him
for being a Protestant, and attributed the successes of the Re-
publican troops, not without some justice, to his incompetence.
At length, when Prince Charles signed the Covenanters7 decla-
ration against Popery, acknowledging the sin of his father in
marrying bis "idolatrous mother," and denouncing the peace
concluded with the "bloody Irish rebels," the uncompromis-
ing priesthood got the upper-hand and drove the marquis into
exile.
The old Irish party, who had thus again sprung to the front,
in desperation invited the Duke of Lorraine to come to their
assistance and assume the sovereignty of Ireland, when they
were roughly shaken out of their chimerical plans by the enemy
at their doors. Ireton and Coote, after resting in winter-quar-
ters, commenced an early spring campaign. Limerick was the
principal object of attack; but the city could not be effectually
invested from the Munster side. The line of the Shannon was
held by the remains of Ormonde's army and a few raw levies.
Castlehaven, whom Ormonde had left in command, was watch-
ing the passes of the river below Lough Derg; while Clanri-
carde, to whom the marquis had committed the office of lord
deputy, was guarding the river between Loughrea and Por-
tumna. Coote, with two thousand horse and two thousand in-
fantry, made as though he would attack Siigo, and drew off
9
194 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
Clanricarde to its relief; then turning to the left, and forcing
the passes of the Curlieu mountains, he burst into Roscommon
and appeared before Athlone. Athlone fell before Clanricarde
could relieve it; and, the line of the Shannon being lost, the
earl, summoning Castlehaven to his assistance, fell back to
cover Galway. Ireton overpowered the weakened guard of the
ford at O'Brien's Bridge, and the ford at Killaloe was betrayed;
Castlehaven's forces melted away, and Ireton sat down before
Limerick.
The end was now at hand. Limerick capitulated after a
resolute defence by Hugh O'Neil; and Galway shortly fol-
lowed, upon articles securing to the inhabitants their houses
and estates. A few isolated castles were taken in detail; and
Clanricarde, after a feeble attempt to hold out in Donegal, ac-
cepted the conditions of the Republic.
"the curse o7 crummell.;
195
CHAPTER VII.
"the curse o' crummell." a.d. 1652-1656.
The second conquest of Ireland was complete, and the doom
of the Irish was sealed. The soil of the whole island was held
to be forfeit. Three fourths of the whole population were to
be expelled, and the vacant lands repeopled with new English
planters. The accumulated arrears of the pay of Cromwell's
soldiers had been secured to them by debentures, which were
to be satisfied out of a proportionate part of the confiscated
Irish land. The " adventurers," who in 1642 had filled the sub-
scription lists for the Irish war-loans, were the inequitable mort-
gagees of 2,500,000 of Irish acres, and were clamoring to be put
in possession of the foreclosed provinces. "Justice " upon the
murderers of 1641 was demanded by the popular scream m
England; and the shambles of the courts-martial, in the name
of justice, were to help to clear the country for the new plan-
tation.
On Ireton's death, Fleetwood was appointed lord deputy, and
with him were associated in the civil government four commis-
sioners—Ludlow, who commanded the army, Corbet, Jones, and
Weaver. Courts-martial were held at Dublin, Athlone, and
Kilkenny for the trial of those who had been concerned in the
massacre. Men and women were shot or hanged on the most
shadowy 'evidence. Lord Mayo and Colonel Bagnal were con-
victed and shot in Connaught; in Leinster Lord Muskerry was
honorably acquitted. Sir Phelim O'Neil was dragged. out of
the retirement he had sought on his supersession by Owen Roe,
and tried at Dublin and hanged. He was the only man con-
victed in Ulster; and in all Ireland the whole number against
whom the commissioners were able to prove any complicity
with massacre did not exceed two hundred.
In August, 1652, the Parliament passed an ordinance "for
196 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
the settling of Ireland," * which in effect was a proscription of
the whole nation. "Mercy and pardon both as to life and es-
tate" were to be extended to all v husbandmen, ploughmen,
laborers, and artificers;" for the new land-owners would re-
quire hewers of wood and drawers of water. And also to
those who since 1641 had manifested "a constant good affec-
tion to the interests of the Commonwealth of England"—a
very small company, as it turned out, seeing that one who paid
even a forced contribution to a confederate or royal officer was
held to have shown no constant good affection. The Presby-
terian land-owners of Down and Antrim were involved in the
same condemnation as the Irish. For had they not latterly
shown Royalist proclivities, and broken away from the Inde-
pendents? They were to lose their estates, and be transplanted
to allotments in Leinster. The rest of the Irish people—peers,
gentles, and commons, land-owners and burgesses, were to be
driven from their homes in Ulster, Leinster, and Munster, and
banished into Connaught and Clare, where the desolated lands
of the people of the west were to be parcelled out and allotted
to them for their bare sustenance and habitation. Death was
to be the penalty if they had not transplanted by May 1, 1654.
Death was to be the penalty if .they returned without a license.
Here they were to be hemmed in, as in a penal settlement, with
the ocean on the one hand and the Shannon on the other, for-
bidden to enter a walled town under the death penalty, with a
fringe of disbanded soldiers planted in a belt one mile wide all
round the sea-coast and along the line of the river, to keep them
from approaching the border-line.
But transplantation was the mildest penalty to which the
Irish were subjected. Death, and forfeiture of all property, were
decreed for all who within twenty-eight days did not lay down
their arms; to all who, since the assembling of the Kilkenny
Convention, " had contrived, advised, counselled, promoted, act-
ed, prosecuted, or abetted" the same by " bearing arms, or con-
tributing men, arms, horse, plate, money, victual, or other furni-
ture or habiliments of war;" to all Jesuits and Roman Catholic
* Ordinance, Aug. 1652, c. 13.
"the curse o' crummell."
197
priests, and all persons who had " anyways contrived, advised,
counselled, promoted, continued, countenanced, aided, assisted,
or abetted the rebellion;" and finally to Ormonde, Castlehaven,
Clanricarde, and twenty other peers, one bishop, and eighty
knights and gentlemen, all especially mentioned by name.
The first step towards the accomplishment of this compre-
hensive scheme was the removal of the disbanded soldiers of
the Irish army. The bulk of the proscribed officers and lead-
ers of the confederates had already elected to suffer voluntary
banishment, and had sought safety on the Continent. The rank
and file who had laid down their arms upon articles, or had dis-
persed to their homes, were pressed to enlist on foreign service.
Whole regiments of them were eagerly recruited by the agents
of the kings of Spain and Poland and the Prince of Conde.
As many as 34,000 were in this way hurried into exile. There
remained behind, of necessity, great numbers of widows and
orphans^nd deserted wives and families; and these the gov-
ernment proceeded to ship wholesale to the West Indies—the
boys for slaves, the women and girls for mistresses to the Eng-
lish sugar-planters. The merchants of Bristol—slave-dealers in
the days of Strongbow—-sent over their agents to hunt down
and ensnare the wretched people for consignment to Barbadoes.
Orders were given them on the governors of jails and work-
houses for boys " who were of an age to labor," and women
"who were marriageable and not past breeding." Delicate
ladies were kidnapped, as well as the peasant-women, and
forced on board the slave-ships. Between six and,seven thou-
sand were transported, before the capture by the unscrupulous
dealers of some of the wives and daughters of the English
themselves forced the government to prohibit the seizure of
any person without a warrant.
And now commenced the great transplantation of the inhab-
itants of the three easterly provinces across the Shannon. The
order was proclaimed by beat of drum in the middle of harvest.
Every owner of land, with their wives, their children, their ten-
ants, their servants, and their cattle, must pass the river by the
following May, on pain of death. The flight was to be in the
winter. The men were to go first, and prepare rough huts for
198 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
the temporary harboring of their families till their final allot:
ment was made out. A court of claims was set up at Athlone
to superintend the migration. Each proprietor, before leaving,
was bound to give in to the revenue officer of his district writ-
ten particulars of all that he was intending to take with him,
with full descriptions of each person who was to accompany
him. A certificate was given him in return, which entitled
him, on presentation at Athlone, to a few acres on which to
sojourn during the inquiry into his claims. The court was
then to receive evidence of the extent of land he had held in
his old home, and of the degree of " good affection" or disaf-
fection which he had exhibited during the war; in proportion
to which he was to receive an allotment in a Connaught barony,
the occupation of which he would have to dispute with the old
proprietor in possession.
And now rose up all over Ireland a great cry for a little
longer time. Even the Republican officers represented that
the people should be encouraged to sow the new year's crop,
lest a famine should arise in the land. Petitions for dispensa-
tions were poured in to the commissioners; and a short respite
had to be given to the aged ladies, the sick, and the infirm.
Slowly the beggared nobility and gentry set out on their sor-
rowful pilgrimage. The Anglo-Irish, who in Henry's II.'s
reign had dispossessed the native Irish, were driven forth from
the estates they had held for five hundred years. The season
was wet, the roads were well-nigh impassable, and the squalid
multitude,-as they straggled into the west, found that the bar-
ren land to which they had been sent was all too small for
the promised accommodation. When the exiles reached Con-
naught, they were pillaged by the officers employed to set
out their allotments, who had to be bribed, either with money
or a portion of the land awarded, before they would stir in the
business. These worthies—the Kings, the Binghams, the Coles,
the St. Georges, the Ormsbys, the Gores, the Lloyds—having
cheated the transplanters of a portion of their lots, bought up
the remnant for a few shillings the acre, to the extent of eighty
thousand Irish acres.
But the exodus did not proceed speedily enough. The ad-
"the curse o' crummell."
199
venturers were loudly demanding, their new estates. The gov-
ernment was anxious to disband its troops upon the confis-
cated territory. And so the tardy emigrants were distrained
on, arrested, and imprisoned, and some even were hanged pour
encourager les autres. The walled towns, which were exclusive-
ly inhabited by people of English blood, were cleared like the
country. The Cork and Waterford merchants went into exile,
and carried their enterprise to Ostend, to Rochelle, to Cadiz,
and even to Mexico. The flourishing trade of the ancient
chartered towns was a thing of the past. The wealthy bur-
gesses of Kilkenny and Tipperary were alike expelled with
Walter Cheevers of Monkstown, or Lord Roche of Fermoy.
And Galway, whose quays had lately been laden with cargoes
from French and Spanish merchant-vessels, was knocked down
to the citizens of Liverpool and Gloucester in discharge of
their advances to the Parliamentary army.
The three provinces being in a fair way to be cleared of the
old proprietors, the new plantation was taken in hand. Com-
missioners were sent into every county to obtain statistics of
the nature, extent, and value of the lands; so that the sums
secured to the batches of planters might be proportionately
allocated to the different districts. An elaborate survey of the
whole island with the exception of Connaught, for which Straf-
ford's survey was held sufficient, was made by Dr. Petty, phy-
sician to the forces, for the price of £30,000—a sum which he
never received in cash, but for which he obtained an equivalent
in the shape of large allotments of the confiscated estates. By
the Act of Parliament "for the new planting of Ireland,"*
the government had reserved to itself all the towns, all the
Church lands and tithes, and the four counties of Dublin,
Kildare, Carlow, and Cork. The sum advanced by the "ad-
venturers" amounted to £360,000, which was to be charged
upon the County of Louth, and upon the halves of ten coun-
ties: Waterford, Limerick, and Tipperary, in Munster; Meath,
Westmeath, King's and Queen's counties, in Leinster; and
Antrim, Down, and Armagh, in Ulster. The arrears of the
* 1653, c. 12.
200 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
soldiers came to £1,550,000 to be charged upon the other
halves of the same counties, and also upon the counties of
Deny, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Cavan, Monaghan, Wexford, Kil-
kenny, and Kerry. The County of Sligo and part of Mayo
and Leitrim were subsequently taken from the transplanted
Irish to satisfy arrears due to part of the English army which
had fought in England during the civil wars. And the coun-
ties of Donegal, Longford, and Wicklow, and half the County
of Leitrim, were appropriated to the garrisons of the Munster
cities which had revolted from Inchiquin to Lord Broghill in
1649.
Each soldier had received a bond or debenture which ac-
knowledged the amount of his arrears, and his claim to an al-
lotment; and lists were made of these claims in each regiment,
and the land was plotted out by the surveyor-general in pro-
portionate tracts. Each regiment then drew lots for its loca-
tion among the baronies at their disposal, and each man in the
same way received by lot his particular parcel. Company by
company, and troop by troop, they were marched on to the
ground, disbanded, and put into possession. It was not till the
end of 1656 that the disbanding was complete; and in the
interval the traffic among the debentures had been briskly car-
ried on. Money was advanced on them. The common sol-
diers gambled for them, or sold them for a little ready cash.
The/ officers largely bought up the claims of the men in their
company; and so considerable was the dealing that a crowd of
debenture-brokers sprang into existence, who sold and bought
on commission at the current market price. Large estates
were put together by the purchase of these claims to allot-
ments; and no little chicanery was practised by those who
superintended the distribution of the allotments, for the ad-
vantage of themselves and of their friends.
Dr. Petty tells us that the whole area of Ireland contained
10,500,000 Irish acres, of which 3,000,000, consisting of water
and waste, were contemptuously left to the native Irish; that of
the remaining 7,500,000 acres, 300,000 held by the Church in
a.d. 1641 were reserved by the government; and that the Prot-
estant planters of James and Elizabeth held 2,000,000, and the
fiiTHE CURSE O' CRUMMELL."
201
remaining 5,200,000 belonged to the Roman Catholics and
"delinquent" Protestants. He calculates that these 5,200,000
Irish acres were confiscated by the Republican government.
According to English measurements, more accurate surveys give
us 20,806,260 statute acres as the total area of the island,
while that of Clare and Connaught is 5,223,773; and these
figures give us 15,582,487 English acres as the total area of
the three confiscated provinces.
The English government had a grim excuse for repeopling
Ireland. The desolation of the island was complete: one third
of the people had perished or been driven into exile; famine
and plagme had finished the work of the sword; the fields lay
uncultivated; and the miserable remnants of the flying popu-
lation were driven to live on carrion and human corpses. The
wolves so increased in numbers, even round the city of Dublin
itself, that the counties were taxed for their extermination, and
rewards were paid of £5 for the head of a full-grown wolf and
£2 for that of a cub. But though the object and intention of
the government was to make an effectual plantation over three
quarters of the island, and though the land itself changed
hands, as in Elizabeth's and James's time so was it now found
impossible to expel a nation root and branch. In spite of all
that persecution could do, the old proprietors still clung, in
numbers of cases, to their old country, and wandered about
their old domains as vagrants, or were admitted by the new
owners as tenants-at-will. The younger and more active fled
into the forests and bogs, and swelled the ranks of the Tories.
There they lived a lawless life of brigandage, robbing and mur-
dering the settlers and destroying their property. Stern meas-
ures were adopted to put them down. They were stalked by
regular parties of armed men, smoked out of their caves, and
killed without mercy. A price was set upon their heads, as
upon those of the wolves; but the wild country was too diffi-
cult of access for the government to succeed in exterminating
them. As the Tories and the wolves were killed down, so were
the priests. Proscribed, hunted, and transported as soon as
caught, they still hung about the country in all sorts of dis-
guises and in all kinds of hiding-places, performing the offices
202
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
of their religion in secret, and at the peril of their lives, to
their scattered coreligionists.
The plantation failed, like the earlier ones, by the planters
being absorbed by the Irish. Notwithstanding the most strin-
gent regulations to the contrary, the soldiers intermarried with
the young Irish girls. The natives were taken as servants by
English masters. The old process was begun over again which
had been at work in the days of the Plantagenets; the settlers
succumbed to the old influences. Forty years after the settle-
ment had been accomplished, numbers of the children of Crom-
well's soldiers were unable to speak a word of English. Dr.
Petty's great estates, which he had obtained by the purchase of
debentures and by way of compensation for his labors in the
Down survey, passed, by the marriage of his daughter with the
Earl of Kerry, to one of the oldest Anglo-Irish families of the
Norman colony.
Book V.
THE THIRD CONQUEST
CHAPTER I.
RESTORA.TION COMPROMISES. A.D. 1656-1666.
While the redistribution of the land in Ireland was pro-
ceeding, events were marching rapidly in England. The
Royalists had received their quietus at Worcester; and Crom-
well and the army were masters of the situation. The residue
of the Long Parliament had been driven from the House by a
company of musketeers. The "Barebones" convention had
been a fiasco. Two Houses of Commons, elected upon the
basis of an extended franchise and a redistribution of seats, in
which for the first time sat thirty members from Ireland, had
been summarily dissolved; and Cromwell had finally established
a military despotism upon the ruins of the outraged Common-
wealth.
The proclamation of the Protectorate was favorably received
in Ireland, except by a few sound Republicans like Ludlow,
who sullenly resigned office. Soon Henry Cromwell was sent
over as lord-lieutenant; and his mild and steady government
went far to conciliate all parties, and to promote order in the
country. The energy of the settlers soon began to bear fruit.
The traces of the ten years' war disappeared, and the fertile
country began to show a smiling face. New buildings rose on
the newly made estates, new plantations sprang up, new roads
were engineered; and the exported farm produce began to
compete with that of England in the English markets.
And now the great Protector's course was run, and he had
been quietly succeeded by his son Richard. The members for
Ireland appeared again in Richard's Parliament; and upon its
swift dissolution followed the fall of Richard, and the recall
and the expulsion of the Rump by the army. All were now
looking to a restoration of the monarchy, as the only escape
from the despotism of a military faction. The Presbyterians,
206 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
steady Royalists since the king's death, were holding up their
heads, and the army of Scotland was marching on London, to the
dismay of Lambert and Fleetwood and the army of England.
In Ireland, when it became apparent which way the tide was
setting, the new landholders perceived that to secure their allot-
ments they must make their peace with the king. Broghill and
Coote, the presidents of Munster and Con naught, who had both
secured enormous estates under the new settlement, though
hitherto ardent anti-Royalists and sample Cromwellians, had
already been intriguing with Charles, and inviting him to land
at Cork. They surprised Dublin Castle, and sent prisoners to
England Sir Hardress Waller and three commissioners of the
Parliament; and, having secured the principal garrisons in the
island, raised the cry for a free Parliament. The army, in
which their influence was unbounded, was secured by providing
for the payment of its arrears, and for its future maintenance.
The Scotch Presbyterians of the north were only too ready to
welcome a restored king who had subscribed the Covenant;
and, on the Declaration of Breda being transmitted to Ireland,
Charles was proclaimed in all the principal cities.
The restoration of the monarchy excited lively hopes in the
minds of the dispossessed Irish. They thought that as the
king "had come to his own again," so should they. Some of
them accordingly endeavored to retake possession of their old
estates by force, which rash proceeding gave the new English
the opportunity of raising a false alarm of a fresh Irish in-
surrection, and so to impress the king with the belief that the
safety of the kingdom depended on the maintenance of the
Protestant interest. The king's first act was to restore the
Established Church to its former position, and to reward with
peerages the turncoats who had intrigued for his return.
Monk was created Earl of Albemarle, Coote was made Earl of
Montrath, and Broghill Earl of Orrery; and these two last, with
Sir Maurice Eustace, the lord chancellor, were intrusted with
the government of the kingdom as lords justices.
Then came the great question of the land. The Royalists
were loud in their demands for a general restoration of their
estates. On the other hand, the soldiers and adventurers were
RESTORATION COMPROMISES.
207
in possession, the latter by virtue of an act of Parliament * as-
sented to by the late king; and Charles II. had been reinstated
at the instance of these very men and their leaders, whom it
would be exceedingly dangerous to disturb. There was still
some of the reserved land undistributed, and the estates allotted
to certain of the "regicides" were resumed by the crown; and
so, <on Coote's and BroghilPs recommendations, the king pub-
lished a declaration for the settlement of Ireland, which pro-
fessed to be an arrangement by which all parties were to be
satisfied. This scheme was based upon the plan that the exist-
ing new owners should be undisturbed; with the exception
that the Church lands were to be disgorged, and that certain
select adherents of the king like Ormonde, and the dispossessed
Protestants and Koman Catholics who should prove themselves
innocent of any complicity in the original rebellion, were to be
at once restored to their estates; in which case the new men
now in possession were to be "reprised" by the grant of lands
equivalent in value out of the unallotted lands. In order that
the number of innocents should be reduced as low as possible,
the mere fact that a man had lived quietly on his estate while
the country round was in the hands of the insurgents, or of his
having in any way corresponded with them while he w7as living
in the English quarters, was declared to be a bar to his restora-
tion as an innocent; much more was the joining of the con-
federacy before 1649, or the adhering to the party of the
nuncio, or the negotiating with any foreign prince. Officers
who had served the king before the peace of 1649 were to re-
ceive allotments from the lands still undistributed in Wicklow,
Longford, Leitrim, and Donegal, as far as they would go:
while of the insurgents who had submitted to Ormonde's
terms in 1649, those who had accepted from the Parliament a
portion of land in Connaught or Clare were to stay there,
having put themselves in this position by their own act; those
who had left the country and served his majesty abroad were
to be restored to their estates, provided the present occupiers
should be first reprised.
* 16 Car. I. c. 32.
208
HISTORY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.
The successful working of this arrangement depended upon
the existence of a sufficiency of the reserved and undistributed
land wherewith to "reprise" the adventurers and soldiers who
were to be removed. Of this there was not nearly enough for
the purpose, and it was, besides, considerably reduced by the
prodigal grants made out of it by the king to Ormonde and
other special favorites. He gave 120,000 acres in Tipperary,
the estates of the regicides, to his brother the Duke of York,
and 20,000 acres to the Church over and above the 300,000 it
possessed before a.d. 1641. The cities and towns, though they
had also been reserved by the late government, were not avail-
able for the purposes of reprisal, as not only had many of them
been colonized by Cromwellians, but Charles—who knew the
value of having them rilled with his own adherents—specially
reserved the right "to restore them to such of the corpora-
tions as should be found fit for that our grace and favor;"
which meant that he should plant them with Royalists, and
appoint Royalists to be mayors and aldermen.
On the 8th of May, 1661, the Irish Parliament met to con-
firm the king's " declaration," in Chichester House,* a building
on College Green, erected by Sir Arthur Chichester, and ac-
cepted by the government in discharge of a debt of £10,000
from his estate. As the greater part of the freeholders of the
counties and the burgesses of the towns consisted of the new
settlers, the Commons were very largely composed of men of
the "new interest." Only one Roman Catholic was returned.
The bill, drawn as it was by men of the "new interest," and
substantially confirming the " new interest" in its new posses-
sions, soon passed the Lower House in all its stages. The
House of Lords, in which numbers of the old Anglo-Irish sat,
gave it a very different reception. For many of the old peers
it meant ruin to themselves and their friends. For the Orrerys,
the Montraths, the Albemarles, the Massarenes, it was the title
to their newly acquired estates. Every effort was made by the
* Chichester House was pulled down in 1728, and in the following year the
first stone of the Parliament-house was laid on its site by Archbishop Boulter.
It was completed in 1739.
RESTORATION COMPROMISES.
209
old peers, led by the Earl of Kildare, to increase the amount of
the reprisal ground at the expense of the new interest. It was
discovered that the commissioners had made clandestine grants
of the reprisal ground to their own friends, and loud com-
plaints were raised against "the doubling ordinance" passed
by the English Parliament during the civil wars, which entitled
each adventurer who, in addition to his first venture, advanced
one fourth more to receive lands to the value of double the
original loan. At length the bill passed the Upper House, and
having been transmitted to England for the king's approval,,
the struggle was transferred to Whitehall, where Richard Tal-
bot, a violent Roman Catholic, was the not over-judicious
champion of the old Irish cause. For six months the agents
of the two Irish parties contested every point, till Charles, sick
and tired of the prolonged wrangle, disallowed the doubling
ordinance, and approved the bill.*
Ormonde now went to Ireland as lord-lieutenant with the
title of duke, and was presented by the Irish Parliament with
£30,000.f A court of claims was, on February 13th, 1663,
set up in Dublin, in which the dispossessed land-owners pro-
ceeded to press for their rights. It sat for three months, dur-
ing which time 158 judgments of innocent were given and
only nineteen of guilty. The "new interest" took alarm at
these results, for the innocent were entitled to immediate resti-
tution of their lands, and there was great fear that the supply
of reprisal ground for those who were to be supplanted would
fall short. The Protestants believed that they were going to
be sacrificed to the Roman Catholics. A great agitation was
raised. A few of the "new interest," including some mem-
bers of Parliament, engaged in a plot which had been hatched
by Blood (afterwards of regalia celebrity) and the more des-
perate of the Presbyterians, who were suffering from the per-
secution of the reinstated Episcopal Church, to seize the Castle
and restore the Republic. The plot was betrayed and stifled;
but the government became alarmed. The time by which the
decrees in the Court of Claims were to be obtained was limited
* Act of Settlement, 14,15 Car. II. c. 2.
f 14,15 Car. II. c. 16.
210 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
to one year from the date of its first sitting, at the expiration
of which time it was closed; so that, out of some four thou-
sand claims ready for hearing, but eight hundred only were
disposed of. A "bill of explanation" was introduced for the
protection of the "new interest," and another interminable
wrangle was maintained in London. At length, from sheer
weariness a compromise was come to, by which the adventurers
and soldiers agreed to give up one third of their land for the
satisfaction of the Royalist claims, and the "'49 officers" to.
accept ten shillings in the pound for their arrears. The House
of Commons was purged of certain members who had been
concerned in Blood's conspiracy, and their places filled with
supporters of the government. The explanatory act* was
passed, and five commissioners appointed to carry out its pro-
visions.
The outcome of the confiscation and subsequent settlement
was that, whereas before the rebellion the Irish Roman Catho-
lics held two thirds of the profitable land of Ireland, in 1672
they held but one third. The king seized the occasion to se-
cure to the crown a considerable revenue by reserving a quit-
rent of from Id. to 3c?. per acre from both the restored and
the confirmed proprietors. Ormonde got back all his estates
and something considerable in addition, in all 130,000 acres.
Lord Clanricarde, Lord Inchiquin, Lord Roscommon, Lord An-
trim, Lord Westmeath, Lord Castlehaven, and many others
who had managed to secure friends at court, were also capri-
ciously selected for restoration to their lands. Numbers who
claimed, with quite as much justice as many who were restored,
to be "innocent" and "loyal," like the Barrons of Burnchurch,
were left in their poverty without a shadow of compensation,
and retired to the Continent, railing bitterly against the king's
ingratitude; while the timeserving new men, the Cootes, the
Clotworthys, the Hills, the Fortescues, the Taylors, who had
now got the country in their grasp, secured every acre they
had acquired without any deduction. Dr. Petty calculates
that the Roman Catholics recovered of their forfeited property
* 17,18 Car. II. c. 2.
RESTORATION COMPROMISES.
211
about 2,340,000 Irish acres; while of the 7,500,000 acres of
good land, which he estimated the island to contain, the Prot-
estants held 5,220,000. The net result of this attempt on the
part of the Irish to emancipate themselves from the rule of
the English oligarchy was that they lost just one half of the
lands they before had held, and had seated the English oli-
garchy still more firmly on their shoulders.
212
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OP IRELAND.
CHAPTER II.
TOLERANCE AND INTOLERANCE. A.D. 1660-1687.
The clergy of the Established Church had come back in tri-
umph. The twelve vacant bishoprics had been filled up, and
the new prelates consecrated in St. Patrick's Cathedral with
great pomp and solemnity. The Church had suffered consid-
erably under the Commonwealth. In England the bishops had
been driven from their sees and from the House of Lords, and
their lands had been sold. The parish clergy had been ejected
from their benefices, and compelled to give place to those who
were willing to take the Covenant. In Ireland the Church had
been completely overwhelmed by the storm of civil war; and
Bishop Bramhall, "the Irish Laud," as Cromwell called him,
had been scheduled with Castlehaven and Inchiquin as incapa-
ble of pardon either of life or estate. And now the Church
had got the upper-hand, and it signalized its return to place
and power by an outburst of bigoted intolerance. It was not
the party of Usher, but the party of Laud, which found itself
master of the situation. Bramhall had come back as Arch-
bishop of Armagh, and John Leslie to Raphoe; Henry Leslie
was appointed to the see of Meath, and Jeremy Taylor to
Down and Connor. A drove of shepherds to look after a few
score sheep! Of the 1,100,000 souls which constituted the
whole population of the island, 800,000 were Roman Catholics,
100,000 were Presbyterians, 100,000 were Independents, Ana-
baptists, and Quakers, and but 100,000 were Protestants of the
Establishment. To provide for the spiritual comfort of this
100,000, there was an establishment of four archbishops and
eighteen bishops. Many of the parish clergy held mere sine-
cures; most of them were pluralists. With no congregations,
in many cases, to look after, they lived away in Dublin or in
England, and left an ill-paid curate to perform a service where
TOLERANCE AND INTOLERANCE.
213
a few stray persons should be gathered together. There were
some who drew from their united livings as much as £1000 a
year without performing any duty whatever.
The Presbyterians of Ulster were a flourishing body. The
Scottish army which had come over to Carrickfergus with
Munroe had formed a second Scotch colony in Antrim and
Down. The army chaplains had gathered congregations round
them, and had swelled the number of ministers established un-
der the Presbytery. They had been threatened with trans-
plantation by Cromwell; and they looked at least for toleration
from a king who had himself taken the Covenant. There was
nothing the bishops hated so much as the Covenant, the solemn
obligation which pledged the subscriber to exterminate not
only Popery, but prelacy; and now their day had come to en-
joy the privilege of persecution. While in England the Epis-
copal clergy had in their turn ejected the Presbyterians from
their livings, and the Conventicle Act and the Five Mile Act,
in violation of the Declaration of Breda, were driving the
Nonconformists from the towns and crowding them into the
jails, a corresponding retribution was exacted by the Church
from the Nonconforming bodies in Ireland. A new Act of
Uniformity* was passed, which compelled all persons holding
any preferment to be lawfully ordained, to use the liturgy—
now recast and made still less acceptable by the Caroline bish-
ops—and to subscribe to a declaration that it was unlawful
"on any pretence whatever to take arms against the king,"
and that the Covenant was an unlawful oath. The Roman
Catholics were left to themselves—so far as the Church was
concerned, they could do as they pleased: the State would be
sure to look after them. But the Presbyterians who would
not conform to the act were breakers of the law. All "un-
lawful assemblies" had been forbidden by royal proclamation;
and so their kirk sessions were proscribed. The Presbyterian
ministers were brought before the magistrates and fined. They
were summoned to appear before the bishop, their livings were
declared vacant, and orthodox clergy were sent down to fill
* 17,18 Car. II. c. 5.
214
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
their places. Jeremy Taylor himself declared vacant thirty-
six churches in one visitation. Out of sixty-eight ministers in
Ulster, but seven submitted to be ordained; the remainder
were expelled. Not only were they summarily deprived of
their homes and means of living, but were forbidden to preach
or exercise the ministry in public. Guiltless of and abhorring
conspiracy, they were held by the government to be impli-
cated in Blood's plot. Some were summoned to Dublin and
thrown into prison; some were arrested and sent to Carrick-
fergus and Carlingford; others were dragged before the ec-
clesiastical courts and excommunicated. With no pretence of
trial, they were banished from the kingdom, and took refuge
with their kinsmen in Scotland. Then followed the flight of
their congregations: men sold their property and left the
country where there was no liberty of worship; some went to
Scotland; more went to America, and found a refuge among
the Puritan colonists of New England.
Charles, who in exile had secretly changed his religion for
that of the Church of Rome, was determined to obtain tolera-
tion for the Roman Catholics; and published a declaration of
indulgence for their benefit, though nominally to relieve the
Nonconformists. He instructed Ormonde to deal leniently
with the Irish Roman Catholics, and to wink at all their pro-
ceedings. The beaten party accordingly began to show signs
of life. The priests came out of their hiding-places and crept
back into their parishes. The exiled friars straggled back from
the Continent; even a few religious houses sprang up, and some
Jesuit schools were opened.
The Protestants soon took alarm, and rumors of plots and
massacres and French invasions filled the air. The outlawed
Tories still continued to make their depredations, to burn the
isolated farm-houses, and to murder the farmers. The farm-
ers began to form themselves into local regiments of militia,
in fear of another rising. Ormonde, who was too able and
honest a man for Charles and the Cabal ministry, was super-
seded by Lord Robarts; and Lord Robarts by Lord Berkeley, a
creature of the duke of Buckingham. The persecution of the
Nonconformists was renewed, and indulgence to the Roman
TOLERANCE AND INTOLERANCE.
215
Catholics increased. Peter Talbot, brother of Richard the
vehement advocate of Irish claims at Whitehall, was Roman
Catholic Archbishop of Dublin. Berkeley allowed him to ap-
pear before the council in his archiepiscopal robes, and sent
him the Castle plate and hangings for use at a grand celebra-
tion of high-mass. Recusants were put into the commission
of the peace, and licenses were granted for their admission into
corporations. After a bitter struggle, some Roman Catholic
aldermen and common-councilmen were forced upon the city
of Dublin; and Richard Talbot got up a petition to the king
to reopen the recent settlement of the land question. An angry
remonstrance from the English House of Commons crushed
this attempt in the bud; and Berkeley was recalled; and so
matters smouldered on for another five years: the Roman
Catholics enjoying a degree of toleration which they had not
experienced for half a century; the Protestants watching them
with intense suspicion, and vainly pressing the government to
put the law in force.
Charles and his brother, with Clifford, Arundel, and Arling-
ton, had entered into a deep-laid plot with Louis XIV. Their
aim was to re-establish arbitrary government and the Romish
religion in England, and to overrun and partition the United
Provinces. Louis was to contribute six thousand French sol-
diers and £200,000 per annum to Charles to carry out the first
branch of the design, and Charles was to lend Louis the Eng-
lish fleet to help to execute the latter. Though the infamous
treaty of Dover had not seen the light of day, suspicions of the
king's treachery were abroad. The dread of Popery and of a
second Stuart tyranny was working up the people of England
to a pitch of unreasonable frenzy. The Test Act, forced on
the government by indignant public opinion, had disclosed the
startling facts that the Duke of York, the lord high admiral,
was a Papist in disguise; that so also was Clifford, the lord
high treasurer; and so were many others, both in the army
and civil service. The king was in the pay of Louis, the great
persecutor of Protestants; and Danby was suspected of being
the unwilling agent of his master's venality. For a people
frantic with suspicion, well founded against the king and his
216 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
co-conspirators, some tangible evidence of a Popish plot was
all that was required to set the country in a blaze. This was
afforded by the foul false-witness of Titus Oates and his co-
perjurers, and the mysterious murder of Sir Edmondbury God-
frey. Common-sense at once vanished, and stern measures
with the luckless Eoman Catholics were fiercely demanded.
Part of the lying tale was that the plot extended to Ireland,
and that a French invasion was in preparation. And though
there was no shadow of a foundation for the charge, and Or-
monde, whom the king had again made lord-lieutenant, himself
had no belief in it, so loud and violent was the popular clamor
that extraordinary measures of severity were adopted. All
Eoman Catholics were ordered to surrender their arms within
twenty days. All Romish ecclesiastics were ordered to quit
the kingdom by the expiration of two months' time. Rewards
were offered for priests and Jesuits who remained after that
date. All Romish convents, schools, and seminaries were dis-
solved. The markets were ordered to be held outside the
principal towns; and Roman Catholics were prohibited from
attending a public meeting, or residing within a garrison town.
All garrisons were confined to barracks. Rewards were given
for the discovery of any soldier who attended mass; and the
Roman Catholic inhabitants of Galway, Limerick, Clonmel,
Kilkenny, and Drogheda were ordered to withdraw without
the walls.
Archbishop Talbot, who was actually on his death-bed, was
accused of being concerned in the plot, and imprisoned in Dublin
Castle, where he lingered on till his decease. Old Lord Mount-
garret, bedridden and over eighty, was dragged from his bed, and
thrown into jail. London was crowded with Irish informers,
men of the worst possible character, cattle-lifters, jail-birds, and
apostate friars. Dr. Plunket, the Roman Catholic Archbishop
of Armagh, a man held in the greatest respect by Protestants
and Roman Catholics alike, was dragged over to London, and
charged by two priests, whose profligacy he had censured, with
having obtained the primacy from the Pope on condition that
he would raise 70,000 Roman Catholic soldiers in Ireland, and
with having organized the descent of 40,000 French troops in
TOLERANCE AND INTOLERANCE.
217
Carlingford Bay. The absurd charge was credited, a convic-
tion was obtained, and the innocent old man was hanged and
quartered at Tyburn. All reason was at an end; victims were
demanded, and when no evidence could be obtained of a Popish
plot at all, perjury supplied the deficiency.
Fanaticism at length had had its fling. Charles, foreseeing
the reaction which would set in, and not venturing to oppose
the popular madness, allowed the fit of fury to spend its force;
and when the storm had subsided, Shaftesbury fell, Monmouth
was banished, and Charles and the Duke of York calmly re-
verted to their old policy.
The Duke of York had all along looked to Ireland and his
coreligionists there both as a fulcrum for the arbitrary projects
of his brother and himself, and also as a refuge in case of fail-
ure. Charles and he had formed the design of remodelling the
army to the exclusion of Protestants; but before the plan could
be developed Charles died, and James found himself in a posi-
tion to carry out a new policy of "Thorough." Ormonde was
recalled, and the government was intrusted to two lords justices—
Archbishop Boyle, a High Churchman, who favored the recu-
sants, and Sir Arthur Forbes, Lord Granard, a Presbyterian;
the latter appointment being made to soothe the apprehensions
of the Protestants till matters were in train.
When the new king had established himself firmly on the
throne, and suppressed the rebellions of Argyle and Monmouth,
Ireland was taken in hand. The lords justices gave way to
James's brother-in-law, Lord Clarendon, who was to be used as
a dummy, while the real power was put into the hands of
Eichard Talbot, the fanatical Roman Catholic who was the
chief leader of the Irish party, and now sent over to command
the army with the title of Earl of Tyrconnel.
Nothing could exceed the bitterness and suspicion which
divided the Protestants from the Roman Catholics. The former
were extremely uneasy at the turn events were taking, and
were overwhelmed with a dread that their ascendency would
no longer be upheld by the government. The latter were exult-
ant at the prospect of getting the upper-hand, and with the
hope of at last breaking off their necks the galling yoke they
10
218
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
had borne so long, and of recovering the estates which had
been taken from them. James's schemes were rapidly advanc-
ing. Kegimeut after regiment was disbanded, and recon-
structed of Roman Catholic recruits; Protestant officers were
cashiered, and replaced with Roman Catholics. The militia were
dissolved on the pretence that they had sympathized with
Monmouth, and their arms were transported to Chester. Ro-
man Catholic sheriffs and justices of the peace were appointed.
Even the judges of the superior courts were changed; and
men were shamefully raised to the bench and sworn in as privy-
councillors, whose only qualification was an unscrupulous devo-
tion to the Roman Catholic cause. An agitation was then set
on foot to repeal the Act of Settlement. A petition to that
effect was forwarded to the king. It was hinted that the Crom-
wellians had best surrender another third of their estates.
Suits of ejectment were brought by the old proprietors in the
court of the new chief baron, who had boasted " that he would
drive a coach and horses through the Act of Settlement." The
English settlers' case was accordingly refused a hearing; and
decrees of restoration were made with startling rapidity. De-
liberate attacks were made by the government upon the char-
ters of every city and borough in the island. Judgment was
given against the city of Dublin on a writ of quo warranto,
and every other corporation shortly suffered the same fate.
These bodies were then reconstructed by the wholesale intro-
duction of Roman Catholics. Only in some of the greater
cities, where the English interest was dominant, was it pro-
vided that one third of the members should consist of Protes-
tants.
Everything was now ripe for the appointment of a Roman
Catholic viceroy. Accordingly Clarendon was removed, and
Tyrconnel put in his place with the title of lord deputy.
THE SECESSION.
219
CHAPTER ILL
THE SECESSION. A.D. 1687-1689.
The appointment to the post of viceroy of a man so violent
and so bigoted as Tyrconnei produced a sudden panic among
the Protestants. A hurried exodus at once took place. Fifteen
hundred persons left Dublin on the departure of Clarendon;
and Protestants from all parts of Ireland flocked to the sea-
ports, and fled across the Channel to England and the Isle of
Man, even in open boats. A rumor ran through the island
that, on December 9th, there was to be a universal massacre
of Protestants; and those who did not emigrate drew together
into the country-houses, and remained upon their guard with
loopholed walls and barricaded windows. An attempt was
made by the government to throw ltoman Catholic garrisons
into Derry and Enniskillen, with the result that the Protestant
inhabitants treated their reconstructed town-councils with con-
tempt, closed the gates of those cities, and prepared to stand a
'siege.
At a crisis such as this the Prince of Orange landed in Eng-
land, and James precipitately absconded into France. Tyrcon-
nei was astounded at the flight of the king, and for a time was
doubtful whether to fly himself or to make terms with Will-
iam. The latter was not, however, as yet in a position to em-
ploy coercion in Ireland; and Tyrconnei plucked up courage,
and proceeded to stir the Irish into action on behalf of the
house of Stuart. The priests, most of whom were scions of
the old dispossessed Irish families, exhorted their flocks to be
ready for a rising. The army, consisting of forty-eight regi-
ments, was filled with eager recruits. Bodies of irregular
troops, or "rapparees," as they were called, were collected, till
near upon 100,000 men were under arms. The Protestants
were disarmed. They were ordered to bring in their weapons
220
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
by a certain day to the parish churches; and such as retained
their arms had their houses pillaged by the soldiery. Tho
whole country was given up to plunder. The regular troops
were quartered on the farmers. The rapparees took up their
quarters in the mountainous parts of Leitrim, in the Galtees,
and in the Wicklow hills. The houses of Protestants were
robbed, their horses requisitioned, and their sheep and cattle
driven off, from rich and poor alike. Some were hidden in the
mountains, others were cooked and eaten on the spot; vast
numbers were killed out of pure mischief, and left to fester
where they fell. In six weeks' time some fifty thousand oxen
and from three to four hundred thousand sheep were butchered
in this fashion. The scattered Protestants in the south and
west were helpless and made no resistance. The important
towns were soon in the hands of the government, and the iso-
lated country-houses which the owners had fortified were sur-
rendered at discretion or deserted. Those who were able
travelled into the north, where the English interest was forming
a combination for self-defence under Lord Mount-Alexander,
Lord Blaney, and Sir Arthur Rawdon, to find that William and
Mary had been proclaimed king and queen in Deny and Ennis-
killen.
Tyrconnel determined to reduce the Protestants of the north
before they had time to organize themselves; and despatched
Eichard Hamilton, a volunteer envoy from William who had
broken his word and betrayed his trust, with a strong force
into Ulster. As the Irish advanced the Protestants retreated
from town to town, breaking down the bridges, and burning
every house, behind them. Hopeless of making a stand at
Coleraine and Omagh, they retreated behind Lough Foyle, and
thirty thousand persons sought, refuge behind the walls of
Deny; while the inhabitants of Cavan and the neighboring
country turned to bay in Ballyshannon, Enniskillen, and the
castle of Crom.
Meanwhile the Irish, who used to look for foreign aid from
Spain, were now looking towards France. Spain was sinking
gradually into the position of a second-rate power, and France
was the most powerful state in Europe. Louis XIV., the per-
THE SECESSION.
221
secutor of the Huguenots, was looked upon as the great cham-
pion of the Church by the Koman Catholics; and the old Irish
party were only too willing to accept the protection of a sov-
ereign who had done his best to humiliate England, and to
overwhelm the country of the man who was now England's
king, and who was expected to prove another Cromwell. Nego-
tiations accordingly took place between Tyrconnel and Louis;
and James, who had been received with great respect and hos-
pitality at the French court, petitioned urgently for the assist-
ance of a French army. Soldiers Louis was not prepared to
provide, but he was liberal enough with other sinews of war.
He assembled at Brest a fleet of fourteen ships of war, six frig-
ates, and three fire-ships. Arms and ammunition for ten thou-
sand men were put on board. One hundred French officers
and twelve hundred Irish refugees filled the transports, and a
sum was placed at James's disposal of £112,000 in gold. The
ex-king of England was accompanied by a few English Tories
— Lords Powis, Seaforth, Dover, and Melfort, Bishop Cart-
wright, and his own bastard the Duke of Berwick. Among
the French officers were Do Rosen, Maumont, Pusignan, and
Boisseleau; among the Irish refugees we find the names of
Sarsfield, John and Anthony Hamilton, and Simon and Henry
Luttrell. The Comte d'Avaux was attached to the expedition
by Louis as confidential minister.
James landed at Kinsale, March 12th, 1689, and proceeded
thence to Cork and Dublin, where he was received with tri-
umph. After a hasty visit to Derry, where the siege was
assuming the form of a blockade, he proceeded to summon a
Parliament, which met on the 1th of May. Most of the sixty-
nine Protestant peers and the twenty-two bishops had fled to
England. Only seven of the former and five of the latter re-
mained. Of the eighteen Koman Catholic peers only nine took
their seats, and of these two were minors. To swell the num-
ber of the Upper House, James made six fresh creations: Fit-
ton, the lord chancellor, was made Lord Gosworth; Nugent,
the chief-justice, Lord Riverston; Colonel Justin McCarthy,
brother of Lord Clancarthy, was made Viscount Mountcashel;
Sir Valentine Brown, Viscount Kenmare; John Bourke, Lord
222 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
Bophin; and Walter Cheevers, Viscount Mountleinster; while
he reversed the outlawries of fifteen of the old peers who had
taken part in the rebellion, so that, including four of the bish-
ops who attended, the Upper House mustered forty-one. The
House of Commons, of course, consisted almost entirely of Ro-
man Catholics, only six Protestants being returned, and of these
two were for the University. The Protestant freeholders in
the counties had either left the country or were besieged in
Ulster; and the late reconstruction of the corporations ren-
dered the return of a Protestant for a borough impossible, so
that the Roman Catholics had it all their own way at the elec-
tions. Two hundred and thirty-two members were returned,
and of those one hundred and sixty-five were of Anglo-Irish
and sixty-seven of ancient Irish extraction—almost all descend-
ants of the land-owners who had been displaced by the Crom-
wellians.
The first care of the Parliament was to secure its own inde-
pendence in the event of a restoration of the king to the Eng-
lish throne. It was declared that no English statute should
bind Ireland, and that writs of error and appeals to England
should be unlawful. It followed of necessity, from James's
position in Ireland, that Poynings's Act was repealed. A bill
was passed, of great moderation considering the state of the
law during the Protestant ascendency, to establish liberty of
conscience and freedom of worship. There was an act to
"protect" the trade of Ireland; and the payment of tithe was
adjusted by giving to the Roman Catholic clergy the tithe
payable by the Roman Catholic land-owners. The burning
question, however, was of course that of the forfeitures. It
was close upon forty years since tlie estates of the Irish and
Anglo-Irish nobility and gentry had been torn from them and
given to the "new interest." It was but twenty-five years
since that the unsatisfactory compromises of the Restoration
had set a seal on the confiscations of 1652. In the meantime
the dispossessed land-owners had never lost sight of the one
object of recovering their ancient properties. Though out of
possession, they had continued to devise and settle the lands,
and to charge them with jointures and provisions for younger
THE SECESSION'.
223
children, as though their rights were still existing and tangible;
and they lost no opportunity of petitioning and agitating for
a revision of the Act of Settlement. Now their day had come.
They took little heed of the fact that much money had been
sunk in the land in improvements, which had greatly raised its
value, nor that numbers of the present owners had purchased
for valuable consideration of the Cromwellians. These men,
they said, had bought with a knowledge of what the vendor's
title was—which was true enough; and so the knights and
gentlemen in the Lower House, and the restored lords of the
Pale in the Upper, hastened to pass an act to enable themselves
to resume the estates of their ancestors, and considered that
they had more than met the justice of the case by inserting a
clause which provided that purchasers for valuable considera-
tion should be compensated out of the lands of those who were
attainted of treason to King James. The act was as defensible
as the act which deprived them of their land, and at any rate
as much an act of justice, or as little one of injustice, as the
handing-back in England of the estates of the Church and
cavaliers after the Restoration. The next step was one of vin-
dictiveness, an act of attainder launched against their political
adversaries. As in the acts of proscription passed by Eliza-
beth, James, and the Commonwealth, a long list of persons was
made out who had either thrown in their lot with the Prince
of Orange, or had fled from the country, or were in correspond-
ence with his adherents. Two thousand four hundred and
forty-five names in all appear in the act; among them those of
two archbishops and seven bishops, the Duke of Ormonde, and
sixty-three temporal peers, eighty-three clergymen, and 2289
ladies, knights, gentlemen, yeomen, and tradesmen. Many of
these were inserted haphazard, or from personal spite, or for
the sake of their estates, which as a consequence became for-
feited to James, and were greedily desired for distribution;
while, in addition to the exclusion of the absentees from par-
don and the sequestration of their lands, the whole of their
personalty was vested in "his majesty." So well had the les-
son of confiscation been learned by experience.
To meet current expenditure, the Irish Parliament granted
224 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
James a tax of £20 a month on all real estate; but as this did
not nearly meet his requirements, and as nothing came in from
the customs and excise, by reason of the complete collapse of
trade, he took the fatal course of issuing base money. Having
seized some authorized coining-machines in Dublin, he set up a
mint, and gathered all the refuse metal he was able to collect;
from every pound of which he produced, and compulsorily cir-
culated as legal tender, coins amounting to the nominal value
of £5 and of the actual value of 4d. This meant ruin to the
country, but especially to the Protestants, who were now com-
pelled to receive these counters in exchange for their goods,
and were forced to accept the same rubbish in payment of all
debts due to them on mortgage, bonds, or bills.
In the meantime, the English in Ulster were fighting for
their lives with unexampled doggedness. The famished garri-
son of Derry, after enduring a siege of 105 days, had at length
been relieved by the tardy arrival of three provision-ships under
Kirke's convoy; and De Kosen and the Irish army had raised
the siege in despair. The gallant Enniskilleners, upon whom
three bodies of troops were converging under the Duke of Ber-
wick, Colonel Patrick Sarsfield, and Colonel Justin McCarthy,
after checking the former two, boldly attacked the last with in-
ferior numbers, and utterly overthrew him at Newtown-Butler,
with a loss of two thousand men, to whom no quarter was
given. Sarsfield was driven back on Athlone, and Sligo occu-
pied by Kirke. The whole Irish army of the north, abandon-
ing its stores, was in full retreat upon the Biackwater; and in
two months' time the veteran Duke of Schomberg had landed
with one thousand men at Bangor, in the County of Down.
The half-hearted James was in despair at this succession of
disasters. The cold-blooded Frenchman D'Avaux urged him
to a general massacre of the Protestants in the three southern
provinces; but the suggestion was indignantly repelled. That
which had filled James with despair roused the Irish to re-
newed activity, and very shortly the decimated regiments from
Ulster were filled with eager recruits, and increased enthusiasm
was kindled throughout the Irish quarters. The Irish infantry
soldiers were individually brave, but they were ill-armed and
THE SECESSION.
225
ill-trained. Few of their officers had had any military expe-
rience, or had the knowledge to enable them to drill the raw
material into shape. Still, now that the danger became press-
ing, great efforts were made, both by De Kosen and the French
officers, and by the Irish themselves, to procure a better organi-
zation and to complete the transport. James did his best to
prevent all robbing and plundering, by stringent orders and
summary executions; and, according to Dr. Gorges, Schom-
berg's secretary, the behavior of the Irish army was very differ-
ent from that of William, which rioted and lived at free quar-
ters on its friends.
Schomberg, to whom Carrickfergus capitulated after a few
days' siege, took his way to Lisburn, Berwick retreating before
him and burning the towns of Carlingford and Newry. But
Schomberg's army was hardly more efficient than that of James,
and was considerably inferior in numbers. His Dutch and
French refugee regiments were seasoned men, but his English
troops were raw recruits, hurriedly enlisted in England, and
ignorant even of how to let off their muskets. Worse still,
through the frauds of the army contractors, the stores were un-
eatable, the tents were rotten, and the supply both of clothing
and of horses was deficient. On reaching Dundaik, he formed
an intrenched camp, not daring to attack the enemy, who
greatly outnumbered him, and who were encamped on the
neighboring heights some few miles off; and he determined to
await reinforcements from England before he risked a battle.
For two months the wary old general kept his men in their
quarters, striving to infuse skill and discipline into his recruits.
Exposure to the wet climate, and poor living, brought on fever
and dysentery, which thinned his numbers terribly; and at
length the Irish army, in despair of drawing him into an en-
gagement, broke up its camp and went into winter-quarters;
and Schomberg drew the remnants of his army off to Lisburn,
and went into winter-quarters also.
10*
226
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER IV.
THE RECONQUEST. A.D. 1690-1691.
In the spring De Rosen and D'Avaux, disgusted with James's
imbecility, obtained their recall to France; and shortly after-
wards Louis despatched to Ireland a reinforcement of five thou-
sand French troops, under the Count de Lauzun; but, in re-
turn, there were drafted off, for service on the Dutch frontier,
an equal number of Irish soldiers, under the command of
Colonel Justin McCarthy. Schomberg's army was getting
over its demoralization, reinforcements were streaming over
from England; and the important fortress of Charlemont,
after a determined defence, surrendered to the English.
At length, in June, William landed at Carrickfergus, and
took the supreme command. His strict discipline and unselfish
example soon restored order and enthusiasm to his troops; and,
supported by his ships, which moved in parallel course along
the coast, he marched southward and occupied the northern
bank of the Boyne, where he was confronted by James's army
upon the opposite side of the river. James's army was the
smaller of the two. He had thirty thousand men, including
six regiments of French infantry, and but twelve field guns.
William had forty pieces of heavy artillery and four mortars.
His army, which decided the fate of Ireland and the Stuarts,
consisted of about thirty-six thousand men. Its composition
was of a very motley character: about half was composed of
English soldiers; the other half of foreign mercenaries—Danes,
Swedes, Dutch, Swiss, Finns, Brandenburgers, French Hugue-
nots—the Protestant churches of Northern Europe come to
meet the Roman Catholics in an Irish Armageddon.
After the battle, in which they lost but fifteen hundred men,
the broken Irish army retired through the pass of Duleek, its
retreat covered by the French contingent, and then fell back in
THE RECONQUEST.
227
good order upon the capital. But the pusillanimous James,
who had had the courage in earlier days to gloat over the
bruised and crushed Covenanters in the "boots" at Edinburgh,
when the members of his council rushed from the room, took
care never to expose his precious skin in the battle, and fled
early in the afternoon to Dublin. Nor did his flight stop here.
Having hurriedly called together the members of the Dublin
corporation, and ungenerously laid the blame on the courage of
the Irish troops, he posted off through Wicklow to Waterford,
and never rested till he was safe at Brest. "Change kings,"
said Patrick Sarsfield later on when all was lost, "and we will
fight you again." Could it have been so, the history of the
world might have been startlingly different.
Dublin was evacuated and occupied by the English. William
issued a proclamation offering pardon and protection to the
laborers, farmers, artisans, and common soldiers who should
return home and lay down their arms; but the Eoman Catholic
gentry were excepted with a view to future confiscation, and a
commission was appointed to seize all forfeited estates. The
upper classes, excluded from mercy, had no way open to them
but to prolong the war; and the peasantry were driven into
the same course by the open violation of Y/illiam's orders of
protection by the English and foreign soldiery. And so the
Irish, deserted by their king, but encouraged by news of the
French victory at Beachy Head, determined to make another
effort for national independence.
The main body under Tyrconnel and Lauzun fell back upon
the Shannon. A strong garrison under the command of
Colonel Grace was thrown into Athlone. Cork and Kinsale
were well prepared for defence, and the bulk of the army
entered Limerick, where they were shortly joined by the garri-
sons of Waterford and Kilkenny, and other towns in Leinster,
which had either retired, or marched out, on terms at the ap-
proach of William. The latter, disturbed at the gloomy de-
spatches from England, was on the point of hurrying back to
London, but on the receipt of better news, and having secured
the harbors of Wexford and Waterford, he moved through
Tipperary to invest Limerick. There he was joined by Doug-
228 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
las, whom lie had despatched through Meath against Athlone, and
who had found the Irish there so strongly posted that he did
not venture to attack. Lauzun, who was sick of the hardships
of Irish campaigning, declared Limerick absolutely untenable.
He was supported by Tyrconnel, now broken with age and dis-
aster; but Colonel Sarsfield was of a different opinion, and in-
sisted that Limerick should be defended. Tyrconnnel and
Lauzun, with the French regiments, accordingly retired to Gal-
way; and the Irish troops, thirty thousand in number, re-
mained, under Boisseleau and Sarsfield, to wipe out the memory
of the Boyne.
William had with him only field guns, but a heavy siege-
train was shortly expected from Dublin. Sarsfield determined
to make a daring attempt to intercept it. Taking with him
five hundred horse, he crossed the river at Killaloe, under cover
of the night, slipped by hill-tracks through the Kieper moun-
tains, and surprised the convoy in easy security but seven miles
from the English camp. A detachment sent by William to
meet them only arrived in time to find the guns burst with
their own powder, and Sarsfield's troopers disappearing in the
darkness. This success greatly emboldened the besieged, and
William had to wait till he could bring up two guns from
Waterford. At length the siege commenced. The antiquated
fortifications of Limerick were breached, and an assault was
ordered. The struggle was long and fierce. The Irish fought
with awful desperation, even the women flinging stones and
broken bottles in the hottest of the fight. The storming party,
who had made their way into the town, were driven back to
the ditch; a mine exploded and destroyed a whole battalion of
Germans, and after four hours' fighting the retreat was sounded.
Next day, his powder exhausted and the pestilential rainy sea-
son setting in, William raised the siege and withdrew to
Clonmel.
It was now mid-autumn, and his presence was much needed
in England. Accordingly, leaving the command in the hands
of Ginkel, and having appointed Lord Sydney, Sir Charles
Porter, and Mr. Coningsby lords justices, he sailed from Water-
ford to Bristol. Active campaigning was at an end for this
THE RECONQUEST.
229
year, when an unexpected blow was struck with unexpected
success. By a dashing naval expedition of five weeks' dura-
tion, and with the support of some regiments under the Duke
of Wurtemberg, detached from Ginkel at Clonrael, Marlborough
succeeded in reducing Cork, where five thousand men became
prisoners of war. Kinsale followed in quick succession, the
garrison, twelve thousand strong, being permitted to march out
and retire to Limerick.
And now the opposing armies desisted from further opera-
tions till the spring. Half the island was held for King William
and half for King James. Ulster, most of Leinster, and half
of Munster were in the hands of the former; while Connaught,
and Kerry, Clare, and Limerick counties, and a portion of the
midlands, were occupied by the Irish. The Protestants began
to return from England, under the protection of the new gov-
ernment. The corporations were restored to their old condi-
tion. The offices of sheriff, lord-lieutenant, and deputy-lieu-
tenant, and the commission of the peace, were all refilled with
returning Protestants. The judges went circuit, and severe
orders were issued to control the actions and domiciles of those
Koman Catholics who remained within reach of the law.
With the return of the English, trade began to revive; and the
customs showed a considerable increase. But this was chiefly
in and near the towns; the state of the country was miserable
in the extreme. William's foreign mercenaries, with their pay
in arrear, lived at free quarters on the farmers and peasantry,
and laughed at the royal orders for protection. The Irish
country-people fled with their cattle from the English into the
Irish districts. All the long winter through, bands of Irish
franc-tireurs, formerly called Tories, now called rapparees, from
the Irish name of the short pike with which they were armed,
raided into the English quarters, and burned and robbed the
restored English homesteads. Nothing could exceed the bold-
ness and cunning with which they eluded the English patrols,
and spread terror almost to the walls of Dublin.
In Limerick the leaders of the Irish were divided by un-
worthy jealousies. Lauzun and his French soldiers had sailed
for France, much to the relief of the Irish, who found them
230
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
anxious only to promote the advantage of Louis by making a
diversion in Ireland, and callous to the interests of either James
or the Irish. Tyrconnel had been to France, and had returned
with a small supply of money and clothing; and was presently
followed by the French general St. Ruth, who held James's
commission to take the chief command. St. Ruth was able,
but cruel and haughty. He treated the Irish with contempt,
lie quarrelled with Tyrconnel, and he quarrelled with Sarsfield;
but, at the same time, by strenuous exertions he succeeded in
restoring order to the half-mutinous Irish soldiery. Nor did
he begin his task a moment too soon, for by early spring Ginkel
was marshalling his army at Mullingar, and, having obtained a
formidable siege-train, was marching upon Athlone. Ere the
new campaign began, William, not only anxious in his own in-
terest to close the war, but by nature tolerant, and " touched,"
as Sir Charles Wogan says, " by the fate of a gallant nation
that had made itself the victim of French promises," offered
the Irish Roman Catholics the free exercise of their religion,
half the churches in the kingdom, and the moiety of their
ancient possessions. But the Irish were still sanguine; they
knew how critical William's position was, and how great were
the risks he ran in Flanders when half his available forces were
locked up in Ireland; and no response was made.
Athlone, the ancient fortress built by King John upon the
Shannon to overawe the septs of Con naught, like many other
towns in Ireland consisted of an English quarter and an Irish
.quarter. The former, on the Leinster shore, was of no great
strength. The Irish town lay on the Connaught side; and
the deep and rapid river was spanned by a single bridge.
Ginkel advanced and commenced the siege. The Irish soon
evacuated the English town, and retired into the Irish town,
breaking the bridge behind them. Ginkel, who was strong in
artillery, pounded the devoted city for several weeks; silenced
the few brass cannon in the town; and breached the walls in
several places. But the strong stream of the Shannon effectually
prevented an assault, and his attempts to repair the bridge
were gallantly defeated by the Irish. St. Ruth, with the whole
Irish army, had come to support the garrison, and lay encamped
THE RECONQUEST.
231
a mile or two off upon the Connatight side, too contemptuous,
though warned by Sarsfield, of the possibility of the English
forcing the passage of the river. There was a dangerous ford
some way below the bridge, and by this Ginkel determined to
make an attempt to cross. Under cover of the darkness the
forlorn hope plunged into the water, and struggled to the other
side. A short fight at the breach, and Ginkel's men had entered
the town, seized the broken end of the bridge, and held it till
it was hastily repaired. Their comrades poured across, and
Athlone was taken.
St. Ruth, thunderstruck at what had happened, drew off his
army and took up a strong position behind the Suck. Ginkel,
after putting Athlone into a state of defence, advanced to
Ballinasloe. He found the Irish strongly posted on rising
ground, surrounded by a quaking morass, and their right rest-
ing on the ruined castle of Aughrim.
Late in the afternoon of July 12th, he determined to attack.
From five o'clock till nine a desperate battle was fought. At
one moment the English centre, staggered by the stout resist-
ance, gave way and fled; and St. Ruth believed the day to be
his. But a regiment of English cavalry under Mackay, and one
of French Huguenots under Ruvigny, managed to struggle over
a narrow causeway in the bog, and turned his right flank; and
as he rode down to fling his cavalry upon them, a cannon-ball
took off his head, and the Irish were without a commander.
The Irish now fought each for himself, and without method or
plan. The English centre was rallied by Talmash. The Irish
were driven up the hill into the camp, and, being unable to
hold it, fled headlong, some taking the way to Galway and some
to the city of Limerick. And now began a scene of frightful
butchery. The English and Danish cavalry pursued and cut
down the fugitives; no quarter was given, and the flying Irish
were hewn to pieces indiscriminately. Seven thousand were
slaughtered, and only four hundred were taken prisoners. An
eye-witness from the top of the hill of Kilkommeden next day
saw the country, for miles in the line of flight, white with the
naked bodies of the slain.
232
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER V.
THE BROKEN TREATY. A.D. 1691-1700.
The last line of defence had now been broken through, and
a pitched battle fought, which made it impossible for the Irish
again to meet Ginkel in the field. Their only hope was to
maintain themselves in the city of Limerick until the rainy
season brought them the terrible ally of pestilence, which had
before stood them in good stead at Dundalk, and at the siege
of Limerick in the previous year. Ginkel had occupied Lough-
rea and Athenry, and advanced to the city of Gal way, which
was held by Lord Dillon, and, after a short siege, had received
its surrender on favorable terms to the inhabitants, its garrison
marching out with all the honors of war, and retiring on Lim-
erick.
Limerick was now the last refuge of the Irish. It was
crowded with the broken remnants of the Irish army. Tyrcon-
nel lay dying in the castle, and Sarsfield was in command, with
high hopes of repeating the successful defence of the previous
autumn. Ginkel invested the town on August 25th, and open-
ed fire upon it with fifty guns. The English fleet sailed up the
Shannon to cut oh! all hope of French succors. September
came, and with it the news that Kilmallock had been abandoned
and Sligo had surrendered. Still the town held out; and Gin-
kel, with private instructions from William to finish the war on
the best terms he could, was growing anxious at the duration of
the siege. On September 22d an attack was made from the
Clare side of the river. There was desperate fighting on the
Thoinond bridge. The Irish were driven across, and the de-
fenders of the island portion of the town, fearful lest the
English should enter pell-mell with the fugitives, drew up the
drawbridge, and their comrades were either cut to pieces or
flung into the water.
THE BROKEN TREATY.
233
This was the last fighting of the war; and an armistice was
agreed upon for three days. The Irish were willing to surrender
if they could get favorable terms. Ginkel, who knew the risks
of prolonging the war into the autumn, and how welcome to
William would be the release of a portion of the army of Ire-
land for service on the Continent, was equally willing to grant
them. Military articles were agreed upon, permitting all officers
and soldiers, "and also those called rapparees or volunteers," in
the Irish quarters to embark, with their "families, household
stuffs, plate and jewels," for any place beyond sea; passports,
convoys, and transport being provided for them.
The civil "articles of Limerick" were drawn up, and were
signed by Sarsfield and by the lords justices on October 3d;
and, among other things, provided as follows: (i.) "That the
Roman Catholics of Ireland shall enjoy such privileges in the
exercise of their religion as are consistent with the laws of Ire-
land, or as they did enjoy in the reign of King Charles II.; and
their majesties, as soon as their affairs will permit them to
summon a Parliament in this kingdom, will endeavor to pro-
cure the said Roman Catholics such farther security in that
particular as may preserve them from any disturbance upon the
account of their said religion;" and that (ii.) "all the inhabitants
or residents of Limerick, or of any other garrison now in the
possession of the Irish, and all the officers and soldiers now in
arms under any commission of King James," either in the
English quarters or in the counties of Limerick, Clare, Kerry,
Cork, and Mayo (Galway had been dealt with on much the
same terms in the treaty signed on the capitulation of that
city), " and all such as were under their protection in the said
counties," should possess and enjoy the estates they held, en-
joyed, or were rightfully or lawfully entitled to in the reign of
Charles II., and all their goods and chattels. Provision was also
made that they should be permitted to follow, without restric-
tion, the same trades and professions which they had followed
in the same reign; and that they should all have the benefit of
a general pardon, the only thing demanded on the other hand
being the, taking of the bare oath of allegiance. This treaty
was subsequently confirmed by William by letters-patent. The
234
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
unscrupulous Irish Parliament of 1697, consisting wholly of the
new English Protestant interest, passed an act* which professed
to confirm it, but in fact so mutilated it as to cut out all parts
which were vital to the interests of the Roman Catholics, and
left an empty husk which afforded them no protection. The
first article, providing for freedom of worship, was simply ig-
nored. The clause for securing the Irish their estates was
pruned of the words " and all such as were under their protec-
tion in the said counties," which had been inserted in the draft
of the treaty, but had been accidentally omitted in the document
itself, and which had been reinstated with this specific explana-
tion in the king's letters-patent. The clause providing for the
free exercise by Roman Catholics of their professions was also
carefully omitted. The rest of the treaty, which was compara-
tively valueless and consisted of various minor details, was
solemnly ratified by statute. The perjured Roman senate,
when their army had surrendered at the Caudine Pass, could
hardly have surpassed the Irish government in flagrant breach
of faith.
A few days after the signing of the treaty, a French fleet,
under Chateau Renard, consisting of 18 men-of-war and 20
transports, with 3000 soldiers, 10,000 stand of arms, and stores
and ammunition, appeared in the mouth of the Shannon, prov-
ing De Ginkel's anxiety to complete the capitulation at any
cost was well founded. Its only duty now was to sail back to
Brest with as many of the soldiers of the Irish army as it could
accommodate. -De Ginkel was anxious to enlist the Irish troops
in the service of William, but they preferred voluntary exile,
and the prospect of being a thorn in England's side when in
the service of England's enemies. Some three thousand accept-
ed De Ginkel's offers. The rest, in all about twenty thousand
men and officers, were shipped for France—some on board the
French squadron; some, under Sarsfield, sailing from Cork;
and the rest in English ships provided by the government for
that purpose.
On their arrival in France they were incorporated with the
*9 Will. III. c2.
THE BROKEN TREATY.
235
five thousand men who had, under General Justin McCarthy,
been exchanged for the French contingent under Lauzun, and
were formed into the "Irish Brigade." The first body under
McCarthy had consisted of three regiments—Mountcashel's,
commanded by McCarthy, whom James had created Lord
Mountcashel; Clare's regiment, commanded by the Honorable
Colonel Daniel O'Brien, son of Lord Clare; and Dillon's regi-
ment, commanded by the Honorable Arthur Dillon. To these
three were added ten infantry regiments, and two regiments of
horse commanded by Colonel Dominic Sheldon and Lord Gal-
moy. These regiments, recruited from time to time from
Ireland, were some of the best troops in the French army.
They bore the brunt of the battle in many campaigns, under
Catinat in Savoy, at Blenheim, and at Ramillies; and helped to
deal many a heavy blow at the prestige of England, as at
Landen, Almanza, and Fontenoy. Precluded from all hope of
distinction in their own country, the Irish Koman Catholics
took service abroad, and rose to the highest positions in the
civil, military, and diplomatic services at Paris, Rome, Vienna,
and Madrid. So steadily was the recruiting for the brigade
carried on, that it has been computed that between the years
1691 and 1745 no less than 450,000 Irishmen died in the ser-
vice of France.
By the departure of these voluntary exiles, Ireland lost the
best of her children. Almost the whole of the Roman Catholic
nobility and gentry were to be found among the officers of the
Irish army; and the rank and file was largely made up of the
younger sons, brothers, and tenantry of the officers. There were
outlawed altogether 3921 persons. More forfeitures of course
followed, and the treaty of Limerick was treated as waste paper.
Forfeiture of estates was the penalty for treason: here it was
the penalty for being worsted in a stand-up fight. There could,
strictly speaking, be no treason, as the Irish had adhered to
the king de jure, and had never owned allegiance to the king
de facto against whom they had fought. Rebellion there was
none. There was a war of nationalities, and the Irish were
beaten. The victorious English simply seized the land as spoils
of war; and the wretched remnant of that which had been left
236 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
to the Roman Catholic proprietors by the Acts of Settlement
and Explanation was vested in the crown to the extent of
1,060,792 Irish acres.
"William was kindly disposed towards the beaten nation; lie
was anxious to treat the Irish with all moderation and clemency.
He accordingly restored to the old land-owners over a fourth
of the confiscated land, either under the treaties of Limerick
and Galway or by royal favor, or by the granting of pardons.
But, at the same time, he did not fail to reward his own sup-
porters, especially his Dutch friends, by vast grants of territory
out of the estates of those Irish proprietors who were beyond
sea. As many as seventy-six grants were made by him in this
way, some of a most immoderate character. To Sidney, Lord
Romney, he gave 49,517 acres; to Keppel, the Earl of Albe-
marle, 108,633 acres; to William Bentinck, eldest son of the
Duke of Portland, 135,820 acres; to Ginkel, whom he made
Earl of Athlone, 26,480 acres; to Ruvigny, created Earl of
Galway, 36,148 acres; and 95,649 acres of the estates which
James had absorbed at the Restoration he gave to the Countess
of Orkney, who had formerly been his mistress. This last,
however, was not a portion of the newly forfeited land, but,
strictly speaking, was crown property. Eight years after the
war was concluded, Avhen Irish proprietors had been reinstated
by decrees of "not guilty," and when the grants made by Will-
iam had many of them been sold to third parties, the English
House of Commons, in ill-humor with the king, and staggered
with the magnitude of the country's pecuniary liabilities, turned
their eyes to the Irish forfeitures for the partial liquidation of
the six millions which the Irish war had cost. A commission
of inquiry was issued, which made a report very hostile to the
king; and then, amid bitter heart-burnings, the Commons, by
sending the "resumption bill" up to the House of Lords tack-
ed to a money bill, reconfiscated all the forfeited land, and
made it over to thirteen trustees to be sold to the highest
bidder "for the benefit of the state." *
From 1700 to 1703 a court sat at Chichester House to hear
* English Statutes, 11 and 12 Will. III., c. 2.
THE BROKEN TREATY.
237
claims on the estates, and auction sales were held from time to
time until the whole was disposed of. A considerable portion,
consisting, among others, of the lands of Lord Clancarty, Sir
Patrick Trant, James Fitzmaurice, Thomas and Nicholas Skiddy,
was bought by the "Hollowblade Company" as a speculation
for resale. Other portions were knocked down to Dublin mer-
chants and English capitalists. Where the estates were en-
tailed, and the tenant for life only had suffered outlawry, the
deferred rights of those in the entail were sustained before the
court. And, later on, some of the old stock had sufficient in-
terest to obtain the reversal of their outlawries as a matter of
grace by special act of Parliament. An Irish act* passed in
the second year of Queen Anne empowered the government
to let on lease to Protestants the "coarse," "barren," and
"surplus" lands which were "a receptacle for thieves, robbers,
and Tories, teethe great detriment of the country." Of this
there seems to have been a very considerable quantity; and it
is to be observed that in all calculations of the quantity of land
confiscated, made by Sir John Davis, Sir William Petty, and
the commissioners appointed to inquire into the state of the
Irish forfeitures in 1698, account is only taken of the "profit-
able land," and not of the waste, and the area is reckoned in
Irish acres, which are to English acres in the proportion of
thirteen to eight, f
So wholesale and complete had been the transfer of the land
from the Koman Catholic proprietors to the Protestants that
at the beginning of the eighteenth century, when the era of
summary confiscation by forfeiture may be said to close, the
former were the owners of less than one seventh of the whole
area of Ireland.
* 2 Anne, c. 8.
t An English acre contains 4840 square yards; an Irish acre,7840 square
yards.
238
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER VI.
THE OUTLAWRY OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS. A.D. 1692—1*727.
The state of the country at the conclusion of the war was
indescribably wretched. It had been desolated from end to
end by the opposing armies. The wretched farmers who re-
mained had been ruined by requisitions, both from the Irish
troops and the foreign mercenaries. In many parts it had
been impossible to sow grain; in most the herds had been de-
stroyed: so that the absence of the crops and the loss of the
cattle brought the people to the verge of famine^ In the towns
the small traders had lost heavily by the issue of James's base
coin, and the complete interruption of all commercial dealing.
The seaports were harried by privateers, which sailed under
letters of marque from James. And, though the country was
utterly reduced and nominally quiet, the English inhabitants
found their ricks burned, their cattle houghed, and their houses
broken into by gangs of men with blackened faces, who beat
and otherwise maltreated them. In 1711 the outlaws in Gal-
way and Mayo issued proclamations signed "Ever Joyce," and
robbed, burned, and mutilated, till they were the terror of the
country-side. Stringent acts were passed, which were per-
petually being renewed and made more severe, for the " better
suppression of Tories and rapparees," * under which rewards
were given for the bringing-in of the outlaws dead or alive;
pardon was given to any Tory who slew two others, and com-
pensation was given to those who had suffered from the crimes
of the Tories, and was levied un the barony wherein the offence
had been committed. Where the Tories were suspected of be-
ing Roman Catholics, the fine was levied on the Roman Catho-
lic inhabitants; where they were suspected of being Protes-
* 7 Will. IH. c. 21; 9 Will. III. c. 9; 2 Anne. c. 13; 6 Anne, c. 11.
THE OUTLAWRY OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS. 239
tants, on the Protestants. As might have been expected,
fraudulent claims were not infrequently made, sham attacks
and larcenies being manufactured as a speculation, and com-
pensation demanded and obtained where no loss bad been in-
curred at all.
The government was now absolutely in the hands of the
Protestant minority. The English Parliament had passed an
act * abrogating the Oath of Supremacy in Ireland, and requir-
ing members of both Houses to take the oaths of Allegiance
and Abjuration of Popery, and to subscribe to the declaration
against transubstantiation, thereby practically excluding Ro-
man Catholics from a seat in either of the Irish Houses. The
Irish Parliament, bound hand and foot as it was by Poyn-
ings's Act to the Parliament of England, and a mere court for
the registration of the decrees of an English cabinet, in so far
as it represented anything represented the Protestant English
colony in Ireland. The English colony were the owners of
nearly all the soil of the island; monopolized every office of
trust and emolument, the commission of the peace, the seats in
the town-councils. It had fastened its grip firmly on Ireland;
and lest at any time the Roman Catholic majority should again
lift itself up, the English colony and the English government,
which had suffered so much in maintaining its ascendency,
were determined, as far as acts of Parliament could avail, that
the land of Ireland should never again pass into Roman Catho-
lic hands, and that every effort should be made to stamp out
the Roman Catholic religion altogether. With this intent, a
series of acts were passed during the reign of William and
Anne, by the Irish Parliament, which were of a character quite
unparalleled, and were in flagrant violation of the treaty of
Limerick.
By the English act above referred to, the Irish Parliament
was ignored, and the Parliament at Westminster imposed,
under a penalty of £500, the two oaths of Allegiance and Ab-
juration, and the making of the declaration against transub-
stantiation, upon every Irish archbishop and bishop; every
* English Statutes, 3 Will, and Mary, c. 2.
240 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
member of both Houses of Parliament; every person holding
office ecclesiastical, civil, or military; every governor, head, and
fellow of the university; every master of a hospital or school;
every barrister-at-law, clerk in chancery, and attorney; and
every professor of law or physic or any other science.
The Irish Parliament was then permitted to complete the
code.
The first of the penal statutes passed by the Irish
Houses was aimed at the education of the Roman Catholics,
and their connection with the Continental seminaries.*
It provided that every one who sent a child abroad, or went
abroad himself, to be trained in the Roman Catholic religion
should be liable to the forfeiture of all his real and personal
estate; and should be disabled from acting as a guardian, ex-
ecutor, or administrator, from filling any office, or from taking
the benefit of any legacy or deed of gift.
That any one suspected of contravening this act should be
liable to be brought before a magistrate and bound over in
recognizances of not less than £200 not to quit the kingdom,
and to appear at quarter sessions and take his trial for this
offence.
That any common informer could set the law in motion and
recover half the forfeiture, the other moiety going to the
crown; the burden of proof of innocence being cast on the
accused.
No Papist was to keep a school or teach scholars in a private
house under a penalty of £20, or three months' imprisonment;
and it was further provided that two old acts,f one of Henry
VIII. and the other of Elizabeth, for the erection of free schools
in every parish, which had become a dead letter, should be put
into execution. These latter provisions remained as much a
dead letter as the acts of Henry and Elizabeth.
The next statute had for its object the disarming of the
Roman Catholic population.f It provided that before March
1, 1696, all Papists should deliver up to the justices of the
* 7 Will. III. c.4.
f 28 Hen. VIII. c. 15; 12 Eliz. c. 1.
X 7 Will. III. c. 5.
THE OUTLAWRY OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS. 241
peace in their neighborhood all arms, armor, and ammunition.
The magistrates were empowered to break open and search for
concealed arms; and any person suspected of such concealment
might be brought before the justices on the information of any
common informer, and examined on oath. A Papist was for-
bidden to keep a horse of greater value than £5; and power
was given to any Protestant to obtain a search-warrant from a
magistrate, with power to break open doors and to search for
and secure any such horses. The informer might then, upon
tendering the owner the sum of five guineas, take possession of
any such horse for his own property.
Where persons refused or neglected to conform to the act,
the penalty was for the first offence, in the case of a peer, £100;
of a commoner, £30. All persons who committed a second
offence were to be held guilty of praemunire, an offence for
which the penalty is imprisonment for life and forfeiture of
all goods.
The only exception was in favor of those noblemen and gen-
tlemen who had the benefit of the treaty of Limerick; and
they were permitted to keep one sword, one case of pistols,
and one gun "for fowling." Makers of fire-arms were prohib-
ited from taking a Roman Catholic apprentice under a penalty
of £20, both upon the apprentice and the master. And any
apprentice professing Protestantism, whose belief was suspect-
ed, might be tendered the Oath of Allegiance as a test.
Then followed an act which was intended to have the
effect of expelling all Roman Catholic ecclesiastics from Ire-
land who were in correspondence with Rome; and to prevent
their return, or the entry of any fresh ones, into the kingdom.
The existing parish clergy were not interfered with, but a sub-
sequent act put them under a strict system of registration.
The first provided * that all bishops, Jesuits, monks, friars,
and "regular" clergy should depart out of the kingdom by
May 1, 1698, or suffer imprisonment until they could be trans-
ported to the Continent.
Any who should venture to return were held to be guilty of
* 9 Will. ill. c. l.
11
242
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
high-treason, the punishment for which was hanging, drawing,
and quartering. Those who came into the kingdom for the
first time were to be liable to twelve months' imprisonment,
and to be transported to the Continent; and on their return
would be equally guilty of high-treason.
Any person knowingly relieving any of the aforesaid clergy
were to be liable for the first offence to a penalty of £20, for
the second to a penalty of £40, and for the third to the for-
feiture of his lands.
This statute was re-enacted by 2 Anne, c. 3.
The act for the registration of the resident Popish clergy #
enacted that all Popish priests then in the kingdom should be
registered, and give security for their good behavior, under pen-
alties similar to those just mentioned to which the " regulars"
were subjected; while the apostatizing of the Roman Catholic
clergy was invited by the grant of a pension of £20 per annum
(raised by 8 Anne, c. 3, to £30) to any priest who should turn
Protestant; such payment to be a charge on the county rate.
It was farther provided that no one should bury in the pre-
cincts of any suppressed abbey, monastery, or convent, under a
penalty of £10; that no chapel should have either bells or a
steeple. Magistrates were enjoined to suppress all friaries, and
to apprehend all unregistered priests; and in order to guard
the guardians it was enacted that a magistrate who neglected
his duty should be liable to a fine of £100, and be disabled
from serving as a justice of the peace for life.
The social relations were then attacked, and a blow aimed
at what in earlier times had done more than anything to assim-
ilate the new English to the older inhabitants.
To accomplish this an actf was passed to prevent the mar-
riage of Protestants with Roman Catholics, and provided that
any Protestant woman having an interest in land who should
marry any person without a certificate from a minister or a
justice of the peace that the husband was a known Protestant
should forfeit her estates to the next Protestant heir; such
woman and her husband should be incapable of being an ex-
* 2 Anne, c. 7.
f 9 Will. III. c. 3.
THE OUTLAWRY OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS. 243
ecutor, administrator, or guardian to a Protestant, and the right
of guardianship should pass to the next Protestant of kin.
Any person giving them in marriage should be liable to a
year's imprisonment and the penalty of £20.
Any Protestant man who married any woman without the
above-mentioned certificate was ipso facto to be deemed a Pa-
pist, and be subject to all the disabilities of a Papist. Ue was
to be disabled from being an executor, administrator, or guar-
dian, from sitting in Parliament or holding any office, unless
the wife should be converted within twelve months, and should
receive a certificate of conversion from a Protestant bishop.
The profession of the law, which had always teemed
with recusants, was, notwithstanding the proviso of the treaty
of Limerick, to be thoroughly purged.
A special act* was passed to disqualify Roman Catholics
from practising as solicitors without taking the oaths, under a
penalty of £100, to be recovered by any common informer.
Solicitors who had not taken the oaths were disabled from act-
ing as executors or administrators, or from taking the benefit
of any legacy or devise; and no solicitor was to be permitted
to practise who did not educate his children in the Protestant
faith.
So systematically was this statute evaded, and the oaths
swallowed, that a supplemental actf was passed in the sixth
year of Queen Anne, which raised the penalty to £200, and
provided that any person might tender a solicitor the oaths,
and, on his refusing to take them, should thereupon be entitled
to recover the penalty and record the solicitor as convict.
Another section prohibited any Papist from serving on a
grand jury, and forbade an attorney to take a Roman Catholic
clerk.
A yet more stringent act was passed in the seventh year of
George II.,J which prohibited any one from practising as a so-
licitor who had not been a Protestant since the age of fourteen,
or been five years articled to some clerk in Chancery in Eng-
land or in Ireland.
* 10 Will. III. c.13.
f 6 Anne, c. 6.
% 7 Geo. II. c. 5.
244 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
At the commencement of Queen Anne's reign it was found
that, like every other severe and unjust law, the penal acts were
largely evaded; and the " Protestant ascendency " believed that
the mischief which they sought to counteract could be over-
come by fiercer statutes. Accordingly, in grossest breach of
the Limerick treaty, the savage acts of the second and eighth
years of Anne were passed, which were so carefully drawn as
to leave no possible loophole for escape, if they could have
been drastically administered. The object of these statutes,
besides the strengthening of those already in force, was to in-
sure the withdrawal from the hands of the Roman Catholics
of the fragments of the land to which they still clung; and to
make it impossible in the future that they should ever acquire
a title to a single acre. To secure this end, these statutes made
inevitable the gradual cutting-up and dispersion of the estates
of Roman Catholics; deprived them of the power of settling
their land, or disposing of it by will; even broke up in some
cases settlements already made; and provided a ready machin-
ery by which unscrupulous children and unfaithful wives, by
the simple process of apostatizing, and even the lowest com-
mon informer, could tear to pieces, or transfer to themselves,
both the income and the property of every unfortunate land-
owner who adhered to the religion of his fathers.
The first act provided as follows : * Any person who
perverted a Protestant should be guilty of ]wcemu?iire. Any
person who sent an infant beyond sea without a license should
be liable to the penalties of 7 Will. III. c. 4.
The court might order the maintenance and education of a
conforming child by his Popish parent, and appoint a Protes-
tant guardian. No Papist was to be a guardian, under a pen-
alty of £500.
Where a Roman Catholic father held his land in fee, his
eldest son, by simply turning Protestant, ipso facto acquired
an interest in the estate as tenant in tail, and converted the
father's interest into a mere life - tenancy. If the sons of a
Papist were also Papists, the estates were to descend in equal
* 2 Anne, c. 6.
THE OUTLAWRY OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS. 245
sLares among them all. But if the eldest son were a Protes-
tant, he should inherit the whole.
Every Papist was to be disabled from purchasing land, or
holding any mortgage on land; and even from taking a lease
of more than thirty-one years; nor could he hold such a lease,
unless a rent was paid by him of at least two thirds of the
full annual value.
No Papist after February 1,1703, unless he should conform
within six months, should be capable of taking any estate by
descent, devise, gift, remainder, or trust. But such estate should
during his life, or till his apostasy, pass at once to the next
Protestant heir. Advowsons belonging to Papists vested in the
crown until the owners should conform.
It was also provided that no Papist should vote at an elec-
tion without taking the oaths.
No person should hold office, civil or military, without tak-
ing the oaths and subscribing to the declaration against tran-
substantiation, and receiving the sacrament on Sunday in church.
No Papist was in future to take up his residence in Gal way
or Limerick, and those now inhabiting were to give security
for their good behavior.
All pilgrimages to St. Patrick's Purgatory or to holy weiis
were to be deemed to be riots and unlawful assemblies. The
penalty for being present was 10s.; and, if the fine was not
paid, the culprit might be publicly whipped at the cartVtail.
Further, magistrates were ordered to destroy all crosses,
pictures, and inscriptions which they should find anywhere
set up.
This searching statute was still evaded by the ingenuity of
the legal profession, by the devotion of friends, and the strain-
ing of the conscience by a pretended conforming. According-
ly the statute-book was again amended; and a further appeal
made to the self-interest both of the family circle and the out-
side public to ruin the Roman Catholic owners of land.
By TfiE second act* all fines levied, and all recoveries suf-
fered, to bar a Protestant were made void, unless the sale or
* 8 Anne, c. 3.
246 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
mortgage affected thereby should be a bona fide transaction in
favor of a Protestant for valuable consideration.
It was made lawful for any common informer to prefer a
bill in chancery to compel any person to discover any secret
trusts which had been created in favor of Papists. Any issues
of fact were to be tried by a jury of known Protestants, and
upon a decree in his favor he was at once to be entitled to the
lands affected by the trust.
No Papist was thenceforth to be capable of taking an an-
nuity chargeable on land. And no convert was to be deemed
a Protestant unless within six months he should receive the
sacrament, and take the oaths and subscribe the declaration.
The wife of a Papist was encouraged to apostatize by being
permitted, upon her conversion, to obtain a jointure charged
on her recusant husband's estates and on one third of his real
and personal chattels. Apostatizing children were empowered
to bring their Popish parent into Chancery in order to obtain
an allowance. The father was to be examined on oath as to
his means, and ordered to pay the charges and to make an al-
lowance to the child of not more than one third of his whole
income. Nor was the father safe after one decree. The same
process could be repeated by any other child, or by the same
child if the parent had not made a full discovery or his prop-
erty had been subsequently augmented.
The impossibility of stamping out a religion by act of Par-
liament had been effectually demonstrated, but this ferocious
statute goes on to enact the most stringent endeavors in that
behalf, and endeavors at any rate to secure the helplessness of
ignorance for the Roman Catholics, if their conversion could
not be achieved.
A Papist schoolmaster was to be liable to the same penalties
as a Papist "regular," and no person was to be qualified to be
a schoolmaster unless he should take the oaths at the assizes
or sessions.
Rewards were announced for the discovery and convicting
of Romish functionaries according to the following scale: For
an archbishop or bishop, £50; for a friar, Jesuit, or an unreg-
istered priest, £20; for a schoolmaster, £10. The amount to
THE OUTLAWRY OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS. 247
be levied on the Popish population like the fines for damage
done by the Tories.
No Popish priest was to officiate in any parish but the one
for which he was registered; he was to be compelled to take
the Oath of Abjuration at the time of his registration; and
any two magistrates were empowered to summon any Papist
before them to give evidence on oath as to when, where, and
by whom he had heard mass celebrated, and who was present •
refusal to answer was punishable by £20 fine or twelve months'
imprisonment.
Two magistrates were also empowered to summon any man
over sixteen to appear and take the oaths. If he should refuse,
he was liable to a fine of 40s., or three months' imprisonment;
on further refusal, to a fine of .£10, or six months' imprison-
ment, and, in addition, to find security for his appearance at
quarter sessions. On a third refusal he was to be held guilty
of praemunire.
By another section no Papist trader was allowed to take
more than two apprentices, except in the favored linen trade.
The CROWNiNa statute of the penal code was an act
passed in the first year of George II., by which every Roman
Catholic was absolutely disfranchised, and deprived of his vote
both at parliamentary and municipal elections.*
Such was the substance of the penal code, as unjust as it
was inefficacious. Appealing as it did to everything that was
base in human nature, and proscribing all progress and im-
provement, no system could have been invented which would
more certainly corrupt and demoralize the nation on whom it
was brought to bear. If it did not achieve the results which
its authors intended, it at any rate secured the ruin of the bulk
of the old Irish gentry.
* 1 Geo. II. c. 9, s. 7.
Book VI.
THE FOURTH CONQUEST
CHAPTER I.
THE SHACKLING OF THE ENGLISH COLONY. A.D. 1700-1719.
Disfranchised, disinherited, disabled from exercising the
most ordinary civil functions, the Roman Catholics, the bulk
of the Irish nation, endured all the social and moral disadvan-
tages, all the contempt, all the bitter sense of injustice, of a
subject race. With no room for honorable ambition, no scope
for enterprise, they were condemned to the swinish existence
for which the evil of the day is sufficient, and which takes no
thought for the morrow. They were so broken and crushed
that neither in 1715, nor when George II.'s throne was more
seriously threatened in 1745, did a single Irish Roman Catholic
venture to raise a ringer in the cause of the Pretender, though
"Prince Charles's" army was crowded with Irish officers, who
had followed him over from the Continent, no less than thirty-
three surrendering at Inverness to the Duke of Cumberland.
On the contrary, the Roman Catholics were rather looking to
the government for protection against the Protestant colony,
and their clergy were working hand in hand with the Castle to
detect anything like disaffection.
Ireland was not for the Irish, but for the Protestant English
colony, or the Protestant garrison, as they called themselves.
Taxes were laid upon, and collected from, the whole island, and
laws were passed by the Protestant Parliament elected by the
Protestant minority only. The political history of Ireland
during the eighteenth century is the history of the Protestant
colony. All the jealousy, the bitterness, the heart-burnings, the
Whig and Tory quarrelling, the rising spirit of independence,
the patriotism, as it was called, exhibited in the Parliament of
Ireland were the jealousy, the bitterness, the heart-burning, the
quarrelling, the independence, the patriotism, of the English
colony. The Irish nation lay all the while in sullen stupor,
252
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
only roused now and again, and here and there, into ineffectual
resistance.
Even the Protestant colony was not allowed to govern itself
its own way. The English government, sick to death of Irish
wars, embraced the selfish, hopeless, fatal policy of keeping-
Ireland poor in order to keep her from being troublesome; and
its plan was to maintain a tight hold on her by means of Poy-
nings's Act, and all its anachronistic machinery; and to render
the Irish Parliament a pliant tool in its hands by a frightful
system of corruption, which converted the Irish revenues into
one vast fund of secret-service money.
When Anne came to the throne, the country had fairly set-
tled down after the last war of independence; trade was begin-
ning to revive; but the jealousy exhibited by England led the
English in Ireland to look to a more close connection with the
mother-country, as the only way to secure prosperity. They
were strongly in favor of the abolition of the Dublin Parliament,
and of a legislative union with England. In 1703 the Irish
Parliament went so far as to petition the queen for a union
between the two countries. But the English government de-
terminedly rejected the proposal. The English colony was ac-
cordingly thrown back upon itself, with the certain consequence
that in time it would coalesce with the subject Irish. A con-
temporary writer says that "there was scarcely an Englishman
who had been seven years in the country, and meant to remain
there, who did not become averse to England and grow some-
thing of an Irishman." But as yet they felt the injustice of
being ranked with " a disloyal and turbulent people who could
only be rendered harmless so long as they were disabled by
poverty;" and were inclined to exhibit a spirit the reverse of
subservient.
There was a strong party in the Parliament, who, so long as
it existed as a separate body, opposed all attempts to invade its
independence. Mr. Molyneux, one of the members for Dublin
University, published a book called " The Case of Ireland being
Bound by Acts of Parliament in England Stated," which was
savagely condemned by the Parliament of England, and ordered
to be burned by the common hangman; but the opposition
THE SHACKLING OF THE BRITISH COLONY. 253
soon died out under the judicious manipulation of the Castle;
and from time to time English statutes were passed binding
Ireland, without remonstrance or protest. Even the judicial
functions of the Irish peers were denied, and a quarrel arose
between the English and Irish Houses of Lords on the question
of jurisdiction. The Irish peers having reversed a judgment
of the Irish Court of Exchequer Chamber, a counter-appeal was
taken to the English House, which affirmed the judgment; and
the dispute was eventually put an end to by the English Par-
liament passing an act " for the better securing the dependency
of Ireland upon the crown of Great Britain," which not only
formally deprived the Irish House of Lords of any appellate
jurisdiction whatsoever, but also went on to declare that "the
English Parliament had, hath, and of right ought to have full
power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient
force and validity to bind the people and kingdom of Ireland." *
The sixth of George Iwwas the last rivet which fixed the
chain upon the Irish legislature. Poynings's Act,f which was
an Irish act, said that no bills should be passed by the Irish
Houses which had not been approved in England and trans-
mitted thence before the opening of Parliament The Act of
Philip and Mary, J also an Irish act, which "explained" the
Act of Poynings, was passed to enable the Irish Houses to pass
all bills which should at any time during the session be certified
to the king by the viceroy and privy council as expedient for
the kingdom, and be returned under the great seal of England.
Under these statutes the practice which grew up was as follows:
A member of either House might bring in "heads of a bill,"
which, if agreed to by both chambers, were carried to the vice-
roy. He referred them to the Irish privy council, who made
such alterations as they desired, and certified them to the king
under the great seal of Ireland. The English privy council
referred the document to the English attorney-general, wTho
altered it as he thought advisable; and the approval of the
English privy council being then obtained, it was returned to
* English Statutes, 6 Geo. I. c. 5. f 10 Hen. VII. c. 4.
X 3 and 4 Philip and Mar)*, c. 4.,
254 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
Ireland under the great seal of England. The Irish Houses
could thereupon either accept it or reject it in toto, but had no
power of alteration. The bill, which was liable both to sum-
mary rejection and unlimited alteration by either the English
or the Irish privy council, having then a second time passed
the House from which it had emanated, received the royal as-
sent and became law.
THE STATUTORY DESTRUCTION OF IRISH TRADE. 255
CHAPTER II.
THE STATUTORY DESTRUCTION" OF IRISH TRADE.
A.D. 1692-1727..
The infatuation of England in respect to the economic laws
by which Ireland was to be hindered from growing wealthy
was the more extraordinary inasmuch as the mischief was in-
flicted, not so much upon the beaten-down native population as
upon the thriving English citizens in the towns and seaports,
who were intended to be the mainstay of the English ascend-
ency. The English commercial world had always been absurdly
jealous of the least prospect of Irish prosperity. Strafford had
done his best to ruin the rising woollen manufactures in order
to protect English clothiers. Cromwell had indeed conferred
the same commercial privileges on Ireland as were enjoyed by
England; but in 1663 the English landed interest became
alarmed iest the rents of their grazing land should fall by
reason of the imported Irish cattle diminishing the growth
of English beasts; for Ireland was always a great pasture
country, and cattle her chief source of wealth. A hasty bill *
was passed by the unreasoning Royalist Houses absolutely
prohibiting the importation of Irish cattle, sheep, swine, salt
meat, or bacon; and declaring such importation to be a "com*
mon nuisance:" and so violent was their ignorant ill-temper
that a contribution of Irish cattle generously offered by the
Irish gentry, for the relief of the citizens of London who had
been ruined by the great fire, was ungraciously denounced as an
attempt to undersell the English growers.
In the year 1663, Ireland was carefully omitted from the
"Act for the encouragement of trade,"f which amended the
Navigation Act of 1660, the consequence of which was that
* English Statutes, 18 Car. II. c. 2.
f lb. 15 Car. II. c. 7.
256 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
all the carrying trade in Irish-built ships with any part of his
majesty's dominions was forbidden, under the penalty of for-
feiture of ship and cargo. And in 1696 all direct import trade
with the British colonies was absolutely prohibited, and all colo-
nial produce was first obliged to pass through and pay duty in
England.*
Now that, on the return of peace to the distracted island,
trade had rapidly revived, and the Irish, unable by reason of
the English laws to make a profit out of the growing of cattle,
had turned their pasture into sheepwalks, it was found that the
woollen manufactures were showing signs of increased vitality,
and the English traders fell into a selfish panic, lest Irish com-
petition should reduce their gains, and clamored for legislative
protection. The ruin of the Irish woollen trade, almost whol-
ly, be it remembered, in the hands of the Protestant English
colony, was decreed, and remorselessly effected. The servile
Irish legislature was compelled to pass an act,f "in grateful
acknowledgment of his majesty's royal care, favor, and protec-
tion," putting a prohibitive export duty on all broadcloths,
kerseys, serges, and flannels; while the English Parliament
passed an act J prohibiting the export of either Irish wool or
woollen goods to any port in the world except to Milford,
Chester, Liverpool, and certain ports in the Bristol Channel,
under a penalty of £500, and the forfeiture of both ship and
cargo; and forbade its shipment from any Irish port except
Cork, Drogheda, Dublin, Kinsale, Waterford, and Youghal.
English and Irish wool was the best in the world. England
was by English law the only market for Irish wool, and she
could take it at her own price, otherwise Ireland had no pur-
chaser. The English manufacturer therefore had a monopoly
of the best wool at a low price. But what put money into
the pockets of the English traders was the ruin of the Irish
manufacturer and the Irish grower; and the hands who had
been employed in the manufacture of woollen stuffs were
thrown out of employment, and streamed away to America and
* English Statutes, 7 & 8 Will. III. c. 22. f 10 Will. III. c. 5.
t English Statutes, 10 & 11 Will. III. c. 10.
THE STATUTORY DESTRUCTION OF IRISH TRADE. 257
the Continent, never to return. Wool was a drug in the legit-
imate market. And woollen goods had no market at all but
the home market; of the briskness of which we may judge,
when we find an act* passed in 1733 "to encourage the home
consumption of wool," obliging every corpse to be buried in a
woollen shroud, under a penalty of £5, to be recovered from
the executors. Thrown back on the growth of the raw mate-
rial, which, as there was but one customer legally available, was
now smuggled largely to Continental buyers, the whole island
had rapidly been converted into pasture. Not only was there
a large contraband trade in wool, but there was also a large
business done in salted meat. As the trade in salt meat in-
creased, so again did the demand for pasture; and the quanti-
ty of cultivable land grew narrower and narrower. Farm after
farm was laid down in grass, and tenant after tenant evicted
to make way for the grazier. An estate which had supported
twenty or thirty farmers with their laborers came to be easily
managed by one or two herdsmen. Depopulation was the re-
sult. The stream of emigration increased, and so did the shoals
of beggars who wandered about the country.
An attempt was made in 1716 to encourage agriculture, and
the Irish Parliament sent over heads of a bill to authorize the
breaking-up of five out of every hundred acres held by tenants
who were (and this was the case in the majority of holdings)
forbidden by their leases from so doing, and giving a small
bounty on the export of corn. But even at this innocent
proposition the interests of England took alarm—not in hor-
ror at the introduction of a false economic nostrum, but for
fear the Irish should undersell the English farmer, and not-
withstanding the fact that for years the large proportion of
grain consumed in Ireland was imported from England. Ire-
land's commercial interests, or what were believed to be her
interests, were sacrificed to those of England; and the attempt-
ed legislation came to nothing. It was only after a potato
famine eight years later, in which thousands of the peasantry
in Ulster died of starvation, that tardy permission was given
* 7 Geo. II. c. 13.
258 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
to cancel these severe clauses in leases, and a small portion of
the land suffered to be given up to tillage.*
The inevitable consequence of putting prohibitive duties on
the great staple of Irish trade was a wholesale system of smug-
gling. Fleece wool in Ireland cost 5d. a pound, and combed
wool Is. In France the prices were respectively 2s. Gd. and
4s. 6d. a pound. French and Spanish wool, if mixed with a
portion of Irish wool, would produce as good cloth as the best
that could be made in England; and one sack of Irish wool
would work up three sacks of French wool. The coast of Ire-
land, honeycombed with bays and fiords, gave the most con-
venient shelter to the fast-sailing French vessels. The revenue
officers were helpless in a country where the whole population
sympathized with and profited by the contraband trade, and
pocketed a handsome price for their inactivity. The govern-
ment cruisers were overmatched by the smugglers' sloops, and,
as they received no encouragement from the authorities, never
left their stations at the important harbors. Wool was stored
in caves at the mouth of every little river in Cork and Kerry,
shipped on board the French vessels, and swiftly borne to
Brest and Rochelles. Cargoes of brandy, claret, and silk came
over in payment on the return journey, with an occasional Irish
exile to recruit "wild geese" for the Brigade or the Pretender.
The government was powerless to watch such a hopeless and
extensive coast-line; and equally so to put the law in force
upon the land side. For the whole country-side, squires, mag-
istrates, clergy, were in league with the smugglers, on whom
depended for an outlet the whole financial well-being of the
landed interest. When the judges came circuit, the grand jury
threw out the bills, or the petty jury acquitted the prisoners.
One common bond of sympathy, resistance to a code of nnjust
laws, was cementing together in the southwest Protestants and
Roman Catholics, Irish and English; as a common religion
had united the Celts and the Anglo-Normans in the days of
the Desmonds.
* The Tillage Act, 1 Geo. II. c. 10.
PROTESTANT ASCENDENCY AND ITS WORKS. 259
CHAPTER IIT.
PROTESTANT ASCENDENCY AND ITS WORKS. A.D. 1702-1756.
Not by all the penal laws against Koman Catholic priests
could it be hoped, by the most fanatical disciple of brute force,
that the old faith could be ever supplanted by the new, so long
as the condition of the English Church in Ireland continued
to be nothing else but a scandal. While there were no less
than three thousand registered Roman Catholic priests, there
were for all the parishes in the island but six hundred resident
Protestant incumbents; and of these six hundred the large ma-
jority were wretchedly poor, their incomes being but about
£100 per annum, notwithstanding the fact that they were all
pluralists, some holding as many as twelve or thirteen bene-
fices. Numbers of parishes had no church at all, or only a bat-
tered ruin, in which no service was ever performed. Few had
schools, and the few Protestant families who were to be found
in the south and west were left to shift for themselves, and in
course of time fell away.
The bishops, on the other hand, had absorbed all the Church
revenues, and were very wealthy. The land belonging to Irish
sees was estimated at 023,598 Irish acres, or 998,000 English
acres—about one nineteenth of the entire soil of the island.
All of them of the extreme Laudian type, they had through
good and evil times preached the doctrine of passive obedience;
and, though from their experiences under James they had had
reason to modify these ideas, they still continued Jacobites at
heart, and were ever the rallying-point of disaffection to the
house of Hanover. Their political influence was very con-
siderable. As members of the Upper House, which the ab-
sentee system had largely depleted of its lay element, they were
an important and an impracticable faction, which the gov-
ernment was constantly compelled to humor. Ecclesiastical
260 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND,
influences had always been remarkably felt in the Dublin privy
council, the primate for the time being filling the office of a
lord justice in the absence'of the lord deputy or lord lieutenant.
In proportion to the smallness of the influence of the Church
upon the mass of the people was the jealousy shown by the
bench of bishops towards the Presbyterians. The bitterness
and injustice with which the latter had been attacked in the
reign of Charles II. were redoubled in the reign of Anne. A
clause * had been slipped into the penal statute of the second of
Anne by the English privy council, as a sop to the bishops to
secure their adherence to the bill, imposing the test on Non-
conformists as well as on Roman Catholics. The taking of the
sacrament according to the rites of the Episcopal Church was
made a condition precedent to their holding any office, civil or
military, above the rank of constable, arid by this means every
Dissenter was subjected to the same disabilities as a Roman
Catholic. Armed with a new Test Act, the bishops hastened
to extirpate schism. Nonconformists were cleared out of
Derry and Belfast, and dismissed from the commission of the
peace in Ulster. They were prohibited from opening a school.
Their marriages were attacked, and declared void; and men
were prosecuted in the consistory courts as fornicators for
living with their own wives. Even the Regium Donum, an
annual subvention granted to the Presbyterian clergy by King
William as an acknowledgment of their loyalty and determina-
tion in 1688, was suspended.
All efforts by the government to repeal the test clause, or
even to pass a Toleration Act to secure to them the use of their
chapels, were rejected through the violence of the bishops in
the Upper House; and it was not till after the exposure of
Jacobite rascality on the death of the queen, and the fall of
Bolingbroke and the Tory party, and after the Irish bench had
been leavened by the appointment of pliant men from Eng-
land, that a meagre Toleration Act took its place upon the
statute-book.f Even this did not stem the stream of emigra-
tion to New England, and a steady drain went on of the best
* Section 15.
f 6 Geo. II. c. 5.
PROTESTANT ASCENDENCY AND ITS WORKS. 261
blood of the north to join their Puritan kinsmen in a land
where liberty of conscience was respected. Nor was the con-
dition of the parish clergy improved. The only sign of ac-
tivity was an effort made by the Protestant laity in 1733, under
the auspices of Archbishop Boulter, to found industrial schools
under a royal charter in different parts of the country, where
the children of the poorest Koman Catholics were taught, fed,
and clothed, and apprenticed to a trade.
The Irish Parliament was torn by factions, and it was the
pleasing task of the English government and the lord-lieutenant
to play off one against the other, and to purchase the support
of the most refractory by the gift of places and pensions in
order to get the estimates passed, or to carry any government
bill which was determined on. Appointments in the Church,
the law, and the civil services were invariably filled up with
Englishmen, unless it was necessary to buy off some determined
member of the opposition.
The opposition originally consisted of disappointed Jaco-
bites, who, with the support of the bitter pen of Swift, the dis-
appointed Dean of St. Patrick's, applied their energies to the
persecution of the Presbyterians and to proving themselves a
thorn in the side of the government. They called themselves
the " Patriotic" party, and were gradually joined by all those
who were indignant and disgusted at the selfish policy of Eng-
land. They were a small party, temporarily swelled from time
to time by the vote of self-interested and factious politicians,
which prior to 1753 could not count on more than twenty-
eight steady votes against the government.
The bulk of the House was composed of the nominees of the
great Protestant land-owners. Their influence in the counties,
where the number of freehold voters was but limited, was
overwhelming; while the boroughs, nearly all of which were
erected on land owned by some great freeholder, and in which
the franchise was usually limited to some half a score of alder-
men and the mayor, or "sovereign," who composed the corpo-
ration and were the freeholder's creatures, were, to all intents
and purposes, the private property of the "Patron." The
consequence was that a very large proportion of the borough
262
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
and county members sat by favor of a few magnates—-peers
and others—who could accordingly control the votes of their
clientele upon a division. The great object of the powerful
and wealthy families of the Protestant ascendency was to get
the command of as many seats as possible. The control of
votes meant political influence and power, and grew into a
most effectual engine for the extraction of lucrative posts from
the government. A combination between two or three persons
who could each direct the recording of some dozen or more
votes in the' Commons could hardly be otherwise than irre-
sistible.
There was no limit to the existence of an Irish Parliament;
it sat on year after year till the king chose to dissolve it, or a
dissolution came in course of law by his death. A mere pro-
vincial assembly for the granting of supplies and the confirma-
tion of government bills, it gradually lapsed into the practice
of sitting but once in two years, and voting money bills for the
two twelvemonths. The opposition could never turn the gov-
ernment out and come into office; for the government was the
lords justices and the privy council and certain officers of
state, and was an irresponsible and irremovable oligarchy.
The crown officials were occasionally changed when there was
need; and if the government was not supported by such a
majority of the members of the House of Commons as to carry
the estimates, it fell back on a prorogation, and intrigued with
the waverers until it secured one.
The opposition did their best. They vehemently protested
against the iniquitous commercial restrictions, and even en-
deavored to induce their fellow - countrymen to bind them-
selves to buy nothing but Irish goods, and "to burn everything
which came from England except the coal.', They were tri-
umphant in 1725, mainly by the means of Swift's unscrupu-
lous letters of "the Drapier," in raising such a storm that the
government was compelled to withdraw the patent which had
been granted to Wood for the issue of a debased copper coin-
age, the profits of which were to put £40,000 into the pockets
of himself and the king's German mistress, the Duchess of
Kendal. They inquired into the misappropriation and em-
PROTESTANT ASCENDENCY AND ITS WORKS. 263
bezzlement of public money by public servants, whose crimes
were winked at by the government in consideration of their
support. They asked unpleasant questions about the disposi-
tion of the hereditary revenue of the crown, the rapid increase
of the amount granted by way of pensions, and the applica-
tion of the surplus revenue. Nor were they much beside the
mark in so doing. Half the receipts of the Irish Exchequer
consisted of hereditary revenue, derived from a perpetual grant
of the excise and customs made at the Bestoration,'* from
crown-lands, and quit-rents reserved to the crown. Vast
sums of this money were wasted on royal mistresses, royal
bastards, and the nominees of the king and his ministers. In
1723 the pension list amounted to £30,000. Ten years later
it had risen to £69,000. The grievance was not a new one.
One king after another had paid for his illicit pleasures through
the Irish establishment. Catharine Sedley, James II.'s mistress,
had enjoyed a pension of £5000 a year; and the Duke of St.
Albans, Charles II.'s bastard, one of £800. The Duchess of
Kendal had a pension of £3000 a year; and her daughter,
Lady Walsingham, £1500. The Countess of Leinster, Sophia
Kilmanseg, had laid her hands on a pension of £2000; Lady
Darlington one of £1500, and her daughter, Lady Howe, the
modest annuity of £500; while Madame de Walmoden en-
joyed £3000 a year, standing in the names of Lord Cholmon-
deley and Sir Kobert Walpole. Besides these horse-leeches,
there was Lady Stanhope, who drew £2600 a year; Baron
Bernstoff, who had £2500; and the Dowager Queen of Prussia,
George II.'s sister, and many others who battened upon the
Irish treasury in various amounts. It is not surprising that the
national debt, which in a.d. 1715 was but £16,106, and arose
from extraordinary precautionary expenditure during the
Jacobite rising in Scotland of that year, in a.d. 1717 stood at
£91,537, in a.d. 1725 was nearly doubled, and in a.d. 1733
amounted to £371,312.
The lord-lieutenant spent half his time in England, and the
government was in the hands of the lords justices—those gov-
* 14 & 15 Car. II. c. 9.
264 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
ernors who, according to constitutional usage, were elected by
the privy council when the king's representative was not in the
country, and who usually were the primate, the lord-chancellor,
and the speaker of the House of Commons. Archbishop Boul-
ter, who became a lord justice in 1726, was the virtual ruler of
Ireland for eighteen years, and the reins of government passed
from him to Archbishop Hoadly, and afterwards to the un-
scrupulous and ambitious Archbishop Stone. The spirit of
corruption, which had eaten the heart out of English, political
morality, was fast destroying all ideas of honor and honesty
among the public men of Ireland. The Patriots had discovered
that the road to advancement and wealth was opened by agita-
tion. Noisy attacks on the English system, all the more easy
to assail by reason of its injustice and its imbecility, were
bought off with pensions and places of emolument. The
mouths of the exposers of English iniquity were stopped with
colonelcies of regiments, peerages, and office; and the country
was further plundered to provide the hush-money.
During the last years of the reign of George II. matters were
coming to a crisis. The government was entirely in the hands
of one of the lords justices, the arch-corrupter Primate Stone,
through whose hands the stream of patronage flowed. Henry
Boyle, the speaker, was also a lord justice, but had none of the
patronage, and was determined to secure it by ruining the pri-
mate. He accordingly joined himself to the Patriot party,
and figured as their leader. The Patriot party had been grow-
ing stronger and stronger. One of their most sturdy warriors
was Dr. Lucas, who had incurred the enmity of the Castle by
attacking the interference of the British legislature in Irish af-
fairs. He had been prosecuted in 1749 by the government,
and had fled to England. Then, when the storm had blown
over, he had returned and been elected to serve in Parliament
by the city of Dublin. The Patriots had also been joined by
the Earl of Kildare, who went the length of personally pre-
senting an address to the king, setting forth a series of com-
plaints against the corruption of the government, which were
especially levelled at Stone. The most eventful struggle had
been fought over the exposure of the peculations of Nevill, the
PROTESTANT ASCENDENCY AND ITS WORKS. 265
surveyor-general, a creature of the Duke of Dorset, the viceroy,
and of his worthless son and chief secretary, Lord George Sack-
ville. Victory had remained with the Patriots, and Nevill had
been driven from the House of Commons. Another contest
with the Court party had been fought over the right, claimed
by the crown, to dispose of the surplus revenue. . And, when
neither party would give way, the Commons evaded the diffi-
culty by carrying out a number of public works, roads, canals,
and bridges, so that no surplus remained to fight over.
It happened that Lord Bessborough was the happy possessor
of some fourteen seats, which gave him a considerable influence
with the Lower House. The primate, hoping to strengthen
himself, formed an alliance with him. The bargain was that
the noble earl should in return for his support have a share in
the patronage, and that Boyle should be ousted from the
speakership in favor of Lord Bessborough's son, Mr. Ponsonby.
Boyle, however, refused to be elbowed out. He could on his
part command no less than sixteen votes in the House, and was
supported by the Patriot party, who believed him to be disin-
terested and honest. At length, in 1755, the English ministry,
disturbed by these cabals and intrigues and by the discontents
exhibited at the disregard of Kildare's memorial, recalled the
Duke of Dorset, and despatched Lord Hartington in his room,
who was an intimate friend of Kildare. Immediately upon the
arrival of the new viceroy, Lord Bessborough deserted the pri-
mate, and made overtures to Boyle and Kildare. And this new
triumvirate, being strong enough in its tail of clients in the
Commons to bring the whole business of the session to a stand-
still by factiously supporting the opposition, were able to make
their terms with Lord Hartington, and grasp the whole power
and patronage of the country. The primate was accordingly
struck off the list of the privy council; Anthony Malone, an
energetic Patriot, became chancellor of the exchequer; Stan-
nard, another Patriot, succeeded Malone as prime-sergeant; Pon-
sonby was gratified with the speakership; and Boyle went to
the Upper House, and received a pension of £2000 a year and
the earldom of Shannon.
The so-called "Patriot" leaders had carried the day and
12
266 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
gorged themselves with the spoil. The remnant of the be-
trayed party closed their broken ranks, and prepared them-
selves for more trenchant measures of reform. They formed
the nucleus of a national party, whose object was to emanci-
pate the Irish legislature from the servitude imposed by the
sister island. By the steady insistence of the national claims
they created and moulded a strong public opinion outside the
walls of Parliament. The doctrines of Molyneux, the advocacy
of Swift, the agitation of Lucas, had initiated a line of policy
which, under the guidance of pure and single-minded men, was
soon to become an irresistible national impulse.
THE RESULTS OF BONDAGE.
267
CHAPTER IV.
THE RESULTS OF BONDAGE. A.D. 1760-1768.
Seventy years had now passed since the surrender of Lim-
erick, and George III. had succeeded to the throne. During
these seventy years the Roman Catholics had shown no sign
of resistance. There had been a rising in Scotland in 1715, on
behalf of the Pretender, which was absolutely unfelt in Ire-
land. Thirty years later a more serious rising had occurred in
the same country and in the same cause. The English govern-
ment had sent over Lord Chesterfield to Ireland as lord-lieu-
tenant, to encourage the loyalty of the Koman Catholics by
granting them some indulgences in relation to the exercise of
public worship; and so quiet was the country that, notwith-
standing the alarm of the Protestant garrison, he was able to
despatch four battalions of English troops to the assistance of
the Duke of Cumberland.
In 1760, during the Seven Years' War, an abortive attempt
was made by the French to land at Carrickfergus; but no sign
was given by the Roman Catholics in their favor, or any. at-
tempt made to co-operate. On the accession of the new king
a loyal address was presented to him by the Roman Catholics
of Ireland, which was graciously received; and a half-shame-
faced feeling was beginning to grow in men's hearts, both in
England and in Ireland, that the penal laws were an abuse of
power. The Roman Catholics themselves began to pluck up
heart. Anonymous works were published by Dr. Curry and
Mr. Wyse putting forward the Roman Catholic case, and show-
ing what a picture of cruelty and injustice the history of Ire-
land exhibited. A few of their leading men, chiefly among
the merchant class, even ventured to form a "Catholic Com-
mittee" in Dublin,, to watch over and help on the interests of
the Roman Catholic community. But even in this feeble effort
268 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
disunion seems to have prevailed; and after five or six years
the movement sank to sleep.
Half a century's experience of the penal laws had left its
mark on the Eoman Catholic population. The poorer classes
were more attached to the persecuted religion than ever, and
at the same time were sunk in hopeless ignorance. All educa-
tion emanating from Roman Catholic sources was forbidden
by law; none was provided from any other source; and but
for the persevering energy of the registered priests, who, de-
spite the. penal code, in the wilder country ventured to open
schools and in the less remote districts taught the ragged chil-
dren the elements of education in the fields and by the road-
side, every spark of religion and knowledge would have died
out from end to end of the island. The patient persistence of
the Roman clergy was very remarkable. The intention of the
penal laws was that, no fresh clergy being permitted to enter
Ireland and the ordaining powers being banished, the then ex-
isting registered clergy should gradually die out, and so the
race of priests become extinct.
To enforce the statutes, however, strictly was in fact impossi-
ble. The good feeling inherent in a large proportion of the
Protestants, who had the administering of the law, revolted
from the idea of putting it strictly in force. The government,
who grew to look upon the Roman Catholics as a useful
counterpoise to the Jacobite tendencies of many of the As-
cendency, winked at breaches of the law; and the succession
of priests, who for the most part received their orders from
the Continent, was steadily kept up, though, according to the
strict interpretation of the law, after the clergy originally reg-
istered had died out, every priest in Ireland was liable to be
hanged, drawn, and quartered. Besides living under the ban
of outlawry, the Roman Catholic clergy were wretchedly poor.
They were supported by the voluntary contributions of their
poverty-stricken parishioners. Each person gave what he could,
some a few shillings, more but a few pence, and those who
could not spare money gave in kind. Small collections were
made in the chapels on Sundays: the sum total of which at
the end of the year was considered handsome if it amounted
THE RESULTS OF BONDAGE.
269
to a pound. The whole income of a parish priest did not come
to more than thirty or forty pounds, and part of this would go
to pay a curate. Still the devoted band worked steadily on, a
startling contrast to the clergy of the Establishment, doing their
utmost to improve the condition and to raise the moral tone
of those around them, and only rewarded by the loyal affection
of the flocks which they served so well.
On the whole, the earth-tillers deteriorated less than the
gentry. The latter were more directly affected by the degrad-
ing influence of the penal code. Their self-interest was ap-
pealed to; their truth and honesty were undermined; and the
door was closed to every ennobling impulse. There was no
way out of obscurity for ambition, no scope for energy and
enterprise, except at the price of the surrender of what they
had been taught was necessary to their salvation. Sham con-
versions were therefore common. By the year 1738 as many
as a thousand Roman Catholic families of rank had nominally
joined the Established Church; and no scruple was felt in
taking the oaths, when perjury could be atoned for, as it con-
stantly was, by a small penance which purchased absolution
from the priest.
Numbers of the gentry, thrown back on a vegetable existence
in the country, lapsed into low and unworthy habits, and spent
their lives in drinking and wagering, with no idea above a
horse-race or the wiping-out of imaginary insults with a rapier
or pistols. Others, finding themselves the victims of the law,
took refuge in acts of open lawlessness, and revenged them-
selves upon the English strangers by acts of shocking violence.
It was a terribly common crime for these reckless men to cheat
the statutes relating to marriage which deprived their class of
the land, by seizing and carrying off into the mountains wealthy
Protestant widows and heiresses, and ruthlessly violating them,
in order that to hide their shame the miserable women might
consent to marriage, upon the ready production of some dis-
reputable priest who was willing to lend himself to the vile
plot. Not only did the Roman Catholics become degraded,
but many of the English Protestants who lived among them,
either through example, intermarriage, or compulsion, became
in time assimilated to their neighbors.
270
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
The great curse of absenteeism, which had from the earliest
times undermined the prosperity of Ireland, grew to its most
monstrous proportions. It was calculated that as much as one
third of the whole rental of Ireland was annually drained away
to England for the support of absentee landlords. A proposal
was made to tax the income of those who lived abroad, but
their influence was strong enough in England to secure the re-
jection of the bill. The great land-owners lived away in Bath
and London, with no other thought for their Irish properties
than the extraction of so much rent. Whole territories were
leased out in large tracts to "middlemen," who let the land
again at exorbitant rents to others, who sublet again; and this
process was repeated till the estate was sometimes underlet and
underlet six deep. Or the property was managed by stewards
and agents, whose orders were to remit the revenues and to
spend not a penny in improvements of any description. The
country-houses fell out of repair; the woods were recklessly
cut to increase the revenue; whatever fencing or reclamation
was done was done by the tenant, and done with as little show
as possible, lest the keen eye of the agent should note it, and
raise the rent accordingly. The tenant received no encourage-
ment to make the most out of the land. His position was too
insecure. Swift's opinion as to what was wanted in 1729 was
"good, firm penal clauses for improvements, with a tolerably
easy rent, and a reasonable period of time."
It was in 1761 that public attention first became directed
towards the state of the peasantry. The condition of the
earth-tillers had rapidly been growing worse and worse. In
the old days before the plantations they had been little better
than serfs, so autocratic had the clan chiefs and the Anglo-
Norman lords become; but the tie of family and old associa-
tion was strong, and one faith was common to both; so that
the earth-tiller followed his master to danger and death with
infrangible fidelity. Even in the case of the earlier planters
common interests had established a friendly feeling between
the new land-owner and the old tenant. But the later confisca-
tions, especially those after the war of 1791, created a gulf be-
tween the old tenant and the still newer land-owner which was
THE RESULTS OF BONDAGE.
271
never bridged over. There was no bond of sympathy between
them. Of different faith and different habits, the newest race
of landlords were essentially land-speculators, who bought the
land as an investment, determined to make every possible
shilling out of their purchase. They cared not to live in a
barbarous island among strangers: all they wanted was their
rents; and the tenantry and peasantry never saw their faces
from year's end to year's end. The landlords, who were ex-
tending grass-lands wholesale, managed to get pasture-land ex-
empted from the payment of tithe, so that this hated tribute
to an alien Church fell wholly on the growers of grain and
roots. The wretched tenants-at-will were transferred to the
tender mercies of the "middlemen," who raised their rents to
swell their own profits, and allowed them as some set-off the
run of the open waste. The grazing fever set in, the land fell
out of cultivation, so that, according to Swift, "even ale and
potatoes were imported from England as well as corn." The
rate of wages fell to nothing; the small farmers and laborers
were cleared out of the country, and huddled into the towns.
The agents then enclosed large tracts of what had hitherto
been common bog and moor, and the wretched peasants who
now counted among their number the descendant of many an
old proprietor, who had squatted on what was once his own
demesne, and who carefully devised by his will to his sons and
grandsons the ancestral acres of which he was no longer the
possessor, were driven from the bit of rough pasture on which
they had been accustomed to turn out a pig or a cow.
Rack-rented by the remorseless middlemen, squeezed out of
the narrowing cultivable lands and hunted from the common,
they at length took the law into their own hands, and thought,
in their ignorance, that justice could be achieved by means of
a secret society. In the dark nights of the winter of 1761 and
the spring of 1762, mysterious parties of men with white shirts
over their clothes sped over the counties of Cork, Limerick,
Waterford, and Tipperary, pulling down the fences, levelling
the banks, and digging up acres and acres of the pasture. As
the terror grew which they inspired, they were not content with
a war against grass-lands and enclosures, but proposed to remedy
272
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OP IRELAND.
all the wrongs from winch the tenant suffered. Threatening-
letters were sent, signed Captain Dwyer and Joanna Meskell,
demanding a redaction of rents, the enforcement of the Tillage
Acts, moderation in cattle-breeding, and relief against the action
of the tithe-proctors. Obnoxious persons were brutally ill-
treated, tortured, and mutilated, and their cattle were houghed.
Strong measures were taken by the government to suppress the
disorder; but the Jaw was powerless. When the judges came
round on circuit, no juries would convict, and no evidence could
be procured. The people, harassed by the Whiteboy oath on
the one hand, and the judicial oath on the other, preferred to
perjure themselves on the side of their friends. The military
was called out, and patrolled the country. Bodies of volunteers
were formed by the resident gentry. Many of the Whiteboys
were killed in hot blood; others were court - martialled and
hanged; some of their reputed leaders were tried and executed.
But, though order was by these means in some sort restored,
the Whiteboys continued to infest Munster for many years.
While the peasantry of the south were despairingly appeal-
ing to the law of force, the peasantry of the north and the
working classes in the manufacturing towns had resorted to
the same expedient. The public highways in Ireland were rep-
arable by the householders. Every man was bound to give
six days' labor in the year, and whoever had a horse was bound
to give six days' use of the horse as well. There had long been
complaint that the poor only had been compelled to work, and
the rich were exempted even from giving payment in place
of manual labor. Not only was the work enforced upon the
highways, but also upon private roads, while the grand juries
exacted the cess from the farmers only. In 1763 a general
refusal to work was followed by a rising and a demand for a
redress of all grievances against waywardens, tithe - proctors,
and landlords. Green boughs of oak were worn in the hats of
the rioters, who went by the name of " Oakboys."
These disturbances were hardly put down by the military
when the troops were again called out to suppress the rising
of the " Hearts-of-steel Boys," which was a comparatively local
disturbance arising from the refusal of Lord Donegal, Mr. Up-
THE RESULTS OF BONDAGE.
273
ton, and other large absentee proprietors, to relet farms when
the leases had expired except upon the terms of the payment
of a somewhat decreased rent and a heavy fine. The farmers,
though able and willing to pay the old rents, had not the cap-
ital to pay the fine, and were evicted in favor of wealthy un-
dertakers, who, having paid the fine and taken the land as a
speculation, doubled all the rents which had up to that time
been reserved. The avarice of the landlords, who were only
careful to raise large lump-sums of money to spend out of the
country on their own indulgences, had driven the Protestant
farmers into a league against "landlordism," with the result
that they were compelled to throw up their farms. The farms
were taken by Roman Catholics, who were only too ready to
get back upon the land at any price; and the sturdy yeoman,
who had been cast upon the world, took refuge in the New
England colonies.
Royal commissions were issued to inquire into the causes of
the disturbances both of the Oakboys, the Hearts-of-steel Boys,
and the Whiteboys; and the difference in the results which
followed is a striking illustration of the way in which party
feeling and class interests have always been the first considera-
tion in Ireland. No help was forthcoming for the Steelboys,
whose grievances were against their landlords. There was no
hope for them but in emigration. Lord Donegal was, how-
ever, subsequently made a marquess, and Mr. Upton a viscount.
In the case of the Protestant Oakboys, the old act relating to
highways was repealed, and provision was made for the future
repair of roads by a rate levied on rich and poor alike in every
barony.* In the case of the Roman Catholic Whiteboys, whose
grievances were also against the landlords, not only was no step
taken to prevent excessive enclosures, or to strengthen and en-
force the Tillage Acts, but a bill was passed which made it
felony for more than six persons to assemble at night and to
level fences and dig up pastures, and gave damages to the in-
jured parties, to be assessed on the barony in which the offence
had been committed, f The grievances of the peasantry and
* 5 Geo. III. c. 14 f lb. c. 8.
12*
274
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
the farmers were refused a hearing, and the policy of coercion
was carried out, with the natural result that the mischief of
discontent was driven in upon the system to grow into disaf-
fection and rebellion. The half-serious sneer of Lord Chester-
field was sadly too near the truth: that "if the military force
had killed half as many landlords as it had Whiteboys, it would
have contributed more effectually to restore quiet." "For," he
adds, "the poor people in Ireland are worse used than negroes
by their masters, and deputies of deputies of deputies."
THE BEGINNING OF CORRUPTION.
275
CHAPTER V.
THE BEGINNING OF CORRUPTION. A.D. 1767-1775.
The government Lad bought the venal portion of the Patriot
party, but the residue, led by Lucas, and Pery (the member for
Limerick), who had now found a powerful ally in young Henry
Flood, continued their assaults on the pension list. The annual
charge of this scandal in 1763 was no less than £72,000; while
the private revenue of the crown, on which alone it could with
decency be charged, was but £30,000. One of the latest jobs
was a pension of £1000 a year in the name of George Charles
to M. de Yerois, the Sardinian ambassador, for having negoti-
ated the peace of Paris. Besides this £72,000, the number of
regiments had been raised from thirty-two to forty-two with-
out adding to the number of men, with the sole object of in-
creasing the court patronage by means of the Gazette; and
this had entailed the expenditure of an additional £75,000 per
annum in the pay of general officers alone.
The imports and exports were taxed as heavily as they would
bear. The revenue was annually falling short of the expend-
iture. The national debt, after having been liquidated in 1754,
had rapidly grown up again in consequence of the cost of the
Seven Years' War, and, taking the annual deficits into account,
was calculated in 1765 to amount to about £1,000,000.
After repeated motions relating to the pension list, which
were defeated by considerable majorities, and after the rejection
of a bill "to prevent the buying and selling of offices which
concern the administration of justice, or of the collecting of
his majesty's revenue," the Patriots felt that the self-interested
court party were too strong for them on this point, and turned
their attention to obtaining an instalment of parliamentary re-
form.
There was no limit to the existence of an Irish Parliament
276 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
but the demise of the crown or a dissolution. That which had
been elected at the commencement of George II.'s reign ex-
pired only with his death, having sat for no less than thirty-
three years. The duration of the English Parliament was lim-
ited by the Septennial Act; and the question which was now
beginning to excite general interest, and which had drawn the
pledges of a considerable proportion of the candidates at the
last general election, was that of a Septennial Act for Ireland.
The government, now that it held in its pay the leaders of
the Commons, whose united dependants could at any time in-
sure a majority of the house, was beginning to find that the
monopoly of votes which it had secured w7as anything but
a satisfactory purchase. The rapacity of the placemen was in-
satiable; and, if they did not obtain all their desires, they did
not scruple to revenge themselves by going into the opposition
lobby. The wire-pullers of the privy council, the Boyle and
Ponsonby oligarchy, who monopolized the office of lord jus-
tice, were in the habit of bargaining with each new lord-lieu-
tenant as to the terms upon which they would " undertake " to
u carry on the king's business;" for, as all the loaves and
fishes, places, pensions, and preferments passed through their
hands, they could command an enormous majority, and had it
in their power to bring matters to a deadlock. If the lord-
lieutenant was refractory, they joined with the opposition and
withheld the supplies, with their band of mercenaries behind
them. If the lord-lieutenant was compliant, the opposition
were left in a minority, and the government measures car-
ried.
Lord Chatham's government, hoping to break up the junto
which had been unwittingly created, sent over Lord Townshend
in 1767 as lord-lieutenant to reduce the Irish House of Com-
mons to obedience. It was determined that thenceforward the
lord-lieutenant should reside permanently in Ireland, the con-
sequence of which necessarily was that all the patronage would
be conferred directly from the viceroy in each case, instead of
passing through the hands of the lords justices, who had ab-
sorbed it in his absence. To strengthen himself against the
"undertakers," and to strike at their monopoly of the constitu-
THE BEGINNING OF CORRUPTION.
277
e'ncies, he encouraged the Patriots to bring in a Septennial Bill.
Three times under Lord Hertford's lieutenant-governorship had
the Patriots, with the support of many members who dreaded
the measure from the bottom of their hearts, but who reckoned
on the British cabinet rejecting it, sent over the heads of a
Septennial Bill to England; and it had never as yet come back
to Dublin. Now, for a fourth time, a bill was transmitted in
the usual way; and this time the English cabinet returned it,
only changing the limit from seven to eight years. The gov-
ernment was extremely anxious to pass a bill for the increase
of the army, nominally on the ground of the necessity for a
larger force wherewith to suppress the Whiteboys, but really
for the purpose of having the means wherewith to coerce the
American colonies. The return of the bill was a bribe to pur-
chase the neutrality of the opposition, and to hinder the aris-
tocratic junto from putting pressure on the government. The
sham Patriots, in the pay of the junto, were greatly discon-
certed at the return of the bill, which reduced their occupancy
of a seat from an indefinite period to one of eight years. They
had voted for it under the belief that the cabinet would be cer-
tain to "cushion" it. The interference of the English privy
council was a sore point, which had already wrecked a bill for
making the appointment of the judges perpetual during good
behavior, instead of depending on the caprice of the sovereign;
and they still hoped that, as the limit had been so materially
altered, the House of Commons might, after all, reject the meas-
ure. But the Irish people were too delighted to get the bill
back at any price, either for Patriots to raise a point of privi-
lege, or pseudo-patriots, who hated reform, to venture to reject
it. The bill accordingly passed into law amid the greatest
popular exultation and rejoicing, and the Parliament was dis-
solved.*
Popular as the passing of the Octennial Act made Townshend
for the time, the struggle between him and the Commons was
yet to come. The great Irish families, who held one sixth of
the seats in their grasp, and who hired upwards of one third
* 7 Geo. II. c.3.
278 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
more by the distribution of government favors, were furious at
having their patronage taken from them. The Army Bill had
been duly passed; the Patriots relapsed into opposition; the
outmanoeuvred aristocratic faction threw themselves again into
their arms. The viceroy was again at fault, and, in order to
overcome the coalition, was compelled to enter upon a course of
wholesale bribery.
One of the great issues between the government and the
Irish Parliament was the question of the right to initiate a
money bill. The Commons contended that, Poynings's Law or
no Poynings's Law, the representatives of the people could alone
hold the purse-strings, and that the originating or alteration of
a money bill by either the English or the Irish privy council
was a gross breach of privilege and a violation of the Consti-
tution. An attempt to dictate to the House the amount of the
vote was made by Lord Sydney in 1692, which resulted in the
rejection of one of the money bills, and the passing of the
other with an accompanying resolution that it was not to form
a precedent for the future. Prior to the first sitting of the
first Octennial Parliament in 1769, Townshend had moved
heaven and earth to influence the election. Sixteen months
had been allowed to elapse between the dissolution of the old
and the reassembling of the new Parliament, and large sums
had in the meantime been expended to strengthen the Court
influence. When Parliament met, a money bill originated by
the privy council was introduced, and after a stormy debate
was rejected on the second reading. In order, however, to
show that their conduct was not factious, the Commons
brought in a bill of their own and granted the supplies.
Townshend accepted the supplies, and, chafing under liis de-
feat, made an angry protest, which the Commons refused to
record on their journals. Then, after some sharp skirmishes
with the Patriots, he prorogued the Parliament—a course
which elicited a storm of invective both from pamphlets and
the press.
The conduct of the lord-lieutenant was called in question in the
English Parliament and an attack was made on Lord North's
government, which, however, was defeated. Emboldened by
THE BEGINNING OF CORRUPTION.
279
this success, and encouraged by the defection from the popular
party, of Pery, Tyrone, Loftus, and other Patriots, who now
yielded to his allurements, and by the doubly securing with
fresh pensions of such waiters on events as Hely Hutchinson
and Tisdale, Townshend, after a lapse of eighteen months, again
met Parliament. The first Lord Shannon was dead, but his son
reigned in his room: the viceroy took the bold step of dis-
missing him, Ponsonby, and five others from the privy council
and from their offices for breaking their compact to support
the crown, and intimated to all other office-holders that they
held their places only during good behavior. He had ap-
pointed four additional commissioners of inland revenue, all of
whom had seats in the House of Commons. By free use of
the old shameful process of pension-giving, to the amount of
£25,000 a year, and the distribution of places and appoint-
ments in the church, the army, and the law; by the granting
of seven new peerages, and by the skilful social bribery of ban-
quets, fancy-balls, and masquerades at the Castle, he had now
secured a working majority.
All went smoothly for a time, and the opposition was help-
less, till at length the old bone of contention, the origin of the
money bills, was too much even for his newly purchased allies;
and, when supply was asked for in the obnoxious form, on the
motion of Flood the bill was rejected without a division, and
the necessary sum voted in a new bill originating in the Com-
mons. Flood attacked the transparent job of the new commis-
sionerships; the venal crew of placemen again deserted their
patron, and the government was beaten by the casting-vote of
Pery the new speaker, now doubly a deserter. Matters were
going hard with the viceroy, notwithstanding all his labor.
When in the midst of his difficulties, overtures came from Lord
Shannon, whom he had so recently dismissed; and so, swallow-
ing his pride, he surrendered to the inevitable, and, having
made an alliance with the great wire-puller whose influence he
had intended to break, he foiled the opposition, and carried on
to the end of the session with flying colors. But Townshend
was sick of Ireland. He had come over to purge the Augean
stable, and he had rendered it ten times worse. He had started
280 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
on a mission to break the oligarchy, and he had ended in haul-
ing down his colors to the greatest malefactor of them all. In
1772 he resigned, and was succeeded by Lord Harcourt, who
was accompanied by Colonel Blacquiere as chief secretary.
Shannon made his bargains with the new viceroy, and the
usual shower of peerages, pensions, and places followed. But
the key-stone was put to the arch of corruption when Henry
Flood, the steadfast, the unapproachable champion of the pop-
ular party, the rejector of money bills, the advocate of septen-
nial bills, of free trade, and independence, agreed to support
the king's government, and accepted a vice-treasurership, a
sinecure of £3500 per annum.
THE REVOLT OF THE COLONY.
281
CHAPTER VI.
THE REVOLT OF THE COLONY. A.D. 1775-1779.
England had done her best to ruin her Protestant colony in
Ireland. She had starved its manufactures, destroyed its trade,
made a farce of its legislature, billeted all her disreputable de-
pendants upon her revenues; and, in order to maintain her
grasp, she had shamefully plundered it and spent the money in
corrupting the guardians of its interests.
She had, besides the colony in Ireland, a colony planted on
the eastern shores of the North American continent which had
come into existence principally through the misconduct of the
mother-country. New England was the outcome of the bigot-
ry of the Established Church, and was peopled by Puritan
and Quaker emigrants who had fled from persecution. The
flow of emigration had been largely fed from Ulster. From
the Restoration onward in an intermittent stream, thousands of
Presbyterian families had been driven by the bishops from the
Irish colony to the colony across the Atlantic, and more re-
cently the numbers had been augmented by the farmers who
had been evicted by their greedy absentee landlords. Notwith-
standing by-gones, the North American colonists were loyal
subjects of King George, and had rendered material assistance
in the reduction of the neighboring French colony of the Cana-
das in the late war. That war had rolled up the English na-
tional debt to the figure of one hundred and fifty millions; and
George Grenville and Charles Townshend had not unreasonably
expected that the colonies, in whose defence a large part of the
expenditure had been incurred, should contribute towards the
payment of the interest. Had they asked them to make a
grant for the purpose, they would have cheerfully complied; but
the pride, prejudice, prestige, and what not, of Great Britain
required the acknowledgment of the principle that the mother-
282
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
country had the right to lay her taxes on her colonies, without
consulting them or their representatives; and the quarrel thus
begun in 1764 culminated in 1775 in an appeal to arms.
The English colony in Ireland were watching the issue with
intense interest. Their position was in many respects similar
to that of the Americans; only their case was far harder.
Close under the elbow of England, their chances of successful
resistance were slender, for England could pour in troops at a
moment's notice, and blockade their harbors with her fleet.
But as events moved on the scene began to shift. The Amer-
icans, beaten at first, as had been expected, carried on a Fabian
war, and then the surrender of Burgoyne took place at Sara-
toga. France, who was burning to revenge herself for the loss
of her colonies, came to the assistance of the revolted Ameri-
cans, and declared war against England. Spain soon after
joined the league, and every ship and man which England
could spare was doubly wanted in this formidable struggle.
It never seems to have occurred to English statesmen that
the English colony in Ireland could be dangerous. Up to the
last moment their interests were sacrificed to those of the
stronger island. Upon the pretence of overawing the White-
boys, the army had been raised from twelve to fifteen thousand
men; but the extra three thousand had never been employed
in Ireland. The troops quartered there numbered on paper
twelve thousand men, but of these over four thousand had
been drafted off to America, and the actual strength of the
depleted regiments which remained was but three thousand
men in all. The army serving against the colonists was to be
victualled from Ireland; and, in order that the government
should be able to buy salted meat cheap, the Irish farmers
were deliberately excluded from any other market by the lay-
ing of an embargo upon the export of provisions from all the
Irish ports. The consequence of the embargo was that wide-
spread ruin fell upon the farmers, and that the trade in cured
beef was transferred to other countries. The American war
had put a stop to the declining linen trade between Ireland
and the colonies, and this brought disaster upon the operatives
of the north. England had broken her engagements, even in
THE REVOLT OF THE COLONY.
283
respect to the linen trade. For, when she destroyed the man-
ufacture of woollen clotb, she promised that the manufacture
of hemp and flax should be encouraged and protected; and yet
she had done her best to cripple it by giving bounties to her
own linen-manufacturers and levying duties on imported Irish
sail-cloth, which had simply had the effect of driving the trade
elsewhere. The artisans in the towns and the laborers in the
country were alike starving and supported on charity. Rents
were unpaid, and land offered at fourteen years' purchase found
no buyers. The revenue dwindled. Tbe exchequer was empty.
The projected loans were not responded to. The pension list,
which exceeded the whole charge of the civil establishments,
had doubled in twenty years, and now stood at £90,000. The
coast was wholly unprotected. Paul Jones was swooping down
upon the Irish harbors, pillaging, sinking, and cutting out vessels.
The fortifications were crumbling to pieces. The Channel was
swarming with swift French and American privateers, which capt-
ured merchantmen and plundered the mail vessels with impunity.
Amid all this misery and insolvency, the fortunes of the
American rebels were eagerly watched; and freedom of trade,
as the only remedy for the deplorable state into which Ireland
had sunk, was beginning to take shape as a popular demand.
At the general election in 1775, the government had striven
hard to extend its influence. Five viscounts were advanced to
earldoms, seven barons to viscounties, and no less than eighteen
new barons were made in one day, who promised to support
the government in the Upper House, and to secure pliant voters
in the seats which they vacated. But the importunity of public
opinion was becoming too strong to be resisted. The excite-
ment of the people grew day by day more formidable. The cry
out-of-doors was emphasized in Parliament by the purified Pa-
triot party, now led, since Flood's defection, by the unsullied
Henry Grattan.
The war was carried into England; and Lord Nugent and
Edmund Burke, in the English House of Commons, moved
that a committee of the whole House should consider the trade
of Ireland. Five resolutions in favor of allowing certain rel-
axations were carried; but, when a bill was brought in to give
284 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
them effect, so great was the clamor of Liverpool, Glasgow,
Manchester, and Bristol, that nothing remained of it but the re-
moval of the embargo, and permission to export to Africa and
the West Indies all home products except wool, woollen and
cotton goods, hats, glass, hops, gunpowder, and coals !* Lord
North, however, was alarmed at the rising storm. He cast his
eyes upon the Roman Catholics in hopes of finding a counter-
poise to the mutinous Protestants, and endeavored to draw the
people off the scent by promoting in the Irish Parliament some
bills for Roman Catholic relief. In 1764, leave to bring in a
bill to enable Roman Catholics to advance money on a mort-
gage of freeholds had been summarily rejected; and in 1771 f
the magnificent concession was made to them of permission to
hold long leases of fifty acres of bog for reclamation, provided
it was not within a mile of any city or town. And now, in
1778,J a more substantial act of justice was carried through:
Roman Catholics, on taking the oath of allegiance, were to be
allowed to hold a lease of 999 years. The lands which were
still in their possession were made descendible, divisible, and
alienable, like those of other subjects; and Protestant heirs were
deprived of the privilege given them by the statute of Anne to
plunder and defy their recusant fathers.
But Ireland had now many friends in the English Parlia-
ment who would not let the trade question rest; especially the
Irish absentees, who, owing to the miserable state of the coun-
try, had received no rent for two years. In 1779, Lord Shel-
burne, in the Lords, moved an address to the king upon the
state of Ireland. In the Commons various efforts were made
to open to Ireland the colonial trade, and to enable her to ex-
port her manufactures. Lord Newhaven endeavored to obtain
the repeal of a clause in the Navigation Act which prohibited
the importation of sugar into Ireland unless it came first through
England. Again the clamor of the English manufacturers pre-
vailed. Every effort was made to rouse an anti-Irish feeling in
the country. The table of the House was crowded with peti-
* English Statutes, 18 Geo. III. c. 55. f 11, 12 Geo. III. c. 21.
% 17, 18 Geo. III. c. 49,
THE REVOLT OF THE COLONY.
28D
tions; and Lord North, who at one time had looked with fa-
vor upon the proposed measure, set his face against it, and it
was lost by sixty-four to fifty-eight.
Angry and desponding, the Irish now bound themselves to
retaliate upon England by consuming no English goods which
could be produced in Ireland; and so earnestly and faithfully
was the resolution kept that the trade of the English merchants
was materially diminished. How long England would have
scouted the Irish claims it is impossible to surmise. But now
that she was harassed with a ruinous war, and was unable to
maintain her ascendency by force, and was even threatened
herself with invasion, Ireland suddenly found herself in a po-
sition to assert herself. When the government had drained
her of troops, and she was left defenceless and exposed to the
attacks of Paul Jones and his friends, a proposal had been
made to raise a national militia, Protestants only to be enrolled.
An act was passed to empower the government to carry out
the plan; * but the attempt came to nothing by reason of the
bankrupt condition of the Irish treasury. The peers, the coun-
try gentlemen, and the trade-guilds in self-defence then set
about raising bodies of volunteers for the protection of the
coast. The call to arms was cheerfully responded to; corps
after corps was raised; the local magnates vying with each
other (often with a fatal recklessness of expense, which made
itself felt afterwards), in the completeness and efficiency of the
equipments. Forty-two thousand men were enrolled in a few
months' time. The government began to look upon them
with suspicion, but dared not refuse the application for a dis-
tribution of arms, and sixteen thousand stand were delivered
to them from the government stores. The great questions
which were stirring the hearts of every citizen were earnestly
discussed by the volunteers. It soon became apparent that
the arguments of men with arms in their hands have weight;
and the movement which began in an effort to secure the
country from foreign invasion, rapidly developed into an en-
gine for the resisting of English usurpation.
* 17,18 Geo. III. c. 13.
286
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
At the opening of Parliament on October 12,1779, Grattan
moved, as an amendment to the address, that "it was by free
export and import only that the nation was to be saved from
impending ruin." Hussey Burgh suggested that the words " an
opening of the ports" should be substituted; when Flood, who
for five years had sat tongue-tied on the government benches, and
who had grown jealous of the position of champion of the rights
of the nation which Grattan had achieved, broke away from
the silken chains of court favor, and proposed that " free trade"
should be the crucial words of the amendment. Grattan accept-
ed the alteration, and the amendment was carried with but one
dissentient voice. Next day, when the speaker and the whole
House of Commons marched in procession to present the
amended address at the Castle, the streets were lined with the
Dublin volunteers, drawn up in arms under the command of
the Duke of Leinster.
The popular excitement was now tremendous. The volunteers
were reviewed on King William's birthday on College Green,
and two field-pieces were drawn up in front of his statue, ticket-
ed "free trade or this." The Dublin mob wrecked the house
of the attorney-general Scott, one of Townshend's purchased
Patriots, who was known to be hostile to the volunteer move-
ment. The House of Commons itself was invaded, and the
members made to swear to vote for "free trade" or " a short
money bill." The speaker's carriage was stopped, and the
same oath tendered to him. When the viceroy, on the 24th,
asked for the usual vote of supplies for two years, the govern-
ment was abandoned by its chief supporters. The House, amid
the greatest excitement, voted a six months' money bill by 138
to 100. "Talk not to me of peace," shouted Hussey Burgh,
when denouncing the restrictive English statutes: "it is smoth-
ered war. England has sown her laws like dragon's teeth, and
they have sprung up in armed men."
Lord Buckinghamshire, who was now lord-lieutenant, wrote
over to the ministry that the repeal of the trade restrictions
must be immediate and complete. Lord Shelburne in the
Lords, and Lord Upper Ossory, supported by Edmund Burke,
in the Commons, moved a vote of censure on the government
THE REVOLT OF THE COLONY.
287
for not granting to Ireland what, now that it was too late, they
had offered to America. Lord North yielded and brought in
three bills of repeal, the substance of which was to allow Ire-
land the free export of her wool, woollens, wool flocks, and
glass, and the free importation of foreign hops; to remove
the prohibition against the carrying of gold and silver coin
from England into Ireland, and to permit her to trade directly
with the u Levant seas" and the English colonies upon the
same terms as Great Britain. These bills * were rapidly passed
through both Houses, and copies were forwarded to the viceroy.
The concession was received by the Irish with the most extrav-
agant gratitude. Dublin was illuminated, bonfires blazed, and
the guns of both the garrison and the volunteers rivalled each
other in firing feux-de-joie.
* English Statutes, 20 Geo. III. cc. 6, 10,18.
288
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER VII.
THE CONCESSION OF HOME RULE. A.D. 1780-1782.
Though many of the Patriot party were inclined to rest and
be thankful, it was not long before Grattan began to follow up
his victory. What one English Parliament had conceded
another might take back again; it was necessary to go a step
further to obtain security. The legislative independence of
Ireland bad been the great goal at which earnest Irishmen had
aimed from the time of Molyneux onwards. The early ques-
tionings of Poynings's Law had been met by the declaratory
act of George I.; * and, from the days of Lucas's arguments in
the Freeman's Journal, the principal efforts of the opposition
had been directed at some of the minor and more pressing
evils. Now that the way was clear, and argument was backed
up by upwards of one hundred thousand disciplined troops
with two hundred pieces of cannon, the great issue again came
to the front.
In April, 1780, Grattan moved that "the king with the con-
sent of the Lords and Commons of Ireland are the only power
competent to enact laws to bind Ireland," and that "Great
Britain and Ireland are inseparably united under one sovereign."
But both the government and the opposition were afraid of
testing their strength, and the motion was eventually with-
drawn. The House, in its first enthusiasm upon the repeal of
the restrictive acts, granted the supplies for the next eighteen
months, and authorized the lord-lieutenant to raise a loan of
£260,000. Thereupon the English ministry, presuming on
their majority in the Irish Commons, went out of their way to
rouse their susceptibilities by deliberately altering, to a most
material extent, two Irish bills which had been transmitted in
* English Statutes, G Geo. I. c. 5.
THE CONCESSION OF HOME RULE.
289
the usual way. They sought to make the triennial Mutiny Bill
one of perpetual duration; and a clause was struck out of the
Supply Bill which had been inserted in order to prevent the
English sugar-manufacturers from underselling the Irish man-
ufacturers, by giving the latter the same bounties as the former
enjoyed at the expense of the taxpayer. The Mutiny Bill was
extremely distasteful to the Irish. The Mayor of Clonmel
refused to find billets for a party of troops passing through, the
town, though the inhabitants, to show there was no hostility to
the soldiers personally, entertained them all as guests. Still
the government was determined to force it on the country,
contrary even to the opinion of the lord-lieutenant. The popu-
lar excitement grew apace: crowds of petitions were presented
against the alterations in the bills; the merchants' volunteer
corps held a threatening meeting at Dublin; and Fox attacked
the government in the English House of Commons. But Lord
North was obstinate. The Castle party in the Irish Commons
was unbroken; and the bill passed by 114 to 62.* In Octo-
ber of the following year, when Lord Carlisle, the new viceroy,
met Parliament, the condition of the national debt, swollen by
the annual deficits, and now amounting to over two millions
and a half, was exposed by Grattan; and the attack on Poy-
nings's Act was renewed by Flood, who, after his desertion of the
government on the free-trade question, had resigned his office
and been dismissed from the privy council. The returned
prodigal was, however, at first but coldly received. The Pa-
triots refused to follow him, and the government majority stood
steadily at two to one.
The volunteers had chosen Lord Charlemont to be their
commander. Their esprit de corps had been kept up by fre-
quent reviews in various parts of the country; and, feeling
strongly that the corrupt House of Commons in no sense
represented the opinion of the colony, determined to secure
the full expression of the popular will. On February 15,
1782, at the instigation of Lord Charlemont, 242 delegates,
representing 143 corps in Ulster, assembled in the church at
* 19, 20 Geo. III. c. 16.
13
290
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
Dungannon, and passed thirteen resolutions in favor of legisla-
tive independence; and no sooner were these doings known in
the other provinces than similar meetings were held in every
quarter of Ireland, which declared the adherence of the other
volunteer regiments to the resolutions of Dungannon.
And now Lord North's administration had come to the end
of its tether. Holland had joined the league against England.
The disastrous news had arrived that Cornwallis and his army
had been compelled to lay down their arms at Yorktown.
Lord North, suffering defeat, or virtual defeat, in division after
division, had no other course open to him but to resign. The
king, in disgust at the failure of his most cherished designs, had
half determined to retire to Hanover, but, unhappily, had thought
better of it; and a Whig ministry had come in under Lord
Rockingham, with Shelburne and Fox as secretaries of state.
The expectations of the Irish were high, for the late opposi-
tion had steadily supported their interests; nor were they dis-
appointed. The Duke of Portland came over to supersede
Lord Carlisle with a message of hope and promise. When he
met Parliament, Grattan moved as an amendment to the ad-
dress a declaration of rights and grievances, which was unani-
mously carried. On May 17, Shelburne in the Lords, and
Fox iu the Commons, moved resolutions for the repeal of the
6 Geo. I. No opposition was offered to the motion, and a bill
embodying its substance was introduced and became law on
June 21, 1782.'*
The English Parliament had done all that it was in its power
to do. Poynings's Act was an Irish act passed by the Irish
Parliament, sitting at Drogheda. The repeal of this statute
was the first act of the emancipated Houses, f Thenceforth,
bills were brought in, read, committed, and passed by the Irish
Parliament without the interference of the privy council,
English or Irish, and then required only the assent of the king-
to become valid statutes. Other acts followed for which Ire-
land had waited in vain. A national bank was established.^
* English Statutes, 22 Geo. III. c. 53.
t lb. c. 16.
f 21, 22 Geo. III. c. 47.
THE CONCESSION OF HOME RULE.
291
The appointments of the judges were, as in England, to be
daring good behavior, instead of during the pleasure of the
crown.* The Mutiny Act was again to be biennial.} The
marriages of the Presbyterians were to be valid in the eye of
the law, J and Ireland was to have the benefit of a Habeas Cor-
pus Act,§ a statute which England had extracted from the
crown one hundred years before.
The free concession made on the part of England was re-
ceived with the warmest gratitude by the Irish. The Com-
mons promptly voted £100,000 for the raising of twenty
thousand seamen for the British navy, and then turned to pay
a tribute of thanks to Grattan, whose unflagging courage, high
endowments, and incorruptibb honesty had so materially con-
tributed to his country's emancipation. A proposal was made
that the nation should grant hiin the%sum of £100,000. He
refused to receive it, but subsequently was persuaded to accept
half the amount. He was the first of the Patriots who received
his retainer from the people and not from the crown; and he
was one of the few who never betrayed their client.
* 21, 22 Geo. III. c. 50.
f lb. c. 43.
% lb. c. 25. 1| lb. c. 11.
292
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE DEMAND FOR PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. A.D. 1782-1784.
Flood, who bad once been the foremost leader of the Patriot
party, was now consumed by the most bitter animosity against
the man who had taken the helm when he had deserted the
ship. And this ungenerous jealousy drove him to take up a
more advanced line than Grattan, in hopes of regaining his old
popularity. What the country now wanted was repose. It
had regained its constitution, and had shaken off the trammels
which fettered its trade; and time was required to work off the
evil effects of the old system, before the good results of the
new order of things could be secured. Flood was heedless of
this. He attempted to undermine Grattan's influence by get-
ting up an agitation for "simple repeal;" the gist of which
was an express renunciation by the British Parliament of the
right to bind Ireland by statute. After being twice beaten on
the question of simple repeal by heavy majorities, he made an
attack on the government on the question of reducing the
standing army. A collision took place between the rival
orators, in which Flood received a terrible lesson from Grat-
tan's scathing invective. He was unable in any of his efforts
to obtain any substantial following in the House, and Lord
Shelburne cut the ground from under him by passing " an Act
of Renunciation,"* in the following year, "for the removing
of doubts," which declared that "the right claimed by the
people of Ireland to be bound only by laws enacted by his
majesty and the Parliament of that kingdom, and to have all
actions and suits at law and in equity instituted in that king-
dom, decided in his majesty's courts therein finally, and with-
out appeal from thence, shall be, and it is hereby declared to be,
* 23 Geo. III. c. 28 (English Statutes).
THE DEMAND FOR PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. 293
established and ascertained forever, and shall at no time here-
after be questioned or questionable."
Foiled on the question of simple repeal, Flood took up a
different point, which had much more substance in it—the re-
form of the Irish House of Commons. As in England, so in
Ireland, a large proportion of the constituencies were rotten
boroughs. The House consisted of three hundred members.
The thirty-two counties each returned two knights of the shire;
seven cities each returned two citizens; Dublin University had
two members; and one hundred and ten boroughs were repre-
sented by two hundred and twenty burgesses. The bulk of the
boroughs had been fabricated by the house of Stuart. Forty
had been called into existence by James I. for the express pur-
pose of swamping the representatives of the counties by a pack
of crown nominees. Thirty-four had, from time to time, been
created by Charles I. and Charles II. with much the same ob-
ject; two by James II., and two by Anne. The number of
electors in each borough was absurdly small. In eighty-six of
them the representatives were returned by the members of the
corporations, consisting of some twelve persons, many of whom
were non-resident. In fourteen of them the elective franchise
was in the hands of the Protestant inhabitants at large, who
were called " potwallopers." Five were " manor towns." One
and all were under the complete control of the "patrons," that
is to say, the owners of the soil on which the borough stood.
Harristown and Bannow were absolutely uninhabited. Fifty
out of the whole number of borough members, or one sixth of
the whole House, were each returned by as few as ten electors;
and two hundred borough members, or two thirds of the whole,
enjoyed the privilege of being returned by the votes of five-
score and under. The borough-mongers had it all their own
way. The seats were openly bought and sold; as much as
£11,000 was given for Belturbet for one session. Accordingly,
territorial interest and sale in the open market brought a large
proportion of them into the hands of the big political families.
No less than one hundred and sixteen seats were owned by as
few as twenty-five proprietors; and it was this monopoly which
had given to the old jobbing oligarchy such a commercial value
294
HISTORY OP THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
for each successive viceroy. Lord Shannon was able to com-
mand no less than sixteen seats; Lord Bessborough and the
Ponsonbys, fourteen; Lord Hillsborough, nine; the Duke of
Leinster, seven; Lord Loftus, seven; Lord Granard, four;
Lord Clifden, four. The Castle itself had appropriated twelve.
One hundred and twenty-three members of the Lower House
were the nominees of fifty-three of the Upper. The govern-
ment reckoned on 186 votes, or a majority of thirty-six in the
whole house. Eighty-six of these were given by men who held
proprietary seats let to the government in consideration of
titles, or places of emolument; forty-four by men who held
office under government, and were liable to dismissal for an ad-
verse vote; twelve by the government nominees; thirty-two
more by men who lived on hope or promises; and twelve by
men who supported the government on public grounds. Be-
sides these, there was a party of twenty-nine waiters upon Provi-
dence. The regular opposition consisted of only eighty-two.
Reform was indeed terribly necessary. The subject wras one
which was rapidly coming to the front; and Flood saw and
grasped the opportunity of again becoming the people's idol.
Flood, who had been one of the last to put on a volunteer's
uniform, was now doing his best to flatter that body of men,
and to effect a breach between them and Grattan. Grattan,
who fully approved of reform, was of opinion that the time
had not come for raising the question, and therefore stood aside.
A second meeting of delegates from the volunteers assembled
at Dungannon, where resolutions were passed in favor of re-
form; and it was decided that a convention should be held in
Dublin in the following November. The agitation was kept
up in the press and on the drill-ground. Lord Charlemont was
still in command; but a strange, wild, ill-balanced man, Her-
vey, Earl of Bristol, Bishop of Deny, began to take the lead,
and to head the more unsettled spirits in the corps. There was
something like division growing up in their ranks, and the
point of departure was a religious one. Charlemont and Flood
were stanch Protestants. The bishop and his party were in-
clined towards toleration of the Roman Catholics, and wished
to include them in any scheme of reform. Grattan's resolu-
THE DEMAND FOR PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. 295
tions at the first meeting at Dnngannon had included one in
favor of religions toleration. Though originally strictly con-
fined to the Protestants, the ranks of the volunteers now num-
bered many Roman Catholics, and a feeling was beginning to
grow up that religious differences should be sunk, and that all
parties should combine for the common welfare.
On November 10, 1783, one hundred and sixty delegates
from the volunteer associations assembled in the Rotunda at
Dublin. They marched through the streets of Dublin to take
their seats, with much demonstration of military display: all
of them were in uniform; they were escorted by two or three
mounted corps and by the Dublin Artillery; the streets were
lined with volunteers, guns were fired, and bands were playing;
and the bishop magnificently brought up the rear in a carriage
and six with outriders. The government were uneasy at this
display of force. The Parliament eyed with suspicion the un-
constitutional body which had come to sit side by side with
it; and were much relieved when Lord Charlemont was elected
chairman, and not the Bishop of Derry. Lord Northington
was viceroy. When the reconstructed cabinet, after Rocking-
ham's untimely death, had given place to a coalition ministry,
he had been sent to replace the Duke of Portland's successor,
Lord Temple. He succeeded by a questionable intrigue in
setting the ultra-Protestants in the convention against the toler-
ationists, with the result that the majority of the delegates de-
termined to exclude the Roman Catholics from the scheme of
reform.
Flood and the bishop prepared a Reform Bill of a moderate
and sensible character. It was well calculated to strike at the
corruption of the House, but as a broad scheme of reform it
was ridiculous, as it left wholly unenfranchised the Roman
Catholics, of whom the bulk of the population consisted, and
its only effect on the franchise was to add some three hundred
to the list of voters in the north of Ireland, and about one
hundred in the south. The bill was submitted to and ob-
tained the approval of the convention, and, believing that he
would be able to coerce the Parliament into accepting it, on
November 29 Flood, carried the bill from the Rotunda to
296 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
the House of Commons. The spirit of the House was aroused
by the attempt of the convention to dictate its measures to
them. Self-interest prompted many of the members who sat
for the rotten boroughs to seize the opportunity of crushing
out the spark of reform. The government threw in all its in-
fluence against the agitators, and General Burgoyne held his
troops ready to act in case violence was actually resorted to.
There was a fierce debate. The bill was vigorously opposed by
Yelverton, Daly, and Fitzgibbon, on the text that Parliament
was not a court to register the decrees of the volunteers, and
that the existence of the legislature depended on a firm resist-
ance to the demands of a rival body of men with arms in their
hands. Late on the following Sunday morning, after a night
of uproar, menace, and recrimination, the House divided, and
leave to introduce the bill was rejected by 150 to 77. Parlia-
ment was triumphant; and the convention had two courses
open. They could have launched the contest into an appeal
to force, which meant neither more nor less than civil war; or
they could take the determination of the House as final, and
retire from the false position which they had assumed. The
temperate counsels of Lord Charlemont prevailed over the mad
recklessness of the Bishop of Deny, and, to the honor of the
volunteers be it said, two days after the fiat of the division list
they adjourned sine die, and retired peacefully to their respec-
tive counties.
Great popular excitement at the rejection of the Reform
scheme now broke out, especially in Dublin. Indignation at
the collapse of the volunteers showed itself in the outbreak of
unreasoning hostility to the regular troops; and brutal ruffians
among the mob made a practice of hamstringing the soldiers
who unguardedly walked about the streets. The general good
order preserved throughout the country while the volunteers were
actively employed was interrupted. Whitcboy outrages recom-
menced in the south; faction fights took place in the north
between the Roman Catholics and the Presbyterians; in Dub-
lin the ignorant mob, under the belief that trade would be
benefited by excluding the goods of other countries from the
market, broke out into rioting, and tarred and feathered the
THE DEMAND FOR PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.
297
unlucky merchants who were suspected of importing English
merchandise.
The volunteer movement still lingered on, especially in the
north, where it first came into being. The Bishop of Derry
strove hard to raise fresh regiments. Napper Tandy, who had
commanded the Dublin volunteer artillery, endeavored to or-
ganize a fresh convention, and requested the sheriffs of counties
to summon their bailiwicks for the election of delegates. But
the government, under the advice of Fitzgibbon, who was now
attorney-general, adopted strong measures, fining and imprison-
ing those who attempted to carry out the design; and though
a few persons met at a hole-and-corner meeting in Dublin in
the autumn of 1784, and Flood was there with a plan of re-
form, the "congress" expired after a sitting of three days.
Many of the corps, however, especially at Belfast, continued to
drill, and retained their arms. But the class of persons wThich
constituted the bulk of the members was very different from
that of the original volunteers. The substantial people, the
gentry and their tenantry, the merchants and their clerks, left
the ranks, and were replaced by men of more daring views and
of less substance. "They had originally," complained Grat-
tan, "been the armed property of Ireland; they were becoming
the armed beggary." As men of the stamp of Lord Charle-
mont broke away, the influence of the Protestant party grew
less and less. The narrow spirit of bigotry disappeared, and
Roman Catholics were freely enrolled. The stirring portion
of the retiring members formed themselves into the Whig
Club: the remnants of the corps held together as political as-
sociations whose aim and object were parliamentary reform
and emancipation of the Roman Catholics; and with sincere
aspiratious for purging the Constitution, and without a shadow
of disaffection towards England, formed the nucleus of the
Society of the United Irishmen.
13*
298
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OP IRELAND.
CHAPTER IX.
CONFLICTS WITH THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. A.D. 1783-1789.
The coalition ministry had fallen by means of a discreditable
intrigue between George III. and Lord Temple; and Pitt, at
the age of twenty-three becoming first minister of the crown,
had commenced his long supremacy of eighteen years' dura-
tion. According to the wondrous theories respecting the posi-
tion of our colonies and the fostering of trade prevalent in the
last century, Ireland, had no claim beyond what England pleased
to give her in the colonial trade. The colonies belonged (un-
less by favor or compact it were made otherwise) exclusively
to this country. The suffering Ireland to send anything to
them, to bring anything directly thence, was itself a favor.
England had given to Ireland liberty to import directly and
re-export to all the world, except to Great Britain, the produce
of the colonies; but no change had taken place in the inter-
course between the two kingdoms themselves. The heavy im-
port duties laid on in England against Irish goods had caused
great irritation in Ireland. An attempt had been made to re-
taliate, by persons binding themselves not to use English im-
ported goods; and the tarring and feathering had been resorted
to as a means of enforcing the exclusion of English merchan-
dise. The natural consequence of such suicidal conduct was
increased distress, and discontent followed in its train.
A committee of the House of Commons had been appointed
to inquire into the state of Irish trade; and Mr. Joshua Pirn, a
Dublin merchant, had sketched out a scheme, which he sub-
mitted to Orde, the Irish secretary. Pitt, who was anxious to
improve the commercial relations of the two countries, would
not see that the unconditional removal of all restrictions would
be for the advantage of both the one and the other, and deter-
mined to drive a bargain with Ireland. "I own to you," he
CONFLICTS WITH THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT.
299
wrote to the Duke of Rutland, "that the line to which ray
mind at present inclines is to give Ireland an almost unlimited
communication of commercial advantages, if we can receive in
return some security that her strength and riches will be our
benefit." And accordingly he drew up eleven propositions,
which Orde was to lay before the Irish Parliament. The sub-
stance of them was: To allow the importation of the produce
and manufacture of other countries through Great Britain into
Ireland, or through Ireland into Great Britain, without any in-
crease of duty on that account. In all cases where the duties
on any article of the produce or manufacture of either country
were different on importation into the other, to reduce them, in
the kingdom where they were highest, to the lowest scale.
And here came the price for the concession: That whenever
the gross hereditary revenue of Ireland should rise above
£656,000 in any year of peace [at this time the gross amount
was £652,000] the surplus should be appropriated towards the
support of the imperial navy.
Great exception was taken to this last clause by the Irish
Parliament, as, in effect, it was an assigning away forever of all
the future expansion of the customs and excise. But it was
eventually agreed to with this proviso—that the appropriation
should only be made when the revenue of the country was not
exceeded by the expenditure. And the Irish Parliament, with
the proposed commercial treaty in view, voted £140,000 addi-
tional taxes to secure a clean balance-sheet with no deficit. Pitt
believed that the English Parliament would raise no objection
to their side of the bargain. But he miscalculated the igno-
rance and selfishness of the English commercial world. As
soon as the eleven propositions were laid before the House, the
manufacturers took alarm. The admission of Irish fustians
into England would ruin the cotton trade. The navigation
laws, then considered the bulwark of British prosperity, would
be rendered abortive. The monopoly of the East India Com-
pany would be gone. London, Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol,
Edinburgh, Glasgow, Paisley, and some sixty of the chief
trading towns petitioned against the proposed treaty. Counsel
were beard and evidence was given. The petition of eighty
300 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
thousand Lancashire manufacturers was so heavy that the mem-
ber who presented it was fain to lay it on the floor of the
House. So violent was the opposition that Pitt was compelled
to make a number of modifications, additions, and explanations
to his eleven propositions; and they were, in consequence, ex-
panded into twenty, and materially altered in substance.
The principal changes were—a provision that whatever navi-
gation Jaws the British Parliament should find desirable to
enact, the same should, without question, be passed by the
Irish Parliament—a manifest subjecting of the Irish to the
English Houses; a provision that no West India merchandise,
except that of the colonies, should be imported into England
through Ireland; and a provision that Ireland should debar
itself from trading with the countries to the east of the Cape
of Good Hope and the west of the Strait of Magellan, so long
as the charter of the East India Company should be in force.
The alteration in the proposals was loudly denounced by the
English opposition. Sheridan described the plan as "moved
with duplicity and explained with equivocation." Fox de-
clared "that lie would not barter English commerce for Irish
slavery." But after a fierce debate the twenty resolutions
passed the House, and a bill embodying them advanced to its
second stage.
When the transformed propositions were returned to Ireland,
the greatest indignation prevailed. The changes were so mate-
rial, and looked so like an attempt on the part of England to
interfere with Ireland's newly acquired liberty of independent
legislation, that the commercial advantages to be derived did
not appear worth the sacrifice. Mr. Orde moved for leave to
introduce a bill to convert the new proposals into law. Flood
and Grattan united in opposing him. There was a large deser-
tion of the Castle placemen; and though the government ob-
tained a majority, it was so small a one that they looked upon
the division as a defeat, and allowed the bill to drop.
Ever since the concession of independence to the Irish Par-
liament there had been in England an opinion forming that it
would be to the advantage of Great Britain if the Irish Parlia-
ment were altogether suppressed, and a union of the legislatures
CONFLICTS WITH THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. 301
effected. At the beginning of the century, when the Irish Par-
liament petitioned for incorporation, England was deaf to the
proposal. Later on a strong feeling had grown up in Ireland
inimical to the idea of a union. So fierce was the feeling in
Dublin that in 1759, when the plan of a union was mooted,
the mob stopped the members in the streets and compelled
them to swear never to consent to such a measure. They
broke into the House of Lords, when the House was not sit-
ting, and placed an old woman on the throne, and searched for
the journals, that they might commit them to the flames. Now
that the Parliament had freed itself from England's veto, the
idea of a union was still more obnoxious to the Irish. But in
England it was otherwise. The trading classes dreaded Irish
competition, and believed that if the legislatures could be
amalgamated all such competition could be effectually checked.
The manufacturers, who had raised the storm against the eleven
propositions, resolved "that a real union with Ireland under
one legislature would take away every difficulty." English
public men were beginning to exhibit an unworthy jealousy of
Irish independence, and to grudge what had been conceded.
Pitt himself looked forward with anxiety to a disagreement be-
tween the two Parliaments, and contemplated the absorption of
the Irish Houses.*
A circumstance about this time occurred which afforded a
convenient argument in favor of a union in the mouths of
those who predicted a collision between the legislatures. His
majesty, in 1788, showed symptoms of brain disease, and by
the month of December it became apparent that a regency was
inevitable. Thereupon there arose in England a smart party-
contest about the limitations of the regent's powers. The hopes
of the Whigs ran high, for the Prince of Wales had ostenta-
tiously thrown himself into their arms. A regency meant
Pitt's downfall and Fox's accession to power. Fox accord-
ingly urged that the prince of natural right stepped as regent
* In writing to the Duke of Rutland, on January 5,1785, he said that " he
wanted to make England and Ireland one country in effect; though, for local
concerns, under distinct legislatures."
302
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
into his father's shoes, unfettered by any condition. Pitt very
sensibly sought to deprive him of the power to deal with the
king's property, to grant offices for life, and to create peers.
Grattan, who had recently been on a visit to England and ce-
mented his friendship with the Whigs, rejoiced at the prospect
of a change of ministry; Fox having engaged that, should the
Whigs come in, an end should be put to Castle corruption by a
pension bill and a place bill, and that the question of reform
should be at once dealt with. The Whig view of the regency
question was accordingly adopted by the Irish opposition, and
the Irish Parliament hastened to signalize its independence by
forestalling the English Parliament in the choice of a regent.
Pitt was delaying matters in England, in hopes the
king's illness might take a more favorable turn. Grattan
seized the opportunity, when Parliament opened in February,
to move that the Irish Parliament should vote an immediate
address to the prince, inviting him to an unrestricted regency.
Vainly did the government urge delay till the course of the
English Houses should be determined; vainly did Fitzgibbon
threaten a union as the consequence of a divergence of opinion
in the two Parliaments, and vainly did he insist that the ap-
pointment of the prince should be with limitations, and argue
that a collision might be serious if each country were to choose
a different regent. The king's recovery was not contemplated.
Fitzgibbon and the government were believed to be a falling
house. The rats of placemen rushed from it and rilled the
ranks of the opposition. The motion was carried without a
division. The House of Lords, led by the Duke of Leinster,
Lord Charlemont, and Lord Pery, followed the example of the
Commons, forty-five out of seventy-one peers voting for the
address. When the address was carried up to the viceroy,
Lord Buckingham, he refused to transmit it to England; and
the Houses then appointed a deputation to cross the Channel
and present it to the prince in person.
To the confusion of the opposition, the king got well, and
then the government turned upon them, threatening to make
every deserter "the victim of his vote" by prompt dismissal
from office. Fifty-five of the opposition, among whom were
CONFLICTS WITH THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. 303
seventeen peers, endeavored to protect themselves by entering
into a mutual engagement with each other not to accept any
office or pension of which any of the party should be deprived,
and to withhold their support from the government. The govern-
ment determined that " the aristocracy, which had been broken
once before under his majesty's direction, and had combined
again against English authority, must be broken again." Lord
Townshend had spent half a million in the accomplishment of
this honorable undertaking, and Fitzgibbon shamefully threat-
ened a repetition of the process. Rewards and punishments
were dealt out with an unsparing hand. The combination of
fifty-five was broken up. Temptation was too great for some,
though many held by their determination. Fifteen unfaithful
placemen were summarily dismissed from office or lost their
pensions. The faithful were rewarded with promotion. Some
were bought back with steps in the peerage, or fresh offices of
emolument. The wholesale corruption was appalling. To
swell the number of the rewards at their disposal, the gov-
ernment revived dormant employments, raised salaries, and
increased commissionerships and seats at the revenue board.
They even divided the lucrative office of weighmaster of butter
at Cork into three sections, the duties of which were performed
by deputies at a salary of £200 a year, and gave them to three
of their supporters. The pension list, which amounted to
£100,000 a year, was augmented by the addition of a further
annual sum of £13,040, given in annuities of various sums to
purchased peers or members of the Commons and their wives.
Three earls became marquesses; four viscounts became earls;
two barons became viscounts; and seven commoners, including
Fitzgibbon, who was appointed lord chancellor, were raised to
the lowest grade in the peerage. George Ponsonby asserted
that the crown now held in its pay 110 placemen, and that one
eighth of the gross revenue of the country was divided among
members of Parliament.
304
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER X.
LOCAL RIOTS AND AGRARIAN DISTURBANCES. A.D. 1784-1790.
Meanwhile the country was in a very disturbed state, both
in the north and in the south. In the north a religious war
had broken out between the Protestants and the Roman Cath-
olics. Originating in a quarrel between two Presbyterian
peasants, one of whom was joined by a Roman Catholic, the
feud grew into a village brawl, which rapidly spread in the
surrounding country until the counties of Armagh and Louth
were divided into two contending camps. Both parties were
composed of the lowest and most brutal of the peasantry.
They met and fought, and lives were lost. The Protestants
were more numerous and better armed. By law the Roman
Catholics were not entitled to possess arms, and the Protes-
tants took upon themselves to make domiciliary visits to their
houses to search for arms in the early hours of the morning,
and hence obtained the name of "Peep-o'-day Boys." The
Roman Catholics associated themselves for self-protection, and
went by the name of "Defenders." So serious were the riots
that bodies of volunteers were revived for the purpose of keep-
ing order; but this only made matters worse, as they simply
took the side of the Protestant combatants, and occupied them-
selves in disarming the Defenders; while the Protestant mag-
istracy showed a corresponding partiality. A party of Roman
Catholic ruffians retaliated by committing a brutal outrage on
an unolfending Protestant schoolmaster, and the feeling of
the two parties rapidly grew into one of intense exasperation.
In the south the Whiteboys had again appeared in Munster
under the name of "Rightboys;" an invisible Captain Right
being the nominal head-centre, like Ever Joyce and Captain
Dwyer. The disorders were repetitions of what had gone be-
fore, and arose from the same causes. Government, instead of
LOCAL RIOTS AND AGRARIAN DISTURBANCES. 305
removing the mischief which culminated in the agrarian out-
rages of 1761, crushed out the flames of lawlessness by coer-
cion, and left the disease to grow and spread in silence until a
fresh outbreak was inevitable. The condition of the tenantry
in Minister was very miserable. The rent of potato ground
had risen to <£6 an acre, which was paid in labor at the rate of
6d. a day. There was hardly an estate which was not let at a
rack-rent, or even above its value. Even Fitzgibbon admitted
in the House of Commons that "it was impossible for human
wretchedness to exceed that of the miserable tenantry of that
province;" that "they were ground to powder by relentless
landlords;" that "they had not food and raiment for them-
selves, but the landlord grasped the whole;" and that "they
lived in a more abject state of poverty than human nature
could be supposed able to bear."
Over and above the exactions of the landlords, the Church
demanded tithe. The pasture-land was exempted;* only the
cultivable land bore the burden. The wretched cottier's acre
of potato ground had, in addition to the rent, hearth-money,
smoke-money, and dues to the Roman Catholic priest, to pay
from 125. to 205. to the rector for tithe. The beneficed clergy,
with dwindling flocks, lived away, absentee-fashion, and drew
their tithe-tribute as the absentee landlord drew his rack-rent;
and like him, to save the difficulty and risk of gathering it,
farmed their tithes to a middleman, or collected it through the
agency of a needy and unscrupulous tithe-proctor, who paid
over to his employer two thirds or three quarters of the sum
collected, and made his profits by extracting the last penny
from the unfortunate peasant. When the peasant could not
pay, he took his bond, and charged him interest; and when
the bond fell due he took his debtor's labor for nothing, and
reduced him to little better than a slave.
It was not surprising that the down-trodden wretches sought
to help themselves by acts of violence. The followers of Cap-
tain Right attended the Roman Catholic chapels, and swore
the members of the congregations to pay no greater amount
* Kesolution of the House of Commons, 1735: 8 Geo. II.
306
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
of tithe than Captain Right allowed. They even went so far
as to prescribe the limit to the dues which should be paid to
the Roman Catholic parish priests. Those who refused the
oath lost their ears, and were buried in a pit full of thorns.
Contributions were levied to support the movement, and sen-
tence went forth against the tithe-proctors. Some were mur-
dered; some were "carded;" others sought safety in flight.
Nor were the proctors the only victims. The bishops were
absentees, so were the incumbents of parishes; but the unfort-
unate, ill-paid, hard-working curate, whom the absentee incum-
bent put in on a wretched pittance of £40 or £50 a year, to
perform the duties he had himself deserted, was on the spot
to bear all the odium for which his superiors were responsible.
These unoffending men were attacked by the Rightboys, and
driven out of their homes. Their wives and children endured
the same fate. Many fled to the towns; the few who remain-
ed lived under military protection.
Fitzgibbon's remedy was a terrific Coercion Bill; Grattan's,
a motion for a committee to inquire into the system of col-
lecting tithes, with a plan for commuting the tithes for an an-
nual charge calculated upon an average of years. The former
passed into law,* and, with the assistance of General Luttrei
and the army, the first tithe war was trampled out in its in-
fancy. "Laws of coercion," said Grattan, " perhaps necessary,
certainly severe, you have already put forth. But your great
engine of power you have hitherto kept back—the engine
which, armed with physical and moral blessing, comes forth
and overlays mankind by services — the engine of redress."
That engine was still to be kept back. Grattan's motion was
lost by 121 to 49.
* 27, 28 Geo. III. c. 15.
AGITATION FOR REFORM AND EMANCIPATION. 307
CHAPTER XL
THE AGITATION FOR REFORM AND ROMAN CATHOLIC EMANCI-
PATION. A.D. 1790-1792.
Lord Buckingham's success in reducing the Parliament to
obedience was complete. But the system of corruption was so
notorious and his unpopularity so marked that the government
thought it best to recall him; and, in order to escape the dem-
onstration of popular hatred which was prepared for his final
departure, he secretly slipped away to a friend's house at Black-
rock, and thence sailed for England.
He was succeeded on January 5, 1790, by Lord Westmore-
land; but, though the viceroy was changed, the system was un-
altered. The government was unassailable. All the assaults
of the opposition were met by an unbroken phalanx of 140
on the government benches. A Pension Bill and a Place Bill—
that is, bills to prohibit revenue officials and holders of pen-
sions or places from sitting in Parliament—a Barren Lands
Bill, a Responsibility Bill for the appointment of persons re-
sponsible to Parliament for the disbursement of public moneys,
were in vain brought in and supported by Forbes, George
Ponsonby, Curran, and Grattan. The Castle sat calmly on its
money-bags, with the fate of five-score hirelings in its hand.
Some of the pensions were large sums paid to members of the
royal family, and certain peers, and others of the deserving
poor. The Dukes of Gloucester and Cumberland, for instance,
each had pensions of £3000. The Princess Amalie had £1000,
and the Princess Augusta £5000. Ferdinand, Duke of Bruns-
wick, pocketed £5200; the representatives of the Countess of
Yarmouth, £4000 ; the executors of Lords Grantham and Shan-
non, £2000 respectively. Lord Pery had secured £3000, and
Lord Mayo £1033. The Countess of Bellamount was the happy
recipient of £1500; "Siugle Speech" Hamilton, of £2500;
308
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
Mr. Secretary Orde, of £1700. Only Lord Kodney and the
representatives of Lord Hawke received £2000 as a reward of
real merit.
But the bulk of the pension list was made up of small an-
nuities, all terminable at the hinges pleasure, and ranging from
£300 to £50 each, to wives, daughters, nieces, sisters, brothers,
sons, friends, dependants, of members of either the Upper or
the Lower House. A vote given against the Castle, and the
pensioner's living was gone: perhaps five old maiden sisters,
receiving £50 apiece, were reduced to beggary; or a son or
daughter comfortably provided for out of the revenue found
his or her income suddenly straitened—so sharply could the
screw be put on by the chief secretary. The pension list in-
creased by leaps and bounds: in 1784 it amounted to £86,176;
in 1786, to £95,154; in 1788, to £97,689; in 1790, to £100,-
800. "The system was a conspiracy," said Grattan, " against
the laws of the land, and had established, instead of a limited
monarchy, a corrupt despotism."
It was clear to every one who had hopes of the future of the
Irish Parliament that the only way to save it was to introduce
a strong measure of reform—not the meagre scheme of Flood
and the Bishop of Derry, but a broad measure, which would
give the people of Ireland a real voice in the elections.
Grattan, the Duke of Leinster, and Lord Charlemont had in-
stituted the "Whig Club," and kept up a correspondence with
the English Whig party. Their avowed object w7as to purge
the Augean stable on College Green, and to withstand any at-
tempt to carry a union. The bulk of the people—more even
than their political leaders—looked earnestly to reform as an
urgent necessity. The Irish, like the other nations of Europe,
but to a far greater degree, were at this time agitated by the
momentous events which were taking place in France. They
had seen a bankrupt and effete autocracy compelled to call its
misgoverned subjects to its assistance. They had seen an en-
thusiastic national assembly come to the rescue, and take the
government into its own hands; and the king, but lately an
absolute monarch, obliged to make the best of his position and
consent to govern by the will of the people. The highest
AGITATION FOR REFORM AND EMANCIPATION. 309
hopes for France were entertained by Fox and the English
Whigs, who were ardent sympathizers in her nascent efforts.
In Ireland, where a bloodless revolution had already taken
place, the progress of the French constitutional struggle was
followed with breathless interest. The Northern Whig Club—
among whom were Lord Charlemont, Lord Moira, Lord de
Clifford, and Robert Stewart, better known as Lord Castlereagh,
who had begun his political career as a burning patriot, and
had defeated the Castle candidate in the last Down election—
celebrated the 14th of July, the anniversary of the destruction
of the Bastile, with processions, reviews, and a banquet, where
the toasts drunk were "The Revolution," "The National As-
sembly of France," and "The Rights of Man." But the new
ideas launched by the French revolution had penetrated further
than the leaders of the opposition. They were canvassed by
the people, by the Dublin traders, and the Belfast manufact-
urers, and especially by the younger members of the Irish bar.
They were eagerly seized upon by the remnant of the Ulster
volunteer corps, and the political clubs which had risen from
their ashes. The steady sympathy exhibited for the United
States by the Presbyterian population had led to the growth
of republican ideas in the manufacturing towns of the north.
Belfast was full of advanced politicians; the democratic spirit
was rapidly spreading to Newry and Downpatrick; and as-
sociations were formed with the express object of promoting
reform and the extending of the franchise to the whole Roman
Catholic population.
There had for some years been a revived Roman Catholic
Committee sitting in Dublin, whose object it was to obtain the
repeal of the penal laws. It represented two interests: the
aristocratic Roman Catholic families, such as the Fingals, the
Kenmares, the Gormanstons, with the Roman Catholic hier-
archy; and the Roman Catholic trading classes, whose leaders
were John Keogh, Edmund Byrne, Richard McCormack, and
John Sweetman. The growing feeling of toleration had en-
abled Mr. Gardiner, in 1782, to pass his two bills for the relief
of Roman Catholics: the first of which enabled them, on taking
the oath of allegiance, to purchase, inherit, and dispose of land,.
310 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
and incorporeal hereditaments, with the exception of advow-
sons, manors, and boroughs; it also permitted them to reside
in Limerick city and the town of Gal way.* The second al-
lowed Popish schoolmasters "to teach school," and repealed
the obnoxious clauses relating to the guardianship of children.f
There was an increasing public opinion that further relaxation
might reasonably be made in the penal code, though this in-
deed was counterbalanced by the most fanatical opposition from
the Protestant ascendency party.
Pitt, who had repealed the most oppressive of the English
penal laws, was inclined to toleration; the more so, that among
the Roman Catholics themselves the aristocratic and the demo-
cratic elements were rapidly diverging, and the latter were
showing signs of entertaining the more advanced ideas which
had been imported from France. The point of difference was
the elective franchise, which the aristocratic party were con-
tent to forego. A struggle ensued in the Roman Catholic
Committee, which resulted in the victory of the advanced party
by a majority of six to one, and the secession of sixty-eight
of the minority from the committee itself. This action on the
part of the minority was believed to have been taken at the
instigation of the government, which held out to them the pros-
pect of a partial repeal of the remaining penal laws. The sup-
port of the moderate Roman Catholics was to be purchased by
concessions, and it was hoped that, after conciliating them and
buying the House of Commons, the growing democratic party
might be easily disposed of.
Theobald Wolfe Tone was a young barrister of considerable
ability. By his own account of himself he had always been
incurably idle—never settling to any occupation. After wast-
ing his time at the university, he married a young lady, whose
parents were well off, but who did not altogether seem to have
approved of the match. He lived with her for a year, and then,
leaving her with his father, went over to England to study law
at the Temple. He spent two years there without opening a
book; and, being without means, would, but for a mere acci-
* 21, 22 Geo. III. c. 24.
f lb. c. 62.
AGITATION FOR REFORM AND EMANCIPATION. 311
dent, have run away to India to try his fortune there. In 1788,
however, he returned to Dublin and rejoined his wife. He
was called to the bar and made a fair start, but was too lazy to
persevere. He then took up politics, and conceived the idea
of uniting the Eoman Catholic interest with the democratic
reformers of the north. He accordingly wrote a pamphlet
embodying this scheme, went to Belfast, and started an asso-
ciation which he called the " Society of the United Irishmen."
Tone's next step was to plant a branch of the society at
Dublin. Keogh, who had read his pamphlet, was bitten with
the idea, and adopted his suggestions. The Dublin branch
was formed under the auspices of the reconstructed Roman
Catholic Committee. James JSTapper Tandy, a Protestant Dub-
lin trader of very advanced opinions, an old volunteer, and a
member of the Dublin Common Council, who had recently
dealt the government a blow by securing the defeat of the
Castle candidate for lord mayor, was appointed secretary; and
the Hon. Mr. Simon Butler, a brother of Lord Mountgarret,
and a member of the bar, was the first chairman.
The cause of the Eoman Catholics had always been steadily
advocated by Edmund Burke. Burke hated republicanism;
he viewed with dislike the alliance of the Roman Catholics
with the northern Radicals. He had taken a fanatically vio-
lent line against the French reformers; in consequence of
which he had quarrelled with Fox, and was willing to support
the government. The government, in their turn, were inclined
to accept his views upon the Roman Catholic question. The
Roman Catholic Committee, in order to disarm all suspicion of
allying itself with Republicanism, appointed Burke's son Rich-
ard to be their agent. Keogh had been over to England and
had had an interview with Pitt in September; and it was con-
certed by Burke and Dundas, secretary of state and a cabinet
minister, that Sir Hercules Langrishe, one of the government
supporters in the Irish Commons, should bring in a Roman
Catholic Relief Bill at the commencement of the ensuing ses-
sion.
This was accordingly done in January, 1792, and another
instalment of long-delayed justice was dealt out to the Roman
312
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
Catholics. The substance of the measure* was to open to
them both branches of the legal profession; to permit them
to keep schools; to permit barristers and attorneys to have
Roman Catholic wives, and to allow Roman Catholic solicitors
to educate their children in their own faith. It also provided
for the repeal of the laws prohibiting the intermarriage of
Roman Catholics with Protestants, so long as the ceremony
was performed by a clergyman of the Established Church;
and for the binding of apprentices to a Roman Catholic trades-
man or craftsman without limit to their number.
Petitions were addressed to the House, both by the Roman
Catholic Committee and by the Protestants of Belfast, in favor
of conferring a £20 franchise upon the Roman Catholics in
counties. But the petitions were both refused after a stormy
debate. The government bill was warmly supported by Grat-
tan and the opposition, and was passed into law by an unwill-
ing House in deference to the policy of the English cabinet.
32 Geo. III. c. 21.
PARTIAL EMANCIPATION OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS. 313
CHAPTER XII.
PARTIAL EMANCIPATION OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS.
A.D. 1792-1793.
The United Irishmen were meanwhile growing in impor-
tance. Branches were pushed into different parts of Ulster,
and affiliated to the parent society. In this way the nucleus
of an extensive organization was set on foot. Though Tone
and many of his friends were theoretically in their hearts re-
publicans, the aim of the society at this time was unobjection-
able, and extended no further than a thorough reform in the
House of Commons, based on the extension of the franchise
to all citizens. The main planks in their reform platform were
equal electoral districts, household suffrage, vote by ballot, pay-
ment of members, and annual Parliaments. The test of ad-
mission to the society was as follows: "I, A. B., in the pres-
ence of God, do pledge myself to my country that I will use
all my abilities and influence in the attainment of an impartial
and adequate representation of the Irish nation in Parliament;
and, as a means of absolute and immediate necessity in the es-
tablishment of this chief good for Ireland, I will endeavor as
much as lies in my ability to forward a brotherhood of affec-
tion, an identity of interests, a communion of rights, and a
union of power among Irishmen of all religious persuasions,
without which every reform in Parliament must be partial, not
national, inadequate to the wants, delusive to the wishes, and
insufficient for the freedom and happiness of the country."
Tone, though the originator of the movement, had hitherto
not had much personal influence in the society; but after the
failure of the petition of the Roman Catholic Committee, Keogh
took him up and made him assistant secretary to the commit-
tee, with a salary of £200 a year—a very important addition
to his means, which were extremely slender. From that time
14
314
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
lie became an accredited agent, both of the Roman Catholics
and of his friends at Belfast; and the ranks of the United
Irishmen were considerably reinforced from the Roman Cath-
olic body.
Keogh, nrider the inspiration of the opposition leaders,
started a plan, in imitation of the course pursued by the vol-
unteers, of summoning a convention of Roman Catholics at
Dublin, to give public expression to their wishes. The As-
cendency party were greatly agitated by this new move. The
grand juries at the ensuing assizes and the close corporations
published furious addresses against the proposed convention
and its authors. The magistrates denounced it from the bench.
Even the Roman Catholic hierarchy, who wrere dependent on
the government for toleration, at first were ranged in oppo-
sition. Tone obtained counsel's opinion that the convention
would not be illegal, and published it in the newspapers and by
handbills. The bishops were either won over or induced to
remain neutral. Public meetings were held by both parties;
manifestoes and counter-manifestoes were issued; and the
United Irishmen's organ, The Northern Star, was started, at
the cost of £3000, to advocate the principles of the society.
The convention met in Taylor's Hall, in Back Lane, Dublin,
on December 2, 1*792. Many of the sixty-eight secedcrs had
rejoined the committee; and a petition was drawn up profess-
ing the loyalty of the king's Roman Catholic subjects, and
praying that they might be restored to the rights and privi-
leges of the Constitution. Five delegates were chosen to pre-
sent it to the king—Sir Thomas French, and Messrs. Byrne,
Keogh, Bellew, and Devereux.
George III. had by this time become thoroughly alarmed at
the progress of the French Revolution. Louis, after having
endeavored to escape from France, had been captured by his
own subjects and imprisoned in the Temple. The Austrians
and Prussians had unjustifiably interfered in the quarrel, and
had undertaken his restoration by force of arms. The Duke
of Brunswick's threat to pillage Paris had driven the people
mad and led to the "September massacres." All France had
risen as one man to repel the German invader. Brunswick's
PARTIAL EMANCIPATION OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS. 315
failure to force the passes at Valmy, and subsequent retreat,
had grievously disappointed the hopes of those who had made
sure of a triumphal march to Paris; and then had followed
Dumouriez's brilliant victory at Jemappes, which had laid all
Belgium at the mercy of France. The growing war-spirit in
England was rapidly forcing Pitt into antagonism with the
French government. The frantic dread of the rising democ-
racy was driving England into an unreasoning panic. And
the Tory party and the weak-kneed Whigs, lashed up by
Burke's philippics, could see safety in nothing short of the
forcible suppression of French republicanism.
A war with revolutionary France, who boasted that she was
prepared to assist all oppressed nations to regain their liberty,
could not fail to be a source of anxiety, so long as there was
a discontented Ireland on England's flank. England's trouble
with America had been Ireland's opportunity twelve years
since; a French war might prove the same. The Irish were
greatly excited; the spread of French principles in Dublin and
Belfast, and the open sympathy shown for the Kevolution, were
a terror to the king and the government; and they clutched
at the policy of winning the support of the Roman Catholics,
whose faith was being cruelly persecuted by the Jacobins, by
flinging the penal code overboard piece by piece. For the
present the Roman Catholics were to be conciliated—the Prot-
estant ascendency must shift for itself. But Pitt saw a way
to restore the old balance; Roman Catholic Ireland was to be
swamped by Protestant England, and a union to be carried at
any cost. The emancipation of the Roman Catholics would
force the hand of the independent Protestants.
On January 2, 1793, the five delegates were presented to his
majesty by Dundas; and their petition was graciously accepted.
Dundas afterwards had an interview with them, in which they
told him that they looked not only for the franchise, but for
total emancipation; that is, admission to the corporations and
to seats in Parliament. Dundas expressed himself as convinced
of the necessity of emancipation, informed them that their
claims should be recommended to Parliament in the next king's
speech, and said that he looked to them to support order in
316
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
return. They left under the belief that the government was
willing to abolish all the religious disabilities of his majesty's
Eoman Catholic subjects. The success of the mission appeared
to be complete. The thanks of the Eoman Catholic Committee
were voted to Tone, together with the more substantial recog-
nition of his services in the shape of a gold medal of the value
of thirty guineas, and the round sum of £1500. A resolution
was also carried that a sum of £2000 should be applied to the
erection of a statue to the king, "as a monument of their grati-
tude for the important privileges which they had obtained from
Parliament through his paternal recommendation."
Parliament assembled on January 10, 1793. The viceroy,
in the speech from the throne, recommended the situation of
the Eoman Catholic subjects of his majesty to the attention of
Parliament; and Mr. Secretary Hobart, on the 18th, brought in
a bill for their further relief. The proposed measure gave to
all who were 40s. freeholders in the counties and the few open
cities and boroughs the right of voting for members of Parlia-
ment, and it also gave them the municipal franchise in the cities
and corporate towns. It admitted them to the University of
Dublin, and enabled them, under certain restrictions, to fill al-
most all civil and military offices, including those of grand-
juryman and justice of the peace. It permitted all Eoman
Catholics possessed of freehold property to the amount of £100
per annum, and personal property to the amount of £1000
per annum, to bear arms, and empowered them to found col-
leges* to be affiliated to Dublin University, provided they
should not be exclusively Eoman Catholic.
It wras, however, provided that no person should have the
benefit of the act who did not take and subscribe the revised
* In consequence of the provisions of the penal code, the Eoman Catholic
clergy were accustomed to resort to the Continent for their education. The
French Revolution had put a stop to this practice; and the government were
desirous of cutting off all communication with revolutionary France. Accord-
ingly, in 1795, by the 35th Geo. III. c. 21, Maynooth College was founded "for
the education exclusively of persons professing the Roman Catholic religion,"
and an annual sum of £8000 was granted for its support out of the Consolidated
Fund.
PARTIAL EMANCIPATION OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS. 317
Oath of Allegiance,* which denied the Pope's temporal jurisdic-
tion; and comprehended a declaration denying his infallibility
and his power to absolve unconditionally.
The dismay of the Protestant ascendency party at the course
adopted by the government was complete. Lord Farnham and
the Archbishop of Cashel were utterly disconcerted; Dr. Du-
genan raved with frantic indignation. Ogle protested that
even an act of Union would be preferable to such a bill; and
Fitzgibbon, now Lord Glare, who had not been consulted by
the ministers, spoke with bitter hostility against the proposed
measure. The government was, of course, supported by the
opposition; and the bill passed both Houses, and received the
royal assent on April 9.f
Yet another portion of the pitiless penal code had become a
thing of the past. But, when the government gave relief with
one hand, it launched a Coercion Bill with the other. The
same Parliament which had so grudgingly passed the Roman
Catholic Relief Bill hastened cheerfully to arm the Castle with
three Coercion Acts: the Convention Act,J to prohibit "un-
lawful assemblies," which was intended to enable the govern-
ment to prevent the recurrence of such an event as the "Back
Lane Parliamentthe Gunpowder Act,§ imposing severe pen-
alties on the importation and transporting of munitions of war,
and giving magistrates unlimited powers of search; and an act
to raise sixteen thousand militia, and to increase the regular
army from twelve thousand to seventeen thousand men. ||
The session was not unfruitful in other directions. The
government gave way upon some other long-demanded reforms.
G rattan's Barren Land Bill was passed, ^~ exempting from tithes
for seven years all waste land which should be reclaimed. Mr.
Forbes's continued efforts to carry a Pension and Place Bill
were rewarded with a limited amount of success. The hered-
itary revenue was exchanged for a civil list of £145,000 a
year for the payment of salaries, and other charges of the civil
establishment. The pension list was to be provided for by an
* 13,14 Geo. III. c. 35,
§ lb. c. 2.
f 33 Geo. III. c. 21.
II lb. c. 22.
t lb. c. 29.
f lb. c. 25.
318 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
annual grant, until it should be reduced by deaths to the amount
of £80,000. At this figure it was then to stand limited, and
the sum of £80,000 transferred to the civil list, making it in
the whole £225,000, out of which the pensions would there-
after be defrayed. In future no pension was to be given of
more than £1200 a year, except to one of the royal family, or
on an address by either of the Houses of Parliament. The fund
for secret service was limited to £5000 a year, unless the chief
secretary required it "for the purpose of detecting, preventing,
or defeating treasonable or other dangerous conspiracies against
the State," in which case the expenditure was to be unlimited.*
An act was also passed declaring that persons holding places
of profit under the crown created after the passing of the act, or
holding pensions, or having wives who held pensions, should be
incapable of sitting in the next House of Commons, exceptions
only being made in favor of commissioners of the treasury and
their secretaries.! These three last-mentioned acts were sops
thrown to the opposition by the English cabinet. Where the
corrupt Irish Commons were left to take their own course, all
idea of concession was thrown to the winds. William Ponson-
by's two motions for reform were summarily rejected by major-
ities of two to one.
* 33 Geo. III. c. 34.
f lb. c. 41.
PROSECUTIONS.
319
CHAPTER XIII.
PROSECUTIONS. A.D. 1792-1794.
The plea upon which the government based their demand for
coercion bills was the continued state of disturbance prevail-
ing in many parts of the country. This unfortunate condition
of things was due to the fanatical antagonism of the Defend-
ers and the Peep-o'-day Boys, or Wreckers. The object of
the Protestant faction was to expel from the country those
Roman Catholics who were scattered about among the Prot-
estants of the north, and to occupy their holdings. Both
parties, owing to the negligent indifference of the local magis-
trates, had greatly increased in numbers. The Defenders es-
pecially had become extremely formidable; so that they had
begun to turn the tables upon the Wreckers, and were the
terror of the country-side. They retaliated fiercely on their
persecutors, extending their operations to the attacking of
country-houses, for the purpose of obtaining arms. Roving
bands appeared in Meath and Cavan, and fought with the Prot-
estant population settled there. They spread through all the
midland counties, parties springing up right and left, plundering
houses of arms, and committing other enormities. In the south
and west the Rightboys reappeared under the name of Defend-
ers, with the old system of swearing the people not to pay
tithes and hearth-money. Scattered parties of soldiery were
despatched by the government to restore order. In many cases
the Defenders ventured to resist, and considerable loss of life
ensued. A secret committee of the House of Lords, consisting
of Lord Clare and eight other peers, sat to inquire into the
causes of the disturbances, and published a report in which they
endeavored to show that the Defenders were encouraged by the
respectable Roman Catholic population, and insinuated that
both the one and the other were disaffected and imbued with
320
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
the spirit of French republicanism. Defenderism, however,
does not appear to have been a political movement. It was a
lawless outbreak of the lowest and most ignorant of the peas-
antry, induced by miserable poverty and harsh treatment,
while the better class of the Roman Catholics was fairly con-
tent with the repeal of the penal laws; and the Roman Catho-
lic Convention was dissolved.
Tone and the United Irishmen, however, were determined to
continue the agitation, and to rest satisfied with nothing short
of parliamentary reform and the admission of the Roman
Catholics to seats in Parliament. The antagonism between the
Defenders and the Peep-o'-day Boys was a great trouble to
Tone, whose plan had been to unite Protestant with Roman
Catholic in one common cause. He endeavored to induce them
to accept the teaching of the United Irishmen, but only with
the result that many of the Defenders joined that society, and
so connected it with the party of violence. Napper Tandy,
who was engaged in the attempt to bridge over the gulf
between the two factions, was detected by the government in
correspondence with the Defenders at Castle Bellingham, and,
receiving timely warning of his intended arrest, escaped to
America.
The United Men had grown rapidly in boldness and activity.
They were constantly employed in distributing handbills and
circulars of a semi-seditions character. They affected the
French fashion of calling each other "citizen;" though Tone
told them that they might as well try to make themselves
"peers and noblemen by calling each other 4my lord.'" The
government determined to take strong measures with the so-
ciety. Mr. Simon Butler, their chairman, and Mr. Oliver Bond,
a Dublin merchant, had published an address to the people of
Dublin, condemning the conduct of the secret committee of
the House of Lords in examining witnesses upon oath as to
their own conduct and opinions. They were summoned before
the committee and sentenced, without trial, to six months' im-
prisonment, and to pay a fine of £500. Dr. Reynolds, who had
been called before the secret committee as a witness, was com-
mitted to jail for refusing to answer some questions which
PROSECUTIONS.
321
were put to him. Hamilton Rowan, a gentleman of family
and fortune in the north of Ireland, and the secretary of the
United Irishmen, had, two years before (in 1792), published a
bombastic and rather violent address to the volunteers, written
by Dr. Drennan, calling them to arms for the preservation of
the liberties of the people. He was prosecuted for libel, and
sentenced to two years' imprisonment, and to pay a fine of
£500.
But a more subtle stroke was in preparation. An English
clergyman named Jackson, who had resided some years in
France, had formed a friendship with an Irish exile named
Madget, who held an appointment in the French Foreign Office.
England and France had now been at war some twelve months.
The French government was anxiously canvassing the possi-
bility of making a successful descent on the Irish coast. They
had received exaggerated reports of the Defender disturbances,
and believed that a general rising was imminent. Jackson was
accordingly commissioned to go over and sound the popular
leaders. He arrived in London, and incautiously confided his
secret to an attorney of the name of Cockayne, who at once
communicated the whole story to Pitt. Instead of dealing
with Jackson's treason at once, Pitt took the tortuous course
of permitting him to proceed to Dublin, and sending Cockayne
with him as a spy, with the view of entrapping those with
whom Jackson should be found to communicate in Ireland.
Jackson succeeded, through Mr. McNally, a barrister in the pay
of the government, in obtaining introductions to Tone, Simon
Butler, and others of the leaders of the United Irishmen, and
also to Hamilton Rowan, who was then in Newgate. Cockayne
was always at Jackson's elbow, and Tone appears to have at
first looked upon the latter'as a government spy, but subse-
quently talked with him openly about the prospects of a French
alliance, and drew up, for his instruction, a paper upon the con-
dition of Ireland, of which Rowan made a copy while he was
in prison, for Jackson's use. Then, finding that Jackson was
a vain and indiscreet person, Tone and his friends dropped all
communication with him; and the government, finding nothing
more was to be gained by leaving Jackson at libertv, arrested him
14*
322
HISTORY OP THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
on a charge of treason. Eowan, on hearing of his apprehen-
sion, and fearing that his having copied Tone's document might
be used to involve him in the charge, managed to escape from
Newgate and fled to America. He was proclaimed as a traitor
and outlawed, though no further offence than the one for which
he had been convicted was ever proved against him. Tone,
boldly admitting that he was the author of the paper found in
Jackson's possession, remained in Dublin. His friends, Mr.
Marcus Beresford (a nephew of Lord Clare), Mr. George Knox,
and Wolfe, the solicitor-general, used their influence to deter a
crown prosecution; and no steps were taken against him, upon
the understanding that he would leave the country as soon as
he could arrange his private affairs. He sailed for America,
with his wife and children, about a twelvemonth later. Shortly
after Jackson's arrest, having now successfully connected the
United Irishmen with a treasonable design, the government
struck another blow at the society. Taylor's Hall, their place
of meeting, was broken into by the sheriffs and a body of con-
stables, and all their papers seized.
BLIGHTED HOPES.
323
CHAPTER XIV.
BLIGHTED HOPES. A.D. 1794, 1795.
In the summer of 1794, the moderate Whigs in England,
alarmed at the violent course of the Jacobin oligarchy, which
had usurped the control of the French Convention, deserted
the opposition benches and formed a coalition with Pitt.
Among the number were the Duke of Portland, Lord Spencer,
Lord Fitzwilliara, Edmund Burke, and William Wyndham.
The price of their adhesion on the question of the French war
was the adoption of Burke's policy on the Roman Catholic
question in Ireland. Burke aqd Fitzwilliara were for total
emancipation of the Roman Catholics: liberty to sit in Parlia-
ment; liberty to enter the corporations; liberty to bear arms.
It was upon their exclusion from these privileges that the Prot-
estant ascendency had rested. It had been shored up by arti-
ficial means for a hundred years. Burke believed that the time
had come when it could run alone, and that the,admission of
the Roman Catholics to equal rights with the Protestants would
unite the Irish into one nation, which would thenceforth be-
come a source of strength to England instead of being a thorn
in her side.
This was not the opinion of the Ascendency party, who
were violently opposed to concession in any shape. Grattan.
and the opposition held with Burke. Pitt was half convinced,
and was willing to try the experiment; as, in the event of
failure, he calculated on carrying out his darling scheme of the
union.
In August, Grattan, George and William Ponsonby, and Sir
John Parnell, the chancellor of the exchequer, came over to
England to arrange matters with Pitt. Pitt was undecided for
many weeks. The difficulty was about the dismissal of Lord
Clare, a due provision for Lord Westmoreland, and the powers
324 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
to be allowed to the new viceroy. It was eventually decided
that Lord Westmoreland should be recalled if an office of fit-
ting dignity could be found for him in England, and Lord Fitz-
william appointed lord-lieutenant in his place. Pitt clung to
Lord Clare, but the old system was to be changed, and coercion
laid aside. As to the question of emancipation, Pitt told Grat-
tan that "it would not be brought on as a government meas-
ure; but if government were pressed, they would yield."
The Duke of Portland was appointed a third secretary of
state, with special care for Irish affairs. He accepted office,
according to what he told Mr. Burke, on the express terms
"that the administration of Ireland was left wholly to him."
Lord Fitzwilliam, according to the same authority, was under a
similar belief as to his own powers. He himself says, in his
letter to Lord Carlisle, that "he-would never have taken office
unless the Roman Catholics were to be relieved from every
disqualification." He was nQt "to be the instrument of the
junto," as Burke denominated the clique of Castle officials who
battened on the Irish Establishment; "the set of men in Ire-
land who, by their innumerable corruptions, frauds, oppressions,
and follies, were opening the back door to Jacobinism to rush
in and take us in the rear;" the men who were the direct suc-
cessors of th£ corrupt Protestant oligarchy who misgoverned
and plundered Ireland in the reign of James I. There was to
be a complete change of men and measures, and the govern-
ment was to be intrusted to the leaders of the Irish opposi-
tion.
Fitzwilliam reached Dublin on January 4,1795. There was
general rejoicing, and he was received with the utmost enthusi-
asm. Addresses and petitions poured in from the Roman
Catholics from every part of Ireland. "Not to grant cheer-
fully," wrote the new viceroy to the Duke of Portland, " all the
Catholics wish will not only be exceedingly impolitic, but per-
haps dangerous. In doing this no time is to be lost. The dis-
affection among the lower orders is universal; though the vio-
lences now committing are not from political causes, but the
outrages of banditti, they are fostered by that cause. The
higher orders are firmly to be relied on. The wealthy of the
BLIGHTED HOPES.
325
second class hardly less so, because they are fearful of their
property. Yet the latter, at least, have shown no forwardness
to check these outrages. And this can only arise from there
being something left which rankles in their bosom."
Fitzwilliam's first act was to break up "the junto." John
Beresford, the chief commissioner of customs, who had filled
the civil establishment with his friends and relations, was at
once compelled to retire on his full official income. So was
Edward Cooke, the under - secretary of state in the civil de-
partment, with a pension of £1200 a year. The attorney-gen-
eral, Wolfe, and the solicitor-general, Toler, were told that they
would have to make room for George Ponsonby and Curran,
Wolfe being consoled with a peerage, and Toler otherwise pro-
vided for. Grattan still held his retainer from the people. He
refused office, but gave his general support to the ministry.
Some rumblings of the coming storm were already heard.
Beresford had hurried over to England and raised a howl over
his dismissal. Pitt, on February 9, intimated his displeasure
at the viceroy's precipitancy, and forbade the change of law-
officers, though Wolfe's elevation had already been approved
by him, and the king's consent to the projected peerage given
on the 13th of January. Still Fitzwilliam had no suspicion
that all was not right. The cabinet was constantly informed
of every step which was taken, and no hint was thrown out in
reply that his conduct was not entirely approved of.
On February 12, Grattan, by arrangement with the viceroy,
moved for leave to bring in a bill for the admission of Roman
Catholics to Parliament. Meanwhile, there was a factor to be
considered on which Pitt and Dundas had not fully reckoned.
George III. had not hitherto grasped the importance of the
change of policy. Fitzwilliam's dismissals had opened his
eyes. Beresford had followed the king to Weymouth, and
had had a private audience with him, in which he worked upon
his fears for the safety of the Protestant religion. On Febru-
ary 6 he sent Pitt a memorandum, after the receipt of which
there was no course open to the cabinet but to resign or reverse
all that they had initiated. The king declared that he had
heard of the Duke of Portland's "total change of the princi-
326
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
pies of government" with "the greatest astonishment." He
spoke of his " surprise at the idea of admitting Roman Catho-
lics to vote in Parliament." He feared " religion was but little
attended to by persons of rank, and that the word toleration or
rather indifference to that sacred subject has been too much ad-
mitted by them." "Yet the bulk of the nation had not been
spoiled by foreign travel and manners," and he is certain that
"it would be safer even to change the new ministry in Ireland
if its continuance depends on the success of this proposal."
Pitt had but recently said, in reference to emancipation, "that
he would not risk a rebellion in Ireland on such a question."
He was fully aware of the critical condition of the country,
but he did not venture to remonstrate, when his master was
obstinate; and he did not resign. All sorts of excuses were
framed for the change of front. Fitzwilliam had misconceived
and exceeded his instructions. He had dismissed the servants
of the crown without consulting the cabinet. He had omitted
to forward to the Duke of Portland the heads of Grattan's pro-
posed bill. Emancipation was never intended. "It led to
consequences which could not be contemplated without horror
and dismay;" and, lastly, "the king had the right to remove
and dismiss whom he pleased."
On February 23, the Duke of Portland wrote to Fitzwilliam,
"by the king's command," that he was " authorized to resign."
Lord Clare, Foster (the speaker), and the primate were appoint-
ed lords justices. Beresford was restored in triumph to the
revenue board; and Lord Camden, son of the chief-justice, was
despatched to succeed Fitzwilliam, with Mr. Pel ham for chief-
secretary.
"If the Irish administration," said Sir Lawrence Parsons, in
the Irish House of Commons, "has encouraged the Catholics
in their expectations without the countenance of the British
cabinet, they have much to answer for. If the British cabi-
net has assented, and afterwards retracted, the demon of dark-
ness could not have done more mischief had he come from
hell to throw a firebrand among the people." The language
was hardly exaggerated. The mass of Roman Catholics had
been led on to believe that the bill on which their highest
BLIGHTED HOPES.
327
hopes were concentrated would be carried by the government.
The Irish Commons had been led to believe that Lord Fitzwill-
iam with a changed system would repeal Lord Clare's obnoxious
Dublin Police Act,* which, instead of having the effect of pro-
moting order, had simply been a means to the late government
for jobbery and waste. A Eeform Bill, it was on all hands ad-
mitted, would be the necessary corollary to emancipation; and,
on the strength of these promises, the House had rejected Par-
sons's cautious proposal to grant a short Money Bill, and had
voted the unprecedented sum of £250,000 for the purposes of
his majesty's navy, and an additional forty-one thousand men
for home defences. The country felt it had been duped; the
cup which had been placed to its lips had been dashed to the
ground; and the hopelessness of despair settled down upon
the hearts of all those who had fondly believed that a new
order of things was about to prevail. Roman Catholics and
Dissenters alike deplored the act of the cabinet. The Roman
Catholic Committee hurriedly met, and drew up a petition to
the king against the recall of Fitzwilliam. Addresses were
poured in to the viceroy, the Parliament, even to private indi-
viduals who were supposed to be possessed of influence, im-
portuning them to prevent the threatened catastrophe. It
was all of no avail. Lord Fitzwilliam left Ireland on March
25. It was a day of general gloom. The shops in Dublin
were shut. Business was stopped. The whole city put on
mourning. The departing viceroy's carriage was drawn to the
water's edge by some of the leading citizens. Lord Camden's
arrival was correspondingly ominous. He was sworn in by the
lords justices on the 31st. On leaving the Castle, the primate's
carriage was stoned. Fitzgibbon's was followed by a threaten-
ing mob. Stones were flung, and he with difficulty escaped
with a cut on the head from one of the missiles. The mob
then turned to attack the houses of Beresford and the speaker,
and were only dispersed by the bullets of the military.
* 26 Geo. III. c. 24 By the 5 Edw. IY. c. 5, the peace was kept in the
"English towns" by constables chosen by the burgesses. A regular system
of police for the city of Dublin was introduced by the 17,18 Geo. III. c. 43.
328 HISTORY OP THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
. Grattan's Emancipation Bill was of course doomed. There
was a fierce debate, in which Mr. Arthur O'Connor, a nephew
of Lord Longueville, made an able maiden speech attacking
-the government. But the venal crew of Castle placemen
changed sides with the change of viceroys; and the bill was
thrown out by 155 to 48. All hope, either of Roman Catho-
lic emancipation or of reform, had vanished. Lord Clare and
Protestant Ascendency had won the day; and the old coercive
system was set upon its legs again.
NEW DEPARTURES.
329
CHAPTER XV.
NEW DEPARTURES. A.D. 1795.
Jackson's trial for treason took place in April. The case
against him was clear. The wretched Cockayne, in abject ter-
ror of assassination, was kept under guard until the trial, and
gave conclusive evidence against him. The miserable Jackson,
on the final morning of the trial, to anticipate judgment and
sentence, and so save his little property for his widow, took
arsenic on his way to the court, and died in agonies in the
dock. Tone shortly afterwards sailed for America; and passed
thence to France, with avowed intentions of enlisting the sym-
pathies of the French Directory.
The United Irishmen had been suppressed; but the more
desperate members of that body, now that all legitimate means
of carrying out their schemes of reform had failed, reorganized
the society as a secret association. The branches were recon-
structed and multiplied. Each branch was to consist of twelve
members, who chose out of their own number a secretary.
Five of such secretaries formed a committee, called " the lower
baronial." Ten lower baronials chose each a member to form
the "upper baronial committee;" and each upper baronial in
like manner sent a delegate to the "district" or "county com-
mittee." Two or three delegates from each county committee
formed a "provincial committee," and the provincial commit-
tees elected five of the number to constitute the ".executive
committee " or " directory," which formed the apex of the sys-
tem. In this way a subtle organization was built up, which
spread its ramifications through two provinces; and was so
constructed that in a short space of time it could be converted,
according to its later development, from a civil to a military
organization. The secretary of every twelve was their petty
officer. The delegate of the lower baronial was a captain of
330 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OP IRELAND.
sixty men. The delegate of the upper baronial was colonel of
a battalion of six hundred; and so on, until a formidable force
was enrolled on paper, numbering, in 1797, nearly 280,000 men.
The reconstructed society bound each member by an oath of
secrecy; and their avowed object was the wresting of Ireland
from English control, and the erection of a republican form
of government, if necessary by force; if necessary also, by the
help of foreign intervention. The organization of Ulster was
completed in May, 1795; but it does not seem to have been
extended further till the autumn of 1796, when emissaries were
sent to form branches in Leinster. It was not till it was well
established in Leinster that the military system was grafted on
the civil. Russell, Neilson, Sims, and Keogh were the early re-
constructors of the society. Tone was privy to their designs
before his departure from Ireland. Thomas Addis Emmet, an
eminent barrister; Lewines, an attorney; McCormick, a Dublin
manufacturer; and Dr. McNevin, were prominent members.
Mr. Oliver Bond became one of the directory. Most of the
leaders of the society were Protestants. Many of them were
Ulster men.
Tone's plans for uniting the Protestants and the Roman
Catholics had not resulted in the reconciliation of the two
religious factions in Armagh. There the disgraceful civil strife
was unabated. The authorities appeared content to permit
the two fanatical parties to fight it out. Whenever they did
interfere, strong partiality was shown to the Protestants. In
September, 1795, a large body of Defenders came across a
number of armed Peep-o'-day Boys at a village called the Dia-
mond, where a regular battle took place, in which the Defend-
ers were driven off with a loss of forty-eight killed and many
wounded. The Protestants then set on foot a counter-organi-
zation to Defenderism, forming themselves into associations
which they called Orange lodges, and demanding an oath of
secrecy from all who were enrolled. This organization grew
rapidly. It acted promptly and with terrible effect. It de-
clared war against the Defenders, and openly professed as its
object the complete expulsion of all Roman Catholics from
Ulster. The Roman Catholics were attacked indiscriminately.
NEW DEPARTURES.
331
Masters were compelled to dismiss Roman Catholic servants,
landlords to dismiss Roman Catholic tenants. Decent farmers,
quiet peasants, hard-working weavers, quite unconnected with
the Defenders, received notices "to go to hell, Connaught
would not receive them." Their houses were burned, tbeir
furniture broken up, and they and their families driven from
their holdings.
Lord Gosford, the governor of Armagh County, in address-
ing the magistrates at quarter sessions in December, 1795, pub-
licly declared that " neither age nor sex, nor even acknowledged
innocence as to any guilt in the late disturbances, is sufficient
to excite mercy, much less to afford protection. The only
crime which the objects of this ruthless persecution are charged
with is simply a profession of the Roman Catholic religion. A
lawless banditti have constituted themselves judges of this new
species of delinquency, and the sentence they have pronounced
is nothing less than a confiscation of all property, and an im-
mediate banishment." The persecution was bad enough as it
was; but report magnified it until the awful rumor spread
among the people, and was of course belie veil, that seven
thousand persons had been driven from their dwellings. No
protection could be obtained from the magistrates, whose sym-
pathies were all with the Orangemen, and of whom many Avere
themselves members of Orange lodges. When at last the
soldiers were sent down under General Craddock to restore
order, it was found next to impossible to secure the bands of
Orange depredators by reason of the timely information given
to them of the movements of the troops, which enabled them
to elude pursuit.
General Henry Luttrell, Lord Carhampton, had been sent
into the west to suppress those of the Defenders who were
creating disturbances on that side of the country. The jails
were full of persons awaiting their trial. Carhampton pre-
ceded the judges of assize with his troops, and, without any
form of trial or under any warrant, drew out the prisoners and
sent them on board a tender, which sailed along the coast to
receive them, and shipped them on board the British fleet for
compulsory naval service. The local magistrates followed his
332
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
example, arresting and transporting without a pretence of
legality. Upwards of a thousand persons were the victims of
this aristocratic press-gang. When Parliament met in Janu-
ary, 1796, one of the first acts of the government was to bring
in an Indemnity Bill for the protection of those "justices of
the peace and other officers and persons" who had "appre-
hended suspected persons without due authority, and had sent
suspected persons out of the kingdom for his majesty's service,
and had also seized arms, and entered houses, and done divers
other acts not justifiable by law." *
Having effectually protected Carhampton and his imitators
from the consequences of their high-handed illegality, and de-
prived all persons of any remedy against them, the next step
was to arm the executive with the tremendous powers of a
fresh Coercion Act. An Insurrection Bill was brought in. It
provided that all persons convicted of administering unlawful
oaths for seditious purposes should suffer death as felons; all
persons taking such oaths should be transported; that all per-
sons should be compelled to register the arms in their posses-
sion under penalties of fine and imprisonment; that magistrates
might break into and enter houses to search for arms, might
apprehend strangers and examine them on oath, and commit
them to the house of correction till they could find sureties for
their good behavior. It gave power to the viceroy to proclaim
counties which the magistrates reported to him were in a state
of disturbance. In a proclaimed county the inhabitants were
commanded to keep within doors between sunset and sunrise,
under pain of being brought before the justices, who were
thereupon empowered, unless they were satisfied with the rea-
sons given for such person being abroad, at once to send him
to serve on board the British navy. The magistrates were also
empowered to break open houses to see if the occupiers were
out-of-doors at unlawful times. Persons who could not prove
that they either had means of their own or "industriously
followed some lawful trade or employment" wTere liable to the
same penalties." f
*36 Geo. III. 0.6.
fib. c.20.
NEW DEPARTURES.
333
This "bloody code," as Carran called it, passed into law
with little opposition. Even Grattan's effort to obtain the in-
sertion of a special reference to the insurgent Orangemen and
a clause to enable the ruined peasants and weavers of Armagh
to obtain compensation from the county was summarily re-
jected. Lord Edward Fitzgerald was the only person who had
the courage to vote against the government.
The United Irishmen now rapidly increased in number.
The ignorant Defenders of Kildare, Meath, Westmeath, Long-
ford, Leitrim, and Roscommon were swept into their ranks.
The persecuted Roman Catholics of Armagh, Down, and
Louth, hopeless of protection from the law, turned to this dar-
ing association for redress. The disappointed Roman Catholics
of the middle classes in Dublin were infected with the same
spirit. Even some of the advanced and ardent reformers in
Parliament itself, having lost all hope of constitutional reform,
took the desperate and fatal resolution of appealing to force
and the enemies of England, in the vain expectation of being
able to establish a new order of things. "The friends of
liberty were gradually, but with a timid step, advancing tow-,
ards republicanism."
334
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER XVI.
FRANCE AT "ENGLAND^ BACK DOOR." A.D. 1*796.
Mr. Arthur O'Connor, the member for Philipstown, a
borough belonging to his uncle, Lord Longueville; and Lord
Edward Fitzgerald, the member for Kildare County, joined the
society in the early part of the year 1796. Lord Edward
Fitzgerald was brother to the Duke of Leinster. He had
served with distinction under Lord Rawdon in the American
war, and at the conclusion of peace had entered the Irish Parlia-
ment. He had attached himself to the opposition, was an
ardent supporter of reform, and a strong opponent of the coer-
cive system in governing Ireland. He was in Paris in the
autumn of 1792, before war had broken out between France
and England, when he made himself conspicuous at a banquet
given by the English in that city to celebrate the triumph of
the French arms against the invaders, by adopting the prefix of
"citizen," and drinking the toast of " a speedy abolition of all
hereditary and feudal distinctions;" in consequence of which
the English government dismissed him from the army along
with Lord Semple and Captain Gawler, who had also shown
sympathy with the French republic. Shortly afterwards he
was married at Paris to Pamela, the beautiful daughter of
Philip Egalite and Madame de Genlis; and returned to Dublin
with his wife, to attend to his parliamentary duties. Frank,
open, and chivalrous, of simple habits, unaffected, intensely
affectionate, and of a tenderly compassionate disposition, Lord
Edward was a man of most lovable nature. The numerous
loving letters which remain, written by him to his mother, of
whom he was extremely fond, display a touching picture of
warm-hearted domestic simplicity—a devoted husband, divid-
ing his time between his wife, his babies, and his flowers. No
better proof could be found of the despair which all liberal
FRANCE AT "ENGLAND^ BACK DOOR."
335
politicians felt for the future of Ireland than the fact that such
a man, with such surroundings, should have convinced himself
that it was his paramount duty to plunge into a dark conspir-
acy for the overthrow of the English government.
The enterprise was not so hopeless as it seems to us now,
looking back upon its failure near a century ago. England
was engaged in a desperate conflict with France. Her military
efforts in the Low Countries had been the reverse of successful;
and she could ill spare troops for service in Ireland. Moreover,
there was good reason to believe that there was considerable
disaffection in the Irish militia, and even in the regular army.
If the French had succeeded in landing an expeditionary force
upon the island, and a general rising had been effected, the
course of history might have been very different. No one
knew better than Lord Edward that an undisciplined multitude,
without arms, artillery, or camp equipage, though it might be
formidable, would eventually be trampled out by the soldiers.
A French contingent was the hinge upon which the chances of
success hung, and, having once made up his mind to resort to
force, he instantly turned his attention to a French alliance.
In May, 1796, he and Arthur O'Connor with Lady Edward
passed over to Hamburg, and the two former moved on to
Basel, where they entered into communication with the Direc-
tory. The latter refused to negotiate with Fitzgerald, "lest
the idea should get abroad, from his having married Pamela,
that his mission had some reference to the Orleans family;" so,
leaving O'Connor to interview General Hoche, Lord Edward
rejoined his wife at Hamburg. The indefatigable Tone had
come from America to Paris in February. He had managed to
introduce himself to Carnot, the ablest of the Directory, and
had been for six months working hard to induce the French
government to send a strong force to Ireland. Tone's repre-
sentations, confirmed by O'Connor's authority, satisfied Car-
not of the importance of the scheme. Hoche supported it
enthusiastically, and undertook to organize and command the
expedition. England was threatened with the greatest peril
in Ireland since the battle of Kin sale.
On the 16th of December, a French fleet of forty-three sail,
336
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
consisting of seventeen ships of the line, eleven frigates and
corvettes, and fifteen transports, eluded the English squadron,
which was cruising off Ushant, and with a fair wind bore down
upon the coast of Munster. This formidable fleet carried an
army of fifteen thousand picked French troops, with twenty
guns, a heavy siege-train, and forty-five thousand stand of arms,
to be put into the hands of the expected insurgents. Hoche
was in command, and Tone accompanied the expedition with
a commission in the French army. The weather was foggy
and the fleet parted company, so that but thirty-six sail were
in sight on the morning of December 22, off Cape Clear; and
of the missing vessels one was the Fraternite, with General
Hoche on board.
In Ireland all was commotion. The island was utterly de-
fenceless. Not a single ship of war guarded the coast. Cork
was the only place in the south which had any fortifications
towards the sea. Every town was open on the land side.
General Dalrymple, who commanded in the southern province,
had but four thousand men under him. With these he was
doing his best to cover Cork, and was determined to fight be-
fore being compelled to fall back. Troops were being pushed
on from Dublin and the other garrisons to join him, and large
bodies of militia were gathering to his support. There was no
sign of a rising, no sign of disaffection. The peasantry worked
with a will to clear the roads for the baggage-wagons, and
showed the troops the utmost hospitality. The militia and the
yeomanry were enthusiastic; Limerick and Galway " vied with
each other in demonstrations of loyalty." Whatever progress
the United Irishmen had made in Ulster, they had not influ-
enced the south and west.
The chances of resistance depended on time. If the French
should land at once, nothing could stop them, and Cork must
fall, where were stores for the British navy worth a million
and a half. The French were waiting for Hoche to rejoin them.
On the evening of the 22d the wind swung round to the east.
A furious gale sprang up, accompanied by a heavy fall of snow,^
which made it impossible to land. The French ships beat up
against it to Bear Island aud cast anchor; but the gale increased
FRANCE AT "ENGLAND'S BACK DOOR." 337
in fury, and vessel after vessel dragged its anchor, and was
swept out to sea. Day after day they waited, hoping for
Hoche to come and for the gale to abate; but Hoche had
been driven back to Kochelle, and the storm rose higher and
higher. At length, after six days in Bantry Bay, the remnants
of the squadron cut their cables, and, giving up all hope, stood
back for the harbor of Brest. Ireland was safe, but she was
saved by the favor of the elements, which fought for her. Had
Hoche accomplished a successful debarkation, nothing could
have prevented his marching on the capital.
15
338
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER XVII.
MARTIAL LAW. A.D. 1797.
The government was greatly blamed for permitting Ireland
to remain in such a helpless and unguarded condition. The
panic, however, caused by the French expedition having abated,
a still more active system of coercion was determined on for
the suppression of the United Irishmen. The government
knew perfectly well from their spies that the conspiracy was
an existing fact; and they were also aware that all plans for a
rising were dependent on a simultaneous French invasion. In
the previous October a hurried autumn session had been held,
in which they had passed a bill for the suspension of the Habeas
Corpus Act.* And now, in early spring, General Lake was sent
to take the command in Ulster. He at once proclaimed mar-
tial law in Down, Antrim, Donegal, Derry, and Tyrone. His
first act was to seize two committees of the United Irishmen
in Belfast, with all their papers; and to suppress their journal,
The Northern Star. This was effectually done by the com-
plete destruction of the office, printing-presses, and types. The
two Simses were apprehended for publishing a furious address
of Arthur O'Connor's; and O'Connor himself was arrested and
lodged in Dublin Castle. All the safeguards of the Constitu-
tion having been suspended, numbers of persons were taken up
on suspicion, flung into jail, and refused bail. Spies and in-
formers were the only witnesses, and of these the government
had a whole army in its pay. The prisons overflowed, guard-
houses and barracks were filled with political suspects; and,
worst of all, no discipline was maintained among the soldiery,
who were allowed to commit all kinds of excesses, and to abuse
and maltreat the people. The yeomanry, which had been called
* 36, 37 Geo. III. c. 10.
MARTIAL LAW.
339
out, was composed almost entirely of Orangemen, and these,
with militia regiments sent over from England, were encouraged
to play havoc with the miserable inhabitants of the proclaimed
counties. A Welsh mounted yeomanry corps called the An-
cient Britons, under the command of Sir Watkin "Williams
Wynne, were especially notorious for their brutal violence.
Houses were plundered and burned, women outraged, and chil-
dren brutally illtreated and murdered. Men were seized and
sent on board tenders, untried. They were flogged, " picketed,"
and half hanged, to extort confessions as to the existence of con-
cealed arms. They were hunted down and sabred. Villages
and whole districts were devastated, and the inhabitants turned
out of their homes into the ditch.
Meanwhile Parliament had met, and Grattan and the oppo-
sition made one last effort to induce the government to temper
coercion with conciliation. They had taken the bold step of
discovering from some of the leaders of the United Irishmen
what measure of reform would content them; and the latter,
sobered by the failure of the expedition to Bantry, declared
that the following concession would satisfy them—viz., a full
representation of the people of Ireland, without any religious
distinction, based upon a property qualification which the Par-
liament should determine; equal electoral districts, containing
each six thousand houses and returning two members; and pro-
visions that Koman Catholics should be equally eligible with
Protestants for seats in the House of Commons and all offices
of state. This, they distinctly averred, would put an end to
the agitation; and Ponsonby accordingly prepared a bill, and
moved a series of resolutions on reform, embodying these very
reasonable heads. But the House of Commons was now the
mere tool of the government. It had been roughly shaken by
the recent attempt at invasion; and was panic-struck by the
prospect of an insurrection. On the division but 30 went into
the opposition lobby; 170 voted with the Castle.
Grattan had made his last effort. He felt that it was hope-
less, and that the position of the opposition had been reduced
to an absurdity. Determined not to be an accomplice in the
future conduct of Parliament, and fearing that further opposi-
340 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
tion, which could have no result, would only lend encourage-
ment to the United Irish, he decided on seceding from the
House of Commons. The shattered remnant of the opposition
followed his example. "We have offered you our measure,"
the great leader had said during the debate. "You will reject
it. We deprecate yours. You will persevere. Having no
hope left to persuade or dissuade, and having discharged our
duty, we shall trouble you no more; and from this day we
shall not attend the House of Commons." He kept his word.
The Parliament was expiring. A general election was immi-
nent. With half the country under martial law, the rest agi-
tated by the prospect of invasion and civil disturbance, and all
the Protestant Ascendency wrought up to the highest pitch of
excitement, a general election would be little more than a farce.
Grattan refused to offer himself for re-election to the citizens
of Dublin. He bade farewell to his constituents; and retired
for a season to his house at Tinnehinch, in the County of
Wicklow.
The proclamation of martial law had driven Lord Bellamont
to resign the command of the Cavan militia, and the Duke of
Leinster to resign the command of the Kildare militia. Its
effect on the conspiracy was hardly what its framers desired.
A considerable quantity of arms, especially newly manufactured
pikes, had been seized by General Lake, and the smouldering
insurrection apparently checked. But the appearance of re-
stored quiet was delusive. The numbers of the United Irish-
men received an enormous increase. The persecution drove
the lukewarm into their ranks and converted them into earnest
sympathizers. At the same time, the half-stifled disaffection
assumed a more dangerous character. The cruelties of the
troops produced acts of retaliation. Isolated murders became
frequent. Magistrates were fired at, and sometimes killed.
Plots w7ere laid by desperate fanatics for assassinating the ob-
noxious members of the executive, especially Lord Carhampton,
the commander-in-chief, who was the object of the most bitter
detestation. The agents of the society were working hard to
disseminate their political doctrines and to enlist members.
Fresh communications were opened with France, and hopes of
MARTIAL LAW.
341
a new expedition were entertained. Hoche was still enthusi-
astic, and Tone still hopeful. A large army was collected in
Holland, now the Batavian Republic, ready to embark on
board the squadron which was lying at the Texel; and the
English fleet, under Admiral Duncan, lay off the island to pre-
vent its departure. The United Irishmen wqre tampering with
the army, the militia, and the navy. Private soldiers were
court-martial led and shot on the information of nameless in-
formers, and prosecutions were instituted against suspects for
administering the society's oath. The more desperate of the
Ulster United Irishmen were eager for an immediate rising,
but the Leinster delegates hung back, and insisted on waiting
for the Dutch army.
The Dutch expedition was ready to sail in July, had the
wind been favorable. But the elements were again on the
side of England. The grand opportunity was missed, when
the Channel was opened in consequence of the mutiny at Spit-
head and at the Nore, and the cruel policy of sending untried
Irishmen to serve in the British navy had nearly borne fruit in
the shape of a national catastrophe. At length the Dutch
fleet started, only to fall into Duncan's clutches; and the bat-
tle of Camperdown made an end of the second expedition to
Ireland.
342
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
. CHAPTER XVIII.
THE TRIUMPH OF COERCION. A.D. 1797, 1798.
The government had for more than two years had accurate
information upon all that the United Irishmen were doing.
They had their spies even in the French foreign office, who
forwarded to them documentary evidence of the most impor-
tant character. Dr. McNevin had no sooner presented to the
French government a memorial he had drawn up on the prac-
ticability of the landing of an invading force, than a copy of
it found its way into the hands of the English cabinet. They
had spies everywhere, even among the most trusted leaders of
the society itself. They held in their pay not the farmers and
shopkeepers, who composed the rank and file, but the broken-
down gentlemen, the briefless barristers, the spendthrift militia
officers, who joined the association for the purpose of betray-
ing it. One of the informers, McGucken, was the solicitor to
the society at Belfast. He received a pension of £150 a year
and the sum of £1450 in cash. Leonard McNally, the bar-
rister who appeared for them in crown prosecutions) received
a pension of £300 a year. Nicholas Magnan of Saintfield was
a member of the county and provincial committees, and regu-
larly betrayed their plans through a third party. John Hughes,
a bookseller of Belfast, was repeatedly arrested and imprisoned
along with other members of the society, in order to disarm
suspicion, and to learn their secrets in the character of a fel-
low-victim. But the arch-traitors of all were Thomas Eey-
nolds of Kilkea Castle, in the County of Kildare, who was
Tone's wife's brother-in-law; and Captain Armstrong of Bally-
cumber, an officer in the king's county militia; who, on be-
coming members, deliberately wormed their way into the fam-
ilies of the chief conspirators, received their hospitality 2 and
ate their salt, in order that they might betray them. Reynolds
THE TRIUMPH OF COERCION.
343
received the sum of £5000 and a pension of a £1000 a year
as the reward of his share in the dirty work, and Armstrong a
pension of £500.
But besides these men, and others who had information to
give, there was a motley crowd of informers, "Major Sirr's *
gang," as Mr. Secretary Cooke calls them, who lived upon the
government. It was their daily bread to keep the Castle well
plied with stories of conspiracy and insurrection. They exag-
gerated, they distorted, they invented words and actions often
of innocent men—sometimes to earn their reward, sometimes
to gratify some personal spite. These were the men into whose
hands the government committed the lives, liberties, and repu-
tations of Irishmen; of whom Lord Moira said, in the Irish
House of Lords, "that he shuddered to think that such
wretches should find employment or protection under any
government;"! and who shared the secret-service money
sworn by Mr. Secretary Cooke to have amounted, between Au-
gust, 1797, and September, 1801, to the sum of no less than
£384,190 Ss.
The first prosecution under the Insurrection Act, for admin-
istering unlawful oaths, was that of William Orr, a Belfast
merchant. There was only one witness against him, a soldier
named Whateley, who swore that Orr admitted him into the
society. The jury retired at six in the evening; and at six in
the following morning, after some of them had been made
drunk with spirits, and others threatened with prosecution for
being United Irishmen themselves, gave a verdict of guilty.
The public feeling in Orr's favor was immense. Motions were
made in arrest of judgment, based on affidavits of two of the
jury, and of Whateley, the informer himself, who admitted, in
a fit of remorse, that he had sworn falsely. But the govern-
ment wanted an example, and Orr was hanged. Orr's execution
tended, almost more than any of the many acts of injustice
committed by the government, to exasperate the Irish people,
* Major Sirr was the Town Major of Dublin.
t Lord Moira produced the following list: Bird, alias Smith, alias Johnson,
Dutton, O'Brien, Clarke, Ferris, Newell, McCan, Collier, Cusack, Burke, McDer-
mott, McGuire, Lynch, McGawley,
344 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
and "Remember Or" was the watchword which stirred the
blood of many a lukewarm United Irishman.
The conduct of the troops and of the government had at
length become the subject of discussion on the other side of
the Channel; and Pitt was attacked in both Houses. The
opposition were so weak that they were defeated by heavy
majorities; but in December, 1796, Lord Carhampton was,
nevertheless, deprived of the command of the army, and was
succeeded by Sir Ralph Abercromby. Sir Ralph found the
condition of the troops desperate. They had been scattered
in small parties about the country, at the first panic cry of the
gentry for protection. They had been billeted upon private
houses, and permitted to live in complete license upon the
people, and expressly ordered to act in their own discretion
without waiting for the directions of the civil authorities. The
result was a total absence of discipline. "Within less than two
months," writes Abercromby, " a private man has thrown a
chair at the colonel of his regiment, when sent for to be rep-
rimanded. Houses have been burned, men murdered, others
half-hanged. A young lady has been carried off by a detach-
ment of dragoons; and, in the room where she was, an officer
was shot through the thigh, and a blunderbuss snapped at an-
other gentleman's head. These are but a few of the enormities
which have disgraced us of late: were the whole to be collected,
what a picture would it present! . . . Within these twelve
months every crime, every cruelty, that could be committed by
Cossacks or Calmucks has been committed here. . . . The way
in which the troops have been employed would ruin the best
in Europe." The new commander-in-chief was determined to
make an end of this discreditable condition of tilings. He at
once proceeded to draw the soldiers together into the garrison
towns; and he "flattered himself that the effect would be to
force the gentlemen to exert themselves, and to trust to the
yeomanry," of which there were thirty-five thousand, raised for
the express purpose of protecting the country.
On February the 26th, he issued the following order: "The
very disgraceful frequency of courts-martial, and the many
complaints of irregularities in the conduct of the troops in this
THE TRIUMPH OF COERCION.
345
kingdom, having too unfortunately proved the army to be in a
state of licentiousness which must render it formidable to every
one but the enemy, the commander-in-chief thinks it necessary
to demand from all generals commanding districts and brigades,
as well as commanding officers of regiments, that they exert
for themselves, and compel from all officers under their com-
mand, the strictest and most unremitting attention to discipline,
good order, and conduct of their men, such as may restore the
high and distinguished reputation which the British troops
have been accustomed to enjoy in every part of the world. It
becomes necessary to recur, and most pointedly to attend, to the
standing orders of the kingdom, tvhich, at the same time that
they direct military assistance to be given at the requisition of
the civil magistrate, positively forbid the troops to act (but in
case of attack) without his presence and authority; and the
most positive orders are to be given to the officers command-
ing the party for this purpose."
The Ascendency party, the stern fanatic Clare, the grasping
Beresford, the affrighted Foster, the supple sycophant Cooke,
the mercenary Archbishop Agar, the ribald heartless Toler,
were furious at the issue of this order. They had clamored
for martial law, and were enjoying the free exercise of its
privileges; they were recklessly driving the disaffected into
open revolt, in order that they might have the excuse for
crushing them effectually. John Beresford had said, in the
House of Commons, that "he wished they were in rebellion to
meet them face to face." Lord Camden afterwards admitted,
in the English House of Lords, that "the measures of the gov-
ernment caused the rebellion to break out sooner than it other-
wise would." Foster threatened to bring the obnoxious order
before the House and impeach the general. The viceroy was
a weak man, who was entirely in the hands of "the junto."
Alternately worked upon by their insisting violence and in-
fluenced by Abercromby's strong common-sense, he endeavored
to induce the general to recall the order. "The struggle was,"
as Sir Ealph writes to his son, " in the first place whether I was
to have the command of the army really or nominally, and then
whether the character and discipline of it were to be degraded
15*
346
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
and rained in the mode of using it, either from the facility of
one man or from the violence and oppression of a set of men
who have for more than twelve months employed it in meas-
ures which they durst not avow or sanction."
The Ascendency carried their point, and Abercromby re-
signed. "Lord Camden," he writes, " has betrayed the situa-
tion of the commander-in-chief; has thrown the army into the
hands of a faction and made it a tool under their direction."
General Lake took the command from him on the 25th of
April. Lord Camden's government had it all their own way.
The old system of free quarters was continued; Leinster was
dragooned like Ulster; the houses of the peasantry were burn-
ing in all directions. In Carlow, in Kildare, in Wicklow, their
owners were chased away and shot down by the soldiers; and
men were flogged and "picketed" at the whim of any magis-
trate or officer, in order to compel them to discover concealed
arms. No man was safe; shopkeeper and artisan equally had
their backs cut to the bone; farmer and laborer were equally
tortured on the pointed stake. The United Irishmen were be-
lieved to have cut their hair short for distinction's sake; and
when the soldiers found a "croppy," as they called him, they
smeared his head with pitch and crowned him with a cap of
strong brown paper, which could not be removed without lacer-
ating the scalp. To wear green, the national color, even if
the wearer was a lady, was a certain means of insuring insult
and outrage. The soldiers acted upon bare suspicion, and the
information of every idle tell-tale, often prompted by malice or
private spite. The innocent were tortured with the guilty. One
of the most notable instances was that of an unfortunate gen-
tleman named Bernard Wright, who received five hundred
lashes at Clonmel, from Judkin Fitzgerald, the Sheriff of Tip-
perary, for which he afterwards recovered £500 damages in an
action of assault and battery. One of the nationalist news-
papers published the following "Receipt to make a rebel:"
"Take a loyal subject, uninfluenced by title, place, or pension;
burn his house over his head; let the soldiery exercise every
species of insult and barbarity towards his helpless family, and
march away with the plunder of every part of his property
THE TRIUMPH OF COERCION.
347
they choose to save from the flames." It is only too certain
that numbers of decent peasants and farmers, who had never
troubled themselves with politics, were driven into the ranks
of the United Irishmen by the ferocity of the authorities.
348
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE ABORTIVE LOCAL RISINGS. A.D. 1798.
The government, well informed of every step taken by the
conspirators, at length considered the time was come for ex-
ploding the plot. Arthur O'Connor, who had been released on
bail, was rearrested at Margate, on his way to Hamburg. Tee-
ling, Tennant, Lowry, Lewines, and many others had fled to
Paris when the Leinster delegates hung back from insurrection
in the autumn. Oliver Bond, Samuel Neilson, and Lord Ed-
ward Fitzgerald wrere now the chief of the executive committee.
Twice disappointed in the hopes of foreign aid, even Lord Ed-
ward was persuaded by the more ardent spirits to resort to an
independent rising. There was still a fair supply of arms and
ammunition concealed about the country; and there were the
government stores at Athlone, which perhaps could be seized
by a coup de main. The number of regular troops was not
considerable. The militia, of which there was a strong force,
was demoralized by being permitted to live at free quarters
upon the country, and was the reverse of formidable. Besides,
many (some in almost every regiment, both men and officers)
were members of the society, and were ready to desert upon
the first show of success.
Neilson was a man of enormous size and strength. He had
his suspicions of Reynolds, the government spy. One day he
met him in Dublin, and, dragging him into a dark entry off
Thomas Street, pinned him to the wall, and said, "Reynolds,
what punishment do you think should be inflicted on a villain
who would betray you?" Cool and unabashed, the traitor re-
plied, "Bring me to the atrocious villain, and with this hand I
will blow his brains out." Neilson let him go. Reynolds felt
that the time was come to destroy his victims. On March 12,
a few days later, there was to be a meeting of the Leinster
THE ABORTIVE LOCAL RISINGS.
349
executive committee at Oliver Bond's house. Reynolds put
the government on the track, and told them the password for
the day. A magistrate and a party of men gave the word and
entered the house. Bond and the thirteen delegates were ar-
rested, and their papers seized. Shortly afterwards Thomas
Addis Emmet, Sampson, a barrister, and Dr. McNevin were also
apprehended. Fitzgerald, whose name was in the warrant, was
on his way to Bond's house, but was warned in time and con-
cealed himself in the city.
This blow to the executive greatly disconcerted the conspira-
tors. The places of the arrested leaders, however, were at once
filled up; and Neilson and two brothers of the name of
Sheares, both members of the bar, became the leading spirits
of the directory. The desperate measure of an insurrection
was now determined on, and Lord Edward lay concealed in
Dublin from March 12 to May 19, concerting a scheme for
a general rising. Delegates from the disaffected in almost every
militia regiment met early in May to confer upon a plan of
action. It was arranged that on May 23 all the outward mails
from Dublin should be stopped. The rebel forces from Wick-
low, Kildare, and Dublin should surprise the camp at JLough-
linstown and the artillery at Chapelizod, and then march on
Dublin and seize the lord-lieutenant and the members of the
privy council. Captain Armstrong of the King's County mili-
tia, government informer, laid full information of every detail
before the government. A reward of £1000 was offered for
Lord Edward's apprehension, and every effort was made to
effect his capture.
Four days before the preconcerted date of the rising, infor-
mation was conveyed to the government by one Francis Higgins,
the editor of the Freeman's Journal, that Fitzgerald was hiding
at the house of a feather-merchant named Murphy, in Thomas
Street. Town Majors Swan and Sirr, with Captain Ryan and a
guard of soldiers, surrounded and searched the house. Lord
Edward, who was resting on his bed, sprang to his feet when
his room was entered. He was armed with a long dagger, and
fought like a wild-cat. After a desperate struggle, he was shot
in the shoulder and overpowered, and quickly lodged in New-
350
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
gate. His wound was then attended to, and lie was going on
well; but, learning that Ryan, whom he had stabbed in the
belly, had subsequently died, lie tore off his bandages and sank
into a state of despondency from which he never rallied. He
breathed his last on June 4. His aunt, Lady Louisa Conolly,
and his brother Lord Henry were the only two of his relations
whom the government permitted him to see before his death.
His wife was ordered by the privy council into England. She
never saw him after that night he stole in woman's clothes to
visit her while he lay concealed in Dublin. The two Sheares
and a bookseller named Byrne were, on Armstrong's informa-
tion, arrested within two days of Lord Edward's capture; and
Neilson was seized by the jailer of Newgate in the act of re-
connoitring the prison.
The arrest of the executive committee by the government
was a staggering blow at the head and brain of the conspiracy.
It deprived the disaffected of its educated leaders, especially of
the only one who had any military experience, just at the very
moment when the fire was about to burst out. At the same
time, all the preliminaries had been so carefully arranged that
the contemplated rising took place in several counties. The
signal for the outbreak in each quarter was the non-appearance
of the daily mail-coaches on the morning of May 24. Bodies
of the United Irish were then to attack the scattered companies
of soldiers and yeomanry, each in the town or village where
they were quartered, and, having disposed of them, to concen-
trate their forces on Dublin, in which city were great numbers
of their friends ready to rise and co-operate with them.
The Belfast northern mail was stopped and burned at Santry.
So was the western mail at Lucan. So was the southern mail
near Naas. So was the Limerick mail at Kildare. The system
which Abercromby had so vehemently condemned as fatal, of
scattering small parties of troops at free quarters in the small
towns, played into the hands of the insurgents, who rose and
assailed them simultaneously, and endeavored to cut them off
in detail. In Kildare, and the bordering portions of Meath
and Carlow, the scattered half-companies of soldiers and yeo-
manry were surprised and attacked. In some cases they were
THE ABORTIVE LOCAL RISINGS.
351
overpowered and killed; in others they drove off their assail-
ants and drew together into the stronger garrison towns. The
Loyalist inhabitants, who did not escape with the soldiers, were
many of them pat to death with great brutality. The rebels
possessed themselves of Dunboyne, Dunshaughlin, and Pros-
perous, at which latter place the barracks were set on fire, and
a detachment of the Cork militia and a party of the "Ancient
Britons" were burned or piked almost to a man. They also
took possession of Rathangan, Kildare, and Ballytore, and trie
village of Narraghmore, at all which places their course was
marked with bloodshed and acts of cruelty. Bands of many
thousands, armed with pikes and a few guns and pistols, trav-
ersed the country for several days, skirmishing with small
parties of the king's troops, and burning the houses of the
Loyalists. General, however, as the attack had been, the soldiers
soon steadied themselves; the disorderly, half-armed rabble,
without competent leaders or any plan of action, gave way
everywhere before the steady fire of a handful of disciplined
men. Naas was held, and so was Carlow; the rebels being
driven off with great slaughter. The country-houses of the
gentry were in most cases successfully defended by their owners
and the few servants who remained faithful to. them. General
Dundas and General Campbell gradually reoccupied the towns
seized by the rebels, large bodies of whom surrendered their
arms and returned quietly to their homes. Some four thousand
who endeavored to hold the ancient earthworks of the hill of
Tara were dislodged by Captain Preston and Lord Fingal, with,
two hundred fencibles and two hundred yeomanry. They fled,
with a loss of four hundred men, and dispersed. Before the
week was out the risings in these counties were completely
quelled, with the exception of a few depredators who took
refuge in the Wicklow mountains and the bog of Allen.
In Dublin the prompt measures of the government, who at
once proclaimed martial law and enrolled the loyal citizens for
the defence of the city, prevented any outbreak from taking-
place. The non-arrival of the insurgents from the surrounding
districts, and the arrest of their leaders, paralyzed the action of
the disaffected. Dublin was full of United Irishmen, who were
352
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
ready to rise had the opportunity been given. There were
great quantities of concealed arms ready for use, and a plot was
detected among the lamplighters to leave the city in darkness
on the night of the intended outbreak. The men of San try,
who were to have marched on Dublin from the north, and had
assembled for that purpose, were cut to pieces by Lord Roden
and a party of dragoons: the prisoners taken, and some of the
guilty lamplighters, were hung from the lamp-irons and the
bridges.
In the north, where the United Irishmen were best organ-
ized, and where the most serious resistance was expected, the
few scattered risings which occurred were soon disposed of.
Partly from religious jealousies which had arisen between the
Protestants of the north and the Roman Catholics of the south,
and partly from a general feeling of the hopelessness of an at-
tempt without the support of a French army, several days
elapsed after the appointed day had arrived before any disturb-
ance took place. At length, on June 7, a carefully concerted
attack was made on the town of Antrim, led by Henry Joy
McCracken. General Nugent, who was in command at Belfast,
had received information of what was going to happen, and
had despatched, for the protection of the town, the 64th
Regiment, some companies of militia, 150 of the 22d Light
Dragoons, two six-pounders, and two howitzers. After a fierce
battle in the main street of the town, the insurgents were beaten
off and retired to Donagore Hill, where, finding that the rising
in Deny had been prevented by General Knox's precautions,
they all gave up their arms and dispersed to their homes.
About the same time a large body of rebels collected near Saint-
field, in County Down, under Henry Munro of Lisburn, and
established a camp on rising ground near Ballinahinch. Here
they maintained themselves for two or three days, until, by a
joint movement of Nugent from Belfast and Barber from Down-
patrick, they were, after some severe fighting, driven from their
position and scattered. With the exception of one or two in-
significant attempts in other parts of Down and Antrim, no
further mischief occurred in Ulster. The rising did not last a
week, and there were no outrages committed.
THE ABORTIVE LOCAL RISINGS.
353
The risings in the south and in the north were very differ-
ent in character. The misguided people who had proceeded
to camp out at Ballinahinch were principally respectable small
farmers, and artisans and clerks from the neighboring towns.
They were all dressed in their Sunday clothes, and appear to
have conducted themselves very respectably. In Meath, Kil-
dare, and Carlow, the outbreak at once assumed a religious
shape. The bands of insurgents were largely composed of the
lawless Defenders, who had already been scouring the country
for months; and these were joined by the disaffected Roman
Catholics in the town and surrounding country. The Orange
Yeomanry Corps had been at free quarters in all the villages
for weeks; and Orangeman, Protestant, and heretic were con-
vertible terms. Accordingly, during the six or seven days dur-
ing which these districts were at the mercy of the rebels, the
harmless Protestant inhabitants who dwelt therein were set
upon, and numbers of them were murdered. It is, however,
noticeable that neither in this part of the country, nor in Wex-
ford, where the rising was really of a formidable character,
were the insurgents guilty of the crime of rape in addition to
the crime of homicide. It is also noticeable that the militia
regiments, who were largely composed of Roman Catholics,
though there were many individual desertions, as a body re-
mained thoroughly loyal.
354
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER XX.
THE IRISH JACQUERIE. A.D. 1798.
The rising in Wexford was a far more serious matter. For
the best part of a month the whole country was in the hands
of "The United Army of Wexford," and there was a terrible
destruction both of life and property.
Wexford was the last county which was converted by the
United Irishmen. Its population wTas one of the most indus-
trious and contented in Ireland. Many English families were
settled in it. Few were absentees. There was a general good-
feeling between the landlords and the tenantry. It was, ac-
cordingly, slow to listen to the teaching of the society. Will-
iam Putnam McCabe went on a missionary tour through the
country in the early part of 1798, traversing the country in
various disguises, and preaching the gospel of the United Irish-
men. The reports coming from the neighboring counties of
the cruelties of the Orange yeomanry, and the sight of batches
of men condemned untried to transportation, passing daily
through the country to Duncannon fort, created a spirit of dis-
affection, and many joined the society and some bought pikes.
But, according to the returns discovered among the papers of
the United Irish, Wexford was never " organized."
At length the dragooning came home to the people them-
selves. Wexford was proclaimed. The North Cork militia
were quartered in the principal towns, and the whole country
was delivered over to the yeomanry. Ross, Gorey, Carnew,
Enniscorthy, became the headquarters of lynch-law. The mag-
istrates ordered the seizure, imprisonment, and flogging of per-
sons suspected of possessing arms. Houses were burned,
"croppies" were pitch-capped, and peasants were shot on the
roads and at work in the fields. So great was the terror of
the country-folk, and so general the belief that the Orangemen
THE IRISH JACQUERIE.
355
were bent on their extermination, that they forsook their homes
in the night, and slept in the ditches.
Anthony Perry—who was afterwards one of the chief of the
rebel leaders, and hanged at Edenderry, in the King's County
—is an instance of the way in which the people of Wexford
were driven to exasperation. He was a Protestant gentleman
of property, and, having listened to the United Irish, had been
thrown into prison at Gorey on suspicion. He seems to have
repented his misconduct, and to have given the government
valuable information, but was treated in prison with the ut-
most brutality. Among other acts of severity, a sergeant of
the North Cork militia—nicknamed, from his inventive cruelty,
"Torn the Devil"—cut away all his hair quite close to the
head, and, having rubbed gunpowder well into the stubble,
burned out all the roots of it with a candle. Upon being let
out of jail on the eve of the rising,he found the yeomanry had
sacked his house; and, burning with indignation, he immedi-
ately joined the rebels. Joseph Holt's was a similar case. He
was a respectable farmer in South Wicklow, on the borders of
Wexford, and was "woodranger, salcsmaster, and general man-
ager" to several gentlemen of property in the country. He
took no interest in politics, and had no connection with the
United Irishmen. He had, however, given offence to a neigh-
bor by pressing him for a debt; and this person, out of spite,
gave information to a company of the Fermanagh militia,
who were billeted upon the neighborhood, that Holt was a
"sworn man.". Holt, on coming back from his day's work,
found his house a smoking ruin, his effects pillaged, and his
wife and family turned into the ditch. He himself fled for
his life into the Wicklow mountains, and, in the outbreak which
shortly followed, became the desperate leader of a band of in-
surgents.
On May 27, three days after the risings in the neighbor-
ing counties, two large bodies of men and women, many thou-
sands in number, assembled in arms on the hills of Oulart and
Rilthomas. Those at the latter place were attacked by two
or three hundred of the troops stationed at Carnew, and put
to flight with a loss of 150 killed. Those on the hill of Oulart,
356
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
who were led by Father John Murphy, a priest whose chapel
had recently been burned down, were attacked by 110 men of
the North Cork militia from Wexford. The latter were de-
stroyed almost to a man, and the victorious rebels at once
marched on Ferns. There they burned the bishop's palace,
and on the next morning they hurried on to Enniscorthy.
Their numbers were now swelled to about seven thousand.
They made their attack, driving on before them great herds of
half - maddened oxen. Their friends in the town set fire to
the thatched roofs of the houses, and, after some desperate
fighting upon the bridge and in the streets, the little garrison,
with most of the Protestant population, fled unpursued to
Wexford.
Wexford was thrown into great consternation. There were
three or four hundred men there of the North Cork militia
and some of the Wexford yeomanry. A party of Donegal
militia, under Colonel Maxwell, arrived with two guns from
Duncannon fort; and General Fawcett was expected to follow
with fresh reinforcements. Large bodies of the rebels, how-
ever, had advanced to intercept him, and he was compelled to
.retire. The insubordinate North Cork militia, finding that
there was no hope of assistance from this quarter, evacuated
the town and fled to Duncannon. Great numbers of the in-
habitants of Wexford sympathized with the rebels. The Ro-
man Catholic members of the yeomanry deserted. Captain
Cornock and the rest of that body hastened after the North
Cork militia; and Colonel Maxwell and the Donegal militia
followed his example. Deserted by their defenders, the citi-
zens had no course but to admit the insurgents without resist-
ance.
The rebels, on entering the town, released Bagenal Harvey
of Barrycastle—a Protestant gentleman of advanced opinions,
who had been arrested by the government, and imprisoned on
suspicion—and elected him to be their general. Wexford was
the scene of drunken riot, and houses which were not decorated
with green were plundered. Harvey, alarmed for the safety
of the citizens, drew the bulk of his men out of the town as
soon as he was able, to the camp which Father John had formed
THE IRISH JACQUERIE.
357
near Enniscorthy, on Vinegar Hill; and a sort of provisional
government was erected in Wexford.
In the meantime the insurgent bands had overrun the whole
county; and every town and village was in their hands, with
the exception of the fort of Duncannon and the town of New
Ross. The latter was a place of great importance, as it com-
manded the bridge over the Barrow, and the road into the
County of Kilkenny. Harvey determined to attack it at once;
and moved the main body of his men to Carrickbyrne Moun-
tain. On Ross being threatened, all the available troops had
been concentrated there. Companies of three Irish militia
regiments and of the Midlothian fencibles, with a detachment
of English artillery, formed a garrison of about 1350 men.
The insurgents approached the town thirty thousand strong,
and sent a summons to surrender by a man with a white flag,
who was immediately shot by the Loyalists. A desperate con-
flict began. The town was taken and retaken; and, after ten
hours' fighting, the rebels withdrew with a loss of three thou-
sand men and fourteen swivel guns and four cannons, which
they had brought from Wexford. A horrible episode then
followed. When the rebel army was beginning to give way
at New Ross, one of the fugitives arrived at Scullabogue, a mile
and a half from the camp at Carrickbyrne, where a number of
Royalists and Protestants had been collected from the country
round, and imprisoned in the house of a Captain King and in
an adjoining barn. The miscreant who had run away from
the battle gave a pretended order from Harvey to put the pris-
oners to death, because, he said, the soldiers were massacring
the rebel fugitives. He was followed by others who swore to
the same tale. The party in charge of the prisoners thereupon
gave way, and shot or piked thirty-seven of those who were
confined in the house, and then set the barn on fire, crowded
as it was with 184 persons, all of whom were suffocated or
perished in the flames. When Harvey denounced this horri-
ble crime, the insurgents, who were wholly beyond his control,
grew threatening, and accused him of being the cause of the
disaster at New Ross; and, fearing for his life, he retired to
Wexford, where he became president of the rebel government.
358
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
They then chose as their leader Father Philip Roche, a man
of great stature and boisterous manners, who was able to keep
them a little in hand.
In the meantime the government had despatched troops
from Dublin to the disaffected districts. Colonel Lestrange
was at Newtown Barry to cover North Carlow and Kildare;
General Loftus had reinforced the Arklow garrison with 250
men; and Colonel Walpole was advancing from Kilcullen be-
tween Lestrange and Loftus. One division of the insurgents
had sacked Gorey, and were threatening Arklow, to which the
loyal inhabitants of the northern part of Wexford had escaped.
They were commanded by Father John, and were encamped
on Bally more Hill. Lestrange was attacked by a body of reb-
els from Vinegar Hill at Newtown Barry, and beat off his as-
sailants. Walpole, who imprudently employed no scouts, had
with fatal want of caution pushed on past Gorey. The rebels
from Bally more Hill had lined the hedges of the road by which
he was proceeding, and opened a murderous fire upon him.
He was himself killed, with one hundred of his men; and the
wreck of his detachment, leaving three guns behind them, fled
through the town of Gorey back to Arklow. Loftus had ad-
vanced in a parallel line, and arrived at a point to the south
of Ballymore Hill, when he became aware of the catastrophe,
and, finding himself too weak to encounter the rebel army, beat
across the country to Carnew, and fell back from thence to
Tullow and the County of Carlow.
If the insurgents had immediately advanced by the coast
into Wicklow, Arklow must have fallen, and the road would
have lain open to Dublin. Such was the panic in the capital
that Lady Camden and many other ladies with their families
made ready to embark for England at a moment's notice. Fa-
ther John was, however, satisfied with his success, and occupied
himself in plundering the country from the 4th to the 9th of
June. And in the meantime the garrison at Arklow had been
reinforced by General Needham with about sixteen hundred
men, including a Cavan regiment of militia, and a regiment of
Durham fencibles under Colonel Skirrett. On the 9th of June
the rebels advanced. There were thirty thousand of them—
THE IRISH JACQUERIE.
359
five thousand armed with muskets, the rest with pikes; and
they had the three guns taken from Colonel Walpole. The
attack was made in two immense columns. They fought with
the utmost bravery. At one time the position of the king's
troops was so critical that Needham would have evacuated the
town but for Skirrett's firm opposition. At length, at eight
o'clock in the evening, the rebel captain, Father Michael Mur-
phy, who was believed by his credulous followers to be invul-
nerable, was killed by a cannon-ball, and the rebels sullenly
withdrew, and retired in the dusk of the evening upon Gorey.
The gallant defence of New Ross and Arklow saved the
County of Kilkenny from a rising, and confined the operations
of the insurgents to the County of Wexford. From this time
forward the rebels restricted themselves to scouring the country
for provisions, and living a free and easy life in their two prin-
cipal camps—at the Hill of Lacken, near Ross, and Vinegar
Hill, near Enniscorthy. , The latter camp was under the com-
mand of Father John Murphy, and was filled with a motley
crowd of men and women wholly without discipline or subordi-
nation. There were not merely the lowest and most ignorant
of the peasantry, but traders, farmers, and shopkeepers, Roman
Catholic priests and gentry. In a windmill at the top of the
hill were crowded such Protestant prisoners as were from time
to time brought in, who, after a sham court-martial, were day
by day put to death. Not less than four hundred are said to
have been murdered in this fashion. The camp at Lacken was
more orderly, and free from executions. Father Roche was in
command there, who was not a bloodthirsty man. He did his
best to prevent his men from committing outrages, and fre-
quently interfered personally on behalf of prisoners.
At length the government-—reinforced from England with
a force of eight thousand men, including two thousand of the
guards, who were landed at Waterford, and one thousand
cavalry—considered itself strong enough to undertake the sup-
pression of the Wexford rising. The plan of operations was
to surround the rebels at Vinegar Hill. The effective force
which was to be employed consisted of fifteen thousand men,
advancing in four divisions. Loftus marching from Tullow,
360
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
Dimdas from Naas, and Sir James Duff from Newtown Barry,
effected a junction at Searawalsh, a place to the south of Ferns,
where there was a bridge over the Slaney, and thence made for
Enniscorthy in two divisions, one on each bank of the river.
Generals Johnston and Eustace advanced from New Ross, and
marched on the rebel camp at Lacken Hill. But Roche had
drawn off his men in good order, and retired on Wexford.
They then closed in on Enniscorthy, while General Needham,
starting from Arklow with the fourth division, had reached the
hill of Oulart, with orders to advance and cut off the retreat of
the insurgents on the Wexford side. General Lake accompanied
Dundas as commander-in-chief.
The attack began on the 21st of June. The rebels were
fourteen thousand strong, and had with them fourteen guns,
but they were very short of ammunition. They were driven
out of Enniscorthy by Johnston, and retreated to the hill, which
they defended with desperate courage. At length, after an
hour and a half s fighting, Needhain not having come up in
time from Oulart, and the road to the south being therefore
open, they abandoned the hill and fled to Wexford. "The
carnage was dreadful," wrote General Lake to Castlereagh;
"the determination of the troops to destroy every one they
think a rebel is beyond description."
In the meantime, at Wexford a horrible tragedy was being
committed. Part of Lake's plan was that General Moore
should simultaneously advance from the Waterford side upon
the town of Wexford. Moore followed his orders, and reached
Goff's Bridge, where he was encountered by Father Roche and
all the fighting-men of Wexford, who had come out to bar his
passage, and who had conceived the daring plan of doubling
back, after inflicting a defeat on Moore, upon New Ross, and
capturing the town in Johnston's absence. The battle com-
menced in the afternoon of the 20th. The rebels fought with
great steadiness and courage, and only fell back when their
powder was expended; and Roche then retired to the strong
position of Three Rocks, a short distance from the town.
While the rebel army with its best officers was outside the
walls, Dixon, a skipper in the merchant service, who had before
THE IRISH JACQUERIE.
361
been with difficulty restrained from committing atrocities on
the Protestant inhabitants, gathered a band of ruffians and got
possession of the town and prison. He dragged a number of
unfortunate Protestants, who had been confined there, to the
bridge, where he held a mock court-martial, and then put them to
death one by one, and flung their bodies into the river. Ninety-
seven had perished, when he was induced to desist by a priest
named Father Corrin, who insisted, at the risk of his own life,
that the butchery should cease. News of the beleaguering of
Vinegar Hill and the defeat at GofFs Bridge was now brought
in, and the surviving captives were hurried back to prison.
Next day the fugitive army passed through the town and fled
to the north, and the evacuated city was shortly afterwards
occupied by General Moore.
The various bodies of rebels dispersed rapidly about the
country. Some found a refuge in the Wicklow mountains,
where a few predatory bands had already established them-
selves. Others broke into Kilkenny, and were cut to pieces by
Sir Charles Asgill. Others pushed northward into Meath and
Louth, and were finally destroyed at Swords, while attempting
to cut their way back to the protection of the hill country in
Wicklow. They played the part of a dangerous and destruc-
tive banditti for a few weeks; so that order was not finally
restored in the disturbed counties till the end of July.
16
362
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER XXL
.TRAMPLING OUT THE FIRE. A.D. ±798.
The neck of the insurrection was broken by the capture of
Vinegar Hill and the recovery of Wexford, and then ensued a
reign of terror of the most merciless character. The brutality
of the militia and yeomanry had been bad enough before the
outbreak: now that the rising was crushed, their ferocity knew
no bounds. The rebels had slaughtered Protestants who re-
fused to be baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, and
burned their houses, in the brief hour of triumph which they
had enjoyed. The Protestants, when their turn came, showed
less mercy and exacted a more terrible retribution. When the
rebels had fled from Vinegar Hill, their hospital at Enniscorthy
was burned, and the wounded shot as they lay there in their
beds. The same scene was repeated at Wexford. The soldiers,
especially a regiment of imported Hessians, scoured the country,
shooting all whom they came across, outraging women, de-
stroying the Roman Catholic chapels, and completing the
general desolation by burning and plundering the remaining
homesteads. Loyalist and rebel suffered alike indiscriminatelj'",
without even the benefit of a court-martial. There was no stay
to inquire whether the victim were friend or foe. It was
enough that he was found at large in the disaffected county.
In the towns courts-martial were held, and executions quickly
followed. Too often the innocent suffered with the guilty.
The local magistrates, who had fled before the storm, returned
to resume the old coercive system, and to wreak their ven-
geance upon the inhabitants.
General Lake remained for a few days in Wexford to start
the execution of martial law, and then left for Dublin, leaving
General Hunter to finish the work. The executions took place
upon the bridge where Dixon and his myrmidons had mas-
TRAMPLING OUT THE FIRE.
363
sacred the prisoners. There Father Roche was hanged, with
John Hay and Matthew Keogh alongside of him. So was
Kelly, the leader of the rebel column which had penetrated
into New Ross on the day of the battle. So was Bagenal Har-
vey, too late regretting the stirring of the fire which he had
been unable to control. So was Colclough, another gentleman
of considerable fortune, who had been confined with Harvey
just before the outbreak, and whose only crime was that, having
by the persecution of the government become an object of in-
terest with the rebels, he was unable to escape from the dis-
affected country, and compelled by his unwelcome admirers to
take a command in "\Vexford. Cornelius Grogan, a timid old
gentleman, and the owner of an estate worth £8000 a year,
who had been compelled for his own safety to act as commis-
sary to their forces, was hanged with Bagenal Harvey. Father
John, the rebel chief, had escaped with the roving bands which
had broken into Kilkenny. He was caught and hanged at
Tullow. Father Redmond, a harmless priest, who seems to
have been wholly innocent of any connection with the insur-
gents, was put to death at Gorey. To be a priest was proof
of guilt.
In Dublin the disaffected were terrified by the reckless use
of the lash. The suspected were flogged under the direction
of John Claudius Beresford, in the riding-house in Marlborough
Street, where his corps of yeomanry assembled for parade; and
in the prison at the royal barracks, by command of Major
Sandys. The triangles were set up in the Royal Exchange,
which had been converted into a military depot, and was the
headquarters of the yeomanry; and even at the entrance of
Upper Castle Yard. Judkin Fitzgerald, the Sheriff of Tipperary,
continued his indiscriminate floggings, careless whether his
victims were innocent or guilty. A wretched man, named
O'Brien, cut his throat to avoid the sheriff's cat-o'-nine-tails.
One of Fitzgerald's own captains of yeomanry gave his evi-
dence in an action afterwards brought against the sheriff by a
man whom he had flogged, named Wells; and said that "he
had feared that, owing to Fitzgerald's conduct, the yeomen
would not bear arms, and that his cruelty exercised in inflicting
364 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
the torture would infuse a spirit of rebellion even into the most
loyal." The authorities deliberately shut their eyes to these
proceedings. Fitzgerald himself produced a letter in his de-
fence, from Brigade-Major Bagwell, dated June 6,1798, saying
that "if he found any good to arise from flogging he might
go on with it, but let it not reach his ears" Fitzgerald was
afterwards rewarded by the government for his services with a
baronetcy, and the damages recovered against him by Bernard
Wright, amounting to £500, were reimbursed to him out of
the public treasury.
In the meantime, public opinion had shown itself so hostile
to Lord Camden's government that Pitt, though he had stead-
ily supported him all along, found it necessary to sacrifice him
and to adopt a policy of greater moderation. Camden was re-
called, and Lord Cornwall is was sent to replace him and to
supersede Lake, combining in his own person the offices both
of viceroy and commander-in-chief. Lord Castlereagh, once a
delegate at the volunteer convention, and late member of the
opposition loud in demanding reform, whose father had in
1797 married Lord Camden's sister, and who had thereupon
been appointed keeper of the privy seal, had been for some
weeks performing Mr. Pelham's duties, during the illness of the
latter. By the new viceroy's desire, he continued to act, and
in the following November, on Pelham's retirement, he was
promoted to the post of chief secretary. This remarkable
young man had just completed his twenty-ninth year.
Lord Cornwallis arrived in Dublin on the 20th of June—the
day before the capture of Vinegar Hill. The new viceroy was
well aware of the difficulties of his position. He had refused
the viceroyalty on Lord Fitzwilliam's resignation, and it was
only at the earnest request of Mr. Pitt, and from a strong sense
of duty, that he agreed to accept an office which he described
as " coming up to his idea of misery." On his arrival at the
Castle he was shocked at the sanguinary spirit with which he
found the Ascendency imbued. "The principal persons of
this country," he writes, "and the members of both Houses of
Parliament are, in general, averse to all acts of clemency, . . .
and would pursue measures that could only terminate in the
TRAMPLING OUT THE FIRE.
365
extermination of the greater number of the inhabitants, and in
the utter destruction of the country. The words Papists and
Priests are forever in their mouths, and by their unaccountable
policy would drive four fifths of the community into irrecon-
cilable rebellion." He says, on July 13, in reference to the
depredations of the roving bands of rebels, "Our war is re-
duced to a predatory system in the mountains of Wicldow and
the bogs of Kildare." And then he adds, "The numbers in
each quarter are very small. They have very few arms, and,
except as a band of cruel robbers, house-burners, and murder-
ers, are very contemptible. Their importance, however, is pur-
posely exaggerated by those who wish to urge the government
to the continuance of violent measures.''
In speaking of the reckless refusal of quarter by the troops,
lie says, " I am sure that a very small proportion of them [the
rebels] only could be killed in battle, and I am much afraid
that any man with a brown coat who is found within several
miles of the field of action is butchered without discrimina-
tion." And on July 24 he writes to General Eoss: "The
whole country is in such a state that I feel frightened and
ashamed whenever I consider that I am looked upon as being
the head of it. Except in the instances of the six state-trials
that are going on here, there is no law either in town or coun-
try but martial law; and you know enough of that to see all
the horrors of it, even in the best administration of it. Judge,
then, how it must be conducted by Irishmen heated with pas-
sion and revenge. But all this is trifling compared to the
numberless murders that are hourly committed by our people
without any process of examination whatever. The yeomanry
are in the style of the Loyalists in America, only much more
numerous and powerful and a thousand times more ferocious.
These men have saved the country, but they now take the lead
in rapine and murder. The Irish militia with few officers, and
those generally of the worst kind, follow closely on the heels
of the yeomanry in murder and every kind of atrocity; and
the fencibles take a share, though much behind, with the others.
The feeble outrages, burnings, and murders which are still
committed by the rebels serve to keep up the sanguinary dis-
366
HISTORY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.
position on our side; and as long as they furnish a pretext for
our parties going in quest of them, I see no prospect of amend-
ment. The conversation of the principal persons of the coun-
try all tends to encourage the system of blood; and the conver-
sation even at my table, where you will suppose I do all I can
to prevent it, always turns on hanging, shooting, burning, etc.;
and if a priest has been put to death the greatest joy is ex-
pressed by the whole company. So much for Ireland, and my
wretched situation."
Corn wal lis's first act was a proclamation promising protec-
tion to all insurgents guilty of rebellion only, who should sur-
render their arms and take the Oath of Allegiance. And
shortly afterwards he carried an Amnesty Bill,* affecting all
persons except those then in custody, those guilty of murder,
those who had been officers in the Society of the United Irish-
men, deserters from the yeomanry and militia, and some thirty-
one Irish refugees, among whom were Tone, Tandy, Lewines,
Dixon, and McCann. The strictest discipline was enjoined
upon the officers, and a Highland regiment under Lord Hunt-
ley was sent to restore order in Wicklow, in place of the troops
who had lately been holding the country in terror. At first
the inhabitants fled at the approach of the soldiers, but the
men were sternly kept from marauding, and made to pay for
everything they required; and, with kind treatment and en-
couraging language from the officers, the people gradually re-
turned to their homes and sought eagerly for "protections."
One by one the leaders of the roving bands came in, and sur-
rendered on the terms offered—of a new start at the antipodes.
Aylmer, Luby, Ware, McCormick, and finally Joseph Holt and
his Wicklow following. And the country was reported to be
"full of people at work." The viceroy's firm but merciful
hand was appreciated. His manly sympathy for the suffering
country was received with gratitude; and as he passed along
the streets of Dublin the poor people would watch for his ap-
proach and murmur, "There he goes; God bless him!"
The next step was to deal with the state prisoners, nearly
* 38 Geo. III. c. 55.
TRAMPLING OUT THE FIRE.
367
one hundred in number. The two Sheares were tried and con-
victed on July 12. They were hanged on the 14th. McCann,
secretary to the Provisional Committee of Leinster, was tried
and convicted on the 17th. He was hanged on the 19th. Michael
Byrne, of Parkhill, a gentleman of some property in the County
of Wicklow, was tried and convicted on the 21st. Oliver Bond
was tried and convicted on the 23d. On the 24th sixty-four
of the remaining prisoners made a proposition to the govern-
ment, that if the lives of Byrne and Bond should be spared,
and their own punishment limited to banishment for life, they
would make a full confession. Byrne was hanged on the 28th,
but Bond was respited. The prisoners' proposal pleased Corn-
wall is and the cabinet. They were extremely doubtful of
being able to obtain convictions against the majority of the
prisoners. In the trials which had already taken place the
documentary evidence was overwhelming; but in a great many
cases they would have to rely on the evidence of informers,
and it was extremely difficult to induce the informers to go
into the box. A full confession would set at rest forever the
question of their guilt. Notwithstanding the howl from the
attorney-general and others of the Ascendency at the bare idea
of sparing a conspirator's life, the viceroy, supported by Lord
Clare, who saw the great value of an admission by them of
their offence, closed with the prisoners' offer. A memoir was
drawn up by O'Connor, Emmett, and McNevin, and signed by
them, tracing the whole history of the Society of United Irish-
men; and the same men were afterwards examined by a secret
committee of the House of Lords, and a report of their evi-
dence published. There were eighty-nine prisoners affected by
this compromise, but they were not all immediately released.
Twenty of the leading men were sent to Fort George, where
they were confined till the peace of Amiens. They were then
banished. Oliver Bond died in Newgate in September, 1798.
368
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE LAST FLICKER OF THE FLAME. A.D. 1798.
Just when Cornwallis's policy of pacification was beginning
to bear fruit, a fresli danger appeared in the west. The French
government, on learning that an insurrection had actually taken
place in Ireland, again turned their attention to a descent upon
the Irish coast. Hoche was dead, and Bonaparte's eyes were
fixed on Egypt, so that the Irish refugees had lately clamored
for assistance in vain. Now their expectations again were high.
General Humbert was at Rochelle with about a thousand men.
General Hardi was at Brest with some three thousand more.
Humbert was anxious for an opportunity to distinguish him-
self. He hastened to obey the orders of the Directory with
the small force at his command, leaving General Hardi to fol-
low as quickly as might be.
He embarked his troops towards the middle of August, with
a few guns and a considerable stand of arms. On August 22
he anchored in Killala Bay. Having got possession of Killala,
he was joined by many of the peasantry, who flocked to his
standard and received the arms which the French had brought
with them. Then, leaving two hundred men to hold the town,
he pushed on to Ball in a with about eight hundred French sol-
diers and a tumultuous rabble of his Irish allies. At the first
news of the appearance of the French, the viceroy had sent
Lake into the west. Lake had concentrated all the forces he
could collect at Castlebar. He had between three and four
thousand men with him, chiefly Irish militia, and several guns.
Humbert, notwithstanding the disparity of numbers, attacked
him on the 27th. After some desultory firing, the French
charged with the bayonet. The Galway volunteers and the
Kilkenny and Longford militia fled headlong. The position
was lost, and Lake retreated precipitately to Tuam, leaving his
THE LAST FLICKER OF THE FLAME.
369
guns behind him. There seems but little doubt that the two
militia regiments had been tampered with, and that their flight
was due to treachery. At any rate, considerable numbers of
both regiments appeared in the enemy's camp after the battle,
and joined the invading force.
Cornwallis was himself hurrying to the front with the troops
from Dublin, and had reached Kilbcggan when he received in-
telligence of the disaster at Castlebar. He at onqe advanced
to Athlone, which he found in a panic, and thence pushed on
and joined Lake at Tuam. He was shortly afterwards rein-
forced by two regiments of the line, and felt strong enough to
take the offensive. Humbert, meanwhile, with his handful of
troops had not ventured to penetrate any further into the coun-
try, and, having called up the garrison he had left at Killala,
moved eastward into Sligo, attended by an ever-increasing mul-
titude of half-armed peasants, in the hope that General Hardi
would soon arrive with his larger force. Lake followed him
in hot pursuit, while Cornwallis moved in a parallel direction
rather more to the south. Hearing that the people were " out"
in the County of Longford, Humbert crossed the Shannon at
Ballintra, and hurried on towards Granard. Lake was close
behind him, and Cornwallis, crossing the river at Carrick,
closed in upon him from the southwest. Humbert turned to
bay at Ballinamuck, and, finding himself surrounded by an army
of 20,000 men, surrendered at discretion. The insurgent peas-
antry immediately dispersed, pursued in all directions by the
soldiers, and slaughtered without mercy. Castlebar and Killala,
which were in the hands of the rebels under the command of
French officers, were shortly afterwards reoccupied by the royal
troops, not without some fighting at the latter place. Courts-
martial and executions followed, and a considerable harrying
of the surrounding country.
It is remarkable that in Connaught, where there had been no
free-quartering, no torture, and no pitch-caps, according to the
testimony of the Bishop of Killala, who was a prisoner in that
town during the French occupation, " not a drop of blood was
shed by the rebels except in the field of war;" and the poor
ignorant peasantry appear, according to the same authority, to
16*
370 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
have joined the French more for the sake of the smart uniforms
and the rations which were provided for them than from any
spirit of disaffection to the government.
There was yet one more scene before the drama of '98 was
closed. Hardi's expedition sailed from Brest on September
20th. It consisted of the Hoche (a seventy-four), eight frigates,
and a schooner. Tone, the indefatigable, was on board the
Hoche—no longer light-hearted and sanguine, but desperate
and desponding. The Hoche, two frigates, and the schooner
arrived outside Lough Swilly on October 10. On the fol-
lowing morning an English squadron under Admiral Warren
hove in sight, and bore down upon them. The frigates and
the schooner slipped away, and after a long chase the frigates
were captured. The Hoche for six hours fought four men-of-
war as big as herself, until, raked from stem to stern, she lay a
disabled wreck upon the water. Tone commanded one of the
batteries, fighting with desperation and courting death, but was
untouched by the leaden hail which swept around him. At
length the Frenchman struck and was carried into Lough
Swilly. The French officers, with Tone among them, Avere
hospitably entertained at Lord Cavan's. At his table Tone
was recognized by Sir George Hill, an old college friend, and
was sent in irons to Dublin.
A court-martial was held. General Loftus presided. Tone
pleaded his commission in the French army, but his plea was
not listened to. He begged that he might be shot like a sol-
dier, and not hanged like a dog; but his request was refused.
On the morning fixed for his execution, he cut his throat in
prison. The wound was not mortal. It was dressed; and he
was remorselessly ordered to the scaffold. In the meantime
Curran had moved in the King's Bench for a writ of habeas
corpus on the ground that, as the prisoner held no commission
in the English army, the court-martial had no jurisdiction to
try him while the courts were sitting in Dublin. The writ
was granted, and arrived in time to arrest the execution. The
real object of the application was gained, and Tone was al-
lowed to die a lingering death in prison.
THE SALE OF THE CONSTITUTION.
371
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE SALE OF THE CONSTITUTION. A.D. 1798-1799.
The condition of the country towards the end of 1798 was
deplorable. Trade was at a standstill. Credit was shattered.
The actual losses of the Loyalists who received compensation
from government, though no doubt there were many fraudu-
lent claims, amounted to £1,023,000, of which £515,000 was
claimed by the County of Wexford. The cost of the military
establishment had been enormous, the expenditure for the year
having been £4,815,367. The number of troops in the island
was prodigious—138,000 men, of whom over 56,000 were regu-
lars. The ordinary law was still superseded. The judges had
endeavored to resume their circuits, but the military authorities
refused to give up their prisoners, or send them into other
districts, still professedly under martial law. Writs of habeas
corjms were issued, but were treated with contempt, and the
whole island was still practically in a state of siege.
Pitt's heart had long been set upon a legislative union of the
kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The opportunity had
now come for its accomplishment. The scheme was propound-
ed. Lord Clare, under the pretence that he was going to drink
the waters at Harrowgate, hurried over to England to consult
with the cabinet, and wrote that Pitt, the chancellor, and the
Duke of Portland were of opinion that "a union only could
save" what he was pleased to call his "damnable country."
Edward Cooke published an anonymous pamphlet strongly up-
holding the proposal. The advocacy of the provincial papers
was carefully secured, we are not told by what means, and
Castlereagh began cautiously sounding the leading people in
Dublin.
Pitt and Cornwallis were anxious that the act of Union
should be accompanied by the emancipation of the Koman
372
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
Catholics, and desired " to make a union with the Irish nation
instead of making it with a partybut the Ascendency party,
led by Lord Clare, were wild at the suggestion, and this more
enlightened part of the plan was accordingly abandoned.
This did not, however, prevent the government from bidding
for the support of the Roman Catholics by leading them to
suppose that emancipation should immediately follow; and
their neutrality, if not their active assistance, wTas purchased by
holding out this representation to them, when it was discov-
ered that the Protestant party viewed the measure with abhor-
rence, and a counterpoise to their resistance was required.
In some parts of Ireland, particularly in the cities of Cork,
Limerick, and Gal way, the idea of a union was not unfavorably
received. In Dublin the opposition was very strong. Both the
merchant and shopkeeper class and the bar were exceedingly
hostile. Of the leading public men many were hanging back
to see how matters would develop. Some, however, even of
the regular supporters of the Castle, at once boldly denounced
the measure. Of these the most influential were Foster, the
speaker; Sir John Parnell, the chancellor of the exchequer; and
Fitzgerald, the prime-sergeant. The government struck heavily
where they were able, and the last two were promptly dismissed
from office. The viceroy had no intention of being governed
by the junto, lie had written to General Ross in August that
he had "totally set aside the Irish cabinet." Lord Clare alone
of the old set was acting with him, and Lord Castlereagh was
his right-hand man. These three were the real government of
Ireland; and it was their strong wills that carried out the policy
which Pitt had initiated.
The Irish Parliament met on January 22,1799. The speech
from the throne contained an ambiguous reference to the de-
sirability of a union. The opponents of the measure at once
took up the glove. Sir John Parnell spoke strongly against
the principle of a union. Ponsonby moved, as an amendment
to the address, "that the undoubted birthright of the people
of Ireland, a resident and independent legislature, should be
maintained." Sir Lawrence Parsons seconded the amendment;
Conolly, St. George, Daly, and the Knight of Kerry supported
THE SALE OF THE CONSTITUTION. 3*73
the government. Barrington (the notorious Sir Jonah) desert-
ed the Castle. Castlereagh defended the proposed measure,
and Plunket, in reply, made a bitter attack upon "the simple
and modest youth whose inexperience was the voucher of his
innocence." Frederick Trench, member for Maryborough,
spoke early in the evening, on the opposition side. He pres-
ently had an interview with Cooke in the lobby, and then,
alleging that he had misunderstood the meaning of Parnell's
motion, voted with the government. He was created Lord
Ashtown in December, 1800.
The debate was of singular vehemence, and lasted twenty-two
hours. On dividing, the numbers were equal, 106 in each list.
It was then discovered that Mr. Luke Fox, who had come into
Parliament as a member of the nationalist party, and had voted
with the opposition, had made terms with the government and
accepted the "escheatorship of Munster," an office resembling
the stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds in England, shortly
before the division, and his vote was disallowed. The govern-
ment accordingly had a majority of one. Such a division was,
however, in fact, a victory for the opposition; and, on the
report of the address, Sir Lawrence Parsons moved that the
objectionable paragraph should be expunged; and, after another
fierce battle, the government was beaten by five—109 voting
for Parsons's motion and 104 against it. Meanwhile in Eng-
land all was going on swimmingly. The scheme was broached
in both Houses, and hardly a voice was raised against it. In
the middle of February, Pitt carried eight resolutions in the
English Commons, which formed the skeleton of a bill for the
effecting of a union by 120 to 16.
Great was the exultation of the Anti-unionists at the results
of the first encounter in the Irish Commons, and great was
the rejoicing in Dublin. The government was thrown aback
for the present, but none the less was resolved to win. Pru-
dence, however, forbade the attempt to force the question
during the current session. The opposition was composed of
discordant elements, and might be broken up. It was greatly
reinforced in both Houses by the self-interest of those who
owned the multitude of condemned rotten boroughs, which had
374
HIST0R5T OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
become, by the licensing of a nefarious traffic, a source of great
emolument. Lord Downshire and Lord Ely were especially
hostile. The one returned no less than seven, the other no less
than six, members to Parliament. In the consolidated aud
united Houses of Commons, two thirds of the Irish borough
seats were to be disfranchised. The proprietors would not
object to their disestablishment, but they looked with horror
upon the prospect of disendowment. Compensation to the
proprietors would disarm many of the opponents of the meas-
ure. Immoderate compensation would buy their active support.
Castlereagh's arguments on this point were unanswerable.
The government programme would grow stronger as it was
developed. If the Roman Catholic interest were thrown into
the scale, the scheme would receive much indirect assistance.
The Roman Catholic nobility and gentry were sounded. Lord
Fin gal was favorable; so was Lord Kenraare, with the promise
of an earldom. The Roman Catholic bishops were solicited.
Dr. Troy was propitious, and they were ready to stand by the
Castle and to allow the crown to have a veto in the appoint-
ment of their prelates in consideration of a fixed stipend to be
paid by the crown to their clergy. The most violent of the
Anti-unionists were the very people who had supported the
government through the recent troubles—the Protestant nobil-
ity and gentry and the Orange lodges, among whom prevailed
"universal horror and disgust at the idea of a union." It was
necessary to conciliate these by the most solemn assurances
that the Established Church of Ireland should be maintained
inviolable by statute, and its continuance should be a funda-
mental article of the Union. Desertion by placemen was pun-
ished by immediate dismissal. Colonel Foster, commissioner
of the revenue, was the first victim. Mr. George Knox, and
Mr. Wolfe, also commissioners, followed. Mr. Neville lost the
commissionership of accounts; Mr. A. Hamilton, the cursitor-
ship in chancery; Mr. John Claudius Beresford, the sinecure
office of inspector-general of exports and imports; and Major
C. Hamilton wras dismissed from the barrack board. Colonel
Cole, whose regiment was at Malta, -was ordered to rejoin; and
when he desired to vacate his seat, which would inevitably have
THE SALE OF THE CONSTITUTION.
375
been refilled by an Anti-unionist, the government refused him
the escheatorship of Munster.
Parliament was prorogued in June. The government, after
the adverse reception of the Union scheme at the beginning of
the session, set themselves steadily to work to secure a sufficient
majority in the session following. The members were corrupt
enough as it was; but they were slaves to the borough-owners,
who had sent them to Parliament. The first thing to do was
to purchase the borough-owners, chiefly members of the Upper
House; and then, either by the help of the latter to compel recal-
citrant and honest members to resign their seats in favor of peo-
ple who would vote for the Union; or, by means of the bait of
pensions, places, and promotions, to buy the support of the venal.
In the United House of Commons there were, according to
the proposed bill, to be one hundred members from Ireland;
and, as the Irish Commons consisted of three hundred members,
it necessarily followed that two thirds of the seats would dis-
appear. Each of the thirty-two counties was to return two
members, making sixty-four; and the remaining thirty-six were
to be disposed of as follows: Two each to the cities of Dublin
and Cork, one to the University, and one each to the cities of
Waterf ord, Limerick, and Cashel, and the twenty-eight boroughs
which escaped extinction. All the remaining boroughs, eighty-
five in number, and each returning two members, were con-
signed to perdition. These eighty-five boroughs were one and
all of them in the hands of private owners. No less than fifty-
six of them were possessed by members of the Upper House.
Castlereagh saw the way to the pockets and consciences of
members of both branches of the Irish legislature through these
eighty-five boroughs. He proposed to compensate every one
of the proprietors at the rate of £15,000 apiece. And where,
as in many cases it was so, one person possessed three or four
seats, the figure at which the compensation would stand was a
very large one. Lord Ely eventually received no less than
£45,000 for his six seats, and Lord Downshire £52,500 for his
seven. The sum required amounted in the whole to £1,260,-
000! and this enormous bribe to the men who sold their
country was in the event actually paid, and added to the debt
of Ireland.
376
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
This master-stroke in corruption was supplemented by whole-
sale and reckless bribery of a different description. Irish peer-
ages, English peerages, steps in the peerage, baronetcies, bishop-
rics, livings, judgeships, regiments; places and preferments,
legal, civil, and military; social advancements, Castle patronage,
flattering condescension, even direct bribes in hard cash, were
lavished with an unsparing hand according to the character and
weakness of the individual to be secured. Twenty-two Irish
peerages were conferred, six English peerages, and twenty-two
promotions were made in the Irish peerage—forty-eight patents
of nobility as a reward for dirty work.
All through the year 1799, Castlereagh and the viceroy,
assisted by the Castle under-secretaries—Edward Cooke and
Colonel Littlehales—were employed on their unholy mission;
Cornwall is in the summer making a tour through the island,
and staying at the country-houses of the nobility to complete
his canvass. How vile was the traffic appears from the con-
temptuous loathing with which he regarded the recipients of
Castle favors. "It is a sad thing," he writes to Ross, "to be
forced to manage knaves, but it is ten times worse to deal with
fools. ... I am kept here to manage matters of a most dis-
gusting nature to my feelings." And on June 8,1799, "My
occupation is now of the most unpleasant nature, negotiating
and jobbing with the most corrupt people under heaven. I
despise and hate myself every hour for engaging in such dirty
work." And again, " The political jobbing of this country gets
the better of me. It has ever been the wish of my life to
avoid all this dirty business; and I am now involved in it be-
yond all bearing, and am consequently more wretched than
ever. I trust I shall live to get out of this most accursed of all
situations, and most repugnant to my feelings. How I long to
kick those whom my public duty obliges me to court!" It is
sad to think to what vile uses so gallant a soldier was put.
Lord Castlereagh does not appear to have been so fastidious.
He despised the venal crew with whom he had to deal, but he
does not appear to have felt the debasing nature of the higgling.*
* For a list of peerages given in consideration of support upon the question
of the Union, see Appendix 5
ANNEXATION.
377
CHAPTER XXIV.
ANNEXATION. A.D. 1800.
On January 15, 1800, the Irish Parliament met for the last
time. The opposition had striven with desperation to strength-
en their party, and had obtained Anti - union petitions from
twenty-six out of the thirty-two counties. They even went so
far as to suggest opposition by force, and to propose the calling
of the yeomanry to arms. Such was the consistency of the
Protestant Ascendency, who had just trampled out in blood the
armed resistance of the United Irishmen to a detested govern-
ment. Lord Downshire obtained a petition against the Union
from the officers and men of his regiment — the Downshire
militia. He was deprived of his command and dismissed from
the privy council and the lord - lieutenancy of his county.
Ireland was too well garrisoned with troops to admit of active
resistance.
The work of the government had been done effectually.
One result of their negotiations had been that some sixteen
members had accepted the escheatorship of Munster, in favor
of supporters of the government; and Lord Castlereagh was
reckoning on having a majority of sixty in the service of the
crown.
The outline of the bill was as follows:
1. The kingdom to be united, and the succession to remain
as fixed by the existing laws.
2. The United Kingdom to be represented in one Parliament.
The British part to be unchanged. The Irish portion to con-
sist in the Lower House of one hundred commoners; and in
the Upper, of four lords spiritual taken in rotation, and twenty-
eight temporal to be elected for life by the peers of Ireland.
3. Irish peers to be eligible for election in a constituency in
Great Britain.
378 HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
4. All members of the United Parliament to take the oaths
which excluded Roman Catholics.
5. The continuance of the Irish Church establishment to
be a fundamental article of the Union.
6. Subjects of Great Britain and Ireland to be on the same
commercial footing.
7. The charges for the national debt of the two countries
to be separate accounts. The contribution of Ireland towards
the general expenditure to be two fifths of the whole for the
first twenty years, when fresh arrangements should be made.
Moneys raised after the Union to be a joint debt.
8. The courts of justice to be untouched. A final appeal to
the House of Lords of the United Kingdom.
No mention of the Union was made in the address, upon
which Sir Lawrence Parsons made a violent attack on the
government, and moved an amendment to the effect that it was
desirable to maintain the independence of the Irish Parliament,
as settled in 1782. In the midst of the fierce debate which
followed, Grattan walked from a sick-bed into the House, sup-
ported by William Ponsonby and Mr. Arthur Moore.
When Grattan had resigned his seat in 1797, he retired
almost broken-hearted to his seat in Wicklow. He was roused
from his retirement to go over to England to give evidence as
to character in favor of Arthur O'Connor, on his trial at the
Maidstone assizes. This accident fortunately kept him in
England till the insurrection had broken out, and he did not
return to Ireland until the various risings had been put down.
He was so hated by the Ascendency party that, had he been
in Ireland at the time of the outbreak, his life might hardly
have been safe in times when the lawless soldiery too often
gratified the vengeance of party spite. As it was, great efforts
were made to connect Grattan's name with the disaffected.
One of the Castle spies, Hughes by name, had, earlier in the
year, gone with Neilson to Grattan's house at Tinnehinch, to try
and obtain an interview with him; and Hughes now swore,
before the secret committee, that Neilson had told him that he
had enlisted Grattan as a United Irishman. Lord Clare insisted
on having this libel inserted in the report made by the House
ANNEXATION.
379
of Lords; but the speaker struck it out of the report of the
Commons. Nevertheless, so fierce was the rancor of the As-
cendency against Grattan that they spared no pains to blacken
his character; and so successful had they been that Cornwallis
had removed his name from the privy council. The miserable
condition of the country preyed greatly on Grattan's mind, and
he lived in complete retirement. When, however, the sound
of the Union battle was heard in the air, he yielded to the press-
ure of his friends and sought for a seat in Parliament. A seat
was difficult to obtain. At length, a vacancy occurring for the
town of Wicklow, Grattan gave £2400 to the patron, and was
at once returned.
The debate on the address showed only too clearly how the
Castle influence had debauched the House. The division was—
for the amendment, 96; against it, 138: majority for the
government, 42. On February 6, upon the question of tak-
ing into consideration his majesty's message for a legislative
union, the government, notwithstanding the desertion of seven
of their supporters who had yielded to the pressure of their
constituents, had a majority of 49 in a House of 278 mem-
bers. And on February 17 the chancellor of the exchequer
moved the order of the day passing into committee on the
resolutions of the British Parliament.
Grattan's reappearance in the House of Commons had given
strength to the opposition, and was a source of anxiety to the
Castle. Corry, once a patriot, now a hireling, had succeeded
Parnell as chancellor of the exchequer, and was deputed to at-
tack Grattan in the House. He had already done so more
than once with great bitterness. On the occasion of his moving
the order of the day, he attacked him again, repeated the old
slanders about Grattan's alleged connection with the United
Irishmen, and called him "an unimpeached traitor." When
he sat down, Grattan rose, and gave him a fiercer castigation
than he had once given Flood. *' The right honorable gentle-
man," he said, "has called me an unimpeached traitor. I ask
why not traitor unqualified by any epithet? I will tell him.
It was because he dare not. It was the act of a coward, who
has raised his arm to strike and has not the courage to give
380
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
the blow. I will not call liim villain, because it would be un-
parliamentary, and he is a privy-councillor. I will not call him
fool, because he happens to be chancellor of the exchequer.
But I say he is one who has abused the privilege of Parliament
and freedom of debate to the uttering language which, if spoken
out of the House, I should answer only with a blow. He has
charged me with being connected with the rebels. The charge
is utterly, totally, and meanly false. Does the right honorable
gentleman rely on the report of the House of Lords for the
foundation of his assertion? If he does, I can prove to the
committee that there was a physical impossibility of that report
being true. But I scorn to answer any man for my con-
duct. . . . Here I stand, ready for impeachment or trial.
I dare accusation. I defy the honorable gentleman. I defy
the government. I defy the whole phalanx. Let them come
forth. I tell the ministers I will neither give them quarter nor
take it."
The words "villain," "fool," and "coward" admitted of
nothing but a challenge from Cony. Next morning they met
at daylight in the Phcenix Park. General Craddock, Corry's
second, pinioned the sheriff, who endeavored to prevent a breach
of the peace, and had him held down in a ditch while the duel
proceeded. At the first fire Grattan's shot struck Corry in the
arm. The seconds ordered them to fire a second time. Grat-
tan fired in the air, and Corry's shot did not take effect. Their
friends then withdrew them from the ground. So ended the
attempt to bully Grattan.
In the meantime the first resolution, "That a legislative
union of the two kingdoms was desirable," was carried by a
majority of forty-six; and one by one the remainder passed
through committee, and were sent up to the Lords, where the
supporters of the government were in an immense majority.
When the resolutions were laid before the English Houses, the
government met with as little opposition as they had in the
previous year; and on May 21 Lord Castlereagh introduced
into the Irish Commons a bill embodying the resolutions. The
opposition could only muster 100 votes against 160 for the
government. The second reading was carried on May 26, by
ANNEXATION.
381
117 to 73. The report of the committee was carried by 153
to 88. When the House adjourned, the speaker walked out,
followed by forty-one members. The populace outside un-
covered, and in deep silence accompanied them to the speaker's
bouse in Molesworth Street. On reaching it, the speaker turned
round, bowed to the crowd, entered his house; and then the
whole assemblage dispersed without uttering a word. All was
now over. The decision of the Upper House, under the stern
dominion of Lord Clare, was a foregone conclusion; and the
bill received the royal assent on August 1.*
Thus ended the Parliament of the English Colony in Ireland.
It was never in any sense representative of the nation. It was
the corrupt embodiment of a dominant race. It sold the birth-
right of the nation for its own selfish ends. There had not
even been a dissolution to test the opinion of the constituen-
cies, the proposal to consult the people upon a question so vital
to their interests having been sternly condemned by Pitt as
"rank Jacobinism." The most remarkable and creditable
thing about the whole transaction was that so many as one
hundred members of the Lower House were found whose in-
tegrity the government was unable to corrupt, and whose honor
it was powerless to purchase.
* 40 Geo. III. c. 38.
APPENDIX I.
LIST OF THE CHIEF GOVERNORS OF IRELAND FROM
1173 TO A.D. 1800.
HENRY II.
1173. Hugh de Lacy, Earl of Heath, Lord Justice.
Richard de Glare, Earl of Pe?nbroke, Lord Justice.
1177. Raymond le Gros, Lord Deputy.
John, Earl of Morton, Lord of Ireland.
William Fitzaldelm, Lord Justice.
1179. Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Meath, Lord Deputy.
1181. John de Lacy, ) T T
Richard de Peche, )
William Fitzaldeim, Lord Deputy.
1184. Philip de Braosa, Lord Deputy.
1185. John, Earl of Morton, Lord of Ireland.
John de Courcy, Earl of Ulster, Lord Deputy.
RICHARD L, 1189.
1189. Hugh de Lacy, the younger, Lard of Meath, Lord Justice.
1191. William Le Petit, Lord Justice.
William, Earl of Pembroke, Earl Marshal, Lord Justice.
Peter Pipard, Lord Justice.
1194. Hamo de Valois, Lord Justice.
JOHN, 1199.
1199. Meiler FitzHenry, Lord Justice.
1203. Hugh de Lacy, the younger, Lord Deputy.
1205. Meiler FitzHenry, Lord Justice.
1208. Hugh de Lacy, Earl of Ulster, Lord Deputy.
1210. King John in person, Lord of Ireland.
William, Earl of Pembroke, Lord Deputy.
John de Grey {Bishop of Norwich), Lord Justice.
1213. Henry de Londres, Archbishop of Dublin, Lord Justice.
1215. Geoffrey de Marisco (Mountmorres), Lord Justice.
384
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
HENRY III., 1216
1219. Henry de Londres, Lord Justice.
1224. William, Earl of Pembroke, the younger, Lord Justice.
1226. Geoffrey de Marisco, Lord Justice.
1227. Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, Lord Justice.
Richard de Burgh, Lord of Connaught, Lord Deputy.
1229. Maurice Fitzgerald, Lord Justice.
1230. Geoffrey de Marisco, Lord Deputy.
1232. Maurice Fitzgerald, Lord Justice.
1245. Sir John de Marisco, Lord Deputy.
1247. TJieobald Walter, Lord of Carrick, ) T T .
t i -i n c J-jorois Justices.
John de Gogan, )
1248. Sir John de Marisco, Lord Justice.
1252. Prince Edward Plantagenet, Lord Justice.
1255. Alan de la Zou-che, Lord, Justice.
1259. Steplien Longespee, Lord Justice.
1260. William Dene, Lord Justice.
1261. Sir Richard de Rupella {Roche), Lord Justice.
1266. Sir John de Marisco, Lord Justice.
1267. Sir David de Barry, Lord Justice.
1268. Sir Robert de Ufford, Lord Justice.
1269. Richard de Exeter, Lord Justice.
1270. Sir James Audley, Lord Justice.
1272. Maurice Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, Lord Justice.
EDWARD, 1272.
1273. Sir Geoffrey de Genemlle, Lord Justice.
1276c Sir Robert de Ufford, Lord Justice.
1277. Stephen de Fulburn, Bishop of "Waterford, Lord Deputy
1280. Sir Robert de Ufford, Lord Justice.
1282. Stephen de Fulburn, Lord Justice.
1287. John de Saunford, Archbishop of Dublin, Lord Justice.
1290. William de Vesci, Lord Justice.
1293. William de la Haye, Lord Justice.
1294. William de Odinsele, Lord Justice.
1295. Thomas Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, Lord Justice.
Sir John Wogan, Lord Justice.
1302. Sir Maurice Rochfort, Lord Deputy.
Sir John Wogan, Lord Justice.
EDWARD II., 1307.
1308. Sir Piers Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall, Lord Deputy.
APPENDIX I.
385
1308. Sir William Bourke, Lord Deputy.
1309. Sir John Wogan, Lord Justice.
1312. Sir Edmund Butler, Lord Deputy.
1314. Sir Theobald de Vardon, Lord Deputy.
1315. Sir Edmund Butler, Lord Deputy.
1317. Sir Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, Lord Justice.
1318. William Fitzjohn, Archbishop of Cashel, Lord Deputy.
Alexander Bicknor, Archbishop of Dublin, Lord Deputy.
.1319. Sir Roger Mortimer, Lord Justice.
1320. Thomas Fitzjohn Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, Lord Deputy.
1321. Sir John de Bermingham, Earl of Louth, Lord Justice.
1322. Ralph de Gorges, Lord Deputy.
Sir John Darcy, Lord Deputy.
1323. Sir Thomas Burke, Lord Deputy.
1324. Sir John Darcy, Lord Justice.
1326. Thomas, Earl of Kildare, Lord Justice.
1328. Roger Outlawe, Lord Chancellor, Lord Justice.
Sir John Darcy, Lord Justice.
1329. James Butler, Earl of Ormonde, Lord Lieutenant.
1330. Boger Outlawe, Lord Deputy.
1331. Sir Anthony Lucy, Lord Lieutenant.
1332. Sir John Darcy, Lord Justice.
1333. Sir Thomas de Burgh, Lord Deputy.
1334. Sir John Darcy, Lord Justice.
1337. Sir John Charlton, Lord Justice.
1338. Thomas Charlton, Archbishop of Hereford, Lord Deputy.
1340. Roger Outlawe, Lord Justice.
Sir John Darcy, Lord Justice,
1341. Sir John Morice, Lord Deputy.
1344. Sir Ralph Ufford, Lord Deputy.
1346. Sir Roger Darcy, Lord Justice.
Sir Walter Bermingham, Jj>rd Justice.
1347. John le Archer, Prior of Kilmainham, Lord Deputy.
1348. Sir Walter Bermingham, Lord Justice.
1351. Maurice de Rochfort, Bishop of Limerick, Lord Deputy.
1353. Sir Thomas Rolieby, Lord Justice.
1354. Maurice FitzThomas Fitzgerald, Earl of Desmond, Lord Justice,
1356. Sir Thomas Rokeby, Lord Justice.
1357. Sir Almeric de St. Amand, Lord Justice.
1359. James Butler, Earl of Ormonde, Lord Justice.
EDWARD III., 1327.

17
386
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELA.ND.
1360. Maurice FitzThomas Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, Lord Dep-
uty.
James, Earl of Ormonde, Lord Justice.
1361. Lionel, Duke of Clarence, Earl of Ulster, Lord of
CONNAUGHT, LORD LIEUTENANT (till 1369).
1364. James, Earl of Ormonde, Lord Deputy.
1365. Sir Thomas Dale, Lord Deputy.
1367. Gerald Fitzmaurice, Earl of Desmond, Lord Justice.
1369. Sir William de Windsor, Lord Lieutenant.
1371. Maurice, Earl of Kildare, Lord Deputy.
1372. Sir Robert Asslieton, Lord Justice.
Ralph Cheney, Lord Deputy.
William Tany, Prior of Kilmainliam, Lord Justice.
1374. Sir William de Windsor, Lord Lieutenant.
1375. Maurice, Earl of Kildare, Lord Deputy.
1376. James, Earl of Ormonde, Lord Justice.
RICHARD II., 1377.
1378. Alexander Balscot, Bishop of Ossory, Lord Justice.
1379. John de Bromwich, Jjord Justice.
1380. Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March and Ulster, Lord
Lleutenant (till 1383).
1381. John Colton, Dean of St. Patrick's, Lord Justice.
1383. Philip de Courtenay, Lord Lieutenant (till 1385).
1384. James, Earl of Ormonde, Lord Deputy.
1385. Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, Marquis of Dublin,
and Duke of Ireland, Lord Lieutenant. (Never
came over; attainted 1388.)
Sir John Stanley, Lord Deputy.
1388. Sir Philip de Courtenay, Lord Lieutenant (till 1389).
1387. Alexander Balscot, Bishop of Heath, Lord Justice.
1389. Sir John Stanley, Lord Lieutenant.
Richard White, Prior of Kilmainham, Lord Deputy.
1391. Alexander Balscot, Bishop of Heath, Lord Justice.
1392. James, Earl of Ormonde, Lord Justice.
1393. Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, Lord
Lieutenant. (Never came over.)
The King in person, Lord of Ireland.
1394. Sir Thomas le Scrope, Lord Deputy.
1395. Roger Mortimer, Earl of March and Ulster, Lord
Lieutenant.
1398. Roger Gray, Lord Justice,
Thomas de Holland, Earl of Kent, Lord Lieutenant.
1399. The King in person, Lord of Ireland.
APPENDIX I.
387
HENRY IV., 1399.
1399. Alexander Balscot, Lord Justice.
Sir John Stanley, Lord Lieutenant.
1401. Thomas de Lancaster, Lord Lieutenant (till 1413).
'Sir Stephen Scrope, Lord Deputy.
1405. James, Earl of Ormonde, Lord Justice.
Earl of Kildare, Lord Justice.
1^06. Sir Stephen Scrope, Lord Deputy.
1407. James, Earl of Ormonde, Lord Deputy.
1409. William de Botiller, Prior of Kilmainham, Lord Deputy.
HENRY Y., 1413.
1413. Sir John Stanley, Lord Lieutenant.
1414. Thomas Oranley, Arclibishop of Dublin, Lord Justice.
Sir John Talbot, Lord Lieutenant.
1419. Richard Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin, Lord Deputy.
1420. James, Earl op Ormonde, Lord Lieutenant.
HENRY VI., 1422.
1423. Edmond Mortimer, Earl of March and Ulster, Lord
Lieutenant.
Ed. Dantsey, Bishop of Meath, Lord Deputy.
Lord Talbot, Lord Lieutenant.
1424. James, Earl of Ormonde, Lord Lieutenant.
1426. James, Earl of Ormonde, Lord Justice.
1427. Sir John de Grey, Lord Lieutenant.
1428. Sir John Sutton, Lord Dudley, Lord Lieutenant.
1429. Sir Thomas Scrope, Lord Deputy.
1430. Richard Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin, Lord Deputy.
1431. Sir Thomas Stanley, Lord Lieutenant.
1432. Sir Christopher Plunket, Lord Deputy.
1435. Sir Thomas Stanley, Lord Lieutenant.
1436. Richard Talbot, Lord Deputy.
1438. Lord Welles, Lord Lieutenant. (Never came over.)
1440.- James, Earl of Ormonde, Lord Deputy.
1442. William Welles, Lord Deputy.
1443. James, Earl of Ormonde, Lord Lieutenant.
1445. Richard Talbot, Lord Deputy (till 1449).
1446. John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord Lieutenant.
1449. Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, Earl of March
and Ulster, Lord Lieutenant.
Richard Nugent, Lord Delvin, Lord Deputy.
388
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
1450. James, Earl of Ormonde, Lord Deputy.
1452. Sir Edward Fitz-Eustace, Lord Deputy.
1453. James, Earl of Ormonde, Lord Lieutenant.
John Mey, Archbishop of Armagh, Lord Deputy.
1454. Sir Edward Fitz-Eustace, Lord Deputy.
1459. Richard Plantagenet, Lord Lieutenant.
1460. Thomas, Earl of Kildare, Lord Deputy.
EDWARD IV., 1461.
1461. Thomas, Earl of Kildare, Lord Justice.
George, Duke of Clarence, Lord Lieutenant.
1462. Roland Fitz-Eustace, Lord Deputy.
William Sherwood, Bishop of Meath, Lord Deputy.
1463. Thomas, Earl of Desmond, Lord Deputy.
1467. John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, Lord Deputy.
1468. Thomas, Earl of Kildare, Lord Deputy.
1475. William Sherwood, Bishop of Meath, Lord Deputy.
1478. Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York (second son to
the King), Lord Leeutenant (till 1>83 ~; he never came
over).
Sir Robert Preston, Lord Gormanston, Lord Deputy.
Gerald, eighth Earl of Kildare, Lord Deputy (till 1492).
EDWARD V., 1483.
RICHARD III., 1483.
1480. Edward, Prince of Wales, Lord Lieutenant. (Never
came over.)
1484. John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, Lord Lieutenant.
HENRY VII., 1485.
1485. Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke and Duke of Bed-
ford, Lord Lieutenant.
1492. Walter Fitz-Simon, Archbishop of Dublin, Lord Deputy.
1493. Lord Gormanston, Lord Deputy.
William Preston, Lord Deputy.
1494. Henry, Duke of York (second son to the King), Lord
Lieutenant. (He never came over.)
Sir Edward Poynings, Lord Deputy.
1495. Henry Beam, Bishop of Bangor, Lord Justice.
1496. Gerald, eighth Earl of Kildare, Lord Deputy (till 1513).
APPENDIX I.
389
HENRY VIIL, 1509.
1513. Gerald, ninth Earl of Kildare, Lord Justice.
Gerald, ninth Earl of Kildare, Lord Deputy (till 1520).
1515. Lord Gormanston, Lord Justice.
1520. Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, Lord Lieutenant.
1521. Sir Piers Butler, Earl of Ormonde, Lord Deputy.
1524. Gerald, Earl of Kildare, Lord Deputy.
1526. Lord Delvin, Lord Deputy.
1528. Sir Piers Butler, Earl of Ossory, Lord Justice.
1529. Henry Fitzroy, Duke op Richmond (natural son to the
King), Lord Lieutenant. (Never came over.)
1530. Sir William Skeffington, Lord Deputy.
1532. Gerald, Earl of Kildare, Lord Deputy.
1535. Lord Leonard Gray, Lord Deputy.
1540. Sir William Brereton, Lord Justice.
Sir Anthony St. Leger, Lord Deputy (till 1546).
1543. Sir William Brabazon, Lord Justice.
1546. Sir William Brabazon, Lord Deputy.
Sir Anthony St. Leger, Lord Deputy.
EDWARD VI., 1547.
1547. Sir William Brabazon, Lord Justice.
1548. Sir Edward Bellingham, Lord Justice.
1549. Sir Francis Bryan, ) T 7 T ..
a- -rir-7 7- :n 7 c Lords Justices.
Str William Brabazon, )
1550. Sir Anthony St. Leger, Lord Deputy.
1551. Sir James Croft, Lord Justice.
1552. Sir James Cusacke, Lord C/uincellor, \ T T .
Sir Gerald Aylmer, Lord Ghief Justice, KB.,*) Ijara* Justlce8-
MARY, 1553.
1553. Sir Anthony St. Leger, Lord Deputy.
1556. Thomas Radclyffe, Lord Fitzwalter, Lord Deputy (till 1560).
1557. Hugh Gurwen, ) _ T J.
Sir Iloiry Sidney, \ Lords Jmtlces-
1558. Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Justice.
ELIZABETH, 1558.
1560. Sir William Fitzwilliam, Lord Deputy.
Thomas Radcliffe, Lord Fitzwalter, Earl of Sussex, Lord
Deputy.
390
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
1561. Sir William Fitzwilliam, Lord Deputy.
Earl of Sussex, Lord Lieutenant.
Sir William Fitzwilliam, Lord Deputy.
1564. Sir Niclwlas Arnold, Lord Justice.
1565. Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy.
1567. Robert Weston, Lord Chancellor. ) T T T ..
a- Trr-77- t^v -77 • r Lords Justices.
Sir William Fitzwilliam, )
1568. Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy.
1571. Sir William Fitzwilliam, Lord Justice.
1575. Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy.
1578. Sir William Drury, Lord Justice.
1579. Sir William Pelham, Lord Justice.
1580. Lord Grey de Wilton, Lord Deputy.
1582. Adam Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin and Lord \
Chancellor, l Lords Justices.
Sir Henry Wallop, )
1584. Sir John Perrott, Lord Deputy.
1588. Sir William Fitzwilliam, Lord Deputy.
1594. Sir William Russell, Lord Deputy.
1597. Lord Burgh, Lord Deputy.
Sir Thomas JSforris, Lord Justice.
1598. Adam Loftus, \
Sir Robert Gardiner, C.J.K.B., y Lords Justices.
Earl of Ormonde, )
1599. Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, Lord Lieutenant.
Adam Loftus, } T 7 T ,.
0. jy J n \ Lords Justices.
Sir George Carew, )
1600. Sir Charles Blount, Lord Mount joy, Lord Deputy.
JAMES I., 1603.
1603. Lord Mountjoy, Lord Lieutenant.
Sir George Carew, Lord Deputy.
1604. Sir Arthur Chichester, Lord Deputy (till 1616).
1613. Sir Richard Wingfield, I Lorcls Jmtkes.
Thomas Jones, Archbishop of Dublin, )
1615. Archbishop Jones, ) Tutfire*
Sir John Denham, )
1616. Sir Oliver St. John (Lord Grandison), Lord Deputy.
1622. Lord Falkland, Lord Deputy (till 1629).
1623. Sir Adam Loftus, Viscount Ely, Lord Chancellor, \ Lords
Sir Richard Wingfield, Viscount Poioerscourt, $ Justices.
CHARLES I., 1625.
1629. Sir Adam Loftus, Viscount Ely, Lord Justice.
APPENDIX I.
391
1629. Richard Boyle, Earl of Cork, Lord Justice.
1632. Sir Thomas Wentworth, Lord Deputy (till 1641).
1636. Sir Adam Loftus, Viscount Ely, ) r , T x.
rn • j. 7 xxr i ^ ^ \ Lords JUStlCeS.
Christopher Wandesford, )
1639. Lord Dillon, ) T' T ..
^7 • * 7 -rrr 7 7 c Lords Justices.
Christopher Wandesford, \
1640. Sir Thomas Wentworth, Earl op Strafford, Lord
Lieutenant.
Sir Christopher Wandesford, Lord Deputy.
Lord Billon, ) r , x
„ I Lords Justices.
Sir William Parsons, )
1641. Robert, Earl of Leicester, Lord Lieutenant. (Never
came over.)
Sir William Parsons, ) T , T ..
Sir John Borlase, \ Lorcls JusUces.
1643. Sir John Borlase, ) T _ _ _
Sir Henry TicUorne, \ Lords Jmtices-
1644. James Butler, Marquis of Ormonde, Lord Lieutenant.
1647. Philip Sidney, Lord Lisle, Lord Lieutenant (appointed
by the Parliament).
THE REPUBLIC, 1649.
1649. Oliver Cromwell, Lord Lieutenant.
1650. General Henry Ireton, Lord Deputy.
1651. General Lambert, Lord Deputy.
1653. General Charles Fleehcood, ~\
General Edmund Ludloio, |
General Miles Corbet, )■ Commissioners.
John Jones, I
John Weever, J
THE PROTECTORATE, 1653.
1654. General Charles Fleetwood, Lord Deputy.
1655. Henry Cromwell,
Matthew Tomlinson,
Miles Corbet, \ Commissioners.
Robert Goodwin,
William Steel,
1657. Henry Cromwell,. Lord Lieutenant.
1659. Edmund Ludloio,
John Jones,
Matthew Tomlinson,
Miles Corbet,
Major Bury,
Commissioners.
392
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
CHARLES II., 1660.
1660. George Monck, Duke of Albemarle, Lord Lieutenant.
(Never came over.)
John, Lord Robarts, Lord Deputy. (Never eame over.)
1660. Sir Maurice Eustace, \
Sir Charles Coote, Earl of Montrath, I Lords Justices.
Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery, )
1661. Sir Maurice Eustace, ) r , T . no
n 7 in j J r\ r Lords Justices.
Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery, )
1662. James Butler, Duke of Ormonde, Lord Lieutenant.
1664. Thomas Butler, Earl of Ossory, Lord Deputy.
1669. John, Lord Robarts, Lord Lieutenant.
1670. John, Lord Berkeley, Lord Lieutenant.
1671. Michael: Boyle ArclMAop of Dublin, )
Sir Arthur Forbes, ) K'
1672. Arthur Capel, Earl of Essex, Lord Lieutenant.
1677. James, Duke of Ormonde, Lord Lieutenant (till 1685).
1682. Richard Butler, Earl of Arran, Lord Deputy.
JAMES II., 1685.
168o. Henry Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, Lord Lieutenant.
Richard Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnel, Lord Lieutenant.
Sir Alexander Fitton, Lord Chancellor, ) T 7 T .
William, Earl of Clanricarde, \ Jumcss-
1689. King James in person.
"WILLIAM III., 1689.
1690. King William in person.
Henry, Viscount Sydney, \
Sir Charles Porter, Lord Chancellor, I Lords Justices.
Thomas Coningsby, )
1692. Henry, Viscount Sydney, Lord Lieutenant.
1693. Henry, Lord Capel, \
Sir Cyril Wyche, [■ Lords Justices.
William Buncombe, )
Sir Charles Porter, ) T 7 T ,.
Sir Cyril Wyche, \ Lords Justices.
1695. Lord Capel, Lord Deputy (d. 1696).
1696. Sir Charles Porter, Lord Justice.
Sir Charles Porter, \
Earl of Mon trath,. !■ Lords Justices.
Earl of Brogheda, )
1697. Earl of Galway, Lord Justice.
APPENDIX I.
1697. Marquess of Winchester, \
Earl of Galway, > Lords Justices.
Viscount Villiers, )
1699. Duke of Bolton, \
Earl of Galway, > Lords Justices.
Narcissus Marsh, Archbishop of Dublin, )
Duke of Bolton, \
Earl of Berkeley, I Lords Justices.
Earl of Galway, )
1701. Earl of Rochester, Lord Lieutenant.
1702. Narcissus Marsh, ArchbisJwp of Dublin, \
Earl of Drogheda, y Lords Justices.
Earl of Mount Alexander, )
ANNE, 1702.
1702. Earl of Mount Alexander, )
General Earl, > Lords Justices.
Tlwmas Keightley, )
1703. James, Duke of Ormonde, Lord Lieutenant.
Sir Bichard Cox, Lord Chancellor, \
Earl of Mount Alexander, > Lords Justices.
General Earl, )
1705. Sir Bichard Cox, ) T 7 T .. ■
t j rt ^ -p^ Y Lords Justices.
Lord Cutis of Goicran, )
1707. Narcissus Marsh, Archbishop of Armagh, ) T 7 T
a- -n-1 j n f Lords Justices.
Sir Bichard Cox, )
Earl of Pembroke, Lord Lieutenant.
Narcissus Marsh, ) -^or^8 justfces
Bichard Fireman, Lord Chancellor, )
1709. Earl of Wharton, Lord Lleutenant.
Bichard Freeman, Lord Chancellor, ) T , T ..
~ 7 t 7,, r Lords Justices.
General Lngoldsby, )
1710. James, Duke of Ormonde, Lord Lieutenant.
Narcissus Marsh, ) ,. , T ,.
ry it r Lords Justices.
General Lngoldsby, )
1711. Sir Constantine Phipps, Lord Chancellor, \ T , r ..
~ 7 7- 7x c Lords Justices.
General Lngoldsby, )
1712. Sir Constantine Phipps, ) jU8tices
John Vesey, ArchbisJwp of Tuam, )
1713. Charles Talbot, Duke of Shrewsbury, Lord Leeu
TENANT.
1714. Tlwmas Lindsay, Archbishop of Armagh, \
John Vesey, Archbishop of Tuam, I Lords Justices.
Sir Constantine Phipps, Lord Chancellor, )
17*
394
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
GEORGE I, 1714.
1714. William King, Archbishop of Dublin, \
John Vesey, Archbishop of Tuam, [- Lords Justices.
Earl of Kildare, )
Earl of Sunderland, Lord Lieutenant. (Never came
over.)
1715. Duke of Grafton, ) T _ T
77T 7 i n 7 r Lords Justices.
Earl of Galway, )
1716. Charles, Viscount Townshend, Lord Lieutenant.
(Never came over.)
Alan Brodrick, Lord Chancellor, \
William King, Archbishop of Dublin, > Lords Justices (till 1719)
William Conolly, Speaker, )
1717. Duke of Bolton, Lord Lieutenant. m
1719. Alan Brodrick, Viscount Midleton, ) T , r' .
-rrr-77 • n 77 a 7 f Lords JUStlCCS.
William Conolly, Speaker, )
1721. Duke of Grafton, Lord Lieutenant.
1722. William King, Archbishop of Dublin, \
Viscount Shannon, > Lords Justices.
William Conolly, Speaker, )
1723. Viscount Midleton, Lord Chancellor, ~\
William King, Archbishop of Dublin, I Lords Justice8.
Viscount Shannon, I
William Conolly, J
1724. Viscount Midleton, \
Viscount Shan non, !■ Lords Justices.
William Conolly, )
Lord Carteret, Lord Lieutenant.
1726. Hugh Boulter, Archbishop of Armagh, \
Richard West, Lord Chancellor, > Lords Justices.
William Conolly, Speaker, )
GEORGE II., 1727.
1731. Lionel Sackville, Duke of Dorset, Lord Lleutenant.
1732. Hugh Boulter, Archbishop of Armagh, \
Lord Wyndham, Lord Chancellor, l Lords Justices.
Sir Ralph Gore, Speaker, )
1733. Hugh Boulter, Archbishop of Armagh, j Lords Justices
Lord Wyndhain, Lord Chancellor, )■ /..«
Henry Boyle, Speaker, )
1737. Duke of Devonshire, Lord Lieutenant.
1740. Archbishop Boulter,
Robert Jocdyn, Lord Chancellor, \ Loi%ds Justices.
Henry Boyle, Speaker,
APPENDIX I.
395
1742. John Hoadley, Archbishop of Armagh, \ T
Bobert Jocelyn, Lord Chancellor, [ LaJ^
Henry BoyU, Speaker, ) (tm1'41}'
1745. Earl of Chesterfield, Lord Lieutenant.
1747. George Stone, Archbishop of Armagh, \ Lords
Bobert Jocelyn, Lord Newport, Lord Chancellor, > Justices
Henry Boyle, Speaker, ) (till 1754).
Earl of Harrington, Lord Lieutenant.
1754. George Stone, Archbishop of Armagh, \
Lord Newport, Lord Chancellor, I Lords Justices.
Earl of Bessborough, )
1755. Marquis of Hartington, Lord Lieutenant.
1756. Bobert, Lord Jocelyn, Lord Chancellor, \
Earl of Bessborough, [- Lords Justices.
Earl of Kildare, )
1757. John, Duke of Bedford, Lord Lieutenant.
1758. George Stone, Archbishop of Armagh, \ £ord8 jnstia>8
Henry Boyle, Earl of Shannon, > ^\ 1765)
John Ponsonby, Speaker, )
GEOBGE III., 1760.
1761. Earl of Halifax, Lord Lieutenant.
1763. Earl of Northumberland, Lord Lieutenant.
1765. Lord Weymouth, Lord Lieutenant. (Never came over.)
John, Lord Bowes Lord Chancellor, > ^ Jmt
John Ponsonby, Speaker, \
Earl of Hertford, Lord Lieutenant.
1766. Lord Boices, Lord Chancellor, \
Earl of Drogheda, \ Lords Justices (till 1767).
John Ponsonby, Speaker, )
Earl of Bristol, Lord Lieutenant. (Never came over.)
1767. George, Viscount Townshend, Lord Lieutenant.
1772. Earl Harcourt, Lord Lieutenant.
1777. Earl of Buckinghamshire, Lord Lbzutenant.
1780. Earl of Carlisle, Lord Lieutenant.
1782. Duke of Portland, Lord Lieutenant.
Earl Temple, Lord Lieutenant.
1784. Duke of Rutland, Lord Lieutenant.
1787. Bkhard Butland, ArcJibishop of Armagh, \
Viscount Lifford, Lord Chancellor, y Lords Justices.
Bight Honorable John Foster, Speaker, )
Marquis of Buckingham, Lord Lieutenant.
1789. LordFtegMon Lord Chancellor, t
Bight Honorable John Foster, bpeaker, )
396
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
1790. Earl of Westmoreland, Lord Lieutenant.
1794. Earl of Fitzwilliam, Lord Lieutenant.
John Fitzgibbon, Earl of Glare, Lord Chancellor, ) Lords
Bight Honorable John Foster, Speaker, ) Justices.
1795. Earl of Camden, Lord Lieutenant.
1798. Marquis of Clastricarde, Lord Lieutenant.
APPENDIX II.
397
APPENDIX II.
LIST OF THE ORIGINAL PLANTERS IN MUNSTER
(According to Sir Richard Cox and the Carew Manuscripts).
Cork. acres.
Arthur Robins 18,000
Fane Beecher 12,000
Hugh Worth 12,000
Sir Arthur Hyde 5,574
Arthur Hyde 11,766
Sir W. St. Leger 6,000
Hugh Cuff e 6,000
Sir Thomas Norris 6,000
Thomas Say 5,775
Sir Richard Beacon 1,600
Edmund Spenser.... 3,028
Sir George Bouchier 1,300
Sir Edward Fitton 16,902
Francis Fitton 3,780
Thomas Fleetwood.
Marmaduke Edmunds.
Sir John Stowell.
Sir John Clifton.
Cork and Waterford.
Sir Walter Raleigh 42,000
Waterford.
Sir Christopher Hatton.., 10,910
Sir Edward Fitton 600
Sir R. Beacon 4,400
TlPPERARY.
Earl of Ormonde 3,000
Sir Edward Fitton.
Limerick. acres.
Sir George Bouchier 12,880
William Trenchard 12,000
Sir Henry Billingsley 11,800
Sir William Courtenay.. • 10,500
Francis Barkly 7,250
Ed. Mainwaring 3,747
Sexanlri ^tton 3,026
Sir Edward Fitton 11,500
William Carter 3,661
Sir George Thornton 1,500
Robert Annesley 2,599
Sir Henry Ughtred 2,000
Robert Strowde 10,000
Robert Collum 2,500
Rowland Stanley.
Kerry.
Sir William Herbert 13,276
Charles Herbert 3,768
Sir Valentine Brown 6,560
Sir Edward Denny 6,000
JohnHollis.... 4,422
Captain Conway 5,260
John Champion ) 1 A^A
George Stone [A>4W4
John Crosbie.
Captain Thomas Spring.
Stephen Rice.
Luke Morrice.
398
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
APPENDIX III.
LIST OF THE ORIGINAL PLANTERS IN ULSTER
{According to tlie Garew Manuscripts).
ENGLISH.
Armagh. acres.
Earl of Worcester.
Lord Say 3,000
Powell 2,000
Sacheverel 2,000
John Heron 2,000
Stanhawe 1,500
John Dillon 1,500
Brownlo we 1,000
Machett 1,000
Rolleston 1,000
16,500
Tyrone.
Earl of Salisbury.
Sir Thomas Ridgway 2,000
Thomas Roch 2,000
Francis Willoughbie 2,000
Sir John Ashborneham... 2,000
Captain and Thomas Ed-
ney... 1,500
George Ridgway 1,000
William Parsons 1,000
William Turvine 1,000
12,500
Tyrone.
Lord Audley 3,000
Sir Mervin Audley 2,000
Fernando Audley 2,000
Sir John Davis 2,000
William Blunt 2,000
11,000
Donegal.
Lord Chamberlaine.
William Wilson 2,000
Sir Norris Barkley 2,000
Sir Robert Remington.... 2,000
Sir Thomas Cornwall 2,000
Sir William Barnes 1,500
Sir Henry Clare . . 1,500
Captain Coach 1,500
Edward Russell.... 1,500
Captain Mansfield 1,500
15,000
Fermanagh.
Earl of Shrewsburie.
Sir Edward Blennerhas-
sett 2,000
Thomas Blennerhassett... 2,000
Sir Hugh Woorall 1,000
5,000
Fermanagh.
Earl of Shrewsburie.
Thomas Flowerden 2,000
Edward Ward 1,000
Henry Hunings 1,000
Thomas Barton 1,000
John Ledborough 1,000
Robert Calvert 1,000
Robert Bog^as 1,000
JohnArchdale 1,000
"9,000
Cavan.
Earl of Northampton.
Richard Waldron 2,000
John Fish 2,000
Stephen Butler 2,000
Sir Nicholas Lusher 2,000
Sir Hugh Wirrall 1,500
John Taylor 1,500
W. Lusher 1,500
12,500
Total 81,500 acres.
APPENDIX III.
399
SCOTTISH.
Akmagh. acres.
Sir James Douglass 25000
Claude Hamilton 1,000
William Lander 1,000
James Craig 1,000
Henry Acheson '1,000
6,000
Tyrone.
Lord UcMltrie 3,000
Sir Robert Hepburne 1,500
L. Lochnories 1,000
Barnard Lyndsey 1,000
Robert Stewart of Hilton. 1,000
Robert Lindsey 1,000
Robert Stewart of Rotton. 1,000
9,500
Tyrone.
Earl of Abercorne 3,000
Sir Claude Hamilton 2,000
James Clapen 2,000
Sir George Hamilton 1,500
Sir Thomas Boyd 1,500
James Haig 1,500
Sir John Drumond of
Bordland 1,000
George Hamilton 1,000
13,500
Donegal.
Duke of Lenox 3,000
Lord of Minto: 1,000
John Stewart 1,000
Alex.McAulla of Durling. 1,060
L. Glengarnock 2,000
John Cuningham of Cran-
field 1,000
Cuthbert Cunningham.... 1,000
L. Dunduff 1,000
James Cunningham 1,000
12,000
Donegal.
L. Bomby 2,000
L. Brougham 1,500
William Stewart 1,500
Sir Patrick McKee 1,000
Alexander Cuningham.... 1,000
ACRES.
James McCullock 1,000
Alexander Dombar 1,000
Patrick Wans. 1,000
10,000
Fermanagh.
L. Burley 3,000
L. Pittarre 1,500
L. Mounfrwhany, jun 1,500
L. Kinkell 1,000
James Traill 1,000
George Smelhome 1,000
9,000
Fermanagh.
Sir John Home 2,000
Robert Hamilton 1,500
William Fowler 1,500
James Sibb 1,000
Jehue Lyndsey 1,000
Alexander Home 1,000
John Dombar 1,000
9,000
Cavan.
Sir Alexander Hamilton.. 2,000
John Auchmootie 1,000
Alexander Auchmootie... 1,000
Sir Claude Hamilton 1,000
John Broune 1,000
6,000
Cavan.
L. Obignye 3,000
William Dowmbar 1,000
William Baylie 1,000
John Ralston 1,000
6,000
Total........81,000 acres.
SERVITORS.
Armagh.
Sir Gerald Moore 1,000
Sir Oliver St. John 1,500
Lord Audley 500
Sir Thomas Williams 1,000
Captain Bourchier 1,000
Captain Cooke 1,000
Lieutenant Pomes 200
400
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
Armagh (continued). ACRES.
Marniaduke Whitchurch. 120
Captain Atherton 300
6,620
Tyrone.
Sir A. Chichester 1,320
Sir Thomas Ridgway 2,000
Sir Richard Wingfield.... 2,000
Sir Toby Caulfield 1,000
Sir Francis Roe 1,000
7,320
1,500
500
246
Fermanagh.
Sir John Davis
Captain Samuel Harrison.
Piers Mostyn. ■.
Donegal.
Captain Stewart
Captain Craffoord
Captain John Yaughan...
Captain Kmsmell
Captain Brookes
Sir Richard Hansard
Lieutenant Parkins and
Ensign Hilton
Sir Thomas Chichester...
Captain Hart
Sir Raffe Binglie
Lieutenant Ellyes
Captain Henry Vaughan.
Captain Richard Bingley.
Lieutenant Gale
Charles Grimsditch
Lieutenant Browne,
11,568
Fermanagh.
Sir Henry FoUiott 1,500 |
2,246
1,000
1,000
1,000
1,000
1,000
1,000
300
500
1,000
1,128
400
1,000
500
100
240
400
ACRES.
Captain Atkinson 1,000
Captain Coale 1,000
Captain Goare 1,000
4,500
. Cayan.
Sir George Grearne and
Sir Richard Grearne.... 2,000
Captain Coolme and Wal-
ter Talbott 1,500
Captain Pinner 1,000
Lieutenant Rutlidg 300
Serjeant Johnes 150
4,950
Cayan.
Sir Oliver Lambart 2,000
Captain Lyons and Joseph
Jones 1,500
Lieutenant Atkinson and
Lieutenant Russell 1,000
4,500
Cayan.
Sir John Elliott 400
Captain John Ridgeway.. 1,000
Sir "William Taaff 1,000
Lieutenant Garth 500
Sir Edmond Fetiplace.... 1,000
3,900
Cayan.
Sir Thomas Ashe and
John Ashe... 750
Archibald More and Brent
More 1,500
Captain Tirrell" 2,000
4,250
Total 39,914 acres.
APPENDIX IV,
401
APPENDIX IV.
LIST OF THE ORIGINAL PLANTERS IN WEXFORD
{According to the Carew Manuscripts).
ACRES.
Sir Richard Cooke 1,500
Sir Lawrence Esmond 1,500
Sir Edward Fisher 1,500
Francis Blunden ,.... 1,000
Conway Brady 600
Sir Roger Jones 1,000
Sir James Carroll 1,000
John Wingfield 1,000
Sir Adam Loftus 1,000
Fergus Graemes 300
Sir Richard Wingfield 1,000
William Marwood 1,000
Francis Blondell 1,500
John Leghorn 1,000
Captain Trevillian 2,000
Captain Fortescue 2,000
Thomas Hibbets - 1,000
The Bishop of Waterford 1,000
Total 20,900 acres.
The following also received grants amounting together to 12,000
acres:
Captain Dorrington. Lieutenant Burroughs.
Meares. "Stratford.
Pikeman. Mr. Gillet.
Cawell. ~" Waldrond.
Ackland. "Sherlock.
"Henry Fisher. "Hashwell.
Lieutenant John Fisher.
402
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
APPENDIX V.
LIST OF ENGLISH AND IRISH PEERAGES AND STEPS IN THE
IRISH PEERAGE CONFERRED IN A.D. 1800, IN CONSIDERA-
TION OF A SUPPORT OF THE UNION BILL.
I. CREATIONS.
IRISH PEERAGES.
Earl of Montrath to be Baron of Castlecoote with remainder to Mr.
Charles Coote, M.P. for Maryborough.
Lord Langford (the Hon. William Clotworthy Eowley).
"De Blaquiere (the Right Hon. Sir John Blaquiere).
"Frankfort (the Right Hon. Lodge Morris).
Baroness Dufferin, with remainder to her son Sir James Blackwood.
Lord Henniker (Sir John Henniker).
Baroness Newcomen, wife of Sir W. Newcomen, with remainder to
her heirs male.
Lord Adare (Sir Richard Quin).
"Ventry (Sir Thomas Mullins).
"Ennismore (William Hare, Esq.).
"Wallscourt (John Henry Blake, Esq.).
"Mountsandford (Henry Moore Sandford).
"Donalley (Henry Prittie, Esq.).
"Tara (John Preston, Esq.).
"Hartland (Maurice Mahon, Esq.).
"Clanmorris (John Bingham, Esq.).
"Lecale (Right Hon. Lord Charles Fitzgerald).
*' Norbury (John Toler, Attorney-General).
"Ashtown (Frederick Trench, Esq.).
"Clarina (Eyre Massey, Esq.).
"Erris (Hon. Robert King).
Earl of Clanricarde to be Earl of Clanricarde with remainder to his
daughters and to their heirs male.
ENGLISH PEERAGES.
Earl of Clare to be Lord FitzGibbon.
Marquis of Drogheda to be Lord Moore.
Ely ""Loftus.
Earl of Ormonde '' '' Butler.
"Carysfort " lt Carysfort.
Marquis of Thomond" "Thomond.
APPENDIX V.
403
II. PROMOTIONS IN THE IRISH PEERAGE.
Earl of Inchiquin to be Marquis of Thomond.
Bective " " Headfort.
Altamount" " Sligo.
« Ely "" Ely.
Viscount Castlestewart to be Earl of Castlestewart.
Bandon
Donoghmore
Caledon
Kenmare
O'Neil
Bandon.
Donoghmore.
Caledon.
Kenmare.
O'Neil.
Lord Glentworth to be Viscount Limerick.
Somerton
Yelverton
Longueville
Bantry
Monck
Kilconnell
Tullamore
Kilwarden
Somerton.
Avonmore.
Longueville.
Bantry.
Monck.
Dunlo.
Charleville.
Kilwarden.
APPENDIX VI.
Illustrating the Relationship of the Leading Members of the O'Neil Family dur
Hugh O'Neil, 181st King of
7 th Earl of Kildaro.
I
r
8th Earl of Kildare. Eleanora:
I
Neil Roe.
Neil Mor.
Neil Ogo.
Owen O'Neil.
I
= Henry McOwen.
Joan — Con Mor.
Henry.
•ing the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,
Ireland and Prince of Tyrone.
Hugh DufT.
Donald.
Hugh Boy,
ancestors of the O'Neils of
Clanaboy (Clan Hugh Boy).
Con Baccagh (the Lame),
1st Earl of Tyrone, d. 155«.
Turlough,
d. s. p.
Mathew (Ferdorach),
1st Baron of Dungannon,
murdered 1557.
Brian, Hugh, Sir
2d Baron of Dungannon, 3d Baron of Dungannon, Cormac.
murdered 1561; d. s. p. and Earl of Tvrone. I
Henry,
d. s. p.
John,
d. s. p.
Hugh,
d. s. p.
Brian,
d. s. p.
Shane (John,
murdered 1567.
I I
Turlough. Phelim.
Art.
Con.
A son. Owen Roc, Art Oge.
1 d. 1648.
Henry.
Hugh.
Henry Turlough.
Turlough. I
Phelim. Phelim.
Art Oge.
Neal.
Connelagh.
Turlough
Luinagh.
Sir Arthur
O'Neil.
John of
Kinnard.
Sir Henry
O'Neil.
Sir Henry
O'Neil.
I
Sir Phelim
O'Neil
(executed
1652).
Illustrating the Pedigree of the Fitzgeralds.
Gerald Fitz-Otho,
Governor of Pembroke Castlo.
Nesta,
daughter of the Prince
of South Wales.
Stephen,
Constable of Cardigan and Pembroke,
her first husband.
Maurice Fitzgerald,
Lord of Oil'aly.
| Robert Fitz-Stephen.
(By Henry I. of England.)
Raymond Le Gros,
ancestor of the Earls of Kerry
and Marquises of Lansdowne.
Meiler Fitz-Hcnry.
Gerald Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald,
1st Baron of Olfaly, d. 1205.
I
Maurice Fitzgerald,
2d Baron of Offaly, d. 1257.
Thomas Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald,*
d. 1215.
John Fitz-Thomas of Callan,
received a grant of the Decies and Desmond
from Edward I., d. 1261.
Gerald,
3d Baron of Offaly,
d. 1286.
Thomas,
4th Baron of Offaly,
Thomas,
d. 1260.
Maurice,
L. Justice 1272,
d. 1286.
Joanna
de Cogan.
Maurice
Fitz-John,
d. 1261.
Robert Fitz-Hcnry.
Margaret,
daughter of Sir Thos.
Fitz-Anthony.
Honora,
daughter of
Hugh O'Connor.
Gilbert (Gibbon),
the White Knight.
John,
Knight of
Glin.
Thomas Fitzmaurice,
L. Justice 1295, d. 1300.
Maurice, the
Black Knight, or
Knight of
Kerry.
Thomas,
died a minor 1309.
Maurice,
L. Justice 1354, created Earl of Desmond 1329,
d. 1355.
[Continued on next page.]
[Continued on page 407.]
* The authority for this portion of the pedigree is Mr. William Lynch's interesting and exhaustive chapter on the Desmond family.
o
Ox

O
O
o
3
Q
O
O
o
SO
W
o
B
H
Maurice,
2d Earl, d. 1357.
John,
3d Earl, d. 1309.
Nicholas,
an idiot, d. 1367.
Gerald, 4th Earl,
L. Justice 1367,
d. 1397.
Emicia, daughter of
Earl of Ormonde.
John,
5th Earl, d. 1399.
Thomas, 6th Earl, —
expelled by his uncle,
died in Normandy 1420.
James, 7th darl, d. 1462.
(In 1438 Robert Fitzgeoffrey de Cogan granted hrm his moiety of the Kingdom of Cork.)
Catherine McCormac.
Thomas, 8th Earl,
founded the college of Youghal,
L. Deputy 1463, executed 1467.
James, 9th Earl, — Margaret
murdered 1487.
O'Brien,
daughter of
O'Brien of
Thomond.
Johanna = Maurice Roche,
I Lord Fermoy.
I
Maurice,
10th Earl,
conspired with
Warbeck,
pardoned 1467,
d. 1520.
James,
11th Earl, d. 1529.
Joan,
(married her cousin, the
15th Earl.
9th Earl of Ormonde:
: Johanna.
Thomas,
12th Earl, d. 1534.
Maurice.
James,
13th Earl, d. 1535.
John,
14th Earl, d. in33.
Thomas.
I
Two
daughters.
James,
15th Earl,
rebelled and
submitted
in 1536 to
L. Deputy
Gray, d. 1538.
Thomas (the Red),
d. 1575. (Held to be
illegitimate by reason of the
consanguinity of his parents,
the 15th Earl's first wife
The White having been a daughter of
Knight. Lord Fermoy, and divorced.)
Ellen = James, the Sugan Earl, died in the Tower 1608.
Gerald,
16th and last EarL
son of the Earl's
second wife, Dame
Katharine Butler;
rebelled,
murdered 1584.
Sir James
Fitzmaurice,
killed 1579.
Sir John,
Id lied 1581.
Sir James,
executed 1580.


[Continued from page 405.]
John, 5th Baron of Offaly, created Earl of Kildare, 1316 = Blanche, daughter of Lord Fermoy.
Joan, = Thomas, 2d Earl,
daughter of
Richard, Earl
of Ulster.
L. Justice 1320,
1326.
Richard, 3d Earl. Maurice, 4th Earl, = Elizabeth Burghersh.
L. Justice 1360, I
1371,1375.
Gerald, 5th Earl, = Margaret Rochford.
L. Justice 1405. |
Margaret Dela Hern© = John, 6th Earl.
Thomas, 7th Earl,:
L. Deputy 1454-1459.
: Joan, daughter of
7th Earl of Desmond.
Alison,
daughter
of Sir R.
Eustace,
first wife.
Gerald, =
8th Earl
(the Great
Earl).
Elizabeth,
daughter of
Sir Oliver
St. John,
second wife.
Thomas,
L. Chancellor 1484,
killed at Stoke
1487.
James,
seized Carlow
Castle 1494.
Eleanora = Henry O'Neil.
Elizabeth, = Gerald,
daughter
of Lord
Zouch.
9th
Earl.
Elizabeth, Elinor = McCarthy Joan = Con Sir Oliver, = Daughter
daughter Reagh. 0'>Teil. James, exe- ofO'Con-
of Marquis executed cuted . nor of
of Dorset. 1537. 1537. Offaly.
Richard,
executed
1537.
John,
exe-
cuted
1537.
Walter,
exe-
cuted
1537.
Lord Thomas,
executed 1537.
Mary = Bryan O'Connor
of Offaly.
A daughter = O'Carrol of Ely.
Gerald. 11 Earl,
restored 1554, ancestor
of the present Duke of Leinstcr.
O


o
EE
00
o
o
Illustrating the Pedigree of the De Burghs.
William de Burgo. Earl of Cornwall.
John.
Hubert de Burgh.
John de Burgh.
Lewis VII. of France.
I
Hugh de Lacy, Earl of Ulster.
Aldelm = Agnes.
William Fitz-Aldelm
Richard I. of England.
= Isabel.
Hodierna do Gernon = Richard William.
I
John de Burgh.
John, Baron of Lanneville.
I
Maud = Walter, 1st Earl of Ulster.
Margaret = Richard (the Red Earl),
| 2d Earl of Ulster, d. 1326.
John.
William Oge,
'McWilliam Mor, McWilliam
the Conqueror," d. 1270.
Sir William Bourke, d. 1324.
!■
Maud Plantngcnct, = William, 3d Earl.
daughter of Henry Plan-
tagenet, Earl of Lancaster,
grandson of Henry III.
murdered 1333 by Robert
de Manneville.
Sir Ulick
(McWilliam Uachter), d. 1429.
Ulick,
d. 1483.
Sir Edmond
(McWilliam Iochtar).
Thomas.
Lionel, Duke of Clarence, = Elizabeth.
Earl of Ulster, Lord of |
Connaught and Clare. |
Philippa = Edmund Mortimer, 3d Earl
| of March, 5th Earl of Ulster.
Roger Mortimer, killed in battle 1395.
Richard, Earl of Cambridge = Anne.
Richard. Duke of York,
killed at Wakefield, 14G0.
. Edward IV
Ulick.
1
Ulick = Margaret, daughter of
| Pierce, 8th Earl of Ormonde.
Ulick, 1st Earl of Clanricarde,
d. 1544.
Honora — Edward,
ancestor of the
Earls of Mayo.
INDEX.
A.
Abbeys, suppression of the, 66,69.
state of, at the Reformation, 75.
Abercromby, Sir Ralph, 344-346.
Abjuration^ oath of, 239, 247.
Absentees, 140,141, 270, 272, 284.
statute against, 46.
their estates resumed, 66.
Adrian IV. grants Ireland to Henrv
II., 23.
Adventurers, the, 195, 199, 206, 208,
209.
Agar, Archbishop, 345.
Agrarian disturbances, 271-273, 304-
306,319,320.
Agriculture, improvement in, 206.
Aicill, the Book of, 5.
Allegiance, oath of, 233, 241, 317,366.
Allen, Dr., lands at Smervvick, 97. death of, 98.
Allen, murder of Archbishop, 61, 76.
American colonies, the, 281, 282.
American war, the, 282,285,334.
"Ancient Britons," the, 339,351.
Anglo-Irish, the, 141, 208.
rebellion of, in 1641,170.
conflict between, and the old
Irish, 183.
transplantation of, 196.
in James's parliament, 221, 222.
Antrim, Lord, 170, 210.
Arklow, battle of. 358,359.
Armagh, archbishopric of, founded, 14.
council held at, 27.
primacy transferred from, to
Dublin, 77.
Armagh, primacy restored to, 78.
Armstrong, Captain, the spy, 342, 343,
349,350.
Army, increase of, 275, 282.
Augmentation bill, 277.278.
18
Ash ton, Sir Arthur, 188,190.
Ashtown, Lord, 373.
Athenry, battle of, 41.
Athlone, siege and capture of, 230, 231,
Aughrim, battle of, 231.
B.
Back Lane parliament, the, 314,317.
Baculus Jesu, the, 77.
Bagnal, Sir Henrv, 108, 109, 111, 112,
115.
his sister marries Tyrone, 111.
his defeat and death, 115.
Bagnal, Sir Samuel, 118.
Bagnal, Colonel, is shot, 195.
Bale, Bishop of Ossory, 77.
Ballinamuck, surrender of the French
force at, 369.
Ballyan, the Baron of, 70.
Ballybogan, the rood of, burned, 77.
Baltmglass, Lord, 100,101,104.
Bantry, the French fleet at, 336, 337.
Barnewell, Sir Patrick, sent to the
Tower, 126.
Barrons of Burnchurch, the, 210.
Beachy Head, the battle of, 227.
Belahoe, the battle of, 63.
Bellingham, Sir Edward, lord deputv,
76.
reduces Leix and Offaly, 82.
Benburb, the battle of, 184.
Beresford, John, 325,326, 345.
Beresford, John Claudius, 327, 363,374.
Beresford, Marcus, 322.
Berkeley, Lord, 214, 215.
Berwick, the Duke of, 221, 224.
Bessborough, Lord, 265, 294.
Bingham, Sir Richard, 107,110, 111.
Bishops, Irish, 12,13, 212, 259, 260.
"Black rent," 48,49.
Black water fort, the, 115.
410
INDEX.
Blacquiere, Sir John. 280.
Blaney, murder of Mr., 169.
Blaney, Lord, 220.
BloodTs plot, 209, 210, 214.
"Bloods, the five," 39.
Blount, Charles. See Mountjoy.
Bodkin, Archbishop of Tuam, 79.
Boisseleau, General, 221, 228.
Bonaght. 16, 83.
Bond, Mr. Oliver, 330, 348,349, 367.
Borlase, Sir John, 165.
Boroughs, creation of, bv James I., 137,
293.
condition of the, 261, 293, 294.
purchase of, bv the government,
373-375.
Boulter, Archbishop, 208,261,264.
Bourke, the family of, 36,43.
Bows, the use of enjoined, 62.
Bovle, Sir Richard, first Earl of Cork,
143,147,153,157,160,161,175. his plantation in Cork and Wa-
terford, 143.
Boyle. See Lord Shannon.
Boyne, battle of the. 226.
Bramhall, Bishop of Deny, 160,212.
Brehon law, the, 4.
abolition of, 126, 127.
Brehons, the, 4.
Brian Borumha, 17.
defeats the Northmen, 17.
King of Ireland, 18.
death of, 18.
Bristol, Henry, Earl of Bristol, Bishop
of Deny, 294-296.
Broghill, Lord, 175,191, 192, 200, 206,
207.
Brotherhood of St. George, the, 49.
Brown, Archbishop of Dublin, 76, 77.
Bruce, Edward, 41,42.
Bruce, Robert, 42.
Buckingham, Lord, Viceroy, 302,
307.
Buckinghamshire, Lord, Viceroy, 286.
Burgh, Hussey, 286,287.
Burgh, Lord, 114,115.
Burgovne, General, 282, 296.
Burkei Edmund, 212,286, 311, 315, 323,
324.
Burke, Richard, 311.
Butler, the family of, 35.
rebellion of Sir Edward. 93.
Butler, Sir Edward, defends Kilkenny,
192.
Butler, Mr. Simon, 311, 320, 321.
Byrne, Edmund, 309, 314.
Byrne, Michael, execution of, 367.
C.
Calvagh O'Donnell, seizure of, by
Shane, 85.
his release, 86.
Camden, Lord, Viceroy, 326. 327, 345.
346.
recall of, 364.
Camperdown, the battle of, 341.
Carew, Sir Peter, 92, 93, 100.
Carew, Sir George, 119, 120, 122, 123,
136, 148.
Carharapton, Lord, 306, 340, 344.
Carlisle, Lord, Viceroy, 289, 290, 324.
Cashel, the Synod of, 27.
Castle chamber, the, 141, 155, 160-162.
Castlebar, the battle of, 368, 369.
Castlehaven, the Earl of, 187,193,194,
197, 210.
Castlereagh, Lord, 309, 360, 364, 372-
377, 380.
Cathal of the Bloodv Hand, submission
of, 32, 36.
Cauhield, Sir Toby (Lord Cauliield),
149, 167-169.
Cavan. county of, constituted, 107.
Celtic immigrations, 3.
Cessation, the, 179.
Charlemont, Lord, 289, 294-296, 302,
308, 309.
Charlemont, the fort of, 121, 226.
Charles I., accession of, 153. his treatment of the Connaught
land-owners, 154. his arbitrary conduct in England,
163.
his attitude towards the rebels
of 1641, 172, 178, 181.
. makes a truce with them, 179.
negotiates at Oxford, 181.
his duplicity, 183.
■ makes a treaty with the rebels,
183.
execution of, 187.
Charles II. proclaimed at Kinsale, 187,
206.
restoration of. 206.
INDEX.
411
Charles II., his declaration for a settle-
ment of the land question, 207.
his toleration of the Roman Cath-
olics, 214.
his plots with Louis XIV., 214-
216.
his death, 217.
Charter Schools, the, 261.
Chateau Renard, 234.
Chaterton's plantation, 91.
Chesterfield, Lord, 267, 274.
Chichester, Sir Arthur, 118, 122, 125,
149, 208.
superintends the plantation of
Ulster. 130.
House, 208,236.
Church lands, confiscation of the, 64,
78.
redistributed in Ulster, 131.
restored, 207.
misappropriated, 149.
Church, the foundation of, 12.
missionary spirit in, 13.
recast by the Pope's legate, 14.
harassed by the Northmen, 16.
Wentworth's conduct with respect
to, 159-61.
re-established by Charles II., 206.
persecutes the Presbyterians, 212,
258, 260,261.
the establishment of, a fundamen-
tal article in the Act of Union, 374,
378.
state of, at the Reformation, 74.
under Mary, 78.
at the beginning of James
I.'s reign, 126. in the time of Charles I.,
159.
after Restoration, 212, 213.
— in the eighteenth century,
258.
Claims, the Court of, 374, 377.
Clancarty, earldom of, granted, 84.
Earl of, his estates confiscated,
237.
Clanricarde, earldom of, granted, 36,
70.
fifth Earl of, harassed by Went-
worth,161,162. sixth Earl of, 172-174, 186, 193,
194.196,210.
Clare, Lord, 296, 297,302-304,306,308,
316-318, 321-324, 326, 327, 345,367,
371,372, 378,381.
Clare, the county of, constituted, 90.
Clare's regiment, 235.
Clarendon, Earl of, Viceroy, 217, 218.
Clergy, the state of, at the Reformation,
75~80.
tithe war against, 306.
Clifford, Sir Conyers, 117.
Clonmacnoise, destruction of the Ab-
bey of, 77.
Clonmel, the siege of, 192.
Co-arbs, the, 12.
Coercion Acts, 317, 332.
Coleraine. See Derry.
Columba, Saint, 13.
Columbanus, Saint, 13.
Commercial resolutions, the, 298-300.
Commission to inquire into defective
titles, 140,162.
for the repair of churches, 160.
Commissioners of plantation in Con-
naught, 161.
in Wexford, 144.
Commons, the House of, its composi-
tion, 54, 262.
Con O'Neil, 70,84.
Confederation of Kilkenny, the, 177.
of the North, the, 114.
Confiscation of the Church lands, 64,
78.
of Leix and Offaly, 81. .
of Munster, 104.
of Ulster, 130.
of Leinster, 140.
of three provinces, 195, 210.
of the Irish towns, 197.208.
projected in 1641,172.
by James's Parliament, 230. -
Conge (Telire, the writ of, abolished, 79.
Connaught, treatment of the land-own-
ers in, by James I., 145.
by Charles I., 154,161,162.
Contraband trade, the, 257,258.
Convention Act, the, 317.
Convention, the, at Dublin, 294-296.
dissolved, 296.
of Kilkenny, 45.
the Roman Catholic, 313,314.
Convocation coerced by Wentworth,
160.
412
INDEX.
Cooke, Edward, 325,343,345,373,376.
Coote, Sir Charles (the elder), 149,173. (the younger), 182,187,191,192-
194, 206,207, 210.
Cork, Earl of. See Boyle.
Cormac Ulphada, 10.
Cornwallis, Lord, 290,364-366,368,369,
371,376.
Corporations packed by Charles II.,
208.
reconstructed by James II., 218.
Corruption of public men, 263,264,275,
278,279,303,375,376,379.
Corry, Chancellor of the Exchequer,
379.
his duel with Grattau,380.
Cosbie, Francis, 97,100.
Cosherings, commutation of, 127.
Counties palatine, 33.
Coyne and livery, 42.
• prohibited" 46,56.
Craddock, General, 331,380.
Cromer, Archbishop of Armagh, 76.
Cromwell, Henry, Lord-lieutenant, 205.
Cromwell, Oliver, 181, 186-191, 205,
255.
captures Drogheda and Wex-
ford, 189,190.
besieges Clonmel, 192.
returns to England, 192.
Cromwell, Richard, 206.
Cromwellian settlement, the, 195.
■ soldiers, the, 200, 202, 206, 208.
218,222,223.
Crosby, Sir Piers, 162.
Curlew mountains, the fight in the,
117.
Curran, 307,325,333, 370,371.
Curry, Dr.,. 267.
Curwin, Archbishop of Dublin, 79.
Cusacke, Sir Thomas, his report on the
state of Ireland, 71.
D.
Dalrymple, General, 336.
Davis, Sir John, Attorney-General,
126,132,237. his account of the state of the
Irish Church, 126. his alteration of the land laws,
127.
his system of espionage, 128.
Davis, Sir John, superintends the plan-
tation of Ulster, 109,132.
packs the Parliament, 136.
elected speaker, 138,139.
D'Avaux, Comte, 221, 224,226.
Debentures, the, 195,200.
De Burgh, death of William, 43.
De Burgos, the, their wars with the
Geraldines, 33.
Declaratory Act, the, 253.
repeal of, 290.
De Clare, Earl of Pembroke. See
Strongbow.
De Clare, Thomas, Earl of Gloucester,
invades Thomond, 33.
De Courcy, grants made to, 26,30,36.
Defenders, the, 304, 305, 319-321,330-
333.
De Lacv, grants made to, 35.
Del' Aguila, Don Juan, 113,119,120.
Delvin, Lord, 128,129.
Dermot, McMurrough, king' of Lein-
ster, 23, 24.
De Rosen, 221, 224-226.
Derry, the county of, constituted, 107.
the town of, fortified by the Lon-
don companies, 132,134.
defended by the Protestants, 219,
220, 224.
Desmond, the earldom of, granted, 35.
the state of, in 1569, 90.
> rebellion in, 95, 98.
'Desmond, Gerald, sixteenth earl of, 94,
96, 98,99,101,104.
Desmond, James, fifteenth earl of, his
treason, 95.
( Desmond, Sir James of, 102.
I Desmond, Sir John of, 94, 96, 98, 100,
I 101.
! Devereux, Bishop of Kiklare, 80.
'Devereux, Walter, Earl of Essex, 91.
j De Vesci, his quarrel with Lord Ofialv,
I 33,34.
'Diamond, the battle of the, 330.
Digby, Lord, 183.
Dillon, Lord, 173,187,232.
Dillon, Sir James, 166.
Dillon's regiment, 235.
Discoverers, the, 141.
Dixon, the rebel, 360,363,366.
Dockra, Sir Henrv, occupies Derry,
118.
INDEX.
413
Donald, O'Lochlin, King of Ireland, 19.
Donchad, King of Ireland, 19.
Donegal, county of, constituted, 107.
the Earl of. 272, 273.
Dorset, the Duke of, viceroy, 265.
Doubling ordinance, the, 209, 217.
Dover, the treaty of, 215.
Dowdall, Archbishop, 70-79.
Drapier, the, letters of, 202.
Drogheda, the capture of, 189.
Drury, Sir William, President of Mini-
ster, 96, 97.
his campaign in Desmond, 98.
Dublin, captured by Strongbow, 24.
■ ■ besieged by Kory O'Connor, 25.
granted to the citizens of Bristol,
26.
University, 108, 126.
plot to seize the castle of, 166.
besieged bv O'Neil and Preston,
184, 185.
surrendered to the parliament, 185.
besieged by Ormonde, 187.
seized by Coote and Broghill, 206.
occupied by William III., 226,
227.
Duncan, Admiral, 340, 341.
Dundalk, battle of, 42.
Dundaniel, plantation at, 143.
Dundas, General, 315, 325.
Dungan Hill, battle of, 186.
Dungannon, barony of, 70.
convention of the volunteers at,
290, 294, 295. the Baron of, his feud with Shane,
71,84.
the death of, 84.
Dunsany, Lord, imprisoned by the
lords-justices, 173.
E.
Elizabeth, accession of, 79.
her Church policy, 79.
her treaty with Shane O'Neil, 86.
state of her army, 116.
her efforts to crush Tyrone, 117.
death of, 121.
Ely, the plantation of, 81.
Emancipation of the Roman Catholics,
323, 324, 326.
bill for the, 325, 328.
Embargo, the, 282-284.
Emigration to America, 260, 273. 277.
Emmett, Thomas Addis, 330, 349, 367.
Enniskillen, held by the Protestants,
219, 220, 224.
Esmond, Lord, a Wexford planter, 144,
145.
deserts Charles I., 181.
Essex, the Earl of (the elder), his plan-
tation, 91, 109.
his treatment of the natives, 92.
his death, 92.
Essex, the Earl of (the younger), 116.
his campaigns in Munster, 117.
his conference with Tyrone, 118.
recall of, 118.
Eustace, Sir Maurice, lord-justice, 206.
"Ever Joyce," 238, 304.
Everard, Sir John, his contest for the
speakership, 138,139.
Explanation, the Act of, 210, 236.
F.
Falkland, Lord, lord deputv, 153, 155,
156.
Famines, 121, 122, 238, 239, 257.
Farnev, the territory of, granted to
Essex, 91,109.
Fenton, Sir GeofFrev, survevor - gen-
eral, 148.
Fercal, the plantation of, 154.
Fermanagh, the county of, consti-
tuted, 107.
harassed by the Binghams, 110.
Feudal system, introduction of the, 28,
29.
Fingal, 10.
Firbolgs, the, 3.
Fitzaldelm receives grants of land, 27,
30, 36.
Fitton, Sir Edward, 91.
his grants in Munster, 105.
Fitzgerald, Lord Edward, 333,334,335,
348-350.
Fitzgerald, James, seizes Carlow, 56.
Fitzgerald, Sir James Fitzmaurice, 94.
his first rebellion, 94,
his second rebellion, 97.
his death, 98.
Fitzgerald, Sir James FitzPiers, 144.
Fitzgerald, Judkin, 346, 363, 364.
Fitzgerald, Maurice, 24. his grants of land, 27.
414
INDEX.
Fitzgerald, Lord Thomas, 61, 62, 95.
Fitzgibbon. See Lord Clare.
Fitzmaurices, the, 34, 43.
Fitzstephen, Robert, 24.
his grants of land, 27.
his estates pass to the Earl of
Desmond, 35, 93.
Fitzwilliam, Lord, viceroy, 323-326.
breaks up the junto, 325.
■ is recalled, 326, 327,364.
Fitzwilliam, Sir William, lord deputy,
96,108.
Flax, the growth of, encouraged by
Wentworth, 158.
Fleetwood, lord deputv. 195, 206.
Flood, Henrv, 275, 279, 283, 292, 297,
300, 308, 379.
accepts a vice-treasurership, 280.
supports free trade, 286.
attacks Poynings's Act, 289.
agitates for reform, 293-295.
brings in a Reform bill, 295,296.
Foster, the Right Hon. John, 326, 345.
Fosterage, the practice of, 39, 40.
prohibited, 45.
Fox, Charles James, 290,300,302, 309.
Free trade, the demand for, 283-287.
conceded, 286, 287.
French expedition to Bantry, the, 335-
337.
from the Texel, 341.
to Killala, 368.
to Lough Swilly, 369.
French Revolution, the, 308. 309,314.
French, Sir Thomas, 314.
G.
Gal way, Lord, 235.
Galway, the county of, constituted, 90.
Gardiner, Mr., his Roman Catholic Re-
lief bills, 309.
Geilfine svstem, the, 7.
George III., 301,325, 326.
illness of, 301,302.
recalls Lord Fitzwilliam, 326,327.
Geraldines, the, 34.
the Munster, 35.
rebellion of the, 61.
they combine against the plant-
ers, 93.
Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 92, 94.
Ginkel, General, 228, 230-236.
Glamorgan, the Earl of, 182.
his mission, 181.
— his treaty, 182,183.
Glenmalure, the fight in the vallev of,
101.
Godwin, the agent of the Parliament,
177-179.
Golf's Bridge, the battle of, 361.
Goodacre, archbishop of Armagh, 77.
Gorges, Dr., 225.
Gosford, Lord, his address, 331.
Grace, Colonel, defends Athlone, 227.
"Graces, the," 154,155,159.
Grants made by Henry II. to his fol-
lowers, 27, 28.
made to Ormonde, 207,208.
of confiscated land in Munster,
105.
in Ulster, 133.
in Leinster, 142.
made by William III., 236.
Grattan, Henry, 283, 288-302, 307-312,
317, 324-326, 333, 338-340, 379, 380.
his resolutions on free trade, 286.
legislative independence,
288, 290.
his measures relating to tithes,
313, 314.
his bill for the relief of the Ro-
man Catholics, 325.
retires into private life, 340.
his reappearance in the House
of Commons, 378.
his duel with Cony, 380.
Gray, Lord Leonard, 63, 66.
Gray, Ncle, suborned to murder Shane
O'Neil, 85.
Gray, de Wilton, Lord, 100.
Grogan, Cornelius, execution of, 363.
Gunpowder Act, the, 317.
H.
Habeas Corpus Act, the, 291.
suspended, 338.
Hamilton, Richard, deserts to James
II., 220.
Harcourt, Lord, Viceroy, 279.
Hardi, General, 368-370.
Hartington, Lord, Viceroy, 265.
Harvev, Bagenal, of Barrvcastle, 356,
357."
execution of, 363.
INDEX.
415
Hay, John, execution of, 363. 1
Hearts-of-steel Boys, the, 272,273.
Heber and Heremon, 10.
Henry II. lands in Ireland, 25. constitutes a government in
Dublin, 26.
his dealings with the Church, 74.
Henry VII., 55, 58.
Henry VIII., his Irish policy, 59.
his quarrel with the Pope, 64.
his Church policy, 64, 65, 73.
his treaties with the chieftains,
70, 71.
Hoadly, Archbishop, 261.
Hoctie, General, 336, 337, 341, 368.
Hollowblade Company, the, 237.
Holt, Joseph, the rebel, 355, 366.
Howth, Lord, 129.
Humbert, General, 368, 369.
Hutchinson, Hely, 279.
I.
Ibrackan, the barony of, 70.
the Baron of, 70, 71.
Inchiquin, Lord, 180,187,192, 210.
deserts Charles I., 180.
captures Cahir, 186.
defeats Lord Taaffe at Knock-
nanos, 186.
deserts the Parliament, 186, 200.
Independence, legislative, granted, 290.
Informers, the, 342, 343.
Innishowen, the rising in, 129. granted to Sir Arthur Chichester,
149.
Insurrection Act, the, 331, 333.
Insurrection, the, of 1641,167.
its consolidation, 177.
the, in Wexford, 350.
Irefcon, General, 191,193-195.
Irish Bishops, the, 12-14, 212.
Brigade, the, 235, 258.
cattle, export of, prohibited, 256.
Church. See Church.
contingent in England, 180.
forfeitures, 236.
kingdoms, 15.
members in the English Par-
liament, 205, 206.
officers at Culloden, 251.
soldiers enlisted in foreign ser-
vice, 197, 234,235.
Irish women and boys shipped to the
West Indies, 197. *
the, condition of, after the war
with Tyrone, 123.
the, condition of, in the eigh-
teenth century, 269-271, 304, 305.
extension of English law to, 139.
the early, 3.
laws and customs of the early, 4.
progress of, 56, 57.
rise against Prince John, 31.
submission of, to Henry II., 25.
Statutes against, 40, 49, 50.
J.
Jackson, 321,322, 329.
James I., accession of, 125.
his proclamation against the
Roman Catholics, 126.
his policy in Ulster, 126,127.
his plantations in Ulster, 130.
packs the Parliament, 136.
compromises with the recusants,
138.
his plantations in Leinster, 140.
his extravagant government,
145.
his project to confiscate the
towns, 145. his project to plant Connanght,
146.
his death, 146.
James II., hi3 Irish policy, 216, 217.
his flight from England, 219.
arrives in Ireland, 221.
holds a Parliament, 221, 222.
his new peers, 221, 222.
debases the coinage, 224, 238.
his flight from Ireland, 227.
Jones, Dr., 149.
Colonel Michael, 185-188.
Paul, 283, 285.
Judges, bill to render their tenure of
office perpetual, 277, 291.
K.
Kavenaghs, the, 112.
Kelts, the Synod of, 14.
Kendal, the Duchess of, 262, 263.
Kennv, Nicholas, escheator - general,
144,148.
Keogh, John, 309-314, 330.
416
INDEX.
Keppel, Earl of Albemarle, grants to,
236.
Kidnapping, 197.
Kildare, the earldom of, 33,34.
the great Karl of, 53,57, 60.
■ the ninth Karl of, 60-62.
the tenth Karl, restored, 78.
Kilkenny, the confederation of, 177,
196.
the convention of, 45.
the statute of, 45, 56.
Killala, the French at, 368.
Kimbaoth, King of Ireland, 10.
King's county constituted, 82.
Kinsale,the battle of, 120.
Knight of Glin, the, 35,115.
Knight of Kerry, the, 35.
Knocknanos, the battle of, 186.
Knoctow, the battle of, 58.
L.
Lake, General, 346, 360, 362-364, 369.
in Ulster, 338,340.
Commander-in-chief, 346,360.
defeated at Castlebar, 368,369.
Lambeth Articles, the, 154,160.
Lancaster, Bishop of Kildare, 77.
Land, change in the tenure of, by Hen-
ry VIII., 28, 29.
■ by James I., 126,127.'
the law relating to the tribal, 6,
7.
policy of the Normans in relation
to, 28,29.
question, the, 206, 210, 211, 222,
223.
sale of coarse and barren, 236,
237.
the tribal, 3.
confiscation of, in Connaught, 162.
■ Leinster, 140.
Leix and Offaly,81.
Minister, 103.
three provinces, 195, 200,
201,210,211.
Ulster, 133.
"Landlordism," league against, 273.
Langrishe, Sir Hercules, 311.
Laud, Archbishop, 156, 159, 160, 163,
212.
Lauzun, the Comte de, 226-229.
Le Poer, grants of land to, 31.
Leinster, the plantation of, 140.
Leinster, the Duke of, 286, 294, 302,
308, 340.
Leitrim, the county of, constituted, 90.
the plantation of, 142.
Leix, the plantation of, 81,131.
ravaged, 119.
Leoghaire, King of Ireland, 11.
Leslie, Henry, 212.
Leslie, John, 212.
License of the soldierv, 339, 340, 344-
347, 354, 355, 362-365.
Limerick, Articles of,233, 234, 239-243.
burned by Brian Borumha, 17.
first siege of, 227, 228.
second siege of, 232.
Linen trade, the, 157, 282, 283.
Lionel, Duke of Clarence, 37, 45.
Loftus, Adam, Archbishop of Armagh,
79,80,107,108,114,115,149.
Lord Chancellor, 153,156.
deprived of his office, 162.
prosecuted for treason, 179.
Loftus, General, 357-360, 370.
London Companies undertake land in
Ulster, 133.
Long Parliament, the, 163,175.
Longford, county of, constituted, 90.
plantation of, 142.
Lorraine, the rebels offer the crown of
Ireland to the Duke of, 193.
Louis XIV., 215, 220, 221, 226.'
Lucas, Dr., 264-266, 275, 288.
Lucy, Sir Anthony, 44.
Ludlow, General, 195, 205.
Luttrell, General. See Carhampton.
Luttrell, Henry, 221.
Luttrell, Simon, 221.
M.
McCabe, William Putnam, 354.
McCarthy, Col. Justin, 221-226, 235.
McCarthy Mor, created Karl of Clan-
cartv, 84.
McCarthys, the, 15, 32,114,
McCracken, Henry Joy, 353.
McDerraots, the, 112."
McGennis, Sir Con, 168.
McGuinnesses, the, 37,112.167,168.
McGuire, Lord, 166,167.
McGuire, Rory, 169.
McGuires, the, 37, 110, 112, 167.
INDEX.
417
McGeoghans, the, 44, 68.
McGilapatrick, of Upper Ossory, 68-
70.
McGilapatricks, the, 140.
Mclbrien of Ara, 98.
McMahon, Kossa, 108.
McMahons, the, 112,167.
MeMurrough, Art, 47, 48, 50, 140,141.
McMurroughs, the, 15, 43,46,141.
McNallv, Leonard, 321, 342.
McNevin, Dr., 330, 342, 349, 367.
McWilliam, Iochtar,43.
McWilliam, Uachtar, 43.
Malachy, Bishop, 14.
Malby, Sir Nicholas, 97,98,142.
Malone, Anthony, 265.
Marlborough, the Duke of, captures
Cork, 229.
Marston Moor, the battle of, 181.
Martial law, 338,346.
Mary, her accession, 78.
her church policy, 78.
Massacre in Armagh, 169.
• of Drogheda, 189.
of Island McGee, 171.
of Mullaghmast, 97.
of the Northmen, 17.
of Eathlin Island, 92.
of Scullabogue, 357.
• of Torry Island, 129.
at Vinegar Hill, 359.
at Wexford, 361.
Maynooth, capture of, 61.
—-College of,316.
Mayo, the county of, constituted, 90.
Mayo, Lord, 166,173,174, 177,195.
Meath, the kingdom of, granted to De
Lacy, 26, 35.
Melachlin, king of Meath, 17,18.
Michael O'Clery, 10.
Middlemen, the, 270, 271, 305.
Militia, act for establishing, 285.
Milo de Cogan invades Connaught, 30.
grants made to, 31.
Moinmor, the battle of, 19.
Moira, Lord, 309, 343.
Molyneux, 252, 266, 28S.
Monaghan, the county of, constituted,
107.
confiscation of, 180.
Monasteries, the, 65.
confiscation of, 66, 69, 70.
18*
Monev bills, conflicts upon the, 278,
279,288, 289.
Monk, General, 187, 206.
Moore, General, 360, 361.
Mortimer, Edmund, 37.
Mortimer, Roger, 37, 47.
Morvson, President of Munster, 122,
137.
Mountcashel. See Col, McCarthy.
Mountcashel's regiment, 235.
Mountgarret, Lord, 174, 177, 184, 216.
Mountjoy, the fort of, 121.
Mountjoy, Lord, reforms the army, 118.
besieges Kinsale, 119.
crushes Tyrone's rebellion, 121.
created Earl of Devonshire, 125.
Mountmorres. Hervey, 23,27.
Mountnorris, Lord, court-martialed,
162.
Mullaghmast, the massacre of, 97,
Munroe, General, 176-181, 213.
defeated at Benburb, 184.
Munster, the kingdom of, 15.
the plantation of, 103,115.
the rebellion in, 95,115.
Murkertach, king of Ireland, 19.
Murphy, Father John, 356,359.
Murphy, Father Michael, 359.
Murtough O'Lochlin, king of Ireland,
20.
Muskerry, Lord, 174,184,195.
Mutiny Act. 291. bill, 289.
N.
Nantwich, the Irish contingent cut off
at, 180.
Naseby, the battle of, 181.
National debt, the 263,275, 289.
Navigation Acts, the, 255.
Needham, General, 358-360.
Neilson, Samuel, 330, 348-350, 379.
Nemedians, the, 3.
Nevill, the surveyor-general, 265.
New interest, the, 146, 149, 208, 209,
222, 223.
New Ross, the battle of, 357.
Newbury, the battle of, 181.
Newhaven, Lord, supports free trade,
284.
Newtown Butler, the battle of, 224.
Nial of the Nine Hostages, 11.
418
INDEX.
Normans, the invasion of the, 23, 29.
endow the Church, 74.
Norris, Sir John, 112-114.
Norris, Sir Thomas, 112,115.
North, Lord, 278, 284, 285, 287, 289,
290.
"Northern Star," the, 314, 338.
Northington, Lord, viceroy, 295.
Northmen, invasions of the, 1G.
settlements of the, 17.
conversion of the, 18.
defeats of the, 17.
the, driven out of Dublin by
Strongbow, 25.
Nugent, Lord, supports free-trade, 283.
O.
Oakboys, the, 272, 273.
Oates, Titus, 216.
O'Briens, the, 46,174.
O'Byrne of Glenmalure, death of, 114.
O'Bvrne, Phelim, treatment of, 144.
O'Bvrnes, the, 43, 68, 100, 112, 140,
144, 148, 173.
O'Carrols, the, 60,81.
O'Connor, Arthur, 328, 334, 335, 338,
348, 367, 378.
O'Connors of Sligo, 112.
O'Connors, the, 43, 61, 68,81,82.
Octennial Act, the, 277.
bill, the, 265, 266.
O'Dempseys, the, 68,81.
O'Doghertv, Sir Cahir, 129, 139.
O'Donnel, Con, 92.
O'Donnel, Hugh, defeats Shane O'Neil,
87.
O'Donnel, Hugh Roe, 109-113, 117,
120.
O'Donnel, Sir Neal, 129.
O'Donnel, Rorv, Earl of Tvrconnel,
128, 129, 139.
O'Donoghues, the, 115.
O'Dowds, the, 112.
O'Doynes, the. 140.
O'Driscol rebels, 120.
O'Duns, the, 68, 8 i.
O'Farrels, the, 141,142, 167.
Offaly, the Baron of, quarrels with De
Yesci, 33, 34.
plantation of, 81, 130,131.
—■— recovered by the O'Connors, 43.
O'Hanlons, the, 167.
O'Kane, his dispute with Tyrone, 84,
129, 167.
O'Kanes, the, 37,167.
O'Kellvs, the, 97, 112.
Ollam, Eohdla, 10.
O'Melaghlins, the, 44, 68,140.
O'Molloys, the, 68, 81, 140.
O'Moore, Rory, the outlaw, 97. the contriver of the rebellion of
1641,166, 168, 171, 174, 176, 178.
O'Moores, the, 43, 61, 68, 81, 97, 142,
166.
O'Neil, Con. See Con O'Neil.
O'Neil, Sir Brian, of Clanaboy, 92.
O'Neil, Hugh, the defender of Limer-
ick, 192, 194.
O'Neil, Hugh, Earl of Tvrone, 110-114,
120,121, 128, 129,139.
O'Neil, Col. Owen, 176-179, 184-188,
192,195.
O'Neil, Sir Phelim, 166-171, 175-178,
195.
O'Neil, Shane. See Shane O'Neil.
O'Neil, Turlough Luinagh, 88, 93,111,
113.
Opposition, the, 261-263,276, 288,294,
302-304, 339, 373, 377, 379-381
secession of the, 339, 340.
O'Quins, the, 167.
Orange, the Prince of, 219, 223.
Orange Lodges, formation of, 330, 331.
Orangemen, the, 331-333, 339, 353-
355, 374.
Orde, Mr. Secretary, 299, 300.
O'Reilly, 69.
O'Reillv, the, created Baron of Cavan,
85.
O'Reillys, the, 167.
Orkney, grants to the Countess of, 236.
Ormonde, the family of, 35.
Ormonde, James, twelfth Earl of, 163,
170-172, 174, 178-182,187, 192,197,
207, 208. 210, 214, 223.
created a marquis and lord-lieu-
tenant, 181.
is besieged in Dublin, 184, 185.
surrenders Dublin to the parlia-
ment, 185.
heads the rebels in the royal
cause, 186.
defeated at Rathmines, 188.
retires to France, 193.
INDEX.
419
Ormonde, grants made to, 207-209.
O'Rourke ofBrefny,23.
O'Rourkes, the, 110, 140.
Orr, William, 343, 344.
Ossory, the Baron of Upper, 70.
O'Sullivan of Beare rebels, 120, 121.
OTooles, the, 43, 68,112,140,173.
P.
Pale, 48, 89.
the reign of terror in the, 101.
Paparo, Cardinal, 14.
Parliament, the origin of the, 54.
limitation of the, 276.
King James II.'s, 222.
state of the, in the reign of
George II., 261, 262.
subjection of the, 253.
Parnell, Sir John, 324, 372, 379.
Parsons, Sir Lawrence, 326, 327, 372,
373, 378.
Parsons, Sir William, 144, 145, 148,
153,165, 167,179.
Patrick, Saint, 11, 12.
<'Patriots, the," 261, 264-2G8, 276-
279, 283, 288, 289, 291.
Paul Jones, 283, 285.
Peep-o'-day Boys, the, 304, 319, 320,
330.
Peerages, the sale of, 279, 280, 283,
303, 375, 376.
Pelham, Sir William, 99, 103.
Pelham, Mr., chief secretary, 326, 364.
Penal laws, the, 238.
Pension bill, the, 302, 317, 318.
Pension list, the, 262, 263, 275, 279,
283, 303, 307, 308.
Perrot, Sir John, 94, 105, 107-109,
146.
Perrv, Anthonv, the rebel, 355.
Pery, Mr., 275,"279, 302, 307.
Petty, Sir William, 199-201, 210, 237.
Pim* Mr. Joshua, 298.
Pirates, the, suppressed by Wentworth,
157.
Pitt, William, 298-302, 310, 315, 323-
326, 344, 364, 365, 371-373,381.
Plantation, a, projected in Wicklow by
Richard II., 47.
made by the Earl of Cork, 143.
made by the East India Com-
pany, 143.
Plantation policy of Elizabeth, the,
91.
of the Irish Council, the, 59.
the Cromwellian, 200.
the, of Connaught, 162.
of Leinster, 139.
of Leix and Olfaly, 81,131.
of Munster, 104.
of Ulster, 130.
of Wicklow, 144.
Plunket, Dr., execution of, 216, 217.
Police Acts, the, 327.
Ponsonbv, George, 303, 307, 323, 325,
339, 372.
Ponsonby, John, the Speaker, 265, 276,
279, 294.
Ponsonby, William, 318, 323.
Popish plot, the, 216.
Portland, the Duke of, 290, 295, 323-
327.
Potwallopers, the, 293.
Poynings, Sir Edward, 55, 56.
Povnings's Acts, 56,158, 159,167,181,
222, 239, 252, 253, 278,288, 289.
the practice under, 253.
the repeal of, 290.
Presbyterians, the, 206,209, 296. clergy, the, inducted into Ulster
livings, 153. persecution of the, 212-214, 260,
261.
flight of, to America, 213, 273,
281.
their marriages acknowledged,
291.
Presidential courts established, 90.
Preston, Colonel, 176-178, 184-186,
193.
Priests, the hunting down of the, 201.
condition of the, 267, 268.
Proctors, the, 54.
are silenced, 66.
Protestant ascendency, the, 138, 150,
251, 255.
Protestants, the, disarmed, 219, 220.
disturbances of the, with the
Roman Catholics, 304,305, 330, 331. flight of the, 219.
Q.
Queen's County, formation of, 82.
Quin, Bishop, 77.
420
INDEX.
R.
Raleigh, Sir Walter, in Munster, 100,
101.
his grant of land, 105.
his grant passes to Bovle, 143,
144,148.
Ranelagh, Lord, President of Con-
naught, 173.
Rapparees, the, 219, 229.
Kath Bresail, the synod of, 13.
Rathlin Islan#d, the massacre at, 92.
Katharines, the battle of, 188.
Raymond le Gros, 24, 30, 34.
Reform of the parliament, 290,294, 297.
Reform bill, brought in by Flood, 295.
brought in by Grattan, 339.
Regency question, the, 301, 302.
Regicides, the estates of the, 207, 208,
Regium donum, the, 2G0.
Renunciation, the Act of, 292.
Reprisal ground, the, 207, 208.
Resumption bill, the, 230.
Reynolds, the agent of the parliament,
178, 179.
Reynolds, Dr., 320.
Reynolds, Thomas, the spy, 342, 348.
Richard II., 46, 47.
Rightboys, the, 304, 30G, 319.
Rinucini, 183-187.
Ripon, the treaty of, 163.
Risings, the, of 1798, 349-353,355,362,
369.
"Robin Hoods, the." 106.
Roche, Father, 358, 359-361, 363.
Rockingham, Lord, 290, 205.
Roman Catholic clergv, the, 259, 267,
268.
Committee, the, 267, 309-311,
316, 327.
Convention, the, 313, 314.
hierarchy, the, established, 125.
Roman Catholics, James I.'s procla-
mation against the, 126.
petition James I., 126,1£8.
outnumbered in James's parlia-
ment, 138.
harassed by the New Interest,
153.
their treatment by James I.
and Charles I., 153,154. their lands confiscated, 201, 210.
Roman Catholics contest the Act of
Settlement, 209.
toleration of. 214,215.
persecution of, 215, 216, 330.
in James II.'s parliament, 221,
222.
exile of, 235.
penal laws against, 238.
disfranchisement of, 247.
condition of, in the eighteenth
century, 251, 267-269.
loyalty of the, 267, 268.
riots of, with the Protestants,
304, 330.
bills for the relief of, 284, 285,
309-317.
emancipation of, 324.
support the Union, 374.
Romnev, Lord, grants of land to, 236.
Rary O'Connor, 19,20, 24, 30, 31.
Roscommon, the county of, constituted,
90.
Ross, the battle of, 179.
Rowan, Hamilton, 320-322.
Russell, Sir William, 110,112-114.
Rutland, the Duke of, 299, 301, 302.
Ruvigny, grants of land to, 236.
Ryan, death of Captain, 349, 350.
S.
Saint George, the brotherhood of, 49.
St. John, Sir Oliver, 137,143,153.
St. Leger, Sir Anthony, 68, 77, 78.
St. Leger, Sir Wareham, 173,179.
St. Patrick. See Patrick.
St. Ruth, 230, 231.
Sanders, Dr. Nicholas, 97, 99-102.
Saratoga, the surrender at, 282.
Sarsfield, Patrick, 221, 224-229, 232,
234.
Scandinavian invasion, the, 16.
Schomberg, General, 224, 225.
Scoti, the, 3.
Scots, the invasion of the, 41.
the immigration of the, 84,85.
the, murder Shane O'Neil, 87.
Scotus, Joannes, 13.
Secret Committee of the House of
Lords, the, 319, 320, 378.
Secret-service money, 317, 318, 343.
Senchus Mor, the, 4.
Septennial Act, the, 276.
INDEX.
421
Servitors, the, in Longford, 142.
in Ulster, 132-134. .
Settlement, the Act of, 209, 217, 218,
223, 236.
the petition to reconsider, 215.
repealed bv James's Parliament,
223.
Shane O'Neil, 71,84-87.
Shane, Sir Francis, his claim on the
County of Longford, 142.
Shannon, the first Earl of, 265.
second Earl of, 278, 279,294,307.
Sheares, the brothers, 349, 350.
executed, 367.
Shelburne, Lord, 284, 286, 290, 292.
Sidney, Sir Henry, his report of the
state of the Church, 80.
his interview with Shane, 84, 85.
his league against Shane, 87.
his exactions on the Pale, 89, 97,
100.
his campaign in Munster, 94.
"Silken Thomas," 61.
Simnel is crowned in Dublin, 53.
Simple repeal, 292.
Sirr, Town Major, 343, 349.
Skeffington, Sir William, 61.
Sligo, the county of, constituted, 90.
Snierwick, 97-101.
Smith's plantation, 91.
Smugglers, the, 258.
Spaniards, the, land atSmerwiek, 100.
massacred, 100, 101.
land at Kinsale, 119.
Spenser, Edmund, the poet, in Mini-
ster, 100.
his account of the state of Mun-
ster, 103, 104.
receives a grant of land in Cork,
105.
Spies, the, 342,343.
Staples, Bishop of Meath, 76, 77.
Stewart, Robert. See Castlereagh.
Stone, Archbishop, 264, 265.
Strafford, Lord. See Wentworth.
Strongbow, 24.
grants of land made to him, 33.
the inheritors of his estates, 34.
Stukeley, 97.
Subinfeudations, 36, 37.
SuganEarl, the, 115.
Sulchoid, the battle of, 17.
Supremacy, the Act of, 66, 69.
the*oath of, 125, 126, 131, 132,
153. 155,161,162,182, 183, 238, 239.
a test of loyalty, 96.
Survey of Ulster made bv James I.,
127, 132.
Connaught made bv Strafford,
199.
Ireland made bv Sir W. Pettv,
199.
Sussex, the Earl of, 83, 85, 86.
Swift. Jonathan, Dean of St. Patrick's,
261, 262, 266.
Sydney, Lord, his quarrel with the
Irish Commons on the Money bills,
278.
Synod at Kells, the, 14.
at Cashel, the, 27.
at Rath Bresail, the, 13.
T.
Taaffe, defeat of Lord, at Dungan hill,
186.
Talbot, Peter, 215. 216, 227-229.
Talbot, Richard, 209,215,217-221,232.
Tandv, James Napper, 297, 311, 320,
366.
Tanist,the, 4.
Tanistry, the law of, 4.
disturbances concerni ng, 71,72,84.
abolished, 127.
Taylor, Jeremy, 212-214,
Temple, Lord, 295.
Test clause, the, 260,298.
Teutonic immigrations. 3.
Thomond, the earldom of, granted, 69.
Thonory, Bishop of Ossory. 80.
Thurot's attack on Carrickfergus, 267.
Tichborne, Sir Henry, 171,179.
Tillage Act, the, 257,258,27J-273.
Tithe proctors, the, 305, 306.
Tithes, 305, 306.
the institution of, 14.
regulations as to, of King James's
parliament, 222,223. disturbances arising out of the
collection of, 271-273,305.
Toler, the attorney-general, 325, 345.
Toleration Act, the, 260.
Tom the Devil, 355.
Tone, Theobald Wolfe, 310-316, 320-
322, 329,330, 335,341, 366,370, 371.
422
INDEX.
Tories, the hunting-down of the, 195,
238, 239.
depredations by, 214, 229, 238,
239.
acts against, 238, 239.
Torry Island, the massacre of, 129.
Torture of the peasantry and farmers,
346,354, 363, 364.
Townshend, Lord, 276-280, 303.
Trade, 222,223,251, 252, 283.
the destruction of, 255,282,283.
the, with England, 298.
Transplantation, 130,131.
Travers, bishop of Leighlin, 77.
Tribal system, the, 3,4.
decay of the, 16.
Trinity CoHege, Dublin, 126.
Troy, Dr., 374.
Tuath da Danaan, the, 3.
Tuathal, 10,11.
Turanian Irish, the, 3.
Turges, 16.
Turlough O'Brien, king of Ireland,
19.
Turlough O'Connor, king of Ireland,
19.
Tyrconnel, the earldom of, 70,128.
the Earl of. See Richard Talbot.
Tyrone, the county of, constituted, 107,
108,111.
the earldom of, 70.
Hugh, Earl of. See Hugh O'Neil.
■ Hugh, third Earl of, an exile, 166.
Tyrrel, Captain, 112, 113,115,119,120.
U.
Ufiford, SirKalpb,45.
Ulster, incorporation of the new towns
in, 138.
the plantation of, 130.
the risings in, in 1641,167.
tenant-right in, 135.
Undertakers, the, in Leinster, 143.
in Munster, 106.
in Parliament, 131, 132.
in Ulster, 131,133,134.
Uniformity, the Act of, 79, 95,126,153,
213, 214.
Union, the Act of, 380, 381.
a, proposed by the Irish parlia-
ment, 179, 300,301.
unpopular, 301.
Union projected, 315,37J.
the debates on the, 372,373,378-
381.
the proposed, defeated in the
Irish House of Commons, 373.
resolutions in favor of, passed by
the English House of Commons, 373,
380.
resolutions in favor of, passed by
the Irish House of Commons, 380,
381.
outline of the bill for the, 377,
378.
"United army of Wexford," the, 354.
United Irishmen, the Societv of, 297,
313, 319, 820, 336, 338, 339,"343, 351,
352, 354-356,366,367, 378, 379.
formation of the, 310,311.
oath of the, 313.
suppression of the, 321, 322.
reorganization of the, 329,330.
increase of the, 333, 340.
cruelties upon the, 346, 347.
rising of the, 350.
trial of the leaders of the, 366,
367.
University of Dublin, the, 108,126.
Upton, Mr., 272, 273.
Usher, Archbishop, 153,160, 212.
V.
Verois, M. de, his pension, 275.
Vinegar Hill, the rebel camp at, 357,
359.
capture of, 360-362.
Virgilius, bishop of Salzburg, 13.
Volunteers, the, 285,286, 289,290,296,
297.
formation of, 285.
pass resolutions at Dungannon in
favor of legislative independence,
289, 290.
W.
Waller, Sir Hardress, sent prisoner to
England, 206.
Walpole, Col., 358, 359.
Walsh, Bishop of Meath, 79.
Walter, Theobald, 29.
grants made to him, 29.
Warbeck, Per kin, 54.
Wards, the Court of, 155.
INDEX.
423
Waterford captured bv Strongbow,
24.
granted to the Northmen, 27.
besieged by the Earl of Desmond,
54.
surrendered by Preston, 192, 193.
Wentworth, Sir Thomas, 156,181.
his policy, 157.
his arbitrary conduct, 158, 160,
161.
is made Earl of Strafford, 163.
is executed, 163,164.
Westmeath divided from Meath, 82,
83.
plantation of, 140.
Westmoreland, Lord, viceroy, 307,
323.
Wexford, the plantation of the county
of, 141,142.
capture of the town of, by Crom-
well, 190.
by the rebels in 1798,356.
recovery of the town of, 361.
Whig Club, the, 297,308, 309.
the Northern. 309.
Whiteboys, the, 271-274,276, 282.
Acts, the, 273, 296, 305.
White Knight, the, 35,43.
restored to his lands, 105.
rebellion of the, 115.
betrays the Sugan Earl, 119.
Wicklow, the county of, constituted,
137.
—— the plantation of, 137.
William III., 226-229.
his terms to the Irish, 230.
confirms the Treaty of Limerick,
233.
his grants of the confiscated es-
tates, 236.
Wilmot, Lord, 162.
Wingfield, Sir Richard, 149.
Wolfe, attorney-general, 325.
Wolves, increase of, 201.
Wood's patent, 262.
Woollen trade, the, crippled by Went-
worth, 157. 158.
destroyed, 256, 257.
repeal of the laws against, 287.
Wreckers, the, 319.
Wright, Bernard, 346, 364.
Wyse, Mr., 267.
Yellow Ford, the battle of the, 115.
Yelverton, 296.
York, the Duke of, receives a grant of
the estates of the regicides, 208.
resigns the post of High Admiral,
"215.
his Irish policy, 217.
Yorktown, the surrender at, 290.
THE END.

DO NOT REMOVE
OR
MOTILATE CARD
m „,„„„
Cat. No 23 520


1
I1
I


IRELAND
IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VII.
Red. T?i e En gUsh Pa It
Blue. Degenerate English,either absorbed
by, or subject to. Vie native tribe*.
Yellow. Independent, native tribes.
LoiikMihU- Wcttt
of Greeuwicli
New York: Harper it Uruthcrs

9ft


////
10
A, Ten counties divided between the Adventurers
and the soldiers.
B, County Louth, additional security to the Ad-
venturers.
C, Seven counties, additional security to the sol-
diers.
D, Parts of Connaught subsequently taken from what
was reserved for the Irish as additional secu-
rity for the soldiers who hud fought in England
during the Civil Wars.
E, Four Counties given up in 1654 for the arrears
of pay due to the Munster garrison, who had
revolted from Inchiquin to Lord Broghill in
1649.
P. The parts of Connaught and Clare which were re-
served for the Irish. The border line repre-
senting the one-mile line of soldiers planted to
surround them.
Q. Kour counties reserved by the government

U4


IjJ