[g|[ijijpjT]f iin]frm]frugfri^ 1 i i 1 1 1 1 1 1 i i THE LIBRARIES COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY i 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 i E^i rinJ filial f?iJi]niJT]fpjT3|lif^ THE HISTORY OF IRELAKD ANCIENT AND MODEEN. DERIVED FROM OUR NATIVE ANNALS, FI'vOM THE MOST RECENT RESEARCHES OF EMINENT IRISH SCHOLARS AND ANTIQUARIES, FROM THE STATE PAPERS, AND FROM ALL THE RESOURCES OF IRISH HISTORY NOW AVAILABLE. WITH COPIOUS TOPOGRAPHICAL AND GENERAL NOTES. BY MARTIN HAVERTY, ESQ. DUBLIN: JAMES DUFFY, 15, WELLINGTON-QUAY. 1867. ;^^^v,„ j^-Piaau^l^r^ V^ W--^,, V-'-. X ^^^T, t\< ^t ^^ t ^ \ llUIUiUJ . ^~ A /"i. il^iA y^^, ^., 6 IS U' ^0" ,-'„.,^„'-;.Aiinme T^, J ^--_-'' nsia ; but thej' are sometimes set down in old maps as occupy- ing the plate of the Carpathian mountains, and even o( the Alps, and the vague accounts we have of them would answer for any range of mountains in northern Europe. § The Hon. Algernon Herbert, in one of the additional notes to tlie Iri.sh Neunius, shows how this legend of Ireland having been seen from the tower of Betanzos (tiie ancient Flavium Brigau- tiuni) may have arisen from passages of Orosius, the geographer, where mention is made of a lofty Pharos erecttd on the coast of Spain, " arf fpeculum Brilanniw," " for a watch-tOAver iu the dirictiou of Britain ;" and where again, de:;ciibing the coasts of Iielaud, the writer says ^'■proati 12 THE VOYAGE OF ITU. doubt, discovered tlie coast of Ireland, not from the tower of Breogan, which was impossible, but after having sailed thither in search of the land, which, according to the traditions of his race, the children of Niul were destined to possess. He landed at a place since called Magh Ithe, or the Plain of Ith, near Laggan, in the county of Donegal ; and having been taken for a spy or pirate, by the Tuatha de Dananns, was attacked and mortally wounded, when he escaped to his ship and died at sea.t The remains of Ith were carried to Spain by his crew, now commanded by his son Lugaid, who stimulated his kinsmen to avenge his death, and such, according to the chroniclers, was the provocation for the expedition which followed. Accordingly, the sons of Gollam, (who is more generally knowai by his surname of Miledh, or Milesius) the son of Bile, son of Breogan, and hence the nephew of Ith, manned thirty ships, and prepared to set out for Inis Ealga, as Ireland was at that time called. Milesius himself, who was King of Spain, or at least of the Gadelian province of it, and who in his earlier life had travelled into Scythia, and performed sundry exploits there, had died before the news of the death of Ith arrived ; and his wife Scota, the second of the spectant Brigantiam, Calliciae civitatem," &c. — " they lie at a distance opposite Brigantiam, a city of Gallicia," &c ; the words " speculum" and " spectant" having apparently led to the absurd notion that the coast of Ireland was visible from the tower. See also Dr. Wilde's communication to the Royal Irish Academy on the remains of the Pharos of Corunna, which he believes to have been the tower of Breogan. f Whoever attempts to trace on the map of the world the route ascribed in the text to the ancestors of Milesus will find himself seriously puzzled. In all the accounts of these perigrinations two distinct expeditions are alluded to, one by the east and north, and the other westerly, that is, through the Mediterranean Sea and the Pillars of Hercules. The latter is intelligible enough, but the former would imply a pa.ssage by water, from south to north, through the central countries of Europe. The Nemedians and Tuatha de Dananns would also appear to have passed freely in their ships between Greece, or Scythia, and the Northern Seas, without going through the Straits of Gibraltar. Some got rid of this difliculty by treating the whole story as a fable founded on the Argonautic Expedition and its River-Ocean, but even that famous legend of classic antiquity stands itself in need of explanation : and with that view it has been suggested that the Baltic and Euxine Seas were at some remote period connected, and that the vast, swampy plains of Poland were covered with water. A connected series of lakes may thus have extended across the continent of Europe from north to south ; and the lagunes along the present northern coa-t of the Black Sea may indicate what their appearance had been. Traditions of manj- of tlie physical changes which have taken place from time to time in the surface of Ireland, since the universal Deluge, such as the eruption of rivers, and the formation of new lakes and inlets of the sea, are preserved in the Irish annals; and it is probable that the Greek traditions of Deucalion's Deluge, and the theories respecting the eruption of the Euxine into the Archipelago, and of a channe between the ocean and the Mediterranean through ancient Aquataine, may refer to a period whei the ship Argo, and the barques of the descendants of Niul, might have passed from the shores of Greece to the Hyperborean Seas through the heart of Sarmatia, as indicated above. — See " A Vin- dication of the Bardic Accounts of the Early Invasions (f Ireland, and a Verification of the River- ■ Ocean of the Greeki.'" Dublin, 1852. Also the Dublin Univenity Magazine for March, 1852. LANDING OF THE MILESIANS. 13 name we have yet met in these annals, went whh her six sons at the head of the expedition. Some of the accounts mention eight sons of Milesius, but the names given in jNIaebnura's poem are Donn, or Heber Donn, Colpa, Amergin, Ir, Heber (that is, Heber Finn, or the fair), and Heremon. Lugaid, the son of Ith, was also a leader of the expedition, and the names of several other chiefs are given ; and it is probable that the principal portion of the Gadelian colony in Spain sailed on the occasion. A.M. 3500. — It was in the year of the world 3500, and 1700 years before Christ, according to the Four Masters, or a.m. 2934, and b.c. 1015, according to O'Flaherty's chronology, that the Milesian colony arrived in Ireland. The bardic legends say the island was at first made invisible to them by the necromancy of the inhabitants ; and that when they at length effected a landing and marched into the country, the Tuatha de Dananns confessed that they were not prepared to resist them, having no standing army, but that if they again embarked, and could make good a landing according to the rules of war, the country should be theirs. Amergin, who was the oUav or learned man and judge of the expedition, having been appealed to, decided against his own people, and they accordingly re-embarked at the southern extremity of Ireland, and withdrew "the distance of nine waves" from the shore. No sooner had they done so than a terrific storm commenced, raised by the magic arts of the Tuatha de Dananns, and the Milesian fleet was completely scattered. Several of the ships, among them those of Donn and Ir, were lost off different parts of the coast. Heremon sailed round by the noi'th-east, and landed at the mouth of the Boyne, (called nver Colpa, from one of the brothers who was drowned there), and oth ers landed at Inver Scene, so called from Scene Dubsaine, the wife of A mergin, who perished in that river. In the first battle fought with the x'uatha de Dananns, at Slieve Mish, near Tralee, the latter were defeat ed ; but among the killed were Scota, the wife of Milesius, who was b' u-ied in the place since called from her, Glen-Scoheen, and Fas, the wife of Un, another of the Milesians, from whom Glenofaush in the same neighbourhood has its name. After this the sons of Milesius fougnt a battle at Tailtlnn, or Teltown in Meatli, where the three kings of the Tuatha de Dananns were killed and their people completely ^ 'Uted. The three queens, Eire, Fodlila, and Banba, were also slain ; women having been accustomed during the pagan times in Ireland to take part personally in battles, and in many instances to lead the hostile armies to the fiffht. Amono; the Milesians killed in this battle, or rather in the pursuits of the Tuatha de Dananns, were Fuad, (from whom 14 HEKEMON's division of IRELAND. Slieve Fuad in Armagh, a place much celebrated in Irish history, has derived its name), and Cuailgne, who was killed at Slieve Cuailgne, now the Cooley mountains, near Carlingford, in the county of Louth. After the battle of Tel town the Milesians enjoyed the undisturbed possession of the country, and formed alliances with the Firbolgs, the Tuatha de Dananns, and other primitive races, but more especially with the first, who aided them willingly in the subjugation of thtlr late miasters, and Avere allowed to retain possession of certain territories, where some of their posterity still remain. Heremon and Heber Finn divided Ireland between them; but a dispute arising, owing to the covetousness of the wife of Heber, who desired to have all the finest vales in Erin for herself, a battle w^as fought at Geashill, in the present King's county, in Avhich Hereman killed his brother Heber. In the division of Ireland which followed, Heremon, who retained the sovereignty himself, gave Ulster to Heber, the son of Ir ; Munster to the four sons of Heber Finn ; Connaught to Un and Eadan ; and Leinster to Crivann Sciavel, a Damnonian or Firbolg. The people of the south of Ireland in general are looked upon as the descendants of Heber; while the families of Leinster, many of those of Connaught, the Hi Nialls of Ulster, &c., trace their pedigree to Heremon. Families sprung from the sons of Ir are to be found in different parts of Ireland; but of Amergin, the poet and ollav, little is said in this distribution of the land. He is mentioned as having constructed the causeway or tochar of Inver Mor, or the mouth of the Ovoca in Wicklow. The wife of Heremon was Tea, the daughter of Lugaid, the son of Ith, for whom he repudiated his former wife Ovey, who, followed the expedition to Ireland, and died of grief on finding herself deserted ; and it was Tea who selected for the royal residence the hill of Druim Caein, called from her Tea-mur or Tara — that is, the mound of Tea.* In the second year of his reign Heremon slew his brother Amergin in battle, and in subsequent conflicts others of his kinsmen fell by his hands ; and having reigned fifteen years, he died at Rath-Beothaigh, now Rathveagh on the Nore, in Kilkenny. About the period of the Milesian invasion the Cruithnigh, Cruith- nians, or Picts, so called, according to the generally received opinion, from having their bodies tatooed, or painted, are said to have paid a visit to Ireland previous to their final settlement in Alba, or Scotland. • The above etymolofcy of Tara is evidently legendary ; and according to Cormac's Glossary, quoted by O'Donovan (Four Masters, vol. i. p. 31), the name, which in Irish is Teamhair, merely signifies a hill commanding a pleasant prospect. rnr: cruithnians or picts. 15 Having no waves, they obtained Milesian women in marriage ; that is, according to some accounts, they married the widows of those who had been drowned with Heber Donn in the expedition from Spain, making a solemn compact that, should they succeed in conquering the country they were about to invade, the sovereignty should descend in the female line. The Cruithnians were of a kindred race with the Scots or Irish, and for many centuries dwelt as a distinct people in the eastern part of Ulster, where some of their descendants were to be found at the time of the confiscations under James I. ; but the confused traditions about ihe visit of a Pictish colony at the same time with the children of Milesius are properly treated as apocryphal.* * Bede (Hist. Eccl. lib. i. c. 1) gives the following account of the origin of the Picts: — " When the Britons, beginning at the South, had made themselves masters of the greater part of the island, it happened that the nation of the Picts, from Scythia, as is reported, putting to sea in a few long ships, were driven by the winds beyond the shores of Britain, and arrived on the northern coast of Ireland, where, finding the nation of the Scots, they begged to be allowed to settle among them, but could not succeed in obtaining their request The Picts, accordingly, sailing over into Britain, began to inhabit the northern parts thereof Now the Picts had no wives, and asked them of the Scots, who would not consent to grant them on any terms than that when any diffi- culty should arise they should choose a king from the female royal race, rather than from the male ; which custom, as is well known, has been observed among the Picts to this day." See for ample details about the Cruithniaus or Picts, and for all the traditions relative to their intercourse with Ireland, the annotations to the Irish Nennius. CHAPTER III. Questions as to tbe Credit of the Ancient Irish Annals. — Defective Chronology. — The Test of Science applied. — Theories on the Ancient Inhabitants of Ire- land. — Intellectual Qualities of Firbolgs and Tuatha de Dananns. — Monuments of the latter People.— Celts. AVING thus far followed the bardic chroniclers, or seanachies, it is right to pause awhile to consider what amount of credit we may place in them ; and in the next ^i'?^i^^^^ place, what are the opinions of those who reject their authority. A judicious and accomplished Irish annalist, Tighernach, Abbot of Clonmacnoise, who died so early as A.D. 1088, has said that all the Scottish, that is, Irish, records previous to the reign of Cimbaeth, which he fixed at the year B.C. 305, are doubtful ; and we have, therefore, good authority, independent of internal evidence or of the opinions of modern writers, for placing on them but a modified reliance. We must be careful, however, not to carry our doubts too far. These ancient records claim our veneration for their great antiquity, and are themselves but the channels of still older traditions. Writings which date from the first ages of Christianity in Ireland refer to facts upon which all our pre-Christian history hinges, as the then fixed historical tradition of the country; and the closest study of the history of Ireland shows the impossibility of fixing a period previous to which the main facts related by the annalists should be rejected as utterly fabulous. There is no more reason to deny the existence of such men as Heber and Heremon, and therefore, of a Milesian or Scottish colon}', than there is to question the occurrence of the battle of Clontarf ; and the traditions of the Firbolgs and Tuatha de Dananns are so mixed up with our written history, so impressed on the monuments and topography of DEFECTIVE CnRONOLOGY. 17 the country, and so illustrated in the characteristics of its population, tliat no man of learning who had thoroughly studied the subject would now think of doubting their existence. But, as w^e have said, it is for the main facts that we claim this credence. These facts are, of course, mixed up with the quaint romance characteristic of the remote ages in which they were recorded, and the chief difficulty, as in the ancient history of most countries, is to trace out the substratum of truth benea*n the superincumbent mass of fable. The chronology of the pre-Christian Irish annals is ob lously erroneous, but that does not affect their general authenticity. They were compiled for the most part from such materials as g nealogical lists of kings, to whose reigns disputed periods of duration were attri- buted; and those who, in subsequent ages, endeavo red to form regular series of annals out of such data, and to make them synchronize with the history of other countries, were unavoidably liable to error. The Four Masters, adopting the chronology of the Septuagint and tho Greeks, according to wliich the world was 5,200 year's old at the birth of our Saviour, refer the occurrences of Irish history, previous to the Christian era, to epochs so remote as to expose the whole history to ridicule; while OTlaherty, endeavouring to arrive at a more reasonable computation, and taking for his standard the sys'em of Scaliger, which makes the age of the world before Christ some 1250 years less, reduces the dates given by the Four Masters by many hundreds of years ; but the degree of antiquity wnich even he al ows to them surpasses credibility. Thus, according to the author of the Ogygia, the arrival of the Milesian colony took place 1015 years before the Christian era; that is, about 260 years before the building of Rome, making it synchro- nize with the reign of Saul in Israel ; w. ule, according to the Four Masters, that event occurred moi'e than sir hundred years earlier ; that is, many centuries before the foundation of Troy, or the Argonautic expedition; and yet, at that remote period — sixteen hundred years, according to one computation, and at least a thousand, according to another, before Julius Caesar found Britain still occupied by half-savage and half-naked inhabitants — we are asked to believe that a regular monarchy was established in Irelan 1, and was continued through a known succession of kings, to the twelfth century!* A chronology so improbable has natm'ally weakened the credibility of our older annals; but neither bardic legends nor erroneous com- *' Charles O'Connor, of Balenagar, says, in hi Diasertaiions on the History of Ireland, that the Slilesiau invasion cannot have been mucli •'.u'ii'».r or later tliau the vear n.c. 760. C 18 THE TEST OF SCIENCE APPLIED. putations can destroy the groundwork of truth wliich we must recog- nize beneath them. The ancient Irish attributed the utmost importance to the truth of their historic compositions, for social reasons. Their wliole system of society — every question as to the rights of property — turned upon the descent of families and the principle of clanship ; so that it cannot be supposed that mere fables would be tolerated instead of facts, Avhere every social claim was to be decided on their authority. A man's name is scarcely mentioned in our annals without the addition of his fore- fathers for several generations, a thing which rarely occurs in those of other countries. Again, when we arrive at the era of Christianity in Ireland, w^e find that our ancient annals stand the test of verification by science wath a success which not only establishes their character for truthfulness at that period, but vindicates the records of preceding dates involved in it. Thus, in some of the annals, natural phenomena, such as eclipses, are recorded, and these are found to agree so exactly with the calculations of astronomy as to leave no room wdiatever to doubt the general accu- racy of documents found in these particulars to be so correct, at least for periods after the Christian era.* Now, coming to the theories of Irish origins entertained by those who reject the authority of the old annalists either wholly or on this par- ticular point; it is certain, according to them, that Ireland has invariably derived her population from the neighbouring shores of Britain, in the same Avay as Britain itself had been peopled from those of Gaul. It was thus, they tell us, that the Belgse, or Firbolgs, the Damnonians, and the Dananns came successively into Erin, as well as, in after times, that other race called Scots, whose origin seems to set speculation at defiance. Navigation was so imperfectly understood in those ages that such a voyage as that from Spain to Ireland, especially for a numerous squadron of small craft, is treated with ridicule. The knowledge of navigation, • For observations on the comparison of tlie entries of eclipses in the Irish annals with the calculations in the great French work, VAi-t de verifier les Dates, as a test and correction of the former, see 0'Donovan"s Introduction to the Annals of the Four Masters, and Dr. Wilde's Report on the Tables of Deaths in tlie Census of 18.51, where the idea of the comparison has been fi-.Uy carried out. Thus, in the Annals of Innisfallen we find, " a.d. 445, a solar eclipse at the ninth hour." This is the first eclipse mentioned in the Irish annals, and it agrees with the calculated date in rA7-t de verifier les Dafea, where the corresponding entry is, "A solar eclipse visible in North-Westem Europe, July 20th, at half-past five, a.m." And again, in the Annals of Tiger- nach, "a.d. C64. Davit n ess at the ninth hour on the Calends of May;" while in the French astronomical work already quoted, there is noticed for that year " A total eclipse of the sun, visible to Europe and Africa, at half-past three, p.m., 1st of May." THEORIES OF "ETHNOLOGISTS. 19 which all admit the Greeks, and Trojans, and Phoenicians to have possessed, is not acceded to the early colonies of Ireland; but it is argued that as people spread naturally into adjoining countries visible from those Avhence they proceeded, so it is only reasonable to suppose that Ireland received inhabitants from the coasts of Wales or Scotland, from which her shores could be plainly seen, rather than from Thrace or MaCedon, or even from Spain. Similarity of names, also, comes to the aid of this theory ; for it seems probable enough that the Belgce and Dumnonii of Southern Britain were the same race with those bearing almost identically the same names in Ireland. As to the name of Scots, it was never heard of before the second or third century of the Chris- tian era, when it was given to the tribes who aided the Picts in harassing the people of South Britain, and their masters, the Eomans. There is no Irish or any other authority of an older date for the application of the name of Scots to the people of Erin. Irish writers themselves suggest that sciot^ a dart or arrow, may have been the origin of the word Scythia; and with more probability might it have been that of the name Scoti, or Scots, as applied to men armed with weapons so called; and once the name, from this or any other cause, came to be applied to the natives of Ireland, it is easy, we are told, to imagine how the Irish bards built upon it a fine romance, deriving it from an imaginary daughter of King Pharaoh, and perhaps borrowing from it also the idea of claiming for their nation descent from Scythia, the region, at that time, of fabulous heroism. These theories give wide scope to the imagi- nation, and would substitute for the traditions of the old annalists con- jectures quite as vague and inconclusive, however ingenious and learned they may be.* It is generally agreed that the Firbolgs, or Belgians, were a pastoral people, inferior in knowledge to the Tuatha de Dananns, by whom, although the latter were less numerous, they were kept in subjection. * Fiach's hymn, admitted to be the composition of a disciple of St. Patrick, refers to the Milesian traditions of the Irish ; and among the authorities most frequently quoted by Keating, O'Flaherty, and other old writers, on the period of the Tuatha de Dananns, Firboli^s, and the Jlilesian colony, on account of their works being still pre.>erved, are Maelmura of Fathan, who died A.n. 884; Eochy O'Flynn, who died a.d. 984 ; Flan Mainistreach, who died A.n. 1056 ; and Giolla Kevin, who died AD. 1072; all of whom related in verse the written and oral traditions received by themselves from preceding ages. Shortly after the, establishment of Christianity in Ireland, the chronicles of the basds were replaced by regular annals, kept in several of the monasteries, and from this period we may look upon the record of events in our history as, morally speaking, accurate. The statement of Mr. Moore, and of others of his school, that the primitive tnylitions of Irish history were fabricated to please a f;illen nation witli delusions of past glories, is monstrously absurd. They were in existence, and were cberislied by the people ages before the fallen circum- stances which Mr. Moore contemplates. 20 MONUMENTS OF THE EATILY RACES. It is also admitted that the Tuatha de Danann race were superior in their knowledge of the useful arts and in general information to the Gadelian, or Scottish colony, who, however, excelled them in energy, courage, and probably in most physical qualities. To their intellectual superiority the Danann colony owed their character of necromancers, as it was natural that a rude and ignorant people at that age should look upon skilled workmanship and abstruse studies as associated with the supernatural. It is probable that by the Tuatha de Dananns mines were first worked in Ireland ; and it is generally believed that they were the artificers of those beautifully-shaped bronze swords and spear-heads that have been foimd in Ireland, and of which so many fine specimens may be seen in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy. The sepulchral monuments, also, of this people evince extraordinary powers of mind on the part of those by whom they were erected. There is evidence to show that the vast mounds, or artificial hills, of Drogheda, Knowth, Dowth, and New Grange, along the banks of the Boyne, with several minor tumuli in the same neighbourhood, were erected as the tombs of Tuatha de Danann kings and chieftains, and as such they only rank after the pyramids of Egypt for the stupendous efforts which were required to raise them.* As to the Firbolgs, it is doubtful whether there are any monuments remaining of their first sway in Ireland ; but the famous Dun Aengus and other great stone forts in the islands of Aran are well-authenticated remnants of their military structures of the period of the Christian era, or thereabouts. That the Tuatha de Dananns were not a warlike people appears from the tradition of their remonstrance against the first landing of the Milesians, when they admitted that they had no standing army to resist invasion.f Again the question is raised, were these Firbolgs, and Tuatha de Dananns, and Gadelians, all Celts ? And, in reply, it must be said that the term Celt, or Kelt, as it is more correctly pronounced, was unknown • See Dr. Petrie's " History of Tara Hill," and Dr. Wilde's " Beauties of the Boyne and Black- water." t In the Book of MacFirbis, written about the year 1C50, it is said that " every one who is black, loquacious, 1} ing, taletelling, or of low and grovelling mind, is of the Firbolg descent ;" and that " every one who is fair-haired, of large size, fond of music and horse-riding, and practises the art of magic, is of Tuatha de Danann descent." See these passages quoted by Dr. Wilde in au ethnological disquisition on these ancient races, founded on the peculiarities of human crania dis- covered under circumstances that identify them as belonging to tlie two races respectively. 'Beauties of the Boyne and Blackwater," pp. 212, 239. MONUMENTS OF THE EARLY RACES. 21 to the Irish themselves; that the word is of classic origin, and was pro- bably as indefinite as most geographical names and distinctions at that period appear to have been. Finally, it is suggested that in all pro- babihty none of the immigrations into Ireland were unmixed, and that the first population of the island was composed of Celtic, Slavonic, and Teutonic races, mixed up in different proportions. A Scythian origin is claimed for all In the Irish traditions, in which all are traced to Japhet, the son w'ho received the blessing, and through him to the cradle of our race.* * O'FIalierty, in the first part of the Ogygia, gives the following as the results of his researches about the original inhabitants of Ireland : — Tliat the first four colonies came into Ireland from Great Uritain: that Partholan and Nemedius, descendants of Gomar by Riphat, ^Tie from Northern, and the Firbolg colony from Southern Britain ; that these races spoke different languages; that tlie Tuatha de Dananns were the descendants of the Nemedians, who, after sojourning in Scan- dinavia, returned into North Britain, and thence, in the lapjie of time, into the north of Ireland; that the Dananns being subdued by the Scots, the Firbolgs, under the latter, again flourished in Ireland, and enjoyed the sovereignty of Connaught f>r several ages; that the Fomorians, whether tlie aborigines of Ireland or not, were not descendants of Cham, nor from the shores of Africa, but from that country whence the Danes, in after ages, invaded Ireland; and finally, that the Firbolgs and Tuatha de Dananns had frequent intercourse with each other before the conquest of Ireland by the latter." CHAPTER IV. The Milesian Kings of Ireland. — Trial the Prophet. — Tiemmas. — Crom Cruach : the Paganism of the Ancient Irish. — Social Progress. — The Triennial Assembly or Parliament of Tara. — Cimbaeth. — Queen Macha. — Foundation of Emania. — TJgony the Grra t. — 'New Division of Ireland. — Pagan Oath. — A Murrain. — Maeve, Queen of Connaught. — Wars of Connaught and Ulster. — Bardic Eomances. sucli as erection natural related, Irial, ROM the conquest of Ireland (b.c. 1700*) by the sons of Gollamli, or Milesius, to its conversion to Christianity by St. Patrick (a.d. 432), one hundred and eighteen sove- reigns are enumerated, whose sway extended over the whole island, independent of the petty kings and chief- tains of provinces and particular districts. Of this number, sixty Avere of the race of Heremon, twenty-nine of the posterity of Heber Finn, twenty-four of the line of Ir, three were descended from Lugaid, the son of Ith, one was a plebeian, or Firbolg, and one was a woman. The history of their reigns is, to a great -extent, made up of wars either among different branches of their own race or against the Firbolgs and others ; but numerous events are also recorded which mark the progress of civilization, the clearing of plains from woods, the enactment of laws, the of palaces, &c. The breaking forth of several rivers and other phenomena arc mentioned, and a great number of legends many of them curious specimens of ancient romance, surnamed Faidh, or the Prophet, son of Heremon, began the * We continue to employ the chronology of the Four Masters, simply turning the years of the world into the corresponding years before Christ, as being more intelligible; but the reader will observe that, as already stated, no reliance is to be placed on these dates until we arrive witldii a few centuries of the Christian era. All the computations at this early period are equally uncertain ; and we insert the dates merely for the sake of method, to mark the order of events, the nlalive duration of reigns, &c THE IDOL CROM CRUACH. 23 struggle against the Foinorians and Firbolgs, the latter of whom kept the Milesian armies occasionally occupied for centuries after. The tribes of Firbolgs most frequently mentioned are the Ernai and the Martinei, the former of whom are described in one place as holding the present county of Kerry, and the latter the southern portion of the county of Limerick ; and in the reign of Fiacha Lavrainne, who was killed in the year B.C. 1449, the Ernai are stated to hare been routed in battle on a plain where Lough Erne, so called from them, subsequently flowed over the slain. Lial Faidh died on Magh Mual, which is sup- posed to be the plain near Knock Moy, a few miles from Tuam, after clearing a great many extensive plains and erecting several forts during the ten years of his reign. B.C. 1620. — Among the early j^lilesian kings a prominent place is assio-ned to Tiernmas, who is said to have been the lirst to institute the public worship of idols in Ireland. The notion which we can form of the paganism of the ancient Irish is extremely obscure. Owing to the scanty information which the old manuscripts afford vis on the subject every one who has written about it has had ample scope for his own favorite theory, and some of these theories have been advanced with scarcely a shadow of foundation. We shall revert to this subject again, and for the present shall refer only to the worship of Crom-Cruach, the chief idol of the Irish, which stood in INIagh-Slecht, or the Plain of Adoration, in the ancient territory of Breifny.* This idol, wdiich was, covered with gold, was said to represent a hideous monster, and its name implies that it was stooped, or crooked, and also that it was black, for it is sometimes called Crom-Duv. It was surrounded by twelve smaller idols, and was destroyed by St. Patrick, who merely stretched forth towards it, from a distance, his crozier, which was called the Staff of Jesus. It is probable that Tiernmas only erected the rude statue, and that he found the worship prevailing in the country, and handed down, it may be, from the earliest Milesians ; but, at all events, he was punished for his idolatry by a terrible judgment, having been struck dead, with a great multitude of his people, while prostrate before Crom- Cruach, on the Night of Savain, or All Hallow Eve. Tiernmas reigned seventy-seven, or, according to others, eighty years ; and it was under him that gold was first smelted in Ireland, in the district of Foharta, - * The village of Ballymagauran and the island of Port, in the present county of Cav;ui, are situated in the plain anciently called Magh-Sleclit. The idol stood near a river called Gatbuvd, and St. Patrick erected a church called Dono^hmore in the immediate vicinity of the place. ''^-^ 0' Donovan's notes at n-igu of Tighcrnnia.. 400.] HERE is a difference of opinion as to what Irish king reigned at the birth of Christ ; for while the Four Mas- ters, O'Flaherty, and others assign that date to the reign of Creevan Nianair, the hundred and eleventh monarch of Ireland in O'Flaherty's hst, other calculations push forward the reign of Conary the Great, the fourth pre- ceding king, to the Christian era, and make Creevan a cotemporary of Agricola, the Roman governor of Britain. The latter king has been famous for his predatory excur- sions against the Britons, from one of which he brought home several " jewels," or precious objects, among the rest, " a golden chariot ; a golden chess-board, inlaid with a hundred transparent gems; a cloak embroidered with gold ; a conquering sword with many serpents of refined, massy gold inlaid thereon ; a shield with bosses of bright silver ; a spear from the wound infhcted by which no one recovered; a sling from which no erring shot was discharged, &c. ;" and after depositing these A PROJECTED nOMAN INVASION. 31 spoils in Dun Creevan,* at Bin Edar, he died, as the Four Masters have it, m the ninth year of Christ. It is thought to have been about this time that a certain recreant Irish chief waited on Agricola, in Britain, and invited him to invade Ireland, stating that one Roman legion and a few auxiliaries would be sufficient to conquer and retain the island. Agricola saw the importance of occupj-ing a country so favorably situated, and prepared an expedition for the purpose ; but the project was abandoned for some cause not known, probably owing to the formidable military character of the people of Ireland ; and although Britain remained a province of the Roman empire for centiu'ies after, and the natural Avealth of Hibernia was Avell known, foreign merchants being even more familiar with her ports than with those of Britain, still a Roman soldier never set hostile foot on her much-coveted shores. The Scots of Ireland, and their neighbours, the Picts, gave the Roman legions quite enough to do to defend Britain against them from behind the ramparts of Adrian and Antoninus.t While the Milesians were exhausting their strength in internecine wars at home, or with incursions beyond the seas, a large portion of the population of Ireland, composed of various races, and with different sympathies, was engaged upon more peaceable pursuits. Those who boasted of a descent from the Scytho-Spanish hero would have considered themselves degraded were they to devote themselves to any less honor- able profession than those of soldiei's, ollavs, or physicians ; and hence the cultivation of the soil, and the exercise of the mechanic arts, were left almost exclusively to the Fhbolgs and the Tuatha-de-Dananns ; the former people in particular being still very numerous, and forming the great mass of the population in the west. These were ground down by high rents, and the exorbitant exactions of the dominant race, in order to support their unbounded hospitality, and defray the expenses of their costly assemblies ; but this oppression must have caused perpetual dis- content, and the hard-working plebeians, as they were called, must have * Dr. Petrie and Dr. O'Donovan think that the Dun Crimhthain, or Fort of Creevan, was situated on the jutting rock where the Bailey lighthouse now stand.s, at IIow;h. t The passage of Tacitus in which the meditated Roman invasion of Ireland is mentioned is extremely interesting. Describing the proceedings of Agricola in the fifth year of his campaigns in Britain, he say.s; — "Earn partem Britannise quae Hiberniam aspicit caepiis instruxit, in spem magis quam ob f irmidinem ; siquidem Hibernia medio inter Britanniam atque Hispaniam sita, et Gallico quaeque mari opportuna, valentijsiinam imperii partem magnis inviceni usibus miscuerit. Spatium ejus, si Britannia; coraparetur, augiistius, iiostri maris insulas siiperat. Sulum, caelumque et ingenia, cultusque hominum, hand multum k Britannia diiferunt. Melius aditus portusque pel commercia et negotiatores cogniti. Agricola expulsum seditione domestica unum ex regulis gentis exceperat, ac specie amicitia; in occasionem retinebat. S«pe e.^ eo audivi, legione una et msedici* auxiliis debeUari obtinerique Hiberniam posse." — Vita JuUi A^ric, c. 24. 32 INSURRECTION OF THE ATTACOTTI. easily perceived that their Gadelian masters were running headlong to destruction, and that it only required a bold effort to shake off their yoke. It would be curious to know how this feeling developed itself until it was finally acted upon, or whether the popular discontent had any con- nexion with the invitation to the Roman general just referred to. Of the singular and successful revolution which was the result we have no accounts but such as reach us from a hostile source, and are colored by undisguised prejudice. According to these statements, the Aitheach-Tuatha, or Attacotti, as they are called in Latin, that is, the plebeians and helots of the conquered races, with many also of the im- poverished Milesians, conspired to seize the country for themselves.* For this purpose they invited all the kings and nobles, and other leading Milesians, to a grand feast at Magh Cro, the great plain near Knockma, in the county of Galway ; and to provide for a banquet on such a scale, the plebeians spent three years in preparations, during which time they saved one-third of their earnings, and of the produce of the land. A great meeting and a feast seem to have had an irresistible attraction for the Milesians, who accordingly repaired to Magh Cro from every part of Erin, and there, after being feasted for nine days, they were set upon by the Attacotti, and massacred to a man. Only three chieftains, say the seanachies, escaped, and th-^se were still unborn ; their mothers, who were the daughters of the kings of Alba, Britain, and Saxony, having been spared in the general butchery, and having found means to escape into Albion, where the three young princes were born and educated. It is plain, however, that many others also survived, as several Milesian families, not descended from these, are subsequently found in Ireland. The annals do not say how the conspiracy was hatched, and so effectively concealed during the many years required to bi'ing it to maturity ; but after the massacre the Attacotti elected as their king, Carbry, one of their three leaders, who through contempt is called Carbry Cinncait, or the cat-headed, from having ears like those of a cat. Carbry reigned five years, during which time there was no rule or order, and the country was a prey to every misfortune. " Evil was the state of Ireland during his reign ; fruitless her corn, for there used to be but one grain on the stalk ; fruitless her rivers ; her cattle without milk ; her fruit without plenty, for there used to be but one acorn on the oak."t In fact * Several races were mixed up in the population of Ireland at the time of the Aitheach-Tuatha. Some say that their lung, Carbry Cinnceat, was a Scandinavian. The Tuatha-Eoluirg who livtd at that time in Tyrone were a Scandinavian race ♦ Annals of the Four ihisteis. ^ INSURRECTION OF THE ATTACOTTf. 33 the civil war was followed by one of its natural consequences, a famine.* A.D. 14. — After the death of Carbry, his son, the wise and prudent Morann, refused the crown, and advised those who pressed it on him to bring back the rightful heirs. The young princes were accordingly in- vited home from their exile ; Faradach Finnfeachtnach, or the Righteous, the son of Creevan, was elected king of Ireland ; and Morann, the Just, administered the law during his reign, so that peace and happiness were once more restored to Erin. "The seasons were tranquil, and the earth once more brought forth its fruit." It was Morann who made the famous collar or chain which judges after him were compelled to wear on their necks, and which, according to the legends, contracted and threatened to choke them when they were about pronouncing an unjust judgment. This collar is mentioned in several commentaries on the Brehon laws among the ordeals of the ancient Irish, and was used to test the guilt or innocence of acc.used persons. The Attacotti were now subjected to more grievous oppression than ever ; and on the death of Faradach a fresh rebellion broke forth. This time the provincial kings were induced to join in the outbreak, which resulted (a.d. 56) in a desperate battle at Maghbolg, on the bounds of the present counties of Cavan and Meath, where the monarch, Fiacha Finfolay, was killed. Elim, king of Ulster, who had joined the plebeians, was chosen monarch, and had a troubled reign of twenty years, the people leading lawless lives, and the very elements, as in the former case, being at war with the usui'per ; but at the end of this interval Tuathal Teachtar, or the Legitimate, the son of Fiacha Finfolay, and born in exile, returned on the in\^tation of a sufficiently powerful party, and slew Elim in battle at Aichill, or the hill of Skreen, in Meath, and once more brought back prosperity and order to the land. (a.d. 76.) A.D. 106. — Tuathal Teachtar reigned thirty years, during which time he carried on a war of extermination against the ill-fated plebeians, no fewer than 133 battles hav-ing been fought with them in the different provinces. He established himself more firmly on the throne by exacting from the people a similar oath to that of Ugony Mor, "by the sun, moon, and elements," that his posterity should not be deprived of the sovereignty. • Flann of Monasterboice synchronises the reigns of Carbiy Cinncait and his immediate successor with the Emperors Titus and Domitian. Fifty years before tlio insuirectiou of the Attacotti. Conaire Mor, monarch of Ireland, was Idlled by insurgents at Bruighcau-da-Dhearg, on the; Dothair, or Dodder, a name which Dr. O'Donovan believes to be preserved iu that of Boher-na- Breena, the road of the Bruighean or fort. -^ 34 CONN OF THE HUNDRED BATTLES V He cut off from each of the other four provinces a portion of territory, of which he formed the separate province of Meath, as the mensal lands of the cliief king ; he celebrated the Feis of Tara with great state, and held provincial conventions at Tlachta, Uisneach, and Tailltinn, in the Momo- nian, Connacian, and Ultonian portions of Meath, and he imposed on the province of Leinster the degrading Boruwa, or cow-tribute, which continued during the reigns of forty succeeding monarchs of Ireland, being inflicted as an eric, or fine, on the king of Leinster, for having taken Tuathal's two daughters as wives, on the pretence, when he asked the second one, that the former wife was dead, the death of both being the consequence.* Tuathal's great power, or the oath he exacted from his subjects, did not save him from the usual fate of the Irish kings, as he was killed in battle by his successor, Mai, who, in his turn, was slain by Tuathal's son, Felimy Rechtar, or the Law-maker. Felimy, who died a.d. 119, was the son of a Scandinavian princess, named Baine, the daughter of Seal, king of Finland, and this connec- tion shows the intercourse that existed between the Scots of Ireland and the Northmen at this early period. The great rath of Magh Leavna, in the present county of Tyrone, was erected by this princess. Fehmy, the Law-giver, substituted for the principle of retaliation the law of Eric, or fine. A.D. 123-157. — The reign of Conn of the Hundred Battles forms one of the most remarkable epochs in the ancient history of Ireland. His surname sufficiently indicates the military character of his career, and his heroism and exploits are a favorite theme of the bards ; but Conn found a formidable antagonist in the brave and adventurous IMoh Nuad (]\Iogh Nuadhat), otherwise called Owen or Eugene the Great (Eoghan Mor), son of Mogh Neit, king of Munster, and the most distinguished hero of the race of Heber Finn, It would appear that tribes of the race of Ii',t * The Boruwa, or Leinster cow-tribute, which was the cause of innumerable wars, was levied every second year. Its amount is differently stated, but according to Mageoghegan's Annals of Clonmacnoise, it consisted of the following items: " 150 cows, 150 hogs; 150 coverlets, or pieces of cloth to cover beds withal ; 150 caldrons, with two passing great caidrons, consisting in breadth and deepness five fists, for the king's own brewing; 150 couples of men and women in servitude, to iraw water on their backs for the said brewing; together with 150 m&ids, with the king of Leinster's own daughter, in like bondage and servitude." The tribute was enforced for 600 years. According to Tigernach, Tuathal was killed in the last year of Antoninus Pius, that is, about A.D. 160, showing, as usual, an error of the Four Masters in antedating. \ Ir, Avho was brother of Ileber and Heremon, was ancestor of the old kings of Ulster, whose descendants settled in various parts of Ireland, as the Magennises of Iveagh, O'Connors of Cor- comroe and Kerry, O'Loughlins of Burren, O'Farrells of Longford, MacHannalls of Leitrim ; the O'Mores and their correlatives, the seven septs of Leix, now the Queen's County ; and all the Connaught septs called Conmaicne. — L>r. 0' Donovan. THE BATTLE OF MAGH-LEANA. 35 called Erneans, and of the line of Itli,* gradually encroached on the territory of Heber's posterity, the legitimate possessors of the south- ern province, until they were able to seize the regal power, which they continued for some time to hold alternately to the exclusion of the line of Heber, When Eugene was still in his youth he was compelled to fly from his own country, the sovereignty of which was claimed by three princes of the hostile races, all of whom he regarded as usurpers ; and having repaired to liis fosterer, Daire Barrach, son of Cathaire Mor, king of Leinster, from whom he obtained such aid as enabled him to take the field in the assertion of his rights ; and in a short time he drove those of the Erneans as would not acknowledge his authority out of Munster, and struck up a temporary alliance with the chiefs of the race of Ith. The Erneans appealed to Conn, who embraced their cause, and thus a des- perate war broke out between Eugene and the monarch of Ireland, in the course of which the latter was defeated in ten pitched battles, and was so hard pressed as to be compelled to divide Ireland equally with the victorious Eugene ; the line of division being, the chain of sand hills called the Esker Riada, one extremity of which is the eminence on the declivity of which Dublin Castle stands, while its western terminus is at the peninsula of Marey, at the head of Galway Bay. The country to the north of this line was called Leath Cuinn, or Conn's half ; and all to the south Leath Mogha, or Moh Nuad's half ; and although this di- vision held in reality only for a very short time, some say for one year, it has ever since been preserved by Irish writers, who frequently employ these names for the northern and southern halves of Ireland. Eugene's ambition increased with his success, and he hastened to pick another quarrel with Conn, complaining that the principal resort of ship- ping was on the northern side of Dublin bay, in Conn's half, and insisting on an equal division of the advantages of the port. This demand was indignantly rejected by Conn, and both parties again took the field. A vivid, but fabulous, account of the brief campaign which ensued is given in the Irish historical romance of the battle of Magh Leana.f Eugene * Ith, the nncle of Milesius, was the ancestor of the O'Driscolls, and all their correlatives in the territory of Corca-Luighe (originally co-extensive with the dioccsu of Ross in Cork), the MacClancys of Dartry, in Leitrim, and other families. — Ibid. t This curious tract, which affords much interesting information on the manners and customs of the ancient pagan Irish, although its own antiquity is not very great, has been translated by Eugene Curry, Esq., M.R.I.A., and with a valuable introduction from that learned Irish ollav, has been puhlished by the Celtic Society. Magh Leaua, where the battle was fought, is the present parish of Moylana, or Kilbride, containing the town of TuUamore in the King's County. Tiger- naoh places ^e division of Ireland between Conn and Eoghan Mor under the date a.d. 160. 36 THE THREE CARBUYS. in his youth had been obliged to fly to Spain, where he obtained Bera, the king's daughter, in marriage, and he was now, as the story just men- tioned relates, aided by an army of Spalnards, commanded by his brother- in-law, the Spanish prince Frejus. The hostile armies were drawn up in view of each other on Magh Leana ; but while an overweening confidence had made Eugene careless, a sense of inferiority in point of numbers rendered his foe double wary. An attack was made by the army of the north at the dawn of day, while the southerns were yet buried in sleep, and an utter defeat and slaughter followed ; Eugene and his Spanish ally being killed while slumbering in their tents by GoU, the son of Morna, one of the Belgic champions of Connaught. Two small hil- locks are shown to the present day which are said to cover the ashes of the brave and ill-fated Moha Nuad, and his Iberian friend * After a reign of thirty-five years, and in the hundredth year of his age (a.d. 151), while engaged in making preparations for the triennial convention or Feis of Tara, Conn of the Hundred Battles was murdered by Tibraid Tirach, king of Ulster, whose grandfather had been slain by Conn's father.f His successor and son-in-law, Conary II., is remarkable as the father of the three Carbrys, the progenitors of several important tribes. Thus, from Carbry Muse, six districts in Munster received the name of Muskery, one of these being the present baronies of Upper and Lower Ormond, in Tipperary ; and another, the barony of Muskery in Cork ; Carbry Bascain the second, gave his name to the territory of Corcabaiscinn, in the south-west of Clare ; and thirdly, from Carbry Riada (Riogh-fhada, i.e., of the long wrist), were descended the Dalriads of Antrim, and the famous tribe of the same name in Scotland.:}: * One of the acts which have rendered the memory of Moha Nuad famous in our annals was the saving of his kingdom of Muneter from a famine by his foresight in providing com during years of abundance. I Conn of the Hundred Battles was the ancestor of the most powerful families of Ireland, as the O'Neills, O'Donnells, O'iMelaghlins, Mageoghegans, Maguire?, MacMahons, O'Kellys, O'Cunors of Connaught, O'Dowdas, O'Malleys, O'Flahertys, &c. Cathair Mor, king of Leinster, and Conn's immediate predecessor as monarch of Ireland, was the ancestor of the great Leinster families of MacMurrongh Kavanagh, O'Conor Faly, O'Dempsey, O'Dunn, MacGorman O'lMurroughou (Murphy), O'Toole, O'Byrne, &c. The Leinster family of MacGillapatrick, or Fitzpatrick, of Ossory, do not trace their descent to Cathair Mor, but they and all the families mentioned in this note are of the race of Heremon, through Ugoiiy Mor. J The territory called Dalriada comprised the northern portion of the present county of Antrim, and it is probable that the name Route, applied to a part of the district, is a corruption of the ancient word. The name of Dalriada is not to be confounded with that of Dalaradia, also called Ulidia, and comprising the southern portion of Antrim and the eastern part of the county of Down. Dalaradia, or Dalaraidh, takes its name from Fiacha Araid, a king of Ulster of the Irian race, and was peopled by tribes of the line of Ir, or Rudricians (Clanna Rory), as they are frequently called from Rury, a king of Ulster of that race; whereas Dalriada belonged to the race of Heremon. A Pictish colony from Scotland settled in Dalaradia about a century before the Christian era. OII.IOL OLU>.. ' 37 This Carbry Riada is mentioned under the name of licudii, bv Ven- erable Bede, as the leader of the Scots, who, coining from Hibernia nito Alba or Scotland, obtained, either by alliance or by conquest, from the Picts, the territory which they continued in his time to hold ; and as we shall hereafter see, it was about three centuries from this migration that a fresh colony from the Dalriada of Ireland, under Fergus, the son of Ere, invaded Scotland, and laid the foundation of the Scottish monarchy.* In the reign of Oiliol Olum, who was at this time king of Munster, a war raged, in which this king's step-son, Lewy, surnamed Mac Con, Avas the aggressor. Mac Con was the head of the descendants of Ith,t and with him were leagued the powerful tribe of the Erneans of Munster, and Dadera, the Druid of the Ithian tribe of Dairinni ; while on the other side were the King Oiliol, his numerous sons, and the three Carbrys, sons of Conary, monarch of Ireland. A battle was fought at Ceannfavrat,t in which several of the leaders on both sides were slain, and Mac Con having been worsted fled to Britain, whence he returned in a few years, with an army of foreigners, and again gave battle to his foes on the plain then called Magh Mucrive near Athenry, where he gained a decided victory, the then monarch of Ireland, Art the Melancholy, son of Conn of the Hundred Battles, together with seven sons of Oiliol Olum, falling in the conflict.§ Thus Mac Con obtained for himself the crown of Ard- righ, or chief king of Ireland. * The earliest mention of the name of Scots is by Porphyry, in tlie third century ; and the first mention of the Picts is by Eumenius, about tlie close of the same century. The words of Porphyry are quoted by St. Jerome — (Epist ad Ctesiphontem contra Pekignm.) Both Scots and Picts are referred to as nations well known at that time ; but then, and for many centuries after, the name of Scots was only given to the inhabitants of Ireland. Some modern writers insist that even in the time of St. Patrick the Scots were only a tribe or section of the inhabitants of Ireland, and that the people who composed the bulk of the population were those called by the Apostle " Hiberio- naces." The territory first acquired by the Gaels, or Scots, from the Picts, is the present county of Argyle, the name of which is contracted, says O'Donovan, from Airer-Gaeidheal, that is, the region or district of the Gaeidhil. t From this Mac Con are descended the O'Driscolls, and others not reckoned among the Milesian families, as they belong to the collateral line of Ith. J It is probable that Ceann-abhrat, or Kenfebrat, was the mountain now called Seefin, one of the Slieve Riach or Castle Oliver group of mountains, on the borders of the counties of Cork and Limerick. It is frequently referred to in the most ancient Irish records, and its position is indi- cated in the Book of Lisraore, fol. 207; and the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, lib. iii., c. 48. § Oiliol Olum, king of Munster, was son of Mogh Nuadhat, or Eoghan Mor, and son-in-law of Conn of the Hundred Battles. Of his numerous progeny of children, three are particularly remark- able in Irish family history ; first, Eoghan Mor, or Eugene the Great, who must not be confounded with his grandfather bearing the same title. He was the progenitor of the great old South Mun- ster families called by the genealogists Eoghanachts or Eugenians, as the M'Carthys, O'Donohocs, O'Keefs, &c. ; secondly, Cormac Cas, king of Munster, and progenitor of the Dal Cassians or Thomond families, as the O'Briens, M'Mahons, M'Namaras, &c. ; and thirdl}', Cian, the ancestor of the families comprised under the tribe name of Cianachta, as the O'Carrols of Ely O'Carrol, O'Meagher, O'Connor of Glengiven, &c 3P< RKTGN OF CORMAC MAC AKT At this period flourished Cual, or Cumhal, father of the hero, Fuin Mac Cuail, and captain of the renoAvned Irish legion, called the Fianna Eirion, or Irish Militia, about which majrvellous stories are related by the bards and seanachies. This famous corps is supposed to have been organised after the model of a Roman legion, and to have been intended as a bulwark against Roman or other invasion. There can be no doubt that it was admirably trained, and composed of the picked men of Erin, but for its discipline and loyalty much cannot be said ; for after frequent acts of treason and insubordination, the monarch was finally obliged, as we shall presently see, to disband it, and to call in the aid of other troops to effect that object. To the treachery of the Fianna Eirinn Keating attributes the defeat and death of Art in the battle of Magh Mucrive. A.D. 227. — Cormac Ulfadha, the son of Art and grandson of Conn of the Hundred Battles, having removed the usurper Mac Con, and also another usurper of lesser note, named Fergus, ascended the throne of Tara, and his reign is generally regarded as the brightest epoch in the entire history of pagan Ireland. He set in earnest about the task of reducing the several provinces to a due submission to the sovereign; beginning with the Ulidians, next proceeding to Connaught, and subse- quently to Munster, with occasional incursions into all the provinces, gaining many victories, (although he had some reverses in the early part of his career,) and establishing his authority and laws everywhere at the point of the sword. In that rude age means so desperate may have been necessary to sustain any authority at all ; but when Cormac established his sway he made it subserve the cause of civilization and order in a man- ner never attempted by any of his predecessors. It is generally admitted that Christianity had even then penetrated into Ireland, and that its benign influence had reached this monarch's mind. Cormac, it is said, at the close of his life adored the true God, and attempted to put down druidism and idol worship. It is at all events certain that he endeavoui'ed to promote education. He established three colleges, one for war, another for history, and the third for jurisprudence. He collected and remodelled the laws, and published the code which remained in force until the English invasion, and outside the English Pale for many centuries after. He assembled the bards and chroniclers at Tara, and directed them to collect the annals of Ireland, and to continue the records of the country from year to year, making them synchronize with the history of other countries — Cormac himself, it is said, having been the inventor of this kind of clu'onology. These annals formed what was called the PsaUer of Tara, which also HIS ABDICATION. 39 contained a description of the boundaries of provinces, canthreds, and smaller divisions of land throughout Ireland; but unfortunately this great record has been lost, no vestige of it being now, it is believed, in existence. The magnificence of Cormac's palace at Tara was commensurate with the greatness of his power and tlie brilliancy of his actions ; and he fitted out a fleet, which he sent to harass the shores of Aiba or Scotland, until that country also was compelled to acknowledge him as sovereign. In his old age he wrote a book or tract called Teagusc-na-Ei, or the Institutions of a Prince, which is still in existence, and which contains admirable maxims on manners, morals, and government. There are blemishes on his character in the early part of his life, such as the employment of assassins to free himself from his enemies, and some shameful breaches of his engagements ; but he nevertheless stands forth as the most accomplished of the pagan monarchs of Ireland. As an instance of the barbarous manners against which he had to struggle, wo read that (most probably during one of Cormac's expeditions to a distant locality) his own father-in-lav/, Dunlong, kmg of Leinster, made a descent upon Tara, and for some cause which is not mentioned, massacred all the inmates of a female college or boarding-school, consisting of thirty young ladies of noble rank, whom some -writers suppose to have been druidesses, with their three hundred maids and attendants. Cormac avenged this atrocity by causing twelve dynasts or nobles of Leinster w^ho had been engaged in the massacre to be executed, and by exacting Tuathal's Boarian tribute, with an additional mulct, from the province. Cormac, in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, having had his eye thrust out with a spear by Aengus, son of Fiacha Suihe, brother of Conn of the Hundred Battles, abdicated, in compliance with a law which required that the king should have no personal blemish, and retired to a philosophical retreat, but not until he had inflicted chastisement on the tribe whose head had thus maimed him.* He died (a.d. 266) at Cleiteach (near Stackallan Bridge, on the south bank of the Boyne), the bone of a salmon having choked him, through the contrivances of the * It Tva3 on this occasion that Cormac expelled the tribe of the Deisi, the descendants of Fiacha Suihe, brother of Conn of the Hundred Battles, from the territory which they held near Tara, now the barony of Deece, in the county of Meath ; and it was only after a lapse of some years that these people, afterwards so frequently mentioned in Irish historj', settled down in that territory of Munster, part of which has since borne their name, viz., the present baronies of Decies in the county of Waterford. The principal families of this tribe are the O'Brlcs, O'Phelans, O'Mearas, and O'Keans of Hy-Folay, &c. 40 THE BATTLE OF GAVRA. Druids, as it was thought, for his having abandoned their superstitions for the adoration of the true God. A.D. 268. — Carbry, son of Cormac Mac Art, and surnamed Liffechar, from having been fostered on the banks of the Liffey, was engaged during his reign in a desperate war with Munster " in defence of the rights of Leinster," and it was this quarrel which led to the battle of Gavra Aichill, celebrated in Irish bardic story. Finn Mac Cuail, and his Clanna Baiscne, or legion of Finian Militia, were, as we have said, but unsteady supporters of the sovereign ; and that illustrious warrior having been assassinated by a fisherman on the banks of the Boyne, whither he had retu'ed in his old age, the king took the opportunity to disband the Finian Militia, while the latter, instead of submitting to the monarch's commands, repaired to his enemy, Mocorb, son of Cormac Cas, king of Munster, and made an offer of their services, which was readily accepted. Carbry, upon this, applied for succour to Aedh, the last of the Damnonian kings of Connaught, who sent a bat- talion of his heroic militia, the Clanna Morna, the deadly enemies both of the Clanna Baiscne and of the Munster princes. Such were the rival military tribes who fought to mutual extermination in the bloody battle of Gavra (a.d. 284). Oisin, the warrior-poet, son of Finn Mac Cuail, celebrated the deeds performed on the occasion in verses which tradition has preserved for more than fifteen hundred years. Oscar, the son of Oisin, met Carbry in the fight, and fell in the ten-ific single combat which ensued between them ; but Carbry did not fare better ; for, while ex- hausted with fatigue and covered with wounds, he was met by his own kinsman, Semeon, one of the tribe of Foharta which^ad been expelled into Leinster, and fell an easy prey to his vengeance.* Thus ended the wild heroism of Finn, the son of Cual, and of his companions in arms, whose exploits were long the favorite theme of the Irish bards, by whom they were embellished Avith such fables and exaggerations as have re- moved them almost wholly into the region of mythology and romance.f " The tribe of the Foharta were the descendants of Eochy Finnfothart, uncle of Art, son of Conn of the Hundred Battles, and who had been expelled by Art from Meath. They obtained lands in Leinster, and gave their name to the territories forming the baronies of Forth in Wexford and Carlow. f The reader will at o;ice be reminded by the names in the text of Macpherson's famous literary forgeries, the object of which was to rob Ireland of her Ossianic heroes and transfer them to the soil of Scotland. The cheat, however, was exploded a great many years ago. It is well known that Macpherson merely collected some of the traditional poems, which had been preserved by the Gaelic peasantry of the Scottish Highlands as well as in Ireland; and that partly by translation and partly by imitation of these remains, and without any attention to chronological order or correctness, but with innumerable perversions of sense, he composed those pretended translations of the poems of Ossian, which, for some time, enjoyed such wonderful celebrity, and which might FALL OF EMANTA. 41 A.D. 322.-^Fiacha Sravtiime, son of Carbry Liffecher, after reigning thirty-seven years, was slain by the three Collas, the sons of his brother, Eochy Doivlen ; but when the eldest brother, Colla Uais, had occupied, the throne four years, he was deposed and expelled, together with his brothers and a few followers, into Scotland, by Muireach Tirach, king Fiacha's son, who subsequently reigned as Ardrigh thirty years. In a short time the three Collas returned, and were reconciled to their cousin, king Muireach Tirach, who supplied them with means to gratify their restless ambition ; whereupon they entered Ulster with an army composed partly of auxiliaries from Connaught, and defeating the Ulster king in battle, in the present barony of Farney, in Monaghan, sacked and burned his palace of Emania — the Emania of Queen Macha, and of the Red- branch knights — and seizing a large territory for themselves, circum- scribed the kingdom of Ulster within much narrower limits than before. This event took place in the year 331 ; and the territory thus seized by the three Collas, and from which they expelled the old possessors, that is, the Clanna Rory, or descendants of Ir, was called Orgialla, or Oriel, and comprised the present counties of Louth, Monaghan, and Armagh.* A.D. 378. — Under this date we read of one of those domestic tragedies which savour of a somewhat more advanced age of civilization and in- trigue. Eochy Muivone, the son of Muireach Tirach, had two queens, one of whom, Mongfinn, or the Fairhaired, of the race of Heber, had four sons, the eldest of whom, Brian, the ancestor of the O'Connors of Con- naught, was her favorite, and, in order to hasten his elevation to the throne, she poisoned her brother Creevan, who had succeeded Eochy ; but, as the annalists observe, her crime did not avail her, for Creevan was succeeded, not by her son Brian, but by Niall of the Nine Hostages, the son of her husband Eochy by his former wife ; and none of her descendants attained the sovereignty, except Turlough More O'Connor, always interest the world as curious and beautiful productions if they had not been utterly spoiled by the taint of forgery and falsehood. Finn Mac Cuail was married successively to two daughters of the monarch Carmac Mac Art ; Ailve, the second, having been given to him after Graine, the former, had eloped with his lieutenant, Diarmod O'Duivne. Gavra Aichill, where the battle was fought, is believed by Dr. O'Donovan (Ann. Four Mast. vol. i., p. 120, n. b.), to have been conti- guous to the hill of Skreen, near Tara, in Meath. The name is preserved in that of Gowra, a stream in the parish of Skreen, which receives a tribute from the well of Neamhnach, on Tara Hill, and flows into the Boyne at Ardsallagh. The publications of the Ossianic Society have lately made the world familiar with many of the poems and legends about Finn Mac Cuail and his times. * Colla Uais, the oldest of the buthers, was the ancestor of the MacDonnells, Mac AUisters, and MacDugalds of Scotland ; Colla IMean, of the ancient inhabitants of the present district of Cre- morne, in Monaghan ; and Colla Dachricli, the youngest, of the MacMahons of Monaghan, the Maguirea of Fermanagh, the O'Hanlons and MacCanns of Armagh, &c. <•? NIALL OF THE NINE HOSTAGES. and his son Roderick, the unhappy king who witnessed the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. The wretched Mongfinn tasted of the poisoned cup herself, to remove her brother's suspicions, and thus sacrificed her own life as well as his.* A.D. 379 — Niall, surnamed Naoi Ghiallach, or of the Nine Hos- tages, the ancestor of the illustrious tribe of Hy-Niall, or O'Neill, was one of the most famous of the pagan monarchs of Ireland, but his energies appear to have been wholly devoted to his hostile expeditions against Albion or Britain, and Gaul. In the history of those countries we find evidence enough of the fearful ravages inflicted in these expeditions. The Scots (or Irish) were as formidable at that time as the Northmen were in a subsequent age. Their incursions were the scourge of all western Europe. According as Rome, in her decay, became unable to protect her outlpng provinces, these terrible Scots, with their Pictish allies, plundered and laid waste the rich countries thus abandoned by the Roman eagle. The Britons were unable to make any stand against them. The Roman walls, when the Roman garrisons were removed, ceased to be any barrier ; and while the Dalriadic and Pictish armies poui'ed into Britain through the wide breaches made in the walls of Antoninus and Severus, the seas from north to south swarmed with the fleets of the Irish invaders. For a while Britain was wholly subdued, and we know from the Britons' own account, in their sad petition to Rome for aid, to what a miserable plight they were reduced, flying for shelter to woods and morasses, and fearing even to seek for food, lest their hiding-places should be discovered by the ruthless foe. It was to resist these Irish invaders that Britain was obliged to become an Anglo-Saxon nation. Yet, of the transactions of that eventful period our Celtic annals contain only the most meagre record. We know from other sources that Christian missionaries had at that time already penetrated into Ireland, but our annals pass over their presence in silence ; and it is to the verses of the Latin poet Claudian that we must refer for the fact that troops were sent by Stilicho, the general of Theodosius the Great, to repel the Scottish hosts, led by the brave and adventurous Niall.f * Creevan died in the Sliev Oighidh-an-righ, or " mountain of the king's death," no-iv the Cratloe mountains in the county of Clare, near Limerick. t At the time of the Scottish incursions into tlie Roman provinces, an important part was played by the people called Attacotti, a word which is believed to be a corruption of their Irish name of Aitheach-Tuatha. Some tribes of this great Firbolg race, in the course of the frequent wars waged against them in Ireland, settled in Scotland, not far from the Roman wall, and became active par- ticipators in the depredations of the Scots and Picts. Numerous bodies of them, who are supposed NIALL OF THE NINE HOSTAGES. 43 During the three successive reigns of Creevan, Niall of the Nine Hostages, and Dathy, our annals record no remarkable domestic wars ; but of the first of these three kings we are told that in his short reign he brought over numerous prisoners and hostages from Scotland, Britain, and Gaul ; of the second, it is recorded that he was slain by Eocliy, the son of Enna Kinsellagh, " at Muir-n-Icht, the sea between France and England," supposed to be so called from the Portus Iccius of Caesar, near the modern Boulogne ; while Keating says that it was on the banks of the Loire he was treacherously killed by the above-named domestic enemy, who had found his way thither in the ranks of Mall's Dalriadic allies from Scotland.* Finally, of Dathy it is related that he was killed by lightning, at Sliev Ealpa, or the Alps, and that his body was carried home by his soldiers, and interred at Rathcroghan, in Connaught, under a red pillar stone. Hoav this Irish king, in the year of our Lord 428 penetrated to the foot of the Alps with his armed bands, traversing Europe, as Rollo did long after him, history does not particularly tell us, but it records enough about the devastating inroads of the Scots to satisfy us of its possibility-t Dathy, although not the last pagan king, was the last king of pagan Ireland, and after him we read no more in the Irish annals of plundering expeditions into foreign countries. It was probably in the last descent to have deserted from their allies, were incorporated in the Roman legions, and figured in the Roman wars on the continent at that period. One of the passages of Claudian, referred to above, is that in which the poet says: — " Totani cum Scotus leruem Movit, et infesto spuraavit remige Tethys." That is, as translated in Gibson's Camden : " When Scots came thundering from the Irish shores, And the ocean trembled, struck with hostile oars." * This great monarch (Niall) bad fourteen sons, of whom eight left issue, who are set down in the feHo^^ iug order by O'Flaherty (Ogygia, iii. 85) :— 1. Leaghaire, from whom are descended the O'Coindhcalbhains, or Kendellans, of Ui Laeghaire ; 2. Conall Crimhthainne, ancestor of the O'Me- laghlins; 3. Fiacha, a quo, the Mageoghegans and O'MoUoys; 4. Elaine, a quo, O'Cahamy, now Fox, O'Breen, and Magawly, and their correlatives in Teffia. All these remained in Meath. The other four settled in Ulster, wheie they acquired extensive territories, viz., 1. Eoghan, the ancestor of O'Neill, and various correlative families ; 2. Conell Gulban, the ancestor of O'Donncll, &c. ; 3. Cairbre, whose posterity settled in the barony of Carbery, in the now county of Sligo, and in the barony of Granard, in the county of Longford ; 4. Enda Finn, whose race settled in Tir Enda, in Tirconnell, and in Kenel-Enda, near the hill of Uisneach, in Westmeath.— & Donovan. * The Abb6 M'Geoghegau mentions a curious corroboration of this event. He says (page 94, Duffy's ed.) :— " The relation of this expedition of Dathy agrees with the Piedmontese tradition, and a very ancient registry in the archives of the house of Sales, in which it is said that the king of Ireland remained some time in the Castle of Sales. I received this account from Daniel O'Mulryan, a captain in the regiment of Mountcashel, who assured me that he was told it by the Marquis de Sale?, at the table of Lord Mountcashel, who had taken him pi-isoner at the battle of Marseilles." 44 ST. PATRICK S CAPTIVITY. of his predecessor, Niall of the Nine Hostages, upon Armoric Gaul, that the youth, Patrick, son of Calphurn, was, together with his sisters Darerca and Lupita, first carried, among other captives, to Ire- land. Holy prize ! thrice happy expedition ! Irishmen may well ex- claim; for although the conversion of their country to Christianity, in common with the rest of Europe, was an event that could not have been delayed much beyond the time at which it took place, whoever had been its apostle, it is impossible for any one who has considered, with Catholic feelings, the history of religion in Ireland, not to be impressed with the conviction that this country has been indebted in a special manner, under God, to blessed Patrick, not only for the mode in which she was converted, but for the glorious harvest of sanctity which her soil was made to produce, and for the influence of his intercession in heaven from that day to the present CHAPTER VI. Civilization of the Pagan Irish. — Their Knowledge of Letters. — The Ogham Craev. — Their Eeligion. — The Brehon Laws. — Tanistry. — Gavel-kind. — Tenure of Land. — Rights of Clanship. — Reciprocal Privileges of the Irish Kings. — The Law of Eric. — Hereditary Offices. — Fosterage. E have thus succinctly, but carefully, analysed the entire pagan history of Ireland ; and before we proceed farther it is right to consider some interesting questions which must have suggested themselves to the reader, as we went along. As, for instance, what kind of civilization did the pagan Irish enjoy? what knowledge of arts and literature did they possess? what was the nature of their religion ? what is known of their laws and customs ? what monuments have they left to us? That the first migrations brought with them into this island at least the germs of social knowledge appears to be indisputable ; and although these were not developed into a civilization of arts and literature, like that of Rome or Greece, still, the social state which they did produce was far removed from barbarism, in the sense in which that term is usually understood. We have ample reason to believe, not merely that Ireland in her days of paganism had reached a point relatively advanced in the social scale, but that Christianity found her in a state of intellectual and moral preparation superior to that of most other countries. How otherwise indeed should we account for the sudden lustre of learning and sanctity, by which ic is confessed she became distinguished, almost as soon as she received the Gospel, and which surely could not have been so rapidly produced among a people 60 barbarous as some writers would have us believe the Irish to have l>een before their conversion to Christianity? 40 EARLY IRISH CIVILIZATION. AVliile Ireland, isolated and independent, had lier own indigenous institutions, and her own patriarchal system of society, Britain and Gaul lay in subjection at the feet of Rome, of whose arts and matured organization they thus imbibed a knowledge. It is true, that what Celtic Britain thus learned she subsequently lost in the invasions of Saxons and Scandinavians, and that it w^as Roman missionaries and a Norman conquest that again restored to her the arts of civilization ; but this civilization it was, derived from Rome in the days of her decline, and modified by the barbaric elements on which it was engrafted, that created the centralised power, and sent out the mailed warriors, of the feudal ages, and that gave to Anglo-Norman England the advantages which she enjoyed, in point of arms and discipline, in her contest with a country which had dciived none of her military art, or of her political organization from Rome. This connexion with Imperial Rome, on the one side, and its absence on the other, were quite sufficient to detenriine the destinies of the two countries. But the state of a people secluded from the rest of the world, whose curious and interesting history we have been tracing for a thousand:.years or more before the liistory of Britain commences, and whose copious and expressive language, and domestic and military arts, and costume, and laws, were not borrowed from any exotic source, is not to be held in contempt, although unlike what had been built up elsewhere on the substructure of Roman civilization. Hence, if it be idle to speculate on what Ireland, w4th her physical and moral advantages, might have risen to ere this in the career of mankind, had her fate never been linked with that of England, it is, on the other hand, unjust to argue as English writers do, as to her fortunes and her progress, from the defects of her primitive and unmatured institutions, or from the prostrate state of desolation to which centuries of warfare in her struggle with England and her own intestine broils had reduced her. But here we are anticipating. St. Patrick, according to the old biographers, gave " alphabets " to some of those whom he converted, and this statement, coupled with the facts that we have no existing Irish manuscript older than liis time — nor indeed any so old — and that our ordinary Irish characters, although unlike Roman printed letters, are only those of Latin MSS. of the fifth and sixth centuries, have led some Irish scholars to concede too easily the disputed point, that the pagan Irish were unacquainted with alphabetic writing.* The Ogham Craov, or secret virgular writing, formed by * See the remarks on this subject in Dr. O'Donovau's elaborate Introduction to hia Irish Grummar ; in which, by quoting the opinions of Father Innea and Dr. O'Crieu, without expresding RELIGION OF THE PAGAN IRISH. 47 notches or marks along the arras edges of stones, or pieces of timber, or on cither side of any stem line on a plane surface, was only applicable to brief inscriptions, such as a name on the head-stone of a grave ; and the pagan antiquity of even this rude style of alphabet has been dis- puted by some ;* but innumerable passages in our most ancient aniicds and historic poems show that not only the Ogham, which was considered to be an occult mode of writing, but a style of alphabetic characters suited for the preservation of public records, and for general literary purposes, was known in Ireland many centuries before the introduction of Christianity. This fact is so blended with the old historic traditions of the country, that it is hard to see how the one can be given up with- out abandoning the other also. There are indisputable authorities to prove that the Latin mode of writing was known in Ireland some time before St. Patrick's arrival, as there were unquestionably Christians in the country before .that time, and as Celestius, the Irish disciple of the Aeresiarch Pelagius, is stated to have written epistles to his family in Ireland, at least thirty years before the preaching of St. Patrick ; but we go farther, for we hold, on the authority of Cuan O'Lochain, who held a distinguished position in this country in the beginning of the eleventh century, that the Psalter of Tara did exist, and was compiled by Cormac Mac Art in the third century, and consequently that the pagan Irish possessed a knowledge of alphabetic writing at least in that age.f One of the questions with reference to the pagan inhabitants of Ire- land, on which it is most difficult to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion, is the nature of their religion The Tuatha de Dananns are said to have had divinities who presided over different arts and professions We have seen that Tiernmas a Milesian king (a.m 3580), was the first who publicly practised the worship of Crom Cruach It is quite probabfe that he was the first who set up rude idols for adoration in Ireland, but Crom Cruach is referred to as a divinity which the Milesians had always worshipped.^ That a superstitious veneration was paid to the sun, wind, dissent, he seems to grant that the Irish had no writing before St. Patricli's time. He also quotes, without comment, Charles O'Conor of Belanagar, who, in his introductory disquisition to the Ogygia Vindicated, abandons the whole story of the Milesian colony, &c., but holds that the pagan Irish had the Ogham, or virgular writing. * The Ogham inscriptions found in the cave of Dunloe, in Kerry, decidedly of a date anterior to Christianity, ought to be conclusive on this point. t The passage from Cuan O'Lochain's poem referring to the Psalter of Tara will be found in Petrie's History of Tara IJill. X The cloch-oir, or golden stone, from which Clogher in Tyrone is said to take its name, would appear to have been another of the ancient Irish idols. Cathal Maguire, compiler of the "Annals of Ulster" (^A.v. 1490), is quoted in the " Ogugia" part iii c. 22, as staling that a stone covered 48 THE BREHON LAWS. and elements, is obvious from the solemn forms of oath which some of the Irish kings took and administered ; and that fires were lighted, on certain occasions, for religious purposes, is also certain ; but beyond these and a few other facts, we have nothing on Irish authority to define the religious system of our pagan ancestors. They had topical divinities who presided over hills, rivers, and particular localities, but there is no mention of any general deity recognized by the whole people, unless the obscure, and not very old references to a god Beall, or Bel, be understood in that sense; nor is there any trace of a propitiatory sacrifice used by them. Their druids combined the offices of philoso- phers, judges, and magicians, but do not appear to have been saci'ificing priests, so far as the mention of them to be found in purely Irish autho- rities would lead us to conjectm'e.* The writings transmitted to us by the ancient Irish were not composed for the use of strangers, and hence the scantiness of their information on subjects which must have been well known to those for whom they were written. The religion and customs of the Celts of Gaul were minutely described by Csesar ; but whether his description of the druidical religion of that country was applicable to the Irish druids and their form of worship, we have no certain authority to enable us to judge. On this subject a great deal is left to conjecture, and the result is that we have had the wildest theories propounded, with the most positive assertions about fire wor- ship, pillar temples, budhism, druids' altars, human sacrifices, and sundry strange mysteries, as if these things had been accurately set forth in some authentic description of ancient Ireland ; whereas the fact is that not one word about them can be discovered in any of the numerous Irish manuscripts that have been so fully elucidated up to the present day. The laws of the ancient Irish formed a vast body of jurisprudence, of Avhich only recent researches have enabled the world to appreciate the merits. Several collections and revisions of these laws were made by successive kings, from the decisions of eminent judges, and these are what are now known as the Brelion laws.f ■with gold was preserved at Clogher, at the right side of the church entrance, and that in that stone Kermand Kelstach, the principal idol of the northern parts, was worshipped. * From drai, or draoidk, a druid, comes the word draoidheacht (pronounced dreeacht), the ordi- nary Irish term for magic or sorcery. O'Eeilly says (Irish Writers, p. Ixxix.) that druidism cannot be proved to have been the religion of the pagan Irish, from the use of the word drai, which means only a sage, a magician, or a sorcerer ; and he shows that Morogh O'Cairthe, a Connaught writer, who died a.d. 1067, is called by Tigernach " Ard draei agus ard OUamh," *' chief druid aud ollav." The word may come from the Greek Apvs, or the Irish dair, an oak. t The labours of the Brehon Law Commission are still in progress as this History is going to THE LAW OF TANISTRY. 40 One of the most peculiar of the ancient nativ-e laws of Ireland was that of succession, called tanaisteacht, or tanistry. This law wtis a compound of the hereditary and the elective principles, and is thus briefly explained by Professor Curry* : — " There was no invariable rule of succession in the Milesian times, but according to the general tenor of our ancient accounts the eldest son succeeded the father to the exclusion of all collateral claimants, unless it happened that he was disqualified by some personal deformity, or blemish, or by natural imbecilit}^ or crime; or unless (as happened in after ages), by parental testament, or mutual compact, the succession was made alternate in two or more families The eldest son, beiiig thus recognised as the presump- tive heir and successor to the dignity, was denominated tanaiste, that is, minor or second, while all the other sons, or persons that were eligible in case of his failure, were simply called righdhamhna, that is, king- material, or king-makings. This was the origin of tanaiste, a successor, and tanaisteacht, successorship. The tanaiste had a separate mainte- nance and establishment, as well as distinct privileges and liabilities. He was inferior to the king or chief, but above all the other dignitaries of the state. From all this it will be seen that tanistry, in the Anglo- Norman sense, was not an original, essential element of the law of succession, but a condition that might be adopted or abandoned at any time by the parties concerned ; and it does not appear that it was at any time universal in Erinn, although it prevailed in many parts of it. It is to be noticed also, that alternate tanaisteacht did not involve any dis- turbance of property, or of the people, but only affected the position of the person himself, whether king, chief, or professor of any of the liberal arts, as the case might be ; and that it was often set aside by force." The primitive intention was thai the inheritance should descend "to the oldest and most worthy man of the same name and blood," but practically this was giving it to the strongest, and family feuds and intestine wars were the inevitable consequence. As tanistry regulated the transmission of titles, offices, and authority, so the custom of gavel-kind (or gavail-kinne), another of the ancient institutions of Ireland, but which was also common to the Britons, press, and their result will throw, no doubt, a great deal of light upon the ancient customs and manners of Ireland. To the enlightened views and persevering exertions of the Kev. Dr. Graves. F.T.C.D., so ably sustained by the Kev. Dr. Todd, the country is indebted for obtaining this commission from the government; and to tlie great Irish learning of Dr. O'Donovan and Professor Eugene Curry, for carrying out its object successfully. * Introduction to the battle of Magh Leana, printed for the Celtic Society, Dublin, 1855. 50 GAVEL-KIND. — TENURE OF LAND. Anglo-Saxons, Franks, and otlier primitive people, adjusted tlie partition and inheritance of landed property. By gavel-kind the property was divided equally between all the sons, whether legitimate or otherwise, to the exclusion of the daughters ; but in addition to his own equal share, which the eldest son oh^fiined in common with his brothers, he received the dwelling-house and other buildings, which would have been retained by the father or kenfine, if the division were made, as it frequently was, in his own life-time. This extra share was given to the eldest brother as head of the family, and in consideration of certain liabilities which he incurred for the security of the family in general. If there were no sons, the property was divided equally among the next male heirs of the deceased, whether uncles, brothers, nephews, or cousins; but the female line, as in the Salic law, was excluded from the inheritance. Sometimes a repartition of the lands of a whole tribe, or family of several branches, became necessary, owing to the extinc- tion of some of the branches; but it does not appear that any such confusion or injustice resulted from the law, as is represented by Sir John Davies and by other English lawyers who have adopted his account of it.* The tenure of land in Ireland was essentially a tribe or family right. In contradistinction to the Teutonic, or feudal system, which vested the land in a single person, who was lord of the soil, all the members of a tribe or family in Ireland had an equal right to their proportionate share of the land occupied by the whole. The equality of title and blood thus enjoyed by all must have created a sense of individual self-respect and mutual dependence, that could not have existed under the Germanic and Anglo-Norman system of vassalage. The tenures of whole tribes were of course frequently distui'bed by war ; and whenever a tribe was driven or emigrated into a district where it had no hereditary claim, if it obtained land it was on the payment of a rent to the king of the district ; these rents being in some instances s,o heavy as to compel the strangers to seek for a home elsewhere.f It is within the memory of the present generation how the population of a large territory in the Highlands of Scotland continued to hold by the ancient Irish clannish tenm'e, and * See Dissertation on the Laws of the Ancient Iris written by Dr. O'Brien, author of the Dictionary, but published anonymously by Valiencey the third number of the Collectanea de litb. Ilib. In correction of what is stated above, we may mention, on the authority of Mr. Curr^v, that in default of any male issue daughters were allowed a life-interest in property. The term Kenfinfe, or Cean-fine, used above, was only applied to the heads of minor families, and never to any kind of chieftains — See Four Mast, vol. iv., p. 1117, note f. t Vide supra, page 28, note. THE LAW OF ERIC. 51 were dispossessed and swept from the land, on the ground that the Eng- lish system gave the owner the right to remove them. The dignity of Ardrigh, or monarch of Irehmd, was one rather of title and position than of actual power ; and was always supported by alliances with some of the provincial kings to secure the respect of the others. It was thus that the chief king was enabled to assert his will out- side his own mensal province or kingdom of Meath ; but, in process of time, the kings of other provinces as well as INIeath became the monarchs. There was a reciprocity of obligations between the several kings and their subordinate chieftains ; the superiors granting certain subsidies or stipends to the inferiors, wdiile the latter paid tributes to support the magnificence or the military power of the former.* It sometimes happened that the succession to the sovereignt}' Avas alternate between two families, as that of Munster w^as between the Dalcassians and the Eugenians, both the posterity of Oiliol Olum; but this kind of succession almost always led to war. None of the ancient Irish laws has been so much decried by English writers as that of eric, or mulct, by which crimes, including that of murder, were punished by fines ; these writers forgetting that a similar law existed amonsj their own British and Anolo-Saxon ancestors. Punishment of murder by fine also prevailed under the Salic law; so that if the principle be abhorrent to our ideas at the present day, we know, at least, that it existed in other countries at the same remote period in which it was acted upon in Ireland.f It is not generally Icnown that in cases of murder the eric might be refused by the friends of the deceased, and punishment by death insisted on; yet such was the case. The law of eric was, therefore, conditional. All offices and professions, such as those of druid, brehon, bard, physician, &c., were hereditary; yet not absolutely so, as others might also be introduced into these professions. Among the remarkable customs of the ancient Irish those concerning fosterage prevailed, up to a comparatively recent period, and the English government frequently * These mutual privileges and restrictions, tributes and stipends, whether consisting of bondmen or bondmaids, cattle, silver shields, weapons, embroidered cloaks, refections on visitations, drinking horns, corn, or contributions in any other shape, will be found set down in the Leabhar na g-Ceart, or Book of Rights, edited for the Celtic Society by Dr. O'Donovan. Although a compilation of Christian times, being attributed to St. Benignus, the disciple and successor of St. Patrick, it describes the customs of the kings of Ireland as they existed in the ages of paganism. t See the laws of Athlestan; Howell Dda's Leges WaUicce; the Salic law, and other authorities Quoted in Dr. O'Brien's Dissertation, already referred to, pp. 394, &c. The law of Eric was abrogated before the English invasion, in the senate held by tlie Irish clergy, and Mortough More O'Brien, king of Munster and monarch of Ireland, a u. HI I. 52 FOSTERAGK. made stringent laws against them, to prevent the intimate friendships which sprung up between the Anglo-Irish families and their " mere" Irish fosterers.* It was usual for families of high rank among the ancient Irish to undertake the nursing and education of the children of their chiefs, one royal family sometimes fostering the children of another ; and the bonds which united the fosterers and the fostered were held to be as sacred as those of blood.f * Fosterage and gossipred. as well as intermarriages, with the native Irish, was declared to ba treason by the Statute of Kilkenny, 40th Ed. III., ad. 1367. f Giraldus Canibrensis, who rarely says a kind word of the Irish, observes, with an ill-natured reservation, "That if any love or faith is to be found among them, you must look for it among the fosterers and their foster-children." (To/;. Hib. Dist. 3, ch. 23). Stanihurst .says, the Irish loved and confided in their foster-brothers more than their brothers by blood : " Singula illis credunt ; iu eorum spe requiescunt ; omnium conciliorum suntmaximfe conscii. ColJactanei etiam eos fidelissimb ot amantissimfe observant." Ve Reb. Hib., p. 49. See also Harris'.s Ware, vol. ii.. p. 72. CHAPTER VII. Social and Intellectual State of the Pagan Irish, continued. — "Weapons and Implements of Flint and Stone. — Celts. — Working in Metal. — Bronze Swords, &c. — Pursuits of the Primitive Eaces. — Agriculture. — Houses. — Raths. — Cahirs. — Cranogues. — Canoes andCurachs. — Sepulchres. — Cromlechs — Games and Amusements. — Music. — Ornaments, &c. — Celebrated Pagan Legislators and Poets. — The Bearla Peine, &c. N some compartments of the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy the visitor will see beautifully-shaped swords, spear-heads, and javelins of bronze ; and in others he will find a great variety of weapons and tools composed of flint and stone, from the rudely-formed stone celt and hammer, and the small chip of flint that served for an arrow-head, to the finally- fashioned barbed spear-head of the latter material, and the highly polished and well-shaped celt of hard stone. Both classes of objects belong to the pre-Christian ages of Irish history; and the questions arise — what time elapsed between the use of the one and of the other? or what races employed each? or were both kinds of materials in use among the inhabitants of Ireland simultaneously, and from their first arrival in the island? The ancient annahsts assure us that at least the Tuatha de Danann colony were acquainted with the use of metal when they first came to Ireland ; and this account is now so generally received, that wherever bronze weapons are found in sepulchral mounds with human remains, the latter are looked upon as those of the Tuatha de Danann race. Making every allowance, however, for the amplifications of the bards, and for the gradual progress which the arts must have made among all primitive races, we may take it for granted that the early inhabitants of Ireland employed such materials as flint flakes and stone in the construction of their weapons and instruments for cutting ; and stone, timber, and sun-baked earthen- b?T^j4s 54 WEAPONS a:n-d pursuits, etc. ware, for domestic uses ; first, perhaps, exclusively, and to a greater or less extent for a long time after the use of metals became familiar; as the latter material must have been scarce for many ages, while the former were always at hand, and required comparatively little skill in their adaptation. That the Irish became expert workers in metal at a very early period there can be no doubt, several specimens of their skill, besides bronze weapons, being preserved in the great national collection of antiquities just referred to. The occupation of smith, which included that of armom'er, ranked next to the learned professions among them; and at Airgatros or the Silverwood* forges and smelting works for the precious metals were established, where silver shields, which an Irish Idng presented to his chieftains or nobles, long before the Christian era, were made; and where, no doubt, some of those costly gold torques, and other ornaments of the same metal that enrich our museum, and that were worn by the pagan Irish princes and judges, were so skilfully manufactured.! The early inhabitants of Ireland were, like most primitive races, more devoted at first to nomadic than to agricultural pursuits ; bvit Avliile they contented themselves in the latter, for a long time, with the cultivation of only so much grain as served for their immediate wants, in the former they were restrained within certain bounds, as each tribe and family had only an allotted portion of land over which they could allow their flocks and herds to range. In process of time the population be- came so multiplied, and the resources of agriculture so important, that almost every available spot would appear to have been cultivated ; and we now see traces of the husbandman's labour on the tops of hills, and in other places in Ireland that have ceased to be under cultivation beyond the range of the oldest tradition. Between the periods when * Now Rathveagh, on the Eiver Nore, in Kilkenn)-. t The quantity of gold ornaments that have been discovered in Ireland is ahnost incredible. In digging for a railway cutting in Clare, in the year 1855, a hoard of these ancient treasures was found, worth, it is said, about £2,000 as bullion. They are frequently found in almost every part of Ireland, and besides the number accumulated in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, many are also to be seen in the windows of goldsmiths' shops, and unknown quantities of them have found their way into the crucible. " We know enough," observed the Rev. Dr. Todd, in his inaugural address as President of the Roj-al Irish Academy, in 1856, "to be assured that the use of gold rings, and torques, and circlets, must have been a characteristic of some of the aboriginal settlers in Ireland. Where did this gold come from ? There is no evidence of any trade at so early a period between the natives of Ireland and any gold-producing clime. Geology assures us that I liere are no auriferous streams or veins in Ireland capable of supplying so very large a mass of gold. It follows, then, that some tribe or colony who migrated into this country must hava carried these oruaments on their persons.' WEAPONS, ETC. 55 tlios3 mountain tracts, now covered with heath or moss, were made to produce the annual grain crop, and those far remoter ages when the first colony began to clear some of the impenetrable forests covering the surface of the then nameless Island of Erin, there must have been a vast interval and many phases of society — pastoral Firbolg, mechanical Tuatha de Danann, and warlike Scot or Gael, occupied the stage — yet to all of these our old annals, with the ancient historical poems which serve to illustrate them, seem to be tolerably faithful guides, showing us the hosts of rude warriors going to battle with slings, and with stone disks for casting, as well as the serried array of glittering spears, mid the gold and silver breast-plates, and embroidered and many-colored cloaks of the later, yet still pagan, times.* The houses of the ancient Irish were constructed for the most part of wood, or of hurdles and wickerwork plastered with tempered clay, and thatched with rushes. This use of timber for building was so general that even the churches for a long time after the introduction of Christianity were usually constructed of planed boards, which was described by Venerable Bede, in the eighth century, as a peculiar Scottish (that is, Irish) fashion ;t building with stone and cement being * See a minute description of the weapons and domestic implements used by the ancient Irish, so far as they were composed of stone, earthen, or vegetable materials, in the first part of the Catalogue of Antiquities in the Jluseuin of the Royal Irish Academy, by W. E. Wilde, Esq. Those peculiar objects called Celts — not from the name of the people, but from the Latin word celtis, a chisel— still puzzle the antiquaries to define their use. Professor Curry has communicated, from the Book of Ballymote and other ancient Irish manuscripts, an account (published at pp. 73, 74, of the Catalogue) of the manner in which the Lia Miledh or " warrior's stone" — whether that be the celt, or the round, flat, sharp-edged disk, of which there are some specimens in the Museum — was used ill battle. The following legendaiy account is one of the three or four examples given : — " In the record of the battle of the Ford of Coraar, near Fore, in the county of Westmeatb, and which is f-iippused to have occurred in the century before tbs Christian era, it is said that, ' there came not a man of Lohar's people without a broad, green sp ;ar, nor without a dazzling shield, nor without a JJagh-lamha-laich (a champion's hand stone), stowed away in the hollow cavity of his shield. . . . And Lobar carried his stone like each of his men ; and seeing the monarch, his father, standing in the ford with Ceat, son of Magach, at one side, and Connall Cearnach at the other, to guard him, iie grasped his battle-stone quickly and dexterouslj*, ar.J threw it with all his strength, and with ui;erring aim, at the king, his fathir; and the massive stone passed with a swift rotatory motion t.. wards the king, and despite the efforts of his two brave guardians, it str;;ck him on the breast, :. :d laid liim prostrate in the f«ird. The kin^, however, recovered from the shock, aro.se, and jilating his foot upon the formidable storic, ijrcssed it into the earth, where it remains to this day, with a third part of it over ground, and the print of the king's foot visible on it.' " 1' Thus, when St. Finian of lona became bishop of Lindisfarne, he " built a church fit for his episcopal see, not of stone, but altogether of sawn wood, covered with reeds, after the Scotic fashiuii {More Scoitorum)" Bede, Hist. Eccl. iii., c. 25. The extensive use of timber for building can be no matter of surprise when we recollect that Ireland was, at the time, abundantly supplied with prim- eval forests; and aiuong the trees which .'5'jem to have been n)ost numerous, and of course indigenous, were the oak, pine, fir, liiich, and yew. It is not long since a large portii.n of some old 1- iiplish and tuutineiititl towns tuiisi-teJ of v>ooden houses; and it will be iujig ere the mctiit,j U cuusiiucu-^^ 56 HOUSES, hatiis, and cahirs. regarded as a Roman custom, and too expensive to he undertaken by tlie first Christian monks in Ireland. These wooden or hurdle houses were surrounded by strong fences of earth or stone, of which great numbers are yet to be found in every part of the island; although all traces of the actual dwellings have disappeared, owing to the perishable natiu'e of the materials of which they consisted ; unless in some few places, where small stone houses, now called cloghauns, with beehive roofs, are still preserved. The enclosures were generally circular, but sometimes oval or polygonal ; and when they surrounded the habitations of chiefs or other important persons, flr were situated in places exposed to hostile incursions, they were double or triple, the concentric lines of defence being separated by dikes. An earthen enclosure of this kind is usually called a rath, or lios; and one of stone a cathair (pr. caher), or caishal; both being vulgarly called Danish forts, or simply forts. The stone forts are attributed by some antiquaries to the Firbolgs, at least in those parts of Ireland where that people were longest to be found as a distinct race, as m the western province ; and the earthen forts are supposed to have been the work of the Milesians. Most probably both races employed indifferently such materials as were most convenient to their hand. Of the earthen entrenchments, the walls have, in the lapse of centuries, been so washed into the dikes as partly to efface both ; while in innumerable cases the hand of the agriculturist has been more ruthless tlian that of time, in obliterating these vestiges of our ancestors.* Another kind of fortified retreat or dwelling used by the ancient Irish was that called a cranogue, or stockaded island, generally situated in some small lake, where a little islet or bank of gravel was taken advantage of, and by being surrounded with stakes or other defences, was made a safe retreat for either the lawless or the timid. In the vicinity of these cranogues are often found the remains of canoes, or shallow, fiat-bottomed boats, cut out of a single tree. The boats used by the Irish on the sea coast were chiefly those called curraghs or houses of wood be abandoned in America. Tliere is mention of a '" pillared house'' (tuireadoig) in a poem quoted by Tighoinach, under tlie j'ear 601, and attributed by him to Caillach Laiglmeach, who wrote in the tune of Hugh Allan, in the early part of the 8tli century. (See Four Masters, vol. i., p. 230) * Among the most remarkable of the caishels or stone forts, are Dun Aengus, Dun Conchurn, and other duns of tlie Isles of Aran, Staigue Fort in Kerry and the Grianan of Aileach, in Donegal; and of the earthen forts, some of tile most celebrated are the royal raths of Tara Hill, Euiaiiia, Cr(>gh;tn, and Tailiin, and the great rati) of MuUaghmast ; but iheie are few districts of Ireland in wliicli several remains of this cliaracter are not to be found. SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS. 57 coracles, wliicli were composed of a frame of wickerwork, covered with skins. Boats of this type, save that pitched canvass has been substituted for the hides, are still used on the coast of Clare, in the islands of Aran, and in some few other places in Li'eland. From the dwellings of the ancient inhabitants we naturally turn to their sepulchral remains, of which there are different kinds. The most frequent are the mounds or tumuli, called barrows in England, which were common to all ancient nations who interred then* dead. They varied in size according to the imjiortance of the individual over whose remains they were raised, and in some instances they assumed the dimensions of considerable hills ; as those of New Grange and Dowth on the banks of the Bopie. Of these vast tiunuH, which there are good grounds for regarding as the tombs of tlie Tuatha de Danann kings, the most famous is that of New Grange, with iti; long gallery, and lofty, dome-shaped chamber; and it may be observed that in any of those mounds that have been examined, sepulclural chambers, or kists, have been invai'iably found, and frequently human remains. Monuments composed of stone-heaps are called leachts or earns, but many of these latter are modern, and are mere cenotaphs or memorials of an accidental or violent death. The monuments called cromlechs, which are met in Wales and Britanny as well as in Ireland, and which belong unquestionably to pagan times, have been popularly regarded as Druid's altars; but the correct opinion, founded on ancient Irish authorities, that they were intended for sepulchral purposes, is now generally received ; and it is probable that they may have been in some cases the chambers of sepulchral mounds, from which the covering of earth has been removed. The examination of a tumulus, opened in May, IboS, in the Phoenix Park, near Dublin, would seem to confirm this opinion; as the internal chamber, in which two human skeletons were found, was covered with a large, flat stone, in every respect like a cromlech.* Chess was a favorite game of the Irish from very early times, but it is uncertain whether the rules of the play were the same as those known ' These monuments are invariably referred to in old Irish writings as sepiiklires; and in later ages they were called leabacha na/einne, or the beds, i.e. (graves^ of tbe Fenians — the term cromleclx being a recent importation into the Irish language, and still quite unknown to the Irish-speaking population. It is not unusual at present to combine the two hypotheses bj' calting tliese mysterious remains altar-graves. For a great deal of valuable research about the cemeteries and sepulchres of the pagan Irish, and in particular about the hill-monuments near the Iioyne; and also for impor- tant and authentic information touching the manners of the priniitivo races of Ireland, the luaddr is referreU to Dr. Petrie's learned Essay on Tara Hill. 58 GAMES AND MUSIC. to moderns. In all ages the Irish were passionately fond of their own sweet, heart-touching, and expressive music, and possessed both stringed and wind instruments ; and a number of bards or musicians, who sometimes played in harmony, but generally accompanied their songs with instru- mental music singly, were always in attendance at the feasts of the chiefs and public entertainments.* The gold ornaments which are still preserved, the crowns of gold, worn, at least in some instances, by the Irish kings, and the accounts given by the bards of their " high drinking-cups of gold," and other objects of luxury, would show that a certain amount of splendour had been attained in the rude society of even the pagan ages of Ireland. The names of several persons who had distinguished themselves as poets or legislators in Ireland, in the time of paganism, are still pre- served, as well as some of the compositions attributed to them. Among those most remarkable in the latter class were Ollav Fola, by whom the Feis of Tara was instituted; Cimbaeth and other kings of his period ; Moran, the chief judge of Ferach, the Fair and Just, at the close of the first century; and, above all, Cormac, son of Art, who has left us a tract or book of " Royal Precepts," and avIio, about the middle of the third century, caused the Psaltar of Tara to be compiled. Of the pre-Christian bards or poets we have a tolerably large list, in which, selecting the most remarkable names, we find Amergin, brother of Heber and Heremon, to whom three poems still existing are attri- buted ; Congal, the son and poet of King Eochy Feilach, who flourished A.M. 5058; and just before the Christian era a whole group of pets, among whom were Adhna, chief poet of Ireland, Forchern, and Fer- cirtne, the author of the Uraicackt na n-Eigeas, or primer of the learned ; while towards the close of the third century flourished Oisin, and * Giraldus Cambreii^is {Tup. IJib. disl iii. c. 11.), describing the performance of the Irish liarpors, paj'S them the following tribute : — " In musicis instrumentis commendabilem invenio istiiis gentis diligentiam ; in quibus prae omni natione quam vidimus, incomparabiliter est iustructa." " The attention of tliis people to musical instruments I find worthy of commendation ; their skill in these matters being incomparably superior to tliat of any other nation I have seen." He then goes on to compare the Irish music with that of the Welsh, to which he was accustomed, describing the former as rapid and precipitate, yet sweet and pleasing, while the latter is slow and solemn. He was amazed at " the rapidity of execution," " the intricate arrangement of the notes," and "the melody so harmonious and perfect" which Irish music displayed ; and was struck with the per- formance of the Irish musicians, who knew how "to delight with so mucli delicacy, and sootlie so sotb there and in the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, it ia called the Hill ,J Viviinii, aua^u* now obfloleto. 72 DEATH OF ST. PATRICK. while a portion of the holy reKcs were conveyed to his metropolitan church of Armagh.* Thus was the faith planted in Erin by St. Patrick, and from that dry to the present it has never failed. In this respect Ireland has been ex- empt from the changes which so many other countries have undergone ; and a large and interesting portion of our history will relate to the struggles which that steadfastness entailed upon her. * Each of the events in the life of our Apostle, briefly narrated in the text, has been made a subject of discussion among antiquaries and hagiologists; but we have given wliat we deemed the most reasonable results without the arguments. Nor have we entered into the controversy respect- ing the existence of other saints of the same name, as Sen-Patrick, or Patrick Senior, who was venerated on the 24th of August ; or the Abbot Patrick, who was buried and subsequently venerated at Glastonbury ; or St. Patrick of Auvergne. Whether some of the acts of one of these saints may- have been attributed to another of them would involve an inquiry unsuited to our pages. It is enough that the identity of our Apostle and of the leading events of his life have been established beyond the reach of all doubt. Those who would enter more deeply into the subject are referred to Colgan's 2'rias Thaumaturya-; Messinghani's /"/(.rtVe^itim; O'Sullivan's Z)ecas Pa^ncirtwa ; Harris's Ware's Irish Bishops; Lanigan's Ecclesiastical History of Ireland; Keating's History of Ireland; Mageoghegau's History of Irelaud; Lynch's Life of St. Patrick; Petrie's History of Tara Hill,&c.,&c. CHAPTER IX. Civil History of Ireland during St. Patrick's Life. — The Seanchus Mor. — Kin^ Laeghaire's Oath and Death. — Reign of Oilioll Molt. — Branches and Greatness of the Hy-Niall Race. — Eeign of Lughaidh. — Foundation of the Scottisl Kingdom in North Britain. — Falsification of the Scottish Annals. — Progre?. of Christianity and absence of Persecution. — The First Order of Irisl Saints. — Great Ecclesiastical Schools. — Aran of the Saints. — St. Brigid.— Her great Labors. — Her Death. — Monastic tendency of the Primitive Church. — Muircheartach Mac Earca and Tuathal Maelgarbh. (a.d. 432 to A.D. 538). EW events are recorded in the civil history of this coun- try during the period of St- Patrick's mission ; the most remarkable being the revision of the laws of Ireland, and the compilation of the Seanchus Mor, or great book of laws, in the year 438. The annalists say that three kings, three Christian bishops, of whom St. Patrick was one, and three bards or antiquaries, conducted this revision ; but this account is obviously a poetic figment. It is probable that as soon as the Christian religion began to prevail ex- tensively in Ireland, a modification of the ancient pagan laws became necessary ; and also, that St. Patrick himself, assisted by a converted bard, may have laid the foundation of such revision, his name being subsequently employed to give it a sanction ; but it is plain that the apostle did not sit on a committee for the purpose with pagan kings, even if his authority had been so recognised at the time assigned for the event.* Fragments of the Seanchus Mor are still preserved in the manuscript library of Trinity College, and in the British Museum, and the entire work is known to have existed at least as late as the 12th or 13th century raiio'3 "Taia Iim,"p. 79 74 DEATH OF KING LAEGnAIRB. It has been erroneously stated by some old writers that St. Patric purified the annals as well as the laws of Ireland ; and this probably le to the assertion that he destroyed a large number of the druidical books which had been delivered to him. OTlaherty gives this stetemenfon the authority of the eminent antiquary, Duald Mac Firbis, and mentions it to account for the ignorance in which we are left of the rehgion of the pao-an Irish ;* but nothing has been discovered m the writings of Mac Firbis to justify O'Flaherty s reference to his authority. Kino- Laeghaire waged war against the Leinster men to enforce pay- ment of the Borumean tribute, and in the year 453 he is said to have gained a battle over them ; but this success was followed, in a.d. 457, by a defeat at Ath-dara, on the river Barrow, where he was made prisoner, being afterwards liberated on swearing by "the sun and moon, water and air, nin-htaivl dav, sea and land," that during his life he would not again demand the tribute. This was the old pagan oath ; and from its use, as well as from other cu'cumstances, it is concluded that Laeghaire had not, up to that time, embraced Christianity. In the next year, regardless of his engagement, he made an incursion into Leinster, and carried off a prey of cattle for the tribute ; and as he was struck dead by lightning, or died in some sudden manner while returning home, the bards say that he was killed by the sun and the elements for breaking the oath which he had taken on them. A.D. 459. — OilioU Molt, son of Datlii, and who had been king of Con- naught,! succeeded as monarch, and, according to the Foiir Masters, celebrated the Feis, or great feast and convocation of Tara, in 463, and again in 465, which is probably a double entry of the same event, as these meetings were not held so frequently. Nothing certain is known of the religion of this prince, but it is presumed that he lived and died a pagan, as his successor certainly did. Two men, remarkable as the ancestors of some of the most celebrated clans mentioned in subsequent Irish history, died in this reign, namel}^ Conall Gulban, and Eoghan, sons of Niall of the Nine Hostages ; the for- mer of whom was the ancestor of the Kinel-Connell, or race of Conall, that is, of the O'Donnells and their correlative famiHes in Tirconnell ; whilst from the latter are descended the Kinel-Owen, or O'Neills, and some other families of Tyrone. All of the race of Niall come under the great tribe name of Hy-Niall ; but the illustrious families we have mentioned, that is, the O'Neills and O'Donnells, descendants of Eoghan • Ogj-gia, part iii., c 30, [> 219. t Ogygia, part iii., c. 93, p. 129. FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM OF SCOTLAND. 75 and Conall Gulban, are styled the northern Hy-Niall, to distinguish them from the southern Hy-Niall, who were descended from Conall Creevainn, another son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, as the O'Melaghlins, &c., who were located in Meath. Of Conall Gulban, who received his sur- name from Benbulben, formerly called Ben Gulban, in Sligo, where he was fostered, and whose exploits rank with those of the Ossianic heroes, the annalists tell us that he was slain by the " old tribes of Magh Slecht," that is, by descendants of the Firbolgs who occupied the district in the present county of Cavan where the idol Crom Cruach was worshipped, while he was returning from a predatory excursion with a great prey of horses ; and they say that Eoghan died of grief for his brother and was buried at Eskaheen in Innishowen. A.D. 478. — Oilioll Molt, after a reign of twenty years, was slain in the battle of Ocha, by Lughaidh or Lewy, the son of Laeghaire, who was too young at his father's demise to compete for the succession, and who now obtained the crown by the aid of a strong confederacy of provincial kings and toparchs. The battle of Ocha forms an epoch in this period of Irish history, and took place, according to the Annals of Ulster, a.d 482 or 483. Lughaidh died an inveterate pagan, having, after a reign of twenty-five years, been killed by a thunderbolt while uttering some blas- phemy at the sight of a clnu'ch erected by St. Patrick, at a place called Achadhfarcha, or the field of lightning, near Slane. In his reign, Aen gus, the good kmg of IMunster, and his queen Eithne were killed in battle, at a place now called Kelliston, in the county of Carlow ;* and St. Ibar, of Beg-Erin, one of the four bishops who are said to have been in Ireland before St. Patrick, died, a.d. 500. A.D. 503. — The fomidation of the kingdom of Scotland by a colony from Ireland, is set down by most cln:onologists under this date.f It has been already mentioned in the reign of Conaire II., towards the close of the socond century of the Christain era, that a colony of Scots was led into Alba or Alliany by Carbry-Riada, from whom the Dalriads both of Antrim and Scotland took their name. Notwithstanding the opposition of the Picts, they still retained their footing in their new territory, * "This Aenghus, who was the first Cliristiau king of Mnnster, is the comninn ancestor of the fan>ilies of Mac Carthy, O'Keeffe, O'Callaghan, and O'Sullivau." — O'Donovan; Four Musters, anno, 489, {note). The Four Masters record tlio death of St. Patrick under the date of 493, addincj that he was then 122 years old ; ihat he had erected 700 churches, consecrated 700 bishops, aud ordained 3,000 priestd. Dr. l^^nigan however shows very clearly tnat no reliance is to be placed on these dates and numbers. t The event is entered by the Four Masters at the year 498 ; but Dr. O'Donovan shows from the authority of Tighernach and of Flan of Monasterboice, that the true date of the Dalriadic iuvasiou was most probably a.d. o(jG. 76 THE NAME OF SCOTIA. but did not receive mucli aid from Ireland until the period at which we have now arrived. At this time, however, after a defeat by the Picts, who drove them from the country, a strong force of the Irish Dalriads, under the leadership of Loarn, Aengus, and Fergus, the three sons of Ere, son of Eochadh Muinramhair, invaded Alba, and gradually sub- jugating the Picts, established the Scottish monarchy. Muircheartach or Murtough, who succeeded Lughaidh as king of Ireland, Avas a relative of the sons of Ere, his mother being Erca, the daughter of Loarn ; and he stimulated the adventurers in their enterprise ; as some say, sending the Lia Fail, or stone of destiny, to Scotland, in order that his kinsman, Feargus, might be crowned upon it with all the traditional solemnity.* It is remarkable that the present reigning family of England owes its right to the throne to its descent, tlirough the Stuart family, from these Irish Dalriads. From that people also North Britain derives its name of Scotia or Scotland ; a name which, from the first mention we find of it in the third century, was, for several hundred years, exclusively applied to Ireland ; while, on its being at length given to the country acquired by the Scots in Alba, Ireland was still for a long time called Scotia Magna, to distinguish it from the lesser Scotland, and its people termed Hibernian Scots, those of the latter country bemg called Albanian or British Scots.f The Scottish colony in Britain was at first confined to the Western Highlands, now called Argyle, and to the islands ; and it was only in the year 850 that the Picts were finally subdued by Keneth MacAlpin, who was the first king of all Scotland, and who removed the seat of power to Scone, in the southern part of that country. On the subject of this settlement of the Scottish race in North Britain, one of the most remarkable impostm'es ever attempted in the history of any country was successfully practised, and passed current for several centuries. The original records of Scotland were wholly destroyed by Edward I. of England, Avhen he overran that country in the year 1300, for the purpose, if possible, of obliterating by their destruction the nation- ality of the people ; but before the close of the same centiu'y a new account of the history of Scotland was given to the world ; a long series of Scottish kings, who nevsr had any existence, being coined to fill up * Ogj'gia, part i., p. 45. t Ireland was known by many names from very early ages. Thus, in the Celtic it was called Inis-Fail, the isle of destiny; Inis-Ealga, the noble island ; Fiodh-Inis, the woody island; and Eire, Fodlila, and Banba. By the Greeks it was called Icrne, probably from the vernacular name of Eire, by inflection Erin ; whence also, no doubt, its Latin name of Juvoriia ; Plutarch calls it Oj^'Vgia, or tiie ancient land; the early Roman writers generally called it Hibernia, probably from its Iberian inhabitants, and the later Romans and medixval writers, Scotia and sometimes Hibernia; and finally iis name of Jrelaud was formed by the An^lo-Normaus from its native name of Eire. TKOGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 77 an interval of some hundred years before tlie time of Fergus, the son of Ere, mentioned above. The first name on the spurious list was also Fer- gus, and the real person of that name was, therefore, called Fergus II. ; and in support of the fictitious catalogue a great many statements were invented, and were adopted by subsequent Scottish historians. Finally, Macpherson, the foi'ger of Ossian, carried the fraud so far, although it had been rejected by the Scottish antiquary, Father Innes, as to assert that North Britain was the original Scotland, and Ireland only the colony, with no title to the name of Scotia, and consequently that all the ancient saints and celebrated persons who are called Scots by foreign writers, were really natives of the modern Scotland. It may be easily imagined tliat such an assumption, put forward in the face of the most positive evidence, and repeated by scores of able writers, century after century, almost up to the last generation, was very provoking to Irish historians, and that an angry and protracted controversy was the result. All that has been written on the subject is now, however, so much waste paper, as the ancient fraud has been long since abandoned, and the true history of the relations between the two countries is received in Scotland as well as in Ireland. From the meagre records of the civil history of the period, we turn with pleasure to the accounts of the great religious change which was then passing in Ireland, and which was entirely independent of the course of civil events. While pagan kings still ruled at Tara, surrounded by their druids, and still upheld at least the semblance of theu' ancient su- perstition, Christian bishops were preaching in every corner of the land ; Christian churches, although of humble dimensions, everywhere ap- peared ; monasteries and nunneries sprung up in many places ; Christian schools, which were destined in a little while to shed a lustre on all Europe, began to fill with students ; and above all, a host of saints, who became the wonder of after ages, diffused throughout Ireland an odour of holiness. To this age belonged the first and most perfect of the three orders of Irish saints, mentioned in the old catalogue published by Ussher and Father Fleming, and whose characteristics are described in the pro- phetic vision which St. Patrick is said by some of his biographers to have had, when Ireland first appeared to the apostle as if enveloped in a flame, then the mountains only seemed to be on fire, and finally there was only a glimmering, as it were, of lamps in the valleys. All the disciples and attendants of St. Patrick have obtained places in the calendar of the ancient Irish Church ; and it is probable that almost all those who re- ceived ordination at his hands, or who first ministered in the Church of 78 MONASTIC SCHOOLS Ireland, have merited the same honor ; so intense was the devotion with which the Irish people opened their whole hearts to the faith of Christ, and so abundant was the grace which flowed everywhere from the preach- ing of their great apostle. Nor should it be forgotten as a proof of the existence of a humanized state of society in Ireland, notwithstanding its feuds and wars, that this great movement was allowed to advance with- out any attempt on the part of the pagan princes to impede it by perse- cution. It is argued, indeed, that if there had been anything very gross or sensuous in the paganism of the Irish, as in that of other nations, the triumph of Christianity among them would not have been so easily accomplished. Among the great ecclesiastical schools or monasteries founded in Ire- land about this time, were those of St. Ailbe of Emly, of St. Benignus of Armagh, of St. Fiech of Sletty, of St. Mel of Ardagh, of St. Mochay of Antrim, of St. Moctheus of Louth, of St. Ibar of Beg-Erin, of St. Asicus of Elphin, and of St. Olcan of Derkan. To this same fifth cen- tury, which Colgan calls the golden age of the Irish Church, belongs the foundation of the celebrated monastic institutions of Aran of the Saints, by St. Enda, or Endeus. This holy Archimandrite, who was of a noble family of Oriel, obtained the island of Aranmore, at the entrance to Galway Bay, from Aengus, the king of Munster, through the inter- position of St. Ailbe, and founded there those primitive conuuunities who lived in groups of monastic cells or cloghans, of which the traces are still to be seen in many parts of the island. Aran, the lona of Ire- land, became for the next couple of centuries the resort of several of the Irish saints, and of holy men from other countries, who repaired to it for the purpose of practising extreme penitential austerities ; and an ancient biographer of St. Kieran, founder of Clonmacnoise, described it as a place in which there lay the remains of •' innumerable saints, unknown to all save Almighty God alone.'' Of St. Ailbe, the great bishop of Emly, it is related that after many years of arduous labor in converting the people from paganism, and establishing the Church in his diocese, he was about to retire into soli- tude, and to fly for that purpose to Thule, or Iceland, when he was respectfully coerced by King Aengus to remain in Ireland, where he died in 0'2d. But of all the Irish saints of the first century of Christianity in this country, the highest position, next to that of St. Patrick himself, is unanimously yielded to St. Brigid. This extraordinary woman belonged to an illustrious race, being lineoUv descended from Eochad, a brother ST. BRIGID OF KILDARE. 79 of Conn of the Hundred Battles, monarch of Ireland in the second cen- tury, and was born about the year 453, at Fochard, to the north of Dundalk, where her parents, although a Leinster family, and therefore belonging to Leath Mogha, or the southern part of Ireland, were then sojourning. As she was remarkable for sanctity from her childhood, it is possible that she had become known to St. Patrick, by whom her biographers say she was baptized. She received the veil from St. jVIac- caille, in one of the earliest convents for religious women founded in Ire- land, and her zeal for establishing nunneries was exercised throughout her life with wonderful results. She travelled into various parts of Ireland for this purpose, being invited by many bishops to found relio-ious houses in their dioceses ; and at length the people of Leinster became jealous of her attention to the other provinces, and sent a deputation to her in Connaught entreating her to return, and offering land for the purpose of founding a large nunnery. This was about the year of 480, or shortly after ; and it was then that she commenced her great house of Kildare, or the Chufch of the Oak, which soon became the most famous and extensive nunnery that has ever existed in Ireland. A bishop was appointed to perform the pontifical duties connected with it, an humble anchorite named Conlaeth being chosen for that office ; and the concourse of religious and pilgrims who flocked to it from all quarters soon created in the solitude a city which became the chief town of all Leinster. The vast numbers of young w^omen and pious widows who thronged round St. Brigid for admission into her convent present a singular feature in a country just emerging from paganism ; and the identity of that monastic and ascetic form which Christianity, in all the purity and fervour of its infancy, thus assumed in Ireland, as in all other countries, with the form which it has continued to retain, in ail ages, in the Catholic Church, must strike every student of history. St Brigid has been often called " The Mary of Ireland ;" a circumstance Avhich shows, not that the primitive Irish Christians confounded her mth the Mother of Our Lord — a silly mistake which some modern writers have thoughtlessly attributed to them — but that they felt that the "most exaggerated praise which they could bestow upon their own great saint was to compare ner with the Blessed Virgin.* One of the most distinguishing virtues of St. Brigid was her humility. It is related that she sometimes attended the cattle on her own fields ; and whatever may have been the extent of the land bestowed upon her, it is • See first part of the Liber Hymnorum, edited by Dr. Todd for the Archsological and Celtic Society. 80 FinST CHRISTIAN MONAKCII OF IRKLAN'D. also certain that a principal source of subsistence for her nuns was the alms which she received. The habit of her order was white, and for centuries after her time her rule was followed in all the nunneries of Ireland. The Four Masters record the death of St. Brigid at the year 525 ; and according to Cogitosus, one of her biographers, her remains were buried at the side of the altar, in the Cathedral Church ot Kildare, and not, as some late traditions have it, in the same tomb with the apostle of Ireland in Downpatrick. During the first years of the sixth century the galaxy of holy persons whose sanctity shed such effulgence on the dawn of Christianity in Ire- land was gradually disappearing, to be succeeded by the no less brilliant constellations of the second and third centuries of the Irish Church. Many of the venerable bishops who had received consecration from the hands of St. Patrick were still alive, and had the happiness to see the religion of Christ on the throne of Tara, and firmly established in all the provinces. Muircheartach Mac Earca, who succeeded Lughaidh, the son of Laeghaire, a.d. 504, was the first Christian itionarch of Ireland. He was, however, engaged in perpetual warfare, fought several bloody bat- tles with the Leinster men to enforce that most oppressive and unjust of imposts, the Borumean tribute, and ultimately was drowned in a butt of wine, into which he had thrown himself to escape from the flames of his house at Cletty, near the Boyne. Descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, by his son Eoghan, he belonged to the race of Northern Hy- Niall, but on his death (a.d. 528), the crown reverted to the Southern Hy- Niall, in the person of Tuathal Maelgarbh, grandson of Cairbre, by whom St. Patrick had been persecuted. Tuathal reigned eleven years, and was killed treacherously by the tutor of his successor. CHAPTER X. First Visitation of the Buidhe Chonnaill — Eeign of Diarmairl, son of Kcrval. — Tara cursed and deserted. — Account of St. Columbkille. — Persecution of the Saint by Diarmaid. — Battle of Cuil Dremni. — Foundation of lona. — Eeign of Hugh, son of Ainmire. — Convention of Drumceat. — Battle of Dunbolg. — Deaths of Saints. — Feuds of the Northern and Southern Hy-jSTialls. — Battle of Magh Eath. — The second Buidhe Chonnaill. — Ecmission of the Borumean Tribute. COTEMPORARY EVEXTS. The Jxistinian Code Promulgated, a.v>. 529 — The Flight of Mahomet, a.d. (i22.— The Saxon Heptarchy established The Saxons Converted to Christianity. — Conquest of Gaul by the Franks. — Kingdom of the Vandals destroyed, a.d. 532. — The Visigoths in Spain — The Lombards in Italy. {The Sixth and Seventh Centuries). TERRIBLE and mysterious pestilence marks tlio year 543 as an cpocli in our history, "an extraordinary .nSaBt^'«uij'7\ 'wi^iversal plague," astlieold annalists express it, "having Cx-^^:^^}fS* pi'evailed throughout the world, and swept away the noblest third part of the human race." This plague is called in the Irish annals Blefcd, or Crom Chonnaill, or Buidhe Chonnaill, names implying a sickness which pro- duced yellowness of the skin, resemhling in color stuLble or withered stalks of corn, which in Irish were called Connall* It -appears to have been general throughout Europe, originating in the East; and in Ireland, where it prevailed for about ten years, it was preceded by dearth, and followed by leprosy. Several saints and other eminent persons were swej)t off by this plague in Ireland ; St. Berchan of Glasnevin, also called Mobhi Crarineach, or Movi of the Flatface, and St. Finnen of Clonard, who, from the multitude of holy • See the accounts of this pestilence collected from ancient records by Dr. Wilde in his 'rreport on the Tables of Deaths in the Irish Census for 18.01, where he gives, on the authority of Mr. Eugene Curry, as above, the lirst explanation that has been all'orded of the name of the sickness. 82 TARA CURSED ANI> ABANDONED. persons among lils disciples, was called the preceptor of the Saints of Ireland, being among its first victims. Diarmaid, son of Feargus Kerval, of the Southern Hy-Niall race, was Ardrigh of Ireland during this period, having succeeded Tuathal Maelgarhh, in 538, and reigned at least twenty years. He is highly praised by some Irish writers for his spirit of justice, but this quality was not unaccompanied by faults, and his reign is marked by several misfortunes. Notwithstanding the pestilence which was desolating the country, domestic wars and dissensions were not suspended. Diarmaid waged war against Guaire, king of Connaught, probably to enforce payment of a tribute ; although it is stated that the monarch's object was to chastise Guaire for an alleged act of injustice, Avhich is quite incon- sistent with the character for piety and fabulous generosity which this latter king bears in Irish history. Diainnaid was the last king who resided at Tara. He held the last feast or convention of the states there in the year 554 ; and shortly after that date, owing to a solemn malediction pronounced on the place by St. Rodanus of Lothra, in Tipperary, in punishment for the violation of the saint's sanctuary by the king, the royal hill was deserted. No subsequent king dared reside there, but each selected his abode according to the dynasty to which he belonged. Thus, the princes of the Northern Hy-Niall family resided in the ancient fortress of Aileach, near Derry; and the Southern Hy-Niall kings lived at one time at the Rath, near Castlepollard, now called Dun-Turgeis, from having become the residence of the Danish king Turgesius, and subsequently at Dun-na-Sciath, on the margin of Lough Ainninn, now Lough Ennell, near Mullingar. Thus, thirteen hundred years ago, the royal raths of Tara were condemned to desola- tion, although, even yet, their venerable traces have not been effaced from the grassy surface of the hill.* The crowning misfortune of Diarmaid's reign appears, however, to • Keneth O'llartigan, who died in 975, described the Hill of Tara as even then a desert, over- grown with grass and weeds. Among the ancient remains which have been identified by Dr. Petrie on the royal hill of Tara, by the aid of such venerable Irish authorities as the Dinnseanchus, the poems of Cuan O'Lochain and others are— the Eath na Riogh, or rath of the kings, which embraces within its great external circumvallation the ruins of the house of Cormac, the rath called Foradh, and the Mound of the Hostages ; tlie Rath of the Synods, near which were the Cross of Adamnan, and the Mound of Adamnan, the latter being now cfTaced; the Teach Michuarta, or great banquet- ing hall; the Mounds of the Heroines, or women-soldiers; the Rath of Graine, the faithless wife of Finn Mac Coul ; the Triple Mound of Nesi, the mother of Conor Mac Nesa : the Rath of King Laeghairo, in which St. Patrick preached ; and the Well of Neavnach, the stream of which turned the first water-mill, erected by Cormac Mac Art, in the third ceutury. — See Pelrla's Essay on the Hislory and Antiquities oj Tara Uill. ST. COLUMBKILLE. 83 have been his hostility to St. ColumLkille, and the unhappy consequences resulting from it ; and this subject leads us to an account of one of the most illustrious persons of whom we read in the history of Ireland. St. Columba, or, as he is generally called, Columbkille, that is Columba- of-the-church, was born in Gartan, a wild district of the county of Donegal, about the year 518 or 521, and was connected with the royal families of Ireland and British Dalriada.* On leaving his fosterage. Columba commenced his studies at Moville, at the head of Strangford Lough, where he became a pupil of the famous bishop St. Finnian ; and from this seminary, Avhen in deacon's orders, he proceeded to Leinster, where, after remaining some short time with an old bard named Gemman, he entered the monastery or college founded by another St. Finnian at Clonard. Thence he proceeded to the monastery of Moblii Clarainach at Glas Naoidhen, the present Glasnevin, near Dublin ; but this community being broken up by the pestilence, which carried off its principal, in 544, he returned to the North, having previously been ordained priest by the bishop of Clonfad. Already Columba was distinguished, not only for talent and learning, but for extraordinary sanctity ; and some miracles are said to have been performed by him before this time. In 545 or 546 he founded the monastery of Doire-Chalgaigh, the Derryof modern times, and about the year 553 laid the foundation of his great monastery of Darmhagh, now Durrow, in the King's County, the chief house of his order in Ireland.! The battle of Cooldrevny, which is popularly said to have taken place on his account, as we shall presently see, was fought, according to the Annals of Ulster, in 561, and two years after, being then forty-two yeai-s of age, he left Ireland, accompanied by twelve chosen disciples, for the island of Hy, or lona, which was given to him by his relative, Conall, the king of the Albanian Scots,^ aud which became the seat of one of the most celebrated monastic institutions of Northern Europe, and the head of his order. From this St. Columba proceeded on missionary joui'neys with his monks into the country of the Ficts, whom he converted to Christianity.§ Innumerable miracles are related of him, * St. Columba's father, Fedlime, was the grandson of Conall Gulban, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, and (by his mother Erca) grandson of Loam, one of the sons of Ere, who planted the Dalriadic colony in Scotland ; and the saint's mother, Ethnea, was descended from Catliair Mor, king of Ireland, a.d. 120, and was thus of the royal race of Leinster. Such being the saint's parent- age and connections, it is no wonder that his name should be mixed up in the state affairs of his time. t The name Loire signifies an " Oak-wood" (Roboreium) and that of Darmhayh signifies the " Plain of tlie Oak," Cavipus Rohorum, as Bede (Hist. Eccl. Lib. iii. c. 4.) translates it. X Bede and the Saxon chronicle say that lona belonged to the Picts wheii St. Columba came there. § When he first went to announce the faith to thePictish king, Brude, he was refused admission to the interior of the royal fort ; but at the saint's command the gates miraculously llew open, and 84 ST. COLUMBKILLE. and even without these marks of divme favor, the account which is left to us by his biographer, St. Adamnan, of his singular holiness and many exalted qualities, is sufficient to enrol his name on the calendar as that of a great saint. St. Columba is regarded as the apostle of both the Picts and Scots of North Britain, although the latter had brought with them some knowledge of Christianity from Ireland, and he has shared with St. Patrick and St. Brigid the honor of being the joint patron of his native country. lona for a long time furnished missionaries and bishops for many parts of Britain, and its monks took a leading part in the conver- sion of the Saxons, supplying the Saxon church with many prelates and priests for at least a couple of centuries. This relation between pastors and their spiritual children produced the friendly feeling of the Irish towards the Saxons of which Venerable Bede makes mention ; and when the Christian Britons, in their hatred of their Saxon conquerors, refused to preach Christianity to them, or hold any communion with them after their conversion, their Scottish or Irish neighbours willingly performed that Christian duty for them. Aidan, king of the Scots of Britain, came to St. Columba in lona to be inaugurated ; and the saint having received instructions from heaven in a vision to perform the ceremony, anointed and blessed him ; this being the first recorded instance, not only in these countries, but in Europe, of the Christian ceremony of anointing kings at their inaugui'ation. In Ireland forms handed down from pagan times remained still in use, while the kingdom of the Scots in Albion, commenc- ing under Christian auspices, was more suited for a new order of things.* As to the quarrel with the king of Ireland and the battle of Cooldrevny, various circumstances are related by the old annalists, which show a degree of animosity against the saint on the part of the king. It is stated that StS Columbkille copied a portion of the sacred Scripture from a book which had been lent to him by St. Finnen, without having the permission of the latter to do so. At that time a book was a most important object, and a discussion arising on the subject, King Diarmaid was chosen arbi- trator, and decided against St. Columbkille, giving the copy as well as the book to St. Finnen, and assigning, as a ground for his unjust judg- ment, the maxim that " the calf should follow the cow." Another oppor- the king, filled with wonder at the event, came forth to receive him and was converted by his preach- ing. It is a remarkable circumstance, noticed more than once in the lives of the saint, that when he preached to the i'icts he employed an interpreter to explain his words, thus showing that the Picts and Scots were not identical in race and did not speak the same language. * See Adamnan's Life of St. Columba edited for the Archaeological and Celtic Society, by Dr. Reeves of liallymena. Also Colgan's Tria§ TLaumaturga. ST. COLUMBKILLE. 85 tunitj of slio^'ing Diarmaid's ill-feeling towards Columba presented itself about the same time. At the last assembly of Tara, ak'eady mentioned, a dispute took place between Curnan, a son of the king of Connaught, and another person, in which the latter was killed. Curnan fled for re- fuge to Columbkille, but Diarmaid dragged him from his sanctuary, and, notwithstanding the intercession of the saint, got him instantly put to death. It is said that St. Columba upon this threatened the king with the vengeance of his relatives, the Hy-Nialls of the North ; but this is scarcely probable, as the saint endeavoured to effect his escape, which Diarmaid tried to prevent, ordering the frontiers of Meath to be watched, oolumba fii'st retired to IVIonasterboice, and then made his way across the hills into Oriel ; and with the provocation which had been offered it must have been easy to stir up the hot blood of the warlike clans of Tirconnell, Tyrone, and Connaught. St. Columba may only have related what oc- curred and then prayed for the success of his friends when they went to battle. IMoreover, as Cooldrevny, or Cuil-Dremni, the site of the battle, was in Carbury, to the north of Sligo, the very position of the armies would show that Diarmaid was all through the aggressor. This king's ideas of religion may be conjectured from the fact that he had druids in his camp, and trusted to their magic for success ; but he was vanquished, with a slaughter of 3,000 of his men, while the army which was protected by the prayers of St. Columba came off with scarcely any loss.* A large number of the clergy of I\Ieatli were induced by the representations of Diarmaid to hold a synod at Teltown for the purpose of excommunicating St. Columba ; but St. Brendan of Birr, St. Finnian of Moville, and other eminent ecclesiastics who were present protested against their proceed- ings, and the object of the synod was not carried out. It is said that battles were fought about the year 580 or 587, in which St. Columba also felt an interest ; but the allusions to them are very obscure. His departure from Ireland was voluntary, and he returned there some years after to attend the convention of Drumceat, and to visit his house of Durrow, and St. Kiaran's famous monastery of Clonmacnoise. He died in lona, about the year 597 (the Four Masters erroneously have it 592), in the 77th year of his age and the 35th year of his pilgrhnage to that island. On the death of Diarmaid, who was killed (a.d. 565) by Black Hugh, • After this battle the copy of St. Finnen'a book was restored to St. Columba. " This maunscript," says Dr. O' Donovan, " which is a copy of the Psalter, was ever after known by the name of Caihach (PriBliator). It was preserved for ages in the family of O'Donnell, and has been deposited in the INIuseum of the Royal Irish Academy, by Sir Itichaid O'Donnell, its present owner." Four Ma -tera, %n. obb, note, and an. 1497., note. Sn ^ THE CONVENTION OF DRUMCEAT a prince of the Pictish race of Dalaradia, against whom both the north- ern and southern Hy-Niall waged war, Ii-cland was ruled by two kings, reigning jointly, as frequently happened in subsequent times. After some short and unimportant reigns. Aedh, or Hugh, son of Ain- mire, came to the throne, and reigned twenty-seven years. By him was summoned, in 573, the great convention of Drumceat, the fost meeting of the States of Ireland held after the abandonment of Tara.* The lead- inas well as with the spirit of those rude times ; and also our saint's unaltered adhesion to the mode of computing Easter, and to the form of liturgy which he had learned in his own country, and which had been introduced there by St. Patrick, are particularly dwelt on by those who wish to draw a distinction between the religion of the ancient Irish and that of Rome ; but the attempts to show any such distinction are utterly fruitless. The discrepancies on points of discipline were only such as might have existed without detriment to the unity of the church ; and St. Columbanus, as well as every other Irish ecclesiastic who visited the continent of Europe in those early ages, found himself in the most perfect unison in matters of faith with the church of Rome, that is, with the Universal Christian church of that age. St. Columbanus told the Pope, " that although dwelling at the extremity of the world all the Irish were disciples of SS. Peter and Paul, receiving no other than the evangelical and apostolical doctrine; that no heretic, or Jew, or schismatic, was to be found among them, but that they still clung to the Catholic faith, as it was first delivered to them by his (the Pope's) predecessors, that is, the successors of the holy apostles ; that the L'ish were attached to the chair of St. Peter, and that although Rome was great and renowned, it was only on account of that chair it was so with them. Through the two apostles of Christ," he added, " you are almost celestial, and Rome is the head of all churches, as well as of the world."* St. Columbanus died at Bobbio, on the 21st of November, 615, at the age of 72 years ; and his memory is still highly venerated both in France and Italy. In the latter country his name is preserved in that of a small town in the district of Lodi, called from him S. Colombano. From his writings it is obvious that he was acquainted with Greek and Hebrew, besides being an accomplished scholar in other respects ; and as he did not leave his own country until he was about fifty years of age, and was afterwards occupied constantly in active duties, we may infer tha he acquired all his knowledge in the schools of Ireland.f * The letters and other writings of St. Columbanus that have been preserved may bo seen in Fleming's Collectanea, and in the Bibliotheca Patrum, torn. 12, Ed., 1G77. Some of them are publislied in U.«sher's Sylloge. t The Benedictines, in tlie Eist. Litteraire de la France, say: — " The light which St Colum- banus disseminated, by his knowledge and doctrine, wlicrever he presented hiin.self, caused a cotem- porary writer to compare him to the sun in his course from east to west ; and he continued after hi.s death to shine fortli in numerous disciples whom he had trained in learning and piety." Seo also Muratori, Annali di Ital. ad. an. G12, where lie describes the monastery of Dobbio, as one of the 96 FOUNDATION OF LINDISFARNE. We have seen that Gnlkis or Gall, one of the disciples of St. Colum- banus, was left in Helvetia, being prevented by Sickness from accom- panying his master. He was an eloquent preacher, and being acquainted with their language, a dialect of that of the Franks which he had acquired in Burgundy, he evangelized the Alemanni, and is called their apostle. He died on the 16th of October, about the year 645, in the 95th year of his age; and over his ashes rose a monastery which became the nucleus, first of an important town and then of a small state, with the rank of a principality, called after the holy Irish monk. It was not until the year 1798 that the abbey lands of St. Gall, as the territory was called, were aggregated to the Swiss Confederation as one of the cantons. The old abbey church is one of the chief attractions in the city of St. Gall, and for the Irish traveller there are many objects of interest there in the relics of his ancient national literature and piety, and in the various associations with his country. The life of St. Gall was written by Walafridus Strabus, a writer of the ninth century. A.D. 635. — Meanwhile St. Aidan, a monk of lona, chosen by his brethren as a missionary for Northumbria, on the invitation of King Oswald, who had been for some time a refugee in Ireland, converted the Saxons of that country to Christianity, and established the see of Lindisfarne, of which he was the first bishop. He was accompanied by many of his countrymen on this mission ; a monastery of the Columbian order Avas founded at Lindisfarne, and Irish masters were also obtained to instruct the children of the Northumbrian nobles in the rudiments of learning. St. Aidan, a.d. 651, was succeeded by St. Fintan or Finan, another Irishman and monk of Hy, who sent missionaries to preach the Gospel to the Middle and East Angles, and consecrated as first bishop of the former and also of Mercia, Diuma, an Irishman, who was suc- ceeded by another Irishman, named Kellach. St. Fintan, who died about the year 660, was succeeded as bishop of Lindisfarne, by his countryman St. Colman; so that the church of the northern Saxon kingdoms was for a long time at that period almost wholly in the charge of Irish ecclesiastics. Colman was deeply involved in the controversy about the celebration of Easter, which had for some time been a subject of anxious discussion in Ii'eland and Britain ; and as the question holds a prominent place in the history of the Irish church of that age, it is necessary to enter into a brief explanation of it here. most celebrated ia Italy; Fleurj', Hist. Eccl., Liv. xxxvii., and all writers who have treated of the religioii.s and literary lli^tory of Europe during the period in question. The life of St. Coltimbniius A?as written by lonas, an Irish or British monk, the cotemporary of some of the saint's disciples. THE PASCHAL QUESTION. 07 It must be premised that a wide ditference existed between the prac- tice "with regard to Easter as upheld so long in Britain and Ireland, and that which formed a matter of dispute some centuries before Avith the churches of the East. A question arose in the very infancy of Chris- tianity, whether the Christian Pasch should be solemnized, like that of the Old Law, on the fourteenth day of the moon which falls next after the vernal equinox, whatever day of the week that might be ; or whether it should not always be observed on a Sunday, the day which our Lord had consecrated by His resurrection. The former practice was invariably disapproved of in the western church, and Avas condemned in the Council of Nice (a.d. 325), and a few churches of Mesopotamia, which persisted in it, and which were besides infected with Nestorianism, were consequently pronounced heretical. This constituted the Quartodeciman heresy; but in the Catholic church there still remained some obstacles to uniformity in the computation of Easter. Thus, while at Alexandria, which had the best astronomers, the cycle of nineteen years was employed for ascertaining the moon's age, the old Jewish cycle of eighty-four years continued to be received for a long time at Rome ; and a difference of opinion also prevailed as to whether Easter-day should be held on the fourteenth of the moon when it fell on Sunday, or on the next succeeding Sunday ; but these and some other details were finally adjusted between Rome and the principal churches of the East ; the main point thus settled being that the fourteenth day should under no circumstances be taken for Easter. General harmony now prevailed on the subject throughout Europe and the East, when it Avas found that the insulated Scottish (that is, Irish) church still adhered to the old practice that had been introduced by St. Patrick, and that, apparently quite unaware of the discussion on the subject which had formerly agitated the rest of the world, and had been long since disposed of, the Irish clergy still celebrated Easter on the fourteenth day, if that day happened to be Sunday, and were only acquainted with the anti- quated cycle of eighty-four years which St. Patrick had been taught to use in his time, both in Gaul and Rome, but Avhich had been since laid aside for a computation of greater scientific accuracy. Veneration for the customs of their fathers has always been a characteristic of the Scottic race. In this case they held on to the tradition of the great saints who planted Christianity in their country, and enriched it Avith their virtues, and no arguments could for a long time convince them that a usage sanctified by Patrick, Brigid, and Columbkille, Avas erroneous. They were certainly guilty of obstinacy, 98 THE PASCHAL QUKSTION". and for that they deserve no praise. It is amusing to observe how little weight either science or authority had with them against the tradition which they held from those wlunn they loved and venerated ; but there cannot be a greater perversion of the truth than to pretend that this usage of the Irish chiuxh indicated an Eastern origin, or an essential negation of conformity with Rome, seeing that that very usage had been brought from Rome itself. This point is important, as gross misrepresentation has been practised on the subject. Perfect uniformity even in matters of discipline was desirable; and a diversity of practice, from which it often followed that while some were still observing the fast of Lent, others in the same community or household were chanting the alleluias of Easter, was most objectionable; but the Irish and their brethren of Britain could not be brought for some time to yield up an old custom for the sake of uniformity in such matters ; while on the other hand their adhesion to that custom did not exclude them from the unity of the Catholic church, or prevent some of its warmest advocates, such as St. Columbanus, who wrote a strong letter on the subject to St. Gregory, from ranking as saints in the Roman martyrology.* A.D. 630. — This year, in consequence of an admonitory letter from Pope Honorius I., a synod was held by the Irish clergy at Lena or Old Leighlin, to consider the paschal question. St. Laserian advocated the Roman practice, and St. Fintan Munnu, the Irish one ; and both, it will be observed, are saints of the Catholic church. It was decided that messengers should be sent to Rome to consult " the head of cities," and the ecclesiastics so deputed brought back word, after three years' absence, that the Roman discipline was that of the whole world. From the date of this announcement (633), the new Roman cycle and rules for Easter were received in the southern half of Ireland, embracing with Munster the greater part of Leinster, and part of Connaught. The attachment of the Columbian monks to the old practice still retarded the adoption of the correct one in the northern half of Ireland ; and it was nearly a century after when the wrong method of finding Easter was finally abandoned by the community of Hy. St. Cummian, who belonged to * It is a remarkable fact that thus, some two hundred years nfter the preaching of St. Patrick, no poiut of diflerence could be found between the faith and discipline of the church of Ireland and the faith and discipline of the church of Home, except tliis slight one ot the computation of Easter, and C.iat of the tonsure, or mode of shaving the heads of the monks; a pretty conclusive evidence that whatever tlie religion of Rome was in the sixtii and seventh centuries, auch was also the religion of Ireland found to be at the same period ; and it is humiliating to find some writers at the present day so blinded by sectarianism as to assert the contrary, and to pretend tliat the religion which St. Patrick brougbt into Ireland was not the religion of the western church! THE CONFERENCE OF WHITBY. 99 the Columbian order, embraced the Roman custom at the synod of 630, and addressed a learned epistle to the abbot and monks of Hy, in vindi- cation of himself, and of the practice of the universal church ;* and a few years after the clergy of Ulster addressed a letter to the Holy- See, which was received there a little before the death of Pope Seve- rinus, and was replied to by the Roman clergy wdiile the see was vacant; but the admonition of these latter on the Easter question appears to have had no effect upon their Scottish correspondents. Such was the state of the controversy when it was renewed with increased vehemence in Northumbria, at the time (a.d. 664) that Colman succeeded Finan in the see of Lindisfarne. A conference was held that year at Whitby, at which kings Oswin and Alcfrid presided ; St. Wil- frid, a learned Saxon bishop, advocating the Roman observance, and St. Colman with the Irish clergy supporting their own national practice, while St, Ceadda, bishop of Mercia, and an adherent of the Scots, acted as interpreter between the parties. The proceedings of this conference were most interesting, and resulted in a decision againt Colman's usage ; the kings and the bulk of the assembly declaring in favor of Wilfrid. St. Colman consequently resigned the see of Lindisfarne, and taking with him all the Irish and about tliirty of the English monks of his establish- ment, he withdrew to the remote island of Innisbofin, or the " island of the white cow," off the western coast of Ireland, where he founded a monastery for his Irish monks, building another shortly after for his English followers on the plain of Mayo, called on that account Mayo- of-the-Saxons. He himself resided in Innisbofin, until his death, in the year 676.t * This celebrated letter is published in Ussher's SyUoge ; and its style and the learning it dis- plays are hi^'hly creditable to the venerable Irish ecclesiastic by whom it was written. t Venerable Bede (Ec. Hist. B. iii., cliap. 25) gives a detailed account of the important con- ference of Whitby. Describing, in the following chapter, the departure of St. Colman and the Irish monks from Lindisfarne, he pays them the following tribute, which may be received as applic- able to the Irish monks in general of that period :— " The place which he (Colman ) governed, shows how frugal he and his predecessors were, for there were very few houses besides the church found at tlieir departure, indeed no more than were barely sufficient for their daily residence ; they had also no monej^ but only some cattle; for if they received any money from rich persons they immediately gave it to the poor ; there being no need to gather money or provide houses for the entertainment of the great men of the world ; for such never resorted t» the church except to pray and hear the word of God For the whole care of those teachers was to serve God, not the world— to feed the soul, and not the stomach." And again (B. iii., chap. 27)— "Durmg the time of Finan and Colman, many nobles and others of the English nation were living in Ireland, whither they hud repaired either to cultivate the sacred studies, or to lead a life of greater strictness. Some of them soon became monks ; others were better pleased to apply to reading and study, going about from school to school through tiie cells of the maslers; and all of them were most cheerfully received by the lri>h, who supplied them yralis with good books and instruction." 100 THE LAW OF THE INNOCKXT^!. A.D. 684. — It was related at the close of the preceding chapter how Egfrid, king of Northunihria, sent an army on a piratic excursion into Ireland, to gratify, as it is believed, his private resentment ; his brother Alfred having sought refuge in Ireland from his treachery, and been hospitably received there* The next year, or the following one, Alfred succeeded him on the throne; and if was then (a.d 685 or 686) that St. Adamnan, the ninth abbot of Hy, who is celebrated not only for his sanctity, but as the accomplished biographer of the great St. Columba, was sent into England to recover the captives and property of which Ireland had been plundered. Adamnan's mission to the fi'iendly court of Alfred was most successful ; and he appears to have repeated his visits there more than once in after years. This holy and learned abbot was one of the most strenuous promoters of the new paschal computation, which he succeeded in introducing into the northern parts of Ireland, although his own monastery of Hy persisted in declining it for some years longer. In the year 697, he proceeded to Ireland from Hy, and took part in a synod or legislative council, held at Tara, which place, although it had ceased to be a royal residence, was still occasionally used as the seat of legislation. On this occasion he procured the enactment of a law, which was called the Canon of Adamnan, or the " Law of the Innocents," and sometimes " the law not to kill women." It was usual amongst the pagan Irish, as we have seen, for women to go with the men to battle, but as we generally read of one woman being- killed by another, it is probable that the female combatants of opposite armies encountered each other. This barbarous custom may have fallen partially into disuse after the conversion of the country to Christianity, although we are not told that such was the case ; but there was certainly no law against it, or any to exempt women from attending hostings in warfare until the time of St. Adamnan ; and a characteristic incident is related in the Leabhar Breac, and the Book of Lecan, to account for that saint's interference in this matter. It happened, according to the story, that Adamnan was travelling one day through the plain of Bi'egia, while yet a young man, with his mother, Ronait, on his back, when they saw two armies engaged in conflict. The mother of Adam- nan observed a Avoman with a sickle plunged into the breast of * Alfred and Oswald were not tlie only foreign princes who had been sheltered in Ireland ; Ddg-o- bert II., king of Austrasia, having, in his youth, lived for tifteen years ((J55 to 670) in the monastery of Slane on the lioyue. whitiier he had bei-u sent on the death of his father by Griiuuaio, mayor of the palace. IRISH SAINTS ON THE CONTlNJiNT. 101 another woman, and thus di'agging her about the field ; and horrified at the spectacle, she exacted a solemn promise fi'om her son that he would obtain a law to exempt Avomen from warfare. Adamnan did iiot lose sight of the injunction of his parent, and it is likely that he employed his influence, as soon as it was powerful enough, to introduce the law in question* He celebrated Easter, according to the canonical computation, in the northern half of Ireland, in year 703, and died the following year; and it was reserved for a Northumbrian monk, named Egbert, to bring the community of Hy to uniformity on this point, in the year 716, a hundred and fifty years, according to Bede, after the controversy on the subject had commenced in these countries. Returning to those Irish saints who, by their virtues and learning, spread the fame of their native land into foreign countries, we shall only enumerate the more celebrated of them. St. Frigidian was bishop of Lucca for twenty-eight years in the sixth century, and his memory is still held in great veneration in that part of Italy. Of St. Molua, or Lugid, it was said by the great Pope St. Gregory, that his monastic rule was like a hedfje which reached to heaven. St. De£!;an travelled to Rome early in the seventh century, at the commencement of the paschal controversy, and embraced the canonical mode of computation. St. Livinus, an Irish bishop, erroneously called archbishop of Dublin, suffered martyrdom in Flanders, in the year 683, and his memory has always been venerated in that country, whither he had gone to preach the Gospel. Some beautiful verses, written by him in good classic Latin, have been preserved. St. Fiacre, who flourished in the year 622, erected a monastery in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in a forest near Meaux, m France, and the fame of his sanctity rendered the pilgrimage to his tomb or hermitage so popular, that his name was given to the hackney coaches of Paris, of which go many were employed in conveying the citizens thither. St. Fursey, who died in the year 648, founded a monastery in England, and another at Lagny, in France ; and his disciples, St. Foilan, St. Gobban, and St. Dicuil, were the companions of his labors in those countries. St. Arbogast, an Irishman, was consecrated bishop of Strasburg in 646. St. Kilian, the illlustrious apostle of Fronconia was martyred with his two companions, in the year 689. This great saint, faithful to the spirit of the Irish * This law prntflcted women and children against the barbarities of war, and hence it was called the iex innucentium, or law of the innocfnt or weak. 'The assembly in which it was enacted was held in the " Kath of the Synods." on 'lara Hill, near which raih, according to the DinnseHii- rhus was the Lathrach Pxipaill Adumiiaiii, or "bile of tlie leut of Aiianinan." 102 SS. CATIIALDUS, CUTHBERT, ETC church, would not commence his mission among the pagans of Wurtz- burg, although he saw its necessity, until he had gone to Rome to obtain the sanction and blessing of the Pope. Two other saints of the same name flourished on the continent, one a disciple of St. Columbanus, and the other abbot of St. Martin's monastery at Cologne. To this period belongs the illustrious patron of the metropolitan city of Tarentvim, St. Cathaldus, whom some old continental writers erron- eously supposed to have flourished in the second century. He was a nntive of Munster ; was first a student, and then a professor at Lismore, where he is said to have erected a church in honor of the Blessed Virgin ; and as that renowned seminary was not founded until the year 633, it must have been some years later, perhaps about 650, when he left Ireland. Returning fi'om a pilgrimage to Jerusalem he passed through Tarentum, and having performed some miracles as he approached the town, he was received by the inhabitants with veneration, unanimously chosen as their bishop, and continued to govern the diocese with great zeal for many years. His brother, St. Donatus, probably travelled with him., as v/e find that he was bishop of Lecce, another city of the kingdom of Naples, and both are said to have lived for many years as hermits near a small town now called San Cataldo.* St. Cnthbert, the celebrated bishop of Lindisfarne, who died in the year 687, was, according to many distinguished authorities, an Irishman, but it is at least certain that he Avas educated by Irishmen.! St. IMaccutbenus, avIio died about this time (a.d. Q9S), composed a hymn in praise of the Blessed Virgin. St. Sedulius, the younger, assisted at a council held in Rome, in the year 721, during the pontificate of Gregory II., and was sent on an ecclesiastical mission from Rome into Spain, being previously consecrated bishop of Ore to in that country. On his arrival in Spain, in order to show his claim to the regard and * The life of St. Cathaldus was written in prose by Bartliolomeo Moroni, of Tarentum, and in verse by his brother, Bonaventura. His acts, written by others, are also extant. See them collected by Coli,'an, AA. SS. Hib. at the 8th of March; and a great deal concerning him in Ussher's Primordia, pp. 392, &c., folio edition. The poetic life of St. Cathaldus describes in beautiful language the conflux of students from different parts of Europe to the school at Lismore. t Colgan, Ussher, Ware, and Harris, make St. Cnthbert an Irishmau. but there does not appear to be any Irish authority for the story of his birth related in the life quoted by Colgan from Capgrave. Professor Eugene Curry, in a note addressed to the author, says, " St. Cuthbert's name is not to be found in the lists of Irish saints preserved in the Books of Leinster, Ballymote, Lecan, M'Firbis, or the Calendar of the Four Masters; hut it does appear in wliat is called the Martyr- ology of Tamlacht, copied by Father Michael O'Cleary. In this he is set down, at March 20th, as (,'ubrichta Saxonis, of Inis Menoc ; and in the Festology of Aengus Cele De, Inis Jlenoc, or rather Inis Medcoit, is explained ns an island on the north coast of Little Britain (recte Great Britain^ in which St Aedan lived." ST. VIRGILItTS. 103 attention of the people, he wrote a book to prove that being of Irish birth, he was consequently of Spanish descent, thus satisfactorily show- ing how fixed the tradititions of the Milesian colony were at that eai'ly age on the minds of Irishmen.* It is generally admitted that there were two Irish saints of this name : the elder Sedulius, called the Venerable, who flourished in the fifth century, and is celebrated for his sacred poetry, still used in the church offices; and the younger Sedulius, just mentioned, who wrote commentaries on some portions of the Scriptures. Few. of these ancient Irish missionaries have excited more interest than St. Virgilius, who is called " Ferghil the Geometer," in the Irish annals, and Solivagus, or, the "Solitary Wanderer," by Latin writers. He startled Europe by his scientific opinions in the eighth century, teaching that the earth was a sphere, and consequently that there were antipodes ; but it is utterly false that, as some say, he was persecuted by the church for this opinion. This remarkable Irishman set out from his own country, where he had been abbot of Aghaboe, in Ossory ; and on his arrival in France he was graciously received by Pepin, then mayor of the palace, and afterwards king of France. Our saint next travelled into Bavaria, about the year 745, and while on the mission at Saltzburg, a theological question arose between him and St. Boniface, a bishop whose jurisdiction extended to that place. The latter required that baptism, which had been administered in an ungrammatical form of words, should be repeated, and St. Virgilius held the contrary opinion, which is the correct one. The question was referred to Pope Zachary, who decided with St. Virgilius. But soon after a complaint was forwarded to the Sovereign Pontiff against the distinguished Irishman, accusing him of teaching that there was another world under this one, inhabited by men who were not of the race of Adam, and who conse- quently were not redeemed by Christ. That St. Virgilius gave a satis- factory explanation in answer to the charge is obvious, as in 756 he was appointed bishop of Saltzburg by Pope Stephen II. and king Pepin, a suffi- cient proof that his character was not stained by any blemish in the eyes of these high authorities. This Irish saint died at Saltzburg in the year 785, after a visitation of his vast diocese, which included Carinthia. He obtained his philosophical knowledge in the schools of his native land, as did also St. Dicuil, another Irishman, who about tlie close of the eighth century wrote a treatise, " De mensura orbis terras," describing the then known world, upon the authority of the earlier geographers * Harris's Wme's Irioli VV'iiUT.-, p. 47. 104 ST. FRIDOLIK. SCHOOLS OF CIIARLEMAGNK. and of tlie commissioners appointed by the emperor Theodosius to measure the provinces of the Roman empire* Even then Ireland was famed in foreign countries for its sweet and expressive music ; and we find that saints Foilan and Ultan, the brothers of St. Fursey, were invited along with other Irishmen, by St. Gertrude, daughter of Pepin and abbess of Nivelle, in Brabant, to instruct her community in sacred psalmody. These holy men erected a monastery at Fosse, near Nivelle, and the religious houses at both places were con- sidered to be Irish. St. Ultan also became the first superior of the monastery of St. Quintin, near Peronne, and lived until about the year 67G. St. Fridolin, " the Traveller," the son of an Irish king, founded monasteries in various parts of France, in Helvetia, and on the Rhine. He flourished about the close of the seventh and the commencement of the eighth century, and his memory has been preserved with veneration in many parts of the continent. A little later flourished Albuin, called also by the Saxon name of Wittan, or White, who preached the Gospel in Thuringia, or Upper Saxony, and was appointed by the Pope bishop of Buraburgh, near Fritzlar, in the year 741. About a year after Charlemagne had become sole monarch of Fi'ance — that is, A.D. 772 — two remarkable Irishmen made their appearance in his territories. Their names were Clemens and Albinus; and the method which they adopted to attract attention is related as a curious sample of the manners of the times. Observing that commerce of one kind or other occupied the people, they went about announcing, that they had wisdom to sell, and thus collected crowds to hear their instructions. Their fame soon reached the ears of the great monarch, who was just then intent on the intellectual improvement of his people. He sent for them ; entertained them for some time in his palace, and then placed them over two public schools which he founded, committing that of Paris to Clemens, and one founded at Pavia, in Italy, to his companion, Albinus. The names of these two eminent Irishmen were subsequently thrown partly into the shade by that of Alcuin, a Saxon, who, according to the custom of the age of taking Roman names, assumed the name of Albinus Flaccus. Alcuin arrived in France several years after our countrymen, Clemens and Albinus ; he afforded great assistance to Charlemagne in his efforts to revive learning, accom- panied him for the purpose of teaching a school of nobles in his palace, • Tliis ancient geographical treatise was publishei, with a critical dLisertation and copious notes, by M. Letionue, in Paris, a n. 1811. IinSH MISSrON'AIlIES IN ICELAXn, 105 and has been rendered famous by liis correspondence with the emperor and with other illustrious persons of his time. Charlemagne, however, patronised all the learned foreigners whom he could attract to his court, and while he lived repaid with his friendship and support the two Irishmen we have mentioned* A few years after Albinus, Dongal, another Irishman, and one of the most learned men of his time, was appointed professor of the school of Pavia by king Lothaire. He is celebrated, among other things, for an epistle which he wrote to Charlemagne on the two solar eclipses of 810; for a valuable gift of books, some of them relating to secular literature, which he made to the monastery of Bobbio; and for a work in defence of the use of sacred images in churches against Clodius of Tui'in. St. Donatus, an Irishman, who flourished in the middle of the same (ninth) centui'v, was made bishop of Fiesole, in Italy, and his disciple, Andrew, who had accompanied him on a pilgrimage to Rome, was deacon of the same chui'ch.f Turning, finally, towards the north, we find that Irish monks were not only the first Christians, but most probably the first inhabitants, of the inhospitable region of Iceland, which they called Thule, or Tyle. Dicuil, who, as we have seen, flourished in the latter part of the eighth, and beginning of the ninth century, states that thirty years before he wrote his geographical work, he had got an account of Thule from some ecclesiastics who had been sojourning there; and when, in the latter part of the ninth century, the pagan Norwegians planted a colony in Iceland, the Irish monks, who fled on their arrival, left behind them sundry memorials of their religion, such as Irish books, small bells, and pastoral staffs. This circumstance is related by various Icelandic writers, * The Monk of St. Gall, who wrote the life of Charlemagne in the ninth century, and who is believed to have been the celebrated Notkerus Bulbultis, makes particular mention of Clemens and Albinus as "Scots of IrelancL" Jluratori, Anncdl di Italia, anno 781, refers to the loaniiiig and teaching of Albinus in Italy. See Lanigan, Ware, &c. Guizot omits all mention of them in his History of Civilization ; he and some other modern writers, who have only glanced at the subject, having confined their attention to Akuin and his disciples. t To Donatus, the holy bishop of Fiesole, M-e are indebted for the graceful tribute to Ireland contained in the well-known lines: — Fiiiibus occiduis describitur optima tellus, Koniine et antiquis Scotia scripta libris. Insula dives opum, gemmarum, vestis, et anni Commoda corporibus aere, sole, solo. Jlclle fluit pulchris, et lacteis Scotia ca npis, Veslibus, atque armis, frugibu.i, arte, viris. « « * # ♦ In qua Scotorum gentes habitare merentuj-, Vidyta gens hominum, militc, pace, lile. 100 JOHANNES SCOTUS ERIGEKA. who add that these Irish monks were called papas by the Norwegian settlers. When the first effort was made to introduce Christianity among the pagan colonists, two Irishmen, who are called Ernulph and Buo by their Icelandic biographer, Arngrim Jonas, were the mission- aries; and another old Icelandic writer, Ara Multiscius, mentions an Irishman named John, in his enumeration of e^.rly Icelandic bishops* In the preceding account of the Irish saints and scholars of those early ages, we have omitted the name of one most remarkable Irisliman, who could scarcely be placed in the same category with any of those whom we have mentioned. This was John Scotns Erigena, or " the Irishman," who flourished in the middle of the ninth century, and whose extraordinaiy learning and eccentric genius filled Europe with amaze- ment. John was not an ecclesiastic, nor was he a sound theologian. He mingled divinity with Platonic philosophy, and fell into the wildest errors about the nature and attributes of the Deity, grace and predesti- nation, the future state of reward and punishment, and other subjects; and some of his books were condemned by the church. He resided chiefly in Paris, where he taught philosophy, and was on terms of friendship with the emperor Charles the Bald, at whose desire he trans- lated the supposed works of Dionysius the Areopagite from Greek into Latin. He was the first who combined scholastic and mystic theology ; and notwithstanding his pantheistic and other errors, he is said to have led an exemplary life. He died in France some short time before the year 875 ; and no other schoolman of his age attracted so much notice, or was the object of such diversity of opinions, both during his life and in after ages.f * Some account of Ernulph and Buo is given in Colgan's AA: SS. Hib. Feb. 2 and 5. Ara Multiscius (Schedce de hlandia, cap. 2) relates how, in the first j'ears of Harold Harfagre, who became king of Norway, a.d. 885, Ingulph, the first Norwegian, fled into Iceland, and was soon followed by so many of his countrymen that it was feared Norway would be left desert, and he says: — "At that time Iceland was covered with woods, and there were then in it Cliristian men, whom the Norwegians call papas; and the.^e, being unwilling to remain with heathens, went away forthwith, leaving behind them Irish books, and small bells, and Cpa-.toralj staffs whence it was easy to perceive that they were of the Irish nation." This is told in somewhat similar terms in the Landnamaboc, quoted by Johnston, Antiq. Celto-Scand., p. 14. t Of this singular man Tennemann says: — "John Scotus, an Irishman, belonged to a mnch higher order (tlian Alcuin) ; a man of great learning, and of a philosophical and original mind; whose means of attaining to such superiority we are ignorant of. His acquaintance with Latin and (Ireek, to which some assert he added the Arabic; his love for the philosophy of Aristotle and riato ; his translation, exceedingly esteemed throughout the West, of Dionysius the Aieopagite; his liberal and enlightened (heretical) views respecting predestination and the Eucharist; all these I iititle him to be considered a phenomenon for the times in which he lived." Hist, of Philosjphy, p. 215 (Bohn's edition). CHAPTER XII. Christian Antiquities of Ireland. — Testimonies on the subject of Ireland's Pre- eminence for Sanctity and Learning. — The Culdees. — Hereditary Transmission of Cliurch Offices. — Lay Bishops and Abbots. — Comhorbas and Ilerenachs. — Termon Lands. — Characteristics of the Primitive Church in Ireland. — Infer- ence therefrom. — Peculiarities in Discipline. — Materials used in Building Churches. — Damliags and Duireachs. — Cyclopean Masonry. — The Eound Towers. — Saints' Beds, Holy Wells, and Penitential Stations. T tlie risk of trenching on the duties of the ecclesiastical historian, the preceding chapter has been extended beyond its due proportion; yet the object in view — namely, that of exhibiting the aspect of Christian Ireland, as it was presented to Europe in the centuries preceding the Danish invasion — ^lias been but imper- fectly accomplished. Our list of the illustrious Irishmen who spread the fame of their country for learning and holiness into foreign lands is far from being complete, and the subject is on the whole little more than glanced at. But even this slight sketch will show that there is sufficient ground for what has been so often said about the eminent position which Ireland once held in relation to the other countries of Christendom. Tliat pre-eminence is no idle dream — no creation of the national Imagination. It is as mach a reality as any other fact in the range of history, and may be assuredly a legitimate source of national pride. During the period which extended from the inroads of the barbarians in Europe in the sixth century, to the partial revival of education and mental energy under Charlemagne, in the ninth, this island was unquestionably the retreat and nursery of learning and piety, and the centre of intellectual activity. mx\ 1(J,5 IRISH MISSIONS AND SCHOCT.'?. An old v.riter speaks of Ireland having been at this time reputed to be full of saints.* Venerable Bede informs us that numbers were daily coming into Britain from the country of the Scots (Ireland), preaching the Word of God with great devotion.f "What shall I say of Ireland," says Eric of Auxerre, a French writer of the ninth century, "which, despising the dangers of the deep, is migrating, with almost her whole train of philosophers, to our coasts?":}: Thierry, after describing the poetry and literature of ancient Ireland as perhaps the most cultivated of all Western Europe, adds that Ireland "counted a host of saints and learned men, venerated in England and Gaul, for no country had furnished more Christian missionaries, uninfluenced by other motives than pure zeal to communicate to foreign nations the opinions and faith of their own land."§ Testimonies of ancient and modern writers to the same effect might be multiplied indefinitely, all representing (in the words of Dr. Lanigan) the migration which took place at that period from Ireland, as a swarm of holy and learned men, by whom foreign nations were instructed and edified. || Then, as to the resort of foreigners to Ireland for the purposes of education, and of leading a life of greater perfection, we have also copious and conclusive evidence. St. Aengus the Culdee, in his litany \vritten at the end of the eighth century, invokes the intercession of many hundreds of saints, Remans, Italians, Egyptians, Gauls, Germans, Britons, Picts, Saxons, and natives of other countries, who were buried and venerated in Ireland, and whom he divided into groups, chiefly according to the localities of Ireland in which they had sojourned and died. The lives of St. Patrick, St. Kieran, St. Declan, St. Albeus, * Jlariaiius Scotus; Clironicon. art an. G74. Usslier remarks that the saints of this jjeriotl might be grouped into a f.'urth order of the IrLh saints. t nccl. Hist., Lib. iii., chap 3. J Letter to Charles the Bald. {^ Hist, de la Conqin-te de rAngletorre, Liv. x II Stephen Vv'hite, (Apologia, p. 24J, thus sums up the labors of the Irish saints on the tonti- reiit: — "Among the names of saints whom Inland formerly sent forth th.re were, as I have learned from the trustwcjrthj- writings of the ancients, 150 now honored as patrons of places in Germany, of whom 36 were martyrs; 45 Irish patrons in the Gauls, of whom 6 were martyrs, iit least 30 in BeUium; 44 in England; 13 in Italy; and in Iceland and Norway 8 martyrs; besides many others." " One singular and extraordinary fact may be noted here," observes the late llev. Dr. Kelly (Camb. Ever., vol. ii., p. 653), "namely, that to foreign sources almost exclu- ^Ively are we indebted for a knowledge of those Irish saints. Erom our native annals we couid not know even their names, with very few exceptions, such as St. Virgilius," &c., &c. It has beei calculated that the ancient, lii.sh monks had 13 monastic foundations in Scotland, 12 in England. 7 in France, 12 in Armoric Gaul, 7 in Lotharingia, 11 in Burgundy. 9 in BelL::iiim, 10 in Alsatia, 16 in Bavaria, G in Italy, and 15 in Rhctia, Helvetia, and Suevi.;, besides many hi Ihuringia, and on the left margin of the Rhine, between Cueldre,; and Al>a;ia. THE CyLDEES5. 109 St. Enda, St. Maidoc, St. Senan, St. Brendan, and other Irish saints, furnish testimonies to the same effect.* Camden, in his description of Ireland, says: — " At that age our Ano-lo- Saxons repaired on all sides to Ireland as to a general mart of learnino-. Whence we read, in our writers, of holy men, that ' they went to study in Ireland;' Amandatus est ad dlsciplinam in Hiberniam." We are told that three thousand students at a time attended the great schools of Armagh alone, and that many of these had come from other countries ; but after making due allowance for exaggeration in such statements as this, we have still an overwhelming mass of evidence to shew that Ire- land Avas, in those remote ages, a nm'sery of saints and scholars ; and such being her acknowledged character so soon after receiving Clu"is- tianity, it would be, to say the least, rash to deny that she had made any progress previously in the march of civilization.f We have now a few words of explanation to offer on some points of interest relating to oiu* ecclesiastical antiquities, before we resume oiu: civil history. The question, who were the Culdees ? is one that has been often asked, and upon which many serious errors have been current. These errors seem to have originated in Scotland, the ancient history of which country is a tissue of anachronisms and fabrications. It has been asserted that the Culdees were an order of priests or monks who taught Christianity and ruled the church without bishops, in North Britain and Ireland, before the time of St. Palladius and St. Patrick — a fallacy which was embraced with aAadity by the Scottish Presbyterians. But this notion was subsequently modified, especially after Dr. Ledwich had promulgated his false and silly statements on the subject ; and it was then pretended that Culdees was only another name for the order of monks founded by St. Columbkille ; that they were married men ; that their religion was pure compared with that of Rome; that they rejected the authority of the Pope, together with much more to the same effect.J This is simply a mass of groundless and shameful falsehood, without one word of truth, or the slightest authority of antiquity to support it. * Dr. Fctrie (^Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, p. 139), gives an engraving of the stone which marks the grave of the " Seven Romans," near the church of St. Brecan, in the great island of Aran. t Dr. Johnson, in a letter addressed to Charles O'Conor, of Belanagar, dated 1777, alluding to the period of Irish histoiy which he wished to see developed, writes : — •' Dr. Leland begins his history too late; the ages which deserve an exact encjuiry are those times, for such there were, when Ireland vas the ^chool of the West, the quiet liabitatiun of sanctity and learning." — Boswell's Life of Johnson. X Ledwich's Antiquiiie-, p. 113, .S.C., second edit! n. ] 10 THE CULDEES. As to the fanciful theory of the Culdees having been founded by St. Columbkille, Dr. Lanigan* correctly observes that " in none of the lives of that saint, nor in Bede, who very often treats of the Columbian order and monks, nor in the whole history of the monastery of Hy (lona) and its dependencies, does the name of Culdees or any name tantamount to it ever once occur," a circumstance which, as he justly concludes, " would have been impossible, had the Culdees been Columbians or members of the order or congregation of Hy." The true character of the Culdees may be gathered from the following note upon them, with which the author has been favored by that pro- found Irish scholar. Professor Eugene Curry, of the Catholic University. " The Culdees," says JVIr. Curry, " as far as I have been able to trace them, were to be found in Ireland since St. Patrick's time, as the Tripartite Life of the apostle mentions that one of them attended him in his visit to Munster; that his name was Malach Brit, and that his church was subsequently built in the north-eastern angle of the southern Decies — namely Cill Malach. They appear to have been originally mendicant monks, but had no communities until the middle of the eighth century, when St. Maelruan, of Tamlacht (Tallaght, near Dublin), drew up a rule for them in Irish. Of this rule I have an ancient copy, which I am now preparing for publication. Aengus Cele De was for some time in Maelruan's establishment, and was a priest, but he does not appear to have before that belonged to any community of Culdees. They had a separate house at Clonmacnoise, a.d. 1031, of which Conn- na-mbocht (Con-of-the-poor) was head; but these were lay monks of the order, as was their prior or economist, Conn, who, it appears, was the first that collected a herd of cows for them there. Iseal Ciarain (their house at Clonmacnoise), was not founded at this time, but very long before, and the Cele De were attached to the church as lay monks. They are often mentioned in the Brehon laws as the recipients of certain unappropriated church dues or income ; and they were at Armagh down to the year IGOO, but appear to have been masons, carpenters, and men of other trades ; all laymen but unmarried." From these facts it is clear that the Cele De (servants of God), called in Latin Keledei, and afterwards corruptly Colidei, were religious per- sons resembling very much members of the tertiary orders of St. Domi- nic and St. Francis, in the Catholic church at the present day, or one ot the great religious confraternities of modern times. Theu' society * Hist. Eccl. chap, xx.xi., ?ec. 1 CHURCH OFFICES HEREDITAKY, 111 was widely spread in Scotland, and was known in "Wales about the same time; and it is scarcely necessary to add that their religious principles were identical with those of the universal church at that period. * The hereditary, or clannish principle, prevailed from a very early age in the transmission of ecclesiastical offices and property in Ireland, and became in course of time a fruitful source of abuses. Bishoprics, abba- cies, and other benefices Avere thus, as it were, entailed on particular families, whether those of the founders or of local chiefs, so that on the failure of clergymen in these families or clans, laymen of the same families were invested with the titles and emoluments of the offices, while ecclesiastics of the proper order were delegated to perform the clerical functions belonging to them. Hence, we hear of laymen as nominally archbishops and bishops, and also as abbots and priors of monasteries ; that is, who enjoyed the emoluments, temporalities, and privileges of these offices, and who, not being in holy orders, may have been married men. This custom often led to intolerable confusion; and it has been seized by some modern writers, either ignorant of its nature, or too anxious to make it answer their own prejudices, for the purpose of showing that the clergy were not bound to celibacy in the Irish church. A more intimate knowledge of Irish authorities has, how- ever, shown these writers that this was a grievous mistake, as every one who had studied the history of the Irish church with a judgment un- warped by sectarian bias must have known. In no single instance does it appear that the marriage of any one in priest's orders was ever tol- erated in the church of Ireland. The holders of the higher ecclesiastical offices, whether clerics or lay- men, were, in the original foundations, called comhorbas, or successors. Thus, the archbishop of Armagh was comliorba of Patrick; the arch- bishop of Tuam, or of Connaught, as he was often called, was comhorba * Dr. Lanigan has collected a great ileal o.' matter about tlie Culdees in tha first six sections of chap. xxxi. of bis Ecclesiastical History ; but he was wrong in supposing them to be secular clergy or canons. Dr. Reeves, a Protestant clergyman, in his copious and learned annotations to Adain- nan's Life of St. Columba (p. 368), says, the Celedei "had no particular connexion willi this (the Columbian) order, any more than had the Deoradhs, or the other developments of conventual ob- servance;" and in afoot note he adds, that " C«Wee is the most abu' ESUjVIING tlie thread of oui' ci\dl history, we may glide rapidly over the events which intervene between the commencement of the seventh century and the epoch of the Danish invasions — the next era of great importance in our annals. Dm'ing that interval, comprising a couple of centui'ies, the facts recorded are sufficiently numerous, but the details are meagre, and rarely afford a clue to the motives of the actors, or to the causes or conse- quences of events. The obituaries of ecclesiastics, emi- nent for learning or holiness, and for their exalted position in the church, occupy a leadmg place in the chronicles of the times. .The demise of kings, chieftains, and tanists, is also set down with fidelity ; dearths, epidemics, and portentous phenomena, are duly recorded ; and these, with the brief mention of battles, which would indicate an almost per- 118 THE BORUMEAN TRIBUTE RENEWED. petual warfare between the several provinces, and between different districts of the same province, make up the staple of the venerable annals of the period* With all their hereditary feuds there was still mixed up a spirit of primitive chivalry. As a general rule human life was safe except in the field of battle ; and their pitched battles were usually pre-arranged, sometimes for a year or more, both as to time and place ; so that both parties had an opportunity to collect their forces, and the conflict which ensued was a fail* trial of strength. Several L'ish kings, at this period, were remarkable for piety, and not a few of them ended their days in religious houses ; and the same pages which record the carnage of battle, often shew that distinguished saints were then dwelling in our monasteries and anchorites' cells. With such living examples in the midst of them, the people cannot have been des- titute of piety and morality ; and in the picture which that rude age presents we find a beautiful illustration of the way in which religion stood between society and barbarism, as it did at that time throughout Europe in general. The pious generosity of Finachta, in relinquishing his claim to the Leinster tribute, at the prayer of St. Moling (about 687) was of little avail, as most of his successors waged war to renew it. The monarch Congal, of the race of Conal Gulban, scourged Leinster Mith his armies, either for this purpose, or, as some say, to avenge the death of his grandfather, Hugh, son of Ainmire, who was slain in the battle of Dunbolg. Congal died suddenly, in the year 708 ; and by his successor, Fergal, of the Cinel-Eoghain branch of the Hy-Nialls, Leinster was " five times wasted and preyed in one year." Li one of these inroads (a.d. 772) a great battle was fought at the celebrated hill of Allen, in the county of Kildare, when Fergal and the chiefs of Leath Cuinn brought 21,000 men into the field, and the Leinstermen could only muster 9,000. The latter however, made up by their bravery for the disproportion of their numbers, and the slaughter which followed was terrific, the total amount of slain on both sides being seven thousand * As to this frequent recurrence of petty wars we must recollect that other countries pi'eser.t siujlar blood-stained annals in the same ages. The wars of the Saxon lieptarchy were as numer- ous as the cotemporary ones of the Irish pentarchy. Writing of Northumbria in the eighth centurj-, Lingard saj's that " it exhibited successive instances of treachery and murder, to which no other country, perhaps, can furnish a parallel." Its kings were engaged in perpetual strife ; and Charlemagne pronounced them to be "a perfidious and perverse race, worse than pagans." The I'^nglish Saxons seem to have fallen at this epoch into a state of utter demoralization ; so much so that their own historians affirm that the crimes of both princes and people had drawn down upon them the merited scourge of the Danish wars. See the testimonies of lienry of Huntingdon, and others, to this effect collected by Mr. MacCabe, in his Catholic History of England, vol. ii., chap, 1. PIETY OF IRISH KINGS. li'J men, among whom was Fergal, king of Ireland. The annalists attribute the defeat of the northerns to the denunciations of a hermit who up- braided the king with violatmg the soleum engagements of his prede- cessor, Finachta, by endeavouring to re-impose the Borumean tribute. In a battle fought in 730, between the men of Leinster and Mun- ster, 3,000 of the latter were slain; and immediately after another invasion of Leinster by Hugh Allen, king of Ireland, and the Hy-Nialls of the north, took place, when, in a battle fought at a place now called Ballp'onan, in the county of Kildare, the monarch and Hugh, son of Colgan, king of Leinster, met in single combat. The latter was slain, and the Leinster army almost wholly exterminated. It is added that the people of the north rejoiced in thus wreaking theu* vengeance on the Leinstermen, nine thousand of whom fell in the carnage of that day.* While recording these battles, the annals tell us that Beg Boirche, king of Ulidia (a.d. 704), " took a pilgrim's staff, and died on his pil- grimage;" that Flahertach, king of Ireland, having retired from the sovereignty in 729, embraced a monastic life, and died at Armagh in 760 ; that Donal, son of Mm-chad, after a reign of twenty years as king of Ireland, died on a pilgrimage in lona, in 758t (763) ; and that his successor, Niall Frassagh, retired from the throne in 765 (770), and became a monk at lona, where he died in 778, and was buried in the tomb of the Irish kings in that island. Two or three of the next suc- ceeding monarchs are also mentioned as remarkable for their repentance and religious preparation for death.t In the year 742 (747) died Rumann, son of Colman, whom the annalists describe as an " adept in wisdom, chronology, and poetiy," and who, in the Book of Ballymote, is called the " Virgil of Ireland." We mention him on account of a remarkable fact, namely, that he composed a poem for the galls, or foreigners, of Dublin, (Ath Cliach), and, by a ruse, contrived to get w^ell paid for it in pinginns, or pennies ; whence we may conclude that, as the Danes had not yet visited Ireland, the foreigners in question were Saxons, of whom great numbers were then in this country.§ It is added, in the account of Rumann, that a * Four JIasteis, a.d. 733. The date of this battle, in the Annals of Ulster, is 737. t The events about this period are all ante-dated four or five years by the Four Jlasters . tho dales given by Tighernach being proved to be correct. + Cambrensis Eversus, cap. is. § Sec some account of Rumann, quoted in Petrie's Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, rp- 353 &c. The Galls having first refused any remuneration for the poem, Eunianu said he would C7i.^(ict ivio pinginm from every good man, and would be content with one from each bad one. The result was, that all of them sought to be placed in the former category. 120 POETEXTOUS SIGNS. British king named Constantine, who had become a monk, was at that time abbot of Rahen, in the King's county; and that at Cell-Belaigh, which appears to have been in the same neighbourhood, there were " seven streets" of these foreigners. We know that, at the same period, Gidlen, in the King's county, was called "Galin of the Britons," as Mayo was " Mayo of the Saxons," on account of the monasteries of those nations founded there. The monastery of Tamlacht, or Tallaght, near Dublin, was founded in the year 769, by St. Maehniaia; and in the lifetime of the founder, St. Aengus the Culdee, the famous Irish hagiologist, flourished there. St. Colgu, sumamed the wise, lector of Clonmacnoise, and who appears to have been the tutor of many eminent Ii'ish and foreign scholai's, died about the year 791. By him was written the first prayer-book which we find mentioned in the Irish annals. It was called the " Besom of Devo- tion" (Scuaip-chrabhaidh), and Colgan said he had a copy of it, which he describes as a collection of very ardent prayers in the shape of litanies, and as a work breathing fervent piety and elevation of the soul to God.* Up to the close of this century we find the great abbey of Peronne, ui France, founded about two centuries before by St. Fursey, stdl suppUed with abbots from Ireland, and the city itself called, in the Ii'ish Annals, Cahir-Forsa, or Fursey's city. Portentous signs and prodigies are frequently mentioned in the Irish annals at this period, such as showers of blood, and the darkening of the sun or moon, or the moon appearing as blood. In the reign of Niall Frassach there happened a di'eadful famine ; the monarch humbled him- self, and in answer to his prayers there fell showers of silver, honey, and wheat. Hence his surname of Frassach, signifying " of the showers." M'Curtin, who wrote about a centiu-y ago, says that in his time some of the coin made of the celestial silver was still preserved. As we approach the coming of the Danes the portents become more frequent and alai'm- ing. EcHpses of the sun and moon, pillars of fire in the sky, di'agons seen in the air, and fleets of ships sailing through the clouds, filled the people with gloomy forebodings. In the year 767, and again in 799, occurred certain terrible fits of panic fear, which are called in the an- nals Lavchomart, or the " clapping of hands," " so called," say the Four Masters, " because terrific and horrible signs appeared at the time, which were like unto the signs of the Day of Judgment, namely, great thunder * Acta SS. Hib. p. 379, n. 9, Alcuin calls St Coign "master," and addresses liim vfith. great offsction and veneration in a letter wliich is printed in Ussher's Sjlloge. FIRST VISIT OF THE DANES. 12 1 and lightning, so that it was insufferable to all to hear the one and see the other. Fear and horror seized the men of Ireland, so that their re- ligious seniors ordered them to make tAvo fasts, together with fervent prayer, and one meal between them, to protect and save them from a pestilence precisely at Michaelmas. Hence came the Lamhchomari, which was called the fire from heaven."* The first descent of the Danish pkates on the coast of Ireland is men- tioned thus by the Four Masters mider the year 790: " The burning of Reachrannf by the Gentiles, and its shrines broken and plundered." England had been visited by them a few years earlier, and they did not again appear on the Irish coast until 793, when another party of them plundered and bm'iied the church of St. Patrick's Island, near Skenies, on the Dublin coast, and carried off the shrine of St. Dochanna, commit- ing other depredations on the sea-board of Ii'eland and Scotland. Hence- forward their visits were repeated at shorter intervals, but for many years they came in small detached parties, apparently not acting in con- cert, but for the sole purpose of plunder, and without any view to a permanent settlement. The people, popularly known in our history as Danes, comprised swarms from various countries in the north of Em'ope, from Norway, Sweden, Zealand, Jutland, and, in general, from all the shores and islands of the Baltic, who, compelled by their inhospitable soil to depend chiefly on the sea for a livelihood, devoted themselves, from an early period, to the adventurous and half-savage life of pirates or sea-rovers. In the Irish annals they are variously called Galls, or foreigners ; Geinti, or Gentiles ; and Lochlanni, or inhabitants of Lochlann, or Lake-land, that is, Norway ; and they are distinguished as the Finn Galls, or White Foreigners, who are supposed to have been the inhabitants of Norway; and the Dubh Galls, or Black Foreigners, who were probably the people of Jutland, and of the southern shores of the Baltic Sea. A large tract of country, north of Dublin, still retains the name of the fonner. By English writers they have been called Ostmen and Vikings, and are known by the generic terms of Northmen or Scandinavians. They are scarcely heard of in history until about the time their cruel depredations • The annals mention a terrific storm with thunder and lightning, which occurred on the eve of St. Patrick'* ay, a.d. 799 ; and by which a thousand and ten persons were killed on the coast of Corcabaisciu, in Clare; and the island of Fitha (believed to be Inis-caerach, or Mutton island, oppo- site Kilmurry-Ibrickan, on that coast) was partly submerged and divided into three islanda. t The island of Rathlin, on the coast of Antrim, and that of Lambay, in the bay of Dublin, were both anciently called Eechreinn, or Reachrann. The latter is the one here referred to. The date of the event, according to the Annals of Ulster, is 793 : according to Tighemacb. 794 ; and accurding to OTlaherty's calculation, 795. 122 THK DANISH WARS. were first inflicted on southern nations, and long after that period they continued utterly illiterate, and seemed quite impervious to the light of Christianity. Their bold, adventurous, and ruthless spirit in the pursuit of pillage ; the command of the ocean which their habits and numbers gave them ; the combination in which they soon learned to act in their plundering excursions ; the fierce barbarity with which they treated their victims; and, above all, the disunited and feeble state in which they found those countries upon which they preyed, gave them formidable advantages. Thus, for upwards of two centuries were they a scourge of the most fearful kind to Britain and Ireland, and to some of the maritime countries of southern Europe. They were characterised by unparalleled daring, perseverance, and inhumanity. They seemed to have no tie of common humanity with those who fell into their power. With them there was no mercy for captives. At least such is the character which they receive from cotemporary Saxon and French historians, for the L'ish writers do not depict the atrocities of the Danes in the same colours, although the vivid traditions preserved even to the present day in Ireland shew that their cruelties must have been appalling.* But the plunder and desecration of churches and monasteries, and the slaughter of ecclesiastics, were the favorite exploits of these fierce pagans. Their descent upon any point was sure to be signalized by this sacrilegious rapine. lona, or I-Columbkill, was laid waste by them in 797, and again in 801, when sixty-eight of its clergy and laity w^ere mas- sacred ; the monastery of Inishmurray, off the coast of Sligo, was sacked and burned by them in 802, when they also penetrated into Roscom- mon ; and in succeeding years, as these incursions became more frequent, all the religious houses of Ireland were subjected in their turn to the same process of devastation, and sometimes repeatedly within the same year. Armagh, with its cathedral and monasteries, w^as plundered by the Danes four times in one month ; ;ind in Bangor, 900 monks, with their abbot, w^ere massacred by them in one day. " As few things of any value," observes a late writer, " could have survived such conflagra- * According to English writers, the butchery of children was a common practice with the Northmen in their first descents; their soldiers made a sport of flinging infants from the point of one spear to another, so as to show their dexterity in catching the writhing bodies in mid air; and one of the Viiiing chiefs, described as a " brave pirate," received a nickname for his humanity in opposing this revolting pastime. See the authorities on these and many other atrocities of the Danes quoted in Sharon Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons, vol. i. ; and in MacCabe's Catholic History of England, vol. ii., in which latter work the reader will find some just animadversions on Laing's " Ciironicle of the Kings of Norway," in which Mr. Laing seems to like the nortliern pirates all the better for their paganism and fierceness, and atti-ibutes the easy conquest by them of the English Saxons to the effect upon the latter of " Komish superstition and church influence." THE DANISH WARS. 123 tions ; the mere -wantonness of barbarity alone could have tempted them so often to repeat the outrage. The devoted courage, however, of those crowds of martyrs who still returned undismayed to the same spot, choosing rather to encounter sufferings and death than leave the holy place untenanted, presents one of those affecting pictures of quiet heroism with which the history of the Christian church abounds."* Dismayed, at fu'st, and confounded by the assaults of the fierce and merciless invaders, who appeared at the same moment at several points, and the time and place of whose return could never be calculated, it was some time before the Irish made any regular stand against them. They soon, however, rallied from their panic, and discovered that their myste- rious foes were as vulnerable as other men. When parties of the Danes landed unexpectedly, and were engaged in their work of pillage, a force was generally mustered in the neighbourhood to resist them, and in in- numerable instances the marauders were successfully attacked and driven back with slaughter to their ships. But these partial defeats had no effect on the desperate energies of the Northmen, who always returned in greater numbers the following year ; and who, from their command of the sea, had then' choice on all occasions of a landing-place, running up by the rivers into the heart of the country, and constructing fleets of small craft on the lakes in the interior, whence they were able, at any moment, to devastate the surrounding country. The annals tell us that the foreigners were slaughtered by the men of Umhall in Mayo, in 812 ; by Covach, lord of Loch-Lein (Killarney), in the same year ; by the king of Ulidia, and by Carbry, lord of Hy- Kinsella (south Leinster), in 827; by the men of Hy-Figeinte, in the west of Limerick, in 834, &c., but these and many similar defeats were of no avail, other parties of the adventurers being at the very same moment victorious at several points.f After some twenty or thirty years had been consumed in these desultory attacks, the Danes determined on a more extensive scheme of invasion, and, combining their forces under one commander, fitted out large fleets for the purpose ; but unfortunately, * Moore's History of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 30. The appearance of some mysterious preacher is thus referred to in the Irish Annals under the year 806 (811):— "In this year the Ceilo-Dei (culdee) came over the sea with dry feet, without a vessel; and a written roll was given him from heaven, out of which he preached to the Irish, and it was carried up again when the sermon was finished. This ecclesiastic used to go every day southwards across the sea, after finishing his exhortation." t Eginhart, the historian of Charlemagne, clearly refers to the defeat of the X'.rsemen in JIayo, in 812, in the following passage :—" Classis Nordmannorum Hibcrniam, Scotorum insulaiu, ag- gressa, commisso pra^lio cum Scotis, parte non modica Nordmannorum iuterfecta, turpiter fugieudo Uomum reversa est." 124 THE DANISH WARS. while the enemy were thus carrying out their plans for the subjugation of Ireland, the Irish princes and chieftains were wastnig the energies of the country in wars among themselves, so that no combined efibrt against the common foe was ever even thought of. Hugh (Aedh) surnamed Oirdnigh, or the legislator, son of Niall Fras- eagh, of the n-^rthern Hy-Niall race, became monarch of Ireland in 793, and commenced his reign by desolating the province of Meath, then turnincj his arms against Leinster, which he devastated twice in one month. "^Vlien summoned to one of these sanguinary forays, the arch- bishop of Armagh and his clergy protested against the monstrous impro- priety of the ministers of peace being obliged to attend their war-hostings. Such had hitherto been the custom ; but Hugh now consented to leave the quesLiun to the decision of a holy and wise man, called, from his know- ledge of canon law, Fohy (Fothah) of the Canons ; and the latter imme- diately prej)ared a statement, or essay, on the subject, the result being that ecclesiastics were henceforth exempted from the duties of war in Ireland. A.D. 817. — Hugh Ou'dnigh, after a reign of twenty-five years, was succeeded by Conor, who reigned fom'teen years, during which period the Danish power was placed on a firm footing in many parts of Ireland, under a chief known in these countries as Tuirges, or Turgesius, but who cannot be traced by that name in any Scandinavian chronicles. He came to Ireland in 815, and fortified himself at Rinnduin, on the west side of Lough Ree, an expansion of the Shannon in Roscommon. All this time Ireland was laid waste as much by domestic wars as by the exactions, pillage, and burnings of the Northmen. While the latter were engaged in plundering Louth and some other districts, the men of Mun- ster were at the work of plunder in Bregia, and Conor, the king of Ireland, instead of defending any of these territories, was himself busy plundering Leinster to the banks of the river LifFey. A.D. 831. — Niall Caille, son of Hugh Oirchiigh, on assuming the now almost nominal sovereignty of Ireland, led an army against the Danes, whom he defeated at Derry, but his efforts were soon paralysed. While the country was a scene of devastation from north to south — her people prostrate and hemmed in by foreign foes who extracted the marrow of the land — Felim (Feidhlimidh), kmg of Cashel, of the race of the Eogh- anachts of south Munstcr, thought it a favorable opportunity to assert his own right to a shave in the spoils. This selfish prince accordingly mustered an army and marched into Leinster to levy tribute, reviving the ancient claim of ii^oghan Mor, The country must have been already little better than a wilderness, yet he found some work left for THE DANISH "WARS. 125 fire and sword ; and went on in bis career of plunder through the length of Ireland, till he reposed for a year in the primatial city of Armagh, ha-vang previously taken hostages from the unhappy monarch, Niall, and from the king of Connaught. The annals of Innisfallen boast, on this account, that he was king of all Ireland. He also stopped at Tara ; and on his return to the south, plundered and laid waste the termon lands of Clonmacnoise, " up to the church door ;" but he only survived this sacri- lege one year, and died in 845, on his return to Munster. It does not appear from any ancient authority that this man's parricidal arms were ever once turned against the Danes. A.D. 843. — At this gloomy period appeared Meloughlin (Maelseach- lainn) or Malachy, king of Meath and monarch of Ireland, whose bravery and ability materially helped to save his country. His first exploit while yet only king of Meath was to get the tyrant Turgesius into his power, and make him pay the penalty of his atrocities by drowning him in Lough Owel, in Westmeath.* This success was the signal for a general onslaught upon the foreigners in every part of Ireland. The people rose simultaneously, and either massacred them in their towns, or defeated them in the field ; so that with the excej)tion of some fcAv stronoholds, like that of Dulilin, (which they had seized in 836), the land of Ireland was freed from the Northmen. Wherever they could escape they son ght refuge in their ships, but only to return in more numerous swarms than before. A.D. 846. — Meloughlin being now monarch of Ireland, defeated the Danes at I arragh, near Skreen, in Meath, slaying 700 of them ; while, in the same year, Olchovar, the successor of Felim in Munster, aided by the Leinstermen, inflicted another defeat, and a loss of 1,200 men on the Danes in Kildare. The foreigners suffered some further losses in that year, although they had at this time got some traitorous Irishmen into their ranks; and the following year, MeloughHn, assisted by Tigher- nach, lord of Lough Gower (near Dunshaughlin), plundered the Danes in their stronghold of Dublin. A.D. 849. — Two contending parties now appeared among the Danes themselves. The Dubh Galls, or " Black Gentiles," made a descent upon Ii'eland Avith a fleet of seven score ships, and assailed the Finngalls at different points, making an immense slaughter of them, and sacking * Tliere is a romantic story told of the manner in which Mdoughlin got Turgesius into his power. It is said that he pretended to give hLs daughter to the pirate chief, but sent with her ijfteen younjj men disguised in female attire, who seized the tjTant and slew his attendants. This tale, however, only rests on the authority of Giraldiis Cambrensis, and is rejected by Fri^li historians. 120 THE DANISH -WARS. their fortresses, so tliat the power of the white foreigners was quite crushed, until a reinforcement arrived to them in a fleet of one hundred and sixty sail (a.d. 850), when the conflict was renewed. The battle which ensued between them lasted three days and as many nights ; and victory at length deciding in favor of the Black Galls, their opponents abandoned their shipping and fled inland. Next year, however (851), we find that all the foreigners in Ireland submitted to one chieftain, AmlafF, son of the king of Lochlann, or Norway, and that the Danish power was thus once more consolidated. Amlaff'lived in DubHn, and his brothers Sitric and Ivar fixed themselves, the former in Water- ford, and the latter in Limerick; wliich towns, previously places of some note, were soon raised to considerable importance as Danish stations and commercial depots. An oppressive tax was now levied on the country by the Danes, in lieu of their previous system of predatory exactions, which, nevertheless, was not yet wholly abandoned. Notwithstanding this tyranny and rapine on the one side, and in- domitable resistance on the other, some symptoms of amalgamation between the Norsefiien and natives are now visible, so that we begin to hear of the Dano-Irish, who partly adopted the Irish customs, and even the Irish language. During the remaining hundred and sixty years that the Northmen continued in Ireland on a hostile footing, we find them constantly in alliance with some recreant Irish chieftains, who aided them in their wars both in Ireland and England, and availed themselves in their turn of their help to avenge private quarrels.* The strangers, however, still continued inveterate heathens, and several persons who were put to death by them about this time are styled martyrs by the Irish annalists, intimating that they were slain for the sake of the Christian religion. A.D. 857. — A great meeting of the chieftains of Ireland, with the archbishop of Armagh and other distinguished ecclesiastics, was col- lected this year by Meloughlin, at Rathugh, in Westmeath, "to establish peace and concord among the men of Ireland." Two chiefs who had been in temporary league with the Danes tendered their allegiance to the king on the occasion; namely, Kervall, or Carroll, lord of Ossory, and Maelgualai, king of Munster, the latter of whom Avas soon after " In one of the earliest of the alliances allutlcd to above, Kinna (Cineadh), lord of Cianachta Breagh, in the east of Meath, rebelled, with a Gentile force at his back, against Melouglilin, and in the course of his depredations burned the oratory of Trevet (Treoit), with two hundred and sixty persons who had sought refuge in it ; but, in the following year he was captured by tho monarch, and drowned in the river Nanny (Aiiige), whicb flows through his own district. THE DANISH WAliy. 127 stoned to death by the Danes. The first result of this meeting -was a movement agamst the Hy-Nialls of the north, in which the monarch was aided by the other four provinces ; and Hugh Finnhath, chief of the northern Hy-Nialls entered, in consequence, into an alliance Avith AmlafF, the Danish king of Dublin, and with his aid overran the territory of i\Ieath. Three years later (860) the brave and magnani- mous Meloughlin died, after a reign of sixteen years. In the reign of this king the Irish historians mention an embassy from the king of Ireland to the emperor Charles the Bald, to inform him of the victories gained over the northern pirates, and to ask per- mission for the Irish monarch to pass through France on an intended pilgrimage to Rome. The name of Ireland was long before this time familiar in France ; and it would even appear, from the statement of Eginhart, the secretary and historian of Charlemagne, that the Irish kings had acknowledged that great monarch as their feudal lord.* Hugh Finnliath succeeded Meloughlin, and although we saw him just now an ally of the Danes, it was only a temjDorary necessity that made him such, for no sooner had he established his authority by exacting submission and hostages from the chiefs of the several territories, than he directed his arms vigorously against the invaders, on whom he inflicted several discomfitures. The fh'st of these was in 864, at Lough Foyle, where, after a sanguinary battle, the heads of twelve score Danes were piled in a heap before him ; and again, two years after, he gained a decisive victory, with a band of one thousand men, over five thousand Danes and rebel Irish, at Cill-ua-nDaighre.t This battle and other exploits of Hugh Finnliath, were favorite themes of the bards ; and some beautiful Irish verses, quoted by the Four Masters in recording his death in the year 876, show with what feelings of enthusiasm this chivalrous Irish prince was regarded by his cotemporaries. He was married to the daughter of the celebrated Kenneth Mac Alpine, who con- quered the Picts, and who became fu'st sole king of Scotland, about the year 850 ; and after Hugh's death that lady married his successor, Flann, surnamed Sinna, or of the Shannon, the son of Meloughlin, and chief of the southern Hy-Nialls.t * Abbe MacGeoghegan, History of Ireland, p. 212.— The alliance between France and Ireland Is said to Lave continued up to tlu English invasion, but Scottish writers, as in so many other instances, erroneously appropriate to their own country this incident of Irish history. t Probably Kilailerry, in the county of Dublin. — O'Donovan. X In the reign of Hugh (8G1), the Danes bethought themselves of opening the vast sepulchral mounds of the Tuatha de Dananns, along the Boyne, in search of plunder. The cares under the great tumuli of New Grange, Knowth, Dowtb, and Droghcda, were thus examined by them, wo 128 CORMAC MAC CUILENNAN. The monotonous tale of wars in which the several provinces are wasted and plundered by the Irish themselves, or by the Danes, or by Danes and Irish acting in concert, is varied during the long reign of Flann Sinna by two or three episodes, one of which, relating to the brief and eventful career of Cormac Mac Cuilennan, king and archbishop of Cashel, is worthy of particular mention* A.D. 896. — From a life of peace, devoted to the advancement of religion and the cultivation of literature, this holy prelate was taken, in one of the sudden political changes of the times, and compelled to ascend the throne of Munster, as chief of the Desmond sept of the Eoghanachts. To his horror the good prelate found himself all at once involved inextricably in war. The territory of his friend, Lorcan, king of Thomond, was threatened with invasion by the king of Connaught, and repeated inroads were made about the same time into his ovm territories, as far as Limerick, by Flann, the monarch, who was in league with the men of Leinster. To make matters worse, his chief adviser or minister, Flahertach, abbot of Inniscathy, who was also of the royal family of south Munster, was a man, according to all accounts, of a violent and obstinate temper, and of a disposition better suited to the field of battle than to the cloister. Impelled by the advice of this hot- headed counsellor, and by the circumstances in which he was placed, Cormac made two campaigns against the combined forces of Connaught, Leinster, and Meath, in both of which he was victorious. In the first the engagement took place on the old battle-ground of Moy Lena, in the King's county, and in the second, Cormac's army marched as far as Ros- common, and was supported by a fleet of small vessels on the Shannon. These wars seemed so far just and inevitable ; but they were followed by one of a more questionable kind. According to some, this latter war was undertaken at the instigation of Flahertach, and the chiefs of Mun- ster, to enforce the tribute imposed on Leinster, as part of Leath Mogha in the days of Conary the Great ; the same for which Felim laid waste the lands of Leinster some time before ; but others assert that it was only intended to protect the abbey of Monasterevin, founded by Evinus, a Munster saint, on the confines of Leinster, and which the king of Leinster had now seized for his own people. Be this, however, as it may, are not told with what success ; but the record of the event is of interest in Irish antiquities, as fixing the sepulchral character of these remarkable monuments. — See note of Dr. O'Donovan in the Four Masters, ad. an., and the arguments founded by Dr. Petrie on the fact in his " Essay on Tara Eill." * Keating (Hist, of Ireland, part 2) has preserved from an ancient tract, now lost, a curious iccount of the reign of Cormac, and details of the battle in whicli he losi his life. — See Dr. Lynch's Latin translation of this account. Four Masters, vol. ii. p. 501, note b. BATTLE OF BEALAGH MUGUXA. 129 Cormac was utterly opposed to this war. He referred the subject to a council of the chiefs, but their voice being unanimously for wai-, he made the necessary arrangements to carry out their wishes, at the same time that he tried sundry expedients to prevent hostiUties. The men of Leinster were equally reluctant to go to battle, and sent ambassadors with very fair propositions, which the obstinacy of Flahertach and of those who agreed with him caused to be rejected. Cormac was grieved at this perversity, but was obliged to let things proceed. He foretold his o-v\Ti death, and made his will, bequeathing a number of valuable objects to Armagh, Inniscathy, and other churches and abbeys. He en- deavoured to conceal his forebodings from the soldiers, that they might not be dispirited : but the men had no confidence in their cause or their numbers; several fled before the battle, and many more at the beginning of the conflict; and when the combined forces of Leinster, INIeath, and Connaught, with Flann at their head, met the small army of IMunster, the victory was not long uncertain. Cormac was killed, his horse rolling over him down the side of a declivity, rendered slippery by the blood of the slain ; and a common soldier, discovering his body, cut off the head, and presented it to Flann, who only bewailed the death of so good and learned a man, and blamed the indignity with which his remains had been treated. Six thousand of the men of Munster, with a great num- ber of their princes and chieftains, fell in this battle, which was fought (a.d. 903) at a place called Bealagh Mughna, now Ballaghmoon, in the county of Kildare, two or three miles north of the town of Carlow. Fla- hertagh, who led one of the three divisions in which the Munster army was marshalled, survived the battle, and after some years spent in penance, became once more minister, and ultimately king of Munster, but enter- tained calmer views as he advnced in life.* a.d. 913. — Flann in his old age had the affliction to see his two sons, Donough and Conor, rebel against him; but Niall, surnamed Glundubh, or of the Black-Knee, son of Hugh Finnlaith, the northern Hy-Niall chief, led an army against them, and compelled them to give hostages * The Annals of the Four Masters, whose chronolofo' is generally followed in this history, unless when the contrary is stated, are here ante-dated five years, and the date of the death of Cormac was consequently 908. Cormac Mac Cuilennan lias left a valuable Irish glossary, and is said to have been the compiler of the Psalter of Cashel. The number of scholars and eminent churchmen who»« deaths are recorded in the Irish annals at this period, show that all tlie wasting warfare and barbar- ities of the Danes had not been able to extirpate piety or learning from the land of Erin. Among tlie distinguished names which we thus find, may be mentioned those of Maelmnraof Fahau, who died in 885, and who lias been already referred to in tlit-sc pa-^ps a« ■•nc- of the oldest of the ancient poetic chroniclers of Ireland whose productions still >urvi\e; and Snivuf, aiichoiite a-.id scribe ot Cloumacnoise, whose death occurred in 887. r- 130 MUIRKETITACH AND CEALLACHAN CATSIL. for their submission to their father. Flann died the following year (914), after a reign of thirty-eight years, and was succeeded by the chivalrous Niall Glundubh. About this time fresh forces of Northmen poured into Ireland, and they established an entrenched camp at Ceann Fuait (now Confey, near Leixlip), whence they sent out parties to pillage the country to a considerable distance. The spirit of unanimit}^ which the men of Ireland exhibited on the occasion was cheering. A Munster army gained a victory over the Danes near the frontier of the southern province; and the gallant Niall Glundubh, notwithstanding the strong position which the foreigners then held in and around Dublin, was resolved to assail them in their principal fastnesses; but this attempt, although bravely made, Avas unsuccessful. In an assault on the Danish camp at Ceann Fuait, in 915, the Irish army was repulsed with great slaughter : and two years after the Irish received a disastrous defeat at Cill-Mosamhog or Kilmashoge, near Rathfarnham, where they pressed upon the Northmen close to their stronghold of Ath-Cliath.* Here Niall, with several Irish chieftains, fell, and his loss was bewailed long after by the bards in verses full of pathos and beauty. His reign was unfortunately too short for him to render his country the services for which his noble and heroic spirit so well fitted him. Donough, son of Flann Sinna, succeeded, and began his reign under favorable auspices, by slaughtering a great number of the Danes in Bregia ; but he passed the remainder of it in comparative obscurity, one of the acts recorded of him being the slaying of his brother Donal treacherously. Godfred, the Danish chief of Dublin, plundered Armagh (a.d. 919), sparing the oratories with their Culdees ; and from this clemency some infer that he had embraced Clii'istianity, but we have no positive authority on the subject. Two remarkable men, strongly contrasted in many points, now ap- peared on the scene in Ireland. These were Muirkertach, son of Niall Glundubh, next heir to the throne, and Callaghan of Cashel (Ceallachan Caisil), the king of Munster. The northern chieftain was a man of heroic and generous spirit, willing to sacrifice every personal feeling for his country. T^vice did he find himself arrayed in arms against the Avorthless monarch Donough, but, as the annalists express it, " God pacified them ;" or in other words Muirkertach was induced to yield for the sake of peace. Hitherto the Danish invaders had met no enemy so formidable as him in Ireland. Callaghan of Cashel was also renowned *The true (late of this battls i"! 019, the Annals of the F-mr Masters, which have it under 917, being at this I'eriod two years aiile-dated. MUIRKERTACh's circuit of IRELAND. 131 for heroism in war, but the love of country was no element in his cha- racter. The hereditary feud of the south and north was in his mind as strong an incentive to war as all the ravages of the heathen Danes ; and we find him sometimes acting in concert with these plunderers and sometimes against them. In the year 934, Callaghan, with his jNIunster army pillaged Clonmacnoise a few months after it had suffered the same treatment from Amlaff and the Danes of Dublin ; and again, in 937, ho invaded Lleath and Ossory in concert with the foreign enemy, laying waste the country without mercy. Two years after Lluirkertach took hostages from the men of Ossory and the Deisi, and forthwith Callaghan entered their territory and punished them for this act of compulsory submission to the Hy-Niall chieftain. A.D. 939. — Muirkertach, having returned from an expedition against the Norsemen of the Hebrides, resolved to strike a desperate blow against the Danish power in Ireland, and to bring those who had acted with the enemy into submission to the monarch ; and accordingly he set out, with an army of one thousand chosen heroes, on his famous circuit of Ireland. He commenced by carrying off from AthCliath Sitric, brother of Godfred, then king of the Danes, as a hostage, and proceeded on his march to the south. The men of Lenister mustered to oppose his progress, and assembled over night in Glen-Mama near Dunlaven, through which his route lay; but as soon as they saw the northern warriors by the light of morning they prudently retired, and Muirker- tach marched on to Dun-Aillinn near Old Kilcullen, where he took Lorcan, king of Leinster, and fettered him as a hostage. The army of I\Iunster was next in readiness to give battle to the warrior band ; but tliey either thought better of it, and determined to surrender their king, Callaghan ; or, according to other authorities, Callaghan himself requested them rather to give him up than to fight the Hy-Nialls. The king of Cashel was accordingly taken and put in fetters as Lorcan had been. Muirkertach then marched towards Connaught, when young Conor, son of Teigc of the Three Towers, king of that province, presented himself as a hostage, and was carried off but not fettered. The son of Niall finally returned to Aileach with all his royal hostages, and having spent five months there in feasting, he handed them over to Donough the monarch, as his liege lord.* , The heroic jMuirkertach, called by our annalists "the Hector of the * Cormacan Eigeas, poet of Ulster, and the fripml ami counsellor of jriiirl;er{ach, celebrated this "circuit of Ireland" in a puem which lias been published by the ArclucolDgical Society of irelund f; the first volume of their Miscellany, 1841. l^i INCREASED POWER OF THE D AX"S. West of Europe," was slain by Blacaire, son of Godfred, king of the Dj,nes, at Ardee, in Louth (941), in less than two years after this trium- phant progress ; and about ten years later (952), we find recorded the death of his old foe, Callaghan of Cashel, Avho had been permitted to return to his kingdom. This latter prince, who is celebrated in the romantic chronicles of the time, was the ancestor of the O'Callaghans, Mac Carthys, and O'Keeffes. Donough, the feeble monarch of Tara, was succeeded in 942, after a reign of twenty-five years, by another nominal chief-king, Congallach, who, having fallen into a Danish ambuscade, in 954, was in his turn succeeded by Donnel O'Neill,* son of Muirkertach. The power of the Danes had greatly increased at this period, and was exercised with as much barbarity as ever, and the victories gained over them by the Irish were comparatively few. But we have now arrived at an important epoch in the history of these Danish wars, which shall be developed in the next chapter. * This is one of the first instances we meet of a hereditary surname in Ireland. It was assuioed from Donal's grandfather, Niall Glundubh. CHAPTER XIV. Sequel of the Danish "Wars. — Limits of the Danish power in Ireland. — Hibemo- Danish Alliances. — Danish Expeditions from Ireland into England, Sec. — Conversion of the Danes to Christianity. — Consecration of Dano-lrish Bishops. — Subdivision of territoiy in Ireland. — Alternate Succession. — Progress and Pretensions of Munster. — Brian Borumha. — Episode of his Brother's Murder. — Malachy TI., Monarch of Ireland. — His victories over the Danes. — Wars of Brian and Malachy. — Deposition of Malachy. — Character of Brian's Reign. — His Piety and Wise Laws. — The Battle of Clontakf. — Death of Brian. — ■ Consequences of the Battle. \^From the middle of the Tenth to the legitming of the Eleventh Century. '\ HE Danes never obtained the dominion of Ireland as they did that of England ; nor was there consequently any Danish king of Ireland such as England had in her Canute or Harold. The first really formidable impression made by the Norsemen on Ireland was at tlie opening of the ninth century, when Cambrensis and Joeelin mention the viking Turgeis, or Turgesius, as king of Ireland. These writers also make some obscure allusion to Gur- mundus, the son of an African prince, as a conqueror of Ireland ;* but this latter personage would appear to be purely fabulous, and the Irish annals clearly show that \\S- O^'' Turgesius never could have been justly styled king of //e o/5/. Patrick), says:— "Neither Gildas Modiida, nor John O'Dugan, in the catalogue of the king.^ of Ireland, nor the Four Makers in the same catalogue or in the annals, nor any other writer of Irish hi.-tory, native, or foreign cither, as far as I know, before Giraldus Canihrnn^^is, enumerates Gurmundus or Turgesius amonj; the kings of Ireland, although they make mention of Turgesius and other Noimans as havim.', in ><3(i and the following' years, disturbed the p. acf of that couulry by cm.liuual battle.-, -and .-i...im- tiiii-. and inrnr.-ious." 134 SKQUEL OF THE DANISH WARS. money, but fought with desperate resolution in defence of themselves and their property, and generally made the northern freebooters pay dearl}- for the spoils they took. The latter were, how^ever, permitted to establish themselves along the coast in Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Youghal, Cork, and Limerick ; and when some of these strongholds were occasionally taken by the Irish, the Danish inhabitants nevertheless purchased safety on easy terms. In these important seaports they became transformed from pirates to merchants, occupying small districts in their neighbourhood for purposes of agricvdtiu'e, and keeping up well-trained armies to levy black mail in the interior. Sometimes they received such overthrows that the Irish annalists describe them as wholly driven from the country ; but they invariably reappeared in greater force and with greater ferocity than before; and it is obvious that the expulsion was not on those occasions complete. Thus, by degrees, did the Northmen become, as it w^ere, a part of the recognized population of the country. They formed alliances, and made themselves indispensable as allies to one or other of the Irish toparchs in every local quarrel. By their assistance the kings of Leinster Avere frequently able to resist the demands made for tribute both by the monarch and by the kings of Cashel. Sometimes the Danish chiefs of Dublin or Waterford left Ireland with their entire forces, apparently abandoning the country, for the purpose of making descents on England or Scotland, and in these excursions they were occasionally aided by Irish allies. In 916 there was an expedition by the Danes of Waterford against Alba, or Scotland, of which Constantino was then king, and the invaders were beaten. Again, in 925, the Danes are said to have left Dublin for six months ; and in 937 they once more abandoned Dublin, led by Amlaff, or Olave, king of the Danes of Dublin and of the Islands, and with numerous Irish auxiliaries invaded England. Con- stantine of Scotland, whose daughter was married to Amlaff, was this time an ally of the Northmen, who were also supported by the Welsh or Britons; but they were defeated by Athlestan, king of England, in the memorable battle of Brunanbur^h in Northumbria.* * This battle is celebrated in verse in the.S.ixon clironicle; but on the death of Atlsleslan in 9 41 Amlafl' returned to England and became king of Northumbria. Edgar, one of Athlestans succes- sors, in a charter dated at Gloucester, 9G4, boasts of having subdued "a great part of Ireland with its most noble city of Dublin," as well as "the Kinjidnms of the Islands of the Ocean, with their fierce kings;" but as far as Ireland is concerned there is no ground wliatever for tlie assertion, un- less some defeat inflicted by Edgar on the Danes, not alluded to in our annals, be referred to. The charter is published in Usshei's Sylloge, p. 121. See also Ware's Antiquities, p. 14, (l.ondun, 1711). SUBDIVISION OF TERRITORY. 135 The period of the conversion of the Danes to Christianity cannot be fixed with precision; but the general opinion is that those of Dublin became Christians about the year 948, a date which is assigned to the foundation of St. Mary's Abbey, on the north side of the LifFey.* Whatever time the change took place, the annals do not indicate any mitigation of cruelty on the part of the Danes to mark the period. In the very year in which the Danes of Dublin are said to have been converted, they burned the belfry of Slane, while filled wuth ecclesiastics and others, who had sought refuge thei*e with some precious relics, among which was the staff of the holy founder, St. Ercf At a later period it was usual for the Danish bishops of Dublin and Limerick to be consecrated by the archbishops of Canterbury, whose jurisdiction they acknowledged, so little was there of the community of Christian charity between them and their fellow-Christians in Ireland. While matters were proceeding thus with the Danes in Ireland, the native political system of the Irish themselves was producing its worst fruito. An unlimited subdivision of territory was taking place, and the number of independent dynasts multiplying accordingly. The time had passed away when the division of the island into five provinces could be said to hold good. There were kings of north and south Munster, be- sides independent lords of various territories in the southern province. Connaught was divided among two or three independent princes. Lein- ster, the battle-field of all the provinces, was at this time almost con- stantly in alliance with the Danes. Bregia was able to rebel against Meath, of which it was only a portion. The Hy-Nialls of the north were subdivided into Kinel-Connell and Kinel-Owen. The former of these were excluded from the sovereignty since the death of Flahertach, in 760; and the dignity of monarch alternated from that time with toler- able regularity between the Kinel-Owen branch and the southern or Meath branch of the race of Niall of the Nine Hostages. The Ulidians, or people of eastern Ulster, had their own king, and were rarely on ami- cable terms with their Ily-Niall neighbours. If the principle of alternate succession worked smoothl}^ enough be- tAveen the northern and southern houses of Hy-Niall, there was still no * The death of an abbot of Clonmacnoise named Connvach, said to be one of the Finnjralls, is mentioned in our annals so early as 866 ; and the Danish ciiicf, Godfred, who ".spared the oratories and Culdees of Armagh" in 919, is conjectured by some to have been a Cliri.stian; but not upon suflRcient grounds. t Ann. ill: the persons burned in the tower was Coeneaoliair, prefect of the school of Slane, wi.om C.lgan (Trias Thaum. p. 219), believes to have been Trohus, one of the hioiiraphers of St. Patrii k. The event affords an illustration of one of the u.-es to which tli*- Fri.^h belfries or round tower> w.-re applied; namely, a.> places ..f reirt-al in lime of war. No trace of the ."?iane t-.wer is now visible. 13G Or.OM'TH OF THE POWER OF JIUNSTER. cordiality between tliera. One branch when in authority frequently de- vastated the territory of the other to obtain hostages or enforce payment of tribute. But when the southern Hy-Niall, or Meath branch, was in possession of the crown there was generally a palpable inferiority of power displayed. Meath did not possess the resources of men, nor her princes often the vigorous activity and heroism which characterized the Kinel-Owen. For some time the kingdom of Munster had been gradually attaining the importance to which its extent and resources entitled it. It suffered, to this time, less from war than any of the other provinces, and was thus rising not only within itself, but relatively by reason of the greater injury which the others underwent. The time had, therefore, arrived for its kings to re-assert the old claim to the sovereignty of Leath Mogha, a claim which was the real cause of all the recent wT^rs between Mun- ster and Leath Cuinn ; which served as a pretext for the aggressions of Felim, Cormac jMac Cuilennan, and Callaghan Cashel; and which Avas now about to rouse the energies of a more eminent man whose career we are approaching — namely, Brian Borumha or Boru.* The sovereignty of Munster was to have alternated between the two great tribes of the Dalcassians, or north Munster race, and the Eogan- achts, or race of south IMunster ; the former, as we have seen, descended from Cormac Cas, and the latter from Eoghan Mor, both sons of Oiu )1 Olum. But this rule was not observed; and for a long interval the provincial crown was monopolized by the chiefs of Desmond, or south Munster. Cormac Mac Cuilennan wished to correct this injustice, although himself of the Eoganacht, or Eugenian line; aixl his friend Lorcan, king of Thomond, did succeed to the crown of Munster, or rather of all Leath jMogha, after two intervening Eugenian reigns. On the death of Lorcan, his son Kennedy (Cineidi) contested, in 942, the succession with the Eugenian prince, Callaghan Cashel, but yielded in a chivalrous spirit, and co-operated with him in some of his wai's against the Danes and others. This Kennedy was the father of the illustrious Brian Borumha. Mahon, the eldest son of Kennedy, successfully asserted his right to the crown of all jMunstcr in 960, and performed many heroic exploits against the Danes of Limerick, and against the Connaughtmen, Avho * The surname of Bornmhn or Bnrnt'mhe, is usually supposed to have been cjiven from the tributes which Brian exacted ; but its most pvobalile derivation is from I->oromha, now Beal-Borumba, an ancient fort on the Shannon, about a mile ro-'h of Brian's palace of Kiiiconi, or the prcsciit Kiilaloe. — Four Ma-^'ei-f, vol, ii. p. 1002, n « ACCESSION OF MALACHV THE GRKAT. 137 h:ul invaded Thomond. In his wars he "svas gaHantly aided by his brother Brian, wlio distinguished himself for deeds of valour from his youth. ]\Iahon's brilliant career filled his hereditarv rivals of south Munster with envy and alarm, and a plot against his life was formed, A.D. 978, by Maelmliuaidh, or Molloy (ancestor of the O'Malionys), king of Desmond, Donovan (ancestor of the O'Donovans), lord of Hy Figeinte,* and Ivor, king of tlie Danes of Limerick; this last-named person having, it is said, suggested the treacherous scheme. ]\Iahon was invited to a banquet at the house of Donovan, at Bruree on the j\Iaio-ue, and the bishop of Cork, with several others of the clergy, were induced to give him a solemn guarantee for his safety. He accordingly went, but was immediately seized by a band of Donovan's armed men, who handed him over to Molloy, who with a strong party lay in wait in the neighbourhood; and next morning, in violation of the sacred pledo-e that had been given to him, he was basely put to death, a sword being plunged into his bosom.f Brian took ample vengeance on the mur- derers of his brother. He slaughtered the Danes of Limerick in several battles,! slew the treacherous lord of Hy-Figeinte, and finally overthrew Molloy, who was killed in a battle at Ballagh Leachta, tlie scene of tlie murder, by Brian's son, ilorough, then only fifteen years of age. Brian, on this, became king of both Munsters, and a few years later was acknowledged king of all Leath Moo-ha. A.D. 979. — A battle was fought this year near Tara, in which the Danes of Dublin and the Islands were defeated with terrible slaughter by Malachy, or i\Iaeiseachlainn, the king of Meath. Ragnal or Randal, son of Aralave, the Danish king of Dublin, was slain, with a vast number of his troops, and Amlave himself, soon after the defeat, went on a pilgrimage to lona, where he died broken-hearted. Donnell O'Neill, son of Muirkertach, the monarch of Ireland, also died this year, after a reign of twenty-four years, and was succeeded by the king of ]\Ieath, jNIalachy II., sometimes styled the Great. A.D. 980. — Flushed ^vith success after the battle of Tara, Malachy, *TIii.s important territory comprised the western part of the county of Limerick, and extended somewhat into the counties of Cork to the shoprics and a king, and which had its own language and Latin letters, and was converted by St. Patrick," &c. Labbe thinks the Chronicle was written before 1031, in which case tlie writer was cofemporary with lirian Borumha, and the document the oldest, as Dr. Lanig>in thinks, in which the name of Irhmda is applied to this countn . 144 THE BATTLE OF CT.OKTARr. dinavian accounts, was an apostate from Christianity, a great blasphemer, and an adept in magic. Neither was the king of Leinster idle, for he mustered all his fighting men, to the number, it is said, of 9,000; and the Danes of all Ireland Avere prepared to strike a desperate blow for the re- covery of their former power. Brian could not have been aware of the full extent of these prepa- rations ; yet he, too, was resolved to make a gallant effort, and collected a considerable army, chiefly from the south and west. The year was ushered in with depredations by the Danes and Leinstermen in j\Ieath and Bregia, and a challenge from Maelmordha to Brian to meet him with his army on the spacious plain of Moynealta, or rather on that part of it called Clontarf.* The Irish army arrived about the middle of April, a.d. 1014, at theu- usual camping ground of Kilmainham, which extended on both sides of the LifFey, and comprised the land now called the Phoenix Park ; and Brian detached a body of his Dalcassians under his son Donough, to de- vastate Leinster, which was unprotected in the absence of Maelmordha and his army. The Danish admiral, Brodar, with his auxiliaries, entered Dublin-bay on Palm Sunday, the 18th of April, and Donough s move- ment having been communicated to Maelmordha by some traitor in Brian's camp, it was resolved that the battle should be hastened while the Irish army Avas weakened by his absence. According to a Danish legend, Brodar had been informed by some pagan oracle that if the battle took place on Friday Brian would fall, although victorious, while if it were fought on any other day of the week all his assailants would be slain ; and it is said that the Danes therefore resolved to make the attack on Goods Friday. The exact site of the battle seems to be tolerably well defined. In Dr. O'Conor s edition of the Four Masters it is called " the battle of the fibiiing weir of Clontarf ;"t and the weir in question was at the mouth of the Tolka or Tulcainn, where Ballybough bridge now stands. It also appears that the principal destruction of the Danes took place when in tlieir flight they endeavoured to cross the Tolka, no doubt at the moment of high water, when numbers of them were drowned; and it is expressly stated that they were pursued with great slaughter " from the Tolka to Dublin." We may, therefore, presume that their lines extended along the coast, with their left wing resting on the little river just mentioned, Cluain Tarbh, the lawn or meadow of the bulls, t Calh Corudk Cluana larbh, which Dr. O'Conor erroDeOiialy transbites, " PywUnm herolcum Ouaniarblda." THE BATTLT: of CLONTAT?Fi 145 and protected by the marshes which then covered the low ijround between that and the mouth of the Liffey; while their rio-ht wine extended in the direction of Dollymount ; the newly-arrived Danish fleet being anchored either at Howth or in the rear of the army The Danish and Leinster forces, numbering together about 21,000 men, were disposed in three divisions, of which the first, or that nearest to Dublin, was composed of the Danes of Dublin, under their king, Sitric, and the princes Dolat and Conmael, with the thousand mailed Norwegians under the youthful warriors Carlus and Anrud. The second or central division was composed chiefly of the Lagenians, commanded by Maelmordha himself, and the princes of Offaly and of the territory of the Liffey ;* and the third division, or right wing, was made up of the auxiliaries from the Baltic and the Islands, under Brodar, admiral of the fleet, and Sigurd, son of Lodar, earl of the Orkneys, together with some auxiliaries from Wales and Cornwall. To oppose these the Irish monarch also marshalled his forces in three corps or divisions. The first, composed chiefly of the diminished legion of the brave Dalcassians, was under the command of his son Morough, who had also with him his four brothers, Teige, Donnell, Conor, and Flann, sons of Brian, and his own son, Turlough, who was but fifteen years of age. In this division was placed Malachy, with his contingent of a thousand Meath men ; and here we may refer to the dishonorable charges made against this deposed king by all the southern chroniclers, who assert that he was the traitor who had apprised Maelmordha of Donough's departure from the camp with a large detachment of the Dalgais into Leinster, and that on the morning of the battle he withdrew his troops from the Irish lines, and remained inactive throughout the day. This unworthy conduct is so inconsistent with the whole career of Malachy that the charge has been rejected by Mr. Moore in his History of Ireland, and by Dr. O'Donovan in his notes to the Four JVIasters ; ye* we believe it has not been imputed to him without sufficient grounds, and that more recent researches will be found to establish the fact that Malachy made overtures to Teige O'Kelly, the commander of the Con- naught army, to abandon Brian on the eve of the battle. Malachy's sympathies were Meathian rather than national, and, considering the provocation which he had received from the man who usurped his crown, we may find some excuse for him in the circumstances ; even admitting, what appears to be the fact, that he held aloof with the army * The Annals ot Clonmacnoiae say the O'AIoies and O'Kolans did not join tlie other Leinster septs at Clontarf. L 146 THE BATTLE OF CLONTARF. of Meath during the early part of the fight. We shall presently see that before the close of the day he made amends for the morning's derehc- tion of duty. Brian's central division comprised the troops of Desmond, under the command of Cian, son of Molloy (ancestor of O'Mahony), and Donnell, son of Duvdavoran (ancestor of O'Donoghoe), both of the Eugenian line ; together with the other septs of the south, under their respective chiefs, dz. : Mothla, son of Faelan, king of the Desies ; Muirkertach, son of Anmcha, chief of Hy-Liathain, (a territory in Cork) ; Scannlan, son of Cathal, chief of Loch Lein, or Killarney ; Loingseach, son of Dunlaing, chief of the territory of Hy-Conall Gavra, comprised in the present baronies of Upper and Lower Connello, in the county of Limerick; Cathal, son of Donovan, chief of Carbry-Eva (Kenry, in the same county) ; Mac Beatha, chief of Kerry Luaclira ; Geivennach, son of Dugan, chief of Fermoy ; O'Carroll, king of Eile ; and, according to some accounts, O'Carroll, king of Oriel, in Ulster. The remaining Irish division, which formed the left wing opposed to the great body of the newly-arrived foreigners in the Danish right wing, was composed mainly of the forces of Connaught, under Teige O'Kelly, king of Hy-Many ; O'Heyne, or Hynes, king of Hy-Fiachra Aidhna ; Dunlaing O'Hartagan ; Echtigern, king of Dal Aradia, and some others. Under the standard of Brian Borumha also fought that day the Maer- mors, or great stewards of Lennox and Mar, with a contingent of the brave Gaels of Alba. It would even appear, from a Danish account, that some of the Northmen who had always been friendly to Brian fought on his side at Clontarf. Some other Irish chieftains besides those enumerated above are mentioned in the Innisfallen Annals, as those of Teffia, &c. A large body of hardy men came from the distant maritime district of Connemai'a; many warriors flocked from other territories, and, on the whole, the rallying of the men of Ireland in the cause of their country on that memorable occasion, as much as the victory which their gallantry achieved, renders the event a proud and cheering one in Irish history. It is supposed that Brian's army numbered about twenty thousand men.* * The Danes were better equipped in the battle than their antagonists, and the fame of their ringed and scaled armour was spread far through Ireland. In an Irish legend of the time, the Banshee, Eenn of Craglea, is represented as endeavouring to keep O'Hartagan from the fight by reminding him that vhile tiie Gaels were only dressed in " satin shirts," tlie Danes were enveloped in " coats of iron." But the Irish battle-axes were better than any defensive armour. Cambrensis tells us that those terrible weapons were wielded bj' the Irish with one hand, and tlius descended from a greater height and with greater velocit.v, " so that neither the crested helmet could defend the head, nor the iron folds of tlie armour the body. Whence it has happened, even in our time.s," he continues, " that the wliole tbigh of a soldier, though cased in well- tempi red armour, has been lopped off by a THE BATTLE OF CLOXTARF. 147 The Danes having resolved to fight on Good Friday, contrary to the wishes of Brian, who was unwilhng to desecrate that day with a scene of carnage, and who also desired to await the return of his son Donough ; and the respective armies being marshalled as we have described, the venerable Irish monarch appeared on horseback at break of day, and rode along the lines, animating the spirits of his men. While he grasped his sword in the right hand, he held a crucifix in the left, and addressing the troops, reminded them of all the tyranny and oppression of the hateful enemy who stood against them ; of all their sacrilegious outrages ; their church burnings, and desecration of sacred relics ; their murders and plunder, and innumerable perfidies. "The great God," he con- tinued, " hath at length looked down upon our sufferings, and endued you with the power and the courage this day to destroy for ever the tyranny of the Danes, and thus to punish them for their innumerable crimes and sacrileges, by the avenging power of the sword ;" and raising aloft the crucifix, he exclaimed, " was it not on this day that Clu'ist Himself suffered death for you ?" He then gave the signal for action, and the venerable king was about to lead his Dalcassian phalanx to the charge, but the general voice of the chieftains compelled him to retire into the rear, and to leave the chief command to his son INIorough.* The battle then commenced, " a spirited, fierce, violent, vengeful, and furious battle, the likeness of which was not to be found in that time," as the old annalists quaintly describe it. It was a conflict of heroes. The chieftains engaged at every point in single combat, and the greater part of them on both sides fell. The impetuosity of the Irish was irresistible, and their battle-axes did fearful execution, every man of the ten hundred mailed warriors of Norway having been cut down by the Dalcassians. The heroic Morough performed prodigies of valour throughout the day. Ranks of men fell before him ; and hewing his way to the Danish standard, he cut down two successive bearers of it with his battle-axe.f Two Danish leaders, Carlus and Conmael, single blow of the axe, the limb falling on one side of the horse, and the expiring body on the other." Besides these broad axes, which were exceedingly well steeled, t!ie Irish, according to Carabrensis, used short lances and darts, and they were "very dexterous, beyond other nations, in slinging stones in battle, when other weapons failed them." Top. llib. dist. 3, cap. 10. Their swords were ponderous, of great length, and edged only on one side. Harris's Ware, vol. ii., p. 162. * The age of Brian, according to the usually received accounts, was eighty-eight, and that of Morough sixty-three ; but the date (941), given for the birth of Brian, in the Annals of Ulster, would make his age at tlie batile of Clontarf only seveuty-tliree ; and Dr. O'Donovan, who thinks that to be the true account, conjectures that his son iMorougli was no more tlian forty-three years of age. Morough's son, Turlough, was a youth of only fifteen years. t This achievement is inentipued in the Danish account, iu which ^lorough is called KerthiaUadr. 148 THE BATTLE OF CtONTARF. enraged at this success, ruslied on liim together, but both fell in rapid succession by his sword. Twice, Morough and some of his chiefs retired to slake their thirst and cool their hands, swollen from the violent use of the sword and battle-axe, and the Danes observing the vigour with which they returned to the conflict, succeeded bj a desperate effort in filling up the brook which had refreshed them. Thus the battle raged from an early hour in the morning, innumerable deeds of valour being performed on both sides, and victory appearing still doubtful, until the third or fourth hour in the afternoon, when a fresh and desperate effort was made by the Irish ; and the Danes, now almost destitute of leaders, began to waver and give way at every point. Just at this moment the Norwegian prince, Anrud, encountered Morough, who was unable to raise his arms from fatigue, but who with the left hand seized Anrud, and shaking him out of his armour, hurled him to the earth, while with the other he placed the point of his sword on the breast of the prostrate Northman, and leaning on it, plunged it through his body. While Morough, however, was stooping for this purpose, Anrud contrived to inflict on him a mortal wound with a dac^ffer, and the Irish Avarrior fell in the arms of victory. This disaster had not the effect of turning the fortune of the day, for the Danes and their allies were in a state of Titter disorder, and along their whole line had commenced flying towards the city or to their ships. They plunged into the Tolka at a time when the river must have been swollen with the tide, as great numbers were drowned. The body of young Turlough was found after the battle " at the weir of Clontarf," with his hands entangled in the hair of a Dane with whom he had grappled in the pursuit. But the chief tragedy of the day remains to be related. Brodar, the pirate admiral, seeing the route general, was making his way through some thickets with only a few attendants, when he came upon the tent of Brian Borumha, left at that moment Ayithout his guards. The fierce viking rushed in and found the aged monarch at prayer before the crucifix, which he had that morning held up to the view of his troops, and attended only by a boy, Conaing, the son of his brother Duncuan. Brian, however, had time to seize his arms, and died sAvord in hand. The Irish accounts say, that he killed Brodar, and was only overcome by numbers ; but the Danish version in the Niala Saga is more probable, and in this Brodar is represented as holding up his reeking sAvord and crying: — "Let it be proclaimed from man to man that Brian has been slain by Brodar." It is added on the same authority that the ferocious pirate was then hemmed in by Brian's returning guards, and captured THE BATTLE OF CLONTATlft 149 alive, and that he was hanged upon a tree, and continued to rage like a beast of prey until lie was eviscerated ; the Irisli soldiers thus taking savage vengeance for the death of their king, who, but for their own neglect, would liave been safe. To this period of the battle may be applied the statement of the Four INIasters, to which we have already alluded, namely, that the foreigners and Leinstermen " were afterwards routed by dint of battling, bravery, and striking, by Maelseachlainn (Malachy) from Tulcainn (the Tolca) to Ath-Cliath (Dublin)." According to the account inserted in the Dublin copy of the Annals of Innisfallen, thirteen thousand Danes and three thousand Leinstermen fell in the battle and the flight, but this is a mo- dern exaggeration. The authentic Annals of theFou.r Masters say, that " the ten hundred in armour were cut to pieces, and at least three thousand of the foreigners slain ;" the Annals of Ulster state that seven thousand of the Danes perished by field and flood ; the Annals of Boyle, which are very ancient, count the number of Danes slain in the same way as the Fom' Masters do ; so that, in all probability, the Ulster Annals include the Leinstermen in their sum total of the slain on the Danish side. The loss of the Irish is also variously stated, but it cannot have been much less than that of the enemy. Ware seems to doubt whether the Irisli had a decided victory, and mentions a report that the Danes rallied at the close of the battle ; but the doubt which he raises merits no attention, seeing that even the Danish accounts admit the total rout, and the great slaughter of their own troops. The Scalds of Norway sang dismal strains about the conflict, which they always call " Brian's Battle ;" and a Scan- dinavian chieftain, who remained at home, is represented as inquiring from one of the few who had returned, what had become of his men? and receiving, for answer, " that all of them had fallen by the sword !" A cotemporary French chronicler describes the defeat of the Northmen as even more sanguinary than it really was, stating that all of them were slain, and that a number of their women threw themselves in despair int( the sea.* According to the Annals of Ulster, and other Irish authorities, there were among the slain on the side of the enemy, Maelmordha, son of Murchadh, king of Leinster; Brogovan, tanist of Hy-Falgia; Dunlaing, son of Tuathal, tanist of Leinster; DonnellO'Farrell,king of the Fortuaths • Ademar's Chronicle, as quoted above. Tliis writer adds what we know to be an error, that the battle lasted three days. Tlie preceding details of the battle of Cloiitarf are collected from Annals of Innisfallen, and other southern authorities, quoted by O'llalloran, Keating, &c., tba Annals of the Four Masters with O'Donovan's annotations : the Niula Saga, as given with a Latiu vei^ion in Johnstone's Anliqtiitafes L'elki-Saindicce •' and oilier sources. 150 BURIAL OF BRIAN. of Leinster; Duvgail, son of Amlave, and Gillakieran, son of Gluniam, two tanists of the Danes; Sigurd, son of Lodar; Brodar, who had killed Brian ; Ottir Duv ; Suartgar ; Duncha O'Herailv ; Grisane ; Luimni and Amlave, sons of Lagmainn, &c. Among the slain, on the Irish side, besides Brian, his son Morough, and his grandson Tui'lough, are mentioned Conaing, son of Doncuan, Brian's nephew; Cuduiligh, son of Kennedy; Mothla, lord of the Desies; Eocha, chief of the Clann Scannlain ; Niall O'Cuinn* — the three latter being the king's aides-de-camp or companions — Teige O'Kelly ; Mulro- ney O'Heyne ; Gevnach, son of Dugan ; Mac Beatha of Kerry Luachra, ancestor of the O'Conors-Kerry ; Donnell, lord of Corcabaiscin ; Dun- laing O'Hartagan; the great stewards Mar and Levin (Lennox), and many others. The annals add that Brian and Morough both lived to receive the last rites of the church,t and that their remains, together with the heads of Conaing and Mothla, were conveyed by the monks to Sord Columb Cille (Swords), and from thence, through Duleek and Louth, to Armagh, by Maelmuire (servant of Mary) the Coarb of St. Patrick ; and that their obsequies was celebrated for twelve days and nights with great splendour by the clergy of Armagh ; after which the body of Brian was deposited in a stone coffin on the north side of the high altar in the cathedral ; the body of his son being interred on the south side of the same church. The remains of Turlough, and of several of the other chieftains, were buried in the old church-yard of Kilmain- ham, commonly known as " Bully's Acre," where the shaft of an ancient Irish cross still marks the spot. The day after the battle, Donough, son of Brian, arrived with the spoils of Leinster, and met his brother Teige with the surviving Irish chieftains and the remains of their victorious army. He made rich presents to the clergy of Armagh, and to those of other churches ; and about Easter Monday the camp broke up, and the chiefs with their re- spective forces took each the road towards his own territory. It is related that while the Dalcassians were on their march home through the ter- ritory of Ossory, Mac Gillapatrick, the prince of that country, attempted to oppose their progress and demanded hostages ; but the sons of Brian, with their shattered battalion, prepared to give him battle; and the Dalcassians are said to have afforded on the occasion a memorable * Ancestor of the O'Quinns of Thomond, of whom the earl of Dunraven is the present head. — O'Donovan. t Marianus Scotus thus records the death of Brian in his chronicles : — " Brian, king of Hibernia, slain on Good Friday, the Oih of the Calends of May (April 23rd), with his mind and his hands turned towards God." v DEATH OF MALACHY n. 151 example of heroism. The wounded warriors were tied to stakes in the front ranks, each wounded man between two of his sound companions ; but the men of Ossory, appalled by so desperate a preparation for resist- ance, or moved by some more honorable feeling, refused to fi^'-ht ao-ainst such an enemy, and the heroes of Thomond were allowed to proceed in peace. Soon after we read of fresh instances of discord in the southern province. The two Desmonian chiefs, Cian and Donnell, son of Duv- davoran, fought after their return from Clontarf, and the former, Avho was celebrated by the bards for his beauty and stature, was slain, toge- ther with some chiefs who were on his side ; while the folloAving year (1015), Donnell, who asserted his claim to the throne of all Munster even on the day after the battle of Clontarf, led an army to Limerick, where he was encountered and slain by the two sons of Brian, Donough and Teige. Meanwhile Malachy resumed the authority of monarch with the tacit consent of the Irish chiefs, and by his frequent and successful attacks on the Danes of Dublin, and his onslaughts on the people of Leinster and of other territories, in the assertion of his sovereignty, he proved that he still possessed energy enough to rule the country. A month before his death he gained an important victory over the Danes of Dublin, at Athbo}^, or the Yellow Ford of Tlachta, in Meath, and died a.d. 1022, in Cro Inis, an island of Lough Ennel in Westmeath, opposite the fort of Dun Sciath, which had been his residence ; having reigned eight years after the battle of Clontarf, and reached the seventy-third year of his age. The Annals of Clonmacnoise state that Malachy " vras the last king of L-eland of Irish blood that had the crown ; but that there were seven kings after without crown, before the coming of the English." Two of these kings, however, were acknowledged by the whole of Ireland. An interregnum of twenty years followed the death of Malachy, during part of which interval the country is stated, in some of the old annals, to have been governed by two learned men, " the one," say the Annals of Clonmacnoise, " called Cuan O'Lochan, a well learned temporal (lay) man, and chief poet of Ireland ; the other, Corcran Cleireach (the Cleric), a devout and holy man, that was anchorite of all Ireland, and whose most abiding was at Lismore. The land was governed like a free state, ;ind not like a monarchy by them."* * Cuan O'Lochan was killed by the people of Teffia, in the year 102-1, and it is added in the .Vnnala of Kilronan •' tiiat his miirdeiers met tragical deaths, and that their bodies were not interred until the wolves and birds had preyed upon them ;" moreover, it was said L'wt their posterity w!^-^ 152 STATE OF THE DANES AFTER CLONTARF. As to the Danes, tlicir power, though not annihilated in tlie battle of Clontarf, was so crushed by that memorable victory that they never after attempted hostilities on a large scale in Ireland, and were content to hold their position chiefly as merchants in Dublin, and the other ports already occupied by them. Their inability to avail them- selves of the shattered and distracted condition in -which Ireland remained for a long time after that bloody conflict is the best proof of the fear- ful amount of loss which they there sustained. knoTvn by an offensive odour; this being what the Irish called a " poet's miracle," that is, a punish- ment drawn down by the malediction of a poet, or for an injury inflicted on a poet. Several of these " poetic miracles" are mentioned in the Irish annals of the middle ages. Three of the compo- sitions of Cuan O'Lochan are mentioned in O'Reilly's Irish Writers (p. 73) as still existing. His colleague, Corcran, survived him many years- CHAPTER XV. state of Learning in Ireland during and after the Danish Wars. — Eminent Churchmen, Poets and Antiquaries. — Tighearnach and Marianus Scotus. — Irishmen Abroad in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries. The Monks of tho Middle Ages. — Causes of Ignorance and Disorganization. — Donough O'Brien in Rome. — Turlough O'Brien. — Progress of Connaught. — Wars of the North and South of Ireland. — Destruction of the Grianan of Aileach. — The Danes after Clontarf. — Invasion and Fate of King Magnus. — Eelations with England. — Letter of Pope Gregory VII. — Murtough O'Brien and the Church. — Re- markable Synods. — Abuses in the Irish Church. — Number of Bishops. — St. Bernard's Denunciations. — Palliations. — St. Malachy. — Misrepresentations. — Progress of Turlough O'Conor. — Death of St. Celsus. COTEMPORAR"? SOVEREIGNS AND EVENTS. [Pope Gregory VII., from 1073 to 1085.— Henry IV., Emperor of the West, died HOG.— Saxon line restored in England under Edward the Cofnessor, 1042. — England conquered by the Nor- mans, 106G. — Philip the Fair, King of France, 1059.] {The Eleventh Century and First Thirty Years of the Twelfth.) URING the long reign of war and rapine which prevailed from the first coming of the Danes into Ireland till their great overthrow at Clontarf, and the gloomy pe^'iod of domestic disorganization which followed, it would be little wonder if learninghad quite disappeared from this country. That such, liOAvever, was not the case we have ample proofs in the frequent obituaries of men described in our authentic annals as eminent for learning as well as piety during that dreary lapse of ages ; in the constant revival of plundered monasteries and schools, which those chronicles 4^V(|^3'^ record;, and in the number of distinguished Irishmen "^3/?"* who still continued to flourish in France, Germany, and other parts of the continent. It would be easy to make out a tolerably long list of the men who thus vindicate their age and 154 STATE OF LEARNING. country from the charge of barbarism, but a few names will suffice for our purpose. Beginning with the tenth century, which modem writers generally style the "darkest of the middle ages," we might commence our list with Cormac Mac Cuilennan, whose career has been already described in the proper place. We might also enumerate, among other names already mentioned, those of Cormacan Eigeas, the chief poet of Ulster in the time of Muirkertach O'Neill, whose memorable circuit he celebrated ; and of the lector Probus or Coenachair, the biographer of St. Patrick, who was burned by the Danes in a round tower at Slane. A little before this time, when the monastic institutions had been destroyed, and with them learning and religion almost wholly extinguished in England, a few Irish monks settled at Glastonbury, and for their support began to teach the rudiments of sacred and secular knowledge.* One of the earliest and tlie most illustrious of their pupils was the great St. Dunstan, who, under the tuition of these Irishm.en, became skilled in philosophy, painting, music, and other accomplishments, a proof that education had made considerable progress among the Irish monks. St. Cadroe, the son of a king of the Albanian Scots, was at the same time in Ireland, study- ing in the schools of Armagh, where he acquired a knowledge of arith- metic, astronomy, natural history, &c. And the name of Trian Saxon, then applied to one of the quarters of that city, shows that thus, long before the English invasion, it must have been frequented by a large number of Saxon students.f St. Maccallin, an Irishman, flourished in France at the same period, as did also another St. Columbanus, an Irish saint, whose memory has been preserved w^ith great venei'ation in Belgium. In the same centuiy Duncan, an Irish bishop, taught in the monastery of St. Remigius, at Rheims, and wrote, for the use of his students, some works, of which two, on the liberal arts, and on geography, are still extant. At home, poetrj^, especially as applied to history, was a favorite pm'- suit. Kenneth O'Hartagan, who died in 975, is described as a famous poet of Leath Cuinn, and many of his compositions are to be found in Irish MS. collections. Eochy OTlynn, who died in 984, has left us ♦These were the "viri sanctissiini, prrecipue Iliberaici," of whom Camden writes, who, in process of time, received a salary from the king and educated youth in piety and tiie liberal arts. '■They embraced a solitary life that they mii;ht devote themselves more tranquilly to sacred literature, and by their austerities they accustomed themselves to can-y the cross." — Brit. p. 193, London, 1600. Glastoiibur}-, according to Camden, was anciently called "the first land of the ^aints in England." t Annals of the Four Masters, ad. an. 1092 ; Colgaii, Trias Thaum. TIGHERNACH THE ANNALIST. 155 several historical poems of merit He is frequently quoted as an authority for accounts of the early colonists of Ireland ; having on these subjects embodied in his verses traditions of an age much older than his own. The names of ]\Iac Liag, the secretary of Brian Borumha ; and of Cuan O'Lochan, one of the co-regents of Ireland, have been already introduced in these pages ; and following up the list of those who belong to this class, we have Flann IVIainistreach, the abbot of Monasterboice, who died in 1056, and Giolla Keevin, who died in 1072 ; both famous as bardic chroniclers, many of wdiose productions still siu'vive. The most accurate and judicious of our ancient annalists was Tigher- nach (Tiernach), abbot of Clonmacnoise, who wrote the Annals of Ireland from the reign of Cimbaeth, that is, from about the year before Christ, 305, to the period of his death, in 1088. His compilation, which is partly in Latin and partly in Irish, evinces a familiarity with Greek and Roman writers that is highly creditable to the Irish monk of that age. It is remarkable that cotemporary with this eminent domestic chronicler another Irishman, celebrated in the same department of litera- ture, flomrished abroad; the famous Marianus Scotus — whose great chronicles are the most perfect composition of the kind which the middle ages produced — having died in 1086, two years before his countryman Tighernach. National vanity induced some Scottish writers to claim Marianus as their countryman, but without a shadow of foundation.* The name is the usual Latin form of Maelmuire, " the servant of j\Iary," a name then common in Ireland; and there is reason to believe that the famous chronographer was first a monk of Clonard, in Meath. Having gone, as many learned Irishmen did in his time, to Germany, he first entered the Irish convent near Cologne, but subse- quently became a recluse at Fulda, and Avas finally sent by his superiors to Metz, where he died. The existence of such men as Marianus Scotus and Tighernach, in the eleventh century, are facts of great importance for their age and country. When St. Fingen, an Irishman, who succeeded the Albanian Scot, St. Cadroe, as abbot of the monastery of St. Felix, at Metz, was also invested, in 991, with the government of the monastery of St. Symphorian in that city, it was ordered by the bishop that none but Irish monks should be * See the authorities on this point collected by Lanigan, vol. iii., pp. 417, 448, and iv. pp. 5, 7, 8. When Henry IV. of England urged the authority of Marianus in upport of his claim to the crowu of Scotland, as Edward I. had done before, the Scottisli States replied that the writer was a Hibernian not an Albanian Scot. Marianus is the first who is known to have applied the name of Scotia to the modern Scotland, which was previously only called Alba, an appellation which, in this form, or in that of Alijuiun, or Albainn, has evor been the only Celtic name for North Britain. 156 THE MONKS OF THE MIDDLE AGES admitted into this latter house, while they could be found ; but when these failed the monks of other nations might be received.* The mon- astery of St. Martin, on the Rhine, near Cologne, was made over to tlie Irish for ever, in 975 ; and several other monasteries, either wholly or partially occupied by Irish monks, such as those of Erfurt, Fulda, &c., are known to have existed at that period in Germany and the Nether- lands. Some Irishmen were associated with a community of Greek monks established at Toul, in France, by the bishop, St. Gerard, and are stated to have joined them in the performance of the Church service in the Greek language.! St. Dunchadh, abbot of Clonraacnoise, who died at Armagh, in 988, and was held there in great veneration, is said by Tighernach to have been the last of the Irish saints who resuscitated the dead.| St. Aedh, or Hugh, lector of Trevet, in Meath, died at Armagh, in 1004, after affording for many years a bright example of holiness of life ; and, under the date 1018, is recorded the death of St. Gormghal of Ardoilean, the remains of whose humble oratory and cloghan cell are still to be seen on that rocky islet, amid the surges of the Atlantic, off the wild coast of Con- nemara.§ Did we not bear in mind the fact, that such men as these — and many others like them might be enumerated — lived, and taught, and, prayed at that period, we would be apt, in wading tlirough the chaos of war and anarchy which the chronicles of the tenth and eleventh centuries present, to think that it was indeed the age of utter darkness and barbarism, which some writers unjustly represent it to have been.]] Whether ignorance and vice prevailed on the continent to a greater extent before Charlemagne, or after that great monarch's reforms became obliterated in the tenth century, is a matter of discussion. In the former case they were produced by the deluge of barbarism from * See a coi»y of the original diploma to that effect, published by Colgan, with the Acts of St. Fiiigen in the AA. SS. Ilib. p. 258. t This curious fact is mentioned by the Benedictines in their Histoire Literaire. X In the Acts of St. Dauchadh it is stat"d that the miracle of restoring a dead child to life waj performed through his pi avers. AA. SS. IJib. Jan. 10. § St. Gormghal is called " chief aumchara of Ireland." The word anmchara means "spiritual director," and is not to be confounded with angcore "an anchorite or recluse." II It maj' be well to remind some readers, that war, rapine, and social confii.«ion make up the great bulk of the history of other countries as v.ell that of Ireland, during the ages of which we are here treating. In those turbulent times, the sole conservators of human knowledge as well as of religion in Christendom (for we except the Arabs), were the much abused monks; and tliose who ungratefully blame these for having kept all knowledge to themselves, forget that this was not the monks' fault. The laity were too intent upon war and other pursuits, and des|)ised learning too much to devote attention to it; and the alternative was, the preservation of literature by ecclesiastics, or its final exiincuon. THE SONS OF BRIAN EORTTMirA. 157 the north and east, and they resulted in the latter from the rank growth of the feudal system with its abuses. In Ireland disorganising agencies, analogous though not identical nor cotemporary, were in operation. Thus, although Ireland was not conquered by barbarians, the Danish wars which raged without inter- mission for two centuries were well calculated to produce the same ruin- ous results ; and if the feudal system did not exist, one equally pregnant with political mischief prevailed. The numerous small and independent principalities into which the island was parcelled out were perpetually engaged in mutual strife. They formed daily new complications ; and as they increased in strength a central controlling power became more and more impracticable, and if raised up occasionally by force of arms, required incessant recourse to the same violent means to enforce even a formal recognition of its authority. Such, unhappily, was the state of things which prevailed without amelioration from the death of Malachy II. to the coming of the English in the latter part of the twelfth century. Donough, son of Brian Borumha, having, by the defeat of the Des- monians, and subsequently by the death of his brother, Teige (who was in 1023, treacherously slain, at his instigation, by the people of Ely O'Carroll), obtained the undisputed sovereignty of Munster, marched an army northward, and took the hostages of Meath, Bregia, Ossory, and Leinster. This was a step towards asserting his claim to the sovereignty of all Ireland ; but his cotemporary, Dermot Mac Mael-na-mbo, king of Leinster, had a superior title to that honor.* Donough assembled a meeting of the clergy and chieftains of Munster at Killaloe, in the year 1050, to pass laws for the protection of life and property, against which outrages had been rendered more frequent in consequence of a dearth which then prevailed; and in 1063, being defeated in battle by his nephew Turlough, son of Teige, who was aided by the forces of Con- naught and Leinster, he went on a pilgrimage to Rome, where he died the following year, after doing penance for the crime of implication ill his brother's murder. It is stated that he took with him to Rome * Connell jNIageoghegan, in his translation of the Annals of Clonmacnoise, a.i>. 1041, says: — "The kings, or chief nionarchs of Ireland, wen} re|)Uted to be absolute (suiirfcniu)monarchs in this manner : if he were of Leigli-Con, or Con's halfe in deale, and one province in Leath-Moj'e, or Moy's lialfc in deale, at his command, he was couuiptid to be of sufficient power to be king of Taragh, or Ireland; but if the party were of Leath-Moye, if he could not command all Leath- Moye and Taragh, -with the lordbhipp thcriunto belonging, and the province of Ulster or Connought (if not both) he would not be thought sullicient to be king of all. Derniott Mac Moylenemo coii'd command Leath-Moye, Meath, Connought, and Ulster, and therefore, ny the jucigmcni; of an. he was reputed sullkieut monarch of the whole" (of Ireland^. 158 TURLOUGH O'BRIEN. the crown of Ireland, probably the same which hao: been worn by his father, and that he presented it to the pope ; and it is added, but not on good authority, that this crown was given by Pope Adrian to Henry II., on the occasion of that king's invasion of Ireland. Turlough O'Brien now became the most potent among the Ii'ish princes, and on the death of Dermot MacMael-na-mbo, who was killed in battle, together with a number of his allies or vassals, the Danes of Dublin, by the king of Meath, in 1072, the Dalcassian king was regarded as his successor in the rank of monarch of Ireland. Turlough proceeded to assert his authority by exacting hostages from the other kings ; but in 1075 he received a check from the men of the north, at Ardee. At this time the Mac Loughlins, a bi'anch of the Hy-Nialls of TjTone, reigned at Aileach, and the O'Melaghlins in Meath. The former retained their traditional character for indomitable braver}^, and could rarely be compelled to admit the supremacy of any southern prince. The power of Connaught had of late made considerable advances under the O'Conors ; and Rory, or Roderic O'Conor, its present king, having evinced an aspiring disposition, Turlough O'Brien was resolved to humble him, and for that purpose led a powerful army into Con- naught, in 1079, plundered the country as far as Croagh Patrick, and expelled Rory from his kingdom. Next year he led an army to Dublin, where the people of Meath, who were accompanied by the successor of St. Patrick, bearing the staff of Jesus, made their submission to him ; and he appointed his son, Murtough, lord of the Danes of Dublin, a position which had some time before been held by a prince of Leinster. As to Rory O'Conor, after carrying on several petty wars successfully, he at length (1012) fell into the hands of the O'Flaherties of West Connaught, who always resisted the authority of the O'Conor family, and was by them treacherously blinded, the barbarous practice of that age being to put out the eyes of captive princes, in order to unfit them to command. Turlough O'Brien* was succeeded by his son Murtough, who subse- quently became king of all Ireland ; but in the mean time that honor devolved upon another prince ; for in 1090 a great meeting took place between Donnell, son of Mac Loughlin, king of Aileach; Murtough * A ludicrous 8tory is told by the Four Masters of the remote cause of Turlough O'Brien's death, ■t is said that after an old enemy, Conor O'Melaghlin, king of Meath, had been killed, and his remains deposited at Clonmacnoise, Turlough ordered the head of the dead man to be taken away forcibly from the church and brought to him. While feasting his eyes on that grim object, a mouse issued from it, and leaped into his bosom, and this gave him such a shock that be became ill, his hair fell off, and he remained in bad health from that time (1073) until death in 108(j. "WARS BETWEEN THE NORTH AND SOUTH. 159 O'Brien, king of Cashel ; Donnell O'Melaghlin, king of Meath ; and Rorv O'Conor, king of Connaught, besides other princes ; and it was agreed that the king of Aileach should be acknowledged lord para- mount, and hostages were accordingly delivered to him as such by the other kings and chieftains. The peace thus brought about was, however, of short duration, if indeed there were any tranquil interval at all ; for the provinces not only continued at war with each other, but were split up by internal divisions ; and more than once, about this time, the church threw itself into the breach between opposing armies, and caused a truce to be made. A pestilence raged in 1095, and a great part of the following year was spent in fasting and works of charity, in order to avert a mysterious scourge from heaven which the nation believed to be impending. Don- nell O'Loughlin and the Clann O'Neill invaded the Ulidians in 1099, and there is an account of a decisive cavalry battle between them, in which the latter were defeated ; while Murtough O'Brien had some trouble in contendino- ^vith the Connau^htmen on one side, and with an insur- rection of his own relatives, the sons of Teige O'Brien, on the other. But the great struggle was between the south and the north, and Murtough directed all his resources and his great military ability to the one object of establishing his own power as monarch of Ireland. Twice — in 1097 and 1099 — did the archbishop of Armagh and the clergy of Ireland interpose between the two armies, when face to face, to avert the threatened blow ; but Murtough was not to be diverted from his pur- pose. In 1100 he brought a fleet, chiefly composed of Danish ships, to Derry, but O'Loughlin succeeded in destroying them ; and the following year (1101), a twelve months' truce which the clergy had negotiated having expired, Murtough led a powerful army, composed of hostings from all the other provinces, to the north, and devastated the whole of Inis Eoghain, without meeting any opposition. He demolished the palace or stronghold of the northern Hy-Nialls, called the Grianan of Aileach,* in revenge for a similar act of hostility inflicted on O'Brien's palace of Kincora, by O'Loughlin, several years before ; and to raze it the more effectually, he commanded that in every sack which had been used to carry provisions for the army, a stone of the demolished building should be placed, that the materials of it might be conveyed to Limerick. Murtough next took the hostages of Ulidia and returned to the south, * The remains of tliis celebrated stronghold are still visible on the summit of a small hill in the county of Donegal, about four and a-half miles X.W. of the city of Londouderry, and are called Greenaii Ely. — Urdiiunce Survey cf Londondeii-y. IGO FRESH ATTEMPTS OF THE DANES. having made the entire circuit of Ireland, as the annals tell us, in six weeks, without encountering any army to dispute his progress. The reader has observed that the overthrow of the Danes at Clontarf by no means implied their expulsion from Ireland. They still continued to hold Dublin and the other maritime cities previously occupied by them ; but chiefly in the capacity of merchants. Their subsequent predatory inroads were few; one of the last being in 1031, when they burned the great church of Ardbraccan, in Meath, together with 200 persons who had sought refuge in it, and carried off 200 more as captives. Afterwards these acts of aggression on their part were rare. The Danes of Dublin sent, at different times, expeditions against their countrymen in Waterford and Cork, which shewed that they had ceased to co-oj^erate as a nation ; and at length their lords or kings were occasionally expelled by the Irish, and Irish princes substituted for them.* The Northmen, nevertheless, had not yet abandoned their old idea of conquering Irelaiid. Godfrey Crovan took possession of Dublin and part of Leinster, for a time, and a new expedition was set on foot by Magnus, king of Norway, after he had subdued the Danes of the Ork- neys and of the Isle of Man, about the jeav of 1101. It is related in the Chronicle of Man, that Magnus sent his shoes to Mm*tough O'Brien, king of Ireland, commanding him, in token of subjection, to carry them on his shoulders, in his house, on Christmas day. The news of so inso- lent a messatre roused the indignation of the Irish; but Murtouo-h, according to this very improbable story, entertained the Norwegian ambassadors sumptuously; told them he would not only carry their master's shoes, but eat them rather than that one province of Ireland should be laid waste by an invasion; and having complied with the haughty demand of the barbarian, dismissed his messengers with rich presents. The report made by the ambassadors only strengthened the desire of Magrnus to obtain a footino; in Ireland. He made a truce of one year with king Murtough, the hand of whose daughter he obtained in marriage for his son Sigurd; but all his ambitious projects were frustrated the following year (1103); for, on landing to explore the country, he and his party were cut off by the Ulidians, after some hard fighting, and his remains were respectfully interred near St. Patrick's church, in Down.j * It would appear that in the beginning of the eleventh century Ireland gave a king to Norway, in tlie person of Harold Gille, who was an Irishman. See Dr. Latham's Kelts and North men. t Mr. Moore (Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii. p 127) contrasting the resistance which the Danes encountered in Ireland, with the ineffective efforts made against them in England, says : — " T he very same year (that of the battle of Clontarf), which saw Ireland [ouring forth her assembled I^•TEI1C0URSE BETWEEN IIlELA^-D AND ENGLAND. Vol We meet many instances of intercourse witli England during the period of -which we have been lately treating. Driella, daughter of earl Godwin and sister of Editha, the queen of Edward the Confessor, was married to Doiiough O'Brien, tho Irish king; and during the rebellion of Godwin and his sons against king Edward, Harold, one of the sons, afterwards king of England, took refuge in Ireland. He remained during a winter with his brother-in-law, Donough, who gave him, on his return to England, nine ships to aid him in his enterprise. The Irish lent assistance in several other feuds of the Anglo-Saxons at this period. Lanfranc, the great archbishop of Canterbury, appears to have directed a watchful eye towards the Church of Ireland. He heard of iiTegularities of discipline, which gave him much uneasiness, and as he was in constant intercourse with the Danish bishops of Ireland, who had gone to him for consecration and promised obedience to him, the accounts which he received were sure not to diminish the evil. Lanfranc WTote an earnest epistle on the subject to king Turlough O'Brien, addressing him as the king of Ireland, and lauding his virtues as a Christian prince in flattering and encouraging terms. The greaii Pope Gregory VII. also honored king Turlough with a letter, published, as well as the last-mentioned one, in Ussher's Sylloge, and addre^ed him as " the illustrious king of Ireland." It is stated in Hanmer's Chronicle that William Bufus obtained from Turlough O'Brien a quantity of oak timber for the roof of Westminster Hall, and that the trees cut down for the purpose grew on Oxmantown Green, then in the nortliern suburbs of Dublin, but now forming part of the city. A deputation of the nobles of Man and other islands waited on Murtough O'Brien, and solicited him to send them a king, and he accordingly sent his nephew, Donnell, wdio, however, was soon expelled princes and clans to confront the invader on the sea-shove, and there make of his mj'riads a warning example to all future intruders, beheld England unworthily cowering under a similar visitation, her king a fugitive from the scourge in foreign lands, and her nobles purchasing, by inglorious tribute, a short respite from aggression ; and while, in the English annals for this year, we find little else than piteous lamentations over the fallen and broken spirit both of rulers and people, in the records of Ireland the only sorrows wliich appear to have mingled with the general triumpli are those breathed at the tombs of the veteran monarch and the numerous chieftains who fell in that struggle by his side." And William of Newbury, an old English historian, >vho was born in the year 113G, candidly says: — " It is a matter of wonder that Britain, which is of larger extent, and equally an island of the ocean, should have been so often, by the chances of war, made the prey of foreign nations, and suljected to foreign rule, having been first subdued and possessed by the Humans, then by the Germans, afterwards by the Danes, and lastly by the Xormans ; while her neighbour, Iliberiii.i. inaccessible to the Romans themselves, even when the Orkneys were in their power, has been but rarely, and then imperfectly, subdued; nor ever, in reality, has been brought to submit to foreign domination, till the year of our Lord 1171." — Rerun AngJ. I. 2. c. xxxi. IGw* CTATE OF RELIGION'. on account of liis tyranny ; while another Donnell O'Brien, his cousin, vras, at the same time, lord of the Danes of Dublin. Among the high qualities which marked the character of Miu'tough O'Brien were his attachment to religion and his generosity to the church. In the year 1101 he summoned a meeting of the clergy and chiefs of Leath Mogha, to give due solemnity to an act of extraordinary munificence — namely,, that of granting the city of Cashel-of-the-kings for ever to the religious of Ireland, free from all dues and from all lay authority — a grant, say the annalists, " such as no king had ever made before." The words in which the gift is recorded would seem to imply that the royal city was given to the monastic orders exclusively. In 1111 a synod was convened at Fidh-Aengussa, or Aengus's Grove, described by Colgan as near the hill of Uisneach, in Westmeath. It was attended by 50 bishops, 300 priests, and 3,000 other ecclesiastics; and also by Murtough O'Brien, king of Leath Mogha, and by the nobles of his provinces. Among the heads of the clergy were St. Celsus, or Ceallach, archbishop of Armagh, and Maelmuire, or iMarianus O'Dunain, archbishop of Cashel, who is styled " most noble senior of the clergy of Ireland;" the object of the synod being "to institute rules of life and manners for clergy and people." There is also mention of a synod of Rathbreasail held about this time, the particular year not being specified, nor the place identified by its ancient name.* The abuses in matters of discipline which had grown out of old customs, and which the secluded position of Ireland had gradually allowed to extend themselves, had begun to give much uneasiness at this time in the Irish church. One of these abuses was the excessive multiplication of the episcopal dignity, owing to the custom of creating chorepiscopi or rural bishops; and a principal object of the synod or synods in question was to limit the number of prelates and define the bounds of dioceses. It was decided that there should be but twenty- four bishops and archbishops : that is, twelve in the northern and twelve in the southern half of Ireland ; but this regulation was not carried out for some time. The diocese of Cashel, as well as that of Armagh, was, at that time, fully recognised as archie- piscopal, and the successor of St. Jarlath was sometimes called archbishop of Connaught, although the formal recognition of the see of Tuam as an archbishopric did not take place until several years after. * It is said that Gilbert, bishop of Limerick, and first legate apostolic in Irelan.l, presided on this latter occasion ; but although Dr. Lanigan holds the contrary opinion, it has been conjectured witli great probability that the synods of Fidh-Acngussa, or rather Fidh-niic-Aengussa, and Rathbreasil are one and the same. — Eccl. Eist, of Ireland, thap, xxv., sec. xiii. ; also Dr. Kellj 's edition of Cambrin»i$ Eversui, toL iii., pp. 53 and 783. STATE OF RELIGION. 163 Besides the practice of imiiecessarily multiplying bishops, -which was one that had been abolished in otlier churches centuries before this time, the more serious abuse prevailed in Ireland of allowing laymen to intrude themselves into church dignities, and to assume the title and revenues of bishops. These men, as we have already explained when treating of coarbs or cpmorbans, were obliged to transfer to ecclesiastics regularly ordained and consecrated, the functions of the sacred offices which they usurped. We have no reason to believe that the practice was a general one ; but we are told that in the church of Armagh there was a succession of eight lay and manied intruders usurping the title of St. Patrick's successors. The father was succeeded by his son, and the highest dignity in the Irish church was treated as a mere temporal inheritance. Some other corruptions of discipline had also crept in; such as the practice of consecrating bishops without the assistance of more than one prelate ; and some irregularities in contracting marriage within prohibited degrees of kindred and affinity, and also in the form of marriage. But on these subjects our principal source of information is St. Bernard's Life of St. Malachy ; and it is now universally admitted that as the illustrious abbot of Clairvaux knew nothing about Ireland or its usages, except what he learned from a few Irishmen wdio described to him partial or isolated abuses, and was besides an unsparing and zealous denouncer of all corruptions, he allowed his horror of everything that infringed upon the sanctity of religion to carry him too far in his description of the state of religion and morals in Ireland as they were found there by his friend St. Malachy. The history of the Irish church during the twelfth century, into which we have now entered, is replete with the deepest interest. The abuses which cast over it a temporary shade are to be deplored ; but in the lives of such illustrious men as St. Celsus, St. jMalachy, St. Gelasius, and St. Laurence O'Toole, we find an abundant source of consolation, These holy men were raised up at a favorable moment to crush the evil, and imder Providence they restored to the cliurch of Ireland much of its pristine lustre. When St. Malachy undertook the care of the diocese of Connor, he found, it is true, a most deplorable relaxation of discipline prevailing; but it would be no wonder if the perpetual warfare, in which that and some other portions of Ireland were more especially involved dui'ing that tiu'bulent period, had quite disorganized society. The monstrous abuse, too, of tolerating laymen in the sec of St. Patrick, and that on the mere right of inheritance, may well have filled such a mind as that of St. in4 STATE OF RELIGION. Bernard with inexpressible grief and horror; yet, such was the effect of usage upon men's opinions, that we find these very lay intruders men- tioned by our annalists — themselves ecclesiastics — without any marked condemnation, and generally as having performed exemplary penance be- fore their death. We may, therefore, seek for some charitable palliation of the usage in the insolence of the few powerful families who, in that rude age, were guilty of the usurpation.* St. Anselm, the great arch- bishop of Canterbury, in his correspondence with the prelates of the south of Ireland, and with king Murtough O'Brien, in the years 1095 and 1100, although he evinces extreme anxiety for the interests of religion, indicating that there were some irregularities to be reformed, still compliments the king on his excellent administration, and passes a high eulogium upon those bishops of whom he seems to have had any knowledge, namely, those of the southern dioceses.t We may, indeed, from this and many other circumstances, conclude, that the evils of which St. Bernard so eloquently complained, were at least not so general as his denunciations would imply, and did not continue for any lengthened period. It should be also observed that they have reference solely to matters of discipline and morality, and by no means to faith or doctrine. So that we must be on our guard against two very grievous misrepresentations of which the Irish church of the eleventh and twelfth centuries has been the object; fhst, that there was some deviation from the faith of the Catholic or Roman church in Ireland at that time ; and, secondly, that the moral disorders which it must be admitted did exist, were general, or continued down to the time of the English invasion X Resuming our civil history, and passing in silence over a number of petty wars, in which many districts, especially in the centre of Ireland, were desolated, Ave find that Murtough O'Brien was seized with illness, which in 1114 compelled him to retire from active life. His brother, Dermot, an ambitious man, took the opportunity to declare himself king * This abuse was not confined to Ireland. A canon of the Council of London was fiamed against a precisely similar abuse in 1125; and in tlie time of Cambrensis there were lay abbots in Wales who took all the real property of the monasteries into their own hands, leaving the clergy only the altars and their dues, and placing children or relatives of their own in the church for the purpose of enjoying even these. — liln. Cambr., b. c. 4. I See this correspondence printed in Ussher's Syllogz. % The former of these charges is the mere suggestion of s -ctarian \i\.\s, v.iiliout any foundation. Thus it is falsely pretended that it was St. Malachy who actually brought the Irish church into commu- nion with Rome, and that this arrangement was only made effective by Cardinal Paparo at the Synod of Kells in 1152. The other charge has been made by various writers who look it up at second- hand, and were actuated by unfriendly feelings towards Ireland. Dr. Milner, in particular, in his work on Ireland, fell into the injurious error of supposing that the English on their airival here foimd the abuses of which St. Bernard complained half a century before still prevalent. DEATH OF MURTOUGH o'eRIE^". 1G5 of Munster ; but this act recalled from liis retreat Murtough. wlio altlioiioli reduced hy age and sickness to the appearance of a skeleton, put himself at the head of his army, caused his unnatural brother to be made prisoner, and marched once more into Leinster and Bregia. This, how- ever, was a last and feeble effort. He was obliged to relinquish the kingdom to his brother ; and retiring into the monastery of Lismore, where he embraced the ecclesiastical state, he died in 1119. His old competitor, Donnell O'Loughlin, survived him two years, and in 1120 led an army in defence of the king of Meath against the forces of Con- naught; when, feeling his end approach, he retired into the Columbian monastery of Deny, and after penitential exercises, died there the fol- lowing year, in the 73rd year of his age. It is remarkable that, although the power of his southern rival was, at least for many years, more extensively recognized than his, still O'Loughlin receives the title of king of Ireland more generally from the annalists; so much did the legitimate principle weigh with the Irish in favor of the ancient royal house of Hy-Niall. The contest betvreen these two princes was never regularly fought out; for even in 1113, the last time they con- fronted each other at the head of their respective armies, St. Celsus, archbishop of Armagh, with the crozier of St. Patrick, interposed, and brought about a truce. Two other princes who had played, important parts in Irish affairs also closed their career in an exemplary manner about this time. These were Rory O'Conor, who had been king of Connaught, but who having been blinded by the O'Flaherties many years before, entered into reli- gion in the monastery of Clonmacnoise, and died therein 1118; and Teige Mac Carthy, king of Desmond, who died at Cashel, in 1124, after affording many proofs of earnest piety. A nev/ set of characters now appear on the stage of Irisli history. Of these, the leading part was taken by Turlough or Turdelvach O'Conor, son of the above-mentioned Rory, who found a clear stage for his ambi- tion, and made rapid strides in raising himself to the sovereignty of Ireland. He plundered Thomond as far as Limerick in 1116, when Der- mot O'Brien was able to mal^e but a feeble resistance, trying to avenge himself by an inroad into Connaught during Turlough's absence. In 1118, Turlough O'Conor, aided by Murrough O'Melaghliu, kingof Meath, and Hugh O'Rourke, lord of Breffiiy, led an army as far as Gleann- Maghair (Glanmire), near Cork, and divided Munster, giving Desmond to Mac Carthy, and Thomond to the sons of Dermot O'Brien, and car- Tjing off hostages from both. He endeavoured to crush the power of 106 TURLOUGH O'CONOR. O'Brien by exalting tliat of the Eoglianaclits or Desmonian family, who had been excluded since the time of Brian Borumha. He then marched Avithout delay to Dublin, and took hostages from the Danes, from Ossory, and from Leinster, liberating Donnell, son of the king of Meath, whom the Danes held in captivity. The following year he scoured the Shannon with a fleet, hurled the royal palace of Kincora into the river, " both stones and timber," and remained there some time with his numer- ous allies, of Ossory, Leinster, and Dublin, consuming the provisions of Munster. These extreme acts of sovereign authority, or rather of unre- sisted aggression, were followed by others, such as the expulsion of his late ally and father-in-law, Murrough O'Melaghlin, from Meath, in 1120; the wholesale plundering of Desmond, from Traigh Li (Tralee) to the termon, or sanctuary land of Lismore, in 1121 ; and the giving of the kingdom of Dublin, as it was called, to his OAvn son, Conor, in 1126 ; all the intermediate time being devoted to various acts of hostility which it is needless to enumerate. " There was," say the annalists, " a great storm of war throughout Ireland in general, so that Ceallach (St. Celsus) successor of Patrick, was obliged to be for one month and a year absent from Ard Macha, establishing," or rather endeavouring to establish, " peace among the men of Ireland, and promulgating rules and good customs everywhere among the laity and clergy." In 1127, Turlough O'Connor led his forces, both by sea and land, to Cork, and driving Cormac Mac Carthy from his kingdom, divided Mun- ster into three parts. Cormac retired to Lismore, -where it is supposed by some that he assumed holy orders, being a prince of a religious dispo- sition :* but beins indeed to leave his retreat he resumed the reins of government on Turlough's withdrawal, and his brother, Donough, who had been placed on the throne by that king, fled to his patron in Con- naught, with 2,000 followers. At length (1128) a years truce between Connaught and Munster was made by St. Celsus ; and the following year that holy archbishop, worn out by his austerities and indefatigable labors in the cause of religion and peace, although only fifty years of age, died at Ardpatrick, in the southern part of the present county of Limerick, where he was on his visitation ; and his remains, having been conveyed to Lismore, were interred there in the cemetery of the bishops.f *He is called St. Cormac by Lynch. — Camhrensis Eversus, cliap. xxi. t Bishop Maelcolum O'Brolcban of Armagh, who died in 1122, in the reputation of sanctity, and who is usually described as the suffragan or coadjutor of St. Celsus, had been, no doubt, one of the acting bishops who officiated for the lay intruders during their incumbency ROBBERY OF THE CHURCH OF CLONMACNOISE. 1G7 In the year 1129 the great church of Clonmacnoise Avas robbed of several objects of yalue, among which was a model of Solomons Tem- ple, presented by a prince of Mcath, and a silver chalice plated with gold, and beautifully engraved with her own hand, by a sister of king Turlouo;h O'Conor. The enumeration of the articles stolen affords an illustration of the taste and luxury displayed by Irish princes in objects of domestic use or ornament, and of the accomplishments of an Irish princess. The robber was a Dane of Limerick, who having been arrested while attempting to escape from the country, was hanged for the crime the following year. Having now approached the eve of the most eventful epoch of Irish history, that of the Anglo-Norman invasion, we shall reserve for the next chapter a summary of the events which may explain the circum- stances, moral and political, in which the country was found on that oOTasion. CHAPTER XVI. St. Malacliy. — His Early Career. — His Eeforms in the Diocese of Connor, — His "Withdrawal to Kerry. — His Government of the Church of Armagh. — His Retirement to Down. — Struggle of Conor O'Brien and Turlough O'Conor. — Synod at Cashel. — Cormae's Chapel. — Death of Cormac Mac Carthy. — Tur- lough O'Conor's Rigour to his Sons. — Crimes and Tyranny of Dermot Mac Murrough. — St. Malachy's Journey to Rome. — Building of Mellifont. — Synod of Inis Padraig. — The Palliums. — St. Malachy's Second Journey and Death. — Political State of Ireland. — Arrival of Cardinal Paparo. — Synod of Kclls. — Misrepresentations Corrected. — The Battle of Moin-Mor. — Famine arising from Civil "War in Munster, — Dismemberment of Meath. — Elopement of Der- vorgil. — Battle of Rahin. — A IS'aval Engagement. — Death of Turlough O'Conor, and Accession of Roderic. — Synod of Mellifont. — Synod of Bri-Mic- Taidhg. — Wars and Ambition of Roderic. — St. Laurence O'Toole. — Synod of Clane. — Zeal of the Irish Hierarchy. — Death of O'Loughiin. — Roderic O'Conor Monarch. — Expulsion of Dermot Mac Murrough. — Great Assembly at Athboy. COTEMPOBAET SOVEREIGNS. f Popes: Innocent IT., Celestine II., Lucius II., Eugenius III., Anastasius IV., Adrian TV. —Kings of England : Stephen, 1135. Henry II., 1154.— King of France: Louis VIT., 1137]. (a.d. 1130 ioA.V. 1168.) T. CELSUS, or Cealiacli, tlie arcliLisliop of Armagh, altlioiigh a member of the usurping family, was deeply impressed ■\vitli the enormous irregularity of making the see a family inheritance; and desired by his will that St. Malachy should be chosen his successor. This latter holy personage (whose name in Irish was Maelmaedhog O'Morgair) was known to St. Celsus from his youth. He belonged to a noble family, although it is believed that his father filled the office of lector, or professor, in the school of Armagh. The account of his early training under the abbot Imar O'Hagan, of Armagh, shows that sufficient resources for the pious and enlightened educa- tion of youth had still survived the past centuries of foreign invasion and domestic tumult in Ireland. While yet a young man he undertook the restoration of the famous monastery of ST. MALACITY. 109 Bangor, of which only a few crumbling ruins then remained, the abbey lands being possessed by a layman who enjoyed the title of abbot. St. Malachy associated with himself a few religious men, and having con- structed a small oratory of timber, they entered into the true spirit of monastic life. Soon, however, this tranquil existence was interrupted by his election as bishop of Connor; and the episcopal duties which he was compelled to assume were of the most arduous natiu'e, as he found his diocese in a deplorable state of disorder. In fact, little more than the traces of religion were left among the people ; but St. Malachy went zealously to work, and by God's blessing, and the assistance of his little community of monies, who accompanied him from Bangor, he soon suc- ceeded in restoring discipline and reviving religion among his flock. Scarcely had he effected this happy result when war destroyed the fruits of his labor. Some hostile prince invaded the territory, and St. Mala- chy, driven from his diocese, repaired, with 120 monks, to the territory of Cormac Mac Carthy, king of Desmond, whose friendship ho had acquired in the monastery of Lismore, Avliere he was at the time that Cormac made it his retreat on being driven from his kingdom by Turlough O'Conor. The withdrawal of St. I\Ialachy to JMunster took place some short time after the death of St. Celsus at Ai'dpatrick in 1129; and as soon as the death of that holy prelate was known in Armagh, a la^onan, named Muirkertach, or Maiu'ice, claimed the see as his inheritance, and by> the aid of ,his powerful clan, got himself pro- claimed successor of St. Patrick, and maintained himself in the sacrile- gious usurpation. This Maurice was son of Donald, the predecessor of St. Celsus, and grandson of Amalgid, another of the nominal archbishops, or comorbans.* In the year 1132, bishop Gilbert, of Limerick, apostolic delegate, and bishop Malchus, of Lismore, assembled several bishops and chieftains, who went in a body to St. Malachy, in the monastery which he had erected at Ibrach,t in jNIunster ; and partly by entreaties in the name of the clergy and people, partly even by threats of excommunication, compelled him to leave his retreat and assume the government of the church of Armagh, on the condition, however, that he might retire when he had restored order in the diocese. For the next two years a melancholy schism prevailed; the intruder still persevering in his occupation of the see with its revenues, and St. Malachy performing the functions of archbishop without venturing into the city, lest a * This family belonged to the royal house of Oiiel. t Supposed by Dr. Lanigan to be Ivragh, in Kerry, part of Cormac Llac Carthy'i' kin;j"ho would never either demand quarter or fly from the field of battle. On this occasion Turlough O'Brien was banished, and Turlough O'Conor assumed the sovereignty of Munster; his son, Roderic, making another raid into Thomond, and carrying fire and sword as far as Cromadh, or Groom, in Limerick. A.D. 1152. — O'Conor led a second army into Munster this year, and divided the country, giving Desmond to the son of Cormac Mac Carthy, and Thomond to Teigo and Turlough O'Brien ; and the annalists say that both Thomond and Desmond had now suffered so fearfully from theu* mutual wars, that a dearth followed, and that the peasantry were dispersed into Leath Cuinn, after many of them had perished by the famine. This year, also, Meatli was dismembered by the monarch, O'Loughlin, aided by Turlough O'Conor, Dermot Mac Murrough, and other princes. From Clonard westward was given to Murrough O'Melaghlin, who had been formerly deposed, and from the same point eastward to Murrough's son, Melaghlin. Tiernan O'Rom^ke, lord of Breffiiy, was also dispos- sessed of his territory by this host of confederated princes ; and at the same time another mortal injury was inflicted on him, his wife, Dervor- gil (Dearbhforgaill), being carried off by Mac Murrough, the king of Leinster. The time and other circumstances of this abduction have been strangely distorted by historians to give a coloring of romance to the account of the English invasion, with which it cannot have had the least connec- tion. It occurred, according to our authentic annals, in 1152, and Der- mot's flight to England, and invitation to the invaders, did not take place till 1166. Dervorgil was at the former of ihese dates forty- four years of age, and her paramour sixty-two. She was shamefully encou- raged by her brother, Melaghlin O'jNlelaghlin, just then made lord of east Meatli, to abandon her husband, who appears to have treated her harshly before that, and to have deserved little sympathy as a hero of romance.* On leaving O'llourke, she took with her the cattle and * The Four TiT.-LStivr, relate, under the year 1128, that a sacrilegious attack was made on St. Celsiis by this Tighoarnan O'lluarke and his people, who rob'oed the primate and killed cue of Lis clergy ; and that Conor Mac Loughlin, then lord of Ciud Eoghain, sent his cavalry, who attacked and de- ftatod the cavalry of O'Kiiarke, and killed many of his partizans. A NAVAL ENGAGEMENT. 177 articles wliich formed lier dowry ; and the following year, when slie was rescued from Mac Murrougli by Turlough O'Conor, and restored to her family, the same cattle and other property were also restored. It is probable that she did not reside again wdth her husband, but retired immediately to Mellifont, where she endeavoured, by charity and ri2;id penance during the remainder of a long life, to expiate her misconduct.* A.D. 1153. — The monarch, Murtough O'Loughlin, espoused the cause of Turlough O'Brien, and led an army towards the south, to reinstate him in his territories. Teige O'Brien, the usurper, and his ally, Tur- lough O'Conor, marched to oppose the northern army ; but before their forces could form a junction, near Kahin, in tlu; King's county, O'Loughlin, by a rapid movement with two battalions of picked men, encountered Teige O'Brien's small force, wdiich he cut to pieces. Tmv lough O'Conor was then glad to retreat into Connaught by Athlone ; and wdiile his son, Roderic O'Conor, with a portion of his army, was prcparmg to encamp, O'Loughlin, with his northern heroes, poured in upon them unexpectedly, and slaughtering great numbers, put the rest to flight. A.D. 1154. — Turlough O'Conor now collected all the ships of Dun Gaillve, Conmacna-mara, Umhall, or the O'Malley's country, Tir-Awley and Tir-Fiachrach, in northern Connaught, and with this fleet, which was under the command of O'Dowda, he plundered the coasts of Tir- Conaill, and Inis Eoghain. To meet this aggression, Murtough O'Lough. lin hired ships from the Gall-Gael, or Scoto-Danes, of the Hebrides, from Ai'a, Ceanntire, Manainn, or Man, and " the borders of Alba in general ;" and the fleet thus mustered was commanded by Mac Scelling, a Dano- Gael. The two fleets engaged near Inis Eoghain, and fought with des- perate fierceness. A great number of Connaughtmen, with their admiral, O'Dowda, were slain, but the victory was nevertheless on their side ; the foreign ships being completely shattered, so that their crews Avere, for the most part, obliged to abandon them, and, as many as could, to escape on shore. Mac Scelling came oft' \vith the loss of his teeth. Hostilities between O'Loughlin and O'Conor were still carried on by land, and the corn crops of a great part of Connaught were destroyed by the former in the harvest of this year; but two years after (1156), Turlough O'Conor closed his turbulent career in death, and Murtough O'Loughlin then became the unopposed monarch of Ireland ; his claims * Dervorgil performed many acts of generosity to tlic church ; and in 1167 erected a chapel for the convent of nuns at Clonmacnoise. She died in 1193, at tho venerable ago of 85, and her brother died of poison, nt Diirrow, in 1155. N 178 SYNOD OF MELLIFONT. to that honor, previously, having been sturdily contested by the king of Connauglit. Turlougli died in the sixty-eighth year of his age, and reigned over Connauglit fifty years. He distributed, by his will, a large amount of gold and silver, with many cows and horses, among the churches of Ireland, and was buried beside the altar of St. Kieran at Clonmacnoise. His son, Roderic, succeeded as king of Connauglit, and began his ill-fated reign by imprisoning three of his brothers, one of whom he blinded. During this time Ulidia, Meath, Breffiiy, and Leinster were all disturbed by war. A.D. 1157. — A synod, which was attended by the primate, the bishop of Lismore, who was legate, and seventeen other bishops, and at which there were also present the monarch, with the kings of Ulidia, Oriel, Breffhy (Tiernan O'Rourke), and a great number of the inferior clergy and nobility, together with a multitude of the people who assembled to witness the proceedings, was held this year in the abbey of Mellifont.* The primate having solemnly consecrated the abbey church, the lay princes consulted with the bishops on the conduct of Donogh O'Me- laghlin, prince of Meath, who had become the common pest of the country. He was the friend and ally of Dermot Mac Mm-rough, by whose aid he had usurped the kingdom of Meath; just before the assembling' of the synod he murdered Cu-ulla O'Kynelvan, a neighbouring chief, in violation of solemn guarantees ; and in an old translation of the Annals of Ulster he is called a " cursed atheist." This bad man was accord- ingly excommunicated by the clergy, and sentence of deposition being then pronounced against him by the king of Ireland and the other princes, his brother, Dermot, was made king of Meath in his place. At this synod the monarch, O'Loughlin, granted " to God and to the monastery of Mellifont" the lands of Finnavar-na-ninghean, a townland on the south side of the Boyne, opposite the river Mattock, together with one hundred and forty cows and sixty ounces of gold. O'Carroll, prince of Oriel, also presented the monastery, on the same occasion, with sixty ounces of gold ; and Dervorgil, the wife of O'Rourke, presented as many ounces, together with a golden chalice for the altar of INlary, and cloth, or sacred vestments, for each of the other nine altars of the chm'ch. A synod of the clergy was convened the following year (1158) at Bri-mic-Taidhg, near Trim, and was attended by the legate and twent}^- five other bishops. Deny was on this occasion erected into an episcopal * Synods, or rather mixed conventions, had become very frequent about this time, being often, as in this case, attended by lay princes for the purpose of consulting on measures for the general management of the slate. RODERIC O'CONNOR. 179 see; Flaliertach O'Brolchain, the abbot of St. Columbkillc's monastery, there, being consecrated the first bishop. The bishops of Connaught, while proceeding to this synod, were intercepted and plundered by the soldiers of Dermot, king of Meath, on crossing the Shannon, near Clon- niacnoise, and two of their attendants wer killed. They, therefore, returned to Connaught, and held a synod of their own province in Ros- common. Roderic, king of Connaught, exhibited great activity, and spared no pains to attain the position which his father, Turlongh, had held, and to divide the sovereignty of Ireland with O'Loughlin. Wliile the latter was engaged in Munster, in 1157, expelling Turlough O'Brien (whom he had formerly supported) from Thomond, and dividing Mmister between Dermot, son of Cormac Mac Carthy, as king of Desmond, and Conor, son of Donnell O'Brien, whom he made king of Thomond, Ro- deric O'Conor led an army to plunder and lay waste Tyrone, and, as soon as O'Loughlin had left the south, proceeded thither to reinstate Turlough O'Brien. Mac Carthy promised Roderic a conditional sub- mission ; that is, in case O'Loughlin should not be able to support him against Roderic. An offensive and defensive league was entered into between O'Conor and Tiernan O'Rourke ; and their combined forces, with a battalion of the men of Thomond, marched, in 1159, into Oriel, as far as Ardee, when they were met by Murtough O'Loughlin with the army of Kinel Connell and Kinel Eoghain, and of the north in general. A battle ensued, in which the Connaughtmen and their allies were defeated with great slaughter ; and the northern army, after returning home in triumph, subsequently entered Connaught and devastated a great portion of that country. During the next two years commotion and disorder reigned in various parts of Ireland. An insmTcction of the Kinel Eoghain was put down by O'Loughlin, with the aid of the men of Oriel and Ulidia ; and a fresh partition was made of Meath. In the latter part of llGl a general meeting of the clergy and chieftains of Ireland took place at Dervor, in Meath, when all the other princes gave hostages to IMiu-tough O'Lough- lin. A.D. 1162. — The Irish church, fertile in saints, now presents to us another of the most illustrious of her sons, in the person of St. Laurence O'Toole (or, as his name is called in Irish, Lorcan O'Tuathal), Avho was chosen this year to succeed Greine, or Gregory, the Danish archbishop of Dublin. This great saint, whom patriotism as well as religion endears to the hearts of Irishmen, belonged to one of the noblest families of 180 ST. LAURENCE o'tOOLE. Leiiister, whose patrimonial territory, of wliicli his father was chieftain, was called Hy-Muirahy, a district nearly conterminous with the southern half of the present county of Kildare.* In his youth he entered the monastery of St. Kevin, at Glendalough, of which he was chosen abbot when only twenty-five years old ; and even after his elevation to the episcopacy — a dignity which he most reluctantly accepted — he continued to practice all the austerities of monastic discipline. His predecessors in the see of Dublin had been consecrated by the archbishops of Canterbury, to whose jurisdiction they subjected themselves; but this external autho- rity was not resorted to in his case, as he was consecrated by St. Gelasius, successor of St. Patrick. St. Laurence O'Toole was one of twenty-six prelates, who, with a large number of abbots and inferior clergy, attended a synod held at Clane, in Kildare, the year of his consecration. At this synod the college of Armagh was virtually raised to the rank of a uni- versity, as it was decreed that no one who had not been an alumnus of Armagh should be appointed lectox' or theological professor in any of the other diocesan schools of Ireland. The extraordinary energy displayed at this period by the hierarchy and clergy of Ireland, in restoring discipline and promoting reforms, must soon have produced the most salutary effect on society, and raised the country to its just position among nations; but, unhappily, their efforts were about to be interrupted and frustrated. Even then the scheme was hatched which was so soon to crush all these generous tendencies, and extinguish for centuries every native germ of social progress.! Sundry wars and hostile inroads occurred about this time, presenting no pecu^.iar feature; but in the year 1166 a fatal outrage was committed * The true position of Hy-Muireadhaigh (Hy-Muirahy, or Hy-Murray), the ancient territory of the O'Toole's, is shown by O'Donovan, in a valuable note to the Four Masters, a.d. 1180. The mountain district of Imaile, in Wicklow, was not occupied by them until after the English inva.sion, when thej- were driven from their original patrimony. t The rebuilding of the great church of Derry, destroyed by fire many years before, was com- pleted, in 11C4, by Flahertacli O'Brolchain, bisliop, and formerly abbot of Derrj', with funds which he had collected in the course of a mission that he Ind undertaken through a part of Ireland for that purpose. The primate had also, about this time, made a visitation of Ireland to collect funds for rebuilding the religious establishments of Armagh destroyed by iire in 1150. The contribu- tions which the primate received in his visitation of Tyrone on this occasion, were a cow from every biatach or farmer, a horse from every chieftain, and twenty cows from the king; and when Flaher- tach O'Brolchain made a visitation of the same territory to repair his monasterj', he obtained a horse from every chieftain, a cow from every two biatachs, a cow from everj- three freeholders, the same from every four villains, and twenty cows from the king. He also got a gold ring of five ounces, his horse and his battleaxe, as a personal gift from the king (Murtcugh O'Loughlin). A "won- derful castle" was built this year C1164)by Piodcric O'Conor, at Tuam, but as the castle of Galway, and other similar strongholds, had been erected in Connaught long before, the term " wonderful" must have been applied rather on account of the strength of the building than of its singularity. RODERIC O'CONOR MONARCH OF IRELAKD. ISl bv tlip. monarch, O'Loughlin, on Eocliy MacDunlevy, prince of Dalaradia. One of the petty wars, so usual at the period, having been arranged between these two princes the preceding year, a peace was ratified by the successor of St. Patrick and some of the neighbouring chieftains. Urged, however, by some new feeling of exasperation, from what cause we are not told, O'Loughlin came suddenly upon the Dalaradian chief, put out his eyes, and killed three of his principal men. This savage aggression so provoked the princes who had been guarantees for the treaty, that they mustered an army, composed of choice battalions of the men of Oriel, Breffny, and Conmacne, under the command of Donough O'Carroll, and marched to the north. At Leiter Luin, a place in the present barony of Upper Fews, county of Armagh, and then part of Tir Eoghain, they encountered O'Loughlin, who, although he had but a few troops, gave battle. In the fierce contest which ensued the Kinel Eoghain were defeated, and the monarch himself slain ; and thus fell Murtougli O'Loughlin, who, of all the Irish kings since the days of Malachy II.,had the most unquestionable right to the title of monarch of Ireland. A.D. 1166. — Roderic O'Conor lost no time in getting himself recog- nised as sovereign, on the death of O'Loughlin ; and this appears to have been a mere matter of parade in his case, as there was no serious opposi- tion to his claim. He first led an army to Easrua, in Donegal, and took the hostages of Kinel Connell. Thence he marched across Ireland to Dublin, being joined on the way by the men of Meatli and Tcffia, and he was there inaugurated with more pomp than any Irish king had ever been before. Tliis was, indeed, the first solemn act in which we see Dublin treated as a metropolis, and on this occasion Roderic paid the Dano-Irish of that city a stipend in cattle, and levied for them a tax of 4,000 cows on Ireland at large. From Dublin he proceeded to Drogheda (Droicheat-atha), where O'Carroll and the men of Oriel paid homage, and gave him hostages. Attended by a great hosting of the men of Connaught, BrefFny, and Meath, he marched back to Leinster, advancing into Hy-Kinsella, where Dermot Mac Murrough gave him hostages ; and submission was made in a similar form by the various chiefs of Leinster and Ossory, and of north and south Munster. By the death of the late monarch, Dermot Mac Murrougii was deprived of his only supporter; and on the accession of Roderic — the fu-m ally of his old enemy, O'Rourke — he saw what his fate must inevitably be According to the friendly authority of Giraldus Cambrensis, this prince was detested by all. Equally hateful to strangers and to his own people 182 GREAT MEETING OF ATHBOY. " his hand was against every man, and every man's hand against him." He accordingly prepared for the worst by burning his castle of Ferns, and soon saw his fears realised by the approach of an army conducted by Tiernan O'Rourke, and composed of the men of BrefFny and Meath, of the Dano-Irish of Dublin, and of the chiefs of his own kingdom of Leinster. A precipitate flight was his only resource, and while he sought refuge in England his kingdom was given to another member of his family. A.D. 1167. — A great assembly of the clergy and chieftains of Leatli Cuinn, or the northern half of Ireland, was convened by Roderic, at Athboy, in jNIeath. Among those who attended were the primate ; St. Laurence O'Toole, archbishop of Dublin ; Catholicus O'DufFy, archbishop of Tuam; and the chieftains of Breffny, Oriel, Ulidia, Meath, and Dublin. Thirteen thousand horsemen are said to have assembled on this occasion ; and the meeting, from its magnitude, has been supposed by some, although incorrectly, to have been a revival of the ancient Feis of Tara. It has been also remarked how sadly this display of the resources, and awakening of the olden glories of the country, contrasted with the fatal circumstances of the moment ; and how little the men then congre- gated at Athboy could anticipate the ruin which was just about to come upon themselves and upon their nation! Several useful regulations, affecting the social and religious interests of the people, were adopted on this occasion, and the convention tended materially to promote respect for the laws, and to give eclat to the commencement of the new sove- reign's reign. Roderic, with a large army, composed of contingents from every other' part of Ireland, entered the territory of Tyrone (Tir-Eoghain) and divided it between Niall O'Loughlin and Hugh O'Neill, giving to the former the country lying to the north of Slieve Gallion, in the present county of Londonderry, and to the latter the territory south of that mountain. This might be considered as the last act of undisputed sovereignty exercised by a native king of Ireland. Roderic was a man of parade, not of action, and totally unfit for the emergency in wliicli the unhappy destiny of Ireland had placed him. No monarch of Ireland, up to his time, was ever more implicitly obeyed, or could command more numerous hostings of brave men ; yet in his hands all this power was miserably worthless and inoperative. CHAPTER XVII. THE ANGLO-NORMAN INVASION. Dcrmot's Appeal to Henrj' II. — His Negotiations with Earl Strongbow and others.— Landing of the first English Adventurers in Ireland. — Siege of ■Wexford. — First Eewards of the Adventurers. — Apathy of the Irish. — Incur- sion into Ossory. — Savage Conduct of Dermot. — HisVindictivencss. — Shameful Feebleness of Roderic. — The Treaty of Ferns. — Dermot aspires to the So- vereignty. — Strongbow's Preparations for his Expedition. — Landing of his Precursor, Raymond le Gros. — Massacre of Prisoners by the English. — Arrival of Strongbow, and Siege of "Waterford. — Marriage of Strongbow and Eva. — March on Dublin.— Surprise of the City.— Brutal Massacre.— The English Garrison of Waterford cut off. — Sacrilegious Spoliations by Dermot and the English. — Imbecility of Eoderic. — Execution of Dermot's Hostages. — Synod of Armagh.— English Slaves, Nefarious Custom.— Horrible Death of Dermot Mac Murrough. (a.d. 1168—1171.) EDITATING vengeance against the country from which he was compelled to fly in disgrace, the fugitive king of Leinster arrived at Bristol, where he learned that Henry II., to whom he had determined to apply for aid, ' was absent in Aquitaine. Thither he immediately pro- I ceeded ; and ha\-ing at length found the English king, he laid before him such a statement of his grievances as he thought fit. He offered to become Henry's vassal, should he, through his assistance, he reinstated in hi? kingdom, and made the most abject protestations of re- verence and submission. Henry lent a willing ear to his statement, and must have been forcibly struck by this invitation to carry out a project which he himself liad Ing entertained, and for which he had been making grave pre- pations many years before. That project Avas the invasion of Ire- lad. As his hands were, however, just then full of business— for h was engaged in bringing into submission the proud nobles of the 184 THE ANGLO-NORMAN INVASION. province in which he then was, while at home the resistance of St. Thomas a Becket, who would not suffer him to trample on the rights of the chui'ch with impunity, was become daily more irksome — he could not occupy himself personally in Dermot's affairs, but gave him letters patent, addressed to all his subjects — English, French, and Welsh — recommending Dermot to them, and granting them a general license to aid that prince in the recovery of his territory by force of arms. A.D. 1168. — With this authorization Dermot hastened back to Wales, where he gave it due publicity, but for some time his efforts to induce any one to espouse his cause were unavailable. At length, he Avas for- tunate enough to find some needy military adventurers suited to his pur- pose. The chief of these was Richard de Clare, commonly called Strong- bow, (as his father, Gilbert, also had been), from his skill with the cross- bow. This man, who was earl of Pembroke and Strigul, or Chepstow, being of a brave and enterprising spirit, and of ruined fortune, entered warmly into Dermot's design. He undertook to raise a sufficient force to aid the king of Leinster in the recovery of his kingdom, for which Dermot promised him his daughter, Eva, in marriage, and the succes sion to the throne of Leinster. Two Anglo-Norman knights, MauricJ FitzGerald and Robert Fitz Stephen, also enlisted themselves in tb cause of Dermot. These men w^ere half-brothers, being the sons i.3. 1171 and 1172. ORTUNE thus seemed in many respects to favor Strong- bow and his band of Anglo-Norman and Welsh ad- venturers, yet their position was one of considerable embarrassment. The king of England was jealous of their success, and indignant at the slight which they had put upon his authority. He was also annoyed at finding his own designs against Ireland anticipated by men who were likely to become insolent and troublesome ; and he accordingly (a.d. 1171) issued a peremptory mandate, ordering every English subject then in Ireland to retm'n Avithin a certain time, and prohibiting the sending thither of any further aid or supplies. Alarmed at this edict, Strongbow despatched Raymond le Gros to Henry with a letter couched in the most submissive terms ; placing at the king's dis- posal all the lands which he had acquired in Ireland. Henry was at the moment absorbed in the difficulties in which the murder of St. ion REFGN OF HENRY IT. Thomns k Beclcet — if not at his command, at least at his implied desive, and by his myi'midons — had involved him, and he neither deigned to notice the earl's letter, nor paid any further attention to the Irish affair for some time ; so that Stronghow, still tempting fate, continued his course without regarding the royal edict. To add to his difficulties, his standard was deserted by nearly all his Irish adherents on the death of Dermot, which took place soon after the date of the royal mandate ; and during his absence from Dublin, that city was besieged by a Scandina- vian force, which was collected by Hnsculf, in the Orkneys, and conveyed in sixty ships, under the command of a Dane called John the Fui'ious. Milo de Cogan, whom Strongbow had left as governor, bravely repulsed the besiegers, but was near being cut off outside the eastern gate, until his brother Richard came to his relief with a troop of cavalry, where- upon the Norwegians were defeated with great slaughter, John the Furious being slain, and Hasculf made captive. The latter was at first reserved for ransom, but on threatening his captors with a more desperate and successful attack on a future occasion, they basely put him to death. The great archbishop of Dublin, St. Lorcan, or Laurence O'Toole, whose illustrious example has consecrated Irish patriotism, perceiving the straits to which the Anglo-Normans were reduced, and judging rightly that it only required an energetic effort, for which a favorable moment had arrived, to rid the country of the dangerous intruders, went among the Irish princes to rouse them into action. For this purpose he proceeded from province to province, addi'essing the nobles and people in spirit- stirruig words, and urging the necessity for an immediate and combined struggle for independence. Emissaries were also sent to Godfred, king of the Isle of Man, and to some of the northern islands, inviting co- operation against the common enemy. Earl Strongbow, becoming aware of the impending danger, repaired in haste to Dublin, and prepared to defend himself; nor was he long there when he saw the city invested on all sides by a numerous army. A fleet of thirty ships from the isles blocked up the harbour, and the besieged were so effectually hemmed in that it was impossible for them to obtain fi'esh supplies of men or provisions. Roderic O'Conor, who commanded in person, and had his own camp at Castleknock, was sup- ported by Tiernan O Rourke and iMurroughO'Carroll with their respective forces, and St. Laurence was present in the camp animating the men, or as some pretend, though very improbably, even bearing arms liimself. The Irish chiefs, relying on their numbers, contented themselves with SIEGE OF DUBLIN- BY RODERIC ij)7 an inactive blockade, and for a time their tactics promised to be success- ful ; the beseiged being soon reduced to extremities from want of food, Strongbow solicited a f»arley, and requested that St. Laurence should be the medium of communication. He offered to hold the kincrdom of Leinster as the vassal of Roderic ; but the Irish monarch rejected such terms indignantly, and required that the invaders shordd immediately surrender the towns of Dublin, Wexford, and Waterford, and undertake to depart from Ireland by a certain day. It is generally admitted that under the circumstances, the propositions of Roderic were even merci- ful, and for a while it was probable that they would, however unpalata- ble, be accepted At this crisis, Donnell Kavanagh, son of the late kino* of Leinster, contrived to penetrate in disguise into the city, and brought Stronfibow the intelligence that his friend FitzStephen was, together wjth his family and a few followers, shut up in the Castle of Carrig, near Wexford, where he was closely besieged, and must, unless iTnTr y^diately relieved, fall into the hands of his exasperated enemies. This sad news drove the garrison of Dublin to desperation ; and at the suggestion of ilaurice FitzGerald it was determined that they should make a sortie with their whole force, and attempt the daring exploit of cutting their way through the besiegers. To carry out this enterprise, Strongbow disposed his men in the following order: Ra}'mond le Gros, with twenty knights on horseback, led the van ; to these succeeded thirty knights under ^lilo de Cogan; and this body was followed by a third, consisting of about fortv knights, commanded by Strongbow himself and FitzGerald ; the re- mainder of their force, said to consist only of 600 men, bringing up the rear. It was about three in the afternoon when this well-organized body of desperate men sallied forth; and the Irish army, lulled in false security, and expecting a surrender rather than a sortie, was taken wholly by surprise. A great ntmiber were slaughtered at the first onset ; and the panic which was produced spreading to the entire besieging army, a general retreat from before the city commenced ; so that Roderic, who with many of his men was enjo^'ing a bath in the Liffey, had some difii- culty in effecting his escape. The English, on their side, astonished at their own unexpected success, returned to the city laden with spoils, and with an unlimited supply of provisions.* * Leland supposes that the Irish annalists passed over the TfhAe of this transaction in aJenee; but the Four blasters mention the siege, and their version is as follows : — " Xhere WCTe coodicts and •kinr.ishes WtTveen them'' (ie. the besiegers and besieged) ''for a fjrtn'ght. O'Conor then went &^ainst the Leinster men to cut down and born the cur.< ^-f the Saxorjk The earl and ^lilo after- 198 REIGN OF HENRY II. StrongboAV once more committed the government of Dublin to i\[iIo de Cogan, and set out with a strong detachment for Wexford to relieve FitzStephen ; but after overcoming some difficulty in the territorv of Idrone, wh^re his march was opposed by the local chieftain, O'Regan, he learned on approaching Wexford that he came too late to assist his friend. Carrig Castle had already fallen, and it is said that the Wex- ford men were not very scrupulous on the occasion in their treatment of foes wh ) had proved themselves sufficiently capable of treachery and cruelty. The story is, that FitzStephen and his little garrison were deceived by the false intelligence that Dublin had been captured by the Irish army, that the English, including Strongbow, FitzGerald, and Raymond le Gros, had been cut to pieces, and that the only chance of safety was in immediate surrender ; the Dano-Irish besiegers undertaking to send FitzStephen with his family and followers unharmed to England It is added, that the bishops of Wexford and Kildare presented them- selves before the castle to confirm this false report by a solemn assurance ; but this circumstance, if not a groundless addition, would only shew that a rumour, by which the bishops themselves had been deceived, prevailed about the capture of Dublin, a thing not at all improbable. False news of a similar kind is sometimes circulated even in our own times. At all events, the stratagem, if it was one, succeeded; and FitzStephen on yielding himself to his enemies was cast into prison, and some of his followers were put to death. Scarcely was this accomplished, when intelligence arrived that Strongbow was approaching, and the Wexford men, finding themselves unable to cope with him single-handed, and fearing his vengeance, set fire to their town, and sought refuge with their prisoners in the little island of Beg-Erin, whence they sent word to the earl that if he made any attempt to reach them in their retreat they would instantly cut off the heads of FitzStephen and the other English prisoners. Thus foiled in his purpose, Strongbow with a heavy heart directed his course to Waterford, and immediately after invaded the territory of Ossory, in conjunction with Donnell O'Brien.* wards entered the camp of Li-iih Cuiim, and slew iiuniy of the coinmonahy, and carried off their provinions, armnnr, and horses." * Kegan, or the Norman rhymer, rehites an honorable t^ait of Jlaurice de Prenderuast on this occahion. The Welsh knight undertook to bring the king of Ossory to a conference, on obtaining ihe word of Strongbow and O'lirien that he should be allowed to return in safety. Understanding, however, during the conference, that treachery was about to be used towards Mac Gilla Patrick, he rushed into the earl's presence, "and sware !jy the cross of his sword that no man there that day should dare lay haudes on the kyng of Ossery." Having redeemed his word to tlie Iri-li prince by conducting him back in safety, and defeated some of O'Brien's men whom they met on the way with the spoils of Ossory, he .--ptut that night with Mac Gilla Patrick in the woods, and returned next day lo the earL HKNRY's expedition to IRKLA^n. 199 During the earl's absence, Tiernan O'Roui'ke hastily collected an army of the men of BrefFny and Oriel, and made an attack on Dublin, but he ■vvas I'epulsed by Milo, and lost his son under the Avails. With this ex- ception, no attempt was made to molest the invaders at a period when they could have been so easily annihilated ; and intestine wars were carried on among the northern tribes, and also between Connauoht and Thomond, as if there had been no foreign enemy in the country. Strongbow, on tj^ other side, learnt at Waterford, from emissaries whom he had sent to plead his cause with Henry, that his OAvn presence for that purpose was indispensable, and he accordingly set out in haste for England. He found the English monarch at Newnham in Glou- cestershire, making active preparations for an expedition to Ireland. Henry at first refused to admit him to his presence ; but at length suf- fered himself to be influenced by the earl's unconditional submission, and by the mediation of Hervey of Mountmaurice ; and consented to accept his homage and oath of fealty, and to confirm him in the posses- sion of his Irish acquisitions, with the exception of Dublin and the other seaport towns and forts, which were to be surrendered to himself. He also restored the earl's English estates, which had been forfeited on his disobedience to the king's mandate ; but, as it were to mark his dis- pleasure at the whole proceeding of the invasion of Ireland by his sub- jects, he seized the castles of the Welsh lords to punish them for allow- ing the expedition to sail fi'om their coasts contrary to his commands. It is probable that in all this hypocrisy and tyranny were the king's ruling motives. He hated the Welsh, and took the opportunity to crush them still more, and to garrison their castles with his own men. These events took place not many months after the murder of St. Thomas a Becket, and it is generally admitted that the king's expedition to Ireland, if not projected, was at least hastened, in order to withdraw public attention from that atrocity, and to make a demonstration of his power before the country at a moment when his name was covered with the odium which the crime involved. Henry II., attended by Strongbow, William FitzAdelm de Burgo, Humphr}' de Bohen, Hugh de Lacy, Robert FitzBernard, and other knights and noblemen, embarked at JNIilford, in Pembrokeshire, with a powerful armament, and landed at a place, called by the Anglo-Norman chroniclers, Croch — ^probably the present Crook — near Waterford, on St. Luke's day, October 18th, a.d. 1171. His army consisted, it is said, of 500 knights, and about 4,000 men-at-arms ; but it was probably much 200 REIGN OF HENRY II. more numerous, as it was transported, according to the English accounts, in 400 ships. Henry assumed in Ireland the plausible policy which seemed so natural to him- He pretended to have come rather to protect the people from the aggressions of his own subjects than to acquire any advantage for himself; but at the same time, as a powerful yet friendly sovereign, to receive the homage of vassal princes, and to claim feudal jurisdiction in their country. It is impossible, of course, to reconcile pretences so in- consistent in themselves ; but they served the purj^e for which they were invented. He put on an air of extreme affability, accompanied by a great show of dignity, and paraded a brilliant and well-disciplined army with all possible pomp and display of power. The Irish, on the other hand, seemed at a loss what to think or how to act. An event had occurred for which they were not prepared by any parallel case in their history. They neither understood the character nor the system of their new foes. Perpetually immersed in local feuds, they had not gained ground either in military or national spirit since their old wars with the Danes. The men of one province cared little what misfortune befel those of another, provided their own territorv was safe. Singly, each of them had been hitherto able to cope with such foes as they were accustomed to ; but where combined action couh^ aJone suffice there was nothing to unite them ; they had no sentiment in common — no centre, no rallying principle. Mac Carthy, king of Desmond, was the first Irish prince who paid homage to Henry. Marching from Waterford to Lismore, and thence to Cashel, Henry was met near the latter town by Donnell O'Brien, king of Thomond, who swore fealty to him, and surrendered to him his city of Limerick. Afterwards there came in succession to do homage Mac Gilla Patrick, prince of Ossory, O'Phelan, prince of the Deisies, and various other chieftains of Leath Mogha. All w^ere most cour- teously received ; many of them were of course not a little dazzled by the splendour of Henry's court and his array of steel-clad knights ; some were perhaps glad to acknowledge a sovereign powerful enough to deliver them from the petty warfare with which they were harassed and exhausted ; but none of them understood Anglo-Norman rapacity, or could have imagined that in paying homage to Henry as a liege lord they were conveying to him the absolute dominion and ownership of their ancestral territories. So well was it known in Ireland that Henry disapproved of the inva- sion ot that country by Strongbow and the other adventui'erg, that the THE SYNOD OF CASIIEL. 201 people of Wexford, who had got Fitz-Stephen into their hands, pretended to make a merit of their own exploit, and sent a deputation to Henry on his arrival to deliver to him the captive knight as one who had made war without his sovereign's permission. Henry kept up the farce by retain- ing FitzStephen for some time in chains and then restored him to liberty. From Cashel Henry returned to Waterford, and thence proceeded to Dublin, where he was received in great state, and where a temporary pavillion, constructed in the Irish fashion of twigs or wickerwork, was erected for him outside the walls,* no building in the city being spacious enough to accommodate his court. Here he remained to pass the festi- val of Christmas, and such of the Irish as were attracted thither by curiosity were entertained by him with a degree of magnificence and urbanity well calculated to win their admiration. Among the Irish princes who paid their homage to the English king in Dublin, were O'Can'oll of Oriel, and the veteran O'Rourke ; but the monarch Roderic, though thus abandoned by his oldest and most powerful ally, the chief of Breffiiv. as he had been already by so many others of his vassals, still continued to maintain an independent attitude. He collected an army on the banks of the Shannon, and seemed resolved to defend the fron- tiers of his kingdom of Connaught to the last ; thus regaining by this bold and dignified demeanour some at least of the esteem and sympathy which by his former weakness of character he had forfeited. Henry, whose object appeared to be not fighting but parade, did not march against the Irish monarch, but sent De Lacy and FitzAdelmf to treat with him ; and Roderic, on his own sovereignty being recognised, was, it is said, induced to pay homage to Henry through his ambassadors, aa it was customary in that age for one king to pay to another and more potent sovereign. We have no Irish authority, however, for this act of submission ; and as to the northern princes, they still withheld all recog- nition of the invader's sway. A.D. 1172. — At Henry's desire, a synod was held at Cashel in the beginning of this year. It was presided over by Christian, bishop of Lismore, who was then apostolic legate, and was attended by St. Lau- rence O'Toole of Dubhn, Cathohcus O'DufFy of Tuam, and Donald O'Hullucan of Cashel, with their suiFragan bishops, together with abbots, archdeacons, &c. ; Ralph, archdeacon of Landaff, and Nicholas, a royal chaplam, being present on the part of the king. It was decreed * "Near the church of St. Andrew, on the southera side of the ground now known as Uanie- slreet." — Gilberts HUt. of Dublin, vol. ii. p. 258. t This name is variously written Aldclm, Anddiu, and Adi.liu. 202 REIGN OF HENRY II. at this synod that the prohibition of marriage within the canonical de- grees of consanguinity and affinity should be more strictly enforced; that children should be catechised before the church door, and baptized in the fonts in those churches appointed for the purpose ; that tithes of all the produce of the land should be paid to the clergy ; that church lands and other ecclesiastical property should be exempt from the exac- tions of laymen in the shape of periodical entertainment and livery, &c. ; and that the clergy should not be liable to any share of the eric or blood fine levied on the kindred of a man guilty of homicide There was also a decree regulating wills, by which one-third of a man's move- able property, after payment of his debts, was to be left to liis legiti- mate children, if he had any; another third to his wife, if she survived; and the remaining third for his funeral obsequies.* These decrees constitute the boasted reform of the Irish church introduced by Henry II. It will be observed that they indicate no trace of doctrinal error to be corrected, or even of gross abuse in discipline, unless it be the too general use of private baptism, and the celebration of marriage within the prohibited degrees, which at that time extended to very remote relationships. Eut the subject of this synod leads us to an incident of the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland, which has been a fertile source of controversy — namely, the so-called subjection of Ireland to the dominion of the king of England, by the bulls of Adrian IV. and Alexander III. The temporal power exercised by the popes in the middle ages opens up a question too general for discussion here. It is enough for us to know that modern investigation has removed much of the misrepresenta- tion by which it was assailed. Irrespective of religious considerations, we see in the Roman pontiffs of that period the steadfast friends of order and enlightenment ; in their power the bulwark of the oppressed people against feudal tyranny, of civilization against barbarism ; and we should consider well the circumstances under which they acted and the received opinions of the age, before we condemn these vicegerents of Christ for proceedings in which their authority was invoked in the temporal affairs of nations. If this authority was sometimes perverted to their own pur- poses by ambitious kings, or its exercise surreptitiously obtained, that * The decrees of this synod refer solely to matters of ecclesiastical law, or church temporalities ; and the immunity which they grant in one case to the clergy, as well as the setting apart of a por- tion of each testator's property for the church, or for the " good of his soul," as it was generally ex- jiressed, were usuages which existed in Ireland before the coming of the Anglo-Normans. As to tithes, they had also been introduced by the Irish synod of Kells. See the observations on this sub- ject iu Dr. Kelly's Cambrensis Eversus, vol. ii., p. 546, &c., note. EULL OF ADRIAN IV, 203 was not the fault of the popes nor of the principle ; as we shall find illustrated in the case we are now about to consider. Nicholas Breakspere, an Englishman, was elected pope under the title of Adrian IV., December 3rd, 1154, and Heniy II., who had come to the throne of England about a month earlier, sent soon after to congratulate his countryman on his elevation 1 iiis embassy was followed by another insidious one, the object of which was to represent to the pope that religion and morality were reduced to the loAvest ebb in the neighbour- ing island of Ireland ; that society there was torn to pieces by factions, and plunged in the most barbarous excesses ; that there was no respect for spiritual authority ; and that the king of England solicited the sane tion of his Holiness to visit that unhappy country in order to restore discipline and morals, and to compel the Irish to make a respectable provision for the church, such as already existed in England. This negociation, which indicates how long the idea of invading Ireland was entertained by the English king,* was entrusted by Henry to John of Salisbury, chaplain to Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, who urged, according to an opinion then received, that Constantine the Great had made a donation of all Christian islands to the successor of St. Peter; that, therefore, the pope, as owner of the island of Ireland, had the power to place it under the dominion of Henry ; and that he was bound to exercise that power in the interests of religion and morality A hostile authority confesses that " the popes were in general superior to the age in Avhich they lived ;"t but we have no right to expect that, on a subject of this temporal and political nature, they should have been so far in advance of the ideas of their times as to anticipate the political knowledge and discoveries of subsequent ages. We must also recollect that, however exaggerated the statements made to Adrian about Ireland may have been, they were not v/holly without foundation. It is not con- sistent with human nature that society should not have been disorganised more or less by the state of turbulence in which we know, from our authen- tic history, that this country was so long plunged at that period. It was precisely the period when the moral character of Ireland had suffered most in the estimation of foreign nations. St. Bernard's vivid pictm*e of the vices and abuses against which St. Malachy had to struggle, in one part of Ireland, had only just then been presented to the world St. * From an obscure expression used by a cotcmporary writer in the Saxon Chioiiiil ■, under tlio date of 1087, it may be mferred that even William the Conqueror liad some idea of invading Ireland ; as it is said that that king, "if he had lived two years longer would have siibdueil Ireland by hia prowess, and that without a bailie;" tbat is. tiiat tlie terror of iiis name would have been suUieieat. + Koscoe, " Lee X." 204 REIGN OF HENRY IT. IMalachy was not long dead, and his reforms were less known than the abuses which had so loudly called for them. The recent efforts of the Irish prelates and clergy to restore discipline in the church, and piety and morals among the people, had only begun to produce their effects. Vices may have been as prevalent in other countries, but this did not render Ireland stainless. In fact, although Pope Adrian IV. had been himself the pupil of a learned Irish monk, named Marianus, at Paris, and had other sources of information on the subject, we are not to wonder that he should have formed a low estimate of the state of relio'ion and morals in Ireland, and lent a credulous ear to the exaggerated represen- tations of Henry's emissary. Little knowing the mind of the ambitious king, he, therefore, addressed to him his memorable letter, or bull, which was accompanied by a gold ring enriched with a precious emerald, as a sign of investiture.* The importance of this bull in our history has been monstrously exaggerated. It can have had little, if any, influence on the destinies * The following is the bull of Pope Adrian, as translated by Dr. Kelly from the Vatican version, published by Lynch in the Camhrensis Eversus, (vol. ii. p. 410, ed. of 1850) :— " Adrian, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his most dear son in Christ, the illustrious king of the English, greeting and apostolical benediction. " The design of 3'our Greatness is praiseworthy and most useful, to extend the glory of your name on earth and to increase the reward of your eternal happiness in heaven ; for, as becomes a Catholic prince, you intend to extend the limits of the Church, to announce the truth of the Chris- lian religion to an ignorant and barbarous people, and to pluck up the seeds of vice from the field of the Lord, ■while, to accomplish your design more effectually, you implore the counsel and aid of the Apostolic See. The more exalted your views and the greater your discretion in this matter, the more confident are our hopes, that with the help of God, the result will be more favorable to you ; because whatever has its origin in ardent faith and in love of religion, always has a prosperous end and issue. Certainly it is beyond a doubt (and thy nobility itself has recognised the truth of it), that Ireland, and all the islands upon which Christ, the sun of justice, has shone, and wiiich have tnibraced the doctrines of the Christian faith, belong of right to St. Peter and tlie holy Roman Churcli. We, therefore, the more willingly plant them with a faithful plantation, and a seed pleasing to the Lord, as we know by internal examination, that a very rigorous account must be rendered of them. Thou hast communicated to us, our very dear son in Christ, that thou wouldst enter the Lsland of Ireland, to subject its people to obedience of laws, to eradicate the seeds of vice, and also to make every house pay the annual tribute of one penny to the Blessed Peter, and preserve the rights of the church of that laud whole and entire. Receiving your laudable and pious desire with tlie favour it merits, and granting our kind consent to your petition.m is our wish and desire that, for the extension of the limits of the Church, the checking of the torrent of vice, the correction cf morals, the sowing of the seeds of virtue, and the propagation of the religion of Christ, thou bbouldat enter ihat island, and there execute whatever thou shalt tliink conducive to the honor of God and the salvation of that landj^and let the people of that land receive thee with honor, and venerate thee as their lord, saving the right of the Church, whicli must remain untouclied and entire, and the annual pavment of one penny from each house to Saint Peter and the holy Church of Rome. If then thou wisliest to carry into execution what thou hast conceived in thy mind, endeavour to form that people to good morals ; and both by thyself and those men whom thou hast proved dr.ly qualified in faitii, in words, and in life, let the Churcii of that country be adorned, let the religion <>( the faith of Christ be planted and increased, and all that concerns the glory of God and the •■^jilvation of souls be so ordained by thee, that thou mayest deserve to obtain from God an increase ol thy everlasting reward, and a glorious name on earth in all ages. Given at Rome, &c., itc." BULL OF ADRIAN IV. £05 of Ireland. After the bull had been obtained on a false pretence, and to give a color to an ambitious design, a council of state was held in England to consider the projected invasion; but partly through defer- ence to his mother, the empress, who was opposed to it, and partly from the pressure of other affairs, the project was for the present abandoned by Henry, and the papal document deposited in the archives of Winchester. Thirteen years after we have seen Dermot Mac- Murrough at the feet of Henry, imploring English aid. A few years more pass away, and we behold the English monarch making a triumphant progress through Leinster, and receiving the submission of the kings of Desmond and Thomond, and Ossory, and Breffiiy, and Oriel, if not that of Roderic himself; yet, not one word is breathed, all this time, about the grant from Adrian IV. We have no ground for supposing that the existence of that grant was even known to the Irish prelates, who, following the example of their respective princes, also paid their homage, and assembled at the call of Henry in the synod of Casliel ; nor does one word about it appear to have transpired among the clergy or people of Ireland until it was promulgated, together with a confirmatory bull of Alexander III., at a synod held in Waterford in 1175, some twenty years after the grant had been originally made, and when the success of the invasion had been an accomplished fact. Some Irish historians have questioned the authenticity of Pope Adrian's bull ; but there appears to be no solid reason for doubt upon the subject.* Others, like Dr. Keating, assign, as a ground for the right assumed by the pope, a tradition that Donough, son of Brian Borumha, had made a present of the crown of Ireland to the reigning pontiff, when he went on a pilgrimage to Rome about the year 1064; but this story merits no attention. The equally fabulous donation of Constantine the Great, even if it had been made, could not have included Ireland, to which the power of the Roman empire never had extended.- Irish Catholic historians have always been sufficiently fi*ee in their animadversions on the " English pope," as Adrian IV. is styled, for his grant ; but a consideration of the real circumstances, as we have endeavoured to explain them, would shew how unwarrantable such severity has been. The character of that pontiff was altogether too exalted to afford any * See this point ably handled by Dr. Lanigan, F.ccl. Hist., vol. iv. p. 16-1, &c., also the notes and illustrations of the Macarioe Excidium, p. 242, ave the Eniilish a serious overthrow, * Tilt Four Masters, under the j-ear 1175, say that " Planus O'Melaghlin, lord of east Meath, ■"IS I'.anged by English after they iiad acted treacherously townrdx Iiini at 'I'lim;" audit appears that some writers have confounded this act of treachery with that uicntiDned above. Moore charges Mac (ieoghegan with an intentional error on this subject ; but unjustly, for Wata »nd Co.x had fallen iuto ihu sainu niistako bofore hiui 212 TlTAOy OF HEXFvY 11. slaving several of their knights, and among them young Robert De Quincy, who had only jvist been married to Strongbow's daughter by a former marriage, Avith whom he had obtained a large territory in Wex- ford as a dowry. Before he could take any step to repair this defeat, the earl received an order from Henry to attend him with a reinforce- ment of men in Normandy, where the king was endeavouring to make head against a formidable league entered into against him by his own sons. The prompt obedience of Strongbow on this occasion was com- mended and rewarded by Henry ; but as the Irish chieftains had begun to repent of their hasty and humiliating submission, and disunion had appeared in the Anglo-Norman ranks in Ireland, the king thought it better to send the earl back, and in doing so invested him with the rank of viceroy, and granted to him, in addition to his other possessions, the city of Waterford, and a castle at Wicklow. A.D. 1173 — A jealousy had arisen between Strongbow's uncle, Hervey of Mountmaurice, who held chief command in the army of Ireland, and his lieutenant, Raymond le Gros. The latter Avas the favorite of the soldiers, who presented themselves in a body before the earl on his re- turn, and threatened that if Raymond did not get the command, they would either abandon the country or go over to the Irish. Strongbow was compelled to yield to their mutinous demand, and Raymond, who understood their wishes and was Avilling to indulge them, led them forth to plunder the Irish They first marched into the centre of Offaly, and having ravaged th^t territory, they next entered Munster, and proceeded as far as the anciout town of Lismore, which, as well as the surrounding districts, was also abandoned to their merciless spoliation. Of the im- mense quantity of plunder collected, a large portion was placed on board some bocts which had just arrived at Lismore from Waterford, for conveyan(.e to the latter city. The convoy was attacked at the mouth of the river by a squadron of small vessels sent for the pui'pose by the Ostm^n of Cork, but after a sharp conflict, the latter were defeated, and the booty was carried off in triumph. MacCarthy, prince of Desmond, was coming to the aid of his subjects of Cork, when Raymond, with a strong body of cavalry, encountered him on the way, and fortune again favored the Anglo-Normans, who drove before them 4,000 cows and sheep along the coast to Waterford. Upon this, Ray- moad, Avhose ambition rose with his success, demanded of Strongbew his sister, Basilia, in marriage, and the appointment of constable and standard-bearer of Leinster, that is, the civil and military command of that province, which had been held by the earl's son-in-law, De Quincy; THE ENGLISH DEFEATED AT TIIUKLES. 213 but the haughty req^uest was rejected, and Raymond reth'ed in (lis<;List to Wales, where his father had died about this time. A.D. 1174. — On the departure of Raymond, the command of the army once more devolved on Hervey, by whose advice an expedition, with Strongbow himself at its head, was undertaken against Donnell O'Brien. This campaign was disastrous to the English. The earl, finding that he had a more powerful army than he expected to contend with, sent to Dublin for reinforcements, which were to meet him at Cashel ; but, according to the Anglo-Norman accounts, these fresh troops, which, say they, consisted of the Ostmen of Dublin in the English service, were set upon by O'Brien in their march, and while overcome by sleep at their quarters, were cut off almost to a man, 400 of them having been slaughtered nearly without resistance. This account is framed to con- ceal the disgrace of the defeat ; but the Irish annalists give a different version. They say that king Roderic marched to the aid of the king of Thomond, and that the English, on hearing of his arrival in Munster, solicited the assistance of the Ostmen of Dublin, who obeyed the sum- mons, and made no delay till they came to Durlas of Eliogarty, the modern Thurles. Here they were attacked by Donnell O'Brien, with his Dalcassians, who were supported by the battalions of West Con- naught and of the Sil-Murray, or O'Conor's country, and after hiird fighting, the English, (or rather, Ostmen) were defeated, seventeen hun- dred of them, according to the Four Masters, or seven hundred, according to the annals of Innisfallen — which is probably the correct number — having been slain in the battle. Strongbow fled, with the few men who remained, to Waterford, where — or as some say, in the Little Island near that city — he shut himself up in a state of deep afiliction. Tliis success over the invaders was a signal to the Irish chieftains in general to throw off the foreign yoke. Even Donnell Kavanagh set up a claim to his father's territory*, and Gillamochalmog, and other Leinster chiefs who had been in alliance with the English, revolted. The loss of their properties and the system of military rapine to which theii* country was subjected drove them to this course. At the same time, Roderic O'Conor, with a numerous army, invaded Aieath, causing the xVnglo-Xorman garrisons to fly in trepidation from the castles which they had erected at Trim and Duleek. In this emergency Strongbow had no resource but to send to Raj-mond le Gros in Wales, inviting him to return speedily with all the troops he could raise, and promising hir.i • The Four Masters say that Donnell Kavanagh, who was so callpd fiom Kilravan, near D.ufv, in Wextbrtl, v, ?re lie mn Ibstereu, was iroaclu rously slain, in 117."), iiv ( t'l'"ointtn;iii anil CNuiio. 214 KKIGN OF HENRY II. the hand of Basilia and the offices Avhieh he had demanded. Rapnond joyfully obeyed this summons, and arrived in Waterford with the least possible delay, accompanied by a force of thirty knights, all of his ovm kindred, 100 men at- arms, and 300 archers. This succour was most timeh% as the Ostmen of Waterford were meditating a massacre of the Anglo-Normans, which was actually carried into execution after Strong- bow and his immediate followers had left the city to accompany the newly-arrived force to Wexford. From the Annals of Innisfallen it would appear that this massacre, in which 200 of the Anglo-Norman garrison fell, took place immediately after the battle of Thurles, but the more consistent account is that just given ; and it happened that a number of the garrison escaped into Reginald's tower, from which they were subsequently able to recover possession of the city, compelling the Ostmen to submit to severe terms. The nuptials of Basilia and Raymond were celebrated with great pomp and rejoicings at Wexford, but in the midst of the festivities news of Roderic's advance almost to the gates of Dublin was received, and the next mornincp the bridePTOom w^as obliged to march with all the available troops towards the north. Accustomed only to desultory warfare, the Irish were always content with the success of the moment, and rarely thought of following up a blow ; so that Roderic's army, satisfied witli the destruction of a few of the enemy's strongholds, and with the devas- tation of the territory, had already broken up, and each detachment had withdrawn to its own district before Raymond could arrive ; although it is said the latter fell on the rear of some of the retiring parties and cut oiF 150 men. Hugh Tyrrel, who had been leffc by De Lacy in command of the castle of Trim, was now ordered to restore the forts which the Irish army had demolished ; and thus Roderic's expedition ended like any ordinary foray. A. D. 1175. In this posture of afuiirs Henry II. thought it high time to try the effect of the Papal bulls, which, although mentioned already in connection with the events of a preceding year, now came, for the first time, to the knowledge of either the clergy or the people of Ireland. For this purpose he commissioned William FitzAdehn and Nicholas, Prior of Wallingford, to carry these documents to Ireland, where they were publicly read at a synod of the bishops convened for the occasion at Waterford; but how the bulls were received, or what effect they produced at the moment, we are not told. For the twofold purpose of gratifying the insatiable rapacity of the sol- diery and of taking revenge on Donnell O'Brien for the defeat at Thurlesy CAPTURK OF LIMERICK BT RAYMOND. 215 Raymond led an army against Limerick, which was ci\ptm-ed throuoli the gallant conduct of his nephews and himself in fording the Shannon, and was then abandoned to carnage and plunder. But on the return of FitzAdelm and Nicholas of Wallingf ord, they represented to Henry that these sanguinary exploits of Rajmiond's led to the disorganization of the iU'my, and to outbreaks and resistance on the part of the Irish. The soldiers, they said, were converted into mere rapacious marauders, and the hostility of the Irish rendered doubly inveterate ; Avhile, to make the complaint more serious, it was stated that the popular general had formed a plan to usurp, by the aid of the army, the dominion of tlie island. This report emanated from Hervey, who detested Raymond ; but there can be no doubt that a great portion of it was strictly true, although the last-mentioned charge was probably malicious and unfounded. Com- missioners were immediately despatched by the king to bring Raymond before him in Normandy; but at this juncture, and when Raymond seemed most desirous to obey the summons in order to vindicate his character, news arrived that the ever-active king of Thomond had laid siege to Limerick, where the Anglo-Norman garrison could not long hold out. Strongbow ordered an army to march from Dublin to then- relief, but the men refused to move unless their favorite general was put at their head. The royal commissioners were consulted, and, by their advice, Raymond was once more placed in command, and marched towards Limerick with a force consisting of nearly 300 cavalry, of whom fourscore were heavy armed, and 300 archers, a large body of Irish infantry under the princes of Ossory and Hy Kinsellagh joining them on the route. At the approach of this army, O'Brien raised the siege, and took up a position in a pass near Cashel, where he hoped to inter- cept their march. The prince of Ossory, seeing his Anglo-Norman allies, as he thought, hesitate in the face of the enemy, addressed them menacingly, and told them that if they allowed themselves to be van- quished they would have to fight against the men of Ossory as well as against those of Thomond. Meyler FitzHenry led the vanguard and forced the pass, and the Thomond army was routed with considerable slaughter. The result of this defeat was the submission of O'Brien, and some negociations on the part of Roderic with Raymond. But the Irish monarch, instead of treating definitively with a subordinate, sent ambas- sadors to Henry II. himself, and in September, 1175, Cadhla or Cathohcus O'Duffy, archbishop of Tuam, Concors, abbot of St. Brendan's of Clon- fert, and the illustrious archbishop of Dublin, who is here called "Master 216 BEIGX OF IIEKRY IT. Lam'ence, his chancellor,"* proceeded to England as liis plenipotentiaries. A council was held at Windsor, Avithin the octave of Michaelmas, and a treaty was agreed on, the articles of which were to the effect that Roderic was to be king under Henry, rendering him service as liis vassal ; that he was to hold his hereditary territory of Connaught in the same way as before the coming of Henry into Ireland; that he was to have jurisdiction and dominion over the rest of the island, including its kings and princes, whom he should oblige to pay tribute, through his hands, to the king of England ; that these kings and princes were also to hold their respective territories as long as they remained faithful to the king of England and paid their tribute to him ; that if they departed from their fealty to the king of England, Roderic was to judge and depose them, either by his own power, or, if that were not sufficient, by the aid of the Anglo-Norman authorities ; but that his jurisdiction should not extend to the territories occupied by the English settlers, which at a later period was called the English Pale, and then comprised Meath and Leinster, Dublin, with its dependent district, Waterford, and the country thence to Dungarvan. The annual tribute required from the Irish was a merchantable hide for every tenth head of cattle killed in Ireland; and the princes who gave hostages were, besides, for feudal service, to give presents of Irish wolf-dogs and hawks ; any of the Irish who had fled from the territories occupied by the English barons were to be at liberty to return and to reside there in peace ; and the king of Connaught might compel any of his own subjects to come back from the other territories, and to remain quietly in his landi. The terms of this remarkable treaty fix the nature and extent of the power which Henry II. claimed in Ireland. Nothing was added by it to the extent of territory within which the dominiorf of the king of England was acknowledged. He was recognized as a superior feudal sovereign; but, as we have already remarked, the Irish princes did not * Although the signature of St. Laurence was one of those attached to the treaty of Windsor, Dr. Lanigan does not seem to think he was identical with " Master Laurence,'' Roderic's chan- cellor. — (Eccl. Hist., chap, xxix., sec. ix.) It is probable that the good archbishop had gone to England, on business connected with his diocese; and it was on this occasion, while proceeding one day to celebrate mass in tlie cathedral of Canterbury, where he was received with great veneration by the monlts, that a madman who had heard a great deal of his sanctity, and thought it would be a good action to confer on him the crown of martyrdom, attempted to kill him at the foot of the altar, by striking him on the head with a huge club. Tlie monks, in great alarm, believed that the holy archbishop was mortally wounded, but he desired them to wash the wound on his head with some water, over which he had previously said the Lord's Prayer and made the sign of the cross, and he was inmiediately healed and enabled to go through the sacred ceremonies. The king, who was then at Canterbury, condemned the intended assassin to be liai;ged, and St Laurence had great s learning and liberality. He died in 1175, having resigned his see seme years before and retired to his monastery ; and from his time the ancient Columbian order would seem to have almost wholly given way to the continental religious orders.* On the overthrow of O'Brien, near Cashel, in 1175, Rajonond was invited into Desmond by Dermot Mac Carthy, to aid him in putting down the rebellion of his son Cormac. The invitation was eagerly accepted. Dermot was reinstated, and he rewarded Raymond with the district in Kerry of which Lixnaw is the centre, Avhere his youngest son Mj-urice became the founder of the family of Fitzmaurice ;t while the troops returned to Limerick, glutted with plunder. Mac Carthy was again assailed by his unnatural son, and cast into prison ; but, vdiile there, he found means to procure the death of the rebel Cormac, whose head was cut off. The Anglo-Normans, as we shall see in the sequel, sided with equal readiness with a son against his father, or with a father against his son. They only sought pay and plunder, and increase of territorv for themselves. The Irish Annals, under the date of 1175, accuse Donnell O'Brien of sundry acts of aggression. Donnell Mac Gillapatrick, son of the prince of Ossory, was slain by him, and he also slew the son of O'Conor of Corcomroe, a Thomond prince ; and put out the eyes of his own relatives, Dermct, son of Tiege O'Brien, and Mahon, son of Turlough O'Brien, in their hecise at Castleconnell, the death of Dermot following from the outrage. Upon this Roderic O'Connor marched into Munster, and thrcfugh C&amberry, obtained some of the relics of his sainted predecessor for his own ancient church of Armagh, and, on his return, wrote a very interesting book, in which all the facts relating to this s'-iycct, so full both of historical and religious interest, are detailed. [See " The Blessed Comeliw ; or, some tidings of an archbishop of Armagh who went to Rome in the 12th century, and did not return," &c. By the Most Rev. Joseph Dixon, archbishop of Armagh. Dublin : James I/uffy.] The Irish name of Coiichobhar, now pronounced Conor, sounded to foreign ears like the French word Concord, which is the name by which this holy Irish prelate has been known in Savoy. It has been traditionally latinized Cornelius. The circumstances connected with the Blessed Cornelius aflbrd a striking ilhisLration of the veneration paid in foreign countries to Irish saints, whose names have almost dropped from the mcmoiy of their own. * A holy person, whose name appears in the Irish Calendars as St. Gilda-Mochaibeo, and who is praised for superior learning and wisdom as ■well as pjcty, died the proceeding year. He was a cotempdrary of St. Malachy, and was abbot of the Augustinian Canons Regular of SS. Peter and Paul, Armagh; and in the same year, 1174, is recorded the death of Flann O'Gorman, chief lecturer of Armagh, " a learned sage, versed in sacred and profane philosophj' ;" and who is said to have spc-ii': 21 years studying in France and England, and 20 years in the direction of the ^.)oo1s of Irehmd. t The ilarciuis of I^nsdown is the present representative of this family. DEATH OF STROXGBOW. 219 expelled Donnell O'Brien from Thomond, which he laid waste. It has been suggested that this expedition Vas undertaken by Roderic in com- pliance with the terms of his treaty with. Henry; but it was only the course which his duties as monarch, even without that treaty, required him to adopt. As to the expulsion, it was of short duration. A.D. 1176. — ^While Raymond was still at Limerick, earl Strongbow died in Dublin; and as it was important, in the precarious state of the colony, to keep his death a secret until some one adequate to fill his place should be at hand, his sister Basilia sent an enigmatical message to Raymond, ,stating that " her great tooth, which had ached so long, had fallen out" and begging him to return to Dublin with all possible speed. Raymond understood the message, and perceived that not a moment was to be lost; but he could not afford to leave a garrison behind in Limerick, and how was he to abandon a place which had cost so dearly? In this emergency he applied to Donnell O'Brien, whom he solicited to take charge of the city as one of the king's barons ! The mockery of a formal surrender of trust was gone through ; but as the last man of the Anglo-Norman garrison had recrossed the Shannon, they saw the bridge broken down behind them, and the city in flames in four different points. English historians Vave accused O'Brien of perfidy for this act; but the mock trust could have deceiA-ed no man. It Avas an insult wliich the warlike prince of Thomond was not likely to brook ; and, in destroying Limerick, he said it should never again be made a nest of foreigners.* On Raymond's arrival in Dublin the obsequies of earl Strongbow were performed with great solemnity. St. Laurence, as archbishop of Dublin, presided at the ceremony ; and the remains were deposited in the Cathe- dral Church of the Holy Trinity, now Christ's Church. Strongbow's celebrity has been entirely due to his fortuitous position. He possessed none of the qualities of mind that constitute a great man. Even his eulogist, Cambrensis, states that he formed no plans of his own, but executed those of others. To the Irish he was a rapacious and a merci- less foe. The native annalists call him " the greatest destroyer of the clergy and laity that came to Ireland since the time of Turgesius ;" and they attribute his death, which was caused by an ulcer in his foot, to a judgment of heaven.t He died about the 1st of May, according to some authorities, and about the last of that month, according to others; and left, by his wife Eva, daughter ofMacMurrough, an infant daughter Isabel, who was heiress to his vast possessions, and was afterwards married * The Four Masters state that he recovered Limerick by siege, but this is evidently a mistake. I Aunals of Inaisfallcn, and Annals of the Four Masters 220 BEIGN OF HENRY II. io Wiiliam Marshal, earl of Pembroke. Strongbow founded and riclilj endowed a priory for the knights of St. John of Jerusalem, at Kilmain- ham, near Dublin. As soon as Henry II. received notice of the earl's death, he appointed William FitzAdelm seneschal, or justiciary, with John de Courcy, Robert FitzStephen, and Milo de Cogan as coadjutors, and a suitable number of knights to serve as a guard for each. Raymond, who was still an object of jealousy and suspicion to the king, hastened to Wexford to meet the new viceroy, and surrendered to him, with good grace, the authority Mdiich he had temporarily held. It is said, that on seeing Raymond approach at the head of a numerous and brilliant staff of knights, all of his own kindred, and with the same arms blazoned on their shields, FitzAdelm vowed that he would check that pride and disperse those shields; and even to that early period is traced the origin of the jealousy so often exhibited by the British government, in after times, towards the illustrious family of the Geraldines, of which Raymond was a member. Meanwhile a disaster befel the invaders in INIeath. The Hy-Niall prince, MacLoughlin, with the men of Kinel-Owen and Oriel, attacked the castle of Slane, which was held for De Lacy by Richard le Fleming, and from which it was usual to send parties to plunder the neighbouring territories. The garrison and inmates, to the number of five hundred, were all put to the sword; and this act of vengeance so terrified the adventurers, that next day they abandoned three other castles which they had erected in Meath, namely, those of Kells, Galtrim, and Derr}- patrick. A.D. 1177. — FitzAdelm's administration soon became unpopular with the colony. Whether his policy was dictated by king Henry himself or not, it is certain that he was now decidedly opposed to the system of mili- tary plunder and aggression which had hitherto been the only principle recognized by the Anglo-Normans in Ireland. He discountenanced spoliation, and was openly accused of partiality to the Irish. De Courc}^ one of his aids in the government, became so disgusted with his inactivity, that he set out, in open defiance of the viceroy's prohibition, on an expedition to the north, having selected a small army of 22 knig\ts and 300 soldiers, all picked men, to accompany him. It is said that he obtained a conditional grant of Ulster from Henry II., though by what right the grant was made it would be difficult to determine, as the northern princes had never given the English king even a colorable pretence for dominion over them. John De Courcy was a man of great stature and enormous physical strength; to which qualities he added great DE COURCy's invasion OF ULSTER. 221 courage and daring, with military ardour and impetuosity fitted for the most desperate enterprise. By rapid marches he arrived the fourth day at Downpatrick, the chief city of Uladh or Ulidia, and the clanijor of his bugles ringing through the streets, at the break of day, was the .first intimation wliich the inhabitants received of this wholly unexpected incursion. In the alarm and confusion which ensued the people became easy victims ; and the English, after indulging their rage and rapacity, entrenched themselves in a corner of the city. Cardinal Vivian, who had come as legate from Pope Alexander III. to the nations of Scotland and Ireland, and who had only recently arrived from the Isle of Man, happened to be then in Down, and was horrified at this act of aggression. He attempted to negotiate terms of peace, and proposed that De Courcy should withdraw his army on condition that the Ulidians paid tribute to the English king ; but any such terms being sternly rejected by De Courcy, the cardinal encouraged and exhorted Mac Dunlevy,* the king of Ulidia or Dalaradia, to defend his territories manfully against the invaders. Coming, as this advice did, from the Pope's legate, we may judge in what light the grant of Ireland to Henry II. was regarded by the Pope himself. Dunlevy returned at the end of a week with a large undisciplined force, which he had collected in the meantime ; and the English took their stand in a favorable position outside the town, to give him battle. The Irish fought with great bravery, but owing to the tumultuary natm-e of their army, to the effect of their former panic, which liad not yet wholly subsided, and, in a great measure also, to the singular personal strength and prowess of De Courcy himself, who was bravely seconded by a young man named Roger le Poer, they were vanquished in the conflict. This battle was fought about the beginning of February, and on the 24th of the following June, De Courcy again defeated the Ulidians ; one of his knights, who was wounded in this second conflict, being Armoric de St. LaAvrence, ancestor of the noble family of Howth. A notion prevailed, among both Irish and English, that certain prophecies of Merlin and of Saint Columbkille were fulfilled in this invasion of Down, and while the idea encouraged the latter it had a contrary effect on the former. De Courcy assumed that he was " the White Knight, mounted on a white steed, with birds upon his shield," as described by the British prophet, and he took care that the resem- ♦ The original name of the Dlidian kings was O'Haughy, (Uab Eocbadha) which from Dun- sievy O'Haughy became Mac Dunslevy, or Dunlevy. 222 EEIGN OF HENRY 11. blance should be as perfect as possible. It was also understood that he answered the description of the " certain poor and needy fugitive from abroad," who, according to the words ascribed to the Irish saint, was to be the conqueror of Down. De Courcy carried about with him a book of St Columbkille's prophecies, and turned the popular interpretation of them to his account. Cardinal Vivian, having proceeded to Dublin, held a synod of bishops And abbots, at which he set forth the obligation of yielding obedience to the authority of Henry, in virtue of the papal bulls. He was probably induced by the English functionaries to take this step, as it does not appear that he had any commission from the pope to do so. On his passage through England, when coming from Rome, he had even been treated with much discourtesy, and was not permitted to proceed on his mission until he had bound hinself by oath to do nothing against the king's interests. He was further induced, at the sjmod, to grant a general leave to the English soldiers to take whatever provisions they might want on their expeditions out of the churches, in which the Irish were accustomed to deposit them as in an inviolable sanctuary; but he required that a reasonable price should be paid to the rectors of these churches for what might be thus taken away. The celebrated abbey of St. Thomas the Martyr (a Becket), was founded in Dublin by FitzAdelm, by order of Hemy II. The site was the place now called Thomas'-court ; and in the presence of cardinal Vivian and St. Laurence O'Toole, the deputy endowed it with a car- ucate of land called Donore, in the Liberties of the city. After the synod the cardinal passed over to Chester on his way to Scotland. Murrough, one of the sons of Roderic O'Conor, rebelled against his father, and, at his solicitation, Milo de Cogan was sent by the deputy with a hostile force into Connaught, in direct violation of the treaty of Windsor. Roderic was then in lar Connaught, and De Cogan, in his progress, found the country abandoned ; the inhabitants having bumed the houses and fled to their woods or mountains, taking wdth them, or concealing in subterranean granaries, all their provisions, so that the English could find neither food nor plunder. Having penetrated as far as Tuam, which they found also deserted, the invaders were obliged to retrace their steps ; but Roderic hastened from the west, pressed on then' rear, and at length came up with them, or, as others say, lay in wait for them, in a wood near the banks of the Shannon, where he defeated them with considerable slaughter. The unnatural Murrough, who had acted as a guide to the EngHsli, was made prisoner, and being condemned by JOHN MADE KING OF IRELAND. 223 the Connacians with the consent of his fatlier, liis eyes were put out — a punishment which, in the case ol this traitor, was too merciful. To the credit of the men of Connaught, not one of them joined the rebel- lious son on this occasion. In the course of May, this year (1177), Henry II., having pre- /iously obtained the sanction of Pope Alexander III., assembled a council of prelates and barons at Oxford, and in their presence solemnly constituted his youngest son, John, still only a child, " king in Ireland." This step, which was another violation of the treaty of Windsor, by conferring on John a title recoonized as belonffing to Roderic O'Conor, did not lead to the settlement of Irish affairs, which Henry may have anticipated fi'om it ; nor did John ever assume any other title in this country but that of lord of Ireland and earl of Moreton. A new grant of Meath to Hugh de Lacy was made out in the joint names of Henry II. and John; and Desmond, or, as it was then called, the kingdom of Cork, was granted by charter to Robert Fitz Stephen * and Milo de Cogan, with the exception of the city of Cork and the adjoining cantreds, which the king reserved to himself. For some years after, however, they were able to obtain possession of only seven cantreds in the neighboiu'hood of the city. In the same way the kin<>-- dom of Limerick, or Thomond, was granted to two English noblemen, brothers of the earl of Cornwall, who declined the dangerous £fift. It was then given by Henry to another baron, Philip de Braosa ; and this new claimant, on coming in sight of the city, accompanied by De Cogan and Fitz Stephen, with an army to put him in possession, was seized with such fear, that, notwithstanding the entreaties of his confederates, he fled to Cork and left the country. De Braosa was not a coward, as his actions in subsequent years clearly proved ; but the determination exhibited by the inhabitants of Limerick, who fired their city on his approach, that it might not fall into the hands of the invaders, inspired him with awe ; and he had no confidence in his own folloAvers, who are said to have been the scum of society from the Welsh marches. The territory of Waterford was granted to Roger le Poer, the ancestor of the le Poers, or Powers ; but, as in other cases, the city, with the district immediately adjoining, was reserved by Henry for himself. Grants were also made to other hungry adventurers, with total indifference, as in the case of those already mentioned, to the rights of the Irish themselves, or to any treaty existing with them, and even without any right established by force of arms ; so that Sir John 224 macN of henkv r». Davies, the English attorney-general of James I., remarked, that " all Ireland was, by Henry II., cantonized among ten of the English nation; and though they had not gained possession of one-third of the kingdom, yet in title they were owners and lords of all, so as nothing was left to be granted to the natives."* * A family connection existed between several of the first English invaders, as appears from the following account: — Xesta, daughter of Rees apT\v\-der, prince of south Wales, had, while mistress of king Henry I., a son, Henry, who was the father of Mej'ler and Robert Fitz Henry. While wife (or, as some say, mistress) of Stephen, constable of Cardigan, she bore Robert Fitz Stephen ; and, finally, when married to Gerald of Windsor, she had three sons : first, William, the father of Raymond le Gros, or the Corpulent (who married Basilia, Strongbow's sister, and was the ancestor of the Graces of Wexford, and of the Fitz llaurices of Kerry), and of Griffith ; second, jMaurice Fitz Gerald (ancestor of the Geraldines of Kildare and Desmond), who had four sons, William, who married Ellen, another sister of Strongbow, or, as some say. Alma, a daughter of Strongbow, Gerald, Alexander, and Milo ; and, third, David, bishop of St. David's. There was another Nesta, the daughter, according to some, and the grand-daughter, according to others of the former one, and she was married to Hervey of Mountniaurice, the uncle of Strongbow. A daughter of the first Nesta was married to William de Barri, a Pembrokeshire kni ght, by whom she had four sons, Robert, Philip, Walter, and Gerald, the last-named being the well-known chronicler of the invasion, Giraldus Cambrensis. The other leading men of the early adven- turers, not mentioned among the preceding, were: Robert de Berroingham, Walter Bluet, Hum- phrey de Bohun, William and Philip de Braosa, Adam Chamberlain, Milo and Richard de Cogan, Raymond Canteton, or Kantune, Hugh Cantwell (according to Hanmer), or Gundeville (accord- ing to Camden) or Hugh Cantilon (according to Cambrensis), John de Courcy, Reginald de Courtenay, Adam Dullard, William Fitz Adelm de Burgo (ancestor of the Burkes), William Ferrand, Robert Fitz Bernard, Richard and Robert Fitz Godobert, Raymond Fitz Hugh, Theobald Fitz Walter (ancestor of the Butlers), Richard and Thomas le Fleming, Adam de Gernemie, Reginald de Glanvil, Geoffry de Hay, Philip de Hastings, Adam de Hereford, Hugh de Lacy, William Makrell, Gilbert Nangle, or de Angulo, William Nott, Gilbert de Nugent, Richard and William Petit, Robert, Roger, and William le Poer, Maurice and Philip de Prendergast, Purcell, Robert de Quiney, or Quincy, John and Walter de Ridelsford, or Rideusford, Adam de Rupe, or Roche, Robert de Salisbury, Robert Smith, Al merle de St. Laurence (ancestor of the Howth family), Hugh Tyrrell, Richard Tuite, Bertram de Verdon, Philip Welsh, Philip de Worcester, &c. &c. — Vide Giraldus Cambrensis, Camden's Eibernia, Hanmer's Chronicle, Harris's Eibernica, •nd the Rev. C. P. Meehan's translation of The Geraldines, p. 22. CHAPTER XX. (REION of henry II. CONCLUDED. REIGN OF RICHARD I.) "Reverses of De Courcy in the North. — Feuds of Desmond and Thomond. — Unpopularity of Fitz Adelm -with tLe Colonists. — Irish Bishops at the Council of Lateran. — Death of St. Laurence O'Toole. — His Charity and Povertj-. — De Lacy Suspected by Henry II. — Death of Milo de Cogan. — Arrival of Cambrensis. — Death of Hervey of Mountmaurice. — Roderic Abdicates and Retires to Cong. — Archbishop Comyn. — Exactions of Philip of "Worcester. — Prince John's Expedition to Ireland. — His Failure and Recall. — English Mercenaries in the Irish Service. — Singular Death of Hugh de Lacy. — Synod in Christ Church. — Translation of the Relics of SS. Patrick, Columba, and Brigid to Down. — Expedition of De Courcy to Connaught. — His Retreat. — Death of Henry II. — Death of Conor Moinmoy, and Fresh Tumults in Con- naught. — Last Exploits and Death of Donnell More O'Brien. — Dissensions in the English Colony. — Successes of Donnell Mac Carthy. — Death of Roderic O'Cunor. — His Character. — Foundation of Churches, &c. — The Anglo-Irish and the " mere" Irish. COTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS AND EVENTS. Popes Lucius III., Urban III., Gregory VIII., Clement III., and Celestine III. — King of France, Pliilip Augustus Third Crusade (1188-111)1). (a.o. 1178 TO 1199.) ^OHN DE COURCY, notwithstanding the prestige of his successes in the north, was not invincible. After sweeping off, in 1178, a large spoil of cattle from Machaire Conaille, or the plain of Louth, he encamped, on his return to Down, in Glenrce, the vale of Newry river, and was there attacked by O'CarroIl of Oriel, and MacDunlevy of Ulidia, and defeated with great slaughter. On this occasion he lost 450 men, many of whom Avere drowned in attempting to cross the river, while the Irish had only 100 killed. Some time after he went on a plundering excursion into Dalaradia, and was defeated by Cumee OTlynn, lord of Hy-Tuirtre and Firlee, in Antrim, when, according to Giraldus, he escaped fi'om the field on foot, eleven followers, and reached his camp after a flight of twc nights without food. The English historians attribute this 226 REIGN OF HENRY II. disaster to the number of cattle which he was carrying away, and which, being driven back upon his ranks by the Irish, caused such confusion that his men fell an easy prey to the enemy. The Annals of Innisfallen mention a desolating war which raged this year between the Irish of Thomond and Desmond, in which the latter territory was ' so wasted that some of its ancient families, as the ODonovans, princes of Hy-Figeinte, and the O'Collinses, subordinate chiefs of Hy-Conail Gavra, an ancient sub-division of the former territory, were driven from their patrimonies to seek refuge in the southern parts of the presei^t county of Cork. The native chroniclers also record internecine quarrels, at the same period, between the Irish of Ulster and those of Westmeath and Offaly, the English acting as allies in the ranks of the latter. Fitz Adelm, as already observed, had -become so unpopular with the English colonists, from his opposition to rapine and suspected partiality to the Irish, that Henry found it necessary to remove him, and appointed De Lacy in his stead, with the title of procurator. Fitz Adelm was, however, made constable of Leinster; Wexford was entrusted to his care, and Waterford to that of Robert le Poer. A. D. 1179. — Several Irish bishops proceeded this year to Rome, on the summons of Alexander III., to attend the third general council of Lateran. These prelates were — St. Lorcan or Laurence, of Dublin ; O'Duff)'-, of Tuam ; O'Brien, of Killaloe ; Felix, of Lismore ; Augustine, of Waterford; and Brictius, of Limerick. In passing through England they were obliged to take an oath not to act in any manner prejudicial to that country or its king. The pope treated St. Laurence with special kindness, appointed him his legate for Ireland, and conferred particular favors on the diocese of Dublin, confirming its jurisdiction over the suflfragan sees of its province. There can be no doubt that the Holy Father learned, on this occasion, the unhappy results which had followed from the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. A. D. 1180. — Having returned from Rome, St. Laurence devoted himself, with his accustomed zeal, to liis archiepiscopal and legatine duties ; and he was particularly strict in punishing the lax manners of some of the Anglo-Norman and Welsh clergy who had come over with the adventurers. In the course of this year he went to England on a mission from Roderic O'Conor, one of whose sons accompanied him as a iiostage ; but the English king refused either to listen to his represent- ations or to permit him to return to Ireland, and left for Normandy, whitiier the saint, after a few weeks' stay at the monastery of Abingdon, DEATH Oe ST. LAIREXCE o'tOOLK. 227 in Berkshire, set out to follow him. The holy archbishop, however, was able to proceed no fui'ther than Auguni, or Eu, on the borders of Nor- mandy, in a monastery at which place he fell sick, ;ind died on the 14th of November, 1180. When asked by the monks to make his will, he called God to witness that " he had not as much as one penny under the sun ;" and a little before he expired he said in Irish, speaking of his unhappy countrymen, " Alas, foolish and senseless people ! What will you now do? Who will heal 3^ovir differences? Who will have pity on you?" His charity Avas unbounded. During a famine which prevailed for three years in Dublin he made extraordinary sacrifices to relieve the poor. His spirit of mortification was worthy of the primitive saints. His love for his ill-fated country was that of an ardent patriot, yet his country's enemies were compelled to confess and revere his virtues. Several miracles are recorded of him, and he was canonized by Honorius HI., in the year 1226.* At this time the power of Hugh de Lacy greatly exceeded that of any other English baron in Ireland. Giraldus observes that " he amply enriched himself and his followers by oppressing others with a strong hand;" yet he was less hateful to the Irish than most of the other foreigners. He married, as his second wife, a daughter of Roderic O'Conor, without previously asking the permission of Henry II. ; and this alliance, together with the popularity which he enjoyed, excited the jealousy of the English monarch, who abruptly removed him from the government. De Lacy's ready obedience in yielding up his ofiice re- stored him, however, to the king's confidence, and he was reinstated in power with Robert, bishop of Shrewsbmy, as his councillor, or rather as a spy on his proceedings. A.D. 1182 — Milo de Cogan, one of the most chivalrous of the first adventurers, fell a victim this year to tlie hostility which the aggressions of the Enghsh stirred up in every quarter. He was proceeding from Cork to Lismore, accompanied by a son of Robert FitzStephen and a few other knights, to hold a conference with some of the people of Waterford, when he was set upon by MacTire, prince of Imokilly, and cut oflF with all his party. Giraldus says he was invited by MacTire to pass the night in his house, and that he was treacherously murdered • See his life, by the Rev. John O'Hanlon, ot Dublin; also Surius, quoted by Ussher, ia the Si/lloffe, note to Epist. xlviii. "The beautiful church of Eu, in which the remains of St. Laurence are preserved, has been recently restored, and on the walla of the little oratory which marks on the hill over the town tlie spot where the saint exclaimed, "Arec est requies mea," &c., the names of several Irishmen are inawibed." (Dr. Kelly's Camb. Ever., vol. ii., [>. C48, d.) 223 ABDICATION OF RODERIC O'COXOR. when seated with his knights in a field; but this statement appearhig, as it does, in the midst of a tissue of slanders, merits little credit. The event was a signul for a general rising of the chieftains of jVIunster, and FitzStephen was so closely besieged by them in the city of Cork, that he was on the point of succumbing, when his nephew, Raymond le Gros, brought succour by sea from Wexford, and raised the siege. Richard de'Cogan, brother of Milo, was sent over by Henry to aid FitzStephen in the goverment of Cork, and was accompanied by two of FitzStephen's nephews, Philip and Gerald Barry.* As new adventurers appear, the earlier ones vanish from the scene. Among the latter was Hervey of Mountmaurice, whose opposition to the more warlike Rnymond has been so often noticed. He founded the beautiful abbey of Dunbrody, in Wexford; and disgusted, as it would seem, with the scenes of rapine which he had witnessed in Ireland, he retired from the strife of the world, and became a monk at Canterbury, giving to the abbey there a portion of the property which he had acquired in Ireland. We find De Lacy, in Meath, and De Courcy, in Ulster, also founding religious houses with a portion of the plunder which they had unscrupulously taken from the native clergy and people of Ireland. De Courcy obtained, this year, at Dunbo, in Dalaradia, a decisive victory over Donnell O'Loughlin and the Kinel Owen, which, for some time, checked the heroism of the northern chieftains, and enabled him to strengthen his position and overrun the province without oppo- sition. A.D. 1183. — The Irish annals are filled, at this, as at other periods, with accounts of feuds among the native princes, but such of them as h.ft ;io visible traces on our history we pass in silence. The strife which had long existed in the family of the unhappy monarch, Roderic, broke out now with increased violence ; and after vain efforts, on the part of neighbouring princes, to settle the differences, even at the point of the sword, the wretched king, according to the annals of Kilronan, retired this year to the abbey of Cong, leaving the kingdom of Connaught to his son, Conor Moinmoy. A.D. 1184. — On the death of St. Laurence O'Toole, Henry sent a commissioner to collect the revenues of the diocese of Dublin into the * The latter was the oft-quoted GiraUlus Cambrensis, a vain, conceited writer, and compiler of siily fabks and malicious calumnies about Ireland and her people, although his Ilibernia Ex- pugnata is by far the mo^t ip>r'trt,ant record we possess of tlie Anglo-Norman invasion. PIUNCE JOHN ARRIVES IN IRELAN'D. 229 royal coffers. He then caused a number of the Dublin cleri^v to assemble at Evesham, in Worcestershire, and at his recommendation they elected John Comyn, or Gumming, an Englishman, to the vacant see. Comyn proceeded to Rome, and was ordained priest, and subse- quently consecrated archbisho]^, by Pope Lucius III., at Veletri. The pope also granted him a bull, exempting the diocese of Dublin from the exercise of any other episcopal authority within its limits and without the permission of its archbishop. This privilege was intended as a pro- tection against the power of the primate, who could not, at that time, be considered as a subject of the English king; and it was the first of a series of acts, upon which the controversy which subsequently arose as to the relative prerogatives of the sees of Armagh and Dublin was founded. The new archbishop did not come to Dublin until 1184, and his presence then was intended as a preparation for the approachinof visit of jjrince John. A.D. 1185. — Henry's suspicions of De Lacy were not, it appears, un- founded, as that ambitious baron is understood to have really aspired to the sovereignty of Ireland. He was, therefore, once more deprived of the government, in 1184, and in his stead was sent over Philip of Wor- cester, who eclipsed all his predecessors by his exactions and injustice. This man's fost act was to resume, for the king's use, lands which liad been sold to O'Casey by his predecessor. He levied contributions with- out regard to justice or mercy; and proceeding with an army to Ulster, a territory which had been hitherto left exclusively to De Courcy's en- terprise, he exacted money from all parties, but chiefly from the clergy. He Avas accompanied by a worthy coadjutor, Hugh Tyrrel, who stripped the clergy of Armagh by his extortions, carrying off, among other things, their large brewing pan, which he was obliged to abandon on the way, as the horses which drew it were burned in a stable where they halted for the night, and he himself was seized with violent griping pains, which, in the opinion of his cotemporaries, were a just punish- ment for his rapine.* This year is memorable for the wretched experiment which Henry made to govern Ireland through his son John, a step which proved utterly inconsistent Avith the king's boasted wisdom. The young prince, then in his nineteenth year, amved at Waterford from Mil ford haven * TbL< plunder of the clergy of Armagh took place in the course of the Lent, and it is probable that it was then the celebrated crozier of St. Patrick, called the Stall' of Jesus, was reiiioved from the priniafial city to Dublin, although it is u.-ually stated that tiiis transfer was made by FitzAileliu, who doe? not anpnqr to have exercised any au'tiority in the north. 230 REIGN OF HEXRY II. the week after Easter, with 400 knights and a well-equipped force of horse and foot, conveyed in sixty transports. He assuir'^d simply the title of earl of Moreton and lord of Ireland, although he had been in- vested some years before with the nominal rank of king.* He was at- tended by Gerald Barry, or Carabrensis, as his tutor, and by Ranulph de Glanville, justiciary of England ; but he was surrounded by a retinue of insolent young Norman courtiers of as profligate manners as he notoriously was himself. The proceedings of the new visitors were most inauspiciously commenced. Some Leinster chieftains Avaited upon John, at. his arrival, to pay their respects, but their costume and appear- ance excited the mirth of him and his brainless attendants, who treated them with derision, and went so far as to pluck their beards. Justlv in- censed at the insults offered them, the Irish princes hastily quitted the camp, and removing their families and followers from the teri'itory occu- pied by the English, repaired to Connaught and those parts of Munster yet free from the foreign yoke, proclaiming everywhere the insolent treat- ment which they had received, and stirring up their countrymen to re- sistance. John and his courtiers pursued their mad career, regardless of the storm which was gathering. Some Irish septs, who had hitherto re- mained peaceably in the English territory, were expelled, and driven to swell the ranks of their disaffected countrymen, their lands being given to the new comers ; the old Welsh settlers were forced to leave the towns and reside in the marches, and the early Anglo-Norman colonists were harassed with exactions. Castles were erected by John's orders at Tipraid-Fachtna, noAV Tibraghny, in the county of Kilkenny, at Ard- finan, overlooking the Suir, in Tipperary, and at Lismore; and from these strongholds parties were sent to plunder the lands of Munster. But the indomitable Donnell O'Brien took the field, and the English were defeated by him in several encounters. He took the castle of Ardfinan, by stratagem, and put the garrison to the sword. Several of the bravest English knights were cut off in battle : Roger le Poer was slain in Ossory, Robert Barry at Lismore, Raymond FitzHugh at Olechan, and Raymond Canton in Idrone. After being decimated in detail, the remnant of John's discomfited army retired to the cities, * When John was about to proceed to Ireland, in 1185, his father applied to Pope Lucius III. for permission to crown the young prince, b it the Pope declined giviny his sanction. On the ac- cession of Urban III., at the close of the same year, the application was renewed, and this time tli« required leave was granted, and a crown, made of peacock's feathers intenvoven with gold, was sent from Rome by the Pontiff, on the occasion ; but John's expedition having in the raeantinM failed, hi« intended coronation was abandoned. DEATH OF HUGH DK LACY. 231 where the men, folIo^ving the example of their captains, indulged in every vice, and left the surrounding country exposed to the incursions of the Irish, who destroyed the crops of the colonists. The money col- lected by oppressive exactions was squandered in dissipation by John, while the troops were left unpaid, and the whole colony was reduced by famine and losses to the very brink of ruin. Things had been going on thus for several months before king Heiny became aware of the real state of affairs. He then hastily recalled iiis hopeful son, who, on his return to England, threw the whole blame of his disasters upon De Lacy, whom he represented as leagued with the Irish, and as setting himself up for king. It is, indeed, asserted that De Lacy had at this period assumed the title of king of Meath, and that he received tribute as such from Connaught, and had got a diadem made for himself; but so far from his being on friendly terms with the nati\e Irish, the territory of jMeath was, at this very period, invaded b\- an Irish army, which was defeated by William Petit, a feudatory, or liege- man of De Lacvs. x\bout this time Dermot M'Carthv, kinff of Des- mond, was killed at a conference in Cork by Theobald Fitz Walter, the chief butler.* Parties of the older English adventurers were now in the habit of hiring themselves as auxiliaries to different Irish princes. Thus some Enghsh aided Donnell O'Brien in an inroad which he made this year into West Connaught, while another party of them served in the army of Conor Moinmoy, when he retaliated by plundering Killaloe and pillaging Thomond. " The English,'" say our annalists, on this latter occasion, " came as far as Roscommon with the son of Roderic, who gave them 3,000 cows as Avages." A.D. 1186. — Hugh de Lacy did not live to vindicate himself from th« charges laid against him by prince John. This remarkable man, whoir the Irish annals describe as the " profaner and destroyer of many churches," and the " lord (or king) of the English of Meath, Breffiiy, and Oriel ; of whose English castles all Meath, from the Shannon to the sea, was full," was killed this year while inspecting the works of a castle which he had just comjjleted on the site of St. Columbkille's great mon- astery of Durrow, in the pi'esent King's county. He was accompanied by three Englishmen, and was stooping to direct the operations of the workmen, when a young man, named O'Meyey, or Meey, belonging to an ancient family of that country, finding the enemy of his race in liis • .MacCiii-tl)y was nut, :is Mooic- says, defr:itvii in l.jiltlc. — Soe ^^■al•t'(i Aii^iuiA. 232 REIGN OF HENRY II. power, smote him with a battle-axe which he had carried concealed, and with one blow severed his head from his body, both head and trunk rolling into the castle ditch. Fleet as a greyhound, the young man bounded away, and was soon safe from pursuit in the wood of Kilclare ; nor did he stop until he announced his success to the Sinnagh (the Fox) O'Caharny, whose territory of Teffia at one time included Durrow ; and at whose instigation, the annalists say, this perilous exploit was undertaken. Thus perished the most powerful of the English invaders ; and Henry II., who feared or suspected him, did not conceal his satisfaction at his death. The king's first step, on hearing the news, was to order his son, John, to return to Ireland and take possession of De Lacy's lands and castles during the minority of the late baron's eldest son, but the death of the king's third son, Geoffry, duke of Bretagne, caused this arrangement to be abandoned.* Archbishop Comynlield a provincial synod this 3-ear in the church of the Holy Trinity in Dublin.f This year, also, on the 9th of June, the solemn translation of the relics of SS. Patrick, Columba, and Brigid, took place in the cathedral of Down. The remains of these great saints of the primitive church of Ireland v/ere, it is alleged, discovered in a miraculous manner in an obscure part of that church the preceding year; and the permission of the pope having been obtained for the purpose, they were solemnly transferred to one suitable monument, cardinal Vivian, who was sent over on the occasion, being present at the ceremony. ^ A.D. 1188. — Divided and weakened by mutual and implacable dissen- sions, the northei'n chieftains were yet able to check the foreigners by some serious defeats. On one of these occasions a strong force of the invaders issued from their castle of Moy Cova in Down, and were plun- dering the territory of Tyrone, Avhen they were met at a place called Cavan na Crann-ard, or the hollow of the lofty trees, by Donnell * Sir Hugh de Lacy left two sons by his first wife, Rosa dc Munemene, Walter, lord of Meath. and Hugh, earl of Ulster; by his second wife, the daughter of lloderic O'Conor, he had a son called William Gorm, from whom (according to Duald Mac Firbis) the celebrated rebel. Pierce Oge Lacy of Bruree and BrufF, in the reign of Elizabeth, was the eighteenth in descent, and from whom also the Lynches of Galway are descended. Walter and Hugh left no male issue, but Walter Iiad two daughters, who were married, one to Lord Theobald Verdoii, and the other to Geoffry Geneville ; and Hugh had one daughter, Maude, who married Walter de Burgo, (grandson of Fitz Adelm de Rurgo,) who became, in her right, earl of Ulster. See Four Masters, vol. iii , p. 75, note; also, 0'Flahert}''s lar Conncmght, p. 30. t The synod was opened on the fourth Sundny in Lent, and the canons which were adopted at it, and were soon after confirmed by Pope Urban ilL, are. says Harris, extant among tlie archives of Christ Church. See abstracts of these canons by Harri'-, in Ware'.-* Bishops, p. 316; and liy Lunigaii. Led. Hist., ch. XXX., sect. 7. DEATH OF HENRY U. 233 O'Loughlin, lord of Aileach, and defeated with great slaughter, althouoh the brave Irish chieftain himself fell in the conflict. The death of this gallant chief left De Courcy at liberty to turn his arms against Con- naught; Conor Moinmoy, with Melaghlin Beg, of Meath, ha vincp burnt the English castle of Killare in Westmeath, and cut off its garrison the preceding year. The Connauglit chieftains rallied at the call of their prince, who also obtained the aid of Donnell O'Brien, and Conor Moin- moy was thus able to present such an array that De Courcy avoided a collision with him. The English army then marched northward with the intention of penetrating into Tirconnell, and had advanced as far as Easdara, or Ballysadere, in Sligo, when they found the Tirconnellian chief, Flaherty O'Muldory, prepared with a sufficient force to receive them. De Courcy once more made a disgraceful retreat, having first burnt the town, but in crossing the Curlieu mountains he was attacked by the Connaughtmen and the Dalcassians, and after sufFerincr consider- able loss, escaped to Leinster with difficulty. A.D. 1189. — The troubled and eventful career of Henry II. was at length brought to a close. That profligate and ambitious monarch died in France, broken-hearted and defeated, cursing his rebellious sons with his dying words. Some think that it w^as unfortunate for Ireland that the pressui-e of other cares had prevented Henry from devoting more attention to the government of that country ; and reo-ret that he Avas unable to follow up his invasion by a complete conouest. " The world would in that case," observes Mr. Moore, *' have been spared the anomalous spectacle that has been ever since presented by the two nations: the one subjected, without being subdued; the other rulers but not masters ; the one doomed to all that is tumultuous in independence, without its freedom; the other endued with every attri- bute of despotism •except its power."* But we cannot sympathize in any such vain regret. Divided as the Irish were, Henry might have done much to exterminate or crush them in detail. But that he, or any English king of his period, would have governed them with justice and moderation, or that the Irish chieftains would have patientl}^ submitted to the wholesale spoliation of tlieii* country, are hypotheses which we cannot make. Had the native Irish race been extinct, Ireland would not the less have been ruled as a colony and for the supposed interests of England exclusively ; and the subsequent history of the Anglo-J rish will show U'^, that the happiness * UiiUTy of Ireland, vol. ii., p. ii'f'. 2"j4 KEIGN OF KICHARD I. or tranquillity ot this country would not have heen a whit more secure. The chivah'ous Richard I., occupied, during his short reign, with the Crusades, left Ireland wholly to the management of his unprincipled brother, John, who does not seem to have given himself much trouble about its aifairs. John appointed as lord justice Hugh de Lacy, son of the former lord of Meath, to the great disgust of John de Courcy, who felt himself slighted, and retired to Ulster; but the English barons were allowed to prey on the Irish as best they could, and this they contrived to do effectually by enlisting in the service of the Irish princes indiscriminately, scarcely any battle being fought in which English and Irish were not in the armies on both sides. Conor Moinmoy, as a just punishment foi' his rebellion against his father, fell a victim, in 1189, to a conspii-acy of his own chieftains. He was, however, distinguished for courage and generosity, and was acknow- ledged as sovereign by the majority of the Irish princes, who accepted stipends from him, even the unhappy Roderic .submitting patiently to his usurpation. On his death Connaught was once more plunged in domestic strife. Roderic was recalled, and received homage fi'om several chiefs ; but his brother, Cathal Crovderg (Croibhdhearg), or the Redlumded, and his grandson, Cathal Carragh, the son of Conor Moin- moy, were rival claimants for the sovereignty. The attempt to settle the matter by negotiation proving fruitless, Cathal Crovderg next yeai established his rights either by battle or by the show of superior force, there being some obscurity in our annals as to the manner in which the event was brought about.* As to Roderic, he went from province to province among the Irisli chieftains and the English barons, soliciting help to restore him to the throne of Connaught, but his applications were rejected by all, and he was at length recalled by his- sept and received the lands of Tir Fiachruch Aidhne and Kinelca of Aughty, or the * Moore and some other Irish historians wr.uld make it appear, that it was to commemorate a victory on this occasion that Cathal Crovderg founded the celebrated abbey of Knoc Moy, or De CoUeVictoriw, in the county of Galway ; and Hanmer. Leland, and others, after the Book of Howtli, wliich Leland only knew as " Lambeth MSS.," repeat a romantic story about Sir Armoric St. Lawrence, to account for the origin of the same abbey; but Dr. ODonovan (Four Masters, an. 1218, note q), explodes the popular errors on this subject, and shows that the name was Ciioc Muaidhe, or the hill of Muaidhe (a woman's name), and that ^^ Co I lis Victoria" by which the Stories in question were suggested, is but a fanciful tiau.slation of the name, as if it had been Cnoc mbuaidh. It may be well to correct another pojiular error with reference to this abbe}', viz., the idea that thealmost obliterated frescoes still traceable on the walls of the sanctuary represent the execution of Mac Murrough's son and other points of Irish history ; the subjects being unquestionably those lkv)rite ones of the medieval artists, tlie •■ martyrdom of St. Sebastian," the •Three Kings." Jtc DEATH OF DOXXELL MORE o'bRIEN. 235 O'Shauirlinessys country, in the south-western part of the present county of Gahvay. A.D. 1192. — The mdomitable king of Thomond again appears in arms against the English, who, with a powerful army collected from all Leinster, marched as far as Killaloe. Here they were repulsed by O'Brien and his Dalcassians ; and at Thurles, in Eliogarty, they were completely overthrown by the same brave men of Thomond. In the course of this expedition the English erected tlie castles of Kilfeakle and Knockgrafon, in Tipperary. Two years after the English were delivered by the death of Donnell More O'Brien from the most formidable antagonist whom they had j'-et met in Ireland. Brave and liberal, but capricious, this prince, as soon as the real intentions of the invaders became obvious, was the first to break through the formal submission which had been made to the English king ; and with few and brief intervals he continued ever after in arms against the enemies of his country. About the same time fell two other famous Irish chieftains: Cumee O'Flynn, who had defeated De Courcy at Firlee, was slain by the English in 1194; and O'Carroll, prince of Oriel, having been taking by them the year before, was first deprived of his eyes and then hanged. The affairs of the English colony were at this time anything but prosperous. New lords justices followed each other in quick succession. Hugh de Lacy was succeeded by William Petit, in 1191, and he again, the same year, by William earl of Pembroke and earl marshall of England, •who had married Isabel, the daughter of Strongbow, and obtained all the Irish possessions of that nobleman. The insolence of this latter governor did more to rouse the Irish princes to resistance tiian the spoliation to which they had been subjected by others, and it was during his administration that Donnell O'Brien, as we have seen, so severly chastised the invaders in Thomond. Peter Pipard succeeded him as lord deputy, and was followed by Hamon de Valois, who, finding the treasury empty, seized without scruple the church property. Archbishop Coniyn strenuously remonstrated, but seeing that the pillage of the church went on, and that he could obtain no redress from the Irish government, he laid the diocese under an interdict, and proceeded to England to make complaints, which were equally unheeded there. Meanwhile the fatal dissensions of the Irish jjrinces continued to do the work of the common enemy most effectually; Murtough O'Loughlin, lord of Kinel-Owen, was slain, in 1196, by Blosky O'Kane, a subordinate chief; and Rory Mac Dunlevy having thereupon raised an army. 236 DEATH OF EODERIC O CONOR. composed partly of English and Connauglit auxiliaries, marched against the Kinel-Owen, but was defeated with dreadful slaughter, on the plain of Armagh. The men of the south, however, at this moment, exhibited a brilliant exception to this state of parricidai warfare. Donnell M'Carthy, son of Dermot, the late king of Desmond, aided by the forces of Cathal Crovderg, and of Donogh Cairbrach O'Brien, defeated the English in several battles in the course of the year 1196. He destroyed their castles of Kilfeacle and Imokilly, for some time held possession of the city of Limerick, and it is asserted that he reduced the English of Cork to sub- mission. The English had also some reverses in tne north. One Rotsel, or Russel, whom De Courcy had left in command of a castle at Eas Creeva, or the Salmon Leap, near Coleraine, was defeated on the strand of Lough Foyle by Flaherty O'Muldory, who was now recognized as chief of both Kinel-Conell and Kinel-Owen. O'Muldory, however, died very soon after (in 1197), and Eachmarcach O Doherty, Avho then assumed the chieftainship of Kinel-Conell, was killed in a fortnight after this event, together with 200 of his people, in a sanguinary engagement with De Courcy, at the hill of Knoc Nascain, near Lough Swilly, in Inishowen. A.D. 1198. — This year died the deposed and unfortunate monarch, Roderic O'Conor. If individual misfortune could have expiated the fatal imbecility of his earlier life, he suffered enough to merit our for- giveness. The unnatural rebellion of his children, and the irretrievable downfall of his country which he witnessed, and which a few years before he could so easily have prevented, might well have broken a more manly heart than his. " The only feeling his name awakens," observes Moore, " is that of pity for the doomed country which at sucli a crisis in its fortunes, when honor, safety, independence, national exist- ence, were all at stake, was cursed, for the crowning of its evil destiny, with a ruler and leader so utterly unworthy of his high calling."* He died at the advanced age of 82, after several years spent in penitential exercises in the beautiful abbey which he had founded himself at Cong, on the shores of Lough Corrib, and his remains were conveyed to Clon- * Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 340. It is only fair to state that a different estimate of Roderic's cliaracter is formed by some ; and an accomplished writer has not hesitated to describe his efforts against the Norman power as hemic and self-devoied, and himself as "a gi-eat warrior and a fervent patriot." " Brave, learned, just, and enliglitened beyond his age," writes his amiable apologist, "he alone, of all the Irish princes, saw the direful tendcincy of the Norman inroad. All the records of his reign prove that he- was a wise and powerful monarch." — Dublin University May. for March, 1856. The descendants of Roderic, in the male line, liave been long extinct; but it is said that the Lynches of Galway descend from him in the female line, as also the I-, by Donat O'Brien, in 1200; Kilbeggan, VVestmeath, by the Daltons, about 1200; Dounke, Kilkenn\,by William Marshall, about 1200; Abingdon, or Wothenay, Linicnck, by 'I'lieobald Fitz Walter, in 1205; Abbeylorha, Longford, about 1205; Tracton, Cork, by the Mac Carthys, about 1205, or 1224; Moycosquin, Deny, about 1205; Loughseudy, Westmeath, about 1205; and Cashel, Tip- perary, by Archbishop Mac Carwell, in 1272. All these Cistej-cian abbeys were dedicated to tlie Blessed Virgin, except that of Holy Cross, and the abbey of Athlone, dedicated to St. IVter and St. Bf-neilict. There were, also, minor houses, cells to some of the preceding. Archdeacon Lynch enumerates about 40 monastiries erected by Irishmen about the peiiod of the invasion, several o( them being included in the preceding list. One was the Dominicin house of Derry, founded by Donnell Og« O'Donnell, prince of Tirconneli, at the request of St. Dominic himself, wiio sent him two brother.s of the order. Vide Vambrensis Eversus, ii., 535, &c. ; O'SuUivan's Decas Palriciniw, lib, 9, c. 2. ; ar.d Lanigan, vol. iv. Tlie last-named writer enumerates the following primitive 238 REIGN 6f mciIAKD I. Henceforth we shall have to treat of two races as constituting the popu- lation of Ireland, namely, the Anglo-Irish and the " mere Irish." The latter were, with certain exceptions, excluded from the privileges and protection of the English law, and were legally known, even dui'ing peace, as the " Irish enemy." Dissensions were constantly fomented among them by the powerful English barons, who thus made them an easy prey, and stripped them gradually of their territories ; while the Anglo-Irish, especially when residing beyond the English Pale, often shared the fate of the original Irish, with whom they became, in course of time, identified in language, manners, and interests. monastic institutions as existing at the close of the twelfth century: — viz., Armagh, Deny, Bangor, Alagiibile, or Muville, Devenish, Clogher, Clones, Louth, Clonfert, Inchmacnerin, Aian Isles, Cong. Mayo, Clonard, KA\s, Lusk, Kildare, Trim, Clunmacnoise, Killeigh, Glendalough, Siiger, Isle of All Saints on Lough Ree, Roscommon, Ballysadare, DrumclifF, Aghaboe, Lor/a, Lismore, Molana, Cork, Iniscathy, Inisfallen &c., &c. CHAPTER XXI. REIGN OF JOITN. EeneweJ Wars of Cathal Carragh and Cathal Crovderg. — Tergiversation of Wilixaui de Burgo, and Death of Cathal Carragh at Boyle Abbey. — ^Massacre of the English Archers in Conuaught. — Wars in Ulster. — Fate of John de Courcy. — Legends of ihe Book of Howth. — Death and Character of William de Burgo. — Tumults and Rebellions of the English Barons. — Second Visit of Eiug John to Ireland. — Alarm of the Barons. — Submission of Irish Princes. — Independence of Hugh O'Neill. — Division of the English Pale into Counties. — Money Coined. — Departure of John. — The Bishop of Norwich Lord Justice. — Exploits of Cormac O'Melaghlin and Hugh O'Neill. — War in the South. — Catastrophe at A thlone.— Adventures of Murray O'Daly, the Poet of Lissadill. —^Ecclesiastical OccuiTences. COTEMPOKAEr SOVEKEIUNS AND EVLNIS. fPope Innocent III. — King of France, Philip Augustus. — Emperor of Germany, Frederick II. King John resigned his dominions to the Pope, and did homage for them, 1213. — Ma"-na Ciiarta signed at Ruunymead, 1215.] (a.d. 1199 io A..Ti. 1216.) NE of the first acts of John, on ascending the throne of England, m 1199, was to appoint Meyler Fitz Henry- chief governor of Ireland. At that time a fierce war was raging in Connaught between tlie rival factions of the O'Conor family. Cathal Carragh, son of Conor Moin- moy, engaged tlie services of WilHam Burke, or De Burgo, better known to the reader as William Fitz Adelm, and of tlie English of Limerick, and by their aid he expelled Cathal Crovderg, and re-established him- self on the throne of Connaught. The exp'jlled prince enlisted the sympathy of Hugh O'Neill, who had recently appeared as chief of Tjione, and bad distinguished him- self both in 1196 and 1199, by successes ngainst De 240 REIGN OF JOHN. Courcj and the Englisli of Ulster* Cathal Crovderg and Hugh entered Connaught with an army, but finding their force inadequate, commenced a retreat, when they were overtaken at Ballysadare in Shgo by Cathal Carragli and his English auxiliaries, and routed with great loss; O'Hegny, then chief of Oriel, being among the slain in the northern army Cathal Crovderg next succeeded in securing the aid of John de Courcy and of young De Lacy, and marched with a strong English force as far as Kilmacduagh, where Cathal Carragh and the Connacians gave them battle. Cathal of the Red Hand was once more unfortunate, and his army was defeated with such slaughter that only two out of five battalions, of which it consisted, escaped, and these were pursued as far as the peninsula of Rinn-duin, or Rindown* on the shore of Lough Ree, where they were hemmed in and many of them killed, others being drowned in endeavouring to cross the lake in boats. Meyler, the lord justice, now marched against Cathal Carragh, and plundered Clonmacnoise ; and Cathal Crovderg, undaunted by his former losses, resolved to try the expedient of detaching De Burgo from 'the side of his enemy, and of purchasing his services for himself. The result proved that he calculated rightly on the mercenary character of the Anglo-Norman. The English barons recognized no principle in these wars but their own interest, and Avere only too glad to help the Irish in exterminating each other, while at the same time they could aggrandize and enrich themselves. Crovderg proceeded to Munster, where, by large promises, he purchased the aid of De Burgo, and obtained also that of MacCarthy of Desmond. Some of our annals state that a war raged about this very time between the O'Briens and the Desmond families, and that William de Burgo with all the English of Munster joined the former; but the contest to which this account refers did not interfere with that between the O'Conors, and most probably followed it. A.D. 1201. — Cathal Crovderg, with William de Burgo, the sons of Donnell O'Brien and Fineen or Florence Mac Carthy, and their respec- tive forces, marched from Limerick to Roscommon, where the army * The collateral Hy-Niall branch of Mac Loughlin (sometimes also called O'Loughlin), which had taken its name frum Lochlaiiin, the fourth in descent from Niall Glundubh, and had given two distinguished inonarclis to Ireland, disappears in the books of genealog_v with Muircheartach, or Murloiigh Mac Loughlin, monarch of Ireland, who was slain 1166. With the Hugh mentioned above, called Aedh Toinleasc, the O'Neills resume their sway as chiefs of Tyrone. * This point is now called St. John's, and contains the magnificent ruins of a castle, built in 1227, by (leolTi'y Mares, or De Marisco. — See Dr. Petrie's account of it in Uie Iri-h Penny .Journal, pp. 7.3, &c. FALL OF DE COURTY. 241 took up its quarters in the abbey of Boyle. Every part of the sacred precincts was desecrated by the soldiery, and nothing was left of the abbey but the walls and roof, even these being partially destroyed. De Burgo had begun to surround the monastery with an entrenchment, when Cathal Carragh arrived, and several skirmishes took place between the two armies, in one of which Cathal Carragh himself, having got mixed up with some retreating soldiers, was slain in the melee. This event decided the struggle; Crovderg's Munster auxiliaries were dis- missed to their homes, and Cathal and De Burgo repaired to the abbey of Cong, where they passed the Easter, having first billeted the English archers through Connaught for the purpose, as some accounts express it, of " distraining for their wages." The Four Masters say that De Burgo and O'Flaherty of West Connaught entered into a conspiracy against Cathal the Red Handed, which the latter timely discovered ; and that De Burgo having then demanded the wages of his men, the Connacians rose upon them and killed 700 of them. The Annals of Kilronan, how- ever, explain the event differently, for they say that a rumour got abroad in some mysterious manner to the effect that De Burgo was killed, and that by a simultaneous impulse the whole population rose and slew all the English soldiers who were dispersed among them. De Burgo then demanded an interview with Cathal, but the latter avoided seeing him ; and the Anglo-Norman, whose rapacity was foiled for once in so fearful a manner, set off for Munster with such of his men as had escaped the massacre. Three years after he took ample vengeance by the plunder of the whole of Connaught, " both lay and ecclesiastical." Ulster during this time was a scene of constant warfare betAveen the Kinel-Connell and the Kinel-Owen, and of domestic strife among the latter. Hugh O'Neill Avas deposed and Conor O'Loughlin, substituted; but the former appears to have been restored in a few years, after some sanguinary conflicts. A.D. 1204. — This year exhibited, in the downfall of John De Courcy, one of the many instances of retribution with which the history of the first English settlers in Ireland is filled. It is said that De Courcy in- curred the anger of John, by openly speaking of him as a usurper, and as the mm-derer of the young prince Arthm', the rightful heir to the crown of England ; but at all events the " Conqueror of Ulidia " was proclaimed a rebel, and his old enemies, the De Lacys, were ordered to deprive him of his lands, and seize his person. The English army of Meath, therefore, marched against him, and he was dri\ en to seek pro- tection from the Irish of Tyrone. It would appear that he was R 2i3 RETGN OF JOITV. ultimately captured at Downpatrick, after a long siege, and sent to London, where he was confined in the tower for the remainder of his life. The Book of Howth relates how he was treacherously taken on Good Friday, when unarmed and engaged in his devotions in the churchyard of Downpatrick ; how he seized a wooden cross and sIcav thirteen of his assailants on that occasion ; how De Lacy punished, instead of rcAvarding, these persons who had betrayed their master by indicating when he mi<>;ht be found without arms ; how De Courcy Avas afterwards liberated from the tower to fight a French champion, who fled from the lists on beholding him ; how he then showed his strength by cleaving a helmet and coat of mail with his sword; how John thereupon pardoned him, and granted him the privilege which he asked for himself and his successors, to remain with his head covered in the royal presence ; and how, by some mysterious agency, he was prevented from returning to Ireland ; but it is needless to say that all this is mere fiction, although it has been mixed up with real history by Hanmer, and subsequent Irish historians, on no better authority than that repertory of Anglo-Irish legends the Book of Howth. As to Hugh De Lacy, who was then lord justice, he was rewarded by John with the possessions of De Courcy and the title of earl of Ulster.* The same year our annals record the death of the famous William FitzAdelm de Burgo, the ancestor of the Burke family in Ireland. Giraldus Cambrensis describes him as a man addicted to many vices ; bland and crafty ; sweet-tongued to an enemy, and oppressive to those under him; as a man full of wiles, and concealing enmity under a smooth exterior. The Four Masters state that he died unshriven, and of some disgusting disease, in punishment of his sacrilegious plundering of churches ; but other old writers, as Duald MacFirbis, and the transla- tor of the Annals of Clonmacnoise, endeavour to vindicate his character.f * Nothing authentic is known of the fate of Sir John De Courcy, save that he fell into the hands of De Lacy, who took him bj- the king's orders, and that he waAontined in the tower of London. His wife, Affrica, daughter of Clodfred, king of the Isle of Man, died a.d. 1193, and he left no male issue ; the MaoFatricks or De Courcys of Cork, who claim descent from him, being possibly the descendants of his brother who was killed during Sir John's lifetime. The privilege claimed by the barons of Kinsale, as De Courcys, to wear their hats in the pr^^sence of royalty is only supported by modern practice suggested by the above-mentioned legend. — See the subject amply discussed by I>r. O'Douovan, Four Masters, vol. iii. pp. 139-144. note n. t GiraluKS, who was prejudiced against FitzAdelm, says he was: — " Vir corpulontus, tarn staturae quam facturse — vir dapsilis et curialis Imhellium debellatur, reuellium blanditor; indomitis domitus, domitis indomitus; hosti suavissimus, subdito gi-avissimus : nee illi f'irmidabilis, nee isti fidelis. Vir dolnsus, blaudus, meticulosus, vir vino Venerique datus, &c." — llib. lixp., ii., cap. xvi. The Annals of Kilronan mention, under the date of 1203, the erection of a castle at Me«lick, on the Shannon, in the eastern exlrcmiiy of the present cc* ■- of Galway, bji BT.ACK MOXbAY 545 About th:s period th-; utmost disorganization prevailed among the English barons in Ireland, their mutual feuds being as capricious and sanguinary as any Avhich we have had to lament among the native Irish. In 1201, Philip of Wigornia, or Worcester, and William de Braose, laid waste a great part of Munster in their broils. King John sold to the latter for four thousand marks the latids of the former and of Theobald Walter; but Walter redeemed his own for five hundred marks, and Philip re-entered upon his by force of arms. A few years later, tlie tables are turned, and De Braose appears as a defeated rebel, fiying from the country, and his family falling into the hands of the tyrant John, who barbarously caused his wife and his • son to be starved to death in Corfe castle.* Geofii'ey Mares, or De Marisco, also rebelled, and Munster was once more laid waste by contending English armies. Confusion was worse confounded by the rebellion of the De Lacys, between whom and Meyler a bloody civil war was waged, until " Leinster and Munster," as our annals say, " were brought to utter destruction." Cathal Crovderg and O'Brien of Thomond aided the lord justice, Meyler, in besieging Limerick and reducing De Burgo to subjection. Some of the English fortified themselves in their castles, and plundered the country indiscriminately like highwaymen, as Ave find one Gilbert Nangle to have done until he was obliged to fly from Ireland. A.D. 1209. — Dublin having been desolated by pestilence, was partly repeopled from Bristol, to which city the Irish metropolis had been capri- ciously granted by Hemy II. The new colonists not understanding, as it would seem, the actual state of society in Ireland, were in the habit of resorting on holidays for amusement to Cullen's Wood, in the southern suburbs. A great number were thus assembled on Easter Monday, this year, when a party of the Irish septs of O'Byrne and O'Toole, who had William Btiike, who had been previouslj' seated at Limerick, .and the English of JIunstcr, and that in constructiiig the castle they filled up a cliuich with stones and earth. This would appear to liave heen De Burgo's oidy occupation of territory in Connaught, although he is called the con- ■jm-ror of that province. * On retuniiug from Ireland, in August, 1210, John took with him the captives, Maude, wife of William de Breusa, or Branse, and her son, the father having some time before escaped to France. They were committed to Corfe Castle, in the Isle of Purbeck, where, by the king's oidera, they were confined in a room, with a sheaf of wheat and a piece of raw bacon for their only pro- visions. On the eleventh day their prison was opened and both were found dead, in a sitting posture, the mother between her son's legs, with her head leaning on his breast. In the last pangs of hunger she had gnawed her son's cheeks, probably after hia death. When William de Braose lie'ard the tragical end of his wife and son he died in a few days. Such is the account given by a c temporary Flemish writor, who cippears to have been in the service of John. — '■^o. ^^'l•i^,bt. Ilisioiy ot Ireland, vol. i., p. 129. 244 EEIGN OF JOHN. been deprived of their patrimonies, nud forced into the mountains of Wicklow by tlie English, poured doAvn upon them, and cut to pieces some three hundred men. The citizens of Bristol repaired the loss by a fresh supply of colonists, but for hundreds of years after, Black Mon- day, as it was called, was commemorated as a festival by the citizens, who paraded in arms on the field of slaughter, and made a show of challenging the Irish enemy to the fight. A.D. 1210. — While matters were going on thus in Ireland — England, all this while, lying under the spii'itual horrors of an inderdict, or deprivation of the sacraments, and the king himself under a sentence of excommunication in punishment of his sacrileges and his contumacy against the church — John resolved to visit his Irish dominions for the purpose of restoring order there. Some of the oppressive exactions, tmder which the unhappy Jews groaned in this tyrant's reign, were levied for the expenses of this expedition. He landed at Crook, near Waterford, on the 20th June, this year, with a numerous and well- equipped army, which was conveyed in 700 ships. The presence of the king, with so powerful a force, struck awe into his rebellious subjects, and produced an immediate calm throughout the land. The De Lacys fled to France at his approach.* Others, like De Braose, followed their example. As to the Irish, they were, in fact, not at war with tlie English government at that moment, and as many as twenty Irish chieftains are said to have done homage to him during his stay in this country. He proceeded to Dublin, and thence to Meath, where Cathal Crovderg made his submission to him.t In compliance with the king's summons, Hugh O'Neill also repaired to the royal presence ; but de- parted without agreeing to any terms of submission. He appears to have encamped with a numerous force near the English camp, and on leaving carried off considerable spoils from the neighbouring country. John took Carrickfergus Castle, after a short siege, from De Lacy's people, and placed a garrison of his own there ; and the king of Con- naught, who had accompanied him with a great retinue, then returned * One of the crimes with which the De Lacys were charged was the murder of Sir John De Courcy, lord of Raheny and Kiloarrack, near Duhhn, a relative of the famous earl of Ulster, says Ware (Annals, an. 1213). See O'Donovan's note on the De Co'urcy's, quoted above. t Catlial Crovderg appears to have entered into terms with Meyler Fitz Henry a few years before this, and to have consented to yield two parts of Connaught to the English king, retaining the third part as his feudatory, and paying for it an annual sum of 100 marks. The Close rolls contain an entry of the letter, in which John expresses Ws satisfaction to Meyler at this arrange- tnent. On John's arrival at Waterford, in 12 10, Donough Cairbreagh O'Brien, son of Donnell Jlore, made his submission, and received a charter for Carr' v'gonnell and the lordship thereto belonging, for which he was to pay sixty mark.s. DIVISION OF COUNTIES. 215 home. Shortly after, John was at Rathguaire, now Rathwire, near Kinnegad, in Westmeath, and Cathal Crovderg again came, bringing four hostages, but not his son, whom it appears he liad promised to bring, and whom Jolui Avas to have taken under his special charge. There being no military operations to occupy the king, he set about introducing English laws and customs into Ireland. He divided Leinster and Munster into twelve shires or counties, namely, Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Uriel (Louth), Catherlough (Carlow), Kilkenny, Wexford. Waterf ord, Cork, Limerick, Kerry, and Tipperary ; but, as Sir John Davies observes, " these counties stretched no further than the lands of the Englisli colonists extended. In them only were the English laws published and put in execution ; and in them only did the itinerant judges make their circuits, and not in the countries possessed by the Irish, which contained two-thirds of the kingdom at least."* John also caused sterling money to be coined in Ireland of the same standard as that of England, and took his departure from this country in the last week of August, leaving, as lord justice, John de Gray, bishop of Norwich, the man whom he wanted to make archbishop of Canterbury in spite of the pope, and wdio was thus the cause of his quarrel with the Holy See. The remaining events of our history during John's reign are not of much importance, and have no relation to the memorable transactions of which England was at that period the scene — the final submission of John to the pope, his war with the barons, the granting of the mapiia charta, &c. Cormac, head of the ancient Meath family of O'Melaghlin, \vrested Delvin in Westmeath, from the English, and carried on a long Avar with them and their auxiliaries; and Hugh O'Neill of Tyrone, and Donnell O'Donnell of Tyrconnell, havmg settled their old differences, co-operated in beating the English on two or three occasions. The castle erected by the English at Caol Uisge, on the Erne, Avas captured by them, and its commandant, Mac Costello, slain ; and Hugh O'Neill burned the castle of Carlingford and slaughtered its garrison. A.D. 1215. — In the south, we are told by the Annals of Innisfallen, that a AA'ar, in Avhich the English took part, as usual, on both sideS; and which Avas probably fomented by them, raged betAveen the two brothers, Dermot and Cormac Finn MacCarthy, princes of Desmond; and that the result AA-as the acquisition by the English of an enormous increase of territory in that quarter, Avhere they fortified themselves by the erection of about tAventy strong castles in Cork and Kerry. * DAvis' Hist. Tracts, p. 93. £16 REIGN OF JOIIX The " English bishop," as De Gray is called, built a bridge of stone over the Shannon at Athlone in 1210 (1211), and erected a castle there, on the site of one which had been built by Turlough More O'Conor in 1129; but one of the towers, when just finished, fell, and crushed beneath its ruins Richard Tuite, the most powerful of the English barons since the departure of the De Lacys, together with his chaplain and seven other Englishmen. The outworks of the castle extended into the sanctuaries of St. Peter and St. Kieran, and the Irish attributed the catastrophe to this desecration. The Four Masters, under the date 1213, relate a story which curiously Illustrates tlie manners of the period. Dounell More O'DonnSll, lord, o** Tirconnell, sent a steward named Finn O'Brollaghan into Connaught ♦. collect a tribute which he claimed in the northern portion of that pro- vince. One of the first places which the steward visited was the house of the poet, Murray O'Daly, at Llssadili, in Sligo; and being a coarse, ignorant fellow, he began to wrangle with the poet, who, enraged at his conduct, seized a battle-axe and killed him on the spot. To escape the anger of O'Donnell, the poet fled to Clanrickard, in the present county of Galway, Avhither he was pursued by the angry prince of Kinel- Connell, so that MacWilliam (that is, Richard Burke, son of the late "William de Burgo) was obliged to send him to seek refuge elsewhere. Thus was the unfortunate O'Daly compelled to fly to Limerick, and thence to Dublin, and finally to Scotland ; O'Donnell pursuing him with an army, besieging towns, and plundering the country to compel the inhabitants to surrender the fugitive. In his last asylum ODaly found time to compose three poems in praise of O'Donnell, which soothed the anger of the latter, and procured the poet's pardon. In one of these poems he complains that the cause of the hostility against him was very small indeed, namely, the killing of a clown who had insulted him ! Cadhla, or Catholicus O'Duffy, the venerable archbishop of Tuam, a cotemporary of St. Malachy and St. Laurence O'Toole, died at an advanced age in the abbey of Cong, in 1201 ; and the same year John De Monte Celio, the pope's legate, came to Ireland, and held sjmods at Dublin and Athlone. John Comyn, the first English archbishop of Dublin, died in 1213, and was interred in Christ Church; and his successor was Henry De Londres, a great friend and adherent of king John's, through all his troubles, and who, with William Marshall, earl of Pembroke, was among the few on the king's side at Runneymead, and signd the magna charta as such. Some Irish bishops attended the fourtli general council of Lateran in 1215; as we find that Dion vsius ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS. 2-17 O'Lonergan, archbishop of Cashel, died at Rome that year ; that Cor- nelius O'Heney, bishop of Killaloe, died on his return from Rome ; and that the death of Eugene MacGillavider, archbishop of Armagh, took place in the Eternal City the following year.* * Besides several of the religious houses enumerated in the note at the end of the last chapter, the following were also founded in Ireland, about the period treated of in the present chapter; viz: — The Pnory of Kills, in Kilkenny, founded in 1193, by Geoffry FitzRobert, for canons regular of St. Augustin, under the Invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary; the Priory of Kilrush, in Kildare, for canons regular, and the commandery of St. John and St. Brigid, in Wexford, for knights hospitallers, by William Marshall, earl of Pembroke;: the Priorj' of Tristernagh, in Westmeath, for canons regular, by Geoffiy De Constantine, in 1200 ; the Priory of Great Conall, on the bank.* of the Liffey, in Kildare, for the same, by Meyler FitzHenry, in 1202 ; the Priory of Canons Regular, at Inistiogue in Kilkenny, by Thomas, seneschal of Leinster, in 1206; and the Priory of the same order at Newtown, on the north bank of the Boyne, by Simon Rochford, bishop of Meath, in the same year. Earl Marshall founded the Convent of St. Saviour on the site occupied by the present Law Courts in Dublin, in 1216 — it was first held by the Cistercians, but was traut/- ferred eight years after to the Douunican friars. ^^-v \}!i^.,^^ -^m^ CHAPTER XXII. (reign of HEXRY III.) Extension of Magna Charta to Ireland. — Eeturn of Hugh do Lacy. — "Wars between De Lacy and Earl Marshall. — Surrender of Territory to the Crown by Irish Princes. — Connaught Granted by Henry to Do Burgo. — Domestic "Wars in Connaught. — Interference of the English. — Eamine and Pestilence. — Hugh O'Conor Seized in Dublin and Rescued by Earl Marshall. — His Retaliation at Athlone. — Death of Hugh, and Fresh "Wars for the Succession in Connaught. — Felim O'Conoi". — English Castles in Connaught Demolished. — The Islands of Clew Bay Plundered. — Melancholy Eate of Earl Marshall. — Connaught Occu- pied by the Anglo-Irish. — Divisions and War in Ulster. — Felim O'Conor Proceeds to England. — Deaths of Remarkable Men. — Expeditions to France and "Wales. — The Geraldines mahe "War at their own Discretion. — Rising of the Young Men in Connaught. — Submission of Brian O'^Neill. — Battle of Creadran- kille and Defeat of the English. — Death of Fitzgerald and O'Donnell. — Domestic "\\"ar in the North. — Battle of Downpatrick. — Wars of De Burgo and FitzGcrald. — Defeat of the English near Carrick-on-Shannon. — General Yiew of this Reign. COTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS AND EVENT Popes: Gregory IX. to Clcmpnt lY. — St. Louis IX., king of France, died 1270 ; St. Dominic died 1221 ; St. Francis died 1226.— Guelphs and GuiDelines iu Italy, 1230.— Seventh Crusade, 1248 ; Eiglit Crusade, 1268. [from 1216 TO 1272.] ENRY III., on the death of his father, Jolm, in 1216, ascended the throne, while yet in his tenth year, and William Marshall, earl of Pembroke and lord of Leinster, was appointed protector both of the king and kingdom ; Geoffi'ey de Marisco being continued in the office of cnstos, or chief governor of Ireland. The great power enjoyed by earl Marshall, his intimate ties, both of family and property, with Ireland, and his wasdom in the management of the state, secured special attention at coiu't to the affairs of this country ; and accordingly, we find that a statement of grievances, made by the English settlers, was immediately followed by the transmission to Ireland of a duplicate of the magna charta, altered in some points to suit the difference of circumstances. Legal HETURX of HUGH DE LACY. 240 privileges were, however, only conceded to persons of English descent, any general extension of them to the Irish being opposed by the barons ; although, in individual cases, charters of " English law and liberty" were granted to some Irish who applied for them. One of the first acts of the reign was the pardon of Hugh de Lacy, and an invitation to him to return to his Irish estates; but William Marshall, who performed this service for him, having died soon after, (a.d. 1221,) and being succeeded by his son, William, a feud arose between De Lacy and the latter, Avhose father had obtained some of De Lacy's lands while this nobleman was in exile, and all Meath was ravao-ed in the fierce war Avhich raged between them. The fact of Hugh de Lacy being supported by Hugh O'Neill in this contest, led the Irish annalists to suppose that the former had returned to Ireland without the king's permission, and that he had joined O'Neill in a war against the English. " The English of Ireland," they tell us, " mus- tered twenty- four battalions at Dundalk, whither Hugh O'Neill and De Lacy came against them with four battalions ; and on this occasion the English conceded his own demands to O'Neill." In this war Trim was gallantly defended by De Lacy against William Marshall; and imme- diately after the war, a strong castle was erected there. About this time died Henry de Londres, archbishop of Dublin, and lord justice of Ireland, by whom the chief part of Dublin Castle was erected.* There is great confusion as to the order in which the lords justices then succeeded ; the names of William Marshall, GeofFrej' de Marisco, and ilaurice FitzGerald appearing in a difFei'ent order, according to different authorities. The Anglo-Irish historians tell us that several of the Irish chieftains surrendered their territories to the English king, receiving back a portion of their lands, for which they paid rent as tenants of the croAvn. Thus O'Brien, of Thomond, made a formal surrender, and received from Henry this year (1221) a great part of his own territory, for which he was to pay an annual rent of one hundred and thirty marks ; this desperate course being resorted to by the Irish chiefs for the purpose of obtaining the protection of government against the aggressions of the imprincipled and rapacious barons. How futile, however, their hopes * This English prelate was nicknamed " Duin-bill," from a very improbable circumstance related of him. It is said that having got all the instruments bj' which the tenants of the archiepiscopal estates lield their lands into his hands, on the pretence of examining them, he cast them into the fire ; but that a tumult ensued which compelled him to fly, and that he was subse- quently obliged to confirm the tenants" tenures. The story rests on an old tradition. 250 FEIGN OF HENRY III. of security against wrong were, even pnrcliasecl by such sacrifices, was soon evinced In the treatment of the Connaclans by Henry III., Avho, notwithstanding such an arrangement with Cathal Crovderg, made a grant of the whole province of Connaught to Richard de Burgo, to take effect on the death of Cathah* A.D. 1224. — This year, in which an awful shower is said to have fallen in Connaught, and to have been followed by muiTain, Cathal Crovderg, who was distinguished not less for the purity of his morals than for his valour, died in the habit of a grey friar at Knockmoy, or, as the Annals of Clonmacnoise have it, at Briola, near the Suck, In Roscommon, and his son, Hugh, assvimed the government of Connaught; but the succession became the source of a most lamentable and desolating war. Henry issued a mandate, dated June, 1225, to earl iNlarshall, ordering him to seize the whole country of Connaught, as forfeited by O'Conor, and to deliver it to Richard de Burgo; but the Irish appear not to have been aware of any such order, or, if they were, to have treated it with contempt. Alas ! there needed not the mandate of the Eno-llsh king to kindle the flame of war on the occasion, or to instigate the destruction which the infatuated people were too ready to execute upon themselves ! A.D. 1225. — The clahns of Hugh, son of Cathal Crovderg, to the crown of Connaught Avere immediately disputed by his cousins, Tur- lough and Hugh, sons of Roderic ; and O'Neill, urged by Mageraghty, chief of Sil-Murray, from motives of private vengeance, mustered a large force and marched Into Connaught to assist the two latter princes. Upon this all the Connaught chieftains, with the exception of Mac Dermot, of Moylurg, and a few minor chiefs, rose against Hugh, son of Cathal; and O'Neill, having inaugurated Turlough at Carnfree,t and paid himself by the plunder of Hugh's house at Lough Nen, returned with his army to Tyrone. The English barons had a large army assembled at this time at Athlone, either for the purpose of executing king Henry's orders, or of watching the progress of affairs In Connaught. To them Hugh, the son of Cathal repaired, and he was received with open arms. Most of them had aheady been bountifully rewarded by * Cox, Leland, &c. The Irish annalists make no mention of this surrender of their territo- ries by the Irish princjs. The particulars of the Connaught war, which follow in the text, are taken exclusively from our native annals, the accounts of it published on Anglo-Irish authority being full of error. t This was the usual inauguration place of the O^onors, and has been identified by Dr. O'Do- novan as a small cairn of stones and earth near the village of Tulsk, about three miles S.E. of Katlicri>glian, in ihe county of \wosconimoii. — Four Masters. \>A. iii.. u. 221, D/ite''a). THK Vr'AKS OF T!IE oVoXORS. 251 Ilia father or himself for military services, and they rejoiced at the present prospect of an inroad into Connanght under his standard. A strong- English army, with the lord justice himself at its head, and Donough Cairbrach O'Brien, and O'Melaghlin, with their forces, as auxiliaries, besides the forces of Mac Donough and other friends of Hugh, now entered Connaught, where, after the departure of O'Neill, there was no adequate force to oppose them, and the enemies of Hugh fled In various directions at their approach, carrying off their families, cattle, and other moveables. After some skirmishing with detached parties, Hugh led the English army in pursuit of the sons of Roderic, by a route which they could not have discovered themselves, as far as Attymas, in the north-east of j\Iayo, and they plundered and depopulated several districts. Numbers of fugitives, endeavouring to effect their escape across Ballymore Lough, in the present parish of Attymas, were drowned, and the baskets of the fishing weirs were found filled with the bodies of children. " Such of them," say the Annals, " as escaped, on this occasion, from the English and from drowning, passed into Tirawley, where they were attacked by O'Dowda, who left them not a single cow." The sons of Roderic now resolved to defer any f m'ther effort until Hugh's English allies should have left him ; and some of their staunchest adherents accordingly made a feigned submission to Hugh, who soon after .dismissed the English battalions, to Avhom he delivered, as hostages for their wages, several of the Connaught chiefs, who were subsequently obliged to ransom themselves, while he himself remained with his Irish friends to Avatch the O'Flahertys and others, whose fidelity he with good reason suspected. Durino; these hostilities, the Eno;lIsh of Desmond and Murtouo-li O'Brien, one of the Thomond princes, without any invitation from Hugh O'Conor, made an irruption into the south of Connaught, burning villages and slaying the inhabitants where they could be found ; r. Kelly (Camb. Ever, ii , p. 543, nnte), says, '• In 1250, Innocent IV. addressed a letter to the archbishop of Dublin and the bishop of Ossory, complaining that Irish bishops excluded all Anglo- Iiiish from canonries in their churches : he ordered them to rescind that rule one month after the receipt of his letter, on the Christian principle that the sanctuary of God should not be held by- hereditary right. This principle, however, became the exception in Ireland, in all churclies and religious houses under the English power, down to the Reformation; the contrary principle was enacted as the rule by the statute of Kilkenny (of a.d. 13(i7), which excluded all Irish from Eng- lish churches and religious houses, unless they had been qualified by a royal letter of denizenship. The effect of this law was to exclude the Irish not only from almost all the houses founded by the Anglo-Irish, but from a very great number founded by themselves, which had fallen under the English power. A few years (1515) before Luther began to preach his opinions, Leo X. issued a bull confirming the exclusion of the native Irish, even though qualified by a royal letter, from St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin ; and on the same principle, a few years before, Dean Allen bequeathed charities to the poor, provided they were Anglo- Irish." ♦ Connell Mageoghegan, who translated the Annals of Clonmacnoise in 1627, appends to the record of the last event mentioned above, the following note: — '-This nnuh I gathir out of tliia historian, whom I take to be an authentic and worthy prelate of the church, that would tell nothing but truth, that there reigned more dissensions, strife, warrs, and debates, between tha Englishmen themselves in the beginning of the conquest of this kingdomc, than between the Irish- men, as by perusing the warrs between the I.aciesof Meath, John Coursey, Earle of Ulster, \\ illiani Marshall, and the English of Meath and Munster, MacGerald, the Burke*, Butkr, and Cot^.n, may annear." 27H REIGN OP EDWARD IT. shelter and succour in the island of Rathlin, on the Irish coast. Some of the Ulster chieftains subsequently joined in an expedition in his aid; but their attempt was abortive, for on landing in Scotland, they were encountered by the English army, and almost all cut to pieces. Tl)e summons of the English king, when mustering an army against Scot- land, in this war, was not responded to by the native Irish ; and when the Scots were triumphant, the Irish of the northern province lost no time in appealing to them, as a kindred people, to help them in ridding themselves of the same foreign thraldom , and proposed to Robert Bruce to make his brother, Edward, king of Ireland. About this time Donnell O'Neill, king of Ulster, wdth other Irish princes of that province, acting in the name of the Irish in general, addressed a memorial, or remonstrance, to the sovereign pontiff, John XXII., setting forth the grievances which their country suffered under the English yoke.* This interesting document glances at the early history of Ireland, to show the right of the Irish to national indepen- dence; it then refers to the false statements by which his Holiness's predecessor, Adrian IV., had been induced to transfer the sovereignty of their country to Henry II. ; it points out how utterly unworthy that impious king was of the confidence which pope Adrian had reposed in him — how he had perverted the papal grant to his own unjust pur- poses; how he and his successors had violated the conditions under which his entrance into the kingdom of Ireland had been sanctioned ; how the church of Ireland had been plundered by the English, the church lands confiscated, and the persons of the clergy as little respected as their property; how vices had been imported, and the Irish, instead of being reformed, deprived of their primitive candour and simplicity; how the protection of the English laws was denied to them, so that when an Englishman murdered an Irishman, as frequently happened, his crime was not punishable before an English tribunal ; and how the English clergy treated them with shameful injustice by re- fusing to Irish reli<2;ious admission even into the monastic institutions which had been founded and endowed by their Irish ancestors. The memorial enumerates some of the atrocities of the English in Ireland, such as the treacherous massacre of the chiefs of Ofl^iily at the dinner- table of Pierce Bermingham, and the murder of Brian Roe O'Brien by * This memorial would ai)pear to have been written during Hie period of Bruce's invasion, and after the pope had been induced by the English government lo condemn the proceedings of tl e Scots. It makes no allusion to this condemnation, but adopts a dignified tone of justifi- Mtion. EXPKDITION OF EDWARD BRUCE. 279 Thomas de Clare : audit proceeds: — "Let no person, then, wonder if we endeavour to preserve our lives and defend our liberties, as best we can, against those cruel tyrants, usurpers of our just properties, and murderers of our persons. So far from thinking it unlawful, we hold it to be a meritorious act ; nor can we be accused of perjury or rebellion, since neither our fathers nor we did at any time bind ourselves, "Tjv any oath of allegiance, to their fathers or to them ; wherefore, with- out the least remorse of conscience, wdiile breath remains, Ave shall attack them in defence of our just rights, and never lay down our arms until we force them to desist." In conclusion, the Irish princes inform his Holiness, that " in order to attain their object the more speediiv and surely, they had invited the gallant Edward Bruce, to whom, being descended from their most noble ancestors, they had transferred, as they justly might, their own right of royal dominion."* Moved by the representations contained in this memorial, Pope John addressed, a few years later, a strong letter to Edward III., in wdiich, referring to the bull granted by Pope Adrian to Henry II., his Holiness says, that " to the object of that bull neither Henry nor his successors paid any regard, but that, passing the bounds that had been prescribed to them, they had heaped upon the Irish the most unheard of miseries and persecution, and had, during a long period, imposed on them a yoke of slavery which could not be borne." His Holiness earnestly urges the English king to adopt a different policy ; to reform as speedily as possible, and in a suitable manner, the evils under which the Irish labored, and to remove their just causes of complaint, "lest it might be too late hereafter to apply a remedy, when the spirit of revolt had grown stronger."! Robert Bruce received with avidity the invitation of the Irish, as it promised a favorable field for the military energy and ambition of his brother, Edward, who had already begun to demand a share in the sov^ereignty of Scotland. An expedition to Ireland was, therefore, pre- pared as soon as circumstances would permit, and on the 2Gth of May, 1315, Edward Bruce, wdio was styled earl of Carrick, arrived off the coast of Antrim with a fleet of 300 sail, from whicli an army of 6,000 men was disembarked at Larne — or, as some say, at the mouth of the Glendun river, in the county of Antrim. He was accompanied by the * The original Latin of the memorial is preserved by Furcliin, and translations of it will be found in Plowdeii's UUtorkal Revieio, Charles O'Conor's Suppressed Memoirs, Taaft^s Ilislonj, and tho Abbe Mageoghegun, p. 323. Duff3''s Edition. t See this letter of Pope John's in O'SuUivan's Ili^t. Cath. Ilib., p. 70., Dublin, 1850. 280 REIGN OF EDWARD IT. earl of Moray, John Monteith, John Stewart, John Campbell, Thomas Randolph, son of the earl of Moray, Fergus of Ardrossan, John de Bosco, &c. This event filled the country with excitement and conster- nation. The Irish flocked in great numbers to Bruce's standard, and the Anglo-Irish of Ulster were quickly defeated in several encounters. There is great confusion in the accounts given of the first exploits of Edward Bruce in Ireland ; apparently not arising from intentional mis- statement, but from a transposition in the order of events by some of the old chroniclers. It would appear that Dundalk, Ardee, and some other places in Oriel were taken and destroyed in rapid succession by the invaders, and that the church of the Carmelite friary of Ardee was burned, with a number of the Anglo-Irish who had sought refuge in it. The red earl raised a powerful army, chiefly in Connaught, and marched against Bruce ; and on meeting the lord justice, Sir Edmond Butler, with a Leinster army, also proceeding against the Scots, he told ]\im rather haughtily that he would take the work upon himself, which, as earl of Ulster, he conceived it to be his duty to do, and would deliver Edward Bruce, dead or alive, into the hands of the justiciary. The two Anglo- Irish armies, nevertheless, formed a junction somewhere near Dundalk. Previous to this, as it would appear from some accounts, Bruce was induced by O'Neill to march northward, and to cross the Bann at Coleraine, breaking down the bridge after him ; but this move, whether made at this time or subsequently, was found to have been a wrong one, and the Scottish army was afterwards ferried across the river at a more southerly point, by one Thomas of Down, who employed four small vessels for the purpose. According to an Irish authority,* the earl of Ulster's army marched on one side of the Bann, and the Scottish army on the other, so that the archers on both sides could exchange shots ; a.nd soon after the Scots had been ferried over the river, as just men- tioned, the English army, weakened by the defection of Felira, the king of Connaught, who had hitherto acted as an auxiliary to the red earl, was routed near Connor, and William de Burgo, the earl's brother, with several of the English knights, taken prisoners. This battle, according to Grace, was fought on the 10th September, and Dundalk had been captured on SS. Peter and Paul's day, the 29th of June. After the battle of Connor, the red earl fled to Connaught, where he remained for that year without a vestige of an army ; and a portion of the de- feated English made their way to Carrickfergus, where some of them * Annals of Clonmacnii.se. DISASTROUS BATTLE OF ATHENRY. 28 1 entered the castle, and bravely defended it against the Scots. Edward Bruce, who had already caused himself to be proclaimed king of Ireland, left some men tO carry on the siege of Carrickfergus, and marched with the main body of his small army towards tlie south* A.D. 1316. — We are now compelled to follow our annalists into Con- naught, where events most disastrous to the Irish cause Avere taking place. Felim O Conor having, as we have seen, accompanied the red earl to Ulster, had entered into correspondence with Edward Bruce, and consented to hold from him his kingdom of Connaught ; but in the meantime, Rory, son of Cathal Roe O'Conor, head of the Clann Mur- tough, had taken up arms and kindled the flames of war throughout Connaught. He destroyed some English castles in Roscommon, and sent off emissaries to Bruce, who had already come to an understanding with Felim, and w^ho now authorized Rory to carry on war against the English, but not to meddle with Felim's lands. Rory little heeded this injunction; and Felim found a sufficient excuse to return home to defend his territory against the depredations of the Clann Murtough chief. A series of sanguinary conflicts took place between them. Several chiefs fell on both sides ; and great cattle spoils were lost and won. Even Felim's foster-father, Mulrony MacDermot, turned for a while to Rory's side, ashamed at seeing himself one of a crowd of crest-fallen chief tains at the house of the red earl, who had just returned from his defeat at Connor. The result was still doubtful, when Felim, early in the present year (1316), mustered a numerous army, composed partly of Englishmen under Bermingham, und penetrated, in pursuit of Rory, through the bogs in the north-east of the present county of Galway, by the causeway then called Togher-mona-Connee. Rory, who had been watching his movements from the summit of a hill, here gave him battle, but was slain, and his army routed with terrible slaughter. Felim ha\ang thus disposed of his rival, lost no time in fulfilling his engagement to Bruce, and turned his arms against the English. He burned the town of Ballylahan, in the east of Mayo, and slew De Exeter and De Cogan. Co-operating with the chiefs of all the west of Ireland, including the O'Briens of Thomond, he mustered a numerous army, with which he marched to Athenry, where a large and well-armed Anglo Irish force under William de Burgo and Richard Bermingham, lord of the town, was entrenched. A fierce and desperate battle ensued. The * See the accounts of these transactions from Mageoghegan's translation of tlic Annals of Cloumacnoise, in Four Masters, vol. ill., pp. 504, &.c., note ; also Graces Annnh, pp. C", &c. 282 k::ign of edward ii. coatsof mail and the skill of tlie crossbow-men gave theEnglish a great su- periority ; but tlie Irish, whose best soldiers were the galloglasses,* fought with unflinching bravery, and by their own accounts lost that day 11,000 men, among whom was their gallant and youthful king, Felim, then only in his twenty-third year. Cox says that 8,000 of the Irish were slain. Some of the ancient families of Connaught were almost exterminated, so great was the slaughter of the native Irish gentry, and it was said that no man of the O'Conors was left in all Connaught capable of bearing arms except Felim's brother. This battle was fought on St. Laurence's day, the lOtli of August, and was the most sanguinary that had taken place since the Anglo-Norman invasion. In it the chivalry of Connaught was crushed, and irretrievable injury inflicted on the Irish cause.f The Scots seem to have wasted the remainder of the year 1315 in a fruitless siegeofCarrickfergus Castle ; but on receiving a reinforcement of 500 men, on St. Nicholas day (December 6th) Bruce set out on his march to tho south. His route was apparently by the north of Meath, through Nob- ber andKells toFinnagh inWestmeath, thence toGranard in Longford, and Lough Seudy, where he spent Christmas. Thence he passed through Westmeath and part of the King's county into Kildare, to Rathangan, Castledermot, Athy, Rheban, and Arscoll, where he was opposed by Ed- mond Butler, the justiciary, whom he defeated He then returned to- Avards Ulster, burning in his way the castle of Ley, and passing through Geashiil and Fovv^re to Kells, his army spreading desolation along its route.t At the last-named town, Sir Roger Mortimer met him with an army of 15,000 men, which was put shamefully to flight; the defeat being attributed by the English to the defection of some of their men, especially the De Lacys. Mortimer fled to Dubhn, and others made their escape to Trim ; and in the meantime, the Irish everywhere rose in *The Galloglasses (Gall oglach) who were the heavy-armed foot soldiers of the Irish, wore an iron head piece, and a coat of defence stuck with iron nails, and the weapons they carried were a long sword and a broad keen-edged axe. The Kerns, or Keherns, were the light-jirmed infantry, wlio fought with darts or javelins, and also carried swords and knives. — Harris' Ware, vol. ii., p. 161. Dr. O'Conor, in his suppressed work. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Charles O'Conor of Belanagare^ observes Uiat tha English ^ere, at the battle of Athenry, well armed and drawn up in regular systematic array, and that the Irish fouglit without armour. t A story is told of a young man of the Anglo-Irish of Athenry, named Ilussey, who is called by .irace a butcher, going out after the battle to search for the body of O'Kelly, the chief of Hy-Many, and of his meeting that chieftain still alive, and killing him under very improbable circumstances. It i.i added that he brought O'Kelly's head to Bermingham, who knighted Hussey on the spot, and tlatthe latter subsequently obtained the lands of Galtrim, of which his family became barons. — Jiichard Bermingham was created baron of Athenry for his services that day, and the walls of the town were rebuilt out (,f part of the spoils of the Irish. J Grace's Annals, p. 07, note u. BRUCE AT'CASTLEKNOCK. 233 arms. In the heart of the English territory the O'Tooles and O'Byrnes burnt Arklow, Newcastle, and Bray ; and the OI\Iores rose in Leix, where, however, they were soon after defeated with great slaughter by Edmond Butler. The Anglo-Irish barons were at length thoroughly aroused to the danger of their position, and gathering round Lord John Ilotham, who was deputed specially to them on tlie occasion by the king of England, they agreed to forego their private quarrels and to act together for the defence of the realm. Famuie had at this time begun to ravage the country, and the Scots felt it severely. Edward Bruce retired into Ulster, wdiere he exercised all the authority of a king, hold- ing parliaments, deciding causes, and levying supplies, without any at- tempt on the part of the English to disturb him. As summer advanced, Edward Bruce made his appearance once more before Carrickfergus, where Thomas Mandeville had succeeded in throwing in reinforcements, and the garrison had been thus enabled con- stantly to annoy the Scots in the neighbourhood. The siege was pro- longed until September, when king Robert Bruce, finding that his brother was not making the progress which he had expected in Ireland, came over himself; and the operations of the besiegers being conducted with fresh energy, the garrison at length surrendered on honorable terms, having been, in the course of the siege, so hard pressed by hunger, that they ate hides and fed on the bodies of eight Scots whom they had made prisoners. The remainder of 1?>16 was consumed in desultory efforts, in which the English gained some advantages against the Irish in the centre and the west, and in one instance against the Scots, of whom John Logan and Hugh Bisset slew 300 in Ulster, on the 1st of November. A.D. 1317. — All parties prepared to put forth their utmost strength at the commeiicement of the year. The Scottish army in Ireland at this time was computed at 20,000 men, besides an irregular force of Irish ; and wuth this army king Robert Bruce and his brother crossed the Boyne, at Slane, after Shrovetide. They marched to Castlekuock, near Dublin, on the 24th of February, and took Hugh Tyi-rel, the lord of that fortress, prisoner, making the castle their own quartei's. All was con- sternation in Dublin. The Anglo-Irish distrusted each other. About two months before this, the De l^acys, having been charged with treasonably aiding the Scots, called for an investigation, in which thty were acquitted, and they then gave the most solemn pledges of their fidelity; yet now they were actually under Bruce's standard. Richard, earl of Ulster, who was far advanced in years, and had lost all Ixi--^ 284 RKIGN OF EDWARD II. former energy, was also suspected by the English. His daughter, Elizabeth — or, as some say, his sister — was married to Robert Bruce in 1302, and this connexion naturally gave ground for suspicion against him. When the Scots Avere approaching Dublin, the earl, who Avas living retired in St. IMary's Abbey, was suddenly arrested by the mayor, Robert de Nottingliam, and confined in Dublin castle; seven of his servants being killed in the fray at his arrest, and the abbey pillaged by the soldiery, and partly bunded doAvn. The citizens, led on by the mayor, acted with a frantic spirit, Avliich may be called intrepidity or desperation. To prepare for the expected siege, they burned the sub- urbs, and among the rest Thomas-street, with the priory of St. John the Baptist, Avhich stood there; and the populace plundered the monastery of St. Mary and St. Patrick's Church, which Avere outside the city. They went so far as to demolish the church of St. Sra^iour, on the north side of the riA^er, and to use the materials in constructing an outer Avail close by the riA^er side, along the present line of Merchant's-quay and the Wood-quay, Avhich were then in the suburbs.* Robert Bruce, learning that Dublin was stro-*! gly fortified, and iudaincr of the determination of the citizens from the flames of the burning suburbs, Avhich he A^■itnessed from a distance, thought it better not to risk the delay of a siege, to carry on wdiich effectually, a con- siderable army, and shipping to cut ofi" supplies by AA'ater, would have been required. He therefore marched towards the Salmon Leap, on the Liffey, a locality Avhicli had been famous in the Danish AA'ars, and haA'ing encamped there four days, he led his forces to ISTaas, and in succession to Tristle Dermot (Castle Dermot), GoAvran, and Callan, reaching the last-named place about the 12th of March. He burnt the towns and plundered the churches along the line of march, and the English chroniclers say that CA'cn the tombs Avere opened by the Scots, in search of treasure. An Ulster army of 2,000 men offered their serAdces to the English authorities ; but Avhen the king's banner was given to them, they did more harm, says Grace, than all the Scots together, burning and destroying Avherever they came. Bruce proceeded as far as Limerick Avithout meeting any opposition; but learning that actiA^e pre- * Before this time, the town-walls were canied by St. Owen's, or Amloen's, Church, along the brow of the high ground, some 400 feet from the river. The mayor and citizens were afterwards compelled to restore the ciiureh of St. Saviour ; but they received aid from public sources to repair the losses by the burning of the suiiiirhs, and were forgiven half their fee-farm rent They were also pardoned for the depredations which they committed in so urgent a neces- sity. It has been said that the existence of the English governmeut iu Ireland depended upon the fate of iJiililin on this occasion. TAMIXf: AXn PESTILKNCK. 285 parations were making in his I'ear — Murtough O'Brien, say the Annals of Innisfahen, having joined the English* — he retreated by night from Castle Connell, and on Palm Sunday (March 27th) was at Kells, in Ossory. Thence he marched to Casliel and Nenagh, laying waste, with fire and sword, the English settlements as he passed. All this time his army was sorely pressed by famine ; and to this cause, and his efforts to procure food, may be attributed some of his marches, which it would be otherwise hard to account for.f On the 30th of March (Holy Thursday), a Avell-equipped Anglo-Irish army, mustering 30,000 men, marched against Bruce. Thomas Fitzgerald, earl of Kildare, Richard de Clare, Arnold Power (Le Poer), baron of Donnoil (Dunhill, in AVaterford), ^Maurice Rochfort, Thomas FitzMaurice, and the Cantetons, took the field with their numerous followers on the occasion: yet this powerful force hunty round the camp of the half-starvod and diminished Scottish army without daring to attack them, such was the dread with which Bruce's name inspired them.. Sir Roger Mortimer retunied from Eng- land, as justiciary, and a council was held at Kilkenn v", to deliberate on their position, but no determination was arrived at. Messengers were despatched to explain to the king the desperate state of affairs in Ireland ; and in the meantime, the English having moved towards Naas, Bruce marched to Kildare, and from thence, in the month after Easter, to a wood four miles from Trim, where he halted for se\'en days to refresh his men, exhausted by hunger and fatigue. On the 1st of May the Scots retired to Ulster;' and Robert Bruce, who saw that nature itself was against him, and that the Irish were not organised to give the support which he expected, returned to Scotland with earl Moray, leavincr behind his brother Edward, who Avas resolved to maintain his position as king of Ireland. Famine and pestilence at this time devastated both England and Ireland. Many of the rich were reduced to penury, and great numbers of persons perished of hunger. Mothers, it was said, were known to devom- their own children. People stole the children of others to eat them. Prisoners in jails killed and ate new comers sent in among them ; and dead bodies were taken from the grave to be used for food.J * Donoujih O'Brien, chief of Tho-nond, who died in 1317, was on the side of I'.ruce. t To this period may W referred an incident related in illustration of the huni;inity of Robert Bruce. It is said that " while retreating, in circumstances of great difficnlty, lie hailed th(' an.iy on hearing the cries of a poor lavandiere, who had been seized with labour, commanding a tent tn be pitched for her, and taking measures for her to i)ursue her journey when she was able to travel. — Tytler, Ilist. of Scotland, vol. ii. X "The pestihntial period of the founeunlh cenlury," says Dr. WiMe, " was, both in durali a 286 REIGN OF EDWARD 11. An ordei was received from the king of England for the hberation of the earl of Ulster, but several months elapsed and the question had to be debated in a parliament held at Kilmainham, before the order was com- plied with, the eai'l giving pledges that he would not revenge himself on the citizens of Dublin. The retirement of the Scots to Ulster, and Robert Bruce's retxu'n to Scotland, having relieved the English from theu' chief source of alarm, the justiciary directed his efforts against the Irish septs, who had risen in arms in different parts of the country, and against whom he was, in general, successful. The O'Farrells, O'Tooles, O'Byrnes, and the Irish of Hy-Kinsellagh were subdued for the time ; and in the course of this year some sanguinary battles were fought in Connaught between the rival parties -of the O'Conor family. The De Lacys were summoned to appear before the lord justice : and on their refusal, lord Hugh de Custes, or Crofts, was sent to them, but they . put the envoy to death. Mortimer then plundered their lands, and they fled, some to Connaught, and othei's to Bruce, in Ulster. One of them, John De Lacy, who had fallen into the hands of the justiciary, was sentenced to be pressed to death. Two cardinals arrived from Rome in England to bring about a peace between the Scots and English, but their efforts were ineffectual. A.D. 1318. — Roger Mortimer again returned to England, leaving liis debts unpaid, and Alexander Bicknor, archbishop of Dublin, was appointed justiciary in his stead. A good harvest relieved the country from famine, and the hostile armies were once more able to take the field. Edward Bruce had at this time, according to some accounts, an effective force of three thousand men. Scottish historians say he had only two thousand besides an irregular force of Irish ; and those who make his army considerably more numerous include, no doubt, his Irish auxiliaries. He marched southwards as far as Dundalk, and encamped at the hill of Faughard, within two miles of that town. Under his banner were Philip lord Mowbray, Walter lord de Soulis, Alan lord Stewart, the three De Lac3^s, &c. The English army which marched from and intensity, the most remarkablj' calamitous in these annals. It dates from 1315, and lasted almost without inteiTuption for 85 years. It commenced with the foreign invasion of the Scots, under Edward Bruce, at a time when the country was labouring under the double scourge of famine and partial civil war, and its effects were to increase the one aud to render the other general. Epizootics succeeded, followed by small-pox; then dearth again, with unusual severity of the seasons, and intense frosts, accompanied by the first appearance of influenza, and an outbreak of the Barking Mania. Subsequently appeared the Black Death, the King's Game, and the Third Pestilence, portions of the live general and fatal epidemics which commenced in the reign of Edward III., and the Fourth and Fifth Pestilences in the beginning of the reign of Richard II." — Census of TreloMa for 1851. Table of deaths. See also Butler's note to Grace's Anna's. An. 1?"^, DEATH OF KDWARD BRUCE. 287 Dublin to encounter this force was commanded by lord John Berming- ham. Its numbers are variously stated, but they were probably much larger than that of Bruce s effective men. The memorable battle which ensued, and which resulted in the death of the gallant Bruce and the overthrow of his army, was fought at Faughard, on the 14th of October. John Maupas, an Anglo-Irish knight, convinced that the fate of the day depended on the life of Bruce, rushed into the thick of the enemy, and engaging with Edward Bruce, slew him ; his own body, covered with wounds, being afterwards found lying on that of the Scottish chief.* This feat determined the victory at the very outset; and Bermingham, causing the bodv of Bruce to be cut in pieces, sent the head, or, as some say, carried it himself, to Edward II., and other portions to be exhibited in different parts of the country. How unlike the chivalrous courtesy exhibited by king Robert Bruce to his conquered enemies at Bannock- burn ! Scottish historians say the body of Gib Harper was mistaken for that of Edward Bruce, and that the remains of the latter are interred in Faughard churchyard, where the peasantry point out his grave ; but the other story is more probable ; and Bermingham, as a reward for Bruce's head, obtained the earldom of Louth and the manor of Ardee. From the terms in which the death of Bruce is recorded by the Irish annalists, it is evident that their sympathies were not with him. They erroneously attribute to the Scottish invasion the famine and its conse- quences, although these calamities were at the time universal ; and the old Scottish chroniclers throw, on their part, so much blame on the Irish as to show that national prejudices and selfish views existed on both sides-t Bruce's invasion failed in its object, and the gleam of hope which had shone forth for a while rendered the darkness that followed more disheartening ; but the Irish were far from being subdued. They * The circumstance is differently related by Lodge, who says, " Sir John Bermingham encamp- ing about half a mile from the enemy, Roger de Maupas, a burgess of Dundalk, disguised himself in a fool's dress, and in that character entering their camp, killed Bruce by striking out his brains with a plummet of lead ; he was instantly cut to pieces and his body found stretched over that of Bruce, but for this service his heir was rewarded with 40 marcs a year." — ArcMall's Lodge, vol. iii. p. 33. t The Four Masters record the death of Bruce in the following terms: — " Edward Bruce, the destroyer of the people of Ireland In general, both English and Irish, was slain by the English through dint of battle and bravery, at Dundalk, where also MacRory, lord of the Inse-Gall (Hebrides), MacDonnell, lord of Argyle, and many others of the chiefs of Scotland were slain ; and no achievement had been performed in Ireland for a long time before from which greater benefit had accrued to the country than from this ; for during the three years and a-half that this Edward .''pent in it a universal famine prevailed to such a degree that men were wont to devour one another." 288 REIGN OF EDWARD II. seeired, on the contrary, to have acquired a confidence in their own strength, which they had not before. Feuds prevailed among con- flicting sections of the EngHsh, as well as of the Irish. The former suffered some serious defeats in Breffny, Ely O'Carroll, OflPaly, and Thomond. In Connaught, after many vicissitudes and great waste of human life, Turlough O'Conor, of the race of Cathal Crovderg, suc- ceeded, in 1324, in establishing his right as king. Richard de Burgo, the famous red earl, died in 1326. In England, the wretched Edward II., after a lonjx war with his rebellious barons— who in the end were leagued with his profligate queen and her paramour, Roger Mortimei* — was finally most cruelly murdered, in 1327. It was a period when men's minds were unsettled,, and their manners demoralized ; and for the first time heresy appears to have made some inroads in Ireland. One Adam DiifF, a Leinster-man, was, in 1327, convicted of professing certain blasphemous and anti-christian doctrines, and being handed over to the civil tribunal, was sentenced to be burned on Hogges'-green, now College-green, in Dublin. About the same time, some persons taught heretical opinions in the diocese of Ossory, where they gained over the seneschal of Kilkenny, and other official persons ; but their doctrines did not spread among the people, and soon dis- appeared.* ^ Great commotion was excited among tub AT'i^^n-Irr^h in 1325, by the prosecation of a res- pect;ible woman, named Alice Kyteler, for witchcraft, in Kilkenny. She had married four luusbaiids, and the last of these, with some of her children by former husbands, were her chief accusers. She had accumulated enormous wealth, all of which was conferred on her favorite son, Robert Outlawe; and by the aid of powerful friends, among whom were some of the civil authorities, she managed to escape to England. One of her accomplices, named Petronilla, of Meath, who confessed her participation in several acts of foul and impious superstiti(m, was, in compliance with the ideas of the age, burnt as a sorceress. See Grace's Annals ; also a Coteraporary Narrative, edited for the Camden Society, by Thomas Wright, 1843. A university was founded in Dublin, in 1320, by archbishop Bicknor, by the autliority of a bull of pope Clement V., dated 1310 ; but the circumstances of the times and the want uf funds pre- vented its success. Some vestiges of it still remained at the beginning of the sixteenth century ; and the university which Elizabeth subsequently founded, and which was so amply endowed with the confiscated church lands, has been regarded by some people as a revival of that histitution. The number of religions foundations diminishes rapidly as we advance. Among those traced to the reign of Edward II. are the Franciscan convents of Castle Lyons, in Cork, founded by John de Barry, in 1307; and of Bantry, founde 1 by O'SuUivan, in 1320; tlje Augustinian convent of Adare, in Limerick, founded by John, earl of Kildare, 1315 ; that of Tullow, in Carlow, by Simon Lombard and Hugh Tallon, in 1312; and the Carmelite convent of Athboy, in Meath, by William de Londres, in 1317. The famous John Duns Scctus, a native of Down, in Ulster, died at Cologne in the year 1308, in the thirty-fourth year of bis age. He was a Franciscan friar of extraordinary learnmg, and from the acuteness of his mind, was called in the schools the " Subtle Doctor." John Clyn, the author of a chronicle of great value in Irish history, also flourished about this time. He, too, was :v Franciscan friar, and was the first guardian of t!ie convent of Carrick-on-Suir, founded in 1336. CHAPTER XXV. REIGN OF EDWARD III. Position of the difterent uuces. — Great Feuds of the Anglo- Irish. — Murdtr of Bermingham, Earl of Louth. — Creation of the Earls of Ormond and Desmond. — Counties Palatine. — Rigour of Sir Anthony Lucy. — Murder of the Earl of Ulster. — The Burkes of Connaught Abandon the English Lan- guage and Customs. — Sacrilegious Outrages. — Traces of Piety. — Wars in Connaught.— Crime and Punishment of Turlough 0' Conor. — Proceedings in the Pale. — English by Birth and by Descent. — Ordinances against the Anglo- Irish Aristocracy. — Piesistance of the latter. — Sir Ealph TJfford's Harshness and Death. — Change of Policy audits results. — The Bhick Death. — Administration of the Duke of Clarence. — His Animosity against the Irish. — The Statute of Kilkenny. — Effectsof that Atrocious Law. — Exploits of Hugh O'Conor.— Crime Punished by the Irish Chieftains. — Victories of Niall O'Neill — Difficulties of the Government of the Pale. — Manly Conduct of the Bishops. — General Cha- racter of this Beign. COTEMrOUARY SOVEllEIGNS AND ETEXTS. Popes: Benedict XII., Clement VI., Innocent VI., Urban VI., Gregory XI.— Kings of France: Philip VI. of Valois, John II., Charles the Wise. — Kings of Scotland: David II., Edward Baliol, Roiiert Stuart Gunpowder invented, 1330.— Statute of Prfflmuuire, 1344 — Gold first coined in England, 1344. — Order of the Garter, 1349. — WicklitFe'a tenets propagated, 1369. — Petrarch died, 1374. [n;oM A.D. 1327 TO 1377.] HE decay of the English power in Ireland, the narrowing of the English Pale, and the fusion of ihe older English settlers, or as they had begun to be called, the " degene- rate English," with the native population, are marked characteristics of the period of our history wliicb we have now reached. The authority of the crown had been declining throughout the two preceding reigns; durino; Bruce's invasion it was shaken to its foundation, but tlie alienation of the Anglo-Irish, arising from the impolitic distinction made by government between the English by birth and the English by descent; the iden- tification, in some instances, of the latter with the native Irish, and the recovery of large portions of their original several of the Irish chieftains, are all distinguishing u territories 290 KEiaiN o:- edward iit. features of tlie era wliicli commences with the! reign of Edward III. Tho great Anglo-Irish families liad become septs. Tliey confederated with, the Irish against their own countrymen, or the contrary, almost indif- ferently; but whether the administration of affairs was intrusted to them, or to the English by birth, it^was invariably employed for purposes of personal aggrandizement or revenge; and the native popu- lation were still only recognised by the government as the " Irish enemy," — a legitimate prey for all plunderers. A.D. 1328. — A violent feud broke out at the commencement of this reign between Maurice FitzThomas, afterwards earl of Desmond, assisted by the Butlers and Berminghams, and Lord Arnold Poer, who was aided by the great family of the De Burgos. Poer called FitzGerald a " rhymer," and thus the quarrel arose ; the former was forced to fly to England ; his lands, and those of his adherents, were laid waste, and torrents of blood flowed on both sides. Government became alarmed at the rebellious spirit manifested on the occasion, and issued orders for the defence of the principal towns ; but the confederates allayed this dis- quiet by protesting that they only required vengeance on their enemies ; and having submitted and sued for pardon, a council was held at Kil- kenny by the justiciary, Roger OutlaAve, prior of Kilmainham, to consider the case. The following year (1329) the justiciary efl'ected a reconcili- ation between the parties, and although it Avas the season of Lent, the event was celebrated by grand banquets in Dublin, the Geraldines giving their feast in the church of St. Patrick. A.D. 1329. — Another sanguinary fray among the Anglo-Irish took place this year; Bermingham, earl of Louth, wath several of his relatives and followers, to the number in all of one hundred and sixty, or, as others say, two hundred Englishmen being slaughtered by their own countrymen, the Gernons, Savages, and others, at Balebragan, now Bragganstown, in the county of Louth.* About the same timeMunster witnessed another scene of mutual carnage among the Anglo-Irish; the Barrys, Roches, and others slaying Lord Philip Bodnet, Hugh Condon, and about one hundred and forty of their followers. Mean- while several Irish septs were up in arms. Lord Thomas Butler was, m 1328, defeated with considerable loss by Mageoghegan in Westmeath; and the young earl of Ulster, with his Irish auxiliaries, sustained a great defeat the same year from Brian Bane O'Brien in Thomond. Donnell MacMvuTOUgh, of the ancient royal stock of Leinster, led an army close * Among the victims in tliis massacre, wci-e Carroll, a famous harper, and, aa Clya adds, twenty other harpers, hia pupiL*. SyVJLRlXY OF SIR AXTHONY LUCY. 2?1 to Dublin, but was defeated and made prisoner by Sir Henry Treherne. This officer spared the Irish chieftain's life for a sum of £200, an 1 Adam Nangle, another Englishman, afterwards assisted him with a rope to escape over the walls of Dublin Castle; but for this kindness Nangle lost his head. James Butler, second earl of Carrick, was, in 1328, created earl of Ormond, and in 1330 Maurice FitzThomas FitzGerald was created earl of Desmond; Tipperary, in the former case, and Kerry in the latter, being erected into counties palatine. The lords palatine, of whom there were now ei^nt or nine in Ireland, were endowed with a kind of royal power. They created barons and knights, erected courts for civil and criminal causes, appointed their own judges, sheriffs, and coroners, and like so many petty kings, were able to exercise a most oppressive tyranny over the population of their respective territories. A.D. 1330. — The new earl of Desmond at first rendered good service to the government by his successes against some of the Irish septs in Leinster; but the old feuds between him and the earl of Ulster were soon revived, and were carried to such lengths, at a time when they were in the field agamst the O'Briens, that the lord justice found it necessary to make both earls prisoners, and to commit them to the cus- tody of the marshal of Limerick. A.D. 1331. — Sir Anthony Lucy, a Northumbrian baron, famous for his sternness of character, w^as now sent over as justiciary, to curb the arrogance and violence of the great Anglo-Irish lords. He summoned a parliament in Dublin, and adjourned it to Kilkenny, owing to the non-attendance of the barons. Again his summons was disregarded ; and, in order to make an example of the most powerful, he seized the earl of Desmond in Limerick, and carried him a prisoner to Dublin. Several other lords were arrested in a similar manner, and among them Sir William Bermingham, who was confined with his son in the keep of Dublin Castle, called fi-om him the Bermingham Tower, and was hanged in the course of the following year. Tliis nobleman was popular on account of his bravery and gallant demeanour; and the feeling excited by the severity of his sentence was probably the cause of Lucy's recall, which followed soon after, when Sir John Darcy, a more moderate man, was appointed to succeed liim.* * At tljis time the country was suffering severely from famine, and a shoal of larg.e fiah, of the whale species, which entered Dublin bay on the evening of the 27th of June, 1331, and of which two hundred were killed by the lord justice and his servants, afforded the poor of the city a provi- dential supply of food. The next year thedeiirth continued, and the people were attacked by an epidemic called the manses, supposed to Iwive been influenza. 292 RKIGN OF EDWARD III. A.D. 1333. — A crime, which produced immense sensation among tlie Anglo-Irish, and led to some important results, was committed tliis year in the north. William, earl of Ulster, called the dun earl, grandson of the famous red earl, seized Walter, one of the leading members of the De Burgo family, and confined him in the stronghold called the Green Castle, in Inishowen, where he was starved to death. Walter's sister, Gyle, was married to Sir Richard Mandeville, and at her instigation, it is believed, her brother's death was soon after avenged by the murder of the dun earl. This latter nobleman, who was then only in his twenty- fii'st year, was proceeding on a Sunday morning towards Carrickfergus, in company with Robert FitzRichard Mandeville and others, who basely rose against him and killed him while he was fording a stream, or, as Grace says, while he was repeating his morning prayers on his way to the church, Mandeville giving him the first wound. A feeling of violent indignation was aroused by this outrage, and the people of the neigh- bourhood rose spontaneously and slew all whom they suspected of being abettors of the crime, to the number of over 300 ; so that when the justiciary arrived with an army to punish the murderers, he found that justice had already been vindicated in a fearful and summary manner.* The earl's wife, Maud, on hearing of the murder, fled in terror to England, taking with her her only child, a daughter, named Elizabeth, then only one year old; and the Burkes of Connaught being the junior branch of the De Burgo family, and fearing that the earl's vast possessions would be transferred to other hands by the marriage of the heiress, immediately seized on his Connaught estates, and declared themselves independent of English law, renouncing at the same time the English language and costume. Sir William, or Ulick,t the ancestor of the earls of Clanrick" ard, assumed the Irish title of MacWilliam Oughter, or the Upper, and Sir Edmond Albanagh Burke, the progenitor of the Viscounts of Mayo, took that of MacWilliam Eighter, or the Lower MacAVilliam.+ A.D. 1334. — Of the crimes we read of in the history of that lawless period, none indicate more vividly the anarchy Avhich prevailed than the * For many years after it was usual in public pardons to make a formal exception of all who .-night have been implicated in the murder of the. earl of Ulster. f The name UlirJc, or Uliog, is a contraction of Willium-oge, that is, William Junior, or youug William. It would appear to have been hmg peculiar to the Burkes of Connaught. X la 1352, the heiress Elizabeth, then twenty years of age, was married to Lionel, duke of Clarence, third son of king Edward lil., and that prince was created, in her right, earl of Ulster and lord of Connaught, titles which thus became attached to the royal family of England , but he was unable to recover the possessions which the MacWilliams had usui-ped in Connaught, and the government not being strong enough to assert the authority of the English law on the occasion, the territories of the Burkes in that province were allowed to descend according to the Irish custom. ACRILEGES. 203 sacrilegious outrages vrliich are related of the Irish, as well as of their opponents. Incessant \Yar had so degraded some that they rivalled the ferocity of wild beasts ; and in many instances, the natural gentleness, generosity, and piety of the Irish character seem to have been wholly laid aside. Thus our annals relate how a great army of the English and Irish of Connaught having marched this year against the MacNa- maras of Thomond, a party of them set fire to a church, in which were two priests and 180 other persons, and did not suffer one to escape from the conflagration. It is not said whether the party who committed this barbarity belonged to the English or the Irish portion of the army; but a similar outrage, three years before, is attributed by the Anglo-Irish chroniclers to an Irish sept in Leinster, who, they say, burned the church of Freynstown, now Friendstown, in Wicklow, with a congregation of eighty persons and their priest, Avho was clothed in his vestments, and carried the Sacred Host in his hands. The unhappy people in the church asked no mercy for themselves but only that the priest might be allowed to depart; yet the infuriated assailants drove him back from the door with their javelins, and he was consumed with his flock in the burning pile. This appalling atrocity drew down an interdict from the Pope on its perpetratoi's ; and an army of them was soon after cut to pieces or driven into the Slaney by the citizens of Wexford. Supposing, however, these statements not to have been the fabrications of enemies, of which we cannot be quite sure, we have, nevertheless, ample evidence that religion was not, even in those evil days, extinct among the bulk of the population. Thus, we read that the veteran warrior Mulrony MacDer- mot, lord of Moylurg, took the habit of a monk in the abbey of Boyle, in 1331; and that in 1333, Hugh O'Donnell, son of the famous Don- nell Oge, and lord of Tirconuell, died in the habit of a Franciscau monk in Inis Saimer, in the river Erne. Most of the Irish chieftains who were not killed in battle, are described as dying " after the victory of penance;" and numerous pilgrimages, in which the clergy and people were united, were made to avert calamities which they appre- hended. A.D. 1338. — Edmond Burke, surnamed "na-Feisoge," or "the bearded," a younger son of the red earl, was this year drowned by his kinsman, Edmond Burke, surnamed Mac William Eighter, who fastened a stone to his neck, and inmersed him in Lough Mask; and a war followed, in which the partizans of Mac William Eighter and the English of Con- naught in general suffered enormous losses ; TurloughO'Conor succeeding, after a sanguinary struggle, in driving Edmond Burke altogether out of ?04 REIGN OF EDWARD III. the province. The English were, on tliis occasion, expelled from the territories of Leyney and Corran in Sligo, and the hereditary Irish chief* tains resumed their own lands there and in other parts of Connaught As for Edmond Burke, he collected a fleet of ships or boats, with which he remained for some time among the islands on the coast of JNIavo, but from these Turlough drove him the following year, and obliged him to withdraAv to Ulster. A.D. 1339. — Turlough O'Connor, thus far crowned with success, brought ruin upon himself by his domestic misdeeds. Despising the laws of the church and of society, he put away his Avife Dervail, daughter of Hugh O'Donnell, the lord of Tirconnell, and married the daughter of Turlough O'Brien, the Avidow of Edmond Burke who had been drowned in Lough Mask. This act alienated from him the Connaught chieftains, and after an interval of three years spent in constant warfare, he was in 1342 deposed by the Sil-Murray and other septs, and Hugh, the son of Hugh Breifneach O'Conor, one of the Clann Murtough, chosen king in his stead. Notwithstanding this election, however, it is stated that Avhen the unhappy Turlough was killed with an arrow in 1345, his son, Hugh, was inaugurated king of Connaught after him. Reverting to the affairs of the Pale, we find that Desmond, who had been released from prison on bail in 1333, after eighteen months' captivity, repaired to Scotland with some troops, in obedience to a summons from the king, and was probably present at the decisive battle gained; by Edward over the Scots at Hallidon Hill; the famous ex- pedition of Edward IH. into Scotland on this occasion, having been cloaked up to the last moment by a pretence that the preparations he was making were for a visit to Ireland. Subsequently, the earl of Desmond was actively engaged against the Irish in Kerry, as the earl of Kildare was against the O'Dempseys and other septs, in Leinster, Twelve hundred of the men of Kerry were slain in one battle, in 1339. and Maurice FitzNicholas, lord of Kerry, who had been fighting in tiieir ranks, was taken and confined in prison, where he died.* AJ). 1341. — Plans which Edward had long since formed for breakmg down the ascendancy of the great Anglo-Irish lords were now matured, and he sent over Sir John Morris, as lord deputy, to carry them into execution. His first sweeping measure was the resumption of all the lands, liberties, seigniories, and jurisdictions which either he or his • This Englisli knight had, many years befoiv, rnsiied into ilie a»Mze court at Trake, and killed Dermot. h?ir of the MacCarlhy More, while sitting with the judge on the bench; yet, tht law siiriTv'iwi tins crime to g-,, unexpiateiL BEM0NSTRANC1-, OF THK BAJ10>'S. 2^5 father had granted in Ireland. Another ordinance recalled any remission which had been made by himself or his predecessors, of debts due to the crown, and decreed that all such debts should be levied without delay. Other rigorous and arbitrary measures were also adopted, but that which indicated most clearly the design of the king was an ordinance declaring that, whereas it had appeared to him and his council that they would be better and more usefully served in Ireland by Englishmen, whose revenues were derived from England, than by Irish or English who possessed estates only in Ireland, or were married there, his justiciary should, after diligent inquiries, remove all such officers as were married or held estates in Ireland, and replace them by tit Englishmen having no personal interest whatever in Ireland* A.D. 1342. — This declaration of the royal views and intentions aroused the indignation of the proud Anglo-Irish nobles, who had been allowed to become much too powerful before this attempt was made to humble them. It was the first public avowal of a jealous distinction between the English by birth and the English by descent, and was sub- sequently condemned as a fatal mistake. To allay the excitement produced by it, the lord deputy summoned a parliament to meet in Dublin, in October; but the earl of Desmond and many other lords peremptorily refused to attend, and held a general assembly, or conven- tion, of their own, at Kilkenny, in November, where they adopted a long and spirited remonstrance to the king, setting forth the rights which they had inherited from their ancestors, their claims to the favor and protection of the king, and the injustice and unreasonableness of the ordinances now issued against them. They complained bitterly of the neglect, peculation, fraud, and mismanagement of the English officials sent over to this country; enumerated a long catalogue of chargv.:;, attributing, among other things, to the maladministration of thusti Englishmen, the unguarded state of the country, the loss of one-third ],art of the territories which, they said, had been conquered by the king's j)rogenitors, and were now retaken by his Irish enemies, and the abandonment to the I^'ish of the strong castles of Roscommon, Randown, Athlone, and- Bunratty ; and, in conclusion, they prayed that they might not be deprived of their free holdings without being called in judgment, pursuant to the provision of magna charta. The king's answer to the remonstrants was favorable on most points; in particular he contirmed tae grants of his predecessors, and in the case of lands granted by himself, * Close Kull. I'; l-.a. 111. ri\nrc"s ( oHtaioils. Co.x, vul. i. i<. 11«. 296 REIGN OF EDWAl!)) Ul. he restored tliose which had been resumed, on security being given that they shouhi be surrendered if found to have been granted Avithout cause. He was just then entering upon a Avar with France, and this circumstance suggested the propriety of a more conciliatory policy towards the Anglo-Irish barons. A.D. 1344. — Sir Ralph Ufford, who had married the widow of the ijQurdered earl of Ulster, was now appointed to the office of lord justice, and exercised his authority with a harshness and rigour that drew upon him general odium. His first efforts were directed against the power of Desmond. That haughty earl refused to attend a parliament, called by Ufford, in Dublin, and attempted to assemble one of his own at Callan, but the new deputy soon showed that this game could not be played with him. He proceeded to Munster with an armed force, seized the earl's lands, and farmed them at rents to be paid to the king. He next got possession, by stratagem, of the strongholds of Castle-island and Iniskisty, in Kerry, and hanged Sir Eustace Poer, Sir William Grant, and Sir John Cottrel, who held command in them, charging them Avith the illegal exaction of coyn and livery.* The bail which had becy given for the earl, when he was liberated in 1333, was declared to be forfeited, and thus eighteen knights lost their estates.t Ufford con- trived, and again by the employment of stratagem, to get the earl of Kildare into his custody; Imt the Avar AAdiich he thus AA-aged so success- fully against the proud and powerful aristocracy was cut short by his own death, in the month of April, 1346. Some of his harshness was attributed to the persuasion of his wife ; and it is said, that this lady, Avho Avas recei\-ed like an empress on her arrival, Avas obliged to retire clandestinely, amidst the execrations of the people and the clamour of creditors, carrying Avith her the body of her husband, in a leaden coffin, to England. The policy of the king towards the Anglo-Irish AA^as noAv modified ; the severity of Ufford was condemned ; the earl of Desmond Avas suffered to repair to England to plead his cause before the king, and Avas • " Coyn and livery," was an exaction of money, food, and entertainment for the soldier;;, and of forage for their horses. A tax of a similar kind, under the name of bonaf/ht, existed among the Irish, but it was regulated by fixed rules, and was part of the ordinary tribute paid to tlie chief. Among the Anglo- Irish it became a source of the most grievous oppression, without any just measure, or any compensating consideration ; and as it pressed heavily upon the English as well as Iii h population, it became necessary t<> prohibit it by stringent laws. The earl of Desmond re- ferred to above is said to have been the first who introduced this exaction in its Anglo-Irish form. S*;e Harris's Ware, vol. i., chap. xii. t .vtjording to some accounts, the earl surrendcrrn nimself to Ufford, and the recognisancea sfstreated aa mentioned above were those entered into t.ji- his llberatiun, on this occasion. THE BLACK DEATH. 297 allowed 203. per diem for liis expenses while detained tliere ; the estreated recognizances were restored ; the Anglo-Irish nobles were invited to aid the king in his expedition against France, and the earl of Kildare earned the honor of knighthood from Edward by his gallant conduct at the siege of Calais in 1317. Thus, after a few years, the struggle between the crown and the great lords of the Pale ceased for a time, all the lands and jurisdictions of which the latter had been for awhile deprived being restored. Desmond rose to such favor with the king that, in 1355, he was entrusted with the office of lord justice for life; but he died five months after this honor had been conferred upon him, and his body Avas removed from Dublin castle to Tralee, Avhere it was interred in the church of the Dominican friars. Thus ended the career of Maurice FitzThomas FitzGerakl, the first earl of Desmond. About this time Brien MacMahon gained an nnportant victory over the English in Oriel, more than 300 of them having been slain, accord- ing to their own historians. In Leinster, the colonists Avere not allowed much rest by the O'Tooles and O'Byrnes, on one side, or by the septs of ]..eix and Offiily on the other. Lysaght O'More, chief of Leix, took and burned in one night ten English castles, destroyed Danamace, and expelled nearly all the English from his ancestral territor3^ The MaclMurrough was also in the field with a large following, as were also O'Melaghiin and the Irish of IVIeath. These latter Avere defeated by the lord justice, in 1349, Avith the slaughter of several of their chiefs. Need we Avonder at finding that about this time a royal commission AA-as issued to inquire Avhy the king derived no revenues from his Irish dominions? A.D. 1348. — This year is memorable for the outbreak of the terrible pestilence called the Black Death. That age AA^as, indeed, one of fearful visitations. Our annals record about that period several years of famine from ungenial seasons. In 1341, an epidemic, called the barking dis- ease, preA^ailed, Avhen persons of both sexes and all ages went about the country bai'king like dogs. But the most aAvful of all these visitations Avas the Black Death.* For some years, diu'ing Avhich the pestilence ' Friar Clyn, who was an eye-witness of its ravages, and is believed to have fallen a victim to it liimselfthe following year, describes the Black Death in his annals under the year 1348, in the following expre^sive terms: — " It first," he says, " broke out near Dublin, at Howtli and Dalkey; it almost destroyed and laid wa---te the cities of Dublin and Drogheda, insomuch that in Dublin alone," from the beginning of August to Christmas, 14,000 souls perished That pestilence de- prived of human inhabitants villages and cities, castles and towns, so Uiat there was scarcely found u man to dwell therein ; the pestilence was so contagious, that whosoever touched the sick or th« 298 REIGN OF EDWARD III continued, our annals record few events save the deaths of remarkable persons who fell victims to it. Then followed, in loGl, another visitation called the " King's Game," or second pestilence, the exact nature of which is not known, although it was possibly only a return of the Black Death; and in 1370 appeared the third great plao-ue, which lasted for a period of three or four years, and produced a fearful mortality. There can be little doubt that this series of calamities paralyzed the country, and left its marks upon the history of the times.* A.D. 1361. — Lionel, third son of Edward III., and eari of Ulster by right of his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of the murdered earl, was now appointed to the government of Ireland, with extraordinary authority, as lord lieutenant. He landed in Dublin on the 15th of September, 1360, with an army of 1,500 men, and evinced from the first a bitter animosity towards the Irish, reviving, moreover, the distinction between the English by birth and by descent. A royal mandate had been issued a short time before, ordering that no " mere Irishman " should be appointed mayor, bailiff, or other officer of any town within the English dominion ; or be received through any motives of consanguinity, affiriitv, or other causes, into holy orders, or be advanced to any ecclesi- astical benefice or promotion.! But the principle of interdiction was carried much further by duke Lionel. In a war which he had to carry on against the O'Byrnes, just after his arrival, he issued a proclamation " forbidding any of Irish birth to come near his army;" thus excluding from his ranks all the old colonists, to their infinite disgust. After this dead was iivi mediately afl'ected and died, and tiie penitent and ttie cunfesior were earned together t(i the grave." And afier desciibiiig the terror it produced and the symptoms of the disease, which show it to have been the real eastern plague, he adds : — " That year was beyond measure wondeiful, unusual, and in iwany things prodigious, yet was sufficiently abundant and fruitful, however sickly and deadly. That pestilence was rife in Kilkenny in Lent. Scarcely one ever died alone in a house; commonly husband, wife, children, and servants, went the one way — the way of death." See the authorities on this subject collected by Dr. Wilde, in liis important report on the Table of Deaths; Census of 1851. This plague, which originated in the cast, ravaged the whole of Europe. Dr. Hecker says it must have swept away at least twenty-five millions of the human race. StOA-, in his Chronicles says, that in Ireland it destroyed a great number of English people that dwelt there ; but such that were Irish born, that dwelt in the hill country, it scarcely touched. Tiiis, observes Dr. Wilde, was here called " the first great pestilence," being the (irstof the live remarkable plagues of the fourteenth century, three of which occurred in the reign of Edward HI. * During this dreary period the following entry occurs in tlie Annals of Cloumacnoise, urider the year 13nl, " William MacDonough Moyneach O'Kelly (chief of Hy-.Many), iuvited all tiie Irish poet.s, brehons, bards, harpers, gamesters, or common kearroghs, jesters, and others of their kind in Ireland, to bis house upon a C!iri»tmas this year, where every one of them was well used during Christmas holidays, and gave contentm(.ni to o;uh utlier at tlie time of their departure, so «s every one of them was well phased, and extolled Wijliaui lor lijs bounly." t Kyiner, u vi., 326. THF STATUTE OF KILKENXT. $;;9 flToss insult a hundred of Ins best soldiers appear to have been slain at night in some unaccountable manner, whereupon, he abandoned the dis- tinction of English by birth and English by descent, and summoned all the king's subjects to his standard.* Subsequently he endea^•oured to establish discipline in the army; expended £500 in walling the town of Carlow, whither he removed tlie exchequer, and ingratiated himself by- other acts with the colonists, who granted him two years' revenue of all their lands towards the prosecution of the war against the Irish. A.D. 1367. — Having returned to England in 136-1, Lionel was created duke of Clarence, and twice in the tlu'ee following years he Avas again entrusted with the office of lord lieutenant. In the year 1367, during the last period of his administration, was held the memoi'able parliament at Kilkenny, in which was passed the execrable act known as the " Statute of Kilkenny." It is said that Lionel's chief object in his later visits to Ireland was to regain the possessions usurped by the Burkes of Connaught, and that his failure to attain that end was the real cause of the bitterness of the act in question. The following are the principal provisions of this statute: — That Intermarriage with the natives, or any connection Avith them in the shape of fostering, or gossipred, should be dealt with and punished as high treason ; that any man of English race assuming an Irish nanie, or using the Ixish language, apparel or customs, should forfeit all his lan;ls and tenements ; that to adopt the Brehon law, or submit to it, was ti'eason; that v.-Ithoufc the permission of the government the English should not make war or peace with the Irish; that the English should not permit the Irish to pasture cattle on their lands, nor admit them to any ecclesiastical benefices or to religious houses; nor entertain their minstrels, rhymers, or news-tellers. There were also enactments against the oppressive tare of coyn and livery, against the abuse of royal franchises and liberties, and upon some other matters : but the principal and manifest object of this most tyrannical and in-ulting statute was to keep the English and Irish for ever separate, and to Avage a perpetual war against those of the English race, who, holding lands and residing among the Irish, were necessitated, more or less, tc adopt the Irish customs and laws.f It was impossible to enforce such a • Grace's Annals. t "The result," says the late eminent antiquary and historiau^ Mr. Hardiman. describing the eflfect of this statute, " was sucli as might be expected. En^^lish power and inflaeiice coiuiimcd to decrrase, insomich that at the close of the sucteL-ding' century tUoy were nearly annihlljLeil in Ireland. At the beginning, the native Irish, apprehending that the real object of a law enacted and |iroclainied with so much pomp and appearance of authority was to root them altntrwher out of the l.ind. nat;iriilly CKinbined together for s.if' '.y. and some of tlie m>rf powof;! rh'efi.-iiiii 600 V.TAG'S OF EDWARD 111. law, and pi'actically it becaiiie a dead letter; but the distrust and national enmity wliicli it created were kept alive, and in the reign of Henry VII. (a.d. 1494) it was to a great extent revived and confirmed. As to duke Lionel, he left Ireland in lo(37, and died next year in Italy, where he had just taken as his second wife the daughter of the duke of Milan. While the Anglo-Irish were struggling with enemies in the very bosom of their colony, and praying by a petition to the king for relief from the payment of scutage upon the lanrls of which the Irish had deprived them in their daily encroachments upon the bounds of the Pale,* we see the native chieftains acting in their respective territories without any reference whatever to English authority, and without appearing to recognise its presence in the country. Hugh O'Conor, king of Connaught, and Cathal O'Conor (Sligo), led an army into Meath, in 1362, and laid waste the English lands, burning no less than fifteen churches which had been used by their enemies for garrisons ; but Cathal died of the plague the same year. In 1365, Brian MacMahon, lord of Oriel, induced Sorly MacDonnell, a prince of the Hebrides, to put away his wife, the daughter of O'Reilly, and to marry Brian's own daughter. Soon after he added another crime to this, by drowning his son-in-law, whom he had invited to drink wine in his house. The O'Neills, O'Donnells, and other Ulster chieftains confedemted to punish the offending chief; MacMahon was driven from Oriel, and having re- turned, was again attacked, and ultimately slain by a gallowglass of his own followers when marching with them against the English. His fate and that of Turlough O'Conor, already related, show that the Irish chieftains, even in that age of anarchy, and among men of their own order, would not suffer glaring crimes to go unpunished. Garrett, earl of Desmond, at the head of an Anglo-Irish army suffered resolved upon immediate hostilities. O'Conor of Connaught and 0"Biieii of Thomond for the moment laid aside their private feuds, and united against the common foe. The earl of Desmond, lord justice, marched against them with a considerable ariny, but was defeated and slain (captured) in a sanguinary engagement, fought ad. 1.369, in the county of Limerick. O'Farrel, the chieftain of Annal}', committed great slaughter in Meath. The O'Mores, Cavanaghs, O'Byrnes, and O'Tooles, pressed upon Leinster, and the O'Neills raised the red arm in tlie north. The English of the Pale were seized with consternation and dismay, and terror and confusion reigned in their councils, while the natives continued to gain ground upon them in every direction. At this crisis an opportunity offered, such as had never before occurred, of terminating the dominion of the English in Ireland ; but if the natives had ever conceived such a project, they were never sufficiently united to achieve it. The opportunity passed away, and the disunion of the Irish saved the colony." — Statute of Kilkenny, published by the Irish Archisological Society, with introduction and notes by the late .James ITardiman, Esq., M.K I.A. Dublin, 1843. Close Koli. 1(5 Ed. III. Prynne, 302. COURAGEOUS CONDUCT OF IRISH BISHOI'S. 301 a great overthrow from Brian O'Brien, cliief of Thomond, in 1369. Garrett himself was made prisoner; his army was slaughtered, and Limerick was burned by the men of Thomond. Niall O'Neill defeated the English, in 1374, and again gained an important victory over them the following year in Down, slaying several of their knights; but the native septs of Leinster were not so successful at this time in the harass- ing war which they had to sustain against the forces of the English government. Melaohlin OTarrell was slain in 1374. Donouoh Kav- anagh INIac^Iurrough, king of the Irish of Leinster, was cut off' by stratagem in 1375. The MacTiernans were defeated the same year, and Hugh O'Toole, lord of Imaile, was killed in 1376. There was the usual amount of discord among the Irish themselves; but the broils among the English at the same time, and especially the sanguinary feuds A\hich raged between the different sections of the Burkes in ConnauMit, show that the curse of dissension was not coiiuiied to the native race. So difficult and odious had the task of governing Ireland become, that we find Sir Richard Pembridge, the warden of the cinque ports, positively refusing the office of lord justice, which he was ordered to undertake, in 1369 ; find his refusal was not adjudged an offence, on the ground that the law required no man, not condemned for a crime, to go into exile, which a residence in Ireland, even in so honorable a position, Avas admitted to be. When Sir William de Windsor was then appointed to the office, he undertook to carry on the government for £11,1213 6s. 8d. per annum, but Sir John Davies assures us that the whole revenue of Ireland at that time did not amount to £10,000 annually in the best years. Previously the salary of the lord justice used to be £500 a year, out of which sum he should support a certain immber of armed men. The subsidies which Edward III. was obliged to levy in Ireland, not only for the wars in this countr}^, but for those in France and Scotland, were intolerably oppressive, and were exacted from ecclesiastical as well as lay property. Ralph Kelly, archbishop of Cashel, opposed the collection of one of these imposts, as far as it affected the church lands in his province, and, accompanied by the suffragan bishops of Limerick, Emly, and Lismore, dressed in their pontifical robes, appeared in the streets of Clonmel, and solemnly excommunicated the king's commissioner of revenue, and all persons concerned in advising, contributing to, or levying the tax. When cited to answer for this conduct, the prelates pleaded the magna charta, which decreed the exemption of church property ; and although the cause was given against them, no judgment appears to have been executed in the .302 BEIGX OF EDWARD 111 case. On the whole, it may be said of the reign of Edward III., that ]io"vvever brilliant it Avas in English histor}', it was most disastrous to the English interests in this country ; and as far as Irish interests were con- cerned, Mr. Moore has well observed that durmg it were laid "the foundations of that monstrous system of misgovernment in Ireland to which no parallel exists in the history of the whole civilized world; its dark and towering iniquity having projected its shadow so far forward as even to the times immediately bordering upon our own."* * Hist, of Irelai^.d, vol. iii., p. 118. — A curi uis entry on the Exchequer Issue Eoll for the year 1376 refers to the close of this reign, and h.is often been quoted as singularly expressive ; it is to the t-fl'ect that Kichanl Dere and AVilliam Stapolyn came over to England to inform the king how- very badly Ireland was governed ; and that the king ordered them to be paid ten pounds for their troutlc. •ScV CHAPTER XXVI. REIGN OF RICHARD II. Law against Absentee? — Events in Ireland at the Opening of the Keign. Par- tition of Connaught between O'Conor Don and O'Conor Roe. — The Earl of Oxford made Duke of Ireland — His Fate. — Battles between the English and Irish. — Richard II. visits Ireland with a Powerful Army. — Submission of Irish Princes — Hard Conditions. — Henry Castidc's Account of the Irish. — Knighting of Four Irish Kings. — Departure oi Richard II. and Rising of the Irish. — Second Visit of King Richard — His Attack on Art MacMurrough'a Stronghold. — Disasters of the English Army. — MacMurrough's Heroism. Meeting of Art MacMurrough and the Earl of Gloucester. — Richard Arrives in Dublin. — Bad News from England. — The King's Departure from Ireland His unhappy Fate. — Death of jS^iall More O'JSi eill, and Succession of Niall O^e. — Pilgrimages to Rome. — Events Illustrating the Social State of Ireland. COTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. Pope.-* : Urban VI., Boniface IX. — King of France, Charles VI. — King of Scotland, KoLurt ITI. — Emperor of the Turks, Bajazet I. [a.d. 1377 TO A.D. 1399.] ^ ICHARD II., only surviving child of Edward the Black Prince, succeeded his grandfather, Edward III., as kino- of England, when only in his eleventh year, and the govern- ment of the state was carried on by the youno- kino-'s uncles. One of the first measures of his reign relating to Ireland was a stringent law against absenteeism, obliging all persons who possessed lands, rents, or other income in Ireland, to reside there, or to send proper per- sons to defend their possessions, or else to pay a tax to the amount of two-thirds of their Irish revenues ; those who attended the English universities, or were absent by special licence being excepted. A.D. 1380. — Edmond, grandson of Roger Mortimer^ earl of March, came to Ireland with extraordinary powers as lord lieutenant. Having married Philippa, the daughter of Lionel, duke of Clarence, and 304 RT^TGN OF RICHARD II. of Elizabeth, daughter of the dun earl, he became in her right earl of Ulster; and several of the native Irish princes paid court to him on his arrival; among others, Niall O'Neill, O'Hanlon, O'Farrell, O'Reilly, O'Molloy, Mageoghegan, and the Sinnagh or Fox. One of the Irish nobles who thus visited the earl was Art INIagennis, lord of Iveagh, in Ulster, who, for some charge trumped up against him, while thus within the grasp of his enemies, was seized and cast into prison. This act destroyed the confidence not only of the Irish, but, as we are told, of many of the English, who consequently kept aloof from the deputy. Mortimer invaded Ulster shortly after, destroying much property, lay and ecclesiastical, and the following year he died in Cork.* A.D. 1383. — Roger Mortimer, the youthful son of the late earl, was nominated in his father's place, his imcle Sir Thomas Mortimer, chief justice of the common pleas in England, administering affairs for him as deputy. In so absurd a way was the office of lord justice of Ireland disposed of at that time, that a grant of it was next made for ten years to Philip de Courtney, a cousin of the king's, who abused his power by such oToss peculation and injustice, that the council of regency had him taken into custody and punished for his crimes. An army was this year led by Niall O'Neill against the English of Antrim ; and the following year that prince took and burned Carrickfer'gus, and, as the annals say, " gained great power over the English." At this period the country was desolated by plague as well as by war, the fourth great pestilence of the fourteenth century having broken out m 1382 ; and the ravages of the disease may be traced for some years in the numerous obituaries which our annalists record.j A.D. 1384. — A fresh source of disorder now arose in Connaught. Rory, son of Turlough O'Conor, and last king of that province, died, after a stormy reign of over sixteen years, and two rival chieftains were set up in his place. One of these, Turlough Oge, a nephew of the late chief, was inaugurated king by O'Kelly of Hy-Many, Clanrickard, and some of the O'Conors ; and Turlough Roe, son of Hugh, son of Felira O'Conor, the other competitor, was, about the same time, installed by MacDermot, of jMoylurg, the Clann Murtough, and all the chiefs of the * In 1380, before the arrival of Ediiiond Mortimer, a number of French and Spanish galleys retired from the English fleet into the harbour of Kinsale, where they were attacked by the inhabitants, English and Irish, 400 of tiieir men being killed, and their principal officers captured. Holinshed gives this statement on the authority of Thomas Walsingham, but it is not alluded to in the Irish or Anglo-Irish chronicles. t This pestilence Dr. Wilde suspucis to have been a visilati'.a of typhu,-; fever. — 5te Report on Table of Deaths. KING RICHAKD VISITS IRELATS^D. 305 Sil-Murray. The former was tlie ancestor of the sept of O'Conor Don (the brown), and the latter of that of 0"Conor Roe (the red); and between these two branches of the O'Conor family and theu* respective adherents implacable hostility prevailed for many years after. The territory of Connaught was divided between them, by which partition the ancient power of that province was crushed for ever, while the country was laid waste by feuds, which seldom allowed any interval of repose. A.D. 1385. — In a moment of puerile caprice, Richard, who had been heaping honors upon Robert de Vere, eaid of Oxford, bestowed Ireland upon that young favorite. He created him marquis of Dublin ana duke of Ireland, transferring to him for life the sovereignty of that kingdom, such as he possessed it himself; and the parliament, which confii'med this grant, also voted a sum of money for the favorite's in- tended expedition to Ireland. Having accompanied de Vere as far as Wales, the youthful monarch changed his mind, and sending Sir John Stanley to Ireland as his deputy, he kept his favorite near himself. Like that of all royal minions, the fate of the young duke of Ireland was unfortunate. The irritated nobles took up arms; the duke of Gloucester, one of the king's uncles, joined them, and de Vere, defeated in battle, was driven into exile, and died in Belgium, in 1396. A.D. 1392. — Our annals mention a victory gained by O'Conor, of Offaly, in 1385, over the English, at the tochar, or pass, near the hill of Croghan, in the King's county ; and the Anglo-Irish chronicles record a battle, in which 600 of the Irish were slain, in the county of Kilkenny, in the year 1392. In this latter year Niall O'Neill led an army to Dundalk, where he defeated the English; he himself, although then far advanced in years, killing Seffin White in single combat. This year died O'Neill's eldest son, Henry, who Avas distinguished for his justice and munificence, but was surnamed, by antiphrasis, Avrey (Aimhreidh) or the Contentious. Henry's sons were warlike, and their names long occupy a conspicuous place in the annals of the northern province. A.D. 1394. — Richard, having suddenly formed a project of visiting Ireland in person, countermanded the preparations which the duke ot Gloucester was making by his orders to come to this country. Ireland had become a perpetual drain on the royal exchequer. Notwithstanding the absentee laws, a great number of the Anglo-Irish proprietors resided in England, and the power and daring of the neighbouring Irish septs were daily increasing. The king was resolved to take into his own hands the subjugation of the country; but this was not the sole motive for his expedition. He had just Buffered a mortifying repulse in Ger- 306 REIGN OF RICHARD II. many, where he hoped to be elected emperor, and had also lost his queen ; and he sought by excitement and change of scene to heal h'a wounded feelings. Richard landed at Waterford, on the 2nd of October, with an army of 4,000 men-at-arms and 30,000 archers, which had been conveyed in a fleet of 200 ships. This was the largest force ever landed on the coast of Ireland ; and the Irish, after retiring for awhile to their fastnesses, prudently judged that resistance to such an army was worse than useless, whereupon their chiefs came in considerable numbers to yield him homage. Beyond this show of submission, however, and a parade of his power which gratified his vanity, Richard, with his splendid and costly armament, effected nothing. No measure of justice or conciliation was thought of; nothing was done to gain the confidence and esteem of the Irish ; the laws of England were not extended to them ; in fact every law was framed against them ; and there was no idea of treating them as subjects of the crown, on equal terms with the English, or of securing to them the possession of such portions of their ancient patrimonies as had not yet been wrested from them. O'Neill and other lords of Ulster met the king at Drogheda, and there did homage in the usual form. Mowbray, earl of Nottingham and lord marshal of England, was commissioned to receive the fealty and homage of the Irish of Leinster ; and on an open plain at Balligorey near Carlow, he held an interview with the famous Art MacMurrough, heir of the ancient Leinster kings, who was at this time the most dreaded enemy of the English, and was accompanied at this meeting by several of the southern chiefs.* The terms exacted from these chieftains were that they should not only continue loyal subjects, but engage, for themselves and their swordsmen, that on a certain fixed day they would surrender to the king of England all their lands and possessions in Leinster, taking with them only their moveable goods, and that they would serve him in his wars against any others of their countrymen. In return for their hereditary rights and territories they were to receive pensions during their lives, and the inheritance of such lands as they could seize from the " rebels " in other parts of the realm, and for the fulfilment of these hard terms they were severally bound by indentures * It must have been immediately before this that Art MacMurrough, according to the Irish annals, burned the town of New Ross (Ros-mic-Triuin) in Wexford, carried o(Ta large quantity of valuable property, and slew a great number of the English. It was with difficulty this cliief was pursuaded to offer his submission, and when the English had him in their hands there was some attempt male to detain Lira, O'Byrne, O'More, and O'Nolan being finally kept as hostngcs for him. FROISSARTS ACCOUNT OF TKE IRISH. 307 and in heavy penalties. No less than seventy-five chieftains from differ- ent parts of Ireland appear to have proffered their homage to Richard or his commissioner on this occasion; and it is curious that the kino- in a letter, written at the time, to his council in England, after classifyino- the population of the English Pale under the three heads of " wild Irish, or enemies," " Irish rebels," and " English subjects," admits that the " rebels " had been made such by wrongs and English misrule, and that if not wisely treated they might enter the ranks of the " enemies," whence he thought it right to grant them a general pardon, and to take them under his special protection.* The council thought the kino-'s treatment of the L'ish too lenient, and suggested that he should exact large fines and ransoms for the pardons which he granted'; but his ex- perience taught him otherwise. When Sir John Froissart, the French chronicler, was, in 1395, at the court of Richard II. in England, he met there an English gentleman, named Henry Castide, or Castile, who told him that he had lived for many years in Ireland ; that he had been captured by the Irish in a skirmish, but had been well treated by the Irish gentleman who took him prisoner, and who afterwards gave him his daughter in mai'riage ; that he had thus acquired a knowledge of the Irish language, and was on that account employed by king Richard to instruct four Irish kings, on whom he desired to confer the honor of knighthood, in such things as might be necessary for the ceremony. A courtier like Froissart was not apt to favor a people such as the Irish were then represented to be, nor was his informant prejudiced in their favor; but the details trans- mitted to us through such hands are extremely cm'ious. " To tell you the truth," said Castide, " Ireland is one of the worst countries to make war in or to conquer, for there are such impenetrable and extensive forests, lakes, and bogs, there is no knowing how to pass them. It is so thinly inhabited that whenever the Irish please they desert the towns and take refuge in these forests, and live in huts made of boughs, like wild beasts j and whenever they perceive any parties advancing with hostile disposition, and about to enter their country, they fly to such narrow passes it is impossible to follow them .... And no man-at- arms, be he ever so well mounted, can overtake them, so light are they of foot. Sometimes they leap from the ground behind a horseman, and embrace the rider (for they are very strong in their arms) so tightly that he can no way get rid of them." Sir Henry then proceeds to relate, * Proceedings of the Privy Council, edited by Sir Harris Nicholas. 308 RKIGN OF RICH ART) IT. among other things, how " four of the most potent kings of Ireland had submitted to the king of England, but more through love and good humour than by battle or force ;"* how they were placed for about a month under his " care and governance at Dublin, to teach them the usages of England;" how they refused to sit to dinner unless their min- strels and attendants were allowed seats with them at the same table, according to the custom of their own country; how they at first objected to receive knighthood, observing that they had been created knights already when they were only seven years of age, such being the custom of their country, especially with the sons of kings ; how they ultimately acceded to the wishes of king Richard in everything, and were knighted by him in the cathedral of Dublin, on the feast of Our Lady, in March; and dined that day, in robes of state, at the table of king Richard, " where they were much stared at by the lords and those present, not, indeed, without reason, for they were strange figures, and differently countenanced to the English and other nations." So the courtly Sir John reports the words of Master Castide, and he adds that the success of Richard II. in Ireland on this occasion was partly owing to the vene- ration in which the natives held the cross of St. Edward, which the king emblazoned on all his banners, instead of his own leopards and fievrg de lis. A.D. 1395. — After nine months passed in Ireland, chiefly in those dis- plays of pomp and pastimes which he so much loved, Richard was recalled to England by affairs of state early in the summer of this year, and left young Roger Mortimer, who had been declared heii'-presump- tive to the crown, as his viceroy in Ireland. Scarcely, however, had the king departed when several of the Irish chiefs cast off the allegiance to which they had submitted for the moment. It would appear that even before he left the English suffered partial defeats in Offaly and Ely O'Carroll. We are told, on English authority, that Sir Thomas Burke and Walter Bermingham slew 600 of the Irish this year, and that the O'Byrnes of Wicklow were defeated by the viceroy and the earl of Ormond. But, on the other hand, MacCarthy gained a victory over the English in Munster ; O'Toole slaughtered them fearfully in a battle in 1396, six score heads of the foreign foe being counted before the chief after the conflict ; the earl of Kildare was taken prisoner by Calvagh O'Conor of Offaly, in 1398; and the same year the O'Byrnes and O'Tooles avenged many of their former losses by a victory at Kenlis * The names of the Irish kings are strangely metamorphosed in the orthography of Froissart, but they appear to have been O'Neill, O'Conor, O'Brien and MacMurrough. — Chxou. Book IV. c. 64. Johns' Translation. THE KIXG's second VISIT TO ICIIIAXD. 309 in Ossory, in which young Mortimer was slain and a great nnmher of the English cut to pieces. 4.l> 1099. — King llicliard, who had of late incurred great popular odium in England by his exactions and oppression, undertook the mad project of another expedition to Ireland; and set out at a moment when his government was surrounded by perils at home, lea^^ng his uncle, the Duke of York, regent in his absence. He once more landed at Waterford with another magnificent army, which, like the former one, was transported in a fleet of 200 ships ; and it is curious that on this occasion we are again indebted to a French chronicler for an account of the royal transactions in Ireland. A French gentleman named Creton, who was induced to accompany a friend on Richard's second expedition, has left us, in a metrical account of the last days of that unfortunate monarch's reign, some highly interesting details of what he witnessed in this country.* After six days' delay in Waterford the king marched to Kilkenny, where he remained fourteen days waiting for the arrival of the duke of Albemarle, who still disappointed him ; but, in the meantime, Janico d'Artois, a foreign officer of great tact and bravery, and anIio per- formed many important services for the English, defeated the Irish at Kells, in Ossory. On the eve of St. John the Baptist, Richard departed from the city of St. Canice, victualling his army as best he could, and marched against Mac Murrongh, the indomitable king of Leiiister. The main object of the expedition was, indeed, to conquer, if possible, this celebrated chieftain, the most heroic of the Irish princes of his time, vsh^ in a territory surrounded by the settlements of his English foa», ^nd spite of all the lords justices sent against him with armies of *Ttail-clad warriors and archers, and all the chivalry of the earls of the /ale, was able to hold his position as an independent king, to keep the Anglo-Irish government in perpetual terror, and to afford a rallying point to his oppressed countrymen, and an example of patriotic heroism to the native chieftains of all Irelind.f MacMurrough's stronghold was in a wood, " guarded by 3,000 stout men, such, as it seemed to me," says the narrator, " were very little astonished at the sight of the Enghsh." The king marshalled his army in battle array before the • See the TTisfnve (hi Roy d'Anglcterre, Richard; translated by the Rev. J. Webb, in the twen- tienth vol. of the Archaeologia : London, 1824. The portion of it relaiin^' to Ireland was trans- lated long before by Sir George Carew, and published in H;irris's Hibt.-nica. t See, f .r an interesting accouH* of this Irish hero nnd bis exploits, Mr. T. Darcj ^I 'Gee's ^' Life and i'onqueiis of A-i ilucAiurrou'jh" in D'Jj'ys Llbrarj of Ireland. 310 REIGN OF RICHARD II. wood, the standard being, this time, not St. Edward's gold cross on a red field and four white doves, but his own three leopards ; and the Irish not choosing to leave their defences and meet him in the plain, he ordered the villages in the wood to be set on fire, and compelled 2,500 of the peasantry to cut a passage for his army tlu-ough the wood. Meanwhile he amused himself with one of his favorite pageants, going through the ceremony of knighting his cousin, the duke of Lancaster's son, " a fair and puny youth," who was afterwards king Hemy V. of England, together with eight or ten other knights. While marching through the passage opened for them his army was constantly assailed both in the van and rear by MacMurrough's soldiers, who attacked them with loud shouts, casting their javelins with such might " as no haber- geon or coat of mail was of sufiicient proof to resist their force;" and who were " so nimble and swift of foot that like unto stags they ran over mountains and valleys." MacMurrough's uncle and some others came forward in an abject manner to make their submission to Richard, who thereupon sent a message to the king of Leinster himself, inviting him to follow his uncle's example, and promising not only to pardon him but " to bestow upon him castles, towns, and ample territories." The answer of the heroic Art was that " for all the gold in the world he would not submit himself, but would continue to war, and endamage the king in all that he could." This defiant message was delivered at a time when king Richard's army was in the utmost straits for want of food. The surromiding country had been ravaged over and over, and no provisions were to be found. Several men had perished of famine, and even the horses were without fodder. " A biscuit in one day between five men was thought good allowance, and some in five days together had not a bit of bread !" At length three ships arrived with provisions from Dublin, the army being encamped somewhere near the coast in Wexford ; but the starving soldiers plunged into the sea and rifled the vessels without waiting for a regular distribution of food, so that much of it was destroyed and many lives lost in the confusion ; and the men indulged to intoxication in the wine which they found in the ships. Covered with humiliation, king Richard decamped, and marched towards Dublin, the Irish hovering on his rear and skirmishing with the same provoking effect as hitherto ; but soon after his departure MacMur- rough sent after him to make overtures of peace and to propose a confe- rence. This filled the English camp with delight, and Richard gladly commissioned the earl of Gloucester, who commanded in the rear, to meet ART MAC MDRROUGH's INTERVIEW WITH GLOUCESTER. 311 MacMurrough. For this purpose the earl took with him a guard of 200 lances and 1,000 good archers ; and among the gentlemen who accom- panied him to see the Irish king was our French friend who relates the circumstance : — " From a mountain, between two woods, not far from the sea, we saw MacMurrough descending, accompanied by multitudes of the Irish, and mounted upon a horse, without a saddle, which cost him, it was reported, 400 cows. His horse was fair, and in his descent from the hill to us, ran as swiftly as any stag, hare, or the swiftest beast I have ever seen. In his right hand he bore a long spear, which, when near the spot where he was to meet the earl, he cast from him with much dexterity. The crowd that followed him then remained behind, while he advanced to meet the earl near a small brook. He was tall of stature, well composed, strong, and active ; his countenance fierce and cruel." The parley was a protracted one, but led to no reconciliation. Such terms as the earl was empowered to offer were haughtily spurned by MacMurrough, who declared that he would not submit to them while he had life. Richard, on hearing the result, " flew into a violent rage, and swore by St. Edward he would not depart out of Ireland until he had MacMurrough in his hands, living or dead." Dublin was at that time so prosperous that the arrival of the English king, with an army of 30,000 hungry men, produced no change in the price of provisions. The duke of Albemarle next arrived with his rein- forcements, and Richard, forming his army into three divisions, resolved to renew the war against MacMurrough, and at the same time offered a reward of a 100 marks to any one who would deliver that chieftani to him dead or alive. His own fate, however, was nearer at hand than that of Art MacMurrough. After an ominous interruption of news from England for six weeks, owing to stormy weather, disastrous accounts reached him from that country. His cousin, the son of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, was up in rebellion, and had been joined by the barons and a large portion of the population. All his Irish schemes were in a moment crushed. The duke of Albemarle, in whom he trusted, put him on a wrong course. His departure from Ireland was delayed until his Welsh friends were scattered, and he only arrived in England to become a prisoner. Ultimately he was murdered in Pontc- fract Castle; and thus to this second ill-omened expedition of king Richard to Ireland may be traced the fate of that unfortunate monarch, and the origin of the war between the houses of York and Lancaster, which so long continued to deluge England with blood. Niall More O'Neill died at an advanced age, in 1397, and was sue- 312 REIGN OF RICHARD II. ceeded by his son, Niall Oge, who chastised the O'Donnells for some of their late aggressions, and made war upon the English so effectually, in 1399, as to plundea* or expel nearly all of them whom he found in Ulster. Garrett, fourth earl of Desmond, who died in 1398, and was called the poet, is described as excelling " all the English and many of the Irish in the knowledge of the Irish language."* He was a great patron of learned men, who, even in that age of anarchy, found many friends among the Irish chieftains. Thus Niall O'Neill, whose death we havo Just mentioned, built a house for the ollavs and poets on the site of the famous palace of Emania, near Armagh. We begin at this time to meet frequent mention of pilgrimages to Rome. In 1396, Thadeus O'Carroll, lord of Ely, repaired, says an Irish chronicler, to the threshold of the apostles on a religious pilgrimage ; and, on his return through England, he presented himself, with three other Irish gentlemen, O'Brien, Gerald, and Thomas Calvagh MacMurrough, of the royal race of Leinster, to king Richard, who received them in the most courteous manner, and took them with him on a visit to the king of France. * Two plaintive quatrains in Korman French, written by this earl while a prisoner, are printed in Croker's popular songs of Ireland, p. 287. Earl Garrett is the theme of many legends still preserved in the south of Ireland ; according to one of which, his spirit appears once in seven years on Lough Gur, ia the county of Limerick, where he had a castle. See Four Masters, vol. v. p. 761, note. ' '^^ ^=%^^-<^S^' ^^^"-<^^ ^^^^^^V^ "^"^'Bclt^ CHAPTER XXVII. ' REIGNS OF HENRY IV. AND HENRY V State of the English Pale. — The Duke of Lancaster in Ireland. — Defeats of the English. — Retaliation. — Lancaster again Lord Lieutenant. — His Stipulations. — Affairs of Tyrone. — Privateering. — Complaints from the Pale. — Accession of Henry V. — Sir John Stanley's government. — Ehyming to death. — Exploits of Lord Furnival. — Reaction of the Irish. — Death of Art MaeMurrough Kava- nagh. — Death of Murrough O'Couor, of OfFaly. — Defeat of the O'Mores. — Petition against the Irish. — Persecution of an Irish Archbishop. — Complaint of the Anglo-Irish Commons. — State of Religion and Learning. COTEMPORAET SOVEREIGNS AND EVENTS. Popes: Innocent VIT., Gregory XII., Alexander V., John XXIII., Martin V. — King of France, Chai'.es VI. — King of Scotland, Robert III. — Revolt of Owen Glendower in Wales, 1401.— Death of Tamarlaue, the Tartar Conqueror, 1405. — Cannon first used in Englaud, 1405. — Bat- tle of Azincourt, 1415 Paper Urst made of linen rags, 1417. [from 1399 TO 1422.] E have already remarked that the reigns of the English kings form no epochs in Irish history. In England the struggles between the crown and tlie parliament, the con- sequent growth of popular liberty, the alternate wars and alliances with other countries, and events of like importance, sufficiently distinguish one reign from another. In Ireland the scene varied but little. It was one of continuous strife and warfare ; the only redeeming feature being the indomi- table heroism with which the native Irish not only main- tained their ground against their powerful and rapacious enemies, but gradually regained territories that haxl been wrested fi'om their ancestors, and even succeeded, as was now the case, in levying tribute within the English Pale.* A.D. 1402. — Thomas, the young duke of Lancaster, second son of Henry IV., was sent over as lord lieutenant, though not yet of age, and landed at Bullock, near Dalkey. Soon after his arrival, John Drake, * To tliat territ?'y within which the English retreated and fortiliod thrtnselves when a reaction began to set in after their first success in Ireland ue have all along applied tlx; name of I'ule, 314 EEIGN OF HENRY IV then mayor of Dublin, marclied against the O'Byrnes of Wicklow, whom he routed at Bray, slaying 500 ; and as a recognition of this and other similar services, the privilege of having the sword borne before the mayor was granted to the city of Dublin. John Dowdal, sheriff of Louth, was publicly murdered in Dublin, by Sir Bartholomew Vernon and three other Eno'lish gentlemen, for which and other crimes they were outlawed and their estates forfeited ; but soon after they received the king's pardon and had their lands restored. The duke of Lancaster remained two years, and left as deputy Sir Stephen Scroop, who soon after resigned the office to the earl of Ormond, but on the death of the latter in 1405, the earl of Kildare was elected, and he was followed in quick succession by Scroop, and the new earl of Ormond, as deputies to the duke. Gillapatrick O'More, lord of Leix, defeated the English in battle at Ath-duv, in 1404, killing great numbers and taking a large amount of spoils. The following year Art MacMurrough renewed hostilities by plundering Wexford, Carlow, and Castledermot ; and in 1406 tlie English of Meath were defeated by Murrough O'Conor, lord ot Offaly, and his son Calvagh. Three hundred of the English were killed on this occasion. A.D. 1407. — This year the English avenged some of their recent losses. The lord deputy Scroop, with the earls of Desmond and Ormond, and the prior of Kilmainham, led an army against MacMurrough, who made so gallant a stand that victory for some time seemed to be on his although that term did not really come into use until about the beginning of the 16th century^ In earlier times this territory was called the English Land. It is generally called Galldacht, or the "foreigner's territory," in the Irish annals, where the term Galls conies to be applied to the descendants of the early adventurers, and that of Saxons to Englishmen newly arrived. The formation of the Pale is generally considered to date from the reign of Edward I. About the period of which we are now treating it began to be limited to the four counties of Louth, Meath, Kildare, and Dublin, which formed its utmost extent in the reign of Henry VIII. Beyond this the authority of the king of England was a nullity. The border lands were called the Marches. Campion describes the Pale as the place " whereout they (the English) durst not peepe." The Wicklow septs of O'Toole and O'Byrne fre- quently scoured the country as far as Clondalkin, Saggard and other places in the immediate vicinity of Dublin. An autliority of the reign of Henry VIII. complains that even the four counties of Dublin, Kildare, Meath, and Uriel, or Louth, were not "free from Irish invasions, and were so weakened, withal, and corrupted, that scant four persons in any parish wore English habits ; and coine and liverie were as current as in the Irish counties." — The same authority (a Report on the condition of Ireland in 1515, preserved in the English State Paper Office, and printed in the first volume of the "State Papers" relating to Ireland) states that but half of each of the four counties just mentioned was subject to the king's laws, and that "all the comyn Peoplle of thesaid HalfF Countyes that obeyeth the Kinges Laws, for the more part ben of Iryshe Byrthe, of Iryslie Habyte, and of Irishe Language;" and in enumerating the English territories which paid tribute, or "Black Rent," to the "wylde Irish," it is stated that the county of Uriel (Louth) paid yearly to the " great Oneyll" £40 ; the county of Meath, to O'Conor of Offaly, £300 ; the county of Kildare, to the same O'Conor, £20; the King's Exchequer to MacMurrough, 80 marks; besides the tributes paid by nglish settlements outside the Pale to their respective Irish chieftains. Such was lh» btate of things mora than 300 years after the so-called conquest. VICEROYALTY OF THE DUKE OF LANCASTER. 315 side, although it ultimately declared for the English. The latter then made a rapid march to Callan, in the county of Kilkenny, where they came by surprise upon Teige O'Carroll, lord of Ely, and his adherents, and slew 800 of them in the panic which ensued.* Teige O'CaiToll, who was killed in the fray, was a generous patron of learning ; and it will be remembered that a few years before this time, when returning from a pilgrimage to Rome, he was honorably received at the court of Richard II., in Westminster. A parliament was held this year at Dublin in wliich the statute of Kilkenny was confirmed, but the insolence which prompted this proceeding was soon after humbled. A.D. 1408. — The duke of Lancaster again assumed the reins of govern- ment in person ; but stipulated that he should be allowed to transport into Ireland, at the king's expense, one or two families from every parish in England, that the demesnes of the crown should be resumed, and the laws against absenteeism enforced. Soon after his arrival he seized the earl of Kildare in an arbitrary manner, and demanded 300 marks for his ransom. Meanwhile MacMurrough, who had again taken the field, was victorious in battle, and O'Conor Faly carried off enormous spoils from the English in the lands bordering on his own territory. The royal duke finally left Ireland in 1409, after appointing Thomas Butler prior of Kilmainham, as his deputy. The latter held a parlia- liament in Dublin the following year, when the law against coyn and livery was further confirmed ; he also made an incursion into O'Byrne's country, with a force of 1,500 kernes or light-armed infantry, but with- out success.f "^ A.D. 1412. — Tyrone was for many years, about this period, a scene of contention between diflferent sections of the O'Neill family, and tha neigbouring chieftains were generally involved in the strife. When Niall Oge O'Neill died in 1402 his son Owen was miable to enforce his * Both English and Irish accounts agree as to the number of slain, but the former add " thai the sun stood still that day for a space, until the Euglishmen had ridden six miles !" a prodig>' on which the Irish annals are silent. About this time the first notice of usquebagh or whiskey occurs in the Irish annals, which mention that Richard MacKannal, chief of Muintir-Eolais in Leitrim, died from drinking some at Chiistmas, in the year 1405. Connell Mageoghegan (Ann. of Clon.) playing upon the name, says " mine author sayeth that it was not aqua vitas to him, but aqua mortis." Fynes Jlorryaon, a writer of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, lauds the usquthagh or aqua vita: of Ireland, as better than that of England. — Hist, of Ir. vol. ii. p. 366. t An Act passed in the parliament held in the year 1411, affords a striking example of the malevolence with which the legislature of the Pale was animated towards the Irish. It was enacted that none of the " Irish enemy"' should be allowed to depart from the realm, without special leave ander the great seal of Ireland ; and that any one who seized the person or goods of a native thus attempting to depart should be rewarded with one-half of the aforesaid goods, tne remainder to be forfeited to the State. 316 REIGN OF HENRY V right of succession, and Donnell, of the Henry O'Neill Lranch, was recognised as chieftain. In 1410 Donnell was made prisoner by Brian MacMahon of Oriel, who delivered him up to his enemy, Owen O'Neill, and through the agency of the latter he was transferred to the English, who already had in their hands Hugh, another of the Henry O'Neill faction. Hugh made his escape from Dublin in 1412, after ten years' imprisonment, and contrived to take with him several other captives; among others, his kinsman Donnell. This escape created great alarm in the Pale, and threw Ulster once more into confusion. Seven years later Donnell O'Neill was expelled by Owen and the other northern chiefs; and the following year we find the earl of Ormond, then justi- ciary, acting with an English army against the Ultonians on his behalf. Donnell and his Anglo-Irish auxiliaries were, however, unsuccessful, and the former was then obliged to fly for shelter to the O'Conors of Sligo. A piratical Avarfare was carried on at this period between the Scots and the English merchants of Dublin and Drogheda. The latter were obliged to arm in their own defence, as government was unable to pro- tect them, and they fitted out privateers and plundered the Scottish and the Welsh coasts indiscriminately. MacMurrough gained a victory over the English of Wexford in 1413, and the O'Byrnes another over those of Dublin the same year. A little before this, the sheriff" of Meath was taken prisoner by O'Conor Faly, and a large ransom exacted for him. In fact, the state of the English Pale was at this time such that it was necessary to remove the prohibition of trading with s the Irish of the Marches. Permission was granted to take Irish tenants on the border lands, and licenses were given to place English children with Irish nurses, and even to Intermarry with the Irish. The English of j\Ieath were obliged to purchase peace from the Irish by annual tributes or black rent. The English of Louth complained that the king's commissioners had billeted or assessed Eochy MacMahon and other " Irish enemies " upon them, and that these men were prying into all the woods and strong places about the country. A petition was presented by the commons to the kmg, complaiiuiig ti.at even the kuig's ministers frequently committed open acts of spoliation on the English subjects. * In a word, the speaker of the Entdish House of Commons, Sir John Tibetot, broadly asserted *' 1 jiit the greater part of tneLor^lship of Ireland, (that is, the English territory there^, had been conquered by the natives."! A.D. 1413. — Henry V. succeeded to the crown of England on the death * Procee'fiiu/f, 4c., oftht Privy Couadi, -ulhcd by iSir H. Nicholas, vl. iL t Rot. Pari. i;ia. ACHIEVEMENTS OF I,ORI> FUnXIVAL. 317 of his father this year ; but altliough he made his first essay in arms in freland, having been knighted when a boy by Richard II., in a camp in Wexford, he does not appear to have ever taken rmxch interest in Irish affairs. The English overthrew the Irish in a battle at Kilkea in Kildare ; but in the following year they were defeated in Meath by Murrough O'Conor, lord of Ofi^'aly, when the baron of Skreen and many of the English gentry were killed, and the sum of 1,400 marks exacted as a ransom for the son of the baron of Slane, who was made prisoner. Sir John Stanley, who was now sent over as lord deputy, rendered himself odious by his cruelties and exactions ; and the Irish annals say that he Avas "rhymed to death " by the poet Niall O'Higgin of Usnagh, whom he plundered in a foray, and who then lampooned him so severely that he only survived five weeks !* He is accused of having enriched himself by extortion and oppression, and of having incurred enormous debts, which his executors refused to liquidate; and it was said that he "gave neither money nor protection to clergy, laity, or men of science, but subjected them to cold, hardship, and famine." A.D. 1415. — Sir John Talbot of Hallamshire, who was called lord Furnival, in right of his wife, and was subsequently rewarded for his services with the title of earl of Shrewsbirry, was sent to Ireland as lord justice at the close of 1414, and entered on the duties of his office with determined energy. Setting out on a martial circuit of the borders of the Pale, he first invaded the territory of Leix, took two of O'More's castles, and laid waste the whole of his lands in so merciless a way, that that chief was obliged to sue for peace, and to deliver up his son as a hostage. The hardest of his terms was, that O'More should fight under the English standard against his brother chieftains, as he was compelled to do immediately after against MacMahon of Oriel, who was likewise subdued and compelled to yield to similar terms ; so that it was said lord Furnival " obliged one Irish enemy to serve upon the other." These successes, achieved in the space of a few months, gained for him the approbation of the inhabitants of the Pale; but as it was necessary to revive the exaction of coyn and livery to support the soldiery, the advantages were more than counterbalanced by the losses.f * This was the second " poetic miracle " performed by this Niall O'Higgin by means of his satire and imprccationi, the former being " the discomfiture of the Clann-Conway the night they plundered Niall at Chidann." In the case mentioned above, one of the Anglo-Irish, Henry Dalton, took up the bard's cause, and plundered " James Tuite and the king's people," giving the OTIiiigins out of the prey a oow for every one that had been taken from them, and then escorting them to Connaught. t The oppressive nature of coyn and livcrj' is thus explained in the prramble to the statute (not printed) of 10 Hen. VII., c. 4 :— " TLut uf long there hath been used and exacted by the loidi and 318 RElfiN OF HENRT \. A.D. 1416. — No sooner had this formidable deputy departed to attend his royal master in France, where he became the most distinguished of the English commanders, than the Irish again rose and made ample re- prisals. O'Conor Faly took large spoils from the Pale's men ; and the invincible king of Leinster overran the English settlements in Wex- ford, killing or taking prisoners in one day 340 men. The next day the English sued for peace and delivered hostages to him. This was the last exploit of Art MacMurrough Kavanagh. That Irish prince, the most illustrious of the ancient royal line to which he belonged, died in 1417. Our native annals say " he nobly defended his own province against the invaders from his sixteenth to his sixtieth year." He was distinguished for his hospitality, and his patronage of learning as well as for his chivalry, and was a munificent benefactor of churches and religious houses. He is supposed to have been poisoned along with his chief brehon, O'Doran, by a drink adminis^tered to him by a woman at New Ross the week after Christmas, and was succeeded by his son Donough, who was worthy of his father's military fame. Two years after this Donough was made prisoner by Richard Talbot, then lord deputy, and sent to London, where he was confined in the Tower. A.D. 1421. — Murrough O'Conor, lord of Offaly, whom we have seen so often victorious over the English, died this year, having assiuned the habit of a grey friar a month before his death in the monastery of Killeigh, near Geashill. The same year the earl of Ormond, then lord deputy, defeated O'More in " the red bog of Athy," the historian, Campion, relating on this occasion the prodigy which Ware refers to a former one, namely, that the sun stood still to accommodate the victorious English ! Thus war was carried on with inveterate animosity on both sides ; but unfortunately it was not confined to the hostile races of Celt and Saxon, for during the whole of this time our annals teem with accounts of internecine quarrels among the Irish cliiefs themselves in almost eveiy part of the country.* genllemen of this land, many and divers damnable customs and usages, which being called coyn and livery and pay — that is, horse meat and man's meat for the finding of their horsemen and footmen, and over that, 4d. or 6d. daily to every of them, to be had and paid of the poor earth-tillers and tenants, without anything doing or paying therefor. Besides, many murders, robberies, rapes, and other manifold oppressions by the said horsemen and footmen daily and nightly committed and done, which have been the princinal causes of the desolation and destruction of the said land, so as the most part of the English freeholders and tenants be departed out of the land." — Grace's Annals, p. 147, note; Buvis' Discovery, pp. 143, 144; also. Printed Statutes, 10 Hen. VII., cc. xviii. and xix. The exactions of the Irish chiefs were remodelled after the English invasion, and soon became totally different from those set down in the Book of Rights. — -S'ee 0' Donovan's Introduction to the Book of Rlffhts, p. xviii. * A small body of Iri^h troops, under the command of Thomas Butler, prior of Kihnainham, STATE OF RELIGION, ETC 319 A petition was presented to parliament in 1417, praying that as Ireland was divided into two nations, the English subjects and the Irish enemies, no Irishmaii should be presented to any office or benefice in the church; and that no bishop, who was of the Irish nation, should, under pain of forfeiting his temporalities, collate any Irish cleric to a benefice ; moreover, that he should not be allowed to bring any Irish servant with him when he came to attend parliament or council. The prayer of this atrocious petition was granted ; and soon after we find an attempt made to carry out the principle in a prosecution against Richard O'Hedian, archbishop of Cashel, who was distinguished for his zeal and bounty in promoting religion and fostering its establishments, but who was now impeached for showing favor to Irishmen ; for giving no benefice to English ecclesiastics ; for advising other bishops to follow his example, and for some other trumpery charges ; but the matter does not appear to have been followed up. It is plain, that the only real cause of accusa- tion against this prelate was the display of some kindness and generosity towards his persecuted countrymen. About the close of this reign, the Irish commons presented a petition to the king, complaining of several monstrous grievances and abuses on the part of his officers in Ireland. Among them were the cruelty, oppression, and extortion practised by several of the lord deputies, some of whom, like Sir John Stanley, and lord Furnival, incurred enormous debts which they left unpaid. They complained also of the hostility shown to the Anglo-Irish in England, however loyal they might be as subjects, hostility which was carried so far as to exclude Irish law students from the Inns of Court in London, and to cause a variety of obstructions and annoyances to Irish students attending the English schools, although the statutes concerning absentees contained an express exception in favor of studious persons. Thus were even those of English descent made to feel daily more and more painfully the alien and unkind sentiments with which eveiything pertaining to Ireland was regarded in England. Many entries meet us in our searches through the Irish annals, which show that even in the dreary period that we have been just exploring, men were not always occupied with war and rapine. The magnificent Franciscan monastery of Quin, in Clare, was founded by Sheeda Cam MacNamara in 1402 ; and in 1420, James, earl of Desmond, attended king Henry V. in one of his Freuch wars, and gained great eclat by their T\ilJ Impetu- osity and heroism in battle. ,-^20 RKIGN OF IILNRY V. erected the abbey of the same order at Eas Gephtine or Askeaton, where the noble ruins, washed by the tide of the Deel, still remind us of days when religion exulted in its pomp as well as in Its fervor. Several of the Irish chiefs gave edifying evidence of repentance in their deaths; and some of them assumed the religious habit, as Turlough, son of Niall Garv O'Donnell, lord of Tirconnell, who died in the monastery oi Assaroe in 1422, causing his son, another Niall Garv, to be inaugurated in the chieftainship. Gilla-na-neev O'Heerin, the author of a valuable Irish topographical poem, often quoted by our antiquaries, died in 1420, and the obituaries of some other persons, distinguished for historical knowledge, are mentioned under that and the following year, as David O'Duigennan, Farrell O'Daly, oUav of Corcomroe, and Gillareagh O'Clery of Tirconnell. CHAPTER XXVIIT. EEIGNS OF HENRY VI., EDWARD IV., EDWARD V., AND RICHARD III. State of Ireland on the Accession of Henry VI. — Liberation of Donough Mac Murrough. — Incursions of Owen O'Neill. — His inauguration. — Famine. — The " Summer of slight acquaintauce." — Distressing State of Discord. — Domestic War in England at this Period. — Dissensions in the Pale. — Complaints against the Earl of Ormond. — Pi-ocecdings of Lord Furnival. — Pestilence. — Devoted- n«6S of the Clergy. — The Duke of York in Ireland. — His Popularity. — Confesses his Inability to Subdue the Irish — His subsequent Fortunes and Death in Eng- land. — Irish Pilgrimages to Rome and St. James uf Compostella. — Munificence of Margaret of Olfaly — Her Banquets to the Learned. — The Butlers and Ger- aldines take opposite sides in the English Wars. — Popular Government of the Earl of Desmond. — He is unjustly Executed. — Wretched Condition of the Eng- lish Pale. — Fatal Feuds and Indifference of the Irish, and Cotemporary Dis- orders in England. — Atrocious Laws against the Irish. COTKMrOKAKT SOTEEKIGNS AND EVENTS. Popes: Eugenius IV., Calixtus III., Pius II., Paul III., Sistus IV., Innocent VIII.— Kings of P"rance: Charles VII., Louis XL, Charles VIIL— Kings of Scotland: the First, Second, and Third James. Joan of Arc Burned by the English as a Sorceress, 1434.— Constantinople taken by the Turks, 1453._Pnnting Invented by Guttenberg, 1440, and introduced into England by Caxton, 1471. — St. Thomas a Kempis died, 1471. i.^ (a.u. 1422 TO 1485.) ENRY VI. was proclaimed king of England while y^* an infant, not quite nine months old; and those who go- verned diu'ing his minority found the English colonv in Ireland in a very precarious state at the time thev entered on their duties. In 1423, Donnell O'Neill, cliief of Tyrone; his old competitor for the chieftaincy, Owen, son of Niall Oge O'Neill; Niall O'Donnell, chief of Tir- connell, and several other princes of Ulster, laid aside their feuds for the moment in order to make a combined inroad on the English of that province. They mai'ched first to Duiidalk, thence to the town of Louth, and sub- sequently into Meath, where Richard Talbot, archbishop of I)ul)1in, who then filled the office of lord deputy, B22 RKIGN OF HENRY VI. attempted to arrest their progress, but in vain, his army having been routed with considerable loss. Finally, peace was mad^ with the Irish after they had obtained enormous spoils, and levied a tribute or bla-ck rent on the wealthy burgesses of Dundalk. The following year James, earl of Ormond, came to Ireland as lord lieutenant with an English army, and mustering a strong force he hastened to avenge the colonists on the northern chieftains. He ravaged the plains of Armagh and part of Moi:aghan. The O'Neills of Clannaboy, O'Hanlon, and MacMahon were driven, cither by necessity or private jealousy, to fight on the English side, and the men of Tyrone and Tirconnell retired to their own territories. A.D. 1425. — Edward Mortimer, earl of March, having assumed the government of Ireland, landed here with a large army, according to the Irish annals, in September, 1424, but according to English authorities, in the preceding year. The year after his arrival he died of the plague at his residence in Trim; and Talbot, lord Furnival, who succeeded him in office, came suddenly on a number of Ulster chieftains, who were nego- tiating peace with earl IMortimer at the time of his unexpected death. These chiefs were carried prisoners to Dublin, and their seizure pro- duced the utmost excitement in the north. Owen O'Neill was ransomed, but how the other prisoners eventually got off we are not told. The annals add that the Clann Neill tl^en arranged their mutual differences, and recovered by their united force all the lands which they had lost in their contentions. A.D. 1428. — Donough MacMurrough, son of the celebrated Art Mac Murrough Kavanagh, was this year liberated from the Tower, after an imprisonment of nine years. The Irish annals say he was ransomed by his people, the Irish of Leinster. On his return to Ireland he resumed the honors of his hereditary chieftaincy, and Avith its honors its chival- rous resistance to the English ; as we find that in 1431 he made an in- cursion into the county of Dublin, and that in a battle fought on that occasion he was victorious in the early part of the day, although in the evening the English rallied, regained the captured spoils, and killed many of his men. One of the O'Briens and two sons of O'Conor Kerry were in MacMurrough's army at the battle, and the O'Toole fell into the hands of the English. MacMurrouiih took reveno;e the followinir year by another incursion, and a battle in which he routed the English and made several prisoners. A.D. 1430. — Owen O'Neill led an army this year into Louth and devastated the English settlements there. He burned the castles which FEUDS AXD ALLIA^rCES. 323 defended Dundalk, and made the inhabitants of that town pay tribute. He then marched into Annaly and Westmeath, spreading desolation wherever he went ; the English were obliged to purchase mercv at a dear rate, and several Irish chiefs, as O'Conor Faly, O'Molloy, O'Madden, Mageoghegan, and O'jMelaghlin, acknowledged him as their lord para- mount by the old form of accepting stipends from him. The history of the time is made up of such driftless hostilities, which served only the purposes of personal revenge or plunder, and left the fate of the country imtouched. On the death of Donnell O'Neill, of the Henry Avry branch, who w^as killed by the O'Kanes, in 1432, Owen O'Neill was regulary inaugurated at Tullaghoge as chief of the Kinel-Owen. This year Manns MacMahon committed frequent depredations on the English, and was in the habit of placing their heads on the stakes which enclosed his garden at Baile-na-Lurgan, where the town of Carrickraacross now stands. In 1433 the O'Neills and O'Donnells waged a terrific war against each other; and to add to the misfortunes of the country, a famine prevailed; so that the season was afterwards known as " tlie summer of slight acquaintance," from the selfish distance and reserve which the dearth created among friends. In 1434 the chiefs of Tyrone and Tirconnell once more combined to invade the English districts and to enforce the tribute which they had imposed on Dundalk ; but, on this occasion a rash movement on the part of some of the young O'Neills led to the loss of a battle and the capture of Niall Garv O'Donnell, who was taken off to England and confined in the tower. In 1439 this heroic chieftain was removed to the Isle of Man to negotiate for his ransom, but he died there, and, to the exclusion of his sons, his brother Naghtan O'Donnell was installed chief of Tirconnell. The feuds and alliances which alternated in such rapid succession among the Irish chieftains appear to us, at this distance, to have been in the utmost degree capricious and uncertain; but the most melancholy feature in the social picture was the unprincipled competition for the chieftaincy by which the ruling families in almost all the independent territories were torn into factions. The old law of tanistry was per- verted or trampled under foot by the ambitious. Brothers were arrayed against each other, and uncles and nephews wei'e engaged in perpetual warfare. At the time we are treating of, Owen O'Neill, prince of Tyrone, had to defend himself against his kinsman Brian Oge O Ncill, and was ultimately banished by his own son Henry. A few years later 324 REIGN OF HENRY VI. (1452) Naghtan O'Donnell was murdered at night by the two cuns of his brother Niall Garv, whom he had disinherited. In 1437 the indomi- table O'Conor Faly had the mortification to see his brother, Cahir, leagued against him for a time with tlie English. Brian and Manus MaeMahon contended for the chieftaincy of Oriel, and in the south, Tiege O'Brien, chief of Thomond, was in 1438 deposed by his brother Malion. In Connaught the insignificance to which the leading septs had been reduced by their family divisions has rendered it unnecessary for us for some time past to notice their still uninterrupted broils. That such a state of things should have prevailed in Ireland, where anarchy was rendered in a manner inevitable by the conflicts of the hostile races and the absence of a controlling power, is perhaps not to be wondered at. But at this period England herself presented in the struggle between the houses of York and Lancaster an example of the same kind of family warfare, on a gigantic scale, and at an enormous sacrifice of human life. Nor was the English Pale all this time free from dissension. About the beginning of this reign a violent feud broke out between the earl of Ormond and the Talbots, and continued to disturb the country for many years. A parliament, held in Dublin, in 1441, acting under the influence of Richard Talbot, archbishop of Dublin, and brother of lord Furnival, adopted certain statements or articles, the object of which was to prevent the re-appointment of the earl as lord-lieutenant. They prayed the king to appoint a " mighty lord of England " to the office, on the ground that the people would more readily favor and obey him than any man of Irish birth ; as Englishmen " keep better justice, execute the law^s, and favor more the common people than any Irishman ever did, or is ever likely to do." They urged that the earl of Ormond had lost all his castles, towns, and lordships in Ireland ; that he was too old and feeble to take the field against the king's enemies, and made sundry other charges to show his unfitness for the office.* These accusations did not appear to weigh with king Henry, for the earl, who was a staunch sup- porter of the house of Lancaster, was re-appointed lord4ieutenant the next year. Sir Giles Thorndon was, however, sent over to observe how things were going on, and he made a report, although only in general terms, on the factions which distracted the king's subjects in Ireland. Two years later (1444) he made a second report, in which the earl of * Proceedings of the Piivy Council, vol. vL LOrD FURKIVAL AGAIN VICKRCY. 323 Ormond was directly charged ,vitli misappropriating part of tlie puLlic revenue, with compromising crown debts for his own benefit, and with sundry acts of corruption, peculation, &c. The earl was, upon this, arrested and confined in the tower on a charge of high treason, and Sir John Talbot, then earl of Shrewsbury, but better known to the reader ag lord Furnival, was made lord lieutenant (144G), and soon after created earl of Waterford and baron of Dungarvan.* A.D. 1446. — The earl of Shrewsbury succeeded in establishing peace on the borders of the Pale. I^his remarkable man always achieved some important exploits on his appointment to the government of Ireland. His fame was world-wide. The English boasted that he won for them the kingdom of France : and all the English power in that country was unques- tionably centered in him. Yet this great captain and extraordinary man was able to do no more on this occasion in Ireland, with the aid of an army which he had brought Avith him from England, than to compel O'Conor Faiy, an Irish chieftain in the very heart of Leinster, to make peace M'ith the English government, to pay for the ransom of his son, and to send some beeves for the use of the king's kitohen ! A fact worth volumes in illustrating the precise extent of the English power in Ire- land more than 270 years after the invasion by Henry Il.f A.D. 1447. — Ireland Avas at this period seldom free from pestilence, but this year a destructive plague raged in the summer and autumn, and carried off, it was said, 700 priests who had fearlessly exposed them- selves to its fury in the discharge of their sacred duties.^ The plaguo was also rife the following year in Meath. A.D. 1449. — Thedukeof York, who was nephewof the last earlof March, and inherited his right to the earldom of Ulster and other Irish titles, * In tlie letters conferring these honors the countrj- from Youghal to AVatcrfurd is describcfl as ■waste, and redounding more to tlie king's loss tlian to his [)rotit ; but the barony of Dungarvan was soon after restored to tiie earl of Desmond, from whom it had been taken on that occasion on some unexplained grounds. As an instance of t!ie pretexts for which the petty wars of the jiiriod were sometimes carried on, we are told that the son of liermingham, lord of Loutli, was, in 1443, offended at Trim bj' the son of Barnwell, treasurer of Meath, who gave him a caimin or tilip on tlie nose. Enraged at the insult, young Berminghani left the ti>wn privately and repaired to (('Conor Faly, who was only too happy to have one English party to aid him against another. A plundering furay ensued, and Bemiinghain I'ljtained ample bUtisfaction, at the same time that Calvagh O'Conur secured his own dues from the English of Utialy. "Never was such abuse belter revenged," 8a\s Dudley Firbi*', " tlian the said caimin." + The Irit^li annals add that the earl of Shrew >bury took the lands of several Englishmen for tie king's use, and that he made tlie Dalton prisoner, and turned him into Lough Dulf. — Lmuky Firhisi Afihrtk, quoted in note to Four Masters, vol. iv,, p. O.'il. J In this year an absunl law was passed by a parliament held in Dublin, which enacted that any man who did not .-.liave his upper li(> might be treated as au "Iribh enemy," and this law rcmaiui J unrepealed until the sec lul \car of ('iK-irU's JL 326 KEIGN OF HENRY VI ■was appoiuted lord lieutenant for a period of ten years witli extraordi- nary powers and privileges, and with a grant of money from England to carry on the gOA^ernment, in addition to the crown revenues of Ireland.* The appointment of a prince of the royal blood to the government of Ireland was always sure to be popular ; and in the case of the duke of York, the connection of his family with this country, and his own honest principles and amiable disposition, procured for him the sympathy and confidence of all parties in Ireland. Some of the native chiefs showed him the most marked respect, and gave him, say our annals, as many beeves for the use of his kitchen as he chose to demand. A.D. 1450. — The son of the chief Mageoghegan was at this time committing great depredations on the English of J\Ieath. He burnt Rathguaire, or Rathmore, Killucan, and several other places in that territory, and at length the duke of York led an army against him, under the royal standard, to Mullingar, where Mageoghegan came at the head of a strong body of cavalry to oppose him. The duke chose not to risk a conflict, and agreed to terms of peace, forgiving Ma- geoo-hen-an for all his ao-rrressions. He then wrote to his brother, the earl of Salisbury, to state that unless he received an immediate supply of money from England, and was enabled to increase his army, he could not defend the land against the Irish, or keep it in subjection to the king; and that rather than Ireland should be lost through any fault or in- ability on his part, he would return to England and live on his own slender means. The main object of the English government in sending the duke to Ireland, was to remove him to a distance from a scene where his presence was dangerous to the reigning house of Lancaster; but the adherents of his party did not forget him in what was intended to be his exile. In the insurrection of Jack Cade, who was an Irishman, one of the objects professed by the insurgents was to place Richard, duke of York, on the t^irone. The duke now (1451) thought it right to return to England and put himself at the head of his friends, having previously appointed as his deputy the earl of Ormond, who, although of the Lan- castrian party, was personally attached to him. It is not our business to follow him in his proceedings in England ; but when his party was defeated, and for a time broken up in 1459, he fled to Ireland with his two sons, and was received with entlmsiasm in the Pale, resuming the * In 1412 llie Iri^h jnailianient. ioprpseiitin<; to t!:c kinjr tlie miserable state of the country, alleged that tho jniWic revenues fell short ol llie iiei-ebsaiy expenditure by i'l,l.J6. KArvGARET, QUEEN OF OFFALT. 3:27 fanctions of viceroy at the very time tliat an act of altaincler Avas passed against liim and his family by the Eiiglish parliament. How he could remain at the head of the gov-ernment of Ireland under such circum- stances, is one of the anomalies of which our history affords so many instances. Subsequently, through the energy of the earl of Warwick, who visited Ireland in the course of this war, the Avhite rose of York was again in the ascendant. At the battle of Northampton, in 1460, king Henry w^as made prisoner, and a compromise w^as entesed into which secured the succession, on the king's death, to the duke of York and his heirs; the duke, in the meantime, being appointed protector; but the queen contrived to rally her party once more, and in the battle of Wake- Held, which was fought on the last day of the year 1400, York was killed, togetlier with 3,000 of his followers, among whom were several Irish chiefs from Meath and Ulster. The events recorded in the Irish annals during the years over which we have just gla^iced, are, in m:iny cases, full of interest, and serve to throw light upon the state of society. Several pilgrimages to Rome are mentioned almost every year. In 1444 we are told, that the bishop of Elphin and many of the clergy of Connaught and of other parts of Ireland repaired to the eternal city, and that several of them died there. Pilgrimages to St. James of Compostella were also frequent among the Irish chieftains at that period, and even some of the Irish ladies accom- panied their lords on tliat long journey. Calvagh O'Conor, the veteran chief of Offaly, went on the great Spanish pilgrimage in 1451, and in the same year is recorded the death of his wife, IMargaret, daughter of O'CaiToll, king of Ely, a woman in whose praises tlie Irish annalists are enthusiastic* Calvagh himself died in 14.58, and was succeeded by his son. Con, who inherited his father's chivairy. * The literati of Ireland and Scotlaiul were entertained by tins ^.largarct at two memorable feasts. At the lirst, which was held at Killeigh, in the present King's county, 2,700 ffuests, all skilled in poetry, or music, or historic lore, were present. The nave of tlie great churcli of Ha Sinchell (St. Seanchan) was convened, fer the occasion, into a hiinquetting hall, where Mari,';aret lierself inaug- uidted the proceedings by placing two ma.ssive chalices of gold, as olTerings, on llie high ahar, and committing two orplian children to the charge of nurses to be fostered at her expense. Kobtd in cloth of gold, this illustrions lady, who was as distinguislied for her beauty as for hsr generosity, sat in queenlj' state in one of the tralleries of the church, surrounded by the clergy, the brelums, and her private friends, shedding a lustre on (he scene which was pas.siiig below ; while her husband, who had often encounttred Lngland's greatest generals in battle, remained mounted on a charger outside the church to bid the guests welcome and see that order was preserved The invitations were issued and the guests arranged according to a li,-t prepared by O'Conor'.s chief brehon ; and the second entertainment, which took place at Kathangan. was a .sui>pieineiital one, t<. embrace such men of learning as liad not been brouglit together at the former feait. Dudlcj Firbis's Anncih, (luoted in note to Four iNIasters, vol. iv., p. 972. This queen of offaly is also celebrated for con- fctrucling roads and bridges, building churehes, and causing ilkiniii..ited niis.-)als to be wntlcii. ILr 328 ni'IGN OF EDWARD IV. The (jreraldines adhered to the house of York and the Butlers to that of Lancaster, " whereby," says Sir John Davies, " it came to pass that not only the principal gentlemen of both those surnames, but all their friends and dependants did pass into England, leaving their lands and possessions to be overrun by the Irish."* In this manner the Pale became more and more restricted, until half of Dublin, half of Meath, and a third part of Kildare were reckoned in the border territories, where the English law was not fully in force. A.D. 1462. — On the accession of Edward IV., son of Richard, duke of York, to the thi'one, in 1461, the earl of Kildare was lord justice of Ireland. The king's brother, the duke of Clarence, was then appointed lord lieutenant, and FitzEustace, afterwards lord Portlester, was sent over as his deputy. He found Ireland p>unged in a war between the young earl of Ormond and the earl of Desmond. A pitched battle was fought between them at Baile-an-phoill, now Pill town, in the county of Kilkenny, Avhen the earl of Ormond's army was defeated with a loss of four or five hundred men. His kinsman, MacRichard Butler, was taken prisoner, and part of the ransom given for him was the copy of the Psalter of Cashel now preserved in the Bodleian library .f After the battle the Geraldines took Kilkenny and other towns of the Butler's country; but the earl of Ormond shut himself up in a strong position, and soon after received some aid from England, under one of his brothers, who captured four ships belonging to the earl of Desmond, and thus the power and courage of the Butlers once more revived. Thomas, who had succeeded as eighth earl of Desmond, on the death of his father, James,t in 1462, and was appointed lord deputy the daughter, Finola, took the veil in the convent of Cill-Achaidh (Killeigh, in the King's counlv), in 1447, after having been the wife, first of O'Donnell, and then of Hugh Boy O'Neill. She was, say the annalists, "the most beautiful and stately, and the niest renowned and illustrious woman (.f her time in all Ireland, her own mother only excepted." * Discovery, >ve mentioned interesting MS., "A bles.-iingon the soul of the archbishop of Cashel, i. e. Kichard O'Hedigan, for it was by him the owner of this book was educated, namely, Edmond, son of Richard, son of James, son of James, (the first earl of Ormond). This is (lie Sunday before Ciiristmas, and let all those who shall read this give a blessing on tiie souls of both." The arch- bishop here alluded to is the same mentioned above, p. 319. MacRichard Butler died in 1064. t This James, who increased enormously the wealth and power of his family, obtained the earl- dom by the expulsion of his nephew, Thomas, the sixth earl, who incurred the displeasure of liis friends and retainers by a romantic marriage. It appears that earl Thomas being benij^hted while l-amting in the neighbourhood of Abbeyfeale, obtained a lodging in the house of William Mac- Cormic, the owner of that place and a member of the ancient family of MacCarthy. MacOorinic had a daughter, Catherine, with whose beauty the j-oung earl was so captivated that he married her in spite of the remonstrance of his friends ; but this union was treated as derogatorv to the honor of the Geraldines; he was abandoned even by his retairiers, and iiaving been thrice expelled EXECUTION OF THE EAEL OF DESMOICD. 320 following year, was a great favorite of king Edward's. Several of the Irish chieftains, and such Anglo-Irish lords as the Burkes, who seldom had any intercourse with the English authorities, came to DubHn to meet him, and entered into friendly relations with him. In 1406 he commanded an army of the English of Meath and Leinster against Con O'Conor Faly; but his army w^as routed, and he himself, with several of his leading men, Avere taken prisoners. Among these were Christopher Plunket, William Oge Nugent, Barnwell, and the prior of the monas- tery of our Lady of Trim. Teige O'Conor, who was the earl's brother- in-law, conveyed the captives to Carberry Castle, in Kildare, Avhere th^iy were subsequently rescued by the English of Dublin. Plundering parties from Offiily were now in the habit of scouring the country as ^ar as Tara to the north and Naas to the south ; and the men of Breffhy and Oriel devastated all Meath, without any attempt on the part of the English to oppose or pursue them. In the south, Teige O'Brien, lord of Thomond, crossed the Shannon and plundered the territory of Desmond. He made himself master of the county of Limerick, obtained a tribute of sixty marlcs from the citizens of Limerick for sparing their city, and compellod the Burkes of Clauwilliam* to acknow- ledge his authority. A college, which was afterAvards munificently endowed by his suc- cessors, w^as founded at Youghal, in 1464, by the earl of Desmond, who next set on foot a project for establishing an university at Drogheda. But, while thus intent on the social improvement of the country, and acquiring deserved popularity for himself; the career of this nobleman Avas cut short by a foul act of legalised murder. It is stated that he incurred the enmity of the queen, Elizabeth Woodville, for having advised Edward IV. to divorce her, on account of the lowness of her birth, and that it was by secret instructions from her that he was put to death.! The story is very probable ; but it is at all events certain that by his uncle, he formally surrendered the earldom to him, in 1418, and retired to France, where he died at Rouen, in 1420. Such is the story given by Lodge and traditionally preserved; but O'Daly (p. 36 of the Rev. Mr. Meehan's translation,) assigns rebellion as the cause of earl Thomas's e.xpulsioa. James then procured the conlirmation of the earldom to himself and his heirs by act of parliament. He purchased from Robert FitzGeoffry Cogau a grant of all his laiiils, comprising about half the kingdom of Cork, as that part of ancient Desmond was then called; and in 1444 he obtained a patent for the government or custody of the counties of Limerick, Waterford, Cork, and Kerry, with a license exempting him for life from attending parliament ia person and fron Ultering walled towns. — Four Masters; Cox; ArchdalVs J.ndge. cfc. • The baronies of Clanwilliam in the counties of Limerick and Tipperary are contiguous, and ,"^ EVENTS. Popes : Innocent VIII., Alexander VI.. Pius III., Julius II. — Kings of France : Charles VIII., Louis XII — Sovereigns of Spain: Ferdinand and Isabella. — Kings of Scotland: James III., James IV. — Discovery of Ameriea by Columbus, 1492. (from 1485 TO 1508.) N the accession of Henry VII., Gerald, earl of Kildare, was continued in the office of lord deput}^, as his brother, Thomas Fitzgerald was in that of chancellor, and his father-in-laAv, Roland FitzEustace, baron of Portlester, in that of hird treasurer, although these noblemen, like the great majority of the popidation of the Pale, were avowed partizans of the House of York.* Throughout his reign we find Henry pursuing this temporizing policy towards the enemies of his house in Ireland — a policy so different from that Avhich he adopted in England, and which his cold, calculating, and politic character forbids us to attribute to motives of a generous nature. The result proved that his usual sagacity failed him in this The kiiiji's uncle, the duke of P.cdford, was appointed lord lieutenant of Ir.iand in the room LAMBERT SIMNEL. 333 instance, as liis Anglo-Irish subjects were not the less disaifected, and were the willing dupes of every plot contrived against him. At first he introduced none of the Lancastrian party into his Irish councils ; but, in November, 1485, the head of this party in Ireland, Thomas Butler, seventh earl of Ormond, avIio had been attainted under Edward IV. was restored to his honors and lands, and subsequently rendered im- portant services to Henry as a diplomatist and general.* A.D. 1486. — A contemporary Irish chronicler,! recording the accession of this first of the Tudors, says: " The son of a Welshman, by Avhom the battle (of Bosworth field) was fought, was made king ; and there lived not of the royal blood at that time but one youth, who came the next year (1486) in exile to Ireland." So thought the native Irish writers, who were but imperfectly informed on the affairs of the Pale, and who believed the youth here referred to, namely, Lambert Simnel, the mock earl of Warwick, to have been a genuine prince. Young Simnel, the son of a tradesman of Oxford, arrived in Dublin tliis year, in charge of a priest, named Richard Symons, who acted as his tutor. He is described as a boy of prepossessing appearance and princely manners ; and according to some accounts he was only eleven years of age, although the prince he was chosen to personate, and wdio was then a prisoner in the Tower, was in his fifteenth year. Henry had before this some suspicion that the lord deputy was plotting against him; and early this year he invited him to England, on the pretence of consulting him on Irish affairs ; but Kildare mis- tiusted the kings object, and as an apology for not complying with the royal summons, called a parliament and obtained fi'om the chief lords letters which he transmitted to the king, importing that his presence was indispensable at that juncture in Ireland. The next moment we find the earl receiving young Simnel as a true prince, and embarking of the earl of Lincoln ; but in such a case the lord deputy, who resided in the countiy, was the actual governor of Ireland. * Thon-.as Butler, the seventh earl, was the youngest brother of James, the fifth carl, who was a distinguished commander of the Lancastrians, and was beheaded b}' tlie lorkists after the battle of Towton field, in 1461. The second brother, John, was sixth earl, and altliough true to the principles of his party, was in favor with the Yorkist king, Edward IV., who used to say that *' he was the goodliest knight he ever beheld, and the finest gentleman in Christendom." He spoke all the languages of Europe; was sent as ambassador to several courts, and died unmarried, on a pilgrimage in the Holy Land in 1478. The third, or youngest brother Thomas, mentioned above, was ambassador to the courts of France and Burgundy, and died in 1.515, the most wealthy subject of the crown of England. He left no sons, and his second daughter, Margaret, was the mother of Sir Thomas Boleyu, father of the famous Anna Boleyn. t Cathal MacManus Maguire, canon of Armagh and dean of Clo^jLer, the orighul couipll'.r of the AnnaU of Ulster, who died in 1498. 33 i r.EiGN OF iii::;nY vn. in his cp.uso. His example was almost universally followed by tlis inliabitants of the Pale, who still cherished the memory of the popular favorite, Richard duke of York. In vain did Henry exhibit the real 2arl of Warwick to the gaze of the citizens of London. These v/ere convinced ; but the Anglo-Irish were not yet undeceived, and insisted that the person wliom Henry had put forward was the counterfeit, and their's the genuine prince. Octavianus de Palatio,* archbishop of Armagh, saw through the Simnel imposture, and endeavoured, but in vain, to expose it. The bishop of Clogher, the families of Butler and St. Laurence, and the citizens of Waterford,also remained faithful to the king. Margaret, duchess of Burgundy, sister of Edward IV., was supposed to be the chief contriver of the scheme ; and lords Lovell and Lincoln, the latter a nephew of the late king, arrived from her court in Ireland, in 1487, with an army of 2,000 Germans, enlisted in Simnel's cause, under the command of a veteran soldier, named Martin Schwartz. Simnel was then solemnly crowned iji Christ's Church on Whitsunday, Avith the title of Edward VI., in the presence of the lord deputy, the chancellor, the treasurer, the earl of Lincoln, lord Lovell, and many of the chief men of the kingdom, as well ecclesiastical as secular. The diadem used in the ceremony is said to have been taken from a statue of the Blessed Virgin, in the church of Sainte Marie del Dam;t and the mock king was then carried in triumph from Christ's Church to Dublin Castle on the shoidders of a gigantic Anglo-Irishman, popularly called Great Darcy of Flatten. Simnel was next conveyed to ETigland. where he landed on the coast of Lancasliire with an army composed of some Anglo-Irish and of the Germans already mentioned. Here they were joined by Sir Thomas Broughton with a small force, but in their march through Yorkshire the aid which they expected did not appear ; and in a desperate battle at Stoke, in Nottinghamshire, they were utterly routed by the vanguard of king Henry's army. Simnel's army consisted of only 8,000 men, of whom 4,000 were slain with all the leaders, Including the earl of Lin- coln, lords Thomas and Maurice FitzGerald, Sir Thomas Broughton, and Schwartz. Simnel himself and Richard Symons were made prisoners and dealt with rather mercifully ; for while the latter was consigned to perpetual imprisonment, the youthful tool of the conspirators was only condemnetl to act as turnspit in the king's kitchen, and was subsequently * He is also called Octavianiu Italicus, and was a native of Florence. t For the identification of the name of this clii«ich, situated near DameVgate, see Gilbert's History of Dublin, vol. ii., pp. 1 and 256, SIR niciiARD l:.v3eco-mb s mission. 335 promoted to tlie rank of falconer. The earl of Kildare and otlier Anglo-Irish lords involved in the mad scheme, but who did not accom- pany Simnel to England, sent messengers to crave the king's pardon, and Henry seems to have contented himself for that time with sendin*^ them a sharp reprimand. He was unwilling to dispense with the earl's services, or drive him into determined hostility, so he retained him in his ofRce of lord deputy. To the citizens of Waterford Henry wrote commending their loyalty, and giving them liberty to seize for the use of their city the ships and merchandize of the rebel citizens of Dublin;* and when the latter applied in abject terms for forgiveness, and endea- voured to exculpate themselves by throwing the blame of their ridiculous revolt on tlie earl of Kildare, Henry does not appear to have noticed their communication. The Srst mention of fire-arms in the Irish annals occurs in the year 1487, when one Brian ORourke was slain by Hugh O'Donnell, surnamed Gallda or the Anglicised, "with a ball from a gun;" and the followino- year cannon make their appearance, the earl of Kildare having, in an incursion into Mageoghegan's territory, demolished the castle of Balrath (Bile-ratha), in the present barony of Moycashel, in Westmeath, with ordnance. James, the ninth earl of Desmond, was murdered in his castle, at Rathkeale, in 1487, by his own attendants, at the instigation, as the Irish annals say, of his brother John, who, as well as the others implicated in the murder, was banished by his brother Maurice, who succeeded to the earldom. The new earl was nicknamed " baccagh," or the lame, but his martial career soon caused this epithet to be changed mto that of " warlike," as he was engaged in constant wars with his Irish neighbours, although it was necessary to carry him to the battle- field in a litter. A.D. 1488. — Sir Richard Edgecomb now came on a special commission from kmg Henry, to exact new oaths of allegiance from the lords and others, and to fix the conditions on which the king's pardon was to be granted to them. He was attended by a guard of 500 men, conveyed in four ships, and landed at Kinsale on the 27th of June, Avhere he received the homage of lords Barry and Courcey, and administered the oath of fidelity to the inhabitants. At Waterford, where he next * It was on this occasion that the title of Urhs intacta was conferred by Henry on Waterford. A cotemporary metrical version, or rather am[ililicalion of the letter addressed by the mayor of Watcrrord, in the name of the citizens, in reply to the summons received from the earl of Kildare. to recognise the mock king, Simnel, is published from a MS. in the State-paper Oihce, in CJroker* " Popular Songs of Ireland." 33G KEIGX OF HENRY VII. arrived, Sir RIcliard V7as received with great honor by the citizens, who urgently entreated that if tlie earl of Kildare were again to be invested with authority, their city, to which for its loyalty he was always hostile, might be exempted from his jurisdiction, and from that " of all other Irish lords who should ever bear any rule in that land ; and might hold Immediately of the king, or of such English lords as shall fortune hereafter to have rule in Ireland." The commissioner next proceeded to Dublin, and took up his lodgings in the convent of the Friars Preachers. He was informed that the earl of Kildare was absent on a pilgrimage, and his first interview with that nobleman did not take place until seven days after, in St. Thomas's Abbey,' Thomas-court, when the commissioner read the king's letters to him and introduced the object of his mission. This parley did not end satisfactorily, and the earl retired to his house at Maynooth, where Sir Richard was subse- quently induced to visit him, and was splendidly entertained. But the politeness and hospitality shown to him did not prevent the commis- sioner from remonstrating against the delays which took place, and the obstacles thrown in the way of an arrangement. He used strong and threatening w^ords, but the lords of the Pale, on their side, told him, at one of their interviews, that sooner than submit to the terms he proposed they would join the Irish. At length there was an amicable settlement. The earl did homage before the comimissioner in the great chamber of St. Thomas's Abbey. He was then absolved from the excom- munication which he had incurred by his rebellion ; and during the celebration of mass in a private chapel of the abbey, he took the oath of allegiance on the Most Holy Sacrament. The bishops and nobles who were implicated with him in the late revolt took the same oath. Sir Richard then suspended round the earl's neck a gold chain which the king had sent him ; and all proceeded from the private chapel to the church of the abbey, where a Te Deum was chanted by the choir.* With great difficulty the commissioner was subsequently induced to grant the royal pardon to Thomas Plunket, chief justice of the Common Pleas, who had been one of the most active of Simnel's partizans ; but no solicitation could induce him to extend the amnesty to Keating, the refractory prior of the knights of St. John of Kilmainham, who had committed innumerable frauds and outrages, had expelled and imprisoned Marmaduke Lomley, the lawful prior, and continued to usm'p that * See the Diary of Sir Richard EdgecornVs Voyage inlo Ireland, published in Harris's fli6er«tco. Sir Kitliaid sailed from Dalkev on tlie 30th of Julv. PERKIN WATlCrXK. 337 dignity, as -uell as the ofRce of constable, or governor of Dublin Castle. The following year Kildare and several other Anglo-Irish lords waited on the king at Greenwich, in obedience to a royal summons ; and at a banquet to which Henry invited them they were attended at table by their late idol, Lambert Simnel, who was taken for that occasion from his duties in the kitchen. A.D. 1492. — After what had so recently passed, it is hard to imagine how sane men could have allowed themselves to be duped by another plot of a mock prince ; yet the intriguing duchess of Burgundy tried the experiment once more, and with some success. On this occasion she selected a boy named Peter Osbeck, but commonly called Perkin Warbeck, a native of Toiirnay, in Flanders, and had him trained to repre- sent Richard, duke of York, one of the two young princes, sons of Edward IV., who were murdered by Richard III. in the tower. He was sent into Portugal in 1490 to await a favorable opportunity for inti'o- duction to the public, and this occasion seemed to present itself in 1492. The king, urged by some suspicions which appear to have been ground- less, had deprived Kildare of the office of deputy, and serious disturb- ances had follow^ed in the Pale. Sir James Butler, or Orrnond, as he is called in the annals, natural son of John, earl of Ormond, who died in Jerusalem on a pilgrimage in 1478, came to Ii'eland about this time, after a long absence, and by the aid of the O'Briens, the MacWilliams of Clanricard, and others, endeavoured to get himself acknowledged head of the Butlers, while his uncle, Thomas, earl of Ormond, Avas on diplomatic service for the king in Fi'ance. This illegal conduct did not prevent king Henry from appointing Sir James lord treasurer of Ireland, in the room of FitzEustace, while Walter Fitzsimons, arch- bishop of Dublin, was appointed lord deputy. The earl of Kildare did not submit peaceabl}' to the indignity to which, through the medium of Sir James Ormond, he was subjected ; and, in some tumults which ensued, he burned Sheep-street, now called Ship-street, which adjoined the Castle of Dublin, but was then outside the city walls. He also with- drew his protection from the English of Meath, who had refused to take part in his quarrel, and the spoliation of their territory in every direction, by the Irish, was the consequence. At this juncture, when England was besides involved in a war with France, young Warbeck made his apjiearance at Cork, where he arrived in a merchant vessel from Lisbon, and announced himself as Richard, duke of York. He w\as well received by the citizens, and John Water, or Walters, a respectable merchant who had been mayor of the city, Zv 338 nEIGN OF HENRY Til. Avarmly" esponsed his cause, wHcli soon after excited great enthusiasm on an invitation being received by Warbeck from the king of France to visit liis court. At tlie French court Warbeck was received with royal honors, but this demonstration was speedily followed by the result which it was intended to produce, namely, a peace with Henry ; and the im- postor retired to Flanders, where the duchess of Burgundy welcomed him as her nephew, and called him " the White Rose of England." A.D 1493. — Towards the close of this year Sir Robert Preston, first viscount Gormanstown, was made lord deputy in the absence of tlie archbishop of Dublin, who was sent for by the king to give him an account of the state of Ireland. Sir James Ormond also repaired to Eno-iand, and the earl of Kildare, fearing the machinations of such enemies, hastened thither, but did not on that occasion succeed in vindi- cating himself from the charges made against him. A.D. 1494. — ^Alarmed at the state of things in Ireland, Henry now sent over Sir Edward Poynings, a knight of the garter and privy coun- cillor, to undertake the government. Sir Edward was accompanied by some eminent English lawyers to act as his council, and brought with him a force of 1.000 men. Determined in the first instance to extirpate the abettors of Warbeck, the leaders of whom it was understood had fled to Ulster, he marched with a large army to the north ; the earl of Kildare, notv.-ithstanding his equivocal position towards government, being ia\-ited to accompany him. Not long before this, in an inroad by Hugh Oge Mac^ilahon and John O'Reilly, sixty English gentlemen had been killed and many taken prisoners ; biit on the deputy's approach the Irish chiefs retired to their fostnesses, and finding no enemy to fight with he laid waste their lands. A report was then spread that the earl of KUdare was conspiring with OHanlon to cut off the English lord deputy, and news arrived that the earl's brother had risen in rebellion and captured the castle of Carlow. Under these circumstances Sir Edward made peace on any terms with O'Hanlon and Magennis, into whose territory he had entered, and returning to the south, recovered the possession of Carlow castle after a siege of ten days. In the month of November this year was held at Drogheda the memorable parliament, at which the statute, called after the lord deputy, Povnincr's Law, was passed. By this parliament it was enacted that all the statutes lately made in England affecting the public weal should be good and effectual in Ireland; the odious statutes of Kilkenny were confirmed, with the exception of that which prohibited the use of the Irish lanffuage, which had at that tiine become the prevailing language POYNIXG'S ACT. 339 even of the Pale; laws were framed for the defence of the marches; it was made a felony to permit " enemies or rebels" to pnss through those border lands ; the general u?e of bows and arrows was enjoined, and the war cries which some of the great E/.^lish families had ado])tod in imitation of the Irish were strictly forbidden.* The old law called the statute of Henry FitzEmpress (Henry II.), which enabled the council to elect a lord deputy on the office becoming suddenly vacant l)y death, was repealed, and it was enacted that the government should in such a case be entrusted to the lord treasurer, until a successor could be appointed by the king. But the particular statute known as Poyning's act was one which provided that henceforth no parliament should be held in Ireland until the chief governor and council had first certified to the king, under the great seal, " as well the causes and considerations, as the acts they designed to pass, and till the same should be approved by the king and council." This act virtually made the Irish parliament a nullity; and when, in after times, it came to affect, not merely the English Pale, for which it was originally framed, but the Avhole of Ireland when brought under English law, it was felt to be one of the most intolerable grievances under which this country suffered. A.D. 1496. — Sir Edward Poyning's parliament passed an act of attainder against the earl of Kildare, his brother James, and other members of his family. The charges against the earl appear to have been grounded on mere suspicion, but he Avas sent to England, and detained there a prisoner; and his countess, it is said, was so deeply affected by the event that she died of griof. At length an opportunity was afforded him to plead his cause before the king, and the frankness and simplicity of his manner at once convinced that astute observer of character that he could not have been the political intriguer which his accusers pretended. One of the charges agamst him was, that he had sacrilegiously burned the church of Cashel ; but to this the earl bluntly replied, that he never would have done so " had he not been told that the archbishop was in it." This novel defence amused the king; and by-and-by, when the counsel against Kildare wound up his charge by • See the Irish and Anglo-Irish War cries, e.xplaimd in Harris's Ware, ii. 1C3; and O'Dono- van's Irish Grammar, p. 327. They were chiefly composed of the e.tclamation of deliance, abu! of alo! and the name, or crest of the family, or place of residence, as, Lumh-diary-abu ! the O'Xeill'n war cry, from their creat of the Ked-hand; Lamk-laider-abu! tiiat of the O'Briens, MacCarlliys, and FitzMaurices, from the crest of the Right-arm, (Lamh-laider, the " strong hand)," issuing from a cloud; the war cry of the Geraldines of Kildare, Cromwlh-abul from Cronni castle in Limerick, and that of the Dteniond Cer4dines, Stuaaid-uiu! from their btr'.n^ castle uf Shauiiid, Ui ihe same couxity, ^ii. SiO REIGN OF UENRY VII. vehemently protesting tliat "not all Ireland could govern this man," Henry observed, " then he is the fittest man to govern all Ireland." Thus the earl triumphed; and the chieftain, O'Hanlon, having come' forward to clear him upon oath of the charge of conspiring with him against the Eng'.ish lord deputy, Kildare was not only fully pardoned and restored to his honors and estates, but by letters patent was made lord lieutenant of Ireland, and returned home with greater powers than he had ever before possessed ; his eldest son, Gerald, being, however, retained as a hostage. A.D. 1497. — To return to the impostor Warbeck, he Avas obliged in 1495 to leave Flanders on the conclusion of a treat}^ between thaS; country and England. He then returned to his former friends in Cork, but not seeing an encouraging prospect there,* he went to Scotland, where he was introduced at the court of James IV. on the recommend- ation of the duchess of Burgundy, with all the honors due to his ussumed rank. He even obtained in marriage the hand of Catherine Gordon, a lady remarkable for her beauty, and related to the royal family, being the daughter of the earl of Huntley, and grandaughter of James I. Again, however, he was driven from his asylum, James and Henry having agreed to a treaty; but the Scottish king generously furnished him with a ship to take himself and his wife away, and also a small party of armed men ; and once more the adventurer was landed at Cork. Here he found no further support, and aA'ailing himself of an invitation from Cornwall, he proceeded thither with his wife, four Waterford ships sailing in pursuit of the fugitives- Further than this it is unnecessary for us to trace the impostor's fortunes, except to state that he closed his career at Tyburn, in 1499, the infatuated John Water, mayor of Cork, sharing his fate on the scafibld.t We have pursued the course of events in the Pale without turning aside to those in v>'luch the native Irish were exclusively engaged. These latter carried on their mutual vi^ars as usual witliout seeming to regard the English as a common enemy, A great war broke out in 1491 between Con O'Neill and Hugh Roe O'Donnell. In 1493 Tyrone was * The accounts of these movements are obscure, but it wouhl appear thai Warbeck in 1495 visited Ireland with eleven ships supplied by the Archduke ; that by the aid of the earl of Desmond an undisciplined army was raised for him in Ireland; that he then laid siege to Waterford, ami that the o".tizens, on the approach of the lord deputj- to their assistance, sallied forth and compellal Warbeck to raise the siege, three of his ships being captured by the townspeople, and he himself forced to return to Cork. "Former historians," saj's Mr. Wright, "have erroneously placed this ttiege under vtie year 1497." Hist, of Ireland, vol. i. p. 2CG. ■f It is Won by of remark that the Four Masters make uo mention whatever of either Siumcl o? Warbeck, ::? of any proceediugs relating to them. FEUDS OF THE NATIVE CHIEFS. 34 1 /aid waste by a contest for the succession among the O'Neills themselves; and in a sanguinary battle at Glasdrummond Con O'Neill triumohed over his opponent, Donnell O'Neill. Hugh Roe O'Donnell then mustered a large army in Tirconuell and Connaught, marched into Tyrone, and after a furious battle with Henry Oge O'Neill, at Beanna Boirche, in the Mourne mountains, returned home victorious. In 1495, ODonnell went on a visit to the king of Scotland, and was received with great honors. In the Scottish accounts he is called the Great O'Donnell;* but nothing certain is knoAvn of the object of his visit. On his return he defeated the O'Conors at Sligo, but raised the siege of that town on the approach of MacWilliam (Burke) of Clanrickard. In 1497, provoked by the dissensions between his sons, Hugh Roe resigned the lordship of Tirconnell, which was then assumed by his son Con ; but his second son, Hugh Oge, would not consent to this arrangement, and got some of the Burkes to assist him with a fleet. Con was defeated in battle, but two days after he succeeded in capturing his brother, Hugh, and sent him to be confined in the castle of Conmaicne Cuile, in Connaught. Con now invaded Moylurg, but was defeated with terrible slaughter by Mac- Dermot, in the Pass of Ballaghboy, in the Curlieu mountains; the famous Cathach, which the O'Donnells always carried before them into battle, being among the spoils which he lost on the occasion.! Con's misfortunes did not terminate here. Henry Oge O'Neill judged the opportunity a favorable one to avenge the defeat he recently received from Hugh Roe, and led an army into Tirconnell. lie first laid waste the land of Fanad, and in a battle which ^ he then fought with Con O'Donnell, the latter turbulent and ambitious young chieftain was slain and his forces routed. Upon this Hugh Roe resumed the lordship; and Hugh Oge, who was now liberated, having declined the chieftaincy which his father offered him, father and son appear to have ruled their principality with joint sway. Ever since the pardon accorded to him by Henry in 1494, Garrett, earl of Kildare, was constantly engaged in war with some of the Irish septs ; but on most of these occasions he acted rather as an Irish chief- tain thnn as the deputy of the English king. His sister, Eleonora, was married to Con O'Neill, and this alliiince involved him in the numerous * Tytler, Hist. Scot,, vol. iv. c. 3. t The Cathach (^Preliator;, tlie metallic reliquary or box, in which a portion of the Psalms of David, transcribed by St. Coliimbkillp, was presej-ved. It has recently been deposited by its owner, .Sir Richard O'DoiineU, in the museum '.f tlie Koyal Irish Academy. The Cathach w.« recovered from the .AlacDermotts in 1499, by Hugh Koe O'Donuell, who entered Rloylurg "f ■' a army .'- the puriiose. 342 HEIGX OF HENliY VIT. feuds of -whicli Tyrone was the theatre. At the instance of Ills nephew, Turlough O'Neill, and of Hugh Roe O'Donnell, an ally of Turlough's, he marched to the north in 1498, and took the castle of Dungannon by the aid of ordnance. The following year Hugh Roe came to the Pale to visit the earl, who gave him his son, Henry, in fosterage, notwith- standing the stringent laws against this kind of alliance with the Irish. This year (1499) the earl marched into Connaught, but only to take part in the quarrels of some of the Irish chieftains, for the castles which he took from one rival chief he delivered to another, and Mac William Burke soon after restored them to their former possessors. In 1500 Hugh Roe O'Donnell and the lord justice marched in concert into Tyrone to co-operate against John Boy O'Neill, from whom they took the castle of Kinard, or Caledon, which was then delivered up to the earl's nephew, Turlough O'Neill. A.D. 1504. — For some time an inveterate warfare had been earned on between MacWilliam (Burke) of Clanrickard, styled Ulick III., and Melaghlin O'Kelly, the Irish chief of Hy-!Man3^ Burke was the aggressor, and the more powerful. This year he captured and demol- ished O'Kelly's castles of Garbh-dhoire, now Garbally; j\Iuine-an- mheadha, or Monivea, and Gallach, now called Castleblakeny, in the county of Galway; and the Irish chief, then on the brink of ruin, had recourse to the earl of Kildare for protection. The latter, more desirous of curbing the grov/ing power of Clanrickard, with whom he had a personal feud, than of restoring peace in Connaught, mustered a power- ful army, and crossed the Shannon. He was joined by Hugh Roe O'Donnell and his son, and the other chiefs of Kinel-Connell ; by O'Conor Roe of Northern Connaught; MacDorniot of Moylurg; the warlike chiefs Magennis, MacMahon, and O'Hanlon; O'Reilly; the bishop of Ardagh, who v/as then the chief of the O'Farrells of Annaly; O'Conor Faly; the O'Kellys; the lower MacWilliams, or Burkes of Mayo; and, in fact, by the forces of nearly all Leath-Chuinn, or the norther:! ii.jf of Ireland, with the exception of O'Neill. Besides these he was attended by viscount Gormanstown, the barons of Slane, Delvin, Howth, Kileen, Trimleston, and Dunsaney, and by John Blake, mayor of Dublin, at the head of an armed force. Clanrickard, on his side, also assembled a very numerous army, his allies being Teige O'Brien, lord of Thomond, the MacNamaras and other north Munster chiefs; Mac-I-Brien of Ara ; O'Kennedy of Ormond ; and O'Carroll of Ely. One of Clanrickard's chief strongholds at this time was the castle of Clare- galway, or Baile-an-chlair, and al)out two miles to the north-east of this THE DATTLE OF KXOCKTOW. O {.3 place, on some elevated rocky land called Knoc-tuagli CKnockto^v), or the Hill of Axes, his army was drawn up to await the enemy. The battle which ensued was one of the most sanguinary and decisive that had taken place in Ireland since the invasion; but there cannot he a greater perversion of the truth than to represent it, as English historians haA'e done, as a battle between the English and Irish, or between the forces of the English government and the " Irish rebels." For some hours the issue seemed doubtful, but ultimately Clanrickard and his allies suffered a total overthrow. Their loss in the battle and flight, according to Ware, was 2,000 men. Cox makes it amount to 4,000; and that fabulous Anglo-Irish compilation, the book of Howth, raises the loss to 9,0'JO ! The white book of the Exchequer asserted, according to Ware, as a kind of miracle, that not one Englishman was even hurt in the battle, a thing which is quite possible, as there were probably no Englishmen actually engaged on either side ; but although nothing can be more silly than to boast of the victory as if won by Englishmen, it was in iis results a most important one for English interests, by establishing the power of the Pale, and inflicting a blow on the Irish chieftains, from which they never recovered.* The book of Howth attributes an atrocious expression to viscount Gormanstown after the battle. " We have slaughtered our enemies," said he to the earl of Kildare, according to this veracious authority; " but to complete the good deed we must do the like with all the Irish of our own party." As a contrast to wdiich insolence of success, Leland candidly observes, that " in the remains of the old Irish annalists we do not find any considerable rancour expressed against the English; but they even speak of the actions and fortunes of great English lords with affection and sympathy."! Kildare, with his usual impetuosity, wished to push on to Galway, eight miles distant, the evening of the battle, but the veteran O'Donnell recommended him to encamp that night on the field, until the troops, scattered in pursuit of the enemy, should be collected. The battle was fought on the 19th of August, 1504, and the next day Galway and Athenry surrendered to •Sir John Davis admits that this battle aros'- out of a private quarrel of theeavl of KiMare. Ware does not discredit the report that it owed its oritfin to "a private grudfje bttweeii Kildare and Ulick;" Cox alludes to such an opinion in similar terms; and the Four Masters, wiio were not accessible to these writers, record the circumstances as we have related them, and in a way which leaves no doubt upon the matter. Dr. O'Dcnovan. wh> had every existing record of this trans- action before him, says the conflict at Kuocktow was, in fact, a battle between l.e.ith-Chuinn ard Leath-Mhogha. the norihern and snuth'-rn halves of Ireland, like the b;ittl'-s of Moy Lena, M >y Mucruinihe and Itloy Aivy, where tlu> southerns were as Usual defeated- 'llie iiaii:e U the jjlate !<» at present written cither Kiio<:ktow or KnocKuoe t Hist. <'f liiriand, booit .li., c. a. o44 TIKIGH OF HKNKY VII. tlie earl without resistance. Kildare distributed tliirty tuns of wine among his army, but whether he paid the merchants of Gahvay for it we are not told. He himself, as a reward for the victory, was made a knight of the garter. As to Ulick Burke, he escaped, but his two sonS; and some say his two daughters also, were made prisoners. The only event of interest recorded in the remainder of this reign is the death of Hugh Roe O'Donnell, which took place in 1505, in the 78th year of his age and the 44th of his reign over Tirconnell. He was the son of the celebrated Niall Garv O'Doiniell, and was one of a long line of heroes. " In his time," say the annalists, " there was no need of defence for the houses in Tirconnell, except to close the doora against the wind " He was succeeded by his son, Hugh Oge. During the reign of Henry VII. the country was frequently visited by pesti- lence, and the fearful visitation called the sweating sickness raged for several years. ^/r CHAPTER XXX. REIGN OF HENRY VIII. Accession- of Henry VIII — GcraUl, Earl of Kildare, still Lord Deputy. — His last Transactions and Death — lliiirh O'Donnell visits Scotland and prevents an Invasion of Ireland. — Wars of the Kinel-Connell and Kinel-Owen. — Proceedini^s of tlie new Earl of Kildarc. — Tiie Earl of Surrey Lord Lieutenant. — His Opinion of Irish Warfare. — His Advice to the King about Ire- land. — His Return. — The Earl of Ormond succeeds and is made Earl of Ossory. — Wars in Ulster. — Battle of Knockavoe. — Triumph of Kildare. — Vain attempts to reconcile O'Neill and O'Donnell. — Treasonable Correspondence of Desmond. — Kildare attain in Difficulties. — Etfect of his Irish Popularity Sir William Skeifincjton Lord Deputj'. — Discord between him and Kil- dare. — New Irish Alliances of Kildare. — His Fall. — Reports of the Council to the King. — The Schism in England. — Rebellion of Silicen Thomas. — Murder of Archbishop Allen. — Siege of Maynooth. — Surrender of Silken Thomas and Arrest of his Uncles. — Their Cr'ae! Fate. — Lord Leonard Gray in Ireland. — Destruction of O Brien's Bridge. — Interesting Events in Oflaly. — Desolating War against the Irish. — Confederation of Irish Chiefs. — Fidelity of the Irish to tiieir Faith — Rescue of young Gerald Fitzgerald. — Extension of the Gcraldine League. — Desecration of Sacred Things — Battle of Belaboe. — Submission of Southern Chiefs. — Escape of Young Gerald to France. — Effects of the " Reformation" on Ireland. — Servility of Parliament. — Henry's Insidious Policy in Ireland. — George Brown, first Protestant Archbishop of Dublin. — His Character. — Failure uf tlie New Creed in Ireland. — Terrible spoliation of the Irish by the Lord Justice — Submission of Irish Princes. — Their Acceptance of English Titles and Surrender of Irish ones — Henry VIII. made King of Ireland. — Submission of Desmond. — First Native Irish Lords in Parliament. — Execution of Lord Leonard Gray. — O'Neill Surrenders bis Territory and is made Earl of Tyrone. — Murrough O'Brien made Ear! of Thoniond. — Confiscation of Convent Lands.— Effect of the Policy of Concession and Corruption. COTEMPORAKY SOVEREIGNS AND EVJiNl'S. Popes: Julius II., Leo X., Adrian VL, Clement VII., Paul IIL— Kings of France: Louis XI I., Francis I. — Emperors of Germany: Maximilian I., Charles V. — Sovereigns of Scotland: James IV., James V.. Queen Marj-. — The "Reformation" preached in Germany, 1517. — Found- ation of the Society of Jesus, 1534. — Opening of the Council of Trent, 15i5. — Death of Luther, 1546. (a.d. 1509 TO A.D. 1547J. »0 change was made in the Irish government on the accession of Henry VIII. Gerald, the veteran earl of Kildare, was confirmed in his office as lord deputy, and still carried on his forays against various Irish septs. In 1510 he proceeded with a numerous army into south Munster against the Mac- Carthys, and was joined by James, son of the earl of Des* mond. In Ealla, now Duhallow, he took the castle of Kantm-k, and in Kerry the castle of Paiiis, near Laune Bridge, and Castlemaine. Returning to the county of Li- merick he was joined by Hugh, lord of Tirconnell, the son of his old ally, Hugh Roe O'Donnell, with a small but efficient body of troops. He crossed the Shannon and destroyed a wooden bridge which stood over that river at Portcrusha, probably somewhere near Castleconnell, but here his progress was checked. Turlough O'Brien had collected a lar-^e army composed of « K 34C REIGN OF HENRY VIII. tl-ie septs of nortli Munster and Clanrickard, and at this point approached so close that the men's voices could be heard from the opposite camps during the nio-ht: but tlie mornin£T after this bold advance of O'Brien found Kildai'e preparing to retreat. The Leinster and Meath troops, with O'Donnell's small contingent, were placed in the rear, and James of Desmond, with the Munster forces, led the van.* While retiring in this order he was attacked by O'Brien, who took large spoils and slew several of the English, among others Barnwell, of CrickstoAvn, in Meath, and a baron Kent; but the earl succeeded, Avith the main body of his army, in reaching Limerick through Monabraher, on the north side of the Shannon, and soon after he left Munster. A.D. 1512. — The earl once more crossed the Shannon into Connaught, and took the castle of Roscommon and that of Cavetown, in Moylurg. O'Donnell, who had spent the year 1511 on a pilgrimage to Roma, and was engaged since his return in making reprisals on O'Neill for depre- dations committed by the latter in Tirconnell during his absence, came to the Curlieu mountains to meet Kildare, and renewed the friendly relations which must have been disturbed by O'Donnell's hostilities in Ulster. Apparently as one of the consequences of this conference the earl soon after marched to the north, entered Clannaboy, and took the castle of Belfast, and other strongholds. In the course of the following year O'Donnell appears to have rendered an important service to the English interest. He visited Scotland on the invitation of James IV., who treated him Avith great honor, during three months which he stayed there, and as we are told that " he changed the king's resolution of coming to Ireland as he intended," we may conclude that James medi- tated an invasion, from which he was deterred by O'Donnell's advice, and by the recollection, probably, of the fate of Edward Bruce. The earl of Kildare made his last campaign in Ely O'CarroU, where he laid siege to the castle of O'Banan's-leap ; but failing to take this stronghold, he retired to Athy, where he died; his death, as some say, being caused by a Avound which he had received long before in O'M ore's country. The Irish annalists style him the Great Earl, and describe him as " valorous, princely, and religious." He was interred in Christ Church, and his son, Garrett Oge, or Gerald the younger, Avas chosen by the privy council to succeed him as lord justice, and soon after AA-as created lord deputy by letters patent. The ncAv earl riAalled his father's zeal against the border Irish, and inaugurated his administration by defeat- * Ware says that James of Desmond was with O'Brien on this occasion, but the context shew* the Four Masters, whom we liave followed, to be correct. PROCEEDINGS OF THK EAlU, OF KILDASE. 347 ing the O'Mores, and slaying in battle fourteen of the chief men of the O'Reillys, including the head of the sept. A.D. 1514. — When Art, son of Con, who had succeeded Art, son of Hugh O'Neill, and Hugh O'Donnell, met this year at Ardsratha, or Ard- straw-bridge, in Tyrone, at the head of hostile armies, and separated in peace, the annalists attribute the fortunate issue to the interposition of heaven. Few, indeed, and brief Avore the intervals in the mutual war- fare of the Kmel-Connell and the Kinel-Owen; but if Ave judge from the changes Avhich had by this time taken place in their respective territorial boundaries, we may conclude that the former of these great septs Avere generally the aggressors. The chiefs of Tirconnell had succeeded in wresting very large territories from the O'Neills; and by the treaty made on this occasion the charters by which O'Donnell claimed sovereignty over Inishowen, Fermanagh, and other tracts of country formerly belonging to the Kinel-OAven, were confirmed. The place where the armies met Avas also considerably within the frontier of Tyrone. As to the peace, it was of short duration, for tAvo years after we find the same parties again at Avar.* A.D. 1516. — A feud broke out between James, son of Maurice, earl of Desmond, and his uncle, John. The former Avas supported by Mac- Carthy More (Cormac Ladhrach or the " hasty"), Donnell MacCarthy of Carberry, and other chieftains of that sept, and also by the Avhite knight, the knight of GHnn, the knight of Kerry, FitzMaurice, and O'Conor- Kerry; while John was aided by the Dalcassians, with Avhose chiefs he was allied by his marriage with More, daughter of Donough, son of Brian Duv O'ljrien, lord of Carrigogonnell and Pobblebrien. James laid siege to the castle of Lough Gur, but on the approach of John Avith the army of Thomond, reinforced by that of the Butler's, he retreated without lighting. This feud Avas foUoAved by one between Pierce Butler, claiming to be earl of Ormond, and other members of his family. In the meantime the young earl of Kildare succeeded in tah-ing the castle of OBanan's-leap, AAdiich his father had besieged in A'ain; and the folloAving year (1517) he led an army to Tyrone at the instance of his kinsmeji, the O'Neills, Avho Avere as usual in arms against other branches of their sept. HaA-ing retaken Dundrum castle, in Lecule, * On tlii.- latter occasion O'Donnell also carritd his arms into Connaufrlit, and took the castle of Sligobytlhe aid of some cannon -which had been sent to him iiy a Frencli knij^ht who 'riatle a pilgrimage to St. Patrick's purgatory in Lough Derg, and had been hospitably entertained by lli" chief of Tirconnell. Several other castltfs iii northern Cunnaught were surrejjdered to O'Donntil immediately after his capture of Sligo. 348 REIGN OF HENRY VITT. from which the English had been expelled, and vanquished the Magenises, he proceeded to desolate Tyrone, and captured and burned the fort of Dungannon. On the invitation of O'Melaghlin he led his army to Delvin, where Mulrony O'Carroll had committed great depre- dations, and had taken the castle of Ceann-Cora. But while he was thus occupied, enemies were busily engaged in undermining his position with the king; the prime movers of the mischief against hnn being his hereditary foes, the Butlers. At first he was able to vindicate himself without much difficulty. He repaired to England for that purpose in 1515, and was successful; but cardinal VVolsey, who had now risen to great power, was inspired with an implacable enmity towards him, and caused him to be again summoned to England, in 1519; the earl appointing his kinsman, Sir Thomas FitzGerald of Laccagh, as his deputy during his absence. A.D. 1520. — Thomas Howard, earl of Surrey, a man equally eminent as a warrior and a statesman, was now sent as lord lieutenant to Ireland, where he landed with a force of 1,000 men and 100 of the king's guard Kildare was still kept in England, where he remained in igno- rance of the machinations going forward in Ireland to collect evidence against him One of the principal charges was, that he had VvTitten to O'Carroll of Ely, advising him to keep peace with the Pale until an English deputy should be sent over, but " when any English deputy shall come thither," he added, "then do your best to make war on the English." There was little doubt that the earl had written to this effect, O'Carroll's brothers having confessed that such a letter had been received, but the evidence was not conclusive ; and Kildare, whose former Avife had died, having married Elizabeth Gray, daughter of the marquis of Dorset, acqun-ed influence at court, through the powerful English friends whom this alliance procured him, and escaped for the present. Though treated with honor he was not, however, restored to favor, and spies w^ere employed to collect evidence against him in Ireland at the very time that he formed one of king Henry's retinue in France, at the famous meeting of the " field of the cloth of gold." A.D. 1521. — Whether Kildare urged the Irish chieftains to rebel, as he was accused of doing, or not,* it was evident that a general iL.. \ * O'Donnell waited on the earl of Surrey at this time in Dublin, and told him that he had been invited to take up arms against tiie English government by Con O'Neill, who said he did so at the sug,"-estion of the earl of Kildare ; Surrey, who mentions the circumstance in a letter to the king, (state papers, p. 37), says; — "I fynde him (O'Donnell) aright wise man, and as well determyned to doo to your grace all things that may be to your cuulcntuciou and pleasure as I can wysh him 10 Ijee." THE EARL OF SURREY, LORD LIEUTENANT. ciO formidable rising was contemplated, although the energy and rapid move- ments of Surrey crushed the attempt. The Viceroy first marched against 0"More, demolished liis castles, laid waste his country, burned the ripening crops, and finally compelled him to submit ; but in this expedition he narrowly escaped falling into the hands of the Irish. O'CarroU also submitted, and Con O'Neill having threatened Meatli with invasion, Surrey, by a timely march to the north, averted the blow. However, he soon became wearied with the Irish warfare. It seemed hopeless and interminable. He had a well appointed army furnished with artillery, but amidst bogs and forests, and against an enemy who, while they yielded in fi-ont, perpetually harassed him in the flank and rear, he could effect nothinnr. He assured the kinfj as the result of his ex- perience in Ireland, that by conquest alone could that country be reduced to peace and order, while he admitted that there were serious obstacles in the way of such a conquest. It would require much time and money, and if an attempt were made to reduce the Irish by force, they would combine for defence; which union his knowledge of their warlike habits, and of the military resources of the country, made him apprehend as a formidable danger.* His representations had, perhaps, * State Paper-s, xx. — The names and position of the principal independent Irish septs at this period, with many other particulars of interest on the condition of the country, are set forth in an official document of tlie year 1515, preserved in the English State Paper Office, and printed in the first vol. of tlie state papers relating to Ireland. In this document it is stated that the English rule only extended over one half of the live counties of Uriel (Louth) Meath, Dublin, Kildare and Wexford, and that even within these narrow limits, the great mass of the population consisted of native Irish; the English having deserted the country on account of the oppressive exactions to which they were exposed. The greater part of Ireland was still in the hands of the " Iri^h enemies," *nd was divided into more than sixty separate states or "regions," "sonipas big as a shire, some more, some less ;" and these regions were ruled by as many " chief captains, whereof « ime called themselves kings, some king's peers in their language, some princes, some dukes, some arch dukes, that live only by the sword, and obey no other teujporal person but only him that is strong." These independent "captains" or heads of septs were as follows; — in Ulster: O'Neill ■if Tyrone, O'Donnell of Tircounell, O'Neill of Clannaboy, O'Cahan of Kenrjrht, in Derry, O'Dogherty of Inishowen, Maguire of Fermanagh, Magennis of Upper Iveagh, in Down, O'Hanlon cf Armagh, and Mac.Mahon of Irish Uriel (iMonaghan). In Leixster: — MacMiivrouiih of Hy- Drooe, in Carlow, O'Murroiiuliu (or Murphy) in Wexford, O'Byrne and O'Thole (O'Toole) in Wicklow, O'Nolan in Carlow, MacGill.ipatrick in Upper Ossory, O'More of Leix, O'Demp^y of Gleamaliry, O'Conor of Offaly, and O'Doyne (or Dunn) of C»regau, in the Queen's County. In MUKSTER :— MacCarthy More of Kerry, Cormac MacTeige SlacCarthy of Cork, O'Donoghue of Kiliaruty, O'Sullivan of Beare, O'Conor of Kerry, MacCarthy R.;agh of Carberry, in Cork. O'Driscol of Corca-Laighe in C.nk, two O'Mahonysof Carberry, in Cork, O'Brien of Thomoud, O'Kennedy 6f Lower Ormond, O'Carroll of Ely, O'Meagher of Ikerin, in Tipperary, MacMahonofCorcavask.il in Clare, O'Conor of Corccmroe, in Clare, O'Loughlin of Burrin, in Clare, O'Grady of Bunratty, in Clare, Mac-I-Brien of Ara, in Tipperary, O'Mulrian (or Ryan) of Owney, O'Dwyer of Tipperary, and O'Brien of Coonagh, in Limerick. In Conkaight:— O'lJonor Roe and MacDermot in Ro?- common, O'Kelly, O'Madden, and O'Elaherty in Galway, O'Farrell of Annaly (Longford), O'Reilly Bad O'Rourke of Breffny, O'Malley of Mayo, MacUciioi'gh of Tiragiill, O'Gaia of Coulavin. 330 REIGN OF IIEISRT XUl some effect in bringing about the policy of conciliation which Heiirv subsequently carried to such an extent in his government of Ireland, and employed so successfully for the corruption of the native chieftains. SuiTey was empoAvered by the king to confer knighthood on such of the Irish chiefs as he deemed fit, and Henry sent a collar of gold to be presented, together with the honor of knighthood, to O'Neill. A recon- ciliation was effected by the deputy between James, who, in 1520, bad succeeded his father, Maurice, as earl of Desmond, and the earl of Ormond; and a peace was also arranged by him between the former and the MacCarthys, who, aided by Thomas of Desmond, had in Sep- tember, this year, overthrown the aforesaid earl James with great slaughter at Mourne-Abbey, in Muskerry, slaying 2,000 of his men, and taking several of his leaders prisoners. This defeat of Desmond afforded real satisfaction to Surrey, who, on proceeding to Munster, found the proud earl thoroughly humbled ; and he informed Wolsey in a letter written about this time, that the successful Irish chiefs Cormac Oge MacCarthy and MacCarthy Reagh were " two wise men," whom he found " more conformable to order than some Englishmen here."* So much did the politic English viceroy dread a good under- standing of the Irish among themselves, that he preferred allowing O'Donnell to employ some Scottish auxiliaries rather than that there should be peace between him and O'Neill ; for, as he wrote to the king " it would be dangerfiil to have them both agreed and joined together," and " the longer they continue in war the better it should be for your grace's poor subjects here." In the summer of 1521 he v/as obliged to take the field against O'Conor of Offaly, whose casrle of iMonasteroris he captured ; but while he was thus engaged O'Conor was plundering Westmeath, and subsequently routed a portion of the earl's army. At O'Hara of Leney, O'Dov.ila of Tireragh, MacDonough of Corran, and MacManus O'Conor of Carbury, in Sligo. In Mkath: — O'Melagblin, Mageoghegan, and O'Mcilloy. The heads of the " Degenerate English," or " great captains of the English noble foll;s," that followed " the Irish rule," according to the same report, were, in Munstek: — the earl of Desmond, the knight of Kerry, iMtzmaurice, Sir Thomas of Desmond, Sir John of Desmond, and Sir Gerald of Det;n)onrt, the white knight, the knight of Glynn, and other Geruldines; lord Bany, lord Uoche, lord Courcy, lord Cogan, lord Barrett, the Fo^vers of Wnterford, Sir William Burke in the county of Limerick, Sir I'ierse Butler, (claiming to be earl of Ormond), " and all the captains of the Butlers of the county of Kilkijnny, and of the county of Fcthard." In Connaught: — bird Burke of Mayo, lord Burke of Clanrickard, lord Bermingham of Athenry, the Stauntons of Clon- morris, in JMayo, tlie MacJordans, or decendants of Jordan D'Exetcr in Mayo, MatCostcUo in Mayo, and the Barretts of Tirawluy. In L'LbXiiK : — the Savages of I.ecale in I'own, the litz- ilowlins of Tnscard, aud the Bir^selts of the Ghnus of Antrim. In Meaih: — the Dillons, DaUons, lyrrells, and Delaraarea. * State Papers, xiiii« ^ BATTLK OF KNOCKAVOE. 351 length Surrey importuned the king on the ground of ill health to relieve him from his arduous and hopeless charge in Ireland, and beincr permitted to withdraw, he returned to England at the close of 1521, taking with him the troops which he had brought into Ireland; his intimate friend and adviser, Pierse Butler, being appointed lord deputy* A.D 1522. — The Pale was at this time in a wretched state, and the Irish privy council applied to Wolsey, to have six ships of war sent to cruise between Scotland and Ireland, to awe the northern Irish and prevent an invasion from the former country, as the Scots were at that tune immigrating in large numbers into Ulster and acquiring territories there. The dissensions between O'Neill and O'Donnell now broke out into a sanguinary war. LlacWilliam of Clanrickard, with the English and Irish of Connaught, the O'Briens, O'Kennedys, and O'Carrolls joined the standard of O'Neill, under which rallied, besides, the Magennises, the mjn of Oriel and Fermanagh, the O'Reillys, and other northern septs, together with a Scottish legion under Alexander MacDonnell of the Isles. Several of the English of Meath and Leinster were also induced by their attachment to the earl of Kildare, the kinsman of O'Neill, to take part with the latter. Under O'Donnell's banners were ranged the O'Boyles, O'Dohertys, MacSweeneys, O'Gallaghers, &c. ; and what was wanted in point of numbers was made up by mutual fidelity and bravery in their small phalanx. O'Donnell marched to Port-na-dtri-namhad, on the eastern side of the river Foyle, opposite Lifford, to await the enemy, that being the usual pass between Tyrone and Tirconnell ; but O'Neill entered the latter territory by another route, and laid waste the country as far as Ballyshannon. O'Donnell upon this sent his son Manus into Tyrone, while he himself followed O'Neill into Tirhugh, but O'Neill retired within his own territory and encamped at Cnoc-Buidhbh, or * On the death of Thomas, the seventh earl of Ormoud, without male is.->ue, in 1515, his English estates, amounting to £30,000 a year, and his vast personal property in plate, jewels, .Hud money, were bequeathed to his two daughters, of whom Margaret, the elder, was married to Sir James St. Leger, and Anne, the younger, to Sir William I'.oleyn or Bullen, ty wliom she had Sir Tliomas, the father of Anne Bolej-n. Th« earl's Irish inheritance was warmly disputed between his next male lit-irs, Sir Piuise Butler of Carrick, whose granitfather was cousin germ.in to earl Thomas ; and Sir James Ormoud, the natural son of John, the sixth earl, who died in Palestine; but by the death of Sir James, who was killed by his oppuntut l)etweeu Dnimoreand Kilkenny, Pierse was left in quiet possession of the title of carl of Ormoud, which, howevi-r, he did not long enjoy, as he was induced to relinquish his claim in favor of Anna Boleyn's fathei ; Pierse was then (1527) creat d earl of Ossory, but Sir Thomas Boleyn having died without an heir, the earldom of Ormond was restored to Butler, and the title of Ossory laid aside. See Abt)e Mageoghpgan Hist, of Ireland, pp. 3S1, 382, (Duffy's Edition), also ArchUall's Lodje, vol. iv. pp. IG, 17. 352 REIGN OF HENRY Vlir. Knockavoe, near Strabane, where he was attacked at night by O'Donnell's army, which had approached so silently as to be able to enter the Tyrone camp pell-mell with the sentinels, and a total route of O'Neill's people followed, with a loss of 900 men. The annalists say this was one of the most bloody eno-aoements that had ever been fouii'lit between the Kinel- Connell and the Kinel-Owen. O'Donnell then marched with extraordi- nary rapidity across the country to Sligo, to which town the Connaught allies of 0"i\eill were laying siege; but the news of his victory had just reached before him, and struck such terror into the western army that they sent in all haste to sue for peace, and at the same time fled so pre- cipitately that their own messengers were not able to come up with them till they had re-crossed the Curlieu mountains, where they broke up, each party returning home. This last bloodless victory added greatly to the renown of O'Donnell, but his war with ONeill continued for years.* A.D. 1523. — The earl of Kildare, who had returned from England at the close of the preceding year, obtained permission to lead an army against O'Conor Faly, Connell O'More, and other border chieftains. He was accompanied by Con O'Neill, who made peace between the parties; but Ware says the earl fell into an ambuscade on the occasion, and haA^ng lost several of his men, was glad to come to terms and retire. A.D. 1524. — The old feuds between Kildare and Ormond broke out with fresh animosity, which was not a whit diminished by the circum- stance that the latter magnate had recently married the earl of Kildare's sister; Ormond transmitted new complaints to England ; one of them being that his friend, Robert Talbotof Belgard has been treacherously slain by James Fitzgerald, near Ballymore. Thereupon commissioners were sent over, but the inquiry which followed resulted in the vindication of Kildare, who was reinstated as lord deputy in the room of his enemy ; and at his inauguration, his kinsman. Con O'Neill, carried the sword of state before him to St. Thomas's Abbey, where he entertained the commissioners and others at a sumptuous banquet. After this he accompanied O'Neill on an expedition against O Donnell, who had been committing f earftd depredations in Tyrone ; but he made peace between these chieftains without a battle. Two yeai's after (1526) O'Neill and O'Donnell were invited by the earl to attend a meeting of nobles in * The earl of Ormond (the lord Deputy) who was called by the Irish, Red Pierse, was engaged at this time in war with septs bordering on his own territory, and a well-lcnown anecdote is related of the ambassador whom JIacGillapatrick sent to England to complain of his aggressions. Meeting king Henry at the chapel door, says Leland, quoting tlie Lambeth MS , the Irish envoj' addressed him in the following words: " Sta pedibus domine rex ! Dominus meus Gillapatricius me mbh ad te, et jus?it dicere quod si non vis castigare Petrum Eufum, ipse facict bcHum coKtra te." THEASONABLE correspondence of the earl of DESMOND. 353 Dublin for the purpose, if possible, of arranging the old causes of contention between tliem. Hugh O'Donnell was represented in the conference by his son Manus; but all tlie arguments for peace were of no avail, and the northern chiefs retui'ned home to muster fresh armies against each other.* James, earl of Desmond, was a man of lofty and ambitious views, and held a secret correspondence with Francis I. of France, as he did at a subsequent period with the emperor Charles V., for the j)urpose of bringing about an invasion of Ireland. His treasonable projects came to the ears of Wolsey and Henry. He was summoned to London and refused to obey. Orders were then sent to the earl of Kildare, as lord Deputy, to arrest him. and the latter led an ai'my into Munster for that purpose ; but Avhether there was any collusion between the two illustrious Geraldines on the occasion, as alleged, or not, Kildare did not succeed in carrying out the royal mandate. These events, which took place in 1524, Avere the prelude to Kildare's ruin. In 1526 he was summoned to England to answer an impeachment charging him with (1) failing to apprehend the earl of Desmond; (2) forming alliances with several of the king's Irish enemies; (3) causing certain loyal subjects to be hanged because they were dependents of the Butlers; and (4) confederating with O'Neill, O'Conor, and other Irish lords to invade the territories of the earl of Ormond. The enmity of Wolsey is said to have been at the bottom of these persecutions, but Kildare's good fortune had not yet finally deserted him, and after an imprisonment for some time in the Tower, he was liberated on the bail of the earl of Surrey, then duke of Norfolk, the marquis of Dorset, and other persons of distinction. A.D. 1528. — Kildare had appointed his brother James FitzGerald, of Leixlip, vice-deputy on his departure for England, on this occasion; but this nobleman was soon replaced by Nugent, baron of Delvin, and while the latter was in office the chief of Offaly made a descent upon the Pale, and carried off a prey of cattle. The deputy was too weak to punish O'Conor for this aggression, except by withholding the annual tribute which the English settlers were accustomed to pay to him as to other border chieftains. O'Conor remonstrated, and a parley between him and the deputy was arranged to take place at Sir 'William Darcy's castle, near Ruthen ; but the baron of Delvin was taken in an ambuscade ♦ We are told that Manus O'Donnell succecdtd, in spite of CNeill's opposition, in erecUng ft strong frontier castle at tiie pass already nientioDcd of Port-na-dtri-iiamliaid (the port of the three enemies) on :he east side of the Foyle near Slrabane; and in thi^- ca5tie, a few years later (15.3'2X he wrote the Irish life of St. Coiumbkille, of which Colgan Las published an abridged Lalia translation. ♦ 2 A 354 RF.IGN OF HEKRY VJII while proceeding to the conference, and carried oflP by O'Conor as his prisoner. Threats and arguments to obtain his liberation were alike in vain, and the Pale was filled with alarm at the occurrence. The earl of Ossory (as Pierse, earl of Ormond, was then styled) was appointed lord justice by tlie council, and with some difficulty obtained an interview with Delvin, O'Conor himself being present, and Irish the only language allowed to be used on the occasion; or, as some accounts have it, it was Pierse Butler's son, James, his father being absent in the South, who had the interview with the captive baron and O'Conor. Ossory and the privy council were obliged to sanction the payment of the tribute to O'Conor, but soon after an act of parliament was passed prohibiting altogether the payment of black rent to the Irish chiefs. An envoy was sent this year by the emperor Charles V. to the earl of Desmond to negotiate a plan for the invasion of Ireland, but the earl died the following year, and the project fell to the ground. The aspirations of the Irish chieftains for the liberation of their country from the English yoke, were, however, becoming more defined ; and the chief of OfFaly openly expressed his determination to make Ireland independent. AD. 1530. — All this time the earl of Kildare remained in England, yet the aggressions of O'Conor were laid to his charge. He was accused of fomenting a general rising of the Irish ; and it is said that he sent his daughter, Alice, wife of the baron of Slane, who was then at New- ington, to Ireland, to influence his brothers and the O'Neills, O'Conors, and others, to oppose the deputy. This lady's mission, it is added, was 80 successful, that the lands of the Butlers were unmercifully pillaged by the Geraldine party. Nevertheless the earl's vast influence and popu- larity saved him from destruction. He was not deprived of the title of lord deput}' during his imprisonment, and was sent this year to Ireland, as coadjutor to Sir William Skeffington, who was appointed deputy to Henry Fitzroy, duke of Richmond and Somerset, the king's illegitimate son, on whom the dignity of lord lieutenant was conferred. The earl was received in Dublin with the warmest demonstrations of joy. AD 1531. — Kildare continued for a while to co-operate with the English deputy. At the instance of O'Donnell and Niall Oge O'Neill, they invaded Tyrone, which they laid waste with fire and sword, and the whole population of Monaghan fled before them, leaving the country a desert. While the deputy with the Anglo-Irish advanced from one side, their Irish confederates approached from another; and they de- molished the castle of Kinard, now Caledon, but at this point a strong muster of the men of Tyrone checked their further progress. INFATUATION OF KILDARE. 355 A.D. 1532. — While Kildare and Skeffington appeared thus to act in concert, a deadly enmity had grown up between them. They forwarded mutual complaints to England. The earl proceeded there to defend liimself, and was again successful. Skeffington was superseded and Kildare appointed deputy. The earl unfortunately made an imprudent use of his triumph by treating his enemies, and more especially Skeff- ington, with harshness and contempt. He deprived John Allen, arch- bishop of Dublin, of the chancellorship, and conferred it on George Cromer, archbishop of Armagh, who was attached to his party. He entered into more intimate relations with the Irish; gave one of his daughters in marriage to O'Conor of Offaly, and another to Fergananim O'Carroll, tanist of Ossory; and, aided by these two Irish princes, he invaded the territories of the earl of Ossory, from which he carried off large spoils. At the siege of Birr castle, in one of these wars, the earl received a ball in the left side, which was extracted from the opposite side the following year, and he never fully recovered from the wound. About the same time Con O'Neill, at his persuasion, and assisted by John FitzGerald, the earl's brother, plundered the English villages of the county of Louth. It is probable that Kildare anticipated the fatal consequences of these violent proceedings, and meditated some desperate resistance, as he furnished his castles, especially those of Maynooth and Ley, with cannon, pikes, and amunition, from the stores in Dublin castle, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the council. A.D. 1534. — Under such circumstances we need not wonder that fresh accusations were sent forward against Kildare, and that he was once more summoned to the king's presence. John Allen, who had come over as secretary to archbishop Allen, and was now secretary to the council, (and who subsequently became master of the rolls, and for a short time also lord chancellor,) was sent by the council to England, in the latter part of 1533, to report to the king on the state of his territories. He had also secret instructions to make certain charges against the earl of Kildare. The report of the council stated, that the English laws, man- ners, and language, were confined within the narrow compass of twenty miles, and that unless the laws were duly enforced, the "little place," as the Pale was termed, would be reduced to the same condition as the remainder of the kingdom. This state of things was attributed partly to the illegal exactions and oppressions by which the English tenantry had been driven from their settlements ; to the tribute and black-rent paid to the Irish chiefs; to the enormous jurisdictions granted to the lords of English race, and especially to the three earls of Desmond, K56 REIGN OF HENRY VTTT. Ossory, and Kildare ; to the substitution by these lords of " a rabble of disaffected Irish," for the well-conditioned yeomanry, whom they had formerly under their roofs ; in fine, to the alienation of crown lands, the frequent change of government, the neglect of the records of the Exchequer, and other causes. At the same time a report was trans- mitted to Cromwell, who had succeeded Wolsey as chancellor of Eng- land, complaining that the O'Briens had been enabled by a bridge lately built by them across the Shannon, to make such inroads that they had "in a manner subdued all the English thereto adjoining, and especially the country of Limerick ;" and that one Edmond Oge O'Byrne had made a forcible entry by night into Dublin castle, and carried away from thence prisoners and plunder, to the great alarm of the citizens, who long after continued to keep nightly watch against a similar in- cursion. And in a third report, referring to the enormous power of the earls of Desmond, Kildare, and Ossory, the council stated that the earl of Desmond alone, and his kinsmen, possessed the counties of Kerry, Cork, Limerick and Waterford, from none of M-hich did the king derive "a single groat of yearly profit or revenue," and that in any one of them the king's laws were not observed or executed. As to the earl of Ossory, the counties of Kilkenny and Tipperary were under his dominion, and their wretched' population was harassed by coyn and livery. From these and other facts the report concluded, that although popular opinion attributed " to the wild Irish lords and captains the destruction of the land of Ireland, (the Pale), it was not they onlj', but the treason, rebellion, extortion, and wilfal war of the aforesaid earls and other English lords," that were answerable for so much ruin.* Every reader of history is aware of the events which had been occur- ring about this time in England, and for which, although they deeply affect Irish history also, we have not thought it necessary to interrupt the chain of our narrative. The tyrant who occupied the English throne had been disturbing Christendom by his efforts to break the marriage bonds in which he had lived for twenty years with his lawful queen, in order ' to take another wife, who soon after was to suffer on a scaffold, charged with infamous crimes, that she might make way for the next in suc- cession of this monster's six wives. To overcome the obstacles to his passions he had flung off the authority of the Pope, assumed to himself a spiritual supremacy, and plunged England into a schism which flowed naturally into the wider gulph of heresy, in which the nation was soon • State papors, ixiii., ]s.iv , Ixix. REBELLION OF SILKEN THOMAS. o57 merged. Woisey, who was responsible for much of the evil at its com mencement, had fallen from his high estate, and sunk into a miserable grave; the English church was akeady in ruins ; parliament had been transformed into a mere instrument of the tyrant's will; religious per- secution had commenced, and, in a word, the country was committed to all the horrors, and all the crimes, which constitute th? dismal epoch of the "reformation." Such was the state of England when Kiklare was summoned to answer the grave charges made against him. He seized various pretences for delay, and in November, 1533, sent his countess to England, hoping, through the influence of her family, to avert the blow ; but excuses were in vain; and, in obedience to fresh and peremptory orders, he set out himself in the following February, embarking at Drogheda, where he had summoned the council to meet him, and where, in their presence, he appointed his son, Thomas, not yet twenty-one years of age, to act as deputy in his absence. On the earl's arrival in London he was immediately arrested, by the king's order, and committed to the Tower. The enemies of the Geraldines now resorted to most unprincipled means to bring about the destruction of that family. Reports and letters were circulated to the effect that the earl of Kiklare was beheaded in the Tower, and that the same fate was intended for all his family in Ireland. To urge lord Thomas into some illegal act was the object in view, and this was easily accomplished, as the young lord was rash and impetuous in the extreme. Believing the false rumours, and acting on the indis- creet counsel of James Delahide and others, whom his father had com- mended to him as advisers, the hot-headed youth flew to arms. On ths 11th of June he proceeded through Dublin, at the head of a guard of 140 horsemen, to St. Mary's Abbey, where he had appointed to meet the council ; and there, surrounded by his armed followers, who entered the council chamber with hira, he surrendered the sword and robes of state to Cromer, the chancellor, and renounced his allegiance to the king. Archbishop Cromer implored him with tears to revoke his purpose, but entreaties were in vain. The young Geraldine rushed forth on his wikl career, which speedily led to the destruction of himself and his family. Copious details of the rebellion of this rash young lord, who, from the rich trappings of his followers, was popularly styled " Silken Thomas," are given by Anglo-Irish historians, but they rest, for the most part, on no better authority than that of Stanihurst and the Book of Ilowth. It appears, however, that after despoiling the lands of several leading 358 REIGN OF HENRY VIII persons who were opposed to his enterprise, he laid siege to Dublin. The city was at that time weakened by pestilence, and the citizens having just suffered a serious loss in an attempt to intercept a party of the O'Tooles and O'Byrnes, who were carrying off spoils from Fingal to Wick- low, were not in a state to resist, so that after some negociation they admitted his soldiers within the walls to besiege the Castle, in which archbishop Allen, Patrick Finglass, chief baron of the exchequer, and other leading persons had taken refuge. The archbishop, feeling him- self to be the most obnoxious to the Geraldines, endeavoured to effect his escape to England, and for that purpose embarked at night in a ship which lay in the river off Dame's gate ; but whether by accident or design, the vessel was run ashore at Clontarf, and the archbishop sought refuge in the neighbouring village of Artane. News of this circumstance was quickly conveyed to lord Thomas, who, with two of his vmcles, John and Oliver, repaired to the spot at the dawn of day, and had the unhappy Allen taken from his bed, and dragged half naked as he was before them. Falling on his knees the prelate begged hard for his life; but finding his entreaties fruitless, he addressed his prayers to Heaven, and Avas then murdered in a brutal manner, in the Geraldine's presence. It is said that lord Thomas merely directed his attendants in Irish to " take the clov/n away," and that they understood him to mean that they should kill the archbishop.* This atrocity, which was committed on the 28th of July, cast a blight upon the insurrection, and drew down a sentence of excommunication, accompanied by fearful maledictions, upon all who had participated in the crime. The ecclesiastical sentence was transmitted to the Tower, that it might be seen by the unhappy earl of Kildare, whose heart was already rent with affliction by the news of his son's rash rebellion. He lingered until September, when he died, and was buried in the tower chapel. Lord Thomas endeavoured in vain to induce his cousin, James Butler, son of the earl of Ossory, to join him. He then invaded Butler's terri- tory, whence he carried off some spoils ; but he was loosing ground in Dublin, where liis men, who had been admitted within the walls, were cut off or captured by the citizens, and he himself repulsed in two or three assaults upon the city. A truce for six weeks was then agreed * This prelate, who was an Englishman, was raised to the see of Dublin by Wolsey, whose chaplain he had been, and whom lie had served as an agent in the suppression of forty English monasteries to found his colleges at Ipswich and Oxford, years before Henry VIII. had taken up the work of spoliation. ( Mageogehgan's Hist, of Ireland, p. 405, Duffy's Edition). Allen was the author of the Black Book of Christ's Church, and of the Repertonum Virlde, both well known to antiquaries. (Ware's Bishops and AmiaL). REBELLION OF SILKEN THOMAS. 3/j9 on; and Sir William Skeffington, avIio had been reappointed lord deputy when the news of the insurrection reached England, arrived on the coast, but in snch infirm health that for several months he was unable to take the field. Lord Thomas burned Dunboyne, and threatened the destruction of Trim, and other towns. He sent Delahide and others to solicit aid from the emperor, Charles V., and despatched envoys to Rome ; but his hopes from these quarters were not realised ; and at home few of the native Irish, save 0"Carroll, O'More, and O'Conor of OHaly ranged themselves under his banner. All the northern chieftains except ON^eill and Manus, son of the chief of Tircoimell, were on friendly terms with the government, and even the warlike septs of Wicklow took the royal side. A.D. 1535. — The protracted inactivity of Skeffington emboldened tlie rebels; but about the middle of ilarch the feeble deputy proceeded to lay siege to Maynooth castle, which, from the magnificence of its furni- ture, was deemed one of the richest houses under the crown of England, and which was so strongly fortified that lord Thomas entrusted its defence to the garrison, while he himself endeavoured to rally his friends in other parts of the country. Besides Maynooth, he had the strongholds of Rathangan, CarloAv, Portlester, Athy, and Ley, and had removed to the last-mentioned castle the principal part of his ammuni- tion, hoping to be able to hold out until succour arrived from Spain or Scotland. Stanihurst tells a story of the betrayal of Maynooth into the hands of Skeffington by its constable, Christopher Parese ; but it appears from the deputy's despatches that the castle was taken by assault, the remnant of the garrison, when reduced from over a hundred to thirty- seven effective men, surrendering at discretion, and twenty-five of these being executed as traitors the following day before the castle. Lord Thomas, who had collected a small army by the help of the chief of Oftiily, was approaching to relieve Maynooth when he received the news of its fall. His followers, struck with dismay, then deserted him, and with a company of only sixteen fi-iends he took refuge in Thomond, whose chief was prepared long before to come to his aid, had he not been kept at home by the rebellion of his son, Donough O'Brien, who had been stirred up and assisted against him by the earl of Ossory. In the same way, the other adherents of the Geraldine had been paralysed by domestic dissensions. SkeflSngton being laid up by ilhiess at Maynooth, while the Pale was threatened with invasion by O'Brien, O'Conor Faly, and O'Keily, Allen, master of the rolls, and chief justice Aylmer were despatched to 3G0 REIGN OF HENRY VIII. England to represent the critical state of affairs, and lord Leonard Gray, son of the marquis of Dorset, was thereupon sent over to take the com- mand of the army, as marshal of Ireland. He landed on the 28th of July, and adopting vigoi'ous means to complete the suppression of the revolt, found the task an easy one. Lord Thomas lost his allies one by one. O'More abandoned him, and O'Connor was compelled to submit, and about the end of August he sought a parley, confessed his offence, casting the blame on his advisers, and praying that his life might be spared, he surrendered himself to lord Grey. The Irish annalists expressly state that he received a promise that his life would not be forfeited, and the state papers furnish undeniable proof that such was the case. Lord Leonard himself conducted him to England, where he was seized on his way to Windsor, and committed to the Tower by order of the king, who was enraged that any terms should have been made with him. About a year before this time a commission was sent to Ireland to prepare the way for the introduction there of Henry's spiritual supre- macy. George Browne, an Augustinian friar of London, and the con- fidential agent of Cranmer, was one of its principal members, and was soon after made archbishop of Dublin, in succession to the ill-fated John Allen. The commission was a total failure, but among its few fruits may be counted the accession to the English schism, of Peter, or Pierse Butler, earl of Ossory, and his son James, who was then created viscount Thurles. These noblemen were, in May, 1534, charged with the government of Kilkenny, Waterford, and Tipperary, and on receiving this appointment pledged themselves " to resist the usurpation of the bishop of Rome ;" this being, as Cox observes, the first engagement of that kind to be met with in our history. The document signed by them on tlie occasion contains a falsehood as absurd as it is flagitious, attributing all tlie evils under which Ireland suffered to the manner in which the pope had exercised his authority in filling up the Irish benefices ! A.D. 1536. — Exasperated at the expense which the rebellion in Ireland had caused, Henry affected to regard its suppression as a conquest of the countrv, and proposed it as a question for discussion by his council whether he had not thereby acquired a right to seize on all the estates of that kingdom, both spiritual and temporak He ordered lord Gray, who, on the death of Skeffington at the close of the preceding year, was ap- pointed lord deputy, to ari'est the five uncles of Silken Thomas ; and as it was rumoured in Ireland that an amnesty would be granted, three of tne uncles, besides, having open]^^ discountenanced the rebellion at the commencement, the five noblemen made no great difficulty of surren- DESTRUCTION OF o'bRIEn's BRIDGE. 3ol dering tlicmselves to the deputy. They were accordingly attainted bv the Irish parliament and conveyed to London, where, with their ill-fated nephew, they were executed at Tyburn on the 3d of February, 1537.* This sweeping act of yengeance scattered and dismayed the Geraldino party ; but there still remained two scions of the noble house of Kildaro — namely, the sons of the late earl Gerald by his second wife, lady Elizabeth Gray. Of these, Edward, the younger, who was still an infant, was conyeyed by some means to his mother in England, and the elder, Gerald, then about tweh-e or thirteen years old, found an asylum for a time in Thomond, whence he was conveyed to Kilbritain, in Carbery, to his aunt, lady Eleanor, widow of MacCarthy Reagh. His subsequent fortunes we shall hereafter relate. O'Brien's bridge, which opened a highway from Thomond into the English territories, was a constant source of alarm to the inhabitants of the latter, and its destruction was an object of so much importance to the government of the Pale as to enter into all their plans at this period. To demolish it, therefore, lord Gray led an army to the south in July this year and several of the native septs of Leinster sent him their contingents. The earl of Ossory joined him in Kilkenny at the head of a considerable force ; and as he approached the Shannon Donough O'Brien, the same whom we have seen rising in rebellion against his father, the chief of Thomond, at the desire of the earl of Ossory, presented himself and offered to conduct the army to the bridge by a secret and undefended path. This traitor, who was married to the earl of Ossory 's daughter, complained that he had not been sufficiently rewarded for his former services, and stipulated that for his new act of treachery he should be put in possession of Carrigogonnell castle, which, he said, the English had not held for two hundred years. Having arrived before the bridge, the deputy found it strongly built of stone, and defended at either end by a tower standing in the river. The nearer tower Avas taken by assault, the garrison escaping in the rear; and the bridge being then demolished, lord Gray proceeded to Limerick. He next took the castle of Carrigo- gonnell, which was bravely defended by some men of the earl of Desmond and O'Brien, and having put the garrison to the sword, delivered that famous stronghold to Donough. In his despatch announcing the destruc- tion of O'Brien's bridge, the lord deputy complains bitterly of the • From 2 letter written by the unliapi)y lord Thomas we learn tliat during his imprisonment he was not allowed the commonest necessaries of life. He was left during tlie winter " barefoot and barelegjred, d^nnding on the chanty of liis fcllow-p^oners for a kvi tattered garments to defend him against the cold." 362 REIGN OF HENRY VIII. insubordination of his English soldiers, who frequently mutinied in the field to obtain money or plunder. " I am in more dread of my life amongst them that be soldiers," he wrote, " than I am of theuj that be the king's Irish enemies." A.D. 1537 — Cahir O'Conor Faly having given the Pale much trouble, as his sept had always done, it was proposed to create him baron of OfFaly, and to allow him to hold his lands by English tenure, on the ground, say the council, that "Irishmen would so hate him afterwards that he would have but little comfort of them, and so must look to the king's subjects for protection against them." But this mean and in- sidious policy defeated itself ; for scarcely had the proposed aiTangement been effected, Avhen Cahirs brother, Brian, whom the lord deputy boasted that he had reduced to the condition of a beggar, expelled the protege of the English and took possession of his territory. This drew from secretary Cromwell an order to the lord deputy to " hang the traitor" as an example to others, and "never to trust to a traitor after, but to use them without treating after their demerits." Nevertheless we find, that in a parley, which was conducted with extraordinary precautions on both sides, Brian soon after obtained favorable terms from the lord deputy, so that it was Cahir O'Conor's turn then to revolt, and again, after some fighting, to submit. Instead of attempting to heal the disorders of the country on any principle of even-handed justice, it was noAv seriously proposed by the Irish government to exterminate the native population in all those dis- tricts bordering on the Pale, which, from the nature of the country, afforded the jeople means of self-defence ; and this was to be effected by starvation. The corn was to be destroyed when ripe, the cattle killed or carried away, or, by an ingenious system of harassing, gradually wasted from the land.* * The words in which this diabolical scheme was pnipoiindcd to secretarj' Cromwell by bis Irish agents deserve to be transcribed : "The very living of tiie Irishry," it is said " doth clearly consist in two things; and take away the same from them and they are past for ever to recover, or yet to annoy any subject in Ireland. Take first from them their corn, and as much as cannot be husbanded and had into tlie hands of such as shall dwell and inhabit in their lands, to burn and destroy tha same, so as the Irisliry shall not live thereupon; and then to have their cattle and beasts whicD shall be most hardest to come by, and yet with guides and policy they be oft had and taken. And, by reason that the several armies, as I devised in my other paper, sliould proceed at once, it is not possible for the said Irishry to put or flee their cattle from one countrj- into another, but that one of the armies shall come thereby ; and admitting the impossibility so that their cattle were saved, yet in the continuance of one year, the same cattle shall be dead, destroyed, stolen, strayed, or eaten, by reason of the continual removing of them, going from one wood to another, their lying out all the winter, their narrow pastures ^. And then they (the Irishry) shall be without corn, victuals, or cattle, and theraof shall ensue tlie putting in effect all these wars against them." H. J*. FIRMNESS OF THE IRISH IN THEIR RELIGION. 303 Young Gerald, heir to the earldom of Kildare, still escaped the nume- rous attempts made to capture him, although no pains were spared for that purpose on the part of the government. Threats and bribes were held out to the Irish chieftains who were suspected of sheltering liim; and in many instances their territories were laid waste by lord Leonard Gray. Manus O'Donnell, who, on the death of his father in 1537, had succeeded to the chieftaincy of Tirconnell,* made proposals of marriage to the boy's aunt, the lady Eleanor MacCarthy, who consented the more wil lingly in order to secure the protection of so powerful a chief for her nephew ; and she was able to pass in safety with her young charge from the south to the north of Ireland, so steadfast was the sympathy ot the peopk for the house of Kildave. The northem chieftains confederated for the restoration cf the young Geraldine to his paternal estates ; and when the lord deputy sought to treat with them for his suiTender they refused to meet him. Another hostile inroad bylordGray intoTyronewas the consequence. The castle of Dungannon was taken, and the surrounding country aban- doned for six days to pillage and devastation. But as time progressed the aim of the confederates became more lofty and sacred; and they now aspired to nothing less than the liberation of their country from the English yoke ; religion lending an additional and powerful impulse to their old cause of enmity against England. Fortunately it is not our duty to trace the history of the religious changes which at this time were taking place in the neighbouring coun- try. We are only concerned at present Vvitli the fact that these changes were wholly repugnant to the feelings of the Irish people, who remained firmly attached to their ancient faith and traditions. While England exhibited such pliancy and ingratitude, in turning against an indulgent mother, Ireland — cast by her position into the shade, calumniated, despised, and abandoned for centuries to a hopeless struggle with a powerful and merciless foe — still, in the hour of trial, remained faithful. And when her fidelity was appreciated, and she began to be * Hugh Duv O'Donnell, the veteran chief of Tirconnell (son of Hugh Roe, son of Niall Garv), died in the Franciscan monastery of Donegal, 1537. Tlie Four Masters state that he was "a man who did not suffer the power of the English to come into his country, for he formed a league of peace and friendsliip with the king of England when he saw that the Irish would not yield supe- riority to any one among themselves, but that friends and blood-relations contended against each other." He was a successful warrior and a politic ruler ; but suffered a good deal from dissensions in his own family. Two of his sons, Niall Garv and Owen, ?!ew each other in a domestic feud, ni 1524 ; and the enmity between his two remaining sons, Hugh Boy and Manus, was such that m 1531 he was obliged to call in the aid of Maguire to crush iheir strife. On that occasion Manus, the younger brother, was compelled to fly, and entered into alliance with Con O'Neill, allowing himself to be decidedly hostile to the English. The popularity of Manus. therefore, bi.ion, in 1545, to the eleventh, in 1547. He was sent as legate a latere to Ger- man.v, and died in the Jesuit's Convent in Paris, in 1551. See Harris Wares Bishops, p 93 ; and O'Sullimn's Hist. Cath. p. 89 (Dublin, 1850). ACCESSION OF MARY. 377 gaining any advantage, returned again to Antrim in autumn, when he only succeeded in destroying the standing corn All the efforts made during this reign to establish the new religion in Ireland were unsuccessful. It was adopted by some officials and by a few of the English within the Pale ; but while the government which changed with the whim of the day, was Protestant, the people adhered immoveablvto the faith of their fore fathers. Even the ruling powers had ""■ot yet been able to make a well-defined distinction between Protestant and Catholic ; for we find that when Arthur Magennis was nominated bishop of Dromore by the Pope in 1550, his appointment was confirmed by king Edward, while George Dowdall who was advanced to the see of Armagh by Henry VIII., at the request of Sir Anthony Sentleger, was a zealous defender of the doctrines and rights of the Catholic Church.* The new liturgy was publicly read in Christ's Church in 1551 ; and the same year, at the solicitation of lord deputy Crofts, Archbishop Dowdall consented to hold a conference with the Protestant authorities at St. jMary's Abbey, when Staples, bishop of JNIeath, acted as the pro- testant champion. The discussion, as might be expected, led to no mo- dification of views on either side ; but Browne was so enraged at the oppo- sition given by the Archbishop of Armagh to the introduction of the new liturgy that he obtained a royal charter transferring to himself the primacy of all Ireland; and Dowdall, feeling that his liberty, and perhaps his life, were insecm'e, fled to the continent, one Hugh Goodacre, a Protestant being intruded in his stead. The Irish annalists tell us that the venerable chiu'ches of Clonmacnoise were plundered in 1552 by the English gar- rison of Athlone, and that " there Avas not left a bell small or large, an image, an altar, a book, a gem, or even glass in the window which was not carried off ;" and they add, •' lamentable was this deed, the plunder- ing of tlie city of Kieran !" A.D. 1553. — Such was the state of things on the accession of Mary, whose short reign was a continued effort to restore what had been un- settled in the religious and moral state of England during the two pre- ceding reigns. The new creed had made considerable way among both clergy and laity in that country, many of the former having committed themselves irretrievably by entering into the married state. A vast num- ber of Lutherans had arrived from the continent, and were zealous in * See note in preceding page. At this period we begin to hear of " titular bishops," that name being applied to the Catholic prelate?, who trere appointed by tl.e pope to sees in wliich married men or professors of the Lutheran creed were placed by the secular authority. The latter enjoyed the revenues and emoluments. 8 78 RKIOK OF MART. tlie propngation of their doctrines ; and those into whose hands the con- fiscated church property had come, resisted any change which might oblige them to disgorge the sacrilegious spoils. In a state of society so disorganized, and with precedents of government such as then existed, it is not marvellous that Mary's ministers should have resorted to severity. The anabaptists -were burned during her brother's reign, and even the lord protector Somerset, and the husband of the queen dowager, both of them the king's uncles, were brought to the block. We shudder now-a- days at such barbarities ; but it is only miserable prejudice which would affix to Mary a stigma that belongs with infinitely more justice to her sister Elizabeth, or to the infamous monster her father. In Ireland, where the " Reformation" had in truth gained no ground among the people, the restoration of the old order of things was effected without difficulty, and was hailed with popular joy. Here, as in Eng- land, those of the laity wdio had obtained possession of church property were, by the sanction of the pope, left in the enjoyment of it ; and the Irish parliament, following that of England, expressed their repentance for the schism of which they had been guilty. Archbishop Dow^dall being recalled and restored to the primacy, held a provincial Synod at Drogheda, and was placed at the head of a commission to deprive mar- ried bishops and priests ; but the only prelates Avhom it was necessary to remove, were Browne of Dublin, Staples of Meath, Lancaster of Kil- dare, and Travers of Leighlin. Goodacre had died a few months after his intrusion into the see of Armagh ; Bale of Ossory — a fiery bigot and a coarse, unscrupulous writer — had fled, of his own accord, beyond the seas, on Mary's accession ; and Casey of Limerick, another of Edward's bishops, had also made a voluntary exit. All of these, except Casey, were Englishmen, and all except Staples were professing Protestants at the time of their consecration.* It is well known that there was no per- secution on account of religion in Ireland during the reign of Mary, and that some Protestant families came to this country from England about that time in order to follow their religious persuasion undisturbed.! * Besides the prelates meiitioned above, a few others had given evidence of their servility by the recognition of Henry VIlI.'s schismatical claim. These were Hugh O'Kervallan, bishop of Clogher, who accompanied O'Xeill to England in 1542; Mathew Saunders, bishop of Leighlin; Florence Gerawan or Kirwan, bisbcp of Clonmacnoise ; Eugene Magennis, bishop of Down and Connor: and Rowland Burke, bishop of Clonfert. (Liber Muu. Pub. Hib. v. ii. p. 17, &c.) The two last mentioned, together with Staples of ^[eath, (for it is unnecessary to include Browne) were tiie only members of the episcopal bodj-- in Ireland as it siood at the beginning of the reign of Edward VL, who coidd be induced to abandon tue Catholic faith even in those days of deploiable degeneracy. (Vide the Rev. M. G. Rrenan's Eccl. Hist, of Ireland vol ii. pp. 92, 102.) t The Protestants who came to Ireland on this occasion W"re John Harvey, Abel Ellis, .John ANNEXATION OF LEIX AND OFFALY. 379 Marj was inclined to deal mercifully with the Irish, but her ministers and her Irish council would not depart from the traditional principles upon which this country had been governed, and which recognised neither mercy nor justice in their relations with the native population. Hence the same cruel wars were waged against the latter in her reign as previously ; and the work of extermination having made sufficient progress in Leix and Offaly during the reign of Edward, it remained for Mary's deputy to form into counties these ancient territories which had already been annexed to the Pale. This was the only new shire land marked out since the reign of John. Leix was designated the Queen's County, and its old fort of Campa became the modern Mary- borough, while Offaly was transformed into the Kings's County and its fortress of Daingean into Philipstown, in compliment to the queen and her husband, Philip of Spain.* Mary's kindness, as contrasted with the harshness of her Irish govern- ment, was illustrated by an affecting incident in the first year of her reign. Margaret, the daughter of O'Conor Faly, inspired with hope on hearing that a queen occupied the throne, hastened to England, where her father was a prisoner, and at Mary's feet begged his liberation. Her prayer was granted, and she returned with her father to Ii-eland ; but the lord's justices, presuming to manage Irish affairs in their own way, seized the chieftain and cast him once more into prison.! This year also (1553) Garret, or Gerald, and his brother Edward, the sons of the earl of Kildare, returned to Ireland after their long exile, and w^ere restored to all the honors and possessions of their family. There were great re- joicings, say the annalists, " because it was thought that not one of the Edmonds, and Henry Haugli, with their families. They were from Cheshire, and were accompanied by a Welsh Protestant clergyman named Thomas Jones, whom the earl of Sussex subsequently took into his household. See Ware's Annals, An. 1554. These men were the founders of respect- able mercantile families in Dublin. * In addition to the territory of Leix, the present Queen's County comprises a portion of ancient Ossory, constituting the barony of Upper Ossory, besides the baronies of Portnahinch and Tinna- hinch" which were part of Offaly and belonged to O'Dunne and O'Dempsey. Offaly, before the English invasion, comprised the territories which constitute the baronies of East and West Off.ily m Kildare ; those of upper and lower Philipstown, Geashill, Warrtnstown, and Coolestown in the King's County ; and those already mentioned in the Queen's County. It is not therefore correct to say, as is usually done, that Leix and Offaly were respectively transformed into the Queen's and King's Counties. See notes to O'Donovau's Four Masters, vol. iii. pp. 44, 105, &c.) The same year (1556) in which Leix and Offaly were converted into shires, the pope sanctioned the assump- tion by Marv of the title of queen of Ireland, having previously disapproved of it when only au- thorised by the act 33rd Henry VIII., p.'.ssed (a.d. 1541) after the commencement of the schism. The massacre of Mullaghmast, erroneously connected by some modern writers with the annexation of Leix and Offaly, did not occur until the 19th year of queen Elizabeth, and will be mentioned in its proper place. t Compare Fovr ihsters, a.d. 1553, and the Able Mageoghegm, p. 443 (Duffy's cdilion). 380 REIGN OF MARY. descendants of tlie earls of Kildare or of the O'Conors Faly would ever return to Ireland." Murrougli O'Brien died in 1551, and his nephew Donough, the son of Murrough's elder brother, Conor, and the rightful heir in the eyes of the Eno-lish law, assumed the title of earl of Thomond. He surrendered his patent, which was only for liis own life, and obtained a new one from Edward VI., securing to his heirs male the title of earl, and all the lands and honors belonging to his uncle. His brothers, Donnell and Turlough, objected to this mode of fixing the inheritance, which was at direct variance with their own law of tanistry ; and on Donough's death, in 1553, Donnell claimed the right of succession to the chieftaincy, and dispossessed Donough's son, Conor. This created violent strife ; Donnell, despising the foreign title of earl, assumed that of the O'Brien, amid the acclamations of the people, and Conor depended on the English arms to support his claim. He was besieged by Donnell in 1554, in the castle of Doon-mulvihil, and was only saved by the timely arrival of the earl of Ormond. Ultimately, Donnell was banish- ed by the earl of Sussex, lord lieutenant, in 1558, and Conor was left in possession of the earldom. Sentleger, who was appointed lord deputy for the fifth time in 1553, was again recalled, through the intrigues of the extreme anti-Irish party, in 1555. His popularity with the Irish was the only ground of hostility against him; and he was succeeded by Thomas Radcliffe, viscount Fitz- william and afterwards earl of Sussex, who led an army into Ulster against the Scots, then very powerful in the districts of the Route and Clannaboy. He was aided by Con O'Neill, but returned after a cam- paign of three months without bringing the war to a conclusion. Con O'Neill was again unfortunate in an expedition against the same danger- ous intruders in Clannaboy, and was defeated by them, with the loss of 300 men* In 1555 Calvagh O'Donnell employed some Scottish auxili- aries against his father, Manus, whom he made prisoner and detained in captivity until his death. In 1557 the Scots penetrated to Armagh which was plundered twice in one month by the earl of Sussex. The same year Shane O'Neill, observing the weak condition to which Cal- vagh's rebellion had reduced Tirconnell, thought the opportunity a favorable one to recover the power of which his ancestors had been de- * A large body of these Scottish adventurers penetrated into Connaught in 1558, and were hired ^y the northern MacWilliam, who was called Eichard-of-the-iron. But the earl of Clanrickard, fiichard, son of Ulick-na-gceann (the first earl), son of Richard, son of Ulick of Knackdoe, hearing of the arrival of this foreign host, marched against them and cut them to pieces on the banks of the Moy ONEILL DEFEATED IN TIHCOXNELL. 381 prived by the O'Donnells. He accordingly mustered a numerous army, and pitched his camp at Carrigliath, between the rivers Finn and jMourne where he was joined by Hugh, the brother of Calvagh O'Donnell, and several of the men of Tirconnell who were disaffected towards their chief for his rebellion. Calvagh in this emergency consulted his father, and by his advice resolved to avoid a pitched battle, and to have recourse to stratagem. He caused his cattle to be driven to a distance, and when O'Neill entered his territory, and marched as far as the place now called Balleeghan, near Raphoe, he sent two spies into the Kinel-Owen camp, while he himself hovered not far off with his small force. The opies mixed with O'Neill's soldiers, received rations, Avhich they carried back as evidence of their success, and undertook to guide O'Donnell's army that night to O'Neill's tent, which is described as being distinguished by a great w-atchfii'e, a huge torch burning outside, sixty grim gallowglasscs on one side of the entrance, with sharp, keen axes, ready for action, and as many stern and terrific Scots on the other, with their broadswords in hand. Overweening confidence had rendered O'Neill careless. He boasted that no one should be king in Ulster but himself, and despised the power of his crafty foe; but O'Donnell penetrated under cover of the darkness into the heart of O'Neill's camp, and proceeded to slaughter the men of Tyrone without resistance, so that the whole were routed or cut to pieces, while Shane himself escaping through the oack of his tent, fled unattended except by two of Hugh O'Donnell's men, and by swimming across three rivers made his Avay to his own ter» ritory covered wuth confusion. The following year he procured the murder of Ferdoragh, baron of Dungannon, and his father Con dying in captivity in Dublin, he assumed the chieftaincy without opposition. Meantime the war of extermination was carried on against the remnant of the old race in the territories which we may still call Leix and Offiily. The heart sickens at the narrative of merciless aggression on the one side, and of indomitable resistance on the other. The O'Conors, O'Mores, O'Molloys, O'Carrolls, and the rest of them, were unrelentingly hunted down, and the whole country was made a scene of desolation from the Shannon to the Wicklow mountains. But dark as this period is, we have arrived at one infinitely more gloomy in our history — the sangui- nary reign of Elizabeth, wliich commenced on the day of jNIary's death, November 17th, 1558. CHAPTER XXXII. REIGN OF ELIZABETH. Religious pliancy of Statesmen and fidelity of the people.— Shane O'Neill. — Acts of the Parliament of 1559. — Laws r.gainst the Catholic religion. — Miserable condition of the Irish Church. — Discord in Thomond.— Machinations of Government against Shane O'Neill.— Capture of Calvagh O'Doh- nell by the latter War with Shane — Defeat of the English. — Plan to assassinate the Tyrone Chief.— Submission of Shane, and his visit to the Court of Elizabeth — His return, farther misun- derstanding, and renewed peace with the Government. — O'Neill defeats the Scots of Clannaboy. — Feud between the Rarls of Orraond and Desmond — The latter wounded and captured at Affane. — The Earl of Sussex succeeded by Sir Henry Sidney. — Renewed war in Ulster. — O'Neill invades the English Pale — Defeated at Derry — Burning of Derry and withdrawal of the English garrison Death of Caivagh O'Donnell. — O'Neill defeated by Calvagh's successor, Hugh— His disastrous flight, appeal to the Scots, and murder — His character. — Visitation of Tdunster and Connaught, by Sidney .'—Sidney's description of the state of the country — His character of tiie great nobles — Base policy of the Government confessed by him — His energy and severity — Arrest of Desmond. — Commencement of serious troubles in the South. — Position of the Catholics. — Sir Jamj-s FitzMaurice Parliament of 15G9— Fraudulent elections. — Attainder of O'Neill. — Claims of Sir Peter Carew Rebellion, if Sir Edmimd Pjutkr. — Sidney'smilitary expedition to Mun- ster. — Sir John Perrott lord president of Munster, and Sir Edward Fitton president of Connauuht. — Renewed war in the South. — Rebellion of the Earl of Thomond.— Rebellion of the sons of the Earl of Clanrickard.— Battle of Shrule. — The Castle of Aughnanure taken.— Siege and capture of Castlemaiue. — Submission of Sir James FitzMaurice. — Attempted English settlements in Ulster. — Hiirriblo ma-^iacre of the Irish in Clannaboy. — Failure and death of the Earl of E.ssex. —Sir Henry Sidney makes another visitation of the South and West. — Sir V\''illiara Drury Pre- sident of Munster, and Sit Nicliolas Malby in Connaught — Illegal tax, difficidties in the Pale. — Career and death of Rory Oge O'More. — The massacre of Mullaghma.st. COTEMPOKAUY SOVEKEIGNS AND EVENTS. Popes: Paul IV., Pius IV., Pius V., Gregory XIII.— Kings of France: Francis II., Charles IX., Henry III.— King of Spain, Philip II. — King of Portugal, Sebastian.— Sovereigns of Scotland: Mary, James VI.— Battle of Lepanto, 1571.— Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, 1572. l^^^S LIANC Y of conscience characterised in a remarkable degree c|f le statesmen of the age of which it is now our duty to treat. , There appears to have been no fixed principles of religion or ( politics among them, and the men who undertook to restore lV/^\ the ancient religion to its original state under the Catholic queen Mary, were found as ready and suitable instruments for its destruction at the beck of her Protestant sister and succes- sor, Elizabeth. Thus, Thomas Radcliffe, earl of Sussex, who had been lord lieutenant of Ireland under the former sove- reign, continued in office under the latter, reversing, under the altered rule, his own previous acts ; and Sir Henry Sid- ney, the treasurer, who acted as deputy in the absence of Sussex, before the close of Mary's reign, was also appointed to the same charge, although to perform contrary duties, v,'heii Sussex SHANE ONEILL. 383 went to England after Elizabeth ascended the throne. But if those who lived within the sphere of court influence exhibited this lubricity in their religious principles, it was not so with the general population of Ireland, who viewed such fickleness with horror, and who were soon roused to a sense of their own danger by the measures taken, on the accession of the new queen, to subvert their religion and to enforce the new creed and form of Avorship. Thus was a fresh element of strife introduced into this unhappy country. The native population had hitherto seen in their English rulers the plunderers of their ancestral lands and the extermi- nators of their race ; but to this character was now supei'added that of the revilers and persecutors of their religion ; while in regarding the English government in this latter point of view, a vast majority of the people of English descent in Ireland were now identified in sentiment with the native Irish. On the other hand, the fidelity of the Irish to the re- ligion of their fathers became branded with the stigma of rebellion ; their memories were blackened and their actions distorted by their successful enemies, and calumny was unsparingly added to spoliation and persecution. Of this ungenerous conduct we have a marked instance in the case of Shane O'Neill, the prince of Tyrone, whose character has been depicted in revolting colors by English historians. They describe him as a barbarian and as one addicted to every vice ; but if he had faults, some of which we do not excuse, we know at least that he was chival- rous, confiding, and generous; that with the exhausted resources of his small territory he was able to keep the power of England at bay ; that he defeated her experienced generals in the field ; and foiled her statesmen in negotiation ; and that he combined with no ordinary qualities of mind an undaunted bravery, and an ardent love of his country. We have already seen how he assumed the chieftaincy on the death of his father, who closed his life in captivity, and how he thus set aside the claims of the sons of his elder but illegitimate brother, Mathew or Ferdoragh, tho late baron of Dungannon, who was slain at his instigation ; and this com'se being in open defiance of English authority, which had always made common cause with Mathew, Sir Henry Sidney, as lord deputy in the absence of Sussex, now led an army to Dundalk, and summoned Shane to account for his proceedings. The haughty chief of Tyrone replied to the summons by inviting the deputy to come to his court, and stand as sponsor for his child. Whatever motive may have actuated Sidney he accepted the invitation, and was so influenced by the arguments urged by O'Neill in support of his rights, and by his protestations of loyalty, that he withdrer his army, and promised to lay the matter before the 384 EEIGN OF ELIZxVBETH. queen. Thus for the moment were friendly relations established between the Ulster chieftain and the Pale; buttlie o;overnment of the latter soon found sources of uneasiness in other quarters. Rumours of invasion from France and Spain became current; the earls of Kildare and Des- mond held conferences of a suspicious nature, and disaffection was more general and apparent as the principles of Elizabeth's government became intelligible to the country. A.D. 1560. — A parliariient composed of seventy-six members was sum- moned to meet m Dublin on the 12th of January this year.* It com- prised the representatives of ten counties,! the remainder being " citizens and burgesses," says Leland, " of these towns in which the royal authority was predominant ; and with such a parliament," as the same protestant historian admits, " it is little wonder that, in despite of clamour and opposition, in a session of a few Aveeks, the whole ecclesi- astical system of queen ]\Iary was entirely reversed4 The proceedings are involved in mystery, and the principal measures are believed to have been carried by means fraudulent and clandestine ; but at all events it was enacted that the queen was the head of the church of Ireland, the reformed worship was re-established as under Edward VI , and the book of common prayer, with further alterations, re-introduced. Every person was bound to attend the new service under pain of ecclesiastical censures and of a 6ne of twelve pence for each offence; the first fruits and twen- tieths of the church revenue were restored to the crown ; and the right of collating to all vacant sees by royal letters patent was established in- stead of the form of a writ of coiige delire, the prelates being ordered to consecrate the person thus appointed within the space of twenty days under the penalty of premunire. The laws made in Mary's reign re- storing the civil establishment of the catholic religion were repealed ; all officers and ministers, ecclesiastical or lay, were bound to take the oath of supremacy under pain of forfeiture and total incapacity ; and any one who mamtained the spiritual supremacy of the pope was to forfeit for the first offence all his estates real and personal, or be imprisoned for one year if not worth £20 ; for the second offence to be liable to pre- munire ; and for the third to be guilty of high treason. || * As the legal year, at this time, commenced in March, the months of January and February of the natural year belonged to the preceding common or legal year; and hence this parliament of 2nd Eiizabetli, which was held in January, 1560, is often called the parliament of 1559. t The counties to which the writs were issued were Dublin, Meath, Westmeath, Louth, Kildare, Catherlough, Kilkennj', Waterford, Tipperarj', and Wexford. X Leland, Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 224. II As the statute of supremacy, 28th Henry VIII., chap. 5, (a.d. 1536) was passed by the illegal and arbitrary exclusion of the proctors from parliament, and by the preliminary dragooning of the PENAT, T.AWS. 385 These laws against the reliuion of the people had litth effect beyond the bounds of the Pale, while even within its precincts the/ were gene- rally met by passive resistance, and became in many instances a dead letter. When the Catholic clergy were obliged to flee from their churches, their places were, in a majority of cases, left unsuppliecl. or ignorant and worthless men, who abandoned their religion for temporal advantages, were substituted. Even those who enjoyed the rank of bishops under the Reformation showed themselves in many instances so notoriously devoid of honesty, by making away with the temporalities of their sees, that it was soon necessary to enact a law breaking the fraudu- lent leases which they had made, and prohibiting for the future such alienations.* The sacred edifices fell into ruins, and the people were nation by lord Leonard Gray, who, as Sir -Tolni Davis says, •• to preiare the mmds of tlie people to obey tliis statute, began first with a martial course, and by making a victorious circuit round the kingdom, whereby the principal septs of the Irish were all terrified and most of them broken ;* (Ili-t. Eel.) ; so is there sufficient reason to believe that the statute of uniformity of the 2nd of Eliz- abeth was obtained forcibly or surreptitiously from the parliament of 15G0. "In the very begin- ning of that parliament," says Ware, " most of the nobility and geutry were so divided in opinion about ecclesiastical government that the earl of Sussex dissolved tliem, and went over to England to consult her majesty on the affairs of this kingdom." From this and subsequent proceedings of the viceroy's it may be inferred that the act was not carried in a regular manner. It is even said that the earl of Sussex, to calm the protests which were made in parliament wlien it was found that the law had been passed by a few members assembled privately, pledged himself solemnly that it would not be generally enforced during the reign of Elizabeth. (See Cambrensis Evei: also Anakcta Sacra, p 431.) Dr. Curry {Civil Wars, book ii. chap, iii.) has collected some curious facts in illus- tration of this point ; but it is not true that the statute of uniformity was kept in alicyance until the beginning of the reign of James I., although not generally enforced until that time. On the 23rd May, 1561, commissioners were appointed to enforce the 2nd Eliz. against catholics in Westinath ; in December, 1562. a commission with similar jurisdiction was appointed for Armagh and Meath ; and in 15G4, commissioners were appointed for the whole kingdom, to inquire into ail oftences or misdemeanors contrary to the statutes of 2ud Elizabeth, and concerning all heretical opiniims, &c., against said statutes. Other commissions were appointed in subsequent years, but tlie proceedings of none of these appear to be now ascertainable. • See Harris's Ware's Irish Bishops, from which it would appear that the new Protestant bishops of Elizabeth's time very generally plundered the sees into which they were introduced by bartering away the revenues " through fear of another change." See more particularly the articles on Jliler Magrath, archbishop of Cashel ; Alexander Craik, bishop of Kildare ; bishop Lyon, of Ross; bishop Field, of Leighlin ; bishop Devereux, of Ferns, &c. Some of these men, " by most scandal- ous wastes and alienations," reduced their sees to such a state that their successors were scarcely left means to subsist, and a union of sees became necessary. The conduct of some of the first of these "reformed" bishops appears to have been in other respects also anything but exemplary. Thus William Knight, the coadjutor of Miler Magrath in Cashel, having excited " the scorn and derision of the people " by his public drunkenness, was obliged to fly to England (Ware, p. 484). Mar- nnidiike Middleton, of Waterford, translated to St. David's, was degraded for the forger>' of a will (Peter Hevlin's Examan. Uht.). Richard Dix^n, of Cloyne and Ross, was deprived "propter adul- terium manifestum et confessum" (official paper quoted in Gilbert's Hist, of Dub., vol. i., p. 114), &c. As to archbishop Crowne, Henry VIII. charged him with "lightness in behaviour," and said that " all virtue and nonesty were almost vanished from him " (State P. clxxiv.) ; while P.ale in his awn gross manner atxused him of " drunkenness and gluttony," calling him an " epicurious arch- jishop," a "brockish swine," a " dissembling proselite,'' ana a " pernicious papist" (The Vocacym of Johan Bayk, repriuic«' in the Hnrkian Miscellany, vol. vi.) And Dowliug, in one pithy sea- 2 c b&(5 BEIGN OF ELIZABETH. obliged to v/orSi'iip God in secret and retired places ; so that in haK'-a- dozen years iron Elizabeth's accession, her deputy, Sir Henry Sidney, was able to describe tlie miserable condition of the Irish church, as " spoiled, as v/ell by the ruin of the temples as the dissipation and embezzle- ment of the patrimony, and most of all for want of sufficient ministers ;" adding, that " so deformed and overthrown a ebarch there is not, I am sure, in any region where Christ is professed ! " * Meanwhile the Irish were, as usual, a prey to discord among them- selves. In Thomond, great confusion prevailed, owing to the efforts of Teige and Donough, sons of Murrough O'Brien, to wrest the chieftaincy from Conor O'Brien, earl of Thomond. Garrett, Avho had succeeded his father, James, as earl of Desmond, sided with the former, while Conor called in the aid of his friend, the earl of Clanrickard. The three c;:ls, Avith their respective armies, met at Baljy-Ally, a few miles north of Ennis, and after an obstinate fight the combined forces of Conor O'Brien and the Burkes were defeated. The proceeding of the earl of Desmond on this occasion was regarded by the En^-lish government as an act of rebellion. As to Thomond, it continued to be for some years disturbed by the rival factioris. Among the claimants to the chief- taincy, under the law of tanistry, were Donnell and Teige, uncles of Conor; but in 1560 a partial settlement of these disputes was effected by a grant of the district of Corcomroe, with certain church lands, to Sir Donnell, who, some jeavs after, served the queen efficiently as sheriff" of Thomond. The English government evinced its distrust of Shane O'Neill by a course of action well calculated to excite that chieftain's hostility. . Ef- forts were made to alienate the neighbouring chiefs from him, and for that purpose honors were conferred on some, and promises held out to others. O'Reilly was created earl of Brenny, or Breffny, and baron of Cavan; and a messenger was sent by a circuitous route to Calvagh O'Donnell, fence, describes Travers, Edward VI. 's bishop of Leighlii), as " cruel, covetous, vexing Iris clergy " (^n. Hib., p. 38., ed. of 1849). * Sir Henrj- Sidney's Despatches. In a letter to the queen, that deputy draws a melancholy picture of the ruinous state of the church. In Meath, which he refers to as " the best peopled dio- cese and the best governed country " of Ireland, he states that out of 224 parish churclies 105 had fallen wholly into decay, without roofs, doors or windows, the very walls in many places being down; while the revenues were confiscated to the crown. Fifty-two others had incumbents, and as manj' more were private property. By a curious inconsistency, at the commencement of Eliza- beth's reign, those niiuisters who had no knowledge of the English language were allowed to read the Liturgy in Latin ; and Peter Lombard, the Catholic archbishop of Armagh, tells us, that in the first years of Elizabeth's reign many of the Irish, from ignorance, attended the new service, taking with them their rosaries and crucifixes, but that as soon as they became fully aware of the religious changes that had taken place, they shuuned the churches with horror. (Commeniurius, p. 282.) AGGRESSIONS OF SHANE o'nfII.L. 3S7 bearing letters from the queen, ofiering to create hira earl of Tirconnell, together with letters from the earl of Sussex to O'Donnell's -wife — a Scottish lady, who is generally called the countess of Argyle — informino- her that the queen was about to send her some costly presents. O'Neill, who well understood this indirect mode of shewing enmity against him- self, soon made the recipients of English favors rue the friendship which was only intended to wean them from the interests of their country. He invaded the territory of the new earl of Brenny, and, after laying it waste, compelled O'Reilly to become his vassal. Against O'Donnell his enmity was not of recent date, and he seized an opportunity which now presented itself of gratifying all his vengeance. He learned that the principal part of O'Donnell's army was absent on a hostile excursion to Lough Veagh, in Donegal, while Calvagh himself was almost unattended at the monas- tery of Killodonneil, near the upper end of Lough Swilly; and making a sudden descent, he carried off Calvagh and his wife prisoners. The for- mer he incarcerated in one of his strongholds, and the latter, whose sub- sequent shameless conduct has made some suspect that it was she who betrayed her husband into O'Neill's hands, he made his mistress.* He now declared himself chief of all Ulster. ONeill, in fine, no longer disguised his hatred of England, but openly declared his determination to contend against English power, not only in his own province of Ulster, but in Leinster and Munstcr. He led an army into Bregia, plundered the territory of the Pale, and only returned to the north at the approach of winter, when he had destroyed the corn, and left no food in the countiy to support his army. Elizabeth had caused an assembly of the Irish clergy to be held this year for the purpose of enforcing the Protestant Avorship throughout the kingdom, and had given a foretaste of the persecution which might be expected by casting William Walsh, tlien bishop of Meath, into prison, for his opposition to the newly-imported liturgy. These proceedings filled the country with disaffection, which was stimulated by hopes of aid from foreign princes — a course for -which Elizabeth's governmen * The circumstance mentioned above leaves a blemish on the character of Shane O'Neill which even the manners of the ajje and the life of violence which he was fatpd to pass cannot palliate. The woman who thus became his mistress was the step-mother of his wife, the latter being the daughter of Calvagh O'Donnell by a former wife. The Four Masters, who record the .seizure of Calvagh under the year 1559. state, under the date of 1561, that " Mary, the daughter of Calvagh and wife of O'Neill, died of horror, loathing, grief, and deep anguish, in consequence of tlie severity of the ijiiprisonnient inflicted on her father by O'Neill in her presence." About the latter year, O'NeiP, in his letters to queen Elizabeth, frequently expressed a wisli that "some English gent lev. owMn of noble blood," might be given to him as wife ; the lady whose hand he desired thus to obtain being the sister of bis most inveterate f.ie, tiie earl .if Su.S'j;i. 388 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. afforded the amplest justification by the aid wliich it lent to the rebel- lious subjects of other countries. Shane O'Neill asked the king of France to send him five or six thousand men, and with such assistance at that moment he would have had little difficulty in liberating his country from the English yoke. A.D. 1561. — It is said that Elizabeth had, at this time, designed to try the effect of a conciliatory policy with O'Neill, and that Sussex, when returning from England, in June this year, had received instructions to that effect; but, be that as it may, the contrary course was pursued. The lord lieutenant had brought reinforcements from England, and, with as powerful an army as he could collect, including the forces of the earl of Ormond, he marched to Armagh, where he threw up en- trenchments round the cathedral with the view of establishino- a stroncf garrison there. He sent a large body of troops into Tyrone, and these were returning laden with spoils when O'Neill set upon them, defeated them with slaughter, and retook the booty. This defeat produced intense alarm in the Pale, and created no slight uneasiness even in England, while it proportionately increased the confidence of the Irish. Sussex had recourse to negotiations, but O'Neill declared that he would listen to no terms until the English troops were withdrawn from Armagh. Fresh reinforcements were poured in from England, and the earls of Desmond, Ormond, Kildare, Thomond, and Clanrickard, are said to have all assembled in the lord lieutenant's camp, in obedience to his call. With a large and well-equipped army Sussex now advanced into Tyrone as far as Lough Foyle, and devastated the country ; but O'Neill, adopting the tactics which had always frustrated the English when their greatest efforts were made in the way of preparation, withdrew beyond their reach to his forests and mountains. To rid himself of a brave enemy, whom he was thus unable to subdue, the viceroy now had re- course to the darkest treachery. He hired an assassin to murder Shane O'Neill, and this with the cognisance and sanction of queen Elizabeth; but, as the atrocious project did not succeed, we should probably be left in ignorance of the fact that it was ever contemplated, were it not for the evidence preserved in the State-paper Office. The name of the in- tended murderer was Nele Gray ; but he either lacked courage or the obstacles in his way were too great, and the deed was not perpetrated.* * The letter of Sussex to the queen, in which this atrocious plot is fully developed, conclude.s thus : — " In fine I brake with him to kill Shane, and bound mj'self by nij' oath to see him liave a hundred marks of land, to him and his heirs, for reward. He seemed desirous to serve your high- ness, and to have the Lnd, but fearful to do it, doubting bis own escape after. I told him the ways SHANE O'NEILL CONCILIATED. 389 What the lord lieutenant did not succeed in effecting witli his army was brought about through the mediation of tlie earl of Kildare, whose family connection with O'Neill gave him considerable influence with that chief. The persuasions of Kildare were backed b}' a pressing letter of invitation from Elizabeth to Shane to repair to her court ; and that redoubtable chieftain Avas induced to make his submission and sign articles of peace. Calvagh O'Donnell had, a short time before this, been ransomed from captivity by the Kinel-Connell, and Sussex having now marched through Tirconnell to restore him to his principal castles an l strongholds, brought the Ulster campaign to a satisfactory conclusion. O'Neill, on his part, repaired to Dublin, and desired to proceed to England, but Sussex threw various obstacles in the way ; one cause of delay relating to the loan of a sum of three thousand pounds for the expenses of the journey. Sussex also wrote to Cecil, suggesting that the queen should give O'Neill a cool reception, or " show strangeness " to him ; but in this the enmity of the lord lieutenant was not gratified, for Elizabeth received Shane very graciously, and in return he made strong protestations of friendship and loyalty to her. The decision on his claims was at first deferred by the queen, until Hugh, the young baron of Dungannon, should arrive and plead his own cause ; but an unfounded report having reached that Hugh was killed in a feud, Elizabeth no longer hesitated to grant Shane a full pardon, and to re- cognise his right of succession to the chieftaincy.* he might do it, and how to escape after with safety, which ne offered and promised to do ;" and from the next sentence it may be inferred either that the assassin wuuld forfeit his own hfe if he failed to perform his task, or that other assassins could be found for the purpose, as the lord lieutenant adds : — '• I assure your highness he may do it without danger, if he will, and if he will not do what he may in your service there will be done to him what others may." Throughout the letter, as Mr. Moore observes, there is not a single hint of doubt or scruple as to the moral justiti- ableness of the transaction— such was " the frightful familiarity with deeds of blood which then prevailed in the highest stations." * The Four Masters say that O'Neill went to England about All-Hallowtide, in 1.301, and that he returned to Ireland in May, the following year; but Ware, Cos, and others wlio have followed thorn, speak obscurely of two journeys of Siiane O'Neill to England, one in 1561, and the other in 1563. Camden refers to that chieftain's visit under the date of 1562, at the beginning of which year O'Neill certainly was in London. The articles by which O'Neill bound himself to serve the queen are dated at Benburb, 18lh November, 1563, as appears from the Patent Roll of that date; and they cite the articles indented between the queen and him, and dated at Windsor, 15th January, 1563. By these articles, in consideration of his becoming a faithful subject, he was constituted '• captain or governor " of Tyrone " in the same manner as other captains (cliiefs) of the said nation, called O'Neles, had rightfully executed that olhce in the time of King Henry 8 "; and, moreover, he was "to enjoy and have the name and title of O'Nele, witii the like authority. &c., as any other of his ancestors,' with the service and homage of all the lords and captains called Urraughts, and ether nobles of the said nation of O'Nele," upon condition "that he and his said nobles should truly and faithfully, from time to time, serve her majesty, and where necessary wage war against all her tnemics, in such manner as the loid lieutenant for the tintt bdng should diiect." The name or 390 REIG^" OF ELIZABETH. A.D. 1562. — ^Well pleased with his visit, O'Neill returned to Dublin, where he arrived on the 26th of May, having obtained a further loan of £300 from the queen for his journey home ; but learning that Turlough Luineach O'Neill was setting himself up as chieftain, he caused procla- mation to be made in the streets of the recognition of his title by Elizabeth, and hastened to the north, where he w^as received in triumph by the men of Tyrone. A.D. 1564. — Ulster continued, nevertheless, in an unsettled state; the neighbouring chieftains complained of aggressions on the part of Shane, and the English government pursued its insidious policy of division by setting up the former against him. iMaguire of Fermanagh rendered himself particularly obnoxious to the chief of Tyrone, by his alliance with O'Donnell, and his subservience to the English, and O'Neill accord- ingly laid waste his territory by repeated incursions.* Manus O'Donnell died in 1563, and Calvagh repaired to Dublin to complain to the lord lieutenant against O'Neill. The government charged O'Neill with bad faith, but the latter flung back the imputation, and with good reason, for the English do not appear to have kept any of their promises to him. He refused to meet the viceroy at Dundalk, and was in fact once more at war with England ; but after some fruitless attempts at mediation by the earls of Kildare and Ormond, Sir Thomas Cusack succeeded in restoring peace, and articles were signed by Shane, at his house at Benburb, in November, 15G3.t For some time Shane O'Neill governed Tyrone with such order, that if a robbery was committed within his territory, he either caused the property to be restored, or reimbursed the loser out of his own treasury. He made war upon the Scots w'ho had settled in Clannaboy, and defeated them in a succession of attacks, title of O'Neill was to be contingent on the decision of parliament, which should enquire concerniug the letters patent granted by Henry VIII. to his father, and if these were to be adjudged void, or revoked, " then he should forbear to use the title of O'Nele, and should be created and named carl of Tirone," and " all his followers, called Urraughts, who belonged to him or his predecessors, should be assigned to him by authority of said parliament, &c." Camden describes the rude pomp with which Shane O'Neill appeared in Loudon, escorted by a body-guard of gallovvglasses, with bare heads, long and dishevelled hair, crocus-dyed shiits, wide sleeves, short jackets, shaggy cloaks, and broad battle-axes ; and he tells us that they were objects of great wonder to the English {Annales, p. 69, ed. 1G39) ; while we learn from Campion (page 189, ed. 1809), that the hauteur of the Irish prince excited the merriment of the afl'ected gallants of Elizabeth's court, who styled him " O'Neale the great, cousin to S. Patricke, friend to the Queene of England, enemy to all the world besides ! " * Some of Maguire's letters to the earl of Sussex are printed in the collection of State Papers. In one of these he requests the lord lieutenant to write to him in English, and not in Latin, as the latter language was well known, and but few of the Irish had any knowledge of the former, in which, thei ('fore, the secrets of their correspondence could be best preserved. t An outline of these articles has been given in a note ia the precediu;; paiie. FEUDS OF DESMOND AXD ORMOND. 391 slaying 700 of tliem in the last battle at Glenflesk, in 1566, and taking among other ])risoners their leader, James MacDonnell, who died of his wounds, and his brother Sorley Boy. This victory, while it increased his power, only excited still more the jealousy and suspicions of the govern- ment, to whom Shane refused to surrender the charge of his prisoners ; and, as the sequel will show, it proved ere long fatal to himself. The importance of the events in the Nortli has for some time with- drawn our attention from the feuds which prevailed in other parts of the country, and which for the most part were but of local interest. Such were the dissensions of which Thomond had been so long the theatre, and the partial settlement of which, by the grant of Corcomroe to Donnel] O'Brien, in 1564, we have already mentioned; but a violent feud, which broke out between the earls of Ormondand Desmond, caused more anxiety to government. The former of these noblemen had embraced the new creed, and following the traditions of his family, was a faithful supporter of English interests;* while the Geraldine chief was firm in his atiachment to Catholicity, and was stigmatised with the name of rebel. In 1562 both earls appeared at court in obedience to a summons from the queen ; and while Ormond was sent back to take part in the proceedings against O'Xeill, Desmond was pardoned on certain conditions, the principal of which was that he should abolish coyn and hvery, and abrogate all Irish laws and customs within his territory. The old strife, however, soon broke out more fiercely than ever. In the beginning of 1565 the earl of Desmond proceeded with a small force to levy coyn and livery, and some other tax which he claimed from his kinsman Sir Maurice Fitzgerald of Decies, a uobleman who was also related to the Butlers. Sir Maurice applied to these latter for aid, and the earl of Ormond came with an army tAvice as numerous as that which Desmond had brought. A battle was fought at Affline, a little to the south of Cappoquin, in Waterford, when the earl of Desmond was wounded and made prisoner.! A.D. 1566. — About the close of 1564 the earl of Sussex obtained his final recal from Ireland, where his unconciliating temper and personal animosities had rendered the duties of government exceedingly irksome; and Sir Henry Sidney arrived in Dublin in January, this year, with * Queen Elizabelli, who was related to the Butlers by lier mother, used to boast of the loyalty of the house of Oruiond. t It was on this occasion that Desmond, while being carried from the field, and tauntingly asked by his enemies, "AVliere now was the proud earl of Desmond V" hauglitily replied, "Where he ought to be, upon the necks of the Butlers!" Tiie earl appears to have been soon after liberated. 392 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. ample powers as the queen's representative. The new lord deputy was received with extravagant demonstrations of joy by the population of the Pale ; and by the introduction of a new set of people into office he prepared for a more vigorous administration of affairs. On his arrival he found Shane O'Neill again in open hostility to England, and he at once collected a powerful army to take the field against him. He stirred up the minor chieftains of Ulster to resist O'Neill's claims of suzerainty, and we are told that the arrogance and violence of Shane rendered this task an easy one. Commissioners; Avere, however, sent to O'Neill himself, to try what might still be effected by negotiation, but he treated their overtures with scorn, end said that as Ulster had belonged to his ancestors, so it now belonged to him, and having won it by the sword, by the sword he was resolved to keep it. He boasted that "he could bring into the field 1,000 horse and 4,000 foot, and that he was able to burn and spoil to Dublin gates, and come away unfought." If he had been as prudent as he was valiant, this defiance might have been of more avail. He led an army to the vicinity of Dundalk about the end of July, and Sidney marched with a large force to meet him ; but with the exception of some skirmishing, no collision took place between them, and the deputy returned to Dublin. O'Neill now invaded the English Pale, and wasted the country, but he was successfully resisted by the garrison which had been left by Sidney in Dundalk, and received a still more serious repulse from an English garrison, placed, at the solicitation of Calvagh O'Donnell, in Derry, under a brave and experienced officer. Colonel Randolph, who is said to have been the only person killed on the English side in O'Neill's attack.* Sidney, at the head of a powerful army, marched through Tyrone and Tirconnell, and thence through Connaught to the Pale, but did not succeed in bringing O'Neill to an engagement. A.D. 1567. — Hugh O'Donnell succeeded to the chieftaincy of Tirconnell on the sudden death of his brother Calvagh, and proved to be a more dangerous and energetic foe to Shane O'Neill than any of the others whom the policy of the deputy had raised up against him among the Ulster * Shortly after the defeat of Shane O'Neill before Derry, that town was destroyed by fire, and the cathedral, which had been converted by the English into an arsenal, fell a prey to the flames. The powder magazine was blown up, the provisions destroyed, the sick soldiers killed in the hospital, and the English gan ison compelled to abandon the place. The cause of this tire, which occurred in April, 1566, could not be explained ; and the Irish attributed it to the desecration of St. Colunibkille's sacred precincts by a heretical garrison ; as they also did the death of Calvagh O'Donnell, who had brought the English there, and who fell dead from his horse, in the midst of his cavalry, on th« 26th of October that year.— See O'Sullivan's Hist. Cath. p. 96. Dublin, 1860 MURDER OF SHANE o'nEILL. 393 cliiefs ; although in hk brother's life-time he had been Shane's friend, and was in that chief's camp when he invaded Tirconnell in 1557. After the old Irish fashion Hugh inaugurated his rule by a "chieftain's first hosting " into Shane's territory, and this was followed by another in the following year (1567), Avhich so exasperated the chief of Tyrone that he collected a numerous army, and invaded Tirconnell, crossing the estuary of the river Swilly, at low water, a short distance below Letter- kenny, and attacking the small forces of Hugh, who was encamped at ArdnagaiTy, on the north side of the river. The position of Hugh was for a moment desperate, but skilful generalship and impetuosity made up for the smallness of his numbers, and the total rout of O'Neill's army was the result. During the battle the returning tide had covered the sands which a little before had afforded so ready a passage, and a great number of O'Neill's panic-stricken men plunging into the waves were drowned, their loss by flood and by the sword being variously stated at 1,300 or 3,000 men. O'Neill himself fled alone along the banks of the river, westward, to a ford near Scarriffhollis, about two miles higherupthan Letterkenny, where he crossed under the guidance of a party of the O'Gallaghers, subjects of O'Donnell, to whom he was probably unknown, and thence he found his way back, quite crest-fallen, to Tvrone. The annalists say, " his reason and senses became deranged after this defeat." He hesitated a moment whether he should offer his submission to the lord deputy, or apply for aid to the Scots, but by the advice of his secretary he adopted the latter alternative. An army of the Clann Donnell had just arrived from the Hebrides, under some of the very leaders whom Shane had defeated not quite two years before at Glenflesk, and who thirsted for revenge. They gladly accepted his invitation, and he proceeded to m.eet them at Cushendun (Bun-abhan-Duine), in Antrim, sending his prisoner, Sorley Boy MacDonnell, before him, the better to propitiate them should any of their old enmity remain. The Scots nvited O'Neill to their camp, which he entered unsuspectingly, accom- panied only by his mistress, the wife (now widow) of Calvagh O'Donnell, his secretary, and fifty horsemen. A banquet was prepared, but in the midst of the carousal a brawl was purposely got up, and several Scots -rushing simultaneously upon O'Neill, despatched him with innumerable wounds, his followers being subsequently cut to pieces. His body, wi-apt in the yellow shirt of a kerne, was cast into an open pit, whence it was soon after taken by Captain Pierse, an Englishman, who is suspected of having suggested the murder, or of being in some way concerned in the deed ; and the head having been cut off was taken to the lord deputy. 394 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. ■who caused it to be placed on a spike on the hi^iest tower of Dublin Castle, and rewarded Pierse with a thousand marks, the sum offered by proclamation for the head of the northern chieftain. Such was the tragic and unworthy end of Shane O'Neill, whom English arms had not been able to subdue, but who fell a victim to his own rashness, to the treachery of pretended friends, and the unprincipled policy of the English government.* About the end of January, 1567, Sir Henry Sidney set out on a visitation of Munster and Connaught, and the account transmitted by nim to Elizabeth of the state of these two provinces affords a fi'ightful picture of the effects of misrule. The country was everywhere reduced to utter ruin. Thus, describing Munster, he writes: — " Like as I never was in a more pleasant country in all my life, so never saw I a more waste and desolate land Such horrible and lamentable spec- tacles are there to behold as the burning of villages, the ruin of churches, the wasting of such as have been good towns and castles; yea, the view of the bones and skulls of the dead subjects who, partly by murder, partly by famine, have died in the fields, as in troth hardly any christian with dry eyes could behold." Even in the territory subject to the earl of Ormond he witnessed a " want of justice, judgement, and * The character of Shane O'Neill has been bl ckened by English historians, but to accounts from sources so hostile little credit is due. Camden describes him as "homicidiis et adulteriis con- taminatissimus, helluo maxinuis, ebrietate adeo iusigni, ut ad corpus, vino et aqua vitae immodice haustainfiammatum, refrigerandum, sepius mento tenus terra conderetur." (^Annates, cfc, p. 130). Hooker speaks of his cellar at Dundrum, in which he is said to have kept a stock of 200 tuns of wine. He possessed singular strength of character. Sir Henry Sidney, in one of his letters, says he "is the only strong man in Ireland." Campion, who was his cotemporary, and who writes as his enemy, still gives him credit for great charity. " Sitting at nieate, before he put one mor.scll into his mouth, he used to slice a portion above the dayly almes, and send it namely to sonje begger at his gate, saying, it was meete to serve Christ first." (Campion, Histor// of Ireland, p. 189, ed. 1809). But one of the most remarkable circumstances connected with this extraordinary man wag the strong and favorable impression which he had made on the mind of queen Elizabeth ; a feeling which, says Moore, "was shown by her retaining towards him the same friendly bearing through all the strife, confusion, and — what, in her ej'es, was even still worse — lavish expenditure, of which he continued for several years to be the unceasing cause " She frequently discountenanced the hostile movements against him, and so well was her leniency towards him understood that, in 1566, Sir William Fitz-William complained in a letter to Cecil that "the council are not permitted to write the truth of O'Neill's evil doings." He was popular even in the Pale, for his generous and high spirit commanded the respect both of friends and foes. By the Irish he was usually styled Shnne- an-dimnais, i. e. "John of the ambition or pride;" and he is also called Dongaikach, or the Don- nellian, as he was fostered by an O'Donnell. (Foar Masters, vol. v., p. 1569, note). Ware says, on the authority of official papers, that the wars of Shane O'Neill cost Elizabeth the sum of £147,407 ' over and aoove the cesses laid on the country;" and that " 3,500 of her majesty's soldiers were slain by him and his party, besides what they slew of the Scots and Irish." (Annals, a.d. 1568). The interval between his defeat by Hugh O'Donnell and his murder by the Scots was from the 8lh of May to the middle of June. The circumstances of his death are minnte'y related by Campion, (pp. 189-192); and, also, with some slight discrepancy, by Camden (^ubi supra). Sidney's progress through Ireland. 395 stoutness to execute." Tipperary and Limerick were in a horrible state of desolation. The earl of Desmond -was " a man both devoid of judg- ment to govern and will to be ruled." IMacCarthy More, who two years before had surrendered his territories to the queen, receiving them back by letters patent, with the titles of earl of Clancare* and baron of Valentia, was " willing enough to be ruled, but wanted force and credit to rule." The earl of Thomond " had neither wit of himself to govern, nor grace or capacity to learn of others ;" and the lord deputy confessed that he would most willingly have committed the said earl to prison if he could find any person in whom he could confide to put in his place. The earl of Clanrickard was well-intentioned, and otherwise met the deputy's approbation, but " he was so overruled by a putative wife as oft times when he best intendeth she forceth him to do the woi'st ;" ai.i his sons were so turbulent that they kept the whole country in dis- ' order. He found Galway like a frontier town in an enemy's country, the inhabitants obliged to keep watch and ward to protect themselves against their dangerous neighbours ; and Athenry was reduced so low that there were then in it but four respectable householders, who pre- sented the deputy with the rusty keys of their town — " a pitiful and lamentable present " — requesting him to keep the keys, " inasmuch as they were so impoverished by the extortion of the lords about them as they were no longer vable to keep that town." Such was the state in which Sir Henry Sidney found the country — a state which might be traced to what he designates the "cowardly policy' that would rule the nation by sowing divisions among the people, or, as he himself expresses it, " by keeping them in continual dissension, for fear lest through their quiet might follow I wot not what." And he adds: — "so far hath that policy, or rather lack of policy, in keeping dissension among them, prevailed, as now, albeit all that are alive would become honest and live in quiet, yet are there not left alive, in these two pi'ovinces, the twentieth person necessary to inhabit the same ! " Sidney encountered the difficulties of his position with energy which •was unrestrained by either prudence or humanity, and which alarmed even Elizabeth, who would have preferred dealing with them in an in- direct manner. He sternly reproved the nobles for the mismanage- ment of their respective districts ; but against Desmond he was particu- Wly severe. The great power of that nobleman, and his high position * rnis title has been variomsly written Clancare, Glencar (by Cox), and Clancarrha ; the last X'.'-i ne:>ily expresses the sound of the Irish name, ClancartLig or Clancarthy, and was probably tLecoiieci Augio-iiisii orchcgrapny. 30i> flT'IGN OF ELIZABETH. in the esteem of tlie Catholics, rendered him a special object of the deputy's hostility. He was accordingly summoned to attend the latter in his visitation of Munster, and after being unknowingly guarded for some days, was at length publicly seized in Kilmallock, and carried about as a prisoner by Sidney during the remainder of his progress. The sons of the earl of Clanrickard were also taken up in Connaught, and the lord deputy returned to Dublin with his captives on the IGth of April, having caused unnumbered offenders to be executed in the course of his visitation.* The queen was uneasy at the tumults which these strong measures produced, especially in Munster, and Sidney having souo-ht permission to explain his conduct in person, proceeded to England for that purpose, in October, taking with him the earl of Desmond and his brother, John, who was sent for and then arrested; and being also ac- companied by Hugh O'Neill, baron of Dungannon, the O'Conor Sligo, and other Irish chieftains ; Dr. Robert Weston, lord chancellor, and Sir William FitzWilliam, treasurer, being left in charge of the government as lords justices. A.D. 15G8 — Scarcely was Ulster temporarily pacified by the death of Shane O'Neill when the southern province became the scene of troubles of a most formidable character. During the imprisonment of Gerald, earl of Desmond, and his brother, Sir John, the leadership of the Geral- dines was assumed, at the desire, it is said, of the captives, by their cousin. Sir James FitzGerald — son of Maurice of Desmond, brother of the late earl, James. Sir James Fitzmaurice, as he is usually called, was warlike and enterprising. He resisted successfull}^ the pretensions to the earl- dom put forward by Thomas Rua, an elder but illegitimate brother of earl Gerald's, although this claimant was supported by the Butlers, and by FitzMaurice of Kerry, and others.f In the course of this quarrel, Sir James besieged FitzMaurice of Kerry in his castle of Lixnaw, but was defeated and compelled to raise the siege. * In one of his despatches, Sidney thus alludes to the countless executions which graced his pro- gress on this occasion. " I write not," he says, " the names of each particular varlet that hath died since I an-ived, as well by the ordinary course of the law, and the martial law, as flat fighting with them, when they would take food without the good will of the giver, for I tliinli it no stuff worthy the loading of my letters with ; but 1 do assure you the number of them is great and some of the best, and the rest tremble ; for most part they fight for their dinner, and many of them lose tlieir heads before they be served with supper. Down they go in every corner, and down they shall g7 About tlie same time the newly-created earl of Clancare threw off the English yoke and asserted his hereditary rights to South Munsfer; while in the absence of the earl of Ormond in England, his brother, Sir Ed- mond Butler, nivolved himself in dissensions with the Geraldines. The attachment to their ancient faith evinced by the Irish had long since attracted the attention of the Catholic potentates of Europe, and promi- ses of aid were held out to them both by France and Spain. The sover- eign pontiff, on his side, felt it his duty to encourage and sustain, by every means in his power, those Catholics who were engaged in a life- and-death struggle for their religion against the innovators ; so that to him also we find the Irish applying, not only for spiritual succour, but for men, arms, and money, during the wars of Elizabeth. The position of the Irish Catholics had become intolerable. If the yoke of the stran- ger had been hitherto hard enough to bear, it was infinitely more so now, when the oppressor added to his ancient, unrelenting, national animosity, the fierce spirit of religious persecution which the Reformation had everywhere enkindled in its partisans.* The people saw their churches desolate — their monasteries confiscated — their priests proscribed— and their religion trampled under foot. They were swayed to and fro by unsteady leaders — they were disorganised by their ancient strife — but now they rallied to more sacred watchwords, and while they fought with the chivalry of crusaders, they died with the heroism of martyrs. Such was the general character of the struggle which had now commenced in the southern province, and which was sustained for many years, and spread more or less throughout all Ireland. A.D. 1569. — In September, 1568, Sir Henry Sidney returned to Ire- land as lord deputy, and landed at Carrickfergus, where he received the submission of Turlough Luineach O'Neill, who on the death of Shane had been elected to the chieftaincy.! The deputy came prepared with * We are unwilUng to infringe in the sliglitest degree on the field of polemics, but the student of histiiry cannot but observe in passing how men with whom private judgment in matters of faith was a fundamental principle, would monopolize that privilege for themselves, and, with such argu- ments as the sword and the lialter, compel other men to surrender tlieir private judgment to them. Yet such was the case iu every country where the professors of the reformed creed gained the ascen- dancy, and where the rest of the population wished to persevere in the faith of tlieir fathers — but nowhere was this spirit of persecution productive of more melancholy results than in Ireland. tSir TinluuL:h, who assumed tiie title of tiie O'Neill after the death of Shane an Diomais, was the son of Niall Culauagh, who was the son of Art Oge, a younger brother of Con Bacagh O'NeiU, tbe first earl of Tyrone. He was called Lynoch (Luineach) from having been fostered by O'Lulnigh of Tyrone. He was the most powerful member of the O'Neill sept after the death of John, and wsa therefore elected to succeed him, although John liad left sons. He had proved himself c':\ sun- dry occasions a friend of tlie English, during John's wars; but this assumption of Xho titlo >f O'Neill was deemed aii act of rebellion, and hence the necessity of his luhni's^ioD *o the deputy 398 REIGX OF ELIZACETn. fresh instructions to carry out the policy of his royal mistress, and sum- moned a piuliament to meet in Dublin on the 17th of January, 1569. The history of this body is memorable for the unscrupulous and uncon- stitutional means resorted to in order to secure its subserviency to the crown. Members were returned for towns not incorporated ; mayors and sheriffs in some cases returned themselves ; and several Englishmen "were elected as burgesses for towns which they had never seen. These monstrous irregularities gave rise to violent opposition. The judges were consulted, and declared that those who were returned for non-cor- porate towns, and those who had returned themselves, were disqualified from sitting as members, but the elections of the non-resident English- men were held to be valid ; and this decision still left the court party in a majority. By these Stanihurst, recorder of Dublin, was chosen speaker, and Sir Christopher Barnwell led the opposition. The first pro- ceedings A^ ere stormy in the extreme, and the popular excitement out of doors was so great that Hooker, an Englisliman, who was returned fur the dilapidated borough of Athenry, and who has left us a chronicle of the period, had to be protected by a guard in going to his residence.* In this parliament, in which the majority was a mere English faction, an act was passed attainting the late Shane O'Neill, suppressing the name of O'Neill, and entitling the queen and her heirs to the territory of Tyrone and other parts of Ulster. Laws were also enacted imposing a duty on wine; giving the lord deputy the nomination to church dignities in Munster and Connaught for ten years ; and for erecting in the various dioceses charter schools, of which the teachers were to be English, and, of course, Protestants. A law was also passed abolishing captaincies or chieftaincies of septs, unless when allowed by special patent. f A little before this Sir Peter Carew,. a Devonshire knight, came to Ireland and set up a claim of hereditary right to vast territories in the south of this country. He revived, in fact, a claim which had been investigated and rejected in the reign of Edward III., but produced as fresh evidence a forged roll, which he alleged had been discovered ; and the corrupt administration of the day admitted the title and ordered him to be put in possession ; rather, as it would appear, to frighten the * Leland ("vol. ii., p. 241) describes the proceedings of this packed parliament. t It was in the act of attainder against O'Neill, passed in this parliament, that queen Elizabeth's ministers affected to trace her title to the reahii of Ireland to an origin anterior to that of the Milesian race of kings ; setting forth a ludicrous tale of a king Guimondus, '' son to the noble king Belan of Great Britain, who was lord of Bayon in Spain, as many of his successors were to the time of Henry II., who possjssed the island afore the comeing of Irishmen into the said landel" (See Plowderis Hist. Ren. Appenu. No. vii. Irish Statutes, llth. Elie., sess. ?,, cnp. 1. O'C'inuelCs Mem. of Ireland, p. 110.) FIRST PROVINCIAL PRESIDENTS. 3G9 MacCarthys, Fitzgeralds, Kavanaghs, and others, to whose lands he laid claim, than with any other view* Some of these lands belonged to Sir Edmond Butler, a man of a restless spirit, and perpetually involved in strife, and who now joined the southern insurgents, more from private pique than for public motives, if we may judge from his subsequent con- duct. Sir Peter Carew w^as ordered to take the field against him, and is said to have slain in one encounter 400 of the Irish, with no other loss on his side than one man wounded ; a statement from Avhich, if true, it would follow that the affair was not a battle, but the massacre of an un- armed multitude. Sir Edmond then induced his younger brothers, Pierce and Edward, to enter with him into an alliance with Sir James FitzMaurice ; and the confederates dispatched the archbishop of Cashel, the bishop of Emly, and Sir James Sussex Fitzgerald, youngest brother of the earl of Desmond, as emissaries to the pope, imploring assistance. They laid siege to Kilkenny, which was successfully defended by Carew. They then proceeded to overrun the country in various directions. The Butlers sacked the town of Enniscorthy, and marched into Ossory and the Queen's county, where they are accused of committing every kind of outrage. Ultimately they returned to the south and rejoined the forces of FitzMaurice and the earl of Clancare, when the confederates sent messengers to Turlough Luineach, inviting him to join their stan- dard, and to secure the assistance of some Scottish auxiliaries. At this juncture Sidney set out on a military expedition into iSIunster, and the earl of Ormond was sent over by the queen to bring his refractory brothers to order. This he easily effected ; inducing them to accompany him to Limerick and there submit to the lord deputy, who consented to their pardon, although Sir Edmond was detained for some time in prison to await the queen's pleasure, as he persisted in making personal charges against Sidney himself. The ranks of the insurgents being thus broken np, James FitzMaurice retired with a few followers to the mountains, and Sidney, having taken those castles which still held out, proceeded through Thomond to Connaught, and thence to Dublin; having on this occasion put into effective operation the new form of local govern- ment, by presidents and councils, which he himself had devised for the two provinces of Connaught and Munster. Sir Edward Fitton, a man * Sir Peter Carew claimed the barony of Mrone in Carlow, and one-half of the " kingdom of Cork," or South Munster, in right of Robert FitzStephen, one of the tirst adventuror.s ; but as tiie said FitzStephen was a bastard, and left no children, it was decided by the inquisition of the 5th Edward III. that the claim of the Carcws to be his heirs could not be true. See Four Mastei's ToL v., pp. 1737, 1738, note, for some curious paiticulars ou this subject. 400 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. well qualified to crush the people by his excessive rigor and overbearing insolence, was appointed first president of Connauglit; and Sir John Perrot, who was said to be a natural son of Henry VITI., and was also distinguished for his extreme sternness and terrible activity, was placed early in the following year in the government of Munster* In the north Turlough Luineach evinced some intention of joining the southern insurgents, but an injury which he received from the accidental explo- sion of a gun obliged him to remain inactive, and on his recovery he found himself deserted by many of his adherents, and deemed it prudent to submit and sue for pardon. A.D. 1570. — Sir James FitzMaurice renewed the war early this year. On the second of March he attacked Kilmallock, in which an English garrison had been placed, and scaling the walls obtained possession of the town, which was then plundered and committed to the flames, so that nothing was left of it but the blackened walls. In Connaught, to which Thomond had recently been added as a county,! the rigor of Sir Edward Fitton had goaded the people into resistance ; even the old and hitherto faithful friend of the English, Conor O'Brien, earl of Thomond, being obliged to resist the president's authority. Fitton appointed a court to meet this year in the abbey of Ennis, but the earl refused to attend, and the president was obliged to fly, committing himself to the safe keeping of Teige O'Brien, sheriff of Thomond, who conducted him to Galway. The earl of Ormond was, upon this, sent into Thomond to vindicate the authority of government, and the refractory Conor O'Brien surrendered to him all his castles except that of Ibrickan; but subse- quently he regretted his too easy submission, and preferring any sacri- fice rather than placing himself at the mercy of the president, he fled to Kerry and thence to France, where Norris, the English ambassador, negotiated his pardon with Elizabeth, enabling him to return to Ireland, where he afterwav ^s remained a faithful subject. In the summer ot this year a sanguinary and memorable battle was fought at Shrule, a village on the borders of Mayo and Galway, between * Sir Warham St. Leger was appointed president of Munster in 1567, but the system of provin- cial presidents does not appear to have been fully carried out until two years later, as stated above. t A few years before this Connaught had been divided by the earl of Sussex into six counties, viz. : — Clare, Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Roscommon, and Leitrim. The territory comprised in the present county -of Clare formed a part of Connaught in the time of queen Maeve, that is, about the Christian era, and so continued until it was conquered by Lughaidh Menu, fourth in descent from Cormac Cas, son of Qiliol Ollum, king of Munster, when it became Thumond or North Munster. It was restored for a short time to Connaught in the division of shire land under queen Elizabeth, but was again added to Munster. See note in Battle of M'/gh Lena, p. 157. By Sussex, also, the ancient territory of Anally was formed into the county of Longford. TUMULTS IN COXNAUGHT. 401 the nortliern MacWilliams (Burkes) on the one side, and the earl of Clanrickard and Sir Edward Fitton on the other. JMacWilham had collected a large army hy the aid of his allies in lower Connanght, and of the O'Flaherties ; and the lord president's infantry were routed with great slaughter, although his cavalry remained firm, and inflicted such damage on the Ii'ish, in their turn, that both parties were able to claim the victory. In the south the earl of Ormond pursued his way from Thomond tln'ough Hy Connell Gavi'a, in Limei'ick, into Kerry, as far as Dunlo Castle, which he demolished, without meeting an enemy through- out his march ; and among the Irish chieftains who made then- sub- mission about the same time, were Brian Kavanagh, of Ballyanne, in Wexford, Mac Vaddock, Mac Edmond Duff, and Mac David More, heads of other branches of the Mac Murroughs, in the same county; besides O'Farrell Bane, and O'Farrell Boy, of Longford.* A.D. 1571. — Sir John Perrot entered this year on his first campaign against the insurgents of Munster with extraordinary vigor and activity. He was on the alert night and day. Boasting that he would " hunt the fox out of his hole,"' he scoured the woods in the wild and picturesque glen of Aherlow, where Sir James FitzMaurice had sheltered himself wdth a few followers, but notwithstanding all this energy the Geraldine chief remained unsubdued. A.D. 1572. — Neither did the "strong measures" of Sir Edward Fitton produce the expected result. His ferocity and insolence fired, instead of subduing the spirit of Connaught. He called a court in Galway, to be held in March this year, and to serve for his whole jurisdic- tion, from SHgo to Limerick. The sons of the earl of Clanrickard, on arriving in the town, heard rumours of some sinister design on the part of the president, and took to flight ; whereupon Fitton arrested the earl, their father, and carried him to Dublin, where he committed him to the charge of the lord deputy, retui-ning himself to Athlone. Other popular chiefs of Connaught were also seized by him, and left in dm'ance in Galway ; and then, collecting a sufficient force, he marched through Galway to the castle of Aughnanure, on the shore of Lough Corrib, and after a siege, in which a great portion of the castle was destroyed, took it from the sons of Donnell O'Flaherty, and gave it up to Murrough O'Flaherty, surnamed Na-d-tuadh, or of the battle-axes, who had been taken into favor by the government, and acknowledged as chieftain of all lar-Connaught. The earl's sons were ao-ain in arms : multitudes of the disaffected ralhed -to their standard, and among * See the indentures of their submission published, for the first time, by Dr. O'Donovan, Four Masters, vol. v., pp. 1648, «S,c. 9 :; 402 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. the rest FitzMaurice of Desmond ; they destroyed nearly all the castles of Clanrickard to render them untenable by English garrisons; they crossed the Shannon into Westmeath, burned part of Athlone, de- molished the walls and stone houses of Athenry, passed twice into Iar-Connau2;ht in defiance of the garrison of Galway and of the forces of Murrough O'FIaherty, and had overrun a great part of the west of Ireland, when Sir William FitzWilliam, now lord deputy, thought it prudent to try conciliation, and liberating the earl of Clanrickard, sent him down to pacify his sons. This course had the desired effect, and the Connaught insurgents having dis])ersed to their homes. Sir James FitzMaurice, who had been waiting for an expected reinforcement of Scots, set out for Kerry, where he arrived after encountering innume- rable perils, only in time to find that Castlemaine, the last of his strong- holds, after a long and brave resistance, had been compelled, through famine, to capitulate to the lord president. In his present hopeless state, FitzJMaurice, with his party of Scots, repaired to the wilds of Aherlow, where, about the end of October, he was surprised and attacked at night by a garrison Avhich Perrot had placed in Kilmallock, now partly rebuilt. Thirty of the Scots were slain, and the spirit of Fitzilaurice was completely crushed by the blow ; yet he remained in the woods until the following February, when he sent FitzGerald, seneschal of Imokilly, and Owen MacRichard Burke, with his own son, as a hostage, to proffer his submission to the lord president, then stopping with lord Roche, at Castletown Roche, in Cork. A.D. 1573. — Humbled as he was, the Geraldine was still an object of fear, and the offer of his submission was received with welcome. The ruined church of Kilmallock, which had been the scene of his principal aggression, was appropriately selected for the ceremony of recon- ciliation; and there, on his knees, and according to the account preserved in the state paper office, in most abject terms he confessed his guilt, and craved the pardon of the lord president, who held his naked sword all the while with the point towards the fallen chieftain's breast. The latter kissed the Aveapon, and falling on his face exclaimed: " And now this earth of Kilmallock, which town I have most traitor- ously sacked and burnt, I kiss, and on the same lie prostrate, over- fraught with sorrow upon this present view of my most mischievous part !" On this termination of the insurrection, the earl of Desmond and his brother, John, who had been detained captives in England for six years, were set free. The earl was even graciously treated by the queen; and his manners as a gentleman distinguished him at lier court. A ship was furnished to convey the brothers to Ireland ; but for some ATTEMPTED PLANTATION OF ULSTER. 403 reason, suggested by the tortuous policy of Elizabeth, the earl was again put under arrest on his arrival in Dublin, John being "permitted to return to ^Nlunster. In Connaught Sir Edward Fitton was removed from office, owing to the remonstrances of the earl of Clanrickard against his overbearing harshness. That the project of planting Ulster from England, though not fully- carried out until the next reign, was present to the mind of Elizabeth even in the war of 'Shane O'Neill, is evident from the hints thrown out by her to the effect that the insurrection Avas all the better for the loyalists, as it would leave plenty of lands for them. In 1570 the district of Ards, in Down, was granted by her to her secretary. Sir Thomas Smith, and was described in the preamble to the grant as belonging to " divers parts and parcels of her highness's earldom of Ulster, that lay waste, or else were inhabited with a wicked, barbarous, and uncivil people; some Scottish, and some wild Irish, and such as lately had been rebellious to her." Smith sent over his natural son with a colony to this district, but the young man was soon after killed in a fray by the O'Neills of Clan- naboy, the native owners of the soil, and the new settlement lingered feebly for some years. The Scots who had settled in Clannaboy under their chief, Sorley Boy MacDonnell, were for a while countenanced by the English government as useful allies in removing or crushing the native inhabi- tants, wdio, in order to be " humanised," were to be first despoiled of their ancestral lands : but that territory was now thrown open to a more favored class of adventurers. Walter Devereux, earl of Essex, received a grant of a moiety of the seigniories of Clannaboy, Farney, &c., pro- vided he could expel the " rebels" who dwelt there, any rights on the part of the native septs being wholly overlooked. An army of 1,200 men was to be placed at the earl's disposal, one-half to be provided and maintained at the queen's expense and the other at that of the earl ; every horseman who volunteered in the expedition for two years w^as to receive 400 acres of land at two pence per acre, and every footman 200 acres at a like rate ; and the earl was to be commander-in-chief, or earl-marshal of Ireland for seven years. Several English gentlemen of distinction, among others lords Dacres and Rich, Sir Henry Knollys, and the three sons of Lord Norris, joined the adventurers; and Essex mort- gaged his estates to the queen to raise funds for the enterprise. But it was, nevertheless, well known that the project was devised and promoted by his enemy, the earl of Leicester, in order to remove him from the court. Sir William Fitzwilliam, the lord-deputy, complained of the excessive power about to be conferred on Essex as incompatible with an 404 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. own authority, and it was accordingly arranged that the earl should receive his commission from the deputy, to make it appear that he acted under him. Essex at length arrived, in the summer of 1573, and noti- fied, by proclamation, that he camo to take possession of the forfeited lands of Clannaboy, the Glyns, the Route, &c., but, that he merely in- tended to expel the Scots, and not to act with hostility to the Irish. Soon, however, the nature of the expedition became known to these latter; and the native race of Clannaboy, under their cliief, Brian, son of Felim Baccagh O'Neill, and supported by Hugh O'Neill of Dungan- Bon, and by Turlough Luineach himself, rose in arms. Several conflicts ensued, and Essex soon found himself in a very embarrassing position. !Many of his men were not fit for the hard service on which they had entered, and some of his leaders deserted and returned to England. He invited the aid of Con, son of Calvagh O'Donnell, but v;hen that chief had joined, he seized him on some frivolous pretence and sent him a prisoner to Dublin, at the same time taking possession of O'Donnell's castle of LifFord. A.D. 1574. — Camden tells us that Essex defeated Brian O'Neill in battle, and slew two hundred of his men ; but the Irish chroniclers give a very different account of this transaction. They say that, peace ha\dng been agreed on between Brian and the earl, a feast was prepared by the former, to which Essex and the chiefs of his people v»'ere invited, but that after three days and nights spent in social conviviality, " as they were agreeably drinking and making merry, Brian, his brother, and his wife, were seized upon by the earl, and all his people put unsparingly to the sword, men, women, youths, and maidens, in Brian's own presence ;" and that " Brian was afterwards sent to Dublin, together with his wife and brother, where they were cut in quarters."* This horrible act of perfidy filled the Irish, as the annalists add, with hatred and disgust for then* foes, and the whole boasted scheme of colonization soon after fell to the ground. Essex went to England in 1575, to induce the queen to lend additional support, but she disliked the project and refused. He then returned to Ireland, abandoned his settlement, and repaired to Dublin, where he died on the 22nd of September, 1576, the general opinion * We can have no hesitation as to the authority on which we should relj' relative to this nefarious transaction. Camden, who (^Annahs ad an. l.')74), omits all allusion to treachery in tlie afiair, fre- quently suffers himself to display his prejudice against the Irish ; whereas the Four Masters, who give the other version, are remarkable, as even Leland confesses, for their freedom from all virulence against the English or their government. "Sometimes, on the contrary," continues that xery anti-Irish his- torian, " they expressly condemn their countrjanen for their rebellion against theii' prince." (Lei. Hist, of Ireland, B. iv., c. 2, note.) SIDNEY RETURNS TO IRELAND. 405 being that his death was caused by poison, administered at the desire of the earl of Leicester, who soon after divorced his o^^^l wife and married the widow of Essex,* A.D. 1575. — Sir Henry Sidney once more resumed the reins of govern- ment. He landed at Skerries on the 12th of September this year, and having been sworn in at Drogheda, as the plague at that time raged in Dublin,! he marched with six hundred horse and foot against Sorley Boy and the Scots who were just then besieging Carrickf ergus ; and having compelled them to submit, he received about the same time the submission of Turlouo-h Luineach and other Ulster chieftains. Coil O'Donnell, and Con, son of Niall Oge O'Neill, had, a little before, made their escape from Dublin, and the lord deputy sent a pardon to the former, shewing his disapproval of the unjust treatment he had received from Essex. He then set out on a progress through Leinster and Munster. At Dun- garvan the earl of Desmond, who had made his escape in 1573 from his detention in Dublin, came in and offered the deputy his services. At Cork Sir Henry held a session, at which several persons vvcre tried, and twenty-three offenders executed. Here he passed the Christmas, which was celebrated witli unwonted gaiety and magnificence, several of the leading men, both of English and Irish descent, having come accom- panied by their wives to attend the deputy's court. In Limerick he also held sessions, but as his stay there was brief he appointed commissioners to carry on the proceedings after his departure. He next proceeded to Galway, where the sons of the earl of Clanrickard came into church during divine service, and on their knees supplicated pardon; and finally he arrived in Dublin on the 13th of April. At this time Sir James FitzMaurice resided with his family at St. Malo's, in France, Avhich he visited after passing through Spain, and Munster seemed for a moment to enjoy profound tranquillity. * Camden informs us that the poisoner of Essex had been pointed out to him in public ; but Hooker, in his chronicle, asserts that that nobleman died not of poison, but of an attack of djsentery, to which he was subject. Essex complained bitterly, in his letters to Sir Henry Sidney, of the queen's bad faith with him in the affair of the projected plantation of Clannaboy. and protested against the injustice which had been inflicted, through hira, on such loyal lords of Ulster as O'Don- r.ell, MacMahon, and others " whom he had, on the pledged word of the queen, undone with fair promises." t Dublin, and many parts of the Pale, were devastated by plague in the summer and autunm of 1575. The Four blasters say : — " Intense heat and extreme drought in the sunmier of tliis year ; there was no rain for one liour by night or day from Bealtamc (1st of May) to Lammas (Ist of August). A loathsome disease and a dreadful malady rose from this heat, namely, the plague. This malaily raged virulently among tlie liish and English in Dublin, in Naas of Leinster, Ardce, MuUingar, and Athboj-. Between these places many a c.istle was left without a guard, many a fluck witliout a shepherd, and many a nobk -orpse without burial in consequence of this distemiwr." 408 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. A.D. 1576. — Sir Henry Sidney had taken with him to Dublin, as cai>- tives, the sons of the earl of Clanrickard, and some of the O'Brien's, but having administered to them a severe reproof, and exacted a promise that they would not return to their respective countries, he now set them free and commenced another progress to the south. He had not, how- ever, proceeded far when he learned that the restless De Burgos had re- crossed the Shannon, cast off their English costume, and once more raised the standard of revolt. The deputy upon this hastened back to Dublin, collected the available troops, and marched with great celerity into Connaught, where he took possession of the towns and castles of Clanrickard in the queen's name, and seizing the earl himself, whom he suspected of conniving at his sons' rebellion, sent him to be imprisoned in Dublin castle. Confounded by the rapid movements of the deputy, the earl's sons fled to the woods and mountains, and Sidney was able to resume his intended progress to Munster, although by a different route from that he had originally laid down. He proceeded from Galway, through Clare, to Limerick, where he installed Sir William Drury in the office of lord-president of Munster, formerly held by Sir John Perrot, and shortly after Sir Nicholas Malby was placed with similar authority over Connaught ; but the inhuman ferocity of Fitton had rendered the name of president so odious in this latter province, that Sidney thought it prudent to invest Malby Avith the title of " Colonel of Connaught." The earl of Desmond was soon brought into collision Avith the new president of Munster. He protested against the holding of courts, by the latter, Mdthin his palatinate of Kerry; but finding that Drury dis- regarded his privilege, and was about proceeding to Tralee to hold a sessions there, he made a virtue of necessity, and offered the hospitality of his castle to the stern representative of power. The invitation was accepted, but on approaching the chief town of Kerry, the president, who, as usual in these judicial visitations, was attended by an armed retinue of some six or seven score men, perceived that seven or eight hundred armed men were assembled, as he thought, in a hostile attitude. His apprehensions may have been well founded, or his bravery have been only Quixotic; but he drew up his party in battle array, marched resolutely forward, and the real or supposed enemy fled to the woods. The countess of Desmond came out from the town in a state of distraction, and an her knees assured the doughty president that her lord had no hostile intention, but that, the lord president's visit being just then unexpected, these men had assembled for a general hunting. Drury appeared to accept the explanation, and Avont on to hold his AGITATION I^- THE PALE. 407 sessions, while tlie earl forwarded to the government, in Dublin, an in- dignant complaint against the president's offensive proceedings. Shortly after this Sir William Drury seized the earfs brother, John, in Cork, on suspicion of some treasonable practices, and sent him under an escort to Dublin. In the meantime Sir Henry Sidney, having learned that a large body of Scots were about to join the still unsulidued sons of the earl of Clan- rickard, marched into Connaught, where Mac William lochter, who had deserted the cause of the young De Burgos, came to his standard ; and the Scots being discouraged by the prospect of affairs, on their arrival in the west, abandoned their friends without fighting, and returned to Ulster. Thus deserted, the earl's sons continued to hide themselves in the wildest recesses of the woods and hills, and Sidney, having left some troops to hunt them down, returned to Dublin. A.D. 1577. — Difficulties of another kind now disturbed the Pale, owing to the arbitrary exercise of power by the lord deputy, who, by the sole authority of the privy council, and without the intervention of parlia- ment, converted the occasional subsidy, which was granted in emer- gencies for the support of the government and army, into a regular tax, abolished local and personal privileges of exemption, and decreed that the assessment should be levied on all subjects of the crown. This proceeding received the warmest approval of the queen, who had always most reluctantly granted the supplies necessary for the Irish establish- ment ; but" it aroused a general and violent feeling of discontent throughout the Pale. The most loyal joined in remonstrances against an exercise of despotic power so odious and oppressive. The people pleaded constitutional rights, but the only reply to this was the queen's prerogative. The collection of the cess was resisted, and agents were sent in the name of the lords, and other leading inhabitants of the Pale, to represent the grievance to the queen and the English privy council. Their remonstrance was anticipated by letters from the lord deputy, and after a partial hearing of their complaint by the queen, in person, the agents were committed to the tower for contumacy, and Sidney was re- primanded, by letter, for not having immediately punished those who presumed to question the prerogative of the crown. This stretch of despotism augmented the popular indignation; and Elizabeth and her ministers, alarmed at the clamour which was raised, and sensible of the danger of alienating the few in Ireland who were friendly to the govern- ment, thought it better to accommodate matters. A composition for seven years' purveyance, payable by ^'nstalments, was ao:reed to ; the 408 REIGN OF ELIZABETH agents, and others who were imprisoned, were liberated, and the question was set at rest. The wars of so many generations had not been able to exterminate the ancient race of Leix and O.Tally, where some sturdy representatives of the O'Mores, O'Conors, and others, had grown up since the thinning of their septs in the late reigns. These sl^ared in the general dissafFection, and were roused into action by the wild heroism of the famous outlaw chieftain, Rory Oge O'More, who, at this time, kept the borders of the Pale in perpetual alarm by his daring exploits. With a few followers he was generally a match for the small garrisons by whom the border-towns were guarded. This year he surprised Naas, the night after the annual festival, or " patron" day, of the town, when the inhabitants wei'e buried in sleep after their festivities, and had forgotten to set the usual watch on the town-walls. His men carried lighted brands on poles, and with these set the low thatched houses on fire, so that the town was in a few minutes one sheet of flames, and the terrified inhabitants, roused from their slumbers, were unable to make any resistance. The Anglo-Irish chroniclers, Avho make Rory the hero of the wildest adventures, tell us that he sat for some time at the market- cross to enjoy the spectacle, and then departed in triumph without taking any life. Thus was Rory Oge for some time the terror of the Pale, making nightly attacks on its towns and villages, and having himself numerous hair-breadth escapes from the attempts to kill or capture him. Many persons in Kilkenny and other toAvns were suspected of being friendly to him, and of furnishing him with information which enabled him to escape the snares laid against him. On one occasion he got two English officers, captains Harrington and Cosby, into his power, and took them to his retreat in a wood near Carlow, where, through the treachery of a servant, he was soon after surprised at night by Robert Hartpool, the constable of Carlow, and had a narrow escape, having had to cut his way through the ranks of the sol- diers who surroimded the cabin where he slept. His two English prisoners were rescued on this occasion, and his wife and sixteen or seventeen of his men slain ; and the following year he was cut off by MacGilla Patrick, baron of upper Ossory, who watched his movements with a strong detachment of the queen's troops and a party of Irish kernes. O'More came out of a wood to parley with MacGilla Patrick's kerne, when one of the latter ran him through with his sword. Thus, on the 30th of June, 1578, was the Pale relieved from its deadliest source of fear, and the Irish deprived of a brave soldier, who, with a THE MASSACRE OF MULLAMAST. 409 better organised system of opposition might have proved a very dan- gerous foe to Elizabeth's government.* This year, the nineteenth of queen Elizabeth, is marked by a frightful transaction, the recital of which has often in late times made men shud- der, while its gloomy interest has been enhanced by the mystery in which it has been shrouded. It would appear that the heads of the Irish families of Leix and Offaly were invited in the queen's name, and under her protection, to attend a meeting or conference in the great rath on the hill of IMullamast (MuUach-Maistean), in the county of Kildare, and that about four hundred of them obeyed the summons. The Irish annalists assert that they were people who had remained on friendly terms with the English, and that they had been " summoned to show themselves with the greatest numbers they could bring Avith them." Some of them may have been implicated in the revolt of Rory Oge, who was then verging towards his fall ; but no special provocation is alleged against them, and at all events they came to the meeting under the guarantee of the royal protection. No sooner, however, had they assembled in the great rath than they were encompassed by a treble line of the queen's garrison soldiers, and all of them, to a man, most inhu- manly butchered in cold blood — and this atrocious act was committed with the cognisance and approval of the queen's deputy in Ireland, Sir Henry Sidney ! t In this horrible massacre, coming so soon after the * DoTvling, according to whom O'Mure was slain in 1577, asserts that that chief maintained his independence daring eighteen years, in tlie course of whicli time he burnt Naas, Athy, Carlow, Leighlin bridge, Rathcool; and other places; but the injury he inflicted on some of these towns muis tliat he himself was " not far off." It was a notorious fact that the expedition was .sent by the king of Spain, as Camden says, to divert the attention of Elizabeth from the affairs of Belgium; and Cox further assures us that the massacre " very much displeased the queen." See the valu- able notes of O'Donovan in the Four Masters, O'Sullivan's Hint. Cath., Meehan's Geraldines, Spencer's Vieiu of Ireland, Hooker, Ware, Cox, Leland, &c. A valuable collection of extracts from state papers relative to the affairs of the Fort del Ore appeared in Nos. viii., xiii,, xiv. xv., and Xvi. of the Kerry Magazine for 1854 and 1855. PRKAIATURE EXECUTIOXS. 425 against whom some charges of treason had been trumped up. Lord Barry indignantly set lire to his castle ratlier than allow it to be overrun by the soldiery, and repaired to the woods, where he joined John of Desmond; but lord Roche, who, along with his lady, was seized and carried prisoner to Cork, established his innocence and escaped. Some soldiers from Adare going on a marauding excur- sion into the barony of Ivenry were cut oft' by David Purcell, the repre- sentative of an ancient Anglo-Irish family, who had hitherto been an exemplary loyalist. Captain Achin, the officer in command of the station at Adare, obtained some troops from Kilmallock, and entering Kenry to wreck his vengeance on the people, came to Purcell's castle of Bally- calhane near Kildimo, where, finding that David with his men had fled to the woods, he massacred one hundred and fifty women and children who had sought refuge in the castle.* Foremost among the captains who distinguished themselves at this time were Zouch and Dowdall, but the former soon became so prominent for his services that he waa appointed governor or president of Munster. In Connaught, William Burke, one of the sons of the earl of Clan- ricard, having surrendered on a promise of protection, as our annalists say, was hanged in Galway on the 29 th of May, and all his followers who had rashly relied on the same promise were treated in a like man- ner; and about the same time Turlough O'Brien, who had been a year in prison, was hanged in Clare. Nor did Dublin escape the rage for executions. It was said that some conspiracy was on foot, and that a plot was formed to capture the castle, massacre the English, and overturn the government. We are told that forty-five persons were brought to the scaJuFold for this imaginary treason, Nugent, who had been chief justice of the Common Pleas, being one of the number. The earl of Kildare, his son, and the lord of Delvin, were arrested and sent for trial to Encrland, where the boundlessness of the charge against them was * Tlic fate of David Purcell is related by the Four Masters. He descended the Shannon soma time after this with a few followers, and sought to conceal himself for a night on Scattery island. Hero, however, he was immediately pursued by Turlough MacMahon of Clonderalaw in Clare, who took Purcell and his men to his castle of Colmanstown, where the latter were hanged on thi» nearest trees, Purcell himself being taken to Limerick and executed there. Yet this Purcell " iai assisted the crown from the very commencement of the Geraldine war." (Four Masters vol. v., p. 1 7n 9). Archbishop Lombard (/)e Regno Hih. Comment, p. 535) relates .some horrible cruelties similar to that mentioned above, as perpetrated by the government officials in Munster even after Desmond's death and the suppression of his rebellion ; such as the forcing of people into castles and hou.ses, which were then set on fire; " and if any of them attempted to escape from the flames they were shot or stabbed by the soldiers who guarded them. It was a diversion," he continues, " to these monsters of men to take up infants on the points of their spears and whirl them about in their agony," &c See Dr. Curry's Civil Wars, p. 27. 426 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. proved; and then it became obvious that the execution of Nugent and the others had been premature. This over-hasty" vindication of jus- tice" excited some displeasure in England, where the affair of Smerwick Harbour made an impression not at all favorable to lord Gray's human- ity ; but the custom of hanging men in hot haste prevailed to a fearful extent in Ireland then, and for centuries after. The hopeless struggle of the Geraldines was still protracted. John of Desmond made a successful foray beyond the Suir m May, slaying several of his pursuers and carrying off the spoils to the fastnesses of Claenglass, in the south of the county of Limerick, and to the neigh- bouring woods of Kilmore. In June he took spoils from MacCarthy More, and again, about Christmas, Kilfeakle in Tipperary was plundered by him, or as some accounts have it, by the earl of Desmond. A large number of faithful followers still surrounded the unhappy earl, but while encamped at Aghadoe, near Killarney, he was attacked unawares on a Sunday morning by Captain Zoucli, and many of his men were slain. About the end of September he penetrated as far as Cashel, and carried off a large spoil of cattle and other property to the woods of Aherlow, after slaying, say our annalists, four hundred of his pursuers. Some time in the winter of this year Dr. Saunders, the Pope's legate, died in cold and wretchedness in a miserable hovel in the woods of Claenglass. This illustrious and heroic ecclesiastic, for whom the go- vernment would have given a large reward, was worn out by fatigue and privation, and died the death of a confessor, attended in his last moments by Cornelius, bishop of Killaloe, who administered to him the last sacraments.* A.D. 1582. — The fidelity of the peasantry to the Geraldines was one of the most interesting features of this heart-sickening war. Great rewards were offered for the heads of the leaders ; but the humblest of their fol- lowers were still faithful to the last. An Irishman was, nevertheless, * Dr. Nicholas Saunders, or Sanderus, was a native of Charlewood in England, and bad been professor of canon law at Oxford ; but flying from England on the accession of Elizabeth, he re- paired to Rome, where he received priest's orders and the degree of doctor of divinity. He taught theology at Louvain, and was sent by the Pope as nuncio to Spain, where he wrote his famous " History of the Rise and Progress of the English Reformation ;" but before that work was pub- hshed be proceeded, by the orders of Gregory XHL, to Ireland. Cox calls him " a malicious, cunning, and indefatigable rebel ;" but Mageoghan more truly describes him as " a man of exem- plary life, and most zealous in the Catholic cause." He died of dysentery, and English writers, who abhorred him, say that his body when found was half devoured by wolves, while O'SuUevan tells us that he was carried to the grave by four Irish knights, of whom one was his (O'Sullevan'sj own father, Dermot ; and that his venerated remains were privately interred at night by priests. (Ilist. Catk. p. 121). His companion in suffering, the bishop of Killaloe, escaped to Spain, and died in Lisbon, a.d. 1617. DEATH OF JOHN OF DESMOND. 427 found elsewhere to act as a spy on the footsteps of John of Desmond, and information obtained by this man from an unsuspecting messenger enabled Zouch to intercept John near Castle Lyons (Castle Hy-Liathain), while on his way to meet lord Barry, between whom and Fitzgerald of Imokilly there had arisen a misunderstanding, which John wished to arrange. The latter was accompanied only by his kinsman, James Fitz- Gerald of Strancally, and four or five horsemen; and when he unexpect- edly came face to face with Zouch and his troops, whom, in a dark and misty day, he had first supposed to be Barry's men, he saw immediately that escape was impossible. He desired his companions to fly, as their enemies only sought for him ; but the lord of Strancally refused to aban- don his leader. They made a fruitless attempt to gain a w^ood, and Avere surrounded by the soldiers, one of whom, named Thomas Fleming, said to have been once in the service of John of Desmond, plunged a spear into that chief's throat, ere Zouch, who wished to capture him alive, could ward off the blow. The noble Geraldine expired before his enemies had carried him a mile, and his body was then thrown across his own steed and conveyed thus to Cork ; when his head being cut off was sent to Dublin, to be spiked in front of the castle ; while his muti- lated trunk was hung in chams at one of the gates of Cork, " where it remained," says 0"Daly, " nearly three years, 'till on a tempestuous night it was blown into the sea." His kinsman, James, was hanged soon after, together with his two sons ; but lord Barry made his peace with the government.* With the gallant John of Desmond departed the last hope of the Ger- aldines ; but the unhappy earl himself was still in arms. The thi'ee sons of FitzMaurice of Lixnaw escaped from captivity in Limerick, and flew to their paternal woods. They attacked the garrison of Ardfert, and slew its captain, Hatsim.j The lord of Lixnaw, who had hitherto com- mitted no overt act of treason, now joined his infatuated sons, destroyed his principal castles, that they might not fall into the hands of the Eng- lish, and retired to the woods at the head of a large body of followers; and Zouch, on coming to Ardfert, and finding that the FitzMaurices were beyond his reach, avenged the death of Hatsim by hanging a num- ber of hostages whom he held, although, say the Four Masters, they were mere children. Soon after this FitzMaurice repented of his rash- ness, and pleading as an excuse that the oppression of the queen's officers * Four Afasteis. t Tbis was no doubt the same person as the "Captain Acbin" who slaughtei"ed the vroiueu aud ehiklren in Parcell's casllc. (Supra, p. 425). 428 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. had driven him into rebellion, he obtained his pardon through the mediation of" the earl of Ormond. By this time Munster had been converted into such a solitude that, as our annalists tell us, the lowing of a cow or the voice of the plough- man could scarcely be heard from Diinqueenj in the west of Kerry, to Cashel, in Tipperary. That fair province now presented the hideous spec- tacle of desolation which Spencer so graphically describes.* It was reported that the earl of Desmond was dead, and the army was thereupon considerably reduced. Complaints, in the mean time, daily reached Elizabeth of the inhuman rigor of Gray. That viceroy was truly des- cri))ed as a man of blood, who had alienated the hearts of all the Irish subjects by his barbarities, and who " left her majesty little to reign over but carcasses and ashes ;"t and he was at length recalled in August, and Loftus, archbishop of Dublin, and Sir Henry Wallop, the treasurer at war, appointed lords justices. A more moderate policy was determined on, and several who had been involved in the insurrection were amnes- tied; the earl of Desmond, however, being excluded from mercy. Two or tliree times in the course of this year this unhappy nobleman showed * After developing liis remedy fur tlie ills of Ireland, natnely, the employmeut of large masses of troops "to tread down all that standetli bel'oie Ibem on foot, and lay on the ground all the stiff- necked people of that land," and advising thai wai* should be carried on against them not in sum- mer only but in winter, "for tiien tLie trees are bare and naked, which use both to clothe and house the kerne; the ground is cold and wet, which useth to be his bedding; the air is sharp and bitter, to blow through his naked sides and legs ; the kiae are barren and without milk, which useth to be his food, besides being all with calf (for tiie most part) thi;y will, through much chasing and dri- ving, cast all their calves and lose their inilk. wh'di should relieve him in the next summer." {State of Ireland, p. 158, &c.) ; Spencer jtroceals to sflv that "the end will be very short," aud in proof he describes what he himself had witnes«;d fu '"the late wars of Munster;" "for notwith- standing- that the same was a most rich and plenxif.d counirey, full of corne and cattle yet ere one yeare and a halfe, they (the Irish) werd lu ought to such wretchednesse]| as [that any stony heart would have rued the same. Out of every torner of the woods and glynues they came creeping forth upon their hands, for their leggee could not ijear them : they looked like anatomies of death ; tiiey spake like ghosts crying out of tlieii- graves; tliey uid eate the dead carrions, happy where they could tiude Lliein, yea and one another 3oou.n of O'Conor Don ; Tiege Oge O'Conor Roe ; Doimell O'Conor Sligo ; Brian MacDermot, deputed by MacDermot of Moylurg ; Carbry O'Beirn, chief of Tir-Briuin-na-Sinna in Roscommon ; Tiege O'Kelly, of Mullaghmore in Galway ; DonntU O'Madden ; * Ulick, earl of Claurickard ; John and Derinot O'Shaughnessy , Murrough-of-the-battle-axes O'Flaherty; * Donough O'Brien, earl of Thomond ; * Sir Turlough O'Brien (kniglit for the county of Clare) Turlough, son of Tiege O'Brien ; John MacNamara ; • Boetius MacClaucy, the bivhon of Thomond (knight for the county of Clare) ; Rossa O'Loughlin of Burren; * Mac-I-Brien Ara, (Protestant) bishop of Killaloe, and chief of his family; Calvagh O'Carroll; John MacCoghlan ; Philip O'Dwyer, of Kihiamanagh in Tipperary; Mac-Brien, of Coonagh in Limerick ; Brian Duv O'Brien, lord of Carrigogunnell ; Conor O'Mulryan (O'Ryau), chief of the two Owneys; * Donnell MacCarthy More, earl of Claucare ; Sir Owen MacCarthy Keagh, of Carbery in the county Cork, and his two nephews ; Derniot and Donough MacCarthy of Duhallow ; Owen O'SuUeyan Beare, and Owen O'Sulliyan More ; Conor O'Mahony, of lyahagh, in Carberj', county of Cork ; Sir Fineen O'Driscol More ; * Fineen MacGillapatriek, lord of Upper Ossory^ Conla Mageoghegan, of Kineleagh in Westraeath ; Connel O'MoUoy of the King's county; and Fiagh MacHugh O'Bvme, chief of the Gaval-Rannall, in Wicklow. There were none of tho Other O'Byrnes, Kavanaghs, O'Tooles, O'Conors Faly, O'JIores, O'Dunus, or O'Dempseys. See Dr. O'Donovan's invaluable notes to the Four Masters, imder the year 1585 (vol. v. pp. 1827 to 1841), in which the existing or last known representative of each of the above heads of septs is identified. 434 rt::gn of Elizabeth. taken by Sir Jolin Perrott to Dublin, and the government of tlie north- ern province was entrusted to Turlough Luineach O'Neil, Hugh, baron of Dungannon, and marshal Bagnal. Meanwhile the English of the Pale had begun to show an inveterate opposition to Perrott. His indul- gence and courtesy towards the Irish had excited the jealousy and dis- pleasure of the new English. The army was also dissatisfied with his pacific policy. Archbishop Loftus gave every possible opposition to his favorite project of establishing a university in Dublin.* The machina- tions against him developed an incredible amount of hatred and baseness. It was even pretended that he purposed to throw oiF the English author- ity ; letters were forged in the name of Turlough Luineach, and others, and sent to the queen to undermine him in her confidence ; and when he applied for leave to justify himself in person before the queen and council his request was refused. He was, however, diligent in his duties, and succeeded in inducing the chiefs and lords of Connaught to adopt a composition in lieu of the former irregulsjr assessments, the amount being ten shillings English, or a mark Irish, on every quarter of land, whether arable or pasture.f The project for re-peopling from England the depopulated districts of Munster was now taken up with extraordinary zeal. Great inducem.ents were held out to younger brothers to become undertakers. Estates were offered for three-pence, and in some places for two-pence, per acre, rent to commence only at the end of three years, and only half the sum to be pay- able for three years more. Seven years were allowed to each undertaker to complete his plantation. Garrisons were to be placed on the borders, and commissioners appointed to decide differences. Each person ob- taining 12,000 acres was to plant eighty-six English families on his estate, and for lesser quantities in proportion. The native Irish might be employed as laborers — they might become " the hewers of wood and drawers of water" in their own country — but on no account were they to be admitted as tenants ! Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Christopher Hatton, Sir Thomas Norris, Sir Wareham Sentleger, and Sir George Bourchier, were among those who obtained large and early grants. It was expected that above 20,000 English would be planted in Munster in a few years ; but this fine scheme failed in its most material points. The stipulations were evaded in a variety of ways by the undertakers ; and • The University of Trinity College was afterwards founded by Loftns himself in 1592. t The carvron, or quarter, like other old denominations of land used in Ireland, contained no defi- nite number of acres. " Some cartrons," says Ware, " contained 100, some 112, some 120, and tbe larj^est of all 160 acres." See Harris's Waj-e's Antiq., vol. ii., p. 226. Bingham's cruelty in connatjght. 435 the government on its side failed to provide the requisite defences. Above all, the Irish in many cases obtained leases and conveyances, and in some places the hinds were abandoned to the old possessors.* A.D. 1586. — Our attention is now demanded for a while by the affairs of Connaught, where the brutal severity of the president or governor. Sir Richard Binoham, was wholly opposed to the policy of moderation professed by the lord deputy. At a session held in Galway, in January this year, seventy persons, men and women, some of them people of dis- tinction, were executed; and on the 1st of March Bingham laid siego to the strong castle of Cloonoan, in Clare, which was held by Mahon O'Brien, " a chieffe champion of the pope's, and a greate practizer with foreign powers." On the seventh day Mahon was shot on the battle- ments while bravely defending his castle, and the garrison having then surrendered, were all put to the sword without mercy. The president next marched into Mayo, where the Biu-kes had shut themselves up in their castles for protection against his oppression. Richard Burke, sur- named Deamhan-an-Chorrain, or the " demon of the reaping-hook," and his kinsman, Walter Burke, had fortified themselves in the stronghold of the Hag's castle (caislean-na-caillighe), built on an artificial island in Lough Mask. Bingham pitched his camp on the shore, and went with a party in four or five boats to attack the castle ; but a storm coming on, one of the boats was capsized, and Bingham himself had a narrow escape. A few of his men were killed or drowned, and the boat fell into the hands of the Burkes, who used it the next night in escaping to the opposite shore.t Bingham then demolished the castle, and hanged Richard Oge, surnamed Fal-fo-Eirin, or the " fence of Ireland," son of MacWilliam Burke, who had come voluntarily to the camp, and several other strongholds shared the fate of the Hag's castle. Sol- diers were sent into West Connaught in search of " rebels," and they spared none who came in their way, slaying " women, boys, and aged men," many of their victims being persons who considered themselves under the protection of government, as the tenants of Murrough-na- duagh 0'Flaherty.t This career of carnage in cold blood provoked Sir John Perrott, who had more than once endeavoured to interrupt it. Bingham went to * See Fynes Moryson, Smith's Cork and Kerry, and Fitzgeiald's Limerich, for the names of the principal undertakers in Munster. t Docwra's Relation, published in the Miscellany of the Celtic Society. t Four Masters. On this occasion they hanged Theobald O'Toole, the pi'oprietor of the distant island of Omey, on tbe coast of Connemara — a man '* who supported the destitute, and practieed boBpitality." 436 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. Dublin to defend his violent measures, and words of angry recrimina- tion passed betAveen him and Perrott, the council taking part with the former. Unfortunately, while the matter was still under consideration, news arrived that the Burkes had confederated to resist the extortions of the sheriffs, as well as to protect themselves against the monstrous tyranny of the president. In fact, they had broken out into open rebel- lion, so that Bingham, whose cruelty had produced that result, enjoyed a complete triumph over the pacific deputy. Perrott himself wished to proceed against the unruly MacWilliams, but the council would not allow him, and Bingham, returning to Connaught to exercise his severity with redoubled fury, commenced with the execution of the hostages whom the Burkes had given for their allegiance. A fleet of Highland Scots arrived at Inishowen, and the Burkes sent to them for help, pro- mising large spoils and extensive lands in Connaught should they suc- ceed in resisting Bingham. The Scots embraced the opportunity, and Sir Richard finding that the insurgents were too powerful in the field, tried what might be done by stratagem. He feigned a retreat, and leaving the Scots under the impression that he fled from them, he collected what troops he could, and by a long, forced march on a dark night, surprised the enemy on the morning of September 22nd, at Ardnaree, a suburb of Ballina-Tyrawly on the Sligo side of the Moy. The Burkes were absent on a foraging excursion, and the Scots made an attempt to pre- sent a face to the foe, but they were routed with frightful slaughter, and compelled in their flight to plunge into the wide and rapid river. Few of them escaped, and the Irish annalists say that 2,000 of them were killed or drowned. Most of the flying Scots were captui'ed and hanged, or otherwise cut off; and Edmond Burke, an aged gentleman, whose sons were in arms, was hanged by Bingham, although he was " a withered, grey old man," without strength to walk to the gallows. Ses- sions were again held in Galway in December, and a large number of people were handed over to the executioner, among others some of the MacSheehys of Munster, who had fought in the Geraldine war. CHAPTER XXXIV. REIGN OF ELIZABETH CONTINUED. Affairs of Ulster. — Hugh, earl of Tyrone — His visit to Elizabeth — His growing power — Complaints against him. — Sir Hugh O'Donnell. — Capture of Hugh Roe O'Dcjiinell ; cunning device. — Sir William FitzWilliam, lord deputy. — The Spanish armada — The wrecks on the Irish coast. — Dis- appointed avarice of the lord deputy — He oppresses the Irish chiefs — Murders MacMahon. — Hugli Geimhleach hanged by Hugh O'Neill, who then revisits London, excuses himself to Elizabeth, and signs terras of agreement. — O'iveill returns to Ireland, and refuses to give his sureties until the government should fulfil its engagements — Hugh Roe's first escape from Dublin Castle and his recapture. — Fresh charges against Hugh O'Neill — He carries off and marries the sister of Marshal Bagnal Brian O'Rourke hanged in London. — Hugh Roe's second escape — Affecting incidents — His adventures and return to Tirconnell — Drives off an English party — His father's abdication and his own election as chieftain — He assails Turlough Luineach, and compels him to resign the chieftaincy of Tyrone to Hugh O'Neill. — An English sheriff hunted out of Fermanagh. — Rebellion of Maguire — Enniskillen taken by the English — Irish victory at the Ford of the Biscuits, and recapture of Enniskillen. — Sir AVilliam Russell lord deputy. — Hugh O'Neill visits Dublin — Bagnal's charges against hiin — Vindication of his policy Fiagh Mac Hugh O'Byrne and Walter Riavagh FitzGerald. — Arrival of Sir John Norris — Hugh O'NeUl rises in arms — Takes the Blackwater Fort. — Protracted negotiations. — War in Connaught ; suc- cesses of O'Donnell — Bingham foiled at Sligo, and retreats. — Differences between Norris and the deputy. — Bingham disgraced and recalled. — Fresh promises from Spain. — Interesting events in Connaught Proceedings of the Leinster insurgents. — Ormond appointed lord lieutenant. — Last truce with O'Neill — Hostilities resumed in Ulster. — Desperate plight of the government. — Great Irisli victory of the Yellow Ford Ormond repulsed in Leix. — War resumed in Munster, &c. pr ^FROM A.D. 1587 TO A.D. 1599.] B ^ YMPTOMS of approaching storm were now (1587) visible in Ulster, where the exactions and oppression of the English sheriffs excited wide-spread disaffection. Turlough Luin- each had become old and feeble, and enjoyed little influ- ence in his sept. On the other hand, Hugh O'Neill, the son of Mathew, was daily advancing in power and popu- larity. Like Turlough he had been hitherto distinguished for his loyalty. He had, as it were, a hereditary claim to the support of the English government ; and in return he had given the aid of his sw^ord, and had fought under the English standard in the Geraldine war ; but his valour and military habits inspired his countirymen with confidence and respect; he was in the vigor of his age, and was looked to naturally as the successor to the chieftaincy of Tyrone. In 438 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. the parliament of 1585 he took his seat as baron of Dungannon; and ere the proceedings had terminated obtained the title of earl of Tyrone, in virtue of the grants made to his grandfather, Con Bacagh, and to his father, by Henry VIII. ; but on the question of the inheritance annexed to the earldom he was referred to the queen. He accordingly repaired to England, carrying the warmest recommendations from the lord deputy, Sir John Perrott; and he gained the good graces of Elizabeth so effectually, by his courtly manners, and his skill in flattering her vanity, that she sent him back with letters patent under the great seal, granting him the earldom and inheritance in the amplest manner. He was, however, required to define clearly the bounds of Tyrone ; to set apart 240 acres on the banks of the Black water for the erection of an English fort; to exercise no authority over the neighbouring chieftains; and to make sufficient provision for the sons of Shane O'Neill and Turlough Luineach — Turlough himself continuing, for the remainder of his life, to enjoy the title of Irish chieftain of Tyrone, with right of superiority over Maguire and O'Cahane, or Olvane. On his return Hugh was received with enthusiasm by his countrymen, rmd the confidence reposed in him by government was such that his proposal to keep up a standing force of six companies of well-ti'ained soldiers, to preserve the peace of the north, was gladly accepted ; & step which proved to be incautious on the part of the English authorities. With such power thrown into his hands, both by Irish and English, and with all the traditions of his ancient race, and all the wrongs of his oppressed country before him, it was not to be expected that Hugh O'Neill would quietly sink into the subservient minister of his country's foreign masters; or, that he would stifle every impulse of hereditary ambition within him. Such n courso would have been revolting to his aspiring nature. From time to time complaints reached government from minor chiefs, over whom Hugh soon began to extend his power. Tur- lough and the sons of Shane-an-Diomais appealed against him. He kept up amicable relations with the Ulster Scots, and secured the friendship of the powerful and hitherto hostile sept of O'Cahane by giving them the fosterage of his son. All these circumstances caused uneasiness to the government of the Pale, which had suffered a considerable diminu- tion of strength by the withdrawal of a thousand soldiers from Ireland to serve the queen in the low countries, at the close of 1586. The chief of Tirconnell, hitherto steadfast in his allegiance, also exhibited a grow- ing spirit of independence which was sufficiently alarming. There was an intimacy between him and Hugh O'Neill which boded no good for VICEBEGAL KIDNAPPIJfG. 439 tliG English. The earl of Tyrone had married a daughter of Sir Hugh O'DoDuell, and the families were dravm together by friendly ties. O'Donnell refused to admit an English sheriff nito his territory, and the trafBc carried on between his remote coasts and those of Spain established relations between the countries not at ail satisfactory to the English auihoritles. The cour;30 which the government adopted under these circumstances was as extraordinary as it was infamous. It was known that Hugh Roe, or the " red," the eldest son of Sir Hugh O'Donnell, was a youth of rare abilities, and aspiring mind ; and it was resolved that by some means the council should get possession of this boy as a hostage. To accomplish this openly would, however, require a large army, and rouse the northern chiefs to resistance, and Sir John Perrott propc^ed a plan by which such danger and expense would be avoided. How the act of treachery, \yhich he suggested, is to be reconciled with hia general character for partiality to the old Irish race seems puzzling ; but he may have thought that a plan which avoided bloodshed, though not the most honorable, was the most humane means of attaining the end that had been resolved on. A vessel laden v/ith Spanish wines was sent round from Dublin to the coast of Donegal, on the pretence of traffic, and of having come direct from Spain. The commander was one John Bermingham, a Dublin merchant, and the crew consisted of fifty armed men. The ship arrived with a favorable wind in Lough Swilly, and anchored opposite Rath- mullen, a castle built by Mac Sweeny of Fanad, one of O'Donnell's commanders of gallowglasses ; it being previously ascertained that Hugh Roe was not far off with his foster-father, Mac Sweeny-na-tuath. A party of the sailors landed, and while they pretended to sell their wine they took care to explore the country. The neighbouring people flocked to the shore ; abundance of the liquor was distributed among them ; and when Hugh Roe came to Mac Sweeny's castle, and his host sent to the ship for wine, it was answered that none remained for sale, but that if a few gentlemen came on board all that was left would be willingly given to them. The unsuspecting Irish chiefs fell into the snare. Hugh Roe, then scarcely fifteen years of age, with Mac Sweeny and his party, proceeded in a small boat to the ship, were ushered into the cabin, and served with wine until they became, as the annalists tell us, " jolly and cheerful ;" then their arms were stealthily removed, the hatches closed down, the cable cut, and the prize secured. An alarm was in- stantly raised, and the people crowded from all quarters to the beach, but the ship was in deep water, and there were no boats by which she could ■2 a 410 EEiGN OF elizabp:th be attaclceLl. Young Hugli's foster-father rusliecl to the shore, and offered any ransom, but none of course would be accepted. The guests who were not required were put ashore, and the ship sailed for Dublin, where the young scion of the house of O'Donnell was safely lodged in Bermingham tower, along with several other state prisoners of the Mile- sian and old English races already confined there.* A.D. 1588. — Hugh, earl of Tyrone, led an army, at the close of April, against Turlough Luineach O'Neill, and encamped at Corricklea, between the rivers Finn and Mourne. Sir Hugh O'Donnell joined his son-in-law, the earl, while the family of Sir Hugh's brother, Calvagh, took the side of Turlough, who was also supported by auxiliaries from Connaught, and by Hugh O'Gallagher. A battle, in Avhich the earl was defeated, was fought between them on the first of May. In the meantime the importunities of Sir John Perrott to be relieved from his chai'ge in Ire- land were at length listened to. His enemies had become insupportable, and he was brow-beaten at the council-board by subordinates.! On the 30th of June he was succeeded by Sir William Fitz William — « man of a cruel and sordid disposition, without any redeeming quality in his cha- racter — who had already filled the office of lord justice more than once. The preparations that had been making, for some time, in Spain, for a descent on the English coasts, had excited much of, hope and of feai? amang the different classes of the population in this country. The abortive result is familiar to the world. Scattered by the winds of heaven, the "invincible armada" made this year memorable hj the ex- ample which it afforded of one of man's proudest efforts collapsing into nothingness. Many of the ships were wrecked on the coast of Ireland in September, and their crews, too frequently, only escaped from the dangers of the deep to fall into the hands o'f the queen's officers, by whom they were executed without mercy .| The ruling passion of the * These particulars are from the Four Blasters, who abstracted tlie acconnt from the life of Hugh Eoe O'Donnell, written by Cuchory, or Peregrine O'Clery, one of Ihemselvos, and presei-ved in tho library of the Royal Irish Academy. t See in Ware's- annals, under a.d. 1.587, an account of an altercation between the lord deputy and Sir Nicholas Bagnal, the marslial ; Perrott was in the habit of saying that he could please the Irisli better than the English. Many of the former lamented b^^5 dcpartiii'e; and old 'i'ui-lough Luineach, who accompanied h!m to the water's side, wept in taking leave. See W;:re. X The loss of the Spanish armada, on the coast of Ireland, according to Thady Dowling, was 17 ships and 5,394 men — the numbers generally given by historians; but it appears from a docu- ment in the State Paper Office, London, signed by GeoftVy Fenton, the Irish secretaiy of state, that the total numbers were 18 ships and 6,194 men, viz. : — in Lough Foyle, 1 ship and 1,109 men ; in Sligo, 3 ships and 1,500 men ; in Tirawley, 1 ship and 400 men ; on Clare Island, 1 ship and 300 men; "in Fynglasse, O'Male's countrj'," 1 ship and 400 men; in O'Flaherty's country, 1 sliip and 21)0 men ; in the Shannon, 2 ships and 600 men ; at Tralee, 1 ship and 24 men ; at Dingle, 1 ship and 50C men; in Desmond, 1 ship and 300 men; in Erris, 2 ships, no men lost, these being THE SPANISH AR?.IAI)A. 441 new deputy was avarice, and unfortunately for the Spanish sailors, and for the Irish on whose shores they were cast away, rumour attributed to the former the possession of fabulous treasures. A thousand Spaniards, under an officer named Antonio de Leva, found refuge with O'Rourke- and Mac Sweeny-na-tuath, the foster-father of young O'Donnell, and were urged to commence hostilities, but their instructions did not apply to such a contingency, and they determined on returning for orders to Spain. For this purpose they re-embarked, but a fresh storm arose, and the ship, with all on board, went down within sight of the Irish coast. A commission was issued by FitzWilliam to search for the treasure which these Spaniards were supposed to have brought, but none, of course, could be found, and the deputy, not content with this result, I'esolved to visit the locality himself " in hopes to finger some of it," as Ware tells us. He was accomj)amed by Bingham, and laid waste the territories of the Irish chiefs who had harboured the strangers. O'Eourke escaped to Scotland, but was delivered up to Elizabeth, and subsequently executed in London; and FitzWilliam, disappointed in his search for Spanish gold, carried off" John Oge O'Doherty and Sir John Mac Tuathal O'Gallagher, " two of the most loyal subjects in Ulster," and tlu'ev,' them into prison in Dublin castle. The latter died from the rigor of his imprisonment, and the former remained two years in capti- vity, and owed his liberation, in the end, to the payment of a large bribe to the corrupt viceroy. « A.D. 1589. — That the hatred and distrust of the Irish towards the English government were kept alive by such oppressive acts as these cannot be a matter of wonder; but at every step, as we proceed, we meet similar outra^res. A very remarkable and atrocious instance occur- red this year. Rossa MacMahon, chief of Monaghan, having abandoned the principle of tanistry, and taken a re-grant of his territory from Eliza- beth, by English tenure, died without issue male, and his brother, Hugh Roe MacMahon, went to Dublin to be settled in the inheritance as his taken into other vessels; in "Shannati, 1 burnt, none lost, because the men were likewise embarked in other shipps"; in "Gallway Haven, 1 shipp which escaped and left prisoners, 70"; "drowned and snnk in the N.W. sea of Scotland, as appeareth by the confession of the Spanish prisoners, (but in truth ihey were lost in Ireland,) 1 shipp, called St. Mathew, 600 tons, men 450; one of Byshey of St. Sebastian's, 400 tons, men 350: total of shipps, 18 : men 6,194."— ("See Four Masters, vol. v., p. 1870, n.) " The Spaniards cast ashore at Galway" says Dr. Lynch, in the Icon Andstitis, "were doomed to perish ; and the Augustinian fiiars, who served them as chaplains, exhorted them to meet the death-struggle bravely, when they were led out, south of the city, to St. Augustin's hill, then surmounted by a monaster)-, where they were decapitated. • The matrons of Galway piously prepared winding-slieet.-i fur the bodies, and we have htcud that two of the Spanish sailors escaped destruction by lurking a long time in Galway, and afterwards got b,i*,i to their own country."— m Antis. Icon., edited ahd translated by i/ie Rev. C. P. Mee/ian, p. 27, also p. 176. 442 ^ REIGN OF ELIZABETH. heir-at-law. His case was perfectly legal, but he found that a bribe to the venal lord deputy was, nevertheless, necessary, and six hundred cows were the stipulated douceur. He was, however, thrown into prison because some of the cows, it was said, were not forthcoming ; but, in a few days, all was made right, und Fitz William set out with him for Monaghan, to give him possession of his estate. The sequel would seem almost incredible. AlacSIahon was suddenly arrested on a charge of treason, because he had employed an armed force, two years before, to recover rents due to him in Farney; he Tfas tried by a jury of com- mon soldiers, Fome of whom, being Irish, were shut up without food until they agreed to a verdict, while the English soldiers on the jury were allowed free egres.s and ingress, as they had immediately agreed to convict him; and, in short, within two days from his unexpected arrest he was indicted, tried, and executed at his own house. Fitz William's object in proceeding into the country was to get rid of the obstacles which the forms of h\v would have thro\ni in his way in Dublin; and he now hastened to partition the vast estates of the murdered chieftain. Sir Henry Bagnal, who was w*ading to -snormous Irish possessions through the blood of their owners, received a portion. This man was established at Newry, and had succeeded his father, Sir Nicholas, as marshal. Mac- Mahon's chief residence and some -lands were bestowed upon Captain Henslowe, who was appointed seneschal ; and the bulk of the property was, on payment of "a good fine underhand" to the lord deputy, di^'ided among four of the MacMahon sept, subject to an annual rent to the queen.* The northern chieftains must have been devoid of human feelings if such proceedings did not confirm them in their aversion to English rule ; nor can we be surprised that they were unanimous in refusing to admit English sheriffs, or other officials, into their lands, or that such offisers, when forced upon them, required the constant presence of strong guards to protect them.t A.n. 1590. — Hugh Geimhleach, i.e., Hugh-of-the-fetters, an illegitimate Bon of Shane-an-diomais, communicated to the lord deputy charges of treason against the earl of Tyrone, alleging, among other things, that he had plotted with the shipwrecked Spaniards to obtain help from the * So far we take the facts from Camden and Fynes Morj'son, but the infamy of FitzWilliam is fitill more apparent from the State Papers, where that monster's own correspondence with Burghley shows mat he was in treaty with one Brian JlacHugh Oge MacMahon, to get him appointed to the chieftaincy for enormous bribes, which he calls God to witness " he meant for the profit of her ma- jesty, and not his own!" — See Shirley's Account of Famey, pp. 88 to 98. t When Maguire received notice from the viceroj' that a sherifF would be sent into Fermanagh, lie answered significantly: — "Your sheriff will be welcome, but let me know his eric, that, if my p«ople cut off his head, I may levy it upon th8 oftuntry." o'NEILL's second visit to LONDON. 413 king of SjDam to levy war against the queen. The earl denied the charges, and soon after contrived to seize his accuser, whom he hanged as a traitor, after some form of trial. The respect for the memory of Shane O'Neill was suqJi that, it is said, no man in Tyrone would act as the executioner of his son, and the earl had to procure one from Meath, though Camden maliciously asserts that the earl himself acted as the hangman. This proceeding exasperated the government, and Hugh, having no confidence in the officials of the Pale, set out for England in May, in order to vindicate himself before Elizabeth. This step, however, was itself illegal, as he left Ireland without the licence of the viceroy, and he was accordingly cast into prison in London, but his incarceration was neither long nor rigorous, and in the following month his submission was graciously received, and articles by which he bound himself anew to his former engagements were signed by him. He renounced the title of O'Neill, consented that Tyrone should be made shire-ground ; that gaols should be erected there ; that a composition similar to that agreed on in Connaught, in 1577, should be paid within tgn months; that he should levy no armed force, or make an}'- incursion into a neighbouring terri- iorj except to follow a prey within five days after the capture of such prey from his own lands, or to prevent depredations from without. He undertook to execute no man without a commission from the lord deputy, except in cases of martial law, and to keep his troop of horsemen in the queen's pay ready for service. Further, he promised not to admit monks or friars into his temtory ; nor to correspond with foreign trai- tors ; to promote the use of English apparel ; to sell provisions to the fort of the Black water, &c. For the fulfilment of these conditions he pledged his honor, and promised to send unexceptionable sureties, who were, however, nc/c to be detained as prisoner:* in Dublin castle, but to be committed to the care of merchants m the city, or of gentlemen of the Pale. The sureties might also be changed every three months. Govern- ment, on the other side, engaged to secure the earl from all molestation, by requii'ing similar conditions from the neighbouring chieftains ; and Hugh, on returning to Irely.nd, confirmed the above articles before the lord deputy and council ; but very prudently excused himself from the execution of them uiitil the neighbouring Irish lords had given securi- ties to fulfil the conditions on their part, as it was stipulated they should be obliged to do. Camden tells us that for some time the earl omitted nothing that could be expected from a most dutiful subject. Hugh Roe O'Donnell had now pined for three years and three months in captivity, when, in concert with some of his fellow prisoners, he resol- 444 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. ved on a desperate effort to escape. On a dark evening towards the close of winter he and ills chosen companions let themselves down by a rope from one of the windows of Dublin castle, crossed the drawbridge, and passed through the city gate unobserved. They fled towards Slieve Rua, or the Three-Rock mountain, which they" crossed; but young O'Donnell became too fatigued to advance another step. His shoes were worn out, and his feet torn by the brambles in the rugged path- ways which they had selected; and sinldng down quite exhausted he lay concealed in a wood while his companions reluctantly departed. One of these was Art Kavanagh, who was re-captured the following year and hung at Carlow. A faithful servant, who had been in the secret of Hugh's escape, still remained with him, and repaired for succour to the house of Felira O'Toole, chief of Feara Cualann, who resided in the place now called Powerscourt, and who had visited Hugh in prison. In the meantime the flight of the prisoners had created great excite- ment in Dublin, and numerous bands were dispatched in pursuit of them. Felim O'Toole would have willingly protected young O'Donnell, but his friends pei'suaded him that the attempt would be useless to the latter, and disastrous to liimself and family ; and finding that the sol- diers were Approaching, they went in -search of the fugitive in the woods, and made It merit of giving him up to his pursuers. Thus was Red Hufjh consio-ned once more to the duno-eons of Dublin castle, to be guarded more strictly than before. A.D. 1591. — During this time many acts of the earl of Tyrone tended to place him in an equivocal position with the government, and enemies were not wanting to urge every charge that could be made against him. He was accused of having attacked and wounded Turlough Luineach ; but he replied that the latter was the aggressor, and had been making an inroad into his lands at the time he was hurt. The earl permitted Tyrone to be marked out as shire land, and Dungannon to be made the county tow^n, in which criminals Avere to be imprisoned and tried; and the government was so pleased with this concession that it would have overlooked a more serious charge on the occasion. The earl, however, now involved himself in a proceeding which raised up for him the bitterest enemy of all. We have already made some mention of the marshal. Sir Henry Bagnal. This man hated the Irish with a rancour which bad men are known to feel towards those whom they have mortally injured- He had shed a great deal of their blood, obtained a great deal of their lands, and was the sworn enemy of the whole race. Sir Henry had a s»jter who was young and exceedingly o'neill's romantic marriage. 445 beautiful. The wife of the earl of Tyrone, the daughter of »5ir Hugh MacManus O'Donnell, had died, and the heart of the Irish chieftain was captivated by the beautiful English girl. His love was reciprocated^ and he became in due form a suitor for her hand, but all his efforts to gain her brother's consent to their marriage were in vain. The story indeed is one which might seem to have been borrowed from some old romance, if we did not find it cu'cumstantially detailed in the matter-of- fact documents of the State Paper Office. The Irish prince and the Eng- lish maiden mutually plighted their vowS, and O'Neill presented to the lady a gold chain worth £100 ; but the inexorable Sir Henry removed his sister from Newry to the house of Sir Patrick Barnwell, who was married to another of his sisters, and who lived about seven miles from Dublin. Thither the earl followed her. He was courteously received by Sir Patrick, and seems to have had many friends among the English One of these, a gentleman named William Warren, acted as his confi- dant; and at a party at Barnwell's house the earl engaged the rest of the company in conversation while Warren rode off with the lady behind him, accompanied by two servants, and carried her safely to the resi- lience of a friend at Drumcondra, near Dublin. Here O'lVeill soon fol- lowed, and the Protestant bishop of Meath, Thomas Jones, a Lancashire man, was easily induced to '"ome and unite them in marriage the same evening. TKl? ftloru^raent and mari'iage, v/hich took place on the 3rd of August^ ...091, were made the subject of violent accusations against O'Neill. Sir Henry Bagnal was furious. " I cannot but accurse my- selfe and fortune," he wrote to the lord treasurer, " that my bloude, which in my father and myselfe hath often beene spilled in repressinge this rebellious race, should nowe be mingled with so traiterous a stocke and kindred," He charged the earl with ha\ing another wife lidng; but this point was explained, as O'Neill showed that this lady who was his first wife, the daughter of Sir Brian MacFelim O'Neill, had been di vorced previous to his marriage with the daughter of O'Donnell. Alto^ gether the government would appear to have viewed the conduct of O'Neill in this matter rather leniently; but Bagnal was henceforth his most imj)lacable foe, and the circumstance was not without its influence on succeeding events.* A perpetual recurrence of outrages against the northern chieftains served effectually to prepare the way for the crisis which was now fast approaching in their province. This year Brian-na-Murtha O'Rourke, * Tbe countess of Tyrone died in January 1596, some years before the last scene of deadly Btrifa pfctweeu her brother and her husband. 446 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. whose flight to Scotland we have ah'eady noticed, was put to death in London under circumstances that excited deep sympathy for him. The principal charge against him was, that he had sheltered some of the ship- wrecked Spaniards, and refused to surrender them to government. He was given up by the Scots, and being taken to London, Avas tried, con- demned, and executed.* A.D. 1592. — Once more red Hugh O'Donnell shook off his fetters, and in a dark night of Christmas escaped, for the second time, from the dungeons of Dublin castle. Henry and Art O'Neill, sons of Shane-an- diomais, were companions of his flight, and it was said that the lord deputy, Fitz William, winked at their escape, being bribed by the earl of Tyrone, who wished to get the sons of Shane into his own hands, as the English might at any moment have set them up as rivals against him.f They descended by a rope through the privy, which opened into the castle ditch ; and leaving there their soiled outer garments, they were conducted by a young man named Turlough Roe O'Hagan, the confi- d-ential servant or emissary of the earl of Tyrone, who was sent to act as their guide. Passing through the gates of the city, which were still open, three of the party reached the same Slieve Rua which Hugh liad visited on the former occasion. The fourth, Henry O'Neill, strayed from his companions in some way — probably before they left the city — but eventually he reached Tyrone, where the earl seized and imprisoned him. Hugh Roe and Art O'Neill, with their faithful guide, proceeded on their way over the Wicklow mountains towards Glenmalure, to Fiagh MacHugh O'Byrne, a chief famous for his heroism, and who was then in arms against the government. Att O'Neill had grown corpulent in * This Irish chieftain was famous for his personal beauty as well as for his firmness and haughty bearing. He could not understand English, and refused to plead before an English tribunal ; but when told that the court would try him and condemn him whether he pleaded or not, he merely said, " if it must be, let it be." Miler Magrath, the apostate friar who had been made archbishop ol Cashel, was sent to him just before his execution to induce him to conform, but the heroic chief- tain told Magrath rather to learn a lesson from his fortitude, and return to the bosom of the church. Lord Bacon says that O'Rourke " gravely petitioned the queen that he might be hanged with a gad or withe, after his own country fashion, wbich doubtless was readily granted him." Walker in his Insh Bards, and Hardiman in his Irish Minstrelsrj, mention an extraordinary interview between queen EhzabetU and O'Rourke, but the story appears to rest on no solid foundation. Dr. O'Donovan (^Four Masters, vol. vi., p. 1907, note) says "the family of O'Kourke seems to have been the proudest and most inflexible of all the Irish race," and adduces the example of this chief- tain's father of whom Sir Henry Sidney said: — " I found hym the proudest man that ever I dealt with in Ireland." f Camden and Fynes Moryson, who confound the two escapes of Hugh Roe, intimate that the connivance of the corrupt lord deputy was obtained by a bribe, of which, however, Hugh Roe him- self and his biographer were wholly ignorant. If the corruption did not exi>t in both cases, it did at least in that of the second escape, when an object of importance to the eaxl of Tyrwie was eiFocted. HUGH ROES ESCAPE FRO.^I PRISON. 447 prison, and had besides been hurt in descending from the castle, so that he became quite Avorn out with fatigue. The party were also exhausted with hunger, and as the enow fell thickly, and their clothing was very scanty, they suffered additionally from intense cold. For a while Red Hugh and the servant supported Art between them ; but this exertion could not long be sustained, and at length Red Hugh and Art lay down exhausted under a lofty rock, and sent the servant to Glenmalure for help. With all possible speed Fiagh O'Byrne, on receiving the messao-e, dispatched some of his trusty men to carry the necessary succour; but they arrived almost too late at the precipice under which the two youths lay. " Their bodies," say the Fom' Masters, " were covered with white- bordered shrouds of hailstones freezing round tliem, and their light clothes adhered to their skin, so that, covered as they were with the snow, it did not appear to the men who had arrived that they were human beings at all, for they found no life in their members, but just as if they were dead." On being raised up Ai-t O'Neill fell back and expired, and was buried on the spot ; but Red Hugh was revived with some diffi- culty and carried to Glenmalure, where he was secreted in a sequestered cabin and attended b}'- a phj^sician. Here he remained until a messen- ger came from the earl of Tyrone, with whom he departed, although still in such a state that it was necessary to lift him on and off his horse. Fiagh sent an armed troop to escort him to the Liffey, which he crossed near Dublin, although all the fords were guarded bv Eno-lish soldiers, and among his escort were Felim O'Toole and his brother, who did their best to make amends for their mability to shelter him in his former flight. Hugh crossed the Boyne in a boat, while the servant conveyed the horses through the town, and at Mellifont abbey they re- posed for a day and a night at the house of an English friend of the earl of Tyrone. At Dmidalk they rode fearlessly through the town, thus disarming the suspicion of those who were watching for them along the borders of the Pale. On entering the Fews they halted for a day at the house of the chief, Sir Turlough, son of Henry O'Neill ; thence they crossed S'ieve Fuaid to Armagh, where they remained for a night in disguise, and the following day found them at Dungannon, v.-here Red Hugh was hospitably received by the earl of Tyrone. Ultimately young O'Donnell arrived in safety at his father's castle in Ballyshannon, where he found the country over-awed and plundered by a party of 200 English, who, under captains Willis and Conwell, occupied the monas- tery of Donegal, and had also fortified themselves in a place now called Bally weel. A large assemblage of people having collected to greet Red 4"48 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. Hugli on his arrival, he invited them to march with him to Donegal, and there intimated to the English that they should leave — but might depart in safety, provided they left behind any prisoners or cattle they had seized in the neighbourhood. Our annalists tell us that " they did as they were ordered, and thankful that they escaped with their lives, they went back to Connaught,'' while the triars returned to their monastery in Donegal. Red Hugh still suffered from the effects of the frost of the Wicklow mountains, and the physicians finding it necessary to amputate the great toes of both his feet, he remained at Ballyshannon under their care from the 1st of February until April. A general meeting of the Khiel Con- nel was then summoned, and all having met except the partisans of Cal- vagh O'Donncll's family, Sir H ugh abdicated the chieftaincy, which was then conferred, amid the acclamations of the meeting on his son, Rod Hugh. The young chieftain was inaugurated on the 3d of May, and according to the ancient usage, proceeded at once to make a hostile incursion. He entered the lands of Sir Turlough Luineach, which he laid waste; and this old chief having applied for the aid of scmie English soldiers, Red Hugh paid him another visit, and drove his adherents to seek an asylum in the castle of O'Kane of Glengiveen, where, being under the protection of a friendly chief, he would not molest them. Soon after he besieged Sir Turlough and his Englishmen in the castle of Strabane, and burned the town up to the walls of the fortress; but as these proceedings amounted to an open defiance of English authority, his friend, the earl of Tyrone, feared that a prematu'e and fruitless war W'ould be the result, and brought about a meeting between Hugh Roe and the lord deputy at Dundalk, so arranging matters that the former obtained a full pardon for all that was passed, including his escape from Dublin castle. This recognition of Hugh Roe's chieftaincy by the gov- ernment induced the adherents of Calvagh O'DonnelFs sons to admit him as their chief, so that his powder at home was considerably augmented.* * Under this year (1592) Ware tells us that " eleven priests and Jesuits were seized in Con- naught and Munster, and brought up to Dublin, where they were examined before the lord deputj'." The usual charge against " popish priests" at that time was " that they sowed sedition and rebel- lion in the kingdom ;" and among the witnesses against them in the present instance was one James Kaily, or Eeily, who swore that " Michael Fitzsimons, one of the said priests, stirred up above a hundred persons, amongst whom he himself was one, to assist Baltinglass in his rebellion." The witness — a true type of his class — said he was sure lie would be murdered if he went back to Con- naught ; and being asked bj' the lord deputy, " if he woidd go to church and serve her majesty aeainst the rebels," he answered, " then truly I will forsake the devil and serve God and the queen." " Whereupon the lord deputy clothed him, and made him turnkey of tlie prison of Dublin castle." TROUBLES IX ULSTER. 449 A.D. 1593. — O'Donnell collected another army, this year, at Lifford, and under his influence Turlough Luineach surrendered th6 chieftaincy of Tyrone to Hugh O'Neill, who now became the O'Neill, as well as earl of T\Tone; and Turlough further consented to dismiss his English guard, so that Ulster was left, once more, subject only to its ancient Irish dynasts, O'Neill and O'Donnell. This took place in May, but in the same month serious distui'bances broke out in Breffiiy and Fermanagh. George Bingham, the brother of Sir Richard, entered the former dis- trict, with an armed force, to distrain for rents claimed for the queen. Brian Oge O'Rourke asserted that no rents were unpaid except for lands lying waste, and which ought not to be rated. Bingham, nevertheless, seized the cattle of O'Rourke, and the latter took up arms, and marching to Ballymote, where Bingham resided, retaliated by acts of plunder. O'Rourke's neighbour, Hugh Maguire, was next provoked into hostilities He had purchased exemption from the presence of an English sheriff, during Fitzwilliam's administration, by a bribe of three hundred cows, which he had given that deputy ; yet Captain Willis — the same whom young O'Donnell had ignominiously driven from Donegal — was appointed sheriff of Fermanagh, and went about the country with one hundred armed men, and as many women and children, who Avere all supported on the spoils of the district. Maguire hunted Willis and his retinue into a church, where he would assuredly have put them to the sword had not Hugh O'Neill interfered, and saved their lives on condition that they immediately quitted the country. The lord deputy was enraged because O'Neill did not punish Maguire, and he even called him a traitor; and O'Neill's mortal enemy, marshal Bagnal, seized the oppor- tunity to forward fresh impeachments against him. Meanwhile Maguire joined O'Rourke in open rebellion. At that moment Edward MacGauran, who had been appointed by the pope arch- bishop of Armagh, returned to Ireland as the bearer of promises from the king of Spain to the Irish catholics. A reward was offered by the de- puty for his apprehension, but the primate repaired to Maguire, M'hom he encouraged by his exhortations, and accompanied in an incursion into northern Connaught, against Sir Richard Bingham. They had proceeded as far as Tulsk, in Roscommon, when they unexpectedly encountered the forces of the president, whom they put to flight, slaying one of the Eng- lish officers. Sir William Clifford ; but, unhappily, archbishop MacGauran, Father FitzSimons, who was the son of an alderman of Dublin, was executed in the corn market , but Ware does not mention the fate of the other priests. A jjreat many of the Catholic clergy were however, at that time pining in the government prisons, where they were left to die. 450 KEIGN OF ELIZABETH. and the abbot, Catlial ]Maguire, -were killed, on the Irish side, v;hile ministering to tlie wounded. The lord deputy now collected all the troops of the Pale, and marched into Fermanagh, where he was joined by the earl of Tyrone and marshal Bagnal. To the latter he committed the clrlef command, and, at the same time, Sir Richard Bingham and the earl of Thomond approached from Connaught. For Maguire to attempt resisting such an oA-erwhelming force was madness ; yet, having sent his cattle into Tirconnell, he defended, with great bravery, a ford on the river Erne, to the west of Balleek, and lost two hundred of his men before the passage was forced. The earl of Tyrone, who crossed the river at the head of the cavalry, was wounded in the thigh, in the con- flict; and O'Sullevan Beare tells us that Red Hugh O'Donnell was marching to the aid of Mugnire, and would have attacked the English the night after the battle of the ford had not O'Neill privately requested him to refrain from doing so while he was in their ranks. O'Neill wished to abide his time, but was heartily disgusted with the part which circimistances, for the moment, obliged him to play. The campaign led to no result except the raising up of Conor Oge Maguii'e, in opposition to the legitimate chief of Fermanagh, according to the old policy of England, which would rule Ireland by the division."? of her people. A.D. 1594:. — The lord deputy again came to Fermanagh this year, took the town of Enniskillen, and having placed an English garrison there, returned to Dublin ; but scarcely had he departed when Maguire appealed to O'Dcnnell, who, throwing off" all semblance of allegiance, led an army to the aid of his friend, besieged the English garrison in Ennis- killen, and plundered all who lived under English jurisdiction in the sun-ounding territory. The lord deputy ordered the gentlemen of the Pale, with O'Reilly and Bingham, to revictual the fort of Enniskillen, where the garrison had already begun to suffer severely from hunger ; and the force collected for this purpose was placed imder the command of Sir Edward Herbert, Sir Henry Duke, and George Bingham. Maguire, vnth such men as had been left with him by O'Donnell, and Cormac O'Neill, brother of the earl of TjTone,* set out to intercept them, * O'Sallivan tells us that O'Dcnnell, on hearing that a force was about to inarch to relieve Enniskillen. sent word to O'Neill that he would regard him as an enemy unless he lent his aid at such a juncture. Tyrone was conrinced that a rebellion, ai that moment, before the appearance of the expected aid from Spiin, would rashly peril the catholic cause; yet, he also knew that he gamed little by holding aloof himself, as he was, already, an object of suspicion to the English government- He was perplexed how to act, but the matter seems to have been compromised by the departure of his Drother, Cormac, with a contingent of one hundred horse and three hundred disciplined musketeers, to join Maguire, at the same time that it did not publicly appear whether they were sent by 0"2seill or wtut spontaneously. (Hist. CatJi.. p. 166). OSullivan, who gives TYE05E'S VISI»ICATIOK. 4^1 and encountered them at a ford about five miles from the town, where he routed them ^-ith the slaughter, according to O'Sullivan, of four hun- dred of their men. All the provisions intended for the bekacruered for- tress were taken, so that the place was called Bel-atha-na-mBriosgadh. or, the " ford of the biscuits,"* and, as soon as the news of the defeat reached Ennlskillen the garrison capitulated, and were suffered, by ^laguire, to depart in safety. The victorious Irish left a sufficient garrison at Enniskillen, and marched into Northern Connaught, where Sir Richard Bingham exer- cised intolerable oppression- They laid waste all the English settlements, and slew every man from the age of fifteen to sixty v.hom they found who could not speak Irish, so that no Englishman remained in the country, except in a few fortified towns and castles ; and O'Sullivan teil3 us that the severity of the Irish, on this occasion, was in retaliation for the truculence of the English, who hurled old men, women, and children from the bridge of Enniskillen, when it fell into their power. On the 11th of August, this year, a new lord deputy was sworn into oflBce, Sir William Kussell, youngest son of the earl of Bedford, having been sent over to replace Sir Wiliiam Fitz William, of whose qualities, as a man or a governor, the reader must have formed a low estimate. The earl of Tyrone, whose loyalty had, of late, become more dubious than ever, made his appearance, tinexpectedly, in Dublin, a few weeks after the instalment of the new deputy. He complained of the unworthy suspicions entertained against him; and, in vindication of himself, appealed to the many services which he had rendered to the govern- ment, more especially to that which he had so lately performed against Maguire, and in which he had received a serious wound. It is thonuht that the lord deputy was inclined to receive his justification, but his old enemy, Bagnal, renewed his charges of high treason, with more energy than ever, against him. He asserted, that OXeUi had entertained the late archbishop !MacGauran, knowing him to be a traitor; that he corresponded Tiith O'Donnell while the latter was levying war against the queen ; that, being allowed to keep sis companies in the queen's senice, he had contrived, by constantly changing them, to discipline to arms all the men in Tyrone ; and, that under the pretence of buUding a castle for himself, in the English fashion, he had purchased a large a spirited deecriptiGD of tbe battle at the ford, £ar-, the arxov s^nt to re' '^ comptUEd four bondred hoise and orer tiro tbf>n«and foot ; wfaergas Ccz make: :: - jx hosse aod six faandred {(xA. * This name is now oteoletei, bat die tnulitkn of the site of th£ battle is stiD preserved. It was L'^nght where Druoiaiie bridge, on the ri\a Amev, now Etanda.— /Var M-VUrt, p. I£d2, note. 452 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. quantity of lead, which he kept stored up at Dungannon, as laateri.:! for bullets. O'Neill's attempt to vindicate himself, on this occasion, was a last alternative to avoid rebellion. English writers, and those who adopt their views, constantly accuse him of dissimulation and duplicity, yet, the conduct to which these opprobrious terms are applied would appear to have been, in him, only the result of sound policy and prudence. He must, at all times, have resented the oppression of liis country by the English. The English rulers of Ireland were still regarded as strangers and invaders; while he, the representative of a long line of Irish kings, continued to preserve a remnant of hereditary independence which must have rendered hhn an object of hatred and suspicion to the foreign government. Sooner or later that restige of ancient Irish royalty should be extinguished, and his own personal enemy, marshal Bagnal, was the man \vhose mission it was to work out that end. At the same time that O'Neill knew all this, the wisdom and depth of mind, for which he was so remarkable, taught him the futility of waging war against England in the old-fashioned piecemeal style. He knew that the aid of foreign catholic powers was indispensable, and that a favorable opportunity should be awaited; and, hence, while he would promote a spirit of nationality among the neighbouring chiefs, he discouraged the rashness which would plunge the country into a premature civil war. It was not duplicity but common prudence, therefore, which prevented him from hastily flying to arms : and not only does it seem certain that when he entered the field against the government he was goaded into that course by insults and injustice, but it cannot be positively asserted that he would not have lived all his life in passive submission to the English crowc had he not been ultimatsly driven to resistance. He foresaw this con- tingency from a distance, and Avas prepared for it ; and, if he was slo\>- in rising, he, at least, approached nearer than any other Irishman to th ? liberation of his country from a foreign yoke. Tyrone despised the malignity of Bagnal, and offered to prove the injustice of his charges by the ordeal of single combat; but his enemy added cowardice to his malice, and declined. The council deliberated whether they should seize the earl while he was in their poAver, but some of the members were friendly to him, and he Avas permitted to depart in safety.* * Captain Thomas Lee, who, at this very time, was writing the "memonal" which he addressed to queen Elizabeth, and who was intimately acauainted with the characters of all the parties concerned. THE WICKLOW INSURGENTS. 453 A.D. 1595. — Sii" William Russell's fii'st exploit was an attack upon Fiagh MacHugh O'Byrne, who was called "the firebrand of the moun- tains," and whose castle of Ballinacor, (Baile-na-cuirre,) in Glenmalure, he took by surprise in January. Fiagh, however, escaped with his family, havmg been alarmed by the accidental sound of a drum, just as the deputy's troops had reached the outer rampart. Walter Riavafih, or the swarthy, one of the Kildare Geraldines, was goaded into rebellion, and joined Fiagh ; and scarcely had Russell returned to Dublin from Ballinacor, where he placed an English garrison, when Walter made a nocturnal excursion to the vicinity of the metropolis, ^nd burned tiie suburban village of Crumlin, carrying off the leaden roof of the church to make Oullets, while the garrison of Dublin witnessed the conflagration without being able to render any assistance. This happened on the 30th of January, and in the following April he was taken treacLerousIy and executed in Dublin.* The Irish had been goaded by oppressions under which human nature could not long writhe without resistance ; and disaffection had become so saj-s: — "He (O'Neill) will, if it so stand with your majesty's pleasure, offer himself to the marshal, ■who hath been the chiefest instrument against him, ii> prove with his sword that he hath most wrongfully accused him ; and because it is no conquest for him to overthrow a man ever htid iii the world to be of most cowardly behaviour, he will, in defence of his iunocency, allow his adver- sary to come armed against hioi naked, to encourage him ths rather to accept of his challenge." — bee the JJesiderat. Cur. Hib., vol. ii., pp. 91, &c.; and appendix to Curry s Review. Camden, in his character of Hugh O'Neill, gives him credit for " great physical powers of endurance, indefati- gable industry, mental qualities suited to the greatest undertakings, great military knowledge, and a profound depth of mind to dissemble (ad simulanduvi).''' — Annales, an. 1690, p. 572, ed. of 163&. Dr. O'Donovan. in his notes to the Four Master.s, (vol. vi., p. 1888,) says of this most remarkable man : — " whether this earl, Hugh, was an O'Neill or not — and the editor feels satisfied that Shane- an-diomais proved in England that he was not— he was the cleverest man that ever lx)i-e that name. The O'Kellys of Bregia, of >vhom this Hugh must have been, (if he were not of the blood of the O'Neills,) were descended from Hugh Slaine, monarch of Ireland from 599 till 605. Connell Jlageoghegan says that there rei;:.iied, or king Hugh Slaine's race, as monarchs of this kingdom, nine kings #we may, tnerefore. well believe that the blood of Hugh Slaine, which was )>rought so low in the grandtather, found itii level in the military genius and towering ambition of itugh, earl of Tyrone." * O'SuUevan, iu his History of thn Ivi-sa Gathol cs, (p. 162, ed. of 1850,) give* an interesting Hccount^f the fate of this Walter Keagh, or Riavagn. One Peter Fitzgerald, who had become a protestaut, and was in the employment of the govf-niment, was his great enemy, ana attacked his huuse of Gloran. Walter, soon after, with Terence, Felim, and Eaymor.d O'Byrne, the sons of Fiagh, attacked Peter's castle, and setting it un fire burned it with ics inmates. This, according to O'SuUevan, was the beginning of Walter's rebellion. Subsequently he was besieged in his castle by the English, and his brother:;, Gerald and James, slain, some say hanged, when he cut his way through the enemy and escaped. Not long after he was wounded in a conflict with a party who were in pursuit of him, but was carried oiF by a companion named George O'More, who secreted him in a cavern, where he was betrayed by his attendant, and, being conveyed to Dublin, was impaled — other accounts say hanged and quartered, or hanged in chains. Terence O'Byrne was, some time after, delivered to the English by his own father, Fiagh, who was wrongfully persuaded that he had formed a plot to betray him. O'SuUevan says that Terence was exec ited in Dublin, after being olTercd his life if he changed his i\ligic:i. 454 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. general, especially in Ulster and Connaught, that there could be no longer any doubt that a great civil war was imminent. The lord deputy solicited reinforcements from England, and it was resolved tliat Sir John Norris, or Norreys, an officer of great experience and celebrity, and whose brother, Sff Thomas, was president of Munster, should be sent over as lord general, with 2,000 veteran troops who had distinguished themselves in Brittany, together with 1,000 men of a fresh levy. The earl of Tyrone now thought it high time to declare himself. He found himself ah^eady treated as an enemy by the government on the one side, while on the other his countrymen could bear their galling yoke no longer. He accordingly seized the fort of the Black- water, commanding the passage into his own territorj^ while O'Donnell, who had never faltered in his hostility to England, and burned to avenge his own and his country's wrongs, made incursions, in March and April, into Connaught and Annally O'Farrell, to plunder the recent English settlements there, and to burn and destroy their castles. These move- ments Red Hugh executed with such rapidity that he escaped any serious collision with the English forces. As soon as Sir John Norris and liis troops arrived, an expedition to the north was prepared, and O'Neill relinquished the Blackwater fort, after destroying the works and burning the town of Dungannon, includ- ing his own house. Our annalists say that the English army marched beyond Armagh until they came in view of the entrenched camp of the Irish, when they returned to Armagh, where they placed a strong gar- rison in the cathedral, and strengthened the fortifications ; and that Sir William Russell having then committed the command to Norris returned to Dublin, where he proclaimed O'Neill a traitor by the name of Hugh O'Neill, son of Mathew Ferdarough, or the blacksmith.* O'Donnell, in the mean time, obtained in the west several successes, which raised the confidence of the Irish. The castle of Sligo was given up to him by UHck Burke, who had held it for the English, and who took this important step after slaying George Bingham in a private fray ;t * There are some important circumstances connected with these first movements in the north. The Four Masters state that O'Neill had invited O'Donnell to join him, and that thej' marched to Faughard, near Dundalk, to have a parley with the deputy, who, however, did not come ; whUe from the English accounts it would appear that O'Neill had written lettere hoth to Kussell and to Norris, proposing to meet and confer with them on the occasion, but that the letters were inter- cepted by Bagnal. Thus the lord deputy proclaimed O'Neill a traitor in ignorance of the overtures which the latter had made. t George Bingham manned and armed a ship, with which he pillaged the coast of Tirconnell, plundering the carmelite monastery of the Blessed Virgin, at Eathmullen, and the church of St. Colambkille, on Tory-island; but on his return from the expedition, an altercation to k place XEGDTIATIOXS WITH o'nKILL. 45D the people of northern Connauglit who had been dispossessed of their lands by Bingham and his mjTmidons, returned to their patrimonies ; six hundred Scots arrived in Lough Foyle, under MacLeod of Ara, and entered into O'Donnell's service, and with these he scoui-ed Connauglit as far as Tuam and Dunmore, returning into Donegal through Costello and Sligo, and thus avoiding Bingham, who thought to intercept him in the Curlieu mountains. Sir Richard, who was accompanied by the earls of Thomond and Clanrickard, with their contingents, followed Red Hugh as far as Sligo, and laid siege to the castle, which was bravely de- tended by O'Donnell's garrison. He attempted to sap the walls under cover of a testudo or penthouse, constructed of the timber taken from the neighbouring monaster}^; but the warders hurled down rocks and fired upon them from the battlements, destroying their machinery, and compelling them to raise the siege and depart. O'Donnell then demol- ished the castle, that it might not fall at * future time into the hands of the English, dismissed his Scottish mcrcenanc*, and returned home. An attempt mtide by Sir John Norris snd his brother to re- victual Annagli was defeated by O'Neill. Both Norrises were wounded and obliged to retreat t-. Newry ; but they succeeded soon after in throwing reliet into Monaghun, where an English garrison had fortified themselves in the monastery. In the return march from Monaghan the royal troops w'ere attacked at Olontibret, and a desperate fight took place, in which several of the English were slain, and the remainder escaped with diffi- culty to Newry, from which town a party had come to succour them.* O'Neill had hitherto acted chiefly on the defensive, and when com- missioners were appointed by the queen to treat with the confederated chiefs, he entered into the negotiations v.-ith alacrity. The commission- ers w^ere the treasurer, Wallop, and chief justice Gardiner, with whom the northern leaders conferred in an open field near Dundalk. The L'ish chiefs made such representations of their grievances that the com- missioners confessed some of them were reasonable enough, but said these should be referred to the queen ; and the confederates having no between him and Ulick Burke, son of Redmon-est of Belleek ; Murrough O'Brien, baron of Inchiquin, was shot by the Irish while in the centre of the ford ; and Clifford having obtained some cannon by sea from Galway, laid siege to the castle of Ballyshan- non, which was defended with great bravery for O'Donnell by Hugh Crawford, a Scot, with eighty soldiers, of whom some were Spaniards and the rest Irish. An incessant fire v.^as kept up on the castle for three days, and under the shelter of a testudo an attempt was made to sap the walls ; but the beams and rocks hurled from the battlements by the de- fenders demolished the works of the assailants, and O'Donnell arri\ang with a considerable force, besieged the royal army in their OAvn camp. At the dawn of day on the 15th of August, Clifford silently re-crossed the Erne at a ford immediately above the cataract of Assaroe, over which several of his men were washed by the impetuosity of the torrent; and O'Donnell, regretting the remissness which suffered the enemy to * About this time captain T)'rrell cut off a detachment of 1,000 men of the royal army sent against him from MuUiiiijar, under the command of young Barnwell, son of lord Trimblestone. Tyrrell had a much smaller force under his command, but prepared an ambuscade with great skill at the place since called Tyrrell's Pass, in Westmeath, and it is said that only one man of the enemy escaped to relate the disaster at the English head-quarters. (See the Abbe Mageoghegan's History of Ireland, p. 505, Duffy's ed.) It is probable, however, that Tyrrell's Pass, owes its name not to this confiict, but to the castle of the Tyrrells which stood near. 460 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. escape, pursued him over the river. The powder of the Irish was, how- ever, spoiled by a heavy shower of rain, and the royal army was enabled to retreat in safety to Sligo, having abandoned three pieces of ordnance and a quantity of stores. The spirits of the Irish were elated by so many Successes. O'Neill laid siege to the new Blackwater fort ; but in storming it by the aid of scalino- ladders— which proved to be too short — he lost thirty of his men, and then resolved to starve the garrison into submission. This would have been soon effected had not lord Borough marched with a strong force, and succeeded in raising the siege, and throwing in relief both in men and provisions. The lord deputy, however, fell danger- ously ill before the walls, or, as the Irish accounts say, was mortally wounded, and died in a litter before he could be carried as far as Newry.t On the news of his death reaching Dublin the council choose as his successor Sir Thomas Norris, the president of Munster; but this selection was provisional, for in a month after the civil duties of the government were committed to Archbishop Loftus, who was also lord chancellor, and Sir Robert Gardiner, chief justice of the queen's bench, as lords justices, and the military goverment to the earl of Ormond, as lord lieutenant. MeanAvhile O'Donnell plundered the lands of 0"Conor Roe, who had joined the English party, and this produced some jealousy between O'Donnell and O'Rourke, who was friendly to O'Conor. Hugh Maguire and Cormac, brother of O'Neill, entered Westmeath and sacked and burned MuUingar. Theobald, son of Walter Kittagh Burke, re-took tli3 territory of Mac William, and plundered the Owles or O'Malley's country ; Tyrrell, at the head of the Leinster insurgents devastated Ormond, and cut to pieces a large body of the royal troops at Marj^borough ; Sir John Chichester, governor of Carrickfergus, with three companies of his garrison, was cut off by the son of Sorley Bo}^ MacDonnell; in short the country was almost wholly in the hands of the Catholics, when the appointment of the earl of Ormond opened a new door for negocia- tions with the Irish chieftains. Our annalists say that shortly before t Either on this or his former march to the Blackvrater, the lord deputy lost his wife's brother, Sir Francis Vaugban, who was killed by the Irish; and the earl of Kildare died at Drogheda of the wounds which he received, or, as others say, of chagrin for his two foster-brothers, who were kilKd before the Blacliwater fort. This earl was Henry, who succHedL-d on the death (in 1585) of his father, Garrett, brother of Silken Thomas, and he was succeeded in his turn by his brother, William. Among the losses of the government about this period it may be stated that on the 11th (f March, 1597, 144 barrels of gunpowder, just received from England, exploded in AVin. tavern- street, Dublin, producing fearful havoc in the neighbourhood. (See Gilbert's Hist, of Dub , vol. i., p. 154.) O'XEILL REJECTS THE TERMS OF PEACE. d61 Christmas the earls of Ormond and Thomond went to Ulster and remained three days in a conference with O'Neill and O'Don- nell; that they agreed to the terms of a treaty, which were to be submitted to the queen, and that a truce was to be observed until May, when the royal decision on the points at issue would bo made known. A.D. 1598 — The modifications which Elizabeth required in the terms of peace were received earlier than was expected, and another conference was held with O'Neill on the 15th of March to communicate them to hun. The chief of Tyrone discussed the several points with a freedom which showed that he well knew the weakness of the government and his own in- creased strength. He refused to desert his confederates until they had time allowed them to come in and submit ; he consented to renounce the title of O'Neill, but would reserve the substantial rights of the chief- taincy; he would not give up the sons of Shane O'Neill, as he had not received them into his charge from the state ; he would admit a sheriff into Tyrone, provided he was a gentleman of the country, and not appointed immediately ; he would surrender political refugees, but not such. as fled to Tyrone on account of religious persecution: in fine, he refused to give up his eldest son as a hostage. The independent tone of O'Neill was deeply galling to lAie English, but the earls of Thomond and Clanrickard, with other distinguished Irishmen, were nevertheless dele- gated to submit his propositions anew to Elizabeth, and that haughty princess not only consented to abate some of her claims, but O'Neill's pardon was actually drawn up, bearing date April 11th, 1598, and sealed with the great seal of Ireland. These hollow concessions, however, came too late. O'Neill believed that the opportunity had arrived to obtain infinitely more — the liberation of his country itself. He expected the long-promised succour from Spain; the national cause was progress- ing favorably at home, and he dreaded lest further delay should cool the ardor of the Irish chieftains. He therefore broke off the negociations, and rejected the proffered pardon — bv avoiding the messenger who was sent to convey it to liim.* * O'Neill afterwards scorned to plead this pardon, so that he wa3 outlawed in 1600, says Moryson, on the indictment of lu95. It may be here sdded that, during the truce, James, brothc-r of the esrl of Ormond, with other gentlemen, made an incursion into Ikerrin asjainst Brian Keagli O'More, bnt lost several of their men. James Butler was made prisoner, but O'More generously gave him II)) to the earl of Ormond in a week after. Redmond Burke, son of John-of-tlie-Shamrocks, owing to the injustice of his uncle, the earl of Claniickard, joined the insurgents, and receivetl the command of 100 men from O'Neill, who sent him with others to light under Tyrrell's standard in lx?)nster; and in Connaught, O'Rourke, who had made his submission to Clifford on acconnt of his friendship for O'Conor Rof, returned to the national cause, for, as the Lour Masters say, it was o( 462 r.EIGN OF KLIZABETH. On the 7tli of Jane the last truce expired, and two days after O'Neill appeared with a division of his army before the Blackwater fort, " swearing by his barbarous hand that he would not depai't until lie had carried it;"* while he sent another division into Breffny, to attack the castle of Cavan. There could be no more valiant man than captain Thomas Williams, who commanded in the unhappy fort of the Blackwater, and who was resolved to defend his charge to the last man ; and ONeili, profiting bv the lesson which the former vigorous defence had taught him, resolved to make no more assaults, but set about enclosing the fort with vast trenches, to prevent the sorties of foraging parties. These trenches, which were connected with great tracts of bog, were more than a mile in length, and several feet deep, "with a thorny hedge at the top." The approaches to the fort were "plashed," the roads rendered im- passable to artillery by trenches, and the Irish army so posted that no force could advance to relieve the garrison without fighting a battle. The fort was scarcely victualled to the end of June, and would have been soon forced by hunger to surrender had not the besieged had the good fortune to seize " divers horses and mares," on the flesh of which they subsisted. Lonof and anxious was the debate at the council-board in Dublin as to the coarse now to be pursued. The English power in Ireland was in a most critical position. Only a few garrisons remained in all Ulster. Con- nanght was in arms. A well-organised Irish army, under captain Tyrrell, and other brave and experienced leaders, threatened the seat of govern- ment in Leinster. The prestige of O'Neill and O'Donnell was becoming every day greater. The latter entertained a hatred of England which nothincv could mitigate : while the former was more formidable for his knowledge of modern warfare, his consummate prudence, and his sub- tlety as a statesman. . Reinforcements of troops arrived at Dungarvan from England, but in attempting to reach Dublin they were attacked by the Irish and lost over 400 men.f The English government of Ireland was never in more pusillanimous hands than those of the present lords justices; and the iron-hearted Ormond himself — "a man of great energy and boldness," as Camden describes him — was dismayed at the struggle before him. The council had written to England for help and advice. The civil members strongly urged that captain Williams should be that time thought safer in Connaught " to have the governor in opposition than to be pursued by O'Donnell's venseance." * Sir Oeuflivv Fentou to Cecil, June 11th, 1598. + See Four Mmlers vol. vi.. n. 2056. note. THE "JOLEKEY OF TiiJK hLA CKWATEZ.' 463 directed to surrender the Black waiter fort to O'Neill on the best condi- tioas that he could obtain. Even Ormond would reluctantly vield to this view, but Bagnal cried shame at such timidity, and insisted that an army, which he himself undertrjok to command, should be despatched immediately ^> re-rictual the fort At this CTitical moment OrmoiKl took the fatal resolution to divide his forces, and to march himself at the head of one division against the Leinster insurgents, while Bagnal led the other to relieve the fort of the Blackwater. This oouree was taken contrary to the pressing ad-vice of the council ; but Ormond cocside-red that the active hostilities of Tyrrell and his confederate in Leinster, involving as they did the devastation of his own county palatine of Tipperary, demanded the most strenuous operations ; while the other duty only concerned what he styled '• the scurvie fort of Blackwater." Bagnal, too, was earnest in soliciting for himself the task of taking vengeance on the m a" whom. of all others he hated with a deadly hatred ; and so the plan was persevered in- At the last moment the lords justices sent a message to the commander to surrender the fort; but Bagnal, according to his old custom, intercepted the letter, and took it back to the council* On the morning of Monday, August 14th, the army, which had reached Armagh from Nevoy with some slight losses the preceding day, set out from the former city for the Blackwater. It amounted, by the English accounts, to about 4,000 foot and 3.!»0 horse;! the infantry com- prising six regiments, and the whole were disposed in three divisions : the van being led by colonel Percy, supportea oy trie marchais OTvn regi- ment, while the regiments of colonel Cosby and Sir Thomas Wingfield came nest, and those of captains Cunis, or Cuvnis. and Billings, brought up the rear. The cavalry was command sd by Sir Calisthenes Brooke and captains Llontague and Fleming. The main body of the Irish. whose infantry was about as numerous as that of the enemy, and the cavalry a little more so, but who in point of anns and equipments were greatly inferior to the royal army, occupied an entrenched position near the small river Calian, about two miles from Armagh, at a place calUd Beal-an-atha-buy, or the mouth of the YeJlow Ford- Bogs and woods extended on either side ; a part of the way was broken by small hUls, and deep trenches and pitmlls were dug in the road and neighbouring fields. The leaders on both sides harangued their respective forces, and * Letter of t'e LL. JJ. to the privj coczdl, of Aogast 16th, 15&3. t Captiia Jl'.nti.-ii'i rsport to th-; cotrzca tzrs, 3,500 'alzzTry aad 300 czr^ltj , bntCSoDeraft btmf: m&kfs tiii cunliex^ 4,»00 U/ut asd aOQ fatr&e. 434 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. the Irish were, moreovsr, encouraged by O'Donneira poet, Fearfeasa O'Clery, who produced the words of an ancient prophecy attributed to St. Bearchan, foretelling that at a place called the Yellow Ford the foreigner would be defeated by a Hugh O'Neill. The morning, says O'Snllevan, was calm and beautiful, and the English army advanced from Armagh, before the rising of the sun, with colors flying, drums beating, and trumpets sounding, in all the pomp and pride of war ; but their front had nc proceeded more than half-a-niile when the Irish skirmishers began to gall them severely from the brushwood on either flank. The most circumstantial account of the sequel is that which we obtain from the English official reports. The vanguard of the royal army advanced gallantly, and after a desperate struggle gained possession of the first Irish entrenchment, about two miles from Armagh. They then pushed forward and reached an eminence, where they were vigorously charged by the Irish, and driven back beyond the trench. BagnaVs tactics were a miserable failure. His divisions Avere too far separated to support each other; and his leading regiment was cut to pieces before the second had come to the charge. The marshal himself came up at the head of his own regiment and behaved with ex- traordinary valor, gaining the trench a second time ; but the Irish were now engaged with the royal troops at every point, and the fighting was so hot in the rear, where Red Hugh O'Donnell, Maguire, and James MacSorley MacDonnell charged the English, that it was impossible for the reserve regiments to support their front. Bagnal raised the visor of his helmet, to gaze more freely about him, when a musket ball pierced his forehead and he rolled lifeless to the earth. Almost at the same time an ammunition waggon exploded in the central corps of the English, and scattered destruction aroimd, killing and wounding several; and one of the cannon got into a pit or bog-hole, and defied all their efforts to extricate it. O'Neill, wh© had the Irish centre under his own special command, saw that the moment was decisive. Confusion had ah'eady seized the English ranks ; and riding up with forty horsemen, followed by a body of spearmen, he plunged with a loud shout into the melee, and made the enemy fly in disorder. All this time the battle raged so fiercely in the rear that the English, according to their own ac- count, had not been able to advance a quarter of a mile in an hour and' a-ha! f, and the death of the marshal was not known at that point when the flight had begun. Maelmuire O'Reilly, who was called " the hand- some," and, as being a royalist, was styled " the queen's O'Reilly," made u desperate effort to rally the royal troops, but he himself was soon num- • THE BATTLE OF THE YELLOW FORD. 465 bered witli tlie slain. About one o'clock the route became general, and the pits and trenches along the way caused more mischief to the flying EngHsh than even in the morning march. The new le^'ies cast away their arms, and if they had not been so near Armagh scarcely a man would have escaped. As it was, the flight was not a long one ; the ammunition of the Irish was nearly exhausted, and the shat- tered remains of the English army shut themselves up in the fortified cathedral, leaving their general, 23 officers, and about 1,700 of their rank and file on the field; together with their artillery, and bag- gage, a great portion of their arms and colors, their drums, &c., in the hands of the Irish. The loss on the side of the confederates was esti- mated, at the highest, as from seven to eight hundred. Never since the English set foot on Irish soil had they received such an overthrow in this countiy. " It was a glorious victory for the rebels," says Camden, •' and of special advantage : for hereby they got both arms and provi- sions, and T}Tone's name was cried up all over Ireland as the author of their liberty.* The English cavalry, which had suffered least, escaped the night after the battle to Dundalk, under captain Montague, pursued for a little way by Terence O'Hanlon; and a few days after the garrisons of Armagh * The Irish and English cotemporarv accounts of the battle are collected by Dr. O'Donovan in his Botes to the Four Masters, an. 1598; and all the documents connected with it preserved in the State Paper office have been published in the Transactions of the Kilkenny Archi\iological Society for January, iS57. John Mitchell describes it in his own nervous and eloquent style in his " Life and Times of jfcodh O'Neill," in Duffy's Library of Ireland. The battle is sometimes designated the "journey of the Blackwater." but by the Irish is usually called the battle of Athbuidhe or the Yellow Ford. Its site is marked on the Ordnance map of Armagh, sheet 12 ; and the name of Ballinaboy is still ap- plied to a small marsh or cut-out bog in the townland of Cabragh, about a miie-and-three-quarters north of the city of Armagh {Four Masters, vi., p. 2061, note). The Blackwater fort is called Tortnua by the Four Masters, and Portmore by O'Sullevan Beare and other cotemporarv writers. The number slain on the English side is by the Irish annalists reckoned 2,500, including the gene- ral and 18 captains; and the fiist English accounts vary the loss from 2,000 to 1,500 ; but the official list forwarded to the privy council a few days after the battle gives the numbers thus, viz. : — killed, the general, 14 colonels and captains, 9 liontenants, and 855 rank and file; wounded, 363; captain Cosby taken prisoner, and 12 stands of colors lost. About 300 Irish in the queen's pay and 2 Englishmen deserted to the confederates. O'Sullevan states the loss of the Irish to have been less than !00 killed, and over 600 wounded. Ormond, in a letter to Cecil, of September 15, referring to the bad tactics of Bagnai in placing the divifiions at such intervals, writes : — " Suer the devill bewiched them, that none of them did prevent this grose emu- ! " The Four Masters give August 10th as tho date of the battle, but from the State Papers the correct date appears to be that given in the text, August 14 th. O'Sullevan says O'Donnell commanded the left wing, and Maguire the Irish cavalry; the whole being under the command of O'Neill. Cucogry O'Clery, in his life of Hugh Roe O'Don- nell, tells us that very few of the Irish were dressed in armour like the English, but that they had a sufficient supply of spears, and broad lances with strong handles of ash ; straight, keen-edged swords, and thin, polished battle-a.\es. Dr. O'Donovan thinks that the prophecy which Fearfeasa O'Clery turned to such good account on this meiucrable occasion was originally intended for tlia Danes, as the word ^^Danair" is in it applied to the foreigner* 4:66 REIGiN OF ELIZABETH. * and the Blackwater fort capitulated, and were allowed to march to Dundalk with their wounded men, leaving their arras and ammunition behind them. O'Neill supposed that Armagh was provisioned for a longer time than it really was, while his own supplies were running short, and he knew that an English force of 2,000 men was daily ex- pected in his rear at Lough Foyle; and hence the favorable conditions which he granted. The Ulster chiefs returned to their respective homes, for it never had been the custom of the Irish to follow up a victory. Their hostings were temporary, and their commissariat imperfect. O'Neill knew the helpless state of the government at that moment, and it is not probable that he retired to Dungannon at such an important juncture without solid reasons. Ormond was at this tim.e shut up in Kilkenny, whither he had retired after the discomfiture of his men in Leix; and the trembling lords justices were obliged to send out some six or seven hundred armed citizens, on the 17th of August, to prevent the approach of the Leinster insurgents, who were expected before the walls of Dublin. Elizabeth was enraged at the losses which her arms had sustained in Ireland, and wrote upbraiding letters to her Irish council. She sent Sir Richard Bingham to replace marshal Bagnal; and slie could not have shewn her exasperation better than by renewing her commission to the man who had been disgraced for his butcheries of the Irish in cold blood. Bingham, however, died immediately after his return to Ireland, and Sir Samuel Bagnal was then sent to Dublin as marshal, with the 2,000 men who had been originally intended for Lough Foyle. O'Neill wrote to captain Tyrrell, Owny O'More, and Redmond Burke* to hasten into Munster, where the sons of Thomas Roe, brother of the late earl of Desmond, were prepared to raise the standard of revolt; and his orders were immediately carried out. The Leinster insurgents plun- dered Ormond in their march to the south, and a great number of Irish chieftains came to swell their ranks. The new Munster rebellion broke out, says Fynes Moryson, like lightning. Sir Thomas Norris was at Kilmallock, but as soon as the confederates entered the county of Lim- erick he withdrew hastily to Cork. James, son of Thomas Roe, joined the confederate army in Connello, and they proceeded to destroy the settlements of the English undertakers Avho occupied the lands of the late earl of Desmond. Their castles and houses were pulled down, their farms desolated, and they themselves — cast out naked — were all either slain or expelled ; while, as our annalists say, the spoils were so great that an in-calf cow was sold for sixpence, a brood mare for threepence, and the best hog for one penny, in the Irish camp. Ormond marched RENEWED WAR IN MUNSTER. 467 to Kilmallock, where he was joined by Non-is; but the Irish army pre- sented so formidable a front that he thought it well to return to his own palatinate, while the president retired to Mallow. The title of earl of Desmond was conferred, by the authority of O'Neill, on James, son of Thomas Roe ;* all the castles of Desmond were recovered except those of Askeaton, Castlemaine, and Mallow ; and matters being thus advanced in Munster, the Leinster and Ulster confederates returned home, with the exception of TpTcU — who remained to organise the forces of the newly-created earl. Among those who had now risen in arms in the south were Patrick FitzMaurice, lord of Lixnaw ; the knight of Gl3mn ; the white knight, and most of the other Geraldines ; some of the Mac Carthys ; the O'Donohoes ; the Condons ; lord Roche ; Butler, lord of Mountgarrett, who had married a daughter of O'Neill ; Butler of Cahir, and other members of that family. O'Donnell, who had purchased the castle of Ballymote from Mac Donough of Corran, and made it his principal residence,! proceeded Avith a great hosting, at the close of the year, into Clanrickard, slaying several, and carrying off immense booty; and the following spring (1599) he made an incursion on a large scale into Thomond, and swept away such enormous spoils that the hills of Burren were black Avith the droves of cattle which were driven to the north. Thomond was at that time the scene of intestine broils among various parties of the O'Briens, and when O'Donnell had left, Clifford proceeded there to punish those who had given evidence of disloyalty. The earl of Thomond, who had re- turned lately from England, also came with some ordnance from Lim- erick, and inflicted vengeance on the obnoxious. * This James is better known by the title of the Sugane (Straw-rope) eari, contemptuously applied to bim by his enemies. For his parentage vide supra, p. 396, n. Cox says he was '' the hand- somest man of his time ;" but Camden calls him '■'■ hominem obsccenissimum." fThe price paid for the castle was £400 and 300 tows, and Sir Conyers Cliiford, president of Connaught, was bidding for it in opposition to O'Donnell. For thirteen years before it had been in the hands of the royalists, and it is curious to tind anything like a commercial transaction carried on under the circumstances. CHAPTER XXXV. EEIGN OF ELIZABETH — CONCLUDED. The Karl of Esses Viceroy — His incapacit}' — His fruitless expedition to Muuster. — O'Conor Sligo besieged at Colloony. — Sir Couyers Clifford marches against O'Donnell. — Total defeat of the English at the Curlieu mountains and death of Clifford. — Essex applies for reinforcements — His march to the Lagan — His interview with O'Neill — His departure fi'ora Ireland, and unhappy fete. — O'Neill's expedition to Munster. — Combat and death of Hugh Maguire and Sir Warbam Semtleger. — Arrival of Lord Moantjoy as Deputy. — O'Neill retuyns to Ulster. — Presents from the Pope and the King o? Spain. — Capture of Ormond by Owny O'More. — Sir George Carew President of Manstev — His subtletj- — His plots against the Sugane Earl and Lis brother. — Capture of Glin Castle and general submission of Desmond. — Death of Owny O'More. — Barbarous desolation of the country by the Deputy. — The son of the late Earl of Desmond sent to Ireland — Failure of his mission. — Retribution on a traitor (note). — Docwra's expedition to Loagh Foyle. — Defections from the Irish ranks. — Predatory excursions of Red Hugh O'Donnell. — Moimtjiiy's expeditions against O'Neill. — Complicated misfortunes of the Irish.— Niall Garv besieged in the monastery of Donegal by Hugh Roe. — Arrival of the Spaniards at Kinsale — They are besieged by Mountjoy and Carew. — Extraordinary march of O'Donnell and mustering of the Irish forces to assist them. — Battle of Kiusale, and total route of the Irish army. — Departure of Red Hugh O'Donnell for Spain. — Surrender of Kinsale, and departure of the Spaniards — Deplorable state of the Irish. — Dreadful famine. — Siege of Dunboy Castle, — Flight of 0"Sullevan. — Submission of O'Neill. — Death of Elizabeth. ^px [feom a.d. 1599 TO A.D. 1603.] XVESTED with more ample powers, and endowed with a more splendid allowance than any of his predecessors, the earl of Essex land.ed in Ireland, as lord lieutenant, on the 15th of April, 1599, and was sworn in the same day- He was provided with an army of 20,000 foot and 2,000 horse — the most powerful and best equipped force ever sent into this country — and his instructions were to prosecute the war strenuously against the Ulster insurgents, and to plant gar- risons at Lough Foyle and Ballyshannon. This was, inrleed, the course which he himself had warmly advocated in those discussions at the council-board, in one of which his dis- respectful manner extracted one of her habitual oaths and a box from the withered hand of his royal mistress ; yet these commands, however explicit, and however ^^Jjvious the end to be attained, VICEROYALTY OF ESSEX. 469 were, through some unaccountable infatuation, wholely overlooked by tnis unfortunate favorite of Elizabeth. Essex issued a proclamation on his arrival, offering pardon and resto- ration of their property to such of the Irish as submitted, but very few availed themselves of the proffered favors. He sent reinforcements to the garrisons of Carrickfergus, Newry, Dundalk, Drogheda, Wicklow, and Naas; and then, instead of marching with the main body of his army towards Ulster, he proceeded to the south with 7,000 of his best soldiers. He was repeatedly attacked along the route by Owny* O'More and the other Leinster confederates; and in one of these conflicts, at a place called Bearna-na-gCleti, or, the gap or defile of the feathers, from the number of plumes collected there after the battle, he lost, ac- cording to O'Sullevan Beare, five hundred men. In Ormond lord Mountgarrett made his submission, and Essex then besieged the castle of Cahir, which was held by another of the insurgent Butlers, and was surrendered after part of the building had been demolished. Sir Thomas Norris, president of Munster, while waiting for the viceroy, at Kilmallock exercised his men in forays against the Irish ; but in one of these he was mortally wounded by Thomas Burke, brother of the baron of Castleconnell, and died a few weeks after at Mallow.f Near Limerick, Essex, who was accompanied on this expedition by the earl of Ormond, was joined by Sir Conyers Clifford, president of Connaught, the earls of Thomond and Clanrickard, and Donough O'Conor Sligo. Clifford and Clanrickard returned to Connaught, and Essex, with the other com- niimders, marched against the Geraldines, who gave them a warmer reception than was anticipated. After some hard fighting, in his second day's march from Limerick, the viceroy pitched his camp a little to the east of Askeaton ; and having succeeded in conveying some ammunition to that garrison, he was again attacked in marching to Adare, at a place called Finneterstown, where he lost several men, among others Su' Henry Norris. Then, without even attempting any further service with his fine army, he returned by a circuitous route, through Fermoy and Lismore, into Leinster; the Geraldines hovering on his rear and cutting off several of his men in the early part of the march, while the Leinster insurgents were equally unmerciful to him in the latter portion of it. O'Conor Sligo, on returning from Munster, was blockaded in his only remaining castle of Coloony, by O'Donnell, and Essex directed Sir Conyers Clifford to hasten with all his available forces to relieve him, * The Irish uame Uaithne is sometimes anglicised Anthony, but more frequently O^vny. t O'Sullevan Beare places the death of Sir Tliomas Norris two yeaii earlier. 470 ■ RKIGN OF ELIZABETH. and to despatch by sea, from Galwaj, materials for the construction and fortification of a strong castle at Sligo, to defend that passage against the men of Tircomiell. Clifford proceeded to obey these orders, and while the naval expedition sailed round the coast, under the com- mand of Theobald-na-long, he, himself, with a well-appointed army, advanced from Athlone towards the Curlieu mountains, beyond which, in the famous pass of Ballaghboy, Red Hugh O'Donnell awaited him, with such men as he could spare, after leaving a sufficient force under his kinsman, Niall Garv O'Donnell, to continue the blockade of Coloony castle. The eve of the 15th of August was passed by Red Hugh in fasting and prayer, and on the morning of that festival of the Blessed Virgin mass was celebrated in the Irish camp, and the Holy Communion ad- ministered to O'Donnell and several of his men. The day was already far advanced when the Irish scouts from the hill-tops signalled the ap- proach of the royal army from the abbey of Boyle, where it had en- camped the previous night ; and O'Donnell having addressed his people in a few spirit-stirring words, invoking all the religious ideas which the occasion suggested, to encourage them, sent the youngest and most athleiic of his men, armed with javelins, bows, and muskets, to attack the enemy as soon as they should reach the rugged part of the moun- tain, the way having been already impeded by felled trees and other obstructions ; while he himself followed with the remainder of his small force, marching with a steady pace, and more heavily armed for close fighting. The English say that Sir Conyers Clifford was deceived and did not expect any resistance here ; but, that a quarter of a mile before he entered the defile he found a barricade defended by some of the Irish, who ran as soon as they discharged their javelins and other missiles. The English army continued to advance in a solid column by a road which permitted twelve men to march abreast, and which led through a small wood, and then through some bogs, where the Irish made their principal stand. It is clear that the latter behaved with desperate bravery from the outset. Their musketeers Avere few, but they made up for the smallness of their number by the steadiness of their aim. Several Eng- lish officers fell, and the Irish fought with such fury that the English leaders had great difficulty in bringing their men to the charge. Sir Alexander Radcliff was slain early in the fight, and the English van- guard was soon after thrown into such disorder that it fell back upon the centre, and in a little while the whole army was flying panic-stricken from the field. Indignant at the ignominious retreat of his troops, Sir DEFEAT OF THE ENGLISH AT THE CURLIEUS. 471 Conyers Clifford refused to join the flying throng, and breaking frorm those who would have forced him from the field, even after he was wounded, he sought his death from the foe. The Four Masters say he was killed by a musket ball, but according to O'Sullevan Beare and Dymmock, he was pierced through the body with a spear. O'Rourke, who was encamped to the east of the Curlieus, arrived Avith his hosting in time to join in the pursuit and slaughter of the queen's army, which lost, according to O'Sullevan, 1,400 men; the English and the Anglo- Irish of Meath having suffered most, as the Connaught royalists were better able to avail themselves of the nature of the country in the flight.* The body of Clifford was recognised, after the battle, by O'Rourke, and his death excited a feeling of regret among the Irish, who esteemed him for his exalte! principles of honor and humanity. His decapitated body was sent to be honorably interred in the old monastery of the Holy Trinity, in Lough Key, and his head was taken to Coloony, and shown to O'Conor, who, on receiving this evidence of the failure of his friends to relieve him, surrendered his castle to O'Donnell, who magnanimously restored his lands to the fallen chief, together with cattle to stock them. Red Hugh and his late foe now seemed to be on friendly terms, and Theobald-na-long, before returning with his fleet to Galway, also made peace with the triumphant chief of Tirconnell. Essex had been writing to Elizabeth reports of his experience in the affairs of Ireland which quite exhausted her patience. She was amazed at the incapacity and infatuation which he manifested ; and his enemies, who were numerous in the council, and who had originally encouraged his appointment to the government of Ireland in the hope that it would lead to his destruction, besides removing him from the court, where his personal influence with the queen was so powerful, now secretly rejoiced at every fresh evidence of his folly. His splendid * O'Sullevan probably exaggerates the loss of the queen's forces, although Fynes Moryson. who passes very lightly over this battle, decidodiy underrates it when be saj's that the English lost oulr 120 men. John Dymmock, a cotemporary writer, in his " Brief Eolation of the Defeat in the Corleus," states, that besides the officers, there were slain two hundred men, whom he calls " base and cowardlye raskalls " because they ran from the Irish. — See Irish Archaeological Society's Tracts for 1843. Dymmock adds that the rest of the royal army would have inevitably perished had not Sir Griffin Markham charged the pursuers with lord Southampton's cavaliy, and thus covered the retreat to Boyle Abbey. The English, according to their own accounts, brought 2,100 men into the field, under twenty-five ensigns, and lost all their military stores, and nearly all their arms, colors, &c. The Irish, whose loss is stated by O'Sullevan to have been only 140 killed and wounded, gave thanks to God and the Blessed Virgin, attributing their victory, with such inequality of numbers and equipments, to the special intervention of heaven. — See O'Sullevans Hist. Calk., torn. 3, lib. 5, c. x.; Cucogry O'Clery's Life of Hugh Boe O'Donnell, MS. ; and notes to tbe Four Ifaslers, vol. vi., pp. 2124, &c. 2 1 472 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. army was wasted away to a few tliousand men, and he wrote to England for two thousand fresh troops, witliout which he said he could take no step against the Ulster chiefs. The reinforcement he demanded came and he then wrote over to say he could do no more that year than march to the frontier of Ulster with 1,300 foot and 300 horse. When Essex arrived at the Lagan, Avhere it bounds Louth and IMonaghan, O'Neill appeared with his forces on the opposite hills. The chief of Tyrone sent O'Hagan to demand a conference, which the aspiring viceroy at first re- fused but next day consented to grant. This memorable meeting took place at Ballyclinch, now Anaghclart-bridge, on the Lagan. Essex cautiously sent persons first to explore the place, and then posting some cavalry on a rising ground at hand, rode alone to the bank of the river. O'Neill approached unattended on the opposite side, and urging his steed into the stream, up to the saddle-girths, saluted the viceroy, says Camden, with great respect. The interview lasted nearly an hour without witnesses, and it has been generally supposed that during that time O'Neill, who possessed a profound knowledge of character, w^as able to make on the mind of the vain and ambitious Essex an impression by no means favorable to English interests. The meeting was then, after a pause, resumed, with the addition of six leading men on each side; and the result was a truce until the 1st of the ensuing May, with a clause that either party might at any time renew the war after a fortnight's notice. It is evident that O'Neill's tone at the meeting was higher and more decisive than English writers pretend, for he demanded that the Catholic religion should be tolerated; that the principal officers of state and the judges should be natives of Ireland ; that he himself, O'Donnell, and the earl of Desmond (whom O'Neill had created) should enjoy the lands of their ancestors ; and that half the army in Ireland should consist of Irishmen. Tliis conference hastened the downfall of Essex. He left Ireland suddenly, and without permission, to explain his conduct, and on pre- senting himself before the queen was thrown into prison. His subse- quent proceedings — his insane attempt to cause a popular outbreak, his trial, his execution in the tower on the 25th of February, 1601, and Elizabeth's remorse and sorrow, are familiar to every reader of English history.* * Essex appears to have been more tolerant to tbe Irish Catholics than his predecessor*. Ho allowed the public celebration of mass in chapels and other houses, although not in the parish churches. He also conferred honors on some Catholics, and liberated some priests from prison , such being the extent cf the toleration granted to Catholics in return for the loyalty displayed by 80 many of them who fought under the standard of Elizabeth. See primate Lombard's C^ymmentaria, p 413. &c.. and O'SuUevan's UiaU Catk., p. '2QG. note. ed. 1850. Captain Thomas o'neill's expedition to munster. 473 A.D. 1600. — In the undisturbed possession of its native princes, Ulster had now enjoyed some years of internal peace, and O'Neill resolved to make a journey to the south, that he might ascertain, by his own obser- vation, what were the hopes and prospects of the country. For this purpose, having left garrisons at the principal points along his own frontier, he set out in January with a force of nearly 3,000 men. He marched through Westmeath, wasting, as he passed, the lands of lord Delvin and Theobald Dillon, till their owners submitted to him. He next ravaged the territory of O'Carroll of Ely, to punish him for the base murder of some of the MacMahons of Oriel, whom he had slain, after inviting them into his service as soldiers. He then continued his march bv Roscrea and the present Templemore, to the abbey of Holy Cross, where the sacred relic, whence that monastery took its name, was brought forth and venerated by the northern chief and his army ; O'Neill presenting many rich gifts to the monks, and extending his protection to the lands of the abbey. The earl of Ormond, at the head of the royal army, approached O'Neill in his passage through Eliogarty, but avoided a collision. At Cashel James FitzThomas, whom he had created earl of Desmond, joined O'Neill with some men, and accompanied him through the County of Limerick, into Cork, by the pass of Bearna-dhearg, or Red Chair. O'Neill laid waste the lands of the loyalist lord Barry, but those of the Roches, and other friendly families, were respected ; and, in the beginning of March he encamped at Inishcarra, between the rivers Lee and Bandon, about eight miles from Cork ; where he remained twenty days, during which Florence ]\lacCarthy, of Carbei'ry, together with the O'Donohoes, ODouovans, Donnell O'Sullevan Beare, the O'Mahonys, and others, either submitted and paid homage to him in person, as our annal- ists say, or sent tokens of submission and presents. Wliile O'Neill was thus encamped at Inishcarra it happened that one of his most valiant warriors, Hugh Maguire, while exploring the country, accompanied only by a priest and two horsemen named MacCafiry and O'Durneen, met Sir Warham Sentleger, president of Munster, riding in advance of a party of sixty horse. Maguire was renowned among the Irish for his prowess and skill as a champion, and Sir Warham enjoyed the same reputation among the English. Not dismayed by the number of the enemy, the Irish chief, poising his spear, spurred his horse towards Lee, who wrota in 1594 " a brief declaration of the government of Ireland, &c.," became a devoted partisan of the earl of Essex, and was implicated in some of the insane plots of that nobleman after his departure from Ireland, for wbich he was arrested in the palace, tried, and hanged at TjOurn. 474 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. Sentleger, but tlie latter fired a pistol and wounded him mortally as he approached. Maguire still urged his horse onward, and transfixed Sent- leger with his spear, while the latter exposed himself by turning his head to avoid the blow. Then, leaving the weapon in the body of his antagonist, he drew his sword and fought his way through the English cavalry, returning to the camp of O'Neill, where he expired, after receiving the last sacraments from the intrepid priest who had witnessed the struggle. Sentleger survived the combat only a few days.* The death of Maguire, and the news that a new viceroy was marching against him from Dublin, determined O'Neill to withdraw rather preci- pitately from Munster. The new English governor was Sir Charles Blunt, lord Mountjoy, who arrived at Howth, with the title of lord deputy, on the 24th of February. He was known to Elizabeth as a man of prudence and experience, and had been designed by her for the office before she made the imprudent choice of her favorite Essex. Mountjoy was accompanied by Sir George Carew, or Carey, soon after appointed to succeed Sir Warham Sentleger as president of Munster; and, while the earls of Ormond and Thomond guarded the passes near Limerick and west of the Shannon, he thought he should find it easy to cut off O'Neill's retreat to Ulster. In this, however, he was mistaken. Notwith- standing the precautions taken to intercept his march, O'Neill arrived in Tyrone without meeting the slightest obstacle, having left some forces with Dermot O'Conor Don and Redmond Burke to aid the earl of Desmond in carrying on the war in Munster. O'Neill's position was now, in some respects, that of uncrowned king of Ireland. The fame of his victory at the Blackwater had spread throughout the continent, and had given the best contradiction to the false reports industriously circulated by the English government, of the total subjugation of the Irish. Mathew of Oviedo, a Spaniard, who had been named archbishop of Dublin by the Pope, brought from the holy father indulgences to all those who had fought for the Catholic faith in Ireland, and to O'Neill himself a crown of phoenix feathers: while from Philip HI., who had succeeded Philip II., as king of Spain, in 1598, he brought a sum of 22,000 golden pieces to pay the Irish soldiers.f • Such is the account given by O'SuIlevan Bcare of this encounter. Tlie English say the meet- ing was accidental; but the Irish assert that Sentleger had information that Maguire was attended jnly by a small party, and, therefore, had came out from Cork with the design of cuttin;;- off the Irish warrior. Compare the Pacata Ilibernia with the Four Masters, and O'SuUevan's Hiit. Cath. t The letter of Clement VIII. to O'Neill is dated Rome, April IGth, 1600, and could not have be»n conveyed to him by Mathew of Oviedo until some time after his return from the Munster ex- pedition ; but a Spanish captain had arrived, with two ships, iunnediatcly after O'Neill's confeicno« CAPTURE OF THE EARL OF ORMONO. 475 Meantime Owny O'iMore fought with great bravery and frequent success, against the royal troops, in defence of his ancestral territory of Leix. Ormond came to a conference with him a few miles from Kil- kenny, and was attended, at the intervieAv, by the earl of Thomond and Sir George Carew. Father James Archer, an Irish Jesuit, famous for his heroic zeal in the cause of religion and his country, accompanied O'More, and entered into an animated discussion with Ormond. They spoke in English, and, as their Avords were warm, the earl calling the father a traitor, while the latter, who was old and unarmed, emphati- cally raised his cane, a young man named Melaghlin O'More, dreading, perhaps, some violence to the priest, rushed forward and seized the reins of the earl's horse, and, almost at the same moment, one or two other Irishmen pulled the earl from his saddle. The earl of Thomond and Sir George Carew immediately put spurs to their steeds, and getting clear of the throng which gathered around, escaped to Kilkenny; but, in the melee which took place one man was slain on each side, and fourteen of Ormond's people made prisoners. The Irish accounts do not intimate that the affair was premeditated, while the English not only assert that it was, but would lead us to suppose that it was pre-arranged with Ormond himself. The earl appears to have acted rashly, but it is im- possible to suggest any reasonable object he could have had in surrend- ering himself to the Irish. He remained in their hands from the 10th of April, the day of the meeting, until the 12th of June, when he was set at liberty at the de^'ire of O'Neill, to whom the countess of Ormond applied for his liberation; and Mountjoy, who was jealous that the military command had not been withdrawn from Ormond, would, probably, have been well pleased had he remained a captive.* Sir George Carew prided himself on his powers of " witt and cun- ning." In the " Pacata Hibernia" he, or his secretary, Stafford, has left us many curious and frightful examples of his subtlety. Indeed, craft and treachery seem to have been in such constant requisition on the royal side in these wai's, that we can set but little value on any charges made against the Irish of employing the same unworthy weapons. with Essex. Cerda, or Lerda, another envoy from the king of Spain, arrived in the beginning of 1G02. — Lombard, p. 452 : O'SuUivan, p. 212, n. It is possible that the present called the phoenix feather was similar to that sent by a former pontiff to prince John, on his being made nominal king of Ireland — Vide supra, p. 230, n. * The Four Masters say the capture of Ormond took place at Ballyragget, (Bel-atha-Eaghat); and, in the Pacata Hibernia, the place is called CoiTonneduffe. — See, in the latter work, lib. i., c. iii., the joint account of the aftair given by Carew and the earl of Thomond ; also, O'Sullevan's Hist. Calh., torn. iii. lib. v. c. viii., p.; Lombard's Co7,iment., pp. 436, &c. ; and Ledwich, p. 275, 2nd ed Ormond gave sixteen hostnjje* fir thepayn.ent oi £3,000, should he seek any retaliation. 47G TJEtaiS OF ELIZABETH. Some of Carew's refined strokes of policy now present themselves. Der- mot O'Conor, who has been already mentioi>ed, and who commandec. 1,400 bonnaught-men, or mercenar}^ soldiers, chiefly from Connai>ght, in the service of James FitzThomas, whom we may here designate by his popular though derisive title of the "sugane earl," was married to Mar- garet, daughter of the late unfortunate earl of Desmond. This lady naturally disliked the sugane earl as the usurper of her brother's rights. To her, therefore, the lord president proposed, chiefly thi'ough tl>e agency of Miler Magrath, the Protestant archbishop of Cashel, that her husband should take the sugane earl prisoner, and deliver him into his (the president's) hands, for which act a sum of £1,000 and a commission in the queen's pay would be his reward. Other conditions flattering to her and to her brother, who from his childhood had been in the queen's ©ustcdy in London, were added, and the lady Margaret prevailed upon her husband to accept the lord president's proposition. About the same time a miscreant named Nugent, who had first been servant to Sir Thomas Norris, and had then turned over to the insurgents, presented himself to Carew, and offered, as the price of his pardon, to assassinate either the sugane earl or his brother John. A plot having been already laid against the former, Nugent was instructed to murder John : but when in the act of levelling his pistol at John's back he was seized^ and being sentenced by the Irish leaders to die, he confessed his design, adding that the president had hired several others, who were sworn to commit the deed. Carew then proceeded to carry cut his scheme against the sugane earl. He dispersed his troops among different garri- sons, to give the Irish confidence, and then wrote a feigned letter to his intended victim, implying that an understanding existed between them, and that there was a plan which he urged him to execute for delivering up Dermot O'Conor dead or alive ! This letter was conveyed to Dermot, who pretended that he had intercepted it, and made it a pretext to seize the sugane earl, after employing some ingenious excuses to separate him from his followers. This was effected on the 18th of June. Dermot arrested the sugane earl in the name of O'Neill ; produced the counter- feit correspondence ; and charged the earl and his brother John with treason to the Catholic cause. He then imprisoned his captive in Castlo- lishin,* and sent intelligence of his success to Carew, adding that he v/as ready to deliver to him James FitzThomas as soon as he was paid the stipulated reward. However, before this part of the dastardly schenie * In the townland of Castle-Ishin, pansh ol Kuocktemple, county of Cork, not far from tJii borders of the county of Limerick. Four Masim-s, p. 2173, not*' MISSION OF THE YOUNG EARL OF DESMOND. 477 could be executed, John FitzThomas and Pierce Lacy, penetrating O'Conor's baseness, mustered 4,000 men and rescued the sugane earl ; whereupon O'Conor was obliged to withdraw with his provincials into his own country. Thus the plan failed in its primary object, but it had the effect of hi'eaking up the confederacy which O'Neill had established in Munster.* Early in July the castle of Glin, on the banks of the Shannon, was taken after an obstinate defence, and the garrison put to the sword, by Sir George Carew and the earl of Thomond, avIio marched on the Clare side of the river from Limerick, and crossing at a convenient point attacked the castle with ordnance conveyed by shipping. O'Conor Kerry then surrendered his castle of Carrigafoyle, and the population of Desmond in o-eneral havins fled to the woods and mountains, the president planted garrisons in their castles and returned with the earl of Thomond to Limerick ; while in a short time the sugane earl found himself a.bandoned by the great bulk of his followers, who made their submission to government. During this time lord Mountjoy was engaged in making some incur- sions to the borders of Tyrone, and in carrying on a war of extermination against the people of Leix, who, under their brave chieftain, Owny O'More, had recovered all their ancestral possessions except Fort-Leix, or Maryborough; but the intrepid Owny, having exposed himself incau- tiously, was killed by a musket shot, on the 17th of August, and Leix fell once more into the hands of the invaders.f Ehzabeth's wily secretary, Cecil, bethought himself of a plan to render the youthful James, son of Gerald, earl of Desmond, useful in the present Irish war. For this purpose it was resolved that he should be released from his captivity for a space, and sent over to Ireland, apparently, but not reuUy, restored to his title and inheritance, " See all the details of tliese base plans related with shameless parade in the Pacata Hibernia, pp. 65, 91, 97, 193, ed. 1810. t We are told by Fynes Morysnn, who was Monntjoy's secretary, that when the government troops penetrated into Leix, on this occasion, they found the land well manured, the tields well fenced, the towns populous, and the roads and pathways well beaten, -so that it seemed incredible, as he insolently observes, that this should have been done " by so barbarous inhabitants "; and ho adds, " the reason whereof was, that the queen's forces, during these war.s, never, till then, came amongst them." TLey came, alas ! soon enough, for the same historian tells us, " our captains, and, by their example, the common soldiers, did cut down with their swords all the rebels' corn, to the value of ^10,000 and upwai-ds, the only qieans by which they were to live." Who were the " barbarians " in this instance? — the men who, ni a few short years of precarious security, gave surJi evidence of indu'itry and progress, or Mountioy's soldiers ? About this time the same viceroy invaded Offaly, and. with a kind of harrows called pracas, constructed with long pins, tore up from the roots all tlie unripe corn, and thus prepared the way for one of the most horrible famines which ever visited this unhappy country. — iSce Four Masters, vol. vi., p. 218'^ 478 • REIGN OF ELIZABETH. in order to draw off the followers of his house from the usurper, Jamen FitzThomas. Great precaution was employed. A letter was written in the queen's name to Sir George Carew, to whom also were sent the patents for the young earl's restoration, to be used only as might be found expedient. Reports of the expected arrival of the Geraldine were industriously circulated ; a servant Avearing the well-known livery of the family was sent through the country with the news; and at length, on the 14th of October, the young earl landed at Youghal, at- tended by a captain Price, who was directed to watch all his movements, and to report carefully every circumstance to government. From Youghal he proceeded to Mallow, where he was met by the lord presi- dent, Carew; and thence, accompanied by Miler Magrath and Master Boyle — then clerk of the council, and afterwards the great earl of Cork — he went to Kilmallock, whither the people flocked in great multitudes, not only filling the streets and the windows, but the very roofs of the houses, to greet the heir of ancient Desmond. It required the efforts of a guard of soldiers to make a passage for him through the crowd; but this popular enthusiasm was soon rudely checked. The next morning being Sunday, the young earl, who was educated in the religion of the state, went to the Protestant service ; numbers, who met him on the way, implored of him, in Irish, not to desert the faith of his fathers; but the sad truth now broke upon them — the son of the earl of Desmond was a renegade, and those who saluted him with reverence and affection the day before, groaned and reviled him as he returned from the Protestant church. Shunned by the people, the unhappy youth, being useless to his employers, was recalled to his London exile, where he sunk iuto the grave a few months after.* We have now to go back a little, in point of time, in order to trace the * The young earl of Desmond got possession of Castlemaine for the President through his in- fluence witii the warders, but this was the only sei-vice which he was able to perform ; and Listowel, the last castle held for the sugane earl, was taken by Sir Charles Wilmot in November. See Pacata Hib b. i. c. xvi. Connected with this visit of the young earl to Ireland, we find a remark- able instance of retribution in the case of the traitor Dermot O'Conor Don. O'Conor being married to the sister of the young earl of Desmond, wished to visit his brother-in-law on his arrival in Munster, and for this purpose procured safe-conducts from the lord-deputy and from Sir George Carew. Thus prepared, and accompanied by an escort of armed men, he set out from the country of O'Conor Roe ; but in his route towards Thomond, he was attacked near Gort, in the county of Galway, by Theobald-na-long, who had the command of a hundred men in the Queen's pay. Dermot and his party sought refuge in a church, but Theobald set fire to the building, slew about forty of Dermot's men as they issued from the burning pile, and havuig taken the traitor himself pri- soner, had him beheaded the following day. Tlieobald may have been actuated by some patriotic iKvtive in this proceeding, but he excused himself on the plea that he only avenged the death of a- kinsman, lord Burke, who was slain by O'Conor in Munster. The act greatlj* annoyed the govern- uiunt, and he was deprived of the queen's commission. See Pacuta Hib. b, i. c. xvii. docwra's expedition to lough foyle. 479 progress of events in Ulster. On the 16th of May a fleet arrived in Lough Foyle from England, having touched, in its passage, at Carrick- fergus, to take up some troops that had marched from Dublin. This fleet conveyed an army of 4,000 foot and 200 horse, under the command of Sir Henry Docwra, together with large supplies of military stores, building materials, and other necessaries. The troops disembarked at Culmore, on the Donegal side of the Bay, and constructed a fort there, in which captain Lancelot Atford was left with six hundred men ; and, after visiting Ellogh, or Aileach, where captain Ellis Flood was placed with 150 men. Sir Henry marched on the 22nd to Derry, where he resolved to erect two forts, and to make a chief plantation. His build- ings were constructed chiefly from the materials of the ancient churches which he found there, and of the monastery of St. Colunibkille. Lord Mountjoy made a feint of entering Tyrone by the Blackwater, and thus drew off the attention of O'Neill and O'Donnell, until Docwra's expedi- tion had secured the required ground, when the deputy returned to Dublin,* and the Irish chiefs hastened to attack the invaders at Lough F'oyle. The latter only stood on the defensive, and, having entrenched themselves behind strong works, were able to resist the assaults of the Irish with little loss. A part of the original plan was, that one thousand foot and fifty horse, under the command of captain Mathew Morgan, should be detached from the expedition and sail to Ballyshannon,to form another fort there ; but this idea was abandoned, and all the troops were found few enough for Docwra's enterprise. Their ranks were soon greatly strengthened by the accession of some renegade Irish, the first to come in being Art O'Neill, son of Turlough Luineach, who joined Docwra, with a few followers, on the first of June. Red Hugh O'Donnell soon grew weary of the slow work of besieging the English in their forts at Lough Foyle. His taste was for a more active and desultory warfare, and leaving the task of watching the movements of Docwra to Niall Garv O'Donnell and O'Doherty of Inish- owen, he set out himself, with the hosting of north Connaught, and such men as could be spared from Tirconnell, and marched into the territories of Clanrickard and Thomond. His plundering parties visited almost the whole of Clare, and the work of pillage having been completed, without • The lord deputy marched to the confines of Tyrone, in May, July, and September, this year. On the last of these occasions he was repulsed by O'Neill, at the Moyry Pass, between Dundalk and Newry ; but, owing to some remissness on the side of the Irish, he penetrated soon after beyond the pass. Here, however, he was vigorously attacked by O'Neill, and leturoed to Dul^lio without sfiectiuK auv object for that Ume. 480 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. any opposition, by the 24r]i of June, he returned home. On the 28th of that month some English troops were defeated, and their leader, sir John Chamberlaine, slain in an attack on O'Doherty; and, on the 29th of July, O'Donnell drove off, from their pasture before Derry, a great number of the English horses, and repulsed sir Henry Docwra, who went in pursuit with a strong force ; Docwra himself receiving a wound in tlie forehead, which obliged him to return to his fortress. In October O'Donnell set out on another plundering excursion to Thomond, leaving the command at home to his kinsman and brother-in- law, Niall Garv; but Niall, who was the son of Con, son of Calvagh O'Donnell, turned traitor and went over to the English, with his three brothers, Hugh Boy, Donnell, and Con. Xiall marched with one thousand men to Lifford, which he took for the English, who set about constructing a fort there; and Red Hugh, hearing of this defection before he had passed Ballymote, hastened back and besieged his false cousin in Lifford. Thus he remained thirty days, when he thought it time to secure his army in winter quarters. Two Spanish ships arrived oft the Connaught coast, about Christmas, and put into the harbour of Killibegs, at the desire of O'Donnell, who sent immediate notice to O'Neill. The latter hastened to Donegal, where the treasure and mili- tary stores sent to them from Spain were divided among the two chiefs and their adherents.* During the winter various services were rendered to the English by their new adherents, Niall Garv O'Donnell and Art O'Neill ; so that Docwra confesses that but for the " intelligence and guidance" of these Irish allies little or nothing could have been done by the English troops at Lough Foyle.f A.D. 1601. — Disasters now began to rain thickly upon the Irish in every part of the country. Mountjoy once more crossed the pass of Moyry, in June, this year, through the negligence of the Irish, and erected a strong castle on the northern side. He next marched beyond Slieve Fuaid and the Blackwater, burning and destroying the crops as he passed. From this he threatened O'Neill's castle of Benbm'b, but encountering a desperate resistance on his march, he returned to Dublin in August, after placing ganisons at several strong points. Twice did Mountjoy proclaim O'Neill. He offered a reward of £2,000 to any one who would capture him alive, and £1,000 for his head; yet, the English writers complain that these promises did not induce a single Irishman to raise his hand against the sacred person of his chief. An * Mageoghan saj'S it was by these vessels that Mathewof Ovieclo and Cerda arrived in Irdand t See Docwra's i\arraiion, published in the Miscellany of the Celtic Society. DECLINING POWER OF THE IRISH. 481 Englishman, however, whose name is not mentioned, undertook to assassinate O'Neill, and obtained, for that purpose, from sir Charles Danvers, governor of Armagh, leave to pass the English sentinels, on his way to Tyrone's camp. The assassin subsequently boasted that he had drawn his sword to slay the chief. But he was pronounced to be of unsound mind, " although," says the lord deputy, " not the less fit on that account for such a purpose." The wretched sugane earl sent his brother, John, and Pierce Lacy, to Ulster, to sue for aid from O'Neill, while he himself, deserted by all his followers, save a poor harper named Dermot O'Dugan, sought refuge in the wilds of Aherlow. He was chased from this place, and subsequently taken in a cave by his old adherent, the white knight, who delivered him to sir George Carew, for a reward of £1,000. He was then tried at Cork, and convicted of high treason, but his life was spared, lest his brother, John, should be set up as earl after him ; and, about the end of August, he was sent in chains to London, along with Fineen, or Florence, MacCarthy, who had placed himself incautiously in the hands of the president. Both were confined in the tower until their death. Li Connaught, Ulick, earl of Clanrickard, who was such an exemplary loyalist from the time he murdered his brother, died, and was succeeded by his son, Rickard, who became a most active leader in the queen's service. Some of the smaller chieftains in Tirconnell went over to the English, and O'Donnell was kept in constant motion by enemies on every side. The young earl of Clanrickard marched against him, but was compelled to retire, and Niall Garv was next sent by Docwra, with five hundred English troops, to occupy the monastery of Donegal, where he was besieged by Red Hugh.* On the evening of the 29th of September, some gunpowder in the monastery having exploded, the building took fire, and this was a signal to O'Donnell to attack the garrison. A struggle, of which the horrors were intensified by the conflagration and the surrounding darkness, was kept up during the night, but Niall Garv held out with indomitable obstinacy. He was supported by an English * F. Donatus Moony, ■who was the sacristan of the Donegal monastery, and afterwards provin- cial of his order for Ireland, gives, in his MS. history of the Irish Franciscans, compiled in 1617, some curious details of the arrival of the English soldiers at Donegal, and of the siege which followed. Up to that time there were forty brothers in the house, and the sacred ceremonies were per- formed there with great solemnity. He enumerates the suits of vestments, many of which were of cloth of gold or silver; and the sacred utensiLs, among which were sixteen large chalices of silver, only two of which were not gilt. Notice being received of the approach of the military, all these valuables were removed in a boat to a place of safety in the woods, but, in some time after, they fell •iito the hands of Oliver Lambert, when governor of Connaught, and were converted to profane uses.— See appendix to O'SuUivan's IIis(. Catk., cd. of 1850. 482 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. ship in the harbour, and retreated next morning, with the remnant of his troops, to the monastery of Magherabeg, which he fortified, and de- fended against the renewed attacks of Red Hugh. The long-expected aid from Spain at length arrived. A Spanish fleet, conveying an army of about 3,000 infantry, under the command of Don Juan del Aguila, entered the harbour of Kinsale, on the 23rd of September, and the English garrison having retired to Cork on their approach, the Spaniards took possession of the town, and proceeded tc fortify themselves there, and in two castles which defended the harbour ; that of Rincorran, on the east, and Castle-ni-Park, on the west of the mouth. Lord Mountjoy was at Kilkenny when he received news of the invasion, and with sir George Carew, lord president of Munster, hastened to reconnoitre the enemy. The army, which Carew had under his command, consisted of 3,000 men, of whom, at least, 2,000 were Irish, and the entire royal army, at this time, mustered about 7,000 men. The Spaniards were not more than about half the number originally destined for Ireland ; but ill-luck seemed to attend this expedition from the beginning. Owing to the absence of the fleet at Terceira, its de- parture was retarded until the 6,000 men, originally composing the armament, were diminished to less than 4,000 ; and when the expedition did sail it encountered a storm that compelled seven of the ships, con- veying a chief part of the artillery and military stores, and the arms intended for distribution to the Irish, to put back to Corunna. O'Neill andO'Donnell had besought king Philip to send his aid to Ulster, where they would be prepared to co-operate w^ith their Spanish allies, and where a smaller force would thus suffice, while in Munster they could give no help ; and yet this small army was thrown into an inconsiderable port of the southern province, long after the war there had been totally extinguished. Mathew of Oviedo, who arrived in the Spanish fleet, as Avell as the general, del Aguila, sent notice to the northern chiefs, who, notwith- standing the distance and the difficulties of so long a journey in winter, prepared with devoted bravery to set out to join their allies. O'Donnell, with his habitual ardor, was first on the way. He was joined by Felim O'Doherty, MacSweeny-na-tuath, O'Boyle, O'Rourke, the brother of O'Conor Sligo, the O'Conor Roe, MacDermot, O'Kelly, some of the O'Flaherties, William and Redmond Burke, and others, and mustered about 2,500 hardy men. FitzMaurice of Kerry, and the Knight of Glin, who had been for some time mth him, were also in this corps. He set out about the end of October, and had reached Ikerrin, in Tipperary, THE SPANIARDS AT KINSALE. 4 S3 where he purposed to await O'Neill, when he found that Sir George Carew was encamped in the plains of Cashel, to cut off his advance to the south, while St. Lawrence, with the army of the Pale, was approach- ing from Leinster, and the lofty mountains, which lay to the west, were impassable at that season for an army encumbered Avith bae-gan;e. For- tunately a frost of unusual intensity set in and opened a firm road over the bogs, of which O'Donnell availed himself ; and by a circuitous route across Slieve Phelim, and by the abbey of Owney, he reached Groom, after a march of thirty-two Irish miles in one day, on the 23rd of November. Carew, still attempting to intercept him, only succeeded in reaching Kilmallock tlie same day, but des]:)airing of beino; able to cope with " so swift- footed a geneml," he rejoined the lord deputy, then besieging Kinsale, and left O'Donnell to pursue his march. The English carried on the siege with great activity during the month of November, and the Spaniards, on their side, behaved with admirable bravery. On the 1st of that month the besiegers took the castle of Rincorran, and made eighty-six Spaniards prisoners, besides a number of Irish " chui'ls," and women and children ; and on the 20th, Gastle-ni- park fell into their hands. The Spaniards made several desperate sorties, in which great numbers were slain on both sides ; but as the chief part of their artillery was in those ships which had put back to Spain, they had only three or four cannon to defend the fortifications, while the English had about twenty pieces of ordnance constantly playing on the walls of the town, and an army which amounted on the 20th, according to Moryson, to 11,800 foot and 857 horse, but which was probably in the gross nearer to 15,000 men.* On the 1st of Decem- ber, a breach having been made practicable, the English sent forward a storming party of 2,000 men, who were repulsed with great gallantry by the Spaniards. On the 3rd, the missing portion of the Spanish fleet, under Don Pedro Zubiaur, arrived at Castlehaven, some twenty-five Irish miles west from Kinsale, and landed over 700 men, parties of whom were put in possession of Fineen O'Driscoll's castle of Baltimore, Don- nell O'Sullevan Beare's castle of Dunboy, at Bearehaven, and the fori of Castlehaven. Part of the English fleet, under admiral sir Richard Levison, was sent from Kinsale to attack the Spaniards at Castlehaven, and a smart action ensued on the 6th, the English losing over 300 men, * The English army was about this time considerably augmented. Sir Christopher St. Laurence arrived with the levy of the Pale ; and the earl of Clanrickard, with his retainers ; the earl of Thomond with 1,000 men from England ; and 2,000 infantry, with some cavalry, which had been landed at Waterford, were all recent additioQ& 484 REIGN OF EMZABETH. and being obliged to return to Kinsale next day, althongli Moryson, as usual, claims the victory for them. O'Neill, who had tarried on his way to plunder Meath, at length arrived, and on the 21st of December showed himself, with all his forces, on a hill to the north of Kinsale, about a mile from the English camp, at a place called Belgoley. His own division must have been under 4,000 men, seeing that with O'Donnell's 2,500, O'Sullevan Beare's retainers, and the few others whom the shattered resources of Munster could supply, the whole Irish army amounted, even according to the English accounts, to only 6,000 foot and 500 horse, with 300 Spaniards from Castlehaven, under captain Alphonso Ocampo ; while the English force at this time, allowing for losses, must have been at least 10,000 strong. ■ The position of the English was now very critical. They were losing great numbers by sickness and desertion, and were so closely hemmed in between the Irish on one side and the town on the other, that they could procure no fodder for their horses, and were threatened with famine, so that Mountjoy thought seriously of raising the siege and retiring to Cork for the winter. But, on the other hand, the Spa- niards in Kinsale had lost all patience. They had been in error as to the state of the country, and learned with chagrin on their arrival that Florence MacCarthy and the earl of Desmond were prisoners in London; that the Catholics of Munster could afford them no active co-operation; and that a large portion of the army arrayed against them consisted of Catholic Irish. Their own shipping had been sent back to Spain, and the harbour was blockaded by an English squadron, which cut off all hope of succour from abroad. Under these circumstances Don Juan del Aguila wrote pressing letters to the Irish chiefs, importuning them to come to his assistance without further delay. He was a brave soldier, but an incompetent general ; and in his self-conceit and ignorance of their real circumstances had conceived a disgust and personal enmity for the Irish that unfitted him to act effectively with them. He urged them to attack the English camp on a certain night, and promised on his side to make a sortie in full force simultanously ; but when this plan was discussed in the council of the Irish chiefs, it was opposed by O'Neill, who well knew that with delay the destruction of the English army by disease and famine was certain. O'Donnell, however, took a different view, and thought they were bound in honor to meet the wishes of their allies, and the majority of the leaders agreeing with him, the immediate attack was resolved on. It happened for the ill-luck of the Irish that Brian Mac Hugh Oge* THE BATTLE OF KIXSALE. 485 MacMahon, whose son had been a page in England with the president, Carew, sent a boy, on the night of the 22nd of December, to the English camp to request captain William Taafe to procure for him from the president a bottle of aquavits?, or usquebagh. The favor was granted, and next day MacMahon again sent the boy with a letter to thank Carew for his present, and to warn him of the attack which the Irish were to make on the English lines that night. This message, which was confii'med by a letter from Don Juan, which the English intercepted, was acted on, and thus the English w^ere perfectly prepared against the intended surprise. After some dispute about the command — for it would appear that O'Neill and O'Donnell vrere not at all in accord on this ill-concerted enterprise — the Irish army set out under cover of the darkness on the night of the 23rd, in three divisions, captain Tyrrell leading the vanguard, O'Neill the centre, and O'Donnell the rear. The obscurity was broken by frequent flashes of lightning, but their lurid and fitful glare only rendered the way more doubtful. The guides missed then" course, and after wandering throughout the night, O'Neill, accompanied by O'Sullevan and the Spanish captain, Ocampo, ascended a small hill at the dawn of day, and saw the English entrenchments close at hand, with the men under arms, the cavalry mounted and in advance of their quarters, and all in readiness for battle. His own men were at the time in the utmost disorder, and O'Donnell's division was at a con- derable distance. It was therefore determined that the attack should, under the circumstances, be postponed, or, as others say, that the men should retire a little that they might be put into order ; but this moment of hesitation was fatal. The English cavalry poured out upon them, and charged the broken masses. For an hour a portion of the Irish struggled to maintain their ground ; but the scene Avas one of frightful carnage and confusion, and the retreat, which had actually commenced before the charge, was soon turned into a total rout. Ocampo's Spaniards made a gallant stand ; but he himself was taken prisoner, and most of his men were cut to pieces. O'Donnell's division came at length into the field, and repulsed a wing of the English cavalry ; but the panic became general, and in vain did Red Hugh strain his lungs to rally the flying multitude. O'Neill exerted his wonted bravery, but all his efforts were fruitless. At least a thousand of the Irish were slain in that dis- astrous overthrow, and all of them who were taken prisoners were hanged without mercy ; while the loss of the English was very trifling, and the pursuit was only abandoned thjough fear of an ambuscade, or, 480 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. as Moryson says, through the fatigue of the horses, which had been exhausted for want of fodder.* A.D. 1602. — The night after their defeat, the Irish army halted at Inishannon, near Bandon, and bitter was the anguish in which their leaders indulged for the misfortunes of that day. They attributed it, say the annalists, to the anger of God, and deemed the number of the slain a trifling loss compared with the irreparable injury inflicted on their cause. O'Neill, more especially, was plunged in the deepest dejec- tion. He was already advanced in years, and seemed to have no hope of retrieving their lost fortunes ; yet gloomy though the f orebodmgs of the Irish chiefs must have been that night, darker far was the fate of their country than they could have foreseen. It was resolved that O'Donnell shoidd proceed to Spain to explain their position to king Philip; and on the 6th of January, 1602 (new style), that is, three days after the battle of Kinsale, Red Hugh sailed in a Spanish ship from Castlehaven, accompanied by Redmond Burke, Hugh Mostian or Mostyn, and father Flaithry, or Florence, O'Mulconry; and followed by the loud wailings of his people. t * This fatal conflict tools place on the morning of the 24th of December, 1601, according to the old mode of computation, which was still in use among the English, but on that of the 3rd of January, 1602, according to the reformed calendar which the Irish and Spaniards had adopted. Fynes Moryson asserts that 1,200 of the Irish were left dead upon the field, besides those slain in the pursuit; while on the English side sir Richard Greame was killed, and captains Danvers and Godol- phin wounded, but Camden says that several of the English were wounded. No reliance, how- ever, can be placed on these numbers, and it is probable that the English loss was much greater than was thus assumed. The earl of Clanrickard distinguished himself by his zeal, killing twenty of the Irish kerne with his own hand, and ciying out to " spare no rebel ; " for which services the lord deputy knighted him on the field. That MacMahon, who betrayed to the enemy the secret of the intended attack, may have also hastened the disastrous flight is not improbable, but history is sUent on this point. Carew, or his secretary, Stafford, states in the Pacata Ilihemia that the earl of Thomond often mentioned an old prophec}', which foretold that the Irish would be defeated near Kinsale, and Moryson says an old manuscript, containing the prophecy, was shown to lord Mountjoy on the day of the battle. Both English and Irish accounts refer to some deception which led the Irish and Spaniards into eiTor as to their respective movements ; and the Enghsh horsemen, says the Pacata, imagined that they saw "lamps at the points of their spears" that night. For the details of this unfortunate affair the reader may consult the Hist. Cath. Compend. of P. O'Sullevan Beare, Fynes Morysou's History of Ireland, the Pacata Hibernia, Camden, and the Four Masters. t O'Donnell landed at Corunna on the 14th of January, and was received with great honor by the count Cara^ena, governor of Galicia, who treated him as a prince, and with higher honor than would have been bestowed on any of the grandees of Spain. The count presented him at his departure, on the 27th, with a sura of a thousand ducats, and accompanied him as far as Santa Lucia. Next day O'Donnell proceeded to the city of Compostella, where the highest honor was paid to him by the archbishop, clergy, and citizens. The archbishop invited him to lodge in his own palace, but O'Donnell respectfully declined ; and on the 29th the prelate celebrated mass with pontifical solemnity, and administered the Holy Sacrament to O'DonneU. He afterwards entertained the Irish cliief at dinner with great magnificence, and presented him on his departure, as the count of Carajena had done, with a thousand ducats. •' The king," says F. Patrick Sinnot, an Irish priest (whose letter from Corunna, relat- CAPITULATION OF THE SPANIARDS. d87 O'Neill returned by a rapid march to Ulster, and Rory O'Donnell, to whom the chieftaincy of Tirconnell had been delegated by his brother, Red Hugh, proceeded with his followers to North Connaught. In the mean time Don Juan del Aguila, after some other fruitless sallies, sent proposals of capitulation, which were accepted by Mountjoy on the 2nd of January, old style, or the 12th, new style. They were very honorable to the Spaniards, who evacuated Eansale with their colors flying, and with their arms, ammunition, and valuables, and were to be conveyed back to Spam on giving up their other garrisons of Dunboy, Baltimore, and Castlehaven. The siege had lasted for more than ten weeks, from the 17th of October; and in it the Spaniards, who displayed great bravery, lost about 1,000 men ; while the loss of the English, by fight- ing and by disease, must have been at least 4,000 men. Don Juan's chivalry was of the quixotic kind. He challenged lord Mountjoy to settle by single combat the questions at issue between king Philip and queen Elizabeth; but the offer was of course rejected; and after the surrender of Kinsale an intimate friendship grew up between him and sir George Carew. The Irish, for whom Don Juan expressed contempt, believed him to be guilty of perfidy or cowardice ; and Donnell O'Sullevan Beare, acting on this impression, contrived to recover possession of his own castle of Dunboy, by causing an aperture to be made in the wall, and entering it with eighty men, at the dead of night, while the Spanish garrison were asleep ; and then declaring that he held it for the king of Spain, to whom he had formally transferred his allegiance. Don Juan was enraged when he heard of this proceeding, which he considered a violation of the capitulation, and offered to go himself to dispossess ing these circumstances, to F. Dominic Collius, a Jesuit in the castle of Dunboy, is published in the Pacatu Eibemid), " understanding of O'Donnell's arrival, wrote unto the Earle of Cara^ena conceming the seception of him, and the aflfaires of Ireland, which was one of the most gracious Letters that ever King directed ; for by it plainely appeared that hee would endanger his kirigdome to succour the Catholikes of Ireland, for the perfecting whereof great preparations were in hand." O'Donnell repaired to Zamora, where the king then was, and was graciously received by Philip III., by whose desire he returned to Corunna, to wait until the preparations for another armament for Ireland could be completed. Spring and summer wore away, and O'Donnell, whoss impatience would let him wait no longer, set out for Valladolid, where the court was then held; but fell sick on the way and died at Simancas on the 10th of September, 1602, in the twenty-ninth year of his age. He was buried in the cathedral of YaUadoIid, where the king caused a suitable monument to be erected over him. Thus died one of the most illustrious heroes that Ireland had produced, and with him perished the last hope of succour for his country. In his last illness he was attended by his confes- sor, F. Florence O'AIulconry, or Conroy, and by F. Maurice Ultagh, or DonlcNy, both Franciscan friars. The latter was from the convent of O'Donnell's town of Donsgal ; and tbe former, who was highly distinguished for his learning among the schoolmen of Spain, was, in ICIO, made archbishop of Tuam by the pope, and obtained, in 1616, from Philip III., the foundation of the college of St. Anthony of* Padua, at Louvain, for Irish Franciscans. See his life in T. Darcy Magee's ^ri$h Writers: also in the fnih WiHters of Ware and of O'F.eillv, 2 K 488 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. O'Siillevan ; but Mount joy was more desirous for his departure than his assistance, and the Spaniards re-embarked for their own country, some on the 20th of February, and the remainder on the 16th of March. Don Juan, on his return, was placed under arrest, and died of grief. The castle of Dunboy (Dunbaoi) v,-as deemed from its position to be almost impregnable. Situated on a point of land separated by a narrow channel from Bear Island, in Bantry Bay, it could only be approached on the land side through a vast extent of mountainous and bo^iiY coun- try, while by sea it was also difficult of access, owing to the extreme rug- gedness of the coast. Its capture was therefore regarded as an enter- prise full of danger and difficulties, and many were the arguments used with Sir George CareAv to dissuade him from undertaking it. The lord president had resolved, however, upon the project, and set out from Cork on the 23rd of April, accompanied by the earl of Thomond, who had been sent a little before to reconnoitre the Irish position. Carew's army amounted to about 3,000 men, although he himself says the efficient men were not above half that number ; and to these was soon after added a force with v>'hich Sir Charles Wilmot had been hunting down the scat- tered "rebels"' in Kerr}-, and with which he had forced his way across Mangerton, in spite of the resistance of Tyrrell. Various causes pro- tracted Carew's march and the preparations for the siege, but especially the delay in the arrival of the shipping which conveyed the ordnance ; so that it was only on the 1st and 2nd of June that the army landed on Bear Island, and on the 6th that they crossed to the main land on the western shore of Bearehaven, and commenced the operations of the sieo-e. The defence of the castle was entrusted by O'Sullevan to Rich- ard Mageoghegan, while O'Sullevan himself and Tyrrell, with their forces, were encamped at some distance in the interior. There were a few Spanish gwiners in the castle, and Carew contrived to have a letter in Spanish conveyed to them, tempting them to desert, but ineffectually. The earl of Thomond also, by Carew's directions, held a parley with Mao-eocrhesan on Bear Island, on the 5th of June; but all the offers held out to him, and all the earl's " eloquence and artifice," failed to turn that brave and faithful soldier from his duty. The siege was now carried on with unrelenting vigor, but the heroism of the besieged could not be subdued. The garrison consisted at the commencement of onlv 143 chosen fighting men, who had but a few small canon, while the comparatively large army which assailed them were well supplied with artillery and all the means of attack. At length, on the 17th of June, when the castle had been nearly shattered to pieces, the garrison offered SIEGE OF DUXBOY. 489 to surrender if allowed to depart with their arms ; but tlieir messenger was immediately hanged, and the order for the assault was given. Al- though the proportion of the assailants in point of numbers was over- whelming, the storming party were resisted with the most desperate bravery. From turret to turret, and in every part of the crumbling ruins, the struggle was successively mamtained throughout the live-long day; tliirty of the gallant defenders attempted to escape by swimming, but soldiers had been posted in boats, who killed them in the water ; and at length the surviving portion of the garrison retreated into a cel- lar, into which the only access was by a naiTow, winding flight of stone steps. Their leader, Mageoghegan, being mortally wounded, the com- mand was given to Thomas Taylor, the son of an Englishman, and the intimate friend of captain Tyrrell, to whose niece he was married. Nine barrels of gunpowder were stowed in the cellar, and with these Taylor declared that he would blow up all that remained of the castle, burying liimself and his companions, with their enemies, in the ruins, unless they received a promise of life. This was refused by the savage Carew, who, placing a guard upon the entrance to the cellar, as it was then after sun- set, returned to the work of slaughter next morning. Cannon balls were then discharged among the Irish in their last dark retreat, and Taylor was forced by his companions to surrender unconditionally; but when some of the Engiish officers descended into the cellar, they found the wounded Mageoghegan with a lighted candle in his hand, staggering to throw it into the gunpowder. Captain Power thereupon seized him by the arms, and the others despatched him with their swords ; but the work of death was not yet completed. Fifty-eight of those who had surrendered were hanged that day in the English camp, and some others who were then reserved were hanged a few days after ; so that not one of the one hundred and forty-three heroic defenders of Dunboy sur- vived. On the 22nd of June the remains of the castle were blown up by Carew with the gunpowder found there.* * See minute details of the siege in the Pacaia Ili'jernia, and in O'Sullevan's Hist. Catfu Among the prisoners taken in Dunboy was Father Dominic Collins, or O'Collane, who is called in the Pacata a friar, and by P. O'SuUevan Deare " a lay religions of the Society of Jesus." In his youth he was an officer in the Freuch service, but alauiloned the world and became a Jesuit. He was taken to Youghal, his native town, and executed there. Father Archer, another Irish Jesuit, was at that time in O'Sitllevan's camp ; and in one of the attaclvs made by Tyrrell on the English during the siege of Dunboy, had a narrow escape i'rom falling into the hands of liis bitter ene- mies. Among the incidents of the siege it should be stated that the sons and retainers of Owen O'Sul- levan, who claimed the right of chieftaincy against Donnell O'Sullevan, were actively engaged on the English side. We may also take this opportunity to mention, with reference to the orthography of this name, that although the cor.smonly received form be •' O'Sullivan," it was written " O'.SulIevau" 490 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. The fall of Dunboy was of fatal importance to the Irisli cause. As soon as the news reached Spain the preparations for a new expedi- tion to this country were suspended, and on the death of Red Hugh O'Donnell, a few months later, the project was wholly abandoned. The war was over in Munster, but the work of extermination was only well begun. Captain Roger Harvey was sent into Cax'berrr to "purge the country of rebels" by marshal law, and Wilraot returned to Kerry with instructions to remove the whole population of certain districts. All suspected persons of the poorer class were to be executed without mercy;* and in one instance we find a number of sick and wounded, who were left behind on the removal of an Irish camp, massacred " to put them out of pain !"t The crops were destroyed, and in fact sir George Carew set about reducing the country to a desert. O'Sullevans castle on Dursey island, which was intended as a last retreat, fell even before Dunboy, and its garrison were put to death ; but Donnell O'Sullevan still continued to maintain his independence, sur- rounded at first by a numerous host of followers in the wild recesses of Glengariff". Encouraging promises, together with a large amount of gold — Avhich had been brought this summer from Spain by Owen Mac Egan, vicar apostolic and bishop of Rossij: — had helped to sustain them; but Donn ell's adherents gradually deserted him, and even the gallant Tyrrell separated from him. At length, on the 31st December, 1602, he set out from Glengariff with nearly 1,000 followers, of whom about 400 were fighting men, the rest being servants, women, and children ; and after one of the most extraordinary retreats recorded in history, reached O'Rourke's castle in Leitrim. Along their entire route they were pur- sued and attacked by the . population of the country, Irish as well as English ; and what with fighting all day, and marching all night, there was scarcely any time for repose. They crossed the Shannon at Port- land, in Tipperary, by means of curraghs, which they constructed of twigs, covered with the skins of their horses ; and having been attacked ne&r Aughrim by a considerable force, under the command of the earl by the author of the Historce Catholicee IbernicB Compendium, the latter being' also nearer to the Irish Ua SuiUeabhain. Both spellings are used by Dr. O'Donovan in the Four Masters. * Pacata Hibernia, p. 449 (ed. 1810). t Ibid, p. 659. I This prelate was slain by the English in a skirmish with some of the fugitive insurgents in Carberry, on the 15th of Januan-, 1 603, new style. He was clothed in his pontifical robes, and car- ried his breviary in one hand and his rosary in the other, at the time he was struck down by a soldier. He was regarded by the Catholics as a martyr, and his remains were interred in the abbey of Timo- league. A priest, who acted as his chaplain, was taken at the same time, and banged soon after, at Cork. Vide, O'Sullevau's Hist Cath. p. 243, and Pac. Hib. p. 661. O'NEILL AT BAT. 491 of Clanrickard's brother, and of Henry Malby and others, they fouo-ht with such desperation that they routed the enemy, and slew Malby and several of the officers. A great many fell in the perpetual fight which they had to sustain ; several who were wounded or exhausted by fatigue had to be abandoned along the way ; and at length their number, on arriving in Leitrim, was reduced to thirty-five, of whom eighteen were fighting men, sixteen servants, and one woman.* Words cannot adequately describe the state to which Ireland was re- duced before the close of this eventful year. A horrible famine, brought on by the repeated destruction of the crops by Mount joy, was wasting the country, and unnumbered carcases of its victims lay un- buried by the way side. Sir Henry Docwra, governor of Derry, had been plantmg garrisons at all the points he choose without opposition ; and Mount joy traversed Ulster, during the summer, erecting forts, while O'Neill, driven into his last fastnesses, with a few followers, stood merely on the defensive. About the 10th of August Mountjoy's forces, augmented by those of Docwra from Derry, Chichester from Carrick- f ergus, Danvers from Armagh, and of some from the Mountjoy, Mount- norris, Blackwater, and Charlemont forts which he had erected, amount- ing, on the whole, to at least 8,000 men, were prepared to act against O'Neill. Their first exploit was to take a stronghold or cranoge called Inisloghlin, situated in a great bog on the borders of Down and Antrim, ■ind which was defended by only a few men, but contained a great quantity of valuables belonging to O'Neill. Mountjoy then proceeded, as he states in a letter to Cecil, " by the grace of God, as near as he could, utterly to waste the country of Tyrone;" and his secretary, Fynes Moryson, tells us that on the 20th, hearing that O'Neill had passed from O'Kane's territory into Fermanagh, he was resolved to spoil the entire country, and to banish the inhabitants to the south side of the Black- water, " so that if O'Neill returned he would find nothing in the country but the queen's garrisons." O'Neill had now retired to a great fastness near the extremity of Lough Erne, accompanied by his brother Cormac, Art O'Neill of Clannaboy, and MacMahon; with a muster of some six hundred foot and sixty horse; and Mountjoy followed him in the * In the party who reached O'Rourke's castle, were the father and mother of the historian ; Derraot, the father, being then nearly seventy years of age. Philip, the author of the Histories Catkolicce Ibemioe Compendium, had been sent out to Spain, while a bcj', in the beginning of 1602, and was then at Corunna, under the tuition of Father Sinnott. He was soon joined, in Spain, by bis whole surviving family; his father, mother, brother, and two sisters, together with Donnell O'SuUevan Beare himself. When Philip grew up be entered the Spanish navy, and while thus serving wrote hi3 invaltwble Catholic histoiy, which was published in 1621. 492 TvEIGN OF ELIZABKTir. beginning of September with his army, but could get no nearer than twelve miles ; besides which the confederates had a means of retreat into O'Rourke's country. Henry and Con, tlie sons of Shane O'Neill, who were in the English service, and were followed by some of the men of Tyrone, were permitted by Mountjoy to remain with their creaghts or herdsmen in the territory, which was otherwise wholly depopulated; and the lord deputy returned, on the 11th of September, to Newry. Describing this march, in his letters to Cecil and the privy council, he says — " We found everywhere men dead of famine, insomuch that O'Hagan protested to us, that between Tullaghoge and Toome there lay unburied 1,000 dead, and that since our first drawing this year to Blackwater there were about 3,000 starved in Tyrone."* Mountjoy proceeded to Connaiight in the latter end of November, and at Athlone, on the Mth of the following month, received the sub- mission of Rory, the brother of Red Hugh O'Donnell, and of O'Connoi Sligo. With the news of Red Hugh's death in Spain, on the 10th of September, every vestige of hope was indeed destroyed, and none of the Irish chiefs now remained in arms except O'Neill, with liis companions, and the chief of Leitrim, whom Moryson calls "tlie proud and insolent O'Rourke." At the close of January the lord deputy returned to Dublin, and from his correspondence with the queen and council in England, during that and the following month, it is evident that O'Neill was still considered formidable, and that unscrupulous means for his destruction were contemplated. A.D. 1603. — At length negociations were entered into between O'Neill and Mountjoy, through the medium of sir Garrett Moore. Elizabeth was so exasperated against the Tyrone chief, whom she called "a most un- grateful viper," that she could v/ith difficulty be induced to grant him any terms ; but she died on the 24th of March, and Mountjoy receiving pi'ivate intelligence of this event on the 27th, while at Garrett Moore's castle at Mellifont, hastened the arrangement with O'Neill, who repaired to Melli- f out and made his submission there in the usual form, to the lord deputy, on the 31st of March. He abjured all foreign power and jurisdiction, es- * Amongst other examples of the "unspeakable extremities" to which the population was driver by ftimine, Mountjoy's secretary, Fynes Moryson, relates hovf sir Artliur Chichester, sir Eichard Moryson, and other English commanders in Ulster, witnessed "a most horrible spectacle of three children (whereof the eldest was not abjve ten years old) all eating and knawing with their teeth the entrals of their dead mother, upon whose flesh they had fed twentj' days past." The details which follow in this horrible description are too disgusting in their minatene-ia for quotation. And he adds that "no spectacle was more frequent, in the ditches of townes, and especiallie in wasted countries, than to see multitudes oj," these poore people dead, with their mouthes all coloured greene, by eating nettles, docks, and all Ibin « thev could rend up above ground." SUBMISSION Ol^ ONEILL. 493 pecially that of tlie king of Spain ; renounced the title of O'Neill and all Lis lands, except such as should be granted to him under the crown ; and pi'o- mised future obedience, and to discover his correspondence with the Spa- niards; but he received a full pardon, was restored in blood, and allowed the free exercise of his religion. It was onlj on the 5th of April that the queen's death was publicly announced, and that O'Neill discovered he had made his submission to a dead sovereign, and lost the opportunity of continuing the war against her weak successor, or of making more favorable terms for himself. . Soon after O'Neill's submission Cerda arrived with two ships conveying ammunition and money, which were, however, returned to king Philip, as no longer available.* * After his submission O'Neill wrote to the king of Spain, requesting him to send home his son, Uenry, but the boy never returned. He was page to the archduke Albert, and was strangled at Brussels, in 1617, the year after his father's death. The murder was enveloped in the pro- foundest mystery, but there can be no doubt that it was contrived by English influence, as the youth's groat ability gave reason to fear that he would yet be dangerous ^ Ireland. See Mooney's account, quoted by Dr. Kelly, in note to the Hist. Cath. p. 336, where the murdered j'outli is called Bernard. The last year of O'Neill's war cost the English treasury £290,733, besides "contin- gencies," which would appear iiom Cox to have been at least £50,000 more, making the last year's expenditure for this Irish war at least £340,733, while the revenue of England at this period was not more than £450,000 per aiinnm. CHAPTER XXXVI. BEIGN OF JA3IES I. Tlie Irish submit to James, as a prince of the Milesian race, and suppose hhn to be friendly to tiieir creed and country — They discover their mistake. — Eevolt of the southern towns. — Hugh O'Neill and Eory O'Donnell accompany Mouutjoy to England. — Title of Earl of Tirconnell created. — Religious character of the Irish wars. — Suspension of penal laws under Elizabeth. — Persecution of the Catholics by James.— Remonstrance of the Anglo-Irish Catholics. — Abolition of Irish laws and customs — O'Neill persecuted — Inveigled into a sham plot Flight of Tyrone and Tirconnell to Rome.— Rising of Sir Cahir O'Doherty— His fate, and that of Niall Garv O'Donnell and others. — The Confiscation and Plantation of Ulster — The Corporation of London receives a large share of the spoils. — A Parliament convened after twenty-seven years. — Creation of boroughs. — Disgraceful scene in the election of Speaker. — Secession of the recusants. — Proto- type of the Catholic Association. — Treatment of the Catholic Delegates by the King. — Con- cessions — Act of Pardon and Oblivion Unanimity of the new Session of Parliament. — Bill of Attainder against O'Neill and O'Donnell passed First general admission of the Irish under English law.— Renewed persecution of the Catholics. — The King's rapacity.— Wholesale Confiscations in Leinster.— Inquiry into defective titles— Extension of the Inquiiy to Con- naught — Frightful system of legal oppression. C0XI5MP0EAET SOVEREIGNS. Popes: Clement VIII., Leo XI., Paul V., Gregory XV., Urban VIIL— Kings of France : Henry iV., Louis XIII.— Kings of Spain : Philip III., Philip IV. [fkom a.d. 1603 TO A.D. 1625.] AMES I. may be regarded as the first sovereign of England who was undisputed monarch of Ireland. The Irish wil- lingly submitted to him as the direct descendant of their own ancient Milesian kings ; they also believed him to be in secret friendly to the Catholic religion — an opinion which he had himself encouraged — and thus they hailed his acces- sion as a new and happier era for their country and their creed.* It was generally supposed by Catholics that the ancient faith would be restored under him as it had been under Mary ; and so strong was this delusion, that the people of the southern towns, who, although Anglo-Irish, and wholly free hitherto from any " taint of rebellion," were ^ almost universally Catholic, thought they might resume • It was the policy of James, before his accession, to gain the friendship of the Catholic poten- tates, and to woaken the power of England. "Lord Home — who was himself a Roman Catholic — Was entrusted" says Robertson {llist. of Scot.) "with a secret commission to tlic Pope. The arch- REVOLT OF THE SOUTHERN T0W':N'S. 495 with impunity the pubKc exercise of their religious worship. In some places they took possession of their own ancient chm'ches, which had been appropriated to the Protestant service, and once more celebrated in them the Divine Mysteries; and in others they thought of repairing the ruined abbeys and monasteries. Moreover, the mayors of Cork and Waterford, supposing the authority of Elizabeth's deputy to be no longer valid, delayed obeying his orders for the proclamation of the new king. The news of these proceedings came by surprise upon Mountjoy. He was provoked at such " simplicity," as he called it, and marching with a formidable army to the south speedily convinced the Catholic townspeo- ple of their error. Cork first submitted. The citizens of Waterford closed their gates, pleading the pri-sdlege of an ancient charter which exempted them fr<5ln receiving soldiers ; but the lord deputy tlu:eatened to " cut in pieces the charter of king John with the sword of king James," and to "strew^ salt" on the ruins of their to■s^^l. No further show of resistance was made ; and the towns of Kilkenny, Wexford, Cashel, and Limerick were compelled in their turn to submit. To allay the ferment in the popular mind the king published an act of general indemnity and obli^don, and a brief period of profound tranquillity ^ followed. Mountjoy, on whom James conferred the higher dignity of lord lieu- tenant of Ireland, with the privilege of residing in England, left Sir George Carew as lord deputy, and proceeded to England in May, 1603, accompanied by Hugh O'Neill, Rory (or Roderick) 0'Donnel],and other Irish gentlemen. The king received the two Ulster chieftains very graciously, and confirmed the former in his restored title of earl of Tyrone, while he granted to O'Donnell that of earl of Tirconnell. Niall Garv, it must be observed, had forfeited all claim to reward for his former services to the government against Red Hugh. Docwra had found his insolence and ambition intolerable ; and on the submiu>ion and reconciliation of Rory to the state, Niall threw off all restraint and got himself proclaimed the O'Donnell. His revolt, however, was easily put down, and he was content to receive pardon and his own patrimonial inheritance. English law was now for the first time introduced into the territories of Tjrrone and Tirconnell. The first sherifis were appointed bishop of Gkscow, another Roman Catholic, was very active with those of his own religion. Sir James Lindsay made great progress in gaining the English papists." i\s to his intrigues for facili- tating his own approach to the tiirone by "wasting the vigour of the state of England," they were suspected by Elizabeth herself (vide Robertson) ; and Dr. Anderson (Eoyal Centalogies, p. 78G), says, that during the reign of Elizabeth James "assisted the Irish privately more than Spain dia publicly." 498 KEIGX OF JAMES I. f«r them by Carew; and Sir Edward Pelhain and Sir John Davis were the first to administer justice there according to the EngHsh forms * That the Irish fought for the freedom of the Cathohc religion as well as for their national independence, in the reign of Elizabeth, there can- not be any reasonable doubt. All the cotempoi'ary authorities show that the wars both of Ulster and Munster were essentially religious wars. The English writers pretend that they were chiefly fomented by the priests ; and most of the Irish writers of that period expressly distinguish the national forces as the Catholic army. Nevertheless, a vast number of Catholics, Irish as well as Anglo-Irish, from one cause or another, fought under the royal standard, and their services could not be dis- pensed with by Elizabeth. Hence, Avliile a sanguinary and unrelenting persecution was carried on against Catholics in England during her reio-n, it was necessary in Ireland to suspend to a great extent the opera- tion of her persecuting laws. This did not amount to toleration. Simply, it was not convenient in many cases to put in force the existing laws ao-ainst Catholicism. Under James, however, the case was different. Ireland had at length been conquered ; a large portion of the Irish race had been exterminated ; all was profound peace ; the services of Catholics were no longer required; and, in fine, there was no reason, in the shape of expediency, why religious persecution should be longer delayed. The Puritan party was rismg into power, and James, who, as a Stuart, was " ever forward in sacrificing his friend to the fear of his enemy,"t thought the time favorable for dissipating the illusions of the Irish Catholics about the public toleration of their faith.t Accordingly, on the 4th of July, 1605, he issued a proclamation, formally promulgating the Act of Uniformity (2 Eliz.), and commanding the "Popish clergy" to depart from the realm ; and an insulting commission was issued to certain respectable Catholics, requiring them, under the title of inquisi- tors, to watch and inform against those of their own faith who did not * Sir John Davis, who was king James's Attorney-Geueral for Ireland, referring, in his Historlad Relations, to his experience on these Irish circuits, says: "the truth is, tliat in time of peace the Irish are more fearful to offend the law than the English, or any other nation whatsoever;" and in concluding that tract, he observes; — " There is no nation of people, under the sun, that doth love equal and indifferent justice better than the Irish; or will rest better satisfied with the execution thereof, although it be against themselves, so that they may have the protection and benefits of the law, when, upon just cause, they do desire it." •(■ Plowden, Hist, of Ireland, vol. i. p. 338. % Shortly after he came to the throne James sent orders to Dublin that the oath of supremacy should be administered to all Catholic lawyers and justices of the peace, and that the laws against recusants should be strictly enforced. Accordingly, sixteen Catholic aldermen and citizens of Dublin were summoned before the Privy Council, and six of them were fined £100 each, and three others i'50 each, while all wtre committed prisoner to the castle during the pleasure of the court. THE " FLIGHT OF THE EARLS." 497 frequent the Protestant churches on the appointed days- The great Anglo-Irish families of the Pale remonstrated against this severity, and presented a petition for freedom of religious worship ; but the leading petitioners were confined in the castle of Dublin, and their principal agent, sir Patrick Barnwell, was sent to England and committed to the tower. The same year the ancient Irish customs of tanistry and gavel- kind were abolished by a judgment of the Court of King's Bench, and the inheritance of property was subjected to the rules of English law. A.D. 1607. — While Irish feelings and institutions were thus trampled under foot, it was not to be expected that O'Neill and O'Donnell would be leffc in the quiet enjoyment of the vast tracts of country which they still continued to possess. The former illustrious chief was persecuted in a variety of ways. He himself complained that he was so watched by the spies of the government that the slightest of his actions could not escape their notice. His claims to portions of his ancestral lands were disputed under the English law, and he was harassed by legal inquiries into title, and processes issued from the courts in Dublin. George Montgomery, the Protestant bishop of Derry, was his chief persecutor in this way, and obtained against him the aid of O'Cahane, or O'Kane, with whom O'Neill had a dispute about certain boundaries. Finally, a conspiracy, devised most probably by Cecil himself, was resorted to. Christopher St. Laurence, baron of Howth, was employed to carry the scheme into execution, which he did by entrapping the earls of Tyrone and Tirconnellf the baron of Delvin, and O'Cahane, into a sham plot. Their meetings were held at Maynooth, the ancient seat of the earls of Kildare; but none of the Kildare family were cognizant of their proceed- ings. It is possible that the Irish chieftains may have entered seriously into the plans proposed to them, St. Laurence having kindled their anger by the statement, that he had private information of fresh perse- cution intended against their religion ; but the plot was, nevertheless, a sham. On a certain day an anonymous letter, addressed to Sir William Ussher, clerk of the privy council, was dropped at the door of the council chamber, mentioning a design, then in contemplation, for seizing the castle of Dublin, murdering the lord deputy, and raising a general revolt, to be aided by Spanish forces. This letter came from lord Howth ; and, although it mentioned no names, it was pretended that government was already in possession of information that fixed the guilt of the conspiracy on the earl of Tyrone.* Shortly after the country was startled by the * air. Moore, who read the correspondence of lord HoTVtb, and the depositions of lord Delvio, tak'.'n ou the 6th of November, 1G07, came to the conclusion that th» earls of Tyioneand Tlrconnell 498 REIGN OF JAMES T. news that O'Neill and O'Donnell, with their families, had fled privately from Ireland. They took shippini;; at Rathmullen, on Lough Swilly, in Donegal, on the 14th of September, and sailed to Normandy, whence they proceeded tkrough Flanders to Rome, where they lived on a pen- sion from the pope and the king of Spain. O'Donnell died the following year; but O'Neill survived until 1616, when he died at an advanced age, having become blind^towards the close of his life. Less impulsive and enterprizing than Red Hugh O'Donnell, but equally valiant and devoted, Hugh O'Neill was a better strategist and commander. His tastes were enlightened ; his manner dignified, polished, and agreeable ; his habits temperate ; his powers of endurance very great. He possessed an acute understanding and great prudence ; and while he was generally an overmatch for English statesmen in council, he was decidedly the most formidable adversary in the field which the English power ever encountered in this country. With the heroic struggles of O'Neill and O'Donnell terminated the power of the Irish chiefs, and the national independence of the Milesian race.* had really entered into the conspiracy. Hist, oflrel. vol. iv. pp. 453, &c. This, considering all the circumstances, is extremely probable, for the religious persecution, at that time, had become in- tolerable. See some of its features, set forth in a Latin letter dated May, 1607, and signed by a bishop, a vicar-general, six priests, and a knight. This document, published, for the first time, by Dr. Kelly, in hi^ edition of O'Sullevan's Catholic History, p. 271, has the following passage: — "Even the illustrious earl of Tyrone, the Catholic Mardochai, already oppressed in various ways, is now coming to Dublin, under a citation from the viceroy. It is not pleasant to foretell evil ; but the malice of the heretics towards him, and their inveterate guile, compel us, at least, to have some fear for him." The account of the so-called conspiracj^, preserved by traditi^i in his time, is briefly mentioned by Dr. Anderson, an English Protestant divine, in his Royal Genealogies, a work printed in London in 1736, and dedicated to the Prince of Wales. In page 786 he says: — "Artful Cecil employed one St. Laurence to entrap the earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell, the lord of Delvin, and other Irish chiefs into a sham plot which had no evidence but his. But these chiefs being basely informed that witnesses were to be hired against them, foolishly fled from Dublin, and so taking guilt upon them, they were declared rebels, and six entire counties in Ulster were at once forfeited to the crown, which was what their enemies wanted." That this Christopher St. Laurence, baron of Howth, who had embraced the new doctrines, was a fit person to carry out the nefarious plan, appears from the statement of Camden, who says (Eliz. p. 741), that he offered his services to the earl of Essex to murder lord Grey de WUton and tiie Secretary, lest they should prejudice the queen against the earl, but that the latter declined availing himself of such means.* Lord Delvin was arrested, but contrived to escape by means of a rope, conveyed to him by a friend, and was after- wards pardoned. Cormac, the brother of O'Neill, and O'Kane, were sent to the Tower of London. * Some curious particulars about the departure of O'Neill from Ireland are given by Sir John Davis (^Eist. Eel.), agreeing very nearly with those which appear in an Irish MS. at St. Isidore's, of which an extraet has been published by Dr. O'Donovan, in the Four Masters, pp. 2352, &c. In the beginning of September, 1607, nearly four months after the pretended discovery of St. Lauren- ce's plot by the anonymous letter, O'Neill was at Slane with the lord deputy. Sir Arthur Chichester, and they conferred relative to a journey which the former was to make to London, before Michael- mas, in compliance with a summons from the king. While here, a letter was delivered to O'Neill from one John Bath, informing him that Maguire had arrived in a French ship in Lough Swilly. He then parted from the deputy in sadness, and was observed to weep bitterly on leaving the house of his old riend, Sir Garrett Moore, at Mellifont, where he took his leave even of tbs childi-en and INSURBECTION OF ODOHERTY. 499 A.D. 1608. — The slumber which followed these sad events was soon and rudely broken. Sir Cahir O'Doherty, chief of Inishowen, had hitherto lived on terms of friendship with the English authorities, but he was taunted with being privy to the escape of O'Neill; and sir George Paulett, who had succeeded sir Henry Docwra as governor of Derry, carried his insults so far as to strike him on the face. The blood of the young chieftain, who was only in his twenty-first year, boiled with rage at this indignity. The annalists say he was driven almost to madness, and rested not till he took fearful vengeance. He got possession of Culmore fort by stratagem at night, the 3rd of May. Cox adds that he put its garrison to the sword ; and before morning he marched to Derry, which he took by surprise ; he slew Paulett and some other leading per- sons, slaughtered the garrison, and sacked and burned the town. Thus, his revolt was kindled in a moment. He was joined by several of the northern chieftains, and expecting foreign aid through the interven- tion of the Irish princes abroad, held out until July, when he was kilkd by an accidental shot in a conflict with Wingfield, the mar- shal, and sir Oliver Lambert, and his head sent to Dublin. Niall Garv O'Donnell, his son Naughtan, and his brothers, were arrested as con- tbe servants. On Ms way northward, he remained two days at his own residence in Dungannon, and proceeded thence hastily to Rathmullen, on the shore of Lough Swilly, where he found O'Don- nell and several of his friends waiting and laying up stores in the French ship. The Four Masters enumerate the principal companions of his voyage. They were his countess, Catherine, daughter of Magennis (O'Xeill's' fourth wife) ; his three sons, Hugh, baron of Dungannon, John, and Brian ; Art Oge, the son of his brother Cormac, and others of iiis relatives: Kory, or Roderie, O'Donnell, earl of Tirconnell; Caffar, or Cathbar, his brother, and his sister, Nuala, who was married to Niall Garv O'Donnell, but abandoned her husband when he became a traitor to his country ; Hugh O'Donnell, the earl's son, and other members of his family ; Cuconnaught Maguire ; Owen Roe Mac Ward, chief bard of Tirconnell, &c. "AVoe to the heart tliat meditated, woe to the mind that conceived, woe to the council that decided on the project of their setting out on this voyage !" ex- claim the annalists of Donegal, thus intimating that the flight of the Irish princes was, in the opinion of their cotemporaries. a rash proceeding, or that it was artfully prompted by their enemies. On the arrival of the earls in France the English minister demanded their surrender as rebels, but Henry IV. would not give them up. In passing thence through the Netherlands they were honorably received by the archduke Albert ; and in Rome, "the common asylum of all Catholics," as it is called in the epitaph on young Hugh O'Neill's tomb, they met an affectionate and honorable welcome from Pope Pius V. The venerable pontiff regarded them as confessors, and. in conjunction with the king of Spain, afforded them liberal pensions for their support. But these illustrious exiles soon dropped into their foreign graves. O'Donnell died July 28th, 1G08 ; liis brother, Caffar, September 17th, the same year ; Hugh, the baron, son of O'Neill, died the 23rd of September, the fol- lowing year, in the 24th year of his age ; and, lastly, the renowned Tyrone himself departed on the 20th of July, 1G16. Their way to death was smoothed by all the consolations of rehgion, and their ashes repose together in the Franciscan church of St. Peter-in-Montorio, on the Janiculum. The murder of Henry (or Bernard), another son of O'Neill's, at Brussels, has been already mentioned. Maguire died at Genoa, on his way to Spain, August 12, 1608. Of the elogy composed for the earls by Mac Ward, a beautiful Englisli version, by Clarencft Maugan, will be found in the Ballad Poetry of Ireland, "Duffy's Librarj'- of Ireland." 500 REIGN OF JAMES T. federates of O'Dolierty'?, and the two former were sent to London and confined in the Tower, until their death in 1626. Felim MacDevit and others were executed* All this seemed to happen most opportunely for king James, who was now enabled to carry oiit his favorite scheme of colonization to his heart's content. Six counties of Ulster, Tyrone, Derry, Donegal, Fermanagh, Armagh, and Cavan, were confiscated to the crown, and were parcelled out among adventurers from England and Scotland. Various plans were proposed for the purpose, and among others, lord Bacon was con- sulted ; but his plan was disapproved of. Sir Arthur Chichester, the lord deputy, Avas found to be more useful and practical in his views, and richly was he rewarded for the assistance which he rendered to his royal master. He received the wide lands of sir Cahir O'Doherty for his share in this wholesale spoliation. But the wealthy citizens of London were the largest participators in the plunder. They obtained 209,800 acres, and rebuilt the city, which, since then, has been called London- derry. According to the plan finally adopted for the " plantation of Ulster," as this scheme was called, the lots into which the lands were divided were classified into those containing 2,000 acres, which were reserved for rich undertakers and the great servitors of the crown; those containino; 1,500 acres, which were allotted to servitors of the crown in Ireland, with permission to take either English or Irish tenants; and thirdly, those containing 1,000 acres, which wei'e to be distributed with still less restriction. The exclusion of the ancient inhabitants, and the proscription of the Catholic religion, were the fundamental principles which were to be acted on as far as practicable in this settlement.f A.D. 1611. — The persecution of the Catholics was becoming daily more sanguinary and relentless, but the execution of the venerable Conor O'Devany, bishop of Down and Connor, which took pkce this year in Dublin, affords the most striking example of the extent to which it was carried at this time. This venerable prelate, who was then about eighty • It is clear from statements in sir Henry Docwra's Narration, that sir Cahir O'Doherty had been goaded into resistance by acts of legal spoliation, under which he sufl'ered before he was charged with rebellion or publicly insulted by Paulett. He had been induced to make some con- veyances, probably during his minority, and endeavoured, in vain, to have them rescinded. Ac- cording^ to tradition in the country, says Dr. O'Donovan, sir Cahir O'Doherty was killed under tlie rock of Doon, near Kilmacrenan. Four Masters, p. 2362, n. t See Pynnar's Survey of Ulster, and other original documents published in Harris's ///ueni i.a , also, The Conjlscatlon of Ulstei; by Thomas MacXevin, in Dufty's Library of Ireland. Cox says that in the instructions, printed for the direction of the settlers, it was especially mentioned " tha they should not suffer any laborer, that would not take the oath of supremacy, to dwell upon theii land." RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. 501 years of age, was originally a Franciscan friar, and was condemned to death on the nominal charge of having been with O'Neill in Ulster ; and at the same time a priest named Patrick O'Loughrane was tried and condemned for having sailed in the same ship wath O'Neill and O'Don- nell to France, although it appeared that he was only accidentally their fellow-passenger, the real offence of these pious men being the rank which they held in the Catholic Church. The sentence was that they be first hanged, then cut down alive, their bowels cast into the fire, and their bodies quartered. When the hangman, who was an Irishman, heard that the bishop was condemned, he fled from the city, and no other Irishman could be found to execute the atrocious sentence, so that it was necessary to release and forgive an English murderer, that he might hang the bishop. The old prelate, fearing that the horrible spec- tacle of his torments might cause the priest to waver, requested the executioner to put the latter to death first ; but the priest said " he need not be in dread on his account, that he would follow him without fear ; remarking, that it was not meet a bishop should be without a priest to attend him. This he fulfilled, for he suffered the like torture with fortitude, for the sake of the kingdom of Heaven for his soul."* These executions produced great excitement among the people. The Catholics collected the blood of the victims, wdiom they justly regarded as martyrs, and the next day they contrived to procure the mangled remains, and to inter them in a becoming manner.f A.D. 1613. — Sir Arthur Chichester, who still held the reins of govern- ment in Ireland, was resolved to carry out his puritanical principles^ to the utmost, and conceived a plan for erecting a " Protestant ascendancy" in this country. The plantation of Ulster with English Protestants and Scotch Presbyterians had paved the way for this project, but the work * Four Masters. t P. O'Sullevau Beare, who gives an interesting account of the trial of the bishop and priest, mentions several other cases of the execution of Catholics aiiout this period, among others, that of the prior of Lough Derg, who was hanged and quartered. Vide Hist. Cath. p. 269. X This sir Artliur Chichester was a pupil of the famous Puritan minister, Cartvvright, who was in the habit of praying in his sermons : " O Lord, give us grace and power as one man to set ourselves against theui," (tlie bishops). "At this time," says Plowden, (^HiBiory of Ireland, vol. i. p. 338.) " the general body of the reformed clergy in Ireland was Puritan ; the most eminent of whom for learning was Ussher, then (1610) Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, and afterwards (1624) Archbisliop of Armagh, who by his management and contrivance procured the whole doctrine of Calvin to be received as the public belief of the Church of Ireland, and ratified by Chichester in the king's name. Not only tlie famous Lambeth articles concerning predestination, grace, and justifying faith, sent down as a standard of doctrine to Cambridge, but immediately suppressed by queen Elizabeth, and afterv\ irds rejected by king James, but also sever.il particu- lar fancies and notions of his own were (^in I6l5) incorporated, says Carte (Orm. vol. i. p. 73.) into the articles of viio Church of Ireland." 502 REIGN OF JAMKS I. was as yet only half done. The deputy persuaded James that a parliamen t should be called. It was twenty-seven years since one had been held in Ireland ; but the vast preponderance of population, property, and influ- ence was still on the side of the CathoKcs, and to break that down a great deal was to be done in the shape of preliminary arrangements The deputy demanded, and easily obtained from the king, ample powers for these preparations, with which he undertook to secure a sufficient majority in both houses. Seventeen new counties had been formed gmce the last parliament ; but many of these would send Catholic representa- tives, and it was by the creation of new boroughs that Chichester pro- posed to overwhelm the Catholic rank and populaticm of the country. Forty new boroughs were accordingly created, many of them paltry villages or scattered houses, inhabited only by some half dozen of the new Ulster settlers, and several of them not being incorporated until after the writs had been issued. No previous communication of the design to summon parliament, or of the laws intended to be enacted, had been made pursuant to Poyning's act and the Catholics justly apprehended a design to impose fresh grievances upon them. A letter signed by six Catholic lords of the Pale was accordingly addressed to the king, but he treated their remonstrance with contempt. He pronounced their memorial to be a rash and insolent interference with his authority, and tlie lord de- puty was allowed to pack his parliament as he pleased.* The first trial of strength was in the election of a speaker. Sir John Everard, who had resigned his position as justice of the king's bench, rather than take the oath of supremacy, was proposed by the recusants, and Sir John Davis, the attorney-general, by the court party. The proceedings which ensued were scandalous. The recusants deemed the numerical majority of their opponents to be factious and illegal, as it really was, and in the absence of the court party in another room to be counted, according to the forms then in use, they placed their own candidate in the speakers chair. On the return of the court party into the house a tumultuous scene took place. These placed sir John Davis in the lap of sir John Everard, and then pulled the latter out of the chair, tearing his garments in the act. The Cathohc party thereupon seceded from parliament, and • Of the 232 members returned, 125 were Protestants, 101 belonged to the " recusant" or Catholic part5% and 6 -were absent. The Upper House consisted of 16 temporal barons, 25 Protestant pre- lates, 5 viscounts, and 4 earls, of whom a considerable majority belonged to the court party. The wonder, observes Plowden, is. Low so large a majority of Protestants was obtained, con- sidering how very few of the Irish had adopted the new doctrines ; not sLsty, says the Abb< Mageoghegan, down to the reign of James. ATTAINDER Of^ o'NEILL, ETC. 503 sent a deputation to London to lay their complaints before the king, eight peers and about twice as many commoners being chosen for this purpose, ])arliament having in the meantime been prorogued.* The reception given to the Catholic delegates was harsh and insulting. Two of the members, Talbot and Luttrell, were committed, one to the Tower, and the other to the Fleet prison ; but ultimately James dismissed them after a severe rating in his own peculiar style,t and a commission of inquiry was granted; one of the concessions made being, that the members for boroughs incorporated after the writs were issued had no right to sit. In the subsequent sessions of this parliament, until it was dissolved in October, 1615, no further display of angry feelings between the two parties took place. There appeared, indeed, to have been mutual concessions. An intended penal law, of a very sweeping character, was not brought forward ;J and while, on the other hand, large subsidies, which gratified the insatiable rapacity of the monarch, were voted, an act of oblivion and general pardon was passed in return ; and the Irish in general were, for the first time, taken within the pale of the English law. But the measure which renders this parliament of James's most memorable was that for the attainder of Hugh O'Neill, Hugh Roe O'Donnell, sir Cahir O'Doherty, and several other Irish chiefs — an unjust and vindictive act for which the grounds were never proved, and which, as being sanctioned by the Catholic party in a suicidal spirit of compro- mise, assumed, remarks Mr. Moore, " a still more odious character, and left a stain upon tlie record of their proceedings during this reign."§ * " It maj- l)e here remarked," observes Mr. Moore, " as one of the proofs of the sad sameness of Irish history, that uearly 200 years after these events, when, by the descendants of these Ca- tholic lords and gentry, the same wrongs were still suffered, the same righteous cause to be upheld, it was by expedients nearly similar that tliey contrived to resist peaceably their perse- cutors. In the separate assembly formed by the recusants we find the prototype of the Catholic Association ; while the large fund so promptly raised to defi'ay the cost of the deputation to England was, in its spirit and national purpose, a forerunner of the Catholic Rent." — Histovij of Ireland, vol. iv. p. 166. t This silly, pedantic despot, whom his flatterers styled the " British Solomon," and who has been lauded by Hume and others for his Irish legislation, taunted the Irish agents as "a body without a head; a headless body; you would be afraid to meet sudi a body in the streets; a bod}' without a head to speak ! " and he asked "what is it to you whether I ninke many or few boroughs. My council may consider the fitness if I require it; but if 1 made forty noblemen and four hundred boroughs — the more the merrier, the fewer the better cheer." As to liis Irish governn%ent, he told them, there was nothing faulty in it, "unless they would have the kingdom of Ireland like the Kingdom of Heaven!" Sea his curious incoherent speech, which was addressed to the lords of the council in preeence of the Irish delegates, given in full by Cox. X See O'SulIevan's Ilist. Caih. pp. 310—312. Ed. 1850. § It has been argued that the Irish chieftains posses.sed only the tuzerainte and not the property of the soil ; and that therefore the rights of their feudatories to the latter coukl not liave been for- foiteci by the rebellion of the chiefs. See translator's note to JJe Eeaumunfs Ireland, p. 57. Jlr. O'Conncll, in liia Memoir o/iveland (p. 172), argues thaf James undermined his own title to tlie i: L 504 REIGN OF JAMES I. A.D. 1616.* — Sir Arthur Chichester having completed his task, and received as his reward an additional grant of Irish lands, togetlier with the title of baron of Belfast, withdrew from the Irish government, and was replaced by sir Oliver St. John, afterwards created viscount Gran- dison, whose instructions were to enforce with extreme rigor the fine inflicted on Catholics for absence from the Protestant service. This penal tax was not only most galling to the feelings of Catholics, but was most oppressive in a pecuniary point of view ; for while the sum levied each time was only twelve pence according to the law, it was swelled up to ten shillings by the fees always exacted for clerks and officers, and the appropriation of the penalty to works of charity, as the act required, was shamefully evaded, as it was argued that the poor being Catholics themselves were not fit to receive the money, but " ought to pay the like penalty themselves." In 1617 a proclamation was issued for the expulsion of the- Catholic regular clergy, and the city of Waterford v/as deprived of its charter and liberties in consequence of the spirited and steadfast rejection of the oath of supremacy by its corporation. In 1622 Henry Carey, Viscount Faulkland, was sent over as lord deputy, and at the ceremony of his inauguration, the celebrated James Ussher, then Protestant bishop of Meath, and soon after made archbishop of Armagh, taking as his text the words of St. Paul: " He beareth not the sword in vain,"t deli- vered a fanatical harangue, which filled the Catholics with alarm ; and finally, in the following year, another proclamation was issued for the banishment of all the " Popish clergy," regular and secular, ordering them to depart from the kingdom within forty days, and forbidding any one to hold intercourse with them after that period.$ Thus was the penal code, although then only in its infancy, rapidly approaching tliat acme of cruelty which it afterwards reached. six confiscated counties of Ulster by declaring that the exiled earls had no title whatever to the possessions forfeited. These, however, are but speculative objections. As to the Catholics who voted the attainder of O'Neill, they were chiefly Anglo-Irish. * The Four Masters desert us at this date, under which they give their last entrj- : the death of Hugh O'Neill; and for the few preceding years, from the death of Red Hugh O'Donnell, the information they afford is very scanty. t Rom. xiii. 4. For Ussher's Puritanism, see note, p. 501. J P. O'SuUevan Beare, who wrote towards the close of the reign of James I., says, he did not know the number of ecclesiastics then in Ireland; but he was aware that government had, through its spies, ascertained the names of 1,160 priests, regidar and secular: and Dr. Kelly, In his note on this passage (//^s^ Catk. p. 298), says, he once saw a list of all the Catholic ciergv in Ireland at this time, but that at present it is not easily accessible. F. Moony says, there were 120 Franciscan friars, of whom 35 were preachers in Ireland: besides 40 more engaged in their studies at Louvain when he wrote (about 161C). It is said in the Bilernia Dominkana WHOLESALE SPOLIATION IN LRINSTER. 505 The systematic rapine called "plantation" was so successful in Ulster, that James was resolved to extend it into other parts of the kingdom. For this purpose he appointed a commission of inquiry to scrutinize tlie titles and determine the rights of all the lands in Leinster, that province being the next theatre of this iniquitous spoliation ; and so rapid was the progress of the commissioners, that in a little time land to the extent of 385,000 acres more was placed at the king's disposal for distribution. Old and obsolete claims, some of them dating as far back as Henry II., were revived ; advantage was taken of trivial flaws and minute infor- malities. The ordinary principles of justice were set at naught ; perjury, fraud, and the most infamous arts of deceit were resorted to ; and, as even Leland tells us, " there are not wanting proofs of the most iniquitous practices of hardened cruelty, of vile perjury, and scandalous subornation employed to despoil the fair and unfortunate proprietor of his inheritance."* From Leinster the system was extended into Con- naught, but its principal operation in the latter province was reserved for the next reign. James I. died on the 27th of March, 1625 ; and in con- sequence of his wholesale plunder, oppression, and persecution of the Irish, left a woeful legacy to his unfortunate successor .f that there were but four Dominicans iu Ireland at the time of Elizabeth's death. The Jesuits, though not numerous, were exceedingly active. F. Verdier reported that there were 53 Fathers, 3 coadjutors, and 11 novices of the Company of Jesus in Ireland in 1659. The affairs of tlie Irish Chiu'ch were chiefly managed by the four Archbishops, the succession of whom was well kept up by the Pope. These appointed Vicars-General, with Apostolic authority in the suffragan dioceses, and these, again, appointed the parish priests. O'Sullevan gives the names of the four Archbishops when he WTote (1618) as, Eugene Magauran, of Dublin ; David O'Carny, of Cashel; Peter Lombard, of Armagh ; and Florence O'Mulconry, of Tuam. lie mentions, as then estab- lished, the Irish seminaries of Salamanca, Composlella, and Seville, in Spain; Lisbon, in Portugal; Louvain, Antwerp, and Tournay, in Flanders; and Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Paris, in France. Irish students were also received in other colleges, but in some of the places just mentioned the seminaries for the Irish were not yet regularly founded. * nistory of Ireland, B. iv. c. 8. See as an illustration of this scandalous plunder, and of the unprincipled ingenuity and perseverance of the " discoverers," as they were called, the account of the spoliation of the O'Byrnes of lumelagb, in Wichlow, as given in Taylor's Ilistorij of the Civil Wars in Ireland, vol. i. pp. 243, 246, and quoted in full in 0'ConneirsJ/<5wuirq/'/»'e/aK(/, pp. 161, &c. The native septs of the Queen's County were transplanted to Kerry; and in many instances proprietors, as in the case of the Fan-alls, were dispossessed wilhout receiving any compensation. t Some of the minor crimes of James's Government agaiuit the Irijh, arc thus summed up by Leland (B. iv. c. 8.) : " Extortions and oppressions of the soldiers in various e:icnrsions from their quarters, for levying the king's rents, or supporting the civil power; a rigorous and tyrannical execution of martial law in time of peace; a dangerous and unconstitutional power assumed by the Privy Council in deciding causes determinable by common law ; the severe treatment of witnesses and jurors in the Castle-chamber, whose evidence or verdicts had been displeasing to Uie State ; the grievous exaction of the established clergy for the occaiionnl duties of their functions ; and the severity of the ecclesiastical courts." As to the punishment of juiors, it was laid down as a principle by Chichester that (he proper tribunal to punish jurors, who w'ould nut faKl for the king on "sulScient evidence," was the Star-chamber; sometimes they were " pillored wiih loss of ears, and bored through the tongue, and somclimes marked on the forehead witli a hot aron, &c." — Commons' Journal, vol. i. p. SO". CHAPTER XXXVII REIGN OF CHARLES I. Hopes of the Catholics on the accession of Charles, and corresponding alarm of the Protestants — Intolerant declaration of the Protestant bishops. — The " graces." — The royal promise broken. — Renewed persecution of the Catholics. — Outrage on a Catholic congregation in Cook-street — Confiscation of Catholic schools and chapels Government of Lord W'entworih or Strafford — He summons a Parliament — His shamefiil duplicity. — The Commission of " Defective Titles " for Counaught — Atrocious spoliation in the name of law. — Jury-packing. — Noble conduct of a Galway jury — Their punishment. — Plantation of Ormond, &c. — Fresh subsidies by an Irish Parliament. — Strafford raises an army of Irish Catholics — He is impeached by Parliament — His execution. — Causes of the great insuiTection of 1641. — Threats of the Puritans to extirpate the Catholic religion in Ireland. — The Irish abroad — Their numbers and influence. — First move- raents among the Irish gentrj' — Roger O'More — Lord Maguire — Sir Phelim O'Neill. — Promises from Cardinal Richelieu. — Officers in the King's interest combine with the Irish gentry — Dis- covery of the conspiracy. — Arrest of Lord Maguire and MacMahon -Alarm in Dublin The outbreak in Ulster — Its first successes — Proclamation of Sir Phelim O'Neill — Feigned commis- sion from the King — Gross exaggeration of the cruelties of the Irish. — Bishop Bedell and the remonstrance from Cavan. — The massacre of Island Magee. — The fable of a general massacre by the Catholics refuted. — Proclamations of the Lords Justices. — The Catholic nobility and gentry of the Pale insulted and repulsed. — Scheme of a general confiscation. — Approach of the northern Irish to the Pale — They take Mellifont and Lij' siege to Drogheda. — Sir Charles Coote's atroci- ties in Wicklow. — Efforts of the Catholic gentry to communicate with the King — Outrages of troopers — The gentry of the Pale compelled to stand on their defence. — Meeting on the Hill of Crofty The lords of the Pale take up arms. — The insurrection spreads into Munster and Con- naught. — Royal proclamation. — Conduct of the English Parliament The insurrection general — ^Siege of Drogheda raised. — The battle o^' Kilrush. — The general assembly, &c. [from a.d. 1626 TO A.D. 1642.] HE well-known moderation of Charles I. inspired the Irish Catholics with hope of a mitigation of the intoler- ance under which they groaned, but a corresponding alarm was manifested by the Protestants lest any such mercy should be extended to their opponents. In 1626 Faulkland, who was still lord deputy, advised the Catho- lics to send agents to the king, encouraging them to ex- pect some favor in return for pecuniary support; and taking this implied promise for a reality, they are said to have boasted too readily of the relief which they antici- pated. This kindled the zeal of all classes of Protestants. The Protestant pulpits resounded with declamations on the subject ; and archbishop Ussher, with all the prelates of the state church, joined in a protest, declaring that *' to grant the SUBSIDY OF THE IIIISS CATHOLICS TO CHARLES I. 507 papists a toleration, or to consent that tliej may freely exercise tlieir religion and profess their faith and doctrines, was a grievous sin," and *' a matter of most dangerous consequence;" wherefore they prayed God " to make those in authority zealous, resolute, and courageous against all popery, superstition, and idolatry." No political, or any other than theological grounds, were put forward for this ebullition of bigotry ; but in the meantime the Catholic agents persevered in their uegociations with the king, whose exigencies were well understood. The prodigality of his father had burdened him with a heavy debt, and foreign wars demanded supplies which his parliament refused to grant, except on hard and dishonorable terms. He was therefore glad to accept fi'om the Irish Catholics the offer of a voluntary subsidy of £120,000, to be paid in three annual instalments, and in return he undertook to grant them certain concessions or immunities which are known in the history of the period as the " graces." Many of these " graces" applied to others in Ireland besides Catholics. The more important were those which pro- vided " that recusants should be allowed to practise in the courts of law, and to sue out the livery of their lands on taking an oath of civil alle- giance in lieu of the oath of supremacy ; that the undertakers in the several plantations should have time allowed them to fulfil the conditions of their tenures ; that the claims of the crown should be limited to the last sixty years ; and that the inhabitants of Connaught should be per- mitted to make a new enrolment of their estates." The contract Avas duly ratified by a royal proclamation, in which the concessions were accompanied by a promise that a parliament should be held to confirm theiu. The first instalment of the money was paid, and the Irish agents returned home, but only to learn that an order had been issued against " the popish regular clergy," and that the royal promise was to be evaded in the most shameful manner. When the Catholics pressed for the fulfilment of the compact, the essential formalities for calling an Irish parliament were found to have been omitted by the officials, and thus the matter fell to the ground for the present. Lord Faulkland was recalled at the representation of the Puritans ; and viscount Ely (the chancellor) and the earl of Cork (lord high treasurer) having been appointed lords justices, the penalties against recusants, under the 2nd of Elizabeth, were, without any instructions from the king, put in force with extreme rigor, and a system of frightful terrorism carried out.* * Sir Richard Boyle, commonly called the "great" earl of Cork, one of the lords justices men- tioned above, and one of the most fortiinate of all English adventurers in Ireland, left an anto- 508 REIGN OF CHARLES I. A single fact will shew the nature of the persecution to which the Catholics were subjected at this time in Dublin. The protestant arch- bishop, doctor Launcelot Bulkeley, being informed that a fraternity of Carmelites had the temerity to celebrate mass pubUcly in their chapel in Cook-street, proceeded thither with the mayor and a file of soldiers, during the celebration of High Mass, on St. Stephen's Day, December, 1629, dispersed the congregation, ]n-ofaned the altar, hewed down the statue of St. Francis, and arrested some of the friars. These were, however, rescued by the people, who did not hesitate to pursue even the archbishop himself and compel him to seek shelter in a house. A few days after an order arrived from the English council to have the chapel demolished, and three other chapels and a Catholic seminary in Dublin seized and converted to the king's use.* Eight Catholic alder* men of Dublin were arrested for not assisting the mayor, and the perse- cution Avas afterwards extended over the kingdom ; yet at this time the Catholics formed a majority of at least a hundred to one of the popula- tion of Ireland. In July, 1633, viscount Wentworth, whose hateful memory is bettei preserved by his subsequent title of earl of Strafford, commenced his duties as lord deputy of Ireland. He had recently abandoned the popular cause in England, and attached himself to the king, to whom he became a most devoted, but most unprincipled, minister. He came to Ireland with feelings of thorough contempt for all classes here, and his supercilious bearing gave great offence to the council and the nobihty. biograpliy wliich he called his " True Remembrances," and of which a portion has been printed in Lodge's Irish Peerage (Archdall's Lodge, vol. i., pp. 150, &c.) It happens, however, that his account of himself is by no means reliable. Cotemporary documents have turned up which charge him with having commenced his career with "forgeries, raisings (erasiugs), and perjuries," by which "he thrust many a man out of his land." He is said to have acquired his enormous posses- sions by most dishonest means — by falsifications, counterfeit letters, intimidation, mis-application of official power, &c. See Transactions of Brit. Archajol. Association for 1844, where his real character was exposed by the late Mr. Crofton Croker; also Wright's Hist, of Ir. vol. i. pp. 618, &c. He tells us himself how he purchased the Irish estates of sir Walter Raleigh, amounting to many thousand acres in Cork and Waterford, for £1,500; married as his second wife (his first being a Mrs. Apsley, a Limerick lady, who brought him £500 a-year) the daughter of sir Geoffrey Fenton, the potent and despotic secretary of state for Ireland ; and obtained a varietj' of titles, until he became earl of Cork, lord high treasurer, and lord justice of Ireland. "At great expense," lays the memoir, " he encom-aged the settlement of protestants, the suppression of popery, the regulation of the army, the increase of the puWic revenue, and the transplantation of many septs and barbarous clans from the fruitful province of Leinster into the wilds of Kerry." Robert Eoyle, the philosopher, was the youngest of his sons. * The circumstances are thus related by Harris and others on the authority of a publication ctlled Foxes and Firebrands; but the Carmelite and Franciscan chapels were both at this time in Cook- sireet, and Mr. Gilbert {Hist, of Dub., vol. i., p. 299) says it was in the latter this outrage was committed. He adds, that consequent upon this affair the Franciscan schools throughout Ireland were dissolved, and that F. Valentino Browne, the provincial, sent the novices to complete their iludies n foreign countries. DUPLICITY OF WENTWORTH. 509 In July, 1634, he assembled a parliament, the subserviency of which he endeavoured to secure by having a nvimber of persons in the pay of the crown, chiefly military officers, returned as members. The question of the "graces" still agitated the public mind; and he gave the strongest assurances that these concessions would be confirmed, provided the sup- plies, demanded by the king, were readily voted. "Surely," said he, in liis speech from the throne, "so great a meanness' cannot enter your hearts, as once to suspect his majesty's gracious regards of you, and \)erformanco with you, where you affie yourselves upon his grace." The supplies were accordingly granted, and with so generous a hand, that six subsidies of j£50,000 each were voted, although Wentworth tells us that "he never propounded more to the king than £30,000." But while parliament acted thus, relying on the promises of the king and his deputy, the latter had basely resolved that these promises never should be fulfilled, and contrived to evade them in such a way as to remove the odium of doing so from his royal master, who, however, unfortunately for his ovvn fame, fully sanctioned the scandalous treachery of his servant.* The "grace" to Avhich Wentworth had the strongest objection was that which would make sixty years of undisputed possession a bar to the claims of the crown, in cases of landed property — and with good reason, as he showed ; for as soon as parliamenf Avas dissolved in April, 1635, a commission of "defective titles" was issued for Connaught, with the design of confiscating the whole of that province to the crown by ficti- tious forms of law. James I. having extended the system of spoliation called "plantmg" wherever the native Irish continued to hold then' own, first, in the six counties of Ulster, and then in the Irish parts of Leinster, as Longford, which was the O'Farrell's country; Wicklow, which was held by the O'Tooles and O'Byrnes; the north part of Wexford, which lielonged to the Kavanaghs; Iregan, in the Queen's County, which belonged to the Mageoghegans ; and Kilcoursey, in the King's County, belonging to the O'Molloys; and having also replanted Desmond, which had been desolated in the last war in Munster, it now remained, in order to find fresh ground for a Protestant colonization from England and * The king writes tliua to tlie deputy: — "Wentworth: Before I answer any of your particular letters to me I must tell you that your last public despatch has given me a great deal of content- ment; and especially for keeping off the envy" (odium) "of a necessary negative from me, of those inireasonable graces that people expected from mc." Strafford's State Letters, vol. i. p. 33 1. Wentworth describes how Sir John Uadclifi'e and two of the judges assisted him in his plan ; and how, through the medium of a committee, a positive refusal to recommend the passing of the "graces" into l&^r was conveyed to parliament at its next session." Ibid. vol. i. pp. 279, &c- 510 REIGN OF CHARLES I. Scotland, to hunt out old claims, or supposed claims, of the crown, and thus to reach lands long held under the security of the English law* Wentworth commenced the work of plunder with Roscommon, and, as a preliminary step, directed the sheriff to select such jurors as might be made amenable, "in case they should prevaricate," or, in other words, such as might be ruined, by enormous fines, if they refused to find a ver- dict for the king.f The jurors were told that the object of the com- mission was to find " a clear and undoubted title in the crown to the province of Connaught," and to make them "a civil and rich people" by means of a plantation ; for which purpose his majesty should, of course, have the land in his own hands to distribute to fit and proper persons. Under threats which could not be misunderstood the jury found for the king, whereupon Wentworth commended the foreman, sir Lucas Dillon, to his majesty, that "he might be remembered upon the dividing of the lands," and also obtained a competent reward for the judges.^ Similar means had a like success in Mayo and Sligo ; but when it came to the turn of the more wealthy and populous county of Galway, the jury refused to sanction the nefarious robbery by their verdict. Wentworth was furious at this rebuff, and the unhappy jurors were punished vrithout mercy for their "contumacy." They were compelled to appear in the castle chamber, where each of them was fined £4,000, and their estates were seized an^ they themselves imprisoned until these fines should be paid; while the sheriff was fined £1,000, and being unable to pay that sum , died in prison. Wentworth proposed to seize the lands, not only of the jurors, but of all the gentry who neglected " to * Leland describes Wentwortli's scheme in the following words: — "His project was nothing less than to subvert the title to every estate in every part of Connaught, and to establish a new plantation through this whole province ; a project which, when first proposed in the late reign, was received with horror and amazement, but which suited the undismayed and enterprising genius of lord Wentworth. For this he liad opposed the contirmation of the royal gi-aces, and taken to himself the odium of so flagrant a violation of the royal promise. The parliament was at an end, and the deputy at leisure to execute a scheme, which, as it was offensive and alarming, required a cautious and deliberate proce- dure. Old records of state and the memorials of ancient monasteries were ransacked to ascertain the king's original title to Connaught. It was soon discovered, that in the grant of Henry HI. to Richard de Burgo, five cantreds were reserved to the crown, adjacent to the castle of Athlone; that this grant included tlie whole remainder of the province, which was now alleged to have been for- feited by Aedh O'Connor, the Irish provincial chieftain ; that the land and lordship of De Burgo descended, lineally, to Edward IV., and were confirmed to the crown by a statute of Henry VII. The ingenuity of court lawyers was employed to invalidate all patents granted to the possessors of these lands, from the reign of queen Elizabeth." Hist, of Ireland, B. iv. c. i. t Strafford's Letters, i. p. 442. % Sir Lucas Dillon received a large estate, probably out of his own lands; and we are told by Straftord (Letters, ii. p. 241) that Sir Gerard Lowther, chief justice of the Common Pleas, and the chief baron, got four shillings in the pound of the first year's rent raised under the Commission of "Defective Titles." NevBr was jo ^>t;ill. (^Hisf. Cath^ p. 262^ The number of Irish soldiers abroad was veiy much increased by the licence which James I. granted in 1623 for the enlistment of Irish for the Spanish service; and on that occasion great terror was excited in the Pale by the assembling of bands of Irishmen, preparatory to their embarkation, under the sons of their ancient chieftains then acknowledging allegiance to a foreign king. Such was the origin of the Irish Brigades, afterwards so celebrated in the history of Europe. It w.as a little before the data at which we have now arrived, namely in June, 1635, that an Irish regiment in the Spanish service, under their colonel, Preston, immortalized themselves by their heroic defence of Lx)uvain, one of the most remarkable incidents in the historj' of the time. (See it related in 0' Conor's JliliUtry Memoirs of the Irish, and in the introduction of Dr. French's works in Duffy s Library of Ireland.') The great Irish Franciscan, Father Luke Wadding, was at this time a centre of intellectual attraction among the learned and the pious in Rome; but not to dwell on those children of the Green Isle, who, by attaining to distinction in the church and the court, among the most enlightened n,%tions of the world, vindicated in that age the character of their countrj' as the missionary Irish saints and scholars on the continent had done a thousand years before; we come to an important and significant list of " Irishmen Abroad," made cut, about the very time referred to in the text, by some industrious spy of the English government. The compiler of this list, after obHerving that the dangers of Ireland " doe depend most on the practices THREATENED INSURRECTION. 515 Early in the latter of these years we find a few of the native Irish gentry at home, meeting together to talk over a plan for redi*essing tlieir grievances by insurrection. The first movement is traced to Mr. Roo-er O'More, or Moore, a member of the ancient familv of the chiefs of Leix ; and with hun we find associated by degrees, lord Maguire, an- Irisb nobleman who retained a small fragment of the ancient patrimony of his family in Fermanagh, and who was overwhelmed with debt ; his brother, Roger Maguire ; sir Phelim O'Neill of Kinnard, of the illus- trious stock of Tyrone ;* Turlough O'Neill, brother of the last-named ; of their Romish priests, the plots and purposes of Irish commanders serving foreign princes, and the discontentment of the people, especially the Irish natives;" and stating that "the Komish priests were much multiplied of late years in number, power, and countenance," pro- ceeds to enumerate the chief men of Irish and Anglo-Irish extraction then serving foreign princes, in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Poland, and the Low Countries. The list begins with don Richardo Burke, "a man much experienced in martial alFairs," and "a good inginiere." He served many years under the Spaniards in Naples and the West Indies, and was the governor of Leghorn for the duke of Florence. Nest, " Fhellomy O'Neill, nephew unto old Tyrone, liveth in great respect (in Milan), and is a captaine of a troop of horse." Then comes James Rowthe or Rothe, an alfaros, or standard-bearer in the Spanish armj', and his brother. Captain John Rothe, " a pensioner in Naples, who carried Tyrone out of Ireland." One Captain Soloman Mac Da, a Geraldine, resided at Florence, and Sir Thomas Talbot, a knight of Malta, and " a resolute and well-beloved man," lived at Naples, in which latter city " there were some other Irish captaines and officers." The list then proceeds : " In Spain, captain Phellomy Cavanagh, son-in-law to Donell Spaniagh, serveth under the king by sea. Captain Soulevayne (O'Sullivan), a man of noted courage. These live commonly at Lisbonne, and are sea-captaines. Besides others of the I rish. Captain Driscoll, the younger, soune to old Captain Driscoll, both men reckoned valourous. In the court of Spaine liveth the sonne of Richard Bourke, which was nephew untoe William, who died at Valladolid he is in high favour with the king, and (as it is reported) is to bo made a marquis. Captain Toby Bourke, a pensioner in the court of Spain, another nephew of the said William, deceased , captain John Bourke M'Shane, who served long time in Flanders, and now liveth on his pension, assigned on the Groyne. Captain Daniell, a pensioner at Antwerp. In the Low Countries, under the Archduke: John O'Neill, sonne of the archtraitor, Tyrone, colonel of the Irish regiment. Young O'Donnel, sonne of the late traitorous earl of Tirconnel. Owen O'Neill (Owen Roe), sergeant-major (equivalent to the present lieutenant-colonel) of the Irish rogiment. Captain Art O'Neill, Captain Cormack O'Neill, Captain Donel O'Donel, Captain Thady O'Sullevane, Captain Preston, Captain Fitz Gerrott ; old Captain Fitz Gerrott continues ser- geant-major, now a pensioner ; Captain Edmond O'Mor, Captain Bryan 0'Kellj% Captain Stani- hurst, Captain Gorton, Captain DauTell, Captain Walshe. There are diverse other Captaines and officers of the Irish under the Archduchess (Isabella), some of whose companies are cast, and they made pensioners. Of these ser\'ing under the Archduchess there are about 100 able to command companies, and 20 fitt to be colonels. Manj' of them are descended of gentlemen's families and some of noblemen. These Irish soldiers and pensioners doe stay their resolutions until they see whether England makes peace or war with Spaine. If peace, they have practised already with other soveraine princes, from whom they have received hopes of assistance : if war doe ensue they are confident of greater ayde. They have been long providing of arms for any attempt against Ireland, and had in readiness five or six thousand arms laid up in Antwerp for that purpose, bouglit out of the deduction of their monthly pay, as will be proved, and it is thought they have now doubled that proportion by these means." Tl)is extremely curious document, which is pre- served in the State-paper Office, and was first brought to light in the Nation of February 5th, 1859, would appear to have been prepared very shortly before 1640, and throws consideralle light on some facts in the sequel of our history. * He was fourth in descent from John of Kinnard, or Caledon, youugest brother of Con Baccagb O'Neill, first earl of Tyrona. 516 REIGN OF CHARLES I. sir Con Mageimis; Philip MacHugh O'Reilly; colonel Hugh Oge Mac Mahon; Collo MacBrian MacMalion; Evar MacMalion, vicar-general of Clogher, and others. To enforce his views, O'More employed ar- guments similar to those which we have quoted from lord Castlehaven. He spoke of the afflictions and sufferings of the native Irish, and of the general discontent which prevailed among the new as well as the old Irish. He dwelt particularly on the injury done to the Catholic Church, and alluded to the well-grounded rumor that parliament intended the utter subversion of their religion. He had already, he said, ascertained that the principal Irish gentry ot Leinster and Connaught were favor- able to the design of taking up arms ; and urged that they never would have a better opportunity ot improving their condition and recovering at least a portion of their ancient estates than during the present Scottish troubles, Ol^Iore was a man of handsome person and fascinating manners, as well as of great bravery and undoubted honor, and we need r.oJ wonder that he became one of the most popular leaders of the exciting time which followed- Lord Maguire was active as a medium of com- munication between the confederates; but among those we have yet mentioned Sir Phelim O'Neill was destined to play the most important part in their future proceedings. About May, 1641, Nial O'Neill arrived in Ireland as a messenger from the titular earl of Tyrone (John, son of Hugh O'Neill) in Spain, to Inform his friends that he had obtained from cardinal Richelieu, prime minister of France, a promise of arms, ammunition, and money for Ireland, when requn*ed, and desiring them to hold themselves in readiness. The confederates sent back the messenger with information as to their proceedings, and announcing that *^^py would be prepared to rise a few days before or after All-hallow-ti L •, u. '^''^^ ^'^ tho oppor- tunity answered ; but scarcely was the messenger despatched when news was received that the earl of Tyrone vv-as killed, and another messenger was sent with all speed into the Low Countries to colonel Owen O'Neill, who was the next entitled to be their leader.* Orders had been issued by the English parliament to disband the " popish" army raised by Strafford in Ireland, and that the men might be removed from the * Colonel Owen Roe O'Xeill was son of Art, the youngest brother of Hugh O'Neill, earl of TjTone, and was, therefore, first cousin of the titular earl, John, whose death has been just men- tioned. Some have erroneously called him the grand-nephew of Tyrone, and others, without any authority, make him illegitimate for three successive generations. See the Kev. J. Wills'3 Life of Owen Roe, and a paper by H. F. Hore, Esq., in the Ulster JotuTial of ArJimolofiy. This is decidedly erroneous, the only case of illegitimacy in his pedigree being that of Ferdoragh. The name of colonel Owen O'Xeill appears in th« list given in the note in the last page. CONSPIRACY TO SEIZii DUBLIN CASTLE 517 country, license was given that they might enter into foreign service. Certain officers were ostensibly commissioned to enrol them for tliat purpose. But here we have a double plot; for the real object of these officers was to keep the men collected at home ready to be employed in the king's interest. Among those sent to Ireland for this purpose were colonels Plunket, Bourn, or Byrne, and Sir James Dillon, and captain Brian O'Neill, and it requu'ed little ingenuity to bring about a common understanding between the gentlemen thus interested for the king and the Irish associates of Roger O'More. Conferences were held between a few of either side, and colonel Plunket and his friends were the first to suggest that Dublin Castle should be seized by surprise, and the arms, of which a lai'ge quantity were stored there, distributed among the insurgents. In the course of September their plans were matured, and after some changes as to the day, the 23rd of October was finally fixed on for the execution of them. There was to be a simultaneous movement throughout the country, and at the same time that Dublin castle was to be taken, by two hundred men counted off for that pur- pose, all the strong places in the kingdom were to be attacked or surprised. They were to seize on the forts and arms, and to make the gentry prisoners, but it was particularly directed that none should be killed " but where of necessity they must be forced thereunto by oppo- sition."* It was also resolved that nothing should be done to attract the animosity of the Scots. Encouraging news was received from colonel Owen O'Neill, holding out hopes of aid from cardinal Richelieu, and desiring that the rising should take place as speedily as possible. Sir William Parsons and sir John Borlase, who were at this time lords justices, were violent partisans of the English parliament.! They were men ot narrow minds, violent prejudices, and the meanest in- tellect, and were capable of acting for the basest motives. They received sundry intimations of the approach of danger, but treated them with stolid indifference ; and it soon became apparent that nothing could have gratified them more than a movement which would place the Catholic landed gentry at their mercy -t In compliance with a petition of grievances from the Irish parliament, the king ordered the * See Relation of Lord Maguire, from which the above particulars of the conspiracy are taken. Borlase's Hist, of (he Irish Rebell. Appendix. t The earl of Leicester, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, after Straffnid, also became a partisan of the parliamentary faction. He was grandson of sir Ilenrv Sidney, and never came to Ireland. X So early as the IGth of March, 1641, the king ordered secretary Vane to send notice to the lords justices of an intended rebellion in Ireland ; his mnjcsty having received advices to that effect from his minister in Spain, who had observed the movements anumg the Irish refu^ju-s. This, h'wever, did not disturb the security of Parsons and Dorlasc*. 518 REIGN OF CHARLES I lords justices to assure his Irish subjects that his former promises should be speedily perfoi-med, and to prepare for that purpose two bills for securing the titles of estates, and limiting the claims of the crown to sixty years. This was an effort on the part of the unfortunate Charles to recover the confidence and affection of the Irish people, but nothing could be farther from the intention of Parsons and Borlase than any such consummation. When it was known that the Irish agents were returning with the royal answer, the lords justices, notwithstanding entreaty and remonstrance, prorogued parliament for three months, and refused to issue a proclamation announcing the wishes of the king. This proceeding greatly exasperated the gentry of the pale, and helped to hasten and extend the subsequent outbreak.* At length the eve of the 23rd of October arrived, and several of the confederates assembled in Dublin, according to appointment. Among these were lord Maguire, Roger O'More, colonels Plunket, Byi'ne, and Hugh MacMahon, captains Brian O'Neill, and Fox, and others ; but it was found that some were not punctual in sending their contingents of men, and that of the two hundred who were to seize the Castle next day, only eighty were in town that afternoon. Still they resolved on carrying out their plan ; but in an evil hour Hugh MacMahon revealed their project to one Owen O'Connolly, who had been reared a Pro- testant, and was a servant to the fanatical sir John Clotworthy. This infatuation of MacMahon's, at the last moment, has not been explained. O'Connolly hastened to denounce the conspiracy to sir William Parsons, who, perceiving that he was partly intoxicated, did not credit his story. On reflection, however, the lord justice went to consult with his col- league, sir John Borlase, who resided at Chichester House, in College Green. It was then ten o'clock at night, and O'Connolly having been brought before them, and repeating his statement, immediate steps were taken to arrest the conspirators. The city gates were closed, and search made for the confederates, but O'More and some of the others, having timely notice of the discovery, contiived to escape across the Liffey. MacMahon was taken in his lodgings near the King's Inns, but seemed to feel little concern ui. his position; for he passed the time during the night, in the hall of Chichester House, sketching ^^ith chalk the figures of men on gibbets, u the borders of the counties o( Tyrone and Armagh." — Dr. O'Donovan's note to Four ifastert rol. vl. p. 2257. t Kiuaccini's Relatione, t Sir Fhelim O'Neill's Journal. 556 REIGN OF CHARLES I. says Monroe in his despatch, "did earnestly covet fighting, which it was impossible forme to gainstand without reproach of co\\^rdice, and never did I see a greater confidence than was amongst us." As the Scots approached, their passage was disputed in a narrow defile by the regiment of colonel Richard O'Farrell, but this resistance was soon removed by Monroe's artillery, and the whole Scottish army advanced against O'Neill's position. The Irish general manojuvred so skilfully that for four hours he engaged the attention of the enemy by his skirmishers, and by light parties of musketeers posted in thickets. He wished to gain time until the sun, Avliich dazzled his men by the glare of light in front, should have declined to the west, and until the detach- ment he had sent to intercept Monroe's expected reinforcement should return; and this design he accomplished. Some troops were seen approaching in the distance. Monroe supposed them to be those of his brother, George ; but he was soon undeceived when he saw them enter the Irish camp. He now thought it prudent to retire, and ordered the retreat to be sounded ; but this resolve was fatal. O'Neill saw that the moment was decisive, and ordered his gallant army to charge, command- ing his men to reserve their fire until within a pike's length of the enemy's lines. Never were orders more bravely obeyed. The Irish rushed forward with a terrific shout, and an impetus that was irresistible. Lord Blaney's regiment first met the brunt of their onset, and after a stubborn resistance was cut to pieces. The Scottish cavalry twice charged to break the advancing column of the Irish, but were, them- selves, thrown into disorder by the impetuous charge of the Irisli horse. The ranks of Monroe's foot and horse were now broken, and the Irish continuing to press on vigorously, the confusion was soon converted into a total route. The Scots fled to the river, but O'Neill held possession of the ford, and the flying masses were driven into the deep w^ater, where such numbers perished that tradition says, one might have crossed over dry-shod on the bodies. The regiment of sir James Montgomery was the only one that retreated in tolerable order, the rest of the army flying in utter confusion. Colonel Conway had two horses killed under him, but escaped on a third to Newry, accompanied by captain Burke, and about forty horsemen. Monroe, himself, fled so precipitately that his hat, sword, and cloak were found among the spoils, and he halted not until he reached Lisburn. Lord Montgomery was taken prisoner, with ■twenty one oflficers and about 150 soldiers; and over 3,000 of the Scots ware left on the field, besides those killed in the pursuit, which was RESULTS OF THE VICTORY. 557 resumed next morning. All the Scottish artillery, tents, and provisions, w>>ha vast quantity of arms and ammunition, and thirty- two colors fell into the hands of the Irish, who, on their side, had onh- seventy men killed and 200 wounded.* This brilliant victory, won, not by dint of numbers, but by sheer good generalship and gallantry, over a brave and ruthless foe, numerically superior, and better, equipped, showed what Owen O'Neill mi^ht have done hnd he not been shackled by the temporising and craven-hearted party with wdiom circumstances compelled him to act. and who hated him and his brave northerns as much a« they did the Puritan enemy. The covenanters were filled with consternation ; and the Ormondists in the general assembly regarded O'Neill with more fear and jealousy than ever, while, in the same proportion, the Irish were inspired with hio-her and brighter hopes ; but the victory had no other result. Monroe, in the panic of the moment, burned Dundrum, abandoned several Btronw posts, and called all the English and Scots of Ulster to arms ; but the Irish made no further attempt to molest him, and he awaited at Carrickfergiis the arrival of fresh supplies from the parliament. A great many flocked to O'Neill's standard, and as the arms and other stores obtained at Ben- burb helped him to equip them, his effective force was soon increased to 10,000 men. These he designated the "Catholic army; ' but the appro- priation of this title to his own particular force, where all were supposed to be enlisted under the banner of Catholicity, excited fresh jealousies and suspicions. It identified him still more with the nuncio, and in- creased the hatred of Preston and the Ormondists: the intrio-ues of which faction now called away his attention from the common enemy. The standards captured at Benburb were sent to the nuncio at Limerick, where they reached on the 13th of June ; and the following ■^ Tlie Abbe Mageogbegan, whom we have cliitSy followed above, and whose account of the battle has been adopted by such hostile writers as Warner and Leland, takes his numbers, as Carte also did, from Rinucciui, who says that as mmy as 3,243 bodies were reckoned on the field ; but adds that the Irish took no prisoners except the officers mentioned above. The writer of sir Phelim O'Neill's journal, who, no doubt, was present, says : — "The confederates got (on the battle-field,) 1,000 muskets, a large quantity of pikes, drums, •^even field pieces, and thirty -six standard?, which were sent to tlie nunzio in charge of Bartholomew McEgan, definitor of the order of St. Francis. The nunzio was then in Limerick, and he sent his dean along with Father McEgan to congTatulate Owen Roe. The dean gave each soldier three rialls (about one shilling and sixpence), and more to the officers. The army then dispersed over Monaghan, Cavan, Leitrim, and Longford, 'till the crops should be ripe. The wounded were sent to Charlemont, where sir Phelim had surgeons for them." The account of the battle, printed and posted in the streets of London immediately after the news was received, describes it as "the bloody fight at Blackwater, on the 5th of June, by tbe Irish rebsk against major-general Monroe, where 6,000 Protestants were put to the eword." 55? REIGN OP CHARLES day they were carried in procession to the cathedral, and a solemn Te Deum was chanted for the victory- The discussion on the publication of the political articles of March 28th was resumed in the assembly with animosity; but in the midst of it their commissioners came to announce that the king had countermanded all the instructions which he Iwd given to Omiond to make terms with the Irish. This order had been conveyed to Ormond on the 2i!th of June through the Puritan commissioners in Ulster, and it was clear that Charles had issued it under the com- pulsion of the Scots, whose prisoner he was ; but Ormond pretended to think that it should be obeyed, although lord Digby, who was acquainted with the king's TNashes, assured him to the contrary. The nuncio wrote to Rome for fresh instructions. The pontifical treaty with the qixecn on behalf of the Irish Catholics was actually prepared, but was never signed ; and at length, on the 29th of July, Ormond's treaty was pub- licly ratified, and solemnly proclaimed in Dublin on the 1st of the following month. This treaty, which left for the future decision of the king the grand object for which the confederates had taken up arms, made no provision for the plundered people of Ulster, and gave to the lord lieutenant the command of the confederate Catholics, until settlement by act of parliament, was everywhere rejected by the old Irish. In Waterford, Clonmel, and Limerick the herald was prevented by the people from proclaiming it. Galway and many other towns refused to receive it ; and by the Irish of Ulster it was indignantly repudiated. Owen Roe entered Leinster with his formidable creaghts,* and the nuncio summoned a national synod, which met at Waterford on the 6th of August, and was attended by three archbishops, ten bishops, five abbots, two vicars apostolic, fourteen representatives of religious orders, and the provincial of the Jesuits. The synod was unanimous ra condemning the treaty, and on the 12th of August issued a decree declaring " that all and every one of the Confederate Catholics that will adhere to such a peace, and consent to the futherance thereof, or in any other manner or way will embrace the same, shall be absolutely as perjurers esteemed ; chiefly inasmuch as there is no mention made in the thirty articles, nor promise for the Catholic religion or safety thereof, nor any respect had for the preservation of the kingdom's * The creaghts were, originallj', the drivers in charge of a prev of cattle ; but the term came to be applied to those whe led a nomadic life, and removed their cattle from one pasturage to another. As these were uumerous in f Istcr, the ranks of O'Neill's army weve supposed to be chiefly filled by them, and their character having been purposely misrepresented by their enemies, they ■were ren- dered objects of the greatott terror to the Iriah and Anglo-Irish of Leinster and Munster. STRONG JrUASURES OF THE NUNCIO 559 privileges, as were promised m the oath of association, but. on tha ^n- trary, all remitted to the king's will and pleasure."* As opkiion became developed the people unanimous'i^y rejectea the discreditable peace ; even the vacillating Preston declared lor tne nuncio and the clergy; and MountgaiTet, Muskerry, and their few adherents, finding themselves deserted by the clergy, the army, and the people, invited Onnond to come to Kilkenny, in the hope that his presence miu;ht overawe their opponents. He accepted the invitation, and arrived at Kilkenny on the 31st of August with 1,500 foot and 500 horse. Thence he proceeded to Munster, but he found the people everywhere averse to the treaty. Meantime O'Neill, who vv^.s not a listless observer, advanced to the south, encamping at Roscrea on the 9th of September, and Ormond, alarmed at this movement, returned precipitately towards Dublin. To the timely notice which he received from lord Castlehaven he owed, in fact, his escape from the hands of O'Neill and Preston, who were con- centrating their forces on his route, with the intention of making him prisoner; but he arrived in safety in Dublin on the 13th of September. Events of great importance were now succeeding each other with starthng rapidity. On the 18th of September the nuncio entered Kil- kenny, escorted by the generals, the Spanish envoy, and a crowd of military officers, having previously caused O'Neill to encamp near the city with his army, which noAv consisted of 12,000 foot and 1,500 horse. His first measure was to cause the members of the supreme council to be committed as prisoners to the castle; Patrick Darcy and Plunket being alone excepted. On the 20th a new council, consisting of four bishops and eight laymen, was appointed, and Rinuccini himself was unanimously chosen president. Thus the tables were turned on the Ormondists, and the whole power was thrown into the hands of the clergy, who appointed Glamorgan to the command of the confederate troops of Munster instead of Muskerry ; but the imprisonment of the old council has been generally condemned as a harsh and imprudent proceeding. Ormond hastened to strengthen Dublin against the con- federates, from whomhe now anticipated an attack; audit was wellknoAvn that he w?.s then meditating the surrender of the city to the parlia- mentarians, with whom he was prepared to co-operate against the Catholics. Aware of Ormond's intrigues with the king's enemies, and fearing that Dublin might be delivered up to the Puritans before any step could be take to save it, the supreme council directed the generals * Vide Frtnche's Unkind Deserter, and Meehan's Con/ecL of Kilhetmy. 560 BKIGN OF CUARLES I. to march at once to beseige it. Preston threw obstacles in the way. He desired that they should first communicate with Ormond ; and he ex- pressed a fear that Owen Roe intended to attack himself and to desti'oy the Leinster troops. The mutual hatred of the generals became more violent than ever, and there was strong reason to doubt Preston's aiucerity in the cause. At length, at the end of October, both armies moved towards Dublin, and by mutual agreement Preston fixed his camp at Leixlip, about seven miles from the city, and O'Neill his at Newcastle, a few miles to the south of Preston's camp. Alarmed at their approach, Ormond caused the mills to be destroyed and the country laid waste for a considerable distance, so that no provisions could be obtained ; and ine winter having set in with intense severity the troops suffered greatly, so many as twenty or thirty men perishing every night at their posts. The defences were in so bad a state that the besiegers might have found it easy to storm the city at many points; but they were too much engaged with their own dissensions to think of attacking the enemy. The two confederate camps were in fact armed against each other, and the nuncio Avas occu- pied in passing from one to the other, vainly endeavouring to reconcile the generals. At one time it was debated in council whether Preston should not be seized and imprisoned as a traitor to the c;UTse. He was openly in correspondence with Ormond through the medium of Cla.n- rickard, and it subsequently transpired that he agreed to a plan by which he and Clanrickard were jointly to garrison Dublin, and to compel the confederates to accept the peace; but at the persuasion of the nuncio Preston relinquished this scheme and disappointed Ormond. Twelve (lays were thus fruitlessly spent before Dublin, when an alarm was sud- denly given in the council of the confederates that the English Avere already in the city ; and without any attempt to ascertain the truth of the report, which happened to be utterly groundless, the camps were liastily broken up, and the armies retreated to the south. All appeared to be thoroughly ashamed of this disgraceful proceeding; and the nuncio, wlio remained at Lucan three days after the retreat, induced the eenerals on arriving at Kilkenny to sign a mutual agreement, pledging tftemselves to forget their dissensions and to act together in the common cause. A new general assembly Avas called ; the members of the old council were released 'from prison, and it was even proposed that the a Junes suoula return to besiege Dublin, where Ormond still carried on Tftis negotiations with the parliamentary commissioners, THE CONFEDEBATION REMODELLED. 561 A.D. 1647. — The general assembly met on the 10th of January. All the members attended high mass in the cathedral of St. Canice, David Rothe, the venerable bishop of Ossory, officiating as high priest. The nuncio sat on an elevated^ throne, and the scene was august and impos- ing in an eminent degree. From tlie cathedral the members repaired to the castle, where the nuncio opened the proceedings with an address, in which he dwelt particularly on the glorious victory obtained by O'Neill in Ulster, but for which, as he truly observed, the confederation would have been crushed ere then. An angry discussion was then raised on the decrees of the synod of Waterford, and on the charge of perjury which they implied against the commissioners who subscribed the articles of Ormond's treaty. In the course of the debates Dr. French, bishop of Ferns, moved that Preston be impeached, and to such a pitch of violence was the discord carried that at one time s(Tme members were about to draw their swords. After three weeks spent in these rancorous discussions, it was at length resolved that the treaty with Ormond was invalid, and " that the nation would accept of no peace not containing a sufficient Becurlty for the religion, lives, and estates of the confederate Catholics.** Out o:? three hundred members present only twelve voted against this resolution. A new oath was framed and administered for the maintenance of their union until the following rights were attained, viz. : — the free and public exercise of the Roman Catholic religion as it was in the reign of Henry VII., or any former Catholic king; the full enjoyment of their jurisdiction by the Roman Catholic clergy, as in the reigns of the aforesaid Catholic kings; the repeal of all laws made against the Roman Catholics since the reign of Henry VIII. ; and the full enjoyment of the churches and church livings by the Roman Catholic clergy in all places then in possession of the confederate Catholics, or which might be recovered by them. Until these articles Avere fully ratified the confederates were nov/ bound by their oath not to lay down their arms; and on the 8th of March a proclamation was published by the Assembly enjoining on all Catholics to contend for these rights, and denouncing as traitors to God and to their country all those who refused to take the oath with these conditions. An attempt to renew negotiations with Ormond on the basis of these propositions was treated by him with scorn; and all hopes of peace being thus at an end the confederates began to prepare for war. Their coffers were empty and the country waste; but extraordinary contribu- tions were raised, and the cnurch plate was converted into money. 562 REIGN OF CHARLES I. Owen Roe got the command of the troops of Ulster and Connanglit^ Preston, distrusted as he was, was re-appointed to the command in Leinster ; and Glamorgan was made general of the array of Munster, Dangers threatened them on all sides, and weakened «s they were by their own divisions, their preparations against the coming storm were feeble and ill-arranged. Negotiations with Ormond were once more renewed through Dr. Leyburn, who, under the assumed name of Winter Grant, had arrived with despatches from the queen to the lord lieutenant; but nothing was concluded. The nuncio Avould yield no principle, while Ormond on his side was inflexible in resisting the demands of the Catholics, and was, in fact, too deeply involved already in his negotia- tion with the rebel parliament. He had sent his son, sir Richard Butler, with the earl of Roscommon and sir James Ware, to London as hostages for the performance of the articles stipulated between them, and had admitted into the garrison?; of Drogheda and Dublin a Puritan force of 1,000 loot and 400 horse from Ulster, and an English regiment under Colonel Castle. In Munster, Inchiquin was again abroad, like an un- chained demon, spreading desolation around him ; Rud to add to the difficulties of the confederates, the army of the South mutinied against Glamorgan, and insisted on having their old general, Muskerry, restored to the command. Muskerry was accordingly reinstated, and by him the command was transferred to lord TaafTe, a creature of Ormond's, and a. vain, hasty, and weak-minded man, destitute of every quality which could fit him for the post. Thus was the country sacrificed. The nuncio repaired to Connaught to consult with Owen Roe — the only man whom he saw worthy of his confidence, or who was devoted heart and soul to the great cause which they had undertaken. The English parliament was more urgent and imperious than Ormond had anticipated. He was consoled, indeed, with a reward of £5,000 in hand for his treachery, and a promise of £2,000 a-year; but he was ordered out of Dublin castle more unceremoniously than he expected ; and had to sm*render the regalia to the parliamentary commissioners on the 28th of July, when he sailed for England, whence he soon found it necessary to remove to France. Colonel Jones took possession of the castle for the English rebels. The news of Ormond's perfidy filled the country with indignation, and brought home to the confederates the alarming nature of their position. In the south lord Taaffe was powerless and inactive, while Inchiquin devastated the land without resistance : O'Neill found himself DISASTER OF DUNG AN HIIX. 563 destitute of resources in Contiaugbt, and might well have been sullen and dispirited ; while Preston, a man quite unfit for the task, marched towards Trim to manoeuvre against the parliamentary forces. In the meantime, Jones marched from Dublin, by Swords, Hollywood, Naul, and Garristown, to Skreene, which he reached on the 4th of August, his army, with additions from Ulster, that had joined him on the way, amounting by that time to 12,000 foot and 700 horse, with two pieces of artillery. Here he learned that Preston was the same day at Port- lester, five miles west of Trim, with an army of 7,000 foot 1,000 horse, and foiu' cannons. Jones then advanced to Tara, where he re- viewed his troops, and next day marched to Scurlogstov/ii, about v. mile from Trim, where he encamped. The following day he marched to Trimbleston, where a small garrison that had been left by Preston surrendered to him; but receiving information tliat the confederate general had suddenly marched in the direction of Kilcock, with a view of getting between him and Dublin, he set out in haste to frustrate thst design, and on the morning of the 8th reached Lynche's Knock, near Summerhill, about a mile from Avhich, on fin eminence called Dungan hill, Preston was encamped. Jones advanced in full force to attack the confederates, who were strongly entrenched, and might have held their ground even against the superior numbers of the enemy; but Preston was too volatile and im- prudent to act on the defensive. He charged down the hill to break the columns of the parliamentarians, but was encountered with a firmness which threw his men into confusion, tlis artillery were so placed as to be useless, and his cavalry were drawn up in marshy ground, where they were at the mercy of the enemy. Sir Alexander MacDonnell, or Colkittc, made desperate efforts to retrieve the fortune of the day; but bravery was insufficient whei'e such fatal errors had been committed. The Irish army was driven into an adjacent bog, where, surrounded by the par- liamentary forces, they were shot down without mercy. Resistance had ceased, but no quarter was given ; and such as attempted to escape from the bog were slaughtered by Jones's dragoons. The confederates lost on that fatal day 5,470 of their men, of whom 400 were MacDon- nell's brave Redshanks ; and Preston fled in dismay, followed by 500 infantry, the sole wreck of his army tliat could be mustered after thd battle. The loss of the English is said to have been only twenty men. Terrified at this disaster, even the Ormondists now looked to O'Neill as a protector; and at the desire of the council, Owen marched to the 564 REIGN OF CHARLES I. verj neighbourhood which had been the scene of Preston's misfortune. He had an army of 12,000 men, and so harassed Jones by his rapid movementSL and by those inscrutable tactics which have obtained for him the title of the Irish Fabius, that the parliamentary general was scared from the open country, and sought shelter behind the walls of Dublin. O'Neill followed him as far as Castleknock, and the alarmed citizens could count that night from a steeple 200 Irish watch-fires. The ferocious Inchiquin entered Tipperary on the 3rd of September, and after taking several small castles, crossed the Suir and attacked the fortress of Cahir, which he took in one day, although it was counted the strongest castle in Munster, and had held out for two months against the army of Essex in the reign of Elizabeth. The principal strongholds were left in so weak a state by the imbecile Taaffe, that some oollusJovi was supposed to have existed between him and Inchiquin, who was allowed to butcher the inhabitants and destroy the crops of the country with impunity. The other exploits of this sanguinary monster were but of trivial consequence, however, when compared to the sack of Cashel. It was about the end of September that Inchiquin sat down before the royal city, in which Taafte had left only a paltry garrison, he himself flyhig, as usual, at the approach of Murrough O'Brien. The city was sum- moned to pay £3,000 under the threat of being taken by storm, and, unfortunately, the municipal authorities had too much spirit to yield to these terms. The attack was, therefore, commenced ; the walls were battered down ; and at the first rush of Inchiquin's soldiers the feeble garrison flung down their arms, and Avere slaughtered without resistance. A gallant action will excite admiration, whether performed by friend or foe ; but the bloody scene which was now enacted displayed not human bravery but fiendish ferocity. A general carnage of the unarmed townspeople commenced. In the streets and the houses they were Dutchered without mercy, and without distinction of age or sex. Multi- tudes of panic-stricken people fled to the cathedral on the rock, and shut themselves up within the sacred walls, but these afforded them no asylum. Inchiquin poured in volleys of musket balls through the doors and windows, unmoved by the piercing shrieks of the crowded victims within ; and then sent in his troopers to finish with pike and sabre the work which the bullets had left incomplete. The floor was encumbered with piles of mangled bodies ; and twenty priests who had sought shelter under the altars were dragged forth and slaughtered with a fury which BATTLE OF KXOCKNAXOS. 565 the mere extinction of life could not half appease. In fine, the victims of that day's massacre in Cashel amounted to 3,000 !* The town of Fethard opened its gates to Inchiquin as soon as sum- moned to do so ; nor need we wonder, for the fate of Cashel spread terror throughout INIunster. But when the sanguinary Murrough ap- peared before Clonmel he was met with a stern defiance. The gallant sir Alexander MacDonnell, with such of his brave northerns as could be collected after the slaughter of Dungan hill, had taken his stand here, and his name was a host in itself. So Murrough slunk away, leaving the walls of Clonmel unhnrmod, and retired to Cahir, where the thanks of the rebel parliament wore conveyed to him for his achieve- ments, together with supplies of men and money. In the beginning of November Inchiquin again took the field, and was encamped 8t Mallow, on the 12th of that month, with an army of about 6,000 foot and 1,200 horse; while lord Taaffe, with over 7,000 foot and neady 1,200 horse, lay at Kanturk, some ten miles distant. The confederate general had been urged by the supreme council to fight Inchiquin if a favorable opportunity was presented, and such he deemed the present one to be. Advancing, accordingly, a few miles, to a hill cilled Knocknanos.t he there drew up his army in order of battle. To sir Alexander MacDonnell, whom he made his lieutenant- general, he committed the right wing, which was supported by colonel Purcell, with two regiments of horse; and he himself took the command of the left wing, on the slope of the hill, where he posted the Munster troops, numbering 4,000 foot, supported also by two regiments of horse. The front was defended by a morass, and a small rivulet which nearly encompassed the base of the hill. His position was therefore good; and Inchiquin, havlug advanced from Mallow, commenced the attack at considerable disadvantage. MacDonnell's northerns, following the Highland custom, flung down their muskets after the first volley, and charged the enemy with their broadswords. They broke Inchiquin's left wing, took his artillery, and pursued his flying men for two miles, killing a great number. But a different result attended the combat iu ftnother part of the field. Availing himself of a fatal oversight on the part of Taaffe, Inchiquin detached a squadron of horse so as to gain the *Vido MtfchniiV Confederation of Kilkenny, p. 200. t " Ciioo-na-n-03, t. «., the Hill of the Fawn!."— f/?'/?onoWMi'« No!i to Four Masters, voL vi. p. 1«97) ; or it might t» Cnoc-na-n-dos, dot signifvinj a " thicket," or a " dense Doiljr of men."— See O'Brien't Ir. Diet. 535 REIGN OF CHARLES I. summit of the hill ; and these, charging from the rear, caused a panic in the left wing of the Irisli. This decided the battle. The Munster troops fled in dismay, and were slaughtered with little resistance; while the northerns, returning from the pursuit of those whom they had so gallantly routed, and secure in the thought that the day was their own, were surprised by the victorious English, and cut to pieces. Their heroic leader gave up his sword to colonel Purdon ; but Inchiquin having ordered that no quarter should be given, the chivalrous MacDonnell was, together with many of his brave men, put to the sword in cold blood.* Four thousand of the confederates, according to the English accounts, perished in the field; their arms, colors, and baggage were lost; and the general's tent, with all his papers, were among the spoils. This battle, so disastrous to the confederates, was fought on the loth of November. On receiving the news the parliament voted £10,000 for Inchiquin's army, and ,£1,000 as a present to himself; but only a small portion of the money was sent, and Murrough, feeling that he was badly treated, began to think of changing sides again.f A.D. 1648. — The prospects of the confederates were now gloomy in the extreme. Their generals, Preston and Taaffe, had each lost an army ; O'Neill, indeed, could still keep their enemies in check, but he was feared and hated by the Ormond faction even more than Inchiquin himself ; the complete triumph of the fanatics in England gave cause for the darkest forebodings ; the resources of the country were exhausted ; and the general assembly was now engaged in discussing the question of a foreign protectorate. After long and anxious deliberation, it was resolved to send agents to Rome and France, both to solicit aid in * The death of sir Alexander (Alastram) JIacDonnell lias added not a little to the tragic interest of Knocknanos. That brave soldier, who is famous in Scottish history as sir Alaster M'Donnell and Colkitto (CoUa Ciotach, or Colla the left-handed), having, as we have seen, been sent by Randal, marquis of Antrim, to Scotland, in command of Irish troops, had a chief part in the victories gained by Montrose for the king in 1644. His name is preserved in the traditions of the Irish peasantry in connection with a well-known piece of popular music, called from him J/«r- nhdll Alastraim, or " Alexander's March ;" but, observes professor Curry, "whether the march is older than the name I am not able to say, but I think it is." Tlie remains of sir Alastram were deposited in the Dominican abbey at Kilmallock, but the spot is unknown. Vide Croker's Researches in E. S. of Id. p. 67. t Personal considerations had induced him to desert the king's cause in 1643, when he v;as refused the presidency of Munster, which he expected to obtain after the death of his father-in- law, sir William St. Leger. The earl of Portland was made lord president, and Inchiquin turned over to the parliament. It is remarkable that both Inchiquin and Ormond, two of the most inveterate enemies of the Catholic church at that time, were the sons of Catholic parents, but had been educated under the infamous Court of Wards, the great proselytising engine of that day. TRUCE WITH IKCHIQUIN. 56/ money, and to ascertain what might be the most prudent course for placing the country under the protection of a foreign power. Dr. French and Plunket were deputed to Rome ; Muskerry and Browne to France ; and the marquis of Antrim also proceeded in the name of the assembly to the latter country. Ormond had already arrived at St. Germains, and prepared the queen for the reception to be given to the Irish envoys. Besides the instructions which they had received from the general assembly, Muskerry and Browne were the bearers of a pri- vate message from Preston and TaaflPe, and to this alone was any serious consideration given in the conference with the queen. Her majesty's answer to the public message was a mere deception ; and henceforth the confederation was nothing more than an instrument in the hands of Ormond. The supreme council and Inchiquin had for some time been treating in an underhand Avay about a truce, but their negotiations now became more direct. Inchiquin demanded from them 4,000 dollars a month, to support his mercenary army, at the same time that he continued to press his demands on the English parliament, to conceal his designs. A meeting of the general assembly was called, and Rinuccini, who was at Waterford, was very pressingly invited by the supreme council to give it the sanction of his presence. At length he complied, and the session was opened on the 20th of April, when the discussion of the treaty with Inchiquin commenced. Inchiquin had already incurred the suspicions of parliament, and some of his officers had revolted against him. His power was therefore greatly diminished, and the nuncio protested against any accommodation wdth the man whose hands vrere still red with the blood of the priests whom he had massacred on the rock of Cashel. The nuncio's energetic remonstrance prevailed Avith the bishops, fom'teen of whom subscribed a condemnation of the truce. But it was too late. The truce was sig-ned at Dungarvan on the 20th of May. It provided that Catholics should not be molested in the practice of their religion, except in the garrisons or quarters of lord Inchiquin, where it would not be tolerated. Preston and Inchiquin now united their forces, and prepared to march against O'Neill ; to crush whom was the object upper- most in the minds of both. The nuncio had, how^ever, a dreadful weapon yet in store. On the morning of the 27th of May, a sentence of excommunication against all abettors of the truce, and an interdict against all cities, towns, and villages in which it would be received or observed, were published on the gates of the cathedral at Kilkenny, and 2p 56 S REIGN OF CHARLES I. the nuncio himself privately withdrew from that city and repaired to the camp of Owen Roe at Maryborough. This was a fearful expedient, involving as it did the innocent and the guilty in one punishment. It was, perhaps, inexcusable; but we must bear in mind that the nuncio was aware the life of O'Neill was aimed at, and that he saw the cause of the church and the people of Ireland sacrificed by the perverse con- duct of the Ormondists, upon whom no ordinary argument could make any impression. It was with him a last and a desperate resource. The Ulster chieftain had but 700 of his followers now about him, and in a few days news v.'as brought that Preston was within four miles with an army of 10,000 men to attack him. Preston, however, was ignorant of O'Neill's weakness and did not advance ; and 2,000 of his men, smarting under the excommunication, deserted to Owen's camp. O'Neill was galled to the heart at these proceedings. He fell back towards Athlone, where he had a garrison, but before he could come to its relief it had been compelled to yield to Preston and Clanrickard, the latter being also in the field against him. Owen Roe made a truce with the Scots, and on the 11th of June proclaimed war against the supreme council, and the nuncio took his final leave of him and retired to Gal- way, where he was hemmed in by ClaUrickard's people- An angry coi'respondence passed between the nuncio and the now degenerate con- federation, and v.'hen he endeavoured to convoke a national synod, Clan- rickard prevented the prelates from assembling. These were, indeed, sad events for Ireland ; and it is melancholy to see how utterly dissipated were the hopes which but a little while before were so full of promise. The discord of the confederates freed the parliamentarians from restraint in Dublin, and Monroe and his Presbytei'ians not desiring the abolition of monarchy, nor approAang of the course which affairs had taken in England, Monck got the command in Ulster in his stead, and marching suddenly into that province, surprised Carrickfergus and seized Monroe, whosa he sent prisoner to England. Jones, the parlia- mentary governor of Dublin, glad to promote the war between O'Neill and the confederation, allowed the former to pass unmolested through Leinster to attack Kilkenny. Finding' however, that the combined forces of Preston and Inchiquin Mdre too numerous, O'Neill would not hazard an engagement, and withdrew to Ulster, having foiled by his skilful manoeuvres an attempt which those generals, in conjunction with Clanrickard, made to surround his small army. The marquis of Antrim, on returning from France, took the nuncio's side ; raised an army in the north, and was supported by the O'Byrnes, Kavannghs, and other ORMOXD RETURNS TO IRELAND 569 Leinster septs ; but he was defeated by Incliiquin and the confederates. Ormond next re-appeared on the stage, in compliance with the reiterated invitations of Inchiquin and the supreme council. On the 29th of Sep- tember he landed at Cork, whither Inchiquin went to receive him. He invited commissioners from the confederation to meet him at Currick ; but after much delay, caused by the discussion of terms and other obstacles, the marquis came at the invitation of the general assembly to Kilkenny, where he was received in great state by that body, and in* stalled in his own castle. The peace negotiations were again interrupted by a mutiny in Inchiquin's army, when it was found Ormond had brought no money; but at length on the 17th of January, 1649, the treaty of peace between Ormond and the confederation was finally rati- fied and published amidst great rejoicings. A.T). 1649. — That the war, which was thus brought to a close after seven years' continuance, had been iiiidertaken on religious grounds, is evident from the leading conditions of this treaty, as well as from all the negotiations that had taken place between the parties during that period. The first ai'ticle 2'^i'ovided that in the next parliament to be held in Ireland the penal statutes against Catholics should ue repealed; that a simple oath of allegiance should be substituted for the oath of suprem- acy; and tiiat Catholics should not be molested in the possession of the churches and church livings which they then held, or their clergy in the exercise of their respective jurisdictions, until such time as their claims could be fully considered in a free parliament. By another article the native Irish Catholics were to be relieved from all civil disabili- ties, and were to be allowed to erect one or more inns of court in or ::ear the city of Dublin, and to establish free schools for the education of their youth. They might hold the command of garrisoned towns and forts; the Catholics ejected from Cork, Youghal, and Dungarvan, by inchiquin were to be reinstated in their possessions; the Catholic regular clergy were to be allowed to hold the ancient abbeys and monasteries cf which they were then in possession, and to retain any pensions which they then enjoyed ; and finally, twelve of the confede- rates were to act as commissioners of trust Avitli the marquis of Ormond to see the articles of the treaty fully carried out, and to participate in certain of the functions which belonged to him as lord lieutenant.* In * The commissioners of trust were: lord Dillon of Costello, lord Muskerry, lord Athenry, Alex- ander MacDonnell, esq., sir Lucas Dillon, sir Nicholas Plunket, sir Richard Barnwell, Gcofiry Brown, Donagh O'Callaghan, Turlough O'Neill, Bliles OTiuilly, and Gerald Fennel, esqrs. 570 REIGN OF CHARLES 1. fact the treaty granted concessions to the Catholics "but little inferior to those proposed by Glamorgan ; and if Ormond had only yielded so much a few years earlier he would have prevented innumerable calamities, and most probably have preserved the life of the king. On the 30th of the same month the unfortunate Charles I. closed his wretched career on a scaffold at Whitehall. On the 10th of February prince Rupert entered the harbour of Kinsale with sixteen frigates, and the news of the king's death having been received about the same time, Ormond proclaimed the prince of Wales king, by the title of Charles II. at Cork and Youghal, the same ceremony being performed by prince Rupert at Kinsale. On the 23rd of February, Rinuccini embarked at Gal way in his own frigate to return to Rome. His mission was unsuccessful, but its failure is to be attributed to the recreant and temporising party who, from the very day when they found themselves involved in the war, were prepared to sacrifice the principles for which the country had taken up arms. Rinuccini desired to raise the Catholic church in Ire- land to the dignity to which it was entitled, and the native race of Ireland to the social state for which he saw them fitted. These were the principles for which he contended. The only fault with which even his enemies could charge him was, that he was uncompro- mising. And for the rest, it can hardly be denied that on his side was all that the confederation could boast of as chivalrous, high-minded, and national; while on that of the Ormondists we find intrigue, incapa- city, and cowardice. CHAPTER XXXIX. CROMAVELL. State of parties after the death of Charles I. — O'NeiU's services sought by Ormond and by the Parliamentarians. — Ormond and Inchiquin take the field. — Drogheda and other towns surrender to the latter. — Siege of Dublin by Ormond Great defeat of the Roj^alists at Rathmines. — Arrival of Cromwell. — Siege of Drogheda — Horrible massacre. — Wexford betrayed to Crom- well — Frightful massacre of the inhabitants. — Death of Owen O'Neill. — Ross surrendered. — Siege of Waterford — Courageous conduct of the citizens — The siege raised. — The Southern garrisons revolt to Cromwell. — Wretched position of Ormond. — -Meeting ef the bishops at Clon- niacnoise — Their declaration. — Kilkenny surrendered to Cromwell. — Siege of Clonmel — Heroic self-devotion of the bishop of Ross. — Surrender of Clonmel. — Cromwell embarks for England. — Death of Heber MacMahon. — Meeting of the bishops at Jamestown — Ormond excommunicated. — The kiu'jc subscribes to the covenant. — New general assembly. — Ormond I'etires to France, and the marquis of Clanrickard becomes lord deputy. — Negotiations with the duke of Lorrain.- — Limerick besieged by Ireton. — Valour of Henry O'Neill. — Limerick betrayed to the besiegers — Barbarous executions. — Death of Ireton. — Surrender of Galway. — -Clanrickard accepts terms and leaves the kingdom. — Wholesale confiscations and plunder. — Horrible attempts to exterminate the people. — Banishment to Connaught and the West Indies. — Execution of Sir Phelim O'Neill — Atrocious cruelties. — Oliver proclaimed Lord Protector. — Henry Cromvv-ell in Ireland. — Death of Oliver. — Proceedings of the Royalists. — The Restoration. [from a.d. 1649 TO A.D. 1C60.] GENERAL subversion of principles and confusion of parties characterise the period which followed the death of Charles I. The Scots in Ulster had, as we have seen, become royalists, and Ormond and Inchiquin were at the head of the confederates. The old Irish still flocked round the standard of Owen O'Neill as their leader, and his chivalrous character, military skill, and influence, commanded the respect of his enemies; but the high and sacred principles for which he contended had been lone; since abandoned by his old colleagues of the confe- deration ; a barrier of personal enmity was, moreover, placed between him and them: and provided he could keep an army on his hands, and watch the moves on the political chess-board for some one favorable to his country, it was to him of little consequence to which of the conterding parties he lent his temporary aid. Ormond made overtures to f^y 572 CROMWELL. and some accommodation would probably have tasen place between them, had not the animosity of tlie coraraissioners of trust, old members of the supreme council, interfered to prevent it; whereupon O'Neill in disgustlistened to the suggestions of tlie parliamentary party, and arranged with Monck, who held the command of Dundalk, to intercept the com- municatir^n between the Scottish royalists in tlie north and Ormond in the interior. Tliis arrangement, which Avas made on the 8th of May, 1649, was to secure to O'Neill and his followers perfect religious free- dom and the restoration of their estates;* but Owen did not reckon with any confidence on it, and the cessation or treaty was only signed for three months. The young king was now at the Hague, uncertain what course to take. He had been long promising to come to Ireland, and his baggage had, it is said, been embarked for this country ; but want of money in the first instance, and then other impediments, pre- vented him from coming. It is thought that Ormond, for some sinister motives, discouraged his visit to Ireland ; but Charles placed the fullest confidence in the crafty marquis as his lord lieutenant, and confirmed the treaty which he had made Avith the confederates. Ormond and Inchiquin having mustered a considerable army in the south, at length took the field. In their march through Leinster, several small places, in which either Owen O'Neill or the parliamentarians had placed garrisons, surrendered to them ; and they advanced, Ormond to invest Dublin, and Inchiquin to besiege Drogheda.* The latter town held out for seven days, and on the 30th of June surrendered on honorable terms, the paidiamentarian garrison, consisting of 600 men, being permitted to march to Dublin. Inchiquin's next exploit was to intercept a quantity of ammunition which Monck was sending from Dundalk to Owen O'Neill; and soon after Dundalk, Newry, and several places In Ulster, together with the castle of Trim, surrendered to him ; and he marched back to rejoin Ormond, who had encamped at Finglas, two milesnorthof Dublin, on the 18th of June, but removed to Rathmines, in the southern suburbs of that city, on the 25th of July. Ormond found his army too small either to besiege or storm so large a place as Dublin, and his only hope now being to reduce the city by famine, he left lord Dillon, of Costello, with 2,000 men on the north side, while with the remainder of his army he proposed to cut off supplies coming from any other * Philop. Iren. i. p. 121; also Hist, of Independence, p. 237. t At this period Drogheda was called Tredagh oi* Treda, by English writers ; this corruption of the name being an attempt to imitate the pronunciation of the Irish word Droichei-atka. BATTLE OF RATHMINKS. 573 quarter. So great was his confidence in the loyalty of his men, that he wrote to the king to say " he could persuade half his army to starve outright for his majesty." On the same day that Ormond moved from Finglas to Rathmines, large reinforcements arrived to the garrison fi'om England under colonels Reynolds and Venables ; and it became a matter of great im- portance to the besiegers to command the mouth of the river, to prevent the landing of further supplies from beyond the channel. With that \'iew, and to deprive the besieged of pasturage for their horses on the south side, major-general Purcell was sent, on the night of the 1st of August, with a detachment of 1,500 foot to take possession of the rumed castle of Bagotrath, about a mile from the camp. This place they hojed to fortify sufficiently in one night, and from it they might advance their works to the river ; but they only arrived at the castle an hou: before daybreak, and found that it was not so important as was supposed. Ormond, as well as the bulk of his army, had watched duriag the night, expecting an attack from the garrison, and he no'vv retired to his tent to take some repose; but at the same moment colonel Michiel Jones was preparing to sally forth from the city with 4,000 foot ind 1,200 horse, to dislodge the party which had got possession of Bagoirath. It is intimated by those who seek by all means to free Or- mond? character from disgrace, that Preston and the men under his commmd vrere not at their posts at this important juncture; but it must )e admitted that the marquis showed bad generalship on the occasiai ; and he was now roused from his slumbers by volleys of mus- ketry, D»ly to find his whole left wing in disorder, and the detachment from lagotrath retreating, with the enemy at their heels. The confu- sion som extended to Ormond's left wing ; the infantry were deserted by the cavalry and sought refuge in flight ; and what Jones only intended as a so'tie resulted in a total rout of the royalists, with the loss, as some accounts say, of 4,000 killed und 2,500 taken prisoners, togetiier with thivc artillery, baggage, money, and provisions. The Ormondists, howevQ*, state that the number of slahx was only 600, and the prisoners 300 oficers and 1,500 private soldiers; and they add, what is very probable, that a great many were killed after quarter had been proclaimed, and some even after they had been brought inside the walls of the city. Some of the royalist retreated to Drogheda, and others to Tiim, and a great many of Inchiquin's soldiers went over to tlie enemy ; but Ormond himself repaired to Kilkenny, where he endeavoui'ed to- 574 CROMWELL. collect the shattered remains of his army ; and his power was so broken by this overthrow, that he never after ventured to meet the parliamen- tarians in the field. After this battle Jones marched to recover possession of Drogheda, but he found that town ably defended by lord Moore, and learning that Ormond was coming to its relief, he raised the siege and returned to Dublin. Notwithstanding their success at Rathmines, the parliamenta- rians were, in f;\ct, at this time, in very straightened circumstances. The only place which they retained in Ulster was Londonderry, where sir Charles Coote was so hard pressed by lord Montgomery of Ard?, that he should inevitably have been compelled to surrender had not Ow€n O'Neill consented to come to his relief. Coote stipulated to giv-e O'Neill £2,000 for the payment of his troops, a quantity of ammunitbn, and 2,000 cows, and the aid was cheaply purchased; for as soon as Owen Roe appeared on the 8th of August the lord of Ards and his Scots raised the siege. The English parliament feigned great indig- nation at the treaties made by its officers Avith the Irish Popish general, and shortly after O'Neill broke off all alliance with that party. Oliver Cromwell, the extraordinary man who was then beginning to sway the destinies of England, had, by a unanimous vote of the parlia- ment, been made lieutenant-general of the forces in Ireland, S) far back as the 28th of March, this year; but the troubles with the levpllers, and other causes, had retarded the setting out of his expedition f(r this country. At length he sailed from Milford Haven on the IJth of August, and landed at Dublin on the 14th, having altered his o^ginal plan, which was to land in LIunster. He brought with him 9,00^ foot, 4,000 horse, several pieces of artillery, an abundant supply of al]kinds of military stores, and £20,000 in money. His son-in law, commssary- general Ireton, followed, as second in command. The parlian^ntary force in Dublin now exceeded 16,000 men; and on the 30th of ilugust, Cromwell took the field with a well-provisioned army of 10,000 picked men, and marched to lay siege to Drogheda, then deemed lext in importance to Dublin as a military post. Having been invested by parliament with the title of lord lieutenant, he published after lis airi- val two proclamations, one against intemperance, and the other prohibitiag his soldiers, under the severest penalties, to plunder the country peopie. His admirers plead this prohibition as a proof that he did not intend fo exercise cruelty in his Irish campaign; but his only design was to encourage the peasantry to bring provisions for sale to , the army n SIEGE OF DROGHEDA. 575 its march, and in tlils object he was successful. He appointed sir Theophilus Jones governor of Dublin. Orniond had garrisoned Drogheda with about 3,000 of his choicest troops, under the command of sir Arthur Aston, an Englishman, but a Catholic, and a soldier of experience and reputation ; and a portion of the garrison also consisted of English royalists or cavaliers. Ormond himself withdrew with a few troops to Trim, and rejoiced that at so late a season Cromwell was about to besiege a place of so much strength, and before which he was likely to be so long detained, as Drogheda. The bold and energetic tactics on which so much of Cromwell's military success depended, disconcerted, however, plans founded on old-fashioned notions. The parliamentary general encamped at the south side of Drogheda, on Monday, September 2nd ; and some days having been consumed in getting his siege guns from the ships that conveyed them from Dublin, and m other preparations, he was ready to commence bat- tering the town on that day week. He began by beating down a tower and the steeple of St. Marys church, where a guii had been placed that annoyed him. On the follovdng morning (Tuesday, the 10th) his batteries played incessantly, and early in the afternoon two practicable breaches were made ; one towards the east, in the church-yard wall of St. Mary's, which, although the strongest part of the fortifications, Cromwell had selected for attack, as it would aiibrd a safe entrance for his horse, and shelter for them on the inside under the church walls. The other breach was in the south wall of the town. About five o'clock he sent forward his storming parties. Seven hundred men entered the breaches, but earth-works had been thrown up inside, and the garrison defended them with such desperate bravery, that the fierce assailants T^-ere driven back through the breaches with considerable loss. Some accounts mention three several assaults; but in his despatch to the par- liament Cromwell says the entrenchments were carried at the second assault. Cannon were planted so as to shoot down some of tlie Irish horse which were posted behind the works to encourage the foot; and colonel Wall, whose regiment was defending the breaches, having been killed, his men became discouraged and wavered. It was probably at this moment that Cromwell's officers and men promised quarter to the Irish, but the precise time at which this was done is involved in obscurity. That quarter, however, was offered is unquestionable. Varioi^s cotem- poraries, as Clarendon and Carte, assure us of the fact; and they add that tlie promise was kept as long as the garrison resisted, " but," says 576 CROMWELL- the latter historian, " when they found all in their power, and feared no hurt that could be done to them, Cromwell being told by Jones that he had now all the flower of the Irish army in his hands, gave orders that no quarter should be given." The besiegers had before this gained a tower in which there was a sally-port, but the passage was so blocked up with the bodies of the dead that It was useless to them. However, being now mastei*s of the two breaches, they introduced their cavalry through that at St. Mary's church, and by the other gained access to the great Tuatha de Danann tumulus called the mill-mount, the sides of which were strongly defended with pallisades, behind which the besieged disputed the ground for some time, though they yielded on the promise of quarter. The brave governor, sir Arthur Aston, with the ojfficers of his staff, sir Edward Verney, and colonels Warren, Fleming, and Byrne, retreated into the old mill on the top of the mound, where they were disarmed and slain in cold blood. As this position commanded the town all further resistance must have been useless ; and tlie besiegers pouring in through the two breaches, crossed the bridge pell-mell witli the flying garrison, and were thus in possession of the north side of the town. Drogheda was gained, but the work of slaughter had only com- menced. The officers and soldiers of the garrison were the first to be exterminated. Out of the 3,000 choice troops only about 30 men were saved, and these were reserved by Cromwell for deportation to Barbadoes. He himself says, " Our men were ordered by me to put them all to the sword." The fury of the fanatical conquerors was then let loose against the unarmed townspeople ; and every man, woman, and child of Irish extraction that could be found within the devoted city was most brutally murdered I This savage butchery occupied five whole days. It was on the morning of tlie 11th that Cromwell's troopers came to the great church of St. Peter's, on the north side of the city. To this sacred edifice upwards of a thousand of the principal inhabitants had fled for protection ; but every one of them was put to the sword ; and as a palliation of the massacre of these innocent people, Cromwell tells the parliament that " they had the insolence on the last Lord's day to trust out the Protestants (from that church) and to have the mass said there."* All the ecclesiastics were, as a matter of course, put to death, or as Leland insolently expresses it, Cromwell " ordered his soldiers to plunge their weapons into the helpless wretches !" A number of people had sought refuge in the church steeple, which was constructed of timber, and Cromwell tells us that he ordered fire to be applied. Some were burned, FRIGHTFUL 5IASSACRK AT DROGHEDA. 577 iiul the rest were slaughtered as they attempted to escape. A multitude i)f respectable Avomen, comprising all the principal ladies of the city, concealed themselves in the crypts under the choir of the church, but when the carnage was finished above, the blood-hounds traced them to these dark recesses, and not even to one of these poor fugitives was mercy shown. One of Cromwell's officers, who was engaged in this horrible work — Thomas Wood, brother of Anthony a Wood, the Oxford .historian — relates that he found in these vaults " the flower and choicest of the women and ladies belono;inof to the town, amongst whom a most handsome virgin, arrayed in costly and gorgeous apparel, kneeled down to him with tears and prayers to save her life." He was moved to com- passion, and took her out of the church " with the intention to put her over the works to shift for herself;" but while she was even thus pro- tected a soldier plunged his sword in her body, and Mr. Wood " seeing her gasping, took away her money, jewels, &c., and flung her down over the works." Wood also related how " when they were to make their way up to the lofts and galleries of the church, and up to the tower where the enemy had fled, each of the assailants would take up a child and use it as a buckler of defence when they ascended the steps, to keep themselves from being shot or brained." This picture, described as it is by one of the actors in the bloody scene, is full of horror. According to a local tradition, Cromwell's attention was attracted by an infant endeavouring to draw nourishment from the breast of its dead mother, whose murdered body lay in the street, and his callous heart being moved by the affecting incident, he gave orders to stop the massacre of all who were not found in arms ; but tradition appears to be wrong in this case ; for it is certain that a promiscuous slaughter was carried on until the departure of the army on the 15th; that is, during five whole days, in which, as we are told by a cotemporary writer, four thou- sand Catholic men, besides a vast multitude of ecclesiastics, and of women, youths, and children, were unmercifully slain.* Cromwell has his worshippers, and the philosophical disquisitions of Carlyle and Guizot may excite an interest in his character. The question whether he was *Bruodin, Propvg. Calh. Verit. Lib. iv. c. 14, p. G78. For original authorities on the siege and inaAsacre of Dioglieda the reader may consult Cromwell's despatches, as given by Carlyle, or as pub- lished with notes in the Dublin Penny JournaHov 1832 ; Clarendon's History of the Civil Wars in Ireland, pp. 130 and 131 ; Ludlow's Memoirs, vol. i. pp. 300, 303 ; Carte's Ormond, vol. ii. p. 84 : Borlase, Hist, of Irish Reb. ; Mxaodm, tibi supra ; Life of Anthony it Wood, (quoted by Lingardj; Cambrensis Eversus, Epist. Dedic. ; and also cap. xxxi. &c. See also the accounts given by Leland and Dr. Lingard, and in O'Connell's Memoir of Ireland. Ormond, in his letter to lord Byron, .secretary to Ciiarles II., as given by Carte, says, that " on this occasion Cromwell exceeded him- self, and anyihMx^ he had ever heard of in Lr».'3ch of faith and bloody inhumanity." 57S eSOMWKLL. a canting hypocrite o." a faoat'cal enthusiast is frequently discussed; but let this point be decided Avhat way it may, and his panegyrists write as they will, the massacre at Drogheda stamps him with eternal Infamy as a monster with a demon's heart. Cromwell, who estimated his own loss at less than a hundred men, wrote to the parliament to announce his success and the massacre which had been perpetrated, which he impiously attributed to '• the Spirit of God," desiring that *" God alone should have all the glory;'' and the house on the receipt of his despatch on the 2nd of October appointed a *' thanlcsgiving day," and voted a letter of thanks to the lord lieutenant of Ireland and the army, " in which notice was to be taken that the house did approve of the execution done at Drogheda, as an act both of justice to them (the victims), and mercy to others who may be warned by it."* Trim, Dundalk, Carlingford, Newry, and other places in the north were abandoned by the royalists, or surrendered to Cromwell's officers after little or no resistance. Ooleraine was betrayed to sir Charles Coote, who put the garrison to the sword; sir George Monroe was driven from Down and Antrim ; and the Scots were dispossessed wherever they had settled. Carrickfergus was the only important fortress in Ulster which the royalists now held. Cromwell, who had returned to Dublin on the 16th of September, left again on the 27th; and marching through Wicklow, took possession of Arklow and several small places on his route, and appeared before Wexford on Monday, the 1st of October. This town, though small, was wealthy and of great commercial importance. It was well fortified, being surrounded by an earthen rampart of considerable thickness within the Avail, while at a distance of three or four hundred paces outside the works, towards the south-east, stood a strong castle. The inhabitants had until the last moment refused to accept a garrison of royalists from Ormond ; but at this time they appear to have been fully prepared for the defence; the troops in the town being under the command of colonel DaWd Sinnott, a brave and determined officer ; and the castle ust mentioned under that of captain James Stafford. On the ord of October Cromwell summoned the town to surrender, and from that day to the 5th various notes were exchanged between him and colonel Sinnott, the latter requiring time to consult the mayor and corporation on the terms upon which they would consent to surrender the place. On the latter day lord Castlehaven threw into the town, at the north * Parliamentary Hisl. of England, vol. iii. p. 1334. SIKGT3 OF WEXFORI). 579 side 1,500 Ulster troops whicli had been sent by the marquis of OnnoiicJ from Ross ; and Sinnott now required further time to submit the propo-' sitions for surrender to lord Castlehaven, who was his superior officer, as lord o'eneral of the horse. Durinrj this time there had been no ces- sation of hostilities agreed vipon, although the civil authorities of the town exhibited their courtesy by sending presents of " sacke and strong waters" for the use of the parliamentarian general. A detach- ment of the besieging army had seized the castle of Rosslare, at the mouth of the harbour, the garrison abandoning it and taking refuge in a frigate, Avhich was afterwards sui'rendered at discretion to the enemy. The entrance to the harbour being thus free, Cromwell landed the bat- tering train from his shipping, and lost no time in preparing for the attack. In reply to Sinnott's last note of the 5th, he wrote the following day to revoke the safe conduct which he had given for the agents who were to bring the propositions from the town ; but added, " when you shall see cause to treat, you may send for another." With the relief last sent the garrison amounted to about 3,000 men; and Castlehaven, having retired from the town, Sinnott made up his mind to defend his charge.* Cromwell having selected the part near the castle for his attack, finished his batteries on Wednesday, the 10th, and began the cannonade on the following morning. By twelve o'clock some breaches were made in the castle defences ; and Sinnott having caused a parley to be beaten, sent to demand a safe conduct for four persons to treat on honorable terms. This was granted; and the four agents sent from the town were, majors Theobald Dillon and James Byrne, alderman Nicholas Cheevers, and captain James Stafford, the last, it wall be recol- lected, being the governor of the castle. The proposed conditions were only what might be expected from men of honor with arms in their hands. The inhabitants asked full religious liberty for themselves, and the garrison demanded that they should march out with colors flying, and with their arms, baggage, &c., and that such of the townspeople v.'i chose might be at liberty to accompany them in safety to Ross. Crom- well calls these propositions " abominable," and the men who dared to send them '• impudent;" but while he was preparing " to return a suit- able answer," he found means to make terms of another kind. He cor- rupted captain Stafford with a bribe, or by some other means. Cromwell * Clarendon says a reinforcement, under sir Kdmoud Butler, entered the town only two houi-s before Croinwell's soldiers tcot in, but this cannot be correct, as Castlehaven speaks of tiir Edinond IS being in Wexford, when he went there, and calls him the governor. Il is certain, however, that jinnott had the command of the garrtsou. 580 CROMWELL. says he was "fairly treated;" and the castle being thrown open to his troojis, the flag of the parhament was displayed from its summit, and the guns turned against the town. Seeing tliis stronghold in the hands of the enemy, who, consequently, had the fortifications of the city on that side at their mercy, the besieged were seized with dis- may. The besiegers planted their scaling ladders and crossed the walls without the least opposition, iand then opened the gates to their own cavalry. The panic which ensued may easily be conceived. The garrison retreated to the market-place, where numbers of the townspeople had also congregated, and here, for fully an hour, they olFered what Cromwell calls " a stiff resistance," and the street being in many places barricaded with cables, the enemy's horse could for some time do little execution. The assailants, however, poiu'ed in by thousands, and the homble massacre of Drogheda was re-enacted, neither n^m, woman, nor child, who came in their way, having found any mercy. Now, all this time Cromwell held in his hands the conditions for surrender proposed by the governor and citizens, and his own answer written, but never sent; for the agents from the city were still in his camp when the massacre commenced. By the answer Avhich he had prepared he granted life and liberty to the soldiers; life, but not liberty, to the officers, and freedom from pillage to the inhabitants; but while this answer was ready, though not delivered, and Sinnott and the authorities still in ignorance of his decision, he succeeded, as we have seen, by the basest means in gaining possession of the castle, and then would have us believe that he did not order the massacre. He intended, forsooth, to preserve the place, but saw " God would not have it so," and he " thought it not good nor just to restrain off the soldiers from their right of pillage, nor from doing of execution on the enemy." And he concludes his dispatch by telling the parliament " that it had pleased God to give into your hands this other mercy" (Drogheda was the first " mercy" ana Wexford the second !) " for which, as for all, we pray God may have all the glory."* About 300 of the panic-stricken inhabitants attempted to make their escape to the opposite side of the harbour, but the over- crowded boats were submerged, and all were drow^ned. Sir Edmond Butler was shot when endeavouring to save his life by swimming. Cromwell estimates the number who were put to the sword in this mas- sacre at 2,000, while he, " from first to last of the siege, lost not alto- gether twenty men;" and in recommending the parliament to send over • See Cromwell's Letters, published by Carlyle, and Gary's Memorials, ii. p. 180. DEATH OF OWEN 0*NEILL. 58l English Protestants to dwell in the towii, he assures them that "of the former inhabitants not one in twenty could be found to challenge any property in their own houses."* If the Ormondists, as a party, were thoroughly humbled by the defeat at Rathmines, subsequent events brought home to the Irish Catholics in general the horrible conviction that they were all involved in a common ruin. Owen O'Neill had made up his mind to support Ormond ; ;ind the latter, who, says Clarendon, " had a great esteem of his conduct, and knew the army under his command to be better disciplined than any other of the Irish,! offered Owen any terms which he chose to demand. The negotiations between them were carried on through Daniel O'Neill, a nephew of Owen's, and the reinforcements escorted by lord Castlehaven to Wexford were composed of men whom O'Neill had already supplied to the lord lieutenant.^ Owen Kos undertook to fur- nish Ormond with 6,000 men, and this promise was faithfully fulfilled, although he did not live to perform it in person. While encamped before Derry, where he remained about ten days after raising the siege * Mageoghegan mentions, as an incident of the siege of Wexford, that two hundred women were massacred at the foot of the cross ia the public square, and the circumstance has been repeated after him by manj' writers; but no cotemporary authority for it has been quoted, and we may safely conclude that the statement only refers to the general massacre which was perpetrated in the market-place, where a multitude of the townspeople — old men, women, and children — had flocked together, hoping to find protection behind the ranks of the garrison. Dr. Nicholas French, the illustrious and patriotic bishop of Ferns, who was then lying ill of fever in a neighbouring village, has left us an important reference to the Wexford massacre, in a letter dated at Antwerp, in 1673, and addressed to the papal nuncio, relative to affairs affecting the venerable prelate per- sonally. In this letter, the Latin original of which, with a translation, was first published in the Dublin Nation of October 8th, 1859, Dr. French writes: "On that most calamitous day the city of Wexford, abounding in wealth, ships, and merchandize, was carried at the point of the sword, «nd given up to the infuriated soldiery by Cromwell, that pest of the English government. There, before God's altar, fell many sacred victims, priests of the Lord ; some, who were seized outside the precincts of the church, were scourged with whips ; some were arrested and bound with chains ; some were hanged, and others were cruelly put to death by divers sorts of torture. The best L lood of the citizens was .shed, till the very streets were red with it, and there was scarcelj' a house that was not polluted with carnage and full of wailing. In my own palace, a youth, hardly sixteen years of age — an amiable boy — my gardener and sacristan were cruelly butchered; and they left the chaplain, wliom I caused to remain behind me at home, transpierced with six mortal wounds, and weltering in his gore. And these abominatious were perpetrated in open day, by impious cut- throats. From that moment I have never seen my city, flock, country, or kindred." Tlie bisliop then proceeds to relate his own sufferings for five months after, while hunted in the wo-ds, and obliged to slejp in the open air, without bed or covering, often with scarcely any food, and with never any lu'.t "^f :he coarsest kind. From the same source to which we are indebted for Dr. French's letter, we learn the names of the following religious of the order of St. Francis, who were among the victims of the Wexford carnage,' viz. : Fathers Richard Synnott, S.T.L., John Esmond, Paulinus Synnott, Raymond Staflbrd, and Peter Stafford, and brotha-s Didacus Cheevers and James Hociifurd. •f Vindication of OrmonJ, p. 136, Ed. 1756. X This appears from Castlehaven's own statement {Memoirs, p. 115J , but the agreement betwee:i Owen R(..e and Ormond was not finally signed till Ihe 12lh of October, v yi\ Ovveii was on his death- be . WAc Carte's Ormond, \\, 582 CROMWELL. on the 8tli of August, he was seized with illness, and conveyed in a horse litter to Ballyhaise, in the county of Cavan, where he ordered his nephew, lieutenant-general Hugh Duv O'Neill, to lead the promised reinforcements to Ormond. He was then carried to Cloghoughter, a strong castle of the O'Reillys in Lough Oughter, in Cavan, where he died, on the 6th of November.* To the Irish the death of Owen Roe was an irreparable loss. He was not alone a consummate general, and the most eminent on the Irish side that the war had produced, but merited the entire confidence of the clergy and of the native popu- lation. Had he, in addition to his high qualities as a soldier, that bold- ness or audacity which Avould have broken the trammels that fettered him, and pushed aside the recreant and intriguing partizans who sacri- ficed the country to their own interests and animosities, he would have served Ireland more effectively .f The traditionary horror with which the memory of Cromwell is still, after 200 years, regarded by the Irish peasantry, shows how deeply his inhuman policy of conquering by the fame of his cruelties must have impressed the mind of the people. Towns fifty miles distant were, it is said, thus influenced to surrender ; but this was not the case generally. After the capture of Wexford, Cromwell sent Ireton to besiege Dun- cannon, while he himself marched against New Ross, where Ormond had placed major-general Luke Taaffe in command, with a garrison of 1,500 men. Taaffe had only undertaken the charge on the condition * The death of Owen Roe was commonly ascribed to a poisoned pair of russet boots sent to him as a present by one Plunket of Louth, and which he wore at a ball given in Deny by sir Charles Coote. Plunket, it is said, afterwards boasted of the service which he had rendered ti» England by despatching O'Neill. ( Vide Colonel O'Neiii's journal in the Desiderata Ciiriosa Hiberniccu') His remains were interred in the old Franciscan monastery of Cavan, of which no vestige no^v re- mains. (See Carte, u. 83 ; and Archdall's Moiiast. Hib.) In the progress of the war £li9 Pope's blessiofj- was conveyed to Owen Eoe, and at the same time the sword of his illustrious uncle, Hugh O'Neill, which was sent to him from Rome by Father Luke Wadding. References to the castle of Cloughougbter (Clock Locha Uacktair, i. e., the rock or stone fortress of Lough Oughter), wLll be found in the Four Masters under the dates of 1327, 1369, and 1370. In this castle Bishoi» Bedell was for sometime confined in 1642. t " Owen Roe," says Mageoghegan, " was expeiienced in the art fif war ; he bad greatly dis- tinguished himself in the Spanish service, and principally by his brave defence of Arras, where h* commanded in 1640^ when that place was besieged by the French army under the three Marshals, de Chattilloii, de Chaulnes, and de la Meilleraye. His ideas were clear, his perception accurate, his judgment very sound. He was dexterous in profiting of the advantages which were furnished by the enemy ; he left nothing to chance, and his pl»ns were alwa3's well forme 1 ; he was sober, prudent, and reserved : when occasion required he could disguise his sentiments; lie was v.vTl acquainted with the intrigues of courts ; and, in a word, he possessed all the qualities necessary for a great general." (Hist, of Tr.) Warner and Leland describe his character almost ia the same words. Carte speaks of his " honor, constancy, and good sense, as of his military skill ;" and Marshal Schomberg's secretary, Dr. Gorge says, " Owen Roo Oneale was the best generall that ever the Irish had." (MS. in the S. P. O., London, quoted by Mr. O'Callaghan in notes to the JUacaria Excidium^ ^. 181.) REVOLT OF THE BOUTHEIIN GA!lEIfcOX3 583 that he should be at liberty to suvreuder the place when he deemed it untenable ; and he availed himself of this discretionary power by capitu- lating as soon as Cromwell's artillery began to thunder on the east bank of the Barrow. He first demanded liberty of conscience for tJie towns- people, but Cromwell replied that *' if he meant liberty to exercise the Mass, he judged it best to use plain dealing, and to let him know that where the parliament of England had power that would not be allowed." The town was surrendered on the 18th of October without this condi- tion, the garrison being allowed to depart with arms and baggage, and 600 men remaining to enter the service of the parliament, Avhile TaafFe marched with the rest to join Ormond at Kilkenny. Ireton was not so successful at Duncannon fort, which was defended with such gallantry by colonel Wogan that the siege was raised in a few days. Cromwell's forces were greatly reduced in numbers by leaving garrisons in the captured towns, and by a dysentery which was carrying off many of his men. Inchiquin attempted to intercept reinforcements commg to him from Dublin, and had a slight encounter with them on the strand near Wexford, but the parliamentarians were successful. Cromwell con- structed over the river at Ross a bridge of boats, the first seen in Ireland ; and while he himself lay sick, sent detachments of his troops, which took Inistioge and Carrick. To the latter town he removed with the remain- der of his forces on the 21st and 22nd of November. A little before this date the garrisons which had been left by Inchi- quin in Cork, Youghal, Kinsale, Bandon Bridge, and some other southern towns, revolted to Cromwell, chiefly through the management of lord Broghill, son of the earl of Cork, who soon became one of Crom- well's most active generals in Ireland. This revolt was of the utmost importance to the parliamentary general, who would otherwise, at that inclement season, have been placed in great difficulties for winter quar- ters for his men. On the 24th of November Cromwell appeared before Waterford. Lord Castlehaven had been appointed governor of this town by Oimond, who sent 1,000 men to its relief, but the citizens had no confidence in the wily marquis, and positively refused to admit his troops. The defec- tion of Inchiquiu's men fully justified their mistrust; but they at length consented to receive 500 of the Ulster Catholics, commanded by Farrell, one of Owen Roe's favorite officers. The string fort of Passage surrendered without firing a shot, so that the citizens of Waterford found themselves in a most disheartening position ; but the determination which they exhibited, backed by the appearance of Ormond's force, 2q 584 CROMWELL. wliicli lay encamped opposite the city, on the north side of the Suir, was such that Cromwell, who approached from the south, raised the siege after a few days, and marched to Dungarvan. Here he arrived on the 4th of December, and the town having surrendered at discretion, he proceeded to Youghal. Fresh supplies reached him here by sea from England, and on the 17th he marched with lord Broghill to Cork, ■where he was joined by Ireton. Ormond's baleful influence had been everywhere productive of misfortune, and the Catholics were persuaded that he and Inchiquin were leagued together for no good purpose. The citizens of Waterf ord would not allow any of Ormond's men inside their walls, even for the purpose of passing through the city to attempt the recovery of the fort of Passage. None of the southern towns except Clonmel and Kilkenny would aiFord winter quarters to his troops, who were, therefore, allowed to disperse and shift for themselves; and thus perplexed he wrote to the king to ask permission to remove himself and the royal authority from the kingdom. He had sent Daniel O'Neill with 2,000 men to succour the lord of Ards and sir George Monroe, but the help came too late. On the 13th of December Coote took possession of Carrickfergus for the parliament. A.D. 1650. — Impatient of a few days inactivity, even in mid-winter, Cromwell set out from Youghal on the 29th of January, and crossing the Blackwater at Mallow he approached the confines of Limerick ; and then entering Tipperary, south of the Galtees, marched by Clogheen and Rochestown to Fethard, taking sundry castles and strong places on his route. He arrived before the last-named tovvii at midnight, in the midst of a terrific tempest, and a Cromwellian writer of the period has left an amusing account of the ludicrous effect produced on the muni- cipal authorities by his summons at such an unseasonable hour and in such a night. He had only a few troops with him, and nO materials for a siege ; and as he could find no shelter outside the town but the ruins of an old abbey, and a few cabins, he was glad, even at the cost of granting honorable terras, to get a roof over him in the morning. The governor, who boasted that his town was not lost without a storm, wished to treat Oliver to some refreshment, which the latter, it appears, had not the urbanity to accept.* The authorities of Cashel brought the keys of their town to him ; and from Fethard he marched to Callan, in the couijty of Kilkenny, where he was joined by Reynolds, and whertj * See the Irish Mercury, a news pamphlet of the time. MEETING OF THE BISHOPS AT CLONMACNOISE. 585 two castles, having oifered a brave resistance, were taken and their gar- risons put to the sword. Cromwell was now marching to Kilkenny, where an officer named Tickel had secretly promised to open one of the gates to him ; but the treason having been discovered and Tickel exe- cuted, Cromwell left a garrison at Callan, and returned to Fethard and Cashel. As spring approached, supplies of men, money, and military stores were sent to him in abundance by the parliament; and on the other side Ormond gave up the command of the few troops he retained in Leinster to Castlehaven, and withdrew to Clare and Connauglit. After the reconciliation of O'Neill with Ormond, Heber MacMahon, bishop of Clogher, who was so devotedly attached to the northern chief, became Ormond's firm supporter. At a congregation of twenty bishops, and the proxies of five other prelates, who assembled at Clonmacnoise on the 4th of December, 1649, to consider the deplorable state to which the country had been reduced by war and pestilence, it is asserted that the influence of the heroic bishop of Clogher was very strenuously exerted in favor of the marquis and the royal cause. On this occasion the prelates published a declaration enjoining in the most earnest manner union and amity among both clergy and people, " letting the people know how vain it was for them to expect from the common enemy commanded by Cromwell, by authority from the rebels of England, any assurance of their religion, lives, or fortunes ;" and finally beseeching " the gentry and inhabitants, for Gods glory and their own safety, to the uttermost of their power to contribute, with patience, to the support of the war against that enemy."* The people, hoAvever, were weary of the war, and the disaffection towards Ormond continued. A meeting of county representatives was held at Kilkenny to promote union, but the approach of Cromwell obliged thern to fly, and they resumed their fruitless deliberations at Ennis. Discord and distrust prevailed in the ranks of the royalists. At Gowran, in the county Kilkenny, the soldiers mutinied and delivered up their officers to Cromv/ell, who ordered colonel Hammond and the other principal officers to be shot, and hanged a priest who was found in the town. Imagination can hardly picture anything more dismal than the condi- tion of the citizens of Kilkenny when Cromwell and his army appeared before their walls on the 22nd of March, 1650. Within raged a fright- ful pestilence, which had reduced the garrison from 1,200 men to about 400 ; without stood a foe as inhuman as he was apparently invincible. ^ IBorlase, pp. 236-238. 5 SB CROMWELL. Heaven and. earth seemed leagued against them ; so that some troops ordered by Castlehaven to their relief refused to march; saying that they were ready to fight against men, but not against God : alluding to the plague, which threatened certain death within the devoted city.* Yet the summons of CroniAvell to sui'render was answered by a stern defiance. The attack was then commenced by cannonading the castle, which v»as defended by major James Walsh, sir Walter Butler being goTernor of the toAvn. The defence was as brave as it must have been hopeless; but the place was at length yielded on the 28th, and Cromwell hastened to lay siege to Clonmel, where the garrison was commanded by Hugh Duv O'Neill, and where Oliver was destined to encounter the most vigorous resistance that he met with during the whole of his Irish campaign. News was brought to Cromwell while before Clonmel that the bishop of Ross had collected a large army in the south, and was approaching to raise the siege. Lord Broghill, who was in Cork, received reinforce- ments from Cromwell, and with an efficient army, composed chiefly of cavalry, hastened with extraordinary expedition to intercept the march of the Irish. A battle was fought near Macroom, in which the Irisli were routed, and the bishop of Ross being made prisoner, was offered his life and hberty if he prevailed on the garrison of Carrigadrohid, a strong castle on the river Lee, three miles from Macroom, to surrender. He was brought before the castle for the purpose, but the heroic bishop exhorted the garrison to defend their post to the last, and was himself immediately hanged in their sight by lord BroghilFs order.j These events produced great joy in the camp before Clonmel, and preparations were made for a final attack on the beleaguered town on the 9 th of May. If, after he had offered terms, a garrison held out for some time ere it surrendered, it was Cromwell's practice to shoot the officers, as he had * For some years about this time the plague and other epidemic diseases raged almost incessantly in various parts of this country. So many as 17,000 persons are said to have been carried off by the ffestilence in Dublin alone during 1650-51 ; aud we have details of its ravages about the same time in Kilkenny, Limerick, Cork, Galway, and otlier towns. These pestilential visitations were preceded by famine ; and, resulting from long sieges and such incidents of war, have been classed as leaguer sicknesses by medical writers. They were followed a few years later by the true bubonic or oriental plague. See the authorities on the subject collected by Dr. Wilde in his Report of Tables of Deaths, Census of 1851. t Carrigadrohid was soon after obtained by a very silly stratagem, the besiegers causing a fevr team of oxen to draw weighty logs of timber, which the garrison supposed to be cannon, and terms of capituWtiou were at once agreed to. See Cox ; and Smith's History <]f Cork. The date of the battle of Macroom is variously given at the 10th of April and the 10th of May. The former ap- pears to be the correct one. SURRENDER OF CLONMF.L. 587 done at Gowran ; but if he considered the resistance to have bet n too obsti- nate, he usually put the whole garrison to the sword, as at Drogheda, Wexfoi'd, Callan, and elsewhere. The desperation with which he was resisted at Clonmel made him pay dearlv for this sanguinary polic3^ His storming parties were twice hurled back from the breach with ter- rific slaughter. The shattered houses inside the breach were filled with O'Neill's gallant northerns, who fought with the energy of despair, and were resolved to hold their ground to the last man. But at length night put an end to the fierce struggle, and the garrison having exhausted their ammunition, and all having agreed that the place was no longer tenable, O'Neill marched off his men under cover of the darlaiess, and withdrew to Waterford, while the townspeople made favorable terms for themselves, and in the morning opened their gates to Cromwell, who only then discovered that the garrison had departed. He lost 2,500 of his men before Clonmel, and as he himself expressed it, " had like to bring his noble to a ninepence." He had already received pressing despatches from the parliament, urging him to return as speedily as possible to England, where a storm was threatening from the north ; and having com- mitted the command of the army to Ireton, who had been made lord president of Munster, he sailed from Youghal on the 29th of May. In the north Heber MacMahon struggled for some time, with occasional success, against numerous foes ; but his army received a total overthrow, on the 21st of June, at the pass of Scarrifhollis, on the river Sv.ill}^ near Letterkenny, from the forces of sir Charles Coote and colonel Venables. The battle was lost through the indiscretion of MacMahon, who unfor- tunately led his array where it was exposed to the enemy on both sides-, and was compelled to hazard a battle, although the English cavalry were more than twice as numerous as his. The northern army was completely annihilated on this occasion ; and two days after Heber MacMahon himself was made prisoner near Omagh, by major King, and although promised quarter, was shamefully hanged by order of Coote, notwith- standing the service which, in concert with Owen Roe, he had rendered to him at Londonderry less than a year before.* * The detached Irish garrisons through Leinster and Munster were * If ever there were circumstances which could render military strife compatible with the clerical cliaracter they were those presented by the state of Ireland at the troubled period under our notice. Catholics and their religion were threatened with extermination. Their struggle was not aggres- .sive ; it was for their faith and their lives ; and forbearance, which entailed evils not alone on them- selves but on countless generations after them, would have been a crime. Among the Irish eccle- siastics who were thus forced to become the leaders of their people in t^ battle field, one of tho 588 CROMWELL. easily reduced by Hewson, Brogliill, and other parliamentarian officers; and under color of hunting down the unhappy outlaws, who were driven to lead in the woods the wild life of freebooters, and were called " tories ;" many acts of ferocity were committed in which the harmless country people were the victims. The Cromwellian colonel Zancby distinguished himself in these services. Preston, who had assumed the government of Waterford, surrendered that city to Ireton on the 10 Lh of August. The fort of Duncannon followed. The city of Limerick, the castle of Athlone, and the whole of Connaught raid Clare still, how- ever, remained in the hands of the Catholics. Ormond, finding that the inhabitants of Limerick refused to receive from him a garrison, solicited the intervention of the Catholic bishops, who accordingly met in that city on the 8th of March. Their suggestions were not very palatable to the marquis, who withdrew to Loughrea, where the bishops held an adjourned meeting, and on the 28th of March published a declaration, expressing their conviction that the national loyalty was unshaken, although the people had ground enough for dis- trust and jealousy, and urging that some settled course should be taken to give them confidence. There was surely nothing in the antecedents of Ormond or Inchiquin which could induce the Irish Catholics to place reliance on them ; and it was said that at this very time they were treating with the Cromwellian authorities for the admission of the Protestant party among the royalists to protection. Hugh O'Neill, the gallant defender of Clonmel, was now governor of Limerick, and it was probably at his suggestion that the magistrates invited Ormond to come and settle the garrison; but as soon as the marquis appeared at the gate a popular tumult arose, and he was prevented from entering. He then returned to Connaught, where he found that Galway had followed the example of Limerick. On the 6th of August a congregation of the bishops and clergy met at Jamestown, in the county of Leitrim, and on the 12th deputed the bishop of Dromore and Dr. Charles Kelly with a message to Ormond, most distinguished was Heber J^acMahon, bishop of Clogher. He is first, strangely enon3,-lj, introduced to us while a simple priest, during the government of lord Strafford, giving private information to sir George Radcliffe of the movements among the Irish refugees abroad ; and his object then, no duubt, was to avert the anarchy of civil war ; but a further knowledge of the dangers of his country induced him to become one of the first associates of sir Phelim O'Neill and lord Maguire in the conspiracy of 1(541, and he ever after continued a firm and consistent upholder in the council and the field of the thorough Irish and Catholic party, headed by his friend Owen Roe O'Neill. He was lamented by the Ormondists, whose cause he took up warmly, when O'Neill's junction with them, and the barbarities of Cromwell, had tended to identify them with the Catliolic party. See the notice of him in Clarendon's Hist, of the Civil Wars in Ir,, pp. 186, &c. Ed. 1756. BEPAIITURE OF ORMOND. 589 recommending him, as the " only remedy for the preservation of the nation and of his majesty's interest therein," to withdraw from the kingdom and to delegate the royal authority to some person in whom the people might have confidence. This was a deadly wound to the pride of the haughty Ormond. He replied, that he would not retire from the coimtry until necessity compelled him ; and the bishops published a decla- ration denouncing " the continuance of his majesty's authority in the marquis of Ormond, for the misgovernment of the subjects, the ill con- duct of the army, and the violation of tJ^e peace.'' Ib fine, they threatened to present articles of impeachment against him to the king, and published an excommunication against all who would adhere to him, or yield him subsidy or obedience, or who would support Cromwell's government. That the bishops were not mistaken in the course which they had pursued was soon made evident by the news from Scotland, where Charles II. had landed on the 28th of June, and had not only sub- scribed the national and solemn covenants, but, to gratify the fierce bigotry of the Scots, had, on the 16th of August, signed a declaration pronouncing the peace with the Irish to be null and void, adding " that he was convinced in his conscience of the sinfulness and unlaw- fulness of it, and of allowing them (the Catholics) the liberty of the Popish religion; for which he did, from his heart, desire to be deeply humbled before the Lord." The neAvs of this infamous act of duplicity reached Ireland before the Jamestown excommunication was published, and afforded the amplest justification of the strong measures adopted by the clergy. Ormond, who was confounded by such a premature disclosure of his master's principles, protested that the peace should be upheld, and cast the blame of the royal declaration on Scottish fanati- cism. But the sequel will show that Charles was capable of still greater perfidy to his friends. The Catholic noblemen and gentry felt their position emban-assing ; but the bishops, who, alone, seemed to under- stand the dangers to be apprehended, and the characters of the men they had to deal with, remained firm. Ormond summoned a general assembly, which met at Loughrea on the 15th of November, while he stopped at Kilcolgan, about ten miles distant ; but the time was wasted in recriminatory messages between him and the meeting ; and, at length, having left power to the marquis of Clanrickard to assume the duties of lord deputy, provided the assembly engaged to obey him, he em- barked at Galway, about the middle of December, accompanied by lord 590 Cl^OMWELL. Inchlqiiin,* Colonels Vauglian, Wogan, and Daniel O'Neill, and about twenty other persons of distinction, and after a tempestuous voyage, in which a vessel containing his baggage, servants, and some passengers was lost, arrived the following month at St. Malo, in Brittany. To Castlehaven, who reluctantly remained behind, he entrusted the com- mand of the army, with an injunction to keep up a bustle, as that frivo- lous nobleman expresses it, to divert a part of the enemy's attention to this country, while king Charles was preparing to cross the Tweed into England. Commissioners were soon after deputed by the parliament to treat with the assembly for a final submission of the nation, on favor- able terms ; but the extreme loyalists scouted such an arrangement, although the Irish decidedly sacrificed their interests in rejecting it. A D. 1651. — The new year found the assembly deeply engaged in the discussion of a project for mortgaging the toT^ii of Galway and some other places to the duke of Lorraine for a sum of money to be advanced for supporting the royal cause in Ireland. The abbot of St. Catherine arrived in Galway about the end of February as an envoy from the duke ; but Clanrickard thought his demands exorbitant, and sir Nicholas Plunkett and Geoffrey Brown were sent to Flanders to treat with the duke himself. The bishop of Ferns went on the same errand, on the part of the clergy, and lord Taaffe, who had left Ireland before Ormond, had received instructions for the like purpose, long before this, from the duke of York — the king being in Scotland. The influence of the patriotic bishop of Ferns prevailed, it is said, with the lay agents, who, disregarding the instructions of Clanrickard, signed, in the name of the people and kingdom of Ireland, an agreement with the duke of Lorraine, who was to be invested with royal powers, under the title of Protector of Ire- i;ind, he, on his part, undertaking to prosecute the king's enemies, and to restore the kingdom, and the Catholic religion, to their pristine state. For the outlay which all this would require he was to be hereafter reim- bursed ; and, as a guarantee, was to be placed in possession of Galway, Limerick, Athenry, and Athlone; and also of Waterford andDuncannon * It is a curious fact that Inchiquin subsequently became a Catholic ; and Borlase refers to his change of leligion as the only cause of his being refused the presidency of Muiister after the Resto- ration, a similar change preventing the appointment of Viscount Dillon of Costello as president of Connaught. (Hist, of the Ir. Eeb. p. 278.) Inchiquin was created earl by Cliarles II., at Cologne, m 1654; he obtained the rank of Lieutenant- General in the French service ; was made French governor of Catalonia ; and was captured by an Algerine Corsair when engaged on an expedition against Spain. He died in 1673, and by his will left £20 to the Franciscan friars of Ennis, and also a sum " for the performance of the usual duties of the Roman Catholic clergy, and for other pious uses." See Lodjie. LIMERICK BESIEGED BY IRETC^T. 591 vrlien they could be recovered from the enemy. This agreement, which was signed on the 22nd of Jul}^, 1651, was repudiated by Cian- rickard, and became a dead letter, although the duke of Lorraine had already advanced £20,000 on the strength of the negotiations. The ;iffairs of Charles II. were reduced to a hopeless state after the battle of Worcester (September 3rd, 1651). The Irish towns mentioned as security soon fell under the power of parliament, and the duke of Lorraine left Ireland to its sad destiny. The reduction of Limerick was the next object of importance to Ireton, who began his operations against that city early in 1651. The par- liamentarians had as yet no footing on the Clare side of the Shannon, and until that was obtained Limerick could not be eifectually invested. Coote made a feint to attack Sligo, and having thus drawn Clanrickard and his forces to that quarter, made a forced march across the Curlieu moun- tains and attacked Atlilone on the Connaught side, taking that important fortress before any relief could be rendered to it. The road into Con- naught being thus open, and Galway threatened, Clanrickard called Castlehaven to consult with him. In the absence of that general, who guarded the Clare side of the Shannon, Ireton forced the passage of the river at O'Brien's bridge, and Colonel Fennell, M-ho commanded at Killaloe, abandoned his post, through cowardice or treachery, so that Castlehaven 's troops were dispersed, and Ireton enabled to invest Lime- rick on both sides. Lord Muskerry raised a considerable body of men in the south to come to its relief; but lord Broghill hastened, by Ireton's orders, to intercept them ; and, on the 26th of July, coming up with the advance guard of the Irish near Castleishen, in the county of Cork, drove them back upon their main body. A hard contested fight ensued, at Knocknaclashy, where the hastily collected masses of the Irish were routed with great slaughter. Most of the Irish officers were slain, and Colonel Magillacuddy was taken prisoner. In the meantime the siege was carried on with great energy. The castle at the salmon-weir having been attacked, its garrison retreated in boats, and some of them who surrendered on quarter were butchered in cold blood; so that even Ireton, fearing the Irish would be driven to desperation, discouraged this brutality on the part of his officers. The besiegers lost 120 men in the first attempt to land on the King's island, and 300 more were cut off in a sally of the besieged ; soon after, however, a bridge was constructed to the island, and 6,000 troops marched over, and erected a strong fort there. The plague raged within the city, and many persons having 592 CROMWELL. attempted to escape, some of them were taken hy order of the merciless Ireton to be executed, and others were whipped back to the town. The authority of the governor, Hugh O'Neill, was rendered nugatory by the corporation and magistrates ; and some discontented persons within the city commenced negotiations with the enemy for a capitulation At length, on the 27th of October, colonel Fennell, who betrayed the pass of Kil- laloe, combined with some other officers, and seizing St. John's gate and tower, turned the cannon against the city, and received 200 of Ireton's men into the gate that night. The acceptance of Ireton's hard terms was thus made compulsory; and 2,500 Irish soldiers having laid down their arms on the 29th in St. Mary's church, and marched out of the city, some of them dropping dead of the plague on the way. Limerick was delivered into the hands of Ireton, and sir Hardress Waller appointed governor. By the articles of capitulation twenty-four persons were excepted from quarter. Of these Terence O'Brien, bishop of Eraly, general Purcell, and Father Wolfe, a Franciscan, were found con- cealed in the pest-house, and were among the first dragged to the scaf- fold. Purcell showed a faint spirit, and was held up by two soldiers at the place of execution. The bishop, on the contrary, exhibited heroic fortitude. All along he had strenuously exhorted the Irish to hold out against Cromwell's forces, and now addressing Ireton in a solemn tone, he summoned him to appear in a few days to answer for his cruelties and injustice before the tribunal of God. The words seemed prophetic, for eight days after Ireton caught the plague, and in less than a month lie died "raging and raving of this unfortunate prelate, whose unjust con- demnation, he imagined, hurried on his death."* Sir Geoffrey Galwey, alderman Thomas Stritch, alderman Fanning, and Geoffrey Barron, the latter having only just returned from Brussels, were executed; as was also the traitor, Fennell, although sentenced for other causes. O'Dwyer, bishop of Limerick, escaped to Brussells, where he died. The governor, Hugh O'Neill, had, by his former defence of Clonmel, and his recent stand in Limerick, provoked Ireton too much to expect mercy. He was tried, and, at the instigation of the gloomy republican, sentenced to death; but as he had always shown himself a * Dr. Burke's Jlihernica Dominicana, p. 568. The bishop was ignominiously hanged and beheaded and his head spiked on a tower in the centre of the city, on fche eve of All Saints (October 31st), aud Iretoa was a corpse on the 26th of November. This darli-minded general was at the bottom of all Cromwell's counsels, and is held accountable for some of his cruelties. He was cold^ reserved, absolute, aud inexorable. During the siege of Limerick some of the Fathers of the Mission, sent by clieir founder, St. Vincent de Paul, were in the city, and their preaching pro- duced extraordinary spiritual fruits. SUERENDER OF GALWAY. 593 brave soldier and an honorable foe, some of the officers expostulated, and Ire ton reluctantly consented to a second trial, when the life of the gallant Hugh was saved by a single vote.* A.D. 1652. — On the death of Ireton, lieutenant-general Edmond Lud- low was made commander-in-chief until the orders of parliament could be received. He marched to the aid of sir Charles Coote, who was besieging Gal way, which town was surrendered on the 12th of May; general Preston, its governor, having some time before made his escape by sea. The few detached garrisons which the Irish still held were reduced in succession, and the isolated leaders who continued under arms made terms for themselves and their followers without any com- mon concert. Colonel Fitzpatrick was the first to lay down his arms in this way ; colonels O'Dwyer and Turlough O'Neill, the earl of West- meath, and lord Euniskillen, acted in a similar manner. The terms generally were for permission to reside under the commonwealth, or to enter the service of a foreign prince in amity w ith England ; but this mercy was not extended to those who took up arms in the first year of the war, or belonged to the first general assembly, or who had com- mitted murder, or taken orders in the Catholic church. Lord Muskerry surrendered the strong castle of Ross, near Killarney, to Ludlow on the 27th of June. One of the last chieftains of note who capitulated was colonel Richard Grace, with whom 1,250 men laid down their arms. Clanrickard sent Castlehaven to Charles II. for his last instructions. That lord did not return, but sent the king's answer to the message, which was to make the best conditions he could for himself; and on the 11th of October, being then surrounded by the enemy at Carrick, Clanrickard accepted a pass from the parliamentarian authorities, with liberty to transport himself and 3,000 of his followers to a foreign country within three months. Thus was the last vestige of royal authority withdrawn from Ireland.! The ruin that now overspread the face of Ireland must have been dark and sorrowful enough, but the measui'e of her woes was yet to be filled up. War, and famine, and pestilence had done their share, but the rapine and vengeance which assumed the name of law had yet to complete the work of desolation. " The sword of extermination, says * Ludlow's Jlemoirs, vol. i. p. 379. t Clanrick^nd did not go to the continent, but retired to an es^tate which he had at Summerhill, in Kent, where he died in 1657. (Arckdall's Lodge, i. 136.) He was courteous and humane, but not a man of shining abilities. His sympathies were wholly English ; he was a Catholic, but his religion was merged in his loyalty ; yet in the early years of the confederation be often expostu- lated with Uniiond on his unyielding and hostile disposition towards the Catholic party. 594 CROMWELL. an Irish historian, " had passed over the land, and the soldier sat down to banquet on the hereditary possessions of the natives."* Cromwell and his council had indeed seriously contemplated the utter extirpa- tion of the Irish race; but that fiendish project appeared still too diffi- cult, and even to them too revolting,! and accordingly, by the act for the settlement of Ireland, passed by the English parliament, August 12th, 1652, it was decreed that full pardon should be granted to "all hus- bandmen and otliers of the inferior sort not possessed of lands or goods exceeding the value of £10 ;" while persons of property were to be otherwise disposed of according to a certain classification. Those comprehended under the first six heads set forth in the act — and they comprised all the great landed proprietors and all the Catholic clergy — were excepted from pardon of life or estate ; others, who merely held commissions as officers in the royalist arm}^, were to be banished, and forfeit their estates, except the equivalent to one-third, which would be assigned for the support of their wives and children; those who, although opposed to the parliament, might be found worthy of mercy, and who were not included under any of the preceding heads, also forfeited two-thirds of their estates, but were to receive an equivalent to the remaining third wherever the parliament might choose to allot it to them ; and, finally, all who were perfectly innocent, that is, who had no share whatever in the war, but yet were not in the actual service of the parliament, or had not manifested their "constant, good affection to it," forfeited one-third of their estates, and were to receive an equivalent to the remainder elsewhere.^ Thus all the Catholic gentry of Ireland were indiscriminately deprived of their hereditary estates, and such as might be declared by Cromwell's commissioners innocent of the rebellion, and were to receive back any portion of their property, should transplant themselves and their families beyond the Shannon, where allotments of the Avasted tracts of Connauirht and Clare would be given to them. The other three provinces were resei'ved for Protestants ; and any of the transplanted Catholics w^ho might be found in them after the 1st of May, 1654, without a passport, might, whether man, woman, or child, be killed, w-ithout trial or order of magistrate, by any one who saw or met them. Moreover, those who by this " act of grace" received allotments in Clare or Connaught were obliged to give releases of their titles to their former estates in consideration of what was now assigned * Curry's Review of the Civil Wars of Irelani. t Clarendon's Lift, vol. ii. p. 116. X See the Act. published froni the original, in LingarU, vol. viii. Append. VVV. DISTRIBUTION OF CONFISCATED PROPERTY. 595 to them, to bar themselves and their heirs from laying claim to their old inheritances ; and they were sent into wild and uncultivated districts, without cattle to stock the land, or agricultural implements to till it, or houses to shelter them; so that many Irish gentlemen and their families actually perished of cold and hunger. They were not suffered to reside within two miles of the Shannon, or four miles of the sea, or of Galway, or in any garrison or market tov/n.* In the meantime the whole kingdom was surveyed and mapped out by Dr. Petty, and the forfeited estates distributed among the adventurers who had advanced money for carrying on the war under the confiscating acts of February and March, 1642, and in liquidation of the arrears of pay due to Cromwell's soldiery. According to the stipulations on which the money was borrowed, the adventurers were to receive for £200 a thousand acres of good land in Ulster, for £300 a thousand acres in Connaught, for £450 a thousand acres in Munster, and for £600 a thousand acres in Leinster; the bogs, woods, and mountains being thrown in gratis as waste or unprofitable land ; but we are told by a cotemporary writer that the highest value set on the land at the time of the distribution was four shillings per acre, some being only valued at one penny.t * See P. Walshe's Reply to a Person qf Quality, pp. 33, 147, &c. ; also the goverumeat procla- mations; tracts on the Irish Traiisplautaliou, published in 1654; Thurloe's Papers, &c. Many of the transplanted Irish having erected cabins and creaghts, as the hurdle houses were then called, near Athlone, the military authorities were ordered to hani^h all "the Irish and other Popish persons" from that neighbourhood, so that no such gathering of them should be allowed within five English miles of Athlone. M.S. Orders of Council, Dublin Castle. t Morrice's Life of the Earl of Orrery, vol. p. S9. Lord Antrim's estate of 107,611 acres was allotted to sir John Clotworthy, afterwards lord Massareene, and a f jw others whose adventures and pay did not exceed -t;7,000 (Carte's Orniond, vol. ii. 278). From sir William Petty's Political Anatomy of Ireland, iin(X ih^ o&c\a.\ sources consulted by Mr. Bichenoup, we glean the following data relating to the Cromwellian Confiscation: — The surface of Ireland was estimated at 10,500,000 plantation acres, of which 3,000,000 were occupied by water, bogs, and coarse or unprofitable land. Of the remaining 7,500,000 acres, 5,200,000 belonged to Catholics and sequestered Protestants before 1641, 300,000 to the church, and 2,000,000 to Protestants planted by Elizabeth and James I. The Cromwellian government confiscated 5,000,000 acres, which they disposed of as follows: — to officers and soldiers who served before Cromwell's arrival in 1649, 400,000 acres, in Wicklow, Longford, Leitrim, and Donegal; to soldiers who served since 1649, 1,410,000 acres; to the adventurers who advanced money under the acts of 1642, about 800,000 acres; to certam individuals who were favorites of Cromwell, 100,000 acres; retained by government, but let on profitable leases to Protestants in the counties of Dublin, Louth, Cavau, and Kildare, about 800,000 acres, besides the house property in walled towns and cities ; to the transplanted Irish iii Connaught and Clare, 700,000 acres; to which Petty adds (writing, however, in 1672, long after the Restora- tion) "inniicent Papists" 1,200,000 acres. This was called the Down Survey, or Down Admeasure- ment of Ireland; and, as an example of the complete desolation of the country at tlie time it was made, we are told that no one was left of the old inhabitants in Tipperary wlio could point out the bounds of the estates, so that an order from government was necessary to bring back from Con- iiKuulit five or six familie* to accompany the surveyors and show them the boundaries. Privy Council I>ouk, A a. 596 CROMWELL. The Irish soldiers who accepted banishment, on laying down their arms, numbered about 34,000, who left the country under different leaders, and entered the service of France, Spain, Austria, or Venice; and their faithful attachment to the fortunes of Charles II. obtained for that unhappy prince, when abandoned by almost all beside, honor and support in foreign courts.* But as the wives and families of these exiles were, for the most part, left behind, and were, besides a great many others, reduced to a state of destitution, the government adopted the heartless expedient of shipping them oiFin great numbers to the pestilen- tial settlements of the West Indies. Sir William Petty states that 6,000 boys and girls were thus transported. But the total number of Irish sent to perish in the tobacco islands, as they were called, w^as estimated in some Irish accounts at 100,000. Force was necessary to collect them, but the government in England was, nevertheless, assured by their Irish agents that they could have any number of Irish boys or young women that they required.:|: For the punishment of " rebels and malignants," the regicide govern- ment established a new tribunal, which they called a high court of justice, in which the ordinary forms of law were laid aside, and every- thing contrived to confound and awe the accused person, and bring- home the guilt laid to his charge. " From the iniquitous and bloody sentences frequently pronounced in these courts," eays Dr. Carry, " they were commonly called Cromwell's slaughter-houses." The first was held in Kilkenny, on the 4th of October, 1652, the president being one justice Donnellan, with whom were joined Cook, who had acted r^s solicitor to the regicides on the trial of the late king, and comraissa: v- general Reynolds. These judges made the circuit of Water ford, Cork, * "The importance," says Mr. O'Callaghan, "then attached by the Fiench goverDiiunt to th-j Irish regiments in its service was so great, that, even after cardinal Mazavin's treaty of allianoK ■with Cromwell against Spain, by which the Stuart family were to quit the French dominions, various efforts were made by the cardinal and marshal Turenne to induce the duke of York (afterwards James II.) not to leave the French for the Spanish service. Nay, Cromwell's per- mission was asked and obtained for the duke to remain in the service of France, on account of ti.a loss it would be to the combined forces of England and France, and the gain to Spain, that tha Irish regiments should join the latter, as it was known they would, when the duke and his royal brother (Charles II.) should be both under the protection of that power." — Macai-im Fxcidium, p. 185. tBruodin, Propug. See Lingard, vol. viii., p. 175, note 3. X Henrj' Cromwell, writing from Ireland to secretary Thurloe, says : — " I think it might be of like advantage to your affairs there, and ours here, if j'ou should think fit to send 1,500 or 2,U00 young boys, of 12 or 14 years of age, to the place afore-mentioned. We could spare them, and they would be of use to you; and who knows but it may be the means to make them Englishmen — I mean rather Christians?" Thurloe answers : — "The committee of the council have voted 1,000 girls and as many youths, to be taken up for that purpose." — Thurloe, iv. pp. 40, 73. ATROCIOUS PERSECUTION OF TUB CATHOLIC CLERGY. fif)7 and other towns ; and in February, 1653, the first court, presided over by lord Lowther, was held in Dublin for the special purpose of trying " all massacres and murders done or committed since the 1st day of October, 1641." The confederate Catholics had, in their declarations at Trim and Oxford, and on other occasions, prayed that an inquiry might be made into the murders alleged to have been perpetrated on both sides during the troubles, and that justice might be vindicated without respect to creed or party ; but these courts confined theii- inqui- ries to the accused Catholics, and the result of their labors affords a convincing proof of the falsehood of the statements made aganist the Irish Catholics at that period. Some of the lying historians of the time l:r.d asserted that a hundred thousand Protestants had been murdered in cold blood; yet with all the forged and corrupt evidence that could be procured, and the cry of blood that was raised, Cromwell's high courts of justice were only able to convict about two hundred persons in all Ireland for those alleged murders; while out of the whole province of Ulster, where the pretended massacres were said chiefly to have tr.ken place, only one person was convicted, namely, sir Plielim O'Neill, who, nevertheless, was repeatedly, while in prison, and before the passing of his sentence, and finally on the steps of the scaffold, offered his life and liberty on the sole condition of admitting that the counterfeit docu- ment which he produced in October, 1641, was a genuine commission from the unfortunate Charles I.* The parliamentary commissioners in Dublin published a proclamation, putting in force in Ireland the 27th of Elizabeth; and by this and sub- sequent edicts any Catholic priest found in Ireland, after twenty days, kvas guilty of high treason, and liable to be hanged, drawn, and quartered; any person harbouring such clergyman was liable to the penalty of death and loss of goods and chattels; and any person know- ing the place of concealment of a priest, and not disclosing it to the * Vide supra, p. 520, note. Also Carte's Orm. vol. ii. p. 181. Carte relates the fact of colonel Hewson having, in the name of Ludlow, made this ofTcr to sir Phelim on the ladder, on the authority of Dr. Sheridan, afterwards Protestant bishop of Kilmore, who was present; and dean Ker is also quoted bj" Nalsou (^Ilistor. Collet.^, as an eye witness. In the opinion of some, the heroic sense of honor displayed by sir Phelim, and his whole conduct at the melancholy close of his career, redeemed many of his past faults. Among the other persons executed, were viscount Mayo, and colonels O'Toole and Bagnal. The mother of colonel Fitzpatrick was burnt. Lords Muskerry and Clanmaliere, and MacCarthy Reagh, were acquitted, probably through the interest of friends. Looking to the number of persons convicted under all the circumstances by the high court of justice, O'Connell has said : — " To a thinking mind there is no quantity of written or verbal authority that would 80 coerce a conviction of the innocence of the Irish Catholic party as the result of the investigation of this sanguinary and energetic court."— J/emoir of Ireland, pw 823. 598 CROM^TET.L. authorities, might be publicly whipped, and further punished with ampu- tation of the ears. Any person absent from the parish church on a Sunday was liable to a fine of thirty pence ; magistrates might take away the children of Catholics, and send them to England for education ; andmighttender the oath of abjuration to all persons of the age of twenty - one years, who, on refusal, were liable to impx'isonment during pleasure, and the forfeiture of two-thirds of their real and personal estates* The same price of five pounds was set on the head of a priest and on that of a wolf, and the production of either head was a sufficient claim for the reward. The military being distributed in small parties over the country, and their vigilance kept alive by sectarain rancour and the promise of reward, it must have been difficult for a priest to escape detection ; but many of them, nevertheless, braved the danger for their poor scattered flocks ; and residing in caverns in the mountains, or in lonely hovels in the bogs, " they issued forth at night to carry the consolations of religion to the huts of their oppressed and suffering countrymen."t Well might an Irish writer who witnessed these things exclaim : "Neither the Israelites were more cruelly persecuted by Pharaoh, nor the innocent infants by Herod, nor the Christians by Nero, or any of the other pagan tyrants, than were the Roman Catholics of Ireland at that fatal juncture by those savage commissioners."} Some may say that it would be more patriotic to bury the woes and persecutions of that dark period in oblivion; but besides the wrong which any such omission would cause to the integrity of history, we must answer with Dr. Curry, " that British chronicles have rendered * Vide Lingard, vol. viii. p. 178, and the authorities there quoted. At the same lime the nuns were ordered to marrj' or to leave Ireland. f Ibid. Dr. Lingard refers to MS. letters in his possession, and to Bruodin, 696. In Morison's Threnodia we are told how the Rev. Bernard Fitzpatrick, of the illustrious house of Ossory, was dragged from one of those caves and beheaded: and Ludlow relates in his Memoirs (\'o\. i. pp. 422, Ed. Vevay, 1G98) how, when marching from Dundalk to Castleblaney, probably near the close of 1652, he discovered a few of the Irish in a cave, and how his party spent two days in endea- vouring to smother them by smoke. It appears that the poor fugitives preserved themselves from suffocation, during this operation, by holding their faces close to the surface of some running water in the cavern, and that one of their party was armed with a pistol, with which he shot the foremost of the troopers who were entering the mouth of the cave after the first day's smoking. Ludlow caused the trial to be repeated, and the crevices through which the smoke escaped having been closed, "another smother was made." The next time the soldiers entered with helmets and breast plates, but they found the only armed man dead, inside the entrance, where he was suffocated at his post; while the other fugitives still preserved life at the little brook. Fifteen were put to the sword within the cave, and four dragged out alive, but Ludlow does not mention whether he hanged these then or not; but one, at least, of the original number was a Catholic priest, for the soldiers found a crucifix, chalice, and priest's robes in the cavern. % Morissoni Threnodia Uiherno-Catholica, p. 14. "All these things," says O'Connell, "appear like a hideous dream. Thoy would be utterly incredible only that they are quite certain" (^Memoir of Ireland, p. 315). See also Hib. Dom. p. 706 ; Clarendon's Rebellion, Vii. 434. CROMWELL PROCLAIMED LORD PROTECTOR. 599 silence impossible." That was precisely the period when England displayed her utmost malice in heaping calumnies on her down-trodden victim. Like an ungenerous enemy, not satisfied with success, she added " insult to her guilt, meanness to her cruelty." " Everything that malice and bigotry could conceive, that craft or falsehood could invent, or that ignorance and national antipathy covild believe, was attributed to the Irish name and nation, and repeated in all the drunk- enness of success, and with all the cowardice of security."* And as the most illustrious of Irish statesmen has observed, these iniquitous calum- nies against the Irish were calculated to gain certain advantages for the English, namely: — to make tlie massacres and other crimes committed by the latter appear in the light of retaliation ; to serve as an excuse for seizing the estates of the Irish by the Cromwellian party; and as a further excuse for the restored Stuarts to leave these estates in the hands of the usurpers.! As to the succession of events connected with government, while Ire- land lay in this state of galling bondage, they affected but little the interests of this country. We may therefore dispose of them briefly. After the death of Ireton, Lambert was appointed lord deputy, but through the intrigue of Cromwell's daughter, the widow of Ireton, who had married colonel Charles Fleetwood, the appointment was set aside before Lambert came to Ireland, Cromwell having for that purpose suffered his own commission of lord lieutenant to expire, which involved the retirement of his deputy. Fleetwood was then made commander-in- chief in Ireland, joined in the civil administration with four commis- gloners: — Ludlow, Corbett, Jones, and Weaver. These governed the country according to certain instructions, one of which was, " to endea- vour the promulgation of the gospel and the power of true religion and holiness;" and another, to allow no Papist or delinquent to hold any place of trust, to practise as barrister or solicitor, or to keep school for the education of youth.t The act proclaiming the " rebellion" in Ire- land to be at an end was passed on the 26th of September, 1653. On the 16th of December, that year, Cromwell assumed the supreme authority under the title of lord protector, and his usurpation was supported in Ireland by Fleetwood and the army, although the stern republican, Ludlow, tlu'ew up his commissionership in disgust. Henry Cromwell, the usurper's second son, v/ho was appointed to the government of Ire* * Curry's Review of the Civil Wars in Ireland. Dedication. t See O'Connell's Memoir of Ireland, pp. 303 and 304. X Parliamentary Journala. fiOO CROMWELL. land in 1655, was naturally mild and jiisf, and his administration would have materially altered the state of this country had he been suiFered to follow the dictates of his own humane dispositidn. He is believed to have averted the infliction of fresh grievances; but he administered most of the cruel laws as he found them ; and the practice of kidnapping the Irish youth for transportation to the West Indies Avas in full vigor under him ; while, at the same time, his father was inviting in vain the settlers of New England and the Vaudois of Piedmont to replace the extirpated population of Ireland.* After the death of Oliver (September 3rd, 1658,) the weak shoulders of his son, Richard, did not long sustain the burden of the usurped power bequeathed to him ; and on his retire- ment to his ancestral obscurity the cabals of the long parliament pre- pared an easy way for the restoration of royalty. Not a little of this drama was enacted in Ireland, where Broghill, lord president of Muns- ter, and Coote, lord president of Connaught, both observing the turn in the tide, vied with each other in offering their support to Charles II. Both were reneo-ades, both distinguished for their savage ci'uelties against the Irish; but in duplicity and utter want of principle the balance was on the side of Broghill, the son of the unprincipled earl of Cork. The race between them on this occasion, and their subsequent attempts to depreciate each other with the king, were ludicrous ; but Broghill triumphed in the end, as he produced a letter of Coote's in which the latter admitted that the suggestion for supporting the king first came from him. It was the farce after the tragedy ; and both these inveterate enemies were by the worthless Charles Stuart richly rewarded, Broghill being created earl of Orrery and Coote earl of Mountrath ; while " the estates of the Irish who had fought for the king and followed his fortunes in exile, Avere confu'med to drummers and sergeants who had conducted his father to the scaffold."! * Hutchinson's History of Massachnssets, 190. Thurloe, ii, 459. t iliggons, Remarks on Burnet, p. 103. ^^^^< CHAPTER XL. REIGN OF CHARLES II. Hopes of the Irish Catholics at the Restoration — Their grievous disappointment. — An Irish parlia- ment convoked after twenty years. — Discussions on the Act of Settlement in Ireland and Eng- land — The Act passed. — Establishment of the Court of Claims. — Partial success of the Irish Catholics — Consequent indignation and alarm of the Protestants.—Kumoured conspiracies. — Blood's Plot — The Act of Explanation — Provisions of the Act grossly unjust to Catholics — The Irish parliament desire to make them more so. — The Irish Remonstrance Synod of the clergy in Dublin — English prohibitory laws against the importation of Irish cattle. — General disaffection. — Alarming rumours. — Oppression of the Catnolics. — Recall of Ormond. — Lord Berkley's adminis- tration — Catholic Petition of Grievances. — Colonel Richard Talbot. — Commission of Inquuy — Great alarm produced by it among the Protestants and New Interest. — Recall of lord Berkley and appointment of lord Essex. — Violent address of the English Parliament. — Increased oppres- sion of the Catholics. — Restoration of Ormond. — The Popish Plot. — Arrest of Archbishop Talbot. — Proclamations against the Cathohcs Puritan Attempts to raise a Rebellion in Ireland. — Arrest of*Archbishop Plunkett — Frightful demorahzation and perjury — Memoir of Dr. Plunket (7iOte) — His Martyrdom. — Turn in tide of Persecution.^ — Irish Writers of the seventeenth century. — State of the Irish. — Death of Charles II [a.d. IGGO to A.D. 1685.] HAT the Irish should have regarded the overthrow of the regicide government and the restoration of the king as an assurance of their own restoration to their homes and es- tates was only natural: It was a consequence which every principle of justice demanded; and although serious obstacles were to be overcome, they had a right to expect that the king, for whom they had bled and sacrificed so much, would have taken some trouble in their behalf. Many of these plundered and expatriated people, inspired by this confidence, returned and claimed their own with out w^aiting for the tedious process of an unfriendly law to remstate them ;* but never were the hopes of their injured race doomed to be more cruelly blasted. Acting on the mean and ungenerous policy of his family, Charles immolated his * In England the old proprietors generally expelled the Cromwellian intruders without much ceremony ; but any attempts at a like mode of proceeding in Ireland were immediately put dowr by a royal proclamation. See Carte'a Oiin. vol. ii. p. 30S. 602 CHARLKS II. devoted friends to his own and his father's enemies; and the whole his- tory of his reign, as far as Ireland is concerned, is made up of instaiicas of the most scandalous injustice inflicted on the Irish Catholics, of perse- cutions against their religion, and of triumphs yielded to their unprin- cipled and inveterate foes. Coote, now earl of Mountrath, and Broghill, now earl of Orrery — men who had slaughtered more Irish in cold blood during the war than any others, if we except Cromwell's massacres at Drogheda and Wexford — were appointed lords justices after the restoration, and to none but the determined enemies of the Catholics was any power entrusted. The first Irish parliament held for twenty years met on the 8th of May, 1661. The house of commons comprised two hundred and sixty mem- bers, who, with the exception of sixty-four, were all burgesses, and must, therefore, have been of the favored race, the towns having been filled with Cromwellians. In the upper house there were twenty-one Catholic and seventy-two Protestant peers; but such was the jealousy in both hoiTses, of the admission of any Catholics, that the commons, who had chosen sir Audley Mervin as their speaker, tried to exclude them by requiring the oath of supremacy from all the members ; while Bramhall, archbishop of Armagh, who was elected speaker of the lords, proposed with a like object that all the peers should receive the sacra- ment at his hands. This parliament voted the large sum of £30,000 to the now duke of Ormond,* who was appointed lord lieutenant in October this year, but did not come to Ireland until the following July ; and the session was taken up with discussions on tlie Bill of Settlement, which was warmly opposed by the Irish Catholics through their counsel, but was passed by the Irish parliament on the 15tli of September, and trans- mitted to England, where it underwent a second discussion before the king and council. Here, again, its injustice was ably argued by Irish agents, but all opposition to it was overruled; tho claims of the dis- possessed Irish loyalists were treated as unreasonable ; their counsel was considered imprudent and extravagant in pressing their demands. The effeminate monarch becoming weary of the debates, sir Nicholas Plunket, the agent of the Irish Catholics, was at length excluded from his majesty's presence by an order of council, and this monstrous act of robbery — confirming as it did the most enormous of all the spoliations * Ormond gained enormously by the war. Dr. French says the duke's estates were so encum- bered as uot to have produced more than £7,000 a year before the war, although worth £40,000, but tliat a few years after the restoration they produced him £80,000 a-year. (^Unkind Deserter, chap, xii.) The earl of Essex says Ormond received over £300,000 in this kingdom, besides alL Im great places and employments. (^State Lett., 213-214.) ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COURT OF CLAIMS. G03 inflicted on Ireland by its English masters — was finally passed into law.* A court of claims was established under the act to try tiie qualifications of "nocent" and " innocent ;" and notAvithstanding all the hostility of the law and of government, several Catholics succeeded in making good their titles to a restitution of their property .f This gave rise to violent indignation and alarm among the Protestants. That any door should have been left open to the Catholics for the recovery of their estates was a thing not to be tolerated, and the duke of Ormond consequently refused to extend the time for investigating the claims, although comparatively a few only of them had been disposed of. Neither did the admission of a claim always imply the restoration of an estate, for the Cromwellian or new interest was not always disturbed, and the recovery of a right often amounted to no more than what might be deemed an equivalent, which depended on the amount of " reprisals," as they Avere called, that government might have in hands to allot for the purpose. The regicide judges, and others who had imbrued their hands in the late king's blood, were deprived of their estates by the Act of Settlement; but these lands, which were chiefly situated in the county of Tipperary, were given to the duke of York, and were therefore not available for reprisals. A great outcry was now raised against the Irish Catholics. The vile calumnies about 1641 were revived and maliciously circulated, and every report against the Irish was received with avidity in England. The device of popish plots and conspiracies was resorted to, and the public mind kept in a state of ferment by the most unfounded rumours of intended jiopish risings and French invasions. It so happened that the only real plot was a Presbyterian one, got up by some Puritan ministers, a few military ofiicers, and some members of the house of commons. One * In hi3 speech to the parliament after his restoration Charles told them " that he expected (in relation to the Irish) they would have a care of his honor, and of the promise he had made them;" this promise had been explicitly renewed by Ormond for the king before he left Breda ; but it was thus the royal engagements to tlie Irish were generally kept. It is unnecessary to say that the articles of 1648 (as they were called, though signed by Ormond in 1G19, new .style) were wholly eet aside. t It is stated in Cox's Hihumia Aiiytiaiien that of the clatei t.ied in the first tliree montlis 1G8 ■were adjudged innocent and only 10 nocent ; and that in the subsequent sittings of the court 630 additional claims were decided, we are not told in what projiortion of innocent and nocent, but only " to the great loss and dissatisfaction of the Protestants." (See Letter in Cox, continuing the history from 1653 to 1C89). Some three thousand claims were left unheard for want of time, and Ormond, as stated above, refused to extend the sittings of the court for that purpose. Those Catholics who were named in the Bill of Settlement as objects of the royal favor (about 500 in number) were called "nominees;" tho.*e who served abroad under the king's standard were distinguished as "ensign-men;" and the adver-turers and Cromwellian aoldiers styled themselves *'the new interest." G04 CHARLES II. Thomas Blood, a person who subsequently became notorious for his exploits in England, conspired with some others to seize the castle of Dublin on the 21st of May, 1663; but the mad project was discovered before the attempt was made, and four of the conspirators were exe- cuted. The atrocious system of falsehood against the Catholics was, nevertheless, successful, and a motion for excluding Catholics from the general pardon and indemnity was passed in the English parliament. Ormond, moreover, who had repaired to England for the purpose, procured the passing of an Act of Explanation to satisfy the Protestants, and on his return prepared to organise a Protestant militia. In all the discussions on the Bills of Settlement and Explanation the Catholics, although the most aggrieved, were the most moderate in their demands ; and a suggestion having been made on their part that they would be content if the soldiers and adventurers resigned one-third of the lands which they enjoyed immediately before the restoration, the proposal was accepted, and made the ground-work of the Act of Expla- nation. By this act, however, it was provided that the Protestants w^ere in the first place, and especially, to be settled ; that any ambiguity which arose should be explained in their favor; and "that no Papist, who, by the qualifications of the former act, had not been adjudged innocent, should at any future time be reputed innocent, or entitled to claim an}^ lands or settlements. Thus," continues Leland, whose words w^e quote, "every remaining hope of those numerous claimants whose causes had not been heard, was entirely cut off."* Yet, strange to say, this act, unjust as it was to the Catholics, did not go far enough to satisfy the Irish house of commons, which was composed chiefly of adventurers and soldiers, and whose speaker, Mervin, had all along distinguished himself by his furious hostility to the Catholic interest. Ormond found it necessary to exorcise some rigor towards the refractory members. * Leland, History of Ireland, vol. iii., p. 440. More than 3,000 Catholic claimants were thus condemned to the forfeiture of their estates, without any hearing at all ; or, as Leland expresses it: " Without the justice granted to the vilest criminals — that of a fair and equal trial." See Carte's Orm. vol. ii., pp. 304, 314. Chief justice Nugent, afterwards lord Riverston, in a letter dated Dublin, June 23rd, 1686, and preserved in the State Paper OtHce, London, says : " There are 5,000 in this kingdome who were never outlawed, and out of theyre estates, yet cannot now by law be restored." See MacaricB Excidium, notes and illustrations, p. 192. The Act of Explanation gave the duke of Ormond liberty to name twenty Catholics for the restoration of their estates, and we may be sure that those who were too national in their sentiments were not included in his grace's list. The duke had given the strongest opposition to the claims of the earl of Antrim, whom he hated perhaps more than any other man in Ireland ; but the earl was warmly backed by the king, and by other powerful friends, and, after repeated petitions and investigations, was ultimately restored to his estates by the Act of Exiilanation. Carte, Orm, vol. ii. p. 277, and Irish Council Books. THE IIUSII REMONSTRANCE TO THE ACT OF EXPLANATION. G05 Seven of them were expelled for complicity in BloocVs plot, luiJ others were known to deserve the same punishment. They were also threatened obscurely with a dissolution, and the act was at length finally passed on the 15th of December, 1665* Hoping to remove the pretences for persecution against them, some of the Catholic nobility and gentry had signed a declaration of loyalty for presentation to the king. Several noblemen assembled for the purpose at the house of the marquis of Clanrickard in Dublin ; among others, lords Castlehaven, Clancarty, Carlingford, Fingal, and Inchiquin, and there was no doubt with such names at the head of the list a great many subscribers to the address might be obtained throughout Ireland. This address or declaration is celebrated as the Irish Remonstrance. It was prepared by Peter Walsh, a Franciscan friar, who had been a most zealous partizan of Ormond in the confederation, and enjoyed the private friendship and confidence of that determined enemy of the Catholics. He was a restless and factious man, impatient of spiritual authority, and it was well known that any document from his hands could hardly be unexceptionable. The remonstrance contained, in fact, along with the strongest protestations of loyalty, expressions derogatory to the authority of the Pope, and therefore offensive to true Catholic feeling; but it suited Ormond's purpose precisely on that account ; and on the pretence that it was yet only a private address, possessing no official character, Ormond desired that it might be signed by all the Catholic clergy of the kingdom. A national congregation of the Irish bishops and clergy for the consideration of the matter was held in Dublin on the 11th of June, 1666. The meeting took place by the connivance of Ormond, who had privately obtained the sanction of the king; and the primate, Edmond O'Reilly, who had been in exile since 1657, when he was arrested in London at the instance of the aforesaid Peter Walsh, and sent * One of tho motives for the clamours raised by the Protestants in the discussions referred to above was the constant discover}' of abuses in the Cromwellian distribution of the lands. Sir William Doniviile, the attornej-'getieral, in overhauling the details of this distribution, discovered, among many other irregularities, that there were "great abuses in the manner of setting out the adventurers' satisfaction, in which the proceedings were very clandestine and confused. For they had whole baronies set out to them in gross, and then they employed surveyors of their own to make their admeasurements. Thus they admeasured what proportions they thought fit to mete out to themselves ; and what lands they were pleased to call unprofitable, they had returned as such, let them be never so good and profitable. In the county of Tipperary alone be had found by books in the surveyor's olKce above 50,000 acres returned as unprofitable, and in the moity of the ten counties, wherein their satisfaction was set out, he had found 245,207 acres so returned by the adventurers as unprofitable." Carte's Orm. vol. ii. p. 301. Moreover, Domville found tliat the soldiers had returned 665,670 acres as unprofitable, and it was not without reason they now feared to have the accuracy of their returns inquired into. These soldiers, says Carte, " were for the mo.* part Auabaj)tists, Independe.us, and Levellers." Orm. voL ii. 606 CHARLES rr. out of the kingdom, received permission to come to Ireland and presided at the meeting* Promises were held out by Ormond that whoever signed the remonstrance would be more favorably considered in their claims, and enjoy other privileges. The discussions on the subject were carried on with great caution; but, to the eternal honor of the Irish clergy, the insulting instrument was rejected, and another remonstrance adopted, to which no objection whatever could be raised, if only an expression of the most devoted loyalty were required. On the IGtli of June this Catholic remonstrance was delivered by two of the bishops to Ormond, with a prayer that it might be presented to his majesty; but the duke rejected petition and remonstrance, sent Peter Walsh to order the synod to dissolve immediately, and subjected the Catholic bishops and clergy to a more rigid persecution than before. The primate was seized on the 27th of September, and canned prisoner to London, whence he was sent into banishment until his death, which took place at Louvain in lG69.t The propensity of English statesmen to treat Ireland as an alien country, and to legislate in a spirit hostile to her interests, was such that even the Cromwellian settlers had scarcely fixed themselves in this country when they felt the galling pressure of this national injustice. Prohibitory laws relating to Irish commerce had long been usual in England. The Irish wool trade had been restricted within the narrowest limits ; but at this time the prohibition against the importation of Irish cattle into England was the grievance that pressed most heavily on Irish commercial interests. A law on this subject was passed for a * Before the primate's return at this time there were but three Catholic prelates in Ireland, two of wliom, nameh', Dr. John Burke, archbishop of Tuain, and Dr. Owen IM'Sweeny, bishop of Kilmore, were too aged and infirm to perform any of their public functions. The third was Dr. Patrick Plunket, bishop of Ardagh. It appears I'roni Dr. French's Eltnchus Episcopot-um^ quoted /n the Hilemia Dominicana, that of the twenty-six Irish prelates who were resident in their respective sees in 1649, nine had died at home, ten had died in exile, three had suffered martyrdom, and four were still living in 16G7 ; Dr. Nicholas French himself, bishop of Ferns, and Dr. Andrew Lynch, bishop of Kilfenora, still in banishment ; and Dr. Burke, of Tuam, and Dr. Patrick Plunket, just mentioned. Dr. O'Reilly, the primate, had only been consecrated in 1657. t There can be no doubt that Ormond's object in encouraging the synod of 1666 was to sow discord among the Calholic clergy. Peter Talbot, archbishop of Dublin, shows in his castigation of Walsh {The Friar Disciplined, p. 92) that be was well aware such was the case. In fact the duke himself frankly acknowledged, some years later, "that his aim in permitting that meeting was to work a division among the Ptomish clergy" (Carte's Ormond, ii.. Append.); and soon after the synod was dispersed lord Orrery, writing to Ormond, says: — "I humbly offer to your grace whether this may not be a fit season to make that schism, which you have been sowing among the Popish clergy, publicly break out, so as to set them at open difference, as we may reap some prac- ticable advantage thereby." {Orm. State Letters, vol. ii.) But Ormond's arts did not succeed, for vo are told by Walsh himself that although there were then in Ireland 1,100 secular priests ana 750 regulars, yet that of these 1,850 clergy only 69 signed his remonstrance, these being diietiy Viars of his own order, over whom he had great influence. GENERAL DISAFFECTION. 607 limited period in 1663, but tlie question was agitated from year to year; and when, in October, lO'oQ, the lord lieutenant, seconded by the Irish gentry, proposed to send over 15,000 bullocks as a, contribution for the sufferers by the great fire of London, their kindness was maliciously interpreted; and the English commons, displaying what Leland calls " a violent and almost unaccountable rage of oppression," voted a bill making the prohibition permanent. In the preamble to the bill the importation of Irish cattle was termed a " nuissance," which descrip- tion the lords modified by substituting the words " detriment and mischief." Lord Ashley, a member of the cabal ministry,* proposed that it should be declared a felony and prsemunire. The measure gave rise to violent debates in both houses. The duke of Buckingham asserted that " none could oppose the bill but such as had Irish estates or Irish understandings ;" and lord Ossory, son of the duke of Ormond, resented this insult by a challenge, which Buckingham declined to accept; and Ossoiy was sent to the tower. At another part of the debate, when Ashley inveighed against the Irish contribution for the sufferers, Ossory protested that " such virulence became none but one of Cromwell's counsellors," and several noble lords on both sides were on the point of dravv ing their SAvords ; but the commons insisting on their favorite expression being retained, Charles requested the lords to yield the point, and the bill received the royal assent with the word "nuissance" restored in the proamble. At hom.e disaffection prevailed among all parties. The landed interest was ruined by the prohibitory laws just referred to. The army com- plained that their pay v.^as in arrears ; and some soldiers having mutinied and seized Carrickfergus castle, a considerable military force was required to reduce them ; ten of their number being executed. The Irish Puritans carried on secret correspondence with their friends in England, so that government was perpetually alarmed with rumours of new plots. The Irish Catholics, infinitely more aggrieved than any other party, were objects of suspicion to all; and although they had engaged in no conspiracy, anonymous accusations were daily made against them. They were charged with inviting the French to invade Ireland ; and Oi'mond, who afi'ected to believe these malicious rumours, made them an excuse for ruling the unhappy Catholics with a rod of iron. He could not forgive the Irish clergy for refusing to sign thd remonstrance, and was resolved, as he said, to keep them up to the letter * Tlie name of "cabal" was give;i to th; nrioistry of Cliarha II. — CJiftord, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington, a\ul Lauderdale — the iuitials of their names composing that word. 608 CHARLES ir. of that document, " or to a sense equivalent." He distributed 20,000 stand of arms to his Protestant militia, and in July, 1667, reviewed the Leinster corps in the Curragh of Kildare. The appearance of an Eng- lish squadron about the same time off Kinsale threw the country into a state of violent excitement, as it was supposed to be the expected French fleet ; but the king, provoked by these repeated alarms, and by tho many complaints which reached him, removed Ormond, who had gone to England in 16 G8, and the following jear appointed lord Robarts of Truro as lord lieutenant. This man remained but a few months, and was succeeded in May, 1670, by John lord Berkley, a nobleman of moderate principles and upright intentions.* Colonel Richard Talbot, who possessed great influence at court, and was subsequently created duke of Tirconnell by James II., went to England in 1671 to lay before the king and council a petition from the Irish Catholic gentry who had been plundered of their estates.f Colonel Talbot had for several years past acted as the advocate of his injured fellow-countrymen with the king, and on this occasion he was so successful as to induce his majesty to appoint a committee of inquiry, notwithstand- ing the opposition given to the petition by Ormond. The report of the com- mittee was unfavorable ; but a commission was issued, which was super- seded in January, 1673, by one of a more comprehensive character, to inquire concerning the Acts of Settlement and Explanation, the manner in which these acts were executed, the disposal of the forfeited estates, the state of his majesty's revenue in Ireland, &c. The appointment of tliis com- mission gave occasion to a violent outcry among the Puritans and the new * The moderation of lord Berkley inspired the Irish Catholics with the deepest gratitude, and a convocation of the clergy was held in Dublin in 1670 to give expression to their feelings in an address to liis excellency. On this occasion the two most illustrious men in the Iri.sh church of that day were present, namely, Oliver Flunkett, arclibishnp of Armagh, and Peter Talbot, arch- bishop of Dublin, both of whom had been elevated to the archiepiscopal dignity in 1669. These two eminent men differed considerabh' in their disposition. Dr. Plunkett, more calm and forgiving, objected to the severity exercised by Dr. Talbnt against the remonstrant clergy, or those who had signed Walsli's remonstrance ; and at the same time entertained so strict a sense of his own duty to sustain the rights of his liigli position as primate, that he refused to sign the address unless his name were placed first, while Dr. Talbot insisted on the claim long before set up to the primatial dignity for his diocess. The dispute forms an interesting topic in Irish cliurch history, and gave occasion to very learned treatises on the subject from both those prelates. t Among the plundered Irish gentrj' of that time we find our yreat antiquary, Roderick O'Flaherty, who was most assuredly innocent, thus mildly complaining in his Ogygia* — " Tlie Lord hath won- derfully recalled the royal heir to his kingdom, with the applause of all good men, and without dust and blood; but he hath not found me worthy to be restored to the kingdom of my cottage (sed me non dignum invenit, cui tugurii mei regnum restituat). Against thee alone, O Lord, I have sinned; may the name of the Lord be blessed for ever." Ogt/ffta, p. 180; and elsewhere he says: — " I live a banished man within the bounds of my native soil ; a spectator of others en- ricbed by my birthright ; an object of condoling to my relations and friends, and a condoler uf their miseries." Ogyg'ia Vind. p. 153. THE POPISH PLOT. (i09 interest in Ireland. Anything that threatened to disturb the Act of Settle- ment, and to drag before the public view all the atrocious injustice and secret dishonesty connected with that most appalling spoliation, was a sufficient cause of dismay. The toleration and justice extended by lord Berkley to the Catholics also excited alarm.* The cry of " popery" was raised. The " mystery of iniquity," it was said, had begun to appeal*. Yielding to this storm, the king recalled lord Berkley in May, 1672, and appointed in his stead lord Essex, with instructions to take a different course. On the 9th of March, 1673, the English house of commons presented a most violent address to his majesty, calling upon him to expel by pro clamation all who exercised spiritual jurisdic- tion under the Pope in Ireland; to prohibit Irish Pa] ists from inhabiting any part of that kingdom, unless duly licensed; and to encourage by all means the English planters, and the Protestant interest there. The result was that the weak king hastened to recall his commission of inquiry, and did all he could to appease the awakened zeal of his Protestant subjects. Ormond was restored to favor, and Essex having been recalled, the duke was sent to Ireland as lord lieutenant in August, 1677. The fol- lowing year the diabolical fabrication known as the Popish plot made its appearanee. England was at that time drunk with fanaticism. The outcry against Po]>ery had driven the people mad, and the contrivance of the infamous Titus Oates and his flacritious associates was a fittincr climax to the national frenzy. The duke of Ormond was at Kilkenny when he received the jirst notice of the plot, October 3rd, 1678; but although he treated the matter in his official capacity as one of awful magnitude, and adopted all the cruel measures towards the Catholics that might satisfy the fanatics, still his private correspondence proves that he placed no faith in the plot, but regarded it on the contrary with contempt ; observing that no such thing existed in Ireland, where the Catholics were so much more numerous than in England-! On the 7th of October he receiAcd a further communication from the secretary of state, announcing that the plot did extend to Ireland, and that Peter Talbot was concerned in it;. although it was knoAvn that that prelate was tlien in a dying state, having only a few months before obtained private permission to return to Ireland that he might breathe his last in * It was charged agninst lord Berkley that popery was tolerated, and that archbishop Talbot celfihratcd High Mass publicly in Dublin during bis administration ; and also that he allowed some papist:) to hold the conimission of the peace. f See his correspondence at the close of the second volume of Carte. 610 CHARLES II. his own countiy. Orraond, however, on the 8th of October issued a warrant for his apprehension, and the venerable archbishop was taken from his sick bed, at Cartown, near Maynooth, the house of his brother, colonel Richard Talbot, and carried in a chair to Dublin, where he was kept a close prisoner in the castle, until dea,th removed hira from his lingering martj^rdom two years after. Proclamations against the unoffending Catholics now appeared in quick succession. One on the 16th of October commanded, "all titular archbishops, bishops, \icars-genera1, and other dignitaries of the Church of Rome, and also all Jesuits, and other regular priests, to depart by the 20th of November ; and that all Popish societies, convents, seminaries, and Popish schools, should dissolve." The masters of outward-bound ships were required to take on board all the Popish clergy who should present themselves for transportation. A proclamation of the 20th of November forbid Papists to come into the castle of Dublin or any other fort or citadel; and ordered that the markets of Drogheda^ Wexford, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Youghal, and Galway should be held ^^'ithout the Avails, to prevent the recourse of Papists to the interior of the towns. The same day a reward was offered of £10 for every commissioned officer, £5 for every trooper, and 4s. for every foot soldier who could be discovered to have gone to mass since he took the oath of supremacy and allegiance. On the 2nd of December orders were issued for a strict search after the titular bishops and regular clergy wdio had not transported themselves. To increase the alarm and quicken the vigilance of government, anonymous letters aliout Popish conspiracies were dropped in the streets The Protestant militia was revived and disciplined. In March, 1680, a proclamation issued, ordering that the nearest relations of tories should be seized and imprisoned until such tories Avere killed or taken ;* and that parish priests should be apprehended and transported, upon any robbery or murder being committed in their respective parishes, unless the criminals were killed, taken, or discovered Avithin fourteen days. A rcAvard of £10 avjis promised at the same time for taking a Jesuit or titular bishop; and soon after the lord lieutenant and council ordered the removal of the Popish inhabitants from Galway, * Dr. O'Conor (^Blb. Slowensis, ii. 460) derives the name " tory" from the Irish word toirighim, to pursue for prey. Many of tliese robber outlaws were bj' birth Irish gentlemen, who had been unjustly stripped of their estates, and who levied contributions in their own wild way on the Cromwellian settlers who occupied their ancient patrimonies. The most celebrated of them was Redmond O'Hanlon, the hero of many a traditional tale. About this time the name of tory came into use in England, where it was applied to the court party by the Puritans, or popular party, who were designated whigs. ARREST OF ARCHBISHOP PLmTKETT. 611 Limerick, Waterford, Clonmel, Kilkenny and Drogheda, " except some few trading merchants, artificers, and others necessary for the said towns."* Thus did the rulers of Ireland vainly hope to extirpate the Catholic religion from the land of Patrick, Bridget, and Columbkille ; and designing impostors try to urge the Irish to resistance, and afford an excuse for another confiscation. t Colonel Talbot was arrested, as well as his brother, the archbishop, but was suffered to go into exile, and an order also came over to seize lord Mountgarret, then an octogenarian, and in his dotage; but all thif time no testimony came from Ireland to support the plot, to the great disappointment of lord Shaftesbury and the other patrons of Oates.^ This was not to be endured, and accordingly all possible methods were resorted to, says Carte, " to provoke and exasperate the people of that kingdom." New measures of coercion were devised ; " it was proposed to introduce the test act and all the English penal laws into Ireland; and that a proclamation should be forthwith issued for encouraging all persons that could make any further discoveries of the horrid Popish plot to come in and declare the same."§ For more than a year after the proclamation banishing the Catholic prelates out of Ireland, archbishop Plunkett continued to reside in his diocese. He was so good a man, and so usefid as a promoter of peace and order, that Ormond was most unwilling to have him apprehended ; but he was at length seized in his • See in Cox the continuation of the reign of Charles II., where the substance of all these pro- clamations \*ill be found; also Carte, vol. ii., pp. 480, &c. To what the exclusion of Catholics from the principal towns would then amount we may gather from the statement of lord Orrery, who in a letter to the duke of Ormond, of February 26, 1662, says " it was high time to purge the towns of the papists, when in most of them there were three Papists to one Protestant." About the same time the Catholics in the rural districts were to the Protestants in the ratio of fifteen to one. Sir "William Petty, writing in 1672, estimates the total population of Ireland at 1,100,000, of whom 800,000 were Irish, 200,000 English, and 100,000 Scotch. All the Irish, he says, were Papists ; all the Scotch, Presbyterians ; and of the English, one half Protestant, and the other half Independents, Anabaptists, Quakers, and other dissenters. There were thus, according to him, eight Papists to one Church of England Protestant ; but it is quite clear that owing to the remote- ne.ss of the districts in which many of the Irish dwelt he had no means of learning their actnal numbers, which were unquestionably much greater than he states. See Pelty's Political Anatomy of Irelmd, p. 8, ed. 1719. t " There were," says Carte (vol. ii., p. 482). " too many Protestants in Ireland who wanted another rebellion, that they might increase their estates by new forfeitures." % "It was a terrible slur," says Carte, "upon the credit of the Popish plot in England, that afterit had made such a horrible noise and frightened people out of their senses in a nation where there was scarce one Papist to an hundred Protestants, there should not, for above a year together, appear so much as one witness frum Ireland to give information of any conspiracy of the like nature in that kingdom, where there were fifteen Papists to one Protestant, as that charged upon the Papists of England, whose weakness wo^^ naturally nuke them apply for assistance from their more powerful brethren in Ireland." Tol. ii., p. 495. § Carte, voL iL, p. 494. »?i2 CHARLES II. humble retreat, a few miles from Drogheda, on the 6tli of December, 1G79, and committed to prison, solely for his religion and for exercising the functions of a Catholic prelate.* The arrest of the primate gave a new turn to things in Ireland. Hetherington, Shaftesbury's agent, came over to concoct evidence of a plot, and a number of the most abandoned characters — cow-stealers, rapparees, and gaol-breakers — ^were soon found ready for the purpose. These vile miscreants vied with each other in swearing away the lives of innocent men ; and several of them came forward to make the most outrageous charo;es of treason against the venerable archbishop. Foremost among these infamous witnesses were two degraded priests and as many apostate friars. Id those turbulent times, vv'hen there was so much to disorganise society and encourage vice, it is not extraordinary that men should have been found capable of any degradation ; and these wretched ecclesiastics were persons who, after fruitless efforts to reform them, had been subjected to canonical censures; the two seculars having been excom- municated by the primate, and the friars declared apostates by their superior. As the evidence of these men would obtain no credit in Ire- land, the primate was taken to London, where the incredible, inconsistent, and indeed impossible statements of the false witnesses were received as gospel truth by the judges, jury, and people of England, and Dr. Plunkett was immolated at the shrine of English fanaticism.t * See on this point the admirable life of Dr. Plunkett, published in Duffy's Catholic Magazine, vol. ii., p. 144. t Dr. Oliver Plunkett belonged to a branch of the ancient family of the earls of Fingal, and was bom at Loughcrew, in Meath. He went to Rome when a young man, in 1649, and studied in the Irish college founded by cardinal Ludovisius, and which was then administered by Jesuits. About eight years after he became professor of divinity in the Propaganda, and so continued for twelve years; and on the death of Edmond O'Reilly, archbishop of Armagh, in 16G9, he was nominated to the primacj' of Ireland by Pope Clement IX. It was then a perilous as well as au exalted dig- nity; but he hastened to his afflicted country-, where he arrived about the end of October the same year, and an immediate, but fruitless, search was made for him by order of the government. Lord Robarts, who was soon after recalled, was then lord lieutenant; but during the administiptions of lords Berkley and Essex Dr. Plunkett continued to e.xercise his functions without molestation. He was indefatigable in his apostolic labors, holding numerous ordinations, and exerting himself with prudence and assiduity to correct abuses among clergy' and laity. He was an ardent lover of his country and of her venerable antiquities, and composed an Irish poem about Tara, wliich is me:i. tioned by O'Reilly, in his 7mA Wrilers. In the persecution which followed the outbreak of the pretended Popish plot, he removed from his usual residence, at Ballybarrack, near Dundalii, to a small bouse it a place called Castletownbel'ew, a few miles from Drogheda, where he was arrested. At his trial he stated that he had lived " in a little thatched house, wherein was only a little room for a library, which was not seven feet high ; that he had never more than one servant, and that he was scarcely ever able to support even one." As to his income it never exceeded "three score pounds per annum." It was six months after his confinement in Newgate that the charge of treason was trumped up against him, and when it was then investigated before the Irish council it was scouted as utterly absurd. A reward of £500 was, it is said, offered for Hetherington, the infamous concocte* of the perjuries, but he had fled to his employer, Shaftesbury; and when the primate came to be arraigned at the Dundalk assizes, although ev«ry man, both on the grand and petty jury, was s MEMOIR OF ARCKBISIIOP PLUNKETT. 613 It has been truly said by a great Protestant statesman that " the Popish plot must always be considered an indelible disgrace upon the Protestant, not one of the miscreants who had made depositions against him would come forward. No one was more active, says Carte, in procuring those witnesses than Jones, the Protestant bishop of Meath, "who had been scont-master-general to Oliver Cromwell's army" (0/-ffi. ii. 498); and jt was at his suggestion that Shaftesbury got the primate's trial nnnoved from Dundalk, where he would, assuredl}', have been acquitted, to London, where anything sworn against a Popish bishop could not be too monstrous for the popular credulity. The Irish government was required to assist the witnesses for the plot, of one of whom (James Geoghan) who was sent to beat up the country for swearers, Ormond writes that " at length, his violences, excesses, debaucheries, and, in effect, his plain robberies, committed on Irish and EngHsh, Protestants and Papists, were so manifest, as raised a great disturbance in all places," and it became necessaiy to put him in gaol (see letter ui Carte, ii. 514); j'et such was the general character of the degraded men produced as witnesses against the holy archbishop — profligates and apostates, to whom a free pardon was offered as an in- ducement to add perjury and murder to their other crimes. Dr. Plunkett was removed to London about the close of October, 1680, and was so rigorously confined in Newgate that no friend could have access to him. Here he spent his time in almost continual prayer, and his keepers were sur- prised to see him always look so cheerful and resigned. When brought up for trial he obtained five weeks to procure evidence from Ireland ; but in those days of slow travelling, when weeks were some- times lost in waiting for a passage from Holyhead to Dublin, the time was insufficient; and when the trial at length came on on the 8th of June, 1681, the primate's witnesses had not arrived, and certain records which he desired to obtain from Ireland to show the character of tlie witnesses brought against him, would not be given to his agents without an order from the court ; but a single day longer would not be granted to him. He was browbeaten by a bench of partizan judges; six of the most eminent lawyers in England were arrayed against him; and he stood alone, without one to speak a word in his defence or procure for him fair play; for as the law then stood he was not. allowed the benefit of counsel. A host of abandoned wretches, who, says the great Charles Fox, would have been unworthy of credit, even in the most trivial matter, made charges against him that were net only incredible bnt absolutely impossible (^Fox's Historical Works, p. 40). In vain did he pray for time and declare: — "If I had been in Ireland I would have put myself on my trial to- morrow, without any witnesses, before any Protestant j my that knew them and me." He, who was so poor and meek, and had such a hon'or of mixing himself up in any temporal concern, was convicted of plotting to raise an army of 70,000 men : of collecting some enormous fund for that purpose among the clergy; of practising to bring over 40,000 French troops; and of inspecting the harbours round the coast of Ireland, and selecting Carlingford as the place for the debarkation of the invading army I On the 16th, when brought up to receive sentence, the brutal chief justice addressing him, said: — "Look you, Mr. Plunkett, you iiave been indicted of a very great and heinous crime The bottom of your treason was your setting up your false religion. ...a religion that is ten times worse than all the heathenish superstitions." The earl of Essex went to the king to apply for a pardon, and told his majesty "the witnesses must needs be perjured, as what they swore could not possibly be true;" but his majesty answered in a passion: — "Why did you not declare this, then, at the trial? 1 dare pardon nobody. . . .His blood be upon your heaH and not upon mine" (jCotiiin. of Baker^s Chronicle, p. 710, and Ediard's Hist, of Engl. iii. 631). The address which the holy primate read at Tyburn was an able and beautiful vindication. On the 1st of July he was banned and quartered; his heart and bowels were thrown into the fire, but his body was obtained from the king and interred in the church-yard of St. Giles-in-the- Fields, except the head, and the arms to the elbows, which were enclosed in two tin cases. In 1683, when the quarters of his body were exhumed by his friend Father Corker, they were found entire, and all his relics were translated to Lambspring, in Germany ; but Hugh MacMahon, one of his successors in the primacy, having obtained the head from cardinal Howard, brought it to Ireland, and subsequently deposited it in the convent which he founded, in 1722, for Dominican nuns, at Drogheda, in which the first prioress was Catherine Plunkett, a rela- tive, it is presumed, of the holy primate; and in this house, known as the Sienna convent, the pre- cious relic is enshrined in a small ebony temple decorated with silver. An authentic portrait of the illustrious martyr, taken after his condemnation, has been engraved, and published by Mr. Duffy. (See the excellent and learned memoir of Oliver Plunkett published, with the report of bis trial, &c., ia Luffy't Cai/iclic Jlagaune; also ti.e notices of iiim in the ' heologia Trijjariita of h'm cotemporniy 614 CHARLES n. English nation ;"* and if the lessons -which history teaches are to have any effect, such a blot ought assuredly to humble national pride. It is a remarkable fact that Dr. Plunkett was not only the last victim of that atrocious imposture, but that the tide of persecution ebbed immediately upon his death. He was executed at Tyburn on the 1st of July, 1681, and the very next day Shaftesbury, the patron of the gang of perjurers and the chief promoter of the plot, was himself dragged to the tower for high treason ; nor was it long after when some retribution overtook the infamous Titus Oates, who was whipped by the common hangman and pilloried for his perjuries.f The severity of the penal laws was relaxed in Ireland. Ormond, whose growing moderation had drawn upon him the violent attacks of Shaftesbury and the AVhigs, now more openly befriended the Irish Catholics. Whether influenced by some remorse for the past, or revolution in his own sentiments, or change which he observed in the feelings of the king, it is certain that he became liberal at the close of his long career. Charles II., who was received into the Catholic church a few hours before his death, expired on the 6th of February, 1685, and was succeeded by his brother James, duke of York, who had for several years past openly professed the Catholic faith, and suffered for it many persecutions and even banishment from England. Thus did a new vista of hope dawn upon the Irish. The seventeenth century, towards the close of which we now approach, though brimful of calamity to Ireland, was illumined by in- numerable lights of Irish histoiy and literatui'e. Its first quarter and friend, Arsdekin ; the Bib. Dominicana; Harris's Additions to Ware's Irish Writers; the Thorpe Collection of Pamphlets; the State Trials; Mr. Thomas Darcj' M'Gee's Irish Writers, &c.) All subsequent Protestant writers have admitted that he was unjustly executed. Bishop Burnet, who was certainly no friend to Catholics, writes: — '"Lord Essex told me that this Plunkett was a wise and sober man, who was always in a different interest from the two Talbots;" and he adds, that the foreman of the grand jury who had investigated his case in Ireland, and "who was a zealous Protestant," told him the witnesses "contradicted one another so evidently that they would not find the bill" (Burnet's Hist, of his own Times, vol. i. p. 502-3). "Of his innocence," says Fox, " no doubt could be entertained" (Ilist. Works, p. 40). " He was," says the writer of the memoir quoted above, "the last victina of the Popish plot, and the last martyr who was directly put to death for the Catholic religion in these countries" (^Caih. Mag. ii. 231). It will interest Irish aniiquaries to know that Florence Mac Mover, one of the witnesses against Dr. Plunkett, was the hereditaiy keeper of the celebrated Book of Armagh, and that being reduced to beggary at the close of his life he pawned, for £5, that celebrated relic of antiquity, which thus came into the possession of an ancestor of lord Brownlow, its present proprietor. ♦Charles J. Fox's Historical Works, p. 33. t " Titus Oates," says Grainger, " was restrained by no principle, human or divine, and like Judas, would have done anything for thirty shillings. He was one of the most accomplished villains tliat we read of iu history." (^Biographical Hist, of Eiig., vol. ir., p. 201.) Oates obtained f«r his perjuries a pension of £1,200 a-year, of which he was deprived by king James, but William III. granted a pardon to the niiscreaiit aad conferred on him a pension of £400 a year. IRISH WRITERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CKXTURV. 615 witnessed the labors of Philip O'Sullevan Beare, Stephen White, Peter Lombard, and Thomas ^Nlessingham ; the Four Mastei's (Michael, Conary, and Cucogry O'Clery, and Ferfeasa O'Mulconry) were compiling their celebrated Annals of Ireland from 1632 to 1636 ; GeofFry Keating, who has been called the Irish Herodotus, died about the middle of the cen- tury; archbishop Ussher, that wonderful compound of great learning and intolerant bigotry, and the honest and learned sir James Ware, flourished at the same time ; the eminent Irish scholar and antiquary, Duald MacFirbis, was Ware's Irish amanuensis; father John Colgan, the greatest of our hagiographers, published his invaluable Acta Sanctorum Hihernice, at Louvain, in 1645; and during the same century flourished Patrick Fleming, Hugh Ward, David Roth, Luke Wadding, Dominic O'Daly, Thomas Carve, Anthony Bruodin, Nicholas French, Oliver Plunkett, Richard Arsdekin, archdeacon Lynch (Gratianus Lucius), and the learned author of the Ogygia, Roderick O'Flaherty. The list might be much extended, and to the preceding, who with two or three exceptions were ecclesiastics residing abroad, might be added a long array of other Irishmen who confined their labors in the foreign monasteries and colleges exclusively to sacred subjects. At the same time the Irish at home preserved, their traditions and some of their ancient records in their woods and mountains, where their priests found hiding places from persecution, and where we can fancy that the wild strains of the native music, devoted to the utterance of so much sorrow, became taore exquisitely plaintive in their character. 2 a CHAPTER XLI. REIGS OF JAMES 11. Temper of parties in Ireland at the Accession of !James II. — Hopes of the Catholics atid alarm of the Protestants. — Clarendon lord lieutenant — Refusal to repeal the Acts of Settlement. — Colonel Richard Talbot created earl of Tirconnell, and appointed to the command of the army in Ireland — Succeeds Clarendon as lord lieutenant. — Numerous Catholic appointments. — Alarming rumoui'S — Increased disaffection of the Protestants. — Birth of the Prince of Wales — William Prince of Orange invited to England — The league of Augsburgh — V/illiam's dissimulation — His arrival at Torbay. — James deserted by his EngUsh subjects and obliged to fly to France. — Disloyal Association of the Protestants of Ulster — The Protestants in general refuse to give up their arms. — The Rapparees. — Irish troops sent to England and the consequence. — Clo.sing the gates of Derry. — The Irish alone faithful to king James — He lands at Kinsale and marches to Dublin, . — Siege of Derry — The town relieved and the siege raiaed — Conduct of the Eoniskilleners. — James's Parliament in Dublin — Act of Attainder. — Large levies of the Irish. — Landing of Schom- berg — He encamps at Dundalk and declines battle with James. — Battle of Cavan. — William lands at Carrickfergus — Marches to the Boyne. — Disposition of the hostile forces. — The Battle of the Boyne — Orderly retreat of the Irish. — Flight of king James — He escapes to France. — William marches to Dublin. — Waterford and Duncannon reduced. — Gallant defence of Athlone by the Irish. — Retreat of the Williamite army underDouglas. — William besieges Limerick — Noble defence of the Garrison — The English ammunition and artillery blown up by Sarstield — The city stormed — Memorable heroism of the besieged — William raises the siege and returns to Eng- land. — Arrival of St. Ruth. — Loss of Athlone. — Battle of Aughrim and death of St. Ruth. — Siege and siurender of Gal way Second siege of Limerick — Honorable capitulation. — The Irish army embark for France. '"^•yj [from a.d. 1685 TO A.D. 1691.] ^ NBOUNDED was the joy of the Irish Catholics on the accession of James II., and in a like proportion was the depression produced among the Protestants by that event. For the feelings of both parties at a time when so many elements of discord were rife due allowance should now be made. On the one side we see men who had so long groaned under oppression and ruin suddenly raised to the hope of restored fortunes and religious liberty; on the other, a dominant pai'ty enriched with the spoils of their antagonists, but now dreading the loss of power and of estates so dubiously acquired, and what was Avorse than all, the extension of favor towards a creed to which they entertained a fanatical aversion. The old English had become almost identified in sympathies and interest with the Irish, ar.^ between both and the new interest, as the Cromwellian ALARM OF THE PROTESTANTS. d? planters were styled, there existed all the jealousy and antipathy which could spring from antagonism in religion and race. From the beginning James's acts relating to Ireland tepded to strengthen the corresponding hopes and fears of the two parties. Colonel Richard Talbot, whose imprudent zeal and rash and impetuous disposition were often in- jurious to the cause which he wished to serve, was raised to the peerage with the title of earl of Tirconnell, and appointed commander-in-chief of the forces in Ireland, with an authority independent of that of tha lord lieutenant. He proceeded to reorganise the army by the introduc- tion of Catholic officers, and hastened with unconciKating abruptness to disarm the Protestant militia. The appointment early in 1686 of the earl of Clarendon as lord lieutenant, and sir Charles Porter as lord chancellor, might have reassured the Protestants had not their disaffection been too deeply rooted, and their fears too keenly alarmed. Tirconnell endeavoured to procure a repeal of the Acts of Settlement and Explana- tion, but his proposal was scouted by the English council, who declared that the king Avould not sacrifice his English Catholic subjects to the interests of the Irish; and Clarendon, in his speech on assuming the sword of office, tried to remove all doubts on this subject by stating that •' he had the king's commands to declare on all occasions that his' majesty had no intention of altering those acts." In February, 1687, Tirconnell was sworn lord lieutenant, and con- tributed materially by his administration of affairs to increase the dis- content and alarm of the Protestants. In each court two Catholic judges were appointed, the third beuig a Protestant ; Catholics were made high sheriffs and privy councillors ; commissions of the peace were granted to a number of Catholic magistrates ; a great many Catholic officers obtained commissions in the army ; and quo-warrantos were issued to all the corporations, which had become nests of Puritan exclusiveness and corruption, fresh charters being granted which admitted Catholics into the corporate bodies. These measures might have been taken by another with less offence to Protestant prejudice; but there was still nothing in them that was not consistent with a fair balance of religious toleration. Catholicity might with justice have been made the state church in Ireland, as Presbyterianism was in Scotland; but the acts of James's government in Ireland did not go to that extent, and there is no reason why we should disbelieve his own assurance that he never intended to overturn the Protestant establishment in these countries.* * Mr. Lesley thus puts the argument on this subject: — "Suppose, say they, it were true, which Dr. Kicg asserts, as it is most fake, that lung James, while he was in Ireland, did endeavour totally 618 JAMES II. Bickerings and mutual provocations between tlie parties were inces. sant. The Protestants complained that tlie Catholics sued them for old debts, and that they instituted prosecutions for fictitious treasons; but the most fertile source of irritation arose from the constant rumours on both sides of apprehended massac]*es. In some places the Catholic pea- santry deserted their dwellings for several nights successively, through fear of an attack by the Protestants ; and on the other hand a panic seized the Protestants in Dublin and elsewhere; congregations armed themselves against imaginary "Popish massacres," and placed sentinels outside the church gates during service; and many of the Pro- testant merchants and traders deserted the country for England and Scotland.* It may be doubted whether James could, by any amount of modera- tion, and the most cautious policy, have averted the revolution "Vidiich deprived him of his kingdom. The temper of England wa-s such that a Catholic sovereign v.^ould not have been endured, had he even confined his religion to his closet and enforced the penal laws of his predecessorr,. James is accused of great indiscretion in exercising so freely the power of dispensing from religious tests, in having mass celebrated openly in the palace, and in the favor shown to Catholics by his Irish govern- ment; but the arguments drawn from those acts only pro\'e a foregone conclusion. The event which, more than any other, expedited the im- pending blow, was the birth of the prince of Wales in June, 1688.t Up to overthrow tlie church establifihed by law there, and set up that which was most agreeable to the inclinations of the majar number of the people in that kingdom, who are Roman Catholics, the Jacobites ask, if this were so, whether it be not fully vindicated in the fourth instruction of those which king William sent to his commissioners in Scotland, dated at Copt Hall, May 31, 1689, in these words? — 'You are to pass an act establishing that church government wliich is most agreeable to the inclinations of the people.' By which rule, they say, that it was as just to set up Popery in Ireland as Presbytery in Scotland." (^Preface to his Answer to Archbishop Kinr/.) Manj' of the Catholic appointments mentioned above were made by Clarendon, and before Tirconnell becvna lord lieutenant. * The work of Dr. William King, afterwards successor of Dr. Marsh as archbishop of Dublin — " The State of the Protestants of Ireland under the late Kino James's Government" — is the great text book of Protestant writers on this period of our history ; but it was ably refuted by Charles Lesley, a cotemporary Protestant divine ; and it may be questioned whether there be any other authoiit_v on Irish history less reliable for facts or more envenomed by prejudice, if we except f-ir ,Iohn Temple's History of the Irish, Rebellion. Nevertheless, taking all Dr. King's enumera- tion of Protestant grievances for granted, they form a marked contrast to the smallest portion of those inflicted on the Catholics in the preceding reigns. " In all the time the Protestants of Dublin were in king James's power," observes Mr. Lesley, "he did not hang one of them, though some of them deserved it by the law then, as Dr. King could witness." t James's two daughters by his first wife, the daughter of chancellor Hide, were educated Protestants, and their uncle, Charles II., took care to provide for them Protestant husbands: Mary, the elder, being married to her first cousin, William prince of Orange and Nassau, and Btadtholder of the united provinces of Holland ; and Anne, the younger, to George, prince of Denmark. THE LKAGUE OF AUGSBUKGIL C19 to that time the only impediment in the line of a Prote-^tant succession was the king's own life, and as he was in the fifty-second \'ear ol his age at his accession, it was possible that his removal, in the natural order of things, miP-ht have been waited for ; but the birth of a Catholic heir to the crown determined his enemies to take a different course, wliicli, however, had long before been contemplated, namely, an immediate invitation from England to William Prince of Orange. Of the circumstances which promoted William's designs on the crown of England, not the least important was the confederation of European princes, known as the league of Augsburgh. In this league were united the emperor and all the Germanic princes, the king of Spain, and even the Pope. The object which they professed in common was to resist and limit the enormous power of Louis XIV., but the Protestant members of the league were still more strongly actuated by a desire to avenge the revocation of the edict of Nantes. The prince of Orange organized the league, and he soon turned it adroitly to his own private account, em- ploying for that purpose an amount of meanness and deception quite unworthy of his position. It was known that the king of England was little better than the vassal of Louis ; such, at all events, the late king, Charles II., had effectually made himself; and William, in preparing an expedition for England, pretended that his only objects were to reconcile James with his disaffected subjects and then to induce him to join the league against France. The prince's letter to the en^.peror on the subject displays a most reckless disregard for truth, and the money receired from the Pope for the purposes of the league was unscrupu- lously converted by William to the dethronement of the Catholic king of England and the establishment of a Protestant succession. Of apiece with these artifices to overreach the Catholic powers was the pretence which William held forth to the people of England, that he Avas coming to investigate the birth of the prince, which he affected to consider surreptitious, but about which no question was afterwards raised.* The Prince of Orange arrived in Torbay, in Devonshire, on the 5th His first wife I aving died in 1 G7 1 , James married in 1673 Mary Beatrice, the daughter of the duke of Modeua. She was then but fifteen years of age, and was as remarkable for her piety and virtue a3 for her singular beauty. Their four first children died in infancy, and as an interval of some years then elapsed and James was growing old, those who expected that lie would not leave any male issue were grievously disappointed at the birth of tlie young prince. The most unfounded state- ments were then put forth, to the tffect that the cliild was supposititious, although there were forty- two witnesses of the birtli, most of them belonging to the Protestant nobility. Tiie prince was baptized James Francis Edward, and in after years was called tlie " Pretender." * Dalif/mple's Memoirs, append, to vol. ii. ; Memoirs (if Kin y James 11-, vol, ii.; Jesses Memoirs of the Court f>/ England from the Revolution to the Death of George //., vol. i., pp. 4G, -17. 620 JAMES II. of November, 1688, with a Dutch fleet of 52 men-of-war, 25 frigates, 25 fire-ships, and about 400 transports, which conveyed a land army of nearly 15,000 men. James had an army amply sufficient to oppose him had his officers been faithful, but the gi'eat bulk of these were known to be disaffected, and numbers of them went over at once to William. In a little while the king had no force upon which he could rely to bring into the "field ; and having sent the queen and infant prince privately to France, in the beginning of December, and escaped himself from the Dutch guards, by whom he was held a prisoner at Rochester, he embarked along with his illegitimate son, the duke of Berwick, in a small vessel, on the 23rd of December, and landing at Ambleteuse, on the French coast, early on Christmas morning, old style, claimed the pro- tection and hospitality of Louis XIV. Ireland was at this time in a most disorganised state. Government was not strong enough to suppress popular manifestations on either side. The Protestants of the north had formed themselves into an armed association with clearly dislo3^al views, and organised a system of local authority of their own. In other parts of the country, the Protestants had refused to give up their arms ; several of them collecting into strong bawns and castles which they garrisoned, and others proceeding in armed bands to join their brethren in Ulster. On the other hand many of the Catholics armed themselves in an irregular manner, and they were unjustly held responsible for the conduct of the bands of marauders, called rapparees,* who traversed the country, plundering villages, and carrying off" whole herds of cattle. Tirconnell had sent the king a reinforcement of 3,000 troops, but the appearance of Irish soldiers in England was made an excuse for the most absurd alarm ; and although they were immediately disarmed, the monstrous falsehood was circulated that they designed to massacre the people of England, and the most extravagant consternation was thereby produced in London. Nor was the sending of these troops the only blunder which Tirconnell committed in the matter. He had withdrawn the garrison from London- derry to make up the complement of men; and when the earl of Antrim's regiment was sent, in a few weeks, to repair this mistake, the yoimg men of Derry resolutely closed their gates against the royal troops. This was done on the 7th of December, 1688, before affairs in England had takeK a decided turn against the king, and the Protestants of * The rapparees are said to have been so called from the rapary or half pike, which was tlieir principal weapon, besides the sgian or long knife. Many of the peasantry who were guiltless of any social crime were, in the sequal, mercilessly slaughtered as rapiiarees by the Williamites. TIRCONNELL RAISES TROOPS FOR KING JAMES. 621 Ulster having already assumed a position hostile to James, are admitted to hare been the first of his subjects who rose in arms against him. No por- tion of Irish history is more familiar to the public than that at which we have now arrived, and it will suffice to state briefly the order of events. In England the flight of James was pronounced to have been an abdication, and William was thereupon invited to fill the throne.* Scotland followed the example of England, and Ireland alone remained faithful to the king; the Irish considering themselves quite as well entitled, on every ground, to retain James for their sovereign as the English and Scotch were to call a forei(2;ner to the throne. Tirconnell issued commissions to several of the Catholic nobility and gentry to raise troops for the king's service ; and the people responding readil^ato the call, above fifty regiments of foot and several troops of horse and dragoons were soon raised ; but in proportion to the abundance of men was the scarcity of means to equip and maintain them. The country had been impoverished, and the Catholics reduced to ruin by the recent wai's and confiscations ; there was a miserable supply of arms and ammunition ; few of the officers were skilled in military affairs ; and there was not sufficient time to train and discipline new levies.j The Protestants, on the other hand, were well supplied with arms ; and all that was most valuable of their moveable property had been transferred by them to England or Scotland, or to the quarters of their friends in Ulster. Enniskillen, as well as Derry, had refused to admit a garrison of James's forces ; and although the latter town was induced by lord Mount, joy, a Protestant who still adhered to king James, to receive six com- panies of his regiment, half Protestants and half Catholics, under lieute- nant-colonel Lundy, the Catholics were soon sent about their business, and on the 20th February, 1689, the prince of Orange was proclaimed king within the walls of Derry The whole of Ulster, except Charlemont * If James had abdicated, wh'ch he certainly did not do, still bis son, tlit prince of Wales, would have been the legitimate heir to the crown. If he had no son, his eldest daughter Mary would have inherited ; and it was the intention of the majority in the convention assembled to dispose of the matter, that ehe should be proclaimed queen, with her husband William as recent, but the latter declared that he would never consent to be the subject of his wife, and the convention, therelbre, decided that Willianr and Mary should reign as king and queen, but that William should govern in the name of both. The mother of the prince of Orange wad* Mary, eldest daughter of Charles I., and sister of James II., who was, therefore, the uncle as well as tho father-in-law of M'illiam. James's other daughter, Anne, deserted him and joined her husband, George, piince of Denniark> in William's camp. t Abbe Mageoghegar.'s Hist, of Ireland. Tirconnell found in th" government stores only 20, 000 arms to distributo among the new levies; but most of them were so old and unserviceable that not above one thousand fire arms were found to be of any use. Neither had they artillery nor animiinitiou, and there w;u no money. — AVj.j Jn en's Metnoirs, vol ii. 327. 622 JA-MES 11. and Carrickf ergus was now in the hands of the Williamites. Th'connell sent lieutenant-general Richard Hamilton, with about 2,500 men, against them , and for this step he is blamed by Protestant writers as having pre- cipitated hostilities and caused the first shedding of blood ; but the truth is, the Ulster Protestants had already declared war against tli«ir legitimate sovereio"n. Lieutenant-general Hamilton came up with some of the Williamite forces at Dromore, on the 14th March, and having routed them, marched against Coleraine, where the Protestants mustered so numerously, and were so strongly entrenched, that he durst not venture an attack. Hoping to encourage his friends by his presence among them, and resolved to strike a blow for the recovery of his throne, James landed at Kinsale on the 12th of March, 1689, bringing with him some Irifti troops from France, and about a hundred French officers, with a supply of money. Proceeding to Cork, he was there met by the viceroy, Tirconnell, whom he then created duke, and from whom he received an account of affairs that must have been discouraging enough. The Protestants of Bandon had shortly before imitated the example of their brethren in Derry, but they vrere soon compelled to submit, and a deputation from them now sued for pardon at the king's feet, and were fortunate enough to escape any other punishment than a fine of £1,000. James hastened to Dublin, where he arrived on the 24th, and was received with great demonstrations of joy. He ordered a parliament to be summoned, and issued proclamations commanding all those who had abandoned the country and gone to England or Scotland to return under the penalty of beincf treated as traitors, and calling upon all to aid him against the usurper of his throne; also ^or the suppression of robbery; and ordering Catholics who were not in the army not to caiTy arms outside their houses ; and for the raising of money, &c. Believing that his presence before Derry would bring back that town to its allegiance, James proceeded thither contrary to the advice of Tir- connell ; and appeared with his army before the town on the 9rh of April, attended by the duke of Berwick and general de Ptosen, a French of^cer who came with James to act as second in command to Tirconneil. The actual presence of James was not believed until a deputation fi-om the' town authorities came to the camp, and negociations for a surrender were then set on foot; but the military ardor of the towns-people being aroused, and de Rosen having marched his troops nearer to the walls than the preliminaries of the treaty stipulated, the royal army was received with a shower of cannon and musket balls, and an officer stand- SIKGE OF DEERY. G23 ing near the king was killed. Thus the negociations were broken off, and James, liaving ordered lieutenant-general Hamilton to besiege the town, returned with de Rosen to Dublin. The investment which ensued partook more of the nature of a blockade than a siege. The beleaguering army was imperfectly sup- plied with cannon, and had but two mortars, one of which was large, but became unserviceable in the progress of the siege.* The men were wretehedly equipped, and it was on the whole absurd to attempt, with such inadequate means, the reduction of a town strongly fortified, well supplied with artillery and ammunition, and defended by a garrison amply numerous and animated by the most determined resolution. The besiegers having no heavy guns to breach the walls, directed their few cannon against the houses which were exposed to their range ; but it was obvious from the beginning that they could only hope to reduce the place by starvation, and such being the case, general Hamilton sacrificed las duty to his humanity by allowing a large number of the useless population to depart, and thus enabling the besieged to protract the defence. A major Baker was chosen governor of the town, Lundy, who had urged the garrison to capitulate to king James, having been obliged to make his escape in disguise at the commencement of the siege; and the reverend George Walker, a Protestant clergyman, who had raised a regiment of his own, and who, alternately in the pulpit and on the ramparts, fired their energy by his addresses, was made assistant governor, but obtained the chief command on the death of Baker. The garrison, which amounted in the beginning to nearly 7,500 men, includ- ing officers, was organised into eight regiments, to each of which Avas confided a bastion ; according to Walker's account they had twenty-two cannons, of which two were planted on the flat roof of the church, and the others on the walls and bastions ; and many of the townspeople soon proved expert gunners. At the same time a numerous, resolute, and ' The duke of Berwick, -who was preseut, states in his Memoirs that the besiegers had only six guns ; and a cotemporary hisli authority says there were " eight pieces of cannon in all, of which two were eighteen pounders, and the rest i)etty guns." The autlioi ity to which we here refer is that known as the Plunkett MS., a cotemporaiy History of the Civil Wars in Ireland, preserved in the library of the earl of Fiiigal, at Kileen castle, and recently brought under puMic notice by Dr. Wilde, who comniuiiicaled an analysis of its contents, with copious extracts, to the Koyal Irish Academy. The title of the work is, " A liglit to the blind, whereby they may see tlie dethronement of James II., king of England ; with a brief Narrative of the Wars in Ireland, and of the Wars of the emperor and the kin^ of France for the crown of Spain ; anno 1711." It is in two vols. 4to., and its author, who, according to the traditiim in lord Fingal's faniilv, was one Nicholas Plunkett, was an ardent Jacobite. It was borrowed l)y sir James Mackinto.-h, who made extracts, which were also emjJoj'ed by the late lord Macaulay, who quotes it as " Liijht to the Blind," in his History of England; and we are indebted to the analysis and extracts made by Dr. Wilde for much valuable informa- tion used in the f ?.''-*=^«vs! pages. 624 JAMES II. merciless force of the Enniskilleners was in the field in another quarter, and gave such occupation to the royal arms as to prevent the sending of reinforce»ments to the besiegers ; and, taking all the circumstances into consideration, the successful defence of Londonderry does not seem to be a matter for much surprise. In some encounters which took place before the walls extraordinary bravery was displayed on both sides. A sortie Avas made by the garrison with 5,000 men on the 24th of April and another in the beginning of JNIay, in both of which the Irish suffered considerable loss; the French lieutentants-general, Pusignan and Mo- ment, major-general TaafFe, son of the earl of Carlingford, and captain Maurice Fitzgerald being among the slain. Two vigorous attacks were made by the besiegers on the strong entrenchments with which the garrison had enclosed their outpost on Windmill hill ; but the reckless A'alor displayed hf the assailants, who rushed to the enemy's breast- work, only resulted in a useless sacrifice of life on their own side, for the besieged suiFered few casualties behind their works. At the commencement of the hostilities Culmore fort, at the narrow entrance to the river Foyle, capitulated to the Irish, who constructed two other small forts on the banks, and drew a boom across the river, thus preventing the passage of shipping to convey provisions to the town. On the 13th of June, a fleet of thirty ships from England arrived in Lough Foyle with supplies of men and provisions; but major- general Kirke, the officer in command, failing in his first attempt to enter the river, anchored in the lough, and contented himself by sending messages to the town with the assurance that relief was at hand, while in the mean time famine and disease had begun their ravages among the besieged. Uneasy at Hamilton's want of success before Derry, king James sent de Rosen, marshal-general of Ireland, with some reinforce- ments, to take the management of the siege into his hands. De Rosen complained, in his letters to the king, of the utter want of all the neces- saries of war in which he found the army, and of the total neglect of his majesty's commands which he witnessed. Above all, there was a fatal deficiency of heavy artillery, and he saw that the only resource still was to starve the garrison into submission. To hasten this result he resorted to the cruel expedient of collecting all the Protestants whom he could find in the neighbouring country, to the number of three or four hundred, and driving them to the gates of the town. He calcu- lated that the garrison would surrender rather than see their relatives and friends perish under the w.sdls, while, if they admitted them into the town, their provisions would be the more speedily consumed, and the same Belief of derry. (^25 result rendered inevitable. These poor people, who were chiefly those whom general Hamilton had allowed to escape from the town, lay all night before the gates ; but the next day the besieged erected a gallows on the ramparts, and sent notice to de Rosen that they would forthwith hang their prisoners, some of whom were men of rank, unless the people before the gates were allowed to return immediately into the country. The threat had the desired effect, and de Rosen's barbarous plan, which dis- gusted the Irish, and was strongly disapproved of by James, only served to exasperate the besieged still move, and to enable them to send off with the others a great many feeble persons who were a burden on their resources in the town.* » While Kirke's squadron lay at anchor in lough Foyle, it is presumed that the effect of English gold was tried successfully on the officers commanding the river forts ; for, on the 30th of July, three ships laden vi ith provisions passed the forts and boom nearly unscathed, although some shots were fired at them ; and when the garrison was reduced to the last straits by famine, and should inevitably have capitulated within forty-eight hours, the town was relieved. The abortive siege, the failure of which secured Ireland to William of Orange, was now raised, and the royal army finally decamped on the -5tli of August/f We now return to James, who, as already stated, hastened back to * Xeitlier king James nor the Irish were responsible for de Kosen's cruel proceeding (Plunkett JIS. ; also Lesley's Anstcer to King , and Graham's Bemaiia, p. 1G9); nor does it follow that that general vrould have carried out his barbarous menace; and Plowden very justly reminds those writers -who dwell upon it, of the bloody and treacherous massacre of Glencoe, the warrant for which bore king William's own sign-manual. t The reverend colonel Walker, in his diary, admits that the garrison was diminished by 3,000 men during the siege, and that 7,000 persons in all died of disease in the town in that time. The reverend John lilackenzie, a presbytevian clergyman who was present, and has also left an account of the siege, shows that no reliance can be placed on Walker's facts or figures, and states that "it v.es thought 10,00j had died during the siege, besides those that died soon after;" and a report of a committee of the House of Commons ia 1705 makes the number of those who perished on the Pro- tectant side by sword or famine in that siege, 12,000. Walker gives a tariff of the prices paid diuiug the latter days of the siege for horses' flesh and other carrion. The Irish admitted a loss on their own side of 2,000 (Plunkett MS.), but Walker's estimate of 8,000 is a gross exaQ:geration. The duke of Berwick says the Irish blockading force before Darry did not exceed 5,000 or 6,000 men ; and according to Mageoghegan it amounted at no time to more than 10,000. The regimented force within the city was, by Walker's account, between 7,300 and 7,100; but the' entire armed force within the walls, including the non-regimented men, was over 10,000. (See the authorities collected by Jlr. OCallaghan in his invaluable notes and illustrations to the MacaricB Excidhm, or Destruction of C'jjn-us, pp. 318-322, a work of profound and elaborate research, and will must be the indispen?able text-book of future historians of the Williaraite wars in Ireland). Governor Walker had advised a capitulation, and the negociations for tlie purpose had been on foot some days before the relief arrived. The discrepancies in the dates of these events are singular. Thus various accounts give the 28th, 30th, and 31st as the date of the relief of Derry, and the 1st or 5th of August as that of the siege being raised. G26 ■ JAMKS II. Dublin on giving orders for the investment of Deny, On tlie 7th of May he opened his parliament in person, wearing on the occasion a crown newly manufactured for him in Dublin* This Irish parliament declared itself independent of the parliament of England, and passed the first act made in these realms for liberty of conscience. To the Catholic clergy it granted the right to receive the tithes payable by the members of their own communion ; and after a violent opposition from' the Protestant members, it repealed the Act of Settlement, and passed an Act of Attainder against those who had taken up arms against king James, or who, having gone to England or Scotland, or to the Protes- tant quarters in Ulster, had refused to comply with the king's procla- mation calling on them to return to their homes and their allegiance. To form a just appreciation of these latter measures a slight retrospect is necessary. Had the Irish, in the war of 1649, succeeded in vanquishing their regicide enemy, their triumph would have been universally celebrated, and no one would have questioned the justice of their cause; but being unfortunate in the contest, they were subjected to a frightful and merciless spoliation, which the annals of no other country can parallel, and which no law could justify. We have seen how, by the sole right of the strong hand, the Irish Catholic nobility and gentry were deprived of their estates ; how their wide ancestral domains were divided among rude soldiers and unprincipled adventurers ; how the very fact of being Irish in race and Catholic in religion was a crime involving expulsion from homiC and country ; how the English parliament of Charles II., and an Irish parliament, composed chiefly of the Cromwellian plunderers themselves, ratified the atrocious spoliation; and, finally, how the sittings of the Court of Claims were suspended when it was found, after a few cases had been heard, that a door was opened to the Catholic Irish to obtain even a modicum of justice, although more than 3,000 claims still remained to be investigated. Twenty-six years elapsed, and king James's Irish parliament, representing the true feelings of the nation seized the very fii'st opportunity which presented to repeal the infamous act of robbery. As to the Act of Attainder, passed on the same occa- sion, its results, so far as the question of property was concerned, would * Plunkett MS. This parliament, which sat in the King's Inns, was attended by 46 peers and 228 commoners. Among the former were tlie I'rotcstant bishops of Meath, Ossory, ],imerick, and Corlv and Uoss, two others (the primate and bishop nf Waterforii) acting by proxy ; but no Catliolic prelates were summoned. Tue parliament was prorogued on the 18th of July, having sat about ten weeks. STRINGENT MEASURES OF THE IRISH PARLIAMENT. 627 have been nearly identical with those of the Act of Settlement, the persons who would be affected by both being nearly the same ; but as neither of these acts came into operation their grievances are speculative. The reader will balance the original injustice against the projected measure of reprisal ; and when he finds English historians lavishing their eloquent vituperations on the latter, while they either ignore the former or dispose of it wiih a word of contemptuous pity, his reliance on the state- ments of men so shamefully blinded by prejudice may well be shaken.* James was utterly averse to these measures of the Irish parliament. lie considered that the commons were accelerating his destruction. Their legislatioVi, ir is true, was precipitate and reckless, and it would have been better had they waited till they held a surer footing. The Act of Attainder even curtailed the royal prerogative, by depriving the king of the power to pardon the persons attainted ; and it is doubtful whether James would ha\e given his consent to that or to the repeal of the Act of Settlement but for the influence of the French ambassador, Avaux. James's great want was money. The sum which he had brought froni France went but a short way; and his difficulties com- pelled him to resort to the most desperate and arbitrary expedients. Old guns and bells were melted down and converted into coin, which was made cunent by proclamations imposing the severest penalties on those who would refuse to accept it in exchange for commodities. Some of this coin was subsequently called in and restamped for a higher value. At length even pewter' was employed for the coinage, and money degenerated into mere tokens representing a fictitious value, which, however, James's government pledged itself to make good at a future day. In the end, the loss by this base coinage fell almost exclusively on the Catholics; but that Protestants should have been ut any time com])ellcd to receive it has been a subject of unmeasured declamation against James t * On this particular subject no writer has been more unjust than the late lord Macaulay; nor has any English hist(.rian ever treated this countiy more unlairly or luigene ously than that eloquent writer has generally done in his historical works. He revived the exploded calumnies and fanatical bi:!otry of a past age, and not only did he seize every opportunity to sully tl-.e character of the lii-li, and to insult their religious and national feelings, but in innumerable instances he went out of his way to do so. Unfortunately the talents of the writer only aggravate the error or dis- honesty of the historian. ■f The use of a base coinage for Ireland was a favourite resource with many of James's prede- cessors on the English throne. Henry VIII. made a severe law to prevent the introduction into England of any of the base money which he coined for Ireland ; and Elizabeth's Irish coin, at the close of her reign, was so bad that the shilling was only valued at two pence by the goldsmiths {JVicholson's Irish IJist. Library, p. 79, fol.). The mixed metal used by James II. in his IrUh 628 JA3IES ri. The same day that Londonderry was relieved, an Irish, army, under lieutenant-general Justin MacCarthy, lord Mountcashel, was defeated by the Enniskilleners at NewtOMai-Butler. This overthrow, 'tis said, was mainly caused by an unlucky mistake of the word of command. At the p of 1739 having been destroyed by a severe frost in November (it being at that time the custom to leave potatoes in the ground until Christmas), a frightful famine ensued in 17-10 and 1741, and it was estimated that 400,000 persons died of starvation in those fatal yeai-s. See Professor Curry's letter in a tract on this famine, published in 1846 ; also Dr. Wilde's Report on Deaths, Census Papers. f Dr. Curr}', who tells us tliat tlie atrocious suggestion of the privy councillor "was quickly over-roled by that honourable assembly ;" adds, " yet so entirely were some of the lower northern dissenters possessed by this prevailing rancour against Catholics, that iu t!ie same year, and for the same declared piu-pose of prevention, a conspiiacy was actually formed by some of the inhabitants of Lurgan, to rise in the night-time and destroy all their neighbours of that denomination in their beds." This inhuman design, he says, was known and attested by several inhabitants of Lurgan, and an account of it was transmitted to Dublin by a respectable linen merchant of that city then at Lurgan. It was also frustrated " by an information of the honest Protestant publican iu whose house the conspirators had met to settle the execution of their scheme, sworn before the Rev. Mr. Ford, a justice of the peace in that district, who received it with horror, and with difficulty put a stop to the intended massacre."— Can-^'s State of the CuthoUcs of Ireland. See also Plowden ; and Wright's Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii. p. S39. % So extensively was the secret recruiting for foreign service, carried on in Ireland, notwith- standing the rigidlaws on the subject, that we are told by the Abb^ Mageoghegan, on the authority LORD CHESTERFIELD IN IRELAND. 093 provocation, could only have been the result of the deepest depression. The danger which might arise from Ireland at such a juncture, was however, formidable, and the earl of Chesterfield was sent over as lord lieutenant to calm public feeling by a policy of conciliation. He ti'eated the Catholics with lenity, allowed them to keep their chapels open, and even encom'aged their assemblages, at the same time that he employed secret agents to attend all their places of resort, and through them learned that no designs were entertained by the Catholics against the government. He also employed skilful writers to disseminate his views through the medium of pretended popular pamphlets ; and, on the whole, the policy which he was sent to carry out was cowardly and insincere, only meant to deceive with false hopes in a moment of danger. So tran- quil was Ireland that he was able to send f oiu^ battalions to assist the duke of Cumberland against Charles Edward in Scotland ; but by the battle of Culloden, April 16th, 1746, the insurrection in Scotland was crushed; and there being no longer any need of a soothing policy for Ireland, lord Chesterfield was recalled on the 25th of the same month, and the govern- ment entrusted to archbishop Hoadley, successor to Boulter, lord chan- cellor Newport, and Mr. Boyle, the then popular speaker of the house of commons, as lords justices. In 1747, George Stone succeeded Hoadley as primate, and like Boulter became the manager of the English interest, and the virtual head of the Irish government. He was a proud, arrogant, unprincipled, and unscru- pulous man, and is accused of having resorted to means the most de- moralising to corrupt the Irish gentry for the maintenance of English ascendancy. In 1749 disputes arose in. the Irish parliament about the appropriation of the surplus revenue, and the question of privilege was revived. A bill was introduced in the commons to apply the unappro- priated surplus to the liquidation of the national debt. The court party alleged that such an appropriation could not be made without the previous consent of the crown, while the patriots insisted that no such consent was necessary. The subject gave rise to warm and protracted discussions ; in 1751 and 1753 the dispute was renewed with increased violence ; the duke of Dorset, who had been a second time appointed lord lieutenant, told the parliament that the king gave his " consent and recommendation" to the application of the surplus towards the reduction of the national debt; ef French official documents that more than 450,000 Irishmen died in the service of France between the years 1C91 and 1745; and Mr. Newenham in his Inquiry into the population of Ireland, thinks iLm " we are not sufficiently warranted in considering this statement an exaggeration." G94 KEIGK OF GEORGE 11. but the formula offended the commons, who regarded it as an infringe- ment of their privileges and passed the bill without any reference to it. The English ministry were enraged and sent back the bill from England with words interpolated in the preamble to express the king's recom- mendation and consent. From year to year the dispute was renewed, and the patriots continued visibly to gain ground. The earl of Kildare presented to the king in person a bold address complaining of the arro- gance and the illegal and corrupt interference of primate Stone and the lord lieutenant's son, lord George Sackville, iu public affairs. This manly proceeding was, itself, an important triumph, and popular excite- ment ran so high that the viceroy left the country in dismay ; but in the end corruption prevailed. By an ingenious complication of intrigues the patriot party w^as disorganised. Henry Boyle, the speaker, was created earl of Shannon, and his clamorous but hollow patriotism more- over silenced by a pension. Mr. Ponsonby, son of the earl of Besborough, a man of inordinate ambition, was elected speaker; prime sergeant Anthony Malone, another leading patriot was, a little later, gratified with the chancellorship of the exchequer; and although a few men of integrity remained unpurchased the ranks of the pati'iots were so broken as to be no longer formidable. Lord Hartington, who soon after became duke of Devonshu'e, was sent over to replace the duke of Dorset, and helped to carry out these arrangements ; but when, in 175o, he wasabouS to return to England, instead of counselling as usual an union of Pro- testants against the " common enemy," he recommended harmony among all his majesty's subjects. Lord chancellor Jocelyn and the earls of Kil- dare and Besborough were then appointed lords justices ; and although it was soon found, as usually happens, that the patriots did not act up to the same principles in office which they advocated out of it, still a change had come over the spirit of the times; a brighter day was dawning; bigotry was on the wane, and liberal principles began to be appreciated. To this period are to be traced the first aspirations after religious liberty which the opressed Irish Catholics ventured to breathe — the first humble germs of the great Catholic movement which in after years was to assume such gigantic proportions. It was in 1746, that Dr. John Curry, a Catholic physician practising in Dublin, and distinguished for his professional ability and humanity, conceived the idea of vindicating his country from the withering calum- nies, which national and sectarian hatred and a rage for spoliation had invented and propagated, and which credulity and hostile prejudice harl FIRST MOVEMENTS OF IRISH CATHOLICS. 695 too readily accepted. Some valuable historical tracts were the first re- sults of his learned and patriotic studies, and these were matured a few years later into the famous " Historical and Critical Review of the Civil Wars of Ireland," Avhich has been so often quoted in these pages.* Dr. Curry for some time stood alone, but his writings attracted the at- tention of Charles O'Conor, of Belanagar, the eminent Irish antiquary and friend of Dr. Johnson, and both were soon drawn together by a com- munity of sympathies on behalf of their suiFering co-religionists. To these two men was added a third friend of the cause — Mr. Wyse, a Catho- lic gentleman of Waterford, who entered with zeal into their views, and in the communings and correspondence of the three were to be found the first pulsations of returning life in the Catholic body of Ireland. Their first step was to address a circular to the Catholic clergy and aristocracy inviting co-operation, but this effort failed. The Catholic aristocracy shrunk from public notice. They had suffered too much in past times, and had too much to fear from the future ; they were too timid, too apathetic, and too proud. The Catholic clergy were equally shrinking and equally timid ; they feared the slightest public movement ; *' they trembled at the possibility of plunging still more deeply and in- extricably into persecution the suffering church of Ireland" ; the priest- hunter was still abroad and eager for his prey ; but the habitual solitude and exclusion in which they had so long sheltered themselves, as much as the apprehension of danger, made the Irish clergy dislike notoriety, and so they disapproved of any movement.f There was still another body to be appealed to, not at all numerous, but with more energy, hope, and enter- prise than the others, namely — the Catholic merchants and commercial • Charles O'Conor has left as a brief memoir of his friend, Dr. Curry, prelixed to the second edition of the Review of the Civil Wars. He was descended from an ancient Irish familj' of Cavan — the O'Corras — who were deprived of their property in the usurpation of Cromwell ; and mater- nally he was related to dean Swift. His grandfather commanded a troop of horse under James li. and fell at Aughrim. Dr. Curry studied at Paris, and obtained his diploma of physician at Ehciuis. His first historical tract was a dialogue on the Rebellion of 1041, which appeared anonymously- in 1747, and drew forth a voluminous reply from Walter Harris, the editor of Ware's Works. Dr. Curry's rejoinder, also anonymous, was his '• Historical Memoirs of the Irish Rebellion," a small bouiv first printed in 1759, and which would be invaluable if we had not this larger and more important production, The lievieio, &c, the fiist edition of which was printed in 1775; Dr. Curry died in 1780. He was devoted heart and soul to the interests of the Catlioiic Clinrch and of his couniry. t Wyse's Hist. Catholic Association, vol. i., c. ii. In addition to the above men tioiied motives in which we have followed Mr. Wyse, it is probable that there was another equally strong;; namely, an unwillingness to trust a few self-appointed men where so much was at stake, and where the interests cf religion were involved. The schismatical conduct of the English Catholic Committee many years after, .showed how dangerous it was to confide the management of sucii •tfairs to any body of laymen; but, for the Irish committee it must be said that they never laid themselves open to any charge of that naiure. 2 z 696 REIGN OF GEORGE II.j men, and to these our three regenerators next had recourse. In September, 1757, John Russell, duke of Bedford, was appointed lord lieutenant. He professed liberal sentiments, and the occasion was thought a favorable one for an address from the Catholics; but, with the fate of lord Delvin's address before then' eyes any fresh at- tempt of the kind was deemed worse than useless by many, and the gentry and clergy rejected the proposal. An address, nevertheless, was prepared by Charles O'Conor, and proposed by him at a meeting of a few citizens held in the Globe Tavern, Essex-street. 400 respectable names, chiefly of men in the commercial classes, were soon attached to it, and it was presented to Mr. Ponsonby, the speaker of the house of commons, " the depression and degradation of the body being at that time such that they dared not venture to wait upon the lord lieutenant or to present the address in person." A long interval passed before any answer was received, and those who had opposed the address began to congratulate themselves on their own superior judgment. Dr. Curry and his friends had projected an association for the management of Catholic affairs, and had formed a committee, in which they were aided by a few of the Dublin merchants, but the clergy and aristocracy cau- tiously held aloof. At length the address appeared in the Gazette with a gracious reply, in which the Catholics were told that " the zeal and at- tachment which they professed could never be more seasonably mani- fested than in the present conjuncture, and that as long as they con- ducted themselves with duty and affection they could not fail to receive his majesty's protection." These were the first words addressed in kindness to the Catholics of Ireland by the representatives of English power since the unfortunate James II. lost his throne.* In 1759 Dublin was distm'bed by violent tumults in consequence of * " Addresses," says Mr. Wyse, '• now poured in from all sides ; but so debased by tne most servilo adulation of the reigning power?, and by ungrateful vituperation of the French, from whom, from the treaty of Limerick up to tliat hour, they were indebted for every benefit: — the exile for his home — the scholar for his education — their ancient and decayed aristocracy for commissions in the army for their younger sons — that their freer descendants blush in reading the disgraceful record, and turn aside in disgust for the melancholy evidence of the corrupting and enduring influences of a long- continued state of slavery." — Eht. Cath. Association, vol.i. p. 61. And Mr. O'Conor, in a letter to Dr. Curry, of Dec. 1759, referring to these addresses, says — " Some of those gentlemen scold those unfortunate ancestors whom you have so well defended, others again scold the French nation, who, from them at least, have deserved better quarters — France, the asylum of our poor fugitives, lay and clerical, for seventy years past !" And again he adds — " Som« declare themselves so happy as to re- quire a revolution in their private oppressed state as little as they do a revolution in government !" Such had been the prostrating elYcct of the penal laws upon the minds and spirit, as well as upon the natural coiulilion of the people. PROJECTED FRENCH INVASION. 697 a proposal for a union between England and Ireland on the i>lan of that between England and Scotland. The people were enraged at a project which would deprive them of their nationality and parliament, and sub- ject them to the burden of English taxation. A Protestant mob broke into the house of lords, insulted the peers, seated an old woman on the throne, and searched for the journals with a view to committing them to the flames. The excitement was chiefly promoted by the speeches and writings of Dr. Charles Lucas, who had been obliged to fly the country some years before on account of his manly assertion of popular rights against the abuses of the government and of the corporation. Still Lucas was not a friend of the Catholics, for justice to that proscribed class as yet formed no part of the political creed of patriots. He had assailed them in his writings;* and although some members of the house of commons attempted to throw upon the Catholics the odium of the riots, the government knew the charge to be unfounded, and hence the friendly reply to the Catholic address just mentioned.f During the latter part of the year great alarm was produced by ru- mours of an intended invasion from France. Armaments were preparmg at Havre and Vannes for a descent on some indefinite part of the coast. A powerful fleet under admiral Conflans lay at Brest to convoy the expedition, and another squadron under the celebrated Thurot was to sail from Dunkirk to engage the attention of the enemy elsewhere. At this time, however, England had her Rodney and her Hawke. The latter admiral defeated the Brest fleet on the 20th of November, in an action oiTQuiberon; the expedition from Normandy did not sail at all, and the Dunkirk squadron, which consisted of only five frigates, having sailed on the 3rd of October, and proceeded towards the north, was driven by stonns to seek shelter in ports of Norway and Sweden. On these inhos- pitable coasts, and among the western isles of Scotland, Thurot passed the winter. One of his ships had retm'ned to France, another disap- • l.ucas abused the Catholics in his "Barbers's Letters," and, patriot as he was, late writers havu justly pronounced him "an uncompromising bigot." He died in 1771, .58 years of a^e, having during the latter period of his life been reduced to a state of extreme intirniity by the goiil. His remains were honored with a public funeral, and his statue in white marble, by the Irisii sculptor, Edward Smyth, was placed in the Koyal Exchange. t Various circumstances about this time tended to retard the progress of Catholic interests. Thus, in 1758 a hostile feeling was excited in Dublin by the prosecution of Mr. Saul, a Catholic merchant of that cit.v, whose cririie was that he atforded shelter to a young Catholic lady nametl O'Toole, who was importuned by some of her family to abandon her religion. Mr. Saul was told from the bench '• that the laws did not presume a Papist to exist in the kingdom, nnr could they breathe without the connivance of government." He and his family were obliged to seek an asylum in France. G98 REIGN OF GEORGE II. peared and was never heard of. and with the remahiing three he ap- peared off Carrickfergus on the 21st of February, 1760. Thurot was of Irish descent, his real name being O'Farrell. His life had been a con- tinued series of the strangest adventures. He possessed a gallant and enterprising spirit, and his generosity was equal to his daring. His small force had been thinned by the hardships of the northern winter, and famine and fatigue had reduced his surviving men to a deplorable state. His ships, too, were in a shattered condition, and at Islay the disheartening news of the defeat of Conflans had, for tlie first time, reached him. Still the necessity of obtaining provisions, as well as his innate love of glory, induced hini to make some attempt to carry out his original plan of an invasion, and he disembarked on the strand near Carrickfergus. He had then only about 600 soldiers, but with the addition of some seamen, mustered nearly 1,000 men. The town was garrisoned Dy four companies of the 62nd regiment, under colonel Jennings, without cannon, and with a scanty supply of ammunition. The French approached, and after some firing from the walls, the garrison, together with the mayor and some of the armed townsmen, retired into the castle, which was in a dilapidated state, but which they continued to defend with musketry until their powder was nearly exhausted; several of the assailants, with thoir commanding officer, the marquis d'Estrees, being killed in an attack upon the gate. The besieged then surrendered themselves prisoners of war on condition that the town should be spared ; but contributions of provisions were levied both on Carrickfergus and Belfast, the French threatening to march on the latter town if the supplies demanded were not sent. At length, on the 26th, the invaders took their departure, and two days after they encountered off the Isle of Man three English frigates, which had sailed from Kinsale in search of them, under captain Elliott. A sharp action ensued. The French vessels were in a crippled state ; but Thurot fought his ship until the hold was nearly filled with water and the deck covered with the slain ; at length he was killed, and the three French frigates soon after struck and were taken into Ramsey; but even his enemies lamented the fate of the chivalrous and undaunted Thurot.* * Thurot's grandfather was a captain Farrell or O'Ferrall, who was attached to the court of James II. at St. Gei-mains, where he married Mademoiselle Thurot, the niece of a member of the parliament of Paris. The lady's family were indignant at the match ; but captain O'Farrell died soon after the marriage, and in less than a year his wife followed him to the grave, leaving an infant son, who, being educated by her friends, assumed their name. When this son grew uj) lie resided at Boulogne, and was the father of the famous sea-captain, wlio left France when a boy, and passed many years in London and also some time in Dublin, where he was reduced so low THE wiiiTEBOYa. , GOD George II. died suddenly at Kensington on the 25tli of October, 1760, and was succeeded by his grandson, George III. The following year the disturbances of the whiteboys became rife in the south of Ireland. They commenced in Tipperary, and were occasioned by the tyranny and rapacity of landlords, who, having set their lands far above the value, on the condition of allowing the tenants certain commonages to lighten the burden, subsequently enclosed these commons, and thus rendered it impossible for the unfortunate tenants to subsist. The people collected at night and demolished the fences, from which circumstance they were first called " levellers ;" their name of whiteboys being given from the shirts wliich they wore outside their clothes at their nightly gatherings. Another cause of their discontent was the cruel exactions of the tithe- mongers — "harpies," says a cotemporary wa'iter, "who squeezed out the very vitalsof the people,andbyprocess, citation, and sequestration, dragged from them the little which the landlord had left them."* "At last," says Young, the whiteboys "set up to be the general redressors of grievances ; punished all obnoxious individuals who advanced the value of lands, or hired farms over their heads ; and having taken the administration of justice into their own hands, were not very exact in the distribution of it The barbarities they committed were shocking. One of their usual punishments, and by no means the most severe, was taking people out of their beds, carrying them naked in winter, on horse- back, for some distance, and burying them up to their chin in a hole filled with briars, not forgetting to cut off one of their ears."t These outrages were chiefly confined to the counties of Waterford, Cork, and Tippe- that he became the valet of a lord B . At that time smuggling was not regarded as the dis- reputable pursuit which more recent ideas have made it. Many a large fortune, of which the possessors did not blush at the source, was realised by it ; and to the adventurous life of a smuggler various circumstances conspired to commit young Thurot. He commanded sundry vessels engaged in that traffic between Franco and the coasts ol England and Scotland : and his enterprising spirit obtained for him at Boulogne the title of the King of the Smugglers. In the war he commanded a privateer, and from this he was taken into the French navy, in which he soon became distinguished for I'.is naval skill and bravery. — See a memoir of him written by his friend, the Rev. John F. Durand ; also the Anmuil Register for 1760. * Enquiry into t/ie causes of the outrage* committed by the Levellers. Arthur Young, who tra- relled in Ireland while these disturbances prevailed there, describes their causes in nearly similar «jrms, and he adds:— "Acts wt-re passed for their punishment, which seemed calculated for the meridian of Barbary; by one they were to be hanged under certain circumstances wilhout the common formalities of a trial, which, though repealed the following session, marks the spirit of punishment, while others remain yet the law of the land, that would, if executed, tend more to raise than quell an insurrection. From all which it is evident that the gentry of Ireland never lliought of a radic.il cure, from overlooking the real cause of the disease, which, in fact, lay in them- selves, and not in the wretches they doomed to the gallows." — Tour, part ii., p. 30, ed. 1780. t Tour, p. 76. 700 REIGN OF GEORGE III. rary. In 1762 a government commission reported that the rioters were persons of different religious persuasions, and that none of them showed any disaftection to the government, a report which was confirmed by the judges on the Munster circuit. A special commission was sent down to try a number of the offenders, and sir Richard Aston, chief justice of the common pleas, became so popular for the impartiality which he dis- played on the occasion, that the country people lined the roads as he passed to give expression to their gratitude. Father Nicholas Sheehy, the parish priest of Clogheen, drew upon himself the animosity of the landlords by the zeal he evinced in advocating the cause of liis poor parishioners. In 1765 a proclamation was issued offering a reward of £300 for his arrest as a person guilty of high treason, and, although he niiglit easily have escaped to France, he felt so conscious of his innocence that he wrote to the secretary of state, offering to surrender and save the government the money, provided he was tried in Dublin instead of Clonmel. His offer was accepted, and after a minute investigation of the charges against him he was acquitted; the only witnesses produced by his accusers being a woman of abandoned character, a man charged with horse-stealing, and a vagrant boy, all three being taken from the Clonmel jail and suborned to prosecute him. His enemies, anticipating such a result, had trumped up a charge of murder against him, and had him carried back to Clonmel; where, on the sole evidence of the same vile witnesses, whose testimony failed in Dublin, he was convicted, and three days after, on the 15th of March, 1766, was hanged and quartered at Clonmel.* Associations similar to those of the whiteboj'-s were formed among the Protestant peasantry of the North, under the names of " hearts-of-oak boys" and " hearts-of-steel boys." The former of these banded them- selves, in the first instance, for the abolition of a custom of compulsory road-making, known as the six days' labor, which the gentry had con- verted most unjustly to their own advantage; but the oppressive tithe system, and the exorbitant rents charged for bogs, became, in the next * Father Slieehy died protesting his innocence, and there is no doubt that his execution was as fi'ul a murder as ever was perpetrated under the cover of law. Tlie principal managers of the prosecution were the Rev. John Hewetson, a Protftstant clergyman, and sir Thomas Maude, who, with the earl of Cariick and Mr. John Bagwell, disti'jguished themselves by their activity against the whiteboys. Father Sheehj-'s grave, in the church-yard of Clogheen, continues to this day to be visited with veneration by the peasantrj-. — See all the facts of this iniquitous case, and of the subsequent persecution minutely investigated by Dr. Madden in the historical introduction to his Lives and Times at' the United Irishmen; also Curry's Candid Inquinj^ &o., and his State of the Cath'^lics of Ireland. THE UEARTS-OF-OAK BOYS. TOl place, subjects of complaint, and like the southern malcontents, the hearts-of-oak boys made themselves general reformers of agrarian abuses. They committed numerous acts of 'C^iolence in the years 17()2 and 17G3; but the grievances of which they complained were taken into consider- ation by Parliament, and in some measure redressed, while those under which the southern peasantry groaned were left untouched. For the unhappy whiteboys there was no remedy but the gibbet. The hearts-of-steel boj's did not make their appearance till 1769, and for a few years they gave the government considerable trouble. They asso- ciated to resist the rack-renting practices of the middlemen, and the severe measures employed to put down their disturbances led to an extensive emigration to America. Returning to the proceedings in the Irish parliament, we find that in 1762 a bill was passed without a division, to enable Catholics to lend money on the security of real property, but was suppressed in England. The following year the attempt was renewed in the Irish house of commons, by Mr. Mason, but defeated by a majority of 138 to 53; the Protestant party alleging that the bill had been inadvertently passed on the last day of the preceding session, and that such a measure, if adopted, would soon make papists masters of a great part of the landed interest of the country. The patriots were at this time engaged in vehement attacks upon the pension list, which had grown into a monstrous source of abuse. The English privy council assumed the right of granting any pensions they chose out of the Irish revenue. In 1763 the pensions on the Irish civil establishment, and therefore not including the military and certain special pensions, amounted to £72,000, which exceeded the civil list by £42,000. The revenue of the country was diminishing and the burdens increasing. .At the commencement of that year the Irish debt was £521,162, and at the close it had risen to £650,000.* The subject gave rise to violent heats in parhament; but a juggling and evasive policy, which had become familiar to the Irish government, prevailed, and the efforts of the patriots were foiled. The corrupting influence of the coui't party was constantly employed to thin the ranks of the patriots, who, finding that the pensions went on multiplying, and that all their agitation on that poin* was abortive, took up the more general question of * The IribU income and expenditure, as calculated in 17G3, stood thus: the military expeudiiuie lor two years, £980,956; the civil ditto, X2J2,956; extraordinary and contingent expenses. £3t'0,000 ; total expenditure for two years, £1,523,212; totnl revenue for that peviud. £l,20i),.SCt- e.xcss ofexpenfliture to be added to national debt, £314,2 is. 702 REIGN OF GEORGIi: III. parliamentary reform. Hitherto the duration of parliament in Ireland depended solely on the will of the king, and might be prolonged during an entire reign, as happened in that of George II. In England the duration was limited by the septennial act of George I.; and in 1765 the Irish commons passed the heads of a similar bill for Ireland; but the measure was suppressed in England, and in reply to an address to the king, a very ungracious answer was returned. Lord Townshend was appointed lord lieutenant in 1767, and came over determined to break up a system of corruption, which, although of its own creation, the Irish government then found to be an insupportable tyranny. A certain number of parliamentary leaders were at that time known as undertakers, Avhom it was necessary for government to keep in its pay, at a large cost, and w'ho " undertook," as the phrase went, upon certain terms, to carry the " king's business " through parliament. These leaders were made the channels for all places, pensions, and other court favors, — a privilege which was indispensable to enable them to fulfil their compact ; and in order to crush the system, it was resolved to make the stream of favor flow directly from the government. A great commotion in political circles was the consequence : yet, nothing more had been done than to substitute one system of political profligacy for another; and by trafficking in corruption more in detail the government soon found that it had only subjected itself to a more oppressive incubus. Lord Townshend's convivial habits' and lavish dis- tribution of favors made him for some time popular ; but there were not wanting able and honest men to expose the debasing influence of his policy, and his popularity was soon turned into contempt and detestation.* In 1767 another septennial bill was passed and transmitted to England, where it was transformed into an octennial one. By this alteration it was hoped to secure its rejection; but the Irish parliament, on the contrary, accepted it as an instalment of reform, and it was regarded as a triumph by Charles Lucas and his friends, after so many years of agitation on the subject. A new parliament was now to be elected, and in order to secure a strong majority for the government, lord Townshend scattered bribes profusely, and employed every species of corruption. In all his bargains, however, he was obliged to leave as an open question * Witty and powerfal invectives against lord Townshend were published during his administration in the Freeman's Journal, and were subsequently collected in a volume, entitled " Baratariana." Their principal writers were, sir Hercules Langrishe, Flood, Parker, Bushe, and Keiiry Grattan, the last-named being then a very young man. The viceroy was supported in another clever scries of papers called " The Baicheior." THE CATHOLIC COMMITTEE. 703 the right of the Irish parliament to originate its own money-bills ; and upon this important point he came to a collision with the parliament, which met on the 17th of October, 1769. The English privy council sent over a money-bill which the Irish house of commons rejected, "because it had not its origin in that house." Following the precedent of lord Sydney in 1692, lord Townshend went to the house of lords on the 26th of December, caused the commons to be summoned to the bar, animadverted in strong terms on their proceedings, and having ordered the clerk to enter his protest on the journals of the house, in vindication of the royal prerogative, prorogued parliament, which was not again per- mitted to meet until the 26th of February, 1771. The excitement produced by this proceeding surpassed anything of the kind since the affliir of Wood's halfpence. Meantime fatal dissensions prevailed in the Catholic body and retarded its progress. The committee had prepared an address to George III. on liis accession. It was signed by 600 persons ; but the clergy and nobility would not give their concurrence, and some of them met at Trim and adopted a separate address. The committee next ventured to lay before the throne a " remonstrance" or statement of their grievances, and rose considerably in importance; some of the Catholic nobility beginning to co-operate with them. A division however, sprung up, in wliich lord Trimbleston, a man of overbearing and dictatorial manners, separated himself, and was followed by others; while lord, or count Taaffe, a nobleman of quite an opposite character, continued to identify himself with the committee. At length this first Catholic association having gradually melted away, expired in 1763. lord Townshend's parliament, on re-assembling in 1771, passed an act to enable a Catholic to take a long lease of fifty acres of bog, to which, if the bog were too deep for a foundation, half an acre of arable land might be added for a house; but this holding should not be within a mile of any city or town, and if half the bog were not reclaimed in twenty-one years the lease was forfeited. This paltry concession shows what little progress Catholic interests had made in the interval; and the viceroy thought it necessary to counterbalance it by an act to add £10 a year to the pension of £30 offered to any "Popish priest duly converted to the Protestant religion." The pitiful temptation to proselytism was styled " Townshend's golden drops" by the wits of the the day. 704 . REIGN OF GEORGE HI. i^oi'd Townsliend was succeeded in the Irish government, in 17.2, by tlie earl of Harcourt, whose administration commenced under morj favorable auspices. In 1T73 a bill was introduced to lay a tax of two shillings in the pound on the income of Irish absentee landlords who would not reside in Ireland at least six months in each j^ear. The measure was exceedingly popular, and the government, supporting it as an open question, rose greatly in public favor; but the violent opposition of the great landowners, many of whom resided altogether in England, prevailed, and the bill was rejected. In 1775 hostilities commenced between England and her revolted American colonies, and the English parliament discussed the propriety of relieving Ireland from some of her commercial disabilities. The conces- sions made were trifling, but they serve to illustrate the rule so well estab- lished in Irish history, that the season of England's .weakness and alarm has ever been that of redress and hope for Ireland. We shall see it further illustrated as we proceed. On the 23rd of November, the same year, a message from the lord lieutenant informed the Irish parliament that the situation of affairs in his majesty's American dominions rendered it necessary to demand a draft of 4,000 men from the Irish establishment ; these troops, however, not to be a charge on the Irish revenue during their absence from the kingdom, and an equal number of foreign Protestant troops to be sent to replace them. The commons readily assented to the removal of the 4,000 men as required, on the promised condition that the country should at the same time be relieved from their pay; but the second proposition was respjpctfully declined, the house resolving that the loyal people of Ireland would be able so to exert themselves as to make the aid of foreign soldiers unnecessary. This resolution was carried by a large majority; it surprised and perplexed the ministry, and was in fact the first foreshadowing of the volunteer system; wliile, on the other hand, the viceroy's engagement to free Ireland from the charge of the troops to be withdrawn from that kingdom elicited an indignant vote of censure from the English parliament and was repudiated by the minister.* To prevent a supply of })rovisions from reaching the Americans from Ireland, an embargo was laid on the exportation of Irish commodities. This proceeding had a disastrous effect. The agriculturists were quite * It was in the same memorable year (1775) that. Henry Grattan first entered parlianien',, as member for the borough of Charlemont. and that Dank! O'Connell was bom. SYMPATHY OF THE iniSIl WITH THE AMERICANS. 705 ruined; the tenantry were unable to pay their rents; the manufacturers were thrown upon public charity for support; the revenue fell away, and, the infamous pension list being still continued, the Irish debt rose to £994,890. Resolutions and addresses describing the condition of the country were moved in the Irish parliament by the patriots, but to no purpose. In England the American war was unpopular, but in Ireland it was still more so. Sympathy for the revolted colonies was publicly expressed, to the intense alarm of the government. In 1775 the thanks of the city of Dublin w^ere voted in the common council to lord Effingham for having thrown up his commission rather than draw his sword against his fellow-subjects of America; and this feeling continued to gain ground. The analogy between Ireland and America was obvious. In the English house of commons Mr. Rigby, arguing in support of the sordid policy of his country, asserted that the parliament of Great Britain had clearly as much right to tax Ireland as to tax America. Never was there a more rash or ill-timed comparison. It could not fail to suggest that where the cases were so similar, a similar mode of redressinor grievances mio;ht be resorted to. In 1777 lord Harcourt was recalled, and the earl of Buckinghamsliire being sent over as lord lieutenant, announced to the Irish parliament the alliance between France and the Americans, at the same time making an appeal for support to his majesty's faithful people of Ireland. The commons immediately voted a sum of £300,000, to be raised by a tontine ; but this was an absurd stretch of generosity which the patriots opposed in vain ; and a message from the viceroy soon after admitted the inability of the country to raise the money. In October this year general Burgoyne and his army of 6,000 men surrendered to the American general, Gage. The news produced consternation, and lord North expressed an earnest wish that the penal law^s against the Irish Catholics might be relaxed ; but bigotry was still predominant in the Irish parliament, and no attempt of that nature had any chance of success. In January, 1778, the independence of the American states was acknowledged by France, and many weeks did not elapse until a bill for the partial relief of the Catholics unanimously passed the Englisl' parliament. With this inroad upon bigotry for a precedent, Mr. Gardiner introduced a similar bill in the Irish house of commons, on the 25th of May the same year. The measure had the approbation of government, and the general support of the patriots, yet it was only after a severe contest and eight divisions that it was carried by the 706 BEIGX OF GEORGE III small majority of nine votes. In the house of lords two-thirds of the members voted for it.* It was near the close of 1779 when the Irish parliament was again called together, and in the meantime distress and discontent had increased to an alarming extent. Appeals to the imbecile and bankrupt government received no reply ; the people were thrown upon their own resources; agitation for free trade and in favor of Irish manufactures became general; and the volunteering system had been set on foot and already made considerable progress. The secretary of state sent information to Belfast that two or three privateers in company might be expected in that vicinity, and the people were at the same time informed that government had no troops available for their defence, except some sixty horse and a couple of companies of invalids. They were in fact told that government could not protect them. A vivid recollection of Thurot's visit to their neighbourhood some nineteen years before was still preserved at Belfast, and the attempt made at that time to raise an armed force to repel the invaders was also remembered. The example of 1760 was followed in 1779, and to the men of Belfast, therefore, is to be attributed the glory of having originated the volunteers.f So rapidly did the movement spread, that in the month of May the number of volunteer companies had begun to attract the attention of government ; and in September the number of men enrolled in the counties of Down and Antrim, and in and near Coleraine, amounted to 3,925. Hardy states that in the first year 42,000 volunteers were enrolled.^ Parliament having met on the 12th of October, Mr. Grattan moved an amendment to the address, depicting vividly in a preamble the distressed state of the country, and concluding with a resolution, that the only resource for their expiring commerce was to open a free export trade, and to allow his majesty's Irish subjects to enjoy their natural birth-right. Several of the ministerial members, and among others, Mr. *This act— 18th Geo. III., c. GO— repealed so much of the llth and 12tli Wm. III., c. 4, as affected the inheritance or purchase of property by Catholics; a Catholic who took the oath of allegiance framed four years before might take or dispose of a lease for 999 years; the unnatural right given to a child on embracing the Protestant religion to demand a maintenance and alter the succession was abolished ; aud the clauses authorising the prosecution of priests and Jesuits, and the imprisonment of Popish schoolmasters, were repealed. t A volunteer corps had been organised in Kilkenny, against the whiteboys, in 1770; they were called the Kilkenny rangers; other armed parties had also been raised before this period in various localities ; but the great national volunteer movement, strictly speaking, dates from the arming at Belfast in the beginning of 1779, its primary object being to repel foreign invasioo. X Life of Charlemont. PROPOSITIONS FOK THE RELIEF OF IRISH COMMERCE. 707 Flood, who then held a place under government, supported the amend- ment ; but Mr. Grattan's preamble was got rid of, and another amendment, less galling to government, proposed by Mr. Hussey Burgh, prime ser- geant, and unanimously adopted, namely: — " that it is not by temporary expedients, but by a free trade alone, that this nation is now to be saved from impending ruin." "Wlien the speaker carried the resolution from the parliament house to the castle, he passed between ranks of the Dublin volunteers, drawn up in arms under their commander, the duke of Leins- ter,* amidst the enthusiastic acclamations of avast assemblage of people; and the house of lords passed a vote of thanks to the national army for their array on the occasion. On the 13th of November lord North introduced in the English parliament three propositions for the relief of Irish commerce. The first permitted a free exportation of Irish wool and woollen manufactures ; the second made a similar concession for Ii'ish glass manufactures ; and the third granted freedom of trade with the British plantations, on certain conditions, of which the basis was sen equality of taxes and customs. Bills embodying the two former pro- positions were immediately passed, but the third was deferred for a short time. These measures had little effect in calmiuij the agitation in Ireland ; the ideas of the people expanded with their success, and they now looked for nothing short of their full constitutional rights, and the liberation of their country from the supremacy of the English parliament. On the 19th of April, 1780, Mr. Grattan moved, "that no power on earth, save that of the king, lords, and commons of Ireland, had a right to make laws for Ireland." His speech on the occasion was a magnificent exertion of his eloquence. He said, " I will not be answered by a public lie in the shape of an amendment ; neither, speaking for the subject's freedom, am I to hear of faction. I wish for nothing but to breathe in this our land, in common with my fellow-subjects, the air of liberty. I have no ambition, unless it be the ambition to break your chain and contemplate your glory ; I never will be satisfied, as long as the meanest cottager in Ireland has a link of the British chain clanking to liis rags. He may be naked, he shall not be in irons ; and I do see the time is at hand, the spirit is gone forth, the declaration is planted, and though great men should apostatize, yet the cause will live ; and though the public speaker should die, yet the immortal fire shall out-last the organ which conveyed it, and the breath of liberty, like the word of the * This nobleman was William Robert, the second dake. His falhcr was .Tame.", the twentieth earl (.1 Kildare, anIio was created mariiuis ol Kildarc, in 17G1, uud duke of Leinstcr in 17C6. 708 heign of george hi. holy man, will not die with the prophet, but survive him." At the sug- gestion, however, of Mr. Flood, after an interesting debate, which lasted until six o'clock in the morning, the question was not brought to a division, and the resolution thus did not appear on the journals of the house. This result gave rise to much dissatisfaction, which was greatly increased by the tendency of various acts of the British parliament to irritate the Irish nation. Thus, the usual annual mutiny bill sent over from the Irish parliament was returned, altered into a permanent one ; and by the influence of government it was adopted in its altered form. Meantime, the spirit of volunteering had rapidly gained ground. The numbers enrolled were stated to amount this year to over 40,000 men, unpaid, self-clothed, self-organized, and called into existence by no other authority than the voice of the people, and the necessity of the country. The affrighted government was induced to deliver to them 16,000 stand of arms, and they had also begun to raise a considerable artillery force. They selected their own officers. They rose into existence free from any pledge, and totally unshackled by any government control. They were assiduous in acquiring a knowledge of military discipline, and were materially aided in that object by numbers of their country- men who had returned invalided from the American war. In proportion as the apprehension of a foreign invasion became dissipated, they turned their attention to their political rights ; each corps expressed its opinions in resolutions, which Avere published in the journals; and eftbrts were successfully made to unite ail the volunteer corps in Ireland by a combined organization; the earl of Charlemont being chosen commander-in-chief. The session of 1780 closed on the 2nd of September, and the earl of Buckinghamshire having displeased the ministry by the weakness of his administration, was recalled, the earl of Carlisle being sent to replace him. The new viceroy found the nation profoundly agitated by the two great questions of free trade and legislative independence. Durmg the summer of 1781 reviews of the volunteer corps were held in various parts of the country, and had a most exciting effect. The organization of the volunteer movement made immense progress; and when lord Carlisle met the Irish parliament on the 9th of October, it was plain from the conciliatory tone of his address, that he durst not hazard a stronger policy than his predecessor. He omitted, how^ever, all mention of the volunteers, whom government wished to check and disarm without daring to make the attempt. On the motion of Mr. O'Neill, in the house of THANKS OF THE PARLIAMKNT TO THE VOLUNTEERS. 700 commons, a vote was unanimously passed, thanking the volunteers "for their exertions and continuance, and for their loyal and spirited declar- ations on the late expected invasion."* The debates in the Irish house of commons at this period were constantly of the deepest interest. Government had, indeed, secured a corrupt majority, with which it was able to carry almost every measure that it desired ; but on the popular side, there was an array of brilliant talent, which swayed public opinion, and which no government could at all times safely resist. Grattan's fervid and thrilling eloquence was always devoted to the interests of his country. His popularity was unbounded.! Flood had sacrificed place to principle, and his now unrestrained adhesion added greatly to the strength of the opposition.! At length news arrived that lord Comwallis's army had surrendered to the French in America. It was a day of humiliation and dismay for England; but with that generous sympathy which England's misfortunes have seldom failed to elicit from Irishmen, the Irish house of commons, on the motion of ]\Ir. Yelverton, voted an address of loyalty and attachment to the king, and readily granted the supplies which were demanded. Still, some of the patriots abstained from these votes, lest they should be understood as an expression of opinion against the Americans. On the 7th of December Mr. Grattan informed the house, that their debt at that time, including annuities, amounted to £2,667,600, an enormous sum, accumulated in a few years by patronage and corruption. On the 11th * The resolution was proposed by Mr. John O'Neill, of Shane's castle ; it was opposed by Mr. Fitzgibbon, afterwards lord Clare; but the government having been obliged to acquiesce, it was carried without a division. t " The address and the language of this extraordinary man were perfectly original ; from bis first essay in parliament, a strong sensation had been excited by the point and eccentricity of his powerful eloquence; nor was it long until those transcendent talents, which afterwards distinguished this celebrated personage, were perceived rising above ordinaiy capacities, and, as a charm, communicating to his countrymen that energy, that patriotism, and that perseverance, for which he himself became so eminently distinguished; his action, his tone, his elocution in public speaking, bore no resemblance to that of any other person ; the flights of genius, tlie arrangements of composition, and the solid strength of connected reasoning, were singularly blended in his fierj-, yet deliberative language ; he thought in logic, and he spoke in antithesis ; his irony and his satire — rapid and epigrammatic, bore down all opposition, and left him no rival in the broad field of eloquent invective; hk ungraceful action, however, and the hesitating tardiness of his first sentences, conveyed no favorable impression to those who listened only to his exordium ; but the progress of iiis brilliant and manly eloquence soon absorbed every idea but that of admiration at the overpowering extent of his intellectual faculties." Such was Sir Jonah Barrington's estimate of Henry Grattan's eloquence — See Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation, pp. 88, 80. X Mr. Flood held ofiice during the administrations of lords Ilarcourt and Buckinghamshire ; but in 1780 he resigned on the ground that the line of policy which he had undertaken to support was not adopted by government. He was subsequently able to boast that while in ofiice he had never shrunk from his duty to his country. 710 ' BEIGN OF GE01?GE III. Mr. Flood moved for an inquiry into the operation of Poyning's law, but the motion was negatived by a division of loD to 67, the usual majority of the government. Events which constitute a memorable and glorious era in Irish history were now at hand. On the 28th of December, 1781, the officers of the southern battalion of the first Ulster regiment of volunteers, commanded by lord Charlemont, met together at Armagh, and having declared that they beheld with the utmost concern the little attention paid to the constitutional rights of Ireland by the majority of their representatives in parliament, they invited every volunteer association throughout Ulster to send delegates to deliberate on the alarming situation of public affairs, and fixed Friday, February loth, 1782, for the assembly of delegates, to take place at Dungannon. The proceedings of the Irish volunteers had hitherto derived weight as well from their moderation as from their firmness and numbers ; they combined, in an eminent degree, the character of citizens and of soldiers; temperate and peaceable, as well as armed and disciplined, there was something singularly imposing and dignified in their aspect; and it was impossible not to recognize in their organization great prudence and patriotism, as well as vast military power. The invitation of the Ulster regiment was responded to by 143 volunteer corps of the northern province, and government durst not interfere to prevent the meeting. The delegates assembled at Dungannon on the appointed day; most of them were men of large properties, and of acknowledged patriotism ; they felt the weighty import of their proceedings, which would pledge the country to a course that might involve a hostile collision with Great Britain. The place of meeting was the church, a circumstance which enhanced the solemnity of the occasion; colonel William Irvine was appointed chairman, and twenty-one resolutions were adopted. These were in substance as follows : — That whereas it has been asserted, that volunteers, as such, could not with propriety debate, or publish their opinions on political subjects, or on the conduct of parliament or public men : — Resolved, that a citizen by learning the use of arms does not abandon any of his civil rights ; Resolved that the claim of any body of men other than the king, lords, and commons of Ireland, to make laws to bind this kingdom, is unconstitutional, illegal, and a grievance ; that the powers exercised by the privy councils of both kingdoms, under color or pretence of the law of Poynings, are unconstitutional and a grievance; that the ports of Ireland are by right RESOLUTIONS OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 711 open to all foreign countries not at war Avith the king ; that a mutiny bill, not limited in point of duration from session to session, is unconsti- tutional; that the independence of the judges is equally essential to the impartial administration of justice in Ireland as in England; that it was their decided and unalterable determination to seek a redress of these grievances ; that the minority in parliament who had supported their constitutional rights were entitled to thanks ; that four members from each county of Ulster should be appointed a committee till the next general meeting, to act for the volunteer corps there represented, and to commu- nicate with other volunteer associations ; that they held the right of private judgment in matters of religion to be equally sacred in others as in themselves, and, therefore, as men and as Irishmen, as Christians and as Protestants, they rejoiced in the relaxation of the penal laws against their Roman Catholic fellow-subjects.* Such was the famous convention of Dungannon. Its resolutions were adopted by all the volunteer corps of Ireland, and served as the basis of parliamentary proceedings in both countries.t In a word, a revolution w'ithout precedent in any other country had been achieved. On the very day on which these memorable resolutions were passed, Mr. Gardiner (afterwards lord Mount joy) introduced his measure for the relief of the Catholics. Some delay w^as caused by obstacles thrown * Tlie address of thanks of the convention to the parliamentary minority was couched in the following siiirited words :— " We thank you for your no We and spirited, though hitiierto ineffectual efforts, in defence of the great constiiutional and commercial rights of your country. Go on! the almost unanimous voice of the people is with you, and in a free country the voice of the people must prevail. We know our duty to our sovereign, and are loyal. We know our duty to ourselves, and are resolved to he free. We seek for our rights, and no more than our rights ; and in so just a pursuit we should doubt the being of a Providence if we doubted of success." The last of the resolutions adopted at Dungannon was suggested by Mr. Grattan to Mr. Dobbs, just before the latter gentleman left Dublin to attend the convention. It was passed with two dissentient votes. t These resolutions of Dungannon were, to a great extent, only the solemn assertion of principles already set forth in resolutions of volunteer corps, discussed in parliament, and siinctioned by public opinion. Thus, on the 9th of June, 1780, the Dublin volunteers, with their general, the duke 'of Leiisster, in the chair, resolved unanimously: — "That the king, lords, and commons of Ireland only are competent to make laws binding the subjects of this realm, and that we tvill not obeii, or give operation to any law.s, save only those enacted by the king, lords, and commons of Ireland, whose rights and privileges, jointly and .severally, ueare determined to support with otir lives and Jhrtuiies." The effective men of tlie volunteer corps which sent delegates to Dungannon, or which subsequently acctded to the Dungannon resolutions, were, according to the abstract given in the appendix to Grotlan's M isceltaueuus Works: — lu Ulster, SI, 15 2 ; in Munster, 18,050; in Connaught, 14,330; in Leinsler, 22,283; total, 88,827; which, with the addition of twenty-two corps which hid acceded but made no returns, and that were estimated at abi)ut 12,000 men, made a grand total for all Ireland of 100,000 men. The artillery belonging to the volunteer corps of the several provinces were, in Ulster, 32 pieces; iu Muufiter, 32 ; in Cuimaugbt, 20; in Lcinster, 38; total, 130 pieces. 3 A iiJ REIGN OF GEORGE III- in the way by ]\Ir. Fitzgibboii ; but the government having left it ajQ open question, I^lr. Gardiner's principal propositions were adopted.* On the fall of lord North's ministry, lord Carlisle retired from his post, and was succeeded by the duke of Portland, who was sworn into ofEce as lord lieutenant on the 14th of April, 1782. Mr. Fox commu- nicated to the British parliament a royal message, recommending to their immediate consideration the adjustment of the questions which produced so serious an agitation in Ireland. The new viceroy met the Irish parliament on the 16th of April; and on that day Mr. Grattan moved an amendment to the address, pointing out the principal causes of the discontent in Ireland, and declaring that to remove those causes the 6 Geo. I., c. 5, which asserted the dependency of the Irish parlia- ment on that of England, should be repealed; the appellate jurisdiction of the lords of Ireland should be restored ; the unconstitutional power* of the privy council should be abolished ; and the perpetual mutiny bill repealed. The motion, which was an echo of the leading resolutions of Dungannon, was unanimously agreed to.t On the 17th of M;iy, 1782, the alarming state of Ireland was brought under the consideration of the British senate by the earl of Shelburne in the peers, and by Mr. Fox in the commons; and resolutions were adopted declaring it to be the opinion of parliament that the 6 Geo. 1., entitled " an Act for the better securing the dependency of L'eland upon the crown of Great Britain" ought to be repealed ;:{: and, *Mr. Gardiner separated his measure into three different bills: the first enabled Catholics to take, hold, and dispose of lands and other hereditaments in the same manner as Protestants, with the exception of advowsons, manors, and parliamentary boroughs; it also repealed the statutes against the hearing or celebrating m'&ss ; against a Catholic having a horse worth £5 or upwards; and that which empowered grand juries to levy from Catholics t!ie amount of any losses sustained tbroiiah privateers, robbers, &c , and which excluded them from dwelling in the city of Limerick, &c. The second bill was eniided '-an Act to enable persons professing the Pojiish religion to teach schools in this kingdom, and for regulating the education of Papists, and also to repeal parts of certain laws relative to the guardianships of their children." These two bills were passed into law ; but the third, which authorised intermarriage between Catholics and Protestants, was negatived by & majority of eight. t This memorable address, or declaration of rights, assured his majesty: "That his subjects of Ireland are a free people. That the crown of Ireland is an imperial crown, inseparably annexed to the crown of Great Britain ; on which connection the interests and happiness of both nations essentially depend; but that the kingdom of Ireland is a distinct kingdom, with a parliament of her own, the sole legislature thereof. That there is no body of men competent to make laws to bind this nation, except the king, lords, and commons of Ireland, nor any other parliament which hath any authority or power, of any sort, whatsoever, in this country, save only the parliament of Ireland;" and "that we humbly cmceive that in this right the very essence of our liberties exi;t, a right which we, on the part of all the people of Ireland, do claim as their birth-right, and which we cannot yield but with our lives." X See the substance of this itatute, pp. 686, 687, supra. CONCESSIONS OF THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. 713 *' that it was indispensable to the interests and happiness of botli kingdoms that the connection between them should be established by mutual consent upon a solid and permanent footing," for which purpose an address should be presented to his majesty, praying that measures conducive to that important end should be taken. These resolutions passed the lower house unanimously, and in the peers the only dissentient voice was that of lord Loughborough. On the 27th of May the Irish parliament met after an adjournment of three weeks, and the duke of Portland announced in his opening speech the unconditional concessions made to Ireland by the parliament of Great Britain. The news was received with an outburst of gratitude. These concessions, as expounded by Mr. Grattan, amounted to the giving up by England, unconditionally and in toto, of every claim of authority over Ireland ; they were grounded not merely on expediency but on constitutional principles; they were yielded magnanimously, and in a manner that removed all suspicion; and all constitutional questions between the two countries were at an end. Such was Mr. Grattan 's interpretation of the measure. He moved the address in a brilliant speech, breathing the generous sentiments of his noble and confiding nature. A warm discussion ensued. Mr, Flood, sir Samuel Bradstreet, recorder of Dublin, and Mr. Walsh, a barrister, took a different view from Mr. Grattan of the English concessions. It was urged by them that the simple repeal of the act of 6 George I. merely expunged from the English statute-book the declaration that England had the right to make laws for Ireland ; it did not deny that England had that power; but left the question as it "^as before the passing of the obnoxious act, when the English parliament so frequently arrogated to itself and exercised such power. All Mr. Grat tan's arguments were founded on a generous estimate of the honor and good faith in which the resolutions of the English parliament were brought forward ; and his opinion prevailed. The address was carried by a division of 211 to 2. The house then, as an evidence of its gratitude, voted that 20,000 Irish seamen should be raised for the British navy, and a grant of £100,000 be made to carry out that object. Nothing was heard but mutual congratulations; it was the great and bloodless victory of the volunteers ; a day of general thanksgiving was appointed; and the house next testified the gratitude of the country to its gifted benefactor, by voting £50,000 to purchase an estate and build a house for Mr. Grattan 71-i REIGN OF GEORGE III. Two parties now arose among the patriots, led by the rival orators, Mr. Grattan and Mr. Flood. The former had been led into error by his too generous credulity. At that very moment, English statesmen ■were contemplating the re-assertion of English supremacy, and the duke of Portland, encouraged by the divisions among the patriots, wrote to lord Shelburne on the 6th of June, 1782, that he had the best reason to hope that he would soon be able to obtain a recognition of the power claimed by England; although a few days after he was compelled to acknowledge that the state of popular feeling in Ireland rendered such a step impossible for the present. Mr. Flood's opinions gained ground out of doors, while those of his opponent continued to prevail in pai'liament. Most unworthy aspersions were thrown upon the motives of Mr. Grattan. It was said that he had obtained his reward, and that he was now ready to abandon the popular cause. On ths other hand, Mr. Flood's friends urged that their leader had made an enormous personal sacrifice for his country, and as he would not, they said, stoop to accept any boon, an attempt, but a fniitless one, was made to induce the present government to restore his office, then in the hands of an unpopular man, sir George Young. Mr. Flood brought the question at issue between him and Mr. Grattan before the house, in the shape of a motion for leave to bring in the heads of a bill declaring the sole and exclusive right of the Irish parliament to make laws in all cases whatsoever, internal and external, for the kingdom of Ireland; but on the i9th of July the house divided, when only six members voted for his motion ; the ground of rejection, as stated by Mr. Grattan, being, that the exclusive right of Ireland to self-legislation had already been asserted by Ireland, and fully and finally acknowledged by the English parliament. A change of cabinets was brought about by the death of the wliig minister, the marquis of Rockingham; and earl Temple was sent to re-place the duke of Portland in the government of Ireland. During the administration of the latter several imiportant measures had been carried. The bank of Ireland was established; a habeas corpus act was given to this country; the dissenters were relieved from the sacramental test; the perpetual mutiny bill was repealed, and the independence of the judges was established. At length, on the 27th of July, the eventful session of 1782 was brought to a close. Popular discontent, however, was far from being set at rest. The question, whether the simple repeal of the 6 George I. were sufficient, or whether England should not be called upon to renounce formally her England's claim of supremacy discusskd. 715 claim of supremacy, was everywLere discussed * Hence, " repeal," and " renunciation,'" became the -watch-words of the two parties. Provincial, county, and district meetings of volunteer corps and delegates were frequently held, their resolutions were published in the newspapers, and every private soldier was taught to feel that he had a right to express his sentiments on the constitutional questions which occupied the legislature.f The conduct of the people was peaceable and orderly, yet public feeling was higlily excited. It Avas a period of great national energy; but having in this already lengthy chapter traced the fortunes of Ireland from their very lowest el)b to what it has been the fashion to regard as their culminating point, we shall not add another word here to forestall approaching events. * In the following session (23 Geo. III.) government brought into the British parliament an express act of renunciation, "for removing and preventing all doubts which have arisen, Or might arise, concerning the exclusive rights of the parliament and courts of Ireland in matters of legisir.- tion and Judication," &c. t For detailed accounts of the proceedings of the volunteers, the reader maj' refer to the Lives of Grattan and lord Charlemont ; sir Jonah Barrington's Else and Fall of the Irish Nation; MacNevin's History oftlie Volunteers, in Duffy's " Library of Ireland ;" the Appendix to Grattan's Miscellaneous Works: Historical Collections Relative toBelfast; Hist, of the Convention; the public journals of the period, &c., &c. CHAPTER XLIII. FROM THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE TO THE UNION. Bhort-comings of the volunteer movement. — Corruption of the Irish parliament. — The national convention of delegates at the Rotunda. — The Bisliop of Dcrry. — The Convention's Reform Bill — Bill rejected by parliament. — The convention dissolved and the fate of the Volunteers sealed. — The Commercial Relations Bill — Orde'.s propositions. — Great excitement in parliament — Mr. Pitt's project abandoned. — Popular discontent. — Disorders in the South. — The Right-bovs. — The feud of the Peep-o'-day-boys and Defenders — Frightful atrocities of the former — The Orange Society. — The regency question. — Political clubs. — Ferment produced by the French Revolution. — The Catholic Committee. — Theobald Wolfe Tone. — Formation of the Society of United Irishmen — Tlieir principles. — Catholic Relief Bill of 1793 Trial of Archibald Hamilton Rowan. — Mission of Jackson from the French Directory — His conviction and suicide. — Adminis- tration of earl Fitzwilliam — Great excitement at his recall. — New organisation of the United Irishmen — Their revolutionary plans. — Wolfe Tone's mission to France. — The spy .system. — Iniquitous proceedings of the government — Etlorts to accelerate an explosion. — The Insurrection and Indemnity Acts. — The Bantry Bay expedition. — Reynolds the informer. — Arrest of the Executive of the United Irishmen. — Search for lord Edward Fitzgerald — His arrest and death. — The insurrection prematurely forced to an explosion. — Free quarters, torturings, and military executions. — Progre.s.s of the insurrection. — Battle of Tara. — Atrocities of the military and the magistrates. — The insurrection in Kildare, Wexford, and Wickiow — Successes of the insurgents. Outrages of runaway troops. — Siege of New Ross. — Retaliation at Scullabogue. — Battle of Arklow Battle of Vinegar Hill. — Lord Cornwallis assumes the government. — Dispersion and surrender of insurgents. — The French at Killala. — Flight of tlie English. — Tlie insurrection tinally extinguished. The Union proposed — Opposition to the measure. — Pitt's perfidious policy successful. — The Union carried. (a.u. 1782 TO A.D. 1800). T tlio close of the last chapter we left the volunteei's in possession of a constitutional victory; but we then paused before the bright side of a picture, of which we have now to examine the shade. Turning aside from the glorious pageant of the national army, we are here, unliap[)ily, doomed to find that the victory was deceptive and evanescent; that the parliament which was made free was venal, corrupt, and, unless reformed, worthless; that the po])ular loaders were in religion intolerant, in politics shortsighted, and many of them faithless and insincere; that although four-fifths of the population were Catholics, the just rights of this vast majority were not recognized by the very men who sought political freedom for themselves ; that the country was consequently weakened CORRUPTION OF THK IRISH PATtLIAMKNT. 717 by disunion, and an unjust government enabled with security to refuse all reform of abuses and all redress of grievances ; and, finally, tliat the volunteer association, deprived of moral influence, was after a few years suffered to die of inanition.* On the 15th of July, 1783, parliament was dissolved and a new parliament summoned to meet in October. It Avas a moment when the question of reform was very earnestly and generally agitated. The Irish house of commons was then composed of 300 members, of whom 64 were returned for counties, and of the remainder at least 172, or a majority of the whole house, were sent in for close boroughs, the property of a few lords and wealthy commoners, and which Avere bought and sold like any ordinai'y merchandize. Other members besides those for close boroughs were also purchased by government; and the few Avho could be said to represent the peojjle honestly, formed a minority insignificant in point of numbers. In this degraded state of venality and corruption, however, the Irish parliament was not unique; that of England at the same period presents similar chai'acteristics, for which the debasing policy of the government and the profligacy of the times were responsible. The subject of parliamentary reform was now taken up warmly by the volunteers. A meeting of delegates was held at Lisburn on the 1st of July, 1783, preliminary to another held at Dungannon on the 8th of September, at which all the Ulster volunteer coi'ps were represented. The subject of equal representation of the • " The services of the volunteers," says Dr. Madden, " are, on the whole, greatly exaggerated by our histurians; tlie great wonder is, Iiow little substantial good to Ireland was elTected by a body which was capable of effecting so much. As a military national spectacle, the exhibition was, indeed, imposing, of a noble army of united citizens roused by the menace of danger to tlie state, and once mustered, standing forth in difence of the independence of their country. But it is not merely the spectacle of their array, but the admirable order, conduct, and disciplineof their various corps — not for a short season ot political excitement, but for a period of nearly ten years, — that even, at this distance of time, are witli many a subject of admiration But what use did the- friends and advocates of popular rij;hts make of this jiowerful association of armed citizens, which paralysed the Iri>ii government, and l)rouglit the British ministry to a frame of mind very difierent to that which it hitherto exhibited towards Ireland? Why they wielded this great weapon of a nation's collected strength to obtain an illusory independence, which never could rescue the Irish parliament frou) the influence of the Britisli minister without reform, and which left the parliament as completely in the power of the minister, through the medium of his liirelings in that house, as it had been before tliat shadow of parliamentary independence had been gained The otlier adjuncts to this acquisition were, a place bill and a pension bill, which had been the stock-in-trade of the reforming principle of the opposition for many years. No great measure of parliamentary reform or Catholic emancipation was seriously entertained or wrung from a reluctant but then feeble government. The error of the leader; was in imagining tliat they could retain the confidence of tiie Catholics, or the co-operation of that body, wiiich constituted the great bulk of the population, while their convention publicly decided against their admission to the exercise of the elective franchise." — The United Irishmen, their Lices ami Times, by IJ. 1{. Madden, M.D. First Series, p. 143, eecond edition. 71 S REIGN OF GEORGE III. people in parliament was discussed and commended to the attention of the volunteers of all Ireland. The movement was taken up in the same spirit by the other provinces, and the result of their provincial meetings was the project of a grand national volunteer convention, to assemble in Dublin on the 10th of November. These proceedings alarmed government, but the new parliament in the meantime met and passed a vote of thanks to the volunteers. This perhaps was only intended to conciliate. A warm debate took place on the question of retrenchment, and the opposition was as usual defeated. Grattan had latterly ceased to co-operate earnestly with the other popular leaders. On this occasion an angry altercation took place between him and Flood, whose policy was more progressive and uncompromising, and the mutual hostility of these two great men, which M^as so disastrous to their country, became henceforth more bitter than ever. Monday, the 10th of November, arrived, and one hundred and sixty delegates of the volunteers of Ireland assembled at the Royal Exchange. They elected as their chairman the earl of Charlemont, and adjourned to the great room of the Rotunda, marching two and two through the streets, escorted by the county and city of Dublin volunteers, with drums beating and colors flying. Vast multitudes assembled; there was great enthusiasm, and the scene was altogether a most imposing one.* In the Rotunda the seats were arranged in semicircular order before the chair, the orchestra was occupied by ladies, and the delegates adopted in their proceedings the forms of parliament. One of the most prominent members of the convention was Frederick Augustus Hervey earl of Bristol in the English peerage, and Protestant bishop of Derry in Ireland. This eccentric personage took the extreme popular side on all questions, and was idolized by the multitude. He assumed a degree of princely state ; was daily escorted to the convention by a troop of light dragoons, commanded by his nephew, George Robert Fitzgerald, of duelling notoriety; and was only saved by the eccentricity of his manner from the serious consequences to which his bold assertion of opinion would have laid him open. The convention had not made much progress in its deliberations before government contrived by an artifice to introduce the seeds of dissension. Sir Boyle Roche, a man notorious for his blunders and buffoonery, made his appearance at the Rotunda, v/ith what purported to be a message from lord Kenmare, to the effect that the Irish Catholics * Sec description of the procession in Gilbert's Hist, of Dublin, vol. ii., p. 61. THE VOLUNTEER CONVENTION'S REFORM BILL. 719 ■were satisfied with what had been done for them by the legislature, and that they only desired to enjoy in peace the benefits bestowed npon them. This occurred on the 14tli of November, and the same day the general committee of the Catholics held a meeting, with sir Patrick Bellew in the chair, and resolved unanimously that the message to the national convention was totally unknown to, and unauthorised by them; and that they were not so unlike the rest of mankind as to prevent by their own act the removal of their shackles. This resolution was communi- cated to the convention in the evening by the bishop of Derry ; but the assembly, with all its assumption of liberality, was anti-Catholic. Follow- ing the principles laid down by the Dungannon convention, it had, by its first resolution, restricted to Protestants the right of assuming arms ; it now pretended not to be able to distinguish between the authenticity of sir Boyle Roche's message and that of the resolution of the Catholic committee, and concluded by an illiberal exclusion of Catholics from the constitutional privileges claimed for the Protestant minority. We cannot be surprised that such a course should have deprived the convention of Catholic sympathies. Plans of reform were now submitted for consideration by several of the delegates. Hardy, in his " Life of Charlemont," describes them as " incongruous fancies and misshapen theories." Mr. Flood and the bishop of Derry took the leading part in digesting these plans, and out of them was at length composed the bill which Mr. Flood introduced in parliament on the 29th of November. A stormy debate in the house of commons ensued. Mr. Yelverton, the attorney-general (afterwards lord Avonmore), led the opposition to the bill. Although he himself had been a volunteer, he declared that originating as the bill did with an armed body, it was inconsistent with the freedom of debate in that house to receive it. They did not sit there to register the edicts of another assembly, or to receive propositions at the point of the bayonet. He admired the volunteers so long as they confined themselves to their first line of conduct, but when they formed themselves into a debating- society, and with that rude instrument, the bayonet, probed and explored a constitution which required the nicest hand to touch, his respect and veneration for them were destroyed. Such was the logic employed against the bill. Mr. Flood defended the bill and the volunteers by a display of powerful eloquence. A writer who was present describes the scene as " almost terrific" — as one of " uproar, clamour, violent 720 EEIGN OF GEORGE III menace, and furious recrimination."* Several supporters of the measure, and the delegates who were present, appeared in uniform. Mr. Grattan gave the bill but a feeble support, and the motion was rejected hy a division of 159 to 77. Corruption w^as triumphant. The attorney- general then moved " that it had now become necessary to declare that the house would maintain its just rights and privileges against all encroachments whatsoever," and tlie resolution was carried by a similar majority. The gauntlet was fairly thrown down to the volunteers, and the consequences might have been most serious to the empire had not some of the popular leaders behaved with more than ordinary prudence. Lord Charlemont exerted himself privately and publicly to prevent a collision; and at length, on the morning of Tuesday, the 2nd of December, adjourned the convention sine die. This sealed the fate of the volunteers. Their prestige and influence were gone for ever. Mr. Flood retired in disgust to England, and on his return the following year introduced another reform bill, only to be again defeated. His object was to show that it was not because the former bill emanated from the volunteers it had been rejected, but because it was du'ected against the scandalous corruj)tion of an unprincipled house of commons. An attempt was made by Flood, Napper Tandy, and others, to get up another national congress by addressing circulars to the high-sheriffs, inviting them to convene meetings of their respective counties and cities to elect delegates; but the high sheriffs were threatened by government with the vengeance of the law, and few of them had the hardihood to hold the required meetings. A few delegates were, however, returned, and in October, 1784, met in Dublin with closed doors. Flood attended their sittings ; but some of them were offended at his hostility to the Catholics ; the abortive convention dissolved ; and Fitzgibbon, then attornej^-general, to make an example, prosecuted the sheriff of the county of Dublin by an attachment. The volunteers, deserted by most of their aristocratic leaders, now became a democratic association. In Belfast and Dublin they commenced openly to train people of all classes and sects in the use of arms, and the example was followed elsewhere; but government, re-assured by the late triumph over the volunteers in parliament, now took bolder measures. The standing army was raised to 15,000 men, and in February, 1785, a sum of £20,000 was voted to clothe the militia ; these forces, however, were * Hardy's Llje of Charhmont, vol. ii., p. 146. ORDE's PTIOPOSITIONS. 721 unpopular, and the volunteers having ceased to co-operate ^Yith the civil authorities for the preservation of the peace, every part of the country soon became disturbed by scenes of tumult and violence. Hitherto we have seen the trade and manufactiu'es of Ireland invariably sacrificed to the interests of England. The great question of 1785 was a bill for regulating the commercial relations of the two countries. William Pitt was the minister, and the duke of Rutland was viceroy of Ireland. The measure was introduced in the Irish parliament by Mr. Secretary Orde, in the shape of nine propositions, and did not pass without considerable opposition, as it was proposed that this country should contribute a quota for the protection of the general commerce of both countries at the discretion of the British parliament. The bill passed the Irish parliament on the 12th of February, and was introduced by Mr. Pitt in the English house of commons on the 22nd. The commercial jealousy of England had been roused, and petitions were poured in from all quarters against the measure. Pitt complained of this hostility as unjust and ungenerous, but secretly he took measures to allay the sordid fears of the English manufacturers, by assuring them that Ireland should derive little advantage from the bill ; and he accordingly added eleven new propositions to the nine Irish ones, altering the bill so materially, that when returned to Ireland in August it had ceased to be the same measure which had passed the Irish parliament. By the new propositions, Ireland was to be debarred from all trade beyond the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan, and would be bound by whatever navigation laws the English parliament might thenceforth enact. The insulting restrictions, and the attempt to bind Ireland by English-made laws, produced a violent commotion in the Irish parliament. They were denounced in one of the most memorable efforts of his eloquence by Grattan, who now saw how grievously he had been mistaken about the constitutional arrangements of 1782. "This bill," he said, "goes to the extinction of the most invaluable part of your parliamentary capacity; it is an union, an incipient and creeping union ; a virtual union, establishing one will in the general concerns of commerce and navigation, and reposing that will in the parliament of Great Britain ; an imion where our parliament preserves its existence after it has lost its autliority, and oiir people are to pay for a parliameiwtary establishment without any proportion of parliamentary representation." The latent patriotism even of that corrupt house \va^ a\v..kened, and when a division on the altered bill took place, 722 RETC^' OF GEORGT^ HI after a debate which was sustained until eifijht o'clock in the morning, the numbers were found to be, for the bill, 127, against it, 108. So small a majority, yielded by its own hirelings, was properly regarded by the ministry as a defeat, and the bill was abandoned ; but Pitt never forgave the Irish house of commons for this display of its nationality. Popular discontent, arising from a variety of causes, social, political, and religious, pervaded the whole country, and gave rise in many places to scenes of tumult and disorder. Opposition to the importation of English manufactures was renewed, and led to some violent proceed- ings, particularly in Dublin. In the south, the whiteboys were revived under the name of right-boys, and in 1787 their turbulencd and acts of intimidation filled several counties with alarm. Tithes, church-rates, and rack-rents had driven the famishing peasantry to madness ; the law afforded them no relief, and against the unlimited exactions of tithe- proctors and middlemen, and the cruelties of unjust magistrates, they sought protection in their own system of wild justice. Mr. Grattan made various fruitless attempts in parliament to obtain an inquirj^ into the causes of this agrarian discontent. He was opposed by Fitzgibbon, who, defending the parsons, said he knew the unhappy tenantry were ground to powder by relentless landlords, and instanced cases in Munster, in which to his own knowledge, a poor tenant was compelled to pay £6 an acre for potato ground, which £6 he had to work out with his landlord at five pence a-day. He might have found cases much worse still in Connaught ; but Grattan shewed that " the landlord's over-reaching, compared to that of the tithe-farmer, was mercy." To the relentless inhumanity of both these classes the wretched people were abandoned, and when goaded into resistance, they were refused by the legislature any remedy but the bayonet and the halter. Still, the outrages committed by the misguided right-boys were not to be excvised, and they were denounced from the altars by the Catholic clergy, and more particularly in pastorals issued by the Most Rev. Dr. Butler, archbishop of Casliel, and the Right Rev. Dr. Troy, Catholic bishop of Ossory. Meantime disturbances of a different nature commenced in the nortli between two parties called peep-o'-day boys and defenders. They originated in 1784 among some country people, who appear to have been all Protestants or Presbyterians ; but Catholics having sided with one of the parties, the quarrel quickly grew into a religious feud, and spread from the county of Armagh, where it commenced, to the neighbouring districts of Tyrone and Down. Both parties belonged to ORIGIN OF THE ORANGE SOCIETY. 723 the humblest classes of the community. The Protestant party were well armed, and assembling in numbers, attacked the houses of Catholics under pretence of searching for arms; insulting their persons, and breaking their furniture. These wanton outrages were usually com- mitted at an early *iour in the morning, whence the name of peep-o'-day boys; but the faction was also known as "Protestant boys," and "wreckers," and ultimately merged in the orange society. * Their object was something more than a mere attack upon Catholics for their religion. They coveted the lands occupied by their Catholic neighbours, and adopted the Cromwellian principle of sending the Papists " to hell or Connaught." For this purpose they burned the houses of the Catholics, great numbers of whom were thus driven from the country, and their holdings afterwards given to Protestants ; and Plowden tells us, that in the beginning of 1796 " it was generally believed that 7,000 Catholics had been forced or burned out of the county of Armagh, and that the -ferocious banditti who had expelled them had been encouraged, connived at, and protected by the government." Against these savage atrocities the Catholics were compelled to band themselves for protection, and hence they assumed the name of defenders. The association of defenders, however, spread into some localities where no aggres- sion from Protestants was to be apprehended, and in such cases the defenders leagued themselves for the redress of various agrarian giievances, especially that of the tithe system. They bound themselves by an oath of secrecy, and had pass- words like other similar societies, but they were exclusively illiterate men, and their political opinions were generally limited to a vague notion that " something ought to be done for Ireland."! In the autumn of 1788 George III. was attacked by insanity, and the regency was conferred in England on the prince of Wales, clogged Vith a variety of restrictions, upon which Mr. Pitt insisted. The Irish parliament, generally ready enough to assert its own privileges, refused * The fir?t oranjre loflge was formed in Septeitiber, 1795, in the villacre of I^oughgall, in Armagh. The confederacy spread rapidly, and the frigiitful atrocities comniitled by its (iicuibers on the Catholics helped to accelerate the insurrection of '98, and added fearfully to its horrors. "The original ouih or purjile test of tliis society was not produced by the otBcers of the society on the inquiry entered into l>y the parliamentary committee in 1835; but the existence of this diabolical test wa« given in e%'ideiice before the Secret Committee of 1798, by Mr. Arthur O'Connor, and the knowletlgeof it ndmitted by the conuiiittee on that occasion." Tlte Unlied Irishmen, &c, first series, p. 110, second edition. t See Plowdeii'b History, vol. ii., c. 7 ; MacNevin's Pieces of Irish Eistori/, pp. 55, &c The Trials of the Defenders; Dr. Aladdeu's Livts and Times oftho United Irishmen, &c. 724 REIGN OF GEORGE III. to be dictated to either by the English parliament or by the minister, and in the exercise of its natioral independence voted the regency without restriction or limitation. Tlie lord lieutenant (the marquis of Buckingham) refused to forward the address to the prince of Wales ; but the parliament appointed a commission to convey the address to England, and the deputation was most graciously received by the prince. The phalanx of corruption was for the moment broken up in the Irish parliament; the hirelings were uncertain whom they should obey ; and Grattan seized the opportunity to introduce a pension bill and some other popular measures ; but the king's health was suddenly restored, the servile majority resumed their ranks, and all attempts at reform were as hopeless as ever. Pitt was exasperated by the conduct of the Irish parliament on the regency question, and never after lost sight of his determination to deprive Ireland of her legislature. No viceroy ever exerted the corrupting influence of government more shamelessly than the marquis of Buckingham He bargained openly for single votes, and during his short administration added £13,000 a year to the pension list. In 1790 he was succeeded by the earl of Westmoreland. It was an age of political associations; societies were springing into existence in every part of the empire. A whig club was established in Ireland similar to that of England ; but not only were Catholics excluded, as they were from most of the other political societies, but even the discussion of the Catholic question was inter- dicted. The ferment in the popular mind was daily increased by the progress of the French revolution, and the wildest theories of demo- cracy began to float on the tide of public opinion. Still the government was inexorable in its opposition to every proposition for refoi'm, and it was openly asserted in parliament that such conduct seemed designed to goad the people to rebellion. Grattan arraigned the ministry in u long series of charges, and that other gifted and illustrious Irishman, John Philpot Curran, labored at this time in the same cause ; but their efibrts were in vain. On the 11th of February, 1791, a general committee of the Catholics of Ireland met in Dublin, and resolved to apply to parliament for relief from their disabilities. The Catholics had hitherto refrained from all agita- tion, and their body Avas weakened by a division into an aristocratic and a democratic party, this breach being daily widened by the suspicion with which the excesses of the French revolution induced the friends of religion and order to regard all democratic tendencies. The wiost ORIGIN OF THE UNITED IRISH3IEX 725 active men of the Catholic committee at this time were John Keogh, llichard M'Cormic, Jolm Sweetman, Edwai'd Byrne, and Thomas Braughall. Theobald Wolfe Tone, a young barrister of considerable talent and of an ardent and aspiring disposition, proffered his services to promote their cause, as did likewise the Hon. Simon Butler, also a barrister, and some other patriotic Protestants and dissenters; and the accession of such men gave a fresh impulse to their efforts, and roused them to the adoption of more decisive language than they had hitherto used. Nothing was more calculated to excite the jealousy of government than this fellowship of Protestants and Catholics; and, on the other hand, the friends of the popular cause saAv that nothing was more necessary to promote their views than unanimity between all classes of Irishmen. AVith this object in view Wolfe Tone visited Belfast in October, 1791, at the invitation of a volunteer club already existing there, composed of such men as Samuel Neilson, Robert Simras, Thomas Russell, &c., and in conjunction with them founded the first club, which took the name of the Society of United Irishmen. He then returned to Dublin, and with James Napper Tandy, Simon Butler, and others, founded a similar society in the metropolis. The fundamental resolutions of the society were : — " 1st. That the Aveight of English influence in the government of this country is so great as to require a cordial union among all the people of Ireland, to maintain that balance which is essential to the preservation of our liberties and the extension of our commerce. 2nd. That the sole constitutional mode by which this influence can be opposed is by a complete and radical reform of the representation of the people in parliament. 3rd. That no reform is just which does not include every Irishman of every religious persuasion." Such were the principles of the first United Irishmen. Their society was perfectly constitutional, and in every respect as legal as any of the nume- rous political clubs which at that time existed in England and Ireland, and which boasted among their members some of the most distinguished statesmen of the day. Wolfe Tone and some of his associates had already imbibed republican ideas, but it is an unquestionable fact that they did not attempt to engraft these on the original constitution of the United Irishmen, which was thoroughly monarchical. The grand principle of the society was that of " union among all classes of Irishmen ;" it was this which marked it out as specially dangerous in the eyes of a government, which, like every Irish government since the earliest times of English rule in this country, relied on the contrary principle of division amongst the people 72fi REIGN OF GEORGE III- — and it was this which gave the society so much political influence during the first period of its existence.* In July, 1791, the anniversary of the French revolution was celebrated •with military pomp at Belfast by the armed volunteers and townspeople. Democratic ideas became daily more prevalent, and in order to protest against such principles, sixty-four of the Catholic aristocracy seceded from the Catholic body, and presented an address of loyalty to the lord lieutenant. This proceeding was uncalled for, and was injurious to their cause ; indeed, these were the persons of wdiose sentiments sir Boyle Roche undertook to be the worthy expositor to the volunteer convention in 1783. In 1792 the Catholic committee employed the son of the great Edmund Burke as their advocate to defend them against the imputations of the sixty- four addressers. In fact, the attention of the committee was then so exclusively confined to the one great point of obtaining a relaxation of the penal code, that they mixed themselves up with no other political agitation, and nothing could be more unjust than to impute to their proceedings a democratic character. A convention of Catholic delegates was suggested ; this proposal (fraught with most important results) produced an outcry, and violent proceedings against the Catholics were adopted by the grand juries throughout the country. Nevertheless the Catholic delegates assembled in Dublin, and held their first meeting on the 2nd of December, 1792, at the Tailor's Hall in Back-lane. The Catholics next prepared a petition to the king repre- senting their grievances; it was signed by Dr. Troy and Dr. Moylan, on behalf of the prelates and clergy, and by all the county delegates. Five delegates, namely: sir Thomas French, Mr. Byrne, Mr. Keogh, Mr. Devereux, and Mr. Bellew, were chosen to convey the petition * The "test " of the first society of United Irishmen was as follows : — " I, A. B., in the presence of God, do pledge myself to my coimtry, that I will use all my abilities and influence in the attain- ment of an impartial and adequate representation of the Irish nation in parliament; and as a means of absolute and immediate necessity in the establishment of this chief good of Ireland, I will endeavour, as much as lies in my ability, to forward a brotherhood of affection, and identity of interests, a communion of rights, and an union of jsower, among Iiishmeu of all religious persuasions, without which every reform in parliament must be partial, not national, inadequate to the wants, delusive to the wislies, and insufFicient for the freedom and happiness of tins countr}-." — See Wolfe Tune's Memoirs \ Madden 's lAccs and Times of the United Irishmen, &c. " Strictly speaking," says the historian of the United Irishmen, "Samuel Neilson was tlie originator, and Tone the org:»niser of the society, the Iramer of its declaration, the pensman to whom the details of its fornuition was entrusted. The object of Tone in assisting in tlie formation of the Belfast and Dublin societies is nut to be mistaken — he clearly announces it in his diary. In concluding the account of the part he took in the formation of the former, he plainly states : 'To break the connection with England, the never- failing source of all our political evils, and to assist the independence of my country — these are my objects.'" — Madden's Lives and Tines oftfie United Irishmen, second series, p. 11, second edition. TRIAL AND ESCAPE OF ARCHIE A.LD HAMILTON ROWAN. 727 to London, and on the 2nd of January. 17S3, tliey presented it to his majesty, by whom they were very graciously received. Under the pressure of renewed war with France, and in order to detach the Catholics from the more active and dangerous politicians of other creeds, government brought in the relief bill of 1T93;* but in the same session were passed a militia bill, and the gunpowder and convention bills ; the two latter coercive measures being directly aimed against the volunteers and the United Irishmen, the former havino; still retained a nominal existence. Mr. Pitt's favorite tactics were to create disunion and alarm, and thus to prepare the way for strong measures. He enveloped the proceedings of the executive in mystery, and reckoned on the fears, and never on the confidence of the people. A meeting of the United Irishmen, held in Dublin in February, 1703, published an address protesting against the inquisitorial nature of certain proceedings of the secret committee of the house of lords, then conducting an inquiry relative to the defenders' association. For this the hon. Mr. Butler, who acted as chairman of the meeting, and Mr. Oliver Bond, the secretary, were called before the bar of the house, and adjudged to be each imprisoned six months and fined £500. In January, 1794, Mr. Archibald Hamilton Rowan was prosecuted for an address to the volunteers adopted at a meeting of the United Irishmen, of which he was secretary, and which was held nearly two years before. He was defended by Curran, Avho made one of his most celebrated speeches on the occasion; but by the aid of the nefarious jury-packing system, then newly introduced by the notorious John GifFard, the sheriff, and on the testimony of a perjured witness, Mr. Rowan was convicted of a seditious libel, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment and a fine of £5Q0. These proceedings increased the popular ferment, and an address from the society of United Irishmen was presented to Mr. Rowan in Newgate ; but on the 1st of May he made his escape, and although £1,000 reward was offered for his apprehension, he succeeded in making his way to France and thence to America. In the beginning of April, 1794, an emissary arrived in Ireland • This act (33 Geo. I IT.), restored the elective franchise to the Irish Catholics, and threw open to them certain offices in the army in Ireland, and all offices in t!ie navy, even that of admiral, on the Irish station. In the army three ofhces were still excepted, viz. : those of commander-in chief, master-{;eneral of the ordnance, and general on the staff. The preceding year the Irish house of commons refused to receive a petition from Belfast in favour of the Catholics ; and yet, in 1793, the only bigots in that den of corruption who ■we'* consistent enough to vote against the relief bill were Dr. Duigenaa and Mr. Ogle. 3 B ^ 728 REIG"rJ OF GEORGE III. from the French convention, to sound the popular mind relative to an invasion. This person was the Rev. William Jackson, a Protestant clergyman of Irish extraction, but who had been born in England, and had resided many years in France. He rashly confided his secret to liis legal adviser, Mr. John Cockayne, a London solicitor, by whom it was immediately revealed to the prime minister, Mr. Pitt. By Pitt's advice, Cockayne accompanied Jackson to Ireland, and was present at his interviews with Leonard M'Nally, Archibald Hamilton Rowan, then in Newgate, Theobald Wolfe Tone, and other leaders of the United Irishmen. Fortunately for the Irish leaders they looked at first with some suspicion on Jackson, and avoided committing themselves in the presence of Cockayne. Thus did the first overtures from France to Ireland come, as it were, through the very hands of William Pitt him- self; and the government having made this first experiment in treason manufacture, had Jackson arrested on the 28th of April. Three days after, as we have seen, Hamilton Rowan made his escape, and on the 4th of May the meeting of United Irishmen at the Tailor's Hal] was dispersed by the sheriff under the convention act, and their papers seized. Many of the more prudent members of the society now thought it high time to withdraw. The latter part of 1794 witnessed sonie strange political intrigues. Pitt professed to abandon his policy of coercion, and thereupon many of the old whig party entered into a coalition Avith him. The earl of Westmoreland was recalled from Ireland, and on the 4th of January, 1795, earl Fitzwilliam, a nobleman of liberal principles and most estimable disposition, arrived to replace him. Lord Fitzwilliam came over with the express understanding that he was to pursue a policy of conciliation. At Dublin castle he found a system established utterly incompatible with any honest, constitutional plan of government, and he at once set about reforming it. His first acts were to dismiss secretary Cooke, and to deprive Mr. Beresford of the power which had enabled him and his family for many years to monopolise a vast proportion of the public emoluments, and to exercise an uncontrolled sway over the Irish government. The new viceroy surrounded himself with liberal- minded men ; the Catholics were promised complete emancipation ; the people were inspired with a confidence which they had never felt till then ; and extraordinary joy was diffused through the country. But this was only for a moment. When the hopes of the nation were raised to the highest pitch lord Fitzwilliam was recalled. The effect was heart- SUICIDE CF THE REV. MR. JACKSOJf. 729 rending. Addresses and resolutions poured in from all sides to avert the calamity, but to no purpose. On the 25tli of March lord Fitzwilliam took his departure from Ireland amidst the anguish of the people. His coach was dra^Yn to the water side by some of the most respectable citizens of Dublin ; the city wore an aspect of mourning, but the public grief was equalled by the public indignation at the heartless duplicity of the minister. Pitt had made up his mind for the Union, cost what it might, and he knew that it was through the humiliation and misfortune, not through the happiness and prosperity of Ireland, that such a measure could be brought about. To realise his favorite project this unhanpy country was to be deluged with crime and blood. On the 23rd of April, 1795, the Rev. William Jackson was put on his trial for treason, and convicted on the evidence of Cockayne. When the unfortunate man Avas brought up for judgment on the 30th he took a dose of arsenic before entering the dock, and to give time for the poison to take effect, he caused his counsel, Mr. Leonard M'Nally, to plead in arrest of judgment. Externally he concealed the frightful tortures which he endured; his gaolers did not perceive a muscle change; and the ingenuity of counsel protracted the argument until the wretched prisoner fell in the agonies of death. A coroner's inquest closed the scene. Jackson's object in anticipating the laAv was, to save for his wife and children the little money which he possessed, and which would have been confiscated had judgment been pronounced. The society of United Irishmen had already assumed a new character. Desperation having succeeded to hope in the public mind, physical force and foreign aid were thought of. The original objects of reform and emancipation were merged — at least in the minds of many of the leaders — in revolution and republicanism. The original test of the society was changed into an oath of secresy and mutual fidelity ; and for the words " equal representation of the people in parliament," was substituted in their declaration the phrase " a full representation of all the people of Ireland;" the word " all" being added and *' parliament" omitted. Baronial, county, and provincial committees were established; each society was limited to twelve members, including a secretary and treasurer ; five of these secretaries formed a lower baronial committee, which delegated one of its members to an upper baronial committee; and so on for the committees of counties aj>d provinces. Each of the four provinces had a subordinate directory delegated by a Tr'O T.VJC.S OF GEORGE III. provincial committee, and in Dublin there was an executive director}' of five persons, elected by ballot in the provincial directories. The executive directory exercised supreme command over the entire union, and its members were only known to the secretaries of the provincial committees ; but the result proved that all this secrecy and complicated organisation afforded no protection against treachery. From the very commencement every important proceeding of the United Irishmen was known to the government. By the 10th of ^'lay, 1795, the new organisation of the society was complete on paper; and on the 20th Wolfe Tone left Dublin for Belfast, on his vray to America. He had been implicated by the evidence on Jackson's trial, but through the influence of very powerful friends he was saved from prosecution on condition of quitting the country. From America he proceeded to France, in fulfilment of a promise which he had made to the leaders at home that he would lay such represen- tations before the French republican government as would lead to an invasion of Ireland. He arrived at Havre on the 1st of February, 1796, and hastened to Paris. His credentials consisted only of two votes of thanks from the Catholic Committee, of which he had been secretar}^ and his certificate of admission to the Belfast volunteers. The Am.erican ambassador was friendly to him; he introduced himself to Carnot; and his success, under many disheartening circumstances, was so complete, that on the 16th of December, the same year, a French expedition under general Hoche sailed from Brest for Ireland. It consisted of 17 ships of the line, besides frigates, &c., to the number in all of 43 sail, having on board 15,000 troops and 45,000 stand of arms, with artillery, ammunition, &c. ; Theobald Wolfe Tone himself, with the rank of adjutant-genei-al, being on board the same ship with general Grouchy, the second in command. It was madness to undertake the expedition at such a season. Scarcely had the shores of France been cleared when foul winds and foggy weather, " the only unsubsidised allies of England," dispersed the fleet ; the admiral's ship, with the com- mander-in-chief, separated, and such of the vessels as kept together cruised for six or eight days at the entrance to Bantry Bay, waiting in vain for Hoche, and then returned to France; Grouchy having refused to attempt a landing without the orders of the chief in command. It was one of those cases in which the destinies of nations seem to hang by a slender thread. Had the weather been more propitious, it is quite possible that the result of the expedition might have been a "strong measures" of tue government. 731 successful ci^-il war in Ireland, and the loss of this country for ever to the crown of England.* The horrible drama which was to be played out in Ireland during the two or three ensuing years was now commenced in right earnest. Earl Camden succeeded lord Fitzwilliam as lord lieutenant; Robert Stewart, viscount Castlereagh, a political apostate, who had entered parliament as a pledged reformer, but who soon proved himself the most unprincipled foe to popular rights, became an active member of the Irish executive; lord Carhampton, theAvorthy grandson of the infamous Henry Luttrell, got the command of the army, and exercised his power with fierce and reckless cruelty; early in 1796 an Insurrection Act was passed, making the administration of an oath like that of the United Irishmen punishable with death; a discretionary power was given to magistrates to proclaim counties; houses might be entered between sun -set and sun-rise, and the inmates seized and sent on board tenders without any formality of trial; lord Carhampton, had, indeed, in the summer of 1795, banished in that way one thousand three hundred persons on his own authority and without any legal form; the ferocity and fanaticism of the Orangemen, as the Peep-o'-day-boys were now denominated, were employed for the extirpation of the Catholics;! and acts of indemnity were passed to shield the magistrates and military from responsibility for the cruelties in which they exceeded the law. In parliament nothing would be done to ameliorate the condition of the country or allay the popular ferment ; but everything that could most effectually provoke and foment discontent. The results * For the details of the events here related, and of those which are immediately to follow, the reader is referred to The United Irishmen, their Lives and Times, by Dr. R. R. Madden, M.R.I.A. — a work of immense labor and research, and which constitutes in itself a repertory of Irish historj- for this period ; also to the Memoirs of Theobald Wolfe Tone; Dr. W. J. Jlac Neven's Pieces of Irish History; Moore's Life of I^ord Edtvard Fitzgerald; Mac Nevin's Lires and Trials of Eminent Irishmen; Teeling's Personal Narrative of the Rebellion; Williajn Samson's Autobiography, edited iiy William Coc'ke Taj lor; Autobiography of Hamilton Rowan, edited by Dr. Drunimoud; Hay's History of the Inswrection in Wexford; Cloney's Personal Narrative; O'Kelly's General History of the Iltbtllion; History of the Rebellion, by the Rev. James Gordon (a Protestant clergyman) ; Alexander's Account of the Rebellion; C. Jackson's History of the Rebellion; Musgrave's Work (a tissue of prejudice and falsehood) ; Reports from Committees of Secrecy of the Houses of Lords and Commons ; Sir Jonah Barrington's Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation; the Lives and Speeches of Henry Grattan and John Philpot Curran ; Lord Cloncurry's Personal Recollections ; the Correspondence of Lord Ca.stlerea,L,'Ii and of the Marquis Cornwallis, &c. t The Peep-o'-day-boys and Defenders fought a pitched battle at a place called the Diamond, near Armagh, on the "ilst September, 1795. The former were much better armed, and the latter, although more numerous, were beaten with tlie loss of forty-eii;ht killed. It was notorious that government encouraged the Peep-o'-day-boys or Orangemen. 732 REIGN OF GEORGE III. were only what were to be expected. If revokition can, under any cir- cumstances, be justified — and upon revolution the constitution of Enc-- land is founded — it would be monstrous to blame the unhappy victmis of Pitt's policy in Ireland for meditating resistance at that fatal period. Accordingly we find that the leaders of the United Irishmen formed the plan of engrafting a military organisation on their civil organisation. This was commenced in Ulster about the end of 1796, and in Leinster in the beginning of 1797. The secretary of a society of twelve became a petty officer; the delegates to the lower baronial committees became captains; the delegate from the lower to the upper baronial committee was, in most cases, a colonel ; but every commission higher than that of colonel was in the a}»pointment of the executive directory. The members did not for some time adopt these titles, nor was the Leinster directory elected until the close of 1797. The society spread rapidly among the hnmbler classes, especially in localities where Orange clubs were established. On the eve of the outbreak in 1798 the total number of enrolled members was computed at 500,000, and of these very nearly 300,000 might be counted on as efiective men A few years before the leaders complained that the people were sluggish and hard to be moved ; they now found that the great difficulty was to restrain them under the system of provocation practised by government. Some of the leaders were too enthusiastic ; but it was a settled point among them that without foreign aid an insurrection should not be hazarded ; that the country should not be exposed to the horrors of a war like that of La Vendee, and that the impatience of the people should be restrained by every means until the arrival of a French invading army. Agents were therefore repeatedly sent to solicit the aid of France. Lord Edward Fitzgerald, a brother of the duke of Leinster, and who had served with great distinction in the English army in Canada, went on one of these missions to France in 1796, accompanied by Mr. Arthur O'Connor, a member of the Irish parliament. They proceeded to Switzerland, where they had an interview on the frontier with general Hoche, previous to the departure of the Bantry Bay ^ixpedition. In March, 1797, Mr. Lewine.s, an attorney of Dublin, was sent on a similar mission, and remained in France as a permanent agent of the Irish Directory; Wolfe Tone being also at the same time in Paris. In June, 1797^ Dr. IMacNevin was despatched to France on a similar errand, but only got to Hamburgh, where he imprudently ventured to communicate by letter v.ith the French government, and a THE SPY SYSTEM. 733 copy of his memorial came into the hands of the British minister through the treachery of an employee in the French foreign office. Indeed, the English government was thoroughly informed of every movement of the Irish leaders, and might at any moment have broken up the scheme which was thus hatched under its very eyes. A regular system of espionage was employed by government so early as 1795, and was rendered complete by the end of the following year. Besides the common gang of informers who, like the infamous Jemmy O'Brien and his associates, were under the immediate control of town-majors Sirr and Swan, there was a " higher class" of miscreants in the })ay of government for the same vile purposes. The former were exclusively persons taken from the dregs of society, and were employed in the lowest work of iniquity. They were usually called " major Sirrs people," or " the battalion of testimony;" but among the other class were some in the rank of " gentlemen," and some whose baseness was not divulged until long after then' death, when they appeared in public documents as the recipients of secret service money and of government pensions. Some of these men had expressly entered the society and AYormed themselves into the confidence of the members for the purpose of betraying their associates ; others were the legal advisers and advo- cates of their unfortunate victims, with whose most intimate secrets they had thus made themselves acquainted ; others betrayed their bosom friends and benefactors. One of the informers, M'Gucken, Avas the solicitor of the United Irishmen of Belfast. Mr, Leonard MacNally, their advocate, was in the secret pay of the government, and received a pension of £300 a-year for life; but what the precise service was which he rendered for the wages we are not informed. The notorious Thomas Reynolds, of Kilkea castle, in Kildare, became an United Irishman, and got himself raised to a high grade in the society, that he might betray his friends. In the same base manner captain Armstrong, of the King's County ]\Iilitia, betrayed Henry and John Sheares. Nicholas Maguan, of Saintfield, in the county of Down, was a member of the county and provincial committees, and attended the meetings of his betrayed dupes until June, 1798, communicating all the time the secrets of the society to government through a third person. John Hughes, a bookseller of Belfast, another spy, was repeatedly arrested and confined along with members of the society in order to learn their secrets as a fellow- victim ; and John EuAvard Newell, of the Belfast 734 REIGN OF GEORGE III. society, Frederick Dutton, and a man named Burd, or Smith, also figured in the same vile capacity. On the 13th of March, 1797, general Lake, commanding the northern district, issued a proclamation virtually placing a great part of Ulster under martial law ; and his orders were executed with excessive rigor by the military. The illegal and violent nature of the proceedings resorted to was described some months after by the earl of Moira in the English house of lords, in a fruitless effort to elicit the sympathy of the legislature on behalf of this suffering country. Among the cruelties which he himself had seen practised, lord Moira mentioned, that if any man was suspected to have concealed weapons of defence, his house, his furniture, and all his property were burned; nor was this all, for if it were supposed that any district had not surrendered all the arms which it contained, a party was sent out to collect the numbers at which it was rated, and in the execution of this order, tliirty houses were sometimes burned down in a single night ; officers took upon themselves to decide arbitrarily the quantity of arms which should be forthcoming, and if this quantity were not yielded up, these barbarous cruelties were inflicted. " When a man was taken up on suspicion," said his lordship, " he was put to the torture ; nay, if he were merely accused of conceal- ing the guilt of another. The punishment of picketing, which had been for some years abolished as too inhuman even in the dragoon service, was practised.* He had known a man, in order to extort confession of a supposed crime, or of that of some of his neighbours, picketed until he actually fainted; picketed a second time until he fainted again ; as soon as he came to himself, picketed a third time, until he once more fainted ; and all upon mere suspicion ! Nor was this the only species of torture ; many had been taken and hung up until they were half dead, and then threatened with a repetition of the same cruel treatment, unless they made confession of the imputed guilt. These, observed lord Moira, were not particular acts of cruelty, exercised by men abusing the power committed to them, but they formed part of our system. They were notorious, and no person could say who would be the next victim of this oppression and cruelty." On the rejection of Mr. Ponsonby's motion for reform in 1797, Mr. Grattan and the other leading members of the opposition seceded from the house of commons. No proceeding could have conveyed a stronger condemnation. * The punishment of picketing consisted in making a man stand with one foot on a pointed (take TRIAL OF WILLIAM ORR. 735 Tn tlie autumn of 1797 Mr. William Orr, of Antrim, was tried at Carrickfergus on a charge of administering the United Irishmens' oath to a soldier named Whately, who was the only witness against him. The jury, who were locked up during night, were copiously supplied with spirituous liquors, and under the influence of intoxication and of threats of prosecution as United Irishmen, if they did not convict the prisoner, they at length brought in a verdict of guilty. Some of the jurors at once confessed the circumstances under which they had been induced to find against their consciences ; Mr. Orr, who was a man of high character and respectability, solemnly protested his innocence, and the soldier, smitten with remorse, declared on oath before a magistrate, that his testimony at the trial was false. Petitions to the lord lieutenant, praying that the prisoner's life might be spared, were poured in from all parts of the country, but to no purpose. Three times a respite was granted, but, with the most convincing evidence of the prisoner's innocence before him, lord Camden, nevertheless, ordered his execution, which took place on the 14th of October. This judicial murder destroyed any remaining confidence the people might have had in the law or the government, and " remember Orr" became a watch-word with the United Irishmen. Irish agents were actively engaged throughout the year in France, endeavoifring to obtain- military aid; and at home the people, maddened by the cruelties to which they were subjected, were only restrained from rising by assurances of an immediate French invasion, without which, they were told, it would be utter folly to attempt resistance. Another expedition for the Irish coast was indeed prepared in the Texel, under a Dutch admiral, but was prevented from sailing by lord Duncan's victory near Camperdown ; and finally, promises were again held out by the French directory, that an invasion would take place in April, 1798, and again the Irish were doomed to be disappointed. Bonaparte's jealousy of Hoche, and his ambitious designs against Egypt, were fatal to the hopes of the United Irishm-en ; and there is no reason to think that the affairs of Ireland excited any interest with the French government of that day, beyond the consideration of keeping England occupied by a civil war in this country. Sir Ralph Abercrombie, an experienced and upright officer, was appointed to the command of the army in Ireland, in December, 1797; but he soon became disgusted at the disorderly and outrageous conduct of tlie ti'oops, and at the system of murder and rapine which he U"a» "36 REIGN OF GEORGE III. Hspectecl to countenance. In general orders which he issued on tlie 26th of February, 1798, he censured the irregularities and disgrace- ful conduct of the military, as " proving the army to he in a state of licentiousness, which rendered it formidable to every one but the enemy ;" but at the close of April he was recalled, to the great triumph of the orange faction, and was succeeded by general Lake, a man Avho had already shewn himself to be uninfluenced by feelings of justice or humanity. A system of coercion and terror was now regularly estab- lished ; torture was employed ; every man's life and property w'ere at the mercy of informers ; the country was abandoned to the fury and licentiousness of the soldiery in " free quarters," and in a word, everything was done that can be conveyed by the atrocious admission made by lord Castlereagh himself, namely, that " measures were taken by government to cause the premature explosion " of the insurrection.* • This diabolical design of the government has been over and over again admitted, and is a fact as notorious as any in history. The reader will find abundant admissions of it in the parliamentary debates of the period, and in the recently published papers of lords Castlereagh and Cornwallis. For the manner in which the design was carried out, we may refer to the first series of Dr. Madden's work already quoted, chap, xii., second edition ; but the following passage from lord Holland's Memoirs of the Whig Party, gives a picture of the state of Ireland at this precise moment at once most vivid and of undoubted credibility. After alluding to the "burning cottages, tortured backs, and frequent executions," in the midst of whicli the orange faction " were yet full of their sneers at what they whimsically termed 'the clemency ' of the government, and the weak character of their viceroy, lord Camden," his lordship writes: — "The fact is incontrovertible, that the people of Ireland were driven to resistance, which, possibly, they meditated before, by the free quarters and excesses of the soldiery, which were such as are not permitted in civilized warfare, even in an enemy's country. Trials, if they must so be called, were carried on without number under martial law. It often happened that three officers composed the court, and that of the three two were under age, and the third an officer of the yeomanry or militia, who had sworn in his orange lodge eternal hatred to the people over whom he was thus constituted a judge. Floggings, picketings, death, were the usual sentences, and these were sometimes commuted into banislmient, serving in the fleet, or transference to a foreign service. Many were sold at so much per head to the Prussians. Other more illegal, but not more horrible, outrages were daily committed by the different corps under the command of government. Even in the streets of Dublin a man was shot, and robbed of £30, on the bare recollection of a soldier's having seen him in the battle of Kilcalley, and no proceeding was instituted to ascertain the murder or prosecute the murderer. Lord Wycombe, who was in Dublin, and who was himself shot at bj- a sentinel between Blackrock and that city, wrote to me many details of similar outrages, which he had a-certained to be true. Dr. Dickson, (lord bishop of Down) assured me that he had seen families returning peaceably from mass, assailed without provocation, bj' drunken troops and yeomanrj', and the wives and daughters exposed to every species of indignity, brutality, and outrage, from which neiilicr his remonstrances nor those of other Protestant gentlemen could rescue them. The subsequent Indemnity Acts deprived of redress the victims of this wide-spread cruelty." Referring to the "free quarters" barbarity, sir Jonah Barrin:;ton (^Rise and Fall, &c., pp. 430, 431, ed. 1843) says: — "This measure was resorted to, with all its attendant horrors, throughout some of the best parts of Ireland previous to the insurrection ;" and he adds, " slow tortures were inflicted, under the pretence of extorting confession ; the people were driven to madness ; general Abercrombie, who succeeded as commander- in-chief, was not permitted to abate these enormities, and therefore resigned with disgust. Ireland was reduced to a state of anarchy, and exposed to crime and cruelties to which no nation bad ARREST OF THE IRISH LEADERS. 737 Matters being thus ripe, government, acting on tlie information of the traitor, Thomas Reynolds, caused the Leinster delegates to bo seized, when assembled at the house of Mr. Oliver Bond, in Bridge- street,* on the 12th of March, 1798. The warrant was executed by justice Swan. The pass-words Avere, " where's Mac Cann? Is Ivers from Carlo w come?" but the officers rushed up stairs to the place of meeting without encountering any obstacle. Fifteen persons were seized on this occasion, including Mr. Bond himself, who was a whole- sale woollen draper, and, like the majority of the leaders of the United Irishmen, a Protestant.f Thomas Addis Emmet, the head-piece and chief organiser of the society, and Dr. William James Mac Neven, Henr}'- Jackson and John Sweetman were taken the same day at their several places of abode, and all committed to Newgate. Arthur O'Connor, a leading member of the executive directory, was at that time in custody, having been arrested in the beginning of the year, at Margate, on his way to France, in company with father Coigley or Quigley. The latter was convicted on the 22nd of May, that year, at Maidstone, and hanged on evidence so inconclusive that lord chancellor Tlmrlow said: '-If ever a poor man was murdered it was Coigley!" Lord Edward Fitzgerald was still at large. In consequence of not attending the meeting at Bond's he had escaped capture on that occasion ; and a reward of £1,000 was offered for information that would lead to his arrest. For some months he had been recognised as the military head of the Union; and of all the leaders was alone fitted by military experi- ence to take the command in the field ; but though admirably suited for that purpose, he was not the man to organise a revolution. The men ever been subject. The people could no longer bear their miseries ; Mr. Pitt's object was now eflected. The-e .sanguinary proceedings will, m the ojnnion of posterity, be placed to the account of those who might have prevented them." We can have no difiiculty, tlien, in accepting the statement unanimously made by Dr. MacNeven, Thomas Addis Emmet, and the other Stato prisoners, in tlieir cx.imination before the secret committee, in 1798, when, upon being asked the immediate cause of the rising that year, Ihey replied, that it was owing to " the free quarters, the house -burnings, the tortures, a»d the military executions," resorted to by the government. ' *The hou=e was then No. 13, but is now known as No. 9, Lower undgc-street. See Gilbert's Uislniy of Dublin, vol. i., pp. ."3G, &c., where tlie particulars of the arrest are given; as also in Dr. Mad 1 1 en's U nil id Iri.i/uiKn • t In a list given by Dr. Madden of 1G2 of the most eminent or leading members of tlie Societj' of United Iri.-limen, IOC are Protestants or Presbyterians, and only 6G Catholics. "There never was a greater mistake," o'.'serves Dr. Jladden, " than to call the attempted revolution of 1798 a ' Pniiiah rebellion.' Alike iu its origin and organisation, it was pre-eminently a Protestant one. Neither the ' Popish religion,' nor the Celtic race of Ireland, can lay any claim to the great majority of the founders and organisers of the Society of United Irishmen." — First series, pp. S8i>, 38G. ^coud editioa. 738 REIGN OF GEORGE III fitted to project and advise were Emmet, O'Connor, and Wolfe Tone; and their services were no longer available for their country. Those ot the leaders who were still at liberty were divided in opinion. Lord Edward insisted that the time for action had arrived, and that the insur- rection should take place without waiting longer for succour from France. He held the royal troops in contempt, and had great confidence in the numbers who were prepared to rise, and in the strength which the people would acquire by a little experience in warfare. Some other members entertained similar views, but the more prudent were wholly opposed to an immediate attempt at insurrection; and some felt so strongly on this point as to tlu'eaten with denunciation to government tmy one who would insist upon raising the standard of I'evolt under such circumstances. There was, on the whole, a want of harmony among the members, and the Protestant and Catholic leaders had lately begun to feel distrust in the firmness and ulterior views of each other.* Lord Edward was concealed for some weeks in various retreats about Dublin, but chiefly at the house of a widow lady, named Dillon, on the bank of the canal at Portobello, where he remained three weeks. After several intermediate removals he was conveyed on the night of the 18th of May, for the second time, to the house of Mr. Nicholas Murphy, a feather merchant, of 153, Thomas-street, where he was immediately tracked and arrested the following day. It was about seven in the evening on the 19tli; lord Edward, who was ill from cold, was lying on the bed in the back room of the attic story, and Mr. Murphy, who had just entered, was speaking to him. Justice Swan, accomj)anied by a soldier in plain clothes, rushed into the apartment and exclaimed to lord Edward, " you are my prisoner." Instantly lord Edward sprung from the bed, and drawing a formidable zig-zag-shaped dagger wounded Swan in the hand, but only slightly. Swan fired a pistol at lord Edward without effect, and ordering the soldier to remove Murphy, shouted out, " I am basely miu'dered." His cries brought to his assistance a Mr. Ryan, who was both a captain of yeomanry and one of the staff of Giffard's orange newspaper, the " Dublin Journal." * Arthur O'Connor affords, in liis sentiments, a melancholy instance of this spirit of disunion and distrust. He disliked the Catholic leaders in general ; and towards Emmet, although a Protes- tant, he entertained a positive enmity. It is probable he would have dislilved any man who a<;knowledged religious convictions of any kind ; and some other leading members of the Union were, like him, unhappry imbued with the infidel principles which the example of France had rendered fashionable at that day. DEATH OF LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD. 739 Ryan threw himself upon lord Edward and endeavoured to hold him down upon the bed, but in the struggle received several desperate wounds from lord Edward's dagger, one of which, in the stomach, proved mortal a few days after. Swan appears, at this moment, to have ren- dered little assistance, if, indeed, as one account has it, he did not leave the room altogether to call for help, and the struggle between the wounded Ryan and the enraged Geraldine was fearful ; but town-major Sirr, with half-a-dozen soldiers, now rushed in, and Sirr having taken deliberate aim with his pistol, shot lord Edward in the right arm and the dagger fell from his hand. Still it required the efforts of the whole party of soldiers to hold lord Edward down with their muskets crossed upon him until he could be secured, a drummer having, while this was doing, wounded him very severely in the back of the neck with a sword. The deadly struggle did not occupy more than a few minutes.* A large military force, collected from different posts, was, by this time, drawn up outside; an attempt, made by the crowd assembled, to rescue lord Edward was at once overcome; and the noble pi'isoner was carried in a sedan chair to the castle, where his wounds were dressed. He was then removed to Newgate, where none of his friends would 1)e permitted to see him until a few hours before his death, when his aunt. Lady Louisa Connolly, and his brother, lord Henry, obtained access to his bed-side. A few days had developed fatal symptoms; on the 4th of June he expired, and his remains were deposited in the vaults of St. Werburgh's church. Thus perished one of the most disinterested and noblehearted patriots that Ireland had ever produced. The greatest enemies of the cause for which he was immolated have never ventured to cast a slur on the memory of lord Edward Fitzgerald. He was virtuous and amiable, open, unselfish, high-minded, and chivalrous. His stainless character, and gentle and generous disposition, endeared him to all who knew him. Of all his cotemporaries he was, at that fearful juncture, the best suited to command the confidence and respect of his fellow- countrymen. He possessed military skill and heroism which might have led them to victory in battle ; and had it pleased divine Providence * See Madden's United Irishmen, 2nd. scr. pp. 412 to 437, 2nd ed., where Murphy's narrative of the capture of lord Edward is given, togetlier with the statement of Mr. D. F. R3'an, whose father lost his life on the occasion, and accounts of the transaction on the authority of Sirr and others. Mr. Adrien, an eminent surgeon, being at the house of Mr. Tighe in the neighbourhood, was sent for by the major, and lord Edward, on learning from him that liis wounds were not mortat, ex- pressed regret. 740 REIGN OF GEORGE III. to relieve Ireland at that time from her heavy yoke of oppression., he was, apparently, the person most likely to have been her deliverer. Had lord Edward's retreat remained undiscovered one day longer, he would have been beyond the reach of major Sirr and his myrmidons, and, perhaps, with a very different issue to the contest, would have been ready to place himself at the head of those brave men of Kildare and Wexford, who, a few days later, devoted themselves so heroically, but hopelessly, for their country.* * It is a most singular fact, that for more tlian GO years the name of the betrayer of lord Edward Fitzgerald remained a profound secret. Even the indefatigable researches of Dr. Madden failed to unmask the scoundrel, although he made an important step towards that result, when he publislied the " .secret service money " accounts, in which occurs the item. — " F. H., discovery of L. E. F., £1.000." This disclosure of the initials rescued the memories of several honorable men from the suspicions that had b-en cast upon them in the matter by other investigators, and by public rumour ; but it was not nntii the appearance in the course of the past year (1859), of the Con-esporidence of the Marquis of CornwalUs, edited bj' Charles Koss, son of general Koss, the governor of Fort George, that the mystery of F. H. was finally unveiled, and that the infamy was fixed upon the right owner — namely, Fr.vncis Higgixs, a well known character of that day in Dublin. This person, who was nick-named the " sham squire," from a very disgraceful proceeding, had become the proprietor of the Freeman's Journal, which he diverted from its hitherto steady advocacy of popular rights, making it a base organ of an unprincipled government. He was notorious for his domestic and social misdeeds, had been convicted of public crimes, and was in feet a man who might have been guUty of any baseness. These disclosures were first made public in the following curious note by the editor of the Cornwallis correspondence: — "A sum of £1,500 per annum was placed at the disposal of the lord lieutenant, by an act passed in 1799, to be distributed as secret service. Towards the close of 1800, Mr. Cooke drew up for the use of lord Castlereagh the following confidential memorandum, which still remains in the castle of Dublin: — ' Pensions to Eoyalists — J submit to your lordship on this head the following, — First, that Mac ," (Leonardo MacNally); 'should have a pension of £300. He was not much trusted in the rebellion, and I believe, has been faithful. Francis Higgins, proprietor of the Freemati's Journal, was the pei-son who procured for me all the intelligence respecting lord Edward Fitzgerald, and got to set him, and has given me much information, £300. JI'Guichen, who is now in Belfast, ought to have £150. I wish a man of the name of Nicholson, whom I employ regularly, should have £50. Darragh ought to have for himself and his wife at least £200, (at first written £300). Swan Sirr , I think, it might be right to get rid of many of our little pensioners, and major Sirr's gang, by sums of money instead of pensions.' " As to the character of lord Edward, we gladly borrow the beautiful words of the late lord Holland, who, in his Memoirs of the Whig Party, writes as follows: — " More than twenty years have now passed away. Many of my political opinions are softened — my predilections for some mea weakened, my pnjudices against others removed; but my approbation of lord Edward Fitzgerald's actions remains unaltered and unshaken. His country was bleeding under one of the hardest tyrannies that our times have witnessed He who thinks a man can be even excused in such circumstances by any other consideration than that of despair, fr married Pamela Sims, said to be the daugliter of Madame de Genlis, (and Philip Egalite, duke of Orleans). Whilst there he was dismissed from the army. la 17DG he joined the United Irishmen, and having been arrested on the 19th of May, 1798, he died of his wounds in Newgate prison, on the 4th of June. He had one son and two daughters. After his death he was attainted by act of parliament, and liis estate forfeited and sold. This act was repealed by a private act in 1819." — See, for ample details. Dr. Maddcn's Uniled Irislimen, opidar that he was never \vUed in cotemporary writings by his real name of Hugh. INDEX. Abercromlne, vSir Ttalph, censures the con- duct of the milit.ii-y and retires from the command, 735. Adamnan. St., 100. Adrian IV., his buU to Henry II., 204. Aengiis, King of Munster, his baptism, 70 ; death, 75 ; famihes descended from, 75. Aengiis, St., the Culdee, 120. Aidan, St., 96. Aileach destroyed by Murtough O'Brien, 159. Albinus. 104. " Alciiin, 104. Allen, Archbishop, mnrder of, 35S. Allen, battle of the hill of, 118. Anglo-Norman adventurers, their names and family relation, 224 {7wte). Anglo-Norman invasion, 183-194. Anne, reign of, GSO, 685. Annesley case, 686. Ai-an, the lona of Ireland, 78. Ardrigh, office of. 51. Arklow, battle of, 750, 751. Armagh, synod of, 193. Athboy, great meeting at, 182. Athenry, great battle of, 281. Athlone, first siege of, by the Williamites, 641 ; second siege, 653. Attacotti, their insurrection, 32. Anghrim, battle of, 656, 663. Augsburgh, league of, 619. Bagnal. Sir Henry, his death, 464. Ballyclinch, conference of Hugh O'Neill and Essex at, 472. Balymore, siege of, 652. Ballyronan, battle between Hugh Allen and the Leinstermen at, 119. Bally shannon besieged by Sir Conyers Clif- ford, 459. Bantry Bay, French expedition to, 730. Bealagh Mughna, battle of, 129. Beanna Boirche, battle of, 341. Bede's description of the Irish monks, 99 {not(). Bel-atha-Brio.sgaeth, battle of, 451. Belli ngham, Sir Edward, 374. Benburb, battle of, 555 ; results of the vic- tory, 557. Berkley, John, Lord, appointed Viceroy, 608. Bermingham, Earl of Louth, his murder, 290. Bermingham, Pierce, murders the Chiefs of Offaly, 273. Bermingham tower, origin of the name, 291. Bingham,. Sir Eicliard, iiis cruelty in Con- oaught, 435 ; his death, 466. Bishopg, Protestant, some aCcotmt of the first in Ireland, 385 {7iote). Black death, the plague of the, 297 (note). Black Monday, 243. Blackwater, battle of the, 463. Blood's Plot, 604. Bobbio, foundation of, 94. Bond's, Leinster delegates arrested at, 737. Borough, Lord Thomas, Lord Deputy, 459. Boruma, or Leinster cow tribute, 34 {note); its renewal, 118. Boulter, Primate, 689-691. Boyle, Sir lUchard, the great Earl of Cork — his character, 507 (note). Boyne, battle of, 633-639. Bran Dabh, 87. Brian Born m ha — Avenges the death of his brother Mahon, 137 ; makes war against Malachy II., 138; assumes the sove- reignty, 140 ; glory of his reign, 141 ; introduces surnames, 141, 142 (note) ; prepares for war, 143 ; addresses his army at Clontarf, 147 ; his death, 148 ; his obsequies, 150. Brigit, St., 79. Browne, Archbishop, his efforts to propa- gate the Ileformation, 364 ; his enmity to Lord Gray, 368 ; his deposition, 378. Bruce, Edward, lands in Ireland, 279 ; his first successes, 280 ; his death, 287. Bruce, Ilobert, arrives in Ireland, 283 ; his departure, 285. Buidhe Chonnaill, first visitation of, 81 ; second visitation, 89. Bull of Adrian IV., 204 (note) ; of Alexan- der III., 205. Bunratty, siege of, 554. Burke, or De Biugo, WiUiam FitzAdelm, 220, 240, 242. Richard, called the great Earl of Connaueht. obtains Connaught from Henry IIL, 250; his death, 258. Richard, the Red Earl of Ulster, his pedigree, 270 {note) ; his power, 272 ; arrested. 284. Theobald of the Ships, 458. Ulick-na-gceaan created first Earl of Clanrickard, 371. Ulick and William, "Sons of the Earl"— their rebellion, 401, 406. William, the Dun Earl of Ulster, murdered, 292. Butler, James, first Earl of Ormond, 291. James, Marquis of Ormond, .'i29 {note) ; appointed Lord Lieutenant, 546, 768 INDEX. his treaty ^v^th the confederates, 553 ; visits Munster, 559 ; abandons Dublin to the parliameatariaus and leaves Ireland, 562 ; his return, 5t>9 ; defeated by the parlia- Clonmacnoise plundered, 131 ; the church robbed, 167 ; meeting of bishops at, 585. Clomnel surrendered to Cromwell, 587. Cloutarf, battle of, 147. mentarians at llathuiines, 572 ; goes to Clontibret, battle of, 455, France, 590 ; appointed Lord Lieutenant after the Restoration and created Duke, 6U2; recalled, 608. Cahirs and Caishals, 56. Callaghan C'ashel. 131. Cambrensis (Giraldus) comes to Ireland, 230. Camden, Lord, Lord Lieutenant, 731. Carbrys, The Three, 36. Carrickfergus Castle besieged by Bruce, 2S3. Carrigafoyle Castle captui-ed, 420. Cashel sacked by Inchiquin, 564 ; synod of, 201. Castide, Henry, his account of the Irish, 307. Castlehaven, Lord, defeats Inchiquin. 548. Castlereagh's admissions about the Union, 763. Cathach, the, 341 (note). Cathair Moi", families descended fi-om, £6 {note). Cathal Carragh, his death, 24 L Cathal Crovdexg, his wars, 239 ; his death, 250. Cathaldus, St., 102. Catholic ap2)ointments made by Tircounel, 607 ; committee, the first, 694, 695 ; ad- dress to the Lord Lieutenant, 696 ; divi- sions, 703 ; relief bill (Mr. Gardiner's), 711 ; relief bill of 1793, 727. Catliolics, tlieir state after the Treaty of Limerick, 674. Cavan, battle of, 630. Celsus, St., his death, 166. Celt, a word of classic origin, 20. Celts, the weapons so called, 55. Cessation of arms with the Confederates, 54") ; infringed, 547 Charlement Furt, Sir Phelim O'Neill obtains possession of, 519 ; surrendered to thi.. Williamites, 631. Charks L, his death, 570. Charles 11. , his restoration, 600 ; liis death, 615. Charter Schools established, 691. Chesterfield, Lord, his pohcy in Ireland, 693. Chieftains, Irish, attending the parliament of 1565, 432. Christians, eaily Irish, their doctrines, 113. Christians, Irish, before St. Patrick, 60, 61. Chronology of the ancient annals defective, 17. Church offices, hereditary in Ireland, 111. Cimbaeth, 25. Claims, court of, established, 603. Clane, synod of, ISO. Clannckard. (See Burke. ) Clarendon, Lord, in Ireland, 617. Clemens, 104. Cliiford, Sir Conyers, marches against O'Donnell, 459 ; killed at the Curlieu Mountains, 470. CoUas, The Three, 41. CoUoony Castle, O'Conor besieged in, 469. Cclmaa, St., at the synod of Whitby, 99; retires to Inisbolin, ibid. Columbanus, St., his missions abroad, 93; founds Bobbio, 94 ; letter to Pope Boni- face, 95 ; his death, ibid. Columbkill, St., his early Hfe, 83; founds lona, ibid : missions to the Picts, 84 ; dispute with King Diarmaid, 85 ; battle of Cooldrevny, 85 ; convention of Drum- ceat, 86. Comharbas, 111. Commercial relations bUl, 721, Couall Qui ban, his race, 74 ; death, 75. Confederate Catholics, the, 533 ; take Lime- rick, ;'^.".'^ ; overtures to tnem from the King, 542 • their successes, 5-±3 ; Ormond treats with them, -JS ; tlieir divisions, •' '''^, 653 ; increasing discord, 568 ; confe- deration remodelled, 569. Confiscation of Ulster projected by Eliza- beth, 403 ; of Desmontl, 433 ; of Ulster by -lames I., 500; Cromwellian, 594; Wil- liamite, 675. Congal Caech brings foreign auxiliaries to Ireland, and defeated at Moyrath, 88. Connauglit, rising of the young meu of, 259i Connor, Bruce's victory at, 280. Cou-of-the-ilundrcd-Battles, 34 ; families descended from, 36 (iwU'). Convention, national, meets in the Rotunda, 718 ; fadure of their reform bill, 719. Cooldrevny, battle of. So. Coote, Sir Charles, massacres the people of Wick low, 525; created Earl oi Mount- ratli, 600. Cork surrendered to the Williamites, 649. Curinac Mac Art, '3S; his abdication and death, 39. Cormac MacCuilennan, 128, 129. Coi-mac's chapel, 171. Coruelius, the Blessed, 217 (note). Oornwallis, Lord, ai)pointed to the govern- ment of Ireland, 755. Corrupt on, policy of, 694. Couucil of Lateran, Irish bishops at, 226. Cranogues, 56. Creadran KiUe, battle of, 200. Creevan, 30. Crofty, meeting of the hill of, 527. Crom Cruach, idol of, 23 ; its destruction, 69. Cromlechs, 57. Cromwell, Oliver, lands in Ireland, 574 ; be- sieges Drugheda, 575 ; takes Wexford, 578 ; and Kilkenny, 586 ; and Clonmel, 687 ; returns to England, 587 ; proclaimed Lord Protector, 599 ; death, 600. Cuan O'Lochan, 151. Ciddecs, the, 109, 110. Cm-lieu Mountains, the English defeated at the, 471. INDES. 7G9 Curry, Dr., 695. Cuthbert, St., 102. Danes, their various names, 121 ; first visits to Ireland, 122; their king, Turgesius, 124, 125 ; divisions among them, 125 ; Malachy II. defeats them nearTara, 137 ; and cap- tures Dul>hn, 13S ; they are defeated at Glenmama, 139; and at Clontarf, 147; their subsequent state in Ireland, 152. Davells, Henry, murder of, 415. De Braose, WilUam, cruel fate of his family, 243 (note). De Burgo. See Burke. Declaration of Rights, 710. De Clai-e, Thomas, treachery and barbarity of, 2G7. De Cogan, Milo, his death, 227. De Courcy, Sir John, invades Ulster, 221 ; his reverses, 225 ; his downfall and death, 241. Defective titles, commission of, for Con- naught, 509. Defenders, the, 722. De Lacy, Hugh, his great power, 227 ; his death, 231. De Mouutmaurice, Hervey, his feud with Eaymond le Gros, 212; his death, 22S. De Prendergast, Maurice, honoi'able trait of, 198 (nole). Derry, rebuilt by Docwra, 479 ; siege of, 623, 625. eccentric bishojj of, 718. Dervorgil, 176. Desmond, Maurice Fitz Thomas Fitzgerald, his feud with Arnold Le Poer, 290 ; created Earl of Desmond, 291. Thomas, eighth Earl of, executed, 329. James, Earl of, his ambition and treasonable correspondence, 353 ; submits to Sentleger, 369. Gerald, the great Earl of, 385 ; im- prisoned by Sidney, 396 ; discountenances the insurgents, 413; joins the rebellion, 418; his wretched condition, 429; death, 430 ; his character, 431. theSuganeEarlof, his rebellion, 4G' attempt to capture him, 476 ; his fate, 481. James, son of the great Era'l, Gerald, his mission to Ireland and early death, 478. {See Fitzjercdd). De Vere, Roliert, Doke of Ireland, 305. Dicuil, St., lu3. Division of Ireland, by Heremon, 14. Docwra, Sir Henry, his expedition to Lough Fuyle, 479. Dongal, 10.5. Donough O'Brien, asserts his claim to the sovereignity of Ireland, 157 ; dies at Ptome, ibid. Drapier's letters. Dean Swift's, 688. Drogheda besieged by Cromwell, 575. Dromceat, convention of, 86. Drury, Sir William, Lord President of Mun- ster, 406 ; his death, 417. Dublin, besieged by the Anglo-Normans, ] 91 ; by the confederates, 560 ; surren- dered by Ormond to the parliamentarians, 562 ; Lord Maguire's conspiracy to seize the castle, 517,518 ; synocls in, 222, 605. Duubolg, battle of, 87. Dunboy, siege of, 488. Duudalk, Scliomberg encamps near, 629. Dungan Hill, battle of, 563. Dungannon, convention of, 710. Early Christian Architecture of the Irish, 1 14. Early inhabitants of Ireland, ethnological theories on, 19. Eclipses mentioned in early Irish annals, 18. Edgecombe, Sir Pachard, 335, 336. Emauia, foimdation of, 26; destruction of, 41. Enniscorthy, battle of, 748. Enniskillen, siege of, 450. Eochy O'Flynn, 154. Eoghan Mor, 34, 35 ; race of, 37 {note). Eoghan, son of Nial, his race, 75. Eric, law of, 51. Essex, Walter Devereux, Earl of, attempts the plantation of Ulster, 403 ; murders Brian O'Xeill, 404. Queen EHzabeth's favorite, lands in Ireland, 468 ; marches to the south, 469; returns to Leinster, ibid; his couierence with O'Neill, 472 ; return to England and execution, 472. Explanation, the act of, 604. Fay, Edmond, the Adventurer, 374 Feis of Tara, 24. Felim, King of Munster, his aggressions, 124. Fethard, surrendered to Cromwell, 584. Fiacre, St., 101. Fianna Eirion, 38 ; their disloj^alty and es tinction, 40. Fidh Aengussa, synod of, 162. Finnachta Fleadhach remits the Bonimean tribute, 89. Finn MacCuail, 38. Firbolgs, 3 ; their monuments, 20 ; return to Ireland, 28 {note). Fitton, Sir Edward, president of Connaught, 400 ; his rigor and insolence, 401 ; his removal, 403. Fitzgerald, Maurice, 184 ; arrives in Ire- land, 133; ^^ar with Godfrey O'Donnell, 20'J; death, ibid. — John FitzThomas, his feud with De Vesey, 271. Lord Thomas (Silken Thomas), his rebellion, 357 ; surrenders and brought to London, 3G0; executed with his five uncles, 361. John of Desmond, goes to Eng- land, 396 ; joins the Spaniards, 414; kills Davells, 415 ; succeeds James FitzMaurice in the command of the insurgents, 415; gains the battle of Gort-na-tiobrad, 417 ; defeated at jMonasternena, 417 ; his ad- ventures in Leinster, 422 (note) ; his death, 427. 770 INDEX. Fitzgerald, Walter, Riavagh, 453 (note). See Desmond, Earls of; andKildare, Earls oj. ) FitzMaiirice, Sir James, his warlike cha- racter, 396 ; takes Kihnallock, 400 ; his submission, 402 ; applies to the Pope for aid, 412; lauds at Smerw^ick, 413; pro- ceeds to Tipperary, 415 ; slain, 416. FitzStephen, Robert, lands at Banna, 185 ; besieged in Carrig Castle, 19S ; restored to liberty bv Henrv II., 201. FitzWilliam, Sir William, 441. Earl, popiilar administration of, 728. Flanu Sinna, 127. " Fhght of the Earls," 497. Flood, Henry, 713. Fomorians, the, 3 [note). Fort-del- Ore, Massacre of, 423. Fosterage, custom of, 52. Fowre, reported Irish meeting at, 1)63. French emissaries in Ireland, 378. French land at Killala, 757. Fridolin, St., the traveller, 104. Frigidiau, St., 101. Fiirsey, St., 101. Gall, St., 96. Gal way Jury, noble conduct of a, 510. Gal way surrendered to Ludlow, 593 ; L j sieged by Ginkell, 665. Gavelkind, custom of, 50. Gaveston, Pierce, 275. Gavra, battle of, 40. General Assembly, 538. George I. , 685. George II., 690. George III., begins to reign, 699. Geraldines (see Fitzgerald), Desmond and Kildare. Glamorgan, Earl of, his mission, 549 ; arie • t. 552. Glenmalnre, Lord Grey defeated in, 421. Glenmama, battle of, 139. Glin Castle captured, 477. Gort-na-tiobrad, battle of, 417. Graces, the, privileges promised by Charles I., 507. Grattan, Eight Hon. Henry, his eloquence, 709 (note) ; opposed by Flood, 714. Gray, Lord Leonard, takes Silken Thomas to Loudon, 360 ; destroys O'Brien's bridge, 361 ; continues a Cathohc, 365 ; his deatli, 368. Grey, Arthur Lord De Wilton, defeated in Glenmalnre, 421 ; orders the massacre of Fort del Ore, 423 ; recaUed, 428. Habeas Corpus Act suspended, 731. Harvey, Beauchamp Bagual, chosen general, 749 ; executed 753. Hearts-of-Oak-boys, 701. Steel-boys, 701. Heniy II. promises aid to Dermot !Mac Murrough, 183; his aversion to Strong- bow, 189; goes in person to Ireland, 199; receives the submission of certain Irish princes, 200 ; holds; his court in Dulilin, 201 ; his departure, 209 ; his death, 233. Herenachs, office of, 112. Hig.gins, murder of Father, 529. Heche's expedition, 730. Holy Wells, 116. Hugh Ainmire, his war with Bran Dubh, 86. Hugh Finliath, 127. Hugh Oirdnigh, 124. Iceland, Irish missionaries in, 105. Inchiquiu, Murrough, Viscount, makes peace Avitli Ormond, 567 ; takes Drogheda, 572 ; dies a Catholic, 590 (note). Innocents, law of the, lUO. Insurrection in Dublin, Kildare, &c., in 1 798, 744, &c. ; finally extinguished, 755. Intercourse between Ireland and England in early ages, 161. Ireland, the different names of, 76 (note). Ireton takes Limerick, 592; his death, 592. Irial the Prophet, 23. Irish abroad, 514 (note). ■ army in Scotland, exploits of, 513. bi'igades leave for France, 671. causes of discontent among the, 512. excesses exaggerated, 521. writers of the 17 th century, 615. Island Magee, massacre of, 523. Jackson, Eev. W., his mission, 728; trial, and suicide, 729. James I. , his confiscations, 500 ; persecutes the Catholics, 501 ; his rapacity, 505. James II., flies to France from England, 620 ; comes to Ireland, 622 ; marches to Derry, 622 ; holds a parliament in Dub- lin, 626 ; defeated at the Boyne, 639 ; escapes to France, 640. John, made King of Ireland, 223 ; lands in Ireland, 229 ; his insolence and recall, 231 ; second visit to Ireland, 244 ; divides Leinster andConnaught into counties, 245. John Scotus Erigena, 106. Kells, synod of in 1152, 174 ; ditto in 1612, 531. Ivildare, Garrett or Gerald, Fitzgerald, Earl of, espouses the cause of Simnel, 333 ; im- prisoned in the Tower, 339 ; pardoned, 340 ; gains the battle of Knocktow, 343 ; death, 346. Garrett Oge, his first exploits, 347 ; rejjairs to England, 348 ; restored to power, 352 ; reckless conduct, 355 ; dies in the Tower, 358. (See Fitzfjerald.) Kildimo, massacre at, 425. Kilgarvan, Ijattle of, 261. Kilian, St., 101. Kilkenny, statute of, 299. surrender of, to Cromwell, 585. synod of, 533. Kilmashoge, the Irish defeated by the Danes at, 130. Killala, the French landed at, 757. Kilrush, battle of, 532. liinsale, arrival of the Spaniards at, 482 ; battle of, 485 ; James II. lands at, 622 ; surrendered to Marlborough, 650. INDEX 771 Knockavoe, battle of, 343, Knockmoy, abbey of, 234 {note). Kuocknaclashy, battle of, 591. Knocknanos, battle of, 565. Knocktow, battle of, 343. Kyteler, Alice, 2S8 (note). Laegliaire, King, his hostility to St. Patrick, C7 ; his death, 74. Lavchoinai-t, the, 120. Learning of the ancient Irish, 154 Leath Chain and LeathMogha, di%-isionof, 35. Legislators of the ancient Irish, 58. Leix and Otfaly, annexation of, 379. Lia Fail, the, 8. Limerick taken by Eaymond le Gros, 215 ; burned y>y Dounell More O'Brien, 219 ; cajitiu-ed by Ireton, 591 ; besieged by Wil- liam III., 643-647 ; second siege, 6G8 ; capitulates to Giukell, 669 ; articles of, 670 (note) ; treaty violated, 674. Lindisfarne founded, 96. Lismore, council of, 207. Liviuus, St., 101. Lorraiu, Duke of, his negotiations with the Irish, 590. Lucas, Charles, 697. Lucy, Sir Anthony, his severity, 291. Luttrell, Henry, his treason, 067 {note). MacCarthy, Connac, K. of Munster, 166,171. MacDonnell, Alexander, 546, 563, 566. (See also Ike Addenda and Corrigenda.) MachaMongroe founds Emania, 26. Mac Liag, GioUa (St. Gelasius), his death, 217. MacMahon, Heber, the warlike bishop of Clogher, 585 ; his death, 587. MacMahon, Hugh Roe, murdei-ed by the Lord Deputy, 442. MacMurrough, Art, 309, 310 ; his interview with the Duke of Gloucestei', 311 ; his death, 318- MacMurrough, Dermot, his crimes, 171 ; carries off Dervorgil, 176; flies to England and solicits aid from Henry II., 182 ; secures the assistance of Earl Strongbow and others, 184 ; returns to Ireland, l84 ; his brutality, 187 ; his ambition, 189 j his death, 193. Donough, 322, Macroom, battle of, 586. Maeve, Queen of Connaught, her espedition to Ulster, 28. Magh Cro, massacre of, 32. Magh Lena, battle of, .35. Magnus, King of Norway, his expedition to Ireland, 160. Maguire, Hugh, his rebellions, 449 ; death, 473. Mahon, brother of Brian Bonmiha, 137. Malachy, St., his early education, 168 ; elected Bishop of Connor, 169 ; made Archbishop of Armagh and persecuted by schismatics, 169, 170; solicits paUiunis from the Pope for the Irish church, 172 ; his death, 173. Malachy I., King of Ireland, 125, 126. Malachy II., King of Ireland, his accession, 137; besieges the Danes in Dublin, 138; his wars with Brian, 138 ; again besieges Dublin, ibid ; his deposition, 140 ; his alleged treachery at Clontarf, 145 ; re- sumes the sovereignity, 151 ; his death, iljid. Jklalby, Sir Nicholas, 417. Mananan MacLir, legend of, 9. Margaret, Queen of Offaly, her banquet to the learned, 327- Marianus Scotus, 155. Marshal, Eai'l, his tragical end, 256. Massacres. (See Manh Cro, M allaghmast. Fort-del-ore, Kildimo, ; rejects terms of peace, 461 ; gains the victory of the Yellow Ford, 464 ; con- fers with Essex at Bally clinch, 472 ; his expedition to Munster, 473 ; plot to murder him, 481 ; marches to join the S])aniards, 484 ; defeated at Kinsaie, 485 ; his last stand, 491 ; his submission, 493 ; goes to England, 495 ; inveigled into a sham j)l()t, 497 ; his flight to Rome, and death, 498 ; his attainder, 503. Owen Roe, comes to Ireland, 528; defeats Monroe at Benburb, 556 ; his death, 581. Shane, defeated in Tyrconnel, 381 ; Sir Henry Sidney stands sp(ins(jr for his child, 383 ; his hostilities, 387 ; plot to nnirder him, 388, note ; visits England, 389 ; returns, 390 ; defeated at Ardna- garry, 393 ; murdered by the Scots, 393 ; his character, 394 (note). Sir Phelim, his proclamation in 1641, 514 ; his execution, 597. Orange lodges first established, 723. Orde's propositions, 721. Orni'md (see Butler). Orr, W., trial and execution of, 735. Ornaments of gold and silver, ancient Irish, 24. O'Ronrke, Tiernan, murdered. 211. O'Sullivan, Donnell, his castle of Dunboy taken, 488 ; his retreat to Leitriin, 49' ». — Philip, author of the Hi-toria Catholica, &c., 491 (note). O'Toole, St. Laurence, or Lurcan, his birth, 180; attemi)t to assassinate him, 216; his death, 227. O'Tooles, their ancient i)atrimony, 180 (note). Palatinates of Kerry and Tipperary created, 291. Palatines, the, 683 (note). Pale, the, its extent, 313 (note) ; entered by the northern Irish in 1641, 525. Paladins, St., 61. INDEX. 773 Paparo, Cardinal John, 174. Parliament, Irish, under Henry VIII., 370; under Elizabeth, 3S4, .198; of 1585,433; of 1613, 504; of IGGl, 602; Kin^ James's Irish parliament, 626 ; de- prived of its independence, 686 ; its de- claration of rii,dits, 712; its corruption, 717 ; its extinction, 764. Pai'liamentary robes, Irish chiefs apply for, 370. Partholan, 1, 2. Paschal question, 97. Patrick, St., opinions about his birth- place, 62 ; his bondage in Ireland, 63 ; travels on the continent. 6-i ; lands in Ireland, 65 ; comes to Slane, 66 ; visits Tara, 67 ; his journeyings, 68 ; visits Counaught, 69 ; preaches in Munster, 70 ; bajjtizes Aengus, 70 ; his death, 71. Penal laws, 678 (tioie), 682 {note). Pension list, abuses of, 701. Peep-o'-Day boys, 722, 723. Perrott, Sir John, 401, 432, 436, 440. Persecution of the Catholic clergy, 414, 448 (note), 501, 597. Pestilence of the black death, 297 [note) ; of the king's game, 298. Picts, the, 15. Piety of Irish kings, 119. Pdltown, battle of, 328. Plantation of Ulster first projected, 403 ; realised, 500. See Conftscniidns. Phinkett, Dr. Oliver, 612 {note). Popery, bill to prevent the further growth of, 681. Popish jilot, tlie so-called, 609. Portentous signs, 120. Presidents, lords, creation of, 400. Preston, colonel, arrival of, 538. Proclamations against the Catholics, 610. Prosperous, attacked by the rebels, 745. Poynings, Sir Edward, 338 ; his act, 339. Quigley, or Coiglej% Father, 737. Path Hugh, meeting of, 126. Ilathmines, battle of, 553. Paths, 56. Paymond le Gros, his landing, 189 ; cap- tures Limerick, 215; Fitzadelm's jea- lousy of him. 220. Regency Question, the, 724. Pelics of St. Patrick, supposed transla- tion of, 232. Religion of the pagan Irish, 47. Remonstrance of the l)arons to Edward III., 295; of the Iri.sh ])rinces to Pope John XXII., 278 ; of the lords of th-2 Pale, 502 ; Peter Walshe's Irish, 605. Restoration, the, 600. Right boys, the, 722. Riiiuccini comes to Ireland, 550, 551 ; his strong measures, 559 ; e.xcomnuuiic!.;tes the abettors of the truce with luchi- quin, 569 ; returns to Rome, 570. Roman invasion of Ireland projected, 31. Ross (see New Ross). Ross, heroic self-devotion of the bishoji of, 586. Rotunda, convention of the volunteers at, 718, 720. Round towers, the, 115. K(^wan, Archibald Hamilton, his trial, 727. Rumann. the poet, 119. Russell, Sir William, lord dei>uty, 451. Sacramental test, 681. Saints beds, 116. Saunders, Dr., his death, 426. Sarslield, destroys the English artillery, 644 ; created Earl of Lucan, 651 ; some account of him, 651 {note). Saxon incursion into Ireland, 89, 90. Scarampi, Father, 544. Schomberg, his arrival, 629 ; his fatal encampment at Duudalk, 629 ; his death, 638. Seanchus ]\Ior, 73. Sedulius, St., the elder, 103; the yomiger, 102. Sentleger conciliates the Irish, 3G9 ; is recalled, 374 ; resumes the government of Ireland, 375 ; again recalled, 380. Sir Warham, 473. Septs, list of independent Irish, 349 {note). Sepulchral monuments, 57. Settlement, the act of, 602. Scullabogue, massacre at, 750. Scotia, an ancient name of Ireland, 76. Scottish kingdom f' landed, 75. Rebellion of 1715, 685 ; of 1745, 692. Sheares, execution of the, 742. Sheahy, Father Nicholas, 700. Shrule, battle of, 401. Slaibre, battle of, 87. Sidney, Sir Henry, 394, 396, 397, 399, 410. Simnel, Lambert, 333, 334. Social progress, early, 24. Southern garrisons, revolt to Cromwell, 583. Spanish Expeditions to Ireland, 413, 422, 482, 483; Capitulation of the Spaniards after the battle of Kinsale, 487. Spencer's account of Ireland, 428 {note). Stone, ])rimate, 693. Stratloi-d, Earl of, appointed lord lieute- tenaut, 508 ; his duplicity, 509 ; carries out the Plantation Scheme, 510, 511; sends a Catholic army to England, 512 ; his execution, 512. Strongbow, lands in Ireland, 190 ; pro- claimed king of Leinster, 193 ; besieged in Dublin, 196; repairs to England, 199; his der;th, 219. St. R-.ith, general, arrives, 652 ; killed at Aughrim, 66 1. St'ikely, Tl'omas, 412 {iiote\. Sundivslon ot te.T'to>y, ioS. Subsidies of the Irish to Charles T, 509. '■'SiMnm'iP of cJight acquaintance" the, or»o Sr.mptuary la^v", '?A. Surnames introduced, 141, 142 {note). Surrey, earl of, 349, 351. 774 INDEX. Sussex, earl of, 580, 391. Swift, Dean, 687, G88. Tailtean, fair of, 7 ; battle of, 13. Talbot, Archbishop, 610. Colonel fticharrl, Earl of Tircon- nell, 608, 611,617,647,667. Sir John, LordFurnival, 317. Tanistery, law of, 40. Tara abandoned by the Irish kings, 82 ; its ancient remains identified, ibid note. battle of, in 1708, 746. Temu-e of land among the ancient Irish, 50. Termon lands, 112. Theobald-na-lung (see Burke). Thurot's expedition, 697, 698. Tiernmas, 23. Tighernagh, the annalist, 155. Timolin, taken by Orraond, 542. Tiptoft, John, Earl of Worcester, 3.i0. Tirconnell (see O'Donnell and Talbot). Titles, English, conferred on Irish chiefs, 371. Tone, TheobaldAYolfe, 725, 728, 730, 760. Tory Island, battle of, 2. Townsend, Lord, his administration, 702. Treaty of Ormond and the confederates ratified, 569. Trim, conference of, 543. Tuatha-de-Dananns, 5, 9 [note), 20. Tnrgesius, 124, 125. Tyrrell, Captain, 459. Ufford, Sir Ralph, 296. Ulster, plantation of, 500. Union, how carried, 763, 764. United Irishmen, first society of, esta- blished, 725 ; their suppression, 728. University of Dublin founded by Arch- bishop Bicknor in 1320, 288. Ussher, Ai'chbishop, 501 (note). Vinegar Hill, battle of, 751. Virgilius, St., 103. Vivian, Cardinal, 222. Volunteers, their rise, 706 ; receive the thanks of parliament, 709 ; their decay, 720. Warbeek, Perkin, 337, 338, 340. Waterford besieged by Strongbow, 190 ; by Cromwell, 583 ; synod of, 558. Waucop, R., Archbishop of Armagh, 376. Weapons, ancient Irish, 53. Wentworth, Viscount (see otrafFord). Wexford besieged by Fitzstephen, 185 ; taken by Cromwell, 578 ; abandoned to the insurgents in '98, 748, Whiskey first mentioned in the Irish an- nals, 315, Whiteboys, the, 699. Whitby, conference of, 99. William III., land? at Torbay, 619; pro- claimed king in England, 621 ; lands at Carricfergus, 631 ; gains the battle of the Boyne, 639 ; enters Dublin, 641 ; raises the siege of Limerick, 643 ; re- turns to England, 647 ; his death, 680. Windsor, treaty of, between Henry II. and Roderick O'Connor, 216. Wood's halfpence, 688. Woollen manufacture of Ireland destroyed, 679. Yellow Ford, battle of the, 464. Youghal burned by the Earl of Desmond, 418. DUE DATE 201-6503 Printed in USA COL0«UN,VERgj, 0035524952 9-1-1.5 11299 in o Aiir, 1 7 1964