XLII. THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA
[Sidenote: The Armada expected.]
On the death of Jacques Wingfield, Perrott had granted the Mastership of the Ordnance to his son, Sir Thomas. It appeared, however, that there had been a grant in reversion passed to Sir William Stanley, which was voidable, but not void, by that officer's treason. On the place becoming legally vacant it was conferred upon Sir George Carew, the late Master's nephew. He reported that almost everything in the Dublin store was rusty and rotten, and that the small remainder would soon be as bad, since no allowance was made for maintaining it in a serviceable state. The gunners and armourers were no better than the stores; while Cork, Limerick, and other places were as ill-provided as the capital. Yet the Spaniards were daily expected, and the whole population, exhausted by their late sufferings, stood at gaze, waiting in fear and trembling for the great event.[163]
[Sidenote: The Spanish ships appear.]
[Sidenote: Admiral Recalde.]
On the 2nd of August Drake made up his mind that the enemy could not land in any part of Great Britain, and left the Armada to contend with the elements only. The rumours of English defeat which reached Spain were industriously propagated in Ireland also, but on the 26th the discomfiture of the invaders was known as far west as Athlone, though no letter had yet arrived. In the first days of September the flying ships began to tell their own story. From the Giant's Causeway to the outermost point of Kerry the wild Atlantic seaboard presented its inhospitable face, and the Spaniards who landed met with a reception to match. At first they were the objects of great anxiety, and if the fleet had kept together, the crews, sick and hungry as they were, might have made some dangerous combination with the natives. But the Duke of Medina Sidonia, with fifty-two ships, managed to weather the Irish coast. This was owing to the advice of Calderon, who was the only officer with him that knew our shores, and who had a proper horror of the terrible west coast of Ireland. Admiral Recalde, a distinguished sailor, but with less local knowledge, parted company with the Duke off the Shetlands. When the storm moderated he had twenty-seven sail with him, but by the time he reached Kerry these were reduced to three. There were twenty-five pipes of wine on board, but no water except what had come from Spain, 'which stinketh marvellously.' There was very little bread, and the thirsty wretches could not eat their salt beef. Recalde anchored between the Blaskets and the main land, and sent for water. But Smerwick was close by, and no Kerry Catholic cared to run the risk of comforting the Queen's enemies. Recalde's ship, 'The Don John of Oporto,' was one of the largest in the whole Armada, containing 500 men, but of these 100 were ill; some died daily, and the strongest were scarcely able to stand. The masts were injured by the English shot and would not bear a press of canvas, yet there was nothing for it but to trust once more to those crazy spars. When Slea Head was passed, the immediate danger was over, and Recalde ultimately reached Corunna, but only to die of exhaustion four days after. He seems to have had some presentiment of disaster. When Medina Sidonia was appointed to command the expedition, his Duchess wished him to decline the perilous honour. If he succeeded, she philosophically remarked, he could be no more than Duke of Medina Sidonia; whereas he would lose his reputation if he failed. 'Yes,' said Recalde significantly, 'if he returns.'[164]
[Sidenote: Misery of the Spaniards.]
[Sidenote: Wreck off Kerry.]
[Sidenote: Spaniards hanged at Tralee.]
The noble landsman to whom Philip, with extraordinary folly, entrusted the greatest fleet which the world had yet seen, had probably no choice but to make his way homewards as best he might. Unable to cope with the English or to co-operate with Parma, a great seaman might perhaps have been equally unsuccessful in attaining the objects of the expedition. But a chief of even ordinary capacity might have managed to ship some fresh water on the Faroes or the Shetlands. Neither on those islands nor on the Norwegian coast could any serious resistance have been offered; but the chance was lost and the consequences of this neglect were frightful. Wine was but a poor substitute, and some of the victuals were as unwholesome as the foul water. Among other things lime had been mixed with the biscuit, and for this many bakers in Spain were afterwards hanged. The ships were so much damaged, and the men so weak, that it was often impossible to keep clear of the coast. One unfortunate vessel, named 'Our Lady of the Rose,' foundered in the Sound of Blasket, in sight of the open water which Recalde had reached. The Genoese pilot had probably no local knowledge, and steered her on to a sunken rock, where she went down with 500 men on board; but not before an officer had killed the poor Italian for supposed treason. The pilot's son alone escaped, by swimming, to tell the tale. Among the doomed was the young prince of Ascoli, said to be a son of Philip's, who had originally sailed with Medina Sidonia and had taken a boat at Calais, had failed to regain the admiral's ship, and had sought refuge upon that which had now gone to the bottom. A small vessel, which seems to have had no boat, was driven into Tralee Bay. Three men swam ashore and offered to surrender, saying they had friends at Waterford who would ransom them; but the names of those friends they refused to disclose. Lady Denny hanged the whole crew, consisting of twenty-four Spaniards, on the ground that there was no way of keeping them safely. Norris afterwards regretted that this had been done, but he also at first dreaded a landing in force.[165]
[Sidenote: Wrecks off Clare.]
Seven ships were driven into the Shannon, and lay for a short time off Carrigaholt. The Spaniards burned one which was too leaky to go to sea again. Another was wrecked in Dunbeg Bay, on the other side of Loop Head, and between 200 and 300 men were drowned. Another was lost at Trumree, a few miles farther north, and the names of Spanish Point and Mal Bay are believed to commemorate the impression which these disasters left upon the native mind. 300 men who landed were slain by the sheriff, in obedience to Bingham's orders. Another ship lay for a time at Liscannor, where there is little or no shelter, but the crew were unable to land; one of her two boats was washed ashore, and a large oil-jar found in her showed that water was the Spaniards' great want. Other ships were seen off the Arran Islands, and one of 200 tons came within a mile of Galway. It is not recorded that any of these were lost; but neither does it appear that any were relieved. They drifted away in misery, the men dying daily, and the survivors having to work, though themselves in a condition very little better than that of the fabulous Ancient Mariner.[166]
[Sidenote: Wreck in Clew Bay.]
[Sidenote: Spaniards slaughtered by the Irish.]
The ocean waves which roll into Clew Bay are partly broken by the island of Clare, which belonged in the sixteenth century to the O'Malleys--a clan famous as sea-rovers and fishermen. The western half of the island consists of a heathery mountain, which is said to harbour grouse, though other grouse are so far away. The eastern half is cultivated; but as late as 1870 there were no roads in the island, no wheeled vehicles, and only a single saddle, reserved for the annual visit of the agent. A native leaning on his spade, and lamenting the badness of the potatoes, asked a stray visitor if there were any news of the world. Upon these lonely rocks a large ship, commanded by Don Pedro de Mendoza, foundered with 700 men. Less than 100 had landed two days before, and these were all slaughtered by Dowdary Roe O'Malley, for the sake of the gold which they had brought with them. Mendoza tried to escape with some fishing-boats, but he shared the fate of his men, much to Bingham's regret. One poor Spaniard and an Irishman of Wexford were spared out of 800. At Ormonde's village of Burrishoole farther up the bay a ship of 1,000 tons and fifty-four guns was driven ashore. Most of those on board were lost, but sixteen landed with gold chains and surrendered to the Earl's tenant. It was reported in London that the Duke of Medina Sidonia was among them, and Ormonde sent over a special messenger with orders to seize all that was valuable, to let the Duke ride his own horse, and not to put him in irons, but to treat him as the greatest prince in Spain. But Ormonde was not fortunate enough to capture this rich prize, nor is it likely that any of the plunder was reserved for him.[167]
[Sidenote: Wrecks in Connemara.]
[Sidenote: Spaniards executed.]
In the western part of Galway two vessels were wrecked, one of them being the 'White Falcon' with Don Luis de Cordova and his company. The O'Flaherties were at first disposed to shelter and befriend the strangers, but Bingham made proclamation that anyone who harboured Spaniards for more than four hours would be reputed as traitors. Many were brought to Galway accordingly, where 300 were straightway executed by the Provost Marshal, who was then sent to exercise his office in O'Flaherty's country and to do what he could towards saving ordnance and munitions; and other officers were sent into Mayo with similar instructions. Of the prisoners at Galway forty picked men were reserved for Bingham's decision, of whom thirty were afterwards executed. Don Luis and nine others were spared, as likely to be worth ransom, or to be able to give useful information.[168]
[Sidenote: Alonso de Leyva.]
The most famous Spaniard in the Armada was Alonso de Leyva, who was in command of the troops, and who would have acted as general had the invaders effected a landing in force. Even at sea he was the second in command, and had a commission to take supreme direction in case anything should happen to the Duke of Medina Sidonia. De Leyva had been suspected of intriguing for the command during the life of Santa Cruz, and even of thwarting that great seaman's preparations. He had served under Don John in Flanders, where he raised a famous battalion consisting entirely of half-pay officers, and afterwards in Sicily and Italy; and had resigned command of the cavalry at Milan on purpose to take part in the expedition against England. When the Armada actually sailed he had charge of the vanguard, and had pressed the Duke hard to attack the English in Plymouth Sound, where their superior seamanship would avail them little. The guns of the fort, he said, would be silent, for their fire would do as much harm to one side as to the other. This bold advice was probably wise, but Medina Sidonia was not the man to take it. At a later period De Leyva is said to have directly accused the Duke of cowardice, and to have been threatened by him with the penalty of death--his only answer to every criticism.
[Sidenote: His ship and followers.]
He himself sailed on board the 'Rata,' a ship of 820 tons, 35 guns, and 419 men, of whom only 84 were seamen. Among the landsmen were many noble adventurers, who were desirous of seeing war under so famous a captain. When the fleet parted company the 'Rata' remained with Recalde, and went as far as 62° north latitude; the object being to reach Ireland and to refit there. The increasing cold frustrated this plan, and the half-sinking ships staggered southward again in the direction of Spain.[169]
[Sidenote: Alonso de Leyva wrecked in Mayo,]
[Sidenote: and again in Donegal.]
The 'Rata' was driven, much disabled, into Blacksod Bay, and anchored off Ballycroy. The sailing-master was Giovanni Avancini, an Italian, who, with fourteen of his countrymen, being ill-treated by the Spaniards, stole the ship's only boat and wandered off into the country, where they were robbed and imprisoned by the 'Devil's Hook's son' and others of the Burkes. De Leyva then sent men ashore on casks, who recovered the boat, and the whole ship's company were brought safe to land. They then entrenched themselves strongly in an old castle near the sea. Two days later, the 'Rata' was driven on to the beach. A boat full of treasure, besides such unaccustomed wares as velvet and cloth of gold, fell into the hands of the natives, and the ill-fated ship was fired where she lay. Meanwhile the transport 'Duquesa Santa Ana,' of 900 tons, drifted to the same remote haven. She had 300 or 400 men on board, who had been specially levied in honour of the Duchess of Medina Sidonia, but room was somehow made for all De Leyva's people, and the transport set sail for Spain. The overladen craft had no chance against a head wind, and was driven into Loughros Bay, in Donegal. The shelter was bad, the cables parted, and the 'Santa Ana' went on the rocks; but here, again, no lives were lost. The shipwrecked men encamped for several days, and heard that the 'Gerona,' one of the four great Neapolitan galleasses which the luckless Hugo de Moncada had commanded, was lying in Killybegs Harbour. De Leyva had been hurt in the leg by the capstan during the confusion on board the 'Santa Ana,' and could neither walk nor ride. He was carried nineteen miles across the mountains between four men, and encamped at Killybegs for a fortnight, while the galeass was undergoing repairs. He despaired of reaching Spain in such a crazy bark, and determined, if possible, to land in Scotland. The Spaniards were, in the meantime, dependent on MacSwiney Banagh for food, and that chief was afraid of bringing famine on his country. At first, the unbidden guests had beef and mutton, but afterwards they were obliged to buy horseflesh.[170]
[Sidenote: Alonso de Leyva sails a third time,]
Some of the Irish pressed De Leyva to stay and to be their general against the English heretics, but he pleaded that he had no commission to do any such thing. He does, however, seem to have had some idea of wintering in Ulster, which he abandoned either on account of the difficulty of getting provisions, or because he saw no chance of defeating Fitzwilliam, whose arrival in Ulster was constantly expected. And he may have thought that the MacSwineys were not altogether to be trusted. The 'Gerona' had been made seaworthy with MacSwiney's help, and by using the materials of another wreck, but she would not hold anything like the whole of his people. The bulk of them were willing to take their chance of a passage to Scotland, and, in the meanwhile, to make friends with the natives, and to join their fortunes to those of their shipwrecked countrymen. The galeass originally carried 300 galley-slaves, who could not be dispensed with, and less than that number of soldiers and sailors combined. It may be therefore assumed that she put off from Killybegs with not far short of 600 men on board. Her pilots were three Irishmen and a Scot.
[Sidenote: but is finally lost off Antrim.]
The noble volunteers all shared the fortunes of their chief. The 'Gerona' was a floating castle rather than a ship, built for the Mediterranean, and for fine weather, and utterly unsuited for the work required. Nevertheless she weathered Malin Head, and may even have sighted the Scotch coast. The wind came ahead, or the leaks gained upon the pumps--no one will ever know exactly what happened. For some time the fate of Don Alonso was doubtful; but about the beginning of December it became certainly known that the galeass had gone to pieces on the rock of Bunboys, close to Dunluce. But five persons, of no consequence, escaped, nor were any of the bodies identified. Hidalgos and galley-slaves shared the same watery grave.[171]
[Sidenote: Importance of De Leyva.]
Alonso de Leyva is described as 'long-bearded, tall, and slender, of a whitely complexion, of a flaxen and smooth hair, of behaviour mild and temperate, of speech good and deliberate, greatly reverenced not only of his own men, but generally of all the whole company;' and Philip said that he mourned his loss more than that of the Armada. It was well for England that the sovereign who rated Don Alonso so highly had not given him the supreme command, for the 'brag countenance,' which stood Lord Howard in such good stead would not then have been allowed to pass unchallenged. The loss of the 'Gerona' brought mourning into many of the noblest houses in Spain and Italy. 'The gentlemen were so many,' says a Spanish castaway, who visited the fatal spot, 'that a list of their names would fill a quire of paper.' Among them were the Count of Paredes, and his brother Don Francisco Manrique, and Don Thomas de Granvela, the Cardinal's nephew.[172]
[Sidenote: Wrecks in Sligo.]
[Sidenote: Great loss of life.]
Three large ships were wrecked on the seaboard immediately to the north of Sligo Bay. A survivor recorded their failure to double the 'Cabo di Clara,' owing to a head wind. Erris Head was probably the actual promontory, and the Spaniards must have thought it was Cape Clear. Their ignorance of the coast is evident, and it seems certain that they mistook the north-west corner of Connaught for the south-west corner of Munster. Cape Clear was well known by name, and they would have been in no danger after doubling it. As it was, the west coast was a trap into which they drifted helplessly. Even of those who succeeded in rounding the Mullet we have seen that few escaped. Of the three who were lost near Sligo, one was the 'San Juan de Sicilia,' carrying Don Diego Enriquez, son of the Viceroy of New Spain and an officer of high rank. They anchored half a league from shore. For four days the weather was thick, and on the fifth a stiff nor'-wester drove them all aground. The best anchors lay off Calais, and there was no chance of working her off shore, for sails and rigging were injured by the English shot. The beach was of fine sand, but there were rocks outside, and in one hour the three ships, badly fastened in the best of times, and kept afloat only by frequent caulking, had completely broken up. Don Diego, foreseeing this, got into a decked boat with the Count of Villafranca's son, two Portuguese gentlemen, and more than 16,000 ducats in money and jewels, and ordered the hatches to be battened down. With a proper crew she might have reached land safely, but more than seventy despairing wretches flung themselves into her, and the first great wave swept them all into the sea. The imprisoned hidalgos had no control over the boat, which was driven on to the beach bottom upwards. More than thirty-six hours later the natives came to rifle her, and dragged out the bodies. Three were dead, and Don Diego expired immediately after his release. According to the Spanish account more than 1,000 were drowned altogether, and less than 300 escaped, and this agrees pretty well with what we learn from English sources. 'At my late being at Sligo,' says Fenton, 'I numbered in one strand of less than five miles in length above 1,100 dead corpses of men which the sea had driven upon the shore, and, as the country people told me, the like was in other places, though not of like number.'[173]
[Sidenote: The survivors are stripped and robbed by the Irish,]
[Sidenote: who rejoice over their prey.]
[Sidenote: But some are more humane.]
The smallest of the three ships was that which carried Don Martin de Aranda, who acted as judge-advocate-general or provost-marshal to the Armada, and who had been ordered by the Duke of Medina Sidonia to hang Don Cristobal de Avila and Captain Francisco de Cuellar for leaving their places in the line. The first was actually hanged, and carried round the fleet at the yard-arm of a despatch boat to encourage the rest. Cuellar was spared at the provost-marshal's earnest request, and with him he remained until the loss of the ship. He stood on the poop to the last, whence he saw hundreds perish and a few reach the shore astride on barrels and beams, to be murdered in many cases, and stripped in all, by '200 savages and other enemies,' who skipped and danced with joy at the disaster which brought them plunder. Don Martin de Aranda came to Cuellar in tears, both sewed coin into their clothes and after some struggles found themselves together upon the floating cover of a hatchway. Covered with blood and injured in both legs, Cuellar was washed ashore, but Don Martin was drowned. 'May God pardon him,' says the survivor, and perhaps he needed pardon, for it was he who had signed the order to kill all the French prisoners after the fight at Terceiras. Unobserved by the wreckers, Cuellar crawled away, stumbling over many stark naked Spanish corpses. Shivering with cold and in great pain he lay down in some rushes, where he was joined by 'a cavalier, a very gentle boy,' who was afterwards discovered to be a person of consequence, stripped to the skin, and in such terror that he could not even say who he was. He himself was a mere sponge full of blood and water, half-dead with pain and hunger; and in this state he had to pass the night. Two armed natives who chanced to pass took pity on them, covered them with rushes and grass which they cut for the purpose, and then went off to take their part in the wrecking. Green as the covering was, it probably saved Cuellar's life, but at daybreak he found, to his great sorrow, that the poor, gentle lad was dead.[174]
[Sidenote: Adventures of Francisco de Cuellar.]
[Sidenote: A devout damsel.]
Slowly and painfully Cuellar made his way to what he calls a monastery, probably the round tower and church of Drumcliff, which is about five miles from the scene of the shipwreck. He found no living friends in this ancient foundation of St. Columba, but only the bodies of twelve Spaniards, hanged 'by the Lutheran English' to the window gratings inside the church. An old woman, who was driving her cows away for fear of the soldiers, advised him to go back to the sea, where he was joined by two naked Spaniards. Miserable as they were, they picked out the corpse of Don Diego from among more than 400, and buried him in a hole dug in the sand, 'with another much-honoured captain, a great friend of mine.' Two hundred savages came to see what they were doing, and they explained by signs that they were saving their brethren from the wolves and crows, which had already begun their ghastly work. As they were looking for any chance biscuits which the sea might have cast up four natives proposed to strip Cuellar, who alone had some clothes, but another of higher rank protected him. While on his way to this friendly partisan's village, he met two armed young men, an Englishman and a Frenchman, and a 'most extremely beautiful' girl of twenty, who prevented the Englishman from killing, but not from stripping, the wretched Spaniard. A gold chain worth 1,000 reals was found round his neck, and forty-five ducats sewn up in his doublet, being two months' pay received before leaving Corunna. He protested that he was only a poor soldier, but it was nevertheless proposed to detain him as worth ransom. Cuellar records, with some complacency, that the girl pitied him much, and begged them to return his clothes and to do him no more harm. His doublet was restored, but not his shirt, nor a relic of great repute which he had brought from Lisbon, and which 'the savage damsel hung round her neck, saying, by signs, that she meant to keep it, and that she was a Christian, being as much like one as Mahomet was.' A boy was ordered to take him to a hut, to put a plaster of herbs on his wound, and to give him milk, butter, and oatmeal cake.[175]
[Sidenote: A visit to O'Rourke.]
[Sidenote: Cuellar is enslaved by a smith;]
[Sidenote: but escapes to MacClancy.]
Cuellar was directed towards the territory of O'Rourke, narrowly escaped a band of English soldiers, was beaten and stripped naked by forty 'Lutheran savages' not easily identified, mistook two naked Spaniards for devils in the dark, joined them, and at last, after enduring almost incredible hardships, reached the friendly chief's house, partly wrapped in straw and fern. O'Rourke had many houses. This one may have been Dromahaire, near to the eastern extremity of Lough Gill. It was a castle, and Cuellar calls it a hut, the probability being that thatched outhouses were generally occupied, and that the stone keep was little used except for defence. Everyone pitied the stranger, and one man gave him a ragged old blanket full of lice. Twenty other Spaniards came to the same place, reporting a large ship not far off. Cuellar was unable to keep up with them, and thus failed to embark on a vessel which was soon afterwards wrecked. All that escaped the sea were killed by the soldiers. Cuellar then fell in with a priest, who was dressed in secular habit for fear of the English, and who spoke in Latin. Following his directions the Spaniard sought the castle of MacClancy, a chief under O'Rourke who held the country south and west of Lough Melvin, and who was a great enemy of Queen Elizabeth. A savage whom he met enticed him to his cabin in a lonely glen. The man turned out to be a smith, who set his prisoner to blow the bellows. This lasted for eight days, and as the old man of the sea refused to let Sindbad go, so did this old man of the mountains declare that Cuellar should stay all his life with him. The Spaniard worked steadily for fear of being thrown into the fire by this 'wicked, savage smith and his accursed hag of a wife.' The friendly priest then appeared, and owing to his exertions, four natives and one Spaniard were sent by MacClancy to release Cuellar. He found ten of his shipwrecked countrymen with MacClancy, and everyone pitied him, especially the women, for he had no covering but straw. 'They fitted me out,' he says, 'as well as they could with one of their country mantles, and during my stay of three months I became as great a savage as they were.' Cuellar seems to have been susceptible to female influences, for he remarks that his host's wife was extremely beautiful and very kind to him, and he spent a good deal of time in telling her fortune and those of her fair relatives and friends. This was amusing at first, but when men and less interesting women began to consult him he was forced to apply to his host for protection. MacClancy would not let him go, but gave general orders that no one should annoy him.[176]
[Sidenote: A wild Irish household.]
An account of an Irish household by a foreigner who had lived among the people for months, and whose sight was not coloured by English prejudice, is so rare a thing that Cuellar's may well be given in full.
[Sidenote: The men.]
[Sidenote: The women.]
[Sidenote: The Irish rob the Spaniards, but save their lives.]
'The habit of those savages is to live like brutes in the mountains, which are very rugged in the part of Ireland where we were lost. They dwell in thatched cabins. The men are well-made, with good features, and as active as deer. They eat but one meal, and that late at night, oat-cake and butter being their usual food. They drink sour milk because they have nothing else, for they use no water, though they have the best in the world. At feasts it is their custom to eat half-cooked meat without bread or salt. Their dress matches themselves--tight breeches, and short loose jackets of very coarse texture; over all they wear blankets, and their hair comes over their eyes. They are great walkers and stand much work, and by continually fighting they keep the Queen's English soldiers out of their country, which is nothing but bogs for forty miles either way. Their great delight is robbing one another, so that no day passes without fighting, for whenever the people of one hamlet know that those of another possess cattle or other goods, they immediately make a night attack and kill each other. When the English garrisons find out who has lifted the most cattle, they come down on them, and they have but to retire to the mountains with their wives and herds, having no houses or furniture to lose. They sleep on the ground upon rushes full of water and ice. Most of the women are very pretty, but badly got up, for they wear only a shift and a mantle, and a great linen cloth on the head, rolled over the brow. They are great workers and housewives in their way. These people call themselves Christians, and say Mass. They follow the rule of the Roman Church, but most of their churches, monasteries, and hermitages are dismantled by the English soldiers, and by their local partisans, who are as bad as themselves. In short there is no order nor justice in the country, and everyone does that which is right in his own eyes. The savages are well affected to us Spaniards, because they realise that we are attacking the heretics and are their great enemies. If it was not for those natives who kept us as if belonging to themselves, not one of our people would have escaped. We owe them a good turn for that, though they were the first to rob and strip us when we were cast on shore. From whom and from the three ships which contained so many men of importance, those savages reaped a rich harvest of money and jewels.'[177]
[Sidenote: Wanderings of Cuellar.]
[Sidenote: A narrow escape.]
[Sidenote: A friendly bishop.]
Cuellar helped MacClancy to defend his castle against the Lord Deputy, and the chief was as unwilling to let him go as the smith had been. He escaped with four other Spaniards, during the first days of the new year, and after three weeks' hardship in the mountains found himself at Dunluce in Antrim, where Alonso de Leyva had been lost. He was told that his only chance of a passage to Scotland was by some boats belonging to O'Cahan, which were expected to sail soon. The wound in his leg had broken out afresh, and he was unable to stand for some days. His companions left him to shift for himself, and after a painful walk to Coleraine he found that the boats had gone. There was a garrison there, and he had to take shelter in a mountain hut, where some women compassionately nursed him. In six weeks his wound was well enough to enable him to seek an interview with O'Cahan, but that chief, who was afraid to help any Spaniard, had gone upon a foray with the soldiers. 'I was now,' he says, 'able to show myself in the town, which was of thatched houses, and there were some very pretty girls, with whom I struck up a great friendship and often visited their house to converse. One afternoon when I was there, two young Englishmen came in, and one of them, who was a sergeant, asked me if I was a Spaniard, and what I did there. I said yes, and that I was one of Don Alonso de Luzon's soldiers who had surrendered, that my bad leg had prevented me from going with the rest, and that I was at their service to do their bidding. They said they hoped soon to take me with them to Dublin, where there were many Spaniards of note in prison. I replied that I could not walk, but was very willing to accompany them. They then sent for a horse, and their suspicions being set at rest, they began to romp with the girls. The mother made me signs to leave, which I did very quickly, jumping over ditches and going through thick covert till I came within view of O'Cahan's castle. At nightfall I followed a road which led me to a great lagoon.' This was probably Lough Foyle, and here he was befriended by herdsmen, one of whom, after a visit to Coleraine, told him that he had seen the two Englishmen 'raging in search' of him. He kept his counsel, but advised Cuellar to remove into the mountains. He was conducted to the hiding-place of a bishop, 'a very good Christian,' who prudently dressed like the country folk. 'I assure you,' writes the devout Spaniard, 'that I could not restrain my tears when I came to kiss his hand.' It seems almost certain that this was Redmond O'Gallagher, papal bishop of Derry and acting Primate, one of the three Irish prelates who had attended the Council of Trent. He had twelve other Spaniards with him, and by his help Cuellar managed to reach Scotland. 'He was a reverend and just man,' says the latter; 'may God's hand keep him free from his enemies.'
[Sidenote: Final escape of Cuellar.]
Four shiploads of castaways from the Armada were ultimately despatched from Scotland, and were not molested by the English, to whom they were no longer dangerous; but Cuellar was wrecked once more near Dunkirk, and saw 270 of his companions butchered by the Dutch. At last, in October 1589, fourteen months after his narrow escape from swinging at the Duke of Medina Sidonia's yard-arm, did this much-enduring man reach Antwerp, which was then in the hands of Alexander Farnese, and from thence he wrote the account which has been so largely used.[178]
[Sidenote: More than twenty ships lost in Ireland]
It is not possible to trace the history of every ship lost on the Irish coast. Bingham, in a letter written when all was over, says twelve ships were wrecked in his province, which included Clare, and that probably two or three more foundered about various islands. He particularly excluded those lost in Ulster and Munster. In a paper signed by Secretary Fenton the total number of vessels lost is given as eighteen, but full accounts had not yet come in, and that number certainly falls short of the truth. Cuellar says that more than twenty were lost in the kingdom of Ireland, with all the chivalry and flower of the Armada.[179]
[Sidenote: Great loss of life.]
[Sidenote: Donegal.]
[Sidenote: Connaught.]
[Sidenote: Munster.]
According to Fenton's account 6,194 men belonging to the eighteen ships whose loss he records, were 'drowned, killed, and taken.' This does not include those who escaped, nor the men belonging to ships not comprised in his list. At the end of October the number of Spaniards alive in Donegal alone was not far short of 3,000. About 500 escaped from Ulster to Scotland--'miserable, ragged creatures, utterly spoiled by the Irishry'--and some of their descendants remain there to this day, and preserve the tradition of their origin. Very few of them reached Spain, and on the whole, we may believe that the number of subjects lost to Philip II. out of that part of the fleet which was lost in Ireland, cannot have been much short of 10,000. 'In my province,' says Bingham, 'there hath perished at the least 6,000 or 7,000 men, of which there hath been put to the sword by my brother George, and executed one way and another, about 700 or 800, or upwards. Bingham spared some Dutchmen and boys, as probably engaged against their wills, but these were executed by the Lord Deputy himself when he visited Athlone. Twenty-four survivors from a wreck were executed at Tralee, but this was done in a panic, and was quite unnecessary. Munster was indeed too thoroughly subdued to make the presence of a few Spaniards dangerous. In Ulster the arm of the Government scarcely reached the castaways until they were no longer of much importance. Even the native Irish did not always spare those who had come to deliver them. The MacSwineys killed forty at one place in Donegal. Plunder was no doubt the object, as it had been in Tyrawley and in Clare island, but a desire to curry favour with the Government had also a good deal to say to it. It was only in those parts of Ulster and Connaught where the power of the chiefs was still unbroken, that the Spaniards received any kind of effectual help.[180]
[Sidenote: Tyrone and O'Donnell.]
[Sidenote: The Spaniards powerless.]
Tyrone did what he could for the Spaniards by sending them provisions, and he bitterly reproved O'Donnell, who with his eldest son had helped the Government against them. Other O'Donnells joined the strangers, and the chief does not seem to have carried his country with him. His MacDonnell wife made no secret of her intention to employ the foreigners for her own purposes. Tyrone himself was careful not to commit any overt act, and indeed professed the utmost loyalty, but he took the opportunity to renew his complaints against Tirlogh Luineach. Two brothers named Ovington or Hovenden, who were partly in his service and partly in the Queen's, skirmished with the Spaniards wrecked in Innishowen and brought most of them prisoners to Dungannon; but many of their soldiers ran away, and their own good faith was much suspected. The MacSwineys all helped the Spaniards more or less, and O'Dogherty complained that they transferred them to his country as soon as their own had been eaten up. With men and boats he had saved many hundreds from a wreck, but this was little more than common humanity demanded. There were at one time about 3,000 Spaniards alive in Ulster. O'Rourke had given them arms; MacClancy interrupted the communications; Ballymote, where George Bingham had a house, was burned by the O'Connors, O'Dowds, and O'Harts, who said they were making way for King Philip, and it was thought that Sligo must inevitably fall into their hands. Bingham's vigour disconcerted the plans of the confederates, and a good many of the Spaniards made their way to Scotland. A few continued to lurk in different parts of Ireland, down to 1592 at least, but it is hardly possible to believe, what is so often stated, that they were in numbers sufficient to leave traces upon the features and complexions of the natives. Spanish blood there may be in Ireland, but it is surely more reasonable to attribute it to the commerce which existed for centuries between a land of fish and a land of wine.[181]
[Sidenote: Wreck in Lough Foyle.]
[Sidenote: Officers ransomed.]
The ship wrecked in O'Dogherty's country was the 'Trinidad Valencera' of Venice. She had on board about 600 men--Spaniards, Greeks, and Italians; and of these 400, including more than 100 sick, were brought to shore, some of them with arms, but 'without even one biscuit.' 'The natives, who are savages,' had retired into the mountains, but they found some horses at grass, which they killed and ate. They were attacked by Tyrone's foster-brethren, Richard and Henry Hovenden, who made much of the glorious victory of 140 over 600. The Spaniards said that they had surrendered on promise of their lives and of decent treatment; but that their captors nevertheless stripped them naked and killed a great many, not more than eighty being reserved as prisoners. Among these was one who seemed to carry 'some kind of majesty.' This was probably Don Alonso de Luzon, chief of the tercio or brigade of Naples, who was distinguished by a pointed beard and a large moustache. De Luzon with several other officers was brought to Drogheda, where they were told that those who had plundered them were not Englishmen but sons of the soil. Don Diego de Luzon and two others died after their arrival, and several had perished on the road. Don Alonso and Rodrigo de Lasso, who were both knights of Santiago, were sent to London for ransom, as well as Don Luis de Cordova and his nephew, the only prisoners whom Fitzwilliam allowed to live of those which Bingham had saved. More than fifty others were afterwards sent over, and something like 800_l._ appears to have been paid by way of ransom for them all.[182]
[Sidenote: The Irish got the plunder.]
[Sidenote: Small gain to the Queen.]
[Sidenote: Relics and traditions.]
The amount of plunder secured did not at all satisfy expectation. Much treasure fell into the hands of the Irish, who regarded the wreckage as a godsend. The small arms and the lighter pieces of artillery were appropriated in the same way. The larger cannon were not so easily moved, and a few were recovered by Carew and others. One wedge of gold found its way to the Queen, and there were rumours of various costly articles which had been seized by officers or adventurers. The guns rescued for her Majesty hardly exceeded a dozen, and a few others were sent into Scotland by the MacDonnells, who also got hold of a good many doubloons. The relics which have been handed down to us are very few, but the memory of the invincible Armada is preserved by the names which have clung to some points of the Irish coast.[183]
[Sidenote: The Armada a crusade.]
[Sidenote: Irish priests on board.]
[Sidenote: Other Irishmen.]
By a strange reading of history it has lately been attempted to divest the Armada of its religious character. It is very true that some of Queen Elizabeth's subjects were conspicuous by their loyalty, though they adhered to the communion of Rome: they were Englishmen first and Catholics afterwards. But it was against heresy and against the queen of heresy that Philip shot his bolt. One Spanish poem in honour of the Armada begins with an invocation of the Virgin 'conceived without sin,' and ends with some lines about turning the Lutherans into good Christians. Another poet laments that the wise, powerful, and warlike island of Britain had been changed from a temple of faith into a temple of heresy. The land which produced the Arthurs, the Edwards, and the Henrys, was now, he says, condemned to eternal infamy for submitting to a spindle instead of the sceptre and sword; and he apostrophises Elizabeth as anything but a virgin queen, but rather as the wolfish offspring of an unchaste mother. Lope de Vega, who served in the Armada, contents himself with calling Philip the Christian Ulysses, and the Queen of England a false siren; and he avers that faith only despatched the vast fleet from the Spanish shore. 180 Spanish and Portuguese friars sailed in the Armada, Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, Augustinians, and Theatins being all represented; and there were certainly some Irish ecclesiastics. 'Tomas Vitres' is probably Thomas White of Clonmel, who became a Jesuit in 1593. There was also a friar named James ne Dowrough, who originally went to Spain with James Fitzmaurice, and who was cast upon the coast of Donegal, where the people paid him much respect. Some few Irish laymen there were also on board, of whom the most important was a son of James Fitzmaurice, who died at sea and who was buried with a great ceremonial in Clew Bay. One or two other Desmond Geraldines are also mentioned. There were a few who belonged to good families of the Pale, the most important being Baltinglas's brother, Edmund Eustace. Eustace was reported dead, but he got back to Spain. Cahil O'Connor, who killed Captain Mackworth, was another, and he also was afterwards alive in Spain. James Machary, a native of Tipperary, said he was impressed at Lisbon. On the whole it is clear that there was no thought at all of a descent on Ireland, though some Spaniards taken in Tralee Bay said that on board the Duke of Medina's ship was an Englishman called Don William, a man of a reasonable stature, bald, and very like Sir William Stanley. But Stanley had not left the Netherlands, and there were other Englishmen in the Spanish fleet.[184]
[Sidenote: Rumours from Spain.]
[Sidenote: A tradition.]
As late as February, 1589, Irish merchants spread flattering reports in Spain. Alonso de Leyva was alive, they said, and held Athlone against the Lord Deputy with 2,000 men; but an Irish bishop at Corunna said there were no Spaniards in Ireland, and the tellers of both tales were arrested until the truth should be known. Norris had recommended that Irish auxiliaries should be used in retaliating on the coast of Spain, and when he visited Corunna with Drake they lamented that the advice had not been taken. 'Had we had either horse on land, or some companies of Irish kerne to have pursued them, there had none of them escaped.' There is a tradition in Munster, and the local historian fixes the date in 1589, that Drake was pursued by Spaniards into Cork harbour, that he took refuge among the woods in the secluded Carrigaline river, and that the foreigners sailed round the harbour and departed without being able to find him. It is not easy to say when this happened, but the place is called 'Drake's hole' unto this day.[185]
[Sidenote: The last of the Armada.]
The Scotch Government did what it could to get rid of the Spaniards peaceably, but some were not shipped off until July 1589, and even then a remnant was left. They hung about the Orkneys, taking stray English vessels and even committing some murders on Scottish soil. In the correspondence to which they gave rise Bothwell's name is frequently mentioned, and they continued to give trouble for some years. The few who lingered in Ireland could do but little harm, and the years which followed Philip's great enterprise were unusually quiet.[186]
FOOTNOTES:
[163] Carew to Burghley, July 18 and Aug. 2, 1588; to Walsingham, July 18, Aug. 4 and Sept. 18; to Heneage, July 18 and Aug. 4, all in Carew.
[164] Examination of Emanuel Fremoso and Emanuel Francisco, Sept. 12, 1588; James Trant, sovereign of Dingle, to Sir Edward Denny, Sept. 11; Bingham to Burghley, Aug. 26; Ormonde to Mr. Comerford, Sept. 18. Recalde's ship was burned by Drake at Corunna in April 1589; she had then sixty-eight pieces of brass cannon. See Duro's _Armada Invencible_, ii. 446. 'Cuando torne' were Recalde's words.
[165] Examination of Juan Antonio of Genoa, Sept. 15; Vice-President Norris to Walsingham, Sept. 8 and 9; William Herbert to Fitzwilliam, Feb. 1589; Peter Grant's news under Feb. 28.
[166] Nicholas Kahane to the Mayor of Limerick, Sept. 12; George Woodloke to the Mayor of Waterford, Sept. 10; Boetius Clancy, sheriff of Clare, to Bingham, Sept. 6. Mr. James Frost, of Limerick, writes as follows:--'One ship was driven upon the rocks at a place called Spanish Point (Rinn na Spainig) near Miltown Malbay.... The tradition is that the other ship was driven ashore at a place called Ballagh-a-line, not far from Lisdoonvarna. Boetius Clancy of Knockfime, a place one mile distant from the scene, was sheriff of Clare in that year. He ordered such of the crew as came alive on the shore to be hanged, and they were buried in one pit near the church of Killilagh. The place of execution has been long since called Knockacroghery (the hangman's hill) and the tumulus of earth heaped over the dead Spaniards is called Tuaim na Spainig. In a few years afterwards, peace being restored between England and Spain, a request was made to the English Government for permission to exhume the body of the son of one of the first grandees of Spain, who had been on board the lost ship, in order to its removal home for burial. Consent was given, but the body having been placed with the rest in one grave, could not be found. Clancy was greatly blamed by all parties for his inhumanity.'
[167] Edwarde Whyte to Walsingham, Sept. 30; Ormonde to Comerford, Sept. 18.
[168] Edwarde Whyte to Walsingham, with discourse enclosed, Sept. 30; examination of Don Luis de Cordova, Oct. 1.
[169] Duro, i. 34, 44, 200, ii. 374, 440, ib. 66-70 for the names of the noble volunteers, among whom is 'Manuel Paleologo,' with two followers.--Froude, xii. 503.
[170] The most circumstantial account of De Leyva's adventures, so far, is the deposition, taken on Dec. 29, of James Machary, a Tipperary man who was on board the 'Santa Ana.' Other particulars are in the 'discourse' sent by E. Whyte to Walsingham on Sept. 30. See also Fitzwilliam to Burghley, Oct. 27, with the enclosures; Duro, i. 171 Gerald Comerford to Bingham, Sept. 13.
[171] Bingham to the Queen, Dec. 3; Fitzwilliam, &c., to the Privy Council, Dec. 31; Duro, ii. 65; advertisement by Henry Duke, Oct. 26.
[172] Machary's examination, Dec. 29, and that of George Venerey, a Cretan. Duro, ii. 66-70, 364. The gentleman-adventurers who sailed both on the 'Rata' and 'Santa Ana' were doubtless collected on board the 'Gerona.' Captain Merriman, writing to Fitzwilliam on Oct. 26, says 260 bodies were washed ashore, as well as certain wine, which was appropriated by Sorley Boy MacDonnell. A small cove close to the Giant's Causeway is still called Port-na-Spania. There is a local tradition that the fallen pillars of basalt on the height were knocked down by the Spanish gunners, who mistook them for Dunluce Castle; but they were not thinking of bombarding castles just then.
[173] Cuellar's narrative in Duro, ii. 342; Sir Geoffrey Fenton to Burghley, Oct. 28. The following is from Col. Wood Martin's History of Sligo, 1882: 'The largest of the galleons struck on a reef (from that circumstance called Carrig-na-Spania, or the Spaniard's Rock) situated off the little island of Derninsh, parish of Ahamlish. On the map of the Sligo coast (A.D. 1609) is placed opposite to this island the following observation:--"Three Spanish ships here cast away in A.D. 1588."' The bodies lay on Streedagh strand, and cannon-balls and bones have been cast up there within the last few years.
[174] Duro, i. 123, ii. 343-347.
[175] Duro, ii. 347-350.
[176] Duro, ii. 350-358. The chief who sheltered Cuellar is called by him Manglana, and in the State Papers MacGlannagh or MacGlannahie. 'The barony of Rossclogher in Leitrim,' says O'Donovan, 'was the territory of the family of Mag-Flannchadha, now anglicised MacClancy.'--Irish Topographical Poems, xxxvii. 268.
[177] Duro, ii. 358-360. Cuellar calls all the Irish--men and women, chiefs and kerne--by the same name, 'salvajes.'
[178] The work quoted is La Armada Invencible, by Captain Cesareo Fernandez Duro of the Spanish navy, Madrid, 1885. For my first acquaintance with this book, which deserves translation, I am indebted to a charming article by Lord Ducie in the Nineteenth Century for September 1885. Neither Captain Duro nor Lord Ducie can explain the words 'D. Reimundo Termi Obispo de Times,' nor can I. The Irish word Termon may have something to do with it, but whatever 'Termi' and 'Times' may mean, 'Reimundo' is good enough Spanish for Redmond. A year later Bishop O'Gallagher is mentioned in a State paper as 'Legate to the Pope and custos Armaghnen ... using all manner of spiritual jurisdiction throughout all Ulster ... these twenty-six years past and more.' The Spanish captain's prayer was heard till 1601, when the bishop was killed by the English not far from the place where Cuellar had kissed his hand. Brady's Episcopal Succession, s.v. Four Masters, 1601. Note of Popish bishops, &c. by Miler Magrath, calendared at Dec. 17, 1590.
[179] From a careful comparison of accounts I venture to distribute the wrecks as follows:--
1. To the south of Slea Head ('in Desmond' Fenton says);
1. 'Nuestra Señora della Rosa' (945 tons, 26 guns, and 297 men), between Slea Head and the Blaskets;
1. Deserted and burned near Carrigaholt in Clare;
1. At Dunbeg in Clare;
1. At Trumree in Clare;
1. The 'White Falcon' (500 tons, 16 guns, 197 men), in Connemara;
2. In Clew Bay (of which one was the 'Rata,' 820 tons, 35 guns, 419 men);
1. In Tyrawley;
3. Near Sligo, the 'San Juan de Sicilia,' one of them (800 tons, 26 guns, 342 men);
2. At uncertain places in Connaught;
2. At Killybegs;
1. The transport 'Duquesa Santa Ana' (900 tons, 23 guns, 357 men), at Loughros Bay;
1. In Boylagh, Donegal;
1. The 'Trinidad Valencera' (1,100 tons, 42 guns, 360 men), on the Innishowen side of Lough Foyle;
1. The 'Gerona' galeass (50 guns, 290 men), between Dunluce and the Bann.
This makes twenty, and there were probably two or three more lost. The 'Barca de Amburg' (600 tons, 23 guns, 264 men) sank off the coast somewhere.
The numbers of men given in this note are from the Spanish official list (Duro, ii. 60), but we know that many were transferred from one vessel to another. See, besides the authorities already cited, Fenton's note calendared at Sept. 19, 1588, and Bingham to the Queen, Dec. 3. Other ships mentioned in Spanish accounts as having been lost in Ireland are the galleon 'San Juan Battista' (750 tons, 24 guns, 243 men); the 'Anunciada' (703 tons, 24 guns, 275 men), and the transports, 'Gran Grifon' (650 tons, 38 guns, 286 men), and 'Santiago' (600 tons, 19 guns, 86 men).--Duro, ii. 328.
[180] Note by Fenton, Sept. 19; Bingham to Fitzwilliam, Sept. 21 and Oct. 10; to the Queen, Dec. 3; Norris to Walsingham, Sept. 8 and 9; advertisements from Henry Duke, Oct. 26; Fitzwilliam, Loftus, and Fenton to the Privy Council, Dec. 31.
[181] Lord Deputy and Council to the Privy Council, Oct. 12, with twenty enclosures; Fitzwilliam to Burghley, Oct. 27, with six enclosures; Solomon Farenan to Fitzwilliam, Feb. 18, 1589; Bingham to Fitzwilliam, Jan. 3, 1592; Fitzwilliam to Burghley, May 9, 1592.
[182] Duro, ii. 450 sqq.; examination of Don Alonso de Luzon, &c., Oct. 13, 1588; Fitzwilliam to Burghley, Dec. 31. Sir Horatio Pallavicino arranged with Walsingham for the ransoms; see his accounts, Dec. 1589, No. 85, and Oct. 31, 1591, also G. B. Guistiniano to Burghley, April 8, 1591. On March 14, 1594, Tyrone made it an article against Fitzwilliam that neither he nor the Hovendens had been rewarded for their service.
[183] Bingham to Fitzwilliam, Sept. 21, 1588; Sir W. Herbert to Walsingham, Dec. 27, 1588; Lord Deputy and Council to the Privy Council, Dec. 31 and Jan. 30, 1588-9; see also several letters in Carew from June 2 to Aug. 1, 1589. The most important relic that I know is a very handsome table preserved at Dromoland; it was washed ashore near Miltown Malbay, and tradition says that it was 'in the admiral's cabin;' but Sidonia never went near the coast of Clare. Lord Inchiquin writes that a letter, supposed to be still extant, accompanied the table to Dromoland, but that he has been unable to find it. An iron chest washed ashore near the Giant's Causeway is in Lord Antrim's possession. The Macnamara family formerly possessed cups, a watch, crosses, &c., out of the Armada, brought from the Arran Islands, but these I have been unable to trace; guns have been recovered, but not many, and the rudder of a ship was cut into gateposts near Westport!
[184] For the poems see Duro, i. 237, and ii. 85; examination of Spaniards taken at Tralee, Sept. 9, 1588; Fitzwilliam to Burghley, Oct. 27, with enclosures; examination of James Machary, Dec. 29, &c.
[185] Fitzwilliam to Burghley, March 14, 1589, with enclosures; Drake and Norris to the Privy Council, May 7, printed in Barrow's Life of Drake Smith's Cork, i. 216.
[186] Notices in the Calendar of S. P. Scotland, especially Oct. 28, 1588.
XLIII. ADMINISTRATION OF FITZWILLIAM, 1588-1594
[Sidenote: Ulster after the Armada.]
[Sidenote: Case of Sir John O'Gallagher.]
When the danger was over, it was not unnatural that Fitzwilliam should wish to chastise those who had favoured the invaders, or at least to reduce them to submission. His enemies said he only wanted to convert some of the Spanish treasure to his own use; but it is clear that he got none of it, either for himself or for the Queen. On two miles of strand in Sligo 'there lay,' he says, 'more wrecked timber in my opinion (having small skill or judgment therein) than would have built five of the greatest ships that ever I saw, besides mighty great boats, cables, and other cordage answerable thereunto, and some such masts, for bigness and length, as in mine own judgment I never saw any two could make the like.' But there were no doubloons. The castles of Ballyshannon and Belleek were in possession of Tyrone's father-in-law, Sir John MacToole O'Gallagher, who had formerly enjoyed a good service pension of 100_l._, of which he had been deprived by Perrott. He was now in close alliance with Ineen Duive, the mother of Hugh Roe O'Donnell, and it was dangerous to oppose her, for she murdered at this time another O'Gallagher whose independent bearing annoyed her. Neither O'Rourke nor any of the smaller chiefs who had befriended the Spaniards came to Fitzwilliam, and the cattle were driven off into the mountains. O'Donnell did come, and so did Sir John O'Gallagher and Sir John O'Dogherty. Fitzwilliam's enemies said O'Gallagher came under safe conduct, but the annalists do not allege this. The Deputy himself says he persuaded him to come by courteous entreaty, and that O'Dogherty came of his own accord. He treated them as sureties for Perrott's tribute, of which 'not one beef had been paid,' and carried them both prisoners to Dublin; but the 2,100 cows remained in Donegal. Whether word was broken with these chiefs or not, Fitzwilliam's policy was certainly bad. How were O'Rourke and MacSwiney punished by imprisoning O'Gallagher or O'Dogherty? There could be no result except to make Irishmen very shy of the Viceroy. O'Dogherty remained in Dublin Castle for a year or more, and the deputy Remembrancer of the Exchequer said he was only released then because certain hogsheads of salmon were sent to the Lord Chancellor's cellar. O'Gallagher remained six years in prison, Fitzwilliam saying he was too dangerous to liberate, and his critics maintaining that he only wanted to be bribed. The wretched chief, who was old and infirm, was released by Sir William Russell, but died soon after.[187]
[Sidenote: O'Donnell politics.]
Fitzwilliam, who went from Donegal to Strabane, made Donnell O'Donnell sheriff. He was O'Donnell's eldest son by an Irish wife or mistress, and it was supposed that he would do good service against the Scotch party, who thirsted for his blood. It was hoped that Tyrone would help to get the promised rent from Tyrconnell, but he contented himself with entertaining the army sumptuously at Dungannon, and he afterwards made the treatment of Sir John O'Gallagher one of his principal grievances. The redoubtable Ineen soon afterwards burned down her husband's house at Donegal, lest it should serve to shelter a garrison, and at the same time her son Hugh, who was a prisoner at Dublin Castle, was betrothed to the Earl's daughter. The Lord Deputy's journey to the North had no results of importance, but he could boast of not losing one man in seven weeks.[188]
[Sidenote: The Desmond forfeitures.]
[Sidenote: Opposition to the undertakers.]
In order to clear up some of the claims made upon the forfeited Desmond estates, it was thought wise to send over no less a person than Chief Justice Anderson. His law could not be gainsaid, and he was not likely to err on the side of leniency. The English lawyers joined in commission with him were Sir Robert Gardiner, Chief Justice of Ireland, Thomas Gent, Baron of the Exchequer in England, and Jesse Smythe, Chief Justice of Munster; and upon these four fell the principal part of the work. Of eighty-two claims only one was allowed, a conveyance from Desmond being produced in that case, of a date prior to his first treasonable act. In the absence of such proof, the Queen was held to be seised in fee of all the Earl's estate. The materials exist for a detailed account of the Munster settlement, but they are more properly available for histories of Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Waterford than for that of Ireland. One of the suitors aggrieved by the decision of the commissioners was Lord Roche, and his case is especially interesting because of its connection with Spenser. He made seven distinct claims, and on the first being dismissed, because he had 'sinisterly seduced' the witnesses, he refused to proceed with the others, and threatened to complain to the Queen, whereupon the commissioners sent him to gaol. The imprisonment was short, but he declared that one of the undertakers had shot an arrow at him, professed to be in fear of his life, and begged Ormonde to lend him some house on the Suir, where he might be safe for a time. In the meantime he managed to make the country very unsafe for some other people.
[Sidenote: Spenser.]
Spenser had Kilcolman and 4,000 acres allotted to him, but he complained that the area was really much less. Less or more, he was not allowed to dwell in peace, and his chief enemy was Lord Roche, who accused him of intruding on his lands, and using violence to his tenants, servants, and cattle. The poet retorted that the peer entertained traitors, imprisoned subjects, brought the law into contempt, and forbade all his people to have any dealings with Mr. Spenser and his tenants. An English settler named Keate asked Morris MacShane, one of Lord Roche's men, why he had no fear of God; and it was sworn that he answered, 'he feared not God, for he had no cause; but he feared his Lord, who had punished him before and would have his goods.' Lord Roche was charged with many outrages, such as killing a bullock belonging to a smith who mended a settler's plough, seizing the cows of another for renting land from the owner of this plough, and killing a fat beast belonging to a third, 'because Mr. Spenser lay in his house one night as he came from the sessions at Limerick.' Ultimately the poet's estate was surveyed as 3,028 acres at a rent of 8_l._ 13_s._ 9_d._, which was doubled at Michaelmas 1594, making it about five farthings per acre. Spenser maintained himself at Kilcolman until 1598, when the undertakers were involved in general ruin. Troubles with Lord Roche continued to the end, and it may be doubted whether even the happy marriage which inspired his finest verses ever reconciled him to what he has himself described as--
My luckless lot That banished had myself, like wight forlore, Into that waste, where I was quite forgot.
[Sidenote: Raleigh.]
[Sidenote: Fatal defects of the settlement.]
Raleigh, whose society was one of Spenser's few pleasures in Munster, settled a very large number of English families upon his great estate in Cork and Waterford. Passing afterwards into Boyle's skilful hands, this settlement became of the greatest importance, but it was overrun like the rest in 1598. Ten years before the crash came, Raleigh could see that Thomas of Desmond and his son James were dangerous neighbours. Sir Richard Grenville and Fane Beecher had the whole barony of Kinalmeaky between them, and at the end of 1589 there were only six Englishmen there, upon land estimated at 24,000 acres. The hero of Flores had a very poor opinion of the prospect unless questions which proved insoluble could be speedily settled, and the English settlers found their position everywhere very disagreeable. Grenville and St. Leger planted a considerable number in the district immediately south of Cork, and Arthur Hyde did pretty well on the Blackwater; but, as a rule, the newcomers were greatly outnumbered by the natives. Nor can it be doubted that many returned to England when they found that Munster was not Eldorado. Irish tenants were easily got to replace them, and even to pay rents to the undertakers until it was possible to cut their throats. When the day of trial came, the remaining settlers were easily disposed of; they cried, and there was none to help them.[189]
[Sidenote: The Clancarty heiress;]
[Sidenote: secretly married to Florence MacCarthy.]
Among other devices for balancing the Desmond power in Munster, Elizabeth had made Donnell MacCarthy More Earl of Clancare, and Shane O'Neill had spoken very sarcastically of this attempt to turn a foolish chief into a 'wise earl.' His only legitimate son ran away to France, where he died, and all hereditary rights were then vested in his daughter Ellen, who became an important figure in the eyes of English and Irish fortune-hunters. It appears that Clancare sold his daughter to Sir Valentine Browne as a wife for his son Nicholas, Sir Thomas Norris having first given up the idea of wooing her. Sir Valentine was a mortgagee, for the earl had wasted his substance in riotous living, and in the hands of a family of undertakers and land-surveyors every claim of that sort would have its full value. In the eyes of the MacCarthies and of the heiress's mother, who was a Desmond, the proposed match was a disparagement, and early in 1589 a private marriage was celebrated between Lady Ellen and Florence MacCarthy, who had probably come from London on purpose. Sir Nicholas Browne afterwards married a daughter of O'Sullivan Bere. The heiress does not seem to have been much consulted, and a marriage which began so romantically was not in the end even moderately happy. In 1599 she distrusted her husband, who called her 'foolish and froward,' and not long afterwards she was practically a spy upon his actions.
[Sidenote: Mac Carthy politics.]
[Sidenote: Florence and Donnell MacCarthy.]
Florence was Tanist of Carbery, which had passed to his uncle, and the result of his runaway match would be to unite the territories of MacCarthy Reagh and MacCarthy More in one hand. Now that the Desmonds were gone, a MacCarthy on this scale would be the strongest man in Munster. To break up these great estates was a fixed object with the English Government, and Florence was sent as prisoner to England, where he remained for several years. His wife escaped from Cork, hid for a long time among her people, and then joined her husband in London. The clans generally acknowledged him as MacCarthy More, but there was another claimant in the person of Clancare's illegitimate son Donnell, who had many friends among the people, and who was probably his father's favourite. A peaceable inhabitant was murdered by this spirited young man, whom he had ventured to reprove for his Irish extortions, and who supported himself and his band of followers by promiscuous robbery. 'It is thought,' said St. Leger, 'that this detestable murder was committed by the Earl's consent, for that the party murdered would not relieve him with money, to bear out his drunken charges at Dublin.' Florence, on the contrary, was a scholar, and a man who, notwithstanding his gigantic stature, used his pen more readily than his sword. His accomplishments, and the very hard treatment he received, have made him interesting, but there was nothing heroic about him. He was an astute Irishman, and while English writers could rightly accuse him of treasonable practices, his rival Donnell, called him 'a damned counterfeit Englishman, whose only study and practice was to deceive and betray all the Irish in Ireland.'[190]
[Sidenote: Fitzwilliam and the MacMahons.]
In June 1589 Sir Ross MacMahon, chief of Monaghan, died without heirs male. He held of the Queen by letters patent, and was regarded as MacMahon, and also as feudal grantee of the whole country, except the districts comprised in the modern barony of Farney, which had been granted to Walter, Earl of Essex. He was liable to a rent of 400 beeves and to certain services. His brother Hugh Roe at once claimed his inheritance. Fitzwilliam's great object was to break up these principal chiefries into moderate estates, and he thought this a good opportunity. Brian MacHugh Oge also claimed to be MacMahon, but upon purely Celtic grounds, and very much upon the strength of 500 or 600 armed men whom he found means to pay. Fitzwilliam persuaded Hugh Roe that he had not much chance of success, and brought him to agree to a division, but his kinsmen refused, since each gentleman of the name claimed to be the MacMahon himself. Fitzwilliam then acknowledged Hugh Roe as chief, and sent him 400 foot and 40 horse. Brian MacHugh was in possession of Leck Hill and of the stone upon which MacMahons were inaugurated, and was supported by Tyrone and by Hugh Maguire, who had just become chief of Fermanagh upon the death of his father Cuconnaught. On the approach of the Queen's troops he fled into O'Rourke's country, and left Hugh Roe in possession. Returning a few days later with help from O'Rourke or Maguire, he drove his rival from Clones, and killed a few soldiers, but without coming into collision with the main body. Hugh Roe did, however, maintain himself, but soon showed that he had no intention of abandoning native customs. He rescued prisoners from the sheriff of Monaghan, drove cattle in Farney, burned houses, and behaved himself generally like a spirited Irish chieftain. These offences legally involved a forfeiture of his patent, and Fitzwilliam found means to arrest him. Tyrone looked upon the cattle-stealing merely as 'distraining for his right according to custom,' but Fitzwilliam saw another chance of effecting the much desired partition. The Queen was inclined to think that MacMahon had committed nothing more than 'such march offences as are ever ordinarily committed in that realm,' that great caution should be used in punishing a man who undoubtedly depended on the Crown, and that Brian MacHugh in particular was not to be preferred. In the end Hugh Roe was tried and executed at Monaghan. In 1591 the country, with the exception of Farney, was divided between six MacMahons and MacKenna, the chief of Trough. The rent reserved to the Queen was 7_s._ 6_d._ for every sixty acres. An ample demesne was assigned to each, and those holding land under them, at a rent of 12_s._ 6_d._ for every sixty acres, were called freeholders. A seneschal was appointed to represent the Crown. Brian MacHugh was established in Dartrey, and Ever MacCoolie in Cremorne. The church-lands, and only the church-lands, were leased to private speculators, but the settlement was not destined to remain unquestioned.
[Sidenote: Charge of corruption.]
Fitzwilliam has been accused of acting corruptly in this matter; but such charges were matters of course, and his own strong denial ought to prevail, since there is no evidence against him. 'I did it,' he said, 'to the profit of her Majesty and good of this State, nothing regarding mine own private; I speak it in the presence of God, by whom I hope to be saved... if ever there were such a motion or meaning for me, or for any of mine, let God wipe us all out of his book.'[191]
[Sidenote: Bingham in Connaught.]
[Sidenote: Jones Bishop of Meath.]
Bingham had treated the Spaniards very severely, as well as those who harboured them. The consequence of allowing them to draw together on Irish soil would have been serious, and in Walsingham's eyes at least he had done no more than his duty. But the chiefs who already hated him now hated him worse than ever, and when the danger was over plenty of Englishmen were ready to censure his proceedings. Among them was Thomas Jones, Bishop of Meath, and afterwards Archbishop of Dublin, a Lancashire man, who had been admitted to the Council at the same time as Bingham, in accordance with the Queen's instructions to Sir John Perrott, and who had afterwards been sharply rebuked by her for proposing severe measures against recusants, and for openly and without notice blaming that Deputy's remissness in the matter. He now gave out that Ustian MacDonnell, a noted leader of gallowglasses, had been unadvisedly executed by the Governor of Connaught. Bingham replied that the court-martial was quite regular, and the sentence just. He had, he said, 'never a foot of land in the world as his own, nor yet anything else, and had always been the worst man in all these parts of his time.' The chief charge against him was that of combining with the Devil's Hook's son and other Burkes to receive Alonso de Leyva when he was driven upon the Erris shore, and for preventing the country people from supplying the troops, while they readily gave their cattle to the Spaniards. The Bishop of Meath, with John Garvey, Bishop of Kilmore, a Kilkenny man, who was immediately afterwards translated to Armagh, the veteran Sir Nicholas White, Sir Robert Dillon, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and Sir Thomas Lestrange, were appointed commissioners for the pacification of Connaught. They may have let their hostility to Bingham be known, or--as was so often the case--their mere presence seemed to show that he was distrusted. The result was not satisfactory, for they found the Mayo Burkes in open rebellion, and they left them in no better case. White thought these people desired peace, and that it was prevented by a revengeful disposition in some of his colleagues to lay all the blame on Bingham.[192]
[Sidenote: Murder of John Browne in Mayo.]
John Browne, the founder of a great Connaught family, had been in the service of Sir Christopher Hatton, and was attached politically to Walsingham. He arrived in Ireland in 1583, and Sir Nicholas Maltby appears to have been his first patron there. His original project, in which he was associated with Robert Fowle and others, was to rebuild and people the deserted town of Athenry; but this proved impracticable, and at a hint from Walsingham, the adventurers took all Connaught for their province. Browne established himself at the Neale, near Ballinrobe, and prided himself on being the first Englishman who had settled in Mayo. When Bingham came into Maltby's room, he recognised a congenial spirit, and in 1586 Browne was employed by him with much effect against the Burkes and Joyces. In 1589 he received a commission to harry the Burkes and all their maintainers with fire and sword, and a few days afterwards they killed him. Daniel Daly, sub-sheriff of Mayo, who was also employed by Bingham, was murdered at the same time.[193]
[Sidenote: Bingham and the Mayo Burkes.]
[Sidenote: A rebellion.]
The reason or pretext given for their rebellion by the chiefs of Western Connaught was that Bingham's tyranny was intolerable. They declared that they had paid for protections which proved no protection, and for pardons which were not regarded, and that they never would be quiet until there was a radical change. It is always very hard to decide whether complaints such as these were really genuine and well-founded, or whether the mischief was mainly caused by the jealousy of chiefs who saw their authority disregarded, and their power of levying endless exactions curtailed. They spoke of liberty, but most Englishmen considered that they only wanted licence to oppress. Their power to give trouble was at least not doubtful. William Burke, called the Blind Abbot, was chief of the Lower Burkes, and aspired to be MacWilliam Iochtar. Another leader was Richard MacRickard, called the Devil's Hook, or the Demon of the Reaping-hook. 400 of the Clandonnel gallowglasses joined the Burkes. Sir Morrogh ne Doe O'Flaherty dismantled his castles in Galway, ferried 600 men over Lough Corrib, and entered Mayo in company with his neighbours, the Joyces. The outbreak had been a long time hatching, and was violent in proportion. Sixteen villages were burned, and 3,000 cattle driven away. All who were not with the insurgents were held to be against them, and peaceable husbandmen had a bad time of it. One housewife was called upon to feed 100 men, and particularly observed that they gave her no thanks. In another poor dwelling six barrels of ale were drunk or spoiled, and the owner was threatened with personal violence. It was Lent, but a Spanish priest who was with O'Flaherty, gave them all absolution for eating flesh, and there was much feasting at other people's expense. Sir Morrogh was fond of money, and a promise of 500_l._ was supposed to have reconciled him to the probable execution of his son, who was a hostage for his good behaviour. On the whole, the number of men in rebellion was thought not to fall short of 200, and they had some pieces of ordnance and stores taken from three ships of the Armada. There were about twenty Spaniards with them, who did not at all relish the conditions of Irish warfare.[194]
[Sidenote: Royal Commission in Connaught.]
Bishop Jones and his fellow-commissioners came to Athlone on April 11, about three months after the murder of Browne. The O'Flaherties had in the meantime been very thoroughly beaten by Lieutenant Francis Bingham and other officers, assisted by Gerald Comerford, the martial attorney-general for Connaught. They lost something like 200 men, while only one soldier fell. Bishop Garvey was sent first into Mayo, while Jones and his other colleagues went straight to Galway. Sir Murrogh refused to come into the town without a protection, and this the mayor refused to grant in opposition to Comerford, lest Bingham should take him nevertheless, and so destroy the credit of the corporation. Sir Richard was at little pains to hide his dislike of the whole inquiry. The Bishop of Meath laid down the principle--and with this at least it is impossible not to agree--that loyal men should keep their words, no matter how much rebels broke theirs. 'What!' said Bingham, 'would you have us keep our words with those which have no conscience, but break their word daily? I am not of that opinion.' Chief Justice Dillon's reading of his commission was that he was to make peace; Sir Richard commanded the troops, and might fight if he pleased. Bingham said he would hold his hand until the commissioners had done their best, or worst, and he let them see that he had no belief in their doings. The Bishop of Kilmore succeeded in bringing the leaders of the Burkes to Galway; and the Blind Abbot, as soon as he came within sight, held out the commission which had been found on Browne's person at the time of his murder, and declared he would send it to the Queen. The knowledge that this document existed, said another Burke, was the real cause of the crime.[195]
[Sidenote: Bingham too strong for the commissioners,]
[Sidenote: who become ridiculous.]
Bingham was at Galway during the visit of the commissioners, though he did not conceal his disgust, and he had a considerable force with him. He declared that soldiers were necessary for the safety of the commissioners, and perhaps they were; but their presence brought danger of another sort. In the town the governor had many enemies and the rebels many friends, and brawls took place between them and some of Bingham's men, who were probably indignant at the treatment of a chief whom they trusted, and who habitually led them to victory. 'Nay, sirs,' said Sir Richard to two of the Burkes who were stating their grievances, 'would you not be clean rid of a sheriff, or would you not have a MacWilliam established among you?' The commissioners professed themselves unable to detect any such intention, but the event showed that Bingham was right. Sir Morrogh O'Flaherty and the Blind Abbot refused altogether to come into Bingham's presence, and the commissioners agreed to meet them outside the town. The trysting-place was an abbey beyond the river, probably the dissolved friary of the Dominicans, and Bingham blamed the commissioners for trusting themselves in a place where violence was easy, while some of his followers illustrated this opinion in a very curious way. Two men, dressed like nuns, or at least like women with 'mantles and caps,' and a third in a black gown, which may have been intended to represent the garb of St. Dominic, passed through the church while the commissioners were in the choir. 'Let us go and tarry no longer,' said Jones, 'for I see they do begin to mock us already,' and accordingly they regained their boat and went back to the town. The masqueraders, who were joined by others, took their place in the choir and went through the farce of a parley. Afterwards they paraded the streets, 'I am the Bishop of Meath,' said one. Another said, 'I am the Justice Dillon; reverence for the Queen's Commissioners,' and so on. In the end, after several abortive discussions, Jones and his colleagues left Galway without concluding peace. It is evident that Bingham's discontented subjects distrusted each other quite as much as they did him. Sir Morrogh O'Flaherty was ready to make separate terms for himself, and the Burkes feared to promise anything, lest others should take advantage of them. Bingham's hands were untied, and he proceeded to restore order in his own way.[196]
[Sidenote: O'Connor Sligo's case.]
[Sidenote: Bingham defeats his claim.]
Sir Donnell O'Connor of Sligo had surrendered his possessions to the Queen and taken out a fresh grant with remainder to the heirs male of his father. The castle and Dominican friary were originally founded by the Kildare family, and the O'Connors were technically their constables; but attainders intervened, and the claim was too antiquated to weigh much with Elizabethan statesmen. Sir Donnell died about the beginning of 1588, and his nephew Donough claimed to succeed him. According to Bingham, both Donough and his father Cahil Oge were illegitimate, and he was anxious to have the castle of Sligo in safe hands, because it commanded the passage from Ulster into Connaught. Donough, who was attached to Leicester, declared that the governor's real object was to get all for his brother George; but Bingham's proposal was that the barony of Carbury, on account of its strategic importance, should be retained for the Queen, and that all O'Connor Sligo's lands in the neighbouring districts should be regranted to Donough. A commission, consisting of the Bishop of Meath, Sir Robert Dillon, and others, was appointed by Perrott to inquire into the matter, and they decided in favour of Donough. Bingham declared that they were quite wrong, and that he gave up Sligo under compulsion, for fear of disobeying the Lord Deputy, and in plain defiance of the Queen's real interest. After Perrott's departure from Ireland a further inquiry into Donough's title was made, the commissioners being Bingham himself, with Chief Justice Sir Robert Gardiner and Mr. Justice Walshe. The jurors were substantial men, but it was alleged that Bingham had taken one of them by the beard, and threatened to punish him as a traitor if he persisted in finding Donough legitimate. After five days a verdict was obtained for the Crown, and the Chief Justice particularly stated that the trial was impartial, that all O'Connor's challenges were allowed, and that Bingham did not use a harsh word to any witness or juror. Sligo remained in safe hands during the time the Armada was on the coast. Walsingham wrote a stinging rebuke to Bishop Jones for his corrupt conduct in the matter, and for his malice to Bingham. 'It was told me at what time you were in England that I should in the end find you a hypocrite. And what better reckoning can I make of you... this practice of yours, though not by Sir Richard Bingham, is sufficiently discovered already from Ireland, and the gentleman I doubt not will stand upright there, in despite of all your malice.' Others accused Jones of acting entirely under Dillon's guidance, and the latter of receiving bribes. William Nugent, the ex-rebel of the Pale, said that he received 100 cows for making a false record.[197]
[Sidenote: Walsingham supports Bingham.]
Bishop Jones was profuse in apologies both to Walsingham and Burghley; and, though Swift calls him a rascal, there is no proof that he acted corruptly in the matter, while it might not be safe to say as much of Sir Robert Dillon. On June 10, Fitzwilliam himself arrived at Galway, whence Bingham departed at his urgent request, and on the following day the Blind Abbot and Sir Murrogh ne Doe O'Flaherty made their submissions openly in the church of St. Nicholas, and remained on their knees for nearly three-quarters of an hour. The Lord Deputy received a statement of their grievances in writing, and lost no time in advising Burghley that he thought they would never trust their lives under Bingham's government. A few days later, Sir Richard told Walsingham that Fitzwilliam only impoverished Connaught by the cost of his train, that he had done nothing in three weeks, and that the province was a prey to rebels whom he, the governor, was forbidden to chastise. Hostages had been given, Archbishop Garvey's eldest son among them, for the chiefs lately received on submission--'a couple of doating old fools,' who were amply protected by the garrison. O'Rourke was the real head of the rebellion, and he was shielded by the spite of Jones and the corruption of Dillon. The Queen's representatives, he added, had, in fact, sued for peace, and it was not worth having, for the other parties were beggars and wretches. The terms were that the chiefs should disperse their forces and go home, that they should surrender any foreigners among them, that they should make such reparation for their rebellion as the Lord Deputy should appoint, and that they should pay for all the harm they had done since the first appointment of the Commissioners.[198]
[Sidenote: The attack on Bingham fails.]
[Sidenote: The O'Flaherties.]
Fitzwilliam refused to let Bingham confront his accusers at Galway, lest the terror of his presence should silence them. The result was that their uncontradicted statements were sent over to England, and Walsingham's wrath was hot within him. The unfairness of the procedure was evident, the reason for it much less so. 'It may fall out, my Lord Deputy, to be your own case, for it is no new thing in that realm to have deputies accused.' Considering Walsingham's evident prejudice against him, Fitzwilliam suggested that the Queen should give him a successor. The trial of the case was removed to Dublin; and the Lord Deputy foretold that no Connaught chief would go there to accuse Bingham. If fear did not prevent such a journey, poverty would. And so it turned out. Much was proved against inferior officers, and there can be no doubt that the Governor of Connaught was apt to shield useful underlings under almost any circumstances. That he was guilty of extreme severity, and that he executed children who were retained as hostages, is probably true. But he managed the province well, and got a large revenue out of it. And it is certain that he had friends among the Irish as well as enemies. Among these was Roger O'Flaherty, grandfather of the author of Ogygia. This Roger owned the castle and lands of Moycullen, and had long complained of Sir Murrogh's usurpations. It seems that he was satisfied, for he wrote strongly in the Governor's favour, who also befriended him with the English Government. Sir Murrogh was an enterprising man, and never made the impossible attempt to prove his title to land. 'Why, man,' he told his own counsel, 'I got it by the sword; what title should I say else?' Bingham was an absolute ruler. Opposition he checked ruthlessly, and he cared little for constitutional forms. He took no pains to conciliate anyone, and was of course accused of provoking men to rebel. Nor did he care to disguise his opinion that many of the Irish ought to be rooted out. Perhaps the worst charge against him is that made by Fitzwilliam, who called him an atheist, 'for that he careth not what he doeth, nor to say anything how untrue soever, so it may serve his turn.'[199]
[Sidenote: Bingham and Bishop Jones.]
Fitzwilliam and Jones acknowledged that William Burke, the Blind Abbot, was a fool, and on the whole the person who suffered most from the inquiry into Bingham's conduct was the Bishop of Meath. Sir Richard said his lordship blamed intemperate language, while he himself exclaimed at cards, 'God's wounds! play the ten of hearts.' He was so busy preparing a case against him that he found no time to preach once during the three weeks that he spent at Galway, though he would go to church in the morning to hear an exercise and again in the afternoon to hear a play. He was superseded in the Connaught commission, and Walsingham rebuked him for not attending to his own proper duties. The Bishop's apology was almost abject, and he promised to give up temporal business. He had, he said, not neglected his own diocese, though thinking it unnecessary to preach in Dublin more than once a term. Fitzwilliam defended him, and he was employed again during Walsingham's life, but not in business connected with Connaught. Loftus, whose wife's sister he had married, considered him as one of his own family, and urged that the Papists had taken great advantage of the Bishop's disgrace.[200]
[Sidenote: Sir Brian O'Rourke.]
The composition in Connaught had been favourable to the power of Sir Brian O'Rourke, the chief of Leitrim. Nominally, his jurisdiction over the people of his country was restrained; but so large a share of land was given to him absolutely that he found himself stronger than ever, and refused to acknowledge the Governor of Connaught, maintaining that he was under no man except the Lord Deputy himself. In the original scheme for shireing Leitrim made in 1583 a considerable part of Fermanagh was included, but the arrangement did not hold for the purposes of the composition agreed upon two years later. O'Rourke's country, as then defined, is contained within the modern county of Leitrim. Its contents were roughly estimated at some 75,000 acres. Of this nominal area more than 8,000 acres were allowed to O'Rourke in demesne. Out of about 50,000 more he was permitted to receive a rent of 300_l._ a year, and the rest he was to hold by three knights' fees. The smaller freeholders were required to pay ten shillings a year out of each quarter of 120 acres, and to supply eight horsemen and forty footmen on general hostings. Old MacMurry, one of these subordinate chiefs, wept with joy and blessed the good Queen. 'We have,' he said, 'heretofore paid O'Rourke better than ten marks, or a quarter; and shall we indeed escape now for a trifle of twenty shillings!' But O'Rourke refused to pay his rent to Bingham, and was friendly to the intruding Scots. After their overthrow at Ardnaree it was no longer possible to despise the Governor, but O'Rourke persuaded Perrott to remit part of what he owed, and it was not until after that Deputy's departure that Bingham found himself really master. When the Spaniards came, Sir Brian did what he could to help them, and his rent was soon again in arrear. The King of Spain sent a friar with letters of thanks for his services to the Armada, and early in 1589 he was reported to be in open rebellion, and to be acting under the secret advice of Tyrone. His sons and brothers, with more than 400 men, swept the northern part of Sligo to the Moy, and drove off 3,000 cows and 1,000 mares. O'Rourke kept so many armed men among the bogs and hills of Leitrim that it was said he could not feed them without spoiling a neighbouring county.[201]
[Sidenote: O'Rourke defies the Queen.]
O'Rourke had struggled hard to prevent a sheriff from being established in his country, and it was natural that he should wish to retain his autonomy. But his unwillingness to obey any authority lay much deeper than any mere dislike to Sir Richard Bingham. About a month after the slaughter of the Scots at Ardnaree in 1586 the Serjeant-at-arms for Connaught saw a wooden figure of a woman set on wheels near MacClancy's house on Lough Melvin. The bystanders told him it was meant for a hag who lived over the water, and who had denied a carpenter milk. This seems to have been the same effigy as that on which O'Rourke caused the words 'Queen Elizabeth' to be written, and upon which he showered abuse, while the gallowglasses hacked it with their axes. A halter was placed round the neck of the mutilated figure, and it was then dragged through the dirt by horses. This was an incident in the Christmas festivities which Sir Brian kept 'according the Romish and Popish computation'--that is the Gregorian calendar--and he took the opportunity of announcing that her Majesty was 'the mother and nurse of all heresies and heretics.' Bingham did not hear of the matter until after his return from the Low Countries; but it was reported to Perrott, and his refusal to order O'Rourke's arrest was brought against him at his trial.[202]
[Sidenote: Fitzwilliam gives Bingham his way.]
Sir Brian O'Rourke was lawfully married to Lady Mary Burke, and her only son Teig had a grant of the family estates in the next reign. But he had an elder son by the wife of John O'Crean, a merchant of Sligo, and it was to him that the chiefry was likely to fall. The work of chastising O'Rourke was entrusted by Bingham to Clanricarde, and it seems to have been a labour of love, either because the Earl resented wrongs done to his sister, or because he hated her former misdeeds, or because he felt that his nephew's case had some resemblance to what his own had been. With thirty horsemen and some kerne of his own, and two regular companies, he set out from Elphin and marched to Ballinafad, where news came that O'Rourke was at his house near Lough Gill. Clanricarde asked Captain Mordaunt if his soldiers could go another fourteen miles the same night, and was told that they would do their best. The daylight overtook them at some distance from O'Rourke's house, and they had to fight after their long night's march. The O'Rourkes fell back into a bog, and Clanricarde insisted on following them with his horse. He was dismounted, and a spur torn from his heel. The bullets flew thickly about him, and Mordaunt's men came up only just in time, his gallantry exciting the admiration of the English officers. O'Rourke was never able to make head again, but he probably fancied himself safe in his own country. When the Lord Deputy held sessions at Sligo a few months later, he refused to attend, on the ground that the Binghams had something to do with them. The result was that Fitzwilliam accepted Bingham's policy as against O'Rourke, though he was always ready, and often with very good reason, to testify against the Governor's harshness and against the tyranny of his brothers, cousins, and followers.[203]
[Sidenote: Bingham subdues the Burkes.]
While it was still uncertain whether Bingham or his enemies would get the upper hand, the Burkes continued in rebellion. They went about in bands of 500 or 600, openly celebrated the Mass, and robbed all who were not with them. The Blind Abbot was made MacWilliam, with all the ancient ceremonies, and in virtue of his office he proceeded to assault and capture a castle garrisoned by Attorney-General Comerford's men. When Bingham had gained his cause in Dublin, it became evident that his policy must prevail; and a letter from the Queen herself, whom the creation of a MacWilliam touched in her tenderest point, probably decided Fitzwilliam's course. He made arrangements to have a strong force at Galway, and went there himself, to make a last effort for peace. Sir Murrogh ne Doe came in, but failed to find acceptable pledges, and was lodged in gaol. The Burkes did not appear, and some thought their contumacy was caused by the wording of the proclamation, which gave safe conduct to come, but not to return. It may be remembered that no less a personage than Shane O'Neill had been detained in virtue of a quibble of this kind. At all events the time of grace was allowed to pass, and Bingham went to work in earnest. With about 1,000 men, of whom more than three-quarters were regular soldiers, he swept Tyrawley from end to end. Only once, in a defile of the Nephin range, did the rebels make a stand, and they burned their own villages without waiting to be attacked. The poor MacWilliam had cause to rue his blushing honours, for he had a foot cut off by one of Thomond's soldiers, with a single blow of his sword. That Earl marched on foot through the mountains, and Clanricarde was also very active. The wounded chief lay for several days, without meat or drink, in an island in Lough Conn, and was afterwards drawn on a hurdle from place to place, to seek the alms of his clansmen. 'It is not,' said Bingham, 'a halfpenny matter what becomes of him now.' The Burkes all submitted, on Sir Richard's own terms, and peace was concluded with them.[204]
[Sidenote: O'Rourke is expelled,]
[Sidenote: surrendered by James VI.,]
[Sidenote: and hanged.]
O'Rourke's turn had now come. He may have supposed that his country was unassailable, but was quickly undeceived. Bingham had no doubt about being able to subdue him in ten days, but refused to move without written orders from the Lord Deputy, lest he might be disavowed afterwards. The order was given, and the Governor, who was suffering from dysentery, sent four divisions of soldiers into Leitrim under his brother George and Sir Henry Duke. Some malcontent O'Rourkes helped the English, and much damage was done. The mere presence of so large a force was enough to exhaust the district, and the subordinate chiefs were glad to make their peace, and perhaps glad to free themselves from O'Rourke, who fled to the MacSwineys in Donegal. Cuellar's friend MacClancy was hunted down, and killed as he tried to swim to one of his islands. He had still fourteen Spaniards with him, and some of these were taken alive. O'Rourke remained during the rest of the year in Donegal, and then escaped to Scotland, but James gave him up to the English Government. In thanking her dear brother for this, Elizabeth wondered how his 'subjects of Glasgow should doubt the stop of their traffic for so poor a caitiff, who was never of ability to make or give traffic.' In London O'Rourke justified Sidney's assertion as to his being the proudest man he had ever dealt with, for he demanded that the Queen herself should judge him. His refusal to surrender Spaniards after the proclamation was treason, and he was told the indictment was sufficient if he refused to plead. 'If it must be so,' he said, 'let it be so,' and he was accordingly condemned and hanged at Tyburn, with all the usual barbarities. He was attended on the scaffold by Miler Magrath, but refused his ministrations and upbraided the old Franciscan as an apostate. He had previously refused to bend the knee before the Council. 'I have always thought,' he said, 'that a great distance separated you from God and the Saints, whose images alone I am accustomed to venerate.'[205]
[Sidenote: Mutiny in Dublin.]
Experience had shown the many evils of an ill-paid soldiery, but efforts at reform were not always wisely directed. New-comers and raw levies were sometimes better treated than the old garrison. Those whose services were yet to come got all the available money, while veterans, 'who passed all the soldiers in Europe in the travel and hard diet they had endured,' had to put up with scanty and irregular payments on account. Old soldiers saw their boys receive a shilling a day in punctual weekly payments while their own sevenpence was often in arrear. In May 1590, in the absence of their commander and without the knowledge of their officers, Sir Thomas Norris's company of foot suddenly left Limerick, and appeared in Dublin with drums and fifes playing. At eight in the morning they assembled on the bridge at the Castle gate, and clamoured for their pay and allowances, many months in arrear. Fitzwilliam, whose passage was obstructed by them, at first thought of a whiff of grape-shot, but changed his mind, and sallied forth among the mutineers. Sir George Carew bore the sword before him. 'Rather than let it go,' said Archbishop Loftus, 'your lordship may be sure he will do as the Mayor of London did.' The services of a Walworth were not required, and, indeed, the poor soldiers seem to have had no evil intentions. They besought Fitzwilliam to be good to them, and only one man used some offensive expression. The Lord Deputy turned his horse upon him, calling him baggage and mutinous knave, and drew his blade when the man held up his piece in self-defence. Gentlemen and servants streamed out of the Castle and drew their swords, and Fitzwilliam cried out, 'Disarm these villains!' They made no resistance, but fell upon their knees, and sixty-one out of seventy-seven were imprisoned. Many of the arms were stolen in the confusion. Fitzwilliam soon pardoned the mutineers, and sent them back to Munster. 'The choler,' says Carew, 'that his lordship was in was very exceeding abundant, yet so tempered that any man might discern that his valour did appear unspotted either with fear or cruelty, for he thrust himself into the midst of them all without respect of his person, and struck many with the flat of his rapier, yet hurt none saving one of them a little in the head, and holding the point of it at sundry of their breasts, forebore to thrust any of them into the body.'[206]
[Sidenote: Tyrone and Tirlogh Luineach.]
[Sidenote: Tyrone hangs one of Shane O'Neill's sons,]
[Sidenote: and aims at supremacy in Ulster.]
The part of Tyrone lying north and west of the Mullaghcarne mountains had been retained by Tirlogh Luineach in 1585, when he agreed to take 1,000 marks a year for the rest. The lease was for seven years, but O'Neill had reserved and wished to exercise the power of taking back the territory in three, which expired at Michaelmas 1588. Fitzwilliam, who had a strong bias in the Earl's favour, obtained the remaining four years for him, but on condition of paying 300 fat beeves a year in addition to the rent. The two chiefs continued nevertheless to quarrel, and it is curious to note how the English officials sided with Tyrone. The mere fact that he represented the settlement by patent was enough for many of them, and they did not see the danger of making him supreme in the North. Shane O'Neill's sons were giving trouble, and the ghost seemed more terrible than the reality. Con MacShane had long been a prisoner with Tirlogh Luineach, but was now released and taken into his confidence. A brother, Hugh Gavelagh, who had been two years in Scotland, now returned to Ulster, and was supposed to have incurred Tyrone's enmity by giving information to the Government. He had promised Perrott to bring over no Scots, and he kept his word; but it was known that he might have plenty if he wished, and his popularity in the North was very great. Hugh Gavelagh was seized by some of the Maguires, sold to Tyrone, and by him hanged on a thorn-tree, and it was reported all over Ireland that the Earl could find no executioner, and had to do the business himself. This he denied, giving the names of the actual operators, and defending his conduct strenuously. Hugh Gavelagh, he said, had murdered many men, women, and children, and there was no regular law in Ulster, 'but certain customs ... and I hope her Majesty will consider that, as her Highness's lieutenant under the Deputy (as I take myself within my own territory), I am bound to do justice upon thieves and murderers; otherwise, if I be restrained from such-like executions, and liberty left to O'Neill, O'Donnell, and others to use their ancient customs, then should I not be able to defend my country from their violence and wrongs.' In this sentence we have the whole difficulty of Tudor rule in Ireland briefly expressed. The Government was not strong enough to enforce equal justice, and practically confessed its impotence by allowing authority to lapse into the hands of Tyrone and such as he. From Fitzwilliam downwards, nearly all the officials seemed to think that they could keep things quiet by strengthening a man who aimed at being O'Neill in the fullest sense of the word, but who was quite ready to play at being an earl when it suited him, and to remember his English education. Walsingham saw more clearly from a distance, and wished to make Tirlogh Luineach Earl of Omagh, with an estate of inheritance in his part of Tyrone, and with a superiority over O'Cahan for life. To his rival he was willing to give the rest, including a perpetual superiority over Maguire. But Tyrone was determined to have all, and the men immediately responsible for order found it convenient to support the younger, the abler, and, as it turned out, the more ambitious and dangerous man.[207]
[Sidenote: Rival O'Neills.]
[Sidenote: The MacShanes.]
In order to understand the history of Ulster during the last decade of Queen Elizabeth, it may be well to define the position of parties there just before Tyrone entered upon his last struggle. Besides the Earl himself, who was for a long time looked upon as the representative of English ideas, and who was probably not an O'Neill at all, there were three families who claimed to be at the head of the ruling race. Tirlogh Brasselagh, Shane O'Neill's uncle, claimed to be the eldest of the house, and, according to ancient Celtic notions, he had perhaps the best right. His lands lay to the south of Lough Neagh, and he had many sons; but his party was, on the whole, the weakest. Tirlogh Luineach, the actual chief, represented the family of Art Oge, who had long been excluded from the supremacy, and he was thought to hold his position more by force and policy than by right. His eldest son, Sir Arthur, seems not to have been legitimate, but was fully acknowledged as his heir male both by Tyrone and by the Government: his influence was greatest in what are now the baronies of Strabane. The third set of pretenders were Shane O'Neill's seven sons, known as the MacShanes. Their legitimacy is not worth discussing; but they were favourites with the Irish, and by them generally thought to have the best right. Hugh Gavelagh, Con, and Brian were at this time the most formidable. Tyrone says he made an agreement with Tirlogh Luineach that one of these three should always remain with him as hostage, that Hugh Gavelagh's neck was specially pledged for its performance, and that the breach was the cause of his death. The other brothers were Henry, Arthur, Edmund, and Tirlogh. With a score or so of fighting O'Neills, all trying to be first, it is not surprising that Ulster was turbulent, or that its reduction by the strong hand was only a question of time.[208]
[Sidenote: Rival O'Donnells.]
The actual chief of Tyrconnell was Sir Hugh O'Donnell, the husband of Ineen Duive, whose own son, Hugh Roe, was in prison. Donnell, an elder and seemingly illegitimate son, by an Irish mother, was made sheriff by Fitzwilliam in 1588, and was a thorn in Ineen's side. Calvagh's son Con died in 1583, but he in turn left nine sons, of whom Nial Garv was the most formidable, and their claims under the patent could hardly be denied. A third set of pretenders were the descendants of Hugh Duff, who were of the eldest blood, and who appealed to Celtic law. But the favourite of the clansmen was young Hugh Roe. All the tribes of the North depended more or less upon O'Donnell and O'Neill, and the lesser chiefries were in dispute as much as the greater.[209]
[Sidenote: Hugh Roe O'Donnell.]
[Sidenote: Kidnapped by Perrott, 1587.]
There was a prophecy that Ireland should be delivered by the O'Donnells when Hugh succeeded lawfully to Hugh. Its fulfilment was expected in Henry VIII.'s time, and now again it was in men's mouths. Perrott, who had small regard for such fancies, noticed the boy's importance, and decided that he would be a good pledge. In the winter of 1587, he sent a ship laden with wine and manned by fifty armed men round to Lough Swilly, where the master, John Bermingham of Dublin, traded freely with the natives. Hugh Roe came to hunt in the neighbourhood, or to visit MacSwiney Fanad, near whose castle of Rathmullen the false merchantman lay. As soon as the strangers heard of his arrival they went on board and kept careful watch. In due course messengers came from MacSwiney, who wanted wine to entertain his distinguished guest. Bermingham answered that he had sold all he had to spare, but would be most happy to entertain MacSwiney and the gentlemen with him. They came on board accordingly, and when they had caroused for some time in the cabin, the seamen quietly got under way, shut down the hatches, and carried the whole party out to sea. Pursuit was impossible, for the natives had no boats; and Hugh Roe was lodged in Dublin Castle, where he found many companions in misfortune, and where prisoners 'beguiled the time only by lamenting to each other their troubles, and listening to the cruel sentences passed on the high-born nobles of Ireland.'[210]
[Sidenote: First escape of Hugh Roe O'Donnell, 1591.]
Although not more than fifteen or sixteen years old, Hugh Roe was married to Tyrone's daughter, and the whole North was thus interested in his safety. Perrott refused 2,000_l._ for his release, and he remained in prison until Fitzwilliam's time. His brother Donnell, who married a daughter of Tirlogh Luineach, would have seized the chiefry, had he not been killed in resisting a force raised by Ineen Duive on behalf of her husband and son. Hugh's fellow-prisoners were hostages from every part of Ireland: among them being Henry and Arthur, sons of Shane O'Neill, and Patrick Fitzmaurice, afterwards Lord of Kerry. The seneschal of Imokilly died in the Castle early in 1589. After more than three years' confinement, Hugh Roe found means to escape with some of his friends. A wet ditch at that time surrounded the Castle, and the approach was over the wooden bridge, where the Lord Deputy had lately come into collision with the mutineers. The favour, almost amounting to subservience, which Fitzwilliam showed to Tyrone made people think that he was ready to connive at his son-in-law's escape; but this is very hard to believe. 'Upon my duty,' he said when supporting one of the Earl's numerous applications for Hugh's release, 'no reward maketh me write thus much.' Friendly partisans were numerous in Dublin, and the soldiers who kept the gate always wanted money, and were often under female influences. A rope was conveyed into the Castle, and Hugh slipped on to the bridge in the dusk of evening. The sentry was for the moment inside the gatehouse, and the prisoners managed to chain the gate on the outside. Art Kavanagh, 'a renowned warrior of Leinster,' was near with swords hidden under his Irish mantle, and the whole party slipped out of the town, and across the mountains to a wood near Powerscourt. Hugh's companions here left him, for his shoes had fallen to pieces with the wet, and his feet were lacerated by the furze. Felim O'Toole, the lord of the neighbouring castles, was appealed to; for he had lately visited Hugh in prison, and was supposed to be his friend, the rather that he had married the sister of Feagh MacHugh O'Byrne. Fearing to offend the Government, or believing that escape was hopeless, O'Toole decided to gain credit for loyalty, and he gave up the fugitive, who was taken back to Dublin and loaded with irons.[211]
[Sidenote: Tyrone elopes with Mabel Bagenal,]
[Sidenote: which her brother resents.]
A plot in private life may have great public consequences, as every generation can testify. The Helen of the Elizabethan wars was Mabel Bagenal, daughter of Sir Nicholas and sister of Sir Henry, whose charms were at least one principal cause of the Ulster revolt. Tyrone had been first married to a daughter of Sir Brian MacPhelim O'Neill, from whom, according to his own account, he was 'divorced by the orders of the Church.' As to the validity of this divorce there were certainly doubts at the time, but the repudiated wife married again and had children. Tyrone's second venture was with an O'Donnell, and he talked of discarding her too, though possibly without intending to do it. She died, and he then fell in love with Miss Bagenal, whom he might see at Newry as often as he pleased. Bagenal would not consent to the match, and his objections had some weight: the possible opposition of the Queen, 'the incivility of the Earl's country not agreeing with his sister's education, and the uncertainty of a jointure to be allotted for her maintenance after the Earl's death,' being those which seemed important to the Irish Government. Tyrone was a much more civilised being than Shane O'Neill, and Mabel Bagenal was more accustomed to Irish ways than Lady Frances Radclyffe; but Bagenal hated the proposed alliance as much as Sussex. 'I can,' he told Burghley, 'but accurse myself and fortune that my blood, which in my father and myself hath often been spilled in repressing this rebellious race, should now be mingled with so traitorous a stock and kindred.' To keep her out of harm's way, he sent Mabel to her sister, who was married to Sir Patrick Barnewall, and who lived at Turvey near Swords; but Tyrone invited himself to the house for a night, obtained a secret promise of her hand, and presented her with a gold chain worth a hundred pounds. A few days after this he came to Turvey to dine with several friends, and after dinner the young lady slipped away on horseback behind one of them. 'When I understood,' he said, 'that my prey (the language of cattle-lifting) was well forward in her way towards the place where we had agreed upon, I took my leave of Sir Patrick Barnewall and his lady, and followed after, and soon after I was gone, the gentlemen which were in company with me took their horses and came away privately.'[212]
[Sidenote: Tyrone's marriage, 1591.]
Tyrone was fifty and Mabel twenty, which makes the romance rather less romantic, and Bagenal may have been right in saying that he did 'by taking advantage of her years and ignorance of his barbarous estate and course of living, entice the unfortunate girl by nursing in her through the report of some corrupted persons an opinion of his haviour and greatness.' At all events she probably liked the idea of being a countess. Tyrone's intentions were so far honourable, in spite of Bagenal's insinuations to the contrary, and the marriage was celebrated at William Warren's house near Dublin, by no less a person than the Bishop of Meath, who declared that he was chiefly actuated by regard 'for the gentlewoman's credit.' And, as Tyrone well knew, regard for Bishop Jones's credit would prevent the marriage from being seriously questioned. But Bagenal's hostility was unabated, and even in his sister's presence Tyrone openly declared that he hated no man in the world so much as the Knight Marshal. There is no evidence that he ill-treated her, as Shane ill-treated his victim, but there is some that she was not altogether happy in the wild life which she had chosen, or with her crafty and unscrupulous mate. She died after less than five years of matrimony, and so did not live to see her brother killed in conflict with her husband.[213]
FOOTNOTES:
[187] Fitzwilliam to the Privy Council, Dec. 31, 1588; to Burghley, Aug. 20, 1590; Robert Legge to Burghley, Feb. 17, 1590; Four Masters, 1588; Fynes Moryson, 1589; compare Captain Lee's account in Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica, i. 129. Sir John O'Gallagher is called Sir Owen O'Toole in some English accounts, but this is wrong and misleading; the Christian name is Eoin not Eogan. Fynes Moryson was not in Ireland in 1588, and very probably copied Lee's story.
[188] Fitzwilliam to the Privy Council, Dec. 31, 1588; Tyrone to Walsingham, Feb. 5, 1589; Patrick Foxe to Walsingham, Feb. 12.
[189] Book of the proceeding of Commissioners for 'aryer' claims in Munster, Sept. 3, 1588, of which there is a copy or rather a version (Aug. 29-Sept. 14) at Hatfield, with many details. Most of the facts in this and the two preceding paragraphs are from Mr. Hamilton's Calendar 1588-1592. See also No. 128, 1591, in Carew. In 1597 Sir Nicholas Browne prophetically described the settlers as 'fowls fatted in mews, to be spoiled at the pleasure of the country people' (MS. Cotton, privately printed by Mr. Hussey.)
[190] Everything about Florence MacCarthy may be read in his Life and Letters by Daniel MacCarthy, a book of much research, but unfortunately even more chaotic than the common run of family histories.
[191] The documents are collected in Shirley's History of Monaghan, pp. 80-91. The notes in O'Donovan's Four Masters are very incorrect in this case, though they have often been copied. Essex was much pressed to surrender his patent for Farney, but steadily refused.
[192] Sir N. White to Burghley, April 7 and May 9, 1589; report by Bingham, April 10, and his answer to charges in November (No. 39).
[193] Among many papers concerning Browne, see his letter to Walsingham, June 10, 1585; Bingham to Perrott, July 30, 1586; Patrick Foxe to Walsingham, Feb. 26, 1589. The murder took place between the last date and Jan. 13, when Bingham's commission to Browne was signed. For Walsingham's views see Morrin's Patent Rolls 26 Eliz. (No. 39). The Four Masters make out that Browne and Daly were killed in battle, but this was clearly not the case.
[194] Bingham to Burghley, April 6, 1589; Fitzwilliam to Burghley, April 9, with fourteen enclosures.
[195] Report of the Commissioners in Fitzwilliam's letter to Burghley May 14, 1589.
[196] Bishop of Kilmore to Burghley, May 10, 1589; Bishop of Meath to same, May 13; Fitzwilliam to same, May 14, with enclosures; Bingham to Walsingham, May 23.
[197] Bingham to Burghley, Feb. 24, May 15 and 28, Aug. 26, 1588; Perrott to Walsingham, March 18, 1588; Gardiner, C.J., to Walsingham, Jan. 31, 1589; case of O'Connor Sligo, Feb. (No. 53); Walsingham to the Bishop of Meath, June 24; Kildare to Nottingham, May 31, 1590; and a paper dated Feb. 21, 1592; William Nugent's Articles, Aug. 14, 1591.
[198] Fitzwilliam to Burghley, July 19, 1589; Bingham to Walsingham, July 24 and Sept. 4; the Articles are printed from a Cotton MS. in O'Flaherty's Western Connaught, p. 396.
[199] Walsingham to Fitzwilliam, July 8, 1589; Fitzwilliam to Burghley, Aug. 9, Sept. 2, Oct. 6, and Dec. 19; Summary of rebellion by John Merbury, Aug. 1. Fitzwilliam calls Bingham 'atheist,' but Bishop Jones (to Burghley, May 13) said he was 'a gentleman of great value, and one that feareth God.' The Bishop sums up the causes of his great unpopularity under four heads:--1. Hanging gentlemen by martial law. 2. Commissions to prosecute protected persons by fire and sword. 3. Dispossessing men from their land by 'provincial orders' without legal trial. 4. Oppression by the soldiers.
[200] Bingham to Walsingham, June 24, 1589; Bingham's answer to charges, Nov.; Sir N. White to Burghley, Dec. 5; Bishop Jones to Burghley, Dec. 6, and to Walsingham, Dec. 8; Loftus to Walsingham, Dec. 8; Fitzwilliam to Burghley, Dec. 13.
[201] The composition with O'Rourke, and much else concerning Leitrim, may be read in Hardiman's notes to O'Flaherty's Western Connaught, pp. 346-352; Bingham's Discourse, July 1587; Bingham to Burghley, May 15 and 28, 1588; John Crofton and others to Bingham, Oct. 19, 1588; Bingham to Fitzwilliam, March 6, 1589; Fitzwilliam to Burghley, with enclosures, April 30; John Merbury to Burghley, Sept. 27, 1589.
[202] Bingham to Burghley, April 6, 1589; Fitzwilliam to Burghley, April 9, 1589, and Oct. 31, 1591; John Ball's declaration, April 1590 (No. 96); John Bingham to Burghley, Aug. 8, 1591.
[203] Captain Nicholas Mordaunt to Fitzwilliam, May 11, 1589; Fitzwilliam to Burghley, Oct. 6; Account of O'Rourke's country by Fenton and Burghley, Feb. 1592 (No. 43).
[204] Theobald Dillon to Burghley, Oct. 18, 1589; Edward Whyte to Sir N. White, Oct. 20; the Queen to Fitzwilliam, Nov. 19; Fitzwilliam to Burghley, Dec. 19; to the Privy Council, Jan. 27 and March 2 and 24, 1590, with enclosures; Bingham to Burghley, April 7.
[205] Fitzwilliam to Burghley, March 24, 1590, with enclosures; Bingham to Burghley, April 23; Camden. Bruce's Letters of Elizabeth and James VI., April 1591. The charges against O'Rourke are detailed in the Egerton Papers; O'Sullivan Bere, tom. iii. lib. ii. cap. 1; Four Masters, 1590 and 1591. It is stated in O'Donovan's notes to the Annals, and in many other places, that O'Rourke begged to be hanged with a withe, and Bacon's essays are given as an authority; but this is not what Bacon says. His words (No. 39, 'Of Custom and Education') are: 'I remember in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's time of England, an Irish rebel condemned put up a petition to the Deputy that he might be hanged in a withe and not in a halter, because it had been so used with former rebels.'
[206] Relation by Carew, May 28, 1590, and his letters of May 31 and July 26 to Burghley, Raleigh, and Heneage, all in Carew. The Master of the Ordnance evidently sympathises with the poor soldiers. See also Loftus to Hatton and Burghley, May 31.
[207] Walsingham's opinion and other papers in April 1587; Lord Deputy and Council to the Privy Council, March 31 and May 15, 1589; Kildare to Burghley, May 31, 1590; Tyrone's answer to Articles, March 19, 1590. All Fitzwilliam's letters during this period bear out the text; see the Four Masters, who say Hugh Gavelagh was greatly lamented, and O'Donovan's notes under 1590.
[208] Archbishop Magrath's report to the Queen, May 30, 1592; for Sir Arthur O'Neill see Tirlogh Luineach's petition, July 1, 1587; for the MacShanes see Tyrone's answer to Articles, March 19, 1590, and the opinion of Coke, S.G., Aug. 13, 1592.
[209] The O'Donnell tangle may be understood from Archbishop Magrath's report, May 30, 1592, and from the Appendix to O'Donovan's Four Masters See also Fitzwilliam, Loftus, and Fenton to the Privy Council, Dec. 31, 1588.
[210] Four Masters, 1587; Perrott's Life, p. 278; Tyrone to Walsingham, Dec. 10, 1587.
[211] Four Masters, 1590; Note of pledges in Dublin Castle, Aug. 1588; Fitzwilliam to Burghley, Nov. 29, 1589, and to Sir G. Carew in Carew, Jan. 15, 1591.
[212] Lord Deputy and Council to the Privy Council, Aug. 21, 1591; Sir H. Bagenal to Burghley, Aug. 13; Tyrone to the Privy Council, Oct. 31.
[213] The documents are collected in the Irish Arch. Journal, N. S. vol. i. pp. 298-314. One of Tyrone's main grievances against Bagenal was that he would not pay him the 1,000_l._ reserved to his sister by her father's will; and he continued to clamour for this money even after poor Mabel's death.
XLIV. ADMINISTRATION OF FITZWILLIAM, 1592-1594
[Sidenote: Second escape of Hugh O'Donnell, 1592.]
[Sidenote: His sufferings from exposure.]
[Sidenote: He reaches Donegal.]
It was no new thing that prisoners should escape from Dublin Castle, nor that they should be brought back again; and Hugh Roe did not despair. A year after his first attempt, and at the same evening hour, he knocked off his irons and lowered himself with a long rope into the ditch. His companions were Shane O'Neill's sons, Henry and Art, and they were helped outside by Tyrone's confidential servant, Tirlogh O'Hagan. The fugitives passed through the streets unnoticed, and reached the mountains that same night. Their sufferings from exposure were great, and Art O'Neill, who had grown fat in prison, and had besides received a blow from a falling stone when getting out of it, was forced to lie down under a rock at the foot of the mountains. Edward Eustace, who had been sent by Feagh MacHugh to act as guide, was now despatched to that chief, and food and beer were sent to their relief. The men who brought the provisions said that O'Neill was past help, and there he died. Hugh was badly frostbitten and the nails of his great toes afterwards fell off, but he was able to drink some beer, and they carried him to a solitary house in the woods of Glenmalure. In due course Tyrone sent a messenger, with whom he travelled northwards, though he had to be lifted into the saddle and out of it. Felim O'Toole was now eager to help, and accompanied him to the Liffey, which he forded unperceived just above Dublin. His guide spoke English, and led him through Meath to the neighbourhood of Drogheda. Avoiding the town, they diverged to Mellifont, which belonged to Sir Edward Moore, and here they were lodged and helped on their way. After resting until the evening of next day, they rode all night, and passed through Dundalk as soon as the gates were opened in the morning. The danger was now over, and Tirlogh MacHenry O'Neill, whose power lay in the south part of Armagh, forwarded them safely to Dungannon, whence Tyrone sent Hugh O'Donnell, under escort, to Lough Erne. Here he was met by Maguire, and brought in triumph to Ballyshannon. Henry MacShane O'Neill did not go to Glenmalure at all, but escaped northwards from the Dublin mountains, among which his brother had died, and thus fell into Tyrone's hands. The Earl kept him long in captivity, and it is probable that in helping his son-in-law to escape, he also intended to prevent the Government from setting up the MacShanes against him.[214]
[Sidenote: O'Donnell, Maguire,]
[Sidenote: and Tyrone.]
Hugh Maguire said that he had given Fitzwilliam 300 cows to free his country from a sheriff, but that one had nevertheless been appointed, in the person of Captain Willis. This officer did not confine his attention to Fermanagh, and much of Tyrconnell was actually in his power. This company, who bore a very bad character in the country, were quartered in the monastery of Donegal, from which they expelled the friars, and Hugh Roe's first care was to get rid of the intruders. The O'Donnells mustered in large numbers, and Willis and his men were glad to escape with their lives into Connaught. The friars then returned to their house. During March and April Hugh was in the hands of the doctors, who are said to have amputated both his great toes; but in May his father made way for him, and he was installed as O'Donnell with the usual ceremonies. Two expeditions against Tirlogh Luineach followed, and all the country about Strabane was laid waste. Nor was Tyrone quite idle, for he allowed his son Con to attack MacKenna, the chief of Trough, who had profited by Fitzwilliam's settlement of the MacMahons' country. The opportunity taken was while MacKenna was attending the sessions at Monaghan, and the commissioners were forced to adjourn. It suited neither O'Neills nor O'Donnells to have sheriffs and gibbets so near them.[215]
[Sidenote: Tyrone induces O'Donnell to submit, 1592.]
Fitzwilliam proceeded to Dundalk, intent upon making Tyrone give up the offenders, so that they might be hanged at Monaghan, but the outrage turned out to be much less grave than was reported. Anxious to gain a good character, which might be of use to him in arranging his law suits with Tirlogh Luineach, Tyrone went to Donegal, and brought Hugh Roe O'Donnell with him into the Lord Deputy's presence. Hugh made public submission in the church at Dundalk, swearing to be loyal like his father, and to expel strangers from his country. The result was that all opposition to him ceased in Tyrconnell, since no pretender could hope to cope with a chief who enjoyed the help of the Government.[216]
[Sidenote: Sir John Perrott is accused.]
[Sidenote: His enemies.]
It has been often said that Sir John Perrott was driven out of Ireland by intrigue, but the fact is that he had long clamoured for his own recall. In England he enjoyed considerable influence, sat as a Privy Councillor, and remained in communication with several men of position in Ireland. But he made enemies everywhere, and it is supposed that the real cause of his downfall was a quarrel with the Chancellor, whom he openly taunted with having danced himself on to the woolsack. 'Sir John Perrott talked,' says one biographer, 'while Sir Christopher Hatton thought.' He despised the usual and perhaps necessary arts of a courtier, and was too frequently absent from the centre of favour and intrigue. Burghley was certainly his friend, but, great as was the old minister's power, he could not always prevail against combinations. In Dublin the official set were generally hostile to Perrott, and many had personal grudges against him. He himself attributed his misfortunes to Loftus, whom he had abused for not allowing St. Patrick's Cathedral to be turned into a college, and Bishop Jones had also his grievances. Philip Williams, Perrott's secretary, having been dismissed and imprisoned by him, offered to disclose matters affecting the Queen; and it was to the Archbishop of Dublin and Bishop of Meath that he applied for help. Sir Nicholas White, who in some degree represented the old English families of Ireland, as distinguished from the purely English and official element, was favourable to Perrott. His firmest ally was Richard Meredith, a Welshman, who had been his chaplain, and who held the deanery of St. Patrick's and the bishopric of Leighlin together. Sir Richard Bingham, who had no cause to love Perrott, does not seem to have borne malice; but Fitzwilliam evidently leaned to the side of his accusers. The late Deputy's language was not only violent, but had that unfortunate quality of picturesqueness which made people remember it. Thus Loftus could tell Burghley, with the certainty of getting corroborative evidence, how his enemy had boasted that he would send the Council out of Dublin Castle on cabbage-stalks, and how he had threatened to pull the Archbishop into small pieces, like grass between his fingers. Such speeches were not treasonable, but they show why so many men were anxious to prove that Sir John Perrott was a traitor.[217]
[Sidenote: Charges against Perrott.]
[Sidenote: The witnesses.]
Numerous accusations were brought against Perrott soon after his return to England, but he had little difficulty in meeting them. Matters became more serious when a letter purporting to be written by him was actually produced, in which he offered to make Philip II. king of England and Ireland, on condition of being made hereditary Prince of Wales. It seems clear that the paper was forged by Charles Trevor, an adventurer who had been employed by O'Rourke to manage his son's escape from Oxford, and whom Perrott had formerly imprisoned. His companion in the Castle, and perhaps his accomplice in the forgery, was one Dennis O'Roughan or Roughan, who had originally been a Roman Catholic priest and had lived in Spain. Finding it convenient to return, Roughan professed himself a Protestant, and had several children by Margaret Leonard of New Ross, whom some called his wife and some did not. He was evidently a liar of the first magnitude, for he told Fitzwilliam that he had said mass to Perrott, who was no persecutor, but who was certainly a sincere Protestant and a hater of Spaniards. When Trevor escaped from prison the forged letter, or one like it, remained in his hands, and he seems to have been accused of several of the forgeries and found guilty of at least one. Roughan produced his false letter, and pretended to be in fear of his life from Perrott's friends. With an evident desire to make the most of it all, the Deputy sent over his son, with orders to give the document to the Queen herself. Bishop Meredith observed that John Fitzwilliam would have to ride very fast if Perrott did not know all before her Majesty. Considering the abundant evidence as to Roughan's bad character--and he was a perjurer by his own confession--it might be supposed that no credit would have been given to him. Probably much of the truth was kept from the Queen's knowledge. An enquiry in Dublin had but doubtful results, and the commissioners, whom the Queen herself rebuked, were accused of partiality to Perrott. They examined Roughan, who soon showed his real colours, and they were probably disinclined to do anything on such evidence. When the man went to London, where nothing was known about him, he accused the commissioners of corrupt dealing, but he soon lost credit in England too. Fitzwilliam evidently leaned strongly against Perrott, and Sir N. White was placed under restraint by him. Whether anyone really believed Roughan may be doubted, but the information gained in connection with his story enabled Perrott's enemies to draw their net round him.[218]
[Sidenote: Trial of Perrott, 1592.]
[Sidenote: He is found guilty,]
[Sidenote: though probably innocent.]
At the beginning of February, 1591, Sir John Perrott was in the custody of the Lord Treasurer; and of his friends we are told that the Bishop of Leighlin was merry in the Fleet, and Sir Nicholas White sad in the Marshalsea. Contrary to the expectation of many, Sir John was sent to the Tower on March 8; and there he was destined to end his days. His imprisonment was close, and he complained of impaired memory from the treatment he received. At last, in April 1592, he was brought to trial for treason, his indictment specifying that he had compassed the Queen's death. On one side were Popham, Egerton, and Puckering, and on the other a rough old knight, conscious of many rash speeches, but strong in the confidence which innocence gives, and 'renouncing the merits and mercy of his Saviour Jesus Christ' if he was really guilty. The court did nothing to supply the want of counsel. Chief Justice Anderson behaved with his usual brutality, declaring that Perrott was worse than Babington or than any of the traitors, and they were many, at whose trials he had assisted. Hunsdon was one of the Commission, and he also interfered very often and very unfairly. The accused could do little but protest that he was innocent, and that Roughan and Williams were perjured scoundrels. He wished the devil might take him body and soul if he had uttered a certain coarse speech, which many thought the real cause of Elizabeth's animosity. He appealed to Rokeby, master of requests, who was one of his judges, whether his experience in Ireland had not taught him that witnesses there had no respect for an oath and might be cheaply bribed to swear anything. God, he said, would plague his persecutors for their corrupt dealing. He was found guilty, but a great judge of our own time has described his trial as 'the scandalous attempt of prerogative lawyers--of which Elizabeth herself was ashamed--to convert the peevish speeches against her, of that worthy old soldier, Sir John Perrott, into overt acts of high treason.'[219]
[Sidenote: Death and character of Perrott.]
'Sir John Perrott,' says Swift, 'was the first man of quality whom I find upon the record to have sworn by God's wounds. He lived in the reign of Queen Elizabeth and was supposed to be a natural son of Henry VIII. who might also probably have been his instructor.' According to Naunton, who is not a bad authority on such a point, Perrott was aware of his royal parentage. 'What,' he asked the lieutenant of the Tower, with oaths and fury, 'will the Queen suffer her brother to be offered up a sacrifice to my skipping adversaries?' Naunton shows that circumstances make the fact not improbable, and adds that Perrott's manners, appearance, and voice were like those which the Elizabethan tradition ascribed to Henry. Hatton, the chief of Sir John's skipping adversaries, was now dead; and the Queen was urged by Burghley and others to spare a faithful, though rash, servant. At all events she refused to sign his death-warrant, and when his speech to Hopton was reported to her, she swore by God's death that they were all knaves. It was thought that she intended to pardon him, and she was often heard to applaud a rescript of Honorius, 'that if any person speak ill of the Emperor through a foolish rashness and inadvertency, it is to be despised; if out of madness, it deserves pity; if from malice and aversion, it calls for mercy.' Perrott died in the Tower in the following September; but his chief request was granted, and his son was allowed to inherit. The fact of that son being married to Essex's sister may have had something to do with this.[220]
[Sidenote: Tirlogh Luineach O'Neill resigns the chiefry]
[Sidenote: in Tyrone's favour, 1593.]
The disputes between Tyrone and Tirlogh Luineach were hard to settle, for the several grants were not easily reconcilable with one another. But Coke's opinion was taken, and that great lawyer laid down that, by virtue of an indenture made in 1587, the Earl might be forced to leave Tirlogh and his son in quiet possession of such lands as should be awarded to them by inquisition. This had been practically a condition of reviving the earldom in Hugh's person, and the older grant of all Tyrone by Henry VIII. was so far modified by it. As to the lands, Fitzwilliam effected an arrangement nearly in accordance with Coke's opinion; but Tirlogh was now old, and finding himself unable to resist both Tyrone and O'Donnell, he thought it wiser to resign his chiefry in his rival's favour. 'Hugh O'Neill, namely the Earl,' say the Four Masters, 'was then styled the O'Neill, and Tirlogh Luineach, having made peace with O'Neill and O'Donnell, sent away the English whom he had with him. This was done in May 1593. Ulster was then under the peaceable government of these two; and they had hostages of the inhabitants in their power, so that they were subject to them.'[221]
[Sidenote: The Four Masters' notions of peace.]
[Sidenote: A titular archbishop.]
Tyrone's object for the movement was to keep things quiet and to gain credit for loyalty; but neither he nor O'Donnell ever enjoyed much of the peaceable power described by the annalists. Brian Oge O'Rourke had a dispute with the Binghams about his composition rent, and plundered the country about Ballymote. Maguire's emulation was aroused, and, in spite of a promise to Tyrone, he also invaded Connaught, leaving Lough Allen to his left, and penetrating to Tulsk in Roscommon, where Sir Richard Bingham was encamped. The English party were outnumbered, and Maguire drove off many cattle, but, in the running fight which followed, Edmund MacGauran, titular primate of all Ireland, was killed. According to Bingham, MacGauran was constantly occupied in stirring up sedition, which he fostered by assurances of Spanish aid. 'He was, he says, 'a champion of the Pope's, like Dr. Allen, the notable traitor; but, God be thanked, he hath left his dead carcase on the Maugherie, only the said rebels carried his head away with them that they might universally bemoan him at home.' O'Sullivan said that the Archbishop had special orders from Philip II. to stir up war against the Protestants, and to hold out hopes of Spanish succours, and that Maguire was sorry for his loss rather than pleased at the spoil which he was able to secure.[222]
[Sidenote: Maguire attacks Monaghan,]
[Sidenote: but is defeated by Tyrone,]
[Sidenote: who soon changes sides.]
O'Rourke kept Bingham pretty busy during the summer, and Maguire turned his attention to Monaghan. It was not difficult to raise a party among the MacMahons, and Monaghan was vigorously attacked early in September. The garrison repulsed the assailants, but not without considerable loss, and Fitzwilliam found it necessary to make a great display of force. Bagenal and Tyrone commanded the troops, which were collected at Clones, and Maguire drove off his flocks and herds into Tyrconnell. The fords over the Erne near Belleek were found indefensible against so strong a force, but Tyrone was severely wounded in the thigh. This victory of the brothers-in-law only increased their mutual hatred, for the Marshal claimed most of the credit, which the Earl thought belonged to him. The O'Neills were engaged in large numbers, and the tactics which afterwards proved so fatal to Bagenal had been employed on his side. 'Maguire's assailants,' says O'Sullivan Bere, 'had 700 horse against 100, and musketeers against archers, and the leaden bullets went further than the arrows. The musketeers in the woods bordering on the river shot down with impunity the Catholics who stood in the open, while the archers could take no aim at men protected by thick clumps of trees.' The same writer says that Bagenal asked Tyrone to write in praise of his valour both to the Queen and to the Deputy, and that the Earl replied that he would tell the truth when he came into their presence. It was one of Tyrone's grievances that Bagenal got more than his due share of credit, but it is probable that this was mainly an excuse for the course upon which he had already determined. According to O'Sullivan, O'Donnell was on his way to help Maguire, but was delayed by a messenger from Tyrone, who begged him not to compromise him while in the power of the Protestants, whose party he was about to desert. Tyrone believed, or pretended to believe, that the Marshal had orders from Fitzwilliam to arrest him; and, wounded as he was, he withdrew to Dungannon, out of harm's way. This was his last service to the Crown during Elizabeth's life, and the annalists believed that it was rendered unwillingly.[223]
[Sidenote: Bingham takes Enniskillen, 1594.]
Bingham pressed Maguire from the Connaught side, and boats were launched upon Lough Erne, so that the defeated chief was hunted from island to island, during a great part of the winter. To find his cattle was to take them, for no resistance could be made; but Enniskillen Castle held out for a long time against the fire of field-pieces. 'To present her Majesty's forces,' said Fenton, 'before a castle in Ireland and not to carry it were highly dishonourable to the State, and a dangerous preparation to all the Irish to think less of her Majesty's strength.' But the soldiers worked while the Secretary criticised, and early in February Enniskillen was taken by assault, on the ninth day of the actual siege. Boats, protected with hides and hurdles, kept the garrison occupied, while the trenches were advanced, and ladders were used for the final storm. But O'Sullivan declared that the place would never have been taken had not Bingham bribed one of the warders, known from his hideous countenance as 'the pig's son.' The traitor, he says, made a feigned resistance only, and was spared, while the rest, including some women, were put to the sword. Maguire was driven into Tyrone with a few followers, but Bingham maintained that nothing had really been done until Bundrowes, Ballyshannon, and Belleek were taken from O'Donnell. The Lord Deputy did not like Bingham nor his advice, but the event proved that the latter was right.[224]
[Sidenote: Recall of Fitzwilliam.]
[Sidenote: Negotiations with Tyrone.]
Fitzwilliam's health had been failing since the summer of 1592, and latterly he had been very anxious to leave Ireland. The Queen had been ready to recall him at Michaelmas, but Burghley said he should have the honour of finishing Maguire's affair, and he could only beg that he should not be expected to catch a runagate rogue. 'I am,' he said, 'upon the pitch of sixty-nine years old, my body is weak, my stomach weaker, the stone doth oft torment me, and now the gout hath utterly lamed me in my leg. My sight and memory do both fail me, so that I am less than half a man, and not much more than a dead man.' Had the Queen adhered to her original intention he might have been spared these pains. He was now directed to appoint Lords Justices if he felt too ill to carry on the routine business of government, but if possible to retain office until the arrival of his successor. The new viceroy was Sir William Russell, fourth son of Francis, Earl of Bedford, who had served with credit in Holland, who was by Sidney's side when he received his death-wound, and who succeeded him as governor of Flushing. Fitzwilliam did not find it necessary to appoint Lords Justices, but he was unable to leave Dublin, and negotiations with Tyrone were referred to commissioners. The Earl maintained that he was quite loyal, but that the Lord Deputy and the Marshal were in league against him. Bagenal had orders to treat with O'Donnell, and sent one Darby Newman, from Newry, to make a beginning. Tyrone received Newman at Dungannon, and refused to send him on to Strabane. Bagenal's emissary, he said, was not sufficiently important to risk his credit for; he had already done too much, and was determined that Tyrconnell should not be treated as Fermanagh had been. The Marshal, he added, raising his voice for all to hear, might do it by himself if he could. Maguire was now again at the head of 200 or 300 men, and would not leave a head on anyone's shoulders who wore hat or cloak, or who spoke a word of English. With Bagenal he would have no dealings, nor would he let O'Donnell have any; but any other commissioner should be welcome to his country. Archbishop Loftus, Chief Justice Gardiner, and Sir Anthony St. Leger, the Master of the Rolls, were chosen, and they proceeded to Dundalk early in March. In the meantime, Tyrone tried to enlist the great influence of Ormonde on his side, and his letters were so startling that the latter thought it right to send them straight to the Queen.[225]
[Sidenote: Tyrone's grievance]
Tyrone kept the commissioners waiting for some days, professing to be afraid of Bagenal's treachery; but he appeared at last on protection, and gave in a long list of grievances. Hatred of the Marshal, whom he accused of bribing Fitzwilliam with money extorted from the people under him, seems indeed to have been the mainspring of his movements at this time. As to the settlement of Monaghan, for instance, he says that 'every peddling merchant and other men of no account had a share of the land; and the Marshal (who never took pains in bringing of that country to subjection) had a great part of it.' Besides the general statement of his grievances given to the commissioners, Tyrone sent a secret article to Sir Henry Wallop, whom he thought inclined to favour him. In this he alleged specific acts of corruption against Fitzwilliam and Bagenal, saying that he did not mention these to the commissioners only because they were in such haste to be gone. But before Loftus and his colleagues left Dundalk he promised to keep the peace until his cause could be heard impartially, and swore that if O'Donnell or any other broke out in the meantime, he would be the first to cut his throat. This did not prevent some of the O'Neills from immediately harrying the Marshal's country, nor from burning houses with women and children in them. Indeed there can be little doubt that it was a main object with Tyrone, as it had been with Shane O'Neill, to get rid of the settlement at Newry. It was planted on purpose to bridle Ulster, and it had proved effective. And English laws or English officers are unpopular in Ireland exactly in proportion to their efficiency.[226]
[Sidenote: Fitzwilliam's opinion of Tyrone]
[Sidenote: and of Captain Thomas Lee.]
[Sidenote: Lee's opinion of Irish chiefs]
[Sidenote: and of Sir Henry Bagenal.]
Fitzwilliam emphatically denied all charges of corruption against himself, and said he had always treated Tyrone with the consideration due to a useful instrument. Appearances were now very much against him, and the Chief Justice had shown scandalous partiality in separating from his fellow-commissioners and remaining for two or three days quite alone with the Earl. Captain Thomas Lee too, who was a needy man and suspiciously intimate with Tyrone, had stolen away to him and was not likely to exercise a good influence. Lee, who was afterwards hanged at Tyburn for his share in the Essex conspiracy, distinguished himself in the Wicklow district, and he has left a curious paper in which he cautioned the Queen against the probable cost and trouble of an Ulster war. According to him the North could only be governed with Tyrone's help. The chief authority there should be in his hands, and, that being granted, there would be no difficulty in getting him to accept a sheriff and to have regular assizes at Dungannon. 'Being often his bedfellow,' says Lee, 'he hath divers times bemoaned himself, with tears in his eyes, saying if he knew any way in the world to behave himself (otherwise than he hath done) to procure your Majesty's assured good opinion of him, he would not spare (if it pleased you to command him) to offer himself to serve your highness in any part of the world against your enemies, though he were sure to lose his life... which tears have neither proceeded from dissimulation, or of a childish disposition, (for all who know him will acquit him thereof) but of mere zeal unto your highness, &c.' Of a childish disposition, indeed, he may well be acquitted; but dissimulation was his strong point. And Lee's proposed system of government involved arrangements with other chiefs also; yet he averred O'Donnell, Maguire, Brian Oge MacMahon, and Brian Oge O'Rourke to be traitors and villains and obstinate against the Queen. O'Donnell was married to one of Tyrone's daughters, and Maguire was soon to wed another. Again he says, 'all the friends to your highness in those countries are but two, O'Hanlon and Magennis.... O'Hanlon is married to the Earl of Tyrone's sister, and merely enriched by the Earl; Magennis's eldest son is to marry the Earl's daughter. And if this affinity were [not], the manner of the Irish is always to the part they see strongest; and when your Majesty (as there is no doubt) shall prevail, they will then seek favour and make offer of much service, but seldom or never perform any; whereof myself have been too often a witness.' This testimony is remarkable because it exactly coincides with that of Bagenal, who said his neighbours, O'Hanlon and Magennis, were combined with Tyrone, not because they liked him, but because he seemed, for the moment, to be the strongest. In Tyrone's interest Lee stigmatises Bagenal as a slanderer and a coward, but he agrees with him where his hero's interests are not specially concerned, praising Bingham to the skies and losing no opportunity of calling Feagh MacHugh a traitor.[227]
[Sidenote: Ormonde and Tyrone.]
Burghley urged Ormonde, for his own honour and the State's safety, to make some arrangement with Tyrone, and Sir George Carew, whose advice was taken about this time, believed that the new Irish trouble might thus be nipped in the bud. Ormonde, he said, 'has that credit with the Earl as at his will he can lead him to do what he list, for upon his wisdom and friendship he only dependeth.' A correspondence took place accordingly, in which Ormonde entreated Tyrone to bear himself loyally in the sight of all, and never to forget the Queen's benefits. He had promised the commissioners to behave himself, and it was dishonourable for gentlemen to break their words. By presenting himself frankly to the Viceroy, as became a nobleman and a good subject, he would show that he had nothing to fear, and he might be sure of justice if he harboured no traitors in the meantime. Tyrone thanked his adviser heartily, promised to come to Dublin like the Queen's loyal subject as he was, and declared that he feared nothing but the spite of Fitzwilliam and Bagenal, who sought his life. As to harbouring rebels, there were two or three thousand proclaimed traitors in Ireland, and it would be strange if some were not sheltered near him.[228]
[Sidenote: Florence MacCarthy in Munster, 1593-1594.]
Owing in great measure to Ormonde's intercession, who gave a bond in 1,000_l._ for his good behaviour, Florence MacCarthy had been released from the Tower early in 1591 and left at liberty, provided he did not go more than three miles from London. He was a persistent and skilful suitor, and his constant pleas of poverty were not without their effect on the Queen. First she granted him a warrant of protection against arrest for debt, and then she devised a means of enriching him without expense to herself. David Lord Barry had been implicated in the Desmond treasons, and had been fined 500_l._, which he was not asked to pay. He looked upon this as in the nature of a mere recognizance, and he had done nothing whatever to forfeit it. The Queen had nothing new to complain of, but she gave Florence MacCarthy leave to recover the fine if he could. This was a poor reward for Barry's loyalty; especially as he had been the first to warn the Government of the danger to be apprehended from Florence's marriage, and was even now cautioning them against letting Florence return to his own country. To Ireland, nevertheless, he was allowed to go, and Fitzwilliam ordered Barry to pay the 500_l._ in four quarterly instalments. It does not however, seem to have been paid, and Florence spent more than the whole amount in costs. Lord Barry, who remained staunchly loyal, put in one dilatory plea after another, and in due course Florence was himself involved in treasonable plots. His brother-in-law Donell--if the term can be used of a bastard--continued to maintain himself in the character of Robin Hood, and the undertakers had their difficulties with both.[229]
[Sidenote: Remarks on Fitzwilliam's government.]
Fitzwilliam's long public career was now at an end, though he lived until 1599. Years before he had expected to be buried in Ireland and slandered in England; and slandered he seems to have been, though he was allowed to sleep in his own country. He was not a brilliant man, and he was never given the means of doing very great things; but he steadily advanced the power of the Crown in Ireland. Not being a professional soldier he gained no remarkable victories; but of his courage there could be no doubt, as the Dublin mutiny well proved. The charge of corruption has been commonly repeated against him, but this old-world gossip wants confirmation. It was the general practice to make accusations of covetousness against Irish officials, and especially against chief governors. Russell did not escape, and it is clear that many things capable of an ill interpretation would be done in a country where enough money was never forthcoming for the public service. It is evident that neither Elizabeth nor Burghley believed the stories against Fitzwilliam, and if an official satisfies those who employ him he can afford to despise unpopularity. He was not a great man, but he was eminently serviceable, and, if he gained no striking successes, his reign was free from crushing disasters.
FOOTNOTES:
[214] Four Masters, 1592. On Feb. 27, Gardiner, C.J., writes to Burghley that Hugh Roe is back in Donegal; under May 31, 1589, there is a list of twenty-two prisoners who had escaped from Dublin Castle, of which eleven had been brought back, but Hugh Roe is not mentioned. In 1594 Henry, Con, and Brian MacShane were all in Tyrone's custody; (No. 139) in Carew of that year.
[215] Four Masters, 1592; Fitzwilliam to Burghley, July 7. Captain Lee, in Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica, vol. i. p. 106, says Willis had with him three hundred of the very rascals and scum of that kingdom, which did rob and spoil that people, ravish their wives and daughters, and make havoc of all.
[216] Four Masters, 1592; Tyrone to Burghley, Aug, 2; Fitzwilliam to Burghley, Aug. 8.
[217] Loftus to Burghley, Dec. 27, 1590, and Feb. 4, 1591; Lloyd's State Worthies. Loftus began the attack by recommending Philip Williams to Burghley, Dec. 18, 1586. Williams's wife applied to Jones a few days later, and the Archbishop forwarded her letter, Jan. 1, 1587. Fitzwilliam wrote to Burghley in favour of Williams, Sept. 17, 1590; see also Sir R. Bingham to Geo. Bingham, Oct. 29, 1591.
[218] The forged letter is dated June 25, 1585, and calendared Feb. 16, 1590; Commission dated March 20, 1590, from the Privy Council to the Bishops of Meath and Leighlin, Sir L. Dillon, Sir N. White, Sir E. Moore, Sir E. Waterhouse, Walshe, J., and Calthorpe, A. G. Dillon and White to Burghley, June 26 and 28, 1590; Bishop Meredith to Burghley, July 13, 1590. Fitzwilliam's letters are too numerous to cite; their general tenour bears out the text; many letters as to Trevor, especially Sir R. Bingham to G. Bingham, Oct. 29, 1591. For the priest Roughan see an amusing account in Strype's Life of Aylmer, and for Perrott's quarrel with Loftus and Jones see his Annals (Eliz.) book ii. chaps. 3 and 4. For evidence of Roughan's perjuries see Morrin's Patent Rolls, 42 Eliz. No. 21.
[219] Lord Campbell's Chief Justices, i. 247; Howell's State Trials, vol. i.
[220] Introduction to Swift's Polite Conversation; Naunton's Fragmenta Regalia; Howell's State Trials. There is a curious account of Sir Thomas Perrott's marriage with Lady Dorothy Devereux in Strype's Aylmer.
[221] Fitzwilliam and Bagenal to Burghley, July 25, 1592; Mr. Solicitor-General Coke to Burghley, Aug. 13; Four Masters, 1593. By the articles of agreement concluded at Dundalk on June 28, 1593, Tirlogh Luineach was awarded a life-interest in the Strabane district, while the Earl's supremacy was acknowledged over all Tyrone.
[222] Bingham's letter of June 28, 1593, is quoted in Brady's Episcopal Succession, i. 223; O'Sullivan Bere, tom. iii. lib. 2, cap. 6. There is an original intercepted letter at Hatfield from Primate MacGauran to Captain Eustace, dated Madrid, June 28, 1591, in which the writer says:--'I hope in God Ireland will soon be free from Englishmen, and notwithstanding that the Catholic King his captains be slow in their affairs, I am certain that the men now purposed to be sent to comfort the same poor island, which is in distress a long time, will not be slow. I ought not to write much unto you touching those causes, for I know that a Spaniard shall be chief governor of them. The Irish regiment is written for.'
[223] O'Sullivan, tom. iii. lib. 2, cap. 7; Four Masters, 1593; Shirley's Monaghan, pp. 97 and 98; the Earl of Tyrone's grievances, March 14, 1594.
[224] Fenton to Burghley, Feb. 2, 1594; Captain John Dowdall to Fitzwilliam, Feb. 2, 3, and 7; Bingham to Puckering, C.S., Feb. 15; Cornelius Maguire to Fitzwilliam, Feb. 7; O'Sullivan, tom. iii. lib. 7, cap. 7.
[225] Fitzwilliam to Burghley, Jan. 30, 1594; to Cecil same date; Ormonde to Burghley, Feb. 20; Tyrone to Bagenal, Feb. 17; declaration of Darby Newman, Feb. 19; draft minute by Burghley and others concerning the viceroyalty, March.
[226] Tyrone's grievances, March 14, 1594; Tyrone to Wallop, April 3; Bagenal to Fitzwilliam, March 20; Ormonde to Tyrone, May 21.
[227] Fitzwilliam to Burghley, Feb. 28 and April 19, 1594; Bagenal to Fitzwilliam, March 20. Lee's declaration to the Queen is printed (with some obvious mistakes) in Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica, vol. i. pp. 89 to 150. It was written in England between Oct. 1594 and March 1596, as is proved by the references to Sir Robert Gardiner's movements. Lee was of Reban castle near Athy, where he had property.
[228] Ormonde to Tyrone, April 19 and 30, and May 21, 1594; Tyrone's answer to the letter of April 30; Burghley to Ormonde, April 7; Carew to Burghley, April 13.
[229] Florence MacCarthy's Life.