XLVIII. ESSEX IN IRELAND, 1599…

XLVIII. ESSEX IN IRELAND, 1599

[Sidenote: Position of Essex.]

Sir Henry Wotton, who was a good judge and who had special means of observation in this case, was of opinion that Essex wore out the Queen's patience by his petulance. He has recorded that a wise and, as it turned out, prophetic adviser warned the Earl that, though he might sometimes carry a point by sulking at Wanstead, at Greenwich, or in his own chamber, yet in the long run such conduct would lead to ruin. 'Such courses as those were like hot waters, which help at a pang, but if they be too often used will spoil the stomach.' The advice was not taken, and Essex continued to treat every check as a personal insult. The natural effect followed, and by the year 1598 'his humours grew tart, as being now in the lees of favour.'[300]

[Sidenote: He offends the Queen]

[Sidenote: by his petulance.]

Burghley died a few days before the disaster at Blackwater, and Philip II. not many days after. The policy of Spain was not much affected, though the change might be thought like that from Solomon to Rehoboam; but England missed the wise and kindly hand which had often held Essex straight. Bagenal's overthrow brought into sudden prominence that thorny problem with which the impetuous favourite was of all men the least fit to cope. Patience, steadiness, organising power, knowledge of men, were the qualities needed in Ireland then, as now, and Essex was conspicuously deficient in them all. 'I will tell you,' said a great court official, 'I know but one friend and one enemy my lord hath: and that one friend is the Queen, and that one enemy is himself.' It seemed as if no misconduct could permanently alienate Elizabeth, and yet he tried her forbearance very hardly. A few days or weeks before the old Lord Treasurer's death, she had proposed to send Sir William Knollys, Essex's uncle, to govern Ireland. The Earl favoured the appointment of Sir George Carew, who was certainly much fitter for the work than himself, and whom he was thought to be anxious to remove from the court. The Queen insisting, he turned his back on her with a gesture of contempt. Raleigh--who was, however, his enemy--says he exclaimed that 'her conditions were as crooked as her carcase.' She in turn lost her temper, and gave him a box on the ear. He laid his hand on his sword, swearing that he would not have endured such an indignity from Henry VIII. himself, and immediately departed to Wanstead.

'Your Majesty hath,' he afterwards wrote to Elizabeth, 'by the intolerable wrong you have done both me and yourself, not only broken all laws of affection, but done against the honour of your sex. I think all places better than that where I am, and all dangers well undertaken, so I might retire myself from the memory of my false, inconstant, and beguiling pleasures.' Of course it was very undignified of the Queen to strike anyone, but many things may be urged in excuse. She was old enough to be her favourite's grandmother. She had known him from early youth, and she had every reason to look upon him still in the light of a spoiled child. No one with any sense of humour would resent a blow from a woman as from a man, and Essex might very well have treated it all as a joke. But what is to be said for a man who insults a lady well stricken in years, who is his sovereign, and who has heaped upon him honours and benefits far beyond his deserts?[301]

[Sidenote: Essex determines to be Viceroy.]

Norris and Bingham being dead, the appointment of a Lord Deputy became a matter of pressing necessity. The Queen thought of Mountjoy, who, as the event proved, was, of all men, fittest for the arduous task. But Essex objected to him, much upon the same grounds as Iago objected to Michael Cassio. He had indeed some experience in the field, but only in subordinate posts; and he was 'too much drowned in book learning.' Another argument was that he was a man of small estate and few followers, and that 'some prime man of the nobility' should be sent into Ireland. Everyone understood that he had come to want the place himself, and that he would oppose every possible candidate.

During the autumn of 1598 and far into the winter, the affair hung fire, more perhaps from the difficulty of satisfying his demands for extraordinary powers than from any wish to refuse him the dangerous honour. Indeed, if we may believe Camden, his enemies foresaw his failure, and were only too anxious to help him to the viceroyalty on any terms. About the new year his appointment seemed to be certain, and by the first week in March everything was settled. 'I have beaten Knollys and Mountjoy in the Council,' Essex wrote in great exultation, 'and by God I will beat Tyr-Owen in the field; for nothing worthy her Majesty's honour hath yet been achieved.' It is not in such boastful mood that great men are wont to put on their armour. And besides all this, Knollys was his uncle and Mountjoy his familiar friend.[302]

[Sidenote: His uneasy ambition.]

It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to inquire how Essex came to desire such a thankless office as the government of Ireland. His ambition was not of an ignoble cast; but it is certain that he grasped greedily at every important command, and that he could scarcely brook a superior, or even a colleague. This was clearly shown in his ridiculous quarrel with the Lord Admiral about precedence, no less than in more important matters. He probably saw the Irish difficulty well enough, but any hesitation about incurring the risk of failure was more than counterbalanced by the fear of someone else gaining great glory.

[Sidenote: Bacon's excuses.]

Bacon had advised him to remain at Court, but to take Irish affairs under his special protection there, to consult with men who knew the country, to fill places with his own friends, and to patronise others who were likely to be useful. In short, he was urged to make what the newspapers now call political capital out of Ireland, but not to risk himself and his reputation there. While giving this counsel, Bacon had expressed a fear that the Earl was not the man to play such a game skilfully. And so it fell out. By the beginning of the year 1599 Essex saw that he would have to go. Years afterwards, when Elizabeth was gone, Bacon found that an inconvenient cloud hung over him on account of the part he had played. He then tried to persuade others, and possibly succeeded in persuading himself, that he had really 'used all means he could devise' to prevent Essex from venturing into Ireland. The fact seems to be that he kept quiet as long as the thing could have been prevented, and did not try to make Essex reconsider the matter when he decided to go. He afterwards said that he 'did plainly see his overthrow chained as it were by destiny to that journey'; but at the time he did no more than warn him against possible failure from defects of temper, while he enlarged upon the great glory which would follow success. A comparison of extant letters shows that Essex himself was far more impressed than Bacon with the danger and difficulties of the Irish problem, though, when he was on the eve of setting out, his impulsive nature allowed him to brag of the great things that he was going to do.[303]

[Sidenote: Opinions of Wotton and Bacon.]

'I have heard him say,' writes Wotton of Essex, 'and not upon any flashes or fumes of melancholy, or traverses of discontent, but in a serene and quiet mood, that he could very well have bent his mind to a retired course.' This is confirmed by other authorities, and indeed Essex, though he had a soldier's courage, was by nature a student and a dreamer rather than a man of action. Circumstances brought him forward, and his character made him uncomfortable in any place except the highest. Bacon wished him to stay at court with a white staff, as Leicester had done, but the work was uncongenial. If he could have succeeded Burghley, perhaps he might have accepted the position; as it was Ireland offered him the kind of power which he most coveted, and though he was not blind to the danger of leaving a Hanno behind him, he fancied that he was fit to play the part of Hannibal. Just as he was starting Bacon wrote him a long letter of advice, reminding him that the Irish rebels were active and their country difficult, but reminding him also that 'the justest triumphs that the Romans in their greatness did obtain, and that whereof the emperors in their styles took addition and denomination, were of such an enemy as this... such were the Germans and the Ancient Britons, and divers others. Upon which kind of people, whether the victory were a conquest, or a reconquest upon a rebellion or a revolt, it made no difference that ever I could find in honour.' Years afterwards Bacon pleaded that he had done what he could to stop Essex, on the ground that the expedition would certainly fall short of public expectation and 'would mightily diminish his reputation.' Again he mentions the Germans and Britons, the woods and the bogs, the hardness of the Irishmen's bodies, so that there can be no doubt about what he alludes to. We have the original letter, and Bacon stands convicted of misrepresentation, the grosser because careless observers might so easily confound it with the reality.[304]

[Sidenote: Difficulties and delays.]

About the beginning of December the number of Essex's army was fixed at 14,000. Then there was talk of a smaller establishment, and the affair went through the usual hot and cold phases of all suits at Elizabeth's court. Spenser had experienced the miseries of hope deferred, and Shakespeare saw the spurns which patient merit of the unworthy takes. 'Into Ireland I go,' writes the Earl on New Year's day; 'the Queen hath irrevocably decreed it, the Council do passionately urge it, and I am tied in my own reputation to use no tergiversation.' He had many misgivings, but had decided in his own mind that he was bound to go. 'The Court,' he admitted, 'is the centre, but methinks it is the fairer choice to command armies than humours.' In the meanwhile the humour changed daily. Essex was not patient, and the whole wrangle must have been inexpressibly distasteful to him. On Twelfth-day the Queen danced with him, and it was decided that he should start in March. Three weeks later there were fresh difficulties about the excessive number of gentlemen whom he proposed to take with him. As late as March 1, it seemed doubtful whether the Queen's irrevocable decree would not after all be altered. Mountjoy, who had a much cooler head, had earnestly advised his friend to leave nothing to chance, to his enemies' pleasure, or to official promises, and it is to the Earl's consciousness that this advice was sound, that the delays must be chiefly attributed. On March 6 letters patent were passed, releasing him from the arrears of his father's debts incurred in the same thankless Irish service, and six days later he was formally appointed Lord Lieutenant. That title had not been granted since the return of Sussex thirty-seven years before.[305]

[Sidenote: Departure of Essex.]

On March 27 Essex took horse at Seething Lane, accompanied by a brilliant suite. Prayers were offered in the churches for his success against the imitators of Korah and Absalom, in whose cases God had manifested to the world his hatred of all rebellion against His divine ordinance, and foreshadowing His probable care for an anointed queen. 'Do not,' said the Anglican divines, 'punish our misdeeds by strengthening the hands of such as despise the truth.' Through Cornhill and Cheapside, and for more than four miles out of town, the people thronged about their favourite, with such cries as 'God bless your lordship! God preserve your honour!' The day was very fine at starting, but ere Islington was passed there came a black north-easter with thunder, hail, and rain; and some held it for a bad omen. Nor did the popular hero travel as though he loved the work or believed in himself. On April 1 he was at Bromley, bitterly complaining that the Queen would not make Sir Christopher Blount a councillor, and announcing that he had sent him back. 'I shall,' he wrote, 'have no such necessary use of his hands, as, being barred the use of his head, I would carry him to his own disadvantage, and the disgrace of the place he should serve in.' The place was that of Marshal of the army, which Blount did actually fill, and there is no reason to suppose that he would have been any useful addition to the Council. Such virtues as he had, and they were not many, were those of the camp. On the 3rd, Essex was at Tamworth, and on the 5th at Helbry, the island off the Dee which Sir Henry Sidney had found so wearisome. The wind did not serve, and there was a delay of a week before he sailed from Beaumaris, having ridden over Penmaen Mawr, 'the worst way and in the extremest wet that I have endured.' After a bad passage Dublin was reached on the 15th. William, 13th Earl of Kildare, 'with eighteen of the chiefs of Meath and Fingal' set out to follow in the Lord Lieutenant's wake. The vessel, built for speed and probably overpressed with canvas, foundered in mid-Channel, and all on board perished.[306]

[Sidenote: Great expectations,]

[Sidenote: which cool observers do not share.]

The public expectation from the mission of Essex was such that Shakespeare ventured to suggest a possible comparison between him and the victor of Agincourt. Had he succeeded he would have been the hero of the Elizabethan age, greater in the eyes of his contemporaries than Norris or Raleigh, greater even than Drake. His task was, indeed, no light one, for the rebels in arms were estimated at very nearly 20,000 men, of which less than half were in Ulster. In the south and west the chief towns and many detached strongholds were held for the Queen, but in the northern province her power was confined to Carrickfergus and Newry, Carlingford, Greencastle, and Narrow Water, all on the coast, and to one castle in the inland county of Cavan. The preparations were on a scale suitable to the emergency, for 16,000 foot and 1,400 horse far exceeded the usual proportions of a viceregal army. Nor was it composed wholly of raw levies, for Essex insisted on having Sir Henry Docwra, with 2,000 veterans, from Holland; his plan being so to distribute them that some seasoned soldiers should be present everywhere. But there had always been corruption in the Irish service, and cool observers thought it necessary to make allowance for false musters and cooked returns. A crowd of adventurous young gentlemen accompanied Essex, among whom was John Harrington, the Queen's godson, and by her much admired for his wit. Harrington was advised, by a friend at court, to keep a secret journal in Ireland, for future use in case of disaster. 'Observe,' says the letter, 'the man who commandeth, and yet is commanded himself. He goeth not forth to serve the Queen's realm, but to humour his own revenge.' There were spies about him, 'and when a man hath so many shewing friends, and so many unshewing enemies, who learneth his end here below?' Cecil cautioned Secretary Fenton that the new Lord Lieutenant thought ill of him because of his friendship with Sir John Norris. Justice Golde of Munster, who knew his country well, hoped Essex's 'famous victory in mighty Spain would not be subject to receive blemish in miserable Ireland.' It did not require the penetration of a Bacon to see that the expedition was likely to end in failure, and in the ruin of the chief actor.[307]

[Sidenote: Powers given to Essex.]

The Lord Lieutenant's commission was of the most ample kind. He was authorised to lease the land of rebels generally, and more particularly to give or grant property affected by the attainder of Tyrone and others in Tyrone, Tyrconnell, Fermanagh, Leitrim, and the Route, exceptions being made in favour of O'Dogherty and Sir Arthur O'Neill, as rebels by compulsion rather than through disloyalty. Officers not holding by patent he was empowered to dismiss, and even patentees might be suspended. He might grant pardons for all treasons, but in Tyrone's case he was only to pardon for life, and not for lands, and to exact some guarantee before giving even life and liberty to one who had 'so vilely abused her mercy.' That 'capital traitor' was in no case to be spared without due submission first made in all lowly and reverend form. The power of making knights had usually been granted to viceroys, and had been sometimes abused by them. This touched Elizabeth in her tenderest point, for it was by not letting it become too cheap that she had made knighthood a real defence of the nation. Essex was charged to 'confer that title upon none that shall not deserve it by some notorious service, or have not in possession or reversion sufficient living to maintain their degree and calling.'[308]

[Sidenote: Sir Arthur Chichester.]

Among the officers serving under Essex in Ireland was Sir Arthur Chichester, whose value he had learned during the Cadiz expedition. In his capacity of Earl Marshal he directed Chichester to take a muster of 2,600 at Chester; but it was to Cecil that the latter owed his appointment to command a regiment of 1,200 men, and it was to him that he applied for the pay due to his brother John when slain at Carrickfergus, remarking at the same time that he was a 'better soldier than suitor.' Cecil had protested against so able a man being wasted in the command of a mere company. Chichester landed at Dublin; and went to Drogheda, which Essex visited on purpose to review a regiment of which he had heard so much. The veterans, who came straight from the strict school of the Ostend siege, made an imposing show on parade, and the Lord Lieutenant thoughtlessly charged them with his mounted staff. The pikemen did not quite see the joke, and stood so firm that Essex had to pull his horse back on its haunches, and 'a saucy fellow with his pike pricked his Lordship (saving your reverence) in the rump and made him bleed.' Chichester was sent to his brother's old post at Carrickfergus, and there he was generally quartered till the end of the war and of the reign.[309]

[Sidenote: Essex postpones his departure for Ulster.]

'This noble and worthy gentleman our lord and master,' said Wotton, who was one of his secretaries, 'took the sword and sway of this unsettled kingdom into his hands 15th instant,' adding that the Bishop of Meath preached a grave, wise, and learned sermon on the occasion. Essex was instructed to inform himself by conference with the Council, and the result of several meetings was a resolution not to attack Tyrone and O'Donnell, but rather to plague those Leinster allies who had lately taken a solemn oath of allegiance to them in Holy Cross Abbey. Want of forage, involving lean cattle and weak draught-horses, was the reason given for inaction; but it is proverbial that a council of war never fights, and the Lord Lieutenant was but too ready to adopt a dilatory policy. 'A present prosecution in Leinster, being the heart of the whole kingdom,' was what the Council advised, and if that plan had been adhered to, there was a good deal to be said in its favour. About 30,000 rebels were reported to be in arms altogether; and of these the home province contained 3,000 natives, besides 800 mercenaries from Ulster. The mountains of Wicklow and Dublin had not been quieted by the death of Feagh MacHugh; his sons, with other O'Byrnes and O'Tooles, still carried on the war, while the bastard Geraldines and a remnant of the Eustaces were out in Kildare. Carlow and Wexford were terrorised by Donell Spaniagh and his Kavanaghs. Owen MacRory commanded a powerful band of O'Mores in Queen's County, and in King's County there were still many unsubdued O'Connors. Lord Mountgarret and the O'Carrolls were also reckoned as rebels. Meath and Westmeath were full of armed bands, while Longford and Louth had suffered greatly by incursions from Ulster. A force of 3,000 foot and 300 horse was sent forward to Kilcullen, and on May 10 Essex set out from Dublin to take the command.[310]

[Sidenote: Campaign in Leinster.]

From Kilcullen bridge on the Liffey to Athy bridge on the Barrow, the line of march lay through a wooded country, and stray shots, which did no harm, were fired at advanced parties. Athy was found to be decayed through the disturbed state of the country, but the castle was surrendered without difficulty, and Ormonde made his appearance, accompanied by his kinsmen Lords Mountgarret and Cahir, both of whom had been considered in rebellion. About 200 rebels showed themselves, but retired to bogs and woods on the advance of Southampton with a detachment. Lord Grey de Wilton was carried by his impetuosity further forward than his orders warranted, and was placed under arrest for a night. Both lords had cause to regret what was perhaps an ill-judged exercise of authority. Sir Christopher St. Lawrence here distinguished himself by swimming across the Barrow, recovering some stolen horses, and returning with one of the marauder's heads.

[Sidenote: Owen MacRory O'More.]

After three or four days the provision train came up, and Maryborough was relieved; the rebels not venturing to make their threatened attack at Blackford near Stradbally. From Maryborough, which Harrington calls 'a fort of much importance, but of contemptible strength,' Essex made his way to Lord Mountgarret's house at Ballyragget. The line of march lay through a wooded pass; where the O'Mores had dug ditches and made breastworks of the fallen trees. Essex showed both skill and activity, but he lost three officers and several men; and the natives could hardly have hoped to stop a viceregal army between Dublin and Kilkenny. One Irish account says the English loss was great, and another notes the capture of many plumed helmets, from which the place was named the 'pass of feathers.' The accounts agree that Owen MacRory had not more than about 500 men with him, and Harrington says he offered to have a fight with sword and target between fifty chosen men on each side. Essex agreed to this, but the Irish did not appear. The Lord Lieutenant did not risk as much as Perrott had formerly done, when he proposed to decide the war by a duel with Fitzmaurice, but Ormonde must have remembered that day well, and can hardly have thought this later piece of knight-errantry much less foolish.[311]

[Sidenote: Campaign in Munster.]

The Kilkenny people expressed their joy at the arrival of Essex 'by lively orations and silent strewing of the streets with green herbs and rushes,' and he received a similar welcome at Clonmel. But he did not like the Latin oration delivered at the latter town: it adjured him not to bear the sword of justice in vain, while he anxiously protested that it was for the exercise of clemency that 'her Majesty had given him both sword and power.'

[Sidenote: Siege of Cahir.]

Essex was now in Munster, and his resolution first to subdue the home province had been thrown to the winds. Derrinlaur Castle, which annoyed the navigation of the Suir, was surrendered; its indefensibility had been proved in 1574, and the fate of the garrison was doubtless well remembered. Another castle higher up the river gave more trouble. Lord Cahir was in the viceregal camp, but his brother James (called Galdie or the Englishman) undertook to defend the family stronghold, and it was necessary to bring up heavy artillery. The want of foresight which characterised this campaign was conspicuously shown here. The battering train, 'one cannon and one culverin,' was brought up by water to Clonmel, but no draught horses had been provided, nor were there any means of strengthening the bridges, which might sink under so unusual a weight. The guns were slowly dragged by men all the way to Cahir, of the strength of which there is an elaborate official account. The critical Harrington admits that it was not built with any great art, but that nature had made it practically impregnable, which was not true even in those days. An assault would have been difficult, for the castle was then surrounded by water; but a battery, which completely commanded it, was easily planted near the site of the present railway station. Lord Cahir called upon his brother to surrender, but was answered by threats and insults. Two days later the guns came, were placed at once in position, and opened fire in a few hours; but the carriage of the largest 'brake at the second shot,' and took a day and a half to repair. A ball stuck in the culverin, but that too was cleared in time, and fifty rounds from this light piece was enough to silence the garrison on that side. An orchard under the south-west wall was occupied the same night, and most of the garrison escaped by the left bank of the river; but two of the English captains were killed. Before a breach could be effected the White Knight threw in reinforcements, and the besiegers made another lodgment at the north-east end of the island. The cannonade was renewed at close quarters, and on the night of the third day the garrison made a sally. The intended assault had been assigned to Sir Charles Percy and Sir Christopher St. Lawrence, with four companies of the Flanders veterans, who repulsed the attack and entered the castle along with the Irish, of whom about eighty were killed. A few escaped by swimming, and the guns were soon mounted on the deserted walls. Having repaired damages and placed a garrison of 100 men in the castle, the Lord Lieutenant marched northward along the left bank of the Suir. He made much of this siege, which was the single thing he had to boast of in Munster, but it was a small matter after all. A year later James Butler, with sixty men, again got possession of this 'inexpugnable' fortress without firing a shot, but soon surrendered to Carew, whose bare threats were enough to secure his object.[312]

[Sidenote: Death of Sir Thomas Norris.]

[Sidenote: Irish tactics.]

The bridge at Golden was repaired and the army passed to Tipperary, where a letter was received from Sir Thomas Norris, whom Essex had already met at Kilkenny. The Lord President announced that he had been wounded in a skirmish with the Castleconnel Burkes, but he recovered sufficiently to accompany Essex in part of his Munster campaign. The wound seems to have been fatal at last, for on August he was dangerously ill, and in September commissioners were appointed to execute duties which had been neglected since his death. The Lord-Lieutenant himself was well received at Limerick, and entertained with two English orations, 'in which,' says Harrington, 'I know not which was more to be discommended--words, composition, or oratory, all of which having their peculiar excellencies in barbarism, harshness, and rustical, both pronouncing and action.' After several days' rest the next operation was to revictual Askeaton, and the Sugane Earl showed himself at Adare with 2,000 or 3,000 men. The bridge was not defended, but the Irish galled the army in passing a boggy wood beyond the Maigue, and the soldiers 'went so coldly on' that Essex had to reproach their baseness. Harrington describes the enemy as 'rather morrice-dancers tripping after their bag-pipes' than soldiers, and declares that in all Munster they never once strayed from the edge of their woods 'further than an old hunted hare doth from her covert for relief.' Some fighting there was, and the official account makes much of the Irish losses and little of the Lord-Lieutenant's; but Harrington says that Plunkett, an insurgent captain who was supposed to have shown slackness, had next day to give Desmond hostages for his good behaviour. As Essex passed through each hedge, the thorns closed behind him, and left the state of Munster unaltered.[313]

[Sidenote: End of Munster campaign.]

[Sidenote: Death of Sir Henry Norris.]

Askeaton was easily victualled by water from Limerick, and Essex turned aside to Conna near Lismore, where Desmond had his chief residence. The move was thought a strange one, and Harrington could only conjecture that he wished to 'give the rebels an inexcusable provocation,' but O'Sullivan, much less ingeniously, says that he did not dare to proceed further westward. At Finniterstown the army had to pass between two woods, and had a sharp fight with Desmond, who had been joined by Lord Fitzmaurice and some of the MacCarthies. Captain Jennings was killed, Sir Henry Norris had his leg broken by a bullet, and a third officer was shot through both cheeks. Norris 'endured amputation with extraordinary patience,' but died a few weeks afterwards, making the third of these famous six brothers who had fallen a victim to the Irish service. After an interval, which was allowed to elapse for fear of causing fresh sorrow, the Queen wrote to condole with Lord and Lady Norris on the 'bitter accident' which had deprived them of two more sons, and the survivor was ordered home from Holland to comfort them.

The army then marched by Croom to Bruff, whence Essex went with Ormonde, Blount, St. Leger, and Carew to consult the Lord President at Kilmallock. They agreed that there was no money, no magazine, no remnant of any kind of victual of her Majesty's stores, cows enough for only two days, and hardly ammunition for three. On Norris promising to procure some beeves out of Lord Barry's country and to send them to Conna the advance was resumed, the line of march being over the Ballyhoura hills to Glanworth and Fermoy. Essex himself went to Mallow, detached a party to Cork for the promised supplies, and then rejoined the army with Cormac MacDermot MacCarthy, who brought 100 cows and 200 kerne. There was some fighting, and Sir Henry Danvers was wounded between Fermoy and Conna; but the latter castle was dismantled. Lord Barry brought the convoy safely to Castle Lyons, and the Blackwater was passed at Affane, a ford which was only practicable for one hour at low water. The President returned from the neighbourhood of Dungarvan with 1,000 men, with which he expected to be able to maintain the war in his province, and Essex marched without fighting through Lord Power's country to Waterford.[314]

[Sidenote: Defeat of Harrington in Wicklow.]

In pursuance of his original intention to settle Leinster before going further afield, Essex had proposed to give Sir Henry Harrington, seneschal of Wicklow, 700 foot and 50 horse, 300 of these to be seasoned soldiers. His sudden resolution to attack Munster altered this, and the work was left to 'four new companies and Captain Adam Loftus, his company of foot, who were all Irish and most of them lately come from the rebels; myself,' Harrington plaintively adds, 'without either horse or foot, or any penny of entertainment.' The O'Byrnes had fortified the passage of the Avonmore near Rathdrum, and, in order to accustom his troops to the presence of an enemy, Harrington led them out several miles and encamped near the river. This was on May 28, when Essex was before Cahir. Phelim MacHugh sent peaceful messages to Harrington, which can have had no object but to disarm his suspicion. Next morning the Irish were in considerable force, and, after reconnoitring, the seneschal ordered a return to Wicklow. The enemy pressed on his rear and hung on his flanks, the ground being for the most part bush, wood, and bog. A stream which crossed the road was safely forded, but some signs of insubordination appeared in Loftus's company, which was explained by an attempt on the part of his subalterns to gain over some of the hostile kerne who had formerly fought on the Queen's side. If this was a stratagem on the part of the O'Byrnes it was completely successful. Loftus did his best in the rear, the post of danger in a retreat, but received a wound from which he afterwards died. His men immediately ran away, and, although no one pursued, never stopped till they got to Wicklow. The Irish then charged down the road, and the main body of infantry behaved no better. 'I persuaded them,' says Captain Atherton, 'but to turn their faces and it should be sufficient for their safety, but they never offered to turn, nor speak, but, as men without sense or feeling, ran upon one another's backs, it not being possible to break by reason of the captains, which endeavoured by all means to stay them, but all in vain.' As soon as the ground allowed them, the soldiers broke in all directions, throwing away their arms and even their clothes. Captain Charles Montague, who had already done such good service at Blackwater, handled his troop of horse well, and, though wounded in several places, brought off all the colours, and covered the retreat of the few foot soldiers who retained any kind of order. Captain Wardman was killed, and this was the end of Essex's great scheme for the settlement of Leinster.[315]

[Sidenote: Essex returns to Dublin,]

At Waterford, the Lord-Lieutenant was 'received with two Latin orations, and with as much joyful concourse of people as any other town of Ireland.' He inspected the fort of Duncannon, and Harrington, who amused himself in country quarters by reading books on fortification, and who hoped at coming home to talk of 'counterscarps and casemates,' shoots his wit at the expense of Sir John Norris in his capacity of engineer. Stripped of technicalities and Italian terms of art, the criticism is that the fort was too confined, and that it was commanded from the land side. The wit forgot that Irish rebels had no artillery, and did not notice that the course of the channel forced all ships of any size to come close under the walls. Against a Parma or a Spinola the defences would have availed little, but after-events proved that Duncannon was an important post in Irish warfare. Boats were brought from Carrick and New Ross, and the army was ferried over from Passage to Ballyhack. This proved a long operation, 'the boats not being great, and the carriage of our army far greater than ever heretofore in this country followed so few fighting men,' in which statement the reason of Essex's failure is perhaps contained. The line of march lay by Ballibrennan to a ford over the Slaney, between Enniscorthy and Ferns. The direct road to Dublin was by Carnew, but the Duffry was a land of woods and hills, swarming with rebels and practicable only for a fighting force; whereas Essex could muster no more than 1,200 effective men, clogged with hurt and sick, and 'with at least thrice as many churls, horseboys, and other like unserviceable people which were of necessity to be guarded.' It was, therefore, determined to go by the coast, and no enemy appeared until Gorey had been passed. From this, villages and houses were burned on both sides of the road 'to whet the rebels choler and courage,' who made a stand at a river four miles south of Arklow.

Essex himself passed the deep water with his horse, and Ormonde led the rest of the army over a better ford near the seaside. The Irish, who were about 1,000 strong, did not venture to close, but skirmished on the left flank, the broken ground being too far off for them to do much harm. Captain Lawrence Esmond was, however, killed. Essex endeavoured to draw the enemy down by masking a part of his force, but the natives, as Harrington observes, were not easily to be drawn into an ambuscade. Ormonde and Blount, with the head of the column, advanced to the seaside, hidden from the others by the shape of the ground. The Irish, being on the height, saw their advantage, and very nearly succeeded in cutting off the baggage train in the centre. A hard fight followed, and a charge of Southampton's horse just saved the army from a great disaster. Several of his men were bogged and in great danger. Captain Constable escaped with two wounds, and Mr. Seth Cox, 'a gentleman whose industry had adorned him with much both science and language' was killed. Captain Roche, an Irishman by birth, who had long served the French king, had his leg shattered by a shot.

[Sidenote: having effected nothing.]

After some more fighting, the rebels were beaten off with the loss of 100 men. Donell Spaniagh, Phelim MacFeagh, and Owen MacRory were all present, and were willing to treat upon protection being granted. Essex sent word to Phelim that he might have a safe-conduct as far as Arklow if he would come and sue for mercy as a repentant rebel, but that a messenger sent for any other purpose would be hanged. Dublin was reached without further fighting, and the Irish annalists, with whom Harrington is in almost verbal agreement, may be left to sum up the results of the expedition. While the 'army was in Munster,' say the Four Masters, 'the Geraldines continued to follow, pursue, and press upon them, to shoot at, wound, and slaughter them. When the Earl had arrived in the Decies, the Geraldines returned in exultation and high spirits to their territories and houses.... In Leinster they marched not by a prosperous progress, for the Irish were pursuing and environing them, so that they slew great numbers in every road by which they passed.... They said it would have been better for the Earl if he had not gone on this expedition, as he returned back without having received submission or respect from the Geraldines, and without having achieved any exploit worth boasting of, excepting only the taking of Cahir.[316]

[Sidenote: Severity of Essex.]

Essex lost no time in holding a court-martial on the officers and men of Harrington's force. Piers Walsh, Loftus's Irish lieutenant, who was certainly guilty of cowardice, and perhaps of treacherously communicating with the enemy, was shot; all, or nearly all, the soldiers, had run away; they were sentenced to be hanged, and were actually decimated. The other officers, 'though they forsook not their places assigned them, but were forsaken by the soldiers, yet because in such an extremity they did not something very extraordinary... were all cashiered' and imprisoned. Harrington himself, being a Privy Councillor, was not tried, but was placed under arrest during her Majesty's pleasure. His thirty years' service were not forgotten in England, and he soon returned to his duty. The decimation was not approved of, and Wotton notes it as a piece of Roman discipline, and as an instance of Essex's tendency to severity. On the voyage to the Azores he had thrown a soldier overboard with his own hands.[317]

[Sidenote: Dissatisfaction of Elizabeth.]

Instead of settling Leinster as announced, the Lord Lieutenant had only succeeded in getting rid of his army. 'The poor men,' he wrote, 'that marched eight weeks together be very weary, and the horsemen so divided that I cannot draw 300 to a head.' And still he promised to overthrow Tyrone, or be himself slain, if he could find him 'on hard ground and in an open country,' which he was as little likely to do as Glendower was to draw spirits from the vasty deep. There had been sharp letters about his making Southampton general of the horse. His commission gave him power to do this, but the Queen had expressed her personal repugnance to such promotion. She disliked the formation of what, in later Irish history, has been called 'a family party.' Blount was Essex's stepfather, though about his own age, and Southampton had without leave married his cousin, Elizabeth Vernon, who was a maid of honour. Essex tried to maintain the appointment against the Queen's will, mainly on the ground that no volunteer would adhere to him when thus discountenanced; but Elizabeth said she did not see that Southampton's counsel or experience could be of any particular value, and refused to believe that 'the voluntary gentlemen are so discouraged thereby as they begin to desire passports and prepare to return.' The Lord-Lieutenant had to submit, and Southampton continued to serve as a volunteer. The account rendered for two months showed no great balance in the Queen's favour, and it is evident that she thought pretty much as the Irish did about the futility of the Munster journey. He had, she said, 'brought in never a capital rebel, against whom it had been worthy to have adventured 1,000 men; for of these two comings in that were brought unto you by Ormonde (namely, Mountgarret and Cahir), whereupon ensued the taking of Cahir Castle, full well do we know that you would long since have scorned to have allowed it for any great matter in others to have taken an Irish hold from a rabble of rogues with such force as you had, and with the help of the cannon, which was always able in Ireland to make his passage where it pleased.'[318]

[Sidenote: Essex on his defence.]

Before the end of May Cecil knew that Essex intended to visit Munster, so as to make things safe there before going to the North, and he expresses no opinion on the subject. But the Queen soon grew uneasy, and complained that she was giving the Earl 1,000_l._ a day to make progresses with. When the results of two months' expenditure were known, her indignation burst forth. Nothing had been done but what President Norris might have done as well, and she was especially displeased 'that it must be the Queen of England's fortune (who hath held down the greatest enemy she had) to make a base Irish kerne to be accounted so famous a rebel.' Ireland was in a state worse than that in which Ormonde had left it, and Tyrone was announcing to continental nations 'defeats of regiments, deaths of captains, and loss of men of quality in every corner.' Essex entrusted regiments to young gentlemen, and made such a fuss that the rebels were always fully prepared. This was just criticism, and indeed the Earl's own story tallies with it. He provides the excuse also, but he had only found out what was known to hundreds of officers who had served in Ireland. The rebels, he said, were much more numerous than the soldiers, and for light warfare they were both naturally more active and better trained to fight. The Queen's gallant officers and gentlemen of quality did more good than all the rest, and the real difficulty was to restrain their ardour, whereas the rebel leaders 'dare never put themselves to any hazard, but send their kerne and their hirelings to fight with her Majesty's troops.' English officers with cavalry could always win in the open, and towns were in no danger; but in bogs and woods he was loth to 'wager the lives of noblemen and gentlemen against rogues and naked beggars.'

These were the commonplaces of Irish warfare since Surrey's and Skeffington's days, and Essex was learning his lesson at an enormous cost.[319]

[Sidenote: Campaign in Leix and Offaly.]

The Lord-Lieutenant was ill, of the malady which nearly proved fatal in the following year, and the results of overwork and failure were not lessened by rebukes from the Queen. An intended expedition into Leix and Offaly was noticed by her as unworthy of his rank, but yet he determined to go. Blount was first sent to victual Maryborough, and the sergeant-major to Philipstown. Captain William Williams commanded at the latter place, and he had just lost 60 men by allowing them to fall into an ambuscade. There was no difficulty in relieving the forts, but when Essex himself followed, he had some sharp fighting on the border of Westmeath. The Irish were commanded by Captain Tyrrell, a noted English or Anglo-Irish partisan in Tyrone's pay, who always kept 200 men with him. In days long gone by, the Anglo-Norman Tyrrells had driven the O'Dooleys from Fartullagh, and now they were in arms against the Queen of England's representative. Sir Conyers Clifford came from Connaught, to meet the Lord-Lieutenant, and his horsemen fought bravely on foot in a country where there was no place for cavalry. 'In all this journey,' says Harrington, who came with the Connaught troops, 'I was comrade to the Earl of Kildare, and slept both on one pillow every night for the most part; here at the parting, my lord gave Sir Griffin Markham great commendations, and made him colonel and commander of all the horse in Connaught; and gave me and some others the honour of knighthood in the field.'

Clifford lost many men before effecting the juncture, and yet the natives were so completely surprised that they had no time even to hide their children. Many hundred cows were taken, but the result of the expedition was that Essex returned to Dublin and Clifford to Connaught.[320]

[Sidenote: Anger of Elizabeth.]

[Sidenote: The cheap defence of nations.]

At the beginning of August, the Irish Council demanded 2,000 fresh men for the expedition to the North, but before an answer came, they declared that nothing could be done for the year. It is difficult to say how far this inconsistency was caused by the fluctuations of Essex's own temper, but it was clear that he did not inspire confidence. The Queen granted the reinforcements, while severely criticising the conduct of both Lord-Lieutenant and Council. She had been repeatedly told, and could very well believe, that a garrison at Lough Foyle was the chief thing needful. 'We doubt not,' she said, 'but to hear by the next that it is begun and not in question.' In the meantime the garrisons in Connaught and Munster and in the midland forts seemed scarcely able to maintain themselves. 'We can hope of no success,' she said sarcastically, 'than to be able to keep our towns which were never lost, and some petty holds of small importance, with more than three parts of our army, it being decreed for the head of the rebellion, that our forces shall not find our way this year to behold him.' She could not understand how no more than 5,000 men were available, instead of at least double that number; and, indeed, it is not easy to understand even now. And there were other things to make her angry. Essex had been specially ordered to make no knights except for some striking service, and he now made no less than fifty-nine, without having anything to show for it. The court news-writer, from whom we learn so much, notes that he had begun by dozens and scores, and had now fallen to 'huddle them up by half-hundreds; and it is noted as a strange thing, that a subject, in the course of seven or eight years, should, upon so little service and small desert, make more knights than in all the realm besides; and it is doubted, that if he continues this course, he will shortly bring in tag and rag, cut and long-tail, and so bring the order into contempt.'[321]

[Sidenote: Defeat of Sir Conyers Clifford (August).]

[Sidenote: Death of Clifford.]

It may be doubtful whether Essex intended again to take the dilatory advice of his Council, or whether he would have been stung into action by the Queen's taunts. A great disaster seems to have finally determined him, though it should probably have had the contrary effect. O'Connor Sligo had been with Essex in Munster, whence he returned to Collooney, the only castle which he had preserved from O'Donnell, and where he was at once beleaguered by him. Essex ordered Clifford to relieve him and to occupy Sligo, by which means he hoped to distract Tyrone's attention. Clifford, with a force of something under 2,000 men, went to Boyle, and, in spite of the Lord Lieutenant's caution against over-confidence, resolved to pass the Curlew mountains without resting his men, after two days' march in the hot harvest weather. He does not seem to have expected any opposition, but O'Donnell had been watching the pass for weeks, and had given orders that the army should be allowed to get well on to the mountain before they were attacked. The Irish scouts saw them leave the abbey of Boyle, so that there was plenty of time for O'Donnell to bring up his forces. On arriving at the narrowest part of the pass between Boyle and Ballinafad, Clifford found it strongly defended by a breastwork, and held by 400 men, who fired a volley, and then fell back. The road up the mountain, which consisted of 'stones six or seven foot broad, lying above ground, with plashes of bog between them,' ran through boggy woods, from which the Irish galled the soldiers, who exhausted their powder with little effect. Sir Alexander Radclyffe, commanding the advance guard, was mortally wounded, and as no reinforcement came up, a panic ensued, and the whole array were driven pell-mell back to Boyle. Sir John Mac Swiney, an Irish officer in the Queen's service, faced the enemy almost alone, cursing the vileness of his men, and 'died fighting, leaving the example of his virtue to be intituled by all honourable posterities.' Only the horse under Sir Griffin Markham behaved well, covering the retreat and charging boldly up hill 'among rocks and bogs, where never horse was seen to charge before.' Markham had his arm broken by a shot, and Sir Conyers Clifford was killed while trying to rally his men. Harrington thought the imagination of the soldiers was bewitched, and cites the extraordinary escape of Rory Oge from his cousin Sir Henry in 1577, when they thought 'he had, by magic, compelled them not to touch him'; but this panic is easily explained by the moral effect of recent defeats. So far as Ireland went, people were losing their faith in Elizabeth's star.[322]

[Sidenote: Effects of this disaster.]

O'Rourke, who remained in possession of the field, cut off Clifford's head and sent it to O'Donnell, and MacDermot, in a letter which Harrington very justly characterised as 'barbarous for the Latin, but civil for the sense,' announced that, for the love he bore the governor, he had carried his headless trunk to the neighbouring monastery of Lough Cé. He was ready to exchange it for his own prisoners or to give it decent burial himself, and he would offer no obstacle to the burial of other officers. 'The Irish of Connaught,' say the Four Masters, 'were not pleased at the Governor's death, for he had been a bestower of jewels and riches upon them, and he had never told them a falsehood.' The same authorities say the Irish did not attribute their victory to arms, but to the miracle of the Lord and to the special intercession of the Blessed Mary. Nor was superstition confined to the victorious party, for not only did the English soldiers talk of magic, but Clifford himself was said to have prophetically dreamed of his capture by O'Donnell, and of being carried by monks into their convent. The defeat was particularly disastrous, because Clifford's troops were not raw recruits, as Harrington's had been. Essex determined to employ them no more, except to defend walls. The immediate result of the battle was that O'Connor Sligo submitted to Tyrone, and became a loyal subject of the real king of Ireland.[323]

[Sidenote: A council of war decides to do nothing.]

Essex's first and natural impulse was 'to revenge or follow worthy Conyers Clifford,' but others thought that very little could be done. In early spring it had been decided to wait till the summer, and now in harvest-time the season for fighting was considered to be past. Again the General placed his fate in the hands of a council of war, and again his advisers resolved to do nothing. 'The Lords, Colonels, and Knights of the army,' as they style themselves, declared that there were less than 4,000 men available for a campaign, that many soldiers deserted to the rebels, ran away to England, feigned sickness, or hid themselves. The uniform ill-success of the Queen's army had lately been such that her troops had no heart for the Ulster enterprise, and it was certain that they would be greatly outnumbered by the rebels. 'The Connaught army consisting of a great part of old companies being lately defeated,' there was no chance of establishing a post at Lough Foyle, and in any case there were not men enough to garrison it, and the same would apply still more strongly to Armagh and Blackwater, whither provisions could not be brought by sea. For these reasons, and being thoroughly aware of the state of the army, the officers declared against any journey far north. 'In which resolution,' they say, 'if any man suspected it proceeded of weakness or baseness, we will not only in all likely and profitable service disprove him, but will every one of us deal with his life, that we dissuaded this undertaking with more duty than any man could persuade unto it.' The Queen was very angry with the Lord Lieutenant for calling in 'so many of those that are of so slender judgment, and none of our council,' to keep men from censuring his proceedings, and there can be little doubt that it was a weak device to shift the responsibility. Seven days after the officers' declaration, Essex left Dublin, resolved to go as far and do as much 'as duty would warrant, and God enable him.' This meant that he would fight Tyrone if the arch-rebel would forego his advantage of position and come out to battle. 'If he have as much courage as he pretendeth, we will, on one side or the other, end the war.' He had come to see that the 'beating of Tyrone in the field' depended upon the good pleasure of that chief, and it would have been well for his fame had he mastered that elementary truth before he undertook to censure better soldiers and wiser men than himself.[324]

[Sidenote: Essex goes to the north.]

[Sidenote: Tyrone in sight.]

Essex left Dublin on August 28, with the intention of placing a garrison at Donaghmoyne in Farney. That land of lakes and hills was his own inheritance by the Queen's patent to his father, and he may have had some idea of securing his own as well as of annoying Tyrone. He travelled through Navan and Kells, and at Castle Keran, beyond the latter town, he mustered an army of 3,700 foot and 300 horse. But the idea of establishing an outpost either in Monaghan or Cavan was quickly abandoned for three reasons, any of which would have been ample by itself. It was not worth doing, since there was nothing to defend beyond Kells. It could not be done, because it would be impossible to bring provisions on horseback from Drogheda. Last and not least, Tyrone was in Farney, ready to burn the Pale up to Dublin gates as soon as the Lord Lieutenant's rearguard had passed. It was resolved that Kells should be the frontier garrison, and the army marched to Ardee. The camp was so placed that Tyrone's could be seen on the other side of the Lagan, and there was some small skirmishing when a party was sent down to cut firewood near the river. Next day Essex advanced to the Mills of Louth, and encamped on the left bank of the Lagan. Tyrone made a flank march at the same time, and the two armies were quite close together, the Irish keeping the woods, though 10,000 or 11,000 strong. Sir William Warren, who was used to treating with Tyrone, went to seek the enlargement of a prisoner, and next day Henry O'Hagan came to ask for a parley. 'If thy master,' Essex is reported to have said, 'have any confidence either in the justness of his cause, or in the goodness and number of his men, or in his own virtue, of all which he vainly glorieth, he will meet me in the field so far advanced before the head of his kerne as myself shall be separated from the front of my troops, where we will parley in that fashion which best becomes soldiers.' Vainglory there was, but rather upon the challenger's own side; it was as a general, and not as a champion, that Elizabeth had sent her favourite to Ireland.[325]

[Sidenote: Essex meets Tyrone,]

[Sidenote: and retires without fighting.]

Next day Essex offered battle, which of course was refused by the enemy, but Tyrone again sent to desire a parley. A garrison was placed at Newrath near the mill of Louth, and on the following day the army marched towards Drumcondra. They had scarcely gone a mile when O'Hagan came again, and 'speaking,' like Rabshakeh, 'so loud as all might hear that were present,' announced that Tyrone 'desired her Majesty's mercy, and that the Lord Lieutenant would hear him; which, if his lordship agreed to, he would gallop about and meet him at the ford of Bellaclinthe, which was on the right hand by the way which his lordship took to Drumcondra.' Essex sent two officers to see the place, who reported that the ford was too wide for the purpose; but Tyrone, who knew the ground, found a spot 'where he, standing up to his horse's belly, might be near enough to be heard by the Lord Lieutenant, though he kept to the hard ground.... Seeing Tyrone there alone, his lordship went down alone. At whose coming Tyrone saluted his lordship with much reverence, and they talked above half-an-hour together, and after went either of them to their companies on the hills.' Of all the foolish things Essex ever did, this was the most foolish. By conversing with the arch-rebel without witnesses he left it open to his enemies to put the worst construction on all he did, and he put it out of his own power to offer any valid defence. Two days before he had declared war to the knife, and now he was ready to talk familiarly with his enemy, and practically to concede all without striking a blow. A more formal meeting followed with six witnesses on each side. Tyrone's were his brother Cormac MacBaron, Magennis, Maguire, Ever MacCowley, Henry Ovington, and Richard Owen, 'that came from Spain, but is an Irishman by birth.' Southampton, St. Leger, and four other officers of rank accompanied the Lord Lieutenant. By way of humility, the Irish party rode into the river, 'almost to their horse's bellies,' while Essex and his followers kept on the bank. Tyrone spoke uncovered, saluting the viceregal party 'with a great deal of respect,' and it was arranged that a further conference should take place next morning. Essex continued his march to Drumcondra, but Tyrone came himself to the place of meeting--a ford where the Lagan bridge now stands. Wotton was one of the commissioners on the Lord Lieutenant's part, and it is not likely that the negotiation suffered in his hands. He was chosen as the fittest person 'to counterpoise the sharpness of Henry Ovington's wit.' The result was a cessation of arms for six weeks to six weeks until May, either side being at liberty to break it on giving fourteen days' notice. If any of Tyrone's allies refused to be bound, the Lord Lieutenant was left at liberty to attack them. To save Essex's honour it was agreed to that his ratification should be by word simply, but that Tyrone's should be on oath. Next day the Lord Lieutenant went to take physic at Drogheda, and Tyrone retired with all his forces into the heart of his country, having gained without fighting a greater victory than that of the Yellow Ford. Bagenal was defeated, the Earl of Essex was disgraced; one had lost his life, the other his reputation.[326]

[Sidenote: The Queen blames Essex severely,]

[Sidenote: and he leaves Ireland without leave.]

'If these wars end by treaty,' Wotton had said on his first arrival, 'the Earl of Tyrone must be very humble.' But the wars were ended so far as Essex was concerned, and the rebels had conceded nothing. A week before his meeting with Tyrone, Essex had written to the Queen, warning her to expect nothing from a man weary of life, whose past services had been requited by 'banishment and proscription into the most cursed of all countries,' and almost suggesting that he meditated suicide as the only means of escape. Nor were Elizabeth's letters such as to encourage him. He had disappointed the world's expectation, and his actions had been contrary to her orders, 'though carried in such sort as we were sure to have no time to countermand them.' 'Before your departure,' she wrote, 'no man's counsel was held sound which persuaded not presently the main prosecution in Ulster; all was nothing without that, and nothing was too much for that.' An army and a summer had been wasted, and nothing had been done. The only way of accounting for the way in which the available troops had dwindled from 19,000 to less than 4,000 was by supposing that he had dispersed them in unnecessary garrisons, 'especially since, by your continual report of the state of every province, you describe them all to be in worse condition than ever they were before you put foot in that kingdom.' He had condemned all his predecessors, he had had everything he asked for, and he had done worse than anyone. Two days after the despatch of this letter Elizabeth received the account of the truce with Tyrone, which she promptly characterised as the 'quick end made of a slow proceeding.' She had never doubted that Tyrone would be ready to parley 'specially with our supreme general of the kingdom, having often done it with those of subaltern authority; always seeking these cessations with like words, like protestations.' She blamed Essex severely for his private interview--not, she was careful to say, that she suspected treason; 'yet both for comeliness, example, and your own discharge, we marvel you would carry it no better.' He had neglected her orders and sheltered himself systematically behind a council which had already wrapped Ireland in calamities. If she had intended to leave all to them, it was 'very superfluous to have sent over such a personage as yourself.' His despatches were as meagre as his actions, and he had told her nothing of what passed between him and Tyrone, nor of his instructions to the commissioners, so that 'we cannot tell, but by divination, what to think may be the issue of this proceeding... to trust this traitor upon oath is to trust a devil upon his religion. To trust him upon pledges is a mere illusory... unless he yield to have garrisons planted in his own country to master him, and to come over to us personally here.' The letter concluded with a positive order not to ratify the truce, nor to grant a pardon without further authority from herself, 'after he had particularly advised by writing.' One week after the date of the letter Essex left Ireland, in spite of the most stringent orders not to do so without a special warrant.[327]

[Sidenote: The O'Neill in his hold.]

Some account of Tyrone, as he appeared among his own people near Dunkalk, has been fortunately preserved in a letter from Sir John Harrington, who was at once a keen observer and a lively writer, and who had already seen him at Ormonde's house in London. Tyrone apologised for not remembering him personally, and said that the troubles had made him almost forget his friends. While the Earl was in private conversation with Sir William Warren, Harrington amused himself by 'posing his two sons in their learning, and their tutors, which were one Friar Nangle, a Franciscan, and a younger scholar, whose name I know not; and finding the two children of good towardly spirit, their age between thirteen and fifteen, in English clothes like a nobleman's sons; with velvet jerkins and gold lace; of a good cheerful aspect, freckle-faced, not tall of stature, but strong and well-set; both of them speaking the English tongue; I gave them (not without the advice of Sir William Warren) my English translation of Ariosto, which I got at Dublin; which their teachers took very thankfully, and soon after shewed it to the Earl, who called to see it openly, and would needs hear some part of it read. I turned (as it had been by chance) to the beginning of the forty-fifth canto, and some other passages of the book, which he seemed to like so well that he solemnly swore his boys should read all the book over to him.' Harrington was not insensible to flattery of this sort, for he has recorded the reception of his work at Galway and its soothing effect upon 'a great lady, a young lady, and a fair lady' who had been jilted by Sir Calisthenes Brooke; but it did not prevent him from afterwards calling Tyrone a damnable rebel. It was O'Neill's cue to speak fairly, and he took occasion to say that he had seen his visitor's cousin, Sir Henry, in the field, and that he must have been wrongly accused of misconduct in the fight near Wicklow. Tyrone deplored his 'own hard life,' comparing himself to wolves, that 'fill their bellies sometimes, and fast as long for it;' but he was merry at dinner, and seemed rather pleased when Harrington worsted one of his priests in an argument. 'There were fern tables and fern forms, spread under the stately canopy of heaven. His guard for the most part were beardless boys without shirts, who, in the frost, wade as familiarly through rivers as water-spaniels. With what charms such a master makes them love him I know not; but if he bid come, they come; if go, they do go; if he say do this, they do it.' He made peaceable professions, and spoke much about freedom of conscience; but Harrington perceived that his only object was to temporise, and 'one pretty thing I noted, that the paper being drawn for him to sign, and his signing it with O'Neill, Sir William (though with very great difficulty) made him to new write it and subscribe Hugh Tyrone.'[328]

[Sidenote: Essex deserts his post (September).]

[Sidenote: His reception at Court.]

The only possible excuse for Essex's leaving Ireland against orders was the Queen's last direction to 'advise by writing' the progress of his negotiations with Tyrone. He had given a promise--a foolish and rash promise--that he would 'only verbally deliver' the conditions demanded by the arch-rebel. A letter to Sir John Norris had been sent into Spain, and Tyrone refused to open his heart if writing was to be used. Essex could, however, refer to the instructions given by him to Warren, and in any case he might have waited until her Majesty had expressed her opinion as to his promise of secrecy. After all, the most probable supposition is that he was sick of Ireland, that he felt his own failure, and that he hoped to reassert over the Queen that power which absence had so evidently weakened. He swore in Archbishop Loftus and Sir George Carey as Lords Justices, Ormonde remaining in command of the army under his old commission, and charged them all to keep the cessation precisely, but to stand on their guard and to have all garrisons fully victualled for six months. He sailed the same day, and travelled post, with the evident intention of himself announcing his departure from Ireland. Having embarked on the 24th, he reached London very early on the 28th, hurried to the ferry between Westminster and Lambeth, and appropriated the horses which he found waiting there. Lord Grey de Wilton, who had not forgiven his arrest, was in front, and it was proposed by Sir Thomas Gerrard that he should let the Earl pass him. 'Doth he desire it?' said Lord Grey. 'No,' was the answer, 'nor will he, I think, ask anything at your hands.' 'Then,' said his lordship, 'I have business at Court.' He hurried on to Nonsuch, and went straight to Cecil.[329] Essex arrived only a quarter of an hour later, and although 'so full of dirt and mire that his very face was full of it,' made his way at once to the Queen's bedchamber. It was ten o'clock, and Elizabeth was an early riser, but on this occasion she was 'newly up, the hair about her face.' He fell on his knees and kissed her hands, and the goodness of his reception was inferred from his own words that, 'though he had suffered much trouble and storm abroad, he found a sweet calm at home.' He dressed, and at eleven had another audience, which lasted an hour. Still all went well. The Queen was gracious, and the courtiers as yet saw no reason to stand aloof; but Cecil and his friends were thought to be rather cold. Elizabeth was evidently glad to see her favourite, and for a moment forgot his real position. The first meeting of the Privy Council dispelled the illusion, and on the 1st of October he was committed to the custody of Lord-Keeper Egerton.[330]

[Sidenote: Negotiations with Tyrone (October and November).]

It was very uncertain as to what would be the consequences of Essex's escapade, and those who were left in charge could only temporise as best they might. In about two months Sir William Warren had three separate parleys with Tyrone, and in each case it was the English diplomatist that urged a continuance of the cessation of arms. Tyrone, who had his immediate followers extraordinarily well in hand, seems to have kept the truce, and he had reasons to complain of injuries done him by the English party. In the paralysis of government outrage upon the borders could scarcely be avoided, and Tyrone's allies were less steady than himself. 'In all the speeches,' Warren wrote, 'passed between him and me, he seemed to stand chiefly upon a general liberty of religion throughout the kingdom. I wished him to demand some other thing reasonable to be had from her Majesty, for I told him that I thought her Majesty would no more yield to that demand than she would give her crown from her head.' Warren laughed at a letter addressed to Lord O'Neill Chief Lieutenant of Ireland. 'I asked him,' he says, 'to whom the devil he could be Lieutenant. He answered me, Why should I not be a Lieutenant as well as the Earl of Ormonde.' The reasoning is not very clear, and it seems at least probable that many regarded him as the Pope's viceroy. In making James Fitzthomas an earl he had greatly exceeded even the most ample viceregal powers. From the meeting with Essex to the date at which he resolved to begin fighting again, his official letters are signed Hugh Tyrone, but on November 8 he gave Warren fourteen days' notice to conclude the truce, on the ground of injuries done him by Thomond and Clanricarde. That letter and those succeeding it, with one significant exception, he signs as O'Neill. In repeating the notice to Ormonde he says, 'I wish you command your secretary to be more discreet and to use the word Traitor as seldom as he may. By chiding there is little gotten at my hands, and they that are joined with me fight for the Catholic religion, and liberties of our country, the which I protest before God is my whole intention.' In all these negotiations Tyrone professes to rely entirely upon Essex to see justice done, and declares war 'first of all for having seven score of my men killed by the Earl of Ormonde in time of cessation, besides divers others of the Geraldines, who were slain by the Earl of Kildare. Another cause is because I made my agreement only with your lordship, in whom I had my only confidence, who, as I am given to understand, is now restrained from your liberty, for what cause I know not.' And this letter, being intended for English consumption, is signed Hugh Tyrone. Immediately after writing it he again took the field.[331]

[Sidenote: Amount of blame imputable to Essex.]

'The conditions demanded by Tyrone,' says Essex himself, 'I was fain to give my word that I would only verbally deliver.' The consequence was that there is not and cannot be any absolutely authentic statement of those conditions. There is, however, a paper printed in a collection of repute, and immediately after one of Cecil's letters, which professes to be a statement of 'Tyrone's Propositions, 1599.' The Queen herself says that Essex, on his return, acquainted her with Tyrone's offers, but in so confused a manner as could only be explained by supposing that 'the short time of their conference made him not fully conceive the particular meaning of Tyrone in divers of those articles.' What probably happened was that Tyrone talked big, and that when Essex came to think over it afterwards, he could not clearly distinguish between extreme claims which had been mentioned, and serious proposals which had been made. But the 16th article in 'Tyrone's Propositions' is clearly not invented by the writer, who was probably hostile to Essex. It demands 'that O'Neill, O'Donnell, Desmond, and their partakers, shall have such lands as their ancestors enjoyed 200 years ago.' Whether Tyrone ever demanded any such thing is doubtful, but it is certain that this, or something very like it, was what Essex told the Queen. 'Tyrone's offers,' she says, 'are both full of scandal to our realm, and future peril in the State. What would become of all Munster, Leix, and Offaly, if all the ancient exiled rebels be restored to all that our laws and hereditary succession have bestowed upon us?' And again, 'we will not assent in other provinces [than Ulster] to the restitution of all traitors to their livings, or the displantation of our subjects that have spent their lives in the just defences of their possessions which they have taken and held from us or our ancestors.' It is quite evident then that Essex actually laid before Elizabeth a proposal which involved the reversal of every attainder and the expropriation of all settlers upon forfeited lands. After this it hardly seems worth discussing matters of commerce, or proposals that Englishmen should be debarred from all preferment in Church and State in Ireland, while all statutes prejudicing the preferment of Irishmen in England should be repealed.'[332]

[Sidenote: What Tyrone meant by 'liberty of conscience.']

Liberty of conscience was what Tyrone continually asked for, but not what he or his friends were prepared to grant. He undertook generally to 'plant the Catholic faith throughout Ireland,' and when did Rome bear a rival near her throne? In a letter to the King of Spain he acknowledged his object to be the 'extirpation of heresy,' and recalcitrant chiefs were reminded that present ruin and eternal damnation would be their lot if they did not help to 'erect the Catholic religion.' Jesuits boasted that his victories had already made it impossible for Protestants to live in certain districts. Tyrone claimed personal inviolability for priests, and treated the imprisonment of one as a breach of the cessation. In the paper already discussed he is said to have demanded that the Catholic religion should be openly preached, the churches governed by the Pope, cathedrals restored, Irish priests released from prison and left free to come and go over sea, and that no Englishmen should be churchmen in Ireland. The article about the release of clerical prisoners is just such a coincidence as Paley would have urged in proof that 'Tyrone's Propositions' form a genuine document. But here again it is probable that this was only laid before the Queen as Tyrone's extreme claim, and that Essex gave her some reason to suppose that he would be satisfied with less. 'For any other personal coming of himself,' she wrote, 'or constraint in religion, we can be content, for the first, that he may know he shall not be peremptorily concluded, and in the second that we leave to God, who knows best how to work his will in these things, by means more fit than violence, which doth rather obdurate than reform. And, therefore, as in that case he need not to dread us, so we intend not to bind ourselves further for his security than by our former course we have witnessed; who have not used rigour in that point, even when we might with more probability have forced others.'[333]

FOOTNOTES:

[300] Parallel between Essex and Buckingham in Reliquiæ Wottonianæ.

[301] Reliquiæ Wottonianæ; Camden; Essex to the Queen in Devereux's Earls of Essex, i. 493. The letter quoted in the text is the best proof that Camden's story is substantially true. See also Spedding's Life of Bacon, ii. 91, 103. For Spanish popular notions on Philip III. see Carew, Aug. 23, 1602. Beaumont, the French ambassador in 1602, says the Queen told him, in a broken voice, that she had warned Essex long since 'qu'il se contestast de prendre plaisir de lui déplaire à toutes occasions, et de mepriser sa personne insolemment comme il faisait, et qu'il se gardast bien de toucher à son sceptre.'--Von Raumer, Letter 60.

[302] Spedding, ii. 124-126; Essex to John Harrington in Park's edition of Nugæ Antiquæ, i. 246.

[303] Bacon's advice to Essex immediately before his going to Ireland, Spedding, ii. 129; Essex to Southampton, Jan. 1, 1599, printed by Abbott; Bacon's Apology, first printed in 1604.

[304] The letter of advice is in Spedding, ii. 129; Apology concerning the Earl of Essex; Essex to Southampton in Abbott's Bacon and Essex, chap. ix. Jan. 1, 1599. Essex wrote to the Queen, just before starting, as follows: 'From a mind delighting in sorrow, from spirits wasted with passion, from a heart torn with care, grief, and travail, from a man that hateth himself and all things also that keepeth him alive, what service can your Majesty expect? since my service past deserves no more than banishment and proscription into the cursedst of all other countries.' The letter ends with some verses in praise of a contemplative life, and Essex signs himself 'your Majesty's exiled servant.'--MS. Harl. 35, p. 338.

[305] The progress of the negotiations may be traced in Chamberlain's Letters (Camden Society). Essex to Southampton, Jan. 1, 1599; and Charles Blount (afterwards Lord Mountjoy) to Essex, Jan. 3, both in Abbott, chap. ix.

'Full little knowest thou, that has not tried, What hell it is in suing long to bide; To lose good days that might be better spent To waste long nights in pensive discontent; To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow, &c.'--Spenser.

[306] Devereux, ii. 16-24; Four Masters; Prayer for the good success of Her Majesty's forces in Ireland (black letter, London, 1599).

Were now the general of our gracious empress (As in good time he may), from Ireland coming, Bringing rebellion broached on his sword, How many would the peaceful city quit, To welcome him?--Henry V. Act 5.

[307] Chamberlain's Letters, 1599. Robert Markham to John Harrington in Nugæ Antiquæ, i. 239; Fenton to Cecil, May 7; Fynes Moryson's Itinerary, part i. book i. ch. i. At Hatfield there are a great many letters asking Essex to employ the writers or their friends in Ireland. Most of these anticipate triumph. William Harborn on Feb. 3 asks for nothing, but presents the Earl with an Italian history of the world in four volumes, 'to attend your honour, if they be permitted, in this your pretended Irish enterprise, at times vacant to recreate your most heroical mind.' The Queen's instructions speak of a 'royal army, paid, furnished, and provided in other sorts than any king of this land hath done before.' Its nominal strength was raised to 20,000, but they were never really under arms at once.

[308] The Commission, dated March 12, is in Morrin's Patent Rolls, ii. 520. The instructions, dated March 27, are fully abstracted by Devereux, and in Carew.

[309] Chichester to Cecil, March 17, 1599, MS. Hatfield. Account of Sir Arthur Chichester by Sir Faithful Fortescue in Lord Clermont's privately printed Life of Sir John Fortescue, &c.

[310] Report on state of Ireland April 1599, in Carew, and further particulars in Dymmok's Treatise of Ireland (ed. Butler, Irish Arch. Society, 1843). Dymmok's account of the Leinster and Munster journey is, with slight omissions, word for word (but better spelt) Harrington's journal from May 10 to July 3, after which it is continued from other sources. (Nugæ Antiquæ, i. 268-292.) There is an independent journal in Carew from May 21 to July 1. The opinion of the Irish Council is printed by Devereux, i. 24. Essex to the Privy Council, April 29. Sir H. Wotton to Ed. Reynolds, April 19, MS. Hatfield, where it is noted that Sir H. Wallop died within an hour of the Lord Lieutenant's arrival.

[311] Nugæ Antiquæ, i. 269-275; Four Masters; O'Sullivan Bere, tom. iii. lib. v. cap. 9. O'Donovan cannot exactly identify the 'transitus plumarum,' and the name is forgotten in the district. Harrington places it between Croshy Duff hill, which is two and a half miles from Maryborough on the Timahoe road, and Cashel, which is four miles from Maryborough on the Ballyroan road. Captain Lee, in Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica, i. 114, suggests that Tyrone would willingly settle all his differences with Bagenal (whom he very wrongly accuses of cowardice) by a duel. Tyrone was the last man in the world to do such an act of folly, but Lee exposes his own character.

[312] The Lord President, Ormonde, and other councillors 'hath persuaded me for a few days to look into his government.'--Essex to the Privy Council, May 21, 1599, MS. Hatfield. The few days were a full month. Nugæ Antiquæ, i. 275-278; Journal of occurrents in Carew, under June 22. The battery was planted on May 28, and all was over by the 31st. 'The castle of Cahir, very considerable, built upon a rock, and seated in an island in the midst of the Suir, was lately rendered to me. It cost the Earl of Essex, as I am informed, about eight weeks' siege with his army and artillery. It is now yours without the loss of one man.'--Cromwell to Bradshaw, March 5, 1649. Thus history is falsified by flattery and local vanity. There is a picture-plan of the siege in Pacata Hibernia.

[313] Journal of occurrents in Carew, under June 22; Nugæ Antiquæ, i. 278-280. The Journal, the Four Masters, and O'Sullivan Bere, tom. iii. lib. v. cap. 6, all agree that Norris died of a wound in the head. 'Kilthilia' may be Kilteely near Hospital, whither the Journal says the wounded man was first carried. He died in his own house at Mallow.

[314] Nugæ Antiquæ and Journal ut sup. Essex left Askeaton on the 8th, and arrived at Waterford on June 21. The Queen to Lord and Lady Norris, Sept. 6, in S.P. Domestic, and Rowland Whyte to Sir R. Sidney, Sept. 8, in Sidney Papers.

[315] The contemporary accounts are collected in National MSS. of Ireland, part iv. i. app. xiv. Atherton's is the most minute. There is also a field-sketch made by Captain Montague. The Irish were not numerically stronger than Harrington's force. Loftus, who died at Wicklow for want of a skilful surgeon, was the archbishop's son.

[316] Journal in Carew, under July 1; Nugæ Antiquæ, i. 254, 259, and 286-292; Dymmok's Treatise. Essex left Waterford June 22, and reached Dublin July 2.

[317] Essex to the Privy Council, July 11; Devereux, ii. 50-52; Fynes Moryson, part ii. lib. i. cap. i.; Nugæ Antiquæ, i. 292; Reliquiæ Wottonianæ.

[318] Privy Council to Essex, June 10; Essex to the Privy Council, July 11; the Queen to Essex, July 19.

[319] Essex to the Privy Council, May 21, MS. Hatfield; Cecil to Sir H. Neville, May 23, in Winwood's Memorials; Chamberlain's Letters, June 10; Essex to the Queen, June 25, in Moryson; the Queen to Essex, July 19.

[320] Dymmok's Treatise, p. 43; Nugæ Antiquæ, i. 255; the Queen to Essex, July 19 and Aug. 10. Harrington's comrade was Gerald, fourteenth Earl of Kildare. The 'sergeant-major' was either Captain Richard Cuny or Captain George Flower.

[321] The Queen to the Lord Lieutenant and Council, Aug. 10 in Carew; Chamberlain's Letters, Aug. 23.

[322] Dymmok's Treatise, p. 44; Nugæ Antiquæ, i. 255-257 and 264-268; Four Masters. Harrington was present, and Dymmok's account is from those who were. O'Sullivan Bere says the English lost 1,400 men, but Harrington says Clifford's whole force hardly amounted to that number. O'Donnell, though not far off, took no actual part in the fight. H. Cuffe to E. Reynolds, Aug. 11, MS. Hatfield, written when the bad news was quite fresh.

[323] Four Masters; MacDermot's letter is in Dymmok; Essex's instructions for Dillon, Savage, and Dunkellin in Carew, Aug. 10. Dymmok gives Aug. 15 as the date of Clifford's death, but it must have been a week earlier.

[324] Essex to the Queen, soon after Aug. 15, in Devereux, ii. 56, and two other letters at p. 67. The officers' declaration is at p. 55, where the names of the signatories are given. They fairly justify the Queen's stricture in her letter of Sept. 14.

[325] Dymmok's Treatise; Journal in Carew, No. 315. The two accounts substantially agree. It was the hereditary privilege of O'Hagan to inaugurate O'Neill.

[326] Journal in Carew and Dymmok ut sup. Moryson and Camden closely agree. The chronology is as follows: Essex leaves Dublin Aug. 28; musters at Castle Kieran, Aug. 31; between Robinstown and Newcastle, Sept. 2; Ardee, Sept. 3; Mills of Louth, Sept. 4; O'Hagan's first overtures, Sept. 5; the meeting at Bellaclinthe, Sept. 7; cessation concluded, Sept. 8; Essex goes to Drogheda, Sept. 9. See also Shirley's Monaghan, p. 104. There is a story told somewhere that Tyrone spoke much of religion, and that Essex answered, 'Go to, thou carest as much for religion as my horse.' The original articles of cessation, dated Sept. 8 and signed Hugh Tyrone, are at Hatfield.

[327] Essex to the Queen, Aug. 30, from Ardbraccan; the Queen to Essex. Sept. 14 and 17--all printed by Devereux. On March 27, Essex had licence at his own request 'to return to her Majesty's presence at such times as he shall find cause,' but this was revoked by her letter of July 30. Sir H. Wotton to E. Reynolds, April 19, MS. Hatfield.

[328] Harrington to Justice Carey in Nugæ Antiquæ, i. 247. Park gives April as the date of this letter, but this is disproved by internal evidence, and it certainly belongs to October. See also ib. pp. 260 and 340. Warren's own account of his 'second journey to the Earl of Tyrone,' is dated Oct. 20. The first lines of the 45th canto of Harrington's translation of Orlando are:--

Look how much higher Fortune doth erect The climbing wight on her unstable wheel, So much the higher may a man expect To see his head where late he saw his heel, &c.

[329] Sir Christopher St. Lawrence, according to Camden, offered his services to kill both the peer and the secretary.

[330] Letters from Rowland Whyte to Sir Robert Sidney in Sidney Papers, ii. 117, 127, from Sept. 19 to Oct. 2; Essex's Relation, written by him during his imprisonment.

[331] The letter to Essex is of Nov. 22, and with seventeen others belonging to the last three months of 1599, is printed by Mr. Gilbert in App. 16 to National Manuscripts, Ireland, part iv. 1. In a letter of Nov. 6, to the Lords Justices, Lord Lieutenant (Ormonde), and Council, the Queen approves of the slaughter by Ormonde 'in revenge of that that brake the cessation in Wexford... do not irritate nor oppress any such as have submitted ... in respect of any private unkindness of your own.'

[332] 'Tyrone's Propositions, 1599' are in Winwood's Memorials, i. 118, immediately after Cecil's letter of Oct. 8 to Neville, and are reprinted by Spedding and Abbott. The letter does not mention any enclosure. In Bacon and Essex, pp. 134-148, Dr. Abbott endeavours, not very successfully, I think, to show that the document is entirely unworthy of credit. It is, however, not called 'Essex's propositions,' but 'Tyrone's,' and I have shown that the most outrageous part of it was regarded by the Queen as a serious proposal. Essex should have broken off the conference at the mere mention of such a thing. Sidney would have done so, or Norris, or Mountjoy. The Queen's letters to Fenton and to the Lords Justices, &c., are of Nov. 5 and 6.

[333] The Queen to the Lords Justices, &c. Nov. 6; Tyrone to Warren, Dec. 25; to the King of Spain, Dec. 31; to Lord Barry and others, Feb. 1600, in Carew. On Feb. 13, 1600, the Vicar Apostolic Hogan told Lord Barry he had 'received an excommunication from the Pope against all those that doth not join in this Catholic action.' James Archer, S.J., in a letter of Aug. 10, 1598, printed in Hibernia Ignatiana, p. 39, informs Aquaviva of 'frequentes Catholicorum victorias, unde fit ut hæretici ex multis locis migrare cogantur.' For Henry Fitzimon, S.J., the priest of whose imprisonment Tyrone complained, see his Life by Rev. E. Hogan, S.J., p. 209. 'I never went to Tyrone,' Warren wrote to Cecil, on Dec. 24, 1599, 'but I was forced to bribe his Friars and Jesuits.'

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XLIX. GOVERNMENT OF MOUNTJOY, 1600

[Sidenote: The government is entrusted to Mountjoy.]

In October 1599 the government of Ireland was offered to Mountjoy, who refused it. He may have thought that Essex would have to go back, or he may have been unwilling to leave Lady Rich. But in the following month he was nevertheless ordered to be ready within twenty days. It became evident that Essex would not be employed again; he made Mountjoy and Southampton guardians of his interests, and for his sake they both went perilously near to treason. Mountjoy undertook the thankless office with a heavy heart. He told the Queen that everyone of his predecessors had without exception been blamed, and that there was no one in Ireland whom he could trust. Very unjustly, he included even Ormonde in this sweeping censure. It was Raleigh who had insisted that he should be appointed, and the Queen listened chiefly to him about Irish affairs. 'This employment of me is by a private man that never knew what it was to divide public and honourable ends from his own, propounded and laboured to you (without any respect to your public service) the more eagerly, by any means to rise to his long expected fortune. Wherein, by reason of the experience I have heard your Majesty holds him to have in that country, he is like to become my judge, and is already so proud of this plot that he cannot keep himself from bragging of it.'[334]

[Sidenote: Raleigh's advice.]

The usual delays took place, and the twenty days were prolonged to eleven weeks. Raleigh's advice, like that of everyone who really understood the problem, was for a system of garrisons. A Lord President in Munster with a considerable force, a local governor in Connaught with smaller means, a strong post at Lough Foyle, and the remaining troops under the Lord Deputy's immediate command--these were the means by which it was hoped to reduce Ireland. A large army under Essex had failed, and his successor was expected to do everything with 12,000 foot and 1,200 horse, though everyone but the Queen thought this force too small. Lord Grey de Wilton, who was Essex's known enemy, desired the command at Lough Foyle; but Mountjoy resented this idea as an insult, and the choice fell upon Sir Henry Docwra, who had served under Bingham in Connaught and under Essex at Cadiz. Grey consoled himself by sending a challenge to Southampton, who said he was ready to fight when time and place served, but that one so out of favour as himself could hope for no mercy if he broke the law in England. Mountjoy took leave of the Queen on the 24th of January, but was not made a Privy Councillor, that honour being reserved till his return. Those who were to accompany him also kissed hands, and Elizabeth read a little lecture to each upon his duties. A fortnight later the Lord Deputy left London with an escort of 100 horse, and wrote from Daventry to Cecil begging that he might not be kept too closely to the 13,000 men. Southampton was not allowed to go with him.[335]

[Sidenote: Tyrone's Holy War in Munster.]

Whether Tyrone cared much or little for religion, it became an object with him to appear publicly as the champion of Rome, and as such he sought help from Spain and Austria. He then marched into Munster, and, acting in concert with Desmond and the ecclesiastics there, called upon all to take part in the holy war. He wasted a considerable part of Westmeath, and carefully ravaged Ely O'Carroll. 'All its movable possessions,' say the Four Masters, 'were carried away, and nothing left but ashes instead of corn, and embers in place of mansions. Great numbers of men, women, sons, and daughters were left in a dying state.' The reason or pretext for this severity was that O'Carroll had hired certain warriors of the Macmahons, and had killed instead of paying them when the settling day came round. At Holy Cross Abbey the relic, which had been hitherto preserved in spite of the dissolution, was brought out to do him honour. Ormonde and Delvin watched his course, but did not venture to attack him. The annalists oddly remark that on his progress by Cashel to the neighbourhood of Bandon he only injured those who were opposed to him. Among these was David Lord Barry, who had remained firmly loyal since his pardon in Lord Grey's time. Tyrone reviled him for deserting the cause of the Church, and as the principal means of preventing the southern nobility from joining him in rebellion. 'Her Highness,' replied Barry, 'hath never restrained me for matters of religion,' and he demanded the restoration of some of his followers who had been captured, and of 4,000 kine and 3,000 horses. He defied Tyrone, and promised to have his revenge some day, with her Majesty's assistance. He had hoped to save the island on which Queenstown now stands, but the castle commanding the bridge over the narrow strait was of no avail to protect his property. Tyrone landed his parties in boats, and not a single house was left unburned.[336]

[Sidenote: Arrival of Mountjoy and Carew (February).]

In the meantime Mountjoy had been appointed Deputy, and Carew President of Munster. They landed together at Howth on February 26, and found things in as bad a state as possible, almost the whole island being virtually under the sway of the victorious rebel. The Queen realised that the country could not be bridled without fixed garrisons, but she cautioned Mountjoy against frittering away his strength by multiplying small posts. It had long been recognised that fortifications at Lough Foyle would do more than anything to cripple the O'Neills, and 4,000 foot and 200 horse were assigned for this service to Docwra; while 3,000 foot and 250 horse were allotted, by official orders from England, to the presidency of Munster. The force left under Mountjoy's immediate control did not, therefore, exceed 5,000 men, and he was thus prevented from repeating Essex's mistake, that of 'making progresses' at a great expense without achieving any permanent results.[337]

[Sidenote: Tyrone plays the king in Munster.]

Carew was necessarily delayed in Dublin for about six weeks, and in the meantime Tyrone went where he pleased in Munster. His principal camp was at Inniscarra on the Lee, and thither came friendly messages or hostages from nearly all the neighbouring magnates, whether of English or Irish race. Among his trustiest lieutenants was his son-in-law, Hugh Maguire, who, on or about the last day of February, made a raid in the immediate neighbourhood of Cork. Sir Warham St. Leger and Sir Henry Power, the acting commissioners for Munster, went out for a ride, in no expectation of an attack so near the town. Their men were marching at ease and in loose order when they suddenly came in contact with Maguire's party. St. Leger fired his pistol at the chief with fatal effect, but the latter had strength enough to retaliate with his half-pike; and so the two leaders fell by each other's hands, and with few or no other casualties on either side. To Tyrone the loss was great, and probably decided him to leave the province before Carew could appear. Marching through the eastern part of Cork, and leaving Cashel on his right hand, he passed through Westmeath and reached his own country without striking a blow or ever seeing an enemy. Ormonde and Thomond came out from Limerick with a considerable force, but no battle took place, though Carew has recorded his opinion that the loyal Earls were very anxious to fight.[338]

[Sidenote: Tyrone's march through Ireland.]

Tyrone left about 1,800 men behind him in Munster, chiefly under the command of Richard Tyrrell, and with 600, which were probably his best, he travelled so fast as to elude Mountjoy, who had made preparations for intercepting him in Westmeath. The Ulster men marched twenty-seven miles in one day, and reached Tyrone in less than a quarter of the time that it had taken them to perform the outward journey. The Queen and her viceroy did not escape 'the great dishonour of this traitor passing home to his den unfought with.' Ormonde and Thomond, who had been keeping Easter together at Kilkenny, then repaired to Dublin; and Mountjoy matured his plan for the re-conquest of Ireland in detail. Carew was ready before Docwra, and on April 7 he set out for his province, the two Earls having preceded him to Kilkenny.[339]

[Sidenote: Ormonde is taken prisoner by the O'Mores (April).]

[Sidenote: The Jesuit Archer.]

Carew reached Kilkenny on the third day, and his company of 100 horse were billeted in the neighbourhood by Ormonde's directions. Each day the Earl proposed that the President should accompany him to a parley with Owen MacRory at a point between Ballyragget and Ballinakill in the Queen's County. So little did he dream of danger on the border of his own county, that he refused Carew's proffered escort, and set out with about forty mounted men, of whom more than one half were 'lawyers, merchants, and others, upon hackneys,' and with no weapons but the swords ordinarily worn. His company of 200 foot were left two miles short of the place of meeting. O'More brought a picked troop of spearmen with him, leaving in the rear 500 foot and twenty horse, 'the best furnished for war and the best apparelled that we have seen in this kingdom,' 300 of them being Ulster mercenaries, left by Tyrone on his return to the North. The two parties met upon a heath sloping down towards a narrow defile, and with a bushy wood on each side, 'the choice of which ground,' says Carew, 'we much misliked.' An hour's conversation then ensued between Ormonde and O'More about such questions as would naturally arise between warlike neighbours. Carew, who noticed that the Irish kept edging further forward in the covert on each side, was for departing before mischief could happen; but Ormonde, who was quite unsuspicious, desired first to speak with Archer, who as a Kilkenny man might be open to the arguments of his natural chief. The Jesuit came forward, and after some talk the Earl called him a traitor, and upbraided him with seducing the Queen's subjects into rebellion. Archer replied that the Pope was the Sovereign of Ireland, and that he had excommunicated Elizabeth. Ormonde then spoke of the Pope in contemptuous terms, whereupon Archer threatened him with his stick. At this signal, whether premeditated or not, the two parties became suddenly intermingled, and Melaghlin O'More pulled the Earl off his pony. Others, wrote Carew, and Thomond, 'tried to seize us too. We had more hanging upon us than is credibly to be believed; but our horses were strong and by that means did break through them, tumbling down on all sides those that were before and behind us; and, thanks be to God, we escaped the pass of their pikes, which they freely bestowed and the flinging of their skeynes.... Owen MacRory laid hands on me the President, and, next unto God, I must thank my Lord of Thomond for my escape, who thrust his horse upon him. And at my back a rebel, newly protected at my suit, called Brian MacDonogh Kavanagh, being a-foot, did me good service. For the rest I must thank my horse, whose strength bore down all about him.' Thomond received the stab of a pike in his back, but the wound did not prove dangerous.[340]

[Sidenote: Mountjoy and Ormonde.]

[Sidenote: Ormonde a prisoner, (April to June).]

[Sidenote: His release (June).]

Mountjoy distrusted Ormonde, more perhaps from jealousy than because there was any real pretext for doing so. 'Taking notice,' the Queen told her Deputy, 'of our cousin of Ormonde's good services, and in respect that he hath been much toiled now in his latter years, we have left unto him the choice whether he will retain the place of Lieutenant under you or not. We would have himself and all the world know that we make extraordinary estimation of him.' He retained his post with an allowance of three pounds a day, and his almost independent position galled Mountjoy, as it had galled other Deputies before his time. Ormonde had trusted to his own vast influence, and he would certainly have been warned had the intention of seizing him been known generally among O'More's followers. If there was any premeditated design, it was probably divulged only to a few. At first he was confined at Gortnaclea Castle, near Abbeyleix, where he was allowed to have his own cook and other comforts, but not to see anyone, except in Owen MacRory's presence. Archer plied him hard with religious argument, and some believed that he conformed to Rome; but this is at least extremely doubtful. Tyrone was anxious to get him into his power, but O'More had no idea of giving up such a hostage, and it is probable that the Leinster men would, in any case, have refused to let him be carried out of their province. A rescue was feared, and after a month the Earl was removed from Gortnaclea, and carried from cabin to cabin in the woods. From the intolerable hardship of this life he was relieved by Sir Terence O'Dempsey, who allowed his castle of Ballybrittas, near Portarlington, to be used as a prison. It was supposed that the Ulster mercenaries, or Bonaghts, wished to carry off the Earl to Tyrone by force, and the transfer was made by the O'Mores without their knowledge. Besides this, Dermot MacGrath, papal bishop of Cork, who is called legate by the English, and who was, perhaps, vicar-apostolic, was of opinion that the capture had been treacherous, and was thus opposed to Archer. Fenton managed to get access, for his spies, to the Earl, among whom a 'gentlewoman' named Honora is particularly mentioned. Finding, perhaps, that his prisoner was not likely to be as useful as he first supposed, and fearing that he might lose all advantage by death, O'More gradually relaxed his demands. The first terms offered were that all garrisons should be removed out of both Leix and Offaly; that the former county should be given up to Owen MacRory; that all his nominees should have protection for six weeks; and that during that time there should be no invasion of Ulster. Afterwards there was an attempt to make Ormonde sign a paper, which would have involved him in the guilt of O'More's rebellion, but he eluded these snares, and was released after two months' detention. 'It may please your sacred Majesty to be advertised,' he wrote to the Queen, 'that it pleased God of his goodness to deliver me, though weak and sick, from the most malicious, arrogant, and vile traitor of the world, Owen MacRory, forced to put into his hands certain hostages for payment of 3,000_l._ if at any time hereafter I shall seek revenge against him or his, which manner of agreement, although it be very hard, could not be obtained before he saw me in that extremity and weakness, as I was like, very shortly, to have ended my life in his hands.' He believed that he owed his liberty to the report that Leinster would be overrun with troops, to prevent which the Irishry of the province themselves offered hostages, and were ready to quarrel with O'More should he refuse them. They were twelve in number, one being Sir Terence O'Dempsey's son, and Ormonde's intention was to ransom them one by one. Sir Terence had married a Butler, and whatever became of the other hostages, a ransom appears to have been paid for this one.

Mountjoy was fain to confess that 'the Earl doth continue with as great affection as ever to her Majesty, and with much more spleen against the rebel; but the tie upon him to the contrary are the pledges he hath put in, whom no doubt the traitors will retain upon their own conditions whatsoever his were. I do not think he will deliver his daughter, although I believe he hath promised to do it... I cannot but bear a kind of reverence to so ancient a servant of her Majesty, and a compassion to the miserable fortune he was in... it shall be hard, but I will put the Earl and the fathers of the pledges in blood against the rebels, and that will soon mar all contracts between them. I have many plots upon Owen MacRory to take him, and I think it is a thing that the Earl doth very much practise, and will go very near to perform.'[341]

[Sidenote: Tyrone and Ormonde.]

Lady Ormonde was in bad health at this time, and her death in the following year was perhaps hastened by anxiety. She begged that her husband's military allowance might still be paid, as absolutely necessary for her support. Mountjoy took proper measures for her protection, and even if he had not done so from kindness, the custody of her daughter was a matter of public importance. She was Ormonde's only child, and there were sure to be many candidates for her wardship, and for her hand. Besides which, possible heirs male would be ready to advance their claims should anything happen to the Earl. Tyrone was supposed to desire the heiress for his son, and he took the trouble to deny the imputation, but this may not have been until he saw that O'More had no idea of surrendering his great prisoner. 'Use him honourably,' he wrote from Dungannon, 'but keep him very sure until he be sent hither by the help of yourself and such as we have appointed for that purpose. Therefore be not tempted to enlarge him upon any proffer, for if you will desire ransom you shall have money and gold at my hands.'

It was not till more than a month later that he denied any wish to have the young 'lady' or 'my lady mistress,' as he calls Lady Elizabeth, 'for by demanding her, men would say that I should have her for my son.' It seems clear that his first object was to get Ormonde into his hands, and failing that he wished to have credit for liberality and kindness. 'For any motion,' said Ormonde contemptuously, 'of marriage of my daughter to any of that base traitor Tyrone's brood, upon my duty of allegiance to your highness, I never thought of any like matter, neither was it demanded of me.'[342]

[Sidenote: Carew in Munster. Florence MacCarthy.]

[Sidenote: Barbarous warfare.]

As soon as Mountjoy had provided for the safety of Kilkenny, Carew started for his own province, where St. Leger's death had left Sir Henry Power in temporary charge of a very troubled community. The rebels in the county of Waterford came in to the Lord President at once, and it was thought wiser not to ask questions. In Cork, Florence MacCarthy was trying to play the impossible part of a neutral, while Dermot O'Connor, at the head of a strong body of mercenaries, was really the most powerful person in the province. Essex had been authorised to give Florence a patent of inheritance to his father-in-law, with discretionary power so to limit it as might seem best for the public safety, but his sudden departure prevented this being done. St. Leger and Power wished the patent to issue, and thought the best way of restraining Donell's violence would be to acknowledge Florence as MacCarthy More. To show his power, or to annoy a personal enemy, Florence soon afterwards ravaged Lord Barry's barony of Ibane with '700 of the traitors' bonies, otherwise called here among us cabbage-soldiers.' Yet he continued constantly to protest his loyalty, while maintaining that he dared not declare openly for the Queen, lest Dermot should forsake him and secure the triumph of that 'bastardly rascal Donell MacCarthy,' whom Tyrone had acknowledged as MacCarthy More. O'Connor was not originally a person of much importance, but he had married Lady Margaret Fitzgerald, the late Earl of Desmond's daughter, and, being a valiant man, found himself at the head of 1,400 Connaught free companions. Tyrone had given him the chief command in Munster, and the loose swordsmen flocked to his standard. He was, however, 'a mere mercenary serving in Munster only for pay,' and probably quite ready to sell himself to the highest bidder. Lady Margaret could speak English, and it was thought that she would do anything to procure her brother's restoration to the earldom of Desmond. According to Florence's account it was the fear of Dermot, and the necessity of doing something to make his own people believe in him, that induced him to appear in arms on the rebel side; and provocation was not wanting which might justify such action on his part. Sir Henry Power sent 1,000 men into Carbery, under Captain Flower, with general orders to spoil all who failed to give securities for their good behaviour. It does not appear that any time or much notice was given, but Flower carried out the work of destruction thoroughly. From Kinsale to Glandore harbour, and from that to Dunmanus Bay, not a grain of corn was left unburned within ten miles of his line of march, 500 cows were drowned to save the trouble of driving them, and 'the churls and poor people' were treated as enemies and killed. On his return Flower was threatened by Florence with a superior force, but reached Kinsale without any serious encounter. Near Ballinhassig, between that town and Cork, the troops were near falling into an ambuscade, and even for a time put to flight. In the end they made good their retreat, but the victory was not much to boast of. When Carew heard of the affair, he regretted deeply what had been done. He could not reckon on much above 1,700 effective men in the field, too few to fight the Sugane Earl and the MacCarthies at once, and it was better to have Florence as a faithless, but on the whole peaceable neutral, than as an open enemy.[343]

[Sidenote: Sir Henry Docwra occupies Derry (May).]

While Carew was preparing to re-conquer the South by a mixture of force and fraud, a successful lodgment was made in the extreme north. On May 6, Sir Henry Docwra sailed from Carrickfergus with 4,000 foot and 200 horse. Boards and spars for building, master carpenters and master masons, and a great quantity of tools and victuals were provided. The mortality among Randolph's men was not forgotten, and there were 100 flock-beds for a hospital. Three pieces of cannon were thought sufficient in view of an Irish siege. On the seventh day the ships grounded at the entrance of Lough Foyle, waited for the tide, advanced a little, and then grounded again. At last, on May 16, the work of unloading began at Culmore. One hundred men fired a volley from the shore, and horse were also visible; but they did not venture to dispute the landing, and in six days an entrenchment capable of sheltering 200 men was thrown up about some ruined walls. O'Dogherty had dismantled his castle of Ellogh in the immediate neighbourhood; but it was easily repaired, and received a garrison of 150 men. Having thus made good his ground, Docwra marched with his main body to Derry on the 22nd, and this is how he describes its then condition:--'A place in manner of an island comprehending within it forty acres of ground, whereon were the ruins of an old abbey, of a bishop's house, of two churches, and at one of the ends of it an old castle, the river called Lough Foyle encompassing it all on one side, and a bog, most commonly wet and not easily passable except in two or three places, dividing it from the mainland... the ground being high, and therefore dry, and healthy to dwell upon. At that end where the old castle stood, being close to the water side, I presently resolved to raise a fort to keep our store of ammunition and victuals in, and in the other a little above, where the walls of an old cathedral church were yet standing, to erect another for our future safety and retreat unto upon all occasions.' Wisely refusing to be tempted into pursuit of cunning enemies on their own ground, Docwra devoted his whole strength to the task of making the place habitable for the winter. Two ships were sent to coast along for timber and building materials, and a strong party was sent to cut birch in O'Cahan's woods on the other side of the Foyle. 'There was,' he said, 'not a stick brought home that was not well fought for.' The ruins of old Derry and of Randolph's settlement were utilised, stone and slate were found hard by, and 'of cockle shells to make a lime we discovered infinite plenty of in a little island in the mouth of the harbour as we came in.'[344]

[Sidenote: Docwra fortifies Derry (May to June).]

To prevent Tyrone's whole force from being directed against Docwra before he was in a position to stand a siege, Mountjoy himself moved northwards at the same time. He advanced as far as Newry, and Tyrone immediately faced him and turned his back to Lough Foyle. Southampton followed the Deputy with a small force, and the Irish attempted to cut him off in the Moyry pass. There was some sharp fighting, but the Earl, who behaved valiantly, charging more than 200 horse with only six followers, made good his junction with the main army, and Mountjoy, having waited at Newry till he heard that Docwra was safe, turned back to Dublin. Tyrone and O'Donnell, with about 5,000 men, then threatened the new settlement at Derry, but the garrison stood strictly on the defensive and nothing was done. Docwra thought it prudent to abandon the project of detaching 1,000 men to Ballyshannon, and losses by sickness soon showed the wisdom of his decision. Sir Arthur O'Neill, son of old Tirlogh Luineach, came to the fort with a few followers, and the garrison found abundant occupation in hunting cows for their own consumption, and in skirmishing with the O'Cahans and O'Dogherties.[345]

[Sidenote: Carew in Munster. Florence MacCarthy.]

Carew's great idea was to divide his enemies by policy before he proceeded to crush them by force. His first object was to disarm the active hostility of Florence MacCarthy, and to that end he sought an interview with him. 'So fearful a creature,' he said, 'I did never see, mistrusting to be killed by every man he saw,' but both Lord Thomond and Sir Nicholas Walshe swore solemnly that he should return safely. The practical result of the conference was that Florence promised the President to remain neutral, while the Sugane Earl reminded him that he would be more than 1,700 strong, and that he would take no excuse. Another means of weakening the rebels was to make them distrust each other, and to this end Carew encouraged a protected rebel, named John Nugent, who had been in the service of Sir Thomas Norris and had deserted, to kill John Fitzthomas, the Sugane Earl's brother. The attempt failed, and Nugent was promptly hanged; but it was known that the would-be assassin had obtained money, a horse and arms from the President, and the feeling of insecurity among the Irish became as great as if the murder had actually taken place.[346]

[Sidenote: Carew employs Dermot O'Connor,]

[Sidenote: who arrests Desmond (June).]

Another plot was directed against the Sugane Earl himself, and it came very near succeeding. Dermot O'Connor and his wife proved quite ready to do the President's work, and Lady Margaret's unwillingness to acknowledge any Desmond but her brother was an excuse which would have some weight with the people of Munster. The jealousy between Dermot's mercenaries and the followers of James Fitzthomas was already excessive. At all events Dermot agreed to deliver up the Sugane Earl for 1,000_l._ Archbishop MacGrath had been active in the matter, and his two sons became securities for Carew, along with two of Lady Margaret's foster-brothers, named Power. To give up these hostages openly would have disclosed the plot, and it was arranged that they should fall as it were accidentally into Dermot's hands. They very nearly fell victims to the violence of his men, who were not in the secret. To give Dermot the desired opportunity of seizing his ally, the President ostentatiously dispersed his force, by way of putting him off his guard. As a further protection Carew wrote a letter to the Sugane Earl, which made it appear that he had undertaken to deliver O'Connor alive or dead; and it was calculated that this would be sufficient defence for the latter when the treachery should have taken effect. The letter was placed in Dermot's hands in such a way that he could say he had intercepted it. All precautions having been taken, O'Connor asked for an interview with the man whom he intended to betray. They distrusted one another, and each brought an armed force with him. The ill-feeling already existing between the followers of Tyrone and Desmond soon found a vent, and, to avoid further disunion, the two leaders agreed to dismiss their men. Dermot had a few trusty adherents in ambush, and with their help he arrested the Sugane Earl in O'Neill's name, producing Carew's letter as sufficient warrant. The prisoner was secured at Castle Ishin, near Charleville, and word was sent to the President to come to Kilmallock, where Lady Margaret was to meet him and receive the promised thousand pounds.[347]

[Sidenote: O'Donnell harries Clare]

In the meantime Hugh Roe O'Donnell had resolved to follow up Tyrone's plan of persecuting all native lords who refused to join the confederacy. Lord Barry had already suffered, and the Earls of Clanricarde and Thomond were now to have their turn. It was seen that Docwra was not strong enough to take the offensive, and Tyrone, therefore, required no help as against him. Leaving a corps of observation under O'Dogherty and Nial Garv O'Donnell, Hugh Roe mustered all his forces at Ballymote. The chiefs who came to him were O'Rourke, O'Connor Sligo, O'Connor Roe, MacDermot, and Theobald Burke, calling himself MacWilliam Iochtar. The allies marched without fighting to the neighbourhood of Gort, and then suddenly burst into Clare. A camp was pitched near Ennis, where only the monastery was spared, and plundering parties were sent in all directions west of the Fergus. 'Many a feast,' say the annalists, 'fit for a goodly gentleman, or for the lord of a territory, was enjoyed throughout Thomond this night by parties of four or five men, under the shelter of a shrubbery or at the side of a bush.'

[Sidenote: and Clanricarde.]

Retreating slowly to Corcomroe Abbey, and scouring the country right and left, the invaders burned every house; and we are particularly told that the smoke enveloped the whole line of march, and that it was dense enough to make them lose their way. The rocky passes of Burren were passed without opposition, and the victorious raiders encamped near Oranmore, where they divided their immense booty of cattle. A few had been killed and wounded in the foray, especially in the attack on Clare Castle, and the survivors were sent home in charge of Theobald Burke and of those who guarded the cattle. O'Donnell himself, with 500 foot and 60 horse, went to Loughrea, and drove off all the herds they could find to Ballymote. The English account says that Thomond punished his enemies with the help of Captain Flower and of over 800 English soldiers, and that he recovered a great part of his cattle; but of this the annalists--ever favourable to O'Donnell--make no mention. In Clanricarde there seems to have been no opposition at all.[348]

[Sidenote: The Sugane Earl rescued.]

O'Donnell's enterprise restored the spirits of the Irish, and perhaps prevented Carew from seizing his prey promptly. Piers Lacy collected 4,000 men and suddenly surrounded Castle Ishin. Carew had vainly awaited Lady Margaret for a week at Kilmallock, and he now, in spite of Flower's absence, advanced to the rescue. But it was too late. A priest had persuaded the garrison, and the Sugane Earl was already in Lacy's hands. Dermot O'Connor excused himself, and no doubt this failure was not his fault; but the chance of 1,000_l._ was lost, and he soon made friends with the rebels once more. The Munster Irish still very naturally mistrusting him, he withdrew into Connaught, and on his brother-in-law's restoration to the honours of Desmond again offered his services to Carew. A safe-conduct was accordingly sent to him, but he was waylaid near Gort by Tibbot-ne-Long Burke, with 100 men in the Queen's pay, taken prisoner, and put to death. Private revenge was Burke's motive, but Clanricarde and the President were 'exceedingly incensed' at a murder which threw doubts upon the good faith of both.[349]

[Sidenote: Mountjoy's share in the Essex conspiracy.]

Elizabeth's dislike to name a successor was well known, and should have been respected by one who owed so much to her as Essex did. That there was, in fact, no dispute about the matter was due to Cecil's admirable management, but the Earl's uneasy ambition was not likely to lose the chance of establishing a claim on the coming man. He entered into negotiations with James in 1598, representing that Cecil favoured the claims of the Infanta and was plotting to make them good. James had little to fear from any rival; but it was in his nature to be busy, and he intrigued with Tyrone as well as with Essex. In August 1599, immediately before his journey to the north, the latter thought seriously of taking 2,000 or 3,000 men over to Wales, and broached the design privately to Southampton and Blount, who both earnestly dissuaded him. It was about that time that Mountjoy also opened communications with James, and with him the influence of Lady Rich may have counted for much. His first proposals to the Scottish king are not known, but we may judge of their nature by what happened afterwards. When Essex after his return from Ireland, was committed to the Lord-Keeper's house, and in daily fear of being sent to the Tower, he called upon Mountjoy and Southampton to look after his interests. They were willing to help him to escape, but he declared himself ready 'rather to run any danger than to lead the life of a fugitive.' When it was finally decided that Mountjoy should undertake the government of Ireland, Essex pressed him to take some more decided course. 'He then swore,' says one who was present, 'exacting the like oaths from my Lord of Southampton and myself, to defend with the uttermost of our lives her Majesty's person and government during her life against all persons whatsoever, and it was resolved to send Henry Lee again into Scotland, with offer that if the King would enter into the cause at that time, Lord Mountjoy would leave the kingdom of Ireland defensibly guarded, and with 4,000 or 5,000 men assist that enterprise, which, with the party that my Lord of Essex would be able to make, were thought sufficient to bring that to pass which was intended.' It seems that James was not expected to do more than show himself on the border, while his ambassador in London pressed for a public acknowledgment of his right to the succession. Lee was still in Scotland when Mountjoy went to Ireland, and he was arrested as soon as he returned. What Essex intended, or whether he had any definite plan at all, may be doubted; but Mountjoy made it clear that he at least was playing only 'for the establishment of the succession, and not for private ambition.'[350]

[Sidenote: James VI., Essex, and Mountjoy.]

Mountjoy told Southampton that he had foreseen Essex's ruin before his return from Ireland, and that he had opened the correspondence with James as a possible means of saving him. The king was advised not to leave the whole realm in the hands of his enemies, and it was hoped that a diversion might thus be made. In his second letter, if not in his first, Mountjoy proposed that James 'should prepare an army, declare his intent, and that he would be ready to assist him with the army in Ireland, whither he was going,' but insisting on his former stipulation that nothing should be done against Queen Elizabeth. This might, perhaps, mean no more than that, if the succession were declared in England, he would see the same done in Ireland. Southampton made similar offers, but also reserved his allegiance to the Queen. James gave an evasive answer, declaring that he would bear the matter in mind, but that the establishment of a garrison at Lough Foyle was a condition precedent to any action on his part. Mountjoy did not afterwards deny that he had entertained the idea of bringing troops over to Wales, but only in consideration of the heir to the throne being engaged in the business. James's caution did not suit the impatient Essex, who approved of a suggestion by Danvers, 'that the army of Ireland would suffice alone.' He sent Southampton over to sound Mountjoy, 'which,' says the envoy, 'I did, and he utterly rejected it as a thing which he could no way think honest, and dissuaded me from any such courses.' Lady Rich was on the other side of the Channel, and loyalty now resumed its sway. Willing, as he says, to redeem his fault of intention, the Earl remained as a volunteer in Ireland, and Mountjoy vainly tried to have him made Governor of Connaught. This was in June, and in the following month Southampton went to Holland. The probability is that Cecil had a shrewd suspicion of the truth. But Essex determined to make another attempt. Early in August Danvers and Cuffe met at the Cross Inn at Oxford, and the latter brought a direct message from Essex. 'My Lord requested,' says Danvers, 'that notwithstanding my Lord of Southampton's departure, I would proceed in my journey, and communicate the projects with my Lord Mountjoy, and procure his letter.' He took the precaution of sending a special messenger to London, who returned with reiterated instructions from Essex, and thereupon he started for Ireland. He was met with a positive refusal from Mountjoy, who spoke even more decidedly than he had done to Southampton. 'He desired my lord to have patience, to recover again by ordinary means the Queen's ordinary favour; that though he had it not in such measure as he had had heretofore, he should content himself; that at his coming home he would do for him like a friend; that he hoped my lord would do nothing but that which should be justifiable in honour and honesty. In that confidence, if he sent for a letter, he would send him such a one as he might justify.' Very good advice, but not such as Essex was capable of following for long. The spoiled child would have all or nothing.[351]

[Sidenote: The Pale: Mountjoy's plan.]

The defeat at the Blackwater and the complete failure of Essex had reduced the army to a miserable state. Under Mountjoy the soldiers gradually gained confidence, and no doubt he was well advised in not hurrying matters. After the skirmish in the Moyry pass he lay for some days at Newry, and in the meantime a certain amount of damage was done in the Pale. The causeway through the pass was partly broken up by the Irish, and he thought it prudent to return by Carlingford to Dundalk. 'At this time,' says Moryson, who, as Mountjoy's secretary, was an eye-witness of what he describes, 'the county of Dublin on the south of the Liffey was, in effect, entirely overrun by the rebels; the county of Kildare was likewise possessed or wasted by them. The county of Meath was wasted, as also the county of Westmeath (excepting the barony of Delvin) and the county of Louth; so that in the English Pale, the towns having garrisons, and the lands from Drogheda to Navan, and thence back to Trim, and so to Dublin, were only inhabited, which were also like to grow waste, if they were further charged with the soldiers.' The English writer excepts Delvin, but the annalists say it was invaded by Tyrone six months before, who wasted it until the Baron 'submitted to O'Neill on his terms.' Maryborough and Philipstown were cut off from Dublin, and Mountjoy's first care was to restore perfect communications. His plan was to strengthen and victual the garrisons so as to secure them against attack, while harrying the country so thoroughly as to make it impossible for the Irish to keep the field.[352]

[Sidenote: Mountjoy in King's County (July).]

The remnant of the O'Connors were still troublesome in Offaly, and they had the help of Captain Tyrrell, a renowned partisan who was much in Tyrone's confidence. Mountjoy, to quote his own words, went 'into the country on foot over a bog, and went out of it in like sort.' But he was not always on foot, for he records that grey Davies, his easiest-going horse, was shot under him. With little loss he drove the Irish up and down the country, and the O'Connors never made much head against him. During the three or four years of Tyrone's supremacy they had destroyed most of the King's County castles, and Mountjoy's care now was to destroy the crops, so that they could not reoccupy the ground. Not only did he reap the green corn, but used harrows and grubbers with long teeth, called pracas, to root it up.[353]

[Sidenote: Mountjoy in Queen's County. Death of Owen MacRory (August).]

A fortified post was established at the Togher, between Monasterevan and Maryborough, thus securing access to Philipstown at all times; and here again Southampton did good service by his gallantry and by his example to the soldiers. Sir Samuel Bagenal was able to take the offensive in the neighbourhood of Newry, and Sir Richard Moryson about Dundalk. O'Donnell wasted much of his strength in useless forays, and Docwra was beginning to make himself felt in Tyrone's rear. In the middle of August Mountjoy started from Carlow with 800 foot and 100 horse, and entered the Queen's County, burning the villages and destroying the standing corn. Owen MacRory remonstrated, in a letter to Ormonde, against this 'execrable and abominable course,' and also wrote to ask Mountjoy for a conference with some gentleman sent by him. The Lord Deputy handed the letter to an Irish fool named Neale Moore, who answered that no one in the camp was base enough to confer with him, but that if Owen would submit to him on his knees, he, the said Neale, would undertake that his submission should be accepted or that he should return safe. Next day O'More was killed in a skirmish near Timahoe, and with him Callogh MacWalter, the man who first laid hands on Ormonde at his late capture. The Earl was now in the field with a large force, and Mountjoy's plan of embroiling him with the O'Mores had taken full effect. After Owen's death the sept never made head again, and the English settlers gradually returned to their houses. There was much hard fighting both going and returning, but everywhere the Lord Deputy was victorious. From Carlow almost to the foot of Slieve Bloom the cattle were driven off and the crops destroyed. But on returning, the pass of Cashel was found to be occupied by more than 2,000 men. Donell Spaniagh, seeing how the event was likely to turn out, begged for protection to go to Dublin, which was granted, since it was impossible to take him; and then, like Rob Roy at Sheriffmuir, he drew his men off to a hill whence they could see the fight. Keeping on the high ground, the troops passed safely to Stradbally and thence to Naas. But Sir Arthur Savage, the new governor of Connaught, was unable to effect a junction. The great point gained was that the soldiers began to think themselves invincible, and that they had confidence in their general.[354]

[Sidenote: Mountjoy presses Tyrone back (September to October).]

After a short rest in Dublin, Mountjoy established a camp at Faughard near Dundalk. The array was supposed to be over 4,000 strong, but was in reality under 3,000, and the weather caused much sickness. 'Our tents,' said the Lord Deputy, 'are often blown down, and at this instant it doth rain into mine, so that I can scant write.' Great floods prevented any forward movement, but there were constant skirmishes. Tyrone had an entrenched camp in the Moyry pass, which was twice captured, though no attempt was made to hold it; and finding that Mountjoy's progress could not be stopped, Tyrone left the passage open to Newry. The earthworks in the pass were levelled, and the woods on both sides cut down. The facts are clear enough; but the Irish annalists give a totally misleading account of these movements, and of those that followed them.[355]

[Sidenote: Mountjoy bridles Tyrone (November).]

After waiting ten days at Newry for provisions, Mountjoy marched out towards Armagh. Rather less than half-way he built a fort in a strong position, and named it Mount-Norris, after Sir John, his master in the art of war. Tyrone was near, and did what he could to hinder the work; but he was defeated with loss, and the fort finished, victualled, and garrisoned with 400 men in one week. Finding it impossible to keep his horses alive in a country where the grass had been eaten down by cattle, the Lord Deputy did not attempt Armagh, but proclaimed a reward of 2,000_l._ for Tyrone alive and 1,000_l._ for him dead, and then returned to Carlingford, where there was a good store of provisions. At Narrow-water a vessel brought cheese and biscuit for the soldiers, who had been fasting for two days, and having eaten it 'never men went on in a greater jollity.' The narrow pass between Carlingford mountain and the sea was disputed by Tyrone. The ground was thickly wooded, and the Irish had erected a strong barricade and dug several trenches. Mountjoy's principal secretary was killed by his side, and the place fell to Moryson, the historian, but the troops made steady progress. Tyrone narrowly escaped a shot, and his men gradually yielded to the disciplined valour of soldiers who fought under the eye of a captain in whom they believed. Fynes Moryson, who was staying that day with his brother, the governor of Dundalk, could hear the volleys seven miles distant 'sensibly by reverberation of the garden wall;' and says 'the Irish lost 800 men, while the English had 200 killed and 400 not seriously wounded, and that Tyrone's reputation (who did all things by reputation) was clean overthrown, so that from all places they began to seek pardons and protections.' Strength, or the appearance of strength, has always ruled in Ireland.[356]

[Sidenote: Docwra extends his power in Ulster.]

While Mountjoy slowly but surely reduced the Pale and the district bordering on it, Sir Henry Docwra held his own at Derry. Sir Arthur O'Neill, old Tirlogh Luineach's eldest son, joined him, and did good service both as adviser and ally, but he brought no great force into the field. Tyrone derided him as 'Queen Elizabeth's earl that cannot command 100 kerne,' and she felt the sarcasm keenly, having really contemplated the transfer of the arch-rebel's honours to his kinsman. Sir Arthur advised a raid into O'Cahan's country, and 700 men were sent by night along the Donegal shore of Lough Foyle. At Greencastle they took boat, and crossing silently came upon all the cattle collected in fancied security, for attack from that side had not been dreamed of. One hundred live cows and some carcases were secured, 'but for want of means to bring all away the soldiers hacked and mangled as many as they could.' The process of exhausting the country was deliberately undertaken. Sir John Chamberlain, who was the leader of this expedition, was killed a few days later in repelling an attack upon Aileach castle by the O'Dogherties, his body being pierced by no less than sixteen wounds. Four days after this fight, in which Docwra himself had a horse shot under him, a strong outpost was fortified at Dunalong on the eastern bank of the Foyle. In this case also the approach was made by water, and Tyrone, who was encamped not far off, found the entrenchments unassailable after a single day's work upon them. Within their lines everywhere the English were safe, but not a mile outside.[357]

[Sidenote: Fighting about Lough Foyle.]

Among the Irishmen who had been recommended to Docwra by the Government was Maelmory MacSwiney, who had been chief of O'Donnell's gallowglasses, and connected with him by close ties; but who was now in receipt of a life pension of six shillings a day and in command of 100 English soldiers. This man opened communications with O'Donnell, and drove out a large number of horses on purpose that they might be seized. This was done before daylight, and near 200 were swept off into the heart of Tyrconnell. The alarm being given, Docwra leaped from his bed and pursued with a score of horsemen, leaving the rest to follow as soon as they were ready. He was wounded in the head and his men had enough to do to carry him off, leaving the prey with the O'Donnells. Docwra was confined to his bed for a fortnight, and on his recovery found that not more than twenty per cent. of his men were able to pass muster. It was clearly proved that MacSwiney was the cause of the late disaster, and he was sent by sea to Dublin; but the hatchway being left open for the reception of the beer barrels, he sprang on deck, threw himself into the Foyle, and reached O'Cahan's country, the people on board being too much amazed to stop him. Instigated perhaps by this keen spirit, Rory O'Cahan, the chief's brother, brought a present of sixty fat beasts, which were much wanted, and afterwards put the soldiers in the way of taking as many more. Having thus made himself agreeable, Rory asked for 800 men to do a more important piece of service. Sir Arthur O'Neill warned Docwra not to trust him, and it turned out that his object was to lead the soldiers into an ambuscade prepared by Tyrone himself. Having secured his own safety, Rory then offered to ransom his hostages for a certain quantity of cattle, threatening that he would never spare an Englishman if they came to any harm. Docwra's answer was to erect a gibbet on the rampart, and to hang the poor wretches before the face of their principal, who stood with 300 men on the other side of the Foyle.[358]

[Sidenote: Sufferings of Derry garrison (September to October).]

[Sidenote: They are relieved.]

As the autumn days closed in, the garrison of Derry were in a miserable state, 'men wasted with continual labours, the island scattered with cabins full of sick, our biscuit all spent, our other provisions of nothing but meal, butter, and a little wine, and that, by computation, to hold out but six days longer.' The temptation to desert was great, and both Tyrone and O'Donnell offered free passage through their territories. Not only was the garrison diminished, but the loss of horses and the miserable condition of those left made it impossible to patrol at any distance from the walls. On the night of September 16, O'Donnell crept up unseen to the very edge of the bog which bounded Derry on the land side, and then, for some inexplicable reason, his men fired a volley. The garrison sallied out, and put them to flight. It was probably a last effort to frighten Docwra into a parley, for he was relieved the very next day. A plentiful supply of provisions, 50 fresh horse and 600 foot were introduced from the sea, as well as two timber frames upon which water-tight storehouses might easily be erected. And it was announced to the men that they were to receive 4_d._ a day extra when they worked upon the fortifications. The Irish had lost their opportunity, and it never returned.[359]

[Sidenote: Neill Garv O'Donnell.]

[Sidenote: Docwra wins Lifford (October).]

A more important recruit than either MacSwiney or Sir Arthur O'Neill was Neill Garv O'Donnell, grandson of Calvagh and husband of Hugh Roe's sister Nuala, who separated from him in consequence of his defection. He brought 100 men with him, and was promised a grant of Tyrconnell as soon as his brother-in-law had been expelled. The O'Donnells had never been a united family, and Neill Garv probably thought his claim at least as good as that of the actual chief. His three brothers took part with him, the immediate consequence being that the English had plenty of fresh meat and that they were much less closely beleaguered than before. The first actual service required of Neill Garv was to take the ancestral seat at Lifford, and for this purpose over 300 men were sent under his guidance. The castle had been razed, but a weak earthwork defended the small town, and Hugh Roe had left some thirty men in charge. They fled without resistance, after setting fire to the place, and the English proceeded to entrench themselves strongly, finding welcome shelter in about twenty houses, which were all that the late garrison had left unburned. Twice within a fortnight O'Donnell vainly exerted all his force to recover the place, though his presence enabled the country people to get in their crops and to carry away the produce safely. On the second occasion there was a sharp skirmish, in which Captain Heath was killed, and Neill Garv had a horse shot under him, but Lifford was not retaken. Four days later Sir Arthur O'Neill died of a fever brought on by 'drinking too many carouses on his marriage-day,' and his brother Cormac claimed to succeed him. But Tirlogh, his son by a former wife, was accepted by Docwra, and did such service as his youth permitted.[360]

[Sidenote: Spaniards in the North (November).]

About the beginning of November, two Spanish ships put into Broadhaven, with money, arms, and ammunition for the Irish. O'Donnell sent the foreigners word that Killybegs would be a better place for them, and also announced their arrival to Tyrone. Eventually the Spaniards put into the little harbour of Teelin, whence the cargo was carried to Donegal, and divided between the two chiefs. A descent of this kind had been talked of for months, but Cecil had given little credence to these rumours, and when the long-expected aid actually came, it was not enough to affect the result, or to imperil Docwra's position in any way.[361]

[Sidenote: Docwra annoys Tyrone.]

[Sidenote: The O'Dogherties.]

Neill Garv and his brothers Hugh, Donnell, and Con made several raids from Lifford into Tyrone, and took Newtown, now Newtown Stewart, from the O'Neills. O'Donnell's great object was to get possession of his formidable kinsman, and he employed two of the MacDevitts, a sept of O'Dogherties, named Hugh Boy and Phelim Reagh. Captain Alford, the governor of Culmore, pretended friendship with these men, and engaged to give up the fort to them, with Neill Garv inside. Alford's object was to draw them into an ambuscade, and he pretended to make conditions. 1,000_l._ down and 3,000_l._ a year pension from Spain were promised him, and a chain of gold formerly given by Philip II. to O'Donnell, and worth 160_l._, was actually given in earnest. A day was appointed for the treason, but the Irish broke their tryst. In a short time Hugh Boy and Phelim Reagh were Docwra's firm friends. Cahir O'Dogherty, the chief's son, had been fostered by them, and was now in O'Donnell's hands, who had announced that he should succeed his father. But when Sir John died, he favoured Cahir's uncle, and the foster-parents were very angry. On condition that their nursling should be established, they offered to keep Innishowen at Docwra's service. O'Donnell was induced to free the young man, and immediately all the O'Dogherties, with their cattle, left him, and returned to their own district. Supplies were thus secured to the English garrison, as well as good intelligence, and Docwra confesses that without their aid the progress made would have been comparatively small. Thus it ever was in Ireland: the natives fought among themselves, and so lost all. 'They had their own ends in it,' said Docwra, 'which were always for private revenge; and we ours, to make use of them for the furtherance of the public service.'[362]

[Sidenote: Carew subdues Munster (July to August).]

[Sidenote: Glin Castle.]

[Sidenote: Murder of a loyalist.]

Shortly before midsummer the White Knight made his submission, and was soon to do signal service. The castles of Bruff and Lough Gur were taken and garrisoned, the mere preparations for a scientific cannonade being enough to cause their evacuation, and the triangle made by Limerick, Cashel, and Kilmallock was freed from the rebels. The county of Waterford was almost cleared, and Connello and Aherlow alone harboured any considerable number. Cahir was voluntarily surrendered, and the ordnance left there by Essex was sent to Clonmel. Glin in Limerick and Carrigafoyle in Kerry still held out, and the first was besieged by Carew on July 7. Sending his guns by water, he passed on his way through the heart of Connello, and Piers Lacy abandoned Croom Castle at his approach, having already ruined the other Kildare house at Adare. The Sugane Earl marched near the President, and encamped only a mile off at Glin, but never ventured to make any attack. The ordnance, 'one demi-cannon and a saker,' were landed and placed in position. The Knight, who believed in Desmond's boasts, expected to be relieved, and would not surrender at discretion, although his son was in Carew's power, and in some danger of being hanged. The first day's firing made a breach, and a lodgment was effected in the basement under the hall. Three out of the four towers were thus made untenable, and the fourth, into which all the garrison had retired, was attacked in the same way, and a fire lit in it, which burned many. Next day the tower was assaulted, and those who survived of the eighty defenders were cut in pieces or thrown over the walls. Captain Flower, who led the stormers, was wounded in four places, and there was a loss to the besiegers of eleven killed and twenty-one wounded. The moral effect of this siege was great. Desmond seems to have believed that the carriages of the cannon were unserviceable, but Carew had discovered and remedied their defects some weeks before. O'Connor Kerry, who despaired of defending Carrigafoyle, voluntarily surrendered it, and was received to protection. The small castle of Liscahan near Ardfert was taken by surprise, and entrusted to Maurice Stack, a native of Kerry, 'and a man of small stature but invincible courage,' who with fifty men successfully defended it against Desmond's attacks and Florence MacCarthy's plots. Stack was afterwards murdered in cold blood by Lady Honora Fitzmaurice's men, and Thomond never spoke to his sister afterwards. Sir Edward Denny's house at Tralee, and Sir William Herbert's at Castle Island, were found in ruins, no attempt being made to defend these old Desmond strongholds. Lixnaw the Fitzmaurices had not time to raze, and at the end of August Carew was able to give a good account of Munster generally. 'All our garrisons,' he wrote, 'in Kerry, Askeaton, Kilmallock, Youghal, and Lismore, I thank God do prosper and are now at their harvest, which must be well followed, or else this summer service is lost. Wherein I will be careful to lose no time, for the destruction of it will procure the next year's famine; by which means only the wars of Ireland must be determined... no day passeth without report of burning, killing, and taking prey ... infinite numbers of their cattle are taken, and besides husbandmen, women, and children, of weaponed men there hath been slain in this province, since my coming, above 1,200, and of her Majesty's army not forty slain by the enemy.'[363]

[Sidenote: Final defeat of the Sugane Earl (September).]

Tyrone was himself so much pressed by Mountjoy that he was less able to send help to his Earl of Desmond, who was driven by Wilmot first into Connello and then into the great fastness of Aherlow. A gallant officer, Captain Richard Greame, lay at Kilmallock with his troop of horse, and attacked Desmond's greatly superior force on the march. The Irish were surprised, and completely routed, with the loss of 200 men. The 400 who remained unwounded dispersed into Connaught or Ulster, and the Sugane Earl never recovered the blow. 300 horseloads of plunder, besides the usual prey of cattle, fell into Greame's hands; but Cecil remarked that the prize was hardly so marketable as that which came in Spanish carracks, and directed that 100_l._ should be given him. Carew asked that he should be knighted, and Mountjoy willingly complied, though he hesitated for some time in view of the very strict orders which he had, not to make chivalry too cheap.[364]

[Sidenote: The Queen's Earl of Desmond.]

As the fortunes of one Desmond fell, those of another brightened for a moment. James, the son of the rebel Earl who fell at Glanageenty, was born in 1571, and had been in the Tower since 1584, much of his time before that having been spent in Irish prisons. The quantity of medicine administered to him was enough to ruin any constitution, and in fact he possessed little vigour either of mind or body, though the Desmond pride sometimes showed itself; and of course he knew nothing of the rough world, or of the rough ways by which his ancestors had raised themselves to almost regal power. But his letters show that his education had not been neglected, though no mere instruction could make up for the want of practical training. It occurred to Carew, who saw the difficulty of purely forcible conquest, that the affection still felt for his house might be utilised in Munster, and Raleigh strongly supported this view. Cecil had not much faith in the plan, but he submitted to the judgment of those who knew Ireland, and joined them in urging the young man's restoration upon the Queen. Elizabeth yielded, but slowly and with many misgivings. Failure would make her ridiculous, and too great success on the legitimate Earl's part might make him harder to pull down than the pretender had been. He was allowed to assume the title, and here is his letter of thanks to Cecil:--

'Right honourable, I have received by Sir Geoffrey Fenton your honour's directions how I should subscribe unto my letters, which I protest unto your honour is much troublesome unto me, in regard that I had no further assurance than by his word of mouth. I am so jealous and fearful of her highness's grace and displeasure that I beseech your honour to bear with my overpressing you with my many importunities. I must hold myself as your honour's poor creature, in which ever I will acknowledge your favours in that height of regard as to your direction I will ever tie myself. And so I rest your honour's in very affectionate assurance,

J. DESMOND.'[365]

[Sidenote: The Queen is persuaded to send Desmond over.]

[Sidenote: His reception in Munster.]

Cecil's idea was to send Desmond's patent to Carew, 'to be shewed to that generation of incredulity' the people of Munster, and not to be delivered to the Earl unless his services made it worth while. But when the document was brought to the Queen she refused to sign it, and Desmond left London before it was done. Two days later she relented, and Archbishop Miler Magrath, who overtook him on the road, carried it to Carew in Ireland. 'God doth know it,' said Cecil, 'the Queen hath been most hardly drawn unto it that could be, and hath laid it on my dish a dozen times: "Well, I pray God you and Carew be not deceived."' Captain Price, a plain soldier who had no object but to do his duty and return, was sent in charge of the young Earl. It seems that some wished to send Raleigh, but Cecil objected upon Carew's account. The party sailed from Bristol, and reached Youghal after being two days and a night at sea. 'I was so sea-sick,' Desmond wrote, 'as whilst I live I shall never love that element.... I had like, coming new of the sea, and therefore somewhat weak, to be overthrown with the kisses of old calleaks; and was received with that joy of the poor people as did well shew they joyed in the exceeding mercy of her sacred Majesty towards me.' Weak and sickly, and never likely to take to Irish life, was what Cecil had pronounced him to be, and the kisses of the old wives at Youghal were the only successes which awaited him. That noted loyalist, Mr. John Fitzedmond, received him with profuse hospitality at Cloyne. At Cork things were different, and there can be little doubt that intentional discourtesy was shown to the Queen's Earl. Neither lodging nor supper could be had, and Desmond was feign to seek shelter with the mayor. This was John Meade, a lawyer who had been chosen in pursuance of a settled policy adopted by the corporate towns at this time. Limerick, Waterford, Clonmel, and Kinsale preferred political agitators to merchants, and lawyers were the fittest to make civic immunities and privileges a means of embarrassing the Government. The portreeve of Cashel was the most profound civilian in Ireland, and as obstinate as learned. As to Meade, said Desmond, he might be called Lack-law, 'if he had no better insight in Littleton than in other observations of his place for her Majesty's service, for it was much ado that we got anything for money, but that most of my people lay without lodging, and Captain Price had the hogs for his neighbours.' Meade excused himself by saying that he did not know how far attentions to Desmond could be agreeable to the President, since he came to Cork direct from the sea, and that he feared any public welcome might be ill-taken by the Government. The arrival of 400 Welsh soldiers had made lodgings scarce, and the learned mayor found plenty of reasons for his neglect. But Captain Price, who had the best means of knowing, took the same view of the matter as the young Earl, and Meade was soundly reprimanded by the Privy Council.[366]

[Sidenote: Fortunes of the restored Desmond.]

[Sidenote: Strange scene at Kilmallock.]

The Geraldine who held Castlemaine for the Sugane Earl now gave it up to the real Desmond, and this was the only important result of his restoration. The Queen was half-hearted about the matter, hesitated to bestow an estate, and did not care to provide the means for much show. Five hundred pounds a year was not a bad allowance in those days, but the young Earl was inclined to extravagance, and he felt acutely that he could do nothing unless he were trusted with the command of men. His adherents among the people might give information as to his rival's whereabouts, but there was no chance of catching him if he had to apply to the nearest garrison for means to follow up the clue. In the meantime Greame's victory had made the fugitive insignificant, and Carew had little doubt about being able to hunt him down. The true Desmond spent part of his time at Mallow, where some supposed him to have become enamoured of Lady Norris. Carew sent him to Kilmallock in the company of Archbishop Magrath, and of his friend Boyle, who was to report privately as to his reception by the people. At Youghal men, women, and children had upset each other in the streets to see the restored exile, but at Kilmallock the excitement was still greater. A guard of soldiers lined the street between his lodgings and Sir George Thornton's house, where he went to sup; but the crowd broke the line, and the short walk took half an hour. Doors, windows, and roofs were filled with people, 'as if they came to see him, whom God had sent to be that comfort and delight their souls and hearts most desired, and they welcomed him with all the expressions and signs of joy, everyone throwing upon him wheat and salt (an ancient ceremony used in the province upon the election of their new mayors and officers) as a prediction of future peace and plenty.' Next day was Sunday, and the Protestant Earl went to church. On his way the country folk shouted to him not to go, and when he came back after service they abused and spat upon him. The multitude which had flocked the little garrison town soon deserted it, and he whom they had come to welcome might walk the empty streets and sup where he pleased with as little danger of being mobbed as any private gentleman. He oscillated between Kilmallock and Mallow, but felt himself powerless, and the murder of his brother-in-law, Dermot O'Connor, made him think that his life was not safe. The poor lad soon expressed his desire to be back in England, and to live there quietly, in preference to any Irish greatness which the Queen might intend for him. Cecil rather encouraged him to return, at least for a time, and till the question of an estate could be settled, and held out some hopes of an English wife, 'a maid of noble family, between eighteen and nineteen years of age, no courtier, nor yet ever saw you, nor you her.'[367]

[Sidenote: The end of the house of Desmond.]

In 1598 Tyrone announced, and possibly believed, that Desmond had escaped 'by means of the Lieutenant of the Tower's daughter, who had gone with him,' that he had reached Spain, and that he would be in Munster within a month, with men, munitions, and treasure. Had this been true, he could hardly have done Elizabeth more harm than the Sugane; but coming, as he did, with an Earl's patent and a Protestant archbishop, he neither hindered Tyrone nor served the Queen, and he slunk back to England almost unnoticed. He did not marry, nor was his allowance at all lavish, but he was kindly treated and not shut up in the Tower; and his last days seem not to have been unhappy. 'If I turn me,' he wrote from Greenwich, 'into time past, I behold a long misery; if into the present, such a happiness in the comparison of that hell as may be a stop to any further encroachment.' He died nine months after his return from Ireland, leaving five sisters, for whom the Queen made some provision until they found husbands. The eldest, Lady Margaret, was married to Dermot O'Connor, and his murder left her a widow; she received a pension of 100_l._ Catharine, the third, was the wife of Lord Roche, and the three unmarried ones had pensions of 33_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._ The second, Lady Joan, was destined by her mother, who had married O'Connor Sligo, to match with Hugh Roe O'Donnell. Her brother opposed this, as well as Carew, and she seems to have had no great mind for it herself; but the plot cost her a short detention with the Mayor of Cork, who again made what difficulties he could. Lady Joan afterwards married Dermot O'Sullivan Bere. Lady Ellen, the fourth sister, married three times, her last husband being Edmund Lord Dunboyne, and she lived till 1660, when her stepson was restored to his country but not to his property. Lady Ellice, the fifth, married Sir Valentine Browne the younger, of Ross Castle at Killarney, and thus, as the wife of an undertaker's son, enjoyed some portion of the vast estates which had been forfeited by her father's rebellion. The title of Desmond was given by James I. to a Scotch courtier, upon whom he also bestowed the only daughter and heir-general of the great Earl of Ormonde. It was Buckingham's plan to depress the Butlers by separating their title and estates, and by giving the latter to a favourite like himself. But Lady Elizabeth Preston defeated this scheme by marrying her cousin, the future Duke; and thus, through the greatest of the cavaliers, the long strife between Ormonde and Desmond was ended at last.[368]

FOOTNOTES:

[334] Mountjoy to the Queen, printed in Goodman's James I. (ed. Brewer) ii. 23; Letters of Rowland Whyte to Sir Robert Sidney, Oct. 31, 1599, to Jan. 12, 1600, in Sidney Papers.

[335] Rowland Whyte to Sir R. Sidney, Nov. 29, 1599, to Feb. 9, 1600, in Sidney Papers; Fynes Moryson, book ii. chap. i.

[336] Letters in Carew, Dec. 31, 1599, and Feb. 13, 23, and 26, 1600; Tyrone to Barry with the answer, in Pacata Hibernia, Feb, 26, 1600; Four Masters, 1599 and 1600.

[337] Docwra's Narration; Pacata Hibernia, lib. i. cap. 1.

[338] Pacata Hibernia, lib. i. caps. 2 and 14. The Four Masters say St. Leger's encounter with Maguire was premeditated, but the English account is here to be preferred. Compare O'Sullivan Bere, tom. iii. lib. v. cap. 12. Lady St. Leger had been previously married to Davells and Mackworth, and was thus by violence left a widow for the third time.

[339] The Queen to Mountjoy, March 10, in Carew; Carew and Thomond to the Privy Council, April 18, ib.

[340] Carew and Thomond to the Privy Council, April 18, in Carew and Pacata Hibernia. See also the Catholic accounts of the Four Masters and of O'Sullivan and Peter Lombard. All the documents are collected in a memoir by the Rev. James Graves, in the Irish Archæological Journal, N.S. vol. iii. pp. 388 sqq. There are two contemporary drawings, one of which is reproduced in Pacata Hibernia and the other in Facsimiles of Irish MSS., part iv. 1. I have endeavoured to harmonise the various accounts.

[341] Ormonde to the Queen, June 16; F. Stafford to Cecil, June 18; Mountjoy to Cecil, July 4--all in Mr. Graves's memoir cited above. And see his further note in Irish Arch. Journal, N.S. vol. v. p. 333. On Aug. 21, Redmond Keating submitted to Mountjoy, on condition to deliver the Earl's pledges remaining in his hands; see in Carew under Aug. 26, 1600. The Kellies and Lalors did the same.

[342] Fenton to Cecil, April 12; Carew and Thomond to the Privy Council, April 18; Tyrone to O'More April 22/May 2; to Ormonde April 29/May 9 and May 26/June 6; to Lady Ormonde May 25/June 5; Ormonde to the Queen June 16--all these are in the memoir cited. Elizabeth, Lady Ormonde, was the Earl's second wife, and daughter of John, second Lord Sheffield. In Eugene Magrath's Irish panegyric on her husband (circ. 1580) every laudatory epithet is lavished on the 'amiable, lovely, &c. countess.' See this curious poem in Irish Arch. Journal (Kilkenny), i. p. 470.

[343] Note of Captain Flower's journey, April 1; Joshua Aylmer to Cecil, April 21; Sir Henry Power to the Privy Council, April 30; Carew to Cecil, May 2; Florence MacCarthy to Cecil, May 6; Pacata Hibernia, lib. i. cap. 5. Cecil's letter to Essex, April 1599, St. Leger's and Power's to Cecil, Dec. 10, and Lord Barry's to Cecil, Feb. 12, 1600, are printed in Florence MacCarthy's Life, chap. 9.

[344] Docwra's Narration, edited by O'Donovan for the Celtic Society's Miscellany. The cockle-shell island was probably one of the 'kitchen-middens' which are common on the Irish coast.

[345] Docwra's Narration; Fynes Moryson's Itinerary, part ii. lib. i. cap. 2; Four Masters, 1600. Mountjoy left Dublin on May 6, and remained out till the end of the month. See also his letter to Carew of July 1 in Carew. 'The garrison of Derry,' say the annalists, 'were seized with disease on account of the narrowness of the place and the heat of the summer. Great numbers died of this sickness.'

[346] Carew to Cecil, May 6 and Aug. 17; Pacata Hibernia, lib. i. chaps. v. and vi.

[347] Pacata Hibernia, lib. i. ch. vii.; Four Masters. June 18 is the proper date of this capture; the annalists wrongly say that it was in January.

[348] This raid was at midsummer.--Four Masters and Pacata Hibernia, lib. i. ch. viii.

[349] Pacata Hibernia, lib. i. cap. 18. The date of the murder was Oct. 24.

[350] Declaration of Sir Charles Danvers in the correspondence of James VI. with Cecil (Camden Society). The evidence of Cuffe, Blount, and Southampton in the same collection bears this out. Southampton saw James's answer to Mountjoy's first letter. It contained nothing but compliments, allowing of his reservations, and referring him for the matter to the bearer (Lee), who delivered unto him that the King would think of it, and put himself in readiness to take any good occasion.' There is a letter to Essex at Hatfield dated from the Court at Nonsuch, Aug. 18, 1599, in which Thomas Wenman warns the Earl that he had been slandered to the King of Scots as being opposed to his succession, that James would work all craft for his destruction, and that he should be careful who he had about him.

[351] Declaration of Danvers ut sup.; Henry Cuffe to the Council, ib., and his Examination, March 2, 1601 (printed by Spedding); Confession of Southampton, ut sup.

[352] Fynes Moryson's Itinerary, part ii. book i. cap. 2; Four Masters, 1600.

[353] Mountjoy to Carew, Aug. 12, in Carew; Moryson, ut sup.; Four Masters, 1600. This raid was during the last days of July and the first of August.

[354] Moryson, ut sup.; Journal, 11-26, under latter date in Carew; Mountjoy to Carew, Sept. 4, ib.

[355] The dates are Dublin, Sept. 14; Faughard, Sept. 20; Newry, Oct. 21. Moryson, ut sup.; Lord Deputy and Council to Carew, Oct. 8, in Carew; Mountjoy to Carew same date (No. 478); Four Masters, 1600.

[356] Nov. 2-13. The Four Masters add nothing to Moryson's account.

[357] Docwra's Narration, June 1 to July 29; Four Masters, 1600; Cecil to Carew, Sept. 28, in Maclean's Letters of Sir R. Cecil.

[358] Docwra's Narration, July 29 to Sept. 16; Four Masters, 1600.

[359] Docwra's Narration, Sept. 16 to Oct. 3.

[360] Docwra's Narration, Oct. 3-28; Four Masters, 1600; Journal of Mountjoy's proceedings, in Carew, vol. v. p. 497. In the Ulster settlement Docwra was granted 2,000 acres about Lifford.

[361] The Four Masters are here to be preferred to Docwra; see also Cecil to Carew in Maclean, Aug. 29, 1600.

[362] Docwra's Narration, 'about Christmas'; Four Masters, under Jan. 27, 1601.

[363] Carew to the Privy Council July 18-20 and Aug. 25; Pacata Hibernia, book i. chaps. ix.-xii.

[364] This fight was on Sept. 16. Pacata Hibernia, book i. chap. xiii.; Mountjoy to Carew, Oct. 8, in Carew; Cecil to Carew, Oct. 15; Carew to the Privy Council, Nov. 2.

[365] Desmond to Cecil, MS. Hatfield. The letter is not dated, but Fenton was in London during July and August 1600. Writing to Carew on July 11, Cecil calls the young man James Fitzgerald, and Desmond in later letters. The patent was ready by Aug. 29, and received the Great Seal on Oct. 1. It is printed in Pacata Hibernia, book i. chap. xiv.

[366] Desmond landed on Oct. 14. Nearly all the letters are collected in Florence MacCarthy's Life, pp. 485-500, where details as to the Tower life, medicines, &c. may be read, and in Cecil's letters to Carew (ed. Maclean).

[367] Pacata Hibernia, vol. i. ch. xiv. and the letters in Florence MacCarthy's Life; Carew to Cecil in Carew, March 22, 1601. 'I do not at all, or at least very little,' Desmond wrote to Cecil on Dec. 18, 1600, 'participate of the Italian proverb, Amor fa molto, argento fa tutto.'

[368] Fenton to Cecil, April 20, 1598. William Power, writing from Cork to Cecil, Jan. 17, 1602, says 'you were a father to the unfortunate young Earl, as himself often told me.'--Carew to the Privy Council, Dec. 20, 1600, and March 6, 1601; Pacata Hibernia, book i. chap. xviii.; Desmond Pedigree in Irish Arch. Journal, 3rd series, vol. i.; Desmond to Cecil, Aug. 31, 1601. Among the 1602 papers at Hatfield, there are petitions from two of the Desmond ladies asking Cecil for part of the allowance meant 'for our poor brother, that we might end the rest of our unfortunate days without being troublesome.'

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L. GOVERNMENT OF MOUNTJOY, 1601

Mountjoy felt that his own hands were not quite clean, and he knew that Carew was more thoroughly trusted than he was. The President's excellent temper prevented anything like a rupture, but the Deputy's letter shows how sensitive he was. It was in answer to one of these despatches, in which he had likened himself to a scullion, that Elizabeth wrote with her own hand one of those letters which go far to reveal the secret of her power. 'Mistress Kitchenmaid,' she said, 'I had not thought that precedency had been ever in question, but among the higher and greater sort; but now I find by good proof that some of more dignity and greater calling may by good desert and faithful care give the upper hand to one of your faculty, that with your frying-pan and other kitchen stuff have brought to their last home more rebels, and passed greater break-neck places, than those that promised more and did less. Comfort yourself, therefore, in this, that neither your careful endeavour, nor dangerous travails, nor heedful regards to our service, without your own by-respects, could ever have been bestowed upon a prince that more esteems them, considers, and regards them than she for whom chiefly, I know, all this hath been done, and who keeps this verdict ever in store for you; that no vainglory nor popular fawning can ever advance you forward, but true vow of duty and reverence of prince, which two afore your life I see you do prefer. And though you lodge near Papists, and doubt you not for their infection, yet I fear you may fail in an heresy, which I hereby do conjure you from; that you suppose you be backbited by some to make me think you faulty of many oversights and evil defaults in your government. I would have you know for certain that, as there is no man can rule so great a charge without some errors, yet you may assure yourself I have never heard of any had fewer; and such is your good luck that I have not known them, though you were warned of them. And learn this of me, that you must make difference betwixt admonitions and charges, and like of faithful advices as your most necessariest weapons to save you from blows of princes' mislike. And so I absolve you a poena et culpa, if this you observe. And so God bless and prosper you as if ourself was where you are.--Your Sovreign that dearly regards you.' It is easy to understand what an effect such a letter must have had, and how Mountjoy must have been encouraged in his difficult work.[369]

[Sidenote: Final reduction of the Wicklow Highlanders (January).]

It was supposed at the time that the death of Feagh MacHugh would free Dublin from the depredations of the O'Byrnes; but his son, Phelim MacFeagh, continued to give trouble, and the suburbs of the capital were in almost nightly alarm. Shortly before Christmas Mountjoy set out for Monasterevan, whither he had sent Arras hangings and other baggage betokening a long stay there. But he himself suddenly turned off near Naas, crossed the snowclad mountains with a strong force, and entered Glenmalure quite unexpectedly. Ballinacor was surrounded, and Phelim's wife and son captured, the chief himself escaping naked out of a back window into the woods, while Mountjoy and his followers consumed the Christmas stock of provisions. The cattle were swept out of the country, the corn and houses destroyed, and at the end of three weeks the Lord Deputy retired. Garrisons were placed at Tullow on one side and Wicklow on the other, and these highlanders gave no further trouble. Phelim MacFeagh, who was saved by the mountain floods, came to Dublin, and submitted with due humility.[370]

[Sidenote: Mountjoy in the central districts (February).]

The early months of 1601 were spent by Mountjoy in devastating the central districts. Starting from Monasterevan on January 29, he passed by Kildare, which was in ruins and quite deserted, to Trim, and from thence by Castletown Delvin to Mullingar, 'the shiretown of Westmeath, compassed with bogs.' Athlone was reached on February 17, and then, without resting more than a night, he doubled back to Macgeohegan's castle of Donore. Between Lough Ennell and the place still called Tyrrell's pass, he found the redoubtable Captain Tyrrell in his stronghold, 'seated in a plain and in a little island compassed with bogs and deep ditches of running water.' An attempt to cross with hurdles and faggots was frustrated by the current, and an officer was shot. Moryson, the historian, had a narrow escape. The English horse kept always on the move, which generally protected them against the fire of matchlocks, but the secretary, who was no soldier, and whose white horse gave a good mark, felt one bullet whistle past his head, while another struck his saddle. Proclamation was then made that no one, on pain of death, should succour the rebels in any way, that the country people should bring provisions to the camp, and that soldiers, also on pain of death, should pay the market price. Two thousand crowns were placed on Tyrrell's head, who thought it prudent to steal away by night to another island in Queen's County, which was for the time inaccessible, on account of the floods.[371]

[Sidenote: Mountjoy and Essex.]

While staying at Donore Mountjoy got a letter to say that Essex had been sent to the Tower. 'It is not credible,' says Moryson, 'that the influence of the Earl's malignant star should work upon so poor a snake as myself.' Yet so it was. Mountjoy thought it prudent to range himself ostentatiously on Cecil's side, and to depress Essex's friends, with some of whom his secretary was connected. He took his most private papers into his own custody, and Moryson says he never quite recovered the blow. He tells us that, however his principal might clamour to be recalled nothing was further from his thoughts, and that he had made preparations to sail for France in case he was sent for to England. Ten days later came a gracious letter from Elizabeth, in which she announced the death of Essex, cautioned his successor to look well to the loyalty of his officers, and forbade him to leave his post until the intentions of Spain were better known.[372]

[Sidenote: Death of Essex. His confessions.]

[Sidenote: Lady Rich.]

Mountjoy had been implicated in the Essex intrigues quite enough to make him nervous; but when it became clear that the Queen would overlook all, he was probably sincerely anxious to return. He wrote to solicit Nottingham's good offices, and the answer throws a curious light upon the manners and morals of the time. 'I think,' wrote the Lord Admiral, 'her Majesty would be most glad to look upon your black eyes here, so she were sure you would not look with too much respect on other black eyes. But for that, if the admiral were but thirty years old, I think he would not differ in opinions from the Lord Mountjoy.' And then he goes on to speak of Essex's behaviour after his trial, and of those upon whom he had most unnecessarily drawn the suspicion of the Government. His friend Southampton, his stepfather Blount, his secretary Cuffe, were but a few of those to whom he ascribed a guilt greater than his own. '"And now," said he,' so Nottingham continues, '"I must accuse one who is most nearest to me, my sister, who did continually urge me on with telling me how all my friends and followers thought me a coward, and that I had lost all my valour;" and then thus, "that she must be looked to, for she had a proud spirit," and spared not to say something of her affection to you. Would your lordship have thought this weakness and this unnaturalness in this man?'

Lady Rich was accordingly committed to the Lord Admiral's house, but bore herself so becomingly that she was at once released. In writing to thank her late gaoler for his kindness, she says: 'for my deserts towards him that is gone, it is known that I have been more like a slave than a sister, which proceeded out of my exceeding love, rather than his authority... so strangely have I been wronged, as may well be an argument to make one despise the world, finding the smoke of envy where affection should be clearest.' This letter was sent to Mountjoy, who--to do him such justice as is possible--was true to this most unfortunate Penelope. Five years later, when Lord Rich had obtained a mere ecclesiastical divorce from his wife, no less a divine than William Laud was induced to perform the marriage ceremony between her and her lover, and before that date Bacon had addressed to Mountjoy ('because you loved my lord of Essex') his tardy and inadequate apology. It was not the fault of Essex that neither his sister nor his friend suffered with him.'[373]

[Sidenote: Steady progress of Mountjoy.]

The Barony of Farney in Monaghan was next invaded, and the adherents of Ever MacCooly MacMahon had their houses burned, after which Mountjoy stayed for a month at Drogheda, and then returned to Dublin. Sick and tired of the work which he had to do, he told Carew that he could welcome the Spaniards, 'but I fear me,' he added, 'they are too wise to come into this country, whom God amend or confound, and send us a quiet return and a happy meeting in the land of good meat and clean linen, lest by our long continuing here we turn knaves with this generation of vipers, and slovens with eating draff with these swine.' The Lord President in the meantime was reducing Munster to a quiet state. More than 4,000 persons were pardoned during January and February, and at the end of March, when Desmond left Ireland, there was scarcely any more fighting to be done. Carew could despatch troops into Connaught, and prevent Tyrone from sending help by the road to the Sugane Earl, who lurked, for the most part, in Tipperary. Lord Barry very nearly caught him, and accused his enemy the White Knight of harbouring the traitor. Carew threatened to hold the latter responsible for his country, and his fears settled the fugitive's fate. His object was to remain at large until the Spaniards came, but, as usual, they were too late. Ten years before, a papal archbishop had written that help was coming. 'Notwithstanding,' he said, 'that the Catholic King his captains be slow in their affairs, I am certain that the men are purposed to be sent to comfort the same poor island, which is in distress a long time.' Another archbishop now urged the last of the Desmonds to hold out, 'knowing and firmly hoping that the help of my lord the Catholic King is now coming, which when it cometh all things shall be prosperous.' The help did come at last, but by that time James Fitzthomas was in the Tower.[374]

[Sidenote: The last of the Sugane Earl.]

The Knight's followers, one and all, declared that they knew nothing of the hunted man's whereabouts, though some of them were his daily companions. Probably they did not believe in their chief's sincerity, but at last one of them asked him if he was really in earnest, and, finding that this was so, led him straight to a cave not far from Mitchelstown, many fathoms deep, and with a narrow entrance, perhaps the same which tourists still visit as a natural curiosity. The Knight came to the mouth of the cave with a few men, and summoned the occupants to surrender. Desmond's only companion was his foster-brother, Thomas O'Feighy. Appeals to the spirit of clanship were lost both on the Knight and his men, and threats were also in vain. Bribes to be paid when the 6,000 Spaniards held Munster--he mentioned the very number--were not very alluring, and so Tyrone's Earl was given up to Sir George Thornton, who conveyed him to Cork. His confinement was close, both there and in Dublin, and irons were considered necessary. There had been so many escapes from the Castle that he did all he could to avoid being sent to England by offering to do shadowy services against Tyrone. But things were not managed as they had been in Fitzwilliam's time, and to the Tower he came some three months later. A year afterwards wages were paid to a watcher with him 'in his lunacy,' and he died in the State prison in 1608. His brother John remained in rebellion and reached Spain, where his son became a Spanish count, and died fighting bravely in the imperial service. John Fitzthomas never assumed the title of Desmond in Ireland, and it was to avoid pretenders that Carew advised the Government to spare the elder brother's life.[375]

[Sidenote: Mountjoy in Tyrone (June to August).]

Mountjoy allowed himself little rest. Having issued the currency proclamation, and done what he could to prepare the troops for the expected Spanish invasion, he started again for Dundalk at the end of May. A strong work was thrown up in the Moyry pass, effectually blocking Tyrone's approach on that side. No serious resistance was offered, but carriage was very difficult, and the Lord-Deputy had to pay dear for pack-horses. Before the end of June he placed a garrison of 750 foot and 100 horse at Armagh. He surveyed the scene of Bagenal's defeat, and made preparations for rebuilding the dismantled fort at Blackwater. A post was established at Downpatrick, which brought the Magennis family to their knees, and by the middle of July he felt strong enough to cross the Blackwater in force. The fords had been elaborately fortified by Tyrone with trenches and abattis in the Irish manner, but he scarcely ventured to make any defence. Some of the colours taken from Bagenal were displayed on the Irish side, but the Queens troops easily passed over, under cover of two small field-guns. A new fort was made tenable, and properly entrusted to gallant Captain Williams, whose leg was broken by a shot in one of these skirmishes. Mountjoy advanced as far as Benburb, the scene of Owen Roe O'Neill's great victory half a century later, and there was a great deal of firing; but Tyrone dared not come to close quarters. His men had also to spare their powder, while Mountjoy's supply was practically unlimited. Doctor Latwar, the chaplain, like Walker at the Boyne, had learned to love fighting for its own sake, and 'affecting some singularity of forwardness more than his place required,' was mortally wounded in the head. The Lord-Deputy's chief loss was in his Irish auxiliaries, and Moryson coolly notes that 'the loss of such unpeaceable swordsmen was rather gain to the commonwealth.' The latter part of July was spent in cutting down the corn, and clearing the woods on both sides of the Blackwater, and the fort being then able to take care of itself, Mountjoy marched back to Armagh, where he undertook similar operations. Piers Lacy, the noted Munster rebel, was killed in an abortive attack upon the camp. It was Mountjoy's intention to seize Dungannon, and to make it a centre of operations in reducing the North, and nearly all August was spent in preparing provisions so as to make a decisive campaign possible during the following winter. He was at Newry or Dundalk on the 29th, when a letter came from Carew to say that the Spaniards had been sighted at sea. This forced him to draw towards Dublin, but he left Ulster firmly bridled by garrisons, and it is evident that Tyrone would soon have been reduced to extremities if it had not been for the diversion made by the invasion of Munster.[376]

[Sidenote: Plot against Tyrone's life.]

[Sidenote: An Irish stronghold.]

An Englishman, named Thomas Walker, who had worn out the patience of his friends, and was in danger of prosecution for a seditious libel, visited Ireland, as he professed, for pleasure and to see the country. He reached Armagh in July, and informed Sir Henry Danvers, who was in command there, that he was going to kill Tyrone, that the idea was entirely his own, and that he required no help. Danvers was in command of the garrison, and anxious to do something which might wipe out the remembrance of his elder brother's treason. He told Walker that the attempt was honourable but very dangerous, and advised him to think twice, but having consulted Mountjoy, who was in camp hard by, he allowed him to pass through the lines. After several narrow escapes from loose horsemen, Walker came into Tyrone's presence, who turned pale when he heard of the force at Armagh. The rebel chief was dressed in a frieze jacket open in front, and 600 or 700 men were in the neighbourhood. Walker told him his father had been mixed up with Essex's conspiracy, and that he had come for protection, since the Queen's government was wont to visit the sins of the fathers on the children. Tyrone had tears in his eyes when he spoke of Essex's death, and said that Walker was safe with him. He asked to see some of the new money, at which he gazed earnestly, some of his train saying, 'These wars hath made the Queen of England poor, that she coins copper money.' On hearing that the device was attributed to Cecil, the Earl said he wished he had him there to make him shorter by a head. The bystanders used many opprobrious terms, and a Spanish captain took occasion to say that his master still paid the royallest in the world. For a moment Walker was close to Tyrone with a sword in his hand, but his heart failed him, and he got no further opportunity. Tyrone attended mass, but Walker was not allowed to be present, as he had 'no godfather.' He was sent on to Dungannon, where he found Lady Tyrone and her mother 'in a cott,' and they took him to an island stronghold not far off, the fortifications of which were still unfinished. They crossed in a canoe and four huge hampers of provisions were brought in, each of which took three men to carry it. The ladies observed that the whole English army would attack them there in vain; but Mountjoy, not many weeks before, had found a soldier to swim over and burn the houses in a similar stronghold for no greater reward than one angel. Walker was informed that he was to go to Scotland, whither Tyrone was in the habit of sending all such visitors. He was strictly forbidden to return to the camp, and though he offered a round sum for a guide no one was found bold enough to disobey the chiefs orders. After this he went to Randal MacSorley, whose favour he gained by professing to be a good Catholic, and who allowed him to go to Chichester at Carrickfergus. In the end he was sent back to England. Mountjoy seems to have held that there would be no harm in murdering a proclaimed rebel upon whose head a price had been set. He thought Walker little 'better than frantic, though such a one was not unfit for such an enterprise.'[377]

[Sidenote: Brass money].

[Sidenote: Confusion caused by debasing the coinage.]

'Of all the plagues of that time,' says Macaulay in his history of 1689, 'none made a deeper or a more lasting impression on the minds of the Protestants of Dublin than the plague of the brass money.' And the great Dutchman is still toasted for delivering them from that evil. The attempt of James II. to obtain a revenue in this way was the worst, but it was neither the first nor the last enterprise of this kind. Swift roused the people of Dublin to fury by his diatribes against Wood's patent, which, though not all that he called it, was nevertheless a scandalous job. Elizabeth's father, brother, and sister had issued base coin, and she had reaped honour by restoring the standard. And now she herself listened to the voice of the tempter, who in this case was Lord Treasurer Buckhurst. Had Burghley been alive, she would not have been asked to repeat an experiment which had always failed. The chosen instrument was Sir George Carey, who had succeeded Wallop as Vice-Treasurer. The expense of the army in Ireland was great, and Buckhurst imagined that it could be lessened by paying the soldiers in debased coin. In those days it was generally held that the presence of bullion in a country was an end in itself; and it was thought possible to tie the trade of Ireland to England, while preventing the exportation of sterling money to foreign lands. The money which went abroad was chiefly spent in arms or powder, and this traffic tended to maintain the war. The Queen saw clearly that the proposed change would do her no credit, and that the army would object to it; but she was hard pressed for money, and allowed herself to be persuaded. All coin current in Ireland was accordingly cried down by proclamation, and new twelvepenny, sixpenny, and threepenny pieces were issued, with a harp on one side, and containing only threepence worth of silver to each shilling. All payments were to be made in this rubbish, and no other coin was to be considered legal or current. Those who held English or foreign money, plate, or bullion 'of the fineness of the standard of England or better,' might demand a bill of exchange on London, Bristol, or Chester, payable in sterling money at a premium of sixpence in the pound. Those who held the new coin might bring it to Dublin, Cork, Galway, or Carrickfergus, and demand bills of exchange on the same places in England at the rate of nineteen shillings sterling to the pound Irish. Those who held English money in Ireland were entitled to receive twenty-one shillings Irish for every pound, and bills of exchange upon Ireland were given at the same rate in England. The old base coin circulating in Ireland was made exchangeable for its nominal value in the new currency, and the importation of English money into Ireland was prohibited. This system of exchange distinguishes Buckhurst's plan from James II.'s, who simply declared that the impression of his own hard features turned kettles and old cannon into gold and silver; but it was bad enough. At first the full extent of the evil was not seen, and Carew who seems not to have been much more enlightened than the Lord Treasurer, thought no great harm would be done. But the towns soon began to grumble, and coiners were quickly at work, even within royal fortresses. English coin being no longer current in Ireland, the lawyers held that there was no law to punish those who counterfeited it. The genuine Irish coin was so bad that it was easy to imitate it and to leave out the silver altogether. Those who were interested in the trade gave out that the legal currency contained no silver, and so no one knew what anything was worth. The Queen lost by the bargain, prices became high and uncertain, and the only gainers were those who traded in money. Carey controlled the course of exchange, and it was believed that he profited very largely. Taught by sad experience, the Irish officials at last announced that the whole policy of degrading the coin was exceedingly distasteful to soldiers and merchants, rich and poor. 'We humbly acknowledge,' they tell the Privy Council, 'that experience showeth that the prices of things do follow the rate of silver and gold which is in the money.... And when your lordships do think that the prices of things by this project shall fall... we are not of that opinion.' An attempt to restrain the course of exchange only made matters worse, and the difficulty extended into the next reign, when the English Government at last came to see that honesty was the best policy.[378]

FOOTNOTES:

[369] The Queen to Mountjoy, Dec. 3, 1600, copy in Carew. There are other letters of the time from Elizabeth to the Lord Deputy beginning 'Mistress kitchenmaid.'

[370] Moryson, part ii. book i. chap. ii. On Jan. 1, 1601, Mountjoy dates a letter to Carew (in Carew) 'from the camp among the rocks and the woods in these devils' country.'

[371] Moryson, Jan. 29 to Feb. 25, part ii. book ii. chap. ii.; Mountjoy to Carew, March 11, in Carew.

[372] Essex was arrested Feb. 8 and executed Feb. 25. Mountjoy heard the news on the 22nd and March 2 respectively. Moryson, book i. ch. ii.

[373] Nottingham to Mountjoy, May 31, 1601, enclosing Lady Rich's letter. Notwithstanding the Lord Admiral's playful allusion to 30 years, Mountjoy was 38 and Penelope 40. The letters are printed in Goodman's James I. ii. 14-20.

[374] Moryson ut sup.; Mountjoy to Carew, April 10, 1601, in Carew; Edmund MacGauran, titular Archbishop of Armagh, to Captain Eustace June 18/28, 1591, MS. Hatfield; Matthew de Oviedo, 'Spanish Archbishop of Dublin,' to James Fitzthomas, Jan. 3/13, 1601-2, in Pacata Hibernia, book i. chap. xix.

[375] Pacata Hibernia, book ii. chap. iii. White Knight to Carew, May 29, 1601. Many of the letters &c. on this subject are collected in Irish Arch. Journal, 3rd series, vol. i. pp. 544-559. O'Daly wrongly states that the Queen's Earl stayed on in Ireland after his rival: he returned to England two months before his capture. From State papers calendared under June and July, 1608, it appears that John Fitzthomas was then called Earl of Desmond in Spain.

[376] May 22 to Aug. 29, 1601; Moryson, part ii. book ii. chap. i.

[377] Information of Thomas Walker (taken in England), Oct. 3, 1601, MS. Hatfield; Walker to Mountjoy, Aug. 22; Mountjoy to Cecil, Aug. 23. Walker maintained that he never thought of killing Tyrone until he found himself in Ireland.

[378] The proclamation is in Morrin's Patent Rolls, 1601, of which several original printed copies are extant, bearing date May 20, 1601. The whole story may be read in Carew, 1601-3, and in the first vol. of Russell and Prendergast's Calendar. See also Camden and Moryson. In Feb. 1603 Mountjoy wrote: 'the alteration of the coin, and taking away of the exchange, in such measure as it was first promised, hath bred a general grievance unto men of all qualities, and so many incommodities to all sorts, that it is beyond the judgment of any that I can hear to prevent a confusion in this estate by the continuance thereof.'

Moryson says the pretence was that the rebels would be impoverished, whereas the Queen's servants were the real sufferers--'we served in discomfort and came home beggars, so that only the treasurers and paymasters had cause to bless the authors of this invention.'

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LI. THE SPANIARDS IN MUNSTER, 1601-1602

[Sidenote: Rumours of invasion.]

Cecil had been right in saying that no Spaniards would come in 1600, and he was equally well informed about their intentions in the next year. In the autumn he inclined to think that they would go to Galway rather than to any part of Munster, where the strength of the rebels had been so lately and so thoroughly broken. Limerick and Waterford were mentioned as probable objects of attack, but Carew thought an invader would avoid the former as giving no means of retreat, and the latter as being too easily reached from England. Cork he thought the most likely to attract them, especially as Florence MacCarthy had recommended it, and he set to work to remedy its natural weakness as far as possible. 'The other towns', he said, 'are neither worth their labours to gain, nor her Majesty's charges to defend.' The Spaniards did, in fact, aim at Cork, and may have been more easily turned aside by hearing that a warm reception awaited them there. Carew had in the meantime taken the precaution of arresting Florence and sending him to England. It may be doubted whether faith was not broken with him; but there can be no doubt of his dealings with Tyrone or with the Spaniards, and both the Queen and Cecil approved of his detention.[379]

[Sidenote: The Spaniards disembark at Kinsale (September).]

Cecil warned Carew that the danger of invasion would not be over till the middle of October, and at the beginning of September Mountjoy thought it prudent to be ready for an immediate journey into Munster. On the 21st both Deputy and President were Ormonde's guests at Kilkenny, and on the next day an express came to say that the Spaniards had been sighted off the Old Head of Kinsale. Captain Love, in a small pinnace, had descried them at sea off Cape Finisterre a fortnight before, had noted that they were full of soldiers, and had made sail for Cork harbour, to give the alarm. This says much for the superior sailing power of the English, but it is possible that the ships seen by Love were those which were driven into Corunna by bad weather. Lisbon had been the original point of departure. The main fleet, with Don Juan D'Aguila on board, arrived off Cork, but found the wind blowing out of the harbour's mouth and did not attempt an entrance. They had already passed Kinsale, to which port they returned, and on September 23 Don Juan disembarked all his men, without opposition. The garrison, which was less than 100 strong, evacuated the town, most of the substantial inhabitants accompanying them with their goods, and the Spaniards marched in with twenty-five colours. The 'sovereign,' with his white staff, saw them properly billeted, and it was noticed that he did it with more alacrity than if he had been providing quarters for the Queen's troops.[380]

[Sidenote: Mountjoy goes to Munster.]

On the news reaching Kilkenny, a council was held. Ormonde and Wingfield advised the Lord Deputy to return to Dublin and prepare his forces, while the Lord President went to prepare supplies at Cork. But Carew urged Mountjoy to start at once for Munster, though with his page only. If the provincials, he said, saw the chief governor's back turned they would think he lacked forces, and there would be a general revolt. The army too would make more haste when the general had gone before. These arguments prevailed, and when Mountjoy heard that Carew had provided supplies enough to support the whole army for two or three months, he rose from his chair and embraced him with many cordial words. Carew had 100 horse with him, and, thus escorted, the two set out together next day. A night was passed with Lord Dunboyne at Kiltinan, another at Clonmel, and a third at Lord Roche's castle of Glanworth. After spending one day at Cork, Mountjoy went with some horse to a point overlooking Kinsale, and found that most of the Spanish ships were gone. There had already been a little skirmish in the neighbourhood of the town, but no serious attempt could be made to disturb the strangers for nearly three weeks. Don Juan spent the interval in strengthening his position, and in trying to make friends with the country people. In this he had very little success, for the weight of Carew's hand was still felt, and it was evident that the cloud which was gathering at Cork would soon burst.[381]

[Sidenote: The Spaniards come in the Pope's name.]

The Spaniards brought arms for the country people, but very few of them came in, and they were ordered by Mountjoy to drive all their cattle to the eastward of the Carrigaline river. The corn for five miles round Kinsale was burned, and the inhabitants were warned by proclamation not to take part with the Pope and the King of Spain, who were unjustly maintaining rebels against their anointed sovereign. Among those who accompanied Don Juan was Matthew de Oviedo, a Spanish Franciscan who had been papal commissary with Desmond twenty years before, and who was now titular Archbishop of Dublin; and he was probably the author of the Latin counter-proclamation. In this document the deposing power is claimed for the Pope, and its exercise by Pius V., Gregory XIII., and Clement VIII. is treated as conclusive. Elizabeth being thus made a mere usurping heretic, the Irish are absolved from all allegiance to her and are ordered to support the Catholic cause, on pain of being considered heretics themselves. In his own name the Archbishop wrote to O'Neill and O'Donnell, and Don Juan sent more than one messenger to hasten their coming. The Spaniards were without cavalry, having been given to understand that horses would be provided for the 1,600 saddles which they brought with them. Finding no allies, they had thus no means of acting on the offensive, and the English horse rode up to the very gates of Kinsale. The townsfolk were encouraged to withdraw their families and property, and were allowed to come and go until October 8, 'without any imputation of treason.' Don Juan gave them equal liberty; and this increased his chance of a successful defence, for he had about 4,000 men, and there were only about 200 houses in the town. Lord Barry went to Galbally with such forces as he could collect, in the hope of intercepting Tyrone on his march southwards, and Mountjoy made such haste as was possible to be at Kinsale before him.[382]

[Sidenote: Kinsale besieged (October).]

[Sidenote: Rincurren taken.]

On October 16 Mountjoy marched out of Cork, encamping on the first night at the Carrigaline river, and on the second under Knock Robin, a hill close to Kinsale. Ten days were spent in the wet fields without the means to entrench, for it was thought that longer delay would have a bad moral effect. At last the ships, with guns and tools, came to Cork, and were sent round to Oyster Haven, where there was no difficulty in unlading them. Don Juan had garrisoned Castle Park, on the west side of Kinsale Harbour, probably in the vain hope of preventing the entry of English vessels. He had another outpost at Rincurren on the east side, but neither work gave serious annoyance to the army, which was now entrenched on the Spittle hill, to the north side of the town. Carew found the artillery in very bad order; but the delay was of no service to the Spaniards, whose boats were effectually kept off by Captain Button in his pinnace. At last two pieces opened on Rincurren, 'but within two or three shot the carriage of the better culverin brake, and, about two of the clock in the afternoon, the other received a flaw.' The rest of the day was occupied in mending the carriage of the sound gun, and Don Juan tried to make a diversion by dragging artillery out of the town and firing into the camp. Two men were killed near the Lord Deputy's tent, and two hogsheads of his beer broached, but no serious harm was done. In the morning 'the culverin began to play, and about nine of the clock the demi-culverin was mounted, which after a few shot brake her axletree; before three she was remounted, and by that time a cannon likewise planted, and all three pieces without intermission played.' But Carew thought the fire too vague, and, having obtained Mountjoy's leave, he laid the guns himself, so that the fire might converge on one spot. The true range was got with a quadrant, and the cannonade was thus continued after sunset. Another attempt was made to relieve the post by land, but this was frustrated, with loss to the besieged, and by six o'clock the Spaniards in the castle called for a parley. They offered to surrender the fort on condition of being allowed to depart with arms and baggage. This was refused, a further parley declined, and the battery continued until two in the morning, when many of the besieged attempted to escape by the waterside. Twenty-three Spaniards were taken and thirty killed. Of the Irish all the fighting men escaped, but churls, women, and children were taken. The captain in command had his leg broken, and his subaltern, Don Bartholomeo Paez de Clavijo, was forced to surrender next morning, being allowed to carry out his own sword and give it up to Carew in person. He was quite ready to blow up the fort, with himself and all his men in it, but the eighty-six surviving soldiers threatened to throw him over the walls. The lives of the Spaniards were spared, and they were sent to Cork, but no terms had been granted to the Irish, of whom Dermot MacCarthy, called Don Dermutio, was the only person of note. He had been in Florence's service, had lived in Spain as a pensioner, and was able to disclose many important secrets. He was, however, afterwards hanged at Cork.[383]

[Sidenote: Progress of the siege (November).]

[Sidenote: Castle Park taken.]

A few days after the first success Thomond arrived from England with 1,000 foot and 100 horse, after having been blown far to the westward and forced to take refuge in Castle Haven. Both men and horses were worn out by the long confinement on board, and had to be sent to Cork to recruit. About the same time Sir Richard Leveson arrived with his squadron and 2,000 soldiers, and the ships were warped into harbour in spite of the wind. Neither guns nor men were now wanting, and the siege began in earnest. The camp had already been fortified on the north side, so as to prevent an attack by Tyrone's forces, which were daily expected, and Castle Park, on the south side of the harbour, was taken, after two ineffectual attempts. After a long cannonade the Spaniards, who were but seventeen in number, surrendered, and it is hard to see how so small a garrison could ever have been expected to maintain itself. The fact probably was that Don Juan expected to find an Irish army to help him, and that he found an English one instead. Mountjoy's camp was thoroughly fortified, and his approaches almost completed before any relieving force appeared. O'Donnell had, however, been long on his way. On hearing of the Spanish descent he at once raised the siege of Donegal, and, accompanied by Brian Oge O'Rourke, MacDermot, and others, including some Munster exiles, marched from Ballymote through Roscommon and Galway to Shannon Harbour, where he was ferried across, and through Westmeath and King's County into Tipperary. At Moydrum, in O'Meagher's country, between Roscrea and Templemore, he lay for three weeks waiting for Tyrone, and the annalists observe, with apparent pride, that his people 'continued plundering, burning, and ravaging the country around them, so that there was no want of anything necessary for an army in his camp, for any period, short or long.' The Irish and Catholic hero knew no better way to advance the cause than by harrying people who were as Irish and as Catholic as himself.[384]

[Sidenote: O'Donnell joins Tyrone (November).]

A council of war decided to send Carew to Tipperary, in the hope of intercepting O'Donnell before his junction with Tyrone. Carew obeyed, though he considered the expedition useless. Having the goodwill of the country O'Donnell was sure to have news of his coming, and against such a light-footed enemy he expected to have no better success than Ormonde had with Tyrone. He left the camp on November 7, with 1,000 foot and 250 horse, and was afterwards joined by Sir Christopher St. Laurence's regiment and by the irregular forces under Lord Barry's command. On arriving at Ardmayle on the Suir, he found that there was no possibility of attacking O'Donnell among the bogs and woods, but supposed that the latter would hardly be able to go by without fighting, for the mountains of Slieve Phelim, which in summer offered a road into Limerick, were impassable from the rain. A great and sudden frost disconcerted these plans, and O'Donnell made a night march of over twenty Irish miles on hard ground. More than 200 years later Lord Anglesea had personal experience of a winter's ride over these hills, and his sufferings resulted in the road which still bears his name. Carew hastened to intercept O'Donnell on his descent into Limerick, but found that he had already passed. To follow him into the wilds of Connello would be to court disaster, and there was nothing for it but to return to Kinsale.[385]

[Sidenote: Spanish ships come to Castle Haven (December);]

[Sidenote: but are destroyed by the English fleet.]

Meanwhile the siege went slowly on, Mountjoy having an excellent engineer officer in Captain Josiah Bodley, whose elder brother founded the great Oxford library. Six guns were mounted in the trenches, and Sir Richard Leveson's ships directed their fire upon the lower town. The Spaniards made frequent sallies, which were always repulsed, and they were unable to prevent the erection of more batteries. About twenty guns altogether were placed in position, and great execution was done both upon the Spaniards and upon their works. Being summoned to surrender, Don Juan said he would hold it against all enemies, first for Christ and then for the King of Spain, and on December 2 he made his great effort. 2,000 men sallied forth about 8 o'clock at night, and attacked the trenches with great determination. In the darkness and rain they succeeded at first, but reinforcements came up fast, and they were beaten back with a loss of 200 men killed and as many wounded. They spiked one gun, but this was afterwards made serviceable, and it was now evident that the garrison could do nothing unless they were relieved by Tyrone or by reinforcements from Spain. Next day there was a report, which turned out to be true, that more Spaniards had come to Castle Haven. Twelve ships had sailed from Corunna, but of these only six reached Ireland, and finding the Queen's ships in Kinsale harbour, they did not venture to put in there. About 700 men were landed, and with these O'Donnell effected a junction. Sir Richard Leveson went round, with four men of war and two tenders, and the roar of his guns was heard in Mountjoy's camp. The result was that only one Spanish ship escaped; the rest were sunk or driven ashore. Five guns had, however, been landed, and some 300 rounds were fired at the admiral, who was windbound for twenty-four hours. At last he warped his ship out with boats, and returned to Kinsale.[386]

[Sidenote: Tyrone arrives in the neighbourhood (December).]

Early in November Tyrone began his southward march. He plundered the western part of the Pale, and made his way slowly to the Bandon river, which then flowed through dense woods. 'O'Donnell,' said Fenton, 'and Tyrone following after, used all the means they could to work the Irish royalists to their side, but have reduced none of reckoning, for anything yet discovered: only they both made havoc of some countries, as a revenge to the loyalists that refused to rise with them.' At the news of Tyrone's approach Mountjoy completed the investment of Kinsale, by erecting a small work to the west side of the town. Next day the Irish horse showed themselves within two miles, and on the day after that Leveson's squadron again entered the harbour. The camp was strengthened against an attack from the land side, and the Spaniards made several fruitless attempts to interrupt the work by sallies. Cooped up within narrow limits and subsisting wholly on biscuit, the invaders suffered terribly by the almost incessant cannonade, and Don Juan grew anxious. In a letter which was intercepted he besought Tyrone and O'Donnell to relieve him. The besiegers, he said, were wearied by their labours in the wet fields, and were unable to man a third part of the trenches. The assailants, who should be well seconded on his side, were sure to succeed, 'and being once mingled with the enemies their forts will do them as much harm as us.'[387]

[Sidenote: Irish auxiliaries.]

The only allies gained by Tyrone in Munster were in West Cork and Kerry, and they did not declare themselves until the Spanish reinforcements arrived at Castle Haven. Castlemaine held out for the Queen, but Thomas Fitzmaurice Baron of Lixnaw came with O'Donnell from the north, and recovered the castle which gave him his title and two others. O'Connor Kerry surprised his own castle of Carrigafoyle and killed the guard, which consisted only of a sergeant and twelve men. Sir Fineen O'Driscoll, 'who never in the course of his whole life had been tainted with the least spot of disloyalty,' gave up his castles at Baltimore to the Spaniards, and O'Sullivan Bere did the same with Dunboy. Most of the O'Sullivans and MacCarthies were engaged, but Sir Cormac MacDermot, lord of Muskerry, remained with Mountjoy, who took care so to employ him as to attract Don Juan's attention. Sir Cormac had, however, an understanding with the Spanish general, and promised him to deliver up the Lord President alive or dead. Carew knew all about it, but ate, drank, rode, and conferred privately with this dangerous ally, whose design perhaps was only to make himself safe in case the Spaniards should triumph in the end, or in case he should fall into their hands. Tyrone had with him MacMahon, Maguire, Randal MacSorley, MacDonnell, and some of the O'Connors and Burkes, but his chief dependence was upon Captain Richard Tyrrell and his mercenaries.[388]

[Sidenote: Dangerous position of the besiegers.]

Placed between two fires, Mountjoy's position was critical enough, and Tyrone's plan was to blockade him. On December 21 the Irish, with whom were a small body of Spaniards, showed themselves in force to the east of the camp, and they had complete possession of the country between the Bandon and Carrigaline rivers. The line of communication for supplies was thus cut off, no forage could be obtained, and it was decided by a council of war on December 23 that the horse should be sent away to Cork.

The situation was indeed not unlike that of Cromwell before Dunbar, the English having the command of the sea, and the enemy that of the land. If no battle had been offered him, Mountjoy might have been forced to abandon the siege. The Spaniards made sallies every night, and Don Juan, some of whose letters were intercepted, urged Tyrone to attack the camp. According to the annalists, he wished to pursue the Fabian tactics which had so often succeeded, but was overruled by O'Donnell, who was 'oppressed at heart and ashamed to hear the complaint and distress of the Spaniards without relieving them.' The attack might have been successful had there not been treachery in the Irish camp. Brian MacHugh Oge MacMahon, who was one of Tyrone's chief officers, had a son who had been Carew's page, and this gave an excuse for some friendly intercourse. A bottle of whiskey was sought and given for old acquaintance' sake, and when thanking Carew for his civility, MacMahon found means to disclose Tyrone's plans. Thus warned, Mountjoy doubled the guards and had all the soldiers ready to fall in at short notice. A flying column of about 1,000 men was kept under arms, and at daybreak on December 24, the enemy's lighted matches were seen in great numbers towards the north-west.[389]

[Sidenote: Tyrone attacks Mountjoy,]

[Sidenote: and is completely defeated.]

It had been arranged that the camp should be attacked at midnight, and that the besieged should make a sally upon the trenches at the same time. Forewarned as he was, Mountjoy might have found it hard to resist such a combined onset, but there were other reasons for the failure of his assailants. 'The chiefs,' say the Irish annalists, 'were at variance, each of them contending that he himself should go foremost in the night's attack, so that they set out from their camp in three strong battalions, shoulder to shoulder, and elbow to elbow. O'Neill with the Kinel-Owen and others were in a strong battalion apart; O'Donnell, with the Kinel-Connell, his sub-chieftains, and the Connaught men in general, formed the second battalion; those gentlemen of Munster, Leinster, and Meath, with their forces, who had risen up in the confederacy of the Irish war, and who had been in banishment in Ulster during the preceding part of this year, were in the third.' Misled by his guides, O'Donnell wandered about all night, and when morning broke, Tyrone with O'Sullivan and the Spaniards found themselves close to the English lines and unsupported. It is very difficult to understand the plan of attack. Mountjoy's information was to the effect that the Castle Haven Spaniards, with 800 Irish under Tyrrell, intended to throw themselves into the town, join the garrison, and renew the combined attack on the following night with every chance of success. What really happened was that the Irish fell into confusion on finding themselves suddenly faced by a well-prepared enemy. Intending a surprise, they were surprised themselves. Tyrone drew off his horse to re-form them, and the foot, supposing him to be flying, began to waver on all sides. O'Donnell came up at this time, but all the endeavours of the chiefs were vain, for the ground was flat and open, and there was no scope for O'Neill's tactics. Seeing the enemy in disarray, though still unbroken, Wingfield obtained leave to act on the offensive, and Clanricarde importuned him not to lose this chance. Tyrrell and the Spaniards stood firm, and the English horse passed between them and Tyrone's main body. A small bog had to be passed, but the troopers struggled through it, and but little resistance was offered. 'All,' says O'Sullivan, 'were seized with panic terror, or rather routed by divine vengeance.' The Spaniards, who were less fleet of foot than their allies, made a stand about the ruins of an old castle, but were cut to pieces. Their leader, Alonso del Campo, was taken and five other officers killed. The Irish lost something like 2,000 men, while on the English side there was but one fatal casualty.[390]

[Sidenote: Utter rout of the Irish.]

[Sidenote: O'Donnell flies to Spain.]

[Sidenote: Disastrous retreat.]

'The Earl of Clanricarde,' says Mountjoy, 'had many fair escapes, being shot through his garments, and no man did bloody his sword more than his lordship that day, and would not suffer any man to take any of the Irish prisoners, but bid them kill the rebels.' He despatched a score at least with his own hand, and the Lord-Deputy knighted him on the field among the dead bodies, some of which were probably those of his kinsmen. The pursuit continued for two miles, and the slaughter must have been much greater but that the half-starved horses could go no farther. The whole army was paraded, and public thanksgiving was offered for the victory. Indeed, both sides spoke of a special interposition of Providence, and old prophecies were remembered or invented to suit the occasion. Greatly dejected, Tyrone withdrew to Innishannon, and no further attempt was made to relieve Kinsale. 'There prevailed,' say the annalists, 'much reproach on reproach, moaning and dejection, melancholy and anguish, in every quarter throughout the camp. They slept not soundly, and scarcely did they take any refreshment.' Next day it was decided that O'Donnell and others should go to Spain, and that his brother Rory with the rest of the Ulster chiefs should go home, Tyrrell and some of the Burkes remaining in Munster under the general command of O'Sullivan Bere. With a shrewd knowledge of Irish politics O'Donnell urged that the whole army should remain in the south until he could bring fresh reinforcements from Spain, for that those who had been affectionate and kind to them when advancing, would plunder and mock them on their return. Tyrone was perhaps ready to renew the conflict in Munster, but the Celtic army broke up into its component parts, and each clan struggled northwards separately under its own chief. Their road was by Mallow, Croom, and Abington, and O'Donnell's words came true, for 'they which did kiss them in their going forward, did both strip them, and shoot bullets at them on their return, and for their arms they did drown them and tread them down in every bog and soft place.' 200 perished in crossing the Blackwater, the Maigue, and the Mulkear. Horseflesh was their only food, the wearied animals sinking with the wounded, who were left to their fate, or being killed by riders whom they could no longer carry. The principal chiefs were borne in litters, and Tyrone arrived quite unexpectedly in Cavan, where he killed a few cows for his exhausted followers. Not less than 3,000 men and 500 horses were believed to have been lost, besides all baggage, and the survivors were utterly demoralised. 'A troop of women,' said Carew, 'might have beaten Tyrone's army.'[391]

[Sidenote: Spaniards and Irish.]

[Sidenote: Kinsale capitulates.]

Bagenal's death was avenged, and his brother-in-law's military reputation destroyed. Irish writers lay the chief blame on Don Juan d'Aguila, and yet he does not seem to have been the real cause of failure. His constant sallies certainly betray no inactivity, and the failure of Tyrone to keep the appointed time is quite enough to account for his not making one at the critical moment. His was the common fate of every Spaniard who had attempted to attack Elizabeth within the bounds of her hereditary possessions. Spanish organisation had become thoroughly bad, while that of the English improved daily. Mountjoy and Carew were good managers, but they were well seconded from home, and sometimes the Queen even anticipated their wants. She felt that her work would be incomplete if she left Ireland unsubdued, and the strength of her last years was ungrudgingly spent in that work. Don Juan saw that nothing could be made of an Irish alliance against such a Queen and such devoted servants. It was clear that Kinsale could never be relieved but by fresh efforts in Spain, and he had seen what Irish storms and English sailors could do. The town would be taken by assault, and the accompanying carnage would be of no service either to King or Pope. For six days after the battle the siege operations were resumed and the approaches brought very near the walls, and on the seventh Don Juan sent out his drum-major and an officer bearing a letter. He asked that a confidential messenger might be sent into the town to confer with him, an officer of like rank being given as surety for his safe return. Sir William Godolphin was accordingly sent in, and Don Pedro Enriquez came out into the camp. Don Juan told Godolphin that he had found the Irish weak and barbarous, and he could not be sure that they were not perfidious. Mountjoy, on the contrary, he had found a sharp and powerful enemy, and, on the whole, he was ready to capitulate. If fair conditions were not accorded, he would bury himself alive rather than yield. He professed not to be urged by necessity, but by a just disdain and spleen conceived against the Irish. Godolphin returned with his message, and on his second visit he was authorised to hold out hope of fair terms. Mountjoy took care to say that he had the game in his own hands, as indeed he had, but he was anxious to save blood and to show her Majesty's clemency. Where both sides wished for peace there could be little difficulty about arranging the terms. Don Juan declared that he felt himself absolved from all engagements to the Irish. His master had sent him to co-operate with the Condees O'Neill and O'Donnell, who had long delayed their coming; and when they did come they were shamefully defeated by a handful of men, and 'blown asunder into divers parts of the world.' O'Neill had fled to Ulster, and O'Donnell to Spain, 'so as now,' he said, 'I find no such Condees in rerum naturâ (for those were the very words he used) as I came to join withal, and therefore have moved this accord the rather to disengage the King, my master, from assisting a people so unable in themselves that the whole burden of the war must lie upon him, and so perfidious as perhaps might be induced in requital of his favour at last to betray him.'[392]

[Sidenote: Terms granted to the Spaniards.]

Both parties were eager for a settlement, for the loss by sickness had been great on the Queen's side; and the negotiations were short. Don Juan undertook to surrender not only Kinsale, but also Castle Haven, Baltimore, and Dunboy. Mountjoy contracted for the safe conveyance of all the Spaniards and their allies into Spain, and for their victualling and good treatment during the necessary interval. The Spaniards were bound not to serve again against Queen Elizabeth until after they had been actually landed in Spain. More than 3,000 officers and soldiers were embarked under the terms of this convention, besides many priests and monks, 'and a great company of Irish.' The articles were signed on the 2nd of January, on the 3rd Don Juan dined with Mountjoy, and on the 4th a Spanish ship appeared off Kinsale. A boat was sent out to say that the stranger might enter safely, for that Don John and the Lord Deputy were now very good friends. The Spanish captain hauled the boat's crew on board and at once made sail, and thus the first news of the surrender of Kinsale was carried to Spain about five weeks later. Another vessel with letters put into Berehaven, and the packet was sent up by land to Don Juan, who, with his principal officer, had accompanied Mountjoy to Cork. Carew, with the latter's consent, had the messenger robbed on the road, but without hurting him. Don Juan's suspicions were aroused, and he was not satisfied with the explanation given, but a proclamation was issued offering a reward for the discovery of the thieves. Spanish dignity was saved and Mountjoy kept the letters, which were of great importance. Large reinforcements were preparing in Spain, and the King wrote to say that he had heard of the defeat of Tyrone and O'Donnell, and that he nevertheless depended on Don Juan to maintain himself until help arrived. Details of the intended aid were given in other letters, and it was probable that had the news come earlier Kinsale would not have fallen, or at least would have had to be taken by storm. Carew had strongly urged that a golden bridge should be provided for a still formidable enemy, and the wisdom of this advice cannot be doubted.[393]

[Sidenote: O'Sullivan determines to defend Dunboy.]

Baltimore and Castle Haven were soon taken. The Spaniards gave no trouble, but the O'Driscolls made some futile attempts at resistance. At Berehaven the task was more serious. The Spaniards had increased the natural strength of Dunboy Castle by throwing up earthworks, on which they had mounted three small cannon. On hearing of the capitulation they were ready to surrender, but Donnell O'Sullivan refused to be bound by the articles. Bringing 1,000 men quietly under the walls, he mastered the castle by surprise and forced the Spanish captain and some gunners to remain. The other Spaniards were sent to Baltimore, and preparations were made for a desperate resistance. O'Sullivan wrote an eloquent letter to Philip III., as to his sovereign lord, in which he denied Don Juan's right to surrender his castle, which alone protected his property and the people living along twenty leagues of coast. He begged for help, and if help could not be given, then he asked that means might at least be provided to carry himself and his family to Spain.[394]

[Sidenote: Spanish ideas about Irish politics.]

Don Juan sailed on March 16. At Cork he lived familiarly with Carew, and presented him with a book on fortification as a keepsake. The Irish in Spain brought so many charges against Don Juan that he was imprisoned, and he died soon afterwards under restraint. He lived long enough to bring many counter-charges, and as late as 1618 there was a wretched Spanish sergeant in prison at Ghent, who believed that he owed his miseries to complaints made by Don Juan d'Aguila of his conduct at Kinsale. The Spaniards were getting tired of war with England, in which they were nearly always worsted, and of alliances with the Irish, which had brought them nothing but loss. Don Juan made direct advances to Mountjoy, and Captain Roger Harvey, Carew's nephew, had a curious conversation at Baltimore with Don Pedro de Soto, an officer of high rank, who thought there was no real reason why England and Spain should be at war. King Philip, said this candid Spaniard, had indeed a great revenue, 'but the infinite number of garrisons which he is daily forced to maintain, would devour another such Indies, if he had them.' If the Queen would only stand neutral in the Netherland quarrel, there might easily be peace between two great nations. This conversation afterwards induced Carew to intrigue a little in Spain. Nothing came directly of it, but Don Pedro's feelings were perhaps those of many in the peninsula, and the way was paved for a change as soon as Elizabeth was gone.[395]

[Sidenote: Importance of this siege.]

Excepting that of Londonderry, the siege of Kinsale is the most important in Irish history. Spain was to Elizabeth what the French monarchy was to William III. In both cases England headed the Protestant world against what threatened to become a European despotism. In both cases Ireland was used by the dominant Catholic power to create a diversion, and not for her own sake. The defeat of Tyrone and the subsequent surrender of Kinsale put an end to Spanish attempts on Ireland, as the breaking of the boom across the Foyle made French attempts virtually hopeless. In both cases it became evident that whoever ruled in London must necessarily be supreme upon both sides of St. George's Channel. D'Avaux, and even James II. himself, had as little sympathy with the Irish as Juan d'Aguila.

[Sidenote: Reception of the news by Queen Elizabeth.]

The official account of the battle of Kinsale was sent over by Henry Danvers, and the Queen gave most gracious thanks to Mountjoy, as well as to Thomond and Clanricarde. But Carew contrived that the first news should be brought to London by his friend Boyle, whose activity and good fortune were shown in a remarkable way. 'I left my Lord President,' he said, 'at Shandon Castle, near Cork, on Monday morning about two of the clock, and the next day delivered my packet, and supped with Sir Robert Cecil, being then principal Secretary, at his house in the Strand; who, after supper, held me in discourse till two of the clock in the morning, and by seven that morning called upon me to attend him to the court, where he presented me to her Majesty in her bedchamber; who remembered me, calling me by name, and giving me her hand to kiss, telling me that she was glad that I was the happy man to bring the first news of the glorious victory. And after her Majesty had interrogated with me upon sundry questions very punctually, and that therein I gave her full satisfaction in every particular, she gave me again her hand to kiss, and commanded my despatch for Ireland, and so dismissed me with grace and favour.' Boyle does not say by what route he made the journey from Cork to London in such a wonderfully short time; but the place of landing was probably Bristol. With a south-west wind and a flood tide in the Avon the feat is possible; but it is probably without a parallel. And great must have been the endurance of the man who, after galloping from Bristol to London, sat up talking till two in the morning, and was on his feet again at seven. The picture is a curious one, and it is interesting to note how this brilliant and successful man, writing more than thirty years afterwards and in the fulness of wealth and honours, is careful to record that he twice kissed Queen Elizabeth's hand.[396]

[Sidenote: Great cost of the war.]

The Queen was at first inclined to think the Spaniards had too easy terms, but declared herself satisfied when she had heard the whole story. The expense of the war and the waste of English blood was terrible, and she would not deprive even Tyrone of hope. He found means to make overtures very soon after the siege of Kinsale, and Cecil told Mountjoy privately that he did not think her inexorable, though the fear of being cajoled did not, as she wrote, 'permit her to hold any other way with the arch-traitor than the plain way of perdition.' But the capitulation had been granted 'to save the blood of her subjects, dearer to her than revenge or glory,' and the same consideration prevented her from driving Tyrone to desperation. In the meantime the army was to be reduced, and the rebellion extinguished in detail. Carew accompanied Mountjoy to Waterford and Kilkenny, whence he returned into Munster. The Lord Deputy went on to Dublin, where he lay inactive for some weeks, completely disabled by the hardships of the late siege.[397]

FOOTNOTES:

[379] Carew to the Privy Council, Aug. 6, 1601; Cecil to Carew, Sept. 5--both in Carew. 'For Desmond (James Fitzthomas),' says Cecil, 'I find him more discreet than I have heard of him, and for Florence the same which I ever expected, which is a malicious, vain fool.'--Pacata Hibernia, lib. ii. cap. 6.

[380] Journal in Carew, No. 198; Pacata Hibernia, cap. 10; Carew to the Privy Council, Sept. 14.

[381] Pacata Hibernia, caps. 9, 10, and 11. The Spanish ships are described as fifty, forty-five, and thirty-five. The latter number probably came to Kinsale with Don Juan. Storms and accidents account for the rest. Small vessels had been purposely chosen, with a view to the Irish harbours.

[382] Pacata Hibernia, caps. 10 and 11; Warrants in Carew, Sept. 28.

[383] Pacata Hibernia, cap. 13; Fynes Moryson, part ii. book ii. chap. ii.; Journal in Carew (No. 199) Oct. 29 to Nov. 1.

[384] Journal in Carew, Nos. 199 and 200; Four Masters, 1601; Docwra's Narration, p. 257. Castle Park fell on Nov. 20.

[385] Four Masters, 1601; Pacata Hibernia, cap. 14; Journal in Carew, No. 200; Carew to Mountjoy, Nov. 22. Carew returned to the camp on Nov. 26.

[386] Journal in Carew (No. 200) Nov. 29 to Dec. 9 Pacata Hibernia caps. 17, 18, and 19; Cecil to Carew, Feb. 9, 1602.

[387] Journal in Carew (Nos. 200 and 201) Dec. 7-20; Letters of Don Juan d'Aguila, Dec. 10/28, in Pacata Hibernia; Fenton to the Queen, Dec. 4, printed in the Ulster Journal of Archæology, vi. p. 64.

[388] Pacata Hibernia, caps. 15 and 18; Four Masters, 1601.

[389] Journal in Carew (No. 201) Dec. 21-3; Pacata Hibernia, cap. 21; Moryson. The Four Masters and O'Sullivan both say the English were on their guard, and the former note the report of treachery, but without giving MacMahon's name.

[390] Mountjoy's report is in Carew (No. 201). His private secretary, Fynes Moryson, the historian, was present. Carew's account is in Pacata Hibernia. The Four Masters and O'Sullivan Bere are to be preferred for the movements of the Irish, and the latter may have learned some particulars from his uncle. See also Sir H. Power (who commanded the flying column) to Cecil, Dec. 27.

[391] Four Masters, 1602; Lord Deputy and Council to the Privy Council, Jan. 14; Carew to same, Jan.; Sir F. Stafford to Cecil (from Newry) Jan. 14; Clanricarde to Cecil (from Cork) Jan. 15. 'The rebels are utterly forsaken of all aid from the Spaniards, and not able to make any head. O'Donnell is made away for Spain, as we think. I do not think we have lost fewer than 3,000 men; by fights and hurts not above 300, all the rest by sickness.' Captain A. Enfield, R.N., to Fulke Greville, Jan. 6, in 12th Report of Historical MSS. Commission--Coke MSS.

[392] A short relation of the siege of Kinsale in Carew (No. 202) signed by Mountjoy, Carew, and others. O'Sullivan and others say the English outnumbered Tyrone's forces. It is true that the Irish made no general or united effort, but only a small section of Mountjoy's army was actually engaged. Moryson, who was present, says the former were 6,000 foot and 500 horse, the latter barely 1,200 and 400.

[393] Translations of the letters from the Duke of Lerma and others are in Pacata Hibernia, ii. chap. xxvi., the terms of capitulation (Jan. 2, 1602) in chap. xxiii. See Carew to the Privy Council, Jan.

[394] Letters to the King of Spain and the Governor of Galicia in Pacata Hibernia, ii. chap. xxviii.

[395] Pacata Hibernia, ii. chap. xxix. and iii. chap. xiii. Don Pedro de Heredia to Lord Carew, April 1, 1618, and the answer, Oct. 21, both in Carew. Don Juan's peaceful proposals are mentioned by Moryson.

[396] The Queen to Mountjoy, Jan. 12, in Moryson; the Earl of Cork's True Remembrances.

[397] The Queen to Mountjoy, Feb. 8 1601; Cecil to Mountjoy, received July 8, both in Moryson.

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