Part 16 (1/2)
In the meantime the ecclesiastics who administered the vacant see of Dublin p.r.o.nounced sentence of excommunication in its most tremendous form against the murderers of the Archbishop. Offaly himself, his uncles John and Oliver, Captain Rookes, James Delahide, and Teeling and Wafer, who seem to have been the actual murderers, were mentioned by name. Leprosy and madness, hunger and thirst were invoked upon them in this life, and eternal d.a.m.nation in the life to come. No house was to shelter them, no church to give them sanctuary, no kind Christian to bestow on them a morsel of bread when starving, nor a cup of cold water when dying of thirst, on pain of being considered accessories to their crime and accursed like them. They were to be partakers with Pharaoh and Nero, Herod and Judas, Dathan and Abiram; and stones were cast towards their dwellings, as by Moses when he called down Divine wrath upon the last named. It is said that a copy of this curse was cruelly shown to the old Earl in the Tower, and that the shock snapped the enfeebled thread which still bound him to life. The fate of the seven excommunicated persons was nearly as bad as the most vindictive priest could wish. The three Geraldines were hanged at Tyburn, Rookes was hanged at Dublin, Teeling and Wafer died at Maynooth of a horrible disease, James Delahide escaped to Spain and gave the Government some further trouble, but he died an exile in Scotland.[140]
[Sidenote: The new Earl seeks help from Emperor and Pope,]
The new Earl--for Earl he was in spite of Stanihurst's statement to the contrary--took advantage of the breathing s.p.a.ce allowed him by the Deputy's inaction to cast about for allies. He sent Dominick Power to the Emperor, armed with gifts, and with doc.u.ments going to prove that Ireland was a fief of the Holy See and that it was forfeited on account of Henry's heresy. Kildare was ready to hold the country of Pope or Emperor and to pay tribute, in consideration of being protected against the English schismatics. Twelve hawks and fourteen hobbies, or Irish palfreys, were thought suitable presents for the second Charlemagne.[141]
[Sidenote: and from the Irish.]
More immediate help was sought from the O'Briens of Clare and the O'Kellies. The latter were induced to threaten Westmeath, and Con O'Brien, chief of Th.o.m.ond, was already in communication with Charles V., but Con's son Donogh had married Lady Ellen Butler, and Ossory had enough influence with his son-in-law to keep him to his allegiance. Donogh, as was usual with the sons of Irish chiefs, had a strong party of his own, and prevented the clan from stirring. Ossory contrived to make the Burkes threaten the O'Kellies, and they also were neutralised.[142]
[Sidenote: Many rebels executed.]
Skeffington, having awoke to the fact that Ireland could not be subdued by an army which never left Dublin, allowed Maunsell and Brereton to divide their forces and to burn most of the Geraldine villages, including Maynooth. While gaining strength himself he had the satisfaction of ordering several executions in Dublin. Brode, who was called the traitor's admiral; Rookes, who was captured near Wexford with some of the royal ordnance in his possession; a third rover named Purcell, who had been bold enough to cut a vessel out of the Thames; and Travers, Chancellor of St. Patrick's, who had been an agent in the attempted reduction of Dublin, were all duly hanged, drawn, and quartered on Oxmantown Green.[143]
[Sidenote: Maynooth Castle summoned. The siege.]
Brereton summoned Maynooth Castle, proposing to let the garrison depart with bag and baggage, and offering pardons and rewards. But they trusted in their walls, and answered only with taunts and jeers. At last Skeffington left Dublin and encamped before the castle, which he invested closely the next day. He p.r.o.nounced it to be the strongest fortress which had ever been in Ireland since the English first set foot there. No detailed account of the armament has been preserved, but there were several pieces of cannon and a garrison of over 100, of whom about one-half were gunners. Christopher Paris, the Earl's foster-brother, commanded within the castle. Skeffington's batteries opened on the third day after his arrival, and soon silenced the guns on the north-west side of the keep. The guns were then pointed against a new work on the northern side, and after five days' bombardment the breach was p.r.o.nounced practicable. Paris, who probably despaired of maintaining his post, now thought it time to make separate terms for himself, and shot out a letter in which he offered to sell his post for money. The garrison were accordingly allowed to sally forth and to capture a small piece of artillery. Paris pretended great satisfaction, and served out abundant liquor to his men, who proceeded to celebrate their triumph by getting drunk. In the first grey light of morning the outwork was occupied almost without resistance, and the warders were aroused from their slumbers by shouts of 'St. George! St. George!' Ladders were quickly planted against the walls of the keep, and the storming party began to ascend. Captain Holland, who was one of the first to reach the parapet, jumped down into a tub of feathers, but Brereton's company had scaled the walls at another place, and the Geraldines, completely surprised and only half sober, made but a short stand. An arrow was discharged at Holland, the weight of whose armour kept him fast in the feathers, but it missed him, and he was released in time to take an active part in the final struggle. Brereton himself ran up to the highest turret and hoisted a flag, which told the Lord-Deputy that all was over.[144]
[Sidenote: Maynooth taken. Story of Paris.]
When Skeffington entered in the evening two singing-men of the Earl's chapel prostrated themselves before him, plaintively chanting a hymn or song called 'Dulcis amica,' which affected the victors as the verses of Euripides affected the Dorians at Syracuse. They were pardoned, and Paris then came forward to claim his reward. Skeffington allowed that he had been useful, and promised that the King would not let him starve; he then asked what confidence the Earl of Kildare placed in his foster-brother, and Paris enumerated the benefits which he had received from the fallen family. 'Couldst thou,' said the Deputy sternly, 'find in thine heart to betray his castle who has been so good to thee? Truly, thou that art so hollow to him wilt never be true to us.' Then turning to his officers he ordered them to pay down the stipulated price, and to execute the traitor forthwith. 'My lord,' said the wretched man, 'had I wist you would have dealt so straitly with me, your lords.h.i.+p should not have won this fort with so little bloodshed as you did.' Among the bystanders was James Boys, formerly Constable of Maynooth, who had resigned his office at the breaking out of the rebellion, but who may have sympathised with his old employers, and who muttered 'too late' in Irish, a saying which became proverbial for an ineffectual repentance. Paris was executed, and it does not appear that he had been promised pardon, but Skeffington's action was neither honest nor politic. He had profited by the treason, and to kill the traitor could only tend to make other rebels desperate.
About forty other prisoners were taken, of whom twenty-five were executed, including the Dean of Kildare and another priest named Walsh.
It appeared from the depositions of one prisoner, a priest, that there had been negotiations with the Emperor, who held out hopes of 10,000 men, and also with the King of Scots. The 'pardon of Maynooth' became a proverbial expression for the gallows.[145]
[Sidenote: The Irish fall away from Kildare.]
Kildare had in the meantime succeeded in raising an army of 7,000 men among the O'Connors of Offaly and in Connaught, but the news that Maynooth had fallen almost dispersed it. With the men who remained he advanced to Clane, where he came into collision with Skeffington, who took 140 prisoners and put them to the sword, on a renewal of the fight being threatened. Kildare then went into Th.o.m.ond, intending to sail for Spain, but sent James Delahide and Robert Walsh, the parish priest of Loughseedy, in his stead. These messengers joined Power at Cadiz, but did not obtain an interview with Charles until after their chief's execution.
Power was pardoned at the Emperor's request, but the others were attainted by name. Kildare's allies now gradually dropped away. O'More and MacMurrough gave security to Ossory, and the Earl's followers dwindled daily, though he continued to roam about in the neighbourhood of his ancestral estates. Maynooth was too strong to attempt, but he twice took Rathangan, so that no Englishman would take charge of it; and Skeffington was forced to entrust it to Sir James Fitzgerald. After this, Kildare drove a herd of cattle under the walls, and by the hope of booty drew out a great part of the garrison, whom he cut to pieces. On one occasion, he destroyed part of the garrison of Trim by putting forward some English troopers, who pretended to be Salisbury's men; and on another, he almost succeeded in capturing a large convoy near Naas. But such stratagems could not long delay the end, and the Irish saw that the game was up. O'Neill came to Skeffington at Drogheda, and took the oath of allegiance. It was agreed among other things that any O'Neill who did wrong within the obedient districts might be tried by English law, and that homicides should not be compounded by money payments;[146] but the King's subjects taken in O'Neill's country were to be reserved for the royal consideration, and not punished capitally by the chief. O'Neill was to receive his customary black-rent, but none of his clans were to levy Irish exactions,[147] or to graze cattle in the English districts. All Englishmen were to enjoy free trade with Tyrone, and O'Neill undertook to help Skeffington in his hostings in as ample a manner as any of his predecessors had helped any previous Lord-Deputy or Lord-Lieutenant.[148]
[Sidenote: But Skeffington makes little progress.]
O'More, an able man, who was anxious to deserve well of his new friends, accompanied Brabazon into the wastes of Allen, where Kildare was lurking.
After the usual plundering, he advised the Englishmen to turn as if in full retreat, but, in reality, to occupy all the pa.s.ses, while the O'Mores engaged the Earl's party in the plain. But the Northumberland moss-troopers under Dacre and Musgrave had not forgotten their old habits, and made off with the booty, leaving an unguarded pa.s.s, through which the Geraldines escaped.[149] The O'Mores would not kill Kildare's men, but were very active against the O'Connors; indeed, the Earl was believed to have been in O'More's hands for a time, and to have been purposely released. But Brabazon took Burnell of Balgriffin, one of the original advisers of the rebellion, and William Keatinge, captain of the Keatinge kerne, who had hitherto been the rebels' chief strength. The latter was released on giving security, but Burnell was reserved for the scaffold. The remarkable unfitness of Skeffington for the post in which Henry maintained him was strikingly shown at this time. He was unable to stir from Maynooth, and seemed half dead if he rose before ten or eleven o'clock. Marauding bands came with impunity to the castle gates, and stole the Deputy's horses; and he allowed the army to lie in the open country without orders, and to consume provisions instead of fighting.
The sick man was jealous of Lord Leonard Grey, the marshal of the army, whom rumour had designated as his successor; he was himself incapable of action, and was unwilling to let others act in his stead.[150]
[Sidenote: Surrender of Kildare.]
Before his release Keatinge undertook to drive the Geraldine chief out of Kildare. The wretched peasants crept back to their fields to save what was left of the harvest; and Cahir O'Connor, who saw how things were likely to end, came to Grey and Brabazon, and took an oath to defend the King's interests against Kildare, and against his own brother. The Earl had a stronghold in a boggy wood near Rathangan, fortified with earthworks and wet ditches, and almost impregnable had it been well manned and armed. Not being defended it was easily taken, and whatever would burn was burned. At last Skeffington felt well enough to take the field, and advanced with Grey and Butler to the borders of Offaly.
Despairing of the cause, and anxious to save his harvest, O'Connor came in and submitted to the Lord Deputy at Castle Jordan; and Kildare, finding himself alone, then surrendered to Butler and Grey in the presence of three witnesses. Skeffington positively a.s.serts that no condition was made, 'either of pardon, life, land, or goods;' and this is confirmed by a despatch from the Council sent three days later and signed by Lords Butler and Delvin, Rawson, Prior of Kilmainham, Saintloo, Brabazon, Aylmer, Salisbury, and Sir Rice Maunsell, the last two having been present at the surrender. But the councillors admitted that 'comfortable words were spoken to Thomas to allure him to yield,' and begged the King to spare his life according to the comfort of those words.[151]
[Sidenote: The surrender was unconditional.]
A great effort was made to cause a belief in England that the surrender was conditional, but it does not appear that the prisoner himself made any such a.s.sertion. He wrote to his connection Grey, confessing himself a rebel, but urging that he had done all by the advice of Thomas Eustace and Sir Gerald MacShane. He begged intercession for his life and lands: failing the efficacy of such aid, he had, he said, only to s.h.i.+ft for himself as he best could. Writers favourable to the Geraldines have nevertheless stated that he was promised his life, and this has been copied into a long succession of popular manuals. Even at the time, the legal mind of Lord Chancellor Audeley refused to believe that the Irish Council had so dealt 'with so errant and cankered a traitor.' 'If this,'
he added, 'be intended that he should have mercy, I marvel much that divers of the King's Council in Ireland have so largely told the King, afore this time, that there should never be good peace or order in Ireland till the blood of the Garrolds were wholly extinct. And it was also said that the Irishmen spared their effectual diligence in the persecution of him, because they heard that he should have pardon, and then he would revenge; and now it seemeth they would procure him mercy.
They be people of a strange nature and much inconstancy.'[152]
[Sidenote: Kildare is sent to England;]
In writing his thanks to Skeffington the King regrets that Kildare's capture had not been 'after such a sort as was convenable to his deservings'--alluding to the report that conditions had been made with him. The letter is worthy of Elizabeth at her best, and very creditable to Henry, who declares his unabated confidence in Skeffington, and promises to make every allowance for his age and infirmities. As to the disposal of the prisoner, not only Audeley but Norfolk, who spoke from the fulness of his Irish experience, thought he should be sent to the Tower and executed in due course, 'except it should appear that by his keeping alive there should grow any knowledge of treasons, or other commodity to the King's grace.' The Duke advised a long respite, lest Lord Butler and Lord Leonard Grey should lose all their credit in Ireland. The Chancellor wished to proceed in the King's Bench under the new Statute of Treasons, by which he considered that such offences, though committed in Ireland, might be tried in an English s.h.i.+re. Had this opinion finally prevailed, modern Ireland might be easier to govern than it ever seems likely to be. Both Norfolk and Audeley allude to the report that Kildare had been promised his life, but neither they nor the King confirm it.[153]