Part 23 (1/2)

[Sidenote: The O'Neills. Scottish intrigues.]

With the usual plundering inroads on the Pale Brereton was able to cope; and the greater chieftains were quiet, for Gerald of Kildare was safe.

O'Donnell, who may have resented his treatment by Lady Eleanor, readily reverted to his father's policy, and no difficulty was made about his pardon. O'Neill held aloof, but again professed himself ready to come to Carrick Bradagh. Again he failed to appear, and pleaded that he dared not approach Dundalk through fear of Grey's manifest treachery. He offered to come to Magennis's Castle at Narrowater, a beautiful spot near the mouth of the Newry river and the foot of the Mourne Mountains. Brereton agreed, and a meeting at last took place. O'Neill declared his readiness to perform all that he had promised to Skeffington, to send a trusty messenger to the King, and to leave pardon or punishment for the past to the royal discretion. Till the answer came he was content to be at peace with the Government, and to keep his neighbours quiet. He was at this time intriguing with Scotland, and his secretary was actually at Edinburgh. Cromwell had received information that eight Irishmen had been with the Scottish King, to whom they had brought sealed letters from the princ.i.p.al chiefs, containing offers to take him as their lord and to do homage to him. It was even said that James meditated an invasion of Ireland in person. O'Neill probably waited for the result of these negotiations before sending a confidential servant with a letter to Henry. He begged the King not to send his enemies into his country, where Grey had, as he affirmed, sowed dissensions from selfish motives. He was willing to do anything he was asked unless the new Lord Deputy should prove very extortionate, and he advised the King not to waste his money in Ulster. Henry answered graciously, and acknowledged some trifling presents which accompanied the chief's letter. Future royal favours, his Majesty was careful to point out, must depend on performance and not on promises. Pardon in the meantime would be granted for the heinous offences committed.[232]

[Sidenote: Murder of James FitzMaurice, Earl of Desmond, 1540.]

With the sea at hand, and Ormonde ever ready to help him, it was supposed that James FitzMaurice would be able to maintain himself as Earl of Desmond. At first he confined himself to Kerrycurrihy and Imokilly, but after three months he was tempted to go inland towards the Limerick district, in which James Fitzjohn's strength lay. Near Fermoy he was set upon and murdered by his rival's brother, who had earned the t.i.tle of 'Maurice of the Burnings.' James Fitzjohn, who now believed himself to be undisputed Earl, at once repaired to Youghal, where he was well received and joined by all the chiefs who had lately made such professions to Grey and Ormonde. The garrison had, through over-confidence, withdrawn to Waterford. Gerald of Kildare had just escaped to France, and the web of policy which the English Government had cast over both branches of the Geraldines was torn to pieces for the time.[233]

[Sidenote: James Fitzjohn is allowed to succeed him.]

There was no evidence of James Fitzjohn's complicity in his cousin's murder, and Ormonde received the King's authority to pardon him, if he could be brought to promise good behaviour. He preferred to ally himself with O'Brien, and pleaded that Irish confederacies were too strong for him to withstand. To gain his confidence Ormonde risked his own person in the Desmond country for two nights, and pa.s.sed right through it to parley with O'Brien, who refused to listen to anything. But Desmond would not show himself, and Ormonde then went for a few weeks to England. On his return he found that little harm had been done, and this he attributed solely to O'Brien having been out of his mind. But Desmond claimed the credit of holding his hand. 'In like,' he wrote to Ormonde, 'I desire you, according to my full trust, for to bring me in the King's favour the best ye can; and in case that his Grace will so accept me, I trust we shall both be able to do his Grace acceptable service according to our duty.' On his return from England Ormonde at once resumed negotiations, and St. Leger had been scarcely a month in Ireland before he received friendly letters both from Desmond and O'Brien.[234]

[Sidenote: Fall of Cromwell. St. Leger is made Deputy, 1541.]

In the meantime Cromwell's head had fallen on the scaffold to which he had sent so many better men. Grey was in the Tower, and Henry found time to appoint a new Lord Deputy. He chose Sir Anthony St. Leger, who already knew much of Ireland, and whose temper would at least save him from his predecessor's chief faults. Sir Patrick Barnewall of Fieldston, an eminent lawyer, had lately enumerated the qualities desirable in a chief governor, and in so doing had drawn a heavy indictment against the last holder of that high office. The King, he said, should provide a Deputy 'faithful, sure, and constant in his promise, and in especial to any concluding of peace; and that he shall be such a person that shall have more regard to his own honour and promise than to any covetous desire of preys or booties of cattle; and that he shall make no wilful war, and when war is made upon a good ground, that the same be followed till a perfect conclusion thereof be taken, and not left at large, nor yet to take a faint peace; and that the said Deputy shall not be in weighty causes counselled nor guided by such persons as be openly known to be ill-doers, or apt adherents of the ill-doers in their ill-doings against the King's Majesty and his Grace's subjects in time past, for the same hath and may hinder.' In selecting St. Leger, Henry was probably actuated in part by such motives, and in part by hopes of an increased income.

With him were a.s.sociated as Revenue Commissioners Thomas Walsh, Baron, and John Mynne, Auditor of the English Exchequer, and William Cavendish, Treasurer of the Court of Augmentations; but the viceregal authority was not in any way impaired.[235]

[Sidenote: St. Leger's policy. The Kavanaghs.]

St. Leger seems clearly to have grasped the idea so often put forth and so often neglected, that the pacification of Ireland must begin with the neighbourhood of the Pale, and that distant expeditions were neither lightly to be undertaken nor abandoned without attaining their object. He resolved at once to punish those who had attacked the Pale at Grey's departure, and he turned first to the Kavanaghs. Ormonde had lately ravaged Idrone for a week and taken hostages, reporting that all the mischief was done by Donnell MacCahir, 'who, having nothing to lose, adhereth to Tirlogh O'Toole.' St. Leger now ravaged the territory far and wide, and at the end of ten days the chief came in and submitted. He renounced the name of MacMurrough, and agreed to hold his lands of the Crown by knight-service. After the manner of Deputies in their early days of office, St. Leger believed that he had really made a final settlement.

The Kavanaghs were ready enough to make promises, and even to boast their descent from the man who first brought the English to Ireland; but St.

Leger was destined to have plenty of trouble with them.[236]

[Sidenote: The O'Mores and O'Connors, and their neighbours.]

Offaly had been so often devastated that the new Lord Deputy could have little to do in that way; but the adjoining district of Leix had been more fortunate, and its turn now came. The O'Doynes, O'Dempseys, and others were separated by St. Leger's policy from O'Connor, whom it was proposed to bridle by establis.h.i.+ng fortified posts at Kinnegad in Westmeath, at Kishevan in Kildare, at Castle Jordan in Meath, and at Ballinure in what is now the King's County. A letter arrived from the King with orders to expel O'Connor from his country and to give it to his brother Cahir, if he would behave in a civilised manner, as he had often promised to do. The incorrigible rebel should be made an example to all Ireland by his perpetual exile and just punishment. But this could not be honourably done, for Brereton had made a peace during the difficult days that followed Grey's recall, and O'Connor, whose submission was of the humblest, had done no harm since then. St. Leger indeed showed some inconsistency in the matter, for he thought in September that O'Connor could never be trusted, and in November he advised his restoration to favour. Not only was it proposed to give him a grant of his land, but also to raise him to the peerage as Baron of Offaly, an ancient honour in the eclipsed family of Kildare.[237]

[Sidenote: The O'Tooles.]

No tribe had hurt the Pale more than the O'Tooles, who could boast of giving a famous saint to Irish hagiology. Originally possessed of the southern half of Kildare, they had been driven into the Wicklow Mountains by Walter de Riddlesford in the early days of the Anglo-Norman occupation. They were afterwards known as lords of Imaile, a small district between Baltingla.s.s and Glendalough, and at one time held nearly all the northern half of Wicklow. The Earls of Kildare expelled them from Powerscourt, and latterly they had led a very precarious life. True children of the mist, they either bivouacked in the open or crept into wretched huts to which Englishmen hesitated to give the name of houses.

They cultivated no land, but levied 300_l._ a year from their civilised neighbours, partly in black-rent and partly in sheer plunder. The actual chief was Tirlogh O'Toole, who professed himself anxious to mend his ways, and offered to go to England and beg his lands of Henry himself.

There was something chivalrous in Tirlogh; for when Grey was hard pressed by the northern confederacy he sent him word that 'since all those great lords were against him he would surely be with him, but whensoever they were all at peace, then he alone would be at war with him and the English Pale.' This simple-minded warrior had kept his word, and he now begged St. Leger to write to Norfolk, in the belief that the Duke would let him want nothing 'when he knew that he had become an Englishman.' In return for his undertaking to forego his exactions and to wear the English dress, he asked for a grant of the district of Fercullen, comprising Powerscourt and about twenty square miles of land, chiefly rocks and woods, but with some fertile spots. St. Leger was anxious to grant Tirlogh's terms, for the lands actually held by him were worthless and would never pay to reclaim, while the O'Tooles were obliged to live on the Pale. The hardy mountaineers had nothing to lose, and they prevented land enough to support 2,000 inhabitants from being cultivated at all.

The Lord Deputy accordingly sent over the wild man with a special recommendation to Norfolk, whose Irish experience made him a natural mediator. Tirlogh was so poor that St. Leger had to lend him 20_l._ for his journey, and he could not even afford decent clothes. 'It shall appear to your Majesty,' wrote the Irish Government, 'that this Tirlogh is but a wretched person and a man of no great power, neither having house to put his head in, nor yet money in his purse to buy him a garment, yet may he well make 200 or 300 men.'[238]

[Sidenote: Tirlogh O'Toole at Court.]

Tirlogh remained nearly a month at Court, where he was very well treated; perhaps Henry remembered how well Hugh O'Donnell had requited the kindness shown to him long since. The grant was authorised, and care was taken to make such a fair division among the clansmen as would prevent internal dissensions. Tirlogh became the King's tenant by knight-service at a rent of five marks yearly, and his brother Art Oge, a man of some ability, was gratified with a grant of Castle Kevin. Henry desired that this case should form a precedent, and that in future chiefs received to peace and favour should be treated with on the same basis as the O'Tooles. In doing this he followed the advice of some of his wisest councillors at home. Cranmer, Audeley, and Sadleir did not believe in the possibility of a thorough conquest, and rightly considered that Ireland would be best gained by fair dealing. Pedants and flatterers might argue that the King was actually ent.i.tled to most of the land, that the Irish were intruders, and that grants to them were derogatory to the royal dignity. To this it was answered that the intrusions were of very old date, that future rebellions would be more easily punished when they involved a breach of contract, and that the Crown must gain by the mere acknowledgment of its t.i.tle. The O'Tooles at all events seem to have given up plundering the Pale, and they make little further figure in history. But they could not give up fighting among themselves. The favoured Tirlogh had a grudge against one of his clansmen, and pursued him daily in spite of orders from the Government. At last the threatened man caught his persecutor asleep, and in the early morning killed him and all his companions; 'and we think,' wrote the Lord Deputy and Council, 'the other would have done to him likewise, if he might have gotten him at like advantage.' Tirlogh left no legitimate children, but St. Leger nevertheless recommended that his son Brian should be allowed to succeed him.[239]

[Sidenote: Proposed military order. The King vetoes it.]

Finding Leinster in an unusually promising state, the Irish Council hit upon a strange device for keeping it permanently quiet. In the previous century Thomas, Earl of Kildare, had established the Brotherhood of St.

George, an armed confraternity, whose thirteen officers, chosen from among the loyal gentlemen of Dublin, Kildare, Meath, and Louth, elected their own captain annually, but were paid by the State. It was found necessary to dissolve this body by an Act of Parliament, pa.s.sed in 1494.

Its object had been the defence of the Pale against Irish enemies and English rebels. It was now proposed to erect a new order, not named after St. George, but holding its great ceremony on St. George's day. It was to consist of a Grand Master and twelve pensioners, with salaries amounting in the aggregate to 1,000_l._ The majority were to be Irishmen of family, who might be kept out of mischief by fear of losing their pensions. After seven years, promotion was to depend on knowing English, or having spent two years in the public service in England; the object being to induce Irish gentlemen to cross the Channel and learn manners. As vacancies occurred the persons chosen were to be bound 'not to have any wife or wives.' The Council nominated Brabazon to be first Grand Master; but Ormonde put forth a list of his own, and preferred his brother Richard to the highest place. The Council also proposed to make a pensioner of Lord Kilcullen, and to place him in the castle of Clonmore, which had belonged to his family, but which the King had granted to Ormonde. The Earl naturally ignored this claim, and there were other differences in the rival lists. The Council suggested elaborate machinery by which the Order might be made to work for the reformation of Leinster; but St. Leger does not appear to have been a party to the scheme, and perhaps opposed it quietly. The King, who had just abolished the great military Order, had no idea of creating another, though its patron saint should be St. George instead of St. John. 'We do in no wise,' he said, 'like any part of your device in that behalf.' By minding their business and doing what they were told his Majesty hoped that they would ultimately succeed in reforming Leinster 'without the new erection of any such fantasies.'[240]

[Sidenote: An arrangement is made with Desmond.]

James Fitzjohn being now necessarily acknowledged Earl of Desmond, one of St. Leger's first cares was to obtain his submission. Satisfied at last that no treachery was intended, Desmond agreed to meet the Lord Deputy at Cashel. Pa.s.sing through Carlow and Kilkenny, St. Leger was joined by Ormonde, who took care that the viceregal retinue should be well treated on the journey; but Desmond at first held aloof, and demanded that the chief of the Butlers should give himself up as a hostage before he trusted himself in English hands. This was refused; but Archbishop Browne, Travers, the Master of the Ordnance, and the Deputy's brother Robert consented to run the risk. Desmond then appeared, and said he was ready to do all that loyalty demanded. The proceedings were adjourned to Sir Thomas Butler's house at Cahir, and there Desmond signed a solemn notarial instrument, by which he fully acknowledged the King's supremacy in Church and State. 'I do,' he said, 'utterly deny and forsake the Bishop of Rome, and his usurped primacy and authority, and shall with all my power resist and repress the same and all that shall by any means use and maintain the same.' He renounced the pretensions of his family not to attend Parliament or enter any walled town. He agreed to abide by and to enforce the King's decision as to the Kildare estates, and to pay all such taxes as were paid in the territories of Ormonde, Delvin, and other n.o.blemen of like condition. He const.i.tuted himself the defender of the corporate towns, and gave up all claims to the allegiance of the Munster Englishry, with a partial reservation as to men of his own blood, who held their lands under him or his ancestors. Finally, he agreed to send his son to be educated in England. This was Gerald, the ill-starred youth whose folly and vanity were destined to work the final ruin of his House.

The Archbishop of Cashel and the Bishops of Limerick and Emly witnessed the instrument, and the manner of the submission was as satisfactory as a Tudor could wish. 'In presence,' wrote St. Leger to the King, 'of MacWilliam, O'Connor, and divers other Irish gentlemen, to the number of 200 at the least, he kneeled down before me and most humbly delivered his said submission, desiring me to deliver unto him his said pardon, granted by your Majesty; affirming that it was more glad to him to be so reconciled to your favours, than to have any worldly treasure; protesting that no earthly cause should make him from henceforth swerve from your Majesty's obedience. And after that done, I delivered to him your said most gracious pardon, which he most joyfully accepted.' He was immediately sworn of the Council, and St. Leger asked the King's indulgence for having done this without warrant. Care was also taken to prevent a renewal of the quarrel between the new Privy Councillor and Ormonde, who had married the heiress-general of a former Earl of Desmond, and had thus large and indefinite claims on the family estates. The rivals bound themselves in 4,000_l._ to promote cross-marriages between their children, and to keep the peace. The claims of Ormonde through his wife were nevertheless destined in the next generation to deluge Munster in blood.[241]