Part 31 (1/2)
delay, gave up the murderers, who were doubtless duly executed. But the Barry country continued to be the scene of frequent outrages. Lord Barrymore went out one day in the early winter to drive the cattle of some wild Irishmen, and met with certain other wild Irish who were going to spoil his tenants. A fight followed, and the Barries 'killed incontinently little lack of fourscore of them,' wherewith, said the Corporation of Cork, 'we be glad, and so is the Earl of Desmond.' But Bellingham was not satisfied with Desmond's conduct, nor easy about the future. James Delahide, always the herald of a storm, was in Ireland, and probably with the Earl. Gerald of Kildare might appear again; and there were rumours that the French meditated a descent and the establishment of a fortified port at Skerries to command the pa.s.sage to Scotland. These fears were not realised; but there were frequent communications between Desmond and the O'Briens, and Bellingham took steps to have everything reported to him. This vigilance perhaps prevented the Munster chiefs from moving.[333]
[Sidenote: Anarchy in Connaught. Garrison at Athlone.]
The death of the newly-created Earl of Clanricarde revived the normal anarchy of Connaught. Ulick Burke was acknowledged as captain by the Government and by some of the inhabitants during the minority of the Earl's son Richard. But another Richard, the heir's illegitimate brother, gave so much trouble that Sir Dermot O'Shaughnessy, and other well-disposed chiefs, demanded that the young Earl should be settled in possession, and that Commissioners should be sent to Galway for the purpose. The false Richard was, however, allowed to rule his own immediate district, but not without strong hints from Bellingham that what the King gave the King could take away. Burke was reminded that he had apprehended no notable malefactor, and that the Lord Deputy would quarrel with no honest Irishman for his sake. Bellingham had neither time nor force to give to the West, and the towns of Limerick and Galway had very indifferent success in their efforts to keep the peace. But the chief governor's reputation for justice was not without effect even in Connaught. 'Your lords.h.i.+p's famous proceedings,' wrote the Archbishop of Tuam, 'being divolgated throughout all Ireland, to the great fear of misdoers and malefactors all through the country hereabouts now needing reformation, more than heretofore, all for lack of justice among them to be observed.' Bellingham established a garrison at Athlone, which overawed the O'Kellys and O'Melaghlins; but little progress was made beyond the Shannon. Robert Dillon, the lawyer, was the Lord Deputy's civil subst.i.tute, but the sword was necessarily in the Baron of Delvin's hands, who did all he could to prevent Dillon from sending messengers to Dublin. The central districts of Ireland between the Pale and the great river were at this time the theatre of constant war, and in this an English, or Anglo-Norman, adventurer figures conspicuously.[334]
[Sidenote: Edmond Fay.]
Edmond Fay, who seems to have had property at Cadamstown, in the King's County, and to have claimed more than the natives were willing to allow him, was called into Westmeath by O'Melaghlin to aid him against his enemies. The confederates gained some successes, and occupied, among other places, the historic castle of Kincora. 'Edmond,' say the 'Four Masters,' 'then continued to conquer Delvin in the King's name in opposition to O'Melaghlin; and thus had O'Melaghlin brought a rod into the country to strike himself, for Edmond a Faii expelled and banished himself and all his tribe out of Delvin, just as the young swarm expels the old.' Fay, who was to some extent supported by the Government, and who had soldiers with him, drove the MacCoghlans across the Shannon, and made himself master of most of the country between Athlone and Slievebloom. Not satisfied with this he proposed to attack the O'Carrolls, who joined the MacCoghlans, and expelled him from his recent conquests. Fay called on the Government for help, and the whole county, on both sides of the Brosna, was burned and plundered by the troops, to whom no resistance was attempted. The Irish demolished Banagher and other castles to prevent their being occupied, and this became a general practice in like cases. Cadamstown was afterwards taken by the O'Carrolls, and Fay returned to his original obscurity. He seems to have had the keep of Thady Roe, or the Red Captain, a noted leader of mercenaries, who held possession of Nenagh. The O'Carrolls burned the monastery and town, but the castle defied their power.[335]
[Sidenote: The Pale is freed from rebels.]
Towards the close of 1548 Alen was able to report that there were only about a dozen rebels on the borders of the Pale. O'Connor had surrendered at discretion, and his life was spared in the hope of inducing O'More to follow his example. Alen advised that they should be removed from Ireland, and that work should be found for them at Calais or Boulogne.
'There are in all,' he told Paget, 'not twelve persons wherewith your honour to make a maundie, for when Christ ministered at His last supper there were twelve, of whom one was a traitor, and of these ye may have twelve together at one table.'[336]
[Sidenote: The coinage. A mint.]
The Plantagenet kings had made no difference in the coinage of England and Ireland; but in 1460--when Richard, Duke of York, was Lord Lieutenant--the Parliament of Drogheda, with the express intention of loosening the tie between the two islands, declared that coins intrinsically worth threepence should be struck in Ireland and pa.s.s for fourpence. There was afterwards a further degradation, and the money struck by Henry VIII. consisted at last of one-half, or even two-thirds, alloy. 'New coins were introduced into Ireland,' say the 'Four Masters,'
with pardonable exaggeration, 'that is, copper, and the men of Ireland were obliged to use it as silver.' Dishonesty had its proverbial reward, for trade was thrown into confusion and general discontent engendered.
The Corporation of Galway more than once besought Bellingham to force the new money on the captain of Clanricarde and Donnell O'Flaherty. The Corporation of Kinsale made the same request as to the Courcies, Barries, and MacCarthies. This was, of course, beyond Bellingham's power, and the Protector went on coining regardless of Irish complaints. Thomas Agard was Treasurer of the Dublin Mint, and exercised his office independently of the Lord Deputy. He was originally in Cromwell's service, and his position not unnaturally brought him into collision with Lord Leonard Grey, who accused him of making mischief. Agard, however, said that Grey, 'which is my heavy lord,' oppressed him out of spite, because he opposed the Geraldine faction, and prevented him from setting up broad looms and dye-works in Dublin. With the politic St. Leger he got on better, but Bellingham, whose temper was quite as despotic as Grey's, was much disgusted at the independence of the Mint. Agard leaned to the Puritan side, and praised Bellingham's G.o.dly proceedings. G.o.d is with you, he wrote to him, and with all good Christians who love G.o.d and their King, with much more of the same sort. But the Lord Deputy was not conciliated, and accused Agard of cooking his accounts, and of embezzling 2,000_l._ He was not superseded, and was entrusted with the congenial task of melting down chalices and crosses, and of turning them into bad money. The home authorities chose to make Agard independent in his office; but the stronger nature triumphed, and the King's auditor reported that the Treasurer of the Mint dared not for his life speak of his business to any but the Lord Deputy. The debased currency caused much speculation of an undesirable kind. Thus, Francis Digby, who had a licence to export Irish wool, found it pay much better to buy up plate with the current coin and sell it in England for sterling money. Others took the cue, and it became necessary to issue a proclamation. It was, of course, no more possible to prevent the exportation of silver than to change the ebb and flow of the tides.[337]
[Sidenote: Bellingham's haughty bearing.]
[Sidenote: His rash letters to Somerset,]
In November Bellingham paid a short visit to Dublin, where he found Lady Ormonde with her new husband, Sir Francis Bryan, who had a commission as Lord Marshal of Ireland. Bryan, 'the man of youthful conditions,' as Roger Ascham called him, was particularly recommended by the Privy Council to Alen, who could not understand what Henry VIII. had seen in him worthy of great promotion. Bellingham hated him from the first, and Alen thought he would have the same feeling to any one who had married Lady Ormonde. We have no means of knowing whether he was in love with her, or whether he hated her, or whether he merely disliked the alliance as likely to clip his own wings. His idea of the rights and dignity of his position was high and even excessive, and was a.s.serted with a fine disregard of prudence. To Somerset he complained that his credit was bad, and that he was despised in Ireland because he was thought to have no power to reward those who had done good service. He begged that they might be 'fed with some thereof, which no doubt it is great need of, for the wisest sort have ever found that good service in Ireland has been less considered of any place.'
[Sidenote: to Warwick,]
[Sidenote: and to Seymour.]
In writing to Warwick his words were still stronger, and he complained bitterly at the slight put on him in the matter of the mint. 'I am,' he said, 'at your honourable lords.h.i.+p's commandment; but in respect I am the King's Deputy, your good lords.h.i.+p may determine surely that I will have none exempt from my authority in Ireland's ground, but sore against my will.' He had not spent the King's treasure in gambling or riotous living, nor in buying land for himself. The King's responsible servants in Ireland were neglected, and credit given to backstairs' suitors 'coming in by the windows,' which did more harm than all the rebels and Irishry in the realm. Some of Warwick's letters had hurt him, whereas the true policy would be to let men 'know that I am the King's Deputy, so that they shall think when they have my favours things go well with them, and the contrary when they have them not.' These letters, and another to Seymour, gave great, and not unnatural offence, so that Bellingham was fain to beg the admiral's pardon and intercession with Warwick. Some measure of the serpent's wisdom is necessary to those who fill great offices.[338]
[Sidenote: Bellingham and the Irish.]
If Bellingham could thus treat the most powerful men in England, he was not likely to mince matters with those whom he could touch. 'Bring yourself,' said the Lord Deputy to O'Molloy, who had wrongfully detained the property of a kinswoman, 'out of the slander of the people by making prompt rest.i.tution, or have your contempt punished as to your deserts shall appertain.' To the Earl of Th.o.m.ond, who had promised to bring in Calough O'Carroll but had not done so, he wrote a n.o.ble letter, but a very imprudent one, considering the character and position of the chief whom he addressed. Calough O'Carroll, he said, had brought his troubles on himself by allowing his men to plunder, and by refusing to give them up; he should be well plagued for it according to promise, until he and his brother found means to come and seek their own pardon. The O'Carrolls submitted and were pardoned.[339]
[Sidenote: Bellingham and his Council.]
Bellingham was above all things a soldier, and he treated his Council, consisting for the most part of lawyers, in a very high-handed manner.
His old friend Alen remonstrated, and there is no reason to doubt him here, though he had a way of quarrelling with successive Deputies. Alen admitted that Bellingham was quite free from pecuniary self-seeking, but thought he had more than his share of the other sin which beset chief governors, ambition namely, and the longing to rule alone. He had said that it would be a good deed to hang the whole Council, and he kept the members waiting for hours among the servants in the ante-room. Alen he accused personally of feigning sickness when bent on mischief. Others he threatened to commit if they offended him, reminding them that he could make or mar their fortunes. When angry he frequently sent men to a prison without any warrant of law; 'and I myself,' said the Chancellor, 'except I walk warily, look for none other but some time with the King's seal with me to take up my lodging in the castle of Dublin.' The Council had become a lifeless, spiritless corpse, for Bellingham could hear no advice without threats and taunts. It is not surprising that Privy Councillors feared to speak frankly, and forced themselves to wait until this tyranny should be overpast.[340]
[Sidenote: Bellingham seizes Desmond.]
To a Lord Deputy so jealous for the dignity of his office nothing could be more distasteful than the power of the House of Ormonde, which was now wielded by the Countess and her husband. The Sheriff of Kildare gave a most galling proof of this power by begging that his communications with Bellingham might be kept secret for fear of Lady Ormonde's displeasure.
She claimed the right to keep gallowgla.s.ses in Kilkenny, and the Lord Deputy infinitely disliked this practice, which had prevailed for centuries. He wished to keep the young Earl in England, lest by living at home he should imbibe exaggerated notions of his own importance. 'His learning and manners,' he said, 'would be nothing amended, and the King's authority thereby be nought the more obeyed.' By remaining in England till he was of discreet years, he might learn willingly to abandon his 'usurped insufferable rule, which I trust he will do yet in time to come.' Any a.s.sumption of independence on the part of a subject irritated Bellingham excessively; and when Desmond, whose manners he stigmatised as detestable, neglected his summons, he set out quietly from Leighlin with a small party of horse, rode rapidly into Munster, surprised Desmond sitting by the fire in one of his castles, and carried him off to Dublin.
He set himself to instruct the rude n.o.ble in civilisation and in the nature of the royal authority, sometimes, if we may believe the chronicler, 'making him kneel upon his knees an hour together before he knew his duty.' This discipline, accompanied doubtless with kind treatment in other ways, seems to have answered so well, that, according to the same authority, Desmond 'thought himself most happy that ever he was acquainted with the said Deputy, and did for ever after so much honour him, as that continually all his life at every dinner and supper he would pray for the good Sir Edward Bellingham; and at all callings he was so obedient and dutiful, as none more in that land.'[341]
[Sidenote: Ireland quiet. Garrison at Leighlin Bridge.]
At the beginning of the year 1549 the Privy Council thanked Bellingham for having brought Ireland to a good state. They charged him to aid Tyrone against the Scots, and to be on his guard against French enterprises undertaken under colour of trading. The forts erected where Maryborough and Philipstown now are kept Leix and Offaly quiet. Breweries were at work under the shadow of both, and it was proposed to start a tan-yard at Fort Protector, as Maryborough was for the moment called.