Ireland under the Tudors, with a Succinct Account of the Earlier History. Vol. 2 (of 3)

Opinions of English residents

An English resident at Waterford, who had held some sort of commission, lamented over Perrott’s departure, and the consequent revolt of Munster to her ‘monstrous Irish fashion.’ He thought it would have been better for Desmond to suffer the decent restraints of enforced residence in Dublin, than such liberty as he enjoyed in the South. Irish colts could only be bridled with a sharp English bit; Bellingham and Sidney, Gilbert and Perrott, being the fittest riders hitherto. He said very truly that long impunity had introduced universal laxity, and had made conspiracy the most attractive of occupations.²⁸¹ One pardoned malefactor bred a hundred more. Every debtor ran off to the woods, and in his character of rebel soon received a pardon. Law-abiding had become a matter of indenture. The writer, who was learned, had a theory, probably derived from Greek history, that islanders were naturally turbulent, and cited Cicero and Aristotle as authorities for the argument that severity was the best cure for laxity, and that valiance was necessary for the government of barbarous nations. Another Englishman of a less classical or more Puritanical turn thought the Irish could be starved out by taking or destroying the herds upon whose milk they fed. He added that there could not be a greater sacrifice to God.²⁸²

Kilmallock threatened. Spanish intrigues

Desmond had guns taken at Castlemaine, and it was feared that neither Cork, Galway, nor Kinsale were safe. The chiefs were supposed to have decided that if a President came each would overthrow his own castle and take to the field. Five hundred ladders and a quantity of sapping tools had been collected within easy reach of Kilmallock. Stukeley and Archbishop Fitzgibbon were in Brittany consulting with the leaguers. Catholic intriguers were as busy as ever in Spain, and a servant in Desmond’s livery had been seen at the Spanish Court. Among some thirty English and Irish Catholics of note who were in Spain about this time were Stukeley and Fitzgibbon, Rowland Turner, William Walshe, Papal Bishop of Meath, and Dr. Nicholas Sanders, who was destined to play a greater part than any of them in Irish history. Philip lavished great sums upon them, and was besides said to spend 23,000 ducats a year in Flanders in the same way.²⁸³

Fitzwilliam is almost desperate

Stung by the Queen’s taunts, Fitzwilliam determined to undertake military operations in Munster with such forces as he could command – that is, with about 800 men badly fed and paid. As a last chance of peace he resolved to consult Essex, who at once came to Dublin, whence he despatched the following letter to Desmond: —

Essex and Desmond

‘My Lord, – I understand my cousin, George Bourchier, in his going to Kilmallock, where his band lay, is by some of your men taken and hurt stealthily, and most straitly kept in prison. Sorry I am, my lord, that the gentleman should be so handled as I hear he is. But truly I am more sorry that you should give her Majesty cause to conceive so ill with you as this dealing of yours I fear will give her occasion. Let me reason, and as I think you have store of ill-counsellors, who hiss you on to that which is evil, whom daily you hear and I fear do too much credit unto, so hear, withal, the advice of those which wish the well-wishing of you, and the continuance of your house in honour, of which company, I assure you, I am one. What do you desire, or what is the mark you shoot at? Is it to the enjoyance of your inheritance and country that you seek? If it is that this may satisfy you, there is no seeking to put you from it; and if any contempt or fault of you hath in your own opinion brought it in question, her Majesty, as hath been written to you from thence, is content to pardon you. What should move you, then, to seek war, when in peace and with honour you may enjoy all that is your right? If you have in your head to catch at a further matter, think it is the very highway to make you with dishonour to lose that which with honour in true serving of their Prince your ancestors have gotten and long enjoyed. My lord, consider well of this, and look into the case deeply and give care unto the sound and faithful counsel of your friends, and stop the ears from hearkening unto them which seek by their wicked counsel to destroy yourself and to overthrow your house. Let not the enemies have the occasion to triumph at your decay, refuse not her Majesty’s favour when she is content to grant it to you, lest you seek it when it will be denied. Surely in my opinion her Majesty had rather to erect many such houses as yours is, than to be the overthrow of yours, although it be through your own default and folly. And to procure this her Majesty hath offered as much of her clemency to you, as with honour she might do to her subjects. I have shortly showed you my opinion of your case, and given my best advice, I pray you follow it. I will conclude with my earnest request to your lordship for the delivery of my cousin George Bourchier. So wishing that you follow good counsellors and not flatter yourself with the opinion of your force, which to contend with her Majesty is nothing, I end and commit your lordship to God.’

Five days later he wrote again in the same strain, and soon afterwards told Burghley that it was very hard that the Deputy should have precise orders to make war without being furnished with means. This does not look like intriguing for the viceroyalty, of which Fitzwilliam evidently suspected him. In consequence of what he heard from Desmond, Essex declared himself willing to try his hand at ‘deciphering’ him, and, at the request of the whole Council, started with that object; Fitzwilliam privately sneering at his tardy offers of service. Desmond appointed Kilmacthomas in the County of Waterford as the place of meeting, and professed perfect confidence in the Earl and readiness to be guided by him.²⁸⁴

Meeting of Essex and Desmond

On his arrival at Waterford on the eve of the appointed day, Essex received a message from Desmond to say that he was at Kilmacthomas. That place being considered rather remote, Desmond, accompanied by Fitzmaurice and about sixty horse, advanced to a bridge three miles from the city, where he was met by Kildare, who brought him to a heath just outside the walls. After some parley Essex handed him a protection under the Great Seal for himself and all his followers for twenty days. Having delivered the paper to one of his men, he then rode into the town, where the Countess soon afterwards joined him. At a private conference, at which only the three Earls and Lady Desmond were present, he said ‘that he would do anything that could be required of any nobleman in England or Ireland.’ Essex was satisfied with this, and within three days Desmond went to Dublin with only four or five attendants, having first given orders for Captain Bourchier’s release.²⁸⁵

Desmond is obstinate

Oddly enough, if she wished him to succeed, the Queen had not done Essex the honour of having him made a member of the Irish Council, and he had no part in the abortive negotiations which followed. Being called upon to perform the articles concluded in England, Desmond said that he would take no advantage of these having been extorted from him under restraint, and that he was willing to be bound, but only as part of a general settlement. Otherwise he would be the one unarmed man in Leinster, Munster, and Connaught; and with all his loyalty he had no mind to be the common sport and prey of the three provinces. Being asked to restore the castles which were in the Queen’s hands before his escape, and to give up any others when required, he refused to hold his all at her Majesty’s pleasure, and could not believe that she herself desired it. Pardon he was ready to receive thankfully, but would not ‘repair into England to be a spectacle of poverty to all the world,’ and he asked the Council to pity his long misery there. He was ready to perform presently all his promises, but would not give pledges beyond what he had before agreed to. His only son was in England, so was Sir James, one of his two legitimate brothers. ‘If neither my son, being mine only son, nor my brother, whom I love, nor the possession of mine inheritance, as before is granted, can suffice, then to the justice of God and the Queen I appeal upon you all.’²⁸⁶

Meeting of Essex, Desmond, Ormonde, and Kildare

Desmond’s answers were not considered satisfactory, and he refused to remain on protection either with Kildare or Essex till the Queen’s pleasure should be known. A proclamation was prepared declaring him a traitor, and offering 500l. for his head, and 1,000l. and a pension to any who would bring him in alive.

‘In my judgment,’ said Essex, ‘the war is unseasonably begun, because the rest of the realm standeth in so ill terms, and the manner of Desmond’s answer might with honour have suffered a toleration till Ulster had been fully established… The mischief is without remedy, for I am bound with the Earl of Kildare, by our words and honours, to safe conduct Desmond to the confines of Munster, which will take ten days at least, in which mean the bruit of the war will be public in all places… I can hope for none other than a general stir in all parts at once.’

Ormonde’s advice

They set out accordingly and met Ormonde at Kilkenny, whence the four Earls travelled southward together for some miles; Ormonde riding by the side of his ancient enemy, and telling him that he was rushing to destruction. No apparent impression was made; Desmond making no secret of his plan, which was to defend a few castles and raze the others, and to keep the bulk of his force in the field till the arrival of foreign aid. Lords Gormanston and Delvin refused to sign the proclamation of treason, which no doubt would not be popular in Ireland. They relied entirely on the technical ground that they were not members of the Council; but the plea was not accepted in England, and they were obliged to make some sort of excuse.²⁸⁷

Sir William Drury sent to help Fitzwilliam

Just at the time when Essex was undertaking to ‘decipher’ Desmond, the Queen wrote one of those stinging despatches which terrified men more than her father’s axe or her sister’s faggots. She accused the Lord Deputy and Council of want of judgment, and of truckling to a rebel while such a faithful subject as Captain Bourchier was severely imprisoned, and other faithful subjects were sorely oppressed. They should have proclaimed Desmond traitor and proceeded against him without delay; her honour was touched, and there were as many troops as ‘have sufficed for others that have supplied your place to have prosecuted like rebels of greater strength and force than we perceive he is of.’ Since Perrott’s departure Fitzwilliam had frequently complained of the want of a high military officer in whom he could confide. Such ‘an express gentleman,’ as the Queen designated him, was now sent in the person of Sir William Drury.

Fitzwilliam was to consult him in all martial affairs, and to place him in such authority as befitted so gallant a soldier and so experienced a servant. Five days later the Privy Council warned Fitzwilliam that if he once entered Munster he would be bound in honour to exact an unconditional submission from Desmond, but that he would do well to wink at the misdeeds of smaller offenders, provided they yielded themselves by a fixed day. There were troops enough ready in the West of England to come to the rescue should an invasion of Ireland really take place.²⁸⁸

The Desmond ‘Combination.’

With Ormonde’s warning voice still in his ears, the infatuated Geraldine chief called together certain of his followers and asked their advice. The result was a document, afterwards famous as Desmond’s ‘Combination,’ in which some twenty gentlemen declared that he had done all that could be fairly required of him, and advised him not to yield to the last articles, nor to give hostages, even if the Lord Deputy should assert his authority by force of arms. ‘We, the persons underwritten,’ the paper concludes, ‘do advise and counsel the said Earl to defend himself from the violence of the said Lord Deputy… We renounce God if we do spare life, lands, and goods … to maintain and defend this our advice against the Lord Deputy or any other that will covet the said Earl’s inheritance.’ Desmond’s brother John was one of the signataries, but James Fitzmaurice’s name is absent. It was in contemplation at this time to buy them both off with some portion of the Earl’s lands.²⁸⁹

Campaign in Munster. Derrinlaur Castle

Letter after letter came from the Queen upbraiding her representative’s inaction, and Fitzwilliam at last fixed a day for beginning a campaign, though he had no money and was in want of everything. Then there was another postponement, and Ormonde undertook to negotiate in the meantime, Desmond fencing a good deal and avoiding a direct answer. Matters were brought to a crisis by attacking Derrinlaur, a castle on the Suir, which belonged to Sir Thomas Butler of Cahir, and which had been treacherously taken some months before by Rory MacCragh, one of Desmond’s most notorious partisans. It interrupted the traffic between Clonmel and Waterford. Fitzwilliam and Ormonde took three or four days to run a mine under the walls, and were almost ready to spring it when the garrison, after the manner of Irish garrisons, tried to escape. They were intercepted, and all killed. This tragedy had an immediate effect on Desmond, who saw that he could not hope to hold any fortress against the Government, and he came to Clonmel and made a humble submission, which was repeated at Cork after service in the cathedral, in the presence of the Munster nobility. Castlemaine was surrendered to Captain Apsley, as well as the castles in Kenry, which had been the chief matter in dispute, and it was agreed that there should be oblivion as to other causes of difference. That Desmond only yielded to superior force, and did not abandon his designs, may be inferred from what he did as soon as the Deputy’s back was turned. He made over all his lands in Ireland to Lord Dunboyne, Lord Power, and John FitzEdmond FitzGerald of Cloyne, in trust for himself and his wife during their joint lives, with provision for his daughters, and final remainder to his son. The object no doubt was to preserve the property in case of unsuccessful rebellion, but against a victorious sovereign such paper defences were ever in vain. Two days later both Lord and Lady Desmond wrote to the Queen in very humble strain, the former praying for one drop of grace to assuage the flame of his tormented mind.²⁹⁰

Essex and Tirlogh Luineach O’Neill

Finding Desmond unlikely to give immediate trouble, the Queen thought she saw her way to helping Essex without increasing her expenses. 26,000l. a year and 2,000 men was what he asked for, and to show that the project was not hopeless he determined to attempt some immediate service. Drawing the bulk of his forces out of Clandeboye to Newry and Dundalk, he began operations by attacking an island near Banbridge, whence three of Tirlogh Brasselagh O’Neill’s sons plundered Magennis and the Baron of Dungannon. Phelim O’Neill and his cousin were taken, and all the band killed except five or six who escaped by swimming. Essex then went to Dublin, consulted the Council, and summoned Tirlogh Luineach to meet him near Benburb, on the Blackwater. But in spite of every promise of safe-conduct, Tirlogh refused to come to any point where the river was fordable, and Tyrone was accordingly invaded. There had been a bountiful harvest, and the corn-stacks were burned from Benburb to Clogher. Here Essex halted and sent a party into Fermanagh, who drove off 400 cows and thus secured Maguire’s neutrality. Tirlogh Luineach, with 200 horse and 600 Scots, attempted a night attack on the camp, but this failed, and the Earl continued his march to Lifford, burning and spoiling, but seeing no enemy. At Strabane O’Donnell made his appearance with 200 horse and 500 gallowglasses, and Con O’Donnell, who held Lifford Castle in spite of him, also crossed into Tyrone. Provision ships lay at a point half way between Lifford and Derry, and while the victualling proceeded Essex explained the political situation to O’Donnell, O’Dogherty, and other chief men of Tyrconnel. O’Donnell, who saw an opportunity of regaining Lifford Castle, and those who depended on him declared themselves ready to do all that the Governor wished; but Con, who had married Tirlogh Luineach’s daughter, said bluntly and very truly ‘that it was a dangerous matter to enter into war, and that for his own part he would know how he should be maintained before he should work himself trouble for any respect.’ He added ‘that he had rather live as a felon or a rebel than adventure his undoing for the Queen.’ Lifford Castle was accordingly taken and handed over to O’Donnell, materials for coining being found in it. Con was arrested, escaped, was re-captured, and sent a prisoner to Dublin. The Irish annalists say that this arrest was treacherous, but it does not appear that he had any safe-conduct.²⁹¹

The Earl can do nothing of moment against the O’Neills

Before leaving Lifford Essex commissioned O’Donnell to seize upon all O’Neill’s cattle which had crossed the Foyle to be under Con’s protection, but under no circumstances to allow his nephew’s own herds to be touched. The O’Donnells disregarded the latter injunction, but ‘laid hold on them, and, as their manner is, every man carried his booty home;’ 1,400 head only out of a much larger number being brought into the English camp. In consideration of what his followers had gained, Essex bound the chief to have an extra force of 600 men, and swore him to fight with Tirlogh Luineach as long as her Majesty did. On his road home he carefully burned all O’Neill’s corn, and boasted that the value was not less than 5,000l.– a mode of making war which was certainly not calculated to advance the civilisation of Ulster. Tirlogh’s strength was practically unbroken, and it is evident that few thought Essex capable of doing anything great. He had, he complained, in all his journeys to the North had no help from the Pale but fifteen pack-horses on one occasion and seven on another. Provisions were never given ‘but at such extreme pennyworths as hath not been heard of in this country.’ To his sanguine mind it still seemed easy, if the Lord Deputy would only co-operate cordially, ‘to establish the country as it may be ever preserved from rebellion hereafter.’ Fitzwilliam, who had no illusions left, thought differently, and there can be little doubt that he was right. The Earl himself had privately told Burghley that the Queen was nothing benefited by former pacifications of the North, and that only a permanent garrison could make permanent work. There was little hope of revenue. Every captain in Ulster was, he thought, ready to take an estate of inheritance and give up Irish customs. Many said they had offered as much and had been refused; ‘and yet they allege, that they have ever paid more than would maintain a good garrison, which hath been put in some of their purses which governed here.’ The Crown was in fact too poor to pay its servants, and so they paid themselves. Under such circumstances it is not surprising that expeditions into Ulster were like the fortresses which children build upon the beach: the unresisting sand is easily moulded, the architect’s pride is great, but the next flood washes all the work away.²⁹²

Essex is summoned to Court

The Queen, who seems to have had a certain admiration for Essex, was pleased with his last service, and inclined to favour his plans for the permanent plantation of the North. But her council, as she was careful to point out, required more information. Did he propose that the colonists in Clandeboye and between the Blackwater and the Pale should be English or Irish, or a mixture of both? Were his towns to be walled with stone or earth, or with a mixture of both? Had Maguire, Magennis, and MacMahon agreed to contribute towards the maintenance of 100 horse and 200 foot? What arrangements could be made for provisions, for maintaining garrisons, for labour and material? To resolve these doubts, which came rather late in the day, Essex was summoned to appear at Court as soon as he could leave his post. The choice being left to him, he decided not to go, and expressed an opinion that the conditional order came ‘either of her Majesty’s misliking of the cause, or of me as unable to execute the thing, and so make stay of me there, either by disallowing the work as not feasible, or else to essay as the honour of it should be reaped by another.’²⁹³