Ireland under the Tudors, with a Succinct Account of the Earlier History. Vol. 1 (of 3)

Mission of Gonzalo Fernandez to Ireland, 1529

Fernandez left Toledo on March 3, the Spanish Government giving out that he had gone to England to recover debts due to the Emperor. He had returned by April 28. On his way out he touched at Cork, where many persons visited his ship, and he gathered from their conversation that Desmond was not popular there. After this he was driven into Berehaven, whence he wrote to the Earl; and in four days he received an answer directed to him as chaplain to ‘our sovereign lord the Emperor,’ Desmond striving to assume the position of an Imperial feudatory, instead of that of an English subject. Fernandez then sailed to Dingle, and before he could land Desmond sent six gentlemen on board to ask his help in capturing certain English and French vessels which lay near, probably at Ventry or Smerwick. Desmond had already sent his galleys, and was going with 500 men to support them by land. The Spaniard, with a more exact idea of an ambassador’s duties than the potentate to whom he was accredited, prudently excused himself. Desmond evidently did not wish Fernandez to visit any of his castles, and preferred to meet him at the water’s edge. Anxious to appear a powerful independent prince, he was probably unwilling that the Spaniards should see the nakedness of the land and his own rude way of life; and perhaps he shrunk from accumulating evidence against himself in case submission to his lawful sovereign should after all become expedient.161

Fernandez in Munster with Desmond

On April 21 Fernandez disembarked. He was well received by the inhabitants and by Desmond himself, who had 500 horse and as many gallowglasses with him. The Earl asked after the Emperor’s health, and again called him his sovereign lord. Fernandez read his commission first in English. Desmond then requested that it might be repeated in Latin for the benefit of his Council, and when it was finished he took off his cap and thanked the Emperor for his gracious condescension, adding the reflection that his Majesty was placed on earth to prevent one prince from injuring another. His evident design was to acknowledge the supremacy of the Empire over all the kingdoms of the world, and at the same time to place himself on a level with the King of England, from whom he held his lands, his title, and his jurisdiction. Desmond then discharged the congenial duty of magnifying himself and his ancestors. He was, he said, descended from Brito, who lawfully conquered the great and the small Britain, and reduced Ireland and Scotland under his yoke. It had been prophesied that an Earl of Desmond should conquer England, and this kept the English in a constant state of tremor. The fear of its fulfilment had caused the beheading of Earl Thomas by Lord Deputy Tiptoft, and Richard, ‘son of the King of England,’ had invaded Ireland on account of his father’s enmity with the reigning King. Afterwards that Earl had conquered all Ireland, ‘some few towns only excepted.’ The King of England caused the Earl of Kildare to be destroyed in prison, until his kinsman of Desmond forcibly liberated him and made him Viceroy of Ireland. In twenty-four years, during which he had been stirring up both English and Irish, first to kill Desmond’s father and afterwards to make war on himself, the King of England had gained no advantage. The Earl’s servants trading in France and Flanders had been imprisoned and despoiled of 9,000l. by the English King’s orders. Fernandez prudently demanded that this extraordinary farrago should be written down. It is very fortunate that he was unable to retain it in his memory, for no amount of mere English evidence could give us such a measure of a Desmond’s pride, or of the nonsense which rhymers or Brehons could venture to put into a Desmond’s head.162

Desmond’s proposals to the Emperor

The Geraldine addressed Charles V. as most invincible and most sacred Cæsar, ever august; and described himself as Earl of Desmond, Lord of Decies, of O’Gunnell, and of the liberty of Kerry. He first asked for four vessels of 200 tons each, and six smaller ones, all well armed, and for 500 Flemings to work them. Fernandez objected that no consideration was offered for so great a gift, and that Desmond could give no security out of Ireland; but ultimately an article was made out in which the Earl avowed himself the Emperor’s subject, and promised to help him in all his enterprises. Knowing that no guarantee could be given, the Spaniard wisely asked for none but his host’s word of honour. The Earl declared his fixed intention – and here at least he spoke quite sincerely – to use all his strength and that of his friends in prosecuting the war against Piers Butler, the King’s Deputy, and against the cities of Limerick, Waterford, and Dublin. He begged the Emperor’s help, and renewed his request for cannon; as for men, he could bring 16,500 foot and 1,500 horse into the field, and his allies could furnish 9,000 additional foot and 300 additional horse. In enumerating his allies Desmond again drew upon his imagination, for he included O’Donnell, Prince of Ulster, with his 4,000 foot and 800 horse, Maguire and Magennis in the distant north, as well as the MacCarthies with whom he was at war, and who, about this time, defeated him in a pitched battle. He also represented himself as firmly allied and frequently communicating with the King of Scotland.163

Fernandez is unfavourable to Desmond

Fernandez told his master that Desmond had treated him well, and supplied his ship with fresh beef and venison. He had found him full of animosity against Wolsey, and quite ready to forget his French connections and his former compact with Francis. But the Earl acknowledged that Dublin was the chief town of Ireland, and that he had no interest there, and that his kinsman of Kildare, whom he called the ruler of the capital, had been imprisoned in the Tower. That he had been arrested partly on Desmond’s account was obviously of less importance than the fact that he could be arrested at all. As to Cork, Limerick, and Waterford, Desmond had some friends there, but many more enemies. On the other hand, the Earl certainly had ten castles, and Fernandez was made to believe that the King of England had lately failed to take Dungarvan – a version of the facts which strained them considerably. The Spaniard could not doubt that Desmond had many tributary knights, and much influence among the wild Irish; but he did not form a high opinion of the Earl’s soldiers, among whom executions for theft and murder were very frequent. They performed wonderful feats of horsemanship without saddle or stirrups, but they had no military skill. There were some gallowglasses with halberts, but the great mass had only bows and arrows. Fernandez allows that the Earl kept good justice, but it is clear that his general impression was unfavourable.

Desmond sends messengers to Spain. The English agents are well informed

Desmond sent John Aslaby, Archdeacon of Cloyne, and another messenger with Fernandez, and they found their way to Spain. The English agents there continued to be well informed, and they learned from one Gwyn, living at Ballinskellig, in Kerry, and trading to St. Sebastian, that Desmond had sent for 4,000 men to teach the Irish war. Gwyn truly reported that Cormac Oge was warring against the Earl, but that he would probably soon acknowledge himself beaten. There is reason to believe that a Spanish expedition to Ireland was really contemplated, but that the Biscayans intended for the service refused to go, alleging, with a fine perception of the realities of Celtic diplomacy, that the Irish would be sure to deceive the Emperor. At all events nothing was done, and Spanish intervention in Ireland was put off for half a century. Desmond was proclaimed a traitor, but he died soon afterwards, and his successor followed him in a few months, leaving his heritage in dispute. The mission of Fernandez had no direct effect upon Ireland, but it may have had a good deal to do with Wolsey’s fate, and with the crooked diplomacy of the divorce question. He was heir to De Puebla, who had negotiated Catherine of Arragon’s marriages, and probably knew more than any one about the brief which Julius II. was said to have sent to Ferdinand the Catholic, and which, if genuine, would have precluded Clement VII. from granting a divorce on the ground of affinity. If the brief was forged, its spuriousness could not be proved in the absence of Fernandez, and the delay was fatal to the English Cardinal.164

Stephen Parry’s tour in the south of Ireland. Siege of Dungarvan

Lord Leonard Grey was sent to England in charge of Kildare, but he left his company of 100 men, under a Welsh officer named Parry, with orders to attach himself to Lord Butler. Parry’s despatch to Cromwell is one of the very few contemporary documents which throw light on the state of the country. He and his men entered Ossory’s district at Leighlin Bridge, where the people were glad to see them, and went on to Callan, where they found English fashions generally followed. They were so well received at Callan that they stayed there nine days, and they made a further halt of three days at Clonmel, which also entertained them hospitably. Thomas Butler, a man of great local influence, who had married Ossory’s daughter, and was afterwards created Lord Cahir, met the troops at Clonmel and led them over the mountains to Dungarvan. He spoke very good English, and made himself most agreeable. Gerald MacShane Fitzgerald of Decies, who was also Ossory’s son-in-law, joined them on the road. This gentleman could not speak a word of English, but he was very civil, professed great loyalty, and bound himself by hostages to act under the advice of the Council. Reaching Dungarvan about the middle of September, they met Skeffington, who had made up his mind to take the place, and who brought the artillery which was henceforth to play so great a part in Irish politics. The accidental presence of a Devonshire fishing fleet enabled the Lord Deputy to invest the castle completely. On being summoned the commandant answered boldly that he held the place for his master, and that he would do the best for him, as he was sure Skeffington would in like case do for his master. Two days were spent in preparing the battery, and at five o’clock on the morning of the third the cannonade began. A breach was made by eleven, and Sir John Saintloo wished to storm it at once, but Skeffington’s practised eye detected an inner barricade. Lord Butler, who was a suitor for the castle, and had no mind to be at the expense of rebuilding it, here interfered to prevent a renewal of the fire. He sent in two of his men as hostages for the constable’s safety, and the latter then came out. Partly by coaxing and partly by bullying, Butler persuaded him to surrender, and he and his men took the oath of allegiance and swore to maintain the succession of Anne Boleyn’s child. The castle was handed over to Ossory’s men.165

Desmond dies in 1529. Disputed succession. Parry’s journey

The Earl of Desmond whom Gonzalo Fernandez visited died in 1529, leaving no male issue, and his uncle and successor Thomas Moyle soon followed him. Thomas Moyle’s son Maurice died before his father, having married Joan Fitzgerald, daughter of the White Knight, by whom he left one son, generally called James Fitzmaurice. James would have succeeded of course, but that the validity of his mother’s marriage was disputed. Failing him the next heir would be his grand-uncle, John Fitz-Thomas, who was at this time a very old man. To settle this question, if possible, and also, as Skeffington wrote to the King, ‘to execute the succession of your Highness and of your most excellent Queen’ Anne Boleyn, the Lord-Deputy issued commissions for all the southern and western counties, and in each Lord Butler was named chief commissioner. But the old artilleryman would not give Butler a single gun, and he continued his journey without the means of taking castles. At Youghal the townsmen received him well, and Parry, who evidently liked good living, notes that claret sold there for fourpence a gallon. Next day they encamped near Midleton, where the Butlers mustered 202 horse, 312 gallowglasses, and 204 kerne, besides a due proportion of the rabble which invariably accompanied Irish armies. Parry’s contingent consisted of 78 spearmen, 24 ‘long boys,’ and 5 musketeers – all well horsed. The next day they reached Cork, and Cormac Oge appeared with his host on a hill less than a mile from the city. Drawing up his main body on rising ground fronting the MacCarthies, Butler descended into the hollow with a few followers, and the chief of Muskerry met him there similarly attended. The mayor and aldermen, all in scarlet gowns and velvet tippets, after the English fashion, were very glad to see so many Englishmen, and ‘made us,’ says Parry, ‘the best cheer that ever we had in our lives.’ Next day Cormac Oge came into the town accompanied by the young Earl, who had married his daughter, and who, having been brought up in England, dressed and behaved in approved fashion. He acknowledged that he held all from the King, whom he had never offended; and as a true-born Englishman he was quite ready to go to England and try his title before his Majesty in council, provided his grand-uncle Sir John would do the same. Earl or not, he was at the King’s disposal for any service, and to all this Cormac Oge agreed.166

Journey of Parry and Lord Butler. The O’Briens

The youthful Lord Barry, who spoke very good English and was full of complaints against the MacCarthies for keeping him out of his lands, also came to Lord Butler at Cork. Cormac Oge was anxious to have all disputes referred to the Lord-Deputy; but his son-in-law MacCarthy Reagh, the chief of Carbery, who came in upon safe-conduct, said that he would do nothing of the kind, but would hold by the sword what he had won by the sword. Butler was very angry and told him he should repent, but MacCarthy doubtless knew that, however good the will, the power to pursue him into his own country was wanting. Mallow and Kilmallock, which Parry found a very poor town, were next visited; and as the army approached Limerick, O’Brien evacuated two castles in the neighbourhood and obstructed the passes into Thomond with felled trees. Hearing that the invaders had no cannon he restored his garrison, and encamped with a large force three miles from the city walls. At Limerick Parry also found very good cheer, ‘but nothing like the cheer that we had at Cork.’ They then encamped at Adare, where Donogh O’Brien, the reigning chief of Thomond’s eldest son and the husband of Lady Helen Butler, came to meet his brother-in-law. The speech attributed to Donogh seems genuine, and is not without a rude pathos: – ‘I have married your sister; and for because that I have married your sister, I have forsaken my father, mine uncle, and all my friends, and my country, to come to you to help to do the King service. I have been sore wounded, and I have no reward, nor nothing to live upon. What would ye have me to do? If that it would please the King’s grace to take me unto his service, and that you will come into the country, and bring with you a piece of ordnance to win a castle, the which castle is named Carrigogunnell, and his Grace to give me that, the which never was none Englishman’s these 200 year, and I will desire the King no help, nor aid of no man, but this English captain, with his 100 and odd of Englishmen, to go with me upon my father and mine uncle, the which are the King’s enemies, and upon the Irishmen that never English man were amongst; and if that I do hurt or harm, or that there be any mistrust, I will put in my pledges, as good as ye shall require, that I shall hurt no Englishman, but upon the wild Irishmen that are the King’s enemies. And for all such land as I shall conquer, it shall be at the King’s pleasure to set Englishmen in it, to be holden of the King, as his pleasure shall be; and I to refuse all such Irish fashions, and to order myself after the English and all that I can make or conquer. Of this I desire an answer.’

That Donogh in offering his services was going directly against his own family is plain from a letter which his father had written to Charles V. not much more than a year before. ‘We have,’ he had then said, ‘never been subject to English rule, or yielded up our ancient rights and liberties; and there is at this present, and for ever will be, perpetual discord between us, and we will harass them with continual war.’ The O’Briens had never sworn fealty to anyone, but he offered full submission to the Emperor, with 100 castles and 18,000 men.167

The Desmonds and the Irish

Old Sir John of Desmond, the rival claimant to the title, also came to Adare and spoke plainly in very good English. ‘What should I do in England,’ he asked, ‘to meet a boy there? Let me have that Irish horson, Cormac Oge, and I will go into England before the King.’ Parry thought him as full of mischief as ever; but he agreed to meet the young Earl at Youghal, and also the obnoxious Cormac. It is curious to see how proud these Desmonds were of their Norman blood, and how they despised the Irish; while often straining every nerve against Henry II.’s successor, offering their allegiance to foreign princes, and boasting to them of their Irish allies.

Parry’s observations

Returning to Clonmel by Kilmallock and Cashel, Parry was despatched to bring Vice-Treasurer Brabazon and Chief Justice Bermingham to a conference with Ossory and his son at Youghal. During the whole long journey from Dungarvan he had met no one who had ever seen an English soldier in those parts. Some days they rode sixteen miles at a stretch over what had once been really, and still remained nominally, Englishmen’s ground. The woods, the rivers, and the rich grass lands about them excited his admiration. Nor was there any want of ground suitable for corn, and the ridges showed that it had once been tilled, but not a blade of oats had grown there for twelve years. Parry, who had evidently been very well treated by him, seems to have formed a high idea of Lord Butler’s qualifications. If the King would give him artillery there was scarcely any limit to his possible services; for his own marriage with a daughter of Desmond and the marriages of his sisters, no less than his personal character, gave him great influence throughout the South of Ireland.168

Lord Leonard Grey made Marshal of the army. He and Skeffington disagree

Having determined to continue Skeffington in the government of Ireland, notwithstanding his age and bad health, Henry took means to supply him with efficient subordinates. First among them was Lord Leonard Grey, who had returned with a new commission as marshal and with the title of Viscount Grane, which, however, he never chose to assume. The others were Sir John Saintloo, a brave soldier; the Vice-Treasurer Brabazon, who was already well tried; and John Alen, Master of the Rolls, who had been pushing his own interests at Court, and who was entrusted with the royal despatch. Honest musters leading to a reduction of expenses were the King’s great object at this time; for Kildare was safe in the Tower, and it seemed that a great army was no longer necessary. Special care was taken to define Grey’s position, and Skeffington, whose supremacy as Henry’s representative was fully acknowledged, was reminded that royal blood flowed in the marshal’s veins. Discipline had been much relaxed in Ireland, and no doubt reform was wanted; but Grey seems to have used his military authority with undue severity. Thomas Dacre, a member of the great northern family, who came in charge of some spearmen, was imprisoned for eight days, though nothing had been proved against him. Another Dacre was confined for seven weeks without any apparent reason, and during a fortnight he had irons on both arms and legs. Such proceedings certainly gave some grounds for supposing that Grey was not disposed to favour those who had helped to overthrow his rebellious nephew.169

Death and character of Skeffington, 1535

Skeffington died about two months after Grey’s return. Though not very brilliant, he had been on the whole successful, and had shown that a private gentleman armed with the King’s commission could be more than a match for the greatest of Irish nobles. It was indeed part of Henry’s policy, as it had been his father’s, to rely much upon persons of far humbler birth. Fox and Wolsey were Churchmen, and the tonsure had been always powerful to counteract plebeian extraction; but Empson the pettifogger, Cromwell the clothier, Stile the scribe, and Tuke, who speculated in kerseys, with many others of no higher original pretensions, were often preferred for important affairs to the chiefs of the English aristocracy. The business was often better done, and the power of the Crown was brought into more prominent relief. Skeffington may be regarded as the first of that long line of able public servants who reduced Ireland to a tardy and unwilling obedience. ‘He was,’ said Brabazon, ‘a very good man of war, but not quick enough for Ireland, and somewhat covetous.’ The charge was made by others also, and is easier to make than to refute. But it is certain that Skeffington died in difficulties, and one fact may be set against many opinions.170

CHAPTER XI.

FROM THE YEAR 1536 TO THE YEAR 1540

Lord Leonard Grey Deputy, 1536

Grey was immediately chosen Lord Justice by the Council, and his patent as Deputy was not long delayed. He began badly, his temper involving him in one of those personal difficulties which led to his ruin. He had never been on good terms with his predecessor, and was at no pains to make a decent or politic show of regret. Less than a month after her husband’s death Lady Skeffington wrote to Anne Boleyn, declaring that she was overwhelmed with debt through his liberality in advancing money for the public service. She had already complained to Cromwell of Grey’s harshness, and her son-in-law Anthony Colley went so far as to accuse him of shortening the late Deputy’s life. Aylmer and Alen, afterwards Grey’s most unrelenting enemies, were included in Lady Skeffington’s complaint. The Council now sustained Grey, but it was not in official documents that the politicians of Dublin were wont to assail a chief governor whose hand might after all be heavy against them. Verbal messages and innuendoes contained in private letters seldom failed to undermine a man whom it might be neither safe nor decent to accuse openly. Grey now contented himself with saying that the late Lord Deputy had died in debt, and that his property was held in pledge for his creditors. But Lady Skeffington replied, and no doubt truly, that the official salary had never been paid, and that she could do nothing without it. Cromwell at least believed her, for he gave orders that her goods should be delivered to her, and that she should be sped on her homeward journey. Grey complied in the most ungracious manner, and had all the luggage and furniture turned out of Maynooth Castle before carts could be provided to carry it away. It was stored in a church, and there further detained by the new Deputy for a debt to the Crown. Lady Skeffington was unable to leave for eight or nine months after her husband’s death, and obstacles were placed in her way to the last. There may have been faults on both sides, but had Grey been either a good-natured or a politic man he might have found means to smooth matters for a widowed lady whose chief desire was the very general one of wishing to get out of Ireland as quickly as possible.171

Parliament of 1536

Grey was commissioned to summon a Parliament, which accordingly met on Monday, May 1, the day before Anne Boleyn was sent to the Tower. In less than three weeks a number of important bills were passed, of which drafts carefully settled by Audeley himself had been sent from England. The succession was secured to the issue of Anne Boleyn, as Brabazon wrote only two days before that unfortunate lady’s execution. Before the letter reached London Jane Seymour had already been Queen a full fortnight, and Cromwell’s concern was, if possible, to stop the passing of an Act which would have to be repeated so soon. It was too late to do this, but the Parliament made no difficulty about enacting the same stringent rule of succession for the third as they had done for the second wife. They thus achieved the unique distinction of passing two contradictory Acts of Settlement within eighteen months. This remarkable performance does not adorn the printed statute book, because that compilation was made when Elizabeth was firmly seated on the throne.172

The royal supremacy

The bill declaring the King to be supreme head of the Church encountered some opposition from the proctors of the clergy, two of whom were summoned to Parliament from each diocese. The proctors had only consultative voices, but they now claimed not only to be full members of Parliament, but to form a separate order whose consent would be necessary to every change in the law. An Act was passed declaring them no members of the body of Parliament, as they had ‘temerariously assumed and usurpedly taken upon them to be.’ In spite of their opposition and of much secret discontent, a series of Acts were passed to emancipate the Irish Church from Roman influences, or rather for subjecting her to King Stork instead of to King Log. All dues hitherto paid to Rome were forbidden, and the election and consecration of bishops were withdrawn from papal control. Appeals were transferred from the Pope to the King. The payment of first-fruits was imposed on all secular dignitaries and beneficed clergymen, abbots and priors being for the time exempted. The abrogation of this heavy and oppressive tax was reserved for the energy of Swift or the piety of Anne. By Audeley’s advice the English heresy laws were not copied in Ireland. An Act was passed to validate the proceedings of this Parliament, though it had been held contrary to Poyning’s law, but the spirit if not the letter of that famous measure had been observed by preparing the bills in England. Indeed, the Parliament was as subservient as any official could wish. ‘The Common House,’ wrote Brabazon, ‘is marvellous good for the King’s causes, and all the learned men within the same be very good; so that I think all causes concerning the King’s grace will take good effect.’173