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

Fitzmaurice is hard pressed

James Fitzmaurice himself found the battle so hot about him that he withdrew, closely pursued, into the glen of Aherlow in Tipperary, and Sidney complained that Ormonde was slack in his service, and that they were afraid of the Queen’s displeasure if they entered his country to do the work which he neglected. Sidney called Fitzmaurice an Irish beggar, Gilbert called him a silly wood-kerne, and both wondered that an Earl of Ormonde should find any difficulty in dealing with him. The Butlers were an ungrateful crew, and Gilbert would teach them, if he might, that they had more need of the Queen’s mercy than she had of their service. The Queen’s partiality made it necessary to keep some terms with Ormonde, but Gilbert did not hesitate ‘to infringe the pretended liberties of any city or town corporate not knowing their charters to further the Queen’s Majesty’s service, answering them that the prince had a regular and absolute power, and that which might not be done by the one, I would do it by the other in case of necessity.’ Gilbert was satisfied that Ireland, being a conquered nation, would never obey for love, but for fear only; and he acted fully up to this opinion. Under his drastic treatment all the Geraldines except James Fitzmaurice submitted. Captain Apsley was sent into Kerry, and such was the terror inspired by his colonel, that the whole district was reduced with little difficulty. Clancare and MacDonough MacCarthy acknowledged their treasons on their knees. Gilbert would promise no pardons, and every rebel taken in arms was executed at once. After his service in Munster, Gilbert repaired to the Lord Deputy, who knighted him, having nothing but honour to give. In his despatches he praised him to the skies, and seems not to have had the slightest misgiving about the wisdom or morality of his conduct. The ways were safe. City gates lay open. The English name was never so much feared in Ireland. It needed now only a good sour lawyer to manage the escheats of forfeited lands. ‘If her Majesty will provide, that which is spent is not lost. Persuade her to address into Munster further a council with a President. The iron is now hot to receive what print shall be stricken in it, but if it be suffered to grow cold, I fear where before it was iron it will then be found steel. These people are headstrong, and if they feel the curb loosed but one link, they will, with bit in the teeth, in one month run further out of the career of good order than they will be brought back in three months.’ Without money, thwarted at home, and in bad health, the Lord Deputy begged earnestly for his recall. All classes were against him, and he felt as if he could not live another six months in Ireland.176

Ulster is quiet

While Geraldines and Butlers, for once united by the fear of losing their lands, kept the South of Ireland in a turmoil, Ulster, for Ulster, was rather unusually quiet. The O’Neills feared to provoke Sidney while he had the power to punish, and minor chiefs professed themselves ready to obey his call. James MacDonnell’s widow took advantage of the lull to come to Rathlin and give her hand to Tirlogh Luineach, who had now from 3,000 to 5,000 men under his orders, his wife having brought at least 1,200 Scots with her. Newry was threatened, but the arrival of Ormonde left Kildare free, and the forces of the Pale were drawn northwards. Sidney followed as soon as he could, and found that the Scots had weakened rather than strengthened Tirlogh Luineach, who had ‘eaten himself out’ by supporting them. The fact that he had been accidentally shot by a jester while sitting at supper with his new wife, may have had a good deal to do with Tirlogh Luineach’s inactivity. In any case, he gave Fitzmaurice no help; and, the Butlers having submitted, the confederacy from which so much had been expected and feared fell to pieces of itself.177

CHAPTER XXVII.

1570 AND 1571

Fitton, President of Connaught

Pollard’s illness had delayed the formation of a presidential Government in Munster, but Sir Edward Fitton was appointed to Connaught, with Ralph Rokeby for a Chief Justice. When the decadence of the southern rebellion enabled him to begin work, he did not show much talent for government, being an ill-tempered, quarrelsome man, not at all fitted for the delicate duty of turning Irish into English order. The townsmen of Galway he found loyal and peaceable enough, but the people of the province were cold in religion, and inclined to superstition. By way of encouragement he burned the ‘idols’ in the churches. The friars were nominally expelled, really driven into hiding. More praiseworthy were his efforts to make the clergy either put away or marry their female companions – efforts extended to the laity, who, from the Earl of Clanricarde downwards, seem to have held canonical marriage in contempt. Malefactors were executed, a kind of census taken, and a provost-marshal appointed to hang out of hand all who could find no one to answer for them. ‘Such as do come unto us, we cause to cut their glybbes, which we do think the first token of obedience.’ Clanricarde and O’Connor Sligo professed some agreement with Fitton’s course, but O’Rourke held aloof, while Thomond gave every possible opposition, even to the extent of detaining Captain Apsley and his men on their return from Kerry, and of threatening to capture the President himself. Proclamation had been made for holding assizes at Ennis, where the sheriff, Teig O’Brien, made store of provisions for the President. Thomond, who was at Clare close by, refused to attend, and when the assizes were over friendly partisans conducted Fitton through the Burren Mountains, the Earl hanging on his skirts and skirmishing as far as Gort. He was said to be acting under orders from the Duke of Norfolk, and no doubt his conduct had reference to the rising in the North, and to the general attack on those whom Fitzmaurice called Huguenots. Fitton was shut up in Galway, and John Burke, Clanricarde’s rebellious son, rode up to the gate, but refused to enter. Gilbert having departed, Fitzmaurice gathered a new force, entered and spoiled Kilmallock; and there seemed every prospect of a conflagration throughout the West. Sidney resolved to take Ormonde at his word, and to employ him in putting down this fresh disturbance.178

Ormonde is reconciled to Sidney,

‘My Lord Deputy and I,’ Ormonde wrote to Cecil, ‘brake our minds at Leighlin last together before some of our trusty friends, and after promising never to call quarrels past to rehearsal, we vowed the renewal of our old friendship. So, for my part, I will bring no matter past to rehearsal.’ Thereupon he begged the intercession of Cecil and other statesmen for his misguided brothers. Edward was still at large.

‘I think,’ said Sidney, ‘God have ordained him a sacrifice for the rest. What honour were it to that house if the Earl would bring in that brother’s head with his own hands? That were indeed a purging sacrifice.’ It was a sacrifice which Ormonde did not feel called upon to offer; but he was willing enough to serve the Queen, and received a commission to reduce his cousin, the Earl of Thomond.

and receives a commission

He received an ample commission, having power to proclaim rebels, to parley, protect, or prosecute as he might think expedient. After a month’s preparation he was in a condition to take the field. He had no help from the Government but 300 kerne and a battering-ram, which he did not use. The Mayor of Limerick made difficulties about boats to convey the guns across the Shannon, and Ormonde marched into Thomond without them. The terror of his name and the knowledge that artillery was behind did all that was necessary, but he complained that nothing was done unless he did it himself, and that Sir Thomas Roe Fitzgerald was particularly useless. Thomond at once offered to give up all prisoners, English and Irish, to surrender all castles, provided he might be allowed to go to England and plead his own cause with the Queen, and to serve at once against James Fitzmaurice. He stipulated for life and liberty for himself, that Ormonde should have the custody of his country, that his enemy, Teig MacMorragh of Inchiquin, should be no longer sheriff, that the Lord Deputy and Lord President should not prejudice his case with her Majesty, and that he should be allowed five days’ law before being proclaimed traitor, in the event of Sidney refusing to ratify the articles. Ormonde took possession of all the castles at once, garrisoned them, and secured the prisoners, cutting passes through the wood to Bunratty in case further fighting should be necessary. The rest he left to the Lord Deputy. Sidney would have preferred that Thomond should come before him, but agreed to let him go to the Queen, on condition that he should give the names of all his accomplices at once and start for England before May 27.179

Thomond goes to France. Intrigues there

The rebel Earl, who was probably conscious of intrigues of which Ormonde knew nothing, neglected, without actually refusing, to go to the Lord Deputy, allowed the day of grace to pass, and went quietly on board a French ship which lay in the Shannon. Thomond was pacified entirely at Ormonde’s charge, and the work was done but just in time, for many of his men had been engaged in the late rebellion, and were fighting with halters round their necks. The moment their protections expired they left their chief, who had no power to extend them, but they seem to have returned on the Lord Deputy giving them six weeks longer. The principal men of the O’Briens submitted, and the O’Loughlins and O’Mahons followed suit. There were a few executions, but Ormonde preferred clemency to the policy of Gilbert or even of Sidney. ‘The Queen,’ he said, ‘hath many good subjects here if they were but cherished and not over-pressed.’ His reception in France not answering his expectation, Thomond thought it prudent to report himself to the English ambassador, representing himself as a loyal subject driven mad by Fitton’s harshness. He professed great anxiety to see the Queen, but feared the Lord Deputy. He had come by France, as the direct road to London was closed. Norris advised lenity in dealing with one who was evidently rather a tool than a ringleader – a barbarian whose cunning was neutralised by his vaingloriousness, and whose simple talk could deceive no diplomatist. ‘Promise what you list,’ said the ambassador, whose great object was to coax the refugee out of France into England, ‘and having him there perform what you list.’

Diplomacy

The Queen lent no countenance to this Machiavellian advice, and told Norris that the Irish lord was of small value but by her favour, and not the best of his name in the estimation of his own countrymen. By her advice he gave a written personal undertaking that Thomond should not be imprisoned on his promising, also in writing, to make no further attempt against the Queen. He had from his arrival intrigued with the French Court, and had nearly succeeded in captivating Henry III.; but Marshal Vielleville reminded his sovereign that he had debts, and persuaded him not to meddle with castles in Ireland. Catherine de’ Medici tried to prevent Thomond from going to England, and gave him 200 pistoles. Fearful lest he should go to Spain, Norris added 100, and after spending a month in Paris, the Earl was induced to go to his natural sovereign and make humble submission. He was pardoned in due course and sent back to Ireland, where he bound himself in the sum of 10,000l. to be of good behaviour for the future.180

Sidney’s policy. Edward Butler cannot be caught

While Ormonde showed his zeal in the West, the Lord Deputy remained in Dublin preparing to meet Parliament. He begged to be recalled, or at least to have the comfort of his wife’s society, for that he was living very uncomfortably, and at intolerable expense to himself, though saving much to the Queen. To his repeated cries her Majesty answered that he should be relieved as soon as possible, but that it was very difficult to find a fit successor for him, or a fit governor for Munster. She approved of his fortifying policy in Ulster. Irishmen were to be encouraged to take estates of the Crown, and Englishmen to settle in Ireland, and ‘we would have good regard that the inhabitants there do not engross many farms into few hands, whereby hospitality must decay.’ Edmund and Piers Butler were to be committed; Edward caught, indicted, and arraigned; and all three were to be made to surrender their estates, and have judgment passed on them, to be executed or not according to their behaviour. Their inferior agents in rebellion were to ‘taste the reward of justice.’ Edward Butler could not be caught, though he had at least one narrow escape from his brother’s men, but the other two had remained in Dublin since their submission, and now humbly awaited her Majesty’s pleasure.181

Final submission of the Butlers, 1570. Parliament

Sidney found his Parliament in more submissive mood than at its first meeting, the Irish party having been cowed by his vigour, and by the sight of unsuccessful rebellion. The influence of a Speaker must needs be considerable, and Stanihurst was devoted to the Government, which received valuable support from his grave and conciliatory demeanour. The Lord Deputy opened the session with a pithy speech, in which he earnestly prayed the members to show their activity by amending Bills brought before them, but not by rejecting necessary measures. An Act was then passed reciting the Queen’s efforts to establish order and justice, notwithstanding which ‘the wicked, better acquainted with darkness than light, have chosen to wallow in their own filth and puddle of tyranny, oppression, rape, ravine, and spoil.’

Attainders

Clancare, Fitzmaurice, Ormonde’s three brothers, and several other Butlers of less note, were then attainted by name as ‘vile and ingrate traitors;’ and treasons committed within a limited time were prospectively included in the attainder. The Queen stayed the execution of this Act, but Ormonde objected to it on general grounds, and especially to its prospective effect. ‘Alas,’ he said, ‘what availeth life, and to live with infamy (as I perceive my brethren must do coming to arraignment)! But the Queen’s staying of their judgment and execution is an exceeding mercy, far above their deserts of late days … and for the stain of my house I confesseth it nippeth me to the heart. But what remedy the best is they may, with the Queen’s goodness, live to requite this evil with good service hereafter… My brother Edmond was not his own man since he was bewitched. Myself have not escaped free by means of a drink given me by some unhappy hand. I recovered hardly by drinking salt and oil, bleeding very much, and being purged. I bled forty ounces at twenty-one times… This act is very general, and so perilous that the judgment is given before the offence committed. Many innocents may be indicted upon malice, and peradventure have no notice of the proclamation to come to justify themselves according to the law.’

The Butlers pardoned

Sir Edmund, who was certainly of an excitable nature, felt the disgrace so keenly that he was actually out of his mind for a time. Later on, when it was proposed to print the Act in London, Ormonde complained bitterly that the praise of suppressing the rebellion was given in general terms to Sidney, and begged that ‘the odious discourse’ might be kept back. Some Butlers were, indeed, by God’s visitation induced to act beyond their reason, and the family honours had been spotted for the first time; but the head of the House had brought them back, and the tree now bore its accustomed good fruit. Edward Butler at last submitted to the Earl, but seems never to have put himself into Sidney’s power. In 1573 the three brothers were pardoned, but it seems that by some omission they were never restored in blood. The legal stain remained, but the moral stain was removed by much after good service.182

First attempt at national educationOpposition to Government Bills

An Act was passed in this session for the erection of a free school in every diocese at the cost of the diocese, with an English master appointed by the Lord Deputy, except in Armagh, Dublin, Meath, and Kildare, where the Bishops were made patrons. The foundation was Scriptural and Protestant, for the Elizabethans could not understand the possible permanence of any but the State religion. Henry VIII.’s system of parochial schools having never come into being, this must be considered as the first attempt at national education. Salaries were to be fixed by the Lord Deputy, but paid by the clergy, one-third by the ordinary, and two-thirds by the general body. The results of the diocesan schools, as they came to be called, fell far short of what some expected, and it is probable that in many dioceses they were never founded at all. But Sidney’s measure was well meant, and was not entirely inoperative like the mediæval attempts at Irish universities. A Bill to compel the residence of spiritual persons was thrown out by the Commons, as well as one to abolish the extortionate demand of meat and drink; the majority of members probably having a personal interest in supporting the old abuse in either case. A Bill for limiting interests which had been acquired by lessees in entailed property was also thrown out, the real object of it being to restore to Ormonde those lands of his family which had been improvidently alienated. Sidney did not oppose the measure, but foresaw that it would fail. He was ready to do what he could to meet Ormonde’s views, but only so far as was consistent with ordinary process of law. ‘If the gentlemen that have lands of his in the English Pale, in fee farm and otherwise, do not consent in all points to his lordship’s liking, having law on their side, I cannot use compulsory means to wrest justice, nor, I hope, it is not required in my place.’ Wise words, but it would have been better for Sidney’s reputation had he been equally careful in guarding prescriptive rights against Sir Peter Carew.183

Commercial legislation. Monopolies

The Butlers having returned to their right mind, and Fitzmaurice being reduced to wandering with a few followers, Sidney busied himself chiefly with the affairs of the North. His marvellous power of despatching causes, his extraordinary knowledge of Irish septs and alliances, and his untiring industry, were the theme of general admiration; and the lightning rapidity of his movements struck terror into Irish hearts. Before he could bring the Northern chiefs to any settlement offering a chance of permanence, he had to hold two more sessions of Parliament, and to make arrangements for the Presidency of Munster, as he had already done for Connaught. The legislation attempted was chiefly commercial. Thus a Bill, which was at first thrown out in the Lower House by an effort of untutored common sense, was pressed successfully forward by the Government, who thought it important that the ancient staple commodities wool and wool-fells, raw or manufactured, wax, and butter, should not be exported except by the merchants of the staple towns. Such exportation had been already restrained by duties with a view of encouraging Irish manufactures, but the law had not answered expectation, having had the natural result of throwing the trade into French, Scotch, Spanish, and other foreign hands. Instead of repealing the Act which had done so much harm, the true protectionist policy of further restraint was adopted. Manufactured articles, to which linen yarn was added, might be exported by the merchants of the staple at Dublin, Drogheda, Cork, and Waterford, and by the merchants of other borough towns, on paying the custom; and all power of dispensing with the law was taken away from the Irish Government. The raw material had continued to be exported to some extent, but the intention to benefit Irish manufactures by forcibly retaining it was again recorded, and infringement of the monopoly was made felony; the Government being in this case also declared incapable of dispensing with the Act. It was soon discovered that trade could not be forced in this way, and the Queen was besieged by applications for patents, the projectors pretending to cure the evils of one monopoly by creating another. Lancashire and Cheshire had benefited much by Irish yarn, 4,000 hands being employed in weaving it at Manchester alone. The embargo, it was urged, had nearly ruined Manchester, and had not benefited Ireland, where the weavers were few, and the people naturally given to idleness; spinning, of course, requiring no industry. It was admitted that the lack of lawful outlet for the cloth had something to say to the want of weavers, but as the suitors for patents were Englishmen, that side of the question was not pressed.184

Monopolies. Prototype of Wood’s halfpence

Elizabeth, no doubt for some valuable consideration, granted a patent to one Thomas Moore to export 3,000 packs of linen yarn from Ireland in five years. The Corporations of Dublin and Drogheda objected on the grounds that Ireland did not produce 600 packs a year, that Moore was to pay them no custom, that many men in Ireland had sunk their substance in setting up looms on the faith of a very recent statute, and that if the Queen persevered they would all be ruined. She then reduced the amount to 200 packs a year; but Irish vested interests were unappeased, and seven of the most eminent Queen’s counsel in Dublin were very clearly of opinion that letters patent were waste paper as against an Act of Parliament. In the end Tremayne effected a compromise, of which the terms are not stated, between the patentee and the municipalities of Dublin and Drogheda, and the latter prayed Burghley to intercede with her Majesty against the passing of any such patents in future.

Dutch weavers in Ireland

The intercession was not successful, for in 1578 Lord Chancellor Gerrard obtained a similar monopoly, which he assigned to one Middlemore. Both patentee and assignee had disputes with Dublin and Drogheda, their evident object being to be bought off as dearly as possible. ‘I caused to plant,’ said Sidney, ‘above forty families of the reformed churches of the Low Countries, flying thence for religion’s sake, in one ruinous town called Swords. It would have done any man good to see how diligently they wrought, how they re-edified the spoiled old castle and repaired almost all the same, and how goodly and cleanly they and their wives and children lived. They made diaper and ticks for beds and other good stuff for man’s use, and excellent good leather of deer skins, goat- and sheep-fells, as is made in Southwark.’ And he spoke with becoming indignation of the infringement of a law which he had caused to be made for the benefit of Ireland, and which he had restrained himself and his predecessors from contravening. In the forgotten story of these monopolies we have a foreshadowing of Wood’s halfpence, and it is possible that the Drapier was not ignorant of the precedent.185

Sir John Perrott, President of Munster, 1571

Sir John Perrott, of an ancient Pembrokeshire family, but supposed by some to be a son of Henry VIII., was the person selected for the task of reducing Munster. He had been made a Knight of the Bath along with Ormonde at Edward VI.’s coronation, had served at St. Quentin, and in 1560 had again been the Earl’s companion in the tilt at Greenwich, where, in presence of the French ambassador, he maintained Elizabeth’s quarrel against all comers. In running a course with Mr. Cornwallis both riders lost their tempers and fell to tilting in the Queen’s presence with sharp lances and without armour – a pastime which she soon put a stop to. The story is characteristic of the gallant but imprudent man who played so great a part in Irish history. His taste and magnificence, perhaps his extravagance, may be guessed from his additions to Carew Castle – a manor which had been granted to him by Mary in spite of his Protestantism and of his refusal to persecute other Protestants. Ormonde now declared that his old comrade should be Lord President even against his will, and to judge by the delay he was neither anxious for the honour nor in a hurry to begin the work.186

Perrott’s instructions

The salary of the Lord President was fixed at 133l. 6s. 8d., as in the case of Connaught, and he was allowed thirty horse and twenty foot in the Queen’s pay. The first Chief Justice, with a salary of 100l., was James Dowdall, afterwards Chief Justice of the Queen’s Bench. Nicholas Walshe, afterwards Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, was second justice, with a salary of 100 marks. Thomas Burgate was the first Clerk of the Council, which originally consisted of the Archbishops and Bishops of Munster and of the Earls of Ormonde, Thomond, and Clancare, power being reserved to the Lord Deputy to appoint additional councillors at his pleasure. The Council had all the judicial authority of a Court of Assize. The Lord President was not to be out of his province for more than six days without the Deputy’s license; but special leave was given to Sir John Perrott to visit his estate in Pembrokeshire and to return within one month. The liberties of Tipperary were not to be needlessly infringed, but those of Kerry were declared to be null and void. The Lord President and Council were to assist all officers, civil and ecclesiastical, to maintain their proper authority, and the following curious provision was made in furtherance of religion as by law established: —