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

Uncertainties. Sidney daily expected

Fitzwilliam’s constant prayers for a recall had not been unheard, but it was difficult to find a successor for him, since it had been resolved that Essex should not be Lord Deputy. Sidney had been expected as early as July 1574, but he was in no hurry to start. Waterhouse had gone from Ulster to England towards the end of 1573, and had laid before the Privy Council the requests of Essex, especially as to the necessity of erecting fortifications and providing properly for provisioning the troops. ‘A lack of good foresight’ in high quarters was the fault which Waterhouse saw most clearly, and he complained that it was hard to get attention for the most necessary business. Statesmen pleaded that they were too busy with Desmond to mind anything else, ‘wherein they travel so far southward that they have lost sight of the North Pole.’ Various schemes were discussed. Some were for leaving Fitzwilliam at his post and giving him for a time the assistance of a military officer of high rank, who might pacify the country and then leave it to the Deputy. Others were for at least three Presidents independent of the chief Governor; ‘to breed a certain virtuous envy in these monarchs, who should do her Majesty best service.’ Others, again, were for trusting Irish lords, such as Ormonde and Kildare, leaving only matters of law and justice to the Lord Deputy. The prevailing opinion was that there should be Presidents, and that they should be appointed simultaneously with the new Deputy. Waterhouse’s advice being asked, he said that if Essex were rejected there were but two persons available, Leicester and Sidney. The former could scarcely be spared, and he therefore advised the choice of the latter, whose secretary he had been. Sidney was reluctant and Elizabeth undecided, and more than a year and a half slipped by without the change being actually made. ‘For God’s sake despatch him,’ said Fitzwilliam; ‘this uncertainty is a hell of unquietness to me, and so increases mine infirmities of shoulder, arm, side, and stomach, that I look shortly to become serviceable for nothing else but the worms of this land.’ He could not hope to be in England before October; too late for Bath, and leaving him no resource but physicians in whom he did not believe.304

The revenue. A pestilence,

The Government of Ireland from April 1, 1573, to September 30, 1575, cost the Queen more than 130,000l. in ready money sent from England, besides the Irish revenue and debts incurred but not discharged. It was a principal part of Sidney’s instructions to devise some means of checking this outflow. The Ulster account being almost closed, it was supposed that he would be able to manage with 5,000l. a quarter regularly paid, and that by improving the Irish revenue even that sum might in good time be reduced. Sidney was not likely to indulge in such golden dreams, and he undertook the government of Ireland for the third time with little expectation either of honour or profit. Leaving the Queen at Dudley Castle, he landed at Skerries after nearly losing two vessels in a storm. The summer had been very hot, and no rain fell from May 1 to August 1. ‘A loathsome disease and dreadful malady,’ say the ‘Four Masters,’ ‘arose from this heat – namely, the plague, which raged violently among the English and Irish in Dublin, Naas, Ardee, Mullingar, and Athboy. Between those places many a castle was left without a guard, many a flock without a shepherd, and many a noble corpse without burial.’

and panic

The whole Pale being infected, it was difficult to find a safe resting-place. The well-to-do citizens of Dublin fled to Drogheda, where they were grudgingly admitted, and whither they probably brought the pestilence; for deaths occurred in the town soon after the arrival of Essex and of the old and new Deputies, who all reached it on the same day. Immobility was the fault for which Fitzwilliam had been most blamed, and his successor, by starting immediately for Carrickfergus, no doubt meant to show that he was as capable as ever of those rapid movements which had bewildered and charmed the Irish mind. A blow had just been struck in Ulster, which for the time made resistance little to be feared. The terror of Sidney’s name might do the rest.305

General results of Essex’s grant

After his treaty with Tirlogh Luineach Essex had pressed on in pursuit of the Scots from the Antrim side, the people of the country generally showing themselves friendly. Sorley Boy appeared in force at the Bann, on the banks of which river an encounter took place. The Scots were worsted and driven into Tyrone. Clandeboye was for the moment cleared of the intruders, and Essex, as far as in him lay, handed it over to Brian ‘Ertagh’ O’Neill, who said that his people were few, his cattle less, and that in striving to defend his country from the Earl ‘his husbandmen were starved, dead, or run out of the country,’ which he left to the disposal of the man who had reduced it to this condition. Such, so far as the scheme of a settlement went, was the total result of the grant to Essex, who was, however, so deficient in humour as to boast ‘that no man in Clandeboye claimeth property in anything, whereby your Majesty may see what this people are when they are roughly handled.’306

Expedition to Rathlin. Massacre

His provisions failing, the Earl was obliged to quit the field, leaving 300 foot and 850 horse at Carrickfergus under the charge of John Norris, who had secret orders to undertake a combined naval and military expedition against Rathlin. With the soldiers under Norris and three frigates under ‘Francis Drake, Captain of the "Falcon,"’ it is not surprising that the affair was completely successful. All the boats at Carrickfergus were taken up, and in spite of the winds the whole force reached the island together, and landed, notwithstanding a vigorous resistance. The Scots retired into their castle, which Norris proceeded to batter with two heavy guns brought from the ship. A breach was soon made, but the first assault was repulsed, owing to the strength of the inner defences, which were probably erected by an Italian officer who was at this time in Sorley Boy’s service. The same night, however, the garrison, seeing that they could not hold out, offered to surrender for ‘their lives and their goods, and to be put into Scotland, which request Captain Norris refused, offering them as slenderly as they did largely require: viz., to the aforesaid constable his life and his wife’s and his child’s… The soldiers, being moved and much stirred with the loss of their fellows that were slain, and desirous of revenge, made request, or rather pressed, to have the killing of them, which they did all, saving the persons to whom life was promised… There were slain that came out of the castle of all sorts 200… They be occupied still in killing, and have slain that they have found hidden in caves and in the cliffs of the sea to the number of 300 or 400 more.’ Eleven Scottish galleys were burned. Three hundred kine, 3,000 sheep, 100 brood mares, and enough bere to feed 300 men for a year, were found in the island. A spy, moreover, informed Essex that ‘Sorley put most of his plate, most of his children, and the children of most part of his gentlemen, with their wives, into the Rathlin with all his pledges, which be all taken and executed, as the spy saith, and in all to the number of 600. Sorley then also stood upon the mainland of the Glynnes and saw the taking of the island, and was like to run mad for sorrow (as the spy saith), turning and tormenting himself, and saying that he then lost all that ever he had.’ Essex had nothing but praise for all concerned, which indeed they deserved, if barbarity is to incur no blame; but no one seems to have wasted a thought on such considerations, and Queen Elizabeth vouchsafed her unqualified thanks.307

A useless fortified post in RathlinThe Scots supreme on the Antrim coast

Essex wished to found a permanent fortified post in Rathlin. Norris remained behind to reap the harvest and to hold the island until Sidney’s pleasure should be known. In the meantime, Sorley Boy, though he had lost his children, had not lost heart. He chose his time and swept away all the cattle from Carrickfergus. The garrison pursued him, got into difficult ground, and were disgracefully beaten, owing to one of those panics to which regular troops were always subject in their encounters with Highlanders. Some attributed all to the prevailing dissipation, and yet Carrickfergus was hardly a Capua. About forty Scots put the English to flight and killed sixty of them, including Captain Baker and his lieutenant. When Sidney came to Carrickfergus a month later he found it ‘much decayed and impoverished, no plough going at all, where before were many; … cattle few or none left; churches and houses, save castles, burned; the inhabitants fled, not above six householders of any countenance left remaining; so that their miserable state and servile fear were to be pitied.’ Of so little use had the Rathlin massacre been that the Lord Deputy found the Scots ‘very haughty and proud by reason of their late victories had against our men, finding the baseness of their courage.’ The coast from Larne to the Bann was full of corn and cattle, and in the undisputed possession of Sorley, who was willing enough to come to terms, but very suspicious and afraid of the opinion of his own followers. Sidney abandoned Rathlin at once, saying that it was easy at any time to take, but very expensive and useless to keep. There was a scarcity of water about the fort, and the ‘Race of Rathlin’ is one of the stormiest pieces of sea on our coast. ‘The soldiers brought thence being forty in number, they confessed that in this small time of their continuance there, they were driven to kill their horses and eat them, and to feed on them and young colts’ flesh one month before they came away.’ Such was the real value of a position where, in the opinion of Essex, 100 men ‘would do her Majesty more service, both against the Scots and Irish, than 300 can do in any place within the north parts.’ Sidney thought that the Glynnes might be handed over to Sorley Boy, no better claimant appearing, but that the Route ought to be given back to the MacQuillins, having been lost only because their late chief was a ‘dissolute and loose fellow, feeble both of wit and force.’ Lady Agnes O’Neill, a true Campbell, met Sidney and asked for a grant of the Glynnes for her son by James MacDonnell, offering to defend it against Sorley Boy, and to pay a higher rent to the Crown; but this did not recommend itself to the Lord Deputy, wise as he thought the lady, and much as he admired her manners and address.308

Hopeless condition of Ulster. Sidney’s advice

The northern part of Armagh under the Baron of Dungannon Sidney found all waste, and the cathedral in ruins. The southern part had been granted by the Queen to the brothers Chatterton, who were totally unable to manage the country, and were rapidly losing all. ‘They wrestle and work,’ said Sidney, ‘and go to the worse, … tall and honest gentlemen, who have lost in that enterprise all that ever they had, and all that anybody else would trust them with, and their blood and limbs too.’ The O’Hanlons would not come to Sidney on protection, lest they should be cajoled into acknowledging the Chattertons’ title. Lecale in Down, which was Kildare’s property, had been partially, but only partially, peopled by the exertions of Essex. Ards was a little better, less owing to Sir Thomas Smith than to the natural tendencies of its old English inhabitants, whose chief, Edmond Savage, was received into protection. Kinelarty, or MacCartan’s country, was ‘all desolate and waste, full of thieves, outlaws, and unreclaimed people. None of the old owners dared occupy the land, because it hath pleased her Majesty to bestow the same upon Captain Nicholas Maltby, tied, nevertheless, to such observation of covenant and condition as Chatterton had his.’ Maltby deserved a much better provision, but could do no good with this one either to himself or to anyone else. He could only ‘make the country altogether abandoned of inhabitants.’ It was absolutely necessary for the Queen’s service that both Chatterton’s and Maltby’s grants should be revoked. Dufferin, long the property of the White family, was ‘all waste and desolate, used as they of Clandeboye list.’ Neill MacBrian Ertagh, whom Essex had acknowledged as captain, made some show of opposition at the ford of Belfast. ‘We passed over,’ said Sidney, ‘without loss of man or horse, yet, by reason of the tide’s extraordinary return, our horses swam, and the footmen in the passage waded very deep… Clandeboye I found utterly disinhabited. The captain refused to have conference with me, and answered, "That Con MacNeill Oge was captain, and not he" (who being appointed to be delivered to the Marshal, by negligence of his keepers, made an escape in his coming from Dublin, where before he remained prisoner).’ It cannot be said that the slaughter of Sir Brian MacPhelim and his family had done much for the civilisation of Eastern Ulster, or that the system of private conquest was any great improvement upon native usages.309

Sidney wishes to ennoble O’Neill

Sidney did not visit Tyrone, Tyrconnel, Monaghan, or Fermanagh on this occasion, but MacMahon came to Armagh, begging to be relieved from the tyranny of O’Neill on condition of paying the Queen rent; and O’Donnell and Maguire wrote to the same effect. As to Tirlogh Luineach, who came to Armagh without hesitation or condition, Sidney advised that his messenger should be graciously received at Court, and that his petition should be granted, excepting the authority which he claimed over his neighbours, and that he should be made Earl of Clan O’Neill for life. ‘Considering his age, wounded and imperfect body, his ill diet, and continual surfeit, he cannot be of long life.’ Magennis also, whose country of Iveagh had improved much since Sidney first freed it from the O’Neills, could do little owing to the want of a title. He might receive a full grant and the rank of Baron. The Lord Deputy’s plan was to make all look to the Crown, without excepting O’Neill. Advantage might be taken of the fact that Lady Agnes ‘longed to have her husband like a good subject, and to have him nobilitated.’ With prophetic clearness he showed what the result of his policy must be. ‘The taking from O’Neill all these captains of countries that heretofore have depended upon him and the predecessors of his name, and contenting him with the title of Earl, … it will be the dissipation of his force and strength, … that these lords and captains of the countries should hold absolutely of the Queen and of none else, … in half an age his posterity shall not be of power to do any harm; which will breed a quiet in the North, which country hath heretofore, from time to time, been so troublesome.’310

Bagenal at Newry

Amid the general failure of English settlers in Ulster, Newry, in the hands of the Marshal, Sir Nicholas Bagenal, made a gratifying contrast. The town was well built, and increasing fast, the lands well cultivated, ‘and he is much to be commended; as well that he useth his tenants to live so wealthily under him, as his own bounty and large hospitality and house-keeping, so able and willing to give entertainment to so many, and chiefly to all those that have occasion to travel to or fro northwards, his house lying in the open highway to their passage.’ Essex had lately complained that Bagenal would not lend him his house, but it must be admitted that the building was well employed.311

CHAPTER XXXIII.

ADMINISTRATION OF SIDNEY, 1575 TO 1577

Sidney and the Butlers

Fitzwilliam had always maintained that Ormonde’s presence was the best guarantee for the peace of the South of Ireland, and most of the Dublin officials were of the same opinion. But Sidney disliked him, both as too powerful for a subject and as a professed enemy of Leicester. All those who hoped for favour from the latter, and all those who favoured the Geraldine faction, were willing enough to take advantage of these rivalries and jealousies. Even Sir Barnaby Fitzpatrick, ‘which good knight was brought up to have known his duty better,’ but who had many causes of quarrel with his great neighbour, took advantage of the fact that every rebellious and disorderly person wreaked his fury upon Ormonde’s property, which was so much scattered as not to be easily protected. As between the Fitzpatricks and Butlers Fitzwilliam seems to have thought that there was not much to choose, and that both chiefs were loyal enough. But others spread reports against Sir Edmund Butler and his brother Piers, saying that they refused to go to the Deputy in spite of Ormonde’s promise that they should go when sent for. It seems that Piers went at once, and that Edward, who did good service as Sheriff of Tipperary, was never sent for; but some of the English Council, acting apparently under Leicester’s influence, obtained an order from the Queen that Edward should come in without any protection, which he immediately did. The letter, which gave great offence to Ormonde, was signed by Leicester, Knollys, Crofts, Smith, and Walsingham, but not by Burghley and Sussex, though they also were present at Kenilworth.312

Ormonde and his accusers

There were some who did not spare Ormonde’s reputation any more than his property. In times of danger he always bore the brunt of the storm. ‘Who so happy,’ he said, ‘as the most wicked, who so unhappy as the best servant?’ When Kildare was arrested many whispered that as good a case might be made against Ormonde. He defied all detractors in the most uncompromising way: they were liars and slanderers, and he only wished he knew their names. ‘If the charges against Kildare,’ he said, ‘be treasons (as I hope they are not), I defy him and pronounce him a false villain that spake them, if he meant them for me. For as I never was traitor, no more was I friend of traitor, nor maintainer of traitors. If any can charge me (as some I know would if they could) let them say their worst: I defy them, and will answer to defend my honour in my short [shirt], or any way shall become a gentleman.’ He added that as he was no traitor so was he no procurer of murders, no receiver of stolen goods, no practiser to keep stores for private gain. On the contrary, he had subdued scoundrels of all sorts, persuaded ill subjects to reform, opposed Scottish enemies, spent his living in her Majesty’s service, ‘as my house has ever been, which some perhaps may envy.’ He was accused of seeking revenge against those that robbed him and burned his villages, and against those who harboured felons. ‘My lord,’ he pleaded, ‘when my neighbours be lawless, not coming to assizes or sessions, what amends may I have by justice, though by that means I seek mine own?’ He complained that his enemies at Court remembered him better than his friends; but he was all along secure in the Queen’s personal favour, even if his great services had proved a weak defence. She took care to tell him privately that she believed no stories against him, and commanded him to write often. ‘Yet one thing,’ she added, ‘you seem to have forgotten, and wherefore we have some cause to be displeased with you, as though of anything that you write to ourself any person living should be made privy but ourself alone.’ It is hard to guess what the matter was which Ormonde was afraid to trust to paper and which Elizabeth wished to be so profound a secret; but the passage quoted shows what very great favour he enjoyed.313

Death of Sir Peter Carew

Sir Peter Carew, the original cause of the quarrel which had made the Butlers rebels for once, left the scene soon after Sidney’s return to Ireland. He was again preparing to prosecute his claims in Munster, and Hooker had been at Cork making overtures to chiefs living west of the city, many of whom promised to accept Carew as their landlord and to pay him rent. Three thousand cows, worth as many marks, were offered in discharge of all arrears. Desmond and others promised to make him welcome, houses were taken for him both at Cork and Kinsale, and arrangements were made for provisions; but Sir Peter fell ill and died unexpectedly at New Ross, his Munster projects dying with him. He left his Idrone property to his nephew and namesake, who was also continued in the government of Leighlin.

His character

Sir Peter Carew was a good specimen of the Tudor adventurer: loyal, brave, chivalrous and generous to lavishness; with large ideas and great energy, but capable of actions which will not bear minute inspection. Sincerely religious, though no theologian, it was noted that he never broke bread or prepared himself for sleep without saying some prayer, and he gave substantial help to Protestants wherever he found them. ‘He had his imperfections,’ says his friend and biographer, ‘yet was he not known to be wrapt in the dissolute net of Venus, nor embrued with the cup of Bacchus; he was not carried with the blind covetousness of Plutus, nor yet subject to malice, envy, or any notorious crime.’ Without regular education he had picked up a thorough knowledge of French and Italian, had read a good deal in both languages, and had that intelligent love of architecture which was somewhat characteristic of the time. He had much of the many-sidedness distinguishing the Elizabethan era, and seldom seen in this age of specialists.

On his deathbed, though he suffered greatly, he was as steadfast as of old when he supported Sir John Cheke’s fainting spirit, ‘yielding himself wholly to the good will and pleasure of God, before whom he poured out continually his prayers, and in praying did gasp out his last breath, and yield up his spirit.’ Only a few months before his death the Queen praised his experience, wisdom, and courage; and when he was dead she granted the prayer of his many friends in carrying out the wishes of this ‘trusty and true Englishman.’ He was buried at Waterford with great pomp, and a stately cenotaph, raised by the piety of Hooker, commemorates him in Exeter Cathedral. When his corpse was being lowered into the grave, Sidney, who happened to be at Waterford, pronounced the following eulogium: – ‘Here lieth now, in his last rest, a most worthy, and noble, gentle knight, whose faith to his prince was never yet stained, his truth to his country never spotted, and his valiantness in service never doubted – a better subject the prince never had.’314

Sidney’s tour

It was not Sidney’s way to let the grass grow under his feet, and he had no sooner returned from Ulster than he started on another journey. Louth he found greatly impoverished by the constant passage of soldiers north and south, and the towns of Dundalk and Ardee were miserable enough. Drogheda had profited somewhat by Essex’s profuse expenditure. Bagenal’s settlement was strong enough to defend the north border of the Pale, except on the side of Ferney, which was granted to Essex, but where he had not yet done anything. Meath the Lord Deputy found ‘cursedly scorched on the outside’ by the O’Connors and O’Molloys, who were equally bad neighbours when in open rebellion and when under protection. O’Reilly, on the contrary, used the Pale well, and he himself was ‘the justest Irishman, and his the best ruled Irish country, by an Irishman, that is in all Ireland.’ Westmeath suffered much from anarchy and from Irish neighbours, but there was good hope of reformation through the activity and discretion of Lord Delvin. The O’Ferralls had consented to have Longford made a shire. They had taken estates of inheritance, and promised speedily to pay their quit-rents, which had been in arrears since Sidney’s last visit.

Miserable state of Leinster

On the borders of Dublin and what is now Wicklow cattle-lifting went on merrily by night and day, under the superintendence of Feagh MacHugh O’Byrne, who was just rising into celebrity. Kildare was impoverished, more especially the Earl’s own property, by the incursion of the O’Mores, and old Henry Cowley ‘with tears in his eyes’ told the Lord Deputy that the Barony of Carbery was 3,000l. poorer than when they had last met. Carlow was more than half waste through outlaws of various kinds, ‘some living under Sir Edmund Butler,’ and it was to be feared that Sir Peter Carew’s place would be ill-supplied by his young kinsman. The side of Wexford which bordered on Carlow and Kilkenny was also in very evil case. Wicklow was quiet, with the exception of Feagh MacHugh, but Agard the seneschal was away in England, and his absence threatened to be dangerous. The Kavanaghs were tolerably quiet, ‘and though much in arrears of rent, yet pay it they will and shall.’