An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 Part 38

I have given details of this attempted plantation in Ulster, because it ill.u.s.trates the subject; and each plantation which will be recorded afterwards, was carried out on the same plan. The object of the Englishman was to obtain a home and a fortune; to do this he was obliged to drive, the natives out of their homes, and to deprive them of their wealth, whether greater or less. The object of the Irishman was to keep out the intruder; and, if he could not be kept out, to get rid of him by fair means or foul.

It is probable that the attempt of Smith was intended by Government princ.i.p.ally as an experiment to ascertain whether the plantation could be carried out on a larger scale. The next attempt was made by Walter Devereux, Earl of Ess.e.x, who received part of the signories of Clannaboy and Ferney, provided he could expel the "rebels" who dwelt there. Ess.e.x mortgaged his estates to the Queen to obtain funds for the enterprise.

He was accompanied by Sir Henry Kenlis, Lord Dacres, and Lord Norris'

three sons.

Sir William FitzGerald, the then Lord Deputy, complained loudly of the extraordinary powers granted to Ess.e.x; and some show of deference to his authority was made by requiring the Earl to receive his commission from him. Ess.e.x landed in Ireland in 1573, and the usual career of tyranny and treachery was enacted. The native chieftains resisted the invasion of their territories, and endeavoured to drive out the men whom they could only consider as robbers. The invaders, when they could not conquer, stooped to acts of treachery. Ess.e.x soon found that the conquest of Ulster was not quite so easy a task as he had antic.i.p.ated.

Many of the adventurers who had a.s.sumed his livery, and joined his followers, deserted him; and Brian O'Neill, Hugh O'Neill, and Turlough O'Neill rose up against him. Ess.e.x then invited Conn O'Donnell to his camp; but, as soon as he secured him, he seized his Castle of Lifford, and sent the unfortunate chieftain a prisoner to Dublin.

In 1574 the Earl and Brian O'Neill made peace. A feast was prepared by the latter, to which Ess.e.x and his princ.i.p.al followers were invited; but after this entertainment had lasted for three days and nights, "as they were agreeably drinking and making merry, Brian, his brother, and his wife were seized upon by the Earl, and all his people put unsparingly to the sword-men, women, youths, and maidens--in Brian's own presence.

Brian was afterwards sent to Dublin, together with his wife and brother, where they were cut in quarters. Such was the end of their feast. This wicked and treacherous murder of the lord of the race of Hugh Boy O'Neill, the head and the senior of the race of Eoghan, son of Nial of the Nine Hostages, and of all the Gaels, a few only excepted, was a sufficient cause of hatred and dispute to the English by the Irish."[437]

Ess.e.x visited England in 1575, and tried to induce the Queen to give him further a.s.sistance in his enterprise. On her refusal, he retired to Ireland, and died in Dublin, on the 22nd September, 1576. It was rumoured he had died of poison, and that the poison was administered at the desire of the Earl of Leicester, who soon after divorced his own wife, and married the widow of his late rival Ess.e.x complained bitterly, in his letter to Sir Henry Sidney, of the way in which he had been treated in his projected plantation of Clannaboy, and protested against the injustice which had been done through him on O'Donnell, MacMahon, and others, who were always peaceable and loyal, but "whom he had, on the pledged word of the Queen, undone with fair promises." Probably, only for his own "undoing," he would have had but scant pity for others.

Yet Ess.e.x could be generous and knightly with his friends, kind and courtly, at least to his English dependents. There are some curious accounts of his expenses while he was "_Lord-General of Ulster_," in a State Paper, from which it will appear that he could be liberal, either from natural benevolence or from policy. The entries of expenditure indicate a love of music, which he could easily gratify in Ireland, still famous for the skill of its bards. He gave ten shillings to the singing men of Mellifont, then inhabited by Edward Moore, to whom it had been granted at the suppression of monasteries. A harper at Sir John Bellew's received three shillings; "Crues, my Lord of Ormonde's harper,"

received the large sum of forty shillings, but whether in compliment to the bard or the bard's master is doubtful. The Earl of Ormonde's "musicians" also got twenty shillings. But there are other disburs.e.m.e.nts, indicating that presents were gratefully received and vails expected. "A boy that brought your lordship a pair of greyhounds"

had a small donation; but "M'Genis, that brought your lordship two stags," had 13s. 4_d_., a sum equivalent to 7 of our money. Nor were the fair s.e.x forgotten, for Mrs. f.a.gan, wife of the Lord Mayor of Dublin, was presented with a piece of taffeta "for good entertainment."

Sir Henry Sidney returned to Ireland in 1575. He tells us himself how he took on him, "the third time, that thanklesse charge; and so taking leave of her Majesty, kissed her sacred hands, with most gracious and comfortable wordes, departed from her at Dudley Castell, pa.s.sed the seas, and arrived the xiii of September, 1575, as nere the city of Dublin as I could saufly; for at that tyme the city was greevously infested with the contagion of the pestilence."[438] He proceeded thence to Tredagh (Drogheda), where he received the sword of the then Deputy.

He next marched northward, and attacked Sorley Boy and the Scotch, who were besieging Carrickfergus; and after he had conquered them, he received the submission of Turlough O'Neill and other Ulster chieftains.

Turlough's wife, the Lady Agnes O'Neill, _nee_ M'Donnell, was aunt to the Earl of Argyle, and appears to have been very much in favour with the Lord Deputy.

In the "depe of wynter" he went to Cork, were he remained from Christmas to Candlemas. He mentions his entertainment at Barry's Court with evident zest, and says "there never was such a Christmas kept in the same." In February he visited Th.o.m.ond, and subdued "a wicked generation, some of whom he killed, and some he hanged by order of law." A nice distinction, which could hardly have been appreciated by the victims.

The Earl of Clanrickarde caused his "two most bade and rebellious sonnes" to make submission, "whom I would to G.o.d I had then hanged."

However, he kept them close prisoners, and "had a sermon made of them and their wickedness in the chief church in the town." John seems to have been the princ.i.p.al delinquent. Some time after, when they had been set at liberty, they rebelled again; and he records the first "memorable act" which one of them had done, adding, "which I am sure was John."[439]

Sidney then marched into the west, and had an interview with the famous Grace O'Malley, or Granuaile, which he describes thus: "There came to me also a most famous femynyne sea captain, called Granuge I'Mally, and offered her services unto me wheresoever I would command her, with three galleys and two hundred fighting men. She brought with her her husband, for she was as well by sea as by land more than master's-mate with him.

He was of the nether Burkes, and called by nickname Richard in Iron.

This was a notorious woman in all the coasts of Ireland. This woman did Philip Sidney see and speak with; he can more at large inform you of her." Grana, or Grace O'Malley, was the daughter of a chieftain of the same patronymic. Her paternal clan were strong in galleys and ships.

They owned a large territory on the sea-coast, besides the islands of Arran. Her first husband was Donnell O'Flaherty. His belligerent propensities could scarcely have been less than hers, for he is termed _Aith Chogaid_, or "of the wars." Her second husband, Sir Richard Burke, or Richard _an Iarainn_, is described by the Four Masters as a "plundering, warlike, unjust, and rebellious man." He obtained his soubriquet from the circ.u.mstance of constantly appearing in armour. It would appear from this account that Sidney's statement of the Lady Grana being "more than master's-mate with him," must be taken with some limitations, unless, indeed, he who ruled his foes abroad, failed to rule his wife at home, which is quite possible. The subjoined ill.u.s.tration represents the remains of one of her castles. It is situated near the lake of Borrishoole, in the county Mayo. The ruins are very striking, and evince its having once been an erection of considerable strength.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CARRIG-A-HOOLY--GRACE O'MALLEY'S CASTLE.]

Sir William Drury was made Lord President of Munster, 1576, in place of Sir John Perrot. Sir Nicholas Malby was installed in the same office in Connaught; but the barbarities enacted by his predecessor, Fitton, made the very name of president so odious, that Sidney gave the new Governor the t.i.tle of Colonel of Connaught. The Earl of Desmond and Drury were soon at variance. Sidney says, in his _Memoir_, that the Earl "was still repyning at the government of Drury." After causing great apprehension to the governors, the Lord Deputy sent the whole party to Kilkenny, and found the "Earl hot, wilful, and stubborn; but not long after, as you know, he and his two brothers, Sir John and Sir James, fell into actual rebellion, in which the good knight, Sir William Drury, the Lord Justice, died, and he, as a malicious and unnatural rebel, still persisteth and liveth."

In 1577 serious complications were threatened, in consequence of the pecuniary difficulties of the crown. An occasional subsidy had been granted hitherto for the support of the Government and the army; an attempt was now made to convert this subsidy into a tax. On previous occasions there had been some show of justice, however little reality, by permitting the Parliament to pa.s.s the grant; a scheme was now proposed to empower the Lord Deputy to levy a.s.sessments by royal authority, without any reference to Parliament. For the first time the Pale opposed the Government, and resisted the innovation. But their opposition was speedily and effectually silenced. The deputies whom they sent to London to remonstrate were committed to the Tower, and orders were despatched to Ireland that all who had signed the remonstrance should be consigned to Dublin Castle.

It is said that Elizabeth was not without some misgivings as to the injustice with which her Irish subjects were treated, and that she was once so touched by the picture presented to her of their sufferings under such exactions, that she exclaimed: "Ah, how I fear lest it be objected to us, as it was to Tiberius by Bato, concerning the Dalmatian commotions! You it is that are in fault, who have committed your flocks, not to shepherds, but to wolves." Nevertheless, the "wolves" were still permitted to plunder; and any impression made on the royal feelings probably evaporated under the fascinating influence of her next interview with Leicester, and the indignation excited by a "rebel" who refused to resign his ancestral home quietly to some penniless adventurer. There had been serious difficulties in England in 1462, in consequence of the shameful state of the current coin; and the Queen has received considerable praise for having accomplished a reform. But the idea, and the execution of the idea, originated with her incomparable minister, Cecil, whose master-mind applied itself with equal facility to every state subject, however trifling or however important; and the loss and expenditure which the undertaking involved, was borne by the country to the last penny. Mr. Froude says it was proposed that the "worst money might be sent to Ireland, as the general dust-heap for the outcasting of England's vileness."[440] The standard for Ireland had always been under that of England, but the base proposal above-mentioned was happily not carried into execution. Still there were enough causes of misery in Ireland apart from its normal grievances. The Earl of Desmond wrote an elaborate and well-digested appeal to Lord Burleigh, complaining of military abuses, and a.s.suring his Lordship that if he had "sene them [the poor who were burdened with cess], he would rather give them charitable alms than burden them with any kind of chardge." He mentions specially the cruelty of compelling a poor man to carry for five, eight, or ten miles, on his back, as many sheaves as the "horse-boies" choose to demand of him; and if he goes not a "good pace, though the poor soule be overburdened, he is all the waye beaten outt of all measure."

Cess was also commanded to be delivered at the "Queen's price," which was considerably lower than the market price. Even Sidney was supposed to be too lenient in his exactions; but eventually a composition of seven years' purveyance, payable by instalments, was agreed upon, and the question was set at rest. The Queen and the English Council naturally feared to alienate the few n.o.bles who were friendly to them, as well as the inhabitants of the Pale, who were as a majority in their interest.

The Pale was kept in considerable alarm at this period, by the exploits of the famous outlaw, Rory Oge O'More. In 1577 he stole into Naas with his followers, and set the town on fire; after this exploit he retired, without taking any lives. He continued these depredations for eighteen years. In 1571 he was killed by one of MacGillapatrick's men, and the Pale was relieved from a most formidable source of annoyance. But the same year in which this brave outlaw terminated his career, is signalized by one of the most fearful acts of bloodshed and treachery on record. The heads of the Irish families of Offaly and Leix, whose extirpation had long been attempted unsuccessfully, were invited in the Queen's name, and under the Queen's protection, to attend a conference at the great rath on the hill of Mullach-Maistean (Mullamast). As soon as they had all a.s.sembled, they were surrounded by a treble line of the Queen's garrison soldiers, and butchered to a man in cold blood.

This ma.s.sacre was performed with the knowledge and approval of the Deputy, Sir Henry Sidney. The soldiers who accomplished the b.l.o.o.d.y work were commanded by Captain Francis Crosby, to whom the chief command of all the kerne in the Queen's pay was committed. We have already related some incidents in his career, which show how completely dest.i.tute he was of the slightest spark of humanity.[441]

Sir Henry Sidney retired from office finally on the 26th of May, 1578.

He dates his _Memoir_ from "Ludlow Castell, with more payne than harte, the 1st of March, 1582." In this doc.u.ment he complains bitterly of the neglect of his services by Government, and bemoans his losses in piteous strains. He describes himself as "fifty-four yeres of age, toothlesse and trembling, being five thousand pounds in debt." He says he shall leave his sons 20,000 worse off than his father left him. In one place he complains that he had not as much ground as would "feede a mutton,"

and he evidently considers his services were worth an ampler remuneration; for he declares: "I would to G.o.d the country was yet as well as I lefte it almost fyve yeres agoe." If he did not succeed in obtaining a large grant for his services, it certainly was not for want of asking it; and if he did not succeed in pacifying the country, it was not for lack of summary measures. Even in his postscript he mentions how he hanged a captain of Scots, and he thinks "very nere twenty of his men."

It seems almost needless to add anything to the official descriptions of Ireland, which have already been given in such detail; but as any remark from the poet Spenser has a special interest, I shall give some brief account of his _View of Ireland_. The work which bears this name is written with considerable prejudice, and abounds in misstatements. Like all settlers, he was utterly disgusted with the hardships he endured, though the poet's eye could not refuse its meed of admiration to the country in which they were suffered. His description of the miseries of the native Irish can scarcely be surpa.s.sed, and his description of the poverty of the country is epitomized in the well-known lines:--

"Was never so great waste in any place, Nor so foul outrage done by living men; For all the cities they shall sack and raze, And the green gra.s.s that groweth they shall burn, That even the wild beast shall die in starved den."[442]

Yet this misery never touched his heart; for the remedy he proposes poses for Irish sufferings is to increase them, if possible, a thousandfold; and he would have troops employed to "tread down all before them, and lay on the ground all the stiff-necked people of the land." And this he would have done in winter, with a refinement of cruelty, that the bitter air may freeze up the half-naked peasant, that he may have no shelter from the bare trees, and that he may be deprived of all sustenance by the chasing and driving of his cows.

It is probable that Spenser's "view" of Irish affairs was considerably embittered by his own sufferings there. He received his property on the condition of residence, and settled himself at Kilcolman Castle. Here he spent four years, and wrote the three first books of the _Faerie Queene_. He went to London with Sir Walter Raleigh to get them published. On his return he married a country girl, named Elizabeth--an act which was a disgrace to himself, if the Irish were what he described them to be. In 1598, during Tyrone's insurrection, his estate was plundered, his castle burned, and his youngest child perished in the flames. He then fled to London, where he died a year after in extreme indigence.

His description of the condition of the Protestant Church coincides with the official account of Sidney. He describes the clergy as "generally bad, licentious, and most disordered;" and he adds: "Whatever disorders[443] you see in the Church of England, you may find in Ireland, and many more, namely, gross simony, greedy covetousness, incontinence, and careless sloth." And then he contrasts the zeal of the Catholic clergy with the indifference of "the ministers of the Gospel,"

who, he says, only take the t.i.thes and offerings, and gather what fruit else they may of their livings.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE HOUSE WHERE SIR WALTER RALEIGH LIVED.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: SALTEE ISLANDS, WEXFORD.]

FOOTNOTES:

[426] _Willing_.--Sidney's Despatches, British Museum, MSS. Cat. t.i.tus B. x.

[427] _Irreligion_.--Mant, vol. i. p.287.

[428] _Scattered_.--c.o.x, vol. i. p.319.

[429] _Civility_.--Sidney's _Letters and Memorials_, vol i. p.112.

Sidney's memoir has been published _in extenso_ in the _Ulster Arch.

Journal_, with most interesting notes by Mr. h.o.r.e of Wexford.

[430] _Reformation_.--_Past and Present Policy of England towards Ireland_, p. 27. London, 1845.

[431] _Depend_.--Shirley, p. 219. An admirable _History of the Diocese of Meath_, in two volumes, has been published lately by the Rev. A.

Cogan, Catholic Priest of Navan. It is very much to be wished that this rev. author would extend his charitable labours to other dioceses throughout Ireland.

[432] _Majority_.--Leland, vol. ii. p.241.

[433] _Pike_.--This was probably the _Morris pike_ or _Moorish pike_, much used in the reign of Henry VIII and Elizabeth. The common pike was used very generally by foot soldiers until the reign of George II. The halberd was introduced during the reign of Henry VIII. It was peculiar to the royal guard, and is still carried by them. In Shirley's comedy, _A Bird in a Cage_ (1633), one of the characters is asked, "You are one of the guard?" and replies, "A Poor halberd man, sir." The caliver was quite recently introduced. It was a light kind of musket, fired without a rest. It derived its name from the _calibre_ or width of its bore.

[434] _Staffe._--This was probably a cane staff. We read in _Piers Plowman's Vision_ of "hermits on a heap with hookyd staves."

[435] _Dagges._--"Pistols."--"My _dagge_ was levelled at his heart."

[436] _Livery_--It was usual for all retainers of a n.o.ble house to wear a uniform-coloured cloth in dress. Thus, in the old play of _Sir Thomas More_, we find:

"That no man whatsoever Do walk without the _livery_ of his lord, Either in cloak or any other garment."

[437] _Irish_.--Four Masters, vol. v. pp. 1678-9. Camden mentions the capture of O'Neill, and says Ess.e.x slew 200 of his men; but he does not mention the treachery with which this ma.s.sacre was accomplished.

[438] _Pestilence_.--Memoir or Narrative addressed to Sir Francis Walsingham, 1583. Ware says he wrote "Miscellanies of the Affairs of Ireland," but the MS. has not yet been discovered. The Four Masters notice the pestilence, which made fearful ravages.