Ireland under the Tudors Part 26

By upsetting the whole ecclesiastical structure, Henry left the field clear for Jesuits and wandering friars; and his children reaped the fruits of a mistake which neutralised every effort to win Ireland.

FOOTNOTES:

[247] Indenture in O'Carroll's case, July 2, 1541, in _Carew_.

[248] Submission of O'Donnell, Aug. 6, 1541; O'Donnell to the King, April 20, 1542: 'Iterum Vestram Majestatem exortor, mittatis mihi instrumentum illud aureum, quo colla n.o.bilium cinguntur, aut katenam, vestesque congruentes, quibus vestirer decenter, quoties accederem (data opportunitate) ad Parliamentum.'

[249] Lord Deputy and Council to the King, Aug. 28, 1541; _Four Masters_, 1541: 'he left them without corn for that year.'

[250] St. Leger to the King, Dec. 17, 1541.

[251] Articles binding Con Bacagh O'Neill, in S.P., vol. iii., No. 356: 'Regem recognosco Supremum Caput Ecclesiae Anglicanae et Hibernicanae immediate sub Christo; et imposterum, in quantum potero, compellam omnes degentes sub meo regimine, ut similiter faciant; et si contingat aliquem provisorem aut provisores aliquas facultates sive bullas obtinere de praedicta usurpata auctoritate, illos sursum reddere dictas bullas et facultates cogam, et semetipsos submittere ordinationi Regiae Majestatis.'

[252] Council of Ireland to the King, S.P., vol. iii., No. 357.

[253] The King to the Lord Deputy and Council, S.P., vol. iii., No. 348.

[254] The session was from Feb. 15 to March 7 or 10; see Lord Deputy in Council to the King, March 31, 1542; for the robbers, see same to same, Nov. 25, 1544.

[255] See the submissions in _Carew_--MacBrien c.o.o.nagh, March 18, 1542; Rory O'More, May 13; MacQuillin, May 18; MacDonnell, May 18; Hugh O'Kelly, May 24; O'Byrnes, July 4; O'Rourke, Sept. 1; MacQuillin and O'Cahan, May 6, 1543. Lord Deputy and Council to the King, July 12, 1542, and Aug. 24.

[256] Desmond's visit to Court was between June 2 and July 5, 1542. Lord Deputy and Council to the King, June 2; J. Alen to the King, June 4; the King to the Lord Deputy and Council, July 5; St. Leger to the King, Aug.

27.

[257] Indentura facta 26 die Septembris, 1542, in S.P. The signatories promised jointly and severally 'usurpatam primatiam et auctoritatem Romani Episcopi annihilare, omnesque suos fautores, adjutores, et suffragatores, ad summum posse illorum precipitare et abolere ... omnes et singulos provisores ... apprehendere et producere ad Regis communem legem,' &c.

[258] Lord Deputy and Council to the Privy Council, Sept. 1, 1542; _Four Masters_, 1542.

[259] Submission made at Greenwich, Sept. 24, 1542.

[260] The creation was Oct. 1, 1542. The patent is in Rymer; the Herald's account in _Carew_, Oct. 1. O'Neill was back in Ireland before Dec. 7, when the Irish Government wrote of him to the King. Tyrone's style was--'Du treshaut et puissant Seigneur Con, Conte de Tyrone, en le Royaulme d'Irlande.'

[261] The heraldic account is printed in S.P., vol. iii. p. 473, from the Cotton MSS.; the O'Brien and Burke patents are in Rymer, Conatius being by mistake printed for Donatus; see the King to the Lord Deputy and Council, July 9, 1543; MacWilliam submitted much in the same terms as O'Neill.

[262] Hill's _MacDonnells of Antrim_, chaps. i. and ii.; Archdall's _Lodge's Peerage_, Earl of Antrim and Baron MacDonnell; Burton's _History of Scotland_, vol. iii. p. 149. For the antiquarian controversy in 1617, see _Carew_, vol. vi., Nos. 183, 188, 189, 190. 191.

[263] Hill, p. 37; John Travers's Devices in S.P., vol. iii. p. 382.

[264] Hill, p. 41; St. Leger to the King, June 4, 1543; Lord Deputy and Council to the King, June 5.

[265] St. Leger to the King, July 18, 1543, and the notes; see also _Carew_, July 15 and 16.

[266] Lord Deputy and Council to the King, May 15, 1543; same to same, Dec. 7, 1542, and the King's answer.

[267] St. Leger to the King, April 6, 1543; the King to the Lord Deputy and Council, Aug. 9; Lord Justice Brabazon and Council to St. Leger, March 24, 1544.

[268] Lord Justice Brabazon and Council to the King, May 7, 1544; same to St. Leger, March 24, where the kerne are first mentioned in the S.P.; Privy Council to Lord Justice and Council, March 30; Ormonde to the King, May 7. In a letter to the King printed in S.P., vol. iii., No. 437, O'Reilly complains that his contingent cost him 600_l._, that eight weeks of their wages remained unpaid, and that his chaplain had been taken prisoner in Scotland, and had paid eight n.o.bles for his ransom. This shows that some of the 1,000 kerne went to Scotland.

[269] Stanihurst.

[270] For these rumours, see the S.P. from May 20, 1544, till May 11, 1545, vol. iii., Nos. 407, 408, 411, 414, 415.

[271] St. Leger to Wriothesley, Feb. 26, 1545, with Lord Upper Ossory's letter in a note; to the Privy Council, April 14.

[272] Hill, p. 43. In a letter printed in S.P., vol. v. p. 483, Donnell Dhu speaks of himself as 'in materno utero inimicorum jugo et captivitati astricti, et in hoc pene tempus carceris squalore obruti, et intolerabilibus compedibus truculentissime ligati.' The notarial instrument between the islemen is in S.P., vol. v. p. 477. Lord Deputy and Council of Ireland to the King, Aug. 13, 1545.

[273] Privy Council to Lord Deputy and Council of Ireland, in S.P., vol.

iii., No. 422. See S.P., vol. v. pp. 505-7.

[274] Ormonde to Russell, Nov. 15, 1545; Lord Deputy and Council to the King, Nov. 19. Donnell Dhu died before Jan. 20, 1546, the date of a letter from James MacDonnell in S.P., vol. iii. p. 548. Dowling.

[275] Lord Deputy and Council to the Privy Council, Feb. 15, 1546, and a letter in a note from 'Ewyne Allane of Locheld.' James MacDonnell is called Lord of the Isles 'by consent of the n.o.bility,' 'apparent heir,'

'worthy to succeed,' and 'Lord elect.'

[276] Ormonde to Russell, Nov. 15, 1545.

[277] Cusack to Paget, March 28, 1546. See the S.P. from Feb. 20 to March 28, vol. iii., Nos. 431, 433, 434, 435, 438, 439, and 440.

[278] See S.P. 1546, vol. iii., Nos. 441 to 448. No. 439 is a letter from certain Irish chiefs to the King in St. Leger's favour, and they make the reflection, 'Oh si majoribus nostris tales contigissent moderatores.'

[279] Alen's Answer to St. Leger in S.P., vol. iii. No. 446, and W.

Cowley's Letter to the Privy Council, No. 448; Alen to Paget, April 21, 1549; St. Leger to Cecil, Dec. 5, 1550.

[280] Stanihurst; Morrin's _Patent Rolls_, p. 168.

[Ill.u.s.tration: IRELAND

(ECCLESIASTICAL)]

CHAPTER XV.

THE IRISH CHURCH UNDER HENRY VIII.

[Sidenote: King and Pope.]

During the quarter of a century which elapsed between Henry's accession and his final breach with Rome, the King showed great submission to the papal chair. The wishes of such a faithful son could not be lightly regarded, and royal nominations to English bishoprics were invariably confirmed by the Pontiff. Capitular elections still took place; but they had ceased to be free, and preferment was really given by the joint fiat of the Crown and the Tiara. In Ireland the King was less absolute. The popes had not forgotten their original gift of the island; and the clergy, more especially in remote regions, would naturally look to them for promotion, rather than to a King whose power was uncertain and to whom they had a national antipathy. In the year 1520 the united sees of Cork and Cloyne became vacant. Surrey, then Lord-Lieutenant, was besieged with applications, but preferred the claims of Walter Wellesley, head of the great Augustinian house of Conal in Kildare. In right of his priory Wellesley had already a seat in the Irish House of Lords, and Surrey recommended him to Wolsey as 'a famous clerk, noted the best in the land--a man of gravity and virtuous conversation and a singular mind having to English order.' Wellesley was not nominated on this occasion, either because he preferred his priory to a bishopric, or because the Cardinal had other views. In the following year the Bishop of Limerick died, and the Lord-Lieutenant and Council again strongly recommended the Prior of Conal; but the Pope nevertheless provided John Quin, a Dominican friar, and Wellesley did not become a bishop till 1529. He was then at last consecrated to Kildare, and allowed to keep his monastery, as in that situation he might very fairly do.[281]

[Sidenote: Case of Clonfert.]

The points at issue between King and Pope are well ill.u.s.trated by the case of Clonfert, which fell vacant at the moment of separation. Clement provided the Dean, Roland de Burgo, and Henry appointed Richard Nangle Provincial of the Irish Austinfriars. Nangle was consecrated and took possession of his see. Relying on his family influence, and probably upheld by popular opinion, the Papal prelate, who was armed with the power of granting indulgences and dispensations, defied the royal nominee, and Nangle was afraid to appear in public. It was proposed to bring the Burkes to their senses by laying an embargo on the trade of Galway, but this does not seem to have been done. Ten years after his original provision, and probably after the death of Nangle, De Burgo was confirmed by the King and allowed to hold his deanery and other benefices, of which he had all along kept possession, on condition of renouncing the Pope's bulls and acknowledging that he held from the Crown. The Bishop, who must have had an elastic conscience, died in harness in 1580.[282]

[Sidenote: Armagh.]