Ireland under the Tudors Part 38

He boasted that in three days he burned everything from sea to sea in a district twenty miles long, and this without meeting any opposition worth notice. Isla was the great object of the expedition; but the wind was unfavourable, and the incendiary's work could be carried on elsewhere.

Arran was accordingly devastated, the army dividing into two, so as to make the damage more complete. Isla being still inaccessible, the same fate was intended for Bute, but just as the boats were about to be manned a sudden gale sprung up, 'and that being then the weather sh.o.r.e the wind wheeled suddenly and made it the lee sh.o.r.e, whereby we being very near the sh.o.r.e were forced to ride it out for life and death in such a place as if any tackle had slipped or broken the ship whose tackle had so slipped or broken must needs have perished.' The cable of a Dublin transport parted, and she foundered with a loss of twenty-eight men. Most of the small vessels got into harbour, 'but the masters of H.M.'s ships I think thought scorn thereof.' The fine gentlemen who commanded men-of-war in those days were unwilling to take advice from the old seamen who acted as their sailing masters or pilots. With loss of boats, running rigging, and anchors, the fleet escaped, and the captains, whose courage was 'somewhat cooled,' were content after this to be controlled by their professional a.s.sociates.

[Sidenote: and is forced to retire.]

The poor little c.u.mbrays having been ravaged, the disabled vessels were just able to reach Carrickfergus after a dead beat against a stiff north-wester. Suss.e.x landed, and was nearly lost in regaining his flag-ship, the 'Mary Willoughby.' A council of war was then held, and it was found that there were provisions for only three weeks more, and that damages could not be properly repaired in Ireland. Only three ships were at all fit for service; and, moreover, 'the new bark is a ship of such length and unwieldliness in steerage as she is not to be ventured among the isles in such stormy weather, where there be many deep and narrow channels and strong tides.' It was feared that the ships might be becalmed or otherwise delayed in the isles, there was now no spare tackle in case of future storms, and it was by no means impossible that the crews and troops might starve. The hope of visiting Isla was therefore abandoned, and Suss.e.x landed the soldiers with the less ambitious intention of attacking the Scots in the Route. An English fleet and army carefully equipped and commanded by many gallant gentlemen had just succeeded in burning some barren islands, not without considerable loss to themselves, and had returned disabled without striking a blow. Suss.e.x was conscious of his failure, and begged the Queen 'not to impute any lack in me, but to consider that whatever I wrote of was feasible, is feasible, and shall with grace of G.o.d be put in execution with a great deal more than I wrote of,' &c. The expedition is not even noticed in the Scots correspondence of the time, nor was anything done to retrieve matters on land. Out of 1,100 soldiers, but 400 were fit for service, the rest being prostrated by illness caused by the foul water on board ship.[421]

[Sidenote: Activity of Suss.e.x. He leaves Ireland at Mary's death.]

Want of activity at least could not be charged against Suss.e.x, who carried out strictly the spirit of the Queen's instructions, which desired him to be constantly on the move. He was at Leighlin a few days after his return from Scotland, and then returned to Dublin, where the affairs of Munster occupied his attention. The old Earl of Desmond was dead, and his son Gerald, destined to a disturbed life and a miserable death, succeeded to the splendid but troublesome inheritance of the Southern Geraldines. He promised fair, and was knighted by the Lord Deputy's hands, who went to Waterford to receive his homage and to admit him to the earldom. Sir Maurice Fitzgerald of Decies, who ruled about one half of the county of Waterford, also made his submission, promising to obey the law and make others obey it, to give his help to all judges, commissioners, and tax-gatherers, and to secure free admission for all to the markets at Waterford, Dungarvan, and elsewhere. The news of Mary's death reached Ireland soon after this, and Suss.e.x, who had already obtained leave to go to England, hurried away to pay his court to the new sovereign. He left Ireland tolerably quiet.[422]

[Sidenote: Story as to an intended Marian persecution in Ireland.]

Mary did all she could to efface her father's anti-Roman policy; but no Irish persecution took place. This may have been less from the Queen's want of will than from the insignificance of the Protestants in Ireland.

It is said that many people fled from the western parts of England in hope of sharing the comparative immunity enjoyed by the small Protestant congregation in Dublin. One story seems to show that this had attracted attention, and that Dublin would not have long escaped. It rests on the testimony of Henry Usher, one of the fathers of Trinity College and afterwards Archbishop of Armagh, and was repeated by his more famous nephew James Usher, and by other public men of repute. Henry Usher died at a great age in 1613, and was Treasurer of St. Patrick's as early as 1573. In the absence of anything to rebut it, such evidence can hardly be rejected. The story is that a Protestant citizen of Dublin named John Edmonds had a sister living at Chester married to one Mattershed, who kept an inn or lodging-house in which Cole, Dean of St. Paul's, slept when on his way to purge the Irish Church. 'Here,' said Cole, in the hearing of his hostess, 'is a commission that shall lash the heretics of Ireland.' The good woman watched her opportunity, possessed herself of the doctor's wallet, and subst.i.tuted a pack of cards for the commission--a service for which she received a pension of 40_l._ from Queen Elizabeth. On reaching Dublin, Cole went straight to the Castle, where the Lord Deputy, who had just returned from his Scotch expedition, was sitting in council. Cole declared his business in a set speech; but when the secretary opened his wallet he found only the cards, with the knave of clubs uppermost. Suss.e.x had conformed to the dominant creed, but had probably no wish to be a persecutor, and may have rejoiced at Cole's discomfiture. 'Let us have another commission,' he said, 'and we will shuffle the cards in the meanwhile.' A new scourge for the heretics was despatched, but before it came to hand Mary's unhappy career had closed.[423]

[Sidenote: Death of Mary and Reginald Pole.]

The weak enthusiast who, far more than Gardiner or Bonner, must share the responsibility for the persecution with which this Queen's name is inseparably connected, was not long divided from her in death. Reginald Pole survived his kinswoman some twenty-two hours, and almost the last sounds to reach his ears were the cheers with which a people that breathed freely once more greeted the accession of Queen Elizabeth.

FOOTNOTES:

[391] Morrin's _Patent Rolls_, p. 304.

[392] Instructions for Sir A. St. Leger, Oct. 1553; Morrin's _Patent Rolls_, pp. 300-304.

[393] Pet.i.tion of Connor MacCarthy, 1553. The Queen to Suss.e.x, July 6, 1558. Orders taken at Drogheda, Dec. 6, 1553, in _Carew_.

[394] Bale's select works, Parker Society; _King Johan_, a play, ed. J.

Payne Collier, Camden Society; 'G.o.d's promises in all ages of the old law,' in Dodsley's _Old Plays_, vol. i.; a brief comedy or interlude of John Baptist in _Harl. Misc._ vol. i.

[395] Bale's _Vocation_; Cotton's _Fasti_, vol. i. p. 123.

[396] Bale's _Vocation_; Ware's _Annals_. Queen Elizabeth to the two St.

Legers, calendared under 1559 (No. 85). Dr. Reid printed the following contemporary epigram:--

'Plurima Lutherus patefecit, Platina multa, Quaedam Vergerius, cuncta Balaeus habet.'

[397] Hook's _Life of Pole_, vol. iii. p. 359, note; Machyn's _Diary_, Jan. 27, 1554; _Life of Sir Peter Carew_, ed. by Macleane, and also printed in _Carew_, vol. i.

[398] Brady; Cotton. Dowling says of Thonory: 'Pro dolore amissionis thesauri sui per fures mortuus. Fures confitebantur et executi.'

[399] Indentures with the O'Briens, Sept. 1554, in _Carew_; _Four Masters_, 1554.

[400] Sarpi's _Council of Trent_, trans. by Courayer, lib. v. cap. 15, and the _notes_. Dr. Lingard, vol. v. end of chap. v., objects to Fra Paolo's account, but I cannot see that his own much differs.

[401] Brady; Hook's _Life of Pole_; Ware's _Life of Curwin_; Rymer, Feb.

22, and April 25, 1555; Morrin's _Patent Rolls_, p. 339.

[402] Hooker in Holinshed; St. Leger to Petre, Dec. 18, 1555; _Four Masters_, 1555. James MacDonnell's agents to Calvagh O'Donnell, calendared under 1554 (No. 7).

[403] Instructions to Lord Fitzwalter, April 28, 1556, in _Carew_.

_Sidney Papers_, i. p. 85.

[404] Ware's _Annals_.

[405] Suss.e.x's Journal, Aug. 8, 1556, in _Carew_; Sidney's Relation, in _Carew_; 1583; Lord Deputy Fitzwalter to the Queen, Jan. 2, 1557; _Calendar of Foreign State Papers_, Oct. 28, 1556.

[406] Opinions of Lord Fitzwalter, Jan. 2, 1557. He mentions hake as 'a kind of salt fish much eaten in Ireland.'

[407] Privy Council to Lord Deputy, Sept. 30, 1556; Orders for Leix, Dec.; Lord Deputy to the Queen, Jan. 2, 1557. An Act of Parliament was pa.s.sed in 1557, ent.i.tling the Crown to Leix and Offaly, and authorising the Lord Deputy to make grants under the Great Seal.

[408] Proceedings of the Deputy and Council, Feb. 25, 1557, in _Carew_.

_Four Masters_ for 1555 and 1556.

[409] _Four Masters_, 1555 and 1556. Proceedings of Deputy and Council, Feb. 25, 1557, in _Carew_. Dowling says Connel O'More was 'apud pontem Leighlin cruci affixus.' Ware's _Annals_.

[410] Thomas Alen to Cecil, Dec. 18, 1558; Letters of Queen Mary, calendared under 1557 (Nos. 63 and 64), and pet.i.tions (Nos. 65 and 66).

For grants of abbey-lands, see Morrin's _Patent Rolls_, pa.s.sim. Mary's only Irish Parliament (3 and 4 Phil. et Mar.), met June 1, 1557, in Dublin. There were adjournments to Limerick and Drogheda. See Stuart's _Armagh_, p. 244, and Rymer, Dec. 1, 1556.

[411] July 1557; Journal by Suss.e.x of that date in Carew; _Four Masters_, 1557.

[412] October; _Four Masters_, 1557.

[413] _Four Masters._ This was towards the end of 1557.

[414] _Four Masters_, 1557.

[415] Lord Justice Sidney and Council to the Privy Council, Feb. 8, 1558; Desmond to the Queen, Feb. 5 and Feb. 23, and her answer, April 19; Sidney to Suss.e.x, Feb. 26, and to the Queen, March 1.

[416] Piers to Curwin, Feb. 14, 1558; Suss.e.x to Boxoll, June 8; Articles by an Irishman, 1558 (No. 15).

[417] The Queen's letters are all dated March 12.

[418] See instructions in _Carew_, March 20; Estimate for munitions, March 13.

[419] Machyn's _Diary_; Suss.e.x to Privy Council, April 7, with inclosures; Dowdall to Heath, Nov. 17, 1557.

[420] This tour is in _Carew_, i. 274-277; the date in the end of July 1558.

[421] For the expedition to the isles, see Suss.e.x to the Queen, Oct. 3, Oct. 6, and Oct. 31, 1558.

[422] Journeys by the Earl of Suss.e.x, July and Nov. 1558, in _Carew_; oath of Gerald Earl of Desmond, Nov. 28.

[423] Ware's _Life of Browne_. In their instructions to the Lord Deputy and Council, Philip and Mary say:--'Lord Cardinal Poole, being sent unto us from the Pope's Holiness and the said See Apostolic Legate of our said realms, mindeth _in brief time_ to despatch into Ireland certain his commissioners and officials to visit the clergy _and other members_ of the said realm of Ireland,' &c., _Carew_, April 28, 1556.