The Viceroys of Ireland Part 1

The Viceroys of Ireland.

by Charles O'Mahony.

PREFACE

This is the first complete history of the viceroys of Ireland, the only other book on the subject being the late Sir John T. Gilbert's, which was published in 1864. But as he dealt with the viceroys between 1172 and 1509 only, his book has no claim to completeness. In common with all writers on Ireland, however, I must express my acknowledgments to Gilbert. His keen and discerning research work, covering the first two hundred years of the viceroyalty, has been of the utmost value to me.

Irish affairs appear certain to monopolize public and parliamentary attention this year, and on this account I think that the history of the men who have ruled Ireland for nearly seven hundred and fifty years will be read with interest.

Of the ill.u.s.trations, that of Lord Aberdeen is from a photograph by M.

Lafayette of Dublin and London, who has also supplied the photographs of Lady Aberdeen, Lords Dudley, Spencer, Londonderry, Cadogan, and Crewe, King Edward at the {x} Dublin Exhibition, and those of the Viceregal Lodge, St. Patrick's Hall, and the Throne Room in Dublin Castle. All the other ill.u.s.trations are from photographs of the originals in the National Portrait Gallery, Dublin.

CHARLES O'MAHONY

LONDON

_June_, 1912

THE VICEROYS OF IRELAND

CHAPTER I

The conquest of Ireland by Henry II. is one of the myths of history which Time has endeavoured to crystallize into fact. Rome gave Ireland to the superst.i.tious, cowardly King of England, but the Pope could not make Henry a conqueror, and so the invader, coming to claim that which did not belong to the Pope or to himself, discovered that the native Irish could defend themselves. Ireland was a land of saints according to the chroniclers of the time; Henry discovered that it was also a land of fighters, and the armour and superior weapons of his army were outmatched by the st.u.r.dy patriotism of the Irish, whose weapons and methods were, doubtless, crude, but whose courage and determination were inspired by a love of country and intensified by a pa.s.sion for independence.

Henry II. landed at Waterford on October 11, 1171, accompanied by a great army. The conquest of Ireland was to be short, sharp, and decisive. The natives appeared to know nothing of the fine art of war, and even Henry must have tasted of courage when he viewed the ill-armed {16} legions he had to fight. From Waterford he marched to Dublin, but the result of several battles and skirmishes was an attenuated army and unexpected defeat. Had it not been for the inevitable Irish traitor, Henry and his followers would have been swept into the sea, but it is Ireland's tragedy that she produces almost as many traitors as heroes.

Dermot McMurrough, King of Leinster, anxious to gain the unmistakable advantages offered by an alliance with the King of England, came to Henry's aid, and thus the invader was at any rate able to claim the conquest of the land covered by the feet of his soldiers. Beyond that his jurisdiction was imaginary. Realizing this, Henry determined to leave Ireland. His expedition had proved profitless, but he foresaw possibilities of gain in the future. The first of a long line of Englishmen who have never known when they were beaten, Henry, with a statesmanlike disregard for the realities, divided Ireland between ten of his followers, and, nominating one of them to act as his representative, sailed from the country on Easter Monday, April 17, 1172. This, in brief, is the story of the conquest of Ireland.

[Sidenote: The first Viceroy]

Henry's representative, and, therefore, generally accepted as the first Viceroy of Ireland, was Hugh de Lacy, a descendant of one of William the Conqueror's companions in arms. To De Lacy was committed the care of Dublin Castle and the command of the English in Ireland. The viceroy was a small but muscular man, unscrupulous, immoral, and unsuccessful. Henry gave him 800,000 acres which were not the king's to give, {17} even in the Dark Ages when right was might. To a person of De Lacy's qualities the gift was valueless, for he was not the man to gain and hold the land. Even when Tiarnan O'Ruarc, the original owner, was treacherously slain, the viceroy found it impossible to a.s.sert his authority over the vast estate.

De Lacy was soon succeeded by another Anglo-Norman baron, Fitz-Gislebert, who gained Henry's confidence and grat.i.tude by helping to subdue the rebellious sons of the King of England. Fitz-Gislebert came from Normandy to Ireland. His viceroyalty was undistinguished, and he was chiefly occupied in defending himself from the attacks of the Irish or in vain endeavours to a.s.sert his authority as the representative of the King of England. When he died in 1176 his widow's brother, Raymond le Gros, acted as viceroy until Henry, having been acquainted with the decease of Fitz-Gislebert, appointed Guillaume Fitz-Aldelm de Burgh to the post in 1177. Raymond was not at all pleased with Henry's choice, but he dissembled sufficiently to receive the new viceroy at Wexford. Raymond had by now a.s.sumed the name and arms of the Geraldine family by virtue of his descent from an emigrant of an old Tuscan family, thus forming his kinsmen and followers under one banner, and becoming the most powerful member of the English colony in Ireland. Fitz-Aldelm and the Geraldines were never friendly, and it is not surprising, therefore, that one of the Geraldine chroniclers should describe the viceroy as 'corpulent, crafty, plausible, {18} corrupt, addicted to wine and profligate luxuriousness.' The description, save for the physical details, would, however, apply to almost every one of the early Viceroys of Ireland. They were for the most part needy adventurers sent to Ireland to replenish empty purses, legalized robbers commissioned by the Kings of England, and none the less thieves because they were not always successful in their mission.

[Sidenote: English defeats]

In 1177 King Henry secured the permission of the Pope to style his son John, aged twelve, Lord of Ireland, and two years later the viceroy was recalled, De Lacy returning to Ireland as Governor with a colleague in the person of Robert de la Poer of Wexford. De Lacy, however, committed the heinous crime of marrying without the king's permission, his bride being the daughter of King O'Connor, and he was superseded by Jean, Constable of Chester, who held the viceroyalty in conjunction with Richard de Peche, Bishop of Coventry. The ex-viceroy, however, managed to secure a renewal of the king's favour, and he quickly returned to Ireland, though for safety's sake Henry gave him a colleague, the Bishop of Salisbury, who was the monarch's paid spy. De Lacy pursued his policy unhampered, and very soon became wealthy and powerful. The king, learning of his representative's arrogance, decided that it was dangerous to permit a subject to taste too much of kingly power, and in 1184 he appointed his son, Prince John, now nineteen years of age, to be the chief governor of Ireland. Fortified by the Papal sanction, Prince John came {19} to Ireland with a large and costly army to impress De Lacy and his fellow-barons, and, incidentally, to subdue the turbulent Irish. An a.s.sa.s.sin removed De Lacy from his path, but the natives were stubborn, and the English were defeated whenever they gave battle. Thereupon John, with his retinue, indulged in a series of orgies, lost the remnant of his army, and after eight months returned to England in 1185.

During the succeeding four years De Courcy, a powerful baron, ruled Dublin in parts and none of the rest of Ireland, but, of course, maintained the fiction that he was the king's representative, and, therefore, Viceroy of Ireland. Then followed the first viceroyalty of Hugh de Lacy, a son of the previous viceroy, and in 1190 Guillaume le Petil took over the post and occupied it until 1191. After him came in quick succession Guillaume, Earl Marechal (1191-94), Pierre Pipard (1194), Hamon de Valognes (1197-99), and Fitz-Henry, whose father was an illegitimate son of Henry I., whose first term began in 1199 and ended in 1203. De Valognes, when he retired, had to pay 1,000 marks to the king's treasury to settle his viceregal accounts. This was not exceptional. The viceroys of Ireland were given considerable powers, but they had their responsibilities, and among these was a contract to supply so much money and soldiers to their royal masters. To satisfy these contracts, the viceroys, when denied the spoils of battle, had to rob and plunder, while the viceroy who paid his debts was as rare as virtue in Dublin Castle.

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Hugh de Lacy returned in 1203, but King John, his fears aroused by the viceroy's introduction of special coinage, recalled him in 1204, and for the s.p.a.ce of a year Fitz-Henry occupied the viceregal position. In 1205 the king issued instructions for the erection of a new Dublin Castle. De Lacy, however, had powerful friends, and in 1205 he came back once more, and ruled the English colony for five years, until King John landed at Waterford on June 20, 1210, when, of course, the vice-royalty ceased for the time being. De Lacy, more courageous and skilful than his father, had carried war into the enemy's camp, and had done something towards extending the boundaries of England's dominions beyond the frontiers of Dublin. He inst.i.tuted a system of taxation which was very profitable to him and to his royal master, but it exasperated the Irish to such an extent that they rose in rebellion.

The opposing forces met at Thurles in 1208, and the result was a signal defeat for De Lacy. The coming of King John, who did not conceal his distrust of the viceroy, caused De Lacy to concentrate his forces with a view to impressing the king. Fortune, however, was on the side of John, and De Lacy fled the country. There are many legends recounting the adventures of the once powerful n.o.bleman. He and his brother are said to have laboured as brickmakers and gardeners in Normandy and Scotland, and suffered many other indignities.

[Sidenote: Papal supremacy]

King John's stay in Ireland was brief, as the critical state of his kingdom required his presence in England. He left behind him as his representatives {21} Guillaume, Earl of Salisbury--an illegitimate son of Henry II. by the fair Rosemond Clifford--and De Grey, Bishop of Norwich. In 1213 they were succeeded by Henry de Londres, Archbishop of Dublin, a powerful prelate and an unscrupulous statesman. He was given the post because of his influence with the Pope, and John's first task for his new viceroy was to send him to Rome to induce the occupant of the Papal throne to side with him against the barons. Geoffery de Marreis, a follower of the Archbishop's, acted as his deputy during his absence abroad. The deputy robbed friend and foe alike, but eventually the trades-people of Dublin pet.i.tioned the king because De Marreis would not pay his debts and added insult to injury by compelling the traders of the city to give him further credit. King Henry III. was on the throne now, and he ordered his representative to pay all his debts within forty days. Furthermore, he was placed under the authority of the Archbishop of Dublin, Henry de Londres, who had helped to make history by forming one of the barons and ecclesiastics who compelled King John to sign the Magna Charta. The archbishop was the most powerful Englishman in the kingdom of Ireland, and, as the representative of the Pope, took precedence of the representative of the king. In 1221 he was appointed viceroy, and then ensued the usual conflict between the civil and religious powers that is inevitable when churchmen turn politicians. The English colony complained to Henry that his viceroy was unable to cope with the insurgents, and they prayed {22} for a more warlike governor. Guillaume Marechal, eldest son and heir of the first Earl of Pembroke, and afterwards second earl, was sent to Ireland as viceroy in 1224, but this brother-in-law of the king's did not find the country to his liking, and he departed in favour of Geoffery de Marreis, whose third term of office began in 1226 and ended the following year.

This viceroyalty was the first to which a definite salary was given, the sum of 580 a year being set aside for the use of Geoffery de Marreis. Richard de Burgh followed De Marreis until, in 1229, Maurice Fitzgerald a.s.sumed the reins of government. Fitzgerald was born in Ireland, and was the first Anglo-Irishman to become Viceroy of Ireland.

His viceroyalty extended over fifteen years, though at intervals the government was in the hands of Geoffery de Marreis and Richard de Burgh for a few months. The viceroy was given a salary of 500 a year, and unlimited authority to rob the native Irish, and even the English colony, provided he sent part of the proceeds to London to help to pay the king's debts and finance wars. But he fell from grace in 1245, and was dismissed, the reason given being his dilatoriness in bringing reinforcements to his royal master in Wales. Jean Fitz-Geoffery was appointed his successor, and during the ensuing ten years the government was nominally vested in him, minor changes occurring from time to time. The next viceroy, Alain de la Zouche, reigned for four years (1255-59), and died as the result of an a.s.sault made upon him by the Earl of Warrene and {23} Surrey in Westminster Hall, while his successor, Etienne, who had married the widow of the second Hugh de Lacy, was murdered in 1260.

The next half-dozen viceroys are summed up easily. Guillaume le Dene (1260-61), Sir Richard de la Roch.e.l.le (1261-66), Jean Fitz-Geoffery for the third time (1266-67), Sir Robert D'Ufford (1268 and 1276-82), Richard D'Exeter (1269), and Jacques D'Audeley (1270-72). The majority were adventurers and favourites of the king, and few could claim possession of the soldier-like qualities which were needed at the time.

Sir Robert D'Ufford was an exception, but he spent most of his time fighting abroad in the service of the King of England. Maurice Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, signalized a brief viceroyalty, extending from 1272-73, by marching into the territory of the O'Connors, and promptly being made a prisoner. The vacancy thus created was filled by Geoffery de Joinville, who held the post for three years.

[Sidenote: Sir Jean Wogan]

Jean de Saundford, Archbishop of Dublin (1288-90), was one of the numerous deputies who governed the English colony between 1282 and 1290. These deputies were mainly ecclesiastics, for England's unsettled state and numerous wars called every leading warrior away from Ireland. Sir Guillaume de Vesci (1290-93), Guillaume de la Haye (1293), Guillaume D'Ardingselles (1294), Thomas Fitzmaurice (1294-95) paved the way for Sir Jean Wogan, who was viceroy for thirteen years, and who did more to establish the authority of England than any of his predecessors. When Wogan was appointed the chief source of danger {24} to the English colonists was the feud between the two great Anglo-Irish families, the Fitzgeralds and the De Burghs. Wogan, however, succeeded in bringing them together, and they agreed to a truce. The viceroy was also fairly successful against the natives, but he made no additions to the territory over which England nominally held sway. In 1308 Sir Guillaume de Burgh was appointed to succeed Wogan, but an unexpected development occurred, and Edward II., urged on by his advisers, nominated his Gascon favourite, Piers de Gaveston, to the post. This was virtually an act of banishment, and the gay Gascon regarded it as such, but for the time he had to accept the post, which was regarded by the wealthy English barons as tantamount to exile. Ireland was not a garden of pleasant memories to the English warriors. Not one of them who had tried his skill in the country had added to his laurels, and, consequently, the only men who would accept the viceroyalty or any of the posts attached to the Dublin Castle Government were the "needy adventurers" who stood to lose nothing and gain something. From time to time the English colony pet.i.tioned the king not to send these 'needy adventurers,' but there were no others to fill the vacancies that arose.

Piers de Gaveston's case was an exception. Edward II. had advanced him to the Earldom of Cornwall, and the barons were jealous of him. They plotted against his life, but the king stood by his favourite, and eventually both parties {25} compromised by permitting Piers to go to Ireland. He did not stay in Ireland for more than a few months, for he hungered for the gay English court, and when he left the country Sir Jean Wogan renewed his viceroyalty. It was in this year--1309--that John Lech, Archbishop of Dublin, obtained a Bull from Clement V.

authorizing the establishment of a university in Dublin. The laudable project, however, was prematurely abandoned owing to the death of the archbishop. Nearly three hundred years elapsed before Dublin received its now famous university.

[Sidenote: Edward Bruce crowned]

Sir Edmund le Botiller, or Butler, succeeded Wogan in 1312, and carried on his policy. He is said to have succeeded in restoring order in the English colony and its immediate surroundings, but when reappointed in 1315, after a viceroyalty of a few months by Theobaude de Verdun, he had to cope with the most serious rebellion Ireland had known for two hundred years. The native Irish had been inspired by the exploits of King Robert Bruce of Scotland, and they called upon that monarch's brother, Edward Bruce, to rule over their country and lead them to victory. Bruce responded with alacrity, and he was crowned King of Ireland in 1315. Le Botiller collected a large army, and went in pursuit of the invader and his followers, but the viceroy suffered an overwhelming defeat, and it seemed as though the last day had come of English rule in Ireland. The inhabitants of Dublin, who were, of course, mainly English, became alarmed, but some confidence was restored at a meeting of the chief {26} n.o.bles, who swore fidelity to King Edward, and declared that they would forfeit life and lands if they failed in their duty. The manifesto, signed by ten n.o.bles, was delivered to Edward at Westminster, and he signified his approval and grat.i.tude by creating the first of the signatories, Jean Fitz-Thomas, Earl of Kildare. Fitz-Thomas had been Baron of Offaly. The defeated and discomfited Le Botiller was superseded in 1317 by Roger de Mortimer, the paramour of King Edward's queen. Mortimer brought with him 15,000 men, and while he was pursuing Bruce he appointed the Archbishops of Cashel and Dublin to act as his deputies at Dublin.

Sunday, October 14, 1318, witnessed the last of Edward Bruce and his pretensions to the kingdom of Ireland. Outnumbered and out-generalled, he was defeated and killed at the Battle of Faughard, and in accordance with the rules of war his head was sent to King Edward. When this ghastly trophy arrived, Edward was seated at a banquet with the Amba.s.sadors from King Robert Bruce of Scotland, who had asked and seemed likely to obtain the province of Ulster for Edward Bruce. The sight of Bruce's head, however, ended the conference prematurely.

[Sidenote: The first university]

Roger de Mortimer was in 1319 induced to forsake the attractions of the queen's court for the rigours of Dublin Castle, but in 1320 he was back again in London, leaving Thomas Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, to rule in his stead. Kildare was succeeded by Jean de Bermingham, Earl of Louth, {27} in 1321; while in the same year Sir Ralph de Gorges and Sir Jean d'Arcy occupied in turn the viceroyalty. D'Arcy lasted until 1326. It is worthy of note that in 1320 a university was opened in Dublin, but it was never more than a seminary for ecclesiastics.

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CHAPTER II

The year 1326 is memorable in English annals because of the deposition of Edward II. The Viceroy of Ireland, Thomas, second Earl of Kildare, was appointed that year, the warrant stating that he represented Edward III., then a boy of fourteen. The deposed monarch immediately looked to Ireland for support, and to Dublin he came, having heard that the English colony refused to acknowledge the authority of the Earl of Kildare. He was misinformed, however, and he lost his throne without being able to strike a blow for it.

[Sidenote: Prior Utlagh and witchcraft]

The Earl of Kildare gave way in 1328 to a remarkable ecclesiastic, Prior Roger Utlagh, Chancellor and Prior of the Knights Hospitallers of Kilmainham. He ruled as an autocrat, outwardly acknowledging Edward's sovereignty, but in reality a combination of layman and priest, who feared neither G.o.d nor man. When King Robert Bruce visited Ireland, and invited the Prior to a conference, he was ordered to leave the country, and he had to obey. Fellow-ecclesiastics plotted against him, but he was more than their match. When the Bishop of Ossory openly accused the viceroy of favouring heretics, Roger Utlagh made {29} it the occasion of a great public demonstration of his virtuous qualities.

The charge was based on a rumour that the viceroy had shown kindness to a man imprisoned in Dublin Castle because he was the patron of a supposed witch's son. The position was serious enough, and the viceroy, therefore, issued proclamations for three successive days, calling upon his enemies to appear and prefer a charge against him. No one came forward, as was only to be expected, the viceroy possessing arbitrary punitive powers, and Utlagh thereupon nominated six commissioners in Dublin Castle and examined witnesses provided by himself. The complacent commissioners formally declared Prior Utlagh's character to be spotless, and in return for this testimonial the worthy ecclesiastic presided over a banquet in the Castle. Thus were his enemies confounded.

The Prior retired for William de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, who was styled Lieutenant, or loc.u.m tenens. De Burgh's reign was brief, and in 1332, within a year of his appointment, he was replaced by Sir Jean d'Arcy, an ex-viceroy. The Earl of Ulster was murdered in 1333, an act of revenge inspired by an aunt whose husband the earl had starved to death in one of his castles. The crime had its effect on English history, as the Countess of Ulster fled to England with her only child, Elizabeth, who married a son of Edward III. and became an ancestor of Edward IV.

Sir Jean d'Arcy was merely viceroy in name, the deputy, Sir Thomas de Burgh, ruling in Dublin Castle until 1337, when Sir John de Cherlton, who had been {30} appointed in place of the deputy--dismissed for irregularities--occupied the post for a year. His successor was his brother, the Bishop of Hereford, who also became Chancellor. Like most ecclesiastics of the time, the Bishop of Hereford was a very zealous politician, drawing a sharp line between his spiritual and his temporal powers. He seized the cattle of the native Irish in large quant.i.ties, frequently despoiling the whole countryside of every head of live stock, and this so delighted the valorous Edward III. that he wrote a long letter of commendation to his faithful representative, and ordered the treasurer at Dublin Castle to pay the viceroy's salary before that of any other official. The year 1340 witnessed the retirement of the cattle-stealing Bishop, the reappointment and death of Prior Utlagh, and the conferring for life of the viceroyalty upon Sir Jean d'Arcy, who had covered himself with glory in the numerous wars of Edward III.

D'Arcy did not, of course, come to Ireland. The appointment was in reality the king's way of rewarding his faithful warrior, and, therefore, D'Arcy was content to share in the spoils and gains of his deputy, Sir John Moriz.

[Sidenote: Rise of the Anglo-Irish]

By now, however, a new factor entered into the protracted struggle for the possession of the rich lands of Ireland. During the centuries of English occupation several great Anglo-Irish families had arisen, and, fattening upon their spoils, gradually came to occupy positions more powerful than the representatives of the king. The heads of the Desmonds, the Geraldines, the De Burghs, and {31} others, resented the intrusion of English warriors sent to Dublin to refill their treasure chests. They wished to rule Ireland, and declined to bow the knee to impecunious adventurers invested with royal powers by the King of England. Slowly yet surely these powerful chieftains ranged themselves on one side until hostilities in Ireland were not between the English and the natives, but between the English by birth and the English by blood, jealousy and greed of gain forming the motive.