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Lord Leonard Grey Deputy, 1536.

Grey was immediately chosen Lord Justice by the Council, and his patent as Deputy was not long delayed. He began badly, his temper involving him in one of those personal difficulties which led to his ruin. He had never been on good terms with his predecessor, and was at no pains to make a decent or politic show of regret. Less than a month after her husband’s death Lady Skeffington wrote to Anne Boleyn, declaring that she was overwhelmed with debt through his liberality in advancing money for the public service. She had already complained to Cromwell of Grey’s harshness, and her son-in-law Anthony Colley went so far as to accuse him of shortening the late Deputy’s life. Aylmer and Alen, afterwards Grey’s most unrelenting enemies, were included in Lady Skeffington’s complaint. The Council now sustained Grey, but it was not in official documents that the politicians of Dublin were wont to assail a chief governor whose hand might after all be heavy against them. Verbal messages and innuendoes contained in private letters seldom failed to undermine a man whom it might be neither safe nor decent to accuse openly. Grey now contented himself with saying that the late Lord Deputy had died in debt, and that his property was held in pledge for his creditors. But Lady Skeffington replied, and no doubt truly, that the official salary had never been paid, and that she could do nothing without it. Cromwell at least believed her, for he gave orders that her goods should be delivered to her, and that she should be sped on her homeward journey. Grey complied in the most ungracious manner, and had all the luggage and furniture turned out of Maynooth Castle before carts could be provided to carry it away. It was stored in a church, and there further detained by the new Deputy for a debt to the Crown. Lady Skeffington was unable to leave for eight or nine months after her husband’s death, and obstacles were placed in her way to the last. There may have been faults on both sides, but had Grey been either a good-natured or a politic man he might have found means to smooth matters for a widowed lady whose chief desire was the very general one of wishing to get out of Ireland as quickly as possible.171

Parliament of 1536.

Grey was commissioned to summon a Parliament, which accordingly met on Monday, May 1, the day before Anne Boleyn was sent to the Tower. In less than three weeks a number of important bills were passed, of which drafts carefully settled by Audeley himself had been sent from England. The succession was secured to the issue of Anne Boleyn, as Brabazon wrote only two days before that unfortunate lady’s execution. Before the letter reached London Jane Seymour had already been Queen a full fortnight, and Cromwell’s concern was, if possible, to stop the passing of an Act which would have to be repeated so soon. It was too late to do this, but the Parliament made no difficulty about enacting the same stringent rule of succession for the third as they had done for the second wife. They thus achieved the unique distinction of passing two contradictory Acts of Settlement within eighteen months. This remarkable performance does not adorn the printed statute book, because that compilation was made when Elizabeth was firmly seated on the throne.172

The royal supremacy.

The bill declaring the King to be supreme head of the Church encountered some opposition from the proctors of the clergy, two of whom were summoned to Parliament from each diocese. The proctors had only consultative voices, but they now claimed not only to be full members of Parliament, but to form a separate order whose consent would be necessary to every change in the law. An Act was passed declaring them no members of the body of Parliament, as they had ‘temerariously assumed and usurpedly taken upon them to be.’ In spite of their opposition and of much secret discontent, a series of Acts were passed to emancipate the Irish Church from Roman influences, or rather for subjecting her to King Stork instead of to King Log. All dues hitherto paid to Rome were forbidden, and the election and consecration of bishops were withdrawn from papal control. Appeals were transferred from the Pope to the King. The payment of first-fruits was imposed on all secular dignitaries and beneficed clergymen, abbots and priors being for the time exempted. The abrogation of this heavy and oppressive tax was reserved for the energy of Swift or the piety of Anne. By Audeley’s advice the English heresy laws were not copied in Ireland. An Act was passed to validate the proceedings of this Parliament, though it had been held contrary to Poyning’s law, but the spirit if not the letter of that famous measure had been observed by preparing the bills in England. Indeed, the Parliament was as subservient as any official could wish. ‘The Common House,’ wrote Brabazon, ‘is marvellous good for the King’s causes, and all the learned men within the same be very good; so that I think all causes concerning the King’s grace will take good effect.’173

The Act of Absentees.

The weakening of the English power in Ireland by the non-residence of great proprietors had long been recognised. Edward III., on the occasion of his son Lionel’s mission, announced by proclamation that the lands of absentees would be granted to Englishmen willing and able to defend them against the Irish. An English Parliament under Richard II. provided that in case of absenteeism the Viceroy and Council might divert two-thirds of the rents and profits to the defence of the country in ordinary cases; one-third in the case of students, of persons absent on the King’s service, or of those who had leave of absence under the great seal. Whether or not this English law was ever re-enacted or obeyed in Ireland, forfeiture was considered an incident of non-residence, and special Acts were passed to protect those who left Ireland on the public service. Henry VI. made a law ordering his subjects of Ireland to return to their own country. By Poyning’s Act the statute of Richard II. obtained full force in Ireland, and it was shortly afterwards provided afresh that all licences of absence should be under the great seal of England, exceptions being made in favour of the religious orders and of students. The momentous Act now passed declared that many great proprietors had notoriously failed to defend their lands, whereby the King was forced to incur great expense in bringing an army to Ireland. The persons specially mentioned were Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, and his coparcener Lord Barkley, who claimed and held the seigniories and lordships of Carlow, Old Ross, &c.; George Talbot, Earl of Waterford and Salop, who held the seigniory of Wexford; and the heirs general of the Earl of Ormonde, who held divers possessions and lands. To these were added the Abbots of Furness, Bristol, Osney, and Bath; the Priors of Canterbury, Lanthony, Cartmel, and Keynsham; and the master of St. Thomas of Acon in London. All this property was resumed to the Crown, saving the rights of residents in Ireland, who held under the dispossessed lords. Wexford was at once placed under a royal seneschal, and was so governed till the reign of James I. The Crown thus became one of the greatest of Irish landlords, and the foundations of a reconquest were laid.174

The O’Neills.

While Parliament was sitting Phelim O’Neill, chief of Clandeboye, came to Dublin and covenanted with the Lord Deputy to attend all great hostings and to make war upon all enemies of the Government within a day’s march of his own country. He promised not to aid or harbour rebels, and to submit all differences between his people and the King’s subjects to peaceful arbitration. The great Leinster chief, Cahir MacEncross Kavanagh, also came to terms, agreed to supply twelve horsemen and twenty kerne in all hostings, and to employ his whole force on journeys of not more than three days’ duration. He promised to submit disputes to the arbitration of Ossory and his son. Redmond Savage, the chief of an English family in Down which had long conformed to Celtic usages, made a similar agreement, and also promised to pay the Lord Deputy for his friendship 100 fat cows and a good horse, or fifteen marks Irish. Grey went himself to Dundalk, where Con O’Neill met him. The chief of Tyrone renewed the promises made to Skeffington, binding himself to attend all hostings and do his best against Scotch intruders, but he gave no hostages, and an invasion of his country was not believed to be practicable. The Lord Deputy then returned to Dublin, where a new and very serious danger demanded his presence.175

Want of money. Mutiny.

‘Lack of money,’ as Grey expressed it, ‘after the late robbing and spoiling,’ was the great difficulty of the English in Ireland during the whole Tudor period. The King now sent 7,000l., but that sum still left the soldiers’ pay three months in arrear. There were many differences among the members of Council, but they all agreed in demanding more money. The northern spearmen, on the report that they were not to be paid in full, mutinied openly, declaring that they would have all or none. They refused to hear the King’s letter read, threatened the lives of the Vice-Treasurer and Chief Justice, declared that they would not serve without wages, and that if they were not paid they would ‘board with the Council at their houses, in spite of their hearts.’ The astute borderers carried their point, for they received full payment, while Grey’s own retainers were sent empty away. Saintloo’s men at Waterford also showed a mutinous spirit, but they were silenced for a time by receiving part of what was due to them.176

Grey travels southward.

Parliament having adjourned to Kilkenny, Grey followed it thither, the army being victualled for a month. Having made arrangements for restoring the fortifications at Powerscourt, Woodstock, and Athy, Grey left the defence of the Pale to Brabazon, adjourned the Parliament to Limerick, and himself set out for Desmond’s country. Besides Ossory and his son and the usual force of the four shires, O’Carroll, MacMurrough, O’Byrne, Lord Roche, and the gentlemen of Wexford and Waterford, accompanied the Lord Deputy. He was also attended by William Body, a confidential servant whom Cromwell had sent over to gather information, and whom he afterwards mentioned in his will. Body travelled to Ireland with George Browne, the new Archbishop of Dublin, and first busied himself in trying to arrange Grey’s dispute with Lady Skeffington. He had particular instructions to inquire as to the possibility of increasing the Irish revenue.177

The Desmond country. Carrigogunnell.

Marching unopposed across the central plain, Grey found the great Desmond stronghold on Lough Gur undefended, the doors and windows having been carried off and the roof purposely burnt. It was handed over to Lord Butler, who undertook to repair and garrison it at his own expense. Grey then marched to Carrigogunnell, an immense fortress standing in a commanding position over the Shannon. Matthew O’Brien surrendered the place on condition, as was alleged by Body, that it should be garrisoned only by Englishmen. An order was nevertheless given to hand it over to Donogh O’Brien, Ossory’s son-in-law. This chief came to Grey and renewed the offers made to Butler. He was ready to serve the King against his father and all others, provided he might have Carrigogunnell; and the Council considered his services more important to them than the castle could be to him. But the English guard restored the place to Matthew O’Brien. Donogh was certainly not an Englishman, and George Woodward, ‘an honest and an hardy man,’ may have thought himself bound in honour to restore the original situation, or he may have thought one O’Brien as good as another. Grey merely says that Matthew held out boldly until the battering train was in position, when he was content to depart with bag and baggage.178

Grey attacks the O’Briens, August, 1536.

The next undertaking was an attack on O’Brien’s Bridge, which had long laid Limerick and Tipperary open to attack. The bridge was of wood, with a castle at each end built in the water. That near the Limerick shore was the strongest, and was of hewn limestone or marble, twelve or fourteen feet thick, and armed with an iron gun carrying shot as big as a man’s head, and two small pieces, of which one belonged to some ship, and the other was of Portuguese make. The garrison had also some muskets and hand-guns, and the work was skilfully strengthened with wooden barriers and with hogsheads full of sand. Under Donogh O’Brien’s guidance the Lord Deputy marched along the hilly bank of the great river by devious paths, untravelled hitherto, as he believed, by Englishmen or by wheels. The four land-arches had been broken down, and the castle was thus surrounded by water. The royal artillery consisted of one culverin, six falcons, and one half-saker, but these were not heavy enough. In a day and a half all the shot had been fired away, and the walls were almost as sound as ever. No baggage train had been brought, provisions were scarce, and two nights had been spent on the bare ground; it was necessary to retire or to take the castle. Brushwood was abundant, and Grey set his men to make fascines and to throw them into the channel. Ladders were also made, but it became unnecessary to use them; for Saintloo’s men advanced along the frail and shifting path and carried the castle with a rush. The garrison ran out at the other side, and the bridge was then broken down with such tools as were at hand. The army then returned to Limerick, and Lord Butler went to Carrick-on-Suir for more cannon before undertaking the recovery of Carrigogunnell, which the Irish had again seized by stratagem.179

William Body. His report to Cromwell.

Body, with the insolence of a great man’s favourite, had throughout this expedition assumed the character of a Royal Commissioner, to which he had not a shadow of title. He associated with the loosest of boon companions, who disturbed the camp by night and day and swore, with the truth born of alcohol, that he was no Commissioner. At O’Brien’s Bridge he blamed Grey for not providing sapping tools, which must have tired out the soldiers, and which would have been quite useless. He was very indignant at having to sleep on the ground ‘from Friday inclusive until Tuesday exclusive,’ but no one else was better off. Grey, a thorough soldier, was at no pains to conceal his contempt:—

‘I desired him to be contented, for I had seen better men than he was, or should be, or any that was there, lodged worse. He was displeased therewith, desiring me not to judge what his fortune might be. Then I said, I was sure he should never be so good as the Duke of Norfolk, and Suffolk, and my lord my brother (the Marquis of Dorset), whom I had seen lodged worse. Whereat he took a great fume for that I should judge any impossibility what he might be; and thereupon leaving us at our coming to Limerick, departed towards Dublin in a great anger. But of his gests by the way the folly of it is such, I will not commit to writing, but, I assure you, like no Commissioner.’

This short experience of Irish campaigning was enough for Body, who returned to Dublin and busied himself in undermining Grey’s influence. Few seem to have had his good word, except Ossory and his son, who took care to be civil to Cromwell’s confidential man. But Body was perhaps a better judge of a country than of a general’s qualifications. ‘As far as I have seen it,’ he wrote, ‘that is to say the counties of Dublin, Kildare, Carlow, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Ormond, Ossory, Desmond, Limerick, and Thomond, if there be any paradise in this world, it may be accounted for one among them, both for beauty and goodness.’180

The soldiers refuse to go beyond Shannon.

The army which Grey had at Limerick did not much exceed 2,000 men, including the Butlers and their not very trustworthy Irish allies. The Pale had been much exhausted by the Kildare rebellion, and it was purposely spared, much to the indignation of Body, who, like many other casual visitors, fancied he understood Ireland better than men who had studied it for years. The Lord Deputy had only 700 men of his own and had no money to pay them. Saintloo’s company had received some part of their money at Waterford, but broke out again soon after leaving that city; and it was supposed that two subalterns, Gerbert and Powell, were the true ringleaders. Grey’s gunners stood firm, and by threatening to use the guns he kept the mutineers quiet for a time. They behaved, as we have seen, with great gallantry at O’Brien’s Bridge; but they refused to go beyond the Shannon, and the idea of a pursuit into Clare was therefore given up. The Council thought Grey’s person in danger, and he owned to more peril from his soldiers than from the Irish enemy. He could depend only on his own immediate followers, 100 horse and as many foot, and upon one officer, that Stephen Parry whom we have met before. Whenever the bulk of the troops were called upon to perform a service they all answered together, ‘Let us have money, and we will do it.’181

The Butlers and O’Briens. Carrigogunnell.

The troops being pacified for the moment and Lord Butler having arrived with another battering piece, the garrison of Carrigogunnell, consisting partly of Desmond men and partly of O’Briens, were summoned to surrender on promise of their lives, and warned that if the castle had to be taken by force no quarter should be shown to man, woman, or child. They detained the messenger and returned no answer. A breach was soon made, and, after more than one failure and the loss of thirty men killed and wounded, the castle was taken by storm. Seventeen of the defenders were killed in the fight, and of forty-six survivors all were put to death on the spot, except certain gentlemen of the O’Briens, for whom large ransoms were refused, and who were taken to Limerick, tried for high treason, and immediately executed. Chief Justice Aylmer accompanied the army for such purposes. The castle was handed over to Lord Butler, who placed it in his brother-in-law’s charge, and Donogh, having gained his great object, became a scourge to the citizens of Limerick.182

Grey cannot pay his army.

The troops positively refused to go into Clare without receiving their arrears, and Grey had nothing to give. He therefore proposed to leave them at Limerick, Cork, and Kilmallock; giving his own and the Council’s security for their victualling until the King should think proper to send money. They refused; and Butler’s men, after twenty days’ trial of Lough Gur, would stay there no longer unless the towns had English garrisons. James Fitz-Maurice, whom the King acknowledged as Earl of Desmond, and who had a party in the country, was not at hand, and as no one could take his place the castle was abandoned. The artillery was left at Limerick and Clonmel, and the Lord Deputy went back to meet Parliament at Dublin. His expedition had shown that a small army well led and well paid could go anywhere and do anything in Ireland, and that feudal castles could do nothing against a proper siege train; but it had also shown that the necessary conditions were not likely to be fulfilled under a King who gave away priories while crossing passages, and who staked one of the finest peals of bells in London upon a single throw of the dice.183

The Duke of Richmond dies, 1536.

The death of the Duke of Richmond, whom his father no doubt intended to advance and whom Charles V. even thought, or professed to think, destined to succeed him, made no difference to the country which he nominally governed. It was indeed at first supposed that Acts of Parliament passed after his death would be invalid, but the lawyers seem to have decided that this was not the case.184

The revenue. Abuses.

The actual revenue of Ireland, derived partly from forfeitures and partly from a parliamentary grant, amounted at this time to about 5,000l., of which 1,000l. was not paid. Henry, who was of course obliged to supplement this, complained that he got very little for his money, and wished to reduce the Irish establishment. He declared that he valued an increase of income less for himself than for the common good of Ireland. ‘A great sort of you,’ he wrote to the Lord Deputy and Council (we must be plain), ‘desire nothing else but to reign in estimation and to fleece from time to time all that you may catch from us.’ He announced therefore that he was about to send an independent person with ample powers to inquire into Irish affairs. He gave Brabazon detailed instructions for a survey of marsh lands, and bade him go to war no more but apply himself wholly to financial affairs. No salary was to be paid to any officer who acted by deputy, and none but customary fees exacted. Henry said he was determined to reform Ireland, and would value his servants there according to their merits in that behalf. ‘If anyone,’ he wrote, ‘directly or indirectly devised and practised the let, hindrance, or impeachment of this our purpose for any respect, whereunto we will not fail to have a special eye, we shall so look upon him what degree soever he shall be of, as others shall, by his example, beware how they shall misuse their Prince and sovereign Lord, and transgress his most dread commandment.’185

Ireland cannot be governed without money.

To this formidable letter Grey and his Council answered that the army had never been properly paid, and had in consequence often mutinied, that they had spent every farthing of revenue on public objects, and had raised large additional sums on their own credit, that credit was now quite exhausted, and that without money to pay off the men it was impossible further to reduce the military establishment. Brabazon had accounted or was ready to account for every penny, ‘and as to our desire to reign in estimation, it is to be thought that among civil people there can no name of dignity or honour be in estimation, unless thereunto be annexed rule and riches. Would to God his Majesty did know our gain and riches, which is so great that we of the mean sort of this Council, being his Grace’s officers among us all, we suppose be not worth in money and plate 1,000l. Irish, which is a small substance for us all, being in the rooms that we be under his Grace. We be no such purchasers of possessions, builders, dicers, nor carders, neither yet pompous householders whereby we should consume our profits and gain if we had them.’186

Grey attacks the O’Connors, 1537.

Those best acquainted with the country at this time believed that the necessary precedent to its reduction was a thorough conquest of Leinster. The overthrow of the Kildare Geraldines was necessary, but had its inconveniences. They had been a standing menace to the Government, but they had kept the Irish at bay, and their fall left the marches quite open. Without security either of life or title no one would work the forfeited lands, and the margin of waste grew broader every day. Grey’s temper and talents made him prefer war to diplomacy, and he resolved to strike at O’Connor, whose hostages were in his hands, and who was under recognizance to deliver 800 cows to the King, but who had regained complete possession of Offaly. His brother Cahir had suffered the not uncommon fate of those who support Irish governments, and had been an exile for two years. Grey, Brabazon, and Aylmer took fourteen days’ provisions from Dublin, and were joined on the march by Lords Delvin, Slane, and Killeen, and by William Saintloo, now seneschal of Wexford, with his own company and 100 kerne. They passed along the southern edge of Westmeath to MacGeohegan’s country, the modern barony of Moycashel, and took hostages from that chief and from O’Molloy, whose district lay further south. On the same day Brabazon got possession of Brackland Castle through the treachery of an inmate, who acted in Cahir O’Connor’s interest, and who was pardoned while the rest of the garrison were beheaded. The soldiers destroyed all that lay in their path, and on the fifth day arrived before Dangan, afterwards Philipstown, which had been fortified with some skill. The march was only of five or six miles, but the ground was boggy, and a road had to be made with fascines and hurdles. The ditches about the castle were filled in the same way, and the courtyard was forced before nightfall. Three days were spent in waiting for one large and two small pieces of artillery, and on the bright May morning following their arrival fire was opened upon the keep. After four hours’ cannonade, resulting as usual in those days with the disabling of the principal gun, a breach was made and the castle at once stormed. The walls were dismantled, and the heads of their twenty-three defenders set on poles ‘for a show to the O’Connors.’ On the next day Ossory’s second son Richard, afterwards created Viscount Mountgarret, came to excuse his father, who had been kept away by ill-health. O’Connor in the meantime had fled into O’Carroll’s country, ‘which O’Carroll,’ Grey carefully notes, ‘is the Earl of Ossory’s friend.’ The punishment of O’Carroll for harbouring the fugitive was nevertheless entrusted to Richard Butler, partly to punish his tardiness, and partly because Grey’s fifteen days’ provisions were almost gone. It was an absurd expedient, and before the end of the year O’Connor was back and Cahir had fled the country. The sole result of the expedition was to show the force of artillery; yet Henry, unless his language be thought ironical, calls it a notable exploit. ‘If, however,’ the King added, ‘he should be suffered to enter again, it should but add a further courage to that traitorous malice which by all likelihood is so entered, that it will not be removed.’187

Grey makes many enemies.

Grey had many enemies, for he was not conciliatory, and his relationship to the Geraldines laid him open to the suspicions of all who had risen on the ruins of the House of Kildare. With Brabazon, the ablest man about him, he had long been on cold terms, and many supposed that the Vice-Treasurer thought he ought to have been Deputy himself. Thomas Agard, Vice-Treasurer of the Mint, a sour but apparently honest Puritan, hated Grey for his attachment to old religious forms, and Archbishop Browne lost no opportunity of attacking him on the same grounds. Alen, Master of the Rolls, a useful public servant, but with an inborn love of intrigue, gave trouble to every successive chief governor. Robert Cowley and his son were devoted to the House of Ormonde, which Grey thought too powerful. The Deputy did not favour the innovations in religion, and took no pains to hide his dislike to Browne and Agard; but with the rest he was always ready to co-operate. The King, however, found it hard to reconcile conflicting accounts, and resolved to send over Commissioners unconnected with Irish factions to report upon the actual state of affairs. The persons selected were Anthony St. Leger, of Ulcombe in Kent, one of the wisest statesmen who ever represented the English Crown in Ireland; George Paulet, a younger brother of the astute courtier who is best known as Marquis of Winchester, but not equally endowed with prudence; Thomas Moyle, of Gray’s Inn, Receiver-General of the Court of Augmentations, and afterwards Speaker of the English House of Commons; and William Berners, auditor of the same court. The Irish Government was directed to treat them with as much deference as if the King were present; and they were ordered to treat Grey with much consideration, and to take his advice when possible. The latter instruction, so well calculated to soothe the Lord Deputy’s wounded pride, was not directly made known to him. The Commissioners were ordered to present their credentials to the Lord Deputy as soon as they reached Dublin, and then to summon the Council and read the King’s letter, in which he promised to remember their good services. ‘If, on the other side,’ he added, ‘we shall not find you now faithful officers, ministers, and good councillors, but men given more to your own affectes, commodities, and gains, than earnestly bent to our satisfaction, we shall again so look upon the best of you so misusing himself for it, as shall be little cause to rejoice at length of his doings in that behalf.’188

The King sends a special Commission.

The first duty imposed on the Commissioners was the reduction of expenditure and the increase of revenue. As a cheap defence to the Pale, hostages were to be generally taken, and the army was, if possible, to be cut down to 340 picked men, inclusive of garrisons. Horsemen were to receive 8l. yearly, footmen 4l., constables of castles 13l. 6s. 8d., gate-keepers 6l. 13s. 4d., under-warders 4l. 13s. 4d.—all in Irish currency, or about two-thirds of the sterling amounts. The Vice-Treasurer was in future to visit all garrisons quarterly, to see that deserving men received commands, and to provide for frequent musters of all borne on the books. All soldiers in excess of the new establishment were to be paid off with money specially provided, and the King, with a touch of his daughter’s temper, gave orders that they should be induced if possible to take less than their due. The Commissioners were to survey waste lands and were authorised to give leases for twenty-one years, with a clause of forfeiture for non-observance of the laws as to English dress and for alliance with Irish rebels—the penalties provided by law being also enforced. After this all offices and officers were to be subjected to rigid scrutiny, with a view to increased efficiency and reduced expense. Detailed instructions were given as to public accounts, and Brabazon was to be repaid all he had spent in annoying the King’s rebels.

Powers of this Commission.

The control of legislation was also given to the Commissioners, who were to see various Acts for the establishment of royal authority in Church and State duly passed. They were to inquire as to the claims of clerical proctors to interfere in Parliament, were themselves to have a right of entry as the King’s councillors, and were to expound the royal policy ‘with all their wit and dexterity, and with such stomach, where they shall perceive any man frowardly, perversely bent to the let and impeachment of the King’s purpose in the same, as they may the rather by their wisdom both conduce the thing to effect and reconcile the parties that before would show themselves so wilful and obstinate.’ Messages to this effect were sent to both Houses, both Wolsey and Cromwell relying upon a species of intimidation of which Charles I.’s attempt on the five members is the last recorded example. The Commissioners afterwards exercised the power of dissolving Parliament.

The King has vague good intentions.

The Commissioners were to examine charges of taking money from the rebels which were brought against many men highly placed in Ireland; Henry rightly supposing that many nominal subjects connived at treason, as in the case of O’Brien’s Bridge, which had cost much to take and to demolish, and which was now as strong and as troublesome as ever. But he did not choose to see that want of money was the chief cause of this failure. He was indeed, he said, determined to make a full reformation some day, and the information now collected would be very useful when the convenient season arrived. In the meantime, the Commissioners were to reduce the garrison to 340 men.

The Commissioners arrive in Ireland, 1537. Grey’s activity against the Irish.

St. Leger and his companions set out early in August, but were detained by adverse winds about Holyhead, and did not arrive at Dublin till the middle of September. Grey had unusually strong reasons for exertions, and he begged hard for money and artillery. The pay of the army was twelve months in arrear. O’Connor was coshering among his friends ‘more liker a beggar, than he that ever was a captain or ruler of a country,’ and making vain suits daily to the Government. But Grey had not caught him, and he could be submissive enough until what was left of his corn had been saved; his neighbours, English and Irish, thinking it more prudent to shelter an enterprising rebel than to run risks for a Government which could not protect its friends. Grey, who habitually used strong language, characterises these prudent people as ‘having as much falsehood remaining in them as all the devils of hell.’ Having, as he supposed, made O’Connor ‘as low as a dog were for the bone,’ he applied himself to the Kavanaghs, whose chief, Cahir MacArt, had married a Geraldine. It had been often proposed to extirpate them and to colonise the country. The Lord Deputy now entered Carlow, burned some castles of the O’Nolans between Newtownbarry and Tullow, forced Cahir MacArt to give hostages, and then turned sharply upon Ely O’Carroll, where O’Connor had first found a refuge. He had now the help of Ossory, who was always glad to weaken a neighbour, and of Cahir O’Connor, who was as anxious as his brother to divert attention from the Offaly corn. He passed unopposed through the lands of the Fitzpatricks, O’Mores, O’Molloys, and MacGeohegans, received O’Carroll’s submission, and then entered Tipperary, where he took a castle belonging to O’Meagher, the chief of Ikerrin. O’Connor came in on safe-conduct, and paid 300 marks for his son, who was given up to him. Grey refused to trust him, and begged Cromwell never to allow his restoration; and the event proved Grey right, though he soon forgot his own advice. He now announced to the minister that he was beginning to understand the Irish nature, and that the King needed only to be in earnest. He was right in blaming constant changes of policy, but like most soldiers he failed to see the real difficulties of the Irish problem.189

The O’Donnells. Death of Hugh Oge, 1537.

It was now just a quarter of a century since Hugh Oge O’Donnell, then on his return from Rome, had been received with honour at the Court of Henry VIII. Deeply impressed by what he saw there, and aware of the impossibility of uniting all Irish tribes against the stranger, he had always striven to keep English intruders at bay by remaining on good terms with the Government, and had exerted his strength only to subdue his neighbours on the side furthest removed from the Pale. He had thus extended his sway over the modern counties of Roscommon and Sligo, and over great portions of Fermanagh, Mayo, and Galway, and even of Down and Antrim. He had forced or persuaded the O’Neills to acknowledge his claims to the disputed sovereignty over Innishowen, Raphoe, and Fermanagh; and the Irish generally were so much impressed by his wisdom and prowess that they supposed him to be Hugh the Valiant, the promised Celtic Messiah, who was to redress or avenge the wrongs of Erin. When it seemed clear that this was not so, the dreamers of dreams declared that as he had failed the deliverer would never come. His panegyrists reckon among his titles to fame that ‘the seasons were favourable, so that sea and land were productive:’ it is more to the purpose that he executed strict justice and repressed thieves. Like most Irish chiefs, he had difficulties with his children, and his valiant son Manus was discarded at the instance of a mistress whom the old chief had brought into his house. For this and for other sins he made such reparation as he could by a late repentance, donned the cord and cowl of St. Francis, and died in the odour of sanctity. He was buried in his religious dress in the monastery which his father had built at Donegal for friars of the strict observance; and Manus was at once acknowledged both by the tribesmen and by O’Neill, and was inaugurated at Kilmacrenan with the usual ceremonies.190

Disturbances in the North.

The new chief at once took up the thread of his father’s policy by invading Connaught, and at the same time making loyal professions to Grey. He had, he wrote, been tempted to rebellion by all the disaffected lords in the South and West, but was determined to take no advice but that of the King and his Deputy. As soon as he heard of Hugh O’Donnell’s death, Grey at once repaired to the borders of Ulster. The galleys of O’Neill and his Scotch allies had threatened a fortified settlement at Ardglass on the coast of Down, and the Deputy burned to invade Tyrone; but the Council dissuaded him, and the receipt of Manus O’Donnell’s letter gave hopes of settling the North by peaceful means. Some thought Grey too fond of making aimless raids, and Alen made some sensible remarks on the subject. ‘I would not,’ he wrote to St. Leger, ‘have the Deputy representing the King’s Majesty’s person and estate be a common skurrer for every light matter; but, when he should begin a war, begin it upon a just good ground, and when it were so begun, to be so profoundly executed, that all other should take example thereby.’ But the King thought only of increasing the revenue and diminishing the army.191

Grey is baffled by the O’Connors.

Grey had been sanguine enough to believe that his work in Offaly would be lasting, but, as Henry had partly foreseen, O’Connor’s return had undone it all. Cahir was a fugitive, and the floods protected Offaly, where the corn had been safely garnered in. At last the waters subsided, and Grey reached Brackland by the old road through Westmeath. O’Connor escaped into O’Doyne’s country, the modern barony of Tinnahinch, which Grey and Richard Butler proceeded to ravage. While thus employed the scattered troops were surprised by O’Connor, and some were killed. The Lord Deputy was just able to destroy or carry away the corn stored at Geashill, and to return to Dublin without having seen the enemy. To gain time till the season of long days came round again, Grey gave a safe-conduct to O’Connor, who proposed to visit Dublin. ‘But shortly herein to conclude,’ as Brabazon puts it, ‘the said traitor and his brother Cahir fell to agreement and concord, so that at this presents they both remain in Offaly.’ St. Leger, who had a cooler temper than Grey, saw the impossibility of subduing even a single clan by desultory hostings. ‘The country,’ he said, ‘is much easier won than kept.’ To overrun Offaly was a small thing, but it could only be united to the Pale by the costly expedient of fixed garrisons. O’Connor had got back his son, and indeed neither he nor any Irishman had much regard for promises or for the fate of hostages.192

He continues to attack them.

The O’Connors were weakened by repeated blows, and Alderman Herbert, who had long advised a colonising policy, proposed that Offaly should be peopled with Englishmen once for all. Grey again invaded the doomed district with 800 men, and O’Connor at once declared himself willing to treat, though he utterly refused to trust himself within the Pale. Grey halted at Kinnafad, where a castle built by the Berminghams still overhangs the ford of the Boyne. Having taken precautions against treachery, the Lord Deputy passed about half his men over the river, and then advanced with twelve horsemen to an open field about a quarter of a mile off, where O’Connor met him similarly attended. The chief submitted to the King’s clemency, begged Grey’s intercession, and promised to come to Dublin in three days. Cahir sent word that he would come too, but broke his promise. O’Connor kept his tryst, acknowledged himself the King’s liegeman, abjured the authority of the Pope for himself and his tribesmen, renounced all Irish exactions, and gave up his black-rents, including a pension of sixty marks from the King. Thanks were in future to be his only reward for service; and he offered to hold legally of the King ‘that portion of lands in Offaly which he held by partition after his country’s fashion,’ undertaking that his brothers and other holders of land there should become entitled in the same way. These lands were to be subject to impositions at so much per ploughland, as if they were situated in the Pale, assessments for the defence of the King’s subjects being made as occasion might arise at the Lord Deputy’s discretion. For himself he solicited the honour of Baron of Offaly, and begged for such protection as the Government habitually gave to Englishmen. He agreed that the Lord Deputy and all the marchers might cut passes where they pleased, and gave up his son again pending the King’s final decision. The crafty Cahir was hunted down, apparently with his brother’s help, and brought to Dublin, where he agreed to similar terms and also gave up his son. Yet many sceptics thought the O’Connors would slip the yoke at the first opportunity, and it is evident that nothing had occurred to change their nature, or to attach them to English habits or to English government.193

Seizure of the five Geraldines.

A main object of Grey’s attack both on the O’Connors and the O’Briens may have been to get possession of the heir of Kildare, whose half-sister was married to the chief of Offaly. It is difficult to avoid the thought that Grey had a private as well as a public object in persecuting to the death all members of the fallen family except the children of his own sister. The rebel Earl had five uncles, all men of fair ability and great influence, and Brabazon seems first to have suggested that they ought to be kept in England. Grey asked Sir James Fitzgerald and his brothers Walter and Richard, all of whom had opposed the rebellion, to dine with him at Kilmainham, and in the middle of dinner they were all seized and handcuffed. Sir John and Oliver were arrested before they had heard of their brothers’ capture, and the five were lodged in the castle. Grey always plumed himself on this exploit, though he admitted that some of the prisoners were innocent. The Irish Council approved the deed and applauded its secret handling, but none of the Irish officials knew that they were sending these men to the scaffold; the guilt of that must rest on Henry and Cromwell. Aylmer and Alen accompanied them to England, and the chronicler tells us that Richard, who had literary tastes, relieved the tedium of a sea-voyage by singing songs and repeating apophthegms. When he heard that the ship was called ‘The Cow,’ he was much dismayed, for there was a prophecy that five Earls’ brethren should be carried to England in a cow’s belly, and should never return. ‘Whereat,’ says Stanihurst, ‘the rest began afresh to howl and lament, which doubtless was pitiful, to behold five valiant gentlemen, that durst meet in the field as sturdy champions as could be picked out in a realm, to be so suddenly terrified with the bare name of a wooden cow, or to fear like lions a silly coxcomb, being moved (as commonly the whole country is) with a vain and fabulous old wives’ dream.’ On reaching London they were at once sent to the Tower, and left it only to take the last sad journey to Tyburn.194

Survivor of the Kildare family. The ‘Fair Geraldine.’

But the family was not destined to extinction. Lady Kildare had accompanied her husband to England, and had her three daughters with her. The eldest was deaf and dumb, and of the youngest nothing particular is recorded, but the second, Lady Elizabeth, has by a strange chance been immortalised as the ‘Fair Geraldine.’ While yet a child she became maid of honour to the Princess Mary, at whose house at Hunsdon Henry, Earl of Surrey, saw her. She was then only twelve. Four years later she was married to Sir Anthony Browne, Master of the Horse and Knight of the Garter, but also a widower of sixty, whose daughter by his first marriage became her brother Gerald’s wife. The unequal match was solemnized in the presence of the King and of the Lady Mary, and Ridley preached on the occasion which drew forth Surrey’s sonnet. The situation of the bride’s family and the apparent sacrifice of herself sufficiently account for the poetry, and there is no reason to suppose that the poet, who was married, had any regrets for himself. The study of Italian models would naturally lead to rather high-flown language, and poets were always privileged. The romantic fable of the magic mirror in which Cornelius Agrippa, an alchemist living at Florence, showed him the fair one reclining on a bridal couch and reading his sonnet, would not be worth noticing but that it found its way into the ‘Lay of the Last Minstrel.’ It is refuted by the fact that Surrey never was in Italy. After the death of Browne, who outlived Surrey, Lady Elizabeth was married to the Lord Admiral Clinton, who had been twice a widower. She left no children by either marriage, but her influence at Court may have had much to do with her brother’s restoration. A portrait remains to show that she had a sweet face, and that she was not fairer than many who have had no poet. But canvas, and especially the canvas of Holbein’s school, seldom preserves the charm of grace and motion. Three letters remain, creditable so far as they go, and written in a clear, bold hand which contrasts strikingly with the crabbed characters often affected by public men, characters which drew a sarcasm from Shakespeare, and still trouble the historian. A portrait, three letters, and fourteen pretty lines would have hardly preserved the fair Geraldine’s memory had it not been for the tragic fates of her father, her brother, and her poet.195

Edward Fitzgerald.

Less than two years after her husband’s death, and while her rash stepson was lying in the Tower, Lady Kildare came to live at her brother Leonard’s house at Beaumanoir in Leicestershire. She found there her son Edward, aged eight, who had been brought by some devoted but unknown friends ‘without word, token, nor letter.’ With touching humbleness she begged to be allowed the custody of him ‘because he is an innocent, to see him brought up in virtue.’ The prayer was granted, and the child thus strangely rescued lived to be Lieutenant of Queen Elizabeth’s pensioners, and ancestor of the Dukes of Leinster.196

Gerald Fitzgerald.

The King was most anxious to get Lady Kildare’s eldest son into his power, and St. Leger avers that the King had no object ‘but to cherish him as his kinsman in like sort as his other brother is cherished with his mother in the realm of England.’ Having disposed of all who were old enough to be dangerous, it was doubtless Henry’s intention to bring up the children in English ways and in dependence on him. But Lady Mary O’Connor had other views, and the adventures of Gerald show how inextricably the Geraldines were intermingled with Celtic families. He was ten years old when his half-brother was taken, and was then lying in small-pox at Donore in Kildare. As soon as he could be moved his tutor, Thomas Leverous, who was his father’s foster-brother, carried him off in a basket and brought him safely to his sister in Offaly. Lady Mary procured him a three months’ shelter among the O’Doynes, and he was then removed to Clare and placed under the charge of James Delahide. O’Brien, who had the Kildare plate and jewels as well as the heir in his power, refused all offers of the Government; and Leverous and Delahide were allowed to take Gerald to Kilbrittain Castle, and give him up to his aunt, Lady Eleanor MacCarthy, widow of the late and mother of the actual chief of Carbery. Had James Fitzjohn of Desmond wished to surrender the boy MacCarthy could hardly have resisted; but they agreed to amuse the Government with evasive answers, while Gerald employed himself in visiting the old tenants of his family about Adare and Croom. James Fitzjohn offered to take those manors on lease, the real object being to keep off grants to strangers. But Lady Eleanor feared the issue of this unequal contest, and agreed to marry Manus O’Donnell, whom she had rejected some years before. The marriage was desired by the whole Geraldine connection, and Lady Eleanor, accompanied by Leverous, Delahide, and the chaplain Walshe, brought her nephew safely through Thomond, Clanricarde, and Mayo, into Tyrconnell. All the O’Briens and Burkes welcomed and sped them on their journey. As the travellers approached Sligo they were joined by a rhymer named M’Cragh, a native of Tipperary, who was studying his craft in those parts, and through him many details became known to Ormonde. After her marriage with O’Donnell, Lady Eleanor busied herself in forming a confederacy of the Northern chiefs with Desmond and her friends in Leinster and Munster.197

Gerald escapes to France, 1540.

But Irish plots are commonly woven in sand, and Grey’s activity disconcerted her schemes. Fearing that O’Donnell might be bribed, as Brabazon suggested, to give up the boy, she determined to send him to France. Allen Governor, an English shipowner of St. Malo, happened to be trading in Donegal, and agreed to take the precious passenger. A contract was drawn up before a notary, in which Governor bound himself to land Gerald and his companions safely in France. Bareheaded, and wearing only the saffron shirt of a humble native, Gerald stole out in a small boat by night and committed himself and his fortunes to the chances of the sea. His aunt had provided him with 140 moidores, and he had also some plate, with part of which his passage was paid. His companions were Leverous, Robert Walshe, a faithful ally but a stern disciplinarian, who did not even spare the rod in the interests of his noble charge, and a young gentleman whose name is not recorded. They arrived safely at Morlaix, where the military governor received Gerald and led him through the town by the hand, taking especial care that no English trader should come near him. Henry’s ambassador was nevertheless well informed as to the boy’s movements. He re-embarked on the same vessel with a pilot named Jacques Cartier, who brought him to St. Malo, where he was hospitably treated by the Lieutenant-Governor.198

Gerald abroad, 1540.

When Chateaubriand, the Governor of Brittany, heard the news, he sent a special messenger to bring the refugees to Rennes. The gossips there would have it that Gerald was the rightful King of Ireland, and that Henry was a mere usurper; and neither he nor his friends could correct them: for they spoke no French. Chateaubriand treated his guest well and forwarded him to Court, where Wallop demanded his surrender as a treaty obligation. Francis did not deny this, but quietly removed the boy to the imperial town of Valenciennes. The faithful Leverous still attended him to watch against English kidnappers who were hanging about, and for greater security sent him to the Emperor at Brussels. But English diplomacy was importunate, and Charles transferred him to the Prince-bishop of Liège, with an allowance of one hundred crowns a month. After six months’ residence with the Bishop, his kinsman Reginald Pole sent him to Italy, pensioned him, and provided the best education the peninsula afforded in the houses of the Bishops of Verona and Mantua, and of Gonzago, Duke of Milan, who gave him a further pension. His last patron in Italy was Cosmo de’ Medici, who allowed him three hundred crowns annually; and a three years’ residence at Florence doubtless made him a proficient in the arts of courtly dissimulation. Leverous was admitted to the English monastery at Rome, and in Mary’s reign became Bishop of Kildare; Robert Walshe went back to Ireland, but I do not find that his attainder was reversed or that he was ever pardoned.199

Geraldine pride.

O’Donnell soon made his submission, and was restored to favour. Lady Eleanor had some reason to be afraid, for Alen had proposed to invade Tyrconnell by sea and land with all the forces at the King’s disposal. But she had now secured her nephew, and cared nothing for her new husband or his dangers. She called him traitor and many other hard names, said that the only object of her marriage was now gained, and that she had no further occasion for his company. She returned to her son’s relations in Munster, but was not pardoned till 1545, seemingly because she did not ask sooner. The Irish Government refused to plead her cause as long as she remained obstinately among the MacCarthies. She came therefore to Malahide on safe-conduct, and thence forwarded a petition to which, as if the Geraldine pride scorned the Irish strain, she affixed her maiden name. After this the frequent reports of a Geraldine invasion ceased, but the head of the family thought it prudent to remain abroad until the death of Henry VIII.200