1540 and 1541.
[Sidenote: The O'Neills. Scottish intrigues.]
With the usual plundering inroads on the Pale Brereton was able to cope;
and the greater chieftains were quiet, for Gerald of Kildare was safe.
O'Donnell, who may have resented his treatment by Lady Eleanor, readily
reverted to his father's policy, and no difficulty was made about his
pardon. O'Neill held aloof, but again professed himself ready to come to
Carrick Bradagh. Again he failed to appear, and pleaded that he dared not
approach Dundalk through fear of Grey's manifest treachery. He offered to
come to Magennis's Castle at Narrowater, a beautiful spot near the mouth
of the Newry river and the foot of the Mourne Mountains. Brereton agreed,
and a meeting at last took place. O'Neill declared his readiness to
perform all that he had promised to Skeffington, to send a trusty
messenger to the King, and to leave pardon or punishment for the past to
the royal discretion. Till the answer came he was content to be at peace
with the Government, and to keep his neighbours quiet. He was at this
time intriguing with Scotland, and his secretary was actually at
Edinburgh. Cromwell had received information that eight Irishmen had been
with the Scottish King, to whom they had brought sealed letters from the
principal chiefs, containing offers to take him as their lord and to do
homage to him. It was even said that James meditated an invasion of
Ireland in person. O'Neill probably waited for the result of these
negotiations before sending a confidential servant with a letter to
Henry. He begged the King not to send his enemies into his country, where
Grey had, as he affirmed, sowed dissensions from selfish motives. He was
willing to do anything he was asked unless the new Lord Deputy should
prove very extortionate, and he advised the King not to waste his money
in Ulster. Henry answered graciously, and acknowledged some trifling
presents which accompanied the chief's letter. Future royal favours, his
Majesty was careful to point out, must depend on performance and not on
promises. Pardon in the meantime would be granted for the heinous
offences committed.[232]
[Sidenote: Murder of James FitzMaurice, Earl of Desmond, 1540.]
With the sea at hand, and Ormonde ever ready to help him, it was supposed
that James FitzMaurice would be able to maintain himself as Earl of
Desmond. At first he confined himself to Kerrycurrihy and Imokilly, but
after three months he was tempted to go inland towards the Limerick
district, in which James Fitzjohn's strength lay. Near Fermoy he was set
upon and murdered by his rival's brother, who had earned the title of
'Maurice of the Burnings.' James Fitzjohn, who now believed himself to be
undisputed Earl, at once repaired to Youghal, where he was well received
and joined by all the chiefs who had lately made such professions to Grey
and Ormonde. The garrison had, through over-confidence, withdrawn to
Waterford. Gerald of Kildare had just escaped to France, and the web of
policy which the English Government had cast over both branches of the
Geraldines was torn to pieces for the time.[233]
[Sidenote: James Fitzjohn is allowed to succeed him.]
There was no evidence of James Fitzjohn's complicity in his cousin's
murder, and Ormonde received the King's authority to pardon him, if he
could be brought to promise good behaviour. He preferred to ally himself
with O'Brien, and pleaded that Irish confederacies were too strong for
him to withstand. To gain his confidence Ormonde risked his own person in
the Desmond country for two nights, and passed right through it to parley
with O'Brien, who refused to listen to anything. But Desmond would not
show himself, and Ormonde then went for a few weeks to England. On his
return he found that little harm had been done, and this he attributed
solely to O'Brien having been out of his mind. But Desmond claimed the
credit of holding his hand. 'In like,' he wrote to Ormonde, 'I desire
you, according to my full trust, for to bring me in the King's favour the
best ye can; and in case that his Grace will so accept me, I trust we
shall both be able to do his Grace acceptable service according to our
duty.' On his return from England Ormonde at once resumed negotiations,
and St. Leger had been scarcely a month in Ireland before he received
friendly letters both from Desmond and O'Brien.[234]
[Sidenote: Fall of Cromwell. St. Leger is made Deputy, 1541.]
In the meantime Cromwell's head had fallen on the scaffold to which he
had sent so many better men. Grey was in the Tower, and Henry found time
to appoint a new Lord Deputy. He chose Sir Anthony St. Leger, who already
knew much of Ireland, and whose temper would at least save him from his
predecessor's chief faults. Sir Patrick Barnewall of Fieldston, an
eminent lawyer, had lately enumerated the qualities desirable in a chief
governor, and in so doing had drawn a heavy indictment against the last
holder of that high office. The King, he said, should provide a Deputy
'faithful, sure, and constant in his promise, and in especial to any
concluding of peace; and that he shall be such a person that shall have
more regard to his own honour and promise than to any covetous desire of
preys or booties of cattle; and that he shall make no wilful war, and
when war is made upon a good ground, that the same be followed till a
perfect conclusion thereof be taken, and not left at large, nor yet to
take a faint peace; and that the said Deputy shall not be in weighty
causes counselled nor guided by such persons as be openly known to be
ill-doers, or apt adherents of the ill-doers in their ill-doings against
the King's Majesty and his Grace's subjects in time past, for the same
hath and may hinder.' In selecting St. Leger, Henry was probably actuated
in part by such motives, and in part by hopes of an increased income.
With him were associated as Revenue Commissioners Thomas Walsh, Baron,
and John Mynne, Auditor of the English Exchequer, and William Cavendish,
Treasurer of the Court of Augmentations; but the viceregal authority was
not in any way impaired.[235]
[Sidenote: St. Leger's policy. The Kavanaghs.]
St. Leger seems clearly to have grasped the idea so often put forth and
so often neglected, that the pacification of Ireland must begin with the
neighbourhood of the Pale, and that distant expeditions were neither
lightly to be undertaken nor abandoned without attaining their object. He
resolved at once to punish those who had attacked the Pale at Grey's
departure, and he turned first to the Kavanaghs. Ormonde had lately
ravaged Idrone for a week and taken hostages, reporting that all the
mischief was done by Donnell MacCahir, 'who, having nothing to lose,
adhereth to Tirlogh O'Toole.' St. Leger now ravaged the territory far and
wide, and at the end of ten days the chief came in and submitted. He
renounced the name of MacMurrough, and agreed to hold his lands of the
Crown by knight-service. After the manner of Deputies in their early days
of office, St. Leger believed that he had really made a final settlement.
The Kavanaghs were ready enough to make promises, and even to boast their
descent from the man who first brought the English to Ireland; but St.
Leger was destined to have plenty of trouble with them.[236]
[Sidenote: The O'Mores and O'Connors, and their neighbours.]
Offaly had been so often devastated that the new Lord Deputy could have
little to do in that way; but the adjoining district of Leix had been
more fortunate, and its turn now came. The O'Doynes, O'Dempseys, and
others were separated by St. Leger's policy from O'Connor, whom it was
proposed to bridle by establishing fortified posts at Kinnegad in
Westmeath, at Kishevan in Kildare, at Castle Jordan in Meath, and at
Ballinure in what is now the King's County. A letter arrived from the
King with orders to expel O'Connor from his country and to give it to his
brother Cahir, if he would behave in a civilised manner, as he had often
promised to do. The incorrigible rebel should be made an example to all
Ireland by his perpetual exile and just punishment. But this could not be
honourably done, for Brereton had made a peace during the difficult days
that followed Grey's recall, and O'Connor, whose submission was of the
humblest, had done no harm since then. St. Leger indeed showed some
inconsistency in the matter, for he thought in September that O'Connor
could never be trusted, and in November he advised his restoration to
favour. Not only was it proposed to give him a grant of his land, but
also to raise him to the peerage as Baron of Offaly, an ancient honour in
the eclipsed family of Kildare.[237]
[Sidenote: The O'Tooles.]
No tribe had hurt the Pale more than the O'Tooles, who could boast of
giving a famous saint to Irish hagiology. Originally possessed of the
southern half of Kildare, they had been driven into the Wicklow Mountains
by Walter de Riddlesford in the early days of the Anglo-Norman
occupation. They were afterwards known as lords of Imaile, a small
district between Baltinglass and Glendalough, and at one time held nearly
all the northern half of Wicklow. The Earls of Kildare expelled them from
Powerscourt, and latterly they had led a very precarious life. True
children of the mist, they either bivouacked in the open or crept into
wretched huts to which Englishmen hesitated to give the name of houses.
They cultivated no land, but levied 300_l._ a year from their civilised
neighbours, partly in black-rent and partly in sheer plunder. The actual
chief was Tirlogh O'Toole, who professed himself anxious to mend his
ways, and offered to go to England and beg his lands of Henry himself.
There was something chivalrous in Tirlogh; for when Grey was hard pressed
by the northern confederacy he sent him word that 'since all those great
lords were against him he would surely be with him, but whensoever they
were all at peace, then he alone would be at war with him and the English
Pale.' This simple-minded warrior had kept his word, and he now begged
St. Leger to write to Norfolk, in the belief that the Duke would let him
want nothing 'when he knew that he had become an Englishman.' In return
for his undertaking to forego his exactions and to wear the English
dress, he asked for a grant of the district of Fercullen, comprising
Powerscourt and about twenty square miles of land, chiefly rocks and
woods, but with some fertile spots. St. Leger was anxious to grant
Tirlogh's terms, for the lands actually held by him were worthless and
would never pay to reclaim, while the O'Tooles were obliged to live on
the Pale. The hardy mountaineers had nothing to lose, and they prevented
land enough to support 2,000 inhabitants from being cultivated at all.
The Lord Deputy accordingly sent over the wild man with a special
recommendation to Norfolk, whose Irish experience made him a natural
mediator. Tirlogh was so poor that St. Leger had to lend him 20_l._ for
his journey, and he could not even afford decent clothes. 'It shall
appear to your Majesty,' wrote the Irish Government, 'that this Tirlogh
is but a wretched person and a man of no great power, neither having
house to put his head in, nor yet money in his purse to buy him a
garment, yet may he well make 200 or 300 men.'[238]
[Sidenote: Tirlogh O'Toole at Court.]
Tirlogh remained nearly a month at Court, where he was very well
treated; perhaps Henry remembered how well Hugh O'Donnell had requited
the kindness shown to him long since. The grant was authorised, and care
was taken to make such a fair division among the clansmen as would
prevent internal dissensions. Tirlogh became the King's tenant by
knight-service at a rent of five marks yearly, and his brother Art Oge, a
man of some ability, was gratified with a grant of Castle Kevin. Henry
desired that this case should form a precedent, and that in future chiefs
received to peace and favour should be treated with on the same basis as
the O'Tooles. In doing this he followed the advice of some of his wisest
councillors at home. Cranmer, Audeley, and Sadleir did not believe in the
possibility of a thorough conquest, and rightly considered that Ireland
would be best gained by fair dealing. Pedants and flatterers might argue
that the King was actually entitled to most of the land, that the Irish
were intruders, and that grants to them were derogatory to the royal
dignity. To this it was answered that the intrusions were of very old
date, that future rebellions would be more easily punished when they
involved a breach of contract, and that the Crown must gain by the mere
acknowledgment of its title. The O'Tooles at all events seem to have
given up plundering the Pale, and they make little further figure in
history. But they could not give up fighting among themselves. The
favoured Tirlogh had a grudge against one of his clansmen, and pursued
him daily in spite of orders from the Government. At last the threatened
man caught his persecutor asleep, and in the early morning killed him and
all his companions; 'and we think,' wrote the Lord Deputy and Council,
'the other would have done to him likewise, if he might have gotten him
at like advantage.' Tirlogh left no legitimate children, but St. Leger
nevertheless recommended that his son Brian should be allowed to succeed
him.[239]
[Sidenote: Proposed military order. The King vetoes it.]
Finding Leinster in an unusually promising state, the Irish Council hit
upon a strange device for keeping it permanently quiet. In the previous
century Thomas, Earl of Kildare, had established the Brotherhood of St.
George, an armed confraternity, whose thirteen officers, chosen from
among the loyal gentlemen of Dublin, Kildare, Meath, and Louth, elected
their own captain annually, but were paid by the State. It was found
necessary to dissolve this body by an Act of Parliament, passed in 1494.
Its object had been the defence of the Pale against Irish enemies and
English rebels. It was now proposed to erect a new order, not named after
St. George, but holding its great ceremony on St. George's day. It was to
consist of a Grand Master and twelve pensioners, with salaries amounting
in the aggregate to 1,000_l._ The majority were to be Irishmen of family,
who might be kept out of mischief by fear of losing their pensions. After
seven years, promotion was to depend on knowing English, or having spent
two years in the public service in England; the object being to induce
Irish gentlemen to cross the Channel and learn manners. As vacancies
occurred the persons chosen were to be bound 'not to have any wife or
wives.' The Council nominated Brabazon to be first Grand Master; but
Ormonde put forth a list of his own, and preferred his brother Richard to
the highest place. The Council also proposed to make a pensioner of Lord
Kilcullen, and to place him in the castle of Clonmore, which had belonged
to his family, but which the King had granted to Ormonde. The Earl
naturally ignored this claim, and there were other differences in the
rival lists. The Council suggested elaborate machinery by which the Order
might be made to work for the reformation of Leinster; but St. Leger does
not appear to have been a party to the scheme, and perhaps opposed it
quietly. The King, who had just abolished the great military Order, had
no idea of creating another, though its patron saint should be St. George
instead of St. John. 'We do in no wise,' he said, 'like any part of your
device in that behalf.' By minding their business and doing what they
were told his Majesty hoped that they would ultimately succeed in
reforming Leinster 'without the new erection of any such fantasies.'[240]
[Sidenote: An arrangement is made with Desmond.]
James Fitzjohn being now necessarily acknowledged Earl of Desmond, one of
St. Leger's first cares was to obtain his submission. Satisfied at last
that no treachery was intended, Desmond agreed to meet the Lord Deputy at
Cashel. Passing through Carlow and Kilkenny, St. Leger was joined by
Ormonde, who took care that the viceregal retinue should be well treated
on the journey; but Desmond at first held aloof, and demanded that the
chief of the Butlers should give himself up as a hostage before he
trusted himself in English hands. This was refused; but Archbishop
Browne, Travers, the Master of the Ordnance, and the Deputy's brother
Robert consented to run the risk. Desmond then appeared, and said he was
ready to do all that loyalty demanded. The proceedings were adjourned to
Sir Thomas Butler's house at Cahir, and there Desmond signed a solemn
notarial instrument, by which he fully acknowledged the King's supremacy
in Church and State. 'I do,' he said, 'utterly deny and forsake the
Bishop of Rome, and his usurped primacy and authority, and shall with all
my power resist and repress the same and all that shall by any means use
and maintain the same.' He renounced the pretensions of his family not to
attend Parliament or enter any walled town. He agreed to abide by and to
enforce the King's decision as to the Kildare estates, and to pay all
such taxes as were paid in the territories of Ormonde, Delvin, and other
noblemen of like condition. He constituted himself the defender of the
corporate towns, and gave up all claims to the allegiance of the Munster
Englishry, with a partial reservation as to men of his own blood, who
held their lands under him or his ancestors. Finally, he agreed to send
his son to be educated in England. This was Gerald, the ill-starred youth
whose folly and vanity were destined to work the final ruin of his House.
The Archbishop of Cashel and the Bishops of Limerick and Emly witnessed
the instrument, and the manner of the submission was as satisfactory as
a Tudor could wish. 'In presence,' wrote St. Leger to the King, 'of
MacWilliam, O'Connor, and divers other Irish gentlemen, to the number of
200 at the least, he kneeled down before me and most humbly delivered his
said submission, desiring me to deliver unto him his said pardon, granted
by your Majesty; affirming that it was more glad to him to be so
reconciled to your favours, than to have any worldly treasure; protesting
that no earthly cause should make him from henceforth swerve from your
Majesty's obedience. And after that done, I delivered to him your said
most gracious pardon, which he most joyfully accepted.' He was
immediately sworn of the Council, and St. Leger asked the King's
indulgence for having done this without warrant. Care was also taken to
prevent a renewal of the quarrel between the new Privy Councillor and
Ormonde, who had married the heiress-general of a former Earl of Desmond,
and had thus large and indefinite claims on the family estates. The
rivals bound themselves in 4,000_l._ to promote cross-marriages between
their children, and to keep the peace. The claims of Ormonde through his
wife were nevertheless destined in the next generation to deluge Munster
in blood.[241]
[Sidenote: Dutiful attitude of Desmond and O'Brien.]
Desmond accompanied St. Leger to Kilmallock, 'where, I think, none of
your Grace's Deputies came this hundred years before,' and treated him
hospitably, openly declaring that he was ready if the Deputy wished it to
go to London to see the King. O'Brien came peacefully to Limerick,
complaining chiefly that he was not allowed to bridge the Shannon nor to
exercise jurisdiction over friendly tribes on the left bank. St. Leger
promised him perpetual war unless he would yield on both points,
believing that he could do little harm without the concurrence of
Desmond, of the Clanricarde Burkes, or of Donogh O'Brien. He was given
till Shrovetide to consult his friends, and at last decided to keep quiet
and to send agents to watch over his interests in Parliament. A pardon
was issued under the Great Seal of Ireland, and towards the end of the
year O'Brien spontaneously addressed a very dutiful letter to the King,
begging personal as well as official forgiveness for his many sins. 'My
mind,' he said, 'is never satisfied till I have made the same submission
to your Grace's own person, whom I most desire to see above all creatures
on earth living, now in mine old days; which sight I doubt not but shall
prolong my life.'[242]
[Sidenote: MacWilliam Burke and MacGillapatrick.]
MacWilliam Burke of Clanricarde and MacGillapatrick professed anxiety for
the royal favour, and accompanied St. Leger on his tour. He prescribed an
earldom for the former, a barony for the latter, and Parliament-robes and
other fine clothes for both; in the belief that titles and little acts of
civility would weigh more with these rude men than a display of force. He
himself had given MacWilliam a silver-gilt cup, and in Limerick Desmond
had from vanity or policy worn 'gown, jacket, doublet, hose, shirts,
caps, and a velvet riding coat,' from the Lord Deputy's wardrobe. It was
very important to conciliate MacWilliam, who could always prevent a
junction of the O'Briens and O'Donnells. MacGillapatrick soon afterwards
covenanted with the King to live civilly, to act loyally, and to hold his
lands of the Crown by knight-service. MacWilliam wrote a letter to Henry
confessing and lamenting that his family had degenerated, and belied
their English blood, 'which have been brought to Irish and disobedient
rule by reason of marriage and nurseing with those Irish, sometime
rebels, near adjoining to me.' He placed himself and all his possessions
unreservedly in the King's hands, but seems to have let it be known that
he would like to be an Earl. Henry refused this unless the repentant
Norman would come to Court, but he offered a barony or viscounty without
any condition.[243]
[Sidenote: Parliament of 1541.]
Early in 1541 St. Leger received authority to summon a Parliament. The
composition of the House of Commons is uncertain, for no list of members
is extant between 1382 and 1559. In the former of those years eighteen
counties or districts and eleven towns were represented. In the latter,
ten counties and twenty-eight cities and boroughs returned two members
each. Through the action of the royal prerogative the number was
progressively increased until the 300 of the eighteenth century was
reached. In St. Leger's time the Upper House was the more important of
the two, and was attended by four archbishops, nineteen bishops, and
twenty temporal peers, of whom Desmond was one. Among the temporal peers
was Rawson, late prior of Kilmainham and chief of the Irish Hospitallers,
who had just been created Viscount Clontarf. There were four new
Barons--Edmund Butler Lord Dunboyne, MacGillapatrick Lord Upper Ossory,
Oliver Plunkett Lord Louth, and William Bermingham Lord Carbery. Richard
le Poer had been created Baron of Curraghmore six years before. Besides
the peers there were present in Dublin Donough O'Brien, MacWilliam Burke,
O'Reilly, Cahir MacArt Kavanagh, Phelim Roe O'Neill of Clandeboye, and
some of the O'Mores. O'Brien sent agents or deputies. These and other
important persons were present at the passing of the Bill which made
Henry King of Ireland; but they had no votes and were not considered as
members of Parliament.
[Sidenote: Henry VIII. is made King of Ireland.]
Parliament met on Monday, June 13; but the Munster lords had not yet
arrived, and the solemn mass was postponed until Thursday, the feast of
Corpus Christi. By that day all had assembled, and they rode in state to
the place of meeting. Most of the peers wore their robes. On the morrow
the Commons chose a Speaker in the person of Sir Thomas Cusack, a rising
lawyer, who afterwards obtained the highest professional honours. He made
a set speech at the bar of the Lords, praising the King for many things,
but especially for having extirpated the Bishop of Rome's usurped power.
Ormonde then gave the substance of what had been said in Irish, to the
'great contentation of those lords who could not understand English.' At
the sitting of the House of Lords on the following day, St. Leger
proposed that Henry VIII. should be King of Ireland. A Bill to that
effect was read a first time in English and Irish, and was received with
acclamation. It was then and there read a second and a third time, and
all the Lords subscribed it, lest they should thereafter be tempted to
deny their consents. The Bill was then sent down to the Commons and read
three times, and on the morrow, in presence of both Houses, St. Leger
pronounced the royal consent--'no less,' he wrote, 'to my comfort, than
to be risen again from death to life, that I so poor a wretch should, by
your excellent goodness, be put to that honour, that in my time your
Majesty should most worthily have another Imperial Crown.' This rapid
action is in striking contrast to the long and acrimonious discussion
excited by a change of the royal style in our own times.[244]
[Sidenote: King and Pope. The royal style.]
The question of style was one of considerable practical importance, for
the friars had sedulously encouraged the popular notion that the real
sovereignty rested in the Pope, and that the King of England was only a
sort of viceroy. Alen had recommended the assumption of the royal title
four years before; and both Staples and St. Leger had given the like
advice. Parliamentary sanction had now been given to the change, and
those who acknowledged English law could hardly dispute the principle
involved. In the later struggles of Irish parties the contest between the
Crown and the Tiara was constantly revived, and the ghost of the
controversy is sometimes seen even in our own times. Less than two months
before the meeting of St. Leger's Parliament, Paul III. had written to
prepare O'Neill for the arrival of a detachment of the Company of Jesus,
and before its dissolution the first Jesuits had landed. But for the
moment no opposition was visible. The proclamation of the new style was
joyously celebrated by the citizens of Dublin. Salutes were fired.
Bonfires were lit. Wine casks were broached in the streets; and there was
much feasting in private houses. An amnesty was granted to criminals,
except traitors, murderers, and ravishers; but prisoners for debt were
not released, lest any creditor should be defrauded. There was some fear
lest it should be supposed that the Irish Parliament had elected their
King instead of merely declaring his just hereditary right; and many
letters were exchanged on the subject. Finally the new style was settled
as follows:--'Henry VIII., by the Grace of God, King of England, France,
and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and of the Church of England, and
also of Ireland, in earth the Supreme Head.' A new Great Seal had to be
sent from England, since there was no competent engraver in Dublin. And
thus, after the lapse of nearly four centuries, did Henry II.'s successor
repudiate all obligations to Rome, and declare himself King of Ireland by
right divine.[245]
[Sidenote: Regulations for Munster.]
The other Acts passed had no political significance, but followed pretty
closely recent domestic legislation in England. After a session of little
more than five weeks, Parliament was prorogued with the intention of
convoking it again at Limerick. Before the two Houses dispersed,
elaborate regulations, which were not embodied in an Act of Parliament,
were drawn up for Munster, Thomond, and Connaught. There was no chance of
enforcing these ordinances, but some of them are very good. Laymen and
minors were disabled from holding ecclesiastical benefices; kernes were
ordered to be treated as vagabonds, unless some lord would give bail for
them; heads of families were declared responsible for damage done by
younger members. Highway robbery and rape were pronounced capital; but by
a strange anomaly robberies of above fourteen pence were made punishable
by the loss of one ear for the first offence and of the other ear for
the second, while death was fixed as the penalty for the third. A system
of fines was promulgated for homicides, invasions, and spoils. The Irish
jurisprudence was thus acknowledged, but only as a matter of fact, for
the chiefs who indulged in open lawlessness were generally beyond the
reach of the law. Saffron shirts were forbidden under penalties, and the
permissible quantity of linen was carefully prescribed for each rank. A
lord might have twenty cubits, his vassals eighteen, and his servants
twelve. A kerne was allowed sixteen and an agricultural labourer ten.
Stringent but useless limitations were imposed on coyne and livery, the
fact being that great men had usually no other means of protecting their
districts. Ormonde was appointed chief executor of these ordinances for
Tipperary, Waterford, and Kilkenny, and Desmond for the other counties of
Munster. Both were to command the assistance of the Archbishop of Cashel
and to be entitled to one-third of all fines levied by them, two-thirds
being payable to the King. The regulations for Thomond and Connaught were
the same as for Munster, but they were probably even less regarded.[246]
FOOTNOTES:
[232] For the intrigues with Scotland, see Brereton to Essex, May 17,
1540, and the note, S.P. vol. iii., and Layton to Essex, S.P. vol. v. p.
178; O'Neill's letter to Henry was dated July 20; the King's letter to
O'Neill is dated Sept. 7--'literas vestras unà cum _munusculis_ grato
animo accepimus.' For O'Donnell's submission, see Henry's letter to him
of Aug. 20, acknowledging his letters 'per dilectum nobis Johannem
Cappis, mercatorem Bristoliensem.' St. Leger brought over O'Neill's
pardon.
[233] In a letter to Cromwell of December 23, 1539, in _Carew_, William
Wise, of Waterford, almost foretold the murder, which (according to Mr.
Graves's pedigree in the _Irish Archæological Journal_) took place on
March 19 following. The pedigree says the murder was in Kerry, but other
accounts, which are evidently correct, point to the neighbourhood of
Fermoy or Mitchelstown. Council of Ireland to the King, April 4, 1540;
Archdall's _Lodge_; Russell. O'Daly (chap. xii.) admits that the murder
was premeditated.
[234] Ormonde to Brereton from Kilkenny, May 14; to the King, July 26,
from Waterford. He had been to England and back between these dates.
Desmond to Ormonde, July 8; Lord Deputy St. Leger to the King, Sept. 12,
1540.
[235] P. Barnewall to Essex, May 19; Instructions to St. Leger and the
others, and to St. Leger alone, S.P., Aug. 16 and 20. St. Leger landed
Aug. 12, 1540.
[236] Walter Cowley to St. Leger, March 15, 1541, 'from the border of
Cahir, MacArt's country.' St. Leger to the King, Sept. 12; Council of
Ireland to the King, Sept. 22.
[237] Council of Ireland to the King, Sept. 22, 1540; the King to the
Lord Deputy and Council, Sept. 7 and 8; Lord Deputy and Council to the
King, Nov. 13.
[238] For the O'Tooles, see O'Donovan's _Book of Rights_, and his notes
to the _Four Masters_, 1180 and 1376; and Lord Deputy and Council to the
King Nov. 14, 1540, with the notes. These people had suffered from the
Kildare family as much as the Macgregors did from the Campbells. This may
partly explain Tirlogh's unwillingness to aid in restoring Gerald.
[239] The King to the Lord Deputy and Council, No. 332 in the S.P., and
his very important minute of March 26, 1541; Lord Deputy and Council to
the King, Dec. 7, 1542, and May 15, 1543.
[240] For the scheme see S.P., vol. iii. No. 330; the King's answer is
No. 337.
[241] St. Leger to the King, Feb. 21, 1541. The submission was signed at
Cahir, Jan. 16. For the names of the notaries and of the chief
spectators, see _Carew_, vol. i. No. 153.
[242] St. Leger to the King, Feb. 21, 1541; list of those who attended
Parliament, 1541, in S.P., vol. iii. p. 307; O'Brien to the King, vol.
iii., No. 352.
[243] St. Leger to the King, Feb. 21, 1541; MacWilliam to the King, March
12, 1541; MacGillapatrick's submission, &c., S.P., vol. iii., No. 336;
the King to MacWilliam, May 1.
[244] St. Leger to the King, June 26, 1541; Lord Deputy and Council to
the King, June 28; printed _Statutes_, 33 Henry VIII.; Lodge's
_Parliamentary Register_; Parliamentary lists in _Tracts Relating to
Ireland_, No. 2.
[245] Alen to St. Leger in 1537, S.P., vol. ii., No. 182; Staples to St.
Leger, June 17, 1538; Lord Deputy and Council to the King, Dec. 30, 1540.
The proclamation of the King's style is in _Carew_, vol. i., No. 158. The
author of the _Aphorismical Discovery_, who wrote about 1650, says Henry
'revolted from his obedience to the Holy See' by assuming the royal
title. There is an abstract of the King's title to Ireland in _Carew_,
vol. i., No. 156; Adrian's grant is mentioned as one of seven titles,
some fabulous, some historical. For the proceedings in Dublin, see St.
Leger's letters already cited, June 26 and 28, 1541; for the style
itself, see the King's letter in S.P., vol. iii., No. 361; for the Seal,
see Lord Deputy and Council to the King, June 2, 1542, and Henry's
answer.
[246] See the ordinances in _Carew_, vol. i., No. 157.