FROM THE ACCESSION OF EDWARD VI. TO THE YEAR 1551.
[Sidenote: Accession of Edward VI. Ormonde and Desmond.]
The death of Henry VIII. made no immediate difference to Ireland, for St.
Leger continued to govern as before. There was such a tendency to depress
the Ormonde interest that the widowed countess thought it wise to go to
London, where she pleaded her own cause with much success. She was
supposed to have designs upon the heir of Desmond's hand, and the English
statesmen, who naturally dreaded such an alliance, encouraged her to
marry Sir Francis Bryan, who was in favour with Somerset as he had been
with Henry VIII. The new government directed their attention to economy
and the repression of jobbery among the Dublin officials. It was
discovered that many who drew the King's pay were serving in the houses
of councillors, 'some in the place of a cook, some of a butler,
housekeeper, and other like,' so that they were practically useless when
called to arms. This was strictly forbidden for the future. The Irish
Council were earnestly charged finally to put down 'that intolerable
extortion, coyne and livery, having always respect to some recompense to
be given to the lords and governors of our countries for the defending of
the same.' Desmond was thanked for his services, and the young king
offered to have his eldest son brought up as his companion, 'as other
noblemen's sons whom we favour are educated with us in learning and other
virtuous qualities, whereby hereafter, when we come to just age, we, in
remembrance of our childhood spent together, may the rather be moved to
prosecute them with our wonted favour, and they all inclined to love and
serve us the more faithfully. We shall consent and right glad to have him
with us, and shall so cherish him as ye shall have cause to thank us,
and at his return to think the time of his attendance on us to be well
employed.' If this offer had been accepted, and if the same results had
followed as in the cases of the young Earl of Ormonde and of Barnaby
Fitzpatrick, the unspeakable miseries of the Desmond rebellion might have
been avoided.[323]
[Sidenote: The bastard Geraldines.]
The Pale was at this time much disturbed by the depredations of a gang of
freebooters, headed by some of the bastard Geraldines who had lost their
lands. They overran the southern half of Kildare and the northern half of
Carlow, plundering and burning Rathangan, Ballymore Eustace, and
Rathvilly. At first they acted with O'Connor, but he was forced to go to
Connaught to look for reinforcements, and the MacGeohegans and others
were induced by St. Leger to kill his men and drive his cattle. The
Fitzgeralds, after defying the Government for a year, were crushed at
Blessington in the autumn of 1547. The O'Tooles sided with the English,
and thus justified Henry VIII.'s policy towards them. The Irish generally
fell away from O'Connor and O'More, to whom they feared to give food and
shelter; and the chiefs were obliged to make such a peace as was possible
with the Government. The annalists dwell strongly on the strength of the
English at this time, on the unexampled bondage in which they held the
southern half of Ireland, and on their complete victory over the man who
had been 'the head of the happiness and prosperity of that half of
Ireland in which he lived, namely, Brian O'Connor.'[324]
[Sidenote: Bellingham's first visit to Ireland, 1547.]
Sir Edward Bellingham, a gentleman of the bedchamber, was sent over for
the first time in the summer of 1547, in charge of reinforcements. This
able soldier had been Governor of the Isle of Wight, and had served at
Boulogne in 1546. He had also held diplomatic appointments in Hungary,
and at the Emperor's Court. The Privy Council, who expressed themselves
satisfied of his military ability, directed the Irish Government to be
guided by his advice, and to pay him the unusual salary of forty
shillings sterling a day. He was employed by the borderers of the Pale
against the O'Mores and O'Connors, and seems to have made his mark from
the first. After a short stay Bellingham with difficulty obtained leave
to return to England. He must have succeeded in impressing his views on
Somerset, to whose religious party he belonged, for St. Leger was
recalled in the following spring, and Bellingham was appointed in his
stead.[325]
[Sidenote: Butlers and Kavanaghs. Bellingham Deputy, 1548.]
Bellingham landed at Dalkey on May 18, 1548, and the state of Leinster at
once engaged his attention. Moryt Oge Kavanagh had taken a horse and
other property from a neighbour, and Bellingham called upon Cahir MacArt
to restore it, and to punish the thief. The chief denied all
responsibility, on the ground that the culprit was in Sir Richard
Butler's suite, and that he could not in any case hang a man for
stealing, but only enforce restitution according to the Brehon law. We
can now see that in this at least Cahir MacArt was more nearly right than
the English lawyers. Moryt Oge had grievances, and said that he was
oppressed by one Watkin Powell, but he restored the horse, subject to the
Lord Deputy's opinion as to whether he had a right to it as a set off
against his own losses. He came to Carlow to plead his own cause, but Sir
Richard Butler, who had promised to meet him, did not appear. Butler was
accused of showing a bad example in the country by plundering houses,
wounding men, and taking gentlewomen prisoners. If this, or even a small
part of it, were true of the Earl of Ormonde's brother, it is not
surprising that robberies should have been things of every-day
occurrence.[326]
[Sidenote: The Pale constantly threatened.]
The defenders of the Pale were fully occupied. Having consulted such men
in England as understood Irish affairs, the Privy Council concluded that
the principal damage was done 'skulkingly in the winter's nights.' If the
Lord Deputy's presence near the border was not enough to prevent
incursion, soldiers accustomed to the country were to be quartered there
permanently, and nightly watch to be kept, especially on O'Connor's side.
Truces were not to last beyond the winter. This border service must have
been very disagreeable. John Brereton, who held the office of seneschal
of Wexford, of which the duties were very ill discharged by Watkin
Powell, was stationed at Kildare, and complained bitterly that he was
harassed to death. He could get no leave because he had no second
captain, and even in May and June he could scarcely enjoy an undisturbed
night. At one time he was roused from his bed by shouts, at another by
the announcement that some alarm beacon was blazing. On foot or on
horseback he had to march at once, and yet he was unable to answer every
summons. A proprietor at Rathangan, who is called Raymond Oge, had his
haggard burned by some of the O'Connor kerne. Two English troopers were
with him by chance and helped to defend his castle, but the fires which
they lit on the roof were not answered. Horses left out in a bog near a
wood were carried off and the keepers killed. Nothing was safe unless
shut up in a bawn, or fortified courtyard. Owen MacHugh O'Byrne, who was
retained permanently by the Government as a captain of kerne, was
inclined to do good service, but his men would not advance beyond Lea
Castle, saying that 'if Captain Cosby wanted wilfully to lose his life,
they did not set so little by their lives.' Cosby was a man of great
personal courage. The Constable of Lea, the same James Fitzgerald whose
allegiance in Grey's time had been so elastic, required a letter from
Bellingham to encourage him. The Lord Deputy himself spent some time at
Athy, where eighteen beds were provided for him and his suite; but the
border was never quiet for a moment. Fitzgerald and Cosby had no official
authority, and their orders carried no weight. If a cow strayed an alarm
was raised, and while soldiers were sent on a fool's errand in one
direction, the rebels or brigands had their time to themselves. O'More
came to the Barrow and carried off horses and sheep. Owen MacHugh
skirmished with him, but the hostile chief, 'like a jolly fellow,'
offered the royal kerne 6_s._ 8_d._ a fortnight to serve him, and pay to
their leaders in proportion. Before Cosby could get his men together the
O'Mores had vanished.[327]
[Sidenote: Lord Dunboyne.]
Other loyal and half loyal partisans were less energetic than Cosby. Lord
Dunboyne complained that his manor of Fishmoyne in Tipperary had been
plundered by the O'Carrolls and O'Meaghers, and this because he had
discharged his men by the Lord Deputy's orders. Bellingham retorted that
his lordship lied in his throat; for he had bidden him to entertain true
men instead of rebels, and to discharge no one unless it could be done
safely. He had particularly cautioned him against 'rashly discharging
such as have been malefactors as your gallowglasses were, and naturally
as their captains were.'[328]
[Sidenote: Pirates.]
While the frontiers of the Pale were harassed by robbers, the loyal ports
of the south were in constant dread of pirates. A rover named Eagle
blockaded Kinsale, which was half depopulated by an epidemic, and
another, named Colley, established himself in a castle belonging to Barry
Oge, whose aunt he married, so that the poor town was quite shut up.
Cork, the citizens told Bellingham, was so well defended by marshes and
waters, 'besides walls and towers which we do build daily, that we do not
fear all the Irishmen in Ireland and English rebels also, if there be any
such, until such time as your wisdom would repair hither for our refuge.'
John Tomson, a noted rover, visited both Cork and Waterford. According to
the authorities of the latter city he had 'one saker of 16-foot long,
having four chambers, so that we do not see how he may be apprehended.'
In an affray between the citizens and an armed French vessel Tomson took
part with the foreigner, and the pursuit of them cost Waterford 1,000_l._
This formidable water-thief was taken by O'Sullivan Bere, who made him
pay a large ransom. Afterwards Bellingham rather oddly allowed the Cork
men to trade with Tomson, because it seemed possible that he had received
pardon, and because the goods then on board did not appear to be stolen.
Wine, figs, and sugar were, however, the wares offered by Tomson and his
ally Stephenson, and it is most likely that they had been stolen at sea
from the Portuguese. Tomson used the occasion to refit and to repair his
weapons, and the Waterford men called upon the Mayor of Cork to apprehend
the pirates; but that prudent official refused to do so without special
orders from Bellingham. Pirates were unpleasant people to deal with. A
gang confined at Waterford broke their gyves, nearly murdered a
fellow-prisoner, and with many 'cracks' and menaces threatened to burn
the gaol.[329]
[Sidenote: Their daring outrages.]
A pirate named Smith sailed into Youghal, but seems to have taken nothing
but loose rigging and spars. He had long infested these waters, seemingly
with no more than six men, armed with guns and bows. The Youghal
fishermen took heart, and by a combined attack succeeded in capturing
Smith. Other pirates named Cole, Butside, and Strangwych are mentioned as
active about this time. They were all English, but the trade was by no
means confined to any one nation; for Sir Philip Hoby, the English
ambassador at the imperial court, was instructed to apply for help to
suppress a squadron of twenty sail, manned by lawless desperadoes of all
countries, who infested the Irish coast, and robbed the Emperor's
subjects. Logan, a Scotch professor of the art, and a survivor from
Lennox's expedition, haunted the coast about Howth, and took several
vessels. Power and Gough, who robbed a Portuguese ship in Waterford
harbour, and ruined the foreign trade of that port, were probably of
Irish birth. Desmond, on whom the honorary office of Lord Treasurer, held
by the late Earl of Ormonde, had already been conferred, received a
commission from Lord Admiral Seymour to exercise his jurisdiction along
the coast from Dungarvan to Galway. The men of the latter town said they
could defend themselves against all Irishmen coming by land, but that
they had not a single piece of artillery to resist attacks from the sea.
They professed unswerving loyalty, as did their neighbours of Limerick,
and Bellingham thanked the latter for their efforts to keep the Burkes
quiet, 'in whom,' he said, 'the obstinacy is found to break this order,
you the King's our own most dear sovereign lord's and master's subjects,
the mayor, brethren, and council of Limerick shall proceed to the first
and lawful redress and punishment thereof.'[330]
[Sidenote: Bellingham's campaign in Leix, 1548.]
Before Bellingham came to Ireland a hosting into Leix had been
proclaimed, and he carried it out promptly. The men of Drogheda were
required to furnish a strong contingent, having 'caused to be mustered
all such as are meet for the war without partiality.' They had also to
furnish carts, of which it seems the town could only boast three, and
there were complaints of the stringency of Bellingham's requisitions; but
he said he would rather they were unfurnished than he. The Drogheda men
did very good service, and the carts, which were duly paid for, were
employed to carry pioneers' tools. The soldiers were thus enabled without
excessive fatigue to cut passes through woods, and make causeways over
bogs. After a thirty days' campaign in Leix, Bellingham resolved that a
town should be built in Leix, and in the meantime was erected Fort
Governor or Protector, in the place where Maryborough now stands. The
citizens of Dublin were required to assist in making it practicable for
soldiers to act upon the border of Kildare; but they made excuses, saying
that men could not carry arms and tools as well. Bellingham
sarcastically refuted their argument, 'in which your experience bitterly
condemneth my ignorance.' Let them send carts as the Drogheda men had
done, and then one man could do the work of two.[331]
[Sidenote: Bellingham routs the O'Connors.]
In August 1548 Cahir O'Connor, who still kept some force about him,
invaded Kildare. Nicholas Bagenal, Marshal of the army, fell in with the
marauders, and rescued the cattle taken, though his men were in the
proportion of one to sixteen. Cahir retreated with his troop, and with a
multitude of camp followers and 'slaves,' who carried their food to what
was considered an unassailable position. Bellingham was not far off, and
he ordered Saintloo to attack them wherever he could find them.
Accompanied by Travers, Brereton, and Cosby, Saintloo tracked them to a
spot surrounded by a bog. The soldiers struggled manfully through the
moss until they reached hard ground, and a great butchery followed. The
oldest man in Ireland had, as Bellingham supposed, never seen so many
wood-kerne slain in one day. Such was the slaughter, says this precursor
of Cromwell, that none escaped but by mistake, or hiding them in ambush,
'such was the great goodness of God to deliver them into our hands.' The
Old Testament in English was beginning to make its mark upon language and
upon habits of thought.[332]
[Sidenote: Disturbances in Munster. Foreign rumours.]
Munster was much disturbed. Edmund Tyrry, the King's bailiff at Cork, had
a dispute with some of the Barries about land. The Earl of Desmond was
appealed to, and he took Tyrry to Lord Barrymore, desiring the latter to
do him justice. Barrymore took the bailiff with him to his court-baron,
or 'parliament,' and the case was partly heard and adjourned to a future
day. On his return journey towards Cork, Tyrry was waylaid and murdered.
Bellingham demanded justice, and Lord Barrymore, after some months'
delay, gave up the murderers, who were doubtless duly executed. But the
Barry country continued to be the scene of frequent outrages. Lord
Barrymore went out one day in the early winter to drive the cattle of
some wild Irishmen, and met with certain other wild Irish who were going
to spoil his tenants. A fight followed, and the Barries 'killed
incontinently little lack of fourscore of them,' wherewith, said the
Corporation of Cork, 'we be glad, and so is the Earl of Desmond.' But
Bellingham was not satisfied with Desmond's conduct, nor easy about the
future. James Delahide, always the herald of a storm, was in Ireland, and
probably with the Earl. Gerald of Kildare might appear again; and there
were rumours that the French meditated a descent and the establishment of
a fortified port at Skerries to command the passage to Scotland. These
fears were not realised; but there were frequent communications between
Desmond and the O'Briens, and Bellingham took steps to have everything
reported to him. This vigilance perhaps prevented the Munster chiefs from
moving.[333]
[Sidenote: Anarchy in Connaught. Garrison at Athlone.]
The death of the newly-created Earl of Clanricarde revived the normal
anarchy of Connaught. Ulick Burke was acknowledged as captain by the
Government and by some of the inhabitants during the minority of the
Earl's son Richard. But another Richard, the heir's illegitimate brother,
gave so much trouble that Sir Dermot O'Shaughnessy, and other
well-disposed chiefs, demanded that the young Earl should be settled in
possession, and that Commissioners should be sent to Galway for the
purpose. The false Richard was, however, allowed to rule his own
immediate district, but not without strong hints from Bellingham that
what the King gave the King could take away. Burke was reminded that he
had apprehended no notable malefactor, and that the Lord Deputy would
quarrel with no honest Irishman for his sake. Bellingham had neither time
nor force to give to the West, and the towns of Limerick and Galway had
very indifferent success in their efforts to keep the peace. But the
chief governor's reputation for justice was not without effect even in
Connaught. 'Your lordship's famous proceedings,' wrote the Archbishop of
Tuam, 'being divolgated throughout all Ireland, to the great fear of
misdoers and malefactors all through the country hereabouts now needing
reformation, more than heretofore, all for lack of justice among them to
be observed.' Bellingham established a garrison at Athlone, which
overawed the O'Kellys and O'Melaghlins; but little progress was made
beyond the Shannon. Robert Dillon, the lawyer, was the Lord Deputy's
civil substitute, but the sword was necessarily in the Baron of Delvin's
hands, who did all he could to prevent Dillon from sending messengers to
Dublin. The central districts of Ireland between the Pale and the great
river were at this time the theatre of constant war, and in this an
English, or Anglo-Norman, adventurer figures conspicuously.[334]
[Sidenote: Edmond Fay.]
Edmond Fay, who seems to have had property at Cadamstown, in the King's
County, and to have claimed more than the natives were willing to allow
him, was called into Westmeath by O'Melaghlin to aid him against his
enemies. The confederates gained some successes, and occupied, among
other places, the historic castle of Kincora. 'Edmond,' say the 'Four
Masters,' 'then continued to conquer Delvin in the King's name in
opposition to O'Melaghlin; and thus had O'Melaghlin brought a rod into
the country to strike himself, for Edmond a Faii expelled and banished
himself and all his tribe out of Delvin, just as the young swarm expels
the old.' Fay, who was to some extent supported by the Government, and
who had soldiers with him, drove the MacCoghlans across the Shannon, and
made himself master of most of the country between Athlone and
Slievebloom. Not satisfied with this he proposed to attack the
O'Carrolls, who joined the MacCoghlans, and expelled him from his recent
conquests. Fay called on the Government for help, and the whole county,
on both sides of the Brosna, was burned and plundered by the troops, to
whom no resistance was attempted. The Irish demolished Banagher and
other castles to prevent their being occupied, and this became a general
practice in like cases. Cadamstown was afterwards taken by the
O'Carrolls, and Fay returned to his original obscurity. He seems to have
had the keep of Thady Roe, or the Red Captain, a noted leader of
mercenaries, who held possession of Nenagh. The O'Carrolls burned the
monastery and town, but the castle defied their power.[335]
[Sidenote: The Pale is freed from rebels.]
Towards the close of 1548 Alen was able to report that there were only
about a dozen rebels on the borders of the Pale. O'Connor had surrendered
at discretion, and his life was spared in the hope of inducing O'More to
follow his example. Alen advised that they should be removed from
Ireland, and that work should be found for them at Calais or Boulogne.
'There are in all,' he told Paget, 'not twelve persons wherewith your
honour to make a maundie, for when Christ ministered at His last supper
there were twelve, of whom one was a traitor, and of these ye may have
twelve together at one table.'[336]
[Sidenote: The coinage. A mint.]
The Plantagenet kings had made no difference in the coinage of England
and Ireland; but in 1460--when Richard, Duke of York, was Lord
Lieutenant--the Parliament of Drogheda, with the express intention of
loosening the tie between the two islands, declared that coins
intrinsically worth threepence should be struck in Ireland and pass for
fourpence. There was afterwards a further degradation, and the money
struck by Henry VIII. consisted at last of one-half, or even two-thirds,
alloy. 'New coins were introduced into Ireland,' say the 'Four Masters,'
with pardonable exaggeration, 'that is, copper, and the men of Ireland
were obliged to use it as silver.' Dishonesty had its proverbial reward,
for trade was thrown into confusion and general discontent engendered.
The Corporation of Galway more than once besought Bellingham to force the
new money on the captain of Clanricarde and Donnell O'Flaherty. The
Corporation of Kinsale made the same request as to the Courcies,
Barries, and MacCarthies. This was, of course, beyond Bellingham's power,
and the Protector went on coining regardless of Irish complaints. Thomas
Agard was Treasurer of the Dublin Mint, and exercised his office
independently of the Lord Deputy. He was originally in Cromwell's
service, and his position not unnaturally brought him into collision with
Lord Leonard Grey, who accused him of making mischief. Agard, however,
said that Grey, 'which is my heavy lord,' oppressed him out of spite,
because he opposed the Geraldine faction, and prevented him from setting
up broad looms and dye-works in Dublin. With the politic St. Leger he got
on better, but Bellingham, whose temper was quite as despotic as Grey's,
was much disgusted at the independence of the Mint. Agard leaned to the
Puritan side, and praised Bellingham's godly proceedings. God is with
you, he wrote to him, and with all good Christians who love God and their
King, with much more of the same sort. But the Lord Deputy was not
conciliated, and accused Agard of cooking his accounts, and of embezzling
2,000_l._ He was not superseded, and was entrusted with the congenial
task of melting down chalices and crosses, and of turning them into bad
money. The home authorities chose to make Agard independent in his
office; but the stronger nature triumphed, and the King's auditor
reported that the Treasurer of the Mint dared not for his life speak of
his business to any but the Lord Deputy. The debased currency caused much
speculation of an undesirable kind. Thus, Francis Digby, who had a
licence to export Irish wool, found it pay much better to buy up plate
with the current coin and sell it in England for sterling money. Others
took the cue, and it became necessary to issue a proclamation. It was, of
course, no more possible to prevent the exportation of silver than to
change the ebb and flow of the tides.[337]
[Sidenote: Bellingham's haughty bearing.]
[Sidenote: His rash letters to Somerset,]
In November Bellingham paid a short visit to Dublin, where he found Lady
Ormonde with her new husband, Sir Francis Bryan, who had a commission as
Lord Marshal of Ireland. Bryan, 'the man of youthful conditions,' as
Roger Ascham called him, was particularly recommended by the Privy
Council to Alen, who could not understand what Henry VIII. had seen in
him worthy of great promotion. Bellingham hated him from the first, and
Alen thought he would have the same feeling to any one who had married
Lady Ormonde. We have no means of knowing whether he was in love with
her, or whether he hated her, or whether he merely disliked the alliance
as likely to clip his own wings. His idea of the rights and dignity of
his position was high and even excessive, and was asserted with a fine
disregard of prudence. To Somerset he complained that his credit was bad,
and that he was despised in Ireland because he was thought to have no
power to reward those who had done good service. He begged that they
might be 'fed with some thereof, which no doubt it is great need of, for
the wisest sort have ever found that good service in Ireland has been
less considered of any place.'
[Sidenote: to Warwick,]
[Sidenote: and to Seymour.]
In writing to Warwick his words were still stronger, and he complained
bitterly at the slight put on him in the matter of the mint. 'I am,' he
said, 'at your honourable lordship's commandment; but in respect I am the
King's Deputy, your good lordship may determine surely that I will have
none exempt from my authority in Ireland's ground, but sore against my
will.' He had not spent the King's treasure in gambling or riotous
living, nor in buying land for himself. The King's responsible servants
in Ireland were neglected, and credit given to backstairs' suitors
'coming in by the windows,' which did more harm than all the rebels and
Irishry in the realm. Some of Warwick's letters had hurt him, whereas the
true policy would be to let men 'know that I am the King's Deputy, so
that they shall think when they have my favours things go well with them,
and the contrary when they have them not.' These letters, and another to
Seymour, gave great, and not unnatural offence, so that Bellingham was
fain to beg the admiral's pardon and intercession with Warwick. Some
measure of the serpent's wisdom is necessary to those who fill great
offices.[338]
[Sidenote: Bellingham and the Irish.]
If Bellingham could thus treat the most powerful men in England, he was
not likely to mince matters with those whom he could touch. 'Bring
yourself,' said the Lord Deputy to O'Molloy, who had wrongfully detained
the property of a kinswoman, 'out of the slander of the people by making
prompt restitution, or have your contempt punished as to your deserts
shall appertain.' To the Earl of Thomond, who had promised to bring in
Calough O'Carroll but had not done so, he wrote a noble letter, but a
very imprudent one, considering the character and position of the chief
whom he addressed. Calough O'Carroll, he said, had brought his troubles
on himself by allowing his men to plunder, and by refusing to give them
up; he should be well plagued for it according to promise, until he and
his brother found means to come and seek their own pardon. The O'Carrolls
submitted and were pardoned.[339]
[Sidenote: Bellingham and his Council.]
Bellingham was above all things a soldier, and he treated his Council,
consisting for the most part of lawyers, in a very high-handed manner.
His old friend Alen remonstrated, and there is no reason to doubt him
here, though he had a way of quarrelling with successive Deputies. Alen
admitted that Bellingham was quite free from pecuniary self-seeking, but
thought he had more than his share of the other sin which beset chief
governors, ambition namely, and the longing to rule alone. He had said
that it would be a good deed to hang the whole Council, and he kept the
members waiting for hours among the servants in the ante-room. Alen he
accused personally of feigning sickness when bent on mischief. Others he
threatened to commit if they offended him, reminding them that he could
make or mar their fortunes. When angry he frequently sent men to a prison
without any warrant of law; 'and I myself,' said the Chancellor, 'except
I walk warily, look for none other but some time with the King's seal
with me to take up my lodging in the castle of Dublin.' The Council had
become a lifeless, spiritless corpse, for Bellingham could hear no advice
without threats and taunts. It is not surprising that Privy Councillors
feared to speak frankly, and forced themselves to wait until this tyranny
should be overpast.[340]
[Sidenote: Bellingham seizes Desmond.]
To a Lord Deputy so jealous for the dignity of his office nothing could
be more distasteful than the power of the House of Ormonde, which was now
wielded by the Countess and her husband. The Sheriff of Kildare gave a
most galling proof of this power by begging that his communications with
Bellingham might be kept secret for fear of Lady Ormonde's displeasure.
She claimed the right to keep gallowglasses in Kilkenny, and the Lord
Deputy infinitely disliked this practice, which had prevailed for
centuries. He wished to keep the young Earl in England, lest by living at
home he should imbibe exaggerated notions of his own importance. 'His
learning and manners,' he said, 'would be nothing amended, and the King's
authority thereby be nought the more obeyed.' By remaining in England
till he was of discreet years, he might learn willingly to abandon his
'usurped insufferable rule, which I trust he will do yet in time to
come.' Any assumption of independence on the part of a subject irritated
Bellingham excessively; and when Desmond, whose manners he stigmatised as
detestable, neglected his summons, he set out quietly from Leighlin with
a small party of horse, rode rapidly into Munster, surprised Desmond
sitting by the fire in one of his castles, and carried him off to Dublin.
He set himself to instruct the rude noble in civilisation and in the
nature of the royal authority, sometimes, if we may believe the
chronicler, 'making him kneel upon his knees an hour together before he
knew his duty.' This discipline, accompanied doubtless with kind
treatment in other ways, seems to have answered so well, that, according
to the same authority, Desmond 'thought himself most happy that ever he
was acquainted with the said Deputy, and did for ever after so much
honour him, as that continually all his life at every dinner and supper
he would pray for the good Sir Edward Bellingham; and at all callings he
was so obedient and dutiful, as none more in that land.'[341]
[Sidenote: Ireland quiet. Garrison at Leighlin Bridge.]
At the beginning of the year 1549 the Privy Council thanked Bellingham
for having brought Ireland to a good state. They charged him to aid
Tyrone against the Scots, and to be on his guard against French
enterprises undertaken under colour of trading. The forts erected where
Maryborough and Philipstown now are kept Leix and Offaly quiet. Breweries
were at work under the shadow of both, and it was proposed to start a
tan-yard at Fort Protector, as Maryborough was for the moment called.
Bellingham established another post, which became very important, to
command the road from Dublin to Kilkenny, and thus make the Government
less dependent on the House of Ormonde. The suppressed Carmelite convent
at Leighlin Bridge required but little alteration, and the Barrow ceased
to be a serious obstacle. The Lord Deputy kept twenty or thirty horses
here with the greatest difficulty, the hay having to be brought from
Carlow through a disturbed country. Irishmen were willing to settle and
to make an example of peaceful cultivation, but they were in great fear
of Lady Ormonde. Walter Cowley, formerly Solicitor-General and fomenter
of discord between St. Leger and the late Earl, had little good to say of
the no longer disconsolate widow, but praised Sir Francis Bryan for
saying that he would not 'borrow of the law as my Lord of Ormonde did.'
The expression was called forth by the action of the Idrone Ryans, who
were frightened by the inquiries into tenure, and came to Lady Ormonde
offering to convey their lands to her and her heirs; the object being to
defeat the Act of Absentees. No doubt the cultivators would have been
glad to pay an easy rent to a powerful neighbour, rather than have an
active new landlord such as Cosby thrust upon them. Sir Richard Butler,
some of whose misdeeds have been already mentioned, built a castle in
O'More's country without any title, and overawed the whole district of
Slievemargy.[342]
[Sidenote: Progress of the Reformation. Browne and Staples.]
Doctrinal Protestantism was not formally promulgated in Bellingham's
time; but the recognition of the royal supremacy was pretty general, for
he would allow no disobedience. The Treasurer of St. Patrick's, who was
refractory, was severely reprimanded, and threatened with condign
punishment. A Scot who preached at Kilmainham condemned the Mass, and
Archbishop Browne, whose opinions were not perhaps quite fixed, was
accused of inveighing against the stranger, and of maintaining that those
who sided with him were 'not the King's true subjects.' Means were,
however, taken to spread the order of service which Browne had set on
foot. The Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the _Ave Maria_ were
read and circulated in English, but the Mass was retained; a confused
arrangement which could not last. Still, the men who controlled the
Government and the young King were known to be favourable to the new
doctrines, and the Scots emissary soon found a distinguished follower in
the Bishop of Meath. Staples had at one time certainly held opinions less
advanced than those of Browne, but he now went to Dublin and preached a
strong Protestant sermon against the Mass. On returning to his own
diocese he found that he had incurred universal hatred. An Irishman,
whose infant he had christened and named after himself, desired to have
the child re-baptized, 'for he would not have him bear the name of a
heretic.' A gentleman refused to have his child confirmed 'by him that
denied the sacrament of the altar.' The gossips in the market-place at
Navan declared that if the Bishop came to preach there they would stay
away, lest they should learn to be heretics. A lawyer in the
neighbourhood told a crowd of people that Staples deserved to be burned,
'for if I preached heresy so was I worthy to be burned, and if I preached
right yet was I worthy that kept the truth from knowledge.' 'This
gentleman,' Staples quaintly adds, 'loveth no sodden meat, but can skill
only of roasting.' Another lawyer, a judge, said it should be proved
before the Bishop's face that he preached against learning. The following
is too interesting to omit:--'A beneficed man of mine own promotion came
unto me weeping and desired me that he might declare his mind unto me
without my displeasure. I said I was well content. My Lord, said he,
before ye went last to Dublin ye were the best beloved man in your
diocese that ever came in, and now ye are the worst beloved that ever
came here. I asked why? "Why," saith he, "ye have taken open part with
the State that false heretic, and preached against the sacrament of the
altar, and deny saints, and will make us worse than Jews: if the country
wist how they would eat you;" and he besought me to take heed of myself,
for he feared more than he durst tell me. "Ye have," he said, "more
curses than ye have hairs of your head, and I advise you for Christ sake
not to preach at the Navan as I hear ye will do." I said it was my charge
to preach, and because there was most resort (God willing) I would not
fail but preach there. Hereby ye may perceive what case I am in, but I
put all to God.' The Bishop spoke as became his office, but he was
'afraid of his life divers ways.'[343]
[Sidenote: Bellingham and Dowdall.]
Bellingham had information of what was going on in England by private as
well as official correspondence. John Issam, a strong Protestant, who was
afterwards made seneschal of Wexford, wrote from London an account of the
variations of opinion upon the all-important question of the sacrament.
'There is great sticking,' he said, 'about the blessed body and bloode of
Jesus Christ, howbeit, I trust that they will conclude well in it, by the
help of the Holy Spirit, without which such matters cannot well be tried;
but part of our bishops that have been most stiff in opinions of the
reality of His body there, as He was here in earth, should be in the
bread, they now confess and say that they were never of that opinion, but
by His mighty power in spirit, and leaveth His body sitting on the right
hand of His Father, as our common creed testifieth; but yet there is hard
hold with some to the contrary, who shall relent when it pleaseth God.'
Bellingham certainly did what he could to spread the reformed doctrines,
but this was, perhaps, not much. His letter to Primate Dowdall, who had
acknowledged the royal supremacy, but was inflexible on the question of
the sacrament, is instinct with the spirit of Christian sincerity.
'My Lord Primate,' he says, 'I pray you lovingly and charitably to be
circumspect in your doings, and consider how God hath liberally given you
divers gifts, and namely, of reputation among the people ... Let all
these in part be with the gratuity of setting forth the plain, simple,
and naked truth recompensed, and the way to do the same is to know that
which, with a mild and humble spirit wished, sought, and prayed for, will
most certainly be given, which I pray God grant us both.'[344]
[Sidenote: Bellingham advances the royal supremacy.]
Bellingham could do nothing with Dowdall; but in the spring of 1549 all
the priests in the Kilkenny district not physically incapable of
travelling were summoned to meet the Lord Deputy and Council. It was
ordered that the Attorney-General should exercise jurisdiction in
ecclesiastical matters, and 'abolish idolatry, papistry, the Mass
sacrament, and the like.' The Archbishop of Cashel seems to have had no
great zeal for the work. Nicholas Fitzwilliam, Treasurer of St.
Patrick's, received a stinging rebuke for his hesitation to carry out the
royal commands. The innovations were distasteful to most men in Ireland,
but Bellingham was recognised as one who would use his patronage
conscientiously, and not job in the usual style. John Brereton, a decided
Protestant, recommended to him 'for the love of God and the zeal that you
have for the education of Christ's flock,' a poor priest who was willing
to go into a certain district where he had friends, and where there was
no one to declare the true worship. The suppliant, who was both learned
and earnest, could expect favour from no nother's (_sic_) hand, because
he 'is but poor and has no money to give as his adversaries do.' Auditor
Brasier told Somerset that 'there was never Deputy in the realm that went
the right way, as he doth, both for the setting forth of God's Word to
His honour, and to the wealth of the King's Highness' subjects.' But
these praises did not serve to prolong his term of office, and he left
Ireland without effecting the reforms which he had at heart.[345]
[Sidenote: Bellingham leaves Ireland, 1549. His character.]
Bellingham's departure from Ireland followed pretty closely on the
Protector's eclipse, though it is not quite certain that it was caused by
it. Warwick may have borne malice for past lectures, but the Lord Deputy
seems to have defended himself successfully, and might have been sent
back had he not excused himself on account of ill-health. The malady
proved fatal, but he seems to have retained office till his death. There
has been a tendency among those who find their ideal realised in a strong
man armed, to represent Bellingham as a model ruler. It appears from his
letters and from general testimony that he was honest, brave, loyal, and
sincerely religious; but his incessant wars were very burdensome, and it
is noted that he exacted the unpopular cess more stringently than its
inventor St. Leger had done. But he was a true-dealing man, took nothing
without punctual payment, and 'could not abide the cry of the poor.' From
the love of gain, that common vice of provincial governors, he was
absolutely free, and made a point of spending all his official income in
hospitality, saying that the meat and drink in his house were not his
own, but his dear master's. For the King's honour he paid his own
travelling expenses, and insisted on doing the like even when Lord
Baltinglass entertained him sumptuously. Alen, who criticised his
official conduct so sharply, could not but allow that he was 'the best
man of war that ever he had seen in Ireland.' The figure of the Puritan
soldier has its charms; but the sword of the Lord and of Gideon is not a
good instrument of civil government. Absolutism may be apparently
successful under a beneficent despot, but who is to guarantee that his
successor shall not be a villain or a fool? Bellingham's forts did their
own work, but his ascendency over lawyers in Dublin and ambitious chiefs
in the country was purely personal, and had no lasting effect. There was
much to admire in his character, but distance has lent it enchantment,
and in practice not much permanent work could be done by a governor of
whom the most striking fact recorded is that 'he wore ever his harness,
and so did all those whom he liked of.'[346]
[Sidenote: Bryan, Lord Justice. Mischief brewing.]
As soon as Bellingham had left Ireland the Council unanimously elected
Bryan Lord Justice. The Irish, though overawed by the departed Deputy,
had been plotting in the usual way, and after all that had passed Lord
Thomond and O'Carroll were sworn allies. The Kavanaghs were known to be
meditating mischief, and Desmond was not to be depended on. Lady Ormonde
had been quarrelling with Lady Desmond, and Alen took credit to himself
for having made a truce between them. To the usual elements of discord
were added many rumours of Scotch and French invasions. O'Neill,
O'Donnell, O'Dogherty, and others proposed to become subjects of France,
in consideration of help from thence, and of the most Christian King's
good offices with the Pope. Monluc, Bishop of Valence, returning from his
mission to the Scottish Court, was directed by Henry to take Ireland on
his way, and to gain all the information possible. Sir James Melville,
then a boy, accompanied him. 'Before our landing,' he says, 'we sent one
George Paris, who had been sent into Scotland by the great O'Neill and
his associates, who landed in the house of a gentleman who had married
O'Dogherty's daughter, dwelling at the Loch edge. He came aboard and
welcomed us, and conveyed us to his house, which was a great dark tower,
where we had cold cheer--as herring and biscuit--for it was Lentroun.'
One De Botte, a Breton merchant, was also sent on secret service to
Ireland apparently about the same time.[347]
[Sidenote: Death of Bryan, 1550. Lady Ormonde meditates a third
marriage.]
At this juncture Bryan died at Clonmel under circumstances apparently
somewhat suspicious, for there was a post-mortem examination. He had
refused to take any medicine, and the doctors, who detected no physical
unsoundness, prudently declared that he died of grief; we are not told
for what. 'But whereof soever he died,' says Alen, who was present both
at the death and the autopsy, 'he departed very godly.' Lady Ormonde, who
must have had a rooted dislike to single life, immediately recurred to
her plan of marrying Gerald of Desmond, and the Chancellor had to
remonstrate on the scandal of so soon supplying the place of two such
noble husbands. The danger of putting both the Ormonde and Desmond
interests in the same hand was obvious. The Geraldines were already too
powerful, and what might not be the consequence of throwing the weight of
the Butlers into the same scale, and making them more Irish and less
loyal than they had been before? In the end she promised to remain sole
for one year. 'Nevertheless,' said Alen, 'I would my lords (if they take
her marriage of any moment) trusted a woman's promise no further than in
such a case it is to be trusted!' Her marriage took place in the end with
beneficial results: for Lady Ormonde was able to keep some sort of peace
between her husband and her son, and thus saved much misery and
bloodshed. Immediately after her death the quarrel broke out anew, and
ended only with the extinction of the House of Desmond.[348]
[Sidenote: Brabazon, Lord Justice. Dowdall and Wauchop.]
On the day of Bryan's death the Council elected Brabazon to succeed him,
and the new Lord Justice soon afterwards went to Limerick to arrange
disputes among the O'Briens and between Thomond and Desmond. Before the
complicated complaints had been all heard his presence was required in
Dublin on account of the disturbed state of the North; a most dangerous
visitor having landed in Tyrconnel. This was the Papal Primate, Robert
Wauchop--Dowdall, who had acknowledged the royal supremacy, though
without accepting any of the new doctrines, not being acknowledged at
Rome. The actual Primate kept himself well informed as to the movements
of his rival, whom he understood to be a 'very shrewd spy and great
brewer of war and sedition.' There were many French and Scotch ready to
attack Ireland, and the former had already manned and armed two castles
in Innishowen. Tyrone gave Dowdall letters which he had received from the
French king, and the Archbishop, with his consent, forwarded them to the
Council. Tyrone swore before the Dean and Chapter of Armagh that he had
sent no answers, and that he would remain faithful to the King. He did
not acknowledge Wauchop's claims, but merely reported that he called
himself Primate, and that he was accompanied by two Frenchmen of rank,
who were supposed to be forerunners of countless Scotch and French
invaders. The Council warned Tyrone that the French wished to conquer
Ireland, and to reduce him and his clan to slavery and insignificance. He
was reminded that they had been expelled from Italy and Sicily for their
more than Turkish ferocity and rapacity. French messages were also sent
to O'Donnell, but no letters, as he had transmitted some formerly
received to the Government. He professed his loyalty, and declared that
he would not recognise Wauchop unless the Council wished it.[349]
[Sidenote: Foreign intrigues. George Paris.]
In all these intrigues we find one George Paris, or Parish, engaged. He
was a man whose ancestors had held land in Ireland, of which they had
been deprived, and he was perhaps related to the traitor of Maynooth.
This man came and went between France and Ireland, and though the
threatened attack was averted by the peace concluded by England with
France and Scotland, his services were not dispensed with. Henry said
that the intrigues had ceased with the peace, but the English ambassador
knew that his Majesty had had an interview with Paris less than a week
before. Paris told everyone that all the nobility of Ireland were
resolved to cast off the English yoke for fear of losing all their lands,
as the O'Mores and O'Connors had done. He boasted that he himself had
begged Trim Castle of the French king to make up for the lands which the
English had deprived him of. The Constable spoke as smoothly and not much
more truly than the King. Monluc was still employed in the matter, had
interviews with Paris, and gave him money.[350]
[Sidenote: St. Leger again Deputy. Alen displaced, 1550.]
After Bellingham's death it was determined to send St. Leger over again,
though he disliked the service, and though the Irish Chancellor continued
to indite bulky minutes against him. It was felt that the two could
hardly agree, and Alen was turned out of the Council and deprived of the
great seal, which was given to Cusack. His advice was nevertheless
occasionally asked. A year later he received 200 marks pension from the
date of his dismissal, though he had only asked for 100_l._ Many charges
were made against him, the truest, though he indignantly denied it, being
that he could not agree with others. But after careful search no fault of
any moment could be found in him, and he had served very industriously in
Ireland for twenty-two years. With all his opportunities he declared that
he had gained only nine and a half acres of Irish land. St. Leger and his
friends, who were for conciliating rather than repressing the Irish,
naturally disliked Alen. He had a decided taste for intrigue; but if we
regard him as a mere English official, diligent and useful, though narrow
and touchy, he must be allowed to have had his value.[351]
[Sidenote: St. Leger adopts a conciliatory policy.]
The new Lord Deputy's salary was fixed at 1,000_l._ a year from his
predecessor's death, though St. Leger, who alleged that he was already
500_l._ the poorer for Ireland, fought hard for 1,500_l._ He retained his
old privilege of importing 1,000 quarters of wheat and 1,000 quarters of
malt yearly, to be consumed only in Ireland. The appointment was
evidently intended to restore some confidence among the natives, who had
been scared by Bellingham's high-handed policy. St. Leger having
suggested that Irishmen should be 'handled with the more humanity lest
they by extremity should adhere to other foreign Powers,' he was directed
to 'use gentleness to such as shall show themselves conformable,' that
great Roman maxim of empire which has been so often neglected in Ireland.
Encouraging letters were to be sent to Desmond, Thomond, and Clanricarde;
and to MacWilliam, the O'Donnells, O'Reilly, O'Kane, and MacQuillin.
Pieces of scarlet cloth and silver cups to the value of 100_l._ were to
be distributed to the best advantage among them. Particular instructions
were given for reforming the military establishments, and officers were
not to be allowed to have more than 10 per cent. of Irish among their
men. Coyne and livery, the most fertile source of licence and disorder,
was to be eschewed as far as possible. Irish noblemen were to be
encouraged to exchange some of their lands for property in England, and
thus to give pledges for good behaviour. In Leix and Offaly leases for
twenty-one years were to be given; and religious reform was everywhere to
be taken in hand. One very curious power was given to the Lord Deputy.
When England was at war with France or the Empire, he was authorised to
license subjects of those Powers to import merchandise under royal
protection, excepting such articles as were under a special embargo.[352]
[Sidenote: Hesitation about pressing the Reformation forward.]
St. Leger was ordered to set forth the Church service in English,
according to the royal ordinances, in all places where it was possible to
muster a congregation who understood the language. Elsewhere the words
were to be translated truly into Irish, until such time as the people
should be brought to a knowledge of English. But small pains were taken
to carry out the latter design, and the Venetian agent reported, with
practical accuracy, that the Form of Common Prayer and Administration of
the Sacraments was not enforced in Ireland or other islands subject to
England where English was not understood. The book still remains that of
the English colony, and of no one else in Ireland. Cranmer and Elizabeth
both saw the necessity of attempting to reach the Irish through their own
tongue, but neither were able to do it. When Bedell, at a later period,
threw himself heart and soul into the cause, he received not only no
encouragement, but positive opposition, from the Government; and in any
case the breach was probably then past mending. Protestantism had become
identified in the Irish mind with conquest and confiscation, a view of
the case which was sedulously encouraged by Jesuits and other foreign
emissaries.[353]
[Sidenote: Bad state of the garrisons.]
St. Leger lost no time in visiting the forts in Leix and Offaly, and he
found there the disorder natural to, and perhaps pardonable in, an
ill-paid soldiery. Bellingham had complained more than a year before that
so many women of the country--Moabitish women he would have called them
had he lived a century later--were received into Fort Protector. Some
officers indignantly denied this, 'and as to our misdemeanour in any
point,' they added, 'we put that to the honestest men and women in the
fort.' If this report was true, discipline had been much relaxed in a
year and nine months, for St. Leger found as many women of bad character
as there were soldiers in the forts. Divine service there had been none
for three years, and only one sermon. Staples, who was the preacher on
that solitary occasion, 'had so little reverence as he had no great haste
eftsoons to preach there.' There was also a want of garrison artillery;
and eight pieces of cannon, with forty smaller pieces called bases, were
demanded by the Master of the Ordnance. He also asked for 400
harquebusses, and for bows, which the Dugald Dalgettys of the day had
not yet learned to despise. There were rumours of a French invasion, and
it was proposed to send a strong expedition to Ireland--six ships with
attendant galleys, 1,000 men, including many artificers to be employed in
fortifying Baltimore, Berehaven, and other places in the south-west, and
the mouths of the Bann and of Lough Larne in the north-east. The
Constables of Carrickfergus and Olderfleet were ordered to put those
castles in order for fear of Scots. Lord Cobham was designated as leader
of the expedition, and the Irish Government were directed at once to
survey Cork, Kinsale, and other southern harbours.[354]
[Sidenote: St. George's Channel unsafe. Want of money.]
Martin Pirry, Comptroller of the Mint, who brought over bullion collected
in France and Flanders, had to stay seven days at Holyhead for fear of
five great ships which he saw drifting about in the tideway. In the end
he secured a quick and safe passage by hiring a twenty-five ton pinnace
with sixteen oars, into which he put twenty-five well-armed men. St.
Leger had been complaining bitterly that he could get no money out of the
mint, although 2,000_l._ was owing. Pirry seems to have had only a
limited authority, for though over 7,000_l._ was delivered by him on the
Lord Deputy's warrant, St. Leger still objected that he had to make
bricks without straw, and to put port towns in a posture of defence
without being allowed to draw for the necessary expenses.[355]
[Sidenote: Abortive scheme for fortifying in Munster. Apprehensions of
French invasion.]
The expedition did not take place, but Sir James Croft was sent over with
instructions to inspect all the harbours between Berehaven and Cork, to
make plans of the most important, and to select sites for fortification;
utilising existing buildings as much as possible, and taking steps for
the acquisition of the necessary land. He was then to extend his
operations as far east as Waterford, acting in all things in concert with
the Lord Deputy. It is evident that things were in a state quite unfit to
resist a powerful French armament; but the weather as usual was on the
side of England, and of eighteen French vessels laden with provisions,
more than one-half were lost in a storm off the Irish coast. This fleet
was, no doubt, destined only for the relief of the French party in
Scotland, and there does not seem to have been any real intention of
breaking the peace with England. But the Irish exiles were unwilling to
believe this. George Paris, who had been despatched from Blois about
Christmas 1550, returned to France in the following spring, bringing with
him an Irishman of importance. The Irish offered Ireland to Henry, and
begged him to defend _his own_, saying that Wales would also rise as soon
as foreign aid appeared. Their avowed object was 'the maintenance of
religion, and for the continuance of God's service in such sort as they
had received from their fathers. In the which quarrel they were
determined either to stand or to die.' It would be better to invade
England than Ireland; for the English Catholics would receive an invader
with open arms. Paris spoke much of the frequent conquests of England. No
outward enemy, once landed, had ever been repulsed, and the thing was
easier now than ever. The sanguine plotter talked loudly of all that had
been promised him, and professed to believe that the Dauphin would soon
be King of Ireland and Scotland at the very least. 'With these brags, and
such others, he filleth every man's ears that he chanceth to talk
withal.' He had constant interviews with the Nuncio, but the French grew
every day cooler. The English ambassador perceived that the Irish envoy
was 'not so brag,' and at last reported that he had been denied help. He
attributed this change of policy entirely to the fear of increasing the
difficulties in which the Queen Dowager of Scotland already found
herself.[356]
[Sidenote: Difficulties in Ulster. Andrew Brereton.]
While Scots and Frenchmen threatened its shores, Ulster furnished more
even than its normal share of home-grown strife. Captain Andrew Brereton,
who seems to have been a son or grandson of Sir William Brereton, held
Lecale as a Crown tenant at will. He was a man singularly unfit to deal
with a high-spirited race like the O'Neills. When Tyrone, according to
ancient Irish custom, sent a party to distrain for rent among the
MacCartans, Brereton set upon them and killed several men, including two
brothers of the Countess. To the Earl's remonstrances he replied by
calling him a traitor, and threatening to treat him as he had treated
O'Hanlon--that is, to spoil him, slay his men, and burn his country. It
is clear that Brereton was not actuated by any special love of the
MacCartans, for he beheaded a gentleman of that clan--without trial. He
forcibly expelled Prior Magennis from his farm on the church lands of
Down; and Roger Broke, a congenial spirit, shut up the Prior in Dundrum
Castle. Tyrone went to Dublin to welcome St. Leger on his arrival, and
Brereton openly called him a traitor at the Council Board, in the
presence of the Lord Deputy and of the Earls of Thomond and Clanricarde.
The proud O'Neill of course took the accusation 'very unkindly.' St.
Leger was of opinion that such handling of wild men had done much harm in
Ireland; and the Council, while admitting that Tyrone was 'a frail man,
and not the perfectest of subjects,' thought that this was not the way to
make the best of him. Brereton had no better justification for his
conduct than the gossip of one of MacQuillin's kerne, who said that
Tyrone had sent a messenger to the King of France to say that he would
take his part against King Edward, and would send him Brereton and
Bagenal as prisoners. Brereton was very properly relieved of his command
in Lecale, on the nominal ground that he had refused to hold the Crown
land there upon the Lord Deputy's terms; which St. Leger evidently
thought more likely to have weight with the English Council than any
amount of outrages committed against the Irish. He was afterwards
restored, and gave trouble to later governors.[357]
FOOTNOTES:
[323] Lord Protector and Privy Council to Lord Deputy St. Leger and
Council, March 25, 1547; the King to the same, April 7; King Edward VI.
to the Earl of Desmond, Oct. 6. In a letter dated Lambeth, July 6, to her
'assured loving friend Mr. Cecil, Master of Requests,' Lady Ormonde begs
that Abbeyleix may not be granted to Barnaby Fitzpatrick to her son's
detriment, and she refers to Cecil's 'former friendship.' Here we see the
beginning of a most important connection.
[324] _Four Masters_, 1546, 1547.
[325] Introduction to _Carew_, vol. ii. p. lxxxv.; Archbishop Butler to
the Lord Protector, Feb. 25, 1548; _Calendar of Patent Rolls_, p. 154.
[326] _Calendar of Patent Rolls_, p. 66. For Butler and Powell, see three
letters calendared under April and May 1548, Nos. 16, 17, and 19.
[327] Privy Council to Lord Deputy and Council, Nov. 2, 1547; John
Brereton to Bellingham, May 1548 (No. 20), and July (Nos. 44 and 45);
Cosby to Bellingham, July (Nos. 48 and 50). Bellingham dated a letter
from Athy, Aug. 19, 1548. The eighteen beds are mentioned by John Plunket
and Thomas Alen in a letter to him of the 18th.
[328] Lord Dunboyne to Bellingham, June 21, 1548, and the answer (No.
25).
[329] Sovereign and Council of Kinsale to Bellingham, July 15, 1548;
Mayor, &c., of Cork to same, July 24, Aug. 27, Dec. 29, and the answer,
Jan. 10, 1549; Mayor, &c., of Waterford to Bellingham, Sept. 5, 1548.
[330] Mayor, &c., of Youghal to Bellingham, July 8, 1548; Deputy Mayor
and Council of Galway to same, Aug. 13; Bellingham to Limerick, Aug. (No.
63); John Goldsmith to Bellingham, Aug. 22; Kyng to Wyse, Sept. 5. Sir
Philip Hoby's letter is calendared among the foreign S.P., April 17,
1549.
[331] Bellingham to Alen, July 1548 (No. 39); Mayor, &c., of Drogheda to
Alen, Aug. 8; Bellingham to Privy Council, Aug. (No. 84), and to the
Mayor of Dublin (No. 67). For the fort, which became Maryborough, see the
notes to O'Donovan's _Four Masters_ under 1548 and 1553.
[332] Bellingham to the Privy Council, Aug. 1548 (No. 84).
[333] Bellingham to the Mayor of Cork, Aug. 1548 (No. 80); Mayor, &c., of
Cork to Bellingham, Nov. 18; Alen to Somerset, Nov. 21; Bellingham to
Arthur, Dec. (No. 145).
[334] Archbishop Bodkin to Bellingham, July 25, 1548; Bellingham to
Richard Burke, Aug. (No. 83), and to the Mayor of Limerick, Sept. 18;
Ulick Burke to Bellingham, Sept. 22.
[335] _Four Masters_, 1548 and 1549.
[336] Alen to Paget, Nov. 21, 1548.
[337] Harris's _Ware_, pp. 211-217; S.P., vol. iii. p. 534; _Four
Masters_, 1546; Mayor, &c., of Galway to Bellingham, July 27 and Aug. 13,
1548; Sovereign and Council of Kinsale to same, July 16; Agard to same,
Sept. 23; Richard Brasier to same, Oct. 8; Memoranda by Bellingham, Nov.
14; Bellingham to Warwick, November (No. 132, i.); Privy Council to
Bellingham, Jan. 6, 1549.
[338] Bellingham to Somerset, Nov. 22, 1548, which encloses a copy of the
letter to Warwick; to Issam, Dec. (No. 163).
[339] Bellingham to O'Molloy, Nov. 24, 1548; to O'Carroll (No. 138); to
Thomond (No. 137).
[340] Alen to Paget, April 1549 (No. 32).
[341] Bellingham to John Issam, Nov. 1548 (No. 140). Hooker's _Chronicle_
in Holinshed. The capture of Desmond was about Christmas 1548.
[342] Richard Brasier to Somerset, Nov. 14, 1548; John Moorton to same,
April 15, 1549; Anthony Colcloght to same, Feb. 1 and 13, and to Cahir
MacArt, Jan. 27; Walter Cowley to Bellingham, March 14; Brian Jones to
same, April (No. 35).
[343] Staples to ---- between Dec. 22 and 29, 1548. The letter is not
addressed to Bellingham, but he must have seen it, as it is endorsed by
his clerk. See also Walter Palatyne to Bellingham, Nov. 23, 1547, and
Interrogatories for Archbishop Browne at the end of that year. The first
Book of Common Prayer was not printed till 1550.
[344] Bellingham to Dowdall, Dec. 1548; John Issam to Bellingham, Dec.
22; Richard Brasier to Somerset, Nov. 14.
[345] Sovereign of Kilkenny to the Lord Deputy, April 26, 1549; Walter
Cowley to same, June 25; Brasier to Somerset, Nov. 14, 1548; John
Brereton to Bellingham, 1548 (No. 174).
[346] _Book of Howth_; Ware; Hooker in Holinshed; Lodge's Patentee
Officer in _Liber Hiberniæ_. Bellingham embarked at Howth, Dec. 16, 1549.
[347] Patrick Fraser Tytler's _England under Edward VI. and Mary_. He
quotes Melville's _Memoirs_. See in particular the letter of Sir John
Mason to the Privy Council, June 16, 1550. The 'Loch' mentioned by
Melville must be Lough Foyle or Lough Swilly.
[348] Instructions from Lord Chancellor Alen to Thomas Alen, Feb. 1550.
Bryan died, Feb. 2, 1550.
[349] Lord Chancellor and Council to Tyrone, March 17, 1550:--'Tam ferox
est illius nationis nobilitas ut sub Turcâ (quantumvis barbaro) mitius
viveres quam sub illorum regimine ... summo conatu libertatem patriæ,
sanguinis libertatem et personæ vestræ dignitatem abolebunt.' Dowdall to
Alen, March 22; Brabazon to the Privy Council, March 26, with enclosures.
[350] Sir John Mason to the Privy Council, June 14, 1550; Foreign
Calendar and Fraser Tytler, _ut supra_.
[351] Letters of Croft and the two Bagenals, July 31, 1551; Alen to
Cecil, April 5, 1551, and to the Privy Council, Aug. 10. The grant is
calendared after the latter date. Having been chief of the commission for
the dissolution of abbeys, Alen thought it prudent to go to England
during Mary's reign, but made his peace, became again a member of
Council, and lived to congratulate Cecil on becoming once more Secretary
of State.
[352] Instructions to Lord Deputy St. Leger, July 1550; Mr. St. Leger's
Remembrances for Ireland, same date. He was sworn in on Sept. 10.
[353] Instructions to St. Leger; Barbaro's 'Report on England' in 1551,
in the _Venetian Calendar_.
[354] St. Leger to the Lord High Treasurer, Sept. 27, 1550; Henry Wise
and John Moorton, officers at Fort Protector, to Bellingham, Jan. 6,
1549; Articles for an expedition into Ireland, Jan. 7, 1551; St. Leger to
Somerset, Feb. 18; Privy Council to Lord Deputy and Council, Jan. 26.
[355] Martin Pirry to the Privy Council, Feb. 21, 1551; St. Leger to the
same, March 23.
[356] Instructions to Sir James Croft, Feb. 25, 1551, in _Carew_; Sir
John Mason to the Privy Council, April 18, printed by Fraser Tytler.
[357] Articles against Andrew Brereton, Nov. 1550; St. Leger to Cecil,
Jan. 19, 1551. The Council in Ireland to the Privy Council, May 20.