THE DESMOND WAR--SECOND STAGE, 1580-1581.
[Sidenote: Lord Grey's instructions.]
Whatever private hints the Queen might give to Grey, his official
instructions contained nothing to Desmond's advantage. On the contrary,
he was warned to avoid the common fault of former governors, who had
been too easy in granting pardons to notorious transgressors of the
law, and had thereby bred boldness in subjects prone to offend. In
future, pardons were not to be given without good reasons, nor at
all in general terms, but only for some specified offence. On the
other hand the Queen was anxious to have it known that she did not
wish to extirpate the inhabitants of Ireland, as it had been falsely
and maliciously reported. Outrages committed by soldiers were to be
severely punished, and officers of high rank were not to be exempt.
The rebellion was to be put down as quickly as possible, so that her
Majesty's charge might be reduced. Grey landed on August 12, but the
sword of state was still in Munster, and he could not take the oath
without it. Baltinglas and Feagh MacHugh O'Byrne were in force not much
more than twenty miles from Dublin, and he resolved to attack them
before Pelham's arrival.[51]
[Sidenote: State of the Pale.]
Whatever hopes Desmond himself may have had from Grey, the change
of government was not favourable to the chances of a rebellion near
Dublin. The advent of a governor of high rank generally signified
increased force, a more liberal expenditure of money, and more activity
in official circles. Lord Chancellor Gerard had just landed on a
part of the coast over which Baltinglas was for the moment supreme;
and the latter had unaccountably neglected to make him a hostage.
'Compared with the rest of his doings,' said Pelham, 'this doth argue
that both he and his followers be the most foolish traitors that ever
I heard of.' The Chancellor reported that all the Leinster chiefs as
well as O'Neill, O'Donnell, O'Rourke, and O'Connor Sligo were sworn
to Baltinglas, and that he had the hearts of the whole country. The
rebels had burned Harrington's town of Newcastle, and openly displayed
the Pope's banner; but Kildare seemed to stand firm, and comforted the
Chancellor by abusing the captains for giving false musters, saying
that the Queen paid for 1,300 when she had only 700. But his most
trusted follower, Gerald Fitzmaurice, had joined the rebels with his
company. Sir William Stanley brought reinforcements from England,
but in such plight as to argue no great probability of good service.
Out of 120 calivers scarce twenty were serviceable, and the men were
raw, ill-provided with necessaries, and fewer than their leader had
been given to expect. The captains, blamed by Kildare, said their
pay was at least three months in arrear, and of course all their
men were discontented. Gormanston lay at Naas with 500 men, but the
distrust was so general that Archbishop Loftus believed the throats
of all Englishmen were about to be cut. 'Unless strangers land,'
the Chancellor remarked, 'I mistrust; and if they do I am of the
Archbishop's mind.' Meanwhile the country south of Dublin was at the
mercy of the rebels, and it was easy to know who sympathised with them.
'They religiously prey,' said Gerard, 'overskipping some, many have
taken oaths not to fight against them.' 2,000 Scots were plundering
loyal people in Ulster, and it was hard to see where it was to stop.[52]
[Sidenote: Grey attacks the Irish in Glenmalure.]
Baltinglas and Feagh MacHugh lay in the valley of the Liffey,
somewhere about Ballymore Eustace. On the approach of Grey's army
from the side of Naas they withdrew into Glenmalure, a deep and rocky
fortress--a combe, as the Devonian Hooker calls it--to the N.E. of
Lugnaquilla. The glen was thickly wooded, and at least four miles long,
and Colonel George Moore was ordered to enter it with about half the
army. Grey was more a knight-errant than a general, and he determined
to attack at once and in front, though warned by those about him of
the risk he was running. His object was to drive the rebels from
the covert, so that they might be shot or ridden down on the open
hillside. Old Francis Cosby, general of the Queen's kerne, who was a
man of extraordinary personal courage and of unrivalled experience in
Irish warfare, foresaw the danger; but he was not listened to, and he
boldly advanced to what he believed to be almost certain death. Jacques
Wingfield, the Master of the Ordinance, who doubtless remembered his
own overthrow nineteen years before, was present with his two nephews,
Peter and George Carew, and he vainly tried to dissuade them from
risking their lives. 'If I lose one,' he then urged, 'yet will I keep
the other,' and George, reserved, as Camden says, for greater things,
consented to stay by his uncle. Sir Peter, with Captain Audley and
Lieutenant Parker, were with Colonel Moore in front, while Sir Henry
Bagenal and Sir William Stanley brought up the rear. 'When we entered,'
says Stanley, 'the foresaid glen, we were forced to slide sometimes
three or four fathoms ere we could stay our feet. It was in depth at
least a mile, full of stones, rocks, bogs, and wood; in the bottom a
river full of loose stones, which we were driven to cross divers times.
So long as our leaders kept the bottom, the odds were on our side. But
our colonel, being a corpulent man, before we were half through the
glen, being four miles in length, led us up the hill that was a long
mile in height; it was so steep that we were forced to use our hands
as well to climb as our feet, and the vanward being gone up the hill,
we must of necessity follow.... It was the hottest piece of service
for the time that ever I saw in any place. I was in the rearward, and
with me twenty-eight soldiers of mine, whereof were slain eight, and
hurt ten. I had with me my drum, whom I caused to sound many alarms,
which was well answered by them that was in the rearward, which stayed
them from pulling us down by the heels. But I lost divers of my dear
friends. They were laid all along the wood as we should pass, behind
trees, rocks, crags, bogs, and in covert. Yet so long as we kept the
bottom we lost never a man, till we were drawn up the hill by our
leaders, where we could observe no order; we could have no sight of
them, but were fain only to beat the places where we saw the smoke of
our pieces; but the hazard of myself and the loss of my company was the
safeguard of many others... were a man never so slightly hurt, he was
lost, because no man was able to help him up the hill. Some died, being
so out of breath that they were able to go no further, being not hurt
at all.'[53]
[Sidenote: Defeat of the English.]
Carew and Audley had a dispute at the outset, and the loud talk of
two usually quiet and modest officers had a very bad effect on their
men. The renegade captain, Gerald Fitzmaurice, had full information
from Kildare's people, if not from the Earl himself, and he knew the
companies had never been together before. They contained many raw
recruits, and he rightly calculated that they would be thrown into
confusion by an unseen enemy. The soldiers fresh from England wore
red or blue coats, and Maltby, who was with Grey in the open, saw how
easily they were picked off. 'The strangeness of the fight,' he adds,
'is such to the new-come ignorant men that at the first brunt they
stand all amazed, or rather give back to the enemy.... Their coats
stand them in no stead, neither in fashion nor in giving them any
succour to their bodies. Let the coat-money be given to some person of
credit, with which, and with that which is also bestowed on their hose,
they may clothe themselves here with jerkins and hose of frieze, and
with the same money bring them every man a mantle which shall serve him
for his bedding and thereby shall not be otherwise known to the rebels
than the old soldiers be.' The recruits wavered, the kerne ran away to
the enemy, and so 'the gentlemen were lost.'
Stanley says not above thirty Englishmen were killed, but Moore, Cosby,
Audley, and other officers were among them. Grey thought the rebels
were fewer than the soldiers, who were stricken by panic. Sir Peter
Carew was clad in complete armour, which proved more fatal than even
a red coat. Suffocated from running up hill he was forced to lie down
and was easily taken. It was proposed to hold him to ransom, 'but one
villain,' says Hooker, 'most butcherly, as soon as he was disarmed,
with his sword slaughtered and killed him, who in time after was also
killed.'
Three months afterwards George Carew rejoiced that he had the good
fortune to slay him who slew his brother, and announced that he meant
to lay his bones by his or to be 'thoroughly satisfied with revenge.'
No doubt the survivor under such circumstances would be filled with
remorseful bitterness; but his thirst for revenge, fully slaked by a
murder three years later, can be scarcely justified even according to
that ancient code which prescribes an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a
tooth.[54]
[Sidenote: Consequences of the affair.]
When a civilised government receives a check from its revolted
subjects, the moral effect is generally out of all proportion to the
actual loss. But Pelham had effectually bridled Munster, and Maltby had
for the moment nearly neutralised Connaught and Ulster also. O'Rourke
and O'Donnell now both took arms in the Catholic cause, and there
was every prospect of a general conflagration. Maltby rode post from
Dublin northwards, and such was the dread which he had inspired, that
O'Donnell at once disbanded his men, and wrote to say that nothing
should make him swerve from his allegiance. The President hastened
to Leitrim, where he found that O'Rourke had dismantled the castle.
He immediately began to repair it, though he had to draw lime eight
miles. The tanist Brian O'Rourke, who regarded the chief as his
greatest enemy, helped the work, and gladly acted as sheriff under the
President.
O'Rourke appeared at the edge of a wood with 1,200 men, of whom 500
were Scots; but Ulick Burke, who begged for the place of honour,
charged at the head of 200 soldiers and 500 kerne. Some Scots were
killed, and the building was not further interrupted. Leaving a strong
garrison in the castle, Maltby then hurried back to Dublin, and arrived
there in time to be a witness and a critic of the Glenmalure affair.
He warned the English Government that Ulster was in a dangerous state,
and that Tirlogh Luineach's wife was determined to make a new Scotland
of that province. 'She has already planted a good foundation, for she
in Tyrone, her daughter in Tyrconnell (being O'Donnell's wife), and
Sorleyboy in Clandeboy, do carry all the sway in the North, and do seek
to creep into Connaught, but I will stay them from that.'[55]
[Sidenote: Results of the defeat--in Ulster,]
The news of Grey's defeat did not reach the officials at Cork for
eleven days, and then only in a fragmentary way, but its effect upon
the natives was instantaneous. Tirlogh Luineach, whom Captain Piers
had just brought to terms, suddenly swept round the lower end of Lough
Neagh, drove off the cattle of the loyalist Sir Hugh Magennis, and
killed many of his men, demanded the title of O'Neill, and the old
hegemony claimed by Shane, declared that he would stand in defence of
religion while life lasted, and proposed to invade the Pale with 5,000
men. The Scots' galleys lay in Lough Foyle, and effectual resistance
seemed impossible. The Baron of Dungannon sent his cattle to the
mountains, and hid himself in the woods, protesting his loyalty even
'if all the Irishry in Ireland should rebel,' and if he had nothing
left but his bare body. But Magennis, after crouching for a while at
Narrow Water, was forced to go as a suppliant to Tirlogh's camp.
[Sidenote: In the Pale,]
[Sidenote: and in Connaught.]
The southern side of the Pale was in no better case. A strong force
under John of Desmond besieged Maryborough, and the constable was so
closely watched that he dared not write. A private settler living in
the unfinished castle of Disert, and expecting to be attacked every
moment, sent the news to Dublin, but was forced to entrust his letter
to a poor beggar-man. Ladders were ready in the woods to attack all
posts. Some of Ormonde's villages were burned, and his brother Piers,
though he maintained his own ground, could not save Abbeyleix from
the flames. The remnant of the O'Connors rose once more, and Ross
MacGeohegan, the most loyal and useful subject in the midlands, was
murdered by his half-brother Brian, whose mother was an O'Connor. 'All
is naught here,' wrote Maltby from Dublin, 'and like to be worse.' He
had to reach Athlone by a circuitous route, and found his province
already in an uproar.[56]
[Sidenote: The Spaniards appear at last.]
It was in foreign aid that all Irish rebels mainly trusted; and it was
supposed that the fleet would prevent any descent upon Munster, the
only district where strangers from the South would have much chance of
maintaining themselves. Winter had been directed to cruise about the
mouth of the Shannon, having first sent some light craft to the Biscay
coast for news. He was not to land himself, but if necessary to employ
a naval brigade under Captain Richard Bingham. The admiral was not
in good health; he hated the service, he hated Captain Bingham, and
he was ready to run home as soon as there seemed the least chance of
victuals running short. The fleet reached Ireland about the beginning
of April, and early in July Winter threatened to sail away. But the
Queen's positive orders restrained him for a time, and Pelham was at
hand to inculcate obedience, reminding him that there was generally a
Michaelmas summer in Ireland. Pelham left Munster on the last day of
August, on December 5th Winter sailed for England, and on the 12th the
long-expected Spaniards arrived at Smerwick. The admiral was required
to explain his very unseasonable departure, and it must be admitted
that he had reasons, though a Drake or a Nelson might not have allowed
them much weight. The ships were foul, and sailed too badly either for
flight or chase, the sails and ropes were rotten from the unceasing
wet of a Kerry summer, victuals were running short, there was a most
plentiful lack of news, and the Shannon was a bad anchorage at the
best. Whatever the Queen may have thought of the admiral's conduct, it
did not prevent her from sending him to Ireland again.[57]
[Sidenote: An English sea-dog in Spain.]
An attack on England could not be secretly prepared in Spain, for
the carrying trade was in England's hands. Armed rovers like Drake,
Hawkins, and Frobisher, half merchants and half buccaneers, came and
went as they pleased upon the peninsular coast, in the confident hope
that no Spaniard could catch them. Such a one was Captain James Sidee,
an excellent seaman but not altogether free from suspicion of piracy,
whom it had been necessary to pardon some years before. He sailed
boldly into the splendid harbour of Ferroll, and wrote to the governor
demanding the surrender of certain English subjects whom he supposed
to be living there. He had perceived, he said grimly, that the country
folk were in terror at his approach, but he was no pirate and would
take no one by force, for Ferroll was the 'king's chamber which he was
commanded not to break.' But he wanted his own fellow-subjects, who
had plundered a Plymouth ship at sea, and hinted plainly that he could
take them if he liked. He said they were only cowkeepers who had left
their cows, and John Fleming, James Fitzmaurice's admiral, had run away
from his creditors. The Irish bishop who was with them might find some
better employment than keeping kine in Ireland. The Spanish governor's
answer does not appear; but one Barnaby O'Neill wrote to say that the
bishop was noble, chaste, virtuous, and learned, while the heretic
bishops of England were shoe-makers, scavengers, and pudding-makers,
that Fleming was Lord Slane's cousin, and that Sidee had served under
that rebel, traitor, and coward, the Prince of Orange. Sidee retorted
that the Silent Prince was far above his praise, and that he did not
believe his correspondent was an O'Neill at all, for he had never heard
his name. He might of course be some bastard, but he rather inclined to
think that he was really one William Hall, a murderous thief well known
in Ireland and Spain. Sir William Winter was of opinion that Sidee's
proceedings would not facilitate English diplomacy in Spain, and indeed
it was an uncomfortable time for Englishmen there. But Philip was most
anxious to avoid war--much too anxious indeed for the taste of his
ambassadors in England--and Elizabeth's subjects suffered more petty
annoyance than actual hardship.[58]
[Sidenote: Irish refugees in Spain.]
William Carusse of Drogheda sailed from Tenby to Spain, with a cargo,
in the 'Gift of God,' a vessel of only nineteen tons. Being chased by a
man-of-war, he put into Santander, where he found an English ship and
an English bark, and where he was boarded by the corregidor, and by
two or three ecclesiastics who vainly searched for books, and seem to
have helped themselves to six shillings. The national proverb that in
Spain a little oil sticks to every hand was exemplified by Carusse's
treatment. He made friends with Mr. Browne, natural brother of Lady
Kildare, and afterwards with Oliver Plunkett, a Drogheda gentleman who
had served Spain in Flanders. Both befriended him with the Spanish
authorities; and as they meditated an invasion of Ireland, it was not
their cue to make enemies there. Browne had a map of Ireland drawn
by himself, and showed by his conversation that he knew the coast.
Plunkett declared that the conquest of the island would be child's
play, but that Dublin and Drogheda might give trouble. Lord Gormanston
had just married a relative or friend of Plunkett's, who was most
anxious to send her a letter of congratulation, but Carusse refused to
carry letters. His sails were then taken away, and by Browne's advice
he gave six ducats to the corregidor, four to a scrivener, and two
each to two other officers. Then the sails were restored. Five hundred
ducats belonging to him were impounded, but afterwards restored,
with a deduction of four as a fee for counting them. A further fee
of three ducats and expenses was exacted by Browne, and then Carusse
was allowed to go free. He noted that Plunkett had three large ships
under his orders, and he conversed with several Irishmen, including a
priest and a friar. All talked long and loud of the coming conquest,
and the ecclesiastics dwelt with unction on the bishoprics and other
preferments which would be vacant. Meanwhile the very Lord Gormanston
about whom Plunkett spoke was giving information to the Government.
It was, he said, a religious war, and religion would draw men far;
nevertheless, he could do a great deal if he had only money. Ireland
was as corrupt as Spain.[59]
[Sidenote: Devastation of Kerry.]
[Sidenote: The Spaniards land.]
The fleet were lying at Ventry when the news came that Pelham had gone
to Dublin, and left the troops under Sir George Bourchier's command.
Bourchier immediately entered Kerry with 600 or 700 men, and with the
help of Lord Fitzmaurice began to devastate the country still further.
From Castle Island to Dingle, on both sides of Slieve Mish, the powers
of fire were tried to the utmost. An Englishman who had been with
Sanders was taken and executed, and Lady Desmond was closely chased
for two miles. The Earl fled into Limerick, and the wretched people
crowded down to the sea, and submitted to the admiral, as the lesser of
two evils. Winter persuaded Bourchier to spare them, on condition of
their maintaining a garrison of 200 foot and 30 horse at Tralee, and
of giving hostages for good behaviour, otherwise they were told that
Sir George would execute his commission strictly; and his commission
was 'to burn their corn, spoil their harvest, kill and drive their
cattle.' The 4,000 cows which had been driven in were then spared, and
so were many prisoners poor and rich. Winter sailed away just as the
hostile expedition was leaving Corunna, and one week later four Spanish
vessels came into Smerwick, where they landed men and tents, and began
to fortify on the old ground. Two other ships were taken at sea by the
Huguenots, who carried them into Rochelle. The more successful part
of the squadron took a homeward-bound Frenchman with 56,000 codfish
from Newfoundland, killed the captain and three men, and brought the
remaining twenty-eight to Ireland, where they used them as labourers.
One of the Spanish ships was a galley with thirty-two oars, and they
gave out that she was powerful enough to batter castles. But Captain
Thomas Clinton, who was cruising about the mouth of the Shannon,
said he would fight her had he but ten musketeers on board his small
vessel. The strangers were nearly all Italians, and only about 600 men
seem to have landed, though there were rumours of more coming. Friar
Matthew Oviedo was apostolic commissary, and with him were Dr. Ryan,
papal Bishop of Killaloe, two Jesuit preachers, and three or four
friars. Desmond came down the coast to meet them, and attacked Ardfert
and Fenit castles with their aid. But they had brought up only small
cannon, and the Irish garrisons easily beat them off. Captain Bingham
contemptuously designates the rank and file as 'poor simple bisognos,
very ragged, and a great part of them boys'; but they had 5,000 stand
of arms, and four kegs of Spanish reals were given to Desmond. Ormonde
immediately prepared to take the field, and Grey, who at first scarcely
believed that the strangers had landed, thought it better to temporise
with Tirlogh Luineach, to whom Sanders had offered the sovereignty of
Ulster. If the Queen would give him a butt or two of sack, it might,
for the moment, make him forget to urge inadmissible claims. 'As toys
please children, so to Bacchus knights the lick of grapes is liking, of
which crew this is a royal fellow.'[60]
[Sidenote: Ormonde's march to Smerwick.]
Just three weeks after the landing of the Spaniards, Ormonde set out
from Cork with 1,600 men. He was completely ignorant of the enemy's
force, but was anxious to have the first brush with them; and he
passed the mountains into Kerry without his full armour and without
camp furniture. He learned at once that Desmond and his brother John,
Baltinglas, Piers Grace, and Sanders, with most of the foreigners, were
strongly posted at Bungunder near Tralee. They gave out that they would
fight, but fell back at Ormonde's approach, and left his way open to
Smerwick. The enemy in the field broke up into small bodies, but the
fort was too strong to attempt without artillery. After conferring with
the invaders, Baltinglas returned to his district, thus passing, as
John of Desmond and Sanders did, twice unmolested right across Ireland.
Hearing that Desmond had got into his rear, Ormonde turned to pursue,
when the garrison of Smerwick made a sally and tried to provoke a
fight. But Ormonde was too cautious thus to be drawn under their guns,
and went on to surprise Desmond's bivouac near Castlemaine. He took a
few Spanish prisoners as well as some 'painted tables, altar-cloths,
chalices, books, and other such furniture said to be the nuncio's.' The
Earl left his troops in the county of Limerick, and went home to help
his wife to make great cheer, for the Lord Deputy Grey had written to
him for 1,000 beeves, and he remarked that he might as well ask him to
kill all the enemy with a breath. 500, by great exertion, might perhaps
be collected. He found time to write a letter to a Spanish nobleman
and to send him a hawk taken, as he was careful to mention, out of one
of the many castles from which Desmond had been driven to woods and
mountains. He told his correspondent that he was busy hunting the wild
Biskyes and Italians, and that the rebel Earl would soon be hanged and
quartered, like his brother James. 'As for the foreigners,' he added,
'this much I will assure you, that they curse the Pope and as many as
sent them, which they shall shortly have better cause to do.'[61]
[Sidenote: Rapid voyage of Bingham.]
Having had time to put his squadron into something like trim, Winter
was ordered back to Ireland, Bingham accompanying him as vice-admiral.
Sailing from Harwich with a fine breeze from the N.E., they ran
through the Straits and down Channel as far as Ryde, where some days
were lost waiting for orders. When the word was at last given, the
wind held in the same point, but the sea rose and the ships parted
company in Portland Race. Captain Bingham, in the 'Swiftsure,' looked
into Falmouth, but did not see the admiral, and chose to think that
he was gone ahead, whereas he was really far astern. Bingham ran past
the Land's End, where the wind changed to W.N.W., made Cape Clear in
the morning, and anchored at the mouth of Valentia harbour. Winter
strongly objected to his second-in-command's excessive zeal, and it is
plain that they hated each other cordially. In great glee probably at
having outstripped his chief, the strenuous Bingham went into Valentia
with the boats, but found only Captain Clinton, who directed him to
Smerwick. There he anchored near the fort, after a run of sixty hours
from Portland, of which ten had been passed in Valentia harbour; yet
he tells us that the 'Swiftsure' was the slowest ship in the fleet.
Ormonde was gone already; and the garrison, with the help of the
peasantry, were busy strengthening their works. Bingham prepared to
cut out their ships; but they towed them in almost aground, and, after
exchanging shots with them, he made up his mind that the works could
not be taken without heavy ordnance. Fourteen pieces were mounted on
the rampart, the largest being of the kind called sakers. John of
Desmond and all the foreigners were at the fort, and Bingham understood
that many of the latter would leave Ireland if they could. The chill
October weather did not suit the Italians, and many of them died. Brave
Romans the Irish called them, but the Englishman said they were as poor
rascals as he had ever met with.[62]
[Sidenote: Grey goes to Kerry.]
Towards the end of October, the Lord Deputy, much hindered by flooded
rivers and a bad commissariat, slowly made his way by Kilkenny into the
county of Limerick. At Rathkeale he was joined by the English companies
whom Ormonde had with him, and led the united force to Dingle. The Earl
seems to have returned himself. Among the newly arrived captains was
Walter Raleigh, burning with anxiety to distinguish himself, and ready
to tempt fortune to almost any extent. When the camp at Rathkeale broke
up, he held his own company in ambush until the main column had gone
to some distance. Then came some wretched kernes to pick up what they
could, as the lepers came to the Syrian camp before Samaria. Raleigh
took them all prisoners, including one who carried a bundle of osiers,
used by the Irish as halters, and who imprudently said that they were
to hang up English churls. 'They shall now serve an Irish kerne,' said
Raleigh, and this jester out of season was hanged forthwith. The other
prisoners, says Hooker, were treated according to their deserts, but
we are not told what those deserts were. The whole army then marched
as far as Dingle, where they encamped to wait for the admiral, who
lingered at Kinsale after his rough voyage. After conferring with
Bingham and viewing the fort, Grey agreed that regular approaches were
necessary, and until the fleet came nothing could be done, for the army
was not provided either with trenching tools or heavy guns.[63]
[Sidenote: The fleet at Smerwick.]
More than a week later an express came from Winter to say that he had
been delayed by weather, but was now in Smerwick harbour, and that
three provision ships had come from Cork and Limerick. Grey at once
rode to Smerwick from his camp near Dingle, and Winter agreed to land
eight pieces of cannon. Next day was Sunday, part of which Grey spent
with Bingham studying the ground, and on Monday he moved his camp to
near the doomed fort. At his approach the garrison hung out the Pope's
banner and saluted the Lord Deputy with a round shot, which very nearly
killed Jacques Wingfield. A small party sallied forth and skirmished
with the advanced guard of the English under cover of a heavy fire
from musketeers lying in the ditch. The practice was remarkably bad,
for the only damage done to the English by more than 600 rounds was to
graze Captain Zouch's leg without breaking the skin. Grey pitched his
tent near the fort, and that night a trench was made. The sailors went
to work with a will, and two pieces were mounted, which began to play
next morning at a distance of about 240 yards from the work. The enemy
had mounted their guns so badly that only two seriously annoyed the
besiegers. These were disabled by two o'clock; and the garrison were
reduced to musketry and to harquebusses which they fired from rests.
Every little skirmish went against the Italians, and in spite of four
sallies the sappers worked up that night to within 120 yards of the
ditch.
[Sidenote: The foreigners cannot maintain themselves.]
The only serious casualty happened next morning. Good John Cheke, as
Grey calls him, was a son of the great scholar, and inherited most
scholarlike poverty, although he was Burghley's nephew. Tired of living
as a dependant on his uncle's favour, and much more in awe of him than
of Spanish bullets, he begged a horse from the great Lord Treasurer
and resolved to seek his fortune in Ireland. Incautiously raising his
head above the trench, he received a fatal wound, and Grey descants
at great length upon his edifying end. 'He made,' wrote the Puritan
warrior to the Queen, 'so divine a confession of his faith, as all
divines in either of your Majesty's realms could not have passed, if
matched, it; so wrought in him God's spirit, plainly declaring him a
child of His elected.' Grey observed that the fatal volley came from
under a wooden penthouse, and pointed out the spot to Winter, who
himself laid the guns. The second shot dislodged the musketeers, and at
the fourth a flag of truce was shown on the ramparts. The Pope's banner
had first been struck and replaced by a black and a white banner. This
was to warn Desmond, who had promised to be on the neighbouring hills
with 4,000 men. The furling of the black flag was a first signal of
distress; but no help came, and a parley was asked for. Sir James
Fitzgerald of Decies had been given by Desmond to the Italians with
instructions to exact 1,000_l._ ransom; he was now brought out and
liberated. The camp-master, Alexander Bartoni, a Florentine, then
came into the trenches, and said that certain Spaniards and Italians
had been lured to Ireland by false representations, that they had no
quarrel with Queen Elizabeth, and that they were quite ready to depart
as they had come. A Spanish captain followed, but he made no pretence
of being sent by his king, or of having communicated with any higher
authority than Recalde, the governor of Bilboa. The Florentine said
they were all sent by the Pope for the defence of the Catholica fede,
and Grey, in true Puritan style, replied that his Holiness was 'a
detestable shaveling, the right Antichrist and general ambitious tyrant
over all right principalities, and patron of the diabolica fede.' All
conditions were refused, and in the evening the commandant, Sebastian
de San Josefo, a Bolognese, came himself into the trenches and begged
for a truce till morning.
[Sidenote: The surrender.]
[Sidenote: The massacre.]
The interpreter was Oliver Plunkett, who expected no mercy and
therefore opposed all negotiations, and his double-dealing may have
caused such confusion as to make it possible to say that the garrison
had surrendered on promise of their lives. The strangers may even have
thought they had such a promise, but it is clear that Grey's terms
were unconditional surrender or storm as soon as practicable. The
unfortunate Sebastian embraced his knees, and promised to evacuate
the place unconditionally next morning. Catholic writers accuse San
Josefo of cowardice, but he could not help surrendering, for the fort
had been heavily battered, and there was no chance of relief. To make
assurance doubly sure the English worked all night and mounted two
fresh guns before sunrise. On the morrow about a dozen officers came
out with their ensigns trailed and surrendered the fort at discretion.
Grey distributed them among his officers to be held to ransom for their
profit. The arms and stores were secured, 'and then,' says Arthegal
himself, 'put I in certain bands, who straight fell to execution. There
were 600 slain.' Hooker adds that Mackworth and Walter Raleigh were
the captains on duty, and that they superintended the butchery.[64]
[Sidenote: The massacre approved by the Queen.]
The poor Italians had no commissions and were treated as filibusters,
just as the Spaniards would have treated Drake had they been able to
catch him; but many blamed Grey, though he does not himself seem to
have been conscious that he had done anything extraordinary. Sussex
was among the critics, though he had plenty to answer for himself,
but the Queen approved of what had been done. At the top of the
despatch sent in answer to the Lord Deputy's, she wrote as follows, in
the fine Roman hand which sometimes contrasts so strangely with her
studiously involved and obscure phraseology:--"The mighty hand of the
Almighty's power hath shewed manifest the force of his strength in
the weakness of feeblest sex and minds this year to make men ashamed
ever after to disdain us, in which action I joy that you have been
chose the instrument of his glory which I mean to give you no cause to
forethink." She censured Grey rather for sparing some of the principals
than for slaying the accessories; not for what he had done, but for
what he had left undone; for the object was to prevent such expeditions
in future. Elizabeth, who belonged to her age, probably wondered that
anybody should object. Nor does it appear that the Catholic powers
made any official complaint; it was their habit to do likewise.
[Sidenote: Reflections on the event.]
Those who condescended to excuse Grey urged that 600 prisoners would
be very inconvenient to an army of 800, and that lack of provisions
made delay dangerous. But there were eight ships of war and four
provision-vessels in the bay, which might have carried most of the
prisoners, and enough biscuit, bacon, oil, fish, rice, beans, peas, and
barley were found in the fort to support 600 men for six months. The
4,000 stand of arms taken might easily have been conveyed on shipboard.
Between 300_l._ and 400_l._ was found in Spanish reals, and this money
was divided among the soldiers, who were in their habitual half-paid
state. If the Pope recruited for this enterprise, as he did for the
former one, among the brigands of Umbria and Samnium, there would be
a reason for treating the rank and file rigorously while sparing the
officers, but this point is not raised in the official correspondence.
The best defence of Grey, and yet not a very good one, is to be found
in the cruelty of the age. After the fall of Haarlem Alva butchered
three or four times as many as perished at Smerwick. Santa Cruz put to
death the crews of several French ships after the fight at Terceira in
the Azores. It would be easy to multiply examples, but it may suffice
to say that Captain Mackworth afterwards fell into the hands of the
Offaly O'Connors, who mutilated him horribly and flayed him alive.[65]
[Sidenote: Reasons for failure of foreign invaders.]
The Four Masters say that the name of the Italians exceeded the
reality, and that either Limerick, Cork, or Galway would at first have
opened their gates to them. This is probable enough, and at any rate
Smerwick was a bad place for their enterprise, for it was hardly to be
supposed that England would not have the command of the sea. The same
mistake was made more than once by the French in later times, and it
may be assumed that Ireland is unassailable except by an overwhelming
force. The Spaniards at one period, and the French at another, might
often have landed an army large enough to overtax the actual resources
of the Irish Government. For a time they might have been masters of
the country, and would at first have commanded the sympathies of the
people. But the rule of a foreign soldiery would soon become more
irksome than the old settled government, and the invading general
would find as little real native help as Hannibal found in Latium,
or as Charles Edward found in Lancashire. Had Limerick, Galway, or
Cork admitted Sanders and his Italians the struggle might have been
prolonged, but while an English fleet kept the sea, the result could
hardly have been doubtful.
[Sidenote: Composition of the Smerwick garrison.]
The garrison at Smerwick consisted chiefly of Italians, with a
contingent from Northern Spain, and the numbers were variously
estimated at from 400 to 700. Two hundred are said to have been veteran
soldiers, but opinions differed as to the general quality of the men.
Grey, when he saw their corpses, mused over them as gallant and goodly
personages, while Bingham said they were beggarly rascals. Among the
officers were a few Spaniards, but the majority were from Italy: Rome,
Florence, Milan, Bologna, Genoa, and Bolsena being all represented.
[Sidenote: Executions.]
A few Irishmen who had allowed themselves to be entrapped were hanged,
and some women with them. An Englishman who followed Dr. Sanders,
a friar who is not named, and Oliver Plunkett, were reserved for a
peculiarly hard fate. Their arms and legs were broken, and they were
hanged on a gallows on the wall of the fort. Plunkett, who was examined
before his death, said that twenty-four sail at Corunna and Santander
were ready to sail for Ireland. Lord Westmoreland was to be sent over
by the Pope, and Charles Browne, at Santander, was in correspondence
with Inglefield and others.[66]
[Sidenote: Account of Fort Del Oro.]
Not only was the extreme point of Kerry a bad place to attack Queen
Elizabeth, but the fort itself was ill suited for defence. The only
water supply was from streams half-a-mile off on each side, and the
work was too small for those whom it had to protect. Its greatest
length was 350 feet, and its average breadth was about 100, and
50 square feet of ground to each person is but scanty room. 'The
thing itself,' says Sir Nicholas White, 'is but the end of a rock
shooting out into the Bay of Smerwick, under a long cape, whereupon a
merchant of the Dingle, called Piers Rice, about a year before James
Fitzmaurice's landing, built a castle, under pretence of gaining by the
resort of strangers thither a-fishing, whereas in very truth it was to
receive James at his landing, and because at that very instant time,
a ship laden with Mr. Furbisher's new-found riches happened to press
upon the sands near to the place, whose carcase and stores I saw lie
there, carrying also in his mind a golden imagination of the coming of
the Spaniards called his building _Down-enoyr_, which is as much as
to say, the "Golden Down." The ancient name of the bay, Ardcanny...
from a certain devout man named Canutius, which upon the height of the
cliffs, as appears at this day, built a little hermitage to live a
contemplative there.'
White's description is very good, but it applies only to the little
promontory which contains the salient seaward angle of the work, and
where embrasures are still clearly traceable. The lines on the land
side, which did not exist at the time of White's visit, are visible
enough, being covered with roughish pasture, but the 'mariner's trench'
is undecipherable owing to tillage. There was a bridge between the
mainland and the outer rock, and Rice's fortalice was no doubt confined
to the 'island.'[67]
[Sidenote: State of Connaught.]
In the meantime, O'Rourke had risen and attacked Maltby's garrison at
Leitrim. The President had but 400 English, half of whom were newcomers
and 'simple enough,' and he had to ferry them over the flooded Shannon
in cots. The gentlemen of the county advised him not to face such great
odds, but 100 of their kerne behaved well, and he put a bold face on
it. The O'Rourkes and their Scots allies railed exceedingly against
the Queen and exalted the Pope; but they did not dare to face the
dreaded President, and disappeared, leaving him to burn Brefny at his
will. Ulick Burke seemed at first inclined to serve faithfully, and
Maltby was disposed to trust him, but John and William were in open
rebellion, and their youngest sister begged for protection. 'I pray
you,' she wrote to the President, 'receive me as a poor, destitute,
and fatherless gentlewoman.... I found nowhere aid nor assistance, and
no friends since my lord and father departed, but what I found at your
worship's hands.' A few days later Ulick styled himself MacWilliam,
and joined John, who accepted the position of Tanist, in forcibly
collecting corn for the papal garrison. They announced that they
would hang all priests who refused to say mass, and Maltby reported
that the papal Bishop of Kilmacduagh was leading them to the devil
headlong. They demolished Loughrea, and most of the castles between the
Shannon and Galway Bay. Communications with Munster were interrupted,
and Maltby, self-reliant as he was, began to fear for the safety of
Galway, where there was no stock of provisions, and no artillery worth
mentioning. Affairs were at this pass when Grey's success at Smerwick
reduced the rebellion in Connaught to insignificance.[68]
[Sidenote: Want of money.]
Grey was not long in Ireland before he encountered the great
Elizabethan problem of how to make bricks without straw. Treasurer
Wallop estimated the soldiers' pay at 6,000_l._ worth, exclusive of
extraordinaries, and the victualling difficulties were as great as
ever. The English officials in Dublin seldom gave Ormonde a good word,
but on this head their complaints chimed in with his. The victualler
at Cork warned him not to reckon on more than twelve days' biscuit
and wine, and there were no means of brewing at Cork. 'I know,' said
the Earl, 'it is sour speech to speak of money; I know it will be
also wondered at how victuals should want.... I never had for me and
my companies one hundred pounds worth of victual, and this being
true, I can avow that some have told lies at Court to some of your
councillors--yea, not only in this, but in many other things.'
'The soldiers,' said Sir William Stanley, 'are so ill chosen in England
that few are able or willing to do any service, but run away with our
furniture, and when they come into England there is no punishment used
to them, by means whereof we can hardly keep any.'
Meantime there were loud complaints of abuses in purveyance for the
Viceregal household, and the Irish Council could think of no better
plan than to swear the purveyors, and cut off their ears in case of
perjury. Wallop reported that bribes were openly taken in official
circles; that was the usual course, though he had never given or taken
any himself.[69]
[Sidenote: Kildare in charge of the Pale.]
When Grey went to Munster he left Kildare to act as general in the
Pale. With the whole force of the country, and with 1,400 men in the
Queen's pay, including garrisons, he undertook to defend Dublin to
the south, and to do some service against the rebels. Six hundred men
were on the Ulster frontier, and these also were to be at his disposal
in case of necessity. He and his son-in-law, the Baron of Delvin,
were accused of conspiring to turn the war to their own advantage,
by promising everything and doing nothing. Should the Pope's title
prevail, they would be all-powerful; should the Queen be victorious
they would at least make money out of the business. It was arranged
that Kildare should have 600 men paid by the country in addition to
the Queen's troops. He preferred to take the money, and to raise 400
kernes himself; 'but I think,' said Wallop, 'he will put all that in
his purse and three parts of his entertainment of his horsemen, and
fifty shillings a day for his diet. In this town he lieth for the most
part, and spendeth not five pounds a week, keeping his chamber with a
board not anyways an ell long.' A civilian named Eustace, 'properly
learned, but a papist in the highest degree,' was accused of fomenting
treason among the nominally loyal, and Gerard, by remaining 'a secret
ghostly father to him for a time,' made him fear for his own neck,
and induced him to give information against many persons in the Pale.
Maltby took care to remind the Irish Government that both Kildare and
Ormonde had given security for John and Ulick Burke, and that Kildare
was the same man that he had always been and always would be. It was
plain that those to whom the conduct of the war was entrusted did not
care to end it, and that only English officers and soldiers could
really be depended on. An occasional raid into the Wicklow mountains
did not advance matters much, and Feagh MacHugh was able to burn
Rathcoole, a prosperous village ten miles from Dublin, and to make the
very suburbs tremble for their own safety. Kildare made light of the
burning of Rathcoole, and threw the blame on inferior officers; but
this was not the view taken by the Council generally.[70]
[Sidenote: Kildare is strongly suspected.]
When Grey returned to Dublin he found the whole official circle bent
upon disgracing Kildare, and after some days' consideration he summoned
the general body of nobles to meet the Council, ostensibly for the
discussion of military dispositions. Delvin saw that he was suspected,
and vehemently demanded an enquiry, putting in a written declaration
in answer to rumoured accusations. The full Council, including
Kildare, found this statement inconsistent with known facts, and
committed him to the Castle. Then Gerard, who had conducted the private
investigation, rashly disclosed his whole case, and openly accused the
Earl of complicity with the treason of Baltinglas. Wallop, who believed
that no good thing could come out of Galilee, observed that the
Chancellor 'would needs have the attorney and serjeant by, who are of
this country birth, and so were many councillors then present, by means
of which it is now in every man's mouth what the Earl is to be charged
with.'
The Vice-Treasurer adds that his lands were worth 3,000_l._ a year,
but that he had taken good care to return them to England as worth
only 1,500_l._, that the only road towards good government lay through
severity, and that unless traitors were made to pay both in person
and lands, Ireland would always be what it long had been,--'the sink
of the treasure of England.' Waterhouse, whose office it was to look
after unconsidered trifles of revenue, thought the original cause of
war was Kildare's military commission, and that treason should be made
to pay its own expenses. 'I will hear your honour's opinion,' he wrote
to Walsingham, 'whether her Majesty will be content to have her great
charges answered out of the livings of the conspirators, and to use
a sharp and a severe course without respect of any man's greatness,
wheresoever law will catch hold, or whether all faults must be lapped
up in lenity with pardons, protections, and fair semblance, as in times
past; if severity, then is there hope enough of good reformation; if
mildness, then discharge the army and officers, and leave this nation
to themselves, for sure the mean will do no good. We must embrace one
of these extremities.'[71]
[Sidenote: Kildare and Delvin prisoners in England.]
Grey could not deny that appearances were strong against the Earl, and
he ordered his arrest, giving full credit for their exertions to Gerard
and Loftus. He believed that 'greediness of pay and arrogant zeal to
Popish government' were the stumbling-blocks of great personages in
Ireland, and that Delvin certainly was 'a wicked creature who had cut
the poor Earl's throat.' As if to add to the suspicion, Kildare's son
and heir ran off to the O'Connors, and they refused to let him go when
Grey sent for him. At last, fearing the construction that might be put
upon this, they handed him over to Ormonde, and he was shut up in the
Castle with his father and Lord Delvin. All three were sent over to
England, Secretary Fenton carrying the despatches, and Gerard going
with him to tell his own story.[72]
[Sidenote: The Munster rebellion drags on.]
The capture of Smerwick did not put down the Munster rebellion; but
Ormonde, or some of those about him, contemptuously reported that
Desmond, his brother, and Baltinglas had 'but a company of rascals and
four Spaniards, and a drum to make men believe that they had a great
number of the strangers.' Both Youghal and Ross thought themselves in
danger, and Wallop reported that communications between the capital and
Limerick were only kept up by 'simple fellows that pass afoot in nature
of beggars, in wages not accustomed.' Grey and Ormonde having turned
their backs, Desmond appeared again near Dingle, and Bingham felt that
there might be an attack at any moment. Half of Captain Zouch's men
were dead and buried, the survivors being too ill to work or fight.
Captain Case's company were little better, and they would have made
no resistance without Bingham and his sailors, who worked with a will
and raised a breastwork tenable by 20 men against 2,000 kernes and
gallowglasses. The men were put on short allowance, and having thus
made the provisions last thirteen days longer than they would otherwise
have done, Bingham was compelled to return to England. His crew were
so reduced by spare diet that they were unable to work the ship up
Channel, and had to run into Bristol. He left Ireland, to quote a
correspondent of Walsingham, 'in as great confusion as the Tower of
Babylon was a building.' There were more soldiers in Munster than had
been since the first conquest, and war material was abundant. But no
two officers agreed with each other personally, or were agreed upon
the policy to be pursued. Ormonde was in Dublin, looking after his own
interests, and leaving his lieutenants to shift for themselves. Sir
Warham St. Leger, Chief Commissioner at Cork, claimed superiority over
Sir George Bourchier at Kilmallock, while the latter acted as a captain
of free lances and granted protections to whom he pleased. Sir William
Morgan at Youghal would give way to neither, and there seemed no escape
from the difficulty but once more to appoint an English President,
'upright, valiant, severe, and wise.' In the meantime the rebellion
was as strong as ever, and what the rebels spared the soldiers
ravaged. In Connaught the young Burkes daily razed houses and fences,
northern Leinster lay waste, in Munster nothing was left standing save
towns and cities, and Ulster was ready to break out on the smallest
provocation.[73]
[Sidenote: Official attack upon Ormonde.]
The English officials all maintained that Ormonde had shown himself
unfit to conduct the war. One writer estimates his emoluments at
215_l._ a month, and another at 3,677_l._ a year, and the first result
of a peace would be to deprive him of these comfortable subsidies. He
was mixed up with Irish families and Irish lawsuits, and could not have
a single eye to the public service. He owed the Queen over 3,000_l._ in
rents, and the war was an excuse for not paying. Nor was his system of
warfare calculated to finish a rebellion, for all experienced officers
said that could be done only by settled garrisons. 'He followeth,'
says his enemy St. Leger, 'with a running host, which is to no end but
only wearing out and consuming of men by travel, for I can compare
the difference between our footmen and the traitors to a mastiff and
wight greyhound.' According to the same authority Ormonde was generally
disliked, and those whom he was set over would 'rather be hanged than
follow him, finding their travel and great pains altogether in vain.'
He procured the imprisonment of the Baron of Upper Ossory, whom he
accused of treason, of harbouring papists and consorting with rebels,
and of meeting Desmond after he had been proclaimed; but Wallop
thought the Earl coveted his neighbour's land, being 'so imperious as
he can abide none near him that dependeth not on him.' Spenser's friend
Ludovic Bryskett said the Lord General did nothing of moment with his
2,000 men, and as for his toil and travel, 'the noble gentleman was
worthy of pity to take so much labour in vain.' Wallop, Waterhouse,
Fenton, and St. Leger agreed that Ireland could only be pacified by
severity, and that Ormonde was not the man to do it. But perhaps the
heaviest, as it is certainly the most graphic, indictment was that
which Captain Raleigh forwarded to Walsingham.[74]
[Sidenote: Adventures of Raleigh.]
Lord Barrymore's eldest son David, Lord Roche's eldest son Maurice,
Florence MacCarthy, Patrick Condon, and others, long professed loyalty
because it seemed the winning side. But Barry's country lay open to
the seneschal of Imokilly, and in passing through it Raleigh had an
adventure by which the world was near losing some of its brightest
memories. On his return from Dublin, and having at the time only two
followers with him and as many more within shot, he was attacked at a
ford by the seneschal with seventy-four men. The place seems to have
been Midleton or Ballinacurra, and Raleigh's aim was to gain an old
castle, which may have been Ballivodig, to which his Irish guide at
once fled. In crossing the river Henry Moile was unhorsed, and begged
his captain not to desert him. Raleigh rode back into the river, and
recovered both man and horse; but in his hurry to remount, Moile fell
into a bog on the off side, while his horse ran away to the enemy. 'The
captain nevertheless stood still, and did abide for the coming of the
residue of his company, of the four shot which as yet were not come
forth, and for his man Jenkin, who had about 200_l._ in money about
him; and sat upon his horse in the meanwhile, having his staff in one
hand, and his pistol charged in the other.' Like an Homeric hero he
kept the seneschal's whole party at bay, although they were twenty to
one. Raleigh modestly left the details to others, and only reported
that the escape was strange to all.[75]
[Sidenote: Raleigh's policy.]
Two days later David Barry was in open rebellion, and Raleigh minded
to take possession of Barry's Court and of the adjoining island--the
'great island' on which Queenstown now stands. He had been granted the
custody of these lands by Grey, but Ormonde interposed delays, and
Raleigh, who was as fond of property as he was careless of danger,
greatly resented this. 'When,' he said, 'my Lord Deputy came, and Barry
had burned all the rest, the Lord General, either meaning to keep it
for himself--as I think all is too little for him--or else unwilling
any Englishman should have anything, stayed the taking thereof so long,
meaning to put a guard of his own in it, as it is, with the rest,
defaced and spoiled. I pray God her Majesty do not find, that--with
the defence of his own country assaulted on all sides, what with
the bearing and forbearing of his kindred, as all these traitors of
this new rebellion are his own cousins-german, what by reason of the
incomparable hatred between him and the Geraldines, who will die a
thousand deaths, enter into a million of mischiefs, and seek succour of
all nations, rather than they will ever be subdued by a Butler--that
after her Majesty hath spent a hundred thousand pounds more she shall
at last be driven by too dear experience to send an English President
to follow these malicious traitors with fire and sword, neither
respecting the alliance nor the nation.... This man having been Lord
General of Munster now about two years, there are at this instant a
thousand traitors more than there were the first day. Would God the
service of Sir Humfry Gilbert might be rightly looked into; who, with
the third part of the garrison now in Ireland, ended a rebellion not
much inferior to this in two months.' A little later, Raleigh reported
that he had repaired Belvelly Castle, which commands the strait between
the island and the mainland, but that Ormonde meant to rob him of the
fruits of his trouble and expense, and to undo what he had done. The
soldiers, he declared, cursed the change which made them followers
of the Earl rather than of the Lord Deputy, and spent their strength
in 'posting journeys' with convoys to Kilkenny instead of in service
against the rebels.[76]
[Sidenote: Ormonde loses his command.]
Grey yielded to the arguments of those about him, and announced that
there was no help while Irish government and Ormonde were continued,
adding that neither Walsingham nor Leicester would believe it.
Leicester at least, who corresponded frequently with Maltby, was quite
willing to believe anything against their common enemy, and it may be
that the present favourite prevailed over the absent friend. At all
events the Queen yielded, and Grey was allowed to tell Ormonde that
his authority as Lord Lieutenant of Munster was at an end. The Earl
submitted cheerfully and with many loyal expressions, saying that he
would do such service without pay as would prove him no hireling. His
property, he declared, was wasted in her Majesty's service and the
loss of salary would be therefore great, but to lose his sovereign's
favour and to be traduced in England was far worse. There was now a
disposition in high quarters to grant pardons freely; had he known it
he could have brought in every man in Munster.
He had thought nothing worth notifying while Desmond was still at
large, but he would now make a collection of his services, and the
Queen should see that he had not been inactive, and that his activity
had not been fruitless. In private he had confessed to having borne
too long with some for old acquaintance' sake; but blamed Sussex
for forgetting his friends, and could not excuse Captain Zouch, who
by sickness had lost 300 men out of 450. Walsingham, in a moment of
irritation, had said that his appointment had resulted in the death of
only three rebels. Three thousand would be nearer the mark, and that he
was ready to prove.[77]
[Sidenote: An amnesty.]
The dismissal of Ormonde was intended by Grey and those about him to
form part of a policy of the severest and most unsparing repression,
and it was assumed that Gilbert, or some equally uncompromising person,
would be appointed President. The Queen, on the other hand, considered
it merely as a piece of economy, for she determined at the same time
to grant a general pardon, or as the Lord Deputy despairingly put it,
to 'leave the Irish to tumble to their own sensual government.' It was
the easiest way perhaps for a Lord Deputy; but he had a conscience,
and could not see it with equanimity. A considerable number were
excepted by name, but even on these terms a proclamation of amnesty was
a confession of failure. The news leaked out prematurely through the
treachery of a servant, and the rebels bragged loudly of the revenge
they would have when their past offences had been condoned.
[Sidenote: Grey's despair.]
The change of policy did not prevent Maltby from executing
Clanricarde's son William, and he reported to Walsingham the opinion
of an ancient Irish counsellor that her Majesty was only casting
pearls before swine. Desmond still had 1,600 able men with him, and
a brilliant night attack by Zouch on his camp, though it was made
much of, had no particular result. As to Leinster, Grey reported it
generally rebellious; but the bogs and woods were far smaller than in
Munster, and the remains of castles showed that Wexford and Carlow at
least, with the flatter portions of Wicklow, had formerly been well
bridled. The object of the rebels was to have no stronghold, for the
open country would be always at their mercy. As the Lord Deputy's train
passed through Wicklow the O'Byrnes showed themselves on the hills and
even cut off some plate-waggons; but he made his way to Wexford, where
he hanged some malefactors, and garrisoned Arklow, Castle Kevin, and
other places. Grey felt he had done nothing worth speaking of, and
begged earnestly for a recall, since he had been overruled in opposing
the amnesty as 'not standing with the reason which he had conceived
for her Majesty's service.' Sheer severity, was in fact, all he had to
recommend, for 'fear, and not dandling, must bring them to the bias of
obedience... it is a pity that the resolutions in England should be so
uncertain.... If taking of cows, killing of their kerne and churls,
had been thought worth the advertising, I could have had every day to
trouble your Highness.... He that to-day seems a dutiful subject, let
him for any of those, or for other less crimes be to-morrow called upon
to come and answer, straightway a protection is demanded and in the
mean he will be upon his keeping, which in plain English is none other
than a traitor that will forcibly defend his cause and not answer to
justice.... Beggars fall to pride, rail at your Majesty, and rely only
upon the Pope, and that changes shall in the end free them.[78]
[Sidenote: Death of Sanders.]
Just before Ormonde's dismissal became known, his enemy, Sir Warham
St. Leger, told Burghley that he lost twenty Englishmen killed for
every one of the rebels. But famine and disease succeeded where the
sword failed, and in the same letter St. Leger was able to announce
that Dr. Sanders had died of dysentery. For two months the secret had
been kept, his partisans giving out that he had gone to Spain for help;
but at last one of the women who had clothed him in his winding-sheet
brought the news to Sir Thomas of Desmond. Since the fall of Fort Del
Oro, he had scarcely been heard of, and had spent his time miserably
in the woods on the border of Cork and Limerick. Some English accounts
say that he was out of his mind, but of this there does not seem to
be any proof. All agree that he died in the wood of Clonlish, and it
seems that he was buried in a neighbouring church. His companion at the
last was Cornelius Ryan, the papal bishop of Killaloe, and according
to O'Sullivan--who had evidently himself good means of knowing the
truth--the following scene took place:--
'In the beginning of the night, Dr. Sanders, whose naturally strong
frame was worn out by dysentery, thus addressed the Bishop of
Killaloe,--"Anoint me, illustrious lord, with extreme unction, for my
Creator calls me, and I shall die to-night." "You are strong," answered
the bishop, "and your case is not bad, and I think there will be no
dying or anointing just now." Nevertheless, he grew worse, and was
anointed at midnight, and at cockcrow resigned his spirit to the Lord,
and the following night he was secretly buried by priests, and borne to
the grave by four Irish knights, of which my father, Dermot, was one.
Others were forbidden to attend, lest the English should find the body,
and make their usual cruel spectacle of the dead.'
[Sidenote: What he did for Ireland.]
Sanders had been three years in Ireland. He had brought upon the
country only bloodshed, famine, and confiscation, and yet among the
starving people, none could be found to earn a reward by betraying
him.[79]
FOOTNOTES:
[51] Lord Grey's instructions, July 15, 1580, are printed in
_Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica_.
[52] Gerard, C., to Burghley, July 29 and August 3, 1580, to
Walsingham, August 3 (with enclosures); to Wallop, August 7; Lord
Deputy Grey and Council to the Privy Council, August 14; Zouch and
Stanley to Walsingham, July 29; Pelham to Gerard, July 30, in _Carew_.
[53] _Four Masters_: Stanley to Walsingham, August 31, 1580.
[54] George Carew to Walsingham, November 20, 1580. For the defeat
in Glenmalure, see Stanley, Maltby, and Gerard to Walsingham, August
31 Grey to Walsingham, August 31; to Burghley, September 12; Wallop
to Walsingham, September 9; Hooker; _Four Masters_, 1580; Camden,
who exaggerates the loss; O'Sullivan, ii. iv. 14, who ridiculously
estimates the slain at 800.
[55] Maltby to Leicester and Walsingham, August 17; the former in
_Carew_; Gerard to Walsingham, August 14.
[56] Hugh Magennis to Grey, August 29, 1580; Dungannon and Sir Hugh
O'Reilly to Grey, September 3; Gormanston to Grey, September 4;
Sir N. Bagenal to Grey, September 2; Mr. John Barnes to Grey (from
Disert), September 4; Nathaniel Smith to Maltby, September 3; Maltby to
Walsingham, September 7 and 8.
[57] Pelham to the Privy Council, July 14, 1580; to the Irish Council,
July 22; to Winter, August 16, all in _Carew_. Instructions to Sir
William Winter, March 17; and considerations which moved him, September
23; Sir R. Bingham to Walsingham, September 20; Baron of Lixnaw to the
Munster Commissioners, September 15.
[58] The correspondence about Sidee is between March 19 and 21, 1580;
Winter to the Privy Council, April 27; Notes for the Privy Council, May
14.
[59] Examination of William Carusse, August 12, 1580; Viscount
Gormanston to Gerard, July 28.
[60] Grey to the Queen, October 5, 1580; Bingham to Walsingham,
September 20 and October 18; and to Leicester same date in _Carew_;
James Golde and Thomas Arthur to Wallop and Waterhouse, September 30;
Commons of Lixnaw to same, September 27; Thomas Clinton to the Attorney
of Munster, September 26.
[61] Ormonde to R. Shee, October 8, 1580, to an unnamed correspondent,
Nov. (No. 71), to the Conde 'the Lemes' (? De Lerma) October 31.
[62] Captain R. Bingham to Walsingham, October 13, 18, and 23, 1580; to
Leicester, October 18, in _Carew_.
[63] Hooker; Grey to the Queen, November 12, 1580; Bingham to
Walsingham, November 3.
[64] Strype's Life of Cheke, ch. vi. Bingham to Leicester, November 11,
1580, in Wright's _Elizabeth_; to Walsingham, November 12; Grey to the
Queen and to Walsingham, November 12; Anonymous to Walsingham, November
(No. 27). Bingham says the confusion and slaughter were increased by
the sailors who swarmed in over the sea-face of the fort, but Grey
makes no excuse. See also G. Fenton to Walsingham, November 14, Hooker,
Camden, and Spenser's _State of Ireland_. The poet expressly says that
he was present. All the above agree that Grey made no promise, and
the _Four Masters_ do not materially contradict the English writers,
for their 'promise of protection' may only refer to the negotiations.
O'Daly and O'Sullivan, whose accounts seem to have been drawn from the
same source, and very probably from Sanders, accuse Grey of bad faith;
but they also say the siege lasted forty days, and that the English
had recourse to fraud because force had failed. Now it is certain that
only one clear day elapsed between the turning of the first sod and
the surrender of the fort. _Graia fides_ became a by-word in Catholic
Europe, but that would be a matter of course, and it is a pity that
so great a scholar as O'Donovan should give implicit faith to rumour,
while scouting as 'mere fiction' the solemn statement of such an eye
witness as Edmund Spenser.
[65] The Queen to Grey, December 12, 1580; Anonymous to Walsingham,
November (No. 27); Dowling _ad ann._ 1583; Maltby to Leicester, May
28, 1582. The chronology of the Smerwick affair is as follows: Friday,
November 4, fleet enters Ventry harbour; 5th, moves to Smerwick; 6th,
reconnoitring; 7th, Grey shifts camp from Dingle and opens trenches;
8th, battery opens; 9th, battery continued and surrender agreed upon at
night; 10th, the foreign officers come out, and their men are massacred.
[66] The above details are in the letter of November 11 and 12, already
cited; the examination of Plunkett in a letter of the latter date from
Grey to Walsingham.
[67] Sir N. White to Burghley, July 22, 1580. I have heard that Mr.
Hennessy interprets 'Ard canny' as 'hill of Arbutus,' and without
reference to any saint. There is a contemporary map of Fort _del oro_
in the Record Office, which seems correct, and it is printed on a
reduced scale in the _Kerry Magazine_. I inspected the place and took
measurements in June 1883. _Dun-an oir_ is the 'earthwork of gold.'
Poor Frobisher's gold was pyrites, as the London goldsmiths knew, but
an Italian alchemist was believed. The 'carcase' mentioned by White was
that of the ship, not of the owner.
[68] Lady Honora Burke to Maltby, October 29, 1580; Maltby to
Walsingham, October 25, October 27, and November 17; Gerard to
Burghley, November 27; _Four Masters_.
[69] Ormonde to Walsingham and to Burghley, September 28, 1580; J.
Thickpenny to Ormonde, September 27; Stanley to Walsingham, October 2;
order by the Lord Deputy and Council, October 3; Wallop to Walsingham,
November 12.
[70] Wallop to Walsingham, October 9 and 25, and November 27; to
Burghley, November 11, 1580; Waterhouse to Walsingham, October 13;
Lord Chancellor and Council to the Privy Council, November 3; Gerard
to Burghley, October 18; Captain R. Pypho to Walsingham, November 9;
Kildare to Walsingham, December 10. Writing to Wallop, on November 17,
Maltby says of Kildare, 'sicut erat in principio et tel il sera toute
sa vie.' The letter is a queer mixture of Latin, French, and cypher.
[71] Wallop and Waterhouse to Walsingham, December 23, 1580.
[72] Grey to the Queen, December 22, 1580; Lord Deputy and Council to
the Queen, December 23; Wallop to Walsingham, December 30; White, M.R.,
to Burghley, February 2, 1581.
[73] James Sherlock, Mayor of Waterford to Walsingham, November 18,
1580, with the enclosures; Wallop to Walsingham, November 30; Bingham
to Walsingham, December 12 and January 9; John Myagh to Walsingham,
January 26, 1581; White, M.R., to Burghley, February 2.
[74] Notes of Ormonde's entertainments December, 1580 (No. 45); Wallop
to Walsingham, January 14, 1581; to Burghley, May 13; L. Bryskett
to Walsingham, April 21; St. Leger to Burghley, June 3. See also
'Observations on the Earl of Ormonde's government,' drawn up probably
by Maltby and St. Leger, and calendared in _Carew_ at March 1582. For
Ormonde's quarrel with Upper Ossory see his letter to Walsingham, July
21, 1580; and to Grey, August 28; and Waterhouse to Walsingham, August
13. King Edward's old playfellow was six months in prison, and his
lands at the mercy of the Butlers. He earnestly desired a trial, adding
that his enemy's hands were perhaps less clean than his; see his letter
to Leicester of June 7, 1581, in _Carew_.
[75] Captain W. Rawley to Burghley, Feb. 23, 1581; Hooker in
_Holinshed_.
[76] Raleigh to Walsingham, February 25, 1581; to Grey, May 1.
[77] Grey to Leicester, March 20, 1581; to Walsingham, May 12, June 9;
to the Privy Council, June 10; Wallop and Waterhouse to Walsingham,
June 10; Ormonde to Burghley, July 15.
[78] Grey to the Queen, April 26, 1581; to Walsingham, May 14; to the
Privy Council, June 10 and July 10; Zouch to Walsingham, June 15;
Maltby to Walsingham, June 30; Lord Grey's services, September, 1582.
[79] St. Leger to Burghley, June 3, 1581; where it appears that Sanders
died about the beginning of April; O'Sullivan, lib. iv. cap. 16;
_Four Masters_, 1581; Camden; Hooker; Holing, S.J., in _Spicilegium
Ossoriense_, i. 94.