1564 AND 1565.
[Sidenote: Difficulties of Wrothe and Arnold.]
The trouble which it cost Wrothe and Arnold to reach Ireland pretty
accurately foreshadowed the trouble which awaited them there. After
waiting a long time at Holyhead they at last ventured to sea, but were
taken aback before they gained mid-Channel, and had to choose between
scudding under bare poles towards Ulster, or returning to Wales. They
chose the latter course, but failed to make the harbour. They lay for a
time under the shelter of some rocks, and were glad to scramble ashore at
three o'clock on a February morning, wet and sick, but safe. Nine days
later they were more fortunate, and reached Dublin to find that Leix and
Offaly were again in rebellion, and that the financial confusion had not
been exaggerated. All captains, castellans, sheriffs, and municipal
officers were at once called on to produce accounts. The inquiry into the
musters was begun by demanding an accurate return of all changes and
vacancies in the Lord-Lieutenant's own company. Sussex said he was ready
to obey the Queen in all things, but that this had never been required of
any chief governor, and was, in fact, out of his power. The debts to the
Crown were great, and many of them desperate. There was not one groat in
the Treasury, and the 11,000_l._ which the Commissioners brought was
quite inadequate. The Pale and the wild Irish were at daggers drawn, for
the former clung to their own customs and bye-laws, and looked for the
Queen's protection in their attempts at self-government. The Church was
in no better case than the State, but there was a pretty general wish to
have St. Patrick's turned into a University. The Commissioners
recommended that the judges should put the Act of Uniformity generally
in force, 'not meddling with the simple multitude now at the first, but
with one or two boasting mass men in every shire, that it may be seen
that the punishment of such men is meant.'[76]
[Sidenote: Wrothe's horror at the general corruption.]
It soon became clear that Wrothe was not exactly the fittest man for the
work. He was anxious to do right, but very nervous about exceeding the
letter of his commission, and from the first wishing to be recalled. He
fell into a fever which he felt certain would be attributed to riotous
living, and he assured Cecil that he seldom took more than one meal in
twenty-four hours, which was not the way to preserve health. His sense of
the general corruption made it hard for him to gain friends, though he
was generally praised for his willingness to work hard. The whole
rapacious pack of jobbers longed to be rid of him, for he was bent on
even-handed justice, a scarce commodity, and not in demand with any
party. The Queen was considered fair game for every robber. Arnold, a man
cast in a much rougher mould, had little regard for his colleague's
feelings, and a coolness soon sprung up between them. On Sussex obtaining
sick leave, the general government was entrusted to Arnold, and the new
Lord Justice expected Wrothe to do the business of the Commission
single-handed. He was willing enough to take routine work on himself, but
declined to be responsible for any matter of moment unless Arnold was
joined with him in it. 'God deal with me,' he wrote, 'as I have meant to
serve the Queen here. My mind is troubled and my conscience, for God's
sake help me.... Our bowls here be so much biassed, and I have no skill
but with upright bowls, and therefore unfit for this alley.'[77]
[Sidenote: Great abuses.]
After a partial examination of the public accounts, Auditor Dixe
estimated that the Queen's debts were between 30,000_l._ and 40,000_l._
The victualler and the officers engaged on fortifications gave in their
accounts, but they were full of mistakes. The cessors of the Pale, who
were very numerous and often very incompetent, were slow to produce their
books. Captains of companies delivered muster-rolls from May 1560, when
they had been fully paid off by the Lord-Lieutenant's warrant, but
declined to do so for the previous year on the ground that it was
contrary to custom. In many cases the books were not forthcoming, but
this was not unnatural in the case of officers who constantly changed
their quarters, and who did not expect any further question to arise. The
real fault was in the Government. We are accustomed to clock-work
regularity, and can scarcely imagine the loose way in which things were
done even much later than Elizabeth's days. When Lord Shelburne joined
Colonel Wolfe's regiment, the future hero of Quebec told him that he must
not draw his pay, but let it accumulate for the benefit of deserving
officers. But it was not only in money accounts that Wrothe and Arnold
found the army in Ireland defective. There was an old order that every
captain should find pay for his Irish soldiers if he thought proper to
have more than five in his company. As a matter of fact many companies
were half Irish, and this had long been winked at. The captains were now
told that the Queen wanted no Irish soldiers. Wild Irishmen could not be
trusted, and tame Irishmen were necessarily a deduction from the strength
of the Pale. It was not for the Queen's interest that the rebels should
know all the secrets of the service and all the art of war. Irish
soldiers would take less pay than Englishmen, and it was therefore for
the private interest of officers to enlist them. The captains pleaded the
Lord-Lieutenant's orders to make up their strength. Englishmen could not
be had, and they threw themselves on the Queen's mercy; they were ready
to serve her while life lasted.[78]
[Sidenote: Harsh proceedings of Arnold.]
But Bermingham, who was Arnold's principal adviser, understood the duties
of the Commission differently. According to his view every officer, from
the Lord-Lieutenant downwards, was to be visited with extreme penalties
for every technical error. No allowance was to be made for men who were
irregularly and not highly paid, and who had too often to make her
Majesty's bricks without straw. It was hard in Queen Elizabeth's time--it
is hard enough in Queen Victoria's--to apportion the blame between the
English Government and its servants in Ireland, but the irregularities
themselves were scandalous enough. Even Bermingham had some doubts about
the policy of employing anyone living in Ireland to inquire into matters
personally affecting the Queen's representative, but the Commissioners
were peremptory, and he had to deliver a book of exceptions to the
Lord-Lieutenant's muster. A roll of his own, accompanying this document,
contained 213 names, but of these twenty-five were holders of other
offices, thirty were occasionally employed by other captains, and
sixty-four were of Irish birth, though by rights all but eight should
have been Englishmen. Of the Englishmen born ten were no soldiers, but at
best retainers. A soldier's pay was drawn in the name of the clerk of
Christ Church, and still more strangely in the name of Adam Loftus,
'primate and bishop of Armagh, almost these two years.' Sussex could
muster 155 men, but no more than forty-three were really fit for service,
and of these twenty-eight were officers. Thomas Smythe, the apothecary,
who probably kept drugs for poisoning as well as for healing, was borne
on the strength, and so were butchers, carters, woodcutters, scullions,
makers of arras, musicians, a mariner, an old fisherman, a blind man, and
a dead man. Brian Fitzwilliam's company should have mustered 200,
exclusive of officers, whereas the rank and file in reality only numbered
128. Captain Fortescue's followers were found to be nearly all Irish;
they were disbanded, and as Fortescue declined to account, he was
committed to prison.[79]
[Sidenote: Wrothe is recalled, 1564. Irregularities in the army.
Proceedings against the officers.]
When the Commission had been at work for a year, Elizabeth found out that
it was very slow and very expensive. She recalled Wrothe, much to his own
delight, but to the despair of Dixe, who was left single-handed to cope
with Arnold and Bermingham. Unrestrained by an English colleague, the
Lord Justice now proceeded to extremities, a course in which he was
encouraged by the local magnates joined with him in the Commission. The
captains were required to enter into recognizances, binding themselves
under penalties to give a detailed account of all they had received, and
to make good deficiencies. The captains were willing to bind themselves
to account for all the money or value which they could be proved to have
received, and confessed that they had been negligent about the
preservation of books, but refused to admit the evidence of private
soldiers instead of documentary proofs. Any one who has had anything to
do with paying troops will know that they were amply justified in the
refusal. The Commissioners proceeded in the most arbitrary way, refusing
to make any allowance for men employed as servants, and proposing to pay
all according to the roll, and without the knowledge of the captains. All
Irishmen above six in each company were to be peremptorily disallowed,
without considering the explanations offered on this head. The
Commissioners swore in twelve soldiers from each company, and encouraged
them to say all they could against their captains; and having thus
collected much hostile evidence, they refused copies to the officers
concerned. Captain George Delves having declined to submit to the
requirements of the Commissioners, though he offered to give all
reasonable security, was sent to prison. Sir Henry Radclyffe, the
Lord-Lieutenant's brother, and Sir George Stanley, the Marshal, 'seeing
their staves to stand next the door,' as they themselves expressed it,
protested strongly against the 'opening of matters, we do not say the
forging of matters,' to their prejudice. They significantly added that
all the Commissioners were blood-relations to each other and to
Bermingham. Auditor Dixe, who seems to have been really anxious to do
right, heard the Lord Justice talk much of the 'exactions, impositions,
cessings, and cuttings,' of Sussex and the captains, to the
impoverishment of the Pale, and warned him that he would be considered
partial if he did not report the same of the native nobility, who
extorted twice as much. The auditor reminded Cecil that he was but one
man against fourteen. The jobbing of family parties, as they have been
called, has indeed been for centuries one of the chief difficulties of
ministers who have been successively charged with the government of
Ireland.[80]
[Sidenote: Arnold is too harsh and too zealous. Sir Henry Radclyffe's
case.]
[Sidenote: Arnold imprisons the Lord-Lieutenant's brother].
Sir Henry Radclyffe, the most highly placed and best connected officer in
Ireland, was summoned before Arnold to give fuller answers to
Bermingham's charges. He refused to go back to a period before the last
general payment, but offered to wait on the Commission at any time after
one hour's notice, and begged that his soldiers might not be paid in his
absence. Well might Radclyffe exclaim, 'fiat justitia,' when this common
measure of justice was denied to him. Dixe was ordered to settle with Sir
Henry's company according to their own report. He obeyed; but took the
precaution to have some of the Commissioners present, and declined to be
bound by the results of such a monstrous order. It was hardly worth while
to brand the character of the Queen's officers, and to destroy the
discipline of her troops for the sake of 10_l._, saved in the payment of
a company of fifty. Radclyffe asked for a passport, and even offered to
be tried by his own soldiers. Both requests were refused, and the
Commissioners, who seem to have surrendered themselves to Bermingham's
guidance, declared that if fraud appeared on the face of the
incriminating document drawn up by him, they would force Radclyffe to
give the details which he had already refused. He was made to appear
about 6,000_l._ in debt, nearly half of which was on account of Irishmen
enlisted above the number officially allowed. The accused officer was
then committed to prison, and Arnold, having undertaken to see his men
paid, refused to settle the tradesmen's bills for necessaries, alleging
that all should fall on the captains. There may have been great
negligence, but the Lord Justice did not venture to accuse Radclyffe of
any false statement; and it must be admitted that, whatever his faults,
he had managed to keep Leix and Offaly quiet. As much could not be said
for Arnold, whom the English Council gently rebuked for taking such an
extreme course with an officer of high rank, a Privy Councillor, and a
man of family. There could be no objection to detaining him in Ireland if
necessary, but he might have been left at liberty. Cecil and Leicester,
after privately examining the voluminous and contradictory reports,
declared themselves puzzled in some things, and advised Arnold to take a
good many of the Irish Council into his confidence. They reminded him
that Dixe, with whom he appeared unable to agree, was chosen for a man of
honesty and ability. What Leicester and Cecil could not fully understand
at the time, we shall hardly be able to clear up now. That Radclyffe had
committed irregularities was not denied, that they were much smaller both
in amount and in kind than Arnold supposed may be gathered from the fact
that he was afterwards allowed to give a bond for 600_l._ to repay all
moneys overpaid to him, if the balance should be against him at a final
closing. Sir George Stanley gave a similar bond for 300_l._ Nicholas
Heron, another captain whom Arnold treated with great rigour, was
afterwards knighted, and died in the enjoyment of the Queen's favour.[81]
[Sidenote: 'Sir Thomas Cusack's peaces.' Shane in his glory.]
While Arnold was occupied in exposing, and perhaps exaggerating the
defects of military administration, the optimist Cusack was trying to
keep Shane O'Neill in good humour. 'Sir Thomas Cusack's peaces' became a
byword in official circles. The last was made on the basis of leaving
Shane all the glories of the O'Neills until the Queen gave him his
father's title. He was not to be brought before the chief governor
against his will, and the disputes between English and Irish in the North
were to be referred to arbitration. The Queen had made up her mind to
brook the fact of a great O'Neill; but she positively refused to confirm
the articles exempting him from attending on the Viceroy, and referring
all to arbitration. Shane then declared that he would have all or none;
but he signed a temporary agreement for the pacification of the borders,
and he appears to have kept it for a time. Cusack, who was never tired of
singing Shane's praises, wished to have the Great Seal affixed to the
original treaty; but the Privy Council dared not mention it to Elizabeth,
the alterations being deemed necessary for her honour. That saved, there
was every desire to humour the tyrant of the North. Elizabeth said she
thought she had yielded enough, but was willing to have Shane's disputes
with the Baron of Dungannon's sons decided in the next Irish Parliament.
Shane dared to claim Lady Frances Radclyffe as having been 'appointed to
him by the Queen's Majesty,' and the Privy Council were afraid to say
more than that the question must be left till Sussex reached the Court.
How Lady Frances would have fared as Shane's wife may be inferred from
the way in which he treated his mistress. The Countess of Argyle, the
accomplished lady who had left her husband for his sake, was chained by
day to a little boy, and only released when wanted to amuse her master's
drunken leisure.
[Sidenote: Shane's offers of service.]
Lord Robert Dudley, mindful of their old sport together, advised the
chieftain to do some notable service, and thus deserve the royal favour.
He answered that the Scots were rebels and traitors, who usurped the
Queen's lands and revenues in the North, and that he would drive them all
out of Ireland for no greater reward than the pay of forty men. In other
words, he would gladly have had the Queen's help in adding the MacDonnell
lands to his own.[82]
[Sidenote: Ill-treatment and torture of O'Donnell.]
Cusack's anxiety to please Shane was so great that he had no feeling left
for O'Donnell, whose fate might well have moved the hardest heart. Seven
years before, he told the Queen, O'Neill when hard pressed by the
Government had been glad enough to take refuge in Tyrconnel, to marry his
daughter, to profess loyalty to the Queen, and to swear eternal
friendship to his hospitable host. O'Donnell had been glad to hear his
son-in-law talk so, and said that he would befriend him only as long as
he was loyal. Then Shane had taken to intriguing with his clansmen, and
probably, if we may judge by the sequel, with his father-in-law's wife.
After his treacherous capture O'Donnell was bound hand and foot, an iron
collar round his neck being tightly chained to the gyves on his ankles.
Night or day he could neither lie down nor stand up. 'When he perceived,'
said the victim, 'that I could not be undone after this manner, he
thought to torment me after another manner, to the intent that he might
have all my jewels, and so he caused the irons to be strained upon my
legs and upon my hands so sore that the very blood ran down on every side
of mine irons, insomuch that I did wish after death one thousand times.'
No Christian or Turk, he thought, had ever been treated worse, and
besides his personal wrongs not less than 500 people of some condition,
and at least 14,000 of the poor, had lost their lives through O'Neill's
cruelty. His son Con, whose cousins delivered him to Shane, had been
induced by torture to promise the surrender of Lifford. The tribesmen
refused to give it up, and Shane threatened to strike off his prisoner's
leg. While Con daily expected death, his tormentor blockaded Lifford with
earthworks, and his cattle ate down the green corn for miles round. The
castle was taken, and all Tyrconnel was then at Shane's mercy.[83]
[Sidenote: Release of O'Donnell. He goes to Dublin, where he gets scant
comfort, and thence to England, where]
O'Donnell himself was released after a captivity of two years and nine
months, partly perhaps because he had been a troublesome prisoner.
According to Cusack, or rather to Shane, who was his informant, he had
given up Lifford, promised many kine and much plate and jewels, and
released his ancient claim to the suzerainty of Innishowen. In the
absence of documentary evidence no one is bound to believe this, and in
any case, promises extracted by torture could hardly be thought binding.
O'Donnell was indeed in no condition to pay such a ransom, for he had
lost all control over his country. He had incurred unpopularity by paying
a pension to Argyle as the price of his faithless wife. O'Neill had,
however, seized Con in revenge for the alleged breach of contract. 'Con,'
said Sir Thomas Wrothe, 'is as wise and active an Irishman as any in
Ireland:' he was married to an O'Neill, and there was a suspicion that
the lady favoured her father rather than her husband. Cusack advised
Arnold to give O'Donnell nothing but fair words, and a letter to Shane
bidding him use his prisoner well. On reaching Dublin O'Donnell was
accordingly received with outward marks of respect, but Arnold refused to
give him any help or to allow him to go to England. He was reminded that
his grandfather, who was 'the honestest O'Donnell that ever was,' never
came to the governor but to ask aid when banished by his son, and that
son was in turn banished by his son the present suppliant. Calvagh was
told that he came not now for service but for help, for which he would go
to the Turk, and that no O'Donnell ever did come for service, nor was
able to hurt the Pale, except when allied with O'Neill, Maguire,
Magennis, O'Rourke, and O'Reilly. The family quarrels of the O'Donnells
could not be denied, but they might at least be matched by those of the
O'Neills, and there was something savouring strongly of meanness in the
rest of the answer, when we reflect that Calvagh had been in alliance
with the English Government at the time of his misfortune. The cause had
been determined against him beforehand, but he came before the Lord
Justice and Council to hear his statement read, and to add what might be
required by word of mouth. 'Hearing his bill read,' says Wrothe, 'he
burst out into such a weeping as when he should speak he could not, but
was fain by his interpreter to pray license to weep, and so went his way
without saying anything. Sure it pitied me to see him, and more because
his present help is doubtful, for although it may be said that the wisest
to win peace will take war in hand, and that it is likely Shane will not
be reformed but by war,' yet the poverty of Ireland and the occupation of
England made war well-nigh impracticable.[84]
[Sidenote: the Queen receives him kindly, but he fears Arnold, and
withdraws to Scotland.]
Arnold seems to have thought himself bound to do in all things exactly
the opposite of Sussex, and he accepted Cusack's rose-coloured view of
Shane's intentions. But Wrothe's reasoning was more dispassionate. He saw
the danger of letting O'Donnell's country come under the power of
O'Neill, who gave good words but went his own way nevertheless. If
possible he was to be pacified, but war might prove inevitable, and to be
successful it would have to be conducted in a new way. He saw that
O'Donnell was determined to go to the Queen with or without license, and
if necessary by way of Scotland. The Queen said she would willingly see
O'Donnell at Court if it would do him any good, but that the causes
between him and Shane would have to be tried in Ireland, and she did not
see what he could gain by the journey. She saw Arnold's bias clearly
enough, and said plainly that the Dean and Chapter of Armagh, who had
been named, were no fit Commissioners to judge of this matter. Terence
Daniel and his colleague had a too natural affection towards O'Neill. As
Wrothe had foreseen, O'Donnell, who feared that chains and torture
awaited him in Ulster, would not be denied, but took the first
opportunity of slipping over to England during Arnold's temporary
absence, and he made his appearance at Court, where he told his griefs to
the Queen, and to Leicester, Winchester, and Cecil. Elizabeth evidently
felt much for the unfortunate chief, gave him money, and sent him back to
Ireland, directing Arnold to make him some allowance until his causes
were decided. 'We are not,' she said, 'without compassion for him in
this calamity, specially considering his first entry thereto was by
taking part against Shane when he made war against our good subjects
there.' No one was ever able to resist Elizabeth when she spoke
graciously, but O'Donnell's experience of Arnold had not been
satisfactory, and he thought it prudent to withdraw for a time to the
Scottish Court, where he was sure of sympathy from the relations of his
foolish and guilty wife, the daily victim of Shane's brutality.[85]
[Sidenote: Shane attacks the Scots.]
His hereditary enemies having been reduced to a harmless state, Shane
proceeded, with the full approval of the Government, to attack the Scots,
who prevented him from doing as he pleased in the North. But Arnold was
not so completely blinded by his professions as to make him free of
Carrickfergus, which he claimed as of ancient right. Neither was it
thought convenient to withdraw Kildare from the defence of the Pale, as
Shane urgently desired. Eight or nine hundred Scots, under the command of
Sorley Boy, lay near the left bank of the Bann, opposite Coleraine, where
Shane had made the old castle tenable. His object being to get complete
command of the estuary, he sent over a small party in the country boats
or 'cots,' which were his only means of transport, and having posted them
strongly in the Dominican Friary, withdrew to his main body. The Scots
attacked the outpost like madmen, as Dean Danyell expressed it, and lost
many men, but succeeded in killing all the defenders except the mounted
men, who were seized with a panic and swam their horses over the flooded
river. Neither party had much to boast, but Shane could point to the
affair as a test of his sincerity. He bragged about what he would do next
time, when there might be no flood, and he again suggested that he might
be allowed to make Carrickfergus his base until preparations for renewing
the war were complete. Arnold yielded so far as to sanction his entry
with some of his chief followers. Captain Piers was to show the
formidable visitor every civility, but for sparing of the poor town was
to keep the multitude of his company as far off as possible. Shane's
views changed, or the policy of Piers was successful in keeping him at
arm's length, but he plundered the town of Carlingford before doing any
further service against the Scots, burned the country all about, and
ravished the women far and wide, up to the walls of Dundalk. More damage
has been done, said Fitzwilliam, 'than seven years of such profit as is
from Shane.'[86]
[Sidenote: Nothing so dangerous as loyalty. Calvagh O'Connor.]
When Sussex left Ireland Leix and Offaly were pretty quiet, but his
departure had been the signal for disturbance. Arnold was accused of
oppressing the remnant of the O'Connors, and by his own account he cared
little for peace. Ormonde's brother persecuted the O'Mores, who were
reduced to a state not much above brigandage. He killed a dozen kerne
near Castle-comer, and apologised for not doing more: 'if we had any
ground for horsemen we should have made a fair haul.' Arnold praised Sir
Edmund's activity, but looked forward to general disorder as soon as the
long nights, which are still dreaded in Ireland, should give better
opportunities to the disaffected. By way of precaution he imprisoned
Calvagh O'Connor, as some said, with little or no cause, but, as Arnold
maintained, for intriguing with tribes on both sides the Shannon, and for
engaging Scots mercenaries. Yet there is good ground for believing that
this poor O'Connor tried to be a loyal subject, with the result of being
mistrusted by both parties. 'When I was a rebel,' he said, 'I had friends
enough, but now I serve the Queen's Majesty I am daily in fear of my
life.' Unable to get a hearing, Calvagh, though heavily ironed, managed
to break prison, and having been treated as a rebel became one in
earnest. Great preparations were made on the borders of the Pale. Arnold
demanded help from all the Irish clans in the central parts of the
island. The Earl of Kildare was ordered to assemble his people, and
letters were sent to the gentlemen of the Pale and to the settlers in the
King's and Queen's counties. Wexford and Carlow were not forgotten, and
Ormonde, who received a special commission and pay for 200 kerne for
three months, was directed to watch the rebels, who were proclaimed by
name, and to attack them if they came near his border. These tremendous
preparations for the hunt, for it was little more, were crowned with such
success as was possible. Calvagh O'Connor was killed by a near kinsman,
and his head presented to the Lord Justice. Sir Barnaby Fitzpatrick,
Edward VI.'s old companion, dutifully attacked the O'Mores. But Sir
Barnaby himself was little better off than an outlaw, for his father, the
first Baron of Upper Ossory, had but imperfectly laid aside Celtic usages
when he accepted an Anglo-Norman title; and under the influence of a
wicked second wife, he persecuted his loyal and civilised heir. The
O'Connors were dispersed into little parties of eight or ten, who lived
as best they might in the bogs. The O'Mores had wider contiguous wastes,
and managed to keep better together, but they were glad to sue for peace.
It was an inglorious campaign, which only served to show how completely
the settlement of the country had failed to reconcile the native
population.[87]
FOOTNOTES:
[76] Wrothe and Arnold to Cecil, Feb. 5, 1564, and to the Privy Council,
March 14.
[77] Wrothe to Cecil, July 13, 1564; see also same to same, March 16,
April 7, 16, and 26.
[78] Wrothe and Arnold to the Privy Council, April 7, 1564; Dixe to
Cecil, May 10.
[79] Bermingham's Book of Defects in the Lord-Lieutenant's band, July
1564 (No. 23), and other papers (Nos. 24 and 25); Memorandum in Cecil's
hand on Sir T. Wrothe's letter of July 30; Dixe to Cecil, Nov. 22.
[80] The Queen to Wrothe, Oct. 4, 1564; Dixe to Cecil, Nov. 22 and Jan.
26, 1565; Wrothe to Cecil, Nov. 14; Sir Henry Radclyffe, Sir George
Stanley, and Captain George Delves to the Privy Council, with enclosures,
Jan. 10, 1565.
[81] For Radclyffe's case, see his letter to Cecil, Jan. 31, 1565, and
the memorial of his other letters, Feb. 4; Bermingham to Cecil, Feb. 24;
Answer to the Commissioners by the Earl of Sussex; Auditor Dixe to Cecil,
Jan. 17 and 26. Dixe says he was not disliked, because he kept himself
'in a mean and quiet state.' See the Queen's letter to Lord Deputy
Sidney, July 22, 1567.
[82] Articles between Cusack and O'Neill, Nov. 18, 1563. The following is
the article struck out by the Queen:--'Non est habendum pro violatione
pacis si non accedat personaliter ad gubernatorem, antequam intelligat an
is est illi amicus et favorabilis an non, et si aliqua contentio oriatur
inter Angliam et Hiberniam a boreali parte, quod probi viri eligantur ab
utraque parte ad dirimendum has controversias sine pacis violatione.'
Truce between Cusack and O'Neill, March 1, 1564; the Queen to Cusack,
June 24, 1564; Privy Council to same, April 2; Cusack to Cecil, March 22;
Randolph to same, Dec. 24 (S.P., _Scotland_); Cusack to Dudley, June 9;
O'Neill to Lord Justice and Council, Aug. 18, 1564:--'Ipse autem et mei
non intelleximus in hac boreali parte majores rebelles et proditores
Celsitudini Reginæ quam Scotos qui absque Suæ Celsitudinis consensu
usurpant.'
[83] O'Donnell to the Queen, May 14 and Oct. 24, 1564; Wrothe to Lord R.
Dudley, July 23. The deed for the surrender of Lifford is dated July 12.
Old O'Donnell was released before April 17.
[84] Wrothe to Lord R. Dudley, July 23, 1564; Cusack to same, June 9, and
a paper dated June 13, which summarises his case against O'Donnell;
Cusack to Cecil, June 9, and to Arnold, June 13. The _Four Masters_ say
Con O'Donnell was taken by Shane O'Neill, May 14, but they have not a
word of the alleged breach of contract: they are, however, partial to the
O'Donnell family.
[85] Wrothe to Cecil, June 18; the Queen to Lord Justice and Council,
July 15 and Dec. 13; Randolph to Cecil, Dec. 24, 1564 (S.P., Scotland).
[86] Lord Justice and Council to O'Neill, Aug. 22 and Sept. 14; Terence
Danyell to Lord Justice, Aug. 21 and Sept. 10; Shane O'Neill to Lord
Justice and Council, Sept. 5--'Non est opus nunc habere me suspectum
quantum ad servicium impendendum contra Scotos.' This did not prevent him
from clamouring for aid at the Scotch Court; see Randolph's letter before
cited. Randolph had seen two of Shane's letters. Lord Justice and Council
to Piers, Sept. 17; Fitzwilliam to Cecil, Jan. 17, 1565; and the
Declaration of Sussex, Jan. 29.
[87] Wrothe to Cecil, Oct. 21 and Nov. 2, 1564; Lord Justice and Council
to Ormonde, Nov. 21. Some thirty years before Sir Barnaby's father had
assumed the character of an independent prince, when complaining to Henry
VIII. of his sufferings at the hands of Ormonde's grandfather. The story
is that his messenger stood among the crowd of courtiers assembled to see
the King pass, and called out 'Sta pedibus, Domine Rex. Dominus meus
MacGillapatricius misit me tibi dicere ut si non vis castigare Petrum
Rufum, ipse faciet bellum contra te.'