ADMINISTRATION OF SIDNEY, 1575 TO 1577.
[Sidenote: Sidney and the Butlers.]
Fitzwilliam had always maintained that Ormonde's presence was the best
guarantee for the peace of the South of Ireland, and most of the Dublin
officials were of the same opinion. But Sidney disliked him, both as too
powerful for a subject and as a professed enemy of Leicester. All those
who hoped for favour from the latter, and all those who favoured the
Geraldine faction, were willing enough to take advantage of these
rivalries and jealousies. Even Sir Barnaby Fitzpatrick, 'which good
knight was brought up to have known his duty better,' but who had many
causes of quarrel with his great neighbour, took advantage of the fact
that every rebellious and disorderly person wreaked his fury upon
Ormonde's property, which was so much scattered as not to be easily
protected. As between the Fitzpatricks and Butlers Fitzwilliam seems to
have thought that there was not much to choose, and that both chiefs were
loyal enough. But others spread reports against Sir Edmund Butler and his
brother Piers, saying that they refused to go to the Deputy in spite of
Ormonde's promise that they should go when sent for. It seems that Piers
went at once, and that Edward, who did good service as Sheriff of
Tipperary, was never sent for; but some of the English Council, acting
apparently under Leicester's influence, obtained an order from the Queen
that Edward should come in without any protection, which he immediately
did. The letter, which gave great offence to Ormonde, was signed by
Leicester, Knollys, Crofts, Smith, and Walsingham, but not by Burghley
and Sussex, though they also were present at Kenilworth.[312]
[Sidenote: Ormonde and his accusers.]
There were some who did not spare Ormonde's reputation any more than his
property. In times of danger he always bore the brunt of the storm. 'Who
so happy,' he said, 'as the most wicked, who so unhappy as the best
servant?' When Kildare was arrested many whispered that as good a case
might be made against Ormonde. He defied all detractors in the most
uncompromising way: they were liars and slanderers, and he only wished he
knew their names. 'If the charges against Kildare,' he said, 'be treasons
(as I hope they are not), I defy him and pronounce him a false villain
that spake them, if he meant them for me. For as I never was traitor, no
more was I friend of traitor, nor maintainer of traitors. If any can
charge me (as some I know would if they could) let them say their worst:
I defy them, and will answer to defend my honour in my short [shirt], or
any way shall become a gentleman.' He added that as he was no traitor so
was he no procurer of murders, no receiver of stolen goods, no practiser
to keep stores for private gain. On the contrary, he had subdued
scoundrels of all sorts, persuaded ill subjects to reform, opposed
Scottish enemies, spent his living in her Majesty's service, 'as my house
has ever been, which some perhaps may envy.' He was accused of seeking
revenge against those that robbed him and burned his villages, and
against those who harboured felons. 'My lord,' he pleaded, 'when my
neighbours be lawless, not coming to assizes or sessions, what amends may
I have by justice, though by that means I seek mine own?' He complained
that his enemies at Court remembered him better than his friends; but he
was all along secure in the Queen's personal favour, even if his great
services had proved a weak defence. She took care to tell him privately
that she believed no stories against him, and commanded him to write
often. 'Yet one thing,' she added, 'you seem to have forgotten, and
wherefore we have some cause to be displeased with you, as though of
anything that you write to ourself any person living should be made privy
but ourself alone.' It is hard to guess what the matter was which Ormonde
was afraid to trust to paper and which Elizabeth wished to be so profound
a secret; but the passage quoted shows what very great favour he
enjoyed.[313]
[Sidenote: Death of Sir Peter Carew.]
Sir Peter Carew, the original cause of the quarrel which had made the
Butlers rebels for once, left the scene soon after Sidney's return to
Ireland. He was again preparing to prosecute his claims in Munster, and
Hooker had been at Cork making overtures to chiefs living west of the
city, many of whom promised to accept Carew as their landlord and to pay
him rent. Three thousand cows, worth as many marks, were offered in
discharge of all arrears. Desmond and others promised to make him
welcome, houses were taken for him both at Cork and Kinsale, and
arrangements were made for provisions; but Sir Peter fell ill and died
unexpectedly at New Ross, his Munster projects dying with him. He left
his Idrone property to his nephew and namesake, who was also continued in
the government of Leighlin.
[Sidenote: His character.]
Sir Peter Carew was a good specimen of the Tudor adventurer: loyal,
brave, chivalrous and generous to lavishness; with large ideas and great
energy, but capable of actions which will not bear minute inspection.
Sincerely religious, though no theologian, it was noted that he never
broke bread or prepared himself for sleep without saying some prayer, and
he gave substantial help to Protestants wherever he found them. 'He had
his imperfections,' says his friend and biographer, 'yet was he not known
to be wrapt in the dissolute net of Venus, nor embrued with the cup of
Bacchus; he was not carried with the blind covetousness of Plutus, nor
yet subject to malice, envy, or any notorious crime.' Without regular
education he had picked up a thorough knowledge of French and Italian,
had read a good deal in both languages, and had that intelligent love of
architecture which was somewhat characteristic of the time. He had much
of the many-sidedness distinguishing the Elizabethan era, and seldom
seen in this age of specialists.
On his deathbed, though he suffered greatly, he was as steadfast as of
old when he supported Sir John Cheke's fainting spirit, 'yielding himself
wholly to the good will and pleasure of God, before whom he poured out
continually his prayers, and in praying did gasp out his last breath, and
yield up his spirit.' Only a few months before his death the Queen
praised his experience, wisdom, and courage; and when he was dead she
granted the prayer of his many friends in carrying out the wishes of this
'trusty and true Englishman.' He was buried at Waterford with great pomp,
and a stately cenotaph, raised by the piety of Hooker, commemorates him
in Exeter Cathedral. When his corpse was being lowered into the grave,
Sidney, who happened to be at Waterford, pronounced the following
eulogium:--'Here lieth now, in his last rest, a most worthy, and noble,
gentle knight, whose faith to his prince was never yet stained, his truth
to his country never spotted, and his valiantness in service never
doubted--a better subject the prince never had.'[314]
[Sidenote: Sidney's tour.]
It was not Sidney's way to let the grass grow under his feet, and he had
no sooner returned from Ulster than he started on another journey. Louth
he found greatly impoverished by the constant passage of soldiers north
and south, and the towns of Dundalk and Ardee were miserable enough.
Drogheda had profited somewhat by Essex's profuse expenditure. Bagenal's
settlement was strong enough to defend the north border of the Pale,
except on the side of Ferney, which was granted to Essex, but where he
had not yet done anything. Meath the Lord Deputy found 'cursedly scorched
on the outside' by the O'Connors and O'Molloys, who were equally bad
neighbours when in open rebellion and when under protection. O'Reilly, on
the contrary, used the Pale well, and he himself was 'the justest
Irishman, and his the best ruled Irish country, by an Irishman, that is
in all Ireland.' Westmeath suffered much from anarchy and from Irish
neighbours, but there was good hope of reformation through the activity
and discretion of Lord Delvin. The O'Ferralls had consented to have
Longford made a shire. They had taken estates of inheritance, and
promised speedily to pay their quit-rents, which had been in arrears
since Sidney's last visit.
[Sidenote: Miserable state of Leinster.]
On the borders of Dublin and what is now Wicklow cattle-lifting went on
merrily by night and day, under the superintendence of Feagh MacHugh
O'Byrne, who was just rising into celebrity. Kildare was impoverished,
more especially the Earl's own property, by the incursion of the O'Mores,
and old Henry Cowley 'with tears in his eyes' told the Lord Deputy that
the Barony of Carbery was 3,000_l._ poorer than when they had last met.
Carlow was more than half waste through outlaws of various kinds, 'some
living under Sir Edmund Butler,' and it was to be feared that Sir Peter
Carew's place would be ill-supplied by his young kinsman. The side of
Wexford which bordered on Carlow and Kilkenny was also in very evil case.
Wicklow was quiet, with the exception of Feagh MacHugh, but Agard the
seneschal was away in England, and his absence threatened to be
dangerous. The Kavanaghs were tolerably quiet, 'and though much in
arrears of rent, yet pay it they will and shall.'
[Sidenote: King's and Queen's Counties.]
The settlement of the King's and Queen's Counties threatened to succumb
to 'the race and offspring of the old native inhabiters, which grow great
and increase in number, and the English tenants decay and let their lands
to Irish tenants.... 200 men, at the least, in the Prince's pay lie there
to defend them. The revenue of both countries countervails not the
twentieth part of the charge; so that the purchase of that plot is and
hath been very dear, yet now not to be given over in any wise.' Sidney
advised caution in undertaking any more enterprises of the kind. 'Rory
Oge O'More hath the possession and settling-place in the Queen's County,
whether the tenants will or no, as he occupieth what he listeth and
wasteth what he will.' Upper Ossory, under Sir Barnaby Fitzpatrick, now a
Baron, was in good order, and needed only to be joined to some shire.
O'Dunne's country was in good case, 'the lord of it a valiant and honest
man after this country manner.' Sidney made the Baron Lieutenant over
both King's and Queen's Counties, and found every reason to be satisfied
with the appointment.
[Sidenote: Kilkenny and Waterford.]
Kilkenny, 'the sink and receptacle' of stolen goods, was not found to
have profited much by the continuance of coyne and livery, 'which yet was
done by order, and for the avoidance of a greater, or, at the least, a
more present evil.' Ormonde, though he had no love for Sidney,
entertained him very handsomely, and gave his word to Rory Oge, who
accordingly came in and solemnly in the cathedral submitted and promised
amendment. The Earl was made Lieutenant of Tipperary and Kilkenny, and he
then escorted Sidney to Waterford, where the citizens feasted him with
shows and rejoicings both by land and water.[315]
[Sidenote: Sidney in Munster.]
From Waterford Sidney went to stay at Curraghmore with Lord Power, and
found his country 'comparable with the best ordered county in the English
Pale: whereby a manifest and most certain proof may be conceived what
benefit riseth both to the Prince, mesne lord, and inferior subject, by
suppressing of coyne and livery.' Lord Power's neighbour, Sir James
Fitzgerald, who had succeeded his brother Sir Maurice but without the
title of Viscount Decies, ruled a district four times as large, with the
result of making it so waste 'as it is not able to find competent food
for a mean family in good order; yet are there harboured and live more
idle vagabonds than good cattle bred.' The smaller country gentlemen, as
well as the citizens who held mortgages, were anxious to live quietly and
pay their taxes. Desmond himself came to Sidney at Dungarvan, and 'very
humbly offered any service that he was able to do to her Majesty.' The
town was half ruined by the late rebellion of James Fitzmaurice, but
Henry Davells, the constable, was labouring with some success to restore
it, and to punish malefactors. The people of Youghal pleaded that they
had suffered too much by the rebellion to bear the cost of a viceregal
reception, and Sidney passed by Castle Martyr to Barry's Court, and
thence to Cork. Kinsale, which the Deputy visited a little later, he
found much decayed; the castle and pier both so ruinous that the townsmen
were almost defenceless against both pirates and gales. But they were
loyal and willing to help themselves, and Sidney gave them a small sum to
spend in wages, on condition that they should supply everything else, and
not rest till both castle and pier were again serviceable. He was much
struck by the advantages of the Old Head for a fortified post.[316]
[Sidenote: Cork. The nobles flock to Sidney.]
The citizens of Cork received the Lord Deputy with manifestations of joy,
and willingly allowed the troops quarters for six weeks. The soldiers
paid half their wages for board, lodging, and fire, and this arrangement
satisfied all parties. The Earls of Desmond, Thomond, and Clancare, the
Archbishop of Cashel, the Bishops of Cork and Cloyne and of Ross,
Viscounts Barry and Roche, and Lords Courcy, Lixnaw, Dunboyne, Power, and
Barry Oge attended Sidney the whole time of his stay, as did also Lord
Louth, 'who only to do me honour came out of the English Pale to that
city, and did great good among great ones; for being of this country
birth, and of their language and well understanding their conditions and
manners, did by example of himself, being but a mean man of lands in
respect of their large patrimonies and living, both at home and abroad,
live more commendably than they did or were able to do; which did much
persuade them to leave their barbarity and to be ashamed of their wilful
misery.' MacCarthy Reagh and MacCarthy of Muskerry were also present, and
made a good impression on Sidney. They seemed to him, both for their
possessions and their law-abiding disposition, to be worthy of baronies
at least. The latter especially, well known in Irish history as Sir
Cormac MacTeigue, was, he thought 'the rarest man that ever was born in
the Irishry; of him I intend to write specially, for truly he is a
special man.' O'Mahon came from the shores of Dunmanus Bay and O'Donoghue
from the Lakes of Killarney, and there was scarcely an important chief,
whether English or Irish, who was not present; Sir John of Desmond and
his brother James and Sir Thomas Roe being particularly assiduous in
their attendance. 'There came also many of the ruined relics of the
ancient English inhabitants of this province, as the Arundels, Rochfords,
Barretts, Flemings, Lombards, Tirries, and many others whose ancestors,
as it may appear by monuments, as well in writing as of building, were
able, and did live like gentlemen and knights; and now all in misery,
either banished from their own or oppressed upon their own.' As
representatives of the Celtic order, to which that of the Anglo-Normans
had given place, came five MacSwineys, captains of gallowglasses,
originally from Donegal, but maintained by the Desmonds and others as
condottieri. They had no lands, but were of as much power and consequence
as any landowners, 'the greatest being both in fear of them and glad of
their friendship.' Finally, Sidney records that most of the chiefs
brought their wives, 'who truly kept very honourable, at least very
plentiful houses,' and there were many widows of consideration, including
some dowager countesses.[317]
[Sidenote: James Fitzmaurice.]
Sidney knew too much about Ireland to be sanguine, but he hoped that the
Munster lords would consent to support 100 English foot and 50 English
horse free of charge to the Queen. They generally professed themselves
ready to do this from May 1, 1576, though the sincerity of one or two
great ones was doubtful. But a cloud was gathering in the distance; James
Fitzmaurice having fled to France early in 1575 with his wife and
children and several companions, of whom the most important were the
seneschal of Imokilly, a son of the Knight of Glin, and Edmund
Fitzgibbon, eldest surviving son of the late White Knight, and claiming
that dignity in spite of his father's attainder. Fitzmaurice maintained
that his object was to make interest abroad for the Queen's pardon, and
both he and the White Knight asked Ormonde to intercede for them. To
Englishmen in France he said that he had been driven from Ireland by
Desmond's unkindness, who had refused to give him the means of living,
and that he had been forced to bring his wife and children with him
because he had no house of his own in Ireland. This tallies with the
statements of the family historians, one of whom attributes Desmond's
conduct to the influence of his wife, who could not bear to see her only
son deprived of any portion of his vast heritage. A ship of war followed
the fugitives to France, and Captain Thornton gave an interesting account
of their proceedings.[318]
[Sidenote: Fitzmaurice lands in France, 1576,]
Sailing from Glin in the Shannon, on board La Arganys of St. Malo, whose
master, Michael Garrett, was no doubt a fellow-clansman, the Geraldine
party landed at a village in Brittany. They brought 1,000_l._ worth of
plate with them, and had, therefore, no difficulty in exchanging their
Irish costume for French clothes. While the tailors were still at work
they received visits from the chief townsmen of St. Malo, and when the
transformation was complete, they all repaired to the town. The Governor
and other principal people with their wives met them on the sands, and
brought them to their lodgings at Captain Garrett's house. Here Mrs.
Fitzmaurice and her family remained, but Fitzmaurice with half-a-dozen
companions went on to Nantes, and from thence to Paris. He received money
and good words, and it was officially given out that his object was to
gain a pardon from Queen Elizabeth through French intercession. Latin
versions of letters purporting to be written by Henry III. to the Queen
and to De la Motte Fénelon were shown in Ireland by Geraldine partisans.
[Sidenote: where he is well received.]
The report circulated at St. Malo was that Fitzmaurice came to seek help
against Desmond; but Mrs. Fitzmaurice made no secret of her proclivities,
for she refused an invitation to dine on board a Bordeaux vessel,
'because Englishmen, her enemies, were to be there.' Nor were the better
informed ignorant that the whole enterprise was directed against England.
A Devonshire merchant talked with a French officer who, in ignorance of
his nationality, said that the King would have no peace with the wicked
English, that St. Malo had furnished ships against Rochelle which would
have been attacked long ago but for fear of the English naval power, and
that a war with England was the one thing needful to unite all
parties.[319]
[Sidenote: His life at St. Malo.]
After his visit to the French Court, Fitzmaurice returned again to St.
Malo, and in the early days of 1576 Sidney thus reported concerning
him:--
'He keepeth a great port, himself and family well apparelled and full of
money; he hath oft intelligence from Rome and out of Spain; not much
relief from the French King, as I can perceive, yet oft visited by men of
good countenance. This much I know of certain report, by special of mine
own from St. Malo. The man, subtle, malicious, and hardy, a Papist in
extremity, and well esteemed and of good credit among the people. If he
come and be not wholly dealt withal at the first (as without an English
commander I know he shall not), all the loose people of Munster will
flock unto him: yea, the lords, though they would do their best, shall
not be able to keep them from him. So if he come while I am in the North,
he may do what he will with Kinsale, Cork, Youghal, Kilmallock, and haply
Limerick too, before I shall be able to come to the rescue thereof.'
From St. Malo Fitzmaurice wrote to the General of the Jesuits for a
confessor, offering to pay all his travelling expenses and to support him
liberally. After a time he might, if it were thought desirable, be sent
into Ireland as a missionary to the rude and unlearned people.[320]
[Sidenote: Sidney at Limerick. Thomond. Connaught.]
After his tour in Munster, Sidney proceeded from Limerick to take a like
survey of Connaught and Thomond. He was attended by the Earl of Thomond
and the other chiefs of the O'Briens, 'of one surname, and so near
kinsmen as they descend of one grandfather, and yet no one of them friend
to another;' the east and west Macnamaras, Macmahon, O'Loghlen, and many
other gentlemen. Few as the people were, the Lord Deputy found the
country too poor to feed them, 'if they were not of a more spare diet
than others are.' He spent his first night comfortably enough in the
dissolved friary at Quin, the beautiful ruins of which still remain, the
second at Kilmacduagh, which is also interesting to the antiquarian, but
which must have been a poor cathedral city at its best. Here Clanricarde
met him, and he passed by Gort to Galway, whither all the principal men
of Thomond repaired to him. He found that there had been no lack of
murders, rapes, burnings, and sacrileges. So hard was the swearing that
the injuries to property might be esteemed infinite in number,
immeasurable in quantity, until the legal acumen of Sir Lucas Dillon
reduced them within reasonable bounds. On examination it appeared that
the greatest harm had arisen from the feud between Thomond and his cousin
Teige MacMurrough, and they were required to enter into heavy
recognizances. Sir Donnell O'Brien, the Earl's brother, was made sheriff
of the county of Clare, a shire of Sidney's own creation. Connaught was
now divided into four counties--Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, and Sligo. From
Mayo came seven men to represent the seven septs of Clandonnells, the
hereditary gallowglasses of North-West Connaught, and in effect the
tyrants of the country. They agreed without difficulty to hold their
lands of the Queen, and so did MacWilliam Eighter himself, who
communicated with the Lord Deputy in Latin, and made a very favourable
impression. MacWilliam agreed to pay 250 marks yearly, and to support 200
soldiers for two months in each year, and an English sheriff was
established in Mayo at his request. Besides the various septs of Burkes,
Sidney enumerates five great English families who had taken Celtic names,
and who now followed MacWilliam's lead; as did O'Malley, 'an original
Irishman, strong in gallies and seamen.' The five chiefs of English race
claimed to be Barons of Parliament, 'and they had land enough, but so
bare, barbarous barons are they now that they have not three hackneys to
carry them and their train home.'[321]
[Sidenote: Galway.]
Galway itself was much decayed through the outrage of Clanricarde's sons,
and the townsmen so much disheartened as to be almost ready to abandon
their post. Sidney's presence revived them, and all men hastened to pay
their respects; among them the Archbishop of Tuam, the Bishops of
Clonfert and Kilmacduagh, and Birmingham, Baron of Athenry, 'as poor a
baron as liveth, and yet agreed on to be the ancientest baron in this
land.' O'Flaherty, O'Madden, O'Kelly, and other Celts also appeared, as
well as the heads of several septs of Clanricarde Burkes, each with his
appropriate Irish name. The Earl's sons came into church on Sunday,
surrendered at discretion, and were brought prisoners to Dublin.
[Sidenote: Athenry. The Connaught clans. Sidney's reflections,]
After spending three weeks at Galway, during which the hangman was not
idle, Sidney went to Athenry, which he found in ashes, the very church
not being spared by the young Burkes, though the mother of one of them
was buried there. To rebuild the town a tax, according to a principle not
yet forgotten in Ireland, was assessed upon the country, and the work was
immediately begun. The castles of Ballinasloe and Clare Galway were
garrisoned for the Queen, and Sidney then went by Roscommon to Athlone.
On his way he noted that Clanricarde's vassals were well enough off, but
that all else was ruinous. O'Connor Don, MacDermot, and others here paid
their respects. From the newly made County of Longford the gentlemen came
willingly enough to Roscommon and Athlone, and promised to clear off the
200 marks of revenue, which was four or five years in arrear. Part of the
money was actually paid.
[Sidenote: and proposals.]
On his return to Dublin, Sidney insisted strongly upon the necessity of
two Presidents. Sir William Denny was already named for Munster, and he
proposed Essex or Sir Edward Montague for Connaught. English lawyers he
must have, or no justice could be done. A standing army of 1,000 men he
must have, or no peace could be kept. Two or three good officials--men
like Tremayne--were much wanted if the revenue was to be increased. And
then, above all, the Church must be reformed, 'for so deformed and
overthrown a Church there is not, I am sure, in any region where Christ
is professed; and preposterous it seemeth to me to begin reformation of
the politic part, and to neglect the religious.'[322]
[Sidenote: Evil condition of the Irish Church.]
The facts as to the religious state of Ireland were laid by Sidney before
the Queen herself, and go far to explain the comparative failure of
Anglicanism in Ireland. Hugh Brady, Bishop of Meath, a native of his
diocese and a man of Irish race, though a sincere Protestant, had lately
made a parochial visitation of his own diocese. Brady, who was the Lord
Deputy's companion during part of his Western journey, is described by
him as honest, zealous, and godly; to such a man the state of the
churches under his charge must have given the gravest anxiety. There were
224 parish churches, of which 105 were impropriated to manors or
possessed by the holders of monasteries which had come into the hands of
the Crown. In not one of these cases was there a resident parson or
vicar, and of the 'very simple and sorry curates' usually appointed to do
duty only eighteen could speak English, the rest being 'Irish priests or
rather Irish rogues, having very little Latin, less learning or
civility.' They gained a precarious living from the offertory, and in no
single case was there a dwelling-house. Many of the churches were down
altogether; the great majority without roofs. Fifty-two churches were ill
served by vicars, and fifty-two more in the hands of private patrons were
in somewhat better but still poor case. We are left to infer that only
thirteen out of 224 parishes were in such a state as the Bishop could
approve. Meath was the best peopled and richest diocese in Ireland, and
Sidney, not to tire the Queen with too many details, left her to guess
what the dry tree was like. 'Your Majesty may believe that upon the face
of the earth, where Christ is professed, there is not a church in so
miserable a case.' With ruinous churches, want of labourers for the
vineyard, and want of means to pay them, Sidney had no difficulty in
believing that the very sacrament of baptism had fallen into disuse.
[Sidenote: Remedies proposed.]
The remedies proposed were that the churches should be repaired out of
the profits of the land, either by the Crown or by the tenants as equity
might dictate, that Irish-speaking ministers should be sought at the
universities or borrowed from the Regent of Scotland, and that some of
the English bishops should be forced to visit Ireland, with their own
eyes and at their own expense to see the spiritual nakedness of the land,
and to prescribe a cure. 'They be rich enough,' he added, 'and if either
they be thankful to your Majesty for the immense bounty done to them, or
zealous to increase the Christian flock, they will not refuse this
honourable and religious travel; and I will undertake their guiding and
guarding honourably and safely from place to place; the great desire that
I have to have such from thence is for that I hope to find them not only
grave in judgment, but void of affection.'[323]
[Sidenote: Expenses of government.]
After his return from Connaught, Sidney busied himself with the revenue
and general administration. He did not conceal from himself that for
every penny of rent she received it cost the Queen a shilling to hold her
own. 'Yet,' he said, 'I will never consent that the country should be
abandoned in any sort, for held it shall be; but only hereby to note unto
you by the way, what a dear purchase this is and hath been to the Crown;
and, by the example of this, you may judge of the rest that are of this
nature.' Sir William Drury, the new President of Munster, and William
Gerrard, the new Chancellor, were promised in April but did not come till
Midsummer, and in the meantime 'the southern like the dog, the northern
like the hog, mentioned in the holy book, were ready to revolt to their
innate and corrupt vilety.'[324]
[Sidenote: O'Rourke, O'Donnell, O'Connor. Sligo. Sidney counts the heads
of enemies.]
O'Rourke, whom Sidney notes as the proudest man he ever saw in Ireland,
came to Dublin and produced a patent of Henry VIII. which proved genuine.
20_l._ Irish was the rent reserved, but Sidney held out for 200_l._
sterling, and O'Rourke agreed to submit his cause to commissioners.
O'Donnell also agreed to pay the 200 marks or 300 beeves which he had
long since promised, asking only time for arrears. Sidney inquired into
the very old dispute as to the tenure by which O'Connor held Sligo.
O'Donnell said that 300 marks sterling had been paid to him and his
ancestors since St. Patrick's time. This was dismissed as fabulous, but a
prescription of some generations was shown, while O'Connor convinced
Sidney that the payment had never been made without violence, offering to
give 100 marks a year to be quit of O'Donnell and to receive a sheriff
peaceably, a 'foreigner' being preferred to an inhabitant of the country.
Many other chiefs came to Dublin, and were ready to pay some yearly sum
'all for justice; it is to be rejoiced that they so do, but more to be
lamented that they have it not near to them.' The Lord Deputy thought it
very hard that he should have to do his own work and that of the
President also; and, indeed, his post was no sinecure, for during the
nine months that he had been in Ireland 400 men had been executed 'by
commission ordinary and extraordinary, and by slaughter in defence of the
poor husbandmen.'[325]
[Sidenote: Fresh troubles with Clanricarde's sons.]
The delay in appointing a President for Connaught, and the impossibility
of the Viceroy being in two places at once, soon restored their courage
to the Earl of Clanricarde's sons. Such English officers as were in
Connaught Fitton described as mean men, and as meek as mice to the Earl
and his sons, and yet mean as they were too much for the young men. They
suddenly crossed the Shannon, and cast off their English clothes with the
remark, 'Lie there for one year at least.' The old Earl wrote to say that
he would prevent them doing harm till he heard from the Deputy, to whom
he scarcely offered any excuse. Writing to Ormonde and Lord Upper Ossory,
he said that the 6,000_l._ which the rebuilding of Athenry would cost was
too much for his country to bear, and that he himself could not raise
500_l._ The young men, paying but little attention to promises made in
their names, destroyed the few houses which had been restored in the
ill-fated town, killed or dispersed the labourers, burned the new gate,
and sought for the stone with the royal arms, that they might break it,
swearing that no such stone should stand in any wall there. Fearing for
the safety of Galway, Sidney prepared to chastise the rebels in
person.[326]
[Sidenote: Sidney and Clanricarde.]
The Lord Deputy only received the news on Tuesday, and on Friday he was
at Athlone with a few officers; the bulk of his forces following as they
could. Clanricarde came in on protection, which was granted unwillingly,
and surrendered Loughreagh as a material guarantee. Kneeling at Sidney's
feet, the Earl besought pardon for himself and his sons, still
maintaining that excessive taxation was the only cause of the rebellion.
The Deputy sternly reminded him that the county had agreed to the rates
imposed, and gave him leave to depart unscathed within three days. This
was on Friday, and on the following Sunday Clanricarde came into the
parish church and made submission on his knees, confessing the treason of
his sons, and submitting himself and his cause to her Majesty's pleasure.
Sidney professed himself glad to gain an Earl and his castles instead of
'two beggarly bastard boys,' but tacitly admitted their power to annoy by
pressing once more for a President. 'Without a sufficient man in that
office,' he said, 'I shall but trindle Sisyphus' stone and bring it to
the brim of the bank, and then forced to turn both head and hand, and so
haply break either back or neck, but that is the least matter. In the
meantime the Queen shall lose both honour and treasure, and her people
lack both distribution of justice among them, surety of their lives, and
saving of their goods.'[327]
[Sidenote: Sir William Drury, President of Munster, 1576. Sidney in
Connaught.]
Having secured Galway and Athlone, Sidney went to Limerick, where he
settled Sir William Drury in his presidency. Drury was a native of
Suffolk, who had served England well by sea and land, at home and abroad.
He had been Governor of Berwick, and had superintended the siege of
Edinburgh Castle, where, in spite of Grange's chivalry and Maitland's
guile, that last fortress of a falling cause had surrendered to Queen
Elizabeth's ally. He was now to try what skill and courage could effect
in the service which had been, and was to be, fatal to the fortunes of so
many eminent Englishmen. Meanwhile the young Burkes--the MacIarlas as
they were called--held the open country with 2,000 Scots, besides their
usual rabble. Captains Collier and Strange were besieged in Loughreagh,
but Sidney thought the place practically impregnable by such a force, and
prepared at his leisure to strike a well-aimed blow. Early in September
he entered Connaught again, accompanied by Maltby, who had been appointed
military Governor of the province, by a number of Ormonde's men under the
command of Edward Butler, and by his own son Philip, whose 'sufficiency,
honesty, virtue, and zeal' made him remarkable even in his twenty-second
year. Maltby and Butler chased John Burke and his rabble up and down the
country, but could never come up with them. On Sidney drawing towards the
borders of Mayo, the Scots, fearing to have their retreat cut off, fled
precipitately into Ulster. All the English officers were agreed that the
state of Connaught was owing to the lawlessness and ambition of the Earl
and his sons--'two cursed young men'--who would brook no superior. The
people would gladly be rid of their tyranny, but had been taught by
experience that great culprits generally escaped justice, and returned to
plague those who had ventured to withstand them. No help, though much
passive sympathy, could, therefore, be hoped for by viceroy or provincial
governor.[328]
[Sidenote: Proceeding of Drury.]
Sir William Drury found plenty to do in his new government, though the
county was free from any great disturbance. At Cork assizes forty-two
persons were hanged, and one pressed to death; a chief of the MacSwiney
gallowglasses, who had displayed a banner while driving cattle from under
the walls of Cork, being among the sufferers. In derision the same banner
was borne before the culprit to the place of execution. Nearly as many
more were despatched at Limerick, the President's object being to strike
down the local ringleaders as much as possible. 'They ride,' he said,
'all one horse, and the head of the salmon is worth a many small fishes.'
Like every other English governor, Drury complained of the number of idle
men retained by territorial magnates. All he could do was to procure that
registers should be kept, showing on whom each kerne or gallowglass was
dependent, thus making the gentlemen responsible.[329]
[Sidenote: Essex goes to England,]
After the massacre of Rathlin, Essex determined to lead a private life.
No place near Dublin was free from the prevailing infection, and he
withdrew to Waterford to wait upon events.
He had half ruined himself and had failed entirely to do what he had
proposed. 'I have wasted no hour in Ireland,' he told the Queen, 'why
should I wear out my youth in an obscure place without assurance of your
good opinion, and should but increase the light of another man's sun, and
sit in the shadow myself?... I am no way carried with inconstancy, but
loth to drown my service without certainty of friends and good opinion.'
[Sidenote: where he offends the Queen,]
[Sidenote: but she soon relents.]
In this temper he asked for leave to visit England. It was granted, and
at the end of October 1575 he landed near his own house at Lanfey in
Pembrokeshire. Even during the passage his ill-fortune pursued him.
Vessels carrying his servants and baggage were dispersed by a storm, and
the rough weather told upon his enfeebled frame. He was accompanied by
Maltby, who was for the moment unemployed, and who thoroughly sympathised
with him; but his health was so bad that Walsingham cautioned him not to
travel too fast towards London. When he did arrive there he had still to
complain of neglect, and of the expense to which he was put in dancing
attendance on Queen and Ministers. Burghley found it necessary to
'humiliate the style' of the Earl's letters before showing them to her
Majesty, and he then wrote in a more submissive strain. It was this,
probably, which elicited from the Queen one of those letters with which
she well knew how to whistle back her disgusted servants. She
congratulated him on his perfect conquest over his passions, which she
attributed to the lessons of patience learned in the Irish service. 'And
though,' she said, 'you may think that it has been a dear conquest unto
you in respect of the great care of mind, toil of body, and the
intolerable charges you have sustained to the consumption of some good
portion of your patrimony, yet if the great reputation you have gained be
weighed in the balance of just value, or tried at the touchstone of true
desert, it shall then appear that neither your mind's care, your body's
toil, nor purse's charge was unprofitably employed; for by the decay of
those things that are subject to corruption and mortality you have, as it
were, invested yourself with immortal renown, the true mark that every
honourable mind ought to shoot at.... We think your demands made upon us
were grounded both upon the respect of your own benefit and of our
service, interpreting as we do the word benefit not to import that
servile gain that base-minded men hunt after, but a desire to live in
action and to make proof of your virtue; and being made of the metal you
are, not unprofitably or rather reproachfully to fester in the delights
of English Egypt, when the most part of those that are bred in that soil
take great delight in holding their noses over the beef-pots.'[330]
[Sidenote: Return and death of Essex.]
In the end Essex received a grant of the barony of Farney in Monaghan, of
the peninsula called Island Magee in Antrim, and of the office of Earl
Marshal in Ireland for life. Having made his will and such other
arrangements as were possible for the settlement of his estate, he
returned to Ireland after an absence of about nine months. The leading of
300 men for which he had asked, and which Sidney recommended, would
probably have been granted had not death cut his career short. He reached
Dublin on July 23, 1576, and on August 30 was attacked by dysentery,
which carried him off in three weeks.
[Sidenote: His character.]
In his lifetime Essex did many things which history must condemn, though
he seems not in any way to have accused himself. On his deathbed he
showed himself a hero, if patience under suffering and faith without
worldly hope are to be considered heroic attributes. Two days before his
death he wrote to Elizabeth, besought her forgiveness for any offence he
might have given, and begged her to be a mother to his children. He
reminded her that his son would be poor through his debts to the Crown,
and that she would be no loser by remitting them, since the minor's
wardship would amount to as much or more. In another letter he
recommended his son to the care of Burghley and Sussex, 'to the end that
he might frame himself to the example of my Lord of Sussex in all the
actions of his life, tending either to the wars, or to the institution of
a noble man, so he might also reverence your lordship for your wisdom and
gravity, and lay up your counsels and advice in the treasury of his
heart.' He sent his love to Philip Sidney, 'and wished him so well that
if God do move both their hearts, I wish that he might match with my
daughter. I call him son; he so wise, so virtuous, and godly; and if he
go on in the course he hath begun, he will be as famous and worthy a
gentleman as ever England bred.' As regards Sidney he spoke
prophetically, and it is but reasonable to suppose that had Penelope
Devereux become his wife she would have been the glory instead of the
scandal of her age. With almost his last words he sang a hymn which he
had composed, and at the end 'he strove to praise even when his voice
could not be heard.' When it failed altogether, Mr. Waterhouse--his
faithful friend always--'holding him by the hands, bade him give a sign
if he understood the prayers, and at the name of Jesus he held up both
his hands, and with that fell asleep in Christ as meekly as a lamb.'[331]
[Sidenote: Leicester's conduct to Essex.]
The Jesuit Parsons accused Leicester of poisoning Essex, and he was
probably not incapable of such a deed. The charge was made at the time,
but Sidney's contemporary account fully disposes of what he calls 'a
false and malicious brute,' and the accusation was not made by any of
those who were about the sick bed, nor was it believed by the dying man
himself. But if Leicester is to be acquitted of poisoning the man whose
widow he married, it is not so easy to clear him of having gained her
affections clandestinely while using his political influence to keep her
husband at a distance. In one letter Leicester hints that Essex does not
expose his own person enough, and speaks somewhat slightingly of his
abilities; nevertheless, he was angry with Sidney for not doing more to
facilitate his return to Ireland. On the other hand, it would appear that
Essex was on friendly terms with Leicester. What seems really clear is
that Essex did not care much for his wife. His will contains no loving
mention of her, and his last letter to the Queen speaks of the burden
which dowries would lay upon his son's inheritance. On his deathbed he
spoke much of his daughters, lamenting the time which 'is so frail and
ungodly, considering the frailness of woman.' While asking Elizabeth to
be a mother to his son, he abstained from saying a word about that son's
natural mother. And it is evident that he cared little for his wife's
society; for after the failure of his great enterprise he was ready to
live 'altogether private in a corner of Ulster,' rather than return home.
The facts seem to exonerate Leicester from the charge of poisoning, but
tally very well with the common report that he kept the Earl in Ireland
while he made love to the Countess.[332]
[Sidenote: Agitation against the cess.]
[Sidenote: The truth hard to discover.]
The Queen continually upbraided Sidney with the expense of his
government. He, on the contrary, maintained that there was no waste, and
that the cost of supporting an army, without which government was
impossible, grew greater every day. There had been a rise in prices
unaccompanied by any increase in revenue, and the soldier found it hard
to live without being burdensome to the country. The gentlemen of the
Pale now took the high ground that no tax could be imposed except by
Parliament or a Grand Council, though the cess was a customary payment,
which in one form or another had been exacted since Henry IV.'s time.
Sidney stood upon the prerogative, in this case strengthened by custom,
'and not limited by Magna Charta, nor found in Littleton's Tenures, nor
written in the Book of Assizes, but registered in the remembrance of her
Majesty's Exchequer, and remaining in the Rolls of Records of the Tower,
as her Majesty's treasure.' It was this Elizabethan way of looking at
things that brought Charles I. to the scaffold, but in Sidney's time no
one thought such language strange. The theory that there should be no
taxation without consent of Parliament was beginning to be advanced, but
few were as yet so bold as openly to propose limits to the royal power.
The efficiency of ill-paid soldiers is generally small, and many
landlords said they could defend themselves better and more cheaply. The
Lords of the Pale were usually called to the Council Board, and had ample
opportunities of protesting against the cess. They admitted that it had
been regularly imposed for thirty years for victualling the army, and
more lately for the viceregal household. The old 'Queen's prices' were
not far from the real value, but they had crystallised into fixed rates,
while the market had steadily risen, and was now about 150 per cent.
higher. No doubt it was difficult to assess payments in kind. 'The
country,' said Lord Chancellor Gerard, 'set down notes falsifying the
victuallers' proportion. Because they varied in the weight of every beef
and the number of loaves which every peck of corn would make, I played
the butcher and baker on several market days, and weighed of the best,
meanest, and worst sort of beeves, and also weighed the peck of corn and
received the same by weight in loaves, containing the weight of 3 lbs.
every loaf of bread; and found the same neither too weighty as the
country set down, nor too light as the victuallers allege,' &c.
The country, he said, paid a penny where the Queen paid a shilling. 'The
gentlemen,' he adds significantly, 'by their own confession, never lived
so civilly and able in diet, clothing, and household, as at this day;
marry! the poor churl never so beggarly.'[333]
[Sidenote: The Pale sends counsel to London.]
The Lords of the Pale, however, sent three lawyers to London to plead
their cause, and in the meantime refused to commit themselves by arguing.
The advocates selected were men of family, and thoroughly acquainted with
their views, but not agreeable to Sidney. Barnaby Scurlock he allowed to
be a man of credit and influence, but he had lately indulged in 'undecent
and undutiful speech;' he had made a fortune as Attorney-General, but
Sussex had dismissed him for negligence. Richard Netterville was a
seditious, mutinous person, who sowed discord and promoted causes against
the Government--in fact, an agitator 'who had bred more unquiet and
discontent among the people than any one man had done in Ireland these
many years.' As to Henry Burnell, Recorder of Dublin, whom Fitzwilliam
had formerly described as one of the best spoken and most learned men in
Ireland, but a perverse Papist, Sidney could only wish he would mind his
practice at the Bar, which had made him rich, and not meddle with her
Majesty's prerogative. He was, he says, 'the least unhonest of the three,
and yet he trusted to see the English Government withdrawn.'[334]
[Sidenote: Sidney's criticisms.]
Sidney's high prerogative doctrines somewhat warped his mind. He
condescended to say that Netterville was 'son of a second and mean
Justice of one of the benches;' as if that could possibly prejudice his
advocacy. He praised the Chancellor for acting as a partisan, though no
doubt he was fair enough about prices. 'He hath in public places both
learnedly, discreetly, wisely, and stoutly dealt in the matter of cess,
and rather like a counsellor at the bar than a judge on the bench.' After
all this is very doubtful praise, though Gerard was not acting in his
judicial capacity.[335]
[Sidenote: True bill against the cess.]
Before their emissaries started for England, the gentlemen of the Pale
procured a bill to be brought before a Meath grand jury, of which the
first clause contains these words: 'We find Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy
of her Majesty's realm of Ireland, Sir Lucas Dillon, &c. (all the
council), ... gave commission to Thomas Cusack of Gerardiston, sheriff of
Meath, to charge ... cess ... corn, beef, butter, &c., and carts and
carriages ... 1,800_l._ or thereabouts ... said sheriff has levied....
Sir Robert Tressilian, Chief Justice of England, was put to death for
misconstruing the laws in Richard's time.' Further clauses indict the
inferior ministers occupied about the cess. By advice of the presiding
judge, the charge against the officers of State was erased, but the rest
of the Bill was presented and justified, and Burnell said openly in the
Court of Star Chamber that he would have carried the case through, but
that it would have delayed his journey to England.[336]
[Sidenote: Nature of the tax.]
The details of the question at issue between Sidney and the Lords of the
Pale are extremely obscure, and for a variety of reasons. Thus, when they
complained that the exaction amounted to 9_l._ per ploughland, he offered
to take 3_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._, but they refused, ostensibly from
unwillingness to burden their heirs. One explanation is that the
ploughland was a very uncertain measure, though generally reckoned at 120
Irish acres, and that the acreage had always been very much understated.
It was feared that Sidney would measure the land more carefully and
reduce the ploughlands to a uniform size, thus extracting much more money
than might be supposed from his apparently liberal offer. Many lands had
been exempted by favour or custom, and such exemptions tended to
multiply; it was feared that Sidney might extinguish them. Grass lands
had perhaps not been taxed at all, for Sidney only allowed 700
ploughlands in Meath, Westmeath, Kildare, and Dublin. The surface of
those counties, without including Wicklow, contains nearly 11,000
ploughlands of 120 Irish acres each. On inquiry, Sidney found that the
charge at existing prices came nearly to 8_l._ a ploughland, 'for ease of
which, by making the burden to be borne more universally, I by
proclamation dissolved all freedoms that had not had their continuance
time out of memory of man, whereof there were many, the most by a statute
pretending thereby an increase of military men, which God knoweth, and I,
are of little worth, ... the statute is expired.' Many repined, but 'it
was proved that they had no real reason to do so.'[337]
Netterville and his colleagues admitted that 1_s._ per acre Irish, or
8_d._ sterling, was the rent of land 'in most, or at least in many
places,' within the Pale. They allowed that a foot soldier could not live
on 8_d._ a day, nor a horseman on 9_d._, and they said roundly that there
was no way but to increase these sums, declaring, and we may well believe
declaring truly, that the Queen already lost more by the jobbing
consequent on insufficient pay than she could lose by giving the extra
1_d._ a day, which the soldiers asked for. That so small an increase
would content them reasonably they inferred from the fact that it had
often been accepted by them in lieu of cess. The Pale was willing to
victual soldiers maintained for its defence, provided a fair price was
paid for it, Netterville and his colleagues pledging themselves to use
all their influence to obtain the Queen supplies if only she would seek
them constitutionally from Parliament.[338]
On the arrival of the three Irish lawyers in London, Walsingham assured
Sidney that nothing should be done to prejudice his authority. The Privy
Council received the strangers coldly, and Leicester took occasion to
'ruffle that seditious knave Netterville' in a style which pleased his
brother-in-law greatly. The contention that cess was altogether illegal
did not recommend itself to the Queen or her Ministers. Kildare and
Ormonde, Gormanston and Dunsany, were in London, and being called before
the Council admitted that the cess was customary, and only begged that
consideration might be showed to the Pale in time of scarcity. The
triumvirate, as Waterhouse calls them, were accordingly committed close
prisoners to the Fleet, and Sidney was gently cautioned to shear his
sheep and not to flay them. He confessed, indeed, that he 'held a
straighter hand in the matter of cess, the rather to bring them to a
certain rent for the release of the same.' Netterville had seen this
clearly enough, and therefore the Lord Deputy writes him down 'as
seditious a varlet and as great an impugner of English government as any
Ireland beareth.'[339]
[Sidenote: The chiefs of the Pale under arrest.]
In all official letters from the Queen and the Privy Council much
indignation was expressed at the idea of the royal prerogative being
called in question. Sidney was instructed to deal sharply with the
gentlemen who had deputed Netterville and his colleagues, and stiffly to
assert the principle of the cess. Failing, after repeated arguments, to
yield the point at issue until the result of their agents' mission was
known, and standing in the meantime on high constitutional ground, Lords
Baltinglass, Delvin, Trimleston, and Howth, with many others of the best
gentlemen in the Pale, were committed to the castle. This was strictly in
accordance with the Queen's orders, but in writing directly to Sidney she
reprimanded him for choosing so bad a time to raise the question of the
cess, and for drawing an inconvenient amount of public attention to
undeniable grievances. At Court Philip Sidney accused Ormonde of
thwarting his father, and contemptuously held his tongue when the Earl
addressed him. Ormonde refused to quarrel, saying magnanimously that the
young man was bound to take his father's part, and that he was endowed
with many virtues. Indeed, nothing could be said against Ormonde but that
he was a general defender of the Irish cause, like all the rest of his
countrymen at Court. He hated Leicester and did not like Sidney; but, as
the latter himself expressed it, 'love and loving offices' are matters
of favour, not of justice. How little sympathy there was between them may
be judged from the passage in which the Lord Deputy defends himself
against the Queen's private strictures on his conduct. 'I am condemned, I
find,' he writes to Leicester, 'for lack of policy, in that in this
broken time, and dread of foreign invasion, I should commit such
personages as I detain in the castle.... While I am in office I ought to
be credited as soon as another; and this is my opinion, if James
Fitzmaurice were to land to-morrow, I had rather a good many of them now
in the castle should still remain than be abroad.'[340]
[Sidenote: Composition for cess.]
The envoys, after tasting the hospitalities of the Tower, submitted
humbly enough in form, but did not abandon their case, and the Queen,
though she spoke boldly about prerogative, had evidently some sympathy
with them. The prisoners in Dublin also submitted, and the Crown, having
thus saved its credit, a composition was arrived at, which seems to have
been substantially Burnell's work, and to which Ormonde, Kildare, and
Dunsany, who were in London, gave a preliminary adhesion. The counties of
Dublin, Meath, Westmeath, Louth, Kildare, Carlow, Wexford, and Kilkenny
acknowledged themselves bound to victual as many of the 1,000 soldiers
and officers as the Lord Deputy should appoint, and to pay 1_d._ a day
for each man of that number whether present or no, deducting that sum in
the case of those men whom they were required to victual fully. They were
to furnish 9,000 pecks of oats to the horsemen at 10_d._ sterling, and to
sell fresh provisions to the Lord Deputy at reasonable prices for ready
money. The Queen consented thoroughly to repair the old store-houses, but
not to build new ones, and no other charge of any kind was to be made
against her, except for damage by sea or fire; but she promised that
purveyors should be punished if they abused their power. To this
arrangement the cess-payers submitted with a tolerable grace, but
officials complained that the Queen had made a very bad bargain.[341]
FOOTNOTES:
[312] Ormonde to Burghley, July 16, 1574 and Aug. 3, 1575; Privy Council
to Lord Deputy Fitzwilliam, July 25, 1575; Fitzwilliam to Burghley, Aug.
3.
[313] Ormonde to Burghley, July 16, 1574, July 24, 1575, and Aug. 23; the
Queen to Ormonde, April 12, 1575.
[314] The Queen to Sir P. Carew, April 12, 1575; Fitzwilliam to Sidney,
Dec. 9, 1575; Hooker's _Life of Carew_; Carew died, Nov. 27, 1575.
[315] This tour is described in a letter from Sidney to the Privy
Council, Dec. 16, 1575; in the _Sidney Papers_, written from Waterford.
[316] Sidney to the Privy Council, April 27.
[317] All the above from Sidney to the Privy Council, Feb. 27, 1575-6, in
the _Sidney Papers_.
[318] O'Daly, chap. xix.; _Russell_; Ormonde to Burghley, March 20, 1575,
with enclosures, the originals of which Ormonde sent to the Queen.
[319] Captain George Thornton's Declaration, May 25, 1575; Answer of the
Seneschal, &c., July 18. Fitzmaurice came to St. Malo in February.
[320] Sidney to the Privy Council, Feb. 27, 1576, in the _Sidney Papers_.
James Fitzmaurice to the General of the Jesuits, Jan. 31, 1576, in
Hogan's _Hibernia Ignatiana_.
[321] The five families were Barrett or MacPadden, Staunton or MacEvilly,
Dexter or MacJordan, Nangle or MacCostello, Prendergast or MacMorris.
[322] This tour of Sidney's is detailed in his letter to the Privy
Council, April 27, 1576, in the _Sidney Papers_.
[323] Sidney to the Queen, April 28, 1576.
[324] Sidney to Walsingham, April 27; to the Privy Council, June 15.
[325] Sidney to the Privy Council, June 15, 1576.
[326] Clanricarde to Ormonde and to Upper Ossory, June 28; Sidney to the
Privy Council, July 9; Gerard to Walsingham, June 29; Fitton to Burghley,
July 8.
[327] Sidney to the Privy Council, July 9: Submission of Clanricarde,
July 8.
[328] Maltby to the Queen, Sept. 20; Sidney to the Privy Council, Sept.
20; Sir L. Dillon to Walsingham, Sept. 19; Agard to Walsingham, Sept. 11.
[329] Drury to Walsingham, Nov. 24.
[330] The Queen to Essex, 1575, _Domestic Series_, vol. xlv. p. 82; Essex
to the Queen, Aug. 19, 1575; Maltby to Leicester, Nov. 12, 1575, in
_Carew_.
[331] Essex to the Queen, Sept. 19, and to Burghley, Sept. 20, in
_Mardin_. Devereux, i. 146.
[332] Lady Essex was at Kenilworth during the princely pleasures of 1575.
Sidney to Walsingham, Oct. 20, 1576; to Leicester, Feb. 4, 1577, both in
the _Sidney Papers_; Essex to the Queen, March 30, 1575; to Leicester,
Oct. 7, 1574; Leicester to Ashton, May 1575; Waterhouse to Sidney, March
21, 1576, in the _Sidney Papers_.
[333] Gerard to the Privy Council, Feb. 8, 1577, in _Carew_.
[334] Fitzwilliam to Burghley, Sussex, and Leicester, July 7, 1575;
Sidney to the Privy Council, May 15, 1577; to the Queen, May 20.
[335] Sidney to the Privy Council, March 17 and May 15, 1577; to the
Queen, May 20, 1577, in _Sidney Papers_; where he says, 'Cess is a
quantity of victual and a prisage set upon the same necessary for
soldiers, ... and so much for your Deputy's house, so far under the
value, as it goeth between party and party, as the soldier may live of
his wages, and your Highness's officer of his entertainment, and this to
be taxed by your Highness's Deputy and Council, calling to them the
nobility adjoining.'
[336] Agard to Tremayne, March 22, 1577, and the enclosure.
[337] Sidney to the Queen, May 20, 1577, in the _Sidney Papers_.
[338] A great number of papers in _Carew_ and _Collins_; see particularly
Questions and Answers (Netterville & Co.), _Carew_, p. 61 (1577).
[339] Sidney to Leicester, May 19, in _Carew_; to the Queen, May 20;
Walsingham to Sidney, April 8, in _Sidney Papers_; Privy Council to
Sidney, May 14.
[340] Sidney to Leicester, Feb. 4 and Aug. 1577, in _Sidney Papers_;
Waterhouse to Sidney, Sept. 16.
[341] Order of the Privy Council, March 31, 1579.