ELIZABETH (v), 1558-78-IRISH AND ENGLISH
[Sidenote: 1549-58]
The Deputyship of Bellingham in Ireland, which terminated just before
the fall of Somerset, left the Irish chiefs in a state of angry
discontent. As inaugurating a system of severe but consistent
government, Bellingham's rule might have been valuable; as matters
stood, no doubt he gave the Irish what is commonly called a lesson--
from which nothing was learnt. If the Geraldines--Kildare and Desmond--
of the South, the O'Neills and O'Donnells of the North, the Burkes and
O'Briens in the West, had possessed the slightest capacity for working
in harmony, they might have raised such a revolt as the incapable and
distracted governments of Edward VI. and Mary could not have coped with.
Ormonde however served as a permanent check on the Geraldines, while
the young Kildare had neither the inclination nor the opportunity to
head rebellions: and the great septs were far too ready to turn on each
other for any effective combination. Leix and Offally, the territories
of O'More and O'Connor [Footnote: See p. 201, _ante_.] on the west
of the Pale, were absorbed into it and partially colonised, becoming
King's County and Queen's County; and when Elizabeth ascended the
throne, the extent of the Pale corresponded roughly, though not
accurately, to the Province of Leinster.
[Sidenote: 1558]
In matters ecclesiastical, religion officially swung with the pendulum
in England. Church lands were distributed among the great men under
Edward, and within the Pale the clergy generally conformed after a
fashion, reverting again under Mary. Outside the Pale no great
attention was paid to the orders of the Government. On Elizabeth's
accession, the Act of Uniformity was enforced and some bishops resigned.
But the new Queen had plenty to occupy her in England, and in Ireland
was fain to take the least troublesome course, giving diplomatic sops
to the chiefs and spending as little money as possible: Sussex, who was
Deputy when Mary died, being continued in that office.
[Sidenote: Shan O'Neill]
The policy was destined to prove difficult. The two great chiefs of
Ulster, O'Donnell of Tyrconnel in the West, and O'Neil, created Earl of
Tyrone, in the East, had been more or less successfully conciliated by
the policy of St. Leger. But Tyrone had a numerous progeny, and the
laws of legitimacy were at a discount. The English elected to recognise
as his heir a favourite son, Matthew, who certainly was not legitimate.
But another legitimate son, Shan or Shane, a man of great if erratic
abilities, declined to submit to this arrangement when he grew up.
Matthew was killed in a brawl, leaving a young son to claim the
succession. Thereupon Shan virtually deposed his father, and in
accordance with ancient practice was elected "The O'Neill," head of the
clan which claimed that their chiefs were the old-time Kings of Ulster:
ignoring the choice of the English Government, and scorning the earldom
bestowed by them. Next, no doubt with a view to alliance, Shan married
O'Donnell's sister; but when he found that the minor chiefs were
disposed to attach themselves rather to him than to O'Donnell, he
decided to adopt the policy of breaking his rival in Ulster, as
preferable to alliance with him; and his maltreatment of his wife very
soon resulted in hostilities.
[Sidenote: The Scots of Antrim]
Now in Antrim there was a considerable colony of Scots from the Islands,
whose chief was James M'Connell. Also, a sister of the Earl of Argyle,
curiously referred to in the records as the Countess of Argyle, was the
wife of O'Donnell. The Antrim Scots were supposed to be in alliance
with O'Donnell; whom however Shan's proceedings were now causing to
seek English friendship, whereas the Scots were antagonistic to
Elizabeth, holding that their own Queen Mary had the better title to
the English throne. So Shan got rid of his O'Donnell wife, and married
the sister of James M'Connell by way of cementing a union with the
Scots; but then proceeded to write to Argyle, suggesting that he should
get rid of the M'Connell wife in turn, and that the Countess should be
transferred from O'Donnell to himself, on the assumption that this
would give him an equal hold on the Antrim Scots. Whereby he merely
enraged the Scots and disgusted Argyle. However, a short time
afterwards, Shan raided Tyrconnel's country, and carried off the chief
and his wife; who seems to have been fascinated by her captor, and
willingly became his consort, irregular as the conditions were.
M'Connell was somehow outwardly pacified despite the insult to his
sister; but the bad blood engendered took effect in due time.
[Sidenote: 1560-61 Shan and the Government]
Before the overthrow of Tyrconnel, O'Neill was already becoming a
serious source of alarm to the English. It is the fact that a
considerable number of farmers migrated from the Pale into Ulster,
feeling greater security under the aegis of O'Neill than under English
law; which did little to protect them, while the English soldiery,
badly disciplined and badly maintained, were in effect a serious
element of disorder. O'Neill, cited to appear in England, wrote a
letter to Elizabeth in which he dwelt with some complacency on this
testimony to his own superior government, besides arguing very
conclusively in favour of his own claim to recognition as head of the
O'Neills. But he evaded the journey to London, and made his raid on
Tyrconnel instead.
That exploit made Shan more completely master of Ulster than ever. The
result was that in the summer of 1561, Sussex marched into the Northern
Province. Shan after some preliminary skirmishes surprised his
rearguard, and would have cut his whole force to pieces but for a
desperate rally. When Elizabeth learned what had happened, she made up
her mind that it would be best to concede O'Neill's demands, and induce
him to visit England, while Sussex was actually trying to drive a
bargain for his murder. The plot fell through, but Sussex received some
supplies and was allowed to make another less disastrous expedition
before Kildare was sent to negotiate with O'Neill on the Queen's behalf.
The chief stipulated for complete amnesty, a safe-conduct, and the
payment of his expenses, as a condition of his paying the desired visit.
[Sidenote: 1561-2 Shan in England]
When Shan arrived in London, he made his formal submission, but was
informed that though he had his safe-conduct for return the date when
that return would be permitted lay with the Queen. He must wait for his
rival, young Matthew, to have their claims tried. Meantime Shan, who
seems to have adopted Henry VIII. as his matrimonial model, suggested
that he should be given an English wife, and that he would manage the
government of Ulster admirably in Elizabeth's interests, as soon as he
went back--with the Earldom. But as time went on he learned that
Matthew was being intentionally kept in Ireland. Then another of
O'Neill's kinsmen, Tirlogh, succeeded in murdering Matthew, while Shan
in England was vowing that his great desire was to be instructed in
English ways by Dudley (not yet Earl of Leicester). Now he remarked on
the necessity for his return to keep his kinsmen in order. There was a
good deal of ground for believing that he was in fact the only person
who could rule Ulster: and after four months (April 1562) he was
allowed to return, with promises on his part to be a model ruler and on
the Queen's part a concession of something not far short of sovereignty.
Before the end of the year it was evident enough that Shan's promises
were not intended to be kept. His murder had been plotted; Sussex had
certainly endeavoured to entrap him treacherously; his detention in
England had been technically justified by a distinctly dishonourable
trick. He did not mean to be tricked again, and if there was duplicity
in his conduct the English had set the example. He entered into
correspondence with the Queen's potential enemies on all hands, and
proceeded to suppress every one in the North whose submission to
himself was doubtful.
[Sidenote: 1563 Shan's supremacy recognised]
So in the spring, Sussex made another futile raid, after which
Elizabeth thought it best once more to play at conciliation, and to
adopt the scheme of formally constituting Ulster, Munster and Connaught
into Provinces, with O'Neill as President in the north, Clanricarde
(Burke) or O'Brien in the west, and Desmond or Kildare in the south.
Shan was to be so completely supreme that he was even to be free to
make his own Catholic nominee Archbishop of Armagh. An indubitable
attempt to poison O'Neill gave him a moral advantage, though the
English authorities indignantly repudiated the perpetrator. Shan was
content to allow the affair to be hushed up, and established his own
rule throughout Ulster with a combination of barbarity and real
administrative ability which to students of Indian History recalls the
methods and the ethics of Ranjit Singh or Abdurrhaman. Within the Pale,
the exceedingly corrupt administration of recent years was overhauled
by Sir Nicholas Arnold; who was no respecter of persons, but outside
the Pale regarded the Irish--in his own words--as so many "bears and
bandogs" who were best employed in ravaging and cutting each other's
throats. And in the south, the Butlers and Geraldines carried out that
policy with devastatory results. It is to be noted however that Cecil
found Arnold's views very difficult to stomach. [Footnote: _State
Papers_, _Ireland_, i., p. 252.]
It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that in spite of Shan's
peculiar views as to marriage and murder, Ulster under his sway was on
the whole better off than any other part of Ireland.
[Sidenote: 1565]
In 1565 Mary Stewart married Darnley, in pursuit, as we have seen, of
an aggressive policy towards England. In this year, O'Neill was hand in
glove with Sir Thomas Stukely, a gentleman-adventurer of Devon, who
made the harbours of the west coast his base for piratical cruises in
search of treasure-ships. Englishmen at home were devising paper
schemes for an ideal government in the sister island, but something
very different was required if Shan was not to become strong enough to
endanger the very existence of English dominion there. There was
considerable risk that Argyle, in disgust at Elizabeth's double-dealing,
would sink his differences with the Irish Chief, and give him the
active support of the Antrim Scots. Meantime, though Shan himself was
careful to render plausible explanations of his very obvious activity,
Sir Henry Sidney, a man of very different calibre from Sussex, was
appointed to succeed that nobleman in the Deputyship.
[Sidenote: 1566 Sir Henry Sidney Deputy]
Sidney had been in Ireland before and knew the conditions. He said
plain terms that he would not accept office, unless he could have the
troops and the money needed to compel the success of the military
movements of which he foresaw the necessity if order was to be secured.
He required in fact that the Government should possess actually the
sanction of superior force. The experiment of constituting Munster a
Presidency was to be tried, with Ormonde, Desmond, and the other
southern lords as a Council. But before he arrived early in 1566,
Argyle and O'Neill had already made their new pact, and a crisis seemed
to be at hand.
Sidney found the Pale in a state of anarchy, Munster half devastated by
the Ormonde and Desmond feud, and O'Neill supreme in the north.
Summoned to meet Sidney in the Pale, Shan replied in effect that he
knew too much about the traps previously laid for him to run any risks.
Sidney employed Stukely to negotiate. Stukely reported that Shan was
defiant. Sidney wrote urgently both to Leicester and to Cecil that he
mush put O'Neill down and must have money to pay his troops and keep
them paid. The Council were willing enough, but Elizabeth kept the
purse-strings tight. Moreover she was pleased to rate Sidney for
stoutly refusing to settle the Ormonde-Desmond dispute in favour of the
former; the Deputy declaring that the questions between them involved
complicated points of laws which could only be properly dealt with by
lawyers. In April, she sent him half the money he demanded, and
dispatched her kinsman, Knollys, to oversee Sidney. Knollys, who was
given to speaking his mind, promptly told her that Sidney was entirely
in the right and ought to have a free hand. An immediate aggressive
campaign against Shan was necessary, especially as the chief was now in
correspondence with Charles IX. of France. This was at the time when a
general suspicion was prevalent that a universal Catholic League for
the destruction of Protestantism was being formed; and Shan wrote as an
enthusiastic Catholic.
[Sidenote: 1567 End of O'Neill]
Under extreme pressure then, Elizabeth at last increased the supplies.
Unluckily for O'Neill, Argyle's friendship was cooling under pressure
from Murray, and the Antrim M'Connells, in spite of recent marriages,
did not forget the old feud: while Desmond, encouraged by Sidney's
attitude, was deaf to his appeals. Sidney swept Ulster, establishing a
strong garrison in a new and well-chosen fort which in course of time
developed into Londonderry, and restored Tyrconnel in the north-west.
Sidney himself was seriously hampered by constant reproofs from
Elizabeth; but O'Neill was now grievously harassed by the O'Donnells on
one side, the M'Connells on another, and by the garrison at Derry.
Renewed attempts to obtain aid from the Guises, in February (1567),
failed; and though Derry had to be abandoned owing to an outbreak of
plague, the death of the commandant, and a fire which destroyed the
buildings, O'Neill's fate was already sealed. He marched to meet an
incursion of the O'Donnells, but was completely overthrown, and had to
flee for his life to seek the ambiguous hospitality of the M'Connells
of Antrim; who received him for the sake of subsisting relationships.
But the situation was too volcanic. Insults passed over the wine-cup,
knives were drawn, and O'Neill was slaughtered. So perished the most
formidable challenger of the English rule who had appeared in Ireland;
for his one predecessor of equal ability, the old Kildare, had never
schemed for the creation of an independent Nation.
The death of O'Neill was followed by a brief period of rest from
perpetual warfare: but the peace was not to last for long.
[Sidenote: Irish Catholicism in politics]
From the days of Elizabeth until now the antagonism of the Irish to
protestantism has been one of the two great sources of disaffection. As
the English power extended, efforts were made to carry out beyond the
Pale the principles of the Act of Uniformity, and the cause of
Rebellion became more and more identified with the cause of Catholicism.
Before the fall of Shan, Queen and Deputies had been disposed to shut
their eyes to the open disregard of the Act all over the country. Now,
recalcitrant chiefs began to make the preservation of religion the
ground of appeal for foreign assistance to cast off the yoke of England.
Curiously, however, neither they nor the Catholic clergy grasped the
political situation. Irish nationality, _per se_, was profoundly
uninteresting to foreign potentates. In England, Scotland, and Ireland,
the cause of Catholicism was the cause of Mary Stewart. Unless in
support of her, it was impracticable for either France or Spain to move
against Elizabeth. The murder of Darnley, three months before O'Neill's
fall, destroyed the Queen of Scots' chances, but only for a time. Shan
himself had been acute enough to seek Mary's friendship; but now the
disaffected prelates and chiefs will be found hoping vainly to place
themselves under the dominion of a foreign power, in preference even to
a Catholicised English supremacy. Any such scheme would have destroyed
the relations between the English Catholics and their friends abroad.
Of the second great disturbing factor, the Land, we have hitherto heard
little; but now was about to commence the era of attempts at forcibly
establishing an English landed proprietary, displacing the native
owners; on the hypothesis that they would be able to keep the
population in subjection.
[Sidenote: 1568 The Colonisation of Munster]
The first schemes would probably have been beneficial had they been
practicable, as they involved nothing in the shape of forfeiture. But
they would have been costly, while offering no temptations to
Adventurers. In 1568 a scheme was devised which tempted the Adventurers,
made little demand on the exchequer--Elizabeth always argued that
Ireland ought to pay for itself--but involved forfeitures on a large
scale.
Desmond, who had declined alliance with O'Neill, was summoned to answer
charges of treason. He surrendered at once, and was sent to London.
Then he tried to escape, and was only allowed to purchase freedom from
close imprisonment or worse by surrendering all his lands to the Queen
to receive back so much as she chose to grant. A group of Devonshire
gentlemen proposed that the titles of other landowners in Munster
should be investigated, and that all the lands held under
unsatisfactory titles should be handed over to themselves. They would
occupy and rule at their own charges, and compel complete submission by
the strong hand; a process by which it is quite evident that they
intended practical extermination of the Irish. The business was started
on Desmond lands; but it was carried to a dangerous point when Sir
Peter Carew took possession of Butler property--seeing that the loyalty
of the Ormonde connexion was the one source of Irish support which had
never been even suspected of failing. There were massacres and
reprisals; but fortunately when the other Munster chiefs took the
opportunity to petition Philip of Spain to come and take possession,
the Butlers still stood firmly to their allegiance.
[Sidenote: 1569 Insurrection in Munster]
An insurrection was headed in 1569 by Fitzmaurice (Desmond's brother);
some of the English households were wiped out. The O'Neills in Ulster
and the Burkes in Connaught rose. Ormonde declared plainly that if the
colonising policy were carried on it would be impossible for him to
support the government. Sidney ravaged Munster, and left Sir Humphrey
Gilbert in command behind him for a time: but the actual scheme was
dropped. There is no evading the fact that the English, who could wax
hot enough over the cruelties of Spaniards in America or in Holland,
did without compunction or any sense of inconsistency regard the Irish
not even as mere human savages but as wild beasts. And many of these
were men who in any other circumstances were capable of displaying an
admirable chivalry and a heroic valour. Gilbert was a man full of noble
ideals, learned, pious, cultivated, valiant, kindly; but if there was a
chance of killing an Irish man, woman, or child, he took it.
[Sidenote: Ireland and Philip II.]
In England, 1569 was the year of the Northern rebellion. France was
viewing the Scots Queen's pretensions with increasing lukewarmness, and
Philip was regarding her with corresponding favour. The Ridolfi plot
was developing in 1570 and 1571. In brief, at this period Philip's
disposition towards Elizabeth was becoming definitely, though not
avowedly, hostile instead of--as hitherto on the whole--friendly. Yet
he would not accept the Irish invitation to intervene. But he received
at Madrid, and treated with great favour, the very remarkable
adventurer Thomas Stukely, already mentioned as a piratical ally of
Shan O'Neill's. Stukely had been sent over to England to answer for his
miscellaneous misdeeds; but was--perhaps intentionally--allowed to
escape to Spain; where he represented himself as an enthusiastic
Catholic, and the most influential man in Ireland, and bragged hugely
of the coming conquest of that country, of which he was to become in
some sort the Prince, with the assistance of Spain. The entertainment
of Stukely however summed up all that Philip was prepared to do for
Ireland. By September 1572 he was again seeking Elizabeth's amity.
[Sidenote: Experimental Presidencies]
In the meantime, the experiment of constituting Connaught a Presidency
had been tried and failed ignominiously. The curse of the English
Government--a soldiery whose pay was permanently and hugely in arrear,
who were constantly on the verge of mutiny, and lived virtually by
pillage--remained unabated; and Sidney, having tried vigorous
government first and then, lacking the means to maintain it properly,
extirpation as an alternative, but still without success, clamoured to
be recalled, and at last got his wish.
Desmond was still detained in England, but the Geraldines in Munster
had not been crushed either by Sidney or by Gilbert. Despite the
failure in Connaught, the Presidency plan was tried in the southern
province, Sir John Perrot being appointed thereto. Perrot blew up
strongholds, captured and hanged some hundreds of the population, but
could not lay hold of the chiefs or bring the country into subjection.
In 1572, Fitzmaurice made his way to Ulster, gathered a force of Scots,
and came down the Shannon. The President got his chance of a fight, and
shattered the force: but Elizabeth was dissatisfied with the results of
an unwonted if still inadequate expenditure, and declared that the
whole experiment was too costly. A general amnesty and the withdrawal
of Perrot ended it.
[Sidenote: 1573 Essex (the elder) in Ulster]
Yet experiments continued to be the order of the day. The one expedient
not attempted was a government supported by obviously efficient
physical force, but aiming at the prosperity of the people, and not
running violently counter to the customs and the prejudices of
centuries. Another inefficient colony was started in Ulster, which only
excited popular animosity; Desmond was at last in 1573 allowed to
return to Munster with many promises on his part, from which, like
O'Neill before him, he considered himself absolved by a breach of faith
towards him. Finally Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex, was allowed to try
the biggest and perhaps the most disastrous of the whole series of
experiments; being virtually granted authority to invade Ulster with a
free hand to make laws and generally to do what seemed to him good
there--all at his own cost--save only for some provisions safe-guarding
the royal prerogative. He went with excellent intentions, romantic
ideals, a respectable force, and a sublime ignorance of facts. The
Irishmen, mindful of the Munster colonisation, tricked him with an
apparently warm welcome at Carrickfergus, permitted him to congratulate
himself on roseate prospects, and then at one swoop cleared the
district of provisions. They professed to owe allegiance to the Queen,
but repudiated the claims of a private adventurer. His own troops were
volunteers, with no mind for hardships and no prospects of plunder. In
three months he found his dreams hopelessly dissipated, and himself
almost deserted, with no remotest chance of carrying out the Utopian
projects with which he had started.
[Sidenote: 1574]
The volunteer method having failed thus ignominiously, Essex was made
officially Governor of Ulster, and supplied with troops; for the
O'Neills were now threatening, and the Deputy, Fitzwilliam, was
inactive. Tirlogh O'Neill and his kinsman Sir Brian were very promptly
brought to submission. In the south Desmond, between threats and
promises, was persuaded to resume an air of loyalty. Essex however had
learned to adopt the common view of the Irish in its extremest form. By
a ruse which anywhere else he would have counted a piece of the
blackest treachery, he seized Sir Brian and his wife and cut up their
following when they were actually his own guests; and followed up the
performance by a hideous and wanton massacre of women and children and
decrepit men at Rathlin off the Antrim Coast; of which things he wrote
with a perfect complacency, and for which he was highly applauded.
Thereafter he returned to England.
[Sidenote: 1576 Sidney's second Deputyship]
Once more, Sidney was persuaded to accept the Deputyship. It is
probable that his honest desire was to govern firmly and justly,
although, when denied the means for steady rule he had fallen back on
extirpation. At any rate the Irish themselves, genuinely or not, hailed
his return with apparent enthusiasm. The chiefs hoped that after so
many experiments had collapsed, the pristine plan of making them
responsible for their own districts and leaving them alone might be
tried again. But no English statesman could divest himself of the idea
that no government was worth having unless it was conducted by English
methods. Sidney insisted on reconstituting the Presidencies of
Connaught and Munster, Malby taking charge of the former and Drury of
the latter. Naturally enough, and with plenty of excuse, they set about
hangings on an extensive scale, and where they met with resistance gave
no quarter. English methods, as usual in Ireland, promptly degenerated
into massacre and devastation. Sidney left the country again two years
after he had returned to it--and left it as ripe for rebellion as it
had ever been.
And the omens abroad were dangerous. For the Jesuit Sanders was seeking
to stir up a Catholic crusade, Stukely was in high favour at Madrid,
and the ablest of the Geraldines, James Fitzmaurice, was in Spain.
Moreover Philip's indisposition to interfere was on the verge of being
seriously disturbed by Drake's great expedition, which had sailed from
England in 1577.