THE ULSTER LORDS.
Hugh O’Neill owned in fee the counties now styled Derry and Tyrone,
with parts of Armagh and Monaghan. In Elizabeth’s reign he tried,
after defeating her troops, to bring in King James as Monarch of
Ireland; but, when the Scottish ruler came to lawful sway over
the Three Kingdoms, the Earl was discerned by Chichester to be an
ingrate traitor. O’Neill had just got back his lands by Royal orders
after much travail, and had received proof of the clemency of the
new King. He was over sixty years of age, and war-worn after a nine
years’ campaign. Many of his own clan hated him. Yet he was supposed
to harbour fierce designs of “rising out” against the son of Mary
Stuart, who had re-invested him in his earldom and estate, and to
whom he lent money freely. A sheriff’s report on his position tells
of his weakness, and was thought so important that Sir George Carew
made a copy with his own hand:—
“There are certain kindred or septs of the Neales in divers parts
of Tyrone, which ever did, and still do, as much as in them lieth,
oppose both against Tyrone and all those of his proper sept and
party: namely, in the Barony of Strabane, Tirlogh Oge O’Neale, son
to Sir Arthur, and all his followers and dependents, as well of the
Neales as of the Quins, and likewise of divers other septs on the
side of Sluagh Shees. Also in the Barony of Omagh, all that sept of
the Neales called the Sluagh Arts do deadly hate Tyrone’s sept. And
likewise in the Barony of Clogher are two other distinct septs of the
Neales, who hate Tyrone and his sept—one of which septs are the sons
of Shane O’Neale and their followers.”
How, then, could the weary and beaten head of a sundered clan be
engaged in compassing rebellion against a kingly benefactor? The
Deputy, to make his insinuations more plausible, called in aid
religious prejudices. In an owner so extensive as the Chieftain of
Tyrone, Popish superstition must needs lie at the root of Celtic
malice, and Chichester wrought much on that string. O’Neill, however,
had married a Protestant and accepted the blessing of Bishop Jones,
the new-fangled prelate of Meath, when he wedded the sister of the
English Marshal Bagenal. He had been brought up at Elizabeth’s Court,
and was once taunted by the Earl of Essex that “he cared no more for
religion than his horse.” He attended the Deputy at a Protestant
service, when Catholic Palesmen would go no further than the door.
He supplied beeves for the royal garrisons in Ulster; readily came
up to Councils in Dublin Castle when summoned, accepted the King’s
Sheriffs, and comported himself submissively as a country gentleman.
Chichester even certified that he hanged an unruly nephew who broke
the peace in Tyrone; but this was invented merely to show what an
unnatural person he was. True or false, the story did not support the
suspicion of disloyalty. O’Neill’s enormous estate alone gave ground
for ranking him with traitors.
Adjoining Tyrone lay the territories of O’Donnell, Earl of
Tirconnell, who had been O’Neill’s ally in the wars. The fisheries
of Lough Foyle were almost as valuable as those of the Bann; and
naturally O’Donnell also fell under the Deputy’s displeasure. Another
ex-rebel, Lord Maguire, owned Fermanagh and swept Lough Erne. There
were sub-chiefs besides, equally obnoxious by reason of their
possessions. That such owners, who, despite their fluent Latin and
Shakesperian English, used the Irish tongue and practised Popery,
should be allowed to breathe in their own land was an evident danger
to the State. Wherefore Chichester poured into the King’s ear, via
Cecil, the leprous distilment of his greed. No overt act could be
suggested against the Ulster lords. Their circumspection, after being
pardoned and reinstated, was proportioned to their knowledge of the
Deputy’s unscrupulousness. Chichester boasted that a dog could not
bark in the North without his hearing of it, and this was not mere
brag. Sheriffs, under-sheriffs, escheators, inquisitors, surveyors,
mapsmen, tax-collectors, and tithe-collectors infested the Province.
Kinsmen of the beaten chiefs who, in the hope of sharing their
estates, had taken the English side, were watchful correspondents
of Dublin Castle. When James succeeded Elizabeth, her officers in
local forts supplied the necessary rumours of warlike preparations or
Spanish descents for London consumption to further the plans of the
landsharks.
Once Chichester was firm in the saddle he resolved, a month after
Hamilton conveyed to him the fisheries and territories under the
Patent of the 14th February, 1606, to take over also from him
one-fourth of the tidal Bann. This he did by assignment of the 14th
March, 1606. The “fourth” belonged to Sir Randal MacDonnell, under a
Patent of 1603; and the Deputy spent himself in expedients to secure
a colour of title for it. He kept the transfer secret until he could
invent a device for “legally” relieving MacDonnell of his rights and
set on Hamilton, with the help of Captain Phillips, to assail Sir
Randal’s Patent by a suit in the “Castle Chamber” before himself.
All this was done within three years of the grants to O’Neill and
MacDonnell, when they must have been fresh in the mind of every
official.
The Bann Patents to “the Scot” (under way to Chichester) wronged
one or more of at least four persons. On the Antrim side the river
belonged partly to Sir Randal MacDonnell and partly to the Bishop of
Down and Connor; on the Derry side to the Bishop of Derry and Hugh
O’Neill. The fishing rights of the Bishops were so well-established
that when the Reverend George Montgomery received the See of Derry
later on, his share in the Bann was admitted by the Deputy, in spite
of the adverse Patents he had sanctioned. These grants, therefore,
transferred the property of two Bishops and two chieftains to a
Scotch interloper on a spent warrant by a secret process. To prevent
the facts being unravelled, they were complicated by a tangle of
technicality.
Throughout the first half of Sir Arthur’s sway, Cecil was Secretary
of State. While he lived the Deputy’s position was unshakable.
Chichester called him his “saint,” and reverently worshipped at his
shrine. Still, even the hunchback saint’s protection could not wholly
screen him from danger. He knew that the underground Patents were
mere parchment so long as the true owners were left in possession
of their domains. To assert them publicly, when no legal forfeiture
or escheat had taken place, would give rise to scandal. An appeal
to the King must ensue, and the exposure might end in disaster. He,
therefore, resolved to fasten the brand of “traitor” on those whose
title he had sapped by subterranean conveyances.
An ecclesiastical accomplice was convenient for this work, in view of
the “flagrant zeal” for Protestantism affected by James I. Hamilton
had helped to get promotion for the Reverend George Montgomery—with
whose brother he had partitioned Sir Con O’Neill’s estate. That
divine was advanced from a Court chaplaincy to the See of Derry, but
was loath to risk himself in a troubled diocese. For this he was
chidden by Attorney-General Davies, who wished him to come over and
preach the Gospel to the clans and chiefs in course of despoilment,
so that their distresses might be cheered by the consolations of
the new evangel. Three years flew by before the prelate could be
persuaded to venture into Erin. When he came he began his mission
by a severe survey of the temporalities of the diocese. The richest
part of it, the City of Derry, was a gift from the O’Dohertys to
Queen Elizabeth, but it also included large areas within O’Neill’s
jurisdiction. The devoted Bishop was, therefore, set on to dispute
with the Earl the nature and extent of the Church lands in his See.
These having heretofore been dedicated to Catholic uses, it is
possible that O’Neill was not speedy enough in handing them over to
help the spread of Lutheranism.
Nor was the business free from local complications. Before County
Derry was shired, it formed part of Tyrone, but lay under the chiefry
of the O’Cahans. That sept paid tribute to the O’Neills; and Bishop
Montgomery soon learnt of Sir Donal O’Cahan’s desire to be freed from
contribution to the Earl of Tyrone. O’Cahan was married to O’Neill’s
sister, and had joined him in the wars; but Chichester and Docwra, to
end the struggle, tempted him to take the Queen’s side by a promise
to relieve him from tribute to O’Neill and grant him his lands in fee
simple.
O’Cahan’s acceptance of this offer, and the breach of the bargain,
led to consequences that have furrowed deep tracks in Ulster history.
Hardly had the compact between him and Docwra in 1602 been concluded
than O’Neill was also persuaded to cease insurgency. The Earl yielded
upon a guarantee that his estate should be restored intact, and thus
the undertakings to chief and sub-chief were wholly repugnant to one
another. The treaty with O’Neill was signed on behalf of the Crown,
that with O’Cahan on behalf of Chichester. State policy compelled
the breach of one or other. For, when Elizabeth lay dying in March,
1603, the Lord Lieutenant thought it good to promise O’Neill pardon
ere the Scotch King, with whom the Irish were in amity, ascended the
united Thrones. O’Neill accepted conditions, knowing of the offer to
O’Cahan, but not of the Queen’s death-sickness. He refused at first
to parley, because a re-grant of his territory with undiminished
rights was denied. The Lord Lieutenant, though loath to concede
such terms, feared that, if the news of the accession of James I.
reached Ulster before peace was concluded, O’Neill would surrender
voluntarily, and so win grace with the new King. He, therefore,
ordered Sir Garrett Moore and Sir William Godolphin to confer
a second time with him, and to agree to all he asked. A treaty
embodying the bargain was signed at Mellifont; and, when O’Neill
afterwards visited England, a King’s Letter for Tyrone was handed to
him. He returned in triumph in September, 1603, having had all his
claims and those of his family honourably met at Court.
Naturally O’Cahan chafed at the breach of faith with himself; but,
for the three years during which Devonshire survived, the arrangement
with O’Neill—in spite of protests by Chichester—was respected. The
death of Devonshire wrought a complete change of spirit. The new
Deputy encouraged Montgomery to support O’Cahan, in order to curb
O’Neill’s power and clip his acres. The Bishop first stipulated with
Sir Donal that the Church should enjoy such lands as he selected
in Derry, and then promised that O’Neill’s suzerainty, with its
burdensome tribute of £200 a year, should be done away with. In
edifying epistles to Cecil the prelate enlarged on the advantage
which would accrue to religion from this scheme, and he backed up
O’Cahan in his refusal to pay rent to O’Neill. The contract between
the overlord and his vassal had been written down by the Brehons in
clear Gaelic; but at Devonshire’s death O’Cahan disowned it, hoping
to revive his peace-treaty with Chichester. Little did Sir Donal
suspect that both Deputy and Bishop were using him as a pawn, or
foresee the dire results that were to follow from his upsetting the
decree of the Brehons.