Ireland under the Tudors, with a Succinct Account of the Earlier History. Vol. 2 (of 3). Bagwell Richard

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СКАЧАТЬ of all rebels in those parts,’ and to do all more cheaply for his sovereign than she could do it for herself. Elizabeth prudently answered that the question of an English wife must be adjourned until Shane had proved his love of civilisation by deeds as well as words.70

Attempt to poison Shane

      Just before the peace or truce an attempt had been made to poison O’Neill in wine, of which he was accustomed to drink a great deal. He and his servant suffered from the dose; but no one died. It is not disputed that the guilty man was John Smythe, who appears to have been a foot soldier of Irish birth, one of a company in the Queen’s pay of which Ormonde had the command. O’Neill demanded redress, and the Queen, when she heard of the affair, wrote with becoming indignation and horror. If there was any difficulty about getting a fair trial in Ireland, the accused man was to be sent to London. Elizabeth declared her willingness to bear with much that was disorderly in Shane, and to trust him more for the future on account of this great provocation. Smythe was arrested and examined, but no punishment followed. Whether Sussex or other great men were implicated, or whether Ormonde wished to screen his man, will never now be known, and Shane was induced to forgive Smythe. The suave Cusack pointed out that he could not be hanged for a mere attempt, and O’Neill despised any other punishment. Cusack advised Cecil to let the thing blow over; and no doubt this suited the Queen, who could not have forgotten the Lord-Lieutenant’s plain-spoken letters in that other affair of Neil Gray.71

New Royal Commission on the Pale, 1563

      Having pacified Ulster, or rather shut her eyes to its true state, Elizabeth turned her attention to the state of the Pale. The complaints of the Irish law students in London, of Parker, of Bermingham, and of Shane O’Neill himself, had been partially investigated by Arnold. Matthew King, Clerk of the Check, was found to have been very remiss, and declared that some of his gravest misdeeds had been done under direct orders from the Lord-Lieutenant. Nothing could much exceed the ill-feeling shown by Sussex to the party of inquiry, though he did not actually obstruct Arnold, who, on his return to London, made out a case too strong to be safely neglected. Parker and Bermingham were consulted again, and Arnold received a new commission. To make the investigation thorough, all members of the Irish Council who had no men in the Queen’s pay under them, and most of the principal gentlemen of the Pale, were put into the Commission. Sir Thomas Wrothe was associated with Arnold, and William Dixe, a professional auditor, was afterwards joined to them. Their instructions involved inquiry into almost all civil and military, and into some ecclesiastical affairs. The Queen notified her intention of establishing provincial presidencies, and suggested a plan for a University in Dublin, to be endowed out of the revenue of St. Patrick’s.72

Cusack and Desmond

      The indefatigable Cusack, whose great idea was the conciliation of Ireland by arrangements with the native nobility, was as anxious to obtain terms for Desmond as for Shane. The Earl was tired of his detention in England, where he was hard pressed for so moderate a sum as 4l. He agreed to be responsible for order in Munster, to see that the Queen got her feudal dues, and to pay her a tax of 4d. a year on every cow. He promised to put down the Brehon law, as well as the bards or rhymers who seem to have been thought still more important; ‘for that they do by their ditties and rhymes made to divers lords and gentlemen in Ireland, in the commendation and high praise of extortion, rebellion, rape, raven, and other injustice, encourage those lords and gentlemen rather to follow those vices than to leave them.’ For every shilling paid to these men, two were to be forfeited to the Queen, whose Commissioners were to have power to fine the rhymers at discretion.73

Desmond and Ormonde

      It is probable that neither Cusack’s intercession nor Desmond’s promises would have prevailed, had not the Earl’s enforced absence left Munster in confusion. A dispute about the title to Kilfeacle was one difficulty, and the legal question cannot have been very hard to decide. But Desmond may have distrusted the impartiality of lawyers rather than the justice of his cause, and he preferred the old way of deciding lawsuits. His brother John spoiled the Butlers, while Ormonde, who was forbidden to retaliate, poured forth his griefs to Sussex. With just pride he dilated upon the loyalty of his ancestors, who had always been able to defend themselves, and to take and keep the Desmond’s goods. His own services were not small, but for fear of disobeying orders he had to stand by, while he and his suffered more in two or three years than his forefathers had in two centuries. Towns were burned, women and children murdered, half Kilkenny and Tipperary lay waste. ‘All this spoil, I assure your lordship, doth not so much grieve me as that the Earl of Desmond with his evil doings is like to speed as well as I that with my service have deserved at least to be restored to my own.’ In trying to defend his property, Ormonde’s brother John had been dangerously, if not mortally wounded. The Earl was forced to see all this, and do nothing. ‘My lord, you see what I get by sufferance; my brother left as dead, and mine enemies living upon the spoil of my goods. My lord, who shall render my brother his life if he die? Shall I live and suffer all this? If I may not avenge my brother on these disobedient Geraldines, as you are a just governor lend your force against them, and let not my obedience be the cause of my destruction.’ He begged that in case of Desmond being sent back to Ireland, he might at least be detained in Dublin until restitution should be made, and the rebels delivered to Sussex to be ‘justified.’ Ormonde threw out the significant hint that, failing this, he would leave his estate to take care of itself, and go to the Queen, ‘like some other private men.’74

Desmond is restored

      Desmond’s head was in the lion’s mouth, and he professed loyalty, while doubting the capacity of the Munster chiefs for civil life. If he was expected to do anything he must have guns and gunners to take castles, and have the right to arrest malefactors in the corporate towns. The Queen was silent on these points, but urged Desmond to put down private war, ‘which hurts the innocent, to the great displeasure of Almighty God, and to our dishonour, whereof we pray you to have due regard.’ She ordered him to wait at Dublin for Cusack, whose help he had himself asked. ‘The Queen’s sword,’ she said, ‘shall touch the guilty, and no other shall be drawn.’ Brave words! but much belied by facts.75

      CHAPTER XXII.

      1564 AND 1565

Difficulties of Wrothe and Arnold

      The trouble which it cost Wrothe and Arnold to reach Ireland pretty accurately foreshadowed the trouble which awaited them there. After waiting a long time at Holyhead they at last ventured to sea, but were taken aback before they gained mid-Channel, and had to choose between scudding under bare poles towards Ulster, or returning to Wales. They chose the latter course, but failed to make the harbour. They lay for a time under the shelter of some rocks, and were glad to scramble ashore at three o’clock on a February morning, wet and sick, but safe. Nine days later they were more fortunate, and reached Dublin to find that Leix and Offaly were again in rebellion, and that the financial confusion had not been exaggerated. All captains, castellans, sheriffs, and municipal officers were at once called on to produce accounts. The inquiry into the musters was begun by demanding an accurate return of all changes and vacancies in the Lord-Lieutenant’s own company. Sussex said he was ready to obey the Queen in all things, but that this had never been required of any chief governor, and was, in fact, out of his power. The debts to the Crown were great, and many of them desperate. There was not one groat in the Treasury, and the 11,000l. which the Commissioners brought was quite inadequate. The Pale and the wild Irish were at daggers drawn, for the former clung to their own customs and bye-laws, and looked for the Queen’s protection in their attempts at self-government. The Church was in no better case than the State, but there was a pretty general wish to have St. Patrick’s turned into a University. The Commissioners recommended that the judges should put the Act of Uniformity generally in force, ‘not meddling with the simple multitude now at the first, but with one or two boasting mass men in every shire, that it may be seen that the punishment of such men is meant.’СКАЧАТЬ