MMmvy fac" THE (I HISTORY OF IRELAND, n H -*il FKOM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME ; DERIVED FItOM NATIVE ANNALS, AND FKOM THE RESEARCHES OP DR. O'DONOVAN, PROFESSOR EUGENE CURRY, THE REV. C, P. MEEHAN, DR. R. R. MADDEN, AND OTUEE EMINENT SCnOLAES; i AND FnOM ALL THE RESOURCES OF IRISH HISTORY WW AVAILABLE. ^ MARTIN HAVERTY. I ill %. NEW YORK: THOMAS FARRELL &- SON, 107 FULTON STREET. 1867. % Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, By Thomas Farrell & Sox, In the aerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. JOHN O. SHEA, ETEREOTTrr.R AND KLECTROTrrKft, New VonB. 5299 PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. TN presenting to their countrymen in America a new History of Ireland, the publishers desire to call attention to its marked and superior excellence as a history, and the number, beauty, and ele- gance of its illustrations, maps, etc. The author stands prominent among Irish scholars of the present day, and he has devoted to his work the labors of years in searching and examining into the archives of Irish history, in presenting a clear and reliable narrative of events, and in arousing and sustaining that patriotic love of their native land which characterizes Irishmen wherever they may dwell. Mr. Hav- erty is a ripe scholar ; he discusses the varied topics before him in a philosophical spirit. Out of the myths and romantic traditions of early days, he extracts the essential, important truth ; and availing himself of the valuable researches of living scholars and students of Irish history, he gives his readers a most interesting and attractive work in a style of eloquent and lofty-toned love for his native country and its good name in the world. There needs no commendation for such a work as this, at this day. Irishmen are world-noted as patriots and lovers of the soil which gave them birth. Irishmen are always deeply interested in the story of the wrongs which their land has suffered from foreign oppression and outrage, as well as in the glorious record which Ireland's annals pre- sent of noble heroes, statesmen, poets, and philanthropists, for cen- tury upon century past. PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. The publishers, therefore, are certain that they have done a good Avork in presenting this History of Ireland to their countrymen in the attractive dress in -which it now appears. They haA'e spared no ex- pense in their undertaking; they appeal unhesitatingly to the volume itself in proof of their zeal and devotion in order to render it in every respect worthy of the subject of which it treats. And they confi- dently look for the extensive support of all those avIio would keep alive the flame of patriotism in their children's hearts, and would furnish their homes and their firesides with the latest, best, and most complete History of Ireland which is to be found in the English language. T. FARRELL & SON. New York, May, 1867. >T i IAA» a Cr-C^tJ^-'i^ Lu. "">!--\T BY HISTORY OF IRELAND. :Ti3|Jy«^ ■■- ' ■ O I . V ' ' '" I i p) ~ AUTHOR'S PREFACE. nnHE work* here brought to a close was undertaken with a view to supply an impartial History of Ireland, according to the present advanced state of knowledge on the subject. The labors of such eminent Irish scholars as Dr. O'Donovan and Professor Curry have opened to us new sources of information, and the reseai'ches of these and other learned and indefatigable investigators have, of late years, shed a flood of light upon our history and antiquities ; but the knowl- edge thus developed was still unavailable for the general public ; and it remained to collect, in a popular form, materials scattered through the publications of learned societies, and the voluminous pages of our native annals ; buried in collections of state papers, and in the cor- respondence of statesmen ; or concealed from the Avorld in the Gov- ernment archives. We have been enabled to avail ourselves of a mass of important original documents derived from the last-mentioned source ; but with what success the task of converting all these copious materials to the object of producing a popular History of Ireland has been performed in the present volume, the reader must judge : we can only say that no pains have been spared to accomplish it con- scientiously. To identify the ancient topography of the country with the events of its history is important and interesting ; and the invaluable in- formation accumulated by Dr. O'Donovan in his annotations to the AUTHOR'S PREB'ACE. Annals of the Four Masters, and collected by him for the Ordnance Survey, has been freely employed for that purpose in these pages. The narrative has been interrupted as little as possible with discus- sions of controverted points, and the space has not been unnecessarily encumbered with extraneous matter. The authorities relied on have been sufficiently indicated in the marginal references, but the Author here desires to express his deep obligations to Dr. O'Donovan, Pro- fessor Eugene Curry, the Rev. C. P. Meehan, Dr. Wilde, Dr. R. R. Madden, and J. T. Gilbert, Esq., for the invaluable infonnation they have kindly afforded him. in addition to that which he derived from their published works. MARTIN HAVERTY. KlLBEIIi-MuiKKE, ASKEATON. CONTENTS. CHAPTEE I. The fiist inhabitants of Ireland — Wtence they came — Supposed date, about B. C. 2500 — Colony of Partha- lon — "Whole colony perished in a pestUencc, about B. C. 2200 — Ireland a waste for thirty years — Colony of Nemedius — Occupied Ireland about two hundred years — Great Pestilence — The Fomoriaii pirates — Who were the Fomorians? — AVanderings of Nemedians — The Firbolgs arrive from Greece— Theory as to tlie origin of the Firbolgs and Damnonians- — New invaders — The Tuatha de Dananns — Conquer the Firbolgs — Nuad of the "Silver Hand" — KiUed in battle by Balor of the "Mighty Blows" — Another version of the Tuatha de Dananns' invasion — Lugh Lamlifhada reigns forty years — Public games and fair — Dagda Mor next king — Reigned eighty years — Other kings of this race — Bardic annals — The Lia Fail, or Stone of Destinj- — Its final resting-place — Ogma, inventor of occult writing — Orbsen, or Mananan, and Maclir — Note from Doctor O'Donovan, O'Flaherty, etc 9 CHAPTEE II. The Milesian Colony — Opinions of modern writers respecting — The Daan Eireannach, or Poem of Ireland — Wanderings of the Gadeliahs under Niul, son of Fenius, from Scythia into Egypt, etc. — Adventures of Sru, son of Esru — Reaches Spain — Founds a city called Brigantia — ^Voyage of his .son Ith to Ireland — Ith's death — Expedition of the sons of Miledh or Milesius — Size and force of the expedition — Date of their arrival in Ireland — Contests with the Tuatha de Dananns — Battle of Teltown in Meath — Division of Ireland by Here- mon — His wife. Tea Heremon, reigns fifteen years — Visit of the CruitUnians, or Picts, to Ireland, at this date — ^Venerable Bede's account of their origin — The traditions of very little value 16 CHAPTEE III. Questions as to the credit of the Ancient Irish Annals — Tighernach of Clonmacnoise's statements — How far doubts ought really to exist-:-The main facts reliable — Defective and improbable Chronology — Difficult to credit it — The test of Science applied — Good results — Theories on the Ancient Inhabitants of Ireland — Where did they come from ?— Authorities referred to — Intellectual qualities of the Firbolgs and Tuatha de Dananns — Superiority of the latter — Movements of various sorts of the Tuatha de Dananns — Workers in mines, builders of tumuli, etc. — Keltic origin doubtful — O'Flaherty's Ogygia quoted — A Scythian origin claimed in the Irish traditions 21 CHAPTEE IV. The Milesian sovereigns of Ireland, one hundred and eighteen in number — Characteristics of their reigns — Irial or Faidh the prophet — Struggles with the Firbolg tribes — Tiemmas, B. C. 1620 — Idol worship — The Crom-Cruach in Magh-Slecht — Paganism of the Ancient Irish — Death of Tiernmas — Marks of his reign — Social progress and civilization — The Feis Teavrach or Triennial Parliament of Tara — Instituted about B. C. 1300 — Members of this assembly or parliament, its meetings, etc. — Long reigns of Irish kings — Cimbaeth, B. C. 716, and his two brothers — Queen Macha — Curious story — Foundation of Emania palace — Ugony the Great — New division of Ireland — Famous pagan oath — Ugony's death — Cattle murrain, B. C. 200 — Eochy, or Achy, re-divides the country — Maeve or Maude, queen of Connaught — Romantic history — Wars of Connaught and Ulster — Bardic romances — Origin of some of the worst ills of Ireland 26 Viu CONTENTS. CHAPTEE V. Pagan kings of Ireland, continued — Creevan Nianair — Incursions into Britain — Rich spoils obtained — Pro- jected Eomau invasion of Ireland — Hard lot of the plebeian races — Revolt determined on — The Attacotti or Aitheach-Tuatha massacre of Milesian nobles — Carbry, the Cat-Headed, elected king — His son Morann's course — New troubles— Tuatlial Teachtar, the legitimate — His proceedings — Felimy Rechtar, or the Law- Maker — Conn of the Hundred Battles — Wars of Conn and Owen or Eugene the Great — New division of Ireland — The battle of Magh Lcana — Defeat and death of Eugene — Conary the Second — The three Carbrys — The Dalriads ; first Irish settlement in Alba or Scotland — Oiliol Olum, king of Munster — Outbreak of Lewy, Eurnamed MacCon — The famous Irish Legion — Glorious reign of Cormac MacArt — Efforts in behalf of civili- zation — Loses an eye, and abdicates^Carbry Liffechar — Bloody battle of Gavra, A. D. 384 — Finn MacCuail and the Fenian Militia — Macpherson's literary forgeries — The three Collas— Destruction of Emania palace — Domestic tragedy — Niall of the Nine Hostages — Inroads of the Scots or Irish into Britain — Dathy and his exploits — Patrick, son of Calphum, brought to Ireland as a captive from Gaul — Blessed fruits 33 CHAPTEE VI. Civilization of the pagan Irish — Its extent and value — Their knowledge of letters — Superior advancement and preparation for Christianity — St. Patrick said to have given "alphabets" to some of his converts — The Ogham Craev, or secret virgular writing — Religion of the pagan Irish, difficult to determine— Numerous theories — The Brehon Laws — The Tanaisteacht or Tanistry, the Law of Succession — Its provisions — Gavail- kinne or Gavel kind, law in regard to Inheritance and Division of property — Tenure of land, a tribe or family right — Rights of clanship — Reciprocal privileges of the Irish kings — The law of Eric or Mulct — Hereditary offices — Fosterage — Its obligations and sanctity 46 CHAPTEE VII. Social and intellectual state of the pagan Irish, continued — Weapons and implements of flint and stone — Celts or stone dishes — Working in metals — Bronze swords, gold ornaments, etc. — Pursuits of the Primitive Races — Agriculture, extensively carried on — Houses of the Ancient Irish — Materials of building — Raths or earthen inclosures — Caliirs or stone inclosures and forts — Cranoques or stockaded islands in a lake — Canoes and Curachs — Sepulchral monuments — Extensive in number and size — Cromlechs, what they were — Games and amusements — Music, its toucliing character — Ornaments, evidence of luxury, etc. — Celebrated pagan legislators and poets — The Bearla Feine, etc — Language of Ancient Ireland — Value and importance of its study, etc , 53 CHAPTEE VIII. Christianity in Ireland before St. Patrick's days — Traditions — Pelagius and Celestius— St. Palladius sent by Pope Celestine — Doubts as to St. Patrick's birth-place — His parentage — His captivity — His escape— His vision — His studies — His consecration — How Christianity was received in Ireland^Date of St. Patrick's arrival — First conversions — Unique glory — Visits Tara — Interviews with King Laeghaire— Description of the scene — Invocation Hymn — Effects produced — Visits Tailtin, where the games were celebrated — Stays a week — St. Patrick's journeys in Meath, Connaught, Ulster, Leinster, and Munster— -Many years thus occu- pied — Destruction of Crom-Cruach and other idols — St. Secundinus or Sechnail — St. Fiech — King .Sugus — Caroticus, British prince and pirate — Foundation of the See of Armagh— Death of St. Patrick — Length of his life and labors 59 CHAPTEE IX. Civil History of Ireland during St. Patrick's life — The Seanchus Mor, or Great Book of Laws, A. D. 438 — King Laeghaire's oath and death — Reign of OUioll Molt, son of Dathi, A. D. 459 — Branches and greatness of the Hy-Niall race — Reign of Lugaidh or Lewy — Foundation of the Scottish kingdom in North Britain — Falsifi cation of the Scottish Annals by Macpherson and others — Progress of Christianity and absence of persecu CONTENTS. ix tion — The first Order of Irish saints — Great Ecclesiastical schools — Aran of the saints, or lona of Ireland — St. Brigid— Her high origin, great labors, success, humility, etc. — Great House of Kildare, or Church of the Oak — Death of St. Brigid, A. D. 525 — Jlonastic tendency of the Primitive Church— Muircheartach MacEarca, the first Christian king of Ireland, A. D. 504 — Succeeded by Tuathal Maelgarbh, grandson of Caurbre, per secutor of St. Patrick, A. D. 528 70 CHAPTEE X. First Tisitation of the Buidhe Chonnaill, or Great Pestilence, A. D. 543 — Terrible effects of this plague — Reign of Diarmaid, sou of Kerval — His character and reign — Tara cursed and deserted — Reasons why — Account of St. ColumbkiUe's education, learning, sanctity, miracles, etc. — Anoints Aidan, king of Scots — Animosity of King Diarmaid towards St. Columbkille — Origin of Ms ill-feeling — Battle of Cuil-Dremni, or Cooldrevny — • Death of Diarmaid, A. D. 505 — Reign of Hugh, son of Ainmire — Foundation of lona, tlirough St. Columb- kiUe's influence — The Great Convention of Drumceat, or meeting of the States, A. D. 573 — Battle of Dun bolg — Curious stratagem — Hugh Ainmire killed by Bran Dubli, king of Leinster — Deaths of Saints — Per- petual feuds of the northern and southern Hy-Nialls — Great Battle of Magh Rath or Moyra — Congal and his foreign helpers defeated, A. D. G34 — Second visitation of the Buidhe Chonnaill — Continued ten years, and Bwept away two-thirds of the people — Finnachta Fleadhach, the Hospitable, A. D. 673 — Remits to Leinster the Borumean tribute — Egfrid, the Saxon, invades Ireland — Bede'o account quoted — St. Adamnan's pious labors 78 CHAPTEE XI. The Priniitive Church in Ireland — Its monastic schools and communities celebrated — ^Vast numbers of monks, anchorites, etc. — Missionary character of the Irish church — St. Columbanus, father of foreign missions — His life and labors — Preaches in Gaul, A. D. 590— Enmity of Theodoric and Brunehault, his queen dowager — Columbanus founds great monastery at Bovium or Bobbio, A. D. 613 — Letter to Pope Boniface — Its tone, etc.— Death at Bobbio, A. D. 615, aged 72— St. Gallus, or Gall— Death, A. D. 645— The Aidan and the church of Lindisfarne — St. Colman — The Paschal or Easter Controversy — ^National prejudices of the Irish — Sectarian misrepresentation as to St. Patrick's preaching — Synod of Old Leighlin — Saint Cummian — Letter to the Synod, A. D. 630 — The famoxis Conference at Whitby — St. Colman and Island of Innisbofin — St. Adamnan — Visits the court of Alfred the Great — " The Law of the Innocents," or the law not to kill women — Cause which led to passing the law — St. Adamnan's death, A. D. 704 — Irish saints on the Continent — The Frigid- ian, St. Molua, St. Degan, St. Livinus, St. Fiacre, St. Fursey, St. Dicuil, St. Kilian— .St. Cathaldus, patron of Tarentum — His brother, St. Donatus — St. Cuthbert, bishop of Lindisfarne, died A. D. 687 — St. Maccuthe- nus — St. Sedulius, the Younger — At Rome, A. D. 721 — St. Virgilius — Saints Foilan and Ultan — St. Fridolin, the Traveller — Clemens and Albinus — Dongal — St. Donatus — -Irish missions to Ireland — John Scotus Erigena — His character 87 CHAPTEE XII. Christian Antiquities of Ireland — Testimonies on the subject of Ireland's pre-eminence for sanctity and learning — Authorities given — The Culdees ; who were they ? — Professor Curry's note quoted — The Cele De or Colidei — Hereditary transmission of church offices — Lay bishops, abbots, priors, etc. — Comhorbas or successors — Herenachs or Wardens — Tarmon lands of the monasteries — Doctrines, practices, etc., of the Irish church in accord with that of Rome — Peculiarities in discipline — Materials used in building churches — Damliags or Btone churches — Duirachs or oratories — Cyclopean masonry — The Round Towers of Ireland — Remarkable structures — Beds of saints. Holy Wells and Penitential Stations 103 CHAPTEE XIII. Character of Irish History in the seventh and eighth centuries — Internal wars and feuds — Piety of some Irish kings — Renewed wars for the Leinster Tribute — Terrible and bloody battles— Rumann, called the Virgil of Ireland— Death, A. D. 747— Foundation of monastery of Tallaght, near Dublin, A. D. 769, by St. Maelruain— St, Aengus the Culdac — St. Colgu and Alcnin — Early Irish Prayer Book — Signs and prodigies at this period — CONTENTS. The Lavcliomart or " clapping of hands" for fear and terror — The Larahchomart or fire from Heaven— First appearance of the Danish pirates — Charajter of these sea-rovers — Their barbarism and inhumanity — Their plmiderings and desecration — Heroic resistance of the Irish — Turgesius goes to Ireland, A. D. 815 — Domestic wars — Fclim, king of Cashel — Plunderer and robber — Died, A. D. 84o — Malachy I., king of Meath — liills Turgesius — llassacre of the Danes — Retaliation of the Northmen, A. D. 851 — Danish settlements in Water- ford and Limerick — Irish allies of the Danes — Hugh Finnliath — Battle of Lough Foyle — Cormac MacCui- lenran, king and archbishop of Cashel, A. D. 890 — Curious history — Niall Glundubli— Succeeds Flann, A. D. 914 — Muirkertach, son of Niall, succeeds his father — Callaghan of Cashel, king of Munster— Muii-kertach's Circuit of Ireland — Killed, A. D. diX at Ardee — Danish power in Ireland Ill CHAPTEE XIV. Sequel of the Danish wars — Limits of the Danish power in Ireland — Hibemo-Danish alliances — Danish expedi- tions from Ireland into England, A. D. 91G, 935, 937 — Conversion of the Danes to Christianity — Consecration of Dano-Irish bishops — Subdivision of territory in Ireland — Injurious effects — Alternate succession — Progress and pretensions of the kingdom of Munster — Brian Borumha or Bora — Treacherous murder of his brother Mahon at a banquet — Brian avenges his death — Accession of Jlalachy II., the Great, A. D. 979 — His victories over the Danes— Intestine wars — Feuds between Brian and Malachy — Defeats of the Danes — Deposition of Malachy — Character of Brian's reign — Defection of Brian from Malachy — ^Brian's piety and wise laws — Institution of Surnames — Preparations for war, A. D. 1014, by the Danes, who detenuine to overrun Ire- land — The famous Battle of Clontarf— Immense preparation and power of the Danish force — Details of the battle — Fierce and bloody contest— Brian kiUed in battle — The Danes routed — Consequences of the battle — Danish power reduced to almost nothing 135 CHAPTEE XV. state of Learning in Ireland during and after the Danish AYars — Eminent Churchmen, Poets, and Antiquaries— Tighernach and Marianus Scotus — Irishmen Abroad in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries — The Monks of the Middle Ages — Causes of Ignorance and Disorganization — Donough O'Brien in Rome — Turlough O'Brien — Progress of Connaught — Wars of the North and Soutli of Ireland — Destruction of the Grianan of Aileach— The Danes after Clontarf — Invasion and Fate of King Magnus — Relations with England — Letter ot Pope Gregory VII — Murtough O'Brien and the Church — Remarkable Synods — Abuses in the Irish Church — Num- ber of Bishops — St. Bernard's Denunciations — Palliations — St. Malachy — Misrepresentations — Progress of Turlough O'Conor— Death of St. Celsus 143 CHAPTEE XVI. St. Malachy — His Early Career — His Reforms in the Diocese of Connor — His Withdrawal to Kerry — His Gov- ernment of the Church of Armagh — His Retirement to Down — Struggle of Conor O'Brien and Turlough O'Conor — Synod at Cashel — Cormac's Chapel — Death of Cormac MacCarthy — Turlough O'Conor's Rigor to his Sons — Crimes and Tyranny of Dei-mot MacMurrough — St. Malachy's Journey to Rome— Building of Mellifont — Synod of Inis-Padraig — The Palliums— St. Malachy's Second Journey and Death — Political State of Ireland — Arrival of Cardinal Paparo — Synod of Kells — Misrepresentations Corrected — The Battle of Moin- Mor — Famine arising from Civil War in Mimster — Dismemberment of Meath — Elopement of Dervorgil — Battle of Rahin — A Naval Engagement — Death of Turlough O'Conor, and Accession of Roderic — Synod of Mellifont — Synod of Bri-Mic-Taidhg — Wars and Ambition of Roderic — St. Laurence O'Toole — Synod of Clane — Zeal of the Irish Hierarchy — Death of O'Loughlin — Roderic O'Conor Monarch — Expulsion of Dermot MacMurrough — G reat Assembly at Athboy 156 CHAPTEE XVII. The AiJGLO-NoEMAN Invasion. — Dennot's Appeal to Henry II — His Negotiations with Earl Strongbow and others — Landing of the first English Adventurers in Ireland — Siege of Wexford — First Rewards of the Adventurers — Apathy of the Irish — Incursion into Ossory — Savage Conduct of Dermot — His Vindictiveness — Shameful Feebleness of Roderic — The Treaty of Ferns — Dermot aspires to the Sovereignty — Strongbow's CONTENTS. XI Preparations for liis Expedition — Landing of his Precursor, Raj-mond le Gros — Massacre of Prisoners by the English — Arrival of Strongbow, and Siege of Waterford — Marriage of Strongbow and Eva — March on Dub- lin—Surprise of the City — Brutal Massacre — The English Garrison of Waterford cut off— Sacrilegious Spolia- tions by Dermot and the English — Imbecility of Roderic^Execution of Dermot's Hostages — Synod of Armagh — English Slaves, nefarious custom — Horrible Death of Dermot MacMurrough 170 CHAPTER XVIII. Reign op Henut II. — DiiEculties of Strongbow — Order of Henry against the Adventurers— Danish attack on Dublin — Patriotism of St. Laurence — Siege of Dublin by Roderic — Desperate state of the Garrison — Their Bravery and Success— FitzStepheu Captured by the Wexford People — Attack on Dublin by Tieruan O'Eourke — Henry's Expedition to Ireland — His Policy — The Irish Unprepared — Submission of several Irish Princes — Henry fixes his Court in Dublin — Bold Attitude of Roderic — Independence of the Northom Princes- Synod of Cashel — History of the Pope's Grant to Henry — This Grant not the Cause either of the Invasion or its Success — Disorganized State of Ireland — Report of Prelates of Cashel, and Letters of Alexander III — English Law extended to Ireland — The " five bloods" — Parallel of the Normans in England and the Anglo- Normans in Ireland — Fate of the Irish Church — Final Arrangements and Departure of Henry 181 CHAPTEE XIX. Reign op Henry II., contdtoed. — Death of Tiernan O'Rourke and treachery of the Invaders — Strongbow's Expedition to Offaly, and Defeat — The Earl called to Normandy — His speedy Return — Dissensions among the Anglo-Normans — Raymond's Popularity with the Army — His Spoliations in Oflfaly and Lismore — His Ambition and Withdrawal from Ireland — -An English Army cut to pieces at Thurlcs — Raymond's B.etm-n and Marriage — Roderic's Expedition to Sleath — The Bulls Promulgated — Limerick Captured by Raymond — Serious Charges against him — His Success at Cashel, and Submission of O'Brien — Treaty between Roderic and Henry II — Attempt to Murder St. Laurence O'Toole — Death of St. Gelasius — Episode of the Blessed Cornehus — Raymond lo Gros in Desmond — Hostile Proceedings of DonneU O'Brien — Death of Strongbow^ His Character — IMassacre of the Invaders at Slane — De Courcy's Expedition to Ulster — Conduct of Cardinal 'V^ivian — Battles with tho Ulidians — Supposed Fulfilment of Prophecies — The Legate's Proceedings in Dub- lin — De Cogan's Expedition to Connaught, and Retreat — John made King of Ireland — Grants by Henry to the Adventurers 194 CHAPTEE XX. Reign op Henkt II., concluded. Reign or Richard I, — Reverses of De Courcy in the North — Feuds of Desmond and Thomond — Unpopularitj- of Fitz.ldclm with the Colonists — Irish Bishops at the Council of Lateran — Death of St. Laurence O'Toole — His Chanty and Poverty — De Lacy suspected by Henry II — Death of Milo de Cogan— Arrival of Cambrensis — Death of Hervey of Mountmaurice — Roderic Abdicates and Retires to Cong — Archbishop Comyn — Exactions of PhUip of Worcester — Prince John's Expedition to Ireland — His Failure and Recall — English Mercenaries in the Irish Service — Singular Death of Hugh de Lacy — Synod in Christ Church — Translation of the Relics of SS. Patrick, Columba, and Brigid to Down — Expedition of De Courcy to Connaught — His Retreat — Death of Henry II. — Death of Conor Moinmoy, and Fresh Tumults in Connaught — Last Exploits and Death of DonneU More O'Brien — Dissensions in the Eng- lish Colony — Successes of DonneU MacCarthy — Death of Roderic O'Conor — His Character — Foundation of Churches, etc. — The Anglo-Irish and the "mere" Irish 208 CHAPTEE XXI. Eeign op John. — Renewed Wars of Catlml Carragh and Cathal Crovderg — Tergiversation of William de Burgo, and Death of Cathal Carragh at Boyle Abbey — Massacre of the English Archers in Connaught — Wars in Ulster — Fate of John De Courcy — Legends of the Book of Howth — Death and Character of William de Bur- go — Tumults and Rebellions of the English Barons — Second "Visit of King John to Ireland — Alarm of the Barons — Submission of Irish Princes — Independence of Hugh O'Neill— Division of the English Pale into xu CONTENTS. Counties — Money Coined — Departure of John — The Bishop of Norwich Lord Justice — Exploits of Cormac O'Melaglilin and Hugh O'Neill — War in tlie South — Catastrophe at Athlone — Adventures of Murray O'Daly, the Poet of Lissadill — Ecclesiastical Occurrences 220 CHAPTEE XXII. Reign of Hexht III. — Extension of Magna Charta to Ireland — Return of Hugh do Lacy — Wars between De Lacy and Earl Marshall^Surrender of Territory to the Crovni by Irish Princes — Connaught granted by Henry to De Burgo — Domestic Wars in Connaught — Interference of the English — Famine and Pestilence^ Hugh O'Conor Seized in Dublin and Rescued by Earl Marshall — His Retaliation at Athlone — Death of Hugh, and Fresh Wai-s for the Succession in Connaught— Felini O'Conor — English Castles in Connaught Demol- ished — The Islands of Clew Bay Plundered — Melancholy Fate of Earl Slarsliall — Connaught Occupied by the Anglo-Irish — Divisions and War in Ulster — Felim O'Conor Proceeds to England — Deaths of Remarkable Men — Expeditions to France and Wales — The Geraldines make War at their own Discretion — Rising of the Young Men in Connaught — Submission of Brian O'Neill— Battle of Creadrankille and Defeat of the Eng- lish — Death of FitzGerald and O'Donncll — Domestic War in the North — Battle of Downpatrick — Wars of De Burgo and FitzGerald — Defeat of the English near Carrick-on-Shannon — General View of this Reign . 228 CHAPTEE XXIII. Reign op Edward I. — State of Ireland on the Accession of Edward I. — Feuds of the Barons — Exploits of Hugh O'Conor — Fearful Confusion in Connaught — Incursion from Scotland, and Retaliation — Irish Victory of Glen- delory — Horrible Treachery of Thomas De Clare in Thomond — Contentions of the Clann Murtough in Con- naught — English Policy in the Irish Feuds — Petition for English Laws — Characteristic Incidents — Victories of Carbry O'Melaghlin over the English — Feuds of the De Burghs and Geraldines — The Red Earl — His great Power — English Laws for Ireland — Death of O'Melaghlin — Disputes of De Vescy and FitzGerald of Offaly — Singular Pleadings before the King — A Truce between the Geraldines and De Burghs — The Kilkenny Par- liament of 1295 — Continued Tumults in Connaught — Expeditions against Scotland — Caivagh O'Conor — Horrible JIassacre of Irish Chieftains at an English Dinner-table— More Murders — Rising of the O'Kellys — Foundation of Religious Houses 243 CHAPTEE XXIV. Reign op Edward II. — Piers Gaveston in Ireland — Fresh wars in Connaught — The Clann Murtough — Civil Broils in Thomond — Feud of De Clare and De Burgo — Growth of National Feelings — Invitation to King Robert Bruce — Memorial of the Irish Princes to Pope John XXII. — The Pope's Letter to the English King — The Scottish Expedition to Ireland — Landing of Edward Bruce — First Exploits of the Scottish Army — Pro- ceedings of Felim and Rory O'Connor — Disastrous War in Connaught — The Battle of Athenry — Siege of Carrickfergus — General Rising of the Irish — Campaign of 1317 — Arrival of Robert Bruce — Arrest of the Earl of Ulster — Consternation in Dublin — The Scots at Castlekuock — Their March to the South — Their Retreat from Limerick — Effects of the Famine^Retreat of the Scots to Ulster — Robert Bruce Returns to Scotland — Liberation of the Earl of Ulster — Battle of Faughard, and Death of Edward Bruce — National Prejudices. 252 CHAPTEE XXV. Reign op Edward III. — Position of the different Races — Great Feuds of the Anglo-Irish — Murder of Benning- ham. Earl of Louth — Creation of the Earls of Ormond and Desmond — Counties Palafme — Rigor of Sir An- thony Lucy — Murder of the Earl of Ulster — The Burkes of Connaught Abandon the English Language and Customs — Sacrilegious Outrages — Traces of Piety — Wars in Connaught — Crime and Punishment of Tur- lough O'Conor — Proceedings in the Pale — English by Birth and by Descent — Ordinances against the Anglo- Irish Aristocracy — Resistance of the latter — Sir Ralph Ufford's Harshness and Death — Change of Policy and its results — The Black Death — Administration of the Duke of Clarence — His Animosity against the Irish — The Statute of Kilkenny — Effects of that Atrocious Law — Exploits of Hugh O'Conor — Crime Punished by the Irish Chieftains — Victories of Niall O'Neill — Difficulties of the Government of the Pale — Manly Conduct of the Bishops — General Character of this Reign 3G5 CONTENTS. xiii CHAPTEE XXVI. Reign op Eichaud II. — Law against Absentees — Events ia Ireland at the Opening of tlie Reign — Partition of Connaugbt between O'Conor Don and O'Conor Roe— The Earl of Oxford made Duke of Ireland— His Fate — Battles between the English and Irish — Richard II. Visits Ireland with a Powerful Army — Submission of Irish Princes — Hard Conditions — Henry Castide's Account of the Irish — Knighting of Four Irish Kings — Departure of Richard II. and Rising of the Irish — Second Visit of King Richard — His Attack on Art MacMur- rough's Stronghold— Disasters of the English Army — MacMurrongh'a Heroism— Meeting of Art MacMur- rough and the Earl of Gloucester— Richard Arrives in Dublin — Bad News from England — The King's Departure from Ireland — His unhappy Fate — Death of Niall More O'NeUl, and Succession of Niall Oge— Pilgrimages to Rome — Events Illustrating the Social State of Ireland 277 CHAPTEE XXVII. Reigns of Henry IV. and Henry V.— State of the English Pale— The Duke of Lancaster in Ireland— Defeats of the English — Retaliation — Lancaster again Lord Lieutenant — His Stipulations — Affairs of Tj-roue — Pri- vateering — Complaints from the Pale — Accession of Henry V. — Sir Jolin Stanley's Government — Rhyming to death — Exploits of Lord Furnival — Reaction of the Irish — Death of Art MacMurrough Kavanagh — Death of Murrough O'Conor, or Offaly — Defeat of the O'Mores — Petition against the Irish — Persecution of an Irish Archbishop — Complaint of the Anglo-Irish Commons — State of Religion and Learning 286 CHAPTEE XXVIII. Reigns op Henry VI., Edw.\kd IV., Edward V., and Richard III.— State of Ireland on the Accession of Henry VI. — Liberation of Donough MacMurrough — Incursions of Owen O'Neill — His Inauguration — Fam- ine — The " Summer of Slight Acquaintance" — Distressing State of Discord — Domestic War in England at this Period — Dissensions in the Pale — Complaints against the Earl of Ormond — Proceedings of Lord Furni- val — Pestilence — Devotedness of the Clergy— The Duke of Tork in Ireland — His Popularity— Confesses his Inability to Subdue the Irish — His Subsequent Fortunes and Death in England — Irish Pilgrimages to Rome and St. James of Compostella — Munificence of Margaret of Offaly — Her Banquets to the Learned— The But- lers and Geraldines take opposite sides in the English Wars— Popular Government of the Earl of Desmond — He is unj ustly Executed — Wretched Condition of the English Pale — Fatal Feuds and Indifference of the Irish, and Contemporary Disorders in England — Atrocious Laws against the Irish 293 CHAPTEE XXIX. Reign op Hen-rt VII. — Forbearance of Henry VII. towards the Yorkists in Ireland — The Earl of Kildare con- tinues Lord Deputy — Arrival of Lambert Simnel — His Cause Espoused by the Lords of the Pale — Coronation of Simnel in Christ's Church — His Expedition to England — Defeat of Simnel's Army at Stoke — Pardon of his Adherents — Loyalty of Waterford — First use of Fire-arms in Ireland — Murder of the Earl of Desmond- Arrival of Sir Richard Edgecomb — Another Mock Prince — Disgrace of the Earl of Kildare — His Quarrel with Sir James Ormond — Perkiu Warbeck at Cork — Sir Edward Poynings Arrives in Ireland as Governor — The Parliament of Drogheda ; Poynings' Act — The Earl of Kildare Attainted and sent Prisoner to England— His Vindication before Henry VII. — Returns as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland — Further Adventures of Warbeck — His last Visit to Ireland — His Execution — Transactions of the Native Princes during this period — The battle of Knocktow— Death of Hugh Roe O'Neill 303 CHAPTEE XXX. Reign op Henry VIIL — Accession of Henry VIII.— Gerald, Earl of Kildare, still Lord Deputy— His last Trans- actions and Death — Hugh O'DonneU visits Scotland and prevents an Invasion of Ireland — Wars of the Kinel-ConneU and KinelOweu — Proceedings of the new Earl of Kildare — The Earl of Surrey Lord Lieu- tenant — His Opinion of Irish Warfare — His Advice to the King about Ireland — His Return — The Earl of Ormond succeeds, and is made Earl of Ossory — Wars in Ulster — Battle of Knockavoe — Triumph of Kildare — XIV CONTENTS. A''ain attempts to reconcile O'Neill and O'Donnell — Treasonable correspondence of Desmond — Kildare again in difficulties — Effect of his Irish popularity — Sir AViUiam Skeffington Lord Deputy — Discord between him and Kildare — New Irish Alliance of Kildare — His fall — Reports of the Council to the King — The Schism in England — Rebellion of Silken Thomas — Murder of Archbishop Allen— Siege of Maynooth — Surrender of Silken Thomas, and arrest of his Uncles — Their cruel fate — Lord Leonard Gray in Ireland — Destruction of O'Brien's Bridge — Interesting events in Offaly — Desolating War against the Irish — Confederation of Irish Chiefs — Fidelity of the Irish to their Faith — Rescue of young Gerald FitzGerald— Extension of the Geraldine League — Desecration of sacred things — Battle of Belahoe — Submission of Southern Chiefs — Escape of young Gerald to France — EflFects of the " Reformation" on Ireland — Servility of Parliament — Henry's insidious policy in Ireland — George Brown, first Protestant Archbishop of Dublin — Hia character— Failure of the new creed iu Ireland — Terrible spoliation of the Irish by the Lord Justice— Submission of Irish Princes — Their acceptance of English titles and surrender of Irish ones — Henry VIII. made King of Ireland — Sub- mission of Desmond — First native Irish Lords in Parliament — Execution of Lord Leonard Gray — O'Neill surrenders his territory and is made Earl of Tyrone — Murrough O'Brien made Earl of Thomond^ConGsca- tion of convent lands — Effect of the policy of concession and corruption 315 CHAPTEE XXXI. Reign op Edwaijd VI. akd Mart. — Accession of Edward VI. — Somerset's government— War of Extermina- tion in Leix and Offaly — Fate of O'More and O'Couor — Rising of O'CarroU — Successes of the Lord Deputy Bellingham — The adventurers Bryan and Fay — Rebellion of Calvagh O'Donnell against his father — Power of the Northern Chiefs curtailed — Instance of Bellingham's firmness — Intrigues and changes in the Irish Government — Exploits of the Scots in Ulster — War between Fcrdoragh and Shane O'Neill — French emis- saries iu Ulster — Failure of the efforts to establish the new religion in Ireland — Zeal and firmness of Arch- bishop Dowdall — Conference at St. Slary's Abbey — Plunder of Clonmacnoise — Accession of Queen Mary — Her efforts to restore religion — Her difficulties in England — Injustice to her character — The work of restora- tion easy in Ireland — Her kind disposition to Ireland frustrated — Affecting incident — Strife in Thomond — Continued war with the Scots iu Ulster — Shane O'Neill defeated by Calvagh O'Donnell 341 CHAPTEE XXXII. Reign of ELiZAEETH.^Religious pliancy of Statesmen and fidelity of the jieople — Shane O'Neill— Acts of the Parliament of l.j.'jS — Laws against the Catholic religion — Miserable condition of the Irish Church — Discord in Thomond — Machinations of Government against Shane O'Neill — Capture of Calvagh O'Donnell by the latter — War with Shane — Defeat of the English — Plan to assassinate the Tyrone Chief — Submission of Shane, and his visit to the Court of Elizabeth — His return, further misunderstanding, and renewed peace with the Government — O'Neill defeats the Scots of Claunaboy — Feud between the Earls of Ormond and . Desmond — The latter wounded and captured at Affane — The Earl of Sussex succeeded by Sir Henry Sid- ney — Renewed war in Ulster — O'Neill invades the English Pale — Defeated at Derry — Burning of Derry and withdrawal of the English garrison — Death of Calvagh O'DonncU — O'Neill defeated by Calvagh 's successor, Hugh — His disastrous flight, appeal to the Scots, and murder — His character — Visitation of Munster and Connaught by Sidney — Sidney's description of the State of the country — His character of the great nobles — Base policy of the Government confessed by him — His energy and severity — Arrest of Desmond — Commence- ment of serious troubles in the South — Position of the Catholics — Sir James FitzMaurice — Parliament of 1569 — Fraudulent elections — Attainder of O'Neill — Claims of Sir Peter Carew — Rebellion of Sir Edmund Butler— Sidney's military expedition to Munster — Sir John Perrott Lord President of Munster, and Sir Edward Fitton President of Connaught — Renewed war in the South — Rebellion of the Earl of Thomond — Rebellion of the sons of the Earl of Clanrickard — Battle of Shrule — The Castle of Aughnanure taken — Siege and Capture of Castlemaine— Submission of Sir James FitzMaurice — Attempted English settlements in Ulster — Horrible Massacre of the Irish in Clannaboy — Failure and death of the Earl of Essex — Sir Henry Sidney makes another visitation of the South and West — Sir William Drury President of Munster, and Sir Nicholas Maiby in Connaught — Illegal Tax, difficulties in the Pale — Career and death of Rory Oge O'More — The massacre of Mullaghmast 350 CONTENTS. XV CHAPTER XXXIII. Beign op Elizabeth, coxtlnukd. — Plans of James FitzManrice on the Continent — Projected Italian expe- dition to Ireland — Its singular fate — FitzMaurice lands with some Spaniards at Smerwick — Conduct of the Earl of Desmond — Savage treatment of a bishop and priest — The insurgents scattered — Murder of Darells and Carter — Tragical death of James FitzMaurice — Proceedings of Drury and Malby — Catholics in the royal ranks — Defeat of the royal army by John of Desmond at Gort-na-Tiobrad — Death of Sir William Drury — Important battle at Monasteranena — Defeat of the Geraldines — Desmond treated as a rebel — Hostilities against him — Sir Nicholas Malby at Askeaton — Desmond at length driven into rebellion — He plunders and bums Toughal — The country devastated by Ormond — Humanity of a friar — James of Desmond captured and executed — Campaign of Pelham and Ormond in Desmond's country — Capture of Carrigafoyle castle — Other castles surrendered to the Lord Justice — Narrow escape of the Earl of Desmond — Insurrection in Wicklow — Arrival of Lord Gray — His disaster in Glenmalure — Landing of a large- Spanish armament at Smerwick harbor — Lord Gray besieges the foreigners — Horrible and treacherous slaughter in the Fort Del Ore — Savage barbarity of Lord Gray and his captains — Butchery of women and children near Euldimo— Rumored plot in Dublin — Arrest of the Earl of Kildare and others — Premature executions — Forays of the Earl of Desmond — Melancholy end of John of Desmond — The PitzMaurices of KeUy in rebellion — Battle of Gort-na Pisi — The Glen of Aherlow — Desperate state of Desmond — His murder — His character — Mild policy of Perrott — The Parliament of 1585 — Composition in Cormaught — Plantation of Munster — Brutal severity of Sir Richard Bingham in Connaught 377 CHAPTER XXXIV. Seign op Elizabeth, continxied. — Affairs of Ulster— Hugh, Earl of Tyrone— His visit to Elizabeth— His growing power — Complaints against him^Sir Hugh O'Donnell — Capture of Hugh Roe O'Donnell ; cunning device — Sir WiUiam FitzWilliam Lord Deputy — The Spanish Armada — The wrecks on the Irish coast — Disappointed avarice of the Lord Deputy — He oppresses the Irish chiefs — Murders MacMahon — Hugh Geimh- leach hanged by Hugh O'Neill, who then revisits London, excuses Mmself to Elizabeth, and signs terms of agreement — O'NeUl returns to Ireland, and refuses to give his sureties until tho government should fulfil its engagements — Hugh Boe's first escape from Dublin Castle, and his recapture — Fresh charges against Hugh O'Neill — He carries off and man ies the sister of Marshal Bagnal — ^Brian O'Rourke hanged in London — Hugh Roe's second escape —Affecting incidents — His adventures and return to Tirconnell — Drives off an English party — ^His father's abdication, and liis own election as Chieftain — He assails Turlough Luineach, and com- I>el8 him to resign the chieftaincy of Tyrone to Hugh O'Neill — An English sheriff hunted out of Fermanagh — Rebellion of Maguire — EnniskUlen taken by the English — Irish victory at the Ford of the Biscuits, and recapture of Enniskillen — Sir William RusseU Lord Deputy — Hugh O'Neill visits Dublin — Bagnal's charges against him — Vindication of his policy — Fiagh MacHugh O'Byrne and Walter Riavagh FitzGerald — Arrival of Sir John Norris — Hugh O'Neill rises in arms — Takes the Blackwater Fort — Protracted negotiations — War in Connaught ; successes of O'Donnell — Bingham foiled at Sligo, and retreats — Differences between Norris and the Deputy — Bingham disgraced and recalled — Fresh promises from Spain — Interesting events in Connaught — Proceedings of the Leinster insurgents — Ormond appointed Lord-Lieutenant — Last truce with O'Neill — Hostilities resumed in Ulster — Desperate plight of tho Government — Great Irish victory of the Yellow Ford — Ormond repulsed in Leix — War resumed in Munster, etc 403 CHAPTER XXXV. Reigst op Elizabeth, concluded. — The Earl of Essex Viceroy — His incapacity — His fruitless expedition to Munster — O'Conor Sligo besieged at CoUoony — Sir Conyers Clifford marches against O'DonneU — Total defeat of the English at the Curlieu mountains, and death of Clifford — Essex applies for reinforcements — His march to the Lagan— His interview with O'Neill- His departure from Ireland, and unhappy fate — O'NeUl's expe- dition to Munster — Combat and death of Hugh Maguire and Sir Warham Sentleger — Arrival of Lord Mount- joy as Deputy — O'NeUl returns to Ulster — Presents from the Pope and the King of Spain — Capture of Ormond by Owny O'More — Sir George Carew president of Munster — His subtlety — His plots against the Sngane Earl and his brother — Capture of Glin Castle, and general submission of Desmond — Death of Owny O'More — Barbarous desolation of the country by the Deputy — The son of the late Earl of Desmond sent to XVI CONTENTS. Ireland — Failure of his mission— Retribution on a traitor {note) — Docwra's expedition to Lough Foyle — Defections from the Irish ranks — Predatory excursions of Red Hugh O'Donnell— Mountjoy's expeditions against O'Neill — Complicated misfortunes of the Irish — Niall Garv besieged in the monastery of Donegal by Hugh Roe— Arrival of the Spaniards at Kiusale — They are besieged by Mountjoy and Carew — Extraordi- nary march of O'DonneU, and mustering of the Irish forces to assist them — Battle of Kinsale, and total rout of the Irish army — Departure of Red Hugh O'Donnell for Spain — Surrender of Kinsale, and departure of the Spaniards — Deplorable state of the Irish — Dreadful famine — Siege of Dunboy Castle — Flight of O'Sullevan — Submission of O'Neill— Death of Elizabeth 431 CHAPTEE XXXVI. Reign of James I. — The Irish submit to James, as a prince of the Milesian race, and suppose him to be friendly to their creed and country — They discover their mistake — Revolt of the Southern towns — Hugh O'Neill and Rory O'Donnell accompany Mountjoy to England — Title of Earl of TirconneU created — Religious character of the Irish wars — Suspension of Penal Laws under Elizabeth — Persecution of the Catholics by James — Remonstrance of the Anglo- Irish Catholics — Abolition of Irish laws and customs — O'Neill persecuted — In- veigled into a sham plot — Flight of Tyrone and TirconneU to Rome^Rising of Sir Cahir O'Doherty — His fate, and that of Niall Garv O'Donnell and others — The confiscation and plantation of Ulster — The Corpora- tion of London receives a large share of the spoils — A Parliament convened after twenty-seven years — Creation of boroughs — Disgraceful scene in the election of Speaker — Secession of the recusants — Prototype of the Catholic Association — Treatment of the Catholic Delegates by the king — Concessions — Act of Pardon and Oblivion — Unanimity of the new Session of Parliament — Bill of attainder against O'Neill and O'Donnell passed — First general admission of the Irish under English law — Renewed persecution of the Catholics — Tlie king's rapacity — Wholesale confiscations in Leinster — Inquiry into defective titles — Extension of the inquiry to Connaught — Frightful system of legal oppression 455 CHAPTEE XXXVII. Reign of Chaeles I. — Hopes of the Catholics on the accession of Charles, and corresponding alarm of the Protestants — Intolerant declaration of the Protestant bishops — The " graces" — The royal promise broken — Renewed persecution of the Catholics — Outrage on a Catholic congregation in Cook-street — Confiscation of Catholic schools and chapels— Government of Lord Wentworth or Strafibrd — He summons a Parliament — His shameful duplicity— The Commission of " Defective Titles" for Connaught — Atrocious spoliation in the name of Law — Jury-packing — Noble conduct of a Gal way jury — Their punishment — Plantation of Ormond, etc. — Fresh subsidies by an Irish Parliament — Strafibrd raises an army of Irish Catholics — He is impeached by Parliament — His execution— Causes of the great insurrection of 1641 — Threats of the Puritans to extir- pate the Catholic rehgion in Ireland — The Irish abroad — Their numbers and infiuence— First movements among the Irish gentry— Roger O'More— Lord Maguire— Sir Phelim O'NeUl— Promises from Cardinal Riche- lieu— Officers in the king's interest combine with the Irish gentry — Discovery of the conspiracy — Arrest of Lord Maguire and MacMahon— Alarm in Dublin— The outbreak in Ulster— Its first successes— Proclamation of Sir Phelim O'Neill— Feigned commission from the king— Gross exaggeration of the cruelties of the Irish- Bishop Bedell and the remonstrance from Cavan— The massacre of Island Magee — The fable of a general massacre by the Catholics refuted— Proclamations of the lords-justices— The Catholic nobility and gentry of the Pale insulted and repulsed — Scheme of a general confiscation — Approach of the northern Irish to the Pale— They take Mellifont and lay siege to Drogheda — Sir Charles Coote's atrocities in Wicklow— Efforts of the Catholic gentry to communicate with the king— Outrages of troopers— The gentry of the Pale compelled to stand on their defence— Meeting on the Hill of Crofty— The lords of the Pale take up arms— The insur- rection spreads into Munster and Connaught— Royal proclamation— Conduct of the English Parliament — The insurrection general— Seige of Drogheda raised- The battle of Kilrush— The general Assembly, etc. . 466 CHAPTEE XXXVIII. Eeign of CnAKliES I., CONCLUDED. — The arrival of Owen Roe O'Neill — He assumes the command of the Irish army in Ulster — Conduct of the Scots in Ulster — Lord Lieven's opinion of Owen Roe— Colonel Preston's arrival in Wexford with officers and arms— Position of the lords-justices— State of the belligerents in Con- naught and Munster— Opening of the General Assembly— Outline of their proceedings — Constitution of the CONTENTS. xvil Supreme Council — Appointment of generals, &c. — Levy of money and soldiers — Remittances from the Con- tinent — Establishment of a Mint — Progress of the war — Overture from the king to the Confederates — Hos- tile conduct of Ormond — Gallant defence of Ross — Preston defeated near Ross — Conference with the Royal Commissioners at Trim — Remonstrance of grievances — Obstacles to negotiation — Success of the Confeder- ates — Death of Lord Moore — Capture of Colonel Vavasour — Foreign envoys — Arrival of Father Scarampi — Divisions in the Supreme Council — Disgrace of Parsons — Treaty of Cessation signed — Its rejection by the Puritans — The Scots in Ulster take the Covenant — Bravery of the Irish soldiers sent into Scotland for the king — Ormond appointed Lord-Lieutenant — His negotiations with the Confederates — Catholic and Protestant deputations to the king — Infringement of the Cessation of the Scots — Abortive expedition of Castlehaven against Monroe — The king's impatience for a peace in Ireland — Ormond's prevarication^Renewed hostilities in the south and west — Death of Archbishop O'Kealy — Mission of Glamorgan — His secret treaty with the Confederates — Slissiou of the Nuncio Rinuccini — His arrival in Ireland — Reception at Kilkenny — Renewed discussion of the peace question — Arrest of Glamorgan — Division among the Confederates — Treaty of peace signed by Ormond — Not approved by the Nuncio — Siege of Bunratty — Battle of Benbutb — Increasing oppo sition to the peace — Ormond's visit to Munster — Glamorgan joins the Nuncio's party — Dublin besieged by the Confederates— Given up to the Parliamentarians — Ormond leaves Ireland — Dissensions in the Assembly — Battles of Dungan Hill and Knocknonos — O'Neill takes arms against the Confederates — Ormond returns — The peace of 1649 — Departure of the Nuncio^Prince Rupert's expedition 494 CHAPTEE XXXIX. Cromweix. — state of parties after the death of Charles I.^ — O'Neill's services sought by Ormond and by the Par- liamentarians — Ormond and Inchiquin take the field — Drogheda and other towns surrender to the latter — Siege of Dublin by Ormond — Great defeat of the royalists at Rathmines — Arrival of Cromwell — Siege of Drogheda — Horrible massacre — Wexford betrayed to Cromwell — Frightful massacre of the inhabitants — Death of Owen O'Neill — Ross surrendered — Siege of Waterford — Courageous conduct of the citizens — The siege raised — The Southern garrisons revolt to Cromwell — Wretched position of Ormond — Meeting of the bishops at Clonmacnoise — Their declaration — KUkeimy surrendered to Cromwell — Siege of Clonmel — Heroic self-devotion of the Bishop of Ross — Surrender of Clonmel — Cromwell embarks for England — Death of Heber MacMahon — Meeting of the bishops at Jamestown — Ormond excommunicated — The king subscribes to the covenant — New general assembly — Ormond retires to France, and the Marquis of Clanrickard becomes Lord Deputy — Negotiations with the Duke of Lorraine — Limerick besieged by Ireton — Valor of Henry O'NeiU — Limerick betrayed to the besiegers — Barbarous executions — Death of Ireton — Surrender of Galway — Clan- rickard accepts terms and leaves the kingdom — Wholesale confiscation and plunder — Horrible attempts to exterminate the people — Banishment to Connaught and the West Indies — Execution of Sir Phelim O'Neill — Atrocious cruelties — Oliver proclaimed Lord Protector — Henry Cromwell in Ireland — Death of Oliver — ^Pro- ceedings of the Royalists — The Restoration 537 - CHAPTER XL. Reign op Chaeles II. — Hopes of the Irish Catholics at the Restoration — Their grievous disappointment — An Irish Parliament convoked after twenty years — Discussions on the Act of Settlement in Ireland and Eng- land — The Act passed — Establishment of the Court of Claims — Partial success of the Irish Catholics — Con- sequent indignation and alarm of the Protestants — Rumored conspiracies — Blood's plot — The Act of ex- planation — Provisions of the Act grossly unjust to Catholics — The Irish Parliament desire to make them more so — The Irish remonstrance — Synod of the clergy in Dublin — English prohibitory laws against the importation of Irish cattle — General disaffection — Alarming rumors — Oppression of the Catholics — Recall of Ormond — Lord Berkley's administration — Catholic Petition of Grievances — Colonel Richard Talbot — Com- mission of Inquiry — Great alarm produced by it among the Protestants and New Interest— Recall of Lord Berkley and appointment of Lord Essex — Violent address of the English Parliament — Increased oppression of the Catholics— Restoration of Ormond— The Popish Plot — Arrest of Archbishop Talbot— Proclamations against the Catholics — Puritan attempts to raise a rebellion in Ireland — Arrest of Archbishop Plunkett — Frightful demoralization and peijury — Memoir of Dr. Plunket (noie) — His martyrdom— Turn in tho tide of persecution — Irish writers of the seventeenth century — State of the Irish — Death of Charles II 65.5 xvui CONTENTS. CHAPTEE XLI. Reign of Jajies II.— Temper of parties in Ireland at tbe Accession of James 11.— Hopes of tlie Catholics and alarm of the Protestants— Clarendon Lord-Lieutenant— Refusal to repeal the Acts of Settlement — Colonel Richard Talbot created Earl of TirconneU, and appointed to the command of the army in Ireland — Succeeds Clarendon as Lord-Lieutenant — Numerous Catholic appointments — Alarming rumors — Increased disaflFection of the Protestants — Birth of the Prince of Wales — William Prince of Orange invited to England — The League of Augsburg — William's dissimulation — His arrival at Torbay— James deserted by his English subjects and obliged to fly to France — Disloyal Association of the Protestants of Ulster — The Protestants in general refuse to give up their arms — The Rapparees — Irish troops sent to England, and the consequence — Closing the gates of Derry — The Irish alone faithful to King James— He lands at Kinsale and marches to Dublin— Siege of Derry — The town relieved and the siege raised — Conduct of the EnniskiUeners — James's Parliament in Dub- lin — Act of Attainder — Large levies of the Irish — Landing of Schomberg — He encamps at Dundalk and declines battle -nith James — Battle of Cavan — William lands at Carrickfergus — Marches to the Boyne— Disposition of the hostile forces — The Battle of the Boyne — Orderly retreat of the Irish — Flight of King James — He escapes to France — William marches to Dublin — Waterford and Duncannon reduced — Gallant defence of Athlone by the Irish — Retreat of the W'illiamite army under Douglass — William besieges Limer- ick — Noble defence of the garrison — The English ammunition and artillery blown up by Sarsfield — The city stormed — Memorable heroism of the besieged — William raises the siege and returns to England — AiTival of St. Ruth — Loss of Athlone — Battle of Aughrim and death of St. Ruth — Siege and surrender of Galway — Second siege of Limerick — Honorable capitulation — The Irish army embark for France 5G9 CHAPTEE XLII. FaoM THE TREATY OF LiMERiCK TO THE Declakatiok OF INDEPENDENCE. — State of Ireland after the de- parture of the brigades — The Articles of Limerick violated — The Catholics reduced to a deplorable condi- tion — Disposal of the forfeited estates — William III. and his Parliament at issue — Enactment of penal laws in Ireland — Molyneux's " case stated" — Destruction of the Irish woollen manufacture — Death of William — Intolerance of the Protestant colonists — Penal laws of Queen Anne's reign — The sacramental test — Attempts to extirpate the Catholics — The Palatines (note) — Accession of George I. — Rebellion in Scotland in 1715 — Profound tranquillity in Ireland — Rigorous execution of the penal laws — Contests between the English and Irish Parliaments — The latter deprived of its independence — Bill for more eflTectuaUy preventing the growth of Popery — Rise of the patriots in the Irish Parliament — Dean Swift — Woods' half-pence— Extraordinary excitement — Frightful state of public morals — Cardinal Wiseman on the fidelity of the Irish {note) — Acces- sion of George II. — An address from the Catholics treated with contempt — Primate Boulter — Charter schools established to proselytize the Catholic children — Converted Papists suspected — Distress and emigration — Fresh rigors against the Catholics — Proposed massacre — The great Scottish rebellion of 1745 — Lord Ches- terfield in Ireland — Disputes in the Irish Parliament about the surplus revenue — The patriots weakened by the corrupting policy of the Government — First movements of the Cathohcs — First Catholic committee — Discountenanced by the clergy and aristocracy — Thurot's expedition — Accession of George III. — The Wliite- boys — The Hearts-of Oak and Hearts-of-Steel Boys — Eiforts of the patriots against the pension list — Execution of Father Sheehy — Lord Townsend's administration — The Octennial Bill — The Irish Parliament struggles for independence — Outbreak of the American war, and attempts to conciliate Ireland — Refusal to receive foreign troops — The volunteers — Great distress and popular discontent — Mr. Qrattan's resolution of inde- pendence — Conduct and resolution of the volunteers — The Dungannon resolutions — Legislative independence of Ireland voted — New measures of Catholic relief — Influence of the volunteers 623 CHAPTEE XLIII. From the DECliAHATiON of Independence to the Union. — Shortcomings of the volunteer movement — Corruption of the Irish Parliament — The national convention of delegates at the Rotunda — The Bishop of Derry — The Convention's Reform Bill — Bill rejected by Parliament — The convention dissolved and the fate of the volunteers sealed — The Commercial Relations Bill — Orde's propositions — Great excitement in Parlia- ment — Mr. Pitt's project abandoned — Popular discontent — Disorders in the South — The Right-boys — The feud of the Peep-o'-day-boys and Defenders — Frightful atrocities of the former — The Orange Society — The CONTENTS. XIX regency question — Political clubs — Ferment produced by the French Eevolution — The Catholic committee — Theobald Wolfe Tone — Formation of the Society of United Irishmen — Their principles — Catholic Relief Bill of 1793 — Trial of Archibald Hamilton Rowan — Mission of Jackson from the French Directory — His conviction and suicide — Administration of Earl Fitz William — Great excitement at his recall — New organiza- tion of the United Irishmen — Their revolutionary plans — Wolfe Tone's mission to France — The spy system — Iniquitous proceedings of the Government — Efforts to accelerate an explosion — The Insurrection and Indem- nity acts — The Bantry Bay expedition — Reynolds the informer — Arrest of the Executive of the United Irishmen — Search for Lord Edward Fitzgerald — His arrest and death — The insurrection prematurely forced to an explosion — Free quarters, torturings, and military executions — ^Progress of the insurrection — Battle of Tara — Atrocities of the military and the magistrates — The insurrection in KUdare, Wexford, and Wicklow — Successes of the insurgents — Outrages of runaway troops — Siege of New Boss — Retaliation at Scullabogue — Battle of Arklow — Battle of Vinegar Hill — Lord Comwallis assumes the government — Dispersion and sur render of insurgents — The French at Killala — Flight of the English — The insurrection finally extinguished — The Union proposed — Opposition to the measure — Pitt's perfidious policy successful — The Union carried . 663 CHAPTEE XLIV. Catholic Emancipation — Two Teaes of the Union. — Influence of the Union measures upon politics — Deception of the English Government — ^William Pitt and King George IH. — Course of Lord Cornwallis — Michael Dwyer in the mountains of Wicklow — Alarm as to French invasion— Catholic emancipation — Views of the King and William Pitt — Pitt resigns — Cornwallis also — Addington ministry — General state of the country — Military force in Ireland — Debates in Parliament as to martial law and suspension of Mbeas corpus — Peace of Amiens — Efforts of United Irishmen in Paris — Lord Redesdale succeeds Earl of Clare — Relief of disabilities sought by Presbyterians and Catholics — Lord Castlereagh's statements on the subject — Extracts from his letter to Mr. Addington — Apprehensions of a renewed invasion by the French — Fears as to Ireland— Military force in the country — Outbreak in Limerick and Tipperary — Need of raising militia and yeomanry — Doubts as to numbers to be sent by the French, and the effect produced 708 CHAPTEE XLV. InsukrecTion under Robert Emmet. — Early life, family, and education of Robert Emmet — Visits the con- tinent — Joins the United Irishmen in Paris — Fate of Colonel Despard's conspiracy — Emmet returns to Dub- lin — ^His labors, resources, and hopes — Contrivances in his country-house and in Dublin — His confidants and co-workers — Michael Dwyer and his adventures — Emmet's expectations — Reasons for hastening the insur- rection—Plans of Emmet — Remarkable address of the Provisional Government " to the people of Ireland" — On the day appointed, few come forward to join in the outbreak — Events of the evening of July 23d — Cruel murder of Lord KUwarden — Course of the authorities — Emmet's flight — Arrested — Russell arrested and executed — Trial of Emmet — Speech of Plunkett — The prisoner's eloquent address to the court — Executed the next day — Numerous arrests and imprisonments 714 CHAPTEE XLVI. Lord Hardwicke's Administration— Policy op Pitt and Fox — Catholic Petition. — Suspension o{ habeas corpus act — Martial law — Investigation into the state of Ireland called for — Pitt again in power — Disap- pointment of the CathoBcs — Agitation in Ireland — Great meeting in Dublin- Position of England — Debate on renewing habeas corpus suspension act — Arguments advanced — Catholics determined to appeal to Parlia- ment — The petition in full — Action in the House of Lords — Fox in the House of Commons — Strong vote against the petition — State of affairs — Death of William Pitt — " The ministry of all the talents" — Revival of spirit among Catholics — Disputes as to the " Catholic committee" — Duke of Bedford Lord-Lieutenant — Com- plaints as to his administration — Disturbances in Ireland — " The Threshers," and their lawless course — Death of Fox— Meetings in Dublin— Petition drawn up — The Maynooth grant— Course of the ministry in favor of the Catholics — Ix)rd Howick's bill — Opposition of the king — Bill withdrawn — Ministers dismissed — "No Popery cabinet" formed — Prospect in the future 733 XX CONTENTS. CHAPTEE XLVII. Progkess op Affairs — Duke of Richmond's Administration. — Opposition of tlie king — Presentation of Catholic petition postponed — Dulie of Riclimond Lord-Lieutenant — Insurrection act — Sir Arthur Wellesley — State of Ireland — The veto question — Course of the CathoBcs — Agitation renewed — Meeting in Dublin — Orange lodges and doings — English Roman Catholics on veto question — Grattan's efforts — Government policy — Question of the veto in 1810 — Catholic committee's circular — Extracts from — Movement fur repeal of the Union — Meeting in Dublin— O'Connell's speech — Convention act enforced against Catholic committee — Proceedings of Government — " Aggregate meetings" — Petition to prince regent proposed — Catholic board organized— Mr. (Sir Robert) Peel, chief secretary in Ireland— His policy and acts— Famous Parliamentary debate in 1813— Position of Ireland at this date — Earrfest working for the cause— The prince regent said to be in favor of the Roman Catholic claims — Hopes and expectations excited— Jlinistry denounced— Protestants roused— Feelings and views manifested — "Various acts of outrage in Ireland — The state of things adverse to Catholic claims— Mr. Perceval assassinated — Result in general 744 CHAPTEE XLVIII. Leadership of O'Connell — Emancipation Effected. — State of affairs at this date — Grattan's emancipation bill — Canning's clauses — Opinions in Ireland as to the veto— O'Connell's course — Speech at aggregate meeting in Dublin — Prosecution of Maghee — Outrages in Ireland — Severe measures resorted to — Petitions — Veto question — Inquiries into the state of Ireland — Distress, discontent, etc. — O'Connell's statement as to veto question— George IV. and his queen — Plunkett's motion — The king's visit to Ireland — Welleslcy Lord- Lieutenant — Whiteboys and Captain Rock's men— Thoir excesses and cruelties — Famine and its terrors — Help afforded by England— "Wellesley insulted in Dublin Theatre— Moral degradation of witnesses— Tithe composition act— State of education in Ireland— Use of the Bible in schools — The Catholic association in 1823 Its power and influence — Catholic rent — Association suppressed — New one formed — O'Connell's threat — Sir F. Burdett's resolution — O'Connell's activity and influence — Canning's ministry and death — March of events- O'Connell elected for County Clare— Test and corporation acts repealed — Wellington's and Peel's policy — Measures adopted— Emancipation carried — O'Connell in the House — Seat denied him — Re-elected, and victory at last complete 756 CHAPTEE XLIX. Ireland's Intellectual and Moral Position.— Ireland distinguished for brilliant orators, poets, writers, etc. Her contributions to literature and science— Her Burkes, Grattans, Currans, Edgeworths, etc. — Thomas Moore, the poet par excellence of Ireland— Birth and education— Visits America — Duel with Jeffrey — Mar- riage His •' Irish Melodies" — " Lalla Rookh," and biograjihical and historical works — Receives a pension of £300— Death, in 1853, and character— Thomas Davis, a poet and prose writer of note— Connected with the "Nation"— Object of this journal— Davis's labors— Death in 1845— Extracts from his literary and historical essays— Father Mathew— Birth and education— Becomes a priest— Labors among the poor in and around the city of Cork— Enters on the temperance movement— Marvellous effects of his labors— Visits other cities with great success— Goes to England— Thence visits the United States— Returns to Ireland, and dies in 1850— Beneficial results of his life and career— Statements of Mr. Smyth on Father Matthew's devotion to temperance — All honor to his name ! 7G9 CHAPTEE L. O'Connell in Parliament, and Ireland's Struggles. — Position and influence of O'Connell in Parliament- Death of George IV.— Succeeded by William IV.— Excitement about reform— Change of ministry— Marquis of Ano-lesea Lord-Lieutenant— Decides against public meetings for repeal- O'Connell and others arrested, tried, and convicted, but not sentenced — Reform-Bill introduced into Parliament — O'Connell's activity, popu- larity, and demands— Reform-Bill carried in 1833— Not much satisfaction to Ireland— Agitation on the subject of tithes— Abolition of ten bishoprics, etc.— Earl Grey's coercion bill— Agitation not stopped- Dis CONTENTS. XXI cussion in Parliament on tbe Repeal question — The " Experiment" proposed and attempted to be carried out — Of no real benefit — Orange lodges and other societies suppressed — Bills for reform of municipal corpora- tions, for poor-laws, for abolition of tithes, etc., 183G — Mr. Nichols' Report on the condition of the poor in Ireland — Lord John Russell's bill — Passed in 1838 — Result — O'Connell's labors for years — Death of William rv. — Accession of Queen Victoria — Exp'ectations— Demands in behalf of Ireland — Reform in Irish corpora- lions — Good results— Lord Fortescue Lord-Lieutenant — His policy — Repeal Association formed in 1840 — O'Connell Lord-Mayor of Dublin — Petition of city corporation for repeal of the Union — "Monster meetings" — Immense gatherings — Bold language of O'Connell and Bishop Higgius — Government preparations — Meeting at Mullaghmast— One appointed to be held at Clontarf— Forbidden by the Lord-Lieutenant — O'Connell and Bix others arrested, tried, and convicted — Sentence and imprisonment, 1844 — 111 effects upon O'Connell — His views as to usmg force in carrying forward repeal — The " Young Ireland" party — O'Connell's sickness and death, 1847— Estimate of his character and career — Determination of the British Government — Macaulay's expressions — Eulogy on O'Connell — The potato rot or disea,se — Terrible famine in Ireland — Maynooth endowment, 184.5 — Queen's Colleges — Denounced by the Catholic hierarchy — Catholic University founded- Government efforts to relieve distress — Bill for constructing public works so as to employ the poor — The famine of 1846-7 — Poor-law amended — Large contributions for relief — Private benevolence — Sad picture of the state of the country — Places for relief — Extensive emigration — Increased for years — Diminution of popu latlon between 1841 and 1851 777 CHAPTER LI. Smith O'Brien's Insurrection — More recent Histoet and Progress. — The " Young Ireland" party and the " Irish Confederation" — William Smith O'Brien — His co-workers, Meagher, Mitchell, and others — The year 1848 a year of revolutions — O'Brien in Parliament — Goes to Paris — Sympathy of the French — O'Brien prosecuted for sedition — Jury not agreed — Set at liberty — Mitcliell transported — Condition of the country — Affray at Dolly's Brae — Action now resolved upon by O'Brien, Duffy, O'Gorman, etc. — Measures of Govern- ment — O'Brien's movements — March from Enniscorthy — Encounter with the police near Ballingar — The conflict, and result — O'Brien and others arrested, tried, and condemned — Sent to Australia^Proposal to abolish lord-lieutenancy — Friction of small farmers and tenant-rights — Mr. Crawford's bills — "Irish Tenant-league" — Further attempts at legislative settlement of the question — General face of the country improved — Ireland's share in the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park in 1851 — Exhibition in Cork in 1853 — Earl of Eglintoun Lord-Lieutenant — Political excitement— Aggregate meeting in Dublin — Right Rev. Dr. CuUen presides — Resolutions adopted — Proposal of Mr. Gladstone, chancellor of the exchequer, to impose the income- tax on Ireland — His statements and views— Two weeks' debate— Speeches and arguments of the opposition — The Government plan supported by a majority of 71 — The result — Ecclesiastical affairs brought under dis- cussion — Opposition to, and complaints of, the establishment — National system of education — Discvission in Parliament— Earl Derby's speech — Testimony of a Catholic writer respecting the schools, the books used, etc. — Mr. Dargan's public-spirited efforts to inaugurate the Industrial Exhibition of lS5o — The building, contents, etc. — Opening of the Exhibition by Earl St. Germans — Visit of her majesty Queen Victoria to Ireland — Her presence at the Exhibition — Results hoped for 796 CHAPTER LII. The Feni.\.n Brotherhood — Ireland's Present Position and Prospects — Hope for the Futttre. — Activity and zeal of the Irish patriots — The Fenian Brotherhood — Origin and purpose of this association— Its scientific organization — First Fenian Congress at Chicago, 1863 — Second Congress at Cincinnati, January, 1865 — Third Congress in Philadelphia, September, 1863 — Reorganization, steps taken of various kinds, etc. — Course of the British Government — Martial law proclaimed in Ireland — James Stephens, the Head Centre of the whole Brotherhood, arrested — His escape from prison — Visits the United States — The Queen's speech, February, 1866 — Suspension of the habeas corpus act — John Bright's views — S. Mill's remarks — Fenian invasion of Canada — Mortifying failure — Course pursued by the President of the United States — Criticized by the Irish patriots — Lord Derby's thanks to the United States Government — Fenians tried and condemned in Canada — McMahon and Lynch sentenced to be hung — Mr. Seward's interposition — Excitement among the Irish — Stephen's speech at meeting held at Jones's 'Wood, New York — His bold announcement^ Opposition to the Fenian movement by bishops and priests of the Catholic Church — Extracts from a Cath- xxu CONTENTS. olic ijaper on this subject — Meeting of Fenians in Xew York, November, 18G6 — Resolution and appeal adopted — Father Vauglian's spirited review of " English misrule in Ireland" — The rising in Ireland re- ported as having been entered upon at the close of November, 186G — Spirit and tone of the English press — Threats of retaliation on the part of the Fenians — Fixed resolve of tlie British Government — Force under Stephens in Iri?land — Sympathy in various quarters — Warren's address to Irishmen in America — Extracts fi-om an Irish New York journal on the position of aflfiiirs and the prospects of success — Condition of things at the close of 1866 — Views and opinions of eminent Irishmen and Englishmen on the questions at issue — What has been done for the people's good — What remains to be done — Nil desperandum — Ireland must be free , 809 THE HISTORY OF IRELAND, ■^« ♦ »fr- CHAPTEE I. Tlie First Inhabitants of Ireland. — The Colonies of Parthalon and Nemedius. — The Fomorians. — The Firbclgs or Belgians. — The Tuatha de Dananns. — The Legend of Mananan Mac Lir, &c. ACCORDING to the ancient chroni- cles of Ireland, the first inhabitants of this country was a colony who ar- rived here from Migdonia, supposed to be Macedonia, in Greece, under a lead- er whose name was Parthalon, about 300 years after the Deluge, or, according to the chronology adopted by the Four Masters, in the year of the world 2520. Some fiibles are related of persons hav- ing found theii" way to Ireland before the Flood, and also of a race of people, who lived by fishing and hunting, having been found here by Parthalon (or Par- rnlauu, as the name is pronounced) ; but these are rejected by our ancient annal- ists as unworthy of credit, and merit no attention. It is said of Parthalon that he fled from his own country, where he had been guilty of parricide; that he landed at Fuver Scene, now the Ken- * Or, as some think, the river Corrane, in Kerry, t The place in which this catastrophe happened was cUled Scan-IPiagh-EaUa-Edair, or " The Old Plain of the 2 mare river,* accompanied by his three sons, their wives, and a thousand fol- lowers ; that he was the first who clear- ed any part of Ireland of the primeval woods which covered it ; that certain lakes, namely. Lough Con and Lough Mask, in Mayo, Lough Gara, on the bor- ders of Roscommon and Slicfo, two others which cannot now be identified by their ancient names, and Lough Cuau, or Strangford Lough, in the county of Down, were first formed during the period of his colony; that he died in the plain in which Dublin now stands, thirty years after his lauding ; and that, in the same plaiu, in a. jr. 2820, that is, 300 years after their arrival, his entire colony, then numbering 9,000 persons, perished by a pestilence, in one week, leaving the country once more without inhabitants, f Flocks of Edair," a name which it received in ofter-tlmeg from an Irish chieftain, from whom the Hill of Howth was called Ben-Edair ; and it extended from that hill to the 10 THE EIRST INHABITANTS. It is said that Ireland remained waste for thirty years, until the next colony, which also came from the southeastern part of Europe, or the vicinity of the Euxine Sea, led by a chief called Neme- dius, or Neimhidh (pronounced Nevy)^ arrived here, and occupied the country for about 200 years. The annals record the names of the raths or forts which were constructed, and of the plains which were cleared of wood during this I^eriod ; and they also mention the erup- tion, during the same time, of four lakes, namely. Lakes Derryvarragh and Eonell in Westmeath, and two others not iden- tified. Nemedius, with 2,000 of his fol- lowers, were carried off by a pestilence in the island of Ard-Neimhidh, now the Great Island of Barrj'more, near Cork; and the remnant of his people, who ap- pear to have been engaged in constant conflicts with a race of pirates called Fomorians, who infested the coast, were at length nearly annihilated in a great battle with these formidable enemies, A. M. 3066. They attacked and demol- ished the principal Fomorian strong- hold, called Tor-Conainn, or Conaug's base of the Dublin mountains, and along tlie banks of tlie Liffey. The memory of this event is preserved in the name of the village of Tallaght (Tamleacht), which signifies "tlie plague monument," from Tamh, a plague, and LcacTit, a monument ; and in Irish books this place is sometimes called Tamleacht Muintir Partludoin, or "the plague monument of Partholan's people," to distinguish it from other plague monuments, P.lso called Tamleachts, in other parts of Ireland. (See O'Donovan's "Four Mas- ters," and Doctor Wilde's "Report on Tables of Deaths," in theCensusof 1851.) The pestOcnce which swept away Parthalon's colony was the first that \'isited Ireland, and is said to have been caused by the corrupting bodies Towei-, in Tory island, on the north- west coast of Donegal ; but succor hav ing arrived by sea to the pirates, the battle was renewed on the strand, and became so fierce that the combatants suffered themselves to be surrounded by the rising tide, so that most of those who did not fall in the mutual slaucjhter were ingulphed in the waves.* Three captains of the Nemedians, with a hand- ful of their men, survived, and, in a few years after, made their escape from Ire- land, with such of their countrymen as chose to follow their fortunes. One party, under Briotan Maol, a grandson of Nemedius, sought refuge in the neigh- boring island of Albion, in the north- ern pai't of which their posterity remain- ed until the invasion of the Picts, many centuries after ; and that island, as some will have it, took the name of Britain from their leader, and not from the fab- ulous Brutus. Another portion of the refugees passed, after many wanderings, into the northern parts of Europe, where they became the Tuatha de Da-, nann of a subsequent age ; and finally, the third party of the scattered Neme- of the dead slain in a battle with the people called Fomorians. *^Vho these Fomorians were, who are so often men- tioned in Ii'ish history, is a matter of speculation. They are said by some of the old annalists to have been Afri- can pirates of the race of Ham ; but O'Flaherty thinks they were Northmen, or Scandinavians. Some modern writers will have it that they were Phoenicians; but their name implies in L'ish that they were searrobbers, and it is remarkable that their memory is preserved in the Irish name of the Giant'sCauseway, which is Cloghan- na-Fomharaigh, or the causeway or stepping-stones of the Fomorians. (See O'Brien's Diet.) The Fomorians are by some called the aborigines of Ireland. THE FIRBOLGS. 11 diaus made their way, under theiz* chief, Simon Breac, another grandson of Ne- medius, to Greece, where they were kept in bondage, and com2>elled to carry burdens in leathern bags, whence they obtained the name of Firbolgs or Bag- men.* For a long interval — 200 years, say the bards — after the great battle of Tory island, we are told that Ireland remained almost a wilderness, the few Nemedians who were left behind hav- inof I'etired into the interior of the coun- try, where they, nevertheless, were made to feel the galling yoke of the Fomorians, who were now the undis- puted masters of the coast ; but at the end of the interval just mentioned, the island was restored to the former race, although under a diflferent name. The Firbolgs having multiplied considerably in Greece, resolved to escape from the bondage under which they groaned, and for that purpose seized the ships of their masters, and proceeding to sea, succeeded in making their way to Ireland, where they landed without oi^jDosition (a. jr. 3266), and divided the country between their five leaders, the fiye sons of Deala, each of whom ruled in turn over the entire island. The names of these bro- thers were, Slainghe, Rury, Gann, Gea- nann, and Seangann ; and from the first of them the river Slaney, in Wexford, is said to have derived its name. It would appear that there were several *From Fir, "men," and holg, wliicli in Irish means a "leathern bag." f The Irish name of Leinster was sometimes written tribes engaged in this expedition, al- though all belonged to the same race. Thus, one section of them, called Fir- Domhnau, or Damnonians, landed on the coast of Erris, in Mayo, where they became very powerful, giving their name to the district, which has been called, in Irish, larras-Domhnan, that is, the western promontory or peninsula of the Damnonians; while another tribe, distinguished by the name of Fir-Gail- lian, or Spearmen, landed on the eastern coast, and from them some will have it that the province of Leinster has been so named, f Such is the account of the orisjin of the Firbolgs and Damnonians, given by the bardic annalists ; and of this and similar relations, which we find in our primeval history, we may remark in general that, however they may be en- veloped in fable, we have sufficient rea- son for believing them to be founded in historic truth ; and that they are not lightly to be set aside, where nothing better than conjecture can be substitu- ted. The favorite modern theory is, that the Firbolg colony came into this country from the neighboring coasts of Britain, and that they were identical in race with the peojile of Belgic Gaul, and with the Belgffi and Dumnonii of South- ern Britain. Then arises the question, were these Belgae Celts, or were they of Tuetonic or Gothic origin? To this we can onlyanswer that the Irish authorities Coige GaUlian ; Coige being the word for a fifth part, oi one of the five provinces ; but it is more generally called Laightn, a word which signifies a spear or javelin. 12 THE FIRBOLGS. are explicit "in stating that the Fii'bolgs were of the same race with subsequent colonies, who were confessedly Celtic, and this seems to be the generally re- ceived opinion.* The Belgse, or Firbolgs, had only en- joyed possession of the country for thirty-seven years, according to the chronology of the Four Masters, or for eighty years, according to that of O'Flaherty, when their dominion was disputed by a formidable enemy. The new invaders were the celebrated Tua- tha de Dananns, a people of whom such stransre thinojs are recounted, that modern writers Avere lomj iincertain whether they should regard them as a purely mythical race, or concede to them a real existence, all Irish anti- quaries, however, adopting at present the latter alternative. The arrival of the Tuatha de Dananns took place in the year of the world 3303, the tenth year of the reign of the ninth and last of the Firbolgic kings, Eochy, son of Ere. The leader of the invaders ^vas Nuadhat-Airgetlamh, or Nuad of the SiU'er Hand, and their first proceeding on landing was to burn their own fleet, *In the Irisli version of Nennius, published for the Irish Archa?ological Society, the Firbolgs are termed Viri Bullorum, which, as the learned editor. Dr. Todd, remarks, might aiford a derivation for the name not previously noticed ; the word Bullum, in the Latinity of the midtlle ages, signifying, according to Du Cange, 7?acuZumpa«ioW«, a shepherd's staff. In the additional notes to that publication, by the Hon. Algernon Herbert, many curious suggestions are made about these and the other ancient inhabitants of Ireland, all which specula- tions show how exceedingly vague and meagre is the information that can be gleaned about these primitive fscw;, and Low uncertain are the theories which have in order to render all retreat impossi- ble. According to the sujterstitious ideas of the bards, these Tuatha de Da- nanns were profoundly skilled in magic, and rendered themselves invisible to the inhabitants until they had penetra- ted into the heart of the country. In other words, they lauded under cover of a fog or mist ; and the Firbolgs, at first taken by surprise, made no regular stand, until the new-comers had march- ed almost across Ireland, when the two armies met face to face on the plain oi Moyturey, near the shore of Lougli Corrib, in part of the ancient tei'ritoi'y of Partry. Here a battle was fought in which the Firbolgs were overthrown, with "the greatest slaughter," says an old writer, f "that w'as ever heard of in Ireland at one meeting." Eochy, tho Firbolg king, fled, and was overtaken at a place in the present county of Sligo, where he was slain, and where his cairn, or the stone-heap raised over his grave, is still to be seen on the sea-shore ; while the scattered fra2;ments of his army took refuge in the northern isle of Aran, Rathlin island, the Hebrides, the Isle of Man, and Britain. J been formed about them. Of the Firbolgs, however, as we shall hereafter see, we find frequent mention in what all admit to be authentic periods of Irish history ; and their monuments, and even their race, still exist among us. f Connell Mageoghegan's "Annals of Clonmacnoise." % Book of Leacan, fol. 277 ; quoted in the Ogygia, Part iii., c. 9. Tlie site of this battle is sometimes called Moyturej' of Cong, from its proximity to that town, and " it is still jxiinted out," says Dr. O'Donovan (Four Masters, vol. i, p. IG), "in the parish of Cong, barony of Kilmaiue, and county of Mayo, to the right of the road as you go THE TUATHA DE DANANNS. 13 The victorious Nuadliat lost Ms hand iu this battle, and a silver hand was made for him by Credne Cerd, the artifi- cer, and fitted on him by the physician, Dieucecht, Avhose son, Miach, improved the work, according to the legend, by infusing feeling and motion into every joint of the artificial hand as if it had been a natural one. Hence the surname which the king received. The story may be taken as an illustration of the surgical and mechanical skill which the Tuatha de Dananns were believed to possess: and we are further told, that for the seven years during which the operation was in progress, a temporary king was elected, Breas, whose father was a Fomorian, and whose mother was of the Tuatha de Dananns, having been chosen for the purpose. At the end of that period Nuadhat resumed the au- thority ; and in the twentieth year of his reign, counting from this resumption, he fell in a battle foitght with the Fo- morians, who took the field at the insti- gation of their countryman, the deposed king, Breas, and were aided also, we may suppose, by the Firbolg refugees. This battle was fought at a place called Northern Moyturey, or Moyturey of the Fomorians; and its name is still pre- served in that of a townland in the barony of Tirerrill, in the county of Sli- go, where several sepulchral monuments from Cong to the village of the Neal. From the monu- ments of tliis battle still remaining, it is quite evident that great numbers were slain." The cairn of the Firbolg king, Eochy, is on the shore near Ballysadare, in the county of Sligo; and, although not high above the still mark the site of the ancient battle- field. Nuadhat was killed in this con- flict by Balor "of the mighty blows," the leader of the Fomorians, who is de- scribed iu old traditions as a monster both in barbarity and strength, and as having but one eye. Balor himself was killed in the same battle by a stone cast from a sliug by his daughter's son, Lugh Lauihfhada, or Lewy of the long hand, in revenge for some of his crimes. We have here followed the genei'ally received account of the fate of the Fir- bolgs in the Tuatha de Dauaun invasion ; but there is another version of it given in an ancient Irish manuscript"" which is much more consistent with subse- quent history. According to this latter account, the battle of Southern Moytu- rey resulted in a compromise, rather than in such a defeat as.that mentioned above; and althousrh the Firbolcr kiua: was slain, another leader of the same peojjle, named Srang, was still at the head of a con- siderable force ; and, after some nego- tiations, a pai-tition of- the country Avas agreed to, Srang and his people retain- ing Connaught, and the Tuatha de Da- nanns taking all the remainder. Mac- Firbis, in his tract on the Firbolgs, seems to say that an account of the aftair to some such eftect existed ; aud unless it be admitted, it is impossible to account for the firm footing whicli strand, it is the popular belief that the tide can never cover it. * The author is indebted to Professor Eugene Curry for the purport of this tract, which appears to liave escaped the attention of our other Irish scholars. THE TUATHA DE DANANNS. we find these ^leople all aloug holding in Ireland, and for their position at the Milesian epoch, Mdien they were at first received as allies by the invaders, and ■were afterwards, for centuries, able to resist them in war. Nor is this account inconsistent with the statement that many of the Firbolgs i-epaired, on the arrival of the Tuatlia de Dananus, to the islands mentioned above. Lugh Lamhf hada, the slayer of Balor, succeeded Nuadhat as king of Ireland ; and the fact that he was of Fomorian oriffin, on his mother's side, and a Tuatha de Danann on that of his father, as w^ell as a like mingling of races in the person of Breas, the first king of the Tuatha de Dananns, led to the con- clusion that an aiBnity existed between the two races, and afford an argument to O'Flaherty, who held that both ra- c.e3 were Northmen, or Danes.* Lugh reigned forty years, and instituted the public games, or fair, of the hill of Taill- tean, now Teltown, near the Blackwater, in INIeath, in commemoration of his foster-mother, Taillte, the daughter of Maghmor, a Spanish or Iberian "king, and wife of Eochy, son of Ere, the last of the Firbolg kings, after whose deatli, in the battle of Southern Moyturey, she married a Tuatha de Danann chief, and undertook the fostering, or education, of the infant Lewy. This celebrated fail', at which various sports took place, con- tinued to be held until the twelfth cen- tury, on the 1st of August, which day * Ogygia, part i., p. 13. is still called, in Irish, Lugh-Nasadh, or Lugh's fair ; and vivid traditions are yet preserved of the pagan form of marriage, and ancient sports, of which the old rath of Teltown was the scene.f Lewy, having been killed by Mac- Cuill at Caendruim, now the hill of Uis- neach, in Westmeath, was succeeded by Eochy Ollathair, who was surnamed the Dagda Mor (the Great-good-fire), the son of Ealathan. The Dagda reigned eighty years, and having died from the effects of a wound inflicted 120 years before at the battle of Northern Moy- turey, with a poisoned javelin, by Kath- len, the wife of the Fomorian Balor, he was interred at the Brugh, on the Boyne, the great cemetery of the east of Ireland in the jiagan times. His monument is mentioned in ancient Irish manuscripts as one of those vast sepulchral mounds which are at this day objects of wonder and interest on the banks of the Boyne, between Droirheda and Slane. A. M. 3451. — Dealboeth, the son of Ogma, succeeded, and was followed by Fiacha ; after whom three brothers, named MacCuill, MacCeacht, and Mac- Greine, the last of the Tuatha de Da- nann kings, reigned conjointly for thir- ty years, each exercising sovereign au- thority in succession for the space of one year. The real names of the three brothers, according to an old po- em quoted by Keating, were, Eathui-, Teathur, and Ceathur, and they were called, the fii'st, MacCuill, because he t See Wilde's Boyne and Blackwater, p. 150. Ogygia, part iii., c. 13 and 50. THE TUATHA DE DANANNS. 15 worshipped the hazel-tree ; the second, MacCeacht, because he worshipped the plough, or rather, encouraged agricul- ture ; and the third, MacGreine, because he made the sun the object of his devo- tions. The old bardic annalists, who, with a gallantry peculiar to their coun- try, derive most of the names of places from celebrated women, tell us that the wives of these three kings were Eire, Banba, and Fodhla, three sisters who have given their names to Ireland ; and they add that the country was called after each queen during the year of her husband's administration; and that if the name of Eire has been since more generally applied, it was because the husband of queen Eire was the reigning king when the Milesians arrived and conquered the island. The names of Baiiba and Fodhla are fi-equently giv- en to Ireland in all the ancient Irish writings. Before we leave the Tuatha de Da- nanns, Avhose sway continued for 197 years — from a. m. 3303 to a. m. 3500 — we may mention two or three remark- able circumstances connected wdtli the accounts of that ancient peoj^le. By them the Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny, on which the Irish kings were crowmed in subsequent ages, was brought into Ireland. This stone was said to emit mysterious sounds when touched by the * Dr. Petrio, in liis History and Antiquities of Tara Hill, controverts tliis account of tUe Lia Fail, and employs some learned, thougli not conclusive, arguments to show that that celebrated relic of pagan antiquity is the pres- ent piUar-stone over the "Croppies' Grave" in one of the great raths of Tara. O'Flahcrty (Ogygia, p. 45.) rightful heir to the crown ; and when an Irish colony invaded North Britain, and founded the Scottish monarchy there in the sixth century, the Lia Fail was carried thither to give more solem- nity to the coronation of the king, and more security to his dynasty. It was afterwards preserved for several ages iu the monastery of Scone, but was carried into England by Edward I., in the year 1300, and deposited in Westminster Abbey, and is believed to be identical with the large block of stone now to be seen under the coronation chair.* Ogma, one of the Tuatha de Dananii princes, is said to have invented the Ogam Craove, or occult mode of wi-iting by notches on the edges of sticks or stones; and Orbsen, another of them, is celebrated as tlie mythical protector of commerce and navisration. He was commonly called Manancm, from the Isle of Man, of which he waS' king, and Maclir, son of the sea, from his knowl- edge of nautical affairs. lie was killed in a battle in the west of Ireland by UUin, grandson of King Nuad of the Silver Hand, , and was' buried in an island in the large lake, Avhich from him was called Lough Orbsen, since cor- rupted into Lough Corrib, the place where the battle was fought being still called Moycullen, or the plain of Ullin.f tliinlvs the Stone of Destiny was not carried to Scot- land until A. D. 850, when it was sent by Hugh Finnliath, king of Ireland, to his father-in-law, Keneth MacAlpino, who finally subjugated the Picts. f Dr. O'Donovan, in a note on the Tuatha du Dananns (Four Masters, vol. 1., p. 24), says: — "In Mageogh'egan's IG THE MILESIAN COLONY. CHAPTER II. The MOesian Colony. — Wanderings of tlie Gadclians. — Voyage of Itli to Ireland. — Expedition of tlie Sons of MUedh, or Milesius. — Contests ■\\itli the Tuatha de Dananns. — Division of Ireland by Ileremon. — The Cruith- nians, or Picts. THE old annalists preface the account of the Milesian invasion of Ireland by a long story of the origin of that colony, and of its many wanderings, by land and sea, for several hundred years, until it arrived in Ireland from Spain. There is no part of our primitive history that has been so frequently questioned, or which modern writers so generally reject as fabulous,,as these fii'st accounts of the Milesian or Gadeliau race ; yet translation of the Annals of Clonmacnoise it is stated that ' this people, Tuathy DeDanan, ruled Ireland for 197 years ; that they were most notable magicians, and would work wonderful things by magick and other dia- bolicale arts, wherein they were exceedingly well skilled, and in these days accompted the chiefest in the world in that profession.' From the many monuments ascribed to this colony by tradition, and in ancient Irish histori- cal tales, it is quite evident that they were a real people ; and from their having been considered gOds and magi- cians by the Gaodhil, or Sdbti, who subdued them, it maybe inferred that they were skilled in arts which the latter did not understand. Among them was Danann, tlie mother of the gods, from whom Da chich Danaitme, a mountain in Kerry (the Pap Mountain), was called ; Cnanann, the goddess that instructed the heroes in mili- tary exercises, the Minerva of the ancient Irish ; Badhbh, the BeUonaof the ancient Irish ; Abhortach, god of music ; Noel, the god of war ; Nemon, his wife ; Manannan, the god of the sea ; Diancecht, the god of physic ; Brioghit, the goddess of poets and smiths, i'c. It appears from a very curious and ancient Irish tract, written in the shape of a dialogue between St. Patrick and Caoilte MacEonain^ that there were very many places in Ireland where the Tuatha dc Dananns were then supposed to live as sprites or fairies, with corporeal and material forms, but endued with immortality. The inference naturally to be drawn they are so mixed up with our authen- tic history, and so frequently referred to, that they cannot be passed over in silence. We, therefore, give an outline of the narrative, chiefly as we find it re- lated in the Duan Eireannach, or Poem of Ireland, written by Maelmura of Othain, one of the most ancient of our authorities for the Milesian tradition.* We are told in this poem that Feui- us Farsaidh came out of Scythia to from these stories is, that the Tuatha do Dananns lin- gered in the conntry for many centuries after their sub- jugation by the GaedhU, and that they lived in retired situations, where they practised abstruse arts, which in- duced the others to regard them as magicians It looks very strange that our genealogists trace the pedi- gree of no family living for the last thousand years to any of the kings or chieftains of the Tuatha de Dananns, while several families of Firbolgic descent are mentioned, as in lly-Many, and other parts of Connaught. (See Tribes and Customs of Hy-Many, pp. 85-90 ; and O'Flaherty's Ogygia, part iii., c. 11.") Manannan MacLir is described in Cormac's Glossary as "a famous merchant of the Isle of Man, and the best navigator in the western world." Dr. O'Donovan (Four Masters, vol. iii., p. 533, note) says : " There exists a tra- dition in the county of Londonderry that the spirit of this celebrated navigator Bves in an enchanted castle in the tuns or waves of Magilligan, opposite Inishowen, and that his magical ship is seen there once every seventh year." * Maelmura of Othain (now Fahan, in Donegal) died A. D. 884, and the historical poem referred to above was printed, for the first time, in the Irish version of Nennius, published in 1843 by the Irish Archa;ological Society, with copious notes by the Rev. Dr. Todd, S. F. T. C. D., and by the Hon. Algernon Herbert. WAXDERINGS OF THE GADELIANS. 17 Nembroth (Nimrod), and that, some time after "the buUdino; of the tower (of Babel) by the men of the world," Nel, or Niul, the son of Feuius, who possessed a knowledge of all the lan- guages then spoken hj mankind, left his father and travelled into Egypt, where the fame of his leai'nins: came to the ears of Foraun (Pharaoh), who gave him his dauQ^hter Scota in marriasre. Niul had a son named Gaedhuil Glas, or Green Gael ; and we are told that it is from him the Irish have been called Gaedhil (Gael), or Gadeliaus, while from his mother is derived the name of Scoti, or Scots, and from Feuius that of Feni, or Fenians. The poem goes on to say that after Forann, pursuing the peo- ple of God, was drowned in the sea Romhuir (Red sea) the people of Egypt were angry with the children of Niul for having declined to render any assist- ance in the pui'suit ; and that the latter, through fear of beinor enslaved as the Israelites had been, seized the deserted ships of Pharaoh, and in the night-time passed over the Red sea, " the way they knew," by India and Asia, to Scythia, their own country, over the surface of the Caspian sea, leaving Glas, dead, at Coronis (probably Cyrene, in the Lybian sea), where they halted for a period. * This name is j ust before Tvritten Gaedhuil Glas ; and, in general, there appears to be no fixed orthography for those ancient Irish names. f Sometimes Trritten, in Irish MSS., Tipradfane, that is, the Well of Fenius. i The Slieve Rlffi, so often mentioned in Irish MSS., were the Eiphean mountains, but it is by no means easy to determine ivhat was the position of these. That they 3 After some time, and with some vari- ations in the different accounts, we find Si'u, son ofEsru, or Asruth, sou of Gadheal Glas,* acting as leader of the descend- ants of Niul, and proceeding to the isl- and of Taprabana (Ceylon)f and Slieve Riffi,t until he settled in "fiery Gol- gatha," or Gaethligh, a jjlace which is variously supposed to be Gothia, or Ga- latia, or Gethulia; and again, in two hundred years after, that is, according to O'Flaherty, about the time of the de- struction of Troj', Brath, the son of Dea- gath, or Deatha, and nineteenth in de- scent from Fenius, led a fresh expedition from this last-named place to "the north of the world, to the islands, ploughing the Tarrian sea (Mediterranean or Tyr- rhenian) with his fleet." He passed by Creid (Crete), Sicil (Sicily), and the columns of Hercules, to " Esj^aiu, the pe- ninsular ;" and here he couquei'ed a cer- tain territory, his son, Breogau, or Bre- gond, succeeding him in the command. The city which our wanderers built in Spain was called Brigantia, believed to be Betanzos, in Gallicia; and, from a lofty tower erected on the coast, by Breogan, it is said that his son, Ith, dis- covered Eri, or Irelaud, " as far as the land of Luimnech (as the country at the mouth of the Shannon was called), on a were sitnated in some part of the vast region anciently called Scythia is tolerably certain, and the probable opinion is that they were the Ural mountains in Russia ; but they are sometimes set down in old maps as occupy- ing the place of the Carpathian mountains, and even of the Alps, and the vague accounts we have of them would answer for any range of mountains in northern Europe. 18 THE VOYAGE OF ITH. winter's evening."* Itli appears to have been of an adventurous spirit, and no doubt discovered the coast of Ireland, not from the tower of Breogan, which was impossible, but after having sailed thither in search of the land, which, according to the traditions of his race, the children of Niul were destined to possess. He landed at a place since called Magh Ithe, or the Plain of Ith, near Laggan, in the county of Donegal ; and having been taken for a spy or pirate, by the Tuatha de Dananns, was attacked and mortally wounded, when he escaped to his ship and died at sea.-f- The remains of Ith -were carried to Spain by his crew, now commanded by his son Lugaitl, who stimulated his kins- * The Hon. Algernon Hurbert, in one of the additional notes to the Irish Nennius, shows how this legend of Ireland having been seen from the tower of Betanzos (the ancient Flavium Brigantium) may have arisen from pas- sages of Orosius, the geographer, where mention is made 01 a lofty Pharos erected on the coast of Spain, " ad specu- lum Britannia;," "for a watch-tower in the direction of Britain ;" and where again, describing the coasts of Ire- land, the writer says "procid spectant Brigantiam, Gal- licia) civitatem," &c. — " they lie at a distance opposite Brigantiam, a city of Qallicia," &c ; the words " specu- lum" and " spectant" having apparently led to the ab- surd notion that the coast of Ireland was visible from the tower. See also Dr. WUde's communication to the Royal Irish Academy on the remains of the Pharos of Corunna, which he believes to have been the tower of Breogan. f AVlioever attempts to trace on the map of the world the route ascribed in the text to the ancestors of Milesius, will find himself seriously puzzled. In aU the accounts of these peregrinations two distinct expeditions are al- 1 uded to, one by the east and north, and the other westcrlj', that is, through the Mediterranean sea and the Pillars of Hercules. The latter is intelligible enough, but the former would imply a passage by water, from south to north, through the c^'ntral countries of Europe. The Neraedians and Tuatha de Dananns would also appear to have passed freely in their ships between Greece, or Scythia, and the northern ecas, without going through men to avenge his death ; and such, ac- cording to the chroniclers, was the prov- ocation for the expedition which fol- lowed. Accordingly, the sons of Gol- 1am (who is more generally known by his surname of Miledh, or Milesius), the son of Bile, son of Breogan, and hencethe nephew of Ith, manned thirty ships, and prepared to set out for luis Ealga, as Ireland was at that time called. Mile- sius himself, who was king of Spain, or at least of the Gadelian province of it, and who in his earlier life had travelled into Scythia, and performed sundry ex- ploits there, had died before the news of the death of Ith arrived ; and his wife Scota, the second of the name we have yet met in these annals, went with the Straits of Gibraltar. Some get rid of this difficulty by treating the whole story as a fable foimded on the Argonautic expedition and its river-ocean ; but even that famous legend of classic antiquity stands itself in need of explanation ; and with that view it has been suggested that the Baltic and Euxine seas were at some remote period connected, and that the vast, swampy plains of Poland were covered with water. A connected series of lakes may thus have extended across the conti- nent of Europe from north to south ; and the lagunes along the present northern coast of the Black sea may indicate what their appearance had been. Traditions of . many of the physical changes which have taken place from time to time in the surface of Ireland, since the universal Deluge, such as the eruption of rivers, and the ' formation of new lakes and inlets of the sea, are pre- served in the Irish annals ; and it is probable that the Greek traditions of Deucalion's Deluge, and the theories respecting the eruption of the Euxine into the Archi- pelago, and of a channel between the ocean and the Mediterranean through ancient Aquitaine, may refer to a period when the ship Argo, and the barques of the de- scendants of Niul, might have passed from the shores of Greece to the Ilj-jicrborean seas through the heart of Sarmatia, as indicated above. — (See " A Vindication of the Bardic Accounts of the Early Invasions of Ireland, and a Verification of the Eiver-ocean of the Greeks." Dublin, 1853. Also the Dublin University Magazine for March, 18o2.) LAXDIXG OF THE MILESIANS. 19 her six sous at tlie head of the expedi- tiou. Some of the accounts mentiou eight sons of Milesius, but the names given in Maelmura's poem are Donn, or Heber Donn, Colj^a, Amergin, L", Heber (that is, Heber Finn, or the fair), and Hei-emon. Lugaid, the son of Ith, Avas also a leader of the expedition, and the names of several other chiefs are given; and it is probable that the principal portion of the Gadelian colony in Spain sailed on the occasion. A. M. 3500. — It was in the year of the world 3500, and 1700 years before Christ, according to the Four Masters, or A. M. 2934, and b. c. 1015, according to O'Flaherty's chronology, that the Mile- sian colony arrived in Ireland. The bardic legends say the island was at first made invisible to them by the necro- mancy of the inhabitants ; and that when they at length effected a landing and marched into the country, the Tua- tlia de Dananns confessed that they were not pi'epared to resist them, having no standing army, but that if they again embarked, and could make good a landing according to the rules of war, the country should be theirs. Amergin, who was the ollav or learned man and judge of the expedition, having been appealed to, decided against his own people, and they accordingly re-em- barked at the southern extremity of Ireland, and withdrew "the distance of nine waves" from the shore. No sooner had they done so than a terrific storm commenced, raised by the magic arts of the Tuatha de Dananns, and the Mile- sian fleet was completely scattered. Several of the ships, among them those of Donn and Ir, were lost off different parts of the coast. Heremon sailed round by the northeast, and landed at the mouth of the Boyne (called luver Colpa, from one of the brothers who was drowned there), and others landed at Inver Scene, so called from Scene Dubsaine, the wdfe of Amergin, who per- ished in that river. In the first battle fought with the Tuatha de Dananns, at Slieve Mish, near Ti-alee, the latter were defeated; but among the killed were Scota, the wife of Milesius, who was buried in the place since called from her, Gleu-Scoheen, and Fas, the wife of Un, another of the Milesians, from whom Glenofaush in the same neighborhood has its name. After this the sons of Milesius fought a battle at Tailtinu, or Teltown, in Meath, where the three kings of the Tuatha de Dananns were killed and their people completely routed. The three queens, Eire, Fodhla, and Banba, were also slain; women ha\T.ug been accustomed during the pagan times in Ireland to take part per- sonally in battles, and in many instances to lead the hostile armies to the fight. Among the Milesians killed in this bat- tle, or rather in the j)ursuits of the Tua- tha de Dananns, were Fuad (from whom Slieve Fuad in Armagh, a place much celebrated in Irish history, has derived its name), and Cuailgne, who was killed at Slieve Cuailgne, now the Cooley mountains, near Carlingford, in the county of Louth. 20 HEREMON'S DIVISION OF IRELAND. After the battle of Teltown tlie Mile- sians enjoyed tbe undisturbed posses- sion of the country, and formed alliances with the Firbolgs, the Tuatha de Da- nanns, and other primitive races, but more esj^ecially with the first, who aided them Avillingly in the subjugation of their late masters, and "were allowed to retain possession of certain territories, where some of their posterity still re- main. Heremon and Heber Finn di- vided Ireland between them ; but a dis- pute arising, owing to the covetousness of the wife of Heber, who desired to have all the finest vales in Erin for her- self, a battle Avas fought at Geashill, in the present Kings county, in which Heremon killed his brother Heber. In the division of Ireland which followed, Heremon, who retained the sovereignty himself, gave Ulster to Heber, the son of Ir; Munster to the four sons of Heber Finn ; Connaught to Uu and Eadan ; and Leinster to Crivann Sciavel, a Damnonian or Firbolg. The people of the south of Ii-eland in general are looked upon as the descendants of He- ber; while the families of Leinster, many of those of Connauofht, the Hi Nialls of Ulster, tfec, trace their pedigree to Heremon. Families sprung from the sons of Ir are to be found in different parts of Ireland ; but of Amergin, the poet and ollav, little is said iu this dis- tribution of the land. He is mentioned as having constructed the causeway or * The above etymology of Taia is evidently legendary ; and according to Cormac's Glossary, quoted by O'Dono- Ttai (Four Masters, vol. i., p. 31), the name, which in tochar of Inver Mor, or the mouth of the Ovoca in Wicklow. The wife of Heremon was Tea, the daughter of Lugald, the son of Ith, for whom he repudiated his former wife Ovey, who followed the expedition to Ireland, and died of grief on finding herself deserted ; and it was Tea who selected for the royal residence the hill of Druim Caein, called from her Tea- mur or Tara — that is, the mound of Tea.* In the second year of his reign Heremon slew his brother Amergin iu battle, and in subsequent conflicts others of his kinsmen fell by his hands ; and having reigned fifteen years, he died at Rath-Beothaigh, now Rathveagh on the Nore, in Kilkenny. About the period of the Milesian in- vasion the Cruithnigh, Cruithnians, or Picts, so called, according to the gener- ally received opinion, from having their bodies tattooed, or painted, are said to have paid a visit to Ireland previous to their final settlement in Alba, or Scot- land. Having no wives, they obtained Milesian women in marriage ; that is, according to some accounts, they mar- ried the widows of those who had been drowned with Heber Donn in the expe- dition from Spain, making a solemn compact that, should they succeed in conquering the country they were about to invade, the bovereignty should' de- scend in the female line. The Cruith- nians were of a kindred I'ace with the Irish is Tearahair, merely signifies a liill commanding a pleasant prospect. CREDIT OF THE ANCIENT IRISH ANNALS. 21 Scots or Irisla, and for lUiiny centuries dwelt as a distinct people in the eastern part of Ulster, where some of their di3- scendants were to be found at the time of the confiscations under James I. ; but the confused traditions about the visit of a Pictish colony at the same time with the children of Milesius are pro- perly treated as apocryphal.* CHAPTER III. Questions as to the Credit of tlie Ancient Irish Annals. — Defective Chronology. — The Test of Science applied. — Theories on the Ancient Inhabitants of Ireland. — Intellectual Qualities of Firboigs and Tuatha de Dauanns — Monuments of the latter People. — Celts. TTAVING thus far followed the -■— L bardic chroniclers, or seanachie?, it is right to pause awhile to consider what amount of credit we may place in them ; and in the nest place, what are the oiDinions of those who reject their authority. A judicious and accomplish- ed Irish annalist, Tighernach, Abbot of Clonmacnoise, who died so early as A. D. 1088, has said that all the Scottish, that is, Irish, records previous to the reign of Cimbaeth, M'hich he fixed at the 3-ear e. c. 305, are doubtful; and wo have, therefore, good authority, inde- pendent of internal evidence or of the opinions of modern writers, for placing on them but a modified reliance. We * Bede (Hist. Eccl., lib. i., c. 1) gives the following account of the origin of the Picts : — " When the Britons, beginning at the south, had made themselves masters of the greater part of the island, it happened that the nation of the Picts, from Scythia, as is reported, putting to sea in a few long ships, were driven by the winds beyond the shores of Britain,- and arrived on the northern coast of Ireland, where, finding the nation of the Scots, they begged to be allowed to settle among them, but could not succeed in obtaining their request The Picts, accordingly, sailing over into Britain, began to inhabit must be careful, however, not to carry our doubts too far. These ancient rec- ords claim our veneration for their great antiquity, and are themselves but the channels of still older traditions. Wri- ting's which date from the first aa-es of Christianity in Ireland refer to facts upon which all our pre-Christian his- tory hinges, as the then fixed historical tradition of the country ; and the closest study of the history of Ireland shows the impossibility of fixing a period pre- vious to which the main facts related by the annalists should be rejected as utterly fabulous. There is no more reason to deny the existence of such men as Heber and Heremon, and, there- the northern parts thereof Now the Picts had no ■wives, and asked them of the Scots, who would not con- sent to grant them on any terms than that, when any difficulty should arise, they should choose a king from the female royal race, rather than from the male ; which custom, as is well known, has been observed among the Picts to this day." See, for amjjle details about tho Cruithnians or Picts, and for all the traditions relative to their intercourse with Ireland, the annotations to the Irish Nennius. 0.1 DEFECTIVE CHRONOLOGY. fu'.e, of a jMilesian or Scottish colony, than there is to question the occur- rence of the battle of Clontarf ; and the traditions of the Firbolgs and Tuatha de Danauns are so mixed up Avith our ■written history, so impressed on the monuments and topography of the countiy, and so illustrated in the char- acteristics of its population, that no man of learning who had thoroughly studied the subject would now think of doubting their existence. But, as we have said, it is for the main facts that we claim this credence. These fixcts are, of course, mixed up with the quaint ro- mance characteristic of the remote aa;es in which they were recorded, and the (rhief difSculty, as in the ancient history of most countries, is to trace out the substratum of truth beneath the super- incumbent mass of fable. The chronology of the pre-Christian Irish annals is obviously erroneous, but that does not affect their general au- thenticity. They were compiled for the most jiart from such materials as gen- ealogical lists of kings, to whose reigus disputed periods of duration were at- tributed ; and those who, in subsequent ages, endeavored to form regular series of annals out of such data, and to make them synchronize with the history of other countries, were unavoidably liable to ei'ror. The Four Masters, adopting the chronology of the Septuagint and the Greeks, according to which the * Charles O'Connor, of Balenagar, says, in liis Disser- If.tions on the Ilistory of Ireland, that the Milesian inva- world was 5,200 years old at the birth of our Savioui', refer the occurrences of Irish history, previous to the Chris- tian era, to epochs so remote as to ex- pose the whole history to ridicule ; while O'FIaherty, endeavoring to arrive at a more reasonable computation, and taking for his standard the system of Sealiger, which makes the age of the. world before Christ some 1250 years less, reduces the dates given by the Four Masters by many hundreds of years ; but the degree of antiquity which even he allows to them surpasses credibilit}'. Thus, according to the au- thor of the Ogygia, the arrival of the Milesian colony took place 1015 years before the Christian era ; that is, about 2 GO years before the building of Rome, making it synchronize Avith the reign of Saul in Israel ; while, according to the Four Masters, that event occurred more than six hundred years earlier; that is, many centui-ies before the foundation of Troy, or the Argonautic expedition ; and yet, at that remote period — sixteen hundred years, according to one compu- tation, and at least a thousand, accord- ing to another, before Julius Caesar found Britain still occupied by half-sav- age and half-naked inhabitants — we are asked to believe that a regular mon- archy was established in Ireland, and was continued throuo;h a known succes- sion of kings, to the twelfth century !* A chronology so improbable has sion cannot have been much earlier or later than the year b. c. 7G0. THE TEST OF SCIENCE APPLIED. 23 naturally weakened the credibility of our older annals ; but neither bardic legends nor erroneous computations can destroy the groundwork of truth which we must recognize beneath them. The ancient Irish attributed the ut- most importance to the truth of their historic compositions, for social reasons. Their whole system of society — every question as to the rights of property — turned upon the descent of families and the principle of clanshij') ; so that it can- not be supposed that mere fables would lie tolerated instead of f:icts, where v'vei-y social claim was to be decided on their authority. A man's name is scarcely mentioned in our annals with- out the addition of his forefathers for several generations, a thing which rarel}' occurs in those of other countries. Again, when we arrive at the era of Christianity in Ireland, we find that our ancient annals stand the test of verifica- tion by science with a success which not only establishes their character for truth- fulness at that period, but vindicates the records of preceding dates involved in it. Thus, in some of the annals, natural phenomena, such as eclipses, are record- ed, and these are found to agree so ex- actly with the calculations of astronomy, * For observations on the comparison of the entries of eclipses in the Irish annals with the calculations in the great French -svork, I' Art de verifier les Dates, as a test and correction of the former, see -O'Donovan's Introduc- tion to the Annals of the Four Masters, and Doctor Wilde's Report on the Tables of Deaths in the Census of 1851, ■where the idea of the comparison has been fully carried out. Thus, in the Annals of Innisfallen we find, " A. D. 445, a solar eclipse at the nijith hour." This is the first eclipse mentioned in the Irish annals, and it as to leave no room whatever to doubt the general accuracy of documents found in these particulars to be so cori-ect, at least for periods after the Christian era.* Now, comiug to the theories of Irish origins entertained by those who reject the authority of the old annalists either wholly or on this particular point ; it is certain, according to them, that Ireland has invariably derived her population from the neighboring shores of Britain, in the same way as Britain itself had been jDeopled from those of Gaul. It was thus, they tell us, that the Belgae, or Firbolgs, the Damnonians, and the Dananns came successively into Erin, as well as, in after times, that other race called Scots, whose origin seems to set speculation at defiance. Navigation was so imperfectly understood in those ages, that such a voj-age as that from Spain to Ireland, especially for a numer- ous squadron of small craft, is treated with ridicule. The knowledge of navi- gation, which all admit the Greeks, and Trojans, and Phoenicians to have pos- sessed, is not acceded to the early col- onies of Ireland ; but it is argued that as people spread naturally into adjoin- ing countries visible from those whence they jiroceeded, so it is only reasonable agrees with the calculated date in I'Art de venficr Ics Dates, where the corresponding entry is, " A solar eclipse visible in northwestern Europe, July 20th, at half-past five, A. M." And again, in the Annals of Tigcrnach, " A. D. 664. Darkness at the ninth hour on the Calends ol May ;" while in the French astronomical work already quoted, there is noticed for that year, " A total eclipse of the sun, visible to Europe and Africa, at half past three, p. M., 1st of May." 24 THEORIES OF ETHNOLOGISTS. to suppose that Ireland received inhabit- ants from the coasts of Wales or Scot- land, from which her shores could be plainly seen, rather than from Thrace or Macedou, or even from Spain. Similar- ity of names, also, comes to the aid of this theory; for it seems probable enough that the Belgae and Dumnonii of Southern Britain -n-ere the same race with those bearing almost identically the same names in Ireland. As to the name of Scots, it was never heard of before the second or third century of the Christian era, when it was given to the tribes who aided the Picts in har- assing the people of South Britain, and their masters, the Romans. There is no Irish or any other authority of an older date for the application of the name of Scots to the people of Erin. Irish wri- ters themselves su2r2rest that sciot, a dart or arrow, may have been the origin of the word Scythia ; and with more prob- ability might it have been that of the name Scoti, or Scots, as applied to men ai'med with weapons so called ; and once the name, from this or any other cause, came to be applied to the natives of Ireland, it is easy, we are told, to im- agine how the Irish bards built upon it * Fiacli's liymn, admitted to be tlie composition of a disciple of St. Patricli, refers to tlie INIilesian traditions of the Irish ; and among the authorities most frequently quoted by Keating, O'Flahertj, and other old writers, on the period of the Tuatha de Dananns, Firbolgs, and the Milesian colony, on account of their -n-orks being still preserved, are Maelmura of Fathan, who died A. D. 884 ; Eochy O'Flyun, who died A. D. 984 ; Flan Mainistreach, who died A. D. 10.50 ; and GioUa Kevin, who died A. D. 1073 ; all of whom related in verse the written and oral traditions received by themselves from preceding: ages. a fine romance, deriving it from an im- aginary daughter of King Pharaoh, and perhaps borrowing from it also the idea of claiminc: for their nation descent from Scythia, the region, at that time, of fabu- lous heroism. These theories give wide scope to the imagination, and would sub- stitute for the traditions of the old annal- ists conjectures quite as vague and in- conclusive, however ingenious and learn- ed they may be.* It is generally agreed that the Fir- bolgs, or Belgians, were a pastoral peo- ple, inferior in knowledge to the Tuatha de Dananns, by whom, although the latter were less numerous, they were kept in subjection. It is also admitted that the Tuatha de Danann race were superior in their knowledge of the use- ful arts and in sreneral information to the Gadelian, or Scottish colony, who, however, excelled them in energy, cour- age, and probably in most physical qual- ities. To their intellectual superiority the Danann colony owed their character of necromancei's, as it was natural that a rude and ignorant people at that age should look upon skilled ■workmanship and abstruse studies as associated with the supernatural. Shortly after the establishment of Christianity in Ireland, the chronicles of the bards were replaced by regular an nals, kept in several of the monasteries, and from this period we may look upon the record of events in our liis- tory as, morally speaking, accurate. The statement of Mr. Moore, and of others of his school, that the primitive traditions of Irish history were fabricated to please a fall- en nation with delusions of past glories, is monstrously absurd. They were in existence, and were cherished by the people, ages before the fallen circiunstances which Mr. Moore contemplates. MOm^MENTS OF THE EARLY RACES. 9^1 It is probable tbat by the Tuatha de Dananns mines were first worked in Ire- land ; and it is generally believed tbat tliey were the artificers of those beauti- fullj- sbaped bi'onze swords and spear- heads that have lieen found in Ireland, and of which so many fine specimens may be seen in the museum of the Iloj'al Irish Academy. The sepulchral monu- ments, also, of tbis people evince extra- ordinary powers of mind on the part oi" those by wbom they were erected. There is evidence to show tbat the vast mounds, or artificial bills, of Drogbeda, Knowtb, Dowtb, and New Grange, along tlie banks of the Boyne, witb sev- eral minor tumuli in tbe same neighbor- hood, were erected as tbe tombs of Tua- tha de Dauann kings and chieftains; and as such they only rank after the pyra- mids of Egypt for the stupendous eiforts which were required to raise them.* As to the Firbolgs, it is doubtful whether there are any monuments re- maining of their first sway iu Ireland ; but the famous Dun Aengus and other great stone forts iu the islands of Aran are well-authenticated remnants of their • militarj^ structures of the period of the * See Dr. Petrie's " History of Tara Hill, " and Dr. Wilde's " Beauties of the BojTie and Blackwater." f In the Book of MacFirbis, written about the year 1650, it is said that " every one who is black, loquacious, lying, tale-telling, or of low and grovelling mind, is of the Firbolg descent ;" and that " every one who is fair-haired, of large size, fond of music and horse-riding, and practises the art of magic, is of Tuatha de Danann descent." See these passages quoted by Dr. WUde in an ethnological disquisition on these ancient races, founded on the peculiarities of human crania discovered under circum- Btances that identify them as belonging to the two races 4 Christian era, or thereabouts. That the Tuatha de Dananns were not a warlike people appears from the tradition of their remonstrance asrainst the first land- ing of the Milesians, when they admitted that they had no standing ai'my to resist invasion. f Again the question is raised, were these Firbolgs, and Tuatha de Dananns, and Gadelians, all Celts? And, in re- ply, it must be said that the term Celt, or Kelt, as it is more correctly jiro- nounced, was unknown to the Irish themselves ; that the word is of classic origin, and was probably as indefinite as most geographical names and dis- tinctions at that period appear to have been. Finally, it is suggested that in all probability none of the immigra- tions into Ireland were unmixed, and that the first population of the isl- and was composed of Celtic, Slavonic, and Teutonic races, mixed up iu dif- ferent proportions. A Scythian origin is claimed for all in the Irish tradi- tions, in which all are traced to Japhet, the son who received the blessing, and thi'ough him to the cradle of our race.;}: respectively. " Beauties of the Boyne and Blackwater," pp. 213, 239. i O'Flaherty, in the first part of the Ogygia, gives the following as the results of his researches about the origi- nal inhabitants of Ireland : — That the first four colonies came into Ireland from Great Britain ; that Partholan and Nemedius, descendants of Gomar by Riphat, came from Northern, and the Firbolg colony from Southern Britain ; that these races spoke different languages ; that the Tuatha de Dananns were the descendants of the Ne. medians, who, after sojourning in Scandinavia, retm'ned into North Britain, and thence, in the lapse of time, into 26 THE MILESIAN KINGS OF IRELAND. CHAPTER IV. The Milesian Kings of Ireland. — Ixial the Prophet. — Tiemmas. — Crom-Cruach ; the Paganism of the Ancient Irish. — Social Progress. — The Triennial Assembly or Parliament of Tara. — Cimbaeth. — Queen Macha. — Foundation of Emania. — Ugony the Great. — New Division of Ireland.— Pagan Oath. — A Murrain. — Maeve, Queen of Connaught. — ^Wars of Connaught and Ulster. — Bardic Romances. FROM the conquest of Ireland (b. c. 1700*) by the sons of Gollamh, or Milesius, to its conversion to Christian- ity by St. Patrick (a. d. 432), one hun- dred and eighteen sovereigns are enu- merated, whose sway extended over the whole island, independent of the petty kings and chieftains of provinces and particular districts. Of this number, sixty were of the race of Heremon, twenty-nine of the posterity of Heber Finn, twenty-four of the line of Ir, three were descended from Lugaid, the son of Ith, one was a plebeian, or Firbolg, and one was a woman. The history of their reigns is, to a great extent, made up of wars either among different branches of theii' own race or against the Firbolgs and othera ; but numerous events are also recorded which mark the progress of civilization, such as the the north of Ireland ; that tho Dsknanns being subdued by the Scots, the Firbolgs, under the latter, again flour- ished in Ireland, and enjoyed the sovereignty of Con- naught for several ages ; that the Fomorians, whether the aborigines of Ireland or not, were not descendants of Cham, nor from the sliores of Africa, but from that coun- try whence the Danes, in afterages, invaded Ireland ; and finally, that the Firbolgs and Tuatlia de Dananns had frequent intercourse with each other before the conquest of Ireland by the latter. clearing of plains from woods, the enact- ment of laws, the erection of palaces, &c. The breaking forth of several rivers and other natural phenomena are mentioned, and a great number of le- gends are related, many of them curious specimens of ancient romance. Irial, sui-named Faidh, or the Proph et, son of Heremon, began the struggle against the Fomorians and Firbolgs, the latter of whom kept the Milesian armies occasionally occupied for centuries after. The tribes of Firbolgs most frequently mentioned are the Ernai and the Mar- tinei, the former of whom are described in one place as holding the present county of Kerry, and the latter the southern portion of the county of Lim- erick ; and in the reign of Fiacha Lav- rainne, who was killed in the year B. c. 1449, the Ernai are stated to have been * We continue to employ the chronology of the Four Masters, simply turning the years of the world into the corresponding years before Christ, as being more intel- ligible ; but the reader wiU observe that, as already stated, no reliance is to be placed on these dates until we arrive -(rithin a few centuries of the Christian era. All the computations at this early period are equally uncertain ; and we insert the dates merely for the sake of method, to mark the order of events, the relative dura, tion of reigns, &c. THE IDOL CROM CRUACH. 27 routed in battle on a plain where Lough Erne, so called from them, subsequently^ flowed over the slain. Irial Faidh died on Magh Muai, which is supposed to be the plain near Knock Moy, a few miles from Tuam, after clearing a great many extensive plains and erecting several forts during the ten years of his reign. B. c. 1620. — Among the early Mile- sian kings a prominent place is assigned to Tiernmas, who is said to have been the first to institute the public worshijj of idols in Ireland. The notion which we can form of the paganism of the ancient Irish is extremely obscure. Ow- ing to the scanty information which the old manuscripts afford us on the subject, eveiy one who has written about it has had ample scope for his own favorite theory, and some of these theories have been advanced with scarcely a shadow of foundation. We shall revert to this subject again, and for the present shall refer only to the worship of Crom- Cruach, the chief idol of the Irish, which stood in Magh-Slecht, or the Plain of Adoration, in the ancient territory of Breifny.* This idol, which was covered with gold, was said to represent a hide- ous monster, and its name implies that it was stooped, or crooked, and also that it was black, for it is sometimes called Crom-Duv. It was surrounded by twelve smaller idols, and was de- stroyed by St. Patrick, who merely * The village of Ballymagaiiran and tlie island of Port, in tlie present county of Cavan, are situated in the plain anciently called Magh-Slecht. The idol stood near « river called (3»thard, and St. Patrick erected a church stretched forth towards it, from a dis- tance, his crozier, which was called the Staff of Jesus. It is probable that Tiern- mas only erected the rude statue, and that he found the worship prevailing in the country, and handed down, it may be, from the earliest Milesians ; but, at all events, he was punished for his idol- atry by .a teriible judgment, having been struck dead, with a great multi- tude of his people, while prostrate be- ■fore Crora-Cruach, on the Night of Sa- vain, or All Hallow Eve. Tiernmas reigned seventy-seven, or, according to others, eighty years ; and it was under him that gold was first smelted in Ire- land, in the district of Foharta, east of the river Lifi'ey, and that goblets and brooches were first covered with gold. According to Keating, it was he who first ordered that the rank of persons should be distinguished by the number of colors in their garments : thus, the slave should have but one color, the peasant two, the soldier three, the keeper of a house of hospitality four, the chieftain of a territory five, the oUav, or man of learning, six; and in the clothes of kings and queens seven colors were allowed. This rea;ulation is attributed by the Four Masters to the successor of Tiernmas, and the rule is also somewhat differently stated.f In the reign of Enna Airgeach, b. c. 1383, silver shields were first made at called Donoghmore in the immediate vicinity of the place. (See O'Donovan's notes at reign of Tighemmas, Four Masters, A. M. 3G56.) f The Scottish plaid is traced to this early origin. SOCIAL PROGRESS. Ail-get-Ross, or tlie Silver Wood, on the banks of the river Nore. They were given, together with horses and chariots, to the heroes and nobility. King Mone- mon, who died of plague, b. c. 1328, first caused the nobility to wear chains of gold on their necks, and rings of the same metal on their fingers. Deep wells were first dusj in the reitSfn of Fia- cha Finailches, by whom the town of Ceanannus, or Kells, was founded, b. c. 1200. Four-horsed chariots were first used in the time of Roiachty, who was killed by lightning at Dun Severick, near the Giant's Causeway, b. c. 1024. Stipends, or wages, were first paid to soldiers, and probably to other persons in public employments, in the reign of Sedna Innarry, b. c. 910 ; and silver coin is stated to have been first struck in Ireland, at the silver works of Air- get-Ross, in the reign of Enda Dearg, who, with many others, died of plague, at Slieve Mish, b. c. 881. But the greatest step in social prog- ress at that remote period of Irish his- tory was the institution of the Feis Teavrach, or ti-iennial assembly of Tara, by Ollav Fola (Ollamh Fodhla), the beginning of whose reign is fixed by the Four Masters at the year of the world 3883, corresponding with the year b. c. 131Y. If we supj^ose the event ante- dated even by several centuries, this as- sembly would, nevertheless, appear to be one of the earliest instances of a national convocation or parliament in any country. All the chieftains or heads of septs,, bards, historians, and military leaders throughout the country were regularly summoned, and M'ere required to attend under the penalty of being treated as the king's enemies. The meeting Avas held in a larcre oblons? hall, and the first three days were spent in enjoying the hospitality of the king, who entertained the entire assembly during; its sittins^s. The bards give lonw and glowing accounts of the magnifi- cence displayed on these occasions, of the formalities employed, and of the business transacted. Tables Avere ar- ranged along the centre of the hall, and on the walls at either side were suspend- ed the banners or arms of the chiefs, so that each chief on entering; mii^ht take his seat under his own escutcheon. Or- ders Avei'e issued by sound of trumpet, and all the forms were characterized by great solemnity. "What may have l^eeu the authority of this assembly, or Avhether it had any power to enact laAvs, is not clear ; but it would appear that one of its principal functions was the inspection of the national records, the AATiters of Avhich were obligred to the strictest accuracy under the Aveightiest p^enalties. These accounts of the Feis of Tara must be taken with due alloAv- ance for the coloring which the more ancient traditions on the subject re- ceived from the later writers Avho have delivered them to us ; but hoAvever cautiously we regard them — and no student of antiquity Avill now-a-days venture wholly to reject them — they should satisfy us that the pagan Irish were acquainted with the art of writing. CIMBAETH. 29 notwitlistandiug the opinion to the con- traiy of so many moderns, ■who hold that letters were not inti'oduced into Ireland before ihe time of St. Patrick. Besides the establishment of the trien- nial assembly', OUav Fola appears to have instituted other wise regulations for the government of the countrj^ Over every cantred, or hundred, he ap- pointed a chieftain, and over each town- land a kind of prefect or secondary chief, all being the servants of the king of Ireland. He constructed a rath on Tara, called from him Mur-OUavan, and died there, after a useful reign of forty years.* A few of the Irish monarchs enjayed very long reigns. Thus, Sirna Selach governed Ireland for 150 yeai's; and in a battle which he fought against the race of Heber, the Fomoriaus having been brought iu to aid the latter, a plague fell upon them during the tight, and many thousands of his enemies perished on the spot. And of king Sla- noll (that is, all health) it is related that there was no sickness iu Ireland during his reign ; that he himself died without any apparent cause ; and that his body remained uncorruj)ted and without changing color for several years after his death. B. c. Vl6. — The reigu of Cimbaeth * The real name of this king ■was Eochy (pronounced Achy), but he is only known by his surname of Ollav Fola, that is, the chief poet or learned man (Ollav) of Ireland (Fola). f The Four Masters assign the beginning of his reign to A. M. 4484, corresponding with the year B. c. 716. brings us to the commencement of what, according to Tigernach, may be consid- ered as the authentic period of the Irish annals.f It is also a remarkable epoch for other reasons, and especially for the foundation of Emania, the royal palace of Ulster. The story of this palace is curious. About this period there lived three princes, Hugh Roe, or the Ked ; Dihorba, and Cimbaeth (pro- nounced Kimbahe), the sons of three brothers, and all three- claimed equal right to the crown. A contest conse- quently arose, which was finally adjust- ed by a solemn engagement that they should reign in turn for seven years each ; and this agreement was strictly carried out, until, at the end of his third period of seven years, Hugh Roe was drowned at Easroe, or Red Hugh's Cat- aract,!}; and left a daughter, Macha, sur- named Mongroe, or the Red-haired, who, when her father's turn to rule came round again, claimed it in his stead, and made war on the other two competitors to assert her right. A battle was fought, in which the red-haired lady was victori- ous; and Dihorba having been slain, Macha arranged the dispute with the survivor, Cimbaeth, by marrying him and making him king. She then, as the legend goes, followed the five sous of Dihorba into Connaught, captured them O'Flaherty fixed it at the year B. c. 353 ; Keating about B. C. 4G0 ; and Tigernach at B. c. 305. This diversity exemplifies the uncertainty of early Irish chronology. i Now Assaroe, or the Salmon Leap, on the river Erne at Ballvshannon, where Hugh Roe was buried in th« mound now called Mullaghshee. 80 UGONY THE GREAT. by stratagem among tlie rocks of Burrin, and compelled them to build lier a palace, the site of which she herself marked out with the bodkin or pin of her cloak, whence the name of the new palace, Eamhuiii^ which signifies a ueck- pin. At all events, it was at the desire of Macha, and in the reign of her hus- band, Cimbaeth, that the i:)alace of Ema- nia, so celebrated in the history of Ire- laud for many centuries after, was con- structed. This Avas the resort of the Red-branch Knights, and the palace of the kings of Ulster for 855 years,* until finally destroyed, as we shall see, by the three Collas. After the death of Cimbaeth, Macha reigned as absolute (jueen of Ireland for seven years, when she was slain by her successor, Rachty Uidearg, who, in his turn, was slain by L'gaine Mor, or Ugony the Great, who had ])een fostered by Cimbaeth and Macha, and thus avenged the death of his royal foster-mother. B. c. 633. — Ugony, who reigned forty years, is said to have carried his vic- torious arms far out of Ireland, so that his power was acknowledged " all over the west of Europe, as far as Muir-Toir- riau," or the Mediterranean sea. He divided Ireland among his twenty-five children, and exacted from the people an oath, according to the ancient Irish * Annals of Clonmacnoise. The remainB of the palace of Eamhuin, or Emania, is now a very large rath, cor- ruptly called the Navan fort, situated about two miles west of Armagh. Near the hill is a townland which still bears, in its name of Creeveroe (Craobh-ruadh), or the Red-branch, a memorial of the ancient glory of pagan form, " by the sun and moon, the sea, the dew, and colors, and all the elements visible and invisible," that the sovereignty of Erin should not be ta- ken from his descendants forever. This mode of binding posterity appears to have been a favorite one, as we find it again adopted, in the same precise form, by Tuathal Techtmar, one of Ugony's descendants. The subdivision of Ireland into twenty-five parts was preserved for 300 years.f Ugony the Great experienced the same fate as nearly all these ancient sovereigns, who, with very few excep- tions, were slain each by his successor ; and amonor the most remarkable of the succeeding princes we find one named Maen, better known as Lavry Long- seach, or Lowry of the Ships, who, having been driven into exile by his uncle, Covagh, son of Ugony, lived some time in Gaul, and returning thence with 2,000 foreigners, landed on the coast of Wexford, and marched rapidly to the royal residence at Dinrye, on the river Barrow, which he attacked at night, killing "the king, his uncle, and thirty of the nobles, and setting fire to the palace, which was burned to the ground. He then seized the crown, and having reigned nineteen years, was, according to the customary rule, killed by his the place. — (See Stuart's " Historical Memoirs of Ar- magh.") f Of Ugony's children twenty-two were sons, and of these only two left issue, all who claim to be of the race ofHeremon tracing their descent through these two sons of Ugony. MAEVE, QUEEN OF CONNAUGHT. 31 successor (b. c. 523). Many legends are related of this Lowry of tlie Ships; and it is said that the foreigners who came with him from Gaul were armed with broad-headed lances or javelins (called in Irish laiffJme), whence the province of Leinster has derived its name.* For some centuries, about this period, few events of note are recorded. In the reign of Bresail Bodivo (b. c. 200) tliere was a mortality of kine, so great that, accordins: to the Annals of Clon- macnoise, "there were no more then left alive but one bull and one heifer m the whole kingdom, which bull and heifer lived in a place called Gleann Sawasge," that is, the Glen of the Heifer, the name of a remarkable vallej^ in the county of Kerry, where the tradition is still preserved. B. c. 142. — Eochy, or Achy, surnamed Feyleach (Feidhleach), from a habit of constantly sighing, rescinded Ugony More's division of Ireland into twenty- five parts, and divided the island into * Tliis origin of tlie name is more generally received tlian the similar one mentioned above, when treating of the Firbolg immigration. f The return of a number of the Firbolgs to Ireland, in the time of Queen Maeve, is an interesting fact in our history. It is stated in a MS. account of the Firbolgs, by MacFiibis (for the translation of a portion of which, as well as for the ideutiScation of the names that follow, we are indebted to Professor Eugene Curry), that the rem- nant of that people who continued in the Danish islands (the Hebrides) were about tliis period banished by the Picts, and that they passed over to Ireland, where they obtained, upon rent, the lands of Rath-Cealtchair, Rath- Courach, Rath Comar, &c., in Meath. The rent, however, was too heav)', and they eloped with all their movables over the Shannon, and received from Aible (as lie is here soiled) and Meabli, the king and queen of that country five provinces, over each of which he appointed a minor king, tributary to himself. To one of these, Tinne, the king of Connaught, he gave in marriage his daughter Maeve (Meadhbh) or Mab, or Maude, celebrated in the old poetic chronicles for her beauty and masculine bravery, with which, it must be con- fessed, she did not combine the quality of feminine modesty. She figures as the heroine in many of the strange romances of the period ; among the peasantry her memory has descended to the present day as that of the queen of the Fairies of Connau2;ht, and in her elfin charactei', although greatly metamorphosed, she is immortalized as the queen Mab of English fairy mythology. After the death of Tinne, Maeve reigned alone as queen of Connaught for ten years, and then married Oilioll, commander of the martial tribe of the Gamanradians, or Damuonian knights of lorras, a Firbolgic sept, also cele- brated bj'^ the bards as the Clauna Morna.f She made him king of Con- (Connanght), lands running along the coast from Cruach Patrick to Loop Head, and embracing the southern parts of Galway and Roscommon, and all Clare. They were called the Clann Umoir on their coming into Ireland on this occasion, from Aengus, the son of Umor, who was their king. The lands which they received in the west, chiefly on the seaboard, continued to beai their names. Here are a few of them : — " Aengus, the son of Umor, at Ihm Aengusa, in Arann ; Cutra, at Loch Cutra (near Gort) ; Cime, at Loch Cime (now Lough Hacket) ; Adhar. son of Umor, at Magh Adhair (poetically for Thomond) ; Slil, at Muirbheach 5Iil (now Murvagh, near Oranmore) ; Doolach, at Daoil (?) ; and Endach, his brother, at Teachan- Eandaigh (?) ; Bir, at Rinn Beara West (now Rinnbar- row, in Lough Dergart, in the Shannon) ; Mogli, at Inn- sibh Mogh (Clew Bay islands) ; lorgus, at Ceann Boirne (Black Head) ; Banne Badanbel, at Laighlinne (?) ; Con 82 B.UIDIC ROMANCES. naught, and survived him, although he lived to an advanced age. The Con- naught palace of Cruachan was erected by her; and in her time a war which lasted for seven years broke out between Ulster and Connaught, when the Ga- manradians of lorras Domnan, and the knights of the Craev Roe, or Red Branch of Emania,* were arrayed against each other, and performed won- derful exploits of valor, queen Maeve herself, at the head of her heroes, dash- ing into Ulster with her war-chariots, and sweeping the cattle of the rich fields of Louth before her across the Shannon. This deed has been celebrated in the ancient historic tale of the Tain ho Cnailgne^ or Cattle-spoil of ■ Cooley. The bards have indeed involved the whole of this period in the wildest ro- mance, tainted, as might be expected, by pagan immorality, and darkened by deeds of cruelty in warfare. f They relate as the cause of this war a moving tale about the fair Deardry and the three sons of Uisneach, and the cruelty of dium (not Concliubliar) on tlie Sea, in Inis Meadhain (one of the Arran islands) ; Lothracli, at Tulaigli Lotli- raigli (?) ; Taman, son of Umor, at Rinn Tamain, in Mcad- raidhu (near Galway) ; Conall Caol, son of Aengiis, son of Um(;r,at Carnconciill, in Aidline(now the barony ofKU- tartan in Galway); Measca, at Loch Measca (Lough llasl;); Asal, the sou of Umor, at Magh Asail, in Mun- stur (plain round Tory Hill, near Croom); Beus Beanu, sou of Umor, the poet, &c." * That the ancient Irish in very remote times had certain local orders of knighthood, cannot be denied ; and the statement that Cuchiillainn, was admitted among the Red-branch Knights of Emania at the age of seven, receives a carious illustration from an incident recorded Ijy Froissart, ■who relates that when four Irish kings were offered the honor of knighthood by Richard, Connor MacNessa, king of Ulster ; but the more probable account of the mat- ter is, that Feargus Rogy, who -was driven from Ulster by Connor in one of their intestine broils, fled into Con- naught, and engaged the interest, together with the affections, of Queen Maeve, and by her assistance made in- cursions into the territory of Connor MacNessa. Among the champions of Emania in this war were Cuchullainn, and Conall Cearnach ; and among tlip Connaught heroes were Ceat MacMa gach, the brother of King Oilioll, and Ferdia MacDamaiu, all names of Os- sianic celebrity. When Maeve was considerably more than 100 years old she was treacherously killed by the sou of Connor, in revenge for the death of, his father, who was slain by Maeve's people ; and among her numerous children were three, ot whom Feargus Rogy was the father, named Kiai-, Conmac, and Core, the progenitors of many of the families of the west and south of Ireland. Maeve king of England, they stated that it had been already conferred on them, according to the custom of their own country, when they were but seven years of age. — (Frois- sart, vol. iv., chap. Ixiv.) t About this period popular resentment rose so high throughout Ireland against the fileas or bards, for their abuse of the numerous privOeges which they enjoyed, and their perversion of the laws, that a general outbreak against them took place, and they were expelled, indis- criminately, from a great part of the coimtry ; but the tide of excitement was stayed by Connor MacNessa, who prevailed on both parties to agree to certain reforms, and set the principal fileas to work upon a codification of the laws, which was accepted by the country at large, together with the reinstatement of the expeDed fileas. — (O'Conor's Dissertations, p. 131, ed. of 1812.) PAGAN KINGS OF IRELAND. 33 lived about the commeuoemeut of the Christian era, her death, according to Tigernach, having taken place in a. d. 70, although, according to the Four Mastei-s, she flourished more than a century before the birtli of Christ. This epoch is known in Irish history as that of the provincial kings ; and strange though it .may seem, we have to trace to that remote date the origin of the Avorst ills of Ireland — namely, the subdivision of territory, and the es- tablishment of a system of petty inde- pendent toparchs, which involved the country in perpetual local wars, and gradually extinguished every trace of a controlling power or central govern- ment. CHAPTER V. Pagan kings of Ireland, continued.— Creevan brings home rich spoils from Britian. — Insurrections of the Attacotti. — Massacre of the Milesian Nobles. — King Carbry the Cat-headed. — Reign of Tuathal Teachtar. — Felimy the Lawgiver. — Conn of the Hundred Battles. — Wars of Conn and^ugene the Great. — New Division of Ireland. — Battle of Moylena. — Conary the Second. — The three Carbrys. — The Dalriads ; first Irish Settlement in Alba or Scotland. — OUiol Olum, king of Munster. — Lewy MacCon. — Glorious Reign of Cormac MacArt. — His Abdi- cation. — Carbry Liffechar. — The Battle of Qavra. — Finn MacCuail and the Fenian Militia. — The three Collas —Fall of Emania. — Niall of the Nine Hostages, &c. [Feoii the Birth op Cmtisx to a. d. 400] THERE is a difference of oj^iuion as to what Irish king reigned at the birth of Christ ; for while the Four Masters, O'Flaherty, and others assign that date to the reign of Creevan Nia- nair, the hundred and eleventh mon- arch of Ireland in O'Flaherty's list, other calculations push forward the reign of Conary the Great, the fourth preced- ing king, to the Christian era, and make Creevan a contemporary of Agricola, the Roman governor of Britain. The latter king has been famous for his predato- ry excursions against the Britons, from one of which he brought home several * Dr. Petrie and Dr. O'Donovan think that the Dun Crimhthain, or Fort of Creevan, was situated on the 5 "jewels," or precious objects; among the rest, " a golden chariot ; a golden chess-board, inlaid with a hundred transparent gems ; a cloak embroidered with gold; a conquering sword, with many serpents of refined, massy gold inlaid thereon ; a shield with bosses of bright silver ; a spear, from the wound inflicted by which no one recovered ; a sling, from which no erring shot was discharged, CHAPTER XIV. Sequel of the Danisli Wars. — ^Limits of tlie Danish power in Ireland. — Hiberno-Danisi Alliances. — Danisli Expe- ditions from Ireland into England, &c. — Conversion of the Danes to Christianity. — Consecration of Dano-Irish Bishops. — Subdivision of Territory in Ireland. — Alternate Succession. — Progress and Pretensions of Munster. — Brian Borumha. — Episode of his Brother's Murder. — Malachy II., Monarch of Ireland. — His victories over the Danes. — Wars of Brian and Malachy. — Deposition of Malachy. — Character of Brian's Reign. — ^His Piety and Wise Laws. — The Battle of Clontaef. — Death of Brian. — Consequences of the Battle. [Feom the middle of the tenth to the BEGnwiNa OF THE eleventh Centubt.] THE Danes never obtained the do- minion of Ireland as they did that of England ; nor was there consequent- ly any Danish king of Ireland such as Ensfland had in her Canute or Harold. The fii'st really formidable impression made by the Norsemen on Ireland was at the opening of the ninth century, when Cambrensis and Jocelin mention the viking Turgeis, or Turgesius, as kinc: of Ireland. These writers also * This is one of the first instances we meet of an he- reditary surname in Ireland. It was assumed from Donal's grandfather, Niall Glundubh. \ The Danes were called Africans, or Saracens, in the medieval romances. i Colgau ( Trias. TJiaum., note on cap. 17.5, of Jocelin's Life of St. PatricfS), says : — "Neither Gildas Moduda, nor John O'Dugan, in the catalo£;ue of the kings of Ire- make some obscure allusion to Gur- mundus, the son of an African prince as a conqueror of L'eland;f but this latter personage would appear to be purely fabulous, and the L'ish annals clearly show that Turgesius never could have been justly styled king of Ire- land.J Indeed, the authority of the Northmen in Ireland could not at any time be said to have extended beyond the ground occupied by their marauding land, nor the Four Masters in the same catalogue or in the Annals, nor any other writer of Irish history, native, or foreign either, as far as I know, before Giraldus Cam- brensis, enumerates Gurmundus or Turgesius among the kings of Ireland, although they make mention of Turgesius and other Normans as having, in 836 and the following years, distm-bed the peace of that country by continual battles, and spoliations, and incursions." 10 126 SEQUEL OF THE DANISH WAES. armies. The Irisli did not, like the Saxons, attempt to purchase peace from the Danes by money, but fought with desj^erate resolution in defence of them- selves and their property, and generally made the northern freebooters pay dear- ly for the spoils they took. The latter were, however, permitted to establish themselves along the coast in Dublin, Wexford, "VVaterford, Youghal, Cork, and Limerick; and when some of these strongholds were occasionally ta- ken l)y the Irish, the Danish inhabit- ants nevertheless purchased safety on easy terms. In these important sea- ports they became transformed from ])irates to merchants, occupying small districts in their neighborhood for pur- poses of agriculture, and keejiing up well-trained armies to levy black-mail in the interior. Sometimes they re- ceived such overthrows that the Irish annalists describe them as wholly driv- en from the country ; but they invaria- bly reappeared in greater force and with greater ferocity than before ; and it is obvious that the expulsion was not on those occasions complete. Thus, by degrees, did the Northmen become, as it were, a part of the recog- nized population of the country. They formed alliances, and made themselves indispensable as allies to one or other * This battle is celebrated in verse in tlie Saxon ckroni- :le; but on tlie death of Athelstan in 941, Amlaff re- turned to England and became king of Northumbria. Edgar, one of Atlielstan's successors, in a charter dated at Gloucester, 9G4, boasts of having subdued " a great part of Ireland with its most noble city of Dublin," as well as " the Kingdoms of the Islands of the Ocean, with of the Irish tojiarchs in every local quarrel. By their assistance the kings of Leinster were frequently able to re- sist the demands made for tribute both by the monarch and by the kings of Cashel. Sometimes the Danish chiefs of Dublin or Waterford left Ireland with their entire forces, apparently abandoning the country, for the pur- pose of making descents on England or Scotland, and in these excursions they were occasionaly aided by Irish allies. In 916 there was an expedition by the Danes of Waterford against Alba, or Scotland, of which Constantiue was then king, and the invaders were beaten. Again, in 925, the Danes are said to have left Dublin for six months; and in 93*7 they once more abandoned Dub- lin, led by Amlaff, or Olave, king of the Danes of Dublin and of the islands, and with numerous Irish auxiliaries invad- ed England. Constantiue of Scotland, whose daughter was married to Amlaff^ was this time an ally of the Northmen, who were also supported by the Welsh or Britons ; but they were defeated by Athelstan, king of England, in the memorable battle of Brunanburirh in Northumbria.* The period of the conversion of the Danes to Christianity cannot be fixed with precision ; but the general opinion their fierce kings ; but as far as Ireland is concerned there is no ground whatever for the assertion, unless some defeat inflicted by Edgar on the Danes, not alluded to in our annals, be referred to. The charter is publish- ed in Ussher's Sylloge, p. 121. See also Ware's Anti- quities, p. 14 (London, 1714). SUBDIVISION OF TERRITORY. 121 is, that those of Dublin became Chris- tians about the year 948, a date which is assigned to the foundation of St. Mary's Abbey, on the north side of the Liffey.* Whatever time the change took phace, the annals do not indicate any mitigation of cruelty on the part of the Danes to mark the period. In the very year in which the Danes of Dublin are said to have been converted, they burned the belfry of Slane, while filled with ec- clesiastics and others, who had sought refuge there with some precious relics, among which was the staff of the holy founder, St. Erc.f At a later period it was usual for the Danish bishops of Dublin and Limerick to be consecrated by the archbishops of Canterbury, whose jurisdiction they acknowledged, 30 little was there of the community of Christian chanty between them and their fellow-Christians in Ireland. While matters were proceeding thus with the Danes in Ireland, the native political system of the Irish themselves was producing its worst fruits. An un- limited subdivision of territory was taking place, and the number of inde- pendent dynasts multiplying according- ly. The time had passed away when the division of the island into five prov- inces could be said to hold good. There were kinoes of North and South * The death of an abbot of Clonmacnoise named Conn- Vach, said to be one of the Finngalls, is mentioned in our annals so early as 806 ; and tlie Danish chief God- fred, wlio " spared the oratories and Culdees of Ar- raagli'' in 919, is conjectured by some to have been a Christian ; but not upon sufEcicut grounds. f Among the persons burned in the tower was Coeu- Munster, besides independent lords of various territories in the southern prov- ince. Connaught was divided among two or three independent princes. Lein- ster, the battlefield of all the provinces, was at this time almost constantly in al- liance with the Danes. Bregia was able to rebel against Meath, of which it was only a portion. The Hy-Nialls of the north were subdivided into Kinel-Con- nell and Kinel-Owen. The former of these were excluded from the sovereio-a- ty since the death of Flaliertach in TOO ; and the dignity of monarch alternated from that time with tolerable regularity between the Kinel-Owen branch and the southern or Meath branch of the race of Niall of the Nine Hostages. The Uli- dians, or people of eastern Ulster, had their own king, and were rarely on ami- cable terms with tlieir Hy-Niall neigh- bors. If the principle of alternate succession worked smoothly enough between the northern and southern houses of Hy- Niall, there was still no cordiality be- tween them. One branch when in au- thority frequently devastated the terri- tory of the other, to obtain hostages or enforce payment of tribute. But wheu the southern Hy-Niall, or Meath branch, was in possession of the crown, tiiere was generally a j)alpable inferiority of power eachair, prefect of the school of Slane, whom Colgan {Trias Thaum. p. 219) believes to have been Probus, one of the biographers of St. Patrick. The event affords an illustration of one of the uses to which the Irish bel- fries or round towers were applied — namely, as places of retreat in time of war. No trace of tlxe Slane towei is now visible. 128 THE DANISH WARS. displayed. Meatli did not possess the resources of men, nor her princes often the vigorous activity and heroism which characterized the Kinel-Owen. For some time the kingdom of Mun- ster had been gradually attaining the importance to which its extent and re- sources entitled it. It suffered, to this time, less from war than any of the other provinces, and was thus rising not only within itself, but relatively by rea- son of the greater injury which the others underwent. The time had, there- fore, arrived for its kings to reassert the old claim to the sovereignty of Leath Mogha, a claim which was the real cause of all the recent wars be- tween Muuster and Leath Cuinn ; which served as a pretext for the aggressions of Felim, Cormac MacCuilennau, and Cal- laghan Cashel; and which was now al^out to rouse the energies of a more eminent man, Avhose career we are ap- proaching — namely, Brian Borumha or Boru.'"' The sovereignty of Munster was to have alternated between the two great tribes of the Dalcassians, or North Mun- ster race, and the Eoganachts, or race of South Munster; the former, as we have seen, descended from Cormac Cas, and the latter from Eoghan Mor, both sons of Oiliol Olum. But this rule was not observed; and for a long interval * The surname of Borumlia, or Boraimhe, is usually supposed to have been given from the tributes which Brian exacted ; but its most probable derivation is from Boromha, now Beal-Borumha, an ancient fort on the Shannon, about a mile north of Brian's palace of Kin- the provincial crown was monopolized by the chiefs of Desmond, or South Munster. Cormac MacCuileunan wish- ed to correct this injustice, ^nl though himself of the Eoo-anacht, or Eusfeuian line ; and his friend Lorcan, king of Thomond, did succeed to the crown of Munster, or rather of all Leath Mogha, after two intervening Eugenian reigns. On the death of Lorcan, his son Ken- nedy (Cineidi) contested, in 942, the succession with the Eugenian prince, Callaghan Cashel, but yielded in a chiv- alrous spirit, and co-operated with him in some of his wars against the Danes and others. This Kennedy was the father of the illustrious Brian Borumha. Mahon, the eldest son of Kennedy, successfully asserted his right to the croAvn of all Munster in 960, and per- formed many heroic exploits against the Danes of Limerick, and afrainst the Connaught men, who had invaded Tho- mond. In his wars he was gallantly aided, by his brother Briau, who distin- guished himself for deeds of valor from his youth. Mahon's brilliant career filled his hereditary rivals of South Mun- ster with envy and alarm, and a plot against his life was formed, a. d. 978, by Maelmhuaidh, or MoUoy (ancestor of the O'Mahonys), king of Desmond, Dono- van (ancestor of the O'Donovans), lord of Hy-Figeinte,f and Ivor, king of the cora, or the present Killaloe. — Four Masters, vol. ii., p. 1002, n. e. ■j- This important territory comprised the western part of the county of Limerick, and extended somewhat into the counties of Cork to the south, and Kerry to the west I "'acilfanus. ACCESSION OF MALACHY THE GREAT. 129 Danes, of Limerick ; tliis last-named per- son having, it is said, suggested tlie treacherous scheme. Mahon was invit- ed to a banquet at the house of Dono- van, at Bruree on the Maigue, and tlie, bishop of Cork, with several others of the clergy, were induced to give him a solemn guarantee for bis safety. He accordingly went, but was immedi- ately seized by a baud of Donovan's armed men, who handed him over to Molloy, who with a strong party lay in wait in the neigbborhood ; and next morning, in violation of the sacred pledge that had been given to bim, he was basely put to death, a sword being plunged into his bosom.* Brian took ample vengeance on the murderers of his brother. He slaughtered the Danes of Limerick iu several battles,f slew tbe treacherous lord of Hy-Figeinte, and finally overthrew Molloy, who was killed in a battle at Ballagh Leacbta, the scene of the murder, by Brian's son, Morough, then only fifteen years of age. Brian, on tbis, became king of both Munsters, and a few years later was acknowledged king of all Leatb Mogha. A. D. 979. — A battle was fought tbis year near Tara, in whicb the Danes of Dublin and the Islands were defeated with terrible slaughter, by Malachy, or Maelseachlainn, the king of Meath. The rivers Maigue and Morning Star appear to have formed its bovmdary to the east as the Shannon did to the north. * This crime was perpetrated at a hill called Ballagh Leachta, which, according to some accounts, was at Redchair, on the confines of Limerick and Cork, but ac- cording to another authority, was in the vicinity of Mac 17 Ragnal or Randal, son of Amlave, the Danish king of Dublin, was slain, with a vast number of his troops, and Am lave himself, soon after the defeat, went on a pilgrimage to lona, where he died broken-hearted. Dounell O'Neill, son of Muirkertach, the monarcb of Ireland, also died this year, after a reign of twenty-four years, and was succeeded by the king of Meath, Malachy II., some- times styled the Great. A. D. 980. — Flushed with success after the battle of Tara, Malachy, immedi- ately on his accession to the sovereignty, marched against the Danes of Dublin, laid siege to the city, which he captured after being three days before its walls, and liberated two thousand Irish pris- oners whom he found there, including the king of Leinster, besides taking a large amount of rich spoils. It was stipulated that all the race of Niall should be henceforth free from tribute to the foreigners ; and Malachy issued a proclamation declaring every Irishman then in bondage to the Danes released from captivity. Unfortunatel)', this auspicious com- mencement of Malachy's reign was soon marred by the bane of ancient Ireland — intestine wars. The successes and pretensions of the enterprising king of Munster excited the monarch's jealousy. room, in Cork. See note by Dr. O'Donovan, Four Mas- ters, an. 974 {rcste 976). f One of these battles was fought (a. d. 977) on Inis Cathy, where Brian made a fearful slaughter of the Danes ; and he followed up this success by driving them from all the other islands of the Shannon. 130 REPEATED DEFEATS OF THE DANES. Brian's claim to the sovereignty of Leatli Mogha was, in fact, an imperative call to arms. Malachy accordingly entered the territory of the Dalcassians (a. d. 081), and, while laying waste the coun- try, caused the great oak-tree of Magh Adhair,* under which the kings of Tho- niond were inaugurated, to be taken up by the roots and destroyed. This was an unnecessary outrage, not easily to be foi'given, and showed the bitterness by which Malachy was animated. The annals of the period present a chequered enumeration of plundering excui*sions, in which no party seems to have been free from blame. On various occasions Malachy showed his resent- ment against Brian. He sent a hostile army into Leinster in defiance of him, but this act was followed by a treaty, in which Brian's claim as king of Leath Moojha was admitted. Recalled from one of his forays by the reviving power of the Danes, Malachy again (a. d. 989) led an army against Dublin, defeated tlie Danes in battle, and laid siege " for twenty nights" to the Danish citadel, reducing the garrison to such straits that they were obliged to drink the salt water which they could procure when the tide rose in the river. At length he accepted terms, the Danes, in addition to former tributes, undertaking to pay him, annually on Christmas night during his reign, an ounce of gold for every garden attached to a dwelling in * This is a place now called Mojtc, near Tiillagb, in the county of Clare. It derives its name from a Firbolg chief, Adhar, vide supra, p. 31, note. Dublin, A few years later, Malachy and Brian were again at war, the latter being now, as far as we can judge, the aggressor ; for, while the monarch was engaged in Connaught, Brian sent an army up the Shannon in boats and made an inroad into Meath, burning the royal rath of Dun Sciath. Upon this, Ma- lachy, recrossing the Shannon, marched towards the south, burned Nenagh (Aenach-Tete), plundered all Ormond, and defeated Brian himself in battle (a. d. 994). He then marched once more against the Danes of Dublin, car- rying away, among other spoils, the ring or chain of Tomar, a Scandinavian chief, who was killed, a. d. 846, in the battle of Sciath Neachtain, near Calstleder- motf Three years after these events (a. d. 997 according to the Irish annals, but A. D. 998 according to our modern com- putation), we find Malachy and Brian, with the men of Meath and Munster, acting in conjunction, " to the great joy of the Irish," as the annalists tell us, and attacking the Danes of Dublin, whom they plundered of a great por- tion of their wealth. The following year the two kings gained an impor- tant victory over the Danes, who were led by Harold, son of Amlave, at Glen Mama, a valley near Dunlaven^ in Wicklow, where Prince Harold was slain.- The Irish army then marched to Dublin, where they remained for a f Tliis exploit is the theme of Moore's popular melody, " Let Erin remember the days of old," &c. DEFECTION OF BRIAN. 131 week, burned the citadel, expelled Sit- ric, son of Amlave, the Danish king, and took a number of prisoners and a large quantity of gold and silver. Af- ter so many defeats the Danish power must have been in a very feeble state ; indeed, it only required unanimity, vigor, and foresight, on the i^art of the Irish jjrinces, to expel all the Northmen from Ireland ; but short-sighted policy still prevailed, and the "tribute ob- tained fi'om the Danes, together with the wealth brought by their merchants into the country, now made them ob- jects of avarice rather than fear to the native kiugs. A. D. 999 (1000).— This year is re- markable for the revolution which de- posed Malachy,and raised Brian Borum- ha to the dignity of monarch of Ireland in his stead; but the accounts of the disputes between these two kings are so distorted by provincial partisanship that we can do no more than guess at the truth. The southern annalists rep- resent Malachy as quite incapable of ruling Ireland, and Brian as only yield- ing to the «olicitations of the other Irish princes in assuming the reins of govern- ment. They speak of general councils of the nation, and of a year's grace given in vain to Malachy to retrieve his cre,dit. But the authentic annals of the Four Masters have not one word about all this, which, besides, is incon- sistent with the active career of war and victory which we have seen Mala- chy thus far pursue. The character of Brian is popularly described as fault- less; and if the unprejudiced mind finds it difficult to acquit him altogeth- er of ambition and usurpation, still the use to which he converted the power he acquired, and the benefits, though transitory, which redounded from it to his country, to religion, and to civili- zation, may palliate faults not very ' heinous in themselves, consideiing the spirit and circumstances of the age in which he lived. In the year last referred to the Four Masters say that Brian collected an army, composed, in addition to his own Dal- cassians and the men of Munster in general, of the forces of South Con- naught, Ossory and Leinster, and of the Danes of Dublin, and marched against Malachy, with whom he is not stated to have had any cause of quarrel on this occasion. The Danish contin- gent, consisting of cavalry, dashed ahead into Bregia, to enjoy the first-fruits of the plunder, but they were encountered by the monarch himself, and cut off al- most to a man. This sturdy rece^^tiou, which indicated no want of vitality on the part of Malachy, had its due effect, and Brian's invading army returned home without fighting or pillaging; but some assert that Malachy made concessions, and that Brian, though sure of victory, did not urge a battle. "This," say the northern annalists, " was the first turning of Brian and the Connaught men against Malachy."* * Dr. O'Donovan, in the Annals of the Four Masters, vol. ii., p. 742, note d, observes on this passage, that Ti- ghernach, who lived very near the period, calls Brian's ^ 132 DEPOSITION OF MALACHY. Next year a Munster army commit- ted some depredations in Meath, and was comi^elled to relinquish its plun- der. But the star of Malachy had waned, and, seeins; that the feelins; of the country was favorable to his rival, he submitted to his fate. Hence, when Brian, with an array comj^osed partly of Danes, marched the following year, A. J). 1001 (1003 of the common era), to Athlone, Malachy gave him hosta- ges, or in other words, surrendered to him the crown of Ireland.* At the same time Brian received the hostages of Connaught; and Ihen with a com- bined force, a section of which was led by Malachy himself, who followed Bri- an's standard as one of his lieges, he proceeded northward to bring Ulster into subjection. The northern Hy-Ni- alls, were not, however, yet prepared to acquiesce in the revolution ; and Hugh, son of Donnell O'Neill, heir ap- parent to the sovereignty, with other northern chieftains marched out to op- pose him, but the armies hajjing met at opposition to Malachy '■ turning through guile or treach- ery :" and in a preceding note he remarks : — " Dr. O'Bri- en, in his Law of Tanistry, and others, assert that Mael- Beachlainn resigned the monarchy of Ireland to Brian because he was not ahle to master the Danes ; but this is all provincial fabrication, for Maelseachlainn had the Danes of Dublin, Meath, and Leinster completely mastered, until Brian, whose daughter was married to Sitric, Danish king of Dublin, joined the Danes against him. Never was there a character so historically ma- ligned as that of Maelseachlainn II. by Munster fabrica- tors of history." * Mr. Moore (Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 101), says: "The ready acquiescence with which, in general, so violent a change in the iJolity of the country was sub- mitted to, may be in a great degree attributed to the example of patience and disinterestedness exhibited by the immediate victim of this revolution, the deposed Dundalk (Dun Dealgan) separated without fighting, chiefly, as we are led to suppose, from Brian's unwillingness to shed the blood of his countrymen. It was some years, indeed, before he suc- ceeded in reducing the Hy-Nialls of the north to submission ; but in 1010 he compelled the Kinel Eoghain and the Ulidians to give him hostages, and in the following year he took the lord of Kinel Connell prisoner, and carried him to his j^alace at Kincora.f Hith- er he also conducted other refractory princes, and he at length succeeded in reducing the numerous petty kings and dynasts, whose mutuals quarrels and a(T(Tressions were the curse of Ireland, into complete subordination. This led to that happy state of tranquillity and obedience to the laws whicli the bards have illustrated by the well-known fa- ble of a beautiful lady carrying a gold ring on a white wand, and passing un- molested though the land. What Brian had effected for his own province of Munster, before he became Malachy himself. Nor, in forming our estimate of this prince's character, from a general view of liis whole career, can we well hesitate in coming to the conclu- sion, that not to any backwardness in the field, or want of vigor in council, is his tranquil submission to the violent encroachments of his rival to be attributed ; but to a regard, rare at such an unripe period of civilization, for the real interests of the public weal, and an unwil- lingness to risk, for his own personal views, the explo- sive burst of discord which, in so inflammable a state of the political atmosphere, a struggle for the monarchy would, he knew, infallibly provoke." f The name Ceaun Coradh signifies the Head of the Weir, and the site of this celebrated fortress and palace of Brian Borumha is comprised in the present town of Killaloe, that is, Cill Dalua, or the Church of St. Lua oi Molua, a saint of the seventh century. INSTITUTION OF SURNAMES. 133 mouarch of Ireland, lie now, as fur as possible, did for tlie whole country. He restored monasteries and scliools destroyed by the Danes ; caused the desecrated churches to be rebuilt and consecrated, and founded new ones; but, among the latter, the only ones men- tioned by name are those of Killaloe and Iniscealtra. He built the round tower of Tuamgreine (Tomgrany) in the present county of Clare; erected new forts and strengthened old ones ; en- couraged commerce and promoted learn- ing and piety. On visiting Armagh, at the commencement of his reign, he laid au offering on the principal altar there of twenty ounces of gold — a large * On this visit to Armagh in 1004, Brian got liis secre- tary, Jlaelsuthain {Cixlvus^erennis) to write in his pre- sence, in the Book of Armagh, a confirmation of certain dues to that church, which had been paid since the time of St. Patrick ; and in the entry, which stOl exists, Brian is styled Intperatoris Scotorum. On this occasion he encamped for a week in the great fort of Emania the ancient palace of the kings of Ulster. f The most ancient account, says Dr. O'Donovan, of the fact of Brian first establishing surnames, is found in a fragment of a MS. in the Library of Trinity CoUege, Dublin (H. 3, 16), supposed to be part of MacLiag's Life of Brian Borumha, in which the following passage oc- curs :— " It was Brian that gave out seven monasteries both furniture, and cattle, and land ; and thirty-two Cloictheachs (or Eoimd Tower belfries) ; and it was by him the marriage ceremony was confirmed (made bind- ing) : and it was during his time that surnames were first given, and territories were allotted to the sur- names, and the boundaries of every territory and cantred were fixed." The following is the origin of some of these surnames: — The MacCarthys of Desmond, from Car- thach, who was slain in 1045 ; the Fitzpatricks, or Mac- Gillapatricks of Ossory, from GiUaphadarig, lord of Os- sory, who was slain in 99.5 ; O'Phelan, from Faelan, lord of the Deisi, whose son Donnell was one of those by whom the aforesaid GiUaphadarig was killed ; MacMurrough of Leinster, from Murchadh (sou Diarmaid, son of Mael- na-mbo, king of Leinster), who died in 1070 ; MacXa- mara of Thomond, from Cumara (dog of the sea), who amount at that period — and made gen- erous presents for the support of our religion in other churches.* Among the useful laws which Brian instituted was one for fixing surnames. Before this time (a. d. 1002) a few sur- names, as that of O'Neill, were coming into use ; but from Brian's reign they became imperative, and each family selected the name of some distinguished ancestor, which, with the jDrefix Mac or 6>, "sou," or "grandson," was to be thenceforth the family name. With few exceptions, the ancestors thus chosen were men who flourished in the tenth, or the beginning of the eleventh, cen- turies.f flourished in 1074 ; O'Brien of Thomond, from Brian Borumha ; O'Callaghan of Desmond, from Ceallachan, who flourished in 1092, and was the fourth in descent from Ceallachan Caisil, king of Munster, and common ancestor of the MacCarthys ; O'Conor of Connaught, from Conchobhar, or Conor, king of Connaught, who died in 974 ; O'Conor of Corcomroe, from Conor who was slain in 1003 ; O'Conor Kerry, from Conor, whose grandson, MacBeatha, was slain at Clontarf ; O'Donnell of Tirconnell, from an ancestor who flourished in 950 ; O'Donoghue of Kerry, from an ancestor who flourished in 10.jO ; O'Donovan, from Donovan, king of Hy-Fidli- geinte, slain by Brian Borumha in 976 ; O'Dowda of Mayo, from an ancestor in 876 ; O'Dugau, or Duggan of Fermoy, from Dubhagan, killed at Clontarf ; O'Heyne, or Hynes of Galway, from Eidhin, whose grandson was killed at Clontarf; O'KeUy of Hy-Many, from an ancestor who flourished in 874 ; O'Madden of Hy-Many, from Ma- dudhan, slain in 1008 ; O'Mahony of Desmond, descended frpm Kian (son of MoUoy, who was present at Clontarf) ; O'Melaghlin of Meath, from Maelseachlain, or Malachy II., king of Ireland ; O'MoUoy ofthe King's county, from an ancestor in 1019 ; O'Neill of Tyrone, from Niall Glun- dubh, king of Ireland, in 919 ; O'Quin of Thomond, from NiaU O'Cuinn, slain at Clontarf; O'Rourke of Brefl'ny, from Euarc, son of Tighearnan, who died in 893 ; O'Sulli- van of Desmond, from Suillcvan, about 950 ; and O'Toole of Leinster, from Tijathal, son of L^gaire, who flom-ished in 935. — {Chifjiy from Essays, hy Dr. O'Donovan, on Irkh names.) Surnames were generally introduced 134 PREPARATIONS FOR WAR. A. T>. 1013. — Sucli is the glowing pic- ture drawn bj^ Irish historians of the victories, wise government, and many virtues of Brian Borumha; laut the interval of tranquillity which he had created was brief, and the odium of violating it is cast upon Maelmordha MacMurrough,* who, through the as- sistance of the Danes, had some years previously usurj^ed the throne of Lein- ster. It is said that this prince received some offence from Brian's son Murrough, at the court of Kineora, and that in order to be revenged he stirred up his allies, the Danes of Dublin, to acts of aggression. Be the cause w'hat it may, a storm was raised, which, though short, was the most serious in its results that Ireland had yet witnessed. The Danes and Leinster men commenced it (a. d. 1013) by an inroad into Meath, where they were routed by Malachy, Avho is then said to have solicited the assist- ance of Brian, but unsuccessfully ; and it was only after another conflict near Ben Edar, or Howth, in which Malachy lost his son, Flann, and two hundred men, that the venerable hero of Kin- througliout Europe in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries. The custom of the Irish was not to take names or titles from places, as in other coimtries ; but, on the coQtrary, to give the family names to the lands or seigniories they held. See Ogygia Vindicated, p. 170 ; Four Masters, vol iii. p. 90, n. p. * This king was the ancestor, not of the MacMur- roughs or Kavanaghs, as some suppose, but of the O'Beirnes of Leinster. His sister, Gormliath, was first the wife of Amlave the Dane, by whom she had Sitric, king of Dublin ; and she then became the second wife of Brian Borumha, who soon after repudiated her ; and, according to the Niala Saga, in which she is called the beautiful Kormloda, it was she who, in revenge, stirred cora became sensible of the menacing nature of the new outbreak. Brian now sent an army under his son, Morough, into Leinster to make reprisals, and they plundered the country " from Glenda lough to Kilmainham (Cill-Maigh- neaun) ;" and later in the year he him- self marched at the head of a consider- able force to the vicinity of Dublin, where he remained encamped for three months ; but the enemy not venturing out, he returned to the south about Christmas, contenting himself with plundering the territory of the traitor Maelmordha. A. D. 1014.— Meanwhile, the Danes had been making extraordinary prepar- ations for war. Envoys were despatched for aid into Norway, the Orkneys, and the Baltic Islands; and the foreigners gathered, as the annals tell us, "from all the west of Europe." It was repre- sented that an opportunity offered for obtaining complete possession of Ireland, and great numbers of the vikings ac- cordingly came witli their families for the purpose of taking up their residence permanently.f At this moment the up the northern searkings against Brian, and brought about the battle of Clontarf. f la the chronicle of Ademar, monk of St. Eparchius of Anguoleme, quoted by Lanigan from Labbe (Nova Bibl. MSS. to(ji. 3, p. 177), it is stated that the Northmen came at that time to Ireland with an immense fleet, conveying their wives and children, with a view of ex- tirpating the Irish and occupying in their stead " that very wealthy country in which there were twelve cities, with extensive bishoprics and a king, and which had its own language and Latin letters, and was converted by St. Patrick," &c. Labbe thinks the Chronicle was writ> ten before 1031, in which case tho writej was contempo- rary with Brian Borumha, and the do xit the oldest THE BATTLE OF CLONTARF. 135 same people vrere effectually making themselves masters of Eaglaud. Sweyn was proclaimed king of England in 1013, and Canute the Great became un- disputed monarcli of England in lOlt; so tliat it is little wonder if, fluslied witli a career of such triumph elsewhere, the Danes should have reckoned with cer- tainty on finally obtaining the coveted soil of Ireland, on which they had now had a partial footing for two hundred years. A thousand Northmen, encased in ringed armor from head to foot, came under the command of Anrud and Car- lus, sons of the king of Norway ; Sigurd, son of Lodar, earl of the Orknej^s, ar- rived at the head of a powerful band ; and a numerous fleet of the northern vikinofs was under the command of their admiral, Brodar, who, according to Scan- dinavian accounts, was an apostate from Chi'istianity, a great blasphemer, and an adept in magic. Neither was the king of Leinster idle, for he mustered all his fighting-men, to the number, it is said, of 9,000; and the Danes of all Ireland were prepared to strike a despei'ate blow for the recovery of their former power. Brian could not have been aware of the full extent of these preparations; yet he, too, was resolved to make a gal- lant effort, and collected a considerable armj^, chiefly from the south and west. The year was ushered in with depreda- tions by the Danes and Leinster men in Meath and Bregia, and a challenge from as Dr. Lanigan thinks, in whicli the name of Irlavda is applied to this country. * Cluain Tarbh, the lawn or meadow of the hulls. Maelmordha to Brian to meet him with his army on the spacious plaia of Moy- nealta, or, rather, on that jiart of it called Clontarf * The Irish army arrived about the middle of April, a. d. 1014, at their usual camping ground of Kilmainham, which extended on both sides of the Liffey, and comjDrised the land now called the Phcenix Park ; and Brian detached a body of his Dalcassians, un- der his son Donough, to devastate Lein- ster, which was unprotected in the ab- sence of Maelmordha and his army. The Danish admiral, Brodar, with his auxiliaries, entered Dublin bay on Palm Sunday, the 18th of April, and Donough's movement having been com- municated to Maelmordha by some traitor in Brian's camp, it was resolved that the battle should be hastened while the Irish array was weakened by his absence. According to a Danish legend, Brodar had been informed by some pagan oracle that if the battle took place on Friday Brian would fall, al- though victorious, while if it were fought on any other day of the week all his assailants would be slain ; and it is said that the Danes therefore resolved to make the attack on Good Friday. The exact site of the battle seems to be tolerably well defined. In Di-. O'Conor's edition of the Four Masters it is called " the battle of the fishing weir of Clontarf;*!- and the weir in f Caih Ooradh Oluana tarWi — which Dr. O'Conor erroneously translates, " Prmlium heroiciim Gluan tarWiim." 136 THE BATTLE OF CLONTARF. question was at the mouth of the Tolka or Tulcaiun, -wliei'e Ballybougli bridge now stands. It also appears that the principal destruction of the Danes took place when in their flight they endeav- ored to cross the Tolka, no doubt at the moment of high water, when num- bers of them were drowned ; it is ex- pressly stated that they were jjursued with great slaughter "from the Tolka to Dublin." "We may, therefore, pi'e- sume that their lines extended along the coast, with their left wing resting on the little river just mentioned, and protected by the marshes which then covered the low ground between that and the mouth of the Liifey; while their risrht wins: extended in the direction of Dollymount ; the newly-arrived Danish fleet being anchored either at Howth or in the rear of the army. The Danish and Leiuster forces, num- bering together about 21,000 men, were disposed in three divisions, of which the first, or that nearest to Dublin, was com- posed of the Danes of Dublin, under their king, Sitric, and the princes Dolat and Conmael, with the thousand mailed Norwegians under the youthful waniors Carlus and Anrud. The second, or cen- tral division, was composed chiefly of the Lagenians, commanded by Mael- mordha himself, and the princes of Of- faly and of the territory of the Liffey f and the thii'd division, or right wing, was made up of the auxiliaries from the * The Annals of Clonmacnoiso say the O'Mores and O'Nolans did not join the other Leinster septs at C'lon- tarf. Baltic and the Islands, under Brodar, admiral of the fleet, and Sigurd, son of Lodar, earl of the Orkneys, together with some auxiliaries from Wales and Cornwall. To oppose these the Irish monarch also marshalled his forces in three corps or divisions. The first, composed chiefly of the diminished legion of the brave Dalcassians, was under the command of his son Morough, Avho had also with him his four brothers, Teige, Donnell, Conor, and Flann, sons of Brian, and his own son, Turlough, who was but fifteen years of age. In this division was placed Malachy, with his contin- gent of a thousand Meath men ; and here we may refer to the dishonorable charges made against this deposed king by all the southern chroniclers, who as- sert that he was the traitor who had apprised Maelmordha of Donough's de- parture from the camp with .a large detachment of the Dalgais into Leinster, and that on the morning of the battle he withdrew his troops from the Irish lines, and remained inactive throughont the da}^ This unworthy conduct is so inconsistent with the whole career of Malachy that the charge has been re- jected by Mr. Moore in his History of Ireland, and by Dr. O'Donovan in his notes to the Four Masters ; yet we believe it has not been imputed to him without sufiicient grounds, and that more recent researches will be found to establish the fact that Malachy made oveitures to Teige O'Kelly, the com- mander of the Conn aught army, to THE BATTLE OF CLONTARF. 137 abandon Brian on the eve of tlie battle. Malachy's sympathies were Meatliian rather than national, and, considering the j)rovocation which he had received from the man who usurped his crown, we may find some excuse for him in the circumstances ; even admitting, what ap- pears to be the fact, that he held aloof with the army of Meath during the early part of the fight. We shall pres- ently see that before the close of the day he made amends for the morning's dereliction of duty. Brian's central division comprised the troops of Desmond, under the command of Cian, son of Molloy (ancestor of O'Mahony), and Donnell, son of Duv- davoran (ancestor of O'Donoghoe), both of the Eugenian line ; together with the other septs of the south, under their respective chiefs, viz. : Mothla, son of Faelan, king of the Desies; Muirker- tach, son of Anmcha, chief of Hy-Lia- thain (a territory in Cork) ; Scannlan, son of Cathal, chief of Loch Leiu, or Killarney ; Loingseach, son of Dunlaing, chief of the territory of Hy-Conall Gav- ra, comprised in the present baronies of Upper and Lower Connello, in the county of Limerick ; Cathal, son of Donovan, chief of Carbry-Eva (Kenry, in the same countj^) ; MacBeatha, chief of Kerry Luachra ; Geivennach, son of Dugau, chief of Fermoy ; O'Carroll, king * The Danes were better equipped in the battle than their antagonists, and the fame of their ringed and scaled armor was spread far through Ireland. In an Irish legend of the time, the Banshee, Eevin of Craglea, is represented as endeavoring to keep O'Hartagan from the fight by reminding him that while the Gaels were 18 of Eile ; and, according to some accounts, O'Carroll, king of Oriel, in Ulster. The remaining Irish division, Avhich formed the left wing ojiposed to the great body of the newly-arrived for- eigners in the Danish right wing, was composed mainly of the forces of Con- naught, under Teige O'Kelly, king of Hy-Many ; O'Heyne, or Hynes, king of Hj^-Fiachra Aidhna; Dunlaing O'Har- tagan ; Echtigern, king of Dal Aradia, and some others. Under the standard of Brian Borumha also fought that day the Maermors, or great stewards of Lennox and Mar, with a contingent of the brave Gaels of Alba. It Avould even appear, from a Danish account, that some of the Northmen who had always been friendly to Brian fought on his side at Clontarf. Some other L'ish chief- tains besides those enumerated above are mentioned in the Innisfallen Annals, as those of Teffia, &c. A large body of hardy men came from the distant mari- time district of Connemara ; many war- riors fiocked from other territories, and, on the whole, the rallying of the men of Ireland in the cause of their country on that memorable occasion, as much as the victory which their gallantry achieved, renders the event a proud and cheering one in Irish history. It is sup- posed that Brian's army numbered about twenty thousand men.* only dressed in " satin shirts," the Danes were enveloped in "coats of iron." But the Irish battle-axes were bet ter than any defensive armor. Cambrensis tells us that these terrible weapons were -nielded by the Irish with one hand, and thus descended from a greater height and with greater velocity, " so that neither the crested hel- 138 THE BATTLE OF CLONTARF. The Danes bavinof resolved to fio-lit on Good Friday, contrary to the wishes of Brian — ivho was unwilling to dese- crate that daj^ with a scene of carnage, and who also desired to await the re- turn of his son Donough — and the re- spective armies being marshalled as we have described, the venerable Irish mon- arch appeared on horseback at break of day, and rode along the lines, animating the spirits of his men. While he grasped his sword in the right hand, he held a crucifix in the left, and addressing the troops, reminded them of all the tyran- ny and oppression of the hateful enemy wlio stood against them ; of all their sacrilegious outrages; their church-burn- ings and desecration of sacred relics; their murders and plunder, and innu- merable perfidies. "The great God," he continued, " hath at length looked down upon our sufferings, and endued you with the power and the courage this day to destroy forever the tyranny of the Danes, and thus to punish them for their innumerable crimes and sacri- leges, by the avenging power of the sword ;" and raising aloft the crucifix, he exclaimed, " was it not on this day met could defend tlie head, nor the iron folds of the armor the body. Whence it has happened, even in our times," he continues, " that the whole thigh of a soldier, though cased in well-tempered armor, has been lopped oflfby a single blow of the axe, the limb falling on one side of the horse, and the expiring body on the other." Besides these broad axes, which were exceedingly well steeled, the Irish, according to Cambrousis, used short lances and darts, and they were " very dexterous, be- yond other nations, in slinging stones in battle, when other weapons failed them." Top. Hib. dist. 3, cap. 10. Their swords were ponderous, of gTeat length, and edged only on one side. Harris's Ware, vol. ii., p. 1G3. that Christ himself suffered death for you ?" He then gave the signal for action, and the venerable king Avas about to lead his Dalcassian phalanx to the charge, but the general voice of the chieftains compelled him to retire into the rear, and to leave the chief com- mand to his sou Morough.* Tlie battle then commenced, " a spir- ited, fierce, violent, vepgeful, and fu- rious battle, the likeness of which was not to be found in that time," as the old annalists quaintly describe it. It was a conflict of heroes. The chieftains engaged at every point in single com- bat, and the greater part of them on both sides fell. The impetuosity of the Irish was irresistible, and their battle- axes did fearful execution, every man of the ten hundred mailed warriors of Norway having been cut doAvn by the Dalcassians. The heroic Morough per- formed prodigies of valor throughout the day. Ranks of men fell before him ; and hewing his way to the Dan- ish standard, he cut down two success- ive bearers of it with his battle-axe. f Two Danish leaders, Carlus and Con- * The age of Brian, according to the usually received accounts, was eighty-eight, and that of Morough sixty- three ; but the date (941) given for the birth of Brian, in the Annals of Ulster, would make his age at the bat- tle of Clontarf only seventy-three ; and Dr. O'Donovan, who thinks that to be the true account, conjectures that his son Morough was no more than forty-three years of age. Morough's son Turlough was a youth of o.nly fif- teen years. f This achievement is mentioned in the Danish ac- count of the battle, in which Morough is called Ker- thialfadr. & O t3 -^ z < THE BATTLE OF CLONTARF. 139 mael, enraged at tliis success, rushed on Lim together, but Loth fell in rapid succession by his sword. Twice, Mor- ough and some of his chiefs retired to slake their thirst and cool their hands, swollen from the violent use of the sword and battle-axe, and the Danes, observing the vigor with which they returned to the conflict, succeeded by a desperate eftbi-t in filling up the brook which had refreshed them. Thus the battle raged from an early hour in the moruino', innumerable deeds of valor being performed on both sides, and victorj^ appearing still doubtful, until the third or fourth hour in the after- noon, when a fresh and desperate effort was made by the^Irish ; and the Danes, now almost destitute of leaders, began to waver and'give way at every point. Just at this moment the I^orweo-ian prince, Anrud, encountered Morough, ^vho was unable to I'aise his arms from fatigue, but who with the left hand seized Anrud, and, shaking him out of his armor, hurled him to the earth, while Avith the other he placed the point of his sword on the breast of the prostrate Northmen, and leaning on it plunged it though his body. While Morough, however, was stoo23ing f(_>r this purpose, Anrud contrived to in- flict on him a mortal Avound with a dagger, and the Irish warrior fell in the arms of victory. This disaster had not the eftect of turning the fortune of the day, for the Danes and their allies were in a state of utter disorder, and along their whole line had commenced flying towards the city or to their ships. They plunged into the Tolka at a time when the river must have been swollen with the tide, as great numbers were drowned. The body of young Tur- lough was found after the battle " at the weir of Clontarf," with his hands entangled in the hair of a Dane with whom he had grappled in the pursuit. But the chief tragedy of the day re- mains to be related. Brodar, the pi- rate admiral, seeing the route general, was. making his way through some thickets with only a few attendants, when he came ujjon the tent of Brian Borumha, left at that moment without his guards. The fierce viking rushed in and found the aged monarch at prayer before the crucifix, which he had that morning held up to the view of his troops, and attended only by a boy, Conaing, the son of his brother Duncuan. Brian, however, had time to seize his arras, and died sword iu hand. The Irish accounts say, that he killed Brodar, and was only overcome by numbers; but the Danish version in the Niala Saga is more probable, and in this Brodar is represented as holding up his reeking sword and cry- ing : — " Let it be proclaimed from man to man that Brian has been slain by Brodar." It is added on the same au- thority that the ferocious i^ii'ate was then hemmed in by Brian's returning guards, and captured alive, and that he was hanged upon a tree, and continued to rage like a beast of prey until he was eviscerated ; the Irish soldiers thus 140 THE BATTLE OF CLONTARF. taking savage vengeance for the death of their king, who but for their own neijlect would have been safe. To this period of the T)attle may be applied tlie statement of the Four Mas- ters to Avhich we have already alluded, namely, that the foreigners and Lein- ster men " were afterwards routed by dint of battling, bravery, and striking, by Maelseachlainn (Malachy) from Tul- cainn (the Tolca) to Ath-Cliath (Dub- lin)." According to the account insert- ed in the Dublin copy of the Annals of Innisfallen, thirteen thousand Danes and three thousand Leinster men fell in the battle and the flight, but this is a modern exaggeration.' The authentic Annals of the Four Masters say, that " the ten hundred in armor were cut to pieces, and at least three thousand of the foreigners slain ;" the Annals of Ulster state that seven thousand of the Danes perished by field and flood ; the Annals of Boyle, which are very an- cient, count the mimber of Danes slain in the same way as the Four Masters do ; so that, in all probability, the Ul- ster Annals include the Leinster men in their sum total of the Danish side. The loss of the Irish is also variously stated, but it cannot have been much less than that of the enemy. Ware seems to doubt whether the Irish had a decided victory, and mentions a report that the • Ademar's Chronicle, as quoted above. This ■writer adds, what we know to be an error, that the battle last. ed tliree days. The preceding details of the battle of Clontarf are collected from the Annals of Innisfallen, and other Southern authorities, quoted by O'Halloran, Danes rallied at the close of the battle ; Init the doubt which he raises merits no attention, seeing that even the Da- nish accounts admit the total rout, and the great slaughter of their own troo]5S. The Scalds of Norway sang dismal strains about the conflict, which they always call " Brian's Battle ;" and a Scandinavian chieftain, who remained at home, is represented as inquiiing from one of the fev/ who had returned, what had become of his men ? and re- ceiving, for answer, "that all of them had fallen by the sword !" A contem- porary French chronicler describes the defeat of the Northmen as even more sanguinary than it really was, stating that all of them were slain, and that a number of their women thi-ew them- selves in despair into the sea.* According to the Annals of Ulster, and other Irish authorities, there Avere amona: the slain on the side of the ene- my, Maelmordha, son of Murchadh, king of Leinster; Brogovan, tanist of Hy- Falgia; Dunlaing, son of Tuathal, tan- ist of Leinster ; Donnell O'Farrell, king of the Fortuaths of Leinster; Duvgall, son of Amlave, and Gillakieran* son of Gluniarn, two tanists of the Danes ; Sigurd, son. of Lodar ; Brodar, who had killed Brian ; Ottir Duv ; Suartgar ; Duncha O'Herailv ; Grisane ; Luimni and Amlave, sons of Lagmainn, .y Mother. To thee il come; before thee I stand, sinful and so -ft-l.* Mother of the Word mean; r7°'-.V petitions, but in thy mery iw and answer lue. Amen. ' KjAa-i.^TioN.-"Sweet Heart of Mary, be ') salvation." ^ , he found, relaxation would arfare, 3rtions volved d quite nstrous in the ae mere 11 have Bernard •ror ; yet on men's very lay nalists — lout any aerally as ■ penance therefore, diation of )f the few fc rude age, 1* St.Au- of Canter- bury, in his correspondence with the prelates of the south of Ireland, and with king Murtough O'Brien, in the years 1095 and 1100, although he evin- ces extreme anxiety for the interests of * Tliis abuse ^vas not confined to Ireland. A canon of the Council of London was framed against a precisely similar abuse in 1125 ; and in the time of Cambrensis there were lay abbots in Wales who took all the real property of the monasteries into their own hands, leav- ing the clergy only the altars and their dues, and placing children or relatives of their own in the church for the purpose of enjoying even these. — Ttin. Carribr., b. c. 4. t See this corespondence printed in Ussher's Sylloge. % The former of these charges is the mere suggestion of sectarian bias, without any foundation. Thus it is 20 religion, indicating that there were some irregularities to be reformed, still com- pliments the king on his excellent ad- ministration, and passes a high eulogium upon those bishops of whom he seems to have had any knowledge, namely, those of the southern dioceses.f We may, indeed, from this and many other circumstances, conclude, that the evils of which St. Bernard so eloquently complained, were at least not so general as his denunciations would imply, and did not continue for any lengthened period. It should be also observed that they have reference solely to mat- ters of discipline and morality, and by no means to faith or doctrine. So that we must be on our guard against two very grievous misrepresentations of which the Irish Church of the eleventh and twelfth centuries has been the ob- ject; first, that there was some devia- tion from the faith of the Catholic or Roman Church in Ireland at that time; and, secondly, that the moral disorders which it must be admitted did exist, were general, or continued down to the time of the English invasion.;}: Resuming our civil history, and pass- ing in silence over a number of petty falsely pretended that it was St. Malachy who actually brought the Irish church into communion with Rome, and that this arrangement was only made effective by Cardinal Paparo at the Synod of Kells in 1152. The other charge has been made by various writers who took it up at second-hand, and were actuated by un- friendly feelings towards Ireland. Dr. MUner, in par- ticular, in his work on Ireland fell into the injurious er- ror of supposing that the English on their arrival here found the abuses of which St. Bernard complained haJi a century before stUl prevalent. 152 STATE OF RELIGION". custom of creating cliorepiscopi or rural bishops ; and a principal object of the synod or synods in question was to limit the Bumber of prelates and define the bounds of dioceses. It was decided that there should be but twenty-four bishops and archbishops : that is, twelve in the northern and twelve in the southern half of Ireland ; but this regulation was not carried out for some time. The dio- cese of Cash el, as well as that of Ar- magh, was, at that time, fully recognized as archiepiscopal, and the successor of St. Jarlath was sometimes called arch- bishop of Connaught, although the formal recognition of the see of Tuam as an archbishopric did not take place until several years after. Besides the practice of unnecessarily multiplying bishops, which was one that had been abolished in other churches centuries before this time, the more serious abuse prevailed in Ireland of al- lowing laymen to intrude themselves into church dignities, and to assume the title and revenues of bishops. These men, as we have already explained when treating of coarbs or comorbans, were obliged to transfer to ecclesiastics, regu- larly ordained and consecrated, the functions of the sacred oflices Avhich they usurped. We have no reason to believe that the practice was a general one ; but we are told that in the church of Armagh there was a succession of eight lay and married intruders usurp- ing the title of St. Patrick's successors. The father was succeeded by his son, and the highest dignity in the Irish church was treated as a mere temporal inheritance. Some other cormnti'-^'-'" -^ discipli practice the assi; and SOB marriagi kindred form of V our prin St. Bern; it is now the illusti nothing a cept what men who isolated a unsparing corrui^tioni everj^thing sanctity of in his descr. and morals found there The histo ing the twektn century, into which we have now entered, is replete with the deepest interest. The abuses which cast over it a temporary shade are to be deplored ; but in the lives of such illustrious men as St. Celsus, St. Ma- lachy, St. Gelasius, and St. Laurence O'Toole, we find an abundant source of consolation. These holy men were raised up at a favorable moment to crush the evil, and under Providence they re- stored to the Church of Ireland much of its pristine lustre. When St. Malachy undertook the STATE OF RELIGION. 153 care of the diocese of Connor, he found, it is true, a most deplorable relaxation of discipline prevailing; but it would be no wonder if the perpetual warfare, in which that and some other portions of Ireland were more especially involved during that turbulent period, had quite disorganized society. The monstrous abuse, too, of tolerating laymen in the see of St. Patrick, and that on the mere right of inheritance, may well have filled such a mind as that of St. Bernard with inexpressible grief and horror ; yet such was the effect of usage upon men's opinions, that we find these very lay intruders mentioned by our annalists — themselves ecclesiastics — without any manned condemnation, and generally as having performed exemplary penance before their death. "We may, therefore, seek for some charitable palliation of the usage in the insolence of the few powerful families who, in that rude age, were guilty of the usurpation.* St. An- selm, the great archbishop of Canter- bury, in his correspondence with the prelates of the south of Ireland, and with king Murtough O'Brien, in the years 1095 and 1100, although he evin- ces extreme anxiety for the interests of * This abuse was not confined to Ireland. A canon of the Conncil of London was framed against a precisely similar abuse in 1125 ; and in the time of Cambrensis there were lay abbots in Wales who took all the real property of the monasteries into their own hands, leav- ing the clergy only the altars and their dues, and placing children or relatives of their own in the church for the purpose of enjoying even these. — Itin. Cambr., b. c. 4. t See this corespondence printed in Ussher's SyUogo. X The former of these charges is the mere suggestion of sectarian bias, without any foundation. Thus it is 20 religion, indicating that there were some u-regularities to be reformed, still com- pliments the king on his excellent ad- ministration, and passes a high eulogium upon those bishops of whom he seems to have had any knowledge, namely, those of the southern dioceses.f We may, indeed, from this and many other circumstances, conclude, that the evils of which St. Bernard so eloquently complained, were at least not so general as his denunciations would imply, and did not continue for any lengthened period. It should be also observed that they have reference solely to mat- ters of discipline and morality, and bj^ no means to faith or doctrine. So that we must be on our guard against two very grievous misrepresentations of which the Irish Church of the eleventh and twelfth centuries has been the ob- ject; first, that there was some devia- tion from the faith of the Catholic or Roman Church in Ireland at that time; and, secondly, that the moral disorders which it must be admitted did exist, were general, or continued down to the time of the English invasion.;]: Resuming our civil history, and pass- ing in silence over a number of petty falsely pretended that it was St. Malachy who actually brought the Irish church into communion with Rome, and that this arrangement was only made efiective by Cardinal Paparo at the Synod of Kells in 1152. The other charge has been made by various writers who took it up at second-hand, and were actuated by un- friendly feelings towards Ireland. Dr. Milner, in par- ticular, in his work on Ireland fell into the injurious er- ror of supposing that the English on their arrival here found the abuses of which St. Bernard complained haJi a century before stUl prevalent. 154 DEATH OF JVIURTOUGH O'ERIAN. •wars, in whicli many districts, especially in the centre of Ireland, -were desolated, we find that Murtough O'Brien was seized with illness, wbicli in 1114 com- pelled him to retire from active life. His brother, Dermot, an ambitious man, took the opportunity to declare himself king of Munster ; but this act recalled from his retreat Murtough, who, al- though reduced by age and sickness to the appearance of a skeleton, put him- self at the head of his army, caused his unnatural brother to be made prisoner, and marched once more into Leinster and Bregia. This, however, was a last and feeble effort. He was obliged to relinquish the kingdom to his brother ; and retiring into the monastery of Lis- more, where he embraced the ecclesias- tical state, he died in 1119. His old competitor, Donnell O'Loughlin, sur- vived him two years, and in 1120 led an army in defence of the king of Meath against the forces of Connaught ; when feeling his end approach, he retired into the Columbian monastery of Derry, and, after penitential exercises, died there the following year, in the 7 3d year of his age. It is remarkable that, although the power of his southern rival was, at least for many years, more extensively recognized than his, still O'Loughlin receives the title of king of Ireland more generally from the annalists; so much did the legitimate principle weigh with the Irish in favor of the ancient royal house of Hy-Niall. The contest between these two princes was never regularly fought out; for even in 1113, the last time they confronted each other at the head of their respective armies, St. Celsus, archbishop of Armagh, with the crozier of St. Patrick, interposed, and brought about a truce. Two other princes who had played important jDarts in Irish affairs alsc closed their career in an exemplary manner about this time. These were Rory O'Conor, who had been king of Connaught, but who having been blind- ed by the O'Flaherties many years be- fore, entered into relisfion in the mou- astery of Clonmacnoise, and died there in 1118 ; and Teige MacCarthy, king of Desmond, who died at Cashel, in 1124, after affording many proofs of earnest piety. A new set of characters now appear on the stage of Irish history. Of these, the leading part was taken by Turlough or Turdelvach O'Conor, son of the above-mentioned Eory, who found a clear stage for his ambition, and made rapid strides in raising himself to the sovereignty of Ireland. He plundered Thomond as far as Limerick in 1116, when Dermot O'Brien was able to make but a feeble resistance, trying to avenge himself by an inroad into Connaught during Turlough's absence. In 1118, Turlough O'Conor, aided by Murrough O'Melaghlin, king of Meath, and Hugh O'Rourke, lord of Breffuy, led an army as far as Gleann-Maghair (Glanmire), near Cork, and divided Munster, giving Desmond to MacCarthy, and Thomond to the sons of Dermot O'Brien, and car- rinsr oft' hostages from both. He en- TURLOUGH O'CONOR. 155 deavored to crush the power of O'Brien by exalting that of the Eoghanachts or Desmonian family, who had been ex- cluded since the time of Brian Borumha. He then marched without delay to Dublin, and took hostages from the Danes, from Ossory, and from Leinster, liberating Donnell, son of the king of Meath, whom the Danes held in captiv- ity. The following year he scoured the Shannon with a fleet, hurled the royal palace of Kincora into the river, " both stones and timber," and remained there some time with his numerous allies, of Ossory, Leinster, and Dublin, consuming the provisions of Munster. These ex- treme acts of sovereign authority, or rather of unresisted aggression, were fol- lowed by others, such as the expulsion of his late ally and father-in-law, Murrough O'Melaghlin, from Meath, in 1120; the wholesale plundering of Desmond, from Traigh Li (Tralee) to the termou, or sanctuary land of Lismore, in 1121 ; and the giving of the kingdom of Dublin, as it was called, to his own son, Conor, in 1126; all the intermediate time being devoted to various acts of hostility which it is needless to enumerate. " There was," say the annalists, " a great storm of war throughout Ireland, in gen- eral, so that Ceallach (St. Celsus) suc- cessor of Patrick, was obliged to be for one month and a year absent from Ard Macha, establishing," or rather endea- * He is called St. Cormac by Lyncli. — Cambrensia Ecersus, chap. sxi. \ Bishop Maelcolum O'Brolchan of Armagh, who died In 1123, in the reputation of sanctity, and who is usu- voring to establish, "peace among the men of Ireland, and promulgating rules and good customs everywhere among the laity and clergy." In 1127, Turlough O'Conor led his forces, both by sea and land, to Coi'k, and driving Cormac MacCarthy from his kingdom, divided Munster into three parts. Cormac retired to Lismore, where it is supposed by some that he assumed holy orders, being a prince of a religious disposition ;* but being urged to leave his retreat he resumed the reins of government on Turlough's withdrawal, and his brother, Donough, who had been placed on the throne by that king, fled to his patron in Con- naught, with 2,000 followers. Atdength (1128) a year's truce be- tween Connaught and Munster was made by St. Celsus ; and the following year that holy archbishop, worn out by his austerities and indefatigable labors in the cause of religion and peace, al- though only fifty years of age, died at Ardpatrick, in the southern part of the present county of Limerick, where he was on his visitation ; and his remains, having been conveyed to Lismore, were interred there in the cemetery of the bishops.f In the year 1129 the great church of Clonmacnoise was robbed of several objects of value, among which was a model of Solomon's Temjile, presented ally described as the sufGragan or coadjutor of St. Celsus, had been, no doubt, one of the acting bishops who officiated for the lay intruders during their incum- bency. 156 ST. MALACHY. by a prince of Meatli, and a silver chalice plated with gold, and beautiful- ly engraved with her own hand, by a sister of king Turlongh O'Conor. The enumeration of the articles stolen affords an illustration of the taste and luxury displayed by Irish princes in objects of domestic use or ornament, and of the accomplishments of an Irish princess. The robber was a Dane of Limerick, who having been arrested while at- tempting to escape from the country, was hanged for the crime the following year. Having now approached the eve of the most eventful epoch of Irish history, that of the Anglo-Norman invasion, we shall reserve for the next chapter a summary of the events which may ex- plain the circumstances, moral and political, in which the country was found on that occasion. St, CHAPTER XVI. Malacliy. — His Early Career. — His Reforms in tlie Diocese of Connor. — His Withdrawal to Kerry. — Hia Government of the Cliurcli of Armagli. — His Eetirement to Down. — Struggle of Conor O'Brien and Turlough O'Conor. — Synod at Casbel. — Cormac's Chapel. — Death of Cormac MacCarthy. — Turlough O'Conor's Rigor to his Sons. — Crimes and Tyranny of Dermot MacMurrough. — St. Malachy's Journey to Rome. — Building ot Mellifont. — Synod of Inis-Padraig. — The Palliums. — St. Malachy's Second Journey and Death. — Political State of Ireland. — Arrival of Cardinal Paparo. — Synod of Kells. — Misrepresentations Corrected. — The Battle of Moin-Mor. — Famine arising from Civil War in Munstor. — Dismemberment of Meath. — Elopement of Der vorgil. — Battle of Rahin — A Naval Engagement. — Death of Turlough O'Conor, and Accession of Roderic— Synod of Mellifont. — Synod of Bri-Mic-Taidhg. — ^Wars and Ambition of Roderic. — St. Laurence O'Toole. — Synod of Clane. — Zeal of the Irish Hierarchy. — Death of O'Loughlin. — Roderic O'Conor Monarch, — Expulsion of Dermot MacMurrough. — Great Assembly at Athboy. Contemporary Sovereigns.— Vo^as : Innooout II., Celestiue II., Lucius II., Eugenius III., Anastasiua IV., Adrian IV.— Kings of England : Stephen, 11S5, Heury II., 1154.— King of France: Louis VIL, 1137. (A. D. 1130 TO A. D. 1168). ST. CELSUS, or Ceallach, the arch- bishop of Armagh, although a member of the ursurping family, was deeply impressed with the enormous irregularity of making the see a family inheritance ; and desired by his will that St. Malachy should be chosen his successor. This latter holy personage (whose name in Irish was Maelmaedhog O'Morgair) was known to St. Celsus from his youth. He belonged to a noble family, although it is believed that his father filled the office of lector, or professor, in the school of Armagh. The account of his early training under the abbot Imar O'Hagan, of Armagh, ST. MALACHY. 157 shows that sufficient resources for the pious and enlightened education of youth had still survived the past cen- turies of foreign invasion and domestic tumult in Ireland. While yet a young man he undertook the restoration of the famous monastery of Bangor, of which only a few crumbling ruins then remained, the abbey lands being pos- sessed by a layman who enjoyed the title of abbot. St. Malachy associated with himself a few religious men, and having constructed a small oratory of timber, they entered into the true spirit of monastic life. Soon, however, this tranquil existence was interrupted by his election as bishop of Connor ; and the episcopal duties which he was com- pelled to assume were of the most ardu- ous nature, as he found his diocese in a deplorable state of disorder. In fact, little more than the traces of religion were left among the people; but St. Malachy went zealously to work, and by God's blessing, and the assistance of his little community of monks, who ac- companied him from Bangor, he soon succeeded in restoring discipline and reviving religion among his flock. Scarcely had he effected this happy result when war destroyed the fruits of his labor. Some hostile prince invaded the territory, and St. Malachj'-, driven from his diocese, repaired, with 120 monks, to the territory of Cormac Mac Carthy, king of Desmond, whose friend- ship he had acquired in the monastery of Lismore where he was at the time that Cormac made it his retreat on being driven from his kingdom by Turlough O'Conor. The withdrawal of St. Ma- lachy to Munster took place some short time after the death of St. Celsus at Ardpatrick in 1129 ; and as soon as the death of that holy prelate was known in Armagh, a layman, named Muirker- tach, or Maurice, claimed the see as his inheritance, and, by the aid of his pow- erful clan, got himself proclaimed suc- cessor of St. Patrick, and maintained himself in the sacrilegious usurpation. This Maurice was son of Donald, the predecessor of St. Celsus, and grandson of Amalgid, another of the nominal ai'chbishops, or comorbans.* In the year 1132, bishop Gilbert, of Limerick, apostolic delegate, and bish- op Malchus, of Lismore, assembled sev- eral bishops and chieftains, who went in a body to St. Malachy, in the mon- astery which he had erected at Ibrach,f in Munster; and partly by entreaties in the name of the clergy and people, partly even by threats of excommunica- tion, compelled him to leave his re treat and assume the government of the church of Armagh, on the condi- tion, however, that he might retire when he had restored order in the diocese. For the next two years a melancholy schism prevailed; the in- truder still persevering in his occupa- tion of the see with its revenues, and St. Malachy performing the functions of archbishop without venturing into * This family belonged to the royal house of Oriel, t Supposed by Dr. Lanigan to he Ivragh, in Kerry, part of Cormack MacCarthy's kingdom. 158 WAES OF TURLOUGH O'CONOR. the city, lest a tumult should take place, and human life be sacrificed. Conspiracies against his life were formed, but he was providentially de- fended against them; and, at length, in 1134, the usurper died, after, as it is stated, giving tokens of sincere re- pentance. Another intruder, however, arose in the person of one Niell, or Ni- gellus. Against this man popular feel- ing became so strong, that he was obliged to fly; but he contrived to take with him St. Patrick's crozier and that apostle's book of the Gospels, and, by the aid of these venerable relics, he continued for a while to imjjose on some persons, with the pretence that he was the rightful successor of St. Patrick.* Ecclesiastical discipline having been restored, and the independence of the church vindicated in Armagh, through the indefatigable zeal of Malachy, that holy pontiff made a visitation of Mun- ster in 1136 ; and the following year he resigned the primatial dignity, which, after another attempt of Nigel- lus, as some annalists say, to intrude himself, was conferred on Gelasius, or Gilla MacLiag, "the sou of the poet," then abbot of the great Columbian monastery of Derry,f St. Malachy, himself, being installed as bishop of Down, which had previously been united to his old diocese of Con- nor, over which another j^relate now presided. Returning to Turlough O'Conor, whom we left extending his sway with little impediment to his ambition, since the death of his northern rival, Don- nell O'Loughlin, we find him, at length, receivins: a serious check from Conor O'Brien, who had succeeded his father, Dermot, on the throne of North Mun- ster. Conor O'Brieu, in 1131, carried oft' hostages from Leinster and Meath, and defeated the cavalry of Connaught ; and the following year he sent a fleet to the coast of Connaught, destroyed the castle of Bun Gaillve, or Galway, and plundered West Connaught. In the former of these years the men of the north also invaded Connaught ; and in 1133, Conor O'Brien and Cormac Mac Carthy made an incursion there, on both which occasions Turlough O'Con- or was glad to make a year's truce with his opponents. A synod of the bishops and clergy of Munster was held in Cashel in 1134, to celebrate, with special pomp, the consecration of a church just erected there by Cormac MacCarthy. This was the building now so well known as Cormac's Chapel, on the rock of Cashel, one of the most beautiful speci- mens of Romanesque architecture in * The Four Masters, an. 1135, say : " Maelmaedhog Ua Morgair (St. Malachy), successor of Patrick, pur- chased the Bachall-Isa (staff of Jesus), and took it from its cave on the 7th day of the month of July." ^Vhence it appears, that NigeUus extorted a sum of money for its restoration. The death of that wretched man is re- corded in the year 1139. f The name of tliis prelate appears as St. Gelasius in tho Mart yrology of Marianus Gorman, and his life is publish- ed by Colgan in the Acta. 8S. Eih. at tho 27th of March DERMOT MACMURROUGH. 159 these countries, and the erection of which has been erroneously ascribed to Cormac MacCuilennan in the tenth century.* Cormac MacCarthy was, in 1138, treacherously killed in his house by Turlough, son of Dermot O'Brien, and by the two sons of the O'Conor Kerry. Turlough O'Conor is described by our annalists as a stern vindicator of justice ; but the justice of that age was not very refined in its judgments. For some oflfence, the nature of which we are not told, he caused the eyes of his son, Aedh, or Hugh, to be put out, in 1136 ; and the same year he cast Rod- eric, or Rory (Ruaidhri), another of his sons, into prison. It would apjjear that Roderic was liberated chiefly through the interference of the clergy ; but seven years later he was again imprisoned by his inexorable father, "in violation of the most solemn pledges and guaran- tees." On this latter occasion the pre- lates and clergy, with the chieftains of Connaught, finding all their entreaties to obtain his liberation in vain, held a public fast at Rathbrendan, praying heaven to mollify the father's heart, but it was not until the following year that Roderic was released from his fet- ters. Murrough O'Melaghlin, king of Meath, was seized at the same time with Roderic in spite of solemn guar- antees, but was set at liberty through the interference of his sureties, who * See Dr. Petrie's EcdesiaMical Architecture, &c. pp. 290, &c., -wliere tlie question wlietlier Cormac MacCar- thy were a bishop as well as king is discussed. conveyed him into Muuster, and his territory was given by Turlough to his own son, Conor, who was killed the following year by the men of Meath as a usurper. No tie or obligation was now allowed by Turlough O'Conor to stand in the way of his caprice or am- bition. Dermot MacMurrougli, or Diarmaid- na-Gall, that is, Dermot of the foreign- ers, as he is often called, the infamous king of Leinster who betrayed his countiy to the English, now appears on the scene, and, from the commence- ment, his ill-omened career is marked by crime. In the year 1135, according to Mageoghegan's Annals of Clonm'ac- noise, he took the abbess of Ivildare from her cloister, and compelled her to marry one of his men, at the same time killing 170 of the people of Kildare who attempted to prevent the sacri- legious outrage. After being involved in various feuds in the interval, he en- deavored, in 1141, to crush all resis- tance to his tyranny by a barbarous onslaught upon the nobles of his prov- ince. He killed Donnell, lord of Hy- Faelain, and Murrough O'Tuathail; put out the eyes of Muirkertach Mac Gillamochalmog, lord of Feara Cual- ann, or Wicklow, and killed or blinded seventeen other chieftains, besides ma- ny of inferior rank. Conor O'Brien died in 1142, at Kil- laloe, after rigid penance, and was suc- ceeded by his brother Turlough, who commenced his reign by a war with Turlough O'Conor, and an invasion of 160 ST. MALACHY APPLIES FOR THE PALLIUMS. Leinster * la 1144, O'Conor and O'Bri- en held a peace conference, but their truce did not extend beyond a year; and in 1145 tlie Four Masters intro- duce a long catalogue of predatory in- cursions in every part of the country, by the expressive words, that this year Ireland was made " a trembling sod." The O'Loughlins of Tyrone were at war with their neighbours, the Ulidi- ans ; a deadly feud was carried on be- tween Meath and Breffny ; O'Conor and O'Brien were engaged in hostili- ties; and Teffia and other territories were also scenes of bloodshed and de- vastation. lu the midst of these tumults, the church endeavored to carry on its ac- tion — internally, by the promotion of discipline and morality, and externally by efforts, often fruitless, for the res- toration of peace. It had long been a favorite project with St. Malachy to obtain from the Holy See a formal rec- ognition of archiepiscopal sees in Ire- land, by the granting of palliums. For that purpose he proceeded to Rome shortly after he had become bishop of Down ; and as the fame of his sanctity and zeal had gone before him — a char- acter which his mortified appearance was well calculated to sustain — he was received with every mark of love and ven- eration by the reigning pontiff, Inno- * WTicri Turlougli O'Brien invaded Connauglit in 1143, lie cut down the Ruaidh-Bheithigh, or red birch tree of Hy-Fiaclira Aidhne, Tvliich was probably one of tliose trees under which the Irish kings were inaugura- ted ; like the BUo Maighe Adhair, of Thomond, which cent II. The Pope, descending from his throne, placed his own mitre on the head of the Irish saint, presented him with his own vestments and other re- ligous gifts and appointed hira apostol- ic legate, instead of Gilbert, bishop of Limerick, who was then a very old man. When St. Malachy, however, asked for the palliums, the Holy Fath- er prudently observed that that was a matter of great moment, and that the demand should have come from a syn- od of the Irish church, which should, he suggested, be held for that purpose. After a staj' of one month, visiting the holy i^laces in Rome, St. Malachy set out on his return to Ireland ; having, both going and returning, paid visits to the great St. Bernard, at Clairvaux, and laid the foundation of that friend- ship which forms so remarkable an in- cident in the lives of both these emi- nent saints, and in the history of the Irish Church. On his arrival in Ireland, St. Malachy set earnestly about his favorite mission for the moi'e regular organization of church aflairs. By virtue of his lega- tine powers he held local synods in sev- eral places, and travelled on foot all through Ireland. He rebuilt and re- stored many churches that had, in vari- ous parts of the country, been destroyed by the Danes, or fallen into decay dur- was destroyed by Malachy II. in 9 1 8 ; and the tree of Craev Tiilcha (now Creeve, near Glenavy, in Antrim), under which the kings of Ulidia were inauguarated, and which was destroyed by DonneU O'Loughlin, in 1099. DEATH OF ST. MALACHY. 161 ing the constant wars of those times. In 1142, he founded, near Drogheda, the famous Cistercian abbey of Melli- font, which was liberally endowed by O'CarroU, king of Oi'ghial (Oriel), and was supplied with liionks from Claii"- vaux, whither St. Malachy had sent some L'ishmen to be trained for the purpose.* The synod from which the formal application for the palliums emanated was convened by St. Malachy as legate, and Gelasius as primate, in 1148. It was held in Inis-Padi'iag, or St. Patrick's Island, near Skerries,f and was attended by fifteen bishops, two hundred joriests, and several other ecclesiastics. After three days spent in the consideration of other matters, the synod treated of the palliums on the fourth; and, al- though unwilling that St, Malachy should again leave Ireland, the assem- bled clergy consented to his departui'e on this occasion, as it was known that Eugene III., who had been a Cistercian monk, was visiting Clairvaux, and that, therefore, St. Malachy would not have * St. Bernard's letters to St. Malaoliy on this subject are printed in Ussher's Sylloge. On the occasion of building the church of this monastery, some wrong- headed person opposed St. Malachy's plan, urging that the tmdertaking greatly exceeded the means at his dis- posal ; that none of them would ever see the work com- pleted ; that a wooden oratory in the old Irish fashion would sufSce, and that it was wrong to introduce the customs of other countries, even in the shape of fine architecture for God's house, adding : — " we are Scots, not Frenchmen." The saint persevered successfully, and the objector's prophecy was only verified in himself, as he died before a year, and did not see the work fin- ished. \ The Synod was held in the island above mentioned, and not at Holm Patrick, on the mainland, as Dr. Lani- 21 to travel farther than France to see the sovereign pontiff. The saint set out immediately on his journey; but hav- ing been detained some time in Eng- land, owing to a prohibition issued by King Stephen against bishops leaving the country, he found on arriving at Clairvaux, that the Pope had returned to Rome. St. Malachy was not permit- ted to carry out his cherished project ; he was seized with his death-sickness four or five days after his arrival at Clairvaux, and expired there, on the 2d of November that year (1148), at- tended by St. Bernard, and surrounded by a number of the abbots and religi- ous of the order.if All this time a fierce warfare was carried on among the chieftains of the north, but the primate brought about a meeting between them at Armagh, in the latter part of 1148, and arranged terms of jDeace, to which they bound themselves on the crozier of St. Patrick ; the chieftains of Oriel, Ulidia, and the other northern territories, giving host- or ages to Muirkertach, Murtough, gan supposes ; the monastic establishment not having been transferred to the latter place until some time be- tween 1313 and 1238. ArchdaU, Monait. Hib. p. 218. I The festival of St. Malachy was transferred from 3d of November, the day of his death, to the following day, owing to the commemoration of All Souls, which would interfere with its due solemnization. This illus- trious man is admitted to have been one of the greatest saints not only of the Irish but of the universal Church. His life, by St. Bernard, which is an important authority in our ecclesiastical history, was written not later than the year 1151 ; and he was solemnly canonized in 1190 by Pope Clement HI. We may here remark that the pretended prophecy about the Popes, formerly attributed to St. Malachy, has been long rejected as aprocryphsd. 162 THE SYNOD OF KELLS. IVtaurice O'Louglilin, king of Tyrone, in token of submission. O'Loughlin pro- ceeded to Dublin tlie following year, accompanied by O'Carroll, when Dermot MacMurrougli also paid homage to him, aud peace was established in that part of Ireland. In 1150, the hostages of Connaught.were brought to O'Loughlin, without a necessity for any hostile de- monstration, and his sovereignty was thus acknowledged by all Ireland, with the exception of the southern pro- vince. Murrough O'Melaghlin, king of Meath, having by his crimes incurred general odium, was anathematized by the primate, and expelled from his kingdom by the monarch, O'Loughlin, who divided Meath into three parts, giving one to Turlough O'Conor, king of Connaught, another to O'Rourke of Breffny, and the third to O'Carroll of Oriel. Immediately after this, Tur- lough O'Brien, king of Munster, led an army to Dublin, where he received the submission of the Dano-Irish; and he was proceeding to avenge a defeat which some of his subjects had received shortly before from the men of Breffny and Oriel, when O'Loughlin marched from the north to the aid of the latter, and the forces of Leath Cuinn and Leath Mogha met at Dun Lochad near Tara, but the Dano-Irish inter- fered, and arranged a year's truce be- tween them. A. D. 1152. — Cardinal John Paparo arrived in Ireland about the close of 1151, bringing the palliums which had been solicited by St. Malachy ; and the following year was rendered memorable by the national council of Ceananus, or Kells, at which these insignia of the archiepiscopal dignity were confered. The palliums were for the archbishops of Armagh, Cashel, Tuam, and Dublin, the two latter sees being then for the first time regularly created archbishoprics; although, as already stated, we find the bishops of Tuam often styled archbish- ops long before that period. Dissatis- faction was felt in other parts of Ireland that this honor should be conferred on Dublin and Tuam, and it is stated that some of the Irish j^relates remained away from the council on that account. The bishops who attended were those of Armagh (St. Gelasius) ; Lismore (Christian, the Pope's legate for Ire- land) ; Cashel (Donald O'Lonergan) ; Dublin (Gregory) ; Glendalough ; Leighlin; Portlargy, or Waterford ; the vicar-general of the bishop of Os- sory ; the bishop of Kildare ; the vicar- general of the bishop of Emly; the bishops of Cork, Clonfert, Kerry, Lime- rick, Clonmacnoise, East Connaught, or Roscommon; Lugnia, or Achonry; Conmacne Hy Briuin, or Ardagh ; Kin- el Eoghain ; Dalaradia, or Conor ; and Ulidia, or Down. Cardinal Paparo pre- sided, and about 300 clergy of the second order, and monks, were also present. The suffragan sees for each metropolitan were named ; several laws against simony, usury, and other abuses, were framed : and the payment of tithes for the support of the church was or- BATTLE OF MOIN MOR. 165 dained. This was the firet introduction of tithes into Ireland ; but they were not enforced until after the English in- vasion. This synod of Kells is one of the incidents of Irish history which have been most frequently misrepre- sented by English historians, and by L'ish Protestant writers, who pretend to trace to it the connection of Ireland with Rome, or the establishment of " Popery," as they call it, in this coun- try; but how utterly unfounded such an inference is we need not impress upon the unprejudiced reader, who has followed with us the thread of our his- tory thus far.* While the heads of the Church were thus occupied a civil war raged in Mun- ster. Turlough O'Brien was, in 1151, deposed by Teige, another son of Der- mot O'Brien, and the aid of Turlough O'Conor being solicited by Teige, the king of Connaught speedily availed himself of the opportunity to carry desolation into the southern province. O'Conor's forces were joined by those of Dermot MacMm-rough; and they plundered Munster before them, as the annalists say, until they reached Moin * We could not express ourselves more to the purpose on this subject than in the words of Moore: — "It is true," observes this vrriter, " from the secluded position of Ireland, and still more from the ruin brought upon all her religious establishments during the long period of the Danish wars, the intercourse with Home must have been not unfrequently interrupted, and the pow- ers delegated to the prelate of Armagh, as legatus natus, or, by virtue of his office, legate of the Holy See, may, in such intervals, have served as a substitute for the direct exercise of the Papal authority. But that the Irish Church has ever, at any period, been independent of the Mor,f where they encountered the Dal- cassian army, under Turlough O'Brien, returning from the plunder of Des- mond ; and a dreadful battle was fought, in which the men of North ISIunster suf- fered a fearful slaughter, leaving 7,000 dead upon the field, and among them sev- eral of their chieftains. This terrible sacrifice of life is attributed to the ob- stinate bravery of the Dalcassians, who would never either demand quarter or fly from the field of battle. On this occasion Turlough O'Brien was banish- ed, and Turlough O'Conor assumed the sovereignty of Munster ; his son, Rode- ric, making another raid into Tho- mond, and carrying fire and sword as far as Cromadh, or Croom, in Lime- rick. A. D. 1152. — O'Conor led a second army into Munster this year, and divid- ed the country, giving Desmond to the son of Cormac MacCarthy, and Tho- mond to Teige and Turlough O'Brien ; and the annalists say that both Tho- mond and Desmond had now suflfered so fearfully from their mutual wars, that a dearth followed, and that the peasantry were disjiersed into Leath spiritual power of Rome, is a supposition which the whole course of our ecclesiastical history contradicts. On the contrary, it has frequently been a theme of high eulogium upon this country, as well among for- eign as domestic writers, that hers is the only national Church in the world which has kept itself pure from the taint of heresy and schism."— fiwiory of Ireland vol. u., p. 193. f Dr. O'Donovan (Four Masters, an. 1151, note), sug- gests, with great probability, that this may have been the place now called Moanmoro, in the parish of Emly county of Tipperary. 164 ABDUCTIOlSr OF DERVORGIL. Cuiun, after many of tliem had perished hj the famine. This year, also, Meath was dismem- bered by the monarch, O'Loughlin, aided by Turlough O'Conor, Dermot MacMurrough, and other princes. From Clonard Avestward was given to Mnr- rough O'Melaghlin, who had been formerly deposed, and from the same point eastward to Murrongh's son, Melaghlin. Tiernan O'Rourke, lord of Breffny, was also dispossessed of his territory by this host of confederated princes ; and at the same time another mortal injury was inflicted on him, his wife, Dervorgil (Dearbhforgaill), being carried off by MacMurrongh the king of Leinster. The tiine and other circumstances of this abduction have been strangely dis- torted by historians to give a coloring of romance to the account of the Eng- lish invasion, with which it cannot have had the least connection. It occurred, according to our authentic annals, in 1152, and Dermot's flight to England, and invitation to the invaders, did not take place till 1166. Dervorgil was at the former of these dates forty-four years of age, and her paramour sixty- two. She was shamefully encouraged by her brother, Melaghlin O'Melaghlin, just then made lord of East Meath, to * The Four Masters relate, under the year 1128, that a sacrilegious attack was made on St. Celsus Ijy this Tigheaman O'Euarke and his people, who robbed the primate and killed one of his clergy ; and that Conor MacLoughliu, then lord of Cinel Eoghain, sent his cavalry, who attacked and defeated the cavalry of O'Ruarke, and killed many of his partisans. abandon her husband, who appears to have treated her harshly before that, and to have deserved little sympathy as a hero of romance.* On leaving O'Rourke, she took with her the cattle and articles which formed her dowry ; and the following year, when she was rescued from MacMurrough by Tur- lough O'Conor, and restored to her famil)^, the same cattle and other pro- perty were also restored. It is probable that she did not reside again with her husband, but retired immediately to Mellifont, where she endeavored by charity and rigid penance during the remainder of a long life, to expiate her misconduct.f A. D. 1153. — ^The monarch, Murtough O'Loughlin, espoused the cause of Tur- lough O'Brien, and led an army towards* the south, to reinstate him in his terri- tories. Teige O'Brien, the usurper, and his ally, Turlough O'Conor, marched to oppose the northern army ; but be- fore their forces could form a junction, near Rahin, in the King's county, O'Loughlin, by a rapid movement with two battalions of picked men, encoun- tered Teige O'Brien's small force, which he cut to pieces. Turlough O'Conor was then glad to retreat into Con- naught by Athlone ; and while his son, Roderick O'Conor, with a portion of f Dervorgil performed many acts of generosity to the Church ; and in 1167 erected a chapel for the convent of nims at Clonmacnoise. She died in 1193 at the ven- erable age of 83, and her brother died of iwison, at Diir row, in 1155. SYNOD OF MELLIFOXT. 165 Ms army, was preparing to encamp, O'Louglilin, with Ms nortliern heroes, poured in upon them unexpectedly, and, slaughtering great numbers, put the rest to flight. A. D. 1154. — Turlough O'Couor now collected all the ships of Dun Gaillve, Conmacna-mara, Umhall, or the O'Mal- leys' country, Tir-Awley and Tir-Fia- chrach, in northern Connaught, and with this fleet, which was under the command of O'Dowda, he plundered the coasts of Tir-Conaill, and Inis Eog- hain. To meet this aggression, ^Mur- tough O'Loughliu hired ships from the Gall-Gael or Scoto-Danes, of the He- brides, from Ara, Ceanntire, Mauainn, or Man, and " the borders of Alba in general;" and the fleet thus mustered was commanded by MacScelling, a Dano-Gael. The two fleets engaged near Inis Eog;hain, and fought with des- perate fierceness. A great number of Connaught men, with their admiral, O'Dowda, were slain, but the victory was nevertheless on their side; the foreign ships being completely shat- tered, so that their crews were, for the most part, obliged to abandon them, and, as many as could, to escape on shore. MacScelling came off with the loss of his teeth. Hostilities between O'Loughliu and O'Couor were still carried on by land, and the corn-crops of a great part of Connaught were destroyed by the for- mer in the harvest of this year; but * Synods, or rather mixed conventions, had become very frequent about this time, being often, as in this case. two years after (1156), Turlough O'Conor closed his turbulent career in death, and Murtough O'Loughliu then became the unopposed monarch of L-e- land ; his claims to that honor, pre- viously, having been sturdily contested by the king of Connaught. Turlough died in the sixty-eighth yeai- of his age, and reigned over Connaught fifty years. He distributed, by his will, a large amount of gold and silver, with many cows and horses, among the churches of Ireland, and was buried beside the altar of St. Kieran at Clonmacnoise. His son, Eoderic, succeeded as king of Connaught, and began his ill-fated reign by imprisoning three of his brothers, one of whom he blinded. During this time Ulidia, Meatb, Breff- ny, and Leinster were all disturbed by war. A. D. 1157. — A synod, which was at- tended by the primate, the bishop of Lismore, who was legate, and seventeen other bishops, and at which there were also present the monarch, with the kings of Ulidia, Oriel, Breffny (Tier- nan O'Rourke), and a great number of the inferior clergy and nobility, togeth- er with a multitude of the people who assembled to witness the proceedings, was held this year in the abbey of Mel- lifout.* The primate ha\nng solemnly consecrated the abbey church, the lay princes consulted with the bishops on the conduct of Donough O'Melaghlin, prince of Meath, who had become the attended by ky princes for the purpose of consulting on measures for the general management of the state. 166 RODERIC O'CONOR. common pest of the country. He was the friend and ally of Dermot Mac- Murrough, by whose aid he had usurped the kingdom of Meath ; just before the assembling of the synod he murdered Cu-ulla O'Kynelvan, a neighboring chief, in viola+'on of solemn guaran- tees ; and in an old translation of the Annals of Ulster he is called a " cursed atheist." This bad man was according- ly excommunicated by the clergy, and sentence of deposition being then pro- nounced against him by the king of Ireland and the other princes, his brother, Dermot, was made king of Meath in his place. At this synod the monarch, O'Loughlin, granted " to God and to the monastery of Mellifont" the lands of Finnavai"-na-ninghean, a town- land on the south side of the Boyne, opjDosite the river INIattock, together with one hundred and forty cows and sixty ounces of gold. O'Carroll, prince of Oriel, also presented the monastery, on the same occasion, with sixty ounces of gold ; and Dervorgil, the wife of O'Rourke, presented as many ounces, together with a golden chalice for the altar of Mary, and cloth, or sacred vestments, for each of the other nine altars of the church. A synod of the clergy was convened the following year (1158) at Bri-mic- Taidhg, near Trim, and was attended by the legate and twenty-five other bishops. Derry was on this occasion erected into an episcopal see ; Flaher- tach O'Brolchain, the abbot of St. Col- umbkille's monastery, there, being con- secrated the first bishop. The bishops of Connaught, while proceeding to this synod, were intercepted and plundered by the soldiers of Dermot, king of Meath, on crossing the Shannon, near Clonmacnoise, and two of their atten- dants were killed. They therefore re- turned to Connnaught, and held a synod of their own province in Ros- common. Roderic, king of Connaught, exhib- ited great activity, and spared no pains to attain the position which his father, Turlough, had held, and to divide the sovereignty of Ireland with O'Loughlin. While the latter was engaged in Mun- ster, in 1157, expelling Turlough O'Brien (whom he had formerly sup- ported) from Thomoncl, and dividing Munster between Dermot, son of Cor- mac MacCarthy, as king of Desmond, and Conor, son of Donnell O'Brien, whom he made king of Thomond, Ro- deric O'Conor led an army to plunder and lay waste Tyrone, and, as soon as O'Loughlin had left the south, proceed- ed thither to reinstate Turlough O'Brien. MacCarthy promised Roderic a conditional submission ; that is, in case 0'Loug;hlin should not be able to support him against Roderic. An of- fensive and defensive league was en- tered into between O'Conor and Tier- nan O'Rourke; and their combined forces, with a battalion of the men of Thomond, marched in 1159, into Oriel, as far as Ardee, when they were met by Murtough O'Loughlin with the army of Kinel Connell and Kinel Eoghain, ST. LAUIIE'XCE O'TOOLE. 167 and of tlie nortli in general. A battle ensued, in which the Connaught men and their allies were defeated with great slaughter ; and the northern army, after returning home in triumph, sub- sequently entered Connaught and de- vastated a great portion of that coun- try. During the next two years commo- tion and disorder reigned in various parts of Ireland. An insui-rection of the Kinel Eoghain was put down by O'Loughlin, with the aid of the men of Oriel and Ulidia ; and a fresh partition was made of Meath. In the latter part of 1161 a general meeting of the clergy and chieftains of Ireland took place at Dervor, in Meath, when all the other princes gave hostages to Mui'tough O'Loughlin. A. D. 1162.— The Irish Church, fertile in saints, now presents to us another of the most illustrious of her sons, in the person of St. Laurence O'Toole (or, as his name is called in Irish, Lorcan O'Tuathal), who was chosen this year to succeed Greine, or Gregory, the Danish archbishop of Dublin. This great saint, whom patriotism as well as religion endears to the hearts of Irish- men, belonged to one of the noblest families of Leinster, whose patrimonial territory, of which his father was chief- tain, was called Hy-Muirahy, a district nearly conterminous with the southern * The true position of Hy-Muireadhaigh (Hy-Muira- hy, or Hy-Murray), the ancient territory of the O'Tooles, is shown by O'Donovan, in a valuable note to the Pour Masters, a. d. 1180. The mountain district of Imaile, in half of the present county of Kildare.* In his youth he entered the monastery of St. Kevin, at Glendalough, of which he was chosen abbot when only twenty- five years old ; and even after his eleva- tion to the episcopacy — a dignity which he most reluctantly accepted — he con- tinued to practice all the austerities of monastic discipline. His predecessors in the see of Dublin had been conse- crated by the archbishops of Canter- bury, to whose jurisdiction they sub- jected themselves; but this external authority was not resorted to in his case, as he was consecrated by St. Gela- sius, successor of St. Patrick. St. Lau- rence O'Toole was one of twenty-six prelates, who, with a large number of abbots and inferior clergy, attended a synod held at Clane, in Kildare, the year of his consecration. At this synod the college of Armagh Avas virtually raised to the rank of a university, as it was decreed that no one who had not been an alumnus of Armagh should be appointed lector or theological profes- sor in any of the other diocesan schools of Ireland. The extraordinary energy displayed at this period by the hierarchy and clergy of Ireland, in restoring discipline and promoting reforms, must soon have produced the most salutary effect on society, and raised the country to its just position among nations; but, un- Wicklow, was not occupied by them until after the Eng lish invasion, when they were driven from their origi. nal territory. 168 RODERIC O'CONOR MONARCH OF IRELAND. happil}'', thfcir efforts were about to be interrupted and frustrated. Even then tlie scheme was hatched which was so soon to crush all these generous ten- dencies, and extinguish for centuries every native germ of social progress.* Sundry wars and hostile inroads oc- curred about this time, presenting no peculiar feature; but in the year 1166 a fatal outrage was committed by the monarch, O'Loughlin, on Eochy Mac- Dunlevy, prince of Dalaradia. One of the petty wars, so usual at that period, having been arranged between these two princes the preceding year, a peace was ratified by the successor of St. Patrick and some of the neighboring chieftains. Urged, however, by some new feeling of exasperation, from what cause we are not told, O'Loughlin came suddenly upon the Dalaradian chief, put out his eyes, and killed three of his principal men. This savage aggi'es- sion so provoked the princes who had been guarantees for the treaty, that they mustered an army, composed of choice battalions of the men of Oriel, Breffny, and Conmacue, under the com- mand of Donough O'CarroU, and * Tlie rebuilding of tlio great clinrcli of Derry, des- troyed by fire many years before, was completed, in 11G4, by Flaliertach O'Brolchain, bisbop, and formerly abbot of Derry, witli funds wbicli be bad collected in the course of a mission tbat be had undertaken tbrougb a part of Ireland for tbat purpose. The primate bad also, about this time, made a visitation of Ireland to col- lect funds for rebuilding the religious establisbments of Armagh destroyed by fire in 1150. The contributions wbicb the primate received in bis visitation of Tyrone on this occasion, were a cow from every biatacb or far- mer, a horse from every chieftain, and twenty cows from the king ; and when Flaliertach O'Brolcbain made marched to the north. At Leiter Luin, a place in the present barony of Upper Fews, county of Armagh, and then part of Tir Eoghaiu, they encountered O'Loughlin, who, although he had but a few troops, gave battle. In the fierce contest which ensued the Kinel Eog- haiu Avere defeated, and the monarch himself slain ; and thus fell Murtough O'Loughlin, who, of all the Irish kings since the days of Malachy II. had the most unquestionable right to the title of monarch of Ireland. A. D. 1166. — Eoderic O'Conor lost no time in getting himself recognized as sovereign, on the death of O'Loughlin ; and this appears to have been a mere matter of parade in his case, as there was no serious o^^position to his claim. He first led an army to Easrua, in Done- gal, and took the hostages of Kinel Connell. Thence he marched across Ireland to Dublin, being joined on the way by the men of Meath and Teffia, and he was there inaugurated with more pomp than any Irish king had ever been before. This was, indeed, the first solemn act in which we see Dublin treated as a metropolis, and on this oc- a visitation of the same territory to repair his monastery, he obtained a horse from every chieftain, a cow from every two biatachs, a cow from every three freeholders, the same from every four villains, and twenty cows from the king. He also got a gold ring of five ounces, his horse and kis battle axe, as a personal gift from the king (Murtough O'Loughlin). A "wonderful castle" was built this year (116-1) by Roderic O'Conor, at Tuara, but as the castle of Galway, and other similar strong- holds, had been erected in Connaught long before, the term " wonderful" must have been applied rather on account of the strength of the building than of its singularity. GREAT MEETING OF ATHBOT. 169 casion Roderic paid the Dano-Irish of that city a stipend in cattle, and levied for them a tax of 4,000 cows on Ireland at large. From Dublin he proceeded to Drog- heda (Droicheat-atha), where O'Carroll and the men of Oriel paid homage, and gave him hostages. Attended by a great hosting of the men of Connaught, Breffny, and Meath, he marched back to Leinster, advancing into Hy-Kinsella, where Dermot MacMuiTough gave him hostages ; and submission was made in a similar form by the various chiefs of Leinster and Ossory, and of North and South Munster. By the death of the late monarch, Dermot MacMuiTough was deprived of his only supporter ; and on the accession of Roderic — ^the firm ally of his old ene- my, O'Rourke — he saw what his fate must inevitably be. According to the friendly authority of Gii'aldus Cambren- sis, this prince was destested by all. Equally hateful to strangers and to his own people "his hand was against every man, and every man's hand against him." He accordingly prepared for the worst by burning his castle of Ferns, and soon saw his fears realized by the approach of an army conducted by Tiernan O'Rourke, and composed of the men of Breffny and Meath, of the Dano-Irish of Dublin, and of the chiefs of his own kingdom of Leinster. A j^re- cipitate flight was his only resource, and while he sought refuge in England his kingdom was given to another member of his family. 22 A. D. 1167. — A great assembly of the clergy and chieftains of Leath Cuinn, or the northern half of Ireland, was convened by Roderic, at Athboy, in Meath, Amonfj those who attended were the primate ; St. Laurence O'Toole, archbishop of Dublin ; Catholicus O'Duffy, archbishop of Tuam ; and the chieftains of Breffny, Oriel, Ulidia, Meath, and Dublin. Thirteen thousand horsemen are said to have assembled on this occasion ; and the meeting, from its magnitude, has been supposed by some, although incorrectly, to have been a revival of the ancient Feis of Tara. It has been also remarked how sadly this display of the resources, and awak- ening of the olden glories of the coun- try, contrasted with the fatal circum- stances of the moment ; and how little the men then congregated at Athboy could anticipate the ruin which was just about to come upon themselves and upon theii- nation ! Several useful regu- lations, affecting the social and religious interests of the people, were adopted on this occasion, and the convention tended materially to promote respect for the laws, and to give eclat to the commencement of the new sovereign's reign. Roderic, with a large army composed of contingents from every other part of Ireland, entered the territory of Tyrone (Tir-Eoghain) and divided it between Niall O'Loughlin and Hugh O'Neill, giving to the former the country lying to the north of Slieve Gallion, in the present county of Londonderry, and to 170 THE ANGLO-NORMAN INVASION. the latter the territory south of that mountain. This might be considered as the last act of undisputed sover- eignty exercised by a native king of Ireland. Roderic "was a man of parade, not of action, and totally unfit for the emergency in which the unhaupy des- tiny of Ireland had placed him. No monarch of L'eland, up to his time, was ever more implicitly obeyed, or could command more numerous hostings of brave men ; yet in his hands all this jiower was miserably worthless and in- operative. CHAPTER XVII. ^ THE ANGLO-NOKMAN INVASION. Denuofs Appeal to Henry H. — His Negotiations with Karl StTongbow nnd others. — Landing of the first English Adventurers in Ireland. — Siege of Wexford. — First Eewards of the Adventurers. — Apathy of the Irish. — In- cursion into Ossory. — Savage Conduct of Dermot. — His Vindictiveness. — Shameful Feebleness of Roderic. — The Treaty of Ferns. — Dermot aspires to the Sovereignty. — Stronghow's Preparations for his Expedition. — Landing of his Precursor, Raymond le Gros. — Massacre of Prisoners by the English. — Arrival of Strongbow, and Siege of Waterford. — Marriage of Strongbow and Eva. — March on Dublin. — Surprise of the City. — Brutal Massacre. — The English Garrison of Waterford cut off. — Sacrilegious Spoliations by Dermot and the English. — Imbecility of Roderic. — Execution of Dermot's Hostages. — Synod of Armagh. — English Slaves, nefarious custom. — ^Horrible Death of Dermot MacMurrough. (A. D. 116S— 1171.) vengeance against MEDITATING the country from which he was compelled to fly in disgrace, the fugi- tive king of Leinster arrived at Bristol, where he learned that Henry II., to whom he had determined to apply for aid, was absent in Aquitaine. Thither he immediately proceeded ; and having at length found the English king, he laid before him such a statement of his grievances as he thought fit. He of- fered to become Henry's vassal, should he, through his assistance, be reinstated in his kingdom, and made the most ab- ject protestations of reverence and sub- mission. Henry lent a willing ear to his statement, and must -have been for- cibly struck by this invitation to carry out a project which he himself had long entertained, and for which he had been making grave preparations many years before. That project was the invasion of Ireland. As his hands were, how- ever, just then full of business — for he was engaged in bringing into submis- sion the proud nobles of the province in which he then was, while at home the resistance of St. Thomas k Becket, who would not sufier him to trample on the rights of the church with impu- DERMOT'S ALLIES. lYl nity, was Ijecome daily more ii-ksorae — lie could not occupy himself personally in Dermot's affairs, but gave liim let- ters patent, addressed to all liis sub- jects — ^English, Frencb, and Welsh — recommending Dermot to them, and granting them a general license to aid that prince in the recovery of his ter- ritory by force of arras. A. D. 1168. — With this authorization Dermot hastened back to Wales, where he gave it due publicity, but for some time his efforts to induce any one to es- pouse his cause were unavailing. At length, he was fortunate enough to find some needy military adventurers suited to his purpose. The chief of these was Richard de Clare, commonly called Strongbow (as his father, Gilbert, also had been), from his skill with the cross- bow. This man, who was earl of Pem- broke and Strigul, or Chepstow, being of a brave and enterprising spirit, and of ruined fortune, entered warmly into Dermot's design. He undertook to raise a sufficient force to aid the king of Leinster in the recovery of his king- dom, for which Dermot promised him his daughter, Eva, in marriage, and the succession to the throne of Leinster. Two Anglo-Norman knights, Maurice FitzGerald and Robert FitzStephen, al- so enlisted themselves in the cause of Dermot. These men -were half-broth- ers, being the sons of Nesta, who had been first the mistress of Henry I., then the wife of Gerald of Windsor, gover- nor of Pembroke and lord of Carew, to whom she bore the former of these ad- venturers, and finally the mistress of constable Stephen de Marisco, who was the father of Robert FitzStephen. These knights were men of needy cir- cumstances, and Dermot promised to reward them liberally for their servi- ces, by granting them the city of Wex- ford with certain lands adjoining. Such were the obscure individuals by whom the first introduction of Euo-lish power into Ireland was planned and car- ried out. The year was now drawing to a close, and Dermot MacMurrough, re- lying on the promises which he had obtained, ventured back to Ireland, and remained, during the winter, con- cealed in a monastery of Augustinian canons which he had founded at Ferns. There is some uncertainty as to the date of the first landing of the Anglo- Normans in Ireland ; and it may also be doubted, whether some of the pro- ceedings of Dermot and his foreign auxiliaries, mentioned obscurely in the native annals, occurred previous to the arrival of FitzStephen, and the surren- der of Wexford, in May, 1169, or were identical with those recorded after that time. Thus it is stated, that early in the year a few of Dermot's Welsh aux- iliaries arrived, and that with their aid he recovered possession of Hy-Kinsel- lagh ; but that this movement on his part was premature, and that at the approach of a force, hastily collected by Roderic O'Conor and Tiernan O'Rourke, a battle in which some of the Welsh were killed, having been fought at Cill 172 THE ANGLO-NORMAN INVASION. Osnadh, now Kellistown, in the county of Carlow, Dermot, who only -wanted to gain time, made a hypocritical peace with the monarch, giving him seven hostages for ten cantreds of his former territory. It is added, that he gave a hundred ounces of gold to O'Rourke, as an atonement for the injury he had formerly inflicted on him ; but all this seems to be only a confused version of soine of the events which we are now about to relate in order, on the author- ity of Giraldus Cambrensis and Mau- rice Kegan.* A. D. 1169. — According to the most probable account of the first Anglo- Norman descent, Robert FitzStephen, with 30 knights all his own kinsmen, 60 men-at-arms, and 300 skillful arch- ers, disembarked in May, this year, at Bannow,f near Wexford. One of the knights was Hervey de Monteraar- isco, or Mountmaurice, a paternal un- cle of earl Strongbow; and the next day, at the same place, landed Maurice de Prendergast, a Welsh gentleman, with 10 knights and 60 archers. Der- mot, on receiving notice of their ai-rival, marched Avith the utmost speed to join them with 500 men, being all that he could then muster ; and with the joint force, he proceeded immediately to lay * The authority referred to as that of Maurice Regan is a metrical narrative written by an anonymous Nor- man rliymer from the oral account which he received from Regan, the secretary and " Lattimer," or interpre- ter, of Dermot MacMurrough. An old translation into English, by Sir George Carew, was published in Harris's Hibernica. f Cuan-an-hhainbh, "the creek of the sucking pigs." siege to the town of Wexford, the in- habitants of which were Dano-Irish. The first assault was repelled Avith great bravery, the inhabitants having previously set fire to the suburbs, that they might not afford a cover to the enemy ; but when the Anglo-Normans were preparing to renew the attack next morning, the toAvnspeople deman- ded a parley, and terms of capitulation were negotiated by the clergy ; Der- mot, though with great reluctance, con- senting to pai'don the inhabitants on their returning to their allegiance. In the first day's assault eighteen of the English had been slain, and only three of the brave garrison. FitzStephen burned the shipping which lay before the town ; and it is said that he des- troyed also the vessels which had con- veyed his own troops from England, to shoAV that they Avere resolved ncA'er to retreat. The lordship of the town Avas then, according to the contract, made over to him and to FitzGerald, who had not yet arrived, and two cantreds of land, lying between the towns of Wexford and Waterford, Avere granted by Der- mot to Hervey of Mountmaurice. J Dermot now conducted his allies to Ferns, where they remained inactive for three weeks, without molestation, and The place of FitzStephen's debarkation is called Bagan- bum by the Anglo-Irish historians. :j; This land is comprised in the present baronies of Forth and Bargie, county of Wexford, and was the first place in Ireland colonized by the Enghsh. The isolation of its inhabitants for centuries after that time, and the peculiarities of manner and language, of which tho rem- nant is still preserved among them, are weU known facts BRUTALITY OF DERMOT. 173 indeed without appearing to excite any attention on the part of king Koderic and the other Irish princes. This ap- athy of the Irish, which appears to us so unaccountable, and which was so lamentable in its consequences, partly arose, no doubt, from the insignificance of the invaders, in point of numbers. Never did a national calamity, so mighty and so deplorable, proceed from a commencement more contempti- ble than did the English occupation of Ireland. The Irish were accustomed to employ parties of Danish mercena- ries in their feuds. They had also mixed themselves up more than once in the quarrels of the Welsh ; and they looked upon MacMuri'ough's handful of Welsh and Normans as casual auxil- iaries who came on a special duty and would depart when it was performed. The Irish annalists expressly state that the monarch, with a number of subor- dinate princes and a large army, en- tered Leinster at this very time, and "went to meet the men of Munster, Leinster, and Ossory," but " set nothing by the Flemings," as the first party of the invaders are called in these records.* As to Roderic, he showed no fore- * Four Masters, A. D. 11C9. No English or Anglo- IriBh authority makes any mention of these Flemings ; yet, observes Dr. O'Donovan, certain analogies as well as the existence of an ancient Flemish colony ia Pem- brokeshire, ■n'hence the first adventurers came, would show that the Irish annalists had some grounds for the application of the name. f The annalists say that this year (11C9), " Eory O'Conor granted an (increase of) pension of ten cows yearly, from himself and his successors, to the lector (chief master) of Armagh (seminary), in honor of Pat- sight or prudence, no energy of char- acter or real bravery, and no regard for the interests of Ireland as an inte- gral nation, throughout the whole of this most fatal crisis in his country's fortunes. About this time he celebra- ted the fair of Tailtin, when the con- course assembled was so great that the horsemen are said to have been spread over the tract of country from MuUach Aiti, now the hill of Lloyd, west of Kells, to MuUach Tailtin, a distance of about six and a half miles ; yet, while this display of numbers was made with- in a couple of days' march, Dermot, with his handful of foreign auxiliaries, was permitted to overrun the province of Leinster, and to brave the anger of the imbecile monarch.f Emboldened by the inactivity of his enemies, Dermot resolved to act on the oftensive ; and as he had a cause of quarrel with MacGilla Patrick, prince of Ossory, who, actuated by a feeling of jealousy, had put out the eyes of Enna, a son of MacMurrough's who was in his power as a hostage, he determined to make him the first object of his ven- geance. J Between the forces of his province and the garrison of Wexford, rick, to instruct the youth of Ireland and Alba in liter- ature." I The barbarous custom of blinding was a mode of punishment common to other nations at that period. It was indeed only three or four years before the time at which we have arrived when Henry II., king of Eng- land, took vengeance on the people of Wales by causing the chUdren of the noblest families of that country, whom he held as hostages, to be treated in the same manner ; ordering the eyes of the males to be rooted out, and the ears and lips of the females to be amputated. 1T4 THE ANGLO-NORJVIAN INVASION". Dermot was enabled to muster 3,000 men, but his principal reliance was on his foreign friends, in whose ranks he chiefly remained ; and the Wexford men were so hated and distrusted by him, that they were not allowed to en- camp at night with the rest of the army. Thus Dermot marched into Os- sory, where the inhabitants made a brave stand ; but after a good deal of fighting, having been decoyed from a strong position into one where they were exposed to the Norman cavalry, they were ultimately defeated, and three hundred of their heads were piled up before Dermot as a trophy of vic- tory. This ferocious monster is said to have leaped and clapped his hands with joy at the sight; and Cambrensis adds that he turned over the heads in the ghastly heap, and that recognizing one of them as the head of a man to whom he had particular aversion, he seized it by both ears, and with brutal frenzy bit off the nose and lips of his dead en- emy. Such is the character which we receive of this detestable tyrant, even from contemporary English authori- ties. Roderic, awakening at length to a sense of the duty which devolved on him, convened a meetiug of the Irish princes at Tara, and, in obedience to the summons, a large army was mus- tered ; while Dea'mot, who had already carried desolation through a great por- Hence, when we read of such tortures in Irish history, ■we are not to conclude that they were indicative of any peculiar barbarity. More than two hundred years after, tion of Ossory, became dismayed at the first symptoms of preparations against him, and, halting with his English friends in their career of havoc, return- ed to Ferns, and hastily entrenched himself there. Scarcely, however, had the Irish army assembled, when dissen- sions broke out in its ranks, and on marching as far as Dublin, Roderic thought fit to dispense with the services of MacDunlevy of Ulidia, and of O'Car- roll of Oriel, who accordingly drew off their respective contingents, and re- turned home. Still the monarch ar- rived before Fei-ns with an army sufli- cient to annihilate the small force which he found collected there round Der- mot ; for it must be observed, that on the news of an Irish army being in the field, the king of Leinster was aban- doned by a great number of his Irish followers. The conduct of Roderic on this occa- sion lamentably illustrates the weakness of his character. Instead of proceeding at once to crush the dangerous foe, or in- sistin": on the unconditional submission of Dermot, he entered into private ne- gotiations, first with FitzStepheu, and then with Dermot ; endeavoring to in- duce the former to abandon the king of Leinster, and to return to his own country, or to detach the latter from his foreign allies, and bring him to an humble admission of his allegiance. Such attempts showed the feebleness of in the reign of Henry IV., this barbarous practice pre- vailed in England, and it was necessary to make a law against it. — Hume, c. 18. \ DERMOT ASPIRES TO THE SOVEREIGNITY. 175 his councils, and only excited the con- tempt of both FitzStephen and Dermot. Roderic's overtures were therefore re- jected with disdain, and preparations were made on both sides for battle. "VVe cannot now judge how far the strength of the position occupied by the enemy justified the reluctance of the Irish monarch to attack; but we find him again endeavoring to avert the neces- sity of fighting by further treating with the perfidious Dermot, so that it was Roderic, and not the besieged, who ap- peared to supplicate for peace. At length terms were agreed on, Eoderic consenting to give the full sovereignty of Leinster to Dermot and to his heus, on his own supremacy being acknow- ledged ; and Dermot on the other part, giving his favorite son, Conor, as a host- age to the monarch, and binding him- self solemnly by a secret treaty to bring over no more foreign auxiliaries, and to dismiss those now in his service, so soon as circumstances would permit him to do so. About this time Maurice de Pren- dergast withdrew from Dermot, with his followers, to the number of 200 ; and finding that his departure from Ireland was prevented, he oftered his services to the king of Ossory. This defection alarmed Dermot, and enabled his enemy, MacGilla Patrick, to make some reprisals ; but Maurice soon aban- doned the latter also, and returned for a short time to Wales. Dermot, who only desired to gain time, soon betrayed the insincerity of his consessions to Roderic ; for Maurice FitzGerald having in a few days after arrived with a small party of knights and archers at Wexford, he hastened to meet his new ally, regardless of his treaty, and, with this addition to his force, marched to attack Dublin, which had thi'own off its allegiance to him, and was then governed by Hasculf Mac- Turkill, a prince of Danish descent. The territory around the city was soon laid waste in so merciless a way, that the inhabitants were oblicjed to sue for peace ; and the king of Leinster having glutted his revenge, accepted their sub- mission, for the purpose of being free to lend assistance to Donnell O'Brien, prince of Thomond, who had married a daughter of Dermot's, and half sister of Eva, and had just then rebelled against the monarch, Eoderic. This opportu- nity of weakening the power of the lat- ter was, to the vindictive king of Lein- ster, too gratifying to be neglected ; and Dermot felt so elated by repeated suc- cesses, that he was no longer content with his position as a provincial prince, but set up a claim to the sovereignty of Ireland, which he grounded on the right of an ancestoi*. In this ambitious aim he was encouraged by his English auxiliaries ; and in a consultation with FitzStephen and FitzGerald, it was resolved that a message should be sent immediately to Strougbow, pressing him to fulfill his engagements, and to come to their aid with as little delay as posible. A. D. 1170. — Strongbow on his part 1Y6 THE ANGLO-NORMAN INVASION. felt himself in a difficult position. He could no longer act upon Henry's let- ters patent, Dermot being now reinstat- ed in bis kingdom ; and a new sanction being necessary to authorize a hostile expedition to Ireland, he repaired to Normandy, where the English king then was, to solicit his permission. Henry, who was naturally jealous and suspicious, and entertained a particular aversion to the ambitous earl of Pem- broke, in order to rid himself of his importunity, gave him an equivocal an- swer, which Strongbow pretended to understand as the required permission. He tliereupou returned to Wales, set about collecting men with all possible diligence, and sent Raymond le Gros with ten knights and seventy archers as his advanced guard. This party landed at a small rocky promontory then called Dundolf, or Downdonnell, near Waterford, and being jdined by Hervey of Mountmaurice, they con- structed a temporary fort, to enable them to retain their position until Strongbow should arrive. The citizens of Waterford, aided by O'Faelain, or O'Phelan, prince of the Deisi, and O'Ryan, of Idrone, sent a hastily col- lected force to dislodge the invaders ; but through the bravery of Raymond, aided by accident, the besieged were not only able to defend themselves, but effectually to rout the undisciplined mul- * The English, on their landing, had, it appears, swept off a large number of cattle from the surrounding country, and placed them in the outer enclosure of their camp ; and these, terrified by the noise of the battle, titude who came against them, killing, it is said, 500 men, and taking seventy of the principal citizens prisoners.* Large sums of money were offered to ransom the latter, but the English, as some say, swayed by the sanguinary counsel of Hervey of Mountmaurice, re- jected these offers ; and for the purpose of striking terror into the Irish, brutally massacred the prisoners by breaking their limbs, and hurling them from the summit of the precipice into the sea. This atrocity was a fitting prelude to the English wars in Ireland ; but most historians vindicate Raymond le Gros from the stigma which it cast upon the English arms. In the mean time Strongbow had as- sembled his army of adventurers and mercenaries at Milford, and was about to embark, when he received a perempt- ory order from Henry forbidding the ex- pedition. What was to be done ? His hesitation, if any, was very brief, and he adopted the desperate alternative of disobeying his king. He accordingly sailed, and with an army of about 1,200 men, of whom 200 were knights, landed near Waterford on the 23d of August, the eve of St. Bartholomew's day. Here he was immediately joined by his friend Raymond le Gros, who had been then three months in Ireland ; and the very next day he proceeded to lay siege to Waterford. The citizens displayed and rushing furiously out through the Irish assailants, spread confusion in their ranks, of which their enemy took deadly advantage. SIEGE OP DUBLIN. Ill great heroism in tlieir defence, and twice repulsed the attempts of the as- sailants. At length a large breach was made in the wall by the fall of a house which projected over it, and which came toppling down when the props by which it had been supported were cut by Raymond's knights; and the be- siegers pouring into the city made a dreadful slaughter of the inhabitants. A tower in which Reginald, or Gille- maire, as the Irish annalists call him, a lord of Danish extraction, and O'Phe- lan, prince of the Deisi, continued to defend themselves, was taken; and these two brave men were on the point of being massacred by their piti- less captors, when Dermot MacMur- rough arrived, and for the first and only time we see mercy exercised at his request. The carnage of the now unresisting inhabitants was suspended. Dermot expressed great exultation at the arrival of earl Strongbow, and in- sisted upon paying him at once his promised guerdon. He had taken his daughter, Eva, with him for that pur- pose ; the marriage ceremony was hasti- ly performed, and the wedding cortege passed through streets reeking with the still warm blood of the brave and un- happy citizens. Immediately after the nuptials of Strongbow and Eva, Dermot and his allies set out on a rapid march to Dub- lin, leaving a small party to garrison Waterford. Roderic had collected a large army and encamjjed at Clondal- kiu near DuMin ; and Hasculf, the gov- 23 ernor of that city, encoiu'aged by their presence, revolted against Dermot. Hence the haste of the confederate army to reach Dublin ; and as they proceded along the high ridges of the Wicklow mountains in order to escape the fortified passes by which their march would have been impeded in the valleys, they arrived under the walls of Dublin long before their presence there could be calculated on. This rapid movement, and the now formidable ar- ray of the Anglo-Norman army, filled the citizens with consternation, and re- course was had to negotiation ; the il- lustrious archbishop of Dublin, St. Lau- rence O'Toole, being commissioned to arrange terms of peace with Dermot. While the parley, however, was still proceding in Strongbow's camp, two of the English leaders, Raymond le Gros and Milo de Cogan, regardless of the usages of civilized warfare — though some say the time for the conference had expired — led their troops respec- tively against the weakest or most neg- lected parts of the fortifications, and obtained an entrance. The inhabitants, relying on the negotiations which were going forward, were quite unprepared for this assault, and flying panic-strick- en, were butchered in the most merci- less manner. We may conceive the hor- ror with which St. Laurence, hastening back to the city, found its streets filled with carnage. He exposed his life in the midst of the massacre, endeavoring to appease the fury of the soldiers ; and subsequently he had the bodies of the 178 THE ANGLO-NORMAN INVASION slaia collected for decent burial, inter- ceded for tlie clergy of tlie city, and procured the restoration of the books and ornaments of wliich the churches had been plundered. Roderic would appear to have had some skirmishes with the enemy for two or three successive days previous to this, and then to have v^-ithdrawn with his large but ill-organized army ; but the Irish annalists, in mentioning the transaction, accuse the citizens of Dublin of bad faith, probably for refu- sing to act in concert with the Irish, or for endeavoring to make a peace for themselves ; and they also allude to a conflagration produced in the city by lightning, which, no doubt, added to the panic. " As a judgment upon them," gay the Four Masters, "Mac- Murrough and the Saxons acted treach- erously towards them, and made a slaughter of them in their own fortress, in consequence of the violation of their word to the men of Ireland." Hasculf and a number of the principal citizens made their escape in ships, and repaired to the Hebrides and Orkneys; and Roderic, without striking a blow, drew off his army into Meath to sustain O'Rourke, to whom he had given the eastern portion of that territory. About the same time the English garrison, which had been left in Waterford, was attacked and defeated by Cormac Mac- Car thy, king of Desmond, but we are not told of ony consequence which re- sulted. The government of Dublin was now entrusted to Milo de Cogan ; and Der- mot, with his allies, marched into Meath, which they ravaged and laid waste with an animosity perfectly diabolical. Tne churches of Clonard, Kells, Teltown, Dowth, Slane, Kilskeery, and Desert- Kieran, were plundered and burned, and, as a matter of course, the towns or villages which suiTounded them were not treated with greater mercy. This predatory incursion was extended into Tir Briuin, or the country of the O'Rourkes and O'Reillys in Leitrim and Cavan ; and although the monarch him- self appears to have avoided all collision with the enemy, Ave are told that at last a portion of the latter were twice de- feated in Breffny by O'Rourke. Don- nell, prince of Bregia, who had been deposed by Roderic, sided with Mac- Mui'rough, as did also Donnell's adher- ents among the people of East Meath, and some of the men of Oriel.'"' Alarmed at these events, Roderic foolishly imagined that he could arrest the progress of Dermot by threatening him with the death of his hostages. He accordingly sent ambassadors to re- monstrate with him for his perfidy in breaking his engagements, and for his unprovoked aggressions, and to an- nounce that if he did not withdi'aw his army within his own frontier, and dis- miss his foreign auxiliaries, the heads of his hostages should be forfeited. Der- mot treated this menace with derision. As far as we can judge of his character, * Four Mastersr SYNOD OF ARMAGH. 179 he would have preferred the gratification of his revenge to the lives of all his children, had they been at stake. And he sent back word to Roderic that he would not desist until he had fully as- serted his claim to the sovereignty of all Ireland, and had dispossessed Eod- eric of his kingdom of Connaught in- to the bargain. There is a difference of opinion as to whether Roderic fulfilled his threat. Cambrensis, a contemporary writer, in- forms us that he did. Keating says that he would not expose himself to so much odium as the execution of the hostages would entail ; but the Four Masters, who are a much better author- ity, and would not have made the state- ment without suflScient grounds, say that "the three royal hostages" were put to death at Athlone. These were Conor, the son of Dermot; his grand- son (the son of Donnell Kavanagh) ; and the son of his foster-brother, O'Caellaighe. The act was cruel, but in it Roderic did not exceed his strict right ; and the same year Tieruau O'Rourke put to death the hostages of East Meath, which had rebelled against him. Giraldus Cambrensis* furnishes some interesting particulars of a synod held at Armagh about the close of this year (1170). It appears from it that there prevailed in England a barbarous cus- tom of selling children as slaves, and that the Irisk were the priucijial pur- chasers in that abominable market. • Hib. Expug. i. 18. There are other authorities also to show this nefarious practice was preva- lent in England ; the twenty-eighth canon of the council of London, held in 1102 having been enacted for its pro- hibition, f The custom of buying English slaves was held by the Irish clergy to be so wicked, that, after deliberating on the subject, the synod of Armagh pronounced the invasion of Ireland by Englishmen to be a just judgment upon the country on account of it; and decreed that any of the English who were held as slaves in Ireland should immediately be set free. It was a curious and characteristic coincidence that an Irish deliberative assembly should thus by an act of hu- manity to Englishmen, have met the merciless aggressions which the latter had just then commenced against this country. A. D. 1171. — In the midst of his am- bitious and vindictive projects, Der- mot MacMurrough died at Ferns, on the 4th of May, 1171. His death, which took place in less than a year after his sacrilegious church-burnings in Meath, is described as accompanied by fearful evidence of divine displeasure. He died intestate, and without the sac- raments of the church. His disease was of some unknown and loathsome kind, and was attended with insuffera- ble pain, which, acting ou the natural- ly savage violence of his temper, ren- dered him so furious that his ordinary attendants were compelled to abandon t Wilkins' Consilia, i. 383 ; also Howel, p. I 180 THE ANGLO-NORMAlSr INVASION. him ; and his body became at once a putrid mass, so that its presence above ground could not be endured. Some historians suggest that this account of his death may have been the invention of enemies ; yet it is so consistent with what we know of MacMurrough's char- acter and career, from other sources, as to be nowise incredible. He reached the age of eighty-one years, and is known in Irish history as Diarmaid-na- Gall, or Dermot of the Foreigners. On the death of Dermot, earl Strong- bow, regardless of his duty as an Eng- lish subject, got himself proclaimed king of Leinster ; and as his marriage with Eva could not under the Irish law confer any right of succession, he grounded his claim on the engagement made by the late king, when he first agreed to undertake his cause. As this was the first step in the establish- ment of English power in Ireland, it is well the reader should bear in mind the way it was efifected. There was here no conquest. The only fighting which the invaders yet had was with the Dano-Irish of Wexford, Wateiford, and Dublin ; and against these, as well as in their predatory excursions, the Anglo-Normans acted in conjunction with their Irish allies in Leinster. They can hardly be said, so far, to have come in collision with an Irish army at all, and most certainly, as Le- land observes, "the power of the na- tion they did not contend with." " The settlement of a Welsh colony in Lein- ster," as the same historian, notwith- standing his strong anti-Irish preju- dice, continues, "was an incident neither interesting nor alarming to any, except, perhaps, a few of most reflection and discernment. Even the Irish annalists speak with a careless indifierence of the event ;" but " had these first adventurers conceived that they had nothing more to do but to march through the land, and terrify a whole nation of timid savages by the glitter of their armor, they must have speedily experienced the effects of such romantic madness."* * Leland's History of Ireland, b. i., chap. i. DIFFICULTIES OF STRONGBOW. 181 CHAPTEH XVIII. EEIGN OF HENKT II. DifBculfdes of Strongbow. — Order of Henry against the Adventurers. — Danisli attack on Dublin. — ^Patriotism of St. Laurence.— Siege of Dublin by Eoderic. — Desperate state of tlie Garrison. — Tbeir Bravery and Success.— FitzStepheu Captured by the Wexford People. — Attack on Dublin by Tiernan O'Rourke. — Henry's Expedi- tion to Ireland. — His Policy. — Tbe Irisb Unprepared. — Submission of several Irish Princes. — Henry fixes Ids Court in Dublin. — ^Bold Attitude of Koderic. — Independence of the Northern Princes. — Synod of Cashol. — History of the Pope's Grant to Henry. — This Grant not the Cause either of the Invasion or its Success. — Dis- organized State of Ireland. — Report of Prelates of Cashel, and Letters of Alexander III. — English Law extended to Ireland. — The " five bloods.'" — Parallel of the Normans in England and the Anglo-Normans in Ireland. — Fate of the Irish Church. — Final Arrangements and Departure of Henry. (A. D. 1171 AUD 1173.) T?ORTUNE thus seemed in many -*- respects to favor Strongbow and his band of Anglo-Norman and "Welsh adventurers, yet their position was one of considerable embarrassment. The king of England was jealous of their success, and indignant at the slight which they had put upon his authority. He was also annoyed at finding his own designs against Ireland anticipated by men who were likely to become insolent and troublesome; and he accordingly (a. d. 1171) issued a peremptory man- date, ordering every English subject then in Ireland to return within a cer- tain time, and prohibiting the sending thither of any further aid or supplies. Alarmed at this edict, Strongbow dis- patched Raymond le Gros to Henry with a letter couched in the most sub- missive terms; placing at the king's disposal all the lands which he had ac- quired in Ireland. Henry was at the moment absorbed in the difficulties in Avhich the murder of St. Thomas h Bec- ket — if not at his command, at least at his implied desire, and by his myr- midons — had involved him, and he neither deiorned to notice the earl's let- ter, nor paid any further attention to the Irish affair for some time ; so that Strongbow, still tempting fate, contin- ued his course without regarding the royal edict. To add to his difficulties, his standard was deserted by nearly all his Irish adherents, on the death of Dermot, which took place soon after the date of the royal mandate; and during his absence from Dublin that city was besieged by a Scandinavian force, which was collected by Hasculf, in the Orkneys, and conveyed in sixty 182 REIGN OF HENRY II. ships, under tlie command of a Dane called John the Furious. Milo de Co- gan, whom Strongbow had left as gover- ner, bravely repulsed the besiegers, but was near being cut oif outside the east- ern gate, until his brother Richard came to his relief with a troop of cavalry, whereupon the Norwegians were de- feated with great slaughter, John the Furious being slain, and Hasculf made captive. The latter was at fii'st reserved for ransom, but on threatening his cap- tors Avith a more desperate and success- ful attack on a future occasion, they basely put him to death. The great archbishop of Dublin, St. Lorcan, or Laurence O'Toole, whose illustrious examjjle has consecrated Irish patriotism, perceiving the straits to which the Anglo-Normans were re- duced, and judging rightly that it only required an energetic effort, for which a favorable moment had arrived, to rid the country of the dangerous intruders, went among the Irish princes to rouse them into action. For this purpose he proceeded from province to j)rovince, addressing the nobles and people in spirit- stu'ring words, and urging the necessity for an immediate and com- bined struggle for independence. Emis- saries were also sent to Godfred, king of the Isle of Man, and to some of the northern islands, inviting co-operation against the common enemy. Earl Strongbow, becoming aware of the impending danger, repaired in haste to Dublin, and prepared to defend him- self; nor was he long there when he saw the city invested on all sides by a numerous army. A fleet of thirty shij^s from the isles blocked up the harbor, and the besieged were so eftectually hemmed in that it was impossible for them to obtain fresh su23plies of men or provisions. Roderic O'Conor, who com- manded in person, and had his own camp at Castleknock, was supported by Tiernan O'Rourke and Murrouejh O'Car- roll with their respective forces, and St. Laurence was present in the camp ani- mating the men, or, as some pretend, though very improbably, even bearing arms himself The Irish chiefs, relying on their numbers, contented themselves with an inactive blockade, and for a time their tactics promised to be success- ful; the besieged being soon reduced to extremities from want of food, Strong- bow solicited a parley, and requested that St. Laurence should be the medium of communication. He offered to hold the kingdom of Leinster as the vassal of Roderic ; but the Irish monarch re- jected such terras indignantly, and re- quired that the invaders should imme- diately surrender the towns of Dublin, Wexford, and Waterford, and under- take to depart from Ireland by a certain day. It is generally admitted that under the circumstances, the propositions of Roderic were even merciful, and for a while it was probable that they would, however unpalatable, be accepted. At this crisis, Donnell Kavanagh, son of the late king of Leinster, con- trived to penetrate in disguise into the city, and brought Strongbow the intel- CAPTURE OF FITZSTEPHEN. 183 iigence that his friend FitzStephen was, together with his family and a few fol- ' lowers, shut up in the Castle of Carrig, near Wexford, where he was closely besieged, and must, unless immediately relieved, fall into the hands of his exas- perated enemies. This sad news drove the garrison of Dublin to desperation ; and at the suggestion of Maurice Fitz- Gerald it was determined that they should make a sortie with their whole force, and attempt the daring exploit of cutting their way through the besiegers. To carry out this enterprise. Strong- bow disposed his men in the following order ; Raymond le Gros, with twenty knights on horseback, led the van ; to these succeeded thirty knights under Milo de Cogan ; and this body was fol- lowed by a thii'd, consisting of about forty knights, commanded by Strong- bow himself and FitzGerald; the re- mainder of their force, said to consist only of 600 men, bringing up the rear. It was about three in the afternoon when this well organized body of des- perate men sallied forth ; and the Irish army, lulled in false security, and ex- pecting a surrender rather than a sortie, was taken wholly by surprise. A great number were slaughtered at the first onset; and the panic which was produced spreading to the entire be- sieging army, a general retreat from * Leland supposes that tlie Irisi annalists passed over the -whole of this transaction in silence ; hut the Four Masters mention the siege, and their Tersion is as fol- lows : — " There were conflicts and skirmishes between them" (i. e. the besiegers and besieged) " for a fortnight. before the city commenced ; so that Koderic, who with many of his men was enjoying a bath in the Liifey, had some difficulty in effecting his escape. The English, on their side, astonished at their own unexpected success, returned to the city laden with spoils, and with an unlimited supply of provisions.* Sti'ongbow once more committed the government of Dublin to Milo de Cogan, and set out with a strong detachment for Wexford to relieve FitzStephen ; but after overcoming some difficulty in the territory of Idrone, where his march was o^^posed by the local chief- tain, O'Regan, he learned on approach- ing Wexford that he came too late to assist his friend. Carrig Castle had al- ready fallen, and it is said that the Wex- ford men were not very scrupulous on the occasion in their treatment of foes who had proved themselves sufficiently capable of treachery and cruelty. The story is, that FitzStephen and his little garrison were deceived by the false in- telligence that Dublin had been cap- tured by the Irish army, that the Eng- lish, including Strongbow, FitzGerald, and Raymond le Gros, had been cut to pieces, and that the only chance of safety was in immediate surrender ; the Dano-Irish besiegers undertaking to send FitzStephen with his family and followers unharmed to England. It is O'Conor then went against the Leinster men to cut down and bum the corn of the Saxons. The earl and JElo afterwards entered the camp of Leith Cuinn, and slew many of the commonaity, and carried off their pro- visions, armor, and horses. 184 REIGN OF HENRY II. added, that the bishops of "Wexford and Kiklare presented themselves before the castle to confirm this false report by a solemn assurance ; but this circum- stance, if not a groundless addition, would only show that a rumor, by which the bishops themselves had been deceived, prevailed about the capture of Dublin, a thing not at all improba- ble. False news of a similar kind is sometimes circulated even in our own times. At all events, the stratagem, if it was one, succeeded ; and FitzStephen on yielding himself to his enemies was cast into jDrison, and some of his follow- ers were jiut to death. Scarcely was this accomplished, when intelligence arrived that Strongbow was approach- ing, and the Wexford men, finding themselves unable to cope with him single-handed, and fearing his ven- geance, set fire to their town, and sought refuge with their prisoners in the little island of Beg-Erin, whence they sent word to the earl that if he made any attemj)t to reach them in their retreat they would instantly cut ofl^ the heads of FitzStephen and the other English prisoners.* Thus foiled in his purpose, Strongbow with a heavy heart directed his course to Waterford, and immediately after invaded the ter- * Regan, or the Nonnan rhj-mer, relates an lionor- able trait of Maurice do Prcndergast on this occasion. The "Welsh knight undertook to bring the king of Os- Hory to a conference, on obtaining the word of Strong- bow and O'Brien tliat he should be allowed to return in safety. Understanding, however, during tlie conference, that treachery was about to be used towards MacGilla Patrick, he rushed into the earl's presence, " and sware ritory of Ossory, in conjunction with Donnell O'Brien. During the eai'l's absence, Tiernan O'Rourke hastily collected an army of the men of Breffny and Oriel, and made an attack on Dublin, but he was repulsed by Milo, and lost his son under the walls. With this exception, no attempt was made to molest the invaders at a period when they could have been so easily annihilated ; and intestine wars were carried on among the northern tribes, and also between Connaught and Thomond, as if there had been no foreign enemy in the coun- try. Strongbow, on the other side, learnt at Waterford, from emissaries whom he had sent to plead his cause with Henry, that his own presence for that purpose was indispensable, and he accordingly set out in haste for England. He found the Ene;lish monarch at Newnham in Gloucestershire, making active prepara tions for an expedition to Ireland. Henry at first refused to admit him to his presence ; but at length suffered himself to be influenced by the earl's unconditional submission, and by the mediation of Hervey of Mountmaurice ; and consented to accept his homage and oath of fealty, and to confirm him by tho cross of his sword that no man there that day should dare lay hands handes on the kyng of Ossery." Having redeemed his word to the Irish prince by con- ducting him back in safety, and defeated some of O'Brien's men whem they met on the way with the spoils of Ossory, he spent that night with MacGilla Patrick in tho woods, and returned next day to the carl. HENRY'S EXPEDITION TO IRELAND. 185 in the possession of his Ii'isli acquisi- tions, with the exception of Dublin and the other seaport towns and forts, which were to be surrendered to him- self. He also restored the earl's Eng- lish estates, which had been forfeited on his disobedience to the Mug's man- date ; but, as it were to mark his dis- pleasure at the whole proceeding of the invasion of Ireland by his subjects, he seized the castles of the Welsh lords to punish them for allowing the expedition to sail from their coasts contrary to his commands. ,It is probable that in all this hypocrisy and tyi'anny were the king's ruling motives. He hated the Welsh, and took the opportunity to crush them still more, and to garrison their castles with his own men. These events took place not many months after the murder of St. Thomas k Beck- et, and it is generally admitted that the king's expedition to Ireland, if not pro- jected, was at least hastened, in order to withdraw public attention from that atrocity, and to make a demonstration of his power before the country at a moment when his name was covered with the odium which the crime in- volved. Henry II., attended by Strongbow, William FitzAdelm de Burgo, Humphry de Bohen, Hugh de Lacy, Robert Fitz- Bernard, and other knights and noble- men, embarked at Milford, in Pem- brokeshire, with a powerful armament, and landed at a place, called by the Anglo-Norman chroniclers, Croch — pro- bably the present Crook — near Water- 24 ford, on St. Luke's day, October 18th, A. D. 1171. His army consisted, it is said, of 500 knights, and about 4,000 men-at-arms ; but it was probably much more numerous, as it was transported, according to the English accounts, in 400 ships. Henry assumed in Ireland the plaus- ible policy which seemed so natural to him. He pretended to have come rather to protect the people from the aggres- sions of his own subjects than to acquire any advantage for himself; but at the same time, as a powerful yet friendly sovereign, to receive the homage of vas- sal princes, and to claim feudal juris- diction in their country. It is impossible, of course, to reconcile pretences so in- consistent in themselves ; but they serv- ed the purpose for which they were invented. He put on an air of extreme affability, accompanied by a great show of dignity, and paraded a brilliant and well-disciplined army with all possible pomp and display of power. The Irish, on the other hand, seemed at a loss what to think or how to act. An event had occurred for which they were not prepared by any parallel case in their history. They neither under- stood the character nor the system of their new foes. Perpetually immersed in local feuds, they had not gained ground either in military or national spirit since their old wars with the Danes. The men of one province cared little what misfortune befel those of another, provided their own territory was safe. Singly, each of them had 186 REIGN OF HENRY II. Ijeen hitherto able to cope with such foes as they were accustomed to ; but where combined actiou couhl alone suffice there was nothing to unite them ; they had no sentiment in common — no centre, no rallying principle. MacCarthy, king of Desmond, was the first Irish jDrince who paid homage to Henry. Marching from Waterford to Lismore, and thence to Cashel, Henry n'as met near the latter town by Dounell O'Brien, king of Thomond, who swore fealty to him, and surrendered to him his city of Limerick. Afterwards there came in succession to do homage, Mac- Gilla Patrick, prince of Ossory, O'Phe- lan, prince of the Deisies, and various other chieftains of Leath Mosjha. All were most courteously received ; many of them were of course not a little daz- zled by the splendor of Henry's court and his array of steel-clad knights; some were perhaps glad to acknowledge a sovereign powerful enough to deliver them from the petty warfare with which they were harassed and exhausted ; but none of them understood Anglo-Norman rapacity, or could have imagined that in paying homage to Henry as a liege lord they were conveying to him the absolute dominion and ownership of their ancestral territories. So well was it known in Ireland that Henry disapproved of the invasion of that country by Strongbow and the other adventurers, that the people of Wexford, Avho had got FitzStephen into their hands, pretended to make a merit of their own exploit, and sent a deputation to Henry on his arrival to deliver to him the captive knight as one who had made war without his sovereign's permission. Henry kept up the farce by retaining FitzStephen for some time in chains and then restored him to liberty. From Cashel Henry returned to Waterford, and thence proceeded to Dublin, where he was received in great state, and where a temporary pavillion, constructed in the Irish fashion of twigs or wickerwork, was erected for him out- side the walls,* no building in the city being spacious enough to accommodate his court. Here he remained to pass the festival of Christmas, and such of the L'ish as were attracted thither by curiosity were entertained by him Avith a degree of magnificence and urbanity well calculated to win their admiration. Among the Irish princes Avho paid their homage to the English king in Dublin, were O'Carroll of Oriel, and the veteran O'Rourke ; but the monarch Koderic, though thus abandoned by his oldest and most powerful ally, the chief of Breftuy, as he had been already by so many others of his vassals, still continued to maintain an independent attitude. He collected an army on the banks of the Shannon, and seemed resolved to de- fend the frontiers of his kingdom of Con- naught to the last ; thus regaining by this bold and dignified demeanor some at least of the esteem and sympathy * " Near the clinich of St. Andrew, on the southern side of the ground now kno^^■n as Darao street." —Gil- bert's Hist. ofDuNin, vol. ii. p. 338. THE SYNOD OF CASHEL. 187 whicli by Lis former weakness of char- acter he had forfeited. Henry, whose object appeared to be not fighting, but parade, did not march against the Irish monarch, but sent De Lacy and Fitz- Adelm* to treat with him ; and Roderic, on his own sovereignty being recognized, was, it is said, induced to pay homage to Henry through his ambassadors, as it was customary in that age for one king to pay to another and more potent sovereign. We have no Irish authority, however, for this act of submission ; and as to the northern princes, they still withheld all recognition of the invader's swav. A. D. 1172. — At Henry's desire, a syn- od was held at Cashel in the beGjinnins: of this year. It was presided over by Christian, bishoj^ of Lismore, who was then apostolic legate, and was attended by St. Laurence O'Toole, of Dublin, Catholicus O'Duffy, of Tuam, and Do- nald O'Hullucan, of Cashel, with their suffragan bishops, together with abbots, archdeacons, Ir. O'llanlon's admirable life of that great saint chap, xviii. FOUNDATION OF MONASTERIES. 219 tion of several religious houses by Don- nell More O'Brien. Several of the uoblesfc reli£:ioug foundations of Ireland date from this period ; and, if some of them were the oiFeriugs made by rapine to religion, or were erected by such men as Dermot MacMurrough, the fact only illustrates one point of distinction be- tween the bad men of that age who may have founded monasteries, and those of the present who do not ; namely, that the former were not able, like the latter, wholly to throw off the trammels of faith, to which they, sooner or later, repentantly returned, or, at least, offered a tribute of recoornition.* Henceforth we shall have to treat of * From the list of the Cistercian Abbeys of Ireland preserved in Trinity College library, and published in an appendix to Grace's annals (p. 1G9), it appears that many of them were founded before the English invasion. They appear in the following order in this list, but the founders' names, and some of the dates, are added from other authorities : — St. Mary's, Dublin (founded by the Danes for Benedictines in 948, and reformed to Cistercian in 1139) ; Mellifont, in Louth, by O'CarroU of Oriel, in 1142 ; Bective, Meath, by O'Melaghlin, in 1148 ; Baltin- glass, Wicklow, by Dermot MacMurrough, in 1148 or 1151 ; Boyle, Roscommon, in 1148 ; Monasternenagh, or, de Maggio, Limerick, by O'Brien, in 1148 ; Athlone, Roscommon, in 1152 ; Newry, Down, by MacLoughlin, king of Ireland, in 1153 ; Odoruey, Kerry, in 1154 ; Inislounagh, Tipperary, by DonneU O'Brien, in 1159 ; Fermoy, in 1170 ; Maur, in Cork, by Dermot MacCarthy, in 1172 ; Inis Samer, Donegal, by Rory O'Canannan, in 1179 ; Jerpoint, Kilkenny, by MacGillapatrick of Ossory, in 1180 ; Middleton, Cork, by the Barrys, in 1180 ; Holy Cross, Tipperary, by DonneU O'Brien, in 1181 ; Dun- brody, Wexford, by Hervey of Mountmaurice, in 1182 ; Abbeyleix, Queen's Co., by Cuchry O'More, in 1183 ; Inis Courcy, Down, by John de Courcy, in 1188, as restitution for the Irisli abbey of Carraig, destroyed by him ; Monasterevan, Kildare, by O'Dempsey of Offaly, in 1189 ; Kuockmoy, Galway, by Cathal Crovderg O'Conor, in 1190 ; Grey Abbey, Down, by Affrica, wife of John de Courcy, in 1193 ; Cumber, Down, in 1198 ; Tintern, Wexford, by William Marshall, in 1200 ; Cor- comroe, Oare, by Donat O'Brien, in 1194; Kilcooly, two races as constituting the population of Ireland, namely, the Anglo-Irish and the " mei'e Irish." The latter were, with certain exceptions, excluded from the privileges and protection of the English law, and were legally known, even during peace, as the " Irish enemy." Dissensions were constantly fomented among them by the powerful English barons, who thus made them an easy prey, and stripped them gradually of their territories ; while the Anglo-Irish, especially when residing beyond the English Pale, often shared the fate of the original Irish, with whom they be- came, in course of time, identified in language, manners, and interests. Tipperary, by Donat O'Brien, in 1200 ; Kilbeggan, West Meath, by the Daltons, about 1200; Douske, Kilkenny, by William Marshall, about 1200 ; Abingdon, or Wothenay, Limerick, by Theobald Fitz Walter, in 1205 ; Abbeylorha, Longford, about 1205 ; Tracton, Cork, by the MacCarthys, about 1205, or 1224 ; Moycos- quin, Derry, about 1205 ; Loughseudy, West Meath, about 1205 ; and Cashel, Tipperary, by Archbishop Mac- Carwell, in 1272. All these Cistercian abbeys were dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, except that of Holy Cross, and the abbey of Athlone, dedicated to St. Peter and St. Benedict. There were, also, minor houses, cells to some of the preceding. Archdeacon Lynch enumerates about 40 monasteries erected by Irishmen about the period of the invasion, several of them being included in the preceding list. One was the Dominican house of Derry, founded by Donuell Oge O'DonneU, prince of TirconneU, at the request of St. Dominic himself, who sent him two brothers of the order. Vide Cambrensii Ecersus, ii., 535, &c. ; O'Sullivan's Deais Patriciana, lib. 9, c. 2 ; and Lanigan, vol. iv. The last-named writer enumerates the following primitive monastic institutions as existing at the close of the twelfth cen- tury : — viz., Armagh, Derry, Bangor, Maghbile, or MoviUe, Devenish, Clogher, Clones, Louth, Cloufert, Inchmacnerin, Aran Isles, Cong, Mayo, Clonard, Kells, Lusk, Kildare, Trim, Clonmacnoise, Killeigh, Glenda- longh, Saiger, Isle of All Saints on Lough Ree, Roscom- mon, BaUygadare, Drumcliff, Aghaboe, Lorra, Lismore, Molana, Cork, Iniscathy, Inisfallen, &c., &c. 220 REIGN OF JOHN. CHAPTER XXL KEIGN OF JOIIK. Renewed Wars of Catlial Carragli and Cathal Crovderg. — Tergiversation of William de Bnrgo, and Deatli of Cathal Carragli at Boyle Abbey. — Massacre of the Englisli Archers in Connauglit. — Wars in Ulster. — Fate of John de Courcy. — Legends of the Book of Howth. — Death and Character of William de Burgo. — Tumults and Rebellions of the English Barons. — Second Visit of King John to Ireland. — Alarm of the Barons. — Submission of Irish Princes. — Independence of Hugh O'Neill. — Division of the English Pale into Counties. — Money Coined. — Departure of John. — The Bishop of Norwich Lord Justice. — Exploits of Cormac O'Melaghlin and Hugh O'Neill. — War in the South. — Catastrophe at Athlone. — Adventures of Murray O'Daly, the Poet ol Lissadill. — Ecclesiastical Occurrences. Contemporary Soverelgm and EoenU. — Pope Innocent III. — King of France, Philip Augustus. — Emperor of Germany, Frederick II.— King John resigned his dominions to the Pope, and did homage for tliem, 1213. — Magna Charta signed at Rimnjmead, 1215.] (A. D. 1199 TO A. D. 1216.) ONE of the first acts of John, on ascending the throne of England, in 1199, Tvas to appoint Meyler Fitz- Heniy chief governor of Ireland. At that time a* fierce war was raging in Connaught between the rival factions of the O'Conor family. Cathal Carragh, son of Conor Moinmoy, engaged the services of William Bm-ke, or De Burgo, better known to the reader as William FitzAdelm, and of the English of Lim- erick, and by their aid he expelled Cathal Crovderg, and re-established himself on the throne of Connaught. * The collateral Hy-Niall branch of MacLoughlin (sometimes also called O'Loughlin), which had taken its name from Lochlainn, the fourth in descent from Niall Glundubh, and had given two distinguished monarchs to Ireland, disappears in the books of genealogy with The expelled prince enlisted the sym- pathy of Hugh O'Neill, who had recent- ly appeared as chief of Tyrone, and had distinguished himself both in 1198 and 1199, by successes against De Courcy and the English of Ulster.* Cathal Crov- derg and Hugh entered Connaught with an army, but finding their force inade- quate, commenced a retreat, when they were overtaken at Ballysadare in Sligo by Cathal Carragh and his English auxil- iaries, and routed with great loss ; O'Heg- ny, then chief of Oriel, being among the slain in the northern ai'mj^ Muircheartach, or Murtough MacLoughlin, monarch of Ireland, who was slain 11G6. With the Hugh mentioned above, called Aedh Toinleasc, the O'NeUls resume their sway na chiefs of Tyrone. TERGIVERSATION OF DE BURGO. 221 Cathal Ci'ovderg next succeeded in securing the aid of John de Courcy and of young De Lacy, and marched with a strong English force as far as Kilmac- duagh, where Cathal Carragh and the Connacians gave them battle. Cathal of the Red Hand was once more un- fortunate, and his army was defeated with such slaughter that only two out of five battalions, of which it consisted, escajjed, and these were pursued as far as the peninsula of Rinn-duin, or Rin- down* on the shore of Lough Ree, where they were hemmed in and many of them killed, others being drowned in endeavoring to cross the lake in boats. Meyler, the lord justice, now marched against Cathal Carragh, and plundered Clonmacnoise ; and Cathal Crovderg, undaunted by his former losses, resolved to try the expedient of detaching De Burgo from the side of his enemy, and of purchasing his services for himself. The result proved that he calculated rightly on the mercenary character of the Anglo-Norman. The English barons recognized no principle in these wars but their own interest, and were only too glad to help the Irish in extermi- nating each other, while at the same time they could aggrandize and enrich themselves. Crovderg proceeded to Munster, where, by large promises, he purchased the aid of De Burgo, and obtained also that of MacCarthy of Desmond. Some of our annals state that a war raged about this very time * This point is now called St. John's, and contains the magnificent ruins of a castle built in 1237, by QeofOy between the O'Briens and the Desmond families, and that William de Burgo with all the English of Munster joined the former ; but the contest to which this account refers did not interfere with that between the O'Conoi-s, and most probably followed it. A. D. 1201. — Cathal Crovderg, with William de Burgo, the sons of Donnell O'Brien and Fineen or Florence Mac- Carthy, and their respective forces, marched from Limerick to Roscommon, where the army took up its quarters in the abbey of Boyle. Every part of the sacred precincts was desecrated by the soldiery, and nothing was left of the abbey but the walls and roof, even these being partially destroyed. De Burgo had begun to surround the mon- astery with an entrenchment, when Cathal Carragh arrived, and several skirmishes took place between the two armies, in one of which Cathal Carragh himself, having got mixed up with some retreating soldiers, was slain in the melee. This event decided the struggle ; Crovderg's Munster auxiliaries were dis- missed to their homes, and Cathal and De Burgo repaired to the abbey of Cong, where they passed the Easter, having first billeted the English archers through Connaught for the purpose, as some accounts express it, of "distraining for their wages." The Four Masters say that De Burgo and O'Flaherty of West Connaught entered iuto a con- spiracy against Cathal the Red Handed, Mares, or De Marisco. — See Dr. Petrie's account of it in the Irish Penny Journal, pp. 73, &c 222 REIGN OF JOHN. •ffhicli the latter timely discovered ; and that De Burgo having then demanded the wages of his men, the Connacians rose upon them and killed 700 of them. The Annals of Kilronan, however, ex- plain the event differently, for they say that a rumor got abroad in some mys- terious manner to the effect that De Burgo was killed, and that by a simul- taneous impulse the whole population rose and slew all the English soldiers who were dispersed among them. De Burgo then demanded an interview with Cathal, but the latter avoided seeing him ; and the Anglo-Norman, whose rapacity was foiled for once in so fearful a manner, set off for Muuster with such of his men as had escaped the massacre. Three years after he took ample ven- geance by the plunder of the whole of Connaught, " both lay and ecclesi- astical." Ulster during this time was a scene of constant warfare between the Kinel- Connell and the Kinel-Owen, and of domestic strife among the latter. Hugh O'Neill was deposed and Conor O'Lough- lin substituted ; but the former appears to have been restored in a few yeare, after some sanguinary conflicts. A. D. 1204. — This year exhibited, in the downfall of John De Courcy, one of the many instances of retribution with which the history of tlie first English settlers in Ireland is filled. It is said that De Courcy incurred the anger of John, by openly speaking of him as a usurper, and as the murderer of the young prince Arthur, the rightful heir to the crown of England; but at all events the " Conqueror of Ulidia" was proclaimed a rebel, and his old enemies, the De Lacys, were ordered to deprive him of his lands, and seize his person. The English army of Meath, therefore, marched against him, and he was driven to seek protection from the Irish of Tyrone. It would appear that he was ultimately captured at Downpatrick, after a long siege, and sent to Loudon, where he was confined iu the tower for the remainder of his life. The Book of Howth relates how he was treacherously taken on Good Friday, when unarmed and engaged in his devotions in the church-yard of Downpatrick ; how he seized a wooden cross and slew thirteen of his assailants on that occasion ; how De Lacy jjuuished, instead of rewarding, these persons who had betra3"ed their master by indicating when he might be found without arms; how De Courcy was afterwards liberated from the tower to fight a French chamjaion, who fled from the lists on beholding him ; how he then showed his strength by cleaving a helmet and coat of mail with his sword ; how John thereupon pardoned him, and granted him the privilege which he asked for himself and his successors, to remain with his head covered in the i-oyal presence ; and how, by some mys- terious agency, he was prevented from returning to Ireland ; but it is needless to say that all this is mere fiction, al- though it has been mixed up with real history by Hanmer, and subsequent Irish historians, on no better authority DEATH AND CHARACTER OP DE BURGO. 223 than that repertory of Anglo-Irish le- gends the Book of Howth. As to Hugh De Lacy, who was then lord justice, he was rewarded by John with the pos- sessions of De Courcy and the title of earl of Ulster * The same year our annals record the death of the famous William FitzAdelm de Burgo, the ancestor of the Burke family in Ireland. Giraldus Cambrensis describes him as a man addicted to many vices ; bland, and crafty ; sweet-tongued to an enemy, and oppressive to those under him : as a man full of wiles, and concealing enmity under a smooth ex- terior. The Four Masters state that he died unshriven, and of some disgusting disease, in punishment of his sacrilegious plundering of churches ; but other old wi'iters, as Duald MacFirbis, and the translator of the Annals of Clonmac- noise, endeavor to vindicate his char- acter.f About this period the utmost disor- ganization prevailed among the English barons in Ireland, their mutual feuds * Nothing authentic is known of the fate of Sir John De Courcy, save that he fell into the hands of De Lacy, who took him by the king's orders, and that he was confined in the tower of London. His wife, Affrica, daughter of Qodfred, king of the Isle of Man, died A. D. 1193, and he left no male issue ; the MacPatricks or De Courcys of Cork, who claim descent from him, being possibly the descendants of his brother who was kiUed during Sir John's lifetime. The privilege claimed by the barons of Kinsale, as De Courcys, to wear their hats in the presence of royalty is only supported by modem practice suggested by the above-mentioned legend. — See the subject amply discussed by Dr. O'Donovan, Four Masters, vol. iii., pp. 139-144, note n. t Giraldus, who was prejudiced against FitzAdelm, Bays he was : — " Vir corpulentus, tarn staturse qnam facturae — vir dapsilis et curialis ImbeUium being as capricious and sanguinary as any which we have had to lament among the native Irish. In 1201, Philip of Wigornia, or Worcester, and William de Braose, laid waste a great part of Munster in their broils. King John sold to the latter for four thou- sand marks the lands of the former and of Theobald Walter; but Walter re- deemed his own for five hundred marks, and Philip re-entered upon his by force of arms. A few years later, the tables are turned, and De Braose appears as a defeated rebel, fljnng from the country, and his family falling into the hands of the tyrant John, who barbarously caused his wife and his son to be starved to death in Corfe castle. J Geoffrey Mares, orDeMarisco,also rebelled, and Munster was once more laid waste by contending English armies. Confusion was worse confounded by the rebellion of the De Lacys, between whom and Meyler a bloody civil war was waged, until " Leinster and Munster," as our annals say, " were brought to utter destruc- debeUator, rebellium blanditor ; indomitis domitus, domitis indomitus ; hosti suavissimus, subdito graviiisi- mus : nee iUi formidabUis, nee isti fidelis. Vir dolosus, blandus, meticulosus, vir vino Venerique datus, &c." — Hib. Esp., ii., cap. svi. The Annals of KUronan mention, under the date of 1303, the erection of a castle at Meelick, on the Shannon, in the eastern extremity of the present county of Galway, by William Burke, who had been previously seated at Limerick, and the English of Munster, and that in constructing the castle they filled up a church with stones and earth. This would appear to have been De Burgo's only occupation of territory in Connaught, although he is called the conqueror of that province. X On returning from Ireland, in August, 1310, John took ■n'ith him the captives, Maude, wife of William de Breusa, or Braose, and her son, the father having some 224 REIGN OF JOHN. tion." Catlial Crovderg and O'Brien of Tlioraond aided the lord justice, Meyler, in besieging Limerick and re- ducing De Burgo to subjection. Some of the English fortified themselves in their castles, and plundered the country indiscriminately like highwaymen, as we find one Gilbert IN^ansfle to have done until he was obliged to fly from Ireland. A. D. 1209. — Dublin having been des- olated by pestilence, was partly re- peopled from Bristol, to which city the Irish metropolis had been capriciously granted by Henry II. The new colo- nists not understanding, as it would seem, the actual state of society in Ire- land, were in the habit of resorting on holidays for amusement to Cullen's Wood, in the southern suburbs. A great number were thus assembled on Easter Monday, this year, when a party of the Irish septs of O'Byrne and O'Toole, who had been deprived of their patrimonies, and forced into the the mountains of Wicklow by the Eng- lish, poured down ujjon them, and cut to pieces some three hundred men. The citizens of Bristol repaired the loss by a fresh supply of colonists, but for hundreds of years after, Black Monday, as it was called, was commemorated as time before having escaped to France. They -were com- mitted to Corfe Castle, in the Isleof Purbeck, where, by the king's orders, they were confined in a room, with a sheaf of wheat and a piece of raw bacon for their only provisions. On the eleventh day their prison was opened and both were found dead, in a sitting posture, the mother between her son's legs, with her head leaning on his breast. In the last pangs of hunger she had gnawed her son's cheeks, probably after his death. When "William de Braose heard the tragical end of his a festival by the citizens, who paraded in arms on the field of slaughter, and made a show of challenging the Irish enemy to the fight. A. D. 1210. — While matters were go- ing on thus in Ireland — England, all this while lying under the spiritual horrors of an interdict, or deprivation of the sacraments, and the king himself uuder a sentence of excommunication in punishment of his sacrileges and his contumacy against the church — John resolved to visit his Irish dominions for the purpose of restoring order there. Some of the oppressive exactions, under which the unhappy Jews groaned in this tyrant's reign, were levied for the expenses of this expedition. He landed at Crook, near Waterford, on the 20th June, this year, with a numerous and well-equipped army, which was con veyed in 700 ships. The presence of the king, with so powerful a force, struck awe into his rebellious sub- jects, and produced an immediate calm throughout the land. The De Lacys fled to France at his approach.* Others, like De Braose, followed their examj^le. As to the Irish, they were, in fact, not at war with the English government at that moment, and as many as twenty wife and son, he died in a few days. Such is the ac- count given by a contemporary Flemish writer, who appears to have been in the service of John. — See Wright, History of Ireland, vol. 1., p. 120. * One of the crimes with which the De Lacys were charged was the murder of Sir John De Courcy, lord ol Eahcny and Kilbarrack, near Dublin, a relative of the famous earl of Ulster, says Ware (Annals, an. 1213). See O'Donovan's note on the De Courcys, quoted above. DIVISION OF COUISTTIES. 225 Irish cliieftains are said to have done homage to him during his stay in this country. He proceeded to Dublin, and thence to Meath, where Cathal Crov- dersf made his submission to him.* In compliance with the king's summons, Hugh O'Neill also repaired to the royal presence ; but departed without agree- ing to any terms of submission. He appears to have encamped with a numerous force near the English camp, and on leaving carried off considerable spoils from the neighboring country. John took Carrickfergus Castle, after a short siege, from De Lacy's people, and placed a garrison of his own there ; and the king of Connaught, who had accom- panied him with a great retinue, then returned home. Shortly after, John was at Kathguaire, now Eathwire, near Kinnegad, in West Meath, and Cathal Crovderg again came, bringing four hostages, but not his son, whom it appears he had promised to bring, and whom John was to have taken under his special charge. There being no military operations to occupy the king, he set about intro- ducing English laws and customs into Ireland. He divided Leinster and Munster into twelve shires or counties, namely, Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Uriel (Louth), Catherlough (Carlow), Kil- * Cathal Crovderg, appears to have entered into terms with Meyler FitzHenry a few years before this, and to have consented to yield two parts of Connaught to the English king, retaining the third part as his feudatory, and paying for it an annual sum of one hundred marks. The Close rolls contain an entry of the letter, in which John expresses his satisfaction to Meyler at thisarrange- 20 kenny, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Lim- erick, Kerry, and Tipperary ; but, as Sir John Davies observes, "these counties stretched no further than the lands of the English colonists extended. In them only were the English laws pub- lished and put into execution ; and in them only did the itinerant judges make their circuits, and not in the countries possessed by the Irish, which contained two-thirds of the kingdom at least." f John also caused sterling money to be coined in Ireland of the same standard as that of England, and took his de- parture from this country in the last week of August, leaving as lord justice, John de Gray, bishop of Norwich, the man whom he wished to make arch- bishop of Canterbury in spite of the pope, and who was thus the cause of his quarrel with the Holy See. The remaining events of our history during John's reign are not of much importance, and have no relation to the memorable transactions of which Eng- land was at that period the scene — the final submission of John to the pope, his war with the barons, the granting of the magna charta, &c. Cormac, head of the ancient Meath family of O'Me- laghHn, wrested Delvin, in West Meath, from the English, and carried on a long war with them and their auxiliaries ; and ment. On John's arrival at Waterford, in 1310, Don- ough Cairhreagh O'Brien, son of Donnell More, made his submission, and received a charter for CarrigogonneU and the lordship thereto belonging, for which ho was to pay sixty marks. f Davis' Hist. Tracts, p. 93. 226 REIGN OF JOHN. Hugli O'Neill of Tyrone, and Donnell O'Donnell of Tyrconnell, having settled their old differences, co-operated in beat- ing the English on two or three occa- sions. The castle erected by the Eng- lish at Caol Uisge, on the Erne, was captured by them, and its commandant, MacCostello, slain; and Hugh O'Neill burned the castle of Carlingford and slaughtered its garrison. A. D. 1215. — In the south, we are told by the Annals of Innisfallen, that a Avar in which the English took part, as usual, on both sides, and which was probably fomented by them, raged be- tween the two brothers, Dermot and Cormac Finn MacCarthy, princes of Desmond ; and that the result was the acquisition by the English of an enor- mous increase of territory in that quarter, where they fortified themselves by the erection of about twenty strong castles in Cork and Kerry. The " English bishop," as De Gray is called, built a bridge of stone over the Shannon at Athlone in 1210 (1211), and erected a castle there on the site of one which had been built by Turlough More O'Conor in 1129 ; but one of the towers, when just finished, fell and crushed beneath its ruins Kichard Tuite, the most powerful of the English barons since the departure of the De Lacys, together with his chaplain and seven other Englishmen. The outworks of the castle extended into the sanctuaries of St. Peter and St. Kiernan, and the Irish attributed the catastrophe to this desecration. The Four Masters, under the date of 1213, relate a story which curiously illustrates the manners of the period. Donnell More O'Donnell, lord of Tir- connell, sent a steward named Finn O'Brallaghan into Connaught to collect a tribute which he claimed in the north- ern portion of that province. One of the first places which the steward vis- ited was the house of the poet, Murray O'Daly, at Lissadill, in Sligo ; and being a coarse, ignorant fellow, he began to wrangle with the poet, who, enraged at his conduct, seized a battle-axe and killed him on the spot. To escape the anger of O'Donnell, the poet fled to Clanrickard in the present county of Galway, whither he was pursued by the angry prince of Kinel-Connell, so that Mac William (that is, Richard Burke, son of the late "William de Burgo) was obliged to send him to seek refuge else- where. Thus was the unfortunate O'Daly compelled to fly to Limerick, and thence to Dublin, and finally to Scotland ; O'Donnell pursuing him with an army, besieging towns, and plunder- ing the country to compel the inhab- itants to surrender the fugitive. In his last asylum O'Daly found time to com- pose three poems in praise of O'Donnell, which soothed the anger of the latter, and procured the poet's pardon. In one of these poems he complains that the cause of the hostility against him was very small indeed, namely, the killing of a clown who had insulted him ! Cadhla, or Catholicus O'Dufiy, the venerable archbishop of Tuam, a con- ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS. 221 temporary of St. Malachy and St. Lau- rence O'Toole, died at an advanced age in tlie abbey of Cong, in 1201 ; and the same year John de Monte Celio, the pope's legate, came to Ireland, and held synods at Dublin and Athlone. John Comyn, the fii-st English archbishop of Dublin, died in 1213, and was interred in Christ Church ; and his successor was Heniy de Londres, a great friend and adherent of king John's, through all his troubles, and who, with William Marshall, earl of Pembroke, was among * Besides several of tlie religious houses enumerated in the note at the end of the last chapter, the following were also founded in Ireland, about the period treated of in the present chapter ; viz. : The Priory of Kells, in Kilkenny, founded in 1193, by Geoffiry FitzRobert, for canons regular of St. Angustin, under the Invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary ; the Priory of Kilrush, in KUdare, for canons regular, and the commandery of St. John and St. Brigid, in Wexford, for knights hospitallers, by William Marshall, earl of Pembroke ; the Priory of Tristemagh, in West Meath, for canons regular, by Qeoflfiy De Constantine, in 1300 ; the few on the king's side at Ruuney- mead, and signed the magna charta as such. Some Irish bishops attended the fourth general council of Lateran, in 1215 ; as we find that Dionysius O'Lon- ergan, archbishop of Cashel, died at Rome that year; that Cornelius O'He- ney, bishop of Killaloe, died, on his return from Rome ; and that the death of Eugene MacGillavider, ai'chbishop of Armagh, took place in the Eternal City the following year.* the Priory of Great Conall, on the banks of the Liffey, in Kildare, for the same, by Meyler FitzHenry, in 1203 ; the Priory of Canons Regular, at Inistiogue in Kilkenny by Thomas, Seneschal of Leinster, in 1306 ; and the Priory of the same order at Newtovra, on the north bank of the Boyne, by Simon Rochford, bishop of Meath, in the same year. Earl Marshall founded the Convent of St. Saviour on the site occupied by the present Law Courts in Dublin, in 1316 — it was first held by the Cis- tercians, but was transferred eight years after to the Do minican friars. 228 REIGN OF HENRY lU. CHAPTER XXII. EEIGN OF nENEY XH. Extension of Magna Charta to Ireland. — Return of Hugh de Lacy. — ^Wars between De Lacy and Earl Mareliall. — Surrender of Territory to the Crown by Irish Princes. — Connaught granted by Henry to Do Burgo. — Domestic Wars in Connaught. — Interference of the English. — Famine and PcstUence. — Hugh O'Conor Seized in Dublin and Rescued by Earl Marshall. — His Retaliation at Athlone. — Death of Hugh, and Fresh Wars for the Succession in Connaught. — Felim O'Conor. — English Castles in Connaught Demohshed. — The Islands of Clew Bay Plundered. — Melancholy Fate of Earl Marshall. — Connaught Occupied by the Anglo-Irish. — Divisions and War in Ulster. — Felim O'Conor Proceeds to England. — Deaths of Remarkable men. — Expe- ditions to France and Wales. — The Geraldines make War at their own Discretion. — Rising of the Toung Men in Connaught. — Submission of Brian O'NeiU. — Battle of Creadrankille and Defeat of the English. — Death of FitzQerald and O'DonneU. — Domestic War in the North. — Battle of Downpatrick. — Wars of De Burgo and FitzQerald. — Defeat of the English near Carrick-on-Shannon. — General View of this Reign. ConUmporary Soverdgna and Events. — Popes : Gregory IS. to Clement IV. — St. Louis IX., king of France, died 1270 ; St. Dominiok died 1221 ; St. Francis died 1226.— Guelpha and Guibelines in Italy, 1230.— Seventh Crusade, 1248 ; Eighth Crusade, 1268. (A. D. 1316 TO 1373.) HENRY III., on the death of his father, John, iu 1216, ascended the throne, while yet in his tenth year, and William Marshall, earl of Pembroke and lord of Leinster, was appointed protector both of the king and king- dom; Geoffry de Marisco being con- tinued in the office of custos, or chief governor of Ireland. The great power enjoyed by earl Marshall, his intimate ties, both of family and property, with Ireland, and his wisdom in the manage- ment of the state, secured special at- tention at court to the affairs of this country ; and, accordingly, we find that a statement of grievances, made by the English settlers, was immediately fol- lowed by the transmission to Ireland of a duplicate of the magna charta, altered in some points to suit the difference of circumstances. Legal privileges were, however, only conceded to persons of English descent, and general extension of them to the Irish being opposed by the barons ; although, in individual cases, charters of " English law and liberty" were granted to some Irish who applied for them. One of the first acts of the reign was the pardon of Hugh de Lacy, and an invitation to him to return to his Irish estates ; but William Marshall, who performed this service for him, having died soon after (a. d. 1221), and being RETURN OF HUGH DE LACY. 229 succeeded by his son, William, a feud arose between De Lacy and the latter, whose father had obtained some of De Lacy's lands while this nobleman was in exile, and all Meath was ravaged in the fierce war which raged between them. The fact of Hugh de Lacy being supported by Hugh O'Neill in this con- test, led the Irish annalists to suppose that the former had returned to Ireland without the king's permission, and that he had joined O'Neill in a war against the English. "The English of Ireland," they tell us, "mustered twenty-four battalions at Dundalk, whither Hugh O'Neill and De Lacy came against them with four battalions ; and on this occa- sion the English conceded his own de- mands to O'Neill." In this war Trim was gallantly defended by De Lacy against William Marshall ; and imme- diately after the war, a strong castle was erected there. About this time died Henry de Lon- dres, archbishop of Dublin, and lord justice of L-eland, by whom the chief part of Dublin Castle was erected.* There is great confusion as to the order in which the lords justices then suc- ceeded ; the names of William Marshall, Geoffiy de Marisco, and Maurice Fitz- Gerald, appearing in a different order, according to different authorities. * This English prelate was nick-named " Born-bill," from a very improbable circumstance related of him. It is said that, having got aU the instrnments by which the tenants of the Irish arcHepiscopal estates held their lands into his hands, on the pretence of examining them, he cast them into the fire ; but that a tumult thereupon arose which compelled him to fly, and that he was subsequently obliged to confirm The Anglo-Irish historians tell us that several of the Irish chieftains sur- rendered their territories to the English king, receiving back a portion of their lands, for which they paid rent as tenants of the crown. Thus O'Brien, of Thomond, made a formal surrender, and received from Henry this year (1221) a great part of his own terri- tory, for which he was to pay an annual rent of one hundi-ed and thirty marks ; this desperate course being resorted to by the Irish chiefs for the purpose of obtaining the protection of government against the aggressions of the unprin- cipled and rapacious barons. How futile, however, their hopes of security against wrong were, even purchased by such sacrifices, was soon evinced in the treatment of the Connacians by Henry HI., who, notwithstanding such an ar- rangement with Cathal Crovderg, made a grant of the whole province of Con- naught to Richard de Burgo, to take effect on the death of Cathal.f A. D. 1224. — This year, in which an awful shower is said to have fallen in Connaught, and to have been followed by murrain, Cathal Crovderg, who was distinguished not less for the purity of his morals than for his valor, died in the habit of a grey friar at Knockmoy, or, as the Annals of Clonmacnoise have it, at the tenants' tenures. The story rests on an old tra- dition. f Cox, Leland, &c. The Irish annalists make no mention of this surrender of their territories by the Irish princes. The particulars of the Connaught war, which foUow in the text, are taken exclusively from our native annals, the accounts of it published on Anglo- Irish authority being full of error 230 REIGN OF HENRY m. Briola, uear the Suck, in Roscommon, and liis son, Hugh, assumed the govern- ment of Connaught ; but the succession became the source of a most lamentable and desolating war. Henry issued a mandate, dated June, 1225, to earl Marehall, ordering him to seize the whole country of Connaught, as for- feited by O'Conor, and to deliver it to Richard de Burgo ; but the Irish appear not to have been aware of any such order, or, if they were, to have treated it with contempt. Alas ! there needed not the mandate of the English king to kindle the flame of war on the occasion, or to instigate the destruction which the infatuated people were too ready to execute upon themselves ! A. D. 1225. — The claims of Hugh, son of Cathal Crovderg, to the crown of Connaught, were immediately disputed by his cousins, Turlough and Hugh, sons of Roderic ; and OWeill, urged by Mageraghty, chief of Sil-Murray, from motives of private vengeance, mustered a large force and marched into Con- naught to assist the two latter princes. Upon this all the Connaught chieftains, with the exception of MacDermot, of Moylurg, and a few minor chiefs, rose against Hugh, son of Cathal ; and O'Neill, having inaugurated Turlough at Carnfree,* and paid himself by the plunder of Hugh's house at Lough Nen, returned with his army to Tyrone. The English barons had a large army assem- * TMs was the usual inauguration place of tlie O'Conors, and has been identified by Dr. O'Donovan as a BmaU cairn ot stones and earth near the village of bled at this time at Athlone, either for the purpose of executing king Henry's orders, or of watching the progress of affairs in Connaught. To them Huorh, the son of Cathal, repaired, and he was received with open arms. Most of them had already been bountifully rewai'ded by his father or himself for military services, and they rejoiced at the present prospect of an inroad into Connaught under his standard. A strong English army, with the lord justice himself at its head, and Donough Cairbrach O'Brien, and O'Melaghlin, with their forces, as auxiliaries, besides the forces of Mac- Donough and other friends of Hugh, now entered Connaught, where, after the departure of O'Neill, there was no adequate force to oppose them, and the enemies of Hugh fled in various direc- tions at their approach, carrying off their families, cattle, and other movables. After some skirmishing with detached parties, Hugh led the English army in pursuit of the sons of Roderic, by a route which they could not have dis- covered themselves, as far as Attymas, in the north-east of Mayo, and they plundered and depopulated several dis- tricts. Numbers of fugitives, endeavor- ing to effect their escaj)e across Bally- more Lough, in the present parish of Attymas, were drowned, and the baskets of the fishing weira were found filled with the bodies of children. " Such of them," say the Annals, " as escaped, on Tulsk, about three miles S. E. of Rathcroghan, in the county of Roscommon. — Fmvr Mast&is, vol. iii., p. 331, note (a). THE WAES OF THE O'CONORS. 231 this occasion, from the English and from drowning, passed into Tirawley, where they were attacked by O'Dowda, who left them not a single cow." The sons of Eoderic now resolved to defer any further effort untQ Hugh's English allies should have left him ; and some of theii- staunchest adherents accordingly made a feigned submission to Hugh, who soon after dismissed the English battalions, to whom he delivered, as hostages for their wages, several of the Connaught chiefs, who were subsequently obliged to ransom themselves, while he himself remained with his Irish friends to watch the O'Flahertys and others, whose fidel- ity he with good reason suspected. During these hostilities, the English of Desmond and Murtousrh O'Brien, one of the Thomond princes, without any invitation from Hugh O'Conor, made an irruption into the south of Connaught, bm-ning villages and slay- ing the inhabitants where they could be found, and all this only to share in the spoils which the lord justice and his followers were enjoying in the northern part of the province. " Wo- ful, indeed, was the misfortune," as the annalists exclaim, " which God permit- ted to fall upon the best province in Ireland at that time! For the young warriors did not spare each other, but preyed on and plundered each other to the utmost of their power. Women and children, the feeble and the lowly * Annals of Kilronan and of tlie Four Masters. Dr. WUde thinks "tlie hot, he&yj death-sickness which succeeded to th6 war and famine, that desolated large poor, perished of cold and famine in that war !" The respite which ensued was very brief. As soon as the main body of the English ai-my had left, the Con- naught chieftains again revolted, and again Hugh, son of Cathal, was obliged to call on the foreigners for help. The call was responded to cheerfully and without delay ; and well was the promj)titude of the English rewarded, "for their spoil was great, and their struggle trifling." The country was once more overrun with armies ; but the sons of Roderic were ultimately deserted by theii- adherents, who judged their cause to be hopeless, and they sought refuge, together with Donn Oge Mageraghty, at the court of Hugh O'lSTeill. Year after year the crops had been left on the ground all the winter : " the corn remained uureaped until after the festival ^f St. Bridget" (the 1st of Feb- ruary), " when the ploughing had com- menced ;" fearful dearth and sickness were the consequence; and, as the words of the old chronicles affectingly describe it, " the tranquillity which now followed was wanting, for there was not a chm'ch or territory in Connaught which had not been destroyed by that day. After the plundering and kUliug of the cattle, people were broken do^vn by cold and hunger, and a violent dis- temper* raged throughout the whole country — a kind of burning disease by portions of Ireland at this period, was our Irish ty- phus." — Census of Ireland for 1853 ; Beport on Tablet of Deaths. 1 232 REIGN OF HENRY HI. wliicli the towns were desolated, and left without a single living being." A. D. 1227. — Very soon after the events just described — some say in 1226 — Hugh O'Conor was inveigled into the power of his late English allies in Dublin ; and under the form of some pretended criminal proceedings they were alDout to take away his life, when earl Marshall came to his rescue, and taking him by force out of the court, escorted him safely to Conuaught — his son and daughter remaining in the hands of the English. The king: of Connaught found an opportunity in a week after to retaliate, and he availed himself of it without scruple. A con- ference between him and William de . Marisco, son of Geoffry, the lord justice, was appointed to take place at the Lathach, or slough, to the west of Atli- lone. Hugh was accompanied J)y a few chosen men, and William came to the rendezvous attended by eight mounted knights. As soon as they met, Hugh seized De Marisco, and the other Irish chiefs rushing upon his companions, overpowered them, one English knight, the constable of Athlone, being killed in the fray. Hugh then proceeded to plunder and burn the market-place of Athlone, which had become an En- glish garrison ; and in exchange for his prisoners he obtained his own son and " The cause of killing the king of Connaught," say Magcoghegan's Annals of Clonmacnoise, " was that after the wife of an Englishman" (who was an attendant in the deimty's house) " had so washed his head and body with sweet balls and other things, he, to gratifie her for her service, kissed her, which the Englishman seeing, daughter, and some Connaught chiefs whom the English had got in their power. A. D. 1228.— The career of Hugh O'Conor was as brief as it was troubled. Before the close of 1227, the sons of Koderic, to whose side the English had turned, once more made their appear- ance in Connaught ; Hugh, the younger brother, with Richard de Burgo and a great army, in the northern districts, and Turlough, with the lord deputy, in the central plain of Connaught, where they erected a strong castle on the peninsula of llindown in Lough Ree. The son of Crovderg fled to Tirconnell, but his re- ception there was not encouraging ; and returning with his family, almost unat- tended, he had a narrow escape from his enemies near the Curlieu mountains, his wife fivlling into their hands, and being delivered by them to the English. Next year (1228) he and the lord deputy, Geoffiy de Marisco, were apparently reconciled, and he was in the house of the latter when an Englishman, inflamed with jealousy at an act of levity on Hugh's part, rushed up>on him and slew him on the spot.* The removal of one competitor for the crown of Connaught left the affairs of that unhappy province as complicated as ever. The brothers Hugh and Tur- louffh now strufrgled aijainst each other for mere jealosie, kUled O'Conor presently at unawares." The murderer was hanged next day by the deputy's or- ders. The Four Masters say Hugh " was treacherously klQed by the English in the mansion of Geoffrey Mares (de Marisco), after he had been expelled by the Conna- i R''. ;. A, NQ Si; R, ES ' £ A .N hitnsniurrtivc' /^^m^ ^-^ij^ . UuffTi/'/lWt CrTtiitit.'f Vv «? ii©iri[.Mi©Ma^ SCALE OF MILLS ; J!ll>.?.(.l. it- «0S', NKW YORK THE WARS OF CONNAUGHT. 233 for the prize — so completely had the principle of succession, according to the Irish law, ceased to be respected. Hugh, the younger brother, was supported by Kichard de Burgo, now justiciary of Ire- land, and he was also recognized by the majority of the Connaught chieftains as their king, although Turlough had been already inaugurated by O'Neill. There was also a new competitor in the person of Felim, brother of the late king, Hugh, son of Cathal Crovderg. " An intolerable dearth," say the Four Masters, "prevailed in Connaught in consequence of the war of the sons of Eoderic. They plundered churches and territories (that is, the property of the church and of the laity) ; they ban- ished the clergy and ollaves into foreign and remote countries, and others of them perished of cold and famine." A. D. 1229 (or 1230).— The scene in Connaught now presents some redeem- ing features, although it is still one of bloodshed and anarchy. Several of the chieftains declared that they would not serve a prince who would keep them in subjection to the English; and Hugh, who had just received his crown at the hands of Englishmen, complied, not un- willingly perhaps, with their wishes. But this step comes to late, after exaust- ing themselves by so much mutual slaughter. Hostilities ensue. Eichard de Burgo enters Connaught with an overwhelming force ; desolates a large portion of the country; slays, among many others, Donn Oge Mageraghty, the most indomitable of the chieftains ; 30 hurls Hugh, son of Eoderic, from his precarious throne, and proclaims Felim, sou of Cathal Crovderg, king in his stead. Hugh finally seeks refuge with Hugh O'Neill, king of Tyrone — a prince who had never yielded hostages or tri- bute to the foreigners, nor indeed ac- knowledged any superioi', Irish or En- glish, and whose death, in 1230, removed another b^^lwark of Irish iudependence. Thus does this sad and dreary Con- naught history proceed. Insane coun- sels, hopeless strife, pitiless devastation, make up the sickening tale ; while the foreign enemy, who has been goading on the infatuated combatants, and aiding them in their work of mutual destruc- tion, strides in grim triumph over the wreck which he and they conspired to make, uses the rival princes as puppets, and seizes their territories with impuni- ty. In 1231 Felim was taken prisoner at Meelick, in violation of solemn guar- antees, by Eichard de Burgo, who had two years before made him king ; and nest year Hugh, son of Eoderic, went through the mockery of recognition as king of Connaught, although before the end of the year Felim was set at liberty by the English, and thus placed in a position to re-assert his rights. A. D. 1233. — ^Felim O'Conor once more raised his standard, round which his friends soon rallied in sufiicient numbers to enable him to take the field. He went in pursuit of Hugh, and in his encounter with him slew that prince, together with one of his brothei-s, his son, and many of his leading men, both English and Irish. 234 REIGN OF HENRY HI. He next demolished tlie castle Biin- galvy, or Galway, which had been erected the j^receding year by Kichard de Burgo, and also castle Kirk, on Lough Corrib, the Hag's castle on Lough Mask, and the castle of Duna- mon on the river Suck, in Roscommon, all of which had been built or fortified by the sons of Roderic and the English. A. D. 1235. — Felim's hardihood, how- ever, was speedily punished ; for Richard de Burgo entered Connaught with an enormous force, and plundered the country without mercy. Not meeting any resistance, he proceeded to Tho- mond, at the instigation of O'Heyne, who desired to be revenged on Donough Cairbrach O'Brien, and was committins: great depredations there, when Felim, although he could not save his own ter- ritory, flew to the aid of his southern ally. A pitched battle was fought. Their cavalry, archers, and coats of mail, gave the English an advantage ; and O'Brien, to whose rashness the de- feat was partly due, having made peace with the invaders, the Connacians re- turned home, the English army follow- ing close in their rear. Felim now fled with his cattle, and all those who chose to follow his fortunes, to the north, and sought refuge with O'Donnell of Tircon- nell, while the English scoured the entire province for spoils. O'Flaherty, who had been all along hostile to Felim, joined the English (who would other- wise have plundered his own territory), and conveyed his flotilla of war boats from Lough Corrib, by land, to the sea at Leenaun, the head of Killery bay. With these boats the English, who had already marched as far as Achil, which they plundered, were enabled to lay waste the Insi Modh, or islands of Clew bay, in which Manus O'Conor, son of Murtough Muimhneach had, with many others from the main laud, sought re- fuge. Numbers were thus slaughtered on the islands, but Manus fled in his vessels; the O'Malleys, who always possessed a numerous fleet, remaining inactive spectators of the scene, as they were not on friendly terms with him. There was not a cow left on the islands, and those to whom the cows belonged would have been compelled by hunger and thirst, say the annalists, to abandon them, had they not been themselves killed by the English, or carried off as prisoners. After devastating all Umal- lia, and taking a prey from O'Donnell at Easdara, the English army laid siege to the castle held for O'Conor by Mac- Dermot on the Rock of Lough Key, in Roscommon, and captured it by the aid of "wonderful machines;" but a few nights after MacDermot recovered the castle by the help of an Irishman, who closed the gate against the English garrison when they had left on a marauding party ; and the fortress was then demolished, that it might not again fall into the hands of the English. By this expedition the English left the Connacians " without food, raiment, or cattle, and the country without peace, the Irish themselves plundering and destroying one another ; but they did THE WARS OF CONNAUGHT. 235 not obtain hostages or submission. Felim made peace the same year witli the lord justice, and was left in possession of " the king's five cantreds" (or baronies), which were probably the mensal lands of the kings of Connaught. We now turn to an episode in the history of the Pale. William Marshall, the powerful earl of Pembroke, and protector of the realm during the king's minority, left at his death five sons, all of whom inherited in succession his title and estates ; but as all died childless, the family became extinct in the male line. It is said that the father died under the ban of ex- communication, inflicted on him by an Irish bishop for his plunder of the church, and that the sons refused to yield up any of the wealth which their sire had taken by the sword, whether sacrilegiously or otherwise. Be this as it may, misfortunes fell heavily upon them in the sequel. Earl Richard, one of the brothers, having taken a leading part in the rebellious proceedings of the English barons, was deprived of his vast possessions, and, taking up arms, he joined the standard of Llewellyn, tlie heroic prince of Wales. He de- fended himself successfully against the royal troops in one of his own castles ; but a most vile and treacherous con- spiracy, to which he fell a victim, was now formed against him. Maurice Fitz- Gerald (the lord justice), Hugh and Walter de Lacy, Richard de Burgo, Geoffry de Marisco, and in fact aU the leading Anglo-Irish barons, are said to have been led by the English minister into this nefarious plot, the object of which was, to inveigle earl Richard to Ireland, and to get him by some means into the hands of his enemies, the bribe oifered being no less than the distribu- tion among them of all the eai-l's Irish possessions. The plan succeeded so well that in 1234 the earl came to Ire- land with a few followers, and took the field in the assertion of his rights. He recovered some of his own castles, and captured Limerick after a siege of four days ; but this was all brought about to hasten his ruin. A truce was now proposed, and a mock conference took place on the Curragh of Kildare. At a signal given, the great body of his fol- lowers suddenly deserted, drawn off by De Marisco, who is called a deceitful old man, and who had treacherously urged him on from the beginning. Seeing that he was betrayed, he took an affectionate leave of his young brother, Walter, who is described as a youth of beautiful mien, and whom he directed a servant to conduct from the field ; and then, with scarcely any one by him but fifteen knights who had accompanied him from England, and assailed by overwhelming numbers, he continued bravely to defend himself; until at length, after being unhorsed, a traitor from behind plunged a knife into his back. He was then conveyed, all but lifeless, to one of his own castles, of which Maurice FitzGerald was in pos- session, and there he expired in the midst of his enemies. Thus perished 236 REIGN OF HENRY III. " the flower of the chivahy of his time." His sad end, and the base means em- ployed against him, excited a strong feeling both in England and Ireland ; tumults took place in London ; the king became alarmed, as it was discovered that the royal seal had been employed to give sanction to the first suggestion of the plan; and Maurice FitzGerald repaired to England to clear himself by oath from the guilt of the foul trans- action. But the affair merits our at- tention chiefly as illustrating the char- acter of the men who then held in their hands the destinies of Ireland. A. D. 1236. — A conference was the usual mode with the unprincipled men of that time to get an enemy into theu* .power, and Felim O'Conor was invited, for that purpose, to attend a meeting of the English at Athlone. He came, but having received timely intimation of their object, he made his escape, al- though pursued as far as Sligo, and repaired to Tirconnell, his usual asylum on such occasions. The government of Connaught was then committed by the English to Brian O'Conor, son of Tur- lough, sou of Roderic ; but all the power of his foreign patrons was insufficient to keep him in the office. Felim returned the following year, and took the field against his competitors. His first en- counter was with the soldiers of the lord justice, who were overwhelmed at the onset by the imj^etus of Felim's attack ; and Brian's people, seeing the English soldiers routed, took to flight themselves, and were so dispersed that. after that day, none of the descendants of Roderic had a home in their ancestral territory of the Sil-Murray. Felim plundered their lands, and, among other deeds of vengeance, expelled Cormac MacDermot, chief of Moylurg, from his territory. A. D. 1238. — About this time we find in our annals the significant entry that "the barons of Ireland went to Con- naught, and commenced erecting castles there." The country had been made a wilderness, and they had little more to do than to enter and take possession. The expulsion of the O'Flahertys from their hereditarj'^ territory of Muintir- Morroughoe, on the east shores of Lough Corrib, to the bogs and mountains west of that lake, where they became very powerful in after times, dates from this year, but they are styled lords of West Connaught, long before this period. A. D. 1239. — The scene now shifts from Connaught to Ulster, where Fitz- Gerald, the lord justice, with Hugh de Lacy, and others, entered with a large army, deposed Donnell MacLoughlin, who had succeeded Hugh O'Neill, as lord of Tyrone, and placed Brian O'Neill in his stead ; but the former recovered his position after a battle fought the same year at Carnteel. This was the game which the English had played so successfully in Connaught. In that period of disorganization there were always half a dozen claimants for the chieftaincy in each territory, and it was only necessary to pit them against each other to secure the ruin of all. EXPEDITIONS TO FRANCE AND WALES. 237 A. D. 1240. — Wearied with the ag- gressions of Kichard de Burgo, and with the elements of strife, English and Irish, which that nobleman kept con- stantly in motion, the unhappy king of Connaught proceeded to England, and complained bitterly to Henry III. of the injustice with which he had to contend. The English king soothed him with empty honors, confirmed to him the five cantreds already mentioned, and soon after wrote to Maui'ice FitzGerald, the lord justice, ordering him " to pluck out by the root that fruitless sycamore, De Burgo, which the earl of Kent, in the insolence of his power, had planted in those parts."* A. D. 1241.— Donnell More O'Donnell, the warlike lord of Tirconnell, who also asserted the right of chieftainship over Lower, or Northern Connaught, as far as the Curheu mountains, died in the monastic habit, among the monks of Assaroe, and was succeeded by Melagh- lin O'Donnell, who aided Brian O'Neill in recovering Tyrone from MacLoughlin, the latter chieftain being killed in battle, with ten of his family, and several chiefs of the Kinel-Owen. Some other cele- brities of Irish history made their exit about the same time. Walter de Lacy died this year; Donough Cairbrach O'Brien, son of Donnell More, lord of Thomond, the following year ; and the * The earl of Kent here mentioned was Hubert de Burgo, who had been chief justice of England. There ia extant a letter from Felim O'Conor to Henry HI., thanking him for the many favors which he had con- ferred upon him, and especially for having written in great earl, Richard de Burgo, the year after (1243), while proceeding with some troops to join Henry HI, in an expedition against the king of France. A. D. 1245.— The king of England being hard pressed in a war with the Welsh, summoned, or rather invited, the Irish chiefs, and the Anglo-Irish barons, to muster round his standard in the principality. At this time these barons claimed exemption from attend- ing the king outside the realm of Ire- land, and Henry would appear to have conceded the privilege, as, in his writ of summons, he expressly stated that their attendance on that occasion should not be made a precedent against them. Felim O'Conor accompanied the lord justice, FitzGerald, on this expedition, and was treated with great honor by Henry; but FitzGerald incurred the king's weighty displeasure by the tardi- ness of his attendance, and was conse- quently deprived of office ; Sir John, son of Geoflfry de Marisco, being appointed justiciary in his stead. The English army in Wales had suifered a great deal, waiting for the Lish reinforcement, and the king's feelings were embittered by the subsequent failure of the expedi- tion. After this time we find the Ger- aldines in L-eland acting independently of the royal authority, and making war and peace at their own discretion. his behalf against Walter de Burgo, to his justiciary William Dene ; but this letter, although published in Rymer (vol. i., p. 340) under the date of 1340, must refer to a period not earlier than 1360, when William Dene was justiciary. 238 REIGN OF HENRY m. A. D. 1247. — Maurice FitzGerald led au army this year into Tirconnell, and by a stratagem, cleverly carried out by one of his Ii'ish auxiliaries, Cormac, a grandson of Roderic O'Conor, he gained a victory at the ford of Ballyshannon over O'Donnell, who was slain. A great number of FitzGerald's men were, how- ever, killed in the fight or drowned. A rivalry for the chieftainship of Tircon- nell was then promoted between God- frey O'Donnell and Rory O'Canannan, and in the domestic strife which ensued the English were able for a while to crush the patriotic ardor of the Tircon- nellians. Meanwhile another army penetrated into Tyrone under Theobald Butler, now lord justice ; and the Kinel- Owen held a council, at which they came to the prudent conclusion, "that the English having now the ascendency over the Irish, it was advisable to give them hostages, and to make peace with them for the sake of their country." A. D. 1248.— Urged by the frightful state of oppression under which their country groaned, the young men of the ancient families of Counaughnas rose in arms against the English, devastated their possessions, and left them no se- curity outside the walls of their castles. Turlough, son of Hugh O'Conor, and FitzPatrick, of Ossory, entered Con- naught, and burned the town and castle of Galway, and the O'Flaherties de- feated an English plundering party, w^ho had penetrated into Connemara. The leader of the youthful warriors, who thus harassed the invaders in Con- naught, was Hugh, son of Felim ; and when Maurice FitzGerald arrived, in 1249, with two armies, to avenge the English settlers, Felim, dreading the storm which his son's rash heroism had brought about his ears, retired, as usual, to the north, with his movable proper- ty ; and his nephew Turlough accepted, at the hands of the English, the office of ruler in his stead. Next year Felim came back with a numerous force, ex- pelled Turlough, and was again return- ing northward, across the Curlieu moun- tains, sweeping off all the cattle of the land, when the English, thinking it better to make peace on any terms, sent after him to offer propositions, and restored him to his kingdom. Florence or Fineen MacCarthy, who had given the English very little rest in Desmond, was slain by them this year, and, after long and sanguinary hostilities, peace was restored for a while in that quarter. In the north, Brian O'Neill, lord of Tyrone, made his submission to the lord justice in 1252 ; yet, the very next year his territory was invaded by Maurice FitzGerald, with a great hosting of the English, who, how- ever, were defeated with considerable slaughter. Felim O'Conor held a friendly confer- ence in 1255, with MacWilliam Burke, as Walter, the son of Richard More, and chief of the De Burgo fomily, was styled ; and the following year Hugh, son of Felim, who appears to have particijiated in his father's authority at this time, met Alan de la Zouch, the justiciary, at DEATH OF FITZGERALD AND O'DONNELL. 239 Rinn Duin, and ratified a peace witli him. The next year, Felim got a charter for his five cantreds. Thus, the English alTvays contrived to keep some of the Irish jirinces on theii' hands, while they carried on an exterminating war against others, and at this moment their main object was to crush the independence of Tirconnell. A furious battle was fought in 1257, between Godfrey O'Donnell, lord of that territory, and a numerous English army, under the command of Maurice FitzGerald, who was once more lord justice. The armies engaged at Creadran-Kille, in a district to the north of Sligo, now called the Rosses. O'Don- nell and FitzGerald met in single com- bat, and severely wounded each other ; and after a fierce and protracted struggle the English were defeated, the result being their expulsion from Lower Con- naught. Godfrey was unable, from his wound, to follow up his success ; but he demolished the castle which the Eng- lish, to overawe the Kinel-Connell, had erected at Caol Uisge, now Belleek, on the Erne river. The deaths of the two chiefs who fought so bravely against each other, at this battle, followed soon after. Maurice FitzGerald retired into a Franciscan monastery which he had founded at Youghal, and, after putting on the habit of a monk, departed tranquilly in the bosom of religion ; the only stain which historians have observed in his character, being the part, whatever that may have been, which he took in the ruin and death of Richard, earl Marshall. The death of Godfrey O'Donnell was not so peaceable. Hearing that O'Donnell was on his death-bed, from the wound he re- ceived at Creadran-Kille, Brian O'Neill sent to require hostages from the Kinel- Connell, but the messengers who carried the insolent demand, fled the moment they delivered their errand, and the dying chieftain only answered it by ordering a general muster of his people. He then du-ected his men to place him on the bier which should take him to the grave, and to cany him on it at the head of his forces. Thus did the Tir- connellian army march to meet that of Tyrone, A sanguinary battle was fought on the banks of the river Swilly, in Don- egal, and victory declared for O'Don- nell, whose bier was then laid down in the open street of a village, which, at that time, existed at the place now called Conwal, near Letterkenny, and there he ex]3ired. What a pity that such heroism should have been perverted by Irishmen to their mutual destruction, while the common enemy was driving them from the green fields of their forefathers ! On hearing of O'Donnell's death, O'Neill sent again to demand hostages, but while the men of Tirconnell were de- liberating on an answer, a youth only eighteen years of age, the son of Don- nell More O'Donnell, having just arrived from Scotland, presented himself in the council and was elected chieftain. He is called Donnell Oge in the Irish an- nals. That O'Neill's pretensions were not without some foundation may be con- 240 REIGN" OF HENRY IH. eluded from the fact, that the same year (1259) these transactions took place, Hugh, son of Felim, and Teige O'Brien, of Thomond, probably with other chieftains, met him at Caol Uisge, and conferred on him the sovereignty of Ireland — an empty title, it is true, at that time* A. D. 1260.— The result of the con- ference of Irish chiefs at Caol Uissfe, •was that O'Neill and O'Couor turned whatever forces they could muster against the English, and that a battle, in which the Irish were defeated, was fought at Druim-dearg, near Down- patrick. Brian himself was killed, together with fifteen of the O'Kanes, and many other chiefs, both of Ulster and Connaught. Cox says, the battle took place in the streets of Down, and that three hundred and fifty-two of the Irish were killed. The English were commanded in this encounter by the lord justice, Stephen Longespe. A. D. 12G1. — In the south the English were not so fortunate. The Geraldines were defeated in Thomond by Conor O'Brien, and suffered fearful loss in an- other battle at Kilgarvan, near Ken- mare, in which they were defeated by MacCarthy; their loss, according to English accounts, including Thomfis FitzThomas FitzGerald and his son, eiglit barons, fifteen knights, and a countless number besides. William Denn, the justiciary, Walter de Burgo, * Some Munster Listorians deny that Teige O'Brien joined in conferring this distinction on O'Neill. f See note, page 237. earl of Ulster, and Donnell Roe, son of Cormac Finn MacCarthy, with several other leading men, aided the Geraldines in this battle. Nearly all the English castles of Hy Conaill Gavra, and other parts of Desmond, were demolished by the Irish after this victory ; and Han- mer says, "the Geraldines dm'st not put a plough into the ground in Desmond." The next year (1262) an- other sanguinary struggle took place between the English under Mac William Burke and MacCarthy at Mangerton, in Kerry, and both sides suffered severely. A. D. 1264. — Walter de Burgo (who was earl of Ulster by right of his wife, tlie daughter of Hugh de Lacy) and FitzGerald now waged war against each other, and a great part of Ireland was desolated in their hostilities. The lord justice took part against De Burgo, and this circumstance drew from Felim O'Conor the expression of gratitude to Henry III. already alluded to.f De Burgo, however, succeeded in taking all FitzGerald's Connaught castles. To such a pitch did the feuds among the Anglo-Irish barons proceed at this time, that, in one of them, Maurice FitzMaurice FitzGerald, aided by others of his family, seized, at a conference, the persons of the lord justice and other noblemen, and confined them in castles until they were released by a parliament or council, held in Kilkenny for the purpose.^ J For a most interesting illostration of the state of society at this turbulent period, we may refer tlie reader to the Anglo-Norman ballad of the " Entrenchment of ENGLISH DEFEATED NEAR CARRICK-ON-SIIANNON. 241 War and peace continued to alternate in rapid succession in Connauglit until 1265, when Felim O'Conor died, and ■was succeeded by liis son, Hugh, wlio, in the following year, having recovered from an illness, during which Connauglit was trodden under foot by the English, luustered a large force, and with re- newed energy carried on the war against Walter de Burgo. The lord justice. Sir James Audley, alarmed at the formid- able I'ising of the Irish, at length came to the aid of De Burgo with an army, and some Irish auxiliaries also fought under his standard. De Burgo thoucrht to patch up a peace in the usual way, until a better opportunity to strike would offer; but Hugh was a match for him in the treacherous diplomacy of the time. When the two armies were in the vicinity of a ford near the modern New Eoss,'' publislied in Crofton Croker's "Popular Songs of Ireland," from Harleian MSS., 913, in the British. Museum, with a translation by the gifted Mrs. Maclean (L. E. L.), and introductory observations by Sir Frederick Madden and Mr. Croker himself. The ballad describes how the biirgesses of New Eoss resolved, in the year 12G5, to fortify their town with a wall and foss, to protect it against the hostUo inroads of the contending barons ; how a widow, named Eose, first suggested the plan, and offered large contributions to carry it out; how the burgesses subscribed liberally for the purpose, and, finding that the work proceeded too slowly, labored at it with their own hands ; the different professions and guilds working in companies with banners flying and music playing ; and how the ladies worked on Simdays, carrying stones while the men reposed. New Eoss, which was called by the Irish, Eos-mic-Triuin, appears to have been at that time a considerable town. * The following account of this transaction is given in Connel Mageoghegan's translation of the Annals of Clonmacnoise : — After relating how the earl of Ulster (Walter Burke), with the lord deputy, and all the Eng- lish forces of Ireland, marched against O'Conor, and describing the position of the armies near Ath-Cora- ConneU, a ford on the Shannon, near Carrick-on-Shaunon 31 Carrick-on-Shannon, De Burgo proposed negotiations ; but Hugh contrived to get the earl's brother, William Oge, into his hands before the parley commenced, and then treated him as a prisoner, and slew some of the English. The earl flew into a rage, and an obstinate battle ensued. Turlough O'Brien, who was coming to the aid of the Connacians, was met be- fore he could form a junction with them, and slain in single combat by De Burgo ; but Hugh's people avenged his death by a fearful onslaught, in which great numbers of the English were slain, and immense spoils taken from them. Wil- liam Oge, the earl's brother, was put to death after the battle, which was, on the whole, a disastrous one to the Eng- lish.* Walter Burke died the following year in the castle of Galway, and Hugh O'Connor survived him three years. (the name being now obsolete), the annalist proceeds : — " The Englishmen advised the Earle to make peace with Hugh O'Connor, and to yeald his brother, William Oge mac William More mac William the Conqueror, in hostage to O'Connor, dureing the time he shou'd remain in the Earles's house concluding the said peace, which was accordingly condescended and done. As soone as WLUiam came to O'Connor's house he was taken, and also John Dolphin and his son wore killed. Wben tyding came to tlie ears of the Earle how his brother was thus taken, he took his journey to Athenkip (the name, now obsolete, of a ford on the Shannon, near Carrick-on-Shannon), where O'Connor beheaved himself as a fierce and froward lyon about his prey, without sleeping or taking any rest ; and the next day, soon in the morning, gott upp and betook him to his arms : the Englishmen, the same morning, came to the same foorde, called Athenkip, where they were overtaken by Terlogh O'Bryen. The Earle returned upon him and killed the said Terlogh, without the help of any other in that pressence. The Connoughtmen pursued the Englishmen, and made their hindermost part runn and break upon their outguard and foremost in such manner and foul discomfiture, that in that instant nine of their chiefest men were killed upon the bogge about Eichard 242 DEATH OF HENRY EI. This long reign was at length brought to a close by the death of Henry III., in 1272. During its troubled course, the feuds of the native Irish among them- selves had done more to establish the English p^wer in this country than all that could be effected merely by Eng- lish arms. Above all, the insane and deadly contention of the O'Conors Avas most fatal to Ireland. Connaught was for the first time overrun by the new settlers; the first submission was ob- tained from the princes of Tyrone ; and in the south the Geraldines had besrun to assume the title — as yet an unsub- stantial one — of lords of Desmond. Henry changed his viceroys frequently, ne Koylle (Richard of the Wood) and John Butler, who were killed over and above the said knights. It is unknown how many were slain in that conflict, save only that a hundred horses with their saddles and furniture, and a hundred shirts of mail were left. After these things were thus done, O'Connor killed William Oge, the Earle'a brother, that was given him before in hostage, because the Earle killed Terlogh O'Bryen." — See Four Makers, vol. iii., pp. 408, &c., note. * A great many religious houses were founded in Ireland during the reign of Henry III. Among them were, a priory of canons regular at Tuam, by the De Burgos, about 1220 ; one at MuUingar, in 1237, by Ralph le Petit, bishop of Meath ; one at Aughrim, in the county of Galway, by Theobald Butler ; also the priories of Ballybeg, in Cork ; Athassal and Nenagh, in Tipperary ; Enniscorthy, St. Wolstan's, Carrick-on-Suir, and St. Jolm's, in the city of Kilkenny ; the Cistercian Abbey of Tracton, in Cork, by Maurice MacCarthy, in 1234 ; the Dominican convent of Drogheda, by Luke Netter- ■»iile, archbishop of Armagh, in 1234 ; the Black Abbey (Dominican) in Kilkenny, by Wm. Marshall, jun., in 122o ; the Dominican convent of St. Saviour, Waterford, by the citizens, in 122G ; the Dominican convent of St. Mary, in Cork, by Philip Barry, in 1229 ; the convents of the sdmo order in MuUingar (A. D. 1337), by the family of Nugent : Athenry (1341), by Meyler de Bir- mingham; Caahel (1243), by MacKelly, archbishop of but with little advantage to his Irish colony. With some difficulty he estab- lished a free commerce between the colony and England ; but his efi'orts to introduce the English laws into Ireland were sternly resisted by his own refrac- tory bai'ons. In 1254 he made a grant of Ireland to his son Edward, with the express condition, that it was not to be separated from the crown of England ; and, lest the grant might lead to any such result, he took care to assert his own paramount authority by super- seding some of the acts done by his son in virtue of his title of lord of Ireland. It is generally understood that prince Edward visited L-eland in 1255.* Cashel ; Tralee (1343), by lord John FitzThomas ; Col- eraine (1344), by the MacEvelins; SUgo (1353), by Maurice FitzQerald ; St. Mary, Roscommon (1353), by Felim O'Conor ; Athy (1357), by the families of Boi?eles and Hogans ; St. Mary, Trim (12G3), by Geoflfry do Geneville ; Arklow (13G4), by Tlieobald Pitz Walter ; Rosbercan, in Kilkenny (1268) ; Youghal (1368), by the baron of OfFaly and Lorrah, in Tipperary (1369), by Walter Burke, earl of Ulster ; the Franciscan convents of Youghal (1231), by Maurice FitzQerald ; Carrick- fergus (1232), by Hugh de Lacy ; Kilkenny (1234), by Richard Marshall ; St. Francis, in Dublin (1230) ; Multi- farnham, in West Meath (1236), by William Delamer ; Cork (1240), by Philip Prendergast ; Drogheda (1340), by the Plunkets ; Waterford (1340), by Sir Hugh Pur- cel ; Ennis (1340), by Donough Carbreach O'Brien ; Athlone (1341), by Cathal O'Conor; Wexford, about the middle of the thirteenth century ; limerick, by Walter de Burgh ; Cashel, by WUliam Hackett ; Dun- dalk, by De Verdon ; Ai-dfert (1353), by Thomas, lord of Kerry ; Kildare (1360), by De Vescy ; Clane (1360), by Gerald FitzMaurico ; Armagh (1363), by Scanlan, arch- bishop of Armagh ; Clonmel (1369), by Otho de Granison , Nenagh, by the Butlers ; Wicklow, by the O'Byrnes and O'Tooles, and Trim, by the family of Phmket. The Au- gustiuian convent of the Holy Trinity, in Crow-street, Dublin, was founded by the Talbot family in 1359, and that of Tipperary, also in the course of this reign. \ STATE OF IRELAND ON" ACCESSION OF EDWARD I. 243 CHAPTER XXIII. EEIGN OF EDWARD I. State of Ireland on the Accession of Edward I. — Feuds of the Baron3. — Exploits of Hugh O'Conor. — Fearful Con- fusion in Connaught. — Incursion from Scotland, and Retaliation. — Irisli Victory of Glendelory. — Horrible Treachery of Thomas De Clare in Thomond. — Contentions of the Clann Murtough in Connaught. — English Policy in the Irish Feuds. — Petition for English Laws. — Characteristic Incidents. — Victories of Carbry O'Me- la^^in over the English. — Feiids of the De Burghs and Qeraldines. — The Red Earl. — His great Power. — English Laws for Ireland. — Death of O'Melaghlin. — Disputes of De Vescy and FitzQerald of Offaly. — Singular Pleadings before the King. — A Truee between the Qeraldines and De Burghs. — The Kilkenny Parliament of 1295. — Continued Tumults in Connaught. — Expeditions against Scotland. — Calvagh O'Conor. — Horrible Mas- sacre of Irish Chieftains at an English Dinner-table. — More Murders. — Rising of the O'KeUys. — Foimdation of Religions Houses. . Contemporary Sovereigns and Events. — Popes: Gregory X. died 1276 ; luuocont V. and Adrian V. tlie same year ; John XXI., 1277; Nicholas IIL, 12S1 ; Martin IV., 1285; Honorius IV., 1237 ; Nicholas IV., 1292; Cclestine V., 1294; Boniface VIII., 1303; and Benedict XI., 1304.— King of France, Philip IV. ; Emperor of Germany, Eodolph of Uapsburg (first of the Austrian Family), died 1291. — Kings of Scotland, John Baliol and Robert Bruce. — Llewellyn Killed, and Wales sub- jected to the Power of England, 12S2. — St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventuro died, 1274. — Alberius Magnus died, 1232. — Roger Bacon died, 12S4.— Uninterrupted Scries of Parliaments Commenced in England, 1293.— William Wallace, the Scottish hero, executed, 1304. (A. D. 1273 TO A. D. 1307.) TT^DWARD I., surnained Longshauks, Xh was proclaimed king ou tlie death of his father, Henry III., in 1272, while on a crusade in the Holy Land, and until his return to England, in July, 1274, the government was administered by lords justices. The new king's ab- sence gave free scope to strife in Ire- land ; but in general the movements in this country depended but little on the course of events in England. Just a century had elapsed from the coming of the Anglo-Normans into Ireland, and their power was scarcely acknowledged beyond the limits which it had reached in the days of Strongbow. The resist- ance to it was, on the contrary, becom- ing more formidable ; and the English suffered numerous defeats on a small scale, which showed how easily a com- bined action of the Irish might have ovei'thrown their settlement, had these seriously contemj^lated any thing more than the temporary liberation of theu- respective territories from the foreign yoke, or the gratification of enmity by some local act of spoliation. The do- mestic feuds of the Irish were as rife as ever, but the English barons were equally prone to strife ; and the op- 2U REIGN OF EDWARD I. pression and rapacity of the latter did more tLan the turbulence of the former, to produce the miserable disorders by which the whole country was laid waste. No attempt was made to reconcile the native race to the new order of things, or to consolidate the two races into one nation. To supplant or exterminate the old Celtic population had all along been the policy of the invaders ; and, to effect this object, means more diabolical than human were resorted to : feuds were fomented ; under the pretence of crushing rebellion, incessant hostilities were kept up ; and by every kind of provocation and injustice, national ran- cor was perpetrated. Three or four times the English monarch urged the expediency of extending the laws and constitution of England to the Ii'ish ; but this attempt was always sternly resisted by the Anglo-Irish oligarchy who ruled the country. The barons found their account in their own lawless and inhuman system of war and rapine. Hugh O'Conor was at this time the most formidable champion of the Irish cause, and in 1273 he renewed hostili- ties by demolishing the English castle of Roscommon. He then crossed the Shannon into Meath, where he carried desolation as far as Granard, and on his return burned Athlone, and broke down its bridge. Two years after, this prince, who was son of Felim, son of Cathal Crovderg, died, and another Hugh O'Conor, grandson of Hugh, the brother of Felim, was elected king. His reign was short, for in three months he was slain by a kinsman in the Dominican church of Roscommon, and another Hugh, son of Cathal Dall, or the blind, son of Hugh, son of Cathal Crovderg, was chosen his successor. A fortnicjht after, this prince was slain by Tomal- tagh Mageraghty and O'Beirne ; and Teige, sou of Turlough, son of Hugh, son of Cathal Crovderg, was elected king. Such was the state of anarchy in which the royal succession was at that time involved in Connaught; and it became still more complicated in 1276, when Hugh IMuineagh, or the Munster man, an illegitimate and posthumous son of Felim, son of Cathal Crovderg, arrived from Munster, and, by the aid of O'Donnell, assumed the government of Connaught. In the midst of incessant contentions he retained his power until 1280, when he was slain by another branch of the O'Conor family. Sir James Audley, the lord justice, was, according to Irish accounts, slain by the Connacians, in 1272, although the English say he was killed by a fall from his horse in Thomond. The same year his successor, Maurice FitzMaurice FitzGerald, was betrayed by his follow- ers, and seized in Offaly by the Irish, in whose hands he remained for some time. Lord Walter Geneville, recently re- turned from the Holy Laud, succeeded to the office, and during his administra- tion there was an incursion of the " Scots and Redshanks" from tlie high- lands of Scotland ; Richard de Burgo, with Sir Eustace le Poer, retaliating with an Anglo-Irish army, when he DE CLARE m THOMOXD. 245 carried fire and sword into tlie Scottisli islands and biglilands, and smoked out or suffocated those wlio liad sought refuse in rocks and caverns. A. D. 1275. — Our annals mention a victory gained this year over the Eng- lish in Ulidia, " when 200 horses and 200 heads were counted (on the field), besides all who fell of their plebeiajis ;" but this is believed to be identical with a slaughter of the English at Glande- lory, now Glanmalure, in Wicklow, which is recorded by Anglo-Irish chroni- clers about this time. The same year the Kinel-Connell and the Kinel-Owen wasted each other's territories by mu- tual depredations. A. D. 1277. — One of the blackest epi- sodes of even that dark a2:e of Irish history was enacted about this time in Thomond. Thomas, son of Gilbert de Clare,* and son-in-law of Maurice Fitz ]\Iaurice FitzGerald, obtained from Ed- ward I. a grant of Thomond, or of some considerable portion of it ; the deed by which it was secui'ed, by a former Eng- lish king, to its rightful ownei-s the O'Briens being wholly overlooked on the occasion. De Clare had little chance of asserting his unjust claim against the heroic princes of the Dalgais in the open field, and he had recourse to the favor- ite English policy of that "time. He entered into an intimate alliance with * Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester, was one of the lords justices to ■svhom the government of England was intrusted, on the accession of Edward I., then absent on the Crusades. t The Irish annalists say that De Clare bound him- self to Brian Eoe O'Brien, by ties of gossipred and vows Brian Eoe O'Brien against Turlough, son of Teige Caoluisge O'Brien, another competitor for the crown of Thomond ; and the latter having been defeated in battle, he turned suddenly to the side of Turlough, and getting Brian Koe treacherously into his hands, put him to death in a most inhuman manner, caus- ing him, it is said, to be dragged be- tween horses until he died. This atrocity, it is added, was perpetrated at the instance of De Clare's wife and father- in-law.f He then disj)Ossessed the old inhabitants of that part of Thomond east of the Fergus called Tradry, giving the land to his own followers, and erected the strong castles of Bunratty and Clare. His power was, however, short-lived. The sons of Brian Koe gained a victory over him the following year at Quinn, where several of his people were burned to death in an old Irish church, which was set on fire over their heads. At another time De Clare and FitzGerald were so hard pressed in a pass of Slieve Bloom, as to be com- pelled to surrender at discretion, after being obliged to subsist some days on horse-flesh. The captives were subse- quently liberated on undertaking to make satisfaction for O'Brien's death and to surrender the castle of Ros- common. The unprincipled earl next (1281) set up Donough, son of the of friendship, ratified by the ceremony of mingling their blood together in a vessel. In the remonstrance sent by the Irish chieftains to pope John XXII., tlus mur- der was referred to as a striki n g instance of English treachery 246 REIGN OF EDWARD I murdered Brian Roe, against Turlough ; but two years after his jprotege was slain by Turlough, who continued in possession in Thomond until his death in 1306.* De Clare himself was slain by the O'Briens in 1286. A. D. 1280. — We are again recalled to the dissensions in Counaught, where Hugh Muineach, son of Felim, was slain in the wood of Dangan, by the sept of Murtough Muineach O'Conor, one of whom, Cathal, sou of Conor Roe, son of Murtough Muineach,f was inau- gurated king. This sept, henceforth called in the annals the Clann Mur- tough or Muircheartaigh, was excessively contentious, and kept the province in turmoil for many years after.J About this time a petition was pre- sented to the English king, from what he calls " the community of Ireland" — most probably from the native Irish dwelling in the vicinity of the English settlements — praying that the 2:)rivileges of England might be extended to them. Edward, who wished to see that object effected, issued a writ to the lord justice, Uftbrd, directing him to summon the lords spiritual and temporal of the " Land of Ireland" — as the Ensclish ter- ritory in this country was then called — to deliberate on the prayer of the peti- * These transactions are related in full in the Annals of I/misfalleii from the work called Caiihreim Thoird- Utalbhaigli, or the Wars of Turlough Brien. f Murtough Muineach (Muircheartach Muimlineach) was son of Turlough More O'Conor, and brother of Koderic. \ Apropos of the feuds which existed this year in Connaught, between the O'Conors and MacDermots, an incident is related by Ilanmer and Ware, highly char- tiou. He insultingly describes the Irish or Brehon laws as " hateful to God, and repugnant to all justice;" and, inform- ing the lord justice that the petitioners had offered 8,000 marks for the conces- sion which they demanded, urges him to obtain the best terms he can from them ; stipulating in particular that they should hold a certain number of soldiers in readiness to attend him in his wai-s. The writ does not appear to have been attended to, and no further step seems to have been taken in the matter. The Irish continued to feel the English law only as an instrument of oppression, and were excluded wholly from its privileges — a mode of treatment, as it has been justly remarked, wholly different fi'ora that adopted by the Romans in their conquered provinces. Among the detached occurrences which indicate the character of the times, we find that in 1281 a bloody battle was fought between the Barretts and the Cusacks, at Moyne, near the old church of Kilroe, in the barony of Tirawly in Mayo. William Barrett and Adam Fleming were slain, and O'Boyd and O'Dowda, two Irish chief- tains, who helped Adam Cusack to gain the victory, are described as having "excelled all the rest that day in deeds acteristic of the spirit of English rule in those days. Edward summoned the lord justice, Ufford, to account for his permitting such " shameful enormities," and the latter pleaded, through Fulburn, bisliop ofWaterford, whom ho had deputed in his stead, " that in policie, he thought it expedient to winke at one knave cutting off another, and that would save the king's coffers and pur- chase jieaco to tho land ; whereat the lung smiled and hid him return to Ireland!" DEFEATS OF THE ENGLISH. 247 of prowess;" yet the very next year O'Dowda was killed by Adam Cusack. This year is also remarkable for a battle fought at Desertcreaght, in Tyrone, between the Kinel-Connell and the Kiuel-Owen, in which the former were defeated, and theii' chieftain, Doonell Oge O'Donnell, slain ; Hugh, his son, being aftei'wards inaugurated in his stead. The English of Ulster took part with the men of Tyrone. Murrough MacMurrough, whom the annalists style " king of Leinster," and his brother Art, were taken by the English, and put to death at Arklow in 1282 ; Hugh Boy O'Neill, lord of Kinel-Owen, was slain by Brian MacMahon and the men of Oriel, in 1283 ; Ai-t O'Melaghlin, the native prince of Meath, who had de- molished twenty-seven castles in his wars, died penitently that year ; and in the same year a great part of Dublin, and the tower and other parts of Christ Church were burned, the citizens show- ing their piety by restoring the sacred edifice before they set about rebuilding their own houses after the fire. A. D. 1285.— Theobald Butler, with some Irish auxiliaries, invaded Delvin MacCoghlan, and was defeated at Lum- cloon by Carbry O'Melaghlin ; Sir William de la Eochelle and other English knights being among the slain. Butler died soon after at Beerehaven. A large army was then mustered by lord Geoifry Geneville, Theobald Ver- don, and others, and they marched into * This incident, it ■wUl be observed, is mentioned al- most in tbe same terms as a similar one in 1372. Ofialy, where the Irish had just seized the castle of Ley. The people of Offaly solicited the aid of Carbry O'Melaghlin, and he, with his gallant followers, re- sj)onded to their call. The Irish army poured down impetuously upon the English, who were overthrown with great slaiighter, and according to the English accounts, "Theobald de Ver- don lost both his men and horses;" Gerald FitzMaurice also falling into the hands of the Irish the day after the battle, owing it is said, to the treachery of his followers.* The Anglo-Irish ac- counts also mention another defeat ot the English about the same year, but they add that these losses were followed by some compensating successes the next year. * A. D. 1286. — The country had been for a long period convulsed by the feuds of the two great Anglo-Norman families, the Geraldines and De Burgos ; but the death of Maurice FitzMaurice FitzGer- ald and of his son-in-law, lord Thomas de Clare, which took place this year, turned the scale decidedly in favor of the De Burgos. Kichard de Burgo, earl of Ulster, commonly known as the red earl, whose power was so generally recognized, that even in official docu- ments his name took precedence of that of the lord dejiuty himself, now led his armies through the country almost Avithout meeting any resistance.f In Connaught he plundered several church- es and monasteries, and compelled the f The red earl, wlio fills bo prominent a place in our historj at this early period, was son of Walter de Burgo 248 REIGN OF EDWARD I. Counaciaus to accompany liim to the uoi'tb, where he took hostages from the Kinel-Conuell and Kiuel-Owen, depos- ing Donuell O'Neill, lord of the latter, and substituting Niall Culanagh O'Neill in his stead. He laid claim to the poi-tion of INIeath which Theobald de Verdou held in right of his mother, the daughter of Walter de Lacy, and be- sieged that nobleman (a. d. 1288) in the castle of Athlone, but with what result we are not informed. In Con- naught Cathal O'Conor was deposed by his brother Manus, and the red earl marched against the latter, who had the Geraldines on his side, but the contest was not brought to the issue of a battle. A. D.^289.— Carbry O'Melaghlin, who is styled, in the Anglo-Irish chronicles, " king of the Irishry of Meath," gave great trouble to the English authorities at this jieriod ; and overrun as his ter- ritory was, by the foreign race, retained nevertheless a considerable amount of power. An army, composed of the English of Meath, under Richard Tuite, called the great baron, with Manus O'Couor, king of Connaught, as an auxiliary, marched this year against him, and was defeated in battle ; Tuite, with several of his adherents, being slain. The following year, however, first earl of Ulster of that family, son of Eicliard, wlio was called the great lord of Connaught, and was the son of William FitzAdulm de Burgo by Isahelle, natural daughter of Ricliard Coeur-de-lion, and -widow of Lle- weUyn, prince of Wales. Walter had become earl of Ulster in right of his wife, Maud, daughter of the younger Hugh dc Lacy. The red carl's grandson, Wil- O'Melaijhlin — "the most noble-deeded youth in Ireland in his time" — was slain, by hi^ gossip, David MacCoghlan, prince of Delvin ; David himself deal- ing the first blow, which was followed up by wounds from seventeen other members of the MacCoghlan family. The lord of Delvin now in his tui'n be- came troublesome, and defeated William Burke, who had marched against him ; but in 1292 he was taken prisoner by MacFeorais,* or Bermingham, and put to death by order of the red earl. A. D. 1290-1293.— Sir William de Vescy, a Yorkshire man, and a great favorite of king Edward, having been sent over as lord justice, a quarrel appeal's to have immediately sprung up between him and John FitzThomas FitzGerald, baron of Offixly. To such a height did their mutual animosity rise, that De Vescy chai-ged the baron with being " a supporter of thieves, a bolsterer of the king's enemies, an upholder of trait- ors, a murderer of subjects, a firebrand of dissention, a rank thief, an arrant traytoi'," adding, "before I eat these words, I will make thee eat a piece of my blade." FitzThomas retorted in an equally courteous strain ; and both par- ties having appeared before the king with their complaints, maintained their respective causes in the royal presence liam, who was murdered in 1333, was the third and last of the De Burgo earls of Ulster. The Burkes of Con- naught descend from William, the younger brother of Walter, the first earl of Ulster. * This name, now pronounced Keorish, was the Irish surname assumed by the Berminghams, from Pierce, or Piarus, son of Meyler Bermingham, their ancestor. FETID OF DE YESCT AND FITZGERALD. 249 with tirades ■n'orthy of Billingsgate ; if we may credit the annalist Holiushed, who pretends to record the proceedings with accuracy. FitzThoraas concluded his speech with a defiance, sayiug— " wherefore, to justify that I am a true subject, and that thou, Vescy, art an arch traytor to God and my king, I here, in the presence of his highness, and in the hearing of this honorable assembl)', challenge the combat." The council shouted applause ; the appeal to single combat was admitted ; but when the day, named by the king, had arrived, it was found that De Vescy had fled to France. Edward then be- stowed on the baron of OflPaly the lord- ships of Kildare and Rathangan, which had been held by his antagonist, ob- serving, that "although De Vescy had conveyed his person to France, he had left his lands behind him in Ireland."* A. D. 1294 — For some years Kichard, the red earl, had been riding rough- shod over the necks of the jDCople, both within the English territory and out- side. He created and deposed the prin- ces of Ulster, plundered Connaught more than once, and was mixed up in various feuds through the country ; but the great accession of power which the chief of the Geraldines had acquired, by his triumph over De Vescy, placed an old rival, once more, in a position to * The above mentioned John FitzThomas FitzGerald, baron of Oflaly, was the common ancestor of the two great branches of the Geraldines ; one of his two sons, John, the eighth lord of Offaly, being created earl of Kildare, and the other, Maurice, earl of Desmond. — See AxchdaU's Lodge's Irish Peerage, vol. i., 63 ; also 33 cojie with him. FitzThoraas seized the earl and his brother, William de Burgo, in Meath, and confined them in the cas- tle of Ley, an event which threw the whole country into commotion ; and immediately after, along with MacFeo- rais, he made an inroad into Connaught, and devastated the country. The fol- lowing year De Burgo was liberated by the king's order, or, as Grace says, by that of the king's parliament, at Kil- kenny ; the lord of Ofiuly, as the same annalist tells us, forfeiting his castles of Sligo and Kildare, and his possessions in Connaught, as a penalty for his ag- gression. A. D. 1295. — Sir John "Wogan was appointed lord justice, and having, by his wise and conciliatory policy, brought about a truce for two years between the Geraldines and De Burgos, he sum- moned a parliament which met this year at Kilkenny. The roll of this parliament contains only twenty-seven names, Kichard, earl of Ulster, being first on the list ; and among the acts passed was one revising king John's division of the country into counties; another provided for a more strict guarding of the marches or boundaries against the Irish ; by a third a tax was levied on absentees, to support a mili- tary force to defend the colony ; and a fourth enacted that private or separate O'Daly's Geraldines, by the Kev. M. Meehan. The lands which were delivered to FitzThoraas on this occasion appear to have been the principal subject of dispute between him and De Vescy, who claimed them in right of his wife, an heiress of the Marshal, family. 250 REIGN OF EDWARD I. truces should not be made witli the Irish, or war waged by the barons, without the license of the lord justice, or the mandate of the king. Other laws restricted the number of retainers whom the barons should keep, and en- acted other regulations.* All this time Connanght and Ulster continued to be desolated by fearful discord among the Irish themselves; but the narrative would be too monot- onous were we to mention each melan- choly feud as it is recorded in the faith- ful pages of our annalists. The whole countiy was laid waste; neither the property of church nor laymen was spared; and dearth and pestilence stalked through the land. The feuds of the De Burgos and the Geraldines were once more arranged, in 1298, and among the Anglo-Irish peace for a while prevailed. A. D. 130.^. — King Edward's expedi- tions against Scotland were attended by many of the native Irish, as well as by the principal barons of the Pale, with their ti-oops. The earl of Ulster and John FitzThomas FitzGerald accompa- nied the lord justice Wogan on the expedition of 1296. It is said that king Edward's army, in 1299, was composed chiefly of Irish and Welsh. They all came in their best array, and were royally feasted at Roxburgh castle. The Irish also mustered very strong on * A statute framed in England, and entitled " an Or- dinance for the state of Ireland," was sent over, in 1289, to be acted upon as law in tliis country; and shortly after (in 1293) it was enacted that the treas- the expedition of 1303, when the sub- jugation of Scotland was temporarily eflfected. Before leaving Ireland on this occasion, the red earl created thirty- three knights in Dublin castle. On his departure for the Scottish wars, lord justice Wogan left as his deputy Wil- liam de Ross, prior of Kilmainham ; but the absence of so many of the leading men invariably gave occasion to insur- rectionary movements ; and Lelaud re- marks that at this time "the utmost efforts of the chief governor and of the well-afltected lords were scarcely sufficient to defend the province of Leinster." A. D. 1305. — The warlike sept of O'Conor Faly, princes of Offaly, had for some time shown themselves to be among the most dangerous of the " Irish enemies," and the heroic, but hopeless struggle, which they continued to sus- tain for more than two hundi-ed years after, iu their ancestral woods and fast- nesses, against the foreign enemy, had begun to occupj' a prominent place in the records of the time. Maurice O'Conor Faly, and his brother Calvagh, were now the chiefs of the sept, and the latter in particular was called " the Great Rebel." At one time he defeated the English in a battle in which Meyler de Exeter and several others were slain ; at another he took the castle of Kildare, and burned all the records and accounts urer of Ireland should account annually to the exche- quer of England— proceedings whicli show that on one side, at least, the ojiinion was then held that Ireland might be bound by laws made in England. MURDER OF THE CHIEFS OF OFFALY. 251 relating to the county. In order to get rid of so dangerous a foe, a deed of the blackest treachery was resorted to. The chiefs of OfFaly were invited to dinner on Trinity Sunday this year, in the castle of Peter, or Pierce Bermingham, at Carrick-Carbury, in Kildare ; the feast proceeded, but at its conclusion, as the guests were rising fi-oni the table, every man of them was basely murdered. In this way fell Maurice O'Conor, his brother Calvagh, and in all about thirty chiefs of his clan. Grace says the mas- sacre was pei'petrated by Jordan Cumin and his comrades at the court of Peter Bermingham. This Peter was ever after 'nicknamed the " treacherous baron." He was arraigned before king Ed\vard ; but no justice was ever obtained for this most nefarious and treacherous murder.* The Anglo-Irish chronicles record several other deeds of blood about the conclusion of this reign, such as the murder of Sin- Gilbert Sutton, in the house of Hamon le Gras, or Grace, at Wexford ; the murder of O'Brien, of Thomoud ; the slaying of Donnell, king of Desmond, by his son ; the slaughter * In tlie Harleian 5IS., whicli contains the contem- porary Anglo-Irisli song, on the walling of New Ross, already referred to, there is preserved an old ballad celebrating the praises of the above-named Pierce Bermingham, as a famous " hunter of the Irish ;" he was killed in 1308, in battle with the Irish. f Amongst the religious houses founded in Ireland, in the course of the first Edward's reign, were the Dominican convent of Kilmallock, founded by Gilbert, son of John FitzThomas, lord of Offaly, in 1291 ; that of Derry, by Donnell Oge O'Donnell, in 1274 ; and that of Eathbran, in Mayo, the same year, by Sir William de Burgo ; the Franciscan convent of Clare-Gal way, by John de Cogan, in 1290 ; that of Buttevant. the same year, by David Oge Barry ; that of Galway, by Sir of the O'Conors, of Offaly, by the O-'Dempseys, near Geashill ; the defeat of Pierce Bermingham in Meath, and the burning of the town of Ballymore by the Irish ; the narrow escape of the English -from defeat in a well-contested battle at Glenfell; and the execution of an English knight. Sir David Canton, or Condon, for the murder of an Irish- man, named Murtouorh Balloch. The O'Kellys, of Hy-Many, rose and took vengeance on Edmund Butler, for the burning of their town of Ahascragh, in the east of the present county of Gal- way, the English being defeated on this occasion with considerable slaughtei-. The coin struck in England in the seventh year of the reign of Edward I. was made current in Ireland ; and in a few years after, the base money called crockards and pollards was condemned by proclamation. The events in our church history during this reigil are not very impor- tant.f The Four Masters and the An- nals of Ulster mention the discovery of the relics of SS. Patrick, Bridget, and Columbkille, at Sabhall, or Saul, in ■William de Burgo, in 1296 ; ajid those of Galbally, In Limerick, by the 03riens ; Killeigh, in the King's county, by the O'Conors Faly ; and Ross, in Wexford, by Sir John Devereus ; the Augustiniau convents of the Red Abbey in Cork ; Limerick (by the O'Briens) Drogheda ; Clonmines, in Wexford (l>y the Kavanaghs) ; and Dungarvan, by FitzThomas, of Offaly ; and finally the Carmelite convents of Dublin (Whitefriar-street), by Sir Richard Bagot ; Ardee, by Ralph Peppard ; Drogh- eda, by the inhabitants of the town ; Galway, by the De Burgos ; RathmuUin, in Donegal ; Castle Lyons, in Cork, by the Barrys ; Kildare, by De Vescy, in 1290 ; and Thurles, by the Butler family, about the close of the thirteenth century. OK'^ REIGlSr OF EDWARD II. Down, by Nicholas MacMaelisa, arcli- bishop of Armagh, ia 1293 ; whence it is clear that our native annalists either had not heard of, or did not believe, the statement which has already been noticed on the authority of Cambreusis, of the discovery of these relics in the cathedral of Down, in the year 1185. CHAPTER XXIV. EEIGlSr OF EDWAED H. Piers Gaveston in Ireland. — Fresli Wars in Connaught — tlie Clann Murtougli. — Civil Broils in Thomond.— Feud of De Clare and De Burgo. — Growth of National Feelings. — Invitation to King Botiert Bruce. — Memorial of the Irish Princes to Pope John XXII. — The Pope's Letter to the English king. — The Scottish Expedition to Ireland. — Landing of Edward Bruce. — First Exploits of the Scottish Army. — Proceedings of Felim and Rory O'Connor. — Disastrous War in Connaught. — The Battle of Athenry. — Siege of Carrickfergus. — General Rising of the Irish. — Campaign of 1317. — Arrival of Robert Bruce. — Arrest of the Earl of Ulster. — Consternation in Dublin. — The Scots at Castleknock. — Their March to the South. — Their Retreat from Limerick. — Effects of the Famine. — Retreat of the Scots to Ulster. — Robert Bruce Returns to Scotland. — Liberation of the earl of Ulster. — Battle of Faughard, and Death of Edward Bruce. — National Prejudices. Contemporary Sovereigns and Seenta.—Fope John XXII. — Kings of France : Louis X., Philip V., and Cliarles IV. — King of Scotland, Robert Bruce.— Suppression of tlie Knights Templars, 1312. — William Tell flourished, and Switzerland became Independent, 1315.— Dante died, 1321. ^ (A. D. 1307 TO A. D. 1337.) TNDIGNANT at the honors conferred -*- by Edward II. on his favorite. Piers Gaveston, who was recalled from ban- ishment by that weak-minded prince on his accession to the throne, the barons loudly expressed their anger and dis- gust; and parliament demanded, in a peremptory tone, the expulsion of the royal minion. Edward made a show of compliance, but it was soon discovered that the place he had selected for his favorite's exile was Ireland, where, in 1308, he invested him with the dignity of lord lieutenant, accompanying him on his journey as far as Bristol. Not- withstanding his vices, Gaveston pos- sessed some of the qualities of a good soldier. In the lists he had shown him- self a match for any knight in England, and in his Irish office he displayed no small amount of energy. He led an army against the O'Dempseys of Clau- malier, in Leinster, and killed their chief, Derraot, at Tullow. He next defeated FRESH WARS IN CONNAUGHT. 253 the O'Byrnes, of Wicklow, and opened a road between castle Kevin and Glen- dalougb, in that territory. He also rebuilt some castles whicli tlie Irish had demolished ; but his career in this country was brief. Twelve months after his arrival he was recalled to England by his royal master, and three years later was taken prisoner by the barons, at Scarborough castle, and ^yith their sanction beheaded by the earl of Warwick.* A. D. 1309. — Connanght still contin- ued to be torn by discord. Hugh, son of Owen, of the race of Cathal Crovderg, was slain this year by Hugh O'Couor, surnamed Breifneach, one of the restless and ambitious Clann Murtough, and a fresh war arose for the succession. Mac- William, as the head of the Burkes of Conuaught, espoused the cause of the Cathal Crovderg branch. A conference was held near Elphiii between him and Rory, Hugh Breifneach's brother, who had assumed the title of king of Con- naught; but, as often happened on these occasions, the conference was con- verted into a battle, and Rory being defeated, was driven beyond the Curlieu * Piers Gaveston, thoiigli of humble birth, was mar- ried to a niece of the king's, that is, to a sister of De Clare, earl of Gloucester. De Clare's second wife was a daughter of the carl of Ulster ; and De Clare's daughter, by a former marriage, was married to the earl of Ulster's son. Notwithstanding these alliances, Gaveston was despised and hated by the haughty Anglo-Irish barons ; and the earl of Ulster, in order to despite him, kept up a kind of royal state at Trim. — See Grace') Annals. f Grace's Annals, p. 56, note k. The principle of ex- cluding those of the hostile race, was acted upon in the religious establishments of both Irish and English ; but in the former it evinced no little courage on the part of mountains. Next year Hugh Breifneach was treacherously killed by one Johnock MacQuillan, who was on bonaght with him, and was hired by MacWilliam Burke to commit the murder ; but Mac- Quillan himself was slain the following year at Ballintubber with the same axe which he had used in killing the Clann Murtough prince. Felim, son of Hugh, son of Owen O'Conor, of the race of Cathal Crovderg, was now, by the in- fluence of his foster-father, Mulrony MacDermot, chief of Moylurg, inau- gurated king of Connanght while still almost in his boyhood; and was, for several years, maintained in his author- ity by that clan. Sir John Wogan being re-appointed lord justice for the third time, sum- moned a parliament, which met this year (1309) at Kilkenny. Some strin- gent laws were here made to repress robbery, particularly that committed by persons of noble birth, and their retainers ; forestalling was prohibited ; and it is sujjposed that the law by which Irish monks were excluded from religious houses within the English pale, was repealed on this occasion.f the defenceless monks. " In the abbey of Mellifont," Bays Cos, quoting from a record in the Tower of Lon- don, "a regulation was made in 1323 that no person should be admitted into that house until he had made oath that he was not of English descent." Dr. Kelly (Camh. Ever., ii., p. 543, note) says, " In 1250, Innocent rV. addressed a letter to the archbishop of Dublin and the bishop of Ossory, complaining that Irish bishops excluded aU Anglo-Irish from canonries in their churches: he ordered them to rescind that rule one month after the receipt of his letter, on the Christian principle that the sanctuary of God should not be held by hereditary right. This principle, however, became 254 REIGN" OF EDWARD II. A scarcity prevailed the following year, when a crannoc, or bushel, of wlieat sold for 203., and the bakers were di-asfcjed on hurdles throusfh the streets for usinfj false weiijhts. A. D. 1311. — Civil broils raged in Thomoud between the MacNaniaras and O'Briens, the former being defeated; and subseqiiently the chieftain Don- uongh O'Brien was treacherously slain by Murrough, son of Mahon O'Brien ; but these feuds were thrown into the shade by those which prevailed in the same province between De Clare and William de Burgo, the latter and John FitzWalter Lacj'' lieiiig made prisoners at Bunratty by De Clare.* The lord justice was defeated in attempting to put down a revolt of Sir Robert Verdon ; and the O'Byrnes and O'Tooles of Wicklow menaced the walls of Dub- lin. A. D. 1315. — AVe have arrived' at an epoch in our history, memoi-able not only for the importance of its events, but for the dawn of an intelligible national feeling among the Irish ^irinces, and for the first movement which merits the exception in Ireland, in all churclies and religious houses under the English power, down to the Reforma- tion ; the contrary principle was enacted as the rule by the statute of Kilkenny (of A. D. 13G7), which excluded all Irish from English churches and religious houses, unless they had been qualified by a royal letter of denizenship. The effect of this law was to exclude the Irish not only from almost all the houses founded by tlie Anglo-Irish, but from a very great number founded by themselves, which had fallen under the English power. A few years (1515) before Luther began to preach his opinions, Leo X. issued a bull confirming the exclusion of the native Irish, even though qualified by a royal letter, from St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin ; and on the same principle, a few years before, Dean the name of a patriotic effort to shake off the English yoke. The Scots had just set a noble example by their suc- cessful struggle for national indepen- dence. By their glorious victory at Baunockburn, on June 25th, 1314, they had effectually rid their country of English bondage. A strong sympathy had been excited in the north of Ireland for their cause. In the early days of his struggle (1306), Robert Bruce, the now triumphant king of Scotland, had found shelter and succor in the island of Rathlin, on the Irish coast. Some of the Ulster chieftains subsequently joined in an expedition in his aid ; but their attempt Avas aboi'tive, for on landing in Scotland, they were encountered by the English army, and almost all cut to pieces. The summons of the English king, when mustering an army against Scotland, in this war, was not responded to by the native Ii'ish ; and when the Scots M'ere triumphant, the Irish of the northern province lost no time in ap- pealing to them, as a kindred people, to help them in ridding themselves of the same foreign thraldom, and proposed Allen bequeathed charities to the poor, provided they were Anglo-Irish. * Connell Mageoghegan, wlio translated the Annals of Clonmacnoise in 1627, appends to the record of the last event mentioned above, the following note: — " This much I gather out of this historian, whom I take to be an authentic and worthy prelate of the church, that would tell nothing but truth, that there reigned more dissensions, strife, warrs, and debates, be- tween tiie English themselves in the beginning of the conquest of this kiugdome, than between the Irishmen, as by perusing the warrs between the Lacies of Meath, John Courcey, earle of Ulster, William Marshall, and the English of Meath and Munster, MacGerald, the Burkes, Butler and Cogan, may appear." MEMORIAL TO THE POPE. to Robert Bruce to make bis brother, Edward, king of Ireland. About tliis time Donnell O'Neill, king of Ulster, with other Irish princes of that ])roviuce, acting in the name of the Irish in general, addressed a me- morial, or remonstrance, to the sover- eign pontiff, John XXII., setting forth the grievances which their country suf- fered under the English 3'oke.* This interesting document glances at the early history of Ireland, to show the right of the Ii-ish to national indepen- dence ; it then refers to the false state- ments by which his Holiness's predeces- sor, Adrian IV., had been induced to transfer the sovereignty of their country to Henry 11. ; it points out how utterly unworthy that impious king was of the confidence which pope Adrian had re- posed in him — how he had perverted the papal" grant to his own unjust pur- poses ; how he and his successors had violated the conditions under which his entrance into the kingdom of Ireland had been sanctioned ; how the church of Ireland had been plundered by the English, the church lands confiscated, and the pereons of the clergy as little respected as their property ; how vices had been imported, and the Irish, in- stead of being reformed, deprived of their primitive candor and simplicity; how the protection of the English laws was denied to them, so that when an Englishman murdered an Irishman, as * This memorial would appear to have been ■nTitten during the period of Bruce's invasion, and afcer the pope had heeu induced by the English government to con- frequently happened, his ciime was not punishable before an English tribunal ; and how the English clergy treated them with shameful injustice by refusing to Irish religious admission even into the monastic institutions which had been founded and endowed by their Irish ancestors. The memorial enumer- ates some of the atrocities of the Eno^- lish in Ireland, such as the treacherous massacre of the chiefs of Offaly at the dinner-table of Pierce Bermin2:ham, and the murder of Brian Roe O'Brien by Thomas de Clare: and it proceeds: — "Let no person, then, wonder if we endeavor to preserve our lives and defend our liberties, as best we can, against those cruel tyrants, usurpers of our just properties, and murderers of our persons. So far from thinking it unlawful, we hold it to be a meritorious act; nor can we be accused of perjury or rebellion, since neither our fathers nor we did at any time bind oureelves, by any oath of allegiance, to their fathers or to them ; wherefore, Avithout the least remorse of conscience, while breath remains, we shall attack them in defence of our just rights, and never lay down our arms until we force them to desist." In conclusion, the Irish princes inform his Ploliness, " that in order to attain their object the more speedily and surely, they had invited the gallant Edward Bruce, to whom, being de- scended from their most noble ancestors, demn the proceedings of the Scots. It makes no aUu- eion to this condemnation, but adopts a dignified tona of justification. 256 REIGN OF EDWARD II. the}' had transferred, as tliey justly might, their own right of royal domin- ion. IMovcd by the repi-esentations con- tained in this memorial, pope John addressed, a few years later, a strong letter to Edward III., in which, refer- ring to the bull granted by pope Adrian to Henry II., his Holiness says, that " to the object of that bull neither Henry nor his successors paid any regard, but that, passing the bounds that had been prescribed to them, they had heaped upon the Irish the most unheard of miseries and persecution, and had, during a long period, imposed on them a yoke of slavery which could not be borne." His Holiness earnestly urges the Eng- lish king to adopt a different policy ; to reform as speedilj^ as possible, and in a suitable manner, the evils under which the Irish labored, and to remove their just causes of complaint, "lest it might be too late hereafter to apply a remedy, when the spirit of revolt has grown stronger." f Kobert Bruce received with avidity the invitation of the Insh, as it j^romised a favorable field for the military energy and ambition of his brother, Edward, who had already begun to demand a share in the sovereignty of Scotland. An expedition to Ireland Avas, there- fore, prepared as soon as circumstances would permit, and on the 26th of May, * The original Latin of this memorial is preserved by Fordun. Translations of the memorial will be found in PloiB- den' s Historical Ecvicw, Charles 0' Conor's Suppressed Me- 131.5, Edward Bruce, who was stjded earl of Cai-rick, arrived oif the coast of Antrim with a fleet of 300 sail, from which an army of 6,000 men was disem- barked at Larne — or as some say, at the mouth of the Glendun rivei-, in the county of Antrim. He was accompa- nied by the earl of Moray, John Mon- teith, John Stewart, John Campbell, Thomas Randolph, sou of the earl of Moray, Fergus of Ardossan, John de Bosco, . 1330. — The new earl of Des- mond at first rendered good service to the government by his successes against some of the Irish septs in Leinster ; but the old feuds between him and the earl of Ulster were soon revived, and were carried to such lengths, at a time Avhen they were in the field against the O'Bri- ens, that the lord justice found it neces- sary to make both earls prisoners, and to commit them to the custody of the marshal of Limerick. A. D. 1331. — Sir Anthony Lucy, a Northumbrian baron, famous for his sternness of character, was now sent over as justiciary, to curb the arrogance and violence of the great Anglo-Irish lords. lie summoned a jDarliament in Dublin, and adjourned it to Kilkennj^, owing to the non-attendance of the bar- ons. Again his summons was disregai-d- ed ; and, in order to make an example of the most powerful, he seized the earl of Desmond in Limerick, and carried him a prisoner to Dublin. Several other • lords were arrested in a similar manner. * At tliis time tlie country was suffering severely from famine, and a shoal of large fish, of the whale species, which entered Dublin hay on the evening of the 27th of June, 1331, and of which two hundred were killed and among them Sir William Berminof- ham, who was confined with his son in the keep of Dublin castle, called from him the Bermingham tower, and was hanged in the course of the following year. This nobleman was popular on account of his bravery and gallant de- meanor ; and the feeling excited by the severity of his sentence was probably the cause of Lucy's recall, which fol- lowed soon after, when Sir John Darcy, a more moderate man, was aj^poiuted to succeed him.* A. D. 1333 — A crime, which pro- duced immense sensation among the Anglo-Irish, and led to some important results, was committed this year in the north. William, earl of Ulster, called the dun earl, grandson of the famous red earl, seized Waltei-, one of the lead- ing members of the De Burgo family, and confined him in the stronghold called the Green castle, in Inishowen, wher.e he was starved to death. Wal- ter's sister. Gyle, was married to Sir Richard Mandeville, and at her instiga- tion, it is believed, her brother's death was soon after avenged by the murder of the dun earl. This latter nobleman, who was then only in his twenty-first year, was proceeding on a Sunday morn- ing towards Carrickfergus, in comjaany with Robert FitzRichard Mandeville and others, who basely rose against him and killed him while he was ford by the lord justice and his servants, afforded the poor of the city a providential supply of food. The next year the dearth continued, and the people were attacked by an epi- demic called the Manses, supposed to have been influenza. 2G8 REIGiSr OF EDWARD III. ing a stream, or, as Grace says, wliile he was repeating Lis morning prayers on liis way to the church, Maudeville ffivinsr him the first wound. A feeling of violent indignation was aroused by this outrage, and the people of the neighborhood rose spontaneously and slew all whom they suspected of being abettors of the crime, to the number of over 300 ; so that when the justiciary arrived with an army to punish the murderers, he found that justice had already been vindicated in a fearfid and summary manner.* The earl's wife, Maud, on hearing of the murder, fled in terror to England, taking with her her only child, a daughter, named Elizabeth, then only one year old; and the Burkes of Connaught being the junior branch of the De Burgo family, and fearing that the earl's vast posses- sions Avould be transferred to other hands by the marriage of the heiress, immediately seized on his Connaught estates and declared themselves inde- pendent of English law, renouncing at the same time the English language and costume. Sir William, or Ulick,f the ancestor of the earls of Claurickarcl, assumed the Irish title of MacWilliam Oughter, or the Upper, aud Sir Edmond * For many years after it was usual in public pardons to make a formal exception of all who might have been Inplicated in the murder of the earl of Ulster. f The name Ulick, or Uliog, is a contraction of William- Oge, that is, WUliam Junior, or young William. It would appear to have been long peculiar to the Burkes of Connaught. . X In 13.52, the heiress Elizabeth, then twenty years of age, was married to Lionel, duke of Clajence, third Albanagh Burke, the progenitor of the Viscounts of Mayo, took that of Mac- William Eighter, or the Lower Mac- William.J A. D. 1334. — Of the crimes we read of in the history of that lawless period, none indicate more vividly the anarchy which prevailed than the sacrilegious outrages which are related of the Irish, as well as of their opponents. Inces- sant war had so degraded some that they rivalled the ferocity of wild beasts; and, in many instances, the natural gentleness, generosity, and pie- ty of the Irish character seem to have been wholly laid aside. Thus, our an- nals relate how a great army of the EuQ^lish and Irish of Connauiyht hav- ing marched this year against the Mac- Namaras of Thomond, a party of them set fire to a church, in which were two priests aud ISO other persons, and did not suifer one to escape from the confla<];ration. It is not said whether the party who committed this barbarity belonged to the English or the Irish por- tion of the army ; but a similar outrage, three years before, is attributed by the Anglo-Irish chroniclers to an Irish sept in Leiuster, who, they say, burned the church of Freynstown, now Friends- son of king Edward III., and that prince was created, in her right, earl of Ulster and lord of Connaught, titles which thus became attached to the royal famUy of Eng-, land ; but he was unable to recover the possessions which the MacWilliams had usurped in Connaught, and. the government not being strong enough to assert the au- thority of the English law on the occasion, the territor- ies of the Bui-kes in that province were allowed to de- scend according to the Irish custom. SACRILEGES. 269 town, in Wicklow, with a congregation of eighty persons and their priest, who was clothed in his vestments, and car- ried the Sacred Host in his hands. The unhappy people in the church ashed no mercy for themselves, hut only that the priest might be allowed to depart ; yet the infuriated assailants drove him back from the door with their javelins, and he was consumed with his flock in the burning pile. This appalling atrocity drew down an interdict from the Pope on its perpetrators ; and an army of them was soon after cut to pieces or driven into the Slaney by the citizens of Wexford. Supposing, however, these statements not to have been the fabri- cations of enemies, of which we cannot be quite sure, we have, nevertheless, ample evidence that religion was not, even in those evil days, extinct among the bulk of the population. Thus, we read that the veteran warrior IMulrouy MacDermot, lord of Moylurg, took the habit of a monk in the abbey of Boyle, in 1331 ; and that in 1333, Hugh O'Dounell, son of the famous Donnell Oge, and lord of Tirconnell, died in the habit of a Franciscan monk in luis Sai- mer, in the river Erne. Most of the Irish chieftains who were not killed in battle, are described as dying "after the victory of penance ;" and numerous pilgrimages, in which the clergy and people were united, were made to avert calamities which they apprehended. A. D. 1338. — Edmoud Burke, sur- named " na-Feisoge," or " the bearded," a younger son of the red earl, was this year drowned by his kinsman, Edmond Burke, surnamed Mac William Eighter, who fastened a stone to his neck, and immersed him in Lough Mask ; and a war followed, in which the partisans of Mac William Eighter and the Eno-. lish of Conuaught in general, suffered enormous losses; Turlough O'Conor succeeding, after a sanguinary struggle, in driving Edmond Burke altoojether out of the province. The English were, on this occasion, expelled from the territories of Leyney and Corran in Sligo, and the hereditary Irish chief- tains resumed their own lauds thei'e and in other parts of Conuaught. As for Edmoud Burke, he collected a fleet of ships or boats, with which he remained for some time among the islands on the coast of Mayo, but from these Turlough drove him the following year, and obliged him to withdraw to Ulster. A. D. 1339.— Turlough O'Conor, thus far crowned with success, broua'ht ruin upon himself by his domestic misdeeds. Despising the laws of the Church and of society, he put away his wife Der- vall, daughter of Hugh O'Dounell, the lord of Tirconnell, and married the daughter of Turlough O'Brien, the wid- ow of Edmond Burke who had been drowned in Lough Mask. This act alienated from him the Conuaught chief- tains, and after an interval of three years spent in constant warfare, he was, in 1342, deposed by the Sil-Murray and other septs, and Hugh, the son of LIugh Briefneach O'Conor, one of the Clann Murtough, chosen king in his stead. 270 REIGN OF EDWARD III. Notwithstanding this election, however, it is stated that when the unhappy Tur- loiu'-h was killed with an arrow in 1345, his son, Hugh, was inaugurated king of Conuaught after hira. Reverting to' the affairs of the Pale, we find that Desmond, who had been released from prison on bail in 1333, after eighteen months' captivity, re- paired to Scotland with some troops, in obedience to a summons from the king, and was probably present at the decisive battle gained by Edward over the Scots at Hallidon Hill ; the famous expedition of Edward IH. into Scotland on this occasion, having been cloaked up to the last moment by a jiretence that the preparations he was making wei'e for a visit to Ireland. Subsequent- ly, the earl of Desmond was actively engaged against the Irish in Kerry, as the earl of Kildare was against the O'Dempseys and other septs, in Leiuster. Twelve hundred of the men of Kerry were slain in one battle, in 1339, and Maurice FitzNicholas, lord of Kerry, who had been fighting in their ranks, was taken and confined in prison, where he died.* A. D. 1341. — Plans which Edward liad long since formed for breaking down the ascendency of the great Anglo-Irish lords Avere now matured, and he sent over Sir John Morris, as lord deputy, to carry them into execu- * Tliis English knight had, many years Tjufore, ruslied into the assize court at Tralee, and killed Dermot, heir of the MacCarthy More, while sitting with the judge on the bench; yet the law suffered this crime to go unespiated. tiou. His first sweeping measure was the resumption of all the lands, liberties, seigniories, and jurisdictions which eith- er he or his father had granted in Ireland. Another ordinance recalled any remission which had been made by himself or his predecessors, of debts due to the crown, and decreed that all such debts should be levied without delay. Other rigorous and arbitrary measures were also adopted, but that which indicated most clearly the design of the king was an ordinance declaring that, whereas it had appeared to him and his council that they would be better and more usefully served in Ireland by Englishmen, whose revenues were derived from England, than by Irish or English who possessed estates only in Ireland, or were married there, his justiciary should, after diligent inqui- ries, remove all such ofiicers as were married or held estates in Ireland, and replace them by fit Englishmen hav- ing no personal interest whatever in Ireland.f A. D. 1342. — ^This declaration of the royal views and intentions aroused the indignation of the proud Anglo-Irish nobles, who had been allowed to be- come much too powerful before this at- tempt was made to humble them. It was the first "public avowal of a jealous distinction between the English by birth and the English by descent, and was subsequently condemned as a fa- tal mistake. To allay the excite- f Close Roll, 15 Edward IH. Pryune's Collections Cos, vol. i., p. 118. REMONSTRANCE OF THE BARONS. 271 meut wliich was produced by it, the lord deputy summoned a parliament to meet in Dublin, in October; but the earl of Desmond and many other lords peremptorily refused to attend, and held a general assembly, or convention, of. their own, at Kilkenny, in Novem- ber, where they adopted a long and spirited remonstrance to the king, set- ting forth the rights which they had inherited from their ancestors, their claims to the favor and protection of the king, and the injustice and unrea- sonableness of the ordinances now is- sued against them. They complained bitterly of the neglect, peculation, fraud, and mismanagement of the English of- ficials sent over to this country; enu- meratjcd a long catalogue of charges, at- tributing, among other things, to the mal- administration of those Englishmen, the unguarded state of the country, the loss of one-third part of the territories which, they said, had been conquered by the king's progenitors, and were now reta- ken by his Irish enemies, and the aban- donment to the Irish of the strong? cas- ties of Koscommou, Raudown, Athlone, and Bunratty ; and, in conclusion, they prayed that they might not be deprived of their free holdings without being called in judgment, pursuant to the provision of Magna Charta. The king's answer to the remonstrants was favora- ble on most points; in particular, he * " Coyn and livery," was an exaction of money, food, and entertainment for the soldiers, and of forage for tlieir horsea. A tax of a similar kind, mider the name of bonaght, existed among the Irish, but it was regulated confirmed the grants of his predecessors, and in the case of lands granted by himself, he restored those which had been resumed, on security being given that they should be surrendered if found to have been granted without cause. He was just then entering upon a war with France, and this circumstance suggested the propriety of a more concil- iatory policy towards the Anglo-Irish barons. % A. D. 1344.— Sir Ralph Ufford, who had married the widow of the mur- dered earl of Ulster, was now ap2:)oint- ed to the office of lord justice, and exercised his authority with a harsh- ness and rigor that drew upon him general odium. His first eftbrts were directed against the power of Desmond. That haughty earl refused to attend a parliament, called by Uftbrd, in Dublin, and attempted to assemble one of his own at Callan, but the new deputy soon showed that this game could not be played with him. He proceeded to Munster with an armed force, seized the earl's lands, and farmed them at rents to be paid to the king. He next got possession, by stratagem, of the strongholds of Castle-island and Iniskis- ty, in Kerry, and hanged Sir Eustace Poer, Sir William Grant, and Sir John Cottrel, who held command in them, charging them with the illegal exaction of coyn and livery.* The bail which by fixed rules, and was part of the ordinary tribute paid to the chief. Among the Anglo-Irish it became a source of the most grievous oppression, vrithout any just meas- ure, or any compensating consideration ; and as it 272 REIGN OF EDWARD III. liacl been given for the earl, wlien he was liberated in 1333, was declared to be forfeited, and thus eighteen knights lost their estates.* Ufford contrived, and again by the employment of strat- agem, to get the earl of Kildare into his custody ; but the war which he thus waged so successfully against the proud and powerful aristocracy was cut shoi't by his own death, in the mouth of April, 13-i6. Some of his harshness •was attributed to the persuasion of his wife ; and it is said, that this lady, who was leceived like an empress on her ar- rival, was obliged to retire clandestinely, amidst the execrations of the people and the clamor of creditors, carrying with her the body of her husband, in a lead- en coffin, to England. The policy of the king towards the Anglo-Irish was now modified ; the severity of Ufford was condemned ; the earl of Desmond was suffered to repair to England to plead his cause before the king, and was allowed 20s. l^er diem for his expenses while detained there ; the estreated recognizances were restored ; the Anglo-Irish nobles were invited to aid the king in his esjieditiou against France, and the earl of Kildare earned the honor of kuiirhthood from Edward by his gallant conduct at the siege of Calais in 1347. Thus, after a few years the struggle between the pressed Eeavily upon the Englisli as well as Irisli popu- lation, it became necessary to prolaibit it by stringent laws. The earl of Desmond referred to above is said to have been the first who introduced this exaction in its Anglo-Irish form. Sec Harris's Ware, vol. i., chap. xii. crown and the great lords of the Pale ceased for a time, all the lands and jur- isdictions of which the latter had been for a while deprived being restored. Desmond rose to such favor with the king that, in 1355, he was entrusted with tlie office of lord justice for life; but he died five months after this honor had been conferred upon him, and his body was removed from Dublin castle to Tralee, where it was interred in the church of the Dominican friars. Thus ended the cai-eer of Maurice FitzThom- as FitzGerald, the first earl of Desmond. About this time Brien MacMahon gained an important victory over the English in Oriel, more than 300 of them havinsc been slain, accordiuij to their own historians. In Leinster the colon- ists were not allowed much rest oy the O'Tooles and O'Byrnes, on one side, or by the septs of Leix and Offaly on the other. Lysaght O'More, chief of Leix, took and burned in one night ten Eng- lish castles, destroyed Dunamace, and expelled nearly all the English from his ancestral territory. The MacMurrough was also in the field with a large follow- ing, as were also O'Melaghlin and the Irish of Meath. These latter were de- feated by the lord justice, in 1349, with the slaucfhter of several of their chiefs. Need we .wonder at finding that about this time a royal commission was issued "" According to some accounts, the earl surrendered himself to Uiibrd, and the recognizances estreated as mentioned above were those entered into for his libera, tion on this occasion. THE ELACK DEATH. 273 to inquire why the king derived no^ rev- enues from his Irish dominions. A. D. 134S. — This year is memorable for the outbreak of the terrible pesti- lence called the Black Death. That age was, indeed, one of fearful visita- tions. Our annals record about that j5eriod several years of famine from un- genial seasons. In 1341, an epidemic, called the barking disease, prevailed, when persons of both sexes and all ages went about the country barking like docs. But the most awful of all these visitations was the Black Death.* For some years, during which the pestilence continued, our annals record few events save the deaths of remarkable persons who fell victims to it. Then followed, in 1361, another visitation called the " King's Game" or second pestilence, the exact nature of which is not known, * Friar Clyn, ■wlio was an eye-witness of its ravages, and is believed to have fallen a victim to it himself the following year, describes the Black Death in his annals under the year 1348, in the following expressive terms : — " It first," he says, " broke out near Dublin, at Howth and Dalkey ; it almost destroyed and laid waste the cities of Dublin and Drogheda, insomuch that in Dublin alone, from the beginning of August to Christmas, 14,000 souls perished The pestilence deprived of human inhabitants villages and cities, castles and towns, so that there was scarcely found a man to dwell therein ; the pestilence was so contagious, that whosoever touched the sick or the dead was immediately affected and died, and the penitent and the confessor were carried togeth- er to the grave." And after describing .the terror it produced and the symptoms of the disease, which show it to have been the real eastern plague, he adds : — " That year was beyond measure wonderful, unusual, and in many things prodigious, yet was sufficiently abundant and fruitful, however sickly and deadly. That pestilence was rife in Ealkenny in Lent. Scarcely one ever died alone in a house ; commonly husband, wife, children, and servants, went the one way — the way of death." See the authorities on this subject collected by Dr. 35 although it was possibly only a return of the Black Death; and in 1370 ap- peared the third great plague, which lasted for a period of three or four years, and jjroduced a fearful mortality. There can be little doubt that this series of calamities paralyzed the coun- try, and left its marks ujDon the history of the times.f A. D. 1361. — Lionel, third son of Ed- ward III., and earl of Ulster by right of his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of the murdered earl, was now appointed to the government of Ireland, with extra- ordinary authority, as lord lieutenant. He landed in Dublin on the 15th of September, 1360, with an army of 1,.500 men, and evinced from the first bitter ani- mosity towards the Irish, reviving more- over the distinction between the English by birth and by descent. A royal man- Wilde, in his important report on the Table of Deaths ; Census of 1851. This plague, which originated in the east, ravaged the whole of Europe. Dr. Hecker says it must have swept away at least twenty-five millions of the human race. Stow, in his Chronicles, says, that in Ireland it destroyed a great number of English people that dwelt there ; but such that were Irish born, that dwelt in the hill country, it scarcely touched. This, observes Dr. WUde, was here called " the first great pes- tilence," being the first of the five remarkable plagues of the fourteenth century, three of which occurred in the reign of Edward III. f During this dreary period the foUovring entry oc- curs in the Annals of Clonmacnoise, under the year 1351, " William MacDonough Mojmeach O'KeUy (chief of Hy-Many) invited all the Irish poets, brehons, bards, harpers, gamesters, or common kearroghs, jesters, and others of their kind in Ireland, to his house upon a Christmas this year, where every one of them was well used during Christmas holidays, and gave contentment to each other at the time of their departure, so as every one of them was well pleased, and extolled William foi his bounty." 274 REIGN OF EDWARD III. date had been issued a sliort time before, orderinc tliat no "mere Irishman" should be appointed mayor, bailiff, or other officer of any town within the English dominion : or be received through any motives of consanguinity, affinity, or other causes, into holy or- ders, -or be advanced to any ecclesiasti- cal benefice or promotion.* But the principle of interdiction was carried much further by duke Lionel. In a war which he had to carry on against the O'Byrnes, just after his arrival, he issued a proclamation "forbidding any of Irish birth to come near his ar- my ;" thus excluding from his ranks all the old colonists, to their infinite dis- gust. After this gross insult a hundred of his best soldiers appear to have been slain at night in some unaccountable manner, whereupon, he abandoned the distinction of English by birth and English by descent, and summoned all the king's subjects to his standard.f Subsequently he endeavored to estab- lish discipline in the army; expended £500 in walling the town of Carlow, whither he removed the exchequer, and ingratiated himself by other acts with the colonists, who granted him two years' revenue of all their lands towards the prosecution of the war against the Irish. A. D. 1367. — Having returned to Eng- gland in 1364, Lionel was created duke of Clarence, and twice in the three fol- lowing years he was again entrusted * Ilymer, t. vi., 336. with the office of lord lieutenant. In the year 1367, during the last period of his administration, was held the memor- able parliament at Kilkenny, in Avhich was passed the execrable act known as the "Statute of Kilkenny," It is said that Lionel's chief object in his later visits to Ireland was to regain the pos- sessions usurped by the Burkes of Con- naught, and that his failure to attain that end was the real cause of the bit- terness of the act in question. The fol- lowing are the principal j^rovisions of this statute : — That intermarriage with the natives, or any connections with them in the shape of fostering, or gos- sipred, should be dealt with and pun- ished as high treason'; that any man of English race assuming an Irish name, or using the Irish language, apparel or customs, should forfeit all his lands and tenements ; that to adopt the Brehon law, or submit to it, was treason ; that without the permission of the govern- ment the English should not make war or peace with the Irish ; that the Eng- lish should not permit the Irish to pas- ture cattle on their lands, nor admit them to any ecclesiastical benefices or to religious houses ; nor entertain their minstrels, rhymers, or news-tellers. There were also enactments against the oppressive tax of coyn and livery, ao-ainst the abuse of royal franchises and liberties, and upon some other mat- ters; but the principal and manifest object of this most tyrannical and insult- f Grace's Annals. DIFFICULTIES WITHIN THE PALE. 275 iug statute was to keep tlie English aiid Irish forever separate, and to wage a perpetual war against those of the Eng- lish race, who, holding lands and resi- ding among the Irish, were necessitated, more or less, to adopt the Irish customs and laws.* It was impossible to enforce sucli a law, and practically it became a dead letter ; but the distrust and na- tional enmity which it created were kept alive, and in the reign of Henry VII. (a. d. 1494) it was to a great ex- tent revived and confirmed. As to duke Lionel, he left Ireland in 1367, and died nest year in Italy, where he had just taken as his second wife the daughter of the duke of Milan. Wl^ile the Anglo-Irish were strug- gling with enemies in the very bosom of their colony, and praying by a peti- ion to the king for relief from the pay- ment of scutage upon the lands of which the Irish had deprived them in their daily encroachments upon the bounds of the Pale,* we see the native chief- tains acting in their resi^ective territor- * " The result," says the late eminent antiquary and historian, Mr. Hardimau, describing the effect of this statute, " was such as might be expected. English power and influence continued to decrease, insomuch tha,t at the close of the succeeding century they were nearly anniliilated in Ireland. At the beginning, the native Irish, apprehending that the real object of a law enacted and proclaimed with so much pomp and ap- pearance of authority was to root them altogether out of the land, naturally combined together for safety, and some of the more powerful chieftains resolved upon immediate hostilities. O'Conor of Connaught and O'Bri- en of Thomond for the moment laid aside their private feuds, and united against the common foe. The earl of Desmond, lord justice, marched against them with a considerable army, but was defeated and slain (captured) in a sanguinary engagement, fought A. D. 1309, in the ies without any reference whatever to English authority, and without appear- ing to recognize its presence in the country. Hugh O'Conor, king of Con- naught, and Cathal O'Conor (Sligo), led an army into Meath, in 1362, and laid waste the English lands, burning no less than fifteen churches which had been used by their enemies for gaiTi- sons; but Cathal died of the plague the same year. In 1365, Brian Mac- Mahon, lord of Oriel, induced Sorly MacDounell, a prince of the Hebrides, to put away his wife, the daughter of O'Reilly, and to marry Brian's own daughter. Soon after he added anoth- er crime to this, by drowning his son- in-law, whom he had invited to drink ^ine in his house. The O'Neills, O'Donnells, and other Ulster chieftains confederated to punish the offending chief; MacMahon was driven from Oriel, and having returned, was again attacked, and ultimately slain by a gal- lowglass of his own followers when marching with them against the Eng- county of Limerick. O'Farrel, the chieftain of Aunaly, committed great slaughter in Meath. The O'Mores, Cavanaghs, O'Byrnes, and O'Tooles, pressed upon Lein- stcr, and the O'NeOls raised the red arm in the north. The English of the Pale were seized -nith consternation and dismay, and terror and confusion reigned in their councils, whUe the natives continued to gain ground upon them in every direction. At this crisis an oppor- tmiity offered, such as had never before occurred, of ter- minating the dominion of the English in Ireland ; but if the natives had ever conceived such a project, they were never sufficiently united to achieve it. The op- portunity passed away, and the disunion of the Irish saved the colonj."— Statute of Kilkenny, published by the Irish Archaeological Society, with introduction and notes by the late James Hardiman, Esq., M.R.I.A. Dub- lin, 1843. Close Roll, 46 Ed. m. Pyrnne, 303. 276 REIGN OF EDWARD III. lisb. His fate aud that of Turlougli O'Couor, already related, sliow tliat the Irish chieftains, even iu that age of anarchy, and among men of their own order, would not suffer glaring crimes to go unpunished. Garrett, earl of Desmond, at the head of an Anglo-Irish army suffered a great overthrow from Brian O'Brien, chief of Thomond, in 1369. Garrett himself was made prisoner; his army was slaughtered, and Limerick was burned by the men of Thomond. Ni- all O'Neill defeated the English, in 1374, and again gained an important victory over them the following year in Down, slaying several of their knights ; but the native septs of Leiu- ster were not so successful at this tim^ in the harassing war which they had to sustain against the forces of the Ensrlish s:overnment. Melasrhlin O'Far- rell was slain in 1374. Donough Kav- anagh MacMurrough, king of the Irish of Leinster, was cut off by stratagem in 1375. The MacTiernans were defeated the same year, and Hugh O'Toole, lord of Imaile, was killed in 1376. There was the usual amount of discord among the Irish themselves ; but the broils among the English at the same time, and especially the sauguinaiy feuds which raged between the different sec- tions of the Burkes in Counaught, show that the curse of dissension was not confined to the native race. So difficult and odious had the task of governing Irelaiad become, that we find Sir Richard Pembridge, the warden of the ciuque jjorts, positively refusing the office of lord justice, which he was ordered to undertake, iu 1369 ; and his refusal was not adjudged an offence, on the ground that the law required no man, not condemned for a crime, to go into exile, which a residence in Ireland, even in so honorable a positiou, was ad- mitted to be. When Sir William de Windsor was then appointed to the office, he undertook to carry on the government for £11,213 6s. 8d. per annum, but Sir John Davies assures us that the whole revenue of Ireland at that time did not amount to £10,000 annually in the best years. Previously the salary of the lord justice used to be £500 a year, out of which sum he should sui^port a certain number of armed men. The subsidies which Ed- ward HI. was obliged to levy in Ireland, not only for the wars in this country, but for those in France and Scotland, were intolerably oppressive, and were exacted from ecclesiastical as well as lay property. Ralph Kelly, archbishop of Cashel, opposed the collection of one of these imposts, as far as it affected the church lands in his province, and, accompanied by the suftVagan bishops of Limerick, Emly, and Lismoje, dressed in their pontifical robes, appeared in the streets of Clonmel, and solemnly excommunicated the king's commis- sioner of revenue, and all persons concerned in advising, contributing to, or levying the tax. When cited to answer for this conduct, the prelates pleaded the Magna Charta, which de- ACCESSION" OF RICHARD II. 211 creed the exemption of church property; and although the cause was given against them, no judgment appears to have been executed in the case. On the whole, it may be said of the reign of Edward III., that, however brilliant it was in English history, it was most disastrous to the En- glish interests in this country; and as far as Irish interests were concerned, Mr. Moore has well observed, that, dur- ing it, were laid " the foundations of that monstrous system of misgovern- ment in Ireland to which no parallel exists in the history of the whole civil- ized world ; its dark and towering in- iquity having projected its shadow so far forward as even to the times immedi- ately bordering upon our own. "* CHAPTER XXVI. "REIGN OF EICHAED H. Law against Absentees. — Evenis xO. Ireland at tlie Opening of the Reign. — Partition of Connauglit between O'Conor Don and O'Conor Eoe. — The Earl of Oxford made Duke of Ireland — His Fate. — Battles between the English and Irish. — Eichard 11. visits Ireland with a Powerful Army. — Submission of Irish Princes — Hard Conditions. — Henry Castide's Account of the Irish. — Knigliting of Four Irish Kings. — Departure of Richard II. and Rising of the Iri^h. — Second Visit of King Eichard — His Attack on Art MacMurrough's Stronghold. — Disasters of the English Army. — MacMurrough's Heroism. — Meeting of Art MacMurrough and the Earl of Gloucester. — Richard Arrives in Dublin. — Bad News from England. — The King's Departure from Ireland — His unhappy Fate. — Death of Niall More O'Neill, and Succession of Niall Oge. — Pilgrimages to Rome. — Events Illustrating the Social State of Ireland. Contemporary Sovereigns. — Popes : Urban VI., Boniface IX.— King of France, Charles VI. — King of Scullaud, Eobert III- —Emperor of the Turks, Bajazet I. (A. D. 1377 TO A. D. 1309.) RICHARD II., only surviving child of Edward the Black Prince, suc- ceeded his grandfather, Edward III., as king of England, when only in his eleventh year, and the government of the state was carried on by the young * Hist, of Ireland, vol. iii., p. 118. — A curious entry on the Exchequer Issue Roll for the year 1376 refers to the close of this reign, and has often been quoted as singularly expressive ; it is to the effect that Eichard king's uncles. One of the first measures of his reiofn relatinsf to Ireland was a stringent law against absenteeism, oblig- ing all persons who possessed lands, rents, or other income in Ireland, to reside there, or to send proper persons Dere and William Stapolyn came over to England to inform the king how very badly Ireland was governed ; and that the king ordered them to be paid ten pounds for their trouble. 178 REIGN OF RICHARD II. to defend their possessions, or else to pay a tax to the amount of two-thirds of their Irish revenues ; those who attended the English universities, or were absent by ^special license, being excepted. A. D. 1380. — Edraond, grandson of Roger Mortimer, earl of March, came to Ireland with extraordinary powers as lord lieutenant. Having married Philippa, the daughter of Lionel, duke of Clarence, and of Elizabeth, daughter of the dun earl, he became in her right earl of Ulster ; and several of the native Irish princes paid court to him on his arrival ; among others, Mall O'Neill, O'Hanlou, O'Farrell, OTteilly, O'Mol- loy, Mageoghegan, and the Sinnagh or Fox. One of the Irish nobles who thus visited the earl was Art Magennis, lord of Iveagh, in Ulster, who, for some charge trumped up against him, while thus within the grasp of his enemies, was seized and cast into prison. This act destroyed the confidence not only of the Irish, but, as we are told, of many of the English, who consequently kept aloof from the deputy. Mortimer in- vaded Ulster shortly after, destroying much property, lay and ecclesiastical, and the following year he died in Cork.* A. D. 1383. — Roger Mortimer, the youthful son of the late earl, was nomi- * In 1380, before the arrival of Edmond Mortimer, a number of French and Spanish galleys retired from the English fleet into the liarbor of Kinsale, where they were attacked by the inhabitants, English and Irish, 400 of their men being killed, and their principal offi- cers captured. Holiushed gives this statement on the nated in his father's place, his uncle Sir Thomas Mortimer, chief justice of the common pleas in England, administering affairs for him as deputy. In so absurd a way was the office of lord justice of Ireland disposed of at that time, that a grant of it was next made for ten years to Philip de Courtney, a cousin of the king's, who abused his power by such gross peculation and injustice, that the council of regency had him taken into custody and punished for his crimes. An army was this year led by Niall O'Neill against the English of Antrim ; and the following year that prince took and burned Can-ickfergus, and, as the annals say, " gained great power over the English." At this period the country was desolated bj' plague as well as by wai-, the fourth great pestilence of the four- teenth century having broken out in 1382 ; and the ravages of the disease may be traced for some years in the numerous obituaries which our annalists record.f A. D. 1384. — A fresh source of dis- order now arose in Connaught. Rory, son of Tnrlough O'Conor, and last king of that province, died, after a stormy reign of over sixteen years, and two rival chieftains were set up in his place. One of these, Turlough Oge, a nephew of the late chief, was inaugurated king authority of Thomas Walsingham, but it is not alluded to in the Irish or Anglo-Irish chronicles. f This pestilence Dr. Wilde suspects to have been a visitation of typhus fever. — See Report on Table of Deaths. EXPEDITION TO IRELAND. 279 by O'Kelly of Hy-Many, Clanrickard, and some of the O'Conors ; and Tur- lougli Roe, son of Hugh, sou of Felini O'Conor, the other competitoi", was, about the same time, installed by MacDermot, of Moylui'g, the Clanu Murtough, and all the chiefs of the Sil-Murray. The former was the an- cestor of the sept of O'Conor Don (the brown), and the latter of that of O'Co- nor Koe (the red); and between these two branches of the O'Conor family and their respective adherents impla- cable hostility prevailed for many years after. The territory of Connaught was divided between them, by which parti- tion the ancient i:>ower of that province was crushed for ever, while the country was laid waste by feuds, which seldom allowed any interval of repose. A. D. 1385. — In a moment of puerile caprice, Richard, who had been heap- ing honors upon Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford, bestowed Ireland upon that young favorite. He created him mar- quis of Dublin and duke of Ireland, transferring to him for life the sover- eignty of that kingdom, such as he possessed it himself; and the parlia- ment, which confirmed this grant, also voted a sum of money for the favorite's intended expedition to Ireland. Hav- ing accompanied De Vere as far as Wales, the youthful monarch changed his mind, and sending Sir John Stanley to Ireland as his deputy, he kept his favorite near himself. Like that of all royal minions, the fate of the young duke of Ireland was unfortunate. The irritated nobles took up arms ; the duke of Gloucester, one of the king's uncles, joined them, and De Vere, defeated in battle, was driven into exile, and died in Belgium, in 1396. A. D. 1392. — Our annals mention a victory gained by O'Conor, of Offaly, in 1385, over the English, at the tochar, or pass, near the hill of Croghan, in the King's county ; and the Anglo-Irish chronicles record a battle, in which 600 of the Irish were slain, in the coun- ty of Kilkenny, in the year 1392. In this latter year Niall O'Neill led an ar- my to Dundalk, where he defeated the English ; he himself, although far ad- vanced in years, killing Seffin White in single combat. This year died O'Neill's eldest son, Henry, who was distin- guished for his justice and munificence, but was surnamed, by antiphrasis, Av- rey (Aimhreidh) or the Contentious. Henry's sons were warlike, and their names long occupy a conspicuous place in the annals of the northern province. A. D. 1394. — Richard having suddenly formed a project of visiting Ireland in 2:)erson, countermanded the preparations which the duke of Gloucester was ma- king by his orders to come to this coun- try. Ireland had become a perpetual drain on the royal exchequer. Not- withstanding the absentee laws, a great number of the Anglo-Irish proprietors resided in England, and the power and daring of the neighboring Irish septs were daily increasing. The king was resolved to take into his own hands the subjugation of the country; but this 280 REIGN OF RICHARD H. was not the sole motive for his expedi- tion. He had just suffered a mortifying repulse in Germany where he hoped to he elected emperor, and had also lost his queen ; and he sought by excite- ment and change of scene to heal his ■wounded feelings. Richard landed at Waterford, on the '2d of October, with an army of 4,000 men-at-arms and 30,000 archers, which had been conveyed in a fleet of 200 ships. This was the lar- gest force ever landed on the coast of Ireland ; and the Irish, after retiring for awhile to their fastnesses, prudently judged that resistance to such an army was worse than useless, whereupon their .chiefs came in considerable numbers to yield him homage. Beyond this show of submission, however, and a parade of his power which gratified his vanity, Richard, witb his splendid and costly armament, effected nothing. No meas- ure of justice or conciliation was thought of; nothing was done to gaiu the confi- dence and esteem of the Irish, the laws of England were not extended to them, in fact every law was framed against them ; and there was no idea of treating them as subjects of the crown, on equal terms witli the English, or of securing to them the possession of such portions of their ancient patrimonies as had not yet been wrested from them. O'Neill and other lords of Ulster met * It must have been immediately before tliis that Art MacMurrough, according to the Irish annals, burned the town of New Ross (Ros-mic-Triuin) in Wexford, carried off a large quantity of valuable property, and Blew a great number of the English. It was with the kinof at Dro2:heda, and there did homage in the usual fn'm. Mowbray, earl of Nottingham and lord marshal of England, was commissioned to receive the fealty and homage of the Irish of Leinster ; and on an open plain at Bal- ligorey, near Carlow, he held an inter- view with the famous Art MacMur- rousfh, heir of the ancient Leinster kinsrs, who was at this time the most dreaded enemy of the English, and was accompanied at this meeting by several of the southern chiefs.* The terms exacted from these chieftains were that they should not only continue loyal subjects, but engage, for themselves and their swordsmen, that on a certain fixed day they Avould surrender to the king of England all their lands and posses- sions in Leinster, taking with them only their moveable goods, and that they would serve him in his wars against any other of his countrymen. In re- turn for their hereditary rights and territories they were to receive pen- sions during their lives, and the inher- itance of such lands as they could seize from the " rebels" in other parts of the realm, and for the fulfilment of these hard terms they were severally bound by indentures and in heavy penalties. No less than seventy-five chieftains from different parts of Ireland appear to have proffered their homage to difficulty this chief was pursuaded to offer his sub- mission, and when the English had him iu their hands there was some attempt made to detaia him, O'Byrne, O'More, and O'Nolan being finally kept as hostages for him. I FROISSART'S ACCOUNT OF THE IRISH. 281 Eicbard or his commissioner on tliis occasion ; and it is curious that the king in a letter, written at the time, to his council in England, after classifying the population of the English Pale un- der the three heads of " wild Iiish, or enemies," " Irish rebels," and " English subjects," admits that the "rebels" had been made such by wrongs and Eng- lish misrule, and that if not wisely treated they might enter the ranks of the "enemies," whence he thought it right to grant them a general pardon, and to take them under his special pro- tection.* The council thought the king's treatment of the Irish too leni- ent, and suggested that he should exact large fines and ransoms for the pardons which he granted ; but his experience tauffht him otherwise. When Sir John Froissart, the French chronicler, was, in 1395, at the court of Richard II. in England, he met there an English gentleman, named Henry Castide, or Castile, who told him that he had lived for many years in Ireland ; that he had been captured by the Irish in a skirmish, but had been well treated by the Irish gentleman who took him prisoner, and who afterwards gave him his daughter in marriage ; that he had thus acquired a knowledge of the Irish language, and was, on that account, employed by king Richard to instruct four Irish kings, on whom he desired to confer the honor of knighthood, in * Proceedings of the Privy Council, edited by Sir Harris Nicholas, f The names of the Irish kings are strangely meta- 36 such things as might be necessary for the ceremony. A courtier like Frois- sart was not apt to favor a people such as the Irish were then represented to be, nor was his informant prejudiced in their favor ; but the details transmitted to us through such hands are extremely curious. " To tell you the truth," said Castide, " Ireland is one of the worst countries to make war in or to conquer, for there are such impenetrable and ex- tensive forests, lakes, and bogs, there is no knowing how to pass them. It is so thinly inhabited that whenever the Irish please they desert the towns and take refuge in these forests, and live in huts made of boughs, like wild beasts; and whenever they perceive any parties advancing with hostile dis- position, and about to enter their coun- try, they fly to such narrow passes it is impossible to follow them .... And no man-at-arms, be he ever so well mounted, can overtake them, so light are they of foot. Sometimes they leap from the ground behind a horseman, and embrace the rider (for they are very strong in their arms) so tightly that he can no way get rid of them." Sir Henry then proceeds to relate, among other things, how "four of the most potent kings of Ireland had sub- mitted to the king of England, but more though love and good humor than by battle or force ;"f how they were placed for about a month under his morphosed in the orthography of Froissart, but they ap- pear to have been CNeUI, O'Conor, O'Brien, and Mac- Murrough. — Chion., book v., c. 64 Johns' Translation. 282 REIGN OF RICHARD II. "care and governance at Dublin, to teach them the usages of England ; how they refused to sit to dinner unless their minstrels and attendants were allowed seats with them at the same table, ac- cording to the custom of their own country; how they at first objected to receive knighthood, observing that they had been created knights already when they were only seven years of age, such being the custom of their country, especially with the sons of kings ; how they ultimately acceded to the wishes of king Richard in every thing and were knighted by him in the cathedral of Dublin, on the feast of Our Lady, in March ;. and dined that day, in robes of state, at the table of king Richard, " where they were much stared at by the loixls and those present, not, indeed, without reason, for they were strange figures, and difierently countenanced to the English and other nations." So the courtly Sir John reports the words of Master Castide, and he adds that the success of Richard 11. in Ireland on this occasion was partly owing to the veneration in which the natives held the cross of St. Edward, which the king emblazoned on all his banners, in- stead of his own leopards and jleurs de lis. A. D. 1395. — After nine months passed in Ireland, chiefly in those displays of pomp and pastimes which he so much loved, Richard was recalled to England by aflfairs of state early in the summer of this year, and left young Roger Mor- timer, who had been declared heir-pre- sumptive to the crown, as his viceroy in Ireland. Scarcely, however, had the king departed, when several of the Irish chiefs cast off the alleo-iance to which O they had submitted for the moment. It would appear that even before he left the English suffered partial defeats in Offaly and Ely O'CarrolL We are told, on English authority, that Sir Thomas Burke and Walter Bennino^ham slew 600 of the Irish this year, and that the O'Byrnes of Wicklow were defeated by the viceroy and the earl of Ormond. But, on the other hand, MacCarthy gained a victory over the English in Munster; O'Toole slaughtered them fearfully in a battle in 1396, six score heads of the foreign foe being counted before the chief after the conflict ; the earl of Kildare was taken jjrisoner by Calvagh O'Conor of Offaly, in 1398; and the same year the O'Byrnes and O'Tooles avenged many of their former losses by a victory at Kenlis in Ossory, in which young Mortimer was slain and a great number of the English cut to pieces. A. r>. 1399. — King Richard, who had of late incurred great popular odium in England by his exactions and oppres- ' siou, undertook the mad project of another expedition to Ireland ; and set out at a moment when his government was surrounded by perils at home, leaving his uncle, the Duke of York, regent in his absence. He once more landed at Waterford with another magnificent army, which, like the former one, was transported in a fleet ATTACK ON MACMURROUGH'S STRONGHOLD. 283 of 200 ships ; and it is curious that on this occasion we are again indebted to a French chronicler for an account of the royal transactions in Ireland. A French gentleman named Creton, who was induced to accompany a friend on Richard's second expedition, has left us, in a metrical account of the last days of that unfortunate monarch's reign, some highly interesting details of what he witnessed in this country.* After six days' delay in Waterford the king marched to Kilkenny, where he remained fourteen days waiting for the arrival of the duke of Albemarle, who still disappointed him ; but, in the mean time, Janico d'Artois, a foreign officer of great tact and bravery, and who performed many important services for the English, defeated the Irish at Kells, in Ossory. On the eve of St. John the Bajjtist, Richard departed from the city of St. Canice, victualling his army as best he could, and marched against MacMurrough, the indomitable king of Leinster. The main object of the expedition was, indeed^ to conquer, if possible', this celebrated chieftain, the most heroic of the Irish princes of his time, who, in a territory surrounded by the settlements of his English foes, and spite of all the lords justices sent against him with armies of mail-clad warriors and archers, and all the chiv- alry of the earls of the Pale, was able * See the Eistoire du Boy d'Angleterre, Richard; translated by the Rev. J. Webb, in the twentieth vol. of the Archaeologia : London, 1824. The portion of it relaiing to Ireland was translated long before by Sir George Carew, and published in Harris's Hibemica. to hold his position as an iudejiendent king, to keep the Anglo-Irish govern- ment in perpetual terror, and to aflFord a rallying point to his oppressed countrymen, and an example of pa- triotic horoism to the native chieftains of all Ireland.f MacMurrough's strong- hold was in a wood, " guarded by 3,000 stout men, such, as it seemed to me," says the narrator, "were very little astonished at the sight of the English." The king marshalled his army in battle array before the wood, the standard being, this time, not St. Edward's gold cross on a red field and four white doves, but his own three leopards ; and the Irish not choosing to leave their defences and meet him in the plain, he ordered the villages in the wood to be set on fire, and compelled 2,500 of the peasantry to cut a passage for his army through the wood. Meanwhile he amused himself with one of his favorite pageants, going through the ceremony of knighting his cousin, the duke of Lancaster's son, " a fair and puny youth, " who was afterwards king Henry V. of England, together with eight or ten other knights. While marching through the passage opened for them his army was constantly as- sailed both in the van and rear by MacMurrough's soldiers, who attacked them with loud shouts, casting their javelins with such might " as no haber- f See, for an interesting account of this Irish hero and his exploits, Mr. T. Darcy M'Qee's "Life and Conquests of Art MacMurrough," in Duffy's Library of Ireland. 284 REIGN OF RICHARD II. geon or coat of mail was of sufficient proof to resist their force ; " and who were " so nimble and swift of foot that like unto stags they ran over mountains and valleys. " MacMurrough's uncle and some others came forward in an abject manner to make their submission to Richard, who thereupon sent a mes- sage to the king of Leinster himself mviting him to follow his uncle's example, and promising not only to pardon him but " to bestow upon him castles, towns, and ample territories. " The answer of the heroic Art was that " for all the gold in the world he would not submit himself, but would continue to war, and endamage the king in all that he could. " This defiant message was delivered at a time when king Richard's army was in the utmost straits for want of food. The sur- rounding country had been ravaged over and over, and no provisions were to be found. Several men had perished of famine, and even the horses were without fodder. " A biscuit in one day between five men was thought good allowance, and some in five days to- gether had not a bit of bread ! " At length three ships arrived with jDrovis- ions from Dublin, the army being encamped somewhere near the coast in Wexford ; but the starving soldiers plunged into the sea and rifled the ves- sels without waiting for a regular distri- bution of food, so that much of it was de- stroyed and many lives in the confusion ; and the men indulged to intoxication in the wine which they found in the ships. Covered with humiliation, king Rich- ard decamped, and marched towards Dublin, the Irish hovering on his rear and skirmishing with the same provok- ing effect as hitherto; but soon after his departure MacMurrough sent after him to make overtures of peace and to propose a conference. This filled the English camp with delight, and Richard gladly commissioned the earl of Glou- cester, who commanded in the rear, to meet MacMurrough. For this purpose the earl took with him a guard of 200 lances and 1,000 gt>od archers ; and among the gentlemen who accompanied him to see the Irish king was our French friend who relates the circum- stance : — " From a mountain, between two woods, not far from the sea, we saw MacMurrough descending, ac- companied by multitudes of the Irish, and mounted upon a horse, without a saddle, which cost him, it was reported, 400 cows. His horse was fair, and in his descent from the hill to us, ran as swiftly as any stag, hare, or the swiftest beast I have ever seen. In his right hand he b5re a long spear, which, when near the spot where he was to meet the earl, he cast from him with much dexterity. The crowd that fol- lowed him then remained behind, while he advanced to meet the earl near a small brook. He was tall of stature, well composed, strong, and active ; his countenance fierce and cruel." The parley was a protracted one, but led to no reconciliation. Such terms as the earl was empowered to oifer were FATE OF RICHARD. 285 haughtily spurned by MacMurrough, wlio declared that he would not submit to them while he had life; Richard, ou hearing the result, " flew into a violent rage, and swore by St. Edward he would not depart out of Ireland until he had MacMurrough in his hands, living or dead." Dublin was at that time so prosperous that the arrival of the English king, with an army of 30,000 hungry men, produced no change in the price of pro- visions. The duke of Albemarle next aiTived with his reinforcements, and Richard, forming his army into three divisions, resolved to renew the war against MacMurrough, and at the same time offered a reward of 100 marks to any one w^ho would deliver that chief- tain to him dead or alive. His own fate, however, was nearer at hand, than that of Art MacMurrousrh. After an ominous interruption of news from Eng- land for six weeks, owing to stormy weather, disastrous accounts reached him from that country. His cousin, the son of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, was up in rebellion, and had been joined by the barons and a large portion of the population. All his Irish schemes were in a moment crushed. The duke of Albemarle, in whom he trusted, put him on a wrong course. His departure from Ireland was delayed until his Welsh friends were scattered, and he * Two plaintive quatrains in Norman French, written by this earl while a prisoner, are printed in Croker's popular songs of Ireland, p. 287. Earl Garrett is the theme of many legends still preserved in the south of only arrived in England to become a prisoner. Ultimately he was murdered in Pontefract castle ; and thus to this second ill-omened expedition of king Richard to Ireland may be traced the fate of that unfortunate monarch, and the origin of the war between the houses of York and Lancaster, which so long continued to deluge England with blood. Niall More O'Neill died at an ad- vanced age, in 1397, and was succeeded by his son, Niall Oge, who chastised the O'Donnells for some of their late aggressions, and made war upon the English so effectually, in 1399, as to plunder or expel nearly all of them whom he found in Ulster. Garrett, fourth earl of Desmond, who died in 1398, and was called the poet, is de- scribed as excelling " all the English and many of the Irish in the knowledge of the Irish language."* He was a great patron of learned men, who, even in that age of anarchy, found many friends among the Irish chieftains. Thus Niall O'Neill, whose death we have just mentioned, built a house for the ollavs and poets on the site of the famous palace of Emania, near Armagh. We begin at this time to meet frequent mention of pilgrimages to Rome. In 1396, Thadeus O'Carroll, lord of Ely, repaired, says an Irish chronicler, to the threshold of the apostles ou a religious Ireland ; according to one of which, his spirit appears once in seven years on Lough Gur, in the county of Limerick, where he had a castle. See Four Masters, vol. v., p. 761, note. 286 REIGN OP HENRY IV. pilgrimage ; and, on his return through EngLincl, he ijresentecl himself, with three other Irish gentlemen, O'Brien, Genvkl, and Thomas Calvagh MacMur- rongh, oi* the royal race of Leinster, to king Richard, who received them in the most courteous manner, and took them with him on a visit to the king of France. « ■ » <» CHAPTER XXVII. EEIGNS OF HENEY IV. AND HENEY V. State of the English Pale. — The Duke of Lancaster in Ireland. — Defeats of the English. — Retaliation. — Lancaster again Lord Lieutenant. — His Stipulations. — Affairs of Tyrone. — Privateering. — Complaints from the Pale. — Accession of Henry V. — Sir John Stanley's government. — Rhyming to death. — Exploits of Lord Furnival. — Reaction of the Irish. — Death of Art MacMurrough Kavanagh. — Death of Murrough O'Couor, of OflFaly. — Defeat of the O'Mores. — Petition against the Irish. — Persecution of an Irish Archbishop. — Complaint of the Anglo-Irish Commons. — State of Religion and Learning. Contemporary Sovereigns and Events. — Popes: Innocent VII., Gregory XII., Ale.iander V., John XXIII., M.irtin V. — King of Franco, Cliarles VI. — King of Scotland, Robert III. — Revolt of Owen Glendower in Wales, 1401.— Death of Tamarlane, tlie Tartar Conqueror, 1405. — Cannon fir.st used in England, 1405. — Battle of Azincourt, 1415. — Paper first made of linon rags, 1417. (A. D. 1399 TO A. D. 1433.) WE have a,lready remarked that the reigns of the English kings form no epochs in Irish history. In England the struggles between the ci'own and the parliament, the conse- quent growth of popular liberty, the alternate wars and alliances with other countries, and events of like importance, sufficiently distinguish one reign from anothei'. In Ireland the scene varied but little. It was one of continuous * To that territory within which the English retreated and fortified themselves when a reaction began to set in after their first success in Ireland, we have all along strife and warfare ; the only redeeming feature beinc; the indomitable heroism with which the native Irish not only maintained their ground against their poweiful and rapacious enemies, but gradually regained territories that had been wrested from their ancestors, and even succeeded, as was now the case, in levying tribute within the English Pale.* A. D. 1402. — Thomas, the young duke applied the name of Pale, although that term did not really come into use until about the beginning of the IGth century. lu earlier times this territory was called DUKE OF LANCASTER IN" IRELAND. 287 of Lancaster, second son of Henry IV., was sent over as lord lieutenant, though not yet of age, and landed at Bullock, near Dalkey. Soon after his arrival, John Drake, then mayor of Dublin, marched against the O'Byrues of Wick- low, whom he routed at Bray, slaying 500 ; and as a recognition of this and other similar services, the privilege of havinof the sword borne before the mayor was granted to the city of Dublin. John Dowdal, sheriff of Louth, was publicly murdered in Dublin, by Sir Bartholomew Vernon and three other English gentlemen, for which and other crimes they were outlawed and their estates forfeited ; but soon after they receiv-ed the king's pardon and had their lands I'estored. The duke of Lancaster remained two years, and left as deputy Sir Stephen Scroop, who soon after resigned the office to the earl of Orinond, but on the death of the latter in 1405, the earl of Kildare was elected, the English Land. It is generally called Ffine-Ghall in the Irish annals (see Foxir Masters, v. 1633, note I,) ■where the term Galls comes to be applied to the descendants of the early adventurers, and that of Saxons to Englishmen newly arrived. The formation of the Pale is generally considered to date from the reign of Edward I. About the period of ■which ■we are now treating, it began to be limited to the four counties of Louth, Meath, Kildare, and Dublin, ■which formed its utmost extent in the reign of Henry VIII. Beyond this the authority of the king of England ■was a nullity. The border lands ■were called the Marches. Campion describes the Pale as the place " ■whereout they (the English) durst not peepe." The Wicklow septs of O'Toole and O'Byrne frequently scoured the country as far as Clondalkin, Saggard, and other places in the immediate ■vicinity of Dublin. An authority of the reign of Henry VIII. complains that even the four counties of Dublin, Kildare, Meath, and Uriel, or Louth, -were not " free from Irish invasions, and were so weakened, -withal, and corrupted, that and he was followed in quick succession by Scroop, and the new earl of Ormond, as deputies to the duke. Gillapatrick O'More, lord of Leix, defeated the English in battle at Ath- duv, in 1404, killing great numbers, and taking a large amount of spoils. The following year Art MacMurrough renewed hostilities by plundering Wex- ford, Carlow, and Castledermot ; and in 1406 the Endish of Meath were de- feated by Murrough O'Conor, lord of Ofialy, and his son Calvagh. Three hundred of the English were killed on this occasion. A. D/1407. — This year the English avenged some of their recent losses. The lord deputy Scroop, with the earls of Desmond and Ormond, and the prior of Kilmaiuhara, led an army against MacMurrough, who made so gallant a stand that victory for some time see'raed to be on his side, although it ultimately declared for the English. The latter scant four persons in any parish ■wore English habits ; and coine and liverie -were as current as in the Irish counties." — The same authority (a Report on the con- dition of Ireland in 1515, preserved in the English State Paper Office, and printed in the first volume of the " State Papers" relating to Ireland) states that but half of each of the four counties just mentioned ■n-as subject to the king's laws, and that " all the comyn PeopUe of the said Halflf Countyes that obeyeth the Kinges Laws, for the more part ben of Iryshe Byrthe, of Iryshe Habyte, and of Iryshe Language ;" and in enumerating the English territories" ■which paid tribute, or '' Black Rent," to the " wj-lde Irish," it is stated that the county of- Uriel (Louth) paid yearly to the "great Oneyll" .£40 ; the county of Meath, to O'Conor of Offalr, £300 ; the county of Kildare, to the same OConor, £20 ; the King's Exchequer to MacMurrough, 80 marks ; besides the tributes paid by English settlements outside the Pale to their respective Irish chieftains Such was the state of things more than 300 years after the so-called con- quest. 288 REIGN OF HENRY IV. then made a rapid march to Callan, in tlie county of Kilkenny, where they came by surprise upon Teige O'CarroU, lord of Ely, and his adherents, and slew 800 of them in the panic which en- sued.* Teige O'Carroll, who was killed in the fray, was a generous patron of learning; and it will be remembered that a few years before this time, when returning from a pilgrimage to Rome, he was honorably received at the court of Richard II., in Westminster. A par- liament was held this year at Dublin in which the statute of Kilkenny was confirmed, but the insolence which prompted this proceeding was soon after humbled. A. D. 1408. — The duke of Lancaster again assumed the reins of government in person ; but stipulated that he should be allowed to transport into Ireland, at the king's expense, one or two families from every parish in England, that the demesnes of the crown should be re- sumed, and the laws against absenteeism enforced. Soon after his arrival he seized the earl of Kildare in an arbi- trary manner, and demanded 300 marks * Both Englisli and Irish accounts agree as to the number of slain, but the former add " that the sun stood still that day for a space, until the Englishmen had ridden six miles !" a prodigy on ■wKch the Irish annals arc silent. About this time the first notice of usquebagh, or wliiskey, occurs in the Irish annals, which mention that Richard MacRannal, cliief of Muintir-Eolais in Leitrim, died from drinking some at Christmas, in the year 1405. Connell Mageoghegan (Ann. of Clon.) play- ing upon the name, says " mine author sayeth that it was not aqua vitcB to him, but aqua mortis." Fynes Morryson, a writer of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, for his ransom. Meanwhile MacMur- rough, who had again taken the field, was victorious in battle, and O'Conor Faly carried off enormous spoils from the English in the lands borderins: on his own territory. The royal duke finally left Ireland in 1409, after ap- pointing Thomas Butler, prior of Kil- mainham, as his deputy. The latter held a parliament in Dublin the follow- ing year, when the law against coyn and livery was further confirmed ; he also made an incursion into O'Byrne's country, Avith a force of 1,500 kernes or light-armed infantry, but without success.f A. D. 1412. — Tyrone was for many years, about this period, a scene of contention between different sections of the O'Neill family, and the neighboring chieftains were generally involved in the strife. When Niall Oge O'Neill died, in 1402, his son Owen was unable to enforce his right of succession, and Donnell, of the Henry O'Neill branch, was recognized as chieftain. In 1410 Donnell was made prisoner by Brian MacMahon of Oriel, who delivered him up to his enemy, Owen O'Neill, and lauds the usquebagh or aqua titcB of Ireland, as better than that of England. — History of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 366. f An Act passed in the parliament held in the year 1411, affords a striking example of the malevolence with which the legislature of the Pale was animated towards the Irish. It was enacted that none of the " Irish enemy" should be allowed to depart from the realm, without special leave under the great seal of Ireland ; and that any one who seized the person or goods of a native thus attempting to depart should be rewarded with one-half of the aforesaid goods, the remainder to be forfeited to the State. ACCESSION OF HENRY V. 289 through the agency of the" latter he was transferred to the English, who already had in their hands Hugh, another of the Henry O'Neill faction. Hugh made his escape from Dublin in 1412, after ten years' imprisonment, and contrived to take with him several other captives ; amonar others, his kinsman Donnell. This escape created great alarm in the Pale, and threw Ulster once more into confusion. Seven years later Donnell O'Neill was expelled by Owen and the other northern chiefs ; and the following year we find the earl of Ormond, then justiciary, acting with an English army against the Ultonians on his behalf Donnell and his Anglo-Irish auxiliaries were, however, unsuccessful, and the former was then obliged to fly for shel- ter to the O'Conors of Sligo. A piratical warfare was carried on at this period between the Scots and the English merchants of Dublin and Drogheda. The latter were obliged to arm in their own defence, as govern- ment was unable to protect them, and they fitted out privateers and plundered the Scottish and the Welsh coasts in- disci'iminately. MacMurrough gained a victory over the English of Wexford in 1413, and the O'Byrnes another over those of Dublin the same year. A little before thisy the sheriff of Meath was taken prisoner by O'Conor Faly, and a large ransom exacted for him. In fact, the state of the English Pale was at this time such that it was necessary to re- * Prooeedings, d-c, of the Privy CounciX, edited by Sir H. Nicholas, vol. ii. 37 move the prohibition of trading with the Irish of the Marches. Permission was granted to take Irish tenants on the border lands, and licenses were given to place English children with Irish nurses, and even to intermarry with the Irish. The English of Meath were obliged to purchase peace from the Irish by annual tributes or black rent. The English of Louth complained that the king's commissioners had bil- leted or assessed Eochy MacMahon and other " Irish enemies" upon them, and that these men were prying into all the woods and strong places about the country. A petition was presented by the commons to the king, complaining that even the king's ministers frequent- ly committed open acts of spoliation on the English subjects.* In a word, the speaker of the English House of Com- mons, Sir John Tibetot, broadly asserted " that the greater part of the lordshi]3 of Ireland (that is, the English territory there) had been conquered by the na- tives."t A. D. 1413. — Henry V. succeeded to the crown of England on the death of his father this year; but although he made his fii'st essay in arms in Ireland, having been knighted when a boy by Richard II., in a camp in Wexford, he does not appear to have ever taken much interest in Irish affairs. The Eng- lish overthrew the Irish in a battle at Kilkea in Kildare ; but in the following year they were defeated in Meath by t Kot. Pari. 573. 290 REIGN OF HENRY V. Murrougli O'Conor, lord of Offaly, when the baron of Skreen and many of the English gentry were killed, and the sum of 1,400 marks exacted as a ran- som for the son of the baron of Slaue, who was made prisoner. Sir John Stan- ley, who was now sent over as lord deputy, rendered himself odious by his cruelties and exactions ; and the Irish annals say that he was "rhymed to death" by the poet Niall O'Higgiu of Usnagh, whom he plundered in a foray, and who then lampooned him so severe- ly that he only survived five weeks !* He is accused of having enriched him- self by extortion and oppression, and of having incurred enormous debts, which his executors refused to liquidate ; and it was said that he " gave neither money nor protection to clergy, laity, or men of science, but subjected them to cold, hardship, and famine." A. D. 1415.— Sir John Talbot of Hall- amshire, who was called lord Furnival, in right of his wife, and was subse- quently rewarded for his services with the title of earl of Shrewsbury, was sent * This was the second " poetic miracle" performed by tMs Niall O'Higgin by means of Ms satire and impre- cations, the former being " the discomfiture of the Clanu Conway the night they plundered Niall at Cla- dann." In the case mentioned above, one of the Anglo- Irish, Henry Dalton, took up the bard's cause, and plundered " James Tuite and the king's people," giving the O'Higgins out of the prey a cow for every one that had been taken from them, and then escorting them to Coimaught. f The oppressive nature of co}ti and livery is thus explained in the preamble to the statute (not printed) of 10 Hen. VII., c. 4 : — " That of long there hath been used and exacted by the lords and gentlemen of tlus land, many and divers damnable customs and usages, which being called coyu and livery and pay — that is, horse to Ireland as lord justice at the close of 1414, and entered on the duties of his office with determined energy. Setting out on a martial circuit of the borders of the Pale, he first invaded the terri- tory of Leix, took two of O'More's castles, and laid waste the whole of his lands in so merciless a way, that tha^ chief was obliged to sue for peace, and to deliver up his son as a hostage. The hardest of his terms was, that O'More should fight under the English standard against his brother chieftains, as he was compelled to do immediately after against MacMahon of Oriel, who was likewise subdued and compelled to yield to similar terms ; so that it was said lord Furnival " obliged one Irish enemy to serve upon the other." These successes, achieved in the space of a few months, gained for him the approbation of the inhabitants of the Pale ; but as it was necessary to revive the exaction of coyn and liveiy to support the soldiery, the advantages were more than counter- balanced by the losses.f A. D. 1416. — No sooner had this meat and man's meat for the finding of their horsemen and footmen, and over that, 4d. or 6d. daily to every of them, to be had and paid of the poor earth-tillers and tenants, without any thing doing or paying therefor. Besides, many murders, robberies, rapes, and other manifold oppressions by the said horsemen and footmen daily and nightly committed and doje, which have been the principal causes of the desolation and destruc- tion of the said land, so as the most part of the EngUsh freeholders and tenants be departed out of the land." — Grace's Annals, p. 147, note ; Davis' Discovery, pp. 143, 144 ; also. Printed Statutes, 10 Hen. VII., cc. xvlii. and xix. The exactions of the Irish chiefs were remodelled after the English invasion, and soon became totally different from those set down in the Book of Rights. — Sec O'Donovan's Introduction to the Book ofRUjhts, p. xviii. DEATH OF ART MACMURROUGH. 291 formidable deputy departed to attend bis royal master in France, wliere lie became the most distinguislied of the English commandei'S, than the Irish again rose and made ample reprisals. O'Conor Faly took large spoils from the Pale's men ; and the invincible king of Leinster overran the English settlements in Wexford, killing or taking prisoners iu one day 340 men. The next day the English sued for peace and delivered hostages to him. This was the last exploit of Art MacMurrough Kavauagh. That Irish prince, the most illustrious of the ancient royal line to which he be- longed, died in 1417. Our native annals say "he nobly defended his own pro- vince aa;aiust the invaders from his sixteenth to his sixtieth year." He was distinguished for his hospitality and his patronage of learning, as well as for his chivalry, and was a munificent bene- factor of churches and religious houses. He is supposed to have been poisoned along with his chief brehon, O'Doran, by a drink administered to him by a woman at New Ross the week after Christmas, and was succeeded by his son Donough, who was worthy of his father's military fame. Two years after this, Donough was made prisoner by Richard Talbot, then lord deputy, and sent to London, where he was confined iu the Tower. A. D. 1421.— Murrough O'Conor, lord of Offaly, whom we have seen so often victorious over the English, died this * A small body x)f Irish troops, under the command of Thomas Butler, prior of Kilmaiiiham, attended king year, having assumed the habit of a grey friar a month before his death in the monastery of Killeigh, near Geashill. The same year the earl of Ormond, then lord deputy, defeated O'More in " the red bog of Athy," the historian. Campi- on, relating on this occasion the prodigy which Ware refers to a former one, namely, that the sun stood still to ac- commodate the victorious English ! Thus war was carried on with inveterate animosity on both sides ; but unfortun- ately it was not confined to the hostile races of Celt and Saxon, for during the whole of this time our annals teem with accounts of internecine quarrels among the Irish chiefs themselves in almost every part of the country.* A petition was' presented to parlia- ment in 1417, praying that as Ireland was divided into two nations, the Eng- lish subjects find the Irish enemies, no Irishman should be presented to any office or benefice in the church; and that no bishop, who was of the Irish nation, should, under pain of forfeiting his temporalities, collate any Irish cleric to a benefice ; moreover, that he should not be allowed to bring any Irish ser- Tant with him when he came to attend parliament or council. The prayer of this atrocious petition was granted ; and soon after we find an attempt made to carry out the principle iu a prosecution against Richard O'Hedian, archbishop of Cashel, who was distinguished for his zeal and bounty in promoting religion Henry V. in one of his French wars, and gained great eclat by their wild impetuosity and heroism in battle. 292 REIGN OF HENRY V. and fosteriuc: its establisliments, but who was now impeaclied for showing favor to Irishmen ; for giving no bene- fice to English ecclesiastics ; for advising other bishops to follow his example, and for some other trumpery charges ; but the matter does not appear to have been followed up. It is plain, that the only real cause of accusation against this prelate was the display of some kindness and generosity towards his persecuted countrymen. About the close of this reign, the Irish commons presented a petition to the king, complaining of several mon- strous grievances and abuses on the part of his ofiicers in Ireland. Among them Avere the cruelty, oppression, and extortion practised by several of the lord deputies, ^some of whom, like Sir John Stanley, and lord Furnival, in- curred enormous debts which they left unpaid. They complained also of the hostility shown to the Anglo-Irish in England, however loyal they might be as subjects, hostility which was carried so far as to exclude Irish law students from the Inns of Court in London, and to cause a variety of obstructions and annoyances to Irish students attending the English schools, although the sta- tutes concerning absentees contained an express exception in favor of studious persons. Thus were even those of Eng- lish descent made to feel daily more and more painfully the alien and unkind sen- timents with which every thing pertain- ing to Ireland was regarded in England. Many entries meet us in our searches through the Irish annals, which show that even in the dreary period that we have been just exploring, men were not always occupied with war and rapine. The magnificent Franciscan monastery of Quin, in Clare, was founded by Sheeda Cam MacNamara in 1402 ; and in 1420, James, earl of Desmond, erected the abbey of the same order at Eas Gephtine or Askeaton, where the noble ruins, washed by the tide of the Deel, still remind us of days when religion exulted in its pomp as well as in its fervor. Several of the Irish chiefs gave edifying evidence of repentance in their deaths ; and some of them assumed the religious habit, as Turlough, son of Ni- all Garv O'Donnell, lord of Tirconnell, who died in the monastery of Assaroe in 1422, causing his son, another Niall Garv, to be inaugurated in the chief- tainship. Gilla-na-neev O'Heerin, the author of a valuable Irish topographical poem, often quoted by our anticparies, died in 1420, and the obituaries of some other persons, distinguished for histor- ical knowledge, are mentioned under that and the following year, as David O'Duigennan, Farrell O'Daly, ollav of Corcomroe, and Gillareagh O'Clery of Tirconnell ACCESSION OF HENRY VI. 293 CHAPTER XXVIII. KEIGNS OF HENRY VI., EDWAED IV., EDWARD V., AND RICHARD HI. State of Ireland on the Accession of Henry VI. — Liberation of Donougli MacMurrough. — Incursions of Owen O'NeiU. — His Inauguration. — Famine. — The " Summer of slight acquaintance." — Distressing State of Discord. — Domestic War in England at this Period. — Dissensions in the Pale. — Complaints against the Earl of Ormond. — Proceedings of Lord Fumival. — Pestilence. — Devotedness of the Clergy. — The Duke of York in Ireland. — His Popularity. — Confesses his Inability to Subdue the Irish. — His Subsequent Fortunes and Death in England. — Irish Pilgrimages to Rome and St. James of Compostella. — Munificence of Margaret of Offaly. — ^Her Banquets to the Learned. — The Butlers and Geraldines take opposite sides in the English Wars. — Popular Government of the Earl of Desmond. — He is unjustly Executed. — Wretched Condition of the English Pale. — Fatal Feuds and Indifference of the Irish, and Contemporary Disorders in England. — Atrocious Laws against the Irish. Contemporary Sovereigns and £iients. — Popes: Evigenia.s IV., Calixtus III., Pius II., Paul III., Sixtus IV., Innocent VIII.— Kings of France : Charles VII., Louis XI., Charles VIII.— Kings of Scotland : the First, Second, and Third James. Joan of Arc Burned by the English as a Sorceress, 1434. — Constantinople taken by the Turks, 1453.— Printing Invented by Gutteuberg, 1440, and introduced into England by Caxton, 1471. — St. Thomas a Kempis died, 1471. (A. D. 1422 TO A. D. 1485.) HENRY VI. was proclaimed king of England while yet an infant, not quite nine months old ; and those who governed duiing his minority found the English colony in Ireland in a very precarious state at the time they entered on their duties. In 1423, Donnell O'Neill, chief of Tyrone ; his old com- petitor for the chieftaincy, Owen, son of Niall Oge O'Neill; Niall O'Donnell, chief of Tirconnell, and several other pi-inces of Ulster, laid aside their feuds for the moment in order to make a combined inroad on the English of that province. They marched first to Dun- dalk, thence to the town of Louth, and subsequently into Meath, where Richard Talbot, archbishop of Dublin, who then filled the office of lord deputy, attempted to arrest their progress, but in vain, his ai'my having been routed with consider- able loss. Finally, peace was made with the Irish after they had obtained enor- mous spoils, and levied a tribute or black rent on the wealthy bui'gesses of Dundalk. The following year James, earl of Ormond, came to Ireland as lord lieutenant with an English army, and mustering a strong force he hastened to avenge the colonists on the northern chieftains. He ravaged the plains of Armagh and part of Monaghan. The 294 REIGN OF HENRY VI. O'Neills of Clanuaboy, O'Haulon, and MacMahou were driven, either hj ne- cessity or private jealousj^, to fight on the English side, and the men of Tyrone and Tirconnell retired to their own ter- ritories. A. D. 1425. — Edward Mortimer, earl of March, having assumed the govern- ment of Ireland, landed here with a large army, according to the Irish an- nals, in September, 1424, but according to English authorities, in the preceding year. The year after his arrival he died of the plague at his residence in Trim ; and Talbot, lord Furnival, who suc- ceeded him in ofBce, came suddenly on a number of Ulster chieftains, who were negotiating peace with earl Mortimer at the time of his unexpected death. These chiefs were carried prisoners to Dublin, and their seizure produced the utmost excitement in the north. Owen O'Neill was ransomed, but how the other pris- oners eventually got off we are not told. The annals add that the Clann Neill then arranged their mutual differences, and recovered by their united force all the lands which they had lost in their contentions. A. D. 1428. — Donough MacMurrough, son of the celebrated Art MacMurroufrh Kavanagh, was this year liberated from the Tower, after an imprisonment of nine j^ears. The Ii'ish annals say he was ransomed by his people, the Irish of Leinster. On his return to Ireland he resumed the honors of his hereditary chieftaincy, and with its honoi's its chiv- alrous resistance to the English ; as we find that in 1431 he made an incursion into the county of Dublin, and that in a battle fought on that occasion he was victorious in the early part of the day, although in the evening the English rallied, regained the captured spoils, and killed many of his men. One of the O'Briens and two sons of O'Conor Kerry were in MacMurrough's army at the battle, and the O'Toole fell into the hands of the Ena;lish. MacMurrough took revenge the following year by an- other incursion, and a battle in which he routed the English and made several prisoners. A. D. 1430.— Owen O'Neill led an array this year into Louth and devas- tated the English settlements there. He burned the castles which defended Dun- dalk, and made the inhabitants of that town pay tribute. He then marched into Annaly and West Meath, spreading desolation wherever he went ; the Eng- lish were obliged to purchase mercy at a dear rate, and several Irish chiefs, as O'Conor Faly, O'Molloy, O'Madden, Mageoghegan, and O'Melaghlin, ac- knowledged him as their lord para- mount by the old form of accepting stipends from him. The history of the time is made up of such driftless hostil- ities, Avhich served only the purposes of personal revenge or plunder, and left the fate of the country untouched. On the death of Donnell O'Neill, of the Henry Avry branch, who was killed by the O'Kanes, in 1432, Owen O'Neill was regularly inaugurated at Tullaghoge as chief of the Kiuel-Owen. This year FEUDS AND ALLIANCES. 295 Manus MacMabon committed frequent depredations on the English, and was in the habit of placing their heads on the stakes which enclosed his garden at Baile-na-Lurgan, where the town of Car- rickmacross now stands. In 1433 the O'Neills and O'Donnells waged a terrific war against each other ; and to add to the misfortunes of the country, a famine prevailed ; so that the season was afterwards known as "the summer of slight acquaintance," from the selfish distance and reserve which the dearth created among friends. In 1434 the chiefs of Tyrone and Tir- connell once more combined to invade the English districts and to enforce the tribute which they had imposed on Dundalk ; but, on this occasion a I'ash movement on the part of some of the young O'Neills led to the loss of a battle and to the capture of Niall Garv O'Donnell, who was taken off to Eng- land and confined in the tower. ^ In 1439 this heroic chieftain was removed to the Isle of Man to negotiate for his ransom, but he died there, and, to the exclusion of his sons, his brother Nagh- tan O'Donnell was installed chief of Tirconnell. The feuds and alliances which alter- nated in such rapid succession among the Iiish chieftains appear to us, at this distance, to have been in the utmost degree capricious and uncertain; but the most melacholy feature in the social picture was the unprincipled competi- tion for the chieftaincy by which the ruling families in almost all the inde- pendent territories were torn into fac- tions. The old law of tanistry was perverted or trampled under foot by the ambitious. Brothers were arrayed against each other, and uncles and nephews were engaged in perpetual warfare. At the time we are treating of, Owen O'Neill, prince of Tyrone, had to defend himself against his kinsman Brian Oge O'Neill, and was ultimately banished by his own son Henry. A few years later (1452) Naghtan O'Don- nell was murdered at night by the two sons of his brother Niall Garv, whom he had disinherited. In 1437 the in- domitable O'Conor Faly had the morti- fication to see his brother Cahir leagued against him for a time with the English. Brian and Manus MacMahon contended for the chieftaincy of Oriel, and in the south, Tiege O'Brien, chief of Thoinond, was in 1438 deposed by his brother Mahon. In Connaught the insignifi- cance to which the leading septs had been reduced by their family divisions has rendered it unnecessary for us for some time past to notice their still uninterrupted broils. That such a state of things should have prevailed in Ire- land, where anarchy was rendei-ed in a manner inevitable by the conflicts of the hostile races and the absence of a controlling power, is perhaps not to be wondered at. But at this period Eng- land herself presented in the struggle between the houses of York and Lan- caster an example of the same kind of fiimily warfare, on a gigantic scale, and at an enormous sacrifice of human life. 296 REIGN OF HENRY VI. Nor was the English Pale at this time free from dissension. About the beginning of this reign a violent feud broke out between the earl of Ormond and the Talbots, and continued to disturb the country for many years. A parliament, held in Dublin, in 1441, actins under the influence of Richard Talbot, archbishop of Dublin, and brother of Lord Furnival, adopted certain statements or articles, the ob- ject of which was to prevent the re- appointment of the earl as lord-lieuten- ant. They prayed the king to appoint a " mighty lord of England" to the office, on ' the ground that the people would more readily favor and obey him than any man of Irish birth ; as Eng- lishmen "keep better justice, execute the laws, and favor more the common people than any Irishman ever did, or is ever likely to do." They urged that the earl of Ormond had lost all his castles, towns, and lordships in Ireland ; that he was too old and feeble to take the field against the king's enemies, and made sundry other charges to show his unfitness for the office.* These accusa- tions did not appear to weigh with king Henry, for the earl, who was a staunch supporter of the house of Lan- * Proceedings of the Privy Covmcil, vol. vi. f In tlie letters conferring these honors the country from Toughal to Waterford is described as waste, and redounding more to the king's loss than to his profit ; but the barony of Dungarvan was soon after restored to the earl of Desmond, from whom it had been taken on that occasion on some unexplained grounds. As an in- stance of the pretexts for which the petty wars of the period were sometimes carried on, we j,re told that the sou of Bermingham, lord of Louth, was, in 1443, offended caster, was re-appointed lord-lieutenant the next year. Sir Giles Thorndon was, however, sent over to observe how things were going on, and he made a report, although only in general terms, on the factions which distracted the king's subjects in Ireland. Two j^ears later (1444) he made a second report, in which the earl of Ormond was directly charged with misappropriating part of the public revenue, with com- promising crown debts for his own benefit, and with sundry acts of corrup- tion, j^eculation, &c. The earl was, upon this, arrested and confined in the tower on a charge of high treason, and Sir John Talbot, then earl of Shrews- bury, but better known to the reader as Lord Furnival, was made lord- lieutenant (1446), and soon after cre- ated earl of Waterford and baron of Dungarvan.-f- A. D. 1446. — The earl of Shrewsbury succeeded in establishing peace on the borders of the Pale. This remarkable man always achieved some important exploits on his appointment to the gov- ernment of Ireland. His fame was world-wide. The English boasted that he won for them the kingdom of France : and all the English power in at Trim by the son of Barnwell, treasurer of Meath, who gave him a caimin or filip on the nose. Enraged at the insult, yoimg Bermingham left the town privately and repaired to O'Conor Faly, who was only too happy to have one English party to aid him against another. A plundering foray ensued, and Bermingham obtained ample satisfaction, at the same time that Calvagh O'Conor secured his own dues from the English of Of- faly. " Never was such abuse better revenged," says Dudley Firbis, " than the said caimin." THE DUKE OF YORK IN IRELAND. 297 that country was unquestionably cen- tered in liim. Yet tliis great captain and extraordinary man was able to do no more on tLis occasion in Ireland, witli the aid of an army wliicli lie bad brought witb him from England, than to compel O'Conor Faly, an Irish chieftain in the very heart of Leinster, to make peace with the English gov- ernment, to pay for th% ransom of his sou, and to send some beeves for the use of the king's kitcl»eu ! A fact worth volumes in illdllrating the pre- cise extent of the English power in Ireland more than 270 years after the invasion by Henry II.* A. D. 1447. — Ireland was at this period seldom free from pestilence, but this year a destructive plague ra^ed in the summer and autumn, and carried off, it was said, 700 priests who had fearlessly exjDosed themselves to its fury in the discharge of their sacred duties.f The plague was also rife the following year m Meath. A. D. 1449.— The duke of York, who was nephew of the last earl of March, and inherited his right to the earldom of Ulster and other Irish titles, was appointed lord lieutenant for a period of ten years with extraordinary powers and privileges, and with a grant of money from England to carry on the * The Irisli annals add that the earl of Shiewsbury took the lands of several Englishmen for the king's use, and that he made the Dalton prisoner, and turned him into Lough Duff. — Dudley FirbWs Annals, quoted in note to Pour Masters, vol. iv., p. 951. f In this year an absurd law was passed by a parlia- ment held in Dublin, which enacted that any man who 38 government, in addition to the crown revenues of Ireland. ;}: The appoint- ment of a prince of the royal blood to the government of Ireland was always sure to be popular ; and in the case of the duke of York, the connection of his family with this country, and his own honest principles and aminble disposition, procured for him the sym- pathy and confidence of all parties in Ireland. Some of the native chiefs showed him the most marked respect, and gave him, say our annals, as many beeves for the use of his kitchen as he chose to demand. A. D. 1450. — The son of the chief MageoQ:he2:an was at this time com- mitting great depredations on the Eng- lish at Meath. He burnt Eathguaire, or Kathmore, Killucau, and .\;everal other j^laces in that territory, and at length the duke of York led an army against him, under the royal standard, to MuUingar, where Mageoghegan came at the head of a strong body of cavalry to oppose him. The duke chose not to risk a conflict, and agreed to terms ot peace, forgiving Mageoghegan for all his afr2;ressions. He then -wrote to his brother, the earl of Salisbury, to state that unless he received an imme- diate sujjply of money from England, and was enabled to increase his army. did not shave his upper lip might be treated as an " Irish enemy," and this law remained unrepealed until the second year of Charles I. X In 1443 the Irish parliament, representing to the king the miserable state of the country, alleged that the public revenues fell short of the necessary expend! ture by £1,45C 298 REIGN OF HENRY VI. he could not defend the land against the Irish, or keep it in subjection to the king; and that rather than Ireland should be lost through any fault or inability on his part, he would return to Eng- land and live on his own slender means. The main object of the English gov- ernment in sending the duke to Ireland, was to remove him to a distance from a scene where his presence was dangerous to the reigning house of Lancaster ; but the adherents of his party did not for- get him in what was intended to be his exile. In the insurrection of Jack Cade, who was an Irishman, one of the objects professed by the insurgents was to place Richard, duke of York, on the throne. The duke now (1451) thought it right to return to England and put himself at the head of his friends, having pre- viously appointed as his deputy the earl of Ormond, who although of the Lan- castrian party, was personally attached to him. It is not our business to follow him in his proceedings in England; but when his party was defeated and broken up for a time in 1459, he fled to Ireland with his two sons, and was received with enthusiasm in the Pale, resuming the functions of viceroy at the very time that an act of attainder was passed against him and his family by the English parliament. How he could remain at the head of the government of Ireland under such circumstances, is one of the anomalies of which our his- tory affords so many instances. Sub- sequently, through the energy of the earl of Warwick, who visited Ireland in the course of this war, the white rose of York was asrain in the ascendant. At the battle of Northampton, in 1460, king Henry was made prisoner, and a compromise was entered into which se- cured the succession, on the king's death, to the duke of York and his heirs ; the duke, in the mean time, being appointed protector ; but the queen contrived to rally her party once more, and in the battle of Wakefield, which was fought on the last day of the year 1460, York was killed, together with 3,000 of his followers, among whom were several Irish chiefs from Meath and Ulster. The events recorded in the Irish an- nals during the years over which we have just glanced, are, in many cases, full of interest, and serve to throw light upon the state of society. Several pil- grimaires to Rome are mentioned almost every year. In 1444 we are told, that the bishop of Elphin and many of the clergy of Connaught and of other parts of Ireland repaired to the eternal city, and that several of them died there. Pilgrimages to St. James of Compostella were also frequent among the Irish chieftains at that period, and even some of the Irish ladies accompanied their lords on that long journey. Calvagh O'Conor, the veteran chief of Offaly, went on the great Spanish pilgrimage in 1451, and in the same year is recorded the death of his wife, Margaret, daughter of O'Carroll, king of Ely, a woman in whose praises the Irish annalists are enthusiastic. Calvagh himself died in ACCESSIOX OF EDWARD IV. 299 1458, and was succeeded by his son, Con, who inherited his father's chivalry.* The Geraldines adhered to the house of York and the Butlers to that of Lan- caster, " whereby," says Sir John Davies, " it came to pass that not only the prin- cipal gentlemen of both those surnames, but all their friends and dependants did pass into England, leaving their lands and possessions to be overrun by the Irish."f In this manner the Pale became more and more restricted, until half of Dublin, half of Meath, and a third part of Kiklare were reckoned in the border territories, where the English law was not fully in force. A. D. 1462. — On the accession of Ed- ward IV., son of Richard, duke of York, to the throne, in 1461, the earl of Kil- dare was lord justice of Ireland. The king's brother, the duke of Clarence, * The literati of Ireland and Scotland were enter- tained by this Margaret at two memorable feasts. At the first, wliich was held at KiUeigh, in the present King's county, 2,700 guests, all skOled in poetry, or music, or historic lore, were present. The nave of the great church of Da SincheU (St. Seanchan) was con- verted, for the occasion, into a banquetting hall, where Margaret herself inaugurated the proceedings by placing two massive chalices of gold, as offerings, on the high altar, and committing two orphan children to the charge of nurses to be fostered at her erpense. Robed in cloth of gold, this illustrious lady, who was as distinguished for her beauty as for her generosity, sat in queenly state in one of the galleries of the church, surrounded by the clergy, the brehons, and her private friends, shedding a lustre on the scene which was passing below ; while her husband, who had often encountered England's greatest generals in battle, remained moxmted on a charger out- side the church to bid the guests welcome and see that order was preserved. The invitations were issued and the guests arranged according to a list prepared by O'Conor's chief brehon ; and the second entertainment, which took place at Rathangan, was a supplemental one, to embrace such men of learning as had not been was then appointed lord lieutenant, and FitzEustace, afterwards lord Portlester, was sent over as his deputy. He found Ireland plunged in a war between the young earl of Ormoud and the earl of Desmond. A pitched battle was fought between them at Baile-an-phoill, now Pilltown, in the county of Kilkenny, when the earl of Ormond's army was defeated with a loss of four or five hun- dred men. His kinsman, MacRichard Butler, was taken prisoner, and part of the ransom given for him was the copy of the Psalter of Cashel now preserved in the Bodleian library. J After the battle the Geraldines took Kilkenny and other towns of the Butlers' country; but the earl of Ormond shut himself up in a strong position, and soon after re- ceived some aid from England, under one of his brothers, who captured four brought together at the former feast. Dudley FirUs'a Annals, quoted in note to Four Masters, vol. iv., p. 972. This queen of Offaly is also celebrated for constructing roads and bridges, building churches, and causing illuminated missals to be written. Her daughter, Finola, took the veil in the convent of CiU-Achaidh (Killeigh, in the King's county), in 1447, after having been the wife, first of O'Donnell, and then of Hugh Boy O'Neill. She was, say the annalists, "the most beautiful and stately, and the most renowned and illustrious woman of her time in all Ireland, her own mother only ex- cepted." f Dkcmery, &c., p. 65. J The following memorandimi, made in Irish by Mac- Richard himself, appears as fol. 115 of the above-men- tioned interesting MS. "A blessing on the soul of the archbishop of Cashel, i. e. Richard O'Hedigan, for it was by him the owner of this book was educated, namely, Edmond, son of Richard, son of James, son of James (the first earl of Ormond). This is the Sunday before Christmas, and let all those who shall read this give a blessing on the souls of both." Tlie archbishop here alluded to is the same mentioned, ante, p. 291. Mac- Richard Butler died in 1664. S'OO REIGN OF EDWARD lY. ships belonging to the eaii of Desmond, and tlius tbe power and courage of tlie Butlei-3 once more revived. Thomas, who had succeeded as eighth earl of Desmond, on the death of his fother, James,* in 1462, and was ap- pointed lord deputy the following year, was a great favorite of king Edward's. Several of the Irish chieftains, and such Anglo-Irish lords as the Burkes, who seldom had any intercourse with the English authorities, came to Dublin to meet him, and entered into friendly relations with him. In 1466 he com- manded an army of the English of Meath and Leinster against Con O'Conor Faly ; but his army was routed, and he him- self, with several of his leading men, were taken prisoners. Among these were Christopher Plunket, William Oge Nugent, Barnwell, and the prior of the monastery of our Lady of Trim. Teige O'Conor, who Avas the earl's brother-in- law, conveyed the captives to Carberry castle, in Kildare, where they were sub- sequently rescued by the English of * TMa James, who increased enonnously the wealth and power of his family, obtained the earldom by the expulsion of his nephew, Thomas, the sixth earl, who incurred the displeasure of his friends and retainers by a romantic marriage. It appears that earl Thomas, being benighted while hunting in the neighborhood of Abbeyfeale, obtained a lodging ia the house of WUliam MacCormic, the owner of that place and a member of the ancient family of MacCarthy. MacCormic had a daughter, Catherine, with whose beauty the young earl was so captivated that he married her in spite of the remonstrance of his friends ; but this union was treated as derogatory to the honor of the Geraldines ; he was abandoned even by his retainers, and having been thrice expelled by his uncle, he formally surrendered the earldom to him, in 1418, and retired to France, where he died at Rouen, in 1420. Such is the story Dublin. Plundering parties from Offaly were now in the habit of scouring the country as far as Tara to the north and Naas to the south ; and the men of Breffuy and Oriel devastated all Meath, without any attempt on the part of the English to oppose or pursue them. In the south, Teige O'Brien, lord of Tho- moud, crossed the Shannon and plun- dered the territory of Desmond. He made himself master of the county of Limerick, obtained a tribute of sixty marks from the citizens of Limerick for sparing their city, and compelled the Burkes of Clanwilliamf to acknowledge his authority. A college, which was afterwards mu- nificently endowed by his successors, was founded, at Youghal, in 1464, by the earl of Desmond, who next set on foot a project for establishing an uni- versity at Drogheda. But, while thus intent on the social improvement of the country, and acquiring deserved popu- larity for himself, the career of this nobleman Avas cut short by a foul act of given by Lodge and traditionally preserved ; but 0"Daly (p. 3G of the Rev. Mr. Meehan's translation) assigns rebellion as the cause of earl Thomas's expulsion. James then procured the confirmation of the earldom to himself and his heirs by act of parliament. He pur- chased from Robert FitzGeoffry Cogan a grant of all his lands, comprising about half the kingdom of Cork, as that part of ancient Desmond was then called ; and in 1444 he obtained a patent for the government or custody of the counties of Limerick, Waterford, Cork, and Kerry, with a license exempting him for life from attending parliament in person, and from entering walled towns. — Four Masters ; Cox; Archdall's Lodge, kc. f Tlie baronies of Clanwilliam in the counties of Limerick and Tipperary are contiguous, and take their name from a branch of the Burke family. CONDITION OF THE ENGLISH PALE. 301 legalized innrder. It is stated that be incurred tlie enmity of the queen, Eliza- beth TVoodville, for having advised Edward IV. to divorce her, on account of the loM'ness of her birth, and that it was by secret instructions from her that he was put to death.* The story is very probable ; but it is at all events certain that in 1467 he was superseded in office b}' John Tiptoft, earl of Worcester, and that in the February of the following year he was seized and beheaded at Drogheda, on the flimsy charge of alli- ance, fostering, etc., with the Irish.f This monstrous crime, committed in the name of authority, astounded the coun- try, and the earl's sons took up arms against the government. Tiptoft re- turned to Euo'land soon after, as if he had fulfilled a specific mission ; and the earl of Kildare, who had been included with the earl of Desmond in the act of attainder, made his escape to England, and pleaded his cause before the king, who pardoned him, and appointed him lord deputy. Tiptoft soon after suffered by the same kind of death which he had inflicted on Desmond. During the remainder of the reign ot Edward IV. and those of his nominal successor, Edward V., and of the usur- per, Eichax'd III., our annals still abound in materials, although the numerous * See the Rev. C. P. Meelians translation of O'Daly's Geraldines, in Duify's Library of Ireland, where the story is circumstantially related, pp. 39, 40. Also Cox and Hollinshead. Mr. Moore, however, holds, "that by no other crimes than those of being too Irish and too popular did Desmond draw upon himself persecution." — Hist, of Ireland, vol. iii., p. 189. events recorded in them at this time form no connecting links of importance in the chain of our history. The Eng- lish power in the Pale was reduced to its lowest point of weakness. Sundry plans for defence were suggested in the wretched condition into which the colo- nists had fallen. A military society oi' confraternity, under the name of the Brothers of St. George, was got up ; but the whole of the standing army of the English in Ireland, even with their assistance, amounted only to about 200 men. At another time they ^veI•e re- duced to so low an ebb that a force of eighty archers on horseback and forty mounted spearsmeu constituted the whole of their military establishment ; and as it was doubtful whether the revenue of the Pale could furnish the sum of £600, necessary for the main- tenance of this little band, it was pro- vided that England should contribute the balance. Yet the native Irish never thought of using such an opportunity for a national purpose. They made several inroads on the English settle- ments, which were completely at their mercy ; but the animosity with which the Irish septs fought against each other was fully equal to what they exhibited against the Clann Saxon, who were, in fact, treated as a portion of the original f Ware and several others give Feb. loth, 14G7, as the date of the earl's execution ; but it was only in Oc- tober that year that Tiptoft came to Ireland. (See Harris's Table.) The Four Masters, and the Addenda to Grace's Annal.s, have the date 147S, being the na- tural year, the other the legal. The latter then began in March. 302 ATROCIOUS LAWS. population of the countiy. The Irish had no leader, no lallying jDoint, no national principle. They were still in a state of j)olitical chaos ; but things were at this time not much Isetter in England, where, two kings alternately exchanged places on the throne and in the dungeon, parliaments were making contradictory enactments with servile pliability, the heads of princes and nobles were daily falling under the executioner's axe, and Avhere in the space of thirty years, in the family- quarrel of the houses of York and Lan- caster, more than 100,000 Englishmen ■were slain. By a law passed in the tenth 5^ear of Heniy VI., it was made a felony for any subject of the king to sell merchan- dise in a ftiir or market among the " Irish enemies," in time either of peace or wai- ; it was also enacted that anj' of the " Irish enemies," that is, Irish living beyond the bounds of the Pale, who, in time of peace or truce, came and con- versed among the " English lieges" might be treated as the king's enemies. By a law of the fifth of Edward IV. * " From Tarious licenses for absence, to avoid the penalties against absentees, granted to beneficed clergy- men in the reigns of Richard II., and the subsequent kings, it appears that the English universities, and more particularly Oxford, were much resorted to by Irish scholars. (In 1375 two Franciscans of Ennis were sent by the chapter to study at Strasbourg. — Rot. Pat. 49, Ed. III., 273)." Grace's annals, p. 97, note. Some mag- nificent monasteries founded about this period by Irish prtaces, attest the wealth as well as the piety of the (a. d. 1465), any Irishman found with- out a "faithfull man of good name in his company, in English apparel," and whom an Englishman should choose to suspect of being a thief, or an " intend- ed" thief, might be lawfully killed and his head cut off. And a parliament held in 1475 enacted a law by which any Englishman who suffered injury from a native Irishman belonsinfr to an independent sept, might repi-ise himself on the whole sept or nation. These infamous laws were directed against the native Irish ; but there were others of which the Anglo-Ii-ish might bitterly complain. Thus, in 1438, a law was made in England obliging all persons born in Ireland to quit the former country within a certain time, except graduates of universities,* &c.; while another statute was made in Ireland to prevent persons from emigrating into England. Thus did the legislature ingeniously labor to pei-pctuate hostility between the two races, while even the old English settlers were made to feel that they were under an alien sway. native population. Thus, the Franciscan monastery of Monhagan was founded by the MacMahons of Oriel, in 14C3 ; that of Lis-laichtain, or Ballylongford, on the lower Shannon, by O'Conor, Kerry, in 1470 ; that of Donegal by Hugh Roe O'Donuell, in 1474 ; that of Mee- lick, by O'SIadden, in 1479 ; that of Killcrea in East Muskerry, by Cormac MacCarthy, in 1495; and that of Creevlea in Leitrim, by Owen O'Rourke and his wife, in 1508. ACCESSION OF HENRY VII. 303 CHAPTER XXIX. EEIGN OF HENRY VII. Forbearance of Henry VII. towards the Yorkists in Ireland. — The Earl of Kildare continues Lord Deputy. — Arri- val of Lambert Simnel. — His Cause Espoused by the Lords of the Pale. — Coronation of Simnel in Christ's Church. — His Expedition to England. — Defeat of Simnel's Army at Stoke. — Pardon of his Adherents. — Loy- alty of Waterford. — First use of Fire-arms in Ireland. — Murder of the Earl of Desmond. — Arrival of Sir Richard Edgecomb. — Another Mock Prince. — Disgrace of the Earl of Kildare. — His Quarrel with Sir James Ormond. — Perkin Warbeck at Cork. — Sir Edward Poynings Arrives In Ireland as Governor. — The Parliament of Drogheda ; Poyings' Act. — The Earl of Kildare Attainted and sent Prisoner to England. — His Vindication before Henry VII. — Returns as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. — Further Adventures of Warbeck. — His last Visit to Ireland. — His Execution. — Transactions of the Native Princes during this period. — The battle of Knocktow.— Death of Hugh Roe O'Neill. Contemporary Sovereigns and Events. — Popes: Innocent VIIT., Alexander VI., Pius III., Julius 11. — Kings of France ; Cliarles VIII., Louis XII. — Sovereigns of Soaiu: Ferdinand and Isabella. — Kings of Scotland: James III., James IV. — DiBOovery of America by Columbus, 1492. (A. D. 1485 TO A. D. 1509.) /^N the accession of Henry VH., ^-^ Gerald, earl of Kildare, was con- tinued in the office of lord deputy, as his brother, Thomas FitzGerald, was in that of chancellor, and his father-in-law, Roland FitzEustace, baron of Portlester, in that of lord treasurer, although these noblemen, like the great majority of the population of the Pale, were avowed pai-tisans of the House of York. * Thi'oughout hia reign we find Henry pursuing this temporizing policy to- wards the enemies of his house in Ireland — a policy so difterent from that which he adopted in England, and * The king's uncle, the duke of Bedford, was ap- pointed lord lieutenant of Ireland in the room of the which his cold, calculating, and politic character forbids us to attribute to mo- tives of a generous nature. The result proved that his usual sagacity failed him in this instance, as his Anglo-Irish subjects were not the less disaffected, and were the willing dupes of every plot contrived against him. At first he introduced none of the Lancastrian party into his Irish councils ; but, in November, 1485, the head of this party in Ireland, Thomas Butler, seventh earl of Ormond, who had been attainted under Edward IV., was restored to his honors and lands, and subsequently earl of Lincoln ; but in such a case the lord deputy, who resided in the country, was the actual governor of Ireland. 304 REIGN or HENRY VII. rendered important services to Henry as a diplomatist and general.* A. D. 148G. — A contemporary Irish clirouicler,f recording the accession of this first of the Tudors, says : " The son of a Welshman, Ly whom the battle (of Bosworth field) was fought, was made king ; and there lived not of the royal blood at that time but one youth, who came the next year (l-iS6) in exile to Ireland." So thought the native Irish writers, who were but imjjerfectly informed on the aftairs of the Pale, and who believed the youth here referred to, namelj^, Lambert Simnel, the mock earl of \Yarwick, to have been a genu- ine prince. Young Simnel, the son of a tradesman at Oxford, arrived in Dub- lin this year, in charge of a priest, named Kichard Symons, who acted as his tutor. He is described as a boy of l^repossessing appearance and princely manners ; and according to some ac- counts he was only eleven years of age, although the prince he was chosen to personate, and who was then a prisoner in the Tower, was in his fifteenth year. Henry had before this some suspicion that the lord deputy was jDlotting against him ; and early this year he in- * Tliomas Butler, the seventh earl, was the youngest brother of James, the fifth earl, who was a distinguished commander of the Lancastrians, and was beheaded by the Yorkists after the battle of Towton field, in 1401. The second brother, Jolm, was sixth earl, and although true to the principles of his party, was in favor with the Yorkist king, Edward IV., who used to say that "he was the goodliest knight he ever beheld, and the finest gentleman in Christendom." He spoke all the langua- ges of Europe ; was sent as ambassador to several courts, and died unmarried, on a pilgrimage in the vited him to England on the pretence of consulting him on Irish affairs; but Elildare mistrusted the king's object, and as an apology for not complying with the royal summons, called a par- liament and obtained from the chief lords letters which he transmitted to the king, importing that his presence was indispensable at that juncture in Ireland. The next moment we find the earl receiving young Simnel as a true prince, and embarking in his cause. His example was almost uni- versally followed by the inhabitants of the Pale, who still cherished the mem- ory of the popular favorite, Ilichard, duke of York. In vain did Henry exhibit the real earl of Warwick to the gaze of the citizens of London. These were convinced ; but the Anglo-Irish were not yet undeceived, and insisted that the person whom Henry had put forward was the counterfeit, and theirs the genuine prince. Octavianus de Palatio,:}: archbishop of Armagh, saw through the Simnel imposture, and endeavored, but in vain, to expose it. The bishop of Clogher, the fomilies of Butler and St. Laurence, and the citi- zens of Waterford, also remained faith- Holy Land in 1478. The tliird, or youngest brother, Thomas, mentioned above, was ambassador to the courts of France and Burgundy, and died in 1515, the most wealthy subject of the crown of England. He left no sons, and his second daughter, Margaret, was the mother of Sir Thomas Boloyn, father of the famous Anne Boleyn. f Cathal Macilanus JIaguire, canon of Armagh and dean of Clsgher, the original compiler of the Annals of Ulster, who died in 1498. J He is also caUed Octavianus Italicus, and was a native of Korence. la:mbert simxel. 305 ful to tbe king. Margaret, ducliess of Burgundy, sister of Edward IV., was supposed to be the chief contriver of tlje scheme ; and lords Lovell and Liu- coha, the latter a nephew of the late king, arrived from her court in. Ireland, in 14S7, with an army of 2,000 Ger- mans, enlisted in SimneFs cause, nnder the command of a veteran soldier, named Martin Schwartz. Simnel was then solemnly crowned in Christ's Church on "Whitsunday, with the title of Edward VI., in the presence of the lord deputy, the chancellor, the treasu- rer, the earl of Lincoln, lord Lovell, and many of the chief men of the king- dom, as well ecclesiastical as secular. The diadem used in the ceremony is said to have been taken from a statue of the Blessed Virgin, in the church of Sainte Marie del Dam ;"' and the mock king was then carried in triumph from Christ's church to Dublin castle on the shoulders of a gigantic Anglo-Irish- man, popularly called Great Darcy of Flatten. Simnel was next conveyed to Eng- land, Avhere he landed on the coast of Lancashire with an army composed of some Anglo-Irish and of the Germans already mentioned. Here they were joined by Sir Thomas Broughton with a small force, but in their march through Yorkshire the aid which they expected * For tbe identification of the name of this church, situated near Dame's-gate, see Gilbert's History of Dub- lin, vol. ii., pp. 1 and 256. ■)• It was on this occasion that tlie title of Urhs intacta was conferred by Henry on Waterford. A contemporary metrical version, or rather amplification of the letter 39 did not appear; and in a desperate battle at Stoke, in ISTottinghamshire, thej' were utterly routed by the van- guard of king Henry's army. Simnel's army consisted of only 8,000 men, of whom 4,000 were slain, with all the leaders, including the earl of Lincoln, lords Thomas and Maurice FitzGerald, Sir Thomas Broughton, and Schwartz. Simnel himself and Kichard Symous were made prisoners and dealt with rather mercifully ; for while the latter was consigned to perpetual imprison- ment, the youthful tool of the conspira- tors w^as only condemned to act as turnspit in the king's kitchen, and was subsequently j^romoted to the rank of falconer. The earl of Kildare and other Anglo-Irish lords involved in the mad scheme, but who did not accompany Simnel to England, sent messengers to ci'ave the king's jDardon, and Henry seems to have contented himself for that time by sending them a sharp rep- rimand. He was unwilling to dispense with the earl's services, or drive him into determined hostility, so he retained him in his office of lord deputy. To the citizens of "Waterford Henry wrote commending their loyalty, and giving them leave to seize for the use of their city the ships and merchandise of the rebel citizens of Dublin ;f and when the latter applied iu abject terms for addressed by tbe mayor of Waterford, in the name of tbe citizens, in reply to tbe summons received from the earl of Kildare, to recognize the mock king, Simnel, is published from a MS. in tbe State-paper Office, in Cro- ker's " Popular Songs of Ireland." 306 REIGN OF HENRY VII. forgiveness, and endeavored to excul- pate themselves by throwing the blame of their ridiculous revolt on the earl of Kildare, Henry does not appear to have noticed their communication. The first mention of fire-arms in the Irish annals occurs in the year 1487, when one Brian O'Rourke was slain by Hugh O'Donnell, surnamed Gallda, or the Anglicized, "with a ball from a gun ;" and the followiug year cannon make their appearance, the earl of Kil- dare having, in an incursion into Mage- oghegau's territory, demolished the castle of Balrath (Bile-ratha), in the present barony of Moj'cashel, in West Meath, with ordnance. James, the ninth earl of Desmond, was murdered in his castle, at Rathkeale, in 1487, by nis own attendants, at the instiaratiou, as the Irish annals say, of his brother John, who, as well as the others impli- cated in the murder, was banished by his brother Maurice, who succeeded to the earldom. The new earl was nick- named " baccagh," or the lame, but his martial career soon caused this epithet to be changed into that of " warlike," as he was engaged in constant wars with his Irish neighbors, although it was necessary to carry him to the bat- tlefield in a litter. A. D. 1488. — Sir Richard Edgecomb now came on a special commission from king Henry, to exact new oaths of alle- giance from the lords and others, and to fix the conditions on which the king's pardon was to be granted to them. He was attended by a guard of 500 men. conveyed in four ships, and landed at Kinsale on the 27th of June, where he received the homage of lords Barry and Courcey, and administered the oath of fidelity to the inhabitants. At Water- ford, where he next arrived, Sir Richard was received with great honor by the citizens, who urgently entreated that if the earl of Kildare were asrain to be invested with authority, their city, to which for its loyalty he was always hostile, might be exempted from his jurisdiction, and from that " of all othei Irish lords who should ever bear any rule in that laud ; and might hold im- mediately of the king, or of such Eng- lish lords as shall fortune hereafter to have rule in Ireland." The commissioner next proceeded to Dublin, and took up his lodgings in the convent of the Friars Preachers. He was informed that the earl of Kildare was absent on a pil- grimage, and his first interview with that nobleman did not take place until seven days after, in St. Thomas's abbey, Thomas-court, when the commissioner read the king's letters to him and intro- duced the object of his mission. This parley did not end satisfactorily, and the earl retired to his house at May- nooth, Avhere Sir Richard was subse- quently induced to visit him, and was splendidly entertained. But the polite- ness and hospitality shown to him did not prevent the commissioner from re- monsti-ating against the delays which took place, and the obstacles thrown in the way of an arrangement. He used strong and threatening words, but the PERKIN WARBECK. 30( lords of the Pale, on tlieir side, told bim, at one of their interviews, that sooner than submit to the terms he proposed they would join the Irish. At len2:th there was an amicable settle- meut. The earl did homage before the commissioner in the great chamber of St. Thomas's abbey. He was then ab- solved from the excommunication which he had incurred by his rebellion ; and during the celebration of mass in a pri- vate chapel of the abbey, he took the oath of allegiance on the Most Holy Sacrament. The bishops and nobles who were implicated with him in the late revolt took the same oath. Sir Richard then suspended round the earl's neck a gold chain which the king had sent him ; and all jjroceeded from the private chapel to the church of the ab- bey, where a Te Deum was chanted by the choir.* "With great difficulty the commissioner was subsequently induced to grant the royal pardon to Thomas Plunket, chief justice of the Common Pleas, who had been one of the most active of Simnel's partisans ; but no solicitation could induce him to extend the amnesty to Keating, the refractory prior of the knights of St. John of Kil- mainham, who had committed innumer- able frauds and outrages, had expelled and imprisoned Marmaduke Lomley, the lawful prior, and continued to usurp that dignity, as well as the office of con- stable, or governor of Dublin castle. * See the Diary of Sir Richard Edgecomb's Voyage into Ireland, publislied in Harris's HUierniea. Sir Richard sailed from Dalkey on the 30th of July. The following year Kildare and several other Anglo-Irish lords waited on the king at Greenwich, in obedience to a royal summons ; and at a banquet to which Henry invited them they were attended at table by their late idol, Lambert Simnel, who was taken for that occasion from his duties in the kitchen. A. D. 1492. — After what had so re- cently passed, it is hard to imagine how sane men could have allowed themselves to be duped by another plot of a mock prince ; yet the intriguing duchess of Burgundy tried the experiment once more, and with some success. On this occasion she selected a boy named Peter Osbeck, but commonly called Perkin Warbeck, a native of Tournay, in Flan- ders, and had him trained to represent Richard, duke of York, one of the two young princes, sons of Edward IV., who were murdered by Richard HI. in the tower. He was sent into Portugal in 1490 to await a favorable opportunity for introduction to the public, and this occasion seemed to present itself in 1492. The king, urged by some suspicions which appear to have been groundless, had deprived Kildare of the office of deputy, and serious disturbances had followed in the Pale. Sir James Butler, or Ormond, as he is called in the annals, natural son of John, earl of Ormond, who died in Jerusalem on a pilgrimage in 1478, came to Ireland about this time, after a long absence, and by the aid of the O'Briens, the Mac Williams of Clanricard, and others, endeavored 508 REIGN OF HENRY VII. to get himself acknowledged head of the Butlers, while his uncle, Thomas, earl of Ormond, was on diplomatic ser- vice for the king in France. This illeral conduct did not prevent king Henry from appointing Sir James lord treasurer of Ireland, in the room of FitzEustace, while Walter Fitzsimons, archbishop of Dublin, was appointed lord deputy. The earl of Kildare did not submit peaceably to the indignity to which, through the medium of Sir James Or- mond, he was subjected; and, in some tumults which ensued, he burned Sheep- street, now called Ship-street, which ad- joined the castle of Dublin, but was then outside the city walls. He also withdrew his protection from the Eng- lish of Meath, who had refused to take part in his quarrel, and the spoliation of their ten-itory in every direction, by the Irish, was the consequence. At this juncture, when England was besides involved in a war with France, young Warbeck made his appearance at Cork, where he arrived in a merchant vessel from Lisbon, and announced him- self as Eichard, duke of York. He was well received by the citizens, and John Water, or Walters, a I'espectable mer- chant wlio had been mayor of the city, warmly espoused his cause, which soon after excited great enthusiasm on an invitation being received by Warbeck from the king of France to visit his court. At the French court Warbeck was received with royal honors, but this demonstration was speedily followed by the result which it was intended to pro- duce, namely, a peace with Henry ; and the imjiostor retired to Flanders, where the duchess of Burgundy welcomed him as her nephew, and called him " the White Rose of England." A. D. 1493. — Tow'ards the close of this year Sir Robert Preston, first viscount Gormaustown, was made lord deputy in the absence of the archbishop of Dublin, who was sent for by the king to give him an account of the state of Ireland. Sir James Ormond also re- paired to England, and the earl of Kil- dare, fearing the machinations of such enemies, hastened thither, but did not on that occasion succeed in vindicatinsr himself from the charges made asraiust him. A. D. 1494. — Alarmed at the state of things in Ireland, Henry now sent over Sir Edward Poynings, a knight of the garter and privy councillor, to under- take the government. Sir Edward was accompa-nied by some eminent English lawyers to act as his council, and brought with him a force of 1,000 men. Deter- mined in the fii-st instance to extirpate the abettors of Warbeck, the leaders of whom it was ucdei-stood had fled to Ulster, he marched with a large army to the north ; the earl of Kildare, not- withstanding his equivocal position towards government, being invited to accompany him. ISTot long before this, in an inroad by Hugh Og-? MacMahon and John O'Reilly, sixty English gentle- men had been killed and many taken prisoners ; but on the deputy's approach the Irish chiefs retired to their fiistness- POYNIXGS' ACT. 309 es, and fiudiug uo enemy to fight with he laid waste their lauds. A report was then spread that the earl of Kildare was conspiring with O'Hanlou to cut off the English lord deputy, and news arrived that the earl's brother had risen in re- bellion and captured the castle of Car- low. Under these circumstances Sir Edward made peace on any terms with O'Hanlou and Magennis, into whose territory he had entered, and returning to the south, recovered the possession of Carlow castle after a sie^'e of ten days. In the month of November this year was held at Drofrheda the memorable l")arliament, at which the statute, called after the lord deputy, Poynings' law, was passed. By this parliament it was enacted that all the statutes lately made in England affecting the public weal should be good and effectual in Irelaud ; the odious statutes of Kilkenny were confirmed, with the exception of that which prohibited the use of the Irish language, which had at that time be- come the prevailing language even of the Pale; laws were framed for the defence of the marches ; it was made a felony to permit " enemies or rebels" to pass through those border lands; the general use of bows and arrows was enjoined, and the war cries which some * See tlie Irisli and Anglo-Irisli War cries, explained in Harris's "Ware, ii. 163 ; and O'Donovan's Wsli Gram- mar, p. 327. They -n-ere cliiefly composed of the ex- clamation of defiance, abu ! or aho ! and the name, or crest of the family, or place of residence, as Lamh- dearg-abu! the O'Neill's war cry, from their crest of the Ked-hand ; ZamMaider-abu ! that of the O'Briens, of the great English families had adopted in imitation of the Irish were strictly forbidden.* The old law, called the statute of Henry FitzErapress (Heniy II.), which enabled the council to elect a lord deputy on the office becoming suddenly vacant by death, was repealed, and it was enacted that the government should in such a case be entrusted to the lord treasurer, uutil a successor could be appointed by the king. But the particular statute known as Poyn- ings' act was one which provided that henceforth no parliament should be held in Irelaud until the chief governor and council had first certified to the king, under the great seal, " as well the causes and considerations, as the acts they de- signed to pass, and till the same should be approved by the king and council." This act virtually made the Irish par- liament a nullity ; and when, in after times, it came to aftect, not merely the English Pale, for which it was originally framed, but the whole of Ireland when brought under English law, it was felt to be one of the most intolerable griev- ances under which this country suffered. A. D. 1-496.— Sir Edward Poynings' parliament passed an act of attainder against the earl of Kildare, his brother James, and other members of his fam- ily. The charges against the earl MacCarthys, and FitzMaurices, from the crest of the Eight^arm {LamJUaider, the "strong hand"), issuing from a cloud ; the war cry of the Geraldines of Kil- dare, Cromadh-abu ! from Croom castle in Limerick, and that of the Desmond Geraldines, Scanaid-abu ! from their strong castle of Shannid, in the sama county, &c. 310 REIGN OF HENRY VII. appear to have been grounded on mei-e suspicion, l)ut lie was sent to England, and detained there a prisoner; and liis countess, it is said, was so deeply af- fected b)^ the event that she died of grief. At length an opportunity was afforded him to plead his cause before the king, and the frankness and sim- plicity of his manner at once convinced that astute observer of character that he could not have been the jwlitical in- triguer which his accusers pretended. One of the charges against him was, that he had sacrilegiously burned the church of Cashel ; but to this the earl bluntly replied, that he never would have done so " had he not been told that the archbishop was in it." This novel defence amused the king; and by-and-by, when the counsel against Kildare wound up his charge by vehe- mently protesting that " not all Ireland could govern this man," Henry ob- served, " then he is the fittest man to govern all Ireland." Thus the earl triumjihed ; and the chieftain, O'Hau- lon, having come forward to clear him upon oath of the charge of conspiring with him against the English lord deputy, Kildare was not only fully pardoned and restored to his honors and estates, but by letters patent Avas made lord lieutenant of Ireland, and returned home with greater powers * The accounts of these movements are obscure, but it would appear that Warbeck in 1495 visited Ireland vrith eleven ships supplied by the archduke ; that by the aid of the earl of Desmond an undisciplined array was raised for liim in Ireland ; that ho then laid siege to W'aterfoid, and that the citizens, on the approach of than he had ever before possessed ; his eldest son, Gerald, being, however, re- tained as a hostage. A. D. I't97. — To retui-n to the im- postor Warbeck, he was obliged in 1495 to leave Flanders on the conclu- sion of a treaty between that country and England. He then returned to his former friends in Cork, but not seeing an encouraging prospect there,* he went to Scotland, where he was introduced at the court of James IV. on the recom- mendation of the duchess of Burgundy, with all the honors due to his assumed rank. He even obtained in marriage the hand of Catherine Gordon, a lady remarkable for her beauty, and related to the royal family, being the daughter of the earl of Huntley, and granddaugh- ter of James I. Again, however, he was driven from his asylum, James and Henry having agreed to a treaty ; but the Scottish king generously furnished him wdth a ship to take himself and his wife away, and also a small party of armed men ; and once more the ad- venturer was landed at Cork. Here he found no further support, and availing himself of an invitation from Cornwall, he proceeded thither with his wife, four Waterford ships sailing in pursuit of the fugitives. Further than this it is unne- cessary for us to trace the impostor's for- tunes, except to state that he closed his the lord deputy to their assistance, sallied forth and compelled Warbeck to raise the siege, three cf his ships being captured by the townspeople, and he himself forced to return to Cork. "Former historians," says Mr. Wright, " have erroneously placed this siege under the year 1497." Hist, of Ireland, vol. i., p. 300. FEUDS OF THE NATIVE CHIEFS. 311 career at Tyburn, in 1499, the infatuated John Water, mayor of Cork, sharing his fate on the scaflfold.* We have pursued the course of events in the Pale without turning aside to those in which the native Irish were exclusive]}^ engaged. These latter car- ried on their mutual wars as usual without seemino; to resrard the English as a common enemy. A great war broke out in 1491 between Con O'Neill and Hugh Koe O'Donuell. In 1493 Tyrone was laid waste by a contest for the succession amono; the O'Neills themselves ; and in a sanguinary battle at Glasdrummoud Con O'Neill tri- umphed over his opponent, Donnell O'Neill. Hugh Roe O'Donnell then mustered a large army in Tirconnell and Connaught, marched into Tyrone, and after a furious battle with Henry Oge O'Neill, at Beauna Boirche, in the Mourne mountains, returned home vic- torious. In 1495, O'Donnell went on a visit to the king of Scotland, and was received with great honors. In the Scottish accounts he is called the Great O'Donnell ;f but nothing certain is known of the object of his visit. On his return he defeated the O'Couors at Sligo, but raised the siege of that town on the approach of Mac William (Burke) of Clanricard. In 1497, provoked by the dissensions between his sous, Husfh * It is Tvortliy of remark tliat tlie Four Masters make no mention wliatever of either Simuel or Warbeck, or of any proceedings relating to them. t Tytler, Hist. Scot., vol. iv., c. 3. J The Cathach (Preliator), the metallic reliquary or bos, in which a portion of the Psalms of David, tran- Roe resigned the lord.ship of Tirconnell, which was then assumed by his son Con ; but his second son, Hugh Oge, would not consent to this arrangement, and got some of the Burkes to assist him with a fleet. Con was defeated in battle, but two days after he succeeded iu ca])turing his brother Hugh, and sent him to be confined in the castle of Conraaicne Guile, iu Connaught. Con now invaded Moylui-g, but was de- feated with terrible slaughter by Mac- Dermot, iu the Pass of Ballaghboy, in the Curlieu mountains ; the famous Ca- thach, Avhich the O'Donnells always carried before them into battle, being among the spoils which he lost on that occasion.;}; Con's misfortunes did not terminate here. Henry Oge O'Neill judged the opportunity a favorable one to avenge the defeat he recently received from Hugh Roe, and led an army into Tiicounell. He first laid waste the land of Fanad, and in a battle which he then fought with Con O'Donnell, the latter turbulent and ambitions vouncj chief- tain was slain and his forces routed. Upon this Plugh Roe resumed the lord- ship; and Hugh Oge who was now liberated, having declined the chief- taincy which his father offered him, father and son appear to have ruled their principality with joint sway. Erer since the pardon accorded to scribed by St. Columbkille, was preserved. It has re cently been deposited by its owner. Sir Richard O'Don- nell, in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy. The Cathach was recovered from the MacDermotts in 1499, by Hugh Roe O'DonneD, who entered Moylurg ^\-ith an army for the purpose. 312 REIGN OF HENRY VII. him in 1494, Garrett, earl of Kildare, was constantly engaged in war witli some of tlie Irish septs ; but on most of these occasions he acted rather as an Irish chieftain than as the deputy of the English king. His sister, Eleonora, was married to Con O'Neill, and this alliance involved him in the numerous feuds of Avhich Tyrone was the theatre. At the instance of his nephew, Tur- longh O'Neill, and of Hugh Koe O'Don- nell, an ally of Tui'lough's, he marched to the north in 1498, and took the castle of Dungannon by the aid of ordnance. The following year Hugh Roe came to the Pale to visit the earl, who gave him his son Henry in foster- age, notwithstanding the stringent laws agaiust this kind of an alliance with the Irish. This year (1499) the earl marched into Connaught, but only to take part in the quarrels of some of the Irish chieftains, for the castles which he took from one rival chief he deliv- ei'ed to another, and Mac William Burke soon after restored them to their former possessors. In 1500 Hugh Roe O'Don- nell and the lord justice marched in concert into Tyrone to co-operate against John Boy O'Neill, from whom they took the castle of Kinard, or Caledon, which was then delivered up to the earl's nephew, Turlough O'Neill. A. D. 1504. — For some time an in- veterate warfare had been carried on between Mac William (Burke) of Clan- rickard, styled Ulick III., and Melagh- lin O'Kelly, the Ii-ish chief of Hy-Many. Burke was the aggressor, and the more powerful. This year he captured and demolished O'Kelly's castles of Garbh- dhoire, now Garbally ; Muine-anmhe- adha, or Monivea, and Gallach, now called Castleblakeny, in the county of Gal way; and the Irish chief, then on the brink of ruin, had recourse to the earl of Kildare for protection. The latter, more desirous of curbing the growing power of Claurickard, with whom he had a personal feud, than of restoring peace in Connaught, mustered a powerful army, and crossed the Shan- non. He was joined by Hugh Roe O'Donnell and his son, and the other chiefs of Kinel-Connell ; by O'Conor Roe of Northern Connaught ; MacDer- mot of Moylurg; the warlike chiefs Magennis, MacMahon, and O'Hanlon ; O'Reilly ; the bishoji of Ardagh, who was then the chief of the O'Farrells of Annaly; O'Conor Faly; the O'Kellys; the lower Mac Williams, or Burkes of Mayo ; and, in fact, by the forces of nearly all Leath-Chuinu, or the northern half of Ireland, with the exception of O'Neill. Besides these he was attended by viscount Gormanstowu, the barons of Slane, Delviii, Howth, Kileen, Trim- leston, and Dunsaney, and by John Blake, mayor of Dublin, at the head of an armed force'. Clanrickard, on his side, also assembled a very numerous array, his allies being Teige O'Brien, lord of Thomond, the MacNamaras and other North Munster chiefs; Mac-I-Brien of Ara ; O'Kennedy of Ormond ; and O'Carroll of Ely. One of Clanrickard's chief stronsrholds at this time was the THE BATTLE OF KNOCKTOW. 313 castle of Claregalway, or Baile-an-clilair, and about tu^o miles to the north-east of this place, on some elevated rocky land called Knoc-tuagh (Knocktow), or the Hill of Axes, his army was drawn up to await the enemy. The battle which ensued Avas one of the most sanguinary and decisive that had taken place in Ireland since the invasion ; but there cannot be a greater perversion of the truth than to repi'esent it, as English historians have done, as a battle be- tween the English and Irish, or between the forces of the English government and the " Irish rebels." For some hours the issue seemed doubtful, but ultimate- ly Clanrickard and his allies suffered a total overthroAV. Their loss in the bat- tle and flight, according to Ware, was 2,000 men ; Cos makes it amount to 4,000 ; and that fabulous Anglo-Irish compilation, the Book of Howth, raises the loss to 9,000 ! The white book of the Exchequer asserted, according to Ware, as a kind of miracle, that not one Eu2:lishman Avas even hurt in the battle, a thing which is quite jjossible, as there were probably no Englishmen actually engaged on either side; but although nothing can be more silly than to boast of the victory as if won by Englishmen, it Avas in its I'esults a most inqiortant * Sir John Davis admits tliat this battle arose oiit of a private quarrel of the earl of Kildare. Ware does not discredit the re;iort that it owed its origin to "a private grudge between Kildare andUlick ;" Cox aUudcs to such an opinion in similar terms ; and the Four Masters, who were not accessible to these writers, record the circum- stances as we have related them, and in a way which leaves no doubt upon the matter. Dr. O'Donovan, who 40 one for English interests, by establishing the poAver of the Pale, and inflicting a bloAv on the Irish chieftains from which they never recovered.* The Book of Ilowth attributes an atrocious exj)res- sion to viscount Gormanstown after the battle. " We have slauafhtered our ene- mies," said he to the earl of Kildare, according to this veracious authority ; "but to complete the good deed we must do the like Avith all the Irish of our OAVu party." As a contrast to Avhich insolence of success, Leland candidly ol)- serves, that " in the remains of the old Irish annalists Ave do not find any con- siderable rancor expressed against the English ; but they even speak of the actions and fortunes of great English lords Avith affection and sympathy."f Kildare, Avith his usual impetuosity, Avished to push on to Galway, eight miles distant, the evening of the battle, but the A^eteran O'Donnell recommended him to encamp that night on the field, until the troops, scattered in pursuit of the enemy, should be collected. The battle was fought on the 19th of Aug- ust, 1504, and the next day Galway and Athenry surrendered to the earl with- out resistance. Kildare distributed thirty tuns of Avine among his army, but Avhether he paid the merchants of had every existing record of tliis transaction before him, says the conflict at Knocktow was, in fact, a battle be- tween Leath-Chuinn and Leath-Mhogha, the northern and southern halves of Ireland, like the battles of Moy Lena, Moy Mucruimhe, and Moy Alvy, where the southerns were as usual defeated. The name of the place is at present written either Knocktow or Knockdoe. f Hist, of Ireland, book iii., c. 5. 314 REIGN OF HENRY VII. Galway for it we are not told. Ke himself, as a reward for the victory, was made a knight of the garter. As to Ulick Burke, he escaped, but his two sons, and some say his two daughters also, were made prisoners. The only event of interest recorded in the remainder of this reign is the death of Hugh Roe O'Donnell, which took place in 1505, in the VSth year of his age, and the 44th of his reign over Tirconnell. He was the son of the cele- brated Niall Garv O'Donnell, and was one of a long line of heroes. " In his time," say the annalists, " there was no need of defence for the houses in Tir- connell, except to close the doors against the vpind." He was succeeded by his son, Hugh Oge. During the reign of Henry VH. the country was frequently visited by pestilence, and the fearful visitation, called the sweating sickness, raged for several years. ACCESSION OF HENRY VIII. 315 CHAPTER XXX. REIGN OF HENET Vin. Accession of Henry VIII. — Gerald, earl of Kildare, stiU Lord Deputy. — His last Transactions and Death. — Hugh O'Donnell visits Scotland and prevents an Invasion of Ireland. — Wars of the Klnel-ConneU and Kinel-Oweu. — Proceedings of the new Earl of Kildare. — The Earl of Surrey Lord Lieutenant. — His Opinion of Irish Warfare. — His Advice to the King about Ireland.— His Return. — The Earl of Onnond succeeds and is made Earl of Ossory. — Wars in Ulster. — Battle of Knockavoe. — Triumph of Kildare. — Vain attempts to reconcile O'Neill and O'Donnell. — Treasonable Correspondence of Desmond. — Kildare again in Difficulties. — Effect of his Irish Popularity. — Sir WUliam Slseffington Lord Deputy. — Discord betvreen liim and Kildare. — New Irish Alliances of Kildare. — His Fall. — Reports of the Council to the King. — The Schism in England. — Rebellion of SUlien Thomas. — Murder of Archbishop Allen. — Siege of Maynooth. — Surrender of Silken Thomas and Arrest of his Uncles. — Their Cruel Fate. — Lord Leonard Gray in Ireland. — Destruction of O'Brien's Bridge. — Interesting Events in Oflfaly. — Desolating War against the Irish. — Confederation of Irish Chiefs. — Fidelity of the Irish to their Faith. — Rescue of young Gerald FitzGerald. — Extension of the Geraldine League. — Desecration of Sacred Things. — Battle of Belahoe. — Submission of Southern Chiefs. — Escape of young Gerald to France. — Effects of the " Reformation" on Ireland. — Ser^dlity of Parliament. — Henry's Insidious Policy in Ireland. — George Brown, first Protestant Archbishop of Dublin. — His Character. — Failure of the New Creed in Ireland. — Terrible Spoliation of the Irish by the Lord Justice. — Submission of Irish Princes. — Their Acceptance of English Titles and Surrender of Irish ones. — Henry VIII. made King of Ireland. — Submission of Desmond. — First Native Irish Lords in Parliament. — Execution of Lord Leonard Gray. — O'Neill Surrenders his Territory and is made Earl of Tyrone. — Murrough O'Brien made Earl of Thomond. — Confiscation of Convent Lands. — Effect of the Policy of Concession and Corruption. ConUm'porary Sovereigns and Events. — Popes : Julius II., Leo X., Adrian VI., Clement VII., Paul III. — Kings of Frlnee : Louis XII., Francis 1. — Emperors of Germany: Maximilian I., Charles V. — Sovere-igus of Scotland; James IV., James V., Queen Mary. — The " Reformation" preached in Germany, 1517. — Foundation of the Society of Jesus, 1534. — Opening of the Council of Trent, 15-45. — Death of Luther, 1516. (A. D. 1500 TO A. D. 1547.) No change was made iu the Irish governmeat on the accession of Heury VIII. Gerald, the veteran earl of Kildare, was confirmed in his office as lord deputy, and still carried on his forays against various Irish septs. In 1510 he proceeded with a numerous army into south Munster against the MacCarthys, and was joined by James, son of the earl of Desmond. In Ealla, now Duhallow, he took the castle of Kanturk, and in Kerry the castle of Pailis, near Laune Bridge, aud Castle- maine. Returning to the county of Limerick he was joined by Hugh, lord of Tirconnell, the son of his old ally, Hugh Roe O'Donnell, with a small, but efficient body of troops. He crossed 316 REIGN OF HENRY VIII. the Shannon and destroyed a wooden bridge which stood over that river at Portcrusha, probably somewhere near Castleconnell, but here his progress was checked. Turlough O'Brien had col- lected a large army composed of the septs of North Munster and Clanrickard, and at this point approached so close that tlie men's voices conld be heard from the opposite camps during the night ; but the morning after this bold advance of O'Brien found Kildare pre- paring to retreat. The Leinster and Meath troops, witli O'Donnell's small contingent, were placed in the rear, and James of Desmond, with the Munster forces, led the van.* While retiring in this order he was attacked by O'Brien, who took large spoils and slew several of the English, among others Barnwell, of Crickstowu, in Meath, and a baron Kent ; but the earl succeeded, with the main body of his army, in reaching Limerick through Monabraher, on the north side of the Shannon, and soon after he left Munster. A. D. 1512. — The earl once more crossed the Shannon into Connaught, and took the castle of Roscommon and that of Cavetown, in Moylurg. O'Don- nell, who had spent the year 1511 on a pilgrimage to Rome, and was engaged since his return in making reprisals on O'Neill for depredations committed by the latter in Tirconnell during his ab- sence, came to the Curlieu mountains to * Ware says that James of Desmond was with O'Brien on tHs occasion, but the context shows the Four Masters, whom we have foUowed, to be correct. meet Kildare, and renewed the friendly relations which must have been dis- turbed by O'Donnell's hostilities in Ulster. Apparentl}^ as one of the con- sequences of this conference the earl soou after marched to the north, entered Clannaboy, and took the castle of Bel- fast, and other stron2;holds. In the course of the following year O'Donnell ap2:)ears to have rendered an important service to the English interest. He visited Scotland on the invitation of James IV., who treated him with great honor, during three months which he stayed there, and as we are told that "he chansred the kino-'s resolution of coming to Ireland as he intended," we may conclude that James meditated an invasion, from which he Avas deterred by O'Donnell's advice, and by the re- collection, probably, of the fate of Ed- ward Bruce. The earl of Kildare made his last compaign in Ely O'Carroll, where he laid siecre to the castle of O'Banan's- leap ; but failing to take this stronghold, he retired to Athy, where he died ; his death, as some say, being caused by a wound which he had received long be- fore in O'More's countiy. The Irish annalists style him the Great Earl, and describe him as " valorous, princely, and relicrious." He was interred in Christ Church, and his sou, Garrett Oge, or Gerald the younger, was chosen by the privjr council to succeed him as lord justice, and soon after was created lord deputy })y letters patent. The new earl rivalled his father's zeal against the FEUDS AND ALLIANCES. 317 border Irish, and ioangurated his ad- ministi'atiou by defeating the O'Mores, and slaying in battle fourteen of the chief men of the O'Reillys, including the head of the sept. A. D. 1514.— When Art, son of Con, who had succeeded Art, son of Hugh O'Neill, and Hugh O'Dounell, met this year at Ardsratha, or Ardstraw-bridge, in Tyrone, at the head of hostile armies, and separated iu peace, the annalists attribute the fortunate issue to the interposition of heaven. Few, indeed, and brief were the intervals iu the mutual warfi^re of the Kinel-Couuell and the Kin el-Owen ; but if we judge from the changes which had by this time taken place in their respective territorial boundaries, we may conclude that the former of these great septs were generally the aggressors. The chiefs of Tirconuell had succeeded iu wresting very large territories from the .O'Neills; and by the treaty made on this occasion the charters by which O'Dounell claimed sovereignty over luishoweu, Fermanagh, and other tracts of country formerly belonging to the Kinel-Oweu, were confirmed. The place where the armies met was also consider- ably within the frontier of Tyrone. As to the peace, it was of short duration, for two years after we find the same parties again at war.* A. D. 1516. — A feud broke out be- * On this latter occasion O'Donnell also carried Ids arms into Connaught, and took the castle of Sligo by the aid of some cannon ivliich bad been sent to him by a. French knight who made a pilgrimage to St. Patrick's tween James, sou of Maurice, earl of Des- mond, and his uncle, John. The former was supported by MacCarthy More (Cormac Ladhrach, or the "hasty"), Donnell MacCarthy of Carbeny, and other chieftains of that sept, and also by the white knight, the knight of Glinn, the knight of Kerry, FitzMau- rice, and O'Couor-Kerry ; while John was aided by the Dalcassians, with whose chiefs he was allied by his mar- riage with More, daughter of Donough, sou of Brian Duv O'Brien, lord of Car- risfocronnell and Pobblebrien. James laid siege to the castle of Lough Gur, but on the approach of John with the army of Thomond, reinforced by that of the Butlers, he retreated without fi'Thtinsr. This feud was followed by one between Pierse Butlei', claiming to be earl of Ormoud, and other members of his family. In the meau time the young earl of Kildare succeeded in taking the castle of O'Banan's-leap, which his father had besieged in vain ; and the following year (151*7) he led an army to Tyrone at the instance of his kinsmen, the O'Neills, who were as usual in arms against other branches of their sept- Having retaken Dundrum castle, in Le- cale, from which the English had been expelled, and vanquished the Magenises, he proceeded to desolate Tyroue, and captured and burned the fort of Dun- jjurgatory in Lough Derg, and had been hospitably entertained by the chief of Tirconuell. Several other castles in northern Connaught were surrendered to O'Donnell immediately after his capture of Sligo. 318 REIGN OF HENRY VIII. gannou. Ou tlie invitation of O'Melagh- lin be led liis army to Delvin, where Mulrony O'Carroll Lad committed great depredations, and had taken the castle of Ceaun-Cora. But while he was thus occnpied, enemies was busily engaged in undermining his position with the king; the prime movers of the mischief against him being his hereditary foes, the Butlers. At first he was able to vindicate himself without much diffi- culty. He repaired to England for that purpose in 1515, and was successful; but cardinal Wolsey, w^ho had now risen to great power, was inspired with an implacable enmity towards him, and caused him to be again summoned to England, in 1519; the earl appointing his kinsman, Sir Thomas FitzGerald of Laccagh, as his deputy during his ab- .sence. A. D. 1520. — Thomas Howard, earl of Surrey, a man equally eminent as a warrior and a statesman, was now sent as lord lieutenant to Ireland, where he landed with a force of 1,000 men and 100 of the king's guard. Kildare was still kejDt in England, where he remained in ignorance of the machinations going forward in Ireland to collect evidence against him. One of the principal charcjes 'was, that he had written to O'Carroll of Ely, advising him to keep peace with the Pale until an English deputy should be sent over, but " when * O'Donnell waited on the earl of Surrey at tUs time in Dublin, and told him that he had been invited to take up arms against the English government by Con O'Neill, vfho said he did so at the suggestion of the earl of Kildare ; Surrey, who mentions the circnm- any English deputy shall come thither," he added, "then do your best to make war on the English." There was little doubt that the earl had written to this effect, O'Carroll's brothers having con- fessed that such a letter had been re- ceived, but the evidence ^vas not con- clusive; and Kildare, wdiose former wife had died, having married Elizabeth Gray, daughter of the marquis of Dorset, acquired influence at court, through the powerful English friends whom this al- liance procured him, and escaped for the present. Though treated with honor, he was not, however, restored to favor, and spies were employed to collect evi- dence against him in Ireland at the very time that he formed one of king Henry's retinue in France, at the famous meeting of the " field of the cloth of gold." A. D. 1521. — Whether Kildare urged the Irish chieftains to rebel, as he was accused of doing, or not,* it was evident that a general and formidable rising- was contemplated, although the energy and rapid movements of Surrey crushed the attempt. The viceroy first marched against O'More, demolished his castles, laid waste his country, burned the ripen- ing crops, and finally compelled him to submit ; but in this exj^edition he nar- rowly escaped falling into the hands of the Irish. O'Carroll also submitted, and Con O'Neill having threatened Meath with invasion, Surrey, liy a timely march stance in a letter to the king (State Papers, p. 37), says : — " I fynde him (O'Donnell) a right wise man, and aa well determyned to doo to your grace all things that may be to your contentacion and pleasure as I can wysh him to bee." COURSE OF THE EARL OF SURREY. 319 to the uorth, averted tlie blow. How- ever, lie soou became wearied with the Irish warfare. It seemed hopeless aod interminable. He had a well apj-joiuted army furnished with artillery, but amidst boii^s and forests, and asrainst an enemy who, while they yielded in front, perpetually harassed him iu the flank and rear, he could effect nothing. He assured the king, as the result of his experience in Ireland, that by conquest alone could that country be reduced to peace and order, while he admitted that * State Papers, xx. — The names and position of the principal independent Irish septs at this period, ■n-ith many other particulars of interest on the condition of the country, are set forth in an official document of the year 1515, preserved in the English State Paper Office, and printed in the first volume of the State Papers relating to Ireland. In this document it is stated that the Eng- lish rule only extended orer one-half of the five counties of Uriel (Louth), Jleath, Dublin, Kildare, and Wexford, and that even within those narrow limits, the great mass of the population consisted of native Irish ; the English having deserted the country on account of the oppressive exactions to which they were exposed. The greater part of Ireland was still in the hands of the " Irish enemies," and was divided into more than sixty separate States or " regions," " some as big as a shire, some more, some less ;" and these regions were ruled by as many " chief captains, whereof some called them- selves kings, some king's peers in their language, some princes, some dukes, some archdukes, that live only by the sword, and obey no other temporal person but only him that is strong." These independent " captains" or heads of septs were as follows : — ia Ulster : CNeUl of Tyrone, ODonnell of Tirconnell, O'Neill of Qannaboy, O'Cahan of Kenoght, in Derry, O'Dogherty of Inishowen, Maguire of Fermanagh, Magennis of Upper Iveagh, in Do^vn, O'Hanlon of Armagh, and MacMahon of Irish Uriel (Monaghan). In Leinster: — MacMurrough of Hy-Drone, in Carlow, O'Murroughu (or Murphy) in Wexford, O'Byrne and O'Thole (O'Toole) in Wicklow, CNolan in Carlow, MacGillapatrick in Upper Ossory, O'More of Leix, O'Dempsy of Glenmaliry, O'Conor of Offaly, and O'Doyne (or Dunn) of Oregan, in the Queen's County. In MTrasTER: — MacCarthy More of Kerry, Cormac MacTeige MacCarthy of Cork, O'Donoghue of Killamey, O'Sullivan of Beare, O'Conor of Kerry, Mac- Carthy Reagh of Carberry, in Cork, O'Driscol of Corca- there were serious obstacles in the way of such a conquest. It would require much time and money, and if an attempt were made to reduce the Irish by force, they would combine for defence ; which union his knowledi^e of their Avarlike habits, and of the military resources of the country, made him apprehend as a formidable danger.* His representa- tions had, perhaps, some eftect iu bring- ing about the policy of conciliation which Henry subsequently carried to such an extent in his government of Ire- Laighe, in Cork, two O'Mahonys of Carberry, in Cork, O'Brien of Thomond, O'Kennedy of Lower Ormond, O'CarroU of Ely, O'Meagher of Ikcrin, in Tipperary, MacMahon of Corcavaskin in Clare, O'Conor of Corcom- roc, in Clare, O'Loughlin of Burrin, in Clare, 0''Gi-auy of Bunratty, in Clare, Mac-I-Brien of Ara, in Tipperary, O'MuIrian (or Ryan) of Owney, O'Dwyer of Tipperary, and O'Brien of Coonagh, in Limerick. In Coinsr.vtiGnT : — O'Conor Roe and MacDermot in Roscommon, O'Kelly, O'Madden, and O'Flaherty in Galway, O'Farrell of An- naly (Longford), O'Reilly and O'Rourke of Breffny, O'Malley of Mayo, MacDonough of Tiragrill, O'Gara of Coolavin, O'Hara of Leney, O'Dowda of Tireragh, Mac- Donough of Corran, and MacManus O'Conor of Carbury, in Sligo. In Meath : — O'Melaghlin, Mageoghegan, and O'MoUoy. The heads of the " Degenerate English," or " great captains of the English noble folks," that foUowed "the Irish rule," according to the same report, were, in MuxsTER : the earl of Desmond, the knight of Kerry, FitzMaurice, Sir Thomas of Desmond, Sir John of Des- mond, and Sir Gerald of Desmond, the white knight, the knight of Glynn, and other Geraldines ; lord Barry, lord Roche, lord Courcy, lord Cogan, lord Barrett, the Powers of Waterford, Sir William Burke in the county of Limerick, Sir Pierse Butler (claiming to be earl of Ormond), " and all the captains of the Butlers of the county of Kilkenny, and of the county of Fethard." In Conn AUGHT: — lord Burke of Mayo, lord Burke of Clanrickard, lord Bermingham of Athenry, the Stauntons of Clonmorris, in Mayo, the MacJordans, or descendants of Jordan D'Exeter in Mayo, MacCosteUo in Mayo, and the Barretts of Tirawley. In Ulster : — the Savages of Lecale iu Down, the FitzHowlina of Tuscard, and the Bissetts of the Glinns of Antrim. In Meath :— the DUlons, Daltons, TyrreUs, and Del*- 3:20 REIGN OF HENRY VIII. land, and employed so successfully for tlie corruptiou of the native cliieftains. Surrey was empowered by the king to confer knighthood on such of the Irish chiefs as he deemed, fit, and Henry sent a collar of gold to be presented, together with the honor of knighthood, to O'Neill. A reconciliation was ef- fected by the deputy between James, who, in 1520, had succeeded his father, Maurice, as earl of Desmond, and the earl of Ormond ; and a peace was also arrauired by him between the former and the MacCarthys, who, aided by Thomas of Desmond, had in September, this year, overthrown the aforesaid earl James with great slaughter at Mourne- Abbey, in Muskerry, slaying 2,000 of his men, and taking several of his lead- ers prisoners. This defeat of Desmond afforded real satisfaction to Sm*rey, who, on proceeding to Munster, found the proud earl thoroughly humbled ; and he informed Wolsey in a letter, written about this time, that the successful Irish chiefs Cormac Oge MacCarthy and Mac- Carthy Reagh were "two wise men," whom he found " more comformable to order than some Englishmen here."* So much did the politic English viceroy * state Papers, xiii. f On the death of Thomas, the seventh earl of Or- mond, -without male issue, in 1515, his English estates, amounting to £30,000 a year, and his vast personal property in plate, jevrcls, and money, were bequeathed to his two daughters, of whom Margaret, the elder, was married to Sir James St. Leger, and Anne, the younger, to Sir William Boleyn or Bullen, by whom she had Sir Thomas, the father of Anne Boleyn. The carl's Irish Inheritance was warmly disputed between his next male heirs. Sir Pierse Butler of Carrick — whoso grand- father was cousin german to carl Thomas, — and Sir dread a good understanding of the Irish among themselves, that he preferred allowing O'Donnell to employ some Scottish auxiliaries rather than that there should be peace between him and O'Neill ; for, as he wrote to the king, " it would be dano-erful to have them both agreed and joined together," and " the longer they continue in war the better it should be for your grace's poor subjects here." In the summer of 1521 he was oblisred to take the field against O'Conor of Offaly, whose castle of Mouasteroris he captured ; but while he was thus engaged O'Conor was plun- dei'ing West Meath, and subsequently routed a portion of the earl's array. At length Surrey importuned the king on the ground of ill health to relieve him from his arduous and hopeless charge in Ireland, and being permitted to with- draw, he returned to England at the close of 1521, taking with him the troops which he had brought into Ire- land ; his intimate friend and adviser, Pierse Butler, being appointed lord dejjuty.-f- A. D. 1522. — The Pale was at this time in a wretched state, and the Irish privy council applied to Wolsey, to have James Ormond, the natural son of John, the sixth earl, who died in Palestine ; but by the death of Sir James, who was killed by his opponent between Dromore and Kilkenny, Pierse was left in quiet possession of the title of earl of Ormond, which, however, he did not long en- joy, as he was induced to relinquish his claim in favor of Anna Boleyn 's father ; Pierse was then (153T) created earl of Ossory, but Sir Thomas Boleyn having died witliout an heir, the earldom of Ormond was restored to Butler, and the title of Ossory laid aside. See Abbo Magooghegan Hist, of Ireknd, pp. 381, 383 (Duffy's ed.), also Archdall's Lodge, vol. iv., pp. 10, 17. O'NEILL AND O'DONNELL AT WAR. 321 six ships of war sent to cruise between Scotland and Ireland, to awe the north- ern Irish and prevent an invasion from the former country, as the Scots were at that time immi2;ratin CHAPTER XXXI. KEIGN OF EDWARD VI. AND J[ARY. Accession of Edward VI. — Somerset's government. — War of Extermination in Leix and Ofifaly. — Fate of O'More and O'Conor.— Rising of O'Carroll. — Successes of tlie lord deputy Bellingbam.— Tlie adventurers Bryan and Fay. — Rebellion of Calvagh O'Donnell against his fatlier. — Power of the Northern Chiefs curtailed. — Instance of Bellingham's firmness. — Intrigues and changes in the Irish government. — Exjiloits of the Scots in Ulster. — War between Ferdoragh and Shane CNeill. — French emissaries iu Ulster.— Failure of the efforts to establish the new religion in Ireland. — Zeal and firmness of Archbishop DowdaU. — Conference at St. Slary's Abbey. — Plvmder of Clonmacnoise. — Accession of Queen Slary. — Her efforts to restore religion. — Her difficiilties in England. — Injustice to her character. — The work of restoration easy in Ireland. — Her kind disposition to Ire- land frustrated. — Affecting incident. — Strife in Thomond. — Continued War with the Scots in Ulster. — Shane O'NeiU defeated by Calvagh O'Donnell. ConUmporari/ Sovereigns and £vents.— Popes: Pari III., Jo'.ius III., Marcellus V., P.iul IV.— Emperor of Germjiny, Charles V.— Kiug of France, Henry II. — King of SprJn, I'hilip II.— Queen of Scotland, Mary. — Death of St. Fr.incis Xavier, 1552 — Death of St. Ignatius of Loyola, 1556. (A. D. 1547 TO A. D. 1558.) EDWARD VI., the son of Henry VIII. and of his third wife, Jane Seymour, was proclaimed king, on his father's death, while yet only nine years of age. His maternal uncle, Edward Seymour, earl of Hertford, and after- wards duke of Somerset, usurped the sole guardianship of the young king, and the government of the kingdom, with the title of lord protector ; setting aside the council of regency appointed by the late king's will. Somerset was a zealous partisan of the new creed, and, aided by Cranmer, caused it to be established as the religion of the state. In Ireland Sentleger continued to hold office as lord deputy ; James, earl of Desmond, was apjDoiuted lord treasurer; and, owing to the increased disturbances in Leinster, Sir Edward Bellingham was sent over in the course of the year (1547) as captain general, with a rein- forcement of 600 horse and 400 foot, to aid the deputy. Before his arrival Sentleger had gained a battle at the Three Castles, near Blessington, over the O'Byrnes, taking two of the Fitz- Geralds, who had joined the Wicklow 342 REIGX OF EDWARD VI. insurgents, pi'isouers. These were exe- cuted in Dublin, and tlie Four Masters, wlio call them " plunderers and rebels," tell us that Brian, son of Turlougli OToole, was on tlie lord deputy's side. A. D. 1548. — The territories of Leix and Oftaly had been by this time ut- terly wasted by inroads from the Pale ; and the unhappy chieftains, Gillapat- rick O'More and Brian O'Connor, hav- ins been broufrht so low that none of the Irish dared to give them food or shelter, had surrendered themselves to Francis Bryan, an Englishman, who just then began to occupy a prominent place in this country. This happened in 1547, and in 1548 the two chiefs were taken to England by Sentleger, who was recalled. Their lives were spared, a pension of £100 each being alloAved for their maintenance ; but they were detained as prisoners, and their patrimonies given to Bryan and others, who set about expelling the old inhabitants, and disposing of the lauds as their own. O'More died in his Saxon exile before the end of the year. Sir Edward Bellingham, the succes- sor to Sentleger, was a man of energy and decision, and gained sundry suc- cesses over the Irish.'"' A number of * An incident is related wliicli sufficiently illustrates tlie energetic character of Bellingham. At the close of 1549 the carl of Desmond refused to attend a coxmcil to wliich he was summoned in Dublin, on the plea that he was celebrating Christmas. The lord deputy upon re- ceiving this answer, set out with a small party of horse, and by forced marches reached the castle where the earl was enjoying himself; and entering without previ- ous notice seized Desmond while sitting by the fire and the men of Offaly were sent to England under the command of a son of their old chieftain, to join an army preparing against Scotland ; but the chief object aimed at was their exjiatriation. Cahir Roe O'Conor, one of the same warlike sept, was brought to Dublin and exe- cuted ; and some troubles created in Kildare by the sons of viscount Balt- inglass were speedily crushed by the vigorous arm of the new deputy. O'Carroll of Ely had risen, and burned the town of Nenasrh and the English monastery of Abingdon, in Limerick, threatening to expel all the Ergl'sh from his territory ; but at a council held the following year in Limerick, he made favorable terms with the deputy for himself and his confederates, Mac- Murrough, O'Kelly, O'Melaghlin, and others, and a formidable movement was thus tranquillized. An English adven turer named Edmund Fay was invited into Delvin by O'Melaghlin to aid him in a quarrel with MacCoghlan ; but the annalists tell us that O'Melaghlin had got "a rod to strike himself;" for Fay took possession of the territoiy on his own account, and was supported in his usurpation by Francis Bi-yan.f A. T>. 1549. — Tirconnell had been for some time distui-bed by the unnatural carried him to Dublin. Subsequently he obtained par- don for the earl. f This Brj-an had married the dowager coimtess of Ormond, and was made marshal of Ireland, and govern- or of Tipperary. On the 2Tth of December, 1549, ho was chosen lord justice on aji emergency, but died iu the following February at Clonmel, where he had gone to repel an invasion of O'Carroll's. The name Fay, mentioned in the text, has sometimes been written POLITICAL INTRIGUES IN DUBLIN. 343 rel)ellioa of Calvagli O'Donnell against his latbei', jMauus. lu 1548 a battle was fono-bt between them at Strath-bo-Fiach, now Ballybofey on the river Finn, when Calvagh and his all)', O'Kane, were de- feated ; but the dissensions still con- tinued. Some of the Ulster chieftains about this time appealed for the settle- ment of their disputes to the govern- ment of the Pale, and the latter took advantage of their position as arbitrators to strike a fatal blow at the power of the superior dynasts, by making the in- ferior chiefs independent of them. Ma- genuis was freed from all subjection to O'Neill, and the power of O'Donnell was restricted by similar means. A. D. 1550. — One government after another was sacrificed to political cabals in Dublin. Bellingham was recalled in December, 1549; and Bryan, who was appointed to succeed him, having died at Clonmel in less than two months after, Sentleger returned to Ireland as viceroy for the fourth time. Archbishop Browne, however, hated this statesman, and made chai'ges against him amount- ing to treason, so that he was once more recalled, and Sir James Crofts appointed in his stead. John Allen, who for many years had been mixed up in every iw- litical intrigue, and had been dej^rived Fahy, by mistake (see Cose's Htb. Angl.); but Dr. O'Donovan remarks tliat the O'Fahrs are Irish, and were seated in the county of Galway, while the Fays are Anglo-Normans and were seated in West Meath. — Four Masters, vol. v., p. 1506, note (t). * Mathew, as he is called by English writers, although he is almost invariably styled Ferdoragh by the Ii'ish, was the son of Alison, the wife of a blacksmith of Duu- dalk, named O'KeUy; and although affiliated to the of tlie chancellorship at the close of Henry's reign, and restored to it in 1548, ^'as now once more removed from his post, and Thomas Cusack, master of the rolls, substituted. A. D. 1551. — Lord deputy Crofts led an army into Ulster against tlie island Scots, whose increasing power in Ireland had long been a source of anxiety to the English government, and who were now leagued "with some of the northein Irish. He sent four ships to Ilathlin, where the young MacDounells of the Hebrides had a much larger force than he anticipated, and only one man of his four crews is said to have escajied. A second hosting of the English to the north this year was also unsuccessful, the deputy having been defeated in battle with the loss of 200 men. Con O'Neill, surnamed Bacagli, or " the lame," having grown old and infirm, regretted his unjust partiality to his illegitimate son, Ferdoragh, or Mathew, for whom he had procured from the late king the title of baron of Dun2:annou and the entail of the earl- dom of Tyrone ; and wished to make his eldest legitimate sou, John, or Shane, as he is familiarly called in history, heir to all his honors.* Ferdoragh took the alarm, and made such charges against chief of Tyrone by Irish law, and adopted by him, John and the other members of Con's family insisted that the affiliation was deceptive and unjust, and that Ferdoragh was really the blacksmith's son, which, in fact, he was considered to be until he was fifteen years old, when hia reputed father, O'KeUy, died. It has been said, but we are not aware whether there be any old authority for the statement, that Alison's only claim on the first baron of Dungannon was that of fosterage. 344 REIGN OF EDWARD VI. his father that the old man was seized and imprisoned by the lord deputy, and Shane, who on coming to man's estate displayed a warlike and indomitable sjjirit worthy of his illustrious race, flew to arms, and jjlunged Ulster once more in war. At this time the kiug of France looked to Ireland as a point through which England could easily be wound- ed; and shortly before this had sent two envoys to make overtures to the northern chieftains. They landed first at Green castle, on Lough Foyle, and were subsequently detained for some time by stress of weather at the castle called Culmore Fort, which was in charge of 0'Dohert3^ Here they re- ceived a visit from Robert Waucop, archbishop of Armagh,* and they next proceeded to Donegal. The Irish chiefs aijreed on this occasion to place their country under the pro- tection of France; but the peace which ensued between that country and England rendered these negotiations abortive. A. D. 1552. — The deputy proceeded with an army to Tyrone to aid Fer- doragh against Shane, who on his side * This remarkable man, Tv-ho is also called Venantius, was a Scot. He was blind from liis youtb, but became one of the most learned men of bis age, and was doctor of the university of Paris. W^hcn George Dowdall suc- ceeded Cromer as archbishop of Armagh, pursuant to letters patent of Henry VIII., in 1543, England being then in a state of schism, pope Paul III. nominated Waucop to that dignity ; but it soon became obvious that Dowdall was a staunch Catholic, and Waucop, who retired to the continent, docs not appear to have inter- fered in any way with his duties as a prelate. The So- was assisted by the island Scots, and the country was ravaged between them. While endeavoring to form a junction with the English, Ferdoragh's army was routed in a night attack by Shane, and the deputy having retired for that oc- casion without gaining any advantage, returned again to Antrim in autumn, when he only succeeded in destroying the standing corn. All the efforts made durins: this reisrn to establish the new relisrion in Ireland were unsuccessful. It was adopted by some ofiicials and by a few of the Eng- lish Avithin the Pale ; but while the government, which changed with the whim of the day, was Protestant, the people adhered immovably to the faith of their forefathers. Even the ruling powers had not yet been able to make a well-defined distinction between Prot- estant and Catholic; for we find that when Arthur Magennis was nominated bishop of Dromore by the pope in 1550, his appointment was confirmed by king Edward, while George Dowdall, who was advanced to the see of Armagh by Henry VIIL, at the request of Sir Anthony Sentleger, was a zealous de- fender of the doctrines and rights of ciety of Jesus was first introduced into Ireland by Waucop in 15il, with the sanction of Paul III. ; the first member of the society who came to Ireland being F. John Codur, who was followed by FF. Salmcron, Brouet, and Zapata. Dr. Waucop assisted at the council of Trent from the first session, in 154.5, to the eleventh, in 1547. He was sent as legate u latere to Germany, and died in the Jesuits' Convent in Paris, in 1551. See Harris's Ware's Bishops, p. 93 ; and O'SiiUkan's Hist. Calk., p. 89 (Dublin, 1850> ACCESSIOlSr OF MARY. 345 the Catliolic cburcL* The new liturgy was publicly read in Christ's church iu 1551 ; and the same year, at the solici- tation of lortl deputy Crofts, archbishop Dowdall consented to hold a confei-ence with the Protestant authorities at St. Mary's abbey, when Staples, bishop of Meath, acted as the Protestant cham- pion. The discussion, as might be ex- pected, led to no modification of views on either side ; but Browne was so enraged at the opjjosition given by the archbishop of Armagh to the intro- duction of the new liturgy, that he ob- tained a royal charter transferring to himself the primacy of all Ireland ; and Dowdall, feeling that his liberty and perhaps his life were insecure, fled to the continent, one Hugh Goodacre, a Protestant, being intruded in his stead. The Irish annalists tell us that the venerable churches of Clonmacnoise were plundered in 1552 by the English garrison of Athlone, and that "there was not left a bell small or large, an image, an altar, a book, a gem, or even glass in the window, which was not carried off;" and they add, "lamentable was this deed, the plundering of the city of Kieran !" A. D. 1553. — Such was the state of things on the accession of Mary, whose short reign was a continued effort to restore what had been unsettled in the religious and moral state of England during the two preceding reigns. The * See note on preceding page. At tliis period we be- gin to hear of " titular bishops," that name being applied to the Catholic prelates, who ■were appointed by tlie 41 new creed had made considerable way among both clergy and laity in that country, many of the former having committed themselves irretrievably by entering into the married state. A A^ast number of Lutherans had arrived from the continent, and were zealous in the propagation of their doctrines ; and those into whose hands the confiscated church property had come, resisted any change which might oblige them to disgorge the sacrilegious spoils. In a state of society so disorganized, and with precedents of government such as then existed, it is not marvellous that Mary's ministers should have resorted to severity. The Anabaptists were burned during her brother's reign, and even the lord protector Somerset, and the husband of the queen dowager, both of them the king's uncles, were brought to the block. We shudder noAV-a-days at such barbarities; but it is only miserable prej udice which would afiix to Mary a stigma that belongs with infinitely more justice to her sister Eli- zabeth, or to the infamous monster her father. In Ireland, where the " Keformatiou" had in truth gained no ground among the people, the restoration of the old order of things was effected without difficulty, and was hailed with popular joy. Here, as in England, those of the laity who had obtained possession of church property, were, by the sanction pope to sees in which married men or professors of the Lutheran creed -n-ere placed by the secular authority. The latter enjoyed the revenues and emoluments. 346 REIGN OF MARY. of the i")ope, left in the enjoyment of it ; and the Irish parliament, following that of England, expressed their repentance for the schism of which they had been guilty. Archbishop Dowdall being re- called and restored to the primacy, held a provincial Synod at Drogheda, and was placed at the liead of a commission to deprive married bishops and priests ; but the only prelates whom it was necessary to remove, were Browne of Dublin, Staples of Meath, Lancaster of Kildare, and Travers of Leighlin. Good- acre had died a few months after his intrusion into the see of Armagh ; Bale of Ossory — a fiery bigot and a coarse, unscrupulous writer — had iled, of his own accord, beyond the seas, on Mary's accession ; and Casey of Limerick, an- other of Edward's bishops, had also made a voluntary exit. All of these, except Casey, were Englishmen, and all except Staples were professing Prot- estants at the time of their consecra- tion.* It is well known that there was no persecution on account of religion in Ireland during the reign of Mary, and that some Protestant families came to * Besides tlio prelates mentioned above, a few others had given evidence of their servility by the recognition of Henry VIII. 's schismatical claim. These were Hugh O'Kervallan, bishop of Clogher, who accompanied O'Neill to England in 1542 ; Slathew Saunders, bishop of Leighlin ; Florence Qerawan or Kirwan, bishop of Clonmacnoise ; Eugene Magennis, bishop of Down and Connor ; and Rowland Burke, bishop of Clonfert. (Liber Mun. Pub. Hib., v. ii., p. 17, &c.) The two last- mentioned, together with Staples of Meath (for it is unnecessary to include Browne), were the only members of the episcopal body in Ireland, as it stood at the be- ginning of the reign of Edward VI., wlio could be induced to abandon the Catholic faith even in those this country from England about that time in order to follow their religious persuasion undisturbed.f Mary was inclined to dealr mercifully with the Irish, but her ministers and her Irish council would not dej^art from the traditional principles uj)on which this country had been governed, and whicli recognized neither mercy nor justice in their relations with tbe native population. Hence the same cruel wars were waged against the latter in her reign as previously; and the work of extermination having made sufficient progress in Leix and Offaly during the reign of Edward, it remained for Mary's deputy to form into counties these an- cient territories which had already been annexed to the Pale. This was the only new shire land marked out since the reign of John. Leix was designated the Queen's county, and its old fort of Cam- pa became the modern Maryborough, while Offaly was transformed into the King's county, and its fortress of Dain- gean into Philijjstown, in compliment to the queen and her husband, Philip of Sjjain.;]; days of deplorable degeneracy. (Vide the Rev. M. G. Brcnan's Eccl. Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii., pp. 92, 103.) f The Protestants who came to Ireland on this occa- sion were John Harvey, Abel Ellis, John Edmonds, and Henry Haugh, with their families. Tliey were from Chesliire, and were accompanied by a Welsh Protestant clergyman named Thomas Jones, whom the earl of Susses subsequently took into his household. See Ware's Annals, An. 1554. These men. were the founders of respectable mercantile families in Dubhn. if In addition to the territory of Leix, the present Queen's county comprises a portion of ancient Cssory, constituting the barony of Upper Ossory, besides the baronies of Portnahinch and Tinnahinch which were STRIFE IN THOMOND. 347 » Mary's kinduess, as contrasted Avith the harshness of her Irish government, was illustrated by an affecting incident in the first year of her reign. Margaret, the daughter of O'Conor Faly, inspired with hope on hearing that a queen oc- cupied the throne, hastened to England, where her father was a prisonei", and at Mary's feet begged his liberation. Her prayer was granted, and she returned with her father to Ireland ; but the lords justices, presuming to manage Irish afiairs in their own way, seized the chieftain and cast him once more into prison.* This year also (1553) Garret, or Gerald, and his brother Ed- ward, the sons of the earl of Kildare, returned to Ireland after their Ions: exile, and were restored to all the honors and possessions of their family. There were great rejoicings, say the annalists, " because it was thought that not one of the descendants of the earls of Kildare or of the O'Conors Faly would ever return to Ireland." Murrough O'Brien died in 1551, and his nephew, Donough, the son of Mur- rough's elder brother, Conor, and the rightful heir in the eyes of the English law, assumed the title of earl of Tho- part of Offaly, and belonged toO'Dunne and O'Dempsey. Oifaly, before the Englisb invasion, comprised the terri- tories "wbicb constitute the baronies of East and West Offaly in Kildare ; those of upper and lower Philips- town, Geashill, Warrenstown, and Coolestowu in the King's county; and those already mentioned in the Queen's county. It is. not therefore correct to say, as is tisually done, that Leis and Offaly -were respectively transformed into the Queen's and King's counties. See notes to O'Donovan's Four Masters, vol. iii., pp. 44, 105, &c. The same yeai (1556) in which Leix and Oflfaly mond. He surrendered his patent, which was only for his own life, and obtained a new one from Edward VI., securing to his heirs male the title of earl, and all the lands and honors be- longing to his uncle. His brothers, Donnell and Turlough, objected to this mode of fixing the inheritance, which was at direct variance with their own law of tanistry; and on Donougli's death, in 1553, Donnell claimed the right of succession to the chieftaincy, and dispossessed Donough's son, Conor. This created violent strife ; Donnell, despising the foreign title of earl, as- sumed that of the O'Brien, amid the acclamations of the people, and Conor depended on the English arms to sup- port his claim. He was besieged by Donnell in 1554, in the castle of Doon- mulvihil, and was only saved by the timely arrival of the earl of Ormond. Ultimately, Donnell was banished by the earl of Sussex, lord lieutenant, in 1558, and Conor was left in possession of the earldom. Sentleger, who was appointed lord deputy for the fifth time in 1553, was again recalled, through the intrigues of the extreme anti-Irish party, in 1555. were converted into shires, the pope sanctioned the assumption by Mary of the title of queen of Ireland, having previously disapproved of it when only author- ized by the Act 33d Henry VHI., passed (A. D. 1541) after the commencement of the schism. ^ The massacre of Mullaghmast, erroneously connected by some modern writers -with the annexation of Leix and Offaly, did not occur tmtil the 19th year of queen Elizabeth, and wUl be mentioned in its proper place. * Compare i'lii/7' Masters, A. D. 1553, and the Abbe Mageogliegan, p. 443 (Duffy's edition.) 348 REIGN OF MART. His poimlarity Avitli the Irish was the only ground of hostility against him ; and he was succeeded by Thomas Ead- cliffe, viscount FitzWilliam and after- wards earl of Sussex, who led an army into Ulster against the Scots, then very powerful in the districts of the Route and Clannaboy. He was aided by Con O'Neill, but returned after a campaign of three months without bringing the war to a conclusion. Con O'Neill was again unfortunate in an expedition against the same dangerous intruders in Clannaboy, and was defeated by them, with the loss of 300 men.* In 1555 Calvagh O'Dounell employed some Scottish auxiliaries against his father, Manus, whom he made prisoner and detained in captivity until his death. In 1557 the Scots penetrated to Armagh, which was plundered twice in one month by the earl of Sussex. The same year Shane O'lSTeill, observ- ing the weak condition to which Cal- vagh's rebellion had reduced Tirconnell, thought the opportunity a favorable one to recover the power of which his ancestors had been deprived by the O'Donnells. He accordingly mustered a numerous army, and pitched his ciamp at Carrigliatl}, between the rivers Finn and Mourne, where he was joined by Hugh, the brother of Calvagh O'Don- nell, and several of the men of Tircon- nell who were disaffected towards their * A large body of these Scottish adventurers pene- trated into Connaught in 1558, and -were hired by the northern MacWilliam, who was called Kichard-of-tlie- iron. But the earl of Clanrickard, Kichard, son of chief for his rebellion. Calvacjh in this emergency consulted his father, and by his advice resolved to avoid a pitched battle, and to have recourse to strata- gem. He caused his cattle to be driven to a distance, and when O'Neill entered his territor}^, and marched as far as the place now called Balleeghan, near Raphoe, he sent two spies into the Kiuel-Owen camp, while he himself hovered not far off with his small force. The spies mixed with O'Neill's soldiers, received rations, which they carried back as evidence of their success, and undertook to guide O'Donnell's army that night to O'Neill's tent, which is described as being distinguished by a great watchfire, a huge torch burning outside, sixty grim gallowglasses on one side of the entrance, with sharp, keen axes, ready for action, and as many stern and terrific Scots on the other, with their broadswords in hand. Overween- ing confidence had rendered O'Neill careless. He boasted that no one should be king in Ulster but himself, and despised the power of his crafty foe; but O'Donnell penetrated under cover of the darkness into the heart of O'Neill's camp, and proceeded to slaughter the men of Tyrone without resistance, so that the whole were routed or cut to pieces, while Shane himself escaping through the back of his tent, fled unattended except by two TJlick-na^gceann (the first earl), son of Richard, son of Ulick of Knackdoe, hearing of the arrival of this foreign host, marclied against them and cut them to pieces on the banks of the Moy. DEATH OF MARY. of Hugh O'Donneirs men, and by swim- ming across three rivers made his Avay to his own territory covered with con- fusion. The following year he procured the murder of Ferdoragh, Laron of Duugannon, and his father Con dying in captivity in Dublin, he assumed the chieftaincy without opposition. Meantime the war of extermination was carried on against the remnant of the old race in the territories which we may still call Leix and Offaly. The heart sickens at the narrative of merci- less ao'crression on the one side, and of indomitable resistance ou the other. The O'Conors, O'Mores, O'MoUoys, O'Carrolls, and the rest of them, were unrelentingly Jiunted down, and the whole country was made a scene of de- solation from the Shannon to the Wick- low mountains. But dark as this period is, we have arrived at one infinitely more gloomy in our history — the sanguinary reign of Elizabeth, which commenced on the day of Mary's death, November 17th, 1558. 350 ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH. CHAPTER XXXII. EEIGN OF ELIZABETH. Religious pliancy of Statesmen and fidelity of the people. — Shane O'Neill. — Acts of tlie Parliament of 1559. — Laws against the Catholic religion. — Sliserable condition of the Irish Church. — Discord in Thomond. — Machinations of Government against Shane O'Neill. — Capture of Calvagh O'DouneU by the latter. — War ■with Shane. — Defeat of the English. — Plan to assassinate the Tyrone Chief. — Submission of Shane, and hia visit to the Court of Elizabeth. — His return, further misunderstanding, and renewed peace with the Govern- ment. — O'Neill defeats the Scots of Clannaboy. — ^Feud between the Earls of Ormond and Desmond. — The latter woimded and captured at Affane. — The Earl of Sussex succeeded by Sir Henry Sidney. — Renewed war in Ulster. — O'NeiU invades the English Pale. — Defeated at Derry. — Burning of Derrj- and withdrawal of the English garrison. — Death of Calvagh O'DonueU. — O'NeiU defeated by Calvagh's successor, Hugh. — Hia disastrous flight. Appeal to the Scots, and Murder. — His character. — ^Visitation of Munster and Connaught, by Sidney. — Sidney's description of the State of the country. — His character of the great Nobles. — Base policy of the Government confessed by him. — His energy and severity. — Arrest of Desmond. — Commencement of serious troubles in the South. — Position of the Catholics.^Sir James FitzMaurice. — Parliament of 1.569. — Fraudulent elections. — Attainder of O'NeiU. — Claims of Sir Peter Carew. — Rebellion of Sir Edmund Butler. — Sidney's military Expedition to Munster. — Sir John Perrott Lord President of Munster, and Sir Edward Fitton President of Connaught. — Renewed war in the South. — Rebellion of the Earl of Thomond. — RebeUion of the sons of the Earl of Clanrickard. — Battle of Shrule. — The Castle of Aughnanure taken. — Siege and Capture of Castlemaine. — Submission of Sir James FitzMaurice. — Attempted English settlements in Ulster. — Horrible Massacre of the Irish in Clannaboy. — FaUure and Death of the Earl of Essex. — Sir Henry Sidney makes another visitation of the South and West. — Sir WiUiam Drury President of Munster, and Sir Nicholas Malby in Connaught. — lUegal Tax, Difficulties in the Pale. — Career and Death of Rory Oge O'More. — The Massacre of MuUaghmast. Contemporary Sovereigns and Smnts.—Vopes : Paul IV., Pius IV., Pius V., Gregory XIII.— Kings of France : Francis II., CliarlesIX., Henry III.— King of Spain, Philip II.— King of Portugal, Sebastian.— Sovereigns of Scotland: Mary, James VI.— Battle of Lepanto, 1571. — Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, 1.572. (A. D. 1558 TO A. D. 1578.) PLIANCY of conscience character- ized in a remarkable desfree the statesmen of the asje of which it is now our duty to treat. There aj^pears to have been no fixed principles of religion or politics among them, and the men who undertook to restore the ancient religion to its original state under the Catholic queen Mary, were found as ready and suitable instruments for its destruction at the beck of her Protes- tant sister and successor, Elizabeth Thus, Thomas Radcliffe, earl of Sussex, who had been lord lieutenant of Ireland under the former sovereign, continued in office under the latter, reversing. SHANE O'NEILL.. 351 under the altered rule, his own previous acts ; and Sir Henry Sidney, the treas- urer, who acted as deputy in the absence of Sussex, before the close of Mary's reign, was also appointed to the same charge, although to perform con- trary duties, when Sussex went to Eng- land after Elizabeth ascended the throne. But if those who lived within the sphere of court influence exhibited this lubri- city in their religious princij^les, it was not so with the general jwpulation of L'eland, who viewed such fickleness with horror, and who were roused to a sense of their own danger by the meas- m'es taken, on the accession of the new queen, to subvert their religion and to enforce the new creed and form of worship. Thus was a fresh element of strife introduced into this unhappy country. The native population had hitherto seen in their English rulers the plunderers of their ancestral lands and the exterminators of their race; but to this character was now super- added that of the revilers and per- secutors of their relicfion : while in regarding the English government in this latter point of view, a vast majority of the people of English descent in Ireland Avere now identified in senti- ment with the native Irish. On the other hand, the fidelity of the Irish to the religion of their fathers became branded with the stigma of rebellion ; their memories were blackened and their actions distorted by their successful ene- mies, and calumny was unsparingly add- ed to spoliation and persecirtion. Of this ungenerous conduct we have a marked instance in the case of Shane O'Neill, the prince of Tyrone, whose character has been depicted in revolt- ing colors by English historians. They describe him as a barbarian and as one addicted to every vice ; but if he had faults some of which we do not excuse, we know at least that he was chival- rous, confiding, and generous ; that with the exhausted resources of his small territory he was able to keep the power of England at bay ; that hg de- feated her experienced generals in the field, and foiled her statesmen in nego- tiation ; and that he combined with no ordinary qualities of mind an undaunted bravery, and an ardent love of his country. We have already seen how he assumed the chieftaincy on the death of his father, who closed his life in captivity, and how he thus set aside the claims of the sons of his elder but illegitimate brother, Mathew, or Fer- doragh, the late baron of Dungannon, who w^as slain at his instiafation ; and this course being in open defiance of English authoritj", which had always made common cause with Mathew, Sir Henry Sidney, as lord deputy in the absence of Sussex, now led an army to Dundalk, and summoned Shane to ac- count for his proceedings. The haughty chief of Tja-one replied to the summons by inviting the deputy to come to his court, and stand as sponsor to his child. Whatever motive may have actuated Sidney he accepted the in- • vitatiou, and was so influenced by the 352 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. arguments urged by O'Neill in support of his rights, and by his protestations of loyalty, that he withdrew his army, and promised to lay the matter before the queen. Thus for the moment were friendly relations established between the Ulster chieftain and the Pale ; but the government of the latter soon found sources of uneasiness in other quarters. Rumors of invasion from France and Spain became current; the earls of Kildare and Desmond held conferences of a auspicious nature^ and disaffection was more general and apparent as the principles of Elizabeth's government became intelligible to the country. A. D. 1560. — A parliament composed of seventy-six members was summoned to meet in Dublin on the 12th of Jan- uary this year.* It comprised the representatives of ten counties,f the remainder being " citizens and bur- gesses," says Leland, " of these towns in which the royal authority was predom- inant ; and with such a parliament," as the same Protestant historian admits, " it is little wonder that, in despite of clamor and opposition, in a session of a few weeks, the whole ecclesiastical sys- tem of queen Mary was entirely revers- ed." J The proceedings are involved in mystery, and the principal measures are believed to have been carried by * As the legal year, at this time, commenced in March, the montlis of January and February of the natu- ral year belonged to the common or preceding legal year ; hence this parliament of 2d Elizabeth, which was held in January, 1560, is often called the parliament of 1539. f The counties to which the writs were issued were Dublin, Meath, West Meath, Louth, Kildare, Cather- lough, Kilkenny, Waterford, Tipperary and Wexford. means fraudulent and clandestine ; but at all events it was enacted that the queen was the head of the church of Ireland, the reformed worship was re- established as under Edward VI., and the book of common jjrayer, with further alterations, re-introduced. Eve- ry person was bound to attend the new service under pain of ecclesiastical cen- sures and of a fine of twelve pence for each offence ; the first fruits and twen- tieths of the church revenue were re- stored to the crown ; and the right of collating to all vacant sees by royal letters patent was established instead of the form of a writ of conge iVelire, the prelates being ordered to consecrate the person thus aj^pointed within the space of twenty days under the penalty of premunire. The laws made in Mary's reign restoring the civil establishment of the Catholic religion were repealed ; all officers and ministers, ecclesiastical or lay, were bound to take the oath of supremacy under pain of forfeiture and total incapacity; and any one who maintained the spiritual supremacy of the pope was to forfeit for the first offence all his estates real and personal, or be imprisoned for one year if not worth £20 ; for the second offence to be liable to premunire ; and for the third to be guilty of high treason.§ X Leland, Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 234. g As the statute of supremacy, 28th Henry VIII., chap. 5 (A. D. 1536), was passed by the illegal and arbitrary exclusion of the proctors from parliament, and by the preliminary dragooning of the nation by lord Leonard Gray, who, as Sir John Davis says, " to prepare the minds of the people to obey this statute, began first with a martial course, and by making a victorious circuit PENAL LAWS. These laws against the j'eligiou of the people had little effect beyond the bounds of the Pale, while even within its precincts they were generally met by passive resistance, and became in many instances a dead letter. When the Catholic clergy were obliged to flee from their churches, their places were in a majority of cases left unsupplied, or ignorant and worthless men, who abandoned their religion for temporal advanta^ces, were substituted. Even those who enjoyed the rank of bishoj)s under the Reformation, showed them- rouBd tlie kingdom, wlierebj- the principal septs of the Irish were all terrified and most of them broken ;" (Hist. Eel.) ; BO is there sufScient reason to believe that the statute of uniformity of the 2d of Elizabeth was obtained forcibly or surrejititiously from the parliament of 1560. " In the very beginning of that parliament," says Ware, " most of the nobility and gentry were so divided in opinion about ecclesiastical government that the earl of Susses dissolved them, and went over to England to consult her majesty on the affairs of this kingdom." . From this and subsequent proceedings of the vice- roy, it may be inferred that the act was not carried in a regular manner. It is even said that the carl of Sus- sex, to calm the protests which were made in parlia- ment when it was found that the law had been passed by a few members assembled privately, pledged himself solemnly that it would not generally be enforced during the reign of Elizabeth. (See CamhrenHs Ever., also An- aUcta Sacra, p. 431.) Dr. Curry (Civil Wart, book ii. chap, iii.) has collected some curious facts in illustration ^ of this point ; but it is not true that the statute of uni- formity was kept in abeyance untU the beginning of the reign of James I., although not generally enforced until that time. On the 23d May, 1561, commissioners were appointed to enforce the 2d Eliz. against Catholics in W^est Meath ; in December, 1562, a commission with similar jurisdiction was appointed for Armagh and Jileath ; and in 1564, commissioners were appointed for the whole kingdom, to inquire into all ofiences or mis- demeanors contrary to the statutes of 2d Elizabeth, and concerning all heretical opinions, ire, against said stat- utes. Other commissions were appointed in subsequent years, but the proceedings of none of these appear to be now ascertainable. 45 selves in many instances so notoriously devoid of honesty, by making away with the temporalities of their sees, that it was soon necessary to enact a law break iug the fraudulent leases whick they had made, and prohibiting for the future such, alienations.'"' The sacred edifices fell into ruins, and the peojile were obliged to worship God in secret and retired places; so that in half-a- dozen years from Elizabeth's accession, her dejDuty, Sir Henry Sidney, was able to describe the miserable couditioh of the Irish church, as "spoiled, as well * See Harris's Ware's Irish Bishops, from which it would appear that the new Protestanf bishops of Eliza- beth's time very generally plundered the sees iuto which they were introduced by bartering away the revenues " through fear of another change." See more particu- larly the articles on Jliler llagrath, archbishop of Cashel ; Alexander Craik, bishop of Kildare ; bishop Lyon, of Boss ; bishop Field, of Leighlin ; bishop Deve- reux, of Ferns, &c. Some of these men " by most scan- dalous wastes and alienations," reduced their sees to such a state that their successors were scarcely left means to subsist, and a union of sees became necessary. The conduct of some of the first of these " reformed" bishops appears to have been in other respects also any thing but exemplary. Thus William Ejiight, the co- adjutor of MQer Magrath in Cashel, having excited " the scorn and derision of the people" by his public drunken- ness, was obliged to fly to England (Ware, p. 4S4). Marmaduke Jliddleton, of Waterford, translated to St. David's, was degraded for the forgery of a will (Peter Heylins Examoi Hist.). Richard Dixon, of Cloyne and Ross, was deprived " projiter adulterium manifestum ct confessum" (oflBcial paper quoted in Gilbert's Hist, of Dub., vol. i., p. 114), kc. As to archbishop Bro^vne, Henry VIII. charged him with " lightness in behavior,'' and said that " all virtue and honesty were almost van- ished from him" (State, P., clxxiv.) ; while Bale in his own gross manner accused him of " di'unkenuess and gluttony," calling him an " epicurious archbishop," a "brockish swine," a "dissembling proselite," and a "pernicious papist" (The Vocaci/oii of Joluui Bayle, re- printed in the Harleian MiseeUany. vol. vi.). And Dow- ling, in one pithy sentence, describes Travels, Edward VI. 's bishop of Leighlin, as " cruel, covetous. Vexing hia clergy" (An. nib., p. 38, ed. of 1840). 354 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. by the rnin of the temples as the dissi- pation and embezzlement of the patri- mony, and most of all for want of suffi- cient ministers;" adding, that "so de- formed and overthrown a church there is not, I am sure, in any region where Christ is professed !" * Meanwhile, the Irish were, as usual, a prey to discord among themselves. In Thomond, great confusion prevailed, owing to the e"fforts of Teige and Don- ough, sons of Murrough O'Brien, to wrest the chieftaincy from Conor O'Bri- en, earl of Thomond. Garrett, who had succeeded his father, James, as earl of Desmond, sided with the former, while Conor called in the aid of his friend, the earl of Clanrickard. The three earls, with their I'espective armies, met at Bally-Ally, a few miles north of Ennis, and after an obstinate fight the combined forces of Conor O'Brien and the Burkes were defeated. The pro- ceeding of the earl of Desmond on this occasion was regarded by the English government as an act of rebellion. As to Thomond, it continued to be for some years disturbed by the rival fac- tions. Among the claimants to the chieftaincy, under the law of tauistry, were Donnell and Teige, uncles of * Sir Henry Sidney's Despatches. In a letter to tljo queen, that deputy draws a melancholy picture of the ruinous state of the church : In Meath, ■which he refers to as '• the best peopled diocese and the best governed country" of Ireland, he states that out of 224 parish churches 105 had fallen -wholly into decay, without roofs, doors or windows, the very walls in many places being down ; while the revenues were confiscated to the crown. Fifty-two others had incumbents, and as many more wore private property. By a curious inconsisteu Conor; but in 1560 a partial settle- ment of these disputes was effected by a grant of the disti'ict of Corcomroe, with certain church lands, to Sir Don- nell, who, some years after, served the queen efficiently as sheriff of Thomond. The English government evinced its distrust of Shane O'Neill by a course of action well calculated to excite that chieftain's hostility. Efforts were made to alienate the neighboring chiefs from him, and for that purpose honors were conferred on some, and promises held out to others. O'Reilly was created earl of Brenny, or Breftny, and baron of Cavan ; and a messenger was sent by a circuitous route to Calvagh O'Don- uell, bearing letters from the queen, offering to create him earl of Tii-connell, together with letters from the earl of Sussex to O'Donnell's wife — a Scottish lady, who is generally called the coun- tess of Argyle — informing her that the queen ^yas about to send her some costly presents. O'Neill who well un- derstood this indirect mode of showing enmity against himself, soon made the recipients of English favors rue the friendship which was only intended to wean them from the interests of their country. lie invaded the territory of CT, at the commencement of Elizabeth's reign, those ministers who had no knowledge of the English lan- guage were allowed to read the Liturgy in Latin ; and Peter Lombard, the Catholic archbishop of Armagh, tells us, that in the five years of Elizabeth's reign many of the Irish, from ignorance, attended the new service, tailing with them their rosaries and crucifi.^cs, but that as soon as they becam-e fully aware of the religious changes that had taken place, they shunned the churches witli horror. {Commentaries, p. 283.) AGGRESSIOXS OF SHANE O'NEILL. 355 the new eaii of Breuny, and after lay- ing it waste, compelled O'Eeill}'- to be- come bis vassal. Against O'Dounell bis enmity was not of recent date, aud be seized an opportunity which now pre- sented itself of gratifying all bis ven- geance. He learned that the principal part of O'Donnell's army was absent on a hostile excursion to Lou£:h Veaob in Donegal, while Calvagh himself was almost unattended at the monastery of *Killodonnell, near the upper part of Lough Swilly ; and making a sudden descent, he carried oif Calvagh and his wife prisoners. The former he incarce- rated in one of his strongholds, and the latter, whose subsequent shameless con- duct has made some suspect that it was she who betrayed her husband into O'Neill'f! bands, be made bis mistress.* He now declared himself chief of all Ulster. O'Neill, in fine, no longer disguised bis hatred of England, but openly de- clared bis detei'mination to contend against English power, not only in bis own province of Ulster, but in Leinster and Munster. He led an army into Bregia, plundered the territory of the Pale, and only returned to the north at the approach of winter, when be had destroyed the corn, and left no food iu * The circumstance mentioned above leaves a blemish on tlie character of Shane O'NeUl which even the man- ners of the age and the life of violence which ho was fated to pass cannot palliate. The woman who thus Became liis mistress was the step-mother of his wife, the latter being the daughter of Calvagh O'Donnell, bv a former wife. The Four Masters, who record the seizure of Calvagh under the year 1.550, state, under the date of 15C1, that " Mary, the daughter of Calvagh and wife of the country to support bis army. Eliza- beth bad caused an assembly of the Irish clergy to be held this year for the purpose of enforcing the Protestant worship throughout the kingdom, and had given a foretaste of the persecution which might be expected by casting William Walsh, then bishop of Meatb, into prison, for his O2')position to the newly-imported lituigy. These pro- ceedings filled the country with disaf- fection, which was stimulated by hopes of aid from foreign princes — a course for which Elizabeth's government af- forded the amplest justification by the aid which it lent to the rebellious sub- jects of other countries. Shane O'Neill asked the kins; of France to send him five or six thousand men, and with such assistance at that moment he would have bad little difliculty in liberating his country from the English yoke. A. D. 1561. — It is said that Elizabeth had, at this time, designed to try the effect of a conciliatory j^olicy with O'Neill, and that Sussex, when return- ing from England, iu June this year, had received' instructions to that effect ; but, be that as it may, the contrary course was pursued. The lord lieuten- ant bad brought reinforcements from England, and, with as powerful an army O'Niell, died of horror, loathing, grief, and deep anguish, in consequence of the severity of the imprisonment inflicts ed on her father by O'Neill in her presence." About the latter year, CNeUI, in his letters to queen Elizabeth, frequently expressed a wish that " some English gentle- woman of noble blood," might be given to him as wife ; the lady whose hand he de.?u-ed thus to obtain being the sister of his most inveterate foe, the earl of Sus- ses. 356 KEIGN OF ELIZABETH. as lie could collect, iucluding tlie forces of tlie earl of Ormond, he marched to Armagh, where he threw up entrench- ments round the cathedral with the view of establishing a strong garrison there. He sent a large body of troops into Tyrone, and these were returning laden with spoils when O'Xeill set uj)on them, defeated them with slaughter, and retook the booty. This defeat produced intense alarm in the Pale, and created no slight uneasiness even in England, while it proportionately increased the confidence of the Irish. Sussex had re- course to negotiations, but O'Neill de- clared that he Avould listen to no terms until tlie English troops were with- drawn from Armao;h. Fresh reinforce- ments were poured in from England, and the earls of Desmond, Ormond, Kildare, Thomond, and Clanrickard, are said to have all assembled in the lord lieutenant's camp, in obedience to his call. With a large and well-equipped army Sussex now advanced into Tyrone as far as Lough Foyle, and devastated the country ; but O'Neill, adopting the tactics which had always frustrated the English when their greatest efforts were made in the way of preparation, with- drew beyond their reach to his forests * The letter of Sussex to tlie queen, in -n-liicli this atrocious plot is fully developed, concludes thus : — " In fine I brake with him to kill Shane, and hound myself by my oath to see him have a himdrcd marks of land, to him and liis heirs, for reward. Ho seemed desirous to serve your highness, and to have the land, but fearful fo do it, doubting his own escape after. I told him the ■ways he might do it, and how to escape after with safety, which he offered and promised to do ;" and from the next sentence it may be inferred either that the and mountains. To rid himself of a brave enemy, whom he was thus unable to subdue, the viceroy now had recourse to the darkest treachery. He hired an assassin to murder Shane O'Neill, and this Avith the cognizance and sanction of queen Elizabeth ; but, as the atroci- ous project did not succeed, we should probably be left in ignorance of the fact that it was ever contemplated, were it not for the evidence preserved in the State Paper Office. The name of the' intended murderer was Nele Gray ; but he either lacked courage or the obstacles in his way Avere too great, and the deed was not perpetrated.* What the lord lieutenant did not succeed in effecting Avitli his army was brought about through the mediation of the earl of Kildare, whose family connection with O'Neill gave him con- siderable influence with that chief. The persuasions of Kildare were backed by a pressing letter of invitation from Eli- zabeth to Shane to repair to her court ; amd that redoubtable chieftain was in- duced to make his submission and sign articles of peace. Calvagh O'Donnell had, a short time before this, been ransomed from captivity by the Kinel- Connell, and Sussex having now march- assassin would forfeit his own life if he failed to perform his task, or that other assassins could be found for tlie purpose, as the lord lieutenant adds : — " I assure your highness he may do it without danger, if he will, and if he will not do what he may in your service, there wiU bo done to him what others may." Throughout the letter, as Mr. Moore observes, there is not a single hint of doubt or scruple as to tlie moral justifiableness of the trans- action — such was " the frightful famiharity with deeds of blood which then prevailed in the highest stations." SHANE O'NEILL CONCILIATED. 3.", 7 ed throufrli Tirconnell to restore him to his principal castles and strongholds, brought the Ulster campaign to a satis- factory conclusion. O'Neill, on his part, repaired to Dublin, and desired to pro- ceed to England, but Sussex threw various obstacles in the way ; one cause of delay relating to the loan of a sum of three thousand pounds for the expenses of the journey. Sussex also wrote to Cecil, suggesting that the queen should give O'Neill a cool reception, or " show strangeness" to him ; but in this the enmity of the lord lieutenant was not gratified, for Elizabeth received Shane very graciously, and in return he made strong protestations of friendship and loyalty to her. The decision on his claims was at first deferred by the queen, until Hugh, the young baron of Dungannon, should arrive and plead * The Four Masters say that O'Neill went to England about All-Hallowtide, in 1561, and that he returned to Ireland in May, in following year ; but Ware, Cox, and others, who have followed them, speak obscurely of two journej's of Shane O'Neill to England, one in 15G1, and the other in 1503. Camden refers to that chieftain's visit under the date of 1503, at the beginning of which year O'Neill certainly was in London. The articles by which CNeUl bound himself to serve the queen are dated at Benburb, 18th November, 15G3, as appears from the Patent EoU of that date ; and they cite the articles indented between the queen and him, and dated at Windsor, 15th January, 1503. By these articles, in consideration of his becoming a faithful subject, he was constituted " captain or governor'' of Tyrone " in the same manner as other captaia. (chiefs) of the said nation, caUed O'Neles, had rightfully executed that office in the time of King Henry 8. ;" and, moreover, ho was " to enjoy and have the name and title of O'Nele, with the like authority, &e., as any other of his an-, cestors, with the service and homage of all the lords and captains called Urraughts, and other nobles of the said nation of O'Nele," upon condition " that he and his said nobles should truly and faithfully, from time to his own cause ', but an unfounded re- port having reached that Hugh Avas killed in a feud, Elizabeth no longer hesitated to grant Shane a full pardon and to recosrnize his risrht of succession to the chieftaincy.* A. D. 1562. — -Well pleased with his visit, O'Neill returned to Dublin, where he arrived on the 26th of May, having obtained a further loan of £300 from the queen for his journey home ; but learning thatTurlough Luiueach O'Neill was setting himself up as chieftain, he caused proclamation to be made in the streets of the recognition of his title by Elizabeth, and hastened to the north, where he was received in triumph by the men of Tyrone. A. D. 1564. — Ulster continued, nev- ertheless, in an unsettled state ; the neighboring chieftains complained of time, serve her majesty, and where necessary wage war against all her enemies, in such manner as the lord lieutenant for the time being should direct." The name or title of O'Neill was to be contingent on the decision of parliament, which should inqmre concerning the letters patent granted by Henry VIII. to his father, and if these were to be adjudged void, or recked, "then he should forbear to use the title of O'Nele, and should be created and named earl of Tirone," and "all Ms follow- ers, called Urraughts, who belonged to him or his predecessors, should be assigned to him by authority of said parliament, &c." Camden describes the rude pomp with which Shane O'NeiU appeared in London, escorted by a body-guard of gallowgl asses, with bare heads, long and dishevelled hair, crocus dyed shirts, wide sleeves, short jackets, shaggy cloaks, and broad battle-axes ; and he tells us that they were objects of great wonder to the English {AnncUes, p. 69, ed. 1039) ; while we learn from Campion (page 189, ed. 1809) that the hauteur of the Irish prince excited the merriment of the affected gaUants of Elizabeth's court, who styled him " O'Neale the great, cousin to S. Patricke, friend to the Qucene of England, enemy to all the world be.'iides !" 358 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. aggressions ou the part of Shane, and the English government pursued its insidious policy of division by setting up the former against him. Maguire of Fermanagh rendered himself particular- ly obnoxious to the chief of Tyrone, by his alliance with O'Donuell, and his subservience .to the English, and O'Neill accordingly laid Avaste his territory by repeated incursions.* Manus O'Donuell died in 1563, and Calvagh repaired to Dublin to complain to the lord lieuten- ant against O'Neill. The government charged O'Neill with bad faith, but the latter flung back the imputation, and with good reason, for the English do not appear to have kept any of their promises to him. He refused to meet the viceroy at Duudalk, and was in fact once more at war with Enfjland: but after some fruitless attempts at media- tion by the earls of Kildare and Or- mond. Sir Thomas Cusack succeeded in restoring peace, and articles were signed by Shane, at his house at Benburb, in November, 1563.f For some time Shane O'Neill governed Tyrone with such order, that if a robbery was committed within his territory, he either caused tiie property to be restored, or reim- bursed the loser out of his own treasury. He made war upon the Scots who had settled inClannaboy, and defeated them * Some of Maguire's letters to the (art of Sussex are printed in the collection of State Papers. In one of these lie requests the lord lieutenant to write to him in English, and not in Latin, as the latter language was well known, and but few of tlie Irish had any knowl- edge of the former, in which, therefore, the secrets of their correspondence could be best preserved. in a succession of attacks, slaying TOO of them in the last battle at Glenflesk, in 15G6, and taking among other prisoners their leader, James MacDonnell, who died of his wounds, and his brother Sorley Boy. This victoiy, while it in- creased his power, only excited still more the jealousy and susjjicions of the government, to ■whom Shane refused to surrender the charge of his prisoners ; and, as the sequel Avill show, it proved ere long fatal to himself. The importance of the events in the north has for some time withdrawn our attention from the feuds which prevailed in other parts of the country, and which for the most part were but of local in- terest. Such were the dissensions of which Thomond had been so lona: the theatre, and the j:)artial settlement of which, by the grant of Corcomroe to Donnell O'Brien, in 1504, we have al- ready mentioned; but a violent feud, which broke out between the earls of Ormond and Desmond, caused more anxiety to government. The former of these noblemen had embraced the new creed, and following the traditions of his family, was a faitliful supporter of English interests;;); while the Geraldiue chief was firm in his attachment to Catholicity, and was stigmatized with the name of rebel. In 1562 both earls f An outline of these articles has been given in a note on tlic preceding page. , I Queen Elizabeth, who was related to the Butlers by her mother, iised to boast of the loyalty of the house of Ormond. FEUDS OF DESMOND AND ORMOND. 359 appeared at court iu obedience to a summons from the queen ; and wliile Ormoud Avas sent back to take part in the proceedings against O'Neill, Des- mond was jjardoned on certain condi- tions, the principal of which was that he should abolish coyn and livery, and abrogate all Irish laws and customs within his territory. The old strife, however, soon broke out moi'e fiercely than ever. In the beginning of 1565 the earl of Desmond proceeded with a small force to levy coyn and livery, and some other tax which he claimed from his kinsman Sir Maurice FitzGerald of Decies, a nobleman who was also related to the Butlers. Sir Maurice applied to these latter for aid, and the earl of Or- mond came Avith an army twice as numerous as that which Desmond had brought. A battle was fought at Affane, a little to the south of Cappoquin, iu Waterford, when the earl of Desmond was wounded and made prisoner.* A. D. 1566. — About the close of 1564 the earl of Sussex obtained his final recall from Ireland, where his unconcili- ating temper, and personal animosities had rendered the duties of government exceedingly irksome ; and Sir Henry Sidney arrived in Dublin in January, this year, with ample j^owers as the queen's repi-esentative. The new lord deputy was received with extravagant demonstrations of joy by the population of the Pale ;* and by the introduction of * It was on tliis occasion that Desmond, ■while heing carried from the field, and tauntingly asked by his enemies, " Where now was the proud earl of Desmond ?" a new set of people into oflice he -pve- pared for a more vigorous administra- tion of affairs. On his arrival he found Shane O'Neill again in open hostility to England, and he at once collected a powerful army to take the field against him. He stirred up the minor chieftains of Ulster to resist O'Neill's claims of suzerainty, and we are told that the ai'i'ogance and violence of Shane ren- dered this task an easy one. Commis- sioners w^ere, however, sent to O'Neill himself, to try what might still be effected by negotiation, but he treated their overtures with scorn, and said that as Ulster had belonged to his an- cestors, so it now belonged to him, and having won it by the sword, by the sword he was resolved to keep it. He boasted that " he could bring into the field 1,000 horse and 4,000 foot, and that he was able to burn and spoil to Dublin gates, and come away unfought." If he had been as prudent as he was valiant, this defiance might have been of more avail. He led an army to the vicinity of Dundalk about the end of Jul)', and Sidney marched with a large force to meet him ; but with the ex- ception of some skirmishing, no collision took place between them, and the dep- uty returned to Dublin. O'Neill now invaded the English Pale, and wasted the country, but he was successfully resisted by the garrison which had been left by Sidney in Dundalk, and received haughtUy replied, " VThere he ought to be, upon the necks of the Butlers !" The earl appears to have been soon after liberated. 360 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. a still more serious repulse from an English garrison, placed, at tlie solici- tation of Calvagh O'Douuell, in Derry, under a brave and experienced officer, Colonel Randolph, who is said to have l)een the only person killed on the Eng- lish side in O'Neill's attack.* Sidney, at the head of a powerful army, marched through Tyrone and Tirconnell, and thence through Connaught to the Pale, but did not succeed in bringing O'Neill to an engagement. A. D. 1567. — Hugh O'Donnell suc- ceeded to the chieftaincy of Tirconnell on the sudden death of his brother Cal- vagh, and proved to be a more danger- ous and energetic foe to Shane O'Neill than any of the others whom the policy of the deputy had raised up against him among the Ulster chiefs ; although in his brother's life-time he had been Shane's friend, and was in that chief's camp when he invaded Tirconnell in 155*7. After the old Irish fashion Hugh inau- gurated his rule by a " chieftain's first hosting" into Shane's territorj^, and this was followed by another in the follow- ing year (1567), which so exasperated the chief of Tyrone that he collected a numerous army, and invaded Tirconnell, crossing the estuary of the river Swilly, at low watei', a short distance below Letterkenny, and attacking the small * Shortly after the defeat of Shane O'Neill before Perry, that tovra was destroyed by fire, and the cathe- dral, which had been converted by the Englisli into an arsenal, fell a prey to the flames. The powder magazine was blown up, the provisions destroyed, the sick soldiers killed in the hospital, and the English garrison com- pelled to abandon tho place. The cause of this fire, which occurred in April, 1.560, could not bo explained ; forces of Hugh, who was encamped at Ardnagarry, on the north side of the river. The position of Hugh was for a moment desperate, but skilful general- ship and impetuosity made up for the smallness of his numbers, and the total rout of O'Neill's army was the result. During the battle the returning tide had covered the sands which a little before had aftbrded so ready a passage, and a great number of O'Neill's jDanic- strickeu men j)lungiug into the waves were drowned, their loss by flood and by the sword being variously stated at 1,300 or 3,000 men. O'Neill himself fled alone along the banks of the river, westward, to a ford near Scarrift'hollis, about two miles higher up than Letter- kenny, where he crossed under the guidance of a party of the O'Gallaghers, subjects of O'Donnell, to whom he was probably unknown, and thence he found his way back, quite crest-fallen, to Ty- rone. Tlie annalists say, " his reason and senses became deranged after this defeat.'' He hesitated a moment whether he should offer his submission to the lord deputy, or apj^ly for aid to the Scots, but by the advice of his secretary he adoj^ted the latter alternative. An army of the Clanu Donnell had just arrived fi-om the Hebrides, under some of the very leaders whom Shane had and the Irish attributed it to the desecration of St. Columbkille's sacred precincts by a heretical garrison ; as they also did the death of Calvagh O'Donnell, who had brought the English there, and %vlio fell dead from his horse, in the midst of his cavalry, on the 2Gth of October that year. — See O'SuUivan's Hisi. Cath., p. 96, Dublin, 1800. MURDER OF SHANE O'NEILL. 361 defeated not quite two years before at Glenflesk, and who thirsted for revenge. They gladly accepted his invitation, and he proceeded to meet them at Cushen- dun (Bun-abhan-Duine), in Antrim, sending his prisoner, Sorley Boy Mac- Donnell, before him, the better to propitiate them should any of their old enmity remain. The Scots invited O'Neill to their camp, which he entered unsuspectingly, accompanied only by his mistress, the wife (now widow) of Calvagh O'Donnell, his secretary, and fifty horsemen. A banquet was pre- pared, but in the midst of the carousal a brawl was purposely got up, and several Scots rushing simultaneously upon O'Neill, despatched him with in- numerable wounds, his followers being subsequent!)'' cut to pieces. His body, wrapt in the yellow shirt of a kerne. * The character of Shane O'Neill has been blackened by English historians, but to accounts from sources so hostile little credit is due. Camden describes him as "homicidiis et adulteriis contaminatissimus, helluo maximus, ebrietate adeo insigni, ut ad corpus, vino et aqua Titse immodic^ haustJ inflammatum, refrigeran- dum, Bepius mento tends terra couderetur." (Annales, &c., p. 130.) Hoolier speaks of his cellar at Dundrum, in which he is said to have kept a stock of 200 tuns of vrine. He possessed singiilar strength of character. Sir Henry Sidney, in one of his letters, says he "is the only strong man in Ireland." Campion, who was his contemporary, and who writes as his enemy, stUl gives him credit for great charity. " Sitting at meate, before he put one morseU into his mouth, he used to slice a portion above the dayly almes, and send it namely to some begger at his gate, saying, it was meete to serve Christ first." (Campion, Hist, of Ireland, p. 189, ed. 1809.) But one of the most remarkable circumstances connected with this extraordinary man was the strong and favorable impression which he had made on the mind of queen Elizabeth ; a feeling which, says Jloore, ' was shown by her retaining towards him the same friendly bearing through aU the strife, confusion, and — what, in her eyes, was even stiU worse — lavish expendi- 40 was cast into an open pit, whence it was soon after taken by Captain Pierse, an Englishman, who is suspected of having suggested the murder, or of being in some way concerned in the deed ; and the head havins: been cut off was taken to the lord deputy, who caused it to be placed on a spike on the highest tower of Dublin castle, and rewarded Pierse with a thousand marks, the sum offered by proclamation for the head of the northern chieftain. Such was the tragic and unworthy end of Shane O'Neill, whom English arms had not been able to subdue, but who fell a victim to his own I'ashness, to the treachery of pre- tended friends, and the unprincipled policy of the English government.* About the end of January, 1567, Sir Henry Sidney set out on a visitation of Munster and Connaught, and the account ture, of which he continued for several yeara to be the unceasing cause.'' She frequently discountenanced the hostile movements against him, and so well was her leniency towards him tmderstood that, in 1566, Sir William FitzWilliam complained in a letter to Cecil that " the councU are not permitted to write the truth of CXeUl's evil doings." He was jiopular even in the Pale, for his generous and high spirit commanded the respect both of friends and foes. By the Irish he was usually styled Shane-an^imnais, i. e. " John of the am- bition or pride ;" and he is also called DongaUeach, or the Donnellian, as he was fostered by an O'Donnell. (Four Masters, vol. v., p. 1569, note.) Ware says, on the authority of official papers, that the wars of Shane O'Neill cost Elizabeth the sum of £147,407 " over and above the cesses laid on the country ;" and that " 3,500 of her majesty's soldiers were slain by him and his party, besides what they slew of the Scots and Irish." (Annals, A. D. 1568.) The interval between his defeat by Hugh O'Donnell and his murder by the Scots was from the Sth of May to the middle of June. The circum- stances of his death are minutely related by Campion (pp. 189-192) ; and, also, with some slight discrepancy, by Camden {nhi supra). 3C.2 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. transmitted by bim to Elizabeth of the state of these two provinces affords a frio-htful picture of the effects of misrule. The country was everywhere reduced to utter ruin. Thus, describing Munster, he writes : — " Like as I never was in a more pleasant country in all my life, so never saw I a more waste and desolate land. Such horrible and lamentable spectacles are there to behold as the burning of villages, the ruin of churches, the wasting of such as have been good towns and castles ; yea, the view of the bones and skulls of the dead subjects who, partly by murder, partly by fa- mine, have died in the fields, as in troth hardly any christian with dry eyes could behold." Even in the territory subject to the earl of Ormond he witnessed a " want of justice, judgement, and stout- ness to execute." Tipperary and Lim- erick were in a horrible state of deso- lation. The earl of Desmond was " a man both devoid of judgment to govern and will to be ruled." MacCarthy More, who two years before had surrendered his territories to the queen, receiving them back by letters patent, with the titles of earl of Clan care* and baron of Valentia, was "willing enough to be ruled, but wanted force and credit to rule." The earl of Thomond "had neither wit of himself to govern, nor grace or capacity to learn of others ;" and the lord deputy confessed that he would most willingly have committed * This title has been variously written Clancare, Qlencar (by Cox), and Clancarrha ; tho last form nearly expresses tho sound of the Irish name, Clancarthig or the said earl to prison if he could find any person in whom he could confide to put in his place. The earl of Claniickard was well-intentioned, and otherwise met the deputy's approbation, but " he was so overruled by a putative wife as oft times when he best intendeth she forceth him to do the worst ;" and his sons were so turbulent that they kept the whole country in disorder. He found Galway like a frontier town, in an enemy's country, the inhabitants obliged to keep watch and ward to protect themselves against their dangerous neighbors ; and Athenry was reduced so low that there were then in it but four respectable house-holders, who presented the dep- uty with the rusty keys of their town — " a pitiful and lamentable present" — requesting him to keep the keys, " inas- much as they were so impoverished by the extortion of the lords about them as they were no longer able to keep that town." Such was the state in which Sir Henry Sidney found the countiy — a state which might be traced to what he designates the "cowardly policy" that would rule the nation by sowing di- visions among the peoj^le, or, as he himself expresses it, " by keeping them in continual dissension, for fear lest through their quiet might follow I wot not what." And he adds : — " so far hath that policy, or I'ather lack of policy, in keeping dissension among them, pre- Clancarthy, and was probably the correct Anglo-Irish orthography. POLITICAL KTTRIGUES IN DUBLIN. 363 vailed, as now, albeit all tbat are alive would become honest and live in quiet, yet are there not left alive, in these two provinces, the twentieth person neces- sary to inhabit the same !" Sidney encountered the difficulties of his position with energy which was un- restrained by either prudence or human- ity, and which alarmed even Elizabeth, who would have preferred dealing with them in an indirect manner. He sternly reproved the nobles for the mismanage- ment of their respective districts ; but against Desmond he was particularly severe. The great power of that noble- man, and his high position in the esteem of the Catholics, rendered him a special object of the deputy's hostility. He was accordingly summoned to attend the latter in his visitation of Munster, and after being unknowingly guarded for some days, was at length publicly seized in Kilmallock, and carried about as a prisoner by Sidney during the remainder of his progress. The sons of the earl of Clanrickard were also taken up in Con- naught, and the lord deputy returned to Dublin with his captives on the 16th of April, having caused unnumbered offenders to be executed in the course of his visitation.* The queen was un- easy at the tumults which these strong * In one of Ms despatches, Sidney thus alludes to the countless executions which graced his progress on this occasion. " I write not," he says, " the names of each particular varlet that hath died since I arrived, as well by the ordinary course of the law, and the martial law, as flat fighting with them, when they would take food without the good will of the giver, for I think it no stuff worthy the loading of my letters with ; but I do measures produced, especially in Mun ster, and Sidney haviug sought permis- sion to explain his conduct in person, proceeded to England for that purpose, in October, taking with him the eai-1 of Desmond and his brother, John, who was sent for and then arrested ; and being also accompanied by Hugh O'Neill, baron of Dungannon, the O'Conor Sligo, and other Irish chief- tains ; Dr. Robert Weston, lord chan- cellor, and Sir William FitzWilliam, treasurer, being left in charge of the government as lords justices. A. D. 1568. — Scarcely was Ulster tem- porarily pacified by the death of Shane O'Neill when the southern province be- came the scene of troubles of a most formidable character. During the im- prisonment of Gerald, earl of Desmond, and his brother. Sir John, the leadership of the Geraklines was assumed, at the desire, it is said, of the captives, by their cousin, Sir James FitzGerald — son of Maurice of Desmond, bi'other of the late earl, James. Sir James FitzMaurice, as he is usually called, was warlike and en- terprising. He resisted successfully the jiretensions to the earldom put forward by Thomas Rua, an elder, but illegiti- mate brother of earl Gerald's, although this claimant was supported by the But- assure you the number of them is great and some of the best, and the rest tremble ; for most part they fight for their dinner, and many of them lose their heads before they be served with supper. Down they go in every corner, and down they shall go, God willing!" (Sidney's Despatches, preserved in the British Museum, MSS. Cot. Titus B. X.) 364 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. lers, and by FitzMaurice of Kerry, and others.* In tlie course of this quarrel, Sir James besieged FitzMaurice of Kerry in his castle of Lixnaw, but was defeated and compelled to raise the siege. About the same time the newly- created earl of Clancare threw off the English yoke and asserted his hereditary rights to South Munster ; while in the absence of the earl of Ormond in Eng- land, his brother. Sir Edmond Butler, involved himself in dissensions with the Geraldines. The attachment to their ancient faith evinced by the Irish had long since attracted the attention of the Catholic potentates of Euroj^e, and promises of aid were held out to them both by France and Spain. The sover- eign pontiff, on his side, felt it his duty to encourage and sustain, by every means in his power, those Catholics who were engaged in a life-and-death struggle for their religion against the innovators ; so that to him also we find the Irish applying, not only for spiritual succour, but for men, arms, and money, during the wars of Elizabeth. The po- sition of the Irish Catholics had become intolerable. If the yoke of the stranger * Thomas Rua, or the red, was the son of the late earl, James, by his first wife, Johanna, daugliter of Maurice Eoche, viscount Fermoy ; but as his mother's marriage was pronounced invalid, on tlie ground of consanguinity, Thomas was reckoned illegitimate. On failing in his attempt to gain the earldom he lived quietly in his castle of Conoha, County of Cork, where he died, January 18th, 1595. (Lodge.) His son became famous as the so-called " Sugan earl," and will be mentioned in our pages hereafter. f We are unwilling to infringe in the slightest degree on the field of polemics, but the student of liistory can- not but observe in passing how men with whom private had been hitherto hard enough to bear, it was infinitely more so now, when the oppressor added to his ancient, unre- lenting, national animositj^, the fierce spirit of religious persecution which the Reformation had everywhere enkindled in its partisans.f The people saw their churches desolate — their monasteries confiscated — their priests proscribed — and their religion trampled under foot. They were swayed to and fro by un- steady leaders — they were disorganized by their ancient strife — but now they rallied to more sacred watchwords, and while they fought with the chivalry of crusaders, they died with the heroism of martyrs. Such was the general char- acter of the struggle which had now commenced in the southern province, and which was sustained for many years, and spread more or less through- out all Ireland. A. D. 1569. — In September, 1568, Sir Henry Sidney returned to Ireland as lord deputy, and landed at Carrickfer- gus, where he received the submission of Turlough Luineach O'Neill, who, on the death of Shane, had been elected to the chieftaincy. J The deputy came pre- j udgment in matters of faith was a fundamental prin- ciple, would monopolize that privilege for themselves, and, with such arguments as the sword and the halter, compel other men to surrender their private j udgment to them. Yet such was the case in every country where the professors of the reformed creed gained the ascen- dency, and where the rest of the population wished to persevere in the faith of their fathers — but nowhere was this spirit of persecution jiroductive of more melancholy results than in Ireland. J Sir Turlough, who assumed the title of the O'Neill after the death of Shane an Diomais, was the son of Niall Culanagh, who was the son of Art Oge, a younger STRIFE IN TH0:M0ND. 365 pared with fresh instructions to carry out the policy of his royal mistress, and summoned a parliament to meet in Dublin on the lYth of January, 1569. The history of this body is memorable for the unscrupulous and unconstitu- tional means resorted to in order to secm'e its subserviency to the crown. Members were returned for towns not incorporated; mayors and sheriffs in some cases returned themselves ; and several Ens;lishmen were elected as bur- gesses for towns which they had never seen. These monstrous irregularities gave rise to violent opposition. The judges were consulted, and declared that those who were returned for non- corporate towns, and those who had returned themselves, were disqualified fi-om sitting as members, but the elec- tions of the non-resident Englishmen were held to be valid ; and this decision still left the court party in a majority. By these Stauihurst, recorder of Dublin, was chosen speaker, and Sir Christoj^her Barnwell led the opposition. The first proceedings were stormy in the extreme, and the popular excitement out of doors was so great that Hooker, an English- man, who was returned for the dilapi- brotlier of Con Bacagh CXeill, the first earl of Tyrone. He was called Lynoch (Luineach) from having been fostered by O'Luinigh of Tyrone. He was the most powerful member of the O'Neill sept after the death of John, and was therefore elected to succeed him, although John had left sons. He had proved himself on sundry occasions a friend of the English, during John's wars ; but this assumption of the title of O'Neill was deemed an act of rebellion, and hence the necessity of his sub- mission to the deputy. * Leland (vol. ii., p. 241) describes the proceedings of this packed parliament. dated borough of Athenry, and who has left us a chronicle of the period, had to be protected by a guard in going to his residence.* In this parliament, in which the majority was a mere English faction, an act was passed attainting the late Shane O'Neill, suppressing the name of O'Neill, and entitling the queen and her heirs to the territory of Tyrone and other parts of Ulster. Laws were also enacted imposing a duty on wine ; giv- ing the lord deputy the nomination to church disrnities in Munster and Con- naught for ten years ; and for erecting in the various dioceses charter schools, of which the teachers were to be Eng- lish, and, of course, Protestants. A law was also passed abolishing captaincies or chieftaincies of septs, unless when allowed by special patent.f A little before this. Sir Peter Carew, a Devonshire knight, came to Ireland and set up a claim of hereditary right to vast territories in the south of this country. He revived, in fact, a claim which had been iuvestis^ated and re- jected in the reign of Edward HI., but produced as fresh evidence a forged roll, which he alleged had been discov- ered ; and the corrupt administration of f It was in the act of attainder against O'NeiU, passed in this parliament, that queen Elizabeth's ministers affected to trace her title to the realm of Ireland to an origin anterior to that of the Milesian race of kings ; setting forth a ludicrous tale of a king Gurmondus, "son to the noble king Belau of Great Britain, who was lord of Bayon in Spain, as many of his successors were to the time of Henry II., who possessed the island afore the comeing of Irishmen into the said landel" (See Plowden's Eist. Rev., Append., No. vii. 7mA Statutes, 11th Eliz., sess. 3, cap. 1. O'ConneU'a Jfem. of Ireland, p. 110.) 366 REIGJSr OF ELIZABETH. the day admitted the title and ordered him to be put in possession ; rather, as it would appear, to frighten the Mac- Carthys, FitzGeralds, Kavanaghs, and others, to whose lands he laid claim, than with any other view.* Some of these lands belonged to Sir Edmond Butler, a man of a restless spirit, and perpetually involved in strife, and who now joined the southern insurgents, more from private pique than for public motives, if we may judge from his sub- sequent conduct. Sir Peter Carew was ordered to take the field against him, and is said to have slain in one en- counter 400 of the Irish, with no other loss on his side than one man wounded ; a statement from which, if true, it would follow that the affair was not a battle, but the massacre of an unarmed multi- tude. Sir Edmond then induced his younger brothers. Pierce and Edward, to enter with him into an alliance with Sir James FitzMaurice; and the con- federates despatched the archbishop of Cashel, the bishop of Emly, and Sir James Sussex FitzGerald, youngest brother of the earl of Desmond, as emissaries to the pope, imjiloring as- sistance. They laid siege to Kilkenny, which was successfully defended by Carew. They then proceeded to over- run the country in various directions. The Butlers sacked the town of Ennis- * Sir Peter Carew claimed the barony of Idrone in Carlow, and one-half of the "kingdom of Cork," or South Munster, in right of Robert FitzStepheu, one of the fii'st adventurers ; but as the said FitzStepheu was a bastard, and left no children, it was decided by the corthy, and marched into Ossory and the Queen's county, where they are accused of committing every kind of outrage. Ultimately they returned to the south and rejoined the forces of FitzMaurice and the eai'l of Clancare, when the confederates sent messengers to Turlough Luineach, inviting him to join their standard, and to secure the assistance of some Scottish auxiliaries. At this juncture Sidney set out on a military expedition into Munster, and the earl of Ormond was sent over by the queen to bring his refractoiy broth- ers to order. This he easily effected ; inducing them to accompany him to Limerick and there submit to the lord deputy, who consented to their pardon, although Sir Edmond was detained for some time in prison to await the queen's pleasure, as he persisted in making personal chai'ges against Sidney him- self The raulinc, and injustice, the massacre of Mullamast, in the following words: — "They have drawn imto them by protection three or four hundred of these country people, under color to do your majesty service, and brought them to a place of meeting, where your garrison sol- by other like acts of inhumanity and perfidy on the part of the government, in the south, and in the merciless rigor with which the laws were enforced against the Irish, we obtain a fris-ht- fux idea of the principles then acted upon in the government of this coun- try. The aflPair of Mullamast and the pros- ecution of some citizens of Kilkenny, who were suspected of holding commu- diers were appointed to be, who have there most dishon- orably put them all to the sword ; and this hath been by the consent and practise of the lord deputy for the time being." Thady Dowling, the contemporary Prot- estant chancellor of Leighlin, thus records the massacre : "1577. — Morris MacLasy MacConyll (O'More), lord of Merggi, as he asserted, and successor of the baron of Omergi, with 40 (query ? a mistake for 400) of his fol- lowers, after his confederation with Eory O'More, and after a certain promise of protection, was slain at Mullaghmastyn, in the county of Kildare, the place ap- pointed for it by Master Cosby and Robert Hartpole, having been summoned there treacherously, under pre- tence of performing service:" and at the end of tliis entry, whicli is in Latin, some zealous Protestant has in- terpolated the following words in English : — " HarpoU excused it that Moris had gevcn villanous wordes to the breach of his protection," which might mean that, in order to commence the slaughter, a pretended liot was raised, on the occasion of some hasty words extracted from O'More. O'SulIivan (Hist. Cath., p.99, ed. 1850) says that ISO men of the family of O'More were slain in the i» assacre. According to some traditions only one O'More escaped from the slaughter ; but according to the MS. of Lawrence Byrne, above referred to, the popular tradition was that the lives of several others were preserved through the means of one Harry Lalor, who " remarking that none of those returned who had entered the fort before him, desired his companions to make off as fast as they could in case they did not see him come back. Said Lalor, as he was entering the fort, saw the carcasses of his slaugh- tered companions ; then drew his sword and fought his way back to those that survived, along with whom he made his escape to Dysart, without seeing the Barrow." Mullamast (Mullach-Mainstean) is a large but not lofty hiU, situated about five miles from the town of Athy, in the county of Kildare, and in our times has been ren- dered further remarkable as the scene of one of Mr. O'Connell's most celebrated repeal meetings in 1843. PLANS OF FITZMAURICE ON THE CONTINENT. 377 nication with Rory Oge O'More, are the last incidents in the government of Sir Henry Sidney. That statesman had been four times appointed lord justice of Ireland, and three times lord deputy ; and it is remarkable that notwithstand- ing his excessive rigor, he is mentioned in the Irish annals in terms which imply respect. In compliance with his re- peated and earnest applications for permission to retire, he surrendered the sword of state to Sir William Drury, the lord president of Munster, on the 26thof Mav, 1578, CHAPTER XXXIII. EEIGN OF ELIZABETH COJ^TLNUATION. Plans of James FitzMaurice on the Continent. — Projected Italian expedition to Ireland. — Its singular fate.— FitzMaurice lands witli some Spaniards at Smerwick. — Conduct of the earl of Desmond. — Savage treatment of a bishop and priest. — The insurgents scattered. — Murder of Davells and Carter. — Tragical death of James FitzMaurice. — Proceedings of Drary and Malby. — Catholics in the royal ranks. — Defeat of the royal army by John of Desmond at Gort-na-Tiobrad. — Death of Sir William Drury. — Important battle at Monasteranena. — Defeat of the Geraldines. — Desmond treated as a rebel. — Hostilities against him. — Sir Nicholas Malby at Askeaton. — Desmond at length driven into rebellion. — ^He plunders and bums Toughal. — The country devas- tated by Ormond. — Humanity of a firiar. — James of Desmond captured and executed. — Campaign of Pelham and Ormond in Desmond's country. — Capture of Carrigafoyle castle. — Other castles surrendered to the lord justice. — Narrow escape of the earl of Desmond. — Insurrection in Wicklow. — Arrival of Lord Gray. — His dis- aster in Glenmalure. — Landing of a large Spanish armament at Smerwick harbor. — Lord Gray besieges the foreigners. — Horrible and treacherous slaughter in the Fort Del Ore. — Savage barbarity of Lord Gray and his captains.— Butchery of women and children near Kildimo. — Rumored plot in Dublin. — Arrest of the earl of Kildare and others. — Premature executions. — Forays of the earl of Desmond. — Melancholy end of Jolm of Desmond. — The FitzMaurices of Kelly in rebellion.— Battle of Gort-na Pisi. — The Glen of Aherlow. — Despe- rate state of Desmond. — His murder. — His character. — Mild policy of Perrott. — The Parliament of 1585. — Composition in Connaught. — Plantation of Munster. — Brutal severity of Sir Richard Bingham in Con- naught. (A. D. 1579 TO A. D. 1587.) JAMES FITZMAURICE, the most earnest and consistent of the Irish patriots of his time, was not inactive during the long sojourn he had been making on the Continent. While stay- ing with his family at St. Malo's, his movements were closely watched by * Sidney at this time calls Sir James FitzMaurice, "a papist in extremity (j. e., an extreme Catholic), 4S the spies of Sir Philip Sidney.* At that moment, however, the relations between England and France were un- favorable to his purpose, and when he applied to Henry III. for help for the Irish Catholics, he was merely told by that monarch that he would use his •well esteemed, and of good credit among the people.' —S.P. 378 REIGlSr OF ELIZABETH. interference with Elizabetli to proc-nre pardon for Lim. Reconciliation with the queen of England was the last thing that FitzMaui'ice desired ; so he next repaired to Philip II. of Spain, who, being also then at peace with Elizabeth, ajipears to have done no more than refer him to Pope Gregory XIII. Leav- ing his two sons in Spain, Sir James proceeded to Rome, where he was most favorably received by the pontiff, and where his solicitations M'ere warmly seconded by Cornelius O'Mulrian, O.S.F., bishop of Killaloe, Dr. Allen, called by some an Irish Jesuit, and Dr. Saunders, an eminent English ecclesiastic. The pope granted a bull encouraging the Irish to fight for the recovery of then- liberty and the defence of their religion ; and an expedition was fitted out at the cost of the holy father, to be maintained subsequently by Philip II. ; and, at the earnest wish of FitzMaurice, it was intrusted to an English adventurer named Stukely,* as admiral, while Her- cules Pisano, an experienced soldier, * Thomas Stukely, to wliose cliarge this ill-fated ex- pedition was intrusted, was a native of Devonshire, and ■was distinguished for his reckless and enterprising dis- position. Some assert that he was a natural son of Henry VIII., and he claimed descent maternally from Dermott MacMurrough. In 1563 he projected a compa- ny to prosecute discoveries in Terra Florida, and obtained the queen's approbation ; but the scheme was not car- ried out for want of funds. In Ireland ho ingratiated himself with Sir Heiuy Sidney, and in 1567 was em- ployed to negotiate, on the part of the government, with Shane O'Neill, but Elizabeth expressed her disapproval of the choice made of him on that occasion. Soon after he became disgusted with government, because, it is said, he was refused the office of steward of Wexford. He then expressed his sympathy for the disaffected Irish, and went to the Continent to propose plans to the had the military command. Stukely sailed with his squadron from Civita Vecchia, and touched at Lisbon at the very moment when Sebastian, the chiv- alrous and romantic kinc: of Portu2:al, was setting out on his expedition to Morocco, and was easily persuaded to join in that wild project, on receiving a promise from the king that after return- ing from Africa he would either go himself to Ireland, or give him a larger force for the purpose. Stukely forgot his engagement to the pope and to the Irish, and sailed to Morocco, where he with the greater number of his luckless men were slain in the famous battle of Alcagar, in which Sebastian and two Moorish kins^s also fell. James FitzMaurice, instead of accom- panying Stukely, travelled through France to Spain, and embarked for Ireland with about fourscore Spaniards on board three small vessels. He was accompanied by Dr. Saunders, in the capacity of legate, the bishop of Killa- loe, and Dr. Allen, and was at this pope and the king of Spain for the invasion of Ireland. It is impossible to say whether his conduct ultimately was the result of his wild love of adventure, or of per- fidy to the Irish cause which he had espoused. The expedition placed under his care is generally stated to have consisted of 800 men. Muratori says 600. O'Daly exaggerates the number when he says the pope gave 3,000 soldiers. (Oeraldines, p. 75, Duffy's ed.) O'SuUi- van (Hist. Caih., p. 113) says there were about 1,000 soldiers, and that a number of these consisted of bands of highwaymen, who had been pardoned on condition of their joining the Ii'ish expedition. O'Daly adds that the pope doubted Stukely's fidelity, but yielded to the solicitation of FitzMaurice, and invested Stukely with the title of lord of Idrone ; English writers mention other titles conferred on him also by his holi- ness. DESCENT OF SPANIARDS AT SMERWICK. 379 time wholly ignorant of the fate of Stukely's expedition. His little squad- ron made the harbor of Dingle on the 17th of July, 1579, and so frequent was the intercourse between that locality and Spain, that some of the Spanish mariners were recognized by persons from the town, who came alongside but were not permitted to board the ships. The vessels were then brought round to Smerwick harbor, another small haven in. the extremity of the peninsula in which Dingle is situated, and here Fitz- Maurice and his handful of Spaniards disembarked next day, and took posses- sion of the almost insulated rock of Oilen-an-oir, usually called Fort-del-ore, which juts into the bay. A rude kind of fort, belonging to one Peter Rice, of Dingle, already existed on this small peninsula, and FitzMaurice caused it to be strengthened by a trench and curtain- wall across the neck of land by which the rock is joined to the mainland.* The news of these armaments, grossly exaggerated by rumor, created extraor- dinary excitement throughout Munster, where the embers of civil war were yet * Dingle, or Dingle-I-Couch, near the extremity of the peninsula of Corkaguiney, in the west of Kerry, was once a town of great importance, and from an early pe- riod carried on an extensive commerce with Spain. Its name Daingean-ui-Chuis, signifies the fortress of O'Cuis, the ancient proprietor of the place before the English invasion, not of O'Hussey, as Dr. Smith {Hut. of Kerry) and others have asserted. {See Four Masters, vol. v., p. 1714, z.) As to the Dano-Irish name of Smerwick, which Camden supposed to be a corruption of St. Marj-- wick, a local antiquary suggests that it may mean the " spreading harbor," from the Irish smearam, to spread. {Kerry Magazine). Its name was originally Ardnacaunt or Aidcanny Bay, " from a certayn devout man's name. smouldering ; but the old curse of division and misunderstandinof stUl over- hung the country. The earl of Desmond, to whom the people looked as a leader, was utterly unfit for that position. His heart was undoubtedly with the popular cause, but he was weak-minded and vacillating, and mistrusted those with whom it would have been his duty to act. He disliked James FitzMaurice, whose active and inspiring spirit was so wholly opposed to his. It is said that he also feared his ambition ; for the line of succession had often before been rudely changed in the earldom of Desmond. His apprehension, not for his life but for his family, where pos- sessions as vast as his were at stake, was also an excusable cause for his long hesitation before he involved himself iu rebellion. In a word, he was either induced by personal considerations to discountenance the foreign invasion and the proceedings of his cousin, Sir James FitzMaurice, or at least he made a show of acting in that sense, and vainly en- deavored to convince the government officials of his loyalty, while they, by caUed Canntns," says on old writer. {Journal of Pel- Jtam's Expedition to Dingle in 1580, kept iy Nicholas WJiite, Master of tlie Rolls, and forwarded to Lord Burghley). The Spanish name Fort-del-ore is synonymous with the Irish Dun-an-oir, the " fort of the gold," and was given to the rock in question from the circumstance that one of the ships of the celebrated navigator, Frobisher, laden with gold ore from the newly discov- ered land which he called Meta Incognita, the present Greenland, had been wrecked there about a year before the landing of FitzJIam-ice and his Spaniards, when the ore was stowed away in Peter Eice's aforesaid strong- hold by the directions of the earl of Desmond. 380 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. tlieir insulting taunts and doubts, seemed determined to drive liim into open revolt. Shortly before the arrival of FitzMaurice three persons in disguise landed at Dingle from a Spanish ship. They were seized by government spies, and carried first before the earl of Des- mond, who afterwards took credit to himself with the State for transmitting them to the authorities in Limerick. It turned out that one of them was Dr. Patrick O'Haly, bishop..-of Mayo, and another Father Cornelius O'Kourke, the name of the third not being mentioned ; and on Sir William Drury's arrival at Kilmallock that year, he caused both the bishop and the priest to be subjected to frightful torture in order to extract some confession from them. Ultimately they were hanged as traitors from a tree, and their bodies remained sus- pended for fourteen days, to be used as targets by the soldiery.* At the same time that these ecclesiastics were handed over by the earl as an evidence of his loyalty, as we are led by himself to understand, he mustered an army to resist the invasion. The earl of Clan- care also held aloof, and the people were deterred either by the control or example of their great lords from join- ing the standard of FitzMaurice. It is true that John and James of Desmond, the earl's brothers, hastened to meet their Spanish allies, and that some two hundred of the O'Flaherties of West * Wadding ; Artliur 4 Monasterio ; and Bruodin, Paa- Bio Mart., p. 437. Connaught came by sea to rally under the Catholic standard ; f but the Sj^an- iards were justly disheartened at the prosjDect before them. They were led to expect a general rising of the people, and there was no such thing. They wei'e told that the earl of Desmond would be their leader, and they saw him arrayed against them : while on ' the other hand it must be observed that their appearance, numerically so contemptible, only committed the Irish Catholics, without being capable of in- spiring them with confidence. On the 26th of July, eight days from their landing, the Spaniards saw their transports captured by Captain Courte- nay, who had come from Kinsale with a small ship of war and a pinnace ; and the O'Flaherties having made their es- cape with their own galleys, the stran- gers were left without means of retreat, and to avoid being starved on the rock of Oilean-an-oir they marched into the interior under the three Geraldines. The earl of Desmond, in his defence of himself, asserts that he pursued them to Kilmore, or the Great Wood, in the north of the county of Cork, bordering on Limerick, and that he pressed them so hard that on the I7th of August they were obliged to separate into small par- ties; J»hn retiring to the fastness of Lynamore ; James, his other brother, to that of Glenflesk ; Avhile FitzMaurice, accompanied by a dozen horsemen and f Stated by Desmond in his defence of himself pre- served in the State Paper OflBce. MURDER OF DAVELLS. 381 a few kernes, proceeded towards Tippe- rary, on tlie pretence of making a pil- grimage to the relic of the Holy Cross, but in reality to try to rally the disaf- fected in Connaught and the north.* A few incidents connected with this wretched attempt remain to be related. On the news of FitzMaurice's arrival * the lord justice, Sir "William Drury, who was in Cork, accompanied by Sir Nicholas Malby, dispatched, in all haste, Henry Davells, constable of Dungarvan, and Arthur Carter, provost-marshal of Munster, to summon Desmond and his brothers to attack the fort at Smerwick. These men were extremely officious, blustered a good deal with the earl about his duty, and after reconnoitering the fort, were returning to l^e deputy to accuse Desmond of disloyalty, when the earl's brother, John, followed them to Tralee, and slew both of them at night in a little inn v\-here they had put up, near the castle.f This murder was aggravated by the fact that John and Davells were intimate friends, and by the English it is said that John did the act in order to show FitzMaurice and the Spaniards that he irretrievably committed himself to their cause. A great deal of indignation has been vented * Before tliis separation some misunderstanding is said to have taken place between Jolin of Desmond and FitzMaurice, owing to the latter refusing to punish one of his men for a gross act of violence which he commits ted — so little of cohesion was there among the lead- ers. t So says Hooker ; but most writers state that Davells was slain in the castle of Tralee. i " Desmond," says O'Daly, " only slew an avowed enemy, who not only sought to crush the cause of lib- about this crime, but we have a right to measure it by the standard of that day, and should bear in mind the exam- ple set by the State itself in the com- mission of many fearful atrocities. The »ath of Mullamast was still reeking with the blood of its victims; and as the reader proceeds he will find how little reason there is to select this action of the insurgent leader for special obloquy.^ To return to James FitzMaurice, he continued his way through Hy-Connell- Gavra (Conello) and Clanwilliam, in the county of Limerick, and in the latter of these districts seized some horses from the plough to replace the jaded steeds of his party. This depredation was committed on the lands of William Burke of Castle-Connell, whose sons, Theobald and Ulick, obtained the aid of Mac-I-Brien-Ai'a, and pursued the fugi- tives, with whom they came up at a place a few miles east of Limerick.§ FitzMaurice remonstrated with his as- sailants, who were his own kinsmen, but was fired at and mortally wounded. He then rushed into the thick of the fight ; with one blow cleft the head of Theobald Burke, and with another in- flicted a mortal wound on bis brother, erty, but did signal injury to John himself in the house of Lord Muskerry." {Oeraldiyus, -p. "iS.) Smith, in his Eiitory of Kerry, p. 1G3, says " the pretence was Sir Henry Danvers holding session of gaol delivery in Des- mond's palatinate." The name is called Daversius by O'Sullivan, and Danversius by O'Daly ; but the correct form is Davells. § " Ad Vadum semitEP," or Beal-atha^an-Bhorin, says O'Sullivan. The place is believed to be the present Barrington's bridge, sis miles east from Limerick. 382 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. so that his enemies, tliougli more nu- meroas, were more speedily put to flight. James expired in a few hours, and his head was cut ofi" by his cousin, Maurice FitzJohn, as some say, at his own re- quest, that his remains might not b* recognized by the English ; but not long after his body, buried at the foot of a tree, was discovered by a hunter, taken to Kilmallock, and there sus- pended from a gallows.* The death of FitzMaurice was a fatal blow to the cause of the insurgents, and a source of great joy to government. Sir William Drury came with Malby, about the beginning of September, to Kilmallock, where the earl of Desmond met him and endeavored to exculpate himself from any implication in the proceedings of his brothers. He was, nevertheless, kept under arrest for three days ; but, on undertaking to send his only son, James, then a child, as a host- age, he was liberated. He also received a promise that his lands and tenants should be respected; but this engage- ment was violated as soon as made, for some of his lands were immediately after plundered by Drury's soldiers; and at the same time all his men de- sei'ted to his brother, John, who, on the death of FitzMaurice, succeeded to the command of the insurgents, and collect- ed a respectable force, into which the Spanish oflScers introduced a regular * This conflict took place on the 18th of August. It is said that Dr. Allen was present and administered the last rites of religion to FitzMaurice. Ware says that Sir William Burke, lather of Theobald and Ulick, was military discipline. Drary summoned all the nobility of Munster, on their allegiance, to rally under the royal standard, and thus gathered a consider- able army, composed to a great extent of Irish and Catholics, who, partly through fear and partly through the indecision or jealousy of their lords, found themselves thus serving against the very cause to which all their na- tional and religious sentiments would have naturally attracted them. This army the lord justice sent in large divisions to search the wood of Kilmore and the surrounding country for John of Desmond. One of the parties, num- bering several hundred men, fell in with the Irish army, under John and James of Desmond, at a place called Gort-na-Tiobrad — in English, Spring- field — in the south of the county of Limerick, and in a desperate encounter was cut to pieces ; captains Herbert and Price, the officers in command, and a captain Eustace, being among the slain. This success cheered the spirits of the Irish ; and immediately after Sir Wil- liam Drury, while encamped at Antho- ny (Beal-atha-na-Deise), a ford about four miles east of Kilmallock, sickened from incessant fatigue, and intrusting the command of the army to Sir Nicholas Malby, got himself carried by easy stages to Waterford, where he died on the 30th of September. created baron of Castleconnell, and was awarded an an- nual pension of 100 marks ; and Camden tells us that he died of joy at the royal favors showered on him in reward for the loyalty of his family. BATTLE OF MONASTERANENA. 383 A reinforcement of 600 troops bad just then reached Waterford from Devonshire ; a fleet had arrived on the coast under the command of Sir John Perrott, the former president of Mun- ster ; and on the news of Drury's death being received in Dublin, Sir William Pelham, who had recently come to Ire- land, was chosen lord justice by the council. Sir Nicholas Malby was not idle in the south. Having left a gar- rison of 300 foot and 50 horee at Kil- mallock, he marched with the bulk of his aiTiiy to Limerick, and then return- ing towards the south, on learning the position of Sir John of Desmond, he en- countered that chief on the plain near the magnificent ancient abbey of Mon- asteranena,* about two miles from Croom and nine south by west from Limerick. It is said that John hesi- tated to give battle, but yielded to the opinion of Dr. Allen, and that he then left the disposition of the army to the foreign officers, who had disciplined the irregular masses of Irish so well as to excite the surprise of the English. For a long time victory seemed to be with the Geraldines. Malby's lines were twice broken, and compelled to retreat in order to reform; but ulti- mately the Irish were routed with the loss of Thomas FitzGei-ald, son of the earl's uncle, John Oge, and of many of the warlike Clann-Sheehy, and other followers of the Geraldines, to the num- ber in all of 260 men killed.f * Locally it is called Maniater, tlie ancient addition to the name being almost quite disused. This battle was fousrht about the be- ginning of October. The earl of Des- mond and FitzMaurice, lord of Lixnaw, watched its progress from the top of Tory Hill, little more than a mile dis- tant, and late- in the evenins: sent to congratulate Malby on his victory. At least, so the English chroniclers tell us, adding that the message was treated with the contempt which it deserved ; and as soon as his army was ready to march, the implacable English command- er proceeded to lay waste Desmond's ter- ritory in the neighborhood. He burned the abbey of Askeaton, wasted Eath- keale and the surrounding district, and despoiled Adare in the same manner. He was then joined by the Lord-justice Pelham, and by the earls of Ormond and Ivildai'e ; and the earl of Desmond having, after such provocation and with such good reason to fear personal re- straint or violence, refused to come to their camp, they resolved to place gar- risons in several of his castles. On the 30th October, the earl of Ormond was sent to summon Desmond to give up the papal nuncio. Dr. Saunders, and to surrender his castles of Carrigafoyle and Askeaton to the lord justice. The reply of Desmond consisted of fi-esh representations of his own wrongs ; and on the 2d of November Pelham issued a proclamation declaring him a traitor unless he came in and submitted within twenty days; and, without waiting for any of that interval to elapse, marched f CSullivan Beare and O'Daly represent this battle as gained by John of Desmond, but the Four Masters 384 REIGN" OF ELIZABETH. the very next day witli a liostle army into the earl's palatinate of Kerry ; con- stituted his hereditary foe the earl of Orraond, governor of Munster, and re- turned to Limerick on his way to Dub- lin.* Thus was the vacillating Desmond at length determined as to the course he should pursue. He took the field with his brothers, invaded the territories of the Roches and Barrys in Cork,-|- and siezed the town of Youghal, which he plundered and committed to the flames, so that not a single habitable house was left in it. This occurred at Christ- mas ; and at the same time the earl of Ormond was invading Desmond's ter- ritory of Hy Connello, where he ad- vanced as far as Newcastle, burning agree with Camden, 'who is followed by Ware and the other English historians, in giving the victory to JIalby. The English say that Dr. Allen was among the slain, bat none of the Irish authorities mention this fact. O'SuUivan tells us that Ulick and John Burke, sons of the earl of Clanrickard, and Peter and John Lacy, were among the Irish auxiliaries of Malby at Monaster. O'Daly also mentions the Burkes, but the Four Masters do not, although they tell us, under the date of 1580, that " the sons of the earl were both at peace with the English." * In a letter, dated from his castle of Askeaton, Oc- tober 10th, 1579, in which he attempts to vindicate himself with the government, the earl of Desmond thus describes the outrageous proceedings of Malby against him : " The 4th of this present month. Sir Nicholas Malbie being in campe at the abbeye Nenaghe (Monas- ter), sent certeyn of his menne to enter into Rathmore, a manor of myne, and there murdered the keepers, spoil- ed the towne and castel, and tooke awaie from thence certayn of my evidences and other writings. On the Gth of the same, he not only spoyled Rath-Keally (Rath- keale), a town of myne, but also tyranously burned both houses and corne. Upon the Tth of the same month, the said Sir Nicholas encamped within the abbey of Asketyn, and there most maliciously defaced the ould monuments of my ancestors, fired both the abbie, the the towns and villages, slaughtering the inhabitants, and reducing the coun- try to a desert. Ormond next marched to Cork, and then returned towards Cashel, treating every district through which he passed, if occupied by Irish or Catholics, in the same inhuman man- ner, " burning every house and every stack of corn." He discovered the mayor of Youghal, who was accused of having betrayed his trust to the earl of Desmond, and taking him to the ruined town, he caused him to be hanged at the door of his own house. No human being was found in that unhappy town except a poor friar, who had conveyed the body of Henry Davells from Tralee to Waterford to procure for it decent interment. whole towne, and the come thereabouts, and ceased not to shoote at my menne within Asketyn castel." By such acts as these the oiBcials sought to oirge the unfortu nate earl into an open participation in the rebellion, that there might be no obstacle to his attainder and the confiscation of his vast estates. Foreseeing that such a result would be inevitable, Desmond executed a deed of feoflment before this time, conveying his lands to trustees for his heirs ; but this deed was unavailable, as it was pronounced to have been executed seven weeks after Ms treasonable combination, the said combination dating from the 18th of July, 1578, when the earl signed a document along with his brothers, the lord of Lix- naw, and many other leading men of Munster, pledg- ing themselves to resist the violence of the lord deputy. Indeed, this latter document is rather an advice to the earl not to yield to the unreasonable requirements of the lord deputy, and a pledge on the part of the sub- scribers to " aid, help, and assist, the said Erie to mayn- tain and defend this their advice against the said lord deputy, or any other that shall covet the said Erie's in- heritance ;" and there seemed to be no reason why hia own name should be aliixed to it except that he might be committed to the consequences. Lords Gormans- town and Delvin refused to countersign Pelham's pro- clamation declaring Desmond a traitor. •f Ily MacaiUe, or ImokUly, and Hy Liathain, in which latter Castle Lyons is situated. ORMOND'S DEVASTATIOXS. 385 A. D. 1580.-— In the mean time John of Desmond had been able to harass the English garrisons of several small towns ; and the Irish annalists, describ- ing the desolation produced by so much mutual destruction, say that " the coun- try was left one levelled plain, without corn or edifices." James, Desmond's youngest brother, made an incursion about the beginning of the year into the lands of Sir Cormac MacTeige Mac- Carthy of Muskerry, the sheriff of Cork,* and, while carrying off a prey of cattle, was pursued and captured by MacCormac's brother, Donnell, who took him to Cork, where he was hanged and quartered by Sir Warham St. Leg- er, marshal of Munster, and captain, afterwards the famous Sir "Walter, Ra- leigh, who had recently entered the queen's service in Ireland. His head was spiked over one of the city gates ; and about the same time another James FitzGerald, son of the earl's uncle, John Oge, was slain by Brian Duv O'Brien, lord of Pobble Brien and Carrigo- gunnell. Sir William Pelham and the earl of Ormond set out early this year on a fresh campaign in Desmond's country ; the former marchins: first to Limerick in the beginning of February, and the latter to Cork, and both subsequently form- ing a junction at the foot of Slieve Mis, near Tralee. They spared neither age nor sex in their march, and, owing to the state of desolation to which the * This Sir Cormac Macartliy was so distinguished for his loyalty, that Sir Henry Sidney pronounced him to 49 country had been reduced, suffered not a little inconvenience themselves from want of provisions. They then marched northward, to destroy the castles still garrisoned by Desmond's men, and first laid siege to the strong castle of Carri- gafoyle (Carrig-au-phuill), situated on an island in the Shannon, on the coast of Kerry. ■ The Four Mastei's say that Pelham landed some heavy ordnance from Sir "William "Winter's fleet, wdiich arrived on the Irish coast about this time, and battered down a jjortion of the castle, crushing some of the warders beneath the ruins ; but other annalists make no mention of cannon landed from the ships. The castle was bravely defended by fifty Irishmen and nine- teen Sjianiards, under the command of Count Julio, an Italian officer, who, when summoned to surrender, said he held his trust in the name of the king of Spain. A large breach having been made the castle was taken by storm; fifty of the gai-rison were put to the sword, and six hanged in the camp ; and Julio being kept for two or three days was then hanged. The remainder of the number had been already slain. The fate of Carriagafoyle filled the other garrisons with consternation. The ward- ers of Ballinloughane (Baile-ui-Gheile- achain) destroyed their castle before deserting it, and those of Askeaton attempted to do the same by a train of gunpowder, when abandoning that cas- tle at night, but did not succeed in he " the rarest man that ever was born of the Irish- rie." 386 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. injuring the principal parts of the edifice, wliich was taken possession of uext morning by the lord justice. This was the last castle held for the earl of Desmond. Pelham proceeded to Lim- erick, where he remained forty days, and again returned to Askeaton, making another long stay there, during which " he never ceased by day or night from persecuting and extirpating the Gerald- ines." He put to death, among others, an aered sfeutleman named Wall, of Dunmoylan, who was blind from his birth, and Supple, of Kilmacow, who was over a hundred years old ; and on the 12th of June he and Ormond set out with his whole army to explore the dreaded strongholds of Kerry, and to take precautions against another ex- pected landing of the Spaniards at Dingle. Ormond's route was through Cork to Kerry, while Pelham marched throusrh the mountain district of Sleive- loger, and by Castleisland to Castle- maine (Castle-Magne), near which he found Ormond encamped. While trav- ersing Slievelogher, he seized a prey of 1,500 cows belonging to the earl of Desmond, who had a narrow escape of falliug, together with his countess and Dr. Saunders, into the hands of the lord-deputy, having passed that way only about an hour before. Some of the vestments and sacred vessels be- * The earl of Desmond was now reduced so low, that about this time his countess sought the lord justice, and on her knees implored mercy for her husband ; but her prayers would not be listened to ; and we are told that the unhappy earl proposed to surrender himself to ad- miral Winter, on the sole condition of being carried as longing to the legate were taken by the soldiers ; but excepting the fresh spolia- tion to which it gave occasion, this exploration would not appear to have led to any important result.* At this time the O'Byrnes and James Eustace, Viscount Baltinglass, were in arms in Wicklow, but, like the insur- gents of the south, they were isolated. Sir William Pelham was recalled, and succeeded by Arthur, Lord Gray, of Wilton, who arrived at Howth on the 12th of August, and was so eager to en- ter upon the duties of his office, that he did not wait for the return of his pre- decessor to Dublin, in order to be in- stalled in the usual way, but hastily set out with an army against the Wicklow insurgents, who were encamped in the strong passes of Glenmalure and Sliev- eroe. Those who had some experience in L-ish warfare cautioned the new lord deputy against the rashness of his pro- ceeding ; but with the self-confidence so usual with his countrymen on coming to Ireland, he haughtily rejected their advice, and, on the 25th of August, en- tered the famous defile of Glenmalure. The deputy himself, with the earl of Kildare, James Wingfield, and George (afterwards Sir George) Carew, occu- pied an eminence at the entrance to the valley with their reserve, while the re- mainder of the army advanced into the a prisoner to England, but that this desperate expedient was also unsuccessful. The admiral appears to have been a merciful man, and Hoolier grumbles that he had given protection to some Irish who had presented them- selves to him — a savage sentiment which the historian Leland properly rebukes. LANDING OF SPANISH ARMAMENT. 387 defile. A deep and mysterious silence prevailed as they made tkeir way over the boggy ground wbicli separated the woods covering the lofty hills on either side ; but they had scarcely penetrated half a mile, when a smart fire was opened on them from the underwood. They were immediately thrown into disorder, and the Irish, rushing from their cover, soon completed with spear and sword, what had been so well begun with their fire-arms ; so that few of those who had advanced into the fatal valley lived to return to the lord deputy, who, covered with confusion, and vowing vengeance against the Irish race, made a hasty re- treat to Dublin, where he received the sword of state from Pelham on the 7th of September.* The long expected aid from the Con- tinent was at this moment approaching the Irish coast, and Sir William Winter haviua: returned to Ensjland from his cruise, no impediment was ofiered to * Among those slain on tliis occasion in Glemnaluie, were Colonel John Moor, Francis Cosby, commander of the kerne of Leis, another experienced officer named Audley, and Sir Peter Carew, elder brother of the Geo. Carew mentioned above, and both the sons of Sir Peter, who claimed the inheritance of Idrone and of the so- caUed kingdom of Cork. Hooker describes the famous valley of Glenmalure as "Ijing in the middle of the wood, of great length, between two lulls, and no other way is there to pass through. Under foot it is boggy and soft, and full of great stones and slippery rocks, very hard and evil to pass through ; the sides are full of great and mighty trees upon the sides of the hills, and full of brushments and underwoods." Among the Irish who flocked to the standard of viscount Baltin- glass in this rising, the Four Masters enumerate " the Kavanaghs, KinseUaghs, Byrnes, Tooles, Gaval-RanneU (the branch of the O'Byrnes who possessed the district in Wicklow called Ranelagh), and the surviving parts of the inhabitants of Offaly and Leix." the descent, which accordingly took place on the beach of Smerwick harbor, where about 700 Spaniards and Italians landed, early this month, from four Spanish vessels, of which the largest was of 400 tons burden, the others be- ing small craft of 60 and 80 tons. The expedition was under the command of Sebastian de San Josef, a Spaniard, the other principal oflScers being Hercules PJsano, and the duke of Biscay ; and in the coutemjjorary documents it is called the pope's army.f A sujiply of arms for 5,000 men was brought, together with a large sum of money and a jM'om- ise of future succor, and Fort del Ore was once more occupied and its Works repaired and strengthened^ The Four Masters say the name of the invaders " was greater than their importance, for their fame was at first so great, that, had they come to Limerick, Galway, or Cork, these great towns would have been left wide open to them." f The bull of Gregory XTTL, sent with this expedition, was dated from St. Peter's, May 13th, 1.580, and was the second issued by that pontiff in favor of the perse- cuted Irish Catholics. His Holiness mentions with re- gret the death of James FitzMaurice, and refers to John of Desmond as his successor in the leadership ; and in case of John's demise, appoints his youngest brother, James, general-in-chief ; but no mention of the earl of Desmond is made in the document. (See the bull in O'Sullivan's Hist. Cath., and a translation in Mcehan's Geraldines). X It is strange how the fatal rock of Dun-an-Oir should have been selected by the Spaniards in both ex- peditions. It could scarcely have afforded standing room for those who came on the second occasion, its di- ameter not being more than two chains. (Four Masters, vol. v., p. 1739, n) It rises about fifty feet from the sea, with perpendicular sides, but it was commanded by a neighboring hill, and was pronounced by English offi- cers quite untenable. O'Sullivan, who gives a very con 388 REIGN OP ELIZABETH. The earl of Desmond hastened to meet his foreign auxiliaries, but his brother John was then with Viscount Baltinglass in Leiuster, although the English chroniclers represent him as having joined the Spaniards.* The earl led his allies upon some excursions into the neighborhood, in one of which they exchanged a few shots with the army of Ormond, who had come, with all the troops he could collect, to recon- noitre the invaders. Desmond appears to have then left them to go and raise the country ; and Ormond, finding that he could do nothing until he received assistance, marched to Rathkeale to await' the lord deputy. Thus was the time wasted till the close of Oc- tober. Burnins: to retrieve his disgrace at Glenmalui-e, Lord Gray made all the haste he could to collect his forces and march to the south. On the 31st of October he encamped about eight or ten miles from the foi't at Smerwick harbor, accompanied by the earl of Ormond, Captains Zouch, Raleigh, Den- ny, Macworth, and other experienced officers ; Vice-admiral Sir Richard Bing- ham had reached Dingle before him ; and on the 5th of November Admiral fused account of these proceedings, confounds the expe- ditions of 1.579, and 1080. * The Four Masters give an interesting account, at this date, of the adventures of Jolm of Desmond, from his setting out iu July, from the woods of Aharlagh (Aherlow) until he reached Eustace in Wicklow ; how he tooli numerous spoils ; how he was joined by " tlie sons of MacG ilia-Patrick, the son of O'Carrol, and a great number of evil-doers and plunderers ;" and how he lived on Slieve Bloom in a manner " worthy of a true plimderer," " for he slept hut upon couches of stone Winter arrived with his fleet from Kinsale. H«avy guns were landed from the ships to attack the fort; on the evening of the 7th the trenches were opened, and the works were car- ried on so actively that on the third day the besiegers had advanced within a hundred and twenty paces of the curtain. The accounts of the sequel are contradictory in some of the partic- ulars. Sir Richard Bingham, in his report of the transaction, says the gar- rison demanded a parley on the evening of the third day, and were then pre- pared to surrender at discretion, but that it being night they were allowed until next morning, the besiegers in the mean time continuing their trenches to within sixty paces of the fort. On the morning of the 10th, officers were sent into the fort to take an inventory of the ammunition and provision for the queen's use, and the foreign commander and his captains were ordered to come forth and deliver up their ensigns. Ac- cording to Bingham's account, Captain Denny's company then entered the fort on one side, and some sailors on an- other — Hooker says it was Captains Raleiffh and Macworth who commanded the bands of executioners — and they or earth, he drank but of tte pure cold streams, and that, from the palms of his hands or from his shoes ; and his only cooking utensils were the long twigs of the forest for dressing the flesh-meats carried away from Ms enemies." He set out with Eustace and others to join the Spaniards about Michaelmas, but only arrived in Kerry to find that they had been all cut off by Lord Gray. It is possible that the passage of John and his confederates was intercepted by the earl of Ormond ; and Leland (B. iv., c. 2.) makes his ap- proacli an excuse for tho massacre of Fort del Ore. MASSACRE OF THE FORT DEL ORE. 389 fell to, slaughtering the unarmed for- eigners in cold blood, " in wLicli they never ceased while there lived one," the number thus inhumanly butchered be- ing, as some judged, between 500 and 600." Sir Richard Bingham's object is to insinuate that the atrocious massacre was perpetrated without orders; but this shameless misrepi'esentation is con- tradicted, not only by the Irish accounts, but by the disjiatch of Lord Gray him- self, addressed to the queen, " from the camp before Smerwick, November 12th, 1580." Gray asserts that in the parley which took place, he told the Spanish commander that " no condition or com- position were they to expect, other than they should simplie render me the forte, and yield themselves to my will for lyf or deth." He then proceeds: — " Morning came, I presented ray forces in bataille before the forte. The coro- nel, with ten or twelve of his chief gentlemen came trayling their ensigns rolled up, and presented them to me * The life of the Spanish commander was spared, but on his return home he was disgraced, and is universally charged with cowardice or treason in surrendering the fort. Muratori (Annali) says it was surrendered ' ' shame- fully." It was at all events capable of a better defence. Two days after the massacre, an Englishman, who had served Dr. Saimdere, a Mr. Plunket, who had acted as interpreter, and an Irish priest taken In the fort, were executed. Bingham, in a letter to Walsingham, says, " their arms and legs were first broken, and they were then hanged on a gibbet on the walls of the fort." Gray, in the dispatch in which he coolly avows the commission of so atrocious a crime, dwells with great unction on the "divine confession of his faith" made by " good John Cheeke," who was wounded by a ball from the fort ; " so wrought In him God's Spirit, plajnlie de- clairing him a child of His elected ;" and he assures her Majesty that in his own parley with the Spaqiards he took care to call the Pope " a detestable shaveling, the with their lives and the forte. ... I sent streighte certeyne gentlemen to see their weapons and armoires laid down, and to guard the munition and victual then left from spoyle; then put I in certeyne handes who streighte fell to execution. There were 600 slayn!" This is the lord deputy's own account. There is no attempt made to excuse the horrible murder, or transfer it to other shoulders ; but a most important circumstance is falsified in this official statement, for we are assured by all the Irish authorities that the lives and liberties of the foi"- eign soldiers were guarantied by the deputy, nor is there any reason why they should have otherwise surrendered without striking a blow, while they had an abundant supply of ammunition and provisions. O'Sullivan tells us that " Gray's faith"— "Graia fides"— became proverbial through the Continent, where this inhuman massacre was reprobated as an outrage against humanity and the rights of nations.* right Antichrist, and general ambitious tyrant over all right principalities" — thus showing by his words how much his mind must have been biased by sectarian animosity. It is generally admitted that the number slaughtered in cold blood was seven hundred, and that the execution of the butchery was intrusted to the after- wards famous (Sir) Walter Ealeigh, -^ho fleshed his maiden sword on the occasion. The Denny mentioned in the test was "Ned Dennye," who was sent by Lord Gray as a bearer of dispatches to the queen. He after- wards married the " queen's own favorite maid of hon- or," and "obtained plentiful estate in Ireland." No attention whatever is due to the statement that the foreign officers, being unable to produce any written commission from the Pope or the king of Spain, were on that account not treated by Lord Gray according to the laws of nations. This excuse was subsequently put forward by the poet Spencer, who was Lord Gray's sec- retary, and who tolls us that he himself was " not fai 390 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. A. D. 1581. — The war in Munster had assumed a savage character, of Avhich it is almost impossible to convey any adequate idea. The brutal barbarities of Lord Gray and his captains had driv- en many of the most loyal of the Irish and old English to espouse the now desperate cause of the insurgents. Each official endeavored " to do some ex- ploit," as it was phrased ; and Raleigh, who received the command in Cork, was one of those who evinced the most fiendish activity in tracking and hunt- inar down the miserable Catholics. He repaired to Dublin for enlarged powers to proceed against the old English fam- ilies of the Bariys and Roches, against whom some charges of treason had been trumped up. Lord Barry indignantly set fire to his castle rather than allow it to be overrun by the soldiery, and re- paired to the woods, where he joined John of Desmond ; but Lord Roche, who, along with his lady, was seized and carried prisoner to Cork, estab- lished his innocence and escaped. Some off." It was a notorious fact tliat tlie expedition was Bent hy the king of Spain, as Camden says, to divert tlie attention of Elizabeth from the affairs of Belgium ; and Cox further assures us that the massaere " verj' much displeased the queen." See the valuable notes of O'Don- ovan in the JPour Musters, O'Sullivan's Hist. Cath., Meehan's Geraldines, Spencer's Fie«i nf Irchtnd, Hooker, Ware, C«x, Leland, &c. A valuable collection of ex- tracts from State papers relative to the affair of the Fort Del Ore appeared in Nos. viii., xiii., siv. xv., and xvi. of the Kerry Magazine, for 18o4 and 1855. * The fate of David Purcell is related by the Four Masters. He descended the Shannon some time after this with a few followers, and sought to conceal himself for a night on Scattcry island. Here, however, be was immediately pursued by Turlough MacMahon of Clon- deralaw in Clare, who took Purcell and his men to his soldiers from Adare going on a maraud- ing excursion into the barony of Kenry were cut off by David Purcell, the representative of an ancient Anglo- Irisk famil)^ who had hitherto been an exemplary loj'alist. Captain Achiu, the officer in command of the station at Adare, obtained some troops at Kilraal- lock, and entering Kenry to wreak his vengeance on the people, came to Pur- cell's castle ofBallycalhane near Kildimo, where, finding that David with his men had fled to the Avoods, he massacred one hundred and fifty women and chil- dren who had sou,9^ht refuge in the castle."" Foremost among the cajitains who distinguished themselves at this time were Zouch and Dowdall, bul the former soon became so promineni for his services that he was appoint ed governor or presidtvtit of Mun- ster. In Connaught, William Burke, one of the sons of the earl of Clanricard, hav- ing surrendered on a promise o\ protec- tion, as our annalists say, was hanged in castle of Colmanston, where the latter were hanged on the nearest trees, Purcell himself being taken sick in Limerick and executed there. Yet this Purcell " had assisted the crown from the very commencement of the Geraldine war." (Four Masters, vol. v., p. 1759.) Arch- bishop Lombard {Be Regno Eib. Comment., p. 535) re- lates some horrible cruelties similar to that mentioned above, as perpetrated by the government officials in Munster even after Desmond's death and the suppre.'rsion of his rebellion ; such as the forcing of people into castles and houses, which were then set on fire ; " and if any of them attempted to escape from the flames they were shot or stabbed by the soldiers who guarded them. It was a diversion," ho continues, " to these monsters of men to take up infants on the points of their spears and whirl them about in their agony," &c. Sec Dr. Curry's Cicil Wars, p. 37. PREMATURE EXECUTIONS. 391 Galway on the 29th of May, and all his followers who had rashly relied on the same promise, were treated in like man- ner ; and about the same time Turlough O'Brien, who had been a year in prison, was hanged in Clare. Nor did Dublin escape the rage for executions. It was said that some conspiracy was on foot, and that a plot Avas formed to capture the castle, massacre the English, and overturn the government. We are told that forty-five persons were brought to the scaffold for this imaginary treason, Nugent, who had been chief -justice of the Common Pleas, being one of the number. The earl of Kildare, his son, and the lord of Devlin, were arrested and sent for trial to England, where the groundless- ness of the charge against them was proved ; and then it became obvious that the execution of Nutrent and the others had been premature. This over- hasty "vindication of justice" excited some displeasure in England, where the affair of Smerwick Harbor made an im- pression not at all favorable to Lord Gray's humanity ; but the custom of hanging men in hot haste prevailed to a fearful extent in Ireland then, and for centuries after. The hopeless struggle of the Geral- dines was still protracted. John of Desmond made a successful foray be- * Dr. Nicholas Saunders, or Sauderus, was a native of Cliarlewood in England, and had been professor of canon law at Oxford ; but flying from England on the acces- sion of Elizabeth, he repaired to Rome, where he re- ceived priest's orders and the degree of doctor of divin- ity. He taught theology at Louvain, and was sent by the Pope as nuncio to Spain, where he wrote his fa- yond the Suir in May, slaying several of his pursuers and carrying off the spoils to the fastnesses of Claenglass, in the south of the county of Limerick, and to the neic^hboring woods of Kil- more. In June he took spoils from MacCarthy More, and again, about Christmas, Kilfeakle, in Tipperary, was plundered by him, or, as some accounts have it, by the earl of Desmond. A large number of faithful followers still surrounded the unhappy earl, but while encamped at Aghadoe, near Killarney, he was attacked unawares, on a Sunday morning, by Captain Zouch, and many of his men were slain. About the end of September he penetrated as far as Cashel, and carried off a large spoil of cattle and other property to the woods of Aherlow, after slaying, say our annalists, four hundred of his j^ursuers. Some time in the winter of this year. Dr. Saunders, the Pope's legate, died in cold and wretchedness in a miserable hovel in the woods of Claenglass. This illus- trious and heroic ecclesiastic, for whom the government would have given a large reward, was worn out by fatigue and privation, and died the death of a confessor, attended in his last moments by Cornelius, bishop of Killaloe, who administered to him the last sacra- ments.* nious " History of the Rise and Progress of the English Reformation ;" but before that work was published, he proceeded, by orders of Gregory XIII., to Ireland. Cox called him " a malicious, cunning, and indefatigable rebel ;" but Mageoghan more truly describes him as " a man of exemplary life, and most zealoiis in the Catholic cause." He died of dysentery, and English 392 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. A.D. 1582.— The fidelity of the peas- antry to the Geraldines was one of the most interesting features of this heart- sickening war. (Jreat rewards were offered for the heads of the leaders; but the humblest of their followers were still faithful to the last. An Irish- man was, nevertheless, found to act as a spy on the footsteps of John of Des- mond, and information obtained by this man from an unsuspecting messenger enabled Zouch to intercept John near Castle Lyons (Castle Hy-Liathain), while on his way to meet Lord Barrj^, between whom and FitzGerald of Imo- killy there had arisen a misunderstand- ing, which John wished to arrange. The latter was accompanied only by his kinsman, James FitzGerald of Stran- cally, and four or five horsemen ; and when he unexpectedly came face to face with Zouch and his troops, whom, in a dark and misty day, he had first sup- posed to be Barry's men, he saw imme- diately that escape was impossible. He desired his companions to fly, as their enemies only sought for him ; but the lord of Strancally refused to abandon his leader. They made a fruitless attempt to gain a wood, and were surrounded by the soldiers, one of whom, named Thomas Fleming, said to have been once in the service of John of Desmond, plunged a spear into that chief's throat. writers, who abhorred him, say that his body when found, was half devoured by wolves, while O'Sullivan tells US that he was carried to the grave by four Irish knights, of whom one was his (O'SuUivan's) own father, Dermot ; and that his venerated remains were privately interred at night by priests. {Huit. C'ath., p. 131). His ere Zouch, who wished to capture him alive, could ward off the blow. The noble Geraldine exj^ired before his ene- mies had carried him a mile, and his body Avas then thrown across his own steed and conveyed thus to Cork, when his head being cut ofi", was sent to Dub- lin to 'be spiked in front of the castle ; while his mutilated trunk was hung in chains at one of the gates of Cork, "where it remained," says O'Daly, " nearly three years, till, on a tempest- uous night, it was blown into the sea." His kinsman, James, was hanged soon after, together with his two sons ; but Lord Barry made his peace with the government.* With the gallant John of Desmond departed the last hope of the Gerald- ines ; but the unhappy earl himself was still in arms. The three sons of Fitz- Maui'ice of Lixnaw escaped from cap- tivity in Limerick, and fled to their paternal woods. They attacked the gan-ison of Ardfert, and slew its cap- tain, Hatsim.f The lord of Lixnaw, who had hitherto committed no overt act of treason, now joined his infatuated sons, destroyed his principal castles, that they might not fall into the hands of the English, and retired to the woods at the head of a large body of follow- ers ; and Zouch, on coming to Ardfert, finding the FitzMaurices were beyond companion in suffering, the bishop of Killaloe, escaped to Spain, and died in Lisbon, A.D. 1017. * Four Masters. f This was no doubt the same person as the " Captain Achin" who slaughtered the women and children in Purocll's castle. (Supra, p. 425). MASSACRE OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 393 Lis reach, aveuged tlie death of Hatsim by hanging a numbei- of hostages whom he held, although, say the Four Mas- ters, they were mere children. Soon after this, FitzMaurice repented of his rashness, and jileading as an excuse that the oppression of the queen's officers had driven him into rebellion, he ob- tained his pardon through, the media- tion of the earl of Ormond. By this time Munster had been con- verted into such a solitude that, as our annalists tell us, the lowing of a cow or the voice of the ploughman, could scarcely be heard from Dunqueen, in the west of Kerry, to Cashel, in Tip- 23erary. That fair province now pre- sented the hideous spectacle of desola- tion which Spencer so graphically de- * After developing his remedy for tlie ills of Ire- land, namely, the employment of large masses of troops " to tread down all that standeth before them on foot, and lay on the ground all the stifihecked people of that land," and advising that vrai should be carried on against them not in summer only, but in ^"inter ; " for then the trees are bare and naked, which use both to clothe and house the kerne ; the ground is cold and wet, which usetli to be his bedding ; the air is sharp and bitter, to blow through his naked sides and legs ; the kine are barren and without milk, -which useth to be his food, besides being all with calf (for the most part) they will, tlirough much chasing and driving, cast all their calves and lose their milk, which should relieve him in the next summer'' {State of Ireland, pp. 158, &c.) ; Spencer proceeds to say that "the end will be very short," and in proof he describes what he himself had witnessed in " the late wars of Munster ;" " for notwith- standing that the same was a most rich and plentiful country, full of come and cattle yet ere one yeare and a halfe they (the Irish) were brought to such wretchednesse as that any stony heart would have rued the same. Out of every comer of the woods and glynnes they came creeping forth upon their hands, for their legges could not bear them ; they looked like anatomies of death ; they spake like ghosts crying out of their graves ; they did eate the dead carrions, happy where they could finde them ; yea, and one another soone after. scribes.* It was reported that the earl of Desmond was dead, and the army was thereiipon considerably re- duced. Complaints, in the mean time, daily reached Elizabeth, of the inhuman rigor of Gray. That viceroy was truly described as a man of blood, who had alienated the hearts of all the Irish subjects by his barbarities, and who "left her majesty little to reign over but carcasses and ashes ;"f and he was at length recalled in August, and Loft- us, archbishop of Dublin, and Sir Hen- ry Wallop, the treasurer at war, ap- pointed lord justices. A more moder- ate policy was determined on, and sev- eral who had been involved in the in- surrection were amnestied ; the earl of Desmond, however, being excluded from insomuch as the very carcasses they spared not to scrape out of their graves ; and if they found a plot of water-cresses or shamrocks, there they flocked as to a feast for the time, yet not able long to continue there- withall : that in short space there were none almost left, and a most populous and plentifull country suddainly left voyde of man and beast." (State of Ireland, p. 1G6.) Similar pictures of the frightful state to which the south of Ireland was reduced at this period may be seen in EoUimlied, vi., 459 ; Fynei Morrison, p. 273 (folio) ; and Cox, p. 449. But the poet Spencer, who could suggest no better means for the subjugation of a race with such kind hearts and gentle natures as the Irish, still saw that the scene of all this horrible waste and devastation was beautiful — too beautiful, alas! for those whose exter- mination was a necessary step to its enjoyment by others. " And sure it is yet a most beautiful and sweete country as any is under heaven," he says, " being stored throughout with many goodly rivers, replenished with aU sorts of fish most abimdantly ; sprinkled with many very sweete islands and goodly lakes, like little inland seas, adorned with goodly woods ; also full of very good ports and havens opening upon England, as in- viting us to come unto them ; besides the soyle itselfo is most fertUe, and lastly, the heavens most milde and temperate." (State of Ireland, p. 28.) f Cox, Mib. Angl. Lelaud, vol. ii., p. 287 (8vo. ed.) 394 REIGN OF ELIZABETPI. mercy. Two or three times iu the coui'se of this year, tliis unhappy noble- man showed himself at the head of sev- eral hundred men. He despoiled the territory of the earl of Ormond, during the absence of the latter in England ; defeated some English troops in a des- perate conflict at Gort-na-pisi, or Pea- field, in Tipperary ; and almost annihil- ated a large irregular force led against him by the brothers and sons of the earl of Ormond, at Knockgraffon, in the same county. He carried off spoils from MacCarthy and other hostile parties ; but these few predatory suc- cesses only helped to prolong the mis- erable struggle. By degrees his fol- lowers dwindled away, and with the fe'w faithful adherents who remained he was hunted like a beast of the forest from one wood or mountain cavern to another. The glen of Aherlow, which the contemporary English, writers some- times call Harlow, was one of his favor- ite retreats; at other times he fre- quented woods in the southwest of the county of Limerick ; and often he sought shelter among the woods and mountains of his own palatinate of Kerry.* * The unhappy earl, we are told, passed the Christ- mas of this year in great distress in the ■wood of Kil- quane, near KUmallock, and on the 4th of January apian was laid by one John Welsh to gain the large reward offered for his capture. Hooker relates the circum- stances. Captains Dowdall and Bangor, and George Thorington, provost marshal of Munster, led a chosen hand of soldiers from the garrison of Kilmallock, and every thing was so well arranged that they arrived by break of day at the earl's cabin, which was close by a river, then swollen from the rains. Desmond's watch- ful car caught an approaching sound of footsteps or breaking twigs, and he and the countess rushed from A. D. 1583. — In the summer and au- tumn of this year, say the Four Masters, the earl of Desmond was attended by only four persons, Avho accompanied him " from one cavern of a rock, or hollow of a tree, to another." They were so hunted from place to place, that " where they did dress their meat," says Hooker, "thence they would remove to eat it in another place, and fi'om thence go to another place to lie. In the nights they would watch; in the fore- noon they would be upon the hills and mountains to descry the country ; and in the afternoon they would sleep." Their enemies were well apprised of these movements ; and, on one occasion, in the autumn of this year, when so many as three score gallowgl asses mus- tered round the earl iu Aherlow, Cap- tain Dow^dall, with a troop of soldiers, surprised him while they were cooking a horse to eat. It was their hour of rest — the afternoon — and five and twen- ty of the gallowglasses were taken in their cabins and put to the sword, many others having been slain iu at- tempting to defend themselves. The earl escaped and fled to Kerry, whither their wretched couch into the river, in which they re- mained concealed under a bank, with only their heads over the water, untU Welsh and his disappointed party had left. The unhappy Desmond more than once hum- bled himself to sue for pardon ; and his countess, Elea- nor, who was a Butler, being the daughter of Lord Dunboyne, and who, although she disapproved from tlie beginning of his resistance to government, still shared all his privations and sufferings, frequently supplicated for mercy for him in vain. His unconditional surren- der would alone be accepted, but we are assured by O'Daly that ho was offered pardon if he gave up Dr. Saunders, a stipulation wliich he spurned. :0^ •7,5^' ^, y«fit^''^J' M l^ ■x:> a §1 a I'l 1 .>^ \ ^ V DEATH OF THE EARL OF DESMOND. 395 we must follow to relate tLe last act in this harrowing tragedy. On the 9th of November the earl of Desmond left his retreat in the woods near Castle-island, and went westwards towards the bay of Ti-alee. He sent two horsemen with eighteen kernes to carry off a prey from the Moriartys, who would appear to have been hostile to him ; he himself and John MacEligot, with two or three footmen, staying for them at a place then called Doiremore. The predatory i^arty jDroceeded to Ca- hirnifahj^, lying by the seaside Avest of Castle Gregory, in the peninsula of Corkaguiney, and there took a prey consisting of forty cows, nine horses, and some other goods, from Maurice Mac- Owen and another, announcing at the same time that the earl of Desmond was hard by, and that it was for him the cattle were required. MacOwen dispatched messengers to Lieutenant Stanley, at Dingle, and to his brothers- in-law, Owen and Donnell, sons of Don- uell O'Moriarty ; and the two latter followed in the track of the prey with a band of eighteen kernes, of whom two were armed with muskets. At Castle- maiue they applied for aid to the warder, Cheston, on the recommenda- tion of Lieutenant Stanley, and obtained a reinforcement of five soldiers. On arriving at Tralee they traced the prey in the direction of Slieve Losfher or • The circumstances above related are taken almost verbally from the depositions of Owen MacDonnell O'Moriarty (Muircliertaicli), sworn before the earl of Ormond, the bishop of Ossory, and the sovereign of Kil- Luachra, and, about five miles east of Tralee, entering late in the evening the vale of Glanageenty (Gleann-an-Ghinn- tigh), in that mountain district, they ascended an eminence, and observed a fire in the glen beneath them. Donnell O'Moriarty explored the place under cover of the darkness, and reported that the party they were in search of were there, but had not the prey with them, and he suggested that they should wait until morning to make the attack. At the dawn of day Owen and Donnell O'Moriarty, with Daniel O'Kelly, one of the soldiers, who had served some time in England, took the lead of the band, the kerne following next, and the soldiers bringing up the rear. They rushed with a loud shout to the cabin where the eaiTs party had lain, but the latter had fled on the first sound of the enemy's approach, with the exception of a venerable looking man, a woman, and a boy. O'Kelly, who entered first, aimed a blow with his sword at the old man and almost severed his arm. The old man then exclaimed, "I am the earl of Desmond, spare my life." Don- nell O'Moriarty took him on his back, and carried him a short distance, but, according to their own account, they feared the earl's party might re- turn and rescue him, and O'Kelly cut off his head at Owen Moriarty's de- sire.' kenny on the 26th of the same month of November. These depositions are to be found in a rare work by Thomas Churchyard, entitled "A Scourge for Rebels," printed in 1584, and have been repiiated in the Kerry S9G REIGN OF ELIZABETH. Thus, on the moruing of the 11th of JSTovember, 1583, jjerished Gerald, the great earl of Desmond — " iugeus rebel- libus exem2:)lar," as some English writers call him. Most assuredly this unfortu- nate nobleman was driven into rebellion in order, once for all, to crush the power of his family, and for the baser purpose of seizing and partitioning his vast do- mains. He wanted the most essential qualities of a jjopular leader ; and when the time required decision and action he was vacillating, and therefore power- less. His jealousy and pride Avould not suffer him to be guided by his cousin, James FitzMaurice, or by his brother, John, both of whom possessed superior mental and physical energy ; and when they took the leadership he could not play a subservient part. Yet he pos- sessed courage and military ability, as he proved in several hard-fought con- flicts after the death of James and John ; his sympathies were always with the Magazine for July, 1854. The story of the earl's men having shamefully robbed " a i^oor widow named Mori- arty" is untrue, the woman in question being the wife of the man called Maurice MacOwen, and the sister of Donnell O'Moriarty. The two horsemen sent with the kerne on this expedition are called in Owen's deposi- tions " Corroghore ne Scolly and Shane Deleo," names which have been identified as " Conor O'Driscol and John Daly." Brother Dominic O'Daly, bishop elect of Coimbra, and author of " Incrementum, &c., Geraldino- rum," was a near relative of this Daly, and tells us that " Cornelius O'Daly and a few others were at a short dis- tance from the earl in the vaUey, watching the cattle that had been seized the day before," and that " John Mac William and James MacDavid were the only com- panions who partook of his miserable hut (and who de- serted him) at the time of his death." (Meehan's Trans- lation, p. 108.) O'Kelly, who was in such haste to mur- der the old earl, was rewarded by government with a pension of £30 a-year, but was hanged in London for Catholic cause; and his heroic endu- rance of long and cruel sufferings, his unparalleled misfortunes and melancholy end, obliterated his faults, and have caused his memory to be venerated in the traditions of the country. His head was carried to Castlemaiue, and thence forwarded to Queen Eliza- beth, who caused it to be impaled in an iron cage on London bridge ; and his body haviug been concealed for some time by the j)easantry, was ulti- mately interred in the little chapel of Kilnamanagh, near Castleisland. During the great Geraldine rebellion the rest of Ireland was comparatively tranquil. The earl of Clanrickard — called, by the Irish, Richard Sasonagh — returned from his long captivity in London to breathe his native air for the last time before he expired in Gal- way, in August, 1582 ; and a violent contention then arose between his tur- bulent sons, Ulick and John-of-the Sham- highway robbery ; and Owen O'Moriarty was also hanged some years after, in the insurrection of Hugh O'Neill, by FitzMaurice of Lixnaw, the whole family becoming ob- jects of popular detestation on account of the part he took in the earl's death. Long after Desmond's death it was a popular belief that the place where he was slain was still red with his blood. The spot is still called Bothar-an-Iarla, and an old tree used to be shown under which, it was said, his body was first buried. In addi tion to the authorities already quoted, see O'SulIivan's Hist. Cath., Coxe's Eib. Awjl., Hooker, &c. We are grieved to add that the Four Masters evince an abject, time-serving spirit, in all their entries about the Ger- aldine war. Their patron, FarreU O'Qara, was, as Dr. O'Donovan observes in his just animadversions on these passages, an t'leve of Trinity College, and they wrote for him and for the loyalists of the reign of Charles L Hence tlicy constantly stigmatize the struggles of the Catholics of the south as treason, and apply disparaging epithets to their leaders. MILD POLICY OF PERROTT. 397 rocks. The former succeeded as earl, and the latter received for Lis patrimo- ny the barony of Leitrim, in the south- east of the county of Galway; but the next year Ulick slew his brother, John, at night, and was thus left in the ex- elusive enjoyment of the territory of Clanrickard. Viscount Baltinglass es- caped to Spain, where he died in misery; and Captain Brabazon "pacified" the north of Connaught in 1582 by a series of sanguinary devastations. A. D. 1584. — Following the ordinary rule, that a calm succeeds a storm, an interval of moderation and mercy suc- ceeded the fierce persecution of the war in Munster, and Sir John Perrott was the man selected by Elizabeth to carry out the new policy. He arrived in Ireland on the 21st of June, and was sworn in on the 26th; and with him came Sir Thomas Norreys, or Norris, as president of Munster, and Sir Richard Bingham as governor of Connaught, in the place of Sir Nicholas Malby, who had recently died at Athlone. The new deputy set out on a circuit, com- mencing at Galway, where he was received with welcome by the leading * On this occasion seven counties were marked out in Ulster, Tiz. : — Armagh, Monaghan, Tyrone, Coleraine, Donegal, Fermanagh, and Cavan ; for each of which sherLSs, commissioners of the peace, and coroners, -n-ere nominated. f The Four Masters give a list of the chieftains and heads of septs who attended this parliament. They ap- pear in the following order, those who had scats, as we find by the official list published in the third appen- dix to Hardiman's edition of the Statute of Kilkenny, being distinguished by an (*), viz. : — Torlough Luin- each (the) CKeUl ; * Hugh CNeUI, baron of Dungannon, treated earl of Tyrone in this parliament ; * Hugh men of Connaught. He next proceeded to Limerick, and at Quiu, on his way throu2;h Thomond, Donough Bee; O'Bri- en, who had taken an active part in the late insurrections, was first hanged from a car, then taken down before he was dead, and his bones broken with the back of an axe ; and finally his bruised body was hoisted to the top of the church steeple, to feed the birds and "serve as a warninsr to future evil- doers." The Four Masters add, that Perrott was " resolved to destroy and reduce a great number of gentlemen" in Limerick, when he was suddenly called away to repress a movement of Sorley Boy MacDonnell, who had lately obtained an accession of strength from Scotland. This duty, however, was easily performed, and the year passed away without any event of importance.* A. D. 1585. — Perrott summoned a par- liament, which met in Dublin on the 26th of April, this year, and was memo- rable for the great number of Irish lords and heads of septs who attended, either as members or without the right to vote, to give the proceedings the sanction of .their jDresence.f The first O'Donnell, chief of Tirconnell ; Cuconnaught Maguire, chief of Fermanagh ; John Oge O'Doherty, chief of In- ishowen; Turlough 'Boyle, chief of Boylagh, in Done- gal ; Owen O'Gallagher, O'Donnell's marshal ; Ross MacMahon, chief of Oriel ; Rory O'Kane, chief of Oire- achl^O'Cahane; Con O'Neill, chief of Clannaboy (his nephew, * Shane MacBrien O'Neill, was one of the knights for the county Antrim); * Hugh Magennis, chief of Iveagh (one of the knights for the county of Down) ; Brian ORouike ; * John Roe O'Reilly (the offi- cial list has it Philip) and his uncle, * Edmond O'Reilly (knights for the county of Cavan) ; * O'Farrell Bane and * O'FarreU Boy (knights for the county of Longford) ; 398 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. session closed on tbe 29th of May, and was a very stormy one, owing to violent debates between tbe court party and tlie countiy party, into which the mem- bers for the Pale were divided. Acts were passed to attaint James Eustace, Viscount Baltinglass ; to make estates tail forfeitable for treason ; and to re- store in blood Laurence Delahide, whose ancestor had been attainted during the rebellion of Silken Thomas. The second session was held on the 28th of April, 1586, when the late earl of Desmond and a hundred and forty of his adhe- rents were attainted. A strong opposi- tion was given to Desmond's attainder, on the ground that he had executed a convej'auce of his estates to trustees several years before ; but the govern- ment officers pretended to show that an act of treason pi'eceded this convey- ance ; and it was then provided that any such instrument made for the last thii-- teen years should be entered on record in the Exchequer, within a year, or be Hugh, son of O'Coiior Don ; Tiege Oge O'Conor Roe ; Donnell O'Conor Sligo ; Brian MacDermot, deputed by MacDermot of Moylvirg ; Carbry O'Beirn, chief of Tir- Briuin-na-Sinna, in Roscommon ; Tiege O'Kelly, of Mul- laghmore in Galway ; Donnell O'Madden ; * Ulick, earl oi'Clanrickard ; John and Dermot O'Shaughncssy ; Mur- rough-of-the-battle-axes O'Flaherty ; * Donough O'Brien, earl of Thomond ; * Sir Turlough O'Brien (knight for the county of Clare) ; Turlough, son of Tiege O'Brien ; John MacNamara ; * Boetius MacClancy, tlie brehon of Thomond (knight for the county of Clare) ; Rossa O'Loughlin of Burren ; * Mae-I-Brien Aia, (Protestant) bishop of Killaloe, and chief of his family; Calvagh O'Carroll ; John MacCoghlan ; Philip O'Dwyer, of Kil- namanagh in Tipperary; MacBrien, of Coonaghin Lim- erick ; Brian Duv O'Brien, lord of Carrigoguunell ; Conor O'Mulryan (O'Ryan), chief of the two Owneys ; * Donnell MacCarthy Jlore, earl of Clancare ; Sir Owen MacCarthy void. Thus were lauds then estimated at 574,628 acres — but containing, in truth, a great deal more — confiscated to the crown, to be distributed among English undertakers. The Scots, under a son of Sorley Boy, again excited troubles in Ulster; but the lord deputy on proceeding against them found that they had already been defeated. Their leader was hanged, Sorley Boy was taken by Sir John Perrott to Dublin, and the government of the northern province was intrusted to Turlough Luineach O'Neil, Hugh, bai'on of Dungannon, and Marshal Bag- nal. Meanwhile the English of the Pale had begun to show an inveterate opposition to Perrott. His indulgence and courtesy towards the Irish had ex- cited the jealousy and displeasure of the new English. The army was also dissatisfied with his pacific policy. Archbishop Loftus gave every possible opposition to his favorite project of establishing a university in Dublin,* Reagh, of Carbery in the county Cork, and his two nephews ; Dermot and Donough MacCarthy of Duhal- low; Owen O'Sullevan Beare, and Owen O'Sullivan More ; Conor O'Mahony, of Ivahagh in Carbery, county of Cork ; Sir Fineen O'Driscol More ; * Fineen MacQilla- patrick, lord of Upper Ossory ; Conla Mageoghegan, of Kinelcagh in West Meath ; Connell O'MolIoy of the King's county ; and Fiagh MacHugh O'Byrne, chief of the Gaval-Rannall, in Wicklow. There were none of the other O'Byrnes, Kavanaghs, O'Tooles, O'Conors Faly, O'Mores, O'Dunns, or O'Dempseys. See Dr. O'Donovan's invaluable notes to the Four Masters, under the year 1585 (vol. v., pp. 1837 to 1841), in which the existing or last known representative of each of the above heads of septs is identified. * The University of Trinity College was afterwards founded by Loftus himself, in 1093. SIR RICHARD BINGHAM. 399 The macbinations against him devel- oped an incredible amount of hatred and baseness. It was even pretended that he purposed to throw off the Eng- lish authority; letters were forged in the name of Turlough Luineach, and others, and sent to the queen to under- mine him in her confidence ; and when he applied for leave to justify himself in person, before the queen and council, his request was refused. He was, how- ever, diligent in his duties, and succeeded in inducing the chiefs and lords of Connaught to adopt a composition in lieu of the former irregular assessments, the amount being teu shillings English, or a mark Irish, on every quarter of land, whether arable or pasture.* The project for repeopling from Eng- land, the depopulated districts of Mun- ster, was now taken up with extraordi- nary zeal. Great inducements were held out to younger brothers to become undertakers. Estates were offered for three-pence, and in some places for two- pence, per acre, rent to commence only at the end of three years, and only half the sum to be j^ayable for three years more. Seven years were allowed to each undertaker to complete his plan- tation. Garrisons were to be placed on the borders, and commissioners appoint- ed to decide differences. Each person obtaining 12,000 acres was to plant eighty-six English families on his estate, * The cartron, or quarter, like otlier old denominations of land used in Ireland, contained no definite num- ber of acres. " Some cartrons," says Ware, "contained one hundred, some one hundred and twelve, some one hundred and twenty, and the largest of aU one hun- and for lesser quantities in proportion. The native Irish might be employed as laborers — they might become " the hew- ers of wood and drawers of water" in their own country — but on no account were they to be admitted as tenants ! Sir Walter Kaleigh, Sir Christopher Hatton, Sir Thomas Norris, Sir Ware- ham Sentleger, and Sir George Bourchier, were among those who obtained large and early grants. It was expected that above 20,000 English would be planted in Muuster in a few years; but this fine scheme failed in its most material points. The stipulations were evaded in a variety of ways by the undertakers ; and the government on its side failed to provide thei-equisite defences. Above all, the Irish in many cases obtained leases and conveyances, and in some places the lands were abandoned to the old possessors.f A.D. 1586. — Our attention is now de- manded for a while by the afi'airs of Connaught, where the brutal severity of the president or governor, Sir Rich- ard Bingham, was wholly ojjposed to the policy of moderation professed by the lord deputy. At a session held in Galway, in January this year, seventy persons, men and women, some of them people of distinction, were executed ; and on the 1st of March, Bingham laid sieo:e to the stronsc castle of Cloonoan, in Clare, which was held by Mahon dred and sixty acres." See Harris's TFare'g Antiq., vol. ii., p. 226. t See Fynes Moryson, Smith's Gork and Kerry, and Fitzgerald's Limericlc, for the names of the principal undertakers in Munstcr. 400 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. O'Brien, "a cbieffe cliampion of the pope's, and a greate practizer with for- eign powers." On the seventh day ]\Iahon was shot on the battlements while bravely defending his castle, and the garrison having then surrendered, were all put to the sword without mercy. The president nest marched into Mayo, where the Burkes had shut themselves up in their castles for pro- tection agaicst his oppression. Richard Burke, surnamed Deamhan-an-Chorrain, or the " demon of the reaping-hook," and his kinsman, Walter Burke, had fortified themselves in the stronghold of the Hag's castle (caislean-ua-cail- lighe), built on an artificial island in Lough Mask. Bingham pitched his camj) on the shore, and went with a jiarty in four or five boats to attack the castle ; but a storm coming on, one of the boats was capsized, and Bingham himself had a narrow escape. A few of his men were killed or drowned, and the boat fell into the hands of the Burkes, who used it the next night in escaping to the opposite shore.* Bing- ham then demolished the castle, and lianged Bichard Oge, surnamed Fal-fo- Eiriu, or the " fence of Ireland," son of MacWilliam Burke, who had come vol- iintarily to the camp, and several other strongholds shared the fate of the Hag's castle. Soldiers were sent into West Connaught in search of "rebels," and they spared none who came in their * Docwra's Relation, publislied in the Miscellany of tlie Celtic Society. t Four Masters. On this occasion they hanged Theo- way, slaying " women, boys, and aged men," many of their victims being per- sons who considered themselves under the protection of government, as the tenants of Murrouofh-na-duafjh O'Fla- hert3^•f• This career of carnaire in cold blood provoked Sir John Perrott, who had more than once endeavored to interrupt it. Bingham went to Dublin to defend his violent measures, and words of angry recrimination jjassed between him and Perrott, the council taking part with the former. Unfortunately, while the matter was still under consideration, news arrived that the Burkes had con- federated to resist the extortions of the sheriffs, as well as to protect themselves against the monstrous tyranny of the president. In fact, they had broken out into open rebellion, so that Bing- liam, whose cruelty had produced that result, enjoyed a complete triumph over the pacific deputy. Perrott himself wished to proceed against the unruly MacAVilliams, but the council would not allow him, and Bingham, returning to Connaught to exercise his severitj' with redoubled fury, commenced with the execution of the hostages whom the Burkes had given for their allegiance. A fleet of highland Scots arrived at Inishowen, and the Burkes sent to them for help, promising lai'ge spoils and ex- tensive lands in Connaught, should they succeed in resisting Bingham. The bald O'Toole, the proprietor of the distant island of Onicy, on the coast of Connemara — a man " who sup- ported the destitute, and practised hospitality." DEFEAT AND SLAUGHTER OF THE SCOTS. 401 Scots embraced the opportunity, and Sir Richard finding that the insurgents wei'e too powerful in the field, tried what might be done by stratagem. He feigned a retreat, and leaving the Scots under the impression that he fled from them, he collected what troops he could, and by a long, forced march on a dark night, surprised the enemy on the morning of September 2 '2d, at Ard- naree, a suburb of Ballina-Tyrawly, on the Sligo side of the Moy. The Burkes were absent on a foraging excursion, and the Scots made an attempt to pre- sent a face to the foe, but they were routed with frightful slaughter, and frightful SI compiled in their flight to plunge into the wide and rapid river. Few of them escaped, and the Irish annalists say that 2,000 of them were killed or drowned. Most of the flying Scots were captured and hanged, or otherwise cut ofl:*; and Ed- mond Burke, an aged gentleman, whose sons were in arms, was hanged by Bing- ham, although he was "a withered, gray old man," without strength to walk to the gallows. Sessions were again held in Galway in December, and a large num- ber of people were handed over to the executioner, among others, some of the MacSheehys of Munster, who had fought in the Geraldine war. 402 REIGJST OF ELIZABETH. CHAPTER XXXIV. REIGN OF ELIZABETH — CONTINUED. Affairs of Ulster. — Hugh, earl of Tyrone — His visit to Elizabeth — His growing power — Complaints against him. — Sir Hugh O'DonneU. — Capture of Hugh Roe O'Donnell ; cunning device. — Sir William FitzWilliam, lord deputy. — The Spanish armada — The wrecks on the Irish coast. — Disappointed avarice of the Lord-deputy — He oppresses the Irish chiefs — Murders MacMahon. — Hugh Geimhleach hanged by Hugh O'Neill, who then revisits London, excuses himself to Elizabeth, and signs terms of agreement. — O'Neill returns to Ire- land, and refuses to give his siuetiea until the government should fulfil its engagements. — Hugh Roe's first escape from Dublin Castle, and his recapture. — Fresh charges against Hugh O'Neill — He carries off and marries the sister of Marshal Bagnal. — Brian O'Rourke hanged in London. — Hugh Roe's second escape — Affecting incidents — His adventures and return to Tirconnell — Drives off an English party — His father's abdication, and his own election as chieftain — He assails Turlough Luineach, and compels him to resign the chief- taincy of Tyrone to Hugh O'NeUl. — An English sheriff hunted out of Fermanagh. — Rebellion of Maguire — Enniskillen taken by the English — Irish victory at the Ford of the Biscuits, and recapture of Enniskillen. — Sir William Russell, lord deputy. — Hugh O'NeiU visits Dublin — Bagnal's charges against him — Vindication of his policy. — Fiagh MacHugh O'Byrne and Walter Riavagh FitzGerald. — Arrival of Sir John Norris. — Hugh O'Ncall rises in arms — Takes the Blackwater Fort. — Protracted negotiations. — War in Connaught ; successes of O'Donnell — Bingham foiled at Sligo, and retreats. — Differences between Norris and the deputy. — Bingham disgraced and recalled. — Fresh promises from Spain. — Interesting events in Connaught. — Proceed- ings of the Leinster insurgents. — Ormond appointed lord lieutenant. — Last truce with O'Neill. — Hostilities resumed in Ulster. — Desperate plight of the government. — Great Irish victory of the Yellow Ford. — Ormond repulsed in Leis. — War resumed in Munster, &c. (A. D. 1587 TO A. D. 1599.) SYMPTOMS of approaching storoi Avere now (1587) visible in Ulster, where the exactions and oppression of the English sheriffs excited wide-spread disaffection. Turlough Luineach had become old and feeble, and enjoyed lit- tle influence in his sept. On the other hand, Hugh O'Neill, the son of Mathew, was daily advancing in power and pop- ularity. Like Turlough, he had been hitherto distinguished for his loyalty. He had, as it were, an hereditai-y claim to the support of the English govern- ment ; and in return he had given the aid of his sword, and had fought under the Enfrlish standard in the Gerakline war ; but his valor and military habits inspired his countrymen with confi-" dence and respect ; he was in the vigor of his age, and was looked to naturally as the successor to the chieftaincy of Tyrone. In the parliament of 1585 he took his seat as baron of Dunganuon ; and ere the proceedings had termin- ated, obtained the title of earl of Tyrone, in virtue of the grants made to his grandfather, Con Bacagh, and to his father, by Henry VIII. ; but on the ques HUGH, EARL OF TYRONK 403 tion of the inheritance annexed to tlie earldom lie was referred to the queen. He accordingly repaired to England, carrying the warmest recommendations from the lord deputy, Sir John Perrott, and he gained the good graces of Eliz- abeth so effectually, by his courtly manners, and his skill in flattering her vanity, that she sent him back with letters patent under the great seal, granting him the earldom and inherit- ance in the amplest manner. He was, however, required to define clearly the bounds of Tyrone; to set apart 240 acres on the banks of the Blackwater, for the erection of au English fort ; to exercise no authority over the neigh- boring: chieftains; and to make sufla- cient provision for the sous of Shane O'Neill and Turlough Luineach — Tur- lough himself continuing, for the re- mainder of his life, to enjoy the title of Irish chieftain of Tyrone, with right of superioiity over Maguire and O'Cahane, or O'Kaue. On his return Hugh was received with enthusiasm by his countrymen, and the confidence re- posed in him by government was such that his proposal to keep up a standing force of six companies of well-trained soldiers, to preserve the peace of the north, was gladly accepted ; a step which proved to be incautious on the part of tlie English authorities. With such power thrown into his hands, both by Irish and English, and with all the traditions of his ancient race, and all the wrongs of his oppressed country before him, it was not to be expected that Hugh O'Neill would qui- etly sink into the subservient minister of his country's foreign masters; or that he would stifle every impulse of hereditary ambition within him. Such a course would have been revolting to his aspiring nature. From time to time complaints reached government from minor chiefs, over whom Hugh soon began to extend his power. Turlough, and the sous of Shane-an-Diomais, ap- pealed against him. He kept up ami- cable relations with the Ulster Scots, and secured the friendship of the powerful and hitherto hostile sept of O'Cahane, by giving them the fosterage of his son. All these circumstances caused uneasiness to the government of the Pale, which had suffered a consid- erable diminution of strength by the withdrawal of a thousand soldiers fron Ireland to serve the queen in the Low Countries, at the close of 1586. The chief of Tirconnell, hitherto steadfast in his allegiance, also exhibited a grow- ing spirit of independence which was sufficiently alarming. There was an in- timacy between him and Hugh O'Neill which boded no good for the English. The earl of Tyrone had married a daughter of Sir Hugh O'Donnell, and the families were drawn together by friendly ties. O'Donnell refused to ad- mit an English sheriff' into his territory, and the traffic carried on between his remote coasts and those of Spain estab- lished relations between the countries not at all satisfactory to the English authorities. 404 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. The course wliicli the government adopted under these circumstances was as extraordinary as it was infamous. It Avas known that Hugh Roe, or the "red," the eldest son of Sir Hugh O'Don- nell, was a youth of rare abilities and aspiring mind ; and it was resolved that by some means the council should get possession of this boy as a hostage. To accomplish this openly would, however, require a large armj^, and rouse the northern chiefs to resistance, and Sir John Perrott proposed a plan by which such danger and expense would be avoided. How the act of treachery, which he suggested, is to be reconciled with his general character for partiality to the old Irish race, seems puzzling; but he may have thought that a plan which avoided bloodshed, though not the most honorable, was the most hu- mane means of attaining the end that had been resolved on. A vessel, laden with Spanish wines, was sent round from Dublin to the coast of Donegal, on the pretence of traffic, and of having come direct from Spain. The commander was one John Berming- ham, a Dublin merchant, and the crew consisted of fifty armed men. The ship arrived with a favorable wind in Lough Swilly, and anchored opposite Rathmullen, a castle built by Mac- Sweeny of Fanad, one of O'Donnell's commanders of gallowglasses ; it being previously ascertained that Hugh Roe Avas not far off with his foster-fixther, * Four Masters, who abstracted the account from the life of Hugh Roe O'Donnell, written by Cuchory, or Per- MacSweeny-na-tuath. A party of the sailors landed, and while they pretended to sell their wine they took care to explore the country. The neighboring people flocked to the shore ; abundance of the liquor was distributed among them ; and when Hugh Roe came to MacSweeny's castle, and his host sent to the ship for wine, it was answered that none remained for sale, but that if a few gentlemen came on board all that was left would be willingly given to them. The unsuspecting Irish chiefs fell into the snare. Hugh Roe, then scarcely fifteen years of age, with Mac- Sweeny and his party, proceeded in a small boat to the ship, were ushered into the cabin, and served with wine, until they became, as the annalists tell us, "jolly and cheerful;" then their arms were stealthily removed, the hatches closed down, the cable cut, and the prize secured. An alarm was in- stantly i-aised, and the peoj^le crowded from all quarters to the beach, but the ship was in deep water, and there were no boats by which she could be attacked. Young Hugh's foster-father rushed to the shore, and offered any ransom, but none of course would be accepted. The guests who were not required were put ashore, and the ship sailed for Dublin, where the young scion of the house of O'Donnell was safely lodged in Ber- mingham tower, along with several other State prisonei's of the Milesian and old English races already confined there.* egrine O'Qery, one of themselves, and preserved in tlie library of the Koyal Irish Academy. THE SPANISH AKMADA. 405 A. D. 1588. — Hugh, earl of Tyrone, led an army, at tbe close of April, against Turlougli Luineacli O'Neill, aud encamped at Corricklea, between the rivers Finn and Mourne. Sir Ilngli O'Donnell joined his son-iu-law, tbe earl, while the family of Sir Hugh's brother, Calvagli, took the side of Tiir- lough, who was also supported by auxiliaries from Conn aught and by Hugh O'Gallagher. A battle, in which the earl was defeated, was fought be- tween them on the first of May. In the mean time, the importunities of Sir John Perrott to be relieved from his charge in Ireland, were at length lis- tened to. His enemies had become insupportable, and he -was brow-beaten at the council-board by subordinates.* On the 30th of June he was succeeded by Sir William FitzWilliam — a man of a cruel and sordid disposition, without any redeeming quality in his character, * See in Ware's annals, under A. D. 1587, an account of an altercation between the lord deputy and Sir Kicholas Bagnal, the marshal ; Perrott was in the habit of saying that he could please the Irish better than the English. Many of the former lamented his departure ; and old Turlough Luineach, ■nho accompanied him to the water's-side, wept in taking leave. See Ware. •f The loss of the Spanish armada, on the coast of Ire- land, according to Thady Dowling, was 17 ships and 5,394 men — the numbers generally given by historians ; but it appears from a document in the State-paper OiEce, London, signed by Geofifry Fenton, the Irish secretary of State, that the total numbers were IS ships and 6,19i men, viz. : — in Lough Foyle, 1 ship and 1,100 men ; in Sligo, 3 ships and 1,500 men ; in Tirawley, 1 ship and 400 men ; on Clare Island, 1 ship and 300 men ; " in K}"nglasse, O'JIale's country," 1 ship and 400 men ; in O'Flaherty's country, 1 ship and 200 men ; in the Shan- non, 2 ships and COO men ; at Tralee, 1 ship aud 24 men ; at Dingle, 1 ship and 500 men ; in Desmond, 1 ship and 300 men ; in Erris, 2 ships, no men lost, these being taken into other vessels ; in " Shannan, 1 burnt, who had already filled the office of lord justice more than once. The preparations that had been mak- ing for some time in Spain, for a de- scent on the English coasts, had excited much of hope and of fear among the different classes of the population in this country. The abortive result is familiar to the world. Scattered by the winds of heaven, the " invincible arma- da" made this year memorable by the example which it aftbrded of one of man's proudest efforts collapsing into nothing- ness. Many of the ships were wrecked on the coast of Ireland in September, and their crews, too fi'equently, only escaped from the dangers of the deep to fall into the hands of the queen's offi- cers, by whom they were executed with- out mercy.f The ruling passion of the new deputy was avarice, and unfortu- nately for the Spanish sailors, and for the Irish on whose shores they were none lost, because the men were likewise embarked in other shipps ;" in " Gall way Haven, 1 ship which escaped and left prisoners, 70;" "drowned and sunk in the N. W. sea of Scotland, as appeareth by the confession of the Spanish prisoners (but in truth they were lost in Ireland), 1 shipp, called St. Mathew, 500 tons, men 450 ; one of Byshey of St. Sebastian's, 400 tons, men 350 ; total of shipps, 18 : men 6,194."— (See Four Masters, vol. v., p. 1870, n.) " The Spaniards cast ashore at Galway/' says Dr. Lynch, in the Icon Antistitis, " were doomed to perish ; and the Augustinian friars, who served them as chaplains, exhorted them to meet the death-struggle bravely, when they were led out, south of the city, to St. Augustiu's hiU, then surmounted by a monastery, where they were decapitated. The matrons of Galway piously prepared winding-sheets for the bodies, and we have heard that two of the Spanish sailors escaped de- struction by lurking a long time in Galway,and after wards got back to their own coimtry." — Pii Antis. Icon edited and translated by tin also p. 176. Hev. C. P. Meehan.p.' 406 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. cast away, rumor attributed to the former tlie possession of fabulous treas- ures. A thousand Spaniards, under an officer named Antonio de Leva, found refuge with O'Kourke and MacSweeny- na-tuath, the foster-father of young O'Donnell, and were urged to commence hostilities, but their instructions did not apply to such a contingency, and they determined on i-eturning for orders to Spain. For this purjiose they re- embarked, but a fresh storm arose and the ship, with all on board, went down within sight of the Irish coast. A com- mission was issued by FitzWilliam to search for the treasure which these Span- iards were supposed to have brought, but none, of course, could be found, and the deputy, not content w^ith this result, resolved to visit the locality himself, " in hopes to finger some of it," as Ware tells us. He was accompanied by Bing- ham, and laid waste the territories of the Irish chiefs who had harbored the strangers. O'Rourke escaped to Scot- land, but was delivered up to Elizabeth, and subsequently executed in Loudon ; and FitzWilliam, disappointed in his search for Spanish gold, carried off John Oge O'Doherty and Sir John Mac- Tuathal O'Gallagher, " two of the most loyal subjects in Ulster," and threw them into prison in Dublin castle. The latter died from the rigor of his impris- onment, and the former remained two years in captivity, and owed his libera- tion, in the end, to tlie payment of a large bribe to the conaipt viceroj*. A.D. 1589.— That the hatred and distrust of the Iiish towards the Eng- lish government were kept alive by such oppressive acts as these cannot be a matter of wonder; but at every step, as we proceed, we meet similar outrages. A very remarkable and atrocious in- stance occurred this year. Rosa Mac- Mahon, chief of Monaghan, having abandoned the principle of tauistry, and taken a re-grant of his tei'ritory from Elizabeth, by English tenure, died without issue male, and his brother, Hugh Hoe MacMahon, went to Dublin to be settled in the inheritance as his heir-at-law. His case was perfectly legal, but he found that a bribe to the venal lord deputy was, nevertheless, necessary, and sis hundred cows were the stipulated douceur. He was, how- ever, thrown into prison because some of the cows, it was said, were not forth- coming; but, in a few days, all was made right, and FitzWilliam set out with him for Monaghan, to give him possession of his estate. The sequel would seem almost incredible. Mac- Mahon was suddenly arrested on a chai'ge of treason, because lie had em- ployed an armed force, two yeai's Ijefoi-e, to recover rents due to hiiu in Fai'uey ; he was tried by a jury of common sol- diers, some of whom being Irish were shut up without food until they agreed to a verdict, while the English soldiers on the jury were allowed free egress and ingress, as they liad immediately agreed to convict him ; and, in short, within two days from his unexpected arrest he was indicted, tried, and exe- HUGH O'NEILL MURDERS MACMAHOX. 407 cuted at his own house. FitzWilliam's object iu proceeding into the country was to get rid of the obstacles which the forms of law would have thrown in his way in Dublin ; and he now has- tened to partition the vast estates of the murdered chieftain. Sir Henry Bagnal, who was wading to enormous Irish possessions through the blood of their owners, received a portion. This man was established at Newry, and had succeeded his father, Sir Nicholas, as marshal. MacMahon's chief residence and some lands were bestowed upon Captain Henslowe, who was appointed seneschal ; and the bulk of the property was, on payment of " a good fine under- hand" to the loi'd deputy, divided among four of the MacMahon sept, subject to an annual rent to the queen.* The northern chieftains must have been devoid of human feelings if such pro- ceedings did not confirm them in their aversion to English rule; nor can we be surprised that they were unanimous in refusing to admit English sheriffs, or other ofiicials, into their lands, or that such officers, when forced upon them, required the constant presence of strong guards to protect them.f A. D. 1590. — Hugh Geimhleach, «'. £>., Hugh-of=-the-fetters, an illegitimate son of Shane-an-diomais, communicated to * So far -we take the facts fronuCamden and Fynes Moryson, but the infamy of Fitz William is still more apparent from the State Papers, -n-here that monster's own correspondence with Burghley shows that he was in treaty with one Brian JIacHugh Oge MacMahon, to get him appointed to the chieftaincy for enormous bribes, which he calls God to witness " he meant for the profit the lord deputy charges of treason against the earl of Tyrone, alleging, among other things, that he had plotted with the shipwrecked Spaniards to ob- tain help from the king of Spain to levy war against the queen. The earl denied the charges, and soon after con- trived to seize his accusei', whom he hancred as a traitor, after some form of trial. The respect for the memory of Shane O'jSTeill was such that, it is said, no man in Tyrone would act as the executioner of his son, and the earl had to procure one from, Meath, though Camden maliciously asserts that the earl himself acted as the hanofman. This proceeding exasperated the gov- ernment, and Hugh having no confi- dence in the officials of the Pale, set out for England iu May, in order to vindi- cate himself before Elizabeth. This step, however, was itself illegal, as he left Ireland without the licence of the viceroy, and he was accordingly cast into prison in London, but his incarce- ration was neither long nor rigorous, and in the following month his submis- sion was graciously received, and articles by which he bound himself anew to his former engagements were signed by him. He renounced the title of O'Neill ; consented that Tyrone should be made shire-ground ; that gaols should be of her m^esty, and not his own!" — See Shirley's .4c- count of Farney, pp. 88 to 98. f When Maguire received notice from the viceroy that a sheriff would be sent into Fermanagh, he an- swered significantly : — " Tour sheriff will be welcome, but let me know his eric, that, if my people cut off his head, I may levy it upon the country." 408 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. erected there ; that a composition simi- lar to that agreed on in Connaught, in 1577, should be paid within ten months ; that he should levy no armed force, or make any incursion into a neighboring territory except to foUo-w a prey within five days after the capture of such prey from his own lands, or to prevent dej)- redations from without. He undertook to execute no man without a commis- sion from the lord deputy, except in cases of martial law, and to keep his troop of horsemen in the queen's pay ready for service. Further, he promised not to admit monks or friars into his territory ; nor to correspond with for- eign traitors; to promote the use of English apparel ; to sell provisions to the fort of the Blackwater, tfec. For the fulfilment of these conditions he pledged his honor, and promised to send unexcei^tiouable sureties, who were, however, not to be detained as prison- ers in Dublin castle, but to be commit- ted to the care of merchants in the city, or of gentlemen of the Pale. The sure- ties might also be changed every three months. Government, on the other side, engaged to secure the earl from all molestation, by requiring similar conditions from the neighboring chief- tains ; and Hugh, on returning to Ire- land, confirmed the above articles before the lord deputy and council ; but very prudently excused himsef from the exe- cution of them until the neis^hborinGf Irish lords had given securities to fulfil the conditions on their part, as it was stipulated they should be obliged to do. Camden tells us that for some time the earl omitted nothinar that could be expected from a most dutiful subject. Hugh Roe O'Donnell had now pined for three years and three months in captivity, when, in concert with some of his fellow prisoners, he resolved on a desperate effort to escape. On a dark evenino: towards the close of win- ter, he and his chosen companions let themselves down by a rope from one of the windows of Dublin castle, crossed the drawbridge, and passed through the city gate unobserved. They fled towards Slieve Rua, or the Three- Rock mountain, which they crossed ; but young O'Donnell became too fa- tigued to advance another step. His shoes were worn out, and his feet torn by the brambles in the rugged path- ways which they had selected ; and sinking down quite exhausted, he lay concealed in a wood while his compan- ions reluctantly departed. One of these was Art Kavanagh, who was recap- tured the following year and hung at Carlow. A faithful servant, who had been in the secret of Hugh's escape, still remained with him, and repaired for succor to the house of Felim O'Toole, chief of Feara Cualann, who resided in the place now called Powerscourt, and who had visited Hugh in prison. In the mean time, the flight of the prisoners had created great excitement in Dub- lin, and numerous bands were dispatch- ed in pursuit of them. Felim O'Toole would have willingly protected young O'Donnell, but his friends persuaded O'NEILL'S ROMANTIC MARRIAGE. 409 liini tliat the attempt would be useless to the latter, and disastrous to himself and family; and finding that the sol- diers were approaching, they went in search of the fugitive in the woods, and made a merit of giving him up to his pm'suers. Thus was Red Hugh con- signed once more to the dungeons of Dublin castle, to be guarded more strictly than before. A.D. 1591. — During this time many acts of the earl of Tyrone tended to place him in an equivocal position with the government, and enemies were not wanting to urge every charge that could be made a^rainst him. He was accused of havinof attacked and wound- ed Turlough Luineach ; but he replied that the latter was the aggressor, and had been making an inroad into his lands at the time he was hurt. The earl permitted Tyrone to be marked out as shire land, and Duugannon to be made the county town in which crim- inals were to be imprisoned and tried ; and the government was so pleased Avith this concession, that it would have overlooked a more serious charee on the occasion. The earl, however, now involved himself in a proceeding which raised up for him the bitterest enemy of all. We have already made some mention of the marshal. Sir Henry Begnal. This man hated the Irish with a rancor which bad men are kuoAvn to feel to- wards those whom they have mortally injured. He had shed a great deal of their blood, obtained a great deal of their lauds, and was the sworn enemy of the whole race. Sir Henry had a sister who was young and exceedingly beautiful. The wife of the earl of Ty- rone, the daughter of Sir Hugh Mac- Manus O'Dounell, had died, and the heart of the Irish chieftain was caiiti- vated by the beautiful English girl. His love jvas reciprocated, and he be- came in due form a suitor for her hand, but all his efforts to gain her brother's consent to their marriasre were in vain. The story, indeed, is one which might seem to have been borrowed from some old romance, if we did not find it cir- cumstantially detailed in the matter-of- fact documents of the State Paper Of- fice. The Irish prince and the English maiden mutually plighted their vows, and O'Neill presented to the lady a gold chain worth £100; but the inex- orable Sir Henry removed his sister from Newry to the house of Sir Patrick Barnwell, who was married to another of his sisters, and who lived about seven miles from Dublin. Thither the earl followed her. He was courteously re- ceived* by Sir Patrick, and seems to have had many friends among the Eng- lish. One of these, a gentleman named William Warren, acted as his confidant ; and at a party at Barnwell's house, the earl engaged the rest of the comjiauy in conversation while AYarreu rode off with the lady behind him, accompanied by two servants, and carried her safely to the residence of a friend at Drum- condra, near Dublin. Here O'Neill soon followed, and the Protestant bish- 410 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 015 of Meath, Thomas Jones, a Lanca- shire man, was easily induced to come and unite tliem in marriage the same evening. This elopement and marriage, whicli took place on the 3d of August, 1591, were made the subject of violent accusations against O'Neill. Sir Henry Bagnal was furious. "I cannot but accurse myself and fortune," he wrote to the lord treasurer, " that my blonde, which, in my father and myselfe hath often beene spilled in repressinge this rebellious race, should nowe be mingled with so traiterous a stocke and kindred." He charged the earl with having an- other wife living; but this point was explained, as O'Neill showed that this lady who was his first wife, the daugh- ter of Sir Brian MacFelim O'Neill, had been divorced previous to his marriage with the daughter of O'Donnell. Alto- gether, the government would appear to have viewed the conduct of O'Neill in this matter rather leniently; but Bagnal was henceforth his most impla- cable foe, and the circumstance was not without its influence on succeeding events.* * The countess of Tyrone died in January, 1596, some years before the lust scene of deadly stril'o between her brother and her husband. \ This Irish chieftain was famous for his personal beauty as well as for his firmness and haughty bearing. He could not understand English, and refused to plead before an English tribunal ; but when told that the court would try him and condemn liim whether he pleaded or not, he merely said, " if it must be, let.it be." Miler Magrath, the apostate friar who had been made archbishop of Cashel, was sent to him just before his execution, to induce him to conform ; but the heroic Cfiieftain told Magrath rather to learn a lesson from his fortitude, ajvi return to the bosom of the Church. Lord A perpetual recurrence of outrages against the northern 6hieftains served effectually to prepare the way for the crisis which was now fast approaching in their province. This year Brian-na- Murtha O'Rouke, whose flight to Scot- land we have already mentioned, was put to death in London, under circum- stances that excited deep sjnnpathy for him. The principal charge against him was, that he had sheltered some of the shipwrecked Spaniards, and refused to surrender them to government. He was given up by the Scots, and being taken to London, was tried, condemned, and executed.f A.D. 1592 — Once more Hugh O'Don- nell shook off his fetters, and in a dark night of Christmas escaped for the sec- ond time, from the duuiteons of Dublin castle. Henry and Art O'Neill, sons of Shane-an-diomais, were companions of his flight, and it was said that the lord deputy, Fitz William, winked at their escape, being bribed by the earl of Ty- rone, who wished to get the sons of Shane into his own hands, as the Eng- lish might at any moment have set them Bacon says that O'Eouke " gravely petitioned tlie queen that he might be hanged with a gad or withe, after his own country fashion, which doubtless was readily granted him." Walker in his Iris?i, Bards, and Har- diman in his Irish Miiutrelsy, mention an extraordinary interview between Queen Elizabeth and O'Rouke, but the story appears to rest on no solid foundation. Dr. O'Donovan (Four Masters, vol. vi., p. 1907, note) says " the family of O'Rouke seems to have been the proud- est and most inflexible of all the Irish race," and ad- duces the example of this chieftain's father, of whom Sir Henry Sidney said : — " I found hym the proudest man that ever I dealt with in Ireland." HUGH ROE'S ESCAPE FROM PRISON. 411 up as rivals agaiust him.* They de- scended by a rope throngli the privy, which opened into the castle ditch ; and leavinof there their soiled outer sfar- ments, they were conducted by a young man named Turlough Roe 0'Ha2;an, the confidential servant or emissarj' of the earl of Tyrone, who was sent to act as their guide. Passing through the gates of the city, which were still open, three of the party reached the same Slieve Rua which Hugh had visited on the former occasion. The fourth, Henry O'Neill, strayed from his companions in some way — probably before they left the city — but eventually he reached Tyrone, where the earl seized and im- prisoned him. Hugh Roe and Art O'Neill, with their faithful guide, pro- ceeded on their way over the Wicklow mountains towards Glenmalure, to Fia2:h MacHugh O'Byrne, a chief fiimous for his heroism, and who was then in arms against the government. Art O'Neill had grown corpulent in prison, and had besides been hurt in descendinsr from the castle, so that he became quite worn out with fatigue. The party were also exhausted with hunger, and as the snow fell thickly, and their clothing was veiy scanty, they suffered addition- ally from intense cold. For a while Red Hugh and the ser- vant supported Art between them ; but this exertion could not long be sustained, * Camden and Fynes Moryson, who confoiind the two escapes of Hugh Eoe, intimate that the connivance of the corrupt lord deputy was obtained by a bribe, of which, however. Hugh Eoe himself and his biographer were and at length Red Hugh and Art lay down exhausted under a lofty rock, and sent the servant to Glenmalure for help. With all possible speed Fiagh O'Byrne, on receiving the message, dispatched some of his trusty men to carry the necessary succor; but they arrived al- most too late at the precipice under which the two youths lay. "Their bodies," say the Four Masters, "were covered with white-bordered shrouds of hailstones freezing round them, and their light clothes adhered to their skin, so that, covered as they were with the snow, it did not appear to the men who had arrived that they were human beings at all, for they found no life in their members, but just as if they were dead." On being raised up Art O'Neill fell back and expired, and was buried on the spot ; but Red Hugh was revived with some difiBculty and carried to Glen- malure, where he was secreted in a sequestered cabin and attended by a physician. Here he remained until a messenger came from the earl of Tyrone, with whom he departed, though still in such a state that it was necessary to lift him on and off his horse. Fiasrh sent an armed troop to escort him to the Liffey, which he crossed near Dublin, although all the fords were guarded by English soldiers, and among his escort were Felim O'Toole and his brother, who did their best to make amends for wholly ignorant. If the corrupf.on did not exist in both cases, it did at least in that of the second escape, when an object of importance to the earl of Tyrone waa efiFected. 412 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. their iuability to slaelter Liin ia Ms former fliglit. Hugh crossed the Boyne in a boat, -n-hile the servant conveyed the horses through the town, and at Mellifont abbey they reposed for a day and a night at the house of an English friend of the earl of Tyrone. At Dun- dalk they rode fearlessly through the town, thus disarming the suspicion of those who were watching for them along the borders of the Pale. On entering the Fews they halted for a day at the house of the chief, Sir Turlough, son of' Henry O'jSFeill ; thence they crossed Slieve Fuaid to Armagh, where they remained for a night in disguise, and the following day found them at Dungan- non, where Red Hugh was hospitably received by the earl of Tyrone. Ulti- mately, young O'Donnell arrived in safety at his father's castle in Bally- shauuon, where he found the couutry overawed and plundered by a party of 200 English, who, under captains Willis and Conwell, occupied the monastery of Donegal, and had also fortified them- selves in a place now called Ballyweel. A large assemblage of peoj^le having collected to greet Bed Hugh on his arrival, he invited them to march with him to Donegal, and there intimated to the English that they should leave — but might depart in safety, provided they left behind any prisoners or cattle they had seized in the neighborhood. Our annalists tell us that " they did as they were ordered, and thankful that they escaped with their lives, they went back to Conuaught," while the friars returned to their monastery in Done- gal. Red Hugh still suffered from the effects of the frost of the Wicklow mountains, and the phj'sicians finding it necessary to amputate the great toes of both his feet, he remained at Bally- shannon under their care from the 1st of February until April. A general meeting of the Kinel Connel was then summoned, and all having met except the partisans of Oalvagh O'Donnel's family. Sir Hugh abdicated the chief- taincy, which was then conferred amid the acclamations of the meeting on his son, Red Hugh, The young chieftain was inaugurated on the 3d of May, and according to the ancient usage, proceeded at once to made a hostile incursion. He entered the lands of Sir Turlough Luineach, which he laid waste ; and this old chief having ap- plied for the aid of some English soldiers. Red Hugh paid him another visit, and drove his adherents to seek an asylum in the castle of O'Kane of Glengiveen, where, being under the protection of a friendly chief, he would not molest them. Soon after, he be- sieged Sir Turlough and his Englishmen in the castle of Strabane, and burned the town uj) to the walls of the fortress; but as these proceedings amounted to an open defiance of English authority, his friend, the earl of Tyrone, feared that a premature and fruitless war would be the result, and brought about a meeting between Hugli Roe and the lord deputy at Dundalk, so arranging matters that the former obtained a full TROUBLES IN ULSTER. 413 pardou for all that was passed, in- cluding his escape from Dublin castle. This recognition of Hugh Roe's chief- taincy by the government induced the adherents of Calvagh O'Donnell's sons to admit him as their chief, so that his power at home was considerably augmented. * A. D. 1593. — O'Donnell collected an- other army, this year, at Lifford, and under his influence Turlouo-h Luiueach surrendered the chieftaincy of Tyrone to Hush O'jSTeill, who now became the O'Neill, as well as earl of Tyrone ; and Turlough farther consented to dismiss his English guard, so that Ulster was left, once more, subject only to its ancient Irish dynasts, O'Neill and O'Donnell. This took place in May, but in the same month serious dis- turbances broke out in Breftuy and Fermanagh. George Bingham, the brother of Sir Eichard, entered the former district, with an armed force, to distrain for rents claimed for the queen. Brian Oge O'Rourke asserted that no rents were unpaid except for lands lying waste, and which ought not to be rated. Bingham, nevertheless, seized the cattle of O'Kourke, and the latter took up arms, and marching to * Under tliis year (1592) Ware tells us that " eleven priests and Jesuits ivere seized in Connauglit and Mun- ster, and brought up to Dublin, where they Tvere ex- amined before the lord deputy." The usual charge against "popish priests" at that time was, " that they sowed sedition and rebellion in the kingdom ;" and among the witnesses against them in the present in- stance was one James Rally, or Eeily, who swore that ■' Michael Fitzsimons, one of the said priests, stirred up above a hundred persons, amongst whom he himself was one, to assist Baltinglass in his rebellion." The witness — a true type of his class — said he was sure he Ballymote, where Bingham resided, re- taliated by acts of plunder. O'Rourke's neighbor, Hugh Maguire, was next provoked into hostilities. He had pur- chased exemption from the presence of an English sheriff, during Fitz Wil- liam's administration, by a bribe of three hundred cows, which he had given that deputy ; yet Captain "Willis — the same whom young O'Donnell had ignominiously driven from Donegal — was appointed sheriff of Fermanagh, and went about the country with one hundred armed men, and as many women and children, who were all sup- ported on the spoils of the district. Maguire hunted Willis and his retinue into a church, where he would assuredly have put them to the sword had not Hugh O'Neill interfered, and saved their lives ou condition that they im- mediately quitted the countiy. The lord deputy was enraged because O'Neill did not punish Maguire, and he even called him a traitor ; and O'Neill's mor- tal enemy. Marshal Bagnal, seized the opportunity to forward fresh impeach- ments against him. Meanwhile Maguire joined O'Rourke in open rebellion. At that moment would be murdered if he went back to Coimaught ; and being asked by the lord deputy "if he would go to church and serve her majesty against the rebels," he answered, " Then truly I will forsake the devil and serve God and the queen." ^Vhe^eupon the lord deputy clothed him, and made him turnkey of the prison of Dublin castle. Father Fitzsimons, who was the son oi an alderman of Dublin, was executed in the corn market, but Ware does not mention the fate of the other priests. A great many of the Catholic clergy were, however, at that time pining in the government prisons, where they were left to die. 414 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. Edward INIacGanraii, who bad been ap- pointed by the pope arclibisbop of Armaffli, returned to Ireland as the bearer of promises from the king of Spain to the Irish Catholics. A re- ward was offered by the deputy for his apprehension, but the primate repaired to Maguire, whom he encouraged by his exhortations, and accompanied in an incursion into Northern Counaught, against Sir Richard Bingham. They had proceeded as far as Tulsk, in Roscommon, when they unexpectedly encountered the forces of the president, whom they put to flight, slaying one of the English officers, Sir William Clif-' ford; but, unhappily, Archbishop Mac- Gauran and the abbot, Cathal Maguire, were killed, on the Irish side, while ^ministering to the wounded. The lord deput)^ now collected all the troops of the Pale, and marched into Fermanagh, where he was joined by the earl of Tyrone and Marshal Bagnal. To the latter he committed the chief command, and, at the same time. Sir Richard Bingham and the earl of Thomond apjjroached from Connaught. For Ma- guire to attempt resisting such an over- whelming force was madness; yet, having sent his cattle into Tirconnell, he defended, with great bravery, a foi'd on the river Erne, to the west of Bal- leek, and lost two hundred of his men before the passage was forced. The earl of Tyrone, who crossed the river at the head of the cavalry, was wound- ed in the thigh, in the conflict ; and O'Sullivan Beure tells us that Red Hugh O'Donnell was marching to the aid of Maguire, and would have at- tacked the EnErlisli the nifrht after the battle of the ford, had not O'Neill privately requested him to refrain from doing so while he was in their ranks. Q'Neill wished to abide his time, but was heartily disgusted with the part which circumstances, for the moment, obliged him to play. The campaign led to no result except the raising up of Conor Oge Maguire, in opposition to the legitimate chief of Fermanagh, ac- cording to the old policy of England, which would rule Ireland by the divis- ions of her people. A. D. 1594. — The lord deputy again came to Fermanagh this year, took the town of Enniskillen, and having placed an English gai-rison there, returned to Dublin ; but scarcely had he departed when Maguire appealed to O'Donnell, who, throwing oft' all semblance of alle- giance, led an army to the aid of his friend, besieged the English garrison in Enniskillen, and plundered all Avho lived under English jurisdiction in the surrounding territor}-. The lord dej)- uty ordered the gentlemen of the Pale, with O'Reilly and Bingham, to revictual the fort of Enniskillen, where the garri- son had already begun to sufter severely from hunger ; and the force collected for this purpose was placed under the command of Sir Edward Herbert, Sir Henry Duke, and George Bingham. Maguire, with such men as had been left with him by O'Donnell, and Cor- mac O'Neill, brother of the earl of VINDICATION OF TYRONE. Tyrone,* set out to intercept them, and eucouutered them at a ford about five miles fi'ora the town, where he routed them with the slaughter, according to O'Sullivan, of four hundred of their men. All the provisions intended for the beleaguered fortress were taken, so that the place was called Bel-atha-na-mBri- osgadh, or, the " ford of the biscuits," f and as soon as the news of the defeat reached Enniskillen the garrison capitu- lated, and were suffered, by Maguire, to depart in safety. The victorious Irish left a sufficient garrison at Enniskillen, and marched* into Northern Connaught, where Sir Richard Bingham exercised intolerable oppi'ession. They laid waste all the English settlements, and slew every man from the age of fifteen to sixty whom they found who could not speak Irish, so that no Englishman remained in the country, except in a few fortified towns and castles ; and O'Sullivan tells us that the severity of the Irish on this occasion was in retaliation for the truc- ulence of the English, who hurled old men, women, and children from the bridge of Enniskillen, when it fell into their power. * O'Sullivan teUs us that O'Donnell, on bearing that a force was about to march to relieve Enniskillen, sent word to O'NeUl that he would regard him as an enemy unless he lent his aid at such a juncture. Tyrone was convinced that a rebellion at that moment, before the appearance of the expected aid from Spain, would rashly peril the Catholic cause ; yet, he also knew that he gained little by holding aloof himself, as he was already an obj ect of suspicion to the English government. He was perplex- ed how to act, bat the matter seems to have been com- promised by the departure of his brother, Cormac, with a contingent of one hundred horse and three hundred On the 11th of August, this year, a new lord deputy was sworn into office, Sir William Russell, youngest son of the earl of Bedford, having been sent over to replace Sir William FitzWil- liam, of whose qualities, as a man or a governor, the reader must have formed a low estimate. The earl of Tyrone, whose loyalty had, of late, become more dubious than ever, made his appearance, unexpected- ly, in Dublin, a few weeks after the in- stalment of the new deputy. He com- plained of the unworthy suspicions en- tertained against him ; and in vindica- tion of himself, appealed to the many services which he had rendered to the government, more especially to that which he had so lately performed against Maguire, and in which he had received a serious Avound. It is thought that the lord deputy was inclined to receive his justification, but his old enemy, Bao^nal, renewed his charfjes of high treason, with more energy than ever, against him. He asserted that O'Neill had entertained the late ai'chbishop MacGauran, knowing him to be a trai- tor; that he corresponded with O'Don- nell while the latter was levying war disciplined musketeers, to join Maguire, at the same time that it did not publicly appear whether they were sent by CNeUl or went spontaneously. (Hist. Cath., p. 166.) O'Sullivan, who gives a spirited description of the battle at the ford, says the army sent to relieve En- niskillen comprised four hundred horse and over two thousand foot; whereas Cos makes it only forty-sis horse and sis hundred foot. f This name is now obsolete, but the tradition of the site of the battle is still preserved. It was fought where Drumane bridge, on the river Arney, now stands. — Four Masters, p. 1593, note. 416 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. .igaiust tLe queen ; that, being allowed to keep six companies in the queen's service, he Lad contrived, by constantly changing them, to discipline to arms all the men in Tyrone ; and that, under the pretence of building a castle for himself, in the English fashion, he had jDurchased a large quantity of lead, which he kept stored up at Dungannon, as material for bullets. O'Neill's attempt to vindicate him- self on this occasion, was a last alter- native to avoid rebellion. English writers, and those who adopt their views, constantly accuse him of dissim- ulation and duplicity; yet the conduct to Avhich these opprobrious terms are applied, would appear to have been, in him, only the result of sound policy and prudence. He must, at all times, have I'esented the oppression of his country by the English. The English rulers of Ireland were still regarded as strangers and invaders ; while he, the representa- tive of a long line of Irish kings, con- tinued to preserve a remnant of heredi- tary independence which must have rendered him an object of hatred and suspicion to the foreign government. Sooner or later that vestige of ancient Irish royalty should be extinguished, and his own personal enem)'-, marshal Bacrnal, was the man whose mission it was to work out • that end. At the same time that O'Neill knew all this, the wisdom and depth of mind for which lie was so remaikable, taught * Captain Thomas Lee, who at this very time was writing the " memorial" wliich he addressed to Queen him the futility of waging war against England in the old-fashioned piecemeal style. He knew that the aid of foreisfn Catholic powers was indispensable, and that a favorable opportunity should be awaited; and hence, while he would promote a spirit of nationality among the neighborins: chiefs, he discourasred the rashness which would plunge the country into a premature civil war. It was not duplicity, but common pru- dence, therefore, which prevented him from hastily flying to arms; and not only does it seem certain that when he entered the field against the govern- ment, he was goaded into that course by insults and injustice, but it cannot be positively asserted that he would not have lived all his life in passive submission to the English crown had he not been ultimately driven to resist- ance. He foresaw this contingency from a distance, and was prepared for it ; and, if he was slow in rising, he, at least, approached nearer than any other Irishman to the liberation of his coun- try from a foreign yoke. Tyrone despised the malignity of Bagna], and offered to prove the injus- tice of his charges by the ordeal of single combat ; but his enemy added cowardice to his malice, and declined. The council deliberated whether they should seize the earl while he was in their power, but some of the members were friendly to him, and, he was j^er- mitted to depart in safety.'"' Elizabeth, and who was intimately acquainted with the characters of all the parties concerned, says: — "Ho THE.WICKLOW INSURGEXTS. 417 A. D. 1595. — Sir AVilliam Russell's first exploit was an attack upon Fiagh MacHugh O'Byrne, who was called " the firebrand of the mountains," and whose castle of Ballinacor (Baile-na- cuirre), in Glenmalure, he took by surprise in January. Fiagh, however, escaped with his family, having been alarmed by the accidental sound of a drum, just as the deputy's troops reached the outer rampart. Wal- ter Riavagh, or the swarthy, one of the Kildare Geraldiues, was goaded into re- bellion, and joined Fiagh ; and scarce- ly had Russell returned to Dublin from Ballinacor, where he placed an English garrison, when Walter made a nocturnal excursion to the vicinity of the metropolis, and burned the suburb- (O'NeiU) wiU, if it so stand witli your majesty's pleasure, offer himself to the marshal, Tcho hath been the chiefest instrument against him, to prove with his sword that he hath most wrongfully accused him ; and because it is no conquest for him to overthrow a man ever held in the world to be of most cowardly behavior, he ■n-ill, in defence of his innocency, allow his adversary to come armed against him naked, to encourage him the rather to accept of his challenge." — See the Desiderat. Cur. ifiJ.,Tol.u.,pp.91., &c. ; and appendix to Curry's ifeii'ew. Camden, in Ms character of Hugh CNeUl, gives him credit for "great physical powers of endurance, in- defatigable industry, mental qualities suited to the greatest undertakings, great military knowledge, and a profound depth of mind to dissemble (ad simulandum)." Annales, an. 1590, p. 572, ed. of 1039. Dr. O'Donovan, in his notes to the Four Masters, (vol. vi., p. 1888,) says of this most remarkable man : — "Whether this earl, Hugh, was an O'Neill or not — and the editor feels satis- fied that Shane-an-diomais proved in England that he was not — he was the cleverest man that ever bore that name. The O'Kellys of Bregia, of whom this Hugh must have been (if he were not of the blood of the O'XeiUs), were descended from Hugh Slaine, monarch of Ireland from 599 tUl 605. Connell Mageoghegan says that there reigned, of King Hugh Slaiae's race, as monarchs of this kingdom, nine kings we may, therefore, wcU believe that tlie blood of Hugh Slaine, which was '53 an village of Crumlin, carrying off the leaden roof of the church to make bullets, while the garrison of Dublin witnessed the conflagration without be- ing able to render any assistance. This happened on the 30th of January, and in the following April he was taken treacherously and executed in Dublin.* The Irish had been goaded by op- pressions under which human nature could not long writhe without resist- ance; and disaffection had become so general, especially in Ulster and Con- naught, that there could be no longer any doubt that a great civil war was imminent. The lord deputy solicited reinforcements from England, and it was resolved that Sir John Norris, or Norreys, an officer of great experience brought so low in the grandfather, found its level in the military genius and towering ambition of Hugh, earl of Tyrone." * O'Sullevan, in his History of the Irish Catholics, (p. 103, ed. of 1850,') gives an interesting accotmt of the fate of this Walter Reagh, or Riavagh. One Peter Fitzgerald, who had become a Protestant, and who was in the employment of the government, was his great ene- my, and attacked his house of Gloran. Walter, soon after, with Terence, Felim, and Raymond O'Byrne, the sons of Fiagh, attacked Peter's castle, and setting it on fire, burned it with its inmates. This, according to O'Sullevan, 'was the beginning of Walter's rebellion. Subsequently he was besieged in his castle by the Eng- lish, and his brothers, Gerald and James, slain, some say hanged, when he cut his way through the enemy and escaped. Not long after he was wounded in a con- flict with a party who were in pursuit of him, but was carried off by a companion named George O'More, who secreted him in a cavern, where he was betrayed by his attendant, and, being conveyed to Dublin, was impaled — other accounts say hanged and quartered, or hanged in chains. Terence O'Byrne was, some time after, de- livered to the English by his own father, Fiagh, who was wrongfully persuaded that he had formed a plot to betray him. O'Sullevan says that Terence was exe- cuted in Dubhn, after being offered Ms life if he changed Ms religion. 418 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. and celebrity, and Avhose brother, Sir Thomas, was president of Munster, should be sent over as lord general with 2,000 veteran troops who had distinguished themselves in Brittany, together with 1,000 men of a fresh levy. The earl of Tyrone now thought it high time to declare himself. He found himself already treated as an enemy by the government on the one side, while on the other his countrymen could bear their galling yoke no longer. He accordingly seized the fort of the Blackwater, commanding the passage into his own territory, while O'Donnell, who had never faltered in his hostility to England, and burned to avenge his own and his country's wrongs, made incursions, in March and April, into Connaught and Annally O'Farrell, to plunder the recent English settlements there, and to burn and destroy their castles. These movements Red Hugh executed with such rapidity that he escaped any serious collision with the English forces. As soon as Sir John Norris and his troops arrived, an expedition to the north was prepared, and O'Neill re- linquished the Blackwater fort, after destroying the works and burning the * Thers are some important circumstances connected with these first movements in the north. The Four Masters state that O'Neill had invited O'Donnell to join him, and that they marched to Faughard, near Diindalk, to have a parley with the deputy, who, however, did not come ; while from the English accounts it would appear that O'NeiU had written letters both to EusseU and to Norris, proposing to meet and confer with them on the occasion, hut that the letters were intercepted by Bag- nal. Thus the lord deputy proclaimed O'Neill a traitor, in ignorance of the overtures which the latter had made. town of Dungaunon, including his own house. Our annalists say that the English army marched beyond Armagh until they came in view of the in- trenched camp of the Irish, when they returned to Armagh, where they, placed a strong garrison in the cathedral, and strengthened the fortifications; and that Sir William Russell having theu com- mitted the command to Norris returned to Dublin, Avhere he proclaimed O'Neill a traitor by the name of Hugh O'Neill, son of Mathew Ferdarough, or the blacksmith.* O'Donnell, in the mean time, obtain- ed in the west many successes, which raised the confidence of the Irish. The castle of Sligo was given up to him by Ulick Burke, who had held it for the English, and who took this important step after slaying George Bingham in a private fray ; f the people of Northern Connaught who had been dispossessed of their lands by Bingham and his myr- mydons, returned to their patrimonies ; six hundred Scots arrived in Lough Foyle, under MacLeod of Ara, and en- tered into O'Donnell's service, and with these he scoured Connaught as far as Tuam and Dunmore, returning into Donegal through Costello and Sligo, f George Bingham manned and armed a ship, with which tie pillaged the coast of Tirconnell, plundering the Carmelite monastery of the Blessed Virgin, at Batlv- mullen, and the church of St. ColumbkiUe, on Tory- island ; but on his return from the expedition, an alter- cation took place between him and Ulick Burke, son of Redmond-na-Scuab, who was in charge of the fortress of Sligo, relative to the share of the spoils to which the Irish section of the crew were entitled, and Burke hav- ing slain his antagonist, gave up the castle to Red Hugh O'Donnell. — Fuur Masters. NEGOTIATIONS WITH O'NEILL. 419 and thus avoidiu2:BiD near Kilmacrenan. Four Masters, p. 23G2, n. RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. 461 and practical in his views, and richly was he rewarded for the assistance which he rendered to his royal master. He received the wide lands of Sir Cahir O'Doherty for his share in this whole- sale spoliation. But the wealthy citi- zens of London were the largest parti- cipators in the plunder. They obtained 209,800 acres, and rebuilt the city, which, since then, has been called Lon- donderry. According to the plan final- ly adopted for the *' plantation of Ul- ster," as this scheme was called, the lots into which the lands were divided were classified into those containing 2,000 acres, which were reserved for rich un- dertakers and the great servitors of the crown; those containing 1,500 acres, which were allotted to servitors of the crown in Ireland, with permission to take either English or L-ish tenants; and thirdly, those containing 1,000 acres, which were to be distributed with still less restriction. The exclusion of the ancient inhabitants, and the proscrip- tion of the Catholic religion, were the fundamental principles which were to be acted on as far as practicable in this settlement.* A. D. 1611. — The persecution of the Catholics was becoming daily more sanguinary and relentless, but the exe- cution of the venerable Conor O'Devany, bishop of Down and Connor, which took place this year in Dublin, affords * See Pynnar's Survey of Ulster, and other original documents published in Harris's Hiierniea; also, TTu Confiscation of Ulster, by Thomas MacNevin. in Duffy's Library of Ireland. Cos. says, that in the instructions. the most striking example of the extent to which it was carried at this time. This venerable prelate, who was then about eighty years of age, was originally a Franciscan friar, and was condemned to death on the nominal charge of hav- ing been with O'Neill in Ulster ; and at the same time a priest named Pat- rick O'Loughrane was tried and con- demned for having sailed in the same ship with O'Neill and O'Donnell to France, although it appeared that he was only accidentally their fellow-pas- senger, the real offence of these pious men being the rank which they held in the Catholic Church. The sentence was that they be first hanged, then cut down alive, their bowels cast into the fire, and their bodies quartered. When the hangman, who was an Irishman, heard that the bishop ■was condemned, he fled from the city, and no other Irishman could be found to execute the atrocious sentence, so that it was neces- sary to release and forgive an English murderer, that he might hang the bish- op. The old prelate, fearing that the horrible spectacle of his torments might cause the priest to waver, requested the executioner to put the latter to death fii-st ; but the priest said " he need not be in dread on his account, that he would follow him without fear ; remark- ing, that it was not meet a bishop should be without a priest to attend printed for the direction of the settlers, it was especially mentioned "that they should not suffer any laborer, that would not take the oath of supremacy, to dwell upon their land." i62 REIGN OF JAMES I. him. This he fulfilled, for he suffered the like torture with fortitude, for the sake of the kingdom of heaven and for his soul."* These executions produced great excitement among the people. The Catholics collected the blood of the victims, whom they justly regarded as martyi-s, and the next day they con- trived to procure the mangled remains, and to inter them in a becomins: man- ner.f A. D. 1613. — Sir Arthur Chichester, who still held the reins of government in Ireland, Avas resolved to carry out his puritanical principles^ to the utmost, and conceived a plan for erecting a " Protestant ascendency" in this coun- try. The plantation of Ulster with English Protestants and Scotch Presby- terians had paved the way for this pro- ject, but the work was as yet only half done. The deputy persuaded James that a parliament should be called. It was twenty-seven years since one had been held in Ireland; but the vast pre- ponderance of population, property, and influence was still on the side of the Catholics, and to break that down * Four Masters. ■f P. O'Sullevan Beare, who gives an interesting ac- count of the trial of the bishop and priest, mentions several other cases of the execution of Catholics about this period ; among others, that of the prior of Lough Derg, who was hanged and quartered. Vide Hist. Cath., p. 269. I This Sir Arthur Chichester was a pupil of the fa- mous Puritan minister, Cartwright, who was in the habit of praying in his sermons : " Lord, give us grace and power as one man to set ourselves against them " (the bishops). " At this time," says Plowden (Hiiitory of Ireland, vol. i., p. 338), " the general body of the re- formed clergj- in Ireland was Puritan ; the most eminent a great deal was to be done in the shape of preliminary arrangements. The deputy demanded, and easily obtained from the king, ample powers for these preparations, with which he undertook to secure a sufficient majority in both houses. Seventeen new counties had been formed since the last parliament ; but many of these would send Catholic representatives, and it was by the crea- tion of new boroughs that Chichester proposed to overwhelm the Catholic rank and population of the country. Forty new boroughs were accordingly created, many of them paltry villages or scattered houses, inhabited only by some half dozen of the new Ulster set- tlers, and several of them not being in- corporated until after the writs had been issued. No previous communica- tion of the design to summon parliament, or of the laws intended to be enacted, had been made pursuant to Poyning's act, and the Catholics justly appre- hended a design to impose fresh griev- ances upon them. A letter signed by six Catholic lords of the Pale was ac- cordingly addressed to the king, but he of whom for learning was Ussher, then (1610) Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, and afterwards (1634) Arch- bishop of Armagh, who by his management and contri- vance procured the whole doctrine of Calvin to be re- ceived as the public belief of the Church of Ireland, and ratified by Cliichester in the king's name. Not only the famous Lambeth articles concerning predestination, grace, and justifying faith, sent down as a standard of doctrine to Cambridge, but immediately suppressed by Queen Elizabeth, and afterwards rejected by King James, but also several particular fancies and notions of his own were (in 1615) incorporated, says Cart^ (Orm., vol. i., p. 73), into the artaclea of the Church of Ireland." VIOLENT PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIASIENT. 463 treated their remonstrance with con- tempt. He pronounced their memorial to be a rash and insolent interference with his authority, and the lord deputy was allowed to pack his parliament as he pleased* The first trial of strength was in the election of a speaker. Sir John Everard, who had resigned his position as justice of the king's bench, rather than take the oath of supremacy, was pi'oposed by the recusants, and Sir John Davis, the attorney-general, by the court party. The proceedings which ensued were scandalous. The recusants deemed the numerical majority of their opponents to be factious and illegal, as it really was, and in the absence of the court party in another room to be counted, according to the forms then in use, they placed their own candidate in the speaker's chair. On the return of the court party into the house a tumul- tuous scene took place. These placed Sir John Davis in the lap of Sir John * Of the 233 members returned, 125 were Protestants, 101 belonged to the " recusant" or Catholic party, and 6 were absent. The Upper House consisted of 16 tem- poral barons, 25 Protestant prelates, 5 viscounts, and 4 earls, of whom a considerable majority belonged to the court party. The wonder, observes Plowden, is how so large a majority of Protestants was obtained, consider- ing how very few of the Irish had adopted the new doctrines ; not sixty, says the Abbe Mageoghegan, down to the reign of James. f " It may be here remarked," observes Mr. Moore, " as one of the proofs of the sad sameness of Irish his- tory, that nearly 200 years after these events, when, by the descendants of these Catholic lords and gentry, the same wrongs were still suffered, the same righteous cause to be upheld, it was by expedients nearly similar that they contrived to resist peaceably their persecutors. In the separate assembly formed by the recusants we 6nd the prototype of the Catholic Association ; while Everard, and then pulled the latter out of the chair, tearing his garments in the act. The Catholic party thereupon seceded fi'om parliament, and sent a deputation to London to lay their com- plaints before the king, eight peers and about twice as many commoners being chosen for this purpose, parliament having in the mean time been pro- rogued.f The reception given to the Catholic delegates M^as harsh and insulting. Two of the membei"?, Talbot and Lut- trell, were committed, one to the Tower, and the other to the Fleet prison ; but ultimately James dismissed them after a severe rating in his own peculiar style,;]; and a commission of inquiry was granted ; one of the concessions made being, that the members for boroughs incorporated after the writs were issued had no right to sit. In the subsequent sessions of this parliament, until it was dissolved in October, 1615, no furthei the large funds so promptly raised to defray the cost o/ the deputation to England was, in its spirit and national purpose, a forerunner of the Catholic Rent." — History of Ireland, vol. iv., p. 106. X This silly, pedantic despot, whom his flatterers styled the * British Solomon," and who has been landed by Hume and others for his Irish legislation, taunted the Irish agents as " a body without a head ; a headless body ; you would be afraid to meet such a body in the streets ; a body without ahead to speak !" and he asked, " Wliat is it to you whether I make many or few boroughs ? My council may consider the fitness if I require it ; but if I made forty noblemen and four hundred boroughs — the more the merrier, the fewer the better cheer." As to his Irish government, he told them there was nothing faulty in it, " unless they would have the kingdom of Ire. land like the kingdom of heaven !" See his incoherent speech, which was addressed to the lords of the council in presence of the Irish delegates, given in full by Cox. 464 REIGN OF JAMES I. display of angry feelings between the two parties took place. There appeared, indeed, to have been mutual concessions. An intended penal law, of a very sweeping character, was not brought forward ;* and while, on the other hand, large subsidies, which gratified the in- satiable rapacity of the monarch, were voted, an act of oblivion and general pardon was passed in return ; and the Irish in general were, for the first time, taken within the pale of the English law. But the measure which renders this parliament of James's most memo- rable, was that for the attainder of Hugh O'Neill, Hugh Roe O'Donnell, Sir Cahir O'Doherty, and several other Irish chiefs, — an unjust and vindictive act for which the grounds were never proved, and which, as being sanctioned by the Catholic party in a suicidal spirit of compromise, assumed, remarks Mr. Mooi-e, " a still more odious character, and left a stain upon the record of their proceedings during this reign."f A. D. 1616.:j: — Sir Arthur Chichester having completed his task, and received as his reward an additional grant of Irish lands, together with the title of baron of Belfast, withdrew from the Irish government, and was replaced by » See O'SuUevan'3 JIUt. Cath., pp. 310-313. Ed. 1850. f It has been argued that the Irish chieftains pos- sessed only the auzerainU, and not the property of the soil ; and that therefore the rights of their feudatories to the latter could not have been forfeited by the rebel- lion of the cliiefs. See translator's note to De Beau- mont's Ireland, p. 57. Mr. O'Connell, in his Memoir of Ireland (p. 172), argues that James undermined his own title to the six confiscated counties of Ulster by declar- Sir Oliver St. John, afterwards created Viscount Grandison, whose instructions were to enforce with extreme rigor the fine inflicted on Catholics for absence from the Protestant service. This penal tax was not only most galling to the feelings of Catholics, but was most oppressive in a pecuniary point of view; for while the sum levied each time was only twelve pence according to the law, it was swelled up to ten shillings by the fees always exacted for clerks and ofiicers; and the appropriation of the penalty to works of charity, as the act required, was shamefully evaded, as it was argued that the poor being Catho- lics themselves were not fit to receive the money, but " ought to pay the like penalty themselves." In 1617 a proclamation was issued for the expulsion of the Catholic regu- lar clergy, and the city of Waterford was deprived of its charter and liberties in consequence of the spirited and steadfast rejection of the oath of su- premacy by its corporation. In 1622 Henry Carey, Viscount Faulkland, was sent over as lord deputy, and at the ceremony of his inauguration, the cele- brated James Ussher, then Protestant bishop of Meath, and soon after made ing that the exiled earls had no title whatever to the pos- sessions forfeited. These, however, are but speculative objections. As to the Catholics who voted the attainder of O'Neill, they were chiefly Anglo-Irish. I The Four Masters desert us at this date, under which they give their last entry : the death of Hugh O'Neill ; and for the few preceding years, from the death of Red Hugh O'Donnell, the information they afford is very scanty. WHOLESALE SPOLIATION IN LEINSTER. 465 archbishop of Armagh, taking as his text the words of St. Paul, " He bear- eth uot the sword in vain,"* delivered a fanatical harangue, which filled the Catholics with alarm ; and finally, in the following year, another proclama- tion was issued for the banishment of all the "Popish clergj^," regular and secular, ordering them to depart from the kingdom within forty days, and forbidding any one to hold intercourse with them after that period. f Thus was the penal code, although then only in its infancy, rapidly apjiroaching that acme of cruelty which it afterwards reached. The systematic rapine called "plan- tation" was so successful in Ulster, that James was resolved to extend it into other parts of the kingdom. For this purpose he appointed a commission of inquiry to scrutinize the titles and de * RoU. xiii. 4. For Ussher's Puritanism, see note, p. oOl. f P. O'SuUevan Beare, wlio -wrote towards- tlie close of the reign of James I., Bays he did not know the number of ecclesiastics then in Ireland ; but he was aware that government had, through its spies, ascer- tained the names of 1160 priests, regular and secular; and Dr. Kelly, in his note on this passage {Hist. Cath., p. 298), says he once saw a list of all the Catholic clergy in Ireland at this time, but that at present it is not easily accessible. F. Moony says there were 120 Franciscan friars, of whom 35 were preachers, in Ire- land ; besides 40 more engaged in their studies at Lou- vain when he ivrote (about 1616). It is said in the Hibernia Dominicana that there were but four Domini- cans in Irelaad at the time of Elizabeth's death. The Jesuits, though uot numerous, were exceedingly active. F. Verdier reported that there were 53 Fathers, 8 coad- jutors, and 11 novices of the Company of Jesus in Ire- land in 1659. Thj affairs of the Irish Church were chiefly managed by the four Ai-chbishops, the succession of whom was well kept up by the Pope. These ap- pointed Vicars-General, with Apostolic authority in the 59 termine the rights of all the lands in Leinster, that province being the next theatre of this iniquitous spoliation ; and so rapid was the progress of the commissioners, that in a little time land to the extent of 385,000 acres more was placed at the king's disposal for distribution. Old and obsolete claims, some of them dating as far back as Henry II., were revived ; advantage was taken of trivial flaws and minute informalities. The ordinary principles of justice were set at naught ; perjui-y, fraud, and the most infamous arts of deceit were resorted to ; and, as even Leland tells us, " there are not wantincr proofs of the most iniquitous practices of hardened cruelty, of vile perjury, and scandalous subornation employed to despoil the fair and unfortunate pro- prietor of his inheritance.''^ From Leinster the system was extended into suffragan dioceses, and these, again, appointed the par. ish priests. O'Sullevan gives the names of the four Archbishops when he wrote (1618) as : Eugene Magau- ran, of Dublin ; Da\-id O'Carny, of Cashel ; Peter Lom- bard, of Armagh ; and Florence O'Mulconry, of Tuam. He mentions, as then established, the Irish seminaries of Salamanca, ComposteUa, and SevUle, in Spain ; Lis- bon, in Portugal ; Louvain, Antwerp, and Tournay, in Flanders ; and Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Paris, in France. Irish stiidents were also received in other colleges, and in some of the places just mentioned the seminaries for the Irish were not yet regularly founded. — History of Ireland, B. iv., c. 8. X See as an Olustration of this scandalous plunder, and of the imprincipled ingenuity and perseverance of the " discoverers," as they were called, the account of the spoliation of the O'Bymes of Eanelagh, in Wicklow, as given in Taylor's History of the Civil Wars inlrelarid, vol i., pp. 243, 24C, and quoted in full in O'Connell's Memoirs of Ireland, p. 161, &c. The native septs of the Queen's county were transplanted to Kerry ; and in many instances proprietors, as in the case of the FarraHs, were dispossessed without receiving any compensation. 466 REIGN OF CHARLES I. Connaught, but its principal opei'ation in the latter province was reserved for the next reign. James I. died on the 27th of March, 1625 ; and in conse- * Some of the minor crimes of James's government against the Irish, are thus summed up by Leland (B. iv., c. 8) : " Extortions and oppressions of the soldiers in various excursions from tlieir quarters, for levying the king's rents, or supporting the civil power ; a rigorous and tyrannical execution of martial law in time of peace ; a dangerous and unconstitutional power assumed by the Privy Council in deciding causes determinable by com- mon law ; the severe treatment of witnesses and jurors in the Castle-chamber, whose evidence or verdicts had quence of his wholesale plunder, op- pression, and persecution of the Irish, left a woeful legacy to his unfortunate successor. been displeasing to the State ; the grievous exaction of the established clergy for the occasional duties of their fimctious ; and the severity of the ecclesiastical courts." As to the punishment of jurors, it was laid down as a principle by Chichester that the proper tribunal to pun- ish jurors, who would not find for the king on "suffi- cient evidence," was the Star-chamber ; sometimes they were " pilloried with loss of ears, and bored through the tongue, and sometimes marked on the forehead with a hot iron, &c." — Commons' Journal, vol. i., p. 307. CHAPTER XXXVII. REIGN OF CHARLES I. Hopes of the Catholics on the accession of Charles, and corresponding alarm of the Protestants — Intolerant declaration of the Protestant bishops. — -The "graces." — The royal promise broken.— Renewed persecution of the Catholics. — Outrage on a Catholic congregation in Cook-street. — Confiscation of Catholic schools and chapels. — Government of Lord Wentworth or Strafford — He summons a Parliament — His shameful duplicity. — The Commission of " Defective Titles" for Connaught. — Atrocious spoliation in the name of law. — Jury- packing. — Noble conduct of a Galwayjury — Their punishment. — Plantation of Ormond, &c. — Fresh subsidies by an Irish Parliament. — Strafford raises an army of Irish Catholics — He is impeached by Parliament — His execution. — Causes of the great insurrection of 1641. — Threats of the Puritans to extirpate the Catholic reli- gion in Ireland. — The Irish abroad — Their numbers and inflnence. — First movements among the Irish gentry — Roger O'More — Lord Maguire— Sir Phelrra O'NeUl. — Promises from Cardinal Richelieu. — Officers in the king's interest combine with the Irish gentry^Discoveiy of the conspiracy. — Arrest of Lord Maguire and MacMahon. — Alarm in Dublin. — The outbreak in Ulster — Its first successes — Proclamation of Sir Phelim O'Neill — Feigned commission from the lung. — Gross exaggeration of the cruelties of the Irish. — Bishop Bedell and the remonstrance from Cavan. — The massacre of Island Magee. — The fable of a general massacre by the Catholics refuted. — Proclamations of the lords justices. — The Catholic nobility and gentry of the Pale insulted and repulsed. — Scheme of a general confiscation. — Approach of the northern Irish to the Pale — They take Mellifout and lay siege to Drogheda.— Sir Charles Coote's atrocities in Wicklow.— Efforts of the Catholic gentry to communicate with the king. — Outrages of troopers— The gentry of the Pale compelled to stand on their defence.— Meeting on the HiU of Crofty.— The lords of the Pale take up arms.— The insurrection spreads into Munster and Connaught.— Royal proclamation.- Conduct of the English parlioment.— The insurrection general— Seige of Drogheda raised.— The battle of Kilrusb.— The general Assembly, &c. (FIIOM A. D. 1G26 TO A. D. 1642.) THE well known moderatign of Charles I. inspired the Irisli Cath- olics with hope of a mitigation of tlie intolerance under which they groaned, but a corresponding alarm was mani- fested by the Protestants lest any such SUBSIDY OF THE IRISH CATHOLICS TO CHARLES I. 467 mercy should be extended to their opponents. In 1626 FaulkLind, who was still lord deputy, advised the Catholics to send agents to the king, encouraging them to expect some favor in i-eturn for pecuniary support ; and taking this implied promise for a reali- ty, they are said to have boasted too i-eadily of the relief which they antici- pated. This kindled the zeal of all classes of Protestants. The Protestant pulpits I'esounded with declamations on the subject; and Archbishop Ussher, with all the prelates of the state church, joined in protest, declaring that " to grant the papists a toleration, or to consent that they may freely exercise their religion and profess their faith and doctrines, was a grievous sin," and "a matter of most dans;erous couse- quence;" wherefore they prayed God " to make those in authority zealous, resolute, and courageous against all popery, superstition, and idolatry." No political, or any other than theo- logical grounds, were put forward for this ebullition of bigotrj' ; but in the mean time the Catholic agents perse- vered in their negotiations with the king, whose exigencies were well un- derstood. The prodigality of his father had burdened him ^Yith a heavy debt, and foreign wars demanded supplies which his parliament refused to grant, except on hard and dishonorable terms. He was thei-efore glad to ac- cept from the Irish Catholics the oftej- of a voluntary subsidj^ of £120,000, to be paid in three annual instalments, and in return he undertook to grant them certain concessions or immunities which are known in the history of the period as the " graces." Many of these " graces" applied to others in Ireland besides Catholics. The more important were those which provided " that recu- sants should be allowed to practise in the courts of law, and to sue out the livery of their lands on taking an oath of civil allea-iance in lieu of the oath of O supremacy ; that the undertakers in the several plantations should have time al- lowed them to fulfil the conditions of their tenures ; that the claims of the crown should be limited to the last sixty years ; and that the inhabitants of Connaught should be permitted to make a new enr.olment of their estates." The contract was duly ratified by a royal proclamation, in which the con- cessions were accompanied by a promise that a parliament should be held to con- firm them. The first instalment of the money was paid, and the Irish agents returned home, but only to learn that an order had been issued against " the popish i-egular clergy," and that the royal promise was to be evaded in the most shameful manner. When the Catholics pressed for the fulfilment of the compact, the essential formalities for calling an Irish parliament were found to have been omitted by the offi- cials, and thus the matter fell to the ground for the present. Lord Faulk- land was recalled at the representation of the Puritans ; and viscount Ely (the chancellor) and the earl of Cork (lord 468 REIGN OF CHARLES I. high treasurer) having been appointed lords justices, the pcr^alties agairivSt recu- sants, under the 2d of Elizabeth, were, without any instructions from the king, put in force with extreme rigor, and a system of frightful terrorism carried out.'" A sing;le fact will show the nature of the persecution to which the Catholics were subjected at this time in Dub- lin. The protestant archbishop, doctor Launcelot Bnlkelev, being informed that a fraternity of Carmelites had the temerity to celebrate Mass publicly in their chapel in Cook-street, proceeded thither with the mayor and a file of soldiers, durina: the celebration of Hisfh Mass, on St. Stephen's Day, December, 1629, dispersed the congregation, pro- faned the altar, and heaved down the statue of St. Francis, and arrested some of the friars. These were, however, rescued by the people, who did not hesitate to pursue even the archbishop * Sir Richard Boyle, commonly called the "great" earl of Cork, one of the lords justices mentioned above, and one of the most fortunate of all English adventurers in Ireland, left an autobiography which he caUed his " True Remembrances," and of ivhich a portion has been printed in Lodge's Irish Peerage (ArchdaU's Lodge, vol. i., p. 150, &c.) He was second son of a Mr. Roger Boyle, of Herefordshire, and being too poor to support liimself as a student in the Middle Terriple, became a clerk to the chief baron of the English Court of Ex- chequer ; but he says '' it pleased Divine Providence to lead him into Ireland," where he arrived in 1388, being then in his twenty-second year. He was a lucky and a prudent man, and opportunities were not wanting at that time in Ireland for such a person to make a large fortune. He was made clerk of the council in Munster ; was the bearer of the news of the English victory at Kinsale to Elizabeth ; purchased the Irish estates of Sir Walter Raleigh, amounting to many thousand acres in Cork and Waterford, for £1,500 ; married as his second wife (liis first being a Jlrs. Apsley, a Limerick lady. himself and compel him to seek shelter in a house. A few days after an order arrived from the English, council to have the chapel demolished, and three other chapels and a Catholic seminary in Dublin seized and converted to the king's use.f Eight Catholic aldermen of Dublin were arrested for not assist- ing the mayor, and the persecution was afterwards extended over the kincrdom : yet at this time the Catholics formed a majority of at least a hundred to one of the population of Ireland. In July, 1633, viscount Wentworth, whose hateful memory is better pre- served by his subsequent title of earl of Strafford, commenced his duties as lord deputy of Ireland. He had recently abandoned the popular cause in Eng- land, and attached himself to the king, to whom he became a most devoted, but most unprincipled, minister. He came to Ireland "with feelings of thorough contempt for all classes here, and his who brought him £500 a-year), the daughter of Sir Geoffrey Fenton, the potent and despotic secretary of state for Ireland ; and obtained a variety of titles, until he became earl of Cork, lord high treasurer, and lord j ustice of Ireland. " At great expense," says the memoir, " he encouraged the settlement of Protestants, the sup- pression of jjopery, the regulation of the army, the in- crease of the public revenue, and the transplantation of many septs and barbarous clans from the fruitful prov- ince of Leinster into the wilds of Kerry." Robert Boyle, the philosopher, was the youngest of his sons. f The circumstances are thus related by Harris and others on the authority of a publication called Foxes and Firebrands ; but the Carmelite and Franciscan chapels were both at tliis time in Cook-street, and Mr. Gilbert {Hisl. of Bub., vol, i., p. 299) says it was in the latter this outrage was committed. He adds, that con- sequent upon this affair the Franciscan schools through- out Ireland were dissolved, and F. Valentine Browne, the provincial, sent the novices to complete their studies in foreign countries. DUPLICITY OF WENTWORTH.. 469 supercilious bearing gave great offence to the council and the nobility. In July, 1634, he assembled a parliament, the subserviency of which he en- deavored to secure by having a number of persons in the pay of the crown, chiefly military officers, returned as members. The question of the " graces" still agitated the public mind ; and he gave the strongest assurances that those concessions would be confirmed, pro- vided the supplies, demanded by the king, were readily voted. " Surely," said he, in his speech from the throne, " so great a meanness cannot enter your hearts, as once to suspect his majesty's gracious regards of you, and perform- ance with you, where you affie your- selves upon his grace." The supplies were accordingly granted, and with so generous a hand, that six subsidies of £50,000 each were voted, although Weutworth tells us that " he never propounded more to the king than £30,000." But while parliament acted thus, relying on the j^romises of the king and his deputj', the latter had basely resolved that those promises never should be fulfilled, and contrived to evade them in such a way as to re- move the odium of doing so from his royal master, who, however, unfortu- nately for his own fame, fully sauc- * The king -n-rites thus to the deputy : — " \Ventworth : Before I answer any of your particular letters to me I must tell you that your last public despatch has given me a great deal of contentment ; and especially for keep- ing off the envy" (odium) " of a necessary negative from me, of those unreasonable graces that people expected tioned the scandalous treachery of his servant."" The "si'ace" to which "Wentworth had the strongest objection was that which would make sixty years of un- disputed jDossessiou a bar to the claims of the crown, in cases of landed property — and with good reason, as he showed ; for as soon as pai-liament was dissolved in April, 1635, a commission of " defective titles" was issued for Counaught, with the design of confis- cating the whole of that province to the crown by fictitious forms of law. James I. having extended the system of spoliation called "planting" wherever the native Irish continued to hold their own, first, in the six counties of Ulster, and then in the Irish parts of Leinster, as Lougford, which was the O'Farrell's country ; Wicklow, which was held by the O'Tooles and O'Byrnes ; the north part of Wexford, which belonged to the Kavanagh's ; Iregan, in the Queen's County, which belonged to the Mageo- ghegans ; and Kilcoursey, in the King's County, belonging to the O'Molloys; and having also replanted Desmond, \vhich had been desolated in the last war in Munster, it now remained, in order to find fresh ground for a Protest- ant colonization from England and Scotland, to hunt out old claims, or from me." Strafford's State Letters, vol. i.p.ZSl. VVent- TTorth describes how Sir John Radcliffe and two of the judges assisted him in his plan ; and how, through the medium of a committee, a positive refusal to recommend the passing of the " graces" into law was conveyed to parliament at its next session." Ibid., vol. i., p. 279, &c 470 REIGN OF CHARLES I. supposed claims, of the crown, and thus to reacli lands long held under the se- curity of the English law* Went- wortli commenced the work of plunder with Roscommon, and, as a preliminary step, directed the sheriff to select such jurors as might be made amenable, "in case they should prevaricate;" or, in other woi'ds, they might be ruined, by enormous fines, if they refused to find a verdict for the king.f The jurors were told that the object of the commission was to find "a clear and undoubted title in the crown to the province of Connaught," and to make them " a civil and rich people" by means of a planta- tion ; for which purpose his majesty should, of course, have the land in his own hands to distribute to fit and proper persons. Under threats which could not be misunderstood the jury found for the king, whereupon Went- worth commended the foreman, Sir Lucas Dillon, to his majesty, that " he might be remembered upon the dividing * Leland describes Wentwortli's project in tlie follow- ing words : " His project was nothing less than to sub- vert the title to every estate in every part of Connaught, and to establish a new plantation through this whole province ; a project which, when first proposed in the late reign, was received with horror and amazement, but which suited the undismayed and enterprising genius of Lord AVentwortli. For this he had opposed the confirmation of the royal graces, and taken to him- self the odium of so flagrant a violation of the royal promise. The parliament was at an end, and the deputy at leisure to execute a scheme, which, as it was offensive and alarming, required a cautious and deliberate proce- dure. Old records of state and the memorials of ancient monasteries were ransacked to ascertain the king's original title to Connaught. It was soon discovered that in the grant of Henry HI. to Richard do Burgo, five cantreds were reserved to the crown, adjacent to the of the lands," and also olitained a com- petent reward for the judges. J Similar means had a like success in Mayo and Sligo ; but when it came to the turn of the more wealthy and popu lous county of Galway, the jur-y refused to sanction the nefarious robbery by their verdict. Wentworth w^as furious at this rebuff, and the unhappyjurors were punished without mercy for their "contumacy." They wei'e compelled to ap2")ear in the castle chamber, where each of them was fined £4,000, and their estates were seized and they themselves imprisoned until these fines should be paid ; while the sheriff was fined £1,000, and being unable to pay that sum, died in prison. Wentworth proposed to seize the lands, not only of the jurors, but of all the gentry who neglected "to lay hold on his majesty's gi-ace ;" he called for an increase of the army " until the intended plantation should be settled;" and recommended that the counsel who arofued the cases castle of Atldone ; that this grant included the whole remainder of the province, which was now alleged to have been forfeited by Aedh O'Connor, the Irish pro. vincial chieftain ; that the land and lordship of De Burgo descended, lineally, to Edward IV., and were confirmed to the crown by a statute of Henry VII. The ingenuity of court lawyers was employed to invali- date all patents granted to the possessors of these lands, from the reign of Queen Elizabeth." Hist, of D. B iv., c. i. f Strafford's Letters, i., p. 443. I Sir Lucas Dillon received a large estate, probably out of his own lands ; and we are told by Straflbrd {Letters, ii., p. 241) that Sir Gerard Lowthcr, chief-justice of the Common Pleas, and the chief baron, got tour shillings in the pound of the first year's rent raised under the commissioners of " Defective Titles." Never was justice more disgraced. LIBERALITY OF THE IRISH PARLIAMENT. 471 against the king before the commission- ers should be silenced until they took the oath of supremacy, whicli was ac- cordingly done.* A title iu the crown to the baronies of Upper and Lower Ormond, in the county of Tipperary, and to some adjacent ten-itories, all be- longing to the earls of Ormond, was also set up, and an inquisition for try- ing the claim ordei'ed ; but Lord Ormond prudently compromised the matter, although he knew that his own case was perfectly good, and that the crown would have an insuperable diffi- culty in the production of the ancient title-deeds. He thus secured a large proportion of the lands for himself and his friends.f Besides this scandalous system of spoliation, other modes of legal persecution were resorted to. A Court of Wards, by which the heirs of estates were reared up in the Protestant religion, was instituted ; also a high commission court, which exei'cised a fearful tyranny over all classes ; and the extortions practised by the ecclesiastical coui'ts were wholly intolerable. Matters proceeded thus for a few years, and iu 1640 we find another L'ish parliament appealed to for subsidies under the pressure of the Scottish rebel- lion, and a voluntary contribution, * " The gentlemen of Connaught," says Carte {Life of 0)VBo/!cf, vol. i.) " labored under a particular hardship on this occasion ; for their not having enrolled their patents and surrenders of the 13th Jacobi (which was what alone rendered their titles defective) was not their fault, but the neglect of a clerk intrusted by them. For they had paid near £3,000 to the offices at Dublin for the enrolment of these surrenders and patents, which was never made." headed by £20,000 from Wentworth himself, raised to meet the immediate wants of the monarch. Though not a warm nor generous patron, Charles could not fail to recoojuize so much de- votedness on the part of the deputy, who was accordingly rewarded with the titles of earl of Straiford and baron of Raby, and with the dignity of lord lieu- tenant of Ireland. As on the last occa- sion, the L'ish parliament was loyal and liberal in the extreme, and voted four entire subsidies ; some of the members protesting, with characteristic warmth, that six or seven more ought to be given, and others declarinc: that " their hearts contained mines of subsidies for his majesty." The annual revenue of L'e- landhad been increased under Strafford's management to over £80,000. The trade of the country had considerably improved ; and although he destroyed the Irish woollen manufiicture, which threatened to affect the staple of Eng- land, he attempted to give a substitute by encouraging the growth of flax and the manufacture of linen, for which pur- pose he expended large suras of money. He raised an army of 8,000 foot and 1,000 horse in Ireland, at least nine- tenths of this force being Catholic, and committing the government to his friend The same authority tells us that all these proceedings of Wentworth were sanctioned by the king ; his majesty having assured the deputy before the English council in 1036 that his treatment of the Galway jurors " was no se- verity," and wished him " to go on in that way ;" adding " that if he served him otherwise he would not serve him as he expected." (Caxte's Ormond, iii., p. 11.) f Carte, vol. i., p. 59. L. 472 REIGN OF CHARLES I. Sir Christopher Wandesford, as his deputy, he went to England, and took the command of the army sent against the Scots. Fortune now turned against him ; he was unsuccessful as a com- mandei-, and had incurred the hatred of the Scots and English to even a greater extent than that of the Irish. The long parliament was opened on the 3d No- vember, 1640, and one of its first acts was the impeachment of Straftbrd. Many of the charges against him re- lated to his Irish administration, but the most serious of them in the eyes of the Puritans were his attempts to estab- lish the arbitrary j)ower of the ci'own, and his enrolment of an army of " Irish Pajjists," which he was accused of in- tending to bring over to support the king against his subjects in England. A deputation from the Irish parliament arrived with a " remonstrance of griev- ances" against him ; and he was con- victed of offences amounting in the ag- gi'egate to constructive treason. The wretched king was compelled to sign his death-warrant, and on the 12th of May, 164], Strafford was beheaded on Tower-hill, a fate which he deserved, if not for the charges laid against him, at least for the horrible injustice that he exercised during the eight years of his administration in Ireland.* A. D. 1641. — With the forty preced- ing years' continuity of wholesale spoli- ation, galling oppression, terrorism, re- * It should be mentioned as a reaeeming feature in Strafford's character tliat he persecuted no man solely ligious proscription, and national degra- dation still present to us, and with a due consideration of the traditions of the people on the one side, and of the passing events in surrounding countries on the other, the reader will not be at a loss to account for the events which it now becomes our duty to relate. The royalist earl of Castlehaven, M^ho writes as an eyewitness, and was not preju- diced in fixvor of the native Irish, tells us that these latter assigned as the causes of the civil war of 1641, first, that " they were generally looked upon as a conquered nation, seldom or never treated like natural or free-born sub- jects;" secondly, "that six whole coun- ties in Ulster were escheated to the crown, and little or nothing restored to the natives, but a great part be- stowed by king James on his country- men ;" thirdly, " that in Strafford's time the crown laid claim also to the coun- ties of Roscommon, Mayo, Galway, and Cork, witli some parts of Tipperary, Limerick, Wicklow, and others ;" fourth- ly, that "great severities were used against the Roman Catholics in England, and that both houses (of the Irish par- liament) solicited by several petitions out of Ireland to have those of that kingdom treated with the like rigor; which," he adds, " to a people so fond of their religion as the Irish, was no small inducement to make them, while there was an opportunity offered, to on account of his religion, and that he disliked the Puri' tans quite as much as he did the Catholics. CAUSES OF DISCONTENT AMONG THE IRISH. 473 stand upon their guard;" fifthly, "that they saw how the Scots, by pretending grievances, and taking up arms to get them redressed, had not only gained divers privileges and immnnities, but got £300,000 for their visit (to Eng- land), besides '£850 a day for several months together ;" and lastly, " that they saw a storm draw on, and such misunderstandings daily arise between the king and parliament as portended no less than a sudden rupture between them," and therefore they believed that " the king thus engaged, partl}^ at home and partly with the Scotch, could not be able to suppress them so far off," but " would grant them any thing they could in reason demand, at least more than otherwise they could expect."* One point, put only obscurely among the preceding reasons, was in reality of considerable importance, namely, the dread which the Irish Catholics at this time entertained of the extirpation of * Castlehaven a Memoirs, pp. S, 11 ; ed. 1819. AnEng- lisli contemporary Protestant writer represents the mo- tives of tlie Ii-isli much in the same way, and particu- larly observes that they considered " that they also had sundry grievances and grounds of complaint, both touching their estates and consciences, which they pre- tended to be far greater than those of the Scotch. For they fell to think that if the Scotch were suffered to in- troduce a new religion, it was reason they should not be punished in the exercise of their old, which they glory never to have altered." — Hoicel's Mcrcuvius Hibcrnicus for 1613. f See some of the autliorities on this point, collected by Dr. Curry in his RccUio of the Cicil Wars, pp. 147, 118 ; ed. 1810. " Some time before the rebelllou broke out," says Carte, " it was confidently reported that Sir John Clotwortny, who well knew the designs of the fac- tion that governed the House of Commons in England, had declared there in a speech that the conversion of the Papiets in Ireland was only to be effected by the Bible CO their religion. This appears from a multitude of authorities. Petitions which tended to nothing less than the destruction of the Catholic religion, and of the lives and estates of Catholics, were privately circulated among the Pro- testants, and were countenanced by the verymen whohadthe government of Ire- land then in their hands ; it was confi- dently reported that the Scottish army had threatened never to lay down their arms until the Catholic relis^ion had been suppressed, and a uniformity of worship established in the three king- doms. Letters to that effect vrere inter- cejited ; and it cannot be denied that the course which events were then taking beyond the channel rendered the veiy worst of these apprehensions probable.f Another circumstance that presents itself in a strong light to us, while in- vestigating the causes of the great out- break which renders this year so mem- in one hand, and the sword in the other ; and Mr. Pyne gave out that they would not leave a priest in Ireland. To the like effect Sir William Parsons (one of the lords justices of Ireland), out of a strange weakness, or detest- able pohcy, positively asserted before so many witnesses at a public entertainment, that within a twelvemonth no Catholic should be 'seen in Ireland. He had sense enough to know the consequences that would naturally arise from such a declaration ; which, however it might contribute to his own selfish views, he would hardly have ventured to make so openly and without disguise, if it had not been agreeable to the politics and measures of the English faction whose yarty he espoused."— Carte's Ormond, vol i., p. 235. Dr. Warner, a Protest- ant writer, observes {Hist, of the Irish liebel.) that it was evident from a letter of the lord justice to the earl of Leicester, then lord lieutenant, " that they hoped for an extirpation, not of the mere Irish only, but of all the old English families also, that were Roman Catholics." 474 REIGN OF CHARLES I. orable in our history, is the position, ill point of numbers and influence, which Irishmen then occupied on the conti- nent. In their struggles for national and religious independence, during the reign of Elizabeth, the Irish looked for help to the great Catholic jjowers ; but now their own countrymen in Spain, France, and the Low Countries had ac- * Early in the reign of James I. the Irisli began to seek refuge in foreign countries from tlae ruin and deso' lation ivhic'a had overspread their own. A great many, Bays O'Sullivan, speaking of his own times, went to France, but by far the greater number flocked to Spain ; and everywhere, he adds, those exiles for their faith were received most hospitably and courteously by Cath- olics. TJie king of Spain, in particular, was most generous to them, assigning monthly pensions to their principal men, according to their rank, and putting others under military pay. He formed an Irish legion, which served with great bravery in Belgium, first under Henry O'Xeill, and after his death, under his brother, John— both sons of tlie illustrious Hugh O'Neill. {Hist. Cath., p. 263.) The number of Irish soldiers abroad* was very much increased by the licence which James I. granted in 1623 for the enlistment of Irish for the Spanish service ; and on that occasion great terror was excited in the Pale by the assembling of bands of Irish- men, preparatory to their embarkation, under the sons of their ancient chieftains then acknowledging allegi- ance to a foreign king. Such Vpas the origin of the Irish Brigade, afterwards so celebrated in the history of Europe. It was a little before the date at which we have now arrived, namely in June, looii, that an Irish regiment in tlie Spanish service, under their colonel, Preston, immortalized themselves by their heroic de- fence of Louvain, one of the most remarkable incidents in the history of the time. (See it related in O'Conor's Military Memoirs of the Irish, and in the introduction of Dr. French's works in Duffy's Library of Ireland.) The great Irish Franciscan, Father Luke Wadding, was at this time a centre of intellectual attraction among the learned and the pious in Rome. But not to dwell on those children of the Green Isle, who, by attaining to distinction in the church and the court among the most enlightened nations of the world, vindicated" in that age the character of their country as the missionary Irish saints and scliolars on the continent had done a thousand years before ; we come to an important and significant list of " Irishmen abroad," made out, about the very time referred to in the text, by some indus- quired great military eminence, many of whom were able, of themselves, to furnish armies and money. These friends abi'oad were not unmindful of their suffering fatherland, and during the whole of 1640 and 1641 the pros- pect of an invasion of Ireland seems to have ascitated their minds.* Early in the latter of these years we trious spy of the English government. The compiler of this list, after observing that the dangers of Ireland " doe depend most on the practices of their Romish priests, the plots and purposes of Irish commanders serving foreign princes, and the discontentment of the people, especially the Irish natives ;" and stating that " the Romish priests were much multiplied of late years in number, power, and countenance," proceeds to enu- merate the chief men of Irish and Anglo-Irish extraction then serving foreign princes, in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Poland, and the Low, Countries. The list begins with Don Richardo Burke, " a man. much expe- rienced in martial affairs," and " a good inginiere." He served many years under the Spaniards in Naples and the West Indies, and was the governor of Leghorn for the duke of Florence. Next, " Pliellomy O'NeiU, neph- ew unto old TjTone, liveth in great respect (in Milan), and is a captaine of a troop of horse." Then comes James Rowthe or Rothe, an alfaros, or standard-bearer in the Spanish army, and his brother, Captain John Rothe, " a pensioner in Naples, -who carried Tyrone out of Ireland." One Captain Soloman MacDa, a Geraldinei resided at Florence, and Sir Thomas Talbot, a knight of Malta, and " a resolute and well-beloved man," lived at Naples, in which latter city " there were some other Irish captaines and oflacers." The list then proceeds : " In Spain, Captain PheUomy Cavanagh, son-in-law to Donell Spaniagh, serveth under the king by sea. Cap- tain Somlevayne (O'Sullivan), a man of noted courage. These live commonly at Lisbonne, and are sea-captaines. Besides others of the Irish, Captain DriscoU, the younger, Sonne to old Captain Driscoll, both men reckoned val- ourous. In the court of Spaine liveth the Sonne of Richard Bourke, which was nephew untoe William, who died at VaUadolid he is in high favour with the king, and (as it is reported) is to be made a marquis. Captain Toby Bourke, a pensioner in the court of Spain, another nephew of the said William, deceased. Captain John Bourke M'Shanc, who served long time in Flan- ders, and now liveth on his pension, assigned on the Groyne. Captain Daniell, a pensioner at Antwerp. In the Low Countries, under the Archduke : John O'Neill, MEETING OF THE IRISH GEXTRY. 475 find a few of the native Irish gentry at home, meeting together to talk over a plan for redressing their grievances by insurrection. The first movement is traced to Mr. Roger O'jMoi-e, or Moore, a member of the ancient family of the chiefs of Leix: and with him we find associated by degrees, Lord Maguire, an Irish nobleman who retained a small fragment uf the ancient jDatrimony of his family in Fermanagh, and who was overwhelmed witli debt ; his brother, Roger Mao^uire ; Sir Phelim O'Neill of Kinnaird, of the illustrious stock of Tyrone ;* Turlough O'Neill, brother of the last-named ; Sir Con Magennis ; Philip MacHugh O'Reilly; Colonel Hugh Oge MacMahon ; Collo Mac- Brian MacMahon ; Evan JNIacMahon, vicai'-geueral of Clogher, and others. To enforce his views, O'More employed arguments similar to those whic-h we have quoted from Lord Castlehaven. He spoke of the afflictions and suffer- ings of the native Irish, and of the general discontent which prevailed Bonne of the arclitraitor, Tyrone, colonel of the Irish regiment. Yoiuig O'Donnel, sonne of the late traitor ous Earl of Tirconnel. Owen O'Neill (Owen Roe), ser- geant-major (equivalent to the present lieutenant-colonel) of the Irish regiment. Captain Art O'Xeill, Captain Cormack O'Neill, Captain Donel O'Donel, Captain Thady O'Sullevane, Captain Preston, Captain FitzGerrott ; old Captain FitzGerrott continues sergeant-major, now a pensioner; Captain Edmond O'Mor, Captain Bryan O'Kelly, Captain Stanihurst, Captain Corton, Captain Daniell, Captain Walshe. There are diverse other Cap- taines and officers of the Irish under the Archduchess (la-ibella), some of whose companies are cast, and they 3adc pensioners. Of these serving under tlie Arch- duchess there are about 100 able to command companies, and 20 fill to be colonels. Many of them are descended of gentlemen's families and some of noblemen. These Irish soldiers and pensioners doe stay their resolutions among the new as well as the ohl Irish. He dwelt particularly on the injury done to the Catholic Church, and alluded to the well-grounded rumor that parlia- ment intended the utter subversion of their religion. He had already, he said, ascertained that the principal Irish gen- try of Leinster and Connaught were favorable to the design of taking up arms ; and urged that they never would have a better opportunity of improving their condition and recoveriner at least a poi'tion of their ancient estates than during the present Scottish troubles. O'More was a man of handsome person and fascinating manners, as well as of great bravery and undoubted honor, and we need not wonder that he became one of the most popular leaders of the exciting time which followed. Lord Maofuire was active as a medium of com- munication between the confederates ; but among those we have yet men- tioned, Sir Phelim O'Neill was destined to play the most important part in their future proceedings. until they see whether England makes peace or war with Spaine. If peace, they have practised already with other soveraine princes, from whom they have received hopes of assistance : if war doe ensue they are confident of greater ayde. They have been long providing of arms for any attempt against Ireland, and had in readiness five or six thousand arms laid up in Antwerp for that pur- pose, bought out of the deduction of their montlily pay, as will be proved, and it is thought they have now doubled that proportion by these means." This ex- tremely curious document, which is preserved in the State-paper Office, and was first brought to light in the Nation of February 5th, 18.59, would appear to have been prepared very shortly before 1640, and throws consider- able light on some facts in the sequel of our history. * He was fourth in descent from John of Kinnaird, youngest brother of Con Saccagh O'NeLU, first earl y Sir Con Magennis, and the arms and ammunition stored up there were distributed among the people ; Roger Maguire overran Fer- managh ; Castleblaney, Cari'ickmacross, Dungannon, Mountjoy Fort, and a great number of small stations fell into the hands of the insurgents, who so far contented themselves with plunder, stripping and turning out the English occupiers. Sir Phelim O'Neill issued the following proclamation : " These are to intimate and make known unto all pei-sous whatsoever in and through the whole country, that the true intent and meaning of us whose names are hereunto subscribed, that the first assembling of us is nowise intended against our sovereign loi-d the king, nor hurt of any of his subjects, either English or Scotch ; but only for the defence and libertie of ourselves and the Irish natives of this kingdom. And we further declare that whatso- ever hurt hitherto hath been done to * The subjoined published letter, •\vritten by Sir Con Magennis two days after the rising, shows the spirit in which the Irish took up arms. It is preserved in the Custom-house, Dublin, with some other papers of historical interest, in the same place with the Down survey : — " To my loveinge friendes, Capt. Vaughan, Marcus Trevor, and other commanders of Down these be. Deere friendes, — My love to you ail, although you thinke it as yet otherwise. Sure it is, I have broken Sir Edward Trevor's letter, fearing that any thinge should be written agaiust us. We are for our lives and liberties, as you may understand out of that letter. 'We desire no blood to be shed, but if you meane to shed our blood, be sure we will be as ready as you for the pur- pose. I rest your assured fricnde, Connob Magneisse. Newry, 23th October, 1G41." any person shall be presently repaired, and we will that every person forth- with, after proclamation hereof, make their sjieedy re2:)aii-e unto their own houses under paine of death, that no further hurt be done unto any one under the like paine, and that this be proclaimed in all places.— At Dungan- non, the 23d October, 1641. .Phelim O'Neill."* A few days after, Sir Phelim ex- hibited a commission which he pre- tended to have received from the kinff; having taken for that purpose a seal from an old patent found in Charlemont Fort, and attached it to the fictitious royal commission. The ruse had the desired efifect in inducing some royalists to join his standard; but it was also laid hold on by the king's enemies as a chai'ge agaiust that unfortunate prince. Sir Phelim afterwards declared in the most solemn manner that he never received any commission or other au- thorization from the king.f There were few places of strength in f At the trial of Sir Phelim O'Neill in February, 1653, an infamous attempt was made by the judges to blacken the memory of the late king by endeavoring to elicit from the prisoner that he really had a commission from the unfortunate Charles. Tliey lirst in private, and afterwards publicly, olfered him his pardon and the restitution of his estates if he made a public confession to that effect, but he protested that he could not do so. At the conclusion of the trial the sentence was deferred to the next day, to give him an opportunity of consider- ing the tempting offer. But Sir Phelim persevered in asserting that tlie king had no hand in the matter, and he called witnesses to prove tliat he himself had attached the seal to the pretended document. Finally, on the scaffold, the offer was repeated to him by the order of Ludlow, and, raising his voice. Sir Phelim said : " I de- clare, good people, before God and his angels, and all 480 REIGN OF CHARLES I. Ulster which had not fallen by the end of the first week into the hands of the insurgents. Sir Phelim O'Neill already found himself at the head of some 30,000 men, as yet of course undisci- plined, and but few of them efficiently armed ; and it is not to be exjfjected that such an irregular multitude, with wild passions let loose, and so many wrongs and insults to be avenged, could have been encyasfed in scenes of war, even so long, without committing some dee Is of blood which the laws of regu- lar waifare would not sanction. In some cases resistance was punished by them with little humanity; they had little compassion for the English settlers and undei'takers ; and life was taken in some few instances where the act de- served the name of murder; but the cases of this nature, on the Irish side, at the commencement of the rebellion, were isolated ones ; and nothing can be more unjust and false than to describe the outbreak of this war as a " massa- cre." A single murder is a disgrace to our nature, and it is most painful to have to refer to such a crime in a way that sounds like iialliation ; but the foul misrepresentation Avhich has sought to blacken the character of the northern you tliat hear me, that I never liad any commission from the king in wliat I hae dovne in lei-ying and prosecuting tliis war." (Carte's Ormond, vol. ii., p. 181. Nahon'a Historical Collections.) We have thought it needless to allude in the text to the statement of the earl of Antrim, that before the breaking out of the rebellion, orders had been conveyed to hira and to the earl of Ormond to seize the castle of Dublin, and to raise an array of 20,000 men in Ireland to make war against the parliament. The carl of Antrim (Randal Irish by charging them with prear- ranged and systematic murder in this insurrection, is no less a disgrace to his- tory. The cruelties which may be ob- jected to the Irish insurgents belong to a somewhat later period of the war. " It was as yet" — observes a recent wri- ter, of undoubted learning and research, but of the strongest bias against the Irish Catholics — " an insurrection of lords and gentlemen ; nor is there any reason to believe that any thing more was designed by these than a partial transfer of property, and certain stipu- lations in favor of the Church of Rome."* But the successes of the Irish Avere soon interrupted by serious reverses, in which they were treated with barbarous se- verity; several strong places were re- taken from them, and in their attacks on others they were repulsed. Sir Charles Coote, the most truculent and merciless of the Puritan commanders, had very early commenced his work of carnage in the vicinity of Dublin ; and a numerous body of the plundered Eng- lish Protestants, uniting with the Scot- tish garrison of Carrickfergus, with whom they had sought shelter, wreaked their vengeance on the unprotected and unoffending peasantry of the neighbor- MacDonneU, grandson of Sorley Boy, and second of that title) was notoriously a vain and frivolous man, and was either deceived by a Mr. Burke, a relative of the earl of Clanrickard, who pretended to bring such a message from the king ; or else, in order to increase his im- portance, magnified some silly circumstance into the story in question. See his statement and the remarks on it in Clarendon's Vindication of Ormond. * The Rev. James Wills' Illustrious and Dlstinr/uishcd Irishmen, vol. ii., p. 437. REMONSTRANCE OF THE CATHOLIC GENTRY. 481 hood by a fearful massacre. These cir- cumstances and many local causes com- bined to exasperate the Irish, and to elicit ]-etaliatiou at AvLicli the heart sickens. Sir Phelim O'Neill, who was si^meM'liat volatile and was subject to violent fits of passion, was not the man to control, as he should have done, the irregular masses which he commanded ; and at a later j^eriod he lamented the cruelties which he had tolerated or or- dered, but from the beginning, Roger O'More, and other leaders, set their faces against the commission of any act of unnecessary severity.* It was about this time that the learned and amiable William Bedell, Protestant bishop of Kilraore, drew up a remonstrance for the Catholic gentry and people of Cavan, among whom he continued to reside in safety; the re- spect and affection entertained for him by his Catholic neighbors rendering his house an inviolable sanctuary for all those who sought shelter in it.f Dr. Bedell would not have sanctioned what he did not believe to be the truth, yet this remonstrance, prej^ared by him, after alluding to the causes of fear which the Catholics believed themselves * A contemporary writer, unfriendly to the native Irisli, says : — " The truth is, they were very Woody on both sides, and though some mtH throw all on the Irish, yet 'tis well known who they were that used to give orders to their parties, sent into enemies' quarters, to spare neither man, woman, or child. And the leading men among the Irish have this to say for themselves, that they were all along so far from favoring any of the mur- derers, that ilot only their agents, soon after the king's restoration, but even in their remonstrance, presented by the Lord Viscount Gormansto'mi and Sir Robert Tal- bot, on the 17th of March, 1643, the nobility and gentry 61 justified in entertaining, namely, " of in- vasion from other parts (Scotland) to the dissolving of the bond of mutual agreement which hitherto hath been held inviolable between the several sub- jects of the kingdom," thus continues : — "For the preventing of such evils growing upon us in this kingdom we have, for the preservation of his majes- ty's honor and our own liberties, thought fit to take into our own hands, for his highness's use and service, such forts and other places of strength as coming into the possession of others, might prove disadvantageous and tend to the utter undoiuo; of the kinQ;dom." And it thus refers to the acts of violence al- ready committed, in terms that would not seem to imply that any " massacre" was among the number :— " As for the mischiefs and inconveniences that have already happened, through the disorder of the common sort of people against the English inhabitants, or any other, we, with the nobility and gentlemen, and such others of the several counties of this kingdom, are most willing and ready to use our and their best endeavors in causinn' restitution and satisfaction to be made, asjn part we have already done.";}; of the nation desired that the murders on both sides committed should be strictly examined, and the authors of them punished, according to the utmost severity of the law ; which proposal, certainly, their adversaries could never have rejected, but that they were conscious to themselves of being deeper in the mire than they would have the world believe." — Castlchaven's Memoirs, p. 31, ed. 1815. f He, and all those within Ms walls, says his biogra- pher. Bishop Burnet, " enjoyed, to a miracle, perfect quiet." + Burnet's Life of Beddl. 482 REIGN OF CHARLES I. There appears to be good reason for the assertion that the outrage near Carrickfergus, already alluded to, was the " first massacre" perpeti'ated at this dismal period. The statement is, that about ' the beginning of November, 1641, the English settlers, who, being plundered by the Irish, sought refuge in Carrickfergus, sallied forth at night with the Scotch garrison, and murdered all the people whom they found in the neighboring peninsula called Island Magee, to the number of about 3,000, men, women, and children, all innocent persons, as none of the Catholics of the county of Antrim had. yet taken up arms. As to the fact of this massacre there is no doubt, but some question has been raised as to the time and the number. Protestant historians would make it ajjpear that it took place a few months later, and they also argue on the improbability of so many persons residing in so small a district, the length of the peninsula being little * See the " Collection of some of the massacres and murders committed on tlie Irish in Ireland, xinee the 2Zd of Oct. 1641," appended to Clarendon's Vindication of the Earl of Ormond, and to Curry's Review of the Civil Wars, p. 623. It was first published in London in 1662, and its truth has never been disproved, although it makes frequent appeals to the testimony of enemies then living. f That there was no premeditat-ed design of a general massacre, in the great Irish rebellion of 16-11, and that no such, massacre took place, are facts that by the closest investigation of the subject may be established. How the monstrous falsehoods and exaggerations on this matter first got info circulation is a curious subject of inquiry. Clarendon, in his history, loosely asserted that 40 or 50,000 Protestants were murdered at the com- mencement of this rebellion, before they suspected any danger, wliich must have been within the first three or four days, at the farthest. Sir John Temple exaggerates more than five Irish miles, and its greatest width only a mile and a half. Leland's statement is that only thirty families were butchered on the occa- sion ; but the contemporary authority which we have for the number and time first stated appears to be undeni- able; the population of the place may have been increased at the moment bv many persons flying to that remote locality from danger in other quarters; and it is expressly added, that "this was the first massacre committed in Ireland of either side."* The subject of these massacres is revolting to human nature, and we cordially agree with those who wish that it could be efikced from the page of Irish history ; but as long as the calumnies of Sir John Temple and Borlase remain in print, and as the character of Ireland is held up to execration for a " universal mas- sacre of Protestants," which never took place, so long will it be necessary to discuss these horrible details.f the number to 150,000 ! Sir William Petty made it a subject of statistical estimate, and fixed the number, more moderately, at upwards of 30,000. A writer named May has raised it to 200,000 ! The Rev. Dr. Warner, an EngUsh Protestant clergj-man, in his Histo- ry of tlie Rebellion in Ireland, took great pains to ascer- tain the truth out of " authentic documents," and the result of his minute inquiry was, " that the number of persons killed out of tear, not at the beginning only, but in the course of the two first years of the rebellion, amounted, altogether, to 2,109 ; on the report of other Protestants, 1,019 more ; and on the report of some of the rebels themselves, a further number of 300 ; the whole making 4028 ;" besides 8,000 more killed by Ul usage ; and he adds : " If we allow that the cruelties of the Irish out of war extended to these numbers, which, considering the nature of several of the depositions, I think, in my conscience, we cannot, yet, to be impartial, we must allow that there is no pretence for laying a PROCLAMATIONS OF THE LORDS JUSTICES. 483 The lords justices published a procla- mation on the 30tk of October, to con- tradict the statement that Sir Phelim O'Neill held any commission from the king ; and another on the 1st of November, offering pardon to such of the insurgents as would come in within two days, and were not freeholders; but the conditions were clearly intend- ed to prevent the pardon from having any effect. The lords and gentlemen of the Pale, although not yet involved in any disloyalty, were treated with coldness and suspicion. Parliament greater number to their charge." This account, he tells us, was corroborated by a letter which he copied out of the council books at Dublin, and which was written ten years after the beginning of the rebellion, from the parliament commissioners in Ireland to the English par- liament. The commissioners expressly say in this letter " that it tlien appeared that, besides 848 families, there were killed, hanged, and burnt 6,0G2." There is a great difference between these numbers and those quoted above, which vary from Petty's 30,000 to Mr. May's 200,000; but an examination of the "authentic docu- ments," on which both Dr. Warner and the parlia- mentary commissioners grounded their calculations, will show that little or no reliance can be placed upon them and that the very lowest estimate is most probably a monstrous exaggeration. A commission was issued by the lords justices in 1644, to "inquire what lands had been seized ; what murders committed by the rebels ; what number of British Protestants had perished on the way to any place whither they fled, &c.," and the com- missioners continued from March till October to take depositions. Crowds came with their stories, but their evidence was nearly all a heai'say, and but few of them were sworn. Great numbers of them were poor women and servants, illiterate persons unable to sign their names ; and it may be suspected that the mere parole evidence of such persons, under the circumstances, could be of little value. They allowed free scope to their imagination ; every one wished to exceed his neighbor's story ; and most of them could only tell what they heard others say while they were prisoners with the Papists. If a Protestant girl heard a Papist cow-boy boast of the number of murders that he and his friends committed — making no allowance at all for the grim waggery of such a persou wishing to frigliten the poor Protestant jirisou- met, accoi'ding to adjoui'nment, on the 16tli of November, but was again pro- rogued, and the lords justices plainly intimated that they required neither the advice nor the co-operation of any beyond the small clique of Puritans who acted as their council. It was obviously the design of these men to urge the Catholic landed gentry into rebellion, for the purpose of confiscating their property, and " they were often heard to say," as we are told by one well acquainted with them, "that the more were in rebellion, the more lands ers out of iheir wits — the horrible tale was brought to the commissioners, and a deposition taken to that effect. Sometimes the examinations related to the ghosts of the murdered Protestants who appeared walking on the water, brandishing spectre swords, and raising their hands to heaven. A great part of the deposition of the Rev. Robert MaxweU, afterwards Protestant bishop of Kilmore, is actually taken up with these dreadful appa- ritions? Many of the deponents described the samo murders as if committed in different places ; and many also deposed to numbers of persons who were known to be alive several years after. However, all the depositions were collected and carefully bound up in thirty-two folio volumes, wliich are stiU preserved in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, and these are the precious docu- ments on which, and on some official reports. Dr. Warner made his calculations. Sir John Temple collected from them the best extracts he could for his history, and these have been republished innumerable times as authentic evidence, but the whole together are of little historic value except as a curious monument of the times. Dr. Lingaxd (vol. vii., note NNN. 6th ed.) quotes several dis- patches, letters, and commissions from the lords justices to the English parliament, privy council, &c., written within the first two months after the outbreak, which eiiher make no allusion at all to murders, or do so in terms which plainly indicate that there was no general massacre ; and that profound historian argues — " If we consider the language of these dispatches, and at the same time recollect who were the writers, and what an interest they had in exaggerating the excesses of the in- surgents, we must, I think, conclude that hitherto no general massacre had been made or attempted," — that is, the reader will observe, no massacre of the Prot- estants bv the Catholics. 484 REIGN OF CHARLES I. I should be forfeited to them."* This nefarious scheme of forfeiture was, indeed, scarcely concealed from the beginning. The greedy lords justices exulted openly at the rich harvest which they anticipated ; and not later than two months after this time a com- pany of adventurers was formed in London, who calculated on the confisca- tion of ten millions of acres in Ireland, as soon as the work of reduction could be comjileted. The state of feeling thus produced in the Pale encouraged the northern Irish, who marched towards Drogheda, under the command of Sir Phelim O'Neill, now invested with the title of " lord general of the Catholic army in Ulster." On the 24th of November ibey took Lord Moore's house at Melli- font, and put the foot-soldiers Avho de- fended it to the sword, the cavalry hav- ing cut their way through to Drogheda. This latter town was now closely be- sieged, the garrison being under the command of Sir Henry Tichboui'ne, who was ably assisted by Lord Moore. About this time the Irish were repulsed in an assault on Lisburn, then called Lisnagarvy ; but their loss was repaired soon after by a victory over an English detachment of six hundred or seven hundred men, who were sent from Dub- lin to relieve Drogheda, and were cut to pieces at the bridge of Gillianstown, near Julianstown, one hundred only, with three of the officers, making their * Castlehaven's Memoirs, p. 28. escape to Drogheda. This success gave fresh courage to the insui-gents, who levied contributions in the surroundinor country, and caused no slight alarm to the government. Some of the nobility joined in an address to the lords jus- tices, but their remonstrances were treated with contempt. Lords Dillon and Taaffe had been sent with letters to the king from the Irish parliament, but they were made prisoners at Ware, and their papers seized. The arms that had been given in the first alarm to the Catholic nobility and gentry were re- called, and they themselves were or- dered to withdraw to their respective habitations, which were thus rendered defenceless. The sanie day that the detachment was defeated by the Irish on the march to Drogheda, Sir Charles Coote was sent into Wicklow, where it was said the people had risen, and seized several strong places. The sanguinary charac- ter of this officer has been already al- luded to. In the town of Wicklow he cruelly put to death several innocent persons, without distinction of age or sex, and is charged with saying, when he saw a soldier carrying an infant on the point of his pike, " that he liked such frolics."* On his return to Dub- lin, his conduct was highly approved by the lords justices ; and a rumor was spread that he made a proposal at the council-board to execute a general mas- sacre of the Catholics. " The character * Carte's Ormmid, i., p. 243. CRUELTY OF THE LORDS JUSTICES. 485 of the man," says Dr. Cuny, " was sucb, tbat this re^Dort, whether true or not, was easily credited."* " All this while," says Lord Castlehaven, "parties were sent out by the lords justices and coun- cil from Dublin, and most garrisons throughout the kingdom, to kill and destroy the rebels ; but the officers and soldiers took little or no care to distin- guish between rebels and subjects, but killed in many places promiscuously men, women, and children ; which pro- cedure not only exasperated the rebels, and induced them to commit the like cruelties upon the English, but fright- ened the nobility and gentry about; who, seeing the harmless country people, without respect to age or sex, thus bar- barously murdered, and themselves openly threatened as favorers of the rebellion, for paying the contributions they could not possibly refuse, resolved to stand upon their guard."f These gentlemen, however, made an- other attempt to convey their loyal sentiments to the king, before they would commit themselves in any way with his majesty's Irish government. For that purpose they j)revailed on Sir John Kead, a gentleman in the king's service, to take a memorial from them * " Sir Charles Coote," says Leland, " in revenge of the depredations of the Irish, committed such unpro- voked, such ruthless and indiscriminate carnage in the town of Wicldow, as rivalled the utmost extravagan- cies of the northerns." — Hist, of Ir., vol. iii,, p. 14C. " He was a stranger to mercy," says Warner, "and com- mitted many acts of cruelty, without distinction, equal in that respect to any of the rebels."— iZi'si. of the Ir. Rtb., p. 135. Borlase tells us that he was "as terrible to the enemy, as his very name was formidable to them." into his charge ; but Read was arrested and imprisoned, and soon after put to the rack, one of the questions which he was pressed to answer being, whether the king and queen were privy to the Irish rebellion. About this time, also, Patrick Barnwell of Kilbrew, a man sixty-six years of age, was also put to the rack to extort similar information. At length, on the 3d of December, the lords justices summoned several of the noblemen and gentlemen of the Pale to attend in Dublin on the 8th, on the pretence of holding a conference with them ; but suspecting that this was only an artifice to draw them within the clutches of those functionaries, and de- prive them of their liberty, these gen- tlemen replied by a letter, which they agreed to at a meeting held at Swords, stating that they had cause to think that their loyalty was suspected by the lords justices, and "that they had re- ceived certain advertisement that Sir Charles Coote, at the council-board, had uttered certain speeches, tending to a pur^jose to execute upon those of their religion a general massacre, by which they were deterred from waiting on their lordships, not having any security for their safety." The same day this Lord Castlehaven calls him " a hot-headed and bloody man, and as such accounted even by the English Pro- testants ; yet," he adds, " this was the man whom the lords justices picked out to intrust with a commission of martial law to put to death rebels or traitors, that is, all such as he should deem to be so; which he performed with delight, and with a wanton kind of cruelty." — Vide Carte's Ormond, i., pp. 379, 380. It was after his brutal massa- cre in Wicklow that he was made governor of Dublin, f Castleluiven's Memoirs, p. 30. 486 REIGN OF CHARLES I. letter was dispatched to the lords jus- tices a party of troopers slaughtered four poor men at Santry, in the vicinity of Dublin, one of the four happening to be a Protestant. On the 15th Coote was sent with a troo}) of horse to Clon- tarf, Raheu}^, and Kilbarrack, where they burned the houses, and among others the house of Mr. King at Clon- tarf It was a few days previously that, on the invitation of Loi'd Gormanston, a meeting of Catholic noblemen and gen- try was held on the hill of Crofty, in Meath. Among those wlio attended were the earl of Fingal, Loixls Gor- manston, Slane, Louth, Dunsany, Trim- leston, and Netterville ; Sir Patrick Barnwell, Sir Clu'isto})her Bellew, Pat- rick Barnwell of Killjrew, Nicholas Darcy of Flatten, James Bath, Gerald A}lmer, Cusack of Gormanston, Ma- lone of Lismullen, Segrave of Kileglan, tfec. After beina; there a few hours a party of armed men on horseback, with a guard of musketeers, were seen to ap^iroach. The former were the insur- gent leaders, Roger O'JMore, Philii:) O'Reilly, MacMahou, Captains Byrne and Fox, &c. The lords and gentry rode towards them, and Lord Gormans- ton, as spokesman, demanded, " for what reason they came armed into the Pale?" O'More answered, "that the grounil of their coming thither, and taking up arms, was for the freedom and liberty of their consciences, the maintenance of his majesty's preroga- tive, in which they understood he was abridged, and the making the subjects of this kinojdom as free as those of Ena:- land." Lord Gormanston then said — " Seeing these be your true ends, we will likewise join with you therein."* This is the first act of combination between the nobility and gentry of the Pale and the northern insurgents of which we have any authentic account. The meet- ing, which of course Avas prearranged, was one deeply interesting ; and in a Aveek after a more numerous meeting of the gentry was held on the hill of Tara. A. D. 1642. — On the first of January the king issued a proclamation against the " L'ish rebels," and on several occa- sions, both before and after that date, he proposed to come to L'eland himself, to take the command against them. He complained of the negligence of the parliament to adopt proper measures to put down the insurrection ; but that body Avas too much occupied Avith other views. On no account would the parlia- ment suffer Charles to visit Leland ; and, notwithstanding all his protesta- tions, and all his denunciations of his "rebellious Llsh subjects," they pre- tended to believe that the unfortunate monai'ch was, himself, at the bottom of the Ii ish movement. He had committed the af]Riirs of Ireland entirely to their charge, and on the 8th of the preceding month they had plainly indicated upon what principle they were resolved to act, * Examination of Edward Dowdall, one of the gen. tlemcn wlio attended tlie meeting. Borlase's Eist. of the Irish lasurr., p. 39. REWARDS FOR THE HEADS OF THE [RISH LEADERS. 487 by voting that " they would never con- sent to any toleration of the Popish reli- gion in Ireland, or in any other part of "his majesty's dominions."* They calculated, Avith confidence, on being able to ci'ush the Iiish when they chose, and, after a little while, proceeded to vote the con- fiscation of some millions of Irish acres, and to promise Irish estates for the pay of their troopers ; but, although they sent over several large reinforcements to the lords justices, they were chiefly concerned, at present, in preparing for the war which they themselves were about to levy against their king ; and throughout the progress of the Ii'ish troubles they continued to make these a pretence for raising men and money to be employed in their own rebellion. For that purpose, also, they encouraged, by every means in their power, the most false and extravagant reports of " Po- pish massacres and outrages," which they turned to good account in appeal- ing to the pockets and prejudices of the affrighted people of England.f Mean while matters went on but in- differently with Sir Phelim O'Neill and the northern Irish. They were repulsed in several assaults hy the garrison of Drogheda, and some powerful reinfoi'ce- ments having reached that town, they * Borlase, p. 34. f The first commission to collect depositions on the sub- ject of the crimes imputed to the Irish was issued on the 23d of December, 1641, to Dr. Jones, dean of Kil- more, and six other Protestant clergymen ; a fresh commission for the same purpose being issued in 1644. We have already seen what amount of credit is due to the information obtained, by the commissioners, on those occasions. finally raised the siege on the 3d of March. On the 26th the English re- covered possession of Dundalk. The lords justices, by a proclamation of tlie 8th of February, had offered large re- wards for the heads of the Irish leaders : a thousand pounds being offered for that of Sir Phelim ; six hundred pounds each for several of the others ; and smaller sums for the men of less impor- tance. Notwithstanding the numerous rein- forcements which arrived to them from England, Parsons and Borlase were afraid to allow their army to puisue the Irish to any distance. Ormond had been sent to overawe the Irish force collected before Drogheda, but was strictly prohibited from crossing the Boyne ; and Tichburne, who now found himself at the head of a very eflicient force in Drogheda, was ordered not to pursue the Irish so far that he could not return to that town in the evening. But the lords justices were fully as bru- tal as they were pusillanimous in their orders. The instructions to their com- manders to pillage, burn, and slay were most imperative, and their lieutenant- general, the earl of Ormond,!]; more than once incurred their displeasure for what was thought to be too much leniency i The earl of Ormond, so familiar to the reader as a captain and a statesman, during the wars of Elizabeth's reign, and who was known among the Irish as " Black Thomas," died in 1614, at the advarcsd age of 82 years, having been old enough to have been the playmate of Edward VI. At the close of bis life he became blind, and died a Catholic, lamenting the part which he had taken against the Catholic religion and his country. {O'Sul. Mist. Cath., p. 290 ; and Lynch's Alithonologia). 488 REIGN OF CHARLES I. in tlie execution of these horrible com- mands. Ormond, however, was gener- ally accompanied by Sir Charles Coote, whose thirst for blood could not be easily restrained, were the commander- in-chief even inclined to be merciful. This was instanced in the case of Father Higgins, of Naas, who, although under Ormond's protection, v\^as executed, without trial, by Coote ; and in that of Father White, to whom Ormond had also extended his protection, until he could be taken to Dublin to be im- prisoned, but who was brutally 2:»ut to death by the soldiers, who mutinously demanded the priest's life.'"^ It was some weeks before the insur- rection penetrated into Munster; but about the middle of December Sir William St. Leger, lord president, com- It was generally supposed that he was converted hj Father Archer during his captivity with Owny O'More. This extraordinary man was succeeded by his nephew, Sir Walter, the 11th earl of Ormond, who was a Cath- olic, and received the nick-name of " Walter of the Rosaries," from his piety. {Dr. French's Unkind Desert- er, p. 26). His vast estates were most unjustly seques- trated by James I. in favor of Preston, who had beea made earl of Desmond ; but they were restored to his grandson, James, who succeeded to the earldom on Walter's death in 1033, and had married the daughter of Preston, in 1G29. This James, who was born in England in 1 GOT, was educated as a Protestant by the arch- bishop of Canterbury, to whose care he had been com- mitted by the king, on the death of his father. Sir Thomas, who was a Catholic, and was drowned at Sker- ries, returning from England in 1619 ; and it is to him — " the great duke of Ormond" of a subsequent date — that we are introduced at the present epoch. He was a Ditter enemy of the Irish, and of the Catholics. The able author of the Confederation of Kilkenny, describ- ing his character, writes : — " With military talents of a superior order, he was in every respect equal to many of the generals of his time. In diplomacy, however, ho excelled them all. With the most fascinating and art- ful address, he easily worked himself into the confidence menced a series of atrocities which soon kindled the flame of civil war in that province. In retaliation for some wan- ton outrage, the peasantry di'ove off in a tumultuous way a number of cattle from the lands of his brother-in-law : and to aveuare this indisruitv Sir Wil- liam sallied forth with two troop of horse, and slaughtered a great number of men and women wholly innocent of the offence. Lord Muskeiry and other noblemen, who had made thankless offers of their services to preserve the peace, respectfully remonstrated against these cruelties; but their friendly in- terference was treated with insult, and the lord president told them " that they were all rebels, and he would not trust one of them, and that he thought it most prudent to hang the best of of friends and foes ; but under the guise of simplicity and candor he covered a heart which was full of treachery and craft." (The Rev. C. P. Meehan's Confed. of KU., p. 23.) * The case of Father Higgins excited a great deal of interest. He had been extremely kind to the English and the Protestants, having, says Carte, saved many of them from the fury of the Irish, and afforded them sub- sequent relief; and relying upon this conduct on his part, and on his own unblemished character, he pre- sented himself before Ormond at Naas, instead of at- tempting to escape, and only besought his lordship to preserve him from the violence of the soldiery, for they might then try him in Dublin, on any charge they could bring against him. The historian tells us that " when it was spread abroad among the soldiers that he was a Papist, the ofBcer in whose custody he was, was assaulted by them, and it was as much as the earl could do to compose the mutiny Within a few days after, when the earl did not suspect the poor man's being in danger, he heard that Sir Charles Coote had taken him out of prison, and caused him to bo put to death in the morning before, or as soon as it was light." The earl complained of this barbarity, but the lords justices did not seem to think that the provost-marshal had ex- ceeded his duty. HUMANITY OF THE IRISH CLERGY. 489 them." These proceedings liad the de- sired effect, and the people rose in arms* They first took possession of Cashel, on which occasion Philip O'Dwyer and the other popular leaders acted in the most friendly manner towards the Eng- lish, protecting them against the vio- lence of those whom St. Leger's brutal- ity had exasperated; but the human- ity disjilayed by the Catholic clergy was particularly praiseworthy. Father James Saul, a Jesuit, sheltered several jiersons, and among others the Rev. Dr. Samuel Pullen, Protestant chancel- lor of Cashel and dean of Clonfert, with his family; Fathers Joseph Everard and Redmond English, Franciscan friars, concealed some of the Protestant fugi- tives in their chapel, and even under the altar; and others of the Catholic clergy exhibited the like generous com- passion.* In Connaught the exertions and influence of the earl of Clanrickard, who was a Catholic, but was devotedly * The particular views for goading this province into rebellion," observes Plowden, " are fully laid open in Lord Cork's letter to the speaker of the English House of Commons, which he sent, together with 1,100 indict- ments against persons of property in that province, to have them settled by crown lawyers and returned to him ; 'and so,' says he, 'if the house please to direct to have them all proceeded against to outlawry, where- by his majesty may be entitled to their lands and pos- sessions, which I dare boldly afiBrm was, at the begin- ning of this insurrection, not of so little yearly value as £200,000.' This earl of Cork was notorious for his rapacity, but this last effort he called 'the work of works.' In Dublin many were put to the rack, in order to extort confessions ; and, in the short space of two days, upwards of 4,000 indictments were found against landholders and other men of property in Leinstcr." — nist. of Ireland, vol. i., p. 375. f Various other instances are on record of the hu- Gi attached to the cause of the king and to the English interests, stayed for a long time the progress of the insurrec- tion ; and even when the movement had reached Galway, he nevertheless procured the submission of the town without bloodshed. But all his active loyalty did not obtain for him the confidence of the lords justices, and he himself complained that these offi- cials acted towards him " as if their design were to force him and his into resistance."f The discordant elements of old and new Irish, nationalists and royalists, now involved in the insurrection, were at length about to be amalgamated, and organization introduced into the movement. This was to be effected by the Catholic clergy, whose influence these various parties recognized; for whatever might have been their other principles of action, they had at least one in common, namely, a devoted at- tachment to the Catholic Church. A manity of the Catholic priests at this disastrous period, notwithstanding the persecution which then raged against themselves. Mr. ECardiman {lar Oonnmight, p. 406) quotes, from the famous depositions in Trinity Col- lege, extracts which show the exertions of the clergy of Galway to save the Protestants when the O'Flaherties entered that town, in the beginning of 1642, with several himdred men, and laid siege to the fort. Among others, Mary Bowler, servant to Lieutenant John Gell, who commanded in the fort, deposed " that she herself saw the priests of the towne and other priests, being about eight in number, going about the towne in their vest^ ments, with tapers burning and the Sacrament borne before them, and exhorting the said Murrough-na-)na?'i (O'Flaherty) and his company, for Christ's sake and our Lady's and St. Patrick's, that they would shed no more blood, and if they did they would never have mercy." f Mem. of the Marq. of Clanricarde. This earl was the son of him who fought against the Irish at Kinsale 490 REIGX OF CHARLES I. provincial synod, convened by Hugh O'Keillj^, archbishop of Armagh, Avas the first step in this direction. It was held at Kells, on 2f>d of March, and was attended by all the bishops of the province, except Thomas Dease, bisho^i of Meath, who had opposed the rising as premature, and who, by preventing supplies of men and provisions from being sent to Sir Phelim O'Neil, had, it was considered, caused the failure of the siege of Drogheda. The synod pronounced the war undertaken by the Catholics of Ireland lawful and pious ; issued an address denouncing murders, and the usurpation of other men's es- tates ; and took steps for convoking a national synod, to be held at Kilkenny, on the 10th of May. Eeinforcements arrived, almost every week, of Scots in Ulster, or of English troops at Dublin; but the lords jus- tices continued, to call for more, and to aj^peal to the generosity of the Eng- lish people on behalf of the numerous plundered English Protestants who crowded the streets of Dublin and other towns. On the 15th of April an additional detachment of 2,500 Scots arrived at Carrickfergus, under the command of General Monroe, a man of violent sectarian feelinijs, and of a savage, unrelenting nature, Avho now placed himself at the head of a nu- merous and powerful army, com|X)sed chiefly of Scots, with an admixture of the despoiled English settlers, who took the field with accumulated rancor against their Irish Catholic foes. Meanwhile the Irish throughout the O countrjr acted without -plan or co-opera- tion, and were consequently defeated in detail. Lord Mountgarret, whose family and personal interest was very great, seized Kilkenny without any bloodshed, and through his exertions almost every place of strength in the counties of Kilkenny, Waterford, and Tipperary fell into the power of the Irish in the space of a week. He then marched to the south, and took several places in the county of Cork ; but the people of that county preferred Gerald Barry as their leader, and for want of unanimity they failed in their attemjits on Youghal, Bandon, and Kiusale, and were successfully repulsed before Cork, by St. Leger and Lord luchiqui-u. Lord Mountgarret returned to Lein- ster, and having mustered a numerous, but ill-armed and undisciplined force, thought to intercept the earl of Or- moud, who was returniu" to Dublin after some services in the south of the county of Kildare. The two armies were in view of each other at Athy, when Ormond wished to avoid a battle ; but after a parallel march of both armies for a few miles, an action took place near Kilrush, about twenty miles from Dublin, when the Irish were totally routed, and driven into a bog at their rear, having lost about six hundred men, with all their am- munition, and twenty pair of colors. Amons: the killed on the Irish side were the sons of Lord Dunboyne and Lord Ikerrin; and after this the gallant SYNOD OF KILKENNY. 491 Eoger O'More ceased to appeal* on the scene.'" Ormoud, avIio was accompa- nied by Sir Cliarles Coote, Colonel Monck, Sir Tbomas Lucas, and other officers of note, was received with great triumph in Dublin, and the English parliament voted £500 to purchase a jewel to be presented to him as a mark of their esteem. Lord Mountgarret re- turned to Kilkenny.f At length the 10th of May arrived, and the national synod met at Kil- kennj'. It was attended by the arch- bishops of Armagh, Cashel, and Tuam ; the bishops of Ossory, Elphin, Water- ford and Lismore, Kildare, Clonfert, and Down and Connor; the proctors of the archbishop of Dublin, and of the bisho2")s of Limerick, Emly, and Killa- loe ; and by sixteen other dignitaries and heads of religious orders. The occasion was most solemn, and the proceedings were characterized by calm -dignity and an enlightened tone. An oath of association, which all Catholics throughout the land were enjoined to take, was framed; and * According to other accounts O'More retired, disap- pointed, to Flanders, after the failiue of the siege of Drogheda, but returned to Ireland at the time of the Synod of Kilkenny, and died in the latter town. See Wills' Ulud. Irishmen, vol. ii., part ii., p. 433. f The pedigrees of this nobleman (Richard, third Viscount Mountgarret) and of James, twelfth earl (and afterwards duke) of Ormoud, tho commander of the English at the battle of Kilrush, meet in Pierce Biitler, eighth carl of Ormond, who died in l.j39 ; the former being the third and the latter fifth in descent from Pierce through his two sons. Lord MoimtgaiTet, whose first -n-ife was Margaret, eldest daughter of tho great Hugh, earl of Tyrone, was always found on the Irish side, and distinguished himself in tho last war of Elizabeth's reign. % The Acts of the Synod decreed, among other things, those who were bound together by this solemn tie were called the " Con- federate Catholics of Ireland." Such a bond of union and expression of oiiinion was essential where parties so different were to act in concert, A manifesto explanatory of their motives, and containing rules to guide the con- federation, and an admirable plan of provisional government, Avas issued. It was ordained that a General Assembly, comprising all the lords, spiritual and temporal, and the gentry of their party, should be held ; and that the Assembly should select members from its bodjr to represent the different provinces and principal cities, and to be called the Supreme Council, which would sit from day to day, dispense justice, appoint to offices, and carry on, as it were, the executive government of the country. Severe i:)enaltie3 were pronounced against all who made the war an excuse for the commission of crime; and after three days' sittings this im^iortant conference brought its labors to a close.J that " whereas the war which now in Ireland tho Catholics do maintain against sectaries, and chiefly against Puritans, (is) for the defence of the Catholic re- ligion, for the maintenance of tlie prerogative and royal rights of our gracious king, Charles — of our gracious queen, so unworthily abused by the Puritans, and lastly, for the defence of their own lives, lands, and pos- sessions, we, therefore, declare that war, openly Catholic, to be lawful and just; in which war, if somo of the Catholics be found to proceed out of some particu- lar (iirivate) and unjust title — covetou-sncss, cruelty, re- venge, or hatred, or any such unlawful private intentions — we declare therein grievously to sin," &c. That nothing be done to excite emulation or comparison be- tween the diiferent provinces, towns, families, &c. That a councU, composed of the clergy, nobOity, &c., be con- stituted in each pro\'ince ; tho jirovincial councils to bo 492 KEIGlSr OF CHARLES I. Altliougli the war during this time was not carried on witli mucli activity on either side, several incidents took place worthy of note. Lord Lisle, sou of the earl of Leicester, having arrived in Dublin a few days after the battle of Kilrush, with his own regiment of 600 horse carbiniers and 300 dragoons, went, with Sir Charles Coote, to the relief of Letitia, baroness of Offaly, who was besieged, in her castle of Geashil], in the king's county, by the O'Dempseys. This lady, who was grand-daughter of Gerald, earl of Kil- dare, the brother of Silken Thomas, showed much heroism in defying the menaces of the assailants: and the siege having been raised, Coote and Lord Lisle, burning the country as Bubordinate to the general or national eouncU. That an inventory he kept in each province " of the murders, burnings, and other cruelties which are committed by the Puritan enemies, with a quotation of the place, day, cause, &c., subscribed hy one of public authority." That " all who forsake this union, fight for our enemies, and accompany them in their war, defend or in any way as- sist them, be excommunicated ;" and also that " aU those that murder, dismember, or grievously strike ; aU thieves, unlawful spoilers, &c., be excommunicated." The following was the " oath of association," as given by Lord Castlehaven, the form, according to Borlase, being substantially the same : — " I, A. B., do profess, Bwear, and protest before God, and his saints and angels, that I will, during my life, bear true faith and aUegianco to my sovereign lord, Charles, by the grace of God king of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, and to his heirs and lawful successors ; and that I will, to my power, during my life, defend, uphold, and maintain all his and their just prerogatives, estates, and rights, the power and privilege of the parliament of this realm, the fundamental laws of Ireland, the free exercise of the Roman Catholic faith and religion throughout this land ; and the lives, just liberties, possessions, estates, and rights of all those that have taken, or that shall take, this oath, and perform the contents thereof; and that I will obey and ratify all the orders and decrees made, or to be made, by the supremo council of the confederate they proceeded, marched to Trim, of which they took possession, the Catho- lic army having retired at their ap- proach. Lord Lisle now set out for Dublin, Sir Charles Coote remaining to place Trim castle, of which the walls were quite dilapidated, in a state of defence ; and the .Irish I'eturned, on the 7 th of May, and attempted to regain the place. They were unsuccessful in their effort, but Coote was killed on the occasion, as it was supposed by a shot from one of his own troopers, and the death of a foe so merciless and active was deemed in itself a sufficient triumph. Coote's son was appointed provost-marshal of Connaught.* Limerick liad opened, its gates to General Barry and Lord Muskerry Catholics of this kingdom, concerning tlje said public cause, and wOl not seek, directly or indirectly, any pardon or protection for any act done or to be done, touching this general cause, without the consent of the major jiart of the said council ; and that I will not, di- rectly or indirectly, do any act or acts that shall preju- dice the said cause, but will, at the hazard of my life and estate, assist, prosecute, and maintain the same. More- over, I do further swear that I will not accept of, or sub- mit unto any peace made, or to be made, with the said confederate Catholics, without the consent and approba- tion of the general assembly of the said confederate Catholics So help me God and his holy gospel." * An incident mentioned by the earl of Castlehaveu occurred probably a few weeks before this time. The earl gives it on the authority of his brother, who relates how, while accompanying a party sent out by the earl of Ormond, they met Sir Arthur Loftus, governor of Naas, returning with a party of horse and dragoons after having killed such of the Irish as they met. " But the most considerable slaughter," he proceeds, " was in the great strait of furze, seated on a hill, where the peo- ple of several villages, taking the alarm, had sheltered themselves. Now, Sir Arthur, having invested the hiU, set the furze on fire on all sides, where the people, being a considerable number, were all burnt or killed, men, women, and children. I saw the bodies and furze still burning." (CastMavcn's Memoirs, p. 38). SUCCESS OF THE CONFEDERATES. 493 long before tliis time, but Captain Conrtenay continued to defend liimself, in tlie castle, witb great bravery, and the protracted siege was not brought to a close until the 23d of June, when the garrison capitulated. The cannon and ammunition taken by the confeder- ates on this occasion were of great im- portance ; and most of the neighboring castles surrendered to them. One of the guns was a thirty-two pounder, and requu-ed twenty-fiv^e yoke of oxen to draw it. Sir William St. Leger died at his house near Cork on the 2d of July ; and his son-in-law, Lord Inchi- quin, was appointed to succeed him as lord president of Munster. This de- generate descendant of the great Brian rivalled the most sanguinary of the Puritan generals in the cruelties which he executed upon his Catholic country- men, and, in the traditions of the peasantry, his name M'as long preserved as " Murrough of the burnings."* 494 REIGN OF CHARLES I. CHAPTEE XXXVIII. KEIGN OF CHARLES I. CO]S[CLUDED. Tlie arrival of Owen Roe O'Neill — Ho assumes tlie command of tlio Irish army in Ulster. — Conduct of the Scots in Ulster. — Lord Lieven's opinion of Owen Roe. — Colonel Preston's arrival in Wexford with officers and arms. — Position of the lords justices. — State of the belligerents in Conuaught and Munster. — Opening of tho General Assembly — Outline of their proceedings.— Constitution of the Supreme Council — Appointment of generals, &c. — Levy of money and soldiers. — Remittances from the Continent — Establishment of a Mint. — Progress of the war. — Overture from the king to the Confederates. — Hostile conduct of Ormond. — Gallant defence of Ross. — Preston defeated near Ross. — Conference with the Royal Commissioners at Trim — Re- monstrance of grievances — Obstacles to negotiation. — Success of the Confederates. — Death of Lord Moore. — Capture of Colonel Vavasour. — Foreign envoys. — Arrival of Father Scarampi. — Divisions in the Supreme Council. — Disgrace of Parsons. — Treaty of Cessation signed — Its rejection by the Puritans. — The Scots in Ulster take the Covenant. — Bravery of the Irish soldiers sent into Scotland for the king. — Ormond appointed lord lieutenant. — His negotiations with the Confederates. — -Catholic and Protestant deputations to the king. — Infringement of the Cessation by the Scots. — Abortive expedition of Castlehaven against Monroe. — The king's impatience for a peace in Ireland. — Ormond's prevarication. — Renewed hostilities in the south and west. — Death of Archbishop O'Kealy. — Mission of Glamorgan — His secret treaty with the Confederates. — Mission of the Nuncio Rinuccini — His arrival in Ireland — Reception at Kilkenny. — Renewed discxission of tlie peace question. — Arrest of Glamorgan. — Division among tho Confederates. — Treaty of peace signed by Ormond — Not approved by the Nuncio. — Siege of Bunratty. — Battle of Bcnburb. — Increasing opposition to the peace. — Ormond's visit to Munster. — Glamorgan joins the Nuncio's part}'. — Dublin besieged by the Con- federates. — Given up to the Parliamentarians. — Ormond leaves Ireland. — Dissensions in the Assembly. — Battles of Dungan Hill and Knocknonos. — O'NeiU takes arms against the Confederates. — Ormond returns. — The peace of 1040. — Departure of the Nuncio. — Prince Rupert's expedition. (FEOM A. D. 1G42 TO A. D. 1049.) T^IIE position of the confederate -*- Catholics at the time to which the preceding chapter has brought us was discouraging enough, hut brighter prospects were about to dawn upon them. The organization, of which they Avere yet destitute, was soon to be suji- plied by the General Assembly, and their want of military leaders was about to be filled up by the arrival of Colonel Owen Koe O'Neill and Colonel * These occurrences are thus recorded in Sir Phelim O'Neill's journal : " He (Owen Hoe) came with a single Thomas Preston. The former of these distino-uished commanders landed near Castle Doc, 'in Donegal, about the middle of July, 1642, accompanied by a hundred officers, and having with him a quantity of arms and ammuni- tion. Sir Phelim O'Neill went to re- ceive him, and, at a meeting of the Irish gentry, resigned to him the com- mand of the Catholic army of Ulster.* Endowed with a high sense of honoi'. ship, commanded by Captain Antony Fleming, and ono company of soldiers. He landed at tho castle of Doe. 1(0 i>a^ 0^ C4^^x,i. .HJU- 1 OWEX ROE O'NEILL. 495 aucl inured to the strict discipline of the soldier, the gallant defender of Arras expressed the strongest disap- probation of the retaliatory cruelties which had been tolerated by Sir A day of general meeting was appointed at Clones. The clan of the O'Xeills canie with tlie general (Sir Phelim) and Owen ; also, the OReillys, O'Kanes, MacRorys, O'Dalys, MacMahons, and the MacDonnells with Sir James MacAlistcr. Sir Phelim resigned the general- ship, which was conferred on Owen ; Sir Phelim being nominated President of Ulster." * Owen O'Neill, says Carte, who writes In no friendly spirit, "was a man of clear head and good judgment, sober, moderate, silent, excellent in disguising his senti- ments, and well versed in the arts and intrigues of courts." As to the cruelty attributed to his predecessor in the command, Sir Phelim, it has been grossly exag- gerated, although his character was far from .being faultless. One of the principal crimes laid to Sir Phelim *s charge was the murder of Lord Charlemont, when removed from Charjemont fort to Kinard, on the * Duiiluce Castle is situated three miles to the east of Portrnsh. It is famous for its situation, the picturesqiieness of which is hardly ex- celled by that of any other ruin in tlie world. On the top of a per- pendicular rock which rises upwards of a hundred feet from the sea, this Tenerable remains of antiquity looks prondly out on the oceaa, the waves of which girdle the rock on which it stands, except where a deep chasm separates the rock from the mainland — a junction being formed at its bottom by a narrow wall. The yawning chasm above is spanned by a bridge which forms the only entrance to the castle, which, Bu long as the bridge is secured, is impregnable. The ruins cover a considerable space, and so accurately has the building been framed to the rock that the whole looks like one formation, and it appears rather to have been constructed by the hand of nature than by that of man. When the castle was entire it must have contained a great many apartments. One of its vaulted chambers is said to be inhabited by a banshee, the legend having probably arisen from the cleanness and fret-dom from dust in which it is kept by the wind. There is auothcr remarkable chamber. The rock on which it was originally built and on which it rested has fallen away, and the apartment now hangs suspended in the air like a dove-cot. A long narrow cave per- forates the rock on whicli the castle is built, at its biise, from the sea to the rocky basin on the land side. Into it the sea rolls incessantly, the waves of which have rtolished through tlieir action the stones that form its floor perfectly round, as may be seen at low-water, when a considerable part of it is left dry. The floor and the roof are com- posed of bMSalL When the sea is calm there is a good echo in the cave. The erection of Dunluce castle is said to have been the work of De Courcy.earl of Ulster, although the evidence on which this re- port rc6t3 is not entirely satisfactory. History, however, informs us that it was in the hands of the English during the fifteenth century. Ill the following century, an42, an act of treachery of a much more infamous character was perpe- trated at the same castle, and what is remarkable enou^di. also by a Scotehraan. In April of that year General Munroe, with a de- tachment of troops, paid a visit to the earl of Antrim at Duithice Castle, and was received with the highest demonstrations of hospitali ty and festivity ; the earl at the same time offering him a contributimi of men and money to reduce the country, which was in a disturbed state, to tranquillity. Monroe repaid this friendship on the part of the earl by seizing his person and imprisoning him in tlie castle of Car- rickfergus, wlnle at the same lime he took possession of all his oihir castles, putting them into the hands of Argyle. The earl, however, not long afterwards effected bis escape from Carrickfergus, and took refuge in England. 496 REIGN OF CHARLES I. Scots in Ulster were, at this time, a sort of independent power, equally opposed to the king and to the Cath- olics. Left to their own resources hj the I'lnglish parliament, which was now too much occupied with its own war against its sovereign, they plun- dered both parties, and, according to Warner, " wasted Down and Antrim more than the rebels had done." * Lord Lieven arrived in August with fresh supplies fi'om Scotland, which raised the Scottish army in Ulster to 10,000 men; the whole force of Scots and English in that pi'ovince amount- ing now to 20,000 foot and 1,000 horse. Lieven crossed the Bann at the head of a formidable a;-ray, but retii'ed without performing any service, and soon after returned to Scotland, leaving to Mon- roe the sole command. Lieven enter- tained a high opinion of Owen Roe, to whom he wrote expressing his concern " that a man of his reputation should be ene:ao;ed in so bad a cause ;" but O'Neill justly replied that he had a better ri^ht to come to the relief of his country than bis lordship could plead for mar chin 2: into England asrainst his king. Lieven warned Monroe that he might expect a total overthrow should Owen O'Neill once collect an army. Colonel Preston, the brother of Lord Gormanston, and ranking next to Owen Roe in military skill and rc2:)utation, landed early in autumn on the coast of Wexford. He came in a ship of war, * Warner, vol. i., p. 237. attended by two frigates, and some transports bringing a few siege-guns, field-pieces, and other warlike stores, together with 500 officers and a number of engineers. Shortly after other ships arrived with further supplies of artillery, arms, and ammunition, and a consider- able number of experienced L-ish offi- cers and veteran soldiers, discharged from the French service by Cardinal Richelieu, with the obvious view of their coming to the aid of their coun- trymen at Lome. These important ac- cessions of strength, if well applied, might have been made decisive of the war, but as yet the Irish leaders acted without unity of plan or purpose, and the whole work of organization was still to be effected. The lords justices were all this time cooped up in Dublin, trembling with fear, and incapable of making any efibrt which required man- liness or wisdom. The earl of Clan- rickard co-operated with Lord Rane- lagh, president of Connaught, against the Catholics of that province, and drew upon himself particular odium by countenancing the Puritan garrison of the fort of Galway, in their outrages against the people of the town and neighborhood ; while in the south Lord Inchiquin, with an army of 2,000 foot and 400 horse, defeated the confeder- ates, under General Barry, on the 3d of Septembei*, near Liscarroll in the county of Cork ; the Irish having only just before succeeded in capturing that strong castle after a siege of thirteen days. PROCEEDINGS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 497 The 24tli of October, 1642, will ever be memorable in our history as the day ou which the General Assembly, pro- jected by the national synod of the 10th of May, commenced its sittings in the ancient city of Kilkenny. Eleven spiritual and fourteen temporal peers, with two hundred and twenty-six com- moners, representing the Catholic popu- lation of Ireland, of both races, assem- bled on this occasion. Patriotism and loyalty, religion and enlightened lib- erality, were the principles which drew together this national convention. Meeting in that old town where Clar- ence's parliament passed the infamous anti-Irish statute, with which the name of Kilkenny has thus been connected, this great national asserablj^, a true Irish parliament in all but name, must have suggested many strange associa- tions; while its own existence, almost realizing in its form and its object the fond dream of Irish independence, con- stitutes one of the most interestincf facts of our history.* The assembly is said to have held its first meeting in the house of Sir Eichard Shea, in the mar- ket-place of Kilkenny. Peers and com- moners sat in the one hall, the forms of parliament being in this respect de- parted from ; but an upper or 2>i'ivate room was provided for the consultations of the lords. Those of the clergy who were not qualified to sit as prelates or abbots met in " convocation," in an ad- joining house. Mr. Patrick Darcy, an eminent lawyer, who had been perse- cuted by Strafford, sat bareheaded, representing the clmncellor and the judges; and Mr. Nicholas Plunket acted as the speaker of the House of Com- mons, both lords and commons address- ing their speeches to him. The Rev. Thomas O'Quirke, an eloquent and learned Dominican friar of Tralee, was appointed chaplain to both houses. One of the first acts of the assembly ■\vas to declare that they did not intend their body as a parliament, lest thej'- might infringe on the prerogative of the crown ; but as a provincial govern- ment " to consult of an order for their own aftairs, till his majesty's wisdom had settled the present troubles." The preliminary arrangements and adminis- tration of the oath of association oc- cupied the interval to the 1st of No- vember, when a^ committee was ap- pointed to draw up a form of the confederate government, and on the 4th the acts of the committee were formally sanctioned by the two houses. " Magna Charta and the common and statute laws of England, in all points not con- trary to the Eoman Catholic religion, or inconsistent with the liberty of Ire- laud, were," says Carte, " acknowledged as the basis of the new government ; and," continues the same writer, " as the * For a vivid and detailed account of tlie first meet- tory, we' must refer the reader to the Eev. C. P. Ing of the assembly, and of its subsequent proceed- Meehan's Confcdirdticn of Kilkenny — by far the ings, as well as for a minute and accurate elucida,tion best work which we jjossess on the history of the of this complicated and important epoch of our his- I period. 03 498 REIGN OF CHAKLES I. administrative authority Avas to be vested in tbe supreme council, it was decreed that at the end of every gen- eral assembly the supreme council should be confirmed or changed as the general body thought fit."* The supreme council was then chosen, and having elected Lord Mountgarret as its president,f it commenced the ex- ercise of its executive functions by the appointment of generals to take the command of the army. These were — Owen Roe O'Neill for the forces of Ulster; Thomas Prestou for those of Leinster; Gerald Barry for Munster; and John Burke as lieutenant-ireneral for Connauo-ht, the chief command in that province being reserved for the earl of Clanrickard, in the ho23e that he might at some time be induced to join the confederation. Lord Castlehaven • See the orders of tlio assembly, published in full in the appendix to Borlase. f The supreme council was composed of the following members, there being six from each province, viz. :— For Leinster ; the archbishop of Dublin, Viscount Gormans- ton. Viscount Mountgarret, Nicholas Plunket, Richard Belling, and James Cusack. ' For Ulster ; the archbishop of Armagh, the bishop of Down, Philip O'Reilly, Colo- nel MacMahon, Heber Magennis, and Turlough O'Neill. For Munster ; Viscount Roche, Sir Daniel O'Brien, Ed- mond FitzMaurice, Dr. Fennell, Robert Lambert, and George Comyn. For Connaught; the archbishop of Tuam, Viscount Mayo, the bishop of Clonfert, Sir Lucas Dillon, Geoffrey Brown, and Patrick Darcy. To these twenty-four tlio earl of Castlehaven was added as a twenty-fifth member, not representing any particu- lar province. He had just made his escape from Dublin, where he was imprisoned by the lords jus- tice* on suspicion of being concerned in the insur- rection ; and arriving in Kilkenny during the sit- ting of the assembly, he joined the confederates after a little hesitation, and took the oath of associa- tion. X " The total absence of embellishment or legend got the command of the Leinster horse, under General Preston. A great seal was ordered to be made ; a j^ress was set up to print the acts and proclama- tions of the assemblj^, — for every thing was done openly before the world ; and a mint was established, in which, in a very short time, half-crown pieces, of full sterling value, to the amount of £4,000 were coined, besides a large quantity of copper money.;}: It was ordained that corn might be imported duty free until the j^resent exigencies were removed, and that lead, iron, arms, and ammunition might also be intro- duced free ; the privileges of free citi- zens were granted to ship-builders and mariners from other countries, and vari- ous other encouragements to commerce were held out. One of the first acts passed under the new great seal was on the silver coin," observes Mr. Meehan, " is evidence of the haste with which it was struck, for the half- crown piece bears no mark save that of the cross, and the figures indicating its value. The copper money subsequently produced and circulated is far more elabo- rate, and the legend ' Ecce Gres,' ' Floreat Rex,' to- gether with the beautiful device, must be convincing proofs of a more prosperous moment in the affairs of the confederates." — Confcd. of Kil., p. 45. The half- penny has on one side the figure of a king kneeling and playing on a harp, over which is a crown, with the in- scription " Floreat Rex ;" on the reverse the figure of St. Patrick, with a crozier in his right hand and a shamrock in his left, extended over the people ; on his left are the arms of Dublin, with tlie inscription " Ecce Grex." The farthing was similar, except fhat behind St. Patrick, in the reverse, was a church, and a parcel of serpents as if driven from it, with the inscription " Quiescat Plebs. " (See Simon's Emty on IHsh Coins.) The great seal of the confederation had in its centre a long cross, resting on a flaming heart ; a dove with out- spread ■nings above, a harp on the left hand, and a crown on the right ; with the legend. Pro Deo, Rege, et Patria, Hiberni Unanimes. SUCCESSES OF THE CONFEDERATES. 499 an Older to raise a sum of £30,000 in Leiuster, and a levy of 31,700 men, who were to be drilled with all possible expedition by the officers whom Preston had brought from the continent. A euard of 500 foot and 200 horse was appointed to attend upon the supreme council. The bishops and clergy agreed to pay a large sum out of the ecclesias- tical revenues, and envoys were sent to the Catholic courts of Europe to solicit aid. The learned and gifted Father Luke Wadding, who was appointed their agent for Rome, applied himself to their cause with all his heart and soul. He sent memorials on their be- half to all the Catholic courts, and was soon enabled to remit to Ireland 2,000 muskets and a sum of 26,000 dollars. Father James Talbot, their agent in Spain, collected in a short time 20,000 dollars in that country, and procured in France another large sum, together with two iron cannons carrying twenty- four pound balls. The assembly seem- ed at that time to appreciate the radical evil of Ireland, and prohibited, under severe penalties, all distinction and comparison between " old Irish, and old and new English, or between septs or families," &c. Finally, a remonstrance to tlie king was adopted, as a declara- tion of their loyalty and an exposition of their grievances ; and the assembly broke up on the 9th of January, 1643, fixing the 20th of the following May for their next meetinof. O A. D. 1643. — At the close of the last and the beginning of the present year there Avas fighting in every direction, and with various success on both sides ; but with the discipline and experience gained in the war, the Irish were im- proving rapidly as soldiers, and it was obvious that their resources in all that constitutes the sinews of war were vastly superior to those of the enemy. The strong places of the King's county, as Borris, Birr, Banagher, and others, fell in quick succession into the hands of Pi-eston ; some after a siege, and others w'ithout firing a shot. From Birr eight hundred English prisoners were escorted in safety by Lord Castle- haven, and given up to their friends at Athy. On the other hand. Colonel Monck (afterwards duke of Albemarle) relieved Balliuakil, in the Queen's county, besieged by Preston, and de- feated the latter when he attempted to intercept him at Timahoe, in the same county. At this time circumstances enabled Preston to distinguish himself by a great number of exploits ; but as a general he was too volatile and im- pulsive, and was therefore often unfor- tunate ; while Owen O'Neill, having the powerful army of Monroe to keep him in check, had enough to do to hold his ground in the north, and retired into Leitrim and Longford to ti-ain up soldiers for future victories. The gen- eral assembly committed many feults, and assuredly one of the most fatal was the division of the military command, resulting, as it did, in want of union and co-operation. The very power of the confederates 500 REIGN OF CHARLES I. now became the root of their misfor- tunes. It led the king to desire to come to terms with them, not from any in- tention to do them justice, but with the hope of deriving assistance from them in his difficulties ; and it exposed them to all those assaults of diplomatic craft, and that policy of fomenting internal division, which ultimately proved their ruin. For some time Borlase and Par- sons, for their own base purposes, con- trived to counteract the kiu2:'s desirous. Any amicable arrangement with the Irish would have frustrated all their hopes of plunder ;* but the delays thus caused only provoked Charles, who is- sued a commission to the (now) marquis of Ormoiid, the earl of St. Alban's and Clanrickard, the earl of Roscommon, Lord Moore, Sir Thomas Lucas, Sir Maurice Eustace, and Thomas Burke, Esq., to receive propositions from the confederates, to be transmitted for his majesty's consideration. Goodwin and Reynolds, who had been sent over by the English parlia- ment to watch the progress of affiiirs in Ireland, took alarm at this jn'oceeding, and returned in haste to England ; and the lords justices, as a further expedient for delay, sent the marquis of Ormond on an expedition against the confeder- ates in Wexford. Whatever his ajiolo- gists may say, Ormond was never either * So early as the lltli of May, 1643, consequent on the English vote for the confiscation of two and a-half millions of Irish acres, " the lords justices wrote a pri- vate letter to the speaker of the house of commons in England, without the rest of the council, beseeching the slow or merciful in the execution of his duties against the Catholics. On the 4th of March he took Timolin on his way to the south, and the brave garri- son, after surrendering on promise of quarter, were inhumanly butchered. On the 11th he laid siege to Ross, and having made a breach stormed the place, but was gallantly repulsed by the inhabitants ; and Purcell, coming uj) with a strong detachment of the confederates, compelled him to raise the siege. Chagrined beyond measure at the position in which he was placed by the lords justices, and at their failure to send him succor by sea, which they had promisee!, Ormond prepared to re- turn to Dublin, when he found his march intercepted by Preston with a numerous army. In this strait Ormond owed his safety to the bad generalship of his antagonist. Preston, despising the small force which he saw arrayed against him, left a strong position which he had first taken up, and so exposed his raw levies to the concentrated at- tack of Ormond's veterans, as to cause a total defeat and the loss of five hun- dred of his men. This conduct should have been fatal to Preston as a general, but he was only reprimanded by the supreme council. This battle of Ross, as it is called, took jilace on the 18th of March, the commons to assist them with a grant of some compe- tent proportion of the rebels' lands. Here," says War- ner, " the reader will find a key that unlocks the secret of their iniquitous proceedings." {Hlnlary of the Irish Rebellion) SUCCESSES OF THE CONFEDERATES. 501 very day on wLicli Ormond's fellow- commissioners lield a conference with the committee of the confederation at Trim. Those who represented the con- federates on this occasion were Lord Gormanstou, Sir Lucas Dillon, 8ir Eobert Talbot, and John AValsh, Esq., and the remonstrance of grievances which they presented in the name of the Catholics of Ireland, was duly re- ceived and ti-ansmitted to the king.'" A fresh commission was next issued by Charles to Ormond to conclude a cessa- tion of arms for a year with the con- federates ; but various obstacles were thi'own in the way of this arrangement, first by the lords justices, who tried every means which baseness and craft could suggest to j^revent a pacification ; next by Ormond, who was most re- luctant to treat with the Catholics, except as a conquered people ; and thirdly, by the Catholics themselves, who were divided into two parties — the old Irish, who were utterly opposed to any terms short of perfect religious liberty, and the old English or gentry of the Pale, who longed for peace with more moderate views, but felt them- selves repelled by the insolence em- ployed towards them by the govern- ment. Meantime the arms of the confed- erates were prosperous in several quarters. Lord Castlehaven defeated Colonel Lawrence Crawford at Mo- * Tliis document, wliicli contains a clear and able statement of the principal grievances under ■whicli the Catholics of Ireland labored, and of the causes ■which nasterevan, and other successes were obtained by the Catholics in Leinster. In the beginning of May, Monroe at- tempted to surprise Owen Roe at Charlemont, and so stealthily did he approach that he nearly succeeded ; but O'Neill, who was out hunting when the advance guard of the Scots came upon him, repulsed them with slaughter in a narrow lane near the fort, and defeated them ao;ain the fol- lowing day. O'Neill then marched towards Leitrim, but at Clones, on the borders of Fermanaijh and Monao^han, he was defeated by Sir Robert Stewart. His loss, however, was not very serious, and soon after he gained an important victory over the English at Portlester Mill, about five miles from Trim, when Lord Moore, the English commander, was killed by a cannon ball. In the west, the parliamentary general, Wil- loughby, after a long and obstinate de- fence, surrendered the forts of Galway and Oranmore to the confederates on the 20th of June; and in the south an important victory was gained by the Catholics, near Fermoy, under Lord Castlehaven, General Barry, and Lieu- teuaut-General Purcell. On this occa- sion Sir Charles Vavasour, the English commander, was taken prisoner, and about 600 of his men slain, besides the loss of his cannon, colors, &c.; and it appears that the battle was decided by the impetuosity of a troop of young led to the outbreak of 1641, as well as of the course which events had since taken, wlU be found in full in the Appendix to Curry's Reciew of the Civil Wars. f)02 REIGN OF CHARLES I. Irish boys mounted on fleet horses, Avho bore down on the forlorn hope of the English with a velocity that was irresistible.* At such a moment, with an army thus training up to victory, and abundantly supplied with money, arms, and provisions, while the English army was in want of every thing — I'aggecl, barefoot, and almost starving in the few garrisons which it held — negotiations for peace only tended to darnel the ardor of the confederates. Peace could then only mean the ruin of the Irish cause. In return for the envoys sent by the supreme council to the Catholic powers, the king of France sent, in the fli'st in- stance, M. La IMonarie, who was suc- ceeded by M. Du Moulin, after whom came M. Talon ; the king of Spain sent, first, M. Fuissot, a Burgundian, and then O'Sullivan, count of Beerhaven, who was succeeded by Don Diego de los Torres ; but the most important of the foreign envoys at this time was Father Peter Francis Scarampi, a priest of the oratory, whom Pope Urban VIII. sent to report to him on the state of Irish affairs. Scarampi was the bearer of a bull of indulgences to the Irish Catholics, and he also brought Avith him from Father Waddinof a sum of 30,000 dollars, with a quantity of arms and ammunition. lie found the general assembly at Kilkenny engaged in discussing the question of a cessation * The very day before this battle, Colonel Vavasour having taken the castle of Cloghleigh, commanded by one Condon, twenty men, eleven women, and seven of arms, and he must very soon have pei'ceived to which side he should ad- here. The Catholics of the Pale, or Anglo-Irish, showed a marked distaste for the continuance of the war; while the old Irisli, bent on establishing their independence, were opposed to all over- tures that did not include perfect free- dom of conscience. With these latter the bishops and clergy agreed, and it was only natural that the papal envoy should also adopt their views. But the political oi^inions of these men were far in advance of the age. "Well aware of these divisions, Or- mond exerted his skill to foment them. A supersedeas had been granted by the king lono; before to remove Sir William Parsons from the post of lord justice, but it had not been acted on. Ormoixl thought the ojiportunity a favorable one to make the confederates suppose that a concession was intended to them- selves, and he obtained an order for the arrest of Parsons, Loftus, Meredith, and Sir John Temple, on a charge of contravening the royal will in the man- agement of public affairs. Parsons es- caped imprisonment on the plea of ill health, but the others Avere committed to custody; and Sir Henry Tichburn, governor of Drogheda, another bigot, though of a different stamp, was given as a colleague to Sir John Borlase in the government. At length-, on the 15th of Septem- cldldren were stripped and massacred in cold blood by the brutal troopers. These are the nvimbers given by Borlase. RESULTS OF THE CESSATION. 503 ber, 1643, after Ormond bad been per- emptorily required by the king to bring the matter to a conclusion, a cessation of arras for one year was signed in Or- mond's tent at Sigginstown, near ISTaas ; the commissioners of the confederation being Lord Muskerry, Sir Lucas Dillon, Nicholas Plunket, Sir R. Talbot, Sir Richard Barnwell, Turlough O'Neill, Geoffry Browne, Heber Magennis, and John Walshe, Esqrs. The confederates were bareheaded, and Ormond, as the royal commissioner, alone wore his hat and plume. On the following day the instrument, by which the confederates engaged to pay the king £30,800, as a free contribution, in certain instalments, was also signed."* If the old Irish were dissatisfied with the cessation, they, at all events, ob- served it honorably ; but not so the Puritan party, who wholly repudiated any concession to the Catholics, and re- garded the cessation as a monstrous iuiquity.f In the beginning of Novem- ber, Owen O'Connolly, whose name is * According to the treaty of cessation, the quarters of Hie different armies in the several jirovinces were to be as follows : — In Conna'igJit, the county and town of Gal- way, the counties of Mayo, Koscommon, Sligo, and Leitrim, to remain in the possession of the Catholics ; in Lcimter, the county and city of Dublin, the city of Drogheda, and the county of Louth, to remain in pos- session of the Protestants ; the counties of Tipperary, Limerick, Kerry, Waterford, and Clare, except Knock- morne, Ardmore, Pilltown, Cappoquin, Balinatra, Sfron- cally, Lismore, and Lisfinuy, to remain in the possession of the Catholics ; in Ulster each party was to remain in the possession of such places as they happened to hold at the time the treaty was signed. f The English parliament showed its appreciation of the truce by ordering, on the 24th of September, eight days after the cessation had been signed, " that no infamous as the betrayer of Lord Ma- guire and his associates,^ came over with orders from the English parlia- ment to the Scotch troops in Ulster, to take the covenant, as the parliament had done on the 25th of SepteuTljer ; and this mandate was gladly obeyed, and with due solemnity, at Carrickfer- gus. At the same time the Scots were enjoined by the parliament to treat as enemies all who should observe the cessation. One of the first results of the cessa- tion was the arrival of the marquis of Antrim to treat with the supreme council for supplies of men, to proceed to Scotland, in the king's service. The valor displayed by the brave Irishmen who were sent o^ this expedition, under Alexander MacDonnell, surnamed Col- kitto, and who fought under IMoutrose at St. Johnston's in Athol, at Aberdeen, and elsewhere, was such as to call forth the admiration of English and Scotch historians. In their first battle, althous;h without a single horse, even their gen- Irishman or Papist, born in Ireland, should have quarter in England " {Cox, vol. ii., p. 137) ; and to show how this brutal order was understood, it is recorded by Carte {Ormond, vol. iii., p. 480, &c.) that Captain Swanly, the commander of one of the parliamentarian cruisers in the Channel, having taken a transport conveying troops, sent by the marquis of Ormond for the king's use, se- lected from the prisoners seventy men and two women of Irish birth, an* threw them overboard. And it is worthy of remark that these men had faithfidly served the king, their only " crime" being that they were Irish. See the incident related by Lelaud, vol. iii., p. 237. i Owen O'ConnoUy then held the commission of a captain, and subsequently served as a colonel under the parliament. He was rewarded with a pension of £500 a-year for the discovery of Lord Maguire's plot. 504 REIGN OF CHARLES I. eral beins: obli2:ed to march on foot, and the numbers being three or four to one against them, they routed the enemy with such slaughter "that men might have walked upon the dead corjTses to the town, being two miles from the place where the battle was fought."* A. D. 1644. — The marquis of Ormpnd w«as appointed lord lieutenant, and was sworn into office on the 21st of January this year ; but although such men as Borlase and his colleaarues no longer had the government in their own hands, several of their clique continued to act as members of the council. A deputa- tion from the supreme council of the confederates waited on the kins' at Ox- ford, in the beginning^of April, to pre- sent a statement of their grievances, and to pray for a repeal of the penal restrictions under which they labored ; but they obtained nothing more than empty assurances of his majesty's kind intentions, the utmost extent of which was, that he was willing to remove from them any incapacity to purchase lands or hold offices, and to allow them to have their own seminaries for the education of their youth. Scarcely had the Catholic commissioners departed, when Sir Charles Coote and others, deputed by the Protestants of Ireland, arrived, to present to the king counter propositions. They demanded that his majesty should "encourage and enable Protestants to replant the kingdom, and * See " Intelligence from his Majesty's Army in Scotland," &c., in Carte's Collection of Original Let- cause a good walled town to be built in every county for their security, no Pa- pist being allowed to dwell therein ;" and they further praj-ed his majesty " to continue the penal laws, and to dis- solve, forthwith, the assumed power of the confederates ; to banisli all Popish priests out of Ireland, and that no Po- pish recusant should be allowed to sit or vote in parliament." The extrava- gance of these propositions and the peremptory manner in which they were enforced astounded the king, but he was somewhat relieved by the arrival of Archbishop Ussher and other com- missione-rs, sent by the council in Dub- lin, to require Coote to withdraw his fanatical proposals, and to present prop- ositions a little less intolerant. This new scheme submitted to his majesty required, however, " that all the penal laws should be enforced, and that all Papists should be disarmed." Complaints were made on both sides of infringement of the cessation ; but Monroe's disregard of it was such that it became necessary to take immediate steps against his aggressions. For this purpose Owen O'Neill "was summoned to consult with the supreme council, at Kilkenny, He complained bitterly of the state of his men, left as they were without supi^lies ; but he undertook to raise a levy of 4,000 foot and 400 horse in Ulster, if properly seconded by the council, who, on their side, promised to send 6,000 foot and 600 horse against ters, vol. i., p. 73; also Carry's Beniew, Append., No. viii. DESIRE OF THE KING FOR PEACE. Mouroe. However, when the choice of a commander came to be considered, the council, on which the gentry of the Pale had an overwhelming majority^ voted the chief command to the earl of Castlehaven — a man who was wholly incompetent for such a duty, and was besides utterly opposed to the views of the old Irish and to the continuance of the war. O'Neill was deeply hurt at this unjust preference, but his generous nature overcame his personal feelings for the sake of their common cause, and he conarratulated Castlehaven on the distinction conferred on him. That vainglorious nobleman marched to Longford, whither Monroe had ad- vanced; but he avoided a collision with the Scots, and suffered them to carry off large preys of cattle to Ulster. luchiquin and Lord Broghil, in the south, also treated the cessation with contempt; and in August, the former expelled all the Catholics from Cork, Youghal, aud Kiusale ; Ormond, in the mean time, refusing to enforce the ob- servance of the cessation by Monroe or Inchiquin, although bound by the terms of the treaty to do so. In Au- gust the cessation was renewed by the general assembly to the 1st of Decem- ber, and subsequently for a longer jdc- riod; and Inchiquin made a truce on his own part with General Purcell, until the 10th of April, 1645. Thus the remainder of the year was wasted in inaction. A. D. 1645. — The king became more impatient for a definite peace with his 64 Irish subjects, and sent express orders for that purpose to Ormond. Lord Muskerry aud Sir Nicholas Pluuket were sent by the supreme council, on the 6th of March, 1645, to confer with Ormond on the subject. The wily viceroy concealed from the confederates the ample powei'S with which he was vested by the king to remove their re- ligious grievances, aud cajoled them with assurances of Charles's determina- tion not to jpnt the penal laws in force ; to abolish all outlawries and attainders which might have been passed against them ; aud to confer places of trust and honor on Catholics and Protestants in- discriminately. The great majority of the assembly would not be satisfied with a peace which did not include a guarantee for the free exercise of their religion, aud on receiving the report of their commissioners, rejected Ormond's terms w"ith scorn. The clergy were unanimous in taking this course, being secretly acquainted with the intention of the king to grant much more than Ormond stipulated for. Thus was the agitation of the question protracted, and the animosity which was growing up between the old Irish and the lords of the Pale every day strengthened. Inchiquin having set out in the course of the summer to destroy the growing crojDS, the supreme council sent Castlehaven, with an army of 5,000 foot and 1,000 horse against him, and, having reduced several castles and compelled Inchiquin to shut himself uji within the walls of Cork, the confed- 506 REIGN OF CHARLES I. erate general disbanded his troops and returned to Kilkenny. At the same time Sir Charles Coote, Sir Robert Stewart, and Sir Frederick Hamilton, with an army of Scots and English, mercilessly wasted Connaught, and took possession of Sligo. The supreme council directed Sir James Dillon and Malachy O'Kealy (or Queely), arch- Inshop of Tuam, to recover tliat im- portant town. They did so, but the Irish again abandoned the place on hearing that a large force of Scots was approaching ; and on this occasion the heroic prelate — who was as pious and learned as he was brave — underrating the strength of the enemy, suffered himself incautiously to fall into their hands, and although quarter had been given him, was, together with two friars who accompanied him, brutally slaughtered, his body being cut into small fragments by the soldiery* Desj^airing of being able to induce the unbending Ormond to offer such terms to the Catholics as they might with consistency accept, and feeling his difficulties in England daily increase, the king now resolved to try another expedient to bring about a peace in Ireland. This he hoped to do by em- ploying a Catholic envoy to treat se- cretly Avith the confederates, and he sent over for that purpose Lord Herbert, whom he created earl of Glamorgan, the son of the marquis of Worcester. This young nobleman, * See tlie notices of liis death in Hardiman's History of Galway, Median's Confederation of KUhenny, and the who was married to the daughter of the earl of Thomond, entertained a chivalrous devotion for the king, and had already, in conjunction with his father, advanced £200,000 for the maintenance of the royal cause. On arrivins: in Dublin he had a conference with the marquis of Ormond, to whom, therefore, the natui*eof his mission could not have been a secret; and he then pi'oceeded to Kilkennj', -where he fally explained to the supreme council the powers with which he had been in- vested. The terms which he offered ^^ere unexceptionable, and a treaty was therefore entered into between him, on the part of the king, and Lords Mount- garret and MuskeiTy on the part of the confederation, by which it was stipu- lated that the Catholics of Ireland should enjoy the free and jDublic ex- ercise of their religion ; tliat they should hold for their use all the churches of Ireland not then in the actual possession of the Protestants; that they should be exemj)t from the jurisdiction of the Protestant clei'gy; that neither the marquis of Ormond, nor any other person, should have power to disturb them in these privi- leges ; and that, while the earl of Gla- morgan engaged his majesty's word for the performance of these articles, the confederate Catholics should pledge the faith of the kin2:dom to him for sending 10,000 men armed, one half with muskets and the other half with notes of the latter author to his translation of Lynehe Icon Antistitis. ARRIVAL OF THE PAPAL NinSTCIO. pikes, to serve tlie king in England, under the said earl of Glamorgan. Tliere was, however, another condition which the king's position rendered in- dispensable, namely, that these conces- sions should be kept secret until the forces designed for his majesty should arrive in England ; then the king en- gaged j:)ublicly to avow and confirm the treaty. We shall presently see how it was prematurely divulged and rendered nugatoiy; but in the mean time other important events were pass- ing. Belling, the secretary of the supreme council, was sent on a mission to Rome, where he arrived about the end of February, 1645, and was presented by Father Luke Waddinc: to the then sovereign pontiff, Innocent X., by Avhom he was received as the accred- ited envoy of the confederate Catholics. On receiving his report of the state of Irish affairs, the Pope resolved to send an envoy to Ireland qualified with the powers of nuncio extraordinary; and chose for that purpose John Baptist Rinuccini, archbishop of Fermo. This distinguished prelate set out on his ar- duous mission early in 1645, and ar- rived in Paris, where he was detained about three months, chiefly by negotia- tions with the English queen, then at St. Germains. The communications be- tween them were exchanged through the medium of Sir Dudley Wyat and the queen's chaplain, as they had no in- terview ; and the queen's feelings being emijittered by the impression that the Irish Catholics only desired to take ad- vantao;e of the difficulties of her un- happy consort to exact concessions, the nuncio failed to obtain for them any favorable terms. She regarded the nuncio's mission as unfriendly, and her cause being espoused by the French court, it is natural to think that the same view of the subject was enter- tained there; and there is no doubt that Cardinal Mazarin was but little inclined to expedite the joui-ney of the Papal envoy, although he gave him 20,000 livres for the use of the Irish, and 5,000 more to fit out a ship for his expedition. At Rochelle the nuncio purchased a frigate of twenty-six guns, called the San Pietro, in which he em- barked at St. Martin, in the Isle of Rhe, with a retinue of twenty-six Italians, several Irish officers, and the secretary, Bellins:. He took with him a large quantity of arms and warlike stores, — among the rest, 2,000 muskets and car- touch belts, 4,000 swords, 2,000 pike- heads, 400 brace of pistols, and 20,000 lbs. of powder. In addition to the money furnished by the Pope, Father Wadding had given a sum of 36,000 dollars. The San Pietro was chased by some parliamentary cruisers on hei passage ; but a fire having broken out providentially, on board a large vessel which was foremost in pursuit, and which was thus obliged to slacken sail, the frigate anchored safely in the bay of Kenmare on the 21st of October, 1645. On lauding, the nuncio took up his abode in a shepherd's hut, where 508 REIGN OF CHARLES I. he celebrated Mass, suiToimded by peasantry from tlie neigliboring moun- tains. The arms were lauded at Ard- tully, and the frigate having been sent round to Duncaunon, Avhich the confed- erates had taken, the nuncio journeyed by Macroom and Kilmallock to Limer- ick. Here he celebrated the obsequies of the archbishop of Tuam, the news of whose death, at Sligo, had just been received. From Limerick he proceeded to Kilkenny, where he was received with great houor by many thousands of the gentry and i:)eople. He entered the city riding on a richly caparisoned horse, and wearing the pontifical hat and cape as insignia of his office, while the secular and regular clergy walked in processional order before him, pre- ceded by their several standard-bearers. At the entrance to the old cathedral of St. Cauice he was received by the ven- erable David Rotbe, bishop of Ossory, who was too feeble to walk in the pro- cession, and then advancing to the altar he intoned the Te Deum, after the chanting of which he pronounced a blessing on the vast congregation. After the religious ceremony he was received in the castle by the general assembly, the archbishops of Dublin and Cashel meeting him at the foot of the grand staircase, and Lord Mount- garret, president of the assembly, re- ceiving him standing, but without ad- vancing a step from his chair; and a seat, richly decorated with crimson damask, was fixed for him at the presi- dent's right hand, yet so that it was difficult to say which of the seats occu- pied the centre. The nuncio then ad- dressed the president in Latin, declaring the object of his mission, which was : — "to sustain the king, then so jjerilously circumstanced ; but above all, to rescue from pains and j^enalties the peoj^le of L-eland, and to assist them in securing the free and public exercise of the Catholic religion, and the restoration of the churches and church property, of which fraud and violence had so long deprived their rightful inheritors."* Heber MacMahon, bishop of Clogher, next addressed the assembly, and the nuncio then retired to the residence prepared for him, attended by Preston, Lord Muskeny, and the troojDS. The peace discussions were now con- tinued with more earnestness than ever : the two parties in the assembly began to be distiuojuished as Nuncionists and Or- mondists; and the estrangement be- tween them grew every day more marked and more rancorous. Two sets of neofotiations were carried on : those with Ormoud openly, in which the terms offered were humiliating to the Catholics, in the position in which they then stood ; and those with Gltynorgan in se- cret, in which the terms, as we have seen, were favorable, but had no other guar- antee than the king's promise. Glamor- gan produced his credentials, dated Aj^ril 30th, 1645, in which the king promised to ratify whatever terms Glamorgan should deem fit to conclude with the * Vide Meehan's Confederation of Kilkenny, m 117111011 these details are given at Icngtii. i=! OT DIVISION AMONG THE CONFEDERATES. 509 Irish Catholics ; but the necessary con- dition for that ratification was the lauding of Irish troops for the king's service in England. Glamorgan also presented to the nuncio another letter, in the king's hand, addressed to Pope Innocent X. ;. and when further pressed hj the nuncio, who had his misgivings as to the sincerity of Charles, he under- took, that in case the king refused to ratify the treaty, the Irish soldiers should be carried back to their own shores. Such was the state of the question TS'hen news arrived that Glamorgan, who had gone to Dublin to treat about the levying of troops, was arrested, on St. Stephen's day, by order of Ormond, on a charge of high treason. It then transpired that a copy of his secret treaty with the confederates was found on the person of the archbishop of Tuara, when killed by the Scots at Sligo, and that it was sent by Coote to the English parliament, who published it as a ground of accusation against the king ; hence the proceeding of Ormond, who feisfned the utmost amazement at the discovery. The exjilosion produced general consternation ; and the commis- sioners of the confederates were told to inform their assembly that " the Protestants of England would fling the king's person out of the window if they believed it possible that he had lent himself to such an undertaking." A. D. 1646. — The general assembly met at Kilkenny early in January, and sent a message to Ormond to say, that if Glamorgan were not immediately liberated all negotiations for peace should be suspended. The confeder- ates took the arrest as an insult to them- selves, and some projDOsed that without waiting for the armistice to conclude on the 17th of January, they should march immediately to lay siege to Dublin. Glamorgan, however, was bailed out, the marquis of Clanrickard and the earl of Kildare being his securities, to the amount of £40,000; the king dis- avowed the commission ; and it became quite clear that it was intended to both delude the Irish Catholics and the Eng- lish Protestants. The ebullition of feeling on the part of the confederation being over, the discussions on the peace were resumed in the assembly, and the acrimony with which they were carried on daily in- creased. Ormond took care to foment dissension by every means in his power, and in this he was eminently successful. A small party of the clergy were op- posed to the nuncio ; Dr. Leyburn, one of the queen's chaplains, and Father Petei' Walsh, a friar, being at their head. News arrived that a treaty, on behalf of the Irish Catholics, was about to be concluded between the pope and the queen of England, acting on the part of Charles ; but this, too, proved to be illusory, and only pro- tracted the suspense. At length the " moderate" party in the assembly pre- vailed, and on the 28 th of March Or- mond's treaty was signed by the mar- quis on the king's behalf, and by Lord 510 REIGN OF CHARLES I. Muskerry, Sir Robei't Talbot, John Dillon, Patrick Darcy, and Geoffry Browne, on tlie part of the confeder- ates. The treaty contained thirty ar- ticles, the only one of which bearing directly on the question of religion was the first, which provided — " that the professors of the lloman Catholic reli- gion, in this kingdom of Ireland, be not bound to take the oath of supremacy ex- pressed in tlie 2d of Queen Elizabeth." An act of oblivion was to be passed, and the Catholics were to continue in their possessions until settlement by parlia- ment ; the impediment to their sitting in parliament being also removed. The nuncio was no party to this treaty. It left wholly untouched the great ob- jects on which he had fixed his mind — the restoration of the Catholic church to its legitimate position, and the deliv- erance of the Irish people from the deg- radation to which he saw them re- duced ; and he had before this induced nine of the bishops to sign a protest against any arrangement with Ormond or the king that would not guarantee the maintenance of the Catholic religion.* * " Rinuccini's views," observes Mr. Meehan, " were those of an uncompromising prelate. He liad learned to appreciate tlie impulsiveness of the trne Irish char- acter, and determined to convince the confederates that they had within their own body all the materials which were required to insure success. He set his mind on one grand object, the freedom of the Church, in posses- sion of all her rights and dignities, and the emancipa- tion of the Catholic people from the degradation to which English imperialism had condemned them. Tlie churches, which the piety of Catholic lords and chief- tains had erected, he determined to secure to the right- ful inheritors. His mind and feelings recoiled from the idea of worshipping in crypts and catacombs. He ol> The country was, at this time, in a deplorable state. While the Catholics were distracted by cabals in their coun- cils, and their armies paralyzed by the jealousies of their generals, Monroe plundered Ulster with impunity, and sent detachments of his Scots to Coote, the parliamentary lord president of Connaught, whose inroads alarmed the peaceful Claurickard so much, that even he consented to take the field in his own defence; and in the south, since the defection of the earl of Thomond, all Munster miglit be said to be in the hands of the implacable Inchiquin. Castlehaven had shown himself unfit to command, and was tired of the war. As to Pi-eston, the nuncio was too dis- criminating an observer not to perceive his defects. Preston hated Owen Koo, who despised him in turn; and Sii Phelim O'Neill disliked Owen, as a rival, both in military fame and in his claim to the chieftancy.f Such a state of things would have disheartened any otber, but Rinuccini did not flinch, from his purpose. He was resolved to give the .Irish a lesson in self-reliance, and horred the notion of a priest or bishop performing a sacred rite as though it were a felony ; and, spite the wily artifices of Ormond and his faction, he resolved to teach the people of Ireland that they were not to re- main mere dependants on English bounty, when a stern resolve'might win for them the privileges of free- men. His estimate of the Irish character was correct and exalted." — Confcd. of Kil., pp. 117, 118. f Sir Phelim's second wife was the daughter of Preston, a circumstance which must have added to his enmity for Owen Roe, Preston's great rival. The dowry which Sir Phelim received with his wife was arms for 500 horsemen, SOO muskets, and SSfiW.— Vide O'Neill's Journal. SIEGE OF BUNRATTT. 511 his first step was to bring about a re- conciliation between Owen Roe and Sir Phelim O'Neill. He was deter- mined to strike a vigorous blow in the north against the Scots ; and assured the asseuibly that Ulster should soon be rid of its invaders, and the cathedral of Armagh restored to the ancient worship. In the mean time, Chester having been taken by the parliamentary troops, there was no place in England where the Irish forces could be landed for the king, and, although ready to embark, they were compelled to re- main in Ireland. The unfortunate Charles soon after committed the last of his fatal mistakes, by placing him- self in the hands of his inveterate ene- mies, the Scots.* Ormond refused to publish the peace, although the con- federates had done all in their power to fulfil their share of the conditions; and he declined to take any step to re- press the aggressions of Monroe, after receiving from the assembly a sum of j£3,O0O to aid in getting up an expedi- tion for that jiurpose. The Irish troops who were to have accompanied Glamorgan to England Avere sent to besiege Bunratty, in Clare, but were driven off by the parliament- ary garrison. Rinucciui caused Glamor- gan to be superseded by Lord Muskerry, and accompanied the army himself in a * Charles I. left Oxford in disguise and gave liimself up to the Scottish amiy on the oth of May, 1G46. On the 30th of January, 1647, the Scots concluded their bargain with the English parliament, and delivered him to them in consideration of a sum of £400,000 ; and twelve days after they recrossed the Tweed with second attack on the castle, which, after a siege of twelve days, surrendered ; the success being attributed to the pres- ence of the nuncio, and adding im- mensely to his popularity. Castlehaven was again sent against Inchiquin, and Preston acted against Coote, in Con- naught ; but the successes which the arms of the confederates could boast of elsewhere, sink into insignificance be- fore the victory which now awaited them in Ulster, under Owen Eoe O'Neill. Having collected an army of about 5,000 foot and 500 horse, Owen O'Neill marched, about the 1st of June, from the borders of Leinster in the direction of Armagh to attack Monroe. The Scottish general received timely notice of this movement, and, setting out with 6,000 infantry,and 800 horse, encamped about ten miles from Armagh.f His army was thus considerably superior to that of O'Neill's in point of num- bers, as it must also have been in equip- ments ; but he sent word to his brother. Colonel George Monroe, to hasten from Coleraine to reinforce him with his cavalry. He appointed Glasslough, in the north of Monaghan, as their ren- dezvous, but the march of the Irish was quicker than he expected, and he learned on the 4th of June that O'Neill had not only reached that point, but the money for which they had thus sold their king, ■f Monroe had on this occasion ten regiments of infan- try, fifteen companies of horse, and six field-pieces of artillery, and was followed by fifteen hundred wagons, containing baggage and ammunition. His army was provisioned for a month. — Bin/iuxini. 512 REIGN" OF CHARLES I. liacl crossed tl:e Blackwater into Ty- rone, and encamped at Benburb.* Here, in tlae ancient seat of bis fore- fathers, in view of scenes which the great Hugb bad rendered famous by- former victories, O'Neill was resolved to give battle to the enemies of his country and his religion. He encamped between two small hills, protected in the rear by a wood, witb the river Blackwater on his right and a bog on his left, and occupied some brushwood in front with musketeers, so that his position was admirably selected. He was well informed of Monroe's plans, and dispatched two regiments to pre- vent the junction of Colonel George Monroe's forces with those of his bro- ther. This important service, we may observe, was satisfactorily performed by Colonels Bernard MacMahon and Patrick MacNeny, to whom it had been committed. Finding that the Irish were in possession of the ford at Ben- burb, Monroe crossed the river at Kin- ard, a considerable distance in O'Neill's rear, and then, by a circuitous march, approached him in front from the east and south. The manner in whicli the morning of the 5tli of June was passed in the Irish camp was singularly solemn. " The whole army having confessed, and the general, with the other officers, having received the Holy Communion with the greatest piety, made a profes- * " Beann-J}or'b,i. e., the bold ben or cliff, or, as it is translated by P. O'Sallevan Bea.TO, Pinna Superba ; now Benburb, a castle standing in ruins on a remarkable cliff orer tbe Blackwater river on tbe borders of the sion of faith, and the chaj)lain deputed by the nuncio for the spiritual care of the army, after a brief exhortation, gave them his blessiug."f Owen Roe then, addressing his men, said, " Be- hold the army of the enemies of God, the enemies of your lives. Fight valiantly against them to-daj^ ; for it is they who have deprived you of your chiefs, of your children, of you subsist- ence, sj^iritual and temporal ; who have torn from you your lands, and made you wandering fugitives.''^ We may conceive the enthusiasm inspired by such, words and under such circum- stances. On the other hand, the Scots were inflamed with fierce animosity against their foe and an ardent desire for battle. " All our army," says Mon- roe in his dispatch, " did earnestly cov- et fighting, Avhich it was impossible for me to gainstand Avithout reproach of cowardice, and never did I see a greater confidence than was amongst us." As the Scots approached, their jjas- sage was disputed in a narrow defile by the regiment of Colonel Richard O'Far- rell, but this resistance was soon re- moved by Monroe's artillery, and the whole Scottish army advanced against O'Neill's position. The Irish general manojuvred so skilfully, that for four hours he engaged the attention of the enemy by his skirmishers, and by light parties of musketeers posted in thickets. counties Tyrone and Armagh." — Dr. O'Donovan's note to Four Masters, vol. vi., p. 3257 f Rinuccini's Relatione. X Sir Phelim O'NeOl's Journal. BATTLE OF BEXBURB. 513 He wished to gaiu time uutil the suu, which dazzled his men by the glare of light in front, should have declined to the west, and until the detachment he had sent to intercept Monroe's expected reinforcement should return ; and this design he accomplished. Some troops were seen approaching in the distance. Monroe supposed them to be those of his brother George ; but he was soon undeceived when he saw them enter the Irish camp. He now thought it prudent to retire, and ordered the re- treat to be sounded; but this resolve was fatal. O'Neill saw that the mo- ment was decisive, and ordered his gallant army to charge, commanding his men to reserve their fire until with- in a pike's length of the enemy's . lines. Never were orders more bravely obeyed. The Irish rushed forward with a terrific shout, and an impetus that was irresistible. Lord Blaney's re2:iment first met the brunt of their onset, and after a stubborn resistance was cut to i^ieces. The Scottish caval- ry twice charged to break the advan- cing column of the Irish, but were, themselves, thrown into disorder by the impetuous charge of the Irish horse. The ranks of Monroe's foot and horse were now broken, and the Irish con- * The Abbe Mageogliegan, Tvhom -wo liave cMefly followed above, and -whose account of the battle has been adopted by such hostile ivriters as Warner and Leland, takes his numbers, as Carte also did, from Ei- nuccini, who says that as many as 3,243 bodies were reckoned on the field ; but adds that the Irish took no prisoners except the officers mentioned above. The writer of Sir Phelim O'XeiU's journal, who, no doubt, ivas present, says : — " The confederates got (on the 65' tinning to press on vigorously, the con- fusion was soon converted into a total rout. The Scots fled to the river, but O'Neill held possession of the ford, and the flying masses were driven into the deep water, where such numbers per- ished that, tradition says, one might have crossed over dry-shod on the bodies. The regiment of Sir James Montgomery was the only one that re- treated in tolerable order, the rest of the army flying in utter confusion. Col. Conway had two horses killed under him, but escaped on a third to Newry, accompanied by Captain Burke, and about forty horsemen. Monroe him- self fled so precijaitately that his hat, sword, and cloak were found among the spoils, and he halted not until he reached Lisburn. Lord Montgomery was taken prisoner, with twenty-one oflicers and about 150 soldiers; and over 3,000 of the Scots were left on the field, besides those killed in the pursuit, which was resumed next morn- ing. All the Scottish artillery, tents, and provisions, with a vast quantity of arms and ammunition, and thirty-two colors, fell into the hands of the Irish, who, on their side, had only TO men killed and 200 wounded.* This brilliant victory, won, not by battle-field) 1,000 muskets, a large quantity of pikes, drums, seven field-pieces, and thirty-sis standards, which were sent to the nimzio in charge of Bartholo- mew McEgan, definitor of the order of St. Francis. The nunzio was then in Limerick, and he sent his dean along -nith Father McEgan to congratulate Owen Roe. The dean gave each soldier three rialls (about one shil- ling and sixpence), and more to the officers. The army then dispersed over Monaghan, Cavan, Leitrim, and 514 REIGN OF CHARLES I. dint of numbers, but ])y slieer good generalship and gallantry, over a brave and ruthless foe, numerically superior, and better equipped, showed what Owen O'Neill might have done had he not been shackled by the temporizing and craven-hearted party with whom circumstances compelled him to act, and who hated him and his brave northerns as much as they did the Pu- ritan enemy. The covenanters were filled with consternation ; and the Or- mondists in the general assembly re- garded O'Neill with more fear and jealousy than ever, while, in the same projiortion, the Irish were inspired with higher and brighter hopes; but the victory had no other result. Mon- roe, in the panic of the moment, burned Dundrum, abandoned several strong posts, and called all the English and Scots of Ulster to arms ; but the Irish made no further attempt to molest him, and he awaited at Carrickfergus the arrival of fresh supplies from the parliament. A great many flocked to O'Neill's standard, and as the- arms and other stores obtained at Benburb helped him to equip them, his effective force was soon increased to 10,000 men. These he designated the " Cath- olic army ;" but the appropriation of this title to his own particular force, where all were supposed to be enlisted under the banner of Catholicity, ex- Longford, 'till tbe crops should be ripe. The woimded were sent to Cbarlemont, where Sir Phelim had sur- geons for them." The account of the battle, printed and posted in the streets of London immediately after the cited fresh jealousies and suspicions. It identified him still more with the nuncio, and increased the hatred of Preston and the Ormaudists ; the in- trigues of which faction now called away his attention from the common enemy. The standards captured at Benburb Avere sent to the nuncio at Limerick, where they reached on the 13th of June ; and the following day they were carried in procession to the cathedral, and a solemn Te Deum was chanted for the victory. The discussion on the publication of the political articles of March 2Sth was resumed in the assem- bly with animosity ; but in the midst of it their commissioners came to an- nounce that the king had counter- manded all the instructions which he had given to Ormond to make terms with the Irish. This order had been conveyed to Ormond on the 26 th of June through the Puritan commission- ers in Ulster, and it was clear that Charles had issued it under the com- pulsion of the Scots, whose prisoner he was ; but Ormoud pretended to think that it should be obeyed, although Lord Digby, who was acquainted with the king's wishes, assured him to the contrary. The nuncio wrote to Rome for fresh instructions. The pontifical treaty with the queen on behalf of the Irish Catholics was actually prepared. news was received, describes it as " the bloody fight at Blackwatcr, on the 5th of June, by the Irish rebels against Major-General Monroe, where 5,000 Protestants were put to the sword." ORMOND'S TREATY REJECTED. 515 but was never signed ; and at length, oil the 29th of July, Ormond's treaty was publicly ratified, and solemnly pro- claimed in Dublin on the first of the following mouth. This treaty, which left for the future decision of the king the grand object for which the confed- erates had taken up arms, made no provision for the plundered people of Ulster, and gave to the lord-lieutenant the command of the confederate Catho- lics, until settlement by act of parlia- ment was everywhere rejected by the old Irish. In Waterford, Clonmel, and Limerick the herald was prevented by the people from proclaiming it. Gal- way and many other towns refused to receive it ; and by the Irish of Ulster it was indignantly repudiated. Owen Roe entered Leiuster with his formida- ble creaghts,* and the nuncio sum- moned a national synod, whicli met at Waterford on the 6th of August, and was attended by three archbishojDS, ten bishops, five abbots, two vicars apos- tolic, fourteen representatives of reli- gious orders, and the provincial of the Jesuits. The synod was unanimous in condemning the treaty, and on the 12th of August issued a decree declaring " that all and every one of the confed- erate Catholics that will adhere to such a peace, and consent to the furtherance thereof, or in any other manner or way * Tlie creaghla were, originally, tlie drivers in cliarge of a prey of cattle ; but the tenn came to be applied to tbose -who led a nomadjc life, and removed tlieir cattle from one pasturage to anotlier. As tliese were numerous in Ulster, the ranks of O'Neill's army were supposed to be cliiefly filled by tbem, and their char- will embrace the same, shall be abso- lutely as j^erjurers esteemed ; chie-fly inasmuch as there is no mention made in the thirty articles, nor promise for the Catholic religion or safety thereof, nor any respect had for the preserva- tion of the kingdom's jjrivileges, as were promised in the oath of associa- tion, but, on the contrary, all remitted to the king's will and pleasure."f As opinion became developed, the people unanimously rejected the dis- creditable peace ; even the vacillating Preston declared for the nuncio and the clergy; and Mountgarret, Musker- ry, and their few adherents, finding themselves deserted by the clergy, the army, and the people, invited Ormond to come to Kilkenny, in the hope that his presence might overawe their oppo- ■ nents. He accepted the invitation, and arrived at Kilkenny on the 31st of August, with 1,500 foot and 500 horse. Thence he proceeded to Munster, but he found the people everywhere averse to the treaty. Meantime O'Neill, who was not a listless observer, advanced to the south, encamping at Eoscrea on the 9th of Se^Dtember, and Ormond, alarmed at this movement, returned precipitate- ly towards Dublin. To the timely notice which he received from Lord Castlehaven he owed, in fact, his escape from the hands of O'Neill and Preston, acter having been purposely misrepresented by their enemies, they were rendered objects of the greatest terror to the Irish and Anglo-Irish of Leinster and Munster. f Vide Franche's Unkind Deserter, and Meehaa's Con fed. of Kilkenny. 516 REIGN OF CHARLES I. who were concentratiug tbeir forces on his i-oute, with the iuteutiou of making him prisoner ; but he arrived in safety in Dublin on the 13th of September. Events of great importance were now succeeding each other with start- ling rapidity. On the 18th of Septem- ber the nuncio entered Kilkenny, es- corted by the generals, the Spanish en- voy, and a crowd of military officers, Laving previously caused O'Neill to encamp near the city with his army, which now consisted of 12,000 foot and 1,500 horse. His first measure was to cause the members of the supreme council to be committed as j^i'isouers to the castle ; Patrick Ddrcy and Plunket being alone excepted. On the 20th a new council, consisting of four bishops and eight laymen, was appointed, and Einuccini himself was unanimously chosen president. Thus the tables were turned on the Ormandists, and the whole power was thrown into the hands of the clergy, who appointed Glamorcfan to the command of the con- federate troops of Munster instead of Muskerry; but the imjirisonment of the old council has been generally condemned as a harsh and impru- dent proceeding. Ormond hastened to strengthen Dublin against the confed- erates, from whom he now anticipated an attack ; and it w^as well known that he was then meditating the surrender of the city to the parliamentarians, with whom he was prepared to co-op- erate against the Catholics. Aware of Ormond's intrigues with the king's ene- mies, and fearing that Dublin might be delivered up to the Puritans before any step could be taken to save it, the supreme council directed the generals to march at once to besiege it. Preston threw obstacles in the Avay. He de- sired that they should first communi- cate with Ormond ; and he expressed a fear that Owen Roe intended to at- tack himself and to destory the Lein- ster troojDS. The mutual hatred of the generals became more violent than ever, and there was strong reason to doubt Preston's sincerity in the cause. At length, at the end of October, both armies moved towards Dublin, and by mutual agreement Preston fixed his camp at Leixlip, about seven miles from the city, and O'Neill his at New- castle, a few miles to the south of Preston's camp. Alarmed at their ap- proach, Ormond caused the mills to be destroyed and the country laid waste for a considerable distance, so that no provisions could be obtained ; and the Avinter having set in with intense se- verity, the troops suffered greatly, so many as twenty or thirty men perishing every night at their posts. The de- fences were in so bad a state that the besiegers might have found it easy to storm the city at many points ; but they were too much engaged with their own dissensions to think of at- tacking the enemy. The J;wo confed- erate camps were, in fact, armed against each other, and the nuncio was occu- • pied in passing from one to the other, vainly endeavoring to reconcile the DISSENSIONS IN THE IRISH ASSEMBLY. 517 srenerals. At one time it was debated iu council whether Preston should not he seized and imprisoned as a traitor to the cause. He was openly in cor- resjiondence with Ormond, through the medium of Clanrickard, and it subse- quently transpired that he agreed to a plan by which he and Clanrickard were jointly to garrison Dublin, and to compel the confederates to accept the peace ; but at the persuasion of the nun- cio Preston relinquished this scheme, and disappointed Ormond. Twelve days were thus fruitlessly spent before Dublin, when an alarm was suddenly given in the council of the confederates that the English were already in the city; and without any attempt to as- certain the truth of the report, which happened to be utterly groundless, the camps were hastily broken np, and the armies retreated to the south. All ap- peared to be thoroughly ashamed of this disgraceful proceeding; and the nuncio, who remained at Lucan three days after the retreat, induced the generals on arriving at Kilkenny to sign a mutual agreement, pledging themselves to forget their dissensions, and to act too-ether in the common cause. A new general assembly was called ; the members of the old council were released from prison, and it was even proj)osed that the armies should return to besiege Dublin, where Or- mond still carried on his negotiations with the parliamentary commissioners. A. D. 1647. — The general assembly met on the 10th of January. All the members attended Hiajh Mass in the cathedral of St. Canice, David Rothe, the venerable bishop of Ossory, offici- ating as high-priest. The nuncio sat on an elevated throne, and the scene was august and imposing in an eminent degree. From the cathedral the mem- bers repaired to the castle, where the nuncio opened the proceedings with an address, in which he dwelt particularly on the glorious victory obtained by OWeill in Ulster, but for which, as he truly observed, the confederation would have been crushed ere then. Au angry discussion was then raised on the de- crees of the synod of "VVaterford, and on the charge of perjury which they implied against the commissioners who subscribed the articles of Ormond's treaty. In the course of the debates Dr. French, bishop of Ferns, moved that Preston be impeached, and to such a pitch of violence was the dis- cord carried, that at one time some members were about to draw their swords. After three weeks spent in these rancorous discussions, it was at length resolved that the treaty with Ormond was invalid, and " that the na- tion would accept of no peace not con- taining a sufficient security for the re- ligion, lives, and estates of the con- federate Catholics." Out of three hundred present, only twelve voted against this resolution. A new oath was framed and administered for the maintenance of their union until the following rights were attained, viz. : — the free and public exercise of the 518 REIGN OF CHARLES I. Roman Cntbolic religrou as it was in the reign of Henry VII., or any former Catholic king; the full enjoyment of their jurisdiction by the Roman Catho- lic clerg}^, as in the reigns of the afore- said Catholic kings ; the rejieal of all laws made against the Roman Catho- lics since the reign of Henry VIII. ; and the full enjoyment of the churches and church livings by the Roman Cath- olic clergy in all places then in posses- sion of the confederate Catholics, or which might be recovered by them. Until these articles were fully ratified the confederates were now bound by their oath not to lay down their arms ; and on the 8th of March a proclama- tion was published by the assembly, en- joining on all Catholics to contend for these rights, and denouncing as traitors to God and to their country all those who refused to take the oath with these conditions. An attempt to renew negotiations with Ormond on the basis of these propositions was treated by him with scorn ; and all hopes of peace being thus at an end, the confederates began to prepare for war. Their coffers were empty and the country waste ; but ex- traordinary contributions were raised, and the church plate was converted into money. Owen Roe got the com- mand of the troops of Ulster and Con- naught; Preston, distrusted as he was, was reappointed to the command in Leinster; and Glamorgan was made general of the army of Munster. Dangers threatened them on all sides. and weakened as they now were by their own divisions, their preparations against the coming storm were feeble and ill-arranged. Negotiations with Ormond were once more renewed through Dr. Leyburn, who, under the assumed name of Winter Grant, had arrived with dispatches from the queen to the lord lieutenant ; but nothing was concluded. The nuncio would yield no principle, while Ormond on his side was inflexible in resisting the demands of the Catholics, and was, in fact, too deeply involved already in his negotiation with the rebel parliament. He had sent his son. Sir Richard Butler, wdth the earl of Roscommon and Sir James Ware, to London, as hostages for the performance of the articles stij^ulated between them, and had admitted into the garrisons of Drogheda and Dublin a Puritan force of 1,000 foot and 400 horse from Ulster, and an English regiment under Colonel Castle. In Munster, Inchiquin was again abroad, like an unchained demon, spreading desolation around him; and to add to the difficulties of the confederates, the army of the South mutinied against Glamorgan, and in- sisted on having their old general, Muskerry, restored to the command. Muskerry was accordingly reinstated, and by him the command was trans- ferred to Lord Taaffe, a creature of Ormond's, and a vain, hasty, and weak- minded man, destitute of every quality which could fit him for the post. Thus was the country sacrificed. The nuncio DISASTER OF DUJ^GAIST HILL. 519 repaired to Connauglit to consult witli Owen Roe — the only man whom he saw worthy of his confidence, or who Avas devoted heart and soul to the gi'eat cause which they had under- taken. The English parliament was more ui'gent and imj^erious than Ormond had anticipated. He was consoled, in- deed, with a reward of £5,000 in hand for his treachery, and a promise of £2,000 a-year ; but he was ordered out of Dublin castle more unceremoniously than he expected ; and had to sur- i-euder the regalia to the parliamentary commissioners on the 28th of July, when he sailed for England, whence he soon found it necessary to remove to France. Colonel Jones took possession of the castle for the English rebels. The news of Ormond's perfidy filled the country with indignation, and brought home to the confederates the alarming nature of their position. In the south Lord Taaffe was powerless and inactive, while Inchiquin devas- tated the laud without resistance ; O'Neill found himself destitute of re- sources in Connaught, and might well have been sullen and dispirited ; while Preston, a man quite unfit for the task, marched towards Trim to manoeuvre against the parliamentary forces. In the mean time, Jones marched from Dublin, by Swords, Hollywood, Naul, and Garristown, to Skreene, which he reached on the 4th of Au2:ust, his army, with additions from Ulster, that had joined him on the way, amounting by that time to* 12,000 foot and TOO horse, Avith two pieces of artillery. Here he learned that Preston was the same day at Portlester, five miles west of Trim, with an army of 7,000 foot, 1,000 horse, and four cannons. Jones then advanced to Tara, where he re- viewed his troops, and nest day marched to Scurlogstown, about a mile from Trim, where he encamped. The following day he marched to Trimble- ston, where a small garrison that had been left by Preston surrendered to him ; but receiving information that the confederate general had suddenly marched in the direction of Kilcock, with a view of getting between him and Dublin, he set out in haste to frustrate that design, and on the morn- ing of the 8th reached Lynche's Knock, near Summerhill, about a mile from which, on an eminence called Dungan Hill, Preston was encamped. Jones advanced in full force to at- tack the confederates, who were strongly intrenched, and might have held their ground even against the superior num- bers of the enemy; but Preston was too volatile and imprudent to act on the defensive. He charged down the hill to break the columns of the parlia- mentarians, but was encountered with a firmness which threw his men into confusion. His artillery were so placed as to be useless, and his cavalry were drawn up in marshy ground, where they were at the mercy of the enemy. Sir Alexander IMacDonnell, or Col- kitto, made desperate efforts to retrieve 520 REIGN OF CHARLES I. the fortune of the day ;* but bravery was insufficient where such fatal errors had been committed. The Irish army was driven into an adjacent bog, where, surrounded by the parliamentary foi'ces, they were shot down without mercy. Resistance had ceased, but no quarter was given; and such as attempted to escape from the bog were slaughtered by Jones's dragoons. The confederates lost on that fatal day 5,470 of their men, of whom 400 were MacDonnell's brave Redshanks ; and Preston fled in dis- may, followed by 500 infantry, the sole wreck of his army that could be mus- tered after the battle. The loss of the English is said to have been only twenty men. Terrified at this disaster, even the Ormondists now looked to O'Neill as a protector; and at the desire of the council, On^en marched to the very neighborhood which had been the scene of Preston's misfortune. He had an army of 12,000 men, and so harassed Jones by his rapid movements and by those inscrutable tactics which have ob- tained for him the title of the Irish Fa- bius, that the jparliamentary general was scared from the open country, and sought shelter behind the walls of Dub- lin. O'Neill followed him as far as Castlekuock, and the alarmed citizens could count that night from a steeple 200 Irish watch-fires. * The celebrated Sir Alexander MacDonnell, so fre- quently mentioned hy Anglo-Irish and Anglo-Scottish ■writers, as Colkitto (CoUa-Ciotach), was son of the real Colkitto, who was not famous as a warrior, and proba- The ferocious Inchiquin entered Tip- perary on the 3d of September, and after taking several small castles, crossed the Suir and attacked the fortress of Ca- hir, which he took in one day, although it was counted the strongest castle in Munster, and had held out for two months against the army of Essex in the reign of Elizabeth, The principal strongholds were left in so weak a state by the imbecile Taaffe, that some collu- sion was supposed to have existed be- tween him and Inchiquin, who was al- lowed to butcher the inhabitants and destroy the crops of the country with impunity. The other exploits of this sanguinary monster were but of trivial consequence, however, when compared to the sack of Cashel. It was about the end of September that Inchiquin sat down before the royal city, in which Taaft'e had left only a paltry garrison, he himself flying, as usual, at the ap- proach of Murrough O'Brien. The city was summoned to pay £3,000 un- der the threat of being taken by storm, and, unfortunately, the municipal au- thorities had too much spirit to yield to these terms. The attack was, there- fore, commenced ; the walls were bat- tered down ; and at the first rush of luchiquin's soldiers the feeble garrison flung down their arms, and were slaugh- tered without resistance. A gallant action will excite admiration, whether bly never left Antrim. The pedigree of Sir Alexander has been ascertained beyond any doubt by Professor Curry, and the application to him of the surname Col- kitto, was unquestionably a popular error. d 9 ^ Q d BATTLE OF KNOCKNANOS. 521 performed by friend or foe; but the bloody scene which was now enacted disj^layed not human bravery but fiendish ferocity. A general carnage of the unarmed townspeople com- menced. In the streets and the houses they were butchered without mercy, and without distinction of age or sex. Multitudes of panic-stricken people fled to the cathedral on the rock, and shut themselves up within the sacred walls. But these aflbrded them no asylum. Inchiquin poured in volleys of musket balls through, the doors and windows, unmoved by the piercing shrieks of the crowded victims within ; and then sent in his troopers to finish with pike and sabre the work whicb the bullets had left incomplete. The floor was encum- bered with piles of mangled bodies ; and twenty priests who had sought shelter under the altars were dragged forth and slaughtered with a fury whicb the mere extinction of life could not half ap- pease. In fine, the victims of that day's massacre in Cashel amounted to 3,000 !* The town of Fethard opened its gates to Inchiquin as soon as summoned to do so ; nor need we wonder, for the fate of Cashel spread terror throughout Munster. But when the sanguinary Murrough appeared before Cloumel he was met with a stern defiance. The gallant Sir Alexander MacDonnell, with sucl» of his brave northerns as could be collected after the slaughter of Dungan * Vide Meehan's Confederation of EUTcenny, p. 200. f " Cnoc-na-n-os, i. e., the Hill of the Fawns." — (OBonomn's Note to the Four Masters, vol. vi., p. Hill, had taken his stand here, and his name was a host in itself. So Murrough slunk away, leaving the walls of Clou- mel unhaniied, and retired to Cahir, where the thanks of the rebel j^arlia- meut were conveyed to him for his achievements, together with supplies of men and money. In the beginning of November, In. chiquin again took the field, and was encamped at Mallow, on the 12th of that month, witk an army of about 6,000 foot and 1,200 horse ; while Lord Taaffe, with over 7,000 foot and nearly 1,200 horse, lay at Kanturk, some ten miles distant. The confederate general had been urged by the supreme council to fight Inchiquin if a favorable oppor- tunity was presented, and such he deemed the present one to be. Ad- vancing, accordingly, a few miles, to a hill called Knocknanos,f he there drew up his army in order of battle. To Sir Alexander MacDonnell, whom lie made his lieutenant-general, he com- mitted the right wing, whicli was sup- ported by Colonel Purcell, witli two regiments of liorse ; and he himself took the command of the left winar, on the slope of the hill, wbere he j)osted the Munster troops, numbering 4,000 foot, supported by two regiments of horse. The front was defended by a morass, and a small rivulet which nearly encom- passed the base of the hill. His posi- tion was therefore good : and Inchiquin, # 1897) ; or it might be Cnoc-na-n-dos, dos Bignifying a " thicket/' or a "dense body of men." — See O'Brien's Ir. Bict. 522 REIGN OF CHARLES I. having advanced from Mallow, com- menced tlie attack at considerable dis- advantaere. MacDonnell's northerns, following the Highland custom, flung down their muskets after the first vol- ley, and charged the enemy with their broadswords. They broke Inchiquin's left wing, took his artillery, and pur- sued his flying men for two miles, killing a great number. But a dififerent result attended the combat in another j^art of the field. Availing himself of a fatal oversight on the part of Taaffe, Inchi- quin detached a squadron of horse so as to gain the summit of the hill ; and these, charging from the rear, caused a panic in the left wing of the Irish. This decided the battle. The Mun- ster troops fled in dismay, and were slaughtered with little resistance ; while the northerns, returning from the pur- suit of those whom they had so gal- lantly routed, and secure in the thought that the day was their own, were sur- prised by the victorious English, and cut to pieces. Their heroic leader gave up his sword to Colonel Purdon ; but Inchiquin having ordered that no quar- * The death of Sir Alexander (Alastram) MaoDonnell lias added not a little to the tragic interest of Kuocknanos. That brave soldier, who is famous in Scottish history as Sir Alaster M'DonneU and Colkitto (Colla-Ciotach, or CoUa the left-handed), having, as we have seen, been sent by Randal, marquis of Antrim, to Scotland, in com- mand of Irish troops, had a chief part in tho victories gained by Montrose for tho king in 1644. His name is preserved in the traditions of the Irish peasantry in connection with a weU-known piece of popular music, called fi'om him Marshdil Alastraim, or " Alexander's March ;" but, observes Professor Curry, "whether the march is older than the name I am not able to say, but I think it is." The remains of Sir Alastram were de- ter should be given, the chivalrous MacDonnell was, together with many of his brave men, put to the sword in cold blood.* Four thousand of the confederates, according to the English accounts, perished in the field ; their arms, colors, and baggage were lost ; and the general's tent, with all his pa- pers, were among the spoils. This battle, so disastrous to the confederates, was fought on the 13th of November. On receiving the news the parliament voted £10,000 for Inchiquin's army, and ^,000 as a present to himself; but only a small portion of the money was sent, and Murrough, feeling that he was badly treated, began to think of changing sides again.f A.D. 1648. — The prospects of the con- federates were now gloomy in the ex- treme. Their generals, Preston and Taaffe, had each lost an army ; O'Neill, indeed, could still keep their enemies in check, but he was feared and hated by the Ormond faction even more than Inchiquin himself; the complete tri- umph of the fanatics in England gave cause for the darkest forebodings ; the posited in the Dominican abbey at Kilmallock, but the spot is vmknown. Vide Croker's Researches in H. S. of f Personal considerations had induced him to desert the king's cause in 1G43, when he was refused the presi- dency of Munster, which he expected to obtain after the death of his father-in-law. Sir William St. Leger. The earl of Portland was made lord president, and Ln(*iquin turned over to the parUament. It is remarkable that both Inchiquin and Ormond, two of the most inveterate enemies of the Catholic Church at that time, were the sons of Catholic parents, but had been educated under the infamous Court of Wards, the great proselytizing engine of that day TRUCE WITH iisrcHiQinisr. 523 resoui-ces of the country M'ere exhaust- ed ; and the general assembly was now engaged in discussing the question of a foreiga protectorate. After long and anxious deliberation, it was resolved to send agents to Rome and France, both to solicit aid in money and to ascertain what might be the most prudent course for placing the country under the pro- tection of a foreign power. Dr. French and Plunket were deputed to Rome ; Muskerry and Brown to France ; and the marquis of Antrim also pro- ceeded in the name of the assembly to the latter country. Ormond had already arrived at St. Germains, and prepared the queen for the recep- tion to be given to the Irish envoys. Besides the instructions which they had received from the general assem- bly, Muskerry and Browne were the bearers of a private message from Preston and Taaflfe, and to this alone was any serious consideration given in the conference -with the queen. Her majesty's answer to the public message was a mere deception ; and henceforth the confederation was nothing more than an instrument in the hands of Ormond. The supreme council and Inchiquin had for some time been treating in an underhand way about a truce, but their negotiations now became more direct. Inchiquin demanded from them 4,000 dollars a month, to support his merce- nary army, at the same time that he continued to press his demands on the English parliament, to conceal his de- signs. A meeting of the general as- sembly was called, and Rinucciui, who was at Waterford, was very pressingly invited by the supreme council to give it the sanction of his presence. At length he complied, and the session was opened on the 20th of April, when the discussion of the- treaty with Inchi- quin commenced. Inchiquin had al- ready incurred the suspicions of parlia- ment, and some of his officers had revolted against him. His power was therefore greatly diminished, and the nuncio protested against any accommo- dation with the man whose hands were still red with the blood of the priests whom he had massacred on the rock of Cashel. The nuncio's enei'getic remon- strance prevailed with the bishops, fourteen of whom subscribed a con- demnation of the truce. But it was too late. The truce was signed at Dungarvan on the 20th of May. It provided that Catholics should not be molested in the practice of their re- ligion, except in the garrisons or quarters of Lord Inchiquin, where it would not be tolerated. Preston and Inchiquin now united their forces, and prepared to march against O'Neill ; to crush whom was the object uppermost in the minds of both. The nuncio had, however, a dreadful weapon yet in store. On the morning of the 27 th of May, a sentence of excommunication against all abettors of the truce, and an interdict against all cities, towns, and villages in which it would be re- ceived or observed, were published'on 524 REIGN OF CHARLES I. the gates of the cathedral at Kilkenny, and the nimcio himself privately witlp drew from that city and repaired to the camp of Owen Eoe at Marybor- ough. This was a fearful expedient, involving as it did the innocent and the guilty in one punishment. It was, perhaps, inexcusable; but we must bear in mind that the nuncio was aware the life of O'Neill was aimed at, and that he saw the cause of the Church and the people of Ireland sacrificed by the perverse conduct of the Orraondists, ujiou Avhom no ordinary argument could make any ftnpression. It was with him a last and a desperate re- source. The Ulster chieftain had but 700 of his followers now about him, and in a few days news Avas brought that Preston was within four miles with an army of 10,000 men to attack him. Preston, however, was ignorant of O'Neill's Aveakness, and did not ad- vance ; and 2,000 of his men, smarting under the excommunication, deserted to Owen's camp. O'Neill was galled to the heart at these proceedings. He fell back towards Athlone, where he had a garrison, but before he could come to its relief it had been compelled to yield to Preston and Clanrickard, the latter being also in the field against him. Owen Roe made a truce with the Scots, and on the 11th of June pro- claimed war against the supreme coun- cil, and the nuncio took his final leave of him and retired to Galway, where he was hemmed in by Claurickard's people. An angry correspondence passed between the nuncio and the now degenerate confederation, . and when he endeavored to convoke a na- tional synod, Claurickard prevented the prelates from assembling. These were, indeed, sad events for Ireland ; and it is melancholy to see how utterly dissipated were the hopes which but a little while before were so full of promise. The discord of the confederates freed the parliamentarians from restraint in Dublin, and Monroe and his Presbyte- rians not desiring the abolition of mon- archy, nor approving of the course which afiairs had taken in England, Monck got the command in Ulster in his stead, and marching suddenly into that province, surprised Carrickfei'gus and seized Monroe, whom he sent j^ris- ouer to England. Jones, the parlia- mentary governor of Dublin, glad to promote the war between O'Neill and the confederation, allowed the former to pass unmolested through Leinster to attack Kilkenny. Finding, however, that the combined forces of Preston and luchiquin were too numerous, O'Neill would not hazard an engage- ment, and withdrew to Ulster, having foiled by his skilful manoeuvres an at- tempt which those generals, in con- junction with Clanrickard, made to sur- round his small army. The marquis of Antrim, on returning from France, took the nuncio's side ; raised an army in the north, and was supported by the O'Byrues, Kavanaghs, and other Lein- ORMOm) RETURNS TO IRELAND. 525 ster septs ; but lie was defeated by Incliiquin and the confederates. Or- mond next reappeared on the stage, in compliance with the reiterated invita- tions of luchiquin and the supreme council. On the 29th of September he landed at Cork, whither luchiquin went to receive him. He invited commis- sioners from the confederation to meet him at Carrick; but after much delay, caused by the discussion of terms and other obstacles, the marquis came at the invitation of the general assembly to Kilkenny, where he was received in great state by that body, and installed in his own castle. The peace negotia- tions were again interrupted by a mu- tiny in luchiquin's army, when it was found Ormond had brought no money; but at length, on the 17th of January, 1649, the treaty of peace between Or- mond and the confederation was finally ratified and published amidst great re- joicings. A. D. 1649. — That the war, which was thus brought to a close after seven years' continuance, had been under- taken on religious grounds, is evident from the leading conditions of this treaty, as well as from all the negotia- tions that had taken place between the parties during that period. The first article provided that in the nest parlia- ment to be held in Ireland the jienal statutes against Catholics should be re- pealed ; that a simple oath of allegiance * The commissioners of trust were : Lord Dillon, of Costello, Lord Muskerry, Lord Athemy, Alexander Mac- Dounell, Esq., Sir Lucas Dillon, Sir Nicholas Plunket, should be substituted for the oath of supremacy ; and that Catholics should not be molested in the possession of the churches and church livings which they then held, or their clergy in the exercise of their respective jurisdictions, until such time as their claims could be fully considered in a free parliament. By another article the native Irish Catho- lics were to be relieved from all civil disabilities, and were to be allowed to erect one or more inns of court in or near the city of Dublin, and to establish free schools for the education of their youth. They mi^t hold the command of garrisoned towns and forts; the Cath- olics ejected from Cork, Youghal, and Duugarvan by Inchiquin, were to be re- instated in theii- possessions ; the Catho- lic regular clergy were to be allowed to hold the ancient abbeys and monasteries of which they were then in possession, and to retain any pensions which they then enjoyed ; and finally, twelve of the confederates were to act as commission- ers of trust with the marquis of Ormond to see the articles of the treaty fully car- ried out, and to participate in certain of the functions which belonged to him as lord-lieutenant.* In fact, the treaty granted concessions to the Catholics but little inferior to those proposed by Gla- morgan ; and if Ormond had only yield- ed so much a few years earlier he would have prevented innumerable calamities, and most probably have preserved the Sir Richard Barnwell, Qeoffi-y Browne, Donagh O'CaUa- ghan, Turlough O'Neill, Miles O'Reilly, and Gerald Fennell, Esqrs. 526 REIGN" OF CHARLES I. life of the kins?. Oq the 30th of the same month tlie unfortunate Charles I. closed his wretched career on a scaflbld at Whitehall. On the 10th of Febru- ary Prince Kupert entered the harbor of Kinsale with sixteen frigates, and the news of the king's death having been received about the same time, Ormond proclaimed the prince of Wales king, by the title of Charles II., at Cork and Youghal, the same ceremony being per- formed by Prince Eupert at Kinsale. On the 23d of February, Kinuccini embarked at Galway in his own frigate to return to Rome. His mission was unsuccessful, but its failure is to be at- tributed to the recreant and temporiz- ing party who, from the very day when they found themselves involved in the war, were prepared to sacrifice the principles for whicli the country had taken up arms. Riuuccini desired to raise the Catholic Church in Ireland to the dignity to which it was entitled, and the native race of Ireland to the so- cial state for which he saw them fitted. These were the j^rinciples for which he contended. The only fault with which even his enemies could charge him was, that he was uncompromising. And for the rest, it can hardly be denied that on his side was all that the confederation could boast of as chivalrous, high-mind- ed, and national ; while on that of the Ormandists we find intrigue, incapacity, and cowardice. CONFUSION OF PARTIES. 527 CHAPTER XXXIX. CEOMWELL. State of parties after the death of Charles I. — O'Neill's services sought by Ormond and by the Parliamen- tarians. — Ormond and IncMquin take the field. — Drogheda and other towns surrender to the latter. — Siege of Dublin by Ormond. — Great defeat of the royalists at Rathmines. — Arrival of Cromwell. — Siege of Drogheda — Horrible massacre. — Wexford betrayed to Cromwell — Frightful massacre of the inhabitants. — -Death of Owen O'Neill.^^Ross surrendered. — Siege of Waterford — Courageous conduct of the citizens — The siege raised. — The Southern garrisons revolt to CromweU. — Wretched position of Ormond. — Meeting of the bishops at Clonmacnoise — Their declaration. — Kilkenny surrendered to CromweU. — Siege of Clonmel — Heroic self- devotion of the bishop of Ross. — Surrender of Clonmel. — CromweU embarks for England. — Death of Heber MacMahon. — Meeting of the bishops at Jamestown — Ormond excommunicated. — The king subscribes to the covenant. — New general assembly. — Ormond retires to France, and the marquis of Clanrickard becomes lord deputy.— Negotiations with the duke of Lorraine.— Limerick besieged by Ireton.— Valor of Henry O'NeiU —Limerick betrayed to the besiegers. — Barbarous executions. — Death of Ireton. — Surrender of Galway. — Clanrickard accepts terms and leaves the kingdom. — Wholesale confiscations and plunder. — Horrible at^ tempts to exterminate the people. — Banishment to Connaught and the West Indies. — Execution of Sir Phelim O'NeiU — Atrocious cruelties. — Oliver proclaimed Lord Protector. — Henry CromweU in Ireland. — Death of Oliver. — Proceedings of the Royalists. — The Restoration. (PEOM A. D. 1649 TO A. D. IfiCO.) \ GENERAL subversion of priii- -^^-*- ciples and confusion of parties characterize the period -which follo-vred the death of Charles I. The Scots in Ulster had, as we have seen, become royalists, and Ormond and Inchiquin were at the head of the confederates. The old Irish still flocked round the standard of Owen O'Neill as their leader, and his chivalrous character, military skill, and influence commanded the respect of his enemies ; but the high and sacred principles for which he contended had been lono^ since abandoned by his old colleagues of the confederation; a barrier of personal enmity was, moreover, placed between him and them : and provided he could keep an army on his hands, and watch the moves on the political chess-board for some one favorable to his country, it was to him of little consequence to which of the contending parties he lent his temporary aid. Ormond made overtures to him, and some accommoda- tion would probably have taken place between them, had not the animosity of the commissioners of trust, old mem- bers of the supreme council, interfered to prevent it; whereui^on O'Neill in disgust listened to the suggestions of the parliamentary party, and arranged with Monck, who held the command of Dundalk, to intercept the communica- 528 CROMWELL. tioQ between the Scottisli royalists iu the north and Ormond in the interior. This arrangement, which was made on the 8th of May, 1649, was to secure to O'Neill and his followers perfect reli- gious freedom and the restoration of their estates ;'"■ but Owen did not reckon with any confidence on it, and tlie cessa- tion or treaty was only signed for three months. The young king was now at the Hague, uncertain what course to take. He had been long promising to come to Ireland, and his baggage had, it is said, been embarked for this coun- try ; but want of money in the first instance, and then other impediments, prevented him from coming. It is thought that Ormond, for some sinister motives, discouraged his visit to Ire- land ; but Charles placed the fullest confidence in the crafty marquis as his lord lieutenant, and confirmed the treaty which, he had made with the con- federates. Ormond and Inchiquin having mus- tered a considerable army in the south, at length took the field. In their march through Leinster, several small places, in which either Owen O'Neill or the parliamentarians had j^jlaced garri- sons, surrendered to them : and they advanced, Ormond to invest Dublin, and Inchiquin to besiege Drogheda.f The latter town held out for seven days, and on the 30th of June surrendered on honorable terms, the parliamentarian * PMlop. Iren., i., p. 121 ; also Hist, of Independenee, p. 237. t At this period Drogheda was called Tredagli or garrison, consisting of 600 men, being permitted to march to Dublin. Incbi- quin's next exploit was to intercept a quantity of ammunition which Monck was sending from Dundalk to Owen O'Neill ; and soon after Dundalk, New- ry, and several places in Ulster, together with the castle of Trim, surrendered to him; and he marched back to rejoin Ormond, vv^ho had encamped at Finglas, two miles north of Dublin, on the 18th of June, but removed to Kathmines, in the southern suburbs of that city, on the 25th of July. Ormond found his army too small either to besiege or storm so large a place as Dublin, and his only hope now being to reduce the city by famine, he left Lord Dillon, of Costello, with 2,000 men on the north side, while with the remainder of his army he proposed to cut off sujoplies coming from any other quarter. So great was his confidence in the loyalty of his men, that he wrote to the king to say "he could persuade half his army to starve outright for his ma- jesty." On the same day that Ormond moved from Finglas to Rathmines, large rein- forcements arrived to the garrison from England under Colonels Reynolds and Venables ; and it became a matter of great importance to the besiegers to command the mouth of the river, to pi'eveut the lauding of further supplies from beyond the Channel. With that Treda, by Englisli writers ; this corruption of tlie name being an attempt to imitate the pronmiciation of the Irish word Draichet-atha. BATTLE OF RATHMINES. 529 view, and to deprive the besieged of pasturage for tlieir horses on the south side, Major-General Purcell was sent, on the night of the 1st of August, with a detachment of 1,500 foot to take posses- sion of the ruined castle of Bagotrath, about a mile from the camp. This place they lioped to fortify suificieutly in one night, and from it they might advance their works to the river; but they only arrived at the castle an hour before day- break, and found that it was not so important as was supposed. Ormond, as well as the bulk of his army, had watched during the night, expecting an attack from the garrison, and he now retired to his tent to take some repose ; but at the same moment Colonel Michael Jones was preparing to sally forth from the city with 4,000 foot and 1,200 horse, to dislodge the j^arty Avhich had got possession of Bagotrath. It is intimated by those who seek by all means to free Ormond's character from dissfrace, that Preston and the men under his com- mand were not at their posts at this important juncture; but it must be ad- mitted that the marquis showed bad generalship on the occasion ; and he was now roused from his slumbers by vol- leys of musketry, only to find his whole left wing in disorder, and the detach- meut from Bagotrath retreating, with the enemy at their heels. The confu- sion soon extended to Ormond's left wing; the infantry were deserted by the cavalry and sought refuge in flight ; and what Jones only intended as a sortie resulted in a total rout of the royalists. with the loss, as some accounts say, of 4,000 killed and 2,500 taken prisoners, together with their artillery, baggage, money, and jsrovisions. The Ormond- ists, however, state that the number of slain was only 600, and the prisoners 300 ofScers and 1,500 private soldiers; and they add, what is very probable, that a great many were killed after quarter had been proclaimed, and some even after they had been brought inside the walls of the city. Some of the roy- alists retreated to Drogheda, and others to Trim, and a great many of Inchi- quin's soldiers went over to the enemy ; but Ormond himself repaired, to Kil- kenny, where he endeavored to collect the shattered remains of his army ; and his power was so broken by this over- throw, that he never after ventured to meet the parliamentarians in the field. After this battle Jones marched to recover possession of Drogheda, but he found that town ably defended by Lord Moore, and learning that Ormond was coming to its relief, he raised the siege and returned to Dublin. Notwith- standing their success at Rathmines, the parliamentarians were, at this time, in very straitened circumstances. The only place which they retained in Ulster was Londonderry, where Sir Charles Coote was so hard pressed by Lord Mont- gomery of Ards, that he would inevita- bly have been compelled to surrender had not Owen O'Neill consented to come to his relief. Coote stipulated to give O'Neill £2,000 for the payment of his troops, a quantity of ammunition, 67 530 CROMWELL. and 2,000 cows, and the aid was cheap- ly purchased ; for as soon as Owen Roe apjieared on the 8 th of August, the Lord of Ards and his Scots raised the siege. The English parliament feigned great indignation at the treaties made by its officers with the Irish Popish general, and shortly after O'Neill broke off all alliance with that party. Oliver Cromwell, the extraordinary man who was then beginning to sway the destinies of England, had, by a unanimous vote of the parliament, been made lieutenant-general of the forces in Ireland, so far back as the 28th of March, this year ; but the troubles with the levellers, and other causes, had re- tarded the setting out of his expedition for this country. At length he sailed from Milford Haven on the 13th of August, and landed at Dublin on the 14th, having altered his original plan, which was to land in Munster. He brought with him 9,000 foot, 4,000 horse, several pieces of artillery, an abundant supply of all kinds of mili- tary stores, and £20,000 in money. His son-in-law, Commissary-General Ireton, followed, as second in command. The l^arliamentary force in Dublin now ex- ceeded 16,000 men ; and on the 30th of August, Cromwell took the field with a well-provisioned army of 10,000 picked men, and marched to lay siege to Drog- heda, then deemed next in importance to Dublin as a military post. Having been invested by parliament with the title of lord-lieutenant, he published after his arrival two proclamations, one against intemperance, and the other pro- hibiting his soldiers, undei' the severest penalties, to plunder the country-people. His, admirers plead this prohibition as a proof that he did not intend to exer- cise cruelty in his Irish campaign ; but his only design was to encourage the peasantry to. bring provisions for sale to the army on its march, and in this object he was successful. He appoint- ed Sir Theoj^hilus Jones governor of Dublin. Ormond had garrisoned Drogheda wdth about 3,000 of his choicest troops, under the command of Sir Arthur As- ton, an Englishman, but a Catholic, and a soldier of experience and reputation ; and a portion of the garrison also con- sisted of English royalists or cavaliers. Ormond himself withdrew with a few troops to Trim, and rejoiced that at so late a season Cromwell was about to be- siege a place of so much strength, and before which he was likely to be so long detai^ied, as Drogheda. The bold and enei'getic tactics on which so much of Cromwell's military success depended, disconcerted, however, plans founded on old-fashioned notions. The parlia- mentary general encamped at the south side of Drogheda, on Monday, Septem- ber 2d ; and some days having been consumed in getting his siege-guns from the ships that conveyed them from Dublin, and in other preparations, he was ready to commence battering the town on that day week. He began by beating down a tower and the steeple of St. Mary's church, where a gun had SIEGE OF DPtOGHEDA. 531 been placed that annoyed liim. On tlie following morning (Tuesday, the 10th) his batteries played incessantly, and early in the afternoon two jiracti- cable breaches were made ; one towards the east, in the church-yard wall of St. Mary's, which although the strong- est part of the fortifications, Cromwell had selected for attack, as it would afford a safe entrance for his horse, and shelter for them on the inside under the church walls. The other breach was in the south wall of the town. About five o'clock he sent forward his storming parties. Seven hundred men entered the breaches, but earth-works had been thrown up inside, and the garrison defended them with such des- perate bravery, that the fierce assailants were driven back through the breaches with considerable loss. Some accounts mention three several assaults ; but in his dispatch to the parliament Crom- well says the inti'enchments were carried at the second assault. Cannon were planted so as to shoot down some of the Irish horse which were posted be- hind the works to encourage the foot ; and Colonel Wall, w^hose regiment was defending the breaches, having been killed, his men became discouraged and wavered. It was probably at this moment that Cromwell's officers and men promised quarter to the Irish, but the precise time at which this was done is involved in obscurity. That quarter, however, was offered is unquestionable. Various contemporaries, as Clarendon and Carte, assure us of the fact; and they add that the promise was kept as long as the garrison resisted; "but," says the latter historian, " when they found all in their power, and feared no hurt that could be done to them, Crom- well being told by Jones that he had now all the flower of the Irish army in his hands, gave orders that no quarter should be given." The besiegers had before this gained a tower in which there was a sally-port, but the passage was so blocked uj) with the bodies of the dead that it was useless to them. However, beins; now masters of the two breaches, they introduced their cavalry through that at St. Mary's church, and by the other gained access to the great Tuatha de Danann tumulus called the mill-mount, the sides of which were strongly defended with palisades, be- hind which the besieged disputed the ground for some time, though they yielded on the promise of quarter. The brave governor, Sir Arthur Aston, with the officers of his staff. Sir Edward Veruey, and Colonels Warren, Fleming, and Byrne, retreated into the old mill on the top of the mound, Avhere they were disai'med and slain in cold blood. As this position commanded the town, all further resistance must have been useless ; and the besiegers pouring in throu2:h the two breaches, crossed the bridge pell-mell with the flying garrison, and were thus in possession of the north side of the town. Drogheda was gained, but the work of slaughter had only commenced. The officers and soldiers of the garrison were the first 532 CROMWELL to be extermiQated. Out of tlie 3,000 choice troops only about 30 men were saved, and these were reserved by Cromwell for deportation to Barbadoes. He himself says, " Our men were or- dered by me to put them all to the sword." The fury of the fanatical con- querors was then let loose against the unarmed townspeople ; and every man, woman, and child of Irish extraction that could be found Avithin the devoted city, was most brutally murdered ! This savage butchery occupied five whole days. It was on the morning of the 11th that Cromwell's troopers came to the great church of St. Peter's, on the north side of the city. To this sacred edifice upwards of a thousand of the principal inhabitants had fled for pro- tection ; but every one of them was put to the sword ; and as a palliation of the massacre of these innocent people, Cromwell tells the parliament that " they had the insolence, on the last Lord's day, to thrust out the Protest- ants (from that church), and to have the Mass said there." All the ecclesiastics were, as a matter of course, put to death ; or, as Leland insolently expresses it, Cromwell " ordered his soldiers to plunge their weapons into the helpless wretches !" A number of people had sought refuge in the church steeple, which was constructed of timber, and Cromwell tells us that he ordered fire to be applied. Some were burned, and the rest were slaughtered as they at- tempted to escape. A multitude of respectable women, comprising all the principal ladies of the city, concealed themselves in the cripts under the choir of the church, but when the carnage was finished above, the bloodhounds traced them to these dark recesses, and not even to one of these poor fugitives was mercy shown. One of Cromwell's ofiicers, who was engaged in this horri- ble work — Thomas Wood, brother of Anthouy a "Wood, the Oxford historian — relates that he found in these vaults " the flower and choicest of the women and ladies belonging to the town, amongst whom a most handsome vir- gin, arrayed in costly and gorgeous ap- parel, kneeled down to him with tears and prayers to save her life." He was moved to compassion, and took her out of the church " with the intention to put her over the works to shift for herself;" but while she was even thus protected a soldier plunged his sword in her body, and Mr. Wood, "seeing her gasping, took away her money, jewels, &c., and fluns: her over the works." Wood also relates how " when they were to make their way up to the lofts and galleries of the church, and up to the tower where the enemy had fled, each of the assailants would take up a child and use it as a buckler of defence, when they ascended the steps, to keep them- selves from being shot or brained." This picture, described as it is by one of the actors in the bloody scene, is full of horror. According to a local tradi- tion, Cromwell's attention was attracted by an infant endeavoring to draw nour- ishment from the breast of its dead MASSACRE AT DROGHEDA. 533 mother, whose murdered body lay in the street, and his callous heart being moved by the affecting incident, he gave orders to stop the massacre of all who were not found in arms. But tra- dition appears to be wrong in this case ; for it is certain that a promiscuous slaughter was carried on until the de- I^arture of the army on the 15th; that is, during five whole days, in which, as we are told by a contemporary writer, four thousand Catholic men, besides a vast multitude of ecclesiastics, and of women, youths, and children, were un- mercifully slain.* Cromwell has his worshippers, and the philosophical dis- quisitions of Carlyle and Guizot may excite an interest in his character. The question whether he was a canting hypocrite or a fanatical enthusiast is frequently discussed ; but let this point be decided as it may, and his panegyr- ists write as they will, the massacre at Drogheda stamps him with eternal infa- my as a monster with a demon's heart. Cromwell, who estimated his own loss at less than a hundred men, wrote to the parliament to announce his suc- cess and the massacre which had been perpetrated, which he impiously attrib- uted to "the Spirit of God," desiring that " God alone should have all the * Bruodin, Propug. Cath. Verit., lib. ir., c. 14, p. 678. For original authorities on the siege and massacre of Drogheda the reader may consult Cromwell's dispatches, as given by Carlyle, or as published with notes in the Dublin Penny Journal for 1832 ; Clarendon's History of the Civil Tt^ars in Ireland, pp. 130 and 131 ; Ludlow's Memoirs, vol. i., pp. 300, 303 ; Carte's Ormond, vol. ii., p. 84 ; Borlase, Hist, of Irish Beb. ; Bruodin, iM supra ; Life of Anthony d Wood (quoted by Liugard) ; Cam- \ glory ;" and the house, on the receipt of his dispatch on the 2d of October, ap- pointed a "thanksgiving day," and voted a letter of thanks to the lord-lieutenant of Ireland and the army, " in which notice was to be taken that the house did approve of the execution done at Drogheda, as an act both of justice to them (the victims), and mercy to others who may be warned by it."f Trim, Duudalk, Carlingford, Newry, and other places in the north were aban- doned by the royalists, or surrendered to Cromwell's officers after little or no resistance. Coleraine was betrayed to Sir Charles Coote, who put the garrison to the sword ; Sir George Monroe was driven from Down and Antrim ; and the Scots were dispossessed wherever they had settled. Carrickfergus was the only important fortress in Ulster which the royalists now held. Cromwell, who had returned to Dub- lin on the 16th of September, left again on the 2Yth; and marching through Wicklow, took possession of Arklow and several small places on his route, and appeared before Wexford on Mon- day, the 1st of October. This town, though small, was wealthy and of great commercial importance. It was well fortified, being surrounded by an earth- brensis Eversus, Epist. Dedie. ; and also cap. xxxi., &c., See also the accounts given by Leland and Dr. Lingard, and in O'Connell's Memoir of Ireland. Ormond, in his letter to Lord Byron, secretary to Charles II., as given by Carte, says, that " on this occasion Cromwell exceeded himself, and any thing he had overheard of in breach of faith and bloody inhumanity." t Parliamentary History of England, vol. iii., p. 1334. :)ii~ CROMWELL. en I'anij^firt of considerable thickness within the wall, while at a distance of three or four hundred paces outside the works, towards the southeast, stood a strong: castle. The inhahitants had until the last moment refused to ac- cept a garrison of royalists from Or- mond ; but at this time they appear to have been fully prepared for the defence ; the troops in the town being under the command of Colonel David Siimott, a brave and determined of- ficer; and the castle just mentioned under that of Captain James Stafford. On the 3d of October Cromwell sum- moned the town to surrender, and from that day to the 5th various notes were exchang^ed between him and Colonel Sinnott, the latter requiring time to con- sult the mayor and corporation on the terms upon which they would consent to surrender the place. On the latter day Lord Castlehaven threw into the town, at the north side, 1,500 Ulster troops which had been sent by the marquis of Ormond from Ross ; and Sinnott now required further time to submit the pi'opositions for surrender to Lord Castlehaven, who was his superior officer, as lord general of the horse. During this time there had been no cessation of hostilities agreed upon, al- though the civil authorities of the town exhibited their courtesy by sending presents of " sacke and strong waters" * Clarendon says a reinforcement, under Sir Edmond Butler, entered the town only two hours before Crom- well's soldiers got in ; but this cannot be correct, as Castlehaven speaks of Sir Edmond as being in Wexford, for the use of the parliamentarian gen- eral. A detachment of the besiesrins: army had seized the castle of Rosslare, at the mouth of the harbor, the garrison abandoning it and taking refuge in a frigate, which was afterwards surren- dered at discretion to the enemy. The entrance to the harbor being thus free, Cromwell landed the batterin;:!: train from his shipping, and lost no time in preparing for the attack. In reply to Sinnott's last note of the 5th, he wrote the following day to revoke the safe conduct which he had given for the agents who were to bring the proposi- tions from the town ; but added, "When you shall see cause to treat, you may send for another." With the relief last sent, the garrison amounted to about 3,000 men ; and Castlehaven, having retired from the town, Sinnott made up his mind to defend his charge.* Crom- well having selected the part near the castle for his attack, finished his bat- teries on Wednesday, the 10th, and began the cannonade on the following morning. By twelve o'clock some breaches were made in the castle de- fences; and Sinnott, having caused a parley to be beaten, sent to demand a safe conduct for four persons to treat on honorable terms. This Avas granted ; and the four agents sent from the town were, Majors Theobald .Dillon and James Byrne, Alderman Nicholas Chee- wlien he went there, and calls him the governor. It is certain, however, that Sinnott had the command of the garrison. PERFroY OF CROMWELL. 535 vers, and Captaia James Stafford, the last, it will be recollected, being the governor of the castle. The proposed conditions were only what might be expected from men of honor with arms in their hands. The inhabitants asked full religious liberty for themselves, and the garrison demanded that they should march out with colors flying, and with their arms, baggage, &c., and that such of the townsjDeople as chose might be at liberty to accomjjany them in safety to Ross. Cromwell calls these propo- sitions " abominable," and the men who dared to send them "impudent;" but while he was preparing " to return a suitablg answer," he found means to make terms of another kind. He cor- rupted Captain Stafford with a bribe, or by some other means. Cromwell says he was " fairly treated ;" and the castle being thrown open to his troops, the flag of the parliament was displayed from its summit, and the guns turned against the town. Seeing this strong- hold in the hands of the eneiny, who, consequently, had the fortifications of the city on that side at their mercy, the besieged were seized with dismay. The besiegers planted their scaling laddei's and crossed the walls without the least opposition, and then opened the gates to their own cavalry. The panic which ensued may easily be conceived. The gai'rison retreated to the market-place, where numbers of the townspeople had also congregated, and here, for fully an hour, they offered what Cromwell calls " a stiff' resistance," and the street being in many places barricaded with cables, the enemy's horse could for some time do little execution. The assailants, how- ever, poured in by thousand^, and the horrible massacre of Drogheda was re- enacted, neither man, Avoman, nor child, who came in their way, having found any mercy. Now, all this time Crom- well held in his hands the conditions for surrender proposed by the governor and citizens, and his own answer Avrit- ten, but never sent; for the agents from the city were still in his camp when the massacre commenced. By the answer which he had prepared he granted life and liberty to the soldiers; life, but not liberty, to the officers, and freedom from pillage to the inhabitants ; but while this answer was ready, though not de- livered, and Sinnott and the authorities still in ignorance of his decision, he suc- ceeded, as we have seen, by the basest means in gaining possession of the castle, and then would have us believe that he did not order the massacre. He intend- ed, forsooth, to preserve the place, but saw " God would not have it so," and he " thought it not good nor just to re- strain off the soldiers from their right of pillage, nor from doing of execution on the enemy." And he concludes his disjDatch by telling the parliament " that it had pleased God to give into your hands this other mercy" (Drogheda was the first " mercy" and Wexford the sec- ond !) "for which, as for all, we pray God may have all the glory."* About * See Cromwell's Letters, published by Cailyle, and Gary's Memorials, ii. p. 180. 536 REIGN OF CHARLES I. 300 of the panic-stricken inhabitants attempted to make their escape to the opposite side of the harbor, but the over-crowded boats were submerged, and all were drowned. Sir Edmond Butler was shot when endeavoring to save his life by swimming. Cromwell estimates the number who were put to the sword in this massacre at 2,000, while he, " from first to last of the siege, lost not altogether twenty men ;" and in recommending the parliament to send over English Protestants to dwell in the town, he assures them that " of the former inhabitants not one in twenty could be found to challenge any property in their own houses."'"* If the Ormondists, as a party, were thoroughly humbled by the defeat at * Mageoghegan mentions, as an incident of the siege of Wexford, that two hundred women were massacred at the foot of the cross in the public square, and the cir- cumstance has been repeated after him by many writers ; but no contemporary authority for it has been quoted, and we may safely conclude that the statement only re- fers to the general massacre which was perpetrated in the market-place, where a multitude of the townspeople — old men, women, and children^iad flocked together, hoping to find protection behind the ranks of the garri- son. Dr. Nicholas French, the illustrious and patriotic bishop of Ferns, who was then lying iU of fever in a neighboring village, has left us an important reference to the Wexford massacre, in a letter dated at Antwerp, in 1C73, and addressed to the papal nuncio, relative to affairs affecting the venerable prelate personally. In this letter, the Latin original of which, with a transla- tion, was first published in the Dublin Nation of Octo- ber 8th, 1859, Dr. French writes : " On that most calam- itous day the city of Wexford, abounding in wealth, ships and merchandize, was carried at the point of the sword, and given up to the infuriated soldiery by Crom- well, that pest of the English government. There, be- fore God's altar, fell many sacred victims, priests of the Lord ; some, who were seized outside the precincts of the church, were scourged with whips ; some were ar- losted and bound with chains ; some were hanged, and others were cruelly put to death by divers sorts of tor- Rathmines, subsequent events brought home to the Irish Catholics in general the horrible conviction that they were all involved in a common ruin. Owen O'Neill had made up his mind to sup- port Ormond ; and the latter, who, says Clarendon, " had a great esteem of his conduct, and knew the army under his command to be better disciplined than any other of the Irisb,f offered Owen any terms which he chose to demand. The negotiations between them werp carried on through Daniel O'Neill, a nephew of Owen's; and the reinforce- ments, escorted by Lord Castlehaven to Wexford, were composed of men whom O'Neill had already supplied to the lord lieutenant.^ Owen Eoe un- dertook to furnish Ormond with 6,000 ture. The best blood of the citizens was shed, till the very streets were red with it, and there was scarcely a house that was not polluted with carnage and full of wailing. In my own palace, a youth, hardly sixteen years of age — an amiable boy — my gardener and sacris- tan were cruelly butchered ; and they left the chaplain, whom I caused to remain behind me at home, trans- pierced with sis mortal wounds, and weltering in his gore. And these abominations were perpetrated in open day, by impious cut-throats. From that moment I have never seen my city, flock, country, or kindi'ed." The bishop then proceeds to relate his own sufferings for five months after, wliile hunted in the woods, and obliged to sleep in the open air, without bed or covering, often with scarcely any food, and with never any but of the coarsest kind. From the same source to which we are indebted for Dr. French's letter, we learn the names of the following religious of the order of St. Francis, who were among the victims of the Wexford carnage, viz. : Fathers Richard Synnott, S. T. L., John Esmond, Pauli- nus Synnott, Raymond Stafford, and Peter Stafford, and the brothers Didacus Cheevers and James Rochford. f Vindication of Ormond, p. 136, ed. 1756. X This appears from Castlehaven's own statement (Memoirs,^. 115); but the agreement between Owen Roe and Ormond was not finally signed till the 13th of October, when Owen was on his deathbed. Vide Carte's Ormond, ii. DEATH OF OWEN ROE O'NEILL. 537 iLen, aud this promise was faithfully fulfilled, although he did not live to perform it in person. While encamped before Derry, where he remained about ten days after raising the siege on the 8th of August, he was seized with ill- ness, and conveyed in a horse-litter to Ballyhaise, in the county of Cavau, where he ordered his nephew, Lieuten- ant-General Hugh Duv O'Neill, to lead the promised reinforcements to Ormond. He was then carried to Cloghoughter, a strong castle of the O'Reillys in Lough Oughter, in Cavan, where he died, on the 6th of November.* To the Irish the death of Owen Roe was an irreparable loss. He was not alone a consummate general, and the most eminent on the Irish side that the war had produced, but merited the entire confidence of the clergy and of the na- tive population. Had he, in addition to his high qualities as a soldier, had that * The death of Owen Eos was commonly ascribed to a poisoned pair of russet boots sent to him as a present by one Plunket of Louth, and which he wore at a ball given in Derry by Sir Charles Coote. Plunket, it is said, afterwards boasted of the service which he had rendered to England by dispatching O'Neill. {Vide Colonel O'Neill's journal in the Desiderata Curiosa Hi- bernica.) His remains were interred in the old Francis- can monastery of Cavau, of which no vestige now re- mains. (See Carte, ii., 83 ; and Archdall'sifo«a«f. Sib.) In the progress of the war the pope's blessing was con- veyed to Owen Roe, and at the same time the sword of his illustrious uncle, Hugh O'Neill, which was sent to him from Rome by Father Luke Wadding. References to the castle of Cloghoughter {Clock Loclia Uachtair, i. e., the rock or stone fortress of Lough Oughter) wUl be found in the Four Masters under the dates of 1327, 1369, and 1370. In tlus castle Bishop Bedell was for Bome time confined in 1643. f "Owen Roe," says Mageoghegan, "was experi- enced in the art of war ; he had greatly distinguished boldness or audacity which would have broken the trammels that fettered him, and pushed aside the recreant and in- triguing partisans who sacrificed the country to their own interests and ani- mosities, he would have served Ireland more eftectively.f The traditionary horror with which the memory of Cromwell is still, after 200 years, regarded by the Irish peas- antry, shows how deeply his inhuman policy of conquering by the f;ime of his cruelties must have impressed the mind of the people. Towns fifty miles dis- tant were, it is said, thus influenced to surrender; but this was not the case generally. After the caj^ture of Wex- ford, Cromwell sent Ireton to besiege Duncannon, while he himself marched against New Ross, where Ormond had placed Major-General Luke Taaft'e in command, with a garrison of 1,500 men. Taaffe had only undertaken the himself in the Spanish service, and principally by his brave defence of Arras, where he commanded in 1640, when that place was besieged by the French army un- der the three Marshals, de Chattillon, de Chaulnes, and de la Meilleraye. His ideas were clear, his perception accurate, his judgment very sound. He was dexterous in profiting of the advantages which were furnished by the enemy ; he left nothing to chance, and his plans were always well formed ; he was sober, jjrudent, and reserved ; when occasion required he could disguise his sentiments ; he was well acquainted with the in- trigues of courts ; and, in a word, he possessed all the qualities necessary for a great general." {Hist, of Ir.) Warner and Leland describe his character almost in the same words. Carte speaks of his " honor, constancy, and good sense, as of his military skill ;" and Marshal Schomberg's secretary, Dr. Gorge, says, "Owen Roo Oneale was the best generall that ever the Irish had." (MS. in the S. P. 0., London, quoted by Mr. O'CaUaghan in notes to the MacaricB Excidium, p. 181.) 538 CROMWELL. charge on the condition that he should be at liberty to surrender the place when he deemed it iintenable ; and he availed himself of this discretionary power by capitulating as soon as Crom- well's artillery began to thunder on the east bank of the Barrow. He first demanded liberty of conscience for the townspeople, but Cromwell replied that " if he meant liberty to exercise the Mass, he judged it best to use plain dealing, and to let him know that where the parliament of England had jDower that would not be allowed." The town was surrendered on the 18th of October without this condition, the garrison being allowed to depart with arms and baggage, and 600 men re- maining to enter the service of the parliament, while Taaffe marched with the rest to join Ormoud at Kilkenny. Ii'eton was not so successful at Duncan- non fort, which was defended with such gallantry by Colonel Wogan that the siege was raised in a few days. Crom- well's forces were greatly reduced in numbei-s by leaving garrisons in the captured towns, and by a dysentery which was carrying off many of his men. Inchiquin attempted to intercept reinforcements coming to him from Dublin, and had a slight encounter with tbem on the strand near Wexford, but the parliamentarians were successful. Cromwell constructed over the river at Ross a bridge of boats, the first seen in Ireland ; and while he himself lay sick, sent detachments of his troops, which took luistio^e and Carrick. To the latter town he removed Avith the remainder of his forces on the 21st and 2 2d of November. A little before this date the garrisons which had been left by Inchiquin in Coi'k, Youghal, Kinsale, Bandon Bridge, and some other southern towns, revolt- ed to Cromwell, chiefly through the management of Lord Broghill, son of the earl of Cork, who soon became one of Cromwell's most active generals in Ireland. This revolt was of the utmost importance to the parliamentary gen- eral, who would otherwise, at that in- clement season, have been placed in great difiiculties for winter-quarters for his men. On the 24th of November Cromwell appeared before Waterford. Lord Castlehaven had been appointed gov- ernor of this town by Ormoud, who sent 1,000 men to its relief, but the citizens had no confidence in the wily marquis, and positively refused to ad- mit his troops. The defection of Inchi- quin's men fully justified their distrust; but they at length consented to receive 500 of the Ulster Catholics, command- ed by Farrell, one of Owen Roe's f^ivor- ite officers. The strong fort of Passage surrendered without firing a shot, so that the citizens of Waterford found themselves in a most disheartening po- sition ; but the determination which they exhibited, backed by the appear- ance of Ormond's force, which lay en- camped opposite the city, on the north side of the Suir, was such that Crom- well, who ajij^roached from the south. ORMOND DISTRUSTED BY THE CATHOLICS. 539 raised the siege after a few days, and marched to Duugarvan. Here he ar- rived ou the 4th of December, and the town having surrendered at discretion, he proceeded to Youghal. Fresh sup- plies reached him here by sea from Eua'laud, and ou the I7th he marched with Lord Broghill to Cork where he was joined by Ii'eton. Ormond's baleful influence had been everywhere productive of misfortune, and the Catholics were persuaded that he aud Inchiquiu were leagued together for no good purpose. The citizens of Waterford would not allow any of Or- mond's men inside their walls, even for the purpose of passing through the city to attemjDt the recovery of the fort of Passasre. None of the southern towns except Clonmel and Kilkenny would aflFord wiuter-quarters to his troops, who w^ere, therefore, allowed to dis- perse aud shift for themselves; and thus perplexed he wrote to the king to ask permission to remove himself and the royal authority from the kingdom. He had sent Daniel O'Neill wit|^2,000 men to succor the lord of Ards Sd Sir George Monroe, but the help came too late. On the 13th of December Coote took possession of Carrickfergus for the parliament. A. D. 1650. — Impatient of a few daj-s inactivity, even in mid-winter, Crom- well set out from Youghal on the 29th of January, and crossing the Blackwater at Mallow he ajiproached the confines of Limerick ; and then entering Tippe- rary, south of the Galtees, marched by Clogheen and Rochestown to Fethard, taking sundry castles and strong places on his route. He ai'rived before the last-named town at midnight, in the midst of a terrific tempest, and a Crom- wellian writer of the period has left an amusing account of the ludicrous efi:ect produced on the municipal authorities by his summons at such an unseasona- ble hour and in such a night. He had only a few troops with him, and no ma- terials for a siege ; and as he could find no shelter outside the town but the ruins of an old abbey, and a few cabins, he was glad, even at the cost of grant- ing honorable terms, to get a roof over him in the morning. The governor, who boasted that his town was not lost without a storm, wished to treat Oliver to some refreshment, which the latter, it appears, had not the urbanity to accept* The authorities of Cashel brought the keys of their town to him; and from Fethard lie marched to Cal- lan, in the county of Kilkenny, where he was joined by Reynolds, and where two castles, having offered a brave re- sistance, were taken, and their gan-isons put to the sword. Cromwell was now marching to Kilkenny, where an officer named Tickel had secretly promised to open one of the gates to him ; but the treason having been discovered and Tickel executed, Cromwell left a gar- rison at Callan, and returned to Feth- ard and Cashel. As spring approached supplies of men, money, and military * See the Irish Mercury, news pamplilct of the time. 540 CROMWELL. stores were sent to bim in abundance by the parliament ; and on the other side Ormond gave up the command of the few troops he retained in Leiuster to Castlehaven, and withdrew to Clare and Conuau2;ht. After the reconciliation of O'Neill with Ormond, Heber MacMahon, bishop of Clogher, who was so devotedly at- tached to the northern chief, became Ormond's firm supporter. At a con- gi-egation of twenty bishops, and the proxies of five other prelates, who as- sembled at Clonmacnoise on the 4th of December, 1649, to consider the deplor- able state to which the country had been reduced by war and pestilence, it is asserted that the influence of the he- roic bishop of Clogher was very strenu- ously exerted in favor of the marquis and the royal cause. On this occasion the prelates published a declaration en- joining in the most earnest manner union and amity among both clergy and people, "letting the people know how vain it was for them to expect from the common enemy commanded by Cromwell, by authority from the rebels of England, any assurance of their religion, lives, or fortunes ;" and finally beseeching " the gentry and in- liabitants, for God's glory and their own safety, to the uttermost of their power to contribute, witli patience, to * Borlase, pp. 23G-238. I For some years about this time the plague and other epidemic diseases raged almost incessantly in various parts of tliis country. So many as 17,000 persons are said to have been carried off by the pestilence in Dublin alone during 1630-51 ; and we have details of its ravages the support of the war against that enemy."* The people, however, were weary of the war, and the disafi"ection towards Ormond continued. A meet- ing of county representatives was held at Kilkenny to promote union, but the approach of Cromwell obliged them to fly, and they resumed their fruitless de- liberations at Ennis. Discord and dis- trust prevailed in the ranks of the royalists. At Gowran, in the county Kilkenny, the soldiers mutinied and de- livered up their officers to Cromwell, who ordered Colonel Hammond and the other principal officers to be shot, and hanged a priest who was found in the town. Imagination can hardly jDicture any thing more dismal than the condition of the citizens of Kilkenny when Crom- well and his army appeared before their walls on the 22d of March, 1650. Within raged a frightful pestilence, which had reduced the garrison from 1,200 men to about 400 ; without stood a foe as inhuman as he was apparently invincible. Heaven and earth seemed leagued against them ; so that some troops ordered by Castlehaven to their relief refused to march; saying that they were ready to fight against men, but not against God : alluding to the plague, which threatened certain death within the devoted city.f Yet the about the same tiaie in Kilkenny, Limerick, Cork, Gal- waj', and other towns. These pestilential visitations were creceded by famine ; and, resulting from long sieges and such incidents of war, have been classed as leaguer sicknesses by medical writers. They were followed, a few years later, by the true bubonic or oriental i^lague. Ta ^ u t-^\ \^. 9 SIEGE OF CARRIGADROHID. 541 summons of Cromwell to surrender was answered by a stern defiance. The at- tack was then commenced by can- nonading the castle, which was defend- ed by Major James Walsh, Sir Walter Butler being governor of the town. The defence was as brave as it must have been hojDeless ; but the place was at length yielded on the 28th, and Crom- ^vell hastened to lay siege to Clonmel, where the garrison was commanded by Hugh Duv O'Neill, and where Oliver was destined to encounter the most vigorous resistance that he met Avith during the whole of his Irish campaign. News was brouarht to Cromwell O while before Clonmel that the bishop of Ross had collected a large army in the south, and was approaching to raise the siege. Lord Broghill, who was in Cork, received reinforcements from Cromwell, and with an efficient army, composed ehiefly of cavalry, hastened with extraordinary expedition to inter- cept the march of the Irish. A battle was foucrht near Macroom, in which the Irish were routed, and the bishop of Ross being made prisoner, was offered his life and libertj^ if he prevailed on the garrison of Carrigadrohid, a strong castle on the river Lee, three miles from Macroom, to surrender. Lie was brought before the castle for the pur- jjose, but the heroic bishop exhorted See the authorities on the subject collected by Dr. "Wilde in his report of Tables of Deaths, Census of 1851. * Carrigadrohid was soon alter obtained by a very sUly stratagem, the besiegers causing a few team of oxen to draw weighty logs of timber, which the garrison sup- the garrison to defend their post to the last, and was himself immediately hanged in their sight by Lord Brog- hill's order.* These events produced great joy in the camp before Clonmel, and preparations were made for a final attack on the beleaguered town on the 9th of May. If, after he had offered terms, a garrison held out for some time ere it surrendered, it was Crom- well's practice to shoot the officers, as he had done at Gowran ; but if he con- sidered the resistance to have been too obstinate, he usually put the whole gar- rison to the sword, as at Drogheda, Wexford, Callan, and elsewhere. The desperation with which he was resisted at Clonmel made him pay dearly for this sanguinary policy. His storming parties were twice hurled back from the breach with terrific slaughter. The shattered houses inside the breach were filled with O'Neill's gallant northerns, who fought with the energy of despair, and were resolved to hold their ground to the last man. But at length night put aq end to the fierce struggle, and the garrison having exhausted their ammunition, and all having agreed that the place was no longer tenable, O'Neill marched off his men under cover of the darkness, and withdrew to Waterford, while the townspeople made favorable terms for themselves. posed to be cannon, and terms of capitulation were at once agreed to. See Cos ; and Smith's History of Cork. The date of the battle of Macroom is variously given at the 10th of April and the 10th of May. The former ap- pears to be the correct one. 542 CROMWELL. and in tlie morning opened their gates to Cromwell, who only then discovered that the garrison had departed. He lost 2,500 of his men befoi'e Clonmel, and as he himself expressed it, " had like to Lring his noble to a ninepence." He had already received pressing dis- patches from the parliament, urging him to return as speedily as possible to England, where a storm was threaten- ing from the north ; and having com- mitted the command of the army to Ireton, who had been made lord- president of Muustei-, he sailed from Yonghal on the 29th of May. In the north Heber MacMahon strug- srled for some time, with occasional sue- cess, against numerous foes ; but his army received a total overthrow, on the 21st of June, at the pass of Scarrifhol- lis, on the river Swilly, near Letter- keuny, from the forces of Sir Charles Coote and Colonel Venables. The battle was lost through the indiscretion of MacMahon, who unfortunately led his army where it was exposed to the enemy on both sides, and was com- * If ever there were circumstances wliicli could render military strife compatible with the clerical character, they were those presented by the state of Ireland at the troubled period under our notice. Catholics and their religion were threatened with extermination. Their struggle was not aggressive ; it was for their faith and their lives ; and forbearance, which entailed evils not alone on themselves but on countless generations after them, would have been a crime. Among the Irish ec- clesiastics who were thus forced to become the leaders of their people in the battle-field, one of the most distin- guished was Heber MacMahon, bishop of Clogher. Ho is first, strangely enough, introduced to us while a simple priest, during the government of Lord Strafford, giving private information to Sir George Radcliffe of the pelled to hazard a bivttle, although the English cavalry were more than twice as numerous as his. The northern army was comj^letely annihilated on this occasion ; and two days after Heber MacMahon himself was made prisoner near Omagh, by Major King, and al- though promised quarter, was shame- fully hanged by order of Coote, not- withstanding the service which, in concert with Owen Roe, he had ren- dered to him at Londonderry less than a year before.* The detached Irish garrisons through Leinster and Muuster were easily re- duced by Hewson, Broghill, and other parliamentarian officers ; and under color of hunting down the unhappy outlaws, who Avere driven to lead in the woods the wild life of fi-eebootei's, and were called " tories," many acts of fe- rocity were committed, in which the harmless country-people were the vic- tims. The Cromvvellian colonel, Zan- chy, distinguished himself in these ser- vices. Preston, who had assumed the government of Waterford, surrendered movements among the Irish refugees abroad ; and his object then, no doubt, was to avert the anarchy of civil war ; but a further knowledge of the dangers of his country induced him to become one of the first associates of Sir Phclim O'Neill and Lord Maguire in the con epiracy of 1641, and he ever after continued a firm and consistent upholder in the council and the field of the thorough Irish and Catholic party, headed by his friend Owen Roe O'Neill. He was lamented by the Ormondists, whose cause he took up warmly when O'Neill's junction with them, and the barbar- ities of CromwcU, had tended to identify them ■n-ith the Catholic party. See the notice of him in Claren- don's History of the Civil Wars in Ireland, p. 186, &e., ed. 1756. THE BISHOPS' INTERVENTION SOLICITED. 543 tliat city to Ireton on the lOth of August. The fort of Duncannon fol- lowed. The city of Limerick, the castle of Athlone, and the whole of Connaught and Clare still, however, remained in the hands of the Catholics. Ormond finding that the inhabitants of Limerick refused to receive from him a gari'ison, solicited the intervention of the Catholic bishops, who accordingly met in that city on the 8th of March. Their suggestions were not very pala- table to the marquis, who withdrew to Loughrea, where the bishops held an adjourned meeting, and on the 28th of March published a declaration, express- ing their conviction that the national loyalty was unshaken, although the people had ground enough for distrust and jealousy, and urging that some set- tled coui'se should be taken to giv« them confidence. There was surely nothing in the antecedents of Ormond or Inchiquiu which could induce the Irish Catholics to place reliance on them ; and it was said that at this very time they were treating with the Crom- wellian authorities for the admission of the Protestant party among the royalists to protection. Hugh O'Xeill, the gallant defender of Clonmel, was now governor of Limerick, and it was probably at his suggestion that the magistrates invited Ormond to come and settle the garrison ; but as soon as the marquis appeared at the gate a popular tumult arose, and he was pre- vented from enterinof. He then re- turned to Connaught, where he found that Galway had followed the example of Limerick. On the 6th of August, a congregation of the bishops and clergy met at Jamestown, in the county of Leitrim, and on the 12th, deputed the bishop of Dromore and Dr. Charles Kelly with a message to Ormond, rec- ommending him, as the " only remedy for the preservation of the nation and of his majesty's interest therein," to withdraw from the kingdom and to delegate the royal authority to some person in whom the people might have confidence. This was a deadly wound to the pride of the haughty Ormond. He replied, that he would not retire from the countr}^ until neces- sity compelled him; and the bishops published a declaration denouncing "the continuance of his majesty's au- thoiity in the marquis of Ormond, for the misgovernment of the subjects, the ill-conduct of the army, and the viola- tion of the peace." In fine, they threatened to present articles of im- peachment against him to the king, and published an excommunication against all who would adhere to him, or yield him subsidy or obedience, or who would support Cromwell's govern- ment. That the bishops were not mistaken in the course which they had pureued was soon made evident by the news from Scotland, where Charles II. had landed on the 28th of June, and had not only subscribed the national and solemn covenants, but, to gratify the fierce bigotry of the Scots, had, on the 544 CROMWELL. 16tli of August, signed a declaration pronouncing the peace with the Irisli to he null and void, adding, '' that lie was convinced in his conscience of the sinfulness and unlawfulness of it, and of allowing them (the Catholics) the liberty of the Popish religion ; for which he did, from his heart, desirfi to be deeply humbled before the Lord." The news of this infamous act of du- plicity reached Ireland before the Jamestown excommunication was pub- lished, and afforded the amplest justifi- cation of the strong measures adoj)ted by the clergy. Ormond, who was con- founded by such a premature disclosure of his master's principles, protested that the peace should be iipheld, and cast the blame of the royal declaration on Scottish fanaticism. But the sequel will show that Charles was capable of still greater perfidy to his friends. The Catholic noblemen and gentry felt their position embarrassing; but the bishops, who, alone, seemed to understand the dangers to be apprehended, and the characters of the men they had to deal wijh, remained firm. Ormond sum- moned a general assembly, which met at Loughrea on the 15th of November, while he stopped at Kilcolgan, about ten miles distant; but the time was wasted in recriminatory messages be- * It is a curious fact that Incliiquin subseqently be- came a Catholic ; and Borlase refers to his change of re- ligion as the only cause of his being refused the presi- dency of Minister after the restoration, a similar change preventing the appointment of Viscount Dillon, of Cos- tello, as president of Connaught. (Hid. of (he It. Rtb. p. 2T8.) Incliiquin was created earl by Charles II., at Cologne, in 1654 ; he obtained the rank of lieutenant-^ tween him and the meetins:: and, at length, having left power to the mar- quis of Clanrickard to assume the du- ties of lord-deputy, provided the assem- bly engaged to obey him, he embarked at Galway, about the middle of Decem- ber, accompanied by Lord Lichiquin,* Colonels Vaughan, Wogan, and Daniel O'Neill, and about twenty other per- sons of distinction, and after a tempest- uous voyage, in which a vessel contain- ing his baggage, servants, and some pas- sengers was lost, arrived the following month at St. Malo, in Brittany. To Castlehaven, who reluctantly remained behind, he intrusted the command of the army, with an injunction to keep up a bustle, as that frivolous noble- man expresses it, to divert a part of the enemy's attention to this country, while King Charles was preparing to cross the Tweed into England. Com- missioners were soon after deputed by the parliament to treat with the assem- bly for a final submission of the nation, on favorable terms ; but the extreme loyalists scouted such an arrangement, although the Irish decidedly sacrificed their interests in rejecting it. A. D. 1651. — The new year found the assembly deeply engaged in the discus- sion of a project for mortgaging the town of Galway and some other places general in the French service ; was made French gov- ernor of Catalonia ; and was captured by an Algerine corsair when engaged on an expedition against Spain. He died in 1673, and by his will left £20 to the Francis- can friars of Ennis, and also a sum " for the performance of the usual duties of the Roman Catholic clergy, and for other pious uses." See Lodge. REDUCTION OF LIMERICK. 545 to the duke of Lorraine for a sum of money to be advanced for supporting the royal cause in Ireland. The abbot of St. Catherine arrived in Galway about the end of Febniarj^, as an envoy from the duke; but Claurickard thought his demands exorbitant, and Sir Nich- olas Plunkett and Geoffrey Brown were sent to Flanders to treat with the duke himself The bishop of Ferns went on the same errand, on the part of the clergy, and Lord Taafte, who had left L'eland before Ormond, had received instructions for the like purpose., long before this, from the duke of York — the king being in Scotland. The influ- ence of the p)atriotic bishoj:) of Ferns prevailed, it is said, Avith the lay agents, who, disregarding the instructions of Clanrickard, signed, iu the name of the people and kingdom of L'eland, an aefreement with the duke of Lorraine, who was to be invested with royal powers, under the title of Protector of Ireland, he, on his part, undertaking to prosecute the king's enemies, and to restore the kingdom, and the Catholic religion, to their pristine state. For the outlay which all this Avould require he was to be hereafter reimbursed; and, as a guarantee, was to be placed in jiossession of Galway, Limerick, Athenry, and Athlone ; and also of Waterford and Duncannon when they could be recovered from the enemy. This agreement, which was signed on the 22d of July, 1651, was repudiated by Clanrickard, and became a dead letter, although the duke of Lorraine had already advanced £20,000 on the strength of the negotiations. The af- fairs of Charles II. were reduced to a hopeless state after the battle of "Wor- cester (September 3d, 1651). The Irish towns mentioned as security soon fell under the power of parliament, and thg duke of Lorraine left Ireland to its sad destiny. The reduction of Limerick was the next object of importance to Ireton, who began his operations against that city early in 1651. The parliamenta- rians had as yet no footing on the Clare side of the Shannon, and until that was obtained Limerick could not be effectually invested. Coote made a feint to attack Sligo, and having thus drawn Clanrickard and his forces to that quarter, made a forced march across the Curlieu mountains and attacked Athlone on the Connaught side, taking that important fortress before any re- lief could be rendered to it. The road into Connaught being thus open, and Galway threatened, Claurickard called Castlehavea to consult with him. In the absence of that general, who guarded the Clare side of the Shannon, Ireton forced the passage of the river at O'Brien's bridge, and Colonel Fen- nel), who commanded at Killaloe, aban- doned his post, through cowardice or treachery, so that Castlehaven's ti'oops M'ere dispersed, and Ireton enabled to invest Limerick on both sides. Lord Muskerry raised a considerable body of men in the south to come to its re- lief; but Lord Broghill hastened, by 546 CROMWELL. Iretou's orders, to intercept tliem ; and, ou the 26tli of July, coming up with the advance guard of the Irish near Castle- ishen, iu the county of Cork, drove them back ujion their main body. A hard contested fight ensued at Knock- uaclashy, where the hastily collected masses of the Irish were routed with great slaughter. Most of the Irish officers were slain, and Colonel Magilla- cuddy was taken prisoner. In the mean time the siege was carried on with great energy. The castle at the sal- mon-weir having been attacked, its garrison retreated in boats, and some of them who surrendered on quarter were butchered iu cold blood ; so that even Ireton, fearing the Irish Avould be driven to desperation, discouraged this brutality on the part of his officers. The besiegers lost 120 men in the first attempt to laud on the King's Island, and 300 more were cut ofl:' in a sally of the besieged ; soon after, however, a bridge was constructed to the island, and 6,000 troops marched over, and erected a strong fort there. The plague raged within the city, and many per- sons having attemjjted to escape, some of them were taken by order of the merciless Ireton to be executed, and others were whijiped back to the town. The authority of the governor, Hugh O'Xeill, was rendered nugatory by the corporation and magistrates ; aud some * Dr. Burli.e'siribernica Doniinicana, p. 5G8. Tlio bishop was ignomiuiously banged and beheaded, and his head spiked on a tower in the centre of the city, on the eve of of All-Sainta (October 31st), and Ireton was a corpse on discontented persons within the city commenced negotiations with the enemy for a capitulation. At length, on the 27th of October, Colonel Fennell, who betrayed the pass of Killaloe, combined with some other officers, and seizing St. John's gate and tower, turned the can- non against the city, and received 200 of Iretou's men into the gate that night. The acceptance of Iretou's hard terms was thus made compulsory ; and 2,500 Irish soldiers having laid down their arms on the 29th in St. Mary's church, and marched out of the city, some of them dropping dead of the plague on the way. Limerick was delivered into the hands of Ireton, and Sir Hardress Waller appointed governor. By the articles of capitulation twenty-four jier- sons were excepted from quarter. Of these, Terence O'Brien, bishop of Emly, General Purcell, and Father Wolfe, a Fransciscan, were found concealed in the pest-house, and were among the first dragged to the scaffold. Purcell showed a faint S25irit, and was held up by two soldiers at the place of execu- tion. The bishop, ou the contrary, ex- hibited heroic fortitude. All along he had strenuously exhorted the Irish to hold out against Cromwell's forces, and now addressing Ireton in a solemn tone, he summoned him to appear iu a few days to answer for his cruelties and in- justice before the tribunal of God.* the 35th of November. This dark-minded general was at the bottom of all Cromwell's counsels, and is held ac- countable for some of his cruelties. He was cold, reserved, absolute, and inexorable. During the siege of Limerick, LUDLOW MADE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 547 The words seemed prophetic, for eight days after Iretou caught the plague, aud in less than a month he died " raging and raving of this unfortunate prelate, whose unjust condemnation, he imagined, hurried on his death." Sir Geoffrey Gahvey, Alderman Thomas Stritch, Alderman Fanning, aud Geoff- rey Barron, the latter having only just returned from Brussels, were executed ; as was also the traitor Fennell, although sentenced for other causes. O'Dwyer, bishop of Limerick, escaped to Brussels, where he died. The governor, Hugh O'Neill, had, by his former defence of Clonmel, and his recent stand in Lim- erick, provoked Ireton too much to ex- pect mercy. He was tried, and, at the instigation of the gloomy republican, sentenced to death ; but as he had al- ways shown himself a brave soldier and an honorable foe, some of the offi- cers expostulated, and L'eton reluctantly consented to a second trial, Avhen the life of the gallant Hugh was saved by a single vote.* A. D. 1652. — On the death of L-eton, Lieutenaut-General Edmond Ludlow Avas made commander-in-chief until the orders of parliament could be received. He marched to the aid of Sir Charles Coote, who was besieging Galway, which town was surrendered on the 12th of May; General Preston, its gov- ernor, having some time before made his escape by sea. The few detached some of tlie Fathers of the Mission sent by their founder, St. Vincent de Paul, were in the city, and their preach- ing produced extraordinary spiritual fruita. garrisons which the Irish still held were reduced in succession, and the isolated leaders who continued under arms made terms for themselves and their followers without any common concert. Colonel Fitzpatrick was the first to lay down his arms in this way ; Colonels O'Dwyer and Turlough O'Xeill, the earl of Westmeath, and Lord Enniskillen, acted in a similar manner. The terms generally were for permission to reside under the com- monwealth, or to enter the service of a foreign prince in amity with England ; but this mercy was not extended to those who took up arms in the first year of the war, or belonged to the first general assembly, or who had com- mitted murder, or taken orders in the Catholic Church. ^ Lord Muskerry sur- rendered the strong castle of Ross, near Killarney, to Ludlow, on the 2'7th of June. One of the last chieftains of note who capitulated was Colonel Richard Grace, Avith whom 1,250 men laid down their arms. Clanrickard sent CastlehaA^en to Charles IL for his last instructions. That lord did not re- turn, but sent the king's answer to the message, which was to make the best conditions he could for himself; and on the 11th of October, being then sur- rounded by the enemy at Carrick, Clan- rickard accepted a pass from the parlia- mentarian authorities, Avith liberty to transport himself f and 3,000 of his fol- * Ludlow's Memoirs, vol. i., p. 379. ■j- Clanrickard did not go to the continent, but retired to an estate which he had at Sunimerhill, in Kent, 54S CROMWELL. lowers to a foreign country within three months. Thus was the last vestige of royal authority withdrawn from Ire- land. The ruin that now overspread the face of Ireland must have been dark and sorrowful enough, but the measure of her woes was yet to be filled up. War, and famine, and pestilence had done their share, but the rapine and vengeance which assumed the name of law had yet to complete the work of desolation. " The sword of extermina- tion," says an Irish historian, "had passed over the land, and the soldier sat down to banquet on the hereditary j3ossessions of the natives."* Cromwell and his council had indeed seriously contemplated the utter extirpation of the Irish race ; but that fiendish project appeared still too difiicult, and even to them too revolting,f and. accordingly, by the act for the settlement of Ireland, passed by the English parliament, Au- gust 12, 1652, it was decreed that full pardon should be granted to " all hus- bandmen and others of the infeiior sort not possessed of lands or goods exceed- ing the value of £10 ;" while persons of property were to be otherwise dis- posed of according to a certain classifi- cation. Those comprehended under the first six heads set forth in the act — and they comprised, all the great landed ■wliere lie died in 1657. (ArchdnlVs Lodge, i., 136.) He ^vas courteous and liumano, but not a man of shining abilities. His sj-mpatliies were -wholly Eng. lish ; he was a Catholic, but his religion was merged in his loyalty; yet in the early years of the confed- eration he often expostulated with Ormond on his proprietors and all the Catholic clergy — were excepted from pardon of life or estate ; others, who merely held com- missions as oSicers in the royalist army, were to be banished, and. forfeit their estates, except the equivalent to one- third, which would be assigned for the support of their wives and children ; those who, although opposed to the parliament, might be found worthy of mercy, and who were not included under any of the j^receding heads, also forfeited two thirds of their estates, but were to receive an equivalent to the re- maining third, wherever the parliament might choose to allot it to them ; and, finally, all who were perfectly innocent, that is, who had no share whatever in the war, but yet were not in the actual service of the parliament, or had not manifested their " constant, good affec- tion to it," forfeited one-third of their estates, and were to receive an equiva- lent to the remainder elsewhere.^ Thus all the Catholic gentiy of Ireland wei-e indiscriminately dej^rived. of their he- reditary estates ; and such as might be declared by Cromwell's commissioners innocent of the rebellion, and were to receive back any portion of their prop- erty, should transplant themselves and their families beyond the Shannon, where allotments of the wasted tracts of Conuaught and Clare would be given unyielding and hostile disposition towards the Catholic party. * Curry's Review of the C'icil Wars of Ireland. \' Clarendon's Life, vol. ii., p. 110. X See the Act, published from the original, in Lingard, vol. viii., Append. V V V'. BANISHMENT OF IRISH SOLDIERS. 549' to them. The other three provinces were reserved for Protestants ; and any of the transplanted Catholics who might be found in them after the 1st of May, 1654, without a passport, might, whether man, woman, or child, be killed, Avithout trial or order of magis- trate, by any one who saw or met them. Moreover, those who by this " act of grace" received allotments in Clare or Counauirht were obliged to give re- leases of their titles to their former es- tates in consideration of what was now a'ssigned to them, to bar themselves and their heirs from laying claim to their old inheritances ; and they were sent into wild and uncultivated districts, without cattle to stock the land, or ag- ricultural implements to till it, or houses to shelter them ; so that many Iiish gentlemen and their families actually perished of cold and hun- ger. They were not suffered to re- side within two miles of the Shan- non, or four miles of the sea, or of * See P..Walslie's Reply to a Person of Quality, pp. 33, 147, &c ; also the government proclamations ; tracts on tlie Irish Transplantation, published in 1654 ; Thur- loe's Papers, &c. Slaiiy of the transplanted Irish having erected cabins and creaghts, as the hurdle houses were then called, near Atlilone, the military authorities were ordered to banish "_all the Irish and other Popish per- sons" from that neighborhood, so that no such gathering of them should be allowed within tivo English miles of Athlone. — MS. Orders of CouncU, Dublin Castle. j Morrice's Life of the Earl of Orrery, vol. i., p. 39. Lord Antrim's estate of 107,611 acres was allotted to Sir John Clotworthy, afterwards Lord Massareeue, and a few others whose adventures and pay did not exceed £7,000 (Carte's Ormond, vol. ii., p. 278). From Sir Vf'Mia.va.'Petiy's Political Anatomy of Ireland, an.^ the official sources consulted by Mr. Bichenoup, we glean the following data relating to the Cromwellian Confisca- tion : — The surface of Ireland was estimated at 10,500,000 Galway, or in any garrison or market town.* In the mean time the whole kingdom was surveyed and mapped out by Dr. Petty, and the forfeited estates dis- tributed amous; the adventurers Avho had advanced money for carrying on the war under the confiscatincr acts of February and March, 1642, and in liquidation of the arrears of pay due to Cromwell's soldiery. According to the stipulations on w^hich the money was bori'owed, the adventurers were to re- ceive for £200 a thousand acres of good land in Ulster, £300 a thousand acres in Conuaught, for £450 a thousand acres in Munster, and for £600 a thousand acres in Leinster ; the bogs, woods, and moun- tains being thrown in gratis as waste or unprofitable land ; but we are told by a contemporary writer that the highest value set on the land at the time of the distribution was four shil- lings per acre, some being only valued at one penny .f plantation acres, of which 3,000,000 were occupied by water, bogs, and coarse or unprofitable land. Of the remaining 7.500,000 acres, 5,200,000 belonged to Catho- lics and sequestered Protestants before 1641, 300,000 to the Church, and 2,000,000 to Protestants planted by Elizabeth and James I. The Cromwellian government confiscated 5,000,000 acres, which they disposed of as follows : — to officers and soldiers who served before Cromwell's arrival in 1649, 400,000 acres, in Wicklow, Longford, Leitrim, and Donegal ; to soldiers who served since 1049, 1,410,000 acres ; to the adventurers who ad- vanced money under the acts of 1612, about 800,000 acres ; to certain individuals who were favorites of Cromwell, 100,000 acres ; retained by government, but let on profitable leases to Protestants in the counties of Dublin, Louth, Cavan, and Kildare, about 800,000 acres, besides the house property in walled towns and cities ; to the transplanted Irish in Counaught and Clare, 700,000 acres ; to which Petty adds (writing, however, 550 CROMWELL. The Iiisli soldiers who accepted bau- ishment, on laj-ing down their arms, uumbered about 34,000, who left the country under different leaders, and entered the service of Fi'auce, Spain, Austria, or Venice ; and their faithful attachment to the fortunes of Charles II. obtained for that unhappy prince, when abandoned l)y almost all besides, honor and support in foreign courts.* But as the wives and families of these exiles were, for the most part, left be- hind, and were, besides a great many others, reduced to a state of destitution, the government adopted the heartless expedient of shipping them off in great numbers to the pestilential settlements of the West Indies.f Sir William Petty states that 6,000 boys and girls were thus transported. But the total number of Irish sent to perish in the tobacco islands, as they were called, was estimated in some Irish accounts at 100,000. Force was necessary to col- in 1673, long after the Restoration) "innocent Papists, 1,300,000 acres. This was called the Down Survey, or Down Admeasurement of Ireland ; and, as an example of the complete desolation of the country at the time it was made, we are told that no one was left of the old inliabitantsin Tipperary who could point out the bounds of the estates, so that an order from government was necessary to bring back from Connaught five or six families to accompany the surveyors and show them the brjundaries. — Privy Council Book, A 5. *"The importance," says Mr. O'Callaghan, "then attached by the French government to the Irish regi- ments in its service was so great, that, even after Car- dinal Mazarin's treaty of alliance with Cromwell against Spain, by which the Stuart family were to quit the French dominions, various efforts were made by the cardinal and Marshal Turenne to induce the duke of York (afterwards James II.) not to leave the French for the Spanish service. Nay, Cromwell's permission was asked and obtained for the duke to remain in the ser\'ice lect them, but the government in Eng- land was, nevertheless, assured by their Irish agents that they could have any number of Irish boys or young women that thejr required. ^i For the jjunishment of " rebels and malignauts," the regicide government established a new tribunal, which they called a high court of justice, in which the ordinary forms of law were laid aside, and every thing contrived to confound and awe the accused person, and bring home the guilt laid to his charge. " From the iniquitous and bloody sentences frequently pronounced in these courts," says Dr. Curry, " they Avere commonly called Cromwell's slaughter-houses." The first was held in Kilkenny, 'on the 4th of October, 1652, the president being one Justice Donnellan, with whom were joined Cook, who had acted as solicitor to the regicides on the trial of the late king, and the commissarj^-general, Reynolds. of France, on account of the loss it would be to the com- bined forces of England and France, and the gain to Spain, that the Irish regiments should join the latter, as it was known they would, when the duke and his royal brother (Charles II.) shoidd be both under the protection of that power." — Macarice Excidium, p. 185. t Bruodin, Propvg. See Lingard, vol. viii., p. 17.5, note 3. X Henry Cromwell, writing from Ireland to Secretary Thurloe, s-iys : — " I think it might be of like advantage to your affairs there, and ours here, if you should think fit to send 1,500, or 3,000 young boys, of 13 or 14 years of age, to the place afore-mentioned. We could spare them, and they would be of use to you ; and who knows but it may be the means to make them Englishmen — I mean rather Christians'?" Thurloe answers :—" The committee of the conncU have voted 1,000 girls and as many youths, to be taken up for that purpose."— T/iW?'- loe, iv., pp. 40, 73. FORGED AND CORRUPT EVIDENCE. 551 These judges made the circuit of Water- ford, Cork, and otlier towns; and in February, 1653, the first court, presided over by Lord Lowther, was held in Dublin for the special purpose of try- iua: " all massacres and murders done or committed since the 1st day of October, 1641." The confederate Cath- olics had, in their declarations at Trim and Oxford, and on other occasions, prayed that an inquiry might be made into the murders alleged to have been perpetrated on both sides during the troubles, and that justice might be vin- dicated without respect to creed or party ; but these courts confined their inquiries to the accused Catholics, and the result of their labors afi^ords a con- vincing proof of the falsehood of the statements made asjainst the Irish Cath- olics at that pei'iod. Some of the lying- historians of the time had asserted that a hundred thousand Protestants had been murdered in cold blood ; yet with ail the forged and corrupt evidence that could be procured, and the cry of blood that was raised, Cromwell's high courts of justice were only able to con- vict about two hundred persons in all Ireland for those alleged murders ; * Vide s\ipra,x>- 479, note. Also Carte's Orm., vol. ii., p. 181. Carte relates the fact of Colonel Hewson having, in the name of Ludlow, made this offer to Sir Phelim on the ladder, on the authority of Dr. Sheridan, after- wards Protestant bishop of Kilmore, who was present ; and dean Ker is also quoted by Nalson (Histor. Collet^, as an eye-witness. In the opinion of some, the heroic sense of honor displayed by Sir Phelim, and liis whole conduct at the melancholy close of his career, redeemed many of his past faults. Among the other persons exe- cuted were Viscount Mayo, and Colonels O'Toole and while out of the whole province of Ulster, where the pretended massacres were said chiefly to have taken place, only one person was convicted, namely, Sir Phelim O'Neill, who nevertheless was repeatedly, while in prison, and before the passing of his sentence, and finally on the steps of the scaflibld, oflered his life and liberty on the sole condition of admittins: that the counter- feit document which he produced in October, 1641, was a genuine commis- sion from the unfortunate Charles I.* The parliamentary commissioners in Dublin published a proclamation, put- ting in force in Ireland the 27 th of Elizabeth ; and by this and subsequent edicts any Catholic priest found in Ire- land, after twenty days, was guilty of high treason, and liable to be hanged, drawn, and quartered ; any person har- boring such clergymen was liable to the penalty of death and loss of goods and chattels ; and anj' jierson knowing the place of concealment of a priest, and not disclosing it to the authorities, might be publicly whipped, and further punished with amputation of the ears. Any person absent from the parish church on a Sunday was liable to a fine Bagnal. The mother of Colonel Fitzpatrick was burnt. Lords Muskerry and Clanmaliere, and MacCarthy Eeagh, were acquitted, probably through the interest of friends. Looking to the number of persons convicted under all the circumstances by the high court of justice, O'Cou- nell has said : — " To a thinking mind there is no quan- tity of ^Titten or verbal authority that would so coerce a conviction of the innocence of the Irish Catholic party as the result of the investigation of this san- guinary and energetic court." — Memoir of Ireland, 532 CROMWELL. of thirty pence ; magistrates might take awaj' the children of Catholics, and send them to England for education ; and might tender the oath of abjuration to all persons of the age of twenty-one years, who, on refusal, were liable to imprisonment during pleasni'e, and the forfeiture of two-thirds of their real and personal estates.* The same price of five pounds was set on the head of a priest and on that of a wolf, and the production of either head was a suffi- cient claim for tlie reward. The mili- tary being distributed in small parties over the country, and their vigilance kept alive by sectarian rancor and the promise of reward, it must have been diflicult for a priest to escajje detection ; but many of them, nevertheless, braved the danger for their poor scattered flocks ; and residing in caverns in the mountains, or in lonely hovels in the bogs, " they issued forth at night to cany the consolations of religion to the huts of their oppressed and sufiering couutrymeu."f Well might an Irish * Vide LiDgard, vol. vHi., p. 178, and tlio authorities there quoted. At the same time the nuns were ordered to marry or to leave Ireland. t liiJ. Dr. Lingard refers to MS. letters in his posses- sion, and to Bruodin, GOG. In Morison's Thrcnodia we are told bow the Rev. Bernard Fitzpatrick, of the illus- trious house of Ossory, was dragged from one of those caves and beheaded : and Ludlow relates in his Memoirs (vol. i., p. 423, ed. Vevay, 1G98) how, when marching from Dundalk to Castleblaney, probably near the close of 1653, he discovered a few of the Irish in a cave, and how his party spent two days in endeavoring to smother them by smoke. It appears that the poor fugitives pre- served themselves from suffocation, during this opera- tion, by holding their faces close to the surface of some running water in the cavern, and that one of their party was armed with a pistol, with which he shot the fore- most of the troopers who were entering the mouth of the writer who witnessed these thinirs ex- claim : " Neither the Israelites were more cruelly persecuted by Pharaoh, nor the innocent infants by Herod, nor the Christians by Nero, or auy of the other pagan tyrants, than Avere the Roman Catholics of Ireland at that fiital juncture by those savage commis- sioners.";]; Some may say that it Avould be more patriotic to bury the woes and persecu- tions of that dark period in oblivion ; but besides the wrong which any such omission would cause to the integrity of histoiy, we must answer Avith Dr. Curry, "that British chronicles have rendered silence impossible." That was precisely the period AA'hen England displayed her utmost malice in heaping calumnies on her down-trodden victim. Like an ungenerous enemy, not satisfied Avith success, she added "insult to her guilt, meanness to her cruelty." "Every thing that malice and bigotry could conceive, that craft or falsehood could invent, or that ignorance and national cave after the first day's smoking. Ludlow caused the trial to be repeated, and the crevices through which the smoke escaped having been closed, " another smother was made." The next time the soldiers entered with helmets and breast-plates, but they foimd the only armed man dead, inside the entrance, where he was suffocated at his post ; while the other fugitives still preserved life at the little brook. Fifteen were put to the sword within the cave, and four dragged out alive, but Ludlow does not mention whether he hanged these then or not ; but one, at least, of the original number was a Catholic priest, for the soldiers found a crucifix, chalice, and priest's robes in the cavern. % Morrmoni Threnodia Hiberno-Catholica, p. 14. "All these things," says O'Connell, "appear like a hjdeous dream. They would be utterly incredible only that they are quite certain." (Memoir of Ireland, ^. Z\5.) See also Hib. Dom., p. 706; Clarendon's IiebeUion,\ii. 434. FLEETWOOD MADE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 553 antipathy could iDelieve, was attributed to the Irish name and nation, and re- peated in the drunkenness of success, and with all the cov/ardice of security."* And as the most illustrious of Irish statesmen has observed, these iniquitous calumnies acjainst the Irish were calcu- lated to gain other advantages for the English, namely : — to make the massa- cres and other crimes committed by the latter appear in the light of retaliation ; to serve as an excuse for seizing the es- tates of the Iiish by the Cromwellian party ; and as a further excuse for the restored Stuarts to leave these estates in the hands of the usurpers.f As to the succession of events con- nected with government, while Ireland lay in this state of galling bondage, they aifected but little the interests of this country. We may therefore dispose of them briefly. After the death of Ire- ton, Lambert was appointed lord depu- ty, but through the intrigue of Crom- well's daughter, the widow of Ireton, who had married Colonel Charles Fleet- wood, the apjDointment was set aside before Lambert came to Ireland, Crom- well having for that purpose suffered his own commission of lord-lieutenant to expire, which involved the retirement of his deputy. Fleetwood was then made commander-in-chief in Ireland, joined in the civil administration with four commissioners — Ludlow, Corbett, Jones and Weaver. These governed * Carry's Review of the Civil Wars in, Ireland. Dedi- cation. f See O'Connell's Memoir of Ireland, pp. 303 and 304. 70 the country according to certain in- structions, one of which was, "to en- deavor the promulgation of the gospel and the power of true religion and holi- ness ;" and another, to allow no Papist or delinquent to hold any place of trust, to practice as barrister or solicitor, or to keep school for the education of youth. J The act proclaiming the " rebellion" in Ireland to be at an end was passed on the 26th of September, 1653. On the 16th of December, that year, Cromwell assumed the supreme authority under the title of lord protector, and his usurpation was supported in Ireland by Fleetwood and the arm)', although the stern re2:)ublican, Ludlow, threw up his commissionership in disgiist. Henry Cromwell, the usurper's second son, who was appointed to the government of Ire- land in 1655, was naturally mild and just, and his administration would have materially altered the state of this coun- try had he been suffered to follow the dictates of his own humane disposition. He is believed to have averted the in- fliction of fresh grievances ; but he ad- ministered most of the cruel laws as he found them; and the practice of kid- napping the Irish youth for transporta- tion to the West Indies was in full vigor under him ; while, at the same time, his father was inviting in vain the settlers of New Entrland and the Vau- dois of Piedmont to replace the extir- pated pojjulation of Ireland. § After X Parliamentary journals. § Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, 190. Tliur- loe, ii, 459. 554 REIGN OF CHARLES I. the death of Oliver (September 3, 1658), the weak shoulders of his son, Richard, did not long sustain the bur- den of the usurped power bequeathed to him ; and on his retirement to his ancestral obscurity the -cabals of the long parliament prepared an easy way for the restoration of royalty. Not a little of this drama was enacted in Ire- laud, where Broghill, lord president of Munster, and Coote, lord president of Connaught, both observing the turn in the tide, vied with each other in offer- ing their support to Charles II. Both were renegades, both distinguished for their savage cruelties against the Irish ; but in duplicity and utter want of prin- ciple the balance was on the side of Broghill, the son of the unprincipled earl of Cork. The race between them on this occasion, and their subsequent attempts to depreciate each other with the king, were ludicrous ; but Broghill triumphed in the end, as he produced a letter of Coote's in which the latter ad- mitted that the suggestion for support- ing the king firet came from him. It was the farce after the tragedy; and both these inveterate enemies were by the worthless Charles Stuart richly re- warded, Broghill being created earl of Orrery and Coote earl of Mountrath : at the same time "the estates of the Irish who had fought for the king and followed his fortunes in exile, wei'e confirmed to drummers and sergeants who had conducted his father to the scaffold."! f Higgons, Bcmarks on Burnet, p. 103. I ACCESSION OF CHARLES II. 555 CHAPTER XL. EEIGN OF CHAKLES U. Hopes of the Irish Catholics at the Restoration — Their grievous disappointment. — An Irish parliament convoked after twenty years. — Discussions on the Act of Settlement in Ireland and England — The Act passed. — Establish- ment of the Court of Claims. — Partial success of the Irish Catholics— Consequent indignation and alarm of the Protestants. — Rumored conspiracies. — Blood's plot. — The Act of explanation — Provisions of the Act grossly unjust to Catholics — The Irish parliament desire to make them more so. — The Irish remonstrance. — Synod of the clergy in Dublin.— English prohibitory laws against the importation of Irish cattle. — General dis- affection. — Alarming rumors. — Oppression of the Catholics. — Recall of Ormond. — Lord Berkley's adminis- tration — Catholic Petition of Grievances. — Colonel Richard Talbot. — Commission of Inquiry — Great alarm produced by it among the Protestants and New Interest. — Recall of Lord Berkley and appointment of Lord Esses. — Violent address of the English parliament— Increased oppression of the Catholics. — Restoration of Ormond. — The Popish Plot. — Arrest of Archbishop Talbot. — Proclamations against the Catholics. — Puritan attempts to raise a rebellion in IreLand. — Arrest of Archbishop Plunkett. — Frightful demoralization and peijury— Memoir of Dr. Plunket (note). — His martjTdom.— Turn in the tide of persecution— Irish writers of the seventeenth century. — State of the Irish.- Death of Charles II. (FEOM A. D. 1660 TO A. D. 1685.) 'T^HAT the Irish should have regarded -^ the overthrow of the regicide gov- ernment and the restoration of the king as an assurance of their own restoration to their homes and estates was only natural. It was a consequence which every principle of justice demanded ; and although serious obstacles were to be overcome, they had a right to ex- pect that the king, for whom they had bled and sacrificed so much, would have taken some trouble in their behalf. Many of these plundered and expatri- ated people, inspired by this confidence, returned and claimed their own with- out waiting for the' tedious process of an uufrierdly law to reinstate them ;* but * In England the old proprietors generally expelled the Cromwellian intruders without much ceremony; but an- !tttempts at a like mode of proceeding in Ire- ne Ver were the hopes of their injured race doomed to be more cruelly blasted. Acting on the mean and ungenerous policy of his family, Charles immolated his devoted friends to his own and his father's enemies ; and the whole history of his reign, as far as Ireland is con- cerned, is made up of instances of the most scandalous injustice inflicted on the Irish Catholics, of persecutions against their religion, and of triumphs yielded to their unprincipled and invet- erate foes. Coote, now earl of Mountrath, and Broghill, now earl of Orrery — men who had slauojhtered more Irish in cold blood during the war than any others, land were immediately put down by a royal proclama/- tion. — See Carte's Onn., vol. ii., p. 398. 556 REIGN OF CHARLES II. if we except Cromwell's massacres at Drogheda and Wexford — were ap- pointed lords justices after tlie restora- tion, and to none but the determined enemies of the Catholics was any power intrusted. The first Irish parliament held for twenty years met on the 8th of May, 1661. The house of commons comprised two hundred and sixty mem- bers, who, with the exception of sixty- four, were all burgesses, and must, therefore, have been of the favored i-ace, the towns having been filled with Cromwellians. In the upper house there were twenty-one Catholic and seventy-two Protestant peers ; but such was the jealousy, in both houses, of the admission of any Catholics, that the commons, who had chosen Sir Audley Merviri as their speakei', tried to ex- clude them by requiring the oath of supremacy from all the members ; while Bramhall, archbishop of Armagh, who was elected speaker of the lords, pro- posed with a like object that all the peers should receive the sacrament at his hands. This parliament voted the large sum of £30,000 to the now duke of Ormond,* who was a^^pointed lord- lieutenant in October this year, but did not come to Ireland until the fol- * Ormond gained enormously by tlie war. Dr. Frencli says the duke's estates were so encumbered as not to have produced more than .-£7,000 a year before the war, although worth £40,000, but that a few years after the restoration they produced him £80,000 a-year. (Un- Jiind Deserter, chap, xii.) The earl of Essex, says Or- mond, received over £300,000 in this kingdom, besides all his great places and employments. {State Lett., 213—214.) lowing July ; and the session was taken up with discussions on the Bill of Settle- ment, which was warmly opposed by the Irish Catholics through their counsel, but was passed by the Irish pai'liament on the 15th of September, and transmitted to England, where it underwent a second discussion before the king and council. Here, again, its injustice was ably argued by Irish agents, but all opposition to it was overruled ; the claims of the dispos- sessed Irish royalists were treated as unreasonable ; their counsel was con- sidered imprudent and extravagant in pressing their demands. The effemi- nate monarch becoming weary of the debates. Sir Nicholas Plunkett, the agent of the Irish Catholics, was at length excluded from his majesty's pres- ence by an order of council, and this monstrous act of I'obbery — confirming as it did the most enormous of all the spoliations inflicted on Ireland by its English masters — was finally passed into law.f A court of claims was es- tablished under the act to try the quali- fications of "nocent" and "innocent;" and notwithstanding all the hostility of the law and of government, several Catholics succeeded in making good f In his speech to the parliament after his restoration Cliarles told them " that he expected (in relation to the Irish) they would have a care of Ins honor, and of the promise he had made them ;" this promise had been ex- plicitly renewed by Ormond for the king before ho left Breda ; but it was thus the royal engagements to the Irish were generally kept. It ia unnecessary to say that the articles of 1048 (as they were called, though signed by Ormond in 1G49, new style) were wholly set aside. CONSPIRACIES. 557 tlieif titles to a restitution of their property.* This gave rise to violent indignation and alarm among the Pro- testants. That any door should have been left open to the Catholics for the recovery of their estates was a thing not to be tolerated, and the duke of Ormond consequently refused to extend the time for investigating the claims, although comparatively a few only of them had been disposed of. Neither did the admission of a claim always imply the restoration of an estate, for the Cj'omwelliau or new interest was not always disturbed, and the recovery of a right often amounted to no more than what might be deemed an equiva- lent, which depended on the amount of " reprisals," as they were called, that government might have in hands to allot for the purpose. The regicide judges, and others who had imbued their hands in the late king's blood, were deprived of their estates by the Act of Settlement ; but these lands, which were chiefly situated in the coun- ty of Tipperary, were given to the duke of York, and w^ere therefore not avail- able for reprisals. A great outcry was now raised aQ:ainst the Irish Catholics. The vile calumnies about 1641 were revived and maliciously circulated, and every report * It is stated in Cox's Sibernia Anglicana that of the claims tried in the first three months 168 were adjudged innocent and only 19 nocent ; and that in the subsequent sittings of the court 630 additional claims were de- cided, we are not told in what proportion of innocent and uocent, but only " to the great loss and dissatisfac- tion of the Protestants." (See Letter in Cox, continuing the history from 1653 to 1689.) Some three thousand against the Irish was received with avid- ity in England. The device of Popish plots and conspiracies was resorted to, and the public mind kept in a state of ferment by the most unfounded rumors of intended Popish risings and French invasions. It so happened that the only real plot was a Presbyterian one, got up by some Puritan ministers, a few militaiy officers, and some mem- bers of the house of commons. One Thomas Blood, a person who subse- quently became notorious for his ex- ploits in England, conspired with some others to seize the castle of Dublin on the 21st of May, 16G3; but the mad project was discovered before the at- tempt was made, and four of the con- spirators were executed. The atrocious system of falsehood against the Catho- lics was, nevertheless, successful, and a motion for excluding Catholics from the general pardon and indemnity was passed in the English parliament. Or- mond, moreover, who had repaired to England for the purpose, procured the passing of an Act of Explanation to sat- isfy the Protestants, and on his return prepared to organize a Protestant mi- litia. In all the discussions on the Bills of Settlement and Explanation the Catho- lics, although the most aggrieved, were claims were left unheard for want of time, and Ormond, as stated above, refused to extend the sittings of the court for that purpose. Those Catholics who were named in the Bill of Settlement as objects of the royal favor (about 500 in number) were called " nominees ;" those who served abroad under the king's standard were distin- guished as "ensign-men ;" and the adventurers and Crom- welUan soldiers styled themselves " the new interest." 558 REIGX OF CHARLES II. the most moderate iu their demands; and a suggestion having been made on their part that they would be content if the soldiers and adventurers resigned one-third of the lands which they en- joyed immediately before the restora- tion, the proposal was accepted, and made the ground-work of the Act of Explanation. By this act, however, it was provided that the Protestants were iu the first place, and especially, to be settled ; that any ambiguity which arose should be explained in their fa- vor; and "that no Pai^ist, who, by the qualifications of the former act, had not been adjudged innocent, should at any future time be reputed innocent, or en- titled to claim any lands or settlements. Thus," continues Leland, whose words we quote, "every remaining hope of those numerous claimants whose causes * Leland, History of Ireland, vol. iii., p. 440. More than 3,000 Catholic claimants were thus condemned to the forfeiture of their estates, without any hearing at all; or, as Leland expresses it, "without the justice granted to the vik-st criminals— that of a fair and equal trial." See Carte's Orm., vol. ii., pp. 304, 314. Chief- justice Nugent, afterwards Lord Riverston, in a letter dated Dublin, June 23, 1680, and preserved in the state paper office, London, says : " There are 5,000 in tliis kingdome who were never outlawed, and out of theyre estates, yet cannot now by law be restored." See Macarm Excidiwa, notes and illustrations, p. 103. The Act of Explanation gave the duke of Ormond liberty to name twenty Catholics for the restoration of their estates, and we may be sure that those who wore too national in their sentiments were not included in hLs grace's list. The duke had given the strongest opposition to the claims of the earl of Antrim, whom he hated perhaps more than any other man in Ireland; but the earl was warmly backed by the king, and by other powerful friends and after repeated petitions and investigations, was ulti- mately restored to his estates by the Act of Explana- tion. Carte, Orm., vol. ii., p. 377, and Irish Council Books. f One of the motives for the clamors raised by the had not been heard, was entirely cut off"."* Yet, strange to say, this act, un- just as it was to the Catholics, did not go far enough to satisfy the Irish house of commons, which was composed chief- ly of adventurers and soldiers, and whose speaker, Mervin, had all along distinguished himself by his furious hostility to the Catholic interest. Or- mond found it necessary to exercise some rigor towards the refractory mem- bers. Seven of them were expelled for complicity in Blood's plot, and others were known to deserve the same pun- ishment. They were also threatened obscurely with a dissolution, and the act was at length passed on the 15th of December, 1665.f Hojjing to remove the pretences foi- persecution against them, some of the Catholic nobility and gentry had signed Protestants in the discussion referred to above was the constant discovery of abuses in the Cromwellian distri- bution of the lands. Sii William Domville, the attorney- general, in overhauling the details of this distribution, discovered, among many other irregularities, that there were " great abuses iu the manner of setting out the ad- venturers' satisfaction, in which the proceedings were very clandestine and confused. For they had whole baronies set to them in gross, and then they employed surveyors of their own to make their admeasurements. Thus they admeasured what proportions iliey thought fit to mete out to themselves ; and what lands they were pleased to call unprofitable, they had returned as such, let them be never so good and profitable. In the coimty of Tipperary alone he had found by books in the sur- veyor's office above 00,000 acres retm-ned as unprofita- ble, and in the moiety of the ten counties, wherein their satisfaction was set out, he had found 245,307 acres so returned by the adventurers as unprofitable." Carte's Orm., vol. ii., p. 301. Moreover, Domville found that the soldiers had returned 065,670 acres as unprofitable, and it was not without reason they now feared to have the accuracy of their returns inquired into. These sol- diers, says Carte, " were for the most part Anabaptists, Independents, and Levellers." Orm., vol. ii. DECLARATION OF LOYALTY. 559 a declaration of loyalty for presentation to the kino;. Several noblemen as- sembled for the purpose at the house of the marquis of Clanrickard in Dub- lin ; among others, Lords Castlehaven, Clancarthy, Carlingford, Fingal, and luchiquiu, and there was no doubt with such names at the the head of the list a great many subscribers to the address might be obtained throughout Ireland. This address or declaration is celebrated as the Irish Remonstrance. It was pre- pared by Peter Walsh, a Franciscan friar, who had Iseen a most zealous par- tisan of Ormond in the confederation, and enjoyed the private friendship and confidence of that determined enemy of the Catholics. He was a restless and factious man, impatient of spiritual authority, and it was well known that any document from his hands could hardly be unexceptionable. The re- monstrance contained, in fact, along M'ith the strongest protestations of loy- alty, expressions derogatory to the au- thority of the pope, and therefore offensive to true Catholic feeling ; but it suited Ormond's purpose precisely on that account; and on the pretence that it was yet only a private address, possessing no official character, Ormond desired that it might be signed by all * Before the primate's rettim at this time there were but three Catholic prelates in Ireland, two of whom, namely, Dr. John Burke, archbishop of Tuam, and Dr. Owen M'Sweeny, bishop of Kilmore, were too aged and infirm to perform any of their public functions. The third was Dr. Patrick Plunket, bishop of Ardagli. It appears from Dr. French's Eleiuhus Episcoporum, quoted in the IMemia Dominicana, that of thetwenty- the Catholic clergy of the kingdom. A national congregation of the Irish bishops and clergy for the considera- tion of the matter was held in Dub- lin on the 11th of June, 1666. The meeting took place by the connivance of Ormond, who had privately obtained the sanction of the king ; and the pri- mate, Edmond O'Reilly, who had been in exile since 1657, when he was ar- rested in London at the instance of the aforesaid Peter Walsh, and sent out of the kingdom, received permission to come to Ireland, and presided at the meeting.* Promises were held out by Ormond that whoever signed the re- monstrance would be more favorably considered in their claims, and enjoy other privileges. The discussions on the subject were carried on with great caution ; but, to the eternal honor of the Irish clergy, the insulting instru- ment was rejected, and another remon- strance adopted, to which no objection whatever could be raised, if only an expression of the most devoted loyalty were required. On the 16 th of June this Catholic remonstrance was de- livered by two of the bishops to Or- mond, with a prayer that it might be presented to his majesty; but the duke rejected petition and remonstrance. six Irish prelates who were resident in their respective sees in 1649, nine had died at home, ten had died in exile, three had suffered martyrdom, and four were stUl living in 1667; Dr. Nicholas Frencli himself, bishop of Ferns, and Dr. Andrew Lynch, bishop of Kilfenora, stUl in banishment ; and Dr Burke of Tuam, and Dr. Patrick Plunket, just mentioned. Dr. O'ReUly, the primate, had only been consecrated in 1657. 560 REIGN OF CHARLES II. sent Peter Walsh to order the synod to dissolve immediately, and subjected the Catholic bishops and clergy to a more rigid persecution than before. The primate was seized on the 27th of September, and carried prisoner to Lon- don, whence he was sent into banish- ment until his death, which took place at Lou vain in 1669.* The propensity of English statesmen to treat Ireland as an alien country, and to legislate in a spirit hostile to her in- terests, was such that even the Crom- wellian settlers had scarcely fixed them- selves in this country when they felt the galling pressure of this national injustice. Prohibitory laws relating to Irish commerce had long been usual in England. The Irish-wool trade had been restricted within the narrowest limits ; but at this time the prohibition against the importation of Irish cattle into England was the grievance that pressed most heavily on Irish commer- cial interests. A law on this subject was passed for a limited period in 1663, but the question was agitated from year to year; and when in October, 1G66, * There can be no doubt that Ormond's object in en- couraging the synod of 1CG6 was to sow diR^ord among the Catholic clergy. Peter Talbot, archbishop of Dublin, shows in his castigation of Walsh (The Friar Disciplined, p. 92) that he was well awaro such was the case. In fact the duke himself frankly acknowledged, some years later, " that his aim in permitting that meet ing was to work a division among the Romish clergy" (Carte's Ormond, ii., Append.) ; and soon after the synod was dispersed, Lord Orrery, writing to Ormond, says : " I humbly offer to your grace whether this may not be a fit season to make that schism, which you have been sowing among the Popish clergy, publicly break out, so the lord-lieutenant, seconded by the Irish gentry, proposed to send over 15,000 bullocks as a contribution for the sufferers by the great fire of Lon- don, their kindness was maliciously interjjreted ; and the English commons, displaying what Leland calls " a violent and almost unaccountable rage of op- pression," voted a bill making the pro- hibition permanent. In the preamble to the bill the importation of Irish cattle was termed a "nuissance," which description the lords modified by sub- stituting the words " detriment and mischief" Lord Ashley, a member of the cabal ministry,-]- proposed that it should be declared a felony and prae- raunii'e. The measure gave rise to violent debates in both houses. The duke of Buckingham asserted that " none could oppose the bill but such as had Irish estates or Irish under- standings ;" and Lord Ossory, son of the duke of Oi'mond, resented this insult by a challenge, which Bucking- ham declined to accept; and Ossory was sent to the Tower. At another part of the debate, when Ashley in- as to set them at open diflFerence, as we may reap some practicable advantage thereby." (Orm. State Letters, vol. ii.) But Ormond's arts did not succeed, for we are told by 'Walsh himself that although there were then in Ireland 1,100 secular priests and 750 regulars, yet that of these 1,850 clergy only G9 signed his remon- strance, these being chiefly friars of his own order, over whom he had great influence. f The name of " cabal" was given to the ministry of Charles II. — ClifiTord, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington, and Lauderdale — the initials of their names composing that word. I — ANONYMOUS ACCUSATIONS. 561 veiwhed asraiast the Irisli contribution for the sufferers, Ossory protested that " such virulence became none but one of Cromweirs counsellors," and several noble lords on both sides were on the point of drawing their swords ; but the commons insistins: on their favorite ex- pression being retained, Charles re- quested the lords to yield the point, and the bill received the royal assent with the w^ord " nuissance" restored in the preamble. At home disaffection prevailed among all parties. The landed interest was ruined by the prohibitory laws just re- ferred to. The army complained that their pay was in arrears ; and some sol- diers having mutinied and seized Car- rickfergus castle, a considei'able military force was required to reduce them ; ten of their number being executed. The Irish Puritans carried on a secret cor- respondence with their friends in Eng- land, so that government was perpetu- ally alarmed with rumors of new plots. The Irish Catholics, infinitely more aggrieved than any other party, were objects of suspicion to all; and although they had engaged in no conspiracy, anonymous accusations were daily made against them. They were charged with * The moderation of Lord Berkley inspired the Irish Catholics Trith the deepest gratitude, and a convocation of the clergy Tvas held in Dublin in 1670 to give expres- sion to their feelings in an address to Ms excellency. On this occasion the two most illustrious men in the Irish church of that day were present, namely, Oliver Plunkett, archbishop of Armagh, and Peter Talbot, arch- bishop of Dublin, both of whom had been elevated to the archiepiscopal dignity in 1669. These two eminent men differed considerably in their disposition. Dr. Plunkett, more calm and forgiving, objected to the se- 71 inviting the French to invade Ireland ; and Ormond, 'Who affected to believe these malicious rumors, made them an excuse for ruling the unhappy Catholics with a rod of iron. He could not for- give the Irish clergy for refusing to sign the remonstrance, and was resolved, as he said, to kefep them up to the letter of that document, " or to a sense equiv- alent." He distributed 20,000 stand of arms to his Protestant militia, and in July, 166Y, reviewed the Leinster corps in the Curragh of Kildare. The ap- pearance of an English squadron about the same time off Kinsale threw the country into a high state of excitement, as it was supposed to be the expected French fleet; but the_king, provoked by these repeated alarms, and by the many complaints which reached him, removed Ormond, who had gone to England in 1668, and the following year appointed Lord Eobarts, of Truro, as lord-lieutenant. This man remained but a few months, and was succeeded in May, 1670, by John Lord Berkley, a nobleman of moderate principles and upright intentions.* Colonel Kichard Talbot, w^ho pos- sessed great influence at court, and was subsequently created duke of Tirconnell verity exercised by Dr. Talbot against the remonstrant clergy, or those who had signed Walsh's remonstrance ; and at the same time entertained so strict a sense of his own duty to sustain the rights of his high position as primate, that he refused to sign the address unless his name were placed first, whUe Dr. Talbot insisted on the claim long before set up to the primatial dignity for his diocese. The dispute forms an interesting topic in Irish chutrch history, and gave occasion to very learned treatises on the subject from both these pre- lates. 562 REIGN OF CHARLES II. by James II., went to Eugland in 1671 to lay before the king and council a pe- tition from the Irish Catholic gentry ■who had been plundered of their es- tates.''^ Colonel Talbot had for several years past acted as the advocate of his injured fello\Y-countrymen Avith the kins', and on this occasion he was so successful as to induce his majesty to appoint a committee of inquiry, not- withstanding the opi^osition given to the petition by Ormond. The report of the committee Avas unfavorable ; but a commission was issued, which was su- perseded in January, 1673, by one of a more comprehensive character, to in- quire concerning the acts of settlement and explanation, the manner in which these acts were executeu, the disposal of the forfeited estates, the state of his majesty's revenue in Ireland, «fec. The appointment of this commission gave occasion to a violent outcry among the Puritans and the new interest in Ire- land. Any thing that threatened to disturb the Act of Settlement, and to drag before the public view all the atrocious injustice and secret dishonesty connected with that most aj)palliug s2)oliation, was a sufficient cause of dis- may. The toleration and justice ex- * Among the plundered Ii-isli gentry of that time we find our great antiquary, Roderick O'Flaherty, who was most assuredly innocent, thus mildly complaining in his 0(jy'jia :—" The Lord hath wonderfully recalled the royal heir to his kingdom, with the applause of all good men, and without dust and blood ; but he hath not found me worthy to be restored to the kingdom of my cottage (sed me non dignum invenit, cui tugurii mei rcgnum restituat). Against thee alone, O Lord, I have siimcd ; may the name of the Lord be blessed forever." Ogygia, tended by Lord Berkley to the' Cath- olics also excited alarm.f The cry of " Popery" was raised. The " mj^stery of iniquity," it was said, had begun to appear. Yielding to this storm, the king recalled Lord Berkley in May, 1672, and appointed in his stead Lord Essex, with instructions to take a dif- ferent course. On the 9th of Mai'ch, 1673, the English house of commons presented a most violent address to his majesty, calling upon him to expel by proclamation all who exercised spiritual jurisdiction under the pope in Ireland ; to prohibit Irish Papists from inhabit- ing any j^art of that kingdom, unless duly licensed ; and to encourage by all means the English planters, and the Protestant interest there. The result was that the weak king hastened to re- call his commission of inquiry, and did all he could to appease the awakened zeal of his Protestant subjects. Ormond was restored to favor, and Essex having been recalled, the duke was sent to Ireland as lord-lieutenant in August, 1677. The following year the diabolical fabrication known as the Popish Plot made its appearance. Eng- land was at that time drunk with fanat- icism. The outcry against Popery had p. 180. And elsewhere he says : — " I live a banished man within the bounds of my native soil ; a spectator of others enriched by my birthright ; an object of condoling to my relations and friends, and a condoler of their miseries." Ogygia Vind., p. 1.53. f It was charged against Lord Berkley that Popery was tolerated, and that Archbishop Talbot celebrated Higli Mass publicly in Dublin during his administrar tion ; and also that he allowed some Papists to hold the commission of the peace. IMPRISONMENT OF TALBOT. 563 driven tile people mad, and the contri- vance of the infamous Titus Oates and hi:^ flao'itious' associates was a fittina' cliranx to the national frenzy. The duke of Ormond was at Kilkenny when he received the first notice of the plot, October 3, 16T8; but although he- treated the matter in his official capa- city as one of awful magnitude, and adopted all the cruel measures towards the Catholics that' might satisf\' the fanatics, still his private correspondence proves that he placed no faith in the plot, but regarded it on the contrary with contempt; observing that no such thing existed in Ireland, where the Catholics were so much more numerous than in England.* On the 7th of Oc- tober he received a further communica- tion from the secretary of state, an- nouncing that the plot did extend to Ireland, -and that Peter Talbot was concerned in it; although it was known that that prelate was then in a dying state, having only a few mouths before obtained private permission to return to Ireland that he might breathe his last in his own country. Ormond, how- ever, on the 8th of October issued a warrant for his apprehension, and the venera1)le archbishoji was taken from his sick-bed, at Cartown, near May- nooth, the house of his brothei'. Colonel Ilichard Talbot, and carried in a chair to Dublin, where he was kept a close prisoner in the castle, until death re- moved him from his lingering martyr- dom two years after. f See Ixis correspondence in the second volume of Carte. Proclamations against the unoffend- ing Catholics now appeared in quick succession- One on the 16th of Octo- ber commanded " all titular archbish- ops, bishops, vicars-general, and other dignitaries of the Church of Rome, and also all Jesuits, and other regular priests, to depart by the 20th of November; and that all Popish societies, convents, seminaries, and Popish schools, should dissolve." The masters of outward- bound ships were required to- take on board all the Popish clergy who should pi'esent themselves for transportation. A proclamation of the 20th of Novem- ber forbade Papists to come into the castle of Dublin or any other fort or citadel ; and ordered that the markets of Drogheda, Wexford, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Youghal, and Galway should be held without the walls, to prevent the recourse of Papists to the interior of the towns. The same day a reward was oflfered of .£10 for every commis- sioned officer, £5 for.eyery trooper, and 4s. for every foot-soldier who could be •discovered to have gone to Mass since he took the oath of supremacy and alleo^iance. On the 2d of December orders were issued for a strict search after the titular bishops and regular clergy who had not transported them- selves. To increase the alarm and quicken the vigilance of government, anonymous letters about Popish conspi- racies were dropped in the streets. The Protestant militia was revived and dis- ciplined. In March, 1680, a proclama- tion issued, ordering that the nearest 564 REIGN OF CHARLES II. relations of tories should be seized and imprisoned until sucli tories were killed or taken;* and that parish priests should be ajjprehended and transported, upon any robbery or murder being commit- ted in their respective parishes, unless the criminals were killed, taken, or dis- covered within fourteen days. A re- ward of i6lO was promised at the same time for taking a Jesuit or titular bish- op ; and soon after the lord-lieutenant and council ordered the removal of the Popish inhabitants from Galway, Lim- erick, Waterford, Clonmel, Kilkenny, and Drogheda, " except some few trad- ing merchants, artificers, and others necessary for the said towns."f Thus did the rulers of Ireland vainly hope to extirpate the Catholic religion from the land of Patrick, Bridget, and Co- * Dr. O'Conor {Bib. Stotoensis, ii. 4G0) derives tlie name " tory" from the Irish word toirigldm, to pursue for prey. Many of these robber outlaws were by birth Irish gentlemen, who had been unjustly stripped of their estates, and who levied contributions in their owh wild way on the Cromwellian settlers who occupied theu' ancient patrimonies. The most celebrated of them was Redmond O'Hanlon, the hero of many a traditional tale. About this time the name of tory came into use in England, where it was applied to the court party by the Puritans, or popular party, who ivere designated whigs. f See in Cox the continuation of the reign of Charles II., where the substance of all these proclamations will be found ; also Carte, vol. ii., pp. 480, &c. To what the exclusion of Catholics from the principal towns would then amount, we may gather from the statement of Lord Orrery, who in a letter to the duke of Ormond, of Feb- ruary 20, 1C62, says " it was high time to purge the town of the Papists, when in most of them there were three Papists to one Protestant." About the same time the Catholics in the rural districts were to the Protest- ants in the ratio of fifteen to one. Sir WUliam Petty, writing in 1673, estimates the total pojiulation of Ire- land at 1,100,000, of^whoni 800.000 were Irish, 200,000 English, and 100,000 Scotch. All the Irish, he says. lumbkille ; and designing impostors try to uige the Irish to resistance, and afford an excuse for another confisca- tiou.-f- Colonel Talbot was arrested, as well as his brother, the archbishop, but was suffered to go into exile ; and an order also came over to seize Lord Mountgar- ret, then an octogenarian, and in his dotage ; but all this time no testimony came from Ireland to support the plot, to the great disappointment of Lord Shaftesbury and the other patrons of Oates.§ This was not to be endured, and accordingly all possible methods were resorted to, says Carte, " to pro- voke and exasperate the peojDle of that kingdom." New measures of coercion were devised ; " it was proposed to in- troduce the test act and all the Ensrlish o were Papists ; all the Scotch, Presbyterians ; and of the English, one-half Protestant, and the other half Inde- pendents, Anabaptists, Quakers, and other dissenters. There were thus, according to him, eight Papists to one Church of England Protestant ; but it is quite clear that owing to the remoteness of the districts in which many of the Irish dwelt, he had no means of learning their actual numbers, which were unquestionably much greater than he states. See Petty's Political Anatomy of Ireland, p. 8, ed. 1719. f '■ There were," says Carte (vol. ii., p. 483), " too many Protestants in Ireland who wanted another rebel- lion, that they might increase their estates by new forfeitures." § " It was a terrible slur," says Carte, " upon the credit of the Popish plot in England, that after it had made such a horrible noise and frightened people out of their senses in a nation where there was scarce one Papist to an hundred Protestants, there should not, for above a year together, appear so much as one witness from Ireland to give information of anj' conspiracy of the like nature in that kingdom, where there were fif- teen Papists to one Protestant, as that charged upon the Papists of England, whose weakness would naturally make them apply for assistance from their more power- ful brethi'en in Ireland." Vol. ii., p. 400. ARREST OF ARCHBISHOP PLUXKETT. 565 penal laws into Ireland ; and that a proclamation should be forthwith issued for encouraging all persons that could make any farther discoveries of the hor- rid Popish plot to come in and declare the same."* For more than a year after the proclamation banishing the Catholic prelates out of Ireland, Arch- bishop Plunkett continued to reside in his diocese. He was so good a man, and so useful as a promoter of peace and order, that Ormond was most unwilling to have him apprehended ; but he was at length seized io his humble retreat, a few miles from Drogheda, on the 6th of December, 1679, and committed to prison, solely for his religion and for exercisinsr the functions of a Catholic prelate.f The arrest of the primate gave a new turn to things in Ireland. Hetheriugton, Shaftesbury's agent, came over to concoct evidence of a plot, and a number of the most abandoned charac- ters — cow-stealers, I'apparees, and jail- breakers — wei*e soon found ready for the purpose. These vile miscreants vied with each other in swearing away * Carte, vol. ii., p. 404. f See on this point the admirable life of Dr. Plunkett, published in Duffy's Catlwlic Magazine, vol. ii., p. 144. X Dr. Oliver Plunkett belonged to a branch of the ancient family of the carls of Fingal, and was born at Loughcrew, in Meath. He went to Rome when a young man, in February. 1647, with Father Scarampi, and studied in the Irish college founded by Cardinal Ludo- visius, and which was then administered by Jesuits. About eight years after he became professor of divinity in the Propaganda, and so continued for twelve years ; and on the death of Edmond O'ReUly, archbishop of Armagh, in 16G9, he was nominated to the primacy of Ireland by Pope Clement_IX. It was then a perilous as well as an exalted dignity ; but in August ho hastened to his afflicted country, where he arrived about the end the lives of innocent men ; and several of them came forward to make the most outrageous charges of treason against the venerable archbishop. , Foremost among these infamous witnesses were two degraded priests and as many apos- tate friars. lu those turbulent times, when there was so much to disorganize society and encourage vice, it is not ex- traordinary that men should have been found cajtable of any degradation ; and these wretched ecclesiastics were per- sons who, after fruitless eiforts to reform them, had been subjected to canonical censures ; the two seculars having been excommunicated by the primate, and the friars declared apos- tates by their superior. As the evi- dence of these men would obtain no credit in Ireland, the primate was taken to London, where the incredible, incon- sistent, and indeed impossible state- ments of the false witnesses were re- ceived as gospel truth by the judges, jury, and people of England, and Dr. Plunkett was immolated at the shrine of English fanaticism.;]; of October the same year, and an immediate but fruit- less search was made for him by order of the govern- ment. Lord Robarts, who was soon after recalled, was then lord-lieutenant ; but during the administrations of Lords Berkley and Esses, Dr. Plunkett continued to ex- ercise his functions without molestation. He was in- defatigable in his apostolic labors, holding numerous ordinations, and exerting himself with prudence and assiduity to correct abuses among clergy and laity. He was an ardent lover of liis country and of her venerable antiquities, and composed an Irish poem about Tara, which is mentioned by O'Reilly, in his Iiiah WHters. In the persecution which followed the outbreak of the pretended Popish plot, he removed from his usual resi- dence at Ballybarrack, near Dundalk, to a small house at a place called Ca.?tIetownbellew, a few miles from 566 REIGN OF CHARLES II. It has been truly siiid liy a great Protestant state.-iman that " the Popish Drogheda, wliere he was arrested. At liis trial he stated that he had lived " in a little thatched house, •wherein waS'only a little room for a library, which was not seven feet high ; that he had never more than one servant, and that he was scarcsly ever able to support even one." As'to his income, it never exceeded " three score pounds per annum." It was sis months after his confmement in Newgate that the charge of treason was trumped up against him, and when it was then investi- gated before the Irish council it was scouted as utterly alisurd. A reward of £500 was, it is said, offered for Hetherington, the infamous concocter of the perjuries, Ijut he had fled to his employer, Shaftesbury ; and when the primate came to be arraigned at the Dundalk as- sizes, although every man, both on the grand and petty jury, was a Protestant, not one of tlic miscreants who had made depositions against him would come forward. No one was more active, says Carte, in procuring those witnesses than Jone.'s, the Protestant bishop of Meath, " who had been scout-master-general to Oliver Crom- well's army" (Orm., ii. 498) ; and it was at his sugges- tion that Shafte.sbury got the primate's trial removed from Dundalk, where he would, assuredly, have been acquitted, to London, where any thing sworn against a Popish bishop could not be too monstrous for the popu- lar credulity. The Wsh government was required to assist Lu8 wimEEses for the plot, of one of whom, James Geoghan, who was sent to beat up the country for swearers, Ormond writes that " at length, his violences, excesses, debaucheries, and, in effect, his plain rob- beries, committed on' Irish and English, Protestants and Papists, were so manifest, as raised a great disturbance in all places," and it became necessary to put him in. jail (see letter in Carte, ii. 514) ; yet such was the gen- eral character of the degraded men produced as wit- nesses against the holy archbishop — profligates and apostates, to whom a free pardon was offered as an in- ducement to add perjury and murder to their other crimes. Dr. Pluukett was removed to London about the close of October, 1G80, and was st> rigorously con- fined in Newgate, that no friend could liave access to liim. Here he spent his time in almost continual prayer, and his keepers were surprised to see liim always looli so cheerful and resigned. When brought up for trial, he obtained five weeks to procure evidence from Ireland ; but in those days of slow travelling, when weeks were sometimes lost in waiting for a passage from Holyhead to Dublin, the time was insufficient; and when the trial at length came on, on the 8th of June, 1G81, the primate's witnesses had not arrived, and cer- tain records which he desired to obtain from Ireland to show the character of the witnesses brought against jilot must always be eonsirlered an in- delible disgrace upon the English na- him, would not be given to his agents without an order from the court ; but a single day longer would not bo granted to him. He was browbeaten by a bench of par- tisan judges ; six of the most eminent lawyers in Eng- land wore arrayed against him ; and he stood alone, without one to speak a word in his defence, or procure for him fair play ; for as the law then stood, he was not allowed the benefit of counsel. A host of abandoned wretches, who, says the great Charles Fox, would have been unworthy of credit even in the most trivial matter, made charges against him that were not onlj' incredible but absolutely impossible (Fox's Historical Works, p. 40). In vain did he pray for time, and declare : — " If I had been in Ireland, I would have put myself on my trial to-morrow, without any witnesses, before any Protestant jury that knew them and mo." He, who was so poor and meek, and had such a horror of mixing himself up in any temporal concern, was convicted of plotting to raise an army of 70,000 men ; of collecting some enormous fund for that purpose among the clergy ; of practising to bring over 40,000 French troops ; and of inspecting the harbors roimd the coast of Ireland, and se- lecting Carlingford as the place for the debarkation of tlie invading army ! On the 15th, when brought up to receive sentence, the brutal chief-justice, addressing him, said : " Look you, Mr. Plunkett, you have been indicted of a very great and heinous crime. . . . The bottom of your treason was j'our setting up your false religion .... a religion that is ten times worse than all the heathenish •^juperstitions." The earl of Essex went to the king to apply for a pardon, and told his majesty " the witnesses must needs be perjured, as what they swore could not possibly be true ;" but his majesty answered in a pas- sion:— "Why did you not declare this, then, at the trial? I dare pardon nobod}'. . . . His blood be upon your head and not upon mine" {Contin. of Baker's Chronicle, p. 710, and Echard's Hist, of Eiig., iii. 631). The address which the holy primate read at Tybm'n was an able and beautiful vindication. On the 1st of i uly he was hanged and quartered ; his heart and bowels were thrown into the fire, but his body was ob- tained from the king and interred in the churchyard of St. Qiles-in-the-Fields, except the head, and the arms to the elbows, which were inclosed in two tin cases. In 1683, when the quarters of his body were exhumed Ijy his friend. Father Corker, they were found entire, and all his relics were translated to Lambspring, in Ger- many ; but Hugh MacMahon, one of his successors in tho primacy, having obtained tlie head from cardinal Howard, brought it to Ireland,^and subsequently depos- ited it in the convent which he founded, in 1732, for Dominican nuns, at Drogheda, in which the first prioress DEATH OF CHARLES H. 567 tion ;""■ and if the lessous whicli histoi-y teaches are to have any effect, such a blot ought assuredly to humble na- tional j)ride. It is a remarkable fact tliat Dr. Plunkett was not only the last victim of tliat atrocious imposture, but that the tide of persecution ebbed im- mediately upon his death. He was executed at Tyburn on the 1st of July, 1G81, and the very next day Shaftes- bury-, the patron of the gang of per- jurers and the chief promoter of the plot, was himself dragged to the tower for high treason ; nor was it long after when some retiibution overtook the infamous Titus Oates, who was whipped by the common hangman and pilloried for his perjuries.f The severity of the penal laws was relaxed in Ireland. Ormond, whose growing moderation had drawn upon him the violent attacks was Catlierine Plunkett, a relative, it is presumed, of tlie holy primate ; and in this house, known as the Si- enna convent, the precious relic is enshrined in a small ebony temple decorated with silver. An authentic por- trait of the illustrious martyr, taken after his con- demnation, has been engraved, and published by Mr. Duffy. (See the excellent and learned memoir of Oliver Plunkett by Rev. Dr. Crolly ; also the notices of him in the Theologia Tripartita of his contemporary and friend, Arsdekin ; the Hib. Bominicana ; Harris's Additions to Ware's Irish Writers; the Thorpe Collection of Pamphlets ; the State Trials ; Mr. Thomas Darcy il'Gee's Irish Writers, &c.) All subsequent Protestant writers have admitted that he was unjustly executed. Bishop Burnet, who was certainly no friend to Catholics, writes ; — " Lord Essex told me that this Plunkett was a wise and sober man, who was always in a different interest from the two Talbots ;" and he adds, that the foreman of the grand jury who had investigated his case in Ireland, and " who was a zealous Protestant," told him the witnesses " contradicted one another so evi- dently, that they would not iind the bill" (Burnet's Hist, of his Mon Times, vol. i., p. 503-3). " Of his inno- cence," says Fox, " no doubt could be entertained" {Hist. of Shaftesbury and the Whigs, now more openly befriended the Irish Catholics. Whether influenced by some remorse for the past, or revolution in his own sentiments, or change which he observed in the feelings of the king, it is certain that he became liberal at the close of his long career. Charles II., who was received into the Catholic church a few hours before his death, expired on the 6th of February, 1685, and was succeeded by his brother James, duke of York, who had for several years past openly professed the Catholic faith, and suffered for it many persecutions and even banishment from England. Thus did a new vista of hope dawn upon the Irish. The seventeenth century, towards the close of which we now apjjroach, though brimful of calamity to Ireland, Works, p. 40). " He was," says Dr. CroDy, " the last victim of the Popish plot, and the last martyr who was directly put to death for the Catholic religion in these countries." It will interest Irish antiquaries to know that Florence MacMoyer, one of the witnesses against Dr. Plunkett, was the hereditary keeper of the cele- brated Book of Armagh, and that being reduced to beg- gary at the close of his life, he pawned, for £5, that cele- brated relic of antiquity, which thus came into the pos- session of an ancestor of Lord Brownlow. It is now in the possession of Trinity CoUege, and is about to be pub- Bshed by the Rev. Dr. Beeves, to whom Primate Bercs- ford has most liberally given £600 to aid in the publi- cation. * Charles J. Fox's Historical Works, p. 3.3. f " Titus Oates," says Grainger, " was restrained by no principle, human or divine, and, like Judas, would have done any thing for thirty shillings. He was one of the most accomplished viUains that we read of in history." (Biographical Hist, of Eng., vol. iv., p. 201.) Oates obtained for his perjuries a pension of £1,200 a- year, of which he was deprived by Kin g James, but William IH. granted a pardon to the miscreant, and conferred on him a pension of £400 a-year. 568 IRISHMEN DISTINGUISHED IN LITERATURE. was illumiuated by innumerable lights of Irish history and literature. Its first quarter witnessed the labors of Philip O'Sullevaa Beare, Stephen White, Peter Lombard, and Thomas Messing- ham ; the Four Masters (Michael, Con- ary, and Cucogiy O'Clery, and Ferfeasa O'Mulconry) were compiling their cele- brated Annals of Ireland from 1632 to 1636 ; Geoffrey Keating, who has been called the Irish Herodotus, died about the middle of the century ; Archbishop Ussher, that wonderful compound of great learning and intolerant bigotry, and the honest and learned Sir James Ware, flourished at the same time ; the eminent Irish scholar and antiquary, Duald MacFirbis, was Ware's Irish amanuensis; Father John Colgan, the greatest of our hagiographers, published his invaluable Acta Sanctorum, Hiher- nice, at Louvain, in 1645 ; and during the same century flourished Patrick Fleming, Hugh Ward, David Koth, Luke Wadding, Dominic O'Daly, Tho- mas Carve, Anthony Bruodin, Nicholas French, Oliver Plunkett, Richard Ars- dekin. Archdeacon Lynch (Gratianus Lucius), and the learned author of the Ogygia, Roderick O'Flaherty. The list might be much extended, and to the preceding, who, with two or three exceptions, were ecclesiastics residing abroad, might be added a long ar- ray of other Irishmen who confined their labors in the foreign monasteries and colleges exclusively to sacred sub- jects. At the same time the Irish at home preserved their traditions and some of their ancient records in their woods and mountains, where their priests found hiding-places from persecution, and wliere Ave can fancy that the wild strains of the native music, devoted to the utterance of so much sorrow, be- came more exquisitely plaintive in their character. ACCESSION OF JAMES II. 5G9 CHAPTER XLI. REIGN" OF JA3IES n. Temper of parties in Ireland at the Accession of James II. — Hopes of the Catholica and alarm of the Protestants. — Clarendon lord-lieutenant — Refusal to repeal the Acts of Settlement. — Colonel Richard Talbot created earl of TirconneU, and appointed to the command of the army in Ireland — Succeeds Clarendon as lord-lieutenant. Numerous Catholic appointments. — Alarming rumors — Increased disaffection of the Protestants. — Birth of the Prince of Wales. — William Prince of Orange in%-ited to England — The League of Augsburg — William's dissimulation — His arrival at Torbay. — James deserted by his English subjects and obliged to fly to France. — Disloyal Association of the Protestants of Ulster — The Protestants in general refuse to give up their arms. — The Rapparees. — Irish troops sent to England, and the consequence. — Closing the gates of Derry. — The Irish alone faithful to King James — He lands at Kinsale and marches to Dublin. — Siege of Derry — The town re- lieved and the siege raised — Conduct of the EnniskOleners. — James's parliament in Dublin — Act of Attainder. — Large levies of the Irish. — Landing of Schomberg — He encamps at Dundalb and declines battle with James. — Battle of Cavan. — ^William lauds at Carrickfergus — Marches to the Boyne. — Disposition of the hostile forces. — The Battle of the Boyne — Orderly retreat of the Irish. — Flight of King James — He escapes to France. — William marches to Dublin. — Waterford and Duncannon reduced. — GaUtint defence of Athlone by the Irish. — Retreat of the Williamite army imder Douglass. — WiUiam besieges Limerick — Noble defence of the gar- rison — The English ammunition and artillery blown up by Sarsfield — The city stormed — Memorable heroism of the besieged — William raises the siege and rettims to England. — Arrival of St. Ruth. — Loss of Athlone. — Battle of Aughrim and death of St. Ruth. — Siege and surrender of Gal way. — Second siege of Limerick — Honor- oble capitulation. — The Irish army embark for France. (from a. d. 1685 TO A. D. 1691.) UNBOUNDED was the joy of the Irish Catholics ou the accession of James II., and ia a like proportion was the depression produced among the Pro- testants by that event. For the feelings of both jjarties, at a time "when so many elements of discord "were rife, due al- lowance should now be made. On the one side we see men who had so long groaned under oppression and ruin sud- denly raised to the hope of restored fortunes and religious liberty; on the other, a dominant party enriched "with the spoils of their antagonists, but now dreading the loss of power and of es- tates so dubiously acquired, and what was Avorse than all, th^extension of favor towards a «reed to which they entertained a fanatical aversion. The old English had become almost identi- fied in sympathies and interest with the Irish, and between both and the new interest, as the Cromwellian planters were styled, there existed all the jealou.sy and antipathy which could sj)ring from antagonism in religion and race. From the beginning James's acts relating to L-eland tended to strengthen the corresponding hopes and fears of the two parties. Colonel Richard Tal- bot, whose imprudent zeal and rash and impetuous disposition were often 5Y0 REIGN OF JAMES II. injurious to the cause wliicli he wished to serve, was raised to the peerage with the title of earl of Tirconnell, and ap- pointed commander-in-chief of the forces in Ireland, with an authority independ- ent of that of the lord-lieutenant. He proceeded to reorganize the array by the introduction of Catholic officers, and hastened with unconciliating abruptness to disarm the Protestant militia. The appointment early in 1686 of the earl of Clarendon as lord lieutenant, and Sir Charles Porter as lord-chancellor, might have reassured the Protestants had not their disaffection been too deeply rooted, and their fears too keenly alarmed. Tirconnell endeavored to procure a repeal of the Acts of Settle- ment and Explanation, but his proposal was scouted by the English council, who declared that the king would not sacrifice his English Catholic subjects to the interests of the Irish ; and Claren- don, in his ^eech on assuming the sword of office, tried to remove all doubts on this subject by stating that "he had the king's commands to de- clare on all occasions that his majesty had no intention of altering those acts." In February, 1687, Tirconnell was sworn lord-lieutenant, and contributed * Mr. Lesley thus puts tho argument on this sub- ject : — " Suppose, say they, it were true, which Dr. King asserts, as it is most false, that King James, while ho was in Ireland, did endeavor totally to overthrow the Church established by law there, and set up that which was most agreeable to the inclinations of the major number of the people in that kingdom, who are Roman Catholics, the Jacobites ask, if tliis were so, whether it be not fully vindicated in the fourth instruc- tion of those which King William sent to his commis materially by his administration of affairs to increase the discontent and alarm of the Protestants. In each court two Catholic judges were appointed, the third being a Protestant ; Catholics were made high sheriffs and privy coun- cillors ; commissions of the peace were granted to a number of Catholic magis- trates ; a great many Catholic officers obtained commissions in the army ; and quo-warrantos were issued to all the corporations, which had become nests of Puritan exclusiveness and corruption, fresh charters being granted which admitted Catholics into the corporate bodies. These measures might have been taken by another with less offence to Protestant prejudice ; but there was still nothing in them that was not con- sistent with a fair balance of religious toleration. Catholicity might with jus- tice have been made the state church in Ireland, as Presbyterianism was in Scotland ; but the acts of James's govern- ment in Ireland did not go to that extent, and there is no reason why we should disbelieve his own assurance that he never intended to overturn the Protest- ant establishment in these countries.* Bickerings and mutual provocations betweeji the parties were incessant. sioners in Scotland, dated at Copt Hall, May 31, 1689, in these words : — ' You are to pass an act establishing that church government which is most agreeable to the inclinations of the people.' By which rule, they say that it was as just to set up Popery in Ireland as Pres- bytery in Scotland." (Preface to his Answer to Areli^ Mshop King) Many of the Catholic appointments men. tioned above were made by Clarendon, and before Tir- connell became lord-lieutenant. DISAFFECTION OF PROTESTANTS. 571 The Protestants complained that the Catholics sued them for old debts, and that they instituted prosecutions for fictitious treasons ; but the most fertile source of irritation arose from the con- stant rumors on both sides of appre- hended massacres. In some places the Catholic peasantry deserted their dwell- ings for several nights successively, through fear of an attack by the Pro- testants ; and on the other hand a panic seized the Protestants in Dublin and elsewhere; congregations armed them- selves against imaginary " Popish mas- sacres," and placed sentinels outside the church gates during service ; and many of the Protestant merchants and tra- ders deserted the country for England and Scotland * It may be doubted whether James could, by any amount of moderation, and the most cautious policy, have averted the revolution which deprived him of his kingdom. The temper of * The work of Dr. William King, afterwards succes- sor of Dr. Marsh as archhisliop of Dublin — " The State of the Protestants of Ireland under the late King James's Ouvernment" — is the great text-book of Protestant wri- ters on this period of our history ; but it was ably re- futed by Charles Lesley, a contemporary Protestant divine ; and it may be questioned whether there be any other authority on Irish history less reliable for facts or more envenomed by prejudice, if we except Sir John Temple's History of the Irish Rebellion. Nevertheless, taking aU Dr. Bong's enumeration of Protestant griev- ances for granted, they form a marked contrast to the smallest portion of those inflicted on the Catholics in the preceding reigns. "In all the time the Protestants of Dublin were in King James's power," observes Mr. Lesley, " he did not hang one of them, though some of them deserved it by the law then, as Dr. King could witness." f James's two daughters by his first wife, the daughter of Chancellor Hide, were educated Protestants, England was such that a Catholic sovereign would not have been en- duredj^ had he even confined his reli- gion to his closet and enforced the penal laws of his pi'edecessors. James is accused of great indiscretion in exer- cising so freely the power of dispensing from religious tests, in having Mass celebrated openly in the palace, and in the favor shown to Catholics by his Irish government; but the arguments drawn from those acts only prove a foregone conclusion. The event which, more than any other, expedited the im- pending blow, was the birth of the prince of Wales in June, 1688. f Up to that time the only imj)ediment in the line of a Protestant succession was the king's own life, and as he was in the fifty-second year of his age at his acces- sion, it was possible that his removal, in the natural ordQi" of things, might have been waited for ; but the birth of a Catholic heir to the crown determined and their uncle, Charles II., took care to provide for them Protestant husbands ; Jlary, the elder, being married to her first cousin, William, prince of Orange and Nassau, and stadtholder of the united provinces of Holland ; and Anne, the younger, to George, prince of Denmark. His first wife having died in 1G71, Jamea married in 1673 Mary Beatrice, the daughter of the duke of Modena. She was then but fifteen years of age, and was as remarkable for her piety and virtue as for her singular beauty. Their four first children died in infancy, and as an interval of some years then elapsed, and James was growing old, those who ex- pected that he would not leave any male issue, were grievously disappointed at the birth of the young prince. The most unfounded statements were then put forth, to the effect that the child was supposititious, although there were forty-two witnesses of the birth, most of them belonging to the Protestant nobility. The prince was baptized James Francis Edward, and in after years was called the " Pretender." 5Y2 REIGN OF JAMES II. his enemies to take a different course, wLicb, however, had long before been contemplated, namely, an immediate invitation from England to William Prince of Orange. Of the circumstances vphich promo- ted "William's designs on the crown of England, not the least important was the confederation of European princes, known as the League of Augsburg. In this league were united the emperor and all the Germanic princes, the king of Spain, and even the pope. The object which they professed in common was to resist and limit the enormous power of Louis XIV., but the Protest- ant members of the league were still more strongly actuated by a desire to avenge the revocation of the edict of Nantes. The prince of Orange organ- ized the league, and he soon turned it adroitly to his own private account, employing for that purpose an amount of meanness and deception quite un- worthy of his position. It was known that the king of England was little better than the vassal of Louis ; such, at all events, the late king, Charles II., had eftectually made himself; and Wil- liam, iu preparing an expedition for England, pretended that his only ob- jects were to reconcile James with his disaffected subjects, and then to induce him to join the league against France. The prince's letter to the emperor on the subject displays a most reckless dis- regard for truth, and the money received * Balrymple's Memoirs, append, to vol ii. ; Memoir of King James II., vol. ii. ; Jesse's Memoirs of the Court from the pope for the purposes of the league was unscrupulously converted by William to the dethronement of the Catholic kiua; of Eno;land and the establishment of a Protestant succes- sion. Of a piece with these artifices to overreach the Catliolic powers was the pretence which William held forth to the peoj)le of England, that he was coming to investigate the birth of the prince, which he affected to consider surreptitious, but about which no ques- tion was afterwards raised.* The prince of Orange arrived in Torbay, in Devonshire, on the 5th of November, 1688, with a Dutch fleet of 52 men-of-war, 25 frigates, 25 fire-ships, and about 400 transports, which con- veyed a land army of nearly 15,000 men. James had an army amply suf- ficient to opjjose him had his oflicers been faithful, but the great bulk of these were known to be disaffected, and numbers of them went over at once to William. In a little while the king had no force upon which he could rely to bring into the field ; and having sent the queen and infant prince pri- vately to France, in the beginning of December, and escaped himself from the Dutch guards, by whom he was held a prisoner at Rochester, he em- barked along with his illegitimate son, the duke of Berwick, in a small vessel, on the 23d of December, and landing at Ambleteuse, on the French coast, early on Christmas morning, old style, of England from the Revolution to the Death of Oeorge II., vol. i., pp. 40, '17. WILLIAM INVITED TO THE THRONE. 573 claimed the protection and hospitality of Louis XIV. Ireland -was at this time in a most disorofanized state. Government was not strong enough to suppress popular manifestations on either side. The Pro- testants of the north had formed them- selves into an armed association with clearly disloyal views, and organized a system of local authority of their own. In other parts of the country, the Pro- testants had refused to give up their arms; several of them collecting into strong ba^Yns and castles which they garrisoned, and others proceeding in armed bands to join their brethren in Ulster. On the other hand, many of the Catholics armed themselves in an irregular manner, and they were un- justly held responsible for the conduct of the bands of marauders, called rap- parees,* who traversed the countiy, plundering villages, and carrying off whole herds of cattle. Tirconnell had sent the king a reinforcement of 3,000 troops, but the appearance of Irish sol- diers in England was made an excuse for the most absurd alarm ; and al- though they were immediately dis- armed, the monstrous falsehood was cii-culated that they designed to massa- cre the people of England, and the most extravagant consternation was thereby produced in London.f Nor was the sending of these troops the only blunder which Tirconnell commit- ted in the matter. He had Avithdrawn the garrison from Londonderry to make up the complement of men ; and when the earl of Antrim's regiment was sent, in a few weeks, to repair this mistake, the young men of Deny resolutely closed their gates against the royal troops. This was done on the Tth of December, 1688, before affairs in Eng- land had taken a decided turn aofsdnst the king; and the Protestants of Ulster having already assumed a position hos- tile to James, are admitted to have been the first of his subjects who rose in arms against him. No portion of Irish his. tory is more fiimiliar to the public than that at which we have now arrived, and it will suffice to state briefly the order of events. In England the flight of James was pronounced to have been an abdication, and William was thereupon invited to fill the throne.;]; Scotland followed the example of England, and Ireland alone * The rappareea are said to have been so called from the raparj or half pike, which was their principal weapon, besides the sgian or long knife. Many of the peasantry who were guiltless of any social crime were, in the sequel, mercilessly slaughtered as rapparees by the Williamites. f These troops were sent to Hungary to fight for William's ally, the emperor, but never returned to Ireland. % If James had abdicated, which he certainly did not do, still his son, the prince of Wales, would have been the legitimate heir to the crown. If he had no son, his eldest daughter Mary would have inherited ; and it was the intention of the majority in the convention assem- bled to dispose of the matter, that she should be pro- claimed queen, with her husband WiUiam as regent, but the latter declared that he would never consent to be the subject of his Tiife, and the convention, therefore, decided that William and Mary should reign as king and queen, but that WiUiam should govern in the name of both. The mother of the prince of Orange was Mary, eldest daughter of Charles I., and sister of James II., who was, therefore, the uncle as well as the father-in-law of William. James's other daugliter. 574 REIGN OF JAMES II. remained faithful to the king : the Irish considering themselves quite as well entitled, on every ground, to retain James for their sovereign as the Eng- lish and Scotch were to call a foreigner to the throne. Tirconnell issued commissions to sev- eral of the Catholic nobility and gentry to raise troops for the king's service; and the people responding readily to the call, above fifty regiments of foot and several troops of horse and dra- goons were soon raised ; but in propor- tion to the abundance of men was the scarcity of means to equip and maiu- taift them. The country had been im- poverished, and the Catholics reduced to ruin by the recent wars and confis- cations ; there was a miserable supply of arms and ammunition ; few of the officers were skilled in military affairs ; and there was not sufficient time to train and discipline new levies.f The Protestants, on the other hand, were well supplied witk arms ; and all that was most valuable of their movable property had been transferred by them to England or Scotland, or to the quar- ters of their friends in Ulster. Ennis- killen, as well as Deny, had refused to admit a garrison of James's forces ; and although the latter town vras induced by Lord Mountjoy, a Protestant who still adhered to King James, to receive Anne, deserted him and joined her husband, George, jirince of Denmark, in William's camp. * Abbe Mageogbegan'8 Mst. of Ireland. Tirconnell found in the government stores only 20,000 arms to dis- tribute among the new levies ; but most of them were six companies of his regiment, half Protestants and half Catholics, under Lieutenant-Colonel Lundy,the Catholics were soon sent about their business, and on the 20th February, 1689, the prince of Orange was proclaimed king within the walls of Deny. The whole of Ulster, except Charlemont and Car- rickfergus, was now in the hands of the Williamites. Tirconnell sent Lieutenant- general Richard Hamilton, with about 2,500 men, against them, and for this step he is blamed by Protestant -writers as having precipitated hostilities and caused the first shedding of blood ; but the truth is, the Ulster Protestants had already declared war against their le- gitimate sovereign. Lieutenant-general Hamilton came uj) with some of the Williamite forces at Dromore, on the 14th March, and having routed them, marched against Coleraine, where thv Protestants mustered so numerously, and were so strongly intrenched, that he durst not venture an attack. Hoping to encourage his friends by his presence among them, and resolved to strike a blow for the recovery of his throne, James landed at Kinsale on the 12th of March, 1689, bringing with him some Irish troops from France, and about a hundred French officers, with a supply of money. Praceediug to Cork, he was there met by the viceroy, Tir- Bo old and unserviceable, that not above one thousand fire-arms were found to be of any use. Neither had they artillery or ammunition, and there was no money. — King James's Memoirs, vol. ii., p. 337. JAMES'S ARRIVAL IN IRELAND 575 counell, Avhom he then created duke, and from whom he received an account of affairs that must have "been discour- acrine enouo:h. The Protestants of Bandon had shortly before imitated the example of their brethren in Derry, but they were soon compelled to sub- mit, and a deputation from them now sued for pardon at the king's feet, and were fortunate enough to escape any other punishment than a fine of £1,000. James hastened to Dublin, where he arrived on the 24th, and was received ^- with great demonstrations of joy. He ordered a parliament to be summoned, and issued proclamations commanding all those who had abandoned the coun- try and gone to England or Scotland to return under the penalty of being treated as traitors, and calling upon all to aid him against the usurper of 'his throne ; also for the suppression of robbery; and ordering Catholics who' were not in the army not to carry arms outside their houses ; and for the raising of money, &c. Believing that his presence before Derry would bring back that town to its allegiance, James proceeded thither contrary to the advice of Tirconnell ; * The dnke of Berwick, who was present, states in his memoirs that the besiegers had only six gmis ; and a contemporary Irish authority says there were " eight pieces of cannon in all, of which two were eighteen- poimders, and the rest petty guns." The authority to which we here refer is that known as the PlunkettMS., a contemporary History of the Civil Wars in Ireland, preserved in the library of the earl of Fingal, at Kjleeu castle, and recently brought under public notice by Dr. Wilde, who communicated an analysis of its contents, with copious extracts, to the Boyal Irish Academy. The title of the work is, " A light to the blind, whereby and appeared with his army before the town on the 9th of April, attended by the duke of Berwick and General De Rosen, a French officer who came with James to act as second in command to Tirconnell. The actual presence of James was not believed until a depu- tation from the town authorities came to the camp, and negotiations for a surrender were then set on foot; but the military ardor of the townspeople beinsr aroused, and De Bosen bavins' marched his troops nearer to the walls than the preliminaries of the treaty stipulated, the royal army was received with a shower of cannon and musket balls, and an officer standing near the king was killed. Thus the negotia- tions were broken off, and James, having ordered Lieutenant-general Hamilton to besiege the town, returned with De Rosen to Dublin. The investment which ensued par- took more of the nature of a blockade than a siege. The beleaguering army was imperfectly supj^lied with cannon, and had but two mortars, one of which was large, but became unserviceable in the j)i'ogi'6ss of the siege.* The men were wretchedly equipped, and it they may see the dethronement of James II., long of England ; with a brief Narrative of the Wars in Ireland and of the Wars of the emperor and the king of France for the crown of Spain ; anno 1711." It is in two vols. 4to., and its author, who, according to the tradition in Lord Fingal's family, was one Nicholas Plunkett, was an ardent Jacobite. It was borrowed by Si r James Mack- intosh, who made extracts, which were also employed by the late Lord Macaulay.who quotes it as "Light to the Blind," in his History of England; and we are indebted to the analysis and extracts made by Dr. Wilde for much valuable information used in the following pages. 576 REIGN" OF JAMES II. Tvas on the whole absurd to attempt, with such inadequate means, the re- duction of a town strongly fortified, well supplied with artillery and ammu- nition, and defended by a garrison amply numerous and animated by the most determined resolution. The be- siegers having no heavy guns to breach the walls, directed their few cannon against the houses which were exposed to their range ; but it was obvious from the beginning that they could only hope to reduce the place by starvation, and such being the case. General Ham- ilton sacrificed his duty to his humanity by allowing a large number of the useless population to depart, and thus enabling the besieged to protract the defence. A Major Baker was chosen governor of the town, Lundy, who had urged the garrison to capitulate to King James, having been obliged to make his escape in disguise at the com- mencement of the siege ; and the Rev- erend George Walker, a Protestant clergyman, who had raised a regiment of his own, and who, alternately in the i:)ulpit and on the ramparts, fired their energy by his addresses, was made assistant governor, but obtained the chief command on the death of Baker. The garrison, which amounted in the beginning to nearl}' 7,500 men, includ- ing ofllcers, was organized into eight regiments, to each of which was con- fided a bastion ; according to Walker's account they had twenty-two cannons, of which two were planted on the flat roof of the church, and the others on the walls and bastions; and many of the townspeople soon proved expert gunners. At the same time a numer- ous, resolute, and merciless force of the Enniskilleners was in the field in an- other quarter, and gave such occupation to the royal arms as to prevent the sending of reinforcements to the be- siegers; and, taking all the circum- stances into consideration, the successful defence of Londonderry does not seem to be a matter for much surprise. In some encounters which took place before the walls extraordinary bravery was displayed on both sides. A sortie was made by the garrison with 5,000 men on the 24th of April, and another in the beginning of May, in both of which the Ii'ish sufi^ered considerable loss; the French lieutenant-generals, Pusignan and Momont, Major-General Taaffe, son of the earl of Carlingford, and Captain Maurice Fitzarerald being amona: the slain. Two vi2:orous attacks were made by the besiegers on the strong intrenchments with which the garrison had enclosed their outpost on Windmill hill ; but the reckless valor displayed by the assailants, who rushed to the enemy's breastwork, only resulted in a useless sacrifice of life on their own side, for the besieged sufiered few casu- alties behind their works. At the commencement of the hostili- ties Culmore fort, at the narrow en- trance to the river Foyle, capitulated to the Irish, who constructed two other small forts on the banks, and drew a boom across the river, thus preventing SIEGE OF DERRY. 577 the passage of shipping to convey pro- visions to the town. On the 13th of June, a fleet of thirty ships from Eng- land arrived in Lough Foyle with sup- plies of men and provisions ; but Major-general Kirke, the officer in command, failing in his first attempt to enter the river, anchored in the lough, and contented himself by sending mes- sages to the town with the assurance that relief was at hand ; while in the mean time famine and disease had begun their ravages among the besieged. Uneasy at Hamilton's want of success before Derry, King James sent De Rosen, marshal-general of Ireland, with some reinforcements, to take the man- agement of the siege into his hands. De Rosen complained, in his letters to the king, of the utter want of all the necessaries of war in which he found the army, and of the total neglect of his majesty's commands which he wit- nessed. Above all, there was a fatal deficiency of heavy artillery, and he saw that the only resource still was to starve the garrison into submission. To hasten this result he resorted to the cruel expedient of collecting all the Protestants whom he could find in the neighboring country, to the number of three or four hundred, and driving them to the gates of the town. He calculated that the garrison would surrender rather than see their relatives * Neither King James nor tlie Irisli ■were responsible for De Rosen's cruel proceeding (Plunkett MS. ; also heaiey's A7i»wer to King; and Graham's Dernana,'p. 169) ; nor does it follow that that general would have 73 and friends perish under the Avails, while, if they admitted them into the town, their provisions would be the more speedily consumed, and the same result rendered inevitable. These poor people, who were chiefly those whom General Hamilton had allowed to es- cape from the town, lay all night before the gates ; but the next day the be- sieged erected a gallows on the ram- parts and sent notice to De Rosen that they would forthwith hang their pris- oners, some of whom were men of rank, unless the people before the gates were allowed to return immediately into the country. The threat had the desired effect, and De Rosen's barbarous plan, which disgusted the Irish, and was strongly disapproved of by James, only served to exasperate the besieged still more, and to enable them to send off with the others a great many feeble per- sons who were a burden on their re- sources in the town.* While Kirke's squadron lay at an- chor in Lough Foyle, it is presumed that the effect of English gold was tried successfully on the officers commanding the river forts ; for, on the 30th of July, three ships laden with provisions passed the forts and boom nearly unscathed, although some shots were fired at them ; and when the garrison was reduced to the last straits by famine, and should inevitably have capitulated within forty- can-ied out his barbarous menace ; and Plowden very justly reminds those writers who dwell upon it, of the bloody and treacherous massacre of Glencoe, the warrant for which bore King William's ovm sign-manual. 5Y8 REIGN OF JAMES II. eiglit hours, the town was relieved. The abortive siege, the failure of which se- cured Ireland to William of Orange, was now raised, and the royal army finally decamped on the 5th of August.* We now return to James, who, as already stated, hastened back to Dublin on giving orders for the investment of Derry. On the '7th of May he opened his parliament in person, wearing on the occasion a crown newly manufac- tured for him in Dublin.f This Irish parliament declared itself independent of the parliament of England, and passed the first act made in these realms for liberty of conscience. To the Cath- olic clergy it granted the right to re- ceive the tithes payable by the mem- bers of their own communion ; and after a violent opposition from the Protestant members, it repealed the Act of Settle- ment, and passed an Act of Attainder against those who had taken up arms * The Reverend Colonel Walker, in his diary, admits that the garrison was diminished bj 3,000 men during the siege, and that 7,000 persons in all died of disease in the town in that time. The Reverend John Mackenzie, a Presbyterian clergyman, who was present, and has also left an account of the siege, shows that no reliance can be placed on Walker's facts or figures, and states that "it was thought 10,000 had died during the siege, be- sides those that died soon after ; and the report of a committee of the House of Commons in 1705 makes the number of those who perished on the Protestant side by sword or famine in that siege, 13,000. Walker gives a tariff of the prices paid during the latter days of the siege for horses' flesh and other carrion. The Irish admitted a loss on their own side of 2,000 (Plunkett MS.), but Walker's estimate of 8,000 is a gross exaggeration. The duke of Berwick says the Irish blockading force before Derry did not exceed 5,000 or 0,000 men ; and according to Mageoghegan it amounted at no time to more than 10,000. The regimented force within the city was, by Walker's account, between 7,300 and 7,400 ; but the entire armed force within the walls, including the non- against King James, or who, having gone to England or Scotland, or to the Protestant quarters in Ulster, had re- fused to comply with the king's procla- mation calling on them to return to their homes and their alleiriance. To form a just appreciation of these latter measures a slight retrospect is necessary. Had the Irish, in the war of 1649, succeeded in vanquishing their regicide enemy, their triumph would have been universally celebrated, and no one would have questioned the justness of their cause; but being unfortunate in the contest, they were subjected to a frightful and merciless spoliation, which the annals of no other country can parallel, and which no law could justify. We have seen how, by the sole right of the strong hand, the Irish Catholic no- bility and gentry were depi-ived of their estates; how their wide ancestral do- mains were divided among rude soldiers regimented men, was over 10,000. (See the authorities collected by Mr. O'Callaghan in his invaluable notes and illustrations to the Macarke Excidium, or Destruction of Cypress, pp. 318-333, a work of profound and elaborate research, and which must be the indispensable text-book of future liistorians of the Williamite wars in Ireland.) Governor Walker had advised a capitulation, and the negotiations for the purpose had been on foot some days before the relief arrived. The discrepancies in the dates of these events are singular. Thus various accounts give the 28th, 30th, and 31 st as the date of the relief of Derry, and the 1st or 5th of August as that of the siege being raised. f Plimkett MS. This parliament, which sat in the King's Inns, was attended by 46 peers and 228 common- ers. Among the former were the Protestant bishops of Meath, Ossory, Limerick, and Cork and Ross, two others (the primate and bishop of Waterford) acting by jiroxy ; but no Catholic prelates were simimoned. The parlia- ment was prorogued on the 18th of July, having sat about ten weeks. EXPEDIENTS FOR RAISING MONEY. 579 and unprincipled adventurers ; bow the very fact of being Irish in race and Catholic in religion was a crime involv- ing expulsion from home and countrj^ ; how the English parliament of Charles II., and an Irish parliament, composed chieflj^ of the Cromwellian plunderers themselves, ratified the atrocious sjiolia- tion ; and, finally, how the sittings of the Court of Claims were suspended Avhen it was found, after a few cases had been heard, that a door was opened to the Catholic Irish to obtain even a modicum of justice, although more than 3,000 claims Still remained to be inves- tigated. Twenty-six years elapsed, and King James's Irish parliament, repre- senting the true feelings of the nation, seized the very first opportunity which presented to repeal the infamous act of robbery. As to the Act of Attainder, passed on the same occasion, its results, so far as the question of property was concerned, would have been nearly identical with those of the Act of Set- tlement, the persons who would be affected by both being nearly the same ; but as neither of these acts came into operation, their grievances are specu- lative. The reader will balance the original injustice against the projected measure of I'eprisal; and when he finds English historians lavishing their elo- quent vituperations on the latter, while * On this particular subject no writer lias been more unjust than the late Lord Macaulay ; nor has any Eng- lish historian ever treated this country more unfairly or ungenerously than that eloquent ■writer has generally done in his historical works. He revived the exploded calumnies and fanatical bigotry of a past age, and not they either ignore the former or dispose of it with a word of contemptuous pity, his reliance on the statements of men so shamefully blinded by prejudice may well be shaken.* James was utterly averse to these measures of the Irish parliament. He considered that the commons were ac- celerating his destruction. Their legis- lation, it is true, was precipitate and reckless, and it would have been better had they waited till they held a surer footing. The Act of Attainder even curtailed the royal prerogative, by de- priving the king of the power to pardon the persons attainted; and it is doubt- ful whether James would have given his consent to that, or to the repeal of the Act of Settlement, but for the influ- ence of the French ambassador, Avaux. James's great want was money. The sum which he had brought from France went but a short way; and his difii- culties compelled him to resort to the most desperate and arbitrary expedi- ents. Old guns and bells were melted down and converted into coin, which was made current by proclamations im- posing the severest penalties on those who Avould refuse to accept it in ex- change for commodities. Some of this coin was subsequently called in and restamped for a higher value. At length even pewter was employed for only did he seize every opportunity to sully the character of the Irish, and to insult their religious and national feelings, but in innumerable instances he went out ot his way to do so. Unfortunately, the talents of the writer only aggravate the error or dishonesty of the historian. 580 REIGN OF JAMES II. the coinage, and money degenerated into mere tokens representing a ficti- tious value, which, however, James's government pledged itself to make good at a future day. In the end, the loss by this base coinage fell almost exclusively on the Catholics ; but that Protestants should have been at any time compelled to receive it has been a subject of unmeasured declamation aojainst James.* The same day that LondondeiTy was relieved, an Irish army, under Lieuten- ant-general Justin MacCarthy, Lord Mountcashel, was defeated by the En- uiskilleners at Newtown-Butler. This overthrow, it is said, was mainly caused by an unlucky mistake of the word of command. At the onset the Irish dra- goons, who were already dispirited by a repulse which they had received that morning near Lisnaskea, were easily thrown into confusion by a supposed order to retreat, and the ill-disciplined foot seeing themselves, as they believed, deserted by their cavalry, were panic- stricken. The Enniskilleners were com- manded by Colonel Wolseley, an Eng- * The use of a base coinage for Ireland was a favorite resource with many of James's predecessors on the English throne. Henry VIII. made a severe law to pre- vent the introduction into England of any of the base money which he coined for Ireland ; and Elizabeth's Irish coin, at the close of her reign, was so bad that the shilling was only valued at two pence by the goldsmiths. {Nicholson's. Irish llist. Library, p. 79, fol.) The mixed metal used by James II. in his Irish mint was valued by the workmen at no more than four pence per pound, so that the actual value of the metal which was coined into more than a million and a half of this base money, was only about £G,500 sterling. Still, the scheme of James was not worse, at least in its design, than that of the assignats or paper currency of more modern provisional lish officer ; they were well armed, were experienced marksmen, and already inured to war. Their watchword was " No Popery ;" they determined to give no quarter; and during the evening, and the whole night, and a great part of the next day they continued with the most inveterate fury to slaughter the unarmed fugitives whom they hunted down in the bogs and woods with a savage ferocity that has made even the Williamite historians blush. Five hundred of the flying Jacobites plunged into Lough Erne, to escape the carnage, and perished all but one man. Lord Mountcashel, who sought death in vain, was carried prisoner to Eanis- killen, whence he made his escape on the I7th of December, before he had recovered from his numerous wounds; and such was the consternation which the disaster produced, that Brigadier Sarsfield, who commanded a detach- ment at Sligo, was obliged to retire to Athlone, and leave tlie northern frontier of Conuaught open to the Enniskillen- ers.f These reverses were followed by the governments. In the proclamation of 3d William and Mary, dated Feb. 34, 1690-01, declaring James's mixed- metal coin to be no longer current, it is expressly stated that the Irish then had in their possession " the whole or the far greater part of the said coin." (See Simon's Essay on Irish Coins, pp. 50-64, and Append., p. 111.) f The author of the Plunkett MS. asserts that the rout at Newtown-Butler arose, as stated above, from a mistake in the command. Lord Mountcashel fearing that his right flank would be turned by the enemy, gave the order " right face" to the dragoons ; but this was unfortunately repeated by the subordinate ofilcers as " right about face," which made the other troops sup- pose that these were retreating, and a general panic ensued. The Williamite historian. Story, relates the DESTITUTION OF THE KING'S ARMY. 581 arrival of the duke of Schomberg, who lauded at Bangor, ia Down, on the 13th of August, 1689, with au army composed of Dutch, French Plugueuots, and new English levies. On the 17th he marched to Belfast, and on the 27th, after a siege of eight days, Carrickfer- gus was surrendered to him on honora- ble terms by its Jacobite governor. Colonel Charles MacCarthy More, whose garrison consisted only of his own regiment and of nine companies of the regiment of Colonel Corniac O'Neill, and who was reduced to his last barrel of powder before he yielded. On the 7th of September Schomberg marched to Dundalk, near Avhich he strongly intrenched himself; but the situation was most unhealthy, and his army soon began to suffer so fearfully from dysentery, and the effects of a wet season, that he dai-ed not give battle to King James, who had arrived from Dublin, and who in vain challenged the "Williamite general from his lines, two or three miles distant. The Enniskil- leners and Dutch in Schomberg's army suffered comparatively little, but the English were reduced to a fourth of their original number, and it has been estimated that 10,000 men or fully one- half of the entire Williamite force per- ished of sickness, scarcity, and the bad- circumstance in tlie same way ; and Colonel Anthony Hamilton and Captain Lavallin having been subsequent- ly tried by a court-martial for the blunder in Dublin, the latter officer was shot. Colonel Hamilton was a brother of the general who commanded before Derry, and in later yea.rs became famous in the French court as a brilliant poet, novelist, and ivit. The father of these ness of the season in that fatal encamp- ment. James has been censured for neglecting to attack Schomberg's camp at such a juncture, and for abandoning his position too soon ; for he retired to winter-quarters in November, and thus permitted the enemy to remove from a camp where the mortality whi-ch pre- vailed must soon have destroyed them even without fighting. Neither energy nor wisdom was, however, to be ex- pected from that ill-fated king, who unfortunately retained in his own hands the chief command of his army, and whose natural vacillation was increased by the conflicting counsels of his gen- erals. Thus terminated the campaign of 1689. Stimulated by his recent losses, and by complaints of his inaction, and Avell supplied by sea from England with every necessary, Schomberg was able to take the field early in the eventful year 1690: while, on the other hand, James's army was in want of eveiy thing, and could not be mustered or put in marching order till the season was far advanced. James's orders weie neglected ; he had scarcely any maga- zines along his frontier; and so desti- tute was his army of fodder, that they should wait till the grass grew to enable their horses to render any service even Hamiltons was son of the earl of Abercorn, and their mother a sister of the first duke of Ormond, who used to say that all his relatives were Roman Catholics. Lord Mountcashel was tried by a court of honor in France, and acquitted of any breach of parole in his es- cape from Enniskillen. 582 REIGN OF JAMES II. for draught. He was strongly urged bj' the French officers to withdraw into Connau^ht and act on the defensive, with the Shannon for his frontier, until he could receive succor from France; but to this course he was resolutely opposed, and he was supported in his views by Tii-connell. His hopes of aid from France must have been very slen- der. His friend and ally, Louis XIV., required all his resources to employ ao-ainst his own numerous enemies. Louvois, the French minister of war, was bitterly opposed to James, and always argued that it was more the interest of France to attack William on the Flemish frontier than in Ireland; and although Seiguelay, the minister of marine, was James's friend, the service which he could render was not suffi- cient. The French officers did not rel- ish their duties under James, and were constantly sending to their court de- sponding accounts, often but too true, and which supported the views of Lou- * On tliese matters, as well as on the events related in this chapter generally, we may refer the reader to the authorities collected by Mr. O'Callaghan in his elaborate annotations to the Macarim Exeidium, and to the researches of the same laborious investigator in the second edition of his Green Book. \ The battle of Cavan, which has been but ulightly noticed by other historians, is minutely described in the Plunkett MS. After relating how Marshal Schomberg had sent Brigadier Wolseley with a detachment of En- niskilleners and English to Cavan, to extend his quar- ters in that direction, and how King James, being informed of this movement, dispatched Brigadier Nu- gent with 800 men from Westmeath and Longford, and the duke of Berwick with a like quota from the county of Dublin, the author continues : " Both the royal corps for the most part arrived at the open town of Cavan on the 10th of February. They were all foot except a troop or two cf horse. Brigadier Wolseley came to vois. Neither Avaux'nor the energetic and aspii-ing De Rosen, who was a Li- vonian by birth, would show the fallen monarch even common respect, and both of them were, at James's desire, recalled to France. In March this year six battalions, or 6,000 men, arrived from France under the command of Count de Lauzun, who was also to act in the capacity of ambassador; but these French troops wei-e rather an ex- change than a reinforcement, for James sent by the same conveyance to France as many of his best-equipped and best- trained soldiers, forming the division of Lord Mountcashel, M^iom Tirconnell disliked, and therefore caused to be. re- moved. The French brought twelve field-pieces and some arms and clothing for the Irish, but Louvois took care that the clothing and arms should be of the worst description.* In February, 1690, the Jacobites suf- fered some loss in an affiiir at Cavan ;'|' and soon after the fort of Charlemont the place on the 11th, in the morning, with 700 foot and 300 horse and dragoons. The duke of Berwick being alarmed and not well prepared, di'ew his men out of the town to an open ground, by which he gave an advantage to the enemy, who, seeing their position, placed their foot between the hedges of the avenues of the town, and took the defensive. The king's forces being divided into two wings, assaulted the rebels within tlicir fences. The charge being given and maintained smartly, a party of the Irish horse broke another of the enemy's ; but the left wing of the roy- alists being so overcome with fighting that they were forced to retire into a fort that v.-as near them, the right, fighting at the like disadvantage, retreated also thither, by which the rebels gained the field. Of the royal party there were about 200 killed, amongst whom was Brigadier Nugent, much regretted for his bravery. So were Adjutant Geoghegan and Captain Stritch, and a few other officers. There were ten officers made WILLIAM ARRIVES IN IRELAND. 583 was invested by a strong detachment of Schomberg's army. Teige O'Regan, the veteran governor of Charlemont, defended the place with obstinate bravery, and only thought of capitulat- ing when reduced to the last extremity by starvation. At length, on the 14th of May, the fort was surrendered on honorable terms, the garrison, consist- ing of 800 men, being allowed to march out with arms and baggage, and with them about 200 women and children. As an instance of the distress to which they were reduced, we are told by Story that only a few fragments of decayed food were found in the fort, and that some of the men as they marched out were chawing pieces of dry hide with the hair on. The En- niskilliners treated the Irish soldiers and their families with great brutality as they passed aloug, but Schomberg humanely directed that a loaf of bread should be given to each man at Armagh. It was well known for some time that William intended to conduct the Irish campaign of 1690 in person, and the spirits of his army and adherents iu this country were consequently raised to a high pitch. He embarked near Ches- ter, on the 11th of June, and landed at Carrickfei-gus on the afternoon of the 14th, attended by Prince George of Denmark, the duke of Wurtemberg, prisoners, of wliom ivere Captain Netterville, Captain Daniel O'Neill, Captain O'Brien, and Captain Qecrge M'Gee. Of the enemy there were slain, Trahem, Captain Armstrong, Captain Mayo, and near fifty private men, and about sixty wounded. Brigadier Wolseley returned the prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, the duke of Ormond, the eai'ls of Oxford, Portland, Scarborough, and Manches- ter, Lord Douglas, the Count de Sol- mes, Major-general Mackay, and other persons of distinction. He immediately took horse, and at the Whitehouse, half-way between Carrickfergus and Belfast, was met by Schomberg, whose carriage he entered, and thus drove to Belfast, where he was received with loud shouts of " God bless the Protest- ant king." Notice of his arrival was soon transmitted through the country by bonfires, and the discharge of can- non at the different Williamite quarters. His army, combined with that of Schom- berg, amounted, according to the most probable estimate, to between forty and fifty thousand men, and was com- posed of a strange medley of nations, English, Scotch, Irish Protestants, French Huguenots, Dutch, Swedes, Danes, and Brandenburghers or Prus- sians, with smaller recruitments from Switzerland and Norway; more than half were foreigners, and on these Wil- liatn placed his chief reliance, the fidel- ity of the English iu a struggle against their old king being somewhat doubt- ful. All, however, were well trained, and most of them veteran troops, and all were armed and equipped in the best i^ossible manner. They wei'e sup- to hia own quarters, having first burnt the town of Cavan, not being able to keep it because the castle was in possession of the Irish." See Dr. Wilde's Extract from " Light to the Blind," in Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. 584 REIGN OF JAMES II. plied with everything requisite for war, and more especially with a numerous train of artillery. On the IGth of June, James left Dub- lin to march against his adversary with an army of about 20,000 men, imper- fectly disciplined, and scantily supplied with even the most necessary require- ments for a campaign. He had many brave officers ; his French division was composed of first-rate troops, well equip- ped and appointed ; the Irish horse were admirable ; but the dragoons were not so well trained ; the Irish infantry consisted for the most part of raw levies, scarcely half armed ; and for artillery he was only able to take with him the twelve field-pieces which he had recently received from France.* James advanced to Dundalk, while William was encamped a few miles be- yond Newry ; and, in order to ascer- tain the strength of the enemy, the former dispatched, on the 22d of June, Colonel Dempsey, with 60 horse, and Lieutenant-colonel Fitzgerald, with a few companies of grenadiers, to lie in wait for one of William's reconnoitring parties. TLis duty was so well per- formed that a Williamite detachment of between 200 and 300 foot and dra- goons were routed with great loss at the half-way bridge between Dundalk and Newry. An English officer, who * Lord Mucaulay, who quotes from tlie dispatches of Avaux several passages describing the condition of the Irish army, says: "Almost all the Irish gentlemen ■n'ho had any military experience held commissions in the cavalry ; and by the exertions of these officers some regiments had been raised and disciplined, which Avaux was made prisoner, represented Wil- liam's army as 50,000 sti'ong ; and, al- though this was supposed by James to have been a gross exaggeration intended to have the effect of inducing him to fly, it is probable that it was not very remote from the truth. This slight success cheered the Irish, but their spirits were damped on the following morning, when James commenced his retrograde movement and retired to Ardee. The army retreated by easy mai'ches, and on the 28th commenced recrossing the Boyue, on the right bank of which river James resolved to make a stand. Irish historians are loud in their condemnation of James's tactics. His irresolution, they argue, destroyed the confidence of his men ; his retreat from Dundalk made them feel all the discouragement of defeat ; and then, they say, he should not have hazarded a battle against such superior forces, or on a line so defenceless as that of the Boyne. From James's memoirs, how- evei-, it appears that his original design was to protract the campaign as much as possible, and that when he deter- mined to fight at the Boyne it was because he would have been obliged to abandon all Leinster to the enemy had he left the passage of that river open. On the 30th of June the hostile forces first confronted each other on pronounced equal to any that he had ever seen. It was, therefore," he admits, "evident that the ineffi- ciency of the foot and of the dragoons was to be ascribed to the vices, not of the Irish character, but of the Irish administration."— fl"w<. of Eng., vol. v., p. 43. IRELAND StmSi^ K V A I r^ 1 f'A pUil'i!i:l>"i! -&? ft, r^ .I..f:..mf:<--h ■ a J.,i\l:mri Kimu s><5£^ .ua//.; '■i";,f(l<- • will \j}VBtlN BAY ,,i. /.■•■'■ ^iu'i-^i"\vii l[;ti'l'in- _JrrliaiM p:m.i\;kpr G A, L W A Y /?»"■">■ /"'"/«."' Nl^RtBOROUC /KILDAJ \l:r.n H>1- f^^-U J!.rotTn- "tfhjr % -^\PPtRARY Z^rlinfffnrd ILEEMSTHIE mSI^ Jif'irli/ 'Llrffitr/n'nr ^■"/■■'■•^.//\lj;,,..!.,f,„ \ EnniscocTny ' Mi'ti'yh.r, 7 '''''■'t.n?,.7M4h ,-l.»,ll. AW'.yff SCALE OF MILES Kttirn'fnMil^S Ballytei^ue Bay , llr.i'iion- I'l . Tai'iisui'L' Fl. ^'^it^ffue Pier nirtif VT^Pg ° ./;«./.-■ BATTLE OF THE BOYNE. 585 tlie opposite banks of the Boyne. The Jacobite army was encamped on the declivity of the hill of Donore, with its right wing towards Drogheda and its left extending np the river. As there are no considerable inequalities in the surface, the whole of James's lines must have been visible from the heights on the opposite side of the river, and to a great extent exposed to the fire of the enemy's artilleiy. James's centre was at the small hamlet of Old- bridge, close to the bank, where he caused some intreuchments to be has- tily thrown up to defend the principal fords, of which there are four near this point, a fifth being a little lower down the stream, and two or three others a few miles higher up in the direction of Slane. There are two islands in the river near 01dbrido:e which facilitate the passage ; and at that season, which was remarkable for drought, and at the time of low-water, the Boyne was fordable throughout a great part of its course. The king himself took up his position at a small ruined church on the top of the hill of Donore, where a tuft of ash-trees now forms a conspicuous landmark. On the northern side of the Boyne the high land of the interior terminates in a steep and lofty bank, which almost * See second edition of Wilde's Boyne and Black- water, for the best topographical description of the battle- field, as well as for an excellent and connected account of the battle. t Story, the Williamite historian, admits that Wil- liam had 36,000 men that day in the field, but -adds 74 overhangs the river for several miles, but recedes opposite the angle which the stream forms at Oldbridge, so as to leave a small jilain between the heights and the water ; the line of hills being also at this point intersected by three deep ravines, one of which is now known as King William's glen. Thus the Williamite army, approaching from the north, was completely screened from view until it appeared on the brow of the hill, or debouched through the ravines^into the plain : the charac- ter of the country being therefore highly favoi-able to William, who planted batteries along the heights and kept up an incessant fire from his artil- lery on the Irish lines during the after- noon of the 30th.* The i^recise numerical strength of the two armies is a matter of some con- troversy, but all agree in admitting a vast superiority in numbers, equipment, and artillery on the side of the Wil- liamites. The duke of Berwick, who was one of James's commanders, and whose statements are generally found to be accurate and free from exafrsrera- tion, tells us that his father's army amounted to 23,000 men, while that of William was at least 45,000, and this account is perhaps as near the exact truth as we can hope to arrive.f The that the world reckoned the number at least one-third greater, that is 48,000. Now, weighing all the circum- stances, there is good reason to believe that " the world" was nearer to the truth than Story. ^Ir. O'CaUaghan has shown ii'om foreign Williamite contemporary authori- ties that William's army at the Boyne consisted of 63 586 REIGN OF JAMES II. disparity of numbers Avas, howevei-, one of the least disadvantages under wliicli the Jacobite armj' labored. They were, as we have seen, ill provided with any of the necessaries of war ; many of them were raw levies ; they could have no confidence in their imbecile com- mander; and their only artillery con- sisted of the twelve French field-guns : whilst against them was marshalled a numerous and veteran army, abun- dantly supplied with every thing ; com- manded by one of the greatest generals of the age, with a host of experienced officers under him, among whom the veteran Schomberg was perhaps his equal in military skill; and with a train of artillery comprising more than fifty field-pieces and some mortars. An incident occurred in the course of the afternoon of the SOth which was near determining the issue of the con- test. William rode close to the river- side to reconnoitre, and the group of officers attending him having attracted the attention of Tirconnell, the duke of Benvick, and some other Jacobite officers who were riding on the oppo- site bank, the latter, or King James himself, as the roj^al memoirs intimate. squadrons of horse and dragoons, and 53 battalions of infantry ; and he has concluded from his laborious re- searches among military papers in Trinity College, the State Paper OfBce, and the British Museum, that whatever may have been the actual number of William's troops in the field, his army on this occasion amounted by the regimental roll to 51,000, including officers. The author of the PUmkett MS., who, however, has fallen into several errors in his account of the battle of the Boyne, agrees very nearly with Story, for he makes the forces of the prince of Orange consist of 36,000 effective ordered two gnus to be brought to bear upon the distinguished party. At the second shot a six-pound ball grazed William's right shoulder, cariying away a portion of the skin ; and the effect havinof been observed fi'om the Irish side the rumor spread that William was mortally wounded. To remove the alarm which was produced among his own men he rode that evening through every part of his camp, and seemed to make light of the occurrence ; but in the mean time, the news that he had been hit by a cannon-ball, and, as it was supposed, fatally, was transmitted to Dublin and thence to France, and so became known throughout Eui'ope some time before the account of the battle was received, the effect being such as might have been expected ac- cording as it reached friends or foes. With an unaccountable infatuation James appeared resolved to destroy any hope of success which his army miffht still have cherished. One mo- raent he determined on a general re- treat, and for that purpose ordered the camp to be raised ; but the next, he altered his plan, and having sent o(f the basfS'affe and six of his twelve field- men, forming 3 troops of guards, 23 regiments of horse, 5 of dragoons, and 46 of foot ; while according to him, James had but 8 regiments of horse, 3 troops of guards, 7 of dragoons, and 50 regiments of foot, besides 6 regi- ments of French, the whole amounting to 20,000 men. (Compare Dr. Wilde's extracts from Pluukett MS. as before quoted, with the copious authorities collected by Mr. O'Callaghan from James's Memoirs, the Memoirs of the duke of Berwick, Story's History, and various Wil liamite sources, in his Annotations to Macariai Exd dium ; also second edition of the Orcen Book.) BATTLE OF THE BOYNE. SST pieces to Dublin, be apparently made up his niiud to risk a battle. The re- moval, of the baggage was a good pre- paration for an orderly retreat, but it was a plain intimation to the army that a retreat was contemplated; and the loss of the artillery was a fatal diminu- tion of strength. The king indeed thought of nothing but the means to keep the way open in his rear; and all his anxiety was that the enemy should not, by a flank movement, cut off his retreat to the south, where some say he had already privately directed prepa- rations for his flight to Fi'ance. Still, with such apprehensions for his per- sonal safety, it is strange how difficult it was to persuade him to take anj'- precautions for the defence of the fords up the river; for late on the eve of the battle he could only be induced to send Sir Niall O'Neill, with his regiment of dragoons, to defend the pass of Rossna- ree, about four miles from the Irish camp towards Slane. The morning of Tuesday, July 1st (old style), 1690, dawned* bright and iinclouded on the hostile camps. The first movement observed in the Wil- liamite army was the march, at suni-ise, of a division of 10,000 picked men, under the command of Lieutenant-gen- eral Douglass, Count Schomberg (the marshal's son), and Lord Portland, the last commanding the infantry, along the heights in the direction of Slane. James's Irish officers had prepared him for this movement the night before, and he now saw his fatal error in reject- ing their advice to provide against it. He hastily ordered the whole of his left wing, which included Lauzun'a French division, with part of his centre, and his six remaining field-pieces, to march with all possible expedition to oppose the flanking division ; but it was too late to obstruct their passage. The enemy had made all their prepara- tions the night before, and had got the start. The Williamite cavalry forced the passage of the river at Rossnaree, which was gallantly defended by Sir Niall O'Neill, who was mortally wound- ed, and lost seventy of his men. Port- land's infantry and the artillejy crossed at Slane, where the bridge had been broken, but the river was fordable.* James accompanied, or rather followed, Lauzuu and the left wing, and professed to expect that the brunt of the fighting would be in that quarter, where, how- ever, no action did take place ; for the two hostile corps found themselves separated within half-cannon range by a ravine and a bog, which neither at- tempted to pass, and thus they did not come into actual collision during the day. Their subsequent movements we shall presently notice. About ten o'clock,^ "William having learned that his manoeuvre on the right had succeeded, already felt assured of the victory.f It was the time of low- water, and the hour for attempting the fords of Oldbridsre had arrived. A » Plimkett MS. f " Had the Irish," observes a military authority, ' even thrown their opponents back into the river, still 588 REIGN OF JAMES II. tremendous fire from all liis batteries was opened on the whole line of the Irish, who had not a single gun to re- ply, but who nevertheless steadily awaited the attack. William had di- rected his men to wear green boughs in their caps ; while James, in compli- ment to his Bourbon ally, had decorated his with strips of white paper. Mar- shal Schomberg had opposed William's plan of battle in the council of war, but his views were deemed old-fashioned and were overruled, and he was the man commanded by William to direct the passage of the centre at Oldbridge. The Dutch blue guards, described as some of the most effective infantry in the world, were the first, marching ten abreast, to enter the stream, under Count de Solnies, at the highest ford; opposite Oldbridge. So shallow was the water here that the drummers only required to raise the drums to their knees. The Londonderry and Eunis- killen horse next, plunged in, and at their left the French Huguenots enter- ed, under Caillemot, brother of the Marquis de Euvigny. The English infantry came next under Sir John Hanmer and the Count Nassau ; lower down were the Danes ; and at the fifth ford, which was considerably nearer to Drogheda, and at which the water was deeper than at any of the former, Wil- liam himself crossed with the cavalry of his left wing. Thus was the Boyne, for nearly a mile of its course, filled William's advancing on their flank, wliieli was uncov- ered, could not be remedied. The attack by Slane was with thousands of armed men, strug- gling to gain the opposite bank, in the face of a foe their equals in gallantry, but greatly inferior in numbers, disci- pline, and arms. The duke of Berwick, whose words we translate, tells us that the king, his father, having marched in the direction of Slane " with the greater part of the army," "left to guard the passage of Oldbridge eight battalions of infantry, under ]^ieutenant-general Hamilton, and the right wing of the cavalry, under his (the duke of Berwick's) orders." "Schomberg," he continues, " who remained opposite us, attacked and took Oldbridge in spite of the re- sistance of the regiment Avhich was stationed there, and which lost 150 men killed on the spot; whereupon Hamilton went down with the seven other battalions to expel the enemy. Two battalions of the (Irish) guards scattered them ; but their cavalry hav- ing managed to pass at another ford, and procee^ng to fall upon our infan- try, I brought up our cavalry, and thus enabled our battalions to retire ; but we had then to commence a combat very unequal, both in the number of the squadrons, and in the nature of the ground, which was very much broken, and where the enemy had slipj^ed in their infantry. Nevertheless, we charged again and again ten different times, and at length, the enemy, confounded by our boldness, halted, and we reformed the grand manceuvre." Lieutenant-general Keating's Defence of Ireland, chap, v., p. 19. BATTLE OF THE BOYNE, 589 before tliera, and marched at a slow pace to rejoin tlie king."* Tliis is tlie honest narrative of a soldier who was in the thick of the fight. The few Irish foot left to defend the fords were, in point of numLers, utterly inade- quate; and it is admitted that very few of them had muskets, their princi- pal arm being the pike. At the onset they saw themselves unsupported, and had already suffered severely before the horse came to sustain them ; so that, under the circumstances, it does not detract from their character as brave men that they should have given way. Tirconnell, who held the chief command, in the absence of James, behaved like a gallant soldier; but it would have required more consummate generalship than he possessed to retrieve the for- tune of the day against such fearful odds. The Irish cavalry fought with desperate valoi', the only exceptions being Clare's and Dungan's dragoons ; and the latter regiment having lost their gallant young commander by a cannon-shot at the commencement of the action, their discouragement was per- haps excusable. It was also unfortu- * Memoires du Marechal de Berwick, i., 70. From this passage of the duke's memoirs it will be observed that King James, as already stated above, had accom- panied Lauzun and the left wing, and consequently that he could not have been a spectator of the battle from the top of Donore, according to the commonly received notion. The same also appears from Lauzun's dispatch of the 26th of July, from Limerick, and from James's own memoirs, vol. ii., p. 395, &c. James, therefore, wit- nessed none of the fighting at the Boyne, and the com- mon error on the subject originated probably in the WOliamite accounts. nate for the Irish that Sarsfield's horse accompanied the king that morning as his body-guard, and were thus pre- vented from taking any part in the conflict. By one of the charges of the Irish cavalry the Danish brigade was driven back into the river. The Huguenot regiments were so hotly re- ceived that they also were compelled to recoil, and their commander, Caille- mot, was mortally wounded. Old Schoraberg, who watched the struggle from the northern bank, now plunged into the river with the impetuosity of a young man, although he was then in his eighty-second summer. He refused to buckle on his cuirass, although pressed to do so by his staff, and has- tened to rally the wavering Huguenots at Oldbridge ; but at that moment a troojD of the Irish horse-guards dashed furiously into the thick of the enemy, and although most of their own num- ber were cut down, it was found when they retired that the gray-headed mai'- shal was no more. He received* two sabre wounds on the head, and a car- bine bullet in the neck.f About the same time Dr. Walker, to whom Wil- f There are various accounts of the death of Schom-^ berg. King James asserts that he was killed at Old- bridge " by Sir Charles Take or O'Toule, an exempt of the guards ;" but the Williamite report was that he was shot by a trooper of his own guard who deserted the year before {Captain Parker's Memoirs). Berwick says it was the blue ribbon which he wore that made him a special object in the melee. Story says he was " fourscore and two" when he was killed, and that his loss " was more considerable than all that were lost on both sides." His remains were taken to Dublin, em- balmed, and deposited in St. Patrick's Cathedral until 590 REIGN OF JAMES II. liam had just given the See of London- deny, was sbot dead in tlie ford while ui-giiio- forward the Ulster Protestants ; and when William heard of his death, he gruifly asked, " What brought him there ?" Where there were gallant officers enough to lead the men, he thought the churchman was out of his place. The battle raged with ter- rific fui'v ; the tide had be2;un to flow, and the passage of the river was be- coming more difficult ; but the Irish hoise of one wing had to resist, unsup- ported, the advance of the whole horse and foot of William's left and centi'e, and mere human valor was not equal to the task. Richard Hamilton, who behaved like a hero all that day, was wounded and taken prisoner. William, who did not cross the river until late in the action, came up, and leaving his English cavalry, placed himself at the head of the Enniskilleners, saying that they should be his body-guard that day, although one of them, in the ex- citeijient of the moment, mistook him for an enemy, and was on the point of killing him. A little later in the day those same Enniskilleners were put to flight rather iguominiously, by the Irish horse at Flatten, and were only rallied by William himself At length the retreat of the Irish became general ; but the cavalry retired in admirable order, and covered the broken masses of the infentry. Long before this an they should, at a future time, be removed to Westmin- ster Abbey. But they have since remained in their first resting-place. aid-de-camp brought news to James that the enemy had made good their passage at Oldbridge, whereupon the luckless king ordered Lauzun to march on a parallel direction with that of Douglas and young Schomberg towards Duleek, which place he reached before the flying throng of the Irish foot. Tirconnell came up next ; and now the French itifantrj^ for the first time ren- dered good service by their admirable discipline, preserving their OAvn order and co-operating with the Irish cavaliy in covering the retreat. Berwick's horse was the last to cross the nai-row pass of Duleek with the Williamites close in their rear; but beyond the defile the Irish rallied and once more presented a front to the enemy. Five of the six field-pieces which James had taken with him in the morning towards Slane were still available, the sixth having been bogged on the way ; and the Williamite pursuers reined up their steeds, although at this time William was rejoined by young Schomberg and Douglas with the right wing. Again the retreat was i-esumed in good order, and William's horse pursued, keeping still a respectable distance ; and at the deep defile of Naul the last stand was made. It was now nine o'clock ; the fiorhtins: had lasted since ten in the forenoon ; the Irish and French at bay showed a grim and determined front ; and the foe, wearied with the day's work, gladly received orders to return to Duleek. Thus was the Boyne lost and won. RETREAT OF THE IRISH. 391 Let no partisan feelings prevent the reader from doing justice to the heroic men on either side. We have given a calm narrative of fncts; and we con- sider that we are justified in concluding fi'om them, that however important in its results — the least of which, as far as Ireland was concerned, was the setting of a dynasty aside — there seldom has been a victory which gave less right to the victors to exult over the vanquished ; or a defeat in which the vanquished had less cause to feel the blush of dishonor. As to the loss on both sides, the duke of Berwick states that of the Irish to have been about 1,000 men in all, in- cluding, of course, those who were left wounded on the field, and the few stragglers killed in the retreat. Of the Williamite loss it is strange that there was no official report ; but Story, who was present in the English camp, admits a loss of 400 slain, which would make, according to the usual proportion, at least 1,200 killed and wounded; and Captain Parker, one of "William's offi- cers in the battle, says they had above 500 killed and as many wounded. Thus, at the lowest calculation, the Williamite loss was about equal to that of the Irish, which can only be accounted for by considei-ing the orderly style of the re- treat, and the want of energy displayed in the pursuit, which Berwick attri- buted to the death of Schombei-g. Story complains of the "incomplete- ness of the victory," and says that only * There is a well-known anecdote related of Lady Tir" connelJ, who having, it is said, met James ou his arrival one or two Irish standards M^ei'e cap- tured. Lauzun's French lost but sis men that day; and on William's side it is confessed that the battle was won by the foreign mercenaries, and by the northern Anglo-Irish, while the English troops had very little share in the hon- ors of the day. James, first in the retreat, arrived in Dublin with some horse early in the evening ; and bodies of the Irish infantry coming in, in the course of the night, confirmed the news of the defeat. Next morning the French reached the me- ti'opolis, and the Irish cavalry arrived in such excellent order, with martial music, that it was for a moment doubted whether they had lost the battle. On a rimior that the enemy was approach- ing, the Irish army was again drawn out on the north side of the city to oppose them, but, in truth, William's army did not enter Dublin until late in the evening of the following day, Thursday, July 3d. To dispose, in the first place, of the fugitive king, we have to mention that having called together a hastjr meeting of the civil and mili- tary authorities at the castle, being either so dull as not to have perceived the effect of his own blunders, or so un- generous as to try to palliate them at the expense of others, he delivered a short address, in which he cast the blame of his defeat on his Irish sol- diers.* He also showed some concern lest the discontented soldiery should at the castle, and hearing him reflect sarcastically on the fleetneas of the runaway Irish, observed, that his j92 REIGN OF JAMES II. pillage and burn Dublin ; but, on the contrary, we are not told of any act of insubordination or violence whicla these men committed. At five o'clock on Wednesday morning he set out, and leaving two troops of horse which he had taken witli him, to defend the bridge at Bray, as long as they could, should the enemy come up, he con- tinued his journey Avith a few followers, through the Wicklow mountains. At the house of a Mr. Hackett, near Ark- low, he bated his horses for about two hours, and then pursued his way to Duncanuon, where, after travelling all niaht, he arrived at sunrise. Here he emljarked on board a small French ves- sel, which took him by the following morning to Kiusale, whence he sailed with a French squadron, which had been provided for his service by the queen, and which landed him at Brest on the 20th of July, he himself being the first bearer of the news of his mis- fortune.* The news. of the king's flight dis- heartened the Irish soldiers, but Tir- conuell, to whom James had intrusted majesty bad, at least, tto advantage over them in that respect. * King James's Memoirs, ii., 39 7^06. The coast was at this time clear from English ships ; the combined English and Dutch fleets having been beaten off Beachy- Head, on the 30th of June, by the French Admiral Tour- ville. It is not true that James, before leaving Dublin, gave orders that each person should shift for himself, or that the army should ;make the best conditions it could and disperse, although liis conduct might seem to imply such orders. After his arrival at St. Germain ho importuned the French king for fresh succor to send to Ireland, or for an expedition to be sent into England, the chief command, gave orders that they should immediately march to Limerick, each colonel to take his men by the route which he thought best. A great many of the Catholic citizens left Dublin at the same time, together with their families; and in the evening of Wednesday, the 2d of July, Simon Luttrell, the Jacobite governor, evacu- ated the city with the militia. Wil- liam entered Dublin on Sunday, when he was received with eveiy demonstra- tion of joy by the Protestant inhabit- ants, many of whom had been confined as objects of suspicion by James ; and he proceeded to St. Patrick's cathedral, where he heard a sermon from Dr. King. He returned to his camp at Finglas for dinner, pi'eferring the small portable wooden house, which he used in camjiaigning, to the state apartments in Dublin castle. The day after the passage of the Boyne, Drogheda submitted to Wil- liam's forces. On the 16th, Kilkenny having been evacuated by a small Irish garrison which held it, opened its gates to a detachment sent under the duke of but Louis saw how useless it was to make any further sacrifice for James, who tells us, that finding he could obtain no succor, he was then obliged to send an order to Tirconnell to come away himself if he chose, and to bring with him as many as were willing to accompany him, or otherwise to make conditions for their remain- ing in Ireland, if they so preferred. Memoirs, ii., p. 413. James blames Tirconnell for having advised his hasty flight from Ireland, but admits that the duke's only motive v/as his solicitude for his (James's) personal safety, and for the queen's peace of mind. Vide notes to MacaruB Mceidium. SIEGE OF ATHLONE. 593 Onnoud, witli wliom "William dined on the 19th at his castle in that city; Dun- cannon was surrendered; and on the 25th of July, AYaterford capitulated, its garrison of 1,600 men marching out with arms and baggage for Limerick, towards which city William next di- rected his course. The Irish having now made the Shannon their line of defence. Lieutenant-general Douglas was sent by "William, on the 9th of July, with an army of about 12,000 men, twelve cannons, and two mortars, to lay siege to Athlone, of which Colonel Eichard Grace was governor. Douglas appeared before the fortress on the 17th, and after seven days vain- ly spent before its walls, having nearly exhausted his supply of gunpowder, and heard that Sarsfield was coming up with the Irish horse from Limerick, he raised the siege and withdrew to Mullin- gar. Thence he proceeded to join Wil- liam near Limerick, ravaging the coun- try as he passed, and slaying many de- fenceless people whom he assumed to be rappai-ees ;* but the expedition cost William on the whole a loss of over 400 men. The garrisons of Waterford and * Mr. Lesley tells us that " those who were then called rapparees, and executed as such, were for the most part poor, harmless country people ; that they were daily killed in vast numbers, up and down the fields ; or taken out of their beds and shot immediately ; which many of the Protestants did loudly attest" (Aiistcei- to King). And in Story's list of those who died in this war, it is said that there were " of rapparees kUled by the army or militia, 1,928 ; of rapparees killed and hanged by the soldiers without any ceremony, 122." Vide Sir John Dalrymple's Memoirs, &c., part i., p. 176. other places having been collected into Limerick, there were now in that city, according to the duke of Berwick, about 20,000 foot-soldiers, only one- half of whom, however, were armed; and the Irish cavalry, amounting to about 3,500 men, encamped five miles from the city, on the Clare side of the river. M. Boisseleau, a Frencli officei-, was governor : but Lauzun having sur- veyed the fortifications, pronounced the place to be untenable, swearing that it might be taken with roasted apples, and ordered the entire French division to march to Galway, there to await an oj^portunity to embark for France. It was supposed that this disgraceful de- sertion, which took place as William's army Avas approaching the city, would have the effect of preventing further resistance on the part of the Irish ; but its only result was to leave to the Irish foot-soldiers, so unjustly censured for their conduct at Oldbridge, the undi- vided honor of the subsequent memora- ble defence of Limerick.f William's forces when mustered at Cahirconlish, about seven miles south- east of Limerick, on the 7 th of August, after the junction of Kirke and Doug- t To view in its true light the conduct of the French in Ireland, during this war, one must bear in mind that _ they were the allies not of the Irish but of the dethroned king of England, whose cause they deemed hopeless, and for whose interests they could have felt little sym- pathy. It is therefore unjust to their chivalrous nation, to assert that either on this occasion, or at any time in the course of tliis war, they betrayed the Irish, in whose national cause they had not been called on to act. The case would have been different, and so, also, we may presume, would have been the conduct of the Rrench 594 REIGN" OF JAMES II. las, amounted to 38,000 effective men * On the 9th the whole army approached Limerick and encamped at Singland, in the southeastern suburbs. Next day they occupied the post called Ire- ton's fort ; planted a few field-pieces on Gallow's-green to annoy the to^yn, and sent a summons to the governor, who consulted with Tirconnell, Sarsfield, and other officers, as there was some doubt what course should be pursued. The answer, however, was worthy of brave men. It was addressed to William's secretary from a sense of politeness, as the governor could not give AVilliam himself the title of king ; and was to the effect that he hoped to merit the good opinion of the prince of Orange better by a vigorous defence than by a shameful surrender of the fortress with which he had been intrusted by bis mastei". King James. At this time William had only his field artillery, but his heavy battering train, consisting of six twenty-four- pounders and tAvo eighteen-pounders, together with a great quantity of am- munition and provisions, tin boats to convey troops on the Shannon, and other necessaries for the siege, was troops, had they been sent to aid the Irish as a nation against England ; hut the cause of James was already lost. As to Lauzun, his proper sphere was a court, with its intrigues, not a camp, with its hardships. He was no general. King James plainly intimates in his me- moirs, tliat Lauzun wished Limerick to fall, in order that his own conduct might he excused. He desired to get hack to Versailles at any hazard, and had so inspired his officers and men with his own sentiments, that there was among them a general cry to he recalled to France. They complained that they could get in Ireland no coming from Dublin, under a convoy, and was immediately expected in the camp. This important intelligence was conveyed by a French gunner who de- serted to the city the day after Wil- liam appeared before the walls, and it was soon turned to good account. Whether solely at his own suggestion, according to the generally received opinion, or acting on the orders of Tir- connell, as Berwick relates, Brigadier- general Sarsfield flew to the horse-camp, obtained a party of 500 picked men, and with them disappeared that night in the direction of Killaloe. The next day (Monday, the 11th) he halted un- observed at Silvermines, on the northern slope of the Keeper mountain, waiting for information through his scouts from the plain below. In the mean time, one Manus O'Brien, whom Story de- scribes as " a substantial country gentle- man,-" came to the English camp, and told how Sarsfield had left the night before, on what was believed to be some desperate enterprise ; but his statement attracted at first little atten- tion. At length it came to the ears of William, who then gave O'Brien an interview, and who, although he did bread, without which they could not live, although the Irish managed to dispense with it very well. The opinions of Louvois on that war and his hostility to the unhappy James were also well understood ; and to countenance them, some of the officers wrote home that all the French in Ireland were doomed men if not re- called immediately. Tet to letters dictated by such ob- vious prejudices Lord Macaulay has unfairly referred in his history as a testimony against the Irish. * Griffith's Villare Hihernieum, a WiDiamite au- thority. SIEGE OF LIMERICK. 595 not seem to thiuk much of the mattei-, nevertheless ordered out 500 horse to meet the artillerj'. Again Sarsfield's good fortune prevailed, and the party of Williamite cavalry, which was com- manded by Sir John Lanier, was not ready to march until two o'clock in the morning. The artillery convoy, on their route from Cashel, had halted that ni^rht at the small ruined castle of Ballyneety, near the borders of Tippe- rary.* Being now only a few miles in the rear of William's camp, while the Irish enemy were closely besieged in Limerick, they felt secure, and the; men havino' turned their horses out to ^raze retired to rest, leaving only a few senti- nels on guard. Meanwhile Sarsfield, led by faithful guides, had been pursu- ing devious and difficult paths through- out the night, and it was , near morning wheu his appi'oach aroused the sleeping convoy. The English bugles sounded to horse, but the conflict which ensued was . very brief. Eveiy man wlio re- sisted was cut down to the number of about sixty, and the rest, all but one, took to flight. The heavy cannons destined to batter down the walls of Limerick were then charged with powder, and their mouths being fixed in the earth, tliey were fired, and burst; the boats were broken ; the wagons and other articles which could not easily be carried off were collected * The site of this castle is marked on the ordnance map, about three and ahalf miles south of the Pallas station of the Limerick and Waterford Railway, and between two and three miles nearly west of the Cola into a heap and burned ; and the mag- azine of gunpowder being fired by train, exploded with a terrific sound which shook the earth to a distance of miles around. Sir John Lanier's party saw the flash, and heard the rumbling noise, about an hour after they had left the camp. They rightly guessed the cause, and only arrived in time to find that every thing was reduced to aslies, and that their eftbrts to intercept the intrepid Sarsfield and his gallant band were in vain. The success of tliis hazardous enter- prise animated the besieged with fresh resolution ; while in the camp of the enemy it produced mingled rage and consternation. William, nevertheless, determined to press the siege with the utmost vigor, and sent to Waterford for more heavy- artillery. Two of the great guns, found dismounted among the debris which Sarsfield had left at Ballyneety, proved to be still available ; and the walls of Limerick were so weak, that even field-pieces were sufficient to make an impression on them. One of William's first proceedings befoi-e Lim- erick was to send Generals Ginkell and Kirke, with about 5,000 horse and foot, to effect the passage of the Shannon. This was performed by the aid of pon- toons near St. Thomas's Island, north of the city, without any opposition. Tirconnell, who was old and feeble, and station on the same line. Though it is about fifteen statute miles from Limerick, the outposts of William's army were, probably, not much more than seven miles distant. 596 REIGN OF JAMES II. had no hope in the defence of Limerick, had joined Lauzun in Galway, and with- drawn the Irish horse to a remote dis- tance ; and Sarsfield had set out on his own famous expedition. It was feared that Limerick would be invested on both sides, but Ginkell's and Kirke's divi- sion recrossed the Shannon that night, the demonstration being apparently in- tended only against the Irish cavalry ; and Berwick ordered the destruction of the corn on the north side, that the en- emy might not have the inducement to come again to that quarter foi- forage. On the 13th, Brigadier Stuart was sent by William to take Castleconnell, which was surrendered after a slight resistance by its governor, Captain Barnwall, and the garrison of 120 men made prisoners of war. The trenches before Limerick were opened on the 17th" of August, and the approaches were pushed forward with all possible ener^. The high towers from which the besieged could fire into the trenches were battered down, and two redoubts and a small fort were ta- ken, though not without considerable loss on the part of the besiegers. On the 20th a vigorous sortie was made, which'somewhat retarded the enemy's works ; but by the 24th all the Wil- liamite batteries were completed, and a fire from 36 pieces of cannon was opened upon the walls and town ; some of the guns pouring red-hot shot, and a battery of four mortars throwing a shower of shells among the houses ; yet not the least effect was produced upon the resolution either of the citizens or the garrison. At length, on Wednes- day, the 27th, the trenches having been carried within a few feet of the pali- sades, and a breach of 36 feet wide hav- ing been made in the wall near John's Gate, William commanded the assault to take place. Ten thousand men were ordered to support the storming party ; and at half-past three in the afternoon, at a given signal, 500 grenadiers leaped from the trenches, fired their pieces, threw their grenades, and in a few mo- ments had mounted the breach. The Irish were not unprepared, although at that moment the attack was not expect- ed. The governor, Boisseleau, had caused an intrenchmeut to be made in- side the breach, and behind this he had planted a few pieces of cannon, a cross- fire from which told with murderous effect upon the assailants, after they had filled the space between the breach and the intrenchmeut. For one instant they halted, but the next they pushed forward, and mimj of them actually entered the town. The advantage, however, was momentary, and cost the intruders dearly. The Irish rallied, and, at the point of the sword and pike, drove the storming party back over the breach, where a most terrific conflict now ensued. Few there were, indeed, of the first assailants who ^vere not liors de combat, but thousands of their com- rades were in j^ossession of the counter- scarp, and ready to supply their place ; they were under the eyes of King Wil- liam himself, who was looking on from H SIEGE OF LIMERICK. 59T CromweH's "battery ; and they fought hard to regain the advantage which they had just lost. On the other hand, the Irish soldiers behaved with the most desperate intrepidity ; they were animated by the townspeople ; and the very women, says the Williamite chap- lain, Story, rushed boldly into the breach, and stood nearer to the enemy than to their own men, hurling stones and broken bottles into the face of the former. For nearly three hours was this deadly struggle maintained, and during that time never was breach more fiercely assailed or more nobly defended. The Brandenburg regiment, which showed great determination, had gained the Black Battery, but at that moment a mine was sprung by the Irish, or, as Story would have it, "the powder happened to take fire," and the Bran- denburghers w^ei'e blown up, " men, fag- gots, stones, and what not, flying in the air with a most terrible noise." The duke of Berwick, in his memoirs, adds another important incident. He says Brigadier Talbot, who was then in one of the outworks, called the horn-work, with 500 men, ran along the wall on the outside, and charging the enemy in the rear routed them, and then entered the town through the breach. Ifc was *Tlie account in tlie London Gazette makes Wil- liam's loss, on the 27th of August alone, 455 killed, and 1,293 wounded, or 1,748 in all, -nithout including the Brandenburghers, who, according to the Williamite accounts, had iQQliors do combat at the Black Battery, which would give a total of 2,148. The author of the Plunkett MS. says the besieged had not above a hun- dred men killed, but the report which makes the total probably against Talbot's party that Colonel Cutts was engaged when sent, according to Story, by the duke of Wurtemberg, towards "the spur at the south gate." "From half an hour after three till after seven," continues the Williamite historian, " there was one continued fire of both great and small shot, without any intermission, inso- much that the smoke that went from the toAvn reached in one continued cloud to the top of a mountain" (the Keeper hill) " at least six miles ofli". When our men drew off, some were brought up dead, and some without a leg, others wanted arms, and some were blind with powder ; especially a gi-eat many of the poor Brandenburghers looked like furies with the misfortune of gunpowder . . . The king stood nigh Cromwell's fort all the time, and the business being over, he went to his camp very much concerned, as indeed was the whole army; for you might have seen a mixture of anger and sor- row in everybody's countenance." Well indeed might William have been " con- cerned," for he lost over 2,000 men in killed and wounded that daj'.* Various reasons are assigned by the Williamites for the discontinuance of the siege. The ammunition, they say. Irish loss m that glorious affair 400, is more to be relied on. llr. O'Callaghan {Mncarim E.reid., p. 378, and Green Book, p. 117) cites a MS. Jacobite accoimt of the siege, in his possession, which makes the loss of tho enemy from the beginning to the end o'.' the siege 5,000 men, and that of the Irish during the same period 1,003 soldiers and 97 officers killed and wounded. The Lim- erick historian, O'H.illoran, and following him, Dalrym- 598 REIGN OF JAMES II. was running low ; the ground was swampy, and the season rainy ; but we are told with more probability by Jac- obite authorities that the Ulster Prot- estants objected to a second assault, as its failure would have caused a gen- eral rising of the Catholics, and the risk would have been therefore too great; and they add that William show- ed excessive bad humor at the council of war. On Sunday, the 31st of Au- gust, the besieging army marched off rather precipitately, fearing a pursuit ; which, however, the garrison had no means to attempt, as their cavalry were not at hand. William went by Clon- mel to Waterford, and at Duucannon took shipping on the 5th of September for England, leaving the command of 'the army to Count de Solmes, who was succeeded soon after by De Ginkell, and intrusting the civil government to Lord Sidney, Su" Charles Porter, and Mr. Coningsby as lords justices. As soon as the siege of Limerick was I'aised, a French squadron arrived at Gal way, and took oif Lauzun and his division, and with him departed the duke of Tirconnell, who went to repre- sent to James the actual state of affairs in L-eland, having committed to the duke of Berwick, who was then only twenty years of age, the chief command, with a council of regency and a council pie, relate that the victorious Irish having pursued the English into the camp, assisted them to extinguish a fire that had broken out in the English hospital ; but this probably refers to the period of the raising of the siege, three days after, when, according to Mageo- of war to assist him. Scarcely, indeed, had the enemy disappeared from before the walls of Limerick, when the jealous- ies that had long existed amons: the L'ish leaders broke out into open and most fatal dissension. Tirconnell had become exceedingly unpopular. His overbearing manner was never calcu- lated to gain friends ; the partiality of which he was accused in the exercise of his patronage was sure to ci'eate many enemies; his incapacity as a general, aggravated as it was by the dulness and feebleness of age, provoked the contempt of his military colleagues ; his friendship for Lauzun, of whom the army had such good cause to complain, was injurious to his popularity ; his Anglo-L'ish sympathies displeased the native Irish, who were now the most important element in the Jacobite party, and whose views were becoming daily more national ; all these circum- stances lowered him in the estimation of the people, and strengthened the faction which was formed against him among the leaders. Subsequent events, however, enable us to appreciate at its just value this opposition to Tirconnell ; and while we admit his faults, it is enough for us to know that the chief organizer of the cabal against him was the traitor, Henry Luttrell ; and that English writers who have shown the ghegan, the enemy on departing set their hospital on fire. O'Halloran, Introduct. to Hist, of Ireland, vol. i., chap, v., p. 407, ed. 1819 ; Dalrymplo, vol. iii., p. 42 ; Abbe: Mageoghegan, Hist, of Ireland, p. 594, Duffy's ed. SEIGE OF CORK. 599 bitterest enmity to the Irish, have been also unauimous in endeavoring to de- preciate Tirconnell's character. One or two unprincipled enemies found it easy to kindle the flame of popular dis- pleasure against such a man; and in the chivalrous ' Sarsfield, whose unso- phisticated mind was readily imposed on, they found an influential ally. As to the charges against Tirconnell of holding secret correspondence with the Williamite authorities, and intending to betray the Irish interests, they are the UDSujiported assertions of enemies, and we are assured by the most dili- gent investigator of this portion of our history that he has never been able to discover any authentic confirmation of them.* An expedition, conducted by the duke of Berwick and Sarsfield, march- ed on the 14th of September to attack the castle of Birr, but retired on the 19th before a greatly superior force under the command of Generals Doug- laSj Kirke, and Sir John Lanier. If it served no other purpose, the expedition had at least the effect of occupying and dividing the "Williamite array, which would otherwise have been concentra- * See the authorities adduced on this subject by Mr. O'CaUaghau in his annotations to the Macarice Exci- dium. It is evident that the confidence of King James and the duke of Berwick in Tirconnell never suffered any diminution, although they survived him long enough to witness the results of his conduct, and to hear aU the charges against him. HaUam's statement about Tirconnell's alleged plans to separate Ireland and make himself king, is supported by some curious evi- dence, and appears to be such a wild project as the ambitious Richard Talbot might at some time for a ted against Cork ; before which town the celebrated John Churchill, then eilrl, and afterwards duke, of Marlborough,f appeai'edon the 22d of September with an army of 15,000 men, composed chief- ly of the duke of Wurtemberg's divi- sion and of 8,000 fresh troops, which he himself had brought from England. Marlborough urged the siege with vig- or, and his great military genius was more keenly stimulated by a claim which the duke of Wurtemberg had the presumption to set up to the chief command. The garrison was numer- ous, but was badly supplied with the munitions of war ; and the town being unfit to stand a siege, the governor. Lieutenant-colonel M'Eligot, was blam- ed for not evacuating it and retiring to Kerry, as he had been directed by the Jacobite authorities in Limerick to do. On the 2^ih the walls were breached, and the following day an assault was ordered. The grenadiers of the storm- ing party were led by the duke of Grafton, who had been vice-admiral of England under James, and who was mortally wounded by a ball in advan- cing to the breach, and died a few days after in Cork. At the last moment the moment have entertained. See Hallam's Constitutional Sistory of England, vol. iii., p. 5-30, ed. 1829. f The duke of JIarlborough was uncle to the duke of Berwick, whose mother, Arabella Churchill, Marl- borough's sister, was mistress of James II. when duke of York. The diike of Marlborough was the bosom friend of James II., and is taxed with base ingratitude for turning immediately to WOliam's side. Henry Fitzroy, duke of Grafton, mentioned a little further on, was an illegitimate son of Charles II., and was there- fore the nephew of James, against whom he fought. 600 REIGN OF JAMES U. governor beat a parley, and the garri- son, to the number of between 4,000 and 5,000 men, became prisoners of war. Their ammunition had been re- duced to two small barrels of powder, so that further resistance was impossi- ble ; and to the disgrace of the English military authorities, the conditions on which these brave men surrendered were most shamefully violated.* From Cork, Marlborough marched the very same day to Kiusale, which the gariison set on fire at his approach, retiring into the old and new forts, which they were determined to defend. The English extinguished the fire, and Marlborough applied all his energies to the siege of the forts, which he found stronger than he expected ; the season being already so far advanced that he feared the consequences of a protracted resistance. The old fort was stormed on the 3d of October, and its garrison killed or taken prisoners. The new fort was valiantly defended by Sir Ed- * The Rev. Charles Leslie informs us that General MacCarth.y narrowly escaped being murdered after the surrender, and could get no satisfaction on his com- plaint to the English general ; and he goes on to state " that the garrison, after laying down their arms, were stripped and marched to a marshy wet ground, where they were kept with guards four or five days, and not being sustained were forced through hunger to eat dead horses that lay about them, and several of them dyed for want. That when they were removed thence they were so crowded in jails, houses, and churches that they could not all lye down at once, and had nothing but the bare floor to lye on, where, for want of suste- nance, and lying in their own excrements, with dead carcases lying wholo weeks in the same place with tliem, caused such infection that they dyed in great numbers daily. And that the Eoman Catholic inhab- itants, tho' promised safety and protection, had their ward Scott, who, in reply to the ene- my's summons to suireuder, said " it would be time enough to cajjitulate a month hence." He hoj)ed to be reliev- ed by the Duke of Berwick, who, after mustering seven or eight thousand men at Kilmallock for that purpose, feared to make the attempt, the besieging army being too powerful. On the 15th the garrison, numbeiing 1,200 men, capitulated, and were allowed to march outjvith their arms and baggage for Limerick. The winter passed off with- out any other military operations of importance, except simultaneous at- temjits by the Williamite army to cross the Shannon at Lanesborough, James- town, and Banagher, all which were successfully resisted by Sarsfield and Berwick, who were most accurately in- formed, through their spies, of all the movements of the enemy. The rap- parees gave the Williamites a good deal of annoyance during the winter, and some treasonable projects for the goods seized, and themselves stripped and turned out of town soon after." (Leslie's Ansiocv to King, p. 103). King James's memoirs confirm those statements, while WiUiamite authorities would attribute the suffer- ings of the Irish prisoners to the destitution and disease which even the WiUiamite garrison endured ; but the monstrous barbarities practised towards both the pris- oners and the inhabitants remain imexplained. It is a remarkable fact, exemplified in all the wars in this country since the Anglo-Norman invasion, that the English were notorious for not keeping faith with the Irish in treaties and capitulations, so that it became a settled principle with the Irish to place no reliance even on the most solemn promises of their English foes. To this circumstance may be attributed many a pro- tracted struggle, where resistance was kept up long after aU hope must have been extinguished. ^CJr^M^ M^Jloi5IE5!oL^AlfI&iItGI£ £; TIRCONXELL RETURNS TO IRELAND. 601 delivery of Galway to the enemy, and for tlie passage of the Shannon, were timely discovered by Sarsfield. A meeting of those opposed to Tir- connell having been held in Limerick, an attempt was made to induce the duke of Berwick to alter the form of government left by Tirconnell, as being unconstitutional, and to accept a coun- cil comiDosed of two representatives from each of the provinces ; but Ber- wick resolutely refused to yield to this request ; consenting, however, that four agents should be sent to France to ex- press the opinions of the leaders and exj^lain the state of the army. Two of these agents were Brigadier Henry Luttrell and Colonel Purcell, whom Berwick expressly selected, that they might be detained in France as persons whom he deemed turbulent and dan- gerous ; and he sent Brigadier Maxwell as his private emissary to explain his wishes on the subject to his father, King James. On the voyage, Henry Luttrell and Purcell suspecting the object of Maxwell's journey proposed to throw him overboard, but were pre- vented by the bishop of Cork and the elder Luttrell, i^vho were the other two deputies ; and at St. Germain James was made sensible of the danger which his cause in Ireland would incur should any of the agents be forcibly detained.* The representations of Tirconnell at * Memoirea du llarechal de Berwick, torn. i. jip. 88, 90 ; Memoirs of K. James II., vol. ii., pp. 422, &c. " Events provelf ' says Mr. O'CaUagian, " how just was tlie duke of Tirconnell's aversion to Henry Luttrell, a TO Versailles and St. Germain were ulti- mately successful, notwithstanding the impeachments against him, and he re- ceived most encouraging promises ; but unhappily the orders of Louis were not carried out by his ministers and their subordinates; and Tirconnell returned to L'eland about the middle of January, 1691, with a very inadequate supplj' of money, and some provisions, but no men. He appears to have received but 28,000 louis d'or, of which he left 10,000 at Brest to purchase provisions ; but not- withstanding the smallness of the sum which he brought, he ventured, on his arrival, to cry down the copper money, a proceeding which revived public con- fidence and greatly improved trade. He also brought from King James a patent creating Sarsfield earl of Lucan, viscount of Tully, and baron of Kos- berry.f The duke of Berwick left Ire- land the followins: month for France. On the 8th of May, 1691, a French fleet arrived in the Shannon, bringing a Ivge quantity of provisions, clothing, arms, and ammunition for the Irish troops, but neither men nor money. In this fleet came Lieutenant-general St. Ruth, a French offieer of great bra very, ability, energy, and experience, who was sent to take the chief com- mand of the Ii'ish army ; and with him were two other French officers of rank, Major-generals d'Ussou and de Tesse ; bad man, the father of a bad man, and the grandfather of a bad man." — Macarice Excid., p. 397, note. t Patrick Sarsfield, whose memory is so justly and proudly cherished by his countrymen, was descended 602 REIGN OF JAMES II. but it will be observed that James's army in Ireland was at this -time exclu- sively composed of Irish soldiers. Tir- connell was still viceroy, but with pri- vate instructions from James not to interfere in any way with St. Ruth in the management of military affiiirs. Hitherto the Irish army had been in a most wretched state ; the men were clothed in rags ; the officers were scarce- ly better oft*; food was so scarce that the use of horse-flesh was frequently re- sorted to ; and the ordinary pay of the Irish foot^soldier, when money could be procured for the purpose, was only one penny per day ! Let us compare this state of the Irish array with that of the magnificent force whicb Baron de Ginkell was then oi-ganiziug in Lein- ster, preparatory to a campaign, in paternally from an ancient and respectable Anglo-Nor- man family of the Pale, and maternally from a most ancient and illustrious Irish stock ; Ms father being Patrick Sarsfield, Esq., of Lucan, in the county of Dub- lin ; and his mother, Ann, the daughter of the brave and high-minded patriot of 1G41, Colonel Roger O'More. His elder and only brother, William, dying 'without male issue, he inherited tlie estate of Lucan, producing an income of about £3,000 a year. He commenced his military career early ; serving first as an ensign in France, in the regiment of Monmouth, and then as lieu- tenant of the Guards in England. He went with King James to France in Dect-mber, 1688, and returned with him to Ireland, in 1G89, when he was made a privy councillor, a colonel of horse and a brigadier. We have seen above some of the important duties in which he was subsequently engaged, and shall find him em- ployed in the same active manner up to the close of this w.ir. Subsequent to the first siege of Limerick, he was made major-general. After the treaty of Limerick, in October, 1091, we shall sec him sacrificing his fine estate and rejecting oflers of advancement in the Wil- liamite army, to accompany the Irish army to France, where he was appointed by James to the command of his second troop of Irish horse-guards. In July, 1692, he distinguished himself at the battle of Steenldrk, in which all the resources of England were to be employed to bring the war in Ireland to a close. " The greater part of the English force," says Macau- lay, "was collected before the close of May, in the neighborhood of Mullin- gar. Ginkell commanded in chief. He had under him the two best officers — after Marlborou2:h — of which our island (England) codld then boast, Talraash and Mackay. The marquis of Ruvigny, the hereditary chief of the refugees, and elder brother of that brave Caillemot who had fallen at Boyne, had joined the army with the rank of major-general. The lord jus- tice Coningsby, though not by profes- sion a soldier, came down from Dublin to animate the zeal of the troops. The appearance of the camp showed that which the allies under William HI. were defeated by the French under the Marshal de Luxembourg. He was created marechal-de-camp or major-general in the service of France by Louis XIV., and in that rank was killed in July, 1693, in the great battle of Landen, in which the allies under William III. were again over- thrown by Luxembourg. " His character," says Mr. O'Callaghan, " may be comprehended in the words, sim- plicity, disinterestedness, honor, loyalty, and bravery." (History of the Irish Brirjadcs in the service of France, vol. i., p. 135.) He married the lady Honora de Burgo, second daughter ofWUliam, seventh carl of Clanrickard ; by whom he left one son, who served under the duke of Berwick (who mai-ricd Earsficld's widow), and died in Spain without issue. Sarsfield's brother, William, who had married Mary, a daughter of Charles II. and sister of the duke of Monmouth, left a daughter, Char- lotte, who was married to Agmondesham Vesey ; and their daughter, Anne, was married to Sir John Bing- ham of Mayo, whose son. Sir Charles, was created earl of Lucan by George IIL, in 1776. (Archdall's Lodge, vol. vii , p. 107.) In stature Sarsfield was exceedingly taU. There is a French portrait of him, engraved after a picture painted by " My lady Bingham," who was no doubt the above-named Anne, grand-^tee of the illus- trious Irish soldier SIEGE OF ATIILONE. 603 the money voted by the English parlia- ment had not been spared. The uni- forms were new; the ranks were one blaze of scarlet, and the train of artil- lery was such as had never before been seen in Ireland."* Such was the army which, on the Tth of June, commenced the campaign of 1691, with the siege of Ballymore Cas- tle, in Westmeath, ihe most advanced outpost of the Irish in that direction. The castle, which stands on the verge of Lough Seudy, was defenceless to- wards the lake, and as the besiegers not only battered it with their artillery on the land side, but approached it on that of the water by boats, the gov- ernor, Colonel Urick Burke, deemed it right to surrender on the following day; having, as Story says, only "two small Turkish pieces, mounted upon old cart-wheels," to reply to the batter- ing train of the enemy. Ginkell re- mained until the 18th at Ballymore, repairing and strengthening the works ; and having been joined by the duke of Wurtemberg and Count Nassau, with 7,000 foreign mercenaries, he then marched against Athlone. -The English town, or Leinster side of Athlone, was never of much military strength. Gin- kell, with an army then about 18,000 strong, appeared before it on the 19th of June, and soon effected such a breach in its slender wall, that he was able to *Lord Macaulay's History of England, vol. vi., p. 83. \ Macaria Eicidium,^. 118. Mr. O'Callaglian says the best estimate he lias been able to form of the largest force St. Euth had about Athlone, during the assault it the following day with 4,000 men ; and the small Irish garrison post- ed at that side of the river, having lost 200 of their number, retreated by the bridge, Avhich they held in the face of the enemy until they had broken down two arches on the Connaught side. The Shannon, at this place, is wide and rapid, but was fordable a little below the bridge, at a point not then known to the English, and breastworks were thrown up along the river at the Con- naught side. Late on the 20th, St. Euth was informed of the fall of the English town, and advancing with the Irish army, which he had just got into marching order, and which amounted, according to the most probable account, to 15,000 horse and foot, he encamped two or three miles from the Irish town of Athlone.f The English raised their works, on the Leinster side of the river, to a great height, and by the aid of fifty battering cannon and ten mortars, from which they kept up an incessant fire, night and day, they were soon able to beat down the face of the castle which lay next to them, and to level the works of the Irish along the water side. Besides shells, they threw from their mortars implements of destruction, call- ed " carcasses," which were filled with combustible materials, and which set the thatched houses on fire ; and both houses and every thing in the shape of siege, including the garrison and the troops encamped with himself, some miles to the rear of the place, is from 22,000 to 23,000 infantry and cav.ilry. JWd., p. 421. 604 REIGN OF JAMES II. masonry were so levelled ou the Con- nauffht side, that the Irish soldiers had no breastwork from behind which they could fire ; and the besiegers, according to their own account, could stand with impunity ou the river-side and look over* The town was, in fact, reduced to a mass of rubbish, through which it was impossible for two men to walk abreast in any part ; and we are told by the Williamite, Story, that the be- siegers threw into it 12,000 cannon bul- lets, 600 bombs, and many tons of stones shot from the mortars, and that the siege cost them " nigh 50 tons of powder." The Irish, who had only a few field-pieces, nevertheless prevented the English from constructing a bridge of boats. The besiegers then endeav- ored to throw planks over the broken arches of the bridge, and they had nearly succeeded in this design, when eight or ten intrepid Irishmen under- took to pull down the planks and beams again, and performed their task under the terrible fire of the enemy — most of them, of course, being killed in that fearful duty. "The 26th," says the Williamite historian just cited, " was spent in firing, from seven batteries, upon the enemy's works, and a gi'eat many were killed in endeavoring to repair them. About 30 wagons laden with powder came to the camp ; and that night we possess ourselves of all the bridge, excej^t one arch at the fur- * Memoirs of Captain Parker, and Rawdon Papers, quoted in Annotations to Macarias Excid., pp. 423, 423. ther end, on the Counaught side, which was broke down, and we repair anoth- er broken arch in our possession ; and all night our guns and mortars play most furiously .... "VVe labor hard to gain the bridge : but what we got here was inch by inch, as it were ; the enemy sticking very close to it, though great numbers of them were slain by our guns." "Well might the French generals, who witnessed this heroism of the Irish soldiers, acknow- ledge that " they never saw more reso- lution and firmness in any men of any nation ; nay, blamed the men for their forwardness, and cried them up for brave fellows, as iutrjepid as lions."f It was the general opinion in both armies, that the attempt to pass the Shannon at Athlone would not succeed, but Ginkell was resolved to persevere. He made a final attempt to cross the bridge by means of a close gallery, which, however, the Irish contrived to set on fire, and he was once more foiled. At length it was suggested that owing to the dryness of the season the river might be fordable, and three Danes, who were sent on that dangerous duty, succeeded in finding the ford already referred to, which would admit twenty men to march abreast, and Avhere for the greater part of the way the water would not then reach above the knee, nor at the deepest part above the middle. But for this discovery the siege would f Letter of Colonel Felix O'Niell to the countess of Antrim, in the Raiodon Papers, p. 346. ^. SIEGE OF ATHLONE. 605 have been raised, and St. Ruth still be- lieved the enemy would not attempt the ford. AVliile every energy of the besieging army was thus directed with precision by the will of one commander, there was no one in the Irish camp whose authority was implicitly obeyed, and fatal jealousies and divisions prevailed. Tirconuell intermeddled with military matters to the great annoyance of St. Ruth, and with neither St. Ruth nor Tirconnell was Sarsfleld in favor. To prepare against an assault, however desperate he believed such an attempt would be, St. Rufh ordered the ram- parts on the western or Connaught side of the town to be levelled, that a whole battalion might enter abreast to relieve the garrison when the assault took place ; but d'Usson, who had been made governor, first opposed the plan, and then nes^lected to have the orders executed when St. Ruth insisted on the demolition. On the other hand, d'Usson wished to have the defences on the riv- er-side intrusted to a particular corps of picked men ; but St. Ruth required that each battalion should take the duty in turn, in order that all might be accustomed to the enemy's fire. At the critical moment to which we have now come, it happened that this im- portant post was intrusted to two regi- ments composed mostly of recruits, and that the officer in command was Major- general or Colonel Thomas Maxwell, a Scotchman, the same who had been sent on a private embassy to France by Berwick, and who was therefore a partisan of Tirconnell and was unpopu- lar in the army. Maxwell, as we are told by one party, observed certain preparations among the besiegers and demanded a re-enforcement of troops, but was answered that if he were afraid, another general officer would be seut in his place : while by the other, or St. Ruth i^arty, it is stated that Maxwell refused to supply his men with ammu- nition, and asked them, when they de- manded some, if they wanted to shoot larks ; and they also insinuate that he had an understanding with the enemy to betray his post. The Williamite historians say that at this juncture two Irish officei's swam over the river and assured Ginkell that " now was his time ; that the Irish were mighty se- cure ; and that three (rightly two) of the most iudifterent Irish regiments were only then upon guard, the rest being secure in their camp." * At length all was prepared for the assault. Two thousand chosen men were set apart. Ginkell distributed a gratuity of guineas among them. The command was given to Major-general Mackay, as- sisted by Major-general Tettau, the prince of Hesse, and Brigadier la Mel- loniere ; the grenadiers were command- ed by Colonel Gustavus Hamilton, and with these latter Major-general Talmash went as a volunteer. The signal was the tolling of the church-bell a few minutes past six o'clock, p. jr., on the ►Harris's Life of William III; Story, &c. 606 REIGN OF JAMES II. SOtli of June. TLe detachment of gi-enadiers first took the ford, and they were supported by six battalions of foot. The bastion which commanded the ford on the Irish side had been al- ready breached, and during the passage of the river an incessant fire was kept up from all the English batteries, and from the musketry in the trenches. Taken by surprise, the Irish soldiers who guarded the opposite side could do little more than discharge their muskets onx^ and fly. They believed themselves to have been betrayed. Maxwell was made prisoner by the English ; and the folding party having laid planks over the broken arches as soon as they gained the other side, the besiegers poured in their columns across the bridge. The garrison fled in disorder. D'Usson had been a can- non-shot from the town at the time of the attack, and in hastening to the gate he was averturned and severely hurt by the flying multitude. Thus in half an hour the besiegers were masters of the mass of rubbish and ruins which then occupied the site of the Irish town of Athlone ; and the surprise had been so complete, that the Williamites, accord- ing to their own account, lost in the assault only forty-six men killed and wounded.* The means of defence which the Irish possessed during this memorable siege may be judged from the fact that the enemy found in the * Leslie says the Englisli killed a hundred men in cold blood in the castle of Atlilone and in an outwork, after they had become masters of the place. works when taken only six brass field- pieces and two mortars ! St. Ruth, who was not aware of the attack until all was over, sent some regiments of infantry from the camp to succor the town, but they saw their own ramparts manned with English soldiers. He then moved his army to Ballinasloe, twelve miles off, and en- camjjed Avith the river Suck between him and the enemy. A council of war was held, and it was resolved that they should there give battle ; but St. Ruth, who was anxious to come to an enofas^e- ment, to blot out the disgrace of Ath- lone, subsequently removed the camp to Aughrim, a place about three miles distant on the road to Galway, and which he preferred to the banks of the Suck. As to Tirconnell, the outcry against him having become louder and more general, he left the camp immedi- ately after the surprise of Athlone, and repaired to Limerick. The choice of ground which St. Ruth made on this occasion evinced the skill of the general. The Irish army en- camped along the ridge of the high land called Kilcommadan Hill, which runs neai'ly northwest and southeast, then bounded towards Ballinasloe by a morass, through which flowed a small stream, and which was practicable for fi)ot but not for cavalry. On the right flank was the tolerably open pass of Urraghree ; and the Irish left rested on the then insignificant village of Augh- rim, where there was another pass, or rather causeway, through the bog, but BATTLE OF ATJGHRIM. 607 so narrow in one part that only two horsemen could ride abreast, while it was moreover commanded by the ruin- ous castle of the O'Kelly's, in which St. Euth posted Colonel "Walter Burke with 200 men. The infantry were dis- posed in the centre in two lines ; the front line havincr formed several breast- works of hedges which ran along the bottom of the slope, near the verge of the morass. In the right wing the principal portion of the Irish horse were placed, to defend the important pass of Urraghree ; in the left wing there were also some horse and dra- goons, but St. Euth appeared to think that the enemy would not attempt the narrow causeway at that side. Some of the cavalry were posted behind the second line of the foot in the centre, as a reserve. The advanced guards of the Williara- ites came in sight of the Irish on the 11th of July; and the following morn- ing, which was Sunday, while the Irish army was assisting at Mass, the whole force of the enemy drew up in line of battle on the high ground to the east, beyond the morass. As nearly as the strength of the two armies can be esti- mated, that of the Irish was about 15,000, hoi-se and foot, and that of the Williamites from 20,000 to 25,000; the latter having besides a numerous artil- lery, while the Irish had but nine field- pieces.* * Story says that Gin'kell's army at Auglirim was not more than 17,000, horse and foot, while the Irish, ac- cording to him, had 20,000 foot and 5,000 horse. Bish- The morning having been hazy, it was past eleven o'clock before Ginkell could obtain a clear view of the Irish position, and commence his own opera- tions. He then saw that he had no ordinary difficulties to encounter; but knowing his own great superiority in artillery, he hoped by the aid of that arm alone to dislodge the Irish centre from their advantageous ground, and as quickly as his guns could be brought into position opened fire upon the enemy. He also directed some cavalry move- ments on his left at the pass of Urragh- ree, but with strict orders that the Irish should not be followed bej'oud the pass, lest any fighting there should force on a general engagement, for which he had not then made up his mind. His orders on this point, how- ever, were not punctually obeyed ; the dragoons sent on that duty having suffered themselves to be lured forward by the Irish hoi-se where a number of musketeers were placed in ambush, and the consequence being some hot skir- mishing, which brought larger bodies of the Williamite cavalry into action, and thus led to some sharp fighting, that continued from about two to three o'clock, when the Williamites letired from the pass. Still, it appeared very improbable that a general action would take place that evening. Ginkell held a council of war, and the prevalent opinion seemed to be that the attack op Burnett rates the Irish army at 28,000, and the English at 20,000 ; ■while Captain Parker, who served under GinkeU, and was present at the battle, says the 608 REIGN OF JAMES II. should be deferred until an early hour next raorniug. The uncertainty which prevailed on this point may be conceiv- ed from the fact, that the deliberations were kept up until half-past four o'clock, when the final decision of the council Avas for an iunnediate battle. At five o'clock the fighting was renewed at Urraghree, and for an hour and a half there was considerable firing in that quarter; several attempts to force the pass having been made in the interval, and the Irish cavalry continuing to maintain their ground gallantly, al- though against double their own num- bers. TJ'p to this time there was no action between the centres of the two armies, or the wings which confronted each other near the pass of Aughrim, with the exception of the cannonade which was kept up on both sides, and in which the Williamites had, as has been observed, the advantage of a much more numerous artillery. Indeed, it two armies were nearly equal, but elsewhere tells us that the English at Mullingar mustered 33,000, and their loss in the interval was said to be trifling. King James's Memoirs state that in the retreat from Athioue the desertion from the Connaught regiments was so great that the foot were reduced from 17,000 to about 11,000 ; and Colonel O'Kelly, author of the Macarim Excidium, reckons the Irish infantry at Aughrim as only 10,000, and the horse and dragoons as 4,000. It is stated in Light to the Blind, that the English had double the number of cavalry, though the Irish had some advantage in the infantry ; but there can be no doubt that this statement, as far as regards the infantry, is erroneous ; and it is indeed obvious that the author of that MS., in many instances, takes his data as to numbers from the AVilliamite authorities, without suffi- ciently testing their accuracy. O'Halloran, who must have often conversed with persons who had a distinct personal recollection of the war, and whose account agrees with that traditionally received by the Irish to was plain to the enemy that St. Rufh could not turn his admirable position to its full advantage, owing to the great deficiency of his field-train. At length, at half-past six, Giukell, having previously caused the morass, in front of the Irish centre, to be sound- ed, ordered his infantry to advance on the point where the fences at the Irish side projected most, and where the morass was, consequently, narrowest. This, it appears, was in the Irish right centre, or in the direction of Urraghree. The four regiments of Colonels Erie, Herbert, Creighton, and Brewer were the first to wade throu2;h the mud and water, and to advance against the near- est of the hedges, where they were re- ceived with a smart fire by the Irish, who then retired behind their next line of hedges, to which the assailants, in their turn, approached. The William- ite infantry were thus g.radually drawn from one line of fences to another, up this day, makes the numbers of Irish and English 1.5,000 and 25,000 respectively. Mr. O'Callaghan, who has devoted a great deal of research to the subject, shows that the WiUiamite army consisted of 37 regi- ments of infantry, 19 regiments of horse, and 3 regi- ments and 14 troops of dragoons ; and that if all these regiments had been complete, the numbers would have been, infantry, 34,405 ; horse, 6,837 ; dragoons, 3,G07 ; total, 32,9::!9. The WiUiamite writers admit a loss of less than GOO men between the muster of the army at Mullingar and the eve of the battle of Aughrim ; and hence it is clear that the numerical strength of the army at Aughrim must have been considerably greater than what the AVilliamite historians assert. As to the artillery on both sides, the disparity was also very great. Ginkell had four batteries, and we know that two of these mounted six guns each, whence wo might conclude that there were 24 guns in all ; while it is admitted that St. Ruth had no more than nine field- pieces.— See Macarios Excid., p. 443, note 233. BATTLE OF AUGHRIM. 609 the slope from tlie morass, to a greater distance than was contemplated in the plan of attack, according to which they were to hold their ground near the morass until they could be supported by re-enforcements of infantry in the rear, and by cavalry on the flanks. The Irish retired by such short dis- tances, that the Williamites, " disdain- ing to sutler their lodging so near," as their" own historians express it, pursued Avhat they considered to have been an advantage, until they found themselves face to face with the main line of the Irish, who now charged them in front ; while, by passages cut especially for such a purpose through the lines of hedges by St. Ruth, the Irish cavalry poured down with irresistible force and attacked them in the flanks. The effect was instantaneous. In vain did Colonel Erie endeavor to encourage his men by crying out, that " there was no Avay to come off but to be brave." They were thrown into total disorder, and fled back towards the morass, the Irish cav- alry cutting them down in the rear, and the infantry pouring in a deadly fire, until they were driven beyond the quagmire, which separated the two * With reference to this part of the day's conflict, King James's Memoirs assert " that never was assault made with greater fury or sustained with greater obsti- nacy, especially by the foot, who not only maintained their posts and defended the hedges with great valor, but repulsed the enemy several times, particularly in the centre, and took some prisoners of distinction ; inso- much that they looked upon the victory as in a manner certain, and St. Ruth was in a transport of joy to see the foot, of whom he had so mean an opinion, behave themselves so well, and perform actions worthy of a better fate." — {Memoirs ofK. James II., ii., 457.) The 77 armies. Colonels Erie and Herbert were made prisoners ; but the former, after being twice taken and retaken, and receiving some wounds, was finally rescued. Whilst this was going for- ward towards the Irish right, several other Williaraite regiments crossed the bog nearer to Aughrim, and were in like manner repulsed ; but not having ventured araonfr the Irish hedsres, their loss was not so considerable, although they were pursued so far in their retreat that the Irish, says Story, " got almost in a line with some of our great guns ;" or in other words, had advanced into the English battle-ground. It was no wonder that at this moment St. Ruth should have exclaimed with national enthusiasm, " The day is ours, my boys ! le jour est a nou-s^ me-s enfans .'" He witnessed the triumph of his own generalship, and the heroic bravery of his Irish troops, and at that time he had evei'y reason to feel sure of a vic- toiy.* The manoeuvres of the Dutch general, on the other side, evinced consummate ability, and the peril of his present po- sition obliged him to make desperate efforts to retrieve it. His army being Abbe Mageoghegan says, " The royal (Jacobite) foot performed prodigies of valor. They repulsed the enemy's infantry three times up to their very cannon ; and it is said that at the third time General St. Ruth was so well pleased that he threw his hat into the air to express his joy." — {Hist, of Ireland, p. 595.) It is ex- pressly stated, in ligJd to the Blind, that the Irish not only drove the enemy back to their lines beyond the morass, but completely broke their centre, and occupied a portion of the enemy's ground; and this statement appears to be amply borne out by other accounts, English as'well as IrLsh. 610 REIGN OF JAMES II. much more numerous than that of the Irish, he could aftbrcl to extend his left wing considerably beyond their right ; and this causing a fear that he intended to flank them at that side, St. Ruth oi- dered the second line of his left to march to the I'ight, the oflacer who re- ceived the instructions taking with him also a battalion from the centre, which left a weak point not unobserved by the enemy. St. Ruth had a fatal confidence in the natural strensrth of his left, owint; to the great extent of bog and the ex- treme narrowness of the causeway near Aughrim Castle. The Williamite com- mander perceived this confidence and resolved to take advantaare of it. Hence his movement at the opposite extremity of his line, which was a mere feint, the troops which he sent to his left not firing a shot during the day, while some of the best regiments of the Irish were drawn away to watch them. The point of weakening the Irish left having been thus gained, the object of doing so soon became apparent. A movement of the Williamite cavalry to the causeway at Aughrim was observed. Some horsemen were seen crossins: the narrow part of the causeway with great difiiculty, being scarcely able to ride two abreast. St. Ruth still believed that pass impregnable, as indeed it would have been but for the mischances which we have yet to mention ; and he * Such is the version, given in Light to the Blind, and it is more probable than that of Mageoghegan, who Eays the garrison of tlie old castle were supplied by mis- take with cannon instead of musket balls. is reported to have exclaimed, when he saw the enemy's cavalry scrambling over it, " They are bivave fellows, 'tis a pity they should be so exposed." They were not, however, so exposed to de- struction as he then imagined. Artil- lery had come to their aid, and as the men crossed they began to form into squadrons on the firm ground near the old castle. What were the garrison of the castle doing at this time ? and what the reserve of cavalry beyond the castle to the extreme left ? As to the former, an unluck)^ circumstance rendered their eflforts nugatory. It was found, on ex- amining the ammunition with which they had been supplied, that while the men M^ere armed with Fi-ench firelocks the balls that had been served to them were cast for English muskets, of which the calibre was lai-ger, and that they were consequently useless.* In this emergency the men cut the small glob- ular buttons from their jackets and used them for bullets, but their fire was ineftective, however briskly it was sus- tained, and few of the enemy's horse crossing the causeway were hit. This was but one of the mischances connect- ed with the unhappy left of St. Ruth's position. We have seen how an Irish officer, when ordered with reserves to the right wing, removed a battalion from the left centre.f This error was immediately folio Aved by the crossing ■]• " Through this mistake — which, from the connec- tion of cavalry as well as infantry with the movement," says Mr. O'Callaghan, " I suppose to have been made between Brigadier Henry Luttrell, who was a Colonel DEATH OF ST. RUTH. 611 of the morass at that weakened point by three Williamite regiments, who eiuployed hurdles to facilitate their passage, and who, meeting with a com- paratively feeble resistance at the front line of fences, succeeded in making a lodgment in a cornfield on the Irish side. Nearly contemporary with this success of the enemy was the passage of the • morass by Ki^ke's and Hamil- ton's regiments of foot, which were enabled to drive in the Irish outposts at the old castle, and to place obstruc- tions in the way of the reserved Irish cavalry, whose charge from behind the castle on the extreme left was thus foiled ; and these movements of infan- try, it should be observed, preceded the passage of the causeway by the English cavalry. It was still easy to remedy the mis- haps which thus threatened to mar the success of the Irish, and St. Kuth, for that purpose, left his position in front of the camp, near the top of Kilcom- madan hill, and placing himself at the head of a brigade of ♦horse, hastened down the slope. He paused at one of his batteries to order a gunner to di- rect his fire to a particular point, and then resuming his place with the caval- ry, rode towards the hostile squadrons of horse, and some sutordinate infantry officer in this transfer of troops, and to be the foundation of the national tradition about the ' treachery of the general of the Irish horse, that enabled the English to cross the bog ' — three battalions of the enemy were enabled to slip over the skirt of the morass and the rivulet, into a corn- field on the Irish side, and establish themselves there until they could be assisted." — Green Book, p. 211, second ed. which were forming near Aughrim ; observing, says King James, to those about him : " They are beaten ; let us beat them to the purpose." But the w^ords were scarcely spoken when he was hit by a cannon-ball, which carried off his head — and all was lost ! Yet why should all be lost, if victory just before had been so certain ? It appears to be the destiny of Ireland that her leaders cannot agree ; and on this fatal occasion it hajipened that a coolness existed between Sarsfielcl, the second in command, and St. Ruth. Their dis- agreement dated from the surprise of Athlone ; and owing to it, the only man who could have supplied the place of the French general was left with some of the choicest cavalry as a reserve in the rear of the camp, with positive in- structions not to move until he received further orders. Sarsfield conceived that under the circumstances he was bound to the strictest obedience, and St. Ruth, on the other hand, communica- ted his plan of battle to no one ; so that when he fell there was no one left who understood the disposition of the forces, and no one to issue any orders. One of his attendants threw a cloak over the body, Avhich was then removed to the rear of the camp ; * but it was im- * What finally became of the body of St. Euth has been a matter of doubt. English writers say that it was cast into a neighboring bog, or left stripped on the field with the nameless dead; but the author of Light to the Blind informs us that it was removed by the attendants to Loughrea, and there privately buried. A bush marks the spot where tradition says he fell, and at some distance in the field is a place traditionally 61i REIGN OF JAMES II. possible to conceal his death long. The cavalry who saw him fall halted, and soon left the field. The Irish horse to the rear of Aughrim Castle were the next to relinquish their ground. No attempt was made to resist the Wil- liamite cavalry in crossing the narrow causeway. Their numbers were in- creased and their infimtry strengthen- ed. The disorder in the Irish lines was observed from the hostile camp, and a general attack on all points was com- manded. Still, the Irish centre and right wing maintained their ground obstinately, and the fight was renewed with as much vigor as ever. The Irish iufantiy were so hotly engaged that they were not aware either of the death of St. Ruth, or of the flight of the cav- alry, until they themselves were almost suri-ounded. At the same time Dr. Alexius Stafibrd, the chaplain of King James's Irish foot-guards, was killed ; and the death of this pious and heroic priest had as disheartening an effect on the infantry as that of the general had on the horse.* A panic and confused called St. Euth's Flag. The shot by which he was filled was fired from one of the guns sent to aid the English cavalry in crossing the causeway at Aughrim ; and tradition tells us that it was aimed by the advice of an Irishman who knew the personal appearance of St. Euth, and who desired to be revenged for the loss of a few sheep taken by the Irish soldiers. *This distinguished clergyman was dean of Christ Church, master in chancery, member of parliament, and preacher to the king's inns. Mr. Duhigg, the his- torian of the king's inns, says: " Ilis voluntary servi- ces and heroic death exact even from a firm opponent of his political and religious creed a ready belief of Stafford's personal virtue and humanity ;" and the same Protestant writer, referring to Dr. Stafford's conduct at Aughrim, observes : " There the genius of his coimtry flight were the result. The cavalry of the right wing, who were the first in action that day, were the last to quit their ground. Sarsfield, with the re- serve horse of the centre, had to retire with the rest without striking one blow, " although," says the Williamite Captain Parker, "he had the greatest and best part of their -cavalry with him." St. Ruth fell about sunset,f and about nine, after three hours' hard fight- ing, the last of the Irish army had left the field. The cavalry retreated along the high road to Loughrea : the infan- try, who mostly flung away their arms, fled to a large red bog on their left, where great numbers of them were massacred unarmed and in cold blood ; but a thick misty rain coming on, and the night setting in, the pursuit was soon relinquished. After the battle the castle of Aughrim was taken, and the greater part of its brave garrison put to the sword ; Colonel Walter Burke, with twelve of his officers and forty of his soldiers, only being made prisoners. triumphed over professional habits ; a jjeaceful preacher became a warlike chief ; the awful ceremonies of relig- ion were dispensed to a submissive flock, and their courage strengthened by an animating harangue. Then, with the crucifix in hand, Stafford passed through the line of battle, and pressed into the foremost ranks, loudly calling on his fellow-soldiers to secure the bless- ings of religion and property by steadiness and atten- tion to discipline on that critical day. Success crowned his manly efforts until death interrupted his glorious career ; then, indeed, the infantry was panic struck." — History of the King's Inns, pp. 233, 238, 239. fThe 12th of July, old style, on which the battle was fought, corresponded with the 22d of July, new style, on which day sunset at Aughrim would be about ten minutes past eight. THE LOSSES AT AUGIIRIM. CAS Of the loss on botli sides in this san- guinary battle the accounts are, of course, conflicting. The English official returns make that on the Williamite side, 73 officers and 600 soldiers killed, and 111 officers and 906 soldiers wound- ed ; or the total of killed and wounded, 1,690. But there is good reason to think that these numbers are too low ; while we may set down as gross exag- gerations the English and Anglo-Irish statements, which represent the number of Irish killed as 7,000 or 8,000. The slaughter of the Irish was, no doubt, very great, as in general no quarter was given by the victors, and as the wound- ed would appear to have been either massacred or left to perish on the field ; * It is remarkable that Capt.iin Parker, who fought in the Williamite ranks at Aughrim, agrees very nearly ■with King James's estimate, for, in his memoirs, he says, the loss of the Irish was near 4,000 killed ; and adds, " We had above 3,000 killed and wounded." Other accotmts, also from Williamite sources, would confirm Captain Parker's estimate of the Irish loss. Story, how- ever, who makes that loss at least 7,000, says: "There could not be many fewer ; for looking among the dead three days after, when all our own and some of theirs were buried, I reckoned in some small inclosurcs, 150 ; in others, 120, &c., lying most of them in the ditches where they were shot ;" and describing the appearance of so many stripped bodies of the dead, he adds : " The rest from the top of the hiU, where their camp had been, looked like a great flock of sheep, scattered up and down the country, for about four miles round." " The Eng- lish," says Dalrym pie, "disgraced aU the glories of the day, by giving no quarter ;" and Dr. Leslie, who wrote a year after the battle, mentions how " above 2,000 of the Irish, who threw dovm their arms and asked quar- ter, were killed in cold blood, after the English were absolutely masters of the field ;" and how " several who had quarter given them, were after killed in cold blood, in which number were the Lord Galway and Colonel Charles Moore." It was indeed well known that Lord Galway, who was a son of the earl of Clanrickard, and then only twenty-two years of age, was murdered by I some of the Huguenots after the battle was over ; while, ] but we believe that the estimate in King James's Memoirs, which may be regarded as the official authority on the Irish side, and according to which " the Irish lost nearly 4,000, nor was that of the English much inferior," is not far from the truth.* The Irish prisoners taken were only 526 of all ranks: and all the Irish tents, baggage, and artil- lery ; a vast quantity of the small-arms ; 32 pair of colors, and 11 standards, fell into the hands of the conquerors. The bodies of the Irish were, with few ex- ceptions, left unburied, and became a prey to the dogs and to the fowls of the air ; and for many years after, their bones were to be seen bleaching in the winter's wind.f as an excuse for all this brutal ferocity, we are told, forsooth, that the Irish had orders to give no quarter if they were victorious, . and that Colonel Herbert was killed by the Irish while a prisoner. Of the former statement we may assert, that it is a groundless fabri- cation ; and of the latter, that Colonel Herbert, who was made prisoner along with Colonel Erie, was prob- ably slain to prevent his being rescued, as that officer had been. Besides St. Ruth and dean Alexius Stafford, we find amongthe kUled on the Irish side. Lord Galway (Burke), Lord Kilmallock (a Sarsfield) ; Brigadiers Wil- liam Mansfield Barker, H. M. G. O'Neill, and O'Connell ; Colonels Charles Moore, James Talbot, Arthur O'Ma- hony, Walter Nugent, Felix O'Neil, Ulick Burke, and Constantine Maguire ; Lieutenant-colonel Morgan ; Ma- jors PurceU, O'Donuell, and David Burke, Sir John Everard, &c. Among the prisoners were Lords Diileek, (Bellow), Slane (Flemming), Boffin (Burke), and Ken- mare (Brown) ; Major-generals Dorringtou and John Hamilton ; Brigadier Tuite ; Colonels Walter Burke, Gordon O'Neill (son of Sir Phelim), Butler of KUcash, O'Connell, O'Madden, &c. f " Their bones," says O'Halloran, writing some fifty years after, " yet lie scattered over the plains of Augh- rim ; but let that justice be done to their memories which a brave and generous enemy never refuses." {Introduct., &e., ^d Append., vol. i., p. 533, ed. 1819.) " It must, in justice," says Harris, " be confessed that the Irish fought this sharp battle with great resolution. 6U REIGiSr OF JAMES II. Some of the Irish soldiers repaired to Galway, but the greater number, in- chuling all the cavalry, proceeded to Limerick. On Sunday, July 19th, a week after the action at Aughrim, Ginkell appeared before Galway, which had a garrison of about 2,300 men, with d'Usson, who had gone there after the loss of Athlone, as governor. The old fort, on a rising ground near the town, which in Cromwell's time had given so much trouble to the towns- people, being now in a ruinous state, was not occupied by the garrison, and the enemy were thus able to approach in safety within a hundred yards of the town wall. Here it is necessary to introduce to the reader a remarkable man, whom we have not yet mentioned, as his name was not especially connected with any of the events we have been relating, altliouofh he had for some time before Tvhich demonstrates that tlie many defeats before this time sustained by them cannot be imputed to a nation- al cowardice, but to a defect in military discipline and use of arms, or to want of sliill and experience in their commanders. And now, had not St. Rutli been taken off, it would have been hard to say what the consequences of this day would have been" (Life of William III., p. 327.) On which passage Mr. O'Callaghan remarks, that " a no less important cause than any above speci- fied by Harris contributed to the reverses of the Irish, viz., their great inferiority in pay, appointments, small- arms, artillery, and effective numbers, to the English, Scotch, Anglo-Irish, Dutch, Danish, German, Huguenot, &:c., troops of the line opposed to them, as well as the very effective local Williamite militia, or yeomanry, in which Harris's own father, Hopton Harris, served." (Macari^K Excid., note 242, p. 4G0.) To the second edi- tion of Jlr. O'Callaghan 's Oran Book wo may refer the reader for the most ample, minute, and accurate details of tlie affair of Aughrim ; but no account of the disas- trous battle — or, as the peasantry of the West of Ire- this occupied a prominent place among the Irish leaders. This was Balldearg O'Donnell, a lineal descendant of the ancient chiefs of Tirconuell, and who had come to Ireland from Spain, short- ly after the battle of the Boyne ; per- suaded himself, or in order to persuade others, that he was the O'Donnell with a " red mark " (balldearg), who, accord- ing to an ancient prophecy, was to lead the Irish to victory against their op- pressors. It is a ■ peculiar feature in Irish history, that such "prophecies" were always apt to gain credit with the people ; but it must be added, that the English in Ireland showed equal credu- lity on the subject, whenever the vati- cinations promised success to themselves, as we have seen in the case of Sir John de Courc}^ and as was instanced in much more recent times in projihecies relatinir to the battles of Kinsale and Knocknaclashy. Accordingly, the ad- land call It, the "breach {briseadh) of Aughrim" — would be complete with the omission of the affecting incident thus related by Story : " There is," observes the Williamite historian, " a true and remarkable story of a grey-hound {rede, an Irisli wolf-dog), belonging to an Irish officer. The gentleman was kiUed and stripped in the battle, whose body the dog remained by night and day ; and though he fed upon other corpses with the rest of the dogs, yet he would not aUow them, or any thing else, to touch that of his master. When all the corpses were consumed, the other dogs departed ; but this used to go in the night to the adjacent villages for food, and presently to return again to the place where his master's bones were only then left ; and thus he continued till January following, when one of Colonel Foulke's soldiers being quartered nigh hand, and going that way by chance, the dog, fearing he came to disturb his master's bones, flow upon the soldier, who being surprised at the suddenness of the thing, unslung his piece, then upon his back, and killed the poor dog." {Continuation of Hist., cCc, p. 147.) BALDEARG O'DONNELL. 615 vent of Balldeai'g O'Donnell excited great enthusiasm among the humbler classes ; men flocked in thousands to his standard ; lie set up as a sort of inde- pendent commander, and soon had en- rolled under him an irregular force of eight regiments, which he supported by levying oppressive contributions wher- ever he w^ent. The duke of Tirconnell, who entertained a strong dislike for him, deprived him of three regiments of his best men, under the pretence of incorporating them with the regular army, and made no provision for the support of Balldearg's remaining bat- talions. The popularity of the adven- turer diminished when it was seen how little he was likely to acliieve ; and during the battle of Aughrim he was in the vicinity of Tuam, with about a thousand men, which number soon after dwindled down to six hundred. With these, after burning and pillaging Tuam, he marched to Cong, in the county of Mayo. The inhabitan-ts of Galway placed their chief i-eliance on the promised aid of Balldearg, whose arrival was expect- ed by the way of lar-Connanght ; but when General Mackay, with a large di- vision of the besiegers, crossed the river some distance above the town, on the 20th, and the place was thus invest- ed at both sides, all hope of succor from Balldearg being abandoned, a * Dr. O'Donovan, in ■ his pedigree of the O'Donnells {Appendix to the Four Masters, vol. vi., p. 3330), states that Manus, son of Caffar Oge, son of Caffar, the brother of Rory O'Donnell, first earl of TirconneU and of the parley to settle the terms of a capitula- tion was called for the same day. Gin- kell being desirous to hasten the co-n- clusion of the war, agreed to favorable conditions, and the capitulation having been signed on the 21st, the Irish gar- rison evacuated the town on the 26th, and marched to Limerick, taking with them six pieces of cannon, which the English lent them horses to draw. Balldearg O'Donnell now entered into negotiations with Ginkell on his own account, through the medium of a friend named Richards. He asked to be allowed to enter the service of "Wil- liam, and was actually receiving pay from Ginkell, when he pretended to aid the Irish garrison of Sligo, then be- sieged by Col. Michelburne. Sir Teige O'Regau, who so braveljl defended Charlemont against Schomberg, was governor of Sligo, and having capitula- ted on the 14th of September, marched with his garrison of 600 men to Limer- ick ; and Balldearg entered into Wil- liam's service in Flanders, with all those of his men whom he could induce to follow him, and received during the re- mainder of his life a pension of £500 a year; a similar amount being also gi-ant- ed by the Williamite government to Colonel Henry Luttrell, who by less open means earned a traitor's wages.* The duke of Tirconnell sent a mes- senger to James after the battle of famous Hugh Roe, was styled earl of Tirconnell, on the continent, and " was indubitably the very man called Balldearg O'Donnell, who came from Spain to com- mand the Irish in the war of James II. ;" and in a note GIG REIGN OF JAMES II. Aiiglirim to annoimcetliat all was lost, and that unless immediate succor arrived, there was no resource for the king's adherents in Ireland but to make the best terms they could and submit. At lie adds : " He disclaimed the king's authority, and made demonstrations of maintaining the cause of the native Irish as distinct froni King James's ; and restor- ing them to the dominion of their native country ; hut being thwarted in e\'ery way by Tirconnell (Talbot), he turned over the standard of King William III., and retired to Flanders, where he was consigned to poverty and oblivion ; but of his ultimate fate, nothing has yet been discovered." Colonel Charles O'Kelly, the author of the Mdcarice- Eicidium, attempts to defend the con- duct of Balldearg, with whom he was intimately acquainted. Mr. O'Callaghan, in his notes and illustra- tions to the Macmim Excidmm (p. 4G9), quotes ofiScial MSS. for the pensions of £500 each, granted, as above stated, to O'Donnell and Henry Luttrell. Since the preceding pages went to press, documents of an authentic and most imi)Ortaut character, placing the conduct of this much-maligned Irish warrior in an entire- ly new light, have come into the possession of the learned editor of the Foar Masters, through whose extreme kind- ness the author is enabled, before this volume passes from his hands, to make the amende to the memory of a brave and patriotic chief The historical facts men- tioned in the text about O'Donnell are mainly correct ; the calumnies against him related chiefly to his motives ; and the obscurity in W'hich his history has been hitherto involved has been, in a great measure, caused by those very calumnies, which were sufiBcient to induce even such a man as Mr. Hardiinan, the historian of Galway, to think it not worth while to follow up his inquiries about him. The person popularly known as Balldearg O'Donnell was not Manus (as stated in the note, p. 615, on the authority of the Appendix to the Four Masters, p. 2380), but Hugh, son of John, son of Hugh Boy, son of Calvaugh (whose pedigree is correctly given by Dr. O'Donovan, in p. 2398 of the aforesaid Appendix, and has also been ascertained by Professor Curry from independent sources). He was bom in Donegal, and his boyhood was spent in Ireland. Re- pairing to Spain, where so many of his family had risen to distinction, he entered the army there, and rose to the rank of brigadier, but he never abandoned his allegiance to the House of Stuart ; and on the acces- sion of James II., he waited on the EngUsh ambassador in Flanders, to offer his services, should they be required by that monarch. When the Irish took up arms in defence of James, and of their own national and relig- ious rights, Spain being then at war with Louis XI'V., the same time he made Avliat prepara- tions he could to put Limerick in a postui'e of defence. He caused some additions to be made to the outworks, established a military station outside the ally of James, O'Donnell could not obtain permis- sion to leave the Spanish service for that of an enemy's ally ; and, forfeiting his high position in his adopted country, he hired a small vessel to convey him to Cork, whence he went to Kinsale, and saw James in his flight to France after the Boyne. Subsequently, he obtained a commission to raise what men he could in James's service, and soon succeeded in enrolling 10,000 men, who were embodied into thirteen regiments of foot and two of horse ; but from the first he was thwarted by Richard Talbot, who li.id obtained from James the title of earl of Tirconnell — the hereditary title of O'Donnell, and that by which he was acknowledged in Spain — and this was the true cause of all O'Donnell's misfortunes in Ireland. He was sent, after the first siege of Limer- ick, to the upper Shannon to defend the passes into Connaught, and to protect the keeriaghts — that is, those Irish who, having lost all besides, retained their cattle, with which they moved about in tho-old nomadic style. After the surprise of Athlone, O'Donnell could be no longer useful on the Shannon, and retired more westerly, but still had the keeriaghts under his protection. Tir- connell deprived him of his best armed men, and failed in his promises to obtain supplies of arms or clothing for the remainder ; as to pay, it was out of the question ; and O'Donnell was not raistd l--eyond the rank of briga- dier, although promised a higher grade. After Augh- rim, where O'Donnell's other duties did not allow him to be present, the authorities in Galway declined his oft'er to garrison that town, but called on him to do so \ when it was too late, and when the enemy was before their vv-alls. O'Donnell, with a sutall party, proceeded from Cong across the lake, and advanced to the hills close to Galway on the west, but found the place invested on both sides, so that it was impossible for him to enter the town. The war was then virtually over ; and a few days later, O'Donnell received a letter from Ginkell, who regarded him as a Spanish officer, and therefore ofl'ered him most favorable terms. These terms, however, O'Donnell did not then accept, but he stipulated for the safety of the poor people, who had been committed to his protection. When the last struggle was over in Limerick, O'Donnell could not join the ranks of his countrymen going to France — a country then at war with Spain, to which he was bound by every tie of fealty and gratitude. He accept- ed a commission under William HI., to command two regiments of his followers who still adhered to him, but DEATH OF TIRCONNELL. 617 tlie walls, collected stores of provisions, and exacted a promise from the leading men not to entertain any project of submission before tliey received an answer to the message v^rhicli had been dispatched to France ; but on St. LaAv- rence's-day, the 10th of August, he was seized by a fit of apoplexy, at the house of M. d'Usson, and expired on the 14th, the same day that Ginkell had begun to move his army towards Limerick from his camp at Cahirconlish. Tir- connell could have rendered little fur- ther assistance personally, but his loss at that moment produced a void which was painfully felt. It was rumored that his death was caused by a poison- ed cup of ratafia, but that it was the result of natural disease is much more probable. His remains were inteiTed the following night in St. Mary's cathe- dral, but no inscription or other mark indicates the place. That he was a faithful and zealous supporter of King James cannot be denied ; and William- ite writers admit that he disjjlayed " dexterity and zeal" in the cause which he had espoused. The duke of Berwick it was that he might serve in Flanders, which was then Spanish ground ; and when he found that he would be sent into Hungary to fight under the emperor, he proceeded to Piedmont, and thence to Spain, where he was honorably received, and raised to the rank of major-general. Wholly destitute of fortune, it is not surprising that he should accept pay from William, which was in lieu of that to which he was entitled as a general officer in the Spanish army. In fact, there was no act of Balldearg O'Donnell's which was not worthy of a brave, honorable, and disinterested man, and a true Irishman, and all the calumnies against him may be attributed to the jealousy of Richard Talbot and the hostility of the Anglo-Irish interest. The im- assures us that " he was a man of much worth, although not of a military genius ; that his firmness preserved Ire- land after the invasion of the prince of Orange ; and that he nobly rejected every offer that had been made to him to submit." * By the authority of a provisional appointment made by King James, Alexander Fitton (the Jacobite lord chancellor), Francis Plowden (com- missioner of the revenue), and Sir Rich- ard Nagle (James's secretary of state and attorney-general), assumed the office of lords justices, but their duties were only nominal, as the management of the army, which then comprised every thing, was committed to the charge of M. d'Usson. At this time, Ginkell carried on pri- vate negotiations with Colonel Henry Luttrell within the city, and through the means of the factions which were fomented there, hoped to obtain a sur- render without a formal siege.f He dreaded the eflects of a protracted de- fence at that season, when the autum- nal rains were so soon to be expected, and was prepared to grant any condi- pression left by these so prejudiced the public mind against him, that the statements of his friend. Colonel O'Kelly, in the MacaricB Excidium, in his favor, have hitherto been treated as valueless. His aobriguet of Balldearg (of the red-mark) was so popular, that he was never called in contemporary vmtings by his real name of Hugh. * Memoires du marecTud de BerwicTc, tome i., 103. f The perfidy of Henry LuttreU was discovered on this occasion by Sarsfield, and he was tried by court- martial and found guilty ; but through the influence of his numerous friends, he was only committed to the castle of Limerick until the decision of Kin g James could be known, aod was of course liberated at the 618 REIGN OF JAMES II. tions that, under the circumstances, might be demanded. Still, he neglect- ed no means to render his attack suc- cessful. His army was strengthened by large re-enforcements of Protestant militia, who were stationed at Killaloe and other distant outposts : an English fleet under Captain Cole ascended the Shannon, and a most formidable train of battering artillery was provided. Ginkell's army took up nearly the same ground which William occupied the year before. The besieged, who, says King James, had at that time thirty- five battalions tolerably armed, relin- quished their outposts on the Limerick side, and quartered their cavalry on the Clare side, towards which the city was still open ; and on the 25th of August the besiegers were i-egularly posted, having received all their heavy guns and 800 barrels of powder two days before. Sixty cannon, none of them less than twelve-pounders, say the "Wil- liamite authorities, and no fewer than nineteen mortars, were planted against the city. On the 30th, the bombard- ment commenced, and the city was soon capitulation. To follow this notorious traitor to his ultimate fate, we may mention, that on the night of November 1st, 1717, he was murdered in Stafford- street, in the city of Dublin, while returning in a sedan-chair to his town residence in that street, from Lucas's coflfee- house, which stood on the site of the present Royal Exchange on Cork-hill ; and that being a man grossly immoral in his private character, it may be doubted whether his political or social delinquencies were the cause of his murder ; but no clue to the assassin ever could be discovered. Several of his descendants were, according to the authorities quoted hy Mr. O'Callaghau, in the first volume of his History of the Irish Brigades, notorious for depravity ; but his male posterity became in flames in several quarters, so that a great number of the inhabitants took their bedclothes with them, and formed a camp in the King's Island ; and many of the principal citizens, including a great number of ladies and the Jacob- ite lords justices, established another camp about two miles from the town on the Clare side. On the evening of the 9th of September, the garrison made a sally in which they lost several men ; and on the 10th, a breach forty yards wide was effected in the wall of the English Town, behind the Dominican abbey ; but a deep channel of the river separating the breach from the besieg- ers, no attempt to storm it was made. Still, nothing of consequence towards the reduction of the city was consid- ered to have been achieved, until the night of the 15th of September, when, owing to the unpardonable negligence, if not the foul treachery, of Brigadier Cliffoi'd, who was posted with a strong body of dragoons to prevent such an attempt, the besiegers were enabled, without the least interruption, to throw a pontoon bridge over the Shannon to- extinct by the death of his grandson, John Luttrell Olmius, third baron of Irnham and earl of Carhampton, who survived until 1829, when he died in hisSSth year. In the work of Mr. O'Callaghan just cited, the reader will find many curious particulars about Henry Luttrell and his descendants. Luttrell 's-town, the noble and picturesque demesne of the family, on the banks of the Liffey, near Lucan, was sold in the beginning of the present century by Henry Lawes Luttrell, elder brother of John Luttrell Olmius, and second earl of Carhamp- ton ; and the name has been changed by tlio present popular jiroprietor, Luke White, Esq., to that of Woodlands. SECOND SIEGE OF LIMERICK. 619 wards Annaheg ; aud so, on the morn- ing of the 16 til, to send over a large detachment of horse and foot to the Clare side and cut off the communica- tion between the city and the Irish horse-camp. The Irish cavalry, under Major-general Sheldon, retired to Six- mile Bridge ; and the lords justices and gentry fled in great Consternation to the city, and might indeed have been all intei'cepted and taken had not the enemy used great caution in their movements ; Ginkell fearing an ambus- cade, or an attack from the Irish while his army was thus divided : aud thus, with the exception of constructing his bridge, and obliging the Irish horse to repair for forage to a distance, he effect- ed nothing on this occasion. On the 22d, Ginkell, having lulled the garrison into a false security, by ap- pearing to make preparations to raise the siege, again crossed the Shannon with a large portion of his army, and proceeded to invest the town at the Clare side. The three regiments of ■ Kirke, Tiffin, and Lord George Hamil- ton, with all the grenadiers, were or- dered to advance and attack the works at the Clare end of Thomond Bridge, which were bi'avely defended by Colo- nel Lacy with about TOO men ; but the number of the enemy being overwhelm- ing, the Irish troops were obliged to give way and retreat over the bridge. Unfortunately, the town-major, who was a Frenchman, fearing that the enemy would enter pell-mell with the Irish, raised the drawbridge. He apprehend- ed, no doubt, nothing more than the surrender of these men as prisoners of war ; but the result was very different. The English gave no quarter, and, ac- cording to their own account, 600 of the Irish were slaughtered on the bridge, whicli was covered with piles of dead bodies, while about 130 were made prisoners. Several of the Irisb jumjied over, and perished in the river ; and the English admit that they them- selves lost between 200 and 300 killed and wounded in the affair. This miserable scene of carnage was the last blood shed in the war. The next day, "Wednesday, the 23d, a parley was demanded on the part of the gar rison, and a cessation of arms took place. Even the gallant Sarsfield was among the first to recommend a capitulation. Why should they per- severe longer in the hopeless struggle ? The long looked-for succor from France had not come, nor any intelligence as to when it might be expected ; and by all it was admitted that the solemn promise made to Tirconnell ceased, un- der the circumstances, to be obligatory. Orf the morning of the 24th, a three- days' truce was agreed to. On the 26th, the negotiations were opened, hostages were exchanged, and Sarsfield and Ma- jor-general Wauchop dined with Gin- kell in the camp. A friendly inter- course commenced between the two armies, after the cessation of hostilities ; but it was not until the 3d of October that the military and civil articles of ca- pitulation were signed and exchanged ; 620 REIGN OF JAMES II. the former, about the departure of the Irish troops, being signed by the eenerals of both armies ; and the latter, relating to the privileges conceded to the Irish, signed by the English general and lords justices* The same even- ing, the Williamite army got possession of the Irish outworks, and of St. John's gate ; and the follovping day four regi- ments marched into the Irish Town; the English Town being left for the Irish quarters, until arrangements could be made for the embarkation of the * The Theatt of Limbeick. — The Gitil Articles of this treaty will be ever memorable for the disgraceful and perfidious violation of them, -n-hich attaches so foul a stain to the English government of Ireland. By the first of these articles, it Tvas stipvdated and agreed, " that the Koman Catholics of Ireland shall enjoy such privileges, in the exercise of their religion, as they did enjoy in the reign of King Charles II. ; and that their majesties, as soon as their affairs will permit them to summon a parliament in Ireland, will endeavour to procure the said Roman Catholics such further security in that particular, as may preserve them from any further disturbance on account of their religion." The second article secured to Catholics aU their estates and properties, such as they were rightfully entitled to in the reign of Charles II., as also the free exercise of their respective callings and professions. Irish merchants, then absent in foreign countries, and certain Irish officers, absent in France on the affairs of the army, were to have the benefit of these articles. By the fifth article, a general pardon was granted for all attainder's, out- lawries, treasons, premunires, felonies, &c., incurred oir committed since the beginning of the reign of James II. All private suits at law, for trespasses committed during the war, were prohibited. Arrests and executions for debts or damages were not to be made for the space of eight months. But above all, it was provided by the ninth article, that the oath to be administered to such Roman Catholics as submitted to the government of William and Mary, was to be the Oath of Allegiance, " and no other ;" that is, they were not to be required to take such oaths as the oath of supremacy, &c. These civil articles, which were thirteen in number, were signed by the lords justices, Sir Charles Porter and Thomas Coningsby, and by the commander-in-chief, Irish army for France. Thus was the war brought at length to a conclu- sion, and William and Mary left in the undisputed possession of their throne A few days after the capitulation was signed, a French fleet of 18 ships of the line and 20 ships of burden, conveying 3,000 soldiers, 200 officers, 10,000 stand of ai"ms, with ammunition and provisions, arrived in the Shannon ; but it was then too late. A few days earlier, it would have saved Limerick, and might have turned the scale of fortune in the war. baron de Ginkell ; and were subsequently duly ratified by William and Mary, and on the 34th of the following February enrolled in the Court of Chancery. How they were fulfilled by the English government will be seen in the next chapter. The Military Articles, which were twenty-nine in number, related chiefly to the arrangements for the transport of the Irish troops, with their baggage, &c., to France. The first of these articles was, " that all persons, without any exceptions, of what quality or condition soever, that are willing to leave the kingdom of Ireland, shall have free liberty to go to any country beyond the seas (England and Scotland excepted), where they think fit, with their families, household stuflT, plate, and jewels.'' The second article stipulated, that all officers and soldiers of every grade in any of the garrisons then in the hands of the Irish, or encamped in the counties of Cork, Clare, and Kerry, " as also those called rapparecs, or volunteers," should " have free leave to embark themselves wherever the ships are that are appointed to transport them, and to come in whole bodies, or in parties, companies or other- wise." If the officers or soldiers were plundered by the way, government was to make good their losses. The government was to provide 50 ships of 200 tons burden each, and if necessary 20 ships more, for trans- ports, besides two men-of-war to convey the principal officers; and finally, the garrison of Limerick might march out " with arms, baggage, drums beating, match lighted, colors flying, six brass guns, two mortar-pieces, and half the ammunition then in the place, &c." The articles of Limerick have been frequently republished, and wUl bo found in full in Mageoghegan's History of Ireland; Leland ; Curry's BemeiD of the Civil Wars ; Ferras's History of Limerick ; Taaft'e's History, &c. IRISH EXILES. 621 111 conformity witli the articles of capitulation, the Irish infantry were, a few days after, marshalled on the Clare side of the Shannon, that the men might have an oj^portuuity to declare their -choice between departing for France, and remaining under the Eng- lish crovernment at home. The result was, that an Ulster battalion, and a few men in most of the regiments, adopted the latter alternative ; about 1,000 men entering the Williamite service, and 2,000 accepting passes to return home ; while 11,000, together with all the cav- alry, volunteered for France. A body of 4,500 men, under Sarsfield, sailed from Cork and landed at Brest, on the 3d of December ; 4,736 men, besides officers, embarked at Limerick, with d'Usson and Tesse, on board the French squadron already mentioned ; 3,000 men followed in English ships under Major- general Wauchop ; two companies of the Royal Irish Guards sailed next; "and," says the Abb6 Mageoghegan, " according to the report of the commis- saries, the whole of the Irish troops, in- cluding the officers, who followed King James to France, amounted to 19,059 men."* As each corj^s of the gallant * " To those," observes Mr. O'Callaghan, " are to bo added the brigade of Mouiitcashel, of 5,270 men, sent to France by James in the beginning of 1C90, making 24,430, which, with others who went over at diflFerent times, not specified, would, according to King James's Memoirs, and a letter of Chevalier Charles Wogan, nephew of the dulie of Tirconnell, amount in all to about 30,000 men." (Mist, of the Irish Brigades, Yol. i., p. 61.) The several regiments were remodelled, their number being reduced, and the force of each increased ; they were constantly recruited from Ireland, and the exiles arrived at the ports of Brittany, Kins: James himself went down to meet them. They were kindly received by the French kincr, and enrolled in his service ; and all Irish Catholics going to France were granted the privileges of French citizenship, without the for- mality of naturalization, a right which was subsequently confirmed to them by Louis XV. Many of the exiles were accompanied by their families, but a great many of the women and children were also left behind, and reduced to a state of utter destitution. The wild wailing at the parting scenes in Limer- ick and Cork, and on the shores of Kerry, smote the hearts even of their enemies. Several of the expatriated Irish gentry rose high in the courts and camps of the continent, and be- came the founders of families of dis- tinguished rank in France, Spain, and Austria ; whereas, had they remained at home, they could only, as Irish Cath- olics, have participated in the degrada- tion of their race and country. Thus was this unequal struggle brought to a close. Before it com- menced, the Irish had been already reduced by many years of plunder and men generously offered to serve for the pay of French soldiers, although entitled to a higher amount as stran gers, in order that the obligation of King James to the French government might be less onerous. For an ac- count of the distinguished services of the Irish brigades, and other particulars relative to them, the reader is re- ferred to Mr. O'CaUaghan's History of the Irish Bri- gades in the Service of France ; Mr. O'Connor's History of the Irish Brigade, or, as it is frequently called, Mili- tary History of the Irish; Mr. Dalton's King Jajucs's Irish Army List, &c. 622 REIGN OF JAMES II. oppression, to a state that might well have seemed one of utter helplessness. They were left almost unaided ; for it so happened that their French allies did not fight one battle for them. And yet, after three hard-fought cam- paigns, it was only the combined forces of England, her foreign allies, and her Protestant colonists of Ireland, that prevailed against them. The war cost William, according to Story, about £6,636,742, an approximate calculation rather under the trnth than otherwise. During the year 1690 and 1691, Wil- liam's army in Ireland amounted to between 35,000 and 36,000 regular troops, besides the well-armed and well- * Harris's Mnmoir of Cox, in Ware's Irisli Writeis, and Leland's History of Ireland. The articles of the Secret Proclamation are not precisely known, but they are presumed to have been nearly the same as those which were offered, by William to Tirconnell, a little before the battle of Aughrim, and which, as we learn trained Protestant militia, who did garrison duty; and so desirous was his government to terminate the contest, that the lords justices had a proclama- tion printed offering much more ftivor- able terms than those actually agreed to ; but finding on their arrival at the camp that negotiations for a capitulation were on foot, the document was sup- pressed, and is therefore known as the " secret proclamation."* General Gin- kell was, as a reward for his services, created earl of Athlon e and baron of Aughrim, and obtained a grant of all the forfeited estates of William Dungan, earl of Limerick, in eight counties of Ireland. from a letter of the Chevalier Charles Wogan to Dean Swift, were : To the Irish Catholics the free exercise of their religion ; half the churches of the kingdom ; half the emploj-ments, civU and military, if they pleased ; and the moiety of their ancient properties. The Irish mistrusted these concessions, and rejected them. ARTICLES OF LIMERICK VIOLATED. 623 CHAPTER XLII. FROM THE TREATY OF LIMERICK TO THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. State of Ireland after the departure of tlie brigades. — The articles of Limerick violated. — The Catholics reduced to a deplorable condition. — Disposal of the forfeited estates. — William III. and his parliament at issue. — Enactment of penal laws in Ireland. — Moylneux's " case stated." — Destruction of the Irish woollen manufac- ture. — Death of WLUiam. — Intolerance of the Protestant colonists. — Penal laws of Queen Anne's reign. — The sacramental test. — Attempts to extirpate the Catholics. — The Palatines (note). — Accession of George I. — Re- bellion in Scotland in 1715. — Profound tranqmllity in Ireland. — Rigorous execution of the penal laws. — Con- tests between the English and Irish parliaments. — The latter deprived of its independence. — BiU for more eifectually preverfting the growth of Popery. — Rise of the patriots in the Irish parliament. — Dean Swift. — Woods' half-pence — Extraordinary excitement.— Frightful state of public morals. — Cardinal Wiseman on the fidelity of the Irish (note).— Accession of George II. — An address from the Catholics treated with contempt. — Primate Boulter. — Charter schools established to proselytize the Catholic children. — Converted Papists sus pected. — Distress and emigration. — Fresh rigors against the Catholics. — Proposed massacre. — The great Scot- tish rebellion of 1745. — Lord Chesterfield in Ireland. — Disputes in the Irish parliament about the surplus revenue. — The patriots weakened by the corrupting policy of the Government. — First movements of the Catholics. — First Catholic committee. — Discountenanced by the clergy and aristocracy. — Thurot's expedition — Accession of George III.— The Whiteboys.— The Hcarts-of-Oak and Hearts-of-Steel Boys.— Efforts of the pa- triots against tlie pension list. — Execution of Father Shcehy. — Lord Townsend's administration. — The Octen- nial BiU. — The Irish parliament struggles for independence. — Outbreak of the American war, and attempts to conciliate Ireland. — Refusal to receive foreign troops. — The volunteers. — Great distress and popular discon- tent. — Mr. Grattan's resolution of independence. — Conduct and resolution of the volunteers. — The Dungannon resolutions. — Legislative independence of Ireland voted. — New measures of Catholic relief. — Influence of the volunteers. [FROM A. D. 1G91 TO A. D. 1783.] WITH Sarsfield and bis companions in arms departed the bone and sinew of Ireland. Then, indeed, might it be said that the heart of Ireland was broken. Those left behind were a help- less and dispirited, and hence a timid and nnresisting, people ; and it was easy to foresee that when they thus ceased to be formidable, they had little to hope for from the good faith of the victors. Two months had not elapsed from the signing of the treaty of Lim- erick, when, in open violation of the articles, "the justices of the peace, sheriffs, and other magistrates," says Harris, " presuming on their power in the country, did, in an illegal manner, dispossess several of their majesties' (Catholic) subjects, not only of their goods and chattels, but of their lands and tenements, to the great reproach of their majesties' government :"* and the lords justices, who were compelled to issue a proclamation against the out- rageous proceedings of their subordi- nates, state in their letter of November * Harris's Life of King William, p. 357. 624 REIGN OF WILT "Am m. 19tb, 1691, that tliey "Lad received complaints from all parts of Ireland of the ill-treatment of the Irish who had submitted, had their majesties' protec- tion, or were included in articles ; and that they (the Irish) were so extremely terrified with apprehensions of the continuance of that usage, that some thousands of them who had quitted the Irish army and went home with the resolution not to go to France, were then come back again and pressed earnestly to go thither, rather than stay in Ireland, where, contrary to the public faith as well as law and justice, they were robbed of their substance and abused in their persons." The Pro- testants exclaimed vehemently against the terms made with the Catholics as being too liberal ; it was proclaimed from their pulpits that the peace ought not to be observed ; they were disap- pointed in their hopes of obtaining all the estates of the Papists, and would * Describing the results of the war of 1G91, the great Edmund Burke says : " The ruin of the native Irish, and in a great measure, too, of the first races of the English, was completely accomplished. The new in- terest was settled with as solid a stability as any thing in human affairs can look for. All the penal laws of that unparalleled code of oppression, which were made after the last event, were manifestly the effects of nation- al hatred and scorn towards a conquered people, whom the victors delighted to trample upon, and were not at all afraid to provoke. They were not the effects of their fears but of their security. They who carried on this system looked to the irresistible force of Great Britain for their support in their acts of power. They were quite certain that no complaints of the natives would be heard on this side of the water (in England) with any other sentiments than those of contempt and indigna- tion. Their cries served only to augment their torture. ... . Indeed, at that time in England the double name not yield a shred of the liberty which they claimed for themselves to those over whom foreign arms had enabled them to prevail. In fine, they were not content to conquer, but should enslave their late foes, and trample them under foot ; and the more these foes were humbled in the dust, the more insolent and inexorable did the unscenerous vie- tors become. The intolerant demands of the Protestant faction were soon to be fully gratified. The general disarm- ing of the Irish Catholics was one of the first steps for that purpose ; the disposal of the forfeited estates was proceeded with ; Catholics were ex- cluded from the Irish parliament by an act of the English legislature ; the way was pre23ared for the whole nefarious code of penal laws; and the native population was reduced to a state so abject that op2:)ression might be carried to any extent against them with im- punity.* of the complainants, Irish and Papists — it would be hard to say singly which was the most odious — shut up the hearts of every one against them." (Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe, p. 44.) Sir Richard Cox, the anti- Irish author of the Hibernia Anylicana, in a letter of October 24th, 1705 (preserved in the Southwell papers), says the youth and gentry of the Irish were " destroyed in the rebellion or gone to France ; those who are left, destitute of horses, arms, money, capacity, aud courage. Five out of six of the Irish are poor insignificant slaves, fit for nothing but to hew wood and draw water." Swift was in the habit of saying that the Irish Papists were " altogether as inconsiderable as the women and chil- dren." (See Letter on the Sacramental Test, written in 1708 ; the Drapicr's Letters, &c.) And Lord Macaulay, who loved to dwell on any expression impljnng contempt for the Irish, endeavored to make this language stronger. "The Protestant masters of Ireland," he writes, "wliile ostentatiously professing the political doctrines of Locke DISPOSAL OF FORFEITED ESTATES, 625 We learn from official sources that the number of Irish outlawed by King William's English jjarliament for their fidelity to King Jam^s II., whom they regarded as their legitimate sovereign, was 3,921, and that the Irish forfeited estates amounted to 1,060,792 acres, of the annual value, at that time, of £211,623. The sale of this property in- troduced into Ireland a fresh set of adventurers, being the third migration of new settlers to displace the old race since the reign of Elizabeth.* The Catholics of the native and early An- glo-Irish races still, indeed, constituted the great bulk of the population, but they were not recognized as having a political existence ; and although the Protestant colonists raided disputes among themselves, and formed an "English" and an "Irish" party of their own, they were unanimous on the point of denying all civil rights to the Catholic Irish. The question of the and Sidney, held tliat a people who spoke the Celtic tongue and heard Mass could have no concern in those doctrines. Molyneus questioned the supremacy of the English legislature. Swift assailed with the keenest ridicule and invective every part of the system of gov- ernment. Lucas disquieted the administration of Lord Harrington. Boyle overthrew the administration of the duke of Dorset. But neither Molyneux nor Swift, neither Lucas nor Boyle, ever thought of appealing to the native population. They would as soon have thought of appealinff to the sicine." (Bist.of Eng., vol. vi.,p. 119.) * Lord Chancellor Clare, in his celebrated speech on the Union, referring to this Williamite confiscation, says : " It is a very curious and important speculation to look back to the forfeitures of Ireland, incurred in the last century. The superficial contents of the island are calculated at 11,043,683 acres " (that is, of arable land, according to the survey of Ireland then received). " In the reign of James I. the whole of the province of 79 independence of the Irish parliament began, immediately after the war, to excite a lively interest. In the parlia- ment which met in Dublin on the 5th of October, 1692, the feeling on this subject ran so high that a bill sent from England for imposing certain duties, was rejected by the commons without any ground for the rejection being as- signed, save that " the said bill had not its rise in this house." This vote w^as passed the 28th of October; and on the 3d November, Lord Sydney, the lord lieutenant, went, unexpectedly, and pro- rogued the parliament, pronouncing at the same time a severe rebuke, and ordering the clerk to enter his protest against the vote of the commons on the journals of the House of Lords, in vindication of the prerogative of the crown. In the English parliament a discussion took place on Irish affairs, and an address to the king was voted, complaining of great abuses and mis- Ulster was confiscated, containing 3,836,837 acres ; set up by the court of claims at the restoration, 7,800,000 ; forfeitures of 1G88, 1,060,793 ; total, 10,097,639 acres. So that the whole of your island has been confiscated, with the exception of the estates of five or six families of English blood, and no inconsiderable portion of the island has been confiscated twice, or perhaps thrice, in the course of a century. The situation, therefore, of the Irish nation at the revolution stands unparalleled in the history of the habitable world The whole power and property of the country have been conferred by successive monarchs of England upon an English colony, composed of three sets of English adventurers, who poured into this country at the termination of three successive rebellions. Confiscation is their common title ; and from their first settlement they have been hemmed in on every side by the old inhabitants of the island, brooding over their discontent in sullen indigna- tion." 626 REIGN OF WILLIAM IIL manngement in tlie affairs of Ireland, such as the recruiting of the king's troops with Papists, " to the endanger- ing and discouraging of the good and loyal Protestant subjects in that king- dom ;" the granting protection to the Irish Papists, " whereby Protestants are hindered from their legal remedies, and the coui-se of law stopt ;" the let- ting of the forfeited estates at under rates ; the enormous embezzlements of the foi-feited estates and goods. But above all, the parliament complained of an addition Avhich they said was made to the articles of Limerick after the town was surrendered, " to the very great encouragement of the Irish Pa- pists," which addition, as well as the articles themselves, they prayed might be laid before the house ;* and they also besought his majesty that no grant might be made of the forfeited estates in Ireland until an opportunity was af- forded of settling the matter in parlia- ment. William was annoyed at this interference of the Enejlish commons. As to the Irish forfeitures, he had al- ready bestowed most of them as re- wards for the services of his friends ; and he was indignant at the attempt * In the second article, ■which secured the possession of their estates to the residents of Ijimerick and of the other garrisons then in the occupation of the Irish, and to the Irish officers and soldiers then in the counties of Lim- erick, Clare, Kerrj', Cork, and Mayo, the words, " And all such as are under their protection in the said coun- ties," were accidentally omitted in the copy of the ar- ticle which was signed, although contained in the origi- nal draft that had been settled between the parties. Sarsfield insisted that the mistake should be rectified, to set aside the treaty of Limerick, to which he admitted that " his word and honor were engaged, which he never would forfeit." His only answer to the address was, therefore, conveyed in these few words : " I shall always have great consideration of what comes from the House of Commons ; and I shall take great care that what is amiss shall be remedied." It is generally admitted that Wil- liam HI. was not pei'sonally responsible for the i^enal laws against Catholics en- acted in his reign. He was not inclined to persecute any man for his religion ; and he was too good a soldier to wish to trample on a brave but unfortunate foe whom he had vanquished in the field. In politics, the principles of the Tories were more congenial to him than those of the Whigs. The Whigs of that day were indeed nearly identical in spirit with the Orangemen of later times, and differed in many respects from the great constitutional party of that name in modern times professing principles friendly to popular liberty and toleration ; but intolerant and vio- lent as they were, it was the Whigs of that day who had placed William and Gink ell accordingly added the omitted words to the treaty after the Irish town of Limerick had been put in his possession. The French fleet werejust then com- ing up the Shannon, and it was admitted that it would have been very imprudent, under the circumstances, for the Dutch general to hesitate. The words in question were duly ratified and confirmed by William and Mary, at the same time with the substantive articles ; and yet, to them the English House of Commons raised the dis- graceful objection mentioned above. ENACTMENT OF PENAL LAWS. 627 on the throne of England, and to their imperious legislation even he was obliged to yield his will. In 1693 Lord Sydney was recalled from the government of Ireland, which was then vested in Lord Capel, Sir Cyril Wyche, and Mi'. Duncombe, as lords justices ; but while the two latter wished to distribute justice with an equal hand. Lord Capel took every opportunity to infringe the articles of Limerick, and curtail the rights of the Irish. Wyche and DuncomVje, for their impartiality, were stisrmatized as Tories and Jacob- ites, and Lord Capel soon obtained the sole government as lord deputy. In 1695 he summoned a parliament which sat for several sessions, and which enacted, without opposition, numerous penal statutes against the Catholics. Among them were laws "for restraining foreign education;" "for the better se- curing the government by disarming the Papists;" "for banishing all Papists exercising any ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and all regulars of the Popish clergy out of the kingdom;"* "to prevent Protestants intermarrying with Pa- * "According to Captain South's account," says New- enham, " there were in Ireland in the year 1698, 495 rcguhu, and 872 secular, clergy of the Church of Rome. According, to the same account, the number of regulars shipped for foreign parts, by act of parliament, was 424— viz., from Dublin, 153 ; from Galway, 170 ; from Cork, 75 ; and from Waterford, 26." ( VieiD of the Nat- ural and Political Cimimstancea of Ireland, p. 196.) f By the laws referred to in the text it was enacted that all Popish archbishops, bishops, vicars-general, deans, Jesuits, monks, friars, &c., and all Papists exer- cising any ecclesiastical jxirisdiction, should depart the kingdom before the first of May, 1698 ; those who neg- lected to obey that order were to be imprisoned until pists," and " to prevent Papists being solicitors." These laws were in direct contravention of the treaty of Limer- ick; but this parliament went a step further, and passed an act, which they had the effrontery to call " an act for the confirmation of the articles made at the surrender of the city of Limer- ick ;" but which, in reality, omitted the first article, and curtailed the others to such an extent that the Catholics justly regarded it as a virtual frustration of the rights which the treaty was in- tended to secure to them. A petition was presented from Robert Cusack, Esq., and Captains Francis Segrave and Maurice Eustace, praying on the part of themselves and their fellow Catholics that they might be heard by counsel on the measure before it passed into law, but the House of Commons unanimously resolved that the said petition should be rejected. In the upper house a pro- test against the nefarious measure was signed by seven lay peers, and to their honor be it said, by as many Protestant bishops.f While the j^arliament of the Protest- they were transported beyond the seas ; and if any re- turned from such transportation they would be guilty of high treason, and should suifer accordingly — that is, be executed. From the 29th December, 1697, any Po- pish archbishop, &c., coming into this kingdom from be- yond the seas, was to be imprisoned for twelve months, and then transported ; and if returning after such trans- portation, to be guilty of high treason, and punished accordingly. Any person after the 1st of May, 1698, concealing or entertaining any such Popish archbishops, bishops, &c., should for the first offence forfeit £20 ; for the second, double that sum ; and for the third, should forfeit during life all his lands and tenements, and also all his goods and chattels, one moiety to the king, and 628 REIGN OF WILLIAM III. ant colony in Ireland was thus indulg- ing the prejudices of an intolerant fac- tion, by enacting laws against the unof- fending and helpless Catholics, it was engaged on another side in a vital con- flict for its own independence against the English legislature. The rights which the English parliament had vin- dicated for itself by the revolution, it sternly denied to the sister institution in Ireland ; but it was as sternly en- countered by a power of its own crea- tion. That Protestant ascendency, in fact, which English policy had so long labored to establish and foster in Ire- land now presented a stubborn obstacle to the maintenance of English suprem- acy. In 1698, Mr. Molyueux, one of the members for the university of Dub- lin, published his famous book, entitled, " The case of Ireland's being bound by acts of parliament in England stated." In it he reviewed the history of the Pale from the Anglo-Norman invasion ; and from the whole connection of the two kingjdoms, drew strong inferences in support of their reciprocal legislative tbe other moiety, if it did not exceed £100, to the in- former — the surplusage over £100 to goto the king. A resolution of the Irish parliament of December 1st, 1C97, recommended the revival of the law of 2d Eliz., chap. 2, which obliged every person to attend the Protestant service on Sundays, under a penalty of 12d. for each neglect. The law restraining foreign education, after the prohibition of Catholic education at homo, enacted that " if any subjects of Ireland should go, or send, any chUd or other person to be educated in any Popish uni- versity, college, or school, or in any private family be- yond the seas ; or if such child should, by any Popish per- son, be instructed in the Popish religion, or if any subjects of Ireland should send money, &c., towards the mainte- nance of such child or other person, already sent or to be sent, every such offender should be forever disabled independence. The English House of Commons resolved unanimously "that the book published by Mr. Molyneux was of dangerous tendency to the crown and people of England, by deny- ing the authority of the king and par- liament of England to bind the king- dom and people of Ireland, and the subordination and dependence that Ire- land had and ought to have upon Eng- land, as being united and annexed to the imperial crown of England." They also condemned in the strongest terms the practice of the Irish parliament to re-enact laws made in England expressly to bind Ireland ; and went in a body to present an address to the king, pray- ing his majesty " to take all necessary care that the laws which directed and restrained the parliament of Ireland should not be evaded." Thus did the English Parliament try to carry the matter with a high hand, while the Irish Parliament could do little more than protest against the usurpation of its constitutional rights. England had long been jealous of to sue, or prosecute any action, &c., in law or in equity ; to be guardian, administrator, &c., to any person, or to be capable of any legacj or deed of gift ; and besides, should forfeit all their estates, both real and personal, during their lives." " It is really shameful," observes Dr. Curry (Hist. Review, p. 530), " to see what mean, malicious, and frivolous complaints against Papists were received under the notion of grievances by that parlia- ment. Thus, ' a petition of one Edward Sprag and others, in behalf of themselves and other Protestant porters in and about the city of Dublin, complaining that one Darby Ryan, a Papist, had employed porters of his own persuasion, having been received and read, was re- ferred to the committee of grievances, that they should report thereon to the house.'" — {Com. Jour., vol ii., p 609.) THE IRISH WOOLLEN MANUFACTURES. 629 the woollen manufactures of Ireland ; and on the principle that Irish interests ouofht to be subordinate to those of England, it was resolved that that im- portant branch of Irish industry and commerce should be destroyed. Some attempts for that j3urpose Lad been made so long ago as Strafford's time ; but, notwithstanding these, the trade flourished ; and now, as on that occa- sion, it was pi-oposed to encourage the linen trade as a substitute, linen not being a staple commodity in England ; although, in this, too, at a later period, Irish rivalry excited English jealousy. In June, 1698, addresses on the subject from the Ensclish Houses of Lords and Commons were presented to William III., who, in reply, said, "I shall do all that in me lies to discourage the wool- len manufacture in Ireland, and to en- courage the linen trade there ; and to promote the trade of England ;" and he sent instructions accordingly to his lords justices in Ireland. The Irish parliament manifested, on the occasion, a base subserviency, which proved that their recent contests were for the pi'iv- ileges of their order, not for the inter- ests of the country. In the session of 1689, they passed a law imposing on the exportation of Irish woollen goods, duties which amounted to a prohibition ; and, in the same year, a law w^as passed in England restraining the exportation * Arthur Toung. in Ms Tour in Ireland, points out liow futile was the hope that England would give that encouragement to the Irish linen-trade which was prom- ised as a compensation for the loss of the woollen manu- facture. He shows how, in direct breach of the com- of Irish woollen manufactures, includ- ing frieze, to any country except Eng- land and Wales. The Irish wool-trade was carried on exclusively by the Pro- testant colonists, and it was said that 40,000 persons were reduced to poverty by its destruction.* Seven commissioners were sent by the English parliament to inquire into the disposal of the forfeited estates in Ireland, and four out of the seven, in oj^position to court influence, presented to the House of Commons, in December, 1699, a report which caused extreme annoyance to the king, who had made grants according to his own views. One of his grants, not included in the private forfeitures already men- tioned, consisted of 95,649 acres of the personal estates of James II., worth, per annum, £25,995, which William had given to his favorite, Mrs. Elizabeth Villiers, created coun- tess of Orknej'. The inquiry elicited several unpleasant exposures, and gave rise to warm debates in the English parliament. The House of Commons voted that, " the advising and passing of the said grants was highly reflecting upon the king's honor;" and, in the be- ginning of 1700, passed an act for re- suming the granted estates as public property. These proceedings embit- tered the latter days of William III., who broke his collar-bone by a fall pact, the 23d George II. laid a tax on sail-cloth made of Irish hemp ; how bounties were giveu to English linens to the exclusion of the Irish, and how certain Irish linen fabrics were not admitted into England. — Tour, part ii., p. 107, 4to ed. 630 REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. fi'om his horse, on the 26th of February, 1702, and died on the 8th of March following, in the fifty-second year of his age. He was never popular in Eng- land, and his inability to control the English parliament, in the instance just mentioned, or in the dismissal of his Dutch guards from England, relieves his memory, to some extent, from the odium of other acts of the legislature during his reign. He survived only a short time the dethroned king, James II., who died at St. Ger mains, Septem- ber 16th, 1701 ; and he was deeply chagrined to find that, immediately upon that event, the "Pretender" was acknowledged king of England, as James III., by the courts of France and Spain. For the reign of William's successor, Anne, was reserved the distinction of bringing the execrable penal code to full maturity. At this time nothing whatever was done on the part of the Irish Catholics to provoke aggression : no offences were alleged against them : they kept aloof from the party agita- tion of the day, and had subsided into a * James, the second and last duke of Ormoud, v.-lio on this occasion assured ilio parliament that he would be always most ready to do every thing in his powec to prevent the growth of Popery, was grandson of James, the first or " great" duke, who, as representative in Ire- land of Charles I., and then of Charles II., duri«g the civil wars of the Commonwealth, had exhibited such bitter enmity to the coufederato Catholics. Thomas, earl of Ossory, son of the first duke and father of the second, did not live to inherit his ancestral honors, and his noble qualities rendered his death (in 1080) a deplor- able loss to his country. It is a remarkable fact that ■while from the earliest times membel'S of the noble state of utter prostration and debility. Still, in the midst of a vast Catholic population, the Protestant colonists did not feel their ascendency secure. The power of England at their back, the wealth of the country in their hand.s, and the well-forged chains which bound the Catholics to »the earth were not sufiScieut. They imagined that in the persecution of the Catholics lay their own safetj'. In 1703 the duke of Or- moud came to Ireland as lord-lieuten- ant, and ou his arrival the House of Commons waited on hira in a body, with a bill "for preventing the further growth of Popery," praying him, says Burnett, with more than ordinary ve- hemence to intercede so effectually for them that it might be sent back under the great seal of England. This he undertook to do ; and we learn from the same authority that he fulfilled his promise punctually.* Several mem- bers appear to have disapproved of the bill, but not one had the honor or man- liness to raise his voice against it ; those who were ashamed of the measure merely resigning their seats, to which family of Ormond were foremost in the popular ranks, the head of the house almost invariably sided with the English party against his country. The second duke, who, as mentioned above, promoted the penal enacts ments against the Catholics, and was one of the first who joined the prince of Orange against James II., sub- sequently took the part of the Pretender against George I., and shortly after the death of Queen Anne was at- tainted of high treason, and deprived of all his estates and titles. He died, in 1745, an exile in the south of France, where he had subsisted on a pension from the kings of France and Spain, but it would appear that ho alwavs continued a consistent Protestant. THE "SACRAMENTAL TEST." 631 less scrupulous men were elected. Yet, even the silent protest of such resigna- tions, as they became more frequent, would not be tolerated by the tyrant majority ; and it was made a standing order that no new writs would be is- sued to replace such reluctant members. In England, the Tory advisers of Anne deemed the atrocious measure harsh and uncalled for ; yet they had not the courage to stem the tide of anti-popish persecution. To evade their responsi- bilitj^, they resoi-ted to a mean subter- fuge. They added to the bill, the clause known as the " Sacramental Test," which excluded from every pub- lic trust all who refused to receive the Sacrament according to the rites of the Established Church, and which, there- fore, militated against Presbyterians and other Protestant dissenters, as well as against Catholics ; and they hoped by that means to have the bill rejected by the Irish parliament, in which the dissenters had great influence. The artifice, however, did not succeed. The dissenters were at fii'st alarmed, but on being assured that the clause would never be put in force against themselves, and that it was only the Pajiists who were aimed at, they withdrew their op- position. Some of the Catholic nobil- ity and gentry petitioned to be heard by counsel against the bill, and Sir Theobald Butler, Sir Stephen Rice, and * The admirable and unanswerable arguments of the Catholic counsel against the bill have been preserved in the appendix to Curry's Bedew; and will also be found Counsellor Malone, were accordingly allowed to appear against it at the bar of the Houses of Lords and Commons; but all their appeals to the laws or treaties, or to the justice or humanity of the legislature, were in vain. The petitioners were told in mockery that if they were deprived of the benefits of the articles of Limerick it would be their own fault, since by conforming to the established religion, they would be entitled to these and many other ad- vantages ; that therefore they ought not to blame any but themselves ; that the passing of that bill into a law was needful for the security of the kingdom at that juncture; and, in short, that there was nothing in the treaty of Lim- erick which hindered them to pass it !* " The bill," says Mr. O'Conor, " passed without a dissentient voice ; without the opposition or protest of a single in- dividual to proclaim that there was one man of righteousness in that polluted assembly to save it from the rej^roach of universal depravity ."f On the 4th of March, 1704, it received the royal assent ; and on the lYth, the Commons resolved unanimously, that all magis- trates and others who neglected to put the laws in execution against the Pa- pists betrayed the public liberty. In June, 1705, they resolved that the say- ing or hearing of Mass by any one who had not taken the oath of abjuration in the appendix to Plowden's Historical Review, and in Taaffe's History. f O'Conor's History of the Irish Catholics, p. 169. 632 REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. was illegal, and that any judges or magistrates who neglected to inquire into and discover such wicked practices •u'ere enemies to the queen's govern- ment ; and in order to remove the re- pugnance which people naturally feel for the infamous trade of informers and priest-hunters, it was unanimously re- solved that the prosecuting and inform- ing against Papists was an honorable service to the State. But these brutal laws were not j^et stringent enough, and to consolidate the system, an act was passed, in 1 Y09, to explain and amend the act for preventing the further * Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe. We may say with Mr. Lawless, that " it is painful to recall the mind to the contemplation of these laws, which were con- ceived by the malignant genius of monojwly ; that for the interests of mankind, it would, perhaps, be better to bury these examples of public infamy, the very mention of which must more or less contribute to the degrada- tion of public morals ; but that the duties of the his- torian silence the voice of the philanthropist" (Lawkss's Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 31G) ; but as a still stronger reason for dwelling on the loathsome details, we may add, that under the withering influence of these laws successive generations of Irish Catholics grew up and passed away ; that their eifects on the moral and ma- terial interests of the nation remained long after the barbarous laws themselves were eflaced from the statute- book, and that there are many circumstances in the so- cial state of Ireland at this moment which must be ex- plained by a reference to the penal code. For these reasons we subjoin the following enumeration of the Irish penal laws of Queen Anne's reign, as given by Taaffe (Hist, of Ireland, vol. iii., pp. 5G7, &c.) : " If the eldest or any other son became a Protestant, the father, if possessing an estate by descent or purchase, was ren- dered incapable of disposing any part of it, even in legacies or portions. If a child pretended to be a Pro- testant, the guardianship of it was taken from the father and vested in the next Protestant relation. If children became Protestants, the parents were compelled to dis- cover the amount of their property, that the Court of Chanceiy might at pleasure allot portions for the rebel- lious children. If a wife became a Protestant during the lifetime of her husband, she should have such provision growth of Popery, so that the code was now, as Burke describes it, " a machine of wise and elaborate contrivance, and as well fitted for the oppression, im- povei'isbment, and degradation of a people, and the debasement in them of human nature itself, as ever pro- ceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man." ''•" During the whole of Anne's reign the penal laws were enforced with rig- orous severity, yet the persecuted Cath- olics of Ireland could be charged with no act of disloyalty. In England, and among the Irish Protestants, the dis- as the lord chancellor thought fit to adjudge. If no Protestant heir, the estate was to bo divided among the children, &c., share and share alike. (This amounted to the abolition of promogeniture for Catholics.) — The heirs of a Protestant possessor, if Papists, disinherited, and the estate transferred to the next Protestant rela- tion. — Papists rendered incapable of purchasing lands, or rents or profits from lands, or taking leases for any term over thirty-one years ; and if the profit on the farm exceeded one-third of the rent, the possessor might be ousted, and the property vested in the Protestant discov- erer. — Papists rendered incapable of anntiities. — De- prived of votes at elections. — Incapacitated from serving on grand-juries. — Expelled from Limerick and Galway. — Limited to two apprentices, except in the linen-trade. — Twenty pounds penalty or two months' imprisonment for not acknowledging when and where Mass was cele- brated ; who and what persons were present ; when or where a priest or schoolmaster resided. — Popish clergy to be registered, and to officiate only in the parish in wliich they are registered. — £50 reward for discovering a popish archbishop, bishop, vicar-general, or any per- son exercising foreign ecclesiastical jurisdiction. — £20 reward for a regular or secular clergyman not registered. — £10' reward for a^ Popish schoolmaster or usher. — These rewards to be le\'ied exclusively on Papists. — Ad- vowsons of Papists vested in her majesty. — £30 per an- num settled upon priests becoming Protestants." By another law the Catholics were prevented from purchas- ing any part of the forfeited estates, tut allowed to dwell on them as laborers or cottiers, provided their tenement did not exceed in value the rent of thirty shillings a year. RIGOROUS EXECUTION OF THE PENAL LAWS. 633 sensious of Whigs and Tories daily in- creased in virulence ; violent ruptures took place between the English Houses of Lords and Commons; in Ireland, the dissenters complained loudly of the grievances inflicted on thera by the high church party ; and all the attempts made by the profligate earl of Wharton and other viceroys to unite all sects of Protestants against the " common ene- ni}^," as the Catholics were termed, proved ineffectual. The English par- liament enacted several laws to bind Ireland, and yet no protest was now made against them by the degenerate Irish parliament, which seemed content witli the liberty to make laws against the Catholics. It appeared to be a set- tled principle, that the Catholics were to be harassed even to extermination.* "The last consummation," says an elo- * In 1709 some of tlic extirpated Catliolics were re- placed by colonies of Protestants from diiForent parts of Germany, but known by the general name of Palatines. Many tliousands of those Germans came to England, « and Dr Curry says, that 841 families were bronght over to Ireland (Lodge makes the number 500 families, averaging sis persons each, vol vi., p. 3-t), and tliat the sum of f i4,850 was appointed for their maintenance out of the public revenue ; but parliament soon grew tired of the burden, for in 1711 the Lords, in addressing the queen, thanked her that by her care she had antici- pated their own endeavors to free tlie nation from the load of debt " which the bringing over numbers of use- less and indigent Palatines had brought upon them." Burnett tolls us, that the English Commons voted that those who had encouraged and brought over the Pala- tines were enemies to the nation (vol. ii., p. .S38). In Ireland their chief patron was Sir Thomas Southwell, afterwards baron of Castlematrcss, and ancestor of Vis- count Southwell. Their principal colony was fixed at Courtmatress near R.athkeale, and colonies were subse- quently planted at Adare, Castle Oliver, and other places in the county of Limerick, and also at some localities ' in Kerry. The Palatines got farms on leases for three j 80 quent writer, " was now perfected. The land Avas reduced to a waste, yet fear and discord still reigned ; solitude was everywhere, but peace was not yet es- tablished. Emic-rations became numer- ous and frequent ; all who could fly, fled. They left behind a government a prey to every vice, and a country a victim to eveiy wrong. The facility of acquiring property liy the violation of the natural duties of social life was too powerful a temptation : dishonesty, treachery, and extravagance prevailed. The rewards of conformity cast at large the seeds of mutual distrust in the hearts of child and of j^arent. Hypoc- risy and dissimulation were applauded and recompensed by the laws them- selves. A nursery for j'oung tyrants was formed in the very bosom of the legislature ; habitual oppression and lives at two-thirds of the rent at which land would be let to Irish tenants. They were also encouraged in various other ways ; and these advantages, with their skilful husbandry, and habits of industry, frugality, and cleanliness, raised them considerably in the scale of comfort above their Irish neighbors. When Arthur Young visited Ireland in 1776, he found that the Pala- tines retained to a great extent their German customs and maimers. Even at the present day, they may be said to form distinct communities, although their an- cient national peculiarities have been long laid aside. They are industrious and inoffensive ; live in friendly relations with their Catholic neighbors ; and although they still adhere to some form of Protestantism (chiefly dissent), they have intermamed in numerous instances with Catholics. After m.entioning how the Palatines " had houses built for them, plots of land assigned to each at a rent of favor, were assisted in stock, and all of them with leases for lives from the head landlord," Arthur Young adds : " The poor Irish are rarely treated i n this manner ; when they are, they work much greater improvements than (are) common among tliose Ger- mans." Such was the impartial statement of a con- temporary English traveller. Tour, &c., part ii., p. 18. 634 ACCESSIOiSr OF GEORGE I. habitual subserviency degraded and debased the upper classes. The lower, without rights, without land, with scarcely a home, with nothing which truly gives country to man, basely crept over their native soil, defrauded of its blessings, ' the patient victims of its wrongs — the insensible spectators of its ruin,' and left behind them, be- tween the cradle and the grave, no other trace of their existence than the memorial of calamities under which they bent, and of crimes which were assiduously taught them by their gov- ernors." * It M'as well known that Queen Anne was opposed to the succession of the house of Hanover, and the chief aim of her Tory ministei's during the latter years of her life was to prepare the way to bring in her brother, the Pre- tendei', at her death. Neither the queen, however, nor her ministers, had resolution enough for so important a movement. All the energy was to l)e found on the side of the Whigs ; and Anne had the mortification to see her brotlier attainted by the English par- liament, and a proclamation issued of- fering £50,000 reward for his appre- * Hist. Sketch of the Catholic Association, by Thomas Wyse, Esq., vol. i., p. 34. Lord Chesterfield, describing the state of this country a few years later, says : " All the causes that ever destroyed any country conspire in this point to ruin Ireland." Misc.eU, Works, vol. iii., p. 34. f George I. wag the eldest son of Ernest Augustus, bishop of Osnaburg, elector of Hanover and duke of Brunswick-Lunenburg. His hereditary claim to the throne of England he derived through his mother, So- hension; and to find tliat, contrary to her express wishes, the successor chosen for her hj the Whigs was invited into England during her lifetime. These provocations hastened her death, which took place on the 1st of August, 1714 ; and a few hours after her demise George Augustus, duke of Cambridge, and son of the elector of Hanover, was pro- claimed king as George I.f The year 1715 was memorable for the rebellion in Scotland in favor of the Pretender ; but in Ireland there was no sympathetic movement, and this country continued so tranquil that gov- ernment was able to remove six regi- ments of foot to assist in suppressing the insurrection in North Britain. The Irish parliament evinced its loyalty by setting a price of J25O,00O on the head of the Pretender, and attainting the duke of Ormond, who had joined the standard of that unfortunate prince. Still, the Irish Catholics were as much distrusted and persecuted as ever, and, in official language, were habitually designated " the common enemy." The lords justices, in their address to the Commons this year, recommended that all distinctions should be put an end to phia, who was the fifth daughter of Frederick V., elec- tor-palatine, and king of Bohemia, and of the princess Elizabeth, daughter of James I. of England. He was in his 55th year when he ascended the throne. The Pretender, or James 111., as he was styled on the conti- nent, would have been acceptable enough to the people of England as Anne's successor, were it not for his re- ligion ; but the attempts which his sister made shortly before her death to induce him to abandon Catholicity were ineffectual. CONTEST BETWEEN ENGLISH AND IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 635 in this realm, save tliat of Protestant and Papist ; and the magistrates, slier- ilfs, mayors, and others in authoritj^, received instructions from government to execute with strictness the laws against Catliolics. Rewards were of- fered for the discovery of any Papist that should presume to enlist in the king's service, " that he might be turned out and punished with the utmost se- verity of the law ;" and about the same time tlie Commons resolved, that any one instituting a prosecution, under the law as it then stood, against dissenters for entering the army or militia, " was an enemy to the Protestant interest and a friend to the Pretender;" this distinction being made between Cath- olics and dissenters at the very moment that the Presbyterians of Scotland were in ai'ms for the son of James II., while the Irish Catholics presented an aspect of lethargic tranquillitj-. The lords justices granted orders for apprehend- ing most of the Catholic nobility and landholders, as persons suspected of disaffection ; but after a painful im- prisonment they were all dischai'ged, without even the shadow of a case be- ing set up against them.* A contest, which excited a lively in- terest, now arose between the English and Irish Houses of Lords on a question of appellate jurisdiction. A case of * Describing the rigor witli wliich the penal laws were at this time enforced, Plowden says it was " a rigid per- secution against Catholics for the mere exercise of their religion ; their priests were dragged from their conceal- ment, many of them were taken from the altars whilst property between Hester Shei'lock and Maurice Annesley having been decided for the respondent by the court of ex- che(iuer in Ireland in 1719, the judg- ment was reversed on appeal by the Irish House of Peers. Annesley, the respondent, then brought the cause be- fore the House of Peers in England, which affirmed the judgment of the Irish court of exchequer. The Irish peers denied the legality of the appeal to England, alleging that an appeal to the king in his Irish parliament was definitive in any cause in Ireland, and they obtained the opinion of the Irish judges to that effect. The case became more complicated by the infliction of a fine on Alexander Burrowes, sheriff of Kildare, for refusing to comply with the orders of the court of exchequer and of the English peers, by putting Annesley in possession of the estate ; while on the other hand the Irish peei's removed the fine, and voted that the sheriff had behaved with integrity and courage in the matter. All the reason of the case appeared to be on the side of the Irisli peers, but their English masters soon made them sensible of their error, by enacting — " That where- as attempts have been lately made to shake off the subjection of Ireland unto, and dependence upon, the imperial crown of this realm ; and whereas the performing divine service, exposed in their vestments to the derision of the soldiery, then committed to jail, and afterwards banished the kingdom." History oj Ireland, yo\. ii., p. 73. 636 REIGN OF GEORGE I. lords of Ireland, in order thereto, have of late, against la^\^, assumed to them- selves a power and jurisdiction to ex- amine and amend the judgments and decrees of the courts of justice in Ire- laud ; therefore, ersecutiou the suffering Church of Ire- land ;" the priest-hunter was still abroad and eager for his prey ; but the habitual solitude and exclusion in which they had so long sheltered themselves, as larger and more important production, The Reuew,eic., the first edition of wliicli was printed in 1775. Dr. Curry died in 17S0. He was devoted lieart and soul to tlie interests of the Catliolic Church and of his country. * Vyse's Mist. Catholic Association, vol. i., ch. ii. In addition to the above-mentioned motives, in which we have followed Mr. Wyse, it is probable that there was another equally strong — namely, an unwillingness to much as the apprehension of danger, made the Irish clergy dislike notorietj'-, and so they disapproved of any move- ment.* There was still another body to be appealed to, not at all numerous, but with more energy, hope, and enter- l^rise than the others — namely, the Catholic merchants and commercial men ; and to these our three regenera- tors next had recourse. In September, 1757, John Eussell, duke of Bedford, was aj^pointed lord-lieutenant. He professed liberal sentiments, and the occasion Avas thought a favorable one for an address from the Catholics ; but, with the fate of Lord Delvin's address before their eyes, any fresh attempt of the kind was deemed worse than use- less by many, and the gentry and clergy rejected the proposal. An address, nevertheless, Avas prepared by Charles O'Conor, and proposed by him at a meeting of citizens held in the Globe Tavern, Essex-street. Four hundred re- spectable names, chiefly of men in the commercial classes, AA'ere soon attached to it ; and it was presented to Mr. Pon- sonby, the speaker of the House of Commons, " the depression and degi'a- dation of the body being at that time such that they dared not venture to Avait ujjou the lord-lieutenant or to trust a ftfw self-appointed men where so much was at stake, and where the interests of religion were involved. The Bchismatical conduct of the English Catholic Com- mittee, many years after, showed how dangerous it was to confide the management of such afiliirs to any body of laymen ; but, for the Irish committee, it must be said that they never laid themselves open to any charge of that nature. FIRST WORDS OF KINDNESS. 645 present the address in person." A long interval passed before any answer was received ; and those wlio had op- posed the address began to congratu- late themselves on their own superior judgment. Dr. Curry and his friends had projected an association for the management of Catholic affairs, and had formed a committee, in which they were aided by a few of the Dublin merchants, but the clergy and aristoc- racy cautiously held aloof. At length the address appeared in the Gazette, with a gracious reply, in Avhich the Catholics were told that " the zeal and attachment which they professed could never be more seasonably manifested than in the present conjuncture ; and that as long as they conducted them- selves with duty and affection they could not fail to receive his majesty's protection." These w^ere the first words addressed in kindness to the Catholics of Ireland by the representatives of English power since the imfortunate James 11. lost his throne.* * " Addresses," says Mr. Wyse, " now poured in from all sides ; but so debased by the most servile adulation of tbe reigning powers, and by ungrateful vituperation of tlie French, from whom, from the treaty of Limerick up to that hour, they were indebted for every benefit, — the exile for his home — the scholar for his education — their ancient and decayed aristocracy for commissions in the army for their yovmger sons, — that their freer de- scendants blush in reading the disgraceful record, and turn aside in disgust for the melancholy evidence of the corrupting and enduring influences of a long-continued state of slavery." — Eist. Cath. Association, vol. i., p. 64. And Mr. O'Conor, in a letter to Dr. Curry, of Dec, 1759, referring to these addresses, says : " Some of those gen- tlemen scold those unfortunate ancestors whom you have so well defended ; others again scold the French nation, who, from them at least, have deserved better In 1759, Dublin was disturbed by violent tumults, in consequence of a proposal for a union between England and Ireland on the plan of that be- tween England and Scotland. The people were enraged at a project which would deprive them of their nationality and parliament, and subject them to the burden of English taxation. A Protestant mob broke into the House of Lords, insulted the peers, seated an old woman on the throne, and searched for the journals with a view to commit- ting them to the flames. The excite- ment was chiefly promoted by the speeches and writings of Dr. Charles Lucas, who had been obliged to fly the country some years before on account of his manly assertion of popular rights against the abuses of the government and of the corporation. Still, Lucas was not a friend of the Catholics, for justice to that proscribed class as yet formed no part of the political creed oi patriots. He had assailed them in his writings ;f and although some members quarters — France, the asylum of our poor fugitives, lay and clerical, for seventy years past !" And again he adds : " Some declare themselves so happy as to require a revolution in their private oppressed state as little as they do a revolution in government I" Such had been the prostrating effect of the penal laws upon the minds and spirit, as well as upon the natural condition of the people. f Lucas abused the Catholics in his " Barber's Let.- ters," and, patriot as he was, late writers have justly pronounced him " an uncompromising bigot." He died in 1771, 58 years of age, having during the latter period of his life been reduced to a state of extreme infirmity by the gout. His remains were honored with a public funeral, and his statue in white marble, by the Irish sculptor, Edward Smyth, was placed in the Royal Ex- change. 646 REIGN OF GEORGE 11. of tlie House of Commons attempted to thro\y upon the Catholics the odium of the riots, the government knew the charge to be unfounded, and hence the friendly reply to the Catholic address just mentioned.* During the latter part of the year great alarm was produced by rumors of an intended invasion from France. Armaments M^ere preparing at Havre and Vannes for a descent on some in- definite part of the coast. A powerful fleet under Admiral Conflans lay at Brest to convoy the expedition, and another squadron under the celebrated Thurot was to sail from Dunkirk to engage the attention of the enemy else- where. At this time, however, England had her Rodney and her Hawke. The latter admiral defeated the Brest fleet on the 20th of November, in an action oif Quiberon ; the expedition from Nor- mandy did not sail at all, and the Dun- kirk squadron, which consisted of only five frigates, having sailed on the 3d of October, and proceeded towards the North, was driven by storms to seek shelter in ports of Norway and Swe- den. On these inhos2:)itable coasts, and among the western isles of Scotland, Thurot passed the winter. One of his ships had returned to France, another disappeared and was never heard of, * Various circumstances about tUs time tended to re- tard the progress of Catholic interests. Thus, in 1758 a hostile feeling was excited in Dublin by the prosecu- tion of Mr. Saul, a Catholic merchant of that city, whose crime was that he afforded shelter to a young Catholic lady named O'Toole, who was importuned by some of and ^^■ith the remaining three he ap- peared off Carrickfergus on the 21st of February, 1760. Thurot was of Irish descent, his real name being O'Farrell. His life had been a continued series of the strangest adventures. He possessed a gallant and enterprising spirit, and his generosity was equal to his daring. His small force had been thinned by the hardships of the northern winter, and famine and fatigue had reduced his surviving men to a deplorable state. His ships, too, wei'e in a shattered con- dition ; and at Islay the disheartening news of the defeat of Conflaus had, for the first time, reached him. Still, the necessity of obtaining provisions, as well as his innate love of glorj'', induced him to make some attempt to carry out his original plan of an invasion, and he disembarked on the strand near Carrickfergus. He had then only about 600 soldiers, but, with the addition of some seamen, mustered nearly 1,000 men. The town was gai'risoned by four companies of the 62d regiment, under Colonel Jennings, without can- non, and with a scanty supply of am- munition. The Frencli approached, and, after some firing from the walls, the garrison, together with the mayor and some of the armed townsmen, re- tired into the castle, which was in a her family to abandon her religion. Mr. Saul was told from the bench " that the laws did not presume a Papist to exist in the kingdom, nor could they breathe without the connivance of government." Ho and his family were obliged to seek an asylum in France. THE WHITEBOYS. 647 dilapidated state, but wliicli they con- tinued to defend with musketry until their powder was nearly exhausted ; several of the assailants, Avith their commanding officer, the Marquis d'Es- trees, being killed in an attack upon the gate. The besieged then surren- dered themselves prisoners of war, on condition that the town should be spared ; but contributions of provisions w^ere levied both on Carrickfergus and Belfast, the French threatening to ■march on the latter town if the sup- plies demanded were not sent. At length, on the 26th, the invaders took their departure ; and two days after they encountered off the Isle of Man three English frigates, which had sailed from Kinsale in search of them, under Captain Elliott. A sharp action en- sued. The French vessels were in a crippled state ; but Thurot fought his ship until the hold was nearly filled with water and the deck covered with the slain. At length he was killed, and the three French frigates soon after struck, and were taken into Ram- sey ; but even his enemies lamented the *■ Thurot's grandfather was a Captain Farrell or O'Ferrall, who was attached to the court of James II. at St. Germ?ins, where he married Mademoiselle Thu- rot, the niece of a member of the parliament of Paris. The lady's family were indignant at the match ; but Captain O'Farrell died soon after the marriage, and in less than a year his wife followed him to the grave, leaving an infant son, who, being educated by her friends, assumed their name. When this son grew up he resided at Boulogne, and was the fatlicr of the famous sea-captain, who left France when a boy, and passed many years in London and also some time in Dublin, where he was reduced so low that lie became the valet of a Lord B . At that time smuggling was not regarded fate of the chivalrous and undaunted Thurot.'=- George II. died suddenly at Kensing- ton on the 25th of October, 1760, and was succeeded by his grandson, George III. The following year the disturb- ances of the Whiteboys became rife in the south of Ireland. They com- menced in Tipperary, and were occa- sioned by the tyranny and Ya,])acitj of landlords, who, having set their lands far above the value, on the condition of allowing the tenants certain common- ages to lighten the burden, subsequentl}^ inclosed these commons, and thus ren- dered it imjjossible for the unfortunate tenants to subsist. The people col- lected at night and demolished the fences, from which circumstance they were first called " Levellers ;" their name of Whiteboys being given from the shirts which they wore outside their clothes at their nightly gatherings. Another cause of their discontent was the cruel exactions of the tithemongers — " harpies," says a contemporary^ wri- ter, " who squeezed out the very vitals of the people ; and by process, citation, as the disreputable pursuit which more recent ideas have made it. Many a large fortune, of which the pos- sessors did not blush at the source, was realized by it ; and to the adventurous life of a smuggler various cir- cumstances conspired to commit young Thurot. He commanded sundry vessels engaged in that traffic be- tween France and the coasts of England and Scotland ; and his enterprising spirit obtained for him at Boulogne the title of the Bang of the Smugglers. In the war he commanded a privateer, and from this he was taken into the French navy, in which he soon became distin- guished for his naval skill and bravery. — See a memoir of him written by his friend, the Rev. John F. Durand ■ also the Annual BcgMer for 17C0. CAS REIGN OF GEORGE III. aud sequestration, dragged from tliem the little wliicli tlie landlord had left them."* "At last," says Young, "the Whiteboys set up to be the general redressors of grievances; punished all obnoxious individuals who advanced the value of lands, or hired farms over their heads ; and having taken the ad- ministration of justice into their own hands, were not very exact in the dis- tribution of it The barbarities they committed were shock- ing. One of their usual punishments, and by no means the most severe, was taking jjeople out of their beds, carrying them naked in winter, on horseback, for some distance, and burying them up to their chin in a hole filled with briers, not forgetting to cut off one of their ears."f These outrages were chiefly confined to the counties of Wa- terford, Cork, and Tipperary. In 1762 a government commission reported that the rioters were persons of different religious persuasions, and that none of them showed any disaffection to the government, a report which was con- firmed by the judges on the Munster circuit. A special commission was sent down to try a number of the offenders; aud Sir liichard Aston, chief-justice of the common pleas, became so popular for the impartiality which he displayed on the occasion, that the country-people lined the roads as he passed to give expression to their gratitude. Father Nicholas Sheehy, the parish priest of Clogheen, drew upon himself the ani- mosity of the landlords by the zeal he evinced in advocatinj' the cause of his poor parishioners. In 1765 a procla- mation was issued offering a reward of £300 for his arrest as a person guilty of high treason, and, although he might easily have escaped to France, he felt so conscious of his innocence, that he wrote to the Secretary of State, offering to surrender and save the government the money, provided he was tried in Dublin instead of Clonmel. His offer was accepted, and after a minute inves- tigation of the eharo-es as^ainst him he was acquitted ; the only witnesses pro- duced by his accusers being a woman of abandoned character, a man charged with horse-stealing, and a vagrant boy, all three being taken from the Clonmel jail and suborned to prosecute him. His enemies, anticipating such a result, had trumped up a charge of murder against him, and had him carried back to Clonmel ; where, on the sole evidence "Enquiry into the causes of the outrages committed hy tlie LetcUers. Aitliur Young, who travelled in Ireland while these disturbances prevailed there, describes their causes in nearly similar terms, aud he adds : " Acts were passed for their punishment, which seemed calcu- lated for tlie meridian of Barbary ; by one, they were to be hanged under certain circumstances, without the com- mon formalities of a trial, which, though repealed the following session, marks the spirit of punishment ; while others remain yet the law of the land, that would, if executed, tend more to raise than queU an insm-rection. From aU which it is evident that the gentry of Ireland never thought of a radical cure, from overlooking the real cause of the disease, which, in fact, lay in them- selves, and not in the WTetches they doomed to the gal- lows."— Towr, part ii., p. 30, ed. 1780. f Tffiir, p. 70. PROTESTANT ASSOCIATIONS. 649 of the same vile witnesses, wliose testi- mony failed in Dublin, he was con- victed, and three days after, on the 15th of March, 1766, was hanged and quar- tered at Clonmel.* Associations similar to those of the Whiteboys were formed among the Protestant peasantry of the North, under the names of " Hearts-of-oak boys" and " Hearts-of steel boys." The former of these banded themselves, in the first instance, for the abolition of a custom of compulsory road-making, known as the six days' labor, which the gentry had converted most unjustly to their own advantage ; but the oppres- sive tithe system, and the exorbitant rents charged for bogs, became, in the next place, subjects of complaint, and like the southern malcontents, the Hearts-of-oak boys made themselves general reformers of agrarian abuses. They committed numerous acts of violence in the years 1762 and 1763; but the grievances of which they complained were taken into considera- tion by parliament, and in some measure redressed ; while those under which the southern peasantry groaned were left untouched. For the unhappy White- boys, there was no remedy but the gibbet. The ITeartspof-steel boys did * Fatlicr Slieeliy died protesting liis innocence, and there is no doubt that his execution was as foul a murder as ever was perpetrated under the cover of law. The principal managers of the prosecution were the Rev. John Hewetson, a Protestant clergyman, and Sir Thomas JIaude ; who, with the earl of Carrick and Mr. John Bag- well, distinguished themselves by their activity against the Whiteboys. Father Shechy's grave, in the church- -82 not make their appearance till 1769, and for a few yeai's they gave the government considerable trouble. They associated to resist the rack-renting practices of the middlemen, and the severe measures employed to put down their disturbances led to an extensive emigration to America. Returning to the proceedings in the Irish parliament, we find that in 1762 a bill was passed without a division, to enable Catholics to lend money on the security of real property, but was sup- pressed in England. The following year the attempt was renewed in the Irish House of Commons, by Mr. Mason, but defeated by a majority of 138 to 53 ; the Protestant party alleging that the bill had been inadvertently passed on the last day of the preceding session, and that such a measure, if adopted, would soon make Papists masters of a great part of the landed interest of the country. The patriots were at this time en- gaged in vehement attacks upon the pension list, which had grown into a monstrous source of abuse. The Ensr- lish privy council assumed the right of granting any pensions they chose out of the Irish revenue. In 1763 the pensions on the Irish civil establishment, yard of Clogheen, continues to this day to be visited with veneration by the peasantry. See aU the facts of this iniquitous case, and of the subsequent persecution, mi- nutely investigated by Dr. Madden in the historical in- troduction to his Lides and Times of the United Irish- men ; also Curry's Candid Inquiry, &c., and his State of the CatJwlks of Irdaiid. 650 REIGN OF GEORGE III. and therefore not including the military and certain special pensions, amounted to i£72,000, which exceeded the civil list by £42,000. The revenue of the country was diminishing and the bur- dens increasing. At the commence- ment of that year the Irish debt was £521,162, and at the close it had risen to £650,000.* The subject gave rise to violent heats in parliament ; but a juggling and evasive policy, which had become familiar to the Irish govern- ment, prevailed, and the efforts of the patriots were foiled. The corrupting influence of the court party was con- stantly employed to thin the ranks of the patriots, who, finding that the pen- sions went on multiplying, and that all their agitation on that point was abortive, took up the more general (question of parliamentary reform. Hitherto the duration of parliament in Ireland depended solely on the will of the king, and might be prolonged during an entire reign, as happened in that of George II. In England the duration was limited by the septennial act of George I. ; and in 1765 the Irish Com- mons passed the heads of a similar bill for Ireland ; but the measure was suppressed in England, and in reply to an address to the king, a very ungra- cious answer was returned. Lord Townshend was appointed lord-lieuten- ant in 1767, and came over determined * The Irisli income and expenditure, as calculated in 1763, stood thug : the military expenditure for two years, £980,956 ; the civil ditto, £243,9o6 ; extraordinary and contingent expenses, £300,000 ; total expenditure for to break up a system of corruption, which, although of its own creation, the Irish government then found to be an insupportable tyranny. A certain number of parliamentary leaders were at that time known as undertakers, whom it was necessary for government to keep in its pay, at a large cost, and who " undertook," as the phrase went, upon certain terms, to carry the " king's business" through parliament. These leaders wei-e made the channels for all places, pensions, and other court favors, — a privilege which was indispensable to enable them to fulfil their compact ; and in order to crush the system, it was resolved to make the stream of favor flow directly from the government. A great commotion in political cii'cles was the consequence : yet, nothing more had been done than to substitute one system of jjolitical profligacy for another ; and by traflickiug in corruption more in de- tail, the government soon found that it had only subjected itself to a more op- pressive incubus. Lord Townshend's convivial habits and lavish distribution of favors made him for some time pop- ular ; but there were not wanting able and honest men to expose the debasing influence of his policy, and his popular- ity was soon turned into contempt and detestation.f In 1767 another septen- nial bill was passed and transmitted to England, where it was transformed into two years, £1,523,2!2 ; total revenue for that period, £1,209,864; excess of expenditure to be added to na- tional debt, £314,248. f Witty and powerful invectives against Lord Town- DISSENSIONS AMONG THE CATHOLICS. 651 an octennial one. By this alteration it was hoped to secure its rejection ; but the Irish parliament, on the conti'ary, accepted it as an instalment of reform, and it was regarded as a triumph by Charles Lucas and his friends, after so many years of agitation on the subject. A new parliament was now to be elected, and in order to secure a strong majority for the government, Lord Townshend scattered bribes profusely, and emploj'ed every species of corrup- tion. In all his bargains, howevei", he was obliged to leave as an open question the right of the Irish parliament to originate its own money-bills ; and upon this important point he came to a collision wnth the j^arliament, which met on the I7th of October, 1769. The English privy council sent over a money-bill, which the Irish House of Commons rejected, "because it had not its origin in that house." Followius: the precedent of Lord Sydney in 1692, Lord Townshend went to the House of Lords on the 26th of Decembei-, caused the Commons to be summoned to the bar, animadverted in strong terms on their proceedings, and having ordered the clerk to enter his protest on the journals of the house, in vindication of the royal prerogative, prorogued parlia- ment, which was not again permitted to meet until the 26th of February, 1771. The excitement produced by shend were published during his administration in the Freeman's Journal, and were subsequently collected in a Tolume, entitled " Baratariana." Their principal writers were. Sir Hercules Langrishe, Flood, Parker, this proceeding surpassed any thing of the kind since the affair of Wood's half-pence. Meantime fatal dissensions prevailed in the Catholic body, and retarded its progress. The committee had prepared an address to Geoi'ge HI. on his acces- sion. It w^as signed by 600 persons ; but the clergy and nobility would not give their concurrence, and some of them met at Trim and adopted a sep- arate address. The committee next ventured to lay before the throne a "remonstrance" or statement of their grievances, and rose considerably in importance ; some of the Catholic no- bility beginning to co-operate with them. A division, however, sprung up, in which Lord Trimbleston, a man of overbearing and dictatorial manners, separated himself, and was followed by others ; while Lord or Count Taaffe, a nobleman of quite ' an opposite charac- ter, continued to identify himself with the committee. At length this first Catholic association, having graduall}' melted away, expired in 1763. Lord Townshend's parliament, on reassem- bling in 1771, passed an act to enable a Catholic to take a long lease of fifty acres of bog, to which, if the bog were too deep for a foundation, half an acre of arable land misrht be added for a house ; but this holding should not be within a mile of any city or town, and Bushe, and Henry Grattan, the last named being then a young man. The viceroy was supported in another clever series of papers called " The Baclidor." 652 REIGN OF GEORGE III. if half the bog were uot reclaimed in twenty-oue years, the lease was forfeit- ed. This paltry concession shows what little progress Catholic interests had made in the interval ; and the viceroy thought it necessary to counterbalance it by an act to add £10 a year to the pension of £30 offered to any " Popish priest duly converted to the Protestant religion." The jiitiful temptation to pi'oselytisra was styled "Townshend's golden drops" by the wits of the day. Lord Townshend was succeeded in the Irish government, in 1772, by the earl of Harcourt, whose administration commenced under more favorable au- sjjices. In 1773 a bill was introduced to lay a tax of two shillings in the pound on the income of Irish absentee landlords who would not reside in Ire- land at least six months in each year. The measure was exceedingly po^Dular, and the government, supporting it as an open question, rose greatly in public favor ; but the violent opposition of the great land-owners, many of whom re- sided altogether in England, prevailed, and the bill was rejected. In 1775 hostilities commenced be- tween England and her revolted Ameri- can colonies, and the English parliament discussed the propi'iety of relieving Ire- land from some of her commercial dis- abilities. The concessions made were trilling, but they serve to illustrate the rule so well established in Irish history. * It was in the same luemoratle year (1775) that Henry Grattan first entered parliament, as member for that the season of England's weakness and alarm has ever been that of redress and hope for Ireland. We shall see it further illustrated as we proceed. On the 23d of November, the same year, a message from the lord-lieutenant in- formed the Irish parliament that the situation of affairs in his majesty's American dominions rendered it neces- sary to demand a draft of 4,000 men from the Irish establishment, — these troops, however, not to be a charge on the Irish revenue during their absence from the kingdom ; and an equal num- ber of foreign Protestant troops to be sent to replace them. The Commons readily assented to the removal of the 4,000 men as required, on the promised condition that the country should at the same time be relieved from their pay; but the second proposition w*as respectfully declined, the house resolv- ing that the loyal people of Ireland would be able so to exert themselves as to make the aid of foreign soldiers unnecessary. Tliis resolution was car- ried by a large majority. It surprised and perplexed the ministry, and was in fact the first foreshadowing of the vol- unteer system ; while, on the other hand, the viceroy's engagement to Free Ireland from the charge of the troops to be withdrawn from that kingdom, elicited an indignant vote of censure from the English parliament, and was repudiated by the minister.* the borough of Chaileinont, and that Daniel 0'C!onnell was born. IRISH SYMPATHY WITH THE AMERICANS. 653 To prevent a sui:)ply of provisions from reaching the Americans from Ire- land, an embargo was laid on the ex- portation of Irish commodities. This proceeding had a disastrous effect. The agriculturists were quite ruined; the tenantry were unable to pay their rents ; the manufacturers were thrown upon public charity for support ; the revenue fell away ; and, the infamous pension list being still continued, the Irish debt rose to £994,890. Resolu- tions and addresses describing the con- dition of the country were moved in the Irish parliament by the patriots, but to no purpose. In England the American war was unpopular, but in Ireland it was still more so. Sympathy for the revolted colonies was publicly expressed, to the intense alarm of the government. In 1775 the thanks of the city of Dublin were voted in the common council to Lord Effingham for having thrown up his commission rather than draw his sword against his fellow- subjects of America; and this feeling continued to gain ground. The analogy between Ireland and America was ob- vious. In the English House of Com- mons, Mr. Rigby, arguing in sujoport of the sordid policy of his country, as- serted that the parliament of Gi'eat Britain had clearly as much right to tax Ireland as to tax America. Never was there a more rash or ill-timed com- parison. It could not fail to suggest that, where the cases were so similar, a similar mode of redressing grievances might be resorted to. In IT 77, Lord Harcourt was recalled, and the earl of Buckinghamshire being sent over as lord-lieutenant, announced to the Irish parliament the alliance be- tween France and the Americans, at the same time making an appeal for support to his majesty's faithful people of Ireland. The Commons immediately voted a sum- of £300,000, to be raised by a tontine ; but this was an absurd stretch of generosity, which the patriots opposed in vain ; and a message from the viceroy soon after admitted the in- ability of the country to raise the money. In October this year, General Burgoyne and his army of 6,000 men surrendered to the American general. Gage. The news produced consterna- tion, and Lord North expressed an earnest wish that the penal laws against the Irish Catholics might be relaxed ; but bigotry was still predominant in the Irish parliament, and no attempt of that nature had any chance of success. In January, 1778, the independence of the American States was acknowledged by France, and many weeks did not elapse until a bill for the partial relief of the Catholics unanimously passed the English parliament. With this inroad upon bigotry for a precedent, Mr. Gar- diner introduced a similar bill in the Irish House of Commons, on the 25th of May the same year. The measure had the approbation of government, and the general support of the patriots, yet it was only after a severe contest and eight divisions that it was carried by the small majority of nine votes. 654 REIGN OP GEORGE III. In the House of Lords two-thirds of the members voted for it.'" It was near the close of 1YY9 when the Irish parliament was again called together, and in the mean time distress and discontent had increased to an alarming extent. Appeals to the im- becile and bankrupt government re- ceived no reply ; the people were thrown upon their own i-esources ; agitation for free trade and in favor of Irish manu- factures became general; and the vol- unteering system had been set on foot, and already made considerable prog- ress. The secretary of state sent infor- mation to Belfast that two or three privateei's in company might be ex- pected in that vicinity ; and the people were at the same time informed that government had no troops available for their defence, except some sixty horse and a couple of companies of in- valids. They were in fact told that government could not protect them. A vivid recollection of Thurot's visit to their neighborhood, some nineteen years before, was still preserved at Bel- fast, and the attempt made at that time to faise an armed force to repel the in- vaders was also reuiembered. The ex- ample of 1760 was followed in 1779, * This act — 18th Geo. III., ch. GO — repealed so much of tlie 11th and 12th Wm. III., ch. 4, as aflfected the in- heritance or purchase of property hy Catholics ; a Cath- olic who took the oath of allegiance framed four years before might take or dispose of a lease for 999 years ; the unnatural right given to a child on embracing the Protestant religion to demand a maintenance and alter the succession was abolished ; and tlie clauses authoriz- ing the prosecution of priests and Jesuits, and the im- prisonment of Popish schoolmasters, were repealed. and to the men of Belfast, therefore, is to be attributed the glory of having originated the volunteers.f So rapidly did the movement spread, that in the mouth of May the number of volunteer companies had begun to attract the at- tention of government ; and in Septem- ber the number of men enrolled in the counties of Down and Antrim, and in and near Coleraine, amounted to 3,925. Hardy states that in the first year 42,000 volunteers were enrolled.^ Parliament having met on the 12 th of October, Mr. Grattau moved an amendment to the address, depicting vividly in a preamble the distressed state of the country, and concluding with a resolution, that the only re- source for their expiring commerce was to open a free export trade, and to allow his majesty's Irish subjects to enjoy their natural birthright. Several of the min- isterial members, and among others, Mr. Flood, who then held a place under government, supported the amendment ; but Mr. Grattan's preamble was got rid of, and another amendment, less gal- ling to government, proposed by Mr. Hussey Burgh, prime sergeant, and unanimously adopted, — namely, "that it is not by temporary expedients, but \ A volunteer corps had been organized in Kilkenny, against the Whiteboys, in 1770 ; they were called the Kilkenny Rangers ; other armed parties had also been raised before this period in various localities ; but the great national volunteer movement, strictly speaking, dates from the arming at Belfast in the beginning of 1779, its primary object being to repel foreign inTar sion. i Life of Charlemont. THE RELIEF OF IRISH COMMERCE. 655 by a free trade alone, that this nation is now to be saved from impending ruin." Wlien the speaker carried the resolution from the parliament house to the castle, he passed between ranks of the Dublin volunteers, drawn up in arms under their commander, the duke of Leinster,* amid the enthusiastic ac- clamations of a vast assemblasre of people ; and the House of Lords passed a vote of thanks to the national army for their array on the occasion. On the 13th of November, Lord North in- troduced in the English parliament three propositions for the relief of L-ish commerce. The first permitted a free exportation of L-ish wool and woollen manufactures ; the second made a simi- lar concession for Irish glass manufac- tures ; and the thii'd granted freedom of trade with the British plantations, on cei'taiu conditions, of which the basis was an equality of taxes and cus- toms. Bills embodying the two former propositions were immediately passed, but the third was deferred for a short time. These measures had little effect in calming the agitation in Ireland ; the ideas of the people expanded with their success, and they now looked for nothing short of their full constitutional rights, and the liberation of their country from the supremacy of the English parliament. On the 19th of April, 1780, Mr. Grattan moved, "that no power on earth, save that of the * This nobleman was William Robert, tbe second duke. His lather was James, the twentieth earl of Kil- king, lords, and commons of Ireland, had a right to make laws for Ireland." His speech on the occasion was a mag- nificent exertion of his eloquence. He said: "I vrill not be answered by a public lie in the shape of an amend- ment ; neither, speaking for the subject's freedom, am I to hear of faction. I wish for nothing but to breathe in this our land, in common with my fellow- subjects, the air of liberty. I have no ambition, unless it be the ambition t/) break your chain and contemplate your glory. I never will be satisfied, as long as the meanest cottager in Ireland has a link of the British chain clankinsr to his rags. He may be naked, he shall not be in irons ; and I do see the time is at hand, the spirit has gone forth, the declaration is planted, and though gi-eat men should apostatize, yet the cause will live ; and though the public speaker should die, yet the immortal fire shall outlast the organ which conveyed it, and the breath of liberty, like the word of the holy man, Avill not die with the prophet, but survive him." At the sug- gestion, however, of Mr. Flood, after an interesting debate, which lasted un- til six o'clock in the morning, the ques- tion was not broue;ht to a division, and the resolution thus did not appear on the journals of the house. This result gave rise to much dissatisfaction, which was greatly^ncreased by the tendency of various acts of the British 2-)arlia- dare, who was created mar'juis of KUdare in 1761, and duke of Leinster in 1766. 656 REIGN OF GEORGE III. ment to iritate the Irish nation. Thus the animal mutiny bill sent over from the Irish parliament was returned, al- tered into a permanent one ; and by the influence of government it was adopted in its altered form. Meantime, the spirit of volunteering had rapidly gained ground. The num- bers enrolled were stated to amount this year to over 40,000 men, unpaid, self- clothed, self-organized, and called into existence by no other authority than the voice of the people, and the necessity of the country. The affrighted gov- ernment was induced to deliver to them 16,000 stand of arms, and they had also begun to raise a considerable artil- lery force. They selected their own oflicers. They rose into existence free from any pledge, and totally unshackled by any government control. They were assiduous in acquiring a know- ledge of military discipline, and were materially aided in that object by numbers of their countrymen who had returned invalided, from the American war. In projDortion as the apprehen- sion of a foreiirn invasion became dissi- pated, they turned their attention to their political rights : each corps ex- pressed its opinions in resolutions, which were published in the journals ; and ef- forts were successfully made to unite all the volunteer corps in Ireland by a com- bined organization ; the edfl of Charle- mont being chosen commander-in-chief. * The resolution was proposed by Mr. John O'Neill, of Shane's castle ; it was opposed by Mr. Pitzgibbon, The session of 1780 closed on the 2d of September, and the earl of Bucking- hamshire having displeased the ministry by the weakness of his administration, was recalled, the earl of Carlisle being sent to replace him. The new viceroy found the nation profoundly agitated by the two great questions of free trade and legislative independence. During the summer of 1781 reviews of the volun- teer coi'ps were held in various parts of the country, and had a most exciting ef- fect. The organization of the volunteer movement made immense progress ; and when Lord Carlisle met the Irish parliament on the 9th of October, it was plain from the conciliatory tone of his address, that he durst not hazard a stronger policy than his predecessor. He omitted, however, all mention of the volunteers, whom government wished to check and disarm without daring to make the attempt. On the motion of Mr. O'Neil, in the House of Commons, a vote was unanimously passed, thank- ing the volunteers " for their exertions and continuance, and for their loyal and spirited declarations on the late expected invasion."* The debates in the Irish House of Commons at this period were constantly of the deej^est interest. Government had, indeed, se- cured a corrupt majority, with which it was able to carry almost every meas- ure that it desired ; but on the popular side, thei'e was an array of brilliant afterwards Lord Clare ; but the government having been obliged to acquiesce, it was carried without a division. THE ULSTER VOLUNTEERS. 657 talent, which swayed public opinion, and which no government could at all times safely resist. Grattan's fervid and thrilling eloquence Avas always devoted to the interests of his country. His pojDularity was unbounded.* Flood had sacrificed place to principle, and his now unrestrained adhesion added greatly to the strength of the opposi- tion, f At length news ai-rived that Lord Cornwallis's army had surrender- ed to the French in America. It was a day of humiliation and dismay for Eng- land; but with that generous sympathy which England's misfortunes have seldom failed to elicit from Irishmen, the Irish House of Commons, on the motion of Mr. Yelverton, voted an address of loy- alty and attachment to the king, and readily granted the supplies which were demanded. Still, some of the patriots abstained from these votes, lest they should be understood as an ex- pression of opinion against the Ameri- cans. On the Tth of December, Mv. Grattan informed the house, that their * " The address and the language of this extraordi- nary man were perfectly original ,■ from liis first essay in parliament, a strong se'nsation had been excited b}' the point and eccentricity of his powerful eloquence ; nor was it long until those transcendent talents, which afterwards distinguished this celebrated personage, were perceived rising above ordinary capacities, and, as a charm, communicating to his couutr\Tncn that energy, that patriotism, and that perseverance, for which ho himself became so eminently distinguished ; his action, his tone, his elocution in public speaking, bore no re- semblance to that of any other person ; the flights of genius, the arrangements of composition, and the solid strength of connected reasoning, were singularly blended in his fiery, yet deliberative language ; he thought in logic, and he spoke in antithesis ; his irony and his sa- tire, rapid and epigrammatic, bore down aU opixjsition, 83 debt at that time, including annuities, amounted to £2,667,600, an enormous sum, accumulated in a few years by patronage and corruption. On the 11th, Mr. Flood moved for an inquiry into the operation of Poyning's law, but the motion was negatived by a di- vision of 139 to 67, the usual majority of the government. Events which constitute a memorable and glorious era in Irish history were now at hand. On the 28th of Decem- ber, 1781, the officers of the southern battalion of the first Ulster regiment of volunteers, commanded by Lord Charlemont, met together at Armagh ; and, having declared that they beheld with the utmost concern the little at- tention paid to the constitutional rights of Ireland by the majority of their re])- resentatives in parliament, they invited every volunteer association throughout Ulster to send delegates to deliberate on the alarming situation of public af- fairs, and fixed Friday, February 15th, 1782, for the assembly of delegates, to and left him no rival in the broad field of eloquent in- vective ; his ungraceful action, however, and the hesi- tating tardiness of his first sentences, conveyed no favor- able impression to those who listened only to hia exor- dium ; but the progress of his brilliant and manly eloquence, soon absorbed every idea but that of admira- tion at the overpowering extent of his intellectual faculties." Such was Sir Jonah Barrington's estimate of Henry Grattan's eloquence. — See Jiise and Fall of the Irish Nation, pp. 88, 89. f INIi-. Flood held office during the administrations of Lords Ilarcourt and Buckinghamshire ; but in 1780 he resigned, on the ground that the line of policy which he had undertaken to support was not adopted by govern- ment. He was subsequently able to boast that whOe in ofiBce he had never shrunk from his duty to his coun- try. 658 REIGN OF GEORGE III. take place at Dungannou. The pro- ceedings of the Irish volunteers had hitherto derived weight as well from their moderation as from their firmness and numbers ; they combined, in an eminent degree, the character of citizens and of soldiers ; temperate and peace- able, as well as armed and disciplined, there was something singularly impos- ing and dignified in their aspect ; and it was impossible not to recognize in their organization great prudence and patriotism, as well as vast military power. The invitation of the Ulster regiment was responded to by 143 vol- unteer corps of the northern province, and government durst not interfere to prevent the meeting. The delegates assembled at Dungannou on the ap- pointed day; most of them were men of large properties and of acknowledged patriotism ; they felt the w^eighty im- port of their proceedings, which would pledge the country to a course that misrht involve a hostile collision with Great Britain. The place of meeting was the church, a circumstance which enhanced the solemnity of the occasion ; Colonel William Irviue was appointed chairman, and twenty-one resolutions were adopted. These were in substance as follows : * The address of ttanks of the convention to the par- liamentary minority was couched in the following spir- ited words : " We thank you for your noble and spirited, though hitherto ineffectual efforts, in defence of the great constitutional and commercial rights of your country. Go on 1 the almost unanimous voice of the people is with you, and in a free country the voice of the people must prevail. We know our duty to our sovereign, and are loyal. We know our duty to our- That whereas it has been asserted that volunteers, as such, could not with propriety debate or publish their opin- ions on political subjects, or on the conduct of parliament or public men : Resolved, that a citizen, by learning the use of arms, does not abandon any of his civil rights. Resolved, that the claim of any body of men other than the king, lords, and commons of Ire- land, to make laws to bind this king- dom, is unconstitutional, illegal, and a grievance ; that the powers exercised by the privy councils of both kingdoms, under color or pretence of the law o'f Poyniugs, are unconstitutional and a grievance ; that the ports of Ireland are by right open to all foreign coun- tries not at war with the king ; that a mutiny bill, not limited in point of du- ration from session to session, is uncon- stitutional; that the independence of the judges is equally essential to the impartial administration of justice in Ireland as in England ; that it was their decided and unalterable determi- nation to seek a redress of these griev- ances ; that the minority in parliament who had supported their constitutional rights were entitled to thanks ;* that four members from each county of Ul- ster should be appointed a committee. selves, and are resolved to be free. We seek for our rights, and no more than our rights ; and in so just a pursuit we should doubt the being of a Providence if we doubted of success." The last of the resolutions adopted at Dungannon was suggested by Mr. Grattan to Mr. Dobbs, just before the latter gentleman left Dub- lin to attend the convention. It was passed with two dissentient votes. CONVENTION OF DUNGANNON. 659 till the next general meeting, to act for the volunteer corps there represented, and to communicate with other volun- teer associations ; that they held the right of pi'ivate judgment in matters of I'eligion to be equally sacred in othei's as in themselves, and, therefore, as men and as Irishmen, as Christians and as Protestants, they rejoiced in the relaxa- tion of the penal laws against their Roman Catholic fellow-subjects. Such was the famous convention of Dungannon. Its resolutions were adopt- ed by all the volunteer corps of Ireland, and served as the basis of parliamentary proceedings in both countries.* In a word, a revolution without precedent in any other country had been achieved. On the very day on which these mem- orable resolutions were passed, Mr. Gardiner (afterwards Lord Mountjoy) introduced his measure for the relief of the Catholics. Some delay was caused * These resolutions of Dungannon were, to a great extent, only tlie solemn assertion of principles already set fortli in resolutions of volunteer corps, discussed in parliament, and sanctioned by public opinion. Thus, on the 9th of June, 1780, the Dublin volunteers, Tvith their general, the duke of Leinster, in the chair, resolved unanimously, " That the king, lords, and commons of Ireland only are competent to make laws binding the subjects of this realm ; and that we will not obey, or give operation to any laws, save only those enacted by the king, lords, and commons of Ireland, whose rights and privileges, jointly and severally, we are determined to support with our lues and fortunes." The effective men of the volunteer corps which sent delegates to Dungan- non, or which subsequently acceded to the Dungannon resolutions, were, according to the abstract given in the appendix to Grattan's Miscellaneous Works : In Ulster, 34,153 ; in Munster, 18,056 ; in Connaught, 14,336 ; in Leinster, 22,283 ; total, 88,837 ; which, with the addition of twenty-two corps which had acceded but made no re- turns, and that were estimated at about 12,000 men, made a grand total for all Ireland of 100,000 men. The by obstacles thrown in the way by Mr. Fitzgibbon ; but the government having left it an open question, Mr. Gardiner's principal propositions were adopted.f On the fall of Lord North's ministry, Loixl Carlisle retired from his post, and was succeeded by the duke of Portland, who was sworn into office as lord- lieutenant on the 14th of April, 1Y82. Mr. Fox communicated to the Britisb parliament a royal message, recom- mending to their immediate considera- tion the adjustment of the questions which produced so serious an agitation in Ireland. The new viceroy met the Iri.sh parliament on the 16th of April ; and on that day Mr. Grattan moved an amendment to the address, pointing out the principal causes of the discontent in Ireland, and declaring that to re- move those causes the 6th Geo. I., ch. 5, which asserted the dependency of the Iiish parliament on that of England, artillery belonging to the volunteer corps of the several provinces, were : In Ulster, 33 pieces ; in Munster, 33 ; in Connaught, 20 ; in Leinster, 38 ; total, 130 pieces. f Mr. Gardiner separated his measure into three dif- ferent bills. The first enabled Catholics to take, hold, and dispose of lands and other hereditaments in the same manner as Protestants, with the exception of ad- vowsons, manors, and parliamentary boroughs ; it also repealed the statutes against the hearing or celebrating mass ; against a Catholic having a horse worth £5 or upwards; and that which empowered grand-juries to levy from Catholics the amount of any losses sustained through privateers, robbers, &c., and which excluded them from dwelling in the city of Limerick, &c. The second bill was entitled, "An Act to enable Persons professing the Popish Religion to teach Schools in this Kingdom, and for regtilating the Education of Papists, and also to repeal Parts of certain Laws relative to the Guardianship of their Children." These two bUls were passed into law ; but the third, which authorized inter- marriage between Catholics and Protestants, was nega- tived by a majority of eight. 660 REIGN OF GEORGE III. sliould be repealed; the ap2:)ellate juris- diction of the lords of Ireland should be restored; the unconstitutional powers of the privy council should be abolished ; and the perpetual mutiny bill repealed. The motion, which Avas an echo of the leading resolutions of Duugannon, was unanimously agreed to." On the 17th of May, 17S2, the alarm- ino: state of Ireland was brought un- der the consideration of the British senate, by the earl of Shelburne in the peers, and by Mr. Fox in the Com- mons; and resolutions were adopted declaring it to be the opinion of parlia- ment that the 6th Geo. I., entitled, "An Act for the better securing the Depen- dency of Ireland upon the Crown of Great Britaiu," ought to be repealed ;f and " that it was indispensable to the interests and happiness of both king- doms that the connection between them should l)e established l:)y mutual consent upon a solid and permanent footing," for which purpose an address should be presented to his majesty, jiraying that measures conducive to that import- ant end should be taken. These reso- lutions passed the lou'er house unani- mowely, and in tlie peers the only dis- sentient voice was that of Lord Lou2;h- borough. * TMs memorable address, or declaration of riglits, assured liis majesty "that his subjects of Ireland are a free people. That the crown of Ireland is an imperial crown, inseparably annexed to the crown of Great Britain, on which connection the interests and happi- ness of both nations essentially depend ; but that the kingdom of Ireland is a distinct kingdom, with a par- liament of her own, the sole legislature thereof. That there is no body of men competent to make laws to On the 27th of May the Irish parlia- ment met after an adjournment of three weeks, and the duke of Portland an- nounced in his opening speech the un- conditional concessions made to Ireland by the parliament of Great Britain. The news was received with an out- burst of gratitude. These concessions, as expounded by Mr. Grattan, amounted to the giving up by England, uncon- ditionally and in toto, of every claim of authority over Ireland ; they were grounded not merely on expediency but on constitutional principles ; they were yielded magnanimously, and in a manner that removed all suspicion ; and all constitutional questions between the two countries were at an end. Such was Mr. Grattau's interpretation of the measure. He moved the address in a brilliant S2:)eech, breathing the generous sentiments of his noble and confiding nature. A warm discussion ensued. Mr. Flood, Sir Samuel Bradstreet, re- corder of Dublin, and Mr. Walsh, a barrister, took a different view from Mr. Grattan of the English concessions. It -was urged by them that the simple repeal of the act of 6 George I. merely expunged from the English statute-book the declaration that England had the right to make laws for Ireland ; it did bind this nation except the king, lords, and commons of Ireland, nor any other parliament which hath any authority or power, of any sort whatsoever, in this coun- try, save only the parliament of Ireland ;" and " that we humbly conceive that in this right the very essence of our liberties exists— a right which we, on the part of all the people of Ireland, do claim as their birthright, and which we cannot yield but with our lives." f See the substance of this statute, pp. GG5, G30, supra. msi^iBi'' .ir![rAsr. ffioii'.. Sc SON TWO PARTIES AMOXG THE PATRIOTS. 661 not deny that Eaglaud had that power ; but left the question as it was before the passing of the obnoxious act, when the English parliament so frequently arrogated to itself and exercised such power. All Mi'. Grattan's arguments were founded on a generous estimate of the honor and good faith in which the resolutions of the English parlia- ment were brought forward; and his opinion prevailed. The address was carried by a division of 211 to 2. The house then, as an evidence of its grati- tude, voted that 20,000 Irish seamen should be raised for the British navy, and a grant of £100,000 be made to carry out that object. Nothing was heard but mutual congratulations ; it was the great and bloodless victory of the volunteers ; a day of general thanks- giving was appointed ; and the house next testified the gratitude of the coun- try to its gifted benefactor, by voting £50,000 to purchase an estate and build a house for Mr. Grattan. Two parties now arose among the patriots, led by the rival orators, Mi'. Grattan and Mr. Flood. Tlie former had been led into error by his too generous credulity. At that very moment, English statesmen were con- templating the reassertion of English supremacy ; and the duke of Portland, encoui'aged by the divisions among the patriots, wrote to Lord Shelburne on the 6th of June, 1782, that he had the best reason to hojDe that he would soon be able to obtain a recognition of the power claimed by England ; although a few days after he was compelled to acknowledge that the state of popular feeling in Ireland rendered such a step impossible for the present. Mr. Flood's opinions gained ground out of doors, while those of his opponent continued to prevail in parliament. Most un- worthy aspersions were thrown upon the motives of Mr. Grattan. It was said that he had obtained his reward, and that he was now ready to abandon the popular cause. On the other hand, Mr. Flood's friends urged that their leader had made an enormous per- sonal sacrifice for his country ; and as he would not, they said, stoop to ac- cept any boon, an attempt, but a fruit- less one, was made to induce the pi'esent government to restore his office, then in the hands of an unpopular man, Sir Geoi'ge Young. Mr. Flood brought the question at issue between him and Mr. Grattan before the house, in the shape of a motion for leave to bring in the heads of a bill declaring the sole and exclusive right of the Irish j^arlia- meut to make laws in all cases whatso- ever, internal and external, for the kingdom of Ireland; but on the 19th of July the house divided, when only six members voted for his motion ; the ground of rejection, as stated by Mr. Grattan, being, that the exclusive right of Ireland to self-legislation had already been asserted by Ireland, and fully and finally acknowledged by the English parliament. A chanofe of cabinets was brought about by the death of the Whig min- 662 REIGN OF GEORGE III. ister. the marquis of Rockingham ; and Earl Temple was sent to replace the duke of Portland in the government of Ireland. Dui'iug the administration of tlie latter, several important measures had been carried. The Bank of Ireland was established ; a liabeas corpus act was given to this country ; the dissent- ers were relieved from the sacramental test ; the perpetual mutiny bill was re- pealed, and the independence of the judges was established. At length, on the 27th of July, the eventful session of 17S2 was brought to a close. Popular discontent, however, was far from be- ing set at rest. The question, whether the simple repeal of the 6 George I. were sufficient, or whether England should not be called upon to renounce formally her claim of supremacy, was everywhere discussed.* Hence, " re- * In the following session (33 Geo. TIT.) government brought into the British parliament an express act of renunciation, " for removing and preventing all doubts which have arisen, or might arise, concerning the ex- clusive rights of the parliament and courts of Ireland in matters of legislation and judication," &c. \ For detailed accounts of the proceedings of the vi)l- peal" and " renunciation," became the watchwords of the two parties. Pro- vincial, county, and district meetings of volunteer corps and delegates were frequently held, their resolutions were published in the newspapers, and every private soldier was taught to feel that he had a right to express his sentiments on the constitutional questions which occupied the legislature.f The con- duct of the people was peaceable and orderly, yet public feeling was highly excited. It was a period of great national energy ; but having in this already lengthy chapter traced the fortunes of Ireland from their very lowest ebb to what it has been the fashion to regard as their culminatinoc point, we shall not add another word here to forestall approaching events. unteers, the reader may refer to the Lives of Qrattan and Lord Charlemont ; Sir Jonah Barrington's Rise and Fall of Vie Irish Nation; MacNevin's History of tJie Volunteers, in Dufiy's " Library of Ireland ;" the Ap- pendix to Grattau's Miscellaneous Works; Historical CoUectioiis Relative to Belfast; Hist, of the Conven- tion ; the public journals of the period, &c., &c. A DECEPTIVE VICTORY. 663 CHAPTER XLIII. FKOM THE DECLABATIOK OF INDEPEKDENCE TO THE UiaON. Short-comings of the volunteer movement. — Corruption of the Irish parliament. — The national convention of delegates at the Kotunda. — the Bishop of Derry. — The Convention's Reform BOl. — BUI rejected by parliament. — The convention dissolved and the fate of the Volunteers sealed. — The Commercial Relations BUI — Orde's propositions. — Great excitement in parliament. — Mr. Pitt's project abandoned. — Popular discontent. — Dis- orders in the South. — The Eight-boys. — The feud of the Peep-o'-day-boys and Defenders — Frightful atroci- ties of the former. — The Orange Society. — The regency question. — Political clubs. — Ferment produced by the French Revolution. — The Catholic committee. — Theobald Wolfe Tone. — Formation of the Society of United Irishmen — Their principles. — Catholic Relief BUI of ITSS. — Trial of Archibald Hamilton Rowan. — Mission of Jackson from the French Directory — His conviction and suicide. — Administration of Earl FitzvriUiam — Great excitement at his recall. — New organization of the United IiiBlunen. — Their revolutionary plans. — TVolfe Tone's mission to France. — The spy system.- — Ipiquitous proceedings of the government — Efforts to accel- erate an explosion. — The Insurrection and Indemnity acts. — The Bantry Bay expedition. — Reynolds the informer. — Arrest of the Executive of the United Irishmen. — Search for Lord Edward Fitzgerald. — His arrest and death. — The insurrection prematurely forced to an explosion. — Free quarters, torturings, and mili- tary executions. — ^Progress of the insurrection. — Battle of Tara. — Atrocities of the military and the magis- trates. — The insurrection in Kildare, Wexford, and Wicklow. — Successes of the insurgents. — Outrao-es of runaway troops. — Siege of New Ross. — Retaliation at ScuUabogue. — Battle of Arklow. — Battle of Vinegar HUl. — Lord CornwalUs assumes the government. — Dispersion and surrender of insurgents. — The French at Killala.— Flight of the English. — The insurrection finally extinguished. — The Union proposed. — Opposition to the measure. — Pitt's perfidious policy successful. — The Union carried. [a. d. 1783 TO A. D. 1800.] A T tlie close of the last chapter we •*--^ left the volunteers in possession of a constitutional victory; but we then paused before the bright side of a picture, of which we have now to ex- amine the shade. Turuino; aside from the glorious pageant of the national army, we are here, unhappily, doomed to find that the victory was deceptive and evanescent; that the parliament which was made free was venal, cor- rupt, and. unless reformed, worthless; that the popular leaders were in religion intolerant, in jDolitics short-sighted, and many of them faithless and insincere; that although four-fifth.s of the popula- tion were Catholics, the just rights of this vast majority were not recognized by the very men who sought political freedom for themselves; that the coun- try was consequently weakened by dis- union, and an unjust government en- abled with security to refuse all reform of abuses and all redress of grievances ; and, finally, that the volunteer associa- tion, deprived of moral influence, was, 664 EEIGN OF GEORGE III. after a few years, suffered to die of inanition.* ' On the 15tli of July, 1*783, parlia- ment u'as dissolved and a new parlia- ment summoned to meet in October. It Avas a moment when the question of reform was very earnestly and generally agitated. The Irish House of Com- mons was then composed of 300 mem- bers, of whom 64 were returned for counties, and of the remainder at least 1Y2, or a majority of the whole house, were sent in for close boroughs, the property of a few lords and wealthy commoners, and Avhich were bought and sold like any ordinary merchan- dise. Other members, besides those for close boroughs, were also purchased by government; and the few who could be said to represent the people honestly formed a minority insignificant in point of numbers. In this degraded state of venality aud corruption, however, the * " The services of tlie volunteers," says Dr. Madden, " are, on the whole, greatly exaggerated by our histori- ans ; the great vronder is, how little substantial good to Ireland was effected by a body which was capable of effecting so much. As a military national spectacle, the exhibition was, indeed, imposing, of a noble army of united citizens roused by the menace of danger to the State, and once mustered, standing forth in defence of the independence of their country. But it is not merely the spectacle of their array, but the admirable order, conduct, and discipline of their various corps — not for a short season of political excitement, but for a period of nearly ten years — that even, at this dis- tance of time, are, with many, a subject of admiration. But what use did the friends and advocates of popular rights make of this powerful association of armed citizens, which paralyzed the Irish government, and brought the British ministry to a frame of mind very different to that which it hitherto exhibited towards Ireland ? Why, they wielded this great weapon of a nation's collected strength to obtain an illusory indo- Irish parliament was not unique ; that of England at the same period presents similar characteristics, for which the debasing policy of the government and the profligacy of the times were respon- sible. The subject of parliamentary reform was now taken up warmly by the volunteers. A meetins: of dele- gates was held at Lisburn on the 1st of July, 1783, preliminary to another held at Duugannon on the 8th of September, at which all the Ulster volunteer corps were represented. The subject of equal representation of the people in parliament was discussed and com- mended to the attention of the volun- ■ teers of all Ireland. The movement was taken up in the same spirit by the other provinces, and the result of their provincial meetings was the project of a gi-and national volunteer convention, to assemble in Dublin on the 10th of November. These proceedings alarmed pendencc, which never could rescue the Irish parlia- ment from the influence of the British minister without reform, aud which left the parliament as completely in the power of the minister, through the medium of his hirelings in that house, as it had been before that shadow of parliamentary independence had been gained. The other adjimcts to this acquisition were, a place-bill aud a pension-bill, which had been the stock- in-trade of the reforming principle of the opposition for many years. No great measure of parliamentary re- form or Catholic emancipation was seriously entertained or wrung from a reluctant but then feeble government. The error of the leaders was in imagining that they could retain the confidence of the Catholics, or the co- operation of that body, which constituted the great bulk of the population, while their convention publicly decided against their admission to the exercise of the elective franchise."— r/ic United Inshmen, their Lives and Times, by R. R. Madden, M. D. First Series, p. 143, second edition. CONVENTION OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 665 government, but the new parliament. in tlie mean time, met and passed a vote of tlianks to tLe volunteers. This per- haps was only intended to conciliate. A warm debate took place on the question of retrenchment, and the o])- position was, as usual, defeated. Grattan had latterly ceased to co-operate earn- estly with the other popular leaders. On this occasion an angry altercation took place between him and Flood, whose policy was more progressive and uncompromising, and the mutual hos- tility of these two great men, which was so disastrous to their country, became henceforth more bitter than ever. Monday, the 10th of November, arrived, and one hundred and sixty delcsrates of the volunteers of Ireland assembled at the Royal Exchange. They elected as their chairman the earl of Charlemont, and adjourned to the great room of the Rotunda, marching two and tAvo through the streets, es- corted by the county and city of Dub- lin volunteers, with drums beating and colors flying. Vast multitudes assem- bled ; there was great enthusiasm, and the scene was altogethei" a most impos- ina: one.* In the Rotunda the seats were arranged in semicircular oi'der before the chair, the orchestra was oc- cupied by ladies, and the delegates adopted in their proceedings the forms of parliament. One of the most prom- inent members of the convention was • See description of the procession, in Gilbert's Hist. of Duhlin, vol. ii., p. 61. 84 Frederick Augustus Hervey, earl of Bristol in the English peerage, and Protestant bishop of Deny in Ireland. This eccentric personage took the ex- treme pojiular side on all questions, and was idolized by the multitude. He assumed a degree of princely state; was daily escorted to the convention by a troop of light dragoons command- ed by his nephew, George Robert Fitz- gerald, of duelling notoriety ; and was only saved by the eccentricity of his manner from the serious consequences to which his bold assertion of opinion would have laid him open. The convention had not made much progress in its deliberations before gov- ernment contrived by an artifice to introduce the seeds of dissension. Sir Boyle Roche, a man notorious for his blunders and buflfoonery, made his ap- pearance at the Rotunda, with Avhat purported to be a message from Lord Kenmare, to the effect that the Irish Catholics were satisfied with what had been done for them by the legislature, and that they only desired to enjoy in peace the benefits bestowed upon them. This occurred on the 14th of Novem- ber, and the same day the general committee of the Catholics held a meet- ing, with Sir Patrick Bellew in the chair, and resolved unanimously that the message to the national convention was totally unknown to, and unauthor- ized by them ; and that they were not so unlike the rest of mankind as to prevent, by their own act, the removal of their shackles. This resolution was 666 REIGN OF GEORGE III. communicated to the convention in the evening by the bishop of Deny ; but the assembly, with all its assumption of liberality, was anti-Catholic. Follow- ing the principles laid down by the Dungannon convention, it had, by its first resolution, restricted to Protestants the right of assuming arms ; it now pretended not to be able to distinguish between the authenticity of Sir Boyle Roche's message and that of the reso- lution of the Catholic committee, and concluded by an illiberal exclusion of Catholics from the constitutional priv- ileges claimed for the Protestant minor- ity. "We cannot be surprised that such a course should have deprived the convention of Catholic sympathies. Plans of reform were now submitted for consideration by several of the delegates. Hardy, in his "Life of Charlemont," describes them as "in- congruous fancies and misshapen the- ories." Mr. Flood and the bishop of Derry took the leading part in digest- ing these plans, and out of them was at length composed the bill which Mr. Flood introduced in parliament on the 29 th of November. A stormy debate in the House of Commons ensued. Mr. Yelverton, the attorney-general (after- wards Lord Avonmore), led the opposi- tion to the bill. Although he himself had been a volunteer, he declared that originating: as the bill did with an armed body, it was inconsistent with the freedom of debate in that house to receive it. They did not sit there to register the edicts of another assembly, or to receive propositions at the point of the bayonet. He admired the vol- unteers so long as they confined them- selves to their first line of conduct, but when they formed themselves into a debating society, and with that rude instrument, the bayonet, probed and explored a constitution which required the nicest hand to touch, his respect and veneration were destroyed. Such was the logic employed against the bill. Mr. Flood defended the bill and the volunteers by a display of powerful eloquence. A writer who was present describes the scene as " almost terrific" — as one of " uproar, clamor, violent menace, and furious recrimination."* Several supporters of the measure, and the delegates who were present, ap- peared in uniform. Mr. Grattan gave the bill but a feeble support, and the motion was rejected by a division of 159 to 77. Corruption was triumphant. The attorney-general the nmoved, " that it had now become necessary to declare that the house would maintain its just rights and privileges against all en- croachments whatsoever," and the reso- lution was carried by a similar majority. The gauntlet was fairly thrown down to the volunteers, and the consequences might have been most serious to the emj^ire had not some of the popular leaders behaved with more than ordi- nary prudence. Lord Charlemont ex- erted himself privately and publicly to prevent a collision ; and at length, on * Hardy's Life of Charlemont, vol. ii., p. 146. COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS BILL. 667 the morning of Tuesday, the 2d of December, adjourned the convention sine die. This sealed the fate of the volunteers. Their prestige and influ- ence were gone forever. Mr. Flood retired in disgust to England, and on his return the following year introduced another reform bill, only to be again defeated. His object was to show that it was not because the former bill emanated from the volunteers it had been rejected, but because it was di- rected against the scandalous corruption of an unprincipled House of Commons. An attempt was made by Flood, tap- per Tandy, and others, to get up another national congress, by addressing circulars to the hiijh-sheriffs, invitinf>- them to convene meetings of their respective counties and cities to elect delegates ; but the high-sheriffs were threatened by government with the vengeance of the law, and few of them had the hardihood to hold the required meetings. A few delegates were, how- ever, returned, and in October, 1784, met in Dublin with closed doors. Flood attended their sittinsfs: but some of them were offended at his hostility to the Catholics ; the abortive conven- tion dissolved ; and Fitzo-ibbon, then attorney-general, to make an example, prosecuted the sheriff' of the county of Dublin by an attachment. The volun- teers, deserted by most of their aristo- cratic leaders, now became a democratic association. In Belfast and Dublin they commenced openly to train people of all classes and sects in the use of arras, and the example was followed elsewhere ; but government, reassured by the late triumph over the volunteers in parliament, now took bolder meas- ures. The standing army was raised to 15,000 men, and in February, 1785, a sum of £20,000 was voted to clothe the militia. These forces, however, were unpopular, and the volunteers having ceased to co-operate with the civil authorities for the preservation of the peace, every part of the country soon became disturbed by scenes of tumult and violence. Hitherto we have seen the trade and manufactures of Ireland invariably sacrificed to the interests of England. The great question of 1785 was a bill for regulating the commercial relations of the two countries. William Pitt was the minister, and the duke of Rut- laud was viceroy of Ireland. The measure was introduced in the Irish parliament by Mr. Secretary Orde, in the shape of nine propositions, and did not jiass without considerable opposi- tion, as it was proposed that this coun- try should contribute a quota for the protection of the general commerce of both countries at the discretion of the British parliament. The bill passed the Irish parliament on the 12th of February, and was introduced by Mr. Pitt in the English House of Commons on the 22d. The commercial jealousy of England had been roused, and peti- tions were poured in from all quarters against the measure. Pitt complained of this hostility as unjust and ungen- GGS REIGN OF GEORGE III. erous, but secretly he took measures to allay the sordid fears of the English manufacturers, by assuring them that Ireland should derive little advantage from the bill ; and he accordingly added eleven new propositions to the nine Irish ones, altering the bill so materially, that when returned to Ireland in Au- gust it had ceased to be the same meas- ure which had passed the Irish parlia- ment. By the new propositions, Ire- land was to be debarred from all trade beyond the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan, and would be bound by whatever navigation laws the English parliament might thence- forth enact. The- insulting restrictions, and the attempt to bind Ireland by English-made laws, produced a violent commotion in the Irish parliament. They were denounced in one of the most memorable efforts of his eloquence by Grattau, who now saw how griev- ously he had been mistaken about the constitutional arrangements of 1182. " This bill," he said, " goes to the ex- tinction of the most invaluable part of your parliamentary capacity; it is a union, an incipient and creeping union; a virtual union, establishing one will in the general concerns of commerce and navigation, and reposing that will in the parliament of Great Britain ; a union where our parliament preserves its existence after it has lost its author- ity, and our people are to pay for a parliamentary establishment without any proportion of parliamentary repre- sentation." The latent patriotism even of that corrupt house was awakened, and when a division on the altered bill took 2:)lace, after a debate which was sustained until eight o'clock in the morning, the numbers were found to be, for the bill, 12Y, against it, 108. So small a majority, yielded by its own hirelings, was properly regarded by the ministry as a defeat, and the bill was abandoned ; but Pitt never forgave the Irish House of Commons for this dis- play of its nationality. Popular discontent, arising from a variety of causes, social, political, and religious, pervaded the whole country and gave rise in many places to scenes of tumult and disorder. Opposition to the importation of English marmfac- tures was renewed, and led to some violent proceedings, particularly in Dublin. In the south, the Whiteboys were revived under the name of Right- boys, and in 1V8V their turbulence and acts of intimidation filled several coun- ties with alarm. Tithes, church-rates, and rack-rents had driven the famishing peasantry to madness; the law afforded them no relief, and against the un- limited exactions of tithe-proctors and middlemen, and the cruelties of unjust magistrates, they sought protection in their own system of wild justice. Mr. Grattan made various fruitless attempts in parliament to obtain an inquiry into the causes of this agrarian discontent. He was opposed by Fitzgibbon, who, defending the parsons, said he knew the unhappy tenantry were ground to powder by relentless landlords; and POPULAR DISCONTENT. 669 instanced cases in Munster, in which, to his own knowledge, a poor tenant was compelled to pay £Q an acre for potato ground, which £6 he had to work out with his landlord at five pence a day. He might have found cases much worse still in Connaught ; but Grattan showed that " the landlord's overreaching, compared to that of the tithe-farmer, was mercy." To the relentless inhu- manity of both these classes the wretched people were abandoned ; and when goaded into resistance, they were refused by the legislature any remedy but the bayonet and the halter. Still, the outrages committed by the Eight- boys were not to be excused, and they were denounced from the altars by the Catholic clergy, and more particularly in pastorals issued by the Most Rev. Dr. Butler, archbishop of Cashel, and the Right Rev. Dr. Troy, Catholic bishop of Ossory. Meantime, disturbances of a different nature commenced in the north be- tween two parties called Peep-o'-day- boys and Defenders. They originated in 1784 among some country people, who ajjpear to have been all Protest- ants or Presbyterians ; but Catholics having sided with one of the parties, the quarrel quickly grew into a re- ligious feud, and spread from the * The first Orange lodge ■was formed in September" 1795, in tlie village of Loughgall, in Armagh. The confederacy spread rapidly, and the frightful atrocities eommitted by its members on the Catholics helped to accelerate the insurrection of '98, and added fearfully to its horrors. " The original oath, or purple test, of this society was not produced by the officers of the society county of Armagh, where it com- menced, to the neighboring districts of Tyrone and Down. Both parties be- longed to the humblest classes of the community. The Protestant party were well armed, and assembling in num- bers, attacked the houses of Catholics, under pretence of searching for arms ; insulting their persons, and breaking their furniture. These wanton outrages were usually committed at an early hour in the morning, whence the name of Peep-o'-day-boys ; but the faction was also known as "Protestant boys" and "Wreckers," and ultimately merged in the Orange society.* Their object was something more than a mere at- tack upon Catholics for their religion. They coveted the lands occupied by their Catholic neighbors, and adopted the Cromwellian j)rinciple of sending the Papists "to hell or Connaught." For this j)urpose they burned the houses of the Catholics, great numbers of whom were thus driven from the country, and their holdings afterwards given to Protestants ; and Plowden tells us, that in the beginning of 1796, " it was generally believed that 7,000 Catholics had been forced or burned out of the county of Armagh, and that the ferocious banditti who had expelled them had been encouraged, connived on the inquiry entered into by the parliamentary com- mittee in 1835 ; but the existence of this diabolical test was given in evidence before the Secret Comnaittee of 1798, by Mr. Arthur O'Connor, and the knowledge of it admitted by the committee on that occasion." Tfie United Ifishmen, &c., first series, p. 110, second edi- tion. 670 KEIGN OF GEORGE III. at, aud protected by the government." Ao-ainst these savasre atrocities the Catholics were compelled to band them- selves for protection, aud hence they assumed the name of Defenders. The association of Defenders, however, sjiread into some localities where no aggression from Protestants was to be apprehended, and in such cases the Defenders leae^ued themselves for the redress of various agi'arian grievances, especially that of the tithe system. They bound themselves by an oath of secrecy, and had pass-words like other similar societies, but they were exclu- sively illiterate men, and their political opinions were generally limited to a vagu& notion that "something ought to be done for Ireland."* In the autumn of 1Y88, George III. was attacked by insanity, and the re- gency was conferred in England on the prince of Wales, clogged with a variety of restrictions, upon which Mr. Pitt insisted. The Irish parliament, gener- ally ready enough to assert its own 23rivileges, refused to be dictated to either by the English parliament or by the minister, aud in tlie exercise of its national independence voted the re- gency without restriction or limitation. The lord-lieutenant (the marquis of Buckingham) refused to forward the address to the prince of Wales ; but the parliament appointed a commission to convey the address to England, and * See Plowden's History, vol. ii., c. 7 ; MacNevin's Pieces of Irish Ilistory, p. 55, &c. The trials of the the deputation was most graciously received by the prince. The phalanx of corruption was for the moment broken up in the Irish ^^arliament ; the hirelings were uncertain whom they should obey ; and Grattan seized the opportunity to introduce a pension bill and some other popular measures. But the king's health was suddenly restored ; the servile majority resumed their ranks, and all attempts at reform were as hope- less as ever. Pitt was exasperated by the conduct of the Irish parliament on the regency question, and never after lost sight of his determination to de- prive Ireland of her legislature. No viceroy ever exerted the corrupt- ing influence of government more shamelessly than the marquis of Buck- ingham. He bargained openly for single votes, and during his short ad- ministration added iSl3,000 a year to the pension list. In 1790 he was suc- ceeded by the earl of Westmoreland. It was an age of political associations ; societies were springing into existence in eveiy part of the empire. A Whig club was established iu Ireland similar to that of England ; but not only were Catholics excluded, as they were from most of the other political societies, but even the discussion of the Catholic question was interdicted. The ferment in the popular mind was daily increased by the progress of the French revolu- tion, and the wildest theories of democ- Defenders ; Dr. Madden's Lives and Times of the United Irishmen, &c. ORIGIN OF THE UNITED IRISHMEN. 671 racy begaa to float oa the tide of public opiniou. Stil], the governmeat was inexorable in its opposition to every proposition for reform, and it was openly asserted in parliament that such conduct seemed designed to goad the people to rebellion. Grattan arraigned the ministry in a long series of charges, and that other gifted and illustrious L'ishman, John Philpot Currau, labored at this time in the same cause ; but their efforts were in vain. On the 11th of February, 1T91, a general committee of the Catholics of Ireland met in Dublin, and resolved to apply to parliament for relief fi'om their disabilites. The Catholics had hithei'to refrained from all agitation, and their body was weakened by a division into an aristocratic and a democratic party, this breach being daily widened by the suspicion with which the excesses of the French revolution induced the friends of religion and order to regard all democratic tendencies. The most active men of the Catholic committee at this time were John Keogh, Eichard M'Cormic, John Sweetman, Edward Byrne, and Thomas Braughall. Theo- bald Wolfe Tone, a young barrister of considerable talent and of an ardent and aspiring disposition, proffered his services to promote their cause, as did likewise the Hon. Simon Butler, also a barrister, and some other patriotic Protestants and Dissenters; and the accession of such men gave a fresh 'im- pulse to their efforts, and roused them to the adoption of more decisive lan- guage than they had hitherto used. Nothing was more calculated to excite the jealousy of government than this fellowship of Protestants and Cath- olics ; and, on the other hand, the friends of the popular cause saw that nothing was more necessary to promote their views than unanimity between all classes of Irishmen. With this object in view, Wolfe Tone visited Belfast in October, 1791, at the invitation of a volunteer club already existing there, composed of such men as Samuel Neil- son, Robert Simms, Thomas Russell, &c., and in conjunction with them founded the first club, which took the name of the Society of United Irish- men. He then returned to Dublin, and with James Napper Tandy, Simon Butler, and others, founded a similar society in the metropolis. The funda- mental resolutions of the society were : " 1st. That the weight of English in- fluence in the government of this country is so great as to require a cordial union among all the people of Ireland, to maintain that balance which is essential to the preservation of our liberties and the extension of our commerce. 2d. That the sole constitutional mode by which this influence can be opposed, is by a complete and radical reform of the representation of the people in parliament. 3d. That no reform is just which does not include every Irishman of every religious persua- sion. ^^ Such were the principles of the first United Irishmen. Their society was 672 REIGN OF GEORGE III. perfectly constitutional, and in every respect as legal as any of the numerous political clubs which at that time existed in England and Ireland, and which boasted among their members some of the most distinguished statesmen of the day. Wolfe Tone and some of his associates had already imbibed republi- can ideas, but it is an unquestionable fact that they did not attemjit to en- graft these on the original constitution of the United Irishmen, which was thoroughly monarchical. The grand princij^le of the society was that of " union among all classes of Irishmen ;" it was this which marked it out as specially dangerous in the eyes of a government which, like every L-ish government since the earliest times of English rule in this country, relied on the contrary principle of division amongst the people; and it was this which gave the society so much political influence during the first period of its existence.* In Jul)', 1791, the anniversary of the French revolution was celebrated with * The "test" of tlie first society of United Irislimen was as follows : " I, A. B., in the presence of God, do pledge myself to my country, that I will use all my abilities and influence in the attainment of an impartial and adequate representation of the Irish nation in par- liament; and as a means of absolute and immediate necessity in the establishment of this chief good of Ireland, I will endeavor, as much as lies in my ability, to forward a brotherhood of affection, and identity of interests, a communion of rights, and a union of power, among Irishmen of all religious persuasions, without which every reform in parUament must be par- tial, not national, inadequate to the wants, delusive to the wishes, and insufficient for the freedom and happi- ness of this country." — See Wolfe Tone's Memoirs; military pomp at Belfast by the armed volunteei-s and townspeople. Demo- cratic ideas became daily more preva- lent, and in order to protest against such jjrinciples, sixty-four of the Cath- olic aristocracy seceded from the Cath- olic body, and presented an address of loyalty to the lord-lieutenant. This proceeding was uncalled for, and was injurious to their cause ; indeed, these were the persons of whose sentiments Sir Boyle Roche undertook to be the worthy expositor to the volunteer con- vention in 1783. In 1792, the Catholic committee employed the son of the great Edmund Burke as their advocate to defend them against the imputations of the sixty-four addressors. In fact, the attention of the committee was then so exclusively confined to the one great point of obtaining a relaxation of the penal code, that they mixed them- selves up with no other political agita- tion, and nothing could be more unjust than to impute to their j^roceedings a democratic character. A convention of Catholic delegates was suggested ; Madden's Lives and Times of the United Irishmen, &e. " Strictly speaking," says the historian of the United Irishmen, " Samuel NeUsou was the originator, and Tone the organizer of the society, the framer of its declaration, the penman to whom the details of its for- mation was intrusted. The object of Tone in assisting in the formation of the Belfast and Dublin societies is not to be mistaken — he clearly announces it in his diary. In concluding the account of the part he took in the formation of the former, he plainly states : ' To break the connection with England, the never-failing source of aU our political evUs, and to assist the independence of my country — these are my objects.'" — Madden's Lices and Times of the United Irishmen, second series p. 11, second edition. CATHOLIC RELIEF BILL. 673 this proposal (fraught witli most im- portant results) produced an outcrj^, and violent proceedings against the Catholics were adopted by the grand- juries throughout the country. Never- theless the Catholic delegates assembled in Dublin, and held their first meeting on the 2d of December, 1792, at the Tailor's Hall in Back-lane. The Cath- olics next prepared a petition to the king, representing their grievances ; it was signed by Dr. Troy and Dr. Moy- lan, on behalf of the prelates and clergy, and by all the county delegates. Five delegates-^namely. Sir Thomas French, Mr. Byrne, Mr. Keogh, Mr. Devereux, and Mr. Bellew — were chosen to convey the petition to Loudon, and on the 2d of January, 1793, they pre- sented it to his majesty, by whom they were very graciously received. Under the pressure of renewed war with France, and in order to detach the Catholics from the more active and dangerous politicians of other creeds, government brought in the relief bill of 1793 ;* but in the same session were passed a militia bill, and the guuj^owder and convention bills; the two latter coercive measures being directly aimed against the volunteers and the United Irishmen, the former havin\ formed against him or them ; and faith- fully to maintain, support, and defend, of their powej-, the succession to the crown in his majesty's family against any person whatsoever.' That, by those oaths, they renounce and abjure obedience and allegiance unto any other person claiming or pretending a right to the crown of this realm ; that they reject and detest, as unchristian and impious, to believe that it is lawful in any way to injure any person or persons whatsoever, under pretence of their being heretics, and also that un- christian and impious principle that no faith is to be kept with heretics ; that that is no article of their faith ; and that they renounce, reject, and abjure the opinion, that princes excommuni- cated by the pope and council, or by any authority whatsoever, may be de- posed or murdered by their subjects, or by any other person whatsoever; that they do not believe that the pope of Rome, or any other foreign prince, prelate, state, or potentate hath, or ought to have, any temporal or civil jurisdiction, power, superiority, or pre- eminence within this realm ; that they firmly believe that no act, in itself un- just, immoral, or wicked, can ever be justified or excused by or under pre- tence or color that it was done for the good of the Church, or in obedience to any ecclesiastical power whatsoever ; and that it is no article of the Catholic faith, neither are they thereby required to believe or profess, that the pope is infallible, or that they are bound to 93 any order, in its own nature immoral, although the pope, or any ecclesiastical power, should issue or direct such or- der, but that, on the contrary, they hold that it would be sinful in them to pay any respect or obedience thereto ; that they do not believe that any sin whatsoever committed by them can be forgiven at the mere will of any pope, or of any priest, or of any person or persons whatsoever, but that any pei*- son who receives absolution without a sincere sorrow for such sin, and a firm and sincere resolution to avoid future guilt and to atone to God, so far from obtaining thereby any remission of his sin, incurs the additional guilt of vio- lating a sacrament ; and, by the same solemn obligation, they are bound and firmly pledged to defend, to the utmost of their power, the settlement and ar- rangement of property in their country, as established by the laws now in be- ing; that they have disclaimed, disa- vowed, and solemnly abjure any inten- tion to subvert the present Church establishment, for the purpose of sub- stituting a Catholic establishment in its stead ; and that they have also sol- emnly sworn that they will not exercise any privilege, to which they are or may become entitled, to disturb or weaken the Protestant religion or Prot- estant government in L-eland. " Your petitioners most humbly beg leave to show that, however painful it is to their feelings that it should still be thought necessary to exact such tests from them (and from them alone of all 738 REIGN OF GEORGE III. bis majesty's subjects), they can with perfect truth affirm, that the political and moral principles, which are thereby asserted, are not only conformable to their opinions, but expressly inculcated by the religion which they profess ; and your petitioners most humbly trust that the religious doctrines which per- mit such tests to be taken will be pro- nounced by this honorable house to be entitled to a toleration, not merely par- tial, but complete, under the happy constitution and government of this realm ; and that his majesty's Roman Catholic subjects, holding those princi- ples, will be considered as subjects upon whose fidelity the State may im- pose the firmest reliance. " Your petitioners further most hum- bly show, that twenty-six years have now elapsed since their most gracious sovereign and the honorable houses of parliament in Ireland, by their public and deliberate act, declared that ' from the uniform peaceable behavior of the Roman Catholics of Ireland for a long series of years, it appeared reasonable and expedient to relax the disabilities and incapacities under which they la- bored ; and that it must tend not only to the cultivation and improvement of this kingdom, but to the prosperity and strength of all his majesty's domin- ions, that his majesty's subjects of all denominations should enjoy the bless- ings of a free constitution, and should be bound to each other by mutual in- terest and mutual affection ;' a declara- tion founded upon unerring principles of justice and sound policy, which still remains to be carried into full effect, although your petitioners are impressed with a belief that the apprehensions which retarded its beneficial operation, previous to the union, cannot exist in the parliament of the United Kingdom. " For your petitioners most humbly show that, by virtue of divers statutes now in force, his majesty's Roman Catholic subjects, who form* so great a proportion of the population of Ireland, and contribute so largely to the re- sources of the State, do yet labor under many incapacities, restraints, and pri- vations, which affect them with peculiar severity in almost every station of life ; that more especially they are denied the capacity of sitting or voting in either of the honorable houses of par- liament, the manifold evils consequent upon which incapacity they trust it is unnecessary to unfold and enumerate to this honorable house. " They are disabled from holding or exercising (unless by a special dispen- sation) any corporate office whatsoever in the cities or towns in which they re- side ; they are incapacitated and dis- qualified from holding or exercising the offices of sheriffs and sub-sheriffs, and various offices of trust, honor, and emolument in the State, in his ma^ jesty's military and naval service, in their native land. " Your petitioners, declining to enter into the painful detail of the many in- capacities and inconveniences avowedly inflicted by those statutes upon his THE CATHOLIC PETITION. '739 majesty's Roman Catholic subjects, beg leave, liowever, most earnestly to so- licit the attention of this honorable house to the humiliating and ignomin- ious sj^stem of exclusion, reproach, and suspicion which those statutes generate and keep alive. "For your petitioners most humbly show that, in consequence of the hostile spirit thereby sanctioned, their hopes of enjoying even the privileges -which, through the benignity of their most gracious sovereign they have been ca- pacitated to enjoy, are nearly altogether frustrated, insomuch that they are, in effect, shut out from almost all the hon- ors, dignities, and offices of trust and emolument in the State, from rank and distinction in his majesty's army and navy, and even from the lowest situations and franchises in the several cities and corporate towns throughout his majesty's dominions. " And your petitioners severely feel that this unqualified interdiction of those of their communion from all mu- nicipal situations, from the franchise of all guilds and corporations, and from the patronage and benefits annexed to those situations, is an evil not terminat- ing in itself; for they beg leave to state that, by giving an advantage over those of their communion to others, by whom such situations are exclusively possessed, it establishes a species of qualified monoply, universally operat- ing in their disfavor, contrary to the spirit, and highly detrimental to the freedom of trade. " Your petitioners likewise severely feel that his majesty's Roman Catholic subjects, in consequence of their exclu- sion from the offices of sheriff and sub- sherifi', and of the hostile spirit of those statutes, do not fully enjoy certain other inestimable privileges of the Brit- ish constitution, which the law has most jealously maintained and secured to their fellow-subjects. " Your petitioners most humbly beg leave to solicit the attention of this honorable house to the distinction which has conceded the elective and denies the representative franchise to one and the same class of his majesty's subjects ; which detaches from property its proportion of political power, under a constitution whose vital principle is the union of the one with the other ; which closes every avenue of legalized ambition against those who must be presumed to have great credit and in- fluence among the mass of the popula- tion of the country ; which refuses to peers of the realm all share in the legis- lative representation, either actual or virtual, and rendere the liberal profes- sion of the law to Roman Catholics a mere object of pecuniary traffic, de- spoiled of its hopes and of its honors. " Your petitioners further most hum- bly show that the exclusion of so nu- merous and efficient a portion of his majesty's subjects, as the Roman Cath- olics of the realm, from civil honors and offices, and from advancement in his majesty's army and navy, actually impairs, in a very material degree, the 740 REIGN OF GEORGE IH. most valuable resources of the British empire, by impeding his majesty's gen- eral service, stifling the most honorable and powerful incentive to civil and military merit, and unnecessarily re- stricting the crown, which encourages good subjects to promote the public welfare, and excite them to meritorious •actions by a well-regulated distribution of public honor and reward. "Your petitioners beg leave most humbly to submit, that those manifold incapacities, restraints, and privations are absolutely repugnant to the liberal and comprehensive principles recog- nized by their most gracious sovereign and the parliament of L'elaud ; that they are impolitic restraints upon his majesty's prerogative; that they are hurtful and vexatious to the feelings of- a loyal and generous people ; and that the total abolition of them will be found not only comp)atible with, but highly conducive to the perfect security of eveiy establishment, religious or po- litical, now existing in this realm. " For your petitioners most explicitly declare that they do not seek or wish, in the remotest degree, privileges, im- munities, possessions, or revenues ap- pertaining to the bishops and clergy of the Protestant religion, as by law es- tablished, or to the churches committed to their charge, or to any of them, the sole object of your petitioners being an equal participation, upon equal terms with their fellow-subjects, of the full benefits of the British laws and consti- tution. " Your petitioners beg leave most humbly to observe that, although they might well and justly insist upon the firm and unabated loyalty of his ma- jesty's Roman Catholic subjects to their most gracious sovereign, their profound respect for the legislature and their dutiful submission to the laws ; yet they most especially rest their humble claims and expectations of relief upon the clear and manifest conduciveness of the measure which they solicit to the general and permanent tranquillity, strength, and happiness of the British emjDire ; and your petitioners, enter- taining no doubt of its final accomplish- ment, from its evident justice and utility, do most solemnly assure this honorable house that their earnest so- licitude for it, at this peculiar crisis, arises principally from their anxious desire to extinguish all motives to dis- union, and all means of exciting dis- content. " For your jietitioners humbly state it as their decided opinion, that the enemies of the British empire, who meditate the subjugation of Ireland, have no hope of success save in the disunion of its inhabitants; and there- fore it is that your petitioners are deeply anxious at this moment that a measure should be accomplished which will annihilate the principles of reli- gious animosity, and animate all descrip- tions of his majesty's subjects in an enthusiastic defence of the best con- stitution that has ever yet been estab- 1 lished. DEBATE AND ACTION ON THE PETITION. Y41 " Your petitioners, therefore, most bumbly presume to express their earn- est but respectful hope that this hon- orable house will, in its wisdom and liberality, deem the several statutes now in force against them no longer necessary to be retained ; and that his majesty's loyal and dutiful subjects, professing the Roman Catholic religion, may be eifectually relieved from the operation of those statutes ; and that so they may be restored to the full enjoy- ment of the benefits of the British con- stitution, and to every inducement of attachment to that constitution, equally and in common with their fellow-sub- jects throughout the British empire." The petition just given was not brought up for direct consideration until May, 1805, The claims of the Catholics were warmly advocated by Lord Grenville, Earl Spencer, and others; they were opposed by Lord Redesdale, the bishop of Durham, the earl of Limerick, and others ; and after a long, animated, and full debate. Lord Grenville's motion was rejected by a majority of more than three to one. In the House of Commons, Fox made an eloquent speech in support of the claims of the petitioners. Grattan also, who was now a member of the imperial parliament, pleaded earnestly and for- cibly in favor of concession to the rea- sonable demands of the Catholics ; but despite all the eloquence and earnest- ness of the speakers in favor of the petition, the house refused to accede to their wishes. Three hundred and thir- ty-sis votes were given against the motion, and only one hundred and twenty-four in its support. Thus, for the present, at least, a quietus was put upon the discussion in parliament of the question of Catholic emancipa- tion. Although matters glided along ap- parently in their usual course, there was beneath the surface more or less discontent and disappointment at the condition of affairs ; and the prominent leaders among the Catholics were set- tling down in the determination to continue to agitate the question of their claims until some favorable result was reached. Lord Hardwicke gained considerable popularity in Ireland, by " taking ground in opposition to certain measures of the prime-minister. This led to a determination, on the part of the home government, that he should retire from of&ce. The decease, how- ever, of that eminent man, who had so long guided and controlled England and her policy, especially with regard to continental affairs, caused a number of unexpected changes, some of which materially affected Ireland. William Pitt died on the 23d of January, 1806 ; and after a brief interval a liberal min- istry, " the ministry of all the talents," was formed by a coalition between Lord Grenville and Fox. Ponsonby was made lord-chancellor, and John Philpot Curran, the defender of the United Irishmen, became master of the rolls. Lord Hardwicke was superseded, and the duke of Bedford, in March of 742 REIGN OF GEORGE III. tliis year, went to Ireland as lord lieu- tenant. The spirit of the Catholics began to revive. Younger and more energetic men were coming forward ; among whom Daniel O'Connell soon became the recognized chief. Agitation was renewed, and the question of the repeal of the Union was strenuously urged by Ii-ish patriots. Meetings were held in Dublin, and an effort was made to get up a petition in favor of repeal; but other counsels prevailed, and the design was postponed. The new ministry, however, made itself quite popular in Ireland, by allowing the Jiaheav corpus suspension act to expire without re- newal, and by removing Lord Redes- dale, who was considered very obnox- ious to the Irish Catholics, from the office of lord-chancellor. It was unfortunate at this time that dissensions found place among the lead- ing men of the Catholic party. Dis- putes, more ardent than wise, occurred on the subject of the " Catholic com- mittee," and its position as represent- ing and guiding the Catholic part of the community. Lord French and John Keogh were finally agreed upon as the principal men to take the lead in support of the cause they all wished to advance. The duke of Bedford was welcomed as usual in Dublin by the Roman Catholics ; but they soon began to complain of remissness on the part of his administration. They wished for a change in the magistracy of the isl- and, which consisted largely of men with strong Orange feelings and views, and who, it was asserted, denied full and equal justice to the Catholic, and screened the Protestant in a course of outrage and insult towards his neighbor. The government, however, showed no great disposition to accede to their wishes. Little, indeed, had been done to restore quietness to Ireland, and agi- tation and agrarian outrage jirevailed everywhere. The summer of 1806 was marked by no occurrence of much importance in Ireland ; yet there were many indications of popular discontent. In the city of Armagh, where the Lim- erick militia was quartered, very alarm- ing symptoms of discontent displayed themselves on several different days in July. Most of the men of that regi- ment were Catholics; and the yeomaniy of the city of Armagh, and the greater part of the townsmen, who were Prot- estants and mostly Orangemen, had ar- rayed themselves on one side, and held provoking and insulting language to- wards them. The militia drew up, and were joined by most of the Catholics of Armagh ; but providentially they com- mitted no further excesses than some personal assaults, in which many were severely wounded. An affray of a sim- ilar kind occurred at TuUamore, but was repressed without serious results. The peasantry in the west indulged in tumultuous proceedings, especially in regard to the exactions of the tithe proctors ; and the " Threshers," as they called themselves, formed a sort of con- federacy in carrying out their plans. .*. "1^ MEASURES OF CONCESSION. '743 Sometimes they met in bodies of sev- eral hundreds, dressed in white shirts or frocks; but they were easily dis- persed by the military. As the win- ter approached, these agrarian insur- gents became more active, and it was found necessary to pursue rigorous measures against them. Many were arrested and committed to prison ; and a special commission having been is- sued for their trial, and some of them being hanged, these executions put a stoj) to their lawless proceedings. The death of Fox, in September, 1806, threw a damper upon the hopes of many among the Catholics; but there was a strong disposition to press their claims at once. Frequent meet- ings were held in Dublin during the months of January and February, 1807, and communications were had with the Irish ministers ; and it was finally re- solved that a petition should be drawn up and presented to parliament during the session then commencing. This petition was a moderate and temperate one. The petitioners complained that they were excluded from many of the most important offices of trust, power, and emolument in the country, whereby they were made to appear like aliens and strangers in their native land ; that not less than four-fifths of the inhabit- ants of Ireland, by the system of ex- clusion which had been pursued, were made, as it were, a distinct people, and placed in a position of degrading infe- riority towards the rest ; and they rep- resented "that, from the uniform and peaceable behavior of the Catholics of Ireland for a long series of years, it ap- peared reasonable and expedient to re- lax the disabilities and incapacities under which they labor ; and that it must tend not only to the cultivation and improvement of this kingdom, but to the prosperity and strength of all his majesty's dominions, that his ma- jesty's subjects of all denominations should enjoy the blessings of a free constitution, and should be bound to each other by mutual interest and mu- tual affection." The earl of Fingall and Mr. Grattan were appointed to present the petition to the two houses of parliament. The ministry were somewhat embar- rassed on this question, the king being, in reality, as reluctant as evei' to yield a point. It was proposed in parliament to grant Maynooth College £13,000. Grattan advocated the grant, and it was carried ; but Mr. Perceval and others tried to have the amount greatly reduced. It was felt that somethins: must be done in favor of concession, and the ministry resolved to begin with the army and navy de- partments of the public service. On the 5th of March, 180T, Lord Howick moved for leave to bring in a bill to open the naval and military services indiscriminately to all his majesty's subjects who should take an oath to be thereby prescribed. In recommend- ing this measure to the house, Lord Howick urged that, at a season of dif- ficulty and danger such as then existed, T44 REIGN OF GEORGE III. when it was desirable to unite every heart and hand in the cause of the country, it was unwise to exclude from that union so large a portion of the people as the Catholics of Great Britain and Ireland, amounting to nearly a fourth of the whole population of the empire, and to prevent them from shar- ing in the danger and the glory of their countrymen. Various arguments of expediency as well as justice were ahly urged by the mover; but the opposi- tion, led by Mr. Perceval, was very strong. King George III., though at first assenting, was roused ; and peti- tions against the bill came from various parts of the country. The ministers soon after withdrew the bill ; and the king having required of them a written pledge not to address him again on the subject, they refused, and the re- sult was their dismissal from office. A strong anti-Catholic ministry was formed — the " no-popery cabinet," as it was designated — with the duke of Port- land at its head. Mr. Canning and Lord Castlereagh were the principal secretaries of state; and so far as ap- pearances went, there was little room to hope for attention to the claims of the Catholics, as presented in their late petition to parliament. CHAPTER XLVII. PKOGKESS OF AFFAIES. — DUKE OF KICKMOND S ADMINISTKATION. Opposition of the king. — Presentation of Catholic petition postponed. — Duke of Richmond, lord-lieutenant.— Insurrection act. — Sir Arthur Wellesley. — State of Ireland. — The veto question. — Course of the Catholics.— Agitation renewed. — Meeting in Dublin. — Orange lodges and doings. — English Roman Catholics on veto question. — Grattan's efforts. — Government policy. — Question of the veto in 1810. — Catholic committee's circular. — Extracts from. — Movement for repeal of the Union. — Meeting in Dublin. — O'Connell's speech. — Convention act enforced against Catholic committee. — Proceedings of government. — "Aggregate meet- ings." — Petition to prince regent proposed. — Catholic board organized. — Mr. (Sir Robert) Peel, chief secre- tary in Ireland. — His policy and acts. — Famous parliamentary debate in 1813.— Position of Ireland at this date. — Earnest working for the cause. — The prince regent said to be in favor of the Roman Catholic claims. — Hopes and expectations excited. — Ministry denounced. — Protestants roused. — Feelings and views manifested. — Various acts of outrage in Ireland. — The state of things adverse to Catholic claims. — Mr. Perceval assassinated. — Result in general. (A. D. 1807 TO A. D. 1813.) T^HE decided opposition manifested there was no indulgence to be looked for by them at his hands. Their only course henceforth seemed to be to agi- -■- by King George III. to the claims of the Catholics made it evident that JUSTICE TO IRELAND DEMANDED. Y45 tate persistently, and by steady, judi- cious efforts to compel, in due time, attention to their just rights and priv- ileges. As stated on a previous page (see p. 743), Grattan had been asked to pre- sent the petition drawn up by the Catholic committee. But the change in the ministry and in parliament, and the bitter contentions in the House of Commons, as well as the acrimony of the public press, rendered necessary reconsideration and some further ac- tion. A general meeting was held in Dublin, April 18, 180Y, the earl of Fin- gall presiding ; at which it was under- stood by letter from Mr. Grattan, that in his opinion it would be inexpedi ent to bring the Catholic question at present before parliament. Mr. Keogh, O'Connell, and others advised this course ; at the same time it was warmly urged by several gentlemen that the petition be presented at once, without further delay. The resolution proposed by Mr. Keogh prevailed, and under the circumstances it was judged best to publish an address explanatory of the principles and motives of the Catholic body in regard to that which they were now seeking to attain. On the 19th of April, 1807, the duke of Kichmond arrived in Dublin, as the successor of the duke of Bedford in the lord-lieutenancy. Sir Arthur "Wellesley (afterwards duke of Wellington) was chief secretary, and Lord Manners lord- chancellor. The new parliament met in June, and Sir Arthur Wellesley 94 brought in a bill, early in July, to sup- press insurrection and prevent disturb- ance of public peace in Ireland. The debates were long and ardent, and the offensive and oppressive features of the act were pointed out by a number of speakers, particularly Sheridan. It was passed, however, as a matter of course, and was followed by other acts of less interest and importance. On the 14th of August, Sheridan made an eloquent speech in favor of a motion to go into an inquiry as to the state of Ireland. " Justice," he said, " was all that Ireland asked for or looked for at their hands ; if they were prepared to do justice to Ireland, they would gain an ally more faithful and more import- ant than any they had lost upon the contiaent." The motion was nega- tived, and parliament prorogued with- out further notice of Ireland and her claims. During the autumn of 1807, Ireland was in a state of agitation. Meetings were held, resolutions were passed, all looking to the great end of emancipa- tion. In January, 1808, a meeting was held in Dublin, and a petition drawn up, which was intrusted to Grattan to present, as usual. The veto question now came promi- nently into notice. Lord Fingall, on behalf of the Irish Catholic body, as- serted their willingness to allow the crown to exercise a direct control in the appointment of bishops and clergy. Dr. Milner sustained the statements of Lord Fingall, and was authorized to •746 REIGN OF GEORGE III. say that the Irish bishops would agree to the negative or veto power of the government in nomination to bishoprics in Ireland. When, then, Grattan, in May, 1808, brought forward the Cath- olic petition, he stated that he was able to assure the house explicitly that the Catholics were ready and willing to concede to the crown a veto on the election of bishops. Mr. Perceval, on the part of the ministry, opposed the petition, notwithstanding this assurance, and it was rejected. Lord Grenville, in the House of Lords, discussed the veto question, declaring, among other things, that it was Pitt's view and de- sire to have some such arrangement as that " the king should have a negative in the nomination of those of the Cath- olic clergy who are allowed to exercise episcopal jurisdiction, and no one should act in that capacity without the appro- bation of the crown." Dr. Milner subsequently protested against the use made of his name in this matter ; and the consequence was a- division among the Catholic party, many of whom were in favor of the negative power which was to be given to the crown by this suggested meas- ure, while the greater number were as ■warmly opposed to it. Thus a contro- versy arose, which lasted for several years. It produced an immediate agi- tation among the Catholic body in Ire- land ; and the bishops met in synod in Dublin, on the 14th and 15th of Sep- tember, and passed resolutions : " That it is the decided opinion of the Eoman Catholic prelates of Ireland that it is inexpedient to introduce any alteration in the canonical mode hitherto observed in the nomination of the Irish Roman Catholic bishops, which mode long ex- perience has proved unexceptionably wise and salutary. That the Roman Catholic prelates pledge thsmselves to adhere to the rules by which they have been hitherto uniformly guided — namely, to recommend to his holiness only such persons as are of unimpeach- able loyalty and peaceable conduct." Other meetings were held, and the pre- vailing opinion among the Catholics in Ireland ajjpears to have been against the veto. During the present session (1808) various matters were urged upon parliament with reference to Ireland. Prison abuses of a disgraceful and shocking character were pointed out ; petitions against the tithe system were very numerous and pressing ; and the government gave a reluctant promise to look into the subject. The agitation against the Catholic claims, which was encouraged by the government, and a feeling of resent- ment against the whole body of Cath- olics on account of promised indul- gences from government, produced an irritable state of mind and temper in the country. In several districts hostil- ity broke out into serious collisions, at- tended by loss of life ; and the Orange yeomanry were guilty of outrage of a rery shameful description, wherever and whenever they had an opportunity. EXCITED STATE OF FEELING. 747 In May, 1809, the Catholics held a large meeting in Dublin, and earnestly- debated the expediency of petitioning parliament at its present session. The majority were in favor of pressing for- ward, and never, even in appearance, faltering or giving up their claims. The Catholics also gathered fresh vigor by reviving the Catholic committee. Their activity provoked the government, and was responded to by an increase of violent language in the Orange lodges, which, reckoning on the countenance of the ministers, acted in a manner which' was most insulting and aggravating to their opponents, and which sometimes led to lamentable outbreaks. In fact, Orangeism was at this moment in- creasing rapidly, and a great number of new lodges had been established during the past and present j^ear. This extension was attributed partly to the exertions of a meeting of deputies from all the Orange lodges in the autumn of 1808, in Dublin. Several outrages which were perpetrated by the Orange- men in different parts of the country during the summer of 1809, increased the popular irritation. At Enniscor- thy a magistrate had rendered himself obnoxious to the Orangemen by his tolerant feelings ; and at the celebration of their festival in July they cut down a tree and erected it in the market- place, with an eflSgy of the magistrate hanging to its branches. This insult led to a riot, in which many persons were severely wounded. At Enniskil- len an Orangeman was executed for the murder of a Catholic, and it was found necessary to guard him at the execu- tion with a strong militaiy force against the Orange yeomanry, who had mani- fested an intention to rescue him. A similar feeling was strongly manifested in many places. The question of the veto aroused considerable feeling in England early in 1810. At a meeting of the English Roman Catholics in London, on the 1st of February, the following resolution was adopted, and subsequently added to the English Catholic petition to parliament. This resolution, it will be seen, was expressed in very general, terms. It stated, "that the English Roman Catholics, in soliciting the at- tention of parliament to their petition, are actuated, not more by a sense of the hardshij^s and disabilities under which they labor, than by a desire to secure on the most solid foundation the peace and harmony of the British em- pire ; and to obtain for themselves op- portunities of manifesting, by the most active exertions, their zeal and interest in the common cause in which their country is engaged for the maintenance of its freedom and independence ; and that they are firmly persuaded that adequate provision for the maintenance of the civil and religious establishments of this kingdom may be made consis- tently with the strictest adherence, on their part, to the tenets and discipline of the Roman Catholic religion ; and that any arrangement founded on this basis of mutual satisfaction and secu- 748 REIGN OF GEORGE IH. rity, and extending to them tlie full enjoyment of the civil constitution of their country, will meet with their grateful concurrence." The English Catholics wished to prevail upon their Irish brethren to accept of this clause, but in vain ; and it was urged that they were wavering in their allegiance to the pope. The subject was discussed in several meetings of the Catholics in Ireland during the earlier months of 1810, and the proposal was everywhere rejected. In the meanwhile liberal sentiments towards the Catholics were gaining ground among the Protestants, and a large meeting in the county of Tyrone, in the beginning of April, which was attended by many of the Orangemen in that county, passed a series of resolutions in favor of eman- cipation. Grattan, in njaking his annual mo- tion in favor of petition from the Catholics, spoke of the veto, and frankly stated that, in his judgment, some proviso of the kind was called for, and was just and reasonable. The Irish Catholics, however, much as they appreciated his devotion to their inter- ests, did not approve his views as ex- pressed in the House of Commons. A resolution was passed by them, March 2, 1810, stating that, "as Irishmen and as Catholics, we never can consent to any dominion or control whatsoever over the appointment of our prelates on the part of the crown or the ser- vants of the crown." Later in the ses- sion, in May, Grattan expressed him- self more fully on the same subject. He was ably supported in his ai-gu- ments and appeals on behalf of the Catholics and their claims; but to nc practical purpose. The petition was rejected. Government, however, thought it ex- pedient to relax a little of their rigor- ous policy, and early in June a bill was brought into parliament to repeal the Irish Insurrection Act (see p. 745). This was done on the ground that the authorities felt that they could govern the country without it, and were strong enough to maintain peace and public tranquillity without continuing in force a law justified only by the most urgent necessity. Other acts were passed for preventing improper persons from hav- ing arms in Ireland ; for preventing the administration of unlawful oaths, and the protection of magistrates ; for regulating trade and management of the revenue, etc. The question of the veto gave rise to bitter discussions among the Catholics during the year 1810, from the circum- stance that some of their ablest advo- cates in parliament, such as Lord Gren- ville, Grattan, and Ponsonby, had not only advocated that measure, but de- clared that they considered it a neces- sary condition. One of the most vio- lent and unflinching writers against the veto at this time was Dr. Milner, the agent in England of the Catholic pre- lates, who had at first been in favor of it. His earnest opjiosition to it was rewarded by the thanks of the Irish GENERAL COMMITTEE'S ADDRESS. Y49 Catholic bishops, conveyed in a resolu- tion passed in a synod held at the end of February, 1810. A few days after- wards the Catholic committee passed a resolution condemning the veto. Many, however, were not only laboring to obtain the consent of the Catholics to the veto, but they intrigued to pro- mote divisions and disputes among the Catholic body; and pamphlets and newspaper articles were circulated largely, and were full of recriminations and personal abuse. The committee exerted itself to restore and maintain unanimity; and at the end of July a circular was prepared and sent to all the leading Catholics in Ireland. An extract or two will show its force and pertinency : " The general committee of the Cath- olics of Ireland, having consulted to- gether upon the best interests of Cath- olic freedom, deem it proper to address the following considerations to their Catholic fellow-sufferers at this import ant juncture. It is notorious that the Catholic cause has, within the last two years, gained considerably upon the public mind in Great Britain, as well as in Ireland. The nature of public events, their consequences, the growing exigencies of the empire, the policy, nay, the necessity of domestic concord and general conciliation, have wrought a happy change in the minds of our fellow-subjects. But still more to the public discussion of the Catholic sub- ject, which has so frequently occupied the press and the parliament, and called forth beneficial inquiries and luminous reasonings, enforced by the high and increasins: authorities of the best and ablest men in the empire, may the Catholics justly attribute the immense progress which their cause has lately made. "However, though the argument has triumphed, its practical results in our fevor are yet to be obtained. The fruits of victory may be lost through the impolicy of the victors. Apathy and lethargy may prove as ruinous on the one hand, as indiscreet energy on the other. Our fellow-subjects, though no longer deaf to the justice of our* cause, or blind to the wisdom of con- cession, have yet much to learn. They are not yet aware of the extent and va- riety of Catholic sufferings ; the mental and pei-soTial thraldom in which we are bound ; the immense means of continual annoyance, insult, and contumely to which we and our families are exposed. Nor are they yet competent to appre- ciate the soreness, irritation, and im- patience which consequently exist in Ireland, or to calculate the probable mischiefs and disastrous effects which result from such an order of things, and may possibly soon become irremediable. The Catholics alone can enlighten their fellow-subjects, by disclosing and fre- quently repeating the necessary infor- mation, and pouring forth fresh remon- strances. The committee, far from pre- suming to dictate, or even to urge any specific proceeding to the wisdom of their fellow-Catholics, desire nothing ^50 REIGN OF GEORGE III. more ardently than to promote free and serious discussion amongst all. With unaffected earnestness and honest zeal in pursuit of emancipation, they are conscious that their countrymen will give them credit for the honorable and worthy motives which actuated them. Every honest and reflecting Catholic feels with anguish his abject depression, his systematic vassalage under the existing penal laws. H-is fairest hopes are de- pressed; his industry circumscribed; his most honorable exertions frustrated ; his energies paralyzed ; his person, fame, and property, and those of his family, exposed to the mercies of uncontrolled oligarchy ; his servitude not merely base already, but in annual hazard of fresh degradation ; the passing genera- tion withering away in inglorious tor- por ; the rising youth bereft of all happy promise — of all incentive to laudable industry — of all excitement to honorable deeds. " The committee hope that Catholics will take frequent opportunities, and as early as possible, of holding local meetings for these purposes ; and there, unfettered by external authority and unaffected by dictation, apply their most serious consideration to subjects of common and weighty concern with the candor and directness of mind which appertain to the national char- acter. The establishment of perma- nent boards, holding communication with the general committee in Dublin, has been deemed in several counties highly useful to the interests of the Catholic cause. Nothing is more neces- sary amongst us than self-agency ; it will produce that system of coherence of conduct which must insure success. " In this solemn appeal to the Cath- olic mind of Ireland, the committee feel a deep and natural anxiety ; they wish to collect and follow the senti- ments of their fellow Catholics, but they wish that those sentiments may spring from as general and as active a discussion as circumstances will per- mit ; measures grounded upon such dis- cussion must be honest, most probably will be judicious, and cannot possibly be prejudicial. " With a fellowshiji in suffering and in affection, in sorrow and in hope, with common sympathy, common pros- pects, and common wishes, in perfect union with you and every other up- right Catholic, the general committee trust to your personal indulgence for their address, and rely upon your good sense and feeling for its liberal recep- tion. " Upon you and other Catholics, co- operating effectually at the present time, and openly avowing your senti- ments, collected by convenient meetings for the purpose, the eyes of the com- mittee will remain watchfully fixed. With due exertions, a few months may, perhaps, crown our joint efforts with success. " Signed, by order, " DANIEL O'CONNELL, Chairman." In the summer of 1810 a movement was made to see if something could not ■ COUESE OF THE GOVERNMENT. 751 be done towards effecting a repeal of the Union. Several members of the coi-poration of Dublin, looking upon the question as one in wbich the com- mercial prosperity of Ireland was deeply concerned, determined to have prepared a petition to parliament in behalf of repeal. The high-sheriffs were asked to call a meeting of the freemen and free- holders of the city, " to prepare an hum- ble petition to his majesty and the par- liament, praying for a repeal of the Act of Union, as, in common with all our un- biased countrymen, we look upon that act as the root and origin of all our misfortunes." One of the sheriffs re- fused ; the other agreed to call the meeting. It assembled on the 18th of September, 1810, when Sir James Red- dell, the sheriff* presided. An im- mense assemblage was gathered, and the business formally entered upon. The petition, as prepared, was read and agreed to, O'Connell making a spirited address in its favor, and condemning the Union and its results in the most unmitigated terms. His speech was printed and spread abroad by the thousand all over the island, and it certainly made a deep impression upon his countrymen. The repeal petition was forcibly written, and urged the point at issue with great cogency and earnestness, affirming, in conclusion, " that to the repeal of the legislative union can the people of this country look, as the only efficient means of pro- curing its present relief, of securing its future prosperity, and securing its per- manent connection with Great Britain." The time, however, had not yet arrived when this subject could receive its full share of attention. Just now, other and more immediately pressing topics engaged the thoughts of the Catholics in Ireland. The government looked with some concern upon the proceedings of the Catholic committee, and it was resolved to enforce the Convention act (passed in 1793) against that body. The mat- ter was allowed to rest for a brief pe- riod, Lord French and othere declaring that they were only individuals met to petition parliament in a legal way ; but iu March, 1811, Mr. Ponsonby brought the subject before the House of Com- mons, and some very severe remarks were made on the conduct of the Irish o-overnment. In the course of the ses- sion several other warm debates took place on Irish affairs ; but all attempts to obtain relief or investigation were overwhelmed by the ministerial major- ities. On the 31st of May, Grattan brought the Catholic petition before the House of Commons, but in vain. Mr. Hutch- inson announced his intention of mov ing for the repeal of the Convention act; and on the 11th of June, Mr. Parnell repeated his motion for an in- quiry into the Irish tithe system. The Catholic committee having re- solved to hold a general convention of that bod}'-, delegates were chosen fi-om the several councies to meet in Dublin. This brought the Catholics within the V52 REIGN" OF GEORGE III. scope of the Convention act, and the magistrates were directed to enforce the law. A number of arrests were made of persons acting or being elected as delegates. When, on the 19th of October, the delegates, to the number of three hundred, met in Dublin, the magistrates interfered, and would have proceeded to further severity had not the meeting dispersed in quiet. Later in the season, December 23d, the ma- gistrates broke up the meeting entirely. The government also proceeded to take a more stringent course. In November the attorney-general filed information against the earl of Fingall for presiding over Catholic meetings, against several persons for attending them, and against the proprietoi'S of the " Freeman's Jour- nal" and the " Correspondent," for pub- lishing reports of their proceedings. On the 23d of November, the attorney- general applied for an attachment against Mr. Magee, the proprietor of the " Du^ lin Evening Post," for a paragraph in that paper relating to the recent prose- cutions, which the attorney-general said tended to interfere with the course of justice. He at the same time an- noijnced that the court had come to the opinion that the Catholic commit- tee was an illegal assembly, and that the prosecutions would not be persisted in if that body offered no further re- sistance. Immediately afterwards the Irish Catholics gave a grand dinner in Dublin, which was attended not only by some of the principal Catholic no- blemen, but by many distinguished Protestants, among whom were Grattan and Curran. Early in the year 1812, it may be here mentioned, the govern- ment carried forward the prosecutions, which resulted in several convictions, sufficient to demonstrate the power and determination of the public authoi'- ities on this subject. An " aggregate meeting," as it was very aptly called, came together on the 26th of December, 1811, Lord Fingall being in the chair. A petition to the prince regent was determined on ; strong I'esolutions, condemnatory of the duke of Richmond's government, were passed ; the general committee was dissolved ; and the " Catholic Board" established in its stead. The principle on which this board was formed was to have a coun- cil always in action, but without any delegative power such as was forbidden in the Convention act, and to get up " aggregate meetings" for the purpose of arousing and informing the people. During 1812, Mr, (afterwards Sir Robert) Peel became chief secretary of Ireland, an office which he held, much to the disgust of the Irish, for six years. Peel had little or no sympathy with the Catholic claims and demands, and his superior abilities were devoted to the maintenance of the English su- premacy, and the carrying out of the laws against all offenders. He avowed plainly that, so far as he was concerned, the Roman Catholics should remain as they were, and the Protestant ascend- ency not at all be lowered or dimin- ished. Some Catholic writers speak of DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT. Y53 Peel and bis measures Avith exceeding seventy, and affirm that, during his secretaryship, "the business of spies, informers, and police flourished." They denounced his attendants as made up of " spies, informers, expectants, place- hunters, Orange magistrates, Orange judges. Orange sheriffs, Orange juries. Orange attorney-generals;" and they tell us " that his iniquitous organiza- tion kept Ireland for twenty yeara in a state which no description can picture." Other writers admit his great abilities in various steps which he took during his term of office. " After a half cen- tury's experience," remarks McGee, " we may safely say that the Irish constabu- lary have shown themselves to be a most valuable police, and as little de- serving popular ill-will as any such body can ever expect to be ; but they were judged very differently during the secretaryship of their founder ; for at that time, being new and intrusive, they may, no doubt, have deserved many of the hard and bitter things which were generally said of them."* An earnest and long debate, famous in parliamentary annals, took place early in 1812, on the state of Ireland and the claims of the Roman Catholics. But, on the whole, the result of the de- bate was rather prejudicial than other- wise to the Irish hopes and wishes. AU the leading statesmen of the day had taken part in the discussion, and the majority in both houses had been * The term Peeler (derived from the secretary's name) ■was in use as a bitter reproach; it was sy- 95 decisive. A feeling, moreover, seems to have grown up in the public mind, that the whigs were not altogether sin- cere in their advocacy of the Catholic cause, and that they rather used it as a means of advancing their party pur- poses than for any other effect. Then there was a potent influence in the fact that the regent had abandoned his early friends, and thrown the weight of his countenance into the scale of their opponents ; and this was sufficient, for a long season, to swell the hostility on the English side of the channel, at least against the emancipation of the Cath- olics, in which the general welfare of Ireland was for so many years in- volved. Ireland, however, was assuming more and more importance in public estima- tion, and questions relating to her po- sition and claims could not longer be put aside without a hearing. Concili- ation was demanded, and to some ex- tent obtained. Difficulties occurred in regard to the cabinet, which rendered it hard to agree upon the men who were to retain the reins of power. Lord Wellesley came out against the ministerial policy as to the Catholics. Grattan displayed his eloquence and ability in the House of Commons, where he had so often advocated emancipation. As a late writer observes : " Men were in earnest in that day of 1812, when prejudice, political rancor, and national danger nonymoM with spy, iofoimer, and every thing detest- able. 754 REIGN OF GEORGE in. threw a misty halo over all objects that the miad could contemplate ; and when, whether right or wi'ong, they were working disinterestedly for the best object that human ingenuity could at- tain. Whether right or wrong, both sides were in earnest ; and few discus- sions have taken place in the world's history, in which greater powers of de- bate, deeper philosophical knowledge of human interests, or broader concep- tions of the world's advantage were entertained, than those exhibited in the course of these disquisitions." The debate just spoken of produced a great and powerful impression ; but there was another occurrence which surpassed it in the sensation it excited in England and Ireland. This was the statement made by Mr. Ponsouby, that the prince regent was in favor of con- cession to the Catholics. The senti- ments and views of the regent being thus authoritatively stated, it awoke to new life and energy the hopes and expectations of those in Ireland who were studying to promote their coun- try's welfare ; and it was at once con- cluded by the Catholics, that all the prince regent's influence would be given in support of their claims. He was looked upon as their benefactor, and even advocate, and they counted to an extravagant extent upon his patriotic and enlarged views and promises. His ministers were denounced as being the only obstacles to the concession of their claims, and no epithet was too vile for adoption when stigmatizing their characters, their principles, and their proceedings. In England, among the more earnest of the Protestant portion of the population, the declaration ex- cited very great alarm ; and there was, on their part, a settled determination to uphold every thing in Church and State by which they conceived the in- stitutions of the country to be guarded, and the liberties of the people to be secured. It was a great blow and se- vere discouragement to that great party who had hitherto acted as the conserv- ative supports of the government, and upon whom the reliance of those in power principally rested. The conduct of the duke of Bedford and Mr. Pon- sonby was severely canvassed, and al- most universally reprobated, as in pal- pable violation of the duty owed to the king, whose sentiments were well- known to be immovable on this subject. Their conduct was felt, on its exposure, to be absolutely militating against the cause which they professed to serve. No great cause was ever permanently successful, except through the action of perfect truth and uninterrupted hon- esty. The cause of the Catholics of Ireland needed no such pandering to popular clamor. It was great in itself, great in its principles, great in its ac- tion on the public mind, great in the time in which it was brought before the legislature, and great in the men by whom it was advocated and en- forced. Not only the public press, properly so-called, but men in every grade of CHARACTER OF THE GOVERNMENT. T55 society, were aroused by a sense of the peril of the country, and the disadvan- tage to which the British government might be exposed by the admission of Catholics to seats in the legislature, and to the other high offices in the service of the State. Pamphlets, books, and appeals abounded ; and not only ordinary writers, but men whose posi- tion was eminent lent their talents to the promotion of the popular feelings and views, and by animated appeals, from day to day, and week to week, the attention of the Protestants in both countries was kept alert and active. On the continent the war was raging with violence ; in Ireland, acts of out- rage and cruelty were perpetrated, and a system of lawless disregard to- wards person and property was inaug- urated. It was an unfortunate time to be seeking favors or concessions at the hands of the English government. The course of Bonaparte, in his celebrated Milan and Berlin decrees, had produced great distress in the manufacturing districts in England, where riot and violence prevailed to an alarming de- gree. The present ministry, too, under the guidance of Mr. Perceval, aided by Lord-Chancellor Eldon, possessed a weight of influence never surpassed, if ever equalled ; and the Catholics were at disadvantage in pressing their claims upon a government who had no sym- pathy with them. The assassination of Mr. Perceval, in May, 1812, gave somewhat of a new turn to jDublic affairs. It produced a good deal of difficulty in the ministerial ranks, owing to personal rivalry among the Whig leaders, without, however, eftecting any material change. The hopes of the Catholics were again doomed to disappointment, and the day of emancipation was postponed for the present. 756 llEIGN OF GEORGE lU. CHAPTER XLVIII. LEADEKSniP OF O CORNELL. — EMANCIPATION EFFECTED. State of affairs at tliis date. — Qrattan'a omancipation bill. — Canning's clatises. — Opinions in Ireland as to tlie veto. — O'Connoll's course. — Speech at aggregate meeting in DuWin. — Prosecution of Maghee. — Outrages in Ireland. — Severe measures resorted to. — Petitions. — Veto question. — Inquiries into the state of Ireland. — Distress, discontent, etc. — O'Connell's statement as to veto question. — George IV. and his queen. — Plunkett's motion. — The king's visit to Ireland. — WeUesley, lord-lieutenant. — Whiteboys and Captain Rock's men. — Their excesses and cruelties. — Famine and its terrors. — Help afforded by England. — WeUesley insulted in Dublin Theatre. — Moral degradation of witnesses. — Tithe composition act. — State of education in Ireland. — Use of the Bible in schools. — The Catholic association in 1833. — Its power and in- fluence. — Catholic rent. — Association suppressed. — New one formed. — O'Connell's threat. — Sir F. Burdett's resolution. — O'Connell's activity and influence. — Canning's ministry and death. — March of events. — O'Con- nell elected for County Clare. — Test and corporation acts repealed. — Wellington's and Peel's policy. — Measures adopted. — Emancipation carried. — O'Connell in the House. — Seat denied him. — Re-elected, and victory at last complete. (A. D. 1813 TO A. D. 1829.) IN pursuing tlie course of Irisli his- tory, for a number of years to come, it is not necessary to attempt to go into any lengthy details. The one great object of the Catholic leaders, especially O'Connell, the chief, was patent to all, and it was persistently carried forward. The question of the Catholic claims, in all their length and breadth, was con- stantly brought before parliament, and the patriots whose names have often been mentioned in these pages, the Grattans, Cannings, Piunketts, and oth- ers, still raised their voices and gave their best efforts to secure the end desired. Concession was again and again promised, debated, almost with- in the grasp of the friends of Ire- land; but it was again and agam postponed to a later day. Evils were complained of, with steady determina- tion to have them abated, if possible ; and yet the government as steadily opposed, and threw every obstacle in the way of the demands made by the Catholics to abolish the penal laws in their various oppressive features. Nev- ertheless, although slowly, the course was onward ; and however much hin- dei-ed by folly, outbreaks of passion, and lawlessness, it was destined, in due time, to reach the goal of success. At the close of November, 1812, a new parliament met, and the prince regent, in his opening speech, spoke of the war on the continent, the war re- cently begun by the United States, etc., but made no allusion to the Cath- EMANCIPATION BILL IN PARLIAMENT. 157 olic claims. Canning, the previous summer, had carried a motion in favor of "such a final and conciliatory adjust- ment as may be conducive to the peace and strength of the United Kingdom," by a vote of two hundred and thirty- five to one hundred and six. Encour- aged by this success, Grattan, on the 30th of April, 1813, introduced his Emancipation bill into parliament. It contained several important enactments, vphich may here be briefly noted. The preamble declared the Protestant suc- cession to the throne and the Protestant Church establishment to be inviolable ; and also, the expediency of conferring upon the Roman Catholics the bless- ings enjoyed by the Protestants. The bill then went on to enact that it should be lawful for persons professing the Roman Catholic faith to sit and vote in either house of parliament, upon making a declaration of oath, instead of the usual oaths of allegiance, abjuration, and supremacy, and the declarations against transubstantiation and the invocation of saints. The oath, which was very long, promised alle- giance to the king, and renunciation of all temporal power or jurisdiction in the pope. On taking this oath, in its plain natural sense, Roman Catholics were eligible to hold and exercise all civil and mihtary offices, or places of trust or profit, with the exceptions of the offices of lord-high-chancellor, lord- keeper, or lord-commissioner of the great seal of Great Britain; or lord- lieutenant, or lord-deputy, or other chief governor or governors of Ireland ; also to be a member of a lay body cor- porate, 1 A to hold any civil office or place of trust therein. Canning introduced some clauses which secured the veto power to the government. Lord Castlereagh also fa- vored this course. When the bill came up for decision, the ministry had a small majority ; and so IVIi-. Ponsonby moved to withdraw it, and the bill was accordingly withdrawn. Opinions were much divided in L-e- land upon this result. The desire for emancipation, and for the numerous openings that it would give the Cath- olics in every branch of the jiublic ser- vice, was so intense amongst the higher classes of society, that they were indig- nant in the extreme that their views should be opposed by what they termed only a mere matter of discipline. If they did but grant a veto to govern- ment, emancipation was certain, and all its consequences were theirs. But they were strenuously opposed by the lower classes, the priesthood generally, and most of the popular leaders of the day. In this conflict O'Connell was particu- larly active, and his influence great; and, indeed, he was, throughout the whole of this period, apparently not less disinterested and patriotic than he was earnest and diligent. Amid much opposition and personal reproach, he adopted the views and policy of the priesthood in Ireland, who steadily re- fused any connection with the State in appointments to vacant bishoprics. 15S REIGN OF GEORGE III. The ^reat mass of the E-oioau Catliolics went with them. Afjojreo-ate meetinsrs followed ; irri- tation and excitement were prevalent. O'Connell's course, as the exponent and advocate of the masses, was denounced by some of the gentry. Mr. Grattan's bill was criticized, and in many respects disapproved ; and the old bone of con- tention, the veto power, was pro- nounced by the Roman Catholic pre- lates, Ma}^ 27th, "utterly incompati- ble with the discipline of the Roman Church, and with the free exercise of their religion ;" they also declared that " they could not, without incurring the guilt of schism, accede to such regula- tions," as were contemplated by Mr. Grattan's bill. A passage or two from O'Connell's speech at the aggregate meeting, held in June in Dublin, will illustrate his views and position at this date. He was received with immense popular demonstration, for which he returned abundant thanks. " Your enemies say," he went on, " and let them say, that I wish for a separation between Eng- land and Ireland. The charge is false ; it is, to use a modern quotation, ' as folse as hell ;' and the men who orig- inated it, and the men who inculcate it, know its falsehood. Tliere lives not a man less desirous of a separation between the two countries ; there lives not a man more deeply convinced that the conoection between them, based on one king and two separate parliaments, would be of the utmost value to the happiness of both countiles, and the liberties of the civilized world. Next, your enemies accuse me of a desire for the independence of Ireland. I admit the charge; and let them make the most of it. I have seen Ireland a king- dom ; I rejoroach myself with having lived to behold her a province. Yes, I confess it; I have an ulterior object. It is the repeal of the JJvion. and the restoi'ation of old Ireland to her inde- pendence. I am told that it is indis- creet to avow this intention. It va?c^ be so ; but in public affiiirs indiscretion amounts to dissimulation ; and if to re- peal the Union be the first service, as it clearly is, that can be rendered to Ire- land, I, for one, most readily offer to postpone our emancipation, in order to promote the cause of our country. " The delay of Catholic emancipa- tion I hail with joy, because in that delay lies the only jirospect of attaining my gi-eat, my ultimate object — tlie legis- lative independence of my native land. Emissaries are abroad. Agents have been employed. Abundance of money and great encouragement are held out to those who may seduce you from your allegiance. Should you allow yourselves to be so seduced, you would have no friends, no supporters. We, who now join you in bearing down upon your oppressors ; we, who expose the hypocrites that cover their bigotry in the stolen garments of religion ; we, who are ready to brave every dangei', to sustain every calumny, and every loss, and every personal inconvenience TROUBLED STATE OF IRELAND. 759 iu your cause, so long as you conduct that cause within the limits of the con- stitution ; we, in whom you confide, would and must be found, if you vio- late the law, in the ranks of your ene- mies, and in arms. For myself, I will tell you honestly, that if ever that fatal day arrives you will find me arrayed against you." In 1814, aggregate meetings were held in various parts of Ireland. The Catholic board fell into insignificance, and was suppressed by the government. O'Connell was the head and soul of the democratic movement for arousing the people of Ireland, not simjoly the aris- tocracy or gentry. Maghee, of the " Dublin Evening Post," in which cer- tain resolutions passed at one of the aggregate meetings were published, was prosecuted anew, and a fine of £1,000 added, with two years' impris- onment* This roused up more ill- blood, and deeper hatred of the Eng- lish government. Agrarian outrages, against which O'Connell exerted all his infl-uence, and which so long and so se- riously disturbed and injured the coun- try, were continued with increased vi- olence, so that neither life nor projD- erty became safe. Political feeling was roused to the utmost degree of rancor, and secret societies were formed which were most treasonable in their nature, and fraught with the greatest danger to the country, and which, no doubt, were guided and controlled by men in * The year before this same person had been proa- ecuted for libel and convicted, although O'Connell higher positions than was generally supposed. The Irish government, Lord Whit- worth being now lord-lieutenant in place of the duke of Eichmond, felt unable to grajiple with existing difficul- ties. Peel consequently called for the passage of an Insurrection bill, which was promptly carried through parlia- ment in July, 1814. The result of this severe measure was only partially beneficial. Outrage and disorder were by no means suppressed, and a deeper gloom seemed to be settling over un- happy Ireland. The next year, in May, 1815, a pe- tition of the Roman Catholics of Ire- land was presented in parliament, and redress of grievances was earnestly be- sought. A petition of like import was brought in from Catholics in England. Nothing, however, was effected at this time. The old trouble of the veto power was not yet at rest. For months the fire smouldered, and at last the prelates of their Church met, and agreed upon a petition to the prince regent, demanding, in somewhat imperative terms, a redress of the grievances under which they, and their fellow-country- men of the same persuasion, labored ; and expressing their feeling that eman- cipation, with the veto attached, would only be changing one form of oppres- sion for another. An appeal was at the same time made to the pope for his sanction to their proceedings ; but made a most powerful and able defence in his be- half. 760 REIGN OF GEORGE HI. tlie pope declined giving any posi- tive rejjly just then. Parliament was opened by commission, February 1, 1816, Ireland being in a distracted and unsettled state, and requiring a large body of troops to repress tlie spirit of insubordination in almost ev- ery part of the island. In April, Sir John Newport made a motion to inquire into the state of Ire- land, especially as to the reasons why it was necessary to support an army of twenty-five thousand men to keep that country in order. Peel's amendment was to the effect of asking fi'om the prince regent a statement of the nature and extent of the disturbances latelj' prevalent in Ireland, and the measures taken to put an end to them. The amendment was carried by a large ma- jority ; and Lord Whitworth, in June, sent a dispatch going at large into the subject. The document was long, and presented a fearful catalogue of out- breaks against peace, and life, and property, as well as the stringent course pursued by the government in their efforts to maintain law and order. Other petitions were presented ; but they met with the usual fate, Ireland continuing in a state of disquietude and resistance to the government. There was additional reason for disturbances in this year, for the people of Ireland had been peculiarly affected by the commercial and agricultural distress which pervaded the whole of the em- pire. The necessaries of life had be- come exceedingly dear, and great mel- 96 ancholy was thrown over the national spirit from the little prospect held out that the evils which the people endm-ed were likely to be mitigated by any speedy alleviation. No gain had been made in the way of parliamentary re- lief for the Catholic disabilities, and as much discord prevailed among the councils of the Catholic leaders as had ever distinguished the chief adherents of their faith. To one thing only did they commonly consent, and that was an unremitted continuance of applica- tion to parliament for admittance to seats in both houses of the legislature. Grattan, in the House, and Lord Don- oughmore, in the Lords, pressed the Catholic claims. This was in 181Y. Again the next year the subject was resumed, and debated by such men as Grattan, Earl Grey, Lord Liverpool, etc., but to no real purpose. The Prot- estant ascendency was too strong to be moved. The condition of things for several years was disheartening in the extreme. General prostration of business, discon- tent, suffering, and poverty of the masses, influence of demagogues, sever- ity of taxation, and such like, kept Ire- land in a state which can only be imagined, not described. England, likewise, suffered from similar causes, and its history, too, shows how pro- foundly depressed was the English nation by its struggles with Napoleon and its contest with America. No wonder that the prince regent was hooted at in the street, and his carriage GEORGE IV. VISITS IRELAND. 761 stoned, in January, 1817, as lie was returning from the opening of parlia- ment. No wonder that Ireland exhib- ited so widely the spirit of discontent, and a fierce determination t(^ return evil for evil.* The tenacity of the Irish on the sub- ject of the veto was astonishing ; but it was mainly owing to O'Connell and the priesthood. O'Connell himself, some years later (in 1832), afiirmed this very decidedly : " The Catholic laity were totally repugnant to allow the crown any power to nominate the Catholic bishops of Ireland. We stead- ily opposed the court of Rome, as well as the inclination shown by om- own pre- lates ; we resolutely resisted the wishes of our nobility, and of so many of our merchants, backed, as they were, by the almost universal voice of the Catholics of England ; and we firmly, loudly, and emphatically declared that we would not accept of emancipation upon terms so derogatory to public liberty, as the power of nominating the bishops of another Church must be if vested in the crown — that is, in the ministers of the day. For this we de- serve the thanks of every lover of con- stitutional freedom ; and, for my own part, I do believe that the reform bill would never have been carried if we had yielded that additional influence to the ministers of the crown. Those who recollect how much the Irish * John. Pliilpot Curran, the orator and wit, died in 1817. Henry Grattan, equally eminent in his devotion to Ireland's cause, died in 1820. members contributed to carrying that bill, will probably accede to the truth of my opinion." King George III. died January 29, 1820, aged eighty-two, having been king for nearly sixty years. George IV. succeeded him, and his wife, from whom he had been separated for more than twenty years, came to England to claim her rank as queen consort. Her case excited great sympathy; and the trial which was brought by the king, resulted, in Novembei-, in her acquittal. The king was a profligate rouey and had disgusted the people by his immorality and vice. Public indignation ran high, and serious outbreaks were apprehend- ed ; but Queen Caroline died in Au- gust, 1821, and her wrongs were bmied with her in the grave. In the session of 1821, Mr. Plunkett renewed the movement in favor of Catholic emancipation. Petitions came in abundantly from Protestants against and from Catholics in favor of the mo- tion. This was in England ; but in Ireland there was little spirit on the subject, for Mr. Plunkett, being a sup- porter of the veto, was not looked ujion with much esteem by the masses. The measure was warmly debated in both houses, the Duke of York, among others, throwing the weight of his in- fluence against it. Of course, it failed of obtaining approval. Parliament was prorogued in July, 1821, and George IV., considering it a good stroke of policy, resolved to visit Ireland. The people, with that impul- ^62 REIGN OF GEORGE IV. siveness whicli characterizes them, were enthusiastic in receiving the king, and they counted extravagantly upon the good which was to flow from his visit. The king made his public entry into Dublin, August 17th, amidst all the magnificence of a State procession, and applauded by the "tens of thousands that attended his progress. During the day he held a drawing-room, at which all the nobility and gentry of any note, at that time in the country, attended. Nothing could be more en- thusiastic or cordial than his reception, and he remained a month dispensing and enjoying hospitality, appai-ently perfectly satisfying his own and his people's feelings* Addresses, breath- ing the utmost loyalty, were presented by the city of Dublin ; the clergy, with the bishops and archbishops at their head ; the university, with all its digni- taries ; and yet, after the departure of the king in September, the most violent outrages were perpetrated, in the three last months of the year, that had ever been known in Ireland. The bubble of conciliation soon burst, and a system of assassination was commenced, which the pen refuses to attempt to delineate. The masses, with blind fury, rushed into every kind of outrage and cruelty, not being able apparently to perceive that every act of the kind only put further and further off the day of emancipation and freedom. * Lord Castlereagli (now Marquis of Iiondonderry), ■whom the Irish Catholics hated and revOed with in- tense bitterness, accompanied the king in his visit to Lord Wellesley, who succeeded Lord Talbot in the vice-royalty in Ireland, was looked upon as a more than usually liberal ruler. He had not any preju- dices against the Catholics, but was rather disposed to favor them all he could. Plunkett, also, now took the place of Saurin, the decided Protestant, as attorney-general ; and so far as ap- pearances went, the Catholic cause had gained ground. But the Protestants in Ireland were active and zealous in their opposition. Addresses were pre- sented to the new lord-lieutenant in January, 1822, and it was hoped that a better state of things was already begun ; but he found himself unable to reconcile the strife and faction among the richer and higher classes ; still less was he able to control the fierce pas- sions and outbreaks among the poorer and more disaffected of the people. The " White-boys," so called from wearing white shirts or frocks over their clothes in order to prevent iden- tification, were especially active and unsparing in their deeds of cruelty. These, and " Captain Rock's Men," in the South and West of Ireland, kept the country in a continual alarm, and, despite all the efforts of the police and military, committed outrages in great numbers. A Koman Catholic wi'iter, lamenting the impediment which con- duct of this kind threw in the way of O'Connell and emancipation, remarks : Ireland. The next year, August 13, 1833, he put an end to his own life in a temporary fit of insanity. (D)3L3IVIE]E (EdDlLBSM: DISTRESS AMOXG THE PEOPLE. i63 "The object of these societies was to procure the lowering of rents, the mit- igation of the tithe system, and to pre- vent the ejectment of the tenantry by the great landlords. They legislated at midnight, and enforced their decrees with terrible celerity. They grew into importance in the years ranging from 1821 to 1825, and derived either their origin or principal support from the oppressions practised by the agents of the ' Courteuay Estates,' a considerable landed property in the county of Clare, the agent of which began a wholesale ejection of the small tenants from the lands. These dispossessed men, mad. dened by despair, plotted together for the destruction of those whom they looked on as the authors of their ruin Several murders by assassination were the consequence, and a full crop of ap- provers, hangings, and transportations followed in regular succession. The peasantry in the South and West, op- pressed almost to death by rack-rents, ejectments, and tithes, leagued with the Captain Rock societies to intimidate the gentry. Vast districts became in- fected, disturbed, *or subject to insur- rection laws; special commissions for the trial of offenders, and a long train of congenial evils, followed as the only remedies at the disj^osal of govern- ment." At the opening of parliament, in February, 1822, immediate steps were taken with reference to the state and condition of affairs in Ireland. The suspension act was re-enacted, and the habeas corpus was suspended, to last for a period of six months. Violence and disorder, however, continued, and murders were not infrequent. The Irish government acted with energy, and there was speedily some abatement of the terrible lawlessness of these de- luded men. Various causes operated, in addition to those already named, for rousing up and keeping alive these shocking exhibitions of passion and vi- olence; but probably no one was so powerful for evil as the practice of il- licit distillation, which rapidly demor- alized the peasantry, and brought ad- ditional trials upon the Irish jieople. About the end of April, something of an aspect of tranquillity was restored to the country ; but a new and more terrifying visitation was at hand. In consequence of the heavy and incessant rains of the jjreceding year, the jiota- toes, which formed the staple of the food of the people in the South, decayed and perished in the ground. This at- tracted but little attention for a time among men who had grown their own, and they went on consuming as usual so long as their stores lasted, each be- lieving that when his own sujiply should be exhausted he would easily be able to purchase more in the mar- ket through the means of his labor. But when their stock was really fin- ished, and they applied to the public vendors, they found that potatoes, which were usually three halfpence a stone, had risen to sixpence-halfpenny, while, from the distress of the country. 764 REIGN OF GEORGE IV. their labor was little required. Pota- toes being thus placed quite beyond the reach of the lower orders, they were compelled to resort to oatmeal mixed with water; and happy was he who could procure one scanty repast of that sustenance during the day, for this re- source also shortly failed them. Before the beginning of May, the whole of Connaught and Munster was in a state of starvation. The peasantry, leaving their cabins and the little allotments of ground whence they had derived their scanty subsistence, crowded into the villages, in vain seeking for employ- ment or to be relieved by the charity of those who were in almost as bad a position as themselves. There was scarcely a town in the South, the streets of which were not filled with hundreds of able-bodied men, wandering in quest of food, or the means wherewith it mieht be obtained. Nor was this evil by any means confined to the lowest class of the population, for Sir Edward O'Brien asserted that fully one-third of the respectable inhabitants of the county of Clare w^ere reduced to a con- dition little short of actual starvation ; and all the neighboring counties, more especially Cork, Limerick, Kerry, Mayo, Roscommon, and Sligo, were in a sim- ilar position. It was not, however, the present suffering only, with which the people had to contend. There was the prospect of the mischief becoming per- manent, for, under the constraining power of hunger, the poor were com- pelled to consume those potatoes which they had saved for seed. The hay also became scarce, and a great mortality consequently ensued among the cattle, and then came typhus, with its hideous train of horrors, to darken the aspect of national distress. Nothing could be perceived but a sad alternation of misery ; and the districts which had, only a few weeks before, been the scenes of nightly assassination and plun- der, now presented but one oppressive spectacle of famine and disease. In this dire calamity happily aid was not wanting. Not only the government but more especially individuals came for- ward, and large sums were contributed to help the starving population. Cargoes of potatoes, oats, and other cheap kinds of food were sent. "Work was afforded by the authorities as widely as i:»ossible, and a spirit of warm sympathy every- where manifested. In June, 1822, it was estimated that in the county of Clare, with a population of two hundred thousand, one-half were subsisting on charity from day to day. In other counties the proportion was even great- er than this, of those who were the re- cipients of the bounty so generously bestowed. Lord Wellesley, whose policy was that of conciliation, discouraged the anti-Catholic party in every way in his power. This stirred up an ill-feeling on the part of the Orangemen, who used regularly, on the 4th of Novem- ber, to decorate the statue of William III., in College Green, Dublin. The lord-lieutenant having forbidden this STATE OF EDUCATION. 765 annual proceeding, so oflfensive to the Catholics, he soon had a practical proof of loss of popularity. One evening, De- cember 14, he was grossly insulted at the theatre by hisses, and old bottles and other things thrown at the state- box. Prosecutions were set on foot, but to little purpose ; for, on a general investigation into the administration of justice, it was found that witnesses could not be relied on, that they were partisans wherever religious or political sentiments were in question. So strik- ingly was this the case, that at the Carrickfergus Assizes the judges refused to take the testimony of either side, Catholics or Protestants, and dismissed the case with a well-deserved reproof to all concerned. Insults of every de- scription were bandied from one to the other, riots ensued, and the hatred be- tween the Orangemen and the Ribbon- men seemed unquenchable. The pen wearies in recounting the outrage and desolation which resulted, and made 1823 almost, if not quite, equal its pre- decessor. The tithe composition act, passed in the previous session, began to work at the latter end of 1823, and in the course of February, 1824, so anxious were the owners of tithes to avoid any pretence for predial outrage, that a re- turn was made, stating that out of a thousand applications from different parishes to carry its arrangements into effect, more than five hundred had pro- ceeded from the different incumbents. Several discussions took place, in the course of the present session, on the state of education, and it was generally agreed that in this respect the country was in an improving state. In 1773, as appeared by a return in the west and southwest parts of teland, there were only eight schools, while in 1816 there were eight hundred, and in this year, 1824, there were as many as one thousand one hundred and twenty-two. The poorer part of the population seemed to be alive to the benefit placed within their reach, for their children were readily sent to be instructed. The Bible, without note or comment, Avas used in the schools ; but no attempt, it was stated, was made to derive any particular doctrine from its contents — - the children were simply made ac- quainted with the text. This was not consonant with the views of the Cath- olic clergy and the doctrines of the Church. They therefore discouraged the attendance of the children ; and, in the course of March, their bishops pre- sented a petition to the House of Com- mons, in which they complained that the public money granted for the promotion of education in Ireland was applied in such a manner that Roman Catholics could not conscientiously avail them- selves of the instruction thereby pro- vided. The astute leader of the Catholics was not slow to take advantage of the existing state of things. In the spring of 1823 he organized the "Catholic Association," at an aggregate meeting held in Dublin, and in due time it 766 REIGN OF GEORGE IV. Worked well for the nol)le cause on which his heart, as well as the hearts of all patriotic lovers of their native land were firmly set. The Association held regular sessions in Dublin ; nom- inated committees ; received petitions ; referred them to a committee of griev- ance ; ordered a census of the popula- tion to be taken ; assessed cities, towns, and parishes, and appointed collectors in every district for the receipt of what was called the " Catholic rent." By this rent was meant the subscription of one penny per month from each Cath- olic. At first the proposal did not meet with favor or success ; but after a year or two, by persevering efforts, the o'ent became a settled and important part of the plans which O'Connell was carrying out. It gave life and interest to the cause, and in less than two years it amounted to £500 a week. News- papers were set a going, lawyers were paid to defend cases in court, subsidies were voted for Catholic poor-schools, electioneering agents and expenses were paid, etc. Government became alarmed at the progress and course of the Association,* and stejis were taken to suppress this and other like societies. A bill passed * In a speech of O'Connell's, at this date, lie used the following language : " I -warn the British minister against either intimidating or coercing the people of Ireland. They are a brave and a chivalrous race, whose valor the history of all Europe attists. If ever they shall be driven to the field to vindicate their lib- erties, they may not want another Bolivar to animates their efforts !" The Government desired to punish O'Connell for such language ; but the Dublin grand jury refused to find a true bill against him. both houses of parliament to this effect, and the Association quietly dissolved. But a " veiv Catholic Association" was formed immediately, ostensibly for "charitable and other purposes," but in reality to add fresh energy to the cause of emancipation and freedom. Early in March, 1825, and while the unlawful societies' bill was pending in the House of Lords, Sir Francis Bur- dett submitted a series of resolutions to the House of Commons, the effect of which was that it was desirable and expedient that the Roman Catholics should be admitted to the same politi- cal privileges as their Protestant fellow- subjects. The resolutions were adopted by a considerable majority, and a bill was founded upon them, which, after a long and stormy debate and several adjournments, passed its third reading on the 10th of May, by a majority of nineteen in a very full house. There was every prospect of its passing the Lords also; but, on the second reading of the bill, the Duke of York went down to the house and emphatically declared himself against it.f Such an intimation from the heir presump- tive to the throne had naturally great weight, and the bill was conse- f " I have been," said the duke, " for five-and-twenty years, ever since the question has been agitated, advo- cating the cause of Protestant ascendency. I have been brought up from my earliest years in these prin- ciples ; and from the time when I began to reason for myself, I have entertained them from conviction ; and in every situation I may be placed in during my future life, I ^yill ntaiijtain them, so help me God!" O'CONNELL ELECTED TO PARLIAMENT. V67 queutly negatived by a majority of forty-eight. O'Connell and several other dele- gates appeared in London, and gave audience before committees of both houses on the state of Ireland. The great leader lost some popularity by his course in England ; but on his re- turn to Ireland he readily persuaded his countrymen that he was acting all the time for their best interests. He exerted his enoi'mous influence at the general election of 1826, and succeeded in defeating the candidates of the op- position in various quarters. The ma- chinery of the Association worked ex- cellently ; there was no lack of money, and every thing betokened that the day of success was not far distant. The Earl of Liverpool died in February, 1827, and the king invited Canning to form a cabinet. This was attended with several trying difliculties, Peel, Lord Eldon, and the Duke of AVelling- ton declining to be associated with him. Canning seems to have felt keenly the desertion of his old allies ; and it preyed upon his spirit so much that serious illness began to undermine his system. During his short administra- tion several acts were passed for the regulation aud improvement of the prisons and lunatic asylums in Ix'eland, and several other details were rectified, which contributed much to the general welfare of the country. After the ses- sion he went to the Duke of Devon- * Tlie Nortli of Ireland did not respond according to the wishes of the Association. Mr. Lawless thereupon shire's villa at Chiswick, for change of air and rest ; but it was to no purpose. After a few days of suffering, he expired on the 8th of August. Events were now rapidly progressing towards the end, which it was evident must soon be attained. On Canning's death the Duke of Wellington became premier, and O'Connell and his co- workers bent themselves vigorously in opposition. By a haj^py discovery, it was found that the act which forbade Catholics to sit in parliament did not for- bid them to be elected meniber-s. Hence, actins: on this shrewd view of the state of things, O'Connell himself became a candidate for the county of Clare, in the summer of 1828, and announced that, in case of his election, he could pass to the speaker's table in the House of Commons without taking any ob- jectionable oath. After a spirited con- test he was declared by the sheriff to be elected, much to the joy of the Catholics, and not a little to the sur- prise and alai-m of the Government. At the opening of parliament, in February, 1828, Lord John Russell moved for the repeal of the test and corporation acts. As these were at this date of little effect, being practi- cally obsolete, the motion was carried without difficulty. The Catholic Asso- ciation, meanwhile, continued its active efforts; meetings were held almost daily, aud the o'cnt came in at the rate of £1,000 a week.* The Marquis of went on a mission to rouse up the people of that re- gion ; but the principal result was the renewal of old 768 REIGN OF GEORGE IV. Anglesea, the lord-lieutenant, favored most decidedly the claims of emancipa- tion, and he communicated his views to the Government in England. The Duke of Wellington found that he must act with promptness and firmness, and either j^ut down by military force the Catholic agitation, or consent to the demands which they made so stead- ily and so perseveringly. He chose the latter alternative, with the concur- rence of Mr. Peel, and proceeded at once to carry out into action his present design. Parliament met early in February, 1829, and the king recommended early attention to the claims of the Catholics. As "Wellington was determined to legis- late rather than negotiate, various meas- ures were proposed and carried through parliament despite the earnest opposi- tion of the Protestants in both coun- tries. A bill suppressing the Catholic Association was passed in March ; the Catholic Relief Bill was warmly de- bated in both houses, but became a law on the 13th of April, three weeks only after it was introduced into the legisla- ture ; the bill abolishing the forty-shil- ling freeholders was next passed, by raising the county franchise to ten pounds for every freeholder. Thus, after thirty years' agitation and pressure, by the irresistible prog- ress of events, and by that necessity which Peel urged as an excuse for his complete change of opinion and action feuds and disputes. The Order of Paeijkators was started, and it is stated tliat they were very successM in less than a year — thus emancipation was effected, and the Protestant ascend- ency destroyed forever. O'Connell, though member elect, did not hurry himself to take a seat in parlia- ment. On the 15th of May, 1829, he was introduced into the House by Lords Ebrington and Dungannon, and ad- vanced to the speaker's table. On the oaths being tendered to him, he passed his fingers over those of abjuration and supremacy, and refused to take them. The circumstance was reported to the speaker, who immediately ordered him to withdraw. O'Connell stood for a few moments in i^erfect silence, when the order was repeated, and he claimed a right to be heard in his place in de- fence of his seat. The speaker again repeated his order to withdraw, which O'Connell, bowing to the chair, imme- diately obeyed. A long debate ensued, which was postponed for a few days. On the 18th, Peel moved that O'Con- nell be heard at the bar. The success- ful leader of the Catholics made a speech of two hours, very eloquent, and full of argumentative appeals. O'Con- nell was sent back to Ireland, owing to a clause in the Eelief Bill, which did not admit of his then taking his seat. He was received, as may be supposed, with the most unbounded enthusiasm, as the great champion of national rights and glory. A new writ was issued for County Clare, and O'Connell was re- turned without opposition. His prog- in reconciling enemies, and removing long-standing animositieB. IRELAI^D, INTELLECTUALLY AND MORALLY. 769 ress from Eanis to Dublin, about one hundred and twenty miles, was one grand triumphal procession ; and, at last, he had gained the victory of his life, and vindicated his right to sit in parliament. CHAPTER XLIX. Ireland's intellectual and moral position. jji Ireland distinguished for brilliant orators, poets, ■writers, etc. — ^Her contributions to literature and science. — Her Burkes, Qrattans, Currans, Edgewortbs, etc. — Thomas Moore, the poet par excellence of Ireland. — Birth and education. — Visits America. — Duel with Jeffrey.— Marriage. — His ''Irish Melodies." — "Lalla Eookh," and biographical and historical works. — Receives a pension of £300. — Death, in 1853, and charac- ter. — Thomas Datis, a poet and prose writer of note. — Connected with the "Nation."— Object of this journal. — Davis's labors. — Death in 1845. — Extracts from his literary and historical essays. — Fatht.b Ma- THEW. — Birth and education. — Becomes a priest. — Labors among the poor in and around the city of Cork. — Enters on the temperance movement. — Marvellous effects of his labors.— Visits other cities with great success. — Goes to England. — Thence visits the United States. — Returns to Ireland, and dies in 1856. — Ben- eficial results of his life and career. — Statements of Mr. Smyth on Father Mathew's devotion to temper- ance. — All honor to his name ! AS a relief to the ordinary and somewhat tedious details of civil and political history, in which strug- gles for liberty and aspirations after freedom occupy almost entire attention, it may be well at this point to pause awhile, and invite the reader's consider- ation to some other matters, more es- pecially those which relate to the poets, prose writers, philanthropists, etc., of Ireland. Though so oppressed and down-trod- den by centuiies of misrule and injus- tice, Ireland has always been distin- guished for the brilliancy and fervor of her poets, orators, and statesmen. Ire- land has given birth to men of the loftiest genius, of the most wide-spread fame, and of the largest influence in the forum, as well as in the domain of learning and science ; and while we are far from having any wish to disparage or nndervalue the great men and the noble productions of other lands, we maintain that Ireland has done her share, and more than her share, in her contributions to the wealth of the world's literature. As illustrating these general remarks, we shall call the reader's attention to a few of the great names on the roll of honor of Ireland's sons. We need not attempt here to speak at all at large of such names as Burke, Grattan, Curran, Sheridan, Flood, Wellington, Eosse, and the like.,; We have not space at 110 REIGN" OF GEORGE IV. command to enter into any disquisition upon the lives and writings ©f Gold- smith, Lady JMorgan, Miss Edgeworth, Maginn, Lover, Carleton, and others. It must suffice that "we now merely al- lude to these gifted sons of Ireland, and use the page or two we have to spare in speakiug first of one who is, 2)a7' excellence, the most honored bard of his native land. Thomas Moore stands pre-eminent among the poets in the former half of the present century. Born May 28, 1779, in Dublin, of parents in moderate position in life, he became in due time a fellow-student at Trinity College with Eobert Emmett, and other active spirits of the day. Almost in the nur- sery he began to rhyme, and to give expression to his conceptions by singing them aloud. He wrote odes at school, and translated Anacreon in ColleEfe. At the age of twenty he went to Lon- don to study law in the Middle Tem- ple ; but having published his Anac- reon the next year, and thereby been introduced into literary and fashionable society, he gave but slight attention to the law and its dry and dull details. In 1803 he went to Bermuda as registrar to the admiralty ; but not liking the place, and pining after life in the me- tropolis, he left liis office in the hands of a deputy, and made a rapid visit to the United States and Canada. He was severe upon American institutions and the like, but rather through want of knowledge than malice ; and in later life he was quite ashamed, and wished to recall every unpleasant word. The " Odes and Epistles," in which Moore thus vented his satire, contained woi'se things than satire, indecency and very doubtful morality. Jeffrey handled him very sharply in the Edinburg Re- view, and Moore challenged the re- viewer to a duel in consequence. They met at Chalk Farm, August 12, 1806, but were prevented by the police from taking one another's lives. Subse- quently, these two men, so unlike, be- came warm friends. For some years Moore lived a gay life, and was much in the company of Lord Moira, Lord Lansdowne, and other "Whig peers ; but did little or nothing with his pen. In 1811 he married Miss Dyke, a young actress, with whom he lived happily, and for whom he began to make literature a profession. Besides jeux cC e-s]i)rit and political squibs, Moore wrote many songs adapted to the ancient music of Ireland, and entitled " Irish Melodies." These brought him great fame, and will probably always remain the most popular of his productions. Between 1814 and 1816 he devoted himself to "Lalla Rookh," an oriental romance, overflowing with Eastern imagery and melodiousness of composition. Long- man paid him £3,000 for it, and it attained immense popularity and suc- cess Without undertaking to give a full list of Moore's works, we may mention that he wrote the " Life of Sheridan" (1825); "Memoii-3 of Captain Rock*' JJ Majziise, ix. i Kogers THOMAS MOORE, THE POET. 7Y1 (1824), a witty political effort; "No- tices of the Life t>f Lord Byron," 2 vols. (1830); "Memoirs of Lord Edward Fitzgerald" (1831) ; " A History of L-eland" (1835), for Larduer's Cabinet Cyclopasdia ; made a collection of his poetical works in 10 vols. (1842) ; wrote occasionally some poetiy for the columns of the London Times, etc. In 1835 a pension of £300 was conferred on him, and in 1850 £100 a year was settled on his wife. Moore lived most of his life out of his native eountry ; but when occasional visits were paid to L'eland, he was received with enthusi- astic admiration and pride ; for his countrj'men felt that at heart he was their staunch advocate and friend, and that he had more than once displayed patriotism, courage, and Independence worthy of his name and origin. Moore died February 26, 1852, and his Memoirs, Journal, and Correspond- ence were published in eight volumes (1853-56), edited by Lord John Kus- sell at Moore's special request. We shall not attempt any summing up of the character and ability of Thomas Moore ; but shall content ourselves with quoting the words of an ardent countryman of the Bard of Erin : "Who has not banqueted on the melody of his inspired muse? Who has not plucked wisdom from his wit, delight from his sentiment, or spirit from his strains? Who has not felt his griefs or his joys expressed by Thomas Moore ? What sentiment has he not enrobed in the lovely drapery of his brilliant fancy? It was Moore who won homage from our 02:)pressors, while he told them unwelcome truths, and evoked resistance to their sway ; the doing which any other man would have expiated with his life upon the scaffold. He wrote in a season when it was literally " treason to love and death to defend" his country. The beauty and power of his strains para- lyzed the uplifted arm of his enemies, and, as he well expressed it — ;' ' The stranger sTiall tear tliy lament on Ms plains ; The sigh of tky harp shall be sent o'er the deep ; Till thy masters themselves, as they rivet thy chains, Shall pause at the song of their captive, and weep.' All this, and much more, has been re- alized for Erin by the .poetiy of her own immortal bard." Another name, akin to Moore's in poetic fervor and ability, and even su- perior to him in the keenness and power of his pen in poetic composition, demands brief notice at our hands. Thomas Davis, born at Mallow^, County Cork, in 1814, is one of Ireland's sons who will live in his country's history. An ardent and whole-souled patriot, devoted to the interests of Ireland with every faculty of body and mind, he stands forth as one hot among the least of those who have lived and breathed only to effect the rej^eal of the hated Union with England, and the entire independence of their native land. Dis- tinguished as a poet, as well as a prose writer, Davis has contributed some of the most stirring and pathetic pieces which have ever appeared in the pub- T72 REIGN OF GEORGE lY. lie press. Journalism is now so potent an instrument in the world's affairs, so muclL more is now accomplished by it than by almost any other mode, that Thomas Davis, having received a thor- ough education at Trinity College, early joined himself to the corps of wiitei-s for the " Nation." This powerful paper, as is well known, is the oracle and hope of Ireland. It has awakened every Irish heart, and its whole aim ia to se- cure the freedom of the land whidi gave birth to the O'Neils, and Sars- fields, and Tones, and Emmetts, and thousands of other patriots and states- men. And for years, Davis devoted himself to adding force and vigor to its regular issues. Indeed, his life was expended in its service, and up to the last, called away as he was when only comparatively a young man, Da- vis thought, and wi'ote, and labored through its columns for the good of his beloved country. Thomas Davis died September 16, 1845, and several volumes of his poetic and other contributions to the "Na- tion" have been published by sorrow- ing friends, who had counted largely upon the increased and increasing field of usefulness which he was yet to fill. As specimens of his ability, we give an extract or two from a volume of " Lit- erary and Histoiical Essays," gathered from the " Nation." They will help, better than any thing else we can say, to illustrate the spirit and enei-gy of the man. In speaking of " The History of To- Day, Mr. Davis says: " From 1793 tp 1829 — for thirty-six years — the Irish Catholics struggled for emancipation. That emancipation was but admission to the bench, the inner bar, and parlia- ment. It was won by self-denial, ge- nius, vast and sustained labors, and lastly by the sacrifice of the forty-shil- ling freeholders — the poor veterans of the war — and by submission to insult- ing oaths ; yet it was cheaply bought. Not so cheaply, perchance, as if won by the sword ; for, on it were expended more treasures, more griefs, more intel- lect, more passion, more of all which makes life welcome, than had been needed for war ; still it was cheaply bought, and Ireland has glorified her- self, and will through ages triumph in the victory of '29. Yet what was eman- cii^ation compared to repeal ? The one put a silken badge on a few members of one profession ; the other would give to all professions and all trades the rank and riches which resident proprietors, domestic legislation, and flourishing commerce infallibly create. Emancipation made it possible for Cath- olics to sit on the judgment-seat ; but it left a foreign administration which has excluded them, save in two or three cases, where over-toj^ping emi- nence made the acceptance of a judg- ship no promotion ; and it left the lo- cal judges — those with whom the peo- ple had to deal — as partial, ignorant, and bigoted as ever ; while repeal would give us an Irish code and Irish- hearted judges in every court, from the li: lARRTlLL S: SON THOMAS DAVIS'S ESSAYS. '773 clianceiy to the petty sessions. Eman- cipation dignified a dozen Catholics with a senatorial name in a foreign and hos- tile legislature. Eepeal would give us a senate, a militia, an administration, all our own. The penal code, as it existed since 1793, insulted the faith of the Catholics, restrained their liberties, and violated the public Treaty of Limerick. The Union has destroyed our manufac- tures, prohibits our flag, prevents our commerce, drains our rental, crushes our genius, makes our taxation a trib- ute, our representation a shadow, our name a by-word. It were nobler to strive for repeal than to get emancipa- tion. " The world attended us with its thoughts and prayers. The graceful genius of Italy and the profound intel- lect of Germany paused to wish us well. The fiery heart of France tol- erated our unarmed effort, and prof- fered its aid. America sent us money, thought, love — she made herself a part of Ireland in her passions and her or- ganization. From London to the wild- est settlement which throbs in the tropics, or shivers nigh the pole, the empire of our misruler was shaken by our effort. To all earth we proclaimed our wrongs. To man and God we made oath that we would never cease to strive, till an Irish nation stood supreme on this island. The genius which roused and organized us, the energy which labored, the wisdom that taught, the manhood which rose uj?, the patience which obeyed, the faith which swore, and the valor that strained for action, are here still, experienced, recruited, resolute. The future shall realize the promise of the past." Ireland's people are depicted with a master-hand : " We have never con- cealed the defects or flattered the good qualities of our countrymen. We have told them in good faith that they wanted many an attribute of a free people, and "that the true way to com- mand happiness and liberty was by learning the arts and practising the culture that fitted men for their enjoy- ment. Nor was it until we saw them thus learning and thus practising, that our faith became perfect, and that we felt entitled to say to all men, here is a strife in which it will be stainless glory to be even defeated. "In a climate soft as a mother's smile, on a soil fruitful as God's love, the Irish peasant mourns. Consider his griefs ! They begin in the cradle ; they end in the grave. Suckled by a bi'east that is supplied from unwhole- some or insufficient food, and that is fevered with anxiety; reeking with the smoke of an almost chimneyless cabin ; assailed by wind and rain when the weather rages ; breathing, when it is calm, the exhalations of a rotten roof, of clay walls, and of manure, which gives his only chance of food — he is apt to perish in his infancy. Or he survives all this (happy if he have escaped from gnawing scrofula or fa- miliar fever), and, in the same cabin, with rags instead of his moliher's breast. (74 REIGN OF GEORGE IV. and lumpers instead of his mother's milk, he spends his childhood. "Aristocracy of Ireland, will ye do nothing ? Will ye do nothing for fear ? The body who best know Ireland, the body that keep Irelalid within the law — the repeal committee — declare that unless some great change take place, an agrarian war may ensue ! Do ye know what that is, and how it would come ? The i-apid multiplication of outi'ages, increased violence by magis- trates, collisions between the peoj^le and the police, coercive laws and mil- itary force, the violation of houses, the suspension of industry, the conflux of discontent, pillage, massacre, war, the gentry shattered, the peasantry con- quered and decimated, or victorious and ruined (for who could rule them ?) — tlwe is an agrarian insurrection ! May Heaven guard us from it ! May the fear lie vain !" •Another of Ireland's honored sons, and one of the greatest benefactors of his countrymen which the world has ever seen, was that distinguished re- former and philanthropist, the Reverend Theobald Mathew, familiarly known, in Europe and America, as " Father Mathew." He was born in Tipperary, October 10, 1T90. Though left an or- phan at an early age, he was adopted by an aunt, and helped forwaixl in his education ; and after a course of study at Maynooth, he was ordained a' priest in Dublin, in 1814. ' ^.The chief scene of his labors was in Cork, where for more than twenty years he devoted himself to the interests of his fleet, with a zeal and patience worthy of his high vo- cation. The love and reverence of the poor were, we are assured, almost boundless ; the fovor and countenance of those among the higher ranks were also freely bestowed upon him ; and had he done no more than labor in his quiet, obscure position in Cork and its vicinity, he would have been entitled to all honor and praise. But when the subject of temperance, or abstinence from intoxicating drinks, became a matter of public interest (in 1838 and 1839), Father Mathew en- tered into it with all his heart. He had seen too much of the misery and wretchedness consequent upon drunken- ness, he had noted too often the hard lot of the drunkard's wife and children, not to have all his sympathies aroused to seek out some way and means by which the downward, degrading course of thousands upon thousands could be arrested. He began with the people immediately around and about him, and was very successful. A pledge was prejiared and administered, and, what was better, was Tcept, to the won- derful improvement of those brought under Father Mathew's influence. ' " Con- firmed drunkards, whose days and nights were passed in a maze of intox- ication, profane swearing, and every species of crime, wej-e seen suddenly awakened from their stupor of infamy ^were seen becoming industrious, cleanly, better clothecl, more frequently in the church, and never in the public FATHER MATHEW A.ND TEMPERANCE. 775 Louse. Their wives and little children proclaimed, in their cheerful eyes, the happy results of temperance. Father Mathew, who had been the agent of this change, was looked upon by the people, and not without reason, as a thrice-blessed man. His words were the words of a prophet; and the pledges plighted in his presence were vows to Heaven which it were perdition to break." This great and good man was ere long called on to labor in a wider sphere. Jle; visited Limerick, and ad- ministered tlie pledge to more than fifty thousand. At Gal way one hun- dred thousand took the pledge in two days. His greatest triumph was in Dublin, which he visited in March, 1840. Crowds flocked to hear him, and listen to his persuasive appeals in favor of teetotalism. Ten thousand were enrolled on the first day. The whole city was stirred up ; thousands upon thousands, filled with, ejxthusiasm, flocked around him, vowing, upon their bended knees, under the wide canopy of heaven, and before their God and their country, to be temperate for ever- more. Thenceforth, Father Mathew became the " Apostle of Temperance," and con- verts, numbered by the million, have been enrolled among those vowing never to touch liquor in any shape or form. He next went to London, Liver- pool, Manchester, and other places in England, where he was listened to with * The following is the form of Father Mathew's pledge : " I promise, bo long as I shall contiaue a mem- earuest and increasing interest. Sub- sequently he extended his philanthropic labors to the United States, and lec- tured in the principal cities with very great success. He returned to L-eland in the autumn of 1851, and five years afterwards, December 8, 1856, he died. The beneficial results of Father Ma- thew's labors can hardly be fully esti- mated. In Ireland, especially, he has accomplished that for millions of his countrymen, without which, if they were to gain entire independence of England's control, they could neither enjoy nor retain their freedom. A brighter day has dawned upon Ireland since that long-suffering country has begun to realize the value and import- ance of the labors of the zealous, single- hearted, devoted Father Mathew. Mr. George Lewis Smyth, in his "Ireland: Historical and Statistical," speaks of the movement associated with Father Mathew's name in terms worthy of being quoted. Writing in 1849, he says ; " This movement is one of the most striking, significant, and satisfac- tory of modern times. A whole j)op- ulation, obedient to the pious sohcita- tion of a simple fi'iar, fall down on their knees in the public streets, and renounce, before heaven and the world, a debasing vice. They carry away with them the friar's blessing, and an approving conscience, to strengthen them in the keeping of their pledge, and these suffice for the purpose.* ber of the Teetotal Temperance Society, to abstain from all intoxicating liquors, unless recommended for 770 REIGN OF GEORGE IV. And they will suffice. The temper of the people, the exigencies of their con- dition, and the salutary effects produced by the improvement, are the sure guar- antees of its continuance. We have only to glance at the other changes which have taken place of late years in the condition of the mass of the Irish people, to be satisfied that this one will be maintained. They have ceased to appear as a distinct and disqualified caste ; they have commanded the exer- cise of political rights in A manner new and far more independent than a short time ago they could have believed pos- sible ; they have felt themselves rising in the scale of society, and heard the public voice in all directions sympa- thizing aloud with their remaining grievances, and emphatically demand- ins: their removal. Under these cir- cumstances the humblest Irishman must have taken up a fresh idea of his own value, and have felt himself impelled \o offer some public test or demonstra- tion of the sense growing within him of acquired superiority. But that, while medical purposes, and to discourage, by all means in my power, the practice of intoxication in otliers." Af- ter having said this slowly and distinctly, Father Ma- thew passed from person to person, and making the he continued a drunkard, would always be impossible. Intoxication reduces all grades and minds to the same low level, and there confounds them. Considera- tion in society, which an Irishman pri- zes, was thus unattainable ; and long before good Father Mathew appeared, the Irishman must have had a longing desire urging upon his heart the aban- donmenj^ of so vile a habit, and freedom from the enslaving bonds that prevent- ed him from enjoying the full and un- disputed reputation of being a regener- ated individual Rescued for the future from the danger of being dragged into this whirlpool of ruin (i. e., drunk- ehness), the Irishman will find that he has a legitimate claim to a distinct grade in society, and he will maintain and improve the claim, because he will not be slow to discover that by so do- ing he will add to his fortune, while he gratifies his pride." All honor, then, be to this good man, this noble philanthropist, and may his name from henceforth and ever be held in perpetual memory ! sign of the cross on the forehead, repeated the usual form of Eoman Catholic hlessing : " I bless thee in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen." O'CONNELL AS A LEADER. 777 CHAPTER L. o'cOOTfELL IN PAKLIAJrENT, AND IKELANd's STRUGGLES. Position and influence of O'Connell in Parliament. — Death of George IV. — Succeeded by William IV. — Excite- ment about reform. — Change of ministry. — Marquis of Anglesca lord-lieutenant. — Decides against public meetings for repeal. — O'Connell and others arrested, tried, and convicted, but not sentenced. — Reform-bill introduced into Parliament. — O'Connell's actiTitj, popularity, and demands. — Reform-bill carried in 1832. — Not much satisfaction to Ireland. — Agitation on the subject of tithes. — Abolition of ten bishoprics, etc. — Earl Grey's coercion bill. — Agitation not stopped. — Discussion in Parliament on the Repeal question. — The " Experiment" proposed and attempted to be carried out. — Of no real benefit. — Orange lodges and other societies supjiressed. — Bills for reform of municipal corporations, for poor-laws, for abolition of tithes, etc., 1836. — Mr. Nichols' Report on the condition of the poor in Ireland. — Lord John Russell's bill. — Passed in 1838. — Result. — O'Connell's labors for years. — Death of William IV. — Accession of Queen Victoria. — Ex- pectations. — Demands in behalf of Ireland. — Reform in Irish corporations. — Good results. — Lord Fortescne lord-lieutcnant. — His policy. — Repeal Association formed in 1840. — O'Connell lord-mayor of Dublin. — Petition of city corporation for repeal of the Union. — " Monster meetings." — Immense gatherings. — Bold language of O'Connell and Bishop Higgins. — Government preparations. — Meeting at Mullaghmast. — One appointed to be held at Clontarf. — Forbidden by the lord-lieutenant. — O'Connell and sis others arrested, tried, and convicted. — Sentence and imprisonment, 1844. — HI effects upon O'Connell. — His views as to using force in carrying forward repeal. — The "Young Ireland" party. — O'Connell's sickness and death, 1847. — Estimate of his character and career. — Determination of the British Government. — Macaulay's expressions. — Eulogj' on O'Connell. — The potato rot or disease. — Terrible famine in Ireland. — Maynooth endowment) 1845. — Queen's Colleges. — Denounced by the Catholic hierarchy. — Catholic University founded. — Govern- ment efforts to relieve distress. — Bill for constructing public works so as to employ the poor. — The famine of 1846-7. — Poor-law amended. — Large contributions for relief. — Private benevolence. — Sad picture of the state of the country. — Places for relief. — Extensive emigration. — Increased for years. — Diminution of popu- lation between 1841 and 1851. (1829—1847.) 'T^HE position of Daniel O'Connell -*- in the English parliament was looked upon as a very important one for the interests of Ireland. Lofty ex- pectations were entertained in regard to what he was about to accomplish, and the confidence and enthusiastic de- votion of his countrymen were un- bounded. His great ability, his bold- ness, his zeal, and his eloquence had proven his admirable fitness for the 98 position of the leader of Irishmen in their own land ; it now remained to be demonstrated in how far his remark- able powers could be employed in the imperial legislature in furthering the one great object of his life, the repeal of the Union and the i-estoration of a parliament for his native country. O'Connell's course in parliament was characterized by his usual sagacity and shrewdness, and was well calculated to 778 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV promote the ends to wliicli he had pledged himself. It was not long, moreover, before his influence began to make itself manifest in various ways. In May, 1830, O'Connell introduced a motion for reform in parliament, uni- versal suffrage, and vote by ballot at elections. This motion, though it met with no favor or support at the time, was a significant indication of the spirit of O'Connell, and the far-reaching aims had in view by himself and his compeers. George IV. ended a vicious and al- most worthless life on the 26th of June, 1830, and was succeeded by his brother, the duke of Clarence, William IV. Parliament was prorogued in July, and writs issued for an election of mem- bers for the new parliament to meet in November. Much excitement pre- vailed, both in England and Ireland, and strenuous efforts were made to have members returned so as to sup- port the views of the tories and oppo- nents of reform on the one hand, and to carry forward the extension of popular priyileges on the other. In fact, reform was loudly called for, and great agita- tion and excitement prevailed. When parliament met again, No- vember, 1830, the Wellington and Peel ministry speedily found themselves in a minority, and so of course resigned. Earl Grey then became prime-minister. Lord Melbourne was made home secre- tary. Brougham became lord-chancellor, the Marquis of Anglesea was again sent to Ireland as lord-lieutenant, with Mr. Stanley ms his cliief secretary, and Plun- kett was made Irish chancellor. The appointment of the Marquis of Angle- sea it was supposed would prove of great service to the government, as he had been very popular in Ireland, be- cause of his favoring Catholic emancipa- tion (see p. 768) ; but the result did not answer the expectation of government. Dublin was full of agitation and ex- citement on political questions, and in nearly -all parts of the country there seemed to be a determination to pro- ceed to ulterior movements. Eman- cipation was only a part of what the Catholics wanted and were resolved to attain. Repeal, as O'Connell announ- ced, was the grand object to be reached, and repeal O'Connell bent all his ener- gies to favor and push forward. In January, 1829, he said, that in order to accomplish rej^eal he would give up emancipation and every other measure, and that his exertions for such an ob- ject Avould meet with the co-operatioa of all sects and parties. The lord-lieutenant met with a cold reception on his arrival in Dublin ; and when he took the ground of putting a stop to all public meetings for agitating repeal, as seditious and iinlawfu], he found arrayed against him all the in- fluence of O'Connell and the other leaders of the Catholics in Ireland. In January, 1831, O'Connell and seven of his fellow-workers were arrest- ed as trespassers against the lord-lieu- tenant's proclamation forbidding as- semblages for discussing political topics. REFORM AND THE REFORM-BILL. 779 Soon after, the grand-jury found true bills against O'Connell and tlie others, and the trial was had iu February. It resulted in their conviction, but judg- ment was deferred. O'Couuell asserted boldly that the government would not proceed to sentence him ; and he was right in so saying, for the government was so situated in parliament as to need all the support and help of O'Connell and the Irish members. The act under which the Liberator ay as tried expired in June, and his legal criminality ex- pired of course with it. As might have been expected, this prosecution greatly increased O'Connell's popularity with the masses of the people, and he used the power he possessed in urging on the cry for repeal of the Union. In parliament, the ministry intro- duced a plan for reform in the repre- sentation of the people of England. The necessity of some action on this subject was universally felt, and Lord John Eussell's bill, which was brought into the Commons iu March, 1831, passed the house by a considerable majority. In the Lords, however, it met with determined opposition, and was thrown out in October. Immense excitement prevailed in consequence. The houses of various noblemen were attacked, and their owners who op- posed the bill were hooted at in the streets of London. The ministry had no alternative, and so parliament was dissolved. O'Connell was, as usual, actively en- gaged in rousing the people to contend earnestly for their rights, and so great was the enthusiasm which his presence excited everywhere, that the Marquis of Anfjlesea and ffovernment in Ireland were able to make but feeble opposition to his commandino: influence and his eloquent appeals throughout the coun- try, and at the trials for political of- fences, held at Limerick, Galway, Ros- common, and other places. In fact, O'Connell's popularity was unbounded. Wherever he went through England or Scotland, thousands and hundreds of thousands greeted his approach. He proclaimed the necessity of a further reform in the British Constitution ; demanded the reform of the House of Lords, by the abolition of hereditary privileges; demanded annual or trien- nially elected parliaments, the ballot and universal suffrage, and for his na- tive country the fullest measures of equal political privileges with England, or the restoration of her native parlia- ment ; and these demands were second- ed and heartily approved by millions of the English people. Parliament met in December, 1831, and the subject of reform came up al- most immediately. So strong had been the public expression throughout the kingdom of the necessity of this reform, that parliament felt it a duty to give the matter the earliest attention and settlement. The debate was protracted and earnest in the House, but the bill passed, March 22d, 1832. In the House of Lords the duke of Wellington and others strongly opposed the reform 780 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. measures. The bill was read the second time, April 14tli, and discussed in committee early in May. The min- istry resigned ; but as a new one could not be formed with any prospect of success, Earl Grey and his fellow-work- ers were recalled, and on the 4th of June, 1832, the reform-bill passed the House of Lords. The bill for parliamentary reform, as applicable to Ireland, was introduced by Mr. Stanley, May 22d, and was car- ried through both houses by the begin- ning of August. It gave five new members to Ireland ; but as the leaders and agitators, in behalf of reform, de- manded at least twenty-five additional members, as well as an extension of the franchise, there was great disappoint- ment at this meagre resvdt, and consid- erable indignation at the course pursued by the government* O'Connell, who had laid aside, for the time, the agita- tion of the repeal question, in order to obtain all the possible benefits of par- liamentaiy reform, now resumed his active interest and efforts in this and all other movements calculated to in- crease the political power and influence of the Catholics in Ireland. The bur- den of tithes was denounced, the de- mand for abolition of these oppressive and odious exactions, as they were held * "Ireland," says Mr. O'Brennan, "got only five addi- tional members, who increased our representatives to 105. About 40 members were returned at the general election, pledged to support the Repeal of the Union. Had not the elective franchise been \injustly withheld from the people, nearly all the constituencies would have returned repealers, aU sects and parlies' being convinced that nothing short of a parliament in College Green, to be, was warmly discussed, and much and vigorous exertion was bestowed in endeavoring to agree upon a settlement of this vexed question. In fact, the whole subject of the established church in Ireland was gone into, in this and subsequent sessions of parliament ; and the ministry finally gave way so far as to abolish ten bishoprics and throw off one-fourth of the entire tax. The new parliament, under the re- form act, met in January, 1833. The Irish representation Vt^&s largely made up of friends and followers of O'Con- nell, who had been particularly active in connection with the Trades' Union, the Volunteers, and other associations engaged in political movements in Ire- land. In February, Earl Grey introduced the coercion bill for Ireland, based upon the fact that disturbances and violations of law were so prevalent that decided measures must be taken to repress them. The bill was strongly opposed by O'Connell and others, who moved various and important amendments; but it became a law by the close of the month of March. The lord-lieutenant acted upon the powers given him, put- ting a stop to political gatherings, Vol- unteers' associations, etc. Agitation, it was hoped, would gradually diminish ; Dublin, could restore this country to a secure and per- manent condition of national prosperity. Such an as- sembly would check the drain of absenteeism, which is one of the greatest sources of our poverty, and would cherish and enlarge our manufactures, make trade flourish, and keep the gentry at home to watch over and encourage native industry. An Irish parliament would heal all our miseries." DEBATE OjST THE REPEAL QUESTIOjST. T81 but every sucli hope was delusive ; for O'Connell and the Irish patriots who were joined with him were determined never to cease agitating the subject of a Repeal of the Union, until success crowned their efforts. At the opening of parliament in 1834, the king declared that he would uphold the Union be- tween Great Britain and Ireland at the utmost cost, and with all the power of the State. /This declaration O'Connell met some time after by a resolution in the House of Commons, that the Union had not only been singularly disastrous to Ireland, but also greatly injurious to England, and that it was expedient that it be immediately repealed. The great discussion on the Kepeal question took place, April 22, 1834, when O'Connell made one of his noblest efforts, 2:ivin<2: a history of the connection between England and Ireland from the begin- ning, and detailing the oppressions in- flicted on his native country during 600 years by the tyrannical Saxon. Mr. Spring Rice and Mr. E. Tennant, both Irish members, spoke in behalf of the government, and undertook to show how greatly Ireland had advanced in wealth, commerce, and resources, since the Union ; how Cork, Belfast, Gal way, and Wexford had increased their ship- ping; and what a prospect for the future lay open before Ireland, if she could only be freed from the mischiev- ous political agitation, which lay as an insuperable incubus on her prosperity. The debate was kept up for a week ; but, on a division, there were five hun- dred and twenty-three votes against the motion, and only thirty-eight in its favor. Ministers, immediately after the division, brought forward a series of resolutions, declaring the Union at present existing with Ireland forever indissoluble ; but pledging parliament and the king to redress all proved abuses to be found there. On a change in the ministry, in 1835, Earl Grey having retired and Lord Melbourne having assumed the pre- miership, the Earl of Mulgrave was sent to Ireland as lord-lieutenant, -with Lord Morpeth as chief secretary. O'Con- nell had certain overtures made to him, on condition of his giving up repeal agitation, to introduce and cai-ry out the most thorough and complete reform in Ireland. O'Connell was not unwil- ling to listen to these advances, as we learn in a letter written by him in May, 1835: " Here I am, for one, fully determin- ed to contribute all I can to the success of this experiment. The union, fairly tried, may, as some expect, jiroduce honest and good government, and con- sequent tranquillity and prospei-ity, in Ireland. If it do so, all that we desire to obtain by the Repeal will be realized — a result which I fervently hope foi-, but cannot bring myself to say I confi- dently anticipate. But such a result would please everybody, and, in the comfort and prosperity of Ireland, her patriots would have their glorious re- ward. If, on the other hand, the ex- periment fails, and then, after honestly 782 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. applying all the powers of a friendly but united le2;islature to the ameliora- tiou of the condition of the Irish people, it is proved to demonstration that no- thing can cure the evils arising from provincial degradation, from the ab- sence of the nobility, gentry, and great landed proprietors, but a domestic le- gislature in a nation of more than eight millions of inhabitants, why, then we will demand 'the rej)eal' in a voice of thunder, and we shall be joined in the cry by all the rational and right-think- ing men of Great Britain." The new lord-lieutenant ariived in Dublin in May, 1835, and almost im- mediately became popular, as well by his attractive manners as by his sincere desire to i:)romote the welfare of Ire- laud. Every thing was done that could be done to quiet and soothe the public mind ; places under government were freely bestowed ; popular leaders were raised to ofSce ; lucrative positions were given to such men as Sheil, O'Dwyer, O'Connell's son and son-in-law, O'Far- rell, and others ; the liberator was offered a judgeship worth £4,000 a year, and was entertained by the lord- lieutenant at a state banquet ; prisoners for political offences were liberally par- doned ; and, in short, the government was so free in its use of patronage and its holding out expectations of great good from the present course of things, that for the time being the repeal cry was entirely hushed. But, as might have been expected, the " experiment" failed of accomplishing any real good for the mass of the peoj)le ; and Lord Mulgrave, the popular and cultivated lord-lieutenant, was recalled early in 1839. During the following session (1836) Mr. Sheil brought forward the subject of the orange lodges, with a view to their suppression, and succeeded in ob- taining a select committee to inquire into their extent and tendencies ; and this was backed up by a resolution of Mr. Hume's, to extend the inquiry to the orange lodges which were known to ej- ist in the army, which he alleged were not only an insult to Ireland, but also treasonable towards the country. A law was then passed by parliament against all and every kind of seci'et so- cieties, in which the freemasons, and other social and friendly brotherhoods, were included, and which completely suppressed the orange system in Ireland and in the army. It will be remem- bered that, in 1834, an act had been passed for an extensive reform of the municipal corporations of England and Wales, founded on the elective prin- ciple of the great reform-bill ; which had been found, from experience, to be of vast utility in opening those exclu- sive bodies to general competition, and in sweeping away an immense number of most gross corruptions. This prin- ciple it was now proposed to carry out also in Ireland, and a committee was ac- cordingly appointed to inquire into th-e best mode of effecting that desirable object. The imperial legislature professed THE IRISH TITHE-BILL. 783 itself to be anxious to benefit, in any and every way possible, the people of Ireland. By the granting of Catholic emancipation, the great masses of the people, it was conceived, had been placed ou a political level with their Protestant fellow-subjects. By the ex- tension of municipal reform, they hoped, by giving the middle classes an active participation in the local, as well as general, government of the country, to inci'ease their pereonal dignity and self- respect. It was now pi'oposed to re- lease the lower classes from the abject thraldom in which they were held, by giving them a title to relief, in times of adversity, upon the landed and other property, by the introduction of a judi- cious system of poor-laws; and thus save them from the degradation of that eleemosynary relief, upon which, in periods of distress, they had hitherto solely to depend. Parliament met on the 14th of Feb- ruary, 1836, when it was opened by the king in person ; who, in the speech from the throne, laid these several topics before the legislature. Mr. O'Loghlin, the attorney-general, intro- duced a bill for the reform of the mu- nicipal corporations, which was passed by the House ; but the House of Lords having made numerous amendments, to which the lower House did not agree, the bill was lost. The Irish Tithe-Bill was first mooted in the House of Commons on the 25th of April, 1836, by Lord Morpeth, who trusted that he should neutralize all opposition by moving a resolution, in the adoption of which all parties miglit, without at all compromising themselves, combine. His resolution was, "That it is expedient to commute the composi- tion of tithes in Ireland in a rent-charo-e, payable by the owners of estates, and thus make a further provision for the better regulation of ecclesiastical dues and revenues." By this process it was expected that nearly £100,000 Avould be gained for other purposes ; and out of this sum he proposed to appiopriate £50,000 to educational and other simi- lar purposes. The bill met with much opposition, and was deferred for the present. Meanwhile, the clei-gy issued processes to collect the tithes, and were sustained by the highest law authorities. The Catholics were exasperated at these proceedings, and at a meeting held in the Corn Exchange, where O'Connell was the leading spirit, tithes were denounced altogether, and a feel- ing of intense indignation was roused. On the other hand, the Protestants in the north of Ireland made very great exertions to secure and sustain what they considered to be their rights under the constitution, and to counteract the designs of the Catholics. The year 1837 opened with lowering clouds over Ireland. Neither Catliolic nor Protestant was satisfied ; and there was too much room for discontent and disturbance, if not serious outbreaks in various parts of the country. The sub- ject of relief to the poor was fully and carefully discussed, based upon the re- 78-4 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. port of Mr. Nicliols, who liad been sent by Lord John Kussell to Ireland to ex- amine into the actual condition of the pool'. Mr. Nichols' report was full, ac- curate, and clearly arranged. He stated that the wages of the agricultural la- borers varied fi'om sixpence to twelve- pence a day ; the average was about eisrht-and-a-half. The earnings of la- cs ^ borers, on an average of the whole class, did not exceed two shillings to two shillings and sixpence a week, for the whole year round ; from which miser- able income a man and his family were to feed and clothe themselves! The number of persons out of work, and in distress, during thirty weeks of the year, was estimated at 585,000 ; and the number of persons dependent upon them for support, at not less than 1,800,000,— making, in the whole, 2,385, 000, or one-fourth of the entire popula- tion, who might be said to be depend- ent upon charitable support for six months in every year ; that the support of the poor fell exclusively on the farm- ing and cotter class ; and the voluntary relief afforded by these he valued at near a million sterling per annum. The poor-law of Lord John Russell was based upon Mr. Nichols' report. He proposed to adopt the principle of compulsory rates for the relief of the poor ; but in order to render the relief efficacious, so that improper persons should not receive the relief thus de- vised, he annexed a condition, that all who required relief should be com- pelled to enter the workhouse, where they would meet with worse fare and work harder for their support than when they were working for any otlier master than the parish. In order to insure a right feeling among the several bodies, or boards of guardians, who would have the immediate direction of all the parishes, he proposed altogether to exclude clergymen, whatever their principles might be. The measure was ai'gned and re-argued. O'Connell and others opposed it strongly, and it was laid aside for that session on account of the king's death. It was taken up again the next session, and, early in the year 1838, passed by large majorities. Money was granted for the erection of poor-houses to the extent of hundreds of thousands of pounds, and the whole machinery for this vast effort to benefit the poor in Ireland was soon after brought into operation. A Catholic writer, who sympathizes with the labors of O'Connell and his fellow-workers in opposition to the poor-law, asserts that " this measure has proved a signal failure. The peo- ple, in most cases, refuse to pass a rate. There is no money to be found by the commissioners ; and the consequence is, the poor in many places are dis- charged upon the country, and live upon the bounty of the charitable, as they formerly did." Our limits do not admit of going into details, or of enlarging upon the vast influence and power exerted by O'Con- nell in his country's affairs. Suffice it here to say, that for several years CLAIMS AND HOPES FOR IRELAND. 785 O'Connell devoted his best energies to the one great topic on which he had staked his future life and powers, as the Liberator of Ii-elaud. Repeal was steadily and forcibly advocated in par- liament and out of it ; O'Connell never lost sight of it when dealing with the masses, as well in England as in Ire- land ; Repeal was his battle-cry, and he spared no way or means to further its advance. Associations were formed well calculated to set forward the cause, and these exercised great influ- ence in Ireland and elsewhere ; and, in fact, all through the reign of William IV., O'Connell was a thorn in the side of the successive administrations, was ever busy in keeping alive the agita- tion of the great question, was wearied by no labor, appalled by no difficulties, discouraged by no disappointments, and resolute in persisting to the end in press- ing a dissolution of the Union, as a mat- ter of simple justice to Ireland, and as an advantage to both England and Ireland. On the 20th of June, 1837, "William IV. died, and was succeeded by the Princess Victoria, daughter of the Duke of Kent. She was now in the eigh- teenth year of her age, and her views and feelings, so far as was known and believed, were liberal and generous. In the enthusiasm arising out of a new sovereign mounting the throne, high hopes were excited in behalf of Ireland and her claims ; and it was expected by many that now justice, at least, would be rendered to this portion of her majesty's dominions. 99 The new parliament, under Queen Victoria, met in November, 1837, and was composed of about an equal num- ber of whigs and tories. Various mat- ters relative to Ireland came before the legislature, upon questions con- nected with the purity of elections and the evident course of things in that country, dissatisfied as its people were with the rule of the whig party. The abolition of monopolies like the Bank of Ireland wa.s called for ; there was an earnest asking for encouragement to the Irish fisheries ; and, indeed, a gen- eral fostering of Irish enterprise and internal improvements was demanded. During the years 1838 and 1839 O'Connell was much occupied in seek- ing to obtain a corporate reform-bill for Ireland. The attempt to renew the charter of the Bank of Ireland was de- feated. Ardent and long-continued dis- cussions on the Irish poor-law were had ; but the affairs of Ireland did not obtain that attention they deserved. England was in a state of great agitation and ex- citement. The chartist masses, on the one hand, were armed, and meeting in bodies of thousands and tens of thou- sands, by torchlight, and demanding the " people's charter," under denunciations of the most fearful kind ; and on the other, the tory party was indulging in threatenings and abuse of the queen, and especially of Lord Melbourne, the prime-minister. O'Connell's labors, we may mention here, to obtain a reform in the L-ish corporations, were crowned with success in 1840. The bill for 7m REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA. tins purpose was finally passed by the House of Lords, althougli many of its clauses were stricken out, and it was not altogether what was demanded. It, however, had this good effect, that it opened the corporations to men of all religious denominations, and sub- jected the taxing powers to public scrutiny ; but it provided that the old officers should not be removed with- out ample compensation. The bill went into operation in the year 1841.* Lord Mulgrave (now Marquis of Normanby) having been recalled. Lord Fortescue was sent, in 1839, to Ireland, as lord-lieutenant. The new viceroy, with outspoken plainness, declared pub- licly that no member of the Repeal Association should receive place or promotion from him. This, as may be supposed, produced considerable feel- ing, and the question of repeal excited more and more attention. The " Pre- cursor Association," founded in August, 1838, was replaced by the "Registra- tion Society," and that, in 1840, by the " Loyal National Repeal Association of Ireland." This latter formally pledged itfeelf never to dissolve until the Union was repealed. The struggle of the whigs against the tories resulted, in 1841, in the com- plete discomfiture of the former. Sir Robert Peel became the premier in September, 1841, and held that impor- tant position until 184G. O'Connell, after a busy and exciting canvass, was elected lord-mayor of Dublin in 1841, and on the 1st of November was duly installed into office. It was a position not more honorable than influential ; and though the Liberator nfever lost sight of the one great object of his life, still it deserves to be put on record that he discharged the duties of his office with acknowledged impartiality and fiiirness, and retired from his posi- tion, at the end of the year, with honor and credit. The year following (in February, 1843) he gave notice, as one of the city aldermen, that he should offer a motion to petition the House of Commons for a repeal of the Union. (See p. 751.) The question was de- bated on the 1st of March, when O'Con- nell delivered one of his most powerful and effective speeches, on a topic in which his whole soul was engaged ; and though ably opposed, the motion to jjetition for repeal was carried by a large majority. Other municipalities followed the example thus set — as Cork, Waterford, Limerick, etc. ; and by the aid of the press and the activity of the repealers, the question became the all- engrossing one of the day. Seven hun- dred thousand persons were enrolled members of the Repeal Association in * Gebald Gsirnir, distinguished among liis coun- trymen as an author of superior talent and force, was born in limerick, Decembcsr 12, 1803. He manifested very early a love for literature ; and when he grew up, he devoted himself to it with unusual zeal, and attained great success. He was the author of " The CoUegians," " The Rivals," etc. ; and his works have been collected, and, together with a memoir by his brother, published in New York, in ten voliunes. QriflSn joined a religious society, called The Christian Brothers, in 1838 ; but his health gave way, and he died, December 13, 1840. THE MONSTER MEETINGS. 787 t.lie year 1843, and there was paid into the treasury, for furthering the objects of the society, not less than £48,000. O'Counell, though now sixty-eight years old, was full of activity and en- ergy, and gave his whole attention to the rousing of the people to a full sense of their position, and the only mode of obtaining redress. He resolved, in fur- therance of his grand purpose, to call a series of meetinf!:s in the fields and on the hill-sides, which, from the vast num- bers that gathered at his call, were termed " monster meetings." The first was held at Trim, near Dublin, on Sun- day, March 19, 1843, where twenty thousand met. Other meetings were held — at Limerick, April 19th ; at Mul- lingar. May 14th ; at Cashel, May 23d ; at Kilkenny, June 8 th ; at Tara, Au- gust 15th ; and in many other parts of the country : so that, between March and the beginning of October, there were forty-six of these immense gath- erings. The hills and valleys rang with the excited cry of hundreds of thou- sands of the people, for repeal and for justice to Ireland. The government was evidently in great doubt and perplexity, and began to be alarmed as to whereunto all this would grow. Sir Kobert Peel and the Duke of Wellington declared positively that they would " put down" the Lib- erator and his fellow-workers in the repeal agitation. Several regiments of infantry and cavalry, a large quantity of arms and ammunition, and four ves- sels of war, were sent to Ireland, to be ready against the threatened emer- genc)'. But O'Connell bor6 himself bravely before the people. " I am not to be mocked," he said, " I belong to a nation of eight millions ; and let me also tell you that there is, besides, more than a million of Irishmen in England. If Sir Robert Peel has the audacity to cause a contest to take place between the two countries, we will begin no rebellion ; but I tell him, from this spot, that he dare not com- mence the strife against Ireland." He was seconded by one of the Catholic bishops, with language even more daring and sio^uificant. " 1 know " said Bishop Higgins, of Ardagli, " that, virtually, you all have reason to believe that the bishops of Ireland were re- pealers ; but I have now again formally to announce to you that they have all declared themselves as such, and that from shore to shore we are all now re- pealers. I cannot sit down without adverting also to the means which that body would have, and would be deter- mined to exert, in case that foolish min- ister, who presides over the fated des- tinies of our country, would have dai-ed to put his threat into execution. I, for one, defy all the ministers of Eng- land to put down the repeal agitation, in the single diocese of Ardagh. If they attempt, my friends, to rob ns of the daylight, which is, I believe, com- mon to us all, and prevent us from assembling in the open fields, we will retire to our chapels ; we Avill suspend all other instruction, in order to devote T88 REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA. all our time to teaching the people to be repealers, iu spite of them. If they follow us to our sanctuaries with their spies and myrmidons, we will prepare our peoj)le for the scaffold, and be- queath our wrongs to posterity." The ministry were alarmed, as well they might be, at such bold denuncia- tion ; but they were none the less re- solved to conquer the difficulty. The repeal press, especially the "Nation," roused the people to a pitch of enthu- siasm never before known. The repeal- rent swelled from £200 and £300 to £700 iu the week. "Warlike prepara- tions were pushed forward by the gov- ernment. A bill for disarming the Irish people was introduced into par- liament, Avhich was warmly and ener- getically discussed ; and Smith O'Brien moved an inquiry into the state of Ire- land, and pressed it so earnestly, that three days were spent in the debate upon it. The government, however, while acknowledging the difficulty, steadily adhered to their determination, and refused to yield to either entreaty, or argument, or threats of danger to the stability of the Union. The numbers reported as present at these " monster meetings" seem to be almost incredible ; at Limerick, 110- 000; at Cork, 500,000 ; at Clare, 700- 000; at Tara, 750,000; at Mullagh- mast, 400,000. At this last meeting, held October 1st, 1843, O'Connell occupied the chair, and while there allowed a deputation of writers and artists to place upon his head a cap made upon the model of one of the an- cient Irish crowns. An address was presented, to which the Liberator an- swered, and vowed to wear this kingly cap during his life, and to have it buried with him in his grave. Another monster meeting was fixed by O'Connell to be held on the famous battle-field of Clontarf, three miles from Dublin, on the 8th of October. The government, however, had come to the resolution to put a sto]^, by force if needful, to any further gatherings of the kind. Earl de Grey, who had suc- ceeded Lord Fortescue as lord-lieuten- ant, in December, 1841, on consultation with the council, issued a proclamation, late Saturday afternoon, October 7th, denouncing the proposed meeting as seditious and inflammatory, and forbid- ding the assemblage as illegal, and sub- jecting all present to prosecution. O'Connell immediately gave notice that the meeting would not be held, and all chance of direct collision Avith the authorities was prevented. But the government were not content with putting an end to these monster gath- erings. They next proceeded, within a week, to arrest the Liberator and six others, on charge of seditious designs and practices in what had taken place. The trial began, January 15, 1844, and excited profound interest and concern, as well in England as Ireland. Some of the first talent in the country were engaged for the defence, which was very ably conducted ; but on the 12th of Februaiy a verdict of guilty was O'CONNELL'S TRIAL. AJ[D ITS RESULTS. Y89 brought ia by the jury. Sentence was delayed ; the j ury were denounced as packed and perjured; and O'Conuell appeared in his place in parliament, and in various parts of England. There was no lack of synij^athy with him in his peculiar trial, and it was admitted on all hands that the prosecution to which he had been subjected could never be sustained before the tribunal to which it was to be carried on a writ of error. On the 30th of May, 1844, O'Cou- nell and his compeers were brought into court to receive their sentence. O'Connell was condemned to be impris- oned for a year, and pay a fine of £2,000. The others were to be im- prisoned for nine months, and pay fines of £50 each. The appeal to the House of Lords was diligently carried forward by the law-agents of the pris- oners, and, after much difficulty and great cost, came before that body in July. The argument was fully gone into, and on the 5th of September judgment on the writ of error was given. Three out of five of the law- lords were in favor of annuUios: the whole proceedings, which was accord- ingly done, and the prisoners were or- dered to be discharged. On the 6th of September O'Connell left the Eich- mond Bridewell, and was received again to liberty with the enthusiastic devo- tion of thousands upon thousands. The consequences of this unjust im- prisonment were marked in their effect upon O'Connell. He was never again the same man that he was before. The iron seemed to have entered into his soul ; his spirit sank within him ; and as almost threescore years and ten had passed over his head, he was physically unequal to the labor and fatigue of keeping alive and directing the repeal agitation. "On Tara Hill," says O'- Brennan, "the 15th of August, 1843, he had but to express his will, and the million and a half of hearts who were true to him as were men to a leader at any time in the annals of history, had placed him in a position that no foreign government would have dared to lay hands on him. On that day he was the uncrowned monarch of the Irish nation. We had followed him to death or vic- tory." But now, a year subsequent to that proud moment, the Liberator was changed indeed; he was now but illy fitted for that position which enthusias- tic myriads expected him to occupy. O'Connell had always, amid the most fiery of his denunciations, and the loud- est cry for repeal and justice to L'eland, advocated the use of moral force, and the seeking redress by legal, constitu- tional means ; he never meant to pro- ceed to open insurrection, or to enter upon a contest of physical power with England. But now, some of his follow- ers, members of the Repeal Association, becoming restless and dissatisfied with this constant talking and remonstrating, and not acting, advocated the bringing matters to as speedy a crisis as possible. The "Young Ireland" party were for entering on the mortal struggle at the earliest moment, and asserting the li- V90 KEIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA. IjLMty ami iudepeiideuce of Ireland at the caimou's mouth. The dissensions in the Repeal ranks, and tlie fearful sufferings of the people in the great famine of 1845, 1846, as well as the seeming consciousness that his mission was now approaching its end, weighed down the veteran Libera- tor, who had for nearly half a century been battlins; for the cause of his native land. With failing spirit his health de- clined, and he was ordered by the physicians to the south of Europe. Early in 1847, he set out for Rome, earnestly hoping that he might be per- mitted to die there ; but, on reaching Genoa, May 15th, he expired, being not quite seventy-two years old. Various and contradictory are the es- timates of O'Connell's character and career. By the one party he is reviled and denounced as a bigoted tool in the hands of unscrupulous men for the worst of purposes, as a demagogue, a cheat, a schemer for selfish ends. By the other he is lauded to the skies as the impersonation of goodness, patriot- ism, and self-sacrificing devotion to the best interests of Ireland. That he was a truly wonderful man, possessed of marvellous powers, versatile, brilliant, able to move an audience with incred- ible force, of bold manlj^ presence, ca- . * Macaulay, in a speecTi in the House of Commons, 1845, expressed this determination on the part of Eng- land in terms worth quoting : " The repeal of the Union we regard as fatal to the empire ; and we will never consent to it ; never, thongh the country should he sur- rounded by dangers as great as those which tlireatened her when her American colonies, and France and Spain pable of unsurpassed vituperation and sarcasm, witty and humorous, with every thing in fact which could give a man command over his fellow-men,— that he was all this, hardly admits of doubt ; and probably no Irishman ever lived that could compare with him as a popular leader, in whom the masses trusted with the most perfect faith. But it may be questioned whether he was altogether wise in seeking to ob- tain an end which can never be attained peacefully, which the English govern- ment has always expressed itself deter- mined never to grant, and which the whole force of the army and navy would be used to put down at any cost whatsoever. It was a waste of words, it was a loss of time and energy, to call for repeal, as was done for so many years by the Repeal Association, under the delusive expectation that the Eng- lish government would grant it. It is quite possible that O' Conn ell persuaded himself that persistency in the course he adopted, and the united cry of mil- lions, might induce or compel the gov- ernment to yield : but if so, he erred greatly in judgment ; for if there be one thing which is fixed and certain in the policy of England, it is, never to permit Ireland to become independent.* If the green isle of the ocean is ever I and Holland, were leagued against her, and when the armed neutrality of the Baltic disputed her maritime rights ; never, tliough another Bonaparte should pitch his tent in sight of Dover castle ; never, till all has been staked and lost ; never, till the four quarters of the world have been convulsed by the last struggle of the great English people for their place among the nations." EULOGY ON O'CONNELL.— THE FAMINE. 791 to be freed from her connection with Great Britain, it can only be attained by force, by actual resort to arms, and by asserting and maintaining her lib- erty by the power of the sword. This, of course, would bo rev^olution, a bloody revolution, a terrible struggle, a fearful sacrifice of human life ; but it is the price which Ireland must pay if she in- sists on independence and absolute self- control. "Had O'Conuell," says Mr. Smyth, in summing up the Liberator's career, "bestowed upon the discharge of his grave and far more salutaiy duties, as a member of parliament, a tithe of the labor, the industry, the eloquence, and the genius which he lavished unavail- ingly upon the Repeal agitation, he might have removed fi'om the Irish system every inequality and ground of complaint under which his countrymen have to suffer. Never Irishman did more in his own time ; never Irishman missed the opportunity of doing so much. Often as he gave proofs of superior ability in handling details and explaining the operation of systems, he failed to realize the chai'acter of a practical politician." A Catholic writer, who knew O'Con- nell well, and whose admiration for him has no bounds, considers him to have been the very foremost man of all the world. A passage from his eulogy, written before O'Connell's death, may here be given : " As a husband, he was loving ; as a father, affectionate ; as a Christian, sincei'e ; as a Catholic, rigid ; as a man, honest; as an orator, elo- quent ; as a scholar, learned ; as a law- yer, deep ; as an advocate, effective ; as a representative, able ; in the field, valiant ; in the senate, wise ; in council, deferential ; in debate, overwhelming ; as a gentleman, delicately courteous ; as a host, hospitable ; as a guest, enter- taining ; as a companion, jovial ; as a citizen, patriotic ; as a landlord, kind ; as a great man, approachable ; as the chief magistrate of Dublin, conciliatory and just ; as the leader of Ireland, faith- ful, incorruptible, unpurchasable, and unlntimidated." Leaving, however, the great Libera- tor to rest In peace, we resume the nar- rative of events from 1845. It was a sad dispensation of divine Providence which came upon Ireland during that year and 1846. The potato, which is the main support of the laboring people in Ireland, is subject to disease at times. The origin is not easy to explain. For some years previously this mysterious disease — called mildew, murrain, rot, and pestilence — had been making its way all over Europe. In the autumn of 1845 it appeared in Ireland, and so rapid was its progress, that often in a week's time it would destroy a whole crop, though promising, just before, an abundant harvest. Acres upon acres were planted with the potato, which became at once wholly unfit for food. Famine in its most dreadful form, per- vaded the whole country; and with famine came its usual attendant, fever of the most malignant kind. Hundreds and thousands were swept to their 792 REIGN" OF QUEEN VICTORIA. graves, and the pestilence raged with fearful effect amongst those who, more than all, were least able to guard against it. The workhouses were filled to over- flow, and the numbers of the inmates at length became so great, that the overcrowding of the houses became a source of the very evil which they had been erected partially to prevent. The smaller farmers M'ere reduced to ruin, and those beneath them were thrown into absolute destitution. From the government and other sources relief was speedily obtained. Provisions were shipped to Ireland, and every effort was niiide so to distribute them that the suffering people might obtain the help they so much needed. Early in the session of 1845, Sir Rob- ert Peel brought into parliament a bill, the object of which was to increase the grant annually made for the support of the Catholic college of Maynooth. (See p. 743.) This college had origi- nally been instituted for the education of young men within the British Isles for the Catholic priesthood, in order to save them from the necessity to which they liad formerly been subjected, of repairing to the Continent for that tu- ition necessary to enable them to enter upon the duties of the ministry. Mr. Pitt conceived, in originally making the grant, that he would thereby enlist their sympathies in favor of their native country. The greater portion of his object remained to be achieved, but Sir Robert Peel hoped to effect its accom- plishment by increasing the favor. He accordingly carried a bill through par- liament, in the fece of the most strenu- ous opposition, and £26,000 a year were appropriated, out of the consoli- dated fund, for the better sustenance and payment of the students and pro- fessors of Maynooth. Another measure of conciliation was introduced and car- ried through parliament. This was the establishment of three collecfes for secu- lai- education in Ireland, for which £100,000 were granted. One of these was located at Belfast, for the North ; a second at Cork, for the South ; and a third at Limerick, for the West. An endowment of £7,000 a year was fixed for each ; twelve professors were ap- pointed for each college ; £2,000 a year are distributed in the way of prizes ; and no religious test is required from professors or students. The government was led to this step, in the founding the " Queen's Colleges," by the success which had attended the establishment of the National system of education in 1831. We may men- tion in the present connection, although somewhat in advance, that the new col- leges were not looked upon with favor by the Catholic clergy, they holding that education ought not to be severed from religion, but rather that religion and the church should have prominence in all respects. The pope ere long condemned them as " godless colleges ;" and at a national synod held at Thurles, August 22, 1850, the Irish hierarchy formally denounced them as dangerous to faith and morals, and stated that a EFFORTS TO RELIEVE DISTRESS. 793 Catholic uuiversity would speedily be founded. John Henry Newman, a dis- tinguislied clergyman (formerly of the Church of England, now a Roman Catholic), was chosen as rector of the new university, which was opened in November, 1854, much to the grat- ification of those who did not ap- prove of or patronize the Queen's Colleges. Famine and pestilence continued their ravages in 1S46. The poor- houses were insufficient to accommo- date the suffering multitudes, and large numbers perished of famine, misery, and disease. The government strove to meet the emergency, and by the end of the year not less than £850,000 had been expended in this most philan- thropic and humane object. Tiie repeal of the corn-laws took place just at the close of Sir Robert Peel's premiership, and free-trade thencefortli became the policy of Eng- land in her vast commercial relations throughout the -rt^orld. A bill was brought into parliament in 1846, to repress crime and outrage in Ireland ; but it was strongly oj^posed by the Irish members, and failed, of passing the house. The constabulary force was, however, increased to 10,000 men, and large accessions were made to the military foi-ce in the country. Lord John Russell now came into power, and applied himself diligently to the providing measures of relief for Ireland. A bill was introduced for the construction of various public works, 100 the cost of which was to be defrayed out of the consolidated fund. These works consisted of the improvement and the formation of roads, the drain- ing of morasses, and such works as the most ordinary of the laboring popula- tion could be emjjloyed in, and which would be apparently useful to the coun- try. The plan was admirably devised, and skilfully and energetically carried out, and was for some time very suc- cessful in alleviating the prevalent dis- tress. Loi'd John obtained the sanction of parliament to a grant for £50,000 for the most distressed districts — se- curity being taken upon the county rates for the repayment of the sum within ten years, with three-and-a-half per cent, interest. His lordship also proposed, and obtained, the grant of another sum of equal amount for the poorer districts, which were never likely to be able to rejjay the loan. A blight having again fallen upon the potato-crop, the winter of 1846-7 was peculiarly severe upon the poor in Ireland, and no words can adequately depict the terrible sufferings from fam- ine and pestilence which swept over the country. Parliament met, January 29th, 1847, and gave immediate atten- tion to the condition of Ireland. Every effort was made to relieve the starving population and allay the ravages of disease. From thirty to forty steamers, and fourteen or fifteen sailing vessels, were constantly employed in pouring breadstuffs into Ireland, while all the medical aid at the public command 794 REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA. was readily I'eudered for the aid of the sufferers. At the close of the month an im- portant amendment of the Irish poor- law Avas passed. The experience of the last two years had shown that the workhouse i>\an did not succeed in practice. It was impossible to receive and provide for the crowds of suppli- ants for relief within the Union build- ings. (See p. 792.) It was determined, therefore, to abide by the old prin- ciples of relief, but to grant to out-door paupers the help they needed. Dur- ing the period that elapsed between September and the spring, not less than £2,000,000 had been applied to the re- lief of the jieople ; and the ministry ventured upon the further plan, which had been originally sketched by Sir Robert Peel, of making the whole loan to Ireland £10,000,000, and for this purpose the chancellor of the exchequer contracted a loan to the amount of £8,000,000. Piivate benevolence also was largely and liberally exerted in behalf of the suffering pooi', and every- where throuirhout Encjland and Scot- land subscriptions were made, gene- rously and freely, and upwards of £250,000 were collected for the pur- pose of buying food and saving from starvation the afflicted thousands and tens of thousands in Ireland, at this date. It was, indeed, a sad and gloomy picture which everywhere met the eye of the beholder. A teeming popula- tion, in want and wretchedness, without any apparent resource ; an ancient aris- tocracy of landed proprietors in the possession of large estates without de- riving from them a shilling of rent, whilst millions of acres of soil lay in a state of uncultivated barrenness, while its surface minfht have been covered with crops of waving corn, and the strong hands and brawny arms that should have called them forth from the bosom of the earth were either hansfins: down in listless idleness, or were en- gaged in work that literally produced nothing. Murmuring, distress, doubt, and death pervaded the land, and the spirit of the people seemed to be well- nigh crushed by the load of calamities which had fallen upon them. Among the various plans proposed for the relief of the Irish people, there were three which promised the speed- iest and best results. These were — emigration, which was powerfully advo- cated in parliament by the Earl of Lin- coln ; the reclamation of waste lands ; and such a disposition of the encum- bered estates as would, while relieving their then proprietors from the burden under which they labored and by which they were disabled, at the same time insure to the new owners a cer- tain and indefeasible title to their prop- erty. Emigration, to which every encour- agement was given by the landlords and boards of guardians, became very active and beneficial to the country. In 1846, the year of the great famine, some 250,000 emigrated to the United THE GREAT EMIGRATION. 795 States aud Canada. The tide kept on increasing for several years ; but since 1852, when the number of emigrants was 190,000, emigration has decreased. In 1858 there were 64,000 who left their native land. Since then, as there has been less occasion, so Ireland has not found it needful or profitable to part with any very large number of her children in the way of emigration. " Every mail that sped across the At- lantic," says a late writer, speaking of the year 1850, "brought funds to pay the passage of their relatives, who had been left behind ; and, in one instance, as many as five hundred letters, each of which contained a remittance to aid those who waited for a passage to the land of promise, passed in one day through the post-office at Galway. Cars, coaches, carts were all pressed into the service to convey the passen- gers to the quays of Cork, Galway, Dublin, aud Liverpool ; whence three, four, five, and sometimes six vessels a-day sailed with their living cargoes to the shores of the West. Not only the poor and destitute, but the re- spectable and well-to-do foi-mer packed up all that he had, converted his 2:)i'op- erty into money, and turned his face, with his wife aud family and stalwart laborers, towards America. And this was no sudden burst of enthusiasm. It lasted for weeks, and months, aud years, with increasing fervor, Hutil at last it was calculated that upwards of a thousand individuals in a dav left the shores of Ireland for settlements abroad ; so that, when the census of 1851 was computed, it was found that, notwith- standing the well-known proportionate superiority of births over deaths, the population of the country, through famine, pestilence, and emigration, had been reduced 1,622,000 during the past ten years."* * The population of Ireland, according to tte census, was, in 1841, 8,175,224 ; in 1851, 6,553,290 ; in 1861, 5,764,543. 79G REIGN" OF QUEEN VICTORIA. CHAPTER LI. SillTII o'bPJEn's INSTJEEECTION. — MOEE EECENT HISTOEY AND PROGEESS. Tlie " Yoiiug Ireland" party and the " Irish Confederation." — WiUiam Smitli O'Brien — His co-workers, Meaghei, Mitchell, and others. — The year 1848 a year of revolutions. — O'Brien in parliament — Goes to Paris — Sym- pathy of the French. — O'Brien prosecuted for sedition — Jury not agreed — Set at liberty. — Mitchell trans- ixirted. — Condition of the country. — Affray at DoUy's Brae. — Action now resolved upon by O'Brien, Duffy, O'Gorman, etc. — Measures of government. — O'Brien's movements. — March from Enniscorthy. — Encounter with the police near Ballingar — The conflict, and result. — O'Brien and others arrested, tried, and con. demued. — Sent to Australia. — Proposal to abolish lord-lieutenancy. — Eviction of small farmers and tenant- rights. — Mr. Crawford's bills. — " Irish Tenant-league." — Further attempts at legislative settlement of the question. — General face of the country improved. — Ireland's share in the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park in 1351. — Exhibition in Cork in 1853. — Earl of Eglintoun lord-lieutenant. — Political excitement. — Aggregate meeting in Dublin — Right Rev. Dr. Cullen presides — Resolutions adopted. — Proposal of Mr. Gladstone, chancellor of the exchequer, to impose the income-tax on Ireland — His statements and views — Two weeks' debate. — Speeches and arguments of the opposition — The government plan supported by a majority of 71.- — The result. — Ecclesiastical affairs brought under discussion. — Opposition to, and complaints of, the estab- lishment. — National system of education — Discussion in parliament — Earl Derby's speech — Testimony of a Catholic writer respecting the schools, the books used, etc. — Mr. Dargan's public-spirited efTorts to inaugu- rate the Industrial Exhibition of 1853 — The building, contents, etc.— Opening of the Exliibition by Earl St. Germans. — Visit of her majesty Queen 'V^ictoria to Ireland — lier presence at the Exhibition. — Results hoped for. (1848—1853.) IN July, 184G, when O'Connell's fail- inar health had caused him to give up active efforts of all kinds, and when his son, John O'Connell, had in- troduced certain peace resolutions into the Repeal Association, William Smith O'Brien and a number of others se- ceded, and formally dissolved connec- tion -with that body. The -way was now opened for the more ai'dent spirits of the "Young Ireland" portion of the Repealers to enter -upon a more ener- * In a letter to O'Connell at that date, O'Brien thus strongly expresses himself : " Ireland, instead of taking her place as an integral of the great empire which the getic course of action ; and it ■was de- termined, as had been for some time contemplated, to form an " Irish Con- federation," and to claim and enforce the absolute independence of Ireland. Smith O'Brien took the lead in this movement, for he was a man of educa- tion, farailj^, and fortune, and although a Protestant, had become, in 1844, a prominent member of the Repeal Asso- ciation.* Ardent in temperament, and an advocate of bold and daring meas- val&r of her sons has contributed to constitute, has been treated as a dependent tributary province ; and at this moment, after forty-three years of nominal union, O'BRIEN AND HIS FELLOW-WORKERS. -\)1 ures, be had distinguished himself, in parliament especially, and at public and private gatherings, by the intre- pidity of his language and the tremen- dous force of his objurgations against the oppressors of his native land. Thomas Francis Meagher, a gentleman of substance of the County of Waterford, joined O'Brien. John Mitchell also, a man of education and ability, and hold- ing a powerful pen, who edited a paper called "The United Irishmen," gave the whole force of his talents to the cause, and wrote soul-stirring addresses to the people of Ireland, exhorting them uot to agitate for Repeal only, but to combine for the overthrow alto- gether of the power of England in the country. Several barristers joined their ranks, as did also T. B. McManus, a gentleman for many years a merchant in Liverpool. The year 1848, it will be remem- bered, was a year of revolutions in Europe ; and O'Brien and " Young Ireland" seem to have been aroused to the point of definitive, positive action. O'Brien made a violent speech in the House of Commons, threatening to establish a republic in Ireland and to teach the English government a salu- tary lesson. In the month of April he accompanied a dej)utation from the " Irish Confederation" to Paris, to re- quest aid in carrying out the plans about to be adopted for cutting Ireland loose from all connection with England. There were abundant expressions of sympathy and kindness ; but the French revolutionists, having their hands full with their own affairs, were unable to give any promise of dii'ect or effective assistance. The open foreshadowing of their de- signs on the part of O'Brien and his fellow-workers, comj^elled the govern- ment not only to notice, but to take some action to meet, the threatened emergency. Lord Clarendon, who had succeeded to the vice-royalty of Ire- land on the death of the Earl of. Bes- borough, instituted proceedings, in May, 1848, for sedition, against Smith O'Brien, Meagher, Doheny, and four or five of the others. The charffe was fully made out, but the jury refused to agree upon a verdict in the case of O'Brien. A similar result followed in that of Meagher and another of those tried for sedition ; and the govei'nment declining to persevere, all the prisoners were set at liberty. Mitchell, however, undeterred by what had taken place, repeated the offence even more boldly and unqualifiedly than ever. He was accordingly tried and convicted, and sentenced to transportation for fourteen years. ' the attachments of the two nations are so entirely alienated from each other, that England trusts, for the maintenance of the connection, not to the aflectiou of the Irish people, but to bayonets ■which menace our bosoms, and to the cannon which she has placed in all try and her patriotism.' our strongholds Slowly, reluctantly convinced that Ireland has nothing to hope li-om the sagacity, the justice, or generosity of England, my reliance shall be henceforward placed upon our couu- 798 REIGN OF- QUEEN VICTORIA. The condition of the country, in the midland and southern portions, was greatly disturbed ; outbreaks and vio- lations of law and order were frequent ; nn-ests became numerous ; the jails Avere filled with prisoners ; and a spe- cial commission was opened in Limer- ick, Ennis, and Clonmel, at which be- tween five and six hundred prisoners were tried and sentenced to the several grades of punishment deemed neces- sary, some few being capitally con- victed and- executed. An uufortunate affray also occurred, July 12th, between a body of Orangemen on the one hand and Ribandmen on the other, at Dolly's Brae, in which a number of lives were lost, and the mutual hatred of partisans inflamed. The time seemed now to have come when the contest was to be inaugurated, aud bold words were to give place to bold deeds. Mr. C. Gavin Duffy, a gentleman of the highest respectability in Ireland, who was shortly afterwards apprehended for alleged treasonable practices, and Smith O'Brien, who, with Mitchell, was afterwards exiled to Aus- tralia, earnestly prompted decisive ac- tion. O'Brien, immediately after the trials for sedition, went on a mission to the South, to incite the people to rise ; Mea"-her went to one part, and O'Gor- man to another, for the same object ; while Dillon and others remained in Dublin as a standing committee. The lord-lieutenant now called for new additional powers, and Lord John Russell immediately asked parliament for the prolongation of the Insurrection act until the 1st of March, 1849. Three days afterwards, on the 24th of July, his lordship moved for a bill to suspend the habeas corpus act in cer- tain districts in Ireland. The bill was hurried through both houses without opposition, and was at once approved by the queen. Tlie preparations which the govern- ment were making to prevent out- breaks probably urged forward the present attempt. Meagher and Dillon hastened down to Enniscorthy, where O'Brien, after a tour thi-ongh parts of Tip23erary, Limerick, Cork, and Kil- kenny, was stopping. They found him there on the Saturday, aud directly entered upon the arrangements neces- sary to insure an immediate aud gen- eral rising ; their particular object being, in the first instance, to re- lease Mitchell, who was at that time lying under sentence in Dublin, and to prevent the trial of Duffy, which was soon to take place. On Sunday, O'Brien addressed a considerable as- semblage, but without much effect, in- asmuch as the Catholic priesthood rather looked askance at the whole matter, as ill-timed, and not likely to meet with the desired success. The Confederates proceeded on Mon- day from Enniscorthy, by Shivannon, Mullinahon, and Kilenaull, towards Ballingar, everywhere addressing the excited population. After more than a week of inaction, so far as warlike proceedings were concerned, it was de- O'BRIEN'S BATTLE WITH THE CONSTABULARY. 799. termined to make the decisive stroke without further delay. They met a small body of cavalry on the road, ■which, however, did not interfere with their movements. At a police-station near by, there was a sergeant named Williams, with six men under him. The arms of these men were demanded by the leaders; but Williams shut the gate in their faces, positively refusing either to yield the place or surrender their arms ; and the police were, in an hour or two afterwards, enabled to re- tire to Cashel without molestation. General Blakeney, who was in com- mand of the military in Ireland, caused a body of troops, comprising iufantiy, cavaliy, and artillery, to be in readi- ness to meet the rising where it was supposed it would take place ; but the evident determination of the govern- ment did not prevent the attempting to do what had been resolved upon. On the 19th of July, 1848, Smith O'Brien marched out of Enniscorthy at the head of three hundred men vari- ously armed, expecting to be joined by the peasantry on his route. In this he was not disappointed ; for, by the time that he drew near to Ballingar, in Tip- perary, his followers had increased to nearly three thousand iri number. Most of them had fire-arms in their hands, and a goodly quantity of ammu- nition in store. When within about three miles of that place, on Boulagh- commou, they encountered a party of between forty and fifty of the constab- ulary, under a sub-inspector, whom they immediately prepared to encoun- ter. The only place of refuge was a solitary farm-house, inhabited by the widow of a farmer named McCormack, and her five young children, situated some three or four fields from the high- \yay. It was a substantial structure, covered with slate, and surrounded by a court-yard enclosed by a wall. This, Inspector Blackburn with his men se- cured by a run, and immediately barred the door, and blockaded the windows with the furniture. O'Brien approached one of the win- dows, and demanded the arms of the constabulary, which the inspector de- clared that he and his men would sur- render only with their lives. On receiving this answer, orders were given to fire upon the house and its occupants, and compel them to give up their arms. A brisk attack was imme- diately made, which was answered promptly by a rapid fusilade from the police, and an animated firing was kept up for nearly half an hour on both sides, the inspector having served out two hundred and thirty rounds of ball- cartridge to his men. At the end of that time, two of O'Brien's men having been killed and several wounded, the whole body retired to a rise at a little distance. At four o'clock a contingent of police arrived to the relief of their comrades, upon which all those who had taken part in this attempted rising dispersed, and the leaders fled for their lives. Several of the chief men concerned 800 REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA. escaped ia various disguises. A reward Avas put upon their heads by the govern- ment, and Smith O'Brien was arrested, August 5th, by a railway guard, of the name of Hulnie, just as he was pre- paring to leave by the train at Thurles. Meagher, O'Donoghue, and McManus were also apprehended. On the 21st of September, 1848, a special commis- sion was opened at Clonmel for the trial of the prisoners, for high treason ; when, after a 2:)atient investigation, Avhich lasted for four weeks, they were all convicted and sentenced to death, the principal eAnncing great coolness and self-2")ossession under his trying position. The sentences were afterwards sever- ally commuted to transportation, and O'Brien and his compatriots were ac- cordingly sent to Australia. O'Brien, we may mention here, remained in exile till the year 1856, when he was per- mitted, with othei's, to return home.* During the session of 1850, a bill was introduced into parliament for abolish- ing the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland. It Avas carried through a second reading by a large majority; but it was warmly opposed by the Irish members in the House. Government, therefore, in con- sideration of public feeling on the sub- ject, abandoned the measure. The frequency of the evictions of the small farmers from their holdings, by which they were necessarily divested of every portion of their property, con- * According to the statements of one of the journals, James Stephens, the Head Centre of the Fenian Broth- erhood, was engaged with O'Brien in the insurrection stantly brought the subject of tenant- right before the public and under the consideration of the government. For several sessions, Mr. Sharman Crawford had introduced bills for the amendment of this grievous evil. It was monstrous, as he asserted, that when a tenant had held his farm for perhaps seven years, and had expended all his little capital in the erection of farm-buildings, drain- in tr the land, and in effectins' other simi- lar improvements, he should at any moment be ousted by his landlord, and thus be entirely divested of all the little property that he held in the world. The equity of the principle of granting compensation for such invest- ments was readily allowed by men of all parties in the house ; but great diffi- culty was experienced in ascertaining the limits of the landlord's and the tenant's right; and Mr. Crawford's bill was felt to be too radical in its tendency to meet the temper of the House. In August, 1851, a conference was held, by a number of gentlemen and lovers of their country, in Dublin, to consider the insecure condition of the tenant farmers of Ireland. "The Irish Tenant League" was formed, and a council elected to take measures in order to secure efficient action in par- liament. A similar conference was held the year following, and high hopes were entertained of the success of the League of 1848. Stephens escaped to France; but in after years returned to Ireland. His subsequent movements in connection with Fenianism we shall see by and by. GENERAL STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 801 in the important objects it Avas seeking to accomplish. The subject spoken of above, as brought forward by Mr. Crawford, was revived in the session of 1850-1 ; but with no material advantage. In 1852, when Mr. Napier filled the office of at- torney-general, under the Earl of Der- by's administration, he introduced four bills ; which, from the nice balance of interests which their provisions con- tained, seemed excellently calculated to accomplish the object he had in view ; but, at the same time, Mr. Ser- jeant Shee also introduced a bill for the same purpose ; and, as it appeared likely that benefit might arise from a partial incorporation of the several measures, government assented to a proposition for referring them all to a select committee ; but they were not destined to proceed any further at that time. During the three or four years that had just elapsed, the face of Ireland had undergone a favorable change. Much, very much, undoubtedly remained to be done ; but, in general, improvement was the order of the day. Everywhere the number of cottier tenements had been either reduced, or had entirely dis- appeared. The system of squatting had been almost totally subdued. Wealthy proprietors, equally skilled in the com- mercial and agricultural management of their property, had assumed posses- sion of the lands. The poor-rates were diminished, and the inmates of the poor-houses were reduced from thou- 81 sands to hundreds, while tlie debts of the unions were very largely decreased. In every part— in remote Connaught, as well as in distressed Munster — the country assumed an appearance of in- creasing and healthy prosperity. In the Great Exhibition of the In- dustry of all Nations, held in Hyde Park, in 1851, under the patronage of the Queen and Prince Albert, Irish taste, capital, and skill, in. her poplins, her silks, and her linens, and other fab- rics, were admirably represented ; and their presence in this hall of peace aided in jDromoting the growth of man- ufactures in Ireland, and a spirit of en- terprise and emulation among the peo- ple. This was shown in the following year, by the opening of an exhibition of a similar kind in the beautifully sit- uated city of Cork, where the day of its opening was observed as a kind of jubilee in the city and its neighbor- hood. In March, 1852, the Earl of Eglin- toun succeeded Lord Clarendon in the lord-lieutenancy, and his administration proved to be in a high degree popular. He was a nobleman well-suited to the genius of the people over whom he was placed. Gallant in bearing, affable and agreeable in manner, and active in visiting various parts of the vice-royal- ty, he gave great satisfaction to the friends and supporters of the tory gov- ernment. But, there was nevertheless a strong feeling of dislike on the part of the whigs, the Catholic priesthood, and numbers of the nobility and gen- 802 REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA. try. This was evidenced subsequently iu the elections for parliament, where much excitement prevailed, and oppo- sition candidates were elected.* On the 19th of August, 1852, an ag- gregate meeting of the Catholics of the United Kingdom was held in tlie Ro- tunda, in Dublin. It was an imposing assemblage, attended by prelates, peers, and representatives from various parts of the empire. Dr. Cullen, the Roman Catholic archbishop, took the chair, and inaucrurated the meeting with words of eloquence and devotion to the cause of his native land. Dr. MacHale, bishop of Tuam, made a powerful and patriotic speech. He denounced, in unmeasured terms, English tyranny, and the attempts at proselytism which had been, and were being made, among the Catholic youth of Ireland. At this meeting, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted : — 1. "That we hereby solemnly pledge ourselves to use every legitimate means within the Constitution, to obtain a total repeal of that act (the Ecclesias- tical Titles Act) which imposes on the Catholics of this empire any civil or re- ligious disability whatsoevei', or pre- cludes them from the enjoyment of a perfect equality Avith every other class of their fellow-subjects. 2. "That as one of the great consti- tutional and practical means of carrying out the objects of this meeting, we pledge ourselves to make every effort * It was in connection ivitli this election that the Six Mile Bridge affray occurred, ■when the Orangemen and to strengthen the hands and increase the power of those faithful representa- tives, who, in the last session of pailia- ment, so energetically devoted them- selves to the formation of an independ- ent ixirty ill the legislature, having for its object the maintenance of civil and religious liberty in the British empire ; and that the following prelates and members of the legislature be a com- mittee to define, with accuracy, the ob- jects which are to occupy the Associa- tion, to frame the rules and regulations by which it shall be governed, and to submit the same to the next general meeting of the Association." An eloquent and forcible address in support of this movement was made by Mr. G. H. Moore, M. P. for Mayo, and it was expected that results of no ordi- nary moment would be attained. In consequence, however, of want of proper organization and efficiency in securing a regular and adequate supply of funds, the Association languished, and failed of accomplishing the object for which it was formed. The winter of 1852-3 passed in com- parative quiet, although the govern- ment thought it necessaiy to keep the coercion act in operation in Ireland. New proprietors had been found for the encumbered estates. Money was brought into the country by these men, and they used it discreetly, not only for their own interests, but for the good of the community at large. In this their opponents engaged in deadly strife, and a number of lives was lost. THE INCOME-TAX IN IRELAND. 803 state of affairs, Mr. Gladstoue, Chancel- lor of the Exchequer iu the Aberdeen miuistry, thought it a favorable oppor- tunity to assimilate the taxation of the two countries of England and Ireland, and make them one iu fiscal regulations, as they had been made one politically by the act of Union. In bringing for- wai'd his budget, therefore, on the 18th of April, 1853, Mr. Gladstone submitted a resolution to the House for a continu- ation of the income-tax for a period of seven years, and, for the first time, pro- posed to include Ireland in the sphere of its operation. In the elaborate statement presented by the learned chancellor, the question as to the exemption of Ireland necessa- rily came up. As Ireland, he argued, had derived benefit from the fiscal changes made by government, and as the duties which constituted the ground of her exemption had disappeared, he did not see why the income-tax should not be levied in Ireland. He had pro- posed to charge Ireland with the in- come-tax and the dutj^ on spirits ; but ■the government had come to the de- termination to relie\'e her from the consolidated annuities, amounting to £4,500,000, which would cease from and after the 29th of September last, all arrears up to that date to be paid, and all sums received since to be re- turned. The proposal to relieve Ireland from the charge of £4,500,000, which was due to the consolidated fund, and which laid like a dead weight upon the na-' tional energies ever since the time of the famine, was too great a boon not to be eagerly sought after by the best- intentioned of the Irish landlords ; the Irish members takinc' an increased iu- terest in the debate. The extension of the income-tax to Ireland was antici- pated to produce about £460,000 a year ; and the increase of the duty upon Irish spirits, from two shillings and cightjience to three shillings and four- pence a gallon, to produce nearly £200,000 annually. The debates on this important meas- ure continued for two weeks, and brought out the best ability of the members of the House of Commons. Mr. Fagan, while admitting the states- maulike character of the ministerial plan in general, yet felt bound to resist that part of it which subjected Ireland to the income-tax, as an equivalent for the abandonment of the consolidated annuities. He protested agninst the introduction of these annuities into the plan, insisting that the labor-rate, form- ing part of the charge, had been mis- applied ; and entered into details, to show that Ireland had derived but slen- der advantages from the remission of taxation for which the income-tax was imposed. He further contended that the imposition of this tax would be in- consistent with the act of union, which stipulated that Ireland should contrib- ute to the general taxation only in a certain pi'oportion, which had been al- ready exceeded ; and he urged the cruelty of taking advantage of a breath- 804 REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA. ing-time, which Ireland seemed now to enjoy, to oppress her with an income- tax. Other Irish members, as Mr. Ma- giiire, Sei-jeant Shee, Mr. French, etc., supported the views advanced by Mr. Fagan, and contended that it would be equally ungenerous, unjust, and dishon- orable, to impose the income-tax upon Ireland. The government side of the question, however, was argued and sup- ported by Mr. Cobden, Mr. Disraeli, Serjeant Murphy, and others ; and, on a division, there were found to be 323 against 252, a majority of 71 in favor of the financial measures proposed by Mr. Gladstone. The result reached was an important one, whether just or unjust in its appli- cation, viz., the affirming the principle, that in future years the taxation of Ire- land should rest upon the same basis as that Avhich regulated the imposition of taxes upon other parts of the United Kingdom, A large portion of the Irish gentry, it is said, approved of the gov- ernment plan ; and among the rest, Maurice O'Connell, eldest son of the Liberator, and inheritor of the property of Derrynane. Another effort was made at this date for the benefit of Ireland, by Mr. Whiteside, who moved for leave to bring in a bill to facilitate the sale, partition, and exchange of lands, by the court of chancery in Ireland, and the recovery of moneys secured by recosrnizance. Great and vexatious de- lays had occurred and were occurring, and a remedy was imperatively de-. manded. The question was settled, however, by the government bringing in and carrying a short bill for renew- ing the " Encumbered Estates Act" for a period of two years. The position of ecclesiastical aftairs, particularly the Established Church in Ireland, was again under discussion in the session of parliament for 1853. The long-existing and deeply-rooted sense of injustice done to the larger part of the population by the Establish- ment, and the settled determination to bring about a change and a more equi- table adjustment of mattei-s on this subject, were manifested in the speeches and arguments of various members. Lord John Russell, however, and others, opposed any movement of the kind, and when the question was taken for the appointment of a select committee to inquire into the ecclesiastical reve- nues of Ireland, and how far they were applicable to the benefit of the Irish people, the motion was negatived by 2G0 to 98. Another question, of no little impor- tance to Ireland and her true interests, was fully discussed at the present ses- sion of parliament. We refer to the national system of education. The de- bate was opened in the House of Lords on the 19th of July, 1853, by Lord Donoughraore. The system of educa- tion in Ireland, as he stated, was origin- ally founded by Lord Stanley (now Earl of Derby), some twenty years pre- viously, and was intended to be a sys- DEBATE ON THE NATIONAL EDUCATION QUESTION. 805 tern of united secular and separate re- ligious instruction. Immediately after its first organization, the board had commenced the publication of a num- ber of works which could not be too highly praised, and which had since then not only been used in the schools under the board, but also in schools in this country and the colonies. No ob- jection whatever had been taken, or could be taken, to the system of secular education as carried out by the board ; but certain objections were taken by men of high character and standing against the nature, amount, and sub- stance of the religious instruction. And from this, serious difiiculty was expe- rienced in managing the religious teach- ing so as to give general satisfaction. The Earl of Derby also spoke upon the subject, and stated that, from the first, it had been contemplated to mingle a certain amount of religious with the secular instruction given in the national schools. In the report is- sued by the commissioners in 1844, they stated that they had established a number of schools, which were attended by thousands of children, and that they had succeeded in compiling several works, containing a series of lessons grounded on Holy Writ, which were used in the general instruction afforded in all the schools. But in that year also, and in order to meet objections which had been raised by various Cath- olics in the community, these books were not insisted on, but only strongly recommended. A rule also was adopt- ed, viz., "The commissioners do not in- sist on the Scripture-lessons being read in any of the national schools, nor do they allow them to be read during the time of secular or literary instruction in any school attended by children whose parents or guardians object to their being so read. In such cases the commissioners prohibit their use, ex- cepting in the houre of religious instruc- tion." Earl Derby, in continuing his remarks, deprecated any diminution of religious instruction in the national schools. The whole system, he said, so far as attaining the great end in view was concerned, depended upon the mu- tual and harmonious working of mem- bers of different religious denomina- tiojis ; upon the sound sense exercised by both parties ; and upon the balance being impartially held between Prot- estants and Catholics. A zealous Catholic writer, a number of years ago, expressing not only his own, but also the sentiments of the powerful and ancient church of which he is a member, remarks, that " knowl- edge and tyranny are antagonist prin- ciples. They never can coexist, they never have coexisted, in the same com- munity of men. The six-and-twenty letters of the alphabet are the powers which Ireland relies upon, and in this Ireland is supremely right. Let the present five or six hundred thousand Irish children, that are at school, but get to manhood without any material check or civil commotioil, and act all the powers of Europe, though Europe 806 REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA. combined in arms for tbe purpose, could hold the Irish nation, for one day, in bondage to any other. It is true that ■these national schools are supported by English money, and teach English po- litical principles ; but with all that, there is a great deal in what they teach that we must admire. Their system is uuifoi'm, for their teachers are all edu- cated by superior men, at the head or model school in Dublin. Their books of instruction appear to be excellent. Indeed, all their books are the vei'y best in the English language, and some have been adopted in the German schools. Their general system of instruction includes reading, writing, arithmetic, bookkeeping, agriculture, grammar, geography, geometry, math- ematics, mechanics, civil and natural history. Scripture-lessons (selected and mutually agreed upon), elocution, sing- ing, linear or mechanical drawing, etc. ]\Iental exercise and instruction are cul- tivated. Not only do the masters cat- echize the scholars, but the scholars question and argue with the masters. Order is peculiai'ly enforced ; and a certain step and discipline are taught, in play-hours, entering and i-eturning from school, which adapt the boys, to a certain extent, for military drill. The commissioners are quite sensitive to public opinion, and are becoming daily more and more national. There may be objections to their syste.m ; but if there be any thing erroneous in their inculcation, sufficient of the spirit of inquiry is abroad to correct it ; and as those children cannot, upon any other conditions, obtain this much-desired ed- ucation, it is better to let them learn to read, write, and cipher, to draw and steji, — and rely upon an active public pi'ess, and an enlightened public opin- ion, to eradicate the political errors of the schoolrooms." One other matter which occurred at this date, in Ireland, deserves to be put on record. It had been customary for the Eoyal Dublin Society to have an exhibition of the products, natural and artificial, of the country, once iu three years, at their rooms in Merrion Square. As the year 1853 was the one in due course of routine for this display, it oc- curred to an individual of great public spirit and liberality, Mr. Dargan, to make this exhibition one of national importance. To secure the public char- acter of the Dublin Exhibition, it was intrusted to a committee comprising the hiirhest and mcist hoHorable names in Dublin, in cotinection with that im- portant body, the Royal Dublin So- ciety, on whose grounds adjoining Mer- rion Square the building was raised. The building reflected no small credit upon Mr. Benson (now Sir John Ben- son), its architect. In character and design it differed from the Crystal Pal- ace in Hyde Park. The open area of the interior, supported on columns, was one point of resemblance ; but the whole light was admitted from above, there being none at the sides ; and only a portion of the actual roof was glazed. Instead of rectangular outlines, broken VISIT OF THE QUEEN TO IRELAND. 80( by au arebed transept, Mr. Benson's design was distributed in a series of long parallel balls with semicircular roofs, and oval in form, tbe central one being tbe loftiest, and baving an ex- ceedingly striking and novel effect. It ■vvas 425 feet long, 100 feet wide, and 105 feet bigb ; and altogetber was an imposing and beautiful ball for tbe purpose designed in its erection. Here were collected tbe cbief attrac- tions of tbe exbibition — statues, foun- tains, and tropbies of manufacturing skill ; wbile, crowning immense tiers of benches raised at either end, stood two large and powerful organs, for wdiicb tbe shape and character of the ball seemed well adapted. The two similar, but smaller balls, on either side, were 325 feet in length, 50 feet wide, and 55 feet high. In these, and in the gab leries adjoining them, tbe various col- lections of manufactured articles were arranged in classified order, much after the manner of tbe exhibition in Hyde Park. Tbe sides of the building were occupied by two balls, smaller still than those next tbe main ball. In one, tbe machinery in motion was very effect- ively provided for by Mr. Fairbairu, tbe welbknown engineer; in the other, Mr. John Deane, assistaint-secretary to the committee, by dint of great energy, tact, and perseverance, collected a most brilliant display of paintings in the English, Prussian, Belgian, Dutch, and French schools. This portion of the building also contained a sculpture- room and, behind all, accommodation was provided for carnages, locomotives, and agricultural implements. The Dublin Exhibition was officially opened on Thursday, May 12, 1853, by Earl St. Germans, lord-lieutenant, at- tended in state by his suite, tbe corpo- ration of Dublin, tbe committee, and tbe officers intrusted with charge of the Exbibition. Towards the close of August, 1853, Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, resolved to make a short visit to Ireland, and witness the result of tbe Dublin Indus- trial Exbibition. Accordingly, on tbe 29tb of that month, accompanied by the Prince Consort, and tbe Prince of Wales, and Prince Alfred, tbe Queen entered Dublin Bay, in the royal steam- yacht, tbe Victoria & Albert. Tbe visit was an agreeable one, both to the Queen and the people. She was re- ceived with all tbe pomp and circum- stance which wait on royal movements, and the usual enthusiasm was displayed wherever her presence was recognized. Tbe corporation of Dublin presented addresses to their distinguished visitors, duly acknowledging tbe honor con- ferred on their city, and expatiating on the general improvement of tbe coun- try. Her Majesty, in her reply to the corporation, said: "It is my anxious desire to encourage tbe industry of my Irish subjects, and promote the full de- velopment of tbe great natural resources of Ireland ; and I share in tbe confident belief that the striking display of beau- tiful productions of art and industry 808 REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA. by wbicli I am surrounded is to be ap- preciated, not on]y as evidence of suc- cessful genius, but as a liappy mani- festation of that persevering energy, which, under the blessings of Divine Providence, is an unfailing source of national prosperity." A few days af- terwards the Queen returned to Eng- land, not without hope that her pres- ence at the Exhibition had been pro- ductive of beneficial effects. Very probably it has been so ; but it may be doubted whether any permanent or lasting good was or could be produced, in this way, for a country suffering as Ireland has for so long a time. IRELAND'S HOPEFULNESS. 809 CHAPTER LII. THE FENIAN BROTHERHOOD. IRELAND'S PRESENT POSITION AND PROSPECTS. HOPE EOR THE FUTURE. Activity and zeal of the Irisli patriots.— The Fenian Brotherhood.— Origin and purpose of this association.- Its scientific organization. — First Feniau Congress at Chicago, 1863. — Second Congress at Cincinnati, January, 1S65. — Third Congress in Philadelpliia, September, 1865. — Reorganization, steps talien of various lands, etc. — Course of the British Government. — Martial law proclaimed in Ireland. — James Stephens, the Head Centre of the whole Brotherhood, arrested. — His escape from prison. — Visits the United States. — The Queen's speech, February, 1866. — Suspension of the habeas corpus act. — John Bright's views. — S. MiU's remarks. — Fenian invasion of Canada. — Mortifying failure. — Course pursued by the President of the United States. — Criticized by the Irish patriots. — Lord Derby's thanks to the United States Government. — Fenians tried and condemned in Canada. — McMahon and Lynch sentenced to be hung. — Mr. Seward's interposition. — Excitement among the Irish. — Stephens's speech at meeting held at Jones's Wood, New Tork. — His bold announcement. — Opposition to the Fenian movement by bishops and priests of the Catholic Church — Extracts from a Cath- olic paper on this subject. — Meeting of Fenians in New York, November, 186G. — Resolution and appeal adopted. — Father Vaughan's spirited review of " English misrule in Ireland." — The rising in Ireland reported as having been entered upon at the close of November, 1860. — Spirit and tone of the English press. — Threats of retaliation on the part of the Fenians. — Fixed resolve of the British Government. — Force imder Stephens in Ireland. — Sympathy in various quarters. — Warren's address to Irishmen in America. — Extracts from an Irish New York journal on the position of aflixirs and the prospects of success. — Condition of things at the close of 1866. — Views and opinions of eminent Irislimen and Englishmen on the questions at issue. — What has been done for the people's good. — What remains to be done. — Mil desperandum. — Ireland must be free. (18.56— 1860.) TPVURING the last fe-sv years the -'-^ people of Ireland have not been idle, or foi'getful of the one great ob- ject which they so earnestly desire to attain — that is, the entire freedom and absolute independence of their native land. Encouraged by the strong, warm-hearted sympathies of those who have emigrated to the United States and other parts of America, and retain their affection for the Green Isle of the Ocean, and also conscious of the vast power of combined, well-organized ef- forts, the Irish patriots have not remit- ted their labors or allowed themselves to despond under any pressure or any difficulty. This is evident, not only by the firm and decided tone adopted by the Irish, so far as they are able, at home, and fully and openly abroad, but also by the formation and active working of an association which, it is hoped and expected with confidence, will materi- ally help towards establishing the new "Irish Republic." This association is known by the name of the "Fenian Brotherhood," 102 810 REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA. and is so interesting in the objects it seeks to attain, and the liigli aspira- tions for liberty and freedom wliicli it has aroused, that it requires at our hands some account of its origin and progress. Our notice must necessarily be more or less impeifect, as the nature of the association does not admit of its affairs being made entirely public ; but having sought, with much care, for ac- curate information, we think the reader can rely upon what is here stated. The members of the Brotherhood in Ireland are, of course, under a pledge of secrecy, which has been so success- fully preserved, as that neither the gold of the Government on the one hand, nor the efforts of spies and traitors on the other, have been able to break up the association or expose its members to the vengeance of the ruling author- ities. All its members are required to be able-bodied men, and are sworn into military service and secretly drilled as soldiers. The numerical strength of the Fenians in Ireland is not generally known, of course, but it is represented as being formidable, when compared with the numbers which England and Scotland could add to the British army. * " The Fenian Brotherhood, otherwise known aa the Irish Revolutionary Brotberliood, was started in 1857. It was the result of a compact entered into by the late Michael Doheny, Michael Corcoran, myself, and some few others in New York, with James Stephens in Ire- land, whither he had then recently returned from Paris. In America, Michael Doheny was its real founder. Never did the cause of Irish freedom seem more hope- less to the outside world than at that time. Public opinion was everywhere against any attempt at Irish revolutionary action. The press scoffed at the idea all The material and resources for ac- tive warlike operations, when the right moment arrives, are, of necessity, to be looked for from the Brotherhood resid- ing in other countries ; and it is the settled purpose of those who have en- tered upon this work to seize the first opening which presents itself, and to raise the standard of revolt, and to make Ireland a free and independent nation in the world. This is their pur- pose. It remains to be seen whether they can accomplish it, and whether the vigilance and power of the English Government can be overcome. It is within less than ten years that the Fenian Brotherhood has been or- ganized and at work in the United States.* The organization is of a sci- entific character, and is calculated to promote the highest efficiency of its members. First, there is a Local Circle of not less than sixty members, to whom a commission is granted by the State Centre, and it is authorized to send a delegate to the next Fenian Congress. The Local Circle elects a permanent Centre, subject to the ap- proval of the State Centre and Head Centre. Full reports are made by the world over. Ireland was everywhere proclaimed to be thoroughly subjugated, and her people to bo loyal to the British crown, contented, and even happy. Some money was collected, nevertheless, principally from un initiated friends of our cause, by means of which 35,000 men were enrolled in Ireland by James Ste- phens. The sum total was not much — some thousands of dollars in aB ; but a little money will go a great way in preliminary organization in Ireland." — President O'Mahony's Message, January, 1866. THE FENIAN BROTHERHOOD. 811 these Centres every mouth, and seut to headquarters ; aud a neglect to do this for three months puts a Circle in " bad standing," and i-enders it liable to be cut off. Every candidate for admission has to be proposed by one Fenian brother and seconded by another, and then reported upon by the Committee of Safety of each Circle. The initia- tion fee is not less than one dollar, and the monthly dues average about fifty cents for each member. The following declaration is required of the newly elected member: "I solemnly pledge my sacred word of honor, as a truthful and honest man, that I will labor with earnest zeal for the liberation of Ire- land from the yoke of England, and for the establishment of a free and in- dependent government on the Irish soil ; that I will implicitly obey the commands of my suj^erior officers in the Fenian Brotherhood in all things ap- pertaining to my duties as a member thereof; that I will faithfully discharge my duties of membership, as laid down in the Constitution and By-Laws there- of; that I will do my utmost to pro- mote feelings of love, harmony, and kindly forbearance among all Irishmen; and that I will foster, defend, and prop- agate the aforesaid Fenian Brother- hood to the utmost of my power." All political discussions, except in relation to Ireland, and all religious questions whatever, are positively prohibited in each and every Circle. Centres of Circles correspond with State Centres ; State Centres with the Head Centre. All correspondence with brothers in Ireland passes through the Head Centre, to whom, with the Central Council, are known the true names and ad- dresses of the "I. R. B.," or "Irish Rev^olutionary Brotherhood." And when any member comes from Ire- land, his credentials have to be sub- mitted to the Head Centre. The State Centres are appointed and commis- sioned by the Head Centre, the highest officer in the association, who is elected annually by a general Congress, com- posed of the various State Centres and one delegate from each Circle in good standing:. The first Fenian Congress was held in Chicago, in November, 1863, and con- sisted of nearly 200 delegates. The Constitution of the Order was largely al- tered, and its designs were more boldly avowed. The second Congress was held in Cincinnati, in January, 1865, and various committees, on Military Affairs, on Foreign Affairs, on Ways and Means, etc., were appointed. A Fenian Sisterhood was also established at this time, with promise of beneficial results. The membership of the Order, it was reported, had largely increased, there being about 380 circles and some 80,000 members, over 14,000 of these latter being of the naval and military class. In September, 1865, another Con- gress assembled in Philadelphia, at which a new Constitution was adopted, modelled upon the Constitution of the United States. Its design is to secure 812 REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA. tlie blessings of liberty to the Irisli race in Iieliincl, and it admits to membership United States citizens of Irish birth and lineage, and friends of Ireland everywhere on tlie American conti- nent. The Brotherhood is subdivided into State, District, and Social Circles, as previously. The Congress consists of a Senate and House, the former lim- ited to fifteen in number, the latter composed of delegates from the Circles, one delegate for every hundred mem- bei's. The executiye power resides in the President, who is elected annually by the Congress, and, in connection with the Senate, arranges treaties, apjioints ambassadors, etc. He, and all civil offi- cers, are liable to impeachment for trea- son, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors, and on conviction are expelled from the Brotherhood. Various steps \vere taken, after the adjournment of the Congress, looking to the great end had in view. Offices were opened in New York and an issue of bonds commenced. A serious diffi- culty which occurred between the pres- ident, John O'Mahouy, and the Senate, and which threatened to do gi'eat mis- chief, caused some excitement; but the difficulty was ultimately settled so as * Stephens, on Lis csamination, took liigli ground, and denied tlie right of the English Governnicnt to exercise any authoritj- in Ireland. Especial precautions were taken to prevent his escape. The corridor of the prison in which he slept was kept locked, except during the hour allowed for exercise. This corridor is divided from its continuation in the other wing of the prison by a heavy, solid iron door, which was kept securely locked. Thrae policemen were stationed here on guard. At the othet end of the corridor is a not to interfere with the main objects of the Brotherhood. In the existing state of affiiirs, the British Government has not been un- mindful of the dangers to its sui^rem- acy, caused by the organization and course of action of the Fenian Brother- hood. Troops have been sent to Ire- land; the constabulary force has been increased, and various prepai-ations have been made to meet the threatened emer- gency. During the year 1865 martial law was proclaimed in some counties, and suspected persons were here and there arrested and imprisoned. Among these was James Stephens, a man of considerable note and importance in the present condition of Ireland, being the Head Centre of the whole Brother- hood, not only in his native land, but also elsewhere. Stejihens, by the aid of comjjatriots, escaped from prison, and, despite the utmost vigilance of the authorities, sharpened by offi;rs of large rewards for his arrest, arrived soon af- ter in France ; thence he made his way, in the spring of 1866, to the United States, to carry forward the objects o,f the Brotherhood in any and every way which might present itself* Various steps were taken with reference to an massive iron door, with a huge lock, opening on the lobby of a stone staircase, by which the ground is reached. The door of Stephens's cell was cased with iron, no keyhole inside, and secured by a very large swing bar, fastened by a padlock of great size. Despite all this precaution, the doors were all opened for Ste- phens, and one night he quietly walked out. A re- ward of £1,000 was offered for his apprehension ; but to no purpose. Of Mr. Stephens's fellow-workers in his revolutionary EMINENT FENIAN SUFFERERS. 813 iiTiiptioii into Canada, in order to strike a blow, wbicli would be felt, at British power iu America, and ultimately to movement, the following -n-ere the principal men who fell into the power of the British authorities about the same time that he did, but who had not the good for- tune to escape with him from the dungeons of their enemies : Jeremiah O'Donovan-Rossa, a gentleman of fair edu- cation, and of superior natural talents, though self- made, was boi-n in Boss-Carberry, iu the coimty of Cork, of an old and respectable, but latterly reduced, family-, whose ancestors — the O'Donovans-Rossa — were former- ly owners of the surrounding territory of Rus-o-g Cairhre. Of all the imprisoned leaders of the Fenians, there was none so popular as O'Donovan-Rossa. His frank and genial manners gained him the good-will of all who came into contact with him, and his thorough devoted- ness and indomitable energy as a patriot, secured the respect and confidence of his organized associates, while his ancient clan associations, as well as his intrinsic good qualities as a man and a friend, had so endeared him to his neighbors in his native district, that few men in the south of Ireland had a larger personal fol- lowing than he. He was somewhat above the middle height, muscular and athletic, with an open and rather handsome coimtenance. His first experience of an English prison was in 1858, when he was arrested with several others for the Phcenis Conspiracy of Skibbereen, but released on bail, with his companions, after several months' incarceration — the j ury before which he was tried not having agreed to a verdict. No sooner was he restored to liberty than he resumed his revolutionary labors, and was the mainspring of the Fenian move- ment in West Munster up to his removal to Dublin, in 1803, when he became manager of the Irish Peojile newspaper in that city. But his labors were not con- fined to his connection with this journal. He made frequent tours to England and Scotland, and more than once to the United States, in the service of the organi- zation. He was arrested on the 1.5th Sept., 1865, with the other conductors of the Irish People. WTien tried, soon after, he defended himself. On being convicted of treason felony, he was sentenced to penal servitude for life. He was the only civilian amongst his associates upon whom so severe a penalty was passed. It was the meed of his universal popularity, as well as his ac- tivity and zeal as an Irish revolutionist. He is now about thirty -five years old, and has a young and beau- tiful ^^•ife and a large interesting family. 3d. Charles J. Kickham was bom thirty-four years since, in the town of Mullinahone, near the northern base of Slievenamon. He came of a respectable stock, and his father, John Kickham, was a wealthy and pa- triotic draper in his native town ; besides which he was operate from this quarter iu favoi- of efforts at home for the fi'eedoin of Ire- land. extensively engaged in agriculture. Young Kickham received a first-class education. His literary talents and acquirements were of a high order. He was an eloquent and correct prose writer, and a poet of no mean genius. In '48, though scarcely out of his boy- hood, he established a Young Ireland club iu his native parish, and was one of the followers of Smith O'Brien in his attempted revolution, from the consequences of which he escaped by reason of his youth. When Dr. Cane started the Celt in Kilkenny, some time after, Kickham was one of its ablest contributors. He joined the Fenian movement in 'Gl ; since when, in company ■\vith Denis D. Mulcahy and a few other tried men, he helped to sow the seeds of revolution broadcast over Tipperary. He attended the first convention of the American Fenians at Chicago, in *G3. Soon after his return to Ireland, he became one of the principal edi- tors of the Irish People — his connection with which was the immediate cause of his arrest, trial, and cou- viction. He was also a member of the Revolutionary Council. His tastes were exalted and refined ; his disposition was extremely gentle and kindly ; while in his devotedness to his land and his race, he was an enthusiast. 8d. John O'Leary was also a member of the Irish Revolutionary Council. He, too, began his career as an Irish rebel at a very early age — having been arrested for having made an attempt to muster the. peasantry of Tii>perary at a place called the Wilderness, near Clonmel, for the purpose of rescuing Smith O'Brien and his companions in durance, during their trial in '48. He was then a mere boy. Having been set at liberty, after an imprisonment which lasted several months, he devoted himself to the study of the medical profession and to literary pursuits. Though in relations of the closest intimacy with James Stephens, since the return of the latter to Ireland from France in '57, he did not become prominently connected with the Fenian move- ment tiU his installation as chief editor of the Irish Peo- ple ; nor is it well ascertained whether he was ever regularly initiated as a member of that society. John O'Leary comes of an old and patriotic race, originally located in the west of the County of Cork. He was bom in the rising town of Tipperary, where his father was held in very great esteem, as one of its most influential and enterprising merchants. Ho was, in private life, a worthy man, and in public a sterling lover of his coun- try. As a litterateur, John O'Leary has few superiors. In revolutionary matters, he is more of a philosophic thinker than a man of impulsive action. But though his patriotism is not of a demonstrative cast, it is not the less determined and pure. In person he is of slight 814 REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA. Eai-ly in Feljruaiy, 1866, at the open- ing of Parliament, the Queen, in her speech, said : " A consjjiracy adverse alike to authority, property, and reli- gion, and disapproved and condemned alike by all who are interested in their maintenance, without distinction of creed or class, has unhappily appeared in Ireland. The constitutional power of the ordinary tribunals has been exert- ed foi' its repression, and the authority of the law has been firmly and impai-- tially vindicated." Notwithstanding, however, the Queen's statement on the subject of the efliciency of the ordinary processes of law, the lord lieutenant. and graceful build, above the middle height, and of regidar, handsome features. He is unmarried, for- tunately for himself. 4th. Thomas Clarke Luby is now about forty-two years old. Son of an Anglican clergj'man, and nephew of one of the most learned and distinguished fellows of Trinity College, he commenced his university career and ■won considerable scholastic distinction, at an early age. In '48 he joined the Toung Ireland party, and thus lost the friendship and patronage of his uncle, who is an extreme loyalist. After the failure of Smith O'Brien, Luljy joined Fenton Lalor, Philip Guy, Joseph Bren- uan, and others, in an attempt to reorganize the party ; but their efforts proved abortive. After this, he be- came editor of a patriotic paper, started in Dublin by a Mr. Fulham. After the failure of this journal, Luby continued true to his principles through very trying domestic difficulties, notwithstanding the pressure brouglit to bear upon him by his loyal relative, who urged him to give up patriotism and continue his studies for the Irish Bar — promising, in case he should comply, to forward his personal interests with his means and all the influence at his command. Luby, however, resisted the temptation. He assisted James Stephens in founding the Fenian movement in Ireland, and was one of its most prominent, earnest, and effec- tive workers up to the time of his arrest. Luljy is a man of erudition — he speaks well and writes well. He is married, and has left n wife and interesting young family miprovided for. 5th. Denis Dowling Mulcahy is a younger man than any of the preceding. He is sprung from an old and in the most earnest terms, insisted uiion a suspension of the habeas corpus in Ireland, aflirming that he could not hold himself responsible for the safety of the country unless this were done. Parliament acted with promptness and decision, and the necessary bill was passed, on the I'Tth of February, by both the Houses of Commons and of Lords, and received the royal assent the same day. Mr. Bright, in the Commons, pro- tested against this movement, and spoke warmly upon the traditional misgovern- menf of Ireland. "Never," he ex- claimed, " does the Government act esteemed stock in South Tipperary. His father, Denis Mulcahy, was one of the stanchest supporters of Dan- ii>l O'ConneU during the Emancipation, Tithe Reform, and Repeal agitations, in the course of wliich he suf- fered severely in property, through his devotedness to what he considered to be his country's best interests. Mulcahy has received an excellent education. His talents are considerable, and by his family influence, personal popularity, and untiring self-sacrificing labors, he has spread the organization widely through the counties of Watcrford and Tipperary. He is a man of indomitable courage, towering stature, and everywhere calculated to gain a distinguished position among his countrymen in the projected revolution. The other principal victims of the British Govern- ment in this movement are : John Haltegan, for a long time Centre in Kilkenny ; James O'Connor, WUliani Roantree, Michael Moore, Hugh Brophy, all of Dablin ; John Kenelly, John Lynch, Brian Dillon, and Chas. U. O'Connell, of Cork ; C. Keano, of Skibbereen ; Michael O'Regan, of New York, U. S. ; and Patrick O'Leary (surnamed the Pagan), of New York also. The latter was the first Fenian convict. The spreading of the organization in the British army was his special voca- tion. His success therein was most extraordinary. He had sworn in over three thousand British soldiers as citizens of the Irish Republic before he met with the traitor who procured his arrest and conviction. Pat- rick O'Leary is, on the whole, a most remarkable and original character. Hia real name was not discov- ered by the enemy at the time of his trial and convic- tion. FENIAN INVASION OF CANADA. 815 with energy and promptness towards Ireland, excej^t upon a measure of re- pression or coercion. I have sat here throucjh several administrations. Sii" Eobert Peel, Lord Aberdeen, Lord Palmerston, Earl Russell, have all sat at the head of the Government, and the conduct of every administration towards Ireland has been utterly de- void of statesmanship." At the same time, Mr. Bright said that he would not oppose a measure which the Gov- ernment deemed essential to the preser- vation of the public peace. Mr. John Stuart Mill, also, while the subject was before the House, added his testimony to that of Mr. Bright, and dwelt forci- bly upon the injustice with which Ire- land has been and is uniformly treated. In the United States there was a strong disposition, in the spring of 1866, on the part of many of the Feni- ans, to make an irruption into Canada, as we have above noted. Mr. Ste- phens, it appears, was not favorably inclined towards this undertaking, and exerted his influence to prevent it, and to turn all the energies of Irish patriots in the direction of Ireland, and the sup- plying funds and arms for those who were about to fight the battle with English tyranny on their native soil. The Canadian scheme was not, how- ever, abandoned. At the beginning of summer parties of the Fenians rendez- voused at several spots on the frontier, principally at Buffalo in New York, and St. Albans in Vermont. On the 1st of June a considerable body crossed the border at Buffalo, with the inten- tion of overthrowing, if possible, the British Government in Canada. Sev- eral skirmishes occurred with the Ca- nadian troops and volunteei-s ; and whether it were owing to want of proper drill and organization, or to some other cause, the Fenians were worsted decidedly, and the irruption proved to be a failure. Many of the Fenians, on recrossiug into the United States, were made prisoners by the public authorities. On the 6th of June, 1866, President Johnson issued a proclamation, de- nouncing the Fenian enterprise as a high misdemeanor, directing the author- ities to arrest all concerned in it, and instructing General Meade to use the national forces, if necessary, to prevent any invasion from the United States into her majesty's dominions. No sup- plies or arms were allowed to pass to those in Canada, and most of those who had gone upon this expedition made their way back. Another crossing was made, a few days later, near St. Al- bans, Vermont, but without any suc- cess or profit to the Fenian cause. The Canadian Government arrested and held to bail the leaders and officers of the expedition ; but the privates were released and sent back into the United States. The course of action taken by the direction of President Johnson was sharply criticized as unfriendly in the extreme, and wanting in sympathy for the struggles of Irish patriots after 816 REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA. independence and freedom ; and it was avowed that the least the American Government could do, in such a case, and wLere so high and sacred interests were at stake, Avas to remain neutral, and allow the Fenians free space for an irruption into the British provinces, and the striking a 'blow which would materially aid in the disenthral nient of Ireland. On the other hand, the new prime-minister. Lord Derby, expressed, early in July, the profound thanks of her majesty's government for the prompt and efficient action of the President of the United States. " Not- withstanding," were his lordship's words, "the latitude which is given in the United States to all expressions of public feeling, and to any thing short of actual violation of laws, yet, as soon as the law Avas plainly about to be vio- lated, vigorous and decided measures, as I acknowledge with the utmost gratitude, were taken by the govern- ment of the United States to i^revent a violation of their own laws, and the rights of friendly States, by a lawless band of marauders." By direction of the home govern- ment, the Fenian prisoners in Canada, captured during the irruption just spoken of, were tried, convicted, and sentenced to death by the court held at Toronto. Among these were R. B. Lynch, j^rofessedly a newspaper corre- spondent, but, according to testimony adduced on the trial, acting as a col- onel of the Fenian troops ; and John McMahon, a Catholic priest, whose plea was that he was compelled by the Fenians to remain with them and ad- minister the rites of the Church to the wounded, although he had not gone to Canada for any purpose of acting with the Fenians. Both Lynch and McMa- hon were found guilty, and sentenced to be hung on the 13th of December. The American secretary of state, Mr. Seward, interposed in behalf of these mm, and asked for a record of the trial and a suspension of the sentence. He urged upon the British minister at Washington that, as the offences were purely of a political character, there ought to be great leniency shown to- wards the prisoners, and a spirit of forgiveness manifested. The secretary, also, with a slight touch of sarcasm, added that hia suggestion was " made with freedom and earnestness, because the same opinions were proposed to us by all the governments and publicists of Europe, and by none of them with greater frankness and kindness than by the government and statesmen of Great Britain."* As was to be expected, the result of these trials caused no little excitement among: the Fenian Brotherhood and the Irish people generally in the Uni- ted States. A fresh impulse seemed to be given to the cause, and a profounder and stronger feeling to be aroused in behalf of struggling Ireland. Ou Sun- day, the 28th of October, 1866, a very large meeting of the Fenians was held *Tlie sentences in these cases were subsequently commuted to imprisonment for twenty years. THE TRIESTHOOD OX FEXIAXISM. 81' at Jones's Woods, near the city of New York. Mr. Stephens, the Chief Organ- izer and Head Centre of the Irish Re- puVjlic, made a speech of considerable length and importance. As we have before stated (see p. 815), Stephens was not in favor of invading Canada; on the present occasion, he denounced the movement as a sort of filibustering affair, and aflBrmed that if, last year, the Fenians in Ireland had only had a few thousand more i-ifl.es at one par- ticular jioint, the whole Island would have been theirs in ten days, and every English soldier on Irish soil would have been dead or captive. Among other things, he stated that the Fenian army in L'eland numbered fifty thou- sand men, as well trained, drilled, and equipped as any in the world. With a degree of candor unusual in such mat- ters, Stephens named the very time when the rising was to take place. " I do not say," were his words, " that there will be fighting in Ireland before tie 13th day of December; but there will be before the 1st of January, 1867, witli as fair prospect of success as ever was known, and I shall be there in the midst of my countrymen." In the same connection, he alluded (in terms of disapproval) to the opposition of the Catholic clergy in regard to the Fenian movements ; and, while reiterat- inar that the contest of arms was certain to begin speedily, he begged his audi- tors to mark every man who ridiculed or attempted to cry down the cause of Ireland, and remember him forever. lOS The fact spoken of above l)y Mi-. Stephens is worthy of note, and, how- ever it may be accounted for, it is nevertheless true, that the Fenian movement, at home and abroad, was looked ujDon with disfavor by the bishops and priests of the Catholic Church. We quote, in illustration, from an English Catholic paper (of October, 1865) several paragraphs, which show the grounds taken by the hierarchy, and the reasons which in- fluenced their action : "The Fenian Brotherhood is, at the present moment, a great fact in the history of Ireland. It exists there, and cannot be ignored. Day by day the Irish papers give us accounts of Fenian meetings, of the gathering to- gether of large bodies of men, who are mustered and drilled with the reculari- ty and precision of a well-organized army. How many there may be in America associated in the same society it is hard to say ; but, if the reports of the papers are correct, there mnst be in Ireland at least thirty thousand; and these men, we firmly believe, would, to-morrow, shed the last drop of their blood for their fatherland. Now, what is the end and object of this society? Simply the liberation of Ireland (so, at least, the members tell us) from the yoke of England. So far so good ; and so far we heartily sympathize with our fellow-countrymen, and desire, as earn- estly as any of them, the freedom of Old Erin. With, heart and soul we would join in the great work of deliv- 818 REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA. erins: Catholic Ireland from tlie doiui- nation of Protestant England. But, is the work to be done through the in- strumentality of the Fenian Brother- hood? Can the work jjossibly be done through them and hy tJiem ? We think not^ and there are many reasons that lead us to this conclusion. " In the first place, the movement has been generally discountenanced by the clergy, and invariably denounced by the bishops. For what reason? Is it that the bishops and clergy of Ireland do not love their native land ? Is it that they do not desire that which would be most beneficial to their flocks? Are they in the pay of England ; and is it that they fear to lose, by the change of foreign domination for inde- pendent home government ? We ask these questions simjily because certain papers, influencing a large circle of readers, make such charges against the episcopate and clergy of Ireland ; and to each of these questions we return a positive and unqualified negative. " But a short time ago we saw how the clergy of Poland worked and strove, and even fought for the free- dom of their native land. There was a prospect — and a hopeful one— of suc- cess. They thought that France was with them, and hoj^ed for the sympa- thy of England. They were disap- pointed; and the noble effort, the he- roic struggle, failed through want of means, and through lack of sympathy. But the priests were Avith the people ; with them they lived, suffered, and died. The sympathy of every Catho- lic heart Avas with the Poles, and we all know how deep an interest the Holy Father took in their welfare — • how, for them, he has braved and scorned the disj^leasure of the mighty Czai-. How, then, does it happen that, whereas in Poland the Church blessed and favored the uprising for liberty, it is now, in Ireland, opposed to such an attempt? The question requires two answers — the one from the Church as such, the other from the Church in Ire- land. "It seems that Feuianism is a secret society — that is, its members take an oath to obey an unknown authority, and to follow out, in detail, every order issued by that authority. We read that in Limerick a man was requested ' to take an oath, binding him to obey the rules laid down by the heads of the association in the United States.' What were these rules ? He was, thei'efore, called upon to take an oath without knowing the obligations that oath involved. Such an oath is rash, and is, therefore, forbidden by the law of God and by God's Church. If, therefore, the oath of obedience to an unknown authority, and the oath to follow unknown rules, be a necessary preliminary to the initiation into the Fenian Brotherhood, the Church must, necessarily, condemn such a society. The bishops and clergy of Ireland -may condemn, and do condemn it on this ground; but they have other reasons which can only be manifest to those MEETING IN NEW YORK. 819 who know Ireland well. They are not, we may be well assured, wanting in love of their country and their flocks. Who knows better than they do all the afflictions, and griefs, and oppres- sion of one and the other ? And who can sympathize more deeply than they do with Ireland and the Irish ? It can- not be, therefore, from want of sympa- thy in the good cause that they do not approve of the Fenian organization. They condemn it because of the oath which the Church cannot, and will not, allow; and they disapprove of it be- cause they see that, instead of freeing Ireland from misery, it is likely to plunge her still more deeply into the mire. The Irish clergy are a body of men who love their country, and who love, with a father-like love, their flocks ; and any thing that would bene- fit their fatherland and spiritual chil- dren would receive, not merely their approbation, but their co-operation. They would work for it unto death; and, if they now oppose this move- ment, depend upon it, it is simply be- cause they know that it can result in no good. They know, that the prom- ises that come so freely from America will never be fulfilled; that men who have made a home in the far-oif land will never return to fight for the coun- try they have abandoned. They know, too, that were every man in Ireland to go to the battle-field, they could not oflFer any eflfectual opposition to the power of England. They know that there is no dependence upon America, and they know that without such aid it would be madness for Ireland to think of rising against England. They know well what loss of life, what misery and desolation, an unsuccessful uprising would involve ; and so, loving their children, they prudently and wisely oppose it. And so they are said to be unpatriotic, and accused of being in the pay of England. " Oh, listen to your priest ! He knows you; he loves you — he loves our dear country. And any thing that tends to break that close and affec- tionate union that has ever existed in Ireland, between priest and people, cannot be good. The priest knows and loves his country and his people, and must apjDrove of that which is for the benefit of both. If the clergy of Ireland condemn Fenianism, it merely shows that they know it to be of no advantage either to the country or the people." A few weeks after the meeting at Jones's Woods, there was a gathering of the Centres and Delegates of the Brotherhood of New York and vicin- ity. It was held at the Apollo Rooms, New Yoi'k, on Sunday evening, No- vember 19th, and the following resolu- tion and accompanying Appeal were unanimously adopted : — '■'■ Besolved, That the Centre of each Circle of the F. B. in New York, Brook- lyn, Jersey City, and vicinity, be in- structed to send a committee of their ablest and prominent members to each house in the localities in which its Cir- 820 REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA. clcs may be situated, and solicit from every Irishmaw, and the lovers of liber- ty of all nationalities, arms, munitions, and money in aid of the revolution about to be inaugurated in Ireland, and that the names of those subscribing for the purposes referred to, and those who, being Irishmen, may refuse to contribute, be written in a book of record, to be kept for that purpose in the Central Office, ISTo. 19 Chatham street, for future reference, and that the views of this meeting may be placed before the world by an appeal to be published herewith. THE APPEAL, To the Men of Irish Birth and all Lovers of Re- publican Institutions everywhere : " CoUNTKYMElSr, FrIENDS, AND BROTH- ERS : — Every item of information reach- ing us from Ireland proves it to be cer- tain, beyond all question, that our coun- trymen at home are determined on war — war to the knife, and that this very year. The final struggle of our peoj^le with the foreigner will be soon inaugu- rated ; the oppressed will meet the op- pressor foot to foot, to battle for the very existence of our race and of our nationality. The issue is patent. Either we must succeed in this our final strusr- gle, and take our place among the na- tions of the earth, or be defeated — to be scattered broadcast, as a people de- spised, pointed at only with the finger of scorn, and ready to do battle for every country but our own. To the Irishmen of America such an eventual- ity cannot fail to suggest the profound- est emotions. The degradations to which his kindred have been subjected for centuries — the sacrifices of a peo- ple o&ered as a holocaust at the shrine of despotism ; the many miseries en- tailed by foreign domination — are to be washed away in the blood of the enemy, or live a perpetual curse in our defeat. The wrongs of the past must be righted by the manhood of the present. A nation which ' will not make sacrifices is unworthy of freedom. That is a blessing which cannot be too highly prized by any people ; it is one of the holiest gifts which God can be- stow on man. And what greater sacri- fice can be required of a people to gain that blessing, than that of life and every thing they hold most dear? Our countrymen being resolved to fight against an old, an intolerant enemy, to wipe out the stigma of slavery, they risk life, property, all, on the struggle. It will be to the eternal credit or dis- grace of their kindred in America, if this struggle be a glorious or disastrous one — if Ireland be a land crowned by the laurels of a victorious army, or reduced to the condition of an immense wilderness and charnel-house. Should revolution in Ireland end in defeat, should the land, be saturated with the blood of freedom's martyrs shed in vain, let those in America who could, but would not, aid. in the freedom of their native land, bear the humiliation and shame. That the lukewarm and skeptical may no longer have an ex- FATHER VAUGHAN'S ADDRESS. 821 cuse for not giving that assistance to their compatriots at home which is ex- pected from them, we deem it our duty to place our views before the world. Advocates of universal liberty, but es- pecially of liberty in Ireland, we have re- solved to do all in our power to sustain those of our kindred who keep garrison at home. That the struggle, now so imminent, may be short and effective, we appeal to all our kindred in Ameri- ca, men and women, and to the lovers of freedom everywhere, to give what our brothers require. That no one claiming to have Irish blood in his veins may have any longer an excuse for not contributing in proportion to his means, a committee of gentlemen, properly accredited, will call upon all from whom aid is expected. That a permanent record of all those who will do their duty to Ireland at so impor- tant a crisis as this may be kept for future purposes, as well as those who by their non-action wish it to be recorded as their opinion that our race at last is conquered, the committees instructed to collect arms, war material, and money, for the use of the Irish repub- lican army, will hand in their lists weekly, at the Central Office, 19 Chat- ham street, in this city. In the name of liberty, justice, and humanity, we appeal to all, on behalf of a suffering but noble-minded people, to subscribe liberally, and at once." The determined spirit of the Fenian Brotherhood, and of all lovers of Irish freedom, in the United States, to go forward at all hazards with their under- taking, to engage in active hostilities in Ireland asjainst the Bi'itish Government and authorities, and to secure the inde- pendence and nationality of the Green Isle of the Ocean, Avas further roused by an eloquent and scathing review of " English Misrule in Ireland," from Fa- ther Vaughan, of County Clai'e. This reverend gentleman delivered a lecture on the above topic at Cooper Institute, New York, on the evening of Novem- ber 21st, 1866. We give, from one of the journals of the day, the report of his earnest setting forth of the wrousrs done to his native land by the foreigner and oppressor in the past as well as the present. A large audience was gathered, to whom Father Vaughan said, that "it afforded him great delight to meet and address, on the present occasion, so nu- merous and respectable a body of his countrymen. It convinced him that they still regarded their native land with earnest and deep-seated devotion. The very fact that they were able to assemble together in such respectable numbera, likewise assured him that the purpose of England in driving theni out had been defeated. Eno^land had hoped that, exiled to this country, they would soon become absorbed in the elements around them — that they would cease to be Irish — and, as a matter of course, cease to be an object of terror or annoyance. He saw with pleasure, however, that in this country they had 822 REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA. preserved their nationality, and that tliey were still Irish to the heart's core; that they were a powerful element in their adopted land, and were still a just cause of fear to the robber-Saxon. The time might come, and he hoped would soon come, when, as they had been driven out with a veugeance, they would go back with a vengeance. (Up- roarious applause, and cheers for Ste- phens). "It had always caused him pain to behold a fine race, such as that they be- longed to, burned and bi'anded like the first murderer, Cain, and driven forth to wander like vagabonds over the earth. If the soil of Ireland were barren and the climate unnatural, then indeed he mio;ht reconcile himself to the exodus and banishment of such a people ; but taking into account the fertility of the island, the physical endurance and in- dustrial energy of the inhabitants, their banishment from their native land must be a source of deep and bitter regret to every Irishman. "The Irish people would have been prosperous at home, if just and good government had permitted them to have a fair field for the development of their energies. In this country, in every branch of civil and commercial life, Irishmen excelled all other races of people. There was no more fertile- land under the sun than Ireland. If it were compared with any equal portion of this country, it would be found that it far excelled it in fertility. And yet, although here the people obtained with ease an ample subsistence, the people of Ireland were steeped in the deepest poverty and clad in rags. The reason of the difterence was plain. Ireland was an oppressed and enslaved land. The whole rule of England in Ireland, from the first invasion of the robber-murderer Saxon to the present time, had been one of misrule. The evils with which the Irish people had been cursed by the English rule were as numerous as the evils contained in Pandora's box. He would notice first the misrule of English legislation. " There was nothing that stamped its moral grandeur u^Don a people like the laws that governed it. If the laws were mild and just and merciful, then the people reflected faithfully their beneficent character. If, on the other hand, the laws were cruel and unjust, their malignant influence also imprint- ed itself in the life of the people. The ancient laws of Ireland, before the Saxon planted his foot upon her soil, were eminently wise and just. They enforced the practice of hospitality, the cultivation of music, poetry, and litera- ture, and exhibited a jealous regard for the security of property and the honor of women. To such a degree was the popular mind of Ireland dignified and elevated by the enforcement of these wise laws, that when St. Patrick came to Ireland and appeared before its sen- ators, and presented to them the Gospel of Christ, they immediately recognized the truth of his teachings, and in an in- credibly short sjiace of time the whole FATHER VAUGHAN ON ENGLISH MISRULE. 823 island was converted. But since Eng- land had usurped dominion over Ire- land, tliat unhappy country had been cursed with the vilest code of laws that ever disgraced a human government. There were three things which just laws would ever guard with jealous care — the security of life, of property, and of female honor. The Ens-lish had never given them laws securing either. "Father Vausrhan then read an ex- tract from an address to Pope John XXII., appealing to him for protection against the merciless oppression of their Saxon masters. The address de- picted vividly the terrible condition of the country at that time, and stated that it was a doctrine then universally accepted by Englishmen, and one which had even been taught from the pulpit by English ecclesiastics, that it was no crime to kill an Irishman. " Father Vaughan continued by say- ing, that a trial had actually taken place in which two Englishmen, con- victed of having committed a rape, were released because the victim was only an Irishwoman. Any Englishman could legally drive away an Irishman from his land and settle on it himself. It was a crime to have any commercial relations with Irishmen. It was hi2;h treason to marry an Irishwoman or to employ an Irish nurse. So terrible were the sufferings of the Irish people under this state of things, that they offered a thousand marks — a very large sum in those days — to be admitted to the rights of English citizenship, but wei'e refused equal justice even on those terms. And when at last, in the reign of Henry IV., the poor Irish people began to leave the country, a law was enacted prohibiting " the fur- ther departure of the Irish enemy." In the course of centuries these unnatu- ral laws have been, to a certain extent, modified, as civilization and enlighten- ment have advanced : but, thoug^h not enforced, many of them may yet be found unrepealed on the English stat- ute books. " You may think it bad taste in me, perhaps, to be reviving these barbar- ous outrages upon justice and humani- ty ; but at the present hour there is a code of law regulating the lives and liberties of the Irish people, and im- posed by English misrule, as iniquitous and cruel as ever disgraced the annals of manhood. "The revei'end lecturer here ex- plained the present law of ejectment, which he stated had swept three hun- dred and twenty-six thousand fi^milies, comprising two millions of people, out of Ireland, from the year 1846 to the present time. That was a fair illustra- tion of the monstrous, revolting, and diabolical character of English rule in Ireland. Under such circumstances it Avas the duty of every Irishman to com- bine and revolt ao;ainst such infamous legislation. It was wonderful to re- mark the slight effect centuries of wick- • edly unjust and cruel government had produced on the Irish character. He believed that none but the Celtic race 824 REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA. could liave withstood sucli witbering iofluences for so long a period. It was only owing to the tenacity of the Cel- tic nature, that they possessed at the present time a greater amount of pub- lic and private virtue than any other people. Let them take, for instance, the Irishwoman — in single life as pure as the driven snow; in married life, like Caesar's wife, above suspicion. Let them take, again, the Irish character for generosity. It was considered a crime in Ireland for a man to dine with his doors closed. Then, again, let them take the fact that the Irishmen in this country, in 1862, transmitted to friends in the old country the enormous sum of £300,000. What volumes that fact spoke for their sense of filial duty! And, in the recent struggle between the Noi'tk and the South, the Irishmen had nobly vindicated the strength of their devotion to their adopted land. He hoped, before God, that they would soon give as unmistakable proof in their own country of their love of libei'ty. (Immense applause.) " Father Vaughan then gave a sketch of the famines whick have so frequent- ly desolated Ireland, and referred, par- ticularly to that of '47 and '48, of Avhick he was himself an eye-witness. He said that the frequent recurrence of these famines was an irrefutable proof of British misrule ; and, so long as the English despotism remained dominant in Ireland, famines would occur every eight or ten years. In 1862 there had been great distress in Connaught, and that section of the country. Sir Rob- ert Peel, then Lord-Lieutenant of Ire- land, made a journey to examine into the condition of afiairs. Instead of telling the truth, as he had seen it, he openly denied in the British Parliament that there was any suffering among the people, and mocked at their sufferings. (Hisses.) If that man had insulted the people of any other country in that manner, they would have stabbed him to the heart. When Charlotte Corday stabbed Marat, she did not rid man- kind of a greater monster than he. (Applause.) He (the speaker) de- clared before God, angels, and men, that such a state of thinojs as now ex- ists in Ireland is revolting to human nature, and a blasphemy against God. Every worthy impulse of the human heart, every good instinct planted by God in the mind of man, impelled him to direct all his energies to remove so deplorable a condition of affairs at once — (applause) — ^^to remove the cause of it, and to rise up like men and crush out the infamous rule that had brought such calamities upon mankind. (Ti'emendous cheering.) " The reverend lecturer closed with an expression of his firm belief that the Irish people, if united, were in a position to secure their independence and freedom." Direct news, at the close of Novem- ber, 1866, so far as it could be learned through the press, seemed to point clearly to the fact that the outbreak was actually entered upon ; and there BITTERNESS AND FEARS OF ENGLAND. 825 ■was intense excitement in England at the prospect. Additional troops were ordered to Ireland; the Government exerted itself in every way to meet the emergency ; and the tone of the press, and of the English authorities and peo- ple, was bitter and severe in the ex- treme. The London Times, in a vio- lent article, said that the rebellion "must be stamped out with an iron heel;" and the journals throughout Great Britain echoed the sentiments of the Times, and urged the putting down, in the most effectual manner, every attempt to sever Ireland from its pres- ent subjection to the British Crown. The Government, however, was con- siderably embarrassed in its plans and operation by a knowledge of the fact that the Fenian organization was large- ly numerous in England as well as in Ireland ; and it was found necessary to proceed with caution and prudent re- gard for the feelings of the thousands of Irishmen in various parts of Eng- land. It was not deemed expedient to deprive Liverpool and other important places of their garrisons, or weaken their military strength ; for the Fenians threatened, if the " stamj^ing out" pro- cess was inaugurated, to resort to re- taliation on British soil of such a kind as would be swift and effective. At the same time there was no halting in regard to the settled purpose, which we have noted on a previous page (p. V90), that there should' never be permitted to be a dismemberment of the empire at any time, or under any 101 circumstances, so long as England could prevent it; and it was determined to bring to bear the entire military and naval force of the country to put down any insurrection, or any change of the relation which existed since the Union between the several portions of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Stephens, the "C. O. L R," that is, "Chief Organizer of the Irish Repub- lic," claimed that there were 250,000 men on Irish soil, and some 70,000 in England, on whom he could implicitly rely. Of these, in Ireland, he asserted that 50,000 were thoroughly drilled soldiers, and under the command of officers who had served and gained experience in the American army. With such a force, and with the expected supplies and increase of men from the United States and else- where, Stephens was confident of suc- cess in hemcr able to drive out the oppressor, and place Ireland upon a footing of equality with any nation in the woi'ld. Conscious of the strensrth of the Fenian organization, and its thorough discipline and efficiency, and assured that all the wealth of England could not buy the secrets of the Broth- erhood, or corrupt its members, Ste- phens and his compatriots pushed for- ward their movements with zeal and energy. They were greatly encouraged so to do by the hearty sympathy of members in America, by large subscrip- tions of money, and by the enlistment of many of those who had served in 826 REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA. tlae United States army, and were ready to go to Ireland at a moment's warning. Frequent addresses, too, and publications of various descrij^tious, kept alive the spirit and enterprise of the Fenians in America. Mr. "Warren, an officer in the military organization of the Brotherhood, issued a war mani- festo at New York, November 30th, 1866, addressed to "Irishmen, Brothers, and Lovers of Universal Liberty." Ac- knowledging that the invasion of Cana- da had not resulted in any benefit to the cause, Mr. Warren concluded his address in the following terms: — " Let us look at this matter dispas- sionately as the crisis requires. We have hitherto advanced in theory. Now is the time to be practical. All the arms and munitions held by both sections of the Brotherhood on this continent, obtained by means of the contributions of our devoted people, are necessary for the Irish army. What right have men who are merely the custodians of them to withhold them now? Let there be no mistake about it ; the man or men who are the cause of depriving our compatriots of the means intended for them are trifling with their lives. Is there a man in America prepared to undertake that terrible responsibility? I much fear it. Why will not an indignant people rise up in their majesty, forgetting the past, and seeing in the distance their brothers appealing to them for arms, dear to them as their heart's blood, and not insist that material collected for Irish purposes be used for these purposes alone. The curse of Cain was not half so black or heavy as that which <*will follow every man who, through his official position, refuses the privilege of arming his countrymen to meet the foe. He and his posterity deserve to be pointed at with the finger of scorn ; and whether victory or de- feat be the result of our efforts, the leaders here who counsel non-co-opera- tion deserve to be branded with eter- nal infamy. Irishmen in America, the tocsin of war is about being sounded. Our compatriots are about taking the field. In God's name, then, unite. Rally round them as one man. Pur- chase arms for those who want them. Let not the unnecessary blood spilled, which exertion on your part could have saved, rise up in judgment against you like an accusing demon. I feel that the moment is pregnant for good or evil to our country. Let him who doubts ray sincerity come with me to prove it on the green hills of Ireland." ^ One of the Irish papers of the same date, published in New York, used language of similar import, and spoke in tones of the most earnest encourage- ment as to the present and the future. "The crisis to which the great effort now near culmination has been made is approaching, and very nigh. The sky will ere long be aglare Avith rockets signalizing the movement of men — Irishmen — which will, we devotedly hope, give liberty to the home of our birth. ' Gone and outgoing are those IRELAND'S STRENGTH FOR THE CONTEST. 827 whose liberty and whose lives are staked upon the 'great attempt. Shall not all partisanship, all jealousy and personal pique, where any may exist, be now laid aside, and one calmly-con- sidered, hopeful, but determined and sustained effort, be made to aid and succor the 'men in the gap' in ways which you will understand ?" The same journal, in an editorial of considerable length, discussed the position of affairs, and the ability of England to put down the revolt in Ire- land, in language which displayed the utmost assurance of final success to the cause it was advocating. " As regards the entire world — subjected to the maritime despotism of England, placed in the alternative of ceasinsc all com- mercial competition with that power, or of crushing the workingnian, according to her example, beneath the grindstone of capital, to exti-act both work and vice from him at a cheap rate — it will utter a long sigh of joy on the day when that power will disappear from the surface of the earth, leaving no void and bearing away no regret. On that day public conscience will be de- livered of a great weight. "What are the forces in presence? On the one hand, the secret organiza- tion of Ireland comprises 200,000 men, who are organized and have taken the oath, out of whom 50,000, who are skilled in the use of arms, and are armed, will form the first band, the first risino;. These are insisrnificant men, peasants, barefooted men for the most part, it is true ; l>ut the sans-culottes of Valray and Jemmajipes, Avho made the best armies in Europe recoil, were not very well shod. They had to avenge the same offence, to defend the same cause as the Irish. They fought for liberty and their country, as the Irish will soon fight also; victory smiled then upon the republicans of France, as it will smile to-morrow upon the re- publicans of Ireland. What can Eng- land oppose to this army of patriots, determined to vanquish or perish? 20,000 men, mercenary troops. We all know how recruiting is done in England. If these 20,000 men are not sufiicient, England can, by stripping the rest of her kingdom of troops, send, in two or three weeks, about fifteen thousand more men. Will she dare do this in the presence of the revolution about to break out? Did she dare do it, the fact of being re- duced to that step would prove the strength of the insurrection. The fact of sending re-enforcements at so critical a moment, will make the force of Ire- land morally and materially tenfold. On the day when the hatred piled up against England sees a gleam of suc- cess in vengeance, it will rush forth to take part in the hounds' fee. We ad- mit that, these second re-enforcements not being sufficient, new ones may be necessary. By recalling her forces from the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, England can, in the space of three months, bring 20,000 more men upon the Irish soil ; but in order to do this> 828 REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA. two things must be admitted : the first, that the uaval power of England should have received no injury in her ports; the second, that she can, without dan- ger, leave her colonies to themselves. A last resource remains to her — she can, in the space of six months, bring 25,000 men from India. To any man accustomed to matters of war, it is easy to see the strategical danger to which the English army is exposed. While she would be receiving her re-enforce- ments in detachments, the insurrec- tion, concentrated, acts by masses, having for it the entire country, its resources and its sympathies. In a rich and hilly country like Ireland this is no small advantage. When every stone, every tree, every hedge shelters an enemy and sends forth death — when un entire nation is re- solved to vanquish or to die, to have the natal soil or to leave it to none, to make the vacuum of death around the stranger — something else is wanted be- sides re-enforceraents of 15,000 men, spread over weeks or months of dis- tance, to crush or annihilate it; for as to submission or subjugation, there is no question of it this time. It is a duel to the death. " Ireland has in her behalf the unde- niable right to existence ; she has for her a race of men especially warlike ; she has for her a rich soil, fitted for in- surrection. Divided in America, she is united in Europe ; and what has been wanting to her up to this day — organ- ization, which permits unity in action — is no longer wanting now. We be- lieve and hope in her resurrection and approaching triumph." While these pages are going through the press, the revolution has actually begun. Minor risings have taken place in various parts of Ireland ; the great English arsenal at Chester had well nigh fallen into Fenian hands ; English troops are pouring into Ireland, and hurrying from point to point. It is too soon for the pen of History to begin to chronicle these movements. They will form a new chapter in the History of Ireland. HOW ENGLAND HAS TREATED HIELAND. 829 CHAPTER LIII. GENERAL EEVIEW. IN drawing to its close our resume of the history of this long-suffsring country, during its chequered, and in great measure unhappy career since it became an integral part of the United Kingdom, we feel that it is well nigh impossible to do justice to the theme, ' and say truly and rightly what ought to be said on such a subject. " Con- template Ireland," said the eloquent Charles Phillips, in a speech made at Liverpool a number of years ago ; " con- template Ireland during any period of England's rule, and what a picture does she exhibit ! Behold her created in all the prodigality of nature ; with a soil that anticipates the husbandman's de- sire ; with harbors courting the com- merce of the world ; with rivers capa- ble of the most effective navigation ; with the ore of every metal struggling through her surface ; with a people brave, generous, and intellectual, liter- ally forcing their way through the dis- abilities of their own country into the highest stations of every other, and well rewarding the policy that pro- motes them, by achievements the most heroic, and allegiance without a blem- ish. How have the successive govern- ments of England demeaned themselves to a nation offering such an accumula- tion of moral and political advantages ? . . . . For ages upon ages, inven- tion has fatigued itself with expedients for irritation. As I have read with horror in the progress of my legal studies, the homicide of a ' mere Irish- man' was considered justifiable ; and, his ignorance being the origin of all his crimes, his education was prohibited ly act of pai'liament ! — the people were w^orm-eaten by the odious vermin which a church and state adultery had spawned ; a bad heart and brainless head were the fangs by which every foreign adventurer and domestic traitor fastened upon office ; the proj^erty of the native was but an invitation to plunder, and his non-acquiescence the signal for confiscation ; religion itself was made the odious pretence for every persecution, and the fires of hell were alternately lighted with the cross, and quenched in the blood of its defence- less followers. I speak of times that are passed ; but can their recollections, can their consequences, be so readily eradicated ? Why, however, should I refer to periods that are so distant? Behold, at this instant, five millions of her people disqualified on account of 830 REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA. their faith, and that by a country pro- fessing freedom ! and that under a gov- ernment calling itself Christian ! You (when I say you, of course I mean not the high-minded people of England, but the men who misgovern us both) seem to have taken out a roving com- mission in search of grievances abroad, whilst you overlook the calamities at your own door, and of your own inflic- tion. You traverse the ocean to eman- cipate the African : you cross the line to convert the Hindoo; you hurl your thunder against the savage Algeriue ; but your own brethren at home, Avho speak the same tongue, acknowledge the same king, and kneel to the same God, cannot get one visit from your itinerant Immanity.'''' Very possibly, had the eloquent ad- vocate been speaking now, he would have expressed himself somewhat dif- ferently, and dealt less severe and bit- ter reproaches upon his opponents and the misrule of his native land. But it cannot be denied that Phillips is right in the main ; Ireland has suffered, grievously suffered, from the injustice, the ignorance, and the fears of Eng- land ; Ireland does not occupy the po- sition among the nations of the civil- ized world to which she has a right to aspire ; and wherever we lay the fault, whoever is justly to blame for such a state of things, it is undoubtedly true, that the Irish people, as a people, have not advanced in the ratio that they ought, in order to keep pace with the progressive spirit of the age, in educa- tion, in development of their national resources and strength, and in a united nationality of feeling and action. As illustrating this latter statement, we quote some admirable remarks of Thomas Davis, that patriot, scholar, and true Irishman, of whose career, un- happily too brief, we have spoken on a previous page (see page 771). They are worthy the thoughtful considera tion of every lover of his native land and her true interests : " ' Educate, that you may be free.' We are most anxious to get the quiet, strong-minded people who are scattered through the country to see the force of this great truth ; and we therefore ask them to listen soberly to us for a few minutes, and when they have done so, to think and talk again and again over what we say. " If Ireland had all the elements of a nation, she might, and surely would, at once assume the forms of one, and pro- claim her independence. Wherein does she now differ from Prussia? She has a strong and compact territory, girt by the sea ; Prussia's lands are open and flat, and flung loosely through Europe, without mountain or river, breed or tongue, to bound them. Ireland has a military population equal to the re- cruitment of, and a produce able to pay, a first-rate array. Her harbors, her soil, and her fisheries, are not sur- passed in Europe. " Wherein, we ask again, does Ire- land now differ from Prussia ? Why can Prussia wave her flag among the FATHER VAUGHAN ON ENGLISH MISRULE. 831 proudest in Europe, while Ireland is a farm ? It is not in tlie name of a king- dom, nor in the formalities of inde- pendence. We could assume them to-morrow — we could assume them with better warrants from history and nature than Prussia holds ; but the re- sult of such assumption would per- chance be a miserable defeat. The difference is in Knowledge. Were the offices of Prussia abolished to-morrow ; her colleges and schools levelled ; hei' troops disarmed and disbanded, she would within six months regain her whole civil and military institutions. Ireland has been struggliug for years, and may have to struggle many more, to acquire liberty to form institutions. " Whence is the difference ? Knowl- edge ! "The Prussians could, at a week's notice, have their central offices at full work in any village in the kingdom, so exactly known , are their statistics, and so general is official skill. Minds make administration — all the desks, and ledgers, and powers of Downing street or the Castle would be handed in vain to the ignorants of any untaught district in Ireland. The Prussians could open their collegiate classes and their professional and elementary schools as fast as the order therefor, from any authority recognized by the people, reached town after town — Ave can hardly in ten years get a few schools open for our people, craving for knowledge as they are. The Prussians could re-arm their glorious militia in a month, and reorganize it in three days; for the mechanical arts are very gen- erally known, military science is famil- iar to most of the wealthier men, discip- line and a soldier's skill are universal. If we had been offered arms to defend Ireland by Lord Heytesbury, as the Volunteers tvere by Lord Buckingham- shire, we would have had to seek for officers and drill-sergeants — though probably we could more rapidly ad- vance in arms than any thing else, from the military taste and aptness for war of the Irish people. " Would it not be better for us to be like the Prussians than as we are — bet- ter to have religious squabbles un- known, education universal, the people fed, and clad, and housed, and inde- pendent, as becomes men ; the armj^ patriotic and strong ; the public offices ably administered ; the nation honored and powerful ? Are not these to be desired and sought by Protestant and Catholic ? Are not these things to he done, if we are good and brave men ? And is it not plain, from what we have said, that the reason for our not being all that Prussia is, and something more, is ignorance — want of civil, military, and e^eneral knowledsre amonsrst all classes? " This ignorance has not been our fault, but our misfortune. It was the interest of our ruler to keep us igno- rant, that we micjht be weak: and she did so — first, by laws prohibiting edu- cation ; then, by refusing any provision for it ; next, by perverting it into an engine of bigotry ; and now, by giving 83: REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA. it in a stunted, partial, anti-national way. Practice is the great teacher, and the possession of independence is the natural and best way for a people to learn all that pertains to freedom and haj)piness. Our greatest voluntary eiforts, aided by the amjjlest provincial institutions, would teach us less in a century than we would learn in five years of liberty. " In insisting on education, we do not arsjue against the value of immediate independence. That would he our hest teacher. An Irish Government and a national ambition would be to our minds as soft rains and rich sun to a growing crop. But we insist on edu- cation for the people, whether they get it from the government or give it to themselves, as a round-about, and yet the only means, of getting strength enough to gain freedom. " Do our readers understand this ? Is what we have said clear to you^ reader !— whether you are a shopkeeper or a lawyer, a fiirmer or a doctor ? If not, read it over again, for it is your own fault if it be not clear. If you now know our meaning, you must feel that it is your duty to your family and to yourself, to your country and to God, to act upon it ; to go and remove some of tliat ignorance which makes you and your neighbors weak, and therefore makes Ireland a poor pi-ov- inc-e. All of us have much to learn, but some of us have much to teach. To those, who, from superior energy and ability, can teach the peo^^le, we now address, ourselves. " There are various ways in which service can be done by the more, for the less educated. They have other duties, often pointed out by us. They can sustain and advance the different societies for promoting agriculture, manufactures, art, and literature, in Dublin and the countrj^ They can set on foot, and guide the establishment of TemjDerance Bands and Mechanics' In- stitutes, and Mutual Instruction Socie- ties. They can give advice and facili- ties for improvement to young men of promise ; and they can make their cir- cles studious, refined, and ambitious. The cheapness of books is now such, that even poverty is no excuse for igno- rance — that ignorance which prostrates us before England. We must help ourselves, and therefore we must edu- cate ourselves." The catalogue of the wrongs done to Ireland, and of the injustice, tyranny, and oppression of the English Govern- ment, is too long, too humiliating, too heart-breaking, to be given in the few closing pages of the present volume. To some small extent, we have pointed out the cruelty and relentless severity of the government towards the people and institutions of Ireland ; but the story is one which the reader may study to his profit, in the writings and various pro- ductions of the patriots and statesmen who have put on record the indubita- ble evidence of what Ireland has en- dured in past years. " Want of confi- dence in England, in her statesmen, and in her laws," says Mr. Smyth, a LORD BROUGHAM ON IRISH WRONGS. 83S candid writer and observer, " lies at tlie root of the trouble with Ireland. "We have no hold upon the affections, and but a doubtful hold upon the interests of the Irish people. They receive our best professions with incredulity, be- cause they see in the institutions we have given them the real proofs of our designs. By them we are judged and condemned. Thus is the mass of the population driven to lock up their true feelings and strongest thoughts in the sanctuary of their own bosoms, and to make the study of their minds a mys- tery to the stranger. The laws by which we propose to bind them are too often made upon the open declara- tion of sentiments delivered in a high state of excitement and fermentation. Their inmost thoughts, their true par- tialities, their natural tendency to the cultivation of the homely affections, and the more generous aspirations of humanity ; these are themes and points of consideration upon which we seldom act, until our inattention and careless- ness have been turned to a desperate account by the arts of discontent and the impatience of unmitigated distress. These are left to convulse the sphere of society, until a thunderstorm breaks out, which, after alarming the empire for a brief interval, passes quickly away, and shows the number of the disaffected to have been small, and their powers of mischief insignificant. Security reappears, and with it indiffer- ence. "VVe relapse into our old state of feeling — meaning well, and doing little more than throwing away money upon palliatives, which are administered like the quack doctor's pills — if one box don't cure, try the second. Thus, mil- lion is given after million, and no good is done. Now, the money is to pay arrears of tithes to the parsons ; now, to feed the starving poor ; now, to save the broken landlords ; but still the cry is always the same, ' Help, instant help, or we perish!' How repeatedly has not this happened ; how often has not the opportunity been offered ; but when has advantage been taken of it? The evils that imperatively call for redress, the grievances that truly require to be assuaged, are well known ; they are indisputable. But there is, unfortu- nately, room to fear that, confident in there being nothing _ substantially for- midable in the reclamations of Irish suffering, the old sores will be left to fester anew; the standing inequalities will remain uncorrected ; and the field for the display of indignant patriotism, disturbances, and rebellion, will be left as open and as rank as ever." Lord Brougham, some years ago, gave utterance to some strongly-worded sen- timents on the misrule and oppression exercised by England over the Irish people, esjjecially in regard to the ad- ministration of justice. "Ireland, with a territory of immense extent, with a soil of almost unrivalled fertility, with a climate more genial than our own, with a vast population of strong-built, hardy laborers, men suited alike to fill up the ranks of our armies in war, or 834 REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA. for employment at home in the works of agriculture or manufactures — Ire- land, with all these blessings, which Providence has so profusely showered in her lap, has been under our steward- ship for the last one hundred and twenty years; but our solicitude for her has appeared only in those hours of danger when we apprehended the possibility of her joining our enemies, or when, having no enemy abroad to contend with, she raised her standard, perhaps, in despair, and we trembled for our own existence ! It cannot be denied, that the sole object of England has been to render Ireland a safe neigh- bor. We have been stewards over her for this long period of time. I repeat, that we shall one day have to give an account of our stewardship — a black account it will be, but it must be forth- coming. What have we done for the country which we are bound to aid, to protect, and to cherish 1 In our hands her population seems a curse to her rather than a blessing ; they are starv- ing in the midst of plenty. In Eng- land justice is delayed, but, thank heaven, it can never be sold. In Ire- land it is sold to the rich, refused to the poor, and delayed to all. It is in vain to disguise the fact ; it is in vain to shun the disclosure of the truth. We stand, as regards Ireland, on the brink of a precipice ! I am backed in what I say by the spirit of the wisest laws, by the opinions of the most fa- mous men in former ages. If I err, I err in company with the best judg- ments of our own time ; I err with the common sense of the whole world, with the very decrees of Providence to sup- port me. We are driving six millions of people to despair^ to madness! The greatest mockery of all, the most intol- erable insult, the course of peculiar exasperation, against which I chiefly caution the House, is the undertaking to cure the distress under which she labors by any thing in the shape of new penal enactments. It is in tliese enactments alone that tve have ever shown our liberality to Ireland! She has received penal laws from the hands of England almost as plentifully as she has received blessings from the hands of Providence ! What have these laws done ? Checked her turbulence, but not stifled it. The grievance remain- ing perpetual, the complaint can only be postponed. We may load her with chains, but in doing so we shall not better her condition. By coercion we may goad her on to fury ; but by coer- cion we shall never break her spirit. She will rise up and break the fetters we impose, and arm herself for deadly violence with the fragments." But there is no need of painting the picture in colors too dark and repul- sive. There is no need of exagger- ation, or a long array of words in speaking of Ireland and her wrongs. They are patent to the world. They are known wherever Ireland has been heard of. Nevertheless, it would be folly to ignore or make light of what has transpired in years that are past GOOD HOPE IN THE FTJTUIIE. 835 Something, it is certain, has been done for Ireland during the last quarter of a century, or rather Irishmen have done something, have done much, for themselves in that period; yet there remains much more to be done, before Ireland reaches that level she is so earnest and so anxious in seeking to attain. As her own writers tell her, there is a great deal to learn and un- learn. Ignorance is to be rooted out. The evils of caste are to be banished. Irishmen have got to crush down the spirit of discord, and the dissensions arising out of bigotry, intolerance, and mutual hatreds. The gentry and own- ers of large estates must live at home, and bestow both their money and their time and their labors for the general good. A man must be esteemed for his principles and conduct, and not for his blood simply, or his means of living, or the extent of his income. " A nation," says an ardent Irish patriot, " never can be thoroughly united but on one prin- ciple, that of EQTJAXITT of right and privilege; any other principle is con- trary to the law of God and the law of nature, and will lead the people who adopt it into strife and slavery. Let those children who are now at school rise superior to their fathers, form a pure and powerful public opinion, which will coerce the gentry, exalt the people, and render local tyranny or foreign domination as insupportable in their land as a venomous reptile." However much remains to be done, we are confident that not a little has already been accomplished, and that, too, in a right direction, for Ire- land's good and the elevation of her people. An Irish gentleman, recently returned from Australia after many years' absence, was entertained at a banquet at Thurles, and, among other things, made some remarks which are worth quoting, in illustrating the fact of Ireland's advance, in various re- spects, in late years : "When a man returned to Ireland, after a long absence, a natural question was, 'Do you see any change in the country ? Do you see very marked improvement in its condition?' He an- swered at once, 'I do.' He saw the agricultural condition of the country was better than when he left it. He saw the improved price for labor mak- ing a very considerable difference in the condition of the laboring population. He saw railways opened, and an excel- lent system of roads, which were a great improvement upon what existed when he was there before. And he saw, what was peculiarly pleasing, that Ireland had been complimented by politicians on every side because in the matter of ordinary crime her calendar was almost a blank. He had also marked a noted development in ecclesi- astical architecture in this country — the united zeal of the people and their pastors building magnificent churches, that were strong proofs of the sincerity of religious conviction of those who worshipped in them. In social mat- ters, too, he saw marked progress; for 836 EEIGN OP QUEEN VICTOEIA. now men of every shade of opinion, religious and political, could come to- gether to promote a common object — could sit at the same board — an occur- rence not to be witnessed in former times. But, while he observed un- doubted imj^rovement in the condition of Ireland, he also saw that her pro- gress had not been in proportion to that of other countries — such as Eng- land. This he attributed to the vast development of manufacturing power in the latter country compared with the different state of things in Ireland. Absenteeism was a great bane. If the absentees lived at home, lived within their incomes, and employed the sur- plus in efforts to develop the resources of the country, he had no doubt Ire- land would rival England." Let Ireland, then, be true to herself and her mission in the world. Let her persevere in seeking to obtain her un- doubted rights and privileges among men. Let her be steady, calm, judi- cious, just, and generous; and let her people strive to emulate one another in deeds of patriotism and unselfish love for their native land. There is good hope for the future, and the day must dawn when Ireland shall be free ! J^il des2)erandum. As one of her poets has said — " Strange that a noble, generous land, Enabling others to withstand The foreign warrior's fierce command. Should not itself bo free 1 Strange that a warrior, bold and brave. Should o"er the foe his banner wave, Tet reap no fruit from victory ! No matter what the bar to fame, Nor how disqualified the claim, — Erin has sent her warriors bright To win the laurels of the fight ; From him, the chief and champion bold,* Down to the simple peasant name Whose whole nobility is fame, He who on Barossa's height Stopped the eagle in its flight.f And spurned its crest of gold ; From that to bloody Waterloo, Where Irishmen were plenty, too. No, not a trophy of the day Which Erin did not bear away I * * * * But, Erin, you never had mourned the sight. Had you brandished your spear in your own good fight 1 Had you boldly stood on your mountain crag. And waved o'er the valley your own green flag. Soon, soon should the stranger have found his grave Beneath the wild foam of your ocean wave." * The Duko of Wellington. f Sergeant Masterson, a native of Roscommon. APPENDIX. As interestins: and valuable for refer- ence, and as affording some lielp tow- ards a correct knowledge of Ireland, as slie is, we subjoin some statistical information, gathered from the latest official documents within reach. 1. Population of Ireland : In 1841 8,175,224 In 1851 6,553,291 In 1861 5,764,543 Of these there are at the present date (1864) : Eoman Catholics 4,490,583 Established Church 687,661 Presbyterians 528,992 2. Marriages, births, deaths, 1864 : Marriages 27,376 Births 136,643 Deaths..- 94,075 3. Emigration (decreased since 1852) : In 1852 190,000 In 1858 64,000 4. Poor relief in Ireland : In 1848 (year of the famine) . . . 2,000,000 In 1851 209,187 In 1858 183,000 In 1863 65,847 5. Ireland is represented in the Imperial Parlia- ment by 4 spiritual, 28 temporal (= 32) peers, and 105 commoners. The House of Lords consists of 465 mem- bers ; the House of Commons consists of 658 members. 6. National schools, 1864 : Schools in operation 6,263 Scholars on the roll during the year 870,401 Average number on the roll 575,486 Average attendance 315,108 Of the children in the National Schools 82 per cent, are Catholics, 18 per cent, are Protestants. The amount expended by grant for public education is £Z25,bS3. 7. Amount of land (in acres) under crop, in 1863, was : Of wheat 264,766 Of oats 1,948,986 Of barley 171,238 Of rye 8,624 Of beans and peas 15,148 Of potatoes 1,022,293 Land under grass 9,658,885 Woods and plantations 317,661 Bog and waste land 4,357,575 There was also reported a very large increase in the flax crop, and a promise of consid- erable increase in live stock. 8. Exports from Ireland to Great Britain, in 1862, were : Oxen and cows 387,161 Calves 41,868 Sheep 538,631 Swine 364,634 838 APPENDIX. Of wheat and wheat flour (qrs.) 92,345 Of oats and oat-meal " 1,247,926 Of home-made spirits (gals.) 1,037,734 9. Number of miles of railway in Ireland, in 1863, was 1,600. Passengers carried 10,412,210 Merchandise carried.. . .(tons) 1,473,138 Coal and other min'ls carried " 246,016 Live stock carried 1,606,937 Total receipts were £1,446,092 10. The net revenue of Ireland, in 1862, paid into the exchequer £7,856,157 Customs 2,274,000 Excise 2,758,000 Stamps 573,040 Income tax 672,780 Miscellaneous sources 382,186 Balance on Land at the begin- ning of the year 1,181,510 Balance at the end of the year. 1,120,386 Expenditure, chiefly for interest on funded debt, grants, etc. . 6,736,282 i INDEX. A. PASE Abercrombie, Sir Ralph, appointed to command of the troops in Ireland ; censures the con- duct of the militarj', and retires from the command 681 Adrian IV., an Englishman, elected Pope 188 His bull to Henry II 189 Diiferent views of the bull 190 Aengus, King of Munster ; his baptism 68 Killed in battle, as also his Queen, Eithne . . 72 Families descended from 73 Afifane, battle of, 1565, between the Earls of Or- mond and Desmond 359 Agriculture of the early inhabitants of Ireland . . 54 Aileach, ancient fortress of, near Derry 79 Destroyed by Murtough O'Brien 149 Albinus, his celebrated reply 99 Alcuin, his efforts to revive learning 99 Allen, Archbishop, murder of 337 Allen, hill of, great battle fought at, A.D. 773 113 American colonies revolt, Irish sympathy with, 1775 653, 653 AmlafiT, the Danish ruler, in Ireland 119 Anglo-Norman Invasion, time of Henry II., 1168 170-180 Adventurers, their names, and family rela- tions (note) , 207 Anne begins to reign (1702) 030 Penal laws enforced 633 Her death (1714) 634 Annessley Case, Ulegal decision of England 635 Ara, McLeod of, arrives at Lough Foyle with troops for Hugh Roe O'Donnell 418 Aran, the lona of Ireland 75 Architecture of the early Christian Irish 109 Ardrigh, office of, and title described 51 Arklow, battle of, 1798 695 Armagh, synod of 179 Riots amongst the troop^at, 1806 743 Arrests, various. Colonel Talbot and others 564 Assembly of Tara (Feis Teavrach), B. C. 1317 28 Athboy, meeting of the clergy and chieftains at. . 169 FAOB Athenry, great battle of, King Felim slain 258 Athlone, stone bridge and castle built 1310-1211.. 226 First siege of, by the Williamites ; they with- draw on the approach of Sarsfield 593 Second siege of; a few intrepid Irishmen break doivn the bridge, most of them be- ing kUled 603-604 The Wmiamites cross the river by a ford . . 606 Attacotti, their insurrection ; all the kings and nobles invited by them to a great feast at Magh Cro, County Qalway, where they were massacred to a man by the Attacotti 35 Aughrim, battle of 607 Attempts to force the pass of Urraghree at . 608 Battle almost won by the Irish 609 St. Ruth killed ; the battle lost 611 Details of battle 613 Losses on both sides 613 Augsburg, league of 573 B. Bagnal, Sir Henry, killed at the battle of TeUow Ford, on the Blackwater 437 Ballyclinch Bridge, on the Lagan Eivcr, that di- vides Louth and Slonaghan, celebrated for the meeting of Tyrone and Essex (1599) 434 Ballymore Castle, County Westmeath, siege of. . 603 Ballyronan, County KUdare, battle between Hugh Allen and the Leinstermen at '. . . 112 Btillyshannon besieged by Sir Conyers Clifford ; the castle defended by Crawford with 80 men, until relieved by O'Donnell and his troops 433 Bantry Bay, French expedition to (1795) 676 Barrington, Sir Jonah, pleads for the Sheares Brothers .687 Belagh Mughna, County Kildare, battle of 123 Benna Boirche, in the Moume Mountains, County Down, battle of 311 Bede's description of the Irish Monks (note) 95 INDEX. Bel-atha-Briosgaeth, tlie ford of biscuits, battle of 415 Bellingham, Sir Edward, Lord Deputy 343 Benburb, battle of, Owen Roe O'Neill defeats the Scots and English with great slaughter.. 513 Results of the victory 514 Berkley, Lord John, appointed Viceroy 5C1 Bermingham, Earl of Louth, murdered 266 Pierce, invites the chiefs of Offaly to dinner, and basely murders them 251 Bermingham Tower, origin of the name 267 Bingham, Sir Richard, his cruelty in Connaught . 400 Defeats the Scots at Ballina ; they are all slain 401 His death 439 Bishops, Protestant, some account of the first in Ireland (note) 353 Intervention solicited of the 543 Black Death, the plague of (note) 273 Black Monday, origin of 224 Blackwater, great battle of the, between Hugh O'Neill and Marshal Bagnal ; the English defeated with great loss, and their com- mander slain 427 Blood's Plot 558 Bobbio, Monastery of, in the Apennines, founded by St. Columbanus 90 Bond, Oliver, arrest of; also the Leinster dele- gates, with Dr. W. J. McNeven, Henry Jackson, and J. Sweetman C82 Borough, Deputy Lord Thomas, his death 433 Boruwa, or Leinster cow tribute, established A.D. 106, by Tuathal Tcachtar, and exacted during the reign of forty succeeding mon- archs 36 Boulter, Primate 638 Boyle, Sir Bichard, the great Earl of Cork ; his character, &c. (note) Boyne, battle of the (1G90) 585-590 Bran Dubh, curious stratagem of 83 Defeated at the battle of Slaibhre, and killed 84 Breas, first king of the Tuatha dc Dananns 14 Brehon Laws defined 49 Bresail Bodivo, great mortality of kine in reign of 31 Brian Borumha (Boru) avenges the death of his brother Mahon 129 Makes war against Malachy H 129 Assumes the sovereignty 131 The glory of his reign 134 Introduces surnames (note) 133 Prepares for war against the Danes 135 His address to his army 138 Fights the battle of Clontarf on Good Fri- day (1014) ; defeats the Danes with great slaughter 139 Brian Borumha kUled in his tent by Brodar the Dane, who is seized, eviscerated, and torn to pieces by Brian's people 139, 140 Burial of, with his son Morough, in the Cathedral of Armagh 141 Brigid, St., of Kildare, the Mary of Ireland 76 Browne, Archbishop, his efforts to propagate the Reformation 333 His enmity to Lord Gray 335 His deposition 346 Bruce, Edward, lands at Qlendun River, near Larne, on the coast of Antrim, with 6,000 men (1316) 250 Crosses the Bann at Coleraine, and defeats the English army at Connor 257 Proclaimed king 257 Killed at the battle of Faughard, near Dun- dalk (1318) 263 Bruce, Robert, takes Carrickfergus castle (1316) . 259 Crosses the Boyne with 20,000 troops (1317). 200 Reaches Limerick, his army weakened and decimated ; returns to Scotland 263 Buidhe Chonnaill, a terrible distemper, first visita- tion of 78 Second visitation of, and total eclipse of the sun 85 Bull of Adrian IV. (note) 189 of Alexander III 190 Bunratty, siege of. 511 Seized by Lord Muskerry and theNur^io. . . 511 Burke, William, or De Burgo (better known as William Fitz Adelem) 230 Marched to Roscommon 221 Character and death of 223 Burke, Richard, called the great Earl of Con- naught, obtains Connaught from Henry III 330 His death 237 Burke, Richard (Red Earl of Ulster), his ped- igree (note) 247 Confined in the Castle of Ley 249 Arrested in Dublin 260 Burke, Theobald, of the Ships 422 Burke, Ulick-na-geeann, created first Earl of Clan- rickard 340 Ulick and William, his sons ; their rebellion 368 Burke, William, the Dun, Earl of Ulster, mur- dered 267 Burke, Edmund, his description of the resiUt of the war in 1C91 (note.) 624 Butler, James, first Earl of Ormond 2G6 James, Marquis of Ormond, his cruelty to CathoUcs 487-503 Genealogy of family of (note) 488 INDEX. PAGE Butler, James, pedigree of (note) 491 Appointed Lord-Lieutenant 501 His perfidy fills the country with indigna- tion 519 Musters an army and takes the field 528 Defeated near the ruined castle of Bagobrath 529 Denounced as unworthy of the people's con- fidence .' 543 Sails for St. Malo, in France 544 Returns, and parliament votes to him, being now (1661) Duke of Ormond, £30,000 556 Removed from office 561 Restored (1677) 562 o. Cahirs, or Caishal, stone enclosures supposed to have been built by the Firboigs 55 Callaghan, of Cashel, renowned for heroism 123 Cambrensis, Qiraldus, comes to Ireland with John 212 Camden, Lord, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland 677 Carbry Oinncait, King, surnamed the Cat-headed. 35 Czirbrys, the three, great families descended from 39 Carbry Riada (of the long wrist), from whom are descended the Dalriads of County Antrim 39 Tribe of this name in Scotland 39 Carew, Sir George, takes the castle of Qlin, and massacres the garrison 439 Oarrickfergus Castle, County Antrim, surrenders to King John (1210) 225 Besieged by Bruce's army (1315) 259 Carrigadrohid Castle, on the River Lee, besieged by Cromwell's army 541 Carrigafoyle (Carrig-au-phxiill) Castle, besieged and captured 385 CarrigogonneU Castle, taken by the Lord Deputy, and O'Briens Bridge destroyed (1536) 330 Cashel, Synod of, as convened by Henry II. (1172) 187 Sacked, and the people butchered by Inchi- quin's army 521 Castide, Henry, his account of the Irish, and of their warfare, &c 281 Castlebar, the French defeat the English at, in 1798 702 Castlehaven, liOrd, defeats the English at Mon- asterevan 501 Castlereagh, Lord, his proposed increase of Re- gium Donum 712 Commits suicide 762 Cathach, a portion of the Psalms, translated by St. ColumbkUle ; the metallic box in which was preserved 311 PAOB Cathair Mor, the several families descended from 39 Cathal Carragh, slain in battle 221 Cathal Crovderg, his various wars 221 Dies in the habit of a gray Friar, at Knock- moy 229 Cathaldus, St., a native of Munster 97 Catholics, persecuted by Sir Oliver St. John 464 Unfair treatment of, by Bishop Bulkeley. . . . 468 Terrible massacre of, on Island Magee, near Carrickfergus 482 Their state after the treaty of Limerick .... 624 Dissensions among 651 Relief Bill, in favor of 673 Petition of 737 Various clauses of 740 Debate and action on 741 Veto of 748 Condemned by Catholic Bishops 749 Great meeting of, in the Rotunda, Dublin . . 802 Cavan, battle of, and burning of the town (note) . . 582 Celsus, St., his death at Ardpatrick, Co. Limerick. 155 Celt, a word of classic origin 25 Celts, the weapons so called 55 Confederates, cessation of arms with the 503 Infringment of cessation with 504 Charlemont Fort, Sir Phelim O'Neill obtains pos- session of 478 Surrendered to the Waiiamites 583 Charles I., his desire for peace 505 Beheaded at Whitehall 526 Charles n., his restoration 555 Death of 567 Charter Schools, establishment of 640 Chesterfield, Lord, his policy 641 Chess, a favorite game with the Irish 57 Chichester, Sir John, cut off with three companies of troops by Sorley Boy McDonnell 424 Chieftains, Irish, their attending the parliament. . 397 Christians, early Irish, doctrines of the 107 Irish, before St. Patrick 59 Their Bishops, churches, and schools 74 Antiquities of 102 Chronology, ancient annals defective in 22 Church ofiices, hereditary in Ireland 105 Primitive church in Ireland, in respect to . . 87 Cimbaeth, reign of 59 Civilization of the pagan Irish 46 Claims, Court of, established 554 Clane, Synod of, in Kildare 167 Clctnrlcktird (see Burke) Clarendon, Lord, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland . . . 617 Clemens, account of his having wisdom to sell ... 99 Clififord, Sir Conyers, marches against O'Donnell 423 ^. INDEX. Clifford, Sir Conyers, killed at the Curliew Mount- ains 433 Clomnacnoise, plundered in A.D. 934 124 Chnrcli robbed 155 Plundered by the English (1553) 345 Meeting of the Bishops of 540 Clonmel, siege of by, and surrender to, Cromwell . 541 Clontarf, battle of, and defeat of the Danes (1014). 138 Monster meeting prevented at 788 Clontibert, battle of, and defeat of the English by Hugh O'Neill 419 CoUas, the three, slay Carbry Liffechar, -who reigned for thirty years 43 Coloony Castle, O'Connor besieged in 433 Colman, St., at the Synod of Whitby 94 Eetires to Innisbofin ; and death of 95 Columbanus, St., his mission abroad 89 Founds Bobbio 90 His letter to Pope Boniface, and death 91 Columbkille, his early life (his pedigree in note). . 79 Founds Doire-Chalgaigh (Derry) and lona. . 80 His mission to the Picts, and success 80 Dispute with King Diarmaid, and battle of Cooldrevny 81 At Convention of Drumceat : his death. ... 83 Comhorbas and Herenachs, church officers, so called 106 Commercial Relations Bill 667 Conall Gulban, race of, and death 73 Conary the Second, father of the three Carbrys. . . 39 Confederate Catholics, The, hold a meeting on the hiU of Crofty 486 Besiege and take Limerick 493 Their various successes 499 Ormond's reluctance to treat with 501 Division among 509 Bound together by oath 518 Make ratifications of peace with Ormond . . . 525 Confiscation of Ulster, The, projected by Eliza- beth 370 Desmond's attainder 398 Of Ulster, by James 1 4C0 By the CromweUians 548 Note relating to, from Leland 558 By the "Williamites 625 Congal Caecb, brings foreign auxiliaries to Ire- land ; slain in the battle of Moyrath, Co. Down 84 Connaught, desolating war in, and invasion of, by the English 230 The wars of the O'Connors in, and how famine results 231 Internal revolt of the O'Connors of 233 Connaught, invaded by De Burgo and plundered. . 234 Eising of the young men of 238 Great disaffection among the chieftains of. . 422 Connor, Bruce's victory at 257 Conn of the Hundred Battles, families descended from (note) 37 Divides Ireland with Eugene 38 Fights the battle of Magh Leana 38 Killed by Tibraid Tirach, King of Ulster ... 39 Convention, national, meets in the Rotunda GC5 FaUnre of the Reform BUI at the 066 Cooldrevny, battle of 81 Coote, Sir Charles, massacres the people of Wicklow 484 Created Earl of Mountrath 554 Cork surrenders to the Williamites 599 Cormac Ulfadba, his abdication and death 41 Author of a book called " The Institutions of a Prince;" "Psalter of Tara" written in the reign of 41 Cormac MacCuilennan, fights the battle of Moy- Lena 131 Killed at the battle of Belagh Mughna, Co. Kildare 122 Cormac's Chapel, on the Rock of Cashel 158 Cornelius the Blessed, interesting character of (note) 201 Comwallis, Lord, appointed to the government of Ireland 699 His dislike to hold office 700 Council of Lateran, Irish Bishops at 309 Cranogues, described as a stockaded island in a a lake 56 Crawford, Sharman, his Tenant Rights Bill 800 Creadran Kille (near Sligo), battle of, O'Dohnell defeats the English 239 Creevan Nianair, the hundred and eleventh mon- arch of Ireland 33 Crofts, Iiord Deputy, defeated by the Scots at Rathlin 343 Crofty, meeting of the confederates on the hill of. 486 Crom Cruach, the idol which stood on the plain of Magh Slecht, County Cavan 27 Destroyed 67 Cromlechs, supposed to be sepulchresof the ancients 57 Cromwell, Oliver, lands in Ireland 530 Besieges Drogheda, and causes a terrible massacre 531 Takes Wexford, where two hundred women are massacred (note) 536 Besieges Kilkenny and Clonmel 541 Returns to England 543 Proclaimed Lord Protector : his death 553 INDEX. TAGE Cuan O'Lochan, a learned layman 143 Culdees, The, their doctrine defended 104 Cur lieu Mountains, tattle of the (English defeated by O'Donnell) 433 Curran, John Philpot, defends Hamilton Rowan. C73 Attends the great Catholic dinner in Dublin (1811) 753 Curry, Dr., bis parentage, short memoir of, in note 643 Cuthbert, St., the celebrated Bishop of Lindis- farne 97 D. Dalcassiaus, heroic conduct of the, on returning from the battle of Clontarf 141 Danes first visit Ireland 114 Their various names 115 Armagh city burned, and 900 monks mas- sacred at Bangor, in one day, by the 116 Turgesius lands with large forces of the. . . . 117 Malachy kills Turgesius and defeats his army 118 Defeated at Derry by Niall Caille 118 At Lough Foyle 130 Repeatedly defeated at Glen Mama, &c 130 Make another attempt to gain a footing in Ireland 149 Cut off by the Ulidians, in County Down . . 150 Defeated by a decisive battle at Clontarf. . . . 138 Dathy, last pagan king of Ireland, killed by light- ning at the Alps 45 Davells, Henry, murder of 381 Davia, Thomas, (bom at Mallow, 1814) 771 Death of, 1845 773 De Braose, William, cruel treatment of his family by King John (note) 333 De Burgo. (See Burke.) Declaration of Constitutional rights 657 De Clare, Thomas, treachery and barbarity of . . 345 De Cogan, Milo, his death 310 De Courcy, Sir John, invades Ulster ; appro- priates the prophecies of St. Columbkille . 305 His plundering depredations 311, 312 His downfall and capture at Downpatrick ; and fate 323 " Defective Titles," Commission of, for Connaught 469 Defenders, The, their origin 669 DeLacy, Hugh, his great power 310 Killed by a young man named O'Meyey . . . 214 De Mountmaurice, Hervey, his feud with Ray- mond Le Gros 196 Becomes a monk at Canterbury 211 PAGS De Prendergast, Maurice, honorable trait of (note) 184 Derry, rebuilt by Docwra 441 Closing of the gates of. 573 Siege of (Dec. 7, 1688)..'. 575 Lundy escapes from, and Walker made Gov- ernor of 576 Terrible privations of the besieged 577 Siege of, raised (1688) 578 Eccentric Bishop of 665 De Rosen, General, harsh conduct of, at the siege . of Derry 577 Dervorgil, the fair and unfaithful wife of O'Rourke 164 Desmond, Maurice Fitz Thomas Fitzgerald, his feud with Lord Arnold Le Poer and others. 266 Created Earl of 267 Thomas, eighth earl of, executed 301 James, Earl of, his ambition and treasonable correspondence 333 Submits to Sentleger 388 Gerald, the Great Earl of, imprisoned by Sidney 363 Discountenances the insurgents .... 379 Joins the rebellion 384 His wretched condition 894 Murdered in the woods 395 His character 396 The Sugaue Earl of, his rebellion 430 Attempt to capture him 439 Hisfate 443 James, son of Gerald, Earl of, his mission to Ireland and early death 440 (See Fitzgerald.) De Vere, Robert, Duke of Ireland 279 Diamond, battle of the, County Armagh 677 Diarmaid, last king who resided at Tara 79 Dicuil, St 97 Division of Ireland by Heremon 20 Docwra, Sir Henry, his expedition to Lough Foyle 441 Donegal, Monastery of, besieged by Hugh O'Don- nell 444 Dongal, one of the most learned Irishmen of his time 100 Donough O'Brien asserts his claim to the throne of Ireland ; dies at Rome 147 Drapier's Letters, Dean Swift's 637 Drogheda besieged by Cromwell 531 Five days' slaughter of the inhabitants of. . 532 Dromceat, Convention of 83 Drury, Sir William, death of 382 Duan Eireannach, or Poem of Ireland, by Maelmura of Othain (now Fahan, County Donegal) 18 INDEX. Duignan, a distinguished historian, wlio died 1420. 292 Dublin, besieged by the Anglo-Normans 177 Taken and governed by Milo De Cogan 178 Granted to the citizens of Bristol, and Hugh de Lacy made Governor 194 St.Patrick's C'athedral,built by Bishop Comyu (1190) 218 Confederate army before city of. 517 Surrendered by Ormond to the parliament- arians 518 Lord Maguire's conspiracy to seize the Castle * of 476 Synod of, held by Cardinal Vivian 205 Dunbolg, battle of, great stratagem of the King of Leinster 83 Dunboy, siege of, courageously defended 450 Fall of, and terrible massacre 451 DuncanBOn, Fort of, surrenders to the Cromwel- lians 543 Duudalk, Schomberg encamps near 581 Duugan Hill, disastrous battle at 519 Dungannon Castle taken, and the country pil- laged by the deputy Lord Gray 333 Convention of Dungannon 658 Dunluce Castle, history of (note) 495 Dunseverick Castle, Roiachty killed by lightning at, B. C. 1034 28 Early Christian sirchitecture of the Irish 109 Early Inhabitants of Ireland, ethnological theo- ries about 24 Eclipses mentioned in early L'ish annals '23 Ecclesiastical affairs Cadhla O'Dufij^, Archbishop of Tuam, at Cong, death of. 237 Edgecombe, Sir Richard 306, 307 Edward I., surnamed Longshanks, ascends the throne 1273 243 Edward II., Ms reign begins 353 Edward III., limit of the power of the Anglo- Irish Barons in his reign 270 Edward IV., accession of 299 Edward V., short reign of 301 Edward VI., proclaimed king 341 Eglinton, Earl of. Lord Lieutenant a . 801 Eire, Banba, and Fodhia, three sisters who have given their names to Ireland 15 EUzabeth began to reign (1558), died (1003). .349-3.54 Emania, Palace of, foundation of, and occupation by the kings of Ulster for 855 years ; the resort of the Red Branch Knights 80 Destruction of, by the three CoUas 43 English defeated near Carrick-on-Shannon by Hugh O'Connor 341 Defeated in Ulida, and in several other engagements 245-247 Titles conferred on O'NeUl, O'Donuell, and other chieftains 339 Emancipation Bill in Parliament (1813) 757 Emigration in 1858 (04,000 leave Ireland) 795 Emmet, Robert, birth and education 714 Returns from Paris to Dublin 715 Provisional Government address, and various arrangements of. 718-737 Outbreak in Dublin ; his participation in, and capture, trial, and defence 729 Eloquent speech of, when sentenced 731 Execution of, September 20th, 1803 733 Enniscorthy, battle of 693 Enniskillen, besieged by O'Donnell 414 Eochy, or Achy, father of Jfeve, Queen of Con- naught, divides Ireland into five provinces, and appoints over each a king 31 Eochy O'Flynn, a poet of merit, died (984) 144 Eoghan Mor, of the race of Hcber Finn 37 Ancestry of, described (note) 40 Eoghan, son of Nial, family of 73 Eric, Law of, described .- 53 Essex, Walter Devereux, Earl of, attempts the Plantation of Ulster 369 Murders Brian O'NeUl 371 Essex, Earl of, Queen Elizabeth's favorite, lands in Ireland 431 Defeated at the Pass of Plumes by Owny O'More 433 Disastrouscampaignof.againsttheQeraldines 433 His conference with O'Neill at Anaghclart Bridge, on the Lagan 434 Returns to England, and execution 435 Exhibition in Dublin 806 Explanation, the Act of 558 Famine, mothers devour their children in the (1317) 263 Great distress by the potato blight 791 Continued in 1840 and 1847 793 Fomorians, strongholds of demolished on Tory Island 10 Faradach Finnfeachtnach, or the Righteous (son of Creevan) 36 Fay, Edmond, the Adventurer 343 Farrell O'Daly, Ollav of Corcomroe 393 Farrell O'Gara, patron of the "Four Masters" (note) 396 Farrell, Gen., of O'Neill's army, assists Waterford 538 INDEX. PAGE Parrell, real name of Thurot, disembarks with a French fleet at Carrickfergus, 17G0 646 Pels of Tara, a triennial assembly convened by Olav Fola, B. C. 1317 28 Felim, King of Munster, his aggressions 118 Fenians, origin of 17 Fenian Brotherhood, organization of 810 Constitution and By-Laws of 811 Philadelphia Convention 813 Head-Centre Stephens escapes from prison. . 813 Trial and conviction of the leaders 813 Invade Canada, and results 815 Trial and sentence of the Fenians there. ... 816 ■ Great meeting in Jones' Wood, New York. . 817 Opinion of the Catholic Clergy 818 Their appeal to Irishmen in the United States 820 Lecture of Father Vaughan 831-833 He describes the famine of '47 and '48 834 Bitterness and fears of England 835 Estimated force of organized Fenians 827 Speech of Charles Phillips on England's mis- rule ; 838, 829 Thomas Davis, his remarks on education. . . 830 Fethard, surrendered to Cromwell 539 Fiacre, St 96 Fiacha Sravtinne, .slain by the Tliree CoUas 43 Finnachta Fleadhach, remits the Borumean tribute 86 Finn MacCuail and his Clanna Baiscne 43 Fiaana Eirion, The 40 Their disloyalty and extinction 43 Fidh Aengussa, Synod of 151 Firboigs, first settlement of 11 Eochy, their king, slaia near Sligo 13 Their monuments 35 Beturn of, to Ireland (note) 31 Fire-arms first used in Ireland, 1487 306 Fitton, Sir Edward, President of Connaught 367 His rigor and insolence 368 Eemoved from ofEce 369 Fitzgerald, Lord Edward, arrest of, in Dublin . . 683 His courageous defence and death 684, 685 Fitzgerald, Maurice, lands at Wexford 175 Fights the battle of Crcdran Kille against Godfrey O'Donnell, and death 239 Fitzgerald, John Fitz Thomas, feud of, with Dc Vesey 249 Fitzgerald, Lord Thomas (Silken Thomas), re- bellion of. 327 Arrested, with his five uncles, who are all executed in London 330 Fitzgerald, Gerald, carried by his aunt to Manus O'Donnell of Donegal 331 Escapes from Lough Swilly to Rome (note) . 336 FAGS Fitzgerald, Gerald, returns from exile with his brother Edward 347 Fitzgerald (John of Desmond), goes to England. 363 Joins the Spaniards. 380 Slays DaveHs 381 Succeeds to the command of the insurgents. 383 Gains the battle of Gort-na-Tiobrad 383 Fights the battle of Monasteranena 383 His adventures (note) 388 Death 395 Fitzgerald, Walter Riavagh (note) 417 Desmond and Kildare, Earls of. Fitz-Maurice, Sir James, his warlike character. . 363 Takes Kilmallock 3G7 His submission 369 Applies for aid to the Pope 378 Lands at Smerwick 379 Killed at Barrington Bridge, Co. Limerick . . 381 Fitz-Stephen, Robert, lands at Bannow 172 Besieged in Carrig Castle 183 Eestored to liberty by Henry II 186 Fitz- William, Sir William, carries off John Oge O'Doherty 406 Fitz- William, his liberal government 674 His recall, and grief of the Irish 675 Flann, Mainistreach, chronicler and bard, died 1056 144 Flann, surnamed Sinna, Chief of the Southern Hy Nialls 121 Fleetwood, made Commander-iu-Chief in Ire- land 553 Flight of the Earls from Lough Swilly, County Donegal 459 Flood, Henry, his views of English policy 660 Fomorians, their origin a matter of speculation (note) 10 Fort Del Ore, massacre of the garrison of. 389 Fosterage, custom of, explained 53 Foure, in Westmeath, reported Irish meeting at. . 337 Pox, death of (1806) 743 French emissaries in Ireland 344 Rumored invasion of the (1744) 641 Land at Carrickfergus (1760) 646 at Bantry Bay (1796) 676 at KiUala (1798) 701 Defeat the English at Castlebar .\.... 703 At Ballinamuck 708 Engagement with a British squadron off Lough Swilly, County Donegal 705 Fridolin, St., the traveller 99 Frigidian, St., Bishop of Lucca 96 Froissart's account of the Irish 281 Pursey, St., founds a monastery in England 97 INDEX. a. PAGS Gadelians, wanderings of 17 Gaedhuil Glas, the origin of the word Gael 17 Gall or Gallus, St., died (G43) 91 Galway, noble conduct of a jury 470 Surrendered to Ludlow 547 Besieged by Ginkle 014 Gavelkind, custom of. 50 Gaveston, Pierce 232 Gavra, battle of 43 General Assembly at Kells 490 George I., proclaimed king (1714) 634 George 11., accession of (1727) 639 George III. begins to reign (1760) C47 His insanity 070 Death of, after a reign of nearly 60 years. . . 7G1 George IV. visits Ireland 702 Death of (1830) 778 Geraldines. (See Fitzgerald, Desmond, and Kildare.) Gilla-na-neev O'Heerin, his topographical poem 292 Giraldus Cambrensis describes the state of Ire- land 193 Giolla Keevin, bard and annalist, died (1073). . . . 144 Glamorgan, Sari of, his mission 508 Arrested by order of Ormond 509 Glenmalure, battle of, defeat of Lord Grey 886 Glenmamaj County Wicklow, battle of 130 Glen Castle, on the Shannon, taken 439 Gort-na-Tiobrad, battle of ; defeat of the English 383 Graces, the, privileges promised by Charles 1 407 Grattan, Henry, his eloquence (note) 657 Advocates the cause of the Irish 061 Appointed to present the Catholic jjetition. . 743 His power and ability in the Commons 753 He and Lord Donaghmore press the claims of the Catholics 760 Gray, Lord Leonard, takes Silken Thomas to London 329 Destroys O'Brien's Bridge 330 Continues a Catholic 334 Executed on Tower Hill, London 336 Grey, Arthur (Lord De Wilton), defeated in Glen- malure 386 Orders massacre of Fort Del Ore 389 llis cruelty and recall 393 H. Habeas Corpus Act suspended 735 Harvey, Bagenal, chosen general 693 Execution of 097 PAGE Hearts of Steel Boys, their actions 049 of Oak Boys, their actions 049 Henry n. promises aid toDermot MacMurrough. 170 His aversion to Strongbow 170 Lands in Ireland 185 Receives submission of certain Irish princes. 180 Grants the principality of Leinster to Strong- bow 193 His son John proclaimed King of Ireland, and sanctioned by Pope Alexander HI. (1177) 300 Death of, in France (1189) 315 Henry III., accession of 228 Henry IV. begins to reign 286 Henry V. crowned (1413) 289 Henry VI. proclaimed king when only an infant (1423) 293 Henry VU. crowned king (1485) 303 Henry VIH. ascends the throne (1509) 315 Herenachs, office of. 100 Heremon and Heber's Division of Ireland 20 Higgins, murder of Father 488 Heche, Admiral, leaves Brest for Ireland with 43 ships 676 Holt, Joseph, head of the AVicklow insurgents . . 095 Holy Wells, as memorials of the primitive saints. 110 Houses of the ancients composed of wicker work . 55 Howard, Thomas, Earl of Surrey, Lord Lieuten- ant 318 His policy 319 Returns to England 320 Hugh Ainmire killed in battle of Dunbolg, Co. "Wicklow 83 Hugh Finnliath defeats the Danes at Lough Foyle 120 Hugh Oirdnigh, his reign of twenty-five years 117 I. Iceland, Irish missionaries in 100 Inchiquin, Murrough, Viscount, truce with Or- mond 523 Besieges and takes Drogheda 538 Dies a Catholic (note) 544 Income Tax in Ireland 803 Innocents, law of the 95 Inhabitants, Primitive, of Ireland 8 Insurrection of 1798, breaks out iu Kildare 089 Finally extinguished 699 Intercourse between Ireland and England 150 Ireland, different names of (note) 73 Ancient inhabitants of, various theories about 24 Deplorable state of (1567) 303 INDEX. PAOE Ireland, Deceptive policy towards, by England 709 Famine and potato blight 764 State of education in 765 Estimated population of 795 Ireton, General, takes Limerick, and death 516 Irial, surnamed Faidh (or the Prophet), son of Heremon 26 Irish missions and schools 103 History and character of Ill Kings, piety of 113 Spain assists the, their power abroad (note). 474 Humanity of the clergy 489 Brigades leave for France 631 Causes of discontent among the 473 Writers of the 17th century 568 Island Magee, Massacre of 482 Ith, voyages of, lands in Ireland, and death 18 J. Jackson, Rev. W., his mission 674 Trial and suicide 675 James I., his confiscations 460 Persecutes the Catholics 461 His rapacity 465 Death of 466 James II., liis accession, unbounded joy of the Catholics 569 Disarms the Protestant militia 570 Flies to France from England 573 Comes to Ireland, and marches to Deny. . . . 575 Holds a parliament in Dublin 579 His army leaves Derry, and siege raised. . . . 578 Defeated at Newton Butler 580 Marches to Dundalk 584 Defeated at the Boyne 591 Retreats to Dublin, and escapes to France. . 593 Death of, at St. Germains 630 John, made King of Ireland (1177) 206 Lands in Ireland, his insolence and recall.312,213 Carrickfergus taken from De Lacy's people . 325 Submission to the Pope ■ 225 John Sootus Erigena, his learning and opinions. . 101 K. Kells, S\-nod of, in 1152 (300 clergy present) 162 1143 490 Eildare, Garrett or Gerald, Fitzgerald, Earl of 804 Espouses the cause of Simnel 304 Imprisoned in the Tower of London 310 Pardoned 310 Gains battle of Knocktow 313 Death of 316 PAGE Kildare, Garrett Oge, his first exploits 317 Returns from England 321 Restored to power 321 Reckless conduct of 324 Imprisoned in the Tower, and death of 327 (See Fitzgerald.) Eildimo, massacre of women and children at 390 Kilgarvan, near Kenmare, battle of ... 240 Eillian, St., the Apostle of Franconia 97 Kilkenny, statute and Parliament of. 274 Synod of, and formation of the Confederate Catholic League 491 Confederation of. 497 Surrender of, to Cromwell 540 The Nuncio enters the old Cathedral of St. Canice, in state robes 508 Eilmashoge, the Irish defeated by the Danes at. . 123 Eilleda, French land at, and take Ballina 701 Eil warden. Lord, stabbed in Dublin 728 Eincora, Brian Boru's palace 132 Einel-Connell, or race of Conall (the O'Donnells) . 73 Kinel-O wen, or race of Hy Niall (the O'Neills) 72 Einsale, arrival of the Spaniards at 444 BatUe of (1601) 447 King James lands at 574 Surrendered to Marlborough 600 Enockavoe, or Enockto^ battle of 313 Enockmoy, abbey of (note) 216 Enocknaclashy, battle of 546 Enocknanoa, battle of 521 Kyteler, Alice, suspected of witchcraft (note). . . . 264 • L. Laegnaire, Eing, his hostility to St. Patrick 66 Death of, by lightning 71 Lamhfhada, IjUgh, succeeds Nuadbat as King of Ireland 14 Land, tenure of, described 51 Lancastar, Duke of, in Ireland (1407) 287 Lateran, Council of (1179) 209 Lavchomart, The (portentous signs, so called). . . . 114 Lavry Longseaoh, or Lowry of the Ships, reigns 19 years 30 Laws, atrocious, enacted by Henry TI., against the Irish 303 Learning, after the Danish ware, in Ireland 143 Irish described as skilled in philosophy, painting, and music 144 Leath Cuinn, and Leath Mogha, division of 38 Leger, St., Sir William, Lord President ; he slaughters women and children 488 Legislators of the ancient Irish 53 10 INDEX. PAGE Leinster, wholesale spoliation in 465 Ijeiz and OSaly, annexation of 346 Ijia Fail, The, or Stone of Destiny, described 14 Sent to Scotland 73 Taken to England ; and is now in West- minster Abbey 15 Limerick, taken by Raymond le Gros 198 Burned by Donnell More O'Brien 204 Capt ured by Ireton , the parliamentary general 54G Siege of, by William's army ; Sarsfield's brave defence of 50G, 597 Siege raised, the Williamite army retreats. . 598 Second siege of (capitulates to Ginkle) 619 Articles of (note) 630 Irish soldiers at, volunteer into the French army 621 Treaty of, violated (after events described by the great Edmund Burke, note) 024 Lindisfarne, founded by St. Aidan 92 Ijismore, council of 192 Livinus, St., suffered martyrdom in Flanders .... 96 liOrraine, Suke of, his negotiations with the Irish 545 Lucas, Charles, effects of the speeches of 645 Lucy, Sir Anthony, his severity 267 Ludlo^ commander-in-chief . . .' 547 Throws up his command 553 Lundy, Governor of Derry, escapes in disgrace. 576 Luttrell, Henry, his treason (note) 616 M. MacCarthy, Cormac, King of Munster 155 McCracken, Henry, commands at the battle of Antrim, 1798 697 Retires to Slemmish MountaJji, and is subse- quently captured and executed 697 MacDonnell, Alexander, or Colkitto, his bravery at Dungan Hill 519 Killed after the battle of Knocknanos (see, also, note) 522 MacDonnell, Sorley Boy, chief over the Scots of Clannaboy 370 Macha Mongroe, her heroic conduct ; founds the palace of Emania 30 MacLiag, bard, secretary to Brian Borumha 144 Macliag, Giolla (St. Gelasias),his death 201 MacMahon, Heber, the warlike Bishop of Clogher. 540 Defeated near Letterkenny, and Bhamefully hanged by Coote 542 MacMahon, Hugh Roe (of Monaghon), his unfair trial and execution 406 MacMahon, Brien, gains an important victory in Oriel over the English 272 PAGB MacMurrough, Art, attack on the stronghold of. 283 Interview with Richard II 284 Gains a victory over the English at Wexford 289 Supposed to be poisoned at New Eoss 291 MacMurrough, Murrough, King of Leinster, slain 247 MacMurrough, Dermot, the infamous King of Leinster who betrayed Ireland into the hands of the Saxon 159 Carries off Dervorgil 164 Detested by all ; he flies to England 169 Solicits aid from Henry II 170 Secures the assistance of Earl Strongbow . . 171 Returns to Ireland 171 His brutality 173 His death at Ferns (1171) 179 MacMurrough, Donough, son of Art 294 MacPherson tries to rob Ireland of Ossian ; his literary forgeries exposed 43 Macroom, battle of 541 Maeve, Queen of Connaught, lier expedition to Ulster 31 Killed (A.D. 70), when over 100 years of age, by the son of Connor, in revenge for the death of his father 32 Magh Oro, terrible Massacre at, by the Atticotti. . 35 Magh Leana, battle of 88 Magnus, King of Norway, his expedition to Ire- land 150 Maguire, Hugh, great single combat with Sent- leger, and death 436 Mahon, brother of Brian Borumha; his heroic deeds against the Danes 128 Treacherously murdered 129 Malachy, St., his early education ; elected Bishop 156 of Connor, and Archbishop of Armagh .... 157 Solicits paliiums from the Pope 160 His death at Clairvaux 161 Malachy I., King of Ireland, destroys Turge- siuB 118, 119 Malachy II., defeats the Danes near Tara 129 His wars irith Brian ; besieges the Danes in Dublin 130 His deposition 135 Alleged treachery of, at Clontarf 136 His death 143 Malby, Sir Nicholas 383 Mananan MacLir, legend of 15 Mwgaret, Queen of OfTaly, her banquet to the learned (note) 299 Marianus Scotus 145 Marshall, Richard, Sari, his tragical end 235 Mary crowned queen, 1553 ; death oi, 1558. • ..«345 349 INDEX. 11 Massacres. (See Magh Cro, MuUaghmast, Fort- del Ore, Kildimo, &c.) Mathew, Rev. Theobald, liis great perseverance in tlie cause of temperance 775 Gives the pledge to many thousands 775 Good results of his endeavors 776 Maynooth, siege of 328 Grant to the College, of £26,000 out of the ' consolidated fund 792 Mellifont Abbey, founded by St. Malachy 161 Great Synod of 165 ;^Uesians, -wanderings of 16-18 Lands in Ireland 19 Their kings 26 Milo de Cogan slain by MacTire, at Waterford. . . 210 Moin Mor, terrible battle of 163 Molua, St 96 Molyneuz, his famous "Ireland's case stated" 628 IMonasteranena, battle of 383 Monasteries early introduced into Ireland 87 Foundation of! 219 Priories (note) 227 Convents (note) 251 Monastic Schools, Aran the lona of Ireland, Clon- macnoise, &c 75 Monasticism, early Irish ; its moral good 88 Money, base coin of James II. (note) 680 Coined by the Confederates (1642) 498 Mongfinn, or the Fair-haired, of the race of Heber ; her crimes 43 Monks of the Middle Ages, reference to 145 Monroe, General, lands at Carrickfergns (1642) . . 490 Plunders Ulster 510 Defeated by O'Neill, at the battle of Benbnrb 513 Monster Meetings (O'Connell's), at Trim, Lim- erick, Mullingar, Kilkenny, &c. (1843) 787 Monuments of the Early Races 25 Morann the Just, famous collar of 36 Morough, son of Brian Boru, his great valor ; killed at Clontarf 138 Mountjoy, Sir Charles Blount, Lord, appointed Viceroy 436 Defeats the Spaniards at Kinsale 447 Receives O'Neill's submission 454 . Returns to England 456 Moume Abbey, in Muskerry, battle of 820 Moycullen (or the Plain of Ullin), battle of 15 Moyra, or Magh Rath, County Down, six days' battle of 84 Moyturey (near the shore of Lough Corrib), the Firbolgs defeated in the battle of 12 Moore, Thomas (poet), his birth (1779), Tvritings, and death (1852) 770, 771 PACE Muirkertach, his circuit of Ireland, and return to Aileach two years afterwards ; is slain in battle in Louth, by Blacaire, the Dane. . . . 124 Muircheartach MacSarca, first Christian mon- arch of Ireland 77 Mullamast, horrible massacre of 376 Munro, of Lisburn, commands the United Irish- W^ men at Ballynahinch (1798) 698 Defeated, seized, tried, and executed 699 Munster, revolt of ; unison of the confederates in . 429 Mur-Ollavan, a rath on Tara, built by OUav Fola 29 Murphy, Rev. Father, commands the United Irishmen at Oulart Hill ; defeats the roy- alists 693 Killed at the battle of New Ross 695 Music, instrumental, and songs of the Ancient Irish 57 N. Napper Tandy attempts to get up a National Congress 667 Tried and banished 701 National School System of Education 804, 805 Naval engagement of Turlough O'Conor and Murtough O'Loughlin 165 Nemedius comes to Ireland with a colony from the Euxine Sea 10 Is cut off with 2,000 followers, by pestilence . . 10 New Ross, walling of (note) 241 Besieged by Ormond 500 Besieged by Cromwell 537 Battle of, in "98 ; defeat of the English 695 Newtown Butler, battle of; defeat of the Jac- obites 580 Nial Glun Dubh, his chivalry and death 123 Nial of the Nine Hostages, his early expeditions to Britain and Gaul 44, 45 Families descended from (note) 45 Nicholas Sheehy, Rev. Father, hanged at Clon- mel 649 Niul and his descendants 17 Nuadhat of the silver hand, slain by Balor of the Fomorians, at the battle of Moyturey .... 13 Nuncio, the, rejects the truce with Inchiquin .... 523 Nugent, Lord, of Delvin, taken by O'Conor Faly. 323 Nugent, attempting to assassinate the sugane Earl ; is captured and sentenced 438 O'Brien's Bridge, destroyed by Lord Leonard Gray 330 O'Brien, Conor, King of Munster, defeats Tur- lough O'Conor 158 Died at Killaloe (1142) 159 12 INDEX. O'Brien, Conor, Earl of Thomond, flies to France. 307 O'Brien, Sonnell More, burns Limerick 203 Death of 217 O'Brien, Murrough. (See Inchiquin.) O'Brien, Murtough, King of Monster, demolisLes Aileach 149 His death 1.54 O'Brien, Turlough, defeats his imcle Donough. . . 147 Treacherously blinded ; death of 148 O'Brien, Turlough, slain in single combat with DeBurgo 341 O'Brien, Murrough, died (1551) 347 O'Brien, Smith, T. F. Meagher, M. Doheny, T. B. McManus, John Mitohel, C. G. DuflFy, and O'Donoghue (Confederates). . 797 Battle with the constabulary at Widow Mc- Cormack's 799 His arrest at Thurles; transported to Aus- tralia 80 O'Byrne, Fiagh MaoHugh, betrayed to the Eng- lish, and slain 433 Ocha, battle of (483 or 483) 73 O'Olery, of Tirconnell, poet and historian, died. . . 293 O'Clery, Fearfeasa (O'Donnell's poet), at the battle of Yellow Ford 437 O'Connell, Daniel, makes a spirited address in fa- vor of repeal of the Union 751 Monster Meetings called by, and powerful speech in Dublin 758 More Meetings ; his great influence 759 Forcible language used in a speech by (note) 706 Elected to a seat in Parliament for Clare . . . 707 Refused to take the oath of supremacy ; his speech at the Bar 708 His triumphant procession from Ennis to Dublin 769 Position and influence in Parliament 777 His arrest with seven co-workers 778 Release and popularity 779 Details the persecution of the tyrannical Saxon 781 Seeks a corporate Reform BUI 785 A motion for repeal of the Union 786 Is made Lord Mayor of Dublin (1841) 786 More Monster Meetings 787 Proposed Meeting at Clontarf prevented . . . 788 Again arrested and sentenced 789 Discharged and set at liberty 789 Death of, at Genoa, May 15th, 1847 790 Eulogy on, by various ■miters 791 O'Connell, John, and the Repeal Association 790 O'Conor, Arthur, arrested at Margate 683 O'Oonor, Cahir Roe, executed in Dublin 343 FAOB O'Conor, Cathal (surnamed Orovderg) and Cathal Carragh, their wars 320 O'Conor, Charles, of Belanagar 644 O'Conor, Calvagh, chief of Offaly 250 O'Conor (Conor Moimoy), plunders KUlaloe .... 313 Just punishment and death 210 O'Conor, Dermot, betrays the Geraldines 439 The traitor beheaded 441 O'Conor, Faly and Maurice O'Conor, murdered by the English 251 O'Conor, Felim, king, slain in the battle of Ath- enry 258 O'Conor, Felim, his betrayal and escape 236' His death 341 O'Conor, Hugh, son of Crovderg, his revenge on the English 233 Slain by an Englishman 233 O'Conor, Hugh, defeats the English, death of.. 241-244 O'Conor, Roderic, succeeds as King of Con- naught 165 His activity .• 106 Crowned in Dublin 168 Convenes a meeting of Irish princes at Tara 174 Beheads " the three royal hostages" 179 Besieges Dublin 183 Death of (aged 82) in Cong Abbey 318 O'Conor, Rory, King of Counaught, death of. 154 O'Conor, Rory (son of Turlough), dies after a reign of 16 years 278 O'Conor, of Oflaly, defeats the English (1385) 279 O'Conor, Turlough, King of Conuaught 154 His harsh treatment of his sons 159 Fights a maiine battle off Innishowen 105 His death 165 Octennial Bill 651 O'Daly, Dominic, historian of the Geraldines (note) 396 O'Daly, Farrell, distinguished historian, Ollav of Corcomroe, died 293 O'Daly, Murray, the poet of Lissadill, in Sligo . . 226 O'Devany, Conor, Bishop of Down and Connor, basely hanged and quartered 461 O'Doherty, Sir Cahir, takes Culmore and Derry from the English ; his death caused by a stray shot 460 O'Donnell, Balldearg, lands in Lreland from Spain 614 Vindication of (note) 610 O'Donnell, Calvagh, rebels against his father; defeated in battle at BaUybofey 343 O'Donnell, Con, defeated in the pass of BaUagh- boy, CurUeu Mountains, by MacDermot. . 311 O'Donnell, Donnell More, died among the monks at Assaroe 237 INDEX. 13 FAGE O'Donnell, Godfrey, wounded at tLe battle of Credran Kille, near Sligo ; encounters Maurice Fitzgerald, and mortally wounds Mm; his battle at Conwal, near Letter- kennr, •n-itli Brian O'Neill ; in the moment of victory he expires 239 O'Donnell, Hugh Oge, taken jirisoner by his brother Con 311 O'Donnell, Hugh Roe, King of Tirconnell, marches into Tyrone 313 Death of, aged 78 ; and 44th of his reign over Tirconnell 314 O'Donnell, Hugh, becomes a monk ; death of, in Inis Saimer, River Erne 269 O'Donnell, Hugh Roe, ally of Hugh O'Neill, en- trapped on board a ship in Lough Swilly, and thence carried prisoner to Dublin. . . . 404 First escape, and recapture 409 Second escape with two sons of Shane O'Neill, and safe arrival at his father's castle, in Ballyshannon 410 Makes a hostile incursion on the lands of Turlough Luinagh 411 Chastises O'Conor Sligo 422 Defeats the English at Ballaghboy, Curlieu Mountains 433 Purchases the Castle of Ballymote 430 Attacks Doewra, at Lough Foyle 443 Storms an English garrison in Donegal 443 Joins the Spaniards at Kinsalc 445 Goes to Spain, and dies 459 His attainder 464 O'Donnell, Rory, created Earl of Tirconnell 45G His flight to Eome 459 Offaly, murder of the chiefs of 251 Annexation of 346 O'Parrell, Donnell, King of Leinster, at the battle of aontarf. 140 O'Farrell, Melaghlin, slain 276 O'Ftirrell, Richard, Colonel, defends a pass at the battle of Benburb 513 O'Farrell, chiefs of Annaly 312 O'Farrell Bane, and O'Parrell Boy, of Longford 363 Ogham, Craove, described 15 Inscriptions found in the Cave of Dunloe (note) 48 O'Hartagan, Kenneth, poet of Leath Cuinn, died (975^ 144 OilioU Molt, reigned twenty years ; slain in the battle of Ocha 73 Oilioll Olum, King of Munster, seven sons of; slain in the battle of Magh Mucrive 39 Oisin, the warrior and poet, son of Finn MacCuail . 43 PAGE O'Kane, chief of Dungannon and Glengiven Cas- tle , 411 Ollav Fola, establishes the triennial assembly .... 29 O'Lochan, Cuan, chronicler and bard 1 44 O'Loughlin, Donnell, of Aileach, enters the Co- lumbian Jlonastcry, Dorry ; death of 154 O'Loughlin, Murtough, his right to be monarch of Ireland ; slain 168 O'Loughrane, Patrick, priest, basely hanged .... 463 O'Malley, Grace, character of, described (note) . . . 423 O'More, Owny, captures the Biirl of Ormond.. . . . 437 Killed 439 O'More, Richard, at the liill of Crofty, in Meath . 486 O'More, Rory Oge, invades the Pale ; burns Naas . 374 Killed, 30th June, 1578 375 O'Neill, Art, and Hugh O'Donnell make peace at Ardstraw -bridge 317 Defeated at Knockavoe, near Strabane, by O'Donnell 331 O'Neill, Brian, murdered by the Earl of Essex . . . 371 O'Neill, Brian, recovers Tyrone from MacLaughlin 233 Defeated by Godfrey O'Donnell on the river Swilly. 239 Killed in a battle with the English, at Down- patrick 240 O'Neill, Donnell, son of Muirkertagh 129 O'Neill, Donnell, King, deposed 248 O'Neill, Donnell, King of Ulster, his memorial to the Pope 255 O'Neill, Perdoragh, or Matthew ; his parentage (note) ?43 Murdered 34'^ O'Neill, Hugh, the great Earl of Tyrone, his first visit to England 403 His second visit to England 407 His romantic marriage with Bagnal's sister. 410 He privately drills men and prepares arms . 416 Seizes the fort of the Blackwater ; burns Dungannon and his own house 418 Defeats the Enghsh at Clontibert ; kills Sea- grave in single combat 419 Rejects terms of peace, except liberal 424 Besieges the Fort on the Blackwater 425 Gains the victory of the Yellow Ford. . .437, 438 Confers with Essex at BaUyclinch 435 Expedition to Munster 436 Plot to murder him 443 Marches to join the Spaniards 446 Defeated at Eansale 447 Submission ; sham plot to inveigle him .^4, 458 His flight to Rome, and attainder .'459, 464 O'Neill, Owen, crowned at Tullahogue, as chief of the Kinel-Owen 294 14 INDEX. O'Neill, Owen Roe, comes to Ireland ; lands at Doe Castle 494 Receives command of the Confederate army. 495 Defeats Jlonroe at Benburb 512 His death at Cloughoughter, County Cavan . 537 O'Neill, Shane (John the Proud), son of Con O'NeUl 343 Defeated at Balleeghan, near Raphoe, by Cal- vagh O'DonneU 349 Sir Henry Sidney stands sponsor for Ms child 351 Carries ofiT Calvagh O'DonneU and his wife, generally called the Countess of Argyle. . 355 Defeats the English at Armagh 35G Visits Queen Elizabeth ; his reception 357 Defeats the Scots at Glenflesk, near Bally- castle 358 He is terribly defeated by Hugh O'DonneU, at Ardnagary, near Letterkenny . 360 Murdered by Scots of the Clann Donnell at Cushendun 3G1 O'Neill, Sir Phelim, proclamation of 479 Takes the field with 30,000 men : 480 Executed 551 O'Neill, Nial, comes from Spain 476 O'Neill, Niall More, a house built at Emania by, for the OUavs andpoets 385 O'Neill, Turlough Luineach, elected chief; sub- mits to the lord deputy 3G4 Harassed by Hugh Roe O'DonneU ; he flees to O'Kane's castle, Qlengiveen 412 Besieged in the castle of Strabane 413 Death of 419 O'Neill, Lord, kiUed at the battle of Antrim (1798) 697 Orange Lodges first cstabUshed (1795), note 669 Suppressed ; Shiel's Bill 783 Orde, Secretary, nine propositions of 667 Orraond. (See Butler.) Orr, 'William, trial and execution of; the origin of the watchword, " Remember Orr" 680 Ornaments of gold still preserved 57 O'Rourke, Tiernan, murdered by Hugh de Lacy. . 195 O'Sullevan Beare, Donnell, liis castle of Dunboy taken 450 His extraordinary retreat to Leitrim 453 O'Sullevan Bezire, Philip, author of the Historias CathoUosB Iberniae Compendium, in Spain (note) 453 O'TooIo, St. Laurence, or Lorcan, his parentage. 167 Attempt to kill him (note) 199 Death of, at Augum, on the borders of Nor- mandy 209 O'TooIes, The, their ancient territory (note) 167 Palatinates of Kerry and Tipperary created 260 Palatines, The, colonies in Ireland of (note) 633 Pale, The, its extent and limits (note) 28G Northern Irish encouraged by the State of (1G41) r 484 Palladius, St., sent to, and mission of, in Ireland . . 60 Paparo, John, Cardinal, arrives in Ireland 103 Parliament, Irish, under Henry VIII 338 Under Elizabeth 352, 365, 397 Under Charles II 556 Under James II 578 Deprived of its independence 636 Its declaration of rights (1783) 660 Its corruption and extinction 663, 708 Parliamentary Robes, Irish chiefs apply for (note) 338 Parthalon, leader of the first inhabitants, arrives in Ireland 300 years after the Flood 8 Paschal question 93 Pass of Plumes (Bearnana-g Cleti), defeat of the English at the 433 Patrick, St., opinions about his birth-place Gl Supposed to have introduced " alphabets". . 47 His bondage and escape 63 Lands at Inver De C4 Visits Milcho, near Slie ve Mis, Co. Antrim . 64 Visits Slane ; converts Ere, son of Dego 65 Visits the Royal Rath of Tara on Easter Sunday 65 Various journeyings ; visit to Connaught. .66, 67 Fasted, during Lent, on Cruach Patrick, Co. Mayo G7 Converts King Amalgaidh's seven sons, to- gether with twelve thousand people 67 Baptizes King Aengus 68 His death at Saul, Coimty Down 09 Pembroke, Richard, Earl of, betrayed and killed. 335 Penal La^ws, enactment of the (note) 637 Of Queen Anne's reign 033, 033 Continued down to 1803 711 Pension List, abuses of the 649 Peep O'Day Boys, origin of. 669 Perceval, Mr., assassination of 755 Perrott, Sir John 308, 397, 400, 405 Persecution of the Catholic Clergy 380 Referred to (see note, 413) 461 Against the Irish Catholics 550, 563 Pestilence, called the Black Death, fearful rav- ages of (note) 273 Another pestilence caUed the " King's Game" 273 Picts, origin of ; visit Ireland before settling in Scot- land 21 INDEX. 15 PAGE Piety of Irish kings ; pilgrimage of Beg Boirche, King of XJlidia, and others 113 Pilltown, great battle of, between the Earl of Or- mond and Earl of Desmond 299 Pitt, William, government of 734 Plague (Buidhe Chonnaill), first visitation of. 78 Second visitation of. 85 Carries off 700 Priests in the discharge of their duties 297 Plantation of Ulster first projected (369) ; realized 460 See Confiscations. Plunkett, Archbishop, arrest of (note) 565 Hanged and quartered at Tybum 567 Popery, bill to prevent the further growth of . 630 Popish Plot, The, so called 562 Portentous Signs, pUlars of fire, dragons in the air 114 Presidents, Lord, creation of ; Fitton made first President of Connaught 367 Preston, Colonel, arrival of; he joins the Confed- erates - 496 Proclamations agaij " ''^olics 465 Priests to be I 563 Of the Lords / 483 Prosperous, town < oy the insurgents. . 689 Priests, terrible maSb.. in Cashel, by Inchi- quin 531 Proselytism, unfair dealing of, towards Catliolics . 640 Poets and Poetry of the pre-Christian Bards 58 Of the present century, Moore, Davis. &C..769-774 Poetic Miracles, supposed to be performed by NiaU O'Higgin, &c 390 Pope, The, sends presents to the Earl of Tyrone. . 437 Poynings, Sir Edward, his Act 308, 309 Poor Law Bill passed (1838) 784 Psalter of Tara, instituted in the reign of Cormac Ulfadha 41 Psalter of Cashel, in the Bodleian Library 299 Q Quigley, or Coigley, Rev. Father, falsely con- victed 683 R. Raths, circular earthen mounds with double and triple circles, built for defence by the Mi- lesians 55 Rathhugh, in Westmeath, great meeting of chief- tains at 120 Rathmine.^ov ^ m \ r>. 23 233 PRINTED IN U.S. A \ BOSTON COLLEGE 3 9031 276426 2