While Mountjoy slowly but surely reduced the Pale and the district bordering on it, Sir Henry Docwra held his own at Derry. Sir Arthur O’Neill, old Tirlogh Luineach’s eldest son, joined him, and did good service both as adviser and ally, but he brought no great force into the field. Tyrone derided him as ‘Queen Elizabeth’s earl that cannot command 100 kerne,’ and she felt the sarcasm keenly, having really contemplated the transfer of the arch-rebel’s honours to his kinsman. Sir Arthur advised a raid into O’Cahan’s country, and 700 men were sent by night along the Donegal shore of Lough Foyle. At Greencastle they took boat, and crossing silently came upon all the cattle collected in fancied security, for attack from that side had not been dreamed of. One hundred live cows and some carcases were secured, ‘but for want of means to bring all away the soldiers hacked and mangled as many as they could.’ The process of exhausting the country was deliberately undertaken. Sir John Chamberlain, who was the leader of this expedition, was killed a few days later in repelling an attack upon Aileach castle by the O’Dogherties, his body being pierced by no less than sixteen wounds. Four days after this fight, in which Docwra himself had a horse shot under him, a strong outpost was fortified at Dunalong on the eastern bank of the Foyle. In this case also the approach was made by water, and Tyrone, who was encamped not far off, found the entrenchments unassailable after a single day’s work upon them. Within their lines everywhere the English were safe, but not a mile outside.[357]
Among the Irishmen who had been recommended to Docwra by the Government was Maelmory MacSwiney, who had been chief of O’Donnell’s gallowglasses, and connected with him by close ties; but who was now in receipt of a life pension of six shillings a day and in command of 100 English soldiers. This man opened communications with O’Donnell, and drove out a large number of horses on purpose that they might be seized. This was done before daylight, and near 200 were swept off into the heart of Tyrconnell. The alarm being given, Docwra leaped from his bed and pursued with a score of horsemen, leaving the rest to follow as soon as they were ready. He was wounded in the head and his men had enough to do to carry him off, leaving the prey with the O’Donnells. Docwra was confined to his bed for a fortnight, and on his recovery found that not more than twenty per cent. of his men were able to pass muster. It was clearly proved that MacSwiney was the cause of the late disaster, and he was sent by sea to Dublin; but the hatchway being left open for the reception of the beer barrels, he sprang on deck, threw himself into the Foyle, and reached O’Cahan’s country, the people on board being too much amazed to stop him. Instigated perhaps by this keen spirit, Rory O’Cahan, the chief’s brother, brought a present of sixty fat beasts, which were much wanted, and afterwards put the soldiers in the way of taking as many more. Having thus made himself agreeable, Rory asked for 800 men to do a more important piece of service. Sir Arthur O’Neill warned Docwra not to trust him, and it turned out that his object was to lead the soldiers into an ambuscade prepared by Tyrone himself. Having secured his own safety, Rory then offered to ransom his hostages for a certain quantity of cattle, threatening that he would never spare an Englishman if they came to any harm. Docwra’s answer was to erect a gibbet on the rampart, and to hang the poor wretches before the face of their principal, who stood with 300 men on the other side of the Foyle.[358]
As the autumn days closed in, the garrison of Derry were in a miserable state, ‘men wasted with continual labours, the island scattered with cabins full of sick, our biscuit all spent, our other provisions of nothing but meal, butter, and a little wine, and that, by computation, to hold out but six days longer.’ The temptation to desert was great, and both Tyrone and O’Donnell offered free passage through their territories. Not only was the garrison diminished, but the loss of horses and the miserable condition of those left made it impossible to patrol at any distance from the walls. On the night of September 16, O’Donnell crept up unseen to the very edge of the bog which bounded Derry on the land side, and then, for some inexplicable reason, his men fired a volley. The garrison sallied out, and put them to flight. It was probably a last effort to frighten Docwra into a parley, for he was relieved the very next day. A plentiful supply of provisions, 50 fresh horse and 600 foot were introduced from the sea, as well as two timber frames upon which water-tight storehouses might easily be erected. And it was announced to the men that they were to receive 4d. a day extra when they worked upon the fortifications. The Irish had lost their opportunity, and it never returned.[359]
A more important recruit than either MacSwiney or Sir Arthur O’Neill was Neill Garv O’Donnell, grandson of Calvagh and husband of Hugh Roe’s sister Nuala, who separated from him in consequence of his defection. He brought 100 men with him, and was promised a grant of Tyrconnell as soon as his brother-in-law had been expelled. The O’Donnells had never been a united family, and Neill Garv probably thought his claim at least as good as that of the actual chief. His three brothers took part with him, the immediate consequence being that the English had plenty of fresh meat and that they were much less closely beleaguered than before. The first actual service required of Neill Garv was to take the ancestral seat at Lifford, and for this purpose over 300 men were sent under his guidance. The castle had been razed, but a weak earthwork defended the small town, and Hugh Roe had left some thirty men in charge. They fled without resistance, after setting fire to the place, and the English proceeded to entrench themselves strongly, finding welcome shelter in about twenty houses, which were all that the late garrison had left unburned. Twice within a fortnight O’Donnell vainly exerted all his force to recover the place, though his presence enabled the country people to get in their crops and to carry away the produce safely. On the second occasion there was a sharp skirmish, in which Captain Heath was killed, and Neill Garv had a horse shot under him, but Lifford was not retaken. Four days later Sir Arthur O’Neill died of a fever brought on by ‘drinking too many carouses on his marriage-day,’ and his brother Cormac claimed to succeed him. But Tirlogh, his son by a former wife, was accepted by Docwra, and did such service as his youth permitted.[360]
About the beginning of November, two Spanish ships put into Broadhaven, with money, arms, and ammunition for the Irish. O’Donnell sent the foreigners word that Killybegs would be a better place for them, and also announced their arrival to Tyrone. Eventually the Spaniards put into the little harbour of Teelin, whence the cargo was carried to Donegal, and divided between the two chiefs. A descent of this kind had been talked of for months, but Cecil had given little credence to these rumours, and when the long-expected aid actually came, it was not enough to affect the result, or to imperil Docwra’s position in any way.[361]
Neill Garv and his brothers Hugh, Donnell, and Con made several raids from Lifford into Tyrone, and took Newtown, now Newtown Stewart, from the O’Neills. O’Donnell’s great object was to get possession of his formidable kinsman, and he employed two of the MacDevitts, a sept of O’Dogherties, named Hugh Boy and Phelim Reagh. Captain Alford, the governor of Culmore, pretended friendship with these men, and engaged to give up the fort to them, with Neill Garv inside. Alford’s object was to draw them into an ambuscade, and he pretended to make conditions. 1,000l. down and 3,000l. a year pension from Spain were promised him, and a chain of gold formerly given by Philip II. to O’Donnell, and worth 160l., was actually given in earnest. A day was appointed for the treason, but the Irish broke their tryst. In a short time Hugh Boy and Phelim Reagh were Docwra’s firm friends. Cahir O’Dogherty, the chief’s son, had been fostered by them, and was now in O’Donnell’s hands, who had announced that he should succeed his father. But when Sir John died, he favoured Cahir’s uncle, and the foster-parents were very angry. On condition that their nursling should be established, they offered to keep Innishowen at Docwra’s service. O’Donnell was induced to free the young man, and immediately all the O’Dogherties, with their cattle, left him, and returned to their own district. Supplies were thus secured to the English garrison, as well as good intelligence, and Docwra confesses that without their aid the progress made would have been comparatively small. Thus it ever was in Ireland: the natives fought among themselves, and so lost all. ‘They had their own ends in it,’ said Docwra, ‘which were always for private revenge; and we ours, to make use of them for the furtherance of the public service.’[362]
Shortly before midsummer the White Knight made his submission, and was soon to do signal service. The castles of Bruff and Lough Gur were taken and garrisoned, the mere preparations for a scientific cannonade being enough to cause their evacuation, and the triangle made by Limerick, Cashel, and Kilmallock was freed from the rebels. The county of Waterford was almost cleared, and Connello and Aherlow alone harboured any considerable number. Cahir was voluntarily surrendered, and the ordnance left there by Essex was sent to Clonmel. Glin in Limerick and Carrigafoyle in Kerry still held out, and the first was besieged by Carew on July 7. Sending his guns by water, he passed on his way through the heart of Connello, and Piers Lacy abandoned Croom Castle at his approach, having already ruined the other Kildare house at Adare. The Sugane Earl marched near the President, and encamped only a mile off at Glin, but never ventured to make any attack. The ordnance, ‘one demi-cannon and a saker,’ were landed and placed in position. The Knight, who believed in Desmond’s boasts, expected to be relieved, and would not surrender at discretion, although his son was in Carew’s power, and in some danger of being hanged. The first day’s firing made a breach, and a lodgment was effected in the basement under the hall. Three out of the four towers were thus made untenable, and the fourth, into which all the garrison had retired, was attacked in the same way, and a fire lit in it, which burned many. Next day the tower was assaulted, and those who survived of the eighty defenders were cut in pieces or thrown over the walls. Captain Flower, who led the stormers, was wounded in four places, and there was a loss to the besiegers of eleven killed and twenty-one wounded. The moral effect of this siege was great. Desmond seems to have believed that the carriages of the cannon were unserviceable, but Carew had discovered and remedied their defects some weeks before. O’Connor Kerry, who despaired of defending Carrigafoyle, voluntarily surrendered it, and was received to protection. The small castle of Liscahan near Ardfert was taken by surprise, and entrusted to Maurice Stack, a native of Kerry, ‘and a man of small stature but invincible courage,’ who with fifty men successfully defended it against Desmond’s attacks and Florence MacCarthy’s plots. Stack was afterwards murdered in cold blood by Lady Honora Fitzmaurice’s men, and Thomond never spoke to his sister afterwards. Sir Edward Denny’s house at Tralee, and Sir William Herbert’s at Castle Island, were found in ruins, no attempt being made to defend these old Desmond strongholds. Lixnaw the Fitzmaurices had not time to raze, and at the end of August Carew was able to give a good account of Munster generally. ‘All our garrisons,’ he wrote, ‘in Kerry, Askeaton, Kilmallock, Youghal, and Lismore, I thank God do prosper and are now at their harvest, which must be well followed, or else this summer service is lost. Wherein I will be careful to lose no time, for the destruction of it will procure the next year’s famine; by which means only the wars of Ireland must be determined... no day passeth without report of burning, killing, and taking prey ... infinite numbers of their cattle are taken, and besides husbandmen, women, and children, of weaponed men there hath been slain in this province, since my coming, above 1,200, and of her Majesty’s army not forty slain by the enemy.’[363]
Tyrone was himself so much pressed by Mountjoy that he was less able to send help to his Earl of Desmond, who was driven by Wilmot first into Connello and then into the great fastness of Aherlow. A gallant officer, Captain Richard Greame, lay at Kilmallock with his troop of horse, and attacked Desmond’s greatly superior force on the march. The Irish were surprised, and completely routed, with the loss of 200 men. The 400 who remained unwounded dispersed into Connaught or Ulster, and the Sugane Earl never recovered the blow. 300 horseloads of plunder, besides the usual prey of cattle, fell into Greame’s hands; but Cecil remarked that the prize was hardly so marketable as that which came in Spanish carracks, and directed that 100l. should be given him. Carew asked that he should be knighted, and Mountjoy willingly complied, though he hesitated for some time in view of the very strict orders which he had, not to make chivalry too cheap.[364]
As the fortunes of one Desmond fell, those of another brightened for a moment. James, the son of the rebel Earl who fell at Glanageenty, was born in 1571, and had been in the Tower since 1584, much of his time before that having been spent in Irish prisons. The quantity of medicine administered to him was enough to ruin any constitution, and in fact he possessed little vigour either of mind or body, though the Desmond pride sometimes showed itself; and of course he knew nothing of the rough world, or of the rough ways by which his ancestors had raised themselves to almost regal power. But his letters show that his education had not been neglected, though no mere instruction could make up for the want of practical training. It occurred to Carew, who saw the difficulty of purely forcible conquest, that the affection still felt for his house might be utilised in Munster, and Raleigh strongly supported this view. Cecil had not much faith in the plan, but he submitted to the judgment of those who knew Ireland, and joined them in urging the young man’s restoration upon the Queen. Elizabeth yielded, but slowly and with many misgivings. Failure would make her ridiculous, and too great success on the legitimate Earl’s part might make him harder to pull down than the pretender had been. He was allowed to assume the title, and here is his letter of thanks to Cecil:—
‘Right honourable, I have received by Sir Geoffrey Fenton your honour’s directions how I should subscribe unto my letters, which I protest unto your honour is much troublesome unto me, in regard that I had no further assurance than by his word of mouth. I am so jealous and fearful of her highness’s grace and displeasure that I beseech your honour to bear with my overpressing you with my many importunities. I must hold myself as your honour’s poor creature, in which ever I will acknowledge your favours in that height of regard as to your direction I will ever tie myself. And so I rest your honour’s in very affectionate assurance,
J. Desmond.’[365]
Cecil’s idea was to send Desmond’s patent to Carew, ‘to be shewed to that generation of incredulity’ the people of Munster, and not to be delivered to the Earl unless his services made it worth while. But when the document was brought to the Queen she refused to sign it, and Desmond left London before it was done. Two days later she relented, and Archbishop Miler Magrath, who overtook him on the road, carried it to Carew in Ireland. ‘God doth know it,’ said Cecil, ‘the Queen hath been most hardly drawn unto it that could be, and hath laid it on my dish a dozen times: “Well, I pray God you and Carew be not deceived.”’ Captain Price, a plain soldier who had no object but to do his duty and return, was sent in charge of the young Earl. It seems that some wished to send Raleigh, but Cecil objected upon Carew’s account. The party sailed from Bristol, and reached Youghal after being two days and a night at sea. ‘I was so sea-sick,’ Desmond wrote, ‘as whilst I live I shall never love that element.... I had like, coming new of the sea, and therefore somewhat weak, to be overthrown with the kisses of old calleaks; and was received with that joy of the poor people as did well shew they joyed in the exceeding mercy of her sacred Majesty towards me.’ Weak and sickly, and never likely to take to Irish life, was what Cecil had pronounced him to be, and the kisses of the old wives at Youghal were the only successes which awaited him. That noted loyalist, Mr. John Fitzedmond, received him with profuse hospitality at Cloyne. At Cork things were different, and there can be little doubt that intentional discourtesy was shown to the Queen’s Earl. Neither lodging nor supper could be had, and Desmond was feign to seek shelter with the mayor. This was John Meade, a lawyer who had been chosen in pursuance of a settled policy adopted by the corporate towns at this time. Limerick, Waterford, Clonmel, and Kinsale preferred political agitators to merchants, and lawyers were the fittest to make civic immunities and privileges a means of embarrassing the Government. The portreeve of Cashel was the most profound civilian in Ireland, and as obstinate as learned. As to Meade, said Desmond, he might be called Lack-law, ‘if he had no better insight in Littleton than in other observations of his place for her Majesty’s service, for it was much ado that we got anything for money, but that most of my people lay without lodging, and Captain Price had the hogs for his neighbours.’ Meade excused himself by saying that he did not know how far attentions to Desmond could be agreeable to the President, since he came to Cork direct from the sea, and that he feared any public welcome might be ill-taken by the Government. The arrival of 400 Welsh soldiers had made lodgings scarce, and the learned mayor found plenty of reasons for his neglect. But Captain Price, who had the best means of knowing, took the same view of the matter as the young Earl, and Meade was soundly reprimanded by the Privy Council.[366]
The Geraldine who held Castlemaine for the Sugane Earl now gave it up to the real Desmond, and this was the only important result of his restoration. The Queen was half-hearted about the matter, hesitated to bestow an estate, and did not care to provide the means for much show. Five hundred pounds a year was not a bad allowance in those days, but the young Earl was inclined to extravagance, and he felt acutely that he could do nothing unless he were trusted with the command of men. His adherents among the people might give information as to his rival’s whereabouts, but there was no chance of catching him if he had to apply to the nearest garrison for means to follow up the clue. In the meantime Greame’s victory had made the fugitive insignificant, and Carew had little doubt about being able to hunt him down. The true Desmond spent part of his time at Mallow, where some supposed him to have become enamoured of Lady Norris. Carew sent him to Kilmallock in the company of Archbishop Magrath, and of his friend Boyle, who was to report privately as to his reception by the people. At Youghal men, women, and children had upset each other in the streets to see the restored exile, but at Kilmallock the excitement was still greater. A guard of soldiers lined the street between his lodgings and Sir George Thornton’s house, where he went to sup; but the crowd broke the line, and the short walk took half an hour. Doors, windows, and roofs were filled with people, ‘as if they came to see him, whom God had sent to be that comfort and delight their souls and hearts most desired, and they welcomed him with all the expressions and signs of joy, everyone throwing upon him wheat and salt (an ancient ceremony used in the province upon the election of their new mayors and officers) as a prediction of future peace and plenty.’ Next day was Sunday, and the Protestant Earl went to church. On his way the country folk shouted to him not to go, and when he came back after service they abused and spat upon him. The multitude which had flocked the little garrison town soon deserted it, and he whom they had come to welcome might walk the empty streets and sup where he pleased with as little danger of being mobbed as any private gentleman. He oscillated between Kilmallock and Mallow, but felt himself powerless, and the murder of his brother-in-law, Dermot O’Connor, made him think that his life was not safe. The poor lad soon expressed his desire to be back in England, and to live there quietly, in preference to any Irish greatness which the Queen might intend for him. Cecil rather encouraged him to return, at least for a time, and till the question of an estate could be settled, and held out some hopes of an English wife, ‘a maid of noble family, between eighteen and nineteen years of age, no courtier, nor yet ever saw you, nor you her.’[367]
In 1598 Tyrone announced, and possibly believed, that Desmond had escaped ‘by means of the Lieutenant of the Tower’s daughter, who had gone with him,’ that he had reached Spain, and that he would be in Munster within a month, with men, munitions, and treasure. Had this been true, he could hardly have done Elizabeth more harm than the Sugane; but coming, as he did, with an Earl’s patent and a Protestant archbishop, he neither hindered Tyrone nor served the Queen, and he slunk back to England almost unnoticed. He did not marry, nor was his allowance at all lavish, but he was kindly treated and not shut up in the Tower; and his last days seem not to have been unhappy. ‘If I turn me,’ he wrote from Greenwich, ‘into time past, I behold a long misery; if into the present, such a happiness in the comparison of that hell as may be a stop to any further encroachment.’ He died nine months after his return from Ireland, leaving five sisters, for whom the Queen made some provision until they found husbands. The eldest, Lady Margaret, was married to Dermot O’Connor, and his murder left her a widow; she received a pension of 100l. Catharine, the third, was the wife of Lord Roche, and the three unmarried ones had pensions of 33l. 6s. 8d. The second, Lady Joan, was destined by her mother, who had married O’Connor Sligo, to match with Hugh Roe O’Donnell. Her brother opposed this, as well as Carew, and she seems to have had no great mind for it herself; but the plot cost her a short detention with the Mayor of Cork, who again made what difficulties he could. Lady Joan afterwards married Dermot O’Sullivan Bere. Lady Ellen, the fourth sister, married three times, her last husband being Edmund Lord Dunboyne, and she lived till 1660, when her stepson was restored to his country but not to his property. Lady Ellice, the fifth, married Sir Valentine Browne the younger, of Ross Castle at Killarney, and thus, as the wife of an undertaker’s son, enjoyed some portion of the vast estates which had been forfeited by her father’s rebellion. The title of Desmond was given by James I. to a Scotch courtier, upon whom he also bestowed the only daughter and heir-general of the great Earl of Ormonde. It was Buckingham’s plan to depress the Butlers by separating their title and estates, and by giving the latter to a favourite like himself. But Lady Elizabeth Butler defeated this scheme by marrying her cousin, the future Duke; and thus, through the greatest of the cavaliers, the long strife between Ormonde and Desmond was ended at last.[368]
FOOTNOTES:
[334] Mountjoy to the Queen, printed in Goodman’s James I. (ed. Brewer) ii. 23; Letters of Rowland Whyte to Sir Robert Sidney, Oct. 31, 1599, to Jan. 12, 1600, in Sidney Papers.
[335] Rowland Whyte to Sir R. Sidney, Nov. 29, 1599, to Feb. 9, 1600, in Sidney Papers; Fynes Moryson, book ii. chap. i.
[336] Letters in Carew, Dec. 31, 1599, and Feb. 13, 23, and 26, 1600; Tyrone to Barry with the answer, in Pacata Hibernia, Feb, 26, 1600; Four Masters, 1599 and 1600.
[337] Docwra’s Narration; Pacata Hibernia, lib. i. cap. 1.
[338] Pacata Hibernia, lib. i. caps. 2 and 14. The Four Masters say St. Leger’s encounter with Maguire was premeditated, but the English account is here to be preferred. Compare O’Sullivan Bere, tom. iii. lib. v. cap. 12. Lady St. Leger had been previously married to Davells and Mackworth, and was thus by violence left a widow for the third time.
[339] The Queen to Mountjoy, March 10, in Carew; Carew and Thomond to the Privy Council, April 18, ib.
[340] Carew and Thomond to the Privy Council, April 18, in Carew and Pacata Hibernia. See also the Catholic accounts of the Four Masters and of O’Sullivan and Peter Lombard. All the documents are collected in a memoir by the Rev. James Graves, in the Irish Archæological Journal, N.S. vol. iii. pp. 388 sqq. There are two contemporary drawings, one of which is reproduced in Pacata Hibernia and the other in Facsimiles of Irish MSS., part iv. 1. I have endeavoured to harmonise the various accounts.
[341] Ormonde to the Queen, June 16; F. Stafford to Cecil, June 18; Mountjoy to Cecil, July 4—all in Mr. Graves’s memoir cited above. And see his further note in Irish Arch. Journal, N.S. vol. v. p. 333. On Aug. 21, Redmond Keating submitted to Mountjoy, on condition to deliver the Earl’s pledges remaining in his hands; see in Carew under Aug. 26, 1600. The Kellies and Lalors did the same.
[342] Fenton to Cecil, April 12; Carew and Thomond to the Privy Council, April 18; Tyrone to O’More April 22/May 2; to Ormonde April 29/May 9 and May 26/June 6; to Lady Ormonde May 25/June 5; Ormonde to the Queen June 16—all these are in the memoir cited. Elizabeth, Lady Ormonde, was the Earl’s second wife, and daughter of John, second Lord Sheffield. In Eugene Magrath’s Irish panegyric on her husband (circ. 1580) every laudatory epithet is lavished on the ‘amiable, lovely, &c. countess.’ See this curious poem in Irish Arch. Journal (Kilkenny), i. p. 470.
[343] Note of Captain Flower’s journey, April 1; Joshua Aylmer to Cecil, April 21; Sir Henry Power to the Privy Council, April 30; Carew to Cecil, May 2; Florence MacCarthy to Cecil, May 6; Pacata Hibernia, lib. i. cap. 5. Cecil’s letter to Essex, April 1599, St. Leger’s and Power’s to Cecil, Dec. 10, and Lord Barry’s to Cecil, Feb. 12, 1600, are printed in Florence MacCarthy’s Life, chap. 9.
[344] Docwra’s Narration, edited by O’Donovan for the Celtic Society’s Miscellany. The cockle-shell island was probably one of the ‘kitchen-middens’ which are common on the Irish coast.
[345] Docwra’s Narration; Fynes Moryson’s Itinerary, part ii. lib. i. cap. 2; Four Masters, 1600. Mountjoy left Dublin on May 6, and remained out till the end of the month. See also his letter to Carew of July 1 in Carew. ‘The garrison of Derry,’ say the annalists, ‘were seized with disease on account of the narrowness of the place and the heat of the summer. Great numbers died of this sickness.’
[346] Carew to Cecil, May 6 and Aug. 17; Pacata Hibernia, lib. i. chaps. v. and vi.
[347] Pacata Hibernia, lib. i. ch. vii.; Four Masters. June 18 is the proper date of this capture; the annalists wrongly say that it was in January.
[348] This raid was at midsummer.—Four Masters and Pacata Hibernia, lib. i. ch. viii.
[349] Pacata Hibernia, lib. i. cap. 18. The date of the murder was Oct. 24.
[350] Declaration of Sir Charles Danvers in the correspondence of James VI. with Cecil (Camden Society). The evidence of Cuffe, Blount, and Southampton in the same collection bears this out. Southampton saw James’s answer to Mountjoy’s first letter. It contained nothing but compliments, allowing of his reservations, and referring him for the matter to the bearer (Lee), who delivered unto him that the King would think of it, and put himself in readiness to take any good occasion.’ There is a letter to Essex at Hatfield dated from the Court at Nonsuch, Aug. 18, 1599, in which Thomas Wenman warns the Earl that he had been slandered to the King of Scots as being opposed to his succession, that James would work all craft for his destruction, and that he should be careful who he had about him.
[351] Declaration of Danvers ut sup.; Henry Cuffe to the Council, ib., and his Examination, March 2, 1601 (printed by Spedding); Confession of Southampton, ut sup.
[352] Fynes Moryson’s Itinerary, part ii. book i. cap. 2; Four Masters, 1600.
[353] Mountjoy to Carew, Aug. 12, in Carew; Moryson, ut sup.; Four Masters, 1600. This raid was during the last days of July and the first of August.
[354] Moryson, ut sup.; Journal, 11-26, under latter date in Carew; Mountjoy to Carew, Sept. 4, ib.
[355] The dates are Dublin, Sept. 14; Faughard, Sept. 20; Newry, Oct. 21. Moryson, ut sup.; Lord Deputy and Council to Carew, Oct. 8, in Carew; Mountjoy to Carew same date (No. 478); Four Masters, 1600.
[356] Nov. 2-13. The Four Masters add nothing to Moryson’s account.
[357] Docwra’s Narration, June 1 to July 29; Four Masters, 1600; Cecil to Carew, Sept. 28, in Maclean’s Letters of Sir R. Cecil.
[358] Docwra’s Narration, July 29 to Sept. 16; Four Masters, 1600.
[359] Docwra’s Narration, Sept. 16 to Oct. 3.
[360] Docwra’s Narration, Oct. 3-28; Four Masters, 1600; Journal of Mountjoy’s proceedings, in Carew, vol. v. p. 497. In the Ulster settlement Docwra was granted 2,000 acres about Lifford.
[361] The Four Masters are here to be preferred to Docwra; see also Cecil to Carew in Maclean, Aug. 29, 1600.
[362] Docwra’s Narration, ‘about Christmas’; Four Masters, under Jan. 27, 1601.
[363] Carew to the Privy Council July 18-20 and Aug. 25; Pacata Hibernia, book i. chaps. ix.-xii.
[364] This fight was on Sept. 16. Pacata Hibernia, book i. chap. xiii.; Mountjoy to Carew, Oct. 8, in Carew; Cecil to Carew, Oct. 15; Carew to the Privy Council, Nov. 2.
[365] Desmond to Cecil, MS. Hatfield. The letter is not dated, but Fenton was in London during July and August 1600. Writing to Carew on July 11, Cecil calls the young man James Fitzgerald, and Desmond in later letters. The patent was ready by Aug. 29, and received the Great Seal on Oct. 1. It is printed in Pacata Hibernia, book i. chap. xiv.
[366] Desmond landed on Oct. 14. Nearly all the letters are collected in Florence MacCarthy’s Life, pp. 485-500, where details as to the Tower life, medicines, &c. may be read, and in Cecil’s letters to Carew (ed. Maclean).
[367] Pacata Hibernia, vol. i. ch. xiv. and the letters in Florence MacCarthy’s Life; Carew to Cecil in Carew, March 22, 1601. ‘I do not at all, or at least very little,’ Desmond wrote to Cecil on Dec. 18, 1600, ‘participate of the Italian proverb, Amor fa molto, argento fa tutto.’
[368] Fenton to Cecil, April 20, 1598. William Power, writing from Cork to Cecil, Jan. 17, 1602, says ‘you were a father to the unfortunate young Earl, as himself often told me.’—Carew to the Privy Council, Dec. 20, 1600, and March 6, 1601; Pacata Hibernia, book i. chap. xviii.; Desmond Pedigree in Irish Arch. Journal, 3rd series, vol. i.; Desmond to Cecil, Aug. 31, 1601. Among the 1602 papers at Hatfield, there are petitions from two of the Desmond ladies asking Cecil for part of the allowance meant ‘for our poor brother, that we might end the rest of our unfortunate days without being troublesome.’
CHAPTER L.
GOVERNMENT OF MOUNTJOY, 1601.
Mountjoy felt that his own hands were not quite clean, and he knew that Carew was more thoroughly trusted than he was. The President’s excellent temper prevented anything like a rupture, but the Deputy’s letter shows how sensitive he was. It was in answer to one of these despatches, in which he had likened himself to a scullion, that Elizabeth wrote with her own hand one of those letters which go far to reveal the secret of her power. ‘Mistress Kitchenmaid,’ she said, ‘I had not thought that precedency had been ever in question, but among the higher and greater sort; but now I find by good proof that some of more dignity and greater calling may by good desert and faithful care give the upper hand to one of your faculty, that with your frying-pan and other kitchen stuff have brought to their last home more rebels, and passed greater break-neck places, than those that promised more and did less. Comfort yourself, therefore, in this, that neither your careful endeavour, nor dangerous travails, nor heedful regards to our service, without your own by-respects, could ever have been bestowed upon a prince that more esteems them, considers, and regards them than she for whom chiefly, I know, all this hath been done, and who keeps this verdict ever in store for you; that no vainglory nor popular fawning can ever advance you forward, but true vow of duty and reverence of prince, which two afore your life I see you do prefer. And though you lodge near Papists, and doubt you not for their infection, yet I fear you may fail in an heresy, which I hereby do conjure you from; that you suppose you be backbited by some to make me think you faulty of many oversights and evil defaults in your government. I would have you know for certain that, as there is no man can rule so great a charge without some errors, yet you may assure yourself I have never heard of any had fewer; and such is your good luck that I have not known them, though you were warned of them. And learn this of me, that you must make difference betwixt admonitions and charges, and like of faithful advices as your most necessariest weapons to save you from blows of princes’ mislike. And so I absolve you a pœna et culpa, if this you observe. And so God bless and prosper you as if ourself was where you are.—Your Sovreign that dearly regards you.’ It is easy to understand what an effect such a letter must have had, and how Mountjoy must have been encouraged in his difficult work.[369]
It was supposed at the time that the death of Feagh MacHugh would free Dublin from the depredations of the O’Byrnes; but his son, Phelim MacFeagh, continued to give trouble, and the suburbs of the capital were in almost nightly alarm. Shortly before Christmas Mountjoy set out for Monasterevan, whither he had sent Arras hangings and other baggage betokening a long stay there. But he himself suddenly turned off near Naas, crossed the snowclad mountains with a strong force, and entered Glenmalure quite unexpectedly. Ballinacor was surrounded, and Phelim’s wife and son captured, the chief himself escaping naked out of a back window into the woods, while Mountjoy and his followers consumed the Christmas stock of provisions. The cattle were swept out of the country, the corn and houses destroyed, and at the end of three weeks the Lord Deputy retired. Garrisons were placed at Tullow on one side and Wicklow on the other, and these highlanders gave no further trouble. Phelim MacFeagh, who was saved by the mountain floods, came to Dublin, and submitted with due humility.[370]
The early months of 1601 were spent by Mountjoy in devastating the central districts. Starting from Monasterevan on January 29, he passed by Kildare, which was in ruins and quite deserted, to Trim, and from thence by Castletown Delvin to Mullingar, ‘the shiretown of Westmeath, compassed with bogs.’ Athlone was reached on February 17, and then, without resting more than a night, he doubled back to Macgeohegan’s castle of Donore. Between Lough Ennell and the place still called Tyrrell’s pass, he found the redoubtable Captain Tyrrell in his stronghold, ‘seated in a plain and in a little island compassed with bogs and deep ditches of running water.’ An attempt to cross with hurdles and faggots was frustrated by the current, and an officer was shot. Moryson, the historian, had a narrow escape. The English horse kept always on the move, which generally protected them against the fire of matchlocks, but the secretary, who was no soldier, and whose white horse gave a good mark, felt one bullet whistle past his head, while another struck his saddle. Proclamation was then made that no one, on pain of death, should succour the rebels in any way, that the country people should bring provisions to the camp, and that soldiers, also on pain of death, should pay the market price. Two thousand crowns were placed on Tyrrell’s head, who thought it prudent to steal away by night to another island in Queen’s County, which was for the time inaccessible, on account of the floods.[371]